Blog

I call this knitted hoody Grape Crush, which might be odd since it’s mostly green.  But the purple trim reminds me of Grape Crush so that’s the title.

You can see the progress of this cardigan here and here.

This sweater knitted up fast.  If I’d put all my concentration on it I probably could’ve easily finished it in a week.  As it was, it took about two weeks from swatch to blocking.

I learned a few things from this project.  First, I really like Sweater Wizard.  There were only a couple of directions that were a little confusing and all of the numbers came out right.  That was a relief–I was afraid I’d find myself mid-sweater with a mess on my hands because the program’s calculations were off.

The second thing I learned was that knitting a sweater in the round rocks!  There was hardly any seaming at all to be done (just the underarms and the top of the hood).

The third thing I learned is that I was right about the raglan sleeves being more flattering on me.  If I’m smart, I will only knit raglan sleeve garments for myself in the future.

Besides the yarn, which is yummy, the thing I like best about this sweater are the buttons.  While I was in Oregon in December, I raided my grandmother’s vintage button stash (um, hello, how much fun was that) and found all sorts of cool and kitschy buttons.  The buttons I used are just plastic, but they glimmer and catch the light almost like rhinestones (which would’ve been overkill in a project like this).  So I get some sparkle, but not so much that it’s inappropriate on such a casual garment.

I will say that the finished piece is a bit more oversized than I had anticipated–but this actually happened during blocking.  I’m not sad about it though because it’s a very comfy sweater.  I kind of wish it had pockets though.

Finally, some success at knitting a sweater.  This one I will wear all winter, I’m sure.

Etsy is all over the place lately.  A friend of mine sent me the link at least five years ago and what did I do?  I dismissed it with a wave of the “I’m not interested” hand.  Then about a year ago, the same friend sent me the link again, saying “I don’t remember if I sent you this before…” Again, I just kinda said cool, but no thanks.

Admittedly, I was slow on the uptake, but I’m finally beginning to see why Etsy is not only a fun place to shop, it might be a fun place to sell as well.

I’ve bought a couple of things on Etsy that I absolutely love:

 
photo credit:  Debos

I love this little wristlet.  I bought it on a whim but it’s so versatile and well made I’ve been using it as my main handbag.  Other people love it too–and why not?  It’s a hedgehog bag for heavens sake!

I also bought these coasters on Etsy:


photo credit:  handmadeluck

Lush that I am, I simply couldn’t resist them.  They sit on my coffee table and we use them every day–and they never fail to amuse me.

My sister-in-law has a store on Etsy, which you can find here:
Creatress Designs

I’ve not purchased anything from the store, but I have bought a couple of the crocheted necklaces she sells here, so I know the quality.

Shopping on Etsy is like going to a fantastic craft show filled with stall after stall of wonderful treasures handmade by people just like me.  The prices are reasonable and the artists are talented.  So I’m thinking I just might open a shop there…

It’s been a long time since I painted anything but my nails.

Fall is coming, however, and so is PAWS/LA’s biggest year fundraiser, Pet Art 9.   I’ve been involved with this event since 2001 (or Pet Art 3, if you’re counting), and I absolutely love it.  Time to paint pictures of pooches!

 
Lover’s Spat, 12×18 acrylic on canvas panel, signed

This year, I knew I didn’t want to paint anything from my “dreaming dogs” series.  The problem is finding a theme that is kind of universal–after all, who wants a painting of someone else’s pet hanging on their wall?  (That said, after years of attending Pet Art, I have loads of paintings and photos of other people’s dogs on my walls, so maybe I’m not the right person to ask).

Anyway, I’m lovin’ this painting.  I’d totally hang it on my own wall if I wasn’t donating it to Pet Art.  Hopefully someone at the auction will feel that way as well and pay lots of money for it!

Since I am in the middle of a couple of projects and not really able to blog them yet, I thought it was time for something a little different.

I grew up in the 80s, when the Cold War was in full force and  threat of nuclear war was constantly waved over our heads, much like the threat of terrorism is now.  From a very young age, I understood that war was wrong, and I really couldn’t grasp the concept of a “just” or “necessary” war.  I still can’t.

I wrote the following poem when I was a kid, right about the age I was in this picture (13):

One War

One boy in a crowd of soldiers
Making his dream come true
Fighting for his country;
The glorious red, white, and blue.

He points his gun and fires,
Killing another man.
He proudly turns to his comrade,
But he doesn’t understand.

One man in a crowd of soldiers,
Family and friends left behind.
A wife and a little baby–
Will he make it out alive?

Tears of bitter sorrow
As he watches another fall
All this fighting and killing
Oh, how he despises it all!

One child looks at a picture
Of a father he’ll never know.
This faded memory is all that’s left
Of a life finished long ago.

Pictures tell a lot of things,
But they can’t say “I love you.”
War is a bitter game to play;
There’s nothing quite so cruel.

Will we ever find an answer
Without going through this pain?
A war brings only sorrow–
There’s nothing at all to be gained.

One dark day we’ll realize
But by then it’ll be too late.
War can never solve problems
Of anger and of hate. 

And above all, stands the victor,
Proud, and brave, and tall.
But what have we really conquered?
The winner takes nothing at all.

–Holly Ann O’Neill

The original poem had a few of extra stanzas but I’ve since taken them out because they refer to God.  It’s not that I object to them as part of the poem necessarily, it’s just that they don’t jive with my beliefs now.  Here they are, if you’re interested:

One man sets his gun down,
Another stops a grenade.
The other men stop fighting;
They all join hands to pray:

“God in Heaven, hear our cry–
Let this fighting cease.
Let love and joy fill all the world,
Let all men live in peace.”

To be sure, this poem is simplistic and represents a child’s view of war.  However, I still believe the fundamental message to be true–now more than ever.

No, this isn’t a post about skincare cream.  I’m feeling very passionate about jewelry today.  Must have something to do with this post.

Anyway, I spent the day finishing some pieces I’d started in the studio on Tuesday:

The earrings pictured above are fabricated in sterling silver and feature wire-wrapped apatite beads.  The actual beads are more turquoise in real life, but I like how this photo makes them look so blue, almost like sapphires.

For the necklace above, I simply strung the pendant on a 16" length of faux suede.  I like faux suede for necklaces better than real suede or leather, but I’m not sure why.  Actually, I do know why:  it’s softer and more comfortable to wear.

I also did some replacement/repair work today:

These earrings were originally made in 2004 and purchased by my friend Theresa.  Girlfriend proceeded to lose one and asked me to make a replacement at least a year ago.  Today I finally did it.  The earrings are made from 14k gold-filled wire and components, and the beads are Swarovski crystals.

Poor Theresa, she seems to have bad luck with my jewelry.  She bought the necklace pictured above as a birthday gift for a friend a couple of years ago.  The necklace broke somehow (look, it was after at least a year of lots of wearing, I swear) and so she asked me to repair it.  After only a few months, I finally got it done.  The necklace is made of 14k gold-filled wire and chain and features a peach-colored cubic zirconia pendant.

I’ve been making my own clasps lately and I really like the look they give to otherwise generic-looking chain.  The process of fabricating one is extremely simple, so I thought I’d post a little tutorial on it.

Tools & Materials:
18g sterling silver round wire
Metal shears
Soldering torch
Solder
Soldering block
Flux
Pickle
Cross lock tweezers
Tweezers
Round nose pliers
Rolling mill or hammer & metal block
File
Emery paper
Method of polishing

Making the clasp

1)  Snip about 2 inches of wire using your metal shears.

2)  Holding the wire with your cross lock tweezers, dip one end of the wire in flux.

3)  Use your torch to melt a small ball on the end of the wire with the flux.

4)  Hold the wire with your round nose pliers (close to the narrowest part of the pliers) right above the ball you’ve made.  Curve the end of the wire so that the ball rests against the wire.

5)  Holding the wire at the top of the small curve you’ve just made, curve the wire around the widest part of your pliers.

6)  Use the rolling mill to flatten the largest curve of your clasp.  This will add strength to your clasp, as well as being a nice design element.

It will look like this:

Note:  If you don’t have access to a rolling mill, you can complete this step by hammering the curve on a metal block.  Marks left by the hammer can be smoothed with emery paper.

7)  Trim the tail of the wire to your desired length.  Using the narrowest part of the round nose pliers, curve a small bit of the tail outward and file it flat.

8)  Lay a small bit of solder between your ball and the clasp and brush with flux.

9)  Solder these ends together and put the clasp in pickle.

10)  Smooth all rough edges with emery paper or an emery stick.

11)  Polish your clasp using your method of choice.

You now have a pretty little clasp!  Add one jump ring to the looped end and attach it to your chain.  Add a second jump ring to the other end of your chain and you’ll have your “eye” for the hook to go through.

My attention span is seriously small.  I’ve been talking about getting my jewelry business back on track and I even have a long list of things that need to be accomplished in this vein.

But all I want to do is knit.

Ever since I bought this yarn I’ve been obsessed with knitting up this cardy-of-my-own-design.  The yarn knits up pretty quickly, but even so, I’ve spent many hours since last Tuesday knitting this sweater.  Hours that I technically should’ve been using to take care of my list of “business priorities.”

What’s really funny is that despite my obsession with this particular knit project, I’ve got another one on the the needles (also of my own design) that I suddenly decided I want to try to finish up so I can submit the design to Knitty for it’s Winter issue (deadline September 15).  I spent the weekend feverishly calculating the pattern and knitting while watching the Mary Tyler Moore show on DVD.

Here’s where having a lot of free time and no one to “answer to” bites me in the hiney.  If I had a boss, or investors (besides Mick) or even regular customers, my priorities would be laid out for me.  Since I have none of these things, I have to be disciplined enough to set my own priorities.  Discipline isn’t one of my strong suits.

Mind you, I’m not complaining.  I love my life.  But like most people, my psyche requires that I have goals and projects to keep me feeling fulfilled as a person.  Also like most people, I am easily distracted and often go from one project to another without finishing the first.  I suppose that’s fine since I’m always really busy, but when the day is done and I find myself accomplishing what appears to be nothing, it kind of bums me out.

All of this said, if I can complete the design for Knitty and actually get it submitted, I will consider it a major goal accomplished.  When I started this blog at the beginning of 2007, that was one of the things I wanted to do–start designing knit patterns and getting them published.  So even though I haven’t been doing what I said I wanted to do with my jewelry business, I’m not beating myself up too much about it because this other goal is also important to me.  If it gives me an excuse to sit around watching the Mary Tyler Moore show all day, so much the better.

Accident is probably too strong a word for what I’m talking about.  Experiment is probably better.

I have a pair of earrings that have recently made me want to try filigree, or at least something filigree-esque:

True filigree, of course, is a very complicated and painstaking process which takes lots of practice to do well.  The pattern in the earrings pictured above, however, looks relatively simple so I thought I’d give it a try.

I began by forming a simple circle in 18g sterling silver wire.  Then I started snipping smaller pieces of the wire with my shears with the intent of curling them into various shapes and soldering them in place within my circular frame.  Here’s where things went haywire and I lost interest.  I think my wire was too thick and since I didn’t really measure anything, they were too big and slightly unwieldy.   I decided instead to just make a simple circular pendant instead.

I soldered a jump ring in the center to hold a stone and on the top as a bail.  Boring, but functional.  The happy accident came when I put the bottom half of the pendant through the mill–it flattened it and changed the shape of the circle into a petal (dare I say lotus) shape that is quite appealing.

I’m going to play around with sizes and stones on this pendant.  Even though I used a peridot in this example, I’m not 100% satisfied with it.  I’ll also make one with no stone at all, or add a tear drop of 18k gold instead of a stone.  Lots of options!

All right, I’ll admit that’s one of my lamer post titles, but I couldn’t resist.

A couple of things:  Over the weekend I purchased Sweater Wizard.  Fun stuff!  However, until I actually knit a sweater from one of their patterns, I cannot say whether or not you should purchase it.  I’m optimistic though!

I’ve been trying really hard to resist buying more yarn, at least until I use up some of the yarn I already have.  Unfortunately, the other day I happened upon a yarn store I’d never been to before and, well, I caved.

I purchased 8 skeins of Himalayas Queensland Collection 100% wool, thinking it would make a delicious sweater for moi.

Never mind the blur… isn’t it purty?

Using the Sweater Wizard, I designed a raglan cardigan with a hood and bell sleeves.  I’m knitting it in the round, which I’ve never done with a cardigan before (or a sweater, for that matter).  One of the biggest complaints with sweaters I’ve knit in the past is that set in sleeves make me look too boxy.  I’m thinking the raglan sleeves will be better for my figure, but having never knit a garment with them before, I won’t know for sure until it’s complete.

 
Right now I’ve got about four projects on the needles, but this one is taking up all of my attention for the moment.  Since this yarn knits up relatively fast, I’m hoping to be finished within a couple of weeks.