Can you see it?

Anna, here.  I've been able to get back at my crafting and craft blogging again lately, which has been healthy for my psyche.  A couple of days ago, I set things up to do a shoot of a crown I'd made, that included putting down a piece of red velvet I have.  

I figured it was appropriate for a crown, don't you think?

The crown is on a glass lazy susan, which allowed me to take photos at different angles without actually having to handle the crown.  It worked out rather well.  After I took the photos and removed it, however, I noticed that the little "legs" under the base had left marks in the velvet.  It didn't take long for that to happen at all.  

I moved the lazy susan, but I didn't bother to move the velvet away, thinking I might use it again soon.  Which is why it was still there, yesterday, when I happened to glance at it and noticed something odd.

Can you see it?

I know, taking photos of red is always a challenge for cameras, but it's still there.

Not the dust and cat hair, though that should give you a hint.

Can you see it on here?  It's the same photo as above, but I used post processing to try and bring it out a bit more.

You can see parts of it a lot more clearly at an angle.

Yes, those are kitty paw prints.

And kitty leg prints.

And a kitty butt print.

One of our cats got on my table and sat there long enough to leave a butt print in the velvet.

Along with the hair.

Now I have to figure out how to clean the fuzz off, as well as how to remove cat indentations.

Note for future reference.  Do not leave things out on the table that I don't want the cats to "decorate."

A Losing Battle

The cats keep going on my craft table, dragging out my quilt batting, then sleeping on it. 

I keep taking it from them, rolling it back up again, and putting it away.

I think I'm fighting a losing battle on this one.

Christmas Market

All set up for the Sherwood Park Christmas Market.  This is also the debut of Dolph, my new head with neck.  Sadly, my budget did not allow for a torso, but I can fit a light in Dolph! 
Sent from Anna's phone

Being all cute and stuff...

My younger daughter bought herself a book of crochet patterns recently.  This morning, she sat to work on a hat when her cat, Harley, decided to come over and cuddle.

She's a big bundle of squishy adorableness.

In the strangest of places...

My older daughter and I went scouting around for a suitable location to do a yarnbomb tonight.  In the process, she showed something I'd made as a yarnbomb, but wasn't able to get out and do it myself.  I asked her and her friend to do it for me.  Today was the first time I actually saw it, some 8 months or so ago.




My daughter's friend climbed the tree to put it up some 10 feet above the pathway.

Not what I expected them to do! *L*

Meanwhile, she and I have just got back from doing a Valentine's Day yarnbomb.  Check out my craft blog to find out more.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Wishing you all a joyous Christmas, and may 2011 be a year of peace, happiness and prosperity for you and your loved ones.

See you next year!

Look Into My Eyes

Just a little something I made for a friend.

In the Christmas spirit

Anna: I recently joined a local crafters group's email list. It's a very friendly and active group that gets together IRL (In Real Life) regularly. For Christmas, a bunch of us signed up for an Advent gift exchange. How it works is, the organizer partners up the participants, and we all had to get 24 small gifts (maximum $5 each) and one large gift (maximum $25) to exchange with our partner. I thought it was a really fun idea. Keeping in budget was an interesting challenge. On the one hand, it's really hard to find nice gifts for under $5. On the other, it's amazing what nice gifts you can find for under $5! Of course, being a crafter's group, we were free to make the gifts, too. :-D

Today's gift was a set of giant jingle bell ornaments for the tree. I happened to be sitting with my daughter's cat on my lap, and she thought they were quite interesting. LOL

The blanket under cat and bells is a crochet blanket my younger daughter is making. It's not done yet, but it is more than big enough to sling over my lap. She could have finished it off already, but decided to add another bulk ball of yarn's worth to the border. This cat LOVES the blanket, and immediately climbed onto my lap when I was done covering my legs. I got my older daughter to get this picture for me.

321:365 Glow

Anna: Philippe got some photos of my new toy (product review here) for me.



Using it in the dark doesn't actually work that well, but it looks really neat in a photo! *L*




And it was really comfortable to work with, too.

261:365 Cozy

Anna: I've been a bit lax in taking photos, except for "work in progress" pictures. Rather than miss another day on this blog, I figured I'd add one of them here.


If you're not too sure what it is, check out the step by step details I've got on my craft blog.

237:365 Polychaete

Anna: I'm in the process of getting photos ready for the craft blog, and this is one of them. I finished the garland I was making at about 3am. I curled it up and stuck it in the tree (which is still undecorated as we train the kitten to stay away from it) for the girls to find in the morning.

When I got up this morning, I found it like this. My elder daughter thought it looked like a polychaete (poly-keet) worm of some sort. So she stuck on buttons for eyes and some ribbon for a tongue.

Not that polychaete have recognizable eyes or tongues.

I love my girls' sense of humour.

235:365 It's cozy in here...

Anna: As I was putting the buttons on my daughter's coat, Harley started burrowing like crazy, wanting to get in. So I let her.

This is what I had watching me while I tried to attach the buttons. LOL

Other photos here.

I've finished the coat and will be posting photos and details on my Get Crafting blog shortly.

221:365 another double header

Anna: Here's the photo I meant to post yesterday, but didn't upload from the camera until today.

I was working on my daughter's coat, with the full attention of her sister's kitten. She loves catching at the yarn while it pulls from the skein. Unfortunately, she *really* likes this yarn and keeps trying to eat it. She actually chewed through it once!

I stepped away from the couch for a few minutes yesterday and came back to this.

She's just so darn cute!




We ended up running errands all over the place today and finished with an unplanned stop at Michael's. They just happen to have a sale on yarn. I've been eyeballing this stuff for months but couldn't justify paying so much for it. Especially since I knew I'd need to get a lot, since it's likely to become a top of some sort. I cleaned out what was left of their stock - 16 skeins. With the sale price, it was like getting 6 of them for free.

I just love how it sparkles, and it's soooo soft!

217:365 Introducing...

Anna: Since I've found myself taking so many photos of my crafting, I decided to start a dedicated crafting blog, Get Crafting.

I hope you enjoy it. :-)

215:365 Amigurumi bear - for real this time.

Anna: Philippe took this photo for me.

I was wrong in my earlier post. Not only did I spell amigurumi wrong, but a pear doesn't count. Amigurumi are creatures - animals, insects, people, that sort of thing. No fruit.

I found a library book called Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts Amigurumi and made this following the instructions from the book. I knew it would be small, but from the photos, I thought it would be larger than this! The arms were a real pain to do - both to crochet, and to stuff. I ended up using a cotton swab to stuff the arms and legs. I mucked up on one of the eyes, too. The French Knot I was making for a pupil got tangled, and I couldn't undo it.

It's a real hit with the kids.

In other news, I had my bronchoscopy today. I was all looking forward to seeing it, since the screen was set up right in front of me. I had been told I'd be under partial anesthesia and might be awake during the proceedure, but I fell asleep rather quickly. The fast was the hardest part to deal with - it ended up being 16 hours, since I had to wait for the freezing of my throat to wear out so I wouldn't choke. I was pretty darn thirsty by the end of it. Right now, there's a bit of irritation in my lungs, but that's no different than when my cough starts into a bad spell, anyhow.

I don't see the specialist for a follow up until the 26th of November, so it'll be a while before I find out the results. By then, he should have the results of all the tests.

213:365 animaguri... I think

Anna: I am currently working on a large crochet project - a coat for my elder daughter. Every now and then, I need to stop and do something small that I can finish in one evening - preferably something that's also challenging.

Tonight, I made a pear. It was an attempt at an animaguri - at least that's what I think it might be called. It's not a creature, but it's sculptural, so I'm not sure.

I wasn't intending to make a pear. I was just experimenting with the shape. It's not my first one. My first one ended up looking like a turd. The cats love it. When I saw that this one looked like a pear shape, I made the leaves and sewed them on, just so it wouldn't get mistaken for another turd.

I think the girls will like it when they see it in the morning.

Oh, and the mat under the pear is a filet crochet that reads "TEA," and the rolled up piece the pear is leaning against is the finished back panel of my daughter's coat. I'm working on the first front panel now.

203:365 The final verdict

Anna: I didn't get around to taking photos of these until quite a bit later than I expected. My husband has been mucking about inside our computer since yesterday. We got two 1gig cards of RAM for our computer - and they didn't work. After fussing some more with it today, he had to take them back. While he and our elder daughter were gone, my younger daughter and I re-arranged the living room in preparation for Thanksgiving (for us Canadians, Thanksgiving is the second Monday of October). We actually found a way to put a table into our living room! We still can't sit at it, but that's ok. *L*

So here are the two test swatches. The one on the left was pinned, then steamed; the one on the right was soaked, then pinned. As you can see, there's quite a difference!

The steamed swatch leaves the pattern very open and visible - but there's NO side-to-side give at the solid rows. Since the body is made up of rows of double crochet, this is really important. The wet-pinned swatch kept some of the yarn's elasticity.





Here, my younger daughter is holding the swatches up to show the drape a bit. There really isn't too much difference between the two. The steamed one is a bit more floppy, but it's not any softer.

So I'll be wet-blocking my sweater. Which is good, since it'll be a LOT easier than steaming it!

I'll just have to take over the living room floor overnight with a futon mattress to be able to do it. *L*

Oh, and, with our seeming inability to upgrade our computer, it's starting to look like we'll have to get a new one. *sigh* There was a time when you could buy a computer and upgrade it as needed. Most new ones are not upgradeable at all, so I guess I should be happy we've been able to do as much as we already have.

Maybe this time, we should just buy parts and build one ourselves?

202:365 Step by step

Anna: I managed to cobble together leftover bits of yarn to make 2 test swatches of my sweater. This evening, I tried blocking them.

There are three recommended methods to block crochet. The yarn I chose for my sweater is 100% acrylic - I picked it partly because it's machine washable and drier safe. When I blocked the panels before putting them together, I used the method recommended for acrylic. The dry pieces were pinned out, then I sprayed them with water and left them overnight to dry. I rarely need to block things, and this is not the method I normally use.



Before: Here are the two swatches, ready and waiting to be blocked. I didn't bother sewing in the yarn ends, so you can see some of the places where I joined new ends. I had to use 5 left over pieces to make these. *L*











Method one: Maiming - this is my usual method of blocking. I completely soaked the piece, squeezed it dry in a towel, then pinned it out, stretching the swatch out to the shape I wanted (the middle wants to pull inwards, making an hourglass shape, unless it's pinned out).








Method two: Killing - after pinning the dry swatch to the surface, I used my iron at highest heat and steamed the heck out of the swatch, while being careful not to actually touch it. This method is NOT normally recommended for acrylics.

(And since I was blocking things anyways, I pinned out a round doily-type mat I'd made, too. For that, I wet it and pinned it down, like the previous swatch.)






After: Both swatches look pretty much the same at this point. Steaming didn't get it as soaking wet as the previous swatch, of course. Now, they sit overnight to dry.

Based on what I've read, the steam method leaves acrylic fibers with a lot more drape than the other methods. Since all methods the methods permanently effect the yarn, I don't want to take any chances.

I do wonder, though, how I'd go about steaming the entire sweater. It's quite large. Whichever method I end up using, I'll have to use one of our futons to pin it to. Holding a steaming iron over all that surface until it's wet will be a challenge! *L*

While I'm figuring all this out, I've started on my daughter's coat.

200:365 Yesterday's photo: Disappointed

Anna: This is the photo I meant to post yesterday, but I was so eager to actually finish the sweater, I never got around to it. These are the finished panels, pinned, dampened and left overnight for blocking. I specifically want to block the decorative panel stretched lengthwise, so that the details would be more visible.

Alas, once it was done, things weren't quite what I expected.

The first surprise problem was that the sleeves were too tight. At the elbow. Which is kind of weird. It was tight enough, however, that I would not be able to comfortably wear it.

The other problem was the side slits. I was very careful to follow the instructions on where to place these. I even read the instructions out to the family and they understood them the same way. The end result, however, left me with side slits up to my waist. There's no way the sweater modeled with the instructions has this, as no slit was even visible in the photos. Going over the instructions several times, the only way I can see it working is if the distance was counted from the arm pit, not the bottom.

And finally, there was the finishing edge of the slits. Following the instructions left me with a sort of overlap, which made the top of the slits stick out funny.

The good news is, I did have enough yarn to finish it, and even had a bit left over.

So this afternoon, I've undone the edging on the side slits and am sewing the side seams down to start the slit much lower. Then I'm going to do the edging again, with a slight modification that I hope will reduce the sticky-outy effect from before.

As for the sizing... I think I'm going to have to kill the sweater. Or at least maim it. I'd borrowed a book from the library that described the process. I just don't know how I'm going to do it without blocking wires. If it works, I'll be able to wear the sweater after all. If not...

Well then, my daughters have a new sweater. :-/

196:365 My mistake - Updated: Harley in repose

Anna: I am now working on the last sleeve of my sweater. Once this is done, I can put the pieces together, finish the edges, and then it's done.

When I started this project, I calculated how many balls I'd need of the type of yarn I was using, which is different from what was recommended in the pattern. Same size and weight of yarn, but different brand and larger balls. Based on my calculations, I should have had a generous amount of yarn left over.

As I worked on the panels, I began to have doubts. I was counting on 2 balls for each front and back panel, and one ball for each sleeve. When I finished the second body panel, I was well into a third ball of yarn.

Part of the reason was the yarn itself. The threads making of the yarn was twisted quite loosely in a couple of the balls. You can actually see and feel the difference, though that will disappear after a wash or two. Because I'd gone into a third ball in the panel, I had to start a second ball of yarn to finish the first sleeve. I am somewhat concerned that I won't have enough yarn to do the decorative edging on the neck when it's done.

Today, while working on the second sleeve at the dr.'s office, I suddenly realized my mistake. Take a look at this photo.
Can you see the difference?

Look specifically at the bobbles - the bundled up groups of stitches with a single post in between. There's two rows of them at the top, two at the middle, and one near the bottom. Click on the photo to see it larger.

Can you see the difference now?

Don't worry if you can't. The difference is very slight.

The bobbles are made by doing 3 double crochet together. For those that don't know crochet, a double crochet is the post that you see in between the bobbles. To make the bobble, I make three of those in one spot in such a way that all their tops are together as one stitch.

My mistake?

I was doing 4 of them, not three.

When I got home, I took out all the finished pieces and lay them out, trying to see when I started making the mistake. From the looks of it, I've been doing this from the start.

Each body panel has 6 rows of 32 bobbles. Each sleeve has 6 rows of 18 bobbles.

Each of those has an extra stitch. Except for the last two rows at the top in this photo, which have the 3 they're supposed to, and the one row I'll need to do before this decorative section is finished.

That's a LOT of extra yarn being used that shouldn't be.

Well, now I know why I'm so much shorter in yarn than I expected.

Of course, I can't find any more in this shade of red.


Philippe: Positive proof that Harley *does* in fact slow down to 'non-blurry' speed every once in a while.