Crafty Diversions

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noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:12:00 +0000

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Sozenji Craft Fair

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 07:49:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to participate in small craft fair held as a fundraiser at a Japanese Buddhist temple. According to the organizer, this was the first time they opened it up to vendors not part of the temple. I'm used to, and like small craft fairs because I rarely have that much inventory for a large one. Plus, the preparations for large craft fairs are tremendous. I was prepared for small, but not for teeny-tiny. There were only 3.5 vendors. The 0.5 vendor was a guy who was waaaay underpricing pottery but he wasn't even there...his friend sold it for him. This was also the smallest Buddhist temple I have ever been to or seen.

All the people there -- vendors and attendees alike -- were all very nice, but the people in attendance were not crafty-artsy type shoppers and weren't really buying. Basically, the majority of them probably don't go to craft and art fairs at all. They were mostly there to enjoy the Taiko performances. Futhermore, I don't think some of them were prepared to pay fair value for quality handmade items (partly probably not really realizing the hours of work that goes into one project too, because the reality is that in the global economy, most people are used to overseas cheap factory labor.) Anyway, at least I made some money, albeit dismal.

The highlight of the fair was the drumming and Chia, who came out to hang out with me. She had never sat behind a booth at a fair. I invited her to put some of her knitting on my table. Chia managed to sell a mohair shawl that she knit to a slightly eccentric Chinese woman.

For this fair (or rather, small gathering), I painted and upcycled another thrift-find angora sweater into a couple of new Hippie Chicks. I really cute and cool Taiko drummer named Susie bought 2 of the fatter chicks. In fact, the ones she bought were the ones I submitted to Sweater Surgery.

Sweater Surgery Book Contributions

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:20:00 +0000

Ok, I know I'm lame, but I'm finally getting around to posting my contributions to the Sweater Surgery book. (Disclaimer: I purposefully blurred out the instructional text because of copyright issues. Besides, that way, you can go buy the book. :-) Or, if you're interested, I'd be willing to teach any one of these projects at your shop or party. I also teach knitting and dyeing.)

The instructions are just for the Twiggy Headband (page 63)...it's the rainbow colored one. The other two headbands are featured in the book's Gallery section on page 131 and do not include instructions.

Nine-to-Five was also flashed in a quick 1-second clip on DIY Network's "Uncommon Threads." Originally, my friends and I were also supposed to demo this project, but the producers realized that they didn't have enough time, so we just worked on Shelly.

Everyone loves the Hippie Chicks! I came up with the idea when I was experimenting with dyeing a recycled angora sweater. I love the way the publisher styled Opal and Sunshine. Recently, I sold both of them to a very cute and enthusiastic Taiko drummer named Susie.

Violet Flower was such a labor-intensive project. Well all of the featured projects are, but this one takes the cake with the size ratio. This is made from a recycled, upcycled sweater sleeve that I felted. Then I dip-dyed it (not as easy as it seems because you have to hold it to get saturation and try to control the colors to make sure that it seemed more fluid), hand-stitched the purse and the lining and did the embroidery edges. Each petal is also individually laid out and sewn. The center of the flower also is the closure.

Shelly has an extra cameo on page 14, and has her own Gallery photo on page 127. I had posted about Shelly before and my experiences on Uncommon Threads in September 2006 (Geez, has it been that long?)

These two hats (page 130) are featured in the Gallery section as well and do not have any accompanying instructions. Gwlana was originally intended to be an artsy-ish woven bowl, but then Zona commented that it could be cute as a kid's hat -- and I agree! Cosmopolitan is made from cut pieces of a felted wool sweater. I used the texture of the sweater fabric to create interest in the hat.

YIPPEE!

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 06:53:00 +0000

I've been sitting on my good news for a little while now, just in case I was dreaming....I received an email from Amy Singer of Knitty that my recent submission was selected to be in the Fall issue.
Woohoooooooo!

I have several things coming out in the next few months:

a pattern in Knitty's upcoming fall issue (Sept. 2008)
a pattern in Luxury One Skein Wonders (Oct. 2008)
a pattern in Interweave Knits (Winter 2008)

Last month, I finally received my copy of Sweater Surgery for my many contributions. I haven't had time to scan and post about my contributions yet, since as you can see, I've been busy with designing, Handicraft Café, and visiting in-laws.

I'm also currently working on two projects for a book that is due out next year, but I don't want to get my hopes up because I had some concerns about the contract. I already contacted the editor to discuss some of my questions, and she was very willing to chat. I was supposed to receive a draft of some proposed changes, but I haven't received it yet. I need to call and follow up tomorrow.

If this book thing doesn't go through, then that will make book #2 that has led to some disappointment.
This project is already on hiatus. I haven't received any information regarding its status for a long time now, but to my understanding, it is still undergoing some negotiation with the publishing company and I am still under contract for 2 designs, so I can sell them elsewhere.

No doubt I am happy to have been selected in the first place. They were my first attempts with a book contribution, and to have been selected for each of the 3 books that I submitted patterns to is a great joy and validation of my work and ideas. I really try not to get my hopes up or get too excited, because I am also a realist and know that sometimes things just are beyond one's control. However, when a project doesn't go through for one reason or another, it will always a slight bubble burst and somewhat of a personal disappointment. I must say though, that everyone that I've contacted and worked with in my submissions have been kind, professional and talented. Really. The only situation where it wasn't very professional occurred 2 years ago with a now debunked knitting e-zine.

* * *

A couple of weeks ago, my knitting group gathered with other local groups for a knitting in public event at Whole Foods Market in Costa Mesa. We knitted in great company and smothered ourselves in gluttony with all the yummy foods at the various delis inside the store. My favorite was the gelato and dessert bar.

Aubrey showing of her triple brownie lollipop with her robo-arm.

Huntington Gardens

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 05:28:00 +0000

I took my in-laws to experience the wonder of Huntington Gardens and the Rose Garden Tea room last Monday. As usual, the gardens did not disappoint.

It was a leisurely walk around the gardens, though not so much for me because I was trying to make sure that the in-laws were okay and not getting too hot, tired or overheated. I also was trying to keep an eye on my mother-in-law, who really wanted to take a cutting off some of the plants to take back home to plant (she lives in Southeast Asia).

She said, "I should have brought a larger purse." Ai-yah! I told her that we'd get into a lot of trouble if she did. She did look around for fallen clippings or broken succulents that she could pick up and take, but to her disappointment, there were none.

I took them for afternoon tea for lunch. I knew that the food wasn't really something they're used to, but nevertheless it was an experience that would be memorable for them. They really liked all the fresh fruits, especially strawberries, which are hard to come by and expensive in their country. They weren't too keen on some of the sandwiches or cheese and my MIL remarked that the cheese didn't really taste good or special. Good cheese isn't really available where they live, nor is it a common food -- I think Velveeta is probably gourmet over there. The smoked salmon sandwich with caviar and the cheeses were among my favorites, so I set aside any possible embarrassment of my own gluttony and ate plenty to make up for what the in-laws didn't eat! ;)

My mother-in-law had to take several breaks along the way due to her health, so I took some of those opportunities to take some silly self-portraits with my knitting. In trying to take some of the photos, I unraveled my stitches several times and had to start over with my cast-on at least twice. Oh well. The orange yarn is some cheap superwash wool that I bought a while back. I'm thinking that this will be a sun hat project, but I think the reality is that this project will probably be untouched for the next few months. :-P

Handicraft Café is Live Online!

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:43:00 +0000

After lots of hard work and some delays, Aubrey and I are proud to announce the Beta launch of Handicraft Café!!

The launch means that we are open for online shopping! We're still constantly uploading and entering inventory and photos. And of course, some tweaking to the site here and there. There are still some missing photos and some photo distortion in the thumbnail view, but everything else seems to be in working order.

One of the most exciting features of the site for me is the multiple search functions and options. You can search through the customizable drop-down menu (pink), the keyword search (green) or through our detailed category lists (purple):

Another feature of the shop that we're very excited about is that we're going developing symbiotic and mutually beneficial relationships with artists of all kinds, with the majority of artists located locally to us. Zona Sherman, aka TwirlGirlFibers on Ravelry, has bravely volunteered to be our ~~guinea pig~~ first fiber artist tester. So far, we have uploaded and processed 6 of her yummy yarn creations. Future developments for the consignment section include adding more artists and bios of participating artists.

Acknowledgments: Many thanks to our friends, especially the wonderful local knit community and our special friends at All Things String for their constant support and encouragement, to Ben for helping Aubrey with all the Photoshopping, to Anna for our logo and to Mike and Derek for all the hours of web design programming and debugging! And of course, extra thanks to our significant others for supporting us in doing our own thing (and continuing to write those mortgage checks).

Strange, but True

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:59:00 +0000

My in-laws are visiting again from overseas. They come at least once a year to visit their 2 youngest sons. My brother-in-law recently moved from NorCal to SoCal, making my in-laws very happy (less traveling for them). They are very nice people and are generally easy-going, but I do get some anxiety when they visit. Even though I'm a modern empowered and self-assured woman, there are certain cultural practices and customs that have been drilled into me as a kid, which I feel compelled to observe to a certain extent.

There are 2 main sources of my slight anxiety: One, I feel the need to clean my house from top to bottom, chauffer them whereever they want me to take them (except Vegas, which is hubby's job), and cook for them when they stay with us. I generally try to be a good hostess with any visitors, but with in-laws there is generally another level in that I try to be a good daughter-in-law. Two, I feel the need to at least eat some of the food that my MIL cooks or bring over.Number 2 doesn't sound terrible, unless you account for the fact that she brings meat and seafood on about a 24-hour transit (not to mention that it's illegal). It's true.

I certainly cannot blame her for wanting to make goodies for her children who are 1000s of miles away from her, and they certainly miss mom's cooking. Having a more sensitive and spoiled American stomach than my hubby's family, I can not stomach the thought of bacteria growth, literally and figuratively (no pun intended). She cooks things that are her specialty, like these shrimp cake roll, some sort of shrimp and chicken thing in a special sauce/coating, and her ultra signature dish: shark fin's soup. Out of respect, I may eat one or two pieces of the shrimp cake roll, because it's fried before serving. I don't really eat a lot of fried things in the first place, but I figure the high heat kills off bacteria. I don't touch the shark fin soup at all. Sometimes she brings the fins and some ingredients and then cooks it while she's at our house. Sometimes she brings it pre-cooked at her home country. A few years ago, hubby and I finally had to tell her that I don't eat shark fin soup. If you've never tasted it, it's crunchy cartilage in seafood broth. I don't eat it because I don't like it, and more importantly, it's cruel the way the fins are harvested. I used to be a Peta member and a vegetarian for over 10 years, so that part is hard to get over for me.

Luckily, I haven't gotten sick from the smuggled meat products, but then again, I barely eat any. However, I can't say that about my husband who got sick eating some suspicious chicken curry, which I had warned him about. My MIL didn't bring any curry this year, and in fact, seemed to have brought less food.

Anyhow, as part of my organizational and cleaning efforts, I decided to build me a new compost bin. For several years now, I have been using kitty litter buckets. I drill holes into the buckets on all sides, including the bottoms and lids, and stacked them near the kitchen door leading to the side yard for easy scraps and waste dumping.

The problem with my recycled buckets is that they are small and fill up quickly. And as of late, some raccoons have been tipping them over, thus making the dumped partially composted scraps a pain in the ass to clean up. So I decided to clear out an area that would not run off into the pool, and build myself a compost bin.

It was very easy to make. I bought some chicken wire, and some stakes (the ones that come in a package, or you can buy them at about $0.70 per piece) so that I didn't have to cut the wood myself. I then roughly measured the size I needed an made 2 L-shaped sides using a staple gun. I then linked the 2 Ls together using some cable holders I found in my toolbox and some extra wire that I bent to form latches (3 in each corner). That way, if I ever needed to move it, or to access my compost, I can easily disassemble it all. I marked the crude latches with some blue tape so that I can see it easily.

Car Knitting and Impish Gnomes

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 03:05:00 +0000

I've been working on a secret project that has an early July deadline for publication in a knitting magazine. Since I currently have about 6 secret projects going, I'm going to give this one a pseudonym of "Leaf Pelfriffs."(Sorry I can't reveal more info at this time). Anyway, the hubby and I were on our way to my BIL's house to welcome my in-laws who had just flown in from overseas.

In my infinite and ambitious wisdom, I decided to work on my project during the dark 40 minute drive (9:30 p.m.). "Leaf Pelfriffs" is designed with cables and some stitch patterns in it, so I was really proud that I didn't drop any stitches in the car (or so I thought), so I continued working. This morning, and about 12 inches later, I discovered that I was missing a stitch. I apparently dropped it while knitting in the car in the dark. Ai-yah! It was far down enough and in a weird spot that it was not an easy fix with some unraveling and a crochet hook. I had to riiiiiiiiiiipppit. ::sigh::

"Leaf Pelfriffs" calls for buttons. I have some fantastic chunky buttons, which includes this chunky bone button at left. But alas, I cannot find my awesome buttons because apparently Impish Gnomes have decided to have a wild party in my craft room.

Luckily, my small jar of various buttons, including some vintage ones were not affected. However, I don't think any of them are exactly right for the this project. (see photos at the top)

I would try to look for my nice bone and tree nut buttons, but as I mentioned, the darn Impish Gnomes partied in my craft room. They must be tiny short gnomes because they don't seem to mess up anything stored above 4'.

I don't have any photos of the floor, because frankly, I'm embarrassed at all the fabric and yarn scraps that got strewn around like confetti by the partying Impish Gnomes.

Ugh, I really hate my white walls. I couldn't decide on a color when we moved into the house, so I thought I'd at least paint it white to cover the original puke-colored paint. I also thought that I could easily re-paint when I do decide on a color. Um, does anyone know how to exterminate Impish Gnomes and hire me some House Fairies?

These two photos above show my bags of knitting UFOs. If you go to the set in my flickr, you can see the notes to identify the baggies.

I swear that once in a while my craft room is organized. You can see the hints of organization behind the labels on my containers. I guess I'll have to find a way to banish those Gnomes once and for all.

The BEST WWKIP Day Ever

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 04:52:00 +0000

Clockwise: 1. Marie, Melyssa and Abraham with Christine grilling corn with her hubby in the back; 2. Seven our new alpaca friend; 3. (l-r) Holly's pooch, Holly, Michelle and Denise L. from the Anaheim Hills group photographing me photographing her; (l-r): Gloria, Victoria, Renata and Rachel chatting in front of the prize table.

This past Saturday was World Wide Knit in Public Day! Many groups in and around Southern California held WWKIP events. Of course this year, my knitting group held our annual picnic to coincide with WWKIP. We invited other knit and crochet clubs from Orange County, Long Beach, Los Angeles and anyone else to join us in the festivities. I think we had the very best WWKIP event. In fact, I think we may have had the best event all around! Okay, so I may be a little biased, but I don't know if the other groups say the following about their WWKIP events:

We had jugglers and spear throwers who brought juggling and a unicycle. I didn't get photos of the jugglers, but Christine from Long Beach SnB did here!

We had vivacious knitters that tried to knit while hula-hooping!

Above: Zona trying very hard not to drop her hoop and her stitches!

Above: Rachel also trying to keep up her hoop and stitches.

We had animals at our picnic, including an alpaca! People brought their dogs, some kids brought their surprisingly cute rats and new ATS members Amanda and Margo brought their alpaca Seven, named so for his 7-7-07 birth date. I was really resisting stealing him away in my car, and since he's small, I was thinking that I may be able to pass him off as a rare dog breed or something. ;) Zona snapped a photo of the kids playing with the rat right above my head - eek!.

Clockwise: 1. Some kids playing with a pet rat. Rat is on the long-haired girl's shoulder; 2, 3. Seven the alpaca showing off his cute face and new haircut for the camera; 4. Seven smiling for the camera.

We had musicians singing for us with their guitars. Zona also has a picture of Jeff and his guitar.

Jonathan and the kilt-wearing Jeff singing some tunes for us.

We had several games and contests including a speed knitting war and a mystery fiber game! I didn't snap photos of the finished war fish, but Denise L. did here and here. Zona has a photo of the prize table.

Clockwise 1. Robert and 2. Chia working on their Knitting War projects, trying to kill each other off; 3. & 4. Courtney, Shawn, curious boy and Zona check out the Mystery Fibers.

We had lots of spinners too, including a few very handy and crafty kids who got the hang of spinning in no time!

Clockwise: 1. Kristi spinning some luscious green wool ; 2. Jamie gets the cutest apprentice to help him spin some undyed wool from a small mill; 3. Me spinning some silk; 4. Aliza wanted to learn to spin, so I let her try out my wheel as her brothers watched.

We had customized name tags! I made about 30-35 name tags for the folks that I knew from ATS and the Anaheim Hills Knit Night. I'm just a little bummed that I forgot to take photos of two of my favorite tags that I made. I made a "King Snark" for Robert, who is undoubtedly the bitchiest and snarkiest member of our group. (Robert wore his tag with pride, btw.) I also made one for Zona's very understanding hubby (Jeff the guitar-playing kilt dude). I gave Jeff a club of his own: S.P.O.O.F. (Supportive Partners Of Out-of-control Fiberholics)

All in all, we all had all the ingredients for a stupendous WWKIP event. We had good food, great people, fiber, prizes, laughs, good weather and an alpaca. Really, what can one ask for? I have more pics uploaded in my Flickr (lots more of Seven).

All this fun would not be possible without our group's fearless leader, Renata who did most of the arrangements, from the park permit to the pop-ups, tables, banner, jugglers and spear throwers!

Clockwise: 1. Karen and Debbie ; 2. Me, Rachel and Zona; 3. Abraham working on his needlepoint while Jamie knits.

I Don't Have A Penis!

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:15:00 +0000

To the obviously-phallically-obsessed that keep sending me cleverly disguised spams and ads that sneak past my spam filters:

I don't have a penis, have never had one, nor do I want want one (especially since it seems so prone to dysfunction). So, your ads about penile enlargements and viagra or psuedo-viagra miracles will likely be better received by people who have or want a penis. Your ads are wasted on me and my non-existent penis. Seriously!

Oh, and as for your breast enlargement spams and ads... well, erm, the running joke with my friends is that I stole my girls from other Asian women, hence left others flat. I definitely don't need or want any more boobage. In fact, I have more than enough to spare and may topple over at the slightest zephyr if I get even a smidgen more.

Ah, and don't misinterpret this and start sending me ads about weight loss either - my voluptuousness is not due to my weight. My weight falls into the average weight range for my height, and I am comfortable with my body because I also have a healthy body image. Thus, I have no need or desire to lose any excess weight, and you certainly cannot convince me otherwise.

Now, if you have a miracle cure about how to shrink my girls naturally, then I may not be as mad at you for sending me crap.

Sincerely,
Boobalicious Penisless Healthy Gal

Happy Happy Joy Joy

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:51:00 +0000

Guess who I called me??? Read on as I keep you in suspense a little longer with my verboseness. :)

Though I have nothing I have been able to show or share publicly, I have been keeping myself very busy over the past 3-4 months with knitting. The reason is because all the things keeping me busy are knitting designs that I submitted to various publications. All that good stuff has to stay a secret until either (a) I get rejected and decide to self-publish or (b) I get accepted and the pattern gets published.

Since I started knitting not so long ago, I toyed with about 3 patterns that I randomly submitted to e-zines. Recently, I decided to take things to the next level and submit for real. I began reading public forums and researching how to submit designs.

My first attempt at a book submission occurred in December 2007 and it proved well, since 2 of my designs were selected to be in the follow-up to the successful Sensual Knits book. Currently, there is some delay with the publisher, but all the contributing designers are hopeful that all goes well. With any luck, I will resume work for this project soon.

More recently in the past few months, I submitted designs for 2 other books, 2 traditional print magazines, 1 e-zine, and a yarn company. I don't mean to be vague about to whom and what I submitted, but typically, one cannot and should not be divulging any specific or juicy details about pending projects unless thus granted by the companies or publishers.

The yarn company wanted 4 of my designs. I've completed and was paid for one, and the yarn company is holding off the others for a later date as they work on additional things for their company.

Two weeks ago, I received news about my submission for a book about summery knitting -- 2 of my 3 design submissions were selected for the book. I have since received the yummy yarns and am nearly halfway done on the first of the projects, due in June. The other project is due in July. The yarns and colorways for these projects are truly divine! I really wish I could post photos of the yarns.

This past Monday, I received a voice mail message and an email from the editor of a superb knitting magazine saying that she wants to publish one of my designs. Woohoo! I was so excited from jumping up and down that I think my cats might have thought we were having an earthquake. It was my first "real" submission to this magazine. I just received the yarns for it (so lucious!), but I still haven't talked to the editor about the details of the project, which makes me just slightly nervous especially since the deadline is rather tight. -- I have less than 30 days to finish it. I know I will definitely meet it, but I think I'm just being a little more neurotic on this one because I want to make sure that I plan my time well in order to anticipate any unforeseen snafoos when working on multiple knitting design projects with overlapping deadlines.

Wait, I have more good news!

Just 3 days ago, I received a packet from the publisher of the 2nd book containing news about 2 of 3 designs I submitted. The packet contained 1 rejection letter for the lace beanie shown in the photos, and 1 acceptance letter for the other project. The best part of this bit of news is that I already did the work so other than signing the contract, I don't have any deadlines to meet! I am now eagerly awaiting news on the 3rd submission for this book.

The "reject" hat is called Geode. In all honesty, I was not happy with it, but I didn't have time to rework it for the book submission, so I am not at all surprised that it was rejected. As for the fate of this design, I will definitely be self-publishing it though I have not decided whether to offer it as a free pattern or to rework it a bit and sell it.

Googling Myself

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:23:00 +0000

It's been a while since I tried to Google myself. Then today, I read an email from my friend Jean, who apparently found out a bunch of stuff about my crafty stuff when when googled me.

I hadn't really googled my name before. I have googled "crafty diversions", "homemade yarn swift" and some of my other patterns before just to see what people were writing and blogging about them.

So, curiosity got the best of me and I googled myself. There's still a lot about what I did in my former job, where I did a lot of public speaking. There are some blog mentions and apparently a previous post by another yarn shop.

Then I happily discovered that the editor of Craftzine had posted about my Buccaneer's Booty pattern in a post way back in October 2007. I had NO idea!

Silk and Clay

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:25:00 +0000

After months of not spinning, I restarted again, albeit very sporatically, after an invite to Jerry and Debbie's home for some spinning. I had some crappy stuff that I was spinning just to get rid of it, but I really got bored of it, so Zona gave me some of her hand-dyed silk hankies to spin!

It's my first time spinning silk and I'm really enjoying it! The concept of pulling the layers and strands of fibers from the hanky is a little strange since I've only pulled from commercial rovings and rolags that I combed. The downside is that the cap of my spool popped off, so I have to glue it back before I can resume.

My artist sister came to visit yesterday. We bond over many things and are close in age, however sadly, she does not knit, spin or is crafty in the way I am crafty. ;)
She's a wonderful artist though and has designed and laid out many logos and publishing things for me though.

When she arrived, I submitted her to a facial, complete with a mud mask. She's a virgin when it comes to facials. Her mask matches her dress so well, doesn't it?

Metamorphosis

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:05:00 +0000

My long promised makeover for my blog and site is finally getting started. First of all, I'd like to apologize to my readers and cyber friends who linked or bookmarked my blog and patterns on their sites. Those links will no longer work since I moved reorganized the directories. Sorry!

I'm definitely remedial when it comes to setting up websites, but I'm hoping to make everything more organized and prettier. (There's no way I could do any of this without the hubby's help and without the aid of FrontPage, which the hubs was smart to install for me. Otherwise, I'd be calling for his assistance every 5 minutes or so.)

I'm trying to "match" up the pattern layout design and logo that my sister designed for me. It's a good thing she's my sister, because otherwise, I'd be paying more than a pretty penny for her services (which IMO are totally worth it). She's a professional artist/medical illustrator.

Mother's Day

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:44:00 +0000

I don't think anyone who has lost a parent can go through any holiday without some reflection and some feelings of sadness. For me, this holiday is Mother's Day. I can't seem to escape all the reminders, especially since it has been so commercialized. Everyday, every commercial and almost everywhere in the 4 weeks, I see advertisements on Mother's Day as if it were blinking in neon in my eye.

Last year, I posted an archived photo of my mother. I've decided to do the same this year. Maybe that'll be my tribute. Here's a photo of her on her wedding day back in the 70's:
My dad is putting earrings on her as they are getting ready for their ceremony. The lady with the horned-rimmed glasses in the back is my paternal grandmother.

May doesn't just remind me of Mother's Day. For many years, May 10th was my mom's fake birthday. I have no idea why she said it was her birthday. Her legal sun-calendar birthday is in October. For a while, she told my sister and I her lunar birthday occurred in early May, and that we should just celebrate both around the same time, but later she said it was May 10th. The funny thing is that the lunar calendar and the regular sun calendar do not vary by 5 months!

May is also my sister's birthday (we're 13 months apart), and the month of my wedding anniversary. Here's a photo of my mom and me on my wedding day.

The Mohair Ripper Strikes Again

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Sun, 04 May 2008 09:51:00 +0000

Remember my CATastrophe? Okay, nothing really horrible has happened, but Whitey Coyote, aka Mohair Ripper, aka Yarn Thief has been stealing yarn and then giving it to me as presents for a few months now. She struck again tonight, and with some pretty funny results.

First of all, some background info: the Thief has expensive taste in yarn (kind of like her mommy). She likes the good stuff, the ones with higher price tags. She's so discernible that I have baited her with cotton and cheaper wool yarns with little success.

Damned Thieving Cat! She looks so innocent and cute in the picture above, but if you look closely, she's sitting on 2 hats made of a blend of merino/silk/cashmere.

Anyway, her new "surprise mommy with yarh presents" thing started a few months ago, when she dug up a small ball of handspun that I purposefully buried under handcarders, bobbins and a rubber mat, away from her. She somehow dug out the yarn, and dragged it from the family room, all the way upstairs to my bedroom.

Granted, I have to admit that I sometimes I miss a ball or two when cleaning up, but the cat has gotten so clever as to open my purses/bags. (Like any proper knitter, I usually have at least 1 project and some random yarns and needles in all my bags, just in case.) If there are 2 balls of yarn in my purse or around the house, she will take the more expensive of the two. Luckily, I take extra care with my projects and keep them better protected than the balls in my purse, although once, she did "gift" me a test sock with all the dpns still attached.

As her thieving skills improve, I take more care to hide the good yarns. But now, I think in her desperation to bring me yarn-gifts and the seemingly rare occurrence of good yarn accidentally laying around now, she has resorted to snatching yarns she does not like, but she still knows yarn values.

Once, though there were smaller remnant yarns in my knitting bag, she somehow opened it and stole a whole unused skein of Lamb's Pride Bulky and dragged the whole thing upstairs. The skein is almost half her size! She left the entire thing intact, because I guess she wasn't that interested in playing with it. She's even resorted to picking up large balls of cotton yarn, which she has ignored for the past 3-4 years, and drags them all the way upstairs. And last week, she even attacked some Knit Picks Cadena, which she does not like, and has ignored for a very long time -- I left that yarn for her as something she could play with when she started stealing my yarns, but she wasn't interested and it sat on a coffee table in plain sight for at least 3 months!

Tonight, she struck again -- this time she stole 2 skeins of yarn I handpainted and put on top of a TV on a narrow counter in the kitchen because I was about to mail it out. I thought my yarn was safe, because it has been kitty-free and really out of the reach of paws, but apparently I was wrong. After finding my "present" in the bedroom, I was just going to put it away as I do with all my yarn presents. But then I got a closer look:
At first I just thought she lost her collar. Then upon closer inspection, it was clear that her collar got stuck to the loosened hank that she dragged from the kitchen up to the master bedroom. And in the midst of trying to get herself untangled in the yarn, the yarn wedged into the split ring that holds her tag. When the safety release finally snapped, she got away, but not without leaving a chunk of fluffy evidence from her neck, which also managed to get caught in the split ring.
Silly cat.

Designing

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:09:00 +0000

I just finished writing a pattern for a very exciting accessory item. I really wish I could post the photo and talk about it, but I am planning on submitting it to Knitty or another knitting publication. I can't post a photo, but I suppose I can post a small swatch teaser and tell you that the yarn is a fantastic yarn, and one of my top faves: Savannah DK by The Fibre Company (50%Merno, 20% Orgainc Cotton, 15% Linen, 15% Soya Fiber)The photo is a small snipped of the completed item, unblocked.

For the past few days, I have been sketching and swatching for another book submission. It took me a lot longer than I had expected because I had to chart everything first, as if I was actually writing the pattern to 2 of the designs I submitted. The charting was very laborious and tedious. So in the end, I only submitted 3 total, although I had originally planned to submit double that. I figure that the more I submit, the likelihood that one of them would be selected would increase.

Since I'm still new to the whole design and submission process, I haven't really yet figured out how to do all of it smoothly and in a timely fashion. I start by a rough and horridly ugly drawing or illegible description of my ideas. I then narrow them down for the submission's theme and do a better color sketch of my idea. I then work one or two swatches as necessary for the design. After all that, I photograph or scan the swatches and the sketches, digitally clean up the scanned sketches and add typed details. Then print or convert everything into a PDF packet, and send everything off.

I don't really have anything more recent I can show on the blog because they are still pending, but below is an example of something that I did designed for a charity raffle for my previous employer. As you can see, I knit much better than I draw.

OTHER NEWS AND UPDATES

For those of you wondering about the progress of my projects for Sensual Evening Knits (follow up to Sensual Knits), I still have no updates on the status of the publication. I can't really reveal or say more than that because I'm still contracted to them and have to keep everything secret.

In other recent news, I petitioned to join and was accepted as an associate member of the Association of Knitwear Designers. I haven't really navigated the site and all that AKD has to offer, but I did request a mentor. My mentor is Kim of Dolce Hand Knits. Kim has been a great help and responded to my many questions about the design business while she was on vacation! The ironic thing is that I actually met Kim when I attended TNNA this January. We were both taking a techniques class with Melissa Leapman, crochet and knitwear designer extraordinaire . Aubrey and I later "stalked" Kim at one of the booths and talked to her about her designs and about our shop, Handicraft Cafe. I'm glad we didn't scare Kim off and that she agreed to mentor me. ;)

Patttern: Rio Dances on the Sand

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:00:00 +0000

I crossed out one pattern on my long list of patterns to complete and publish. I just finished and posted Rio Dances on the Sand onto my Ravelry Store. I also sent a copy to all the people who worked on the project for JayJay's baby. (I hope I didn't miss anyone!)

I keep saying that I'm going to do a mini rehaul of Crafty Diversions to include pattern sales on this site, but I don't know when that will be. (Yikes! I'm a liar now!) In the meantime, Rio is available in my Ravelry store, and I'll probably also sell it on my Etsy Shop, when I get around to creating a new listing.I decided to provide images of the pages of the actual pattern so that people can see how neatly arranged everything is. Of course, to protect some of the proprietary details, the images are saved in a very small resolution, and if necessary, I covered some of the images.

I also discovered (doh!) that I could put password-protected protections on the pdf files, including creating a password for people to open the file, and limiting access to the file, such as limiting the copying of images within the file. I'm definitely learning as I go. While I did not require passwords for the Ravelry sales, I have since required passwords to files I sell/send via Etsy sales. Also, now all my pdfs, including the ones available for free downloads have been secured with limitations on editing, printing and access.

Right now, I am working on a bunch of other patterns -- some of which are essentially done, but I'm just waiting for good photos. I also have a hat I'm working on and hope to try again and submit to Knitty.

I Just Turned 29

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 23:15:00 +0000

Yep, it was my birthday yesterday, and I turned 29 yet again.

I really am not a big birthday celebrator. I didn't celebrate or have a party when I turned 30, when I most wanted to, but then again, there were family issues and responsibilities that took priority and precedence. This year, my birthday was a little more celebratory than before, but still low-key. A surprise that I received this year was the number of Ravelers that private messaged me happy birthday wishes due to the little cake that pops up on people's avatars when it's their birthday.

Last night, my husband and I went to Roy's for dinner. Yum! The husband ordered the sushi while I ordered my favorite from the restaurant: butterfish. The very nice and exuberant waitress, upon finding out that it was my birthday, took a photo of us. She later remarked how lovely we looked in the photo and how I looked "like a model...and like a young Kristi Yamaguchi." I was a bit taken aback. I was certainly a nice compliment, since Kristi Yamaguchi is a beautiful and talent person, but the comparison was strange. Maybe she's one of those people that think all Asians look alike or that all black people look alike.

Now, if she had compared my appearances to Ming-Na, even though I don't think I look like her, the reference has been made by more than one person, including my own mother who said we kind of looked alike when I took her to see The Joy Luck Club and some of my husband's former coworkers. One of the stranger comparisons to the actress occurred on my honeymoon in Kauai 7 years ago. I was attending a lei making class in one of the hotels when a woman with young daughter asked me, "Are you an actress?" No. "Oh...you know, you look a lot like that actress from ER. Do you know who I am talking about? I forget what her real name is, but she's Dr. Chen. I really like her." Yes, I know who you are talking about. I think her name is Ming Na Wen. Thank you. "You're not her, are you?" No, no. Are you sure that you're not her?" Yes, I am sure. I'm not even an actress. (several seconds of silence) "Oh...you really look alike..."

Throughout the rest of the class, the woman kept looking at me. Then after the class, she and her daughter kind of followed me for a little bit as I walked from the the place where they were holding the class, through the hotel lobby and through the courtyard. They stopped once I got onto an elevator. I guess they wanted sure I wasn't the actress.

Anyway, the exuberant waitress at Roy's sent us a complimentary delicious and fabulous macadamia tart for dessert. It totally made up for the Kristi Yamaguchi look-alike comment. and Overall the service was great, however the food took a while and it made us quite late to meet my friends at the Napa Rose for drinks and dessert in the lounge. Zona and her husband ordered a Scharffenberger Chocolate Pate with a chocolate shooter. It was sooooo yummy. I also had two deliciously mixed lemon drop.

Needless to say, the dinner, desserts, drinks and good company made me and my stomach very very happy. I was relaxed and actually made it to bed by about 1:00 a.m. and I slept through until 9:30 a.m. Sleeping through 8 hours is remarkable for me. I usually don't sleep for more than 5-6 hours, and for the past week, I've been averaging 4 hours. I think this is a sign that I should go out and eat more yummy desserts and have at least 2 delicious cocktails.

Her Name Was Rio

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:54:00 +0000

and she dances on the sand...

Rio Dances On The Sand is what I think I'm going to name the baby blanket I designed for JayJay and her bundle of joy. This project has been top secret for a while and since that it has been gifted as of yesterday, I can now post about it!

Since finding out that JayJay was expecting, my knitting buddies at All Things String and I decided that we should organize and knit a baby blanket for JayJay. So, I went to work on designing a blanket and came up with a knitted quilt in some ocean/sea colors to coordinate with JayJay's planned decor. It also ended up being quite appropriate and serendipitous since the baby's name is Rio! (We were all in the dark about the baby's name until after her birth.)

Aubrey, Amanda, Marie, Melyssa, Renata, Zona, Rae, Rachel and Jenn contributed to the project. We all knit various squares and triangles that were later pieced into squares. For the most part, everything went rather well, but there were a few wrinkles in the process.

The original idea and design layout was to have a substantial blanket using a total of 42 squares. The squares were either comprised of random right-angle stripes, or comprised of two 2-color triangles that were sewn together to form a square. We even had a seaming party where we arranged all the pieces, checked the numbers, pinned them together in the original layout and then sent folks home with some piecing "homework." Then the mystery started.

I discovered that we were missing 3 of the triangle squares, with no idea of how this happened. Everything seemed okay at the seaming party, and I'm pretty sure that everyone gave me their "homework." I even went to pick some up from Zona when she was not well. Furthermore, I stored all the yarn and blanket pieces in 1 large bag in my craft room, away from pets and untouched until I had everyone's pieces. In the end, I had to rearrange the design and make it a 36-square blanket, which still turned out great.
Aubrey helped me piece and seam the final blanket together, and to weave in what seemed like 100s of ends. After seeing how unattractive the back was, we decided that we should back the blanket. So, while I went shopping for some cotton fleece (which Zona recommended after a frantic phone call from me), I washed the blanket in my front loader on gentle cycle. After the washing, I was flabbergasted when 3 of the triangle squares split open in the center, where the triangles were sewn together to form a square. It appeared that whoever seamed those triangles together did not do a good job of weaving in the ends, or simply just forgot, hence the splitting upon washing. Luckily, that was an easy fix.

Pattern: Rio Dances on the Sand.
Yarn: 15-16 skeins of Cascade 220 Superwash, 100% wool
Needles:US 7 (4.5mm) needles, or needles to obtain gauge
Notes: I'm working on formatting the pattern onto a pdf document right now. The backing is cotton fleece, first tacked and tied with yarn and then attached by hand-sewing a blind running stitch.

Threesome

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:08:00 +0000

About a month ago, I finally sent off the pattern and yarn to my test knitters for "Threesome" for Handicraft Café. Several months earlier, Zona and her family were kind enough to volunteer to be my models for the original hats. I specifically designed the pattern so that a knitter can knit 3 hats with 3 balls of yarn and get 3 very different looks. The resulting hat ensemble is a coordinated set for a family or to be distributed among friends.
My wonderful testers, Amy and Veronica, were not only speedy, they also gave great constructive feedback and did a wonderful job on the hats.

Over the weekend, I brought the fabulous hats to at get-together at Aubrey's. A couple of friends loved the hats so much that they immediately put them on and struck some fierce poses. In particular, they loved the color combination that we had Veronica knit. The impromptu photo shoot yielded a slew of fantastic, silly and funny photos. But unfortunately, it was a little dark and the results were not superb, even with some photo editing.

Derrick and Julian even dressed an orange with the baby hat and mounted it on a bottle of Heineken. And after working hard to show off his debonnaire style and poses, Aubrey thanked him with a massage, which resulted in a rather pornlicious snapshot.

As fabulous as some of these photos turned out, I don't think we could use them in the final print pattern - the resolution is not good enough for print, and they may just be a little too risqué for more conservative folks who want to knit a tame family project. However, some the the photos may end up on the Handicraft Café site as we continue to work on the programming for the search functions in the e-shop and the rest of the website. I think Derrick just started a new trend for all our future photo shoots. We may just have to enlist his modeling skills for the hats Amy made and some other upcoming projects. :)

Glad To Be Back!

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 01:14:00 +0000

I must apologize, for the blog disappearing act. The hubs had to upgrade some server stuff (stuff I don't understand), so I wasn't able to post anything for a while, nor were folks able to access the site. Thanks for all your patience and for blog readers/visitors who emailed me about your inability to access the patterns and for waiting.

The most exciting update that I have is that I FINALLY finished editing Twister and posted it for sale on Ravelry. I'm still working on adding more, but please do visit my Ravelry Pattern Store, where you can find Twister for sale, and some of my free patterns on a handy and pretty pdf download.

I also reformatted and added new instructions for the Yarn Swift on a pdf. The formatted pdf swift pattern is only $1.99 and contains an extra set of instructions for a lazy susan swift not available in the html version. Don't worry, the html version is still available on this blog for free, but I decided to charge the miniscule amount for the pdf version because of the time it took to reformat (not to mention all the hours spent writing it in the first place), and hopefully, it'll help pay for some of the website fees.

For non-Ravelers, I also posted Twister for sale on my Etsy shop. Hopefully, soon I will be able to figure out how to post the pattern for sale on the blog as well. I guess I have to learn really quickly how to do that.

Beta, Baby

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:43:00 +0000

Woohoo! After much anticipation, sweat and hard work, the beta version of Aubrey & my side project is finally launched!

Check out the Handicraft Cafe Shop! There are still things that we're fixing, tweaking and editing, such as the search menus and some of the icons. We are also continuing to add products and photos, but it is definitely functional.

We are also still working hard on finding a storefront for our physical store, which will be a even bigger event and accomplishment. In the meantime, it really feels great to finally have something tangible to show for all the time, research and sweat we've put into making our dream a reality.

And the Winners Are...

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:03:00 +0000

Thanks again for everyone's participation in the Twister Contest on this blog and on Ravelry.
The winners are Bethany of hookedupknits, So KnitPicky, and SJ of KnitWit.

I will send you the pattern very soon!! I sill have some minor edits and review to do.

Twister Contest

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyDiversions) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:16:00 +0000

Thanks to everyone who commented in my blog post, on Ravelry and emailed me about your opinions and thoughts to my question about the Twister patterns. The contest is officially closed now. I will continue to consider all your input and weigh that with my goals for my patterns and the various delivery methods and options.

I'll select and announce a winner in the next week or two. I should have all the test knitters reviews in by then. Thanks again!!