Renew the Pledge

First of all, hooray for 200 posts! But that it took so long reminds me that I need to post more. And to post more, I need to work more! But between the cat, and work, and my new interest in exercising, my time seems to slip away.

At the beginning of every new season, when we're getting new shoes in the store, I vow to make lots of wonderful things to wear, and maybe make a couple things and then fall by the wayside. I'm not saying this spring will be any different, but I've begun making the effort again. I think part of the problem is that I really only use recycled fabric, so it's a bit of a grab bag as to whether I can find something appropriate for what I want to make.

Anyhoo, at the thrift store last week I did pick up two fabrics, one of which has already become this lovely pair of shorts.

The fabric was meant for home decor, I think. It's some kind of polished cotton, but it's quite heavy. It sewed up really nicely though. I fudged the fly zip a little, can you tell? Every time I go back and do pants, I forget how to do the pockets and fly, and have to relearn them. 

Back view, got the pockets on pretty nicely this time around. 

And on! They are shorter than what I've worn in the past, but now that I'm getting into shape I'm more comfortable with that. But I'm happy with the fit, just have to put the button on the waistband. 

This is the other fabric I picked up, it's some kind of synthetic crepe. I was hoping it was silk so I could make a shirt out of it (it's very Stella McCartney from a few seasons back) but since it's not, I'm actually thinking about making it into a pair of work-out shorts, just have to trace out a quick pattern from the pair I have. 

Whenever I'm feeling a little lost in my own studio, making Dear Jane blocks helps me get back into focus. These are from earlier this week, it's E-10-13 and F-1 and 2. I think they got me back in the groove a bit. 

In sillier news, Seamus always gets a personalized valentine from me--last year featured his favorite pokemon (Trubbish) This year's got his favorite up-and-coming pro wrestlers, The Shield. 

And, like I promised in the last post, for post #200, I've got a little giveaway! Comment with your email address and I will randomly pick a winner to receive my silly floral lucha mask, as well as some other odds and ends.

Masks and Misc.

Like usual, whenever I finish a big project, I'm a little lost afterwards. It feels freeing at first to not have something you are obligated to work on, but then you're not really sure what it is you want to work on. And none of my currently in-progress projects looked appealing (unfortunately!)

So as a quick little one-off project, I made Barry a kitty bed. He's happily claimed it as his own, and sleeps on it every night. He also has a long thing pillow that I made for him in the window when he naps out there. 

Now this started out as a bit of fun, blow-off-steam sort of project, but I think it's going to lead to something more serious. I've been watching far too much WWE pro-wrestling lately, and yes, I know that makes me a big nerdy 14 year old. But on the positive side, it's gotten me back into working out seriously and made me fascinated with the terrible/awesome outfits wrestlers wear. I decided to, just for fun, pattern out a luchadore-style mask, and after a few drafts, I think I was pretty successful. 

So of course I made up a sample one with the absolute tackiest fabric I can find, a floral crushed velvet that was once an enormous button up shirt. I like to think Macho Man Randy Savage would approve. 

Nothing quite this wonderful and tacky in the WWE right now, sadly.

More of a side view, it makes my already round face look very chubbed out though. Added some gold trim for the finishing touch. 

And, since I've once again caved and bought a moleskine, I can now do some watercolors in my sketchbook! I'm trying to get myself back into working with color a bit more. 

Seamus bought a new JLI trade paperback, and I couldn't help but do some doodles of the gang (and the Creeper) JLI makes me love Mr. Miracle, and now I'm wondering where else to start with his character. 

And to further show my stupid love of the fake wrestling (hey it's good practice for drawing different body types and strange poses, right?) a little bit of Team Hell No (this is a pretty good introduction), and I think that's Del Rio doing a cross-arm breaker on the other side. Cheapy Crayola markers actually work pretty nicely on this paper. 

As an aside, my next post will be my 200th!! I'm thinking of having a little give-away (don't know if I really have enough traffic for one though?) Keep an eye out!

Big Finish

The Lenore Tawney project (aka the reason I've been so absent from the blog) is finally finished, and I'm back again, hopefully with more frequent updates from here on out. I went in today to set it up in the gallery, unfortunately I did not bring my camera with me, but I did snap a picture as I was getting it ready to go.

Obviously the cardboard disk is just there to get things evenly spaced, it was removed after I secured all the strands to the pedestal. I had a difficult time with this project, I made a few miscalculalations early on in the project, and it just turned into a slog by the last third. It was also very difficult to tell what it was going to look like until I got it off the needles, blocked, and then hung up. So the morale was low, and I only jussssst managed to finish it on time. 

Still, it looks better on the pedestal, under tension than it does hear, and I'm okay with it. I'm certainly okay with it being finished. If I had a time machine, it would be half as big around and twice as long, and it was supposed to 'split' again, but time ran out. 

Now that it's done, some small, fast, fun projects are in order to get my enthusiasm back. First up is this pillow for Seamus's dad, only a little late for Christmas...oops. But a neat little patchwork/embroidery project. 

Separating and Sampling

So the Lenore Tawney project begins in earnest, I've separated a spool of dark green linen into 24 separate bobbins for my experimental cable knitting fiasco.  I tried to sketch my idea out but it just looked like a mess, so I'm hoping that keeping detailed measurements and notes will do the trick. Imagine a big, cabled tube of knitting separating out into multiple twists, then reconnecting, then fanning out again. I am hoping, with luck, it will recall Lenore Tawney's woven 'convergences' that appear in much of her work. 

Sample of two knit strands joining, cabling, then separating again. I do wish I had gotten something more suitable for this in my 'materials' grab bag though. The dark color means it's harder to see the cables, and it's linen, so there's no 'give,' which makes it harder to work with (especially for twisting the cables) But everything else I got was too fuzzy or thick to work. 

While waiting for my DPN to arrive to truly start the above project, I also whipped out some Dear Jane blocks. It's been a while since I focused on them, and it was a nice break. E-5 through E-9. And man, does E-9 (the gridded one) look crooked. Oh well, I'm not worrying about it too much. 

The Double pointed needles should arrive today, and then I'm banned from working on anything but the Lenore Tawney project and possibly an Xmas gift for Seamus's dad.