Category Archives: Crafty

Jan27

Knitting Update

Posted on by
Knitting Update

Knitting!  As I said before, I spent the holidays concentrating more on cross-stitching, though I did continue working on the blue baby blanket while Mom was in the hospital, since I started it while she was in the hospital before. With all the decluttering I’ve been doing around the house, though, I realized that really one of the things I most need to declutter is my yarn cubes!

I keep all my knitting in these little storage cubes in the living room. My active projects go in this basket under the end table for easy access (since the cubes inevitably have tea, food, dog toys, remotes, books, etc. on them). Back in October I finally bought knitting needle cases and bought/”borrowed” from Mom a bunch of nifty knitting supplies –stitch holders, more stitch markers, needle holiders, etc. I finally feel like a real knitting!

As all crafters inevitably do, though, I’ve accumulated so much random yarn. I purchased a book of one-skein projects a few months ago specifically to start burning through all these random yarn balls I’ve collected over the years (most of which I’ve stupidly lost the labels for so I don’t even know what they are).

I’m finally putting Project “Use All The Yarn” into action. I’m currently ¾ of the way done with Baby Blue Pine Forest Blanket. I also started a super cute Pink Baby Blanket that will go into storage with the blue one. Originally I had planned to give all baby stuff away, but after realizing I’m sentimentally attached to the blue one, I’ve decided it’ll be sort of cute to have a boy blanket and a girl blanket tucked away so that, in the new few years, when it’s time, we’ll have the fun of pulling them out!

I’ve also got a generic brown scarf in the works that I’ll probably be donating. I’ve also got plans for leg warmers, two pillow case covers, another scarf for Frank, dish rags, and some cute stuffed animals. I don’t know enough for there to be rapid progress on any of this, but it’s fun to list it out now. Because I do love lists.

Also just found out that multiple people I know are expecting babies so . . . looks like I’m back to making booties and bonnets! Good thing baby yarn is such a pleasure to knit with! Vanna’s Choice Baby gives my fingers knitting goosebumps, I love working with it so much.

Here are some work in progress pictures! (Also pictures of the pink booties I FINALLY finished and added buttons to, almost a year after I actually finished them. I’ve made two sets now but I’ve still got TONS of baby yarn, so expect more!)

Jan24

Stitching

Posted on by
Stitching

I spent the holidays mostly focusing on my counted cross stitch. I don’t know if it’s the colder weather or if, as is often the case, I just happened to swing into the mood for cross-stitching. I try not to think about how many hours of work this is (easily several hundred). Needless to say, when I fly I carry it with me, and it occurred to me over the holidays that if my plane crashed, all this work would be wasted. Anyway, here it is so far:

Image,

I’m trying to knit more now (more on that later) so progress will slow, but I still work on it 1-2 times a week while watching documentaries or movies or whatnot. Can’t ever do just one thing at a time, you know!

Apr17

Sunday Sunday

Posted on by
Sunday Sunday

I really will post the blogs from Belize. I just wound up getting a massive allergy headache (spring is here! hurray?) so online time was limited. On the plus side, I did have a lovely walk with my dog in 58 degree weather.

Also I finished two old knitting projects (added a ribbon and the buttons) and completely did the March knitting project for my KAL because I got so busy I forgot about it in March. Oops! Here are pictures. Also included is the baby blanket I started knitting in the hospital during Mom’s surgery, since I just happened to photograph it as a WIP today.

I promise I’m going to try to be better about posting about things other than knitting.

Or reading.  Finished four new books and started three new ones. :) My mom gave me an Amazon gift card for my birthday so I’ve been downloading a bunch of new stuff.

15. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, by Dai Sijie
16. The Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
17. Bossypants, by Tina Fey
18. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

Feb26

Home for a bit

Posted on by
Home for a bit

Home to Texas, I mean, for my mom’s surgery, which I won’t go into detail about here. Suffice to say, she’s home from the hospital as of Friday and doing great.  A home full of flowers, from what I hear.  I’m glad I got to be with her to help out as long as I did.

I start my new job on Monday.  At this point I’m more nervous than excited, though I’m sure everything will be great.  First day jitters, is all.

Started a new knitting project during my four solid days at the hospital, and also finished two books which I don’t feel like analyzing but I do want to add to the list.

1. The Hangman’s Daughter, by Oliver Pötzsch
2. Bel Ami, by Guy de Maupassant
3. Water For Elephants, by Sara Gruen
4. Room, by Emma Donaghue
5. The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde
6. Life, by Keith Richards
7. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, by David Sedaris

I will say that I feel like I have a vague but colorful understanding of the Rolling Stones now, and it makes me want to listen to their music more.  I also now want to read more by David Sedaris, as this was my first experience with him.  I’m trying to break my habit of staying away from really popular current authors, you know, seeing as I want to be one of them.  I was delightfully surprised with this short story collection and will probably end up rereading some of my favorites from it.  It’s a super quick read, but short story collections are always helpful.

I also just joined a bookgroup one of my friends put together, so that will also give me book suggestions, although the thought of picking out a book for everyone that I haven’t read yet makes me really nervous!

Feb15

More Finishing of Things

Posted on by
More Finishing of Things

These are my February ornament of the month.  They’re little mittens (hopefully you can tell that) using pretty sparkly yarn I’ve had for ages without knowing what to do with it because it is WAY too scratchy for anything wearable.

Also finished my two shawls; pictures to come soon.

I also finished reading Portrait of Dorian Gray but I feel sort of silly reviewing a classic.  I will say that while the concept is awesome and I can see why Dorian has become such a character of legend, and while the philosophical discussions were interesting and enjoyable, the story itself was not as good as I’d hoped.  In order for the whole concept to make sense, Gray has to do some things that felt just sort of out of character — perhaps because the first half of the novel has 19-year-old Gray and the second half as 38-year-old Gray, but we’re just given a chapter to get us caught up between the two, and it’s not enough to explain the drastic change . . . Also the whole method of the “magic” of the painting doesn’t make sense.  Gray made a wish?  Barf.  If you need something out of the ordinary to happen, just to do.  Don’t sort of half-ass it with an implausible suggestion.  We’ll accept the painting, but that it happened because someone just made a wish was a little bit too Wish Upon A Star for me.  (See what I did there?  Anyone besides me even remember that movie.  Oh, Katherine Heigl, how fall you have fallen.)

With the job search taking over my time, I haven’t had much time in February to read, but as my commute time just doubled, I have a feeling I’ll start plowing through books much more quickly!

Jan31

A weekend for finishing

Posted on by
A weekend for finishing

All in all, it was a very productive weekend.  I finished another brain study with Harvard, netting me $125 for five days of testing.  I finished interviewing for a possible new job.  I finished washing the dishes that had been piling up.  I finished trying to convince my boyfriend to watch Psych because he finally did and liked it.  I finished a season of Arrested Development.  But the two most important things (well, as far as this post is concerned) would be that I finished a new book, and I finished, not one, but two knitting projects.

Behold!

The bluebird ornament is part of a year-long Christmas Ornament Knit-Along I’m participating in on Ravelry.  The blankyphant was originally a baby gift for our neighbor’s new baby, but I may chicken out and not give it to her because it’s sort of embarrassing.  Undecided.  We’ll see.

The other important thing is that I finished another book:

Room by Emma Donaghue

I started this book very torn, because it had something I loved and something I hated.  Imprisonment/abduction and the psychology of it is a topic I’ve covered in my own writing multiple times.  However, the book is told from a five-year-olds Point of View, which is almost as much a no-no as writing a book from the point of view of a dog (imagine me sobbing that such a book is a NYTimes Best Seller . . .)

This book is engaging and stressful and beautiful.  I didn’t think it was line-by-line beautiful the way so many others apparently did (thanks, kindle, for letting me know what others highlight when I really don’t care), but Donaghue is actually able to take a 5-year-old, albeit an intelligent one, and his limited understanding of the world and tell the story of his mom.  Never does it feel contrived when Jack says something incorrectly to give you a real clue — like he guesses that Ma flashes lamp out the skylight at night to help herself fall asleep.  There is the perfect blend of minute detail and mystery to give what feels like an accurate atmosphere of a horrible situation — a situation that remains both real and surreal for the entire book.  Action, emotion, discovery, it’s all written painfully real and gritty and beautiful.

Main characters: 10/10 – Jack and Ma are both multi-dimensional characters, and even Old Nick is a strange mixture of terrifying monster and floundering idiot
Supporting characters: 9/10 -I hate some of them, I love some of them, but that they were real enough to get emotion from me is great
Plot: 10/10 – biased, but the plot falls right in line with my interests, is logical and believable and clearly well-researched
Subplots: 9/10 – we’ll say the subplot is Ma’s relationship with herself and the world, and this is handled about as well is it can be through the eyes of a 5-year-old
Setting: 8/10 – while I was able to formulate a picture of room in my head, I was still left with general questions: where geographically are we? did Old Nick not take her far?
Dialogue: 10/10 – felt appropriately natural and stilted and believable for a very intelligent 5-year-old
Action: 9/10 – action was conveyed well. towards the second half of the book, it felt sometimes like the action was skipped over.
Emotion: 10/10 – a thoroughly fascinating and upsetting book that had me so captivated I missed my subway stop
Lingering/Thought provoking: 9/10 – it’s impossible not to be left with lingering questions about Jack’s and Ma’s and Old Nick’s future, as well as questioning repeatedly what seven years in captivity would feel like
Ending: 7/10 – not a great ending but not a bad one. it makes sense to have ended it where she did, and doing so doesn’t feel contrived, but I guess I wanted a little last something from Ma.

Total: 91/100

Difficult subject matter for sure, but it was worth the $12 to me.

That brings finished book count so far this year up to 4, with three more mid-read.

1. The Hangman’s Daughter, by Oliver Pötzsch
2. Bel Ami, by Guy de Maupassant
3. Water For Elephants, by Sara Gruen
4. Room, by Emma Donaghue

Dec30

Knitting for the holidays

Posted on by
Knitting for the holidays

This was what I power-knitted with my scalded hand. It’s a scarf I gave my stepdad for Christmas. He’s the only parent I hadn’t knitted anything for, and apparently the chemotherapy has him feeling cold more often (he use to be partial abominable snowman) and his neck hurts when it gets cold. This makes my gift pretty awesome. I also got my dad a winestein (it’s a clear stein but the inside is shaped like a wineglass) and my mom a silver squirrel nutcracker that looks kind of demonic (which my brother deemed the “best gift of this Christmas.”) I’m trying to dwell on these things, and not that I ran out of time to send Christmas cards, didn’t make doggy treats for Nellie’s neighborhood friends like I planned, and failed to make one of the desserts I had planned (more on Christmas cooking to come!)

I also managed to finish a scarf I made for Frank on Christmas Day. Or possibly the day after, but we’ll go with the idea that I have perfect timing. This one took me much longer than three days of frantic knitting, and it’s the first patterned thing I ever made. A long knit, but very warm, and worth the trouble. Plus he insists he likes it, so that’s good.

This picture was taken on a brown tablecloth under bad lighting, so it makes the gray look super brown, but it is in fact gray.  Here’s a better color-quality, but blurry picture:


 

Giving homemade gifts is very time consuming but also infinitely more gratifying.  Now I am working on my first ever hat.  Which I will gift to . . . myself.

(Also, if you read this and are on Ravelry, be my friend, please?)

Dec8

Once again

Posted on by
Once again

Some of you may remember this post, two Novembers ago, when I burned the snot out of my wrist with some boiling gravy. That was unpleasant.

Tonight, I was making jambalaya. I’m turning into one of those people who is paranoid that everything will give us cancer, so I’m trying to microwave less food. So to thaw some ham, I boiled it. After it had thawed, I carried the pot full of boiling water to the sink to dump it.

I’m not quite sure how it happened, but somehow the boiling water wound up all over my right hand, on the floor, and on my feet. Fortunately, I had the frame of mind to not just throw the pot down, thus dumping more boiling water onto my feet, more than my socks would be able to protect me from. Instead I set it down in the sink before reacting unpleasantly to the already horrible scald on the back of my right hand.

Cooking the rest of the meal was unpleasant, and I had to enlist the aid of Frank to help cut things since using my right hand for anything other than waving to create a breeze across my skin was difficult and excruciatingly painful. When Frank asked and I admitted casually that yes, it really did hurt super bad — casually because I am SO used to burning my hands at this point that it’s almost a non-event — he became insistent that I needed to go to the hospital. But, guess what, I pay $200 a month for health care to make sure that I can’t afford to go to the hospital; my co-pay would be another $250. $450 is an awful lot for just a burned hand.

I lived. Unlike that horrible burn so long ago, I had a huge bottle of burn gel and I lathered that hand up. It is now five hours later and my skin is rigid and shiny, but it hurts SO much less. Of course I waited to photograph it until now, so it looks pretty unimpressive. Initially the scalded area covered almost the entire back of my hand and on up my pointer and middle finger; now it’s confined to my three knuckles and those two fingers, barring the white band on my pointer finger where I had a plastic ring on.


Look at that! It hardly looks like anything now that I’m trying to show it off to make myself look tough and cool. All you can see is a little bit of redness and the fact that my knuckles are oddly red and shiny. Thanks a lot, painful scald. You can barely even see my finger’s farmer’s burn. Trust me, guys, it looks SO much bad-asser in real life.

To put this whole event into context, though: Today I opened an account on Ravelry.com, this online knitting community. After looking at people’s projects all day, I was frantic to get knitting, and even left work an hour early (in exchange for going in an hour early tomorrow) to pick up some yarn from someone’s Christmas present. As I reached out to grab the very first skein, the paper label gave me the nastiest papercut on my left hand — relatively small, but I mean, it bled like I had tried to lob it off. Then, I go home, only to seriously scald my other hand.

But by golly, I wasn’t about to let either of those things stop me! I knitted through the pain (and restarted seven times, no joke, because my concentration was a little out of whack) and feel like a better, stronger person for it.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go cradle my hand and cry myself to sleep. (Not really; I was very brave through the whole thing and didn’t cry at all.)

EDIT: As of the following morning, it’s blistered up and started peeling a bit and now looks even worse. Lame. :(

Oct11

I am oh so crafty

Posted on by
I am oh so crafty

Cross-stitching.

I bet you didn’t know I did this, huh?  Well, once upon a time when I was a teenager, I decided I wanted to learn to cross stitch – not that there’s much to it so long as you know how to knot and stitch and have a vast quantity of patience.

Well, one of the kits I had purchased years ago had been started and then abandoned.  I can show you easily which part was done when I was fifteen because it’s pretty terribly done.

Fast forward to this past June when I knew Frank and I were moving in together and I was in a crafty mood besides, and I decided I should finish this project in order to proudly display it in our home, since the pattern has to do with homes.  In fact, the pattern says, “We give thanks, for Home and Heart <3 and Friends.”

If you’ll notice at the end of the post, mine doesn’t say that, because it’s stupid and not at all personal enough for me to feel like it deserved all this time.

So in June I started working on it, but then the project again fell by the wayside in July, but then I worked a little more in August, but then abandoned it in September.  But alas, the day came just yesterday in which I stitched my last stitch.

The project is now complete, with some minor alterations, both intentional and accidental.  There are  clearly some very large errors, at least to me, but Frank is both kind and intelligent enough to insist he cannot see them.  I also personalized the message a bit more to make it more appropriate to Frank’s and my life.  Now I just have to hunt down a picture frame for it and then it will be proudly displayed in our dining room, alongside my handmade flower art thing from Taiwan (which I did not make, but someone did, so the craftiness of the wall still stands.)  My design is obviously by no means perfect, but it’s a fun first finished project, I think, and has that imperfect home-y feel to it.  Perfect doesn’t really feel lived in . . . so of course the unevenness and errors were all intentional! ;)

This weekend I will be making curtains for the french doors that separate out living room and front porch (and are letting a lot of cold air in and hot air out), as well as beginning the scarf for my boyfrinend who admitted a few weeks ago that he’s, sigh, always wanted a homemade scarf . . . So I took the hint.  I also immediately began my next cross-stitching project, though it is a tiny bit more elaborate . . . So expect pictures from that maybe next Christmas, haha.