Tag: Crafts

Knitting

Snakebit?

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AM I?

Last weekend, I was shopping my favorite part of my LYS – the bargain bin – and picked up seven balls of some great CEY Portland Tweed.  I blogged about it here.  I decided to try to reproduce a favorite sweater and started calcs last night.  Once again, not enough yarn and I’d bought up all Cindy had.  Again, no prob, there’s always the internet, right?  Again, wrong wrong wrong.  None, zilch, nada available anywhere, great yarn, just discontinued and now extinct.  That’s twice in a week that I’ve come up short on yarn for projects.  Sounds snakebit to me.  Dang.

Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.  Lily Tomlin

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Knitting

Completed Pot Projects

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POTS

I finally was able to squeeze a little time in yesterday to go check on my pots and was pleasantly surprised that two of the three were out of the kiln and ready to come home.

This pot is my favorite so far.  It’s the first one where I just let my hands do the thinking and creating.  I love the way it just happened.

Glazed with silver-gray, in and out, with a Carolina Blue rim dip

Next up is a raku pot with Blue-Green Crackle and Hawaiian Blue Matte

Without this playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth.  The debt we owe to the play of the imagination is incalculable.  Carl Jung

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Knitting

Vacay and Kindersongs

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A LITTLE BUMMED

Today is our last pottery class for this semester, ;(, but I’ve already signed up for the next one.  I’m going to learn the wheel next and am excited to learn something new.  I think we raku again today.  The firebug in me is always excited to raku!

KINDERSONG

The Kindersong concert was totally AWESOME!  Silly songs, silly hats, silly dancing – I loved it!  Oh yeah, the grands loved it too.  The papoose danced the whole time.  I’ve already decided to keep an eye out so we can go again.  Mr. Iknead took lots of pictures, but since the papoose and babydiva were in constant motion, most of them are just blurs.  Oh, well, better pics next time.

LONG AWAITED, MUCH ANTICIPATED

Are you ready??  Cause here are a few of our vacay pics:

  The Sprout and the Papoose

 Babydiva

  All of us!

  Sprout

  Mr. Iknead, the grands and me, in our dreams.

  Mr. Iknead, the grands and me – real life

  Corny?  Absolutely!  Probably my favorite of all!

Kindness in words creates confidence.  Kindness in thinking creates profoundness.  Kindness in giving creates love.  Lao Tzu

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Knitting

Promised Pots

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RAKU

Here are the pots I promised yesterday.

Before firing –

After firing

  Looks like blue poo.

  Biggest, lamest acorn on the planet.

JOSIE SAYS HEY

Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.  John Gardner

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Knitting

Eat Your Heart Out Smoky

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HOT

Pottery class today and raku.  Remembered the camera, girl reporter on the story.

Raku kiln, top off

Leslie handling the high tech stuff.

Yeah, pretty much what it looks like – a blowtouch sitting on some bricks.  It’s lit, btw.

This is what 1800 degrees F looks like.  Camera lens fog.

We’re going in!

Pot show and tell tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

Come on, baby, light my fire.  Try to set the night on fire.  Jim Morrison

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Knitting

Completely Consumed

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WHERE’VE I BEEN?

Since getting the sewing machine up and running a couple of weeks ago, I’ve had a difficult time staying away from it.  There’s always a new project that beckons me to at least try it and once on that ride, I’m powerless to stop until I’ve a) mastered whatever it is or b) given up for the moment because I just. can’t. figure. it. out. and am frustrated nearly to tears.  All this means that I’ve let a couple of things go in the last week or so, mainly stuff like sweeping or vacuuming, washing dishes or unloading the dishwasher.  It’s now oozed over into blog time but I’m here this morning to change that.  With that said, here’s a look at my newest obsession hobby,

Up until now, all my sewing stuff was thrown into a plastic bin, which was to be avoided at all costs.  If I was to be serious about learning to sew, I needed to upgrade my kit and found these sweet baskets at Hobby Lobby yesterday.  With everything sorted and untangled, I feel like a real, live seamstress!

My first FO on the machine –

Just don’t ask how long it took.

POTS

Tomorrow’s Monday which means pottery class.  Yay!  Raku tomorrow!

If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.  Ivan Turgenev

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Knitting

Look What I Made!!!

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NEWEST OBSESSION

My new-to-me sewing machine is finally up and running and LOOK LOOK LOOK what I made!

Some saw a table runner, I saw a purse!

and

I originally had plans for a reversible bag but then remembered that I’m just learning to sew and really, I couldn’t wrap my brain around how to actually make something reversible.  Scaled back my plan and I love it!

Not too shabby for my first ever sewing projects.  I’m liking it.

ADVENTURES IN DYEING, PART 3

The yarn is I Love This Wool from Hobby Lobby, the color is Kool-aid Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade.

Meh.  It’s OK, I guess.

Another trip through the land of Kool-aid, this time watermelon.

Now that’s what I’m talking about!

I’ll post it again when it’s dry and wound.

WANTS ON THE NEEDLES

Remember this?

It’s about to become something entrelac, not sure what, but entrelac for sure.

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.  T.S. Elliot

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Knitting

A Jump, Rule Change, Sad Plate

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GETTING A JUMP

I’ve decided to try to get a jump on Mondays by getting a few things accomplished on Sunday night.   Mondays have metamorphosed into a way crazy day – class from 9 to 12 in the mornings (which you can bet on winding up around 1 instead), laundry, errands that should have been taken care of over the weekend but didn’t and then the miscellaneous stuff that catches you by surprise – like trips to the vet, Hobby Lobby (which technically is a fun trip), phone calls, service calls, etc.  Then you count the time that I spend totally obsessed with whatever I’m obsessing about on that particular day.  Yesterday was the sewing machine.  Got my little pocketbook made, all it needs is a shoulder strap and lining; will post when totally complete.  As an aside – I think I’m going to really like this sewing thing.  I plan to check out some patterns for crafty things on my next HL run.

MEANWHILE

I’m a little embarrassed that it has taken me three days to complete this post.  I’ve made a decision to totally consign Mondays as Get Absolutely, Positively, Nothing Done Day.  With pottery class really from 8:30 to 1:00, there’s just not a whole lot of day left to tackle anything larger than maybe loading and/or unloading the dishwasher or doing a load or two of laundry.  This means I’m letting myself off the hook for things that can wait until another day or maybe even be scrubbed from the to-do list that I always have going.  I think I’m going to reinstitute a rule I had when my kids were growing up, the rule that says unless there’s blood or vomit involved, I don’t want to know about it.  Yes, there are exceptions, but that’s pretty much how it always went down.  And ya know what?  My kids survived and even thrived.

GOING POTTY

I’m calling this poor, sad, not round and not even oval, plate “The Plate Only A Mother Could Love”.

I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion.  These three are your greatest treasures.  Lao Tzu

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Knitting

DIY FYI DYE

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IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN

Yep, that’s right.  Arkansas’s summer has finally come and it looks like it’s planning to unpack its bags and stay awhile.  This makes for a sweaty whatever you happen to be engaged in, whether it’s baking, knitting, walking or any other of the billions of things that make up a day.  Thankful for my AC and fans and thank you, Mr. Iknead, for giving me the treat of sitting in one spot, never having to leave the comfort of my cool house, except for essential tasks.  Essential = groceries and/or gasoline.

FIRST TRY AT DYE

I’ve been eyeballing DIY dyeing articles and blogs, so, equipped with Kool-Aid, trash bags and part of my recent experiment in handspinning, I gave Pink Lemonade a go.

Step One

Step Two (don’t forget the gloves)

Step Three (heat to set the dye)

Sorry, no pic.  Microwaving yarn not photogenic.

Step Four

Let Cool and Rinse

Will show off the finished product tomorrow, after final rinse and drying.  I hope it doesn’t resemble a wad of pink worms so much.

For more detailed instructions, check out Knitty.com.

DIVALICIOUS

Babysitting Photo-Op

Genius is nothing but a great aptitude for patience.  George-Louis de Buffon

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Knitting

Acorns, Pot and Clunk

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GOING POTTY

I had a touch of bad attitude Sunday, just feeling tired and overwhelmed – I suppose I finally ran out of adrenaline after running on it all week, so I took a field trip to the pottery studio for a couple of hours.  After some enthusiastic wedging, I settled down and began a new coiled pot.  Class meets this morning, so I’ll get some feedback on what works and what doesn’t on this particular project.  I remembered to bring the fancy camera to take a photo of the acorn I started last week.

It needs a little fine tuning, I think.

Trying to decide, should I glaze true to nature or go for something more whimsical, like blue or purple?

A peek at the pot I started Sunday.  I can’t decide if it needs a little fine tuning or not.

Clunks for a windclunk I randomly started

(I call them clunks because they don’t chime like glass, they clunk)

After glazing with Rhodes Turquoise

Excited to see their true color after firing!

ON, THEN OFF THE NEEDLES

I swatched the handspun yesterday, take a look –

I’ll keep practicing.

Very little is needed to make a happy life.  Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Meditations

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Knitting

I’m Not Believin’ This ****, Trying Something New and A New Bowl

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FROM THE I’M NOT BELIEVING THIS FILE

You know the feeling you get when you’re working on a project and honestly, the instructions just don’t seem to make any sense, the shape of the project is odd and the whole thing is just …..you know, wrong?   You know how it feels to just continue knitting according to the pattern, because sometimes you just have to trust that it’s going to be OK and everyone will live happily ever after?  Well, yesterday, I’m flying high with the Quick Shawl Collared Shrug, bulldozing on because, like I just said, sometimes you have to trust the designer, no matter how wonky it seems.  My inner knitter kept repeating, “this just doesn’t seem right and this doesn’t make any sense” until I finally (for the umpteenth time) read back over the pattern, somehow noticing, this time, the page order.  Yep, you guessed it.  I knit the entire thing without noticing the pages were out of order.  Page 3 was entirely missed, never noticed it, except that, again, I thought the whole thing was just odd.  Nope, operator error.  So, I sucked it up, frogged the entire thing and restarted, with the pages in the correct order.  Dang, the whole thing makes sense now!  Did I mention that I’m now so paranoid that I’m now obsessively checking page numbers?  Live and learn and remember to check page numbers.

No photos of this debacle, it’s too fresh.  😦

SPIN

Over the last few months, I’ve been seeing a lot of posts about spinning and drooling over the beautiful yarn that’s produced.  I watched a few YouTube videos and decided to give it a try.  I went to Hobby Lobby and found a nice sized round wood thingy, a dowel and some cup hooks, brought it all home, had Mr. Iknead drill a hole in the wood thingy for the dowel and BAM, I have a drop spindle!  I’d bought some roving a while ago with really no plans for it, I thought maybe about doing some felting, but nothing concrete.  This was a good thing because I’m heavily into instant gratifications and always want to do things RIGHT NOW, if not sooner.   Being the proud owner of a drop spindle AND roving, here is a photo of my very first attempt, I’m sure horrendously overspun and whatever else beginners tend to do, but I’m proud just the same.

First Ever Handspun!

I haven’t mentioned to Mr. Iknead (yet) that this is only the beginning of a new obsession, although I suspect he suspects and that my next acquisition may be a sheep, you know, for the wool and all.  Besides, we love animals and it will keep the grass clipped, right?  Oh, and the fertilizer!  I almost forgot about the fertilizer!

LOOKY, LOOKY

I Made This, See My Initials??

Class starts again Monday morning and I’ll be so happy; I’ve really missed the studio and the friends made over the Spring Session.  My head is full of ideas, can’t wait to get back into class and try them out!   I love this stuff!

Kind words are short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.  Mother Teresa

Knitting

Raku

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POTTERING AROUND

Today was the next to last pottery class for the Spring quarter and we tried our hand at raku for the first time, a really neat technique that uses special glazes, a special kiln and the coolest thing of all, putting the pot into a container right out of the kiln lined with newpaper or sawdust so that it flames up and completes the firing.   You have to wear special gear, gloves and something like a welder’s mask to protect yourself from the kiln’s heat, about 1800 degrees F.  You have to use long tongs to handle the pots after firing.  Can you tell I have a little firebug in me?  Here’s my first raku pot –

First Raku, 06/03/13

I’m retaking the Basic Handbuilding class this summer, just to have a good handle on the basics, hopefully to try the pottery wheel in the fall.  So loving this!

It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance, for our consideration and application of these things, and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.  Henry James

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