Crafty book club
craft books are my absolute weakness. I am even more prone to buy craft books than I am on buying craft supplies. and you know that’s bad. So I somehow got enticed to join a craft book club. It was only $1 each for the first 4 books, and I think I only have to buy 2 more at “regular club prices” which are more expensive than Amazon, but I think I still come out ahead.
my books came yesterday! too exciting. you can’t choose from all of the books for your first four, but I got:
The Yarn Girls Guide to Beyond the Basics
and Knitting in No Time.
Knitting in no time is terrible, I wish I’d read some reviews first instead of being too lazy to hop over to amazon and read them, but I’m really happy with the other 3. I wanted to buy Vogue Sewing anyway, so I was doubly happy.
Now how long do you think it will be until I actually make something out of these books? Let’s see, I have yet to make anything from Happy Hooker, and I bought that about two months ago. Yet to make anything from Mason Dixon, purchased last month. Sew U, at the same time, read through and put on the bookshelf where it stares at me willing me to try sewing. Origami Boxes? Years ago, still haven’t made anything. (my partner made a cute box once though. As I’ve mentioned before, he’s much craftier than me)
I did find a great free pattern on the internet that I want to make though – it looks like the perfect hat, and even better, it doesn’t require crazy expensive yarn, and I even have some Wool-Ease around. here is pdf link to the pattern. she even made little checkboxes on the pattern so you can easily count your rows!
maybe a hat I could actually finish in a reasonable time; I feel like these scarves will never be done! I can’t believe it’s November and I have yet to finish a single present! aaaargh!
Knitting WIPs
I’m putting this picture up only because I promised a picture, but it’s so craptacular I think the world would be better off without this picture in it.
On the left is a scarf I am making for my best friend, on the right is the good ole cabled scarf I am making for my partner.
Crafts Supplies Inventory
I really have no reason why I should not be crafting constantly. I have tons of supplies! You saw the fabric in the pic from a couple of days ago. Off the top of my head, here are all the crafts I could be working on:
Knitting: I have the knitpicks needles! and tons of yarn! and free patterns! Not to mention, I just bought the Mason Dixon knitting book, and the Vogue Knitting book is always useful
Crochet: this is my number one crafty skill, yet I haven’ t picked up in a hook in I don’t know how long. Again, I have hooks in all sizes, yarn, and I even have steel hooks and thread if I had a sudden urge to make some snowflakes. I just bought The Happy Hooker, and I have about three other crochet books, so again, no reason not to be crocheting!
Papercrafts: I have a scalpel, cutting mat, decorative-edge scissors, handmade paper, mat board, gluesticks, a color printer/copier, colored pencils, watercolor paints and even doublesided foam tape (that I got from the east bay reuse place yay for reusing!) I just ordered a book (I somehow found myself signing up for a craft book club, I’m so weak when it comes to books, and when it comes to craft supplies, so there is a multiplicative effect there and I am unable to resist craft books) on quick and easy cardmaking, and I always have my favorite bookmaking book to get ideas from as well. I even have a 2 year old UFO that really, really, I need to finish because it’s going to be so cool.
Other crafts: I have shrinky dink paper in all formats – dark, light, inkjet printer, etc. I have make-your-own-snowglobes stuff. I have all the stuff to make magnets.
You see? there is no reason for me to instead of crafting, spend hours surfing the internet looking for more crafts to do! I have plenty at my fingertips!
the good news: I’ve made more progress on the best friend’s scarf. my partner and I have been hanging out constantly though, so I haven’t been able to work on his.
and I’m sorry, I know I promised a picture… next time, really! I put links to sites with pictures, can I get partial credit for that?
I made paper out of junk mail!
If I could categorize, I’d like to categorize this under “stuff you can make from trash”. Basically I soaked the junk mail, blended it in an old blender someone gave to me, passing it on from someone who gave it to them, then poured the resulting paper pulp into a screen, pressed the water out, ironed the sheet dry, and presto! snazzy paper. The coloring came from colored junk mail (security envelopes make a nice blue) and some old tissue paper someone wrapped gifts for me in. I also used a bunch of scraps of embroidery thread that I’d had hanging around forever. If you want detailed instructions, just google for it, there are tons of instructions. I actually used the Arnold Grummer papermaking kit which I got cheap on ebay, but you can make your own tools too. here’s a closeup:
and an extreme closeup:
1930s cloche hat
I made this hat for my part in a swap on craftster. This hat was specifically requested. The yarn was bought new several years ago, but at least I’m finally using it! This is a bad picture, it looks much better on. And here is the pattern. (really, mine looks just as cute when it’s on a head)
