My creative process has peculiar priorities.

I've been working on making a Cunning Hat in my spare time. I found this very Costumer-OCD analysis of the Hat. And lots of other resources, including this knitting pattern and this more-like-a-recipe one both of which I probably should have also used as additional references.

I decided to use several balls of Knitpicks Palette I had in the yarn hoard and multi-strand it. So far so good. I elected to MAKE a set of size 10.5 circulars because I hate waiting, I know how to make circs, and I despise the cables on all but a couple kinds of circs. My favorite cables are on my homemade needles, anyway. And, see? They're even pretty!

The awful reality of this is that I can't, cannot, just CAN NOT, seem to do anything the easy way. I apparently must HACK EVERYTHING, especially if it has an existing, perfectly good counterpart or decent, easy instructions.

After all that, I worked up one version of the hat, all except the pompon, found it too bright, tea-dyed it, found it lacking, and frogged it. No photos.

I had to small-batch overdye my yarn because it Wasn't Quite Right. *rolls eyes at self*

Got all he yarn dyed to my satisfaction, prepped it into groups of three strands, balled up each color set prestranded (Orange-ish, yellow-ish, rusty red-ish), and finally knitted it up, AGAIN. I even made the ridiculous pompon.


It looks pretty good. But, wait for it:

I didn't fit the thing to Chris's head when I was knitting, and discovered that it's too small. By about, perhaps five stitches in every direction. DER. No photos. He looked even more ridiculous in it than he was supposed to.

I get to start over.

Good thing it knits up fast. Sigh. And good thing it's easy to frog.

Looking Busy

I'm distracting myself while my sweetie is deployed. I have lots to do, since I am suddenly parenting alone, and it'll be the better part of a year (optimistically) that I'm doing this. So, why not turn it to my advantage? I'm taking my frustration (and lonliness, and sadness, and just plain missing my other half) and using it as fuel towards my goals.

I have introduced a new daily/weekly routine, one that is designed to not be easily disrupted when he comes back. It's easier to do this while he's gone, anyway, since I'm not working around his routine right now.

A major change is that I'm using the kids as a vehicle for more exercise. I need to exercise - I hate feeling this weak. In any case, MrGiantBaby is finally old enough to take to the park and chase around (plus he doubles as a weight, since he's about 30 lbs now). We now go out for an hour of walking/playground time every day, come home for lunch, followed by naps. I do housecleaning during naptime, and this will likely be my last mid-day internet time, since that's restricted to an hour and a half max per day, preferably in the early morning or late evening.

On the creative front, I got the tree up and decorated it with cut paper snowflakes (among the things we left behind were our Xmas decorations). Pictures to come when I get enough made that you can't actually see the tree unless the lights are on. I'm also rearranging my office/workspace this weekend (I've got a 30-pound, 18 month old motivator for that, let me tell you - he spend more time taking my craft area aprt thatn I get to put it back together again), and might actually get to budget in some sewing time again once my routine gets, well, routine.

It's still pretty chaotic around here, but I'm at least looking busy.

Happy Holidays

Blogstalky, week 3: from here to there

Okay, okay, I'm doin' it. I know it's Thursday. I didn't really want to write about this.

This is Martha, my 12 year old, third-hand minivan, in the snow last spring:


She looks evil (like some kind of snowy evil pokemon-car) in the snow, but she's pretty benign. She takes us to the store perhaps once every two weeks, and on the odd family outing in between. Usually she sits in the driveway, resting as old ladies are wont to do.

Mostly, though, I walk around on these:

But they usually have at least flip-flops on when I'm outside, hiking boots if I intend to go far. We have a no-shoe house, so they are always bare at home, unless they are cold, in which case I can be counted on to be ruining some perfectly good pair of socks.

So that's how I get around. I have no pictures of the sleek, black mancar the husband drives, but I get to drive Lucy every once in a while. She's nice, and she'd better be since we now have a car payment again. Meh.

Stuff On the Worktable

Here's a quick rundown of my current projects, and a cool thing I figured out for a small work area. Projects first!

This first one is a two-layer dressup sun/royalty crown I made for my kids. It's a big pain to sew, though, because of the fiddly shape of the rays, so I probably won't be making any to sell that are just like this. I'm also planning to make a soft tricorn hat and a pointy hat, but the little guys have to wait for those. The big sewing project (my formal and Laura's formal) is going to eat up a large amount of my time.

The second thing I'm making is a soft toy inspired by the fact that little kids love to pull all the tissues or wipes out of a box. I'm calling a it a "magic tissue box" and the "tissues" are serged random shaped fabric pieces, different on each side They connect with hook-and-loop, so they pull out one after the other, but will tear away for safety, and connect to the bottom of the "box." The box is actually a box bag without a zipper, overlapped to give the illusion of closure.

I'm making one for Mr Giant Baby to replace the cardboard-and-knotted-fabric prototype, and one to test the waters with in my Etsy shop. I had several goals for this:

1. Stimulating patterns and colors, maybe also textures
   
2. Washable, all fabric
   
3. Soft
4. Safe (so no knotted-together pieces of fabric)
5. Portable, so it has a handle, and the "tissues" connect with hook-and-loop so they don't get lost easily

They are still in progress, and I'm still deciding whether I want to add round and square tissues or keep with the random triangles and rectangles I've been using. Also, I have a few threads left to trim..



This is a hint of the colorful pieces for something I am planning to sell, which is a terrycloth teething toy. Mr Giant Baby has already worn his prototype nearly out, but he'll get a new one of these, too.

My goals for this one are:

1. Bright colors and interesting patterns
2. Teethable surfaces (terrycloth)
3. Washable and quickly drying
4. Interesting surfaces
5. Loop for hooking to stroller/carseat

Pictures when I have more than just parts!

Finally, this is my solution to having only one worktable, two machines I need to switch between, and a small work area (so adding another table is impractical). I got this turntable with a TV stand that was Freecycled to us, and since my husband didn't want the turntable it was sitting around useless - until I realized it would fit on my worktable, and it would hold both my machines (which happen to share the same type of pedal/cord). It works fabulously, and all I have to do to switch machines is unplug one, spin and plug in the other. It's really fast if I do my matching thread setup before I start.

And here is the coolest thing, which I figured out recently - I can fit my small cutting mat on the end of the worktable next to the turntable, so I can cut things out without having to move the machines around! Yay for better organization in small spaces.

Blogstalky: Purse Gutz

Well, I delayed to make it more interesting, but it really isn't. I'd be a wallet girl if I didn't need a diaperbag.

ETA: Okay, something that got eaten by blogger while I fought with the editing window in my other browser is that it isn't originally a diaperbag - it's a smallish medium-sized purse with lots o' pockets, as I despise most diaper bags, even the non-fluffy-bunny styles. I had intended to make my own diaper bag, but never got around to it. So I went hunting for one that fit my idea of what I wanted (I'd had the perfect purse-cum-small-diaperbag when FX was little, but gave it away to a friend who needed one), I hunted all over and found it at Target, I think. For 10 bucks. Cheap is good, and even more so if it doesn't fall apart (it's going on 2 years old now).

And it's about 10 x 7 x 8. A little bigger than I wanted, but still quite compact unless I stuff it.
(end added-left-out-part)

This, then, is my purse:

Wait. Mr. Giant Baby decided to "help" by violently shaking me while I snapped the photo. Let's try that again.

Okay, this is my purse. Lots of pockets. The silver zipper pocket is "my zone" and the pockets in front contain my things.

Yes, that includes cigarettes, but honestly, I only smoke one a day, at most, and I never finish them. And I smoke outside. Also, there is the wallet with red flames which my husband bought me so I wouldn't lose it. So, of course, I have, several times. But I did always find it again...


Arranged according to their position in the purse are:

1. from side pocket one: A bottle of Little Noses cold/allergy drops; A bottle of Infant Tylenol Dye-Free; a tube of baby Orajel (it is a diaper bag! I swear!)
   
2. from silver-zipper pocket: Pens mixed with some penlike makeup (eyeliner, mascara, coverup); checkbook; crumpled piece of paper; a penny; a large paperclip; Makeup (liquid, powder, lipstick, eyeshadow); an expansion pack for Chez Geek
3. from side pocket two: hand sanitizer (diaper bag!); a selection of emergency tampons.
4. My wallet, which has lots of cards, a bunch of receipts, a small pen, and one dollar, just in case.

Next we have the contents of the inside and back pockets, minus the stinky diapers and wet bag, because those go straight into the diaper can when we get home. We have:

1. Several random pieces of paper. I have no idea whose phone numbers those are. I think this came from my husband's pocket, actually.
2. A pale yellow plastic fork-spoon-sporky thing
3. The sewing pattern for Laura's dress.
   
4. Two fortune cookie fortunes.
5. Three velcro tiedowns (seriously, these belong in every diaperbag).
6. baby wipes (diaperbag!)

Why I shouldn't spend too much time online

Why? Well, besides the obvious equation that (time on the Internet) = (time not spent creating things), it also often means I find cool things to add to my ever expanding to-do list. Like making a biscornu embroidered with 15th century German counted-thread work.

The last time I tried this I was inspired to work it in miniature scale and I did exactly one motif.

Somebody smack me.

The Dance of the Overflowing Toilet Fairy

Well, that pretty much sums it up. Between 1 and 3 I was fighting a flood of sewage and cleaning my bathroom. The management says that our toilet "does not overflow" (REALLY?) , but can occasionally "back up or drain slowly because it's last on the sewage line". Pah. They just do not want to hire an actual plumber, cheap ba$tards.

Pardon my crabbiness. I'm tired and I smell like poop, despite an hour scrubbing with bleach and soap and hot water. It tends to cause moodiness. :P


The last time they came in to 'fix' the toilet they tried to blame my son for the plugged up toilet. He was 3 months old at the time. I suspect that there are tree roots (perhaps from the large eucalyptus right outside the window) involved in the sewer line. I also suspect that a chronically regurgitating toilet is a violation of some housing code.

But what do I know? I'm just a girl.