Freesie bag pt II

I’ve been doing more work on the Freesie bag. Originally I was making it as a present for a friend, but then I decided to make her something else instead (some beaded jewellery with seashell fragments – but I didn’t get a photo).

I finally finished knitting the bag, and learned how to make buttonholes in the process! Perpendicular buttonholes, that is. It was tricky, as the buttonhole is in a major decreasing area, and the pattern was a combination of YO, K2Tog and SSK.

Here it is:

Buttonhole detail:

Buttonhole detail…with button:

And here is what the hole-y pattern looks like on black fabric (which I will use for the lining):

So now I have to think about how to sew the lining inside, what technique and material(s) to use for the shoulderstrap, and how to crochet the petals around the buttonhole. Still lots to do!

AWOL

So, I’ve been slack.

My classes finished long ago but I never got around to posting pics. I didn’t end up going to the last two Painting classes, as I didn’t feel I was getting that much benefit out of this course by that point. I did persevere with Drawing, however.

Next time I think I might try sculpture, or a craft-y class or some sort, although I’m completely sure when that’ll be, with Christmas around the corner, a trip to Perth planned, and lots and lots of books to produce at work. I’m also half-planning to go back to uni next year and do a Masters. In what? I haven’t yet decided!

I have many, many things to make for Christmas…there will be much plotting and planning and craft involved!

November Underground

<Still in love with paths…practicing using them. I also tried to create a new Brush Preset in Photoshop, to make a dashed line, but unfortunately the dashes don’t follow the shape of the path, as apparently happens in Illustrator (but not Photoshop).The roots should be curvier. I have a drawing I did a while ago of this image, I might scan it in and redo it in paths, but I’ll keep the coffin and the leaf.Notes to self: acquire and learn to use Illustrator. Learn to use graphics tablet, because hand-drawing paths = <3There is a little story that goes with this picture. Sometimes I imagine death and burial as a peaceful process, where the dead are not really gone – they hibernate underground, warm and cozy in their coffins, unwilling to come out and enter our cold, rushed world again.

Of robots and apples

I started working on this logo a while ago…originally it had chicken legs and feet as well.At first I scanned in a drawing and redid it in Photoshop.

Then I realised that the apple wasn’t very apple-y, so I started to play around with paths until I got a shape I was happy with, and redid the shading using circular gradient fill.

I thought I was done, but then the fact that the antenna and the bolt were kind of dodgy started to bug me, so I redid them as well, using paths, and then I redid the shading (using linear gradient fill).

I’m pretty happy with the end product. It’s the first image I ever make in Photoshop that’s not a product of random chance, playing around or dodgying it up when I don’t know how to do something – the first thing I make that’s completely reproducible, that I could practically write a tutorial for. So it might not look that flashy, but I’m pretty proud of this little robotapple.After the election it might lose the text (brownie points if you get the reference).

Sanity in escapism

Today at work, while no one was looking, I started writing a story. Hiding in my little grey cubicle, with my boss right behind me, and a million clients to call urgently, I was furiously typing words that formed a snapshot of an imaginary world. I hope to continue writing it, though who knows. Most of these things go nowhere. That’s in a sense why I prefer art or craft projects to writing ones: I mostly feel blind while writing, but I often feel guided while doing art stuff. Writing, to me, is a lot more linear, whereas with art/craft I can see it all spread out in my mind. I treasure finished writing projects more though, because they’re rarer. Anyway – even if that’s where it ends, the words on the page were a most welcome burst of creative thought in the middle of an otherwise dreary day.

Might post a bit of it later, though if I continue to work on it I might do so when it’s a bit more solid.

Probably not a good sign

When one has lengthy mental conversations with Henry, one’s sewing machine (full name, Henrietta, though she doesn’t like it). Henry is a little stubborn and quirky, but we’re getting along fine. Tonight I finished sewing the “practice” bag, made out of calico-like fabric – minus the strap, which I couldn’t find. It doesn’t look like much, but I am very new at sewing with a machine.

It has six panels. I might actually use the pratice bag for something once it’s finished.

At the moment it makes a decent cover for Henry.

This is the cross-stitch I’ve been working on for a while, for a friend’s (long-gone) birthday:

This is it back when I started. I’m pretty new to cross-stitch too, previously I didn’t realise how much time it can take up.

This is it now, almost finished (sorry about the blurry picture):

Now it’s time for bed – I started reading The War of The Flowers by Tad Williams today, and I’m finding it hard to put it down. I love the subject (faeries!! but of course not pretty, dainty little ones at all), and I’m really enjoying his writing. Bonne nuit.

Thesis Knitting

I found this photo of a scarf I knitted a couple of years ago, as part of Thesis Knitting. “Thesis Knitting” basically refers to procrastinatory knitting I did during Honours. I did finish this scarf (and Honours too, eventually), and gave it to mum, to match the beanie I made her from the same yarn (blue-grey Caress, a wool/acrylic blend, very soft). I must have had lots of Caress, as I also made a big ribbed scarf for my friend Gill out of it. This scarf, which I didn’t get a picture of, had bobbles at each end. BOBBLES! I need to make more things that I can attach bobbles to.

Hopefully not the last post

Well, I’ve finally decided to jump on the blogwagon. Hopefully this will be a lasting venture, unlike my foray into Facebook, which I’m more or less already bored of. I see this blog as a place to pin down my thoughts. Meaning, it will probably end up being a mish-mash of book and concert reviews, scraps of writing, and creative projects I’m working on. Perhaps the occasional rant too, although I do have an “emoboard” account for that. This blog is an attempt to get me to write, even if it’s not always particularly creative or good. Also an attempt to catalogue the many projects I’ve started, in the hope that it will motivate me to finish some of them. Also to take photos of these projects and hopefully make this place a bit interesting.

Some of the things I do and hope to catalogue on this blog: I draw, mostly in pencil, felt-tip and ink; I knit, though I haven’t yet had the patience to knit anything big; I’m learning to crochet; I like taking photos, and will try to link to a Flickr account; I dabble in Photoshop and I’m learning to use my graphics tablet; I’ve just started using my new sewing machine, and I have bagfuls of clothes that I want to alter and lots of other things I want to make; I make beaded jewellery; I daydream a lot.

That’s it for now…I’m going to have a look at photos to upload.