Girl on the Rocks

Weekend activities November 18, 2007

Last night I got to watch my friend Captain her Roller Derby team to victory. Hooray Sirens! If you are in L.A. area I highly recommend attending a Derby Doll event – the Finals are on December 9th.

Today, since I am in town I will be headed over to the Felt Club XL holiday event. There will be crafty vendors and a mini-maker square where clever makers show off their skills. It is at LA City College from 11 to 6 (details at link above). Say hi if you see me (I might have some moustache buttons in my pocket).

I will get my shopping skills all warmed up for the SF Bazaar Bizarre next month…

Remember the ipod cozy… November 14, 2007

If you want to check out the pattern, it is in this post.

Thanks for stopping by NY Times readers

Socktober shame, October pride November 6, 2007

Shame

Well, Socktober came and went, and I barely did a thing about it. Not too cool for a knit-blogger… I wanted to finish my Cupcake socks not only for Socktober, but also to be eligible for a prize in the Ravelry Sock Knitter’s Anonymous group. But alas. Not finished.

In the wake of Socktober, I will point out two sock-related blog posts that caught my eye:

• Maia’s toe-up gusseted heel Just the thing I was looking for – and in just the right amount of nerdy detail.
• B’s Toe-up two needle cast on I have seen her work this magic at our knitting group, but I have never been the recipient of the tutorial. Now I can learn any time – Thanks B.

Pride

The thing that sucked up all of my crafty-time in October was the Halloween costume for my Blythe doll. It got a pretty good reception at the Blythe Meet that I went to, but I was a little shocked that it got picked up by both the Craft blog, and Boing Boing. yeah Boing Boing. wow. And they classified it as ‘Art.’ Though I thought my friends were web-nerds, B was the only one that I think even really knew about boing boing. Make sure to scroll down and check out the comments there – I actually really enjoyed some negative feedback, but that may be because I like to cause trouble….

And as if that amount of web traffic wasn’t enough to make me happy, Not Martha posted a link to my monster finger chapstick holder pattern.

Thanks for the love Internets! It makes me feel better about being a Socktober slacker.

On a final note, I will generously point out that you can now advertise on Ravelry for a tiny sum. And I think it pays off… Indie shop owners, make sure you check it out.

Ravelry-induced weekend orders

Contest Winner November 5, 2007

I consider myself pretty tech-loving. I would rather email than talk on the phone, and I run to the internet to look up everything.. I can write a code to randomly pick numbers for me, yet I have to do this to choose a contest winner:

Everyone that commented was entered (only once) regardles sof which post you commented on. I write everyone’s name on little equally-sized pieces of paper, hum a little drumroll and pick a winner. And apparently I feel obligated to document it with crappy cell phone photos so here you go:

it says Flyin Needles!

As promised, a self-striping prize – Sknitches Syncopation in Dayspa.

woo-hoo!

No time for chit-chat October 29, 2007

A quickie post to finally purge all of the things I have been meaning to tell you…

Secret Knitting Project
I have a secret knitting project that I just finished. Technically the cat is out of the bag with this one, but I haven’t told you about it here so it is still kinda secret. Details will follow shortly

Undies
yes, I am telling you about my underwear. This weekend I found some underwear at the gap that has a fair isle print on it. Not-knitted knit underwear. Hooray!

Gocco Mania
I finally had a chance to break in my Gocco, and do some printing for a new product tthat will hit my shop soon. i have a lot to learn and I think starting with the fabric paint was a little ambitious. I am happy with the results.

Anyone knitting any exciting Halloween Costumes?

Fake Rhinebeck Contest entry – this is how you do it October 23, 2007

As I mentioned yesterday, I did not attend Rhinebeck, and am getting jealous of looking at everyone’s loot. Rhinebeck booty is all over blogland. I can take this time to show myself that I don’t need any new yarn, and get excited over stuff I already have. For example….

All of this yarn and fiber. From the top

• Finn top – supersoft fine roving, about 8 ounces
• Socks that rock Mediumweight Space Dust – I didn’t sign up for the sock club, because I am perfectly happy to spend that money on colors that I get to pick out myself.
• The bottom two are Sport Weight Lovesticks self striping yarn in ‘Watermelon slice’ and ‘With a twist’. I love this stuff.

Wanna play? Here is the low down. Anyone can play as long as you head to your stash and get re-excited about yarn/fiber that is NOT new. Take pic, and blog it*, and leave me a comment so I know you are playing (a linkback is helpful but not mandatory). The comment can be on this post or the previous one, but you must leave it by midnight (Pacific time) Wednesday, October 31. (DEADLINE EXTENDED!!) A winner will be chosen at random. I haven’t assembled all of the prizes yet, but rest assured that there will be yarny- and fibery-goodness.

*If you don’t have a blog and would still like to play, flickr entries would work just fine.

Pirating September 19, 2007

I have a couple of new products up my sleeve, and I decided that ‘Talk like a Pirate’ Day is the perfect time to release one of them…

As you might have noticed, I love little disembodied moustaches. I also love halloween. So I decided to dress up my little ‘staches for a trick-or treating adventure.

Now available in me etsy shop, an’ shippin’ fer free in honor o’ `Talk like a Pirate` day.

knitting report

writing my thesis is taking away most of the words that I have to use in a day, so you will have to suffer throught a bulleted (and photographed) list of projects that I am working on right now.

• Toe-up self striping socks
  

  I added a little twisted stitch accent on the sides. Yarn is sport weight from Lovesticks

• Charity Miter

  
  My first non-garter stitch mitered square. For a charity blanket to be assembled by Moirae. Knit in Cascade 220.

• Cotton washcloths

  

  I have a few of these that my Mom bought in Amish country, and they are starting to fall apart. So I went to work on using up some partial balls of cotton. Fun!

Also, the new knitty is out. My faves? Neiman, Diamond Waffle (Props to you designer Danny for including 3 sizes in the pattern), and of course the Woodins.

Button Book September 10, 2007

I know I said the Week of weaving is over…. but I forgot one little project!!

This one is basically a re-interpretation of my needlebook idea. The construction is the same, except that I used 4 inch weave-it squares (made from leftover handspun) to create a button book.

The two felt pages are a great way to keep track of all of the pinback buttons I have been collecting. If you are thinking of making or buying some buttons for someone as a gift, this is a great way to package them.

Buttons by me and Anthropomorphco

My 1 1/2 inch moustache buttons even fit in the tiny needlebooks.

Fun!!

Woven animals August 31, 2007

A continuation of The week of weaving series…*
It is fairly easy to construct square and rectangle shapes out of the tiny squares and rectangles that you produce on a hand held loom. But what about other shapes? With a little creativity and a little fiberfill stuffing, you can make tiny adorable animals.

I spied some adorable softies on the eloomanator blog. A square folded into a triangle and decorated with a ribbon makes little sheep heads! It wouldn’t be hard to convinve me that you can make these look like little teddy bears, too.
But closer to home and closer to my heart is an idea brought to life by my friend Abbby. How adorable is this little fella

Photo by abmatic
Head over to Abby’s blog to get a better look at the little chicken that she created. She used a weave-it square woven in a twill pattern and a little bit of crochet to make an adorable Tweed Chicken.

*It seems that it is taking me more than a week to write up all of the weaving ideas I have, but don’t fret, more are on the way. We can just say that I was giving you enough time for your ebay auctions to end
What posts do you have to look forward to? Well, weaving with garbage and another cute easy project designed by me are coming up. Would anyone be interested in a few step-by-step weaving pictures to see how the little buggers work? Leave me a comment if you are intersted and I can post that too. Have a project that you want to share? Leave a comment, or email me!