jump to navigation

Sewing and buttons and stuff. May 20, 2009

Posted by jeninmaine in bebeh, Crafty, Etsy, sewing.
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
add a comment

Danger, Will Robinson, danger! The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is a very fun game. Very fun. I love it long time. I stayed up a bit too late playing it the other night and will need to put myself on a very strict LoZ diet so I don’t overdo it. It’s funny – I don’t play a lot of video games any more, and it’s not because I don’t like them. It’s because I do like them, and I like them so much that I will play in completely irresponsible quantities.

I’ve been naughty – I’ve wanted to do creative things at night once the kids are in bed and decided to play LoZ “just for a few minutes”, which quickly turns into an hour or more. Need to focus. Game is fun but time is fleeting.

I did buy the buttons for Mim’s jumper, I just need an evening where I’m not playing video games when I have the time to get the sewing machine set up to make buttonholes. I figure I’m going to do my sewing all at once so I went ahead and cut out another jumper from this gorgeous batik from the LYS/LQS.

Another jumper

Oh, I love it so much. I’m going to use the same green batik for the inside yoke as I did for the first one.

Ack, my tablecloth is horrible. Oh well…what do you want for $2 at Goodwill?

Since I’m sewing again I once again have lots of scraps. I hate throwing anything away so I try to come up with ways to use as much as I possibly can. Buried in my sewing stuff I unearthed a drawer of button-making stuff, hooray! So I did that.

First, some buttons – the trees are 1″ and the batik are 5/8″ and 1/2″.

Sweetieboos

Sweetieboos

I also used some of the 1/2″ buttons with flat backs to make pretty thumbtacks.

Tickytackyboos

I used Gorilla Glue for this batch – normally I use E6000 or Bond 527 but they both have pretty strong fumes so I thought I might try something new.

Tickytackyboos

The bottle said, “Will expand.” I thought to myself, “That’s probably just for fabric or wood.”

Ha!

I am loving the fabric covered whatnots, it would be a great way to recycle old clothing, too. I’m always looking for ways to reuse stuff. I’ve started reusing my paper coffee filters – I have a #2 cone filter and it seemed stupid (and expensive) to throw out the unbleached paper filters that I use in it after every cup, so I started just rinsing them out after each use and using the same one throughout the day. I haven’t tried letting it dry out and using it the next day, maybe I’ll do that today. In any case I won’t have to buy filters as often.

Two great website links for today!

<a href=”https://www.jcarolinecreative.com/&#8221; target=”_blank”>j.caroline creative</a> – just go look.  It has the covered button stuff and so, so much more.  Love this site.

<a href=”http://www.trueup.net/&#8221; target=”_blank”>True Up</a> – everything about fabric, LOVE this blog.  Also has a great <a href=”http://www.trueup.net/?cat=143&#8243; target=”_blank”>sale alert section</a>.

Sleepy. May 14, 2009

Posted by jeninmaine in Crafty, Etsy, sewing.
Tags: , , , , , ,
4 comments

It’s late, but I accomplished something!

Bag - first attempt

Bag - first attempt

This was my first attempt and once I figured out how to do the voodoo to get the seams going the right way after turning one tube inside the other and forming the corners, it was pretty easy. The next one I make will take even less time. I have some pretty batiks for that one.

It was fun! I need to prescribe myself fun stuff at least once a day.

Treasury 5/13 May 13, 2009

Posted by jeninmaine in Crafty, Etsy, spinning.
1 comment so far

I got a message from someone on Etsy telling me she had included a skein of my yarn in a Treasury she created. I’m so flattered! I’m always surprised when people like the things I make. I’m too critical of myself, truth be told.

Of course I saved a screenshot :) For someone like Joy this is a regular thing, but it doesn’t happen all that much for me so I need to revel in it a little. “Front and center!” she said. Hee!

Etsy Treasury 5/13

I’m just a nerdy girl.

Gah, I just depressed the pump on my giant bottle of hand lotion and squirted a big gob of it into my tea. Bleh.

Spin, Knit May 7, 2009

Posted by jeninmaine in Crafty, Etsy, knitting, spinning.
Tags: , , , , , , ,
7 comments

I managed to wrench my shoulder a couple of nights ago. I’m not really sure what I did or how I did it – I was sitting on the floor in the guest room-cum-Michael’s office-cum-studio and turned to my left, reached beside and behind me with my left arm to pick up something fairly light, and it must have been just the wrong angle as a pain shot up my arm when I did it. Ever since then it’s been punky. I can put weight on it, I can do most things with it, but I can’t reach out and, say, pick up a gallon of milk with it, or comfortably reach behind me to hook my bra. Trying to wrestle Mim to get her diaper on this morning was just short of torture. It’s just certain angles – one of which I discovered is the force exerted in pulling a hank of yarn taut and twisting it into a skein. That sucked, I actually had to stop and take some deep breaths, the pain was so sudden and unexpected. So yeah. Fantastic.

I am every so thankful, however, that it was my left shoulder and not my right because anything involving pressing with my fingers such as opening a childproof cap would hurt a lot. Being a righty that would make just about anything painful. Fortunately as well my typing is not affected so I can still work.

Speaking of which I do have some yarn photos – here are those two skeins I finished a couple of weeks ago but took crappy pictures the first time around. These were both spun from roving I got from Frog Hair Fibers, I love her colors, especially the second one.

This is superwash Merino wool, I spun it quick and squishy so it would make a really poofy warm yarn as I’m trying to break out of my tendency to spin teensy weensy perfectionist style.

1_DSC_0005

1_DSC_0004

Roving: Superwash Merino color “Candy” from Frog Hair Fibers

This is superwash Blue Faced Leicester, which frankly I was worried about as the BFL I’ve spun has almost been too soft, drifting apart easily while spinning and being kind of a pain in the ass. I was glad that this stuff was still soft, but not without substance. Maybe the superwash process toughened it up a little bit? Anyway the resulting yarn has a fantastic drape, I’m tempted to keep this one for myself.

Handspun BFL

Handspun BFL

Roving: Superwash BFL colorway “Antiquity” from Frog Hair Fibers

In the “making things” department I’ve been dinking around on this Chevron Scarf for a couple of weeks, now. The stitch pattern is so easy that sometimes I start to nod off while working on it. It’s also in fingering weight yarn so it feels like it is taking forever. I think that’s further exacerbated by the fact that I only get a few minutes here and there to rattle off a couple of rows. Or I fall asleep :) Anyway I had these two random skeins of Koigu KPPPM and this was the perfect project for stashbusting them. I’m just about halfway done.

Chevron scarf WIP

Chevron scarf WIP

Chevron scarf WIP

Pattern: Chevron Scarf by Joelle Hoverson, from Last minute Knitted Gifts
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM, color P204 (red) and P426 (purple)

It obviously needs a lot of blocking so it’ll lay flat once it’s finished. My plan is to wear it as a headscarf, if I can figure out how to get it to stay on my slippery hair without sliding off. Maybe I need to invest in some bobby pins as I really want to wear scarves on my head and can’t seem to figure it out.

Fiber News April 16, 2009

Posted by jeninmaine in Crafty, dyeing, Etsy, spinning.
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
2 comments

I traded a Ravelry friend, Jesh, who has a super cool Etsy shop for one of her drop spindles. I traded her moneys and some merino/seacell fiber I dyed to her specs:

For Jesh

For Jesh

The spindle she made for me is so pretty and she included a little sample of baby camel fiber. Wow, that stuff is so very soft and spins like a dream! I don’t really use a drop spindle all that often but I love her stuff. I figure it’ll be a good thing to have for times I can’t use my wheel.

Here it is:

In other news I’ve been working on some new fiber, this is superwash Blue Faced Leicester from Frog Hair Fibers:

Fiber

This is next in line once I’m done with that, also from the same seller, superwash merino:

Fiber

And just because shots of Lego Darth Vader and fiber arts amuses me, I give you Darth Crafty:

Darth Crafty