Sanity and Paint

Wall hanging

2011-07-05T17:07:00.001-07:00

DSCN1509, originally uploaded by alicen.

I have a vaguely unhealthy relationship with 70s-style textiles.

Dinosaur hat

2011-07-05T17:06:00.001-07:00

IMG_0509, originally uploaded by alicen.

Hat that I made for Tom a while back.

90s dress

2011-07-05T17:05:00.001-07:00

IMG_0506, originally uploaded by alicen.

Made of recycled t-shirts. Quick project with a friend's serger. Totally ridiculous.

This week in my brain

2011-03-03T13:09:00.001-08:00

*I've been really busy. Like way too much. There was travel, and guests, and lots of other stuff. It's starting to abate a bit, but everything is still chaotic. Which also means I haven't uploaded pictures in forever, so this post will be short on pictures.

*This totally describes my demographic at the moment.

*I actually became and official shop tenant with Ardent, and I've been spending some amount of time repairing broken bits of Syzygryd. Much soldering of tiny electronics. It's going to this thing in a couple of weeks.

Honestly I'm not finding as much time for this as I'd like. Hopefully that'll shift this spring/summer.

*I got my IUD out and bought a book with a horrible cover in hopes of figuring out enough about what's going on with my uterus to only need to use condoms sometimes. This is the first time I've been off hormonal birth control in about a decade, so I have NO IDEA how my body will react. I'm kind of curious.

*I've been listening to Amanda Palmer's Australia album constantly. Highly recommended if you like that sort of thing. (I'm not sure what "that sort of thing" is - angsty girl music? Jokes about pubic hair and Vegemite?)

*Wedding planning is proceeding. We have a date, and a location, though that's about it. Tom is working on catering, and I'm working on everything else. There is surprising amount of everything else. And to everyone who says "just think of it as a big party" - catered parties for more than a hundred people take a fuckload of time to plan, too. And I have WAY more interesting hobbies than planning that shit. It matters to me to have the party and have it all work, but I don't have to like it.

*Pinterest and Instagram are pretty cool. I'm mostly using those to collect images now.

*I went to Yosemite with my dad, in the snow. It was beautiful! But I haven't uploaded the pictures.

*I am frustrated with my Personal Fashion Concept, or lack thereof. Usually this means I need to get rid of a bunch of stuff and go shopping. Ehn.

I am alive

2011-02-17T11:25:00.000-08:00

Though not blogging much lately. I just spent a week being unpleasantly sick, and did a great many sewing and knitting type things while laid up. The list:
-2 hats (one with dinosaurs)
-1 pair of socks
-finishing on one sweater
-one dress
-various mending
-started some handwarmers

I also have another dress and some other bits and pieces that were finished recently. I really ought to catch up on the pictures.

Triptych

2011-02-07T16:06:00.000-08:00

New Year's Resolutions

2011-01-10T15:31:00.000-08:00

Here are some concrete, measurable goals:

1. Be more healthy. Exercise. Eat more fruits and vegetables. Get enough sleep. Less alcohol and caffeine, more water. Reasonable portion sizes.

2. Cook at home more often. Expand my cooking repertoire. Think more about what I'm putting into my body.

3. Own less stuff. Get rid of things I'm not using. Avoid buying things I don't need. Always think about whether I can make it myself.

4. Remember niceties. Send thank you notes. Remember birthdays. Wrap presents. Write letters.

5. Better time management. Don't overcommit. Let things go when I need to.

And unmeasurable ones: Dream big. Figure out what I'm doing with my life. Start a marriage. Look fabulous. Travel the world. Build a home. Practice radical self-expression. Make art and magic. Be creative in all things.

I need to do the first bit to facilitate the (much more important in the grand scheme of things) second bit. One of thing big themes of the past couple of months for me has been noticing how the clutter of daily life can build up to the point where it's basically impossible to work on the big stuff. I either overload, and go crazy with stress, or get overstimulated to the point where it's hard to come up with new ideas. This next year is about finding the balance between all the things I want to do, and making room for them.

Sun!

2010-12-22T23:53:00.001-08:00

, originally uploaded by alicen.

I may have spent way too much time looking at books about hippie textile art. I own quite a few of them, including this one. Applique is easy and fun!

Plans for this thing involve a bunch of quilting and then binding and everything. I think it's ultimately destined to be a wall hanging of some sort.

Quilt beginnings

2010-12-22T20:29:00.001-08:00

, originally uploaded by alicen.

Apologies for the crappy pictures. This is the beginnings of a wall hanging. More pictures to follow.

Another notebook page

2010-12-20T23:13:00.001-08:00

, originally uploaded by alicen.

Something I drew in the bar last night

2010-12-20T22:51:00.001-08:00

, originally uploaded by alicen.

Day 14

2010-12-15T15:58:00.001-08:00

, originally uploaded by alicen.

I started some new wrist warmers. This newish yarn store, which is mere blocks from my house, is on my walk home. And open in the evenings. It's dangerous.

Day 13?

2010-12-15T15:55:00.001-08:00

, originally uploaded by alicen.

An extremely janky handmade holiday card.

Night Market build photos

2010-12-15T15:47:00.000-08:00

More pictures of what I was up to from approximately the 10th-12th.

The throne-chair for the back of the truck.

Eden painting on the door with the clock next to her. Note the crazy-colored table legs etc.

Loading the truck. Everything had to be pretty thoroughly strapped down to prevent disaster on the extremely bumpy section of 880 North through southern Oakland.

Lost Horizon Night Market SF

2010-12-13T12:41:00.001-08:00

Lost Horizon Night Market SF, originally uploaded by mr. nightshade.

This is what I've been doing the past several days. We built a mad tea party in a 24' box truck, and smashed a LOT of dishes. Here is the after shot.

(Props to Neil Girling for taking the excellent picture above; the linked picture is from (I think) Jonathan Ross.)

Days 7-9

2010-12-10T14:11:00.001-08:00

, originally uploaded by alicen.

Day 7 we spent the evening checking out a badass art gallery/live-work warehouse space we were maybe going to move into. But I forgot to take pictures. We've decided not to move because it lacked windows and a kitchen, but it was totally a creative and worthwhile thing to look into. I remain convinced that there are better spaces out there.

Day 8 sort of got eaten up by rain, commute and rock climbing. So no picture there either.

This picture is for day 9, and was taken last night at NIMBY while working on the project I can't yet talk about. Hopefully I'll have pictures of that for tomorrow.

Craft-a-whatever day 6

2010-12-07T18:06:00.001-08:00

, originally uploaded by alicen.

Last night's project was filling out Christmas cards. It will be this night's as well, most likely. But I'll try to come up with a different picture.

And yes, I didn't make my own. I'm lazy.

Craft-a-day December Day 5

2010-12-05T22:35:00.001-08:00

DSCN1347, originally uploaded by alicen.

I am totally putting this up on the correct day! I made these for Tom a couple of weeks ago. A matching hat is planned.

Craft-a-day December Day 4

2010-12-04T17:48:00.001-08:00

, originally uploaded by alicen.

I'm making this scarf yet again. Almost done!

Craft-a-day December Day 3

2010-12-04T17:44:00.001-08:00

IMG_0269, originally uploaded by alicen.

This is a vest I designed for Tom a while ago. I've got it partway made and hanging in our bedroom.

Craft-a-day December Day 2

2010-12-02T17:47:00.001-08:00

DSCN1345, originally uploaded by alicen.

Day 2 is boxers. When Tom gets sucked into going to fabric stores with me, he sometimes finds fabric he likes. Which is eventually turned into underwear. I was home sick today so I finally finished these.

Craft-a-day December Day 1

2010-12-02T17:46:00.001-08:00

IMG_0324, originally uploaded by alicen.

I know lots of people who are trying to draw something every day of December. Since I'm trying to make Christmas gifts, I'd rather devote the energy to making things instead. So I'll try to post something I'm making every day until I leave for the holidays. Of course, I'm starting off a day late.

This is for December 1. It's a hat I made for my aunt as a Christmas present. Apologies for the terrible photo - I mailed the hat back from Boston after Thanksgiving, so I can't take another at the moment.

Wristwarmers

2010-10-29T11:24:00.001-07:00

IMG_0262, originally uploaded by alicen.

My old purple wristwarmers have started to fray, and I decided it was just as much work to pick them out an re-knit them as to make new ones. And I was in Arizona with family and forgot to bring any kind of project to keep me out of trouble. Fortunately they have yarn stores there.

These are electric pink and match my hair. They're finished now and I've been wearing them, but this is the picture I got around to uploading. No pattern, just made it up. They have separate thumbs but no fingers, and are ribbed all over.

I made them as small as they could possibly be and still fit me. Unlike the last pair, Tom can't steal these.

This fortnight in my brain?

2010-10-18T14:08:00.001-07:00

* It rained this weekend. It was glorious. Tromping around in it brought back all the best parts of Seattle.

* Yesterday I went on the SF Tweed Ride. I am not one to pass up gratuitous costuming opportunities. I learned that 1. I should totally wear knickers more often and 2. I don't ride my bike enough. I've resolved to make more use of it in the future.

* Someone smashed the window on our car and took a couple of CDs. Annoying.

* Saturday was the big NIMBY party. NIMBY is the warehouse where we build Syzygryd. I worked crew for 2πr and generally made sure people did not light themselves on fire. This was excellent, though cold.

* I don't have many pictures to add to this post. I would like to start carrying a camera more regularly again, or get better about taking and uploading pictures with my phone. Not sure what the solution should be there. I don't spend much time with my personal laptop these days, so photos tend to languish. I still have a major backlog of un-photographed projects.

* About a week ago I spent an hour taking all the clothing I don't wear very often and putting it in a box. I have yet to really notice the difference, so I probably wasn't aggressive enough. Ideally I'd have a small and carefully curated wardrobe of totally awesome things that changed pretty frequently. Something to work towards.

* I've had a number of houseguests recently that haven't gotten mentioned here. I haven't been able to hang out as much as I'd like due to other commitments, but it's been good to see people. It's been a very social Fall.

* Fall means more homey comfort food. In particular, squash. Time to make bright orange soup!

Tweed ride!

2010-10-13T11:36:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I plan to ride in this. I spent last night hacking horrible womens' suit pants from the 80s into something resembling knickers, and have a bad-ass vest from a thrift store. But no pictures of them. If I manage to acquire fabric early enough I want to make something along the lines of this vest:

It wouldn't look exactly like that, of course, and would probably be grey. But it would be long, made of tweed, and have tails. And there would be some kind of bad-ass pocket system going on. Unfortunately I can't photograph my sketches well at work, so that'll have to wait.

Last night was relaxing - quiet sushi with a friend, and then making things at home. Good for getting my head together, even if the apartment is beastly hot. I must do more of this.

Needle felted dinosaur

2010-10-05T17:28:00.001-07:00

Needle felted dino, originally uploaded by alicen.

I made this ages ago to experiment with needle felting. I'm mostly interested in the technique as a way to add design and texture to wool garments (because seriously how many little decorative objects can anyone actually own?), but this guy was fun to make. The repeated stabbing motions are quite cathartic. I did break a disturbing number of needles, but that's probably just amateur technique.

This post brought to you by my desire to actually have pictures of things I made on this blog...

This Week in My Brain

2010-10-05T17:20:00.000-07:00

*I finally uploaded pictures from Burning Man! This one is my favorite:

The rest can be found here. I edited them heavily for half-decent photography, so there aren't many.

*A couple people have linked me to various high quality electronics cases recently. I'm thinking of attempting my own variation on the bookbinding based one at some point. I certainly have plenty of electronics rattling around.

*I've been fascinated with nomad furniture for a while. I bought this book last time I was in Portland, and there are several relevant things on Instructables. The idea is that if you're in the young, urban, semi-itinerant class (like everyone I know) you don't want to acquire lots of large stuff that's difficult to move. Furthermore, you want furniture that disassembles and is easily reconfigurable in different spaces. This has definitely been informing the sorts of things I'm thinking about building for our space, even if I haven't actually gotten around to too many of them.

Another interesting variation is gridbeam, which appears to have a community as well as various projects floating around the web. I don't actually like the look that much, but I appreciate the sentiment.

*Nature! My mom was in town, and we went up to Yosemite for a day and a night and went for a short-but-steep hike. Tom gets extremely happy when out in the woods.

We need to do this more often.

*I spent about an hour last night talking to Jason (yes he's alive!) which was great. It's really nice to have exes that play a positive role in my life. Yay for being grownups I guess? We talked a bit about that, as well as swapping trashy fantasy recommendations. And promised to send each other various media we were recommending. We'll both be in Boston for Thanksgiving (along with many other people I guess?) which will be excellent.

*In my continuing saga of being sort of bored with my clothes, I've also been looking at kinderwhore fashion. Apparently grunge is coming back? I've been listening to riot grrl music again lately as well, so I guess it's topical.

*This podcast. I am a sucker for economic storytelling? Blame my father.

*Thinking about taking more classes at the Crucible. Do I have time? Who knows. I'm thinking maybe welding and a class on jewelry techniques.

*I know I've linked to this before, but I'm having yet another bout of fascination with Alabama Chanin. I've made a shirt, dress, headband and hoodie in this technique, and have cut out the pieces for another dress and tanktop. I've been wearing the first dress constantly. I found the flickr pool for people who've made projects from her books (though apparently there are only about three people who've posted pictures). One of my favorites is here:

I'll try to post later with pictures of the stuff I've made and more details. I picked up these on Sunday for a crazy patchwork dress:

I could happily just wear clothing made this way. It would be seriously labor intensive though.

This week in my brain

2010-09-29T10:00:00.000-07:00

*Manic pixie dream girls. See also this. I have totally been guilty of this in the past, though I quickly turn out to be too emotionally complicated to perpetuate the illusion. Here is one analysis of why it's so damn irritating. Of course, whether someone comes across as "interesting" or "exotic" is completely subjective.

*This ties into thoughts I've been having about makers and gender and how most creative activities seem to be somehow gendered based on historical trends. Furthermore, the associated internet communities are pretty uniformly segregated along gender lines. You can even tell by the colors. Observe:

Man communities: Make Projects, Instructables

Girly communities: Craftster, this LilyPad/soft circuit community

Edited to add: I'm being a bit fair to Instructables here, as it's really the best of the bunch (and the original mitigating comment I'd put in seems to have been deleted when I added the HTML. bugger). A better example might be the project pages on popular mechanics or one of those sorts of things. But this does tie into a larger rant about how the SF bay area maker communities that think they're all egalitarian and stuff are still sometimes really guilty of egregious stereotyping that NO ONE THINKS IS GOING ON. And man does it bother me.

Also of interest is the phenomenon whereby soft circuit projects seem to be almost exclusively by women and kids. Not that there aren't guys that do this, but rather that they don't self-label the same way. Really this all deserves its own post.

* I still owe the internet pictures of everything for the last several months. They're coming.

*Morley played this for me. It's now stuck in my head.

* I've started reading several blogs about San Francisco and the Mission. I feel much more invested in the place when I know more about what's going on. I'll be a lot more informed about local politics this November than the last time I voted here. Which is definitely a good thing.

* Apparently H. R. Giger was involved in the production design for a never-released version of Dune. Interesting, though the sketches are too small.

* Deep wedding planning ambivalence. Tom and I had a discussion the other day that pretty much amounted to "the more I find out about weddings the less I want to have one". It does not help that we know lots of couples having various relationship drama around their weddings. Lots of perfectly happy people too, but definitely a couple of cautionary tales.

* Maybe we will go see Wagner's Ring Cycle next summer?

* My life needs more dadaism.

This Week in My Brain

2010-09-21T02:22:00.000-07:00

1. I've been really, really busy. Like, multiple commitments every night since Burning Man busy. Mostly, this is good. But it needs to stop soon. The bedroom (which I haven't spent any time in in about three weeks) is getting disastrous, and I'll have to finish unpacking some day.

2. A while ago, I mentioned to my father that I was interested in Vietnam-era folk music and protest songs. Last week, on my birthday, a box showed up containing a number of CDs. Tom and I brought it along when we drove to Yosemite last weekend. So now my head is full of Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Phil Ochs, , Judy Collins, and so on.

I've had the Draft Dodger Rag stuck in my head for days

And was reminded of this, which my dad sung to me as a lullaby:

3. This summer was a big stretch of time with no nature in it. Then I went and played on the playa, then Yosemite, and now Sedona, which looks like this (thanks, random flickr user!).

4. It's impossible to do something like Syzygryd and not be possessed by the urge to Keep Making. So far this has mostly meant food (delicious tabouleh ), but I have grand plans. For my birthday (and after I talked his ear off with ideas) Tom got me some conductive thread and circuit components to play with. I am plotting and spending too much time trolling the internet for ideas. I have many links and pictures and things, but I'm too tired to dig them up right now.

5. I need to rethink my Personal Fashion Concept. Part of me wishes we could all dress like this:

but really no one can wear that much lycra. Good for inspiration, I supposed. Before leaving for the playa I acquired a number of books on pattern drafting and a dress form (which I'd been lusting after for YEARS). Time to MAKE THINGS.

6. Speaking of Things, it is time to own less of them. Or get a storage unit. Our apartment has a serious lack of closets, and we have a serious amount of burning man gear. We can get rid of things to a point, but more than half of what I own is either books or raw materials for something or other. And you can't take either one away from me.

Coming up:
Burning Man Pictures!
Career!
What I Am Doing With My Life!
Moving (Eventually)!
And Much Much More!

The man, the moon, a syzygryd

2010-09-05T22:30:00.001-07:00

The man, the moon, a syzygryd, originally uploaded by Focal Intent.

This has been my project for the past couple of months. Along with 60+ other people (many of whom are crazy hardcore!), I wrote software, drilled, countersunk, soldered, sawed, lifted and soldered some more. I bounced up and down for a looong time when I first saw it up and running. Holy shit guys, it is such an amazing feeling.

Makeshift Project

2010-08-28T23:12:00.000-07:00

Tonight I've been poking at the archives of this blog. The author is at the tail end of a year-long project where she makes everything she wears, including footwear and so on.

I'm fascinated, both by the concept and by her style. I haven't had a very coherent idea of what I want to look like recently, and this sort of speaks to that part of my brain. Possibly when I get back from Burning Man I will pack up half my wardrobe and concentrate on embellishing/modifying/remaking the remaining items.

Finished vest pics

2010-08-25T14:18:00.001-07:00

A while ago I posted progress pics of a vest I was making for Tom. Here is the finished vest:

It's off at Burning Man now (I'll join on Sunday). It'll probably get more decoration over time, whenever I get around to it.

This

2010-08-25T11:03:00.001-07:00

Photo on 2010-08-25 at 10.57, originally uploaded by alicen.

Holding out with the natural hair color...hasn't lasted. But it's long enough now that most of my reasons for not dyeing it are gone. We'll see if I cave and do the rest.

This is what the sequins were for.

2010-08-02T09:43:00.001-07:00

DSCN1143, originally uploaded by alicen.

Peter, the night before his wedding. The dress is what the sequins from the last post were for. I will never stop finding stray sequins in my carpet. Never.

sequins!

2010-07-04T13:30:00.001-07:00

sequins!, originally uploaded by alicen.

Sneak preview of something coming up next week...

Corset shirt thing

2010-07-01T11:31:00.001-07:00

DSCN0945, originally uploaded by alicen.

Another project from this book. Totally hand sewn, mostly while riding the bus to and from work. Looks better when actually being worn, but photographing myself is HARD.

Kai's Quilt (with mushrooms)

2010-06-26T16:30:00.001-07:00

DSCN1016, originally uploaded by alicen.

I can finally post this, since I did manage to get it over to Jess and Colin a couple weeks ago. The quilt is for Kai, their son, who was born just over a week ago. Jess and Colin are pretty much my first friends to have a kid, so they get get the benefit of my not being sick of making baby gifts (I am told this will kick in at some point). I decided to make the quilt only a few weeks before he was due. I was pretty psyched to actually finish it before he arrived on the scene.

It didn't actually take me all that much time to make, all things considered. The quilting is done by hand, which too most of the total time. But I did that on the bus to work, which worked out pretty well.

Jewelry

2010-06-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

So, I don't have an engagement ring. I never actually wanted one (they seem silly when you're getting a wedding ring, and the symbolism is weird), but we did decide there should be something. So now I am wearing this:

And Tom will have this as soon as he gets back from China:

They are from here. If you can't tell, one of the rings is silver and the other is gold on each necklace. We are digging the simplicity, though our wedding rings will probably be fancier (or at least sturdier). When we get there.

ENGAGED!

2010-06-20T20:52:00.000-07:00

So a week ago (June 13th), Tom and I went to Oakland to pick up our car, stopped by our friends' house to drop off their babywarming present, and then headed to east to "find some nature". We wound up at Mt. Diablo State Park.

We hiked around and bit and wound up talking about the whole Engagement Thing (an ongoing discussion over the past couple months) and decided to get married! Here we are:

(Yup. Marrying that guy. We tried taking serious pictures too, but screw that.)

Afterwards, we took pictures of one another making dinosaur faces to celebrate.

Fleece

2010-05-26T10:11:00.001-07:00

IMG_0061, originally uploaded by alicen.

I went to Maker Faire last weekend and picked up, among other things, a bag of assorted hand dyed fleece. This necessitated my learning to card the wool. (Thanks to Jess for letting me use the carders!) I will probably spin it into bizarrely variegated yarn for socks or something. Hopefully I'll get a better picture of the next step.

Things I've made but haven't blogged: Various hand-sewn clothing, progress on a couple of quilts, various repairs and upgrades (replacing buttons, etc.), experiments with letterpress, yarn purchases, and more.

Headband

2010-05-10T10:13:00.001-07:00

DSCN0938, originally uploaded by alicen.

I've been messing around with things from this book recently, and this is one byproduct. I've been really enjoying the process of creating lately, of watching elaborate designs emerge from little bits and pieces. I'm also fascinated by the idea of owning lots of carefully complex things. This isn't fancy, exactly, but it contains far more attention to detail than most things in my home.

Oh, and one more picture.

instant window seat

2010-03-27T16:40:00.001-07:00

DSCN0913, originally uploaded by alicen.

Tom and I made this two nights ago in about twenty minutes. Ingredients:

1 defunct coffee table found on the street
2 dead computers
wood scraps
a couple magazines
circular saw
pliers
blanket

We removed the legs from the table (they were too short and really wobbly) and then removed the molding from the back of the table. Then we put it on top of the computers. We cut the wood scraps to size to even out the height of the computers, and jammed them in.

The computers are heavy, so it's quite stable. Long term plans involve storing things underneath and getting or making pillows to fit the space. The light in that window is great, so I think it'll get lots of use.

Circus vest!

2010-03-26T08:48:00.000-07:00

Tom found this picture:

And so I made this:

It still needs edging and probably some decoration (all the stitching that's visible now is actually structural).

Card Weaving

2010-03-22T18:32:00.001-07:00

DSCN0853, originally uploaded by alicen.

Only a couple of years after Laura sent me a book on the subject, I got around to doing a test card weaving project.

Card weaving is a way of weaving without a fixed loom. You have a series of cards with holes in them. Different color thread is threaded through each hole, and the cards are twisted to put different combinations on top. There's a pretty good explanation here.

It's a very old idea and can be done with all sorts of materials. I used cotton thread purchased for something like $1/ball. My strap (which is 4 or 5 feet long) is a simple diamond pattern, but you can quickly get much more complicated.

The process is surprisingly fast - this only took me an hour or so to set up and weave. I'm not sure how much call there actually is in my life for narrow bands of fabric (and the width of these things is sort of naturally limited by the nature of the weaving process), but it's definitely something I'll do again.

Knitting, quilting and so forth

2010-02-06T17:09:00.000-08:00

Tom went to China for two weeks for work. It rained pretty much the whole time, so I spent a lot of quiet time making things (and watching the fourth season of Heroes). I finished off a number of ongoing projects. First of all, the socks I started at my cousin's wedding last March:

These went through several knit and then rip out iterations before the final form took shape. Then they sat on my bedside table for three months with an inch left to go on the final sock.

I also finished off the leg warmers from the flight back from Istanbul. They are part of my strategy to wrap all my extremities in tubes of wool. Very versatile.

There was also quilting - hexagon experiments. I did the actual piecework for this one three years ago, but didn't know what to do with it until recently. Hopefully my mother doesn't read this; it's for her.

This one is all new. It may be a Settlers of Catan board in disguise.

It's approximately 18" by 24". I did the quilting by hand on the bus to and from work. It was very relaxing. I've convinced myself that I can competently piece hexagons, so a big quilt (with rather larger pieces, for the sake of sanity) may be up next. The piecing didn't actually take that long, but I really sort of hate machine quilting, and doing a bed-size quilt by hand is out of the question (just not portable enough).

I also added ribbing and shaping and so on to this t-shirt (it was boring before).

And here's a belated picture of Tom's Christmas present

It's on a hooded sweatshirt, which he's wearing here

This went over very, very well.

Succulents!

2010-01-31T11:20:00.001-08:00

IMG_0826, originally uploaded by alicen.

These are now planted in little pots scattered around on my window sills, but I haven't got a picture yet. Tom and I biked to Flora Grub through an industrial bit of San Francisco and returned with many tiny plants. I did the repotting last weekend, so now I have a bay window full of little green things.

Noro Scarf

2010-01-31T11:17:00.001-08:00

DSCN0734, originally uploaded by alicen.

This is the second scarf I've made like this, and also the second one I've lost. I knit it on the trip to Turkey, and then lost it at work the second time I wore it. BAH.

Catching up

2010-01-31T11:15:00.001-08:00

IMG_0792, originally uploaded by alicen.

I have a rather large backlog of projects to post, so hopefully I'll be getting to that soonish.

This is an aluminum tile that I made in a workshop at the Crucible before Christmas. It's supposed to be Baba Yaga's hut, though I'm not sure how much of that came through. The method was sand-casting - carving a block of sand and binder into the right shape, then pouring in the molten metal.

Sweater progress

2009-12-13T09:41:00.001-08:00

Sweater, originally uploaded by alicen.

I finally started a sweater from the yarn Laura gave me last Christmas. The pattern is Vivian. My yarn is quite a bit fuzzier than what's shown (Berroco Peruvia) and sort of mossy green, which makes the whole thing more subtle and organic looking.

t-shirt quilt

2009-12-13T09:33:00.001-08:00

DSCN0285, originally uploaded by alicen.

I made a quick-and-dirty quilt from a bunch of oversize t-shirts Tom wasn't ready to throw out yet. It really needs to be quilted a great deal more, but it's so relentlessly tacky that I can't quite bring myself to put more time into it. Being made out of old t-shirts (and an old jersey sheet), it's reeeeaaallly soft though.

Potato Stamps

2009-12-05T12:08:00.001-08:00

DSCN0274, originally uploaded by alicen.

While in Portland we made stamps from potatoes an used them to print on fabric. These are some of the results.

Messing around with watercolors

2009-12-05T12:00:00.001-08:00

DSCN0198, originally uploaded by alicen.

I have no real idea how to use watercolors, so trying to copy images is at least interesting from a learning control standpoint. (This is a page from Kabuki).

Lemon Marmalade

2009-12-05T11:57:00.001-08:00

Lemon Marmelade, originally uploaded by alicen.

Randall's parents had a bumper crop of lemons, so I made marmalade. There was also lemon merengue pie, but I forgot to photograph it.

cubist alphabet

2009-11-16T20:57:00.001-08:00

cubist alphabet, typography, museum of czech cubism, house of the black madonna, prague, originally uploaded by kejhu.

This is one of many things that was lost with my notebook from last summer. It is the cubist alphabet as seen in the museum of Czech cubism. Yay typography.

Corset Thing

2009-11-08T09:03:00.000-08:00

I was in Europe for two months, then moving, then starting a new job. Now I have actually started to make things again.

This isn't laced at all tight in the pictures, but it can be. I will most likely wear it dancing or for costumey events. It is sort of steampunk, maybe - especially with the brown ribbon. More pictures.

reverse applique t-shirt

2009-06-21T16:08:00.001-07:00

reverse applique t-shirt, originally uploaded by alicen.

This is one layer of fabric sew to the inside a of a shirt, then the top layer cut away.

Twirly skirt

2009-06-03T13:11:00.000-07:00

A skirt made from $3 of fabric purchased at Goodwill. Possibly not my color, especially with the green hair. But very good for spinning around in.

I purchased a rolled hem foot for this because I couldn't stand the idea of ironing the hem (which is at least 7 yards) in the 80+ degree weather. Rolled hem foot for the win! It was wonderfully quick, and looks good. Beyond that it's just a lot of rectangles, gathered, and a drawstring waist. Very, very simple.

I've been sewing a fair amount lately, since I'm mostly done with school. Mostly mending and finishing up old projects, on the logic that I shouldn't be lugging around things I'll never finish. But I have to be moved out in three weeks, so I'll have to wrap things up before too long.

Exciting embroidery

2009-05-28T11:43:00.001-07:00

P5260045, originally uploaded by alicen.

I bought this embroidery (I think it's Vietnamese) off a guy at Folklife. I'm still figuring out what to use it for. But oh, man, detail.

Quilt progress

2009-05-28T11:38:00.001-07:00

P5220018, originally uploaded by alicen.

Though this picture was taken a day or two earlier, I am done with all the individual squares for my quilt. Now it just remains to add sashing, make a back for it, quilt and bind. I'm not sure it's very likely that this will get done before I move, though. We'll see.

Shirt!

2009-05-28T11:36:00.001-07:00

P5260043, originally uploaded by alicen.

I made a shirt! It probably needs to be taken in a bit, but is fabulously comfortable, This took basically no time, which is gratifying, and was done entirely from stash fabric, but I'm really happy with how it looks.

Origami

2009-05-28T11:35:00.001-07:00

P5250009, originally uploaded by alicen.

I'm finally using that modular origami book I picked up a while back. Yay!

Quilt designs

2009-05-19T16:03:00.001-07:00

P5170001, originally uploaded by alicen.

I've started another quilt. Here are some watercolor designs I did before I started cutting. We'll see how it goes.

Inspirations: Flags of Imaginary Nations

2009-05-10T20:03:00.001-07:00

, originally uploaded by thai.moreno.

This is really awesome.

My master's thesis is due Wednesday. After that, I hope, I'll get back to making more things instead of just reposting pretty things from the internet.

Notebook doodling

2009-05-07T11:05:00.001-07:00

P5040006, originally uploaded by alicen.

I keep watercolors at my desk to fiddle with when I'm not being productive.

Inspiration: Cherry Leaf Circle

2009-05-04T19:31:00.001-07:00

Not my work, but

Cherry Leaf Circle, originally uploaded by e s c h e r.

This blog full of lovely pictures makes me want to go do things outside...

Day 122

2009-05-04T13:39:00.001-07:00

Day 122, originally uploaded by alicen.

I helped smoke MEAT at Reed this weekend, for Renn Fayre. It was pretty awesome.

Matt in the Hammock

2009-04-27T11:21:00.001-07:00

P4260033, originally uploaded by alicen.

Drawing instead of work yesterday.

Airplane sock

2009-04-24T14:53:00.001-07:00

Airplane sock, originally uploaded by alicen.

More sock. This one is basically done, just a little ribbing to go. Then sock number two, possibly followed by a sweater.

Strawberries for Spring

2009-04-13T16:27:00.001-07:00

P4110001, originally uploaded by alicen.

I now have lots of strawberries and herbs planted. Hopefully I'll get some fruit before I take off in July.

Frogged Again

2009-04-09T21:38:00.001-07:00

P4070021, originally uploaded by alicen.

These socks do not want to exist, it seems. I tore out the sock pictured here (this is the second time) after concluding that the stranded knitting was never, ever going to stretch enough to be an effective sock (at least not on those needles). So I'm redoing it with straight, non-stranded stripes, which goes a lot faster.

Trail Gloves

2009-04-05T12:53:00.001-07:00

P4040022, originally uploaded by alicen.

I made these gloves for Tom to take on the Appalachian trail, which he leaves for next week. He wanted something wool, but didn't specify that they had to be serious...

(The wool is hand-dyed too - my first foray into dyeing yarn. Probably not something I'd use normally, but you never know. And the white swirly bits are made of some of the very first yarn I ever spun myself.)

wizard robe

2009-04-03T18:31:00.000-07:00

A while ago (like in January), I made this robe/coat thing that I wear all the time. It still needs pockets and a clasp, but I've been using it so it's probably worth posting pictures.

Front:

Back:

Note the pointyness! I have plans to add a bell to the end.

Hood:

I am seriously bundled up here. It hangs better in real life.

I don't update enough anyway.

2009-03-23T11:08:00.001-07:00

P3220015, originally uploaded by alicen.

This sweater's been languishing forever. Jess "models" it here.

More pictures of stuff I've been making are available here. It's updated a hell of a lot more often than this blog.

Pink Elephant boxers

2009-03-23T11:04:00.001-07:00

P3220058, originally uploaded by alicen.

I made some very silly boxer shorts for Tom. I don't think anyone is as amused by them as the two of us, though. One of the elephants holds a very small, embroidered martini. Another shot is here. I also made a pair with aliens. I highly recommend this for instant-gratification sewing.

First month

2009-02-02T17:23:00.001-08:00

First month, originally uploaded by alicen.

The first 30 of a year's worth of photos.

Sewing

2009-01-12T13:03:00.001-08:00

Day 10: Sewing, originally uploaded by alicen.

Teaser shot for the thing I made last weekend. It is part sweatshirt, part wizard's robe. It needs a bell still.

365 photos

2009-01-08T16:07:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to take a picture every day this year. Results so far can be found here.

Silly Hat!

2008-12-21T16:01:00.001-08:00

Silly Hat!, originally uploaded by alicen.

I made a thoroughly ridiculous hat. Whee!

O Christmas Tree

2008-12-10T17:34:00.001-08:00

O Christmas Tree, originally uploaded by alicen.

We (Kathleen and I) got a Christmas tree! My first tree as "grown up". It is tacky as all get out, since we think good taste is too bourgeois or something. The tree is an actual tree made of tree (not plastic), the lights don't match, and it is covered in tinsel because we both had cats growing up and couldn't have tinsel. The ornaments are all either blue glass balls, or plastic dinosaurs from the kids' toy section with ornament hooks twisted around their necks. And there is an inflatable penguin on top.

Tonight I will endeavor to make strings of popcorn and cranberries and some paper chains.

Sweatshirt

2008-12-06T20:05:00.001-08:00

PC040001, originally uploaded by alicen.

A sketch of the fuzzy gray wizard's robe style sweatshirt I plan to make from polar fleece.

Gloves!

2008-12-04T18:03:00.000-08:00

A while ago (maybe a year? Maybe two?) my brother wanted fingerless gloves. They were great to work on while I was on vacation at my mother's house, but then real life resumed and they were too complex to actually work on while in transit or anything, so they didn't get finished for a long, long time.

Even I think I'm insane for the color work. There wasn't really any pattern except maybe I flipped through Alice Starmore for ideas about patterns at some point. I looked a knitty for ideas about how to divide for fingers, but at this point I basically just wing it anyway. Usually it works out. When you're doing the second one you at least have a template to follow.

And yes, that is a fire flower:

More or less.

Up next: Gloves for my mother, something referred to as a "sorceress dress" from this book which I picked up in New York, and a fuzzy hooded sweatshirt/wizard's robe (or at least the design sketches). Maybe also pictures of the coriolis sock when I stop wanting to strangle Cat Bordhi for her terrible book layout.

Beastie!

2008-11-14T15:18:00.000-08:00

Beastie! That makes me happy.

From this blog by an illustrator of children's books.

Cupcakes

2008-09-20T11:41:00.000-07:00

So a while ago I saw this. Then the other night I was bored and wanted baked goods, and, well:

More on Flickr.

From the past while...

2008-05-16T11:18:00.000-07:00

These pictures have been uploaded for ages but I haven't got around to posting them here...

Some fingerless gloves I made for biking:

A small bag for holding toiletries instead of having them rattle around in the bottom of my backpack:

Also playing with colors in my journal:

I'm also working on a dress, but no pictures of that at the moment.

Projects!

2008-02-23T10:40:00.000-08:00

The sun came out today, so I could finally photograph things. I actually finished both of these in the past week, though the quilt I started about two months ago. I was having one of those "why am I in grad school?" sorts of weeks, which led to rather more sewing than I'd been doing. Good for sanity. Less so for grades, so I'll be spending this weekend doing work rather than playing.

My life has been full of good madness lately, and also a renewed obsession with comic books. This has me thinking more visually than I was, which is a goodness. But I need to balance these things with actually getting work done.

Without further ado, the quilt:

The second picture gives you a better idea of the size of the thing - it's rather generous on my queen size bed. I was really going for size and utility over skilled quilting. Maybe next time I'll go for something more elaborate. This is my second quilt ever (the first went to Ohio with the ex, never to be seen again. I've asked him to send me pictures to no avail), and is rather less wonky than the first, but I wasn't being particularly ambitions. It didn't actually wind up being much cheaper than buying one, but I like it much better.

Also, a dress. Which was rather difficult to photograph by myself.

In the tradition of poorly photographed sketches...

2008-01-25T00:31:00.001-08:00

This is a rough sketch I did of myself sitting on the bus (yes I sit cross-legged on the bus), mostly from looking in the reflection on the window across from me.

This guy's drawings make me happy.

This was pretty cool in the second grade

2008-01-19T11:40:00.001-08:00

Adverbs

2008-01-16T10:39:00.000-08:00

About a year and a half ago I read the book Adverbs by Daniel Handler. It came up in discussion recently as an example of a book that was more style than substance, and I pulled out some passages I sort of like. I was going to write intelligibly about them, but I work with computers all day and I try to spend less time in front of them, so the internet is somewhat unlikely to hear anything intelligible from me.

So, probably in the wrong order, some passages:

Love is hourly, too. There are stories about people who have loved someone forever after laying eyes on them for a few minutes and then nevermore, but these stories have not happened to anyone we know. No, when you love someone you spend hours and hours with them, and even the mightiest forces in the netherworld could not say whether the hours you spend increase your love or if you simply spend more hours with someone as your love increases. And when the love is over, when the diner of love seems closed from the outside, you want all of those hours back, along with anything you left at your lover's house and maybe a few things which aren't technically yours on the grounds that you wasted a portion of your life and those hours have all gone southside. Nobody can make this better, its seems, nothing on the menu. It's like what the stewardess offers, even in first class. They come with towels, with drinks, mints, but they never say, "Here's the five hours we took from you when you flew across the country to New York to live with your boyfriend and one day he got in a taxicab and never came back" [...]

And another:

"Kaatu", Gladys said in a mysterious howl, and here we could skip ahead if you know what I mean. It is always tempting to skip past words we do not understand, the parts of a relationship which confuse us, and arrive at a nice clear sentence [like] "They clearly weren't in love anymore". [...] But we cannot skip to that or it wouldn't be a love story. We cannot skip the way we look in photographs, or our own affectations, or the way we like our coffee, or the way the people we love like their coffee, even though they like it some bad, bad way. We must suffer through all of it, without skipping any tiny thing.

And one to prove that the book isn't totally depressing:

(after talking about how this crate of potatoes was too big to get through they door of a cafe. also, this book has a thing about magpies)

It is not the diamonds or the birds, the people or the potatoes; it is not any of the nouns. The miracle is the adverbs, the way things are done. It is the way love gets done despite every catastrophe, and look, - actually look! - the potatoes have arrived! They had to slice through the plastic - attractively, artfully, aggressively, to name three adverbs that didn't make it into this book - but the potatoes are being carried inside, an actual miracle! It can't happen to everyone - as in life, some people will be killed off before they get something shiny, and some of them will screw it up and other will just end up with the wrong kind of bird - but some of them will arrive at love. Surely somebody will arrive, in a taxi perhaps, attractively, artfully, aggressively, or any other way it is done.

Just some things running through my head. Next time, maybe I'll post something from this book on technology and design I'm reading for a seminar.

Inspiration

2008-01-02T12:20:00.001-08:00

Harry Clarke - Faust, originally uploaded by alicen.

The illustrations of Harry Clarke are pretty awesome. They're also from the 1920s, which really isn't what you'd expect from looking at them.

I'm trying to figure out where to go with this blog and what to use it for. Currently I'm running on the theory that if I think more about art (for whatever value of art you want to use - my definition is pretty damn loose) the more I'll do it and the happier I'll be. So if I keep track of whatever images/phrases/passages from books are running through my head, maybe I'll actually be able to do something with them instead of just looping through them and feeling vaguely intellectually undernourished.

Here's to 2008!

Papercrafts

2007-12-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

I made my mom a silly origami thing for Christmas:

The instructions are here if anyone else wants to try. Also, this thread on Craftster.

I knit, really

2007-11-19T21:21:00.000-08:00

I'm making Knitty's Calorimetry currently. The purple and orange will be rather exciting with my current hair color (pictures of that when I finish). The yarn was purchased long ago and sort of destined to be a present for my mother, but I didn't have enough of it and so it's been languishing in my stash for a couple of years.

The colors are rather more vibrant than that in real life, but I'm never home during daylight to take better pictures. Plus my camera is rather elderly.

Domestic Arts

2007-11-17T15:01:00.000-08:00

Here's some proof that I've not been up to nothing. I have of course been up to grad school, but also the making of exciting things. First of all, my bed is finally finished. It's been in several stages of "almost finished" for a while, but since I added hooks for pajamas and things a couple nights ago the only thing I'd change about it is the squeaking. And I'm not exactly sure how to fix that.

This picture was taken standing in my closet. In the normal course of things, my room is not large enough to get that far away from the bed. As you can see, all of the mess in my room has now been relegated to the space under the bed. It's not nearly so noticeable when there's not a camera flash illuminated the space under there, but I'll probably add a curtain eventually anyway.

I'm particularly proud of the built-in bookcase:

It doesn't hold anything like all of my books, but it's a start.

Eventually I'd like to put the bed up on Instructables, but I'm not sure I took enough pictures along the way. So I might have to wait to do that until the next time the mattress comes off.

More recently, I've been baking lots of bread. My roommates think this is awesome. Here's the most recent four:

In saran wrap: strawberry bread. Almost gone: banana bread. The big whitish loaf: rosemary bread. In the bowl: cheese bread rising for later. There was also my attempt at Irish soda bread, which is gone now. But it had currants and caraway and was delicious. I do however really, really need to learn that I should not begin baking after midnight. Especially not on a weeknight.

When I get pictures back I'll post about the Thing 1 and Thing 2 costumes a friend and I made and wore for Halloween.

Halloween festivities

2007-11-05T18:47:00.000-08:00

I carved a pumpkin. Look:

(My roommate seems to take a lot of silly pictures of me.)

Here's a better shot of all of the pumpkins:

I also carved a very small green squash, but I haven't got a picture of that yet.

Dyeing my hair is like a craft...

2007-10-09T23:48:00.000-07:00

It is all bluey green now, and will remain so for a bit.

Someday I will update this more, really I promise. The bed is in limbo as I've lent my drill to a friend who wants to use it to make his own bed. I must go steal it back from him.

Also I've started grad school and this is, not surprisingly, time-consuming. I should update the subtitle on here.

Bed!

2007-09-30T11:42:00.001-07:00

bed parts, originally uploaded by alicen.

I'm working on constructing a loft bed from (mostly) 2x4s to provide some extra storage in my room. Here are some of the boards for it. I've now cut all of them, and just need to start bolting them together.

green dress

2007-09-16T08:43:00.001-07:00

green dress, originally uploaded by alicen.

A dress I made a while back. From a pattern, though not in the recommended fabric and I omitted the zipper. The fabric has small green vine things on it though, which I rather like.

Anime does things to my head

2007-08-28T12:47:00.000-07:00

Look! It's a project!

So a while back Dash and I watched Ninja Scroll, a movie with a plot that might as well have been designed by 13-year-old boys. This was the result:

(The shirt, not the utilikilt.)

Here's another:

The whole thing is decent quality cotton. It's pretty thin (not like something you'd wear to tae kwan do, which is usually very heavy, almost canvas). It took 3 yards with no wasted fabric. I did french seams inside to make it more durable, and 1/4 inch hems everywhere that didn't have a facing.

The black facings are black cotton with medium-heavy weight interfacing inside them to keep them from getting all scrunched up when washed. They're all just long straight strips, folded over and sewn down. Nothing fancy.

It closes with hooks and eyes, like so:

The original plan was to add frogs along the black bit at the top, but I couldn't find nice ones and ran out of time to make them. I just moved to Seattle, so I'm now in a different state and not going to continue working on the shirt. I did promise to make another one for another friend, though, so maybe I can refine the design with that.

In other news, I've been living out of a suitcase for nearly a month and am really sick of it. I move into a more permanent place on Friday, thank god. Pretty much all crafting has to be postponed until then.

Journal

2007-06-27T12:53:00.000-07:00

I have things I should post. I need to take pictures.

The following pictures were (obviously) taken with the built in camera on my computer.

At any given time, I have a notebook that I carry everywhere and use to record everything from class notes to to do lists to sketches and random writings. I have a big pile of past ones, with all sorts of stuff in them.

The one I had before this was big, about 12" x 9". It turned out this was really too large. The thing was heavy, and too big for anything smaller than the bag I use when I take my computer places. So I didn't use it as much as I wanted.

My solution was to cut the pages from the old notebook (not show) and use them to make this thing. It was done quickly, and all but the initial sewing was done in a bar while hanging out with friends, so it's not terribly precise. But it's very functional. The cover is some leather I had lying around. The clasp is a magnetic clasp of the sort used on purses. The stitching that holds the signatures together (there are 6) goes through the cover and is exposed on the spine. The strips of leather add stability and can also be used to clip pens etc. onto.

Summertime, and the living is easy

2007-06-04T17:17:00.000-07:00

I am still here. I am working full-time-ish, but with very flexible hours so doesn't end up being terribly stressful. Right now I'm at the beginning of the project that'll occupy me for most of the summer. It'll be hard to get motivated until I'm actually implementing something or other.

In crafting/creative news, I have been doing things. Not LOTS of things, but things. I've been sewing a fair amount, including a rather nice dress of green cotton (from a pattern, for instant gratification) and some boxers of entertainingly patterned fabrics for the boyfriend person. I'm also attempting to teach Whitney how to sew from a pattern, and then potentially others. My clothes have generally been boring me, so I'm hoping to make a bunch of things I enjoy wearing over the next few weeks.

The ridiculous striped raglan sweater continues, slowly. It isn't really weather that makes me want to get up close and friendly with wool very often. Gardening has been limited to throwing a bunch of wildflower seeds into the back yard in an attempt to push out the (gigantic) dandelions.

Perhaps I will update this with pictures in a bit. I just dug out my camera, but I probably ought to actually finish working for the day before I go outside to take pictures of things.

Broken Computer

2007-05-23T11:19:00.000-07:00

I graduated, I moved out of my apartment, I have a job. I'm finally unpacked and have started making things again. But my computer is in the shop, so no pictures until it returns.