Swap-o-rama 2011

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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!

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.