CraftyPocket

Just popping in to say...

2006-06-18T13:15:00.000-04:00

Check out Etsy Features for items picked by Etsy buyers and sellers as favorites!

MAKE CRAFTY MUSIC YAY!

2006-05-17T01:25:00.000-04:00

I started an Etsy group at Last FM. Sign up, join the group, and we'll have an Etsy radio station soon!

waiter there is a moose in my soup

2006-05-16T12:27:00.000-04:00

Slowly getting used to this whole Blogger thing. (What can I say, I'm an LJ girl.) I've added a new template (yay) and I'm starting a few linky lists. If you want to be added to them, drop a comment.

Basically:

-Any Etsy blog, craft-related site, whatever like that for list #1. (So long as it doesn't suck.)

-Any store, Etsy shop, whatever like that which sells handmade pagan/occulty items for list #2. This DOES NOT MEAN big online stores that have handmade stuff on. This means you made a deck of Tarot cards or your coven knitted an evil blanket or something like that.

I'm starting with a few added to both. Bring on links.

updating like...something that updates

2006-05-08T16:19:00.000-04:00

INCENSE! My new passion.

Also, I've finally decided to shove it and make what I want to make and target the people I want to target. Namely, occultists. (Well, and hippies.) So yes, I'm planning things like:

-Binding into hardback some hard-to-find stuff: The Goetia, The Black Pullet, etc etc

-Stuff aimed at chaotes: Fill-in-the-blank interchangeable planetary seals (also good for large tic tac toe games), some crazy divination stuff based on systems that aren't really used, etc etc

-Stuff for Discordians. The God-A-Day Calendar project needs to get underway...

2006-02-16T22:45:00.000-05:00

You appear to be a Knitting Goddess.
You are constantly giving and are unconcerned with

reward, you simply want others to love

knitting as much as you do. If someone wants

to knit miles of novelty yarns, you are there

for them. If someone wants to learn short row

shaping, you can help. There are no taboos in

knitting, only opportunities to grow.

Everyone should have friend like you around

if they want to learn to knit, and there's a

good chance that your passion has rubbed off

on a few others.
http://marniemaclean.com

What Kind of Knitter Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

And, for the record, I found the other #10! It was on the other side of the room. I think they walk around at night.

Knitting Olympics update

2006-02-14T14:17:00.000-05:00

Insane weekend, what with spending most of Saturday at a Buddhist monastery in Indiana. Anyway, my Knitting Olympics project is well underway. I changed my project at the last minute, due to not yet having the yarn I needed...instead, I am making socks with some TLC Wiggles yarn. Hopefully all goes well, and perhaps I can get the first one finished by the end of the week, before end-of-quarter at school gets too intense...

And while I'm here...

2006-02-05T03:31:00.000-05:00

The latest adventure in polymer clay.

Things I found when looking for my other #10 needle

2006-02-05T03:21:00.000-05:00

Eyeliner I do not recall buying
A pack of Claritin
Two forks
A full skein of yarn*
Hello Kitty lip gloss
Empty beer bottles with cool import labels I'd meant to remove and save
A calculator
The booklet for Knights of the Old Republic
A tealight candle
A utility knife
Fox Mulder action figures (2; no clue where the corresponding Scullies are)
Lots of empty CD cases
Silver acrylic paint
Five (!) lipsticks (which I never wear)
Wizard and Glass by Stephen King
A paintbrush
Black nail polish
A rubber duckie

No #10. The other one isn't lonely, though. It's sitting in my pencil basket.

*Inexplicably, under my mattress. I'd been looking for it once in a while to make a scarf for my mother. Beautiful robin's egg blue. The downside? Too bulky for anything but the 10's.

Oh dear.

2006-01-22T14:22:00.000-05:00

Starting waaay too many new projects at once here. I'm working on learning perfect binding to make some really snazzy journals--I just got a consignment contract with a store opening up in New Mexico on my paper stuff, and I'm trying to get some stuff to them relatively soon. Then, what with all the new yarn around, I ended up starting two (two!) new knitting projects, besides the two I already have in progress (and that's not even counting my projected stuff for the Knitting Olympics). One is a fairly simple shrug I'm making with our March 14 tickets to see Wicked in mind, and the other is an intarsia bag with an om symbol. I just may hold off on the bag--it promises to be a good Olympics project, really.

An addendum to the "I'm a big history dork" post

2006-01-21T12:38:00.000-05:00

The Praise of the Needle

To all dispersed sorts of ARTS and TRADES,

I writ the needles prayse (that never fades)

So long as children shall be got or borne,

So long as garments shall be made or worne,

So long as Hemp or flax or Sheep shall bear

their linnen woollen fleeces yeare by yeare:

So long as Silk-wormes, with exhausted spoile,

Of their own Entrailes for man's gaine shall toyle:

yea till the world be quite dissolv'd and past;

So long at least, the Needles use shall last.

JOHN TAYLOR, London 1640

Yarn!

2006-01-20T19:38:00.000-05:00

Today I discovered Fiberge, an absolutely wonderful yarn store not far from where I live. I was in utter yarn heaven...I got materials to make a few larger projects I've been wanting to do, some excellent bamboo straight US 8 needles, and a totally gratuitous purchase of Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca Brush, which I keep assuring myself I'll use as trim on something. If I can stop petting it...

Why I dig crafts, and the runestone project

2006-01-17T23:35:00.000-05:00

There's something about crafting--especially when it's something really functional--that makes me feel like I'm on a level with some primitive culture. When I make a sheet of paper, I'm in the same place as the first Egyptian to discover what papyrus could do. When I put a book together with coptic binding, I'm working alongside medival scribes. When I knit something, I'm with an old woman sitting next to a fire in a small house on the Scottish coast two hundred years ago. It makes me feel like I'm a part of history, and that I'm carrying on these ancient traditions, working with my hands, bucking the system of mass-production.

Some people do it for art. I do it because I'm a raging dork.

Lately I've been making runestones with Sculpey. The Sculpey I got was white, so I decided to just paint my first batch. Three days later, I'm still trying to get that damn sixth coat on so they actually look covered.

So I tried a different approach--blending the paint in directly with the clay before sculpting. I was advised by the lovely folks at Craftster that it's a good idea to let Sculpey + acrylic paint sit out overnight. The water in the paint needs some chance to evaporate. So I went off to bed last night, after making this:

When I went to mold it today, the clay was super-stiff and I had to knead it quite a bit to get it to be responsive. On the upside, it held shapes much better and it was easier to move it around and not get fingerprints on it. After baking and a layer of Mod Podge, I ended up with these lovely amethyst-looking stones.

Welcome to my blog!

2006-01-16T18:12:00.000-05:00

I've finally realized that I have so many craft projects in so many different areas, it's high time to start an all-crafts blog. So here it is... Enjoy.