You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2009.
I had a left-over strip of this great fabric in my stash and really wanted to wear it somehow. Looking at the head band tutorials online, I wasn’t too thrilled with the rectangular shape most seemed to use. I wanted a slightly curved shape. Measuring against my favourite bandana to wear, I decided the length (Luckily, my scrap was just long enough!) and the desired width at the crown. Working from the centre width, I gradually curved down to the ties. I made it last night but it was too dark to photograph. When I came back from rowing, the sun was shining so I popped it on for a photograph. So please excuse my post-work out hair!
Browsing on flickr between the inauguration and parade, I came across hundreds of crafty things related to our new president. On Ravelry alone, there are 50 pages of projects. I really liked these cookies- don’t they look delicious?
I think it’s so neat and telling perhaps of the main age demographic now moving the country, that our president has a logo. A Logo. I have nothing profound to say about that at the moment, my mind is too full of thoughts on nations, nation-ness, and national symbols. I do hope this is one symbol that retains it’s original message throughout the next few years, and when evaluated in several decades.
What do you think of the saliency of logos and images in our world? What about the formation of new images in politics?
I made this key fob for a friend’s 30th birthday. She’s a big fan of “Napoleon Dynamite” and that was her party’s theme, so I whipped this up. When I say “whipped”, I mean it almost whipped me. The letters were harder to embroider (using the machine’s button hole function) than I had expected and I had to rip several tricky letters out a few times (the Os and the Rs!), though I got better as I went along.
I made it to the same specifications as the frog key fob.
We’ve been continuing to de-clutter, including larger items. Our old cordless now only holds a charge for around 45 minutes which wasn’t good enough considering my family lives across the ocean and we catch up using longer blab sessions. It lived in the closet for about a month. While it was on our list of things to get rid of, charity shops here tend to be wary of electronics and I wasn’t sure about posting something with a half-life on freecycle. Luckily, a WANTED email came through and I was able to specify the charge it holds and a man happily took it off our hands. We also gladly gave away a learner’s aucoustic guitar requested on freecycle, and sent a disused (and in need of repair) bike back to recyke-a-bike. If you have a bike you no longer use, look for a local bike re-use scheme. It somehow feels better to donate a bike to a place that will fix it up in order to sell, than to a charity shop which will probably struggle to sell it.
I tried another batch of homemade laundry detergent using this tutorial/recipe. After the dry detergent didn’t work for our clothing/machine/regular cycle, I took a break from trying for a while. Around two weeks ago, I decided to whip up a batch of the liquid detergent and it works perfectly! Apparently, the type of water you have in your area, the individual machine cycles and some other things (can’t remember what!) can affect the outcome, so if one doesn’t work very well, try another. We have been using it constantly since then and the clothes come out of the machine smelling like fresh air! I only made about 1/6 of the amount when I made it due to space issues, but I am going to find a large tub very soon because we’re definitely switching.
I’ve been sewing a lot on my rare free time and am beginning to miss crocheting. I’ve been drawn to sewing tiny things for the quick results they yield, but definitely will be getting back to the good old yarn and hook very soon.
Here are a few interesting articles on the subject of material scavengers, the editorial responses on poverty and factory work, and a brief business article on what retailers will be doing to deal with decreased spending. The last article suggests that stores will be carrying less stock- including less colour or style variety in clothing. Perhaps after a few (“fashion”) seasons the monotony of being a cookie-cutter consumer will wear on shoppers and thrifting and creating clothing will become standard style protocol.
My oldest niece turns 13 today…I can’t believe the time has flown so quickly by and now she’s a teenager!
I wanted to make her something small and cute to wear. I first thought of making her this scarf but thought these are closer to her sporty style. As soon as I had that thought, I knew just the yarn to use! She’s always liked purple and I had this is my stash waiting for some love.
Since I’m in another country at the moment, I had to guess the size of her arm and wrist and cast-on about 3/4 of width I had when I made these for myself.
I wish I could be there to hand them to her, but that’s the life of a foreign aunt…(or, as my mom says, “Uncle Traveling Matt” )!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE!
I just came across this article about a long-running Sewing and Crafts program in NYC. It is generally a heartwarming story of dedication…But I see it as a call to continue to teach people crafting and frugal skills.
Just before the winter holidays, some friends and I gathered for a craft day- to help one friend sew curtains, while we crocheted, knit socks, or hemmed jeans. For some reason, seeing my friends ‘bust out’ skills that I didn’t know they had made me incredibly proud. It reminded me to continue to teach whatever skills I can share, to whoever will learn.
I hope that in this time when everyone is fretting about the economy and seemingly endless articles run in the newspapers and magazines about revitalising what we already own, that we can shift our consumption culture back to appreciating quality and repair over disposable thrills.
