Your Argument Is Invalid

Scrap Yarn

Getting rid of more scrap yarn...And I found the cutest pattern EVAR at ATERG Crochet's Etsy shop!  Who doesn't need a wee owl to keep company with??  ;)

Lowland Originals has a quick and easy shawl/wrap pattern to use up some of that leftover sock yarn you have lurking about...It's here.  You could totally make this out of worsted scraps as well, for when it's really chilly out.

I love how she's encorporated buttons into this little decoration.  Perfect for a kid's room, or your art room!

Want

SHEEP PILLOW.

Drool

One of these days, Imma win the lottery and buy everything off the Golding website...

Crazy bat spindles...

Ring spindles...

Awesome Celtic spindles...

I'll definitely need a new Lazy Kate...

And some lucets to play with...

Since I am such a Fiber Artiste, a sheep wheel will also be necessary...

And this wheel too, because...um...because...I WANT IT.  ;)

Ira Glass

I don't know if I can express how very true this amazing quote from Ira Glass is.

“Nobody tells people who are beginners, and I really wish somebody had told this to me, is that if you’re watching this video you’re somebody who wants to make videos, right? And all of us who do creative work like, you know, we get into it and we get into it because we have good taste. Do you know what I mean?

Like you want to make TV because you love TV. You know what I mean? Because there’s stuff that you just like love, OK? So you’ve got really good taste and you get into this thing that I don’t even know how to describe but it’s like there’s a gap. That for the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good, OK? It’s not that great. It’s really not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not quite that good.

But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, your taste is still killer and your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you, you know what I mean? Like you can tell that it’s still sort of crappy. A lot of people never get past that phase and a lot of people at that point quit.

And the thing I would just like say to you with all my heart is that most everybody I know who does interesting creative work, they went through a phase of years where they had really good taste and they could tell what they were making wasn’t as good as they wanted it to be. They knew it fell short, you know, and some of us can admit that to ourselves and some of us are a little less able to admit that to ourselves.

But we knew that it didn’t have the special thing that we wanted it to have and the thing what to do is… Everybody goes through that. And for you to go through it, if you’re going through it right now, if you’re just getting out of that phase or if you’re just starting off and you’re entering into that phase, you’ve got to know it’s totally normal and the most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work.

Do a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week or every month you know you’re going to finish one story. You know what I mean? Whatever it’s going to be. You create the deadline. It’s best if you have somebody who’s waiting for work from you, somebody who’s expecting work from you, even if it’s not somebody who pays you but that you’re in a situation where you have to try not to work. Because it’s only be actually going through a volume of work that you are actually going to catch up and close that gap. And the work you’re making will be as good as your ambitions.”

My Bad

So...

Neglected blog is neglected.  :/

It's not a case of blogfade, more a case of exciting things happening and plain old getting out of the habit of posting, but with the start of the new semester, the same old same old has returned and lots of yarny posts are on the way!

So what happened?  Finals, and then I went to Spain, bitchezz!  My very first archaeological dig!  :D

Pintia is an Iron Age necropolis near Valladolid.  The whole experience was beyond awesome, and though I am not completely decided that archaeology is going to be my thing, as a history geek, the fact that I was literally able to hold history in my hand was incredible.

One day, while I was doing the same old-same old, grubbing in the dirt and hoping that we might reach a good artifact layer at some point, this just appeared in a pile of earth at my feet:

A 2000 year old needle, as perfect as the day it was last used...I literally could have dusted it off and started stitching...well, if I could sew, that is!  ;)

One of the tombs we found contained ancient ceramic bobbins that would have been full of thread or yarn:

I think everyone else on the dig thought I was insane for geeking out so hard over some old yarny stuff.  I have to admit I was disappointed that there were no spindle whorls discovered this year.

I spent a lot of time this summer working on my long-term goal: Project Use Up All The Yarn as well, but somehow I managed hardly any spinning time...Too many projects to finish up!  How is it that I have any number of basically completed items just sitting in boxes waiting to have the ends woven in??

Since I've finally got the camera working again properly, I'll try and show off some of the things I made 2 or even 3 years ago and just actually finished during vacation!  *hides face in shame*

;)

YAY!

I am so excited that I just have to share...

Hyperbole and a Half is coming back!!!

And she drew us airplanes!

:D

YARN!

Dancing Leaf Farm on Etsy has some really incredible colors...Seriously, look.  LOOK.  :D




She dyes both yarn and roving, though when I last checked, there seemed to be a bit more roving than yarn...This is not A Bad Thing, but you non-spinners out there had better get to shopping quick!  Though most of her fiber seems to be merino or plain Australian wool, her colors are just amazing.

Sock Heel Project

This is an awesome project from Ravelry by Taina.  It's mostly in Finnish, since she's from Finland and all, but it might be a really cool thing to try out yourself, or run it through Google Translate and keep it as a reference.

The linky is here.

Patterns I Love

Sheer genius.

Procreating ungulants, indeed!  :D

The Fiber Factor Contest

So Skacel Yarns is having the coolest contest EVAR.

All entrants receive the yarn, needles and supplies for each project free from Skacel, just for starters.  The winner of each round gets a $500 prize, and the Grand Prize is an all expenses paid trip to Germany to check out the Addi needle factory and prance around a yarn mill.  GERMAN YARN!  IN GERMANY!  :D

Guest judges include folks like Franklin Habit, Cat Bordhi, Lily Chin, Lucy Neatby, Ysolda Teague, Cookie A and basically almost any A List Knitwear Designer you could think of!

Check out the website here: The Fiber Factor.

I Has A Crafty

Ever since I moved into my apartment over a year ago, I have been struggling with organization, particularly in the bathroom.  My old space had a large linen cupboard, and a long countertop where I was able to keep my makeup all sorted into bins, hang my necklaces on pretty scrollwork jewelry organizers, and all kinds of good stuff.  My new place, as much as I love it, has absolutely NO counter space, and nowhere at all to put my beauty junk.  I have hardly worn earrings other than for special occasions, because it is such a pain to dig them out of the bottom of my jewel box.

Since I have no counter space, and no extra room for additional storage, I have been wracking my brain for ideas to maximize the space I do have, and came up with this:

An afternoon of stitching around the edges of some plastic canvas with a bit of acrylic, some ribbon, and I have a handy little earring organizer!

The top part is my favorite bit...Little bows, and I used a decorative brad I had on hand as a hanger.

My local JoAnn's had some 12 x 12 decorative metal squares, and I looked at them a few times, wondering what on earth they could be used for...

Slap a few magnets on the backs of some makeup containers, and it's handy cosmetics storage!  (And you get a cookie if you notice the reflection of my little paw in one of the eyeshadow cases  :D )

Done and done, the bathroom counter is cleared!

Geekosity

Lipstick Chemistry

Many, many moons ago I worked as a cosmetician, but since then I have definitely fallen into a makeup rut. I like what I like, I do minimal makeup on a daily basis, and my Fancy Party Makeup has been the same for years.  But that doesn't stop me from BUYING ALL THE THINGS, because you know the advertising that tells me I will be rich, beautiful and admired if I wear Such And Such brand is all trufax.

This leads me to my makeup collection, which contains maybe 30+ lipsticks, at least half of which I bought, tried once, and realized the color was terrible or not what it appeared to be in the tube.  And throwing them all out just seemed like a giant waste of money.  Then I realized lipstick melts in your car on a hot day, so could I recycle all those icky lippies and make a color I would actually like?

I grabbed up all those old, weird colored lipsticks, as well as a couple that had been favorites and were now all used up except for bits down in the bottom of the tube.

I actually used an old dental pick I had lying around to pry the product from the tube, but something like a tiny spatula would have been much better for scraping out the very bottom of the lipstick case.  Some of the info I found online mentioned using a double boiler, but I am an impatient person, so after emptying all the lipstick out into a small jar...

I melted it in the microwave.

You don't want to boil it, or get it so hot that it burns or separates, so I just did short 15 second bursts, three times, and stirred it between each go-round.

It is really important (and I can't stress this enough) that once it is melted, put it into the container immediately.  And when I say 'immediately' I mean ZOMFGS HURRY HURRY HURRY!  The first one I did is still useable, but it is super-messy and lumpy.  Your new lipstick will pour right out of the jar easily, provided it is still very hot.

I ended up with this:

From a bunch of unwearable orangey-reds, a pink that looked like cotton candy (ugh), and some tans...AWESOME!  :D

I didn't do any real measurements, but here's the list of colors I used:

L'Oreal Timeless Tawny
Cover Girl Toasted Almond
Revlon Natural Cocoaberry
Revlon Blackberry
Revlon Smoky Violet
Revlon Mulled Wine
Clinique (unknown pink)

Google tells me you can also add a stick of lip balm to make a sheer color, or throw in one of those lipsticks with sparkle to jazz things up a bit...You could even go raid the bargain lipsticks at the drugstore and make your own custom colors!

Imma need more containers...  ;)