Bank holidays

I have to admit that the last post was more useful to me as a way of sorting myself out than useful for anybody reading. So I must apoligise but it was worth it. After that post I sat down and made two ipod socks which I will photograph when I've sewn them up. They shall be on Etsy soon.

The ipod socks are testers in a way. I dont want to make ipod socks for my bread and butter so hopefully I will make some more "me" type projects, ones that are quirky, fun and individual. I've seen many successful shops on Etsy that are beyond doubt highly individual and that is why they beat off the competition.

Oh yes the title... Damn bank holidays.

Lists

I have to admit that lists rule my life. There was a time when I was younger I didn't even write a shopping list but now I generally write a list everyday to get my brain into gear. I started this about 6 months ago when I was working towards the final hand-ins and I had so much to do it was far better to write a list and it felt good to cross each item off. I found it so useful that I've done it ever since. It really makes you wonder at how much can be achieved in one day. Here's a sample of the lists of the things that are on my mind right now.

Things I want to buy...

Ikea crockery
A lunch box for when university begins again (stop myself eating crappy foods)
Tupperware to go in the lunch box
Seeds and grains (the best snack food)
Yarn to make scarves out of to put for sale on Etsy
Issues of Cotton Time
6x balls of merino wool/cashmere yarn to crochet into scarves for my Mum's and sisters birthdays. (I've never given them anything knitted/crocheted before and a cashmere scarf can't be shunned as present?)
A roll of wallpaper to draw on
Wood to paint on
Wood to make woodcuts from
Nice paper to print woodcuts on
Protective packaging for woodcuts so I can sell them through Etsy.
A good work chair that doesn't slowly shrink as I sit on it. (stupid air lift thing)
A work table that doesn't wobble on the attic floor boards
A bean cube (like a bean bag but chic) to stop me sitting on my legs while sitting at chairs
I want to have a daring haircut soon (I have no idea which salon to go to though)
Kuk Sool won (a Korean martial art I've started doing) membership/insurance/suit/badges
A larger glass dish to cook meals in (I bought a small one thinking that would be fine but it's not big enough for two people)

Things I have recently bought...

3x balls of Rowan cotton tape
1x ball of RY cashsoft Aran
5x crochet hooks of various sizes
A years subscription to Craft: magazine
Vintage army bag recovered in 60's lime green apple fabric
6x 500ml pots of acrylic paint
250ml pot of Fluid Retarder for acrylic.
A small cream net curtain with a pretty flower design (love charity shops)

Current Projects/ Ones that I meant to start...

Children's book about a sock
Children's book about a Pig called Dan
Sheepy head key chains
Planning scarves and hats for Etsy
My dissertation
Sorting out what I want to do for my final Illustration project after Christmas.
ipod cases for Etsy
A Turkish slippers from Erica Knight's "Simple Crochet" (A requested item from strange footwear loving Simon)
Recover Simon's work chair to make it more comfortable and seal the ripped leather

Floating away

I made this in an idle moment today. I'm not great at crochet and I'm still learning to get a feel for it. With knitting I can sort out in my head what needs to go where and visualise how to do a project but I don't know enough about crochet to do that yet. The balloon is a little rough around the edges but it turned out well (it began life intending to be a mushroom).

And something else that is floating away is my local knitting shop. It's been for sale and now there seems to be a buyer and everything is being sold off. Its quite sad really I liked that old shop. I bought a ball of Rowan cotton tape from there for a bargain price. I may go back tomorrow and fill my boots with crochet hooks of various sizes.


Lastly I realised I should have posted a photo of my desk tidies made of shopping bags. This is the only complete one so far. (I've got into a "saving the planet" don't accept plastic bags when you have a perfectly good calico bag you can sling things in mode - it makes collecting bags a slow process)

I love crochet.

Scarfy

I unpicked my unfinished alpaca scarf (on an early post) and crocheted it into a new little scarf. It's a feeling sorry for myself scarf at the moment because I have a virus and feel a bit peaky.

Bag Lady

So I finally finished the string bag project from the Erika Knight "Simple Crochet" book. It's not the first project I've competed (I made a string container that I haven't photographed) but it was fun to do and I'm quite proud of myself. And there it is with 4 - 500ml bottles of paint and a mostly empty 3 litre tub of acrylic primer. It really does just eat stuff. Also pictured is Mei-mei, next doors cat, which you may have seen before. She just about lives here and spends most of her time sleeping up here in the studio as is cosy warm.



However when she's not sleeping she's doing this! Sitting on my table trying to get out of the window. I'm going to have to make some kind of Kitty-Proofing device to stop her standing on my wet paintings sooner or later. Naughty Kitty!

Painty paint

MY PAINT ARRIVED YESTERDAY!!!

... and then left again because I was asleep when the man knocked on the door.

AND CAME BACK AGAIN!!

Just for Kicks

I would post a new and interesting post however blogger wont let me put pictures on so it will have to wait.

Oh and my finger is much better. It was quite deep so I worried about how long it would take to heal but its doing fine.

And I made an apple cake today out of a bag of granny smiths that were far to sour to eat.

Workspace

So here's a picture of my workspace. It's taken a little while to get a photo because I didn't really sorted it out till this morning. I just used it as a computer desk. It may look a little drab because of the roof window just above my desk and it's quite cloudy and rainy at the moment. Anyway I will explain my space:

1. My cheap lamp that was about £4 and I broke three weeks after I bought it by standing on it and breaking one of the arms. I fixed it this morning with sticky tape.
2. A present from long ago. I'm not really into burning incense but its a really good brush stand.
3. Scrappy paints. I ordered a MOTHERLOAD this morning. It seems my university sold off the rights to its college shop to a local art shop so I can't get it cheap anymore. (The college shop sold goods that only made the profit needed to keep the shop running where as the local art shop will only be offering a 10% discount from the RRP). I found a website that sells the paint I want almost as cheap as the college shop and I ordered enough to get free delivery. I'm looking forward to a big parcel!
4. My beloved acrylic drinkware. It was the first of a long line of crazy kitchen ware that I started to buy about a year ago.
5. A load of books I got out the library to read for my dissertation. Also a good book about colour theory.
6. The great book which taught me to crochet but now has the most horrible effect of making me want to buy £80 worth of wool and crochet a throw.
7. Crochet with free yarn. I'm making some items out of plastic bags (not biodegradable). It for things that don't will probably get covered in paint and its not worth buying string to make them. Plus it gets rid of those annoying bags that you seem to collect for no real reason.

And now ...

My crochet marathon has been put on hold for a couple of weeks. While preparing dinner last night I sliced a chunk out of the end of my left finger. So now I can't keep the tension of the yarn.

I did happen to make a rather nice bracelet yesterday though. I'll try to get a picture for tomorrow.

I'm in the middle of designing things for my Etsy shop and I'm having loads of fun doing that. I'm also in need of a new bag that is the right size for everyday use so I need to design one for that. I love designing things almost as much as making them.

And so...

Ok so the beans lost their last two days of photographing but I do have a slight excuse. The art to crochet clicked in my head and just WORKED!!! I've been crocheting obsessively until my hands ceased up and refused to do any more.

I'm quite proud of myself. I've also been working on my dissertation. Its about modern craft so I',m really enjoying doing it and can spend hours searching round the internet and books and noting things that are interesting and writing questionnaire's to people who I think are important in the crafting world.

Sprouts day 2

The beans are growing well. Those green "bean coats" are the most annoying things about sprouts. I haven't yet found a way to get rid of them.

I got my crochet book today and after reading it went straight out to get some string and got soaked when the heavens opened. I'm rubbish at crochet. My Mum got me an instruction book last Christmas but I can't make head nor tail of it. This new book looks like it's a better layout and there's some interesting projects. I also have some interesting projects of my own I'd like to crochet.

It's not going too well but I'm willing to persevere.