Girl on the Rocks

formerly known as Knit This… Knitting, spinning, crafting - it’s all here.

 

Damask January 21, 2008

Filed under: Crafty — karrie @ 8:31 pm

I have a soft spot for intricate, velvety wallpaper. Luckily I get my fix about once a week at the Mel-o-Dee where my knitting group meets. While I was visiting Los Angeles a few months ago, I ran across a crazy bathroom that had 5 different kinds of flocked damask wallpaper, and I took some pictures.

In fact, i started a Flickr group. So if you are out in the wild and see some wallpaper, take a picture and send it my way…

My recent Damask discoveries don’t end with wallpaper. A bit of browsing at Reprodepot has revealed the most fantastic modern Damask ever - Echino Woodland

Echino Woodland Fabric

Click through and check it out…. Hidden in the patter are skulls, bugs, and woodland animals. it is amazing. Too bad it costs an arm and a leg (also available at Superbuzzy).

I also found one more Animal damask - this one featuring only rabbits.

Bunny Damask

I would love to have these on my walls!

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Waste your time here January 17, 2008

Filed under: Snippets — karrie @ 2:30 pm

Waste some time gazing at Bento boxes, and filled Mr. Bento’s. I have a Daiso bento box, but I covet a Mr. Bento.

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I never thought I would say it January 11, 2008

Filed under: Crafty — karrie @ 1:11 am

I think i like stamps.

I have never really had much interest in stamps. Then I realized that they are an excellent vehicle for the proliferation of moustaches, and I started thinking about them a little more. I think they are also very well suited for creating my etsy packaging. i can just use a stamp to customize any re-purposed envelope or turn any scrap of paper into a tag. It’s cheaper and more flexible than color printing, and you are only limited by the colors of your stamp pads.

I haven’t liked most of the stamps I have seen in the store, which kind of turned me off to them all together, but then I started seeing hand carved stamps popping up here and there…

Inspired mainly by the uncontrollable cuteness of the hand carved stamps over at Mushroom Meadows (specifically this post) and at Little Thing, and by Jezze’s awesome lino prints I decided I had to try and make one of my own. I snagged some lino carving tools and a mini cutting mat at Daiso the first time I was there, and I picked up some Soft Kut from the Art store on my corner.

I had so much fun and it turned out so well that I have been making one stamp each night before bed. And each night I declare that the one I just made is the cutest thing I have ever seen, and is my new favorite.

Tonight I just finished a piece of Bamboo, which completes my “Fiber Content” set. I wanted something to represent a sheep (wool) a soybean (soysilk) and bamboo for labeling my roving.

I think it is going to work!

.

There are a few more pics in my Flickr set. References follow:

Two tutorials that I found by searching on the Craft: blog - Mindful Craftiness and Alma Stoller

Plenty of supplies can be found at Dick Blick if you have one nearby. Many people also use little erasers instead of hunting for carving medium. I got mine from Artist and Craftsman’s Supply since I can walk to it. If you want to order online, Stampeaz looks like they have everything.

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Dishcloth cottony January 4, 2008

Filed under: Finished Projects — karrie @ 9:20 pm

The other night I beat down a bit of insomnia with the help of some yarn and a few minutes on Ravelry* I wanted to find something to use up some of the ton of cotton I acquired a while ago since it not suitable for amigurumi sushi as I had originally hoped. I took a look at my queue and immediately cast on for a Pear Apple cozy. About an hour later i had this:

I already used it to take an Asian Pear to work, and it survived my bag without even a single bruise. [My Ravelry project page]

I found a few other projects that I plan to make to help me work through all of the cotton:

Re-usable swiffer cozy
I can’t believe I missed this when it was a whiplash entry… Green Mountain Mama modified the ballband dishcloth pattern to button on to her Swiffer. Since the cotton is machine washable, you don’t need to buy disposable swiffer cloths any more.

Photos from grnmtnmama’s flickr stream

Bath Puff
This one is for the crocheters out there… Instead of a weird plastic-y bath puff, how about a handmade cotton one? And if you choose your colors carefully, it might look a bit like a brain (which i find totally cool)…


Picture courtesy of Pania’s flickr stream

And there is also the old standby - Dishcloths. I like to make boring ones like the ones my mom used to buy in Amish country. But I am willing to try out something a little more exciting like round spirally ones.

Any way you look at it, my cotton stash will be shrinking.

*I’m not sure I ever officially mentioned that I am on Ravelry as girlontherocks (friend me and I’ll friend you back!). I’ve been on since june, but I was so impatient while on the waiting list. I was fully jealous of everyone that would blog about how they just got in. So I secretly vowed to not mention it here. But now since the wait is only a few days long, I’m okay to talk about it.

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