Jul 11, 2006

I dream of Yarnie

Brief blog about my complete and utter obsession over yarn. Suss Designs is closing their store in NY. I'm going to miss that place. It was different from every other yarn store in NY. It was big and roomy. It had lots of natural light. It was very natural. It felt like walking into a organic spa... except with yarn.





Now for the obsessive part. They are having a 50 - 70% off sale on EVERYTHING in the store. Right down to the baskets that hold the yarn!



I made out like a bandit.



Most of that is for intended projects. I had no choice but to shop with purpose. It was the only way to keep my purchases down to a respectable level. I did by some strays but I managed to keep them to a minimum.





Beautiful green combed cotton





Alpaca tweed in beige and taupe





Acrylic wool in pinks and greens





Extrafine merino in antique orange





Cream wool



And I couldnt resist these that I have been eyeing since they came into the store a few weeks ago!



I believe that I could regurgitate yarn now. Excuse me while I fondle my new fibers...

Jul 8, 2006

Pride, Pincushions, Pups, Pouches, and Pyrotechnics....

Oh joy, a free day to blog! It's going to be another photo heavy blog so bear with me. First off... PRIDE!!! I finally got to see everyone again, especially Charlie. I missed him so much , I was sobbing when I saw him.



That's him in the pink with Eric.

We watched the parade on the street.



That's me standing on a tree stump to see over other people's heads.

Then we move up to a rooftop, where we had beers and fucked around.



That's the view of the parade from the roof.

It was kinda raining that day and the sky was gray but rainbows were flying everywhere and that is what made the day!

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Rebecca made this cute little pincushion and I thought I'd try it out. I decided to make mine a kitty.



I gifted it to my mom. She said she has a million pincushions but she loved mine anyways.

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My little baby Hope was at the dog run a few days ago and here she is wet from the pool and waiting for Allen to throw the ball.




She is just the cutest thing ever!

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When I was at the Renegade Craft fair, I picked up some fabric. Then I went to P&S and got some felt and zippers and made this:




It was fairly easy to make but I did make some mistakes. You can do this all by hand if you want but it will go a lot faster by machine. Here's how I did it:

Materials:
1/4 yard of any 2 cotton or cotton blend fabrics
1/4 yard of batting (usually any scraps you have around should do the trick)
contrast thread (poly/cotton is best)
1 separating zipper (usually 6 or 8 inches is best unless you want a very large pouch)
2 different colors of contrasting felt (colors that will stand out from your outer fabric)
pins, scissors or rotary cutter


Start by measuring your zipper. You want to cut your outer, inner fabrics, and your batting about an inch longer than your zipper on both sides for seam allowance. That will be your width. For your height, decide how tall you want your pouch, times that number by 2, and add 2 inches for seam allowance.

Ex. Your zipper is 8 inches and you want a 5 inch height.
You will cut your materials at 10 inches (8 + 1 + 1) across and 12 inches (5 x 2 + 2) down.

You want to cut everything at a right angle or else you wont have a even pouch.

When you are done with that, put it aside and take out your felt. I put in a lolly pop but you can use anything you want. You want to choose something that would be easy to cut out and easy to sew down. Ex. Hearts, Stars, Poka Dots, etc. Make sure you cut out the felt to the size of your finished pouch or else you could end up having to sew or fold over your design.

First sew the felt pieces onto the outer fabric. If your designs are small, it might be easier to hand sew them on. After that, it's time to sew your fabrics together. Pin outer and inner fabrics wrong sides together with the batting in the middle. Now sew down heightwise every 1/2 an inch. When you get to the part where your felt is, Its up to you whether you want to sew over the design or stop and start after the felt.

Cut any loose thread hanging off and you're half way there! Fold over top of the piece and pin one side of the zipper on. (Usually it's easier if you unzip it and only pin on side) Now sew the zipper on. You want to start with the side that the zipper head isn't on or you might get stuck. When you do get to the head of the zipper, you might have to manually turn the machine's gears to sew up the rest.

Now fold it in half down the center horizontally. Mark off where your zipper starts and stops on the side without the zipper. Fold over the edge and pin the othe side of the zipper on in the right spots. You want to make sure you pinned it with the ends of the zipper matching or you could end up with a pouch you cant zip up. Sew like before.

Fold pouch in half right side in and sew up the sides with an inch seam allowance. MAKE SURE YOU UNZIP THE POUCH FIRST OR YOU WONT BE ABLE TO FLIP IT RIGHT SIDE OUT!! Now inverse the pouch and admire your work!


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I went to Allen's for July 4th. He lives in a tall building and you can see all the fireworks from his windows.



The Macy's Fireworks



The South Street Seaport Fireworks

They were really pretty and to see it that clearly was amazing.

Well that's all folks. See ya on the flipside!