fishie’s aquarium

I love Craftster Challenges. It seems like they’re the only thing that can really motivate me to get something done, these days. I’ve been itching to sew something lately, and I’ve been wanting to try my hands at making a corset without a pattern. So when the March challenge theme was announced, I knew it’s what I had to do. What is the challenge? Spend $10 or less at a dollar store, and make something awesome.

I’m incredibly pleased with how my corset turned out. I managed to find silk brocade pillowcases at my dollar store, I grabbed a package of zip-ties for boning, and bought a kid’s scarf to unravel and crochet into lacing. I also got an eyelet setter (note to self: you get what you pay for), and a bunch of snaps that I ended up not using.

With my cunning and feminine wiles, I managed to turn this:

into this:

More details (and pictures) are available in my entry on Craftster: Silk Brocade Corset… for $8!

The official Craftster Challenge Page (with the voting poll). Voting is open until Saturday, April 12! There are some pretty awesome entries on there. You should vote ;)

As of the first day of voting at 2 pm PST, I’m tied for 4th place. Not bad, especially considering how many entries there are!

I’d mentioned my plans to get a dressform from Joann’s to aid myself in designing. I’ve used them before, and I don’t think I’d be able to start seriously designing unless I have one of my own. Joann’s handed me a flyer when I went there to buy some emergency #17 circular needles, and on this flyer it mentioned the next week, dressforms would be about half off, starting at $90. That’s a good deal. So I went there with Kate and Charles, since my back is still in need of physical therapy and I wouldn’t be able to carry the box myself. When I asked about one, I found out that not only did the flyer contain a misprint (dressforms were not on sale), but they didn’t have any left, since they were on sale before Christmas.

This left me dressform-less with a deadline. I wasn’t too upset, since I really don’t like the ones Joann’s has: the hard plastic ones that are “adjustable.” That’s great if I’m making things for a bunch of people of different sizes, but I’m really only going to be making things in my size, which is also the size I need to make things for publication. Plus, I prefer dressforms I can stick pins into.

I went onto ebay to see what dressforms were available and what they were going for, and I came across this beauty: One of the squishy ones with adjustable boobs. One of the costume designers at the shop I worked at in college had one of these, and occasionally brought it in to work on. I remember the shop manager saying it was one of the nice expensive ones. I just bought it for cheaper than the plastic ones Joann’s has, with free shipping.

I’m very excited.

I went out a couple days ago and got two more kinds of yarn. I picked up some Louisa Harding Grace from Pacific Fabrics, and some Euroflax from Cultured Purls. Despite them both being completely different weights (size 6 needle for Grace, size 3/4 for Euroflax) I like both enough for them to be my two choices. I had to do a rough estimate for yarn quantities, but it was easier for the Grace since a dress in the current Sensual Knits is made out of it and uses just a little less yarn than I anticipate. The Euroflax at least comes in huge 270 yd skeins, so asking for an extra skein or two really adds up.

Freaking out is settling down a little, and I’m realizing that even though this is a major project, the deadline isn’t that much different than a class on the quarter system. Why would I freak out about the final project if I have all quarter to work on it? Why would I think I wouldn’t have any free time the entire quarter? Seriously, if I worked on the project non-stop the whole time, I’d get done way early, which would mean I’d STILL have free time before the deadline.

My first (and only) design was my first fair isle project, and I finished that pattern in a couple days and knit the hat in one night. Yeah, this is a dress, not a hat, but I think I’m capable of putting this together. I wore the first sweater I ever knit (less than a year ago, too) to a formal party and got compliments from people who didn’t realize I’d made it. I’ve done enough lace projects (uh… two? three?) to understand how decreases and YO’s can be arranged to make something happen, and working from charts became second nature after my first time using them (Cherie Amour was my first, and I got it enough to get through the neckline which is obviously in need of errata).

I have 16 years experience with sewing, and come on, if I can sew this:

I can design a much simpler dress. Yeah, sewing is not the same as knitting, but knowing how fabric goes together to make garments sure doesn’t hurt. Joann’s is having a sale on dressforms next week, and I might just drop the damn $90 to finally get one. I’m also seriously considering sewing a fabric version of the dress I want to knit so I can get measurements. There’s where the autistic “I can’t understand it if I can’t see it” thing starts getting annoying. But still, doesn’t seem like a bad idea.

Well, not completely. I’ve complained to Chris that the hardest part of this whole being in a book deal isn’t the pattern or the knitting, it’s figuring out what to say in my bio. I am not good at giving a succinct three sentence summary of me. Unless I can just say, “Alysa is WEIRD,” I can’t be summed up in a couple sentences. I managed to scare away a guy trying to talk to me at a New Year’s party when he asked me who I was, and I ended up rambling on with a friend about how much we loved our cat and dog, respectively.

That part of the bio aside, almost every knitting designer has a website/blog/online store. I have one. It’s uh… right here. My PROBLEM is, as much as I love LJ (I don’t love it as much as I hate change, actually), it’s not very useful for knit/craftblog purposes. People can’t respond without an account unless they do so anonymously, which makes it impossible to know how many people/if anybody reads this. I don’t really want to take up precious space in my bio with karmic-fishie.livejournal.com! especially if it’s not something people could easily interact with me through.

SO.

I’m thinking of moving this blog. The only reason I had it here in the first place was I’d reserved the name for when I changed my madamecacoon name, which isn’t happening now, and I figured why not use it? But now… not so useful, and I might as well switch domains while I have a manageable number of entries. I’ve found a good hosting site, but because of LJ I’m horribly not educated about blogging and blogging software. I’d really like my own domain, and the horribly ironic fishie.net is available. I have the money for pointless things like a domain, and being published will get my name out there and hey! maybe it would motivate me to get off my ass and start putting stuff in my damn etsy shop. I have how many half-finished Beaded Octopus Earrings?

There I go.

Next time I design something, will somebody make sure I’ve already knit it once and written a pattern? Please?

What is my problem? It’s the third day of November and I STILL haven’t cast on for NaKniSweMo. Guess I’ve had too many other things on my mind, such as all the sewing I’ve been doing.

First, the tablecloth I designed and made in a week for the Halloween party:

The tablecloth was made to fit the dining table that Kate’s grandfather made a million years ago, and it fit perfectly. Hooray! I only went crazy sewing it while the cat was trying to sit on it. I made it from a twin size top sheet and an old tablecloth I found at the Goodwill. I think total, they cost me $8.

Next, I decided to join an ongoing swap on Craftster. It’s great the way this one is set up… Somebody posts their wishlist, and then the next person claims something off their wishlist and posts their’s. If you’re too busy to make something, you don’t claim anything. It’s very low pressure. The lace-up armwarmers I made were for this swap. The second person I claimed wanted PJ pants and embroidery scissors with a case.

The case was pretty easy to make, except for me being an idiot and forgetting about how to make my lining into a nice finished edge. I managed, but it didn’t look nearly as nice as if I’d actually thought about it. I lined the case in that plastic stuff sheet sets come in, with a double lining in the point, so the scissors don’t poke out. It was a pain to turn inside out, but I’m pretty pleased with them.

The PJ pants were AWESOME. Can I just say right now that I didn’t use a pattern for these? Oh, and the fabric was free, which I didn’t figure out until I’d already walked out of the store and realized the clerk hadn’t scanned my receipt from the cutting counter. Apparently she assumed I walked into the store with 2 yards of fabric tucked under my arm? The draw-string is i-cord I knit myself, I made the stencil myself, and whoo hoo! I ended up with pants that would look store bought until you turn them inside out. Have I mentioned I want a serger?

I know I mostly talk about knitting, and I hoard yarn more than fabric, but sewing was my first love. And hey, I’ve been doing it for… 15 years now? Not bad!

Up until recently I was pretty good at knitting project monogamy. Then, once I slipped and had two projects…. I’ve ended up with way too many. Not my fault though.

This Friday, my household is holding a Halloween party. Money is tight, and the hostess who has a tendency to spend a LOT on parties has been forced to budget, which means I’m designing and making a few little things, like a FULL QUILTED TABLECLOTH FOR THE GIANT DINING TABLE, among other things. At the same time, I have a swap due in a week for a pair of knitted armwarmers, which isn’t a problem besides the pattern being HORRIBLE HORRIBLE and me resisting urges to write a better one and using that because I have a deadline.

In addition to the tablecloth and the armwarmers, which have deadlines, I’m also making the Manitou Passage Scarf (almost done) and I’m designing a matching hat (not quite halfway done), also for the hostess of the Halloween party (there’s a reason I haven’t hemmed the skirt I made for her last month yet). I’ve finished the second of the Chakra hats, and have to start doing the charts in excell so I can post the pattern, and also do a couple more to perfection and post them in the Craftster challenge board.

Oh yeah, and the pink fuzzy coat from hell… Yeah. Plus NaKniSweMo is starting in a little more than a week. I’ve been so busy with all this STUFF that I haven’t even had time to gloat over pictures of all the awesome closeout yarn I found at Tuesday Morning, or post the pictures of the super awesome sweaters I picked up from the Goodwill to unravel.

Did I mention this is the week Chris decided to start organizing our rooms? :|

I’ll be posting pictures of everything in the weeks to come, trust me. For now, here are some pictures of the mushrooms growing in our front yard. These pictures were taken for somebody. You know who you are.

WHOOPS! I’d missed five mushroom pictures earlier! Here are some more pictures of my apparently delicious mushrooms that somebody STOLE FROM MY YARD BEFORE I COULD PICK THEM:

Apparently all I needed was company. Today was Chris’ first day where he was CONSCIOUS and not working. He sat in the craft room on the computer all day, while I made shit. It was great!

1) I finished another pants bag for the August Craftster Challenge. I know it’s not the best and that I won’t win (I had better ideas in my head, but it’s not something I’d really want to put energy into. ANYWAY, I figure I get extra points for recycling ;)

That’s an old button from like, the 70’s that I stole from my mom’s sewing kit when I was 8 and put it into mine

2) Chris, not having been conscious and at home since I knit with his drumsticks, looked at the heart thing on his bass drum, and was like, “I thought you were going to make that into a pillow.” So I was like, “ok.” And I did. First I sewed the knit thing onto a white napkin from a restaurant I REALLY didn’t want to go to when I was a teenager, then I sewed the knit/napkin hybrid onto one of the only white fabrics I had, and it matched the theme of the knitting so I figured why not.

Chris was less than pleased with the… uh… design of the back, but WTF THERE’S A BIG PINK HEART IN THE FRONT!!! So there. >:P I stuffed it with a small portion of one of the three giant bags filled with stuffing from some free couch Chris tore apart for the wood and saved the stuffing from way back before I met him. Very pillowy. Yay!

3) I FINALLY put the placket on that corset I made somewhere around 4 or 5 years ago. I broke the needle I’ve had in my sewing machine for however long I’ve had it (note: more than ten years) on one of the metal eyes, but it’s okay, it wasn’t going to last forever.

4) I said fuck it, ripped out the waistband from the drawstring thong, and did MATH to find out how many stitches to ACTUALLY cast on to make it work with my yarn. And YAY IT FITS NOW.

I’ve been wanting to experiment with new cream pie flavors. Until now, I’ve only done the double chocolate and mint chocolate pie… while I have altered the recipe to make the pudding into banana pudding, I never made pie from that. I want to try a chocolate-peanut butter cream pie and a coconut cream pie. Oh man coconut cream pie.

And I want to make an ice cream cake. Mmmm. And eat it with pie.

Apparently making bags is FAST and EASY. Observe:

Remember the bag I speed sewed for Kate? I took another ten minutes or so and finished up the strap.

More recently I was faced with another challenge: making a bag for the Knit/Crochet Goodie Bag Swap I’m in. It’s an easy swap: buy $15 to $20 worth of stuff and mail it. I bought some things but you know, you should be crafting stuff too. A lot of people were making bags to send their stuff in so I figured why not.

Chris gave me a pair of his pants with a hole in it to use as fabric. It was one of my partner’s favorite colors so I figured that’s what I would use. As I had the pants laid out, figuring out how to go about putting it together, it dawned on me: it was already mostly done. I just had to sew up the holes, add a lining, and put on a strap. So I did.

I think I’ll be making more of these. I’ve never sewn something so easy besides a pillow. And even then, pillows require stuffing and that damn top-stitching over the hole. The strap was one of the leftover legs that I narrowed up. Easy. Easy. Easy.

30 minutes ago Kate walks into my crafting room wearing an evening gown

Kate: Do you have a small black purse?
Me: Uh… why would I have a purse?
Kate: You have a bunch of really random things, I thought you might have a small black purse
Me: What do you need a purse for?
Kate: (holds up cell phone and wallet)
Me: Ahhh the wedding? Hm. When do you need it?
Kate: SOON
Me: Okay, hold on a second

23 minutes later

Me: Here ya go
Kate: Thank you! *kisses my forehead* *runs out door*

I’ll post pictures when she gets back. It’s a simple, small black handbag made out of satin scraps. The handle was very rushed: I cut a rectangle, twisted it a couple times, and sewed it on. But then, the handle happened pretty much after she needed to leave. Luckily Chris “defies the laws of physics” when he drives, according to Kate.

I’m pleased. I didn’t use a pattern or anything, and the purse had interfacing and a lining. I just started cutting and sewing. WHOOSH!

DRESSES MADE OUT OF TIES

if that’s not thinking outside of the box, I don’t know what is. My plans definitely didn’t include anything like that.

I got paid yesterday. What does this mean? All those urges to go out and buy sweaters to unravel became a reality over the course of two days. Not only did I get some nice yarn to recycle, dye, felt, etc., I also picked up some SWEET fabric. Observe.

I stopped by the Goodwill by my house. It’s nice living in the yuppy neighborhood sometimes. The store was small so I only picked up two sweaters, an XL mostly wool in somewhere around sockweight yarn for $3, and a small hooded bulky linen one for $4.

I’d never been to this thrift store before so I had a look around, and found THESE babies:

6.66 yards of fuzzy pink upholstery fabric for $7(I’m serious about the measurement too)

4.5 yards of that pretty color-changey purple fabric for $4

I also caught a glimpse of some nice looking nylon yarn ($1.50) that ended up being way way way less soft that I’d thought. I can still make something out of it though.

Chris and I both had dentist appointments today, but they were five hours apart so we used that as an excuse to run a bunch of errands. We stopped by a lumber store so Chris could take a gander at wood to start making his drums out of, and I got a dowel to make a niddy noddy to unwind my yarn onto. Then we stopped by the thrift store I used to work at and knew all the tricks and where all the good stuff was. Chris helped me look through sweaters too. I came home with:

37 ties ($6)

Giant pink cone of mystery yarn, laceweight ($2)

The exact same bulky linen hoody I found yesterday (can’t hurt to have more of the same yarn!; $3.50)

A splurge. Pink and green linen sweater ($10)

A red and orangish wool hoody ($2.50)

An 80% Alpaca, 20% nylon sweater in my favorite color ever ($5)

The hard part now is going to be NOT unraveling them until I’ve finished the second baby blanket and have the niddy noddy all made up. But oh man I want to do it NOW. I’m excited.