Disentombment of the Month

A search through our various stashes, piles, and catacombs reveals many timeworn tokens of our artistic pasts. Some are pretty good, some are agonizingly bad, and some are just plain freaky! Still, we can't help but find amusement in their exhumation.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whispered work, “Lenore!”
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!”—
Merely this and nothing more.
(Edgar Allan Poe, from "The Raven")

Okay- here’s Lenore… This isn’t one of my best paintings, in fact it kind of makes me cringe to look at it right now, but I thought it was great at the time!

-Lyzard

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…For some minutes it puffed away without speaking, but at last it unfolded its arms, took the hookah out of its mouth again, and said, “So you think you’ve changed, do you?”…
(Lewis Carroll, from “Alice in Wonderland”)

This Photoshop layer cake is a variation of my beginning PS class midterm. I enjoyed mutating my boyfriend into the caterpillar a little too much, I think.

-Art Fiend

Knitting Projects Graveyard

Here lie the remnants of past knitting projects. Projects that, in their failure, taught many difficult yet helpful lessons to a newbie, self-taught knitter. Let us pay our respects.

RIP: unfinished tote bag

You never were planned out very well, or blocked (obviously). The cables were my very first – and were a huge pain – but the basketweave pattern was easy enough. You will never be complete, but your yarn will work its way into something new.

RIP: deathflake cardigan

You were so close to being done, but, alas, you did not hold my interest and now I don’t want you anymore. Your fair-isle pattern, however, will live on.

RIP: cotton lacy sweater

You never would have fit right, even less so after washing. Such a pretty color and lace pattern, but it was never meant to be.

RIP: baby’s red kimono sweater

Adieu, little bold, bright sweater. Your yarn is so terrible. Next time: no acrylic!

RIP: baby’s Halloween illusion sweater

O ugly little sweater, you taught me not to always trust the ideas swimming around my head.

RIP: raccoon intarsia

You will not be buried deep lest you find life anew (with some tweaking).


Farewell, failed projects! You will be appreciated, but not missed!

-Art Fiend

So Gross

My dear Grandma gave me her old sewing cabinet, which today I brought home and excitedly started going through with the hopes of finding some old and inspiring craft goodies. Well, halfway through the second drawer I did come across something, though I wouldn’t call it a goodie. It was in an aging plastic baggie tied with a knot, and “it” was A GIGANTIC WAD OF HAIR.

At first I couldn’t tell what it was. Some strange sort of stuffing, or wire perhaps? Nope, hair. After doing a gross-out dance (much like the “just walked through a spiderweb” dance) I called my parents to share a laugh. Now I’m posting a picture of it to share with all of you (heh, heh).

The surprise curiosity.

Mind you, my Grandma has beautiful, thick, long hair. I just didn’t expect to find it stashed away among spools of thread and other sewing notions.

* * gag * *


-Art Fiend

THE INCREDIBLE MORPHING TOP

04.22.08

This project almost ended up in a very dark and hidden drawer a dozen times, but finally the fruits of my laborious labor have come to light. What was originally supposed to be a very cute baby-doll dress has mysteriously morphed into a lovely little top.

It all began with a darling pattern from the Crochet Me book. This pattern was the sum and total reason for me purchasing this book in the first place and I immediately went out and bought some yarn to create it. Unfortunately the yarn store didn’t have enough of one color to complete the pattern so I settled for three coordinated colors instead. This was MONTHS ago… After starting and stopping and frogging and crocheting and finally cursing a blue streak I realized my purple, violet and black color scheme was NOT working.

*Note to self and others: The lightest colors should be highlighting the nice spots (i.e. the bust!) and the darker colors should be used for the parts that need diminishing (i.e. the waist!) The other way around isn’t quite so flattering!!*

Despondent over my failure I frogged the entire piece and put everything away. The purple, black and violet yarn did return later to become my Heidi-esque top (see my previous post) but the pattern languished in my pile of crochet books and other collected patterns.

Finally, I came to a point where I had finished all my works-in-progress and my fingers were itching to hold that hook again. Digging through my dwindling stash I came up with five skeins of yarn that were of the same weight and fiber- a lovely dark green I had used to make the “Unseemly Sweater” from Stitch and Bitch: The Happy Hooker, and some black I had used to make a beautiful cowl-neck top (see my last post for details.) Both were DK weight and mostly alpaca fiber and I figured this was a sign to get out that baby-doll pattern again.

I knew I didn’t have enough to make the pattern, but I figured I would just end up with a baby-doll tunic instead of a dress. It would still be fun and hopefully very flattering, so I dove in with the green yarn- fashioning the bodice as instructed. Maybe halfway through the bodice I realized I was going to be a bit short on green yarn, but the stitch pattern was amazingly stretchy so I made it a size smaller knowing the stretch would guarantee that it still fit. I still came up short. The “straps” that were the base for the puffed sleeves were WAY too thin and to get an appropriately sized sleeve I would have to make the sleeves twice the size.

I had horrible images of monster sleeves like something straight out of the 80s- or maybe the 1880s- starting somewhere in the middle of my shoulder and puffing out enough to make me look like a linebacker.

So I nixed the sleeves. Even the pattern says that without sleeves it would make a cute jumper, so I continued on my merry way.

I continued on… that is until I got panicky about the green and black together. Would I end up creating another debacle like the purple, violet and black attempt at this pattern? I had to integrate the colors better before I started the skirt portion!

Knowing that I had a VERY limited amount of the black yarn to make the skirt portion I rummaged round in my stash again to find another black yarn in DK weight. Of course I had black yarn in DK weight, but it was acrylic! Oh well… Tally ho- I went ahead and used it to outline the neckline and armholes to integrate the colors which had the added bonus of expanding the straps into something a little more manageable. A little picot edging helped make the very plain bodice mesh better with the ribbon tie and the shell stitch that would make up the skirt portion.

Okay- back on track… With much enthusiasm I began the skirt portion- back to following the pattern in the book- and feeling really good about it. I had forgotten just one tiny detail… I had used the smaller size for the bodice which made the skirt portion much smaller- in fact almost TOO small! Plus I had again underestimated the amount of yarn it would take to make the skirt.
After I had depleted the first skein of black alpaca I realized that it was going to be a very form-fitting skirt. Almost too form-fitting. If I continued on at this rate I was going to have it bunch up around my waist because it was not going to go over my high-hip area! So I upped my hook size for a few rows… and then I upped it again… and again. By the time I had run out of yarn it was nowhere near a dress. It wasn’t even a tunic! But thank goodness it at least covered my stomach!


A ribbon tie finished it off nicely and although it barely resembles the pattern from the book I am most pleasantly surprised by the outcome! I guess that just goes to show that perseverance pays off… or something like that…

-Lyzard

MORE CROCHET TOPS

04.12.08

First things first- an addendum to my last post “Fastest Post Ever:” The pineapple lace shell was made with two strands of lace weight alpaca yarn using a pattern from the January 2008 issue of Crochet Today magazine. It was extremely tedious crocheting since I was using such a small hook and yarn so thin it hardly seemed there, but it wasn’t quite as difficult as I had expected. I’ve been pretty thread-crochet shy, but having tried this pattern with some success I think I may have to actually try some thread crochet soon.

Okay, now that I’ve taken care of that I can share the two new projects I was able to complete since the last post.

This first one is a cowl neck top made with baby alpaca and baby mohair yarns. The pattern came from Sensual Crochet by Amy Swenson and it worked up a lot faster than I had anticipated. It was also an incredibly stretchy stitch pattern so I could make it a size smaller than usual and block it for a slim fit. It’s amazingly soft and luxurious!

The second top was made using the Plum Thunder pattern, again from Sensual Crochet, as a guide. I changed a few things from the pattern and was pretty pleased with the result. It kind of looks like something a 1970’s version of Heidi might wear, but I still like it.


-Lyzard

“Baby Girl Sweater” Elbowed Its Way To The Top Of My To-Do List

I found the pattern on knitty.com and thought it would be a fun project to tackle. It took me a few rows to remember that lace requires complete and undivided attention. So, after having to start over and back-knit numerous times due to a wandering mind, I managed to complete my first toddler’s cardigan that’s all sugar and spice.

The hiding button.

-Art Fiend

Disentombment of the Month

A search through our various stashes, piles, and catacombs reveals many timeworn tokens of our artistic pasts. Some are pretty good, some are agonizingly bad, and some are just plain freaky! Still, we can't help but find amusement in their exhumation.



As the years separating now from high school grow in number, it has become easier to keep a very selective memory of that time. Namely involving two good things: having access to the photo lab and access to the pottery studio, where I came to learn at least the basic skills of how to work the tools and equipment and was able to produce many miscellaneous projects that pretty much kept me from going insane in that confused, brutal, hormone-driven atmosphere. A time I can almost say I miss (but only if I stick to that tiny selection of memory), when instead of computers and toaster ovens there were darkrooms and kilns.

This disentombment is from pottery class. I’m not quite sure what I was going for at the time, but it ended up a grinning corpse. Heh, heh.

-Art Fiend

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The Crow, rendered in charcoal.

-Lyzard