this, that, the other thing...

January's been a month of catching up,  weaving in the the loose ends from 2012 and making lists of all the new projects and ideas I want to get going on.  It seems like all I do is notice opportunities to make, to try new crafts, or learn new skills. Like this workshop Saturday:

detail for this workshop and one on Monday making recycled scarves, on her website

with Crispina Ffrench, in Pittsfield/Shire City, Massachusetts. Crispina is one of our Craft Activism subjects. You really should check her out- she does all kinds of cool things in her studio with recycled sweaters and Tshirts. An old felted sweater is just raw material to her.  Being at her studio was one of those photo shoots where I spent the whole time jerking my head around in circles, trying to take in all the details, textures, colors and handcrafted beauty. Like her GIGUNDO potholder-style looms, above.

I myself have a Photography for Knitters class coming up at The Village Knitter in Babylon NY, you may know one of the proprietors, Ann of Purling Swine.  The workshop is Saturday Feb 2nd 12:30 to 4:30. . There are only 3-4 seats left, so if you're near "the Island", join us! I know, it is also Ice Cream for Breakfast Day, but that has to happen before noon--see? no conflict.

Lastly,  the finished (refinished) version of Cadence that I've been wearing all the time.  Don't you always have one sweater that becomes the sweatshirt sweater? The default one to wear if you don't need to look especially spiffed? I  last mentioned my Cadence problems in late 2011. I reknit in time for Rhinebeck this year, and threw it on to get a shot on my backdrop - posed dorkily and unflatteringly.

Though I wear it a lot and adore the earthy (and softened with wear) Cascade Eco Wool , I'm going to say that a big wide neckline and bracelet length sleeves (when, um, the shoulders are on my shoulders) are not ideal in our damp drafty New Englandy winter, it's drafty. It does leave room for me to layer on a scarf . Which I guess, for a knitter, that's a good thing.
(and to be fair to the designer, she showed it in heavy cotton. Even more sweatshirty. Loved the pattern though, regardless of drafty neck. Quick and fun knit.)

in which

My most reluctant model shows you the most whack gift to leave my hands in a while. My nephew requested  "one of those hats  with earflaps long enough for hand  pockets".
 
So I made one.  Dave truly hates to model, especially something as unsubtle as this.
 
Except it actually turned out kind of cool.  Plus, I said Bobo could be in the photos. Because, you know, nothing enhances an improvised crocheted earflap hat with recycled sweater pockets more than an American Bulldog.
 
I am particularly pleased with the pockets. They're the cuffs of an old felted sweater, cut open and upside down. The whole shebang is crocheted around with some Cascade Eco. It pulled it all together.* 
I started with the Vida Chullo pattern, sorta, kinda, and then winged it from there.** The yarns are Cascade Eco Wool in a few colors (the light turquoise main color, and the dark red, and the brown outline. There's also some nice gray and some purple alpaca , brown Valley Yarn Berkshire, and other odds & ends.It gives Dave a kind of old surfer hippy look. Which is pretty much his style anyway, minus the surfing, minus the old (don't let the white  beard fool you).  It's really comfy. The pockets will fit my tall nephew just right. The usual 18-22 year olds who can be found here weekends actually approved. Huh. Who woulda thought? Had to show  those pockets again. I'm dying to use more of that felted sweater and make myself some mittens with the same edging.

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* Yes, that is a  The Big Lebowski reference. Tell me the Dude wouldn't wear this hat thingy?
** I crocheted because it goes super fast, and I figured I'd be doing lots of ripping back. Which is so much easier in crochet than in knitting.  My crochet skills, though, are kind of naive.

PS. I tried to do this as a 15 minute blog burst. Ha! Not even close. It takes me that long to decide which photos to use, and another 15 to clean up my spelling & grammar mistakes.

the recycled owly craft activism party

I'm trying something new: Photo Heavy Monday. Yeah, I know it's not alliterative and cute. I'll work on that. Meanwhile, let's kick it with the Craft Activism booksigning & craft party at Brooklyn General Store.

 
Caitlin is our email pal and editor's assistant and most importantly, a crafter extraordinaire.
 

 
In which author Joan Tapper realizes the Sharrow sweater is just her size, but can't bear to remove her Hot Stuff apron- both of which are conveniently Craft Activism projects. If you want them, too.
 
 Heather, far right, came up with the owly project, inspired by the section on recycled crafting.
  
Joan shows the Ocelot scarf, a pattern in Craft Activism.
 
Our Tech Editor Dorothy Orzel, with one of her former fashion design students.

 
Above, what happens when a professional accessories designer gets crafting.
 
This one's by Arline, my Imperial Cookies baker friend. She brought us ginger snaps.

Kay Gardiner 's owly. We expected mitered wings. 

 
Mother daughter owls from my sister Marla McLean & niece, Ariana. 
 
 
It turns out sisters craft alike, too.
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There are a few more photos of owly crafting over on my Flickr stream. The owly project was dreamt up by Brooklyn General, inspired by Crispina ffrench's work in the book. More about Brooklyn General over on the Craft Activism blog.

off on a tangent

Hipstamatically presented.  (Thanks, Kristin , for the challenge).

 

Seeing as I work from a home office, my tea breaks are very important. An excuse to stand up and walk downstairs! And distraction!  We all have our little routines; mine is strong coffee from 6 am till noon, after that it's tea all the way, baby. In the winter, my house is chilly and my office even chillier, so it's not just the mental break but the warmup, and making it last till I get to the bottom of the mug.  Which is how I found myself googling : "tea mug cozies". I realized how insane it is for someone with yarn, felted sweaters and just plain old stuff around to be even thinking about buying a tea mug cozy, so I got busy.

 

That's right, my tea mug has Barbara Walter waterskiing on it. Ugly! But it has fabulous volume, a nice big handle, and sentimental value. It was an audience souvenir when I took my mom & my aunt to see The View, (VIP seats) a rare outing for them together in the city they grew up in.

 

Here they are, holding their mug boxes post taping.2009.

  

But back to my little project. Not exactly brain surgery. I cut a length of sleeve from a felted old black sweater, measured from the cuff up. I cut it open by the seam, and blanket stitched around the three raw sides.

 

I hit the button tin to make a loop & button closure, measured to give my mug some negative ease. (yes, I did just say that). Then I  left it on a table with the tin of tangled crewel thread. Whenever I passed by, I stitched a little. I attribute this to meeting Jenny Hart last year. She gave me a serious jones to rediscover my embroidery licks. 

 

With a lot of wonk, it all came back. Daisy stitch ! Running backstitch ! Split stitch !

Of course none of this is necessary, strictly speaking, you could just cut a piece of felted sweater, add a closure and walla.  But that would not make tea break any fun, would it?

• • • • • • • • • • •

As much as Jenny Hart inspires me with her embroidery, and Kristin with her use of color and design,  Crispina ffrench inspires me to think about the possibilities with recycled sweaters. She's selling some awesome kits to make mittens out of recycled sweaters. More sophisticated than mine,(scroll to the bottom of that linked post if you want to see 'em) which I'm still loving.

 I sort of wish I wasn't off on a sweater knitting binge right now, because look at this tutorial to make a chipmunk  out of a recycled spare glove. Bobo would just explode if I made him one . Wool ! Squirrel !!

But who wants to clean up exploded bulldog, anyway?

rollover craft minutes

 

A gift for my niece, who requested a really warm hat with a huge pompom.  Modeled not by my niece but by Leo, who was home for break and apparently is past the stage where he cares if people see him in front of the house wearing a hat with a ridiculously large pompom.

pattern: A Really Warm Hat from Melissa LaBarre (conveniently named, no?)

yarn: Araucania Coliumo (wool/silk blend) in gold-ish,  and a strand of thin fuzzy brown mohair (ballband long gone) carried along for fun

needles: size 13 us

comments: It's knit longer than the pattern, both for style, and for my niece's big head with major hair.

 

With the right attitude, it seems this could be a dude hat. I have to confess I kind of wanted to keep this one. But I might have trimmed the pompom down

 

An attempted Leaf  scarf for sister Marla, who would have liked it if it had come out as I imagined, and not like this.  Again Araucania Coliumo, which is somehow too silky-shiney and maybe too soft, to create well defined leaves. Or, maybe I should have seen it through, and blocked it, but we'll never know, will we?  Ripped, to become

Pattern: ZigZag Cowl by Mandy Powers

yarn: Araucania Coliumo

needles: size 13 us

Comments: This yarns is much bulkier than Mandy's original,  I worked out the gauge & stitch count for a 23 " circumference.  Only a zig-zag-zi before the picot bindoff. I was nervous about running out of my single skein of yarn but had plenty left . It could easily have been a zigzagzigzag sort of deal.

No worries, it was plenty tall.

 

Excuse the wretched photo, it was freeeeezing out

Don't you love the picot edge at this weight of yarn? Funny story: I mailed it all gift wrapped up. I didn't exactly say what it was, only that it should be handwashed. Marla wears the handmades with appreciation & enthusiasm. She put it on her head as a kind of open topped hat thing, and wore it like this all day

(phonecam evidence ) until dinner, when her family  questioned whether it might not belong elsewhere on her body, and she called me laughing so hard she couldn't talk. 

I said, yeah, it was a winter tube top. You GO girl.

My bookgroup long ago declared December a no book potluck dinner  & craft night. We choose a simple project every year, this one was decorating notebooks. I walked in and announced I was too frazzled to even think about collage, I was going to just eat & knit, to relax.

 20 seconds later I'd grabbed a red notebook, sloshing gesso onto it. Some years less is more, and some years, more is more....

. 

Oh come on, Einstein and a smoking troll and I think Hindi numbers tissue paper? Irresistible.

 

Someone commented on how...lively.. my front cover was. I had to do the back, with restraint. In this light I see it can use a final even coat of gesso,it doesn't show as darker splotches to the naked eye.

New mittens! I've been thinking about making recycled sweater mitts for years. Literally. I had a dense, tragically felted  charcoal wool sweater in the box of hoarded selectively saved-for-upcycling woolens. When the snow started to pile up last week, I finally cut a pair of mitt shapes, using the sweater's roll edge hem as the cuffs. I blanket stitched them together, raw edges out, wrong sides together. That is it. Crazy easy. If I was a perfectionist, I'd call these protoype and make another pair, more smoothly shaped on the curves  and evenly stitched.

 

But I'm not, and these are making me insanely happy. Next pair may be reversibly lined with second color of felted sweater. With decorative pompoms or buttons. Maybe more is more here, too?

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Happy 2011, what are you making?