The art of felting has always been an out-of-the-corner-of-my-eye type of craft to me. I like it, but I’ve never really paid much attention to it. I’ve seen all of the pillows, purses and other items that people of combed the heck out of in an effort to hide the lovingly made stitches and make it look like…well…felt.
Today I stumbled upon a felt artist that turned my head a hundred and eighty degrees. Stephanie Metz takes the art of felting and raises it to a whole new level. I was in awe at the intricate detail of her work. Her Natural History of Teddy Bears is so amazing; Darwin himself would no doubt adjust his theory to include this poly-filled species.
Take the time to explore her site. It’s rich with beautifully detailed forms. Meanwhile, I’m sitting and pondering the crafting infant that I am in light of such a master.
If you haven’t figured it out by now I’m here to tell you that I’m not posting today. It’s Friday. I don’t want to do anything. I barely want to be at work. So, I don’t feel like posting either. Oh sure, I’m working on things. I have this great original scarf pattern I’m working on (and with any luck you’ll see it this weekend);but as for anything else… nope, not going to do it.
So if you want to read something, you’ll have to comment. That way I’ll have something to read too.
By the way, if you are getting this via an RSS feed, my “today” is your yesterday. Your “today” will probably be filled with wonderful posts about rainbows and unicorns. Granted not from MY blog, but I have a feeling that there is a heavy rainbow, unicorn loving contingency in the demographics of my readers and they probably frequent rainbow and unicorn fan sites, and avoid ones like this.
This year I celebrate the tenth anniversary of my 30th birthday. And though the dreaded Forty is still several months off, I’m ok with the fact that it’s several months off. The problem is, that it’s not staying where is suppose to be. It keeps sneaking up behind me and spoiling the surprise. And I’m quite certain, by the evidence of the amount of fiber that I’ve had to ingest in the last few weeks, that Fifty has joined forces with Forty to make my life as annoying as possible. I think I’ve even heard Sixty skulking in the corners laughing his ass off as my predicament.
But now Forty has put the annoying poking on hold, and walked right up to me, curtsied and then slapped me across the face. How do I know this? I had to get reading glasses. There is now more “granny” in my square than there ever has been before. You know what? I’m ok with it. By embracing assisted eyesight living, I don’t have to worry so much about missing a stitch…or five. No more working with smooth fingering weight yarn thinking that it’s a bulky weight wool.
No, I’m ok with my newly-found friend Forty. Maybe now Fifty and Sixty will go out drinking for a couple of decades and leave me alone.
As promised, here is the recipe for the best meatballs I’ve ever had. These are perfect for crochet and knit get-togethers, not to mention the upcoming Super Bowl (Go whichever team wins me money!) The recipe was handed down to me by my cousin, who in turn got it from our Great-grandma Internet.
With the Craft & Hobby show in town some of the biggest names in the crochet and knit community are around. But I never would have guessed that one of the premier male crochet designers, Drew Emborsky (aka The Crochet Dude) would be spending the evening with me. Actually, I’m quite certain that he never would have guessed it either.
I think he was lured over by the possibility of playing on the Wii, but we never seemed to get passed the hor d’oeuvres1 and martinis. The absolute highlight for me was the moment he asked to see the Perfect Fit V-neck sweater vest I made based on his pattern in Crochet Today. It’s one thing to get complemented on your work from other people, it’s quite another to get complemented by the designer himself. Now that I think of it, I guess he was complementing himself too. I mean really, he did all the hard work, I just followed along. So in reality, I was being complemented as a great follower. That works for me!
If you haven’t purchased Drew’s latest book, The Crochet Dude’s Designs for Guys, I highly recommend it. There are twenty-six highly fashionable crochet designs devoted to men, but not exclusive to men. It sells out quite often, so secure your copy as soon as you can.
My favorite city is Portland, Oregon. My favorite crochet designer is The Crochet Dude (Drew Emborsky). When my favorite designer told me of an amazing yarn store in my favorite city, I wanted to go through the wardrobe real bad.
Yarnia, nestled in Southeast Portland, is a whole new concept in a yarn store. YOU get to design your own custom blends of yarn from the extensive selection of fibers and colors they stock. But the best part is you get to watch it being made right in front of you.
From wool, cotton and silk, to bamboo and hemp, they have a huge selection of fibers that you can combine to make any weight yarn you need. The yarn is sold by the pound, so there is little chance of purchasing more than you need, but there is a distinct possibility of buying all that you want.
With the Spring Knit and Crochet Show coming up in Portland, I know one of the first places I’m going to visit while I’m there…Yarnia!
Check them out at their website: yarnpdx.com, or keep tabs on all their events via their blog.
It’s time to do your part. NHS Leeds (formally known as Leeds Primary Care Trust) in the United Kingdom is facing a problem of Size D proportions. They need imitation breasts to assist teaching expectant mothers how to express milk. Due to the enormous expense of simulated latex breasts, and the lack of realism that balloons and elbows give, health officials are requesting the knitting (and crochet) community to create breasts in all shapes, sizes and colors for their classes. There are no comments if pierced nipples are an option. But I would assume not since there is a high risk of the ring chipping the baby’s teeth. Maybe a teething ring would work.
The NHS website has a free pattern from the Lactation Consultants of Great Britain. You can download the pattern here. Though they don’t have a crochet pattern listed, I was able to locate one here. If you end up finding or creating other patterns, please comment and let us know about it. Remember that they need a variety of shapes and sizes. Sally Mills from Leeds Primary Care states, “It is good to have a variety of shapes and sizes, just as women do (very flat, very small/large, inverted, etc).” Now I’m no breast expert by any means, but how does one have an inverted breast?
If having brains is sexy, then Matt Gilbert needs to be one of People magazine’s sexiest men alive. Matt developed a computer program that creates very complex radiating crochet patterns “inspired by the intimate historical ties between textiles and computation, as well as the propagation patterns of acoustics.” Oh yeah Baby!
Matt has taken the industrialized process of textile manufacturing and turned it upside down. Instead of the human telling the machine what to craft, the machine is instructing the human on what to craft. This desire was empowered by his research of the parallel histories of textiles and computation.
On his site, Matt explains the mechanizing of computation and its effect on the textile industry. I was shocked (yet not surprised) to learn that the automation of knitting was developed in 1859 out of the sheer jealousy a husband felt towards his wife spending more time with her knitting than with him. The wife then created the Guilt-o-Matic and the age of the modern marriage began.
Last week I was excited to share my find of the Martha’s Vineyard CSA (Community-supported Agriculture), a program in which you invest in “shares” of the farms flock in return for a percentage of the fiber harvest.
As I was browsing my post about the Local Harvest website (yes, I browse my own blog) I came across a second fiber CSA, Willow Ridge Farms located in Iowa. Not only can you purchase many fiber related products from their Local Harvest store, but you can also buy into their CSA program.
Willow Ridge Farms offers four levels of investing, Full Yarn Share, Half Yarn Share, Full Roving Share and Half Roving Share. Full and half shares are delivered every six to eight weeks and will contain three pounds of roving or up to 1,800 yards of handspun yarn from their flock of Shetland Sheep. What’s really cool is that prior to each shipment you will receive an email with color choices ranging from hand painted or dyed to natural shades.
I’m really starting to dig these fiber CSA programs. I hope more farms get on board.
One of my very good friends Mark, is an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) genius. Actually, he’s an Internet expert in general. His very popular blog, ContentPig.com, on Google insights and SEO topics won him a trip to the Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas. It was for that trip that I got the idea to create a hat for him that would help advertise his site while keeping his head stylishly warm.
I was ecstatic when I was able to find the perfect Skater Beanie pattern on Ravelry. It’s made with double knit (DK) weight yarn, so it’s light weight and yet still toasty warm. What made the pattern perfect for customizing is the many rows at the bottom that are not increased, which lends itself perfectly for tapestry crochet pattern techniques. I used a 5×5 block pattern for the letters with the exception of the “.com” which was created in three-by-three blocks.
The yarn I found was Berroco’s Ultra Alpaca Light in Peat Mix (the main color) and Winter White (the contrasting color). For a 22 ½” wide hat it took an entire 144 yard skein of the main color. I can’t say enough good things about this yarn. It was very easy to work with and feels incredible.
The art of felting has always been an out-of-the-corner-of-my-eye type of craft to me. I like it, but I’ve never really paid much attention to it. I’ve seen all of the pillows, purses and other items that people of combed the heck out of in an effort to hide the lovingly made stitches and make it look like…well…felt.
, Leslie
, crabbycrocheter
, Katherine
, Chris
