Look what I made!

Aaaaaaarghdarn

2010-05-08T19:16:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if anyone is really following this page anymore, I've really let it go.

At any rate, I'm pretty much just posting this picture here so I can post it on Ravelry to see if someone can help me out. I'm hoping it won't turn out a complete disaster.

Time marches on

2009-06-28T19:57:00.000-07:00

...or should I say scurries? Yeesh. Updating my blog has kind of fallen by the wayside lately.

I did some Shrinky Dinks a couple weeks ago and was happy that there was less distorting this time.

I stayed up last night watching all the Micheal Jackson videos on VH1 and making a pair of earrings out of a couple of the luchador masks. I'm going to use the rest for a charm bracelet. (Anyone who's a fan of the "Middleman" comics would note that I used luchador masks from "The Second Volume Inevitability" as inspiration. Sensei Ping, practitioner of the Wu-Han Thumb of Death, is the one in the center.) I'll put the finshed product up in a little while, hopefully, if I remember.

Meet Delilah

2009-02-06T22:09:00.001-08:00

It's been too busy around here to work on anything much, so I was looking around for something post-worthy when I came across Delilah.

My husband christined this gal "Delilah Oblongata" and the name has stuck. I actually did not make her myself, although I did redress her. She was a flea-market purchase several years ago. She was in a basket with the really cheap stuff underneath a booth that smelled of a decade's worth of cigarettes and mildew (and this was an outdoor flea market, so that's saying something.) I passed her by twice before finally picking her up for a couple of bucks at the end of the day.

She was probably the oddest flea market buy that I've had in a while, and I think I ended up buying her because she's a bit mysterious. I can't tell who might have made her. Was it a child learning to sew? Was she some kind of home ec project? The materials she's made out of are definitely not "old"--she seems to be made out of some kind of polyester fabric and has acrylic yarn for hair. I have no idea what she's stuffed with and probably don't want to find out. And her face is so cute but odd--I wonder of her maker used a pattern or not.

She was wearing a funky, somewhat misshapen dress that seemed to be made out of a pillowcase. Knowing that historical accuracy and resale value weren't things that Delilah would need to be concerned with, I threw out the pillowcase dress and made her a new one. I was wanting to learn how to do smocking. This was after soaking her heavily in FeBreeze, of course.

Delilah now smells just fine and sits in a basket at the end of the bed with some of the other dolls. She remains as inscrutable as ever, and my husband has been thinking of ways of using her as a character in one of his future comics.

New Christmas stuff

2009-01-20T19:30:00.001-08:00

Now that the dust has settled from Christmas I can finally get around to posting a few things.

Ann Estelle here was a present from Andy. She arrived nude--yes, my husband got me a naked doll for Christmas--but the fun thing about her is that she's just about the same size as Bleuette. I've found that the patterns in my Bleuette books will work for her without a lot of adjustment. This outfit is a summer dress from 1919. The embroidered scallops took me forever, so I think I'm going to stick with something simpler for my next one.

Ginny also got a new during one of my last weekends off. For some unknown reason, the pattern has you clipping, turning, and hemming the itty-bitty edges around the sleeves and the neckline. I now know better and will be making facings from now on.

It's finally done!

2008-11-10T20:13:00.000-08:00

I don't think my sister really reads this page, so I think I can get away with posting pictures of the baby blanket I finished for my niece before I give it to her. Since she had a girl, I knew she'd be getting piles of pink stuff--I think I also started working on this before she knew what kind of baby she'd be having--so I went with Mental Stimulation Colors for something different. Don't know about you, but I feel like I gain a couple of IQ points just by staring at it for a while.

Will post something here soon, I promise...

2008-11-03T20:01:00.000-08:00

Yargh! I felt the need to post something here since I haven't done it in such a long time. Work has been nuts but I have had time to finish a couple things, just not time to take pictures and get them uploaded. I have signed up for the free clip art sampler from Dover Books--I'd recommend that to everyone--it's really fun.

At any rate, I'm also feeling like a Bad Citizen because with election day being tomorrow, I still have no idea who I'm voting for in some of the "other" races. President and governor I think I have figured out, but I haven't a clue about the guys running for representatives and school board and such. I always feel like sort of a cheater moving to a new state just before an election--I really haven't lived here long enough to know what's going on with the local politics or what issues are a big deal around here. Are the schools crappy? Is there a major source of employment that's getting run out of town for some reason? Will there be rioting in the streets tomorrow? I barely have time to pick up a local paper, so I don't know.

But anyway, I'm mainly looking forward to tomorrow so that all this crud can finally be over with for a bit. I won't say who I'm voting for, but can I just mention some of the stuff that I wish would just go away after the election?

1) Is anyone else tired of Christianity being treated like a "base"? Like how a candidate has to throw around the right amount of evangelical-sounding buzzwords to win people over? I'm to the point where having a professed atheist run for office would be almost refreshing--at least I'd know he was probably being sincere about something.

2) The idea that there are only certain Americans that are "real" Americans.

3) The idea that just because some nimrod can write about their opinion on the Internet, anybody else should give a hoot what they think. (Sorry, guess I'll have to include myself in that one.) (But I should mention that this goes double for celebrities.)

4) For the last time, it's pronounced NOO-KLEE-AR, mmmkay?

That's probably enough. It doesn't exactly help that Fox News is always on in the doctors' lounge when I go to get lunch.

In the end, I just hope everyone votes for who they're going to vote for, and doesn't get jerky about it. I think that's the best we all can hope for.

Sunday go-to-meetin' purse

2008-09-07T20:36:00.000-07:00

Just one last thing before I go to bed. This is a box purse that I decorated around a year ago. The images came from some postcards that I found at a hippy store in Kalamazoo when I was living there. I made color copies, stuck them on, and went over everything with several coats of Mod Podge.

I never carried this around very much because I originally used one of those "make your own" beaded purse handle kits on it. I took apart a bunch of those wooden "power bead" bracelets that everyone used to have and used those for the handle. It looked very cool, but I found out that if you carry a beaded purse handle over your arm, your arm hair gets stuck between the beads and gets ripped out. I don't have very hairy arms, but this happened anyway. Not very comfortable. I replaced it with the bamboo handle, and it's much more usable now.

I still see beaded purse handles in a lot of the craft stores. They do look cute, but consider yourself warned.

Tote bag for summer

2008-09-07T19:21:00.000-07:00

So, now that it's fall, I'll probably need to switch to a different tote. I have to use a bigger one for work as it is. The pattern came from here.

One thing I've found out about Fort Wayne is that it's the national headquarters of Vera Bradley, who is responsible for those garish quilted bags that everyone (who happens to be female and over thirty) seems to be carrying around. (If there are Vera Bradley fans that read my blog, please forgive me. But the overall ubiquity of those things has kind of become annoying. I mean really, these things are to Midwestern women what Che Guevara T-shirts are to hipster college kids. There's nothing wrong with getting yourself a new bag.)

All the more reason, I think, to make my own bag! I'm already going through the remnant pile at JoAnn's to pick out fabric for the next one.

Grandma's knitting bag

2008-09-02T15:08:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post this picture for a while and have finally gotten around to it. My grandma passed away about two years ago, a couple of months before Ian was born. Grandpa was giving away some of her things last year, and I asked for all of her knitting stuff.

My grandma taught me how to knit when I was a kid. In fact, for Christmas when I was around ten years old she and my mom got me my first pair of knitting needles (pink) and some yarn (also pink). My first project was to be a scarf to match my new winter coat. I knit row after row of stockinette, creating a weird-looking scarf that curled up along the sides because I didn't know that stockinette does that if you don't make some kind of edge. In the end I lost interest in making the scarf and outgrew the pink coat that matched the yarn, so I ripped it out and used the yarn for something else. I learned how to crochet, instead, because it seemed easier, although I did learn how to knit dishcloths.

Grandma, on the other hand, was very productive although she didn't knit very much as she got older. The little knitting bag in the picture always sat beside her chair in front of the TV and she would knit while watching the "soaps". I remember her making a lot of dishcloths, of course, as well as mittens for all of us kids. She also made matching cardigans for my sister and I.

Along with the bag, I ended up with an assortment of needles and stitch holders and books of knitting and crochet patterns. What was truly great, though, is among everything else there was a skein of bright green yarn and one partially completed mitten. She'd probably been working on a pair of mittens for one of my sisters and then put it away before getting around to the other one.

In the picture is also her pattern for making mittens. It's printed up on a dot-matrix printer, probably given to her by a friend. What I found interesting was the fact that she'd been making two-needle mittens all this time and I never realized it. When I took up knitting again, I found a mitten pattern online that required four needles. I figured it out but found it odd at the same time, because I never saw my grandma work with four needles but it didn't occur to me that there was another way of making mittens.

Anyway, it looks like that mitten will fit Ian in another year or two, and I'm planning to make a mate for it by then. In the meantime, I thought I'd also share the mitten pattern. I'm pretty much writing this down verbatim from the pattern I have and I have yet to actually try to complete it, so be forewarned that it might not be the clearest instructions you've ever read.

Grandma's Two-needle Mittens

Infants 1 to 3, with child's 4 to 8 in parentheses.

4 oz. skein will make 2 pair

Size 8 needles

(No yarn type mentioned, but the green yarn looks to be around worsted weight.)

Gauge: 4 1/2 stitches to 1"; 6 rows to 1"

Starting at cuff, cast on 24 stitches. Work in ribbing (K2P2) for 12 (20) rows. Knit across next row (for larger size increase 4 stitches evenly this row.)

Purl 1 row

Knit 1 row

Purl 1 row

Next row, start increases for thumb as follows: Knit 11 (13), place marker on needle, increase 1 stitch in each of the next two stitches, place a marker on needle, 4 stitches between markers, knit to end of row.

Purl 1 row

Continue in stockinette stitch, increasing 1 stitch after first marker and before last marker, on knit row only, until there are 10 (12) stitches between markers, knit to end of row.

Next row, purl 12 (14) and slip these onto a stitch holder or large safety pin, purl next 8 (10) stitches of thumb, slip remaining 12 (14) stitches onto a second stitch holder.
Working on thumb stitches only, work in stockinette stitch for 5 (7) more rows, increasing 1 stitch on first row of size 1-3 only.

Next row knit 2 together across row.

Break off yarn leaving 6" for finishing. Draw yarn through remaining stitches of thumb and fasten off. Sew seam of thumb.

Attach yarn at beginning of second stitch holder on wrong side of work and purl to end of row.

Next row knit across 12 (14) stitches from the first stitch holder, 24 (28) stitches on needle.

Continue in stockinette stitch for 12 (16) more rows (or desired length).

Start decreases as follows: row 1--*knit 2 stitches together, knit 2, repeat from * across
row 2--purl
Row 3--*knit 2 together, knit 1, repeat from * across
Row 4-- purl 2 together across

Break yarn leaving 12" for finishing. Draw yarn through remaining stitches and fasten off. Sew side seam.

Other stuff

2008-08-15T08:26:00.001-07:00

I'm just posting this picture really quickly. This one shows my other recent jewelry-making endeavors. I found those blue glass beads on the clearance rack at Michael's. The earrings are made of washers linked together--the idea came from the "Hardwear" book.

New PJs for Ginny

2008-08-14T19:02:00.000-07:00

This is another project that I finished several months ago. The pajama pattern was from the Simplicity package that I got here. I love making doll clothes, despite the fussiness. You can finish an outfit in a day or two, you can usually make a whole outfit with a 99-cent fat quarter, and if it doesn't fit quite right they don't really mind. I haven't figured out where to have the sewing machine set up yet, so I haven't done much sewing lately. I'm really itching to make a little dress.

On another note, I got a Barnes & Noble gift card for my birthday recently and spent some of it on this. Kit is probably my second-favorite of the American Girl dolls (if I didn't have a Samantha doll already I would really want Kit, I think.) The whole "design your own paper doll outfits" seemed like fun. I might post a couple of the better ones as I finish them.

"Pure love" necklace

2008-08-08T07:58:00.000-07:00

The move is finally over with although the settling is going to take a while. It's hard to believe the amount of stuff we've accumulated over the past couple of years. I'm still trying to figure out where the collection of craft supplies that I "could totally find a use for!" are going to go.

I also have a shiny new cable modem that came with the new apartment, so posting won't be such an ordeal in the future.

Here's a leftover picture of the other pendant that I made last month. It was a good way to use up some of my bead collection.

The necklace that watches you

2008-07-30T19:19:00.000-07:00

I'll admit that I'm back to a monthly-updating schedule, but I've got a good reason--really! I'm in the process of moving and frantically trying to pack. I've only really had a chance to add stuff to my list of links, but that's about it.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, my husband and I got out our supply of Sculpy and had a Sculpy night. Here's one of the products of that.

Okay, so maybe some of you folks who were teenagers in the 90's may remember eye jewelry. These were rings or pendants that had a fairly realistic glass eye stuck on them. Hot Topic was chock full of them back in the day. When I was fifteen or so, I thought eye pendants were supremely cool and wanted one really badly. For whatever reason, wearing a little glass eye around your neck seemed to say "I'm terribly exotic and mysterious, and I love to mess with your mind". Never mind the fact that all the other exotic and mysterious kids shopped at the same Hot Topic and bought the same necklace.

So I made a necklace for my inner alternateen--the "eye" came from one of my Dover clip art books and was stuck underneath a clear glass plop embedded in Sculpy. The eye doesn't jump right out at you, making it less creepy than the Hot Topic version. I wish it photographed better.

Baby fever

2008-06-05T19:42:00.000-07:00

I've had a bit too much going on lately to post very much, and the fact that it takes forever to upload a picture doesn't help (@#$%^! dial-up!) That, and what keeps happening to my pictures during the uploading process? They look really detailed when I look at them on the photo editor, but when I upload them here they look like mush.

At any rate, I finally have an item that I've finished. These are some booties and a bonnet that I made for one of the other fellows and his wife. They're expecting a girl in late July. Raed seemed so tickled about having a girl that I wanted to make something very girly for the baby. I picked this pattern out of the "Star Baby Book" that I inheirited from my grandma. Of course, after I got started on this I realized that Raed and his wife are moving and this baby will be born in Arkansas in the middle of the summer--chances are these might not get worn that much.

My sister's baby is due in late July, so the next big task is going to be finishing the blanket and sweater that I've been working on.

Summer dress for Gene

2008-03-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

I don't have much to write now because I've been so busy. I have a presentation to do next weekend, and a research poster to do the week after that. I'm not working on much right now, except for a pair of crochet baby booties which I'll post pictures of when I'm finished. My fellow fellow (!) (actually his wife) is expecting a girl this summer, just before my sister is. I don't have time for a Big Project for them, but I thought some booties from one of the many crochet books I inheirited from my grandma might whip up quickly.

This is an outfit I made for Gene a couple years ago. This is from one of the patterns that Vogue was doing a few years ago, based on their old patterns from the 40's. The assembly was incredibly fussy, but I was pretty happy with how it turned out. The skirt is removable and she has shorts on underneath. I made matching earrings out of plastic-headed straight pins that I cut short with wire cutters. The pattern came with instructions for a matching cartwheel hat--I'll get around to that eventually. I also think she needs a beach bag of some sort, once I figure out what it should look like.

Dolls on the brain

2008-03-19T20:11:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, I hadn't really thought about my doll collection much lately. I'd been too busy to think about it that much, I guess. I'd mainly been knitting and making stuff for Ian--stuffed toys and things like that.

Well, things started with a trip to JoAnn's a couple weeks ago. I wanted to make an apron and was looking for a pattern. The Simplicity patterns were on sale (5 for $5), I found a couple of apron patterns that I liked but I needed to pick out three more patterns for the sale. I haven't had a lot of luck with sewing clothes for myself, so I was looking for something smaller and easily completed, like a bag or a hat, and then I found this...

I was pretty sucked in at that point. What I've realized is, I'm totally addicted to dolls with wardrobes. Every doll-collecting person seems to have their "thing", the thing that they look for in a doll, maybe realism or personality or resale value or whatever. I love dolls with lots of clothes.

Well, I thought this doll wardrobe pattern was too cute to go without (especially the little pajamas on the right). I was contemplating resizing them for one of the dolls I have already, since I don't have an 8" doll like the ones in the pattern. Then I got the idea to look for cheap 8" doll to redress.

I found a doll store online that was having a closeout on Ginnys and picked up this little gal for a really good price:

Personally, with all that red hair I think she looks a bit like Kate Pierson from the B-52's. Of course, with all that done I now have a couple of presentations to prepare and I'll be going back on the consult service at the end of the month. So it looks like no sewing for me for a little while. Oh well.

In the meantime, I also found a website with about the biggest collection of Bleuette patterns I've ever seen. I've downloaded a whole bunch of them to use later. I'll never be able to afford an antique Bleuette, much less some of the reproductions out there, but looking at all the clothing patterns is kind of like doll heroin.

Half-a**ed post for now--

2008-03-03T07:21:00.000-08:00

Argh, I know, it's been almost two months before I've posted anything. Plenty of stuff has been going on but I've been accomplishing very little.

I was pretty geeked when I found this at the mall last week and picked it up for Hubby's birthday. I hadn't seen it in stores and was beginning to think I'd have to order it. We watched a bunch of episodes last night. Haven't watched any with Ian yet--we're not complete anti-TV nuts with him, but 2 years old seems a bit young for extended TV watching in my opinion. I'm hoping he'll like these when he's older. I was watching "The Soldier and Death" last night and imagining a future conversation with my son--

"Did you know, when I was a little girl and about your age, there were no DV-Rs? Or DVD players? Well, yes, VCRs were invented back then but only rich people had them. Anyway, if there was a good show on TV you had to make sure you went to the bathroom before it started. Then you'd watch the show, the show would end, and that was it. If you were lucky, it would be on next week. But if you weren't lucky, it went off the air and you never saw it again. Reruns on TNT? Well, no, honey, we didn't have cable back then. Yes, cable was invented but only rich people had it.

Anyway, because most people didn't have cable, there were only three stations to watch, but they all had really great shows for kids back then. They were usually on after dinner so the whole family could watch them together. We got to see stuff like "The Hobbit" and "Watership Down" (although that one gave me nightmares--mainly the part about the rabbits getting buried underground--I can tell you about that later.) And there was also this show. Back then, no one knew how to use computers to make talking animals and things like that--they had to do it all with puppets. Isn't that cool? Now let's watch one, okay?"

Well, enough rambling. But seriously, though, it really hit me that this show used to be on just regular TV--not Sci-Fi channel or Disney channel or anything like that. The same network TV that's full of nothing but reality shows and 15 different versions of "CSI" right now. And forget about kids' programming. Maybe my opinion is skewed because everyone always thinks that stuff from their childhood was perfect, but kids' shows these days are really lame. None of the stations show after-school cartoons, and the Saturday morning cartoons pretty much boil down to two networks--the Fox station carries all the various iterations of "Pokemon", and the NBC affiliate is just Hanna Montana/Mickey Mouse club/focus group "tween" stuff. Ugh. Then there's all the "educational" stuff--would you believe my pediatrician was telling my husband how good "Dora the Explorer" is for little kids? Good heavens, I hate that show--how is watching a show more "interactive" than actually reading to your kid and talking to them once in a while? I'm not really one to talk since most of the cartoons I really loved as a kid were glorified toy ads ("Jem", anyone?), but still, I have a low opinion of most of the stuff that's on now. I'm kind of glad Ian's still little enough to have few opinions about TV (we can't mess with "This Old House").

It's a robot

2008-02-04T19:23:00.000-08:00

As planned, I finished a robot for Ian's birthday this week, to accompany Spaceboy. It was fun going through my fabric scraps to put together all of the robot parts. I found the camo fabric and decided that at least something on him had to be camoflage and just kind of went from there.

Notice that I set his fuel gauge to "full", because it's a good idea to top off your robot when the weather gets cold.

Shrinky fun

2008-01-07T19:56:00.000-08:00

Things are finally getting back to relative normality. Christmas was fun for all. Major presents for me were season one of "Carnivale" on DVD and a package of every color of Sharpie. Before all the Christmas stuff started, I was messing around with shrinky-dinks. I don't remember these much from when I was a kid--I vaguely remember them being around but I don't remember if any of my friends were "into" them. Anyway, these are a few that I did using a 1920's clip art book. I'm still trying to figure out how to cut down on some of the distortion.

Spaceboy blasts off!

2007-12-24T11:32:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

I finished Spaceboy (using the pattern from WeeWonderfuls) for Ian just in time for Christmas. My original plan was to make both Spaceboy and Robot, but it looks more like Robot may have to join his friend in couple of months when Ian's birthday comes around.

Dishcloth shawl

2007-12-10T19:41:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of a recently-completed (read: a few months ago) project. I had about six skeins of Wool-Ease Chunky and I was planning on making this circular cape/poncho thing that I saw on Knitty (the pattern is right here.) I actually had the thing nearly completed, right up to making the buttonholes, and then realized that this particular garment gave me the same weird, blobby, single-boobed look that a lot of mock-turtleneck shirts tend to do. So, I ripped the whole thing out and made a very basic shawl. As Ian is demonstrating, it's perfect for slouching around in while you watch Saturday morning cartoons.

The pattern is the same one that I use for making dishcloths, you just stop when you get to a triangle instead of decreasing to make a square.

Here's the general idea (wow, my first pattern!--not that I can take much credit, it's just a dishcloth.) I used Wool-Ease Chunky and size 13 needles (you'll need circular needles because this shawl gets big in a hurry.)

Row 1: Cast on 4 stitches
Row 2 (and each row thereafter): K2, yarn over, knit to the end of the row

Keep going until the shawl is a size you like, then bind off. Add some fringe if you like.

Little stocking hat--for not-so-little head

2007-12-05T19:29:00.000-08:00

We finally had our first big snowfall of the year (or a LEVEL 2 SNOW EMERGENCY as the local news was calling it--horrors!) We got Ian all bundled up to go play in the snow and I have some pictures here of him modeling the hat I made for him last winter. (I have a picture of it in progress here.) Thankfully, I made it stretchy enough that it still fits, although I doubt it'll work next winter at the rate his melon is growing. I might have to take the ear flaps off or something. The ribbing still ended up with a bit of a twist to it as well, which I can't figure out.

Wew!

2007-12-04T20:24:00.000-08:00

Well, folks, as you can probably guess from my lack of postings, it's been a pretty hectic few months. Many many consults every day. It's also hitting me that I'm halfway through this fellowship thing and that in the near future, I'm going to be on my own and I'll be the one making all the decisions. No more letting the attending figure it out!

I have some partially finished projects, nothing really worth photographing right now. I did want to put up a picture of the purse I found in an antique shop last month. I fell in love with it because it reminded me of a Barbie purse. I was also amazed that it's still in such good shape--it looks like the inside of the flap is lined with vinyl of some sort and it's not cracked at all. They just don't make bags like they used to, do they?

Scroungin' in the lab

2007-09-30T18:24:00.000-07:00

Where I work, each specialty has their own floor in an older wing of the hospital where the attendings' offices are located and things like that. The Infectious Disease department kind of got the short end of the stick in terms of locations since it's located on the top floor of the building--because of this we seem to be the last to get any heat in the winter time and the last to get air conditioning in the summer. On the upside, though, the department was very generous with the space devoted to the fellows' office--we each get our very own cubicle and we have a little table to eat lunch at.

As I found out, our floor also is home to several laboratories that have been sitting unused since the fancy new research building opened up down the road. A few months back, one of the labs decided to unload all of their old glassware while they were in the process of moving. I ended up taking home a few bags of this stuff--these old glass test tubes are the best for keeping beads and such in. I spent this weekend just sorting through my jewelry-making stuff and putting it into test tubes.

Oh, by the way, I found the super-closeup function on the digital camera! No more fuzzy pictures! Yeah!

Code of the Boys

2007-08-31T08:17:00.000-07:00

I nearly snorted my coffee when I saw this on the "Find of the Day" for today.

Thinking about fall

2007-08-22T18:49:00.000-07:00

I flew up north for a job interview lask weekend, and I must've spent almost as much time deciding on what project to do on the plane as I did deciding on what to wear. The guy sitting next to me on the flight home was pretty amazed that I was allowed to bring knitting needles aboard, but at least right now security's more worried about your shoes or the liquid stuff in your carry-on.

I know it's cliche, but I'm kind of tired of all the ninety-degree weather. I want to start planning for cold weather, so I'm actually wanting to work on cold-weather things right now. This is the beginning of an Aran sweater for Ian. Incidentally, one of the things to watch out for when knitting something like this on a plane is the looks you get from your fellow travelers when you burst forth with a stream of obscenities when several rows have to be ripped out after making one of the cables go the wrong way.

Fun this weekend

2007-08-14T18:53:00.000-07:00

I had the chance to find some antique stores this past weekend. It's so sad--I've been living here for over a year and I still haven't seen very much of the area except around where I work and my home. Anyway, I did find a place with some used books and a big stack of old knitting and crochet books. I had to pick this one out because of one of the projects...

How cute are these little guys? They look kind of angry on the cover, though. They look like they'll be ready to bust some heads as soon as they get out of that box.

Fabric blocks

2007-07-28T19:34:00.000-07:00

I worked on these while I was still pregnant for Ian. The fabric is this bright green velour stuff that I had laying around, and I decorated them with bits of other fabric scraps. I didn't really use a pattern, although the idea was in a sewing book from the 50's that I found; in that version they used felt. I cut out squares, trimmed the edges with pinking shears, sewed them up and stuffed them. The one on the bottom left contains an empty film canister with beads inside so it rattles. The bottom right one had jingle bells in the middle. The one on the top looks floppy because I tried stuffing it with a couple of grocery bags to that it'll crinkle. It didn't turn out as crinkly as I wanted, so I think I may just re-stuff it.

Nifty Barbie suit

2007-07-28T18:53:00.000-07:00

Barbie has been having her wardrobe expanded after I checked out "Knits for Barbie" from the library. I am totally addicted to this book, although I haven't brought myself to actually buy it yet. I love how a lot of the patterns look like "real" clothes in miniature. I also love the fact that I can usually finish a whole project in a weekend, after getting used to using little needles. This outfit calls for size 2's, which really isn't too bad.

I used Knit-Cro-Sheen in two different colors for this one, instead of the $10/skein sock yarn that the pattern called for.

Incidentally, if anyone knows how I can get my digital pictures to come out sharper, I'd love to hear it. I've tried zooming in and out and experimenting with different lighting when taking pictures of my dolls and they always seem to come out fuzzy.

Tar-jay shirt upgrade

2007-07-19T18:32:00.000-07:00

As most of the folks who know me will attest, I am a thrifty person. (I almost wrote "cheap" but that didn't sound so good.) I'm probably almost thrifty to a fault. I really have no sense of style at all because my urge to save money usually trumps the urge to buy anything stylish.

Case in point was this shirt that I got at Target last week. Their polo shirts were on sale to begin with, but there were also just GOBS of these brown shirts that were on clearance on top of that. Apparently, the plain toilet-water brown shirts were not big sellers--I can't imagine why!

I ended up doing an embroidered thing on it to spiff it up a little. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The design is from the Sublime Stitching book.

Back on research

2007-07-10T18:31:00.000-07:00

I'm back to doing research in the lab this month after a couple months plus an extra week of consults. It couldn't have come any sooner, because I've noticed myself becoming downright surly when answering my pages. It doesn't help that I was on consults during the first week of July, when all of the brand-new residents start. Just for an example, here's the last exchange that I had:

Resident: Um, are you following Mr. X?

Me: Yes I am, what's the trouble?

Resident: Um, well, you guys wanted him on nafcillin and they're having a hard time getting an IV, and he can't get a PICC line until after the weekend and we were trying to send him home...

Me: Okay, this is the same Mr. X that had a staph in three different sets of blood cultures and a vegetation on his mitral valve?

Resident: Um, yeah?

Me: And you want to know if there's some kind of magical antibiotic pill that will treat his staph endocarditis even better than IV nafcillin that I just neglected to tell you about?

Resident: (long pause) Well, um, yes?

Anyway, it's high time to spend some quiet time in the lab.

I don't really have any finished projects to post, but plenty that are in progress. I went to Target and got a polo shirt on clearance that I'm working on embroidering. I've also got a purse that I'm crocheting using a vintage pattern-that one's taking a lot longer than I expected.

Our apartment complex also had a garage sale a couple weeks ago and I picked up this tablecloth--

I'm still trying to decide what to do with it. I'm thinking maybe a skirt, depending on how see-through it ends up being. I was also thinking maybe an apron.

The last day I was on consults I also went around and changed the dolls' clothes. This is probably the hobby that I'm least likely to tell anybody at work about. It could always be worse--at least I don't refer to any of them as my children or drive them around in the car with me. Anyway, I thought I'd post this one. This is a reproduction of the "Solo In the Spotlight" Barbie that I picked up for $10 at Allegan (mint in box except for the smell). After Febreezing her well to get rid of the "Smell of Allegan" (usually a mix of elephant ears and cigarette smoke), I got to work making a wardrobe for her. Simplicity has a few patterns that are reprints of Barbie patterns from the 50's, so it's been fun to try to make some authentic-looking outfits. I've got a couple more that I made a while ago, so I might post those later.

Well, that's probably more than enough for now. Hopefully, it'll make up for several months of irregular posting!

Get back to work!

2007-06-11T18:52:00.000-07:00

I'm supposed to be working on a presentation for tomorrow, but I am seriously so burnt out I don't feel like doing anything. On top of doing consults, I've had to do a #$%&*-ing presentation or journal club or something about every other day. Aaaaaaaaargh, it's way too early in the month to be so tired of everything.

Because I haven't had time to work on anything fun at all, I'm posting a picture of the bracelet I finished a couple months ago. The pattern is "Maryella" from the Knitty site. It looks cute now but it took me FOREVER to finish. Probably the hardest part was figuring out how to get those tiny little beads onto the thread, never mind knitting with size OOOO needles!

Cute little mod dress

2007-05-29T19:09:00.000-07:00

I don't have much to say today, just that there have been lots of frustrations to go around.

So to cheer things up, here's Daisy Field in the new dress that I made for her. Isn't she cute?

Long time no write

2007-05-15T18:38:00.000-07:00

Wow. It feels like the last few months just went by without me even noticing. The whole winter could probably be boiled down to a succession of viral infections--I guess you can't really work in infectious diseases without catching something. I had pinkeye for about a week, too, which was all kinds of fun.

I have a stack of hankies that I embroidered so I don't mix them up with my husbands. I'm sure there are infection control issues that surround carrying around a snot-filled hankie at the hospital, but if it wasn't for these I'd be stuck using my sleeve.

So, the moral of the story is you're probably better off just not touching your doctor.

My guilty pleasure

2007-02-11T18:56:00.000-08:00

Work has been pretty nuts. I'm running around doing new consults and trying to catch up with consults that I already did. I had a couple of months off for research and spent most of it parked in front of my computer writing. Great for thinking about stuff, in some ways not so great for remembering practical things, like what to do with patients. I think I spent the better part of the first couple of days just trying to get used to things again, but it's starting to come back.

While I'm rambling, I'm going to confess to a guilty little habit that I've developed. I've become hooked on the John Tesh radio show. If you haven't heard it, it's not a radio show of John Tesh's music (thank goodness). It's usually on an easy-listening station in the evening and it consists of the usual light-rock fare interspersed with John offering little bits of advice. These are usually things like the cleanest way to store your toothbrush (upright, next to the sink--who knew?) or how to make a good first impression at a job interview (don't insult the boss' secretary). All of his information also comes from such venerable sources as Redbook magazine. I don't know why I like the show so much. Is it because it's just so endearing in its lameness? I first heard it when I was on call in the ICU a couple years ago--one of the nurses' stations had it on. I think I kind of associate the show with the good aspects of being on call as a resident--don't get me wrong, there were very few good aspects. On the other hand, there was usually a brief period after a patient was admitted to the ICU when they were all stabilized and all the panic was over and all that there was left to do was just sit at the nurses' station and write the admission orders. For some reason, I kind of associate the John Tesh show with that.

Anyway, enough rambling! I guess I'll include a link to the show, too.

Cuteness!

2007-01-30T20:17:00.000-08:00

I just discovered Needlecrafter.com. She has a library of vintage embroidery patterns that you can download and trace. I was getting so many ideas for things to make but, sadly, consult month starts in a couple of days and there won't be much crafting going on then.

Robert Burns' birthday and other things

2007-01-25T20:19:00.000-08:00

I got a call from my English major sister tonight and she told me that today is Robert Burns' birthday. In honor of this, she and a bunch of her friends were planning to go out and party. Only a bunch of English majors would go out and raise hell for Burns' birthday, but then college students in general don't need much of an excuse. I remember hearing that this is pretty much a national holiday in Scotland. More about Robert Burns is on Writer's Almanac for today.

The other big thing this week was the arrival of my order from Amazon. I've been eyeing "Bleuette: The Doll and Her Wardrobe" by Linda Hillaker (sp?) for a while but I waited until I got a gift card for Christmas. I've seen stuff in doll magazines about Bleuette before--basically, she's a doll that was sold in France to promote magazine subscriptions from the turn of the century up until the 1950's. She was associated with a magazine for girls and the magazine printed patterns for clothes that you could make for the doll. Real vintage Bleuettes are outrageously expensive and the reproductions that some people make are not much better, but the outfits are fun to look at for ideas and the patterns could be resized for other dolls. This book came with patterns for five different outfits--there's a sailor suit that I might try making in a bigger size for my Samantha doll.

I also finished Ian's little hat. Little did I know when I started how difficult it is to keep a stocking hat on an 11-month-old head! I ended up adding some earflaps and some ties so it at least slows him down a little when he goes to rip it off. I'll post a picture of it as soon as I get one.

The Christmas stuff is coming down

2007-01-15T20:19:00.001-08:00

I spent the weekend taking down the Christmas stuff and packing it all away. Just to prove I actually CAN finish a project once in awhile, I'm posting a couple of the Christmas things I made this year.

I made baby Ian his own stocking. Right next to it you can see a bit of my stocking that my mom made for me. I used that one for a template.

I also decorated our front door wreath. You wouldn't believe what they charge for pre-decorated wreaths at Hobby Lobby. I'm pretty pleased with the way mine turned out, especially since it also jingles!

More unfinished stuff

2007-01-10T18:50:00.000-08:00

I don't have a whole lot to write since I'm trying to concentrate a bit more on work right now. For the sake of posting something, here's what I found in one of my many "unfinished project graveyards". On the left is a "Mason-Dixon" washcloth and on the right is the beginning of a sock from Nancy Bush's "Knitting Vintage Socks". The sock has been kicking around at least since last Christmas. Actually, one of the last times I worked on it was during a break between lectures last year. A friend of mine was sitting next to me, and while at first she remarked how pretty the intricate lace pattern was she also said "Isn't that going to be too small for your foot?" I was also pregnant at the time and my feet were pretty big. So far it does slip over my ankle, but with my luck it'll probably be too small if I ever do finish it.

Vintage bag, part 2

2007-01-07T14:04:00.000-08:00

Okay, well I got a little busy for a few days there and I haven't updated in a while.

I got started on my bag last weekend after making a trip to Kinko's to enlarge the pattern and then JoAnn's to get the materials. I'm hoping this thing turns out--I get pretty mixed results when I stray very far from the instructions.

The dimensions for the bag in the book had it measuring about 14 inches wide across the bottom, which is a bigger purse than I'm used to carrying but I figured that would make it a good size for carrying around a book or a small knitting project. After doing the calculations, I figured that the page would need to be enlarged about 600%.

The original instructions call for felt for the body of the purse and "strong, heavy muslin or drill cloth" for a layer in between the outside and the purse lining. Then they have you cutting out anywhere between 6 to 8 layers of the "interlining" material, basting those pieces together, and then basting them all together with the felt before you sew the whole thing together. I didn't want to buy yards and yards of muslin just to cut out zillions of pattern pieces to sew together so I tried to think of something else to use.

I ended up picking out some burgundy polar fleece, since it looks and behaves kind of like felt, and the thickest iron-on interfacing I could find. It irons on both sides and it's the same stuff that's used to make fabric bowls. I figured that would probably make the bag heavy enough.

Here's a picture of one of the pieces with the interfacing ironed on. This interfacing is really stiff--you kind of have to cut it apart where there will be folds or buttonholes.

Vintage bag

2006-12-29T07:15:00.000-08:00

I found this pattern for a cute little felt bag in "The New Encyclopedia of Modern Sewing" (Wm. Wise & Co., 1946). I think I'm going to try it out--as the book says it's "simple and smart...a natural compliment collector!"

I didn't really want to use felt like the pattern says--the felt that's sold in fabric stores seems a little wimpy and I'm worried about the color bleeding everywhere if I spill something on it. I've been thinking that microsuede might work since the edges don't fray.

All the patterns in the book are done on grids--in the days before Xerox machines you had to enlarge the patterns yourself by drawing a larger grid on paper and then copying the design by hand. I can only imagine how maddening that whole process might have been--it probably would've taken me all day just to get the squares straight. Thank goodness we have Kinko's!

Little stocking hat

2006-12-28T19:27:00.000-08:00

I'm working on a little stocking cap for the baby and I think I'm almost done. It's a little big but his head is growing really fast. I'm not using a pattern; it's just a tube done in a k2-p2 rib. As you can probably see, the stitches all have a leftward slant to them. This always happens to me when I do ribs on dpns and, for the life of me, I have no idea why this happens. I posted a question about this on Knittinghelp and no one else there could really explain why, either. I made a similar hat for my husband and the spiralling doesn't show up when he wears it, so hopefully the same will be true with this one.

Another problem I've had with doing ribs in the round is casting on. While I'm going around the circle I always get mixed up about where I was in the pattern and the ribs come out all funky. I got around that by casting on to regular single-point needles and knitting the first couple of rows "flat" and then knitting onto the dpns once the rib pattern is established. You end up with a little split that needs to be sewn together later but it also helps show you where the beginning of the round is.

Christmas goodies

2006-12-28T19:02:00.000-08:00

Well, I didn't get anything craft-related for Christmas this year that I can show off but my husband did get me an iPod Shuffle. It's just about the cutest little thing and I'm having all kinds of fun loading stuff onto it. As someone who was using a Walkman with casette tapes to go jogging with, finding out that I can load about 20 CDs into something smaller than a belt buckle has totally blown my mind. I also didn't know that you can get them engraved when you order them, which is even more adorable--it makes the whole thing even better than jewelry, I think.

I also got "The Ladies of Grace Adieu" by Susanna Clark and I'm itching to start reading it but I have to finish "The Talisman" (Stephen King) first. "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" was the first book that I had read in a long time that made me really sorry to get to the end. Maybe there'll be a real sequel in a few years?

Of course, the boy got a huge haul for his first Christmas between the two of us and his grandparents. I'm looking forward to next year when he can be more in on the fun with waiting for Santa.

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-24T09:35:00.000-08:00

Archeologists have recently found that oversized sci-fi paperbacks where common building materials in Bible times.

Speaking of Christmas miracles, last night I had an attempted project turn into a Very Important Life Lesson right before my eyes.

If you're wondering what it is, it started out as a smaller version of Suki but the first time I tried felting it I was living in an apartment with a coin-op washer and I didn't have enough quarters to run it through as long as I liked. It ended up sort of felted--kind of fuzzy but the stitches were still defined enough for stuff to poke through. So last night I decided that since I've got my own washer now I can felt the snot out of it like I wanted to before. Good idea until I thought "Hey, the bathroom rug needs to be washed... why don't I throw that in there too?" Brilliant! Now I have a nice little felted bag with bright lime green tudballs all matted into it! I'm going to try trimming the green shreds off with a razor--we'll see how it turns out.

So Life Lesson #1: jeans + felting=good; lime green cotton bath rug + felting=not so smart.

It's not Christmas without the hummus

2006-12-22T20:51:00.000-08:00

My husband and I were looking at the fridge earlier and asking each other "Are you SURE that there's nothing we need from the store tomorrow?" For once, there wasn't! I can actually spend a Saturday without leaving the house. In honor of that, I tried out the new food processor and made some hummus. I can put that out with the party food next to the cheese log!

I had also thought (for a few seconds) that I could do handmade presents for everyone. That's an ambitious thought that pops up every year, but since it doesn't pop up until somewhere around Thanksgiving I don't usually have much time to follow through on that. I did manage to finish a scarf for my sister, though.

A couple of years ago she asked me if I could make her "one of those long gucci scarfs"--unfortunately I didn't get around to it until this year and I don't think anyone's really wearing these super-long scarves anymore. Oh well. I think it'll still look pretty cool once I put some fringe on it. This was also the first time I've used ribbon yarn and I like the way the colors blended together. I used Berrocco Zen and the pattern is from Stitch 'n' Bitch Nation, although I messed up a little with following their directions.

First posting

2006-12-20T18:11:00.000-08:00

Um, wow...

So this is the very first entry in my very first blog and I have no idea what to write. I guess this is really more for checking to see how it looks and I'm not even sure that anyone will be reading this right now.

I've wasted plenty of time reading other people's blogs, mostly about knitting, so lately I've really gotten the urge to start one of my own.

I'm into a lot of different crafts, not just knitting, and I have unfinished projects squirreled away in every room of my house. Just talking about those ought to take up a couple of weeks right there. After that, who knows? Will anyone actually want to read about my unfinished stuff? Only on the Internet, I guess--bringing up that sort of thing with people in "real life" just kind of makes their eyes glaze over.