There is no pattern

Hiya from a.,

So what I thought I would show this week is not yet finished, so something to look forward to for next week. I did however manage to make a couple of other things this week, that I believe you will enjoy. These are two wildly different projects, but what they have in common is that I didn't have a pattern for either, they were both strictly from the let us see what I can come up with.

I'll show you the easier project first. This is an old, sort of bulky sweater that had belong to my dad, but he gave it to me for crafting.


I had a few options for what to do with the sweater, and this is what I came up with:


I sliced the sweater right at the bottom of the zipper, brought in the sides a fair bit, added a waistband and a pocket and now I have a sweater skirt for the fall. I think it turned out kind of cute, and should be fun to wear with a pair of tights.

So, not having a specific pattern for that, no problem, as it was really just elementary sewing. This next project, it was a lot harder for me to not have a pattern. This was made as a birthday gift for one of the FLBs. There is this super awesome cartoon called Invader Zim. He is supposed to be the initial leader of the invader of earth, but he is really bad at it. His sidekick is a robot named GIR. Now on earth, they obviously need to be in disguise, so GIR is hidden as a dog, this is what he looks like in the cartoon.


As you see GIR is super adorable and a little dim looking. Now here is the amigurumi that I made of him (again to remind you, I made this pattern up myself)



I weighted the body with pennies, in order to help it stand upright, and the only red I had for the tongue was some handspun merino. I am pleased with the results of the little guy, and he seemed to go over well.
Enjoy the cuteness.

big projects in the works

Hiya from a.,

So no new stuff to show you this week, as we are in the midst of big projects the both of us. r. is working on a bit of an epic canvas, and I am right in the middle of three things, so usually I would give you a photo of b.b. to tide you over, but instead enjoy a shot of the typewriter I purchased for r. at a fiber shop.

Adoropus

Hiya from a.,

I have a couple things that are a bit different from each other to show you today. I'll lead with the pretty and soft item.



This is a wrap for myself that I made using the Bamboo yarn from the Stitch Nation line they sell at JoAnn. It's a relatively new line of yarn and this was my first time playing with it, and I can tell you that it sure as heck won't be my last. I loved this yarn, soft, workable, and the colours are gorgeous (plus the regular price is 4.99 for a ball that is 250 yards, and being Joann it goes on sale every few weeks). Here is a close up of the stitch work for you, which I find quite pretty.



I like the contrast between the two colours and the two different lace patterns. Also as a bit of a side note, I have come to a personal choice. Shawls are super pretty and I love the patterns, but I look like a massive dork in shawls. Wraps and I get along great, but shawls aren't meant for me (this life decision will also help me avoid lace weight yarn).

Next I have for you a birthday gift I made for one of the Freaky Little Bitches. I tend to dye yarn as a birthday gift, but I wanted to shake it up and I knew that this friend liked monsters. This brought forth the creation of the Adoropus.


This little guy is made from some yarn I had left from gloves I made for r., as well as old ties that once belonged to my father. I pulled out the stitches and cut them into pieces, sewed and stuffed them. I stitched the legs loosely together and then I worked the yarn body in rounds and created holes to poke the legs through. I thought that the Adoropus (so named by r.) would make a cute object, and the legs can also function as pin cushions.

That is what I have this week, hope you enjoy.

p.s. I am sure that you can tell from the state of the work table that r. has started working on his next chapter.

Is this a "Dialectical Image"? No, probably not.

Hey Folks! This is r. I have for you today a little bit of art of the wearable and wall hangable variety. As some of you may be aware, I occasionally get together with a few friends to hang out and rock out. I think we sound pretty good and the fact that we sprung out of a dissertation writing group gives us the kind of music mag friendly back story that should have us signed to SubPop within the week. Anyway, we call ourselves the Zen Arcade Project (google the references) and decided that we needed merch despite the fact that we have absolutely no intention of playing out, at least not yet. So with that in mind I prepped a screen (these are screen printed) with this image. The lightning bolt and the ZAP on the arcade cabinet are a reference to the group's initials and have the added bonus of being really rocking. I've done the t-shirt as a test, along with three proof/prints in green and I'm quite pleased with the results. In all likelihood going to a second non-green print run (I suspect that it would also make a nice holiday gift for my more nostalgically or video game inclined friends), so if you want one or your very own t-shirt so you can be the very first Zappatista in your neck of the woods let me know. The next major screenprint project I'm planning on undertaking will be, I think, one designed for my sister tentatively titled "Jessie's Midnite Runners" or "Hurricane J" and will be based on the classic Saved by the Bell episode where Jessie gets hooked on speed--I mean caffeine pills, not speed, certainly not speed. I have some sketches ready and I think I can make it happen. We'll see.

Sorry for the Delay

Hiya from a.,

Sorry for the week off, we had a life last weekend. I know that is weird, but trust me it is not a common event. I have a couple things to show you today and I would imagine r. will post his stuff on the weekend (his project is very cool). So first off we have some changes to the organization of the sewing nook. I had started with a box for all my sewing notions, but end up never being able to find anything. I changed it to a few smaller containers:



This system works so much better, as I can see what I'm looking for and easily grab it. What I did was glue fabric to pickle jars and add some black ribbon at the top. Easy, pretty, and a much handier system.

What we have next is a skirt. This is just a simple straight skirt, with a little bit of a slit on the side. My zipper abilities are coming along nicely I think:


This fabric was a major indulgence as it is Japanese cotton/linen from Crafty Planet that is not exactly cheap. I was able to get it thanks to it having been my birthday recently, and oh was it an exciting treat to play with.

Finally we have a summer sun hat. The weather has been disgusting here so we were going to have a beach day and I knew I wanted something for my head when we were out of the water, so I broke out some good old lily cotton and made a hat, which I will show you at another time as the camera battery has died and I can't upload photos.

To make up for the delay and lack of a hat photo please enjoy this older picture of b.b, getting in the middle of things, as he is want to do:


Take care.

Hey folks, r. here. Since a. showed off her dress to you yesterday (not too shabby for a first time, eh?) and she had suggested I finally catch up on posting stuff I've done (the platter has been done for at least 6 months at this point honestly), here's stuff. The comic book looking things are coasters made of plywood (thanks Bill), actual comic books--a wide variety of late silver/early bronze age Marvel and DC with Akira thrown in for good measure--a good 6 layers of modge podge and krylon high gloss sealer. These are a cheap effective way to get coasters and the hardest part is cutting up the comics which my collector's instinct says is wrong. However, when I got these books out of the bargain box I was also able to snag the first DC issue of Tarzan with John Carter of Mars as the secondary story which is worth somewhere between 50and 80ish Greenbacks so I came out ahead. My favourite is the Superman/Muhammad Ali because it's just so 70s. Next is my silver plaque. Not much to tell you about it, a. and I are in love with silver spray paint. It's based on the famous page from the fanzine Sniffin' Glue, but I changed the chords (A, D, and E allows you to play Louie, Louie; Wild Thing; Roadrunner; Blue Suede Shoes; Rumble; etc.). Finally, my dio de los muertos (I believe I have already apologized for lack of Spanish once on this blog, but mea culpa again) platter. A little paint and decoupage is all it is. Well, a lot of craft paint over a platter my sister gave us in order to get that old, vaguely enameled look. It's going to be hanging over my bar just as soon as we hang it. Well there you are folks. Hope you enjoyed the stuff, I've got another batch of the coasters on the go and if they turn out I might just be ready to take commissions (and experiment with baseball card, magic cards [I am in fact that geeky, but I can play decent surf guitar so shut up], loteria cards and whatever else I can get my hands on). Until the next time, as the good Reverend points out, it's Martini Time!

Been Sewing

Hiya from a.,

I'm going to keep this nice and short. I made myself a dress today. First dress, first time using a pattern, first time sewing with knit/stretchy fabric. What did you do with your day?



Take care

My Suitcase Rehab

Hiya from a.,

So online you can see a bunch of alterations to old suitcases, and I thought I'd give it a try. Now being me, I didn't really read a lot of descriptions or instructions, just looked at a few pictures, and thought I could figure something out (thanks to my dad, I have a highly developed sense of why not just figure it out while you're in the middle of playing with the new idea). So I lucked out at one of the local thrift shops and found an old hard side samsonite for under 10 dollars. Here are the before pictures:




In the first photo it is laid out like that because it was about to be spray painted silver. Now you don't have smell-o-vision, so I will tell you that the inside smelled like grandma. It was that lovely mix of Clinique and roses, so that lining was all torn out and replaced, so that the inside looked like this:



There were multiple varieties of glue used, fedex box pieces covered in fabric, some quilt batting to add softness. Here is a photo that shows the ultimate purpose of the suitcase:


It is my mobile roving and spindle storage unit. I hung ribbon on top to catch the hooks of the spindles, and added an elastic band to hold them in place when opening and closing the suitcase. Here is a close up of the top section:


The bottom is then for storing the yet to be used roving and the singles that have already been spun. This project took a fair bit of work, but I am pleased with the overall results.

Take care.

I Dyed That Day (Part the Fourth)

Hiya from a.,

So first I have a wrap to show you. It is made from lamb's pride cotton/wool, which is perfect for a cool summer eve, or going to a place where you know there will be tons of a/c. It is a more traditional pattern than I've done before, but I like it:


Next we have the Dyed that Day portion of the blog. This is a BFL/Silk roving that I dyed in a couple of stages. First I did a light yellow and then overlaid it with blue in certain spots, which led to a fiber that was yellow, blue, and green. I think it is also my most uniform spin to date. r. has entitled it (Killer)Green River:



Finally today, my portion of the two fleeces that yarn crew bought have arrived, and it makes for a nice before picture (expect the after picture in about 6 months as the one is 9 oz and the other almost 11):



Enjoy.

And We're Back!

Alright folks, hope you liked the super long version of In A Gadda Da Vida by Iron Butterfly. We've been away but now we're back and I have my latest project to share with you.



This project began life as the Loteria cross from the Big Ass Book of Crafts, but for a variety of reasons (mostly I didn't have the wide variety of spray paints necessary for that particular project and well, this suited me better) it changed. This is my attempt at a vaguely Dia de Los Muertos (bear with my complete lack of Spanish) cross and a memorial cross. The paint is artist grade acrylic lightly thinned with tap water (medium of choice for the budget artist) on plywood. The photos of Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer and--at the heart of it all--Woody Guthrie were produced using the printer and glued on using a craft glue stick. Then, using something I discovered while working on my Cat paintings, I lettered "This Machine Kills Fascists"--Woody's famous slogan--on the bottom with a sharpie street-art style. Think of this as a friendly affirmation that Jesus was a communist or maybe it's my attempt at Christian Summer Camp/Youth Group art (not that I'd know anything about that). Anyway, it's time to throw all the Moneychangers out of the temple to the Revolution Rock in a state of shock. Till things are brighter, I'm the man in black. r.

NB #1: For those of you who haven't seen it, go watch "Exit Through the Gift Shop." This is the Banksy documentary on street art and is completely brilliant. (lets go detourne some buildings together, huh?)

NB #2: Here is the extra long version of "In a Gadda Da Vida" I mentioned. Well half of it. This is a great song to learn to play on the guitar since it begs to be turned up loud with every conceivable effect applied. FUN!