Bare Maked

Cowl

2012-01-22T18:22:00.000-08:00

I've got a coat that's pretty snug, definitely no room for a scarf. So I quickly made myself this cowl - something to keep my neck warm, without the bulk of a scarf - win! I used yarn I got in a shop in Riga, Latvia, that I can find no trace of online, and a pattern from a shop somewhere in the US, so it's an international project really. I love the pattern - it's got great angles and makes a soft, drapy fabric (assuming you pick the right crochet hook size for your yarn, of course).

It's good to start and finish a project quickly sometimes! And I had this ready just in time for snow! (It doesn't snow much here in Vancouver, so this kind of weather is a big deal.)

Holiday Finishing

2012-01-02T12:09:00.000-08:00

One of the best parts of vacation time during christmas/new years is having some time at home to finish up projects. I seem better able to buckle down and finish things I have been slow about getting around to.

I finally finished my concentric squares baby blanket, for example, which turned out well. It's got lovely drape, I think.

Kitty clearly thinks the blanket is hers and made herself right at home.

The yarn I used is discontinued, which is too bad, as I like it (a superwash bamboo blend from Elann). Discontinued yarn also makes it hard to finish when you run out and still need 1 ball. Luckily for me, someone on ravelry had it in their stash and was willing to sell me the 1 ball I needed - I don't know what I would have done pre-ravelry!

Feels good to start the new year with a complete project! Seems like a good time to start a new one!

Tasty yarn

2011-12-28T19:15:00.000-08:00

Rather than whine about being sick, how about some photos of my kool-aid yarn dyeing experiment? This is grape and cherry, and just for the record, you need a fair bit of kool-aid to dye this much yarn (8 packs of cherry for 105g of yarn, 10 of grape for 125g of yarn)!

Still, I'm pleased - nice vibrant colours. The grape isn't as fully saturated as I would like, but I'm hoping it results in a heather-like look, rather than an incomplete dyed-look.

I have more of this yarn to dye, but I think I'll wait until I start a project and see how much I need of what colour.

White Yarn

2011-12-22T00:58:00.000-08:00

Like most knitters/crocheters... I have a yarn stash. It's tucked away in a few different places so I never see it all at once and have to face that I have a problem. One thing that has nagged me about my stash are the batches of natural coloured yarns I have that I'm not interested in using. I picked a bunch up from a former weaver, but didn't use them in my weaving projects. I thought I might try dyeing some of it and Kalin (fellow Maked girl) suggested I do a test with kool-aid dyeing, to see if that would work (some of the fibres are of unknown content, and kool-aid dyeing works best on natural fibres like wool).

So I did! I read a tutorial on kool-aid dyeing, watched a youtube video tutorial, and did it. Easy peasy! And now I know one of my fibres takes kool-aid colouring super well, one takes it in a more pale way (soy/acrylic blend), one took it very pale (cotton, I think), and two others don't really take it at all (which means I need a different kind of yarn dye, or I need to donate the yarn to someone else who will use it). And, as a bonus, my kitchen smells like cherry kool-aid.

In the next day or two I'm hoping I can find time to dye the large batch I have that sucked up the kool-aid colouring so well - it's a great yarn, from a thrift store sweater I unraveled! I'm excited at turning it into a colour and actually using it to make something finally! (I used some of it, au natural, in a weaving project a while back. More photos here.)

Fairly Tired

2011-12-08T08:08:00.001-08:00

Thanks to everyone who came out to Got Craft on Sunday - it was crazy busy, like usual! I'm going to give you a secret tip... the trick to avoiding the crowds (i.e. where you practically have to stand in line to even look at a table) is to arrive at 4pm. The fair goes until 5pm, so you'll have a good hour to shop, and you'll be able to stroll around leisurely and see whatever you want - no need to elbow someone out of the way! It's very calm and civilized in the last hour. It's up and down during the other hours - you might get lucky and be there during a lull, but at 4, you'll be set.

Maked had a good day. Hopefully our stuff will make people happy. I always love the people who admit they're buying something for themselves - it means they loved something so much they broke their own rule about buying for themselves - that's pretty satisfying for a maker to hear!

Got Craft Anticipation

2011-11-22T17:55:00.001-08:00

I'm kind of obsessed at the moment with making reflective flower pins. It's a bit out of control really. So I'm hoping loads of people show up at the Holiday Got Craft fair in search of them!

Sunday, December 4, 10am - 5pm at the Legion Hall on Commercial Drive.

Got Craft is fabulous for so many reasons. It's always a great mix of vendors - creative local folks making beautiful things (who all happen to be super nice people as well). It has good music (this is important when you are there for 7 hours as a vendor!). It has a chance to hand-make something lovely yourself at the Spool of Thread Sewing Lounge area.

I know I'm looking forward to getting some tasty tasty items from Bake Sale Baking Co, in addition to picking up some gifts! I particularly recommend you check out Atomic Broccoli who has the most fabulous lego jewelry.

Be sure to put it in your calendars!

Keeping it Simple

2011-11-18T12:21:00.001-08:00

Most of my craft projects tend to be very detailed and intricate. They can take months to finish. I don't know why I'm attracted to really lengthy projects that take forever to complete, perhaps because I feel like if I'm going to go to the trouble of making something by hand, I want it to be amazing and complicated/elaborate. Still, every now and then I get the urge to make something quick and simple. Or I'll get an idea for something that is very plain and I can't bear to make it more fussy.

I've been missing my beads lately, what with all the other crafts, so that combined with some components I picked up at the store recently resulted in a few new necklaces that I'm very pleased with! Simple, unfussy necklaces - some with an sparkly industrial style even. I know my style might not appeal to everyone, but that's another benefit of making stuff for yourself - it can be custom made to suit me!

I do feel strange showing these off as things I 'made' when I really just assembled components that other people/factories made. It's not the kind of handmade I usually do! Let's call this, necklaces I assembled.

First off - a very simple, classy snowflake necklace for winter. It's got a bit of sparkle and I combined it with sterling silver chain and a pretty magnetic clasp I've been holding on to, waiting for the right project.

Next, does it get any easier than this? A cool bar component that is industrial + sparkly, paired with stainless steel neckwire. I thought about making this more complicated but love it too much as it is.

Last one - harder to assemble, but still keeping it simple & clean - a two bar necklace.

Sometimes it's good to do something different. It is also very nice to be able to finish several projects in one sitting for a change!

These may appear in the etsy shop one day - email me if you're interested.

Cute!

2011-11-06T15:46:00.000-08:00

This may not be strictly craft-related, but it does include a dose of cute and some creativity....

I recently roped a friend of mine into taking photos of homeless cats in need of homes - to spruce up their online profiles. He's been very enthusiastic about it and on Tuesday, we did our second photoshoot with cats.... except this time it was mostly KITTENS!

It's been a long time since I've been around kittens, and having seven 5-week old ones running around was seriously cute overload. It was awesome.

And, Ben took more fabulous photos! Don't these photos make you want to adopt them all? I think Ben and I both want to quit our jobs and photograph cats full time.

All these cats are available for adoption from HomeFinders Animal Rescue!

Winning!

2011-10-23T12:49:00.000-07:00

I have a habit of entering online contests. I used to do this a lot a few years ago, and even won $5000 cash from an online contest. Mostly I win movie passes, DVDs, tickets, that kind of stuff. I do really like free stuff, who doesn't? Obviously, I'm particularly drawn to contests with craft supply prizes. You may recall when I won a Yudu screenprinting machine a year ago? I was ridiculously excited about that! Well....

Here's my latest win - an Accuquilt Go! Baby.

It's a die cutting machine - it cuts accurate shapes out of fabric super fast. Since my experience sewing has shown that my biggest issue is that I cannot cut stuff out accurately, I'm quite excited about giving this machine a whirl. I got to pick 3 dies that were included in my prize - so I selected triangles, hearts, and 2 1/2" strips (perfect for bike cuffs!). It's a very generous prize from Accuquilt! I won it from a lovely craft blog called Follow the White Bunny (if you like embroidery, you'll love her blog) - thanks Nicole!

I'll be sure to post again when I've had a chance to play with it. In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled for crafty blogs with great prizes (I've seen several Accuquilt contests over the past year), it's always worth tossing your name in the hat! The best advice I can give for entering online contests is to set up a separate email account for your contest entries, because you will get lots of newsletters and spam - but every now and then you'll get a notification about a win too!

In other news - Peter and I made our annual batch of cold-process soap last night. That's what everyone does on a Saturday night, right? Make soap? Peter was skeptical of the whole idea of making soap at first, but I lured him in with the danger aspect of it (lye can burn) and once he used our homemade soap, he was a convert, and now we make it every year - some for us and some to give as gifts. He's actually more particular about it than I am and hates store bought soap!

We always use this tutorial and recipe as our base, though we vary it a bit according to the oils we have on hand. We have a signature scent that's a mix of sweet orange, clove, and cinnamon - smells like the holidays to me now. :)

Crafty Halloween

2011-10-18T22:24:00.000-07:00

Any Doctor Who fans in the house? I'm a huge Doctor Who fan - I think the recent seasons are well written, funny, fun, smart, and just entertaining. If you've watched the most recent season or two then you should find this Halloween costume by Reese Dixon very impressive. It's so well done! They would get a boatload of candy from me if they showed up at my door. Though I might need to see the sonic screwdriver. It kind of reminds me of this costume I discovered last year - Doctor Who and the Tardis. Brilliant! I love it when people get creative with their costumes!

Craft Fair Prep

2011-10-16T16:34:00.000-07:00

Since getting the great news that Maked was accepted for the Holiday Got Craft fair, I've been using my bits and pieces of spare time to try and make stock. A few soap pours here and there - including space invaders inspired soaps and jewel-themed soaps for the swag bags.

I bought a lady's soap supply off her as she gave up her craft business - which means I got a huge quantity of soap base for a great price. Which means I have a HUGE quantity of soap base! I'm hoping to get a lot made for Got Craft, partly as a way to free up some space in my apartment, but also because they're great stocking stuffers and the Got Craft crowd seems to love them!

My personal favorite product we have at the moment are my reflective flower pins. These are made of the same reflective material as stripes on a runner's jacket so when light hits them directly they really shine! But in ordinary daylight I think they're still cute. They do take a bit of time to make however, but it's good movie-watching crafting and I just joined Netflix so I've got lots of stuff to watch. :)

Less than 2 months to go, but I'm feeling pretty good about the stock I'll have on hand for the fair!

Return to Got Craft

2011-09-26T21:02:00.000-07:00

Fantastic news - Maked will be returning to our favorite craft fair in Vancouver, the holiday Got Craft fair. This fair is always full of great vendors with lovely products, and wonderful customers who really appreciate handmade goods. It's just a great fair overall. Kalin and I will be doing this one, so a scaled down version of Maked, but I think we'll be able to fill a table!

It's a ways off yet, not until December 4, but that's good, we'll need to time to make stock! I might not get that knit blanket finished so soon after all!

Learning to Unknit

2011-09-14T21:00:00.000-07:00

Remember that blanket I started knitting back in June? Er, yeah, still knitting it. I can say I've had lots of good practice in unknitting as I'm not so hot at remembering to stop and count rows. So, it's been a good learning exercise/practice! I remember how frustrating I used to find unknitting - and how hard to remember, especially coming from crochet where you just take your hook out, pull your yarn until it's unravelled past your mistake, then stick your hook back in. So easy. Knitting, not so easy. But I've got the hang of it now. Learning new stuff is awesome - one day something is frustrating and hard, you keep working at it, and then realize at some point that the thing that used to trouble you, you now do without a thought.

I will finish this one day soon! It'll be interesting to see how even my stitches look after a wash and a blocking... I'm hoping that will work some magic. But in the end, it's more about the process than the product anyway, right? I don't even have a recipient in mind for this blanket yet.

Check it out - it's definitely come along:

Crafty Event - Sept 18

2011-08-18T21:09:00.000-07:00

Any Vancouver area people in the house?

There's a fantastic-sounding event on Sept 18 to raise funds for the Craft Council of BC: a Sunday afternoon 1920's themed party and silent auction. Live jazz music, vintage silent films, Prohibition-themed cocktails, and art!

If I hadn't just booked a trip to Latvia* for that week of September, I'd be out shopping for a flapper dress to wear. You should all go in my place and report back on how much fun you have!

Details are here: http://www.craftcouncilbc.ca/final2/index.htm

*This sudden week-long trip to Latvia is due to my Peter's work. I'm totally tagging along and am thrilled! Any excuse to go to Europe, and I love it when random locations get picked for me!

No Loom

2011-07-23T17:24:00.000-07:00

One of the hard parts of being a crafting nut is accommodating all the crafting supplies. It was all very manageable when all I did was beadwork, but then came sewing and crochet and then.... weaving. I blame the weaving entirely on Felicia of SweetGeorgia Yarns who blogs about her weaving adventures and who has an incredible sense of colour and style. She made me see that weaving could be bold and colorful and modern (example). So I got a small floor loom about 2 years ago.

Only problem was that I live in a 600sqft apartment with my husband-like-person and two cats. And my husband-like-person often has a mountain bike in our apartment. So we just don't have a lot of space. And with my other 48 hobbies, I wasn't spending much time weaving. So, since it took up the most space and was used the least out of all my crafting supplies, I decided that the floor loom should find a new home. The happy part is that it went to a lovely lady who is very excited about learning to weave and she loved it on first sight - so it's in a happy home and will help launch someone's weaving adventure.

I figure I'll find myself another little floor loom one day, maybe if we ever move into a 2bedroom apartment. Until then, I'll just have to distract myself with one of my 12 works-in-progress. And maybe I'll have to spend some time in SweetGeorgia's weaving studio. :)

Swap-o-rama 2011

2011-06-21T07:50:00.000-07:00

Saturday was my favorite event of the year in Vancouver - Swap-o-rama-rama!

This is my fourth year helping out, this time as the volunteer coordinator. I'm happy to use my time to help, I think this event is fantastic.

It's part giant clothing swap and part crafty/diy party. You bring your unwanted clothes, pay a small admission fee, and you get to hunt through the piles and take as much as you want. Then there are sewing stations and screen printing stations where you can experiment with refashioning your new finds to make them better. People are a lot more open to experimenting on clothes they just found and didn't have to pay for, so there's usually some fun stuff going on in the crafting rooms.

Spool of Thread, Vancouver's sewing lounge, was running the sewing room, and they were getting people who had never sewn before to work some magic on their new clothing finds.

It's really fantastic to see people willing to give something new a try.

I got lucky with a crew of fabulous volunteers who signed up to help and were willing to do whatever needed to be done. Great volunteers make everything super easy for me.

The event went really well. I was busy, but still managed to find some great new clothes, as always. I hope everyone else refreshed their wardrobes too. :)

And, at the end, all the leftover clothes get donated to charity so it's a win-win-win situation. Swap-o-rama-rama happens in city's all over the place - and if it doesn't happen in your city, maybe you're the person that needs to change that!

Knitting

2011-06-11T15:04:00.001-07:00

I'm still quite new to knitting, but I generally always have a project on the go, even if it takes me forever to finish it. Finishing things is a milestone to be savored, not rushed.

My latest knitting project is the concentric squares blanket. I saw the version Kim made and knew I had to try it. As I'm trying to use yarn from my stash, I, of course, had to do some math to adjust the pattern to deal with my thinner choice of yarn - otherwise I'd end up with a kerchief instead of a blanket. The pattern author was kind enough to message me back and forth on Ravelry with help on how best to make adjustments. I finally did start and it does still look like the blanket is going to be tiny, but I'm sure I'll find a use for it.

In other news - I don't know if I've ever mentioned on here that one of my hobbies is dancing. My husband-like-person and I started taking ballroom/Latin lessons a few years ago and we love it! It's loads of fun. (PSA: It's key to find a really good studio that knows how to teach, otherwise it'll be super frustrating. Our first attempt to learn was at a cheap place and we just fought all the time, it was terrible.) I'm very excited because there are two summer dance series happening in downtown Vancouver over the summer (at Robson Square). Friday nights will be ballroom and Sunday afternoons will be salsa! I love the idea of just going for a walk downtown, stopping by a public square and dancing for a bit. If you need me this summer, that's where I'll be. Starts in July and I can't wait!

2011-06-05T11:22:00.000-07:00

I don't know if you heard, but the Canucks won Game 2 of the Stanley Cup last night. You might have heard the City of Vancouver screaming and partying ? Seriously, the City celebrated in a major way - thousands of people in the streets, high fiving and being very happy. (They won it with a goal 11 seconds into overtime.)

It makes one wonder what'll happen if Vancouver wins the Stanley Cup - if winning game 2 causes such joy! I'm looking forward to finding out! I do love it when the Canucks score a goal - we actually mute our tv and listen to the city scream and cheer. It's hilarious and awesome.

From a planning perspective - it's interesting to think about how events like these really show where the heart of a city is. Where do the people gather? What streets do you close down? Where do you set up the large outdoor screens for people to watch? Do you have public space appropriate for celebrations? Fortunately for us, the Olympics made Vancouver face all these questions and figure all this stuff out. I think the Olympics also taught us how to have street parties. And we're all really good at giving strangers high fives when prompted. So, I think we're ready for the Canucks to win the cup.

One photo showing a small portion of the crowd out on Granville St after the Game 2 win: http://www.flickr.com/photos/59173294@N08/5798471753/in/photostream (photo by Vancouver Police Department - who are doing a great job letting people have fun and keeping things safe.)

Baby Blanket 572

2011-05-30T21:38:00.000-07:00

Apparently I need a hard deadline like a baby being born to get me to sit down a finish a project. Hence all the baby-related crafting lately.

There is other crafting going on, I'm sure of it, I just can't find the finished product to show you. ;)

This blanket might look familiar since it is my go-to favorite blanket to make and I'm sure I've posted other versions of it.

Here are the instructions if you want to see how simple it is.

It's not excessively fussy to make but I think it's cute (without being overly precious). I'm trying to stay away from cutesie baby fabrics, thinking parents might appreciate some relief from all the pastel colours, animal shapes, etc. This is for a summer baby so I used a thin fleece and some summer stripes cotton. A little rick rack trim for fun, and now I just need to pop it into the mail because the mom went into labour today!!

Baby blanket

2011-05-15T18:53:00.000-07:00

One of the things I love most is to crochet baby blankets. They're just the right size of project - easy to get going and then great for working on when watching tv/movies, and they end before you start to hate them. Perfect!

This one has been in the making for a while, using some wool yarn from my stash (pat on back for using stash yarn). I usually avoid making baby stuff out of wool because I assume all baby stuff has to be machine washable given how messy babies are. But I was told that parents have 'special occasion blankets' that don't face the same abuse as everyday blankets.

Also, the mom I had in mind for this is a knitter herself, so I figured she, if anyone, would appreciate the natural fibre and would know how to care for it. I hope it's useful to them. It's the only 100% wool in my stash - I imagine I'll be sticking to washable fibres in the future - they're just more practical.

I used this free pattern that was simple but created a lovely texture and a nice, cushy blanket. I do like that crochet makes nice, thick blankets.

On to the next baby! This time I'm trying a knit blanket - wish me and my rudimentary knitting skills luck!

For the Animals

2011-04-14T11:38:00.000-07:00

Kim and I were so inspired by our trip to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in November (read about it here: part 1, part 2, part 3), we really wanted a way to help out and spread the word about the awesome things that animal shelters everywhere do for homeless pets.... and so we concocted a scheme which launched today: For the Animals! .

The webpage Kim made for it explains - but the idea is that all you crafty people use up some of your stash to make blankets and beds for animal shelters (Best Friends, or your local shelter).

. It's helpful for animals to have some warm and snuggly things in their shelter spaces (shelters are stressful places) and it helps brighten the appearance of shelters so they aren't so dreary for visitors. .

Often shelters will send adopted animals home with their blankets so they have a familiar item in their new place, making it less scary. .

We're hoping people really get excited about crafting for a good cause and post about it, send photos of the stuff they make, send the link to the website around, etc. We want to create a wave a hand-crafted snuggly things landing on shelters. And we want people to talk about how important and wonderful it is to adopt pets rather than buy them (puppy mills = very very very bad) .

The best part is that pet beds aren't huge projects, they can be quite simple and quick and a great way to use up odds and ends of yarn or fabric! .

Everyone can make a rectangle, right? Just double up your machine-washable yarn, grab a crochet hook, pick your favorite stitch and go to town! .

In anticipation of launching this project I made a few blankets and cushy pet beds to ship to Best Friends. I crocheted a bunch - I even made a circular poof of sorts. It was fun to experiment a bit with patterns and techniques I've been wanting to try (like a 2 colour spiral hexagon). .

I also pulled out my sewing machine and made some mats with batting. Two of them got made from leftover minky fabric - some cats are going to get very lucky! .

Kitty tried a few out gave them her stamp of approval. . I hope to make a few more soon to take to the local SPCA. .

It would be great if more crafty people could get involved and help spread the word! Here's the link: http://kimwerker.com/animals Tell everyone! .

I'm off to smother my (adopted) cats with love, the thought of all the poor animals waiting in shelters to be adopted makes me sad. I'm a sap that way.

UPDATE - there is now a Ravelry group For the Animals - if you're on Ravelry, please join us there!

Knitting - proof

2011-01-17T12:36:00.000-08:00

I mentioned at the end of 2010 that I had taught myself how to knit (with internet assistance). I also had the good fortune to go on a week-long trip with a more experienced knitter, so I decided to tackle a hat project for my boyfriend, knowing I would have assistance on hand when I got myself in trouble (that turned out to be a good plan). So I proudly present my first knit hat, carefully photographed so as to hide the glaring spots where I knit instead of pearled and vice versa.

I'm currently challenging myself with this scarf, which is the "My So-Called Scarf" pattern that I have admired for a long time. It's tricky but I'm doing okay so far - except for the part where I buggered up and had to rip out a good 3 inches of knitting and then pick up all my stitches again... but that's all part of the process, right? I have to say - I do prefer crochet in that way, ripping stuff out is way easier since you only have to get one stitch back on your hook!

Weaving

2011-01-16T13:10:00.000-08:00

The hardest parts of weaving are the starting and the finishing. The actual weaving itself is easy and fun. But planning out a project and setting up the loom is kind of daunting. And then finishing off the fabric when you've pulled it off the loom is somehow even harder.

I hate fringe so I always struggle to finish the ends of my fabric so it is secure and looks good. I tend to procrastinate and hem and haw about what I'm going to do for a good while before actually attempting anything. It's a bad habit - but when I've got at least 3 different craft projects on the go, it's easy to put one down when I get stuck and move on to another one.

That said, I did finally finish my purple project over the holidays! Hurrah! I took it off the loom and washed it and hemmed the edges. This one is a table runner for now - I've never had a table runner before, so I'm not sure how I feel about it. We'll see. I do love the pattern and am surprised that there aren't any major mistakes jumping out at me.

I would consider this a success - although apparently prone to wrinkles! (Apologies for bad wintertime photos.)

Not sure what will go on the loom next.... have yet to be inspired.

I Yudid it!

2011-01-03T10:54:00.000-08:00

Way back in May I was super lucky and won a Yudu screenprinting system from Got Craft (my favorite craft fair in Vancouver because it's full of awesome).

I had a lot of ideas for it but struggled to find a big chunk of time to learn and get it going and make a disaster of the apartment. There was one idea I wanted to pull off in time for Christmas, so I finally got to work on it once my holiday vacation started.

My plan was to customize a set of cloth napkins for my Polish in-laws with the Polish word for "cheers/good eating": smacznego! I had a transparancy printed at Staples with my image on it. Besides "smazcego", I put on some additional images that I wanted to use to customize some handkerchiefs - to maximize my use of the screen.

I followed the step by step instructions that came with the Yudu and burned the screen without any problems. Easy peasy.

Then on to the fun part - the printing!

I taped off all the images except the one I wanted, flooded the screen with ink and did my first impression.

It turned out perfectly! I was really pleased with all of the prints, actually.

I think it helped that I had done some screenprinting before (although burning the screen was new to me) - it can take a bit of practice to get a good impression. I did the set of 8 napkins super quickly and cleaned off the screen so I could untape the other images and print those too.

Really the biggest problem with screenprinting is that it is best for printing large quantities of things.... and how often do you need large quantities of stuff printed with the same image? I usually only need 3 -4 copies of something.

All in all, the Yudu is pretty neat - for those of us who don't have workshops to get messy with normal screenprinting - it's a compact, tidy way to do it.

I live in a 600sqft apartment, so having the screen-burning + drying rack + printing surface all in one makes it doable. If you've got more space, you can probably screenprint the normal way for less.

In the end I didn't make nearly as big a mess as I thought I would - it also didn't take as long as I thought; I burned the screen on one day and did the printing the next day - which gave the screen loads of time to dry and made it all seem less daunting somehow. :)

These napkins turned out so well, my brain is off thinking up new projects!

Thank you Got Craft? and Yudu!!

Charity!

2010-12-11T23:01:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year - where there just aren't enough hours in the day to do all the crafting one wants to (more so than normal even)!

I've got some finished projects lined up to show you, but in the meantime:

All the proceeds from etsy shop sales until Jan 1, 2011 are being donated to Lisa's Charity:water fundraiser.

Lisa is giving up Christmas and her February birthday and is asking for donations to Charity:water instead. Charity:water is a brilliant organization working to bring clean water to the 1 billion people on the planet who lack it. And they document their progress via photos, video, blog posts. They do inspiring work that changes lives dramatically and you can support them by shopping! So go shop!

The story of charity: water - The 2009 September Campaign Trailer from charity: water on Vimeo.

Knitting - a beginning

2010-11-26T10:23:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I had some free time so I taught myself how to knit. Or rather, the internet taught me. Learning new things is so easy with the internet - tutorials abound, especially ones with helpful videos. I'm self taught in all my crafts and I remember how it used to be, back before high speed internet - you'd have to go to the library and get a book to learn. And if something in the book confused you, well... too bad - try another book. Now, you get stuck on something you just do a quick internet search and within a minute or two you'll probably be looking at a video tutorial that clears everything up. It's fabulous!

So far I've found knitting to be easy - a little awkward at first, but not as bad as I expected actually! I did knit when I was younger, but not very much. I remember I was a very very tight knitter so I probably got frustrated and gave up. But I wonder if that little bit of experience during my formative years at least laid enough of a foundation that I find the movements of knitting familiar. Muscle memory is a beautiful thing!

I finished my first knitting project - a basic scarf and have already cast on for a hat. It's perfect timing for me to get some knitting experience because on today I leave for a week of vacation (volunteering here!) with my friend Kim who knows how to knit - so I figure I'll work on a project while she and I are traveling and she can get me unstuck when things go wrong! Always helpful to have someone nearby who can figure how what you did wrong and get you back on track!

I believe knitting brings me up to 43 hobbies. What will be next? :)

Crafty ears

2010-11-07T10:26:00.000-08:00

I've been playing around in my jewelry supply stash, which has been sadly neglected with all the attention I've been paying to fibre and sewing related activities! It was good to get back to it.

Whipped up a few pairs of earrings. Thoughts?

More pins!

2010-10-17T16:55:00.000-07:00

The Maked girls have been busy crocheting the adorable flower pins for the holiday craft fair. Great way to use up bits and bobs of yarn. This one happened to perfectly match the shirt I'm wearing. :)

This year we'll be at the West End Holiday Fair, held at the West End Community Centre on Nov 21, 10am - 4pm. If you're in Vancouver, come see us!

Safety + Blocking

2010-10-11T19:51:00.000-07:00

Next up in the "Safety without the Ugly" line - a set of pins inspired by an old computer game. Probably something you'll recognize. :) The ghost is made of the super reflective material, and the pacman is made of high-visibility yellow material. I think they'd look cute on a messenger bag - and they'll add some visibility factor without being ugly. Yay!

On the crochet front - I've been working on the Alpine Frost pattern since the Winter 2008 issue of Interweave Crochet came out. I think it's long enough, so I've started to block it - since this sucker is going to gain a fair bit of length in the blocking process. Since I don't have a blocking board, I'll have to do this in little sections. The before and after is pretty dramatic, but I think I might need to stretch it even more when I block it, get it to open up more. In any case - feels good to be almost done this one!

Safety Without the Ugly

2010-10-02T13:35:00.000-07:00

First of all.... I've had my stylist modify my hair again. I was getting a bit bored with the other cut, so this time we added fringe/bangs! I haven't had bangs for a good 10 years or so. I'm still adjusting to the new hair - sometimes I love it but sometimes it gives off a strong 80s vibe that I'm not so into. But having bangs is fantastic.... I was so tired of hair in my face... yay being able to see!

Secondly, the holidays are coming so my brain is now constantly thinking about things to make. My imagination is currently on a bender dreaming up ways to turn reflective safety material into cool and pretty things - stuff a stylish cyclist would be into. I'm pretty excited about my latest experiment which resulted in this flower brooch (below) - I think it's cute, what do you say? The idea is it's something you can wear on your coat or your bag and it's just a cute accessory... except it happens to be made of that hyper-reflective stuff like the stripes on a running jacket so when light hits it the right way it's uber-reflective like safety gear. They're rather finicky to make though, so I think I'll continue to play around with the material, but I think there's a market out there for bike accessories that provide the safety without the ugly. First one is listed in the etsy shop!

Let me know what you think - I can take honest opinions!
(first pic - normally it just looks grey/silver) (second pic - when light hits it directly, it's super reflective)

Fabric - start & finish

2010-09-06T20:29:00.000-07:00

One of my co-workers, who I shared an office with for several months (my first time ever sharing an office) and so quickly discovered that she's fabulous - is having a baby in a few weeks. I pulled out my favorite fabric, got some minky fabric and set about making my favorite baby blanket (tutorial here).

This was my first time working with knit fabric. And I don't have a walking foot on my sewing machine. So I learned quickly the frustration of knit fabric! Stupid stretchy fabric! A walking foot is now on my wishlist.

I managed to wrestle it into a generally rectangular-shaped blanket and the finished product was a bit hit at the luncheon we had to send the mom-to-be off on maternity leave. It's always nice to give gifts to people who appreciate handmade items!

Hopefully it'll get lots of use. The minky fabric sure is soft, even if it's a pain to sew!

And, just as I finished that sewing project, a lovely package of new fabric arrived in the mail from Cloud9 Fabrics. I won it in a contest on JCaroline's blog (she sells fabulous fabric like this). This fabric is adorable and high quality - and organic. Seriously, it's good stuff. Clearly it needs to be made into a quilt... but I haven't learned how to quilt yet. And do I want to learn another new thing? Oh my.

Sewing

2010-08-16T11:44:00.000-07:00

The last time I was in a sewing class was in junior high home economics. I was forced to take the class and was very unimpressed that I had to. Woodshop, fine. Metal shop, fine. But sewing and cooking? I was insulted. I felt it was.... presumptuous to assume I needed or wanted to learn these girly things. I mean, they made everyone take them, it wasn't just me, but somehow, 13 year old me got a huge chip on my shoulder about the whole thing.

So I did not learn a whole lot - was too busy being a brat. I do recall making a hoodie and every time the instructor wanted to demonstrate how to do something, she happened to grab my project (without realizing), so really, she did 70% of the work for me. That was pretty awesome.

I've grown up and now voluntarily sew things. My how things change. I dream up things to sew, in fact. But my sewing skills are pretty basic. Fortunately for me, a fantastic new sewing resource has opened in Vancouver - Spool of Thread - a sewing lounge. Run by a fabulous young couple who know what this generation of crafters is interested in. This was confirmed when they listed their first classes and one of them was for the Emmeline Apron - a pattern I've had for over a year but haven't gotten the nerve up to tackle (having never read a sewing pattern in my life) - perfect!

I went to the shop yesterday and got to work with 4 other ladies and Lili's guidance. It was fabulous! Having someone there to take you through the process step by step is so helpful. I often think the hardest part of crafting, or learning a new craft, is overcoming the fear of mistakes (especially when cutting into precious fabric). It's so easy to hit a point of doubt or uncertainty and then just stop to avoid making a mistake.... then you can just waffle and procrastinate forever. Taking a class is a great way to get some practice, learn some new techniques, and just prevent you from getting hung up on any snags.

I finished my apron, and am super proud - it's by far the most complicated thing I've ever sewn (it's reversible) - and pretty cute if I say so myself!!

Weaving progress

2010-06-28T07:43:00.000-07:00

I took a day off recently and had a lovely day at home. I've been listening to the book Slumdog Millionaire was based on (audiobook) while I weave and cuddle cats. It's been fantastic. A perfect quiet day at home to recharge.

I've made some progress on the weaving and am quite pleased with the pattern. That's the thing about weaving - you never really know how it's going to look until you're right in the thick of it. I find that very challenging. It requires you to commit without really knowing if you'll like it! In this case, it all worked out okay, in other cases I've ended with products that I wasn't so excited about (but others loved, so they found happy homes). Weaving is about learning to move forward even in the face of uncertainty.... I skill I could use practice at for sure.

Here's hoping I have enough yarn on my spool to finish!

Chainmaille complete

2010-06-18T09:14:00.000-07:00

I just realized I haven't posted pictures of my finished byzantine chain necklace! I can't get over how fast that project was - I remember the first time I did chainmaille, it seemed so hard and confusing..... now I find it easy, not sure why. Anyway, I'm very pleased with it! And I had enough rings left over to make a bracelet too. (click to see bigger)

Weaving!

2010-06-15T08:15:00.001-07:00

There is weaving in progress again, finally!

This is my first weaving project that actually takes advantage of all 4 shafts of my loom and had a complicated threading pattern. So far everything is going okay.... it's taking me a while to select a weft yarn that I like - I've decided to go monochrome and use the warp thread for the weft. I feel the diamond pattern is quite busy and having it in contrasting colours is too much for me.

Now that I've actually made that decision - this will probably go pretty fast!

Cats in Plain Sight

2010-06-12T15:18:00.000-07:00

One of the things that has always bugged me about living in a small apartment has been the lack of out-of-the-way places for the litter box. We're pretty good about emptying it very frequently so we don't have to smell anything, but still, seeing it in our living space is.... weird.

I've seen a few good Ikea hacks where people have successfully hidden their litter boxes (examples here), so I've been working on my own for a while. Our cats are very upright-facilitators, so we needed some piece of furniture that was quite tall, and the only space in the apartment that was available was the narrow area behind the front door, so it took a while to find the right bit of furniture for the job, but I think we did! It's actually a drawer unit from Ikea, designed to hold your PC. Fits perfectly behind our door and I found a plastic tub that slides in. The glossy white finish matches our decor (as much as we have decor right now), so I'm very pleased. Just debating on whether or not to fuss with hanging a fabric curtain or some other cover over the entrance or not. Thoughts?

Entryway before and after (please note that the tidy 'after' photo is totally staged, I expect this area to be total chaos within a day):

Jackpot!

2010-05-23T18:26:00.000-07:00

Have I ever mentioned I have a bit of a thing for craft supplies?

It was all fine when all I did was beadwork, but since moving to Vancouver I've learned to crochet and weave, so now there's yarn tucked in every drawer and cabinet you see - open a cabinet where you'd expect to find a dvd collection and yarn will probably fall out. oh, and there's a loom in our living room. There are a lot of beads too, but they're fairly compact. I also got a sewing machine, so there's a cupboard in the kitchen full of fabric. Then there's the miscellaneous supplies - glue, magnets, the stuff I'm going to repurpose one day, the silkscreening inks, the wireworking tools, and all the associated craft books.

What I mean to say is that I kind of have a lot of supplies. I could stay at home and craft continuously for approximately 11 years, I think. I do feel like it's a bit over the top and I try to restrain myself - but then a local store goes and offers yarn that is normally $15/ball for $2/ball! Anyway. I seriously don't need any more craft supplies. Really. Even I admit that.

But then Got Craft - the local awesome craft fair that usually I'm a vendor at with my group Maked - had a contest.... and the prize was a Yudu which is a DIY screen printing system. A $300 screen printing system. I may have gone a little over the top to earn entries into the contest.
And it worked because I won! Yay! I'm excited to test the thing out - hopefully this weekend when I have time to make a mess.

The downside? The Yudu is enormous. I live in a 600 sqft apartment that I share with a Peter, two cats, a floor loom, and several bikes. I honestly have no idea where I'm going to keep this thing. It's currently on our coffee table. It's the same size as our coffee table.

Still - who can refuse craft supplies? Not me, clearly. I've got a bit of a thing, after all.

Thanks Got Craft and Yudu!!

Get Some Craft!

2010-04-30T01:51:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year - when the best craft fair in Vancouver happens!

Got Craft? - is Maked's favorite craft fair. Since we're on hiatus, we're not vendors there this year, sadly, but you should go anyway if you can. I'll be there shopping. There's also going to be a DIY craft table put on by Spool of Thread (a sewing store/lounge that is about to open in Vancouver!). Plus good tunes, awesome vendors, and just a fabulous atmosphere generally. Seriously, it's that awesome.

Details:
Sunday, May 2nd, 2010 10am - 5pm
Royal Canadian Legion :
2205 Commercial Drive (@ E.6th Ave), Vancouver

Chainmaille and pots?

2010-04-17T12:22:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a lot of time to work on it, but my byzantine chain project is going faster than I expected. I also thought the tiny rings would be more fussy to deal with, but actually, they are a breeze. I could totally do smaller rings (if they were available)! I thought this project would be more frustrating, but it's turning out easy peasy. =) (I'm making a necklace, so I've got a ways to go yet.)

What did turn out to be difficult was finding pots for my indoor plants. I have one plant that we've had for 2 years - which is a VERY long time for us. We generally kill everything quite quickly. (I think we over watered everything in the past.) We never got a proper pot for our plant because we honestly didn't expect it to last that long. I was in the garden store the other day, getting little pepper seedlings and they had my houseplant there, which was handy because I didn't know what the thing was. Turns out it's a ficus! Except it has curly leaves, so it's cuter than normal. The lady at the garden store said I should have repotted it into a larger pot when I got it 2 years ago. Whoops. So I did that last week and bought a little asparagus fern and decided they both needed proper pots because I'm not going to kill them, they're going to thrive (even though the ficus can't seem to keep it's leaves).

I discovered that there is not a terribly large selection of modern pots in downtown Vancouver. I wanted something bright and sleek - something that would pop against all our white walls. Apparently this was asking for the moon. Most pots are very earthy-styled.... muted colours, fussy designs. I spent an inordinate amount of time searching for more interesting pots (needed them in 2 sizes too, which made it even harder) - I was actually surprised that there weren't more stores selling pots that would appeal to urbanites, seems like that would be a nobrainer for Vancouver stores.

In the end, I went back to the first store I checked and got some there. The big one is a bit dinged up, but they fit the bill perfectly otherwise - bright, sleek, shiny.... and were super cheap because they're actually christmas items! Which store was the one that came through with the good selection? Canadian Tire. I know! They actually have some very good stuff, consistently. So there you go. And the fact that it was so hard to find them, makes me that much more pleased every time I look at them. ;)

Finishing & Starting

2010-04-11T16:27:00.000-07:00

It's funny how difficult it seems to finish projects sometimes. Starting them is so much more interesting! I've been very good lately about only starting projects when I've finished one I have on the go - so I don't end up buried under a million half-done works-in-progress.

I finished a big one recently - a baby blanket for a friend. I started out using a different pattern, but really wasn't feeling it at all, so about 1/4 of the way through I abandoned that and went with a crochet pattern I had done before and liked - the Tiramisu. Much better! It was a perfect mindless crochet project, good for keeping my hands busy during movies and it actually went quite quickly once I got going. The yarn got much softer after I washed it, which is good because I wasn't really enjoying it much. It's Elann's Superwash Bamboo. Finished it off with some yellow ribbon from my stash (yes, I have a ribbon stash, of course), and bask in the glow of a finished project. Feels good.

I started looking for crochet patterns to decide what I was going to do next, and actually decided to put the yarn away for a bit and tackle another project I've had on my todo list for ages... chainmaille. I got a package of tiny silver rings (perfectly laser cut by UrbanMaille) for my birthday last year and haven't tackled the project I wanted them for because it was kind of a daunting task. These rings are really tiny (see photo)!

But, the only way to start is to just start. So I started (see photo)! This is a byzantine chain which is a pattern I fell in love with when I first experimented with chainmaille several years ago. And since I like to do things that are ridiculously intricate and time consuming, this project fits the bill very nicely. Stay tuned, I'll let you know how I progress. =)

Olympics & Etsy Feature

2010-03-06T10:38:00.000-08:00

Hello! I don't know if you heard, but Vancouver hosted a bit of an event recently. A sporting event. There were a few people in town and a couple of things going on.
=)

It was fabulous. The Olympics brought this energy to the city that I've never experienced before - the streets were filled with thousands of happy, friendly people. I've never given so many high fives to strangers for no particular reason, or chatted with so many friendly strangers while waiting in line. It was simply fantastic.

Not much crafting happened!

That is - until Etsy featured our gold delica ring in their "Etsy Finds" newsletter! I returned home one day from working at one of the Olympic celebration sites to find a slew of orders in my inbox - which was a nice surprise. Thanks Etsy! I'm just finishing the last of the backlog of custom orders, so if you'd like a delica ring, now is a good time to snap one up.

Concentric Rings to Start 2010

2010-01-17T17:43:00.001-08:00

I had some time this weekend to play around with my beads and jewelry supplies - and made up this new necklace which I love...

There is something about the neatness of concentric circles really appeals to me.

These rings are made of brass too, so they have a nice weight to them, they aren't heavy, but they have enough weight that they lay nicely around the neck.

I went a little crazy with the picture taking!

Got Craft Holiday!

2009-12-04T08:12:00.000-08:00

This Sunday Dec 6 is when the holiday season really gets going for me.

Maked will be at the best craft fair of the year - Got Craft? "Holiday Edition"!

I love this fair - the vendors are always fabulous, creative people, it's a nice, busy show, lots of my friends shop there and stop to chat, there are good tunes in the background. It's just a ridiculously happy experience. And this year there is a drawing for a Yudu screenprinting kit and an industrial button maker.... which is an extra layer of awesome on top of everything!

Vancouver’s largest indie craft fair Got Craft "Holiday Edition"
Sunday, December 6th, 2009
at the Royal Grandview Legion – 2205 Commercial Drive (at E. 6th Avenue)
between 11:00 am to 5:00 pm. Admission: $2.00 (kids are free)

Featuring over 50 local vendors, Got Craft? has something handmade for everyone on your list from clothing to jewelry to art to ceramics and home décor. Psssst! The first 30 people through the door will receive a free, re-useable swag bag packed full of goodies from all of our vendors. (You have to show up early to snag one of these puppies.)

They will also be giving away a personal screen printing machine valued at $400 Cdn courtesy of Yudu and a DIY button kit including a machine and 250 parts courtesy of Six Cent Press.

For more information and a complete list of vendors, please visit gotcraft.com.

Fangirl?

2009-11-02T20:48:00.000-08:00

Anyone who has every torn photos of cute guys from teenybopper magazines and stuck them on her wall.... should get a kick of this story over at my personal blog. =)

Be Bold

2009-10-24T17:27:00.000-07:00

I've just finished and listed a new necklace. I wanted to make something that took me out of my comfort zone, wanted to push my limits and produce something new and bold. Something that would attract some notice.

I think I succeeded. I'm very pleased. Hopefully someone with the personality to pull it off will find it and fall in love with it too!

Got Craft?

2009-09-29T18:57:00.000-07:00

Maked is officially coming out of hiatus to participate in the best craft fair in the universe.... the Got Craft? Holiday Fair. Yay!

We're thrilled to be vending there again, it's always a blast (and people seem to like our stuff).

If you're local, put it in your calendar - it is THE place to get amazingly creative, locally made gifts. And, there's always a good DJ spinning some great tunes in the background.

December 6, 2009 11am - 5pm. First 30 people get awesome swag bags full of goodies. 2205 Commercial Dr. Vancouver BC

Babies + Crochet

2009-09-23T20:03:00.001-07:00

Yay for finishing baby gifts for people! Finishing projects is so satisfying!

Latest - 1 baby hat with an awesome button made from wood waste, and 1 round ripple baby blanket.

Bring on the babies.

Actually, don't, I'm still way way behind!

(The pattern I used for the blanket is here: http://woven-stars.tripod.com/rippletutorial/)

Esty Awesome

2009-09-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

My latest find on Etsy is Emmy-ray who makes beautiful jewelry and accessories. I'm especially taken by her feather hair accessories - we should all wear more feathers.

She's got a great blog here too, where you can become a follower and keep tabs on what she's up to.

There's no end to the crazy talented people you'll find on Etsy.

Puff

2009-09-01T21:29:00.000-07:00

I remember when I first discovered Lush. It wasn't available in my town so I had to hunt it out whenever I was traveling. I loved their stuff, the unusual scents, the amazing handmade products (this was before the handmade movement busted out, now it's wonderfully easy to find local handmade soaps). I recall walking down the street in Glasgow, Scotland on vacation and stopping, sniffing, and saying to Peter - "there's a Lush nearby", we turned the corner and there it was! It can be overwhelming, walking into a Lush store (in an olfactory sense), it's not for everyone but I still love it.

I have some of their dusting powders but don't use them much because they come in these odd shaker cans and I never could get used to the idea of shaking dusting powder on me like salt. I hunted around sporadically for a nice dusting powder puff. I knew they existed, Mom had one for her Chanel powder, a nice big one in a lovely container. I couldn't find anything! Crazy!

I finally got tired of lamenting the lack of puff available for purchase and grabbed some scrap materials I had handy and made one for myself - this is the joy of being a crafter, after all, being able to just make whatever you need! It's just a random bit of faux fur, cotton fabric, ribbon, and batting sewn into a rectangle. So easy, should have done it ages ago. Now I just need a nice container. In the meantime, I can shake the powder on my poof and apply it with dignity.

If you want one and aren't interested in making it, I did finally find some much nicer ones on etsy.....

This one from Soapalaya Soaps

This vintage can (with powder) from Pursimonia

I'm a Winner!

2009-08-26T19:45:00.001-07:00

Back when I lived in the US I was a sweeper.

A 'sweeper' being the term for someone who enters a lot of sweepstakes. Or in my case, online contests. There are so many online contests out there (especially for Americans, fewer for the rest of us), you could spend all day every day entering and have a hard time keeping up! I wasn't that hard core, but I did all right - I loved having random prizes arrive in the mail. Like a dozen roses, earrings, enormous quantities of Skittles, dvds, books, etc. My biggest win.... $5000 cash from Time Magazine.

Here's a hint to help weed out real prize win notifications from the scam ones.... if you really win a prize of substantial value, they will not tell you what the prize is until they have verified you're eligible for it. In the case of the $5k I had to prove I was of age first, I think.

I haven't entered as many contests since I moved back to Canada, but every now and then I do. I've had quite the streak of luck lately! I've received two lovely packages in the mail recently, prizes from online contests.

The first was a fabulous pair of earrings by Katrinna Louise (a fellow BC crafter) who has a shop full of pretty jewelry. Thanks Katrinna - I love the earrings!

The second package was a tin decorated for christmas with cute little gift tags and envelopes inside. This will definitely come in handy in a few months! Especially since I never have wrapping supplies on hand. This prize is from a monther/daughter run etsy shop called Le Pink Chandelier. They sell vintage and upcycled items. I particularly love the envelopes made from old maps. Thanks for my prize you guys!

The third prize is less craft related but is awesome - I got free passes to the Vancouver PNE (Pacific National Exhibition) - which I've never been to! I also got passes to Playland and a free dinner. So my boyfriend Peter and I are going to have a great weekend.... for free thanks to the Georgia Straight (a local newspaper).

I really like this winning thing. =)

Delica Glory

2009-08-20T20:47:00.000-07:00

Our very popular delica rings have been featured over on this lovely Montreal blog. The writer of the blog is a creative spirit who is raising two beautiful children and running a jewelry business at the same time! I'm impressed.

Notepad Vice

2009-08-15T18:47:00.000-07:00

You may recall a few months back I posted about making notepads out of the scrap paper from my office so it could be re-used before being recycled.... I've been doing this for a while now and decided that I needed a better system if I was going to continue.

So I went to the hardware store, got myself some wood, bolts, and wing nuts. I drew up a plan that would create a vice for a variety of notepad sizes. Just a simple device to hold the paper together while the glue dries. I made some measurements, drilled a few holes, and bob's your uncle, I had a notepad vice. No more stacking textbooks on top of my pads as they dry! I just put the paper in the vice, tighten it up, slather on a few coats of elmer's and it's good to go. The large bolts will allow me to do a big stack of notebooks at once too.

The next step is to get some real padding compound (already ordered it) - the stuff the pros use. The elmer's glue works, it's just very thin so it takes a few coats which is annoying. I'm already loving the process more now and think the end product is more professional looking. Can't wait to get my hands on the padding compound!

Beaded Tank

2009-07-16T21:40:00.000-07:00

Continuing in the theme of finishing projects I started a really long time ago.... I've got this green tank top that I did a little funky bead embroidery on ages ago. It's one of my favorite summer tops because it's casual and comfortable but has a little unique detail on it. Nothing fancy, just a bit of personality.

I liked the finished product enough that I went to the store and got 2 more tank tops to do up. One I ended up wearing plain - I needed a shirt and didn't have time to wait for me to get around to crafting it up (I can be so slow!).

The other shirt got started and promptly shoved in a workbox. I pulled it out recently and decided the bead colour was all wrong (blue on white) - that's what caused me to hit a wall with it. So I took out the beadwork that had been started and I went with something more subtle this time. I've been working at it a bit here and there this week. I think a few more squiggly turns and it will be done.

Those who know me, know that doing random, organic/flowy things is very difficult for me. I prefer lines and patterns and things planned out in advance. Just winging it is not my forte!

But, it's good to break out of your box every now and then and do something that challenges your natural tendencies.

Handmade Swag

2009-07-12T18:04:00.000-07:00

The Vancouver screening of Handmade Nation was fabulous! It's a great film - a neat snapshot of the crafty, DIY scene in the US.

What really resonated with me was the community aspect of crafting. Crafting can be a very isolating/isolated activity. You don't need other people around, you can do most of it alone - that's part of why I love crafting actually, because I like my alone time. But, when I plugged into some online crafting communities, like www.crafster.org, I got way more inspired (and interested in diversity of crafts beyond my beadwork). Then I met some other local crafster forum people, and eventually Maked was born.

It's amazing, the power of the internet to help you forge connections that you wouldn't otherwise. As a result, I've learned to crochet, screenprint, make soap, bind books, do craft fairs, run an online shop.... the list is kind of endless!

Crafting alone is fabulous, I will never knock it, but getting out there and interacting with fellow crafty folks is tons of fun and will energize you to try things you never would have.

As an added bonus - at the screening I got a promotional swag bag full of goodies. Yay! It included an adorable tiny terrarium (complete with alien) by Plantscapes. I love it. I also love this tiny flower pin by Roxypop made from ricrack! It's very vintage-looking.

Design

2009-07-11T14:27:00.000-07:00

I'm picking myself up off the floor to share with you my new totally-don't-need-it-but-I-want-it item.... the most beautiful lampshade ever, called Midsummer Light by Tord Boontje. I just need a place with even higher ceilings first.

More images of his work here.

Of course I'm also thinking.... if I just got myself some tyvek and a supply of exacto knife blades, I could make my own (over the course of 10 - 15 years). Seriously, where does one get crafty-grade tyvek? My preliminary research shows you don't want to use construction grade tyvek and there is a different kind that people use for papercutting arts. Anyone ever seen that in a craft store?

Momentum & Cycle Chic

2009-07-08T07:36:00.000-07:00

I've got an adorable folding bike that I love to bits and I live in a city that's pretty progressive in providing bike lanes/routes (by North American standards).... so I've cycled here more than any other city I've lived in.

But the sporty style of bike accessories frustrated me. My cute bike and I deserved more! I'm not interested in going super fast and getting sweaty. I want to be relaxed and wear normal clothes and arrive at my destination relatively unsweaty. My desire for a more relaxed, stylish form of biking was fueled in a major way by this website - Copenhagen Cycle Chic, which documents the ease with which cycling fits into everyday life in Copenhagen. It's very inspiring - a glimpse into how things could be.

First, after much difficulty, I found a helmet that was in no way aerodynamic (I have no intentions of traveling at speeds where drag will be an issue, thank you), something with a bit of chic to it.

Then I made myself a few bike cuffs to keep my pants out of my chain while riding.

This month my humble little bike cuffs were featured in Momentum Magazine!

Momentum Magazine, a fabulous free magazine all about everyday person cycling (not sporty cycling), put out an issue all about the crafty DIY culture and how it intersects with bike culture. It's a fantastic magazine. If you can't find it in a bike store near you, request it. In the meantime, read it online here. And happy cycling!

(I've got ideas brewing for other bike accessories that could easily be more stylish (bike gloves!). If only I had more time. And magical sewing elves.)

Handmade Nation

2009-07-06T18:29:00.000-07:00

I got my ticket to this event the day they went on sale.

It's going to be awesome. All the crafty people in the area will gather together and celebrate the awesomeness of making stuff. Join us!

Thursday, July 9th, 2009
Location: Rio Theatre, 1660 East Broadway @ Commercial Drive
Screening at 8:00pm, Craft Showcase at 7:00pm

Tickets & Info Here: http://gotcraft.com/handmadenation

Traveling across the world to sold out crowds, it is Vancouver’s turn to join the handmade revolution! Join Director Faythe Levine, July 9th, for Western Canada’s premier of Handmade Nation. Be the first in Vancouver to see the film, meet Faythe Levine and participate in a Q&A and book signing session after the screening.

Tagged as the ‘Ambassador of Handmade’, Faythe Levine has traveled 19,000 miles to document what has emerged as a marriage between historical technique, punk culture, and the D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself) ethos.

A companion book, Handmade Nation – The Rise of D.I.Y., Art, Craft, and Design, features 24 artists, their work environment, their process, their work, and discussions of how they got their start and what motivates them.

For more information, visit:
Handmade Nation’s official website
Faythe Levine’s blog

Header

2009-06-18T07:59:00.000-07:00

Nobody panic, I'm experimenting with a new blog header here.... feel free to comment. Since sock monkeys are no longer a big part of what we do (they pop up rarely), we thought we should retire our sock monkey branding. We'll see how this one works out.

Hiatus In Progress

2009-06-16T20:40:00.000-07:00

Hi crafty people of the internets!

Maked is on a hiatus while all of us pursue other things for the summer. We've still got lots of stuff available in our etsy shop, so keep an eye on that if you need to shop!

If you want some craft blog action - feel free to head over to Lisa's blog, Burrito West, which often features crafty adventures and has nothing at all to do with burritos.

The photo at left shows a top by my new favorite Etsy shop - a designer in Montreal, Ramona Lisa Designs. I'm in love. Go check her out.

Organic Cotton Goodness

2009-05-10T18:00:00.000-07:00

We had a blast at Got Craft last week - it was busy and packed full of awesome vendors. We've got stuff left over that we're slowly listing in our etsy shop.

I've already listed a few of our silkscreened organic cotton totes. Megan and Rhiannon had a brilliant idea for these - they sewed ties on the top so you can tie closed the bag while in use, to keep your purchases safe AND you can roll up the bag and tie it into a tiny little package (see left) - which means it's easy to throw one in your purse. I think that's awesome.

Here's a sampling of our prints - keep an eye on our etsy shop if you want one! (Click photos for larger versions.)

Craft Hiatus

2009-05-02T13:10:00.000-07:00

Hello world!

Maked is going to be at the best craft fair in Vancouver on Sunday, May 3 (11-5)! Got Craft - with 55 super awesome indie artists selling their fabulousness! Check it out - at the Legion Hall on Commercial Dr (@ E6th Ave).

This may be your last chance to buy Maked stuff in person, as our group is going on a bit of a hiatus afterwards. Not sure what the future brings, but everyone is busy with exciting stuff in their lives, so Maked is being put on the backburner. We may return one day.... no one knows!

Thanks to everyone for their interest and support - the four of us came together because of the awesome online craft community, so we really value the network of talented people out there in the internets! Craft on!

Screenprinting

2009-04-23T13:22:00.001-07:00

Wednesday night Megan and I did a marathon screenprinting session to finish off our 2 new product lines for Got Craft.... and everything looks awesome, if I may say so myself.

We've got organic cotton tote bags which are strong enough to carry your goods, but light enough to squish up nice and small and not take up much space in your purse - you can always have it with you!

And, we've got thick, super long jersey scarves. I wore mine today, and good thing because Vancouver has decided to revert back to January temperatures! But I was snug as a bug with my super cute scarf.

We had a lot of fun working out the images for these, and hope they'll be really popular at the fair! (Whatever doesn't sell at the fair will eventually make its way into our Etsy shop.)

We did our screenprinting at a place in Vancouver called Blim, which is a great resource - they are a Community Based Art Resource Center which facilitates screen-printing, button making, drawing, knitting, local underground audio, film screenings, animation, video, dance, spoken word, visual art, creative workshops, and crafts in the independent field. You can take workshops to learn everything you need to know about screenprinting, and you can book time in their studio space. For us urbanites living in apartments, it's perfect- we can do all the messy stuff at Blim! Definitely a place to check out if you're local and wanting to learn about screenprinting.

Clothing Swap Love

2009-04-16T11:01:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite Vancouver events of the year is coming up this weekend (April 19) - Swap o Rama Rama!! I love this event!! I've volunteered the past 2 years and will do so again this year.... that's how much I believe in the awesomeness of this event - I want to help make it happen! The organizing torch has been passed this year to the organizer of Got Craft (best craft fair in town) in partnership with the Vancouver Craft Mafia, so I think it's going to hit a new level of awesome. (Can I set a new record for the use of the word awesome in one blog post do you think?)

The gist of the event is that you bring all your unwanted clothes - do a good spring cleaning of the closet and get rid of those things that don't fit, that you don't like, that you never wear, etc - you hand them over at the door (with an admission fee to pay for venue rental n stuff), go into the swap area, grab as much stuff as you want from the heaping piles of clothes.... then you can go to one of the craft stations and work some crafty magic on your new find. Screenprinting, sewing, stencilling, embellishments, whatever you fancy. Crafty people are on hand to assist. At the end of the day all the left over clothing goes to charity. I love it. I get rid of clothes taking up space in my wardobe (I do not have space to spare), and I get to bring home fun new stuff which saves me from having to go shopping - yay! And because all the clothes are free, I can grab some funky stuff that I probably wouldn't buy but want to try.

To find a Swap-o-rama-rama near you, check this link.

It's really seriously awesome. I highly recommend clothing swaps - even if there isn't a big swap-o-rama-rama event in your area (they happen in a couple cities), you can organize a little clothing swap amongst your friends (helps if you're all generally the same size). I did this once with some friends here and I still have a skirt and top from it that I love.... and my friends were happy to see their neglected clothing being loved by someone. It's funny how fun it is to give away your clothes to someone who LOVES it. =) Something that was buried in a drawer and never saw the light of day becomes a featured part of someone else's wardrobe - that's awesome. A cheap and fun way for everyone to renew their wardrobes.

Epsom Salts

2009-04-13T17:38:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I acquired a single skein of Noro Silk Garden Lite in pinks, greys and purples. I decided to make a bowl and felt it. I could display pretty things in a pretty bowl. This seemed like a better idea than a hat that I wouldn't wear.

Here is the bowl:

what I didn't count on was Silk Garden not felting. There's too much silk and too little wool, then combined with my cold-water-only washing machine, I was hooped. Basically instead of getting smaller and stiff, I got a larger and floppy bowl.

This sat on my craft table for a few weeks. had thoughts of starching it but there was no starch in my house. I could have bought starch, but food and more yarn ranked higher on my priority list.
But then Ravelry came to my rescue. There were other things you could use instead of starch to stiffen projects.

1. White glue and water. Con: Can go yellow. Didn't have glue in house.
2. Sugar and water. Con: can attract bus and critters.

But the one I used was Epsom Salts! I had a tons of these because they are great to put in the bath to relieve sore and tired muscles, or mixed with a skin friendly oil as a body scrub. Wiithin 10 minutes I was boiling 6 cups of water and 6 cups of epsom salts.

While this was happening I covered a tupperware container with plastic bags and saran wrap to make a properly sized and shaped form for the bowl to dry on. I placed it on a tray covered in was paper.

Once the mixture boiled for a few minutes, I took it off the burner and let it cool down. Once it was cool enough to put my hand in, I put the bowl in the mixture until it was soaked through. The wet bowl then went onto my mold and dried overnight.

The next morning the bowl was dry and kind of firm. It could have held small ad light stuff but nothing too heavy. But by 2 days later it was completely hardened. I filled it with stray lip glosses, eye shadows and bobby pins, and placed it centrally in my room.

Overall I am really happy with this method and would definitely use it again. The drying process does take a few days, but the boiling part is really quite quick. It's also cheap and gives me another use for something I always keep in the house anyway. I had a few crystals on the rim of the bowl but they were easy to dab off with a wet cloth. I keep think of the possibilities of lace bowls, and anything that gets me thinking of a next project is a definite winner.

Sun!

2009-04-08T07:37:00.000-07:00

You might be wondering where is Maked and why aren't they blogging about awesome crafty stuff? Our blog posts have become somewhat sparse.... are we frantically preparing for the upcoming GotCraft? Busy with orders from our Etsy shop? Well, yes, kind of a little of each of those... but, to be honest.... the sun came out in Vancouver and along with it came proper warm spring temperatures. It's been a loooooong winter, so we've all been making the most of the good weather. And, 1/4 of Maked had a birthday! Happy Birthday Megan! (Check out her brand new Etsy shop - you can see where Maked gets its cheeky sense of humour.)

We'll be back at it soon!

In the meantime, I'm pulling a project from my archives to share - one of my favorites - the Tiramisu Blanket. It's a crochet pattern by Posie Gets Cozy - you can find it here (pdf). I love the texture of the finished blanket, and the ribbon detail. I made this for friends who struggled for a long time to have a baby, so when it all finally worked out for them, it was extra special. I'm hoping the blanket gets used up until it falls apart. Made with superwash wool from Knitpics in a great buttery yellow colour. Great yarn, great pattern and I love the finished product!

Got Craft? We sure do!

2009-03-31T08:09:00.000-07:00

We were very excited to find out recently that we've been selected as a vendor at our favorite craft fair in Vancouver: Got Craft? This was the first craft fair we ever did as Maked - so it has a special place in our hearts. It also happens to be THE BEST fair there is in town. It's been getting bigger every time as word gets out about its awesomeness. It's a great collection of indie vendors selling ridiculously creative and unique products. It always has a great vibe as a result of putting so many creative people in one room for a day.

It's also becoming legendary for another reason.... the first 30 people through the door in the morning get a swag bag filled with product samples and promotional items. Every year these swag bags get better. We're always kind of bummed that we can't stand in line for them! But, as more and more vendors apply for tables at the fair, we're very happy to have a spot even if we miss out on swag. =)

Hope all you Vancouver peeps will come out and see the awesomeness! It's May 3, 2009, 11am - 5pm at 2205 commercial Dr. Vancouver, BC To check out the list of vendors that will be there - go to the Got Craft Vendor Page.

Here's Megan and Rhiannon, hard at work making fabulous stuff for our table at Got Craft:

The Missing 'R'

2009-03-29T21:22:00.000-07:00

I had an epiphany recently. In my ever on-going quest to reduce my impact on the environment, I remembered the old R-R-R they taught me in elementary school.... and I realized, we've all been glossing over the first and second 'R's. Reduce - Reuse - Recycle. Be honest now, how many people kind of skip right to recycle and gloss over the whole reduce and reuse parts? Especially 'reuse'?

This was highlighted to me at my office where people are really good at recycling waste paper... except a lot of it is blank on one side. So, I've started collecting the reusable paper to cut up and turn into notepads. People will now reuse the scrap paper and then recycle it. Maybe the notepads will also help remind everyone about the other poor, forgotten Rs.

Here's the proper tutorial that inspired me, over on an awesome blog on The Small Object. But I couldn't find any padding compound locally and I heard school glue works just as well so that's what I used. (It works okay, I think padding compound might be better. I have to do a few coats of school glue to get good coverage.)

I cut the paper on a paper cutter to roughly the same size, paint some glue on my stack of paper (I'll split this up into thinner pads when its dry), stack some books on top to keep it all in place, and wait for it to try. Stupid easy project. Give it a try!

While you're waiting for the glue to dry - try to think up other ways you can Reduce and Reuse to lighten our load on the planet!

Fibres West 2009

2009-03-22T18:29:00.000-07:00

Rhi and I went with the lovely Alexa to the show this year. It was a decently long and early drive to Abbotsford but overall worth it. I was expecting the show to be larger, with more independent seller presence, and more animals, but I still managed to spend all the money I planned to spend.

My purchasing mission for the day was undyed fiber. As a result most of the pictures are less then inspiring. I'll post follow ups of the dyed and spun fibers eventually. I'll also get Rhi to post her llama pictures.

Top left: 100% local Llama from the Fibres Plus booth.
Top right: Set of felting Needles from the Shades of Narnia booth.
Middle left: Magazines from Knitopia in Langley - the wearable art, and the paper issues
Middle right: angora wool blend from a booth I can't remember. ugh.
Bottom left: 100% bombyx silk from Twist of Fate.
Bottom right: this was bought at safeway when we stopped for lunch. it'll help make the fiber more exciting.

(Side note on wrist warmer pattern: After a bit of thinking, I am going to be providing my patterns under a name other thn maked. I hope to have a website up by the end of May. However, in the mean time, if you want the armwarmer pattern, email me at {staminea at gmail dot com} and I'll email it to you.)

Egg Fun

2009-03-17T22:32:00.000-07:00

Easter is still a ways off.... and it's been a long time since I've dyed eggs - but this tutorial has me itching to do it again!

Check out the adorable eggs - there's a full tutorial on how to achieve this awesome result over on LollyChops (pic is hers also)!

I finally did it!!!

2009-03-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know that this is shameless advertising but this has taken me forever and a day to actually get my poop together so I am pretty excited and I can't contain myself!!!
Check me out heart-on and I will be adding more stuff as time goes on!!!

teaser!

2009-03-10T20:26:00.000-07:00

Here are the wristwarmers I made from the fiber I dyed last week. Sometime in the next week we will put up a free pattern for them on the website. Get 200 grams of 28 st gauge yarn ready! You even have time to custom dye it with your own kool-aid.

Dyeing tutorial I used is here.

Good News!

2009-03-02T13:36:00.000-08:00

Button Button is reopening!! This is only good news if you're in the Vancouver area, but for those who are it's very very very good news. They'll be in gastown around the end of this month. Those are all the details I know of but it's all very good.

But I can't post without pictures so here's some hand-dying I've been doing. The original yarn is Diamond Alpaca Prima, I dyed it with kool-aid, and it is becoming garnet stitch armwarmers.

Button Button!!

2009-03-01T19:02:00.000-08:00

I absolutely love buttons to bits!!! Ask anyone who knows me. I am always on the hunt for cool buttons!! I seem to find them in all sorts of unexpected spots in all different shapes and sizes!! I was cruising the world wide interweb and happened to come across something that blew my mind. Not only was it a button but it was made out of chocolate which united two of my favorite things: chocolate & buttons. I mean really what more can you ask for????

I am yet to purchase the molds and all the goodies to go with it but as soon as my next pay cheque comes in I will definately be going on a bit of a shopping spree at Bake it Pretty they also have a tutorial and some freebies for their nifty packaging!! I think that these would be super cute as grab bags at birthday parties or baby showers or anywhere where you'd love to leave your guests with a pleasant tastes in their mouths!

Hope this makes you as happy as it made me!! xox

Baby Gift #1

2009-02-25T10:38:00.000-08:00

Whoo hoo! I finished one of the baby gifts! Just in time too, I think the first baby is due in a week or two (it's hard to keep track when everyone is pregnant.) [Previous post on this topic.]

I'm very pleased with how it turned out. It was a little fussy pinning everything in place just right so the ricrack would poke out the way it should, but I took extra care to make sure my fabrics were measured and cut into proper rectangles which was a huge help. Usually I'm a little sloppy on the measuring/cutting front... you can imagine the frustrations that causes.

I'm very pleased with this little blankie - I love the polkadot fabric especially - it's cute without being nauseating. And, note that I actually managed to sew straight lines!! WHOO! I was so excited that I did a second round of topstitching.

Hopefully some little kid will be dragging this blanket around for a few years and the mom will have to hide it so he/she doesn't try to take it to the first day of preschool. (Also - I've found a new use for my floor loom - a blanket rack.)

Design hurdles

2009-02-23T23:11:00.000-08:00

The above image is direct from my design notebook.

I'm currently most focused on a simple openwork shrug made from Teva Durham's moss yarn. I'm using the turquoise and I am just loving it. I think that some people are turned off by the nylon content but it's not bothering me one little bit.

After that swatching that original chart a few times, I realized that I wasn't happy with the burst-/spider-like part of the motif. I left it alone for a day and then spent most of Friday in a downtown cafe re-working it. I finally settled on something and am now just finishing with ball 1 of two on the sample.

One thing I am really struggling with is the charting process. Not actually figuring out and drawing the chart, but making it look professional for the pattern. I just have no idea how to get it into the computer. There's one program I found that might work, but it doesn't look great for charting is expensive considering it has so many other features I wouldn't use. I also found a crochet symbol font, but it didn't look great in the preview.

I realize I could solve this by just writing the pattern out old-school, but you know what, I really like charted patterns for open work. I think they are much easier to follow and break apart if you're having problems. The other solution I'm considering is hand drawing and then scanning it. I anticipate this taking hours of my time, and not really ever feeling like it's "good enough to sell".

But otherwise I am feeling more and more comfortable with the design process. The shrug pattern will be done in 3 sizes and that feels like a step up from bags and scarves. I also feel like it's motivating me to take on more advanced projects for my personal crochet/knitting projects. So overall this is good. I feel like each pattern and project is something more than the last and I'm super motivated to keep in that direction.

Another scarf? Why yes.

2009-02-22T11:03:00.000-08:00

I'm starting to realize that, uh, I may have more scarves than I need. But I love scarves. And I really love making scarves - so low pressure, no worries about gauge and fit, you can just grab a yarn and go.

This scarf/shawl was done using a pattern from A Little Slice of Life who has been creating wonderful lace patterns for crochet (the spiral scarf pattern is hers also). I used some yarn in my stash left over from my first ever weaving project (another scarf, see last photo). I actually really dislike the yarn - it's a plastic-y acrylic.... but I'm trying to be good about using up my stash and it was a good weight for this project and it turned out quite nice.

Confession Time

2009-02-20T14:04:00.000-08:00

So there's a little secret I've been keeping from Blogland. For the last two weeks, and for the next month or so, I have been, am and will be unemployed. At first I thought I was embarrassed about being unemployed, but then I realised that wasn't really the problem. I lost my job through no fault of my own, I have another job lined up, and I really hated my old job anyway and I'm glad to be moving on. I realised today that I wasn't embarrassed about being unemployed. But I WAS embarrassed about how little I was getting done. There's a lot of pressure involved when you self-identify as a crafter. Free all day with a huge stockpile of craft supplies... I should be blissfully churning out the goods. But I haven't been. I've been dabbling.
But you know what? It's been good. Yes I'm sleeping in, yes I'm leaving showering way to late, and yes, I haven't cleaned the cat box yet. But I'm starting to realize that this time has been really good for me and allowed me to jump into things that I was too afraid to before. For example:

A) I started some colourwork mittens.

Sure, in the beginning I was cursing because they were turning out way too small. But it turns out they fit my housemate perfectly. Yay for friends with tiny hands! And I had some issues with the thumbs, but I think I've figured that out too. (Knitting stranded mitten thumbs is much easier if you knit them inside out).

B) I started socks!

And not just any socks but cabled socks, two at a time, toe up with heel gusset and flap socks. And they're for a specific person (husband) and I have a deadline (birthday). These have been causing me a LOT of frustration, but I think things are starting to come together.... (Pictured is my fifth attempt.)

C) I've been getting to spend lots of lovely, outside, sunshiny time with this guy:

We've been doing SOME training. But mostly just stinky beach exploration.

D) I actually BAKED some stuff. Including BREAD. That uses YEAST. This is something that I was afraid of for a long time. And I won't lie, the process was stressful. But the goods have been turning out not bad at all.

You gotta start somewhere right?

It's about time!!!

2009-02-18T08:52:00.000-08:00

Ok so I think it is about time that I finally post!! I am the long lost member of Maked, the one that is usually off somewhere and comes back just in time to take all the credit!! I know I sound like a total jerk but sometimes I am able to make a fine contribution here or there!!!

Today I am here to tell you all about the lovely and talented Rhi!! She has made me some gorgeous arm warmers and her latest feat was the cutest little outfit for my best friend's baby. The little ensemble included a little toque and jacket with lovely buttons that I had found at a flea market in japan!! I think she wore the thing the whole time we were together, which was about 4 days, so there you go Rhi, she is already getting lots of wear out of it!! Everywhere we went people were commenting on how darn cute she looked in her little ball of yarn. Ok without further ado here is Rhi's masterpiece!!!

She is always dawning an adorable toque (beanie to anyone not from Canada) so I fear that she may never grow hair but I'm ok with that!!!

And here is the full outfit she looks a little bit like a little emperor. I love it to bits!!! Thanks Rhi you're a peach!!!!

Improv Awesome

2009-02-17T22:22:00.001-08:00

This post is in no way craft-related... except it is about very crafty people. But crafty as in devious... awesomely devious.

There's a group in New York City called Improv Everywhere that exists to cause chaos and joy in public places. They're most famous for the Frozen Grand Central Station stunt where 200 'agents' froze in place at the same moment in Grand Central Station and didn't move for 5 minutes (this is now a world-wide event done with flash mobs) - but there are others that are even more quirky and charming.

If you need a smile and a laugh - go poke around their website. I'm an urbanist so I absolutely love that strangers come together for the sole purpose of doing something random and awesome to make other people smile or scratch their head or have a memorable experience.

Some of my favorite "missions" - these make me smile every time I read them:
- Best Buy
- Best Game Ever
- Moebis
- Food Court Musical
- Circle Line Tours
- Look Up More

I promise, reading/watching some of these missions will make your day.

New! Patterns!

2009-02-16T21:21:00.001-08:00

First, I want to say what a wonderful job I think Lisa is doing with her posts. I enjoy the surprises of her posts whenever I think about posting. However, this also means, I really need to post more.

My productivity is continuing, but it's definitely a case of my eyes/yarn lust being bigger than my stomach/schedule. My one day a week at the yarn store has turned into full time and my entrepreneurial dreams are on the forefront.

One thing I have been trying to focus is writing up some crochet patterns. I have four in the works right now. The first is my Cupcakes for Secrets. I have half of this done in a note book that I must locate. Then I can finish the second half and get it finalized. The second two are both for spring scarves, but are very different in style. I hope to have one done by the end of the month, and the other done in March.

The fourth project is completed. It is a simple and practical market bag that's perfect for the spring farmers markets. I used 1 skein of Louet Euroflax and had quite a bit left. You could also substitute it with another linen yarn, hemp, or even cotton. The pattern is up in our etsy shop now. You can get it in .pdf format or as a paper copy.

Here's a picture of it holding 3 skeins of Cascade EcoWool:

Novel Notebooks

2009-02-08T20:09:00.000-08:00

At our most recent Maked meet we finished of our first batch of Novel Notebooks - which we always sell out of at the end of the year, so we're starting early in the hopes of having lots of stock on hand this year.

The best part of making these notebooks is hunting down the hilarious novels at thrift stores around town. We look for cheesy romance, over-the-top sci-fi, random weirdness (see photo), and nostalgic stuff like Sweet Valley High. It's a hilarious shopping trip.

We've started listing some of the new notebooks in our etsy shop, so keep your eye on out for them!

Crochet Patterns

2009-02-07T17:53:00.000-08:00

Thought I would share two fabulous (free) crochet patterns. Both are by Crochet Kitten, and I'm hopeful they've got more coming because everything they do is awesome!

Here's one for a cute pair of wrist warmers. Click here.

And one for a crochet version of the very popular knitted Clapotis shawl. Click Here.

Hearts!

2009-02-05T22:26:00.000-08:00

Just a quickie - some cute hearts are floating around the internets:

1.) Heart-shaped paperclips - so cute and easy!! Over at How About Orange.

2) Crocheted 3D hearts (see pic) - free tutorial over at Owlishly.

Enjoy!

Babies Galore

2009-02-01T09:19:00.000-08:00

I have about 15 friends who are pregnant right now.

Well, that might be an exaggeration, but it's at least 4.

Normally I like to craft gifts for new babies but I'm pretty overwhelmed by the number of them this year. I'm going to take it one baby thing at a time, see how far I get.

I've got the fabric picked out for gift #1 - a baby blanket made using this tutorial at the Purl Bee. I think it'll be pretty cute and snuggly and a lot faster than crocheting a baby blanket, which is what I did for the last baby. (See pic below - this is the Tiramisu pattern by Posie Gets Cozy.)

If anyone has suggestions for other quick but awesome baby gifts, I'd love to hear them!!

Eye Candy

2009-01-29T20:55:00.000-08:00

Just some eye candy - I had a little fun with the felt flower hair pins we made up recently.

(You can make them too - our free tutorial is here!)

Tiny Beads

2009-01-26T07:45:00.000-08:00

I love beads. Give me a lump of glass with a whole through it and I'm a happy girl. Give me some delica beads, and I'm your best friend forever. Delica beads are Japanese beads of unrivaled uniformity. They are perfect for beadweaving where you want each bead to lock into place like a little brick.

I recently discovered that there is a smaller size of delicas available, size 15. Since I'm all for anything that makes my work more time consuming and painstaking, I ordered myself a little sample. I tried to get a photo for you but the size difference is hard to capture. The gold bead is the smaller one. They're AWESOME. So tiny, so perfect! I made myself a ring which I'm totally in love with. The smaller beads mean the 'fabric' is just a bit more flexible and .... I don't know, finer-grained? It's definitely love for me.

Obsessed with Material Obsession

2009-01-23T13:03:00.000-08:00

It's been a week of rough seas for me. But the kind where it's all the more glorious when you find yourself safe on shore. So I'm just keeping my gaze fixed on that shore and reveling in the amazing support of my husband, family and good friends.

And now I also have this to focus on.

Melanie Falick just posted a preview on her STC blog and oh...my...God I am so excited.

Mostly because of this quilt:

I just love it.

And apparently the book is coming out in February so I don't even have to wait that long....

Check out the preview here.

See previews for other upcoming books from STC Craft here.

Join me in blog stalking the "Material Obsession" authors here.

Wham, Bam, Thank You Cosy

2009-01-20T13:53:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to show off a recent knit.

I followed the general idea of this pattern in that I knit a short scarf in garter stitch and then seamed it up wonky. I love how this makes a little triangle that sticks down and covers that little V of exposed skin without adding any bulk under my coat. And although a pull-over style probably isn't best for a super finicky hairstyle, I love just plonking it on and not worrying about buttons coming undone or the ends hanging down and getting in my way.

I've been wearing it all day and think it may be more suited to in-office and spring wearing. When I'm outside I find myself wishing it was a smidge warmer. I probably should have knit with smaller needle to make the fabric denser, cast on more, and knit a couple less rows. Of course then I'd have a scarf for outside and nothing for my chilly, but not as chilly as outside, office. But, I have some yarn left, and re-knitting would use it up... Argh. It's these things that can make knitting stressful for me. These silly decisions that don't really matter but I end up thinking about them all day. And I don't why it bothers me so much to have yarn left over. I want to use it ALL.

I should mention that the yarn I used is a gorgeous handspun merino/tencel thick-and-thin 2-ply from Cosy. I love it and I'm having trouble letting any of it go to waste.

I wonder if this pattern would look as good with the garter ridges going horizontal as opposed to vertical. Then I could cast on enough to go around my neck and just keep knitting until I ran out yarn. Maybe I'll try that with some of the other yarn I got from Cosy.

hmmmmmmmm. I don't know. Decisions, decisions.

But it's all good cause I'm cosy in my new knit.

Finished Objects 2009!

2009-01-19T22:21:00.000-08:00

I don't have anything profound to say - I think I will let the fact that I have finished objects to show already and it's only Jan 20 speak for itself. ;)

So the weaving project I started during the holidays... I finished the weaving portion during the holidays and now just have the dreaded finishing finishing to do. I'm not super thrilled with how the scarf came out, it's a little more rustic than I had in mind. Still, I will finish it and show it off properly, but here's an action shot to give you an idea!

The first really finished project of the year for me is a crocheted hat. It's called the "Divine Hat" and the pattern by Rheatheylia can be found here. I LOVE it. My hat came out a bit on the big side, but I don't mind. I made it out of one of my stash yarns - Bernat Satin. I'm not a huge fan of acrylic yarn (I'm trying to use up all of it from my stash so I can buy natural fibres) but I have to admit that every project I've made with the Bernat satin yarn has been very nice. So if you have to go acrylic, it's a good one.

Hope everyone is is having a good crafty start to 2009. Here's to many more finished objects!

Umbrella Lightcover

2009-01-15T22:01:00.000-08:00

I went to London last year to visit my sister, which was awesome. She lived in Notting Hill at the time and I loved the neighbourhood - the streets with picture perfect Georgian rowhouses... I'm a sucker for that stuff. There was one cute little shop there full of delightful things that you would expect to find in a charming, quirky shop. Including a fabulous umbrella. I loved it, had to have it. Bought it. Forgot that I still had several international flights ahead of me. Needless to say, the umbrella did not survive the baggage handlers. So, I mourned my umbrella - Vancouver would have given it lots of use too.

Here it is being enjoyed by my cat. Notice the handle has broken off. It took forever to get the umbrella open once it had broken.... then we couldn't get it closed again. It sat around, open, looking sad for a while.

Then, inspired by Kalin, I decided to use the leftovers as a light cover!

I had a drab, boring light in the little entryway alcove to my tiny apartment so I decided to string it up there. A hacksaw shortened the remainder of the pole, and then it was just a matter of some eyehooks screwed into the ceiling and some wire - and - bob's your uncle - it was done.

I think it's a big improvement.

Here are the before shots (yawn) - we've got nice high ceilings, otherwise this wouldn't have worked:

And after - much sassier, I think:

Treasury Love

2009-01-15T14:49:00.000-08:00

Mrswoowoo included one of our items in her fabulous love-themed treasury on Etsy. It's perfect for Valentine's day without being sickly sweet!

Check it out:

BSJ WIP

2009-01-11T16:33:00.000-08:00

Dear Megan,
I thought I'd do a little post updating you on how those knits you wanted are coming along.

The sweater is almost done. Aside from sewing on buttons, the only other thing I want to do is fix up that neckline a little. I'm thinking I'll do a crochet edging to even it out. And as for said buttons, I've got a couple that might work but I thought I'd get your input. It's times like this I really miss "Button, Button" (a button store downtown that was awesome but had to close b/c of soaring rent). I'm thinking something woodsy...

I've finally made some decisions about the hat and got going on it during my trip to Toronto. I've started with a little I-cord knot on top (like the Stitch N Bitch Umbilical Cord hat). Once I'm done the increases I think I'll throw in some garter ridges (kinda like in this hat) to pull it together with the sweater.

Also what I need to do is figure out what size baby the sweater fits and make the hat so that it fits the baby at the same time.... hmmmmm. If only there was a coordinating BSJ hat pattern that would just say "using same yarn and needles, cast on this many stitches."

Anyways, let me know what you think so far!

Variegation etc.

2009-01-11T15:00:00.000-08:00

Well it's not Friday, but it's only been a few days. It was a busy, yet awesome weekend. Busy might not quite be the right word because I had very little scheduled, but it was all I wanted.

Anyway, as I mentioned I have been attracted to yarns I wouldn't normally use. In particular yarns that are variegated and self-striping. I used to completely avoid them, but since December I have been loving them. Here's a sampling of the ones I have bought and used.

This beautiful silk, kid mohair and nylon blend called Maiden Hair fromHandmaiden was the start of it all.

My housemates request for something fuchsia lead me to making a bikini top from colinette.

I also made my first project using a noro yarn (the lovely Kochoran) but used my favorite stitch pattern, the diagonal box stitch. One skein made a perfectly sized neckwarmer.

My nephew also asked for a blue scarf so I picked worsted weight, kettle died merino from Malabrigo. It's my top priority project to finish right now. It's helping my knitting speed up, but I'm not very pleased with my edges.

And finally, the project I have been calling "My Rabbit" all week. It's a primarily angora yarn called Peter Rabbit by Fleece Artist and the colourway is Cosmic Dawn. It's soft and warm and one skein makes a scarf. The pattern is from the latest Interweave Crochet.

Google Alerts

2009-01-08T14:59:00.000-08:00

Every week I get two emails from Google Alerts. One is for "maked" and the other is for "maked crafts". I don't feel either provides me with much insight, but it has made me realize how many people don't know the proper past tense of the word "make". Occasionally there are a few things worth noting...

I find out about other blogs who have mentioned us or have linked to us. For example, Watashi no Uchi Desu has us in their blog links and Spotted Sparrow included us in their list of Holiday Inspiration.

Often, I'll get alerts about "maked" that will just include the word "make" which it's kind of silly because it's a really, really common word. Once, of all the blogs it chose to include was my lovely friend Diandra's blog. Her post had nothing to do with us at all, but her post where she "made" something put her in my alerts.

That's all for today. Tomorrow expect pictures of beautiful varigated yarns.

On working in a yarn shop

2009-01-06T13:47:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking a lot lately about my new job at the yarn store. Every spare minute I have is spent thinking about yarn and crafts and designing and all sorts of other big life things.

First off, all I want to do is create fiber things. All day I get to think about everything other people are making and by the time my shift is over I can not wait to pull out my own projects. This has lead to finishing and planning lots of projects in the last few weeks.

That leads me to the fact that I am now also a knitter. I have yet to finish a project, but I am working on two and have a few more planned. They all lead up to a beautiful pair of silk and cashmere knee-high cable socks. It's very exciting.

Not only am I learning every day I also get to share my own knowledge. I share with customers all the time, and then staff because I am the most experienced crocheter here right now. But above all I am officially an instructor now. I taught my first crochet private lesson today. It was long but went really well. I'm only doing private lessons for now, but who knows what might happen in the future.

I'm also starting to officially design. I'm working on two spring scarves, plus will finally finish my Cupcakes for Secrets pattern. I also might do a bikini in the summer out of Skinny dyed cotton by Blue Sky Alpacas.

But all in all, there's just something lovely to being surrounded by all that yarn. Every day I discover something I hadn't paid attention to the day before. I'm working with colours and fibers I wouldn't normally work with. My fiber heart growing and it feels awesome.

100 Craft Tutorials

2009-01-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

Need some crafting ideas for 2009?

This lovely blog, The Long Thread, has put together a list of 100 of her favorite free online tutorials - that should keep you busy for a while. ;)

Afghan-covered buses

2009-01-02T09:49:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year crafting world! Hope everyone had a fabulous holiday and a bright outlook for 2009.

An interesting bit of local news for Vancouver - our Main street trolley buses will get a very interesting public-art treatment starting on Monday.... they'll be covered in the material usually used for advertisments except it'll be afghan prints, just for fun. Details here at the Buzzer Blog (photo from there as well). I love seeing the fusion of transit and art and crafts.

Loom action

2008-12-30T14:40:00.000-08:00

Ah, holidays. Free time. As sad as I always am that Christmas is over, meaning it's a whole year until it comes again, it is followed by a lovely period of total free time. No social obligations, no gifts to buy/wrap/deliver, no cooking to be done, nothing. Just a pair of pjs, some movies, some books, and lots of crafting and cat cuddling. It's pretty awesome.

I took the time to finally warp my loom! Setting up a weaving project is very daunting. You have to make all your decisions at the start (without really knowing how it'll turn out) and if you find you don't like it when you start weaving, you're kind of out of luck. So, it's easy to procrastinate getting started. Also, it seems very complicated. I have a set of step my step instructions that I've followed on all of my projects so far and it's always worked out, so I did that again.

I started with a pile of amazing yarn - an angora/something blend (I forget), it's stupidly soft. I found it in the form of a men's XL sweater in the thrift store which I unraveled ages ago (oddly satisfying). It's been washed and sitting, waiting for a project worthy of it. I decided it would be perfect for a woven scarf.

Here's the warp being made on my warping board (scored that for $10 at a yard sale, sweet). I added some colour by putting in a few random stripes of blue and purple rayon boucle.

Sleying the reed. (Weaving terminology makes it sound very serious.)

I should mention at this point that I really don't know what I'm doing. Weaving concepts such as sett are still very fuzzy to me... but I proceed anyway.

And everything seems to be working because.... I'm weaving!

This is my view while weaving:

One day, that will be a super soft scarf of awesomeness.

mmmmm, marshmallows

2008-12-28T17:59:00.000-08:00

Wow. I didn't realize that I hadn't posted since October. I might have to rethink my approach to blogging. One of the things I worry about is posting too much, but I think it's safe to say that I could up my frequency. Also, Kalin and Lisa pointed out to me recently that, what do you know, people actually read the blog! So ... hello!

We're coming up on a new year, and though the Christmas season was busy, it's also been a sort of purging, kick in the butt time for me. It forced me to get crafty despite all the distractions that I had let take over my life. I actually pulled out the sewing machine!

See!

Although, one of my favorite gifts that I made had no sewing involved.

Cocoa Kits!

Oh my goodness. So easy. So yummy. Will make you so obsessed with finding tiny cookie cutters.

Now I know Christmas is on it's way out for this year, but you still have time to whip up some batches for any Jan. 1 polar bear swimmers you may have in your life. It's also great for kidlets who have their birthdays in the cold months.

I got the cocoa recipe from LollyChops. You could go one further and use her gift bag template (which is awesome) but I didn't use it because: 1) I don't have a colour printer 2) I'm pretty obsessed with mason jars right now 3) Maked Megan is home again which has flared up my obsession with packaging.

For the marshmallows I used this Marth Stwart method. But you also have to check out this adorable tutorial. Here are some things to keep in mind when making marshmallows:
-The stuff is STICKY. It will get on anything it touches. BUT it washes away very easily. A little hot water and off it slides.
- I put in a little peppermint extract as well. WIN!
- When I do this again I'm going to spray my spatula with cooking spray. This stuff is STICKY.
-Beware: You really do need a high quality mixer for this. I used my cheapo hand mixer and the white goop makes so much resistance that the mixer went totally kaput. You need you some metal insides to handle this stuff.
- I don't think they mention this in the recipe I linked to, but you'll want to dredge your marshmallows in icing sugar to keep them from sticking together (and make them even yummier).
- Try not to leave these until the very last minute like I did. The marshmallows need to sit for at least 3 hours to set and the dredging takes time too. I was up until 2am finishing. Do as I say, not as I do.

Yuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Soapy

2008-12-22T22:57:00.001-08:00

It is seriously snowing out here. Again. It's like a real Canadian winter, except that no one has winter tires or proper boots. =) But, it means I get to stay snuggled up inside doing happy things, which I'm very happy about.

One thing I did today was package up the soap Peter and I made to give as gifts this year. It's a blend of a pile of oils (we have so many oils in our cupboards) and is quite fabulous. It looks kind of wonky but it's a good hard bar of soap with a great lather and moisturizing properties. It's a cinnamon/clove scent (essential oils) which we like. Here's hoping people l like it!

I'm off to bake cookies!