Lee Does Stuff

My yarn-holding coffee can cubbies!

Well I know I said last week that my studio series would be this week, but I still haven’t been able to get in a good photoshoot of the whole room because there hasn’t been any freaking sunshine since last Thursday! Damn Portland, don’t you know it’s Spring already?! So, here is my coffee can cubbies yarn holder thing that I made, and I’ll probably do more studio posts spread out over the next couple weeks or something…

The unit is made with 14 Trader Joe’s coffee cans, covered in faux bois contact paper, glued together with contact cement, then screwed into the wall…

The idea came from a project in Readymade a few issues ago – they covered Pringles cans with contact paper, and made a desk organizer – it looked awesome! I’d already been saving my coffee cans for awhile, knowing I’d find a good use for them someday, so I washed them and took a trip to Home Depot for some contact paper and contact cement.

I carefully cut pieces of contact paper to size, covered all the cans, then cemented them together – this was easier said than done. Over several days, I cemented together pairs of two, then those pairs to each other, and so on, until they were all connected. I felt like they still needed to be more securely stuck together before using the unit, so I cut strips of cardboard and used a bunch of heavy duty duct tape to really get them stuck in place:

Then to attach the whole thing to the wall, I first put in a couple of nails which I could hook the cardboard strips onto back there, so it would stay in place while I screwed it all in. Then I screwed in in place in maybe 4 of the cans (I don’t remember exactly, maybe 3?) – sticking my hand in the can with the screwdriver, pushing it through the can, through the cardboard and duct tape, and into the wall. It wasn’t easy, but it worked!!

View from the bottom:

And straight on, with my new Ikea magnet board underneath, yay orange!

Crafting all through the night? Yes please!!

Ok this is an idea I had way back around maybe July of last year… I kept pushing it and pushing it, thinking next month, next month, and now with the move happening so soon, I just really want to do it, finally! What is it, you ask?

The idea is: 24 hour Make-a-Long! The brainstorm came to me when Portland had a 24 hour zine making event – something like, everyone goes to a coffee shop in the morning, starts a zine, and finishes 24 hours later. I loved the idea of a bunch of like-minded creative people all creating their own things, but together, and going through cycles of energy, sleepiness, caffeine highs and lows, creative weirdness that happens in tired states of minds and can be awesome….. and coming out at the other end with something rad to show for it!

So, for my 24hr Make-a-Long, the “make” part can be anything – I didn’t want to say craft-a-long because I don’t want to limit it to crafts only. I’d like Create-a-Long, but it doesn’t sounds as good… So 24 hours of making it is!

It’s happening this Saturday (April 10th) – but the specific times are up to each individual. Personally, I am a night person, and I know I’ll do much better staying up through till the morning than I would waking up in the middle of the night, so my times will be something like 7am-7am. Maybe you’d do better with 3am-3am…

That’s just if you want to be hardcore and go for it all the way – but you can totally jump in as far as you want, which may only be 15 hours of making-a-long (8am-11pm?), or 10 hours even (11am-9pm?) – whatever you want to do, it’s up to you! The idea is to have fun, not push your body too far and risk getting sick or anything, and to create things that you wouldn’t normally create!

That brings me to the next part – what’s the point? Well, the idea is to spend this designated make-a-long time making things that you wouldn’t normally be making on a weekend day. Either, trying new things you’ve been wanting to try, or devoting hours to things you normally rush through, or going back to projects you used to love and haven’t touched in years…… The point isn’t to sit on the couch and knit for 15 hours straight – the point is to really spend some quality time with things that don’t normally get your time.

For example, I made a pretty rad reconstructed cardigan about a year and a half ago – I’d just gotten done with some really stressful projects or something, and I decided to just make something for me, for fun. I actually devoted a decent amount of time to it and I was super duper happy with the finished result. Well, I think that was the last time I spent any time on a project just for me (I’ve made things for me, but I always rush through them), and that was a year and a half ago! Kind of ridiculous.

So, my plan for this make-a-long is to really spend some serious time with several clothing reconstruction projects I’ve wanted to do for so long but never find the time to even start. Instead of rushing through a few simple steps, I’ll be taking my time, doing it well, adding hand-crafted embellishments and time-consuming elements that I normally don’t even think about.

On a side note – I’ll definitely be using up some materials that have been sitting on the shelves for years, and plan to buy zero new supplies for this make-a-long, which fits in perfectly with April Stash-Bust! Yay!

Then, the other step to participating is to document your making-a-long! There are no set rules, but I do plan to semi- stay away from the computer for most of the day, so no blogging or other time-consuming computing. I’ll be tweeting throughout (hashtag #makealong perhaps?) and hopefully a bunch of us will so it feels like we’re doing it together… But the main thing, I will definitely be photographing everything I’m working on throughout the whole day, keeping track of it all, then doing one or several blog posts later about how it all went and what I made.

If you have a blog, you can do the same, of course! If not, you can upload a series of photos from the day to flickr, with captions. And/or you could post your projects on craftster, or other craft websites… If there are several participants, I’ll probably set up a flickr group just for the make-a-long… And then, it would be awesome if everyone participating makes sure I know – comment here, or email or tweet to me or something, and I can post about how it went for everyone and link to all the blog posts, pictures, etc.

UPDATE 4/9: I added another Make-a-Long blog post with more specific ways to participate, plus ideas on what you can make!

I understand if there’s little participation in this first one, it’s pretty last-minute… I’ve just had this idea in my head for so long, I really want to finally try it out – I’m thinking of this one as a beta test… see if it works, if it’s fun, and then plan a “real” make-a-long, with more advance notice, in the summer. And for the future one, I’ll make blog buttons and banners and all that fun stuff to make it more official! For this trial run, any participation will be excellent – if you’re busy on Saturday, but are free on Sunday and like the concept, you could try it out then just for fun! Let me know if you have any questions in the comments… Ok I think that’s all!

Oh yeah, except for something else – the winners of my 5 book giveaways were Rianaire, Nia, Kacy, iambunnicula, and mizzelle – congrats! (You all should have gotten emails from me already – if you didn’t, let me know…) Thank you everyone for all the great comments, I really loved reading them all!! Yay!!

New Stitch Sets, Kits, and Spoils!

Oh my gosh new connect-the-dots stitch sets!! Wooo!! New in the shop are Sea Creatures, Ocean Abyss (plus a special Under the Sea 10 pack option!), and Rock Instruments…

…plus, kits!! There’s a 3 Set Kit, and an Ultimate 5 Set Kit! (scroll down close to the bottom) Kits come with a hoop, needle, and assorted colors of embroidery floss (from Knittn’ Kitten, the reason I bought so much the other day). When ordering a kit, you can choose whether you want each set packaged normally, or have them all shuffled together for maximum mystery fun! Also, you fill in a box with which sets you want; if you wanted to be even more surprised, you could write something like “anything except for dinosaurs,” or “sea creatures and surprise me for the rest!”

The Ocean Abyss set is my personal favorite of the new sets – creepy creatures of the deep sea depths! The example is an angler fish:

I’ve also done a huge makeover to the spoilers page – now, all the extra example pictures are over there, plus you can click to see pictures of mystery images that I’ve stitched from each set!! So if you’re super curious about what other creatures, craft tools, cameras, etc, the sets have to offer, you can click to spoil just one at a time and still keep some images a mystery!!

Want a bit of detail about how the actual stitching works? Basically, you can stitch up the sets however you want, but they come with an instruction sheet with 3 different ways to connect the dots. The second way is the how the drum set above was done – by making long back stitches between each number, then tacking them down after they’re all connected, you can make the lines curved and make the picture neater. Below, that method in progress:

Then the stitches were tacked down with a contrasting, variegated thread. See how the tentacles are all curvy?

The main other method is short back stitches, which means only one step instead of two (no going back over the whole thing a second time), but the lines will generally be more choppy, from number to number, since you’re not going back over it to neaten it all up. (For the record, I like this way best – I like it looking a wee bit choppy/un-perfect and I much prefer one step to two steps!) This one was done that way:

Another example of the long stitch method, tacking the lines down curved – and you can see in the tail part how you can decide to tack together lines, or separate them, if they’re close together…

The yellow/green fabric angler fish at the top is done in the short backstitch method. Oh, another thing, I don’t have matted sets of the new themes yet – I should have them in a couple weeks probably.

I’m thinking about some way of selling the sets on paper, with instructions for transferring the designs onto any fabric (I need to do more experimenting to figure out the best ways – see Sea Creatures spoil picture two for an example), so you can stitch them onto clothes and stuff… can’t decide whether it would be best to sell the physical paper prints (maybe as postcards), or pdfs so you can print them out whatever size you want… either way, the puzzle element is a little lost in this format, since I’d want to tell you what each design is since you’ll be transferring to clothing and stuff… ok what do you think? Any interest?

March 28th – April 3rd photos

Not any really exciting photos this week… spent a lot of time working on website coding, business plan writing, and other non-photographable worky stuff, so… here it goes!

28th + 29th – We hung out with some buddies at Amnesia for a couple beers, then headed to Laurelwood for late night happy hour house-made veggie burgers – if you live in Portland and like veggie burgers, you must try them, yummm! Nothing photogenic on the 29th, so I photographed our Trader Joe’s black bean taquitos, always yummy:

30th + 31st – More food and beer… split a New Seasons wok bowl for dinner before Radio Room trivia, yumyumyum. The 31st was trivia-packed – Pete hosted a special Nike event in Beaverton in the afternoon (weird, yeah, but it went super well!) and then we went to Zach’s trivia that night, where I did a little stitching (embroidery at a bar = awesome!):

April 1st + 2nd – On the day Banzo’s butt became famous, she was acting kind of bratty all day, like she knew she was hot stuff, and wouldn’t stay still for a photo. That day was crazy super nice Springy weather; the next day – hail storm:

3rd – So much stitching! Stitched up a bunch of connect-the-dots examples (which are now viewable on the spoilers page), including an experimental try at stitching a design from paper onto a shirt, using the method Kristin describes here as “tissue paper transfer” – worked pretty well! (See the result on the spoilers page – Sea Creatures picture two.)

(More about my stitch sets update tomorrow…) So hopefully this week will be more photogenic, unless you’re really into food/beer photos, in which case last week rocked! hehe… oh yeah, happy Easter! Have you been eating lots of chocolate? I have! yay!

Book Giveaway #5: Manga Cross-Stitch

Here’s my last book giveaway of the week, and definitely the most specialized one – Manga Cross-Stitch: Make Your Own Graphic Art Needlework, by Helen McCarthy:

This book needs to find a very specific home, with a needle crafter who is a huge manga fan – I know you’re out there! I think it’s awesome that such a specialized book got published in the first place, and it’s a super nice book! If you’re a manga fan but have never tried cross-stitching, this book will go through all the basics to get you started with the craft, including lots of simple and complex stitches…

I know basically nothing about both cross-stitch and manga, so I can’t get into much detail for you, but it seems like a great book with everything you could possibly want to know about making custom manga designs with a needle and thread on canvas.

Oh yeah, and there’s a CD! From the publisher’s website: “Also included is a CD with hundreds of unique manga designs. On the CD are charts for printing out and stitching. Plus, the software included lets artists create their own personalized manga designs by creating their own color palettes.”

To enter to win this book, comment here either telling us your favorite manga character that you’d love to stitch, or sharing a cross-stitch project that you’ve done (either just say what it is, or link to a picture).

I’ll pick a winner (at random) on Monday (April 5th) around 3pm. I’m sorry, but I need to limit these giveaways to within the US to keep my shipping costs low.

(Since I’m giving away 5 books this week, and I really want each of them to go to a home where they’ll be used and enjoyed, please only comment to win the books that you want. If this book doesn’t appeal to you, see if some of the other books are more your style, and only comment on those – thanks!)

My studio (and my cat) are famous!

Check out today’s Oregonian Homes & Gardens section cover:

That’s my studio, and my foofy kittenhead! You may remember a couple weeks ago, in a photo-of-the-day post, I mentioned having had a photographer visit – well, it was for this article!

My studio landed the cover and a whole spread! So exciting! You can read the article over here…

To kind of go with this, I was interviewed (about yarn-making and knitting mostly) for the Oregonian’s knitting blog! There are also a few more shots from the studio photoshoot over there.

I don’t think I ever mentioned here that a couple months ago my studio was featured in the Craft: blog! That was fun! With an interview about craft space organization, in which I was pretty honest about my naturally messy nature! Unfortunately, having had to photograph the room back in January, in Portland, I had to deal with terrible lighting, bummer.

So… today was supposed to start my series of me showing you the studio, until I went to sort through and edit the hundred-ish shots I took a couple weeks ago, when it was in perfect condition and there was good natural light, and… horribleness… I somehow managed to delete them from my memory card before transferring them to my computer… gone forever. So sad. The room is not in such perfect shape anymore (fixable though), but I do need to wait till tomorrow to re-shoot since it was too late in the day and the sun was setting by the time I realized what had happened…

So, these are a few shots to hold you, and next week I’ll be doing the series, telling you about where things came from, tips and tricks, etc, complete with good, well-lit photographs!

Let’s take advantage of this delay – if you see anything in these photos that you want to know more details about, tell me in the comments!

It’s pretty silly that I’m finally posting about my studio as I’m packing it all up to move… yeah… oh well. It should help motivate me to get it looking fabulous and functioning asap in the new house!

Book Giveaway #4: Mother-Daughter Knits

This is my 4th, and last, knitting book giveaway (tomorrow is a different kind of craft book) – Mother-Daughter Knits: 30 Designs to Flatter & Fit, by Sally Melville & Caddy Melville Ledbetter.

This book is all about making knits custom fit to your body, and includes a whole chapter on shapes and body types and getting the most flattering results. The patterns, all designed by mother-daughter team Sally and Caddy, are mostly garments, as you’d expect, but there are a few fun accessories thrown in for good balance:

The garments include a wide range: shrugs, coats, pullovers, cardigans, shirts, tanks, vests, skirts, and dresses…

I like this Altered Austen Jacket a lot:

You can browse through the patterns on ravelry to get a good feel for the book. I think it would find a good home with any garment knitter who wants to be able to modify patterns to get the best personal fit.

Enter to win this book by commenting on this post… I’m running out of ideas for questions to ask you… Just share either why you’d like to have this book, or tell a story about your mom (or grandma), or daughter, and knitting, or other kinds of crafting… My mom taught me basic knit and crochet stitches when I first wanted to learn (in college), but then I was mostly self-taught. I really wish I’d met my dad’s mom and been able to knit with her – she was a super amazing knitter but died before I was born. I’m very anti “not your grandma’s knitting” kinds of slogans – grandmas’ knitting was/is awesome! Ok that was a tangent, but comment with anything related to any of that to win this book!

I’ll pick a winner (at random) next Monday (April 5th) around 3pm. I’m sorry, but I need to limit these giveaways to within the US to keep my shipping costs low.

Book Giveaway #3: Scrumptious Toppers!

Today’s book giveaway is for Scrumptious Toppers for Tots & Toddlers: 30 Hats & Caps from Debby Ware.

This one is pretty insane, but could be a good fit for the right kind of creative person with a baby and clever modification skills… For example, I could imagine this one turning into a pretty cool monster hat (different colors, different kind of embellishing…):

This one below is about as simple as they get – the most subtle, classic kind of design in the book:

If fun fur scares you, I wouldn’t recommend flipping through this book….

There are only 6 of the patterns on Ravelry, but you can get a pretty good idea of the style of the book and patterns from this peek on Google books. I know it’s obvious that I’m not into these designs (which is why I’m giving it away) but I really hope it finds a good home and gets used – I would love to see some cool modifications of some of these hats!

To enter the giveaway, comment on this post telling us what’s your favorite hat you ever knit, or your favorite hat to wear, or the hat pattern that you’re most wanting to try… pretty much anything you want to write about hat knitting! You all know I’m a hat knitter above all other knits; I’ve made well over a hundred hats, and I love choosing which one to wear each day! I can’t choose a favorite, but as for a pattern I’m dying to knit – I spun up yarn for an Elizabeth ZImmermann Snail Hat months ago and have yet to cast on!

I’ll pick a winner (at random) next Monday (April 5th) around 3pm. I’m sorry, but I need to limit these giveaways to within the US to keep my shipping costs low.

Book Giveaway #2: Classic Elite Knits!

This second book in my week of giveaways is Classic Elite Knits: 100 Gorgeous Designs for Every Occasion, from the Studios of Classic Elite Yarns…

Very heavy on women’s garment patterns, most are not my style at all, but I do like these 2 ok (I’d wear the zig zag one in different colors):

And this squishy cabled number looks pretty snuggly:

There are shorter sections of men’s and children’s garments (mostly all sweaters)…

I would totally wear this in my size:

And then there’s a short section of accessories, with mostly pretty basic stuff, like these:

You can browse through all the designs on ravelry, and also on the Classic Elite website here.

To enter to win, leave a comment on this post telling us what was your favorite garment you ever knit (a link with a photo would be fun!), or the sweater pattern that you most want to knit. I’ve still never really knit a sweater (this is the closest I’ve come, but it doesn’t even close in front, so it’s more of a shrug), but if I had all the time in the world and could make absolutely anything, I might choose Fair Isle Short-Row Pullover by Teva Durham…

I’ll pick a winner (at random) next Monday (April 5th) around 3pm. I’m sorry, but I need to limit these giveaways to within the US to keep my shipping costs low.

Book Giveaway #1: Weekend Knitting!

I’m launching my week of book giveaways with my favorite one! The other 4 books are ones that really aren’t my style, so I want them to go to people who will enjoy them, but today’s is a book that I really do like – I was given 2 copies, so I get to keep one, and give the other away to a lucky reader!

Weekend Knitting, by Melanie Falick, was first released in hardcover in 2003, and re-released in this paperback version last year. It features mostly pretty simple projects, treating knitting as a relaxing weekend hobby, nothing too intense, but also nothing too boring… I love these Argyle Slippers!

There are a couple of nice brioche accessory projects, which makes me wonder, why have I never tried brioche stitch?! Love how it looks in 2 colors:

Including a wide range of home projects, bags, accessories, garments, and some kid stuff (see all the projects on ravelry), the book has a style that will appeal to most knitters. I’m not a sweater knitter, but this Unisex Knock-Around Cashmere Pullover has me thinking about making one:

If you know me, you know how I love games, so I was happy to see a couple of different game-related projects here, fitting with the relaxing weekend theme:

Scattered throughout are also lots of weekend-y extras, like several recipes, lists of movies and books with knitting, hand massage techniques for knitters….

So, to win my extra copy of Weekend Knitting, leave a comment on this post telling us your favorite relaxing weekend activity, or what you wish you had more time to do… for me, that would be reading – ever since I quit my day job to be full-time self-employed (almost 2 years ago!) I haven’t had any time in my life to read books, since any “free” time is spent knitting, or doing something else that’s fun and relaxing, but still work-related….

I’ll pick a winner next Monday (April 5th) around 3pm. I’m sorry, but I need to limit these giveaways to within the US to keep my shipping costs low.

(And a note about this week of book giveaways – since I’m giving away 5 books this week, and I really want each of them to go to a home where they’ll be used and enjoyed, please only comment to win the books that you truly want. If this book doesn’t appeal to you, just wait and see if any of the books later in the week are more your style, and only comment on those – thanks!)