A little beading

I know, I keep disappearing. After finishing my sweater project for the Tour de France knit along, I wanted to get back to some beading. I have MANY MANY MANY unfinished beading objects so I decided to go for some low hanging fruit with a partially done Embellished Peyote Cuff. Instead of using a metal clasp, I chose to make my own using a peyote stitch ring and toggle. The toggle is attached to the bracelet using simple beaded ring chains so that the bracelet can be expanded for a larger wrist.

Juggernaut Bag

Not bead, not knitting but sewing.

Way back when I had made a bag using a hex frame based on the u-handbag hex frame bag tutorial. I wasn't very happy with its dimensions or some of its construction. I ended up pulling the hex frame out for future use. Well, the future is now.



This is the story of the juggernaut bag and how the tshirt came to be. Going into the ECAC tourny weekend, the USCHO writer was picking his games for the weekend described us as The Big Red are the dream-crushers, they play in games that end streaks and crush passion. They are the soul-devouring juggernauts of the league, because they are so systematically thorough in every aspect of the game that they will completely suck every ounce of energy out of your lineup.. Well, that became the talk of elynah and we kept joking about wouldn't it be great if there was a t shirt?

ECAC tournament weekend comes and goes. We win the Whitelaw (yay!) and Barry Melrose, in the selection show, picks us to go to the finals to face Miami who is facing their own road of hardship. Miami's equipment manager (and son of Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke) was killed in an auto accident this year. So again, we joke, "but doesn't he know that we are the dream crushers and soul devouring Big Red? The writer gave his permission to have his words put onto a tshirt (in return for a hoodie) and the design began. Within a day, there were more than 100 posts in the tshirt design thread and the local Ithaca tshirt printers (PSP) had jumped in and started coordinating with the campus store for sale and distribution. And then we had the tshirt for sale.

I bought two. One to wear, one to turn into a bag


I stuck the hex frame in and stuck some feet on the bottom. It's lined with a scarlet red taffeta. The cotton knit is stretchy so I wanted something non stretchy on the inside. The bag is all set for Detroit.

Sadly, we lost our first game at regionals. The irony of this shirt was not lost on us. They could crush dreams and devour souls. We never specified whose dreams or souls that would be.

color changes

And yeah, I needed to get rid of the background color, cuz it was annoying me and hurting my eyes.

I need some color!

The black purse will look good but I'm really in need of something that is not a shade of black. So...





And now to do some sewing...

3/24/2010

Filling in

Also, here is the Cynthia Rutledge Milady's Brooch.

The brooch itself is done. I need to work on the necklace part.

Beading a progression

I've been lax in posting on the blog but I'm hoping to make up for it. Last summer I took a class with Sherry Serafini to make a beaded bag. Well, the colors in the kit weren't really inspiring me and I decided to start over. I'm going with a theme of black and using different sized black beads and finishes to create the bag. For some accents, there are some crystals in a clear white. I also thought it would be interesting to post a picture of the bag at the end of the night and follow the work progression.

Bead Embroidery Bag

Bead Embroidery Bag
Just a little bit of progress tonight.

Insanity is...

embroidering a bag with teenie tiny size 15 black beads with tired eyes at 1 in the morning.

Beading inspiration has been lacking at times. For a long time, my beading time was not my own. I'm slowing working on reclaiming that and hope to get back to doing some more spectacular beadwork.

Happy New Year!

Yes, it's mid month already. My main crafting goal right now is trying to get through Ivel so that I can stop paying for the cashmere. I've knit enough of the sleeves that I'm now working through the body so I can join them for the yoke. For the body, I'm up to the waist decreases. The updated pattern that was received in May, well, it is a little better than the previous version. The waist decrease chart, well, I think it's wrong. I think I may just say fuck it and go with what I think is right, since I really don't think the chart is.

A bracelet

Just in time for the company holiday party. I wanted something sparkly and cuff like and here we go:

Hockey promotional post

So... sicklipstick and I are trying to organize a meet up of area hockey fans to expand our local hockey fandom world. For this meet up, you need to be single. Please see details here

I know right? Haven't posted in ages and this is what I throw in.

Welcome back, beading muse

I spent this past weekend at Bead Obsessions in a 2 day class with Sherry Serafini. It's been a long time since I've been absolutely taken with the need to bead. Maybe you were able to tell with the lack of bead work being shown here. This weekend brought it all back. The artistry, the beauty, it brought it all back.



The end result is a small evening hand bag.



I don't think I'll be bringing this with me next week. Bead embroidery requires a mix of beads, which I won't have with me. Instead, I had purchased a kit this weekend that I hope to finish next week.

Cottage Gardens

Last year at Rhinebeck, I bought 4 ounces of fiber. I was looking for fiber that had been dyed using a few different colors. I was inspired both by looking at the before and after pictures of stuff that javajem had spun up and also by My So Called Scarf and how the colors blended in so well together. With those thoughts in mind, I went shopping and came home with this:


This was spun on Suzie and soon became a bobbin full of singles:


With the bobbin looking like that, I decided that I would try to create long color blocks rather than trying to mix and match because of how this was dyed and packaged. In order to create something like what javajem had been spinning, I would need roving that was more splotchy with colors.

Finally, after being Navajo plied and set, it became 230 yards of soft soft fiber:

A pound of fiber

Last of the Persimmon Tree Farm fiber
Originally uploaded by jyiu7

In 2008 at Maryland Sheep and Wool, I bought a pound of fiber with the intention of spinning it up and knitting a shrug out of it for my friend's wedding...in August of 2008.

Well, it's June 2009 and I have finally spun through it all! The last bit of it has been washed and set and is now hanging to dry.

Keep on spinning

I must finish this - Creatively Dyed merino/bamboo:



I'm into the home stretch. Once it's spun, I will do a 2 play. Hope to finish this by July 1st. I want to finish it so that I can start in on one of these:


juliespins 50%alpaca/30%merino/20%silk in "Embers"
or

juliespins 50%alpaca/30%merino/20%silk in "Great Grape"

You can find juliespins here

And summer begins

Some progress pictures after the last game of the 2008-2009 NHL season:

This picture of the February Lady Sweater is from 1st intermission of the game. I knit a few more rows. I've still got another 2 balls of Malabrigo and since the game is over and I'm still knitting, I think I'm going to attempt a mid thigh length sweater, having been inspired by this one.


Also...not quite finished for class today but:

National Donit Day

Since today is national donut day
1. free donut at Krispie kreme.
2. Free donut with purchase of a drink at participating dunkin donuts

Yes, I sew too

I used to sew, before I played with beads, or before I took up knitting. In middle school and high school, I sometimes made my own clothes because I couldn't find anything I liked in the stores. I've done pillows. The curtains currently in my bedroom I made. But I haven't done much of it in a long time. And all of a sudden, the urge to sew is back. So yesterday, I made this:






This is the u-handbag Hex Open Frame tutorial/Knitting bag. The bag turned out bigger than I anticipated and I'll be using it this week to test drive this one. I did have a few thoughts about the bag and the construction as I worked my way through it:
- Basting is a wonderful wonder thing! It's how I held the bag bottom in place because I wasn't able to find feet.
- The bottom...well, I top stitched both sides along the bottom of the bag and that sort of holds the bottom in place but I'm not very happy with it. If I had feet for the bag, this would not have been a problem
- The bag lining is a little too big. Next time, I would probably take about a centimeter off the bottom of the lining and then continue with the rest of the instructions. As it is, it's kinda bunchy at the bottom.
- If I didn't have feet and needed to secure the bottom, I would do that first before I sewed the open hole in the lining used to flip the bag right side out.
- Pliers came in handy to hold the frame together as I attempted to shove the screw into the hex frame.
- I would make a wider bottom.

Before it all

Before the beading and the knitting and the fiber, I sewed. My mom started sewing because it was cheaper to make our own curtains than it was to buy them. It was cheaper sometimes to make your own clothes than to go out and buy them. I watched her, and thought it was fun and I learned. In high school, after I learned to drive, I spent a lot of time at the local JoAnn's. It's a little different now but it's still a familiar place.

I kinda want to do some sewing and make some bags.