Vickie Howell’s St. Patrick’s Day Knitting Projects
Vickie Howell has two great projects to knit for St. Patrick’s Day! You can make this quick and easy mitered knit shamrocks or dress up your favorite little one in these shamrock booties.
E-Book Review + Giveaway: Stitch Village by Joan Gorman
Stitch Village by Joan Gorman
Stitch Village from Joan Gorman of Nini Makes is a great example of a beautifully designed, well-executed e-book for crafters. It’s a great collection of charming and easy-to-tackle projects that will have you firing up your sewing machine and threading up your embroidery needles faster than you can scroll through all the pages in the book. It’s the first in her series of Stitch Village books wherein she hopes to provide instruction and resources for crafters looking for a new challenge.
A lot of contemporary crafters are skilled at multiple crafts yet want to learn more. Though we live in a modern, disposable world, I think many of us still need to craft but for 21st century reasons, mainly just to switch off. I hope these simple projects will allow people to do just that, and lose themselves in little stitches.
Projects in Volume 1 include delightful mushroom canisters made from repurposed containers, embroidered tote bags, iPod cases and more. Each is clearly explained (and in some cases, include step-by-step pictures, a treasure in craft books!) and includes full-size patterns. Perhaps my favorite thing about the book is that all the patterns can be printed at 100% and used with no changes. No worries of reducing or enlarging, just print and craft. I love that!
Joan brings her friendly voice and delightful aesthetic from her blog right into the book, making it fun, easy to read and very engaging. Her mix of projects combine ones that are simple and fast with ones that will give you just enough of a challenge to feel like you are learning something new. It’s a perfect blend, and a beautiful book.
Stitch Village, Volume 1 can be purchased in Joan’s shop and comes with a free Cheeky Cherub embroidery pattern. A percentage of sales from every volume of Stitch Village will go to charity. Volume 1 donations will be made to the British Red Cross for the Haiti appeal.
Book giveaway time!
Two lucky Craft readers will win a downloadable copy of Stitch Village. Just leave a comment telling us why you’d like this book. All comments will be closed by Noon PST on Thursday, March 11 and winners will be announced Friday on the site. Good luck, and be sure to check out Joan’s blog over at Nini Makes!
Researching Crochet Abbreviations and Definitions - Crochet Tip #61
What are some crochet terms and definitions that you need help understanding?
You will find pattern authors that have their own terms and abbreviations. You may be new to crochet and not understand any of the language. We are global crocheters, so some terms will be different around the world, depending on the country you are in. When you stumble across something that you do not understand, I always recommend you ask the pattern author first, since they are the best resource. Sometimes it is difficult to reach the author, so you must do alternative research. That will be posting on different message forums exposing your question to a variety of people. There is usually someone who will be able to answer the question.
I am including a link to a chart, with many of the common crochet terms.
Crochet Abbreviations
http://crochet-mania.blogspot.com/2008/12/crochet-abbreviation-chart.html
Winners of the February-March 2010 Giveaway
Congratulation to lizbethcanez, vermuchosvideo, omarakeen, winners of the February-March 2010 Giveaway.
Thank you to everyone who participated. I will continue to do more giveaways.
How-To: Fuzzy Knit Chicks And Mini Eggs
These little fuzzy friends come just in time to welcome spring. Check out Whit’s Knits over on The Purl Bee for the pattern and tutorial.
Upcycled Gun Jewelry
This jewelry made from reclaimed gun parts is a beautiful conversation piece. The intention of the GUN Reclamation Project is a statement about non-violence and transforming weapons into peaceful wearable art. I wonder if people who use and enjoy guns will want to wear them as well?
[via ecouterre]
Related Posts:
Gunfight Cross Stitch
Gun Purse
Papercraft AK-47
Video with Crochet Bears
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New Look
Well after 4yrs with the pink on the blog, I decided it was time for a change. I moved some things around a bit, and just basically did some spring cleaning. Nothing major. I am working on a new header, but other then that, nothing too drastic. I just didn’t want to confuse you guys. Sorry for the short notice.
Fairytale Fashion Show: Close-Up
For the past few weeks I have been covering preparations for the Fairytale Fashion Show at Eyebeam on CRAFT and Make: Online. The Fairytale Fashion Collection uses technology to create magical clothing in real life. Electronics, mechanical engineering, and mathematics come together to create clothing that changes colors and transforms shapes. Research and development for the collection are shared in an educational resource online at FairytaleFashion.org.
Here’s the official Fairytale Fashion Show video:
The outfits in the show used four different technologies, electroluminescent (EL) wire with a custom built driver, deployable structures, Twinkle Pad, and inflation. Some of the outfits will be sold later this month at my site,DianaEng.com.
Here is a look at the collection and some behind the scenes shots of how the garments were made.
1. EL Wire Dress: Aqua silk chiffon organically draped dress edged with electroluminescent wire controlled by an accelerometer. Circuit boards are housed in a custom 3-D printed neck piece. All of the EL wire garments were inspired by the movement and look of sea creatures like the jellyfish.
2. Deployable Hoodie: Red wool silk hoodie with Miura Ori structure pleat pattern to help the hood collapse small and open big.
3. Twinkle Dress and Twinkle Cardigan: LED circuits are hand embroidered with silverized thread and a custom sewable circuit board Twinkle Pad, developed specially for the Fairytale Fashion Collection. Twinkle Cardigan’s removable black wool melton shoulder patches overlay a washable cotton sweater. Twinkle Dress’s removable gray silk chiffon twinkle pad circuit overlays washable black cotton dress. I have been working hardest to make Twinkle Dress available for purchase. I want it to be a sophisticated sparkling party dress.
4. Cameo EL Shirt: Peach silk organza edged with electroluminescent wire controlled by an accelerometer. Circuit boards are housed in a custom 3-D printed Cameo.
5. Twinkle Skirt and Deployable Scarf: LED circuits are hand embroidered with silverized thread and a custom sewable circuit board Twinkle Pad, developed specially for the Fairytale Fashion Collection. Wool felt deployable scarf is created with the Miura Ori pleat pattern.
6. Origami Jacket: Lavender cotton canvas jacket with origami pleated sleeves inspired by the Miura Ori pleat pattern.
7. Inflatable Dress: Inspired by time lapse videos of blooming flowers and emerging insect wings, I used inflation to create a growing transformation.
8. EL Wire Coat: White silk organza illuminated by EL wire patterns beneath which are controlled by an accelerometer.
9. Dream Dress:I wanted to create a finale for the show that captures a moment of fairytale like magic.
Photographs by Rick Louis and Doug Eng.
Ira Glass on Improving Your Craft
I really admire Ira Glass of radio’s This American Life. He’s just so intelligent. And it comes across in a very real, down-to-earth way that’s indicative of someone who seriously mulls things over.
This is a snippet of a longer talk on creating stories for television or radio, but in this particular segment, he is speaking on the topic of improving your craft, and it’s inspirational to anyone who creates. He describes the difference between your aspirations and the level you are currently at as a gap, which is especially large when you are first embarking on a new genre of craft. He underscores the importance of imposing deadlines on yourself in order to churn out a large amount of sub-par work, which will enable you get to the level of skill that you aspire to. In other words, perfecting your craft through diligent practice. “… You have to turn out that work. Because it’s only by going through a volume of work that you’re actually going to catch up and close that gap. And the work you’re making will be as good as your ambitions.”
He concludes with words of encouragement. “It takes a while. It’s going to take you a while. It’s normal to take a while. You just have to fight your way through that. Okay? You will be fierce, you will be a warrior, and you will make things that aren’t as good as you know in your heart you want them to be. And you will just make one after another.”
