A few tidbits

03/27/2010

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I always end up delaying posts trying to include updates for all my different projects, but I don't work on all my projects every week, so it takes weeks and weeks to build a post that has pictures of all the various projects.  There will be a longer post (someday) with other photos in it, but for now, a few tidbits. 
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My finished Tinysaurus.  It took me about one hour to put it together, but I was so excited I rushed through it.  I certainly could have taken more time on it.  Also I didn't end up using the tweezers because I found them to be more of a burden than a help. 
And just a taste of some Ukrainian Easter eggs that I dyed this weekend.  While not technically a needle art, Ukrainian egg dying does use a kistka which has a needle like point, so I'm going to let that slide.  Here is one I did in desert colors with an Ocotillo on the front and back and Brittle Bush flowers around the side.  The second one has some starfish and jellyfish on it, and a sand dollar on the bottom.  The rest of the photos of the process are being held captive in the internal memory of my camera and I'll post them when I can. The process of making the eggs was a little unnerving to me because I'm not comfortable with free form, but the color mixing/layer part was right up my alley.  I plan to dye more tomorrow, so we'll see what happens.
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Plums and a rantlet

03/04/2010

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The plums are coming along swimmingly.  Here is one of the sleeves.  It may or may not be too long, I guess we'll find out later.  The directions say to make the sleeve 19 1/2 inches before the decreases start, and I hate to futz with directions the first time around.  But with the cuff turned back, as pictured here, I think it will be fine.  Also there are supposed to be some shoulder pads in the finished product, so those should take up some extra arm fabric as well.  If there is no extra arm fabric then there will be no shoulder pads I guess.
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Also worthy of note: a friend sent me a link to Reknit, where, for thirty dollars, one mails an old sweater to them, the mother of the site designer unravels it and re-knits it into something else.  It appears to be some kind of mom sweat shop.  No, not really, but it does bring up some "serious" questions in my mind. [Ed. note: I added the quotation marks while I was re-reading this, I mean really, serious is when your circular needle breaks and all the stitches fall off, these are more musings.]  This re-knitting seems just fine on the surface, and there are many ladies out there who do this themselves, but those ladies are searching Goodwills for very specific sweaters.  Most commercially produced sweaters found at Goodwill are made by terrible corporations who think it is fine to just make bolts of knitted fabric, cut them into the shapes they need, serge the edges, and then sew it into a sweater shape (a shape that fits great and has none of those imperfections that spell out L-O-V-E).  When you unravel such a beast you end up with a lot of short pieces of yarn.  The mother daughter team of Reknit don't provide any direction on their site about what kinds of sweaters to send, which makes me wonder, is this magical little knitting mother splicing many short pieces of yarn together?  Weaving in innumerable ends?  If only knitters were sending items to be re-knit, then it might be more likely that they would send more easily unravelable items, but I can't imagine, via email, that it would be very easy to explain to a non-knitter what to look for in a sweater's insides to ensure that it was made of one continuous piece of yarn.  I think it is an interesting idea, and a nice service.  I'm a little surprised also that they don't play up the sentimental angle, you know, have your child's favorite sweater made into a scarf, something like that.  I guess people can make that leap on their own.  
The quilt hasn't grown enough for another pictures, and I've got other projects that are also in their infancy.  I'm awaiting the arrival of a non-needle related craft kit, which I think I will still post images of here, because, as a photo from the website will show, it is amazing.  
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UPDATE: My mom tells me she heard about Reknit on NPR and that it is a mother-SON team, not mother daughter.  Me and my sexist assumptions.  It would seem that children of any sex can put their moms to work.  After reading the NPR article, now I'm just outraged for this woman.  I mean, I understand that she is not being forced at gunpoint to knit scarves, but 7-8 hours of work for $30!  This is why I am always very polite but firm with people who suggest that I sell my stuff. 
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