The Annual X-mas Crafting Review (Part 2)

Besides all the X-mas knitting I did this year, I also made a few things out of wire. For my friend Stevie, I made a snail...

This piece was created by twisting some 1.5mm aluminum wire into shape with pliers and then hammering it into place. I added a jump ring and then put it on a pleather cord (not pictured, unfortunately). This was surprisingly quick to make, and I'm quite happy with the design (which was actually conceived of by the boyfriend). I'd definitely use this design again for earrings or pendants... perhaps even to sell on Etsy eventually? I even made the clasp!

For my Mom, this year, in addition to those pretty knitted cuffs, I made a shawl pin:

I again used 1.5mm aluminum wire to make the basic shapes, then hammered them into place and attached them together with a thinner silvery wire (not sure of the material). My favourite detail is the vintage button attached in the centre there. I had been planning on putting a bead or something, but then inspiration hit and it just seemed to fit perfectly. It's one of the vintage buttons I picked up at the Creativ Festival this year.

I'm also a huge fan of the dangly bit at the end of the pin part. I used a Swarovski crystal and a teardrop-shaped glass crystal bead.

And of course the boyfriend insisted on showing off my work in the setting of his epic beard:

Jewelry for your knitting (or crocheting)

Ah, the holidays! Endless hours of time wastage! At least that's what mine have been like so far. It's wonderful... Speaking of the holidays, my knitting group had their holiday party a couple of weeks ago. Besides eating way too much, drinking way too much, knitting a ridiculous blanket, and watching the rotisserie channel (yes, this is a real thing), we had a gift exchange! Since I can't bear the thought of facing the mall and going shopping this time of year, I used my crafty skills to make something: stitch markers!

I had decided that the necklace I made at the Creativ Festival was really not something I'd ever actually wear, so I took it apart. The components are really great, so I used some of the beads (Swarovski crystals!) and the leftover wire to make these, essentially just a head pin and a loop to slip onto your knitting needles.

I used the instructions from this website to make the spiral head pins, but I'm not sure I'm a huge fan. They don't sit as flat against the bead as I'd like them to.

I wasn't entirely sure who'd be receiving these stitch markers, and we do have some crocheters in the group, so I also made the above crochet stitch markers. I think they look kind of like earrings. My friend Alia was the lucky recipient of all these, and apparently she's really enjoying using them. Huzzah!

Birthday jewelry

As my second hammered wire jewelry project, I decided to make Joanna a necklace for her birthday.

The chain and magnetic clasp (not pictured) were bought at Madame Pickwick, a favourite craft store in my home town of Sherbrooke, QC, and the beads are from my very aged stash. Everything else, including the jump rings and eye pins, was fashioned from copper wire that I bought at Planet Bead in Milwaukee, WI. Here's an in-progress shot:

And just in case anyone is interested, this is what my workstation looks like when I'm playing with wire:

Going clockwise from the computer we have, well, Nikola, my new Macbook pro which adds music and video entertainment (on this occasion I was listening to CBC Radio 2), water for hydration, my bead stash (that I've had since I was a teenager), my flat-nosed pliers (with the blue and black handle), the world's smallest anvil, my round-nosed pliers (with the purple handle), my teeny tiny hammer, my side cutters (with the purple handle), my chain-nose pliers (with the white and blue handle), a crochet hook for making jump rings (I use this method), my needle-nose pliers (with the black handle), my work-in-progress, and my spool of wire.

All in all, I think Joanna liked her necklace. Here she is, showing it off on the special day:

The Creativ Festival and my incredible desire to become an alpaca farmer...

Because really, who could resist this face!

Photo courtesy the Happy Seamstress.

That's Ozzie, the resident alpaca at the Spinning Wheel Alpacas booth. We are totally best friends forever.

Photo courtesy the Happy Seamstress.

Right, so Ozzie (a.k.a. the best alpaca ever) was one of the features at the Creativ Festival, which I just happened to go to this past Saturday with my friends Joanna and Lisa. I didn't go absolutely nuts on the purchases, which is sometimes a problem when presented with so much crafty awesomeness, but I attribute that mostly to having taken a Steampunk Wire-wrapping Jewelry class with June Beach in which I created this crazy thing:

My favourite part is the dangly steampunk button at the bottom. I must admit, however, that my wallet didn't escape the festival completely unscathed. I splurged on this gorgeous sparkly and super soft baby alpaca yarn:

I also picked up this absolutely gorgeous hand-carved shawl pin:

One booth was selling used crafting books (at least I think they were used) for very reasonable prices. I got Nicky Epstein's Knitting on the Edge for a mere $10.

I got a bunch of buttons and beads, some of which were free, and the rest of which were pretty cheap:

The best find of the day was this tin of buttons I got for $5 filled with these really cool vintage-style buttons, none of which I disliked (and you all know how rare that is when you have a random assortment of anything).

I really love those cameo ones...

And now I'm all inspired to make stuff! If only I didn't have that pesky PhD to worry about... sigh.

Playing with wire (or One Down, Three To Go)

This here is my newest toy:

And this here is my newest obsession, the result of which is the first completed project from my Pay-It-Forward venture:

That's right, I've picked up yet another craft: hammered wire jewelry. I've done a fair bit of jewelry-making in the past (see here for some examples), but most of it has simply involved putting different elements together into an interesting completed object, not necessarily creating the elements that go into the finished project. The above is my first attempt at doing a bit of the latter, by bending wire into cool shapes and hammering it flat so it holds the cool shapes. I must admit that I was greatly influenced by some of the amazing artists on Etsy, especially Nicholas and Felice, who make the best ever shawl pins.

I started off my adventure with some simple sketching. I had the idea for the earrings first, and then I went on to make the necklace.

I learned a lot during the process of bending and smashing the wire. One of these things was that you shouldn't bang a piece of wire with beads on it... more likely than not, your beads will get smashed. I also learned that beads break easily if you try to force them onto a piece of wire that isn't straight. I think the most important lesson, however, was to look before you cut. To show off all my mistakes, here's my pile of failure:

Anyway, for a first attempt, I'm very happy with how they turned out. My mom, at least, who was the lucky recipient of this jewelry, seemed to like it, and now I've payed her back for the pretty dress she made me:

Here are some more pretty pretty pictures:

Chainmail and wire crochet earrings

I've recently become enamored with chain-mail jewelry (especially after making that jewelry for my mom), and recently, after being inspired by some earrings from this etsy shop that are no longer for sale, I decided to give it a another go.

With the exception of the ear wires, I just used material from my beading stash, and the whole thing took me less than an hour, so they weren't much of an investment all things considered. The ear wires are pure silver, the bead is glass, I think, and the wire and jump rings are silver plated. The hardest part was making the loop for the bead wire.

This next set of earrings was a little more difficult, but only because crocheting wire is an act of pure masochism. Well, it's not that bad, but also not for the faint of heart.

I used the thinnest wire I had with a 2.5mm crochet hook and made my own jump rings with slightly thicker wire. The join in the jump rings isn't as tight as I'd like, so I'm thinking it might be worth investing in a soldering iron. I'm not sure what the construction of the wire is, but the thinnest wire certainly isn't gold because it's already oxidizing a bit. I guess I'll have to invest in higher quality materials too.

I'm toying with the idea of maybe opening my own etsy shop, but we'll have to see. I certainly plan on making more of this jewelry!

The even more overdue X-mas knitting post, part 2

I mentioned last time that I overcame my fear of stranded colourwork with those Spidey Socks. Well, as part of my X-mas knitting, I also overcame my fear extremely fuzzy silk-mohair blends (à la Cracksilk Haze). For my mom, I knit Romi Hill's Ice Queen from Knitty. I didn't use Rowan's Kidsilk Haze, but a slightly cheaper similar yarn called Filatura Di Crosa Baby Kid Extra in a gorgeous silvery grey colour.

I love this pattern. It's so simple, just a feather and fan kind of design, but it works so well with this yarn. And fuzzy mohair blends are just made for knitting with sparkly little beads. I used some little shiny purple ones from my bead stash. It ended up stretching out a little more than I'd hoped for, but Mom still likes it, so it's ok.

The beads I used for the Ice Queen, I also used for my second attempt at chainmail jewelry. I made Mom a nice necklace to match the earrings I made her last summer.

I used the basic rosette from the Chandelier earring pattern in the Anticraft book and then attached them together using these beaded wire thingies. I think the hardest part was making all the loops for the wires, since opening and closing jump rings is pretty easy after a while.

Finally, for my Dad, I made an iPod cozy... Yeah, it seems like I copped out a bit on that one. However, I also got him Sean Carroll's awesome new book, From Eternity to Here, which hopefully makes up for the lack of hand-made gifts.

I used "The BEST iPhone cozy EVER" pattern by bethanye. It's really simple, but works perfectly. I love the little pocket, to which I added a little button for extra security. I also made it a drawstring pouch. I used the left-over yarn from Stevie's socks.

I've actually been doing a LOT of knitting recently, and making a slight dent in my stash, so the lack of posting hasn't been for want of things to write about... I've just been incredibly busy. Hopefully, over the next week or so, I'll be able to catch up on my most recent FOs!

Slinky skinny lacy beaded scarf

Lately, I've been doing that thing people call "burning the candle at both ends", a condition brought upon by deadlines for grant applications and generally having way too much on my plate with the start of classes. As a result, I'm sick for the second time in two weeks, most likely the end product of getting fewer than 5 hours of sleep most nights and not eating regular meals... and maybe some stress thrown in there. For not getting sick in a whole year, I'm certainly making up for it now.

Anyway, enough about my health. Let's talk about pretty shiny things. I like pretty shiny things, things like my new pretty slinky skinny lacy beaded scarf. I started it during the Stitch 'n Pitch in July and finished it up during my trip to the Townships in August, and it was my first attempt at knitting with beads, which, I'll admit, was a little annoying. At least, having all 200-something beads strung on the yarn beforehand and having to pull the yarn through them all is pretty annoying. I would find another way to do it next time.

The yarn however, some Dye-Version Bamboo Sport I bought at the Purple Purl way back in August, 2009, was an absolute joy to work with... So silky and smooth...

I used the Twin-Leaf beaded scarf pattern by Jeanne Giles, which was pretty easy to memorize after a few repeats. I did 51 repeats in total, which made the whole thing over 6 feet long... pretty sizable. Again, knitting the beads was slightly annoying, but kind of neat, and I absolutely love the end result. Enough that I'd do it again in a different pattern. Anyway, I didn't make any major changes, so without further ado, here are the pretty pictures:

Pretty earrings for Mom

Things, as usual, have been very busy. I found out that I did indeed pass my general qual (like there was ever any doubt!), and then rushed to get my research poster finished and printed for the NRDA conference last week. I'll save the details of that trip for a separate post. I got back into the city Saturday evening among all the G20 craziness, but fortunately, my supervisor gave me a ride in his rented car, and I was able to avoid downtown. Now, I should be rewriting my code to be able to accept multiple hybrid combinations in a row, but I've come down with a terrible headache and so I'm blogging instead. May as well be sort of productive!

Today I thought I'd show you some pictures of these earrings I made my mom back in February (better late than never, right?), which I had intended to also act as stitch markers, though I don't think Mom's used them in that capacity, which is fine. I bought a couple of sets of clip-on earring findings at Mary Maxim, one gold set and one silver set. For the gold ones, I decided to make it simple, and just thread a few beads onto a headpin and make a loop with my trusty needle-nose pliers.



I think they're actually quite cute, and I really like the look of gold and red together... it's got something of the regal to it. For the silver earrings, I decided to go a little more on the fancy side. I based these on the Chandeliers from the Anticraft, but I didn't have enough jump rings to do the pattern suggested in the book, so I made it up a little as I went along.



Making chainmail is kind of frustrating since if you put a ring through the wrong way, it totally doesn't work anymore, but I guess that's more or less true of any craft. Even though it's not terribly forgiving, I think I would try it again, just gotta buy me more jump rings.

So, that was my latest jewellery-making extravaganza. I should really do more of it. Next time we speak, I will probably show you some amazing baby knitting! Oh the cuteness!

And hey, the drugs just kicked in and my headache's gone! Woo!

A more or less (but mostly less) productive weekend

Yesterday, I made a shopping trip at the Yonge-Eglinton Centre where I picked up some kitchen supplies at Kitchen Stuff Plus (I love that store!) and a few balls of cheap acrylic yarn at Mary Maxim (since Romni doesn't sell anything either cheap or acrylic).

That evening, the man and I went to the TSO where they played Ravel's Alborada del gracioso and his Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D Major, as well as Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, Op. 100. The soloist was Louis Lortie and the conductor was Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The performance was absolutely thrilling. Nothing beats live orchestral music... We were sitting in cheap seats behind the orchestra, which wasn't so bad because we could see all of the conductor's facial expressions, and besides being a little brass-heavy, the balance was ok.

Today I started and finished crocheting a quebecois beer cozy for my boyfriend. It is loosely based on that pirate can cozy I talked about in a previous post, except I had to invent a fleur-de-lis applique pattern and switch up the colours a bit to be more... erm... patriotic. It turned out pretty well (though the applique could probably have been better, but I'm lazy) and the man loves it. A picture and pattern will likely come later. I think he's really missing la belle province, and it's nice to have reminders of home. His Christmas present was a Quebec care package, and he was super happy.

Speaking of beer cozies, the eyes of the pirate beer cozy were starting to fall off (stupid french knots) so I decided to try my hand at beading, and this was the result:



I think it's ok, though the mouth is kind of funky. It's my first time doing beading on fabric, so I guess it turned out alright for a beginner's attempt.

Finally (maybe), I started making a sleep mask for the man (gosh I'm a good girlfriend) from this pattern, altering it so that it's much less girly. I'm going to knit one layer of black and one layer of blue, and possibly put some fabric between these and then crochet them together with blue. The blue yarn I'm using is the leftover stuff from the quebecois cozy. It's Patons Astra in Electric Blue and it's very soft. I'm also doing it in stockinette stitch instead of garter stitch.

So, overall, I've been pretty productive, though probably not in the right areas of my life. I'm supposed to write an abstract for a poster representing my research by Tuesday, and there's this big pile of essays on my desk, just waiting to be marked...