Noro scarf success (almost)

Finally, finally, FINALLY, I went out and bought the rest of that Noro yarn I've been talking about. So my Noro striped scarf is nearing the final stages of its completion.

I knitted a 1x1 rib, like Jared Flood did, and it turned out great. Squishy, no rolling, and it does indeed "plump up" into a stockinette-like fabric, like Jared said. Of course, it's hard to knit a six-foot long strip without some kind of tension issues, so there are a few spots that are wider than the rest, and one edge is perpetually tighter than the other, which I tried to correct as I progressed, but the scarf still has an overall curve to one side. Also, I wish I had chosen colorways with a few brighter and more vivid shades. But on the plus side, I figured out slipped-stitch edging (the trick is to hold the working yarn in front for purlwise and in back for knitwise), and, really, it's a scarf. No one's going to be using it as a ruler down at NASA. A few bumps don't matter, and maybe I can even fix them with a little blocking.

My ongoing projects to-do list

My problem is, I think of great stuff to work on, but it's always while I'm out or away from a notebook or on the bus or whatever. I thought it made sense to make a post with a list of projects I'd like to work on so that the next time I find myself with some free time going "Duuhhhhh, what should I do?", I can find something here.

Knitting

-slipper socks with grey chunky yarn (see pattern in Not Your Mama's Knitting
-Noro scarf
-sweater with white cotton yarn
-iPod sock
-dog blanket

Painting/Collage

-Heartbeat
-Laika
-Supernova/Unfamiliar Sun

Drawing

-Ink drawing (Ghosts, Siobhan Donaghy)

Public art discovery.

One of my favourite things is when I spy some kind of public art while I'm out and about. Last year I started seeing these two stickers on the metro and on lampposts. Recently I found that the two greatest TDs in the history of the universe* were serving as gatekeepers to the park right behind my building. Unfortunately, since then the Ted Danson one (on the right) has been all but ripped off:





They remind me a little bit of those OBEY/Andre the Giant stickers and posters. I like how sneaky they are, and how they just assume a familiarity with pop culture without making any apology for it. In our relationship with pop culture, there is a tendency to offer up a kind of goofy, half-serious veneration and immortalization of icons, especially those that may be well-known but not necessarily widely-hailed. In other words, no one's saying that Ted Danson is Jesus, but there's a kind of affection there that's cheeky and very real. Sometimes you've just got to give props to Who's the Boss, you know?

One of my sources informs me that these are made and put up by a friend of a friend of a friend. Urban legend in the making?

*or at least in the latter half of the twentieth century

Happy belated Dominion Day, ie., moving.

As you may or may not be aware, July 1st is moving day in Quebec. Which means that everybody's lease is up at the same time so you can imagine that it's something like musical chairs for a week or so, if musical chairs involved going down to the liquor commission to score free boxes.

So I've just moved into a new place and have nothing to show you. But this is an entry of things to come! I got a new job and so I'm hoping to get down to the yarn store and pick up some supplies in a few weeks.

Well, I guess I could show you some pictures of the lovely plants I'm growing on my enormous balcony. Seriously, it's huge.

These were all planted about three or four weeks ago, and they were little scrawny plantlings then. I get tons of sun and we've had lots of rain lately, so they look great (except for the basil, which I'm not showing because I believe I am killing it without meaning to. Forecasts call for a high chance of pesto in the next 3-5 days).

Cherry tomatoes and pepper:



Thyme, chives, and mint:



Parsley:



(not pictured: pathetic basil)

A few pictures

I should preface this with a note: I don't, in any way, consider myself a photographer or even a possessor of knowledge about photography, digital or otherwise. Any nice picture I manage to get is pure, blind, luck. I mean, I'm familiar with some concepts about composition, but mainly I go by my aesthetic sense, which may be lacking and undertrained. So by posting photos here, I'm not saying "Wow! These photos r awesum guys, I am going to go do a black and white self-portrait at an interesting angle." They're just pictures that I took and happen to like. Let me put it this way - I know a lot more about knitting than I do about photography, and considering that my greatest woollen achievements so far have been a few scarves and a giant orange square, that's not saying much.

Anyway, these are from the cottage last weekend. The sky was a little overcast, but mostly sunny, so I have no idea how the colouring in these came to be. Maybe I had it accidentally set on sepia or something. I'd like to print these and frame them to hang up, to remind me of the lake even when I have to be in the city.







I particularly like the last one. It's kind of creepy.

Back in action (blanket action, anyway)

I haven't updated in, oh, a few months, but it's been really busy, what with final projects and exams and graduation and all that.

Anyway, I finally finished the orange blanket for the SPCA:



Cat is included once again for scale, and to demonstrate that it's apparently already feline-approved. I guess this means I'll need to wash it before I bring it in so that it doesn't look gently used, what with the cat hairs and all.

So that's one down, ? to go. The next one will probably be white, and I'll probably be knitting on slightly larger needles. This one was done on 4.5mm, I think. I don't want it to be too loose, in case it falls apart more easily or isn't as warm, but I'd like it to go a little faster than the first one did. Once I use up the white stuff, I might have to do some stripes or some patchwork-style, since I won't have enough balls of the same colour to make a whole blanket. There might be one in neon yellow, pink, green, and orange stripes - I'm looking forward to it.

Anyway, that's pretty much all that I've done in the last couple of months. Next on the docket, aside from the blanket, is a pair of socks, assuming I can manage to get them started without losing an eye or throwing the whole thing down in a rage (which has already happened once or twice).

Unfinished

This evening I busted out the paints on a whim.



The original idea was something totally different. Lots of oranges and reds and explosions and whatnot. But when I did the sky, I liked the intense blue so much that I left it. It still needs something, though, and I'm not sure what. It strikes me that the horizon should be a little lower if it was to stand on its own the way it is... so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. I just know it would be a shame to cover that blue too much. I might end up doing a modification of my original idea. That's the beauty of acrylics. I can leave it for now and come back to it later and no harm done.

I've hung it up in my living room just so I can catch glances of it every now and again and maybe figure how to finish it.

Some thoughts on journaling

In the last couple of weeks I've discovered that I have a few regular readers of this blog among my friends, which surprised me. I mean, I put a link in my Facebook profile, but it never really occurred to me that anyone would actually visit it! So I apologize in advance to you for the following post, which will probably be kind of boring to anyone but me. Since this is a craft blog, I thought I'd take some free time of a Friday evening and work out some thoughts on journals, scrapbooks, and the differences between them.

This will probably sound crazy, but the mention of scrapbooking makes me uncomfortable. The topic came up during work a few days ago, so I had to visit all these scrapbooking sites, and something was bugging me about it. I think I've figured out that it bothers me because I can't quite figure out the distinctions between journaling, scrapbooking, keeping a diary, etc., and it should be said right now that I'm the kind of person who likes to have clear definitions of things, if only for my own benefit. I like things to have a specific purpose. This blog is for art and craft-related things only. My journal is a record of my life that is ongoing. The scrapbook I'm working on for my baby cousin is dedicated to her birthday. So here, for the sake of posterity and figuring-things-out, are the distinctions between the two, as I see them:

From what I can tell, to make a scrapbook you take photos and papers and other meaningful things and glue them to pages and decorate the pages. Also, it seems to be that scrapbooks are dedicated to a single event or span of time, like Our Wedding, Winter 2009, or Baby's First Year. They are designed to be a complete work from the beginning, or at least only record a limited time span. For lack of a better word, they have a unified theme. Before scrapbooking as we know it came into vogue, with all the fancy stickers and decorations you can buy in sets, I thought of a scrapbook as a place where you would keep related news clippings on a certain topic, or photos of your favourite celebrity, or pictures that your kid drew.

The point is that it's thematic, short-term, and conceived as a complete entity or work of art. Like a book-length collage dedicated to one thing. Also, a scrapbook is somewhere you could keep things from the past, from your childhood or teen years, for example. I wouldn't put those things into my journal, which brings me to...

While scrapbooks are themed, short-termed, and complete, journals are ongoing and more all-encompassing. Before I go any further, I'm going to stop and say that of course journals can be themed. You can have a journal dedicated to your trip to China, your garden, the books you read, the Tarot card readings you do, whatever. But journals generally don't have a preconceived end, and if they do, it tends to be a larger time span, such as a year. In my case, at least, I would be more likely to record my week-long trip to New York as a scrapbook rather than a journal, and my two-year journey to Australia as a journal. I see a journal as a way to record the progress of something. I'd have a hard time seeing how you could have a scrapbook of your garden, unless it was specified in a way, like a record of your garden in summer 2009 or the garden you used to have at your old house. If you kept an ongoing book for your garden that was mostly photos and little clippings and short notes, I'd be more inclined to call it a journal than a scrapbook, even if it contained relatively little writing.

Still, though, I think that the heart of the distinction is in the intent of the undertaking. Journals can have photos and ticket stubs and drawings and whatever else glued into them, and scrapbooks can contain pages of thoughts and reflections, but ultimately the purpose is different. The scrapbook is meant to cover a certain event or relatively short-term time span and serve as a repository for memory and reminiscing, where a journal is meant to be continuous, ongoing, and a record of thoughts and ideas more than a place to be keep good memories.

Obviously, there's lots of overlap between the two categories. You could have a journal that contains a section which is more scrapbook-like, and indeed my own journal is a blend of writing, drawings, and little bits and pieces of things glued in (although I never include photos - that's a whole other post). And just as obviously, these are just my own working definitions to appease my desire to catalogue and classify. You might disagree. What I call my journal you might call a scrapbook.

It's kind of funny how much thought I put into these subjects sometimes. I've always loved keeping journals of things, or keeping books for whatever reason, but I always hated the idea of having too many of them and fragmenting them too much. I'm not comfortable with the idea of having a separate art and sketch book, written journal, book for lists, etc. I can manage separate journals for things like exercise or food, but as far as the personal stuff goes, I like to have a single book to carry around. I guess the best way to think of it is that I prefer to have one general journal for everyday life, and smaller journals dedicated to very specific subjects as I need them.

If anyone has stuck with me through all of that, feel free to comment with your own thoughts and definitions, or if you think my logic doesn't make any sense (be nice!).

I'd like to take some photos of journal pages sometime soon and post them, but I've been neglecting my daily drawings. Over the Christmas break I filled something like 40 pages in my current book, and since then I've hardly written or drawn anything. I think I'll be trying a little more collage, too. I've been collecting bits of paper and things for awhile now.

I'm planning on tacking that little project codenamed Heartbeat soon. First I need to get some potatoes or something to make some stamps. More soon (I hope).

What's that coming over the hill?

I haven't really worked on anything recently, since last week was lousy with schoolwork and I was away this past weekend, but I have two new ideas brewing, codenames Heartbeat and Laïka.*

Since I have nothing crafty to show you, here's a photo from my weekend near Shawinigan:



The sky is much bluer there, as you can see.

*I don't normally codename anything, least of all my casual artwork, but in this case it helps me remember what the idea actually is.

It's Friday night, my back still hurts...

...but I spent a couple of hours last night knitting my blanket and watching Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel on Youtube. I have to admit that as much as I love my Anne Shirley, knitting while watching really helps. It's not the most action-packed movie I've ever seen. There's a good ten minutes of Anne and Diana chasing a cow through the a field. Sure, it's accompanied by some rousing fiddled cow-chasin' music, but still, TEN MINUTES.

Anyway, I think I may attempt a pair of socks tonight. I've reading up on the Magic Loop method and I'm intrigued.

And then there's this:



Sometimes the sunset makes the view from my bedroom window pretty decent.

Decreased mobility (in a literal sense, of course)

I've been laid up for the last two days with a put-out back, but thanks to my wireless internet I can still do most of the schoolwork I need to, and I actually have more time, so who's to say this isn't a blessing, really? Aside from the fact that I have a hard time putting on underwear and sitting down to pee, everything's peachy.

Anyway, my point is that I foresee a large spike in the amount of time spent knitting in the near future. I'm still working on that garter stitch dog blanket, so luckily I can work while watching Youtube clips of Whose Line is it Anyway and not worry about messing up the pattern.

I was looking through this book called Not Your Mother's Knitting or somesuch (I don't actually have it on hand), and found a nice little pattern for cabled slipper-socks. Boy, I can't wait until I can afford nice yarn.


footnote: I fully realize that saying "laid up" makes me sound like I time-traveled here from the amazing year 1935.

Increased mobility

I was reading up on sea glass this afternoon, because I have literally bagfuls of the stuff and I really don't know what to do with it. Someone somewhere was showing decorative stuff they made, and I remembered this mobile I'd seen in a craft book I have, made out of coat hangers, wire, and paper. I figured I could modify it. Unfortunately, my wire cutters couldn't get through the coat hanger wire, but I have some thick silver stuff that worked pretty well. I took only pieces that are porcelain/opaque. I don't really have anywhere to hang it, which is why I took this photo in my bathroom:



I'm pleased. I have to say that I'm not really a fan of wire wrapping sea glass, as I find it can look a too New-Age-shop-ish or overly cute, and it tends to conceal the natural jaggedness of the glass (if the piece is rough to begin with), but because my wire wrapping skills are minimal, I think it turned out okay. I particularly like the piece in the middle; it gives it a nice toothy, pointy look and severely reduces the twee. I think I'm going to make another one out of brass wire and porcelain.

I have plans to do something with the really big pieces I have, the ones that still kind of look like garbage because they're not completely smooth or are still shaped like a bottle or whatever. I also have plans for three necklaces, one with the Fire King semi-opaque green stuff, one with porcelain pieces that still has designs/paint on them, and one with milk glass, but I really don't want to wire wrap, so I'm going to wait until I have the time and extra cash to play with bezels and soldering. I'll take pictures of my collection sometime.

I also whipped up some jewelry with beads that i got in my Christmas stocking:



My camera is tough to figure out. I can't seem to get it to focus properly on closer shots like the one above, even when I put it on the special close-up setting. And when I can get it to focus, the colour tends to get really red and bright when I don't use the flash. I tried to retake this photo but like I said, it wouldn't focus, so, yeah, big ol' flash spot.

Now to clean like I meant to do three hours ago.

Blanket update

Remember the blanket I'm making for the SPCA? I finally picked it up a week or so ago and I've made some decent progress*:



That's after (almost) three skeins of bright orange acrylic. I've got to say, it's extremely soft, squishy, and comfortable-seeming.

This weekend I kind of learned how to knit British-style (or "the right way", as my grandmother would say). I'm very slow, my tension is too tight, and I still prefer continental, but learning must count for something, right?

*cat included for scale

Chaos will always triumph over order; it is the way of things.

My brother was visiting over the Christmas break, and a few weekends ago he came home bearing DVDs of Reboot, the very first full-length all-CGI TV show, which we used to watch obsessively as kids. We spent a Saturday night watching old episodes, and I have to admit that it holds up surprisingly well. I actually laughed out loud a few times. I see it differently now from when I was younger (more sex jokes, mostly), but one thing has stayed the same: Hexadecimal and her power of AWESOME.

Well, I guess that's not entirely true, since most of the sex jokes center around her ("I think she likes being tied up!"). Still, that only makes her more AWESOME to my grown-up self.

So anyway, I also re-discovered this little website called A Minor Glitch, which used to be run by a talented chick called MG. It hasn't been updated in several years, but the whole site is still up and accessible. She seems to be the queen of Reboot-related crafts (admittedly a niche market), and she came up with the Hex Nut Earrings. I got inspired and tried it myself:



They turned out okay, not bad for my first attempt at shrink plastic. I covered the basic emotions - happy, sad, angry, intrigued, and joyful rage. Unfortunately the loop on the angry face broke off, so I'll have to redo that one. I'll probably redo the sad face too, the colour got a little muddy. I left out the actual hex nut part of the earring, so they're not quite like the original, but still, I'm pleased. See, I even made an odd number of them. Of earrings. Which normally come in pairs. How... chaotic.

So wherever you are, MG, thanks for leaving your website up, and thanks for the seeing the crafting potential where others might only see a pun.

Says Hexadecimal: "Who made me look like this? I like it!"

I'm pleased to announce my triumphant return to photo-taking!

So yesterday I finally snagged my new camera. It was $10 off, and it was the last one they had in stock, too. Everything was coming up Milhouse! I got a Nikon Coolpix S210. Like a good little Capricorn I read the manual last night and played with it a little today. There's a ton of modes and settings and options, but thankfully it's pretty easy to just click-flash-here-have-a-photo. In light of that, I went around my apartment experimenting and taking better pictures of some old projects I've already posted. First, the old stuff:

Here are those photograms I did in my art class and hung on my wall back in September. It was probably a little too hasty - I didn't mount them very well and they're kind of wrinkly and un-smooth. Oh well.







Here's that collage I mentioned that I made out of CD liner notes, currently on my bedroom wall:



And here are some shots of that ink drawing I posted way back at the beginning of the blog, when I had to use the camera on my Macbook. I started it in Gaspé in the August of 2007 and finished it over the next few months. You can probably see the words I based it around.



"Must not sleep,"



"must warn others."



The words are from "Commencement at the Obedience Academy", by Aesop Rock.

And now the new stuff:

This is what Kyle painted when we took my new acrylics for a test run. He very graciously let me hang it on my wall. I particularly like the funny 70s sunset at the top and the little round window-y part underneath it. The colours are more vivid in person, it was just bright in my apartment when I took the photo.



Here's a necklace that I don't think I've posted yet. I bought a bracelet at H&M that had these great little origami crane charms, but I never wore it because the charms were always clinking on my desk while I wrote and it drove me crazy. So I got a length of chain and some jump rings and made this lariat necklace. I still don't really wear it, but it's more because I haven't figured out the best way to put it on. I might turn it into a regular necklace eventually.



This is my first attempt at a tuxedo t-shirt for my brother (see last post). It failed. I guess it's a little punk rock, what with the splatters of bleach and fuzzy design, but, well, eh. I kept it to sleep in. It's huge.



Here's a top I made last summer from an idea in a book on refashioning old clothes. I had this ugly, paint-y Episode I t-shirt that was too big, so I made it into not-quite-halter-ish tank top. It's really comfortable and it looks awesome under a cardigan. I just wish it wasn't Episode I.



And this is a Presidents of the United States of America t-shirt that was also way too big. Again, I followed a pattern (if you can call it that) from the same book, but I'm not really crazy about how it turned out. The front doesn't drape very well, though I like how I tied the straps.



I'm not sure why this shot went all crazy glowing coals red, maybe it was the sun and the combination of red shirt on red sheet. Anyway, if you can't see, I cut the back up the middle, cut strips into both sides, then tied the strips into knots. Neat idea, but I didn't really measure, so the two sides aren't even, and also it looks kind of funny when I put it on. Maybe some wear and tear and lots of washing would soften the shirt up, I don't know.



Anyway, there's a Whole Whack O'Photos. I'm hoping to get the rest of my Noro yarn soon, so maybe I'll have some knitting to show off.

Oh, I almost forgot. This is two of the four balls of Noro Silk Garden that I need for the scarf. It's very pretty.

Post-festivities post.

Still no luck on the camera. I've been to Best Buy and Future Shop a few times to go bargain-chasing, but everything is always sold out by the time I get there. At this point I'm willing to just wait a couple of weeks and try again when they've got everything in stock again. I'll have a couple of things to show you, too. Kyle and I broke in my new acrylics and did a couple of paintings last week. I just got some canvases for my birthday, too, and I'd really like to do some more painting. I don't know much about it and I'd like to learn.

I have a few things I'd like to get done, too, since Christmas is over. I think it's time to finally bust out the new (to me) sewing machine and do a couple of things that I've had lying around forever. I also need to get down to the yarn store and pick up some more Silk Garden so I can get this Noro scarf started.

But it's back to class tomorrow (today?). That's the first priority I guess!