cards for sale!!!

we got a few of the cards listed on etsy!!

here is the shop link:
azurerocket.etsy.com

yay! we hope to get the rest up soon and to do some valentine's day cards.

Sari Silk Experimentation

I bought some recyled sari silk yarn on eBay and it wasn't quite what I'd expected, so I crocheted this cuff as a small project to see how it behaves. The cuff turned out nicely, but it still will take some thinking to come up with appropriate uses for the rest of the 1000 grams of it.

Crunchy Socks Update

Well, I've finished one of my crunchy socks. The photo is of when it was about 80% complete, but now it's done. I'm not sure when I'll get to the second since it is indeed not terribly comfortable, but now I can go forward with confidence with my primo sock yarns. The striping is fun - I especially like the bit of green under the heel and the subtle Tetris blocks that appeared in the wide color bands - but I really can only imagine myself wearing them while I'm cleaning the bathtub or running around outside through the sprinklers I don't have or something where a heavy-duty, scratchy, plasticy sock would come in handy (the yarn is Red Heart Strata in Splash). Definitely not a relaxing-in-front-of-the-fire sock, but yes, I can knit socks!

birthday cards

these are some more cards that i made today. luckily i have all this time before my classes really get going! (front)

(inside)

la la la

so i went to the store on friday and got some cool new stuff for making cards, like nifty papers, envelopes, etc. the most exciting thing i got was a white ink pad for stamps!! it looks so cool, but i haven't had a chance to use it on a card yet.

also, i am going to start working on furniture design again. my husband said he would help me build it if i got everything all drawn up, so that is what i am going to be working on as well.

kathbot and i have a creative party set up for friday, and with a little bit of luck we will end up with a bunch of cool stuff to post!

more handmade card concepts

here are three more card concepts that i came up with yesterday. this first one is another birthday greeting.
here's the front and stamped envelope,
the inside,
and the back.
i think i'm getting better at this.

this next card is just a formal invitation for any event. it was a lot of fun to go for a more sophisticated look and feel.
this is the front,
the inside,
and a shot of the back and the stamped envelope.
this is just a plain happy birthday card with a blank inside.
this is the front and stamped envelope,
and this is the back and the envelope.

these cards will soon be available for purchase on etsy.com.

card prototypes

these are a couple of the card ideas i came up with over the weekend. i'm not sure if they are completely perfected, but i like the ideas as a whole. what i am mostly debating on is the color schemes.

this is a sample of an idea i came up with for birthday party invitations:
this is the front,
inside,
and the decoration of the back before i decided to change the spelling of "pajamas" to "pijamas."

this is one of the ideas i had for a birthday card.
the front (the yarn ball is embroidery floss),
the inside,
and another version of a back stamp with the spelling of pajamas still not changed.

i hope to experiment more with color schemes, layout, and such. i also want to come up with a few more ideas. things are going well so far.

handmade cards

one thing that i want to try this month is making fun handmade cards. i have started doing a few birthday card ideas, but nothing is done yet. my biggest problem is coming up with little touches that make them charming, but i'm working on it. i've decided to call my line of cards "cat's pijamas", but i haven't decided on a logo yet. hopefully i will have some time to work on them later today, then i will post some of them.

i know that kathbot has been working on some baby cards for a boutique. we will post a link to the boutique when they are ready.

Budget

So, to save $ and space, I have instituted a budget for my discretionary spending this year. Most of my "fun money" is spent on art & craft supplies, so each month I get an allowance. If I do small things to bring in pocket change (I am a stay-at-home mom), then I can add this to my allowance. So far, so good, but my January money is already blown!

Going along with this, I am going to specifically track my yarn purchases since I have quite enough for a while and it's really easy to track by skein. Until I can fit all of my stash in one storage bin, I am going to have a burn 2 skeins to buy 1 policy (kind of like China's one child policy :D). I'm not going to push stashbusting really heavily because, as I said in my last post, it's time for knitting to step away from the forefront for awhile, but I'm definitely going to do a "yarn diet".

So without further ado:

Also, one thing I spent my Christmas wad on was a Royal brand yarn ball winder, so once I get my oddments wound into pretty cakes, I'll post some pics of the stash.

Crunchy Socks

So, one of my current projects is my first pair of socks. I'll be breaking with the wool tradition here at Twoo Ho Height because I'm using some really nasty, crunchy acrylic yarn, but I am still on a fiber high since getting my Ravelry invite last October (all other craft forms are getting tired of the back burner). My feet aren't sensitive like the top of me is, so it should be okay. The yarn is Red Heart Strata in the Splash colorway and it looks great, but the texture is even rougher and crunchier than regular Red Heart! I'm just turning the heel of the first sock and will get some pics up soon.

Holly Ornament

This is an example of the holly ornaments I made as incidental Christmas gifts (I really should have made more and given them to more people, but oh, well.) The leaves are felted wool from a thrifted men's wool suit (Ralph Lauren!) and the berries were wet felted from yarn. Glued together with a hot glue gun! I also printed up the symbolism of holly relating to Christmas and the lyrics for The Holly and the Ivy.

Formatting Woes

If anyone out there in Internetland knows why the text formatting is off in text blocks following a picture, please tell me! I've spent a while messing with it and there is nothing in the code I control to explain the discrepancy. I'm pretty sure it's a Blogger problem and I hope there's a workaround!

Felted Rose Purse

Another Christmas '07 recap! This was for a handmade gift exchange for my mom's group. It's an original design. I knitted two identical sides on my Bond Ultimate Sweater Machine (USM) which is really a knitting machine for anything, not just sweaters. I even got the stripes to match on both sides. I also knitted a handle on the USM then seamed and felted (or fulled) it.
After blocking, I needle felted a rose by coiling some of the same yarn I used for the purse on top of some leaves I cut out of wool felt. The closure is a pearly vintage button and I just cut a slit for the buttonhole since the wool really felted well. I left it unlined due to time constraints, but in future versions I will line it, probably knit a separate panel for the bottom, and reinforce the bottom for added rigidity.

Dreamy Entrelac

This is an entrelac scarf I'm working on in a really dreamy self-striping bulky yarn - Reynolds Smile. It's a little thick and too wide, so I'm going to frog it (it's already off the needles) and decrease it by 1/3 by only having it two squares wide on the diagonal instead of three, go up a needle size (to 11), and maybe also decrease the size of the squares to 8 or 9 (currently they are 10x10 stitches).

scrumptioucity

another project that kathbot and i are working on together is another blog! it is called scrumptioucity, and it is a compilation of all our favorite recipes. check it out at http://scrumptioucity.blogspot.com.

Felted Guitar Strap

This is a felted guitar strap I made from a Lion Brand Yarn pattern for our brother for Christmas (yes, it's an'07 project).
I was mostly happy with how it turned out, but I felted it a lot for a nice thick strap and would have liked it to be longer and wider. Also, I felted it with a white towel and it took forever to pick all the little white pills out!

homemade christmas

for christmas this last year, my husband's family did a homemade christmas theme. for his sisters, i made wool purses with needle felted details and cotton lining.

winter centerpiece

for one of my friend's bridal showers, i took three vases, cranberries, white candles, red jewel garland, white carnations, and greenery to make an awesome centerpiece. i put the vases in a row, with the carnations in the middle in green water, flanked by cranberries floating in water in the other two vases. i spread the greenery around the bottoms of the vases, then put four white candles in a square formation around the middle vase. finally, i wound the red garland around the vases and candles and lit the candles. it was very festive and a lot of fun! i only wish i had taken a picture!

what it is all about

this is my 2008 project(ion)s blog. to me, that means this is where i talk about the projects, in whatever form, i want to do this year and have done this year. it's kinda like a before and after type thing, except you may not always get both with each project. we shall see how this goes!