Change of Crafting Title

I've been thinking a lot about this condition of craft whoring.  I don't feel like it's an appropriate title for what I do.  Well, it's an appropriate title for what I have been doing in the past, but not what I do currently.

A craft whore, does crafts, often for monetary value, and she can't really stop what she does and doesn't spend to much time with her projects, thus the wrecked results.  If she spent more time with her projects she'd be a craft wife or a craft girlfriend.

I have the wrecked results part, but I don't craft for money.  Most of my crafts are gifts, chosen carefully for the giftee.   And I don't commit (I have changed my brother's Christmas presents twice already), which matches the whore thing, but the urban dictionary's definition, "someone who is addicted to crafting" is not the correct definition of the term craft whore, I feel and it is not the correct definition for what I do.

I am addicted to crafting, but that doesn't make me a whore.  A whore may be addicted, but the an addicted person is not necessarily a whore.  The whole selling aspect doesn't match up and the pattern of obsession, binging and bouts with sobriety (periods of sanity).  

If someone is addicted to drinking, they call him or her a drunkard, or an alcholic, so maybe we should play with those words more, to see what comes out.  A craftard or a craftaholic.

I really like craftard, cause it kind of combines the word "craft" with "tard."  Which probably describes what I do in crafting more accurately.  Craftaholic works well, but I can quit at anytime, :).  This title denotes the addictive nature of crafting, but not the half-hearted sloppiness and subsequent mess that is the general result of most of my attempts. Craftard's my favorite title, so for future reference, my chosen crafting nickname is CraftTard.

Craft on addicted crafters!  Love from the,

Broken Bobbin

So as it turns out, the little bobbin on my mom's sewing machine was broken and that's why the thread kept snagging and then the bottom stitching wouldn't catch.  So if we go to the Arlington Sewing Machine on Main St. we can probably get it replaced.  I'm all hopes, but no fears.  Well, they might not have a replacement, because it's an older model, but it's not THAT old!  When this gets fixed, all my sewing projects are "GO."  Super excited.  

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Update!  we got a new bobbin holder and it only cost $15 dollars!  I love the Sewing Machine Store in Arlington and it seemed really busy when we went in.  Now I just have to start on some of these projects.  Alas, I never seem to have very much time because I'm working more than full-time, 42 hours.  I think I need to go back to working on the weekends at Whataburger.  I don't know though.  Really, it's a thinker.

I really need to take this partially done quilt to the quilt store and get it professionally finished.  It's ok to ask for help if you are in deep and you can't find your way out of a craft project.  It's a beautiful quilt and I'd like to use it.  My mom is only going to grunt at me when I ask her help because we have so much other stuff going on that needs and deserves our attention.  Craft projects just naturally take a back burner.  I haven't knitted in months.  And that's saying something cause I suck at knitting and counting stitches, but I have kept myself in knitting projects for 11 years prior to 2017.

Craft Nonsense

Just called Arlington Sewing Machine, I noticed this little shop, going to my appointment in downtown Arlington.  The bobbin holder of my mom's old faithful Singer was chipped, causing the thread to snag and sew big loops that weren't connected to anything.

So I just called them and they said they probably would have the part, I'd just have to bring it in to have them look at it.  If they do or if they don't, it's worth a try, and our sewing machine could be up and running and I'd have a lot of great projects to start on.

I love little mom and pop shops and I wish I could start one.  My dream is a coffee/yarn store.  I'd call it The Knitty Gritty.  Please don't steal my idea.  :)  I even know where I'd put it, that place between Auto Zone and The Half-Price Bookstore almost on Cooper, where the road divides.  It used to be a florist's, I think, but now it's just sitting empty.

I'm going to start including recipes and cookbooks in with my craft nonsense, because I feel it's all related.

Update 12/07/18.  We got the part at The Sewing Machine on Main Street.  Turns out they have everything sewing machines and just had that part.  It was wonderful.

Another idea of where I'd put that store:  on Little Road where the Herby's used to be.

Repurposing Old Clothes

My latest craft project has to do with repurposing old clothes.  I have a ton of old clothes - most of them have some sort of hole in them.  They are taking up my hammock space and that's my little reading room.  I kind of gave up on the hammock when I started to work at Subway and it became a shelf for all these old clothes.  My resolution tonight is to find a project for each of them.  I already have a sweater that I want to turn into a skirt and a shirt that I want to turn into a bag.  Wish me luck.  I'll try to take some pictures so ya'll kinda know what I'm doing.  My phone is acting weird, so we'll see if I get any of the photos.

Update:!  Got my phone remastered.  I pretty much hate my phone.  I do not treat it like a little angel.  It is a machine.  Maybe I should, I know a lot of people do. But now it works!  I'm going to try to be nicer to my phone in the future.  It works for me!

I have decided to mend this hideous green dress, where the strap came down, on some of the old clothes, I could not find holes, so just rehung/folded them.

 This is a purple shirt on a purple bed, that I plan to make into a bag/tote. The pink ribbon for the very small hole.  I got this recently from Goodwilll.  

 

 This is a detail of the hippie embroidery that I loved on the shirt

 This is a detail of the ribbon on the shirt

 Here is the hideous blue and green dress.  That is the tear in the fabric.  

 Here is the dress

 It's from Pink Apple, I got it from Fallas, near the mall, in 2011.  

 These are details of the sweater.  Sweet Margaret Obenigba got it for me cause I have a problem with my pants falling down.  It is extra long for that reason. 

 I plan to get it some lining and something for the waist and make it into a skirt.  It's the most complicated project, so far.

 Love me some pastel rainbows!  I think I got this from Target in 2016.  

 Here is the tiny hole.  

 A bit bigger!

 You can barely see it!  But I know it's there!  I'm going to cut a swatch off the bottom and make these pants shorter and sew the patch onto the butt of the pants where the hole is located.  

Some banana pants.   I'm going to hem the bottoms. I've had these forever.  I hated them because they had stretchy cuffs at the bottom and were too short.  I cut a slit in them, but they just frayed and were overall hideous.  How can I get rid of banana pajama pants, though?   They'll make cute shorts.  

Update 12/07/18: I still have all these projects to do.  

A Great Charity to Drop Off Baby Hats and Other Knit and Crocheted Items in the DFW Area

Found a fitting home for my spare knitted baby hats.  Feels good to donate something I don't need to someone who could really use it.  

This is a great foundation that takes mostly blankets, but also takes knitted hats, scarves and blankets for all sizes of patients. 

http://www.warmupamerica.org/parkland

Mail baby blankets to:

Warm Up America! Foundation
c/o Parkland Babies
3740 N. Josey Lane, Suite 102

Carrollton, TX 75007

If you are in the Dallas area and would like to personally deliver your baby blanket or other knitted or crocheted donation, please contact Ann Foster or Lisa Little at Parkland (214-590-8827) for drop off information.

For the latest updates about the Parkland Call for Donations, visit us on Facebook.

So if you are like me, and have an abundance of knitted things lying around that you don't use, send them to the address above or drop them off to help warm a patient in need.   

Hating to loving yourself: An internet journey

So I decided to continue making hats, I have one in the works, no pictures yet, my phone is recharging.

It's the grey and black and it's the largest size because I always worry about babies outgrowing the little ones I knit too soon.  It's going great so far, but I I'm decreasing and I think I missed some stitches, because things aren't turning out too evenly. I've got six stitches on one side of the marker and eight on the other side.  Not a problem for me, though.

I'd love to visit with others while I knit.  I know a couple of sisters who knit and craft.  Meg Hunter knits and Ahunna Ikpeowo crotchets, while Joanna Jenkinson crafts with leather.  I've looked at the Meetup site for this and while they have a group, I'm on the waiting list.

My mom crotchets, but hasn't done it in a while. I tried to convince her to finish that quilt I started and the cross stitch I started but I don't think she's interested in craft leftovers.

I want to take back charge over the quilt.  It's all kinds of purple, perfect for my room and it's not going to get cold this year so...I could just use it as a cover and not my allergies inducing duvet.

Still lonely as heck.  I want someone to tell me what to do, but you know what happens when people do that.  Things turn into work and they pick something that you don't want to do. It feels good after you accomplish it.  But if you are alone all the time, you only get vaugue impressions of what people "want" you to do, not a clear picture and some people say "Figure out your own damn thing to do, you're an adult,"  and it's really disappointing and not that easy, cause when you are kid everyone tells you what to do.

So what's more important, resetting your biological clock or getting things done, even if at the wrong time?  I think I'm going to AVON til 11 and if I feel sleepy by then I'll crash, or just lie awake in the dark, thinking about things.  I got this super awesome book, which was totally out of character, because it's a cheap paperback workbook, and trashy looking, The Girlboss Workbook, by Sophia Amoruso.  I love it because it is different from books that I would usually get.

I also got a journal, but when I think about it I panic.  I have in my head the perfect journal, the journal devoted to one subject, glory be to God.  It would either be 1.) poetry.  2.) A novel.  3.)My special journey. 4.) Deep dark secrets or junk journal, but God knows, I've got way too many of those.  Really though...I have a blog.  I don't know why I bought the journal, except that I'm a hopeless perfectionistic, romantic dreamer.  Really, I have a blog to post all my secrets on.  Am I right, people?

For next time:  Get your butt up, break that sleepiness seal.  You won't regret it.  Go to the meeting, return those texts.  Don't reveal all your secrets in one blog, leave an air of mystery.
For this time:  Get your butt up, AVON out, love yourself.

Update:  Reading this post, I got the incredible idea about how great it would be if there was a craft supply company like AVON, where crafters sell to crafters. I dunno, just another half-baked idea.

Baby Hats for Baby Heads

I have two infant baby hats, but looking at how fast the babies are growing on Facebook, I'll have to create a larger version.  I'm going to go with the largest version possible, because they will always grow into it and they are stretchy, especially when washed. Here are the finished projects.

Also, to those who were hopeful about the Modge Podge experiment, I apologize.  The materials were way to expensive, I didn't have any desk space and I was distracted with other projects and life matters.  I don't have the money or the time right now.  But I do want to start a new knitting project, something I could work on my free time, that wouldn't be too expensive.  I really have felt that I need to do something else creative in knitting so stay tuned to my next knitting project.

Update:  I'm making this neat grey shawl out of wool.  I needed to rekindle my love for knitting, not just churn out baby hats for babies I never even got to hold.  So making a cool shawl for myself, which I'll probably never use, because winter is over and it took me all winter to make it.  Well, maybe if I have a sleeveless dress.  Looking out for that perfect item to match.  Maybe a little black dress?  A little grey dress?

Update, Jachin still has his hat and wears it.  Not too shabby!
And I made the grey shawl and usually use it on the couch to warm up.

Knitting Pattern Errors

So I'm knitting this baby hat and it comes up with impossible instructions, which I didn't have a problem with the last time I made the hat. Somehow I must have missed them.

They say that you need to knit until the last two stitches, stitch two together and then slip a stitch, which would be fine, but shouldn't it be knit until the last three stitches, you stitch two together and then slip one, making three last stitches.  I think my mind edited it out before when I made the other baby hat and things turned out fine.

It just irks my perfectionism to know that there may be more perfect instructions out there that I don't have to fix, or that have another way of dealing with the problem to come up with a better hat than one where I will have to fix instructions to make.  I get really grumpy and old when it comes to crafts.  I'm not one of those people who post their projects made of light and air on Pinterest.  I'm more of a panicked new mother, attempting to fix my kids using impossible parental guidance from an old Mother's Day magazine.

Bawls.

Why god, why do most patterns have an error in them, especially free patterns.  I think it's a secret plot to challenge knitters intellect.  Thus far I have thrown up my hands at this particular baby hat, but tomorrow will have me back at it.  It's for Zoe, after all.  I can't give up because of one simple mistake.  Plus I've already subconsciously moved past in on the first baby hat I made, so this one will have to be done the same way.

Knitters, have you experienced this? How have you dealt with errors?

Update:  I don't remember sending this particular hat, but I think I finished it. I have a lot of extra hats lying around.  Zoe's head is probably already too big, and I need to start thinking about toddler's patterns.  I have one big hat, but 5 smaller ones, for infants.  The only newborn I know of is Jessica Ventura's third, but he seems to be growing fast, too.  Babies, that's the only thing, they don't stay small.

First Attempts.

It was whorish.  I bought the supplies, put in the time and effort and ended up with a lot of scraped up paper, beads, ribbon and glue.

I'm not totally sure why my craft project, Modge Podged Altoids Boxes, didn't turn out like the pictures.

There were a lot of drying issues.  I would smudge the paper, and it would tear and bubble up.  Then, the Dimensional Magic, I thought was dry and it was not at all and I'd end up with a half-wet finger print smudge.  The Altoid boxes had raised letters, which would show up under the Modge Podged paper.

I think I have to wait a long!!!!!!!!! period of time for the Modge Podge to dry and I have to reduce the amount of the glue I use on the paper, because if the paper is too wet, it bubbles, unfortunately.

To say the least morale is down.  I have two empty boxes mocking me on my desk.  I didn't think this took any skill.  I didn't think I would have to care. I didn't think I would have to be cold and impassionate, as I took my lover, crafting, and held it's gooy glue between my furious fingers.

There will have to be adjustments made.  I'm going to go over the instructions again to see if there is something I missed.

Wildly Important Idea

I am going to make crafts, document the hilarious results and then sell them on Etsy for ridiculous prices with links to the videos of me making them.

Do I even think this will work?  No. That's kind of the point.

What shall I start with?  I'm actually pretty good at knitting and I really suck at cross stitch, but I can do a passable needlepoint project.

I really just want to jump in there and craft my little heart out.

I have all these craft books.  A knitting one, a needlepoint one, a beading one, and a general holiday crafts one.  There is the internet, an endless resource of free random craft projects.

I'm thinking crafts involving lots of glue.  I can see myself gluing things together.   Modge Podge it up.



I'm so going to do this.  Internet: Challenge, Accepted.

Baby Hats

Tons of cute baby hats!

The first one is pink, the second one is metallic blue (even though it looks white) and the third is  a peach with yelllow spots.  

The first is for Ruby, Ada and Even Dye's baby and the second is for Martha Ann and Nathan Fellman's baby and the orange one is for Micah and Abby Eades baby boy.  I knit 3 hats for Marissa Brown's baby, and I think I'm going to do it for the rest of the babies, too.  The orange one which looks good in theory has some thick yellow paint on it and thus may not be best for newborns.  So I'm going to try a variety of knitted hats so people can mix and match.  I'm gonna need more yarn!  

Right now I'm using this pink fairy fingerweight yarn for girls and a blue silvery fingerweight yarn for the boys.  I have some red and green cotton yarn, which is good for washing machines and some purple really soft cotton yarn for girls.   There's also some grey silvery and dark, almost black wool yarn that I knit one hat out of but am not going to use again because it keep coming apart on me, while knitting - not the greatest for washing machines.  

Great Hats!

I made three of these cool hats peach hats with yellow spots using Rowan, all season cotton, peach yarn.  One was for Rachel and Stephen Wheeler's baby, Rylan, coming in January one was for Marissa Brown and Daniel Lopez's baby, also coming in January, and the last one is for Micah and Abby Eades baby boy, coming in several months.

They are kind of ugly...and look like Halloween decorations.  But it's kind of an angle thing.  You could look at is like cute Mushie hats from super Mario.  I'm pretty sure none of the above have ever played.  I don't know what I'm going to do about that.

There are two other hats in the works, one on size 5 double points and another on size 6.  One, a green one, for Joseph and Joanna Jenkinson's baby girl, and the other, a red one, for Faith and Alan Webb's baby.

Update...

I have some for Joanna's sister and brother-in-law Nathan and Martha-Ann Fellman, and another for Even and Ada Dye's new baby boys that I am making out of various yarns.  There's a blue one that I've started and it's a silky yarn, and I'm not sure how it will turn out.  We will see.

Haha.  I don't remember what happened to this.

The Worst Day

I have experienced the worst crafting day ever. 

I cut my flannel fabric into the correct specifications, but it's not fitting the knitted part of the blanket.  So I have to add on fabric.  Cutting and measuring the fabric is a pain because all I have is a flexible fabric tape measure and not any good surface on which to measure it.  It's hard to get a straight edge at all.  I don't have any good cutting scissors, the only sharp ones are embroidery.  The sewing machine has a habit of seizing up and leaving great balls of thread on the underside of the fabric.  I don't want to ruin my fabric, since it is the only piece I have. 

I got more embroidery floss for my cross stitch kit, and I have messed up all over the place.  It is a wreck.  A travesty.  The worst.  There are parts that I've forgotten, things moved up and down and to the right and the left.  Everything is the worst. And I have the problem of not having enough thread to complete the "IS"  in "THIS IS." 

All in all, the worst day in my crafting history.  I don't think there is a worse day.

I still have that crossstitch, my venture into group crossstitching ended in huge embarrassment, while the ladies chatted and crossstitched speedily, fancy stitchings so above my head.  I didn't cross stitch to talk, I cross stitched to piece together missing pieces of my life.  Selling and buying them with random numbers, I counted, heavily breathing, screaming at mistakes.

Blanket and Hat

I'm knitting this thing for my relatives, Rachel and Stephen, my cousins, who are having a new baby, Rylan Wheeler.  It's a girl's name, kind of a mix of things.

I ordered peach colored yarn, but tonight, looking at it, it looks orange.  A prison jumpsuit orange.  But we haven't added the flannel to it yet, so that may be part of the problem.  I can just imagine the looks on their faces as I usher their new baby daughter into the world.  Into the world of incarceration.  Maybe it's just the artificial lights.  One can only hope.

It was pretty easy to do, Dyan's Baby Blanket and Hat.  (I haven't started on the hat yet, a mix-up in needles with LovingKnitty, the company from which I bought the yarn and supplies) from AlterKnits, by Leigh Radford,  a great book full of projects for me to expand upon.

I will post pictures in the morning, the light will be better.  I still have to post pictures with my laptop, whose angle is weird, so you have those to look forward to.  Also I have not mastered the art of not ending my sentences with a preposition.  You'll just have to forgive me.

I did finish this, with my mom's help. It was a blue blanket though and I don't remember if we did the hat as well.  I think we didn't use any paint on it because the paint was too rough.  I may have taken out or threw away the peach blanket part.

Cross Stitch Thingy

 This is a cross stitch thing I had for ages and never finished.  Really only about two years.  The picture is shoddy, but it's hard to take a picture from my webcam.

I finished this and gave it to my mom.

Newest Fall Project

I'm making this super ugly chunky red and grey scarf out of 3-4 different types of yarns.  Knitting on size ten needles, this is a super easy piece to complete.  Pics, forthwith coming. 

I love it.  I love the easiness, and the feeling that I can make mistakes and get away with it.  A couple added stiches, hello yes.  Not exactly perfectly square sections.  Definitely.  Be my guest. 

I can knit and watch The Big Bang Theory at the same time.  I really am into the Indian guy.  He seems pretty together.  Raj.  Good knitting vibes.  Laughter, even if it is canned.

I don't think I finished that piece.

Plastic tubes. Straws.

Finally the plastic tubes from China have arrived.  I'm afraid to blog about them, they are so colorful and whimsical and not everything I wanted them to be.  They are like extra long, extra tiny colors of the rainbow plastic straws, and I have no idea what I'm going to do with them.  For now I think I'm going to leave them on the table, they are as pretty as flowers. 

They aren't thick plastic tubes so if anyone is looking for tubes for their art project or what have you, I have 28 bundles.  I only hope that that Scoubi I ordered off of Ebay went through, but with Paypal and what have you, I think that I'll have to do some snooping around to figure out what exactly I ordered and when and how, if at all. 

These materials are expensive and hard to get.   Not exactly what I look for in a great hobby.  I think that I will  need to be more careful in my ordering from now on.  

Buttons hava arrived!

We got the buttons!  The holes are so big!  I'm excited, but after finding out what the plastic lacing really is, Scoubidou or Scoubi, and ordering some I think that one knot maybe too small for the holes.  I could try some buttons I have with normal sized holes, but it's all just speculation until they get here.  I love the buttons, I don't know what exactly I'm going to do with them yet, but they came from Etsy, so I just want to give a shout out to them here. 

Evil Wins

So I'm looking for this tubing, the ones I order from China haven't come yet and I realize I need help. 

The help I'm talking about is from other crafters, experienced and wisened crafters.  So I search for Craft Forums.  I've had pretty good success on online forums for knitting, the Ravelry Community, there's always someone who's already done a project and wants to share their story.  So I see Craftster.org.  I peek around on the site, looking to find that connection.  I'm on there and I look through the jewelry posts, specifically since that's what I'm looking for help in.  All this is great and I realize that these people are just like me - craft whores, a name I've come to embrace, since I know it means, I try to craft, but could never be serious.  People who have no clue what they are doing, but buy expensive supplies to let their inner craft shine forth.  It's less a striving for perfection and more a striving to let nature out.  That was the connection that I was looking for. 

So I register.  So I thought.  This captcha.  That captcha.  None of the above captcha.  I guess I was wrong.  The elite people at Craftster must read minds to register for their forum.  I left after 5 tries.  A person gets disappointed, and seeing as the captcha never matches up with the type, I realized. 

I hate captchas.  And my will to get into a burgeoning society of crafters, and ask them about my mysterious plastic tubing for my awesome button rings was thwarted.  Evil wins again.

There has been an Evil Society of Writers.  I have heard tell of them.  So perhaps there should be an Evil Society of Crafters.  How can crafting be evil?  You haven't met the crafters! I think it's more advanced craft whoring.

Waiting and Anticipation

I haven't gotten any packages yet with my ring making supplies, the plastic tubes or the wooden buttons.  I'm still waiting with bated breath.  I really want to get started on these. 

I've been looking a the buttons and I am worried that they are just a really big close up and have normal sized holes.  This is tragic.  I can't make rings out of that!  That's the problem of buying online, you are never sure what you are going to get.

I never did anything with these.  I still have the tubes in the garage and I think the buttons are in the button tin.