New Projects!!!

Today, I've brought home a whole host of crafting materials to bring on a new wave of "craftastrophes!"

Sooo.... I didn't win the lottery...

...BUT  I totally hit the jackpot with my finished infinity scarf!

It was a fairly simple pattern, but it is so gorgeous and looks very complicated (at least to my untrained, novice eye).  I used a 5 sts = 1" US 7 (4.5mm) gauge yarn in a mustard color, 3 skeins of 100m/50 g.  It's 30% Bowlder (Jadeite) fiber, 50% fine wool, and 20% silk, which drew my attention because the texture of the yarn was pretty luxurious.  I used 8 mm knitting needles with this yarn to get that looser effect.

Instructions:

Cast on a multiple of 3 stitches to the desired width of your choice.  (I did 42 stitches).  I then K2, P1 (I'm not familiar with knitting speak, so in lamens term, I knit two stitches, then purled one stitch all the way across), for every row until the desired length.  I wanted to be able to loop the scarf once around my neck and still have the bottom loop hit about 1/3 down my torso, which needed all three skeins.  I would check my progress by holding the scarf against me to make sure the length is correct.  To complete the loop, I twisted the scarf several times before attaching the two ends so that it's permanently twisted.  To combine, I left about 18 inches of yarn at the end and started single crocheting the two ends together, but there was not enough yarn leftover for that.  So, I just used the crochet hook to wrap the yarn through the two ends, kind of like stitching.  BUT that's very unorthodox.  I found a site with more legit ways to combine two knitted pieces together:

http://www.learn2knit.co.uk/knitting/joining.php

Enjoy!

Origami Flower Ball Thingy

As I've mentioned in a previous post, one of my goals was to make an origami flower ball thing just because it's badass.  I was inspired by the above YouTube video made by Chloe Dao.

There's no way I have the space for a ginormous flower ball made from whole construction paper sheets as Chloe had done, so I used pre-cut origami paper.  I cut those squares down to four even pieces, because a) I had in mind that it would make a cute ornament for Christmas (which I totally didn't finish it in time for) and b) it's only for fun to see how long it would take to do.

I've been working on it off an on at my desk at work during lunch.  As you can see, I have two of the 12 flowers completed.  Each flower uses up 5 squares, so you need a total of 60 squares per ball.  I cut up 15 sheets of the full sized pre-cut squares into 60 sheets of 1/4 sized squares.  I pretty much followed the video above to make the cones.  Once I had five cones, I taped them together with tiny pieces of scotch tape (which was not visible at all).  I'm going to wait until I have all 12 flowers completed before I start assembling.

Framed Peg Board: Desk Reorganization Project

Okay.  I have a problem.  That problem is my desk.  I swear that it is messing with my creative productivity.  It's true!  A messy work environment makes you less motivated to start projects because you have to clean first before even starting.  Who wants to clean?  Also, it's harder to find things when you're messy.  And finally, I can't even sit at it.  There's nowhere to put my feet.  It's a serious problem.

Here's another angle in case you don't appreciate the full mess

As you can see, it's looking cuhrazy!  There's a giant pile of mail, random frames taking up space, my laptop, tape, paper clips, remote controls...  They are all fighting for space on the surface of my desk (and let's be honest, underneath it, too).  Never to fear, though.  I have a plan (as always).  I am going to add two shelves: one to put my new filing system (just adding everything to binders in protective sleeve covers) and relieve my poor subwoofer of my hardcover books, and the other one to put my sewing machine and sewing basket (to make more room on the floor for my legs and feet).  I am also going to hang a peg board above my desk.  It will house my mail organization system, my office supplies, my cameras, and my paper cutters, which are ALWAYS in the way of something.  Essentially, I want to take the surface of my desk right now and make it vertical.

BUT, I'm me, and I can't simply hang up a peg board, now, can I?  Nooooooooooooo.  I have to make it look pretty.  So, I'm going to paint it and put a frame on it, then buy cutesy filing stuff, and, lucky you (not really), I'm gonna share how I did it!