Yarn Cthulhu

The title says it all.

http://www.myconfinedspace.com/2007/08/29/yarn-cthulhu/

For Kathy's other hobby.

I know, what use could this possibly have, but I like it anyway.

I made a shiny ball of mud.

I really don't know why the japanese art of hikaru dorodango is so fascinating to me. Maybe because it is meditative. Maybe because it is fascinating watching something made simply of earth become a shiny sphere. Maybe because it is an elevated reason to PLAY WITH MUD.

I don't know.

That aside, this is a cheap, and interesting way of creating a lasting memory of a very specific place - the color and shine of the dorodango are directly related to the dirt you are using. This ball here is forever a piece of my backyard in Alpharetta. Now I want to collect dirt whenever I travel. Won't that be fun for airport security?

There are a couple of websites that explain the method for making these. I used this one. Basically, you start with barely damp earth (think good sandcastle dampness) and you try and make the most round of round spheres you possibly can. OCD is an asset here. Then, you let it dry a bit - some methods suggest using a ziploc for this, I didn't - and from that point you just add layers of fine, dry dirt, rubbing as you do, until you develop the gloss you want. It took a few hours to make total, and a good portion of that was sitting in front of a movie while my hands were adding the last fine dirt layers.

The dorodango lightened in both weight and color as it dried and now it is sitting on the mantle above my fireplace. There is a scale of shininess that rates dorodango from 1-5, 5 being super ultra glossy awesome explosion. I'm figuring this around the two to three range, but I'm hoping for a four for the next one. On Moh's hardness scale, I'm figuring it's around a 2, because I like to classify these things.

I did try a second one, but rubbed too hard and cracked it, so I have to attempt again. I've got some super red dirt from near one of the restaurants I used to work at. Shiny red mud ball...

Wedding shoes

First post! w00t

The only photo I have of a current project right now is the shoes for my wedding. I put a bunch of beads on them to dazzle them out of their $7.00 upbringing.

Most of my crafts are born out of one of two things: The innability to sit still or the innability to pay money for something that I think I can make myself. The shoes are a perfect example... when shopping for wedding shoes, I think I threw up in my mouth a little when I saw how expensive they were. Poor upbringing... or just shear stubborness, I'm not sure. Its also why I started making corsets. As you can probably guess, this will largely influence the crafty things that I post on here. (Thank you Julia for inviting me! *Kevin and I sent you something in the mail too)

I was told I must post this for Julia

So Kathy & I were talking & I was also thinking about the previous post about knitting things out of cat hair. This prompted me to go searching, since I found such an interesting plethora of links on doing things with plastic bags, I thought surely there is something similar for that sort of thing.

Well, here it is:

http://www.knitting-and.com/spinning/ruffy-wool.htm

Oh yay the interwebs & the wonderful things that we can find on it.

Enjoy!

It's a gazillion degrees outside, let me wrap my hands in warm fiber.

Record heat and humidity. Everyone is being told "Stay indoors or we can not be held accountable for your immediate raisinification". (Hey, if spaghettification can be a scientific term, so can raisinification.)

Of course, I have been knitting.

I made a pop tart phone cover which made me very happy and which I promptly gave away, so I have no pictures. It looked a lot like this, only without the evil evil acrylic yarn, instead using happy sugar and cream cotton yarn.

I made an mp3 player cover in an effort to work my way into making a good looking mp3 player cover. No pictures.

I also completed a hat for a person-to-be. It is blue, much to the chagrin of the mom who really really wanted a girl. I went to take a picture and the camera batteries are, shockingly, dead. I really should go out and buy some new rechargable batteries.

Ok, is anyone particularly good at switching colors in knitting to make a design? I feel like there is something I'm missing when I do it, probably relating to the word "intarsia" which I have no clue about. I tried to make a pickle on the mp3 player cover, but it came out all lumped and embossed looking. No, I won't take a picture and show you. It's weird.

I blame JK Rowling

Okay, so since I finished the quilt, I've literally done nothing but read Harry Potter. I reread books 5 & 6 & just finished reading Book 7 last night. I've been close to 3 weeks, and over 2000 pages entrenched in nothing but Harry Potter. Now, I'm done, so back to work!

So I think my first order of business will be to start the bath mat that I mentioned earlier, although I think I've changed my mind about what to put on it. Sadly, my kids are not so into Sesame Street as I was. My son loves Blue's Clues, and there is a character on Blue's Clues called "Slippery Soap" who is, you guessed it, a bar of soap. I think I'll try & find something with him & make that into the bath mat.

I have the canvas, the yarn (or at least some of it), and the latch hook. Now I just need to make a pattern & go.

She will always be taller and younger and thinner, now this!?!

My sister is cooler than me.

Not only did she find red plastic bags to knit with, she told me what she is going to make with them and it is excellent. However, when we were on our travels together and we found a random convenience store that used red bags, she totally understood that I had to ask the cashier for extra bags. Now I just have to think of something that isn't a copycat of what she is doing.

As for an update with my plastic bag knitting, I've revised the plan slightly for how the final plastic mat will come together. Instead of icord forming the the majority of the mat, I'm braiding instead and will use icord for design purposes. We'll see how it all comes together...