Apparently, I only feel compelled to write in this blog when I have essays due, like, now, and a whole list of intimidating work to do before the end of the next week. In other words, at the most inappropriate times. Regardless, here I go.
My Christmas season saw some incredible crafty productivity. I hand-made nearly everyone’s gifts, and I was pretty pleased with how everything turned out. During the month, I churned out two knitted hats, half a knitted sock that got frogged, one cross-stitched shirt, a knitted (and lined!) purse, one pair of wristwarmers, one necklace, two earrings, and a bracelet. Whew. And really, the majority of these things were completed after my finals, from mid-December and on.
I think I managed to get photos of everything–though not the wristwarmers, unfortunately, but I’m sure I’ll make some more in the future, since they were such a quick, easy knit. Are they beautiful pictures, with meticulous lighting and crisp, interesting backdrops? Of course not. Some of them even are, dare I say it, dreaded webcam pics. Ay. Bear with me and pretend they’re pretty, okay?

A cabled purse for Friend K:

A Jayne hat for Friend Julie (appropriately modeled by Julie):

A Palindrome Hat for Friend Kimber (modeled by me, because I so wanted to keep this):

Jewelry for ol’ Mummsy, made with amethysts and hand-made glass beads:

(I was dying to keep these. Fortunately, I have enough of those carmel glass beads for me. Yay!)
A necklace for my sister (amethysts and hematite):

And a cross-stitched t-shirt for my sister as well (an up-close picture of it, with masking tape and chalk marks still on it because that’s just how I roll):

It says “Fuck the haters.” Unladylike, yes, confrontational, yes, but my angry teenage sister loved it (or at least pretended to). At the very least, it is a message that she certainly relates to. The idea came from the Sublime cross-stitch pattern that was hearts that spelled out “fuck,” which I extended and modified for my purposes.

Though I’m clearly belated and long overdue with this post, I still can’t help but feel proud of what I accomplished in such a short period of time. But this year, methinks I will start in the summertime to get these things done early. No, really. Stop laughing, that’s rude.

Hey neighbors!

So, I entered a contest over at Craftster.org last month. The theme was to embroider two yin-yang themed pillowcases, and the prize is an awesome $280 worth of embroidery supplies. You can see my entry post here, but I’ll also post it’s content under the cut.

Now I’m here to ask a favor of y’all: if any of you are registered on Craftster, I’d love for you to go here and vote for me (my entry is titled “The Dryad and the Sun-man”). Or since it’s just a message board and wouldn’t take long at all to do, if you wanted to register just so that you could vote for me, that would be great too. I must’ve worked at least 100 hours on this project throughout the month, neglecting a fair amount of school work in the process. Wouldn’t you like to make all that sacrifice worth more than just my self-satisfaction? Pretty please?

I really hope that a couple of you will hop over there and vote for me. But first, here is my entry copy and pasted in its entirety, hence explanations and such):

So this is my first challenge, my first attempt at embroidery, and my first finished project post.

Instead of interpreting the yin-yang theme in a literal way and using two opposite ideas/things, I decided to structure my idea around the symbolism of the traditional yin-yang in Taoism. Taoism utilizes a lot of natural imagery to make its points (the uncarved block of wood for our potential, the water in the stream for our ability to be flexible and willing, etc), so I decided to have a natural theme as well.

The yin is the female; dark, shady, earthy, and passive with the mysteriousness of night (though it is important to note that the dark does not equal evil or bad in any way). For the yin I did a take on dryads, or tree nymphs in Greek mythology–because really, what’s more mysterious than a mythical tree-woman?

I used only backstitch on her, as I had a lot of area to fill in (clearly), and since it was my first shot at embroidery I thought it was best to stick with the basics. I decided to fill her in in a very solid way to convey how dark and dense the night can seem. It took forever, and I suspect it’s because I’m rather slow at this–I only finished it on November 1st, and I started a few days after the contest was announced and worked at least 3-4 hours a day on it. Towards the end there may even have been some 6-12 hour days.

The yang is the male; light, sunny, fiery, active, and definitely the daytime. To represent this I embroidered a sun-man. Though not based on any specific mythology that I’m aware of (other than a loose take on the idea of sun gods), I felt that in many ways it was opposite to my dryad, just not necessarily in an obvious way. My design for this was a lot more liberal with the gratuitous design elements and all, but hey, I figure the yang should be a bit less serious than the yin.

I used backstitch, chain stitch, and more satin stitch than I should have for him. I left things a lot more open than I did with the dryad, because since the sun is in the sky it makes me think of airier things.

Both designs were my own, though I used a lot of pictures for anatomical references. Here they are together!

It’s amazing how much I would’ve liked to add on to these pillowcases still–a river and a moon with the dryad, sun beams and some sun-man filling in, etc, but a deadline is a deadline. Also, I would’ve been happier with a less wrinkly outcome.

So all in all, I’m proud that I made it through my massive project with little to no skill, two old beat-up pillowcases, and a little bit of my sanity. Considering that in the time span it took to finish these I also wrote 7 papers, took two midterms, took 4 tests, went to a concert, had two 21st birthday celebrations and watched a crapload of Degrassi, I am quite proud of myself for managing anything at all. Hope you have enjoyed!

So again: please, please, please head over there and vote for me! (I may be posting reminders in the next few days, so be warned.)