Making Time

diamond-afghan

Originally uploaded by feather.

I am determined to finish this afghan. I have 19 of 24 squares done. It was started for a friend’s wedding; needless to say she got something else.

Not sure why I didn’t like it. The pattern calls for a 4mm hook; the yarn calls for a 5mm hook. I split the difference and went for a 4.5. But the fabric is still too loose. I think I should have gone for a 4mm with this aran weight wool.

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Ooo… I’d actually like to go to this… WWKiP day…. World Wide Knit in Public Day.

However, I live in Sligo, not Dublin… and um.. I don’t knit. I try to knit! I really do. I could to a “knit looking” crochet stitch maybe? That could pass, right?

Knittingneels suggests making one up in your own locality if you don’t want to go to Dublin. I just don’t know if Sligo really has that critical mass. I’d be down in Shoots all by my elf with yarn in my hand, and Niall glaring at me.

I have been looking at lists of bloggers in Ireland; like this one at Globe Blogs: Ireland… I wish you could sub-search that just for “craft blogs”. Alas. I’m amassing quite a list of craft blogs in ireland though (at my delicious links).

All I want to say here is that an invitation from a publisher to create a book pretty much squelched by inspiration for crafting, and then of course blogging.

A writer friend of mine, more experienced with the publishing industry gave me some insight into how this all works. And this is my take on it:

Publishers are frantically trying to cash in on the independent creative energy that happens amongst bloggers. They see it as a chance to get ideas, and get people to create book for very low rates, under conditions that a professional writer or photographer would never stand for… and because they are dealing with enthusiastic amateurs, they have a seemingly endless pool of talent to use.

Anyway… I just wanted to make that statement, and not point any fingers. But let me tell you, if a “publisher” comes to you offering you to make a book, you’d better get a very good look at what they did before, and ask to talk to people who have done books with them before, and find out who the people on the team are. I would not do anything without meeting the management face to face.

I built a bridge and got over it.

I’ve still been crafting and making things… but just not blogging about it. Thought I’d like to start up again, since I got so much enjoyment out of it before.

Aw… another stop-action animation of a cute stuffed animal. This time, a bear.　

ぼくはくま
Boku wa Kuma, Kuma (I am a bear)
Kuruma je nai (not a car!)

(The font above is Singer Mears)

I am *trying* to redesign my site… I don’t know what I’m going to do with it. I thought for inspiration to check out some crafty stitching fonts- and I was surprised to find so many good ones being offered for free. I have bought fonts in the past, but since I’m just playing around, this is a good way to start.

‘Home sweet home’ - Cross-stich font at Web Font List

and ‘Stitch and B*tch’ at Acid Fonts

Korsstygn 1 by Lars Törnqvist

Embroidery Font by Kingthings- who does custom font design!

japanese paper dolls

Originally uploaded by feather.

these are vintage japanese paper dolls. i worry about ephemera, they are in great condition, but you can tell they are yellowing at the back.

such crazy colors, i love their ‘outfits’.

if you’d like more vintage japanese eye-candy, i found a flickr group for it! vintage japan!

fabrication shows tshirts turned into a rug!

this is a great idea. much like the reclamation of plastic bags, you can cut the tshirts into ‘yarn’ going around in a spiral.

you can cut up pretty much anything and turn it into yarn. this is much like the old rag rugs you’d see around.

i found this through thrift and craft on flickr.

camera bag

Originally uploaded by feather.

i love this series of mooks. they have book prices and ISBNs, but come out as periodicals. this one has some great things in it. i love the idea of this bag… i can imagine lots of things like this… maybe a monkey with with arms hanging down? the camera is v cool tho.

this is sweet too:

and

and i LOVE pui sudo… this is a cute applique pattern…

oh i love topsy turvy dolls. a long dress, or clever hats hide another faces and bodies, to make an all-in-one doll.
in march i was looking around for patterns for these kinds of dolls. i did have *intentions* however, they have remained unrealized. i really like the traditional freaky-deaky little red riding hood, with grandma/wolf on the other end. the wolf head hides under grandma’s nightcap, which is turned around. how fun is that?

recently there was a crocheted topsy turvy doll shown at whip-up, and it’s telling that kathreen posted it under ‘extreme’… they are weird! yes, they actually have split personalities! on the same day, 29 may- victorian-looking topsy-turvy dolls appeared at treefall design. i just found them this evening, wow. well done! and you can even purchase this pretty pair in her shop. and only 10days earlier another was posted in flickr: an angel/devil. coincidence? i think so.

quick solution: hack ‘em together

if one can’t bear all the sewing, the HGTV site gives a method which includes: “2 soft dolls of the same size “.. which you
ghoulishly graft together like some frankenstein’s monster.

1. Cut the legs off each doll, making sure that you don’t cut open the bottom of the doll.
2. With the faces on the same side, push bottoms of body sections together, matching side seams, and with heavy-duty thread, whip-stitch securely around the “waist.” The bodies should be firm enough that they don’t bend in the middle. For extra stiffness, you may want to sew twice around.

mixed race

another strange peice of trivia saying black slaves in the US were not allowed to play with dolls which had images of black people, so they would have to turn the doll too the ‘white’ side when overseer was around. i tried to google-confirm this. - one article says many of the topsy turvy dolls were of mixed race though it’s unclear to me what the intention or meaning of this was.

“While some historians believe that the dolls were cleverly concealed toys for slave children who may not have been allowed to play with black dolls (which were illegal during apartheid), others like Jones believe that they were given to white children to serve as maids to the other dolls. Either way, they reflected the striking contrasts between the two roles and the disparities in the treatment each received.

Kimberly Wallace-Sanders, a professor with Emory University, points out that the apartheid ban on black dolls signaled the political and moral potency of the doll in its time. She asks, “Why would you ban a doll if it wasn’t so powerful?”, suggesting that the oppositional characters helped children to learn their own roles in society (Siek, 2003).”

oo… i’d love to have a look at this book. 0672521571: How to Make Upside-Down Dolls

i’m adding this to my delicious links for this category:

http://del.icio.us/heather/topsyturvy

i’m not allowed to start anything new until at least one more monkey has a face, and one little doll has hair.

but this is now up on the top of my list.