Renovating the game room

I'd love to show you what wonderful craft project I'm working on right now. Well, technically, I could...

...because I do have a shawl on the triloom. I'm trying to variegate 6 different colors of yarn, working from light to dark. But I'm currently stalled on this project, because...

...currently my energy is going toward re-doing my downstairs game room. OUT with the decades old, dirty, stained, and stinky (really really stinky) carpet! This week was large item pick up week for the garbage man, so we ripped it all out this past weekend.

I really wish this photo had been in better focus, but I can't resist putting it up here anyway. I had about half a second to take the shot until Misty decided she didn't want to be thrown away after all. (Yes, we had been trimming the palm trees too. It ended up being quite the pile!)

Anyway, we got the carpet and disintigrating padding up and out, and then I pulled up all the tack board.

And that goes to show that you can find moderately interesting photographs anywhere. Even looking down into the garbage can.

Last night Eric also ripped out part of the ceiling, where we had some old water damage from where the old air conditioner leaked down through the upstairs floor. So I learned how to cut drywall, and we rasped it down until it just fit the spot.

Eric put that back up, while I went around and spackled in all the nail and screw holes, and Shane worked on getting the rest of the padding up from where it was glued to the cement floor.

So, we're almost ready to paint, and will probably do that this coming weekend. The walls will be a light cream, that will end up looking white but be a little warmer in feel. And then we'll put down oak toned laminate flooring.

Busy busy busy!

But not in the craft room.

365 photography project

One of the things I've been doing has been working on my photographic skills. I've got a ways to go, mind you. To get in some good practice, over the last year I've been posting a picture a day at my personal Facebook. This year though, I'm trying to step it up a notch from posting anything to trying to actually post something decent. (No promises on success, mind you.) So I decided to head over to the 365 Project, where other folks are working on the same thing. I figure I'll tap their brain and get some inspiration. If anyone is interested, it is at:

http://365project.org/lissamc/365

That is a whole community of folks taking on the challenge of posting a picture every single day for a year. If you're over there too, let me know. I'd love to follow along with your project!

(The picture above was one I took last Saturday. The Ferris Wheel was right in front of my booth during a craft show. This shot is of the guy tweaking it a bit before he opened for business. You should have seen the line halfway down the street all night long!)

Re-Boot! Felt Baby Booties (method 2)

I was going to make a set of felt baby booties yesterday, like I did here: http://tangibledaydreams.blogspot.com/2011/12/tutorial-how-to-make-felt-baby-booties.html . But..um...well, I wasn't really paying attention when I was laying out the felt, and I didn't get a good enough over lap on the top of the foot area. When it came time to cut the booties apart and take the resist out, that area kind of drifted apart. So much for one piece baby booties. I was Not Amused.

But, I didn't want to waste the fiber and the effort so far, so I went ahead and pulled the wool out flat and made two small and rather misshapen pieces of flat felt. I intended to set them aside, in case I thought of a future project for them.

But then, I was wandering Pinterest (I'm on there as http://pinterest.com/lissamc/ ), and came across a link to a tutorial for 'Happy Feet' Felt Baby Booties. http://www.ctpubblog.com/2010/03/22/happy-feet-felt-baby-booties/ On a whim, I printed out their pattern, and laid it out on my little sheets of hand made felt.

Oh awesome! They just fit. I cut out the pieces for the baby booties.

Now, I looked at the instructions. Blanket stitch around the edges that would be otherwise unfinished. Blanket stitch? Hand stitching. Ugh. Not my favorite of activities, so it wasn't surprising that I hadn't picked up that stitch before. Luckily, their instructions made it easy.

Now, using the same stitch, I put the toe on the sole.

And then the back piece went on.

Add a ribbon...

...and I got a pair of baby booties out of the project after all! They took several hours longer than the one piece pair would have, but I learned something new and they look rather cute.

So the initial failure is now a resounding success! My lessons learned? Blanket stitch isn't that hard after all. And more importantly, mistakes don't necessarily have to be a stop. Sometimes, they can be a change in route, and the outcome can end up just as good if not better. It just takes looking at the project from a different angle.

Arizona full moon rise into the Belt of Venus

My family and I went hiking in the White Tank Mountains this afternoon/evening. It was a beautiful day for it here in the Phoenix area, and we were coming down off the mountain just after sunset. My sweeties gave me a new telephoto lens for Christmas, and my husband was game enough to lug my tripod along with me. So when I spotted the full moon rising up into the Belt of Venus (http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/skyblog/stargazing/84903812.html), with a saguaro cactus making a classic Arizona desert shot, I had everything I needed to grab the shot. I'm really tickled with it. I couldn't have gotten the clarity with my normal lens. Expect to see more landscape and wild life photography pop up here in the blog over the coming year.

Then tonight I got to looking at one of the shots, and cropped it in like this:

Oooh...I so want to find a way to make this image into a pendant! Maybe I could learn fused glass? Or print it out, and sandwich it between two glass slides? I've seen some neat work done that way. Or.... I must do some research. There has to be a way. Oh! And it would make a spectacular bead tapestry piece! You could light it from behind, and let the moon just glow. I'd have to find several shades of beads to get the color gradation right. And then I could...

Don't you love it when the wheels start to turn?

Picture a Day project: 2011

Over the course of this past year, I've been doing a 'Picture a Day' project over on my personal FaceBook. This started as a way to keep in touch with my daughter as she was away at college, so she could see what was going on at home. It kind of took on a life of its own. Some of the pictures are posted because they're pretty. Some are posted to document what is going on day to day. Some are pretty stupid, snapped at the last moment because I forgot to take one of something interesting. (The dogs are always good for a last minute subject.) But over all, the practice has helped me train my eye to actually look around and see what is going on in the world around me.

Anyway, I thought it might be fun to pick one picture from each month, and post them here as kind of a year in review.

January: I was wandering around downtown Phoenix at night, after a friend's graduation. This statue is one of the ones outside of the Herberger Theater.

February: For years now, February has meant Estrella War. Estrella is a large (around 5000 people give or take) week long Medieval historical recreation event that my family enjoys attending. This is my son at sunset, looking at one of the camps along the road.

March: I did my first big order of hand painted silk scarves, and kicked off a whole new line for my Tangible Daydreams shop. This set of scarves went to the singing group Celtica.

April brought lovely weather to the Phoenix area. We started taking regular hikes at the White Tank Mountain regional park. This is a hedgehog cactus that was blooming along one of the trails.

It was still beautiful in May, so this is back at the White Tanks again. This is a cholla cactus, against the setting sun.

June: Road trip! Not all of Arizona is cactus, and it pays to get out and around--especially when it is getting hot down here in the valley. We took 89A from from Flagstaff down through Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona. This is Oak Creek.

July: The SCA (historical recreation) practice had moved to night time, to beat the desert heat. Here is my local group's ballista, aiming at the setting sun, waiting for it to get cool enough to play.

August: My family went to the theater. This is my husband and son, testing out my new hand painted silk ties. The ties ended up being another great addition to the Tangible Daydreams shop.

September: By this time, I was getting good at finding pictures wherever I went. This is simply one of the peacocks that wanders the grounds of my local library. I came out from getting my books, and spotted him posing against the flowers. Quick! Hand off the books to my sweetie, grab the camera out of my pocket, and I've got the shot the instant before he wandered off.

October: And sometimes, you have some advance notice and can get in the right place in the right time. We're back to the historical recreation. This is my consort swearing fealty, after getting the highest award for service that the group can give. He was surprised--but I knew enough to bring the good camera to the event, just in case.

November: Sometimes it pays to look behind you, too. I work at the community college as a model for the drawing classes, and we had set up a costumed pose out under the trees. This bed of flowers was behind us all, away from the direction that everyone was looking. But they were lit up beautifully in the afternoon sun.

December: I don't get snow here in Phoenix. So a field of fluffy white cotton on a blustery grey day is about as close as I get to winter.


I think I'll keep going on this project. I wonder what I'll have for a year in review come this time next year...

Tutorial: How to make a flat sheet of wool felt

I'm in the process of making a warm hat for my husband to use for SCA (historical recreation group) use. There is a style of hat that is popular here, especially on cold winter nights. I've heard it described variously as Viking, Mongolian, and Russian, and I'd guess that variations on it turned up in multiple cultures. It has 4 or 6 panels, which are sewn together and trimmed with fur. See here: http://pushingfurniture.blogspot.com/2011/07/off-my-game-and-onto-another-one.html for one reconstruction, here for another (minus the fur): http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/manshat.html , and here for some period artwork showing the hat in use: http://www.strangelove.net/~kieser/Russia/PeriodImages/SemyaYaroslava2.jpg .

I made him one several years ago, from a sheet of hand felted wool, and he absolutely loved it. He wore it, and wore it...and one time when he was washing it, the hat shrunk. You should have seen him pout. So, I get the old one and I promised him a new one. The first step in the process was to make the sheet of wool felt.

Here's how I did it:

Materials:
wool roving (not superwash)
hot water
dish soap
bubble wrap
netting
towels

I didn't measure how much wool I actually used, but I used up this pile plus a bit more.

I put down a layer of bubble wrap to work on. Then I started laying out the wool roving. I grabbed the end of the roving between the base of my palm and my fingers, and pulled out a tuft. I put the tufts down one next to another in a row across the bubble wrap. Then I did another row of tufts across, slightly overlapping the first row. I continued laying out my wool in an nice even layer this way, until I had a sheet that I thought was big enough.

I want to get four felt panels out of the final sheet of felt. The wool will shrink as I work it, so I needed to lay out a sheet of wool roving at least half again as big as I wanted the final size to be.

Once I had the size pretty much right, I put down a second layer of wool at right angles to the first one. Putting the fibers down crossways will help them tangle together in the felting process.

Then a third even layer of wool went down, at right angles to the previous layer.

I felt around to see if there were any spots that seemed kind of thin, and added a bit more wool there to make sure the felt wouldn't have any weak spots.

Then I put down wisps of other colors for a pattern layer. I know the wool will shift somewhat in the felting process, so I didn't try for anything too precise.

However, a layer of netting over my work at this point helps keep things pretty much in place, and keeps the wool from sticking to my hands in the next step.

Wool fibers have microscopic scales. When you add hot water, those scales open up. When you add a bit of soap and some agitation, the fibers slip around and the scales kind of velcro themselves together. The result is a transformation of a pile of fluff into a durable fabric. So, my next step was to heat some water, add a squirt or two of dish soap, and ladle the water gently over the sheet of wool roving.

I gently patted down on the netting, and worked the water around until all of the fibers were saturated. (At this point, I remembered to put towels down on the floor, because things were about to get messy.)

When everything was wet, I started gently rubbing my hands around in a circular motion. After a bit, this got the surface of the wool to start to hold together, locking the pattern mostly in place.

Then I started from one end and rolled up the whole bundle, bubble wrap, wool, netting and all. I rolled the whole thing back and forth about 50 times, working my hands back and forth along the bundle. Then I unrolled it, rolled it up from the other end, and did that again.

Then I unrolled the bundle and carefully flipped the proto-felt over. I smoothed out the wrinkles, then bundled it up again and repeated the rolling process.

After several times of doing that, the felt was starting to hold together nicely. Now the netting was no longer needed, and I set it aside.

I added some more hot water, and continued to alternate between rolling...

...and simply wadding up the felt and throwing it on the table.

Felt will shrink more in the direction that you work it. So when the corners of my sheet of felt started to bulge out with a mind of their own, I rubbed the felt diagonally into the corners to bring them back under control.

Eventually, I had my felt shrunk down and thickened into a sheet a little larger than I wanted the finished product to be.

I took it to the sink, and rinsed and kneaded it under cool running water. This got the soap out, and shrunk it down that last little bit.

Yup! Just right.

Here is the finished sheet of felt, hanging up over the patio railing to dry. Next up will be cutting my pattern pieces and assembling the hat. But if I were a little more careful to make the edges even, I could use this same technique to make a felt rug. Maybe I'll make one of those next!

Silk ties in action: Copper Canyon HS Acapella Singers

I'm working on a project right now...but I'll have to wait until after Christmas to show you all. In the meantime, here is a shot of the Copper Canyon H.S. Acapella Singers. They were caroling this evening, and did a wonderful job of it.

Why am I showing you this in my crafting blog? Because the three gentlemen up there in the back are sporting my hand painted silk ties. Aren't they dashing?

I told them that if they got to wear the ties, they had to model them for me. They all took their best GQ model poses...and then broke out laughing an instant after I snapped the shot. But I got them!

Oh...that tall one in the middle there? That would be my son. Yup. I'm an evil mother, torturing her teen by taking pictures of him all dressed up, and posting them on the internet.