sew what

I ran into my former sewing instructor this weekend, and when she asked me the inevitable "have you been sewing anything?" question, I hung my head in shame and mumbled something about my whole ridiculous pile of intended projects. It inspired me to get my butt in gear & do some of the small projects that have been on my "to do" list.

This long tubular thingy is a plastic grocery bag dispenser ala Dioramarama....

It's so simple, but genius. I made it with this vintage fabric that I scored in New Paltz. In hindsight, maybe that wasn't the best idea since I intend on making a skirt out of it too. And it's maybe a little weird to have a skirt that matches your grocery bag dispenser, but whatevs.

I also made this draft-keeper-outer (which I'm sure has a much more official name) for my friend Doc. It was just the perfect project to use the sock monkey faces on.

I also finished knitting one of my socks, which I will not bore you with. It's a bit anti-climactic to show one finished sock when you still have a whole other one to make.

be still my heart.

Sorry to be cliche, but a knitted sock in progress always looks best next to a purring kitty. And since I don't have one at home, I had to take this opportunity.

You can see how impressed Snagglepuss is with my Hedera.

I also finally got around to getting a snapshot of this beauty...

I acquired it a few months ago & I'm still in the process of cleaning it. (Just taking it out of my trunk took me a good two weeks) My brother found it for me in a garage full of things to be disposed of at my grandparents house which was up for sale. It was my grandmothers.

I have no memories of my grandmother as a crafter but my aunts show me pictures of them in dresses she had sewn. I have no idea how the mechanics of it work but I'm not even sure I'll ever actually use it. I just think it's magnificent to look at & it holds some magical quality for me. I imagine it holds some of my grandmother's secrets.

the hits just keep on coming

When I said I was using my snow days to do knitting, I was NOT messin' around. I finished another stashbuster by way of knitting "Matador" from Knitscene, Fall 2006 issue.
This should have been a reallllly quick knit, except I took it apart one and a half times before deciding I wasn't just crazy & the pattern was missing something. So if you are thinking of knitting it, may I strongly suggest you check the corrections?

I used a vintage button for the closure that I got from Year of the Goat. I wish my digital camera didn't suck so bad so I could show you all how beautiful this button is.
Right after the seams were sewn in, I cast on a pair of Hedera socks from Knitty that I am lovin'. I'm using up some of the left over yarn from my Orangina. They've grown a great deal since this blurry attempt at a photo.

At present, I've already turned the heel on the first sock. I really did not ever expect to become a sock knitter, but after making my first pair I discovered that I loved wearing them soo much, it was starting to get unhealthy to wear them as much as I wanted to. I blame my friend Heather for starting this addiction. And now I find myself mulling over several sock patterns.

I have a lot of other things on my mind & in the works, so I expect to be having more of these regular updates in the near future.

Snowy day is a crafty day

It's a snowy day here in Albany & I am loving it up! No school plus I find myself being snowed in with some of my favorite people- being Abdulla, Doc & Milez. Of course, hilarity and crafting ensued. And I have another finished project to share!

This is my version of the "Dogwood Donna" pattern from Knitscene Spring 2007. I love love love it! I think it's got a vintagey(?) feel to it. As I think I already mentioned, I only wish I had made it a bit longer, but oh well.

(Excuse the blurry picture by the way. The bathroom was the best lighting I could get.) This was a pretty quick knit. I'm not sure exactly how long it took me because I just worked on it here & there in classes, but no more than two weeks at that pace.

The back is without a doubt my favorite part of this sweater. The finishing required a little bit of crocheting and it has been a long time since I've picked up my hooks.

I'm also going to gush about the color for a minute here, which is pretty damn accurate in these photos. I LOVE this yarn. I scored it at the Rhinebeck sheep & wool festival with intentions for a different project. I still have a bunch of it left to make something else too.

And last, but certainly not least is this piece of amazingness...

My friend Milez made it for Abdulla & I for Valentine's Day. It's pretty much the best gift ever (aside from the gift of being snowed in with both Milez & Dulla). Just about anyone who knows me knows how much I love trees & images of trees. And Milez is one of my favorite artists.

I'm a lucky gal.

Slow on the uptake

So remember these socks that I started in November? Yeah, I know. Not so much. Well, anyway, I finally finished them!! Ummm..about a month ago (there hasn't been much blogging time in my world).But weeeeee!!! First pair of finished socks!!

And then there is this work in progress that I planned to show you all about two weeks ago...

...but now I'm pretty much done with it. Just gotta sew on a button & take some pictures. Hopefully it won't take me a whole month to post the finished product. But it's way cute (although a little shorter than I'd prefer) and I didn't put that big ol' flower on it cuz that's just not how I roll.

The Art of New Orleans

Ever since my friend Max moved to Cali, he's been posting awsome tidbits on the happenings around his way-the hip hop, the food, the events. But I think I appreciate the posts of random graffiti he finds the most. I just love graffiti. And I love getting to know a new city by checking out what it's street artists have to say. So I decided to share some of what I came across when I was in New Orleans last month.

This is the shoe of one of the cats from ACORN. He thought I was crazy for taking a picture, but I just thought it was awesome.

There was pretty good representation going down on the trains that were nearby the place we were staying. Unfortunately we mostly saw them at night though, so I don't have many pictures of that.

The factory across the street from the one we called "home" for the week.

Bathroom of the coffee shop we would frequent. It made my heart swell up to see this a bit. I don't know; there's just something so child-like and honest about it.

This was posted on a board in the Bywater section & I thought it was interesting for two reasons. One-the only other stencils I saw were in the Bywater neighborhood & they said things like "U.S. out of the Bywater." Second-everyone we spoke with hated Nagin at this stage of the game. From what we were told he sold the people down the river & has instead used his re-election to focus on corporate interests. You know, that old dumb rationale that "what's good for the economy is good for the people."

These pieces were in the St. Bernard Parish. They were especially poignant because right now, like many other neighborhoods in New Orleans, people are fighting for the right to return to their own homes. Over 5,000 units of public housing are due to be demolished despite the fact that many of them are repairable & so many people are still displaced.

This one in particular shows the St. Bernard projects, where families are just now starting to be allowed into their apartments to salvage some of their belongings. After the evacuation, large barb-wired fences were put up around the entire complex & families were not allowed to return. On MLK day, hundreds of people occupied the complex & protested for their right to return.

There really wasn't half as much graffiti as I was hoping for. The people of New Orleans have a lot to say and it's mostly being ignored. My mind was racing the whole time I was there with visions of how their emotions could be expressed visually. But mostly every where you went the only spray paint you came across was grimly reminding you of the search parties that came way too late.

Regardless of whether or not they were currently occupied, just about every home & building had these X's sprayed on them. A reminder of the date a crew finally got around to their home. Or TFW for "toxic flood water." Or 2 bodies found. Or dates almost a month & a half after the storm, where animals were found DOA (Dead On Arrival).And pleas. Soo many pleas just saying, "we are coming back," "this is still our home," or "we will rebuild." And I guess, in some ways, that was their graffiti. Their decleration of a community worth fighting for. No fancy colors needed.

Hello, stranger.

My my, it's been a long time. My first semester of grad school took up a whole lot of my time. Oh, I still crafted. But there was no time for a proper blogging about it.

I finished my 6 week sewing class. The projects I have to show for it seem kind of plain and minimal in comparison to all of the things I learned. I learned some great hand sewing techniques, which actually greatly improves my enjoyment of the task. (If I can manage to take better pictures, I'll share the techniques I learned for those interested) I learned a great deal about my machine & a whole lot about the magic & importance of prep work in sewing.

Our first project was a pillow & pillow cover. Simple, but enjoyable.

Then we did a lined tote bag. The end result is pretty nice actually, but I wasn't a fan of the project. It was a lot of work to get it to fit properly & I'm not enough of a fan of bags to justify that kind of work. But I must say, I still learned a lot & have a great appreciation for those that do make bags so well.

Our last project was a wrap skirt. And thanks to my fabric purchasing, I learned about the skill of making the most of a piece of fabric when you've bought juuuuuussst enough (but barely). It's a little big, but I love it anyway. And as silly as it sounds, my favorite thing about it is that it has pockets. I think everything should have pockets.

Note: you'll have to excuse my picture taking. You should know that I don't even own a full-length mirror. Thus, photos like this need to be taken in the laundry room of my building in quick spurts so as not to appear like a crazed ego maniac to the other tenents.

This is a better shot of the colors though...

...with my new boots, which by the way..ahem, also have pockets.

Of course there was also holiday crafting to be done. I started making fabric ornaments like the ones my mom made for our tree when I was a kid. I always liked those best. But for reasons I won't go into now, I didn't end up giving them to anyone this year. So instead they are going into the fund of christmas crafts for next year.

But I did make myself some fabulous soft trees for my apartment, using the pattern by Little Birds. I love everything this woman makes. They are so simple, but beautiful & gratifying.

I also knit my brother a cabled hat around thanksgiving, as modeled below by my nephew. It's the "Basic Cable" hat from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation. You can't even really see it very well in the photo, but seriously..with a face this cute, who cares about a damn hat?!