What Have I Been Up To?

Christmas knitting and night shift have been dominating my world that last few weeks. This is some of the things I got done. Others I didn't get pictures of, I'll work on that over the next few weeks.

These are two pair of Target Wave Mittens from Norah Gaughan's book Knitting Nature. I made a pair for each of my nieces. This was an interesting knit, the construction is intriguing as are all of Norah's patterns I'm attracted to. The second pair went together a little better after I got my brain around how they worked.



This is a pair of plain men's socks. Pardon the pic, they really are too big for me. They are off living with a friend now.



This is a pair of Anemoi Mittens, pattern by Eunny Jang. These, I've actually had done for a while and they're for me. I've gotten tonnes of compliments whenever I wear them. The yarn is fun, the brown yarn was a present that a friend brought back for Copenhagen for me. The blue is reclaimed yarn from an old cardigan of my Grandmother's that she brought back from Edinburough. So, they have already seen the world and I've just started wearing them.



More to follow.

Christmas Knitting

I can't show you almost all of the knitting I've been doing, it's all Christmas knitting. Most of the people I love enough to knit for read this blog. This one ought to be safe though, if not, you are all in suspense!

Wisp, a soft breath of a scarf that really does have a lot of possibilities. Have a look at the pattern to see the wearing options. The buttons are vintage from my stash, and the wool is Elann, Baby Lace Merino.

ps.... sorry for the mediocre pic, I figure, that at least is better than nothing.

Fall Fair Time

I can't believe it's September! I guess the only thing to do is get ready for the fair. I always try and enter a few things in hand crafts area. I enjoy looking at what everyone else is up to so I should contribute as well, right? Umm.. yeah, see that picture, the one with the wet afghan pinned out and drying? I'm about to go get a fan to speed up the drying process so I'm sure to have it ready to enter tomorrow. Nothing like doing things ahead?!

Etsy and Me

I have been working to get some more things up on my Etsy site. One of the definite challenges is photo editing. I'm not very good at it but I'd like to think I'm getting better. Currently I'm using GIMP which seems to be a really decent open source software. (Down with microsft!)

First step, what to shoot. I had this waspie I made a while back to test out a pattern and it's prototypes like that which I intend to clear out of here. So I found the closest, cheapest, most available model and got myself dressed and cleaned up a bit.

Second step, figure out the timer. HA! At the time I only seemed to be able to set a 10 second delay. So I spent a while screwing around, hitting the button on the tripod and leaping back and trying to get stationary before the flash. Yeah... sure. Much leaping about being a goof ball, laughing my butt off. But finally I figured there's got to be a shot in there I can edit down to something. I had no intention of this shot really being about me but rather edited down to show the waspie.

Third step, download and laugh. One shot, I looked so stunned I laughed and laughed out loud at. So, not being particularily proud I sent it on to my friend Matt so he could laugh as well. Now this is Matt Ficner of the Creepy Puppet Project, so he is swamped with the fabulous response he's getting from the latest, Dusty Zombie.

Fourth, open mouth in amazement. A couple of hours later I checked my email to find me, 'touched up' and looking rather fab if I do say so myself. Fierce. I may just use this photo for everything....

Creepy Puppet Project

Hey everyone. Look at what's up! Watch for Tubbs, he's the best.

Etsy!

So, I finally did it. I opened an Etsy shop. Etsy is a venue for people to sell their hand made goods. The quality of craftmanship that can be found on Etsy really is astounding. I grovel at the feet of some of the artists who's work I have oogled. I'll try and link to some of the fabulous stuff that is available.

However today, I would like to shamelessly promote myself. For my grand opening, I have listed three, one of a kind funky, fun wigs.

Have a look.

Or here.

I'll leave it at that for now.... but this won't be the last of this!

And Where Have I Been Hiding?

I started with this quite a while ago.



Which while being picturesque and all, turned out to be a bit too far gone to rescue. So, I pulled it down and built this.



Now I have taken part in the building of quite a few buildings I figure for someone who doesn't get to do these things for cash. Even with lots of help from my family, and my friends, and my family some more.... I had no idea. Jeez. It's not really even done, roofing this weekend, siding, well, when I feel like getting back to it but it's been forever in the build. However yesterday these lovely ladies moved in.



One friend has already commented, "They're bigger than I expected." Yep, I am finally conceding to some limitations and raising little yellow fuzzy things up to this state takes a lot of care and attention and more brain cells than night shift allows. So, these are nine chickens, all raised to various states of maturity by an amazing breeder, Jim Hopkins, who lives in the area and has forgetten more about chickens than I'll ever know. Certainly not a factory farm.

Oh yeah, and I knit a bit.

Hi Honey, I'm Home...

Coolio. I'm home after days and days of fun builds and lots of hard work, not to mention a bit of sushi. Apparently ol' Lappy enjoys fresh northern air as well cuz I convinced her to download some pictures for our viewing pleasure.

I teased you a bit with the horror wonder whom is Fat Boy. This is completely Matt's magic at work, I just get to play at the edges of it some days!

To give you an idea of the process, this is Fat Boy's bust, no colour at this point.


On from that, the next shot is him assembled. He has a foam body over a plastic core, wrapped in fabric and then painted and sculped in latex. Notice the swav new clothes he's sporting at this point. It has to look good, to look bad later.



Then, after Matt waves a magic wand over him and I work for a while on his clothing, he looks like this.



Is that cool or what?!? A close up for those of you not squeamish. Keep in mind that this is a 1/4 scale puppet.



This is the only completely finished puppet after my 10 days at the studio. Lots of starts happened on a LOT of puppets though. I'll keep everyone up to date.

New Knitting

This is the first wig of many I hope that will eventually become the stock for my Etsy shop. I have made a few of these, used and abused them and I believe that I can make them to a high enough quality now that I feel comfortable selling them. This one is called Pretty in Pink and is one of the simple, mostly acrylic wigs. I'll put up pics of others as I finish. Finish while still building the new chicken coop, redoing the master bedroom and working full time. This may take a while!

Just a quick one...

Bea does heroin chic..... sorta.

Edited to add.. heroin chic sideways.. that's too funny to fix!