Bookmarks on sale!

Well I was a little late with posting the bookmarks on etsy, but they are up today. You can go to my store to check it out. They are laminated, which I wasn't sure about doing at first, but it actually looks really nice and will help them to hold up over the long run. Here are pictures of them

Marking up some bookmarks

So I print my first set of bookmarks up. They will be up for sale at my Etsy.com store (Kristin.Roach.Originals) for $1.50 plus 50 cents shipping and handling. I will be posting them tomorrow (they need to finish drying). Here is a picture of the unlaminated set and a test print.
I also swung by a quilt store here in Ames, it was huge! There were so many cute fabrics and books and things and things and things... I had a hard time not spending all my money there, but I managed to escape with only a half of a yard, I think it's the fabric I'm going to focus my quilt on, green and cat's playing music! Here's a picture!

Crewel Beginnings

So, I'm not sure what the officially name of this stitch technique is, but it reminds me of the crewel work I've been doing. I found it at my parents' house this past week. I vaguely remember making it for my mom for mother's day from a kit that my grandma gave me. On the back it says "to: mom from: Kristin 1993" geese that was a long time ago, I was only 10 years old. It was about this time that I tried making my first dress too! It's strange that 13 years later I am finishing my first sweater (only the ribbing on a sleeve and the cowl to go!). I will post pictures of the sweater later today.

Vacational Bliss

Ah, the three week break, how wonderful. I've been enjoying my jobless/schooless vacation in Ames, IA thus far. It's been really productive. I've posted my pattern for sale, started a quilt block swap, made two book holder proto types, cooked, cleaned stuff, played with power tools, I'm almost finished with my first sweater (the somewhat cowl from knit and tonic), almost finished with my second water bottle sling, and tomorrow I'm going to go exploring on my bike in ames. It should be fun. It's been nice having a cat around and jason for that matter. Here is a picture I took this afternoon of him and our funny little lady (she actually likes laying like this i swear!).












I have also learned how to purl correctly, which is good and I also learned how to knit backwards. Now why would knitting backwards be useful? When making a 8 stitch strap for my water bottle sling and being to lazy to turn my work.



I also made a trip to Hobby Lobby for two things and happened upon the clarance section... and oh what a section it is. This is what I ended up taking home. I personally felt that I had great restraint. I was really excited about finding the megentia block print ink for 2.40! I think I will have to experiment with that tomorrow (after my ride of course). The square buttons were really great to find too, I think they will be perfect for the blouse I'm going to make when I get back to my apartment (no sewing mechine here this time).

Oh, I almost forgot! After stressing out about grades this semester and disliking my professors and thinking that I am bad at French... I earned straight A's! After all my hard work in school, at work, and at home I was able to do it! How exciting right? I guess I really do well under pressure. I was going to school full time this semester and working 20-30 hours a week, sometimes more, plus reading and knitting and other things that have occupied me that have nothing to do with school. What a relief! I thought that this semester would kill my gpa and instead it helped it.

Well, I'm off to bed... and to listen to the rain, I do love that sound. It's one I can never get sick of, it just better not rain tomorrow, I want to ride my bike!

Goodnight

Pattern on sale!

So I finally finished up the pattern for the water bottle sling. It is available at http://kristinr.etsy.com for $5. It's really easy to knit up, there is no finishing, and only takes about one skien of yarn to make! I put a link to the store in the side bar and a button at the top of the sidebar that says "kristin.roach.originals".

Banner is up

So thanks to the html savy of my half asleep boyfriend who is resting his head on my shoulder I was able to get the banner up on my site. I'm a little annoyed because there is a little white line around it, but I will try to fix that later, I think it has to do with flickr more than me so I might just have to live with it until I get different hosting. Off to work on my other projects!

Grand Opening tomorrow!

So I'm gearing up for the grand opening of my online store tomorrow. I have only two things to sell right now, but that's the plan. Why? Because I'm going to introduce a new one of a kind items or replenish stock every Wednesday and I will introduce a new type of item once a month, I will decide the premire date later, most likely the second wednesday of every month, that way it will not interfere with getting the quilt block swap members info sent out the first of every month (which I will be sorting out for a few days i'm sure, those things always take more time than you expect them to).

I also made a new banner for my blog, but have yet to figure out how to actually make it my banner, I'm just figuring out how to use html, but that is a night time after dark activity. Right now, I'm going to go outside and play.... with power tools!

Painting time!

Well, so I know that I haven't had any pictures to post in a long time, so I had my friend Jill take some pictures. There are two assignments that I was working on. The first is to create a collage and than paint it to scale as exactly as possible. The second, which I am shown working on in the second picture (I will post a finished picture of that later). I have another painting which I will post later as well. I figure that I mention from time to time that I am a painting major, so I figured that I would show to you that I am not making things up.

Button Time!

I made up a button for the the swap, I think I will make a better one when I have more time. Here she be, feel free to add to your side bar when you sign up for the swap!

Rain.... today!

Well, I was supposed to be heading off to a vegan bbq this afternoon, but even though it's been nice all week, the clouds decided to spew out some rain today. So it goes, it will most likely clear up around 4pm, after the bbq is due to be over. So what to do instead... hmmm... I think I will get that package ready for my secret swap knitting, tea loving pal... long name right.. hmm that will give me a good excuse to go look at all the teas in the bins at the co-op here in town and possibly take a trip to the yarn shop (my stash is kind of small and all the yarn that isn't heading for a project is not heading for a project because it's kind of cheap crappy yarn). I'm not going to send her yarn that I got for 25 cents at the county thrift market... it's some kind of wierd acrylic/nylon, 1960's yarn from rochelle, il... oddly enough that is the next town over, hmm.... it is kind of soft actually... no, she deserves better!

Oh and I made a new banner for my quilt block swap, but i'm unfortunately without photoshop right now so I can't make it the right size, how lame. maybe I could post it here.... nope, totally didn't work, the file is just too big. I guess it will have to wait. I do have a picture of one of the squares that I made for my first ever! How exciting! The whole quilt was made from scrap fabric and old clothes, I made it for my boyfriend who lives far away in the tundra of Iowa. This is his favorite square, he took the picture and sent it to me. This square was made from some old pj's, some boxers from when I was in junior high, fabric I found at the thrift store, and the purple is fabric that was left over from a dress my grandma made for one of her porcline dolls (she made victorian style dolls and all of their clothes, so when she died I recieved all of her sewing things, fabric, and tons of lace.... I really miss her). Along the bottom of the picture you can see some green and red. The red is left overs from a baby blanket my mom made for a neighbor and the green was from the first dress that I ever tried to make. Tried and didn't finish... hehe... I made a moch up of it and spent so much time on that that I never got to the material I was supposed to be using. I should have just jumped into, but I was only 10 or so and didn't know any better. Excuse the poor quilting stitches, it was my first quilt after all.

Hmmm... so I'm leaving on vaction in a day, but you will not notice the differnce except fewer posts over the weekend, but on Monday I'm going to try to start whipping my blog into shape. I will have update pictures of my projects and by Wednesday I will have my KristinR.etsy.com up and running. There is a link to that on the side bar. There is also a link the the quilt block swap. I'm getting a little better at html, it's taking me awhile to remember it, I haven't really tried too hard since highschool! (6 years ago!).

I have a few different things in the works for my store, but it's a suprise, so check it out on Wednesday!

Quilt Block Swap

So I've opted to just start this thing rolling. You can find the Quilt Block Swap blogsite at http://quiltblockswap.blogspot.com! Come check it out and sign up. I have so many ideas for 12"x 12" squares it's rediculous. I am looking for some links to resources that would be good for fiber arts in general and quilting how to's. If you know of any leave me a comment. Thanks! (Go sign up to swap now!)

Idea #11!

So, I've been on this kick of ways to get use all of my scrap material and yarn. I'm trying not to buy more supplies or at least a very limited amount for the rest of the summer. So idea #11! Now this idea involves people getting involved, and i'm not sure if anyone even reads my blog except my family, but if you do and if you are out there and if you like to quilt this post is for you!

Back on track now, so idea #11, basically what I would like to do is get together a group of quilters who are not obsessive complusive and arrange a quilt block swap!

Basically this would entail signing up, making 2 quilt blocks, and send them to another quilter. You will also recieve 2 quilt blocks from another secret swap pal. At the end of the month I will redistribute the names and you will make and recieve another 2 quilt blocks. They will all be the same size, but you can use any pattern you want or no pattern at all.

Let me know what you think.... I just need a little feedback before I take a leap of faith like this.

Until next time!

My Store is Open!.... Kind of...

Well, what has been in the works for awhile now is finally being realized! I am opening a store at esty.com which you can find at kristinr.etsy.com. I do not have any items list yet. But that's basically because I'm just waiting to take some pictures of the items that I have and I am going though and knitting a pattern that I wrote to get all the bugs out. If anyone would like to do a test knit just let me know, I will send you the pattern and you can let me know how it works out. It's for the water bottle sling that I created about a month ago. I have had so many people ask me where I got it and when I tell them that I made it they ask me to make them one, which I refuse because they would expect it to be about $5 when I would want to charge like $25! So I decided to make a pattern up for it and people can just make it themselves. I'm also wondering how much I should sell the pattern for. I'm debating between $4 or $5. So to sum up:

1. I am looking for test knitters to knit a pattern that uses k2tog, kfb, three needle bind-off, picking up stitches, and working in the round on a set of 5 dpn size 4 or 2, please leave a comment to let me know if you are up to the challenge!
2. My shop can be found at http://kristinr.etsy.com and will be openned officially with items posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2006!

Little people... what an idea!

When I was in highschool and in my first years of college I used to draw these little people all the time. I don't really draw them much anymore, but when my mom went to a baby shower yesterday, an old friend of mine named rose asked what i had been up to and somehow it was mentioned that i knit a whole lot. Rose said, you know she should make little dolls of those people that she used to draw, I bet they would translate well to fiber. You know what Rose, that's a brilliant idea. I like it! So this afternoon I wipped together a proto-type pattern, filled with errors, and I should have one little guy done by the end of the week. I think I will make him a little friend and they can hang out together. I'm thinking about also doing a embroidered version too, an idea I'm borrowing from wee wonderfuls, which you can check out here: http://weewonderfuls.typepad.com/wee_wonderfuls/2006/04/red_head.html

And that is all for now, I'm going to con my friend with some dinner and see if she will take some pictures for me.

Tea Swap!

Hmmm... so! There is a woman who decided that knitting and tea is the best combination, and that other people most likely think so too... she was right! I think so! So she is going to host a tea swap for knitters. In a package you send your swap pal three things:
1. a package of your favorite tea
2. a treat to eat with the tea (cookies/scones)
3. 2 skiens of yarn from your stash... unfortunately I do not have a huge stash, but I'm sure I
can save up enough to buy two skiens for my soon to be swap pal!
I also said that I would be fine with an international buddy, so maybe I will be sending my package overseas, how exciting! Today is the last day to sign up, you should do it too! Just go to knittersteaswap.blogspot.com and send her an email with your info.

Pita Power!

So today has been the day of great procrastination. But that is okay. I found one more thing to do to procrastinate writing my term paper... and now I am blogging about it to procrastinate some more... man I'm good at this! So basically I went to the library because I just had to get some vegetarian cook books... had to! Sure I did. Anyway I ended up finding a book called "Pita the Great" and they are right, Pitas are great. But what is not so great is that some one tore the main recipe... you know the one... the one where almost every other recipe in the whole book says something like "follow steps one through five on page 22." I think that person, is 1. selfish 2. not book lover 3. not a library lover 4. doesn't respect other people 5 . doesn't think about how their actions effect other people.... basically an all around selfish, nasty, hateful, not knowing how to use a copy mechine person that should be eradicated from the earth! Anyway there was one recipe for whole wheat honey pitas, so I used that recipe instead, but I don't have any honey! what is a girl to do? I dumped in some canola oil and black strap molasses and some sugar... don't ask me how that equals honey in my mind but it turned out great! Not quite the same as sweet honey, but that's okay. It was so much fun to see them puff up in the oven. I've never made them before, but I think it's going to be a weekly ritual to bake pitas on sunday.

Sorry this blog is turning into a text only format, but hopefully by the end of the year I will get a digital camera and be able to put up picutures.

Updates

So, I successfully finished my ride and am proud to say that I went the full 20 miles. I think next year I'm going to try to do the 55 mile ride, but we will see.

I successfully finished my term paper and prepared for my art history and french exams.
Only one more paper and 2 exams and 2 paintings and 2 weeks to go.

I made a canvas shopping bag that perfectly fits into my new wire handlebar basket! It will be good for many things other than shopping:
1. trips to the library
2. holding yarn and needles and a book
3. picnicing
4. art stuff
5. whatever else comes to mind

I'm trying to reduce waste in my life... I am a stong believer that every choice I make has an impact, whether I can see it or not.

Trails for Tails

The day of the big ride! So in about 2 and a half hours I will be on my way to ride 20 miles in 3 hours. I have great news too! I just decided to do this ride last week, so I figured that a target goal of $100 in pledges would be kind of ambicious. So, with my last pledges coming in yesterday, I doubled my target goal and have $205 in pledges! My sister really helped by setting the standard of $2 a mile. Before that I was getting pledges of about $5 per person, which is good, I couldn't have made my goal without them! But after she made that pledge 2 other people followed suit in the next two days! Thanks so much to my big sis! Thanks so much to those who pledged! Seriously, every little bit does help.

I did a trial run yesterday and I am glad to say that everything went smoothly and me and my neighbors had a good time. We road from Bush street in dekalb to the far end of downtown Sycamore. I think it was about a 18 mile ride all in all, because we road back and forth quite a bit in Sycamore. Also we stopped at a ritzy hotel restaurant in Sycamore and split a portabella blue cheese burger and some clam chowder.... the waitress must have thought we were crazy to split a burger 3 ways, we did tell here though that we were riding to dekalb afterwards so we couldn't eat much or we would get sick, I think she just thought it was funny and of course that we were crazy. It was such a good time.

It was supposed to rain today, but now they say it is not, in fact it's supposed to be partly cloudy and 65 degrees! perfect weather!

Wish me luck and thanks again for the pledges!

Horay! It's my birthday!

So, I have not posted in awhile because mainly I work too much and I have a lot of school work to get done before the end of the semester, but as it is, today is my birthday, which desearves a little post at least.

I was gifted a lot of cool stuff... what was the best gift? I would have to say a really neat bookcase from pier 1 that my sister got for me. It is the perfect size and there was no assembly required. The sides fold out on hinges and the shelves fold down on the same. It is great! I was able to get all the books off the floor and onto it. In fact, with just the books on the floor I filled up 3 shelves! I didn't realize that I was reading so many books.

Top shelf: library books and books i'm reading for fun and craft books that I am working out of
Second shelf: school books that I am reading and books for my research paper
Third shelf: books that I have recently bought that are in que to read, or books that have been given to me that are in que to read
Bottom shelf: half full of articles in folders that I need to read for school.

In other news:
I am going to ride 20 miles for the Tails bike-a-thon.... basically, people make pledges per the mile that i ride or a flat donation, and then once I ride a rediculous amount that I have not tried to ever ride all at once before people say well good job, here's the money and then i turn in the money to the VEG society at NIU and then they turn it into Tails (the local no kill shelter). After the ride we are having a bocca burger bbq! what fun! and it's all for the cats and dogs and other little critters that end up at the shelter. If you would like to donate, post a comment saying so, I will then contact you and give you my info (so you can send a check to me) and i can get your info so I can write down your name and stuff to turn into VEG.

I cut down my hours at work so hopefully I will write a decent paper and do okay on the exams I have coming up.

I love my bike!

Oh yeah, i finished some projects!
1. baby booties
2. water bottle sling of my own design! woot!

That's it for today

Fancy Flickr!

So I did something fancy. I made sets of my photos in flickr and added a link on my side bar so that if you want you can look and see what I am working on, what I have worked on, and pictures of progress pictures while working on stuff that is now finished. Neat aye?

gift again

So I have thought long and hard, and did some math, and realized that I should not be a selfish knitter, that I should just make a baby blanket. This also comes from the realization that there is a huge differnce between 48 squares that would be needed to make a baby blanket and 100+squares that would be needed to make an adult size blanket... so sad. Plus on top of that there is the whole thing about not having enough yarn in the right colors to make a full size afghan. So a compromise has been made. I will make the baby an afghan out of all my random acrylic yarn (which is not a whole lot) and I will make an afghan out of all the random wool yarn for me (which I have a whole lot more of). It will be a goofy looking afghan that will be made out of a bunch of random yarn of random sizes and that I will just make bigger and bigger as the years go along. I think it will be one of those connect the squares as I go along type deals. It should be fun, and colorful!

Yet another project!

Okay, so this started out as a planned gift, but i think i am starting to like it too much and i don't know if i'm going to be able to give it away. It's an afghan from the book Simple Crochet. I'm using my stash yarn for it. These are the squares I made today. I think I'm just going to use the two multi colored squares toward the bottom of the picture and not the white one or the little one. Although I may use the varigated yarn to connect them all together though. Oh yet another project, well at least it's not costing anything!

interesting... and a good idea!

Do you ever see something and think to yourself, "damn, i wish i would have thought of that" and then you stew about it that it would have been the perfect fit for who you are and what you do and what you think about. They just beat you to it. sometimes, it's by an hour, others it's more like 30 years. Well, that's the way I feel about the Red Sweater Project http://www.redsweaters.org/RedSweaters.html . This artist had an amazing idea. A way to get many people envolved and think about the war and all work together to make other people think about the war. I have been wanting to do something like this for awhile. I just wasn't sure how, and well she figured it out. knit or crochet a bunch of sweaters and tie them together to make people think. The people that help knit the sweaters think about who's death that sweater might be representing, and the people who see and then ask about the sweaters think about the magnitude of the deaths in Iraq. I like her explination of why she is only representing american soldiers, it's kind of a sad reason really. there is just no way to fit all of them in the tree. there are too many people who have died to represent in three inch sweaters inside of one tree. It seems to me that it would actually take a neighborhood of trees. So go to the sight and knit a sweater and remember who's fighting out there.

On a side note I just found out that a close friend of mine is being deployed to Iraq soon. It makes me kind of sad. I realize that he may die. That I may never see him again. That he too may be represented by a little red sweater.

m.a.p. bag

So here are some pictures of my m.a.p. bag! There is the bag closed, open, the inside, button close up, and the inside showing the devider unsnapped (yess sir eee, the devider comes out, or stays in, it is secured with 6 snaps). I like it so much I'm going to make another one! I have some ideas on how to make the design better and the sewing process easier.

More Pictures

This is a picture of all the stuff I've been working on together. Crewel work, knitting, sewing, it makes me happy.

Finally... Pictures!

Sweaters and more sweaters! So I am finally posting some pictures of the projects I'm working on. I just started the somewhat cowl (sky blue cotton fleece), have been working on the wavey line sweater from the book Vintage Knits (Lambs Pride, light blue, pink, red, and brown, I will post the official names of the colors later), and the go with anything anywhere sweater from stitch and bitch.

more projects

Well, somehow, even though I hardly have time to eat (last night I had aprox 15 mins to make and eat dinner inbetween school and work), I find time to knit and sew and find new projects to work on. And on top of that, I find that my reading list is getting longer everytime I post. I just added the new book from the museum of contemporary art in chicago. Here's a picture of the front, isn't it beautiful! And then, I just started swatching for the Somewhat Cowl from knitandtonic.com... she has some great patterns.
I'm not sure what color to make it though, but i'm going to make my decision today! I was actually thinking that a beige might be good because I don't have a beige anything really to wear at all and it's a color that looks pretty good on me and would go great with a nice gray wool twill skirts that has little crewel work along the hem! Or possibly light sky blue.... hmm... okay so maybe I won't make up my mind. I want to make it red, but I have three red sweaters already! I don't need to make one. The brown in the picture looks nice, but I just don't know if I want to knit something that's all brown for the summer.... hmmm... anyway I'm thinking about making it with cotton fleece, but i'm not sure if it will work, it did guage perfect though... we will see. In other news it is Jason's (my boyfriend) birthday this weekend. He is turning 24, and is getting over the hill syndrom already "I'm so old, don't remind me about my birthday." Geeze, he better not be like this every year. Anyway, so I got him some pretty good gifts, but I feel like there is something missing, like I should get him one more thing, but I'm not sure what! I will figure it out i'm sure. I'm writing a research paper this week and have two exams and an article summery due all tomorrow! oh my what am I doing on the internet, I need to kick it into high gear!... oh and the reason that I have not posted any works in progress pictures is because my digital camera broke and I am going to have to get a new one. But I cannnot afford one right now, so you will all have to just hold onto your pants and wait until a friend can take some pictures for me. That in a wierd way reminds me. I made a Museum All-Purpose bag or m.a.p. bag as my dad likes to call it (i like to call it that too), and it is the perfect size for taking to museums and galleries. It has a divider so you can put a sack lunch on one side and wallet, keys, phone, brochures, etc on the other. There is an inside pocket, and it buttons on the outside (no noisey zippers or velcro). The strap is 2 inches thick so as to provide a comfortable fit as you run around in the museum. You want to focus on art and not on "oh my shoulder sure does hurt, I wish I would have bought that m.a.p. bag from Kristin Roach Originals!" I mean, I know that's what I want to focus on. Anyway, I will be selling them on etsy.com in a week and a half (after my paper is turned in). I will post a link when I get everything up and running to my online store. Also, I will post pictures of the m.a.p. bag this weekend.

The long awaited Birthday list!

Well there have been a few requests from family (the people I mainly blog for so they can see what I'm up to as far as projects and events goes) to make a birthday wish list. So here is goes:
1. Bookcase! (or two) tall and narrow is the thing. no wider than 27" and as tall as can be
2. gift certificut to The Yarn Exchange or Dick Blick or JoAnn's Fabric (the only fabric store in town)
3. "Vanishing American Needle Arts" by Denise Longhurst
4. "Compendium of Finishing Techniques" by Naomi McEneely
5. "What is Wrong with Contemporary Art?"
6. "An Atlas of Animal Anatomy for Artists" (I really want this, as far as books go it is top of the list)
7. "The Rape of the Masters: How Political Correctness Sabotages Art" (This is right under animal anatomy for artists)
8. "Denyse Schmidt Quilts"
9. "Make Your Own Contemporary Quilts"

Now of course I do not expect to get all this, but it's just some ideas for what I am interested in right now. Basically any book on art theory would be great, the bookcase is very very needed (I have piles all over my apartment, books and books and books, it's rediculous, but I love it).

more chicago and a splash of dekalb

Ah chicago... what a great day I had with you. I was dropped off at 10am (hitched a ride with a friend). Walked around for a bit, went to Au Bon Pain and then decided not to so I went to Cosi instead. There were couches, wooden tables, a big fireplace to bake bread in, and most importantly they didn't seem to mind people just buying coffee and sitting for a bit to read. Then off to the insitute for a few hours. There were so many great things there, I could have spent 6 hours there and not just 2.... It was only 7 dollars and I enjoyed it more than a movie, so I figured it was a good deal. I saw so much....

And then I went to the contemporary... interesting as always. There was one instilation and one painting that I really liked. Unfortunately I will have to look them up online because I forgot to write them down. There was another piece that was interesting. There were two empty galleries before I saw the guard and I know she must be guarding something so I keep walking.... and then I see it... a child... a small boy, he's kneeling and facing away from me, I cannot see what he looks like, so I walk around to face him. It is no child at all, it is in reality a child size hitler kneeling in front of me. The realization is startling.... deeping desturbing really. I left feeling discusted and betrayed. I was feeling innocent about the boy and that feeling was quickly replaced with horror because of the face. It's interesting how a face can mean so much, how a half truth is so decieving.

I went to the gift shop... which is more like an extensive library of books that can't be found in your standard bookstore. They range from artist biographies/autobiographies to art history and art theory. The really great thing is that all the art theory books are current. I decide another time I will buy one....

I go across the street to borders and drink some more coffee... I sit down and think about things what I've seen... how much I love the city. I'm thinking "you know, there was a help wanted sign on the door of that coffe place I was at earlier.... oh to work here, to be here, to live here, how wonderful." and then I realize that it won't happen for another 3 years at least, maybe more, so it goes i guess. It was great sitting there looking down at michigan and chicago ave and seeing all those people blur together into one identity... the identity of the city.

I kick myself for not buying that book. It was a toss up really on what to buy. Either "what is wrong with contemporary art?" or "art history versus aesthetics." They were both really good. I decide to go back and make up my mind about which book and buy one. First though I check to make sure that they don't sell them at borders for a whole lot cheaper. They don't. So I go back across the way to the contemporary and look at the books again.. all those wonderful books. Some day I will have a library that fills up two rooms, maybe more. And when I die, I will donate it to the art community and it will be called the Kristin Roach Mermorial Library! Anyway, so after much debate and looking around I decided on "Art History versus Aesthetics." Off to the office to catch my ride home, but I get there early so I go next door to starbucks and get a coffee. You know I don't like them or their coffee, but it is convienient having a coffee shop on almost every block.

I met up with david at 430 and we headed off to the Oak Park Library for the oak park arts league seminar on artists marketing. It was really good and I wrote a bunch of notes. I learned a whole lot and became inspired to sell my art and to market it. We chatted a bit and then headed home.

Back in DeKalb...
More work at old navy.
And I ordered my pattern for the knit along. I'm going to be making the somewhat cowl from Knit and Tonic. I will post a picture of that and other things later.
I had dinner with my neighbors, I'm going to be so sad when they move, but that's not until July so I'm just going to enjoy their company for now.
Watched Cowboy Beebop season 2 again... it is so good.

Well this is a mighty long post so I'm going to call it quits for now. I'll post pictures of things later.

Chicago

Oh yesterday was so good. I went to chicago, I saw art, I lived in the city for a day. I want to go back soon. The day was just to short. I will post more later, because I have to go to work. Blah.

Art Emersion Day, Horray!

So I have decided that although I have two papers, 3 exams, one summary, french homework, and a painting to paint in one week for submission to the sga show that I am taking One whole day off for art, for my love of art, for my desire of art. I am going to take this day, start off at 7am and take myself to chicago. I am less than 2 hours away from chicago and have lived less than 2 hours from chicago for over 8 months and have not gone there. What is wrong with me!? I think I am afraid.. although I am not sure why. So I am going to go and look at art, make art, be inspired and renew my soul. And yes I am serious, I need renewal. I am burnt out, uninspired, and not excited about my work. My cousin ask me "when is the last time you did art for yourself and not for school?" It was a tough question for me to swallow... it has been since last summer! that is too long! that is rediculous!

So what is on the agenda?
the melanee cooper gallery - http://www.melaneecoopergallery.com/index.html
the douglas dawson gallery - http://www.douglasdawson.com/index.html
the jean albano gallery - http://www.jeanalbanogallery.com/index.html
the aldo castillo gallery - http://www.artaldo.com/index.shtml
the art institute of chicago - http://www.artic.edu/aic/
the museum of contemporary art chicago - http://www.mcachicago.org

I know, I know, it's a lot to do in one day... but really no... I will do it.... although, honestly the aldo castillo gallery may just be too far away. I'm going to have to check into the El and see if they run out that way. Make it easier on me to get around. I am looking forward to this so much. Most of the galleries are in the northern downtown next to the contemporary so i will most likely go to more galleries than listed. Oh the art emerssion proceeds!

Oh and the painting on the left is not mine, it's something I came across while looking for galleries to go to... I love this woman and I plan on going to boston and meeting her. She is amazing!

Yeah for today!

I haven't posted in awhile, but that's mainly because I have been lazy and busy at the same time. I did a few packages in the mail this past week that brought me so much happiness. My cousin sent me a few bookmarks that she made along with a letter on really cute stationary. It really made my day. Then just yesterday I recieved The New Crewel, which also made my day. I suppose I should reliquish my copy from the library back to their hold... I do love the library and all of their books, and the way that they smelled, the feel of their pages. I will post pictures later, when I am no longer feeling so lazy.

New links horray!

So I have found some new links that everyone should enjoy:
1. http://www.cast-on.com - an amazing woman that I enjoy listening to every sunday afternoon
2. http://www.podiobooks.com - interesting books to listen to for free
3. http://www.storynory.com - free kid books to listen to for free
4. http://www.autumnbreezedesigns.com/blog/ - another woman to listen to on sunday afternoons... maybe, i haven't listent to a full podcast yet
5. http://www.rubyfruitradio.com/ - music by women that is good to listen to anytime

I exchanged some stuff at joann's and got a new pattern for a shirt, i will post a picture of the fabric and the pattern sometime this week... I have a lot of homework built up from being sick so not much time to tinker around on the computer.

The Happy Hooker - that's me!

So I found this randomly at Borders last night and was pretty happy to see it too. It has some pretty good patterns for some pretty interesting things... Maybe if they get it at the library I will get it and make something, but as with stitch 'n bitch and stitch 'n bitch nation I'm not sure if there is enough things in this book that I would want to make to warrent me buying the book instead of another one... like the new crewel (which I just finished ordering from albris.com).... and yes I did cave and not wait until next christmas.... so it goes, books my only vice.

Crewel and Cats

So I have been sick and i figured out the cause, it was not the flu it was stress. So you know what my cure was? well it was not medicine that did the trick it was the library! I do love that place. So I had to return some movies I had rented and I went reguardless of the migraine that was plaging me and a good thing too. The longer I was there the less I noticed my headache and by the time I had found four good books, one book on cd, and two movies my headache was miniscule and I felt wonderful. No nausia, no headache, just inspiring thoughts and smiles all around. So two books I found were just how-two's so not much to mention there, but the other two! oh the other two! Cats on Quilts and The New Crewel! What fun books and just the kind of thing that I've been looking for. I've been thinking about designing a quilt and about making some purses with embroidery and crewel is really what I was thinking of I just didn't know the right name! So yep... oh and another thing that helped me out (my headache is gone completely now I think because of this directly) I found out that instead of failing my french test like I was thinking (and I'm serious, I thought I was done with french after this, it was all written too so it was mostly skills and not multiple choice dumb luck) I got a B+! Almost an A! So now I'm going to go to borders and sign up for their prefered customer card and hopefully by next christmas I will have enough money in that christmas savings account to buy the new crewel book! woot!

Etsy bitsy!

So my cousin just happened to send me a link to etsy.com... It's kind of like ebay, but different. There is no auction, but more just buy it now, which is kind of nice because you (the seller) can set the price. The really neat thing is that in order to sell on etsy.com your product has to be handmade/handcrafted or at the very least original hand assembled. I think I may sell stuff that I make from my scraps on there... I do fancy making tote bags and such so it should be fun. The listing price is not too bad and when you sell something the "selling" fee is 3.?%... i think 3.4... which is not half bad.

On another note I have been sick with the flu lately which is why I've been on the internet so much... just so you know... I mean I'm not a slave to my computer or anything. Well my crossiants are done so I'm going to go eat those and hopefully they will go down and stay down okay. And hopefully I will be okay to take my exam tonight... Have a good day internet folks!

Scraps of Fabric

Well, I have come to a point in my life where I have two rubber made containers, one large garbage bag, and various other boxes and baskets full, and I mean full of fabric. Some of the peices are large enough to make clothing items, but so hidious that I would never wear them, and other pieces that are so small, that my best hope is to make costers and then there are all those inbetween pieces that are temptingly large so when I first pick them up I think "oh this would make a cute little button up shirt" and then am dismayed to find that it is really only a half yard... sigh... so I have two questions to pose to the world out there... 1) what would be a good way to store all of these scraps 2) please send some ideas on what you like to do with your scraps.


I have been perusing the internet lately and found some interesting blogs/sites... check them out:
http://www.chiccosas.com/ - a fancy lady with some fancy stuff for sale
http://www.jesshutch.com/update.html - she has an amazing little book of knitting patterns for sale and a free pattern for a bunny!
http://www.woolworks.org/charity.html - a list of knitting for charity projects by state
http://www.magknits.com/ - lots of cute patterns for knitting
http://www.anniemodesitt.com/patterns/#Corset - I want to make this sooooo bad!
http://www.michaels.com/art/online/projectsheet?pid=e00725&categoryid=32 - I doubt this takes only 2 hours... but still cute.
http://www.womenforwomen.org/index.htm - an interesting site with an amazing mission
http://weewonderfuls.typepad.com/ - some really cute stuff... i think there is a pattern somewhere in here for a cute cat too (sewing)
http://www.loobylu.com/ - more cute stuff
http://thewurstgallery.com/index.html - neat stuff to buy
http://srithreads.com/index.php - you should just check this out, it's neat, especially if you are interested in fiber art

oh I am so excited, I am working at encore clothing, inc today... I'm almost done with my training.... I think I will get there early and look around in the yarn shop, maybe knit for a bit. (the yarn store is owned by the same person and they are connected). http://www.encoreclothing.com/ and http://www.theyarnexchange.com/

Chogakpo

So I was looking around the web on some blogs and such and I some how fell onto this site http://srithreads.com/gallery.php/zoom/2 ... it's a gallery that speciallizes in asian textiles... This particular image is really sticking into my mind. I've been looking for something to do with my scraps and I think something like this would be a good place to use them.... although what pratical items could I make? A quilt for my bed? A table cloth? A bag to put my yoga mat into? I am sure that I have enough scrap material to do it all. Although I understand that if I were to make something like this it would not be authentic, but the main point is that this image and little detour into asian textile practices has inspired me to make stuff. I will post pictures of sketches later this week i'm sure.

More skirt stuff

Well, so i found this sew along that is making a skirt and unfortunately the enrollment time has passed and I can't sign up... sigh... oh well. I did buy a pattern anyway and i'm going to make it because as you can see from the past post i was planning on making a skirt. I went and bought the pattern and was so excited that I grabbed the wrong size, oh well, I exchanged it and everything is good now. This is the skirt that I am making (B4025-A). I just happened to have some materal that was handed down to me that will be just perfect! I may have to use interfacing or muslin at the least to reinforce it, but that won't be too hard. The material I have is kind of a black satin that's kind of stiff but very thin. I'm sure it's a poly blend of some sort. It will be a fancy skirt that will look great with the corset I'm going to start making soon... yes I know another corset, but you see I'm addicted, besides, I already have everything I need for it except the time... but that will come eventually. I think I will be able to start and finish the skirt this weekend, I barely work on friday and I have Saturday off, plus no major projects due. Well I do have exams this week so i better go study some french... Parlez-vous français?

Skirt stuff

Well I found one free pattern for a skirt that looks pretty easy/nice, but i'm not sure that it would look so great on me. I think that it would look really great on say my sister, so maybe I will make it for her for her birthday... hmm... how to get her measurements... anyway here is a link to the pattern if anyone wants to make it, it could be fun http://sewnews.com/resources/library/0406beauty/index.html

Project update!

So now that I'm done with the corset I have decided to try to finish that second cabled glove and hopefully it will be done in time to wear it this winter. If not I suppose I will just wear them next winter. I'm also keeping my eye out for a good skirt pattern, I have this material that would make such a good going out and getting fancy skirt if I could just find the right pattern. I was thinking about something that flaired out a bit and maybe had some of that net stuff underneath to make it poof! I'm really starting to become a girly girl... I think the ladies at old navy are rubbing off on my a little. I just wish I had some nice jewlry to wear and some nice dress sandles... I got those boots and I just love them, but now I am needing something for the summer. After making that corset and a few other things I've realised how great it is to have something made to fit me... and fit only me.... made just for me. i'm sure you get the point. It's rare if ever that I find anything that I think, this fits perfect and that just kind of sucks. So I think i'm going to try to start making some of my own clothes... like dress shirts and skirts first and then later i will try pants and dresses. There are about 3 shirts in my clothest that I love that are in taters so I'm going to reverse engineer those and try to make some new ones out of more up to date material. Well here's to hoping.

Pictures of the corset!

So I decided to slip into the corset and get jason to take some pictures and
then i was like what's that smell? oh shoot the steak so i went to pull it out of the oven and jason shot this picture... Oh and the beans! so jason bought me a coffee roaster (kind of, it's actually a pop corn popper, but it essentially works the same way, operates at about 420 degrees F like hot air coffee roasters do), some raw beans, and a coffee bean grinder! So this is the end result! Fresh roasted beans!! It was the best anniversary present ever!

Here's Jason

So me and jason were out and about in the woods and I ambush style got a picture of him, so here he is trying to dodge out of the way... I'm only posting this so he will get annoyed and send me some pictures. (yes that's right to annoy you, so send me those pictures you promised!)

Finished!

I'm finally finished with my corset... just in time to. We, Jason and I, are going to be celebrating our two year anniversary this weekend! I'm almost done with a skirt to match it to. It's just a jean skirt made out of some old jeans and some scrap fabric, but it's still cute and free! I started working on the second glove again.. hopefully I will get it done before I don't need it anymore. If I'm lucky I will get a lot done on it this weekend. I can't believe I made a corset! it's so beautiful. I'm sure I will look back on it and say how the heck did I make something so badly, but it's my first and so of course it won't be my best. There are deffinately a lot of things I would change about it though.... like the sides are too long and need to be shortened up a bit, but I suppose that is just because I have a short torso. It's kind of funny, I have cleavage when I wear it. I've never had that before. hehe... anyway, I need to finish packing and clean up my appartment and get mr. beuler ready for the trip (I'm going to put the cage in the car first tonight and then just take him into the car in his carrier, it will hopefully be easier that way).

more progress!

Well, I actually got some stuff done on the corset. I finished all of the seam boning (boning that runs along the seam, which is a lot since there is about 12 seams on the corset). It actually looks pretty good too. I'm hoping to finish the rest of the boning that is just placed in the corset and not along the seams which is actually harder to place because there is no guide. There are twelve of those total. And then I will just need to put the trim on... which is the easiest thing to do. Unfortunately it will still take awhile because it needs to be mostly hand stitched... blah. If all goes well I should have it done by the end of the week... and even if it goes badly I will still have it done by the end of the week! so there!

Progress Resumes!

Well horray of horrays! I have worked rediculously hard all week.... all month and I am going to take this afternoon off and resume work on my corset! it's going to be so cute! I found this pattern http://www.modeknit.com/silk_corset.html and I'm thinking about making that to go over it... I was thinking in white... white to go with the white trim and maybe pink buttons to go with the pink fashion fabric layer. okay... i just finished lunch it's time to make some coffee and get busy!

New Projects, progress, and stuff like that....

Unfortunately I have not been able to work on the corset do to the time constraints of working too much and going to school full time. Good news about school: I'm finally getting my second degree program approved so I will offically be in the Art History and in the Painting programs (BA and BFA). Turns out that I only need to take one more French class and I will have a minor in French so I figure that would be a good idea especially because the last semester that I'm there I will only need two more classes and I need to be full time so I figure one more french class to get the minor and one more studio just because I want to... I'm thinking either weaving or ceramics. There's a whole mess with not transfering french 101 so I have to see if they will swap out a class and give me that instead. But I have to wait until I get the final documentation for the BA program. What a pain, it will be worth it though. In other crafty type stuff, I am getting there on the cabled glove and it should be done soon. I put a few more rows on my betrix potter (or however that's spelled) cardigan. I also just did the gauge for another sweater that I'm going to be making. It's a pattern out of the book my sister got me for christmas, and I'm buying almost all the yarn and needles with the gift certificut that she gave me as well. Well I need to get on my french homework, if I want to minor in it I'm going to have to study hard... French comes to me a lot more slowly than art history and painting... which I am kicking some royal butt in my painting class.... It could be that I've taken painting classes before and paint all the time and for a lot of these people this is their first class. Plus I would like to assume I have a natural nack for it and a strong desire to paint... with oil paints.... oh I do love them... I don't have any pictures of my projects so I will post something random instead. Oh, i did find a picture of the gloves that I am making... pretty sweet eh?

Corset

I'm about ready to put in the boning and finish it up with some trim along the top and bottom. I decided to take a picture but unfortunately my camera is kind of broken and distorts the pictures really badly. I did the best I could as far as the pictures are concerned... hopefully I will get the corset done in the next couple of weeks... boning it takes forever!

yarn delivery

So Jason got the yarn for his afgan and the little ones just had to check it out. So Cute! I can't wait for him to finish it.

New Project!

So I figured out what to make. They are above the elbow wool gloves with a single cable down the arm to the back of the hand. I will post a picture later today most likely, I want to get back to working on them!

Too much time too little projects

It's wierd, I went through a frenzy of knitting and worked on several projects at once. I have now finished almost all of them. I currently am only working on 2 things and am starting to want more.... so what shall my next project be? Who is to say? Maybe I will make a coffee cup cozy, another pair of socks? hmmm... so many ideas and possable projects... what to do?! I'm sure I will figure it out soon enough. I am getting close to being done with my corset... It's looking so beautiful. I'm about ready to put the boning in!

corset

It doesn't look like much, but this is the front of the corset that I'm making. I put the busk in (the clasps) and just need to sew next to it to fix it in place. I'm kind of nervous about doing the grommets and stays... but hopefully it will turn out okay.

Backgammon bag

It's finished!!!!!!!!!! Finally!

game piece bag

So I finished my backgammoned bag and I needed something to put the game pieces in so I made this little bag with some left over yarn from the bag.

Betrex Potter Cardigan

These are the buttons that I got from the yarn store in Des Moines last week. Aren't they so cute!

Kate from knitty.com

Here's a little kitty that I made for my boyfriend (he likes cats). I just finished it this morning. I made it from some yarn that I bought at the thrift store, it was too cheap to pass up (20 cents a skein).

Well, I finished a bunch of things and took pictures of all of them so you could see them... all the pictures turned out rotten, so I have to retake them tonight. I will post the pictures tomorrow afternoon though... It's so exciting... oh but in the mean time this is a picture of the mittens I made for a friend when they were half finished and a picture of the peter rabbit cardigan (well, really the go everywhere with everything cardigan from Stitch N' Bitch) but I got these kick butt buttons from a yarn store in Des Moines, IA and so now it is all about Betrex Potter's charecters which takes me back a bit.... and i'm rambling... one more thing the sweater will be off white with tan mohair trim instead of the blue and yellow they show in the picture.