geek accessories

Today was a great day of freedom – it began with my handing in the last essay of term at 2:30am, and got steadily better ever since. The item below is a product of my celebrations. I haven’t made anything recently, and given that I am embarking on a visit home tomorrow, I thought, what better time than now to make a little travelling case for my Nintendo DS to stop it from getting scratched. So with the help of a great tutorial I made a dinky little drawstring bag with a lining, and a fine thing it is too:

The only thing I should have done differently is hemmed the sides of the openings where the cord goes in, as now they are fated to be left raw and will surely disintegrate over time. But I made this all in the spirit of practice, so not to worry. I can always make a new and improved version when the time comes.

further woven success

My second ever woven creation is now a useful purpose-serving object! It took me a little longer than two more weaving sessions, after what I wrote before, due to more than a little confusion over how the pattern worked. Trying to concentrate on weaving complicated patterns in the morning, after very little sleep, turns out to be pretty difficult. Who knew? I would’ve finished this thing months ago if I hadn’t insisted on playing with broken diagonal stripes. But yesterday I took a break from essay-mode, and finally made the weaving into a cushion cover. Yes, another one. (But what else can you do with such a thing?) And it is lovely, and I like it more than the first, although the cushion podges out at the back, so I ought to put a button or two on it. Le voila:

I might add that no matter how long I spent scratching my head over how to continue the stripe pattern after a nearly year-long break between the two halves, I never actually succeeded. Hence there is a glaring mistake in the cushion above if you look closely at the pattern. Luckily most people don’t. And the photo is not detailed enough. So ha! That is success enough for me…

stripes all over

This is what I consider to be the first proper project I’ve made on my whizzy new sewing machine. It was originally conceived about three years ago as a birthday present for my mama, but once I’d got the pieces cut out and pinned together, I wimped out about actually sewing them. So this summer I decided it was time to face up to it, and finally made this jolly stripy washbag.

The waterproof lining inside is made out of a kindly donated piece of shower curtain from my grandmother. It surprised me how easy and fast it is to make things like this, and I am quite keen to make more. When I get hold of some more shower curtain cut-offs, that is.

squeaky

Another monster is complete. This one even got a squeaker inside, thanks to Maud, who managed to extract it from one of her poor toys. It also has little red wings and a blue check tail on its back, which you can’t see in the photo. I made him for Nom for her birthday – she named him Alphonse. I feel this suits him just right.

Unfortunately, because he squeaks, Maud assumed he must be for her. As I was trying to photograph him in the garden, she kept picking him up by the ear and taking him away to play with. He needed rescuing on several occasions, and I had to try and stop myself from squeaking him in front of her.

woven success

I’ve just finished making my first ever woven creation from last summer into a cushion cover at last! I was chuffed with it when I first took it off the loom, but seeing it made into something useful is even better. I am so happy and proud of it, and can’t wait to finish my second bit of weaving – I think two more sessions should do it, if I can get out of bed early enough on two consecutive Thursdays…

Now I just want to gaze at this creation constantly and stroke it over and over. This craze for making things is consuming me. How exciting that we have a whole great big loom in the house!
Probably the peak of this creation’s existence was being exhibited for one night only in Lucy’s Wendy House exhibition alongside several other people’s creations, including a picture by Jake & Dinos Chapman. I don’t expect that this will ever happen again…

my manta ray is all right

So the manta’s eyes arrived at last, and I was finally able to put the creature together. I think I was a bit over-cautious with the stuffing process, as the finished result was one chubby manta ray. But perhaps with cuddling he/she (its gender, like its name, is as of yet unknown) will slim down a bit. I was pleased with my little creature, and packed it up carefully and sent it off across the channel to its new owner. Now I am eagerly awaiting news of its arrival and naming…

Update: the baby manta arrived safe and sound in Brighton. He was christened Man Ray (well, of course – why didn’t I think of that straight away?), and his favourite food is acorns. I trust he is taking regular swimming lessons down on the beach.

on how good intentions are not always enough

So inevitably my plan failed. Actually, I like to think it wasn’t totally inevitable. But I had to go and embark on a long and unsuccessful search to find better monster wool than the one in the picture below, and one thing led to another… …and I was driven to starting a cuttlefish. At least it is still another tentacled creature! I feel I can sort of justify its coming into existence like that.

This is how far we are since starting late last night. I don’t think the colours have come out at all well in this photo, but it’s getting dark now and I should’ve done it earlier. I am on the hunt for a good name for this beautiful beast once he/she is born. I am taking into account the naming of Lula Squidbad when naming this one, and hovering around the fact that the Portuguese for cuttlefish is ‘choco’. Suggestions are welcome. Encouraged, even.

tidying up

The fact that I am more than a little nervous about having to design a monster, combined with the fact that my desk and knitting bag are overflowing with unfinished woolly projects, means that I have put myself to good use and have been making an effort to finish things off before starting anything new. The scarves are all making good progress, as is this little manta ray (excellent pattern here) that I dug out of the depths of my bag yesterday afternoon.

I realised he/she was something I could definitely finish up speedily, and then give to his/her original intended recipient. This creature was meant to be a birthday present many many months ago, but for some reason I just lost all the urge to keep going on it. Annoyingly, however, I have been cut short in my enthusiasm for finishing the critter, as it appears that getting hold of toy eyes is much more difficult a task than I ever would have thought. I have had to resort to ordering them from the UK, which means no eyes for at least a week, and thus no finished manta ray.
Other than the finishing spree, I have had something of a winding spree. Yesterday I ended up winding some 400 metres of various wool out of skeins and into balls. What a job. I looked into investing in a wool winder, but recoiled at the prices and continued with the task by hand. And now I have this lovely ball of monster potential.

 

halfway to a scarf

Tonight I finally reached the halfway point in the most complicated and time-consuming of the three scarves I am presently knitting. It is a scarf knitted in two halves and then sewn together: Hanne Falkenberg’s Lascala pattern.

I feel it is such a momentous occasion to have got to this point however, that I am loath to start on the second half. I think I will take this opportunity to put it down and forget about it for a little while, until I finish at least one of the other scarves (and I can’t quite believe I even have plans for a fourth new scarf, out of some of the beauteous new wool I got in Stockholm…).