Steampunk Softies: Scientifically Minded Dolls From A Past That Never Was

I first heard about the Steampunk genre several years ago, and though I can't remember my first introduction to it, I have found the Steampunk aesthetic fascinating. This portrayal of a past-that-never-was conjures up images of worn leather, top hats and monocles, victorian corsets and fans, aged brass buttons, and of course a really cool pair of aviation goggles. There's a certain sense of adventure that goes along with the Steampunk genre: along with its victorian sensibilities, it also depicts a future as H.G. Wells or Jules Verne would have envisioned it. Modern technology like computers are powered by steam, and pirates and explorers rule the skies in their zeppelin-like flying airships.

I suppose it was only natural, therefore, that when I randomly saw "Steampunk Softies: Scientifically Minded Dolls From A Past That Never Was" on Amazon, I just had to go for it. I was immediately intrigued, and also surprised that I had never heard of this book before, considering all the craft blogs I follow (though I suppose it only came out in 2011). This little book is definitely a treasure.

Steampunk Softies features patterns for 8 steampunk characters, each with their own intimidating list of materials. Before you even get started, however, the authors give you tips on cutting out the patterns, gluing, and aging fabrics, and also a reassurance that most of the detail pieces can be found in jewelry or hardware stores.

Each character has a little introduction, complete with their name and back story. One of my favourites is Geronimo Bore, pictured above, a prospector with a drill attached directly to his arm and who just can't resist the "glittery things you find in rocks". Though his drill arm and eye patch look complicated, they're constructed with such simple things as a screw, a button, an O-ring and some embroidery floss.

Another one of my favourites is Charity Storm, the dedicated aviatrix with her own set of wings. As with all the patterns, the list of materials is rather extensive (it takes up the whole left-hand column on the first page), but upon closer inspection, it's mostly stuff that most crafty types would have lying around anyway: a scrap of purple wool, a scrap of metallic lace, a couple of domed metal buttons... In addition, each step is illustrated, and a 360-degree view of each character is given. So despite everything, these softies are not as daunting a task to construct as it first appears.

I have yet to make anything from this book, but I'm definitely excited to (yeah, yeah... grad school). I'd probably start with the doctor Ferris Scapula (pictured on the cover in the top hat) because I think I already have most of the materials for him, but I'd love to make any one of these softies! In all, Steampunk Softies is a lovely little book, and definitely a great source of inspiration.

The Diatom Shawl

For the first time in my life, I succumbed to buying one of the gorgeous knitting kits that Knit Picks has to offer. Somehow I had always thought that buying knitting kits (unless they're from awesome independent designers like Joanna) were a waste of time and creativity. I mean, if you're going to knit a pattern, shouldn't you have the freedom to choose which yarns you'll use? That's always half the fun for me.

But then... Then, my friends, I discovered the Diatom Shawl. When I first saw it in the Knit Picks catalogue I knew I had to make it, and, as it turns out, the neutral colour palette looked just perfect to me! The incredibly awesome nerdy story behind this shawl also appealed to me. Designer Kerin Dimeler-Laurence explains:

Any lady who uses the phrase "order of magnitude" is ok in my books. To paraphrase, her shawl design is based upon the diatom called the Arachnoidiscus, a cute little unicellular organism that looks something like this:

The resulting shawl is nothing short of gorgeous!

And it's huge! I didn't have enough blocking mats to accommodate its 5-foot diameter, so I used a curtain rod and a cleverly U-shaped blocking mat configuration to block the darn thing.

As Karin says, the knitting of the shawl isn't nearly as hard as it looks. I had trouble in the arrowhead lace section, but only because the pattern became so darn repetitive that I got really bored with it. Also, the fact that it started off with only 7 stitches and grew to 612 stitches by the end didn't help, especially when it took 45 minutes to complete a round near the end. Fortunately, those gorgeous colour changes near the end really helped me make it through the home stretch. The yarn is, of course,Knit Picks Palette, which is a nice solid fingering weight wool. It's lovely, but they gave me way too much of it with the kit, so now I have two and a half balls of the white yarn that I have no idea what to do with... Ah well, I could have worse problems!

Ok, I was wrong...

I admit it! Ball winders (in combination with a good swift, of course) are AWESOME! For the longest time, I figured I was good enough at winding balls by hand that I would be just fine without a ball winder... but I was wrong. I mean, I can wind an entire skein of Cascade 220 into a nice little cake in under five minutes!

Let me slow down and backtrack a bit. For X-mas, my lovely mother gave me a Knit Picks ball winder. This one, to be exact:

I was a little dubious at first. "Will this really make winding my yarn into balls faster?" I asked myself. And of course, it did. I got this beautiful cake of yarn in just a few minutes:

Which is now a lovely centre-pull "ball" (if you can call something cylindrical a ball):

I thought it was so cool, I even made this ridiculous video with my ball winder and swift in action (yes, I'm a super nerd):

Flavour Zen Tastes

The boyfriend has started a new blog! He's calling it Flavour Zen Tastes, and he's using it to write about his explorations in food. He recently acquired the taste for coffee and has been experimenting with adding interesting flavours to this drink with a local coffee shop owner Brian. He's also been writing about the delicious food we get to eat on a regular basis (yes, this is why I'm getting fat), such as this mouth-watering mustard-crusted trout:

You should go check it out!

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:

The Annual X-mas crafting review (Part 1)

The Newtonmas presents have been handed out, the wrapping paper has been cleaned up, and the traditional holiday dinner (home-made pizza in our house!) has been eaten. That means that it's time to show the world what I made everyone for X-mas now that I don't have to be all secretive about it! This will likely be a very long post, so I'll start with the knitted gifts and save the rest for another post.

I'll start with the big one: this year, I knit my first man sweater. My dad expressed an interest in getting a hand-knit tennis sweater... you know, the v-neck cabled cardigans, usually white with a navy blue stripe around the collar? (Something like this.) It had to be a cardigan, because Dad gets hot easily. I couldn't seem to find a pattern I really liked that was free or in a book I already owned, so I designed my own! This is how it turned out:

I actually worked this sweater in pieces because I couldn't think of a good way to do it seamlessly at the time (though I thought of some later after I'd already started). Designing the sleeve caps and arm holes was interesting, since I decided to go with a set-in sleeve, but the sweater design section of Debbie Stoller's Superstar Knitting came in handy. There are a few elements I'm really proud of, as well. I'm a huge fan of these pockets, for example:

I'll probably post this technique as a tutorial on the Happy Seamstress at some point, but it's essentially an afterthought pocket with more forethought. Yeah... that makes sense. I'm also quite proud of the button band. I did a double-knit button band using this tutorial. The buttons I acquired whilst at the Buttons and Needlework Boutique in Victoria.

The oatmeal-coloured yarn is Diamond Yarn Galway Heather, an aran weight pure wool yarn that was very nice to work with (though it felts extremely easily). I have two balls left which might become a laptop case for the boyfriend. The red yarn is KnitPicks Wool of the Andes, which was gifted to me by Joanna. (Thanks a bunch, Joanna!) She had some left over from her cupcake kits.

Most importantly, Dad seems pretty happy with the sweater. The fit is good, and he's actually been wearing it since he got it, which is a good sign. Here he is, showing his approval:

The second hand-knit gift I made were these lovely soft cuffs for my Mom.

The pattern is Mrs Beeton by Brenda Dayne and the yarn is some stuff I got at the Knitty Yarn Round Table in September called Heaven's Hand Silke (pure silk, nom nom nom!) and the leftover Filatura Di Crosa Baby Kid Extra from the cowl I made Mom last X-mas. I used some iridescent purple beads from my bead stash. I really liked knitting this pattern... it's super cute, and pretty clever. And working with the Silke was amazing. I wish I had a bathtub of the stuff.

Here's a funny video I took while she was posing at the piano and didn't know I was filming:

The last yarny gift I made this year was this cute little teddy bear for my friends' baby:

I pretty much just made up the pattern as I went... and I'm not sure I entirely remember what I did, but it turned out awful cute, right? I used some yarn from Mom's stash and she also knit the little scarf. And of course, here's the mandatory cute baby picture, taken by her parents and not by me. She's very studious:

Next time I'll show pictures of the shinier presents I made. Stay tuned!

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!