Crafting Update
Sun, Feb. 23rd, 2025 06:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiraliciousI've not been great about doing regular updates anywhere about anything and I want to catch-up at least what I've been up to crafting wise for the last month.
Card Making with Lynne Mondays
They have continued without interruption. Lynne becomes more and more obsessed with making things perfect and "correct" each week and I don't know how, or even if, I can curb or redirect that. I have once again established prep and designing cards two sessions ahead. That seems to be the sweet spot. I am kind of longing for a new theme though. Everything we've been making has either be valentines or birds with flowers. Things go better though if the cards are to Lynne's preferred aesthetics and her son insists we do things "seasonally," so I might be stuck with birds and flowers until summer.
Lynne is also unsurprisingly requiring more care. I wish more was being done on that front, but everyone is doing what they can. What is truly erking is since he tried to pull a fast one last month, her son/24 hour caregiver has been lying to me every time I come over, and badly.
One of our sessions, I did sneak in making my mother a birthday card.
Knitting
I have been making no progress with the knitted lace swatches.
I have been able to keep up with my 2 tracking shawls I'm doing this year. One tracks daily rain fall in inches (garter stitch that increases with 2 yarn overs every other row) and one tracks something I probably shouldn't bring up in a public post (garter stitch border and stockinette stitch body rectangle). Once a week, I knit up the last 7 days worth of rows. Housesitting for a couple weeks threw a wrench in things because I couldn't bring my knitting, but with the help of some Poirot and Murdoch Mysteries DVDs, I was able to catch up. I did have to buy some more yarn because we had gotten more rain in a day than I had anticipated and I needed another color. (I had planned just in case on my color chart, but I hadn't bought yarn outside the more common amounts of rain.)
There is still yarn in the clearance display of jumbo skeins that "double mart" had gotten in for the Christmas crafting season and I am rather in love with the "claret" color for a blanket I don't have time to work on. So far, I have remained strong and not bought any, but if it doesn't sell out soon, I am going to crumble.
I've been trying to make sure I have print copies of the patterns I normally work with (or plan on with real intent). It is not going well. The only ones I've gotten to cooperate are the one for a blanket I've been poking at since 2023 and the pattern for the Fourth Doctor's scarf put out by the BBC in the 80's. (Open Culture has the memo with the pattern and history. The article is titled "The BBC Creates Step-by-Step Instructions for Knitting the Iconic Dr. Who Scarf: A Document from the Early 1980s.")
Unrelated, but I've also discovered that one of my knitting books has an American/British/MM needle conversion size chart.
The Practice Book/Sketchbook Project
I think the last time I really updated at get_knitted, project 3 had come out on Andrea Nelson's YouTube channel, but I hadn't done it yet.
Project 3 was overlapping circles in watercolor, one page using wet on dry and one page doing wet on wet. To make my circles, I used a sharpie to trace around some lids I had. In the actual instruction video, she wanted you to dip lids in black acrylic paint and stamp it on the paper. The sharpie worked just fine. My wet on dry went fine. My wet on wet page, less so. I know my paper in my sketchbook book is not suitable for wet on wet, so I put wax paper behind it, but it wasn't a big enough piece, so it bled through 7 pages. (I am just incorporating the splotches into the other pages.)
Project 4 was houses and a snowy sky. The row of houses were a row of rectangles with triangle or trapezoidal roofs. The snowy sky was a mix of blues and purple paint, with salt sprinkled on it. I did the details on the houses with a super fine art pen and whiteout tape (the windows).
Project 5 was flying valentines and hearts with water color and pen details.
Project 6 was practice for mixing background colors. We painted 4 hearts in 4 different colors, then gave them each different colored backgrounds, where a little bit of the color from the corresponding heart mixed in to make sure it coordinated.
Project 7 was an illustration of a coffee cup (I love you a latte). I did mine with highlighters instead of watercolor.
Project 8 I talked about in the February 6 check in at get_knitted. (Cherry bowl still life)
Project 9 I talked about in the February 8 check in at get_knitted. (Overlapping tissue paper hearts)
Project 10 was a series of 4 tulips. The tulips all used the same colors of paint, but were done on different backgrounds to show how the paint looks different on different backgrounds.
Project 11 was just triangles.
Project 12 was painting clouds 4 different ways; wet on wet, wet on dry, negative space, and crayon resist.
Project 13 was spring time colored dragon flies on a background of floating rectangles. I did mine in highlighters instead of watercolor.
Finding tape that works consistently on the paper of the sketchbook without ripping has been impossible. Everything seems to work some of the time.
I seem to have gotten my entire book club interested in following the projects online.
Library Workshops
At the end of January, K lead another miniature workshop. This time we made paper houses that fold into a book. I finished the house parts, but I still have to make the cover that makes it fold into a book. She got the project from Canon's free paper craft printables.
On Valentine's Day, the library hosted an all day card making event. They had a cart of supplies and snacks and you just came in and played, basically. My mother and I each made 2 Valentine's. It was nice to make a card I didn't have to rush for a last minute occasion or conform to Lynne's tastes.
This week, there is an upcoming gel printing workshop I am registered for.
Writing
I am very disappointed in my writing this month. I missed out on Halfamoon and it looks like I will be missing out on the Salad Bar and Romancing McShep (and the related Stargate challenges).
On the other hand, I have been researching and plotting a self indulgent original fantasy series, that will probably never grace another person's eyeballs. Researching has been fun though.
I am also doing the Dear Stranger letter writing event. I need to write a one page letter about currents and turn it in by the 27th. It's not going well.
I've also been making some informative zines. I've got the text figured out, I still have to construct them though.
Card Making with Lynne Mondays
They have continued without interruption. Lynne becomes more and more obsessed with making things perfect and "correct" each week and I don't know how, or even if, I can curb or redirect that. I have once again established prep and designing cards two sessions ahead. That seems to be the sweet spot. I am kind of longing for a new theme though. Everything we've been making has either be valentines or birds with flowers. Things go better though if the cards are to Lynne's preferred aesthetics and her son insists we do things "seasonally," so I might be stuck with birds and flowers until summer.
Lynne is also unsurprisingly requiring more care. I wish more was being done on that front, but everyone is doing what they can. What is truly erking is since he tried to pull a fast one last month, her son/24 hour caregiver has been lying to me every time I come over, and badly.
One of our sessions, I did sneak in making my mother a birthday card.
Knitting
I have been making no progress with the knitted lace swatches.
I have been able to keep up with my 2 tracking shawls I'm doing this year. One tracks daily rain fall in inches (garter stitch that increases with 2 yarn overs every other row) and one tracks something I probably shouldn't bring up in a public post (garter stitch border and stockinette stitch body rectangle). Once a week, I knit up the last 7 days worth of rows. Housesitting for a couple weeks threw a wrench in things because I couldn't bring my knitting, but with the help of some Poirot and Murdoch Mysteries DVDs, I was able to catch up. I did have to buy some more yarn because we had gotten more rain in a day than I had anticipated and I needed another color. (I had planned just in case on my color chart, but I hadn't bought yarn outside the more common amounts of rain.)
There is still yarn in the clearance display of jumbo skeins that "double mart" had gotten in for the Christmas crafting season and I am rather in love with the "claret" color for a blanket I don't have time to work on. So far, I have remained strong and not bought any, but if it doesn't sell out soon, I am going to crumble.
I've been trying to make sure I have print copies of the patterns I normally work with (or plan on with real intent). It is not going well. The only ones I've gotten to cooperate are the one for a blanket I've been poking at since 2023 and the pattern for the Fourth Doctor's scarf put out by the BBC in the 80's. (Open Culture has the memo with the pattern and history. The article is titled "The BBC Creates Step-by-Step Instructions for Knitting the Iconic Dr. Who Scarf: A Document from the Early 1980s.")
Unrelated, but I've also discovered that one of my knitting books has an American/British/MM needle conversion size chart.
The Practice Book/Sketchbook Project
I think the last time I really updated at get_knitted, project 3 had come out on Andrea Nelson's YouTube channel, but I hadn't done it yet.
Project 3 was overlapping circles in watercolor, one page using wet on dry and one page doing wet on wet. To make my circles, I used a sharpie to trace around some lids I had. In the actual instruction video, she wanted you to dip lids in black acrylic paint and stamp it on the paper. The sharpie worked just fine. My wet on dry went fine. My wet on wet page, less so. I know my paper in my sketchbook book is not suitable for wet on wet, so I put wax paper behind it, but it wasn't a big enough piece, so it bled through 7 pages. (I am just incorporating the splotches into the other pages.)
Project 4 was houses and a snowy sky. The row of houses were a row of rectangles with triangle or trapezoidal roofs. The snowy sky was a mix of blues and purple paint, with salt sprinkled on it. I did the details on the houses with a super fine art pen and whiteout tape (the windows).
Project 5 was flying valentines and hearts with water color and pen details.
Project 6 was practice for mixing background colors. We painted 4 hearts in 4 different colors, then gave them each different colored backgrounds, where a little bit of the color from the corresponding heart mixed in to make sure it coordinated.
Project 7 was an illustration of a coffee cup (I love you a latte). I did mine with highlighters instead of watercolor.
Project 8 I talked about in the February 6 check in at get_knitted. (Cherry bowl still life)
Project 9 I talked about in the February 8 check in at get_knitted. (Overlapping tissue paper hearts)
Project 10 was a series of 4 tulips. The tulips all used the same colors of paint, but were done on different backgrounds to show how the paint looks different on different backgrounds.
Project 11 was just triangles.
Project 12 was painting clouds 4 different ways; wet on wet, wet on dry, negative space, and crayon resist.
Project 13 was spring time colored dragon flies on a background of floating rectangles. I did mine in highlighters instead of watercolor.
Finding tape that works consistently on the paper of the sketchbook without ripping has been impossible. Everything seems to work some of the time.
I seem to have gotten my entire book club interested in following the projects online.
Library Workshops
At the end of January, K lead another miniature workshop. This time we made paper houses that fold into a book. I finished the house parts, but I still have to make the cover that makes it fold into a book. She got the project from Canon's free paper craft printables.
On Valentine's Day, the library hosted an all day card making event. They had a cart of supplies and snacks and you just came in and played, basically. My mother and I each made 2 Valentine's. It was nice to make a card I didn't have to rush for a last minute occasion or conform to Lynne's tastes.
This week, there is an upcoming gel printing workshop I am registered for.
Writing
I am very disappointed in my writing this month. I missed out on Halfamoon and it looks like I will be missing out on the Salad Bar and Romancing McShep (and the related Stargate challenges).
On the other hand, I have been researching and plotting a self indulgent original fantasy series, that will probably never grace another person's eyeballs. Researching has been fun though.
I am also doing the Dear Stranger letter writing event. I need to write a one page letter about currents and turn it in by the 27th. It's not going well.
I've also been making some informative zines. I've got the text figured out, I still have to construct them though.
