to do list

missliz is back. yaaaaay!

Going all handmade this year for the Christmas gift exchange-o-rama.  Lucky for me, no one I’m giving gifts to reads this site, so I can post about the gift-making without abandon. Watch out!

Here’s a quick breakdown:  Grandma hat, Grandma scarf, Mom bathrobe, Dad bathrobe, Brother bathrobe, BF pajamas.

(Bathrobes: no buttons, no zippers, large pieces, don’t have to fit well. ding ding!)

Four days until Christmas Eve.  Six projects to make.  One completed.  Another in progress. Feelin’ good.

By the way, I am asking for a new camera for the holiday. Mostly because of what follows:

Project in progress, the Grandma scarf:

stupid camera

This is how the Grandma hat and scarf project was born:

• ring ring 
• Me: Hi Mom!
• Mom: Hi missliz!  So somehow Grandma heard, or you told her, that you were knitting her a hat for Christmas.
• I immediately start narrowing the list of offending family members who could have told my lovely Gran this lie.  Then I realize that I spoke to her over the phone on Thanksgiving evening…after my family had powered through two bottles of champagne, pre-dinner cocktails then triptophan laced turkey accompanied by wine.
• Mom: So I think that would be a great idea.  And then, I can buy a matching scarf for her.  Blue is wonderful with her eyes. So there you go.
• Me: uhhhh
• Mom: And the yarn can’t be itchy.
• Me: Well, I don’t think that you’ll be able to buy her a scarf that would properly match the hat I want to knit her.  So I should just knit her the scarf too.
• Mom: Perfect! Bye!
• Mom hangs up immediately knowing full well what her daughter just got herself into

To do as of today:

1. finish – bind off Grandma scarf
2. cast on – bind off Grandma hat
3. cut pattern pieces – sew Mom bathrobe
4. wash fabric for Dad bathrobe & BF pants
5. cut pattern pieces – sew Dad bathrobe
6. cut pattern pieces – sew BF pants
7. wash Brother bathrobe to rid of chalk marks
8. try not to panic at ‘to do’ vs ‘time’ ratio

One more bad pic:

god i really hate this camera

Ahhhh.

Work is done for the time being.  That particular project took a bit out of me, so I’m looking forward to, at least, a week of sewing.  I have some projects I’d like to work on, in particular, an Irish Chain quilt I’ve had sitting whole cloth on my sewing table.

While I was working, my coworker brought up the topic of cat toys.  And how you never see a toy with the face of an angry dog.   Grrrr!  And how it would be funny, because the cat could take it’s revenge out on the neighborhood dog on a toy made in it’s likeness.  As the conversation went on I found myself volunteering to make a cat toy for his kitty.  Well. . . toy makers out there I salute you!! I started to make the darn thing last night, and ended with me on the sofa, glass of wine in hand, laughing.  I invite you to laugh as well.  (Note: the seam ripper in the background)

 

 

I think it’s just the small scale of it. Trying to turn the little paws inside out, and keeping the sewing straight.  I found myself hunched over, sweating profusely. So comical.  I have a toy pattern and fabric I bought from Crafty Planet, which I will try to attack today or tomorrow.  If I start from a pattern I might have a better chance at making something that resembles an angry dog. Grrrr!

On Pause

A bit insane with work right now.  So no time for crafting or blogging.  Barely updating my photo-a-day thingy.  But I’ve received a commision for a plush toy due on Monday.  So this weekend is booked! See you soon!

Upcoming

This Saturday, June 9th, it’s World Wide Knit-in-Public Day.   No events listed for the Los Angeles area, which is a bit disappointing.  Guess I’ll hang a little while at the local coffee shoppee with some knitting or crochet.  Represent!!

 

 

 

Sunday, July 1st, Ghetto Gloss hosts their monthly Kraftworks craft fair in their parking lot.  I’m really disappointed that I haven’t made it to this event yet. It was last Sunday and I just couldn’t get there.  Lame.

 

 

Sunday, July 15th, is Felt Club!  Wooo!  I made it to the last one and was a bit overwhelmed at the attendence and the crush of people.  Really overcrowded, which is exciting to see (!), but a bit off-putting when you want to spend more than a minute looking at the vendor’s handmade crafts.  Hopefully this new venue will provide a bit more elbow room.

 

 

Happy Hump Day!

 

Dust Cover

Haven’t been spending as much time with my sewing machine as I would like. Been a little preoccupied with the yarn arts. My machine is feeling a little neglected, so I made her a dress to wear when I’m not using her. Really simple! I made some measurements and used super firm fusible interfacing on the sides to help it stand up. The Amy Butler fabric I scored at the Road to California quilt show back in January. I want to add some trim to fancy it up a little bit, but for right now it works and she feels pretty. Awww. . . I miss my little Swiss Miss.

A post will be forthcoming about the pile of granny squares sitting behind my machine. Or as I call it when I see it, ‘The Pile of Ugh.’

Photo-a-Day is coming along. (Wooo! Three days!) But there is a slight learning curve. For example, yesterday I went to the farmers market and Ikea and saw my brother and his new car. Didn’t take pictures of any of those things. Just forgot. So I took a picture of the dahlias I bought at the farmer’s market. The deepest red I’ve seen. Really beautiful. Also, I’m not the most fantastic photographer around. My wonderful cousin Sabreena seems to have gotten that DNA. Part of the experiment is to improve my photography skills. We’ll see how that goes.

And I was doing so well. . .

Minor set-back last weekend. . . unnecessary yarn purchase.  (Is there an abbreviation for that: UnYP perhaps?)  My laundromat is located next to a little area I call Tujunga Village.   It’s a block long series of shops that range from ice cream parlor to massage parlor to  ‘older woman clothes’ and a tiny tiny yarn shop.  It used to be called Yarn Garden, and is now called The Pink Porch.  It’s small and whenever I get the nerve to go in (usually when the clothes are in the dryer), there are always a couple of ladies sitting at the table working on projects.  I tend to get intimidated going into places like this.  Not because the people are unfriendly, quite the opposite!  But I am a buyer-from-guilt.  I buy because I am afraid of being judged if I don’t.  The store is sooo small, I feel that if I don’t buy something I am a bad person for not supporting such a great establishment and the people there won’t like me.  That’s the only explanation I can find for blindly grabbing something that looks appealing without properly planning out what I’m going to be using it for.  And now that I’ve written that out, that is the most asinine thing I’ve ever heard.  But it’s true.  And awkward.

So I bought four skeins (rolls?) of yarn.  I have NO idea what I’m going to use it for.  I think one scarf for the spring and a cozy for my cell phone and another for my camera.  It’s cotten with a tiny bit of wool. If the picture makes you dizzy, like it does to me, I apologize in advance.

In other news, I am going to attempt a picture-a-day until the end of the year.  It’s something I wanted to start at the first of the year, and you can see how well that turned out.  But I figure six months will be a good experiment in commitment.  I’m laughing already.  I can hardly commit to a blog, a picture a day will be a true test.  Well, check out my sidebar in the next couple of days after I figure out how to get my Flickr site up.

Acrylic is Scratchy

Babies everywhere it seems. Most women close to me either have one, are within nine months of having one, or are going to be conceiving one within a year’s time (so I’ve been informed, I guess, in order to brace myself). What better reason to crochet!!!

I took a hankering to the stroller blanket and matching hat in Happy Hooker. It was juuuuust enough to challenge my crochet skills. That would be the skill of keeping a perfect square. I don’t know why this is so hard for me. I mean come on now. But inevitably I end up with a trapezoid. With the Allyson hat that was easily remedied by sewing it up on the level and then making the funky end the part that was scrunched up and turned inside out. But for this project I had to pay attention because there was no scrunching and turning and faking it.

So acrylic, eh? Well, yes. I love the feel and softness of the natural fibers. But if you want a saturated blue and a brown that don’t occur in nature, it seems to me that 100% acrylic is the way to go. Am I wrong? Please tell me the way to brightly colored natural fibers! So with some JoAnns craft store 1/2 pound rolls of “yarn” I got through the project in no time at all. The hat was particularly quick. And it got a sighing awww when I gave it to the mom. It was the aww of a new mommy who gets three hours of sleep at a time.

Apartment Flowers

I think my apartment complex is cute. And that’s part of the reason I live there. It isn’t a pillbox-like complex that towers four stories. It was built probably in the 40s (based on carbon dating of the tile in my kitchen) and was last updated in the 60s (gold formica in the bathroom). I greet my neighbors by name, and spread local gossip with them. It’s nice. It’s homey. And when I walk from my car to my front door, I walk through an doorway created by a defunct wooden fence and a rosebush. These roses bloom once a year. For three days. They burn out so fast, I’ve discovered, because they are under light twenty four hours a day. Just opposite is a security light that turns on as soon as the sun goes down. So there is no night and day for the bush. It’s always day. I look forward to spring when these flowers bloom, it’s one way of marking time.

 

Chatty-Cathy today.

Okay, I’m sure that you are just as upset as I am about the fact that the Slanket is out of stock. But think of it like this, when the warm weather hits, you’ll be able to get all the Slankets you want and give them as holiday gifts. Yay!

I am just such a fan of cuddling up on the sofa with hot chocolate and the remote or knitting or a book. That’s part of the reason why winter is so valuable in Southern California, because it only happens for four months out of the year. You appreciate the quiet cuddly times, because the rest of the year is spent sticking your head in your freezer for relief.  Anyway, the Slanket just hit home with me because it’s something designed solely to facilitate being lazy on the couch. Your shoulders and neck (always my coldest parts) can now be cozy warm while you read, or crochet! I got so excited when I saw it, I thought about sharing it with you.

And the reason I’m posting this today is because I was feeling guilty that I didn’t post my opinion about it when I posted the link. You come here because it’s a person’s blog, not an impersonal collection of links. So, sorry about that.

Speaking of collection of links. . . check out Scott Wade’s Dirty Car Art. This is just a fantastic example of how creativity can be everywhere, and how something can be transformed from nuisance to canvas. Pretty cool.

And finally, I am done assembling the quilt top I had in pieces on my sewing table.

Gotta say. . .not happy with it. The fabric and pattern is from a kit I bought at a quilt show. When I saw the fat quarters together, I loved them, but now that’s its assembled out, I just don’t like the salmon colored fabric, nor the green (not that you can guess those colors from the horrible horrible picture, sorry). I guess what drew me to the bunch in the first place were the oriental fabrics. But I think they’re lost in salmon and green. Ick.

From here on out, I am really going to make an effort to choose colors on my own. Color selection is not my strong suit. My wardrobe consists of black, tan, brown, blue and white. But sticking with a limited color palette in the beginning, and liking the result, will give me more confidence to try something new. I have to learn that I can’t just put a bunch of fabrics together and expect the result to be cohesive.

I’ve also finished my first non-rectangular knitting project. I’ll share that soon!

The Greatest Product, Ever!

You know, sometimes I am prone to hyperbole when describing things. Especially things I think are neat or handy. And I’ve concluded that this exaggeration is because I am so excited about whatever it is. And the ‘whatever it is’ in this case is such a fantastic idea, that I wish I had thought of it. It’s so simple and so perfect, you too will think it’s the greatest product, ever.

Check out. . . The Slanket.