She's getting married next month! How exciting! I love making jewelry for brides. ^_^ All it needs is some pearls/chain at the back, and it will be finished! (Please excuse the cheesy Instagram photo made from the crappy cell phone photo.)
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Candace's Test Necklace Pics
For lovely Candace to look at and approve/critique, because picture texts aren't working. ^_~ (Please excuse the crappy cell phone photo.)
She's getting married next month! How exciting! I love making jewelry for brides. ^_^ All it needs is some pearls/chain at the back, and it will be finished! (Please excuse the cheesy Instagram photo made from the crappy cell phone photo.)
She's getting married next month! How exciting! I love making jewelry for brides. ^_^ All it needs is some pearls/chain at the back, and it will be finished! (Please excuse the cheesy Instagram photo made from the crappy cell phone photo.)
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Yarn Leftovers
I just reorganized my yarn leftovers! They're so pretty!
The short of it is that I reorganized all of my yarn leftovers by weight and separated them and put them on display in various dishes I had in my house.
The long of it is: I originally stored my yarn leftovers in a huge hurricane candle jar. They were so pretty and since they were on display, I started actually using my leftovers. I thought I'd never be able to fill the jar. I laugh at myself now for thinking that, of course. Never fill up a yarn jar, indeed!
Over time, the jar got filled to the absolute top. I had even reorganized within the jar and put all of the smallish balls in between bigger ones to make it all fit better. Eventually, because I couldn't easily get to the things in the bottom, most of my leftovers ended up being forgotten.
For a while now, I've been toying around with the idea to organize my yarns by yarn weight and store them in pretty jars that way. Alas, time passed, and the budget never really left room for frivolities like buying a bunch of jars to store different yarns, and the idea seemed to languish along with my poor, forgotten leftover yarns.
Today, though, something inside of me snapped. I wanted to organize my yarns. As I sat knitting, I thought of how I could possibly go to a thrift store and get jars, and that would be better than buying new ones anyway, right? I'd be reusing something that someone else had gotten rid of, keeping things out of landfills and all of that. Not only that (here's where I got excited), I could purposefully get mismatching pieces and make a cool, eclectic glass display of a mismatching, eclectic collection of yarns!
Then, since my new plan was to do mismatched glass dishes anyway, I suddenly remembered this cabinet I have in my kitchen that, quite frankly, scares the living daylights out of me every time I try to open it. Each time I open that door, I wonder if this is going to be the time that all of the glass dishes I have in there will go crashing down around me. There's a mixed feeling involved there, too, actually. I'm both horrified at the idea of losing the dishes and also thinking that if they all broke, I wouldn't have to store them anymore, and that would be pretty awesome. These are the kinds of dishes that are nice to have at holidays or parties, right? They're for decoratively displaying food at multiple levels, making even cheap things look somehow so much more fancy. I remember one time I piled Oreos, just plain Oreos, decoratively and in cute stepping stacks on my two tiered glass dish and out of all the fancy foods I'd prepared for that party, people got the biggest kick out of the Oreo display. These dishes always make my parties look cooler, but they take up a lot of room. I don't want to get rid of them, but I don't want to store them. It has always been a huge dilemma to me, every time I declutter.
Until now!
I adore this little display. It puts my yarns out and lets me see them. They're not going to languish anymore, forgotten and alone, the unwanted, unused little leftovers from bigger skeins that have already gone on to fulfill their destiny. No, these precious leftovers have a purpose and a destiny all their own, and now they get to fulfill it, too.
The yarns are organized by weight, clockwise from left to right: Lace weight (0), Worsted weight (4), Sport weight (2), Sock weight (1), and DK weight (3). The Bulky (5) and Super Bulky (6) container wouldn't fit on this shelf, so that yarn is tucked away a closet, but it's still organized and I can get to it quickly.
I'm already planning striped scarves, flowers, hats, striped socks, etc... I'm going to be unstoppable. The only problem I can think of with this is... If I knit all my leftovers, then my kitchen cabinet gets scary again. See? Buying new yarn and making new projects and new leftovers has now become practically essential to the entire organization of my house. (Bonus!) I wonder when TYF is getting its next Malabrigo shipment?
The short of it is that I reorganized all of my yarn leftovers by weight and separated them and put them on display in various dishes I had in my house.
The long of it is: I originally stored my yarn leftovers in a huge hurricane candle jar. They were so pretty and since they were on display, I started actually using my leftovers. I thought I'd never be able to fill the jar. I laugh at myself now for thinking that, of course. Never fill up a yarn jar, indeed!
Over time, the jar got filled to the absolute top. I had even reorganized within the jar and put all of the smallish balls in between bigger ones to make it all fit better. Eventually, because I couldn't easily get to the things in the bottom, most of my leftovers ended up being forgotten.
For a while now, I've been toying around with the idea to organize my yarns by yarn weight and store them in pretty jars that way. Alas, time passed, and the budget never really left room for frivolities like buying a bunch of jars to store different yarns, and the idea seemed to languish along with my poor, forgotten leftover yarns.
Today, though, something inside of me snapped. I wanted to organize my yarns. As I sat knitting, I thought of how I could possibly go to a thrift store and get jars, and that would be better than buying new ones anyway, right? I'd be reusing something that someone else had gotten rid of, keeping things out of landfills and all of that. Not only that (here's where I got excited), I could purposefully get mismatching pieces and make a cool, eclectic glass display of a mismatching, eclectic collection of yarns!
Then, since my new plan was to do mismatched glass dishes anyway, I suddenly remembered this cabinet I have in my kitchen that, quite frankly, scares the living daylights out of me every time I try to open it. Each time I open that door, I wonder if this is going to be the time that all of the glass dishes I have in there will go crashing down around me. There's a mixed feeling involved there, too, actually. I'm both horrified at the idea of losing the dishes and also thinking that if they all broke, I wouldn't have to store them anymore, and that would be pretty awesome. These are the kinds of dishes that are nice to have at holidays or parties, right? They're for decoratively displaying food at multiple levels, making even cheap things look somehow so much more fancy. I remember one time I piled Oreos, just plain Oreos, decoratively and in cute stepping stacks on my two tiered glass dish and out of all the fancy foods I'd prepared for that party, people got the biggest kick out of the Oreo display. These dishes always make my parties look cooler, but they take up a lot of room. I don't want to get rid of them, but I don't want to store them. It has always been a huge dilemma to me, every time I declutter.
Until now!
I adore this little display. It puts my yarns out and lets me see them. They're not going to languish anymore, forgotten and alone, the unwanted, unused little leftovers from bigger skeins that have already gone on to fulfill their destiny. No, these precious leftovers have a purpose and a destiny all their own, and now they get to fulfill it, too.
The yarns are organized by weight, clockwise from left to right: Lace weight (0), Worsted weight (4), Sport weight (2), Sock weight (1), and DK weight (3). The Bulky (5) and Super Bulky (6) container wouldn't fit on this shelf, so that yarn is tucked away a closet, but it's still organized and I can get to it quickly.
I'm already planning striped scarves, flowers, hats, striped socks, etc... I'm going to be unstoppable. The only problem I can think of with this is... If I knit all my leftovers, then my kitchen cabinet gets scary again. See? Buying new yarn and making new projects and new leftovers has now become practically essential to the entire organization of my house. (Bonus!) I wonder when TYF is getting its next Malabrigo shipment?
Friday, March 8, 2013
Button bomb!
These are the buttons I'm taking to TYF today. I have four of the black clocks, two of the purplish clocks, one each of the huge buttons pictured, one pair of wings, and the other wing that matches the one wing in one of the photos. Happy hunting!
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Yarny things...
Nancy P. of Tempe Yarn and Fiber color fame has done a bad, bad thing.
(If, by "bad, bad thing", you understand that I actually mean that she has done something so amazing and incredible and awesome and delicious to my eyeballs that I could never hope to have enough money to satisfy the urges that are produced inside of me by the thing she has done... Thus, the "bad".)
The geniuses over at TYF have hired her to dye 4oz. superwash braids. I bought three of them even though I wasn't buying anything that day and even though I'm not buying any more fiber right now. I turned my nose up at DK weight 100% silk single spun yarn in gold and silver that actually LOOKED like gold and silver for their shine because I wasn't buying anything that day. This is how committed I was.
But I saw the lovely genius that is Nancy, and I was lost.
This is about 2 oz. and 270 yards of a thick and thin yarn spun from the first half of one of these braids. I'm calling it "Shaded Flowers".
This is the beginnings of the next braid. Nancy called it "Gumbo". I think it looks like a Nebula. I'm calling it "Nebula Gumbo". I think this is my favorite spinning. EVER. I can't wait to have the finished yarn!
She has such a way with color. No one can deny it. I hope that she makes boatloads of money so that she can keep making fiber for me.
In other yarny/clayish news, the Huge Button looks amazing on Yumiko Alexander's super fun crochet shawl:
Apparently people are already in the shop asking for these things, so I have to get to work. If I can stop spinning.
(She did a bad, bad thing.)
(If, by "bad, bad thing", you understand that I actually mean that she has done something so amazing and incredible and awesome and delicious to my eyeballs that I could never hope to have enough money to satisfy the urges that are produced inside of me by the thing she has done... Thus, the "bad".)
The geniuses over at TYF have hired her to dye 4oz. superwash braids. I bought three of them even though I wasn't buying anything that day and even though I'm not buying any more fiber right now. I turned my nose up at DK weight 100% silk single spun yarn in gold and silver that actually LOOKED like gold and silver for their shine because I wasn't buying anything that day. This is how committed I was.
But I saw the lovely genius that is Nancy, and I was lost.
This is about 2 oz. and 270 yards of a thick and thin yarn spun from the first half of one of these braids. I'm calling it "Shaded Flowers".
This is the beginnings of the next braid. Nancy called it "Gumbo". I think it looks like a Nebula. I'm calling it "Nebula Gumbo". I think this is my favorite spinning. EVER. I can't wait to have the finished yarn!
She has such a way with color. No one can deny it. I hope that she makes boatloads of money so that she can keep making fiber for me.
In other yarny/clayish news, the Huge Button looks amazing on Yumiko Alexander's super fun crochet shawl:
Apparently people are already in the shop asking for these things, so I have to get to work. If I can stop spinning.
(She did a bad, bad thing.)
Friday, March 1, 2013
Giant Button!
Yumiko Alexander was in TYF the other day when I was there and we got to talking. She said that she had been looking for a giant button to put on one of her designs, but she couldn't find any. Any that she found were too heavy and, overall, still not big enough for what she wanted! She asked if I could make her a button that was at least 3" across. I said, "Sure, let me see what I can do."
This is what I did:
I really hope she likes it. It is, in fact, 3" across, and it seems awfully light for its size. That's one of the advantages of polymer clay. I basically made an original, sculpted and appliqued with clay on a circular base, then took a mold and made this one for her. If it works and she likes it, I'll be making more to supply to the shop so that people who buy her pattern can also buy a button to go on the finished product. I'm excited!
I think it's really cool!!!
Also, I'm taking 11 new button sets to Tempe Yarn and Fiber today, including some shown below. The pinkish/fuschia and the peach ladybug ones are absolutely one of a kind. They were leftover colors from another project and I can't mix them again, so get them while you can if you like them.
Overall, a pretty good showing for today! I hope Yumiko likes her button!
This is what I did:
I really hope she likes it. It is, in fact, 3" across, and it seems awfully light for its size. That's one of the advantages of polymer clay. I basically made an original, sculpted and appliqued with clay on a circular base, then took a mold and made this one for her. If it works and she likes it, I'll be making more to supply to the shop so that people who buy her pattern can also buy a button to go on the finished product. I'm excited!
I think it's really cool!!!
Also, I'm taking 11 new button sets to Tempe Yarn and Fiber today, including some shown below. The pinkish/fuschia and the peach ladybug ones are absolutely one of a kind. They were leftover colors from another project and I can't mix them again, so get them while you can if you like them.
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