British Scarves

Ok, so my thinly veiled hint earlier turned out to be a boldfaced lie. I need to find a decent camera and/or a person to take photos before I can do my Shman Shmolo Shmelt entry. Luckily, I have some other crafting news to hold you over until then!

I have two projects coming up that have 2 things in common: they're both scarves, and they're both about series' that were started in England. I guess the British just know what they're doing when it comes to sci fi/fantasy knitting projects.

I'm speaking, of course, about Harry Potter and Doctor Who.

Really my Harry Potter announcement is more of a quick note. I'm going to get the ol' crimson-and-yellow yarn out again and try to fill the shop with the ever popular Harry Potter scarves. What I would like to know from you is, what do you want to see? Which house colors do you prefer? Are there other knitted items you'd like to have in the house colors? Perhaps some Slytherin Socks?

I have to say, I absolutely love Gini's hats. I love that the colors are quieter than my scarves. It's like her hats are for the more reserved HP fan, whereas my scarves are more the shout-it-from-rooftops variety.


So, leave a comment on this entry and tell us what HP gear you'd like us to make for you!

In other iconic-scarves-inspired-by-British-fiction news, I recently happened upon a couple of wonderful websites dedicated to the accurate recreation of the Doctor Who scarf, worn by Tom Baker.

As it turns out, there are a few different versions of the scarf (essentially one for each season of the show when Tom Baker was on), and various patterns floating around the internet for each one. The lovely ladies at the websites I found have done some phenomenal research and provide resources for making your own Doctor Who scarf, including color matching for selecting good yarns, several patterns, and tutorials to help with the knitting techniques used in the patterns.

I'm going to keep digging, familiarize myself with the patterns, and then go on the epic search for yarn. I hope to make myself a Doctor Who scarf, so I can wear it to conventions and post it as a commissionable item in the Etsy shop. This is no small project, it should take some time. But It's exciting because knitting is a craft I'm already familiar with, so I feel I can tackle something of this scale with confidence.

Guys, this scarf is enormous. This is going to be awesome. I'll definitely keep you updated on the progress of this project.

In the meantime, check out those websites, and as long as I've got you commenting on this entry, vote on your favorite scarf. Which season do you like best? I haven't picked which one I'm going to knit yet.

Catching Up: Crafting Projects

Amanda here. I'm sorry it's been so long. I should warn you before I go on a blogging hiatus. Things have been crazy around here, and I haven't had much time for crafting. But I do have a few projects to show you.

Firstly, I finally posted my lovely fall cowl. I finally got some new photos of it. I wanted to show the colors just right.

It's so cozy and warm, and I love the colors. I'll be sad to give it away.

So, that's for sale in the shop right now!

And I finally got started on my notepad project. I finished my first notepad, which is a gift for my dad for his birthday. Here it is, all wrapped and ready for him to open:

I really hope he likes it.

I printed his initials on every page, then pasted them together at the top with padding compound. I need some more practice with the padding compound, but I have some scrap pieces of paper, so I'll make myself some spare notepads and try to refine my technique. I may adjust a few details about these notepads before I put them up on Etsy. Also, I need more block prints! If you have an idea for a design you'd like to see on a notepad, please leave a comment on this entry and I will certainly give it a try! I'm hoping these notepads become a common item in the shop.

Next up, I finally started working on a block print for our business cards. I just took the Nimble Toad logo and shrunk it down, and traced it. Here's what I have so far:

It's a bit messy at the moment. I plan to clean it up before I start carving.

And with that, hopefully we'll have business card designs soon. I haven't yet decided how I want to go about making those. I'll probably be enlisting help from other Nimble Toad members on this one.

That's it for the crafting update. Stay tuned for my recent personal projects. Perhaps that will shed some light on why I haven't been around lately.

Knitting, Block Prints and Notepads

Amanda here. I'm sorry it's been so long. Things are crazy around here. Brandon and I are still trying to get settled in the new apartment, I'm getting used to my new job and working 5 and 6 days a week, and I'm also rebuilding the rat cage. Of course this is all on top of rewriting my resume and researching grad schools. So I haven't had much time for crafting.

But I do have a few new projects to show you. Starting with a piece of merchandise I hope to post in the etsy shop very soon. I wanted to learn a new knitting technique, so I tried circular knitting. I had never done it before, and it turns out it's quite simple. In many ways, it's actually simpler than regular knitting.

I found a small ball of yarn that I had been saving for a special project. It's got that great knobbly texture, and check out the lovely fall colors:

Turquoise, crimson, tan, light purple and brown.

It's pinched off at the side, and tied down with some lace that I cut into a little flower.

I was thinking it would be cool to use the same pattern for a shawl or wrap, with a different closure.

So, I'm going to try to get some better pictures, then that cowl will be on sale in our etsy shop!

Next up, I made a couple of green obi-style belts. This one is for Val, so I may have her model it for pictures for the etsy shop, because it doesn't fit me.

This is the same yarn I used for the bracelets that are now on sale in our etsy shop. I just love the color.

This belt is WAY too small on me, but it should look awesome on Val. I also made one in my size that I plan to sell. As soon as it's finished I can photograph it and post it on etsy.

I have a ton more of this yarn left, so if you want to order a belt, please send me a message, either on etsy or by email!

Lastly, I'm very excited to post the beginning stages of my Dad's birthday present. It's a new project for me, I just got the materials in the mail last week. I'm making him a personalized notepad. Here is one of the pages:

I'm really proud of how this linoleum print came out.

Of course, cutting the block print is the hard part. But now that I've finished that, I just need to cut all the pages to size, print them, then paint on the padding compound. This is my new material. It's used for book binding, and I've never used it before. I'm very excited to start.

Despite the fact that cutting the pages should be the easy part, I've been running into problems with the type of paper I chose, as well as the paper cutter at the local Kinko's. So, I might change my strategy. But once I've worked out the problems with the paper, it should be done in no time.

The exciting announcement here is that, once I have my process down, I am going to be making lots of these little notepads and putting them in the etsy shop. They're totally customizable, so think of a print you would want on your notepad, and send me a message! I can't wait to start carving all kinds of block prints and making all these little notepads. It's a really great way to get my block prints out there and advertise what I can do. Hopefully soon I will be able to make some bigger paper products as well, but for now I'm starting small.

Here's another picture with my thumb as a size reference:

But I can make the notepads any size. Just tell me what you're looking for and I can come up with something unique, just for you!

I can also make books, I just don't have any examples to post right now. The limiting factor right now is time. It's frustrating being so busy, when I have so many projects I want to work on.

I really hope my dad likes his birthday present. That block print is probably one of my best ones yet.

Well, back to work. Happy crafting, everyone!

Val: Experimental Knitting and more!

Alright, so. Life has been a bit crazy lately, what with the wedding and moving and all. But, we're finally settled in, and still unemployed, so there's been an explosion of crafting.

First, before we moved, Mike and I spent a few days with Amanda and did some shopping. We found this great, huge, old desk for $20 at a university surplus sale!

Getting it the hour and a half back home with us was an interesting challenge, but Amanda generously loaned us the back of her pretend SUV and drove the hour and a half to drop it off at our house.

It obviously needs some work, but it's turning into a fun project for us. We're currently in the stripping/sanding stage, and we discovered a beautiful reddish wood underneath the gobs of light finish. More details as the project progresses.


Next up, I've been playing around with knitting. I'm really, really new to it - this is only my second project - but I'm quite happy with the way it turned out. I wanted to play around with knitting and purling, so I was planning on making a scarf using stockinette stitch (knit one row, purl one row). Well ... only a third of the way through it, I was getting a bit tired of the project and I realized that I wouldn't have enough yarn to make a proper scarf, so instead I turned it into the Etsy favorite: a cowl!

So, here's the process. I totally made this up as I went along, so no guarantees that I found the easiest way to do it.

The would-be scarf:


I had a lot of fun when I started knitting with this yarn because I had no idea how it was going to knit up. Once I decided to make my piece into a cowl, I knit a few more rows to make sure it would be large enough to go around my neck with a bit of overlap. When it seemed long enough, I cast off from my needles and sewed the extra yarn into the ends of the scarf. Just a warning, since it's stockinette stitch, the edges naturally curl a lot.

The cowl would have tried to suffocate me if I'd worked with it as is, not to mention being unruly from the curl, so I folded it in half (wrong side in) and bound the edges together essentially making a tube. I was lucky that my yarn made a striped pattern, because I was able to match up the lines and make sure that I was sewing evenly. When I was done with the side, I also bound one of the ends.


All bound up and ready for buttons:


I apologize for the slightly blurry photos, it wasn't until the next picture that I realized my camera has a manual focus that makes shots like these so much easier!


I had no idea how to make button holes, and I had a tiny inkling that I needed to have knit them into the piece itself, so I decided to use loops to secure my buttons instead. I braided three strands of the yarn together and eyeballed how long they needed to be to hook around my buttons (which I hadn't attached yet). I pulled the braid around a stitch and made sure both ends were tightly knotted. As an afterthought, I used normal sewing thread and sewed the knots together so they wouldn't pull back through the knitting.

To attach the buttons, I just threaded one short length of yarn through the button and the knitting and tied it tightly on the inside.

A note: While you're working on the loops and buttons, one hand needs to be inside the tube, so it can get a little awkward at times, but it isn't too bad. For the most part, I worked with my tube inside out so I could get to the knots easier.


Turn your work right-side out and you're done!


The next step is to put your cowl away somewhere safe and enjoy the rest of the summer!







Let me know if you have any questions!

Next up: A long sleeved t-shirt refashion.

Etsy Teaser

Amanda, here. So, I want to apologize for not having the Etsy shop up yet. We're close, I promise!

I went online and got us a tax number, then Gini and I went to the County Clerk's office and got us registered with the State of Michigan. THEN Gini and I went to the bank and got us a Small Business Checking Account. Now we're just waiting for the cards to come in the mail so we can open up the Etsy shop. I'll admit, it's all pretty exciting. We are now officially a proper company, registered with the state and everything!

So, we've already started photographing a bunch of items we have ready to go as soon as the shop is open, so I hope you're getting excited!

Here's a little teaser to get you excited about the shop opening up, as well as the new Harry Potter film coming out next week!

Two of these scarves will be available in the shop when it opens next week!

Much love, see you soon!

More Bracelets!

I just made a bracelet. I'm very excited about it. I got the pattern from Princess Lasertron's website, except I used knitting instead of ruffled felt. I'll take nicer pictures and post it on the Etsy shop once it's open, but I just couldn't wait to share it with you!

I took pictures of it sitting on my Indiana Jones hat because I was pressed for time. That leather strap isn't part of the bracelet.

I got the yarn from an estate sale for really cheap. I have a lot of it, and it's a fantastic color.

The purple one on the end is for the closure.

The buttons are all cloth: my mom has been collecting buttons and she gives me all the cloth ones because she doesn't like them. So, they're all vintage and used, which I really like.

Sorry for the fuzzy picture. I was rushing due to overexcitement. ^_^

I need to work on the green stitching on top of the ribbon. My next one will hopefully be a little cleaner. And the buttons should end up being different on every bracelet.

I have 2 more knitted up already in this color, and a bunch more of this ribbon. I want to keep making them in various colors, which should be fun.

What do you think?

Amanda: what I've been crafting lately

I've been concerned that I don't have enough crafting going right now, with our etsy shop opening just around the corner. I went looking for inspiration, and I think I found a little bit... I just need some momentum.

I got some graph paper so I can plot out block print designs, and started messing around with a piece of beginner's soft linoleum:

I threw the calla lilies in there for fun. Those and my Harry Potter Gryffindor scarves are the two things I have at present that I know I will be posting in the etsy shop in July.

I decided to start with some popular nerd symbols, namely the weighted companion cube:


and the heroes unwound, single-helix symbol:

This beginner's linoleum is messy. It leaves a lot of little flaky bits when I'm working with it. I still can't decide which kind I like better. I'll just have to work with them both some more and see how it goes.

The other two small prints in the top picture are old projects. They were trial runs for a project for Val's wedding that we eventually abandoned. They're tiny Star Wars prints; the rebel alliance symbol and the galactic republic symbol:



These are all very rough prints. As you can tell, they haven't been inked yet. I need to do some test prints before I decide whether they're good enough to sell. My guess is that, at present, the only one good enough is the Heroes symbol.

I really need to learn to take my time carving these, especially when I'm using beginner's linoleum. It's so easy to mess up a perfectly good block. But the practice is good for me, even if I end up discarding these. I'll show you when I have some prints to share.

I also have some knitting news. Brandon (my boyfriend) and I went garage sale shopping the other day, and I got some really fantastic yarn at an estate sale. We also got some cookie sheets and Brandon got some small mixing bowls. But I'm really excited about this yarn:



It's a really standard gauge, I got about 4 or 5 skeins of it... and just check out that color!


Green is my favorite color, and this one is so rich. There are a million things I could do with this yarn. And I have so much of it! Any suggestions?

I have one big project that I would really like to have a prototype of before July, but with Val's wedding coming up, I don't think I'll have it done before then. Maybe I'll work on it during July. It's a treat for D&D fans... Here's your first hint: Think of a campaign you did that was truly epic. You had a great character, and you want something to remember it by. If all goes well, I'll have the perfect product for that occasion in a few weeks' time.

Gini: Knitting

So the first thing you need to know about me is that I am craft ADD. I constantly jump from one project to another, and rarely finish anything. You may have noticed that yesterday I posted about chain mail, and today's title involves knitting. And in fact, I've been doing mostly crocheting for the past 6 months, with some intermittent sewing. None of these crafts is my forte, in fact I consider myself to be mediocre at all of them, at best. My roommate crochets much better than I do, my boyfriend is extremely meticulous when it comes to sewing and chain mail, and excels at both. And knitting, well, lately I find knitting to be tedious and boring.

But why is today's blog post about knitting then, you ask, if a week ago I would have claimed to have given it up for good? Well, because I went home to my mom's house today (Wyoming, MI), to find my aunt had purchased this at a garage sale for 3 dollars, and gifted it to me, as my grandmother had no interest in it. (see photo below)

Contents of box:

1 "Learn to Knit" booklet, copyright 1968
1 "Sweaters for Women" pattern book, copyright 1982
2 pair size 7 knitting needles, 1 still in package
1 pair size 5 knitting needles, still in package
1 pair size 3 knitting needles, still in package
1 size 5 29 in. circular needle
3 unidentified double pointed needle, 2 plastic, 1 aluminum
1 pack of two yarn needles
1 saftey pin
1 stitch holder
2 different unidentified skeins of yellow yarn and
7 skeins and 1 ball of Carron 'Dazzle Aire' color 2672 Pebble

I can't tell how old the yarn is, probably at least 10 years. The person seemed to have an affinity for odd size numbered needles. I couldn't resist my self, so I started knitting this scarf. which I will probably never finish. What I really should do is finish the Jayne Cobb hat I was making my roommate for her birthday that was in January.

If you are interested in seeing some other things that I have knit in the past, check out my deviant art page here.

That's all for now,

Gini

Oh, hey boss-lady Amanda, can I post about gardening? That is almost a craft.

Noodles on the Brain (Amanda's old blog)

I recently decided that I need to commit myself to a personal quest to make ramen noodles. Like, real ramen. In real soup. With vegetables and meat and delicious broth from scratch.

Oh, and did I mention that I want to make the noodles from scratch? Yeah, it's a crazy project. It should take me a long time to get it right, but getting there is half the fun, right?

So, for my first attempt, I got the noodle recipe off the internet. I will likely look for varying recipes and tweak it as I go. It calls for flour, salt, eggs and water. It's really, really basic - however, getting the noodles right takes real skill.

Alright, so I mixed the dough, let it sit in a damp paper towel for half an hour, then I rolled it out.

That's Stacy and Eric's beautiful new cutting board. They got so many nice things at their bridal showers - I'm going to be so spoiled by the time I move out of this house.

Then, you have to fold the dough over a few times (with LOTS of flour in between so it doesn't stick) before you cut it.



Sometimes it's hard to choose which pictures to use - Brandon does such a wonderful job.



That knife is another totally nice kitchen utensil that I will miss when I move out. It is so sharp, it cuts through everything like butter. It's pretty much the only reason I was able to get the noodles as thin as I did, and they were still a bit too thick.


It was really hard to keep the water at a rolling boil without it boiling over, so I had to keep turning it down and back up, which was one of the major flaws of this project.


So, we had some beef broth in the freezer leftover from my last pot of cabbage soup (Hal made bread bowls - I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures). We heated up the broth and added some onions and lettuce.

Brandon had the brilliant idea of adding a touch of sesame oil to the soup.



Okay, so the broth was thin and the noodles.... they were doughy. Frankly, I'm labeling this a failed attempt. They were pretty bad. Here are the things I think went wrong:
-I didn't knead the dough NEARLY enough
-I didn't let it sit long enough
-I didn't slice the noodles thin enough
-I couldn't keep the water at a rolling boil

So now I know what to look out for for next time. Hey, it's a start, right? And since they started out terrible, they can only get better!


One other project before I leave you:


Knitting! It's been a while since I've picked up a pair of knitting needles, but this project has been going pretty quickly. It's a baby blanket for my stepsister - she's having a baby shower this weekend. I'll take a picture when it's done so you guys can see.


I've got all kinds of news about my crafting company, but I'm going to hold off for a while, until I have more to show you. Lets just say, get ready to change the URL for this blog on your bookmark menu!