Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Corded Bag

I made some modifications to the original pattern, and I'm pleased with how they've turned out. I made it taller than the recommended 3.5 inches - about 6. I added a crocheted shoulder strap. I also put in a button hole, and then after the strap was done, I continued around the inside of the bag doing a slip stitch ridge near the top. As part of this ridge, I crocheted the button to the inside of the bag so when it goes through the button hole it looks all cool and stuff.

Sorry for the low quality pics - it’s after 1 in the morning and I’m not going to set up the light box now. I’ll take better pics later.

Corded Bag 1

Corded Bag 2

Friday, February 20, 2009

Tiny Knitting For the Movie, "Coraline"

Check this out! It's a short video showing the chick who did the tiny sweater and gloves for the movie, "Coraline." Sweet! Tiny Knitting

And if you haven't seen the movie yet, do so. It may be too scary for some kids but for adults it rocks. We saw it in 3D, which rocked even more. It's the first time I've seen a 3D movie where the effect wasn't the only reason to watch.

New Book

Yay! Got a 40% off coupon so I bought this book: "Crochet Motifs", by Edie Eckman. It has many cool motifs, very good explanations of how to do them and good stuff on how to design your own. I am pleased.



Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Death, Now With Scythe

Here we go. Blurry pic, but I didn't feel like setting up the light box tonight. The scythe is made from Sculpy clay, with SIL's help. I made the blade out of a mix of black and white clay, but it turned out as a dark grey. Fortunately, SIL had silver paint, so that solved that. Yay!

DeathWithScythe2

Friday, February 6, 2009

How Mom Knits With 2 Colors

Or, If It Ain't Broke Don't Fix It

While we were in Vegas this last weekend for E.'s 40th birthday, I got to talk with Mom a bit about knitting. I made sure to ask her how she handles knitting with 2 colors of yarn.

I figured that since she used to sell Icelandic sweaters back in the day in Denver, she'd be the perfect person to ask. I thought she must use some especially efficient method, like knitting Continental with both strands on the left hand, or knitting Continental with one color and English with the other.

So I asked her if she preferred either of those methods or had another one I hadn't heard of. She looked mildly surprised and told me she just knits with the yarn in her right hand, same as always. And she just drops one yarn and picks up the other as needed.

Don't get me wrong - I still love learning new techniques. But this makes me happy on a level I can't quite explain.