From The Craft Room

Archive for April, 2008

Well, I’ve finally have a banner close to what I had in mind for this site. It still needs some tweaking, but it will do for now. I’ll deal with the rest of the design at a later date. Once I get back from vacation next week, I’ll write up a post as to why very little crafting has been going on on my other blog, Domestic Geek, and link it here. Let’s just say that major suckage has been going down lately.

One good thing is I’ve finally knit up the felted clogs I started weeks ago. All that’s left to do is to actually felt them. Huzzah! I may try to squeeze in time to do it tomorrow, but with packing and getting ready to leave for Tennessee early Monday morning, I don’t know if I can. I was really hoping to have them done so that I could take them on the trip, but alas, that was apparently not meant to be. I had also intended to have a crochet sun hat I’m working on completed, but like I said, not a whole lot of crafting lately.

A happy note:
Our travels this week will take us to Indiana. While inquiring on a Ravelry board as to a good area yarn shop to visit, I learned that the Yarn Harlot will be speaking in Indianapolis on Tuesday. Marcus agreed to accompany me and I get a 2nd chance to not only meet her, but perhaps even have photographic evidence, as well. Yay!

As I’m sitting here looking at my little ol’ craft blog, it strikes me that I utterly hate this theme. I’m in the process of designing a new header, but I don’t think that’s enough. The color is bothering me, I hate the post footer, the sidebars, the background. It’s definitely too boxy for a blog about creative pursuits. I don’t know if I want to take the time to design my own from scratch or start looking for a new theme to use as a jumping off point. Will have to ponder that at work this evening.

I guess I might as well be brave and upgrade Wordpress while I’m at it.

I’ve been wanting to make some t-shirt designs, but don’t really want to invest in the materials to silk screen right now. I was reminded of a technique that I should use instead when I read the Stencils Anonymous post at Crafty Daisies. Freezer paper makes a wonderful t-shirt stencil. Must put freezer paper on this weekend’s shopping list.

A week ago, I was at the Parker SnB and the owner of Purls of Wisdom, Jen, was showing me how to do a stitch in the Fiber Trends felted clogs I was starting. As she’s sitting there watching me, she suddenly shrieks, “She’s on the tips!” She reaches down and pushes my stitches down further on the needles. Stunned, I asked if being on the tips is a bad thing…apparently, it is. I guess it’s a big factor in the huge amount of stitches I drop. Who knew? I’ve been doing that since my very first knitting lesson and didn’t know it was wrong. I thought maybe it was just the size 13 needles I was using, but I found myself doing it this morning while working on my dishcloth with the size 6 needles. So, I’ve been carefully watching what I do and am trying to break the habit of knitting with the tips.

Today is the first day of being on 2nd shift at work. I actually got 8 hours of sleep last night! I think this new arrangement is going to work well. I can put my effort into things I want to do early in the day while I’m fresh and then work gets what is left later in the day. I also know that being on my more natural internal rhythm is going to do wonders for my mental health.

I’m going to be able to take better pictures of my WIPs and FOs! Thanks to my most kind, generous, loving and amazing boyfriend, Marcus, I am the new owner of a Canon SX100IS digital camera. I was so heartbroken after having no pictures from The Yarn Harlot signing that I decided I was getting a new camera with the tax rebate check in May. I spent all day Saturday and part of Sunday researching cameras. I had about five different models that I was interested in and would make up my mind in the next month. Marcus suggested we stop into Sears after lunch so I could play with cameras and help make a decision. I narrowed my choices down to two Canon models — the SX100IS and the A720IS. The first had features I really liked, but was more expensive. I decided I would get the A720IS. Well, Marcus asks the clerks if either model was in stock. They were out of the A720IS and had one SX100IS. He says we’ll take it. My jaw hit the floor. I protested. I told him I could wait. I told him it was cheaper on Amazon. It’s sitting here on my desk as I write. He’s too good to me.