Tuesday, February 23, 2016

#crochet365 Feb 18-22


Feb 22 - favorite hook - my size ten steel





Have a couple, use all the time, lose them a lot.

I like the way things look at that scale:




Feb 21 - spouse - yeah, right

Put guy here.


Feb 20 - Addicted - Cheese

Nothing to do with crochet. Just freaking love the stuff.

Cheesus!



Feb 19 - Gauge - avoid it

I make a lot of appliques. Size doesn't matter. It's all about how big you want it. Uh. The applique. Yeah, the applique.

My pattern in thread  


Lilitupilli @Ravelry in yarn



Feb 18 - TBT - Ode to February

                          

From the 2011 Thing A Day challenge. Catphabet + February + Year of Rabbit = 28



Wednesday, February 17, 2016

#crochet365 - Feb 8 - 17



Catch up, Feb 8 - 17


😲 #crochet365 Feb8-Notions - Hook Cush, Repetative movement w/a metal stick in your hand leaves an impression! Helps https://t.co/i57N0R3vAD





😵 #crochet365 Feb9-JustfForMe - Everything I make is just for me! But recently, here's a hat I made & actually wear. https://t.co/nOtiMnFPVP








😶 #crochet365 Feb10-WIP-> 24"x24" background to piece for BrownvBoard Natl Historic Site art show. 5"done due Mar1 https://t.co/aDHnhPrune






😮 #crochet365 Feb11-TBT- Fishing line for glass experiment. About inch,  inch & a half. Too inflexible. https://t.co/nM2KkxjX45





💘 #crochet365 Feb12-dinner - ATC of which I was very proud. Still am even tho underwhelms others. Crude but fun. https://t.co/LsFfStZBgG




💝 #crochet365 Feb13 - love- "Bailledor" For my grandfather,quite the dashing rouge. Experiment w/my style. Miss him. https://t.co/CSfBLrI9Ss





💘 #crochet365 Feb14-valentine - down beat, beat down picto-poem https://t.co/MAiTEqS9g4




😶 #crochet365 Feb15 - cozy - Cat blanket, acrylic, a little scratchy, but warm and, well..cozy https://t.co/QeecKPsWr8





😶 #crochet365 - Feb16 - worsted - Beautiful charcoal gray that I simply l love. Bulky wt acrylic but oddly pleasant hand. https://t.co/Fiw1URht2f





😶 #crochet365 Feb17 - WIP - scarf or shawl, don't know yet. https://t.co/gj54ehvSbU


#crochet365, Feb 7, worsted


Feb7 - worsted

Embarrassing fail.



Made the commitment to make a daVinci themed piece for the International Fiber Collaborative.

 Procrastinated trying to figure out on what I wanted to focus.

Finally decided.

The individual elements took a long time.

Got sick, ran out time to make the thread backing I had planned.

So used some worsted weight yarn I had from a scarf project.

Made mistake in pattern. Had to spot chop repair. Turned out lumpy, flaccid and unattractive.

I hate the way it looks. But they wanted it anyway. So now, I'm trying not to think about it too much.

Onward and upward. Wherever "up" is.

Sigh and tee hee.

The Me

#crochet 365, Feb 6, expensive


Feb 6 - expensive

 SpunGold

The only thing missing in "Lux" yarn from the BUFFALO WOOL COMPANY

Fibers:
Buffalo (45%)
 Silk (20%)
Cashmere (20%)
Tencel (15%)

Originally priced: $60/hank

Availability: Discontinued

Came in a few different shades of earthtone browns. The one in the photo is what I liked most.

May not look like much, but it is composed of some exotic fibers that are each pretty expensive in their own right.

Those fibers are also proported to be some of the softest stuff around.

I was always curious but couldn't move past the price. Don't get me wrong, it is without doubt justifiably appropriate to charge that much for this yarn. Rarity and scarcity and all.

But $60 is a third of our monthly grocery budget. As a diabetic, my health would be compromised by eating only twice a day. Couldn't bring myself to do that just to satisfy my curiosity.

Yes, that means I've never seen this yarn in person nor held it in my hands. But the description was so enticing I kept wondering.

Fortunately for me, Lux has been discontinued. Temptation thwarted.

Although, when looking up the exact specs on this yarn, I did run across a few Buffalo and silk combination yarns at a more affordable price.

Even saw an item called "Lux something or other" reduced from $60 to like around $37.  Still too steep for my sinuses, but also still intriguing nonetheless.

I should (and just eventually may) look up those latter yarns to document them properly. This may be a free unpaid blog but I'd like to live by some standards, eventually. And this is an issue for me.

 I detest when people write about something visual without including at least one photo. It's done a lot with revues of art shows. It drives me nuts.

If you're going to extoll the artistic merits of a piece of art, have the decency to include a photo so we can understand the work for ourselves.

Perhaps they consider that oversight a method of sparking interest. Teased   sufficiently to entice a person into visiting the museum or gallery and seeing for themselves.

One problem: These types of articles are almost invariably  published in nationally or even globally distributed periodicals.

 The odds are low that an interested individual subscriber has the luxury of time or the abundance of means by which to travel to a venue simply to sate a curiosity.

We're back to art being only for those that can afford it.

Or are fortunate enough to live near one of the very few venues that exhibit fiber art.

*grrrrrrrr*

Huh? What was I talking about again?

Oh, yeah!

"Expensive" - in the eyes of the crochet beholder:

"Lux" yarn
Buffalo Wool Company
Buffalo, silk, cashmere and tencel
$60 / hank
Discontinued

Temptation Lost.

 ...if Blake were a crocheter.

Hook it.
Cx

#crochet365, Feb 5, tiny


Feb 5 - tiny

So many choices. Thread, remember?

Although, for preferring thread and steel hooks, I have surprisingly little made with  uber tiny thread size 20 or 30  and needle-y hooks size 12 or 14.

Couldn,'t find a record in my notebooks. Much less photos. Even though I remember using them. God knows on what.

Anyway, I chose to tweet the photos of that charm bracelet storyline I made a while ago.





I still think about that project a lot. And where I could go with it. Plans are a-percolating over in the back corner of the mind lab.

At least a legend for the individual charms.

The written story too.

Hmmm.

Hook on,

The Cx

Friday, February 5, 2016

#crochet365 February 2, 3, 4




Feb 2 - red

7 Deadlies - Anger

Feb 3 - WIP - blocking

Pinned & Blocked


Daisy Self Portrait

Feb 4 - TBT - Return to crochet
 ie unmedicated choice of yarn


C


#crochet365 Day 31




Day 31 - animals - Guess.
Passing for Cute


Hello there. Did you think you'd be working today?

Nope. I'm not leaving.

  No workie.


Wake Up

Just felt like they needed a few extra photos to explain what they mean to me.

Interruptions of the fuzzy kind.

C

Saturday, January 30, 2016

#crochet365 photo challenge Days 29 and 30


Day - 29 - knit-look - Alternating diamond bracelet, Experiment with Tunisian and enterlac in size 10 crochet thread


Day 30 - noise - huh! Take your pick. The wellspring from which my emotional mallaise flows. Harbinger of chaos.

Thoughts Aren't Deeds

Friday, January 29, 2016

More #crochet365 - 2016 - Day 25 -> Day 28

#crochet365 2016

Day 25 - Yarn in a bag - yarn as a bag

Entrepreneurial Artisty at the Hermitage


The previous 2 posts were quotes from that same podcast I keep talking about:

 SOSstudio.co/Sessions

Specifically Session #54 Music Placement, Crowdfunding and Building Personal Relationships with guest Erick Macek

Whew! Quite the mouthful. Textful? Anywho.

Sometimes it's a little difficult to extrapolate the "musician as business" info into the craft and art world. But I try. Because that is my world...or at least the world I circle while trying to get the nerve to jump in properly.

I love the way music feels. The way it surrounds and fills the body, the mind, the soul.

However, the only music that ever came out of me ended at 17 when the state mandated public school education was completed. So just Jr. High and High school band stuff.

Yeah, I said "Jr High". What do you want,  I'm old. I was educated in the days before middle schools. You know. Back before people thought it was a good idea to mix 6th grade tiny playful children with 8th grade angst driven just-teens.

I digress. (That's something to which you might as well resign yourself to encountering in my blogging.)

Growing up, I had lots of artistic leanings "interests". High school in particular saw participation in Band, One Act Play, Ready Writing (UIL event. Uh. University Interscholastic League, I believe) and playing around in the kitchen at home.

Neither playing music nor acting on a stage made it into my adulthood. Always thought that was because I lack passion. A personal inner failing that interfered with my ability to fully commit to those careers or those kind of people.

Actually, I still believe that being passionless is the root of my checkered history of poorly pursued life pursuits. Only now, I'm beginning to better understand the soil requirements.

Several mini-epiphanies on the subject have happened due to that podcast I mentioned a blitheringly long while ago.

In good ole #54, I realized that I am not only incapable of feeling the passion that drives a creative individual, but I'm also fundamentally incapable of establishing personal relationships.

I'vs always found networking and schmoozing to be repellant. I have no talent for them and I have no tolerance for rejection.

Simply put, I hate seeking out people. But I also desperately crave human contact.

I want to be loved but I don't know how. No, really. I've actually been told in the past that I won't let people love me. I found that very odd, confusing and frustrating.

Human interaction is a lot of work for me. I feel obligated to be positive and cheerful. I have to make them laugh or keep them entertained with wide ranging conversations.

While in the thick of it, I enjoy doing those things and being with people.  It's the drained mental energy, the exhausted soul and the lack of depth in those connections that torture me.

All of this makes me unwilling to put myself out there. How can I build personal relationships? I have nothing to offer anyone. Just the teasing and sarcasm. That gets old, transparent and eventually avoided.  And so do I.

And if I do try for more, for something of substance, I dive too deep and drive people away.

I'm apparently a zero OR sixty kind of gal. Meaningless fluff or desperate need to connect at much too deep a level. Nothing in between. Neither seems to be what people want.

They had some really useful things to say in that podcast. Practical. Profound. But all I could think about was how much I fear rejection. How easily I break. How no one wants to hear any of this whinning shit and especially not from me.

So, I'm screwed. Ironically. Wouldn't know what to do with any of it if I had it. Don't know how to be a friend, a mate, a colleague. Don't even know how to learn how.

So, great podcast. Great info and ideas. All things fairly easy to extrapolate into my fiber art wannabe world. I should. I would if I could.

 I don't know how.

Fundamentally flawed.

Have to rewire myself and learn.

Alone.

On my own.

I'm the only one that will have me.

That's bad for business.

That's bad for me.

Gotta figure this out. Seek them out. Anyone. Everyone. Without alienation.

Yep.

Screwed.

Hook on.
The Cx

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Instant Gratification, Success and the Emotionally Unstable

If you take things personally, you won’t be able to get back up when the instant gratification doesn’t pay off.
@SOSstudioSocial
 Sessions #54 1/28/16 https://t.co/rBdDEpBgnR
Music Placement, Crowdfunding and Building Personal Relationships.

Somebody's been looking at my therapist's notes.

I am so very screwed.

Success and the Withdrawn Artist


Get to know people on a human level, rather than one-upping your own career. 
@ErickMacek

SOSstudio Sessions 54  -  1/28/16
Music Placement, Crowdfunding and Building Personal Relationships.
@SOSstudioSocial  https://t.co/rBdDEpBgnR 


I'm screwed.


Sunday, January 24, 2016

More catch up.


Feel like poo. No, amend that; I wish I felt as good as poo.

Just general malaise - down, dizzy, weak, ache in pit of stomach, warm, frustrated.

DK

DC

#crochet365 - 2016

Day - 19 - Where I create

Phoned it in. Too embarrassed of how my place looks, ...is. So took photos of the view from the couch I never seem to leave:



Day - 20 - WIP

Even more embarrassing is that I'm barely doing anything. Had such high hopes for getting my ass back in gear. Can't move forward without addressing the problem. So my WIP for 1/20  - me.




Day - 21 - TBT

Running out of things I've done. Uh Oh.

Eye glasses cozy:



Day - 22 - chunky

Aw, man! Don't work with yarn much less chunky. Have that scarf and blanket, I guess. But I'm not ready to share those yet.

The snake baskets turned out to have a little bulk. Gonna have to do:




Day - 23 - yellow

Love the color. Don't use it much. What's up wit dat? Probably too sunny and happy. I'm less in that mood than I am in "little black raincloud" mode.

Do occasionally:

Rubber Ducky Applique:



Day - 24 - crochet inspiration

Brings us to today. Can't think straight when I feel blaaah. Maybe photo, sketch, finished product?

Saving it for longer post. Guess I can still do the longer version later. Save sketch for then.

So these two characters:


played by these two guys:


inspired this crochet piece:


Crochet inspiration - game, set, match

...until tomorrow.

Hook on,
C