mellowbeing - crafty, geeky and a new yorker.
A few months ago, my friend Kat returned from the Ukraine after visiting her family. As a souvenir, she gave me the most beautiful multi-colored skein of authentic Ukrainian mohair yarn. It was so soft and wispy and I had to come up with just the right project for it.
What could I come up with that would use up one skein? That would show off the yarn's details and colors just in the right way?
At my local knitting group, I was patiently taught how to double and triple crochet and I quickly put the new skills to good use. This is using the same pattern as the previous scarf I posted. This scarf is using a 3c and 1c in rows whereas the other used it the long way to create columns. I actually finished this one first but photographed the other one quicker since I had to give it away and therefore had to get a photo-op in.
This was a superfluous artsy shot. Isn't it purdy? I love how it looks as if you are walking in the clouds, looking up at the sky...
Hope you're all having a great beginning to the week! (Despite the economic turmoil lately..)
Labels: crafty, crochet
I've been dabbling with the idea of making more crochet phone pouches for the new shop.. then I started to think, why not iPhone cozies? Would these be useful? This is the first prototype mockup - call it v 1.0. It's still up for improvements.. any feedback?
And as I said earlier to
BananaBoy since this is still under wraps, "Don't go leaking this to Gizmodo." ;)
Labels: crafty, crochet, geekery, ideas, shop
This bumble bee softie was made as part of the recent
Softie Swap from the
Crafty Daisies blog for my swap partner,
Lusterbee. She got it and loves it. Now I want to make another bee!
Labels: crafty, crochet
This'll be a quick post. I decided to dive into Rusted Root and start swatching - this is the first using the circulars as flat needles. I'll be swatching another piece that's made in the circular fashion to compare stitch gauge.
A crochet blanket I've been working on for some time. I've completed about two dozen squares and now I'm 'seaming' them together. Since it's all done in double crochet, I've decided to just crochet onto the existing squares. While creating the 'new' squares, I'm stitching onto the existing completed squares to seam it together. It's very improvised.. so far.. not so bad.. these are the 4 colors I'll be using - they'll be put together at random.
Labels: crochet, knitting, thing-a-day
It's been quite a while since I've updated. This past week was just deadly - 14 hour days every day for 8 days straight. More than half of it was a combination of important things and then there were the days when I just went out to have some fun.
Some highlights from the "fun" stuff this week:
A friend and I went to see the SIGGRAPH 2007 Movies Screening at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology). It was alright - there were some amazing short films, behind the scenes footage of how ILM created scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean 3, several other short films and of course, a Pixar film. All in all, a decent way to spend 2 hours - 3D magic always makes me giddy.
Apparently Absinthe is now legal in the U.S. In order to commemorate this new knowledge, some friends and I headed down to the Lower East Side (L.E.S.) on Valentine's Day to attend a free absinthe tasting (when's a better time?). It's very strong - I would recommend adding ice instead of trying to be cool and just have it with sugar like I opted to do.
And lastly, some friends and I went to see a Beatles cover band on Friday night. Out of the 3 sets, the last one was the best. The first two were mainly 60s Beatles - when they were just another boy band with catchy tunes. The last set was filled with the good stuff - Something, Revolution, Here Comes the Sun, Oh Darling! and it ended with Hey Jude. The best song they performed was While My Guitar Gently Sleeps - the synchronization of the guitars was incredible. The most fun part of evening was when an *original* Temptation was invited to sing "Mustang Sally". The house went wild.. everyone was singing.. good times had by all.
This is starting to be a bit of a long post so I'll get to the knitting and the Thing a Day challenge now! (before you daze out and fall asleep..)
Considering my long week, I only managed to complete the following 3 projects:
*Almost* complete: Finished crocheting the edges and sewed in the remaining yarn. Add the 2 silver buttons. All that it needs now is the lining.. but I'm almost convincing myself that the lining isn't necessary. It isn't, right? Yeah? Okay not really so I'll add the lining this week.. I already have the piece of fabric picked out for it. A white cloth with cute little red flowers on it.
Complete! I sewed in all 30948234 hanging yarn ends.. (okay, there may have been only 28 total). Wore them out already and got a few compliments :D
Completed! Finally.. this has been in my stash for quite a while.. it may be almost a year actually. I worked so diligently on knitting this up (it's a dream to knit with) but never got around to sewing in the buttons. Voila! I'm loving these buttons.. they're so perfect and modern.
That is all. Til next time.
Labels: crochet, knitting, thing-a-day
Now that I've managed to write over half my final paper, I decided to treat myself a little and post a few items on Etsy.
These are some of the cozies:
I think Spring has really inspired me to use some happy colors and go all out with buttons. Somehow warmer weather mellows me out and gives me the strength and patience to handsew buttons heh.
While at it, I decided to quickly make some Spring inspired wristwarmers. I absolutely love the way they came out. The contrast is so yummy.
Labels: crafty, crochet, knitting
Today is the day of the Big Art Show! I spent a few hours last night watching Sex and the City, Scrubs and that 70s Show while I finished sewing in loose ends and sewing on buttons. At the end of the evening, I decided that I need to have more than 3 pairs of wristwarmers to show.. (they're the short black, short red and long gray ones from my shop). I came up with a new design and I plan on creating
the 2nd of a pair I never did finish (short black ones).
So, without further ado, here are the results of the crochet madness of the last few weeks.
Most of them are acrylic and some are cotton (the bright colored green, orange and pink). I didn't realize how many types of buttons I had collected til now... anyway, I didn't use wools since these will be cozying electronics.
The new pair (the green and brown ones) have cotton lime green borders with a chocolately acrylic brown in the center. Almost reminds me of mint with chocolate.
That is all for now. Will be posting many more pictures after the show and I will report on how it all went.
Labels: crafty, crochet, shows
I'm seriously on a roll with the blogging & taking pictures thing this weekend.. do not be surprised if there's at least one more entry by the end of tomorrow.
So here's the lineup of the usual suspects.. of phone/ipod/card cozies - I realize that it's hard to come up with all the color combinations in all the possible sizes someone might want to use them for. Well, we'll see how it works out.
Aren't these so much better on a bright Saturday afternoon than at 4am on a Friday?
Labels: crafty, crochet
I've been really slacking lately with updating this bloggy of mine. For the record, I'd like to officially (or not so officially) give it the title "a blog of blogging bloggable events".
Now that we're done with introductions, it's picture time! I hope you don't mind the crappy lighting and probably not so focused 4am picture-taking skills of mine but here goes... and be prepared, it's gonna be a long one..
So I had this huge craving to buy some silver and metallic markers today. I decided to go to my nearby art store (and btw, when was it renamed from The Art Store [coolest name ever] to "Blick"?? blech.) Anyway, I go there and find out that the only metallic painter's markers they offer are silver and gold colored, how original. I'll have to seek out Pearl Paint for some more options.
I've also been working on getting all my custom orders out (the ones I mentioned in the very first blog, oh so long ago). I finally finished making the brown warmers for BeadGal from Etsy (
beadgaldesigns.etsy.com) They came out very pretty even in their simplicity.
And last but not least, I've decided to make some more cozies but this time for iPod nanos. Not exactly being "hip" about iPods, I had to consult my resident Apple expert (or rather, one who lives a few blocks away) and I've been so informed that nanos are the big thing. I'll most likely never get an iPod because I just refuse to be one of Apple's army.. too many white headphones, too little time to whack people. Anyway. Here are 2 cozies I've come up with so far. They dont have their buttons so they look a little funny and I've rethought my original design to have a more robust button hole which happens to make it curl all funny-like. The good news is that I found out I could make a cozy in a train ride and with enough time to spare a look around at people pretending not to be staring at me. :)
That is all for now. Still in big preparations (or not such big preparations..) for the
The BIG Art Show
Keep your calendars marked for this event where I (from Mellowbeing's Shop) and Jessica (from Haasome Goods) will be selling the products handmade madness!
p.s. I just noticed I use a lot of parentheses in my writing.. (oh well).
Labels: crafty, crochet, shows, supplies
So I've been thinking of how badly scratched up my old cell phone was by the time I upgraded to the new one. In order to not have my current cell phone degrade to such a state, I decided to create a little phone cozy for it. The pattern is very simple (or lack of pattern thereof) - I crocheted about 10 single stitches and then just start going around and around in double crochet... when it was the proper height, I just went across the same 3 stitches for a few rows and made a little loop out of single stitches. It was the perfect quick fix in the midst of my crazy week-of-midterm-madness-time.Some pictures to show how it came out with the phone in it and by itself. Not too shabby, eh?
The money shot:
Labels: crafty, crochet
A few months ago, my friend Kat returned from the Ukraine after visiting her family. As a souvenir, she gave me the most beautiful multi-colored skein of authentic Ukrainian mohair yarn. It was so soft and wispy and I had to come up with just the right project for it.
At my local knitting group, I was patiently taught how to double and triple crochet and I quickly put the new skills to good use. This is using the same pattern as the previous scarf I posted. This scarf is using a 3c and 1c in rows whereas the other used it the long way to create columns. I actually finished this one first but photographed the other one quicker since I had to give it away and therefore had to get a photo-op in.
This was a superfluous artsy shot. Isn't it purdy? I love how it looks as if you are walking in the clouds, looking up at the sky...
