picture is worth a thousand words

I'm knittin' up Jared Flood's Almeara gloves and on row 31, it calls for p2tog tbl:

http://www.knittingonthenet.com/learn/learnp2togtbl.htm

Love it. So easy to see what I'm supposed to do! The pattern mentioned that Vogue had an area on their website "Techinique & Abbreviations", but I searched to no avail and don't like to lug around my stitch dictionaries in my library collection. So, I ended up using the trusty dusty Google to come up with the above. Now, onward march...

knit happenings in berkeley this weekend

with knitsonya in da house and next door a wonderful bakery, sweet adeline !

From Coraline to the Birds

Well that didn't take me long...I found myself another swap-a-roo to join and help me continue on my eternal procrastination quest! It's named the Handmade Bird Swap - Sweat Shoppe Style and it's being hosted by dragonmama on Craftster. Dragonmama noted that this swap was based on one that Creative Kismet hosted back in January of this year. It was called the "Birds of Change Exchange"and like CK's ideas and meaning behind it. Creative Kismet just so happened to be part of the Coraline Mystery Box Swap I'm a part of too. Her box was and is AMAZING, definitely one of my favorites of the lot.

So in this swap we are supposed to make birds in flocks of 5 or 10. I opted for the smaller sized flock which will allow me to spend more time on each bird than if I were to try to crank out 10 of them, sweatshop style. So now I'll be changing my obsession from Coraline to Bird plush/stuffies. Maybe I'll sneak in a Coraline reference or two! 

( : : ) ( : : )

Spring has sprung and it's time for the secret gardens of the east bay tour again...

It's been a few years since I've last gone on this tour, so maybe I'll scrounge up the dough to make it on their self guided tour for 2009. They even have a version of the tour that's on bicycles, called Pedals to Petals. That sounds even better!

Creepy Cute Crocheted Coraline (C^4)

I got my mystery box yesterday. I wasn't able to get my paws on it until well after work. It came from Evalana aka the Rabbit Hutch. Inside the #29, tin box was:

• Creepy cute crocheted Coraline
• Bobinsky's mouse
• Letter
• black "other" buttons
• Coraline Mystery Box Swap tag created by Batwrangler with button key added.

Very cool Evalana. I'd love to put her on the dash of my Matrix, but the sun will likely do a number on her. Maybe I'll put velcro on her bottom and have her on the dash only when I'm driving. Same goes for the little mouse.

Coraline Mystery Swap Box in da house!

I just got off the phone checking in with my SO this afternoon and he mentioned taking in a package delivered to my door. He described to me over the phone and I suspect it's my swap box package. He mentioned it has a sticker or writing that says something like "here we go..." and comes from Connecticut. He knows I've been waiting for a box and has witnessed the evolution of my contribution to the swap since the get go. He's been very supportive of my obsessive crafting endeavors, which is great, especially since I want to do a round 2 if it materializes! :)

On the same note, seems the package I sent has arrived at my pal's local post office and is out for delivery...
Label/Receipt Number: 0306 1070 0004 8319 XXXX
Arrival at Unit-->Status: Arrival at UnitYour item arrived at 8:35 AM on March 18, 2009 in SOMECITY, SOMESTATE.
Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later.

-later-Status: Delivered

Your item was delivered at 1:10 PM on March 18, 2009 in SOMECITY, SOMESTATE.

I've still got a few hours until I'll able to open the box. Very excited though...stay tuned...

Swap Withdrawal

I'm still mourning over the the loss of my Coraline...well, not really, I am eagerly awaiting my recipients reaction to her box. I do however feel some sort of loss. I guess, what I am jonesin' for is to find another crafty venture that will give me the same buzz as this one did . I found this new-ish blog called Swap Dex and seems to be a pretty comprehensive listing of swaps. I perused the current swap listings, but nothing really grabbed me. When I stumbled across the Coraline Mystery Box Swap, it was a no brainer, I HAD to join this swap. I even signed up within the first minute my little mochi was accepting requests to join!

When posting my competed Coraline doll to the craftster.org site, I discovered something called poppets. OMG! these dolls are amazing and seem to be the brainchild of ghilie. Check out a few of the poppets that have been made by craftsters since 2007. These have become quite the phenomenon over at Craftster. This just may be the next swap I was looking for! nezbutt, just hosted (still in progress) a poppet swap, but sign ups were in January. Here's hoping there will be an I love my poppet swap round 4! Check out her amazing dolls on her blog as well as the steampunk one (above) she sent to her uber lucky swap pal!!! I guess it's true...Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. I am now a "friend of craftster" and have PM'd and have received ghilie's poppet pattern. Thank you ghilie!

Let the recipients posting to the Coraline Mystery Box Swap group begin!

Like many other participants, I sent off my box to my Coraline Mystery Box Swap pal today (the deadline). I started this project as soon as I was accepted, but for some reason, the last bits and pieces didn't get finished until yesterday. I stood in a short line for a very long time. In classic post office inefficiency, the clerk seemed to have difficulty operating the machine that kicks out the postage and/or count stamps for those ahead of me and basically move at a snails pace. Good thing I wasn't in a rush, but boy oh boy, he did annoy most others waiting in line. By the time it was my turn, I figured it would take him at least 10 minutes to process my package. After requesting it be sent PRIORITY and was told the postage came to $8.75, I handed him a $10. The poor guy had to use a handheld calculator to figure out how much change he had to give me! Anyways, it's OFF. My box is on it's way across the United States. It should arrive in _______, _______ in two days. I sure do hope you like your box my Coraline Mystery Box Pal!!!

This swap was/is so much fun. I have never participated in something like this before. The only other swap I have participated in, consisted of assembling Altoid-like tins and some schwag for a Ravelry group, but this was so much more creative and fun! I loved making my version of the Coraline doll and learned quite a bit about constructing such things. This was my first attempt at making a doll/stuffie/plush from scratch. Participants got to post their works in progress on a Coraline Mystery Box Swap group on Flickr and it was so exciting to see others participants works. Wow, there are some amazingly talented people in this group. As a result, I went in and out of feeling quite happy about my project to very inadequate and self conscious with regards to my crafting skills. I know I should just let it go, but I guess that's just the way I am. Anyways, I am very excited to see what others post on the group site now. I've been visiting it several times a day just to see what new photos have been uploaded. 

I think I frickin' won a pair of Custom Coraline Nike Dunks!

I entered the Coraline Nike Dunks Giveaway (click on the red-orange drawer underneath the squid in the right corner of the room) and totally forgot about it until I opened this email in my inbox. Here's hoping it's not a hoax/spam.

Dear xxxx xxx,
Congratulations! You have been selected to receive a prize in the Coraline Nike Dunks Giveaway, administered by ePrize.

You have been selected as the winner of one (1) pair of Custom Coraline Nike Dunk tennis shoes (size determined by shoe size requested during entry or random drawing )! Please see the Official Rules for further prize details and eligibility requirements. Your win has been recorded and is subject to verification. Once we have verified your eligibility, you will receive your prize 8-10 weeks after promotion conclusion. It will be sent to the address you provided. The promotion ends on March 01, 2009.

No further action is required on your part. Should we need additional information from you, we will contact you at this email address.

For a complete set of Rules for this promotion, please click here.
Please refer to them for any questions you may have. Should you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact Prize Fulfillment Services by replying to this email. Please be sure to keep the original subject line.

Congratulations again.
Prize Fulfillment Services

addison studio sale

I LOVE these people and their store!

Addison Studio Sale all sorts of vintage and antique craft materials you can go bonkers over! See you there?!

WIP: Coraline doll (she's done!)

WIP: Coraline doll (she's done!)
Originally uploaded by purlgurl

I've finally finished my first doll-plush-stuffie from scratch. I've made ones in the past but generally started out with a sock. Her head, body, arms and legs were all fashioned separately. I did this to have a floppy doll look and originally, her legs were going to be "buttoned" on similar to the arms, but I ended up stitching them in in the end.

The details on her face were embroidered (if you can call it that) and the lips and rosey cheeks with acrylic paints. Her hair is individual strands of yarn that were placed one by one and then trimmed. She has a dragon fly hair clip that was fashioned out of a button and I used part of her hair that I wanted to tie back to make the Coraline hair swoop happen. I finished off the dragon fly with some rhinestones to mimic the one from the film.

Coraline's sweater is hand knit using Cascade 220 wool and size 1 needles. Her skirt was fashioned from some silk like black fabric with an elastic waste. Her raincoat and boots are constructed from XL size yellow rubber gloves with clasp fastener for the front attached with yellow buttons. The boots were formed by using the fingers of the yellow rubber gloves.

I sure hope my swap pal likes it. :) I certainly do.

HANDMADE NATION debuts in SF tomorrow night

and I want to go! Anyone else game? Doors @ Mezzanine opens at 7pm, show is at 7:30. We can go by BART and get off at the Powell Street station. Here's the link to the movie's site

 

WIP: coraline mystery box swap box #35

WIP: coraline mystery box swap box #35
Originally uploaded by purlgurl

Coming to the end of the Coraline Mystery Swap. I'll be able to concentrate on my other crafty endeavors again, including finally finishing Sabine. This swap has inspired me to do more swaps and get into making softies. I just stumbled across this one and it was so damn inviting I had to join. Seems I'm late in the joining the bandwagon as usual as it appears to be quite a phenomena. Soon I'll just be able to kick back and view the works that the other swappers have put together. Many have not uploaded any of their WIPs. I'm wondering if I should have held back a few images and left it to the surprise of my recipient. Oh, well...

Almost finished with my Coraline Mystery Box Swap project

I'm very pleased with the Coraline doll I'm making for the swap and all her clothing and have posted several of the WIP pics at the group's flickr site. I will be hard pressed to send the box and it's contents off, but very excited to see how it's received by it's OTHER owner. I'll likely send it off on Friday or Monday (the deadline) next week.

I'm documenting my process, but I'm going to hold back a few details so the recipient can be "slightly" surprised as to the contents of the box.

Things to do:

• finishing details on the box (off to ace hardware for some bits and pieces) DONE


• shoe laces on coraline's yellow boots


• button(s) on raincoat


• documentation as per swap specifications DONE


• send her off to _________________ in ______________

cool things to do with the silk hankies i picked up at stitches west

initially i planned on just pulling apart the hankies i got from stitches west this past weekend and knit off the drafted silk without spinning it first, since i do not own a spinning wheel. but upon doing some searches, i found instructions on knitty on spinning hankies using a drop spindle.

i also found this site about silkworms and shows the process of making a silk hankie. apparently each hankie is made from ONE cocoon! it's kinda gross, but totally amazing at the same time. here's an image from worm spit's site showing a cocoon being opened and the bug being prepped for removal.

so beautiful, i couldn't resist...besides, it's been raining like crazy around here

a few weeks ago, i saw a woman walking up solano avenue with one of these beautiful umbrellas. we both stopped at a crosswalk and i asked her where she got it. she said atomic garden. it just so happened that i needed to be in the hood later that week as i had a triathlon meeting to go to on college. it turned out that they pretty much sold out of these umbrellas. they had one left, but no price tag on it. the store keeper was going to call me back with the info later on that weekend. in the meantime, i got one online and for quite a bit less too. i kinda wish i held out for their spring line. they've got one for rain or shine now.

stitch 'n ride to stitches west

my friend and i walked from my house to the berkeley (near 4th street) train station. the train was to arrive at 9:22, but it was after 10am before we were on the train. according to the director of the capitol corridor service, there were about 500 stitchers on the train. up by a few hundred from last year! wowzers. we got a bag full of coupons for vendors and various adverts along with the shwag items pictured here. when we arrived at the station, there were several buses waiting to take the stitchers to stitches west, but we weren't able to catch the first run of buses and decided to walk the 10 minute walk to the convention center. the weather was beautiful, so i didn't mind it at all. we did however, take the bus back as we were pretty tired after 3 hours of walking around the market shopping.

as it was my 4th year going, i decided not to buy any yarn. my first stop was to pick up my copy of handknit heroes and to get it signed by stephanie. woot woot!, she was signing away when i arrived at booth #97. i love it stephanie, i'll be signing up for a subscription now too!

i later picked up these hanks/hankys(not sure of the terminology) of unspun silk that can be teased apart and knitted together. i plan on making a lace scarf with it. on the search for an apropriate lace pattern. i purchased them from royale hare. i also got two cocoons that are generally unwound and the threads are then turned into the silk hanks like the ones here, dyed and turned into yarn/woven fabric. a search online brought me to to this site, and now i kind of wish i didn't buy it. :( i guess if i really wanted to be good, i wouldn't even knit at all eh? <>.
at some point in the blur of stitches west, i discovered the beautiful works of marion, jewelsinfiber.com in which the artist, self describes her work as "a blend of fiber techniques and jewelry technology." Check out her site, her stuff is beautiful. i picked up one of her kumuhimo boards to make small lanyards. fancy friendship bracelets. she completely sold out of her kits by saturday, but she sells the supplies and kits on her website too. i thought it would be fun to give it a try.

one of my last stops before popping back on the bus to return to the station was the button lady's stall. she had a wonderful english victorian antique belt for sale. i ended up getting it along with a few shell buttons and a shell belt buckle.