NaNoBlogMo 23 - Using "Leftovers"

I am a pack-rat. I have a hard time getting rid of anything. I am terrified that the moment I let something go I might end up needing it. This does end up being helpful sometimes. For example, I happened to have a spare single shoelace (the other broke and when I got new ones I couldn't rationalize throwing away an unbroken shoelace) which I was able to use to tie the battery pack for the musical skulls to my belt for my Mystique costume.

Yarn is one of those things that I just can't bring myself to get rid of. If when I am done with a project, the leftover yarn can make a ball bigger than a pingpong ball, I can't just throw it away. Often these bits and bobs can sit for a long time, but they can come in handy. I made a rather insane scarf for my friend Claire using many different leftover bits of yarn. If the main project is big enough, the leftover yarn can end up becoming its own project. Or in the case of my Lizard Ridge Blanket, two. Now, when I say the leftover yarn was enough to make two more projects, I don't mean the extra skeins of yarn (that ended up going to make the Paintbox blanket I made for my parents anniversary). I mean the pieces that were leftover from the 33 skeins I used to make 33 squares in China. Most left me with a pingpong or so ball of leftover yarn in a wide range of colors.

My first idea with how I could use the leftover bits of yarn was to make a scarf. It was just about Christmas time and I figured I could make a "leftovers" scarf for my mother and send it to her as a gift. It would also give me an excuse to knit something other than squares for my blanket. I unraveled all my bits and tried to connect them in a way that made some sort of coherent color scheme. You can see the scarf's color changes clearest above, but since my mother showed up to have her picture taken wearing the scarf like you see here on the right, I had to share that one too.

I was a bit worried that my mother wouldn't like the scarf as I hadn't seen her wear anything like it before, but she assured me that she does like it. Its a bit psychedelic with its odd color changes, but that is apparently my knitting style if my Ridiculous Scarf is any indication. I also like that this scarf is like a bastard cousin to my Lizard Ridge blanket. I ended up using up all of my leftover bits I had at the moment to make the scarf.

However, I knitted more squares and ended up with more yarn leftovers. That's when I came up with another idea. The yarn is 100% wool and I hadn't really done much felting before, so I thought I would try to make a felted guitar strap. In a more obvious homage to my blanket, I cobbled together a version of the Lizard Ridge wavey pattern and once again knitted all the leftovers that I had. I tossed what I made into a pillow case and ran it through the washer and dryer a few times, then did a bit more hand felting to get it all a bit more even. It became pretty apparent that what I had made was going to be a guitar strap cover and not a guitar strap in and of itself. I think it's pretty.

The only real problem is that I never actually use my guitar strap or fancy handmade guitar strap cover. Whenever I play I am usually just sitting cross legged on my bed with an audience of only myself. But its still nice to know that if I ever do decide to go and play guitar in a situation where I need a strap, I have a very unique one that screams knitting-dork.

I think I have gotten better recently at buying only the amount of yarn I need for a project, which both fortunately and unfortunately means I am left with less leftovers.

NaNoBlogMo 22 - Knitting My Lizard Ridge Blanket

There is one project that I knit for myself that has more meaning than any other. Perhaps I am cheating for writing about it in this blog when I already wrote about it in my blog from when I was in Shanghai, but not everyone knows the story, its not really all in one place and I am running low on material for my NaNoBlogMo challenge.

A while back, I fell in love with THIS pattern from Knitty.com. I thought it was beautiful and I wanted to make it. The only problem was that the yarn the pattern calls for, Noro Kureyon, is a bit pricey. While paying $7-9 per skein isn't too bad if you are making a scarf or other small project, when you need to buy 20+ to make a blanket, the cost really adds up. So I put the blanket on my knitting bucket list and didn't think about it for a while.

Then came the genius idea. I can't remember if I came up with this idea by myself or in conversation with my friend Bonnie, but the idea came and I loved it. I was a senior in college, just about to graduate and planning to live in China for a year (which ended up being 2 years). What if I asked all my friends and family, if they wanted to get me a graduation/going away present, to buy me a skein of Noro. They could pick whatever color scheme they wanted, I would keep track of who gave me each skein and knit the blanket over the course of the year. I would knit the squares in China and think of the people at home that cared about me and when I got home I would have a blanket to remind me of my time in China.

People were far more generous than I was expecting, although the continued generosity of the people in my life never ceases to surprise me. I figured I might get 12 or so skeins, which would give me a good sized lap blanket and if I wanted to make it bigger I could fund the rest myself. I ended up receiving over 70 skeins of yarn. Family. Friends from high school and college. Former coworkers. Family friends. All together I had yarn from a wide variety of the people in my life.

Some colors that people got I am sure were random or just picked out because they liked them. I got a lot of a particular blue colorway (as you can see from the pictures) that could be because blue is one of my favorite colors. One woman said she picked the colorway she did because it looked like a sweater of hers that I loved and complimented often. A family friend picked a colorway that reminded her of army fatigues because her son (and my former classmate and 7th grade sorta-boyfriend) is in the army.

I packed one skein of yarn for each person/family (as some people gave me multiple skeins). I was panicking about needing to pack everything I thought I might need for a year of my life (take for example that I knew I would never find bras or dress shoes that would fit me in Shanghai), but I knew I needed to pack my yarn. I ended up using those vacuum bags to pack all the yarn. They ended up being one of the first things I unpacked when I arrived. From my first days in my Shanghai apartment, I had one drawer in my living room dedicated to craft supplies.

I was already knitting blanket squares on the airplane ride there. I remember knitting in the airport lobby in Shanghai after I arrived while I was waiting before taking a taxi to the school. When I was asked to be the teacher adviser for the school knitting club, I was happy to agree. I often brought whatever square I was working on to the club meetings and knit and chatted with the students. One square, though I can't remember which one, has one row knit by one of my former students.

I knit a lot of the squares in the beginning of my first year when I was frightened and nervous about being in a foreign country. Knitting actually helped me to reach out and I ended up meeting up with two women who lived in JinQiao (the area I was living) to have coffee and knit a few times. The more I started getting out and doing things, the less time I spent squirreled away in my apartment and knitting (but of course I still found time for it).

I knitted all the yarn I brought with me while I was in China for the first year and brought it back to me when I came home to visit during the summer of 2009. I realized I could knit about 3 more squares and have a 6x6 blanket, but when I laid the blanket squares out it seemed just a tad too small. So I decided to bite the bullet and knit 9 more so I could have a 6x7 blanket. The fact that it totaled up to 42 squares, the answer to life, the universe and everything, only finalized it for me. I knit 9 more squares, this time not keeping track of who each skein was from, since everyone already had their representative square.

If I remember correctly, this was the first project where I did blocking. Because the squares were slightly bubbled and all various sizes (despite being knit of the same yarn on the same needles by the same knitter), it was pretty much essential. It was unbelievably worth it, too. I spent a lot of time going back and forth about layout. I tried to keep like colors separate and have some good variation between lights and darks. Once it was decided I started to sew the squares together.

Once all the squares were sewn together, I used my carefully documented pictures to identify who had given me the yarn to make each square and labeled them, partially for my own sake and partially so I could show everyone where their gift ended up on my blanket. The 9 blank squares are the ones I knitted to get myself up to 42 squares. They are still yarn that was given to me by someone whose name you see on the blanket, I just didn't make a note of who.
I was so excited once all the squares were together and the blanket was actually blanket-shaped that I curled right up in it for the next few days. Even though it was August and a bajillion degrees out. Knitty was having a contest at the time to have people to take pictures of projects made using their patterns for a calendar, which explains this clearly staged picture below. I never ended up submitting the pictures, but I still like them.
The blanket is still unfinished, technically, even though it has been on my bed and I have been using it ever since. I still plan on adding the crochet border that the pattern calls for, or a border of some kind....eventually. Maybe. The longer the blanket sits there, still being wonderfully blanket-like, the more it convinces me that it doesn't need a border.

I loved this idea and how well it turned out. I love that my friends and family were a part of a project I did. I think I would like to do something like it again someday. Maybe something for if/when I get married. Have the guests give a skein of yarn and then knit a blanket with them during my first year of marriage.

Thank you again to everyone that gave me yarn that ended up in this blanket. Everyone was so kind and giving and took my idea to heart. I love my blanket and I really do use it every night. And I love telling the story about the blanket to anyone who asks (and sometimes to people who don't).

<3

NaNoBlogMo 21 - Making Jewelry

I never really made much jewelry before I learned how to make chainmail in college. With learning to make chainmail, the basic pattern most people learn is the European four-in-one. If you are picturing chainmail in your mind right now, you are probably imagining European four-in-one. By itself it isn't really that interesting or attractive, but it is easy to make and easy to vamp up with a little bit of details. This necklace below is made using European four-in-one and some frills. You can see that the main choker base has four pink rings in every black ring (hence the name of the pattern). Then I just expanded it a little at the front and added the metal scales and pink chain for a little something extra. If I remember correctly, I donated this necklace to my college's medieval group and it was purchased by my friend Melanie (who I had previously made a choker for by special order from her now fiance). I guess Mel just likes my style! :-)
In college I was a bit addicted to making chainmail, jewelry or otherwise. I liked watching the pieces come together in front of me. It got so bad that at one point I actually gave my pliers to my good friend and roommate at the time, Claire, and asked her to hide them from me. We were having exams at the time and instead of studying I kept getting distracted and making more chainmail.

The more I learned to make chainmail jewelry, the more I discovered that the difference between a meh piece and a wow piece is really all in the details. For a lot of projects I think I might have overdone the colors or the added frills. But at right is probably one of my favorite pieces I ever made. The pattern itself is a variation on the European four-in-one called the rosette by some, but by just adding small beads on certain rings, it adds just enough detail to make it more interesting and eye-catching. Some chainmail jewelry looks too much like chainmail and not enough like jewelry for my taste. This one, however, I love.

Making jewelry turned into a bit of a game of "if this, then what"? for me. Since I knew how to add clasps and chains and earring hooks to a project (kind of the essential step between making just a "something" and making a jewelry piece), I could get more creative with what I attached my clasps, etc, to. The bracelet below is actually made of old capacitors that my grandfather gave to me. I mostly just made it to see if I could and how it would look, but it ended up being one of only two things I sold from my short stint as an Etsy shop owner.
I've also made a bit of a reputation for myself for jewelry repair. I think it really started while I was in China. I had made some pieces for coworkers of mine (including the rosette bracelet above and the red and black beaded bracelet below), when someone asked if I could fix a broken necklace. I said I could without even really thinking about it...I hadn't tried to repair jewelry before, but it made sense to me that if I could make jewelry I could fix jewelry. Essentially the same process, right? Well, I was right and for the rest of my time in China I became the go-to-girl for jewelry fixes.

I don't think most people realize how easy it is to make and/or fix jewelry. Some of the things I do, like improv or knitting I know can be difficult but I don't really give a second thought to, but I know that's because I do it so often. But to me basic jewelry making seems rather simple, something that anyone could do if they just tried it. This bracelet here was just beads threaded on wire and attached to a clasp...easy as pie (or much easier than pie, actually). It seems mostly just about having the desire, the right tools and a little bit of patience, which I suppose are the main reasons why not everyone does it.

NaNoBlogMo 20 - Knitting While ... Anything

While I was looking through Facebook (which has apparently become the record of my life) for inspiration of what to do my next blog post about (cuz I am 20 days into this project and I'm starting to feel like I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel already), I noticed something. There are a bunch of pictures of me knitting. Not like, taken specifically to show me knitting for a blog post or taken at crafting events or even pictures of me knitting in the comfort of my own home/dorm/apartment. Pictures where I am out in public and knitting. Take for example this picture of me knitting a scarf that I donated to charity while at Improv rehearsal back in college. This made me think of one of the reasons I like knitting so much. Unless I am doing a hugely complicated pattern or something where I need to do a lot of counting, knitting is something I can do while I am doing something else. I like multi-tasking. Its helpful for someone who can't sit still. When I was younger I used to volunteer to cut coupons for my mother because it gave me something to do with my hands when I watched TV. I also used to build card houses while I watched TV, because I didn't just like sitting. Really, I was primed to be a knitter before I ever picked up my first pair of needles and skein of yarn.

Back in college, I knit in one of my classes. Just one, because it was the only one in my four years where it felt appropriate: Sociology of Management. I will be completely honest and say that I used to doodle a LOT in my notebooks throughout my entire education. It wasn't because I wasn't paying attention, it was because I needed to be doing something with my hands but didn't feel the need to take notes. So for this class I came up and asked the professor if I could knit. I promised that it would actually help me pay attention (which it did), I promised that I would still be part of the discussion (which I was) and that it wouldn't affect my grades (which it didn't). The professor was very cool about it and we agreed that I could as long as it didn't distract the other students. For the rest of the semester I brought in my most mindless knitting and it kept my hands busy while I took part in the class.

I love that I can knit while I travel, or knit while I hang out with folks, or listen to music or watch TV. The only thing I can't seem to stretch my mind enough to do is knit and read at the same time. Which also means that I can't watch movies with subtitles or my brain a'splodes. At the same time, I worry that sometimes people were/are insulted when I knit in front of them. Like how I get annoyed when people are constantly on their cell phones when I am trying to talk to them. I promise I am paying attention to you. If its bothering you, just let me know and I will put the needles away.

NaNoBlogMo 19 - Learning to Play Guitar

The hobby of mine that I easily neglect the most is guitar playing, sadly. This is probably the first entry in this blog in which I even mention that I play guitar. So here is a little backstory of how I got started playing, and a video of me actually playing.

When I was in high school, I used to come home with piles of homework and either dance or Taekwon-do lessons each night. I used to dream of what I would do if I actually had free time when I came home. Fast forward a bit to when I was working as an intern during my breaks from college. I was doing a real honest-to-goodness 9-5 type office job for the first time in my life which meant when I got home...no homework! I was free to do what I wanted! And what I found was that I was usually so burnt out at the end of the that all I wanted to do was park myself in front of the TV. It frustrated me that that was all I wanted to do. That that was how I was spending (read: wasting) my time.

Around the same time, my parents were building the cabin in upstate NY (read: my happy place). We would spend a lot of time just sitting by a fire and enjoying the night and the stars. It reminded me of the happy nights spent at a small and nerdy summer camp I used to go to, and the man who ran the camp would play guitar and sing with us around the fire.

These things came together in my mind and I thought...why don't I start learning to play guitar? I would like to take this moment to say I doubt I would have nearly as many interests as I do if it weren't for my parents being so supportive. Every time I ever said "I think I'd like to try..." they were right behind me. Sending me to camps, signing me up for lessons, driving me to practices. When I mentioned to my father that I was interested in learning to play guitar, he spoke to a friend of his that plays to get me some advice. That same friend helped me take care of my guitar (change the strings, adjust the action, etc) for the lowly price of a six-pack of good beer. My friend Burf/Jason was also extremely helpful in that he lent me his guitar for a year or so. I didn't want to buy a guitar that was cheap only to have to reinvest in a decent one if I liked playing, and likewise I didn't want to waste money on a good guitar if I hated it.

So I had a guitar to use, I had someone to help me with the maintenance, and I went out and bought a beginner acoustic guitar book. Now all I had to do was learn to play. I learned mostly from the book I bought and youtube videos. I gave myself an assignment. Everyday when I got home from work, no matter how burnt out I felt, I would practice. Whether I just picked up the guitar and reviewed a new chord I learned the day before or sat and played for an hour, I would practice.

It is extremely weird thinking back to those very first days of playing guitar. I remember feeling so frustrated at how hard it was to position every finger for every chord and the excruciatingly long time it would take me to change between chords. I remember fiercely wishing I could just pick up the guitar and already know the chords and just fiddle around and play a song or two without thinking everything through, or staring at tabs or constantly looking at my hands. And I can do that now. I will never be a guitar superstar by any stretch of the imagination, but now I can look up the simple chord tabs for a song I want to learn and more often then not I can pick it up pretty quickly. That's all I wanted when I started. I am happy being a jack of all trades, master of none.

For Christmas of my senior year of college, my parents got me my own guitar. My friend Cori named it Excalibur, which I think is a fantastic name for a guitar. (Just as a side note, my two swords are named "The Chime" and "Son of a Bitch"). When I went to Shanghai I also splurged and got myself a guitar, so I could keep practicing and playing. That's where this video is from. This is me playing "Yellow" by Coldplay, back in 2009 in my Chinese apartment.



I would have practiced, recorded and uploaded a newer video of me playing guitar but I have a deadline with this NaNoBlogMo thing, so this is what you guys get. I'd like to think I can play better than this now, but since I really only pick up my guitar every once in a while now, I think I am only maintaining my current level, not really improving. I remember at one point I was so focused on guitar that I used to keep a quarter in my pocket to press my fingertrips on to, to help build up my calluses.

That sad truth of being a hobby addict is that sometimes hobbies fall by the way side for long stretches of time. I have no intention of giving up playing guitar. I have noticed in myself that my interest in things seems to go in fluctuating waves. I am sure that sometime in the future I will find my desire to play renewed. And Excalibur will be there waiting for me.

NaNoBlogMo 18 - Medieval Dresses

I have mentioned quite a few times now that I did medieval reenactment in college. I was in That Medieval Thing and every year we held a medieval dinner in the winter and a medieval festival in the spring. As much as I loved all the behind the scenes work, my favorite part had to be putting on some sort of interesting outfit and performing.

TMT does what it can in terms of having a good set of supplies, but it often ends up as a weird hodge podge of some really good stuff, some really crappy stuff and the rest making up the spectrum. Costuming was no different. There were some really fancy or interesting pieces, some things that were mostly held together with hope, and then the remainder. It was usually a blessing if you found something that both fit your role and literally fit YOU, much less looked good. Things were extra hard for me as a woman with my stature. Being tall, wide and long-limbed (we tried to be historically accurate and women shouldn't show wrist or ankle), there was pretty much nothing I could wear. I took it as an excuse to make my own. Which led to the three dresses I'm going to write about now.

Now, everything up until this point in my blog I think I could say was made entirely by me, but that is far from the case for these. These were all made before I knew how to use a sewing machine, so there is no way I could have made these without my mother. I think it was a good team effort. For all of them we picked out the material, ribbons for trimming and any other notions together. I think I might have done the majority of the pattern cutting and pinning, and mom did all the sewing (including her least favorite part...the zippers).

I'll start with the dress that I think I might have actually worn the most often. My green dress was my favorite for a long time (and might still be). I definitely like the sleeves on this one the best. They have a very cool shape where if you lift your arm up the excess material drops down from your elbow, but if you lower your hand it encases your arm in fabric. The material is also a favorite of mine. I was so happy to find two materials of similar color, one solid and one with a vine-like pattern. The ribbon trim is also gorgeous and if I wasn't in such a rush to get this post done I would go take a closeup picture of it for you. Just believe me when I say its lovely and compliments the fabrics well. I only ever wore this dress for one official TMT event, and that was when I was playing a crazy old woman so I the dress was somewhat secondary to my face. However, I did wear it for a few Ren Faires and a few non-official TMT events we did (like alumni day, etc), so I think it still ends up being the dress I wore most often in college.

My "peasant dress" had the longest wait between uses. It is the first one of these dresses I wore, and only a few months ago did I wear it again. I had to lose weight to fit into it my freshman year of college. I was determined to wear it for Medfest and I only just made it in time. Although I picked out material that looked to me like something a peasant would wear (rougher, more natural), a few people commented that it really was too pretty for a dirty, scuzzy, poor actor (my part that year) to wear. I still wore it though. My favorite part of this dress was the cool arm bands with braided leather ties. I completely forget if the arm ties were a suggestion from the pattern or if its something I stole from the costume Eowyn wears in Lord of the the Rings, but either way I love how it looks. The long braided leather piece I am wearing as a headband in this picture was originally meant to be a belt, but since I always now wear my favorite leather belt that I bought from my friend Burf/Jason (and I just noticed I am wearing it in all three pictures), I had to re-purpose it.

My last dress is probably my fanciest one, and worn when playing one of my least fanciest (but still one of my favorite) parts. This dress has both an under dress and the huge/heavy/beautiful/full skirted overdress. For the underdress I picked out a simple light purple material. The inside sleeves though, have this fabulous material made of a sort of black mesh and roses in crushed purple and pink velvet. GORGEOUS. It was something ridiculous like $14 a yard, but I wanted it. I like the something extra they add. The overdress has a HUGE skirt. I just remember how long I had to stand while my poor mother pinned the hem of it. The whole dress is a bit extravagant. After it was done I realized how unlikely it was that I would get to play a character that was rich enough to wear something like it, since I always enjoyed playing the more esoteric characters. However, that year I got to play "Pillow Fuckall", the head pirate whore. The girl who wrote the plot said it would make perfect sense that the pirate captain would steal a dress this nice for me. That would explain why I am wearing such a queenly dress, but with the hem tucked up into my skirt to show some leg. Also in this picture you can see my fingers taped together because I had just had the stitches removed from getting caught with a sword in rehearsal the week before. I actually went to the emergency room in my underdress. There is a small iodine stain on the chest that serves as a small reminder of that ridiculous day.

All of these dresses were made from this set of patterns, which according to the website I was finally able to track down that HAD the pattern on it, is no longer available. I guess I should hold onto mine if I ever plan to make anymore. However, I have a nice stock of medieval dresses (as you can see) and I really want to start building up my Renaissance collecting. If I keep having to wear medieval dresses to ren faires...oh man. Talk about wearing last season's fashion! More like last century's.

NaNoBlogMo 17 - Jackyll & Hide

I have this rule when it comes to making things for people. I don't mind making something odd, ridiculous or otherwise out-there, as long as you promise to actually wear it. I don't want to take the time to make something, especially a specially requested item, and then have it just sit collecting dust somewhere. One of the weirdest things I remember making was a scarf made entirely out of large pom-poms, but as long as it's getting use, I'm happy.

That being said, I have come across a few things in my looking at knitted goods or traversing around knitting blogs/websites that have peaked my interest, but seemed impractical to actually make. As amusing and fun as I'm sure it would be to knit a wig, or a pair of musk ox slippers or a...uh...womb...who do I know that would actually use/wear these things often enough to be worth it? The "Jackyll & Hide" pattern was one of those things that I saw and wanted to make, but didn't think I ever would.

Meet my friend Sarah (on the right). She was my coworker and one of my absolute favorite people to hang out with while I was living in Shanghai. We went out drinking at our favorite skanky dive bar (Windows). We took turns cooking for each other. We watched movies and drank tea/hot chocolate late into the night. One of the things I missed most when I moved back to the USA was no longer having Sarah living right down the hall from me. Luckily, she was able to visit for two weeks earlier this year and we continue to stay in touch. I've been told that I'm invited to her wedding, which on top of being awesome in and of itself, would be a great excuse to actually go to England for the first time ever.

I forget how it actually came up, but somehow we were looking at the knitting website Knitty together and the Jackyll and Hide pattern came up. I mentioned how I thought it was a fantastic idea, but I would never wear it and didn't know if anyone would if I made it. She enthusiastically responded that if I made it...she would wear it.

Together we picked out some yarn. Since it was going to end up being right on her face, I wanted to make sure she liked whatever yarn I ended up using. This is one of very few times when I used a pattern and as an even rarer occurrence I actually followed the pattern. Learning from past mistakes I did a gauge swatch and took some measuresments before I even cast on the first stitch. Usually with a hat you only need one measurement...head circumference. You can take a second measurement for length if you want. For this project there were a lot of things I needed; circumference being the most straightforward.

I measured the distance between the crown of her head and her eyes. The distance from her eyes to her chin. The length of her neck. The size of her eyes. The distance between her eyes. This was definitely another example of how sometimes its best to have the recipient of your gift in the know so they can try it on as you go.

Sewing on the spooky mouth was my favorite part of the whole project. What do you think of the finished project? Its been a while since I made this, but I remember it being surprisingly heavy and warm. You'd probably have to wait for a bonechillingly cold day to actually need or want to wear it. I also seem to remember it being a little tight when she wore it as a skimask. I hope it has either stretched out in time, or that I was just being nitpicky or that I am remembering incorrectly. Either way, Sarah rocks the hat in both looks. Thank you so much for taking these pictures and sending them to me!

I really like making things for people. One of the main reasons is that I hope that whenever someone uses/wears/sees something I made for them it makes them think of me and know that I care about them. It becomes even more important when its a friend I don't get to see as often as I would like, such as Sarah. Miss you, Shanghai Sister.