The First Amigurumi: Bear
October 17, 2007 at 2:28 pm | Posted in Crochet, Finished Projects, Pets | 4 CommentsOh – I wanted to say HI to Jenna of Corgipants. I love your Swapdex! You’re awesome. Did you know she’s doing an October Tutorial Extravaganza? Today she has a TIE for DOGS. Awesome.
So I’ve pretty much finished the bear I saw here according to the pattern here. However, I need a bit of felt to finish off the face so the bear has no smile yet. But – I’ve mostly finished my first amigurumi project! It was a giant pain! I can’t believe how much of a pain it was to get the legs attached! Holy cow I have to write to people who do amigurumi projects a lot and ask how they manage those tiny little things. I do like the green accents I put in. The eyes kinda look like they’re glowing right now.
The bear on the right is the unstuffed version that’s still in pieces. Perhaps that gives you some idea of why I thought it was hard to put together.
And now, I leave you with a gratuitous kitten picture. Having a new kitten is incredibly addictive. Callie is stalking my foot here. Very intent.
End of the Week-End
October 14, 2007 at 10:05 pm | Posted in Fabric-Related, Finished Projects, Halloween/Thanksgiving/Fall | 2 CommentsWordPress has informed me that this blog has a domain expiring in 13,799 days, and they apparently think I need to renew now. I’ll get right on that.
This weekend was not particularly crafty owing to the new family member (below).
At the moment I’m making a teeny little bear. Remember the amigurumi Boo and bear from Friday? I thought my husband would like Boo, but no – he requested that I make the bear. So I am. I’ve got the head, ears and body done. I still need to make arms & legs and stitch a face, and also make the scarf that goes with the bear. Should have it all done tomorrow.
Meanwhile, what I mainly did this weekend was kitten. Jeff and I got an adorable little kitten yesterday, who is currently dreaming little kitty dreams beside me. She’s fluffy and cute, and purrs really loudly. We still have a ways to go before our other kitty and our dog Audrey get used to her, but with time I’m sure we’ll all get along great.
I forgot to post some of my favorite things I found last week trolling blogs and such.
My Favorite new blog title is Corgipants. This is apparently a week for Pants jokes, as the bear I featured is from a blog called Crafty Pants. Jenna of Corgipants also runs the recently-featured Swapdex. Found her via a cute tutorial for a ribbon pinecone (right) she posted, which I will probably make.
On Display in England right now are three quilts commemorating Walsall’s links to the trans-atlantic slave trade and its abolition in the Parliamentary Act of 1807. One reason that I’m really fond of quilts is their ability to portray concepts and ideas. People really create some amazing things with quilts. A coworker of mine thinks quilts are just for sleeping under – and while that’s one aspect of them, he’s missed the idea that art can be created from fabric.
I found the World’s Largest Yarn Stash. The picture below is NOT a store. This is someone’s PERSONAL STASH. Seriously, I’ve never seen anything else like this. I’m not sure I have enough room in my entire town house for all of Bonney’s ginormous stash. It looks like a well-loved stash, too, doesn’t it?
Weekend Work: October/Halloween craftiness
October 3, 2007 at 12:45 pm | Posted in Finished Projects, Halloween/Thanksgiving/Fall, Weekend Warrior | 5 CommentsThe months of October, November and December are my absolute favorites of the year. I get a big kick out of three solid months with big holidays at the end of them. So. I love fall. I love crafting in fall. I love holidays. I love crafting in the holidays. Pumpkins and harvest and leaves and holly berries and ever-greenery and gift-giving occasions inspire me. And the food. Can’t forget the food. So this here project represents just the introductory salvo into what I have planned.
Last week I came upon a project via the Craftzine from the Frugal Law Student‘s sister Shannon for making a countdown-to-Halloween calendar. It’s taken from a 2006 Pottery Barn design (follow the Frugal Law Student link to see those versions and to find directions). Both the zine and the sister claim this calendar is for kids who are excited for Halloween. No no no. Adults are also excited by this holiday, and some of us think we don’t have can never have too many Halloween decorations. Besides, it reminds me of Advent calendars, and I always loved Advent calendars.
And honestly, folks, what’s better than treating yourself every day just because it’s another day? What’s better than having something fun to look forward to when it’s all done?
So here’s my rendition of the October/Halloween calendar with its little pockets stuffed with candy (more photos on Flickr). I changed it from the directions some, which I talk about below. Each individual pocket is part of a scene or is decorated in some way. I started running out of ideas after a while. Hence we have three ghosts. Some shapes I thought of – like Dracula – were impossible because I cut all of these shapes out freehand, and my skills go only so far. There are fangs on day 26, does that count?
Jeff and I each have favorites for the days. Mine is the witch legs on the 8th, and Jeff likes the mummy on the 19th. I made each of the little square pockets and the backing from felt. The backing is actually 2 pieces of felt for extra stability, sewn together where the ribbon edging is. The pattern called for orange rick-rack for edging, but I found some shiny ribbon with spiders and spider webs on it and used that instead. I also chose to use pinking shears to edge the pockets because I liked the way it looked.
I’m fond of Husband Jeff’s eyeball monster with green tentacles, and of the full moon. I decided to mark the year I made it by accurately representing the full moon on the 25th and the quarter moon on the 4th.
The calendar is a little bigger than what’s called for – about 4 feet by 2 feet. Each square is 3.5″ x 4″. It took a yard and a half of black felt, about a yard of orange and then thin sheets of orange, lime green, purple, yellow and black foam. I also used sheets of really stiff sticky-back white and orange felt. The craft stores sell sticky-back foam sheets for a few cents more, but I’ve found that regular foam and felt glue holds a lot better. I do want this to last!
Other favorites are the spider & web and the two kitties I put on here. I often double-layered the materials for added interest, and made liberal use of ribbon, sticky eyeballs, pre-cut sticky-back foam letters, sharpie markers in black and silver and puff paint in black. Oh – and lots and lots of felt glue. The whole thing wasn’t very expensive for all the supplies.
And here’s a couple more I think most of the Halloween tropes are represented. As mentioned, I can’t cut out vampires, and I also can’t cut out felt doggies howling at the moon. But I wanted to. The one thing left that I will be doing through October is stitching the little pockets to the felt. This would never have gotten done if I’d tried to do that first. I’m not that patient. So I’m doing one a day as I eat my candy. Yum.
Hope you enjoyed!
Weekend Work: practice & more practice
September 16, 2007 at 7:05 pm | Posted in Fabric-Related, Finished Projects, Weekend Warrior | Leave a commentLast Sunday I posted that I would be working on several projects during the week, and I did indeed finish all of them. I found it really interesting to tackle experiments projects I came up with myself and projects that created by other people online – and then compare those with the projects one can buy at the store. Usually, a totally different experience in sewing!
Below are two of the projects that I completed: a fabric card-holder (right) from Little Thing by Magda and the “CD poket” from Mushroom Villagers (left) – both things I’ve been trying to get to for some time! Takes me a while. But! I was so pleased with the way these turned out – both are really good designs with clear instructions. They’re also things I’m interested in playing around with more, and seeing what else I might be able to do with them.
I also made the quilted fabric wallet from That Darn Kat, but I was not pleased with the way it came out – some of my fabric ripped and it messed up the closure pretty badly, and I was not a happy camper. Particularly because it happened right as I was finishing. I’m going to try again at some point, because I think it’s basically a good pattern, and now that I’ve messed up made one, I think the second will go pretty well.
I posted about the pieced pillows I made earlier in the week as well. As suggested, I do tend to experiment – it’s the creative part of crafting that keeps me coming back. I thought that I’d show the picture of the sketch I made to come up with the pillows, and then show the pillows (again, sorry!), so you can compare the two 
One thing you may notice is that they don’t always end up exactly how I plan when I experiment – stuff goes wrong, I decide I don’t like stuff, whatever… it’s just kinda a work in motion. I do love my graphics, though. And now, I’m going to go offline and make some more!!!
Scraps of Stuff: Pieced Pillows
September 12, 2007 at 12:15 pm | Posted in Fabric-Related, Finished Projects | 1 CommentWell, some of my weeks’ projects are done! Yay!
I took out the scraps from the quilt I made last weekend and sat contemplating them some. What to do, what to do? Make pillows! One squishy, comfy project deserves another, right? So I messed around and cut them into little triangles and squares.
One thing about making something from scraps: they are scraps. The pieces are not of equivalent size and shape, making it difficult to get things pieced properly, and since it’s been a while since I finished the quilt, they have raveled sides. There’s more of some bits than other bits as well, which makes it hard to plan, much less execute, an even pattern. I have more left though, so there will probably be more scrap pillows…
Still, I am pleased with how they turned out. I loved the fabric I found the first time, all the blues, greens and purples in the plaids, and the coordinating blue chambray. It’s nice to work with it again, to think about the process of piecing again. I am, I must say, quite shocked at how the quilt itself has faded, now that this more preserved fabric is next to it. It’s well-loved and thankfully, has proven quite sturdy.
(That’s my pup Audrey there. She likes the pillows I make.)
Crafting for Charity: Manos del Uruguay + hook = Happy Jeff
September 11, 2007 at 7:10 am | Posted in Crafting for Charity, Fabric-Related, Finished Projects, Where to Find Stuff | Leave a comment
Last Friday I ran across a lovely post on Quesadillacraft about Manos del Uruguay yarn (well, I found it via Craftzine). Now normally, I’m pretty much a wash ‘n wear person with my yarn, but I do love this soft wool, and I was particularly drawn because purchasing this wool benefits a cooperative. I know, I know, I can’t help it. I’m just completely a sucker if you tell me it benefits someone. Besides, it wasn’t my scarf, so The Husband had some input in what he was going to wear on cold days in NYC around his neck.
Anyway, we travelled to a place called (oddly enough) The Yarn Co. on the Upper West Side to find something nice. This type of yarn is a hand-spun blend of merino and corriedale wool. You can get a multicolored version, but we chose the handspun semi-solid (from the purlsoho.com yarn source), and Jeff chose skeins of black, pewter and petrol (aka black, gray and blue-gray). Yowza! it was expensive, but it’s just a small scarf, and it’s very nice. It was a tadbit irritating to work with, as the black yarn there was nowhere close to an even thickness.
That’s the scarf there on the right, which is a very long scarf, crocheted length-wise with a double-crochet row to give it a nice pattern. It has nice long, thick fringes on either end. That’s Jeff wearing the scarf on the left. You can see how it wraps about him that it’s a super-long scarf, which is just how he wanted it. It was originally a different scarf with a slight ribbed effect, but that was scrapped because the yarns’ varying thicknesses made it impossible to make the scarf an even width.
If you make something with this yarn, post it to Quesadillacraft’s Flickr group and show off some more of the beautiful things that get made from this beautiful yarn!
History of the Cooperative – from ashleyyarns.com (distributors of Manos) via Quesadillacraft
“The Manos del Uruguay Cooperative was founded in 1968 by five friends. Their goal was to develop economic opportunities for the women in rural Uruguay. Although Uruguay has one of highest literacy rates in the world, there were and continue to be few employment opportunities for women.
Olgita Artagaveytia, one of the founders of the cooperative, had been volunteering at a village school in 1968. She and her friends were very impressed with the level of expertise in the craftwork produced by the village women. They decided to take the products to Montevideo and sell them for the village. This was a very successful venture and everything they presented was sold in one day! The name of Manos del Uruguay (Hands of Uruguay) was born.
The founders also helped the women organize socially and financially. They were committed to creating a professional organization that had legal standing and a strong marketing plan. The Cooperative was formed as a non-profit organization, committed to developing work for the women in the countryside. In 1976, working with the InterAmerican Development Bank and a marketing consultant, they opened a showroom in New York City, where they sold knitted and woven garments as well as Manos yarn. Over the ten years that the showroom existed, it employed Lola Ehrlich, who went on to become the editor of Vogue Knitting. Anne Simpson, also an employee of the showroom, created the space-dyed colour range and was the U.S. distributor for many years.
The original method of dyeing was done in iron kettles over wood fires. The dyes interacted with the iron in the kettles, producing a striated, faded quality, which was at first, seen to be a problem. It was a marketing consultant who saw the beauty in the colour shadings and named it Stria. Over the years, the process has been refined. Using stainless steel pots and steam heat, the dyers can now control the water temperature and provide a consistent range of over ninety colours. Manos Stria is a trademark of the product.
The Cooperative continues to be a strong, viable business, providing employment and income for the women of Uruguay.”
Tab-top curtains: the How To
August 18, 2007 at 11:59 pm | Posted in Fabric-Related, Finished Projects, Tutorial | 2 Comments
In the weeks since I posted about making hidden tab-top curtains, I’ve noticed a lot of people finding my site because they’re searching for how to make said hidden tab-top curtains.
SO, since I know how to make them, I thought I’d make my Very First Tutorial about them. It turns out tutorials are not easy things, but I persisted, and thus have the following link to present. It’s a PDF file you can print out: How to Make Tab-Top Curtains.
I hope that you enjoy and find it useful. If you notice something wrong with it, something that needs fixing, please let me know at crafterbynight -AT- gmail -DOT- com.
Impatience and Creativity
July 31, 2007 at 8:50 pm | Posted in Finished Projects, Painting/Drawing, Why craft? | 1 CommentWhen I am feeling impatient, I become creative. Typically, I start painting or sewing. Usually painting. What reminds me of this is what I did a week or so ago when I was waiting for the new Harry Potter book to appear on my doorstep (which it never did – I had to go purchase it. Thanks, Amazon).
The day I was waiting for Potter was extraordinarily productive. I completed two paintings. I do not have these to show, as I’m waiting until the entire project is complete (I’m doing sixteen related ones for my living room).
But I do have this basket to show, which I was reminded of that day. This painted basket is actually titled “Impatience” and that’s what it reads on the bottom.
This incredibly involved thing was painted when I first met my husband 7 years ago. I was very taken with him from the first hours we spent together, and I was trying to be patient and not get too ahead of myself. So while I was trying to be patient and failing, I painted. Often I painted in the evening when I was waiting for him to show up at my house. Or when I wasn’t going to see him. It was only 15-20 minutes or so every day, so it took about three weeks to complete. It’s been a fixture of my decor ever since, and I now keep my paints in it
The material of the basket is wood, which is my favorite medium. The colors I chose remind me of the colors of Mardi Gras. The forms are ones that I find myself painting often – organically-shaped mazes, rhythmic yet detailed and precise shapes. It definitely looks like I painted it and no one else. If nothing else, this basket is definitely my colors, my shapes, my design, my material.
I tend toward these sort of engaging, involved projects when I’m impatient because I can really wear myself out without something to do. This takes up the mental space that would’ve gone into becoming a nervous wreck while waiting for whatever. I don’t wait easily. It’s my way of turning what would otherwise be a negative experience into something positive. And that, my friends, is reason #100,394 of why I craft.
One craft in service to another…
July 24, 2007 at 8:53 pm | Posted in Fabric-Related, Finished Projects | 1 CommentI finished a couple of projects on Sunday. I was SO pleased with myself that I thought I’d just go ahead and make a list of all the other ones I’ve designed, but haven’t finished. About 3/4 down the page I thought, “uh oh, this is starting to look like a lot.” At the end of page two, I quit writing and went back to try to establish timelines for my projects to make sure I’m doing things instead of just planning to do things.Sometime, I should share my glorious portfolio of quilt ideas. I have actually made two of the quilts I designed. However, that’s small potatoes compared to the dozens I’ve designed. A few years back I just kinda went nuts with a vector-based design program. Whee!
Crochet Accessories: Despite my propensity for designing, I did both design finish and finish these. A great example of one craft (sewing) in service to another (crochet)! As with many projects, I kinda designed these on the fly. Consequently they have the usual issues relating to being impatient, but they’re certainly very sturdy and functional and pretty, and that’s what counts! I wanted them because I do tend to drag my crocheting around a bit – coffeeshop here, road trip there, upstairs, downstairs… 
Keeping track of the little odds and ends that go with this hobby while not annoying my husband with the mess is a challenge for messy me.
So – on the left (above left) is a crochet-hook roll and on the right is a crochet accessories bag. They are made of two lovely fabrics (see right)- a purple and green floral and a lavendar quilted cotton – plus a bit of dark purple bias tape, some gorgeous ribbon and wooden buttons. 
These have prompted me to decorate my whole crafting space in purple and green.
One project was a place to keep my scissors, crochet needles, measuring tape, row counter (no, I can’t keep track in my head!), markers, and other junk. The thrice-partitioned pouch folds nicely to get tied into a neat bundle. The pouches are not terribly large, which is GREAT. I have a habit of dragging around too much crap with me. (left, project in front)
The other item is a crochet-hook keeper. (right, project in front) This hook case – quite conveniently, I think – has room for at least one of every crochet hook from size B-1/2.25 mm to size S/19 mm. There are a bunch of 1 cm slots, several 1.5 cm and a few 2 cm, enough for one extra of each slot size.
It was NOT an accident I left the chalk lines in there – that’s so you can see that the left line represents 2 cm slots, the middle 1.5 cm and the right all the 1 cm slots.
I plan to make another one for my smaller hooks – the really itty bitty ones with numbered sizes, because not only would they fall out of these hook slots, they’re also about an inch shorter than the ones with letters.
You can see a few more pictures of this at my Flickr page.
Cheers, Miriam
The Living Room
July 16, 2007 at 8:25 pm | Posted in Domesticity, Fabric-Related, Finished Projects | Leave a commentHere at chez Miriam, it is time once again to consider the living areas of the house and to make improvements. Over the weekend I made one huge improvement: curtains!
I’m a big fan of curtains. Over the last years of my life I have lived in many a drab and dreary apartment, and 99.99% of the time I’ve have had to deal with super-cheap vertical and horizontal blinds. These do not improve the character of said apartment any more than plain white semi-gloss walls do.
So I use curtains to add color, life and interest to my rooms. It’s about as cheap as paint if you do it right. You don’t have to make really complicated Roman blinds – simple is often great. With just a little work you can make a really big statement with color, pattern and texture.
I’m a big fan of simplicity, so my curtains rarely feature pattern or swoopy bits or anything fussy. I’m right next door to minimalism, truly.
The living room is brown and red. Next spring I will be converting to a different color scheme, swapping the reds for cool blues and a bit of bright green. I like change, so I have neutral browns everywhere, which I find comforting. Then in autumn I go over to deep reds and other autumny colors. And spring and summer get cool shades.
I bought the white lace ones in back. It’s a really neat pattern, sort of reminds me of Spanish decorative patterns from the era of the caliphs.
The brown and red are bed sheets. I love bed sheets. They’re great for sleeping, of course, but did you know they’re also often the cheapest kind of large, unbroken length of cloth you can purchase? If you go to an online merchant like Overstock.com you can often find sheets with a really high thread count, even neat patterns for very little. As the picture shows, the ones I used had a very high sheen that resembles silk. I use sheets for curtains and as quilt backing in particular. I don’t want to sew together multiple panels of cloth for these items, as I think it looks bad. And in the case of quilting, a seam against you at night isn’t that great.
I chose not to do a curtain with backing, as I wanted to let the lace show through and let in more light. However, just sew two bedsheets together if you want backing – you can do white, or just two of the same color, or whatever you wish. You can even make them reversible. If you want to do this, that’s your first step.
Since I wanted just one layer, first I did a foldover on one end that could serve as a plain rod pocket first. This allows me to measure for hemming length, and it also gives me the option of switching the look a bit if I get tired of the hidden tabs I’ll put on later. I hung them on the rod, and measured them for length.
When hemmed properly, these curtains sweep the floor and have a nice full, thick, posh feel to them. This is achieved by double-thick 4″ hems on the bottoms for weight and drape. They’re also ironed and starched – this gives them sheen and additional presence.
On the top I chose to do hidden tabs. The top rod pocket and tabs are 3″ long and the tabs are 2.5″ wide. I took material leftover from hemming the bottom and sewed up the edges, then turned them inside out so no raw edges show. Then I sewed them every 6″ along the back. In order to avoid having short sewing lines that would call attention to otherwise-hidden tabs, I sewed the entire width of the curtain. On the bottom of the tabs, this means mimicking the sewing line from the rod pocket exactly. This is probably the hardest part.
Also, don’t sew the tabs on the sides on either end like I did. I finished with the top, turned, went down the side and then turned again and went back along the bottom. That was just lazy. However, you cannot put a curtain rod through a sewn seam.
So after one last trip up the stairs for the seam ripper, everything got put up. I like.
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