Photo-Crafting

Today, I'd like to focus my post on some Photoshopping. These are clearly not the greatest quality (as they were made for Myspace), but they were certainly the most fun. Most of the photos started with the same picture of a rotini, and I just kinda worked from there.


We shall start with the politically incorrect image, note the vaguely swollen eye area. Poor noodle. :(

If there are children under the age of 13 in the room, please shield their eyes. This next photo is not for the faint of heart... or stomach.

Now I needed to prove that I got soul, so I present to you the Jive Noodle. What it is, mamma? Ain't no thaaaang.

Sometimes, you just feel like being discreet. This noodle just wanted to be left alone.


I'm not a very Easterly person, but the rotini wanted to get into that holiday spirit.

We had some good flooding here a few years back, and rotini sent me a photo of his family, drowning in a flash flood while playing basketball. Don't worry, no noodles were harmed during the taking of this photo. To be honest though, they ended up pretty soggy.

It was time to graduate from the pasta, but I couldn't just jump right into a new topic. I retired the rotini. And since I particularly dislike spaghetti, I didn't mind letting the deer eat it for this photo. For the record, the plate of pasta was not there in the original photo. I do not condone feeding empty carbs to wild animals.


This last photo is a personal attack on a particularly annoying segment of youth today. *gag*
Ok, the photo below this has nothing to do with photo-crafting. I just wanted to show you a pic of me rolling with my Homies™. 'Cause that's how I do.

Where Have I Been?!?

It's been over a month since my last post. When I focus more time on the website, I'll post more often. Until then, no biggie. As promised, my fingerless gloves, made out of that scrumptious cotton sweater. I used them in the bitter cold:


I used them in an attack against a vicious mountain lion:

And finally, I used them to do my best Vanna White demo in the kitchen:

So I've been away from the site for over a month. What have I been doing? Let me think...
One thing I worked on was the denim quilt that i've been slllooowwwly making for the king size bed I plan on having one day. I've gotten 270 denim circles cut, and I've gone through almost 3 dozen pairs of jeans. So far this project's cost me all of $3. Can't beat that! Below is a photo of the eight million circles, made of jeans of all different races:

And finally, I'm ashamed to admit this. I'm knitting. For the record, I am a hardcore crocheter. I find knitters to be pretentious and snobby when it comes to yarn. However, this winter I craved a scarf that was a bit more tightly woven than a crochet hook could do. And so, below is a pic of the scarf in its infant stage. As of now, it's almost 5 inches long. At the rate I'm going, the scarf should be ready for Winter 2011. No guarantees though. Behold the scarf:
Thankee!

My First Real Quilt

A very good friend of mine was "with child" and I knew this would be the first time to try a real quilt. I'd done t-shirt quilts before, but they don't provide me with the satisfaction that the intricacy of a pieced quilt gives. I found Classic Pooh curtains at my local thrift shop and jumped in from there. It didn't matter whether the baby was going to be a boy or a girl, blue was the color I wanted to work with. I found blue and white striped fabric and the rest was history.
The quilt in its entirety:

The quilt was simple- 4 squares with pieced borders. Each group of 4 Pooh's is one solid square. I then took triangles and sewed them on to the sides so it looked like one square crooked on another. Then I outlined the squares with honeybee fabric that was the sashes of the curtains. Finally, I used a thin stripe of striped fabric to connect each completed square.

I started quilting the bears by hand but it was taking forever, plus I'm not super with clear thread. I ended up switching to freequilting on my machine. Here's a view of the back.
This is my favorite part. I cut out a little Pooh and stuck him in the middle of the quilt:

So whaddya think?

Take Apart A Sweater!!!

Update: Extremely helpful videos posted at the bottom, thanks to Lauren at Cashmere Creations!

Today's lesson: taking apart a sweater. Below is a sweater that I got at a thrift shop purely based on its softness. It's very worn cotton- smooth, soft, and comfy. The sweater wasn't my style, nor would it fit me so I decided it had to be taken apart and repurposed. The reason why I'm posting this now is because in a few days, I'll show the final product... the typical crocheted fingerless gloves. Nothing special, but they're turning out great so far. It's only taking 1/6th of the yarn from the sweater, but it's so nice to see a project from complete start to complete finished. Anywhosers, the original sweater:



Next is a close-up of what it looked like in its original glory. Nice pattern, but not for me.



I tried to multitask- take a photo, seam rip, and watch Scrubs. Not a good photo. Please ignore it.

It took about 45 minutes total to take it apart as I was not paying full attention to the unwinding. Here's the final product- one of the 3 balls of yarn. I wish I had an unending amount of it, it's by far the best yarn I've worked with. The WIP next to the yarn is my sister's wedding present (so far 6 months late). I'll write about it another day.
Have a sweater you'd like to repurpose? The Cashmere Connoisseur has a superb tutorial with photos and everything. That's a much better explanation than I could ever do without you sitting next to me walking you through it.


Part I:


Part II:

Lace Cotton Tea Shawl

I had already made a tea shawl from a pattern out of Amazing Crochet Lace and I loved the outcome, and I wanted to make my own tea shawl without a pattern. Below is the photo of the shawl from the book. Great book, by the way.

Anyway, here's my final result:
And here's a fabulous action shot:

Another action shot (all sorts of action, huh?):


How'd I do it? I can give a basic pattern, though it's probably not 100% accurate.

ch 6, sl st to connect to first ch.
ch 2, 9 dc in circle formed by connected chain, sl st to connect
sc in each dc, sl st to connect
(ch 5, sk 1 sc, sl st in next sc) around
(ch 5, sl st in hole created by chains in previous round) around
(ch 8, sl st in hole created by chains in previous round) around
It looks like for the next round, 7 dc in first hole, ch 2, 2 dc in next hole, ch 2, repeat from 7 dc around
(ch 6, sl st in every 3rd or so st)
(ch 7, sl st in each hole)
ch 3, 4 tc in hole, (ch 2, sc in next hole, ch 2, 5 tc in next hole) around
(ch 7, sl st in middle of group of 5 tc, chain 7, sl st in sc)
(ch 10, sl st in each hole) around
(4 tc in each hole) around
(ch 5, sc between each group of 4 tc)
(ch 6, sl st in each hole)
(ch 6, 2 dc in each hole)
Again, not sure exactly what this next section is, but I'm going with what it looks like:
(ch 3, sl st in hole, ch 3, *3 dc, 2 tc, 3 dc* in next hole) repeat around
(ch 2, sl st in between every two tc, *ch 2, tc* x4) around
now 3 more rows of the mesh, aka (ch 6, sl st in hole made from chains in last row) around
I don't mean to give up or anything, but I'm not sure of the last rows, but it's mostly 7 dc's in each hole, then the mesh rows, 4 dc+2 tc+ 4 dc in each mesh hole. I finished with the mesh holes, sc'd in each chain around, then finished with tassels at the end.
Tassels:
(Ch 10, 2 sc in each chain, 2 sc in sc of last row.)

Kitty Wearable Blanket

Post numero 2:
I found a great wearable blanket on Craftster and I wish for the life of me that I could find it again. Basically, it was a sleeping bag for a bottom with little foot holes at the corners that were cut out for walking purposes. The top is sweatshirt style, or those footy pajamas we wore as kids.

It's nice and long, so my feet stay toasty and warm. I made it the way I thought it would work the best, but it was short. I could walk in it, but I couldn't curl my feet up comfortably when sitting on the couch. So what did I do? I turned it into an old lady housecoat. It's so comfy! Please pardon the unflattering photo- it was a crafting day so I mostly didn't think of the outside world.














Alrighty, this is a close-up of the top section, showcasing the zipper and the extra cuff thingie I added around the neck for warmth.

Finally, we have the neck part itself. It zips up all the way to the chin. The neck is double layered for added temperature control or whatever.





The basic instructions:

1. I took 5 yards of fleece and measured my body.
2. I cut it to the length of my body from shoulder to toes plus 3 inches.
3. I took a sweatshirt, turned it inside out, and traced it front and back onto the fleece, then I added the amount needed at the bottom so it would go to the floor.
4. I cut it out and at this point it looked like a long sleeve shirt with lots of extra length at the bottom.
5. I sewed the arms and neck, and sewed all the way down to the bottom.
6. Originally, I sewed the bottom shut, then cut two holes at each corner for my feet to get out when needed, but it ended up feeling too weird.
7. I hemmed the sleeves too, then took a piece of fleece the length of the neck hole perimeter, doubled it over, and sewed it on.
8. I sliced down the middle to the belly button region and inserted a zipper so I could get in and out.
9. Finally, I made the executive decision to just open up the bottom and hem it.

I do believe I may go back and add another section (in a contrasting fleece) to the bottom and completely enclose the footsie area in. I think it's more special that way, plus it'll eliminate the need for socks at night.

Little Creatures

Ok, so I guess I'll just jump right in with some of my projects. These are happy little guys made with assorted techniques.

First up:
Amigurumi Ant- he's completely crocheted, the entire body is one piece. It's just a matter of increasing and decreasing. The antenna and legs are separate and they curl, so the ant kinda looks dead if i don't stretch him out. Second photo is a close-up of his fuzzy goodness.

Next up is a simple sea monkey (sock monkey with a mermaid tail):

Final creation is Gingie from Shrek(!):

Not the buttons! NOT THE GUMDROP BUTTONS!!!

Here's a better view of his work. He's got a felt body and everything else is crocheted.

Whaddya think?