In case you didn’t hear, there’s an election today. 🙂 Find your New York polling site here.
Holiday Handmade Cavalcade in Williamsburg
I am very happy to announce that I will be participating in my first ever craft show, Handmade Cavalcade! It’s a bi-annual event organized by the Etsy New York Team, also known as The New New. The team has been a great resource for me as I work on improving my shop, and I’m working hard to prepare for the event. It will take place over two days, December 1-2, just in time for the holiday shopping season. I’ve been creating displays, developing packaging and expanding product lines, which I will feature here in the upcoming weeks. Hope to see you there!
Framed Embroidered Cards
We rode out the storm last night safe and sound, and since we’re on high ground we didn’t flood and have electricity (so I can post now while we wait for the city to get back on its feet).
I got a new camera a couple months ago and I have been working on improving my photography. Part of this is trying to improve how I display/style my items in product photos.
Even though they’re intended as cards, I thought one added benefit is that they can be re-used and displayed after they’re received. I framed and hung selections from the Moroccan series and constellations. I’ll probably pick out my favorites at some point and leave them up permanently.
Bike Birthday Card
My brother is absolutely bike obsessed. He commutes to work on bike and takes long tours in his free time. He works a non-bike-related job so he can save up to start his own custom bike frame business. So I wanted to make him a custom bike birthday card.
He is very very tall, so his bike frame looks a bit odd:
Here’s my embroidered version:
I used ombre pink thread and attempted to match it up to the fade on the bike, but that didn’t work out so well. He liked it though, and was surprised on what I got right (since I know nothing about the specifics of how a bike fits together. The wheels are the major leap from reality).
I liked the result and thought it would be fun to try something a bit smaller for more average sized bicyclists. Et Voila!
One blue bicycle with upgraded tires! And that’s how the bicycle card in the shop came to be.
Shop Update
Hello blog. I’m afraid I’ve neglected you terribly and left you to the spammers for awhile. But I’ve been busy.
I’ve been working on a series of larger scale embroidered items meant for framing. I have an idea for some even more intricate work, but that might not happen until after the holidays. And speaking of the holidays, I’ve been working away on Christmas items through September and October. Retail is a funny thing.
Seen above, a sampling of embroidered Christmas cards, including a set of four holiday snowflake cards and other new designs. Tons more work available at the shop, as usual. Lots planned for the holidays, more details soon!
Knitting Catch-up
So this is the last of the knitting projects that I had in the backlog. Both fairly simple, last-minute gifts.
First up are a pair of wool handwarmers made for my bike-addicted brother on his July birthday. Because everyone wants wool in the middle of July! Really though, he had requested them very specifically, and he is a long lanky guy so custom clothing is always nice for him.
I made the pattern myself based on several other handwarmers that I’ve made to date, with special attention to accommodating my brother’s size. That’s me modelling above, which is why it looks baggy.
The final project in my knitting backlog was a quick hat made as a Christmas present for a friend. I love knit hats like this, only took a few hours in front of the TV to finish!
Astrology constellation cards complete!
Basically the title says it all. For my etsy shop, I’ve been working on a series of embroidered cards featuring all of the constellations of astrology. I just finished posting the last of them online, I’m pretty happy with how they turned out.
The most time consuming part is getting the placement of the stars right. Each hole actually represents the location of a star as we see it. You can see the whole set (with many more pictures) right here.
Magnetic Map Memo Board
So quite awhile ago I wrote about turning the pins that once adorned my backpack into magnets. I mentioned that they were meant for another project, but lazy me didn’t get around to writing about it until now, while other projects are in progress but far from complete.
It all began with this image:
Part of me wonders if I should even share these images, since my photography/styling/execution can never hope to compete…anyway! They included a tutorial, available here.
So here’s my attempt and result. To summarize, basically you add adhesive to the board, stick the map on the front and wrap it around the sides, add more adhesive on top and let it dry.
I started with one IKEA SPONTAN board, hauled out from Brooklyn, a map of Asia purchased via Etsy and miscellaneous brushes and Modge Podge (not pictured).
I started with the first adhesive product (shown above) but it wasn’t making things stick well, so I got some Modge Podge proper which did the job.
I wrapped as much map as I could around the edges and added adhesive. Two lessons learned: 1) Buy a really big map (surprisingly difficult). My map didn’t quite cover the edges for a really nice finished look on the sides of the board 2) If at all possible, buy a map that has been rolled, not folded. Despite all my efforts to flatten and smooth, once the modge podge dried I could still see wrinkles.
Here’s what it looked like with the Modge Podge applied:
It went on looking like paste but dried clear. The strokes of the brush are still visible though. 
And here it is immediately after being finished and drying on the wall. I added another layer of the original adhesive, which acted like a sealer, since the Modge Podge was still tacky even after drying overnight.
And here’s what it looks like today, several months after being completed. It’s usually a bit more messy (right now it has a to-do list, coupons and my jury duty summons -_-), but it’s a super convenient place to keep stuff and looks decent when it’s empty. My apartment may not be house tour-worthy but at least my memo board is slightly more stylish 😛
A Knitting Challenge
So there won’t be any knitting updates in the near future, due to the new Etsy shop sucking up a lot of my free time and a new massive project that I’ve just started up. Last month I came across this stunning project:
I’m a shawl/scarf addict and the pattern didn’t seem too difficult. There was just one thing holding me back…it’s a lace project….that requires incredibly expensive yarn. I’ve never knitted with lace yarn or anything that cost more than $12 a skein.
Then for my birthday I got a yarn store gift certificate. I decided to go for it.
I present Anzula Mermaid in Red Shoe. I’ve never been so nervous to knit something before. A mistake with this yarn is ruining a decent chunk of money.
I discovered another downside to lace:
This is going to take forever! Luckily I have my beautiful KnitPicks needles. I never understood why the needles needed to be so sharp until this project.
To be continued…
CS101 Complete!
I’ve been taking a free online course at coursera.org, which features classes taught by professors at Stanford, Princeton, UPenn and University of Michigan. I tried Computer Science 101 since it was subject in which I had always been interested. The professor, Nick Parlante, is from Stanford and has ties to Google. He also sounds and looks like Dr. Rodney McKay from the Stargate TV series, only much nicer (yeah I’m a big nerd).
Each week a few video lectures, lecture notes, and exercises went up. Lectures were semi-interactive –sometimes it would pause and prompt you with a question or problem to make sure you were following the material. The exercises often involved little coding problems, which were the most fun. There were also forums to interact with other students and instructors, though I didn’t use them at all. While the content in the class wasn’t especially difficult, I learned quite a bit and managed to stick with it to the end.
Today I got this in my inbox:
Granted, it doesn’t mean much, but it’s nice to have a little pat on the back 🙂 I’m definitely going to look into more classes from coursera.org in the future.
Koto Embroidery 