Magical Felt

Check it out. I made some arm warmers out of a wool sweater I found at Goodwill, and they actually came out okay. I got the idea when I went into the city to check out some craft fairs (namely the holiday sale at More Fire Glass Studio and the Second Storie Indie Market at the Visual Studies Workshop) and there was a vendor selling things she'd felted from thrift store sweaters. Since I'm broke, naturally, I told myself "I could totally do that." And so I did!

The cut ends are not straight enough for my satisfaction yet, so I'll even those up soon, but these arm warmers are indeed very warm and cozy. It was hard to get a decent photo by myself, so bear with the not-so-great picture. But back to the process of felting... it's magical. I know I don't really have cause to be so mystified since the process makes a lot of sense - basically you just agitate and heat the knit wool until it's matted into felt, but it was so cool to just pop the sweater in the washing machine and 30 minutes later, BAM. Felt.

My next pair is going to have thumb holes.

This and That

This has been a fairly eventful week - I've been applying for more jobs and venturing further into the crafting frontier, not to mention doing a bit of traveling around NY state. No source of income as of yet. Hopefully that will come together sooner rather than later... In the mean time I've been keeping busy making things like these quilted coasters. I personally have something of an aversion to (more or less) unnecessary items like coasters, but I think these are kinda cool-looking and hopefully someone will want them or be able to use them. With the help of some family members, I dug up a good amount of fabric with great colors and patterns. The craft sale's in November, but I'm still trying to decide if I can produce enough to justify getting a table.

I also got some exciting mail this week:
The fall issue of The Flow arrived, and I spent a solid five minutes staring at/drooling over that chandelier on the front cover. Good stuff. It's too bad the magazine only comes out with new issues quarterly, cause I eat it right up.

Speaking of eating, I just want to share with the world that I made hummus for the first time ever this evening and it tastes spectacular. I think the reason I'm not so much into baking, but very into cooking is that I dislike measuring things. I will occasionally work from a recipe, but if I do I doctor it relentlessly and dump in lots of miscellaneous things until it tastes exactly how I want it to. Or close. To this particular hummus I added (beyond the basic chick peas, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and cumin) sun-dried tomatoes, plain yogurt, chili powder, rosemary, tahini, whole sesame seeds, and salt. It came out a very nice orangey color because of the sun-dried tomatoes, and a near perfect consistency with the occasional un-blended chunk of tomato. Awesome!

Blast From The Past

Last night I went over to my friend/senior-year-of-high-school-glass-teacher's house to catch up and make some beads. It was awesome to see her again! (She literally changed my life. I probably would not have gone to Alfred, had the best four years of my life, or even been an art major if it wasn't for her.)

She has a Bethlehem Barracuda torch and a Nortel Mega Minor. (I used the Barracuda even though I was only making soft glass beads. I did test out the flame capabilities though, and I bet that thing could melt some good sized boro.) The Barracuda is the torch I started out on in high school.

The beads I made are hopefully going to go toward a Christmas Tea & Craft Sale in November. It's still up in the air whether I'll have enough sellable stuff. I'm sort of low on ideas, and I don't really have the means to make jewelry other than hemp, so if you have any ideas please feel free to comment. I was thinking of making little quilted coasters or something. I want to make more pendants too. I'll have to see if next time I visit G I can work boro, cause I bet those would sell.

Bam.

As long as I'm unable to do anything with glass, I've been working on this quilt - my first one ever - which I fondly call my Ugly Quilt, since it's made with scraps of fabric that I inherited (rather than picked out myself). I figure everyone needs a nice warm shabby-looking blanket. I don't know what it is about quilts but they always remind me of family and Thanksgiving and Grandma's House. The uglier, the more at home they make me feel. It doesn't have sides or a back yet, but it will soon enough. Then I have to actually quilt it. Should be interesting. It's definitely the right time of year to be making a quilt, I just hope I have it finished before it gets cold enough to need it.

I don't know how people make those crazy geometric quilts with teeny triangles and have everything line up just right. Despite the fact that I measure everything, it somehow ends up wonky still. There's also the fact that I can't sew a straight line even on a sewing machine. Half of the squares on my Ugly Quilt quilt are unevenly matched up.

I did set out to make an ugly quilt though. I wonder what is it that makes ugly things endearing?

Peace,
Ruth