I'm not dead!

I don't know if I posted about this, but last year I completed 10 craft projects. I had made the goal of one per month, or 12 throughout the whole year.

 

I was really happy with what I accomplished, so I decided to keep that resolution.

 

Early in the year, I read an advice article geared towards writers that talked about production versus consumption. The main message was that if you really want to write that book or movie, you need to spend less time consuming what other people have produced for the entertainment of others.

That percolated in my head for a few days before I realised that it also applied to crafters. Pinterest and the blog circuit are consuming what other people have produced, and if I want to produce as well, I need to consume less of what they've produced and produce my own stuff.

That realisation has made a huge difference this year. I've already produced a lot more completed craft projects than I did all of last year.

I've tried really hard to wean myself off of Pinterest. It's an ongoing process. It's a hard thing to do! There are so many cool projects to see, and ones that I know that I could make. There are resources that would make some of my projects easier to accomplish as soon as I stumble across them...

But I need to keep reminding myself that I have a lot on the go right now, and that I need to complete what I've started before adding more projects.

That doesn't stop me from consuming TV and movies of course. I can knit or crochet while I'm watching the idiot box. ;)

 

I promise to post some pictures soon! I can't wait to show you what I've done!

Hello Internet!

Hello Internet! Long time no talk!
As you may know, one of my resolutions this year is to complete unfinished craft projects. I did this last year and managed to complete ten projects.
I’m proud to say that part of the reason I haven’t been posting has been because I’ve actually been busy DOING projects instead of just talking about them.

So far this year I have completed four garment sewing projects and two crocheted blankets. I’m pretty pleased with myself. I'm way ahead of where I was last year.

Unfortunately, I still have at least twenty-two projects to complete. eighteen of those I had either started them or had bought materials for previously as of January first.

I still have five garment sewing projects on the go. I seem to have lost two of them however. I’m quite put out. However, they still count against me, so I’m waiting until I’ve finished three or four projects before I buy more fabric.

I have a knitted blanket on the go. I just need to weave in the ends on the Elf blanket, but this is a blanket I'm having a hard time working on. It's 190 little squares, and I just can't see the light at the end of the tunnel with it.

I had bought yarn intending to make a blanket using the new crocodile stitch pattern that's been floating around the internet. I decided to be smart about learning a new stitch and have been working on a scarf to learn the crocodile stitch. I'm one ball in and I don't think I'm going to make a whole blanket of this stitch. So I need to find a new project for the yarn I bought....

I’m still not allowed to buy more yarn unless it's to finish a project. Last year I bought about fourteen balls of sock yarn and I didn’t know how to make socks. The nice thing about the sock yarn is that I’ll be able to take it with me places, and it won’t be a huge monstrous thing to lug around. I'm teaching myself and it's going fairly well, I'm on week two and I've got most of the legs done. I'm a little nervous about the heel, because I'm doing two-at-a-time socks. If I mess up the heel, I'm messing both up and will have to backtrack on both socks. I'm not looking forward to that.
Though I think once I get the hang of this sock thing, I should be able to complete a pair a month. That should mean that I would be done with my current sock yarn stash by November/December! It would also mean that I would have completed seven projects on the bus and on my breaks at work. That sounds lovely to me.

I recently heard about a community online that does a dishcloth a month, and I was really excited until I thought “That means I’ll have to buy cotton yarn…” and was quickly deflated. No buying yarn allowed. I’ll join that community one day but not anytime soon; maybe when I’ve finished another blanket and at least eight balls of the sock yarn.

Same goes for that knitted square a month and at the end of the year you sew them together to make a sampler blanket. I’ve always wanted to do that, but there’s no way I can justify it at the moment; I just have too many projects on the go.

I also found out that Stampin’ Up! will send you a box a month of coordinating stamps, paper and ink pad with instructions to complete the projects inside that are beginner friendly. All you need is adhesive. It’s very, very, very tempting to me. But I am going to resist and look at it again in a few months when I’ve finished some other projects. However, if YOU are interested, it’s called Pumpkin Paper on the Stampin’ Up website.

I’d like to make a granny square blanket, though maybe next year. And it will be a traditional granny square blanket made out of scraps. None of this buying coordinated yarn nonsense! Granny squares were designed to use up bits of yarn so there was no waste. Buying yarn for a granny square seems incredibly wasteful and unthrifty or something. I want LESS in my yarn bin!

I am feeling really good about my progress this year. If I can keep it up, I may not have many sewing or knitting projects to put on my list for next year!

-Sylvan

Mirrored ornaments

So I saw a link in Pinterest....

The instructions say to glue two mini mirrors together with ribbon. These are then hung from your Christmas tree to reflect the light the light strands and makes your tree more sparkly.

Obviously it's September and I haven't put a Christmas tree up. I swear I'm not crazy. But I saw the mirrors and thought of this craft.

I cut short lengths of ribbon. I'm intending to attach jump rings to the ribbon before attaching ornament hooks so that they'll hang properly perpendicular to the branch. But I'm out at the moment. :p

I used Gorilla Glue, and I must admit I didn't realize it had such a long cure time. It's been half an hour and the mirrors still have a lot of play.

I'm excited to try this at Christmas. And even if it doesn't work, it will still look neat on the tree and won't have cost me a great deal.

Long time...

Been a while!

I fell off the wagon with my New Years Resolution. Old job stress, new job stress and the fact that some of my craft projects are pretty big became overwhelming.

I've got the Elf Blanket together. I just need to add in the side half-leaves and weave in all the ends.

But what I've really been slugging away at is a blanket for a wedding gift in early October. I'm nearly done there, so close I can taste it!

I've also been playing with nail art designs I find on Pinterest. This has become a little dangerous because I keep buying nail polish! After I bought three colours very similar to ones I already have, I made myself a little chart to take with me to the store. I'm doing this on my phone, so the picture will be at the bottom of the post.

For now, I'm not allowed to buy more nail polish. Or fabric. Or yarn. Must complete projects first!

I'm going to a craft camp in November, so I will soon start prepping for that. I'll cut out my pattern pieces and pin them together as much as I can. Then once I get to the camp, send them through the sewing machine at break neck speed and have multiple projects completed by the end of the weekend.

If I complete a bunch of projects that way, will it still count as one per month? :p

Real Life interferes with my hobbies

Still haven't done any sewing. I'm getting a little nervous, it's now the 28th. :s

I had intended to do some this morning, but then remembered that I have people coming over tomorrow. D'oh!

So my priority shifted to tidying the living room, but I got a bit distracted by laundry and dishes. :p oops. At least I've had a productive morning, if not crafty.

I also went to the gym and walked the dog. There's a challenge going on at my gym this month. Work out three times a week for the month, lose 5 pounds and donate some food to Winnipeg Harvest. Win a gym bag. Yay!

This is the last week, things have gone smoothly up to this point, but I think what's going to trip me up is whether or not I've lost weight. My bathroom scale says I've lost three, but I suspect that at least two more may have been converted to muscle. We'll see what happens, if I have to, I'll calculate how many fat pounds I've lost based on the body fat % the gym scale calculates. Then argue that I deserve my gym bag. :p

Feb Wrap Up/Plan for March

Well, this month I finished my fleece blanket, though it is still cluttering around the living room, so I'm going to have to find a place to donate it to.

I made 18 cards with 3 designs.(still need to post one of them)
I made the little hangy things for the earring frame.
I made 3 sets of earrings. (I'll post the last set tomorrow)

All that with stuff I had around the house. Mostly. I think I had to buy new jump rings, but I used stuff I already had for the most part. So I'm really pleased with what I accomplished.

I also made some progress on the Elf blanket. Not done yet, but making prgress. And I put several balls into the other blanket I'm working on. I've been watching yarn sales and it's not coming down to the price I want yet, so I'm going to have to shelve this for a while once I get to the last ball I have. I'll keep chipping away at these and see where I get with them.

Now for the next month...
I would really love to finish up the two projects I have where the fabric is already cut out. I'd be happy if I finished one, but I'd be over the moon if I could finish both of them.

I want to make myself an earring frame.

I want to use up some of my beading stuff a little more.

I would love to make some cards for Easter, and little gift bags for the kids next door. I'm not sure when Easter is this year. Is it in April?

One of my Sparks gave me a little clay Spark that I would love to turn into a magnet. I'm scared to put it in the oven, so I've been air-drying it on the fan of my computer. It's sort of working, but has a ways to go yet. And I found some magnet stuff in my desk while looking for something else, so I am totally ready to do this once it finishes drying, though I am tempted to buy some balsa wood or something and glue it onto the clay. Just to be done with it. Either way, I think I need to get some heavy duty glue for this project. At least it can be used for other things. :p

I'd like to try knitting socks. You know, since I bought myself 12 balls of sock yarn. :p I know it doesn't count as using materials I already have, but hey! It'll be something done. :)

Also, I discovered Amazon sells stacks of 5x5 fabric squares for making quilts. I am NOT buying these and getting another hobby. Uh uh. no way! I'm being good. Really.

For the earring frame

My mum loves her earring frame. But you can't put post earrings on it.

So I made her these little guys. I trimmed some plastic canvas into a pyramid shape so that hopefully they don't tilt all over the place and put them on some earring wires.

I tried to be a little smart about this and put two jump rings on so that they'll hopefully lay flat against the mesh.

Hope it works!