Things I'd Like to Crochet One Day

*Life-sized bicycle (modeled after my yellow '70s Schwinn)
*Potted venus fly trap
*Ribcage (I have already made one out of wood)
*Sloth
*A large banana peel (and maybe a guy slipping on it...)
*A representation of my Etsy store name: Robot Heart Squid
*Crowley and Aziraphale from Good Omens
*Ben Gibbard for my friend who stalks him

more soon...

Upon learning that crochet has one purpose for me

Stuffies!!! This was my first more or less following of a crochet pattern. More or less meaning that quite a bit of it was winged. I left out a few color changes because I still don't know how to do that. This is for Emma Jean, who was born on May 19th. Her mom is an old family friend. It's a little lopsided, but still adorable. Everyone who's seen it wants one, but I will definitely be changing yarn for future teddies. I need to work on my embroidery though.

The yarn used - Bernat Baby Coordinates was a complete bitch to crochet, and just as bad to unravel.

My flat crochet curls, so I'll be useing it purely for toys and odd little sculptural items, and maybe the occasional hat. Knitting will be used to everything else.

Re-learning Crochet (one more thing done on my list)

So I vaguely learned how to crochet about four years ago using one of those Lion Brand scarf kits they used to sell. It had one ball of Jiffy and a ginormous hook (Q, maybe?). It was quick, but waaaaay too short, so it went into my charity box. I've been wanting to be able to make amigurumi because they are just so damn cute, so I picked up my hook -- a smaller one this time -- again last week and watched some YouTube amigurumi videos. Thus, Mr. Lumpy was born. He was my in the round, increasing, and decreasing 'swatch'. Kind of reminds me of those little Zoloft characters.

Then I started a plain half-double swatch which turned into a log cabin-esq. kitty blanket for PAWS Chicago. It's a little lopsided and ripply, because I seem to have trouble keeping the same number of stitches on each row, so now I'm working on a plain single stitch washcloth to see what I'm doing wrong.

Happy Accidents

The teapot I've been working on for what seems like forever collapsed last week. It was basically three or four haphazardly stacked cylinders...reminded me of an abstract oil can. Anyways, I walked into class on Friday and saw that it was lying on it's side. Carrie unwrapped it because I really didn't want to see what happened. It was a big slumped mess. (It was my fault -- I wrapped it in too many wet paper towels) The cylinder second from the bottom had folded down and the rest fell and cracked....and it looked amazing!!! I put it back together and smoothed out some bits, but mostly left a lot of the cracks and holes in tact. I am happier with it now than I was last week. I glazed one of my bowls with a matte khaki glaze that I'm thinking of using on this piece. It turns out more dirty rusty brown than khaki, which is perfect. This is going to become my 'overgrown' teapot...one of my mixed media fiber-and-clay pieces. I'm going to spin a wire-core yarn with various green and brown shades to intwine around and through the holes.

Fuzzy Around the Edges

During my junior high years, I started going to a dentist that was in our town. My mom had the notion that it would save time and money. Time, yes...money, um no. This guy was a total C&M -- cheap and masochistic. He would 'water' down his anesthetic and gas, so everything he did was felt. I believe once I was given at least five shots of novocaine because I wasn't numbing. He was eventually sued and went out of business.

Then I went back to the dentist I started out with. I cringed the first time I needed to have a cavity filled by this guy (everytime I went to the other one I left with four more teeth needing to be filled. I don't think I ever really had any.), but his novocaine...holy crap!!! And then when I asked for the gas one time, everything changed. Oh, the wonderous gas. I wish I could carry a small tank of it around with me. Seriously. Now I really don't mind going to the dentist. I'm kind of turning into that one character from Little Shop of Horrors...ok, not really...

I love how everything moves with a strobe light-like effect as first. Almost in a jarring fluid way. Then it transitions into the feeling of being trapped in quicksand. You know you're moving, shifting your feet, hands, etc., but the fact is delayed in getting to your mind. What is normally pain is now just warmth and pressure. I get the most bizarre thoughts while I'm under. I had this fleeting thought today that was something like comparing the position I was in to that of a hungry baby bird. Everytime the dentist came near I would open my mouth thinking he ws needed to drill or whatnot. haha. And then it's all over. You have to drive home with that fuzz slowly fading while trying not to unknowingly chew your tongue off. It's nice, though, to arrive back at work without even knowing how you got there. I'm sure it's unsafe, but it really does make the time fly by.

Proto Teapot

I'm starting to think that knitting was one of the things that led me to change majors. There are just more ways to incorporate it into sculpture than photography (although I've been thinking of a few things to try). Right now I'm working on a knit/felted teapot for ceramics, and perhaps for my undergrad show. This will be my first on-the-fly project with shaping. I've got to remember to write the directions down as I go, though, just in case it works out. *fingers crossed*

I love the 2002 calendar still on my mom's desk.

Belated First Update

Here I thought I started my 101 in 1001 on a Monday, but I just realized it was a Saturday. I'm going to update weekly now to track my progress.

Last night I started looking into local craft fairs in hopes of finding the prices for reserving a spot. If anything I'll try to get my mom to split one with me -- she makes these great fake floral arrangements that always get compliments. Anyhoo, I checked into Crete's European Market, which is just a fancy pants name for a small town's farmer's market. I couldn't believe what was all needed to just have a booth. It was practically signing your first born away! Photos of your work (to be judged - WTF?), a 250 word business statement, complete descriptions of everything you plan to sell and the materials they are made of, etc. The scary thing is that to get into Tallgrass Gallery, all I needed were five slides and a very short write up, and that place is frequented by big name artists. Strange. Now I'll just look into craft fairs.

I finally finished Cell by Stephen King, one of my books that has been laying around forever. I'm going to do a themed BookCrossing release for this one (at a cellphone store, hopefully) as soon as my release materials come in.

I also learned how to use chopsticks!!! Ok, so it's a big deal to me.

Oh! And I made some general info business cards to use in the Tallgrass gift shop. They're tose blank printable ones from Avery, just plain white with black writing . I took a bare tree stamp and some distress ink and created my own border on teh left side. I love them! Too bad my scanner stopped working because I'd love to post a picture.