Unfinished Crafts, June 2021

Plushy Letters : O

Continuing the plushy letter theme from my last post, I started a Plushy 'O', as it seemed the second easiest letter to design after 'I'.

Floral Skirt

I started this skirt a few months ago, and it's almost finished. I just need to finish the bottom hem, and I'll probably add some of this lace to it. To be honest, it's deep Winter here now, and this is a rather summery skirt, so I'll probably put it aside until the season comes around again and work on other things in the meantime.

Grannyland Blanket

This is such an easy go-to project to grab when I'm feeling the urge to craft, but don't want a lot of brain-work to do. I realised a while back that the overall blanket will look better if I edge each square in the same colour. I finally got around to purchasing some wool for the purpose. I don't know why I chose red. Black is too common for this purpose, and I'm already making another blanket with white edgings. I thought about the primary colours and red just felt like the right one. I've started the epic task of adding one row of red to each of the 36+ squares. To be honest, I'm still not sure what dimensions I want the finished blanket to be, so there may be more squares before this thing is through!

Art Projects

The last two projects are ones that I'm doing under my artist umbrella, rather than 'private' craft projects. They're both still in the early stages, so I won't talk about them too much now. They both involve a lot of cross-stitch, bead embroidery, knitting and other crafty details, so I thought I'd mention them here at least.

Take care and keep on crafting!

Finished Crafts May 2021

More Tablet Weaving Bands

I took a few months off from tablet weaving, but then I became obsessed with it again. I was halfway through Band No. 3 (left) and when I took it up again, I forgot the pattern I was weaving. So one half of the band is wavy, and the other half stripey. But that's okay. It's long enough that I can make it into a bag strap, and hopefully I'll get around to that soon. Bands No. 4 and 5 (middle, right) are shorter. I was more wanting to try out different published patterns to see how they would turn out. I came across various problems while weaving, like twisting, bulging and bumping, but all of them have been explained by various Youtube videos and I feel like I'm learning more with every band.

Plushy Letters : I

A project I've been thinking about for a long time, but only started to act on recently, is to make a set of plushy letters that spell out words. For some reason I felt like knitting them instead of sewing them, which takes a lot longer but is a more portable craft. I couldn't find any patterns online that made letters as plump as I wanted, so I decided to design my own. I started with the easiest letter -- I.

Plushy Dinosaur

Last but not least -- the greatest triumph! I made this plushy dinosaur for my two-year-old friend, for her birthday. It took a very long time, and the process was filled with ups and downs, but at last at the end of March it was finally finished. I redesigned the back plates to make the shape more realistic, and also a smaller version to go along the tail. The original pattern was perfectly fine, but I just preferred the way it looks this way. Here is the pattern.

Next time I'll be looking at crafts still in progress!

Craft Goals for 2021 - My Make 9!

The Make 9 craft challenge has been around for a few years now, but with everything that happened last year, I had completely forgotten about it. Even when I was reminded by seeing other people's goals popping up here and there on the internet, I hesitated. It just seems strange to plan for the future these days. Finally though, last week I felt an urge to work on some craft projects again and thought, maybe I'd like to do a Make 9 anyway!

(The accompanying pictures aren't really relevant, they're just nice backgrounds from photos I found on my phone!)

I deliberately made the goals very vague. My interests tend to change rapidly and without warning, so I wanted goals that would accommodate anything I was interested in at any given time. I did take the chance and looked through my current and planned projects list to add some to the grid. I made sure to choose some smaller projects, with the awareness that I'm starting 6 weeks late. Here are my thoughts:

1. something I want - probably my next sewing project: a skirt from a blue/silver floral fabric I bought recently. Hopefully it will be more successful than my last sewing project!
2. something I need - a pair of shorts, because I need them. Not sure what fabric to use yet.
3. a gift - a secret project! Ideally I'd like to have it done by the end of March.
4. a long term project - Green Plushy Monster. It's not that long term, I guess, maybe 18 months. But he only needs some arms and maybe a fuzzy hairdo and he'll be done.
5. a small project - to finish off: Trollen Braid. Over Christmas I had a mini-obsession with making trollen braids (a new-to-me craft). I started 2 and I'd like to finish at least one.
6. for a festive time - future project: Christmas garland. I bought some supplies to make a Christmas garland a couple of years ago and haven't gotten around to putting them together yet. It can sit on the back burner until close to the end of the year.
7. spliced - Lace Gilet - an experimental work in progress at the moment. I bought two lace dresses and want to try to splice them together into a gilet (sleeveless cardigan thingy).
8. altered - pants enlargement. I bought some pants online and they were a bit small, so I'm planning a way to make them fit.
9. decorated - Tablet Weaving piece. As I talked about earlier in the year, I taught myself tablet weaving. My enthusiasm slowed down a bit on the third piece, but I'd like to finish it off and find something to use it for.

Of course, this may change at any time!

I Really Need to Finish this Knitted Dinosaur!

I've been working on this knitted dinosaur since 13th June 2013 (thanks Ravelry for helping me keep track!). That's, um, rather a long time. It was stuffed in the back of the cupboard for a long time, and has moved house with us once. I started it because I just felt like making a dinosaur and wanted the challenge, but I guess that wasn't motivation enough. After my friend had a baby last year, I decided to finish it and give it to her for her first birthday.

The body was almost finished. I'd gotten stuck at the Wrap and Turn instruction for the head shaping. Now I remember why I gave up on it! It took a while nutting out, and I had to rip back twice, but I finally understood it. I finished the body; it just needs to be stuffed and a face and other details embroidered on.

Since then I've made two legs out of four. Looks like they'll be cute, stumpy legs -- the best kind!

Then I just have to make 10 back plates (two pieces for each), and the four pointy thingies for its tail which I'm assured are called thagomisers. Everyone else calls them thagomizers but, being an Australian (we follow British spelling), I just can't bring myself to spell it that way.

I have until next weekend (9 days) -- wish me luck!

You can get the pattern for the dinosaur and see a photo of a finished one here. There are also some really adorable ones on the Ravelry page. Though, looking at the photo, I can see that the head on mine is much smaller. I'm sure everything will be okay though... maybe...

Addendum: While I was writing this blog post, I got a message from my friend saying she is cancelling the party due to the virus. While I'm very disappointed, I totally understand. There isn't as much urgency to finish it now, and my rather click-baity post title is totally irrelevant. But I'm going to post it anyway. As a great Australian once said, "such is life".

Highlights (and Lowlights?) of 2019

2019 was a pretty low-key year for me. It seems fashionable these days to say that the year just past was a rubbish fire, and I was tempted to say that too. I had some setbacks, especially health-wise. But then I looked back through my blog and Instagram and realised that I actually did quite a lot this year. It just wasn't in the categories of what I used to do in the past, or what people 'should' do. There's nothing wrong with that, though.


LIFE & HEALTH THINGS
I only worked for 2 months this year. I secured a two-month contract in March-April, then decided to take a month off to concentrate on my exhibition (more details about that below!). Not long after that was finished, I developed some new health issues and some existing ones got worse. I developed a severe pain in my knee and could barely walk for about a month, something I hadn't experienced before. The doctor seemed to think it was arthritis, but I'm still not sure. Thankfully that got better, but I wasn't able to follow up on it because then I caught a virus which made me nauseous and dizzy for several weeks. Then my Adenomyosis treatment failed catastrophically and I was unable to leave the house again for some time, even just to try and seek treatment. I eventually ended up having a hysterectomy at the start of December, and I'm currently recovering from that. I was also dealing with my Ulcerative Colitis (my 'usual' chronic illness) all during this time. I don't normally go into this much detail on the blog, but I just wanted to acknowledge how much I managed to do this year, even despite all of these restrictions.

So what DID I do?


ART
✽ I held my first solo exhibition! (May) -- this was actually a pretty massive achievement!!

✽ I made a lot of art! (all year)

✽ I was accepted into and had a piece in Fat Feminism exhibition! (October)
✽ I joined a collective: Lucy Goosey Women's Art Collective! (November)
✽ I went to my first life drawing class! (October)

✽ I had a piece in NOIR Darkroom's Kris Kringle art swap! (And got an awesome piece of art in return!) (December)
✽ I made a flatlay! (October)

CRAFT
✽ I finished my first blanket! (Sure, I had to make it for my exhibition, but it still counts, I think!) (May)

✽ I tried a new craft: Lucet braiding! (April)

✽ I made some plushie monsters! (May-September)

✽ I joined the #makenine challenge ... and only made one item! ... It was my blanket that I keep mentioning. (all year)


HOME & GARDEN
✽ I grew potatoes! (January-February)

✽ Husband and I built a garden bed! (November-December)

READING & WRITING
✽ I set myself several reading challenges and read lots of books! (44 books and 39 short stories, novellas, plays, etc) -- this is double what I normally read! (all year)
✽ I re-read The Lord of the Rings and wrote a blog post about it! (August)
✽ I set myself a challenge to write short stories and I wrote 12! (June ; November)


OTHER THINGS
✽ I achieved many victories over my social anxiety!
✽ I went with Husband and my foodie friend on a road trip to the Geelong Show! (October)

✽ I started making videos!
✽ I ate a lot of food at a lot of places! (all year)
✽ I changed my fringe-style!

Whether you did a lot or a little in 2019, it doesn't matter. I had a few experiences which made me remember that I'm lucky just to be here. And I'm looking ahead to 2020!

May Unfinished Crafts Report

Project: Divination Mat
Craft: crochet
Started: 1st September 2017
This project is a relatively recent one, and it's quite large already. I think I wanted it to be 50-60cm square. I already had a small mat which I use for Rune readings, but my interest in Oracle card readings re-surfaced last year and it was too small for that. I happened to have this beautiful Bendigo Woollen Mills Stella, which is silky to the touch. I started making a scarf with it but changed my mind and ripped it. Now it's being re-purposed -- if I ever finish it! I measured it and it's already 45cm wide, so it's well along.

Project: Frankenstein's Toyster
Craft: knitting
Started: 2007
Similar to last month's project, this was more of a fun experiment in making a monster. I deliberately tried to make it as 'ugly' as I could, with blocky shapes, exposed stitches, and different knitting stitches creating strange textures. Poor old Frankie has suffered the same fate as most of my other monsters so far -- languishing in the back of the cupboard, unfinished. Frankie just needs a head and maybe some embroidered embellishments and he can join my finished monsters.

Project: Yarn Picture
Craft: yarn painting
Started: c. late 1980s
I started this project in early high school. I think I must have read a book about Mexican crafts, because I remember deliberately trying to give it a Mexican style. I worked hard on it and prepared a frame for when it was finished, so I'm surprised that I still haven't finished it. Glueing the wool down was unexpectedly fiddly and messy, so perhaps that's why I was put off.

There are only a few small areas to finish off, so it won't take much work. And I might perhaps touch up a few areas, like this squished-looking flower:

I still really like the idea of yarn painting as a craft, and would love to create a series of them to decorate my house.

The accidental theme for this month seems to be: nearly there! All of these projects were much closer to being finished than I thought they were. I feel more motivated to work on them now than I was before.

April Unfinished Report

I meant to post my unfinished crafts report on the last weekend of April, but due to the health issues I mentioned in my last post, I spend most of that weekend sleeping. But never fear, here it is now:


Project: Squares Blanket
Craft: Crochet
Started: 1 March 2011
This was the first large blanket I'd planned. I was inspired by a photo of a bedspread from a magazine. I didn't have a pattern so I made up my own -- and I think that was the problem! The corners of the squares kept rolling up. Later I found a pattern in a book and started making the squares from it, but then I had the problem of the earlier, failure-y squares. I started fixing them, but then I must have unconsciously given up, because I started making the Granny Square blanket from last month's report.
Chance of completion: I'd say about 60%.

Project: Kitten Embroidery
Craft: Embroidery (tapestry)
Started: Mid-2011
I do like embroidery, I just don't have the patience most of the time. For some reason I chose this piece with tiny, tiny squares as one of my first projects. Some of the colours are also very similar, and it was very difficult to make them out on the pattern. I managed to get the grey parts finished last year, and I'm pretty sure I'll finish it one day. Then I need to find a place that will frame it, as I probably won't be confident to frame a circular piece myself.

Project: Rambunctious Roy
Craft: knitting
Started: 2008
This project is an experimental piece. I was trying to create monsters using various techniques of crochet and knitting. I figured out pretty early on that this technique wasn't really my thing -- too fiddly, too many double-pointed needles. Unfortunately that means poor Roy lay, languishing and unfinished, in my cupboard ever since. I really only want to finish Roy so I can have this particular project off my plate, and because ... well, look at that face!

My January & February

I skipped over my January post as I was too busy with preparations for the Zine Fair, hence this bumper, two-month update. January seems like a world away now, and I can't possibly imagine that I had three whole weeks off work. I did do a few crafty things during this time, though.

I finished two crochet projects, both monsters, and both started in 2013. The first was Mixtro Monster by Stacey Trock. I was up to the stage of stuffing and sewing on the embellishments. His eyes are zanily quirky, though as the eyes come in pairs I have two single mismatched eyes in my stash now. I'm sure they'll come in handy for another zany monster.

The second was one of my own design. It was meant to be a test piece but I really like the way it turned out, particularly the mouth. I had so much fun making him. Choosing the eyes was especially satisfying. Husband and I named him Urgg.

I decided to glue some gems to my earphones so as to more easily tell left from right. I thought I may as well decoden a few other things while I was at it: some makeup brushes and the lid of my foundation pot.

I was also briefly inspired to do some watercolour painting in my Hobonichi. I posted this picture on Instagram, even though I wasn't entirely happy with it, and got quite a bit of encouragement, which was nice. (Parts of it are shiny because the paint was still wet.)

Over the holidays I had time to have fun with my food, too:

There was also work to do, though -- harvesting my fruit trees. There was a lot of everything this year: apricots, plums, then nectarines! We were caught a bit unawares this year, so decided not to make jam, but used the slow cooker to stew nearly everything. We ate the last box of nectarines fresh, and it was lovely!

Last week I got my nails done! For most people perhaps that's no big deal. For me it was a huge step in overcoming my anxiety. I went to Miss Jay's Nails and Beauty, who I highly recommend. What a sweetie! I celebrated by posting it on Instagram with lots of cute graphics:

More selections from Instagram:

My February

Once again, February whizzed by, and it was well into March before I even had a chance to look back on the month that was. It became much warmer towards the end of the month -- real Summer weather! I decided this month to focus more on things I want to do, things I won't have a chance to do once I'm working again, and not worry about whether they're 'productive' activities or not. Aside from doing a lot of crafts, I did some drawing and decorating of my Hobonichi art diary. I also watched a lot of Youtube videos, played games and caught up with friends.

I finally got around to setting up my new (well, new-to-me, anyway) phone. I didn't have a smartphone before, so I had to carry my old phone for communications, my ipod for music and my ipad for taking photos and playing Pokemon Go. It's so much more convenient to be able to do all of that on one device! I'm looking forward to getting some cute covers for it.


What I've been making ...
I finished off a couple of smaller craft projects: a scarf and cushion for my dolls and a rabbit plushie trackable. The scarf was actually on my list of projects to rip, but when I looked at it, I saw that all it needed was the fringe on the ends, so I decided to finish it. The doll cushion, as I wrote about in this post, was on my Top 5 crafts list. The rabbit was very easy to make; I used the technique from this site.

I also started my Temperature Scarf on 1st March. There isn't much to see yet, so I'll post a photo in a few weeks. Perhaps I'll do a monthly update.


Where I visited ...
I went to the Melbourne Zine Fair early in the month. It has exploded in popularity over the last few years! There were over 200 tables and it was incredibly crowded all afternoon. I spent way more than I should have, but it's only once a year. If I'm organised enough, I might even set up my own table for next year.

What I've been working on ...
We had a huge harvest of plums this year! I didn't write a separate post about it as I wrote about making plum jam last year. It got to the point where I was despairing a little on what to do with all the plums! I made about 1/3 of them into jam, but ran out of jars. Then I made stewed plums, and even using the large pot I still had quite a lot left over. In the end I made plum puree by cooking them in the slowcooker all day. I was thoroughly sick of de-stoning them by that point, but with this technique they are put in the slowcooker whole. All I had to do was fish out the stones with a slotted spoon. The puree tasted very strong and caramelised. I put it into ziplock bags and froze it. Later I'd like to try making plum sauce or perhaps a marinade.

Selections from Instagram