Thursday, March 07, 2013

T-shirt yarn challenge

Ya know, not every craft idea works out.

I haven't knitted anything with my t-shirt yarn in a while and I thought I might try to work out something that was new for my etsy store utilizing this grand recycled medium. I've made bath/floor mats and trivets of various sorts and sizes with t-shirt yarn and I wanted a new knitted project.

Cup cozies sounded like a brilliant idea! Everyone is walking around with a paper cup from Starbucks or their own refillable tall cup these days and they all need a cozy, right? Right? Of course!

Time to get cracking: in an effort to eliminate seams, I first tried knitting in the round with (enormous) double pointed needles. These babies are like broomsticks, I tell you. But they are beautifully made and a pleasure to touch and use so I forged ahead.

Anyway, I thought that tube looked kinda clunky so I ripped it all out again. Stockinette stitch just looked wrong.

 So then I tried garter stitch knit from one end to the other and thus wrapped around the cup sideways. Which, of course, was going to force me to graft up a seam. Oh well.
And here is the finished product.





o_O


Gotta say: I'm not a fan. Its clunky. Its big. Its so big, in fact, that its hard to wrap one hand around it.

Uh....no.


Back to the drawing board....

Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Crafting and Wine: a cautionary tale

So last weekend I was catching up on restocking my inventory by making some more of my notebooks with the celestial star map covering. I had just gotten two maps in from eBay and made 7 large notebooks and 4 minis.

It seems like I've made a zillion of these by now so I took the liberty of pouring myself a little Chardonnay. Things were going swimmingly when...

I made this one------------------------------------------------>

Do you see it? No?






Look closer. I mounted the paper upside down.  Gahhhh. Once applied there is no peeling the paper off, let me tell you.

Sigh. Anyone want a celestial notebook at a discount?