Trying to write

~ DMWCarol ~ Leave a comment

Some days writing is really hard work.

I’m supposed to be working on my OU essay but the words just won’t get into any sort of order in my head.  I have a page of notes and ideas but rather than slowly turning into pages of text I keep writing and rewriting the same section over and over because I just can’t make it say what it needs to.

I really don’t know why it’s proving so difficult.  It’s an interesting enough subject. I’ve done the research.  This should be the easy bit, but it just isn’t coming together.

The deadline is tomorrow so soon I am going to have to give up trying to write something I’m happy with and just settle for getting something, anything, written.

Course week three

~ DMWCarol ~ Leave a comment

Today we looked at mood boards and the design cycle.  Now comes the hard part – before next week we have to come up with our own product and collect together some mood board ideas for it.  I really don’t have the faintest idea what to go with.

I want something that will fit with the things other people are making, so nothing too nerdy/weird. I’m really not sure though.

We got to make a few more of the little collages to round off the session

Blue necklace

~ DMWCarol ~ 1 Comment

Now that she has it, I can share a pic of the necklace I made for Chris’s birthday present.  It’s my first experiment with adding ribbon to chainmaille and I think it worked pretty nicely.


It’s just a simple band of European 4:1 with a few beads added and a matching ribbon woven through

Earrings

~ DMWCarol ~ Leave a comment

Made a few pairs of earrings


They’re super basic, just tiny snippets of European 4-1 chain mail with an ear wire at one end and a bead at the other.

I don’t often use gold findings but the beads were pre wired in gold so I made the rest to match.

Bar-bear-ians

~ DMWCarol ~ Leave a comment

Just put the finishing touches to these two little adventurers

  

They’re for the raffle at Contraption tomorrow.

I have a few bits of jewelry I need to make for my course on Tuesday but other than that I need to take a short break from crafting as I have an essay to write for my OU course. It’s due next Thursday and as always I have barely even started making notes yet!

Cunning Hat

~ DMWCarol ~ Leave a comment

I loved the Firefly series and have been thinking about making a Jayne Hat for ages.  Today I finally did

IMG_1894[1]

And since I’ve been asked for instructions here’s how I did it.

You need a ball of red, orange and yellow wool.  I just used cheap basic DK because I am a cheapskate and was just playing around but posh stuff would probably make it nicer.

I used 6.5mm needles.  If you’re so inclined you could use dpns and knit in the round, but I just went with what I had handy.

Start with the basic hat.

  1. Using the orange wool. Cast on 70 stitches using whatever cast on method you like.
  2. Knit 4 rows of K1 P1 rib
  3. Switch to stocking stitch and keep going until you have about 4.5 inches of knitting.
  4. Switch to yellow and continue in stocking stitch for another 3.5 inches
  5. Start the decrease – k5 k2tog, repeat to end. P next row
  6. K4 k2tog, repeat to end. P next row
  7. K3 k2tog, repeat to end. P next row
  8. K2 k2tog, repeat to end. P next row
  9. K1 k2tog, repeat to end. P next row
  10. K2tog, repeat to end.
  11. Cut your wool leaving a fairly long tail, thread through the remaining loops and pull tight – use the tail to sew together the seam as far as the orange, use orange to sew the bottom part.
  12. Now you need to add the ear flaps – The flaps want to be about half the width of the hat (a quarter each) Find a point half way down each side and using the red wool pick up stitches evenly either side of that. You want to pick up 17 stitches so 8 either side of your central point.
  13. Knit about 3 inches
  14. Knit/Pearl together the first and last two stitches of each row until you have just three stitches left. Cast off leaving a long tail.  Thread through an extra piece of red and tie the strings together to leave three dangling strings
  15. Make a pom-pom from all 3 colours and attach to the top of the hat. I find wrapping the wool around the prongs of a large fork easiest but it doesn’t really matter how you do it.
  16. Weave in all the ends.

And that’s it.  Your cunning hat is now ready to wear.

Quick and easy game minis

~ DMWCarol ~ Leave a comment

This is so easy it barely even counts as crafting, but I needed some mini’s for a couple of games I’m running at Contraption on Saturday so I threw these together.IMG_1889[1]

I needed ants and undead so I googled for pics, printed them out on, cut them into circles with a one inch punch and stuck on epoxy domes – simples!

IMG_1890[1]

I might stick them onto magnets so they have a more solid base and I can colour code them with nail varnish around the base, but they only cost a few pennies each so I may just leave them as they are and consider them disposables to keep with the scenario.

Another dice bag

~ DMWCarol ~ Leave a comment

Not sure why I didn’t post this a couple of days ago when I made it

IMG_0289[1]

It’s a chainmail dice bag, made in the same way as I’d start a coif with an increasing hexagon, then there’s a few standard rows and a picot edging so it closes tight (there’s an instructable that explains the coif technique here)

IMG_0283[1]

I like that it opens out flat so you can have a good rummage through the dice.  It holds plenty of dice too

IMG_0285[1]

This one is going to Contraption at the weekend as a donation for the raffle.  The dice are staying with me 🙂

Monsters molished

~ DMWCarol ~ Leave a comment

Huzzah! It worked 🙂

Monster Dice Bag

With a working sewing machine these were actually pretty straightforward.  So much so that I thought I’d have my first attempt at a tutorial 🙂  My methods are kind of vague but that’s okay as all monsters are different.

Start with matching rectangles of fur and lining material (I used red felt). You’ll also want some triangles of white felt and a pair of safety eyes.

First you need to stitch together the different layers at the top edge – fur, lining and teeth – the fur needs to face inwards with the teeth between the fur side and the lining.

IMG_0272[1]

Then once that’s all nicely stitched together

IMG_0273[1]

Open it out flat – and smooth down the seam

IMG_0274[1]

Fold the rectangle down the centre and sew into a tube with one end the lining and the other the fur

IMG_0275[1]

Make sure you leave a gap in the fur for the drawstring – It wants to be close to the top but far enough back that it won’t stop you inserting the eyes.  Two to three inches should do it.

IMG_0276[1]

Flatten out the tube and sew up the fur end.  I put the seam in the middle because I liked it that way but you could leave it to one side just as easily.

IMG_0277[1]

Then you need to add in your eyes – they want to be about an inch or so apart and close to the teeth edge.  I added circles of felt around mine as they looked a bit too small.  I forgot to take a photo of this part, bu you can see the placement on the finished bags.

Then all you need to do is sew up the bottom edge of the lining and sew a couple of channels for the drawstring to go in (lined up with the gap you left in the seam in the fur)

IMG_0278[1]

The rows of stitching should be either side of the gap you left in the fur – just poke a finger through to see where it starts and finishes.  Thread some cord through and if you want to, add knots or toggles to stop it coming back out again.

And that’s it – one monster ready to eat your dice 🙂  I also made a tongue shaped pouch to hold pencils which attaches inside with a piece of stick on velcro but that’s completely optional.

IMG_0279[1]

IMG_0282[1]

I’ve ordered some different colours of fur so I can make more of these, they’re such fun!

Let me know if you give it a try.

Week two of the crafts course

~ DMWCarol ~ Leave a comment

This morning was a lot more fun – no paperwork!  Thank the gods!

The glue is now dry on my notebook so I picked that up.  It’s very shiny which means it doesn’t photo very well.

Notebook

We started this season off looking at colour theory and talking about harmonising colours and contrasting colours.  Then we got to play with the fancy papers again to make mini collages that will eventually be turned into magnets.

I made four.  I can’t decide which I like most.  The picture isn’t great as it was taken on my mobile, but it should at least give an idea of what I’ve been doing

IMG_0271[1]

Next time we’re supposed to bring in something we make at home that we’d like to sell so I need to get out the links and put together some chainmail jewellery as I think that’s my most likely ‘product’