Slipper Soles, It's a Go

Here we go. Wet puff paint:




And dry puff paint:




And slippers modeled by yours truly:




FYI, I really have been working on the black & white baby blanket this whole time. In fact, I'm going back to it right now. Have to - the shower is this Saturday. :)

Slipper Sole Experiment, Continued

Success! The paint is now translucent, with sparkly glitter. I stretched the fabric, twisted it, scrunched it, and the paint stayed attached. It's kind of stretchy, so I think it will do just fine in stripes. I'm not sure how it will hold up to the heat of a dryer, but it should be easy enough to put more on as needed.

Slipper Sole Experiment

How to prevent people from breaking their necks wearing splippery slippers? I did a little garter stitch swatch (approx. 1.5" square) in the same yarn as the slippers and added some puff paint stripes and dots to it. Maybe a series of dashes will make the most sense in the end. I think a long stripe will just crack when the sole is stretched. To apply the stripes I just used the bottle's applicator, but for the dots I also poked at them a bit with a toothpick.

The directions say it should be dry in 24 hours, so we'll see tomorrow how well it adheres to the yarn. And now I must wait. Humph.

Update - after about 3 hours, some of the paint appears translucent instead of white. Hmmm.

Granny Square - Front or Back?

Well poop. A. says the pic in the post below is of the back of the granny square, not the front. I can't tell - which is which? I think maybe the bottom one here is the back, but that's just because I know I have a 50/50 chance...

Crochet Experiments

I have to be honest - the slippers aren't my only escape from the blanket. I met with A. a short while back and learned some more about crochet. We experimented with crocheting a 2-color spiral and I also made my first granny square. The double spiral is prep work for the hat of obsession, of course. And I'm really taken with the whole idea of granny squares - they're so modular!

Slippers

I'm a bit bored with the baby blanket, so I took a break to work on slippers for the in-laws for Xmas. I was tempted to start work on the hat of obsession, but I don't want to completely forget the blanket. For the slippers, I used the Malabrigo loafers pattern.

Here's my first attempt, on size US 7 needles in worsted weight Berroco Comfort (50%super fine nylon, 50% super fine acrylic) used doubled throughout. It was way too tight, fabric stiff as cardboard. And the slippers were too small even for me. But these pics give a good idea of what the basic slipper looks like.







I frogged this rough draft slipper, then did a real pair on size US 9 needles. (Magic loop method, by the way.) These are not as stiff as cardboard, but they still have some firmness. They fit me, so I'm hoping they'll fit my mother-in-law. I'll have M. check with her on shoe sizes for everyone next time he calls her.

A. did the nifty crochet flowers for these. They're so cool! The flowers add just the right splash of color and fun. :) Speaking of color, the rough draft pics are closer to the real color. Those were taken in daylight through the window at Starbuck's, while the ones below were taken inside at A.'s house. Clearly, daylight is the way to go.

The Long and Winding Road

A. got free tickets to the Chihuly exhibit at the DeYoung museum in San Francisco a little while back and invited me. So I went. Because Chihuly is that dude whose glass flower/amoeba thingies we'd always go visit at the Bellagio when A. and I would go on road trips to Vegas to visit Granddad. The Bellagio is also where we'd walk around the indoor garden then order Margaritas in our favorite lounge, sit and watch the people go by, and then steal the glasses.

When A. and I got to the DeYoung, we found out the morning showing was closed and we'd have to wait for the late afternoon one. Naturally, we went to get tea at Samovar, and then went to the knitting store across the street, Imagiknit. Then we went back to the DeYoung early because we knew it was going to be crowded.

Being early, we checked out the other exhibits. There were some spiffy bits of glass (pics or links soon) and other stuff including African and Mesoamerican art. I walked past the figurine I'm currently obsessed with, and then had to walk back and take a picture. After that, the Chihuly exhibit (pics or links soon). Way, way too crowded for my taste, but I enjoyed it. Which is quite a tribute in its way.

The little Moche figurine has stuck in my mind. Specifically, his helmet. How cool is it? It's all spirally. And wavy. And 2-colory. It must be knitted. That is all.

Which of course means lots of thinking and visualizing and what's better for that than searching the Internet and asking everyone you know, online and otherwise, what they think would work? I'll be learning how to crochet a 2-color spiral, because it's a possible solution. Crochet seems chunky to me, and I want the hat to be smooth, but what do I know about crochet at this point? Not a whole heck of a lot, that's what. So I'll learn.

And I need to do something with the wavy hat. Obviously, I need to knit it and get a feel for how its structure really works. But then I'll be wanting to draw out ideas about it. And I'll want to put those images on this blog. But alas, I have no Photoshop. Sure, I could draw on paper, then scan the image, but only have a scanner at work. People at work wouldn't mind, but I hate having to depend on that. Besides, it's cheating. So I downloaded GIMP tonight, and I'm reading the user manual and looking at some tutorials. Learn, learn, learn.

"The way you do anything is the way you do everything." I don't know who said that first, and I don't always believe it. But tonight I do.

And did I mention that A. had me drive from home to Golden Gate park in S.F.? First time since learning to drive stick shift. We made it without incident. This may have been helped by the fact that I hit all green lights on the one steep road we went on, but whatever. Luck is acceptable.

Hat, Hat, Hat!

Oh my gosh. Check out this hat.

And check out more variations.

I think I can do something with this. More to follow.

The Hat I Want, 3

Here are 2 excellent links from Amy - they're cut off in the comments in the post below, so I'm reposting them: How To Crochet a Three-Color Spiral and Kneeling Warrior image from the de Young's website.

And here's another vessel that's kind of similar. (You can see the back of this one.) From what I've been reading, that thing on the back is a stirrup spout, but I have no idea why you'd make a spout that shape. Does it serve a practical purpose, or is it a matter of style? Anyone?

Also, I don't know what period the first one is from, but this second example is from between 400 AD and 1000 AD according to the de Young's website. They're both Moche pottery. Neat stuff.