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!

Oh well.

I completely forgot to take photos of the Christmas presents I made this year, and I was so excited to show them off. I guess you can read that as "show them off IN THEORY" since I don't think anyone is reading this.

Anyway, notes to self: I made a scarf for my mom with the lace pattern here, I think it's called Feathers and Fan or something similar. I gave her a pair of earrings and a jar of lilac and lavender bath salts too. I made my brother a tuxedo t-shirt that I did with cardboard stencils and bleach sprayed onto a black shirt. He's also getting something else that I was too drunk to work on on Christmas Eve. My dad got two jars of marinated olives (recipe not on the internet) and a coffee liqueur that I made by reducing coffee, sugar, and water to a syrup and adding it to brandy.

I got some very nice crafty stuff for Christmas this year, including some canvases, a palette knife, some acrylics, beads, and The Guerilla Art Kit by Keri Smith, which is really cool. I also got a basket to keep my knitting in my living room, some great sock yarn, and a knitting book (do I dare attempt cabling?). My mom gave me a metric buttload of needles, too, so I'm totally stocked. The only thing I'm missing is yarn for all the things I want to do, and that will have to wait. My Christmas money is going straight to my bank account. I have a few projects planned for myself (hooray), like the Shalom cardigan on Ravelry and my long-awaited Noro scarf. I have to finish the dog blanket, too.

In other news, yesterday I ruined my own birthday surprise and discovered that I'm going to get a new digital camera (I have never owned a brand-new one). It turns out well because my old camera got knocked over and broken on Christmas Eve. It was taking really weird photos, too, maybe it was time. Anyway, I'm stoked. I'm going to head down to Future Shop tomorrow and check them out.

I'm finding myself with tons of projects planned, both crafty and otherwise, and I literally don't know where to start! Good thing I have a lot of time on my hands right now.

UGH!

Okay, so I can't give any details here because this is a Christmas present we're talking about, but holy crap, knitting can SUCK sometimes! I knitted last night for roughly 4 hours and when midnight rolled around, what did I have? Nothing. Really. Nothing. Literally zero. I ripped my little heart out. I restarted this morning and things are going much better but JESUS.

Word to my future self: do not jump into a pattern before making sure that you know exactly what everything on the chart means. Even that red box around certain stitches which you completely ignored. And OH YEAH, don't forget to maybe find a photo of a stitch before attempting it!

In short: yarn-overs can bite me!

Anyway, I'll be working on Christmas stuff for the next little while so I'll be adding photos and whatnot after the gifts are given. I'd love to rant and rave some more, but it would ruin the surprise. Also, I couldn't digital-photo-take my way out of paper bag. I have to play with the settings on my camera.