6 posts tagged “hc studio”

I'm doing my homework one Friday morning in my office as well as trying to organize my fabrics, yarn, etc. so that I have room to spread out my books.  As I'm organizing and trying to find a package of post-it tabs to mark my notes, I see a plastic bag shoved behind my fabric bins.  I get on my knees and crawl underneath the desk and moved all of my boxes, curious as to what is in the white plastic bag.  When I finally get all the bins oiut, I found a bag full of felt.  There must be over fifty pieces of felt in the bag.  Jackpot!  I was saving most of the felt that I have in one of my bins for other projects that I'm working on.  Little did I know, I have more.  So, the homework was hastily casted aside and my mind began spinning on how to make use of the extra felt.  Then it hit me... make more iPhone cozies.

There have been some complains in my family that there's knitting projects everywhere around the house.  It's supposedly contained in my office, but it's managed to escape into the living room, my bedroom, the kitchen, and the spare bedroom.  An in all honesty, I don't even know how much yarn I have, even with Ravelry's help.

I figured, to keep the peace in my household, I've decided to knit so much that it will cause "knitter's elbow" (if that even exists).  There I was, holed up in my office trying to come up with patterns to crochet or knit.  There were so many skeins of Lily Sugar and Cream yarn, but I couldn't help it.  It was so nice, soft, and perfect to make amigurumi animals from my Japanese amigurumi pattern books that I purchased from Etsy and Kinokuniya Bookstores (another addiction).  Then it hit me, why not make amigurumi fruits?  Hmmm. it was worth a shot.  I made a strawberry amigurumi last year and maybe if I expanded, I would end up with something that can bust my stash.  I crocheted so much in that my wrists hurt.  Well, actually, they didn't hurt at first, but a couple of days later, I was experiencing DOKMS...Delayed Onset Knitter's Muscle Soreness.  No, DOKMS doesn't exist in the medical dictionary...not yet at least.

The patterns and actual toys will be on sale at my etsy shop www.deebunny77.etsy.com  

The second thing that I'm excited about is that after cleaning up Mike's computer (which I was using to do some graphic illustrations a while back), I found some of of my drawings.  I want to give many thanks to dearbarbz.  She posted her illustrations on her blog and so I think I will do the same...

This first illustration is a 5x7 drawing....

 

As you can see, the illustration is quite small and the I've added a calendar on the top left hand corner of the drawing.

Since I was cleaning up like crazy on Friday and Saturday, I found these awesome magnets that my mum bought me when I visited her in San Francisco...  I think I may start an amigurumi series on these as well...

 

I was going over my stash and found some Lily Sugar and Cream left over yarn.  It gave me an idea of making a cozy for my iPod Touch since it ends up in my everyday bag.  Despite the fact that the iTouch already has a protective case to it, I decided to make one for it for more protection.

I wasn't sure how the pattern was going to turn out, but I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted.  It's a simple pattern, but I added my artistic flair to it....

 

 

My Favourite food...(makes any bad day at work better!)

 

It's been a while since I've written a pattern.  Normally, I'll just start crocheting or knitting without even jotting down the pattern.  I'm finding that after a few months after completing the project, I couldn't remember how the heck it is that I made it.  I guess I should start documenting the patterns.

I actually started a blanket last month (I think).  I've gotten a few rows down and have a pretty good idea where I want the blanket to go.  So I began writing down the pattern although I've only gotten five rows of it done.  Since I'm going camping later on this afternoon for the weekend, I'd be brining my knitting and see if I can write the pattern then whilst I lounge around the campground.

I hate to say it, but I've been using my head as a mannequin to take photographs of all the hats I've knitted or crocheted.  I could even use myself as the model for all my knitted products; however, I found that none of my friends have no photography skills.  They’re the “Point and shoot” kind of people.  So, taking a photograph of my own head is quite challenging and the crooked look of the photographs doesn’t look professional enough to insert them in my portfolios.

 

So, the last resort was to borrow a cosmetology dummy head from a friend.  Sadly, the dummy head looks like it came from a horror flick like the “Exorcist.”  The hair was cut really short and the gothic style make-up wasn’t working at all either.  I would have to clean her up to make her looking somewhat normal.  I started to clean her face with make-up remover, but sadly, the make-up had been on her for years that it was almost permanent.  I had to resort to rubbing alcohol or something stronger to remove the darned thing.  Her face looks a bit better, but I was unable to remove the rest of the make-up.  Her hair is a mess as well. She had so much gel that I had to wash it to avoid damage to my hats.  Despite the fact that her overall look improved, she still look freakishly scary.  I had to put my make-up skills to use to make her look au naturale.  Then again, I don’t want to waste expensive make-up on a mannequin.  Then I had the wonderful idea of Photoshop!

 

Now that she’s semi-cleaned up, the next goal is to put all the hats I’ve made on her head.  I’m also hoping to use my friend’s teenage daughter as a model for other items I’ve made.  When I asked her last year if she would like to model, her father made a comment that this “gig” is the closest she’ll ever get to modeling since she only stands at 4 foot 11 inches.

 

As I took photographs of three of the hats I’d love to get catalogued, I was quite happy with the results.  The original Casquet Hat photo was disastrous.  After I finished the hat, I took a photo of myself wearing the hat and needless to say, I was looking rather tired.  Although the photograph was pretty disastrous, the hat was a big hit.  It’s made out of wool and acrylic blend yarn in a charcoal colour.  My friend loved the hat so much she wanted one for herself.  I still haven’t started her hat and she’s even asked me last week how long before I finish it.  My response was “NOT!”

 

The next hat I was able to take a photograph of was the Stars Hollow Beret.  It’s named Stars Hollow after one of my favourite shows “Gilmore Girls.”  I could have named it “Flack Hat” after CSI:New York, but Stars Hollow was the better choice since the pattern looks like a bunch of stars as well.  The hat can be worn in two different ways, as illustrated by the scary mannequin.  Really, just look at how scary she is.  This hat was also crocheted and since I had an abundance of Wool-Ease Worsted weight, another hat was born.

 

Finally, the last hat was the Hermoine Cabled Eyelet Hat.  This was designed by another knitter, but I am posting it here to show my knitting skills and because I love cabled items.  I don’t know why, but I just find them fascinating.  The hat isn’t hard to make and it didn’t take that long as well.  It does run slightly larger than I intended since I used needles that are one size too big.  Since I’m not able to sell this pattern, I did make it for myself to keep my “noggin” nice and warm during the aeroplane ride to Jamaica.  Sadly, I didn’t use the hat and it sat in my carry-on bag on the way to Jamaica, during my holiday, and on the way back to the States.

 

 

After a lazy day yesterday, today was supposed to be a work day.  This means, I have to study and finish out the Stars Hollow hat design.  After a full month of working on it and a month of frustrations as I couldn't figure out parts of the pattern, I've finally got it worked out.  The hat is finally finished and now, I need to put it down on paper, sketch the hat, and file away the pattern.

I'm pretty satisfied at how the hat turned out.  I just have to make a couple more in different colours before I can sell them online.