art by the schoolyard
CraftStylish via Craftzine. I have a million of these scraps.
So I get sick for a week or so and when I come back to WordPress everything is different. Whoa whoa whoa. Unfortunately, I’m still a bit under the weather, which is why I will be setting a blog schedule in the near future – i.e. not today.
As though writing the best food memoir I’ve read all year isn’t enough, it turns out that Kenny Shopsin, New York restauranteur and cranky old man extraordinaire, also has a small gift shop. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it looks more like a carefully curated curiosity cabinet collection. The spare button is a little expensive, but I would happily pay for that Lincoln pin if I knew someone who would wear it regularly.
I’ve uploaded some new items to my Etsy shop in honor of the Trashion show, in which I participated tonight. It was really interesting, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to take part. I really like the fact that Etsy encourages community among its users, and of course I like the fact that there are other artisans (if I can call myself that…maybe not) who are also dedicated to eco-friendly crafting.
I was thinking about Eric Carle when I made the bookmarks above. I had these huge clothing tags from some shirts that I bought recently, and – there is no other way to describe this – they were made to be bookmarks. Like, I don’t think you could create better bookmark blanks if you tried. I covered the surface using the secret Eric Carle technique (salvaged tissue and glue), and the punctuation marks – I can’t be the only one who loves them – are made of candy and gum wrappers. I feel like people who would want bookmarks probably also have opinions about punctuation.
The necklace is half-salvaged – I used one of my favorite pink glass buttons as a charm on it. It’s a short chain, only 15″, but sweet. The earrings, I must confess, are not salvaged at all. They were, however, born from the burning envy I experienced in Singapore, where I tried to buy some of the tricked-out gold jewelry in Little India and it was all far out of my price range. But my favorite bead market in Seoul, at Namdaemun Market*, had some findings that were evocative of the originals, so now I can pretend like I haggled for these earrings in some bazaar and no one will know the difference…except for you.
*I wish I could offer better directions, but unfortunately, I got pretty lost when I was there, and the market itself doesn’t seem to have a website (in English or Korean). The blog entry I link to is the most complete information I’ve found, and indeed, I think that’s how I found the market the first time. But, you know, if you’re in Korea and you like that sort of thing, I recommend going. (I believe it’s closed on weekends.)
I am thankful for embroidered purses and the friends who send them to me.
I can’t think of a better use for the Johnson City Press.
- my mother, who is contractually obligated to blurb all of my creations
Everybody hates magazine subscription cards…until they’re recycled into stationery. These feature vintage Korean illustrations (from a textbook) and plenty of space on the back for writing, and, as you might have already surmised, they’re my giveaway for the Trashion trunk show on Friday. I’ll have them listed soon at my Etsy.
Well. I am not much of a NaBloPoMo participant, as it turns out, because I have skipped out on five days in a row. This is probably because I feel obligated to post about stuff that I am making, and I rarely have a new craft every day. When this month is over, I will probably try to set specific days during the week that I will post here. Also, I still haven’t settled on a site design I like, which makes me want to contribute less.
BUT! I will make a better effort, I promise. And to prove to myself and to you that this blog is more than just Stuff I Have Made And How To Make It, I would like to discuss some of my inspirations and favorite craft blogs of late. I also have an announcement and – despite what I have just said – a preview of something that I am working on, because I am proud of it.
BLOGS I FIND WORTH READING, CRAFT-RELATED EDITION
1. The Purl Bee
There is so much that I want to make here that I don’t even know where to start. Most of the goods the actual store offers are out of my budget (ㅠ ㅠ), but their Project Journals are terrific step-by-step guides that also make sometimes-difficult techniques accessible. I’ve already made the Beach Ball, and the project I discuss below is also from there. My favorite aspect of their guides is that they’re easy to take inspiration from and customize; they make great jumping-off points.
I went to link to them and saw that they had an adorable post devoted to Advent calendars, and I was kind of miffed because it hadn’t gotten to my RSS yet, but then I went to my GoogleReader and it was there waiting for me. Silly me, good Purl Bee.
2. Craftzine
The blog for the excellent magazine Craft. Updated about 10x more frequently than I update mine. I like that they’re partnered with Make magazine – it leads to some really interesting overlap.
3. Manbroidery (technically a Flickr group and not a blog)
Mostly hilarious, although I wish they’d found a way to work “brah” into the name. Also, I’m totally in love with that typewriter.
Author of the cloche/mitten pattern I mentioned a few weeks ago (although I had to mod it – more on that soon). Just a lot of really pretty stuff.
5. Doe-C-Doe
Puts up fantastic free embroidery patterns, which I plan to take advantage of as I teach myself how to embroider (probably after the holidays). Also appears to share my fondness for vintage illustrations.
I found this through a plug of her new site, Colette’s Patterns, which has a nice tutorial on how to sew a silk scarf. The pattern site will probably be useless to me because I don’t know how to follow a pattern (which is why I like to sew my clothes with materials that are stretchy –> forgiving). I like her crafts, though.
RESOURCES I HAVE DRAWN ON AS OF LATE
1. Reader’s Digest Guide to Needlework
The version I have belonged to my grandmother, and it’s even older than the one pictured. The patterns are fug (and hysterical!) for the most part, so it’s not what you want to look at if you’re seeking non-ironic project patterns. Its overviews of various techniques, however, are without parallel.
2. Chronicle Books’ Sale
I’m not sure if I can count this as a resource if it’s only one that I want to use rather than one I am actually using, but according to Craftzine, Chronicle is offering free shipping AND 35% off all its titles now through December 5th. I reeeeeeeallly want the Field Guide to Knitting, even though I sort of have a lot of knitting books and I’m also sort of unemployed, and I am also intrigued by this Japanese book on lacy crochet.
3. Yarntiques
Does not have a website, but as previously mentioned, if you’re in east Tennessee it’s definitely worth a browse.
RECENT INSPIRATIONS
the vintage Apple logo
LeVar Burton’s rad fingerless cycling gloves (apologies for the picture quality, I got it from a YouTube of “Reading Rainbow”)
AND LASTLY, AN ANNOUNCEMENT AND A DISPLAY OF A PROJECT ON WHICH I AM WORKING.
1. Announcement: The wonderful Etsy Trashion team, a group of designers that works with upcycled materials, is having its trunk show this FRIDAY in the VIRTUAL LABS on ETSY at 7PM (EST). To repeat: COLONEL MUSTARD with the CANDLESTICK in the STUDY. Okay but seriously there will be giveaways, and I will be one of the people giving something (what? what?) away, and I will hopefully post what that is here tomorrow.
2. Something I am, in fact, working on:
My very first knitted lace, in the form of a scarf for my Korean host mom (my 엄마, or Omma). Fortunately, she doesn’t know about this blog (or speak English), so I can say that I am giving it to her for Christmas. I’m using an absolutely beautiful Bernat bamboo yarn that knits up really soft, as you can see on my Ravelry account. Check out the pattern at Purl Bee’s April Showers journal.
“Isn’t that what every baby needs? A stuffed fabric beach ball?”
- my mother, with no* sarcasm
Honestly, this pattern from Purl Bee is about as easy as it looks. I had no experience sewing curved seams before I made the ball, but I didn’t find it to be too difficult. This is actually a really nice project to practice that, because if the seams don’t match perfectly at the top, you can cover them with the little beach ball circles. (Not that I would know anything about that.) I used all scrap fabrics: some corduroy for the main stripes, cotton prints for the alternating segments, and jersey for the top. The pattern suggests pressing the creases for the top and bottom pieces before you sew them on, but I discovered after about fifteen minutes that jersey doesn’t crease. So I just tucked it in as I sewed and it worked fine.
The only suggestion I have is not to fill it too full. I got a little carried away with the pattern’s instructions to “stuff it firmly” and ended up with a small missile. Some of the stuffing was removed for the baby’s safety. Now it is perfect, and I plan to take credit for the baby’s development of both basic and fine motor skills.
*a lot of
The card I made to accompany Sun Nam’s gift roughly paralleled the process I use with a lot of my other paper goods. I used paper left over from a Victoria’s Secret purchase, a card from a set of bulk cards I got at Michael’s, some Martha Stewart glue, and a few pens.
These cards are hard to get a nice sharp fold on, but they are made of a decent-quality cardstock.
I used my absolute favorite kind of pen for the drawing – the Mon Ami PlusPen, which, to the best of my knowledge, is only available in Asia. It has a plastic tip and writes like the finest marker you’ve ever seen, but without the bleeding through that skinny permanent markers create. I found them once in America in high school at a Quick Recall match and stole six or seven from the judges. (Not proud.) I can’t find a picture, so I’ll have to take a picture of the box I brought home.
Source of paper. Victoria’s Secret and Aerie, especially, use beautiful paper to wrap purchases – even free gifts (such as this one) – that can easily be repurposed.
The finished card. I cut the hearts and dots from the tissue paper. I used a silver gel pen to write “애기,” which means “baby.”
Total time: 30 minutes
Total cost: probably 30 cents for the card and 20 cents for the amount of glue used.
I’m sorry. I’ve just always wanted a chance to use the phrase “baby daddy” in a sentence, but none of my friends are or have ever been pregnant before.
I am not a rapid crafter, so I am pleased as punch about this package, which featured 2.5 different crafts by me. I’m going to break this into three parts, over three days, because I’d actually like to write a little bit about the methods used herein in case anyone else knows a Korean baby deserving of some gifts. Instead of just putting up pictures of things I like and then going to bed.
So, part 1: hallabong hat.
actual size. I needed a haircut.
you're the best, Mom
I followed the pattern for the baby apple hat, with a few exceptions.
1. The hallabong is known for the bump at the top of the fruit. To create that, I used two strands of the yarn I was using (Tahki Yarns Cotton Classic in #3401 Light Bright Orange, aka Vols Orange) instead of the brown yarn called for in the stem part; when I cinched it closed, I pulled the yarn tail through the hole in the top of the hat. Then I used a smaller crochet hook to weave the tail through the yarn on the inside where I had started using the two ply and I cinched that in order to create a sort of ball.
2. The leaf directions were, I felt, unnecessary, especially because fruit have different sized leaves attached to them. I improvised. Originally, I wove the tails into the hat, but the leaves stuck up and looked sort of like holly, so I ended up sewing them on. I did the leaves in garter stitch to differentiate them from the stockinette used for the rest of the hat (which, rather conveniently, resembles the pattern on an orange skin).
The yarn I used turned out to be terrific for baby clothing purposes; it was smooth, not fuzzy, but still soft and light rather than stringy (like some other cotton yarns I’ve used). I got it from Yarntiques, a little yarn store in downtown Johnson City that has truly awesome stuff at reasonable prices. It’s like the gingerbread house in Hansel and Gretel if the walls were made of yarn instead of cookies and H&G liked to crochet instead of eat like little piggies.
Here’s the pattern I used, as modified by me.
Size:
6 months
Materials:
100yds mercerized cotton yarn (I used Tahki Cotton Classic) + maybe ten yards of green in any yarn desired (something with a contrasting texture if possible)
DP needles, size 7
Gauge:
5sts = 1
Pattern:
With main yarn, cast on 72 sts, 24 sts/needle, and knit for 4 1/2″. The seam should roll at the bottom. Measure from the bottom of the roll to the needles.
Crown:
Row 1: k6, k2tog (repeat to end)
Row 2: k5, k2tog (repeat to end)
Row 3: k4, k2tog (repeat to end).
Repeat the progression until 2 sts remain on each of three needles (6 sts total).
Now is the time to bring in strand #2. Use both strands and knit for seven or eight rows – until the bump is a little taller than you want it to be.
Cut a tail of 6″ or so on both pieces of yarn. Using a crochet needle, weave them through each loop, pulling the loops off the knitting needles as you do. Draw the loop closed. Thread both strands through the hole in the top of the hat.
Turn the hat inside out. Start weaving in the strand ends at the point where you started the bump with the 2ply. Once you’ve gone all the way around the circle, draw it tight too, knot, and weave in. You should have what looks like a combination between a ball and a doughnut on the top of the hat.
Leaves (make two of these)
With green cast on 3 sts and work two rows in garter st
Continue in garter st increase at each end of next and following alt row (7sts)
Work 5 rows straight decrease 1 st at each end of next and following alt rows (3 sts)
Next Row: sl1, k2tog, psso and fasten off
(This is roughly what I did, but as I mentioned, I improvised.)
Sew leaves to hat at stem base.
Tomorrow: card.
I am terrible at NaBloPoMo in that I post every day technically past midnight, which means it’s actually the next day’s post, which means that somewhere something got skipped, but I’m too lazy to check. I’m good at it in that I haven’t quit yet. I really want to keep going. I do. I promise tomorrow I will try to write faster. Tonight I got sidelined by some pumpkin cupcakes with apple butter frosting. Oops.
I did, however, finish what I’ve come to think of as Sun Nam’s Baby Hatty. Pics up tomorrow.
