on my way out the door to catch the stitch 'n ride train to stitches west!

woot! woot! i'm hoping to pick up a copy of Handknit Hereos a graphic novel about knitting by Mortaine. it would be great if i could get her to sign it too. here i go...

my lil' old singer machine

this singer sewing machine was purchased off craigslist a few years ago. i bought it off a japanese american family in the Sunset area of San Francisco selling their mother's things as they moved her into a care facility. the mother sewed all of her children's clothing on this machine and had it since it was new in the mid-1950s. her kids were now well into their 50s. i felt a little bad that i was getting something with so much history, but i did let the woman know that i planned on taking very good care of the machine and appreciated that it had been well used and cared for.

i recalled that you could look up info on the Singer site if you had the serial number of your machine. mine is AL622481 and has "15-" printed on the base of the unit. It sits in it's own wooden stand/table with a pull out drawer for bobbins and such and even came with a stool in which the top comes off to store larger items, e.g. button hole making attachments.

Machine Serial No: AL622481
Year of Issue: 1953
Prefix Manufacture Locations: AA to AT - Elizabeth, New Jersey USA

I also clicked on their PDF to find out more: AL- 575941 625940 15 50000 November 20 1953

50k represents "amount alotted" and "15" represents the "model number". Seems that my model is not as rare as some of the others. Oh well, it's a work horse and I still love it and it's helping me create my coraline button eyed doll for it's sewing debut.

making progress on the coraline button eyed doll

i've been going to tomopop's post on the mystery box he rec'd. it consists of THE coraline button eyed doll. i've been going through all the pics to get inspiration and guidance on what to include on the one i'm making. the hair is slowly being added to the head. one strand at a time. i thought of using needle noodle's technique of attaching hair, but later decided to go back to my 'ol one strand (really two, because i double it) at a time method. it's a cool technique though and i'll definitely try to use it on another project. hopefully i can make the rubber gloves into a workable rain slicker. the prototype i sewed up this evening is too small, but it showed me that it can work. i just get a kick out of fact that i'd be making them out of yellow rubber gloves. i'm hoping to make the yellow rain boots out of them too. we shall see...

progress report on coraline mystery box swap

had a productive crafting weekend

• finished one knitted cap for the chemo cap drive next weekend.
  
• got well into the project i'm making for the coraline mystery box swap. i'll post the pics tomorrow. i'm very pleased with the way it's turning out. i'm going to have a hard time letting go of it and actually send it to the person i've been assigned to. i do hope she likes LOVES it.
  
• used my old singer (new to me) for the first time. i bought it off craigslist a while back.
  

well, off to bed...i'm knackered.

just back from seeing the 10am show of coraline [again]

i almost got back on BART to go see the art of coraline exhibit again too! the show ends today. only 4 more hours and then it's gone...[sigh] that film is just too amazing. i wanted to see it again with a friend, who otherwise wouldn't have gone to see the movie. she was blown away and i had fun telling her all the little bits of info that i've discovered about the film, book, etc over the past few months. it has consumed just a bit too much of my time these days ;)

i got a few more ideas on what i'm going to make for my swap match up over at my little mochi

so far, i've got

• the box. i've had this vintage box for years that will be perfect for the project. it's wood and the top slides back and forth. i'm thinking it may be from japan as i have two others, one with japanese characters on it. this one does not.
  
• i picked up a round metal disk that has a "c" painted on it to use somewhere on the box. maybe i'll put the "c" in the middle and paint the scroll work on each side of it to mimick the one in the movie. it's a toybox found in coraline's "other" bedroom at the base of her bed.
  
• i plan on writing up Wybie's note that was attached to the wrapped up doll of Coraline, but change " Hey Jonesie" to "Hey [swap match participant's name]" and the rest of the note: Look what I found in Gramma's trunk, look familar? WybiE [maybe insert PurlgurL instead].
  

now, i better get crackin' there's only 2 or so weeks before it needs to be sent in the mail to my recipient!

putting sabine on hold...

i can't believe we're already almost finished with this month! i had planned in finishing sabine long ago, but with yarn breakage issues, altering the pattern, etc...you know how that goes. in any case, i want to be able to knit up atleast one cap for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society cap drive during the stitch 'n ride event next saturday. the train is headed to stitches west 2009. i have signed up for classes in the past, but this time i decided i'd just do the market and for the first time, take the amtrak train designated for stitches west goers only as far as i can tell. i'm picking up the train in berkeley, near 4th street and plan on walking there from my home nearby.

tahoe or craft

i was planning on hitting tahoe this weekend, since we've had such an abundance of rain down here and snow up there. another storm is coming in tomorrow. alas, it didn't happen, so i'm planning on filling it up with craft projects planned and unfinished.

i was just assigned my pal from a totally cool coraline mystery box swap. i'm not sure if we're allowed to blog on the process before we ship our goods to our assigned pal, so i've emailed the organizer asking if it's ok to do so.

ok, i'm now running on reserve power, so i'm going to hit "publish post" and get ready to start my crafting weekend! woot!

this is what happens when you're frustrated with your knitting project...

you move onto another craft!

24g sterling 1/2 hard wire wrapped necklace with aquamarine facetted rondels 16" long. i bought a strand of these at baubles and beads during their 30% off pearls and stones sale. i still thought it was a bit spendy at $50 for the strand, but now realize that i can make 4-5 more just like this one, so the cost per piece isn't so bad. sorry for the out of focus shots. my camera doesn't zoom up close.

another great coraline site

EEEEVVILLL buttons
I found this site at some point and it's got to be the best resource for all things Coraline that I have found to date. I'm hoping to add myself to the Coraline Mystery Box Swap that My Little Mochi is organizing. I've already started making little notes in my craft journal with ideas and sketching ideas for the swap. i'll have to switch my crafting gear from knitting to...??? :)

So I guess I'll be movin' my posts over to pgk2

i've been trying to get ravelry to pick up my rss feed from http://purl_gurl.blogspot.com/ for almost a year now. it appears that their interface doesn't like underscores. i worked with different ravelry support and they just kept pointing me to the rss url i needed to embed in my profile. i told them that i had tried the atom feed one: http://purl_gurl.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
as well as the the usual rss one:
http://purl_gurl.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss and neither worked in ravelry. i asked their chat support if it might be due to the underscore in my url. she said that it could, but they hadn't tested for it.

excerpt from chat session:

sandysays:
We've run across a few here and there that have never worked and Casey doesn't have an explanation as to why

purlgurl:
do they have underscores in their blog url?

sandysays:
he doesn't understand why it's not worked for some folks either
that might be a possible glitch
tho we've never tested that theory to prove or disprove

purlgurl:
yeah i was going to set up another blog to test

sandysays:
LEt us know if it makes a difference if you do

Well it does...the feed is working now. I'm just bummed that purlgurlknits was already taken, but purlgurlknits2 has it's own little nuances that i'm pretty pleased with :)

yay! i'm going to see coraline on this dreary rainy day!!!

Coraline in 3D 7:30 show at the local AMC. I'll be sportin' my Coraline button skeleton key too! Unlike bibliogrl's find on the side of an abandoned building in Chicago, I opted for the quick, gotta have it now option...eBay. Seems their campaign included stapling, hanging, attaching these wonderful keys in cities like SF, Chicago and New York. So cool!



Here's a close up of the key similar to the one I got



I'm going to see the Art of Coraline at the Cartoon Art Museum in SF on Friday too. I just arranged to have the day off. Woot!

Here's some pics that someone took of the exhibit on flickr.

excuse me while i obsess with all things coraline for the moment

koumpounphobe, huh, now that's a new word for me. i suspect i'll develop become one after seeing coraline. their website is awesome. i tried to see the movie this past weekend, but the show that i came for and the next showing were already sold out by the time i got there.

initially when i visited the site a few months ago, you had to put in secret codes that you'd find posted on various blogs/sites to view the gorgeous flash shorts that they made to promote the film. now you can just hunt around the site and discover/wander to all these very cool areas of their site. i've already spent hours there, having my tea leaves read, putting button eyes on myself and my cat...

a few months back, these "mystery boxes" started arriving at various bloggers doorsteps. once again, i spent hours and hours stumbling about the web searching each site to view the contents of each box. oh, wow, each one is such a prize! several of the knitting blogs and sites i frequent received mystery boxes of their own (wendy knits, knitty.com, ravelry! a few recipients and other bloggers have tried to "round up" and post info/images about each box that has surfaced. from what i can tell, ASIFA-Hollywood's, Animation Archive is the most complete.

these guys are not only amazing artists and visionaries, but their marketing is genius! they've got viral marketing down to a "V" or however the saying goes.

i absolutely love the fact that this film is full of handcrafted work and talent and that there is even teeny tiny hand knitted goods adorning the characters by none other than Althea Crome.

so now i'm planning on skipping a day of work to go to the last few days of "the art of coraline exhibit" at the Cartoon Art Museum in SF. i stumbled across it as a result of going to all these blogs/sites that had any sort of mention of "coraline". the exhibit's last day is sunday the 15th.