Written By a Kid is Amazing

I might not have blogged in a while about all my crafting... THE MAKING HAS CONSUMED MY LIFE... in short I am crocheting an afghan, two hats, a pair of tank slippers, and oh yeah knitting a pair of socks.  All while studying for finals.  Fun. Times.

ANYWAY LOOK AT GREAT STUDY BREAK FUN THINGS FROM GeekandSundry!!  I've been recommending Written By a Kid to all of my friends, surprisingly for schoolwork...  One of my friends is writing her senior honors thesis on how new media like tumblr, facebook, youtube, etc are affecting literacy and how to incorporate that into the classroom.  Another one of my friends is doing her final project on children's books and how they can be adapted for the internet.  Super cool right?  Anyway Written By a Kid is one of my favorite youtubes and it has kids telling their own stories while the fantastic crew animates them into reality!!  Not only is it super cute, its also a great way to get kids involved in literature and the creative process!  So Subscribe to geekandsundry here:  http://bit.ly/SyeWy8

And watch my favorite episode starring the wonderfully awesome Joss Whedon with a cameo from the wonderful Felicia Day!!!

Metro-Tastic!

Babies babies everywhere!  o.O  Basically my sister knows a lot of people popping out kids, which means baby presents!  Since all of the women were from NYC these MetroCards were specially commissioned!  Since they double as rattles, they might be considered a little large.  And by might I mean they are about 5" x 3" and way to big for a little kid to wave around.  However they are the perfect size for parents to wiggle in front of their child's eyes and for the dog to play with.  Really, it's a question of who can defend it better, a puppy or a baby?

These Metro Cards are fairly accurate and they've been personalized to have the child's name stitched onto the back of the crocheted card!

Professor Bear

This panda bear is rocking the top hat and looking super posh and classy; the only thing he's missing is a monocle!  The story behind this little guy is that the employee of the week gets to take him home and add something to it so that over time he acts a collage of everyone's good work.  Personality is a big part of this too, his name is Cheeseburger.  Personality is a big part of this.  The top hat is one I've used before, but this time I didn't add the extra rows (so it doesn't look like an Amish hat) and I added a little cardboard circle to the top of the hat to give it a little extra definition.  Also the little white stripe is actually from a pompom oh which I've snipped off a little--an excellent decision!

A Quilting Summer 2012

Over the summer, I spent a lot of time getting my quilt blocks all cut up and ready to go.  I even started sewing the blocks together!  Basically I lucked out and had an entire room to myself with enough space for a design wall, sewing machine, and a little ironing station... pretty sweet digs.

Previously in the blog, I've posted pictures of my quilt in progress with a target theme going on.  Well, this might have been what the pattern called for in the book, in actuality with my hand dyed fabrics this pattern just did not pan out aesthetically.  In the end, I packed it all up and sent it home for a couple of weeks just to my thoughts settle.  Thankfully my quilter's get-a-way is mid September so I could reorganize all of the blocks on my design wall with all of the support and opinions of about 30 quilters ranging between 40-90years old give or take.  So I was the youngest by far, which is hilarious because this is my third time going to the get-a-way!

Anyway, out at this 3 day Quilters' Get-A-Way in the middle of nowhere (aka no internet or cell reception), we quilted day and night.  A couple of the younger crowd and I worked from 8am to 3am every day; it was intense.  Thus, my newly organized quilt was born!!  Dadadadaaaaa!

A Nerdy Summer 2012

Summers hanging around watching Daniel Jackson rescue humans from the Goa'uld, Jeremy Renner dropping it like it's hot in the Avengers, Bane kicking ass and blowing up football fields, and Spiderman being a snarky scientist... basically superheros being awesome in anything that ever existed  Yes, this sounds like an excellent use of my time!

I started a craft exchange with one of my friends.  I crocheted her Iron Man winter gear...

...and she painted me Doctor Who Shoes!

We also went to the midnight showing of Batman 3: The Dark Night Rises in style with our home made matching t-shirts... huzzah for sharpies, poster paint, and spare white t-shirts... all of which we found in our rooms before the show.

Last but not least I whipped up a little 3in Charizard on commission.  HE IS SO CUTE!

I also took the liberty of experimenting with Ultra-balls!  My customer loved it, and that's all I have to say at the moment!

.n,mn

A PSU Summer 2012

You might ask, "How did you spend your summer?"  And I would have to say quilting with Primeval, Crocheting with Burn Notice, and Duct Tape Corset making with Leverage.  Yes, crafting and TV the most relaxing and wonderful combination in the world.  Of course I was also working two part time jobs but who cares about that right now?  ...Exactly

So here's my summer projects!

Scarf #1:  Never Let Your Boss Know... unless you don't mind making and giving!  Luckily that's the fun part for me :)  My Boss Lady told me to make her whatever I wanted.  And clearly since it was the middle of summer, I made her a scarf.  #totalsense

Scarf #2:  Catching the Trend... Let's just say that after I made my boss a scarf, my coworker wanted one too!  But he wanted one in the traditional Nittany Lion fashion.  And so was born my first scarf with a fringe... very rad!

Queen of Tie Dye... get it? It's a pun since it's a queen sized quilt!

This is the draft, the in progress, the -nothing-is-sewn Queen sized quilt.  The white spaces will eventually be single-colored strips of fabric which will be colored to match the surrounding square.  The question is what blocks need to be moved or switched to create the perfect quilt layout?

The little image is for a general overview and the big image is for the nitty gritty look over.

Bows are Cool

Bows are just as cool as bow ties.  And sometimes when making a crochet bow it can just as easily be used as a bow tie.  Long story short my friend asked me to make her a "big-ass bow."  She didn't care about the color or the style or the headband type, just that it was large and hand made.  No problem, I had made mini bows before for teddy bears and Mrs. Pacman, this should be only on a larger scale.  My problem was I didn't know how big big is... The first one I made was approximately a foot long, that is the measurement of the bow itself not including headbands.  So it was WAY too big.  My second one still turned out a little big, but it was wonderfully usable.  I even sewed it onto a stretchy headband that you can get at the store and with a little edge work to give it that personalized touch I had a wonderfully large bow.  :)

The Knitted Corset... Oh Myyy

I've been to a couple of Rocky Horror shows before but I've never dressed up for one before; so I said, "Hey, why not?"  I decided to go as Janet, post zapping.  So in a night I needed to find fishnets, a corset, face paint, and a feather boa.  Basically I had to look like this:

...but decent.  So I started knitting a corset based on this pattern.  Luckily one of my friends lent me a black corset for the show since my own masterpiece was a little long in the making a too small in other areas.  The pattern itself is a little confusing and I wouldn't recommend it.  I ended up knitting practically the entire thing before realizing that a couple of lines early on in the pattern were actually referencing the very end of the directions.  Very strange.  Anyway my own corset is almost complete, despite my misread directions and probably the incorrect type of stitching.  More to come soon!

Catan Accomplished!

After years of working and ignoring this little project I dub it Done!  This is the Settlers of Catan Afghan I made for my brother.  It fits a single bed or, as what it's currently being used as, a couch throw. It is all single crocheted, yes that means it is VERY warm, out of Caron One Pound Yarns.  Caron yarn may be my favorite because you get a whole pound and you never have to worry about dye lots--plus its so soft!!


Front:

Back:

And the One Instance of detailing that I realized I was just too ambitious to continue:

Next part of this project is to whip up some felt roads, settlements, cities, ships, knights, robbers, and more so that it can be a self contained wonderful board game!

Poké, Poké, PACMAN

Pac-Man Time!  So cute gobbling up ghosts and pellets, all hand crocheted with my original patterns.

Pac-Man:

Ghost:

Setsu Con Fall Out :)

Setsu Con January 2012 was amazing!  I picked up a bazillion dollars (and then I'll blow it all traveling around during the spring and going to the Doctor Who convention in LA: Gallifrey One!!)

Anyhow I've created an array of 3in tall pokémon that will fit perfectly into my openable pokéballs and here is the documentation!  Only 2 of the little critters didn't sell: the Totodile and the Jigglypuff.

Bulbasaur, Jigglypuff, Cyndaquil, Charizard, Totodile:

Pikachu:

Squirtel:

Wire Butterfly Jewelry-Holding Thing

A work in progress: Wire Butterfly Jewelry-Holding Thing made entirely out of the random supplies in a crafter's room.  Plus kudos to internet inspiration.  And now for the in-progress quick pic:

 

And now for the later that night finished product pic:

 

The Majestic Totodile

Totodile!  Apparently, all of the pokémon can't talk they can only say their species name and that is how they communicate; well, all except Team Rockets Meoweth but that doesn't matter because I'm rambling and this is not a run-on sentence.  Lesson of the day is that when there are three colors required in something as small as a 3in-tall-pokémon's eyeball YOU SHOULD JUST USE FELT.  Yarn in that small of an area turns into a mess destined to be ripped out and torn from its mortal bounds.  Besides the felt doesn't look too bad and it was really easy!

The Post Christmas Crafting Commotion

In other words, since I'm no longer crafting fro Christmas I can turn my mind to other important things... such as the 80-some door tags I have to make for work.  And you know they have to be cute, clean, and crafty as well as gender neutral.  Yet with Setsucon looming, I'm still powering out pokémon and pokéballs like there's no tomorrow (well I wish I was finishing them at that rate anyway!)  Now its a careful balance of working on lavalamp doortags and crocheting.  Regardless it means that my my mobile crafting corner has taken over and turned into a crafting living room... and it will only get worse before it gets better!

Christmas Present Parade! - Part 3

Another somewhat last minute Christmas present, the silver mobius knot necklace and bracelet is made out of aluminum chainmaille.  Pics to come since I gave it away without remembering to take any!

Christmas Present Parade! - Part 2

The last present I made, finished at 2 - 4am on the Christmas Eve aka just a couple hours after its recipient arrived at my house unexpectedly 12 hours early, is a Charmander plushie.  Thankfully since I'm not selling him, I didn't have to make my own pattern and I used WolfDreamer's open-mouthed Charmander pattern.  Making my life a little easier... plus WolfDreamer is a damn good pattern maker!  I added my own little bit of flair by making him a little baseball hat (my own pattern) with a little felt Mets logo on it.  (I do not own the charmander patter, the Mets, pokémon, or any affiliate groups, blahblahblah, <insert legal jargon here>.  Anyway he loved it and went around on New Years showing off his little Charmander plushie!

Christmas Present Parade! - Part 1

After teaching a friend of mine how to crochet, he was doing admirably, I gave him a hand finishing it so that it would be done before Christmas and he moves randomly to Connecticut.  So anyway a couple of single crochets, stripes, and embroidery later we have a blue and red scarf made of red heart yarn.  Black Rabbit is my friends nickname, although the joke is that if he washes it too much it will end up saying "Black Rabbi"!

 

Summer Pottery Explosion

"Pottery Explosion"... it's funny because things tend to blow up in the kiln when they're improppery made. Anyway, it's time to showcase my accomplished (and failed) pottery from summer 2011, now that I've gifted a few pieces for Christmas!  And now that I have re-masters the glories of photomontages, it is time for a short video:

 

Disclaimer: The crappiness of the photos does not represent my photography skills, 

rather its my attempts to load this online that are at fault.