New Project or New Project

So I have new two new procts floating around my head, but I’m not sure which to do first. I’m thinking about either doing the capelet from my last post or doing a little cellphone mini clutch, like my mothers, for myself.

So this is my Lion Brand Amazing yarn in Arcadia.

And the second option is a mini clutch with either lace stitches all over (haven’t decided what kind) or crocodile stitch, which seems like something really fun to do. I thought I’d use some of the Cotton Lace Yarn I had bought at Daiso a couple years ago. Either that or my pink Turkish crochet thread.

Hmm, decisions, decisions…

Mom’s Mother’s Day Mini Clutch

So, strapped for cash as I am I wasn’t sure what to get for my mom on Mother’s Day (Raverly link). She had been complaining about being afraid she’d get scratches on her new phone and I decided to make her a little pouch for it.

My mom is one of those technologically challenged people so I didn’t have a problem picking out the right fiber to make her pouch with. It’s a flip phone so I didn’t have to worry about scratching the screen or anything, just something simple to slip it into.

I had a small skein of Naturally Caron Country in Deep Taupe and thought that would be enough for a small pouch. All I did was a rectangle big enough to fit the shape of the phone, added a row of picot stitch, another rectangle a couple rows bigger then the first, another row of picot, and another rectangle smaller then the last adding in two buttonholes, and lastly a finishing row of shell stitches.

I totally forgot to block till the last moment so I ended up finishing on Mother’s Day. After that I sewed up one of the sides with the excess tails and was off onto the second part.

I wanted to line it with something softer then the yarn so I added a cotton lining with a large pocket. On one side of the pocked I thought I’d add two slots for cards (credit card, loyalty card, etc) since I had extra fabric left over, alas it was not enough. The two card pockets JUST barely hold the cards in. Next time I do something like this I think I’ll plan everything out more carefully, haha.

Honestly the lining was the most time consuming, it’s the first time I lined anything, AND the first time I made anything resembling pockets so there you go. It came out kind of wonky, but mom seemed happy, and she hates everything. I say, mission accomplished, I might even make one for myself!

I’ve been trying to figure out what to make with the yarn I got for Christmas a couple years ago and I think I’ll make a capelet with the Lion Brand Amazing. Thankfully I also remembered I own a copy of Stitch ‘n Bitch Crochet The Happy Hooker, which has what seems like a perfect pattern (Cold Shoulders p. 110) :D yay.

Picture from the actual book.

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Prizes from The Wool Lady!

So I mentioned in my last blog post that I won some stuff from Ruth Molina The Wool Lady.  I was actually really excited when I got the call because even though I was aware of her for year (first thing I did was Google local LYS’), I hadn’t actually set some time aside to visit.  It’s a little shop but oh-so-cute and filled with her lush hand dyes.

I really like the area too, Old Town Temecula is about six blocks and it’s filled with old historic buildings.  The Wool Lady is located near the end of Old Town if you’re heading towered Pechanga.  Like I said in the last blog, Old Town is full of little shops and eateries so it’s a nice little place to spend the afternoon.  If you go on Saturday morning the Temecula farmers market takes place there, which I haven’t been to yet :/

Anyway~ here’s my prize!

Yarn, Yarn, and also Yarn

New yarns :D I have them!

So for today, I’ll add the Christmas gifts I got from my brother :D

I got yarns 8D three of them, or rather two types of yarns.

Made Some Salve! … last month…

So I waited until after Christmas to make this post, only I kept forgetting/procrastinating about making it.  As with the last post, I kind of messed up my salve, but I was hoping adding more oil would have fixed things.  I still kind of think a little more oil would have helped though.

Everything went pretty smoothly besides the adding of too much beeswax. OTL  And it was kind of fun to make as involved as it was.  Fun enough where I’ll probably make some again in the future :D

This isn’t the end result photo, it’s the salve before I added the olive oil because I was too lazy to retake the end result photo lol.  At the end of the day though, I think it needed a tad bit more oil since when I use the salve it seems to dry on my hand quickly.  I don’t know if it’s because it’s absorbing too quickly (obsessive hand washer = dry skin) or because of the beeswax making it feel too chalky afterward.  I have noticed it makes my skin softer though, despite the dry feel, so that’s a plus lol.  Still more tweaking next time \o/

Mom has been complaining about lip balm, all the while looking at me in a hinting kind of way, so maybe I’ll make lip balm next, ha.

Christmas presents mishap D:

So, this year I decided to make a homemade salve for my mother, I had a pound block of beeswax and I was wracking my mind on what to do with it, so light bulb moment~ SALVE!  I also had plans to send some to other family members and some friends if I had salve to spare, so I was really excited to make something like this for this years Christmas.
I started out pretty good last night, prepped everything, sieved my oil (came out a pretty light gold color), chopped up my beeswax, boiled my water, melted the wax, mixed in the oil, and et voila, I ruined my salve 8D  Okay, not exactly ruined, I just added in too much beeswax and either too much or too little essential oil.

The oil to beeswax ratio should be 4:1 but since I didn’t have a kitchen weight available and since I chopped up my beeswax from a larger peace, I had to eyeball the amount.  At first it was fine, but when I was melting it I panicked a bit and added more beeswax.  The end result came out fine on first sight of it (after it solidified) but I kept a test jar, just to… err… test.  It should have been solid enough to resist an initial poking but it turned out slightly harder then a beeswax candle is.
When I was adding the essential oil I use a muscle mix of Eucalyptus, Orange, Rosemary, and Peppermint; I also added some Lavender essential oil.  The problem with this is I forgot what the ratio for that should be, I only added a little (too little apparently) muscle blend and a bit more of the Lavender.  When everything solidified I figured I probably didn’t add enough :/
The biggest problem I have right now is the hardness… So I’ve decided to re melt everything and add in some olive oil to balance everything out~  Also adding a bit more essential oil :D  I’m going to keep everything a while after that too test and then I’ll be able to mail everything out, hopefully lol.

I am the maker of oil!!!

So, blah blah blah, haven’t been blogging for nearly a year, blah blah blah.  Now that we have that out of the way, onto my oil!

In an effort to get a head start on some of my Christmas gifts, I’ve decided to attempt a salve for some people in my family.  I settled on using Castor oil as the main base and mixed it with Grapeseed oil since the castor was so viscous (like really viscous, I worry that the salve might come out too sticky).  If the salve does end up too sticky in the end I’ll probably use less castor oil next time and mix it with a less viscous oil (like grapeseed, apricot kernel, sweet almond).

As for my herbs to infuse the oil, I ordered some dry lavender (to make another project) and some dry rosemary.  I picked lavender because the aroma causes to to relax (hence my other project) and the rosemary was really for my dad’s arthritis, soothes the achy muscles too.  The ratio I just kind of winged, it’s not for consumption so I did go a little heavier then if you were cooking with it.

A Fluffy JDAM

Since this is obviously a habit of mine, I have returned once again from neglect.  Given that I post to coincide with my mood and my mood is oft unpredictable, and  apparently neglectful, I'll nonetheless apologize for my time away. 
That out of the way, I had finished my brothers promised bomb sometimes the week before Christmas.  In true Chango form, I have decided to post about it two months after the fact, yay.
A rundown of what I’m actually talking about…

• What:  JDAM (military) Bomb my brother requested
• Yarn:  2 Lion Brand Jiffy Solid Yarns, one in Dark Grey Heather, one in Silver Heather, and a little bit of mystery yellow acrylic (possibly Red Hear) in a contrasting yellow
• Other:  Some matching thread, some coordinating felt (acylic), and the much important polyfill

1. The Bombs nose, 2. The Bombs guts, 3. 002, 4. 001

For something that didn’t exist before, I think I did pretty good.  Granted the pattern I  had to make up isn’t the most difficult of things to make.  In fact I’d say cylindrical and conical shapes are much more mindless than a square when it comes to crochet.  You don’t have to worry about turning and making sure your tension is spot on for a perfect rectangle/square.  Warning though, if you’re just starting, do your rectangles/squares, although not a noticeable, you can screw up mindless tasks really easily.
So, if you look at pictures of actual JDAM’s you’ll notice the curves from the nose to the body to the tail are much more gradual then what I actually did.  I wanted to make it more accurate, but my brother wanted it with much more pronounced points.
For the most part, the whole softie was pretty easy to make, cone, cylinder, cone, easy right?  Well yes, but the felt “sleeves” (which are removable) or whatever they’re called (anyone?) were a pain to make.  Lots of hand stitching (too small for the machine) and lots of little holes to cut out for my crappy little embroidery scissors.

1. The Bomb 002, 2. The Bomb 003, 3. The Bomb 001, 4. The Bomb 004

Out of the whole ordeal, I learned a couple things:

1. Acrylic is killer on my sensitive little fingertips
2. Burt’s Bee’s Hand Salve is a Gift of the God’s and possibly made from unicorn tears; it’s that heavenly
3. Going off on my own and making something up on the fly isn’t as terrifying as I initially make it out to be
4. I did pretty good, if I do say so myself
5. I need new embroidery scissors…

I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts

Umm, let me amend that, I’ve Got a Single Abnormal Buko, heh.  I suppose it was a much too ambitious plan for me to do for my own made up sewing project.  Way too many curves and way too many modifications :/  I hope when I get more proficient at sewing and can come back to this one and perfect it much more so I can at least not feel embarrassed to give one away :D lol.

1. Buko 1, 2. Buko 2, 3. Buko 3, 4. CAT!!

For one thing it’s as crooked and well it CROOKED Dx.  Maybe if I didn’t mess with the segments so much, I think it would have been much better to have gone with felt all the way but I wanted to try fabric, again, ambitious.  You can’t really tell on the pictures, but the crooked contributed to the lopsidedness.

I’ll try again when I get around to buying some felt :D

Cattens does not approve of this message D<

Mom’s booties: update

So since my mother hasn’t been wearing her house shoes I decided to try them out.  I opted not to line them before I gave them to her because, judging by the scrap fabric I had on hand, I thought everything would be too bulky to line them.  I had already deviated and used a hook size too small since I had yarn too big and thought that would compensate, plus my mom has small feet.  But alas, it came out perfect, too perfect to line.

So back to me trying the booties on, we have tile downstairs, except for two rooms with carpet and the odd rug or two scattered around.  Whenever I walk on the tile it hurts the bottom of my feet.  Maybe because its the wool, or homespun, or Lion Brand, or even most likely the crochet structure, but it hurt my feet to wear.  If you can imagine walking on marbles, well it wasn’t that bad, more like marbles covered in wool (o_o sounds bad lol).  So lining it is!

Next project:  Bootie Lining 8D  Something thin enough so there’s no bulk, but cushiony enough to cushion (heh).  I’m not sure I have enough scraps around the house since I barely sew, but I’ll try different fabrics out till I can give them back to my mommy :)

BTW I don't mean to turn you off of the idea of using wool, there are a lot of different wool yarns out there and some are super soft and feel like butter :3  The yarn I'm using for my shawl is wool superwash and its super soft and doesn't scratch or itch at all and I have sensitive skin.  Although I supposed, depending on where you live, nice quality wool might be hard to come by...

::eta:: I had to clear up some confusingness on my post and add stuff I left out.

Mom’s Crooked Pillow

So my mom had wanted a neck pillow for a while now and no one knew where to get it.  I think she really needed one because she ends up sleeping while sitting up a lot, both in the car and at home lol.

So, I decided to make one :D

Notice, it’s crooked, lopsided, and lumpy x3 I don’t have a lot of experience sewing and sewing curves seems to be my breaking point right now.  The lumpyness comes from the uneven front and back and from the stuffing, I had no idea how to fix it, if you have any advice for the future please feel free to comment (if you’ve stumbled across my blog lol).

It was also the first time I sewed a zipper and it wasn’t as hard/freighting as I expected.  I have to say I think I did a good job on it for my first time, even if it does look like a monsters grimace. 

At the end of the day, my mom liked it :3 and more then that, she uses it <3

Amigurumi Optimus Prime Tribute Doll

Amigurumi Optimus Prime Tribute Doll
Originally uploaded by voxmortuum

Found Craft on the Web: Optimus Prime

Awesome Transformers amigurumi by awesome crocheter voxmortuum. It's probably the best one I've seen, but then again I haven't seen a lot of them :p  Check out his/her(?) other works, Pennywise is a creeptastic favorite of mine.

It always amazes me how creative people get with their crochet :3 and people still think its a grandma craft. Aside from the indirect homage to geekery this one takes me straight to my childhood :D

Xmas Crafts Gifted, kinda…

So I didn’t exactly make a craft for Christmas (btw I hope everyone had a Happy Holidays o/), rather I had made some things for my mom that I gave her for Christmas.

First off here’s some house slippers, otherwise they look a lot like adult booties.

1. Mom House Shoes 002, 2. Mom House Shoes 003,

3. Mom House Shoes 001, 4. House Slippers WIP

Yarn Used: Lion Brand Lion Wool Solids in Cocoa & Lion Brand Wool-Ease Solids & Heathers in Rose Heather

Skeins: 1 of the Wool Solids and a little tiny bit of the the Wool-Ease Heather.

Pattern:  Mary Jane Slippers by Lisa Gutierrez over at goodknits.com

How Long Did it Take?:  A couple hours really, but I stretched it over about a month, cuz I’m lazy like that.

Thoughts:  This was a super easy pattern, nice and quick to make, I think I’ll probably make a pair for myself either in the rose with a cocoa accent or ones identical to my moms.  She ended up liking them a lot but has yet to wear them around the house :p  The only real problem I had was with the pattern when you do the top part of the heal, but after all its crochet and easy to improvise as you go.

I’ll post present numero dos tomorrow, maybe :D

The Buko is Not Quite a Buko

So my first ever conceived softie is a buko.  Or a young/tender green coconut you cut open, stick a straw through the hole and drink.  So far I have my paper mock up, pattern pieces and fabric that looks way too light for buko.  I’m contemplating looking for a darker green or just going with the lighter one. Bleh.

Now the question is, if I get new fabric should it be solid or a patterned green?  And I still haven’t figured out how to do the straw.

Yet again…

I have bought two more craft books :p

• あみぐるみcollection Volume 7 : another amigurumi book.  I especially like the Kappaxile’s armed with toothpick wepons :D and the alligator.
• てあみのクローゼット-カーディガン&ジャケット (Let’s Knit series) : A knit book of cardigans and jackets.  I’m in love with the raglan cardigan on page 20

In another update, I wanted to crochet something in my かわいいレース編み (Let’s Knit series はじめてかんたんできちゃった!) book.  I was thinking either a cup/glass/mug cover or a cozy for my Japanese tea mug.  I have some garish orange yarn previously purchased at what was formerly a San Diego Daiso, but I didn’t have any hooks so I had to go out and buy my teeny tiny hooks.  For some reason the JoAnn’s near me don’t carry hooks small hooks.  They did have a .90mm one that I bought (!!!)  I was thinking I could try to finish up a tablecloth into my dotage and ultimately die by stabbing my eyes with it and bleeding to death.

I ended up buying two hooks at what was formerly a San Diego Daiso and two at my LYS.
and completely unrelated, but kinda not, are these things that I found hanging around my room.

          

Been a While

So yeah, I haven’t exactly been keeping up with my updates /understatement.  I’ve been busy getting my life in to order, and thankfully that I’ve been able to incorporate crafting into it :D

One of the things that happened is the hiatus (yet again) of my Godmother Shawl I dropped some stitches and had no idea how to pick them up.  To be specific they were “sl 1 k2tog psso” stitches and I figured it was a nice time to learn how to pick those up, just in case.  Turns out my lys person just fixed it for me while I wasn’t paying attention :/ lol.

Something else I’ve been doing, I’ve seemed to have acquired a collection of Japanese craft books and I have no idea if I’m even going to get around to doing anything in them.  Anyone who crochet’s seriously knows Japanese patterns are probably the most modern, cute, and wearable today patterns anywhere.  They also tend to be in the small hook sizes.  Unfortunately I’ve been mostly shopping at BookOFF and crochet patterns for clothes are rare, most of the ones I’ve found are dated :(

What I do have are miscellaneous crafty books and two books my brother brought over from Okinawa when he went to visit some friends.  I asked for an amigurumi book but he misunderstood and bought me a doily book and a felt gurumi’s.

• NHK おしゃれ工房 2008年 02月号 [雑誌] [雑誌] – NHK magazine, has a how to on kimono’s
• スカーフ・ストール・マフラー―“自分らし... 高田 恵美 - different ways on how to tie a scarf, tie or cravat
• フェルト羊毛で作る かわいい仲間たち – the feltgurumi book
• のんびり気分で作りたいもの―handmade ZAKKA – a Zakka book (duh~)
• かわいいレース編み (Let’s Knit series はじめてかんたんできちゃった!)– teeny hook book, kind of a doily zakka book, everything's really cute and pretty.  I even bought the teeny hooks to make something in it :D
• ホームクチュール+手芸をプラス 茅木 真知子- nice skirt and dress patterns (included), I just worry about shaping since I have latina hips (bust is fine, as in I don’t have one lol)
• 栗山武子のビーズ刺繍でドレスアップ―基礎... 栗山 武子 清水 行雄 - awesome beeding book, great for ideas, although I won't be doing any full lengh beaded dresses
• 基本からはじめる手ぬいのバッグ 高橋 恵美子 – cute bag and purse book
• アートクレイシルバーで作る純銀製のアクセサリー – precious metal clay book, bought it mostly for mom who want to start doing jewelry
• あみぐるみsweets―かぎ針で編んで作... (レディブティックシリーズ no. 2846) – super cute amigurumi sweets book, I especially like the Dango and Bon Bon rings
• 伝承のちりめん細工―明治・大正・昭和の女... (ハンドクラフトシリーズ 128) – Gamaguchi (kimono coin) purses from persimmons to lobsters to swaddled behbehs!
• かわいいフェイク・スイーツのつくり方 氣仙 えりか – similar to the sweets amigurumi book but this uses air dry clay, I’m going to try it with paper clay and see how that turns out.  They look super real in the book, makes me want to break a tooth on one of them…

Cross Postage – Ondoy Donation Info

I realize this has absolutely nothing to do with crafting, but it is something close to my heart, and something I think is important.

I made a post about the Philippine typhoon flood on my other blog, if you’re interested in donating here’s some info

  Typhoon Ketsana, aka Ondoy, swept over the Philippines and dropped over 455 millimeter into the Manila area, 341 millimeters of that rainfall fell in only 6 hours, to put that in perspective Katrina had 350 millimeters fall in a 24 hour period.  The flooding as of today has left over 240 dead and thousands other homeless.

 

…

 

Donation info outside of Philippines:

• BayanUSA
• Philippine Aid
• Pnoy Apparel – buy a any Sammy t-shirt and they’ll donate another to a child, plus $5 of your purchase

• Men’s – Eggplant & Black; Women’s – Teal & Purple

Donation info within Philippines (you can use this if you live outside of the country as well)

• Philippine National Red Cross
• Kabataan Partylist
• Ondoy, You Fucking Asshole
• ABS-CBN Foundation more info here

If you live in the Philippines and can’t donate money you can still donate other goods, the Philippine National Red Cross is still in need of these:

Most urgent needs

Food items: Rice, noodles, canned goods, sugar, iodized salt, cooking oil, monggo beans and portable water

Medicines: Paracetamol, antibiotics, analgesic, oral rehydration salts, multivitamins and medications to treat diarrheal diseases

Non-food items: Bath soaps, face towels, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, plastic mats, blankets, mosquito nets, jerry cans, water containers, water purification tablets, plastic sheeting's, and Laundry soap

Rehabilitation Programs: Shelter materials for house repair

If you live in the US and can’t donate there’s always people in need here in our own country.  You can donate blood to the American Red Cross, volunteer at your local shelter (women's, animal, homeless, etc…), donate home goods to your local shelter (women's, animal, homeless, etc…), donate or volunteer with The Salvation Army, help out the old lady who lives down the street from you, or just do something good today.

Plushies: The Cute

Technorati Tags: Plushies,softie,marshmallow,candy corn,pickle,crafty

I hate marshmallows, but I adore plushies 8D  These are tasty plushies by an artist I found via Plush You!  You can find some of her other work on her Flickr photo stream, she goes by Scrumptious Delight.
I love the fact that they’re actually in a marshmallow bag, plus they’re just uber adorable!  The nutrition facts and ingredients in the back are such a plus too :D  I think each marshmallow comes with a little loop in the back so you can use them as cellphone charms or maybe hanging them on your rear window would be cute.
I actually hate candy corn as much as I hate marshmallow but I love snacking on pickles :D furry pickles though, I’m not sure I’d like so much lol.  The plush variety though, super cuteness in all their snarly glory.

1. bag of marshmallows, 2. bag of marshmallows, 3. bag of marshmallows (back), 4. bag of marshmallows (back), 5. candy corn line up, 6. big jar of plush pickle preserve

If you think these are so cute you need to huggle one right now, you can order one of her creations at her Scrumptious Delight Etsy store.

Picked a Pattern!

Technically my mom did :p  And the winner(‘s) is(are):

Falling Leaves Wrap by Dory Brown for my Godmother, because it’s a large lace pattern and because I fear teh lace D: I have a backup pattern, which is the Eva’s Shawl by milobo.  Judging from some of the comments and looking at the time it takes for people to complete, I don’t think I’ll have a problem.  I also really want to do the lace one, just to get the “OMG LACE!!!  I made it!!! and I LIVED!!!” moment out of the way.

Mom picked out her own pattern, which relieves me because she’s such a picky person to please :p  I don’t really mind making her things, but I don’t really want to spend a couple months making something when she probably won’t want to wear it.  Long Open Shawl by Bernat Design Studio is the winner for the Mommeh, and since she picked out her own shawl I think pick out a nice color for it all by myself :D

I still love Doris Chan's Chrysanthemum Tea Shawl, I might just make it to lay on the back of my reading chair, or a kind of table cloth for the kitchen table :3

Shawl Pattern

So I found the address and phone number of my Godmother from this post.  I was thinking of sending her something for Christmas and thought making something would be a perfect gift since she used to make me things.  Mom has been fishing for a shawl ever since I started picking up crochet again, and especially since I learned to knit, so I decided why not make two, one for her, one for Godmother.  I’m trying to look for something light enough for Hawaiian weather and substantial enough for visiting Kids and Grandkids.

I’m leaning a bit towered crochet shawls since the lace knit ones intimidate me a bit :p maybe if I had started a couple months ago I’d feel more secure.  And since I’m just starting now I thought it would be best to do my Godmother’s shawl first, and make a camera cozy for Mom, making her shawl either a late Christmas gift or saving till next year :3

I’ve go the patterns narrowed down to 12 (half crochet, half knit)

Crochet:

1. Blue Curacao by Doris Chan – Mom, maybe Godmother
2. Chrysanthemum Tea Shawl by Doris Chan -  Godmother
3. Eva’s Shawl by milobo - Godmother
4. Greengold by Minchanka.by/julia – has Mom all over it
5. Long Open Shawl by Bernat Design Studio – Mom
6. Mermaid Wings Shawl by Josette McWilliams – Godmother

Knitting:

1. The "Dummy Clap" Shawl, Scarf & Shrug by Anna Peck – Mom and Godmother
2. Falling Leaves Wrap by Dory Brown – Mom and Godmother
3. Nuolitanssi by Elina Urmass - Mom and Godmother
4. Leaf-Patterned Convertible Shawl by Jennifer Meyer – Mom
5. Leaf Lace Stole by Cynthia Robinson – Mom, maybe Godmother
6. Flying Geese Shawl by Betty Balcomb – Mom, maybe Godmother

I’ve just ordered Doris Chan’s Amazing Crochet Lace book on Amazon, mainly because of the two shawl pattern, but especially because of the skirt overlay one, being the selfish knitter that I am :D  It brought to mind Even Howard’s Jolly Rancher skirt overlay.