Yarn Bombing

Wow, so life roughed me up a bit and took me away from my blogging! Since August last year..not a lot has happened..except I finished my undergraduate studies, saw my cousin get married, saw my cousin get married in Melbourne's worst hailstorm of 40 years, got work at my university, got promoted to full-time work at my university, got a credit card, had someone hit my car, graduated with a Bachelor of Social Science (with my bf Jhun!), received a real Louis Vuitton wallet as a graduation gift, used a digital SLR camera, and got an iPhone--the latter thus cementing my place in the mainstream lol.

And YES I must confess that my knitting/crocheting/craft adventures have been few and far between. Although, I did in fact melt some vinyl records in my oven to make vinyl record bowls (a little rock n roll, a little Salvador Dali) and knitted myself a laptop carry case. Photos to be uploaded very soon.

God I miss knitting. Which is why I'm super happy that Autumn has pulled up its socks and decided to give us a little crispness to the air (I'm currently frickin freezing in my office) because it means one thing.... Knitting season is back, baby! What are my plans you say? I'm gonna knit me a new scarf or two for this season to match my work wear; black with pom poms on the ends and perhaps a big fat grey wide one which is short and sewed together at the ends to look a little like a clash between collar/capelet/neckwarmer/scarf. What I'm loving this season is anything shiny- bling, jewels, gems, faux diamonds - so I expect to be in the appropriate section at Spotlight (how I miss thee) looking for some to sew or hotglue onto everything I own.

But what I'm really excited about doing this season, and probably forever, is yarn bombing. Also known as yarnbombing, yarn storming, graffiti knitting, or guerilla knitting, it's pretty much what you think it is... knitting stuff and placing them on/in/around things in public.. just like the lamp post cozy picture up there. It's graffiti you can cuddle up to.. and is a victimless crime..I think. Obviously knitted pieces placed out there in public are not meant to last or else I would've kept them in the home, but if a passerby gets a giggle about any of my future doorknob cozies or knitted shoes slung over aerial telephone cables, that's all I was ever after :-)

I'll start slowly on my yarn bombing spree and first use the patches of unfinished projects to tag trees and other urban things in my local area. After a while, I might just do it around where I work. Watch this space for some photos...

Stuck in Ruts

Eurgh, I feel awful that I haven't blogged or created anything awesome in the longest time. But trying to manage 15 assignments due in over the next 7 weeks for the 5 psychology subjects I'm completing this semester (which is just suicide by the way!) between Penrith and Bankstown campus is an exhausting hellhooooole. But eh, it's my last semester left of uni forever and ever so I may as well go out with a bang. A big bang! A bang of scrap paper, printer ink, powerpoint presentations, portable flash drives, cans of energy drink, and soup bowl sized mugs of sweet sweet tea.

My point is.. watch this space! Once my assignments die down a little and there's an opening for a little needle or sewing action, there'll be a craft explosion around here with more blogging, photographing, knitting, sewing, painting, and drawing than your cyberlife has room for.

Till then.

Recap

Here are some quick photographs of some of my very first attempts at knitting and crocheting! Except for the first two pictures of me--a friend from work gave me this gorgeous piece of fabric that was block printed by hand in India in the 70's. It was used a few times as a table cloth but I've washed it, hemmed it, and turned it into an ethnic-feel wrap dress. Tricky stuff, that dress is held up by a belt and a knot!

Following are a knitted scarf, knitted handwarmers (super warm!), a crocheted stuffed owl, a crocheted beret, a muff with faux fur lining (super extra warm!), knitted beanie, crocheted brooch, grey handwarmers, striped beanie, crocheted phone pouch, a crocheted jewelry bowl, and the first beanie I ever knitted in my life!

Social Action Projects

I have two main projects forthcoming that will feature predominantly in my knitting and handmaking activities for the next few/many weeks. I got sneaky and tried to find a way to bring my crafty obsession into the realm of academia--in plain words, I've decided to do some knitting and crocheting for the major assessments for two of my subjects at uni this semester.

But I've aligned it with a good cause so it's not just some futile attempt to get easy marks doing what I love. Firstly, I want to practically address the concept of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rethink for my Peace, Sustainability, & World Futures subject; I've tried to consciously turn RRRR into my motto and I believe I'm doing okay as of late (switching off appliances at the wall, checking taps for leaks before bed or going out, shorter showers, turning off engine at drive-thru, eco-bags!). Specifically for this unit, I have plans to crochet ordinary plastic bags into much larger, virtually indestructible reusable shopper bags to take to the supermarket for groceries etc. I do need to come up with some more ideas but essentially, I want to give old items a new purpose for the Greener good. Towards the final days of that subject, I also plan to distribute my handmade resurrected items to students at my university with a pamphlet outlining some tips for going green and making it fun and do-able.

I'm tossing up the idea of whether or not I should hand out my items in exchange for a gold coin donation to be forwarded to an appropriate charity... I suppose it would do no harm; if people want to donate, then good on them!

My other big project is for Community Development: Education for Soccial Justice. The project will involve knitting (or generally handmaking) baby clothes, booties, and blankets with other willing members of the community in order to donate them to the RPA Hospital for the neonatal intensive care unit--for premature babies and newborns. I'm very excited about this one because it will involve the input and effort of more people than just myself. I started my first baby beanie today :-) Tiny things are just so precious!

My dear friend Sandra is making an appearance at my house this afternoon (today is our Craft Day Saturday) so it's just going to be fun-filled with yarn and thread and chai tea and Hungarian bread and laughing and love!

New Life Tie Bags

There's nothing like breathing a little life into some things and given them a new purpose. Last weekend, Sandra's grandmother was so kind to lend me her old and charming Singer sewing machine; I had not used a sewing machine since I was in my first year of high school (well over 9 years ago!) so I had to Google how to thread a machine and wind a bobbin.

But I learned quickly and can now thread machines and wind bobbins with my eyes closed and my hands tied behind my back. Not really. Anyway, even though uni has started for me this week and I can feel it's going to be a semester of essay after essay after goshforsaken essay, I still manage to find some time to indulge my creative spirit. The same creative spirit that was responsible for my skipped meals, lost sleep, RSI, inability to keep still, and possibly my failing my subjects because I'm so excited about new craft projects.

My first baby fathered by the sewing machine was a tie bag: a bag sewn together completely out of men's neckties. Jhun and I went scouting for some worthy neckties and laughed at the really really horribly patterned ones..and bought them. And they don't look half bad as part of a bag!
I undid the centre seams with the new seam ripper I invested in, split the tie open, took out the fabric inlay, and sewed away. I kept the entire length of the ties (I used 4 of them in this particular bag) so that the two outermost narrow parts of the tie can be tied together to make a strap, and the two narrow lengths in the middle can be tied together as a decorative bow and to keep all the stuff inside the bag. Pretty neat!

Rags to Riches

There was a new project I had a-brewin' behind the scenes while I was away from blog world, so don't think I was being lazy and not achieving anything! This is one of my more involved projects yet. What do you do with fabric scraps and old clothes that haven't already been donated to charity?

You cut them into long strips and crochet them into a one-of-a-kind clutch bag. This only took me about 2 evenings to do; about 4.5 hours work altogether. This clutch is made of reclaimed fabric scraps, curtains, bedsheets, a dress, a shirt, a mini skirt and a pair of shorts.

The flap and button that fasten the clutch shut were taken from a pair of brown checkered shorts I bought at an op shop in america (which i can't fit into anymore!) The shirt I'm wearing in one of the photographs is included in the clutch too! It was too long for my liking so I trimmed a hefty amount off the hem, ripped the offcut into strips and used them as my first 3 rows. Nifty.

Thankfully all my essentials fit into this clutch: wallet, phone & keys.
My lipgloss , concealer, compact mirror, pen and mini tape measure fit into the fabric pouch :-)

Aftermath

Whew! I've been m.i.a. and away from the blogging world for a few days since the market last Sunday. It was a whole lot of fun, and as expected, I did run into some good strange collections of people. There was some early morning precipitation which had me worries for a little while as it has certainly been very chilly and cloudy around this end of town recently. Thankfully, the sun came out and shone his bright face all over my fellow market-goers and myself, to the point where I actually felt comfortable enough to shed a layer and take off my jacket. Gasp!

Furthermore, something amazing happened that day. I set up stall next to my cousins and I was resting against my table eating a delicious delicious slab of homemade banana bread (courtesy of the lovely ladies a few stalls down). There was a girl browsing through the items on my cousins' stall and I actually cocked my head to get a better look. She looked like my friend Sandra; she moved like my friend Sandra; she dressed like my friend Sandra..

I called out in a small voice, "Sandra...?"
And it WAS her! My dear friend from way back in high school who I had not seen for nigh on one year now. How lovely.

So after that market, the days following were and are a flurry of plans and catch up times and fitting friends and events in between work hours and travelling time. Sandra and I look forward to supervising my partner's sister's company's stall at Kirribilli Markets for the next few weekends ahead; I'm slowly building up my knitted/crocheted stock again so I can try my luck at Penrith Markets in a few weeks hopefully; aaaand some of the things I didn't sell are going live online at Etsy.com. All you handmaking artisans out there should know what this is.

I've also been commissioned to knit a funky beanie and two sets of fingerless handwarmers for my good friend and her dear dear mother, who is always so happy happy joy joy everytime we meet. Now my breakfast is overdue, and there's nothing like a melted cheese sandwich with butter on the outside on a cold Winter morning.

The Little Things That Count

I got down to business making the rings that I promised to make, and I got around to making an additional 20. Whew! The hardest part is getting them to stand up straight so that the glue dries evenly on them. These are a few that I've made, some still need some more drying time, hence the white haziness in some of the rings. 1000 apologies for poor quality pictures though. I also made some fun little button brooches by doubling up two different sized buttons and sewing them together onto a brooch pin. Sounds simple, but they're the cutest little medals of honour you ever did see.

On the idea of medals of honour, I wanted to expand on that by involving more fabric, buttons and large brooch pins (that kind of look like safety pins) as well as strips of ribbon and lace for depth and embellishment. Oh I do like my embellishments!

Fruit of My Labour II

Again I woke up a little after midday today on account of having slept at 4:30 a.m. after knitting and watching the Michael Jackson memorial (thanks for the past 40 years MJ). Geez, I'm trying to remember what I did this morning but it doesn't spring to mind--I know it has something to do with my craft but the past 9 or so days has just been a blur of self-inflicted slavery. Shortly before this I took out all the things I sewed, knitted, crocheted, and crafted over the said 9 days and laid them out over the living room floor just so I could get a feel for my progress and whether I need to stock up on more things to cover my table at the market.

Looking upon it now, I think I did quite well. And I only had to endure back pain, short sightedness, RSI, a grumbly stomach, and a growing mountain of unfolded laundry for it. Ha! So I think my handmade haul is sufficient;so far I've produced 8 artworks, 5 pouches, 3 beanies, 3 berets, 2 headbands, 14 brooches, 2 pairs of earrings, 14 rings, 6 sets of 2 coasters, 5 mug jackets, 4 sets of 4 cutlery cozies, 1 stuffed owl, 17 stuffed cupcakes, 5 pairs of bed socks, and 13 bookmarks. I think that's the lot..? But by no means am I stopping now! Today, tomorrow, the day after, and the day after that, I aim to have finished an additional 5 headbands, 2 beanies, 5 pairs of earrings, 20 rings, 6 button brooches, 1 set of coasters and 2 mug jackets to boot.

Whew! No rest for the wicked! But you can bet I've had a killer time :-) I even got around to pressing some flowers and I churned out two artworks using the ones I pressed last night. I picked these right from my garden; I think my favourite of the two would have to be the one where the petals look like they're floating away in the wind.

Fruit of My Labour

Having woken up at midday and slaved away for a total of pretty much 10 hours, I have a funny feeling I deserve the soup mug sized serving of chai latte bubbling on the stove as we speak. I have an existing problem with my posture and I get minor back pains every now and then which is further aggravated by standing up for hours on end as a sales assistant. Tonight, my back aches like it was born to do only that.

I complained to my beloved boyfriend about it and he suggested I do some stretches and take a 5 minute break from knitting.

What blasphemy.

So what did I do? I kept knitting I did, but standing up. And the pain subsided! Ha! Anyway, enough about me gasbagging away about my creaky achy 21 year old bones! I want to tell you about what I made today!

-5 mug jackets
-2 pairs of earrings
-10 rings
-1 cupcake beanie
-and I want to get into making dreamcatchers too!

The mug jackets were really easy breezy to make and (my favourite) some buttons for embellishment/functionality do the trick. These cute woolly babies will protect your hands from the hot hot beverage while helping to trap the heat of the beverage in the mug. Sooo handy for a lazy Winter morning or relaxing evening watching Friends DVDs on the couch with the cats.

As for the earrings, they were a test to see how the image in my mind would look if it were real. And it's not too bad, a little improvement here and there but the foundation idea is there. It's basically a hoop earring with a bunch of fun little buttons threaded on.. I like buttons! Might give a pair a test drive at my work and see if I get any feedback.. I work in the Penrith Valley region at a store called Socrates which sells toys, books, boardgames, science kits, craft and construction kits, and other happy fun-time stuff so I'm bound to meet a crafty person or two.

I will have to post a photograph of the rings when I've made a few more. They're made up of little perspex ovals on an adjustable ring and the little picture in them is basically whatever catches my (shortsighted!) eye in a magazine or poster. Another piece that will remain as truly unique as your imagination and doesn't have that ubiquitous Made In China sticker on it somewhere.

Tomorrow is going to be another big day of sweatshopping, but I think I'll aim to put the final touches on everything as I have work on Thursday, Friday (and a girls night out at Max Brenner!), and Saturday, and the market is on Sunday morning o0o0o0oh! I'll be praying till my veins pop that it doesn't rain on Sunday.

Skipping Meals, Bad Posture

I've been naughty. Perhaps obsessed. Definitely slaving away. I'm not often one to do so, but lately I've been skipping meals and foregoing household chores and ignoring my good books which desperately want to be read while I'm still on uni holidays! I believe since my last post, I've furiously crocheted away about 17 little cupcakes, and I've knitted a mug jacket and two kid sized cupcake beanies. It seems cupcakes are the theme du jour. I've uploaded some photographs of the crafted cupcakery, but I am yet to sew little colourful buttons on as sprinkles.

Goodness me, I am soooo shortsighted (even moreso than before, as I already wear glasses on account of my shortsightedness). Seriously, when I start crafting, the piece is like this close to my face and I hardly ever look up from my work unless it's super crazy important.. like Spongebob Squarepants being on TV. Or when the bread that Mum and I have been baking is ready!

Anywho, I've given myself a scolding and taken a break from my project of the hour to have some breakfast (it's 1:38 p.m., I've missed breakfast and elevenses because I woke up late having gone to bed at 4:30 a.m. this morning--ahh, the sweet life!). I've put down the 25% completed cupcake beanie to have a peanut butter and banana sandwich for breakfast.. with a nice tall glass of milk. Soy, of course :-)

Excuse the Pun

"Knitting Needles". Hahaha get it? Get it? So maybe it's too abstract or too minimalist for your liking, but eh, my dad thinks it's pretty neat :-) Besides, did it ever occur to you that perhaps pixies and fairyfolk enjoy knitting too? I whipped this up earlier this evening and it features a pair of yarn needles and the first ever yarn I ever bought in my life shaped roughly into a ball of wool.

All Good Ideas Have to Come From Somewhere

Kudos to the best boss ever for being my first paying customer. She has her sights set on my Fragile Earth piece, while we both had a giggle over my coffee stain piece! And for those of you playing at home, YES I made that stain on purpose; I didn't just get lazy or overly abstract and stick a piece of soiled paper in a picture frame thanks very much!

I've finished work for the day and absolutely writhing in excitement about getting started on my nightshift sweatshop. Before I arrived I even managed to give the boyfriend a good old crash course in crocheting. I taught him the basic double crochet stitch and to anyone who purchases a set of black cutlery cozies from me, I'll let you know that he crocheted 3 of the rows in it. Hooray! For a non-delicately-dexterous male, he does a good crochet job.

Might also let you all in on a sneak peek at the first ever ever in my life ever attempt at knitting back in April (thanks Rachel for teaching me the very basics; as you can see, I've taken knitting and turned it into a big woolly monster). I like to compare my present knits and crochets to the little blue patch I knitted back then.. mostly I like to laugh at the little patch's uneven tension and dropped stitches and mistakes! Oh the mistakes. I remember that day quite well too--my hands were cold and jittery and cramping up and the yarn wasn't cooperating.

In terms of good ideas having to come from somewhere, the boss-lady and I were throwing around some ideas on what other things I can make for market destiny. So far, cupcake beanies for kids, headbands and ribboned stockings are the raddest ones we brainstormed. Now.. off to work for me! (the great kind!)

Pan and/or Cup Cakes

The television show MasterChef Australia sure does make me hungry. After an episode a few weeks ago, mum and I made these sweet decadent pancakes drizzled with pure melted chocolate, fresh bananas and strawberries, vanilla ice cream and silver cachous. Absolutely delicious.

Then on one of my knitting breaks, I tried my hand at some chocolate and vanilla marbled cupcakes. Needless to say, I nearly ate half of the entire batch I baked! And what better to wash it all down with than a pleasant cup of chai tea. Mm mmm.

Cupcake Cake

Filippa from work is the greatest. One of our colleagues had recently taken up a job at another store and as a little farewell fanciness, Filippa baked a cake and tried to make it look like a cupcake. Essentially it was three layers of sponge cake glued together with lush strawberry jam; the top sponge tier was shaped into a dome and a healthy dollop of icing was spread all over the top and showered with pink and sparkly sprinkles. And yes, there was indeed a delicious cherry on top.

Cupcakery

These divine little things are chocolate and banana cupcakes I whipped up from scratch for a friend's BBQ last summer. I'd be a greedy guts if I didn't share this picture with you!

No Rest For the Wicked

My Lady Brigid (patron deity of creativity) has poked her finger into my brain and wiggled it furiously because all of a sudden I've been attacked by a tsunami of artsy fartsy ideas for me to create for the markets. I've finished a third set of cutlery cozies and decided to take a break from them today because each one takes approximately 25 minutes to complete and RSI is becoming my middle name. But as this entry's title implies, a short break simply meant moving on to another project for a little variety. So while I set aside the cutlery cozies and the dizzying blur of tri-coloured yarns, I crafted some bookmarks out of the printed fabrics that have previously made their appearance. Simple lamination and yarn tassels, and boom! A bookmark you'll wanna brag about, perhaps.

Afterwards, another mini explosion of ideas. I had several spare picture frames on hand and decided to get a bit abstract, although I still tried to remain within the general vicinity of knitting and craft themes. I'm very excited about these! My first artwork for the morning (it is 1 a.m. after all) is basically made up of a brown flower fabric background, and a green button and a blue button tied together on red yarn. To me it speaks of the fragility of the Earth and that not looking after it would be a bad bad thing (death and decay, as represented by brown--dead--flowers in the background).

The second piece is a small one with a tapestry-like fabric in the background and at the front I've arranged pieces of yarn to look like X and Y chromosomes. I like to call this piece "Knitting Is In My Genes". The third piece for this art attack I was having is pretty nifty. It's a plain black frame with plain white background with a handful of buttons thrown in. The buttons vary in size but are only in shades of red, yellow, and green. Stop, Wait, Go! I think the best feature about this piece is that the buttons move around when you shake the frame; essentially, you will never ever see the same artwork (button arrangement) twice. Truly unique! I think I'll call that piece "Moving Pictures".

The last work I completed before I excitedly hopped on to blog to you all about my situation tonight is called "Knit 1, Sip 1". On a plain white background I've made a coffee stain with the bottom of a mug (but really I used my chai tea :-) and simply wrote knit 1, sip 1 underneath it. Minimal, yes, but a knitter knows ;-)

It is now nearly 2 a.m. and I probably should get to bed on account of work starting at 11:30 a.m. and I do love my sleep. Now I must thank whatever powers that be that inspired this onset of creativity, but really guys, at 1 in the morning? Cut me some slack! :-)