craftnik

sweet finds

2012-01-26T07:49:00.000-08:00

I was going through old photos and found these these close-ups of little embroidered jam and honey covers that I designed and stitched for one of the projects in Handmade Soirees with French General...

aren't they adorable? each one is only about an inch across. that's a lot of tiny stitches! I'm sure they got covered in jam and then probably lost in the madness of shooting that book, but I'm glad I took photos before they were used!

(patterns are available in the back of Handmade Soirees!)

goodbyes are never easy (except when they are)

2012-01-22T23:18:00.000-08:00

well, it's monday...again. the weekends are just too short these days! I spent sunday working on a new knitting chart. I've just started knitting the sample but it shouldn't take long.

not like the other project...yeesh. I'm still working on my Bosc scarf, but crikey that lace knitting is slow going. I'm just over half done with it and it's been almost a month!

in other news, we bid a fond farewell this weekend to Josh's red chair. he had it for 20 years (though it was not new when he got it) and parting with it was hard for him. but after much consideration, it was decided that the red chair needed to go. then, a nice man from craigslist came and took it away and promised to give it a good home. we stood and watched it drive down the street in the back of his truck, so red and velour and proud. and now there is much more room in our office, and Josh does not need to get me anything for at least the next three Valentine's days.

goodbye, red chair. I never liked you and I plotted your demise, but Josh loved you and I have to respect that. there just wasn't room in this relationship for both of us.

the grey lady

2012-01-17T21:19:00.000-08:00

{via}

you know how some people have "good hair days"? I rarely have those, but I try to have "good outfit days". today was a pretty good one. I have SO many clothes, it's really inexcusable to not know what to put on, but that's how I feel most mornings.

as I've gotten older I've definitely become a fan of routines...I like to eat the same exact thing for breakfast for months on end, for instance. maybe this is part of my "paradox of choice" problem...the more decisions I have to make in a day, the more exhausted and cranky I get. so lately I've really been wishing I was one of those people who only wears one color. I can't seem to find a name for this habit, so I'll coin one..."monosartorial".

I got obsessed with this idea when I read this article about 5 monosartorial (see how it's catching on already??) New Yorkers who only wear one color, all day every day. only wearing black doesn't count, obviously. lots of boring people only wear black, and that's so boring it would probably take years to even notice, and even then you'd be like eh, no biggie. I'm talking about people who, like the woman below, wear like...nothing but bright blue (she has blue shoes custom made!). Or Karim Rashid, who only wears white and pink.

there is also a guy in this article who only wears BROWN, which is so depressing it makes me want to curl up in a ball and cry. he doesn't look chic, he looks like a shut-in.

if I was going to do this (and I'm definitely thinking about it, for real) I would choose grey. I love grey. it's so versatile, it's clean and neutral...not as impractical as all white, but more interesting than all black. plus grey looks good on me. I mostly love how it would cut down on my decision process...imagine walking into a huge store, and being able to disregard 95% of the options just based on color! it sounds heavenly.

anyway, if you see me and start to notice that I'm looking very monosartorial, that's what's going on. I've finally decided to make one less decision every day! here's a few fine looks I would be rocking...

Source: anthropologie.com via Jody on Pinterest

Source: thatkindofwoman.tumblr.com via Jody on Pinterest

Source: hipsterbleedsglitter.tumblr.com via Jody on Pinterest

(p.s. grey clothes + pink hair? to. die. for. )

after the "before" but before the "after"

2012-01-15T22:22:00.000-08:00

sooooo tired tonight. out of the blue saturday morning Josh got serious about redecorating the office, and I was not about to let that moment pass me by! so this was the state of our shared desk space...

yea, pretty terrible. we were each using half of his old formica dining table as a desk, and it wasn't working for either of us. Josh wanted more privacy to concentrate on his writing, and I needed a bigger, more flexible workspace that could be used for multiple kinds of projects. don't even get me started on the printers sitting on uhaul boxes under the table...

then there's the red chair in the right corner....we'll leave that for another post.

anyway so I measured the room and spent most of saturday making plans...moving little paper furniture around and seeing what fits...kinda like junior high home ec!

then this morning it was off to Ikea, right when they opened! then back home to dismantle the formica table, then off to Goodwill with a truck full of old crap, then back home to put new crap together, then cursing and crying when I realized my careful planning had not gone totally perfectly, then BACK to Ikea, this time at 3pm on a weekend, to stand in the RETURNS line, which is basically voluntarily sentencing yourself to 2 hours of total misery, then back home again to finish putting everything together.

soooo, after all that... the room still looks pretty insane! but I see potential now, Josh is already happy in his little writing den, and we have forward momentum. which is the most important thing of all. here's a sneak peek...

see, still pretty messy! you'd think after all that there would be some impressive "after" photos, but this is real life people. after photos don't really happen in the blink of an eye, unless you have some team of underpaid PAs running around doing all the work, while you just look cute on camera.

the list of things to do before the "after" is lengthy...new paint (should have done that before the furniture was built, I know), new window treatment, new desk chairs, cute area rugs, new corkboard... and books and knick knacks and art on the walls.

ugghhhh now I remember why it's been 6 months since we moved in and the office is still a mess.

to be continued...

black coffee and a sidecar...

2012-01-11T20:37:00.000-08:00

"Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!"

did you know I'm an Auntie? actually I can't be a real auntie, because I don't have any siblings with kids, but as soon as my dear friend Melanie announced she was expecting, we both knew what her daughter Moira would call me: "Auntie Mame". I like that it was just assumed that I'm officially the adult in Moira's life who is allowed to be a terrible influence.

I really need to watch the Rosalind Russell version (really, is there any other?) again... aside from her amazing performance, I love the visuals in that movie. her costumes are fantastic, and I certainly appreciate how her hair color changes from scene to scene. but her apartment is the living end!

her decor changes multiple times, but the best one is when Patrick brings his snooty fiance and her parents, the Upsons, to visit. Mame pulls out the stops to make the place as avant garde as possible and I love it all...

the crazy white screens! the Danish modern furniture and fireplace!

that amazing staircase, all minimal and groovy carpet...and her outfit, I mean sequin harem pant capris with acid green chiffon??? so good.

the goldfish lamp...we should all have one.

that crazy sculpture is sitting in a koi pond!

and of course, the "adjustible" couches...

while I may not have her apartment, and some days I feel more like an Agnes Gooch than an Auntie Mame, I hope to live up to the name. so I started Moira out slowly, with a little festive headwear for her first Christmas. I knitted her this Santa hat from the Santa Baby pattern on Ravelry:

the kid can definitely work a hat! Now that I know this, there will be more hats to come. and dresses, and capes, and sequined harem pants...oh, yes.

(on a side note, I just read that Tilda Swinton is going to be starring in a re-make of Auntie Mame?!? now I love Tilda, and Mame is a kook...but she's not an alien.)

(and on an even sidey-er side note, I think "Black Coffee and a Sidecar" is going to be the title of my memoirs.)

my first sweater (for a giant)

2012-01-08T15:53:00.000-08:00

well, it's done...my first sweater! I spent a month knitting this back in August...just endless rows of stockinette, done in a lovely Noro yarn and some others thrown in for interest. I finally wove in all my ends, blocked it, and finished the side seams. It's the Espenson sweater, which the pattern description calls an "insouciant caftan style tee".

looks pretty on the hanger doesn't it?

look at that gorgeous Noro yarn...so many colors and interesting nubby textures...

ok, time to put it on! (insert needle scratching on record here)

hmmmmm...it's really more caftan, less "tee". ok, it's a dress now. put on some tights and sassy boots.

yea, that's not working....ok, it's "insouciant"...let's try a hand on the hip! (thus proving there is a waist under there somewhere)

ok that's a little better, but you can't walk around like that all day. let's try moving!

ok, bad idea, moving actually appears to anger it. it's getting bigger. no more moving!

yea, so basically this sweater will be perfect on me if I'm ever pregnant with octuplets. (the photos above are the most flattering ones I took, if that tells you anything.) before you blame the first-time sweater knitter, this matches the finished measurements in the pattern pretty much exactly. my gauge was spot on, and after blocking, the bust on mine is actually a couple inches smaller (!!), and the length is a few inches longer. and I made the EXTRA SMALL.

I imagine the large size would make a lovely cozy for a mini-cooper.

what this has really taught me is to choose my patterns more carefully. I picked the Espenson because it seemed really easy for a beginner (and it was). it's basically a rectangle with a neck hole. when I looked at other people's projects on Ravelry, not many ladies were really rocking it. that should have been the first red flag....and I saw that the finished bust size on the XS was 60 freaking inches, and even that didn't stop me, for some reason.

it's one thing if you take a chance on a sweater that's half off on the Anthro website, and it could either be really funky and unique or really frumpy and bad, but hey you can always return it if it's bad. when you spend a month knitting something, using yarn you really love and were saving for something special, you should probably choose a little more wisely.

so for now this is going in a drawer and will not be worn, at least until I maybe grow a giant tumor that I need to roll around next to me on a cart.

as long as the tumor is "insouciant", this will be perfect.

feeling dotty

2012-01-04T18:35:00.000-08:00

I think I really need a polka dot sweater...

Source: thesignaturething.tumblr.com via Jody on Pinterest

Source: suzyful.com via Jody on Pinterest

Source: atlantic-pacific.blogspot.com via Jody on Pinterest

or maybe polka hearts!

Source: blog.denimtherapy.com via Jody on Pinterest

rippit, rippit...

2012-01-02T19:40:00.000-08:00

FROGGING. if you're not a knitter, that's what it's called when you have to rip out all your stitches and start over from scratch. I wondered why they would call it that and apparently it's because that's the sound a frog makes..."rip-it". yea, knitters are a kinda goofy bunch.

anyway, did you notice my "lace" knitting in the last post didn't look much like lace? as in, not enough holes? well, I figured out why about a day later and realized that I was doing things SO wrong, that I needed to frog it and start over. It was depressing but I'm glad I did, because now...et voila! Lace!

so yeah nobody told me there were different types of yarn overs? Up till now, my method of just looking up new stitches on youtube whenever I encountered one I'd never done was working great. The Knitwitch has taught me so much, but she failed me this time! But now, thanks to the amazingly generous people on Ravelry, I have learned a ton of lace knitting tricks. Ravelry is like having thousands of super crafty friends who are willing to help you out at any hour of the day. I was even contacted by the designer of the scarf I'm working on, with words of encouragement and offers of help getting through the pattern. So cool!

so it's looking much better now and I'm really enjoying my Bosc scarf project. I'm also enjoying my new 50mm lens for the camera! I haven't had much time to play with it yet, mostly I've just been pointing it at stuff in my office and trying to get better at manually focusing. But here's a few pretty shots...

I can't resist throwing in a cat photo now and again! Cats and yarn, that's all I need to be happy these days.

p.s. I'm feeling like this font is a little hard to read, so I think I'll be playing around with my blog template this week. let me know what you think!

2012 craft-olutions

2011-12-30T10:05:00.000-08:00

Source: mothgirlwings.tumblr.com via Jody on Pinterest

Oh hey 2012, didn't notice you sneaking up on me there. I feel like I barely got to know 2011 and he's out the door already. typical....

I'm not usually one for resolutions...it's always the same ole stuff we know we should be doing anyway, right? (exercise, budget, organize, floss) but this year I have Plans (with a capital P that rhymes with E and that stands for Etsy!) so I am going to put down in writing here and now that I have some resolutions of the crafty sort for this coming year:

1. OPEN AN ETSY SHOP. I mean duh, right? why has it taken this long?? laziness, mostly...along with a paralyzing fear that whatever I sell will end up on Regretsy. I'll probably start by selling vintage rather than handmade, just to get my feet wet. And lord knows I have enough vintage stuff lying around that I need to get rid of. which brings us to number 2...

2. GET RID OF SOME CRAP. Technically this is not a "craft-olution"...except that getting rid of crap will open up space for resolution number 3....

3. DREAM STUDIO. ok, I probably can't really have my dream studio in this apartment. But I can turn the second bedroom into so much more than it currently is, which is white, featureless, poorly lit and full of the aforementioned crap. Hopefully having an inspiring space to work in will get me to get off my ass about resolution number 1.

I actually made a ton of progress on this one already this week, including about 8 bags for Goodwill (working on number 2 already as well!) Check out this before and after action:

no, I didn't just stuff everything in the closet and close the door!

chaos...

boring, but sane!

anyway so those three are biggies. The rest are small and silly...like get over my fear of lace knitting. I've already started that one too! Check out my butternutty soft scarfy scarf in progress...

going well but I need to figure out why the holes next to my ssk's aren't as big as the k2tog's... it's the Bosc scarf pattern by Robin Ulrich. I'm really enjoying it, even though the last thing I need is another scarf! Lace though, man...there is no mindless, "let me do this while I watch Downton Abbey at the same time" kinda knitting there. I gotta read every damn line of the pattern every damn time.

what else...oh design more knitting patterns, for sure! My first one, the Watercolor Heart pattern is gaining lots of fans on Ravelry, so now I'm planning more fun intarsia projects to come.

getting better at photography, that's a big one. those scarf photos above were taken with my new lens (thanks parents!). but I have sooo much more to learn, especially about textile photography, which seems to be harder than you'd think. is it the white balance I'm screwing up? what is white balance exactly?? things to answer in 2012...

and maybe learn something new? I'd really love to take a printmaking class or take up weaving. Ooh or start making mid-century dollhouse furniture, I've just learned that that is a thing! How fun would it be to make tiny molded plywood chairs?? ok, whatev, you have your thing...to me, that sounds super fun.

and last but not least, keep up with the blogging (and Pinterest!). It's been so fun the past few months sharing my silly posts with you all, and I hope you keep coming back to see how the above resolutions pan out. Knowing me they will change within a week, but hey that's half the fun of resolutions, right?

oh and don't stop paying your bills this year, thinking the Mayans were right...

have a great new year, friends!

the point of roughness

2011-12-21T06:49:00.000-08:00

Happy Winter Solstice! Tonight is the longest night of the year, which has something to do with the earth being lopsided? Also something-something azimuth, which is math-y and such a weird word.

Anyway, the cool part is the days will start being longer again, and soon it won't feel like the constant darkness is going to swallow all the joy in the world.

Throughout history people have marked the solstice in all kinds of awesome ways. For instance, the Romans celebrated Saturnalia, a festival that included all kinds of tomfoolery including slaves and their masters switching roles for a day.

At this time of year the Saami peoples of Scandinavia worship the sun-goddess Beiwe, who travels the skies in a structure made of reindeer bones. They cover their doorposts with butter for her to eat on her travels.

The Welsh call the winter solstice "the point of roughness", which is about the best way I can think of to describe it...that point at which you just don't think you can take the cold and the dark much longer. and then it starts getting better!

All of this is my way of saying, maybe in the 21st century in Los Angeles California, we should mark the mid-winter with our own unique ritual. maybe something along the lines of modern war paint?

In other words, I needed something to brighten these cold dark mornings, and a little Manic Panic is just what the doctor ordered. All I need now is a chariot of reindeer bones and some butter.

up against a wall

2011-12-19T22:11:00.000-08:00

ugghhhhhh. the holidays and the job, they have taken over my life. crafty business has slowed to a crawl...no improvements around the casa, not even a thrift find to brag about. all I can do is desperately pin things on Pinterest in hopes of someday having the time to turn inspiration into reality.

I have an accent wall in the kitchen, and I have every intention of doing something wonderful with it...someday. Here's some great walls I've pinned for when that day comes along...

I'm really wanting to do something more interesting than just a solid bright color. I can't put up wallpaper, but I could paint something like it. this, however, would take a week.

Source: apunchofcolordesign.com via Jody on Pinterest

love this but I'm not this "literary". I think it would be great with LA street names instead!

Source: 79ideas.org via Jody on Pinterest

but right now these two are both high on my list:

Source: abeautifulmess.typepad.com via Jody on Pinterest

Source: gretchenjonesnyc.tumblr.com via Jody on Pinterest

it says a lot that right now the idea of spending days painting a zillion tiny triangles on a wall sounds totally appealing to me. Once I'm in a better state of mind, I may just go with that solid color idea after all!

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas (tree)

2011-12-15T23:31:00.000-08:00

have you heard about the Paradox of Choice? maybe the term "maximizer"? I am what you might call a Classic Maximizer. when faced with a decision I am not happy unless I can examine and weigh every single option possible, and then even after finally making a decision (if I ever do) I'm still not happy.

this is the reason why I still don't have a christmas tree. well, I have one...a crappy little silver one that I got at Ikea for $20 years ago and has really seen better days. for ages I have searched for the perfect tree...every year around November, I start thinking: "this is the year. this year I'll buy a tree"....and yet still no tree.

this year the problem is compounded by the fact that I now live with Mal, Josh's cat, who promptly tackled the Ikea tree to the floor when I put it up. then, she crawled inside it and got stuck. so now even if I found the perfect tree, I don't know how long it would survive.

here's the dream tree:

Source: flickr.com via Jody on Pinterest

yea, that wouldn't last a day. Mal would climb it like King Kong. this one hangs from the ceiling, but costs $350. for some sticks on a pole? sorry, I meant for a masterpiece of modern simplicity?

Source: inhabitots.com via Jody on Pinterest

she couldn't hurt this tree, but our guests might think we just have termites...

Source: google.com via Jody on Pinterest

or there's this one, which, while it's literally the saddest and least festive thing you could put in your living room and call a "tree", at least you'll be able to reach the smoke detector when those candles set the greasy takeout containers on fire.

Source: google.com via Jody on Pinterest

ah hell, maybe I'll just do this.

Source: Uploaded by user via Jody on Pinterest

happy friday!

highly classified crafts

2011-12-12T15:50:00.000-08:00

there is craftiness happening at Casa Craftnik, I promise...but I CAN'T TALK ABOUT IT, because of Christmas.

usually I wait until the absolute last minute to make gifts, but this year, with the new job and not a ton of spare hours, I decided to just make a couple things that are easy and can be accomplished in a short amount of time. I feel bad about this, but still better than I would feel about just going to the mall and not making anything.

so I can't show you what I'm knitting, but I can show you what I'm pinning! here's a few things I pinned on Pinterest lately...

Source: mitzismiscellany.com via Jody on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Jody on Pinterest

Source: fi-end.tumblr.com via Jody on Pinterest

kind of a theme here of "things you never thought to cover with yarn but look really chic when you do"

are you on Pinterest?? let's follow each other! just click on any of the images above to find me!

I could make the prettiest parachute...

2011-12-10T10:42:00.001-08:00

you know how sometimes you don't remember how a collection started, but slowly it grows and then it kinda takes over and becomes bigger than you and you are powerless to stop it and even if you could you don't really want to?

you're like that, right?? no? it's just me? hmm.

well anyway, silk Vera Nuemann scarves...I've got...a few of them.

at least this obsession is pretty cheap, as obsessions go? I pick them up at flea markets and (when I'm lucky) thrift stores, and I usually pay one or two bucks a piece. I've never paid more than $4, and that was a really special one. I never feel bad about walking away from ones that are priced too high because there are just so many of them. this lady was seriously prolific! I dig for them all the time and I have never come across the same one twice.

for $1 I'll pretty much buy them no matter what the design, but I found a few pretty nice ones at the Pasadena City College flea last weekend...this pink and orange sheer one is classic Vera, and how cute is the aqua donkey print??

I really dug this one with the fruit, I love the really painterly ones and they are harder to come by. and this has a bunch of her signature ladybugs on it!

the blue patterned one is stylized peacock feathers. and I rarely come across black and white prints of hers, so I had to grab this cool abstract one:

if you don't know about Vera Nuemann, she was a really inspirational artist and businesswoman who made quite an empire out of her handpainted designs. her designs have experienced a big resurgence in the last couple years and fabrics with her patterns are back in stores again, including Anthropologie and Bloomingdales.

there's even a book all about her that came out a while back, which I can't believe I don't have, but I would love to get. maybe for Christmas? just sayin.

either that or more scarves.

free watercolor heart download available now!

2011-12-07T19:41:00.001-08:00

I put up my first pattern on Ravelry! Download the free pdf here: download now

boys who like purls

2011-12-06T23:00:00.001-08:00

I read this awesome article about a woman who introduced knitting to men's prisons, and the calming effect it had on the prisoner's lives...and then I somehow ended up bookmarking a bunch of photos of old-timey men knitting. I don't know, the internet. sometimes it's like that.

(p.s. I'm working on getting the Watercolor Heart pattern ready to upload, so if you like it stay tuned!)

watercolor heart pillow

2011-12-04T14:12:00.001-08:00

I've been doing this thing lately where I force myself to try new knitting techniques that scare me...and it's working, in the last 6 months I've gone from not knowing how to knit anything but a solid rectangle to doing striped scarves, hats, cables, mitered corners, and now color work!

I started with the stranded style of color work in the Bergen Cowl, and I realized that wasn't as hard as I imagined. but I was scared of intarsia...and when I had tried it without doing some research first, I ended up with holes in my work. then I found this tutorial on youtube and it helped a TON, if you're new to intarsia I really recommend it.

I wanted to start with something simple so I made my own chart (also new for me) of a simple heart shape, and figured I'd let the lovely color changes of Lion Brand's Amazing do the rest for me. this colorway is Strawberry fields. (I have a lot of Amazing in my stash, I can't resist it when it's on sale!) The background is Fisherman's Wool in Oatmeal.

I figured a pillow would be quick and easy, and it's the time of year when a knitted pillow makes sense. for the back, I just did a 2 row stripe, but then I really liked the reverse stockinette side, so I used that as the right side. I think it makes a nice contrast with the front.

the pillow is 12"x12", and to join the front and back I used a row of single crochet, which gave it a nice crisp edge and corners.

now that I've dived into intarsia and making my own charts, I'm getting all kinds of ideas for more designs...stay tuned!

UPDATE: get the free pdf pattern by clicking "download now" below!

download now

great moments in toilet paper

2011-12-01T10:54:00.001-08:00

this last weekend my mom noticed this photo in my bathroom and so I thought I'd tell you about it...

I saw it in a goodwill and thought it was funny but didn't buy it...that night I told Josh about it and he insisted we go back the next day to see if it was still there, which thankfully it was. so now it's displayed in my bathroom and makes me laugh.

oh, I'm sorry, why did we go back for it? it's just an old photo of some dudes in suits, standing around a table...oh HELLO rolls of toilet paper, I hardly noticed you there!

what is even happening here?? they seem so proud, and this was obviously such an important moment that they needed to pose very formally, for a professional photographer, with rolls of toilet paper prominently displayed in front of them. this could be some important moment in the history of tp, and nobody knows it exists!

(cut to me wasting a good hour trying to research the history of the MD toilet paper brand. this leads nowhere except that now all my google ads are for toilet paper.)

this gentleman sees nothing funny at all about this moment, and thinks you should wipe that smirk off your face, smarmy guy in the front row...

I've considered taking it out of its frame to see if there's any info on the back, but that would mess up this little gem of a label...

omg when did they even still have phone numbers like this in LA?

this is why I love thrifting; in the midst of all the mass produced crap from China that people toss out, sometimes you uncover something like this photo, and it's a little window into the past. a past that probably even these guys had forgotten about...The Great Toilet Paper Summit!

think-make-think

2011-11-29T13:44:00.001-08:00

just ordered this print by Clifton Burt from 20x200...

yessir, that pretty much sums it up.

that's entertainment pt 2

2011-11-27T19:15:00.001-08:00

well, I hope you all had a lovely thanksgiving weekend, I certainly did! there was lots good food, lots of wine, and even family at Chez Craftnik, and it all went off without a hitch! (well, except for the part where I burnt the meringue...but let's forget about that...) there was even a...tablescape!! woo hoo!

while it doesn't rival the ones I posted last time, it fit my table nicely and we even had room for food! here's what I used: my prized Jonathan Adler bird bowl (thrifted for $20!), which while not technically a turkey, stood in as the turkey's more stylish cousin. whipped up the white burlap runner out of some fabric I had in my stash....

my thrift store plates and some new napkins I picked up on clearance at CB2...

gold votives from Crate & Barrel and river rocks from CB2...

autumn leaves collected on the streets of Noho...

and spider and china mums (that match my plates!)

all in all it was a beautiful setting for a lovely evening, and I felt like a rock star for going the extra step and putting a little effort into entertaining. why next year, I might even tie some pine cones to the chairs. :)

that's entertainment

2011-11-22T23:00:00.000-08:00

{via}

so, now that we're friends one thing you should know about me is I'm not that into entertaining. I, personally, am entertaining...of this there is no doubt...but the whole fancy having people over and creating a perfect menu and perfect party decor thing eludes me.

ironically, one of the craft books I've worked on, Handmade Soirees, is about doing precisely that. I can throw a terrific fake party. (oh and fyi, when you see people at a party in a photo shoot and they are throwing their heads back in gay laughter while gracefully holding a handmade cocktail napkin angled just so for the camera? they have been doing that for 8 hours and they are miserable.)

anyway now the holidays are upon us, and the apartment is starting to look pretty good, and I'm feeling like maybe it's time to let some people in the house and maybe serve them some food and alcohol? I can do that. but the one thing I really cannot wrap my brain around is "tablescapes". do you know this thing? people love them! this gorgeous person made a whole career out of them!

{via}

so even though I've got like negative 2 extra hours between now and when my parents arrive on Thanksgiving day, I feel the need to go out in the woods (of North Hollywood, sure) and collect branches and moss and bird's nests, obviously, and arrange them (making sure to include varying levels and textures and lighting) on my dining table...while also leaving a little room for oh yeah FOOD and HUMAN ELBOWS.

{via}

oh and apparently the chairs also want in on this action. tie pine cones to them! clearly these people have no pets.

{via}

what happened to the days when Thanksgiving "tablescapes" meant pull out the one nice tablecloth and some cloth napkins and light a couple candles? maybe, if you're feeling fancy, add a gourd or two? or someone might bring a poinsettia! I blame Martha, of course. stay tuned to see how scape-y my table turns out...

(p.s. I actually think all these scapes are lovely and I'm just mad I don't have the time right now to get crazy crafty with this stuff. and I still love you Martha, you're just a "scape"-goat. ha! see how entertaining I am??)

dead pilgrims

2011-11-20T10:39:00.001-08:00

didn't have much time for crafting this week, and the diminishing hours of sunlight + new job + holiday planning equals very few photos being taken around the place. but I did manage to document a few of the new items I've picked up for the apartment...

There's this thing in socal every year that my friend and I call "Dead Pilgrims"....which is our horrible name for a really lovely little arts and crafts festival in Claremont that is actually called the Pilgrim Place Festval. it's a retirement community for former missionaries, and they sell vintage items and new art and crafts made by the missionaries at really great prices, and the money helps support the community. I always find great stuff there. And, HUGE PLUS...the old people dress like Pilgrims while they work the booths! so cute. this year I got some hand spun yarn, a bunch of vintage needlework magazines, and these two fun items:

this is a new piece of pottery, made by a completely charming old gentleman who insisted on telling me all about the piece and that he refers to it as the "He/She Bottle" because it looks more masculine or feminine from different angles. Unfortunately I didn't get his name, but if you go he's the one everybody calls "the pottery guy". I love the weird angles and the drippy glaze, and it fits right in with all my West German stuff.

in the "International Booth" I found this great tapestry...

it has birds AND cats on it. what's not to love??

nobody could tell me where it was from, so who knows....South America? Pakistan? no idea. It's about 2 ft wide and 6 ft long, which makes it a weird rug size, and kinda large for a table runner. I think I'll sew a dowel to the back and hang it somewhere.

oh and then there's the Bench.

we bought the table a few months ago and I really wanted the matching bench, but couldn't bring myself to spend that much all at once. buying stuff new is seriously nerve-wracking for me after so many years of thrifting! I like the pairing of the vintage chrome-y Bruer style chairs and the rustic slab table, but I also wanted more seating and, hey benches are all the rage in dining rooms right now, right?

anyway so this weekend they were 25% off and so I bought it, the end.

heathered cable-y goodness

2011-11-16T13:24:00.001-08:00

finished another cowl...why oh why do I keep knitting them?? oh that's right, because they are unintimidating, don't take too much yarn, don't really need to fit...

I guess I should block it...but usually I decide to wear them before they get blocked and then it's like the seal has been broken and I never do the annoying boring part that I'm never sure I'm doing right anyway.

more details on the pattern and yarn and all that good stuff after I've blocked it (ha) and taken better pics...

diy bubble chandelier

2011-11-13T22:37:00.000-08:00

we really needed a lighting fixture over the dining table, it was getting ridiculous eating in the dark all the time, but I couldn't decide what to put there...it's already got "a whole lot of look" going on...big slab table, crazy macrame weavings (which I'm sure you're sick of seeing in every photo). then I remembered this cool project from Readymade magazine (RIP, Readymade...I miss you) and decided now was the time to do it. because now is the time of year when you can find very cheap glass balls, in the form of christmas ornaments! I headed to Michaels, Ikea, and Lowes, and came back with the following:

twelve 3" diameter glass ball ornaments - $10
twelve 2.5" diameter glass ball ornaments - $10
Ikea "Hemma" hanging light cord - $8
roll of jute twine - $2
white electrical tape - $2
1.5" silver welded ring - $1

total: $33

Here's my slightly tweaked version of Jean Pelle's original idea...mine ended up looking a little more...organic? but that's ok. While I was making it I decided it was inspired by those cool glass floats that are tied up with twine...and actually that's a great idea which if I'd had more time I might have incorporated. but anyway...

I decided that I was not up to the task of splicing electrical cords together, as they did in the original project, so I just went with one light socket. first of all, you should decide how low you are going to have your light hang down from the ceiling. I can't hang anything low or one of the cats will try to climb it, so I decided I wanted the center of the cluster to be about 20" below the ceiling.

I felt the christmas ornaments were just way too obviously christmas ornaments, so I started by hot gluing the twine around the silver caps to disguise them a bit. then I tied a knot in the twine at the hanging wire and left about a yard of twine as a tail.

next I created 8 bunches of three balls and then tied one of the pieces of twine around the other two in what my old macrame book tells me is a "half hitch" knot...I did a bunch of those knots in a row and ended up with these twisty ropes. the ropes varied between 3-6" long.

then I did the same knots of twine around the light socket cord for a few inches.

then (and this is where I stopped taking photos), using white electrical tape, I taped the ends of the 8 bunches to the cord, attempting to make a nice grape-bunchy sort of shape. this part is hard...the glass balls are all clacking against each other annoyingly, and it gets surprisingly heavy. I would recommend having a friend hold it while you do the placement, or hanging it from something. I just kinda winged it!

anyway then I kept doing the half hitches with the twine over the electrical cord, covering the taped sections as I got to them and trimming the ends of the twine tied to the balls as I covered them.

I covered the cord till it measured about 18" from the top of the socket. then I tied a silver metal ring to the twine and did some knots around that, and threaded the end of the cord through the ring. (this is just to have something nicer than the cord its self to hang everything from) threaded the end of the twine onto a big needle, weaved it back through the half hitches till it was secure, and trimmed off the excess.

and that's it! all in all it only took me a few hours. I wasn't too sure about it at first, but once I hung it and turned the light on, I was really happy with it. it's visually very "light", and doesn't compete with all the other stuff in the dining room. I love that it feels both handmade and modern at the same time, that's a balance I strive for in everything I make.

I need another hanging light in the bedroom, so this has inspired me to brainstorm and think of something original to do in there!

avoiding the curse

2011-11-10T14:22:00.001-08:00

have you heard of the "Sweater Curse"? apparently it's a known phenomenon, wherein you make a sweater for your significant other and then they dump you. no one really understand why it happens, but it may have something to do with the deep meaning that an object absorbs when you spend many many hours hand-making something for someone you care about. perhaps if the relationship is already shaky, that emotional weight is just too much for some people to deal with.

or maybe they are just ugly sweaters, who knows.

anyway, I tried to dodge the curse by knitting Josh a scarf instead. I was inspired by the Noro Striped Scarf project by Brooklyn Tweed. I priced the fancy Noro Silk Garden yarn, but decided that for a scarf he might never wear, $60+ was a little silly. So I went with Lion Brand's Amazing, which is another (much cheaper) variegated yarn with long color shifts, which is what you need for this project.

there's just two different colorways used here, Joshua Tree and Olympia, but because of the variegated nature of them it seems like more. I'm not sure what the length is, I used 4 balls of yarn and pretty much used them all up.

living in LA, I doubt he will get much use out of it, but he claims to like it. who knows with dudes though...they are a mystery. I think he looks cute in it though, and if he doesn't wear it, I will!

falling back

2011-11-06T09:32:00.000-08:00

{via}

it's funny how my attitude towards Daylight Savings has changed as I've gotten older...I used to be happy for an extra hour of sleep, but today I sprang out of bed at my usual hour and was thrilled by the idea of a whole extra hour of being awake! what to do with it???

do you try to be productive with that extra hour? maybe work out, since you don't have that "no time" excuse today? or do something fun and indulgent? all the online lists I read suggested silly things like "learn to play a song on a ukelele"....I think they vastly overestimate my musical ability.

this year, falling back coincides with me falling into a new job. for at least the next few months, I'll suddenly have much less time to spend with Josh and my kitties, and less time to do what I love...making things, taking pictures, cooking good food, walking around and looking at the world. I guess the challenge is to find that extra hour every day, however you can. Because really the world keeps turning at the same rate, no matter how we decide to divide it up...it's what we do with that time that matters.

this kind of sums it up...

How It Happens

The sky said I am watching
to see what you
can make out of nothing
I was looking up and I said
I thought you
were supposed to be doing that
the sky said Many
are clinging to that
I am giving you a chance
I was looking up and I said
I am the only chance I have
then the sky did not answer
and here we are
with our names for the days
the vast days that do not listen to us

— W.S. MERWIN, poet laureate of the United States and author, most recently, of “The Shadow of Sirius,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2009

Millwater cowl

2011-11-03T19:59:00.000-07:00

I wandered around the amazing Japanese garden in Portland draping this cowl I made on rocks and trees and taking photos. Josh was embarrassed. yeah, people looked at me funny, but I don't care...knitting looks better in nature.

this is the Millwater Cowl by Beth Kling...pattern available on Ravelry here. Yarn is madelinetosh vintage, in Maple Leaf.

happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T18:06:00.000-07:00

just landed back in LA after a wonderful, whirlwind trip to Portland, OR and the Columbia River Gorge. I have tons of photos to start weeding through and editing, in the meantime here's pics of the fall bouquet I had in the dining room before we left...sadly when we came home it was stinky and wilted and had to be tossed.

I wish I remember what those orange pom-pom flowers were called, I got them at the farmer's market...don't they look like something out of Dr Seuss? they also smelled really nice. I was sad we couldn't carve a pumpkin this year (since we were out of town) so these flowers were the next best thing.

hope you all have a wonderful Halloween!

the joy of looking

2011-10-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

snapped this on my morning walk... just a leaf floating in a puddle by my feet but something about it made me stop. I love the random blue dot of paint and the interesting parallel arcs.

Josh and I are off to Portland tomorrow for the weekend! can't wait to wander around and take photos, eat good food and drink lots of local beer. I'm even hoping it's cold and rainy, so I can wear all the stuff I've been knitting!

studio dreams

2011-10-24T16:15:00.000-07:00

I've been dreaming lately of what I can do with my office... which is just half of the second bedroom in our apartment, but it's where I spend most of my day when I'm home, sewing, knitting, and reading design blogs. what I'd love is a space that I can call my "studio"....like one of those impressive artsy girls I see on blogs all the time...and say it with a straight face.

I've been bookmarking beautiful craft rooms and "studios", and trying to get inspired to buy shelving and functional furniture (which, let's be honest, isn't that inspiring). I like this one from Martha Stewart:

but it looks like you can't do much more in this room than have tea and hang wrapping paper out to dry. still, I love the green walls/white furniture combo, and the funky rug.

here's the current state of my creative space:

basically just a sewing table, a bookcase full of vintage craft books, and a cat getting hair on everything. I have my favorite bits of vintage needlecrafts hanging on the wall. next to Stoli is a shawl I knitted months ago and am planning to dip-dye...eventually....

here's a close up of the crocheted flowers on the wall...I make them when I'm bored or only have 15 minutes to make something. I just keep adding to the garland and having them visible reminds me to keep working on them.

and here's my sweet boy, who is always by my side when I'm working at home. at the moment he's sleeping in the laundry basket next to my chair.

everywhere I've lived, I've always plopped my sewing machine down in a corner and just tried to keep it from being a total mess. maybe it's time to make myself a space that really inspires me? even...dare I say... a studio??

penguin sweater UPDATE

2011-10-19T18:17:00.000-07:00

they have enough sweaters! more than enough, actually. the organizers of this sweater drive say to send in any finished sweaters as they will keep them for future spills (so sad that that's a foregone conclusion) but please don't make any more. they are overwhelmed and thrilled by the response, though.

details here

sweaters for Tauranga penguins

2011-10-17T17:03:00.000-07:00

have you heard about the oil spill in Tauranga, New Zealand? yea me neither, until I heard that they needed people to knit sweaters for penguins. it happened a week or so ago, and as of today they are still trying to clean up the mess in NZ. this yarn store there called Skeinz is collecting sweaters to keep the little guys warm after they have been cleaned (and stripped of their natural oils).

I made some (modeled below on a Bacardi bottle), and in the process wrote up a row-by-row pattern for more newbie (also American) knitters to follow, as the pattern that's out there is very brief and metric-y. I am sure there are much better ways to do this, but it worked for me.

Penguin Jumper

Yarn: 8 ply 100% wool yarn (must be wool because the penguins will try to eat them)

Needles: US size 3 straights, US size 5 straights, US size 3 double pointed

Using the size 3 straights, cast on 36 stitches

Row 1-7: k1, p1

Switch to size 5 needles

Row 8: k1fb, (k2, p2 to last 3 st) k2, k1fb (38 stitches)
Row 9: k1fb, k1, p2 (k2, p2 to last 2 st) k1, k1fb (40)
Row 10: k1fb, p2 (k2, p2 to last st) k1fb (42)
Row 11: k1fb, p1, (k2, p2 to last 4 st) k2, p1, k1fb (44)
Row 12: p1, (k2, p2 to last 3 st) k2, p1
Row 13: k1, p2 (k2, p2 to last st) k1

Repeat Row 12-13 until work measures 6 inches. End on WS row. Begin to decrease:

Row 14: p1, p2tog (k2, p2 to last 5 st) k2, p2tog, p1 (42 stitches)
Row 15: k2tog, p2 (k2, p2 to last 2 st) k2tog (40)
Row 16: k1, k2tog, p2 (k2, p2 to last 3 st) k2tog, k1 (38)
Row 17: p2tog, (k2, p2 to last 4 st) k2, p2tog (36)
Row 18: repeat row 14 (34)
Row 19: repeat row 15 (32)
Row 20: repeat row 16 (30)
Row 21: repeat row 17 (28)
Row 22: k1, p2, (k2, p2 twice) k2, p2tog (k2, p2 three times) k1 (27 stitches)

Transfer stitches to one of the dpns. Break yarn, leaving a tail for sewing. Repeat steps above to make second half.

Transfer the stitches from both pieces to three dpns, 18 stitches on each needle. Work 10 rows of k1, p1 rib. Bind off.

Sew up sides from bottom edge to the point where you started decreasing.

I think they will probably get plenty of sweaters, a similar call after a spill in Tasmania netted 15,000! If you make some and you're on Ravelry, link them to the "Penguin Jumper" pattern, which the people at Skeinz are using to keep track of how many are being made.

This link has the info on where to send them. start knitting, the penguins need you!

obsessed with ombre

2011-10-13T09:19:00.000-07:00

I've been google-ing (googling?) "ombre" a lot lately.... working on a new project. and I keep getting results for hair and nails.

I've already got the hair going on (unintentionally... my roots are BAD) but I was bored yesterday so I tried the nails thing. I had to use whatever colors were already in my bathroom, but I really love the idea of shades of grey to white...

anyway, I dig it. but can I just say, it's impossible to take a good picture of your own nails. you are required to make a weird claw shape with your hand. I went with the "holding an invisible ice cream cone" pose.

chair fame

2011-10-11T15:49:00.000-07:00

well! I really didn't realize that sending my little chair makeover into Design*Sponge would have caused such a surge in blog traffic over here at humble little Craftnik...but, if you're coming here for the first time...or if you're actually coming back a second time...welcome!

seriously, the chair has been extremely popular. I'm not sure but I think the chair might be thinking it's too good to hang out with me now and would prefer to go live in a nicer apartment with a good blogger.

the chair should probably have it's own twitter account. @denimchevronchair? I do have a twitter account, but I only set it up for the purpose of stalking the Grilled Cheese Truck.

yes, as you can see by the puny "archives" over there on the right...I am a terrible blogger...and I repeat a post on that theme once every couple of months. (but I am forever hoping to get better)

it didn't help that the day before the post on Design*Sponge, I was in a car accident. first day of rain in LA = lots of dumb accidents. nobody was hurt, but my little car (that I love) was pretty badly damaged.

all I wanted to do for a few days was turn off my brain and knit. there is something to be said for the repetitive, easy work of knitting that can just chill me the eff out. I'm just beginning to get immersed in the whole knitting world (and it is a huge and organized and passionate world, I gotta say) but I came across this quote from Elizabeth Zimmerman that really summed up how I got through the last few days:

"Knit on, with confidence and hope, through all crises."

kinda the crafter's version of "Keep Calm and Carry On", no?

so that's what I'm doing...I'm knitting on...and I'm planning the next project...and I promise to blog about it.

(this soon to be finished cowl already has a twitter and is on Google+)

a little desert

2011-10-05T20:09:00.000-07:00

found this pretty pottery at the thrift store and filled it with tiny cacti...

it was in the background of my chair pics but it's so sweet I thought it deserved a better look. doesn't that one with the flowers look like a little alien??

the really big chair post

2011-10-04T15:37:00.000-07:00

Some projects can be done in an afternoon. others...require a more full-time commitment. this one is the latter...

so I found this Plycraft lounger on the corner one morning about a year ago. it was in pretty bad shape, but hey, free chair! (this is the same spot where I found an authentic Eames RAR armshell chair a year earlier...every time I drive by now, I cross my fingers)

here's the before pics:

the bent plywood back was in particularly bad shape, all dry and scratched and water stained. the black vinyl upholstery was also cracked and grimy.

BUT...I decided it had potential. I just wasn't sure what that potential was, exactly. so it sat in my living room looking pitiful and neglected (except when it was covered with new afghan and pillow projects)

it needed to fit into the new "Big Sur meets Ace Hotel meets Denmark" thing I have going on in my new apartment. and it needed to hold up to crazy cats and big manly boyfriends.

then about a month ago I saw this Anthropologie chair, and I knew what to do. I took my chair apart. then I bought a bunch of jeans that were half price at Goodwill (making them about $3 a pair) and started cutting...

I cut up jeans for a LONG TIME.

then I stopped remembering to take photos of my process (bad blogger, as usual). But basically my process was this:

1. start watching season 2 of the X-Files on Hulu.

2. cut jeans into pieces of flat denim, then cut those pieces into hundreds of 7 inch strips with mitered edges.

3. lightly glue strips to dark blue backing fabric using fabric adhesive in a chevron pattern, and then top stitch all the edges down using a zig-zag.

4. start watching season 3 of the X-Files.

5. make a crap load of piping (see stated hatred of piping making here)

6. stretch and staple fabric and piping around cushions.

7. change foam on armrests (the old ones were weirdly large). Realize you forgot to make chevron fabric for armrests. curse and pout and then do that. Staple all that down.

8. Switch to Law & Order SVU for a while. (why is season 13 so weird looking?!?)

9. clean plywood with Murphy's Oil Soap, sand, and clean again. Rub on Restore-A-Finish (walnut color) and be freaking AMAZED by the results. when that's dry, apply Howard's Feed and Wax. run your hand lovingly over the beautiful smooth new finish.

10. re-assemble the chair, being super glad that you drew diagrams and put all the different screws and bolts in neat little envelopes when you took it apart a month earlier.

11. take the after photos:

Yes, it took at LEAST 40 hours of labor. I didn't exactly keep track, and that's good because it was often extremely repetitive and boring. but only about $50 worth of supplies, including buying a new staple gun. pretty good compared to the $598 price tag on the Anthro version!

but none of that matters, anyway. because I love it. :)

it's like a blanket for your neck

2011-09-28T16:13:00.000-07:00

I love cowls. I love anything that wraps around my neck and makes me feel cozy and snuggly and like I'm in bed with the covers pulled up to my chin...but unlike my duvet, I can wear this out in public.

I'd never attempted colorwork before, so this was a fun way to get my feet wet. The colors make me think of a Pendleton blanket...which makes me think about designing my own colorwork for the next try...

hat weather?

2011-09-12T16:08:00.000-07:00

Sometimes life gets in the way of blogging.

But never crafting. I have to make things every day, if I don't my hands get itchy and I feel like a jerk. Most of the time it barely occurs to me to blog about it, because it's just what I do every day, just like making the bed. But I need to be better about telling people about it...

so anyway I've been knitting a LOT. Ravelry is my new best friend. I have something crazy like 70 patterns that I've favorited and I've barely scratched the surface of what's available. Meanwhile, it's been over 100 degrees for much of the last couple weeks...not really knitting weather. But I cannot stop...

here's a hat I made, from the Botanic Hat pattern by Steven West.

(like the nerdy glasses? I'm trying them out.)

it's lovely, and it actually fits my huge melon. But I'm not sure I'll wear it in this color....so I'll probably make another one. Josh likes it and wants one in "manly colors" (like grey and dark grey).

it only took a couple days, so I have a feeling I'll make a few of them. Now if only I lived someplace where I could wear such a thing.

the long forgotten needlepoint project

2011-05-23T16:58:00.000-07:00

Reached waaay back in the unfinished projects pile the other day and pulled out one that's been around for at least 6 years. It started with this little painting by Tim Biskup, which I loved and thought would make a swell pillow:

I blew up the image and transferred it to needlepoint canvas, and stitched and stitched for many months. Then I ran out of yarn for the background, and at that point I was so tired of it that it went in a bag and was not seen again until the other day. btw, I moved that bag of unfinished crafts to at least 4 apartments in that time. Lame! Here's how it looked when I pulled it out:

it wasn't that far from being done, just needed some finishing around the outer edges and details on the birds. Found some yarn in the stash that wasn't a bad match, and after a couple of days it was a pillow!

.... looks swanky on the plycraft chair, no?

that's a whole lot of tiny stitches, each one by hand. No wonder this took 6 years to finish! I love it though, it makes me smile whenever I see it. And I can cross one more unfinished project off the list!

yes, another afghan. (I know!)

2011-05-09T20:16:00.000-07:00

ok, I'm trying to stop with the afghans. but I'm really not into the idea of crocheted clothing, and my amigurumi phase has passed. so afghans it is. this one started with the yarn, a cheap, wacky variegated acrylic in shades of orange, grey, and brown. I think it was the name that got me: "Pop Art Ombre". (that and how cheap it was.) but I paired it with a solid grey to try to tone down the insanity.

I used the "Park Slope" afghan pattern from the Lion Brand site, and the squares (or rather, squares and octagons) went really fast. the part that sucked was sewing them all together. there just didn't seem to be an efficient way to do it. luckily it's not a very big throw, just about 38" x 60".

it's fun but it's very retro, more than I'd like. and retro in a "back of the couch in a That 70's Show episode" kinda way, which isn't really good. But Stoli likes it (that's his little ears peeking over the chair arm).

and it actually photographs better than it feels, being cheap acrylic yarn from Michaels (never again!)

that cat makes everything look better.

mama birds

2011-05-08T16:43:00.000-07:00

Ever since I left the nest, my mom has become a friend to all little animals who need some help growing up and getting out into the world (and has let me come back to the nest quite a few times as well). So in honor of her and her love for California wildlife, I created this linocut of a California Quail.

Happy Mother's Day, to all the mama birds and all they do for us!

great grey granny

2011-05-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

in my fit of finishing old projects, I went waay back into the craft closet and pulled out the giant pile o' granny squares that I made at least 2, maybe 3 years ago and then abandoned when the idea of sewing them all together was just too daunting. these squares were my very first crochet project! and somehow I made almost 200 of them.

the palette is very restrained, just one "color" per square, surrounded by 2 neutrals and a charcoal border. I think I was consciously trying to make something I wouldn't regret in 20 years, considering how long it took to make all the squares.

anyway, joining all the squares didn't take as long as I'd feared, and it was so nice to work with 100% wool yarn again that I rather enjoyed it. I can say now, after being tempted in the past by the brief allure of cheap acrylic yarn, that it just aint worth it. spend the money, get the materials you love, and it will be easier to work with and the finished product will be something you will want to keep forever.

The finished throw:

and on my rumply bed -

sooo many squares!

very happy with the outcome. although now that it's 90 degrees in LA, I'll be packing it away for about 6 months. I should really stop making afghans...

ABC: Always. Be. Crafting.

2011-05-04T23:06:00.000-07:00

here's what I'm working on when I'm not working on something else:

I only need to make like 108 more of these.

something new

2011-04-20T11:26:00.000-07:00

got the urge to do some lino cutting... my sliced up fingers aren't too happy with me but I'm enjoying the process.

we'll see how it turns out...

back to your crafts already in progress...

2011-04-18T19:05:00.000-07:00

posting again...finally!

anyway... now that I'm back to having the time for these things, I thought I should first try to tackle some unfinished projects that had been languishing in the craft cupboard. First up was a project that I didn't even know I was working on! I had at some point bought several skeins of super-bulky white yarn (must have been on sale) and I had started crocheting it but with no real sense of purpose and shoved it in a bag and forgot about it. Then the other day I remembered seeing these knitted poufs by Christien Meindertsma all over every design blog:

So I grabbed the biggest crochet hook I could find (I believe it's a size Q)... and doubled the yarn to get the desired bulkiness:

crocheted through an episode of Bones, and I had the first half of the cushion. Took a break, and Stoli promptly claimed it as his new napping spot.

another episode of Bones and the crochet part was done, and then a Law & Order to whip up a pillow (filled with shredded foam) to go inside it, and voila:

not as fancy-pants as the original, but still pretty cool. If I'd had more yarn, I would have made it taller, but this used up every inch I had to work with. I'd also like to try knitting one, and using some really thick cotton rope instead of yarn to make it more durable. But there's one fan who completely approves of this version...

hometown digging

2010-09-05T18:02:00.000-07:00

So I was back in my old stomping grounds of Hayward, CA a couple weeks ago and of course one of my top priorities was to check out the local thrift scene. Sadly, it's nowhere near as good as it once was, Hayward used to have some really fantastic thrifting. But I did find a couple things...first, I finally found a lampshade big enough for the giant genie lamp I impulsively bought at the Rose Bowl a while back.

It's been really tough finding a shade for this monster of a lamp (with the shade, it's over three feet tall!) I didn't need or want a new lamp, but this one was hard to resist. Check out the crazy glaze on this thing!

I'm sure lots of people think it's hideous, but I love it. It reminds of a lamp I found years ago and then lost in a break-up...I've always regretted letting that lamp go!

But the real find of the trip was a first edition copy of "I Married Adventure" by Osa Johnson...for $4.95 at the local used bookshop!

I ran home and looked it up on ebay...some copies sell for over $200! I've seen posts about it before on several style blogs, and I've been on the lookout for a copy. In addition to looking great on a coffee table, it sounds like a great story so I definitely plan to read it soon. I also got a big stack of vintage craft books (which I'll try to post about later). Gotta love B Street Books!

lazy sunday crafternoon

2010-08-29T17:51:00.000-07:00

It's the last day before I go back to work...it's been a lovely break and I've gotten a lot done, though not as much as I'd hoped. I'm working on a new ami but it's a gift for a friend so I can't post that yet...so here's a quick little project I did today in about 10 minutes.

Step one:
Take one of those travel mugs that you can insert your own picture in. Mine was a cast-off that had a dorky photo of a raven in it (sorry mom). Unscrew the bottom of the mug and slide out the picture.

step two:
Pick some fabric. I had a funky 60's dress that I picked up at a thrift store with the plan to shorten it to a minidress anyway, so no harm in cutting a chunk off of the bottom.

Step three:
Iron fusible interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric, to make it stiffer and thus easier to slide into the mug.

Step four:
Trace the shape of the plastic template provided, or the paper that was in there to begin with.

Step five:
Cut out the shape with nice sharp scissors (which reminds me I really need to find a scissors sharpening place, you could ride to China on all of mine)

Step six:
Slip the fabric into the mug, screw the bottom back on, and enjoy your new fab-tastic travel mug!

(I have no idea if this is dishwasher proof, I highly doubt it. so you know, don't come crying to me if you try this and you end up with a bunch of thread in your dishwasher. Just hand wash it, duh.)

a statement on the importance of "before photos"

2010-08-25T08:25:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be fun to make Stoli a cat toy. So I crocheted one and filled him with catnip.

I really wish I had waited to give it to him until after I had taken at least one photo...

cooking up some new curtains

2010-08-20T17:19:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since the last time I made new curtains for the kitchen, and the old ones were getting pretty faded. It took a trip to the garment district in downtown LA, but I finally found some fabric that inspired me enough to sew something so boring (rectangles are really not that challenging).

the photo doesn't really do the colors justice, they are so retro and cute. The print is utensils! So rad.

and seriously, how cute is ric-rac? Yellow ric-rac is like crafting's answer to Prozac.

2 weeks off, too many projects

2010-08-19T19:09:00.000-07:00

So I'm currently between film gigs, which means 2 whole weeks to do whatever I please. I decided this time I would NOT waste my hiatus watching Law & Order re-runs. So I made a very ambitious list of projects around the house that I had been "meaning to get around to". First on the list, buying a gosh darn dresser for my bedroom!

So that's done. Picked up this Danish mod beaut at the Long Beach flea on sunday. I knew no matter what I ultimately do with the decor in my bedroom, this is a classic and I'll always like it.

Next up was recovering the ottoman in the living room. It's a funky turquoise vinyl that I've always planned on recovering but never found the right fabric. I finally just bought something, knowing I can always do it over if I find something better! Here were the steps:

remove the legs, by prying loose the super rusty 50 yr old screws

pry up the funky "woodgrain" cardboard

cut the piping off with a matte knife. not doing this would have meant a funky top edge once it was recovered, and I wasn't about to remove the nasty old vinyl, uncovering god knows what...

make piping. I have mentioned before how much I dislike making piping. At least this time there wasn't much to make.

sew the top, piping and sides together. this was easy for me, as I have upholstered many many cushions. so I'm not going to explain the process, unless you really want to know in which case just ask.

I had some cotton quilt batting lying around, so I stapled a layer of that over the cushion, thinking it would be nicer if the fabric wasn't sliding around on top of the vinyl underneath.

stapled the cover in place, making sure to get a nice evenly tight fit.

reattached the legs and woodgrain stuff and placed in the living room. waited for the inevitable moment when a cat would decide that this was now a fine place to spend the afternoon.

I'm quite happy with it! I even think the new nubby olive tweed looks more authentic than the actually authentic vinyl. Total cost: $12 for the ottoman (flea mkt) and $25 for fabric. Total time: about 3 hours.

Tomorrow, I'll post the new kitchen curtains I whipped up this morning. I'm really on a roll!

a very stylish pachyderm

2010-08-18T17:31:00.000-07:00

Here's Cedric the Hipster Elephant. He's not a fan of the hot LA weather so he's moving to Portland with the rest of the hipsters where he plans to open an organic coffee house/comic book shop.

(I made Cedric from a pattern in the book Amigurumi World, and added the accessories myself)

crochet-mation!

2010-08-11T15:20:00.000-07:00

this is making me think about really trying to animate the little amigurumi dudes I've been making! Awesome spot and super cool crocheted dudes.

BC Dairy Foundation, "Back Alley Puppet Fight" from Bent Image Lab on Vimeo.

wish you were here...

2010-08-10T12:28:00.000-07:00

this is what I need to be doing right now:

that's taken at the Ace Hotel and Swim Club in Palm Springs. It's pretty much my favorite place in the world these days. Whenever I'm stressed and burnt out, I fantasize about hanging out at the Ace, feeling like a rich hippie, laying around in the desert heat and drinking date shakes.

I've had a plan for a while that I want to re-decorate my bedroom to look like the rooms at the Ace. I'm a little worried that if I try to match them too exactly, it will cease to seem special when I go there. But here are some elements I'm going to try to work in...

canvas curtains and lots of white...

ethnic rugs and pillows, and maybe a leather chair...

natural materials...succulents...

and definitely some sort of macrame element...

oh, and maybe an elephant.

adventures in thrifting

2010-08-06T13:57:00.000-07:00

Stopped by the Council Thrift on Venice blvd the other morning on my way to work...I have a love/hate relationship with the Jewish Women's Council thrift stores here in LA. On the one hand, I hate them because the prices are usually insanely high. On the other hand, those old Jewish ladies have some good stuff! I routinely find great paintings and occasionally some good pottery. And if I'm ever in need of some sequined cruise-ship attire, they've got me covered.

Anyway this time I only had 15 minutes, but I found two Vera scarves for a buck a piece:

and this mug with a mustachioed dude on it!

I mean, seriously... a mustache mug for 50 cents. Who could resist?

vermicious knids

2010-08-04T15:40:00.000-07:00

Besides sharing my home with one awesome roomie and way too many thrift store finds, I also get to come home to these two little faces every day:

What more could a girl ask for?

(well...a girl might ask that a certain cross-eyed siamese NOT eat all of her ipod headphones, each of which cost more than a month's worth of cat food to replace.)

he wants to suck your blood. and then cuddle!

2010-08-03T11:36:00.000-07:00

Here's the newest creepy cutie...

The roommate wants to keep this guy around, so I won't be giving him away. I'm kinda tired of creepy now though, so I'm working on a couple new ones that are just plain cute.

Scrap-ghan in progress

2010-08-02T12:37:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned last week, I've been really into crochet lately and have several afghans in various states of completion. This one was started as a way to use up all the random half-finished balls of yarn from other projects. I just started doing rows, without any pattern to the colors used, until I ran out of a particular yarn. But my design sensibilities wouldn't let it be quite that random, so then I started buying more yarn (thus defeating the whole "stash-busting" aspect of it). Sigh...

Anyway this is what it looked like a couple months ago...it's since gotten big enough to cover my full-sized bed. I could keep going on it, but it got way too warm to work on something this big and wooly.

Plus Stoli loves it so much, that whenever I work on it he insists on crawling under it and onto my lap, making it an even warmer situation. I'll pull it back out when the weather turns cooler. Which here in LA means it will be December before I can even stand to look at it!

amigurumi!

2010-07-26T15:07:00.000-07:00

I've been crocheting for a year or so now, and I'd seen these super cute little toys but they never interested me. I was mostly into afghans (of which I've made several now, and will post about when I get around to taking pics). But afghans are a pain to work on when it's hot. So when I saw the book "Creepy Cute Crochet", I decided to give these little guys a try.

I think they turned out pretty great! I posted them on facebook and offered them to any engaged or married friends, and they found a home within just a few minutes. I think I'm even going to give him a bow tie before I send them to their new home.

I'd never crocheted this small before, and never with cotton yarn, so it took some practice getting them right. Of course I'm now obsessed with making all of the patterns in the book. I'm currently working on Nosferatu, who is adorable.

well, this is awkward...

2010-07-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

not that anyone was really reading this blog, besides my mom. But after almost two years I've decided to give it another go. And this time it's going to be about everything, as the header says...soup to nuts! Crafts, my thesis film, thrifting, my apartment, whatever I feel like.

So if you ever read it, welcome back. And maybe this time I'll find a few new fans!

craft drought!

2008-11-03T14:33:00.000-08:00

From the lack of posts here recently you would think I hadn't been working on any projects. I haven't been lazy, really! But it's all for work and things that will be appearing in upcoming French General books, so I can't spoil them by posting here about it. But I did get a bit of a break recently and had a chance to whip up some kitchen curtains, which were on my long list of home projects.

So I picked up some new Amy Butler fabric, and voila!

We have a super crappy view from the kitchen window, so I thought cafe curtains would be a good choice. And I went with the clip-on curtain rings, so it will be really easy to change out the fabric whenever I feel like it.

I'm really happy with how they turned out, they warm up the kitchen and make the new grey winter mornings more bearable!

Sofa's Choice

2008-08-12T18:31:00.000-07:00

So I took a bunch of pictures of the apartment today. Brian is working on a show at Fox and they need apartments and houses they can shoot as backgrounds for this crazy animation/photography hybrid they are doing. We're hoping there's some money in it for us if we get chosen, so we thought we'd try our luck.

Anyway, just like seeing a candid picture of yourself is the best way to jump start a diet, looking at all the pics of the apartment pointed out to me all the things I want to change about it! There's a lot of little changes I can make, but perhaps the biggest choice concerns the big couch that dominates the living room. I don't even know what color to call it...beige? grey? putty? Whatever, I hate it. It's a total non-color. I wasn't committed to even keeping this couch until fairly recently, but it's just too comfortable (and too much hassle) to get rid of.

Sooo...slipcover time! Since covering this giant will be a major investment of time and money, I thought I'd try a little photoshop magic to help me make the decision. But now I can't decide!

A dark chocolatey brown? I'm envisioning a short cotton velveteen...I'm also imagining all the cat hair...

A vintagey golden yellow? Maybe in a wide wale courdoroy?

A subduded robin's egg blue? Or is that color too trendy?

This bold turquoise reminds me of a vintage couch at my parents house, which I love. It would be great in tweed.

Another vintagey color, perfect for cotton velveteen.

Or, the standby, white. Boring, but it hides the cat hair and it's easy to bleach clean.

So help me! Tell me what to do! I live with a colorblind roommate!

Vintage Bargello

2008-07-28T16:23:00.000-07:00

I should really change this to the "Bargello Blog", since that's what I seem to post about most often. But look what I found at my fave Salvation Army today! For $1.25!!!

It's a "four-way" Bargello design, which I've been wanting to try. It's in great condition, with no funky smells and totally clean. There were a few pulled stitches which I repaired in 5 minutes, and it needed a new pillow form because the old one was completely flat. I can't believe how great the colors are, it fits in perfectly with all the ones I've made so far.

I also picked up this cute little pot. No marks but it looks sorta Scandinavian and I love grey pottery in general. All in all a great thrifting trip and not bad for $5 total!

Yarn...

2008-07-21T01:19:00.001-07:00

is soooo yummy. At least, this yarn is. It's all vintage Persian wool, in perfect condition, with tags dating from 1968-1977. Now that I've totally cleaned them out, I can reveal my source, Kit Kraft in Studio City. The guy who runs Kit Kraft told me it was brought in by the daughter of a woman who collected it for years, and when she died no one in her family wanted it.

Buying this yarn started as an impulse but has resulted in a incredible creative burst that has energized and inspired me. I've already used a lot of it up for my Bargello designs, but there is enough left to keep me busy for quite a while. I feel like the woman who collected it would be happy that another needle crafter has been able to put it to use. I plan on using it until every bit is gone. Then hopefully, I'll find another hidden treasure trove to inspire me!

New Bargello

2008-07-13T21:21:00.000-07:00

I've been doing so much crafting for work that I haven't had a second to do anything for myself! It's good though, I'm happy as a clam coming up with new craft ideas every day. Anyway, here's the latest needlepoint pillow I finished a couple weeks ago. I bought several old books on bargello recently and this design is from one of them. I liked the result of leaving the top and bottom white, I think it keeps it more modern. Soon the house is going to be filled with these pillows, but they are so satisfying to work that I can't stop!

Patio Daddy-o!

2008-07-11T00:14:00.000-07:00

It's been hotter than blazes here in LA, but me...I like the heat. And I love my little patio off the dining room, especially now that it's summer and we can keep the doors open all day. It's like we have a second living room, plus I love being with all my gorgeous plants. Most of the plants are "rescues"...plants that someone else threw out and I brought back to life (but that's another post).

We finally got some furniture out on the patio (thanks mom!) but of course I couldn't just buy the cushions from Cost Plus for $20. Nooooooo. I had to spend two days cutting foam, making piping (I hate nothing more than making piping) and putting in zippers. But of course I'm glad I did, I mean how cute is that?

The patio is still a work in progress (there's still room for a few more plants!) but it's shaping up nicely I think. A very nice spot to have breakfast and read blogs, and who could ask for more?

Before & After

2008-07-05T15:00:00.000-07:00

Everybody loves a makeover, right? I sure do, especially when it's fast and cheap. I found this funky mirror at the Salvation Army in Pasadena for $5. The frame is plastic, and in it's original state of nasty spray-on gold finish, you could really tell it wasn't wood. But I liked how over the top it was, and the glass was in good shape.

So I had some high gloss paint mixed up in "Chili Pepper Red" for $6...spent an afternoon with a very small paintbrush...

and voila! It's still funky, obviously...but hopefully in a good way. And, ironically it doesn't look like plastic anymore. I hung it in the bathroom (where I have a whole orange thing going on) and now I can see the back of my head when I do my hair! I know the whole cheap furniture painted bright colors thing is kinda overdone at this point, but it really does add a nice pop of color in an unexpected place. And a funky statement piece for $11? Can't beat that with a stick.

OCD crafting

2008-07-03T20:05:00.000-07:00

I'm making a temari ball right now. It's a traditional Asian craft, apparently women would start making them before the new year and then give them to their daughters so the first thing they would see when they opened their eyes on New Year's day was a beautiful embroidered ball.

This website describes them as a "Japanese symbol of perfection"...I don't know if mine is that, exactly. It's my first time making one so I'm learning as I go, but the secret seems to be about 1/2 hand-eye coordination and 1/2 obsessive attention to detail. Oh plus a lot of math, too. The math is what screwed me up a little, which is why it's no symbol of perfection. Plus I'm regretting my choice of background thread color...

Anyway I am sure I will make more of these, if only because I hate not getting something exactly right the first time. Plus it's very intricate yet I can do it while watching movies, which I love. If you're interested, it's a styrofoam ball, covered with a layer of batting, then a layer of yarn, then a layer of thread wrapped randomly around the ball. Then you divide it into sections and embroider a pattern.

It might be a craft in the next book I'm working on, but only if I can figure out how to write the directions for making one!

It really ties the room together

2008-07-02T18:47:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of "The Big Lebowski". Like, so much of a fan that I actually attended "Lebowski Fest" last year, which in case you haven't heard, is the annual mecca for Achievers (which is the preferred nomenclature, dude).

One of my favorite things about the movie is the dialogue, which includes a lot of highly quote-able lines. "This aggression will not stand"..."Mark it 8, Dude"..."That rug really tied the room together". But probably the best line and the one that sums up the whole movie is "The Dude abides". It's deep. It's so deep, in fact, that I decided we needed it cross-stitched on a sampler. Because every home needs a sampler, but our home is not exactly the "Bless this house" type.

So I whipped up this little sampler and now it hangs near our front door. It was really easy, even figuring out the little bowling balls and pins wasn't too hard. And now whenever friends come over, they know...the Dude abides.

Next I'm gonna do "Nobody F*cks With The Jesus".

the perfect summer bag?

2008-04-22T10:39:00.000-07:00

Except for really liking my scotch, and a weird attachment to "Law & Order", I don't think I am one of those people with an "addictive personality". Except in one regard...I kinda have a problem with handbags. I don't even carry that many of them, I just like having them. Lately, I've been dreaming of a big oversized clutch, but one with a vintagey, touristy feel to it...like those bags that women picked up on Mexican cruises in the 60's. You still find them in thrift shops sometimes, but these days most of the ones I find are really sad and beat up. I have several awesome vintage straw bags, but they aren't sturdy enough for all the junk I carry around each day.

So I went ahead and made up the one I had in my head, and I'm pretty happy with the result! I used burlap instead of straw, and I made the flowers using a vintage flower loom. They were super easy to make, and once they were stitched down to the burlap they almost look like really elaborate embroidery. I added a chain handle that tucks inside so you can use the handle or not depending on how much you need your hands.

Anyway, I think it's pretty fab. It makes me want to put on a vintage sundress and go to a pool party and dance a rhumba. Now I'm thinking about laptop bags, and how most of them are so ugly. I know I could come up with something way cuter...

2 bedroom, 2.1 bath apt

2008-04-18T18:35:00.000-07:00

That's the love of my life right there, also known as Grimy the cat. 'Aint she gorgeous? I love having a cat, but of course with a cat comes the dreaded litter box, and the subsequent issues of where to put the darn thing so you and your guests don't have to see and/or smell it.

When we moved into this apartment (about 4 months ago) one of the first things I wanted to do was find a good place for the litter box that wouldn't offend me. Luckily my bathroom has this great cabinet next to the toilet. I don't know what else it could even be used for, but it's a perfect little private place for Grimy to do her thing.

I put a tension rod on the inside of the cabinet and made a little curtain with rings at the top to hide the box from view. Grimy has no problem pushing the curtain aside, and I think she actually appreciates the privacy!

You know it's a success when guests use the bathroom and don't even notice that the cat box is right next to them! Now if only I could find a cute solution for keeping it clean...

trying this again...

2008-04-15T13:22:00.000-07:00

I tried to host this blog over on Wordpress, 'cause they had the name "Craftnik" available and I didn't have to add the "online" to the address. But I dunno, something funky was going on over there, or maybe it was me, or maybe the problem was that I use Safari, or a mac...anyway I came back to Blogger which is less customizable but waaay easier to deal with.

So here I am, and I'm ready to start posting all the cool stuff I've been working on. It's been a flurry of activity here at the Craftnik HQ, I've been crazy busy getting the book proposal put together. Who knows if anything will come of it, but it has certainly kept me busy during my current spell of unemployment. And I've felt so creative lately, which I am learning to accept in whatever form it takes these days.

So here's one of the latest projects, Bargello Pillows!

I'm seriously obsessed with this form of needlepoint, "Bargello". It's been around since the 17th century apparently, but I had never really paid any attention to it until I saw these gorgeous pillows at Jonathan Adler. Then I found an AMAZING cache of old but pristine Persian wool at a local craft store (more on that later) and I finally tried doing a Bargello pattern. And then another...and now another...

it's seriously addictive, I'm telling you. It does use a lot of yarn, though, so I'm quickly running through my supplies. Looks like I'll have to head over to the craft store and dig through their stock again soon!