ghana glam

Using these easy instructions, I made these earrings (+ some other pairs) using beads handmade in Ghana, plus some little blue ones I had from a stretched-out bracelet.






. . .

the truth-telling bradley turns 41

And gets a birthday present:





If you give them cuffs, they should fit bottles too.


Evidently the tabs on MHL cans are not similarly situated w/r/2 the can design. Fascinating. So much to learn about the high life.

. . .

DMB+MR 5/24/09

DMB & MR (got married and) received some nuptial napkins (I hope I'm not ruining the surprise here people) on Sunday.


A few notable new design elements for ACMcS Napkins Co. include: one set/different fabrics (this one is my favorite);


color-coordinated thread (this is a lemon yellow, tho it appears white);


the doubled hemline;


and (a new skill and part of the reason for dreaming up the doubled hemline), attempts at mitered corners.


Here's an member of an older set I've been visiting in Boston for the past few days:

Hand-sewn, wider hems, and brains!
. . .

six years in the making

No real excuses for the time it took, but at least it's done: voila, Mark & Amy's wedding quilt.


It's a quilt based on Hegel's philosophy (of course). Here's the diagram: link.

Click on the timestamp of this post for more pictures.

The System of the Universe:


Philosophy of the Classical Antiquity: the Ancient Greeks (apparently I didn't take photos of the rest of the Philosophy of the Classical Antiquity):


Detail where I succumbed to embroidery. I now note there's an M (upside down) right there.


World History:


The Judgment:

The Syllogism:


The title:


Wouldn't rotate for some reason:


Wedding date (yes, 5 years ago):





The quilt back, kind of wrinkly, but done, anyway:


. . .

too long

For some reason I have stopped taking photos and posting to this blog. So I will now attempt to rectify that. I like photos. I should take them. So here are a few from the past few weeks in reverse chronological order.

I made this hat for one of my colleagues at work. It is a great, rich brown color and I can't remember any more details than that. It is all ribs (k3, p2) has a cool decreasing sequence not particularly evident here but clear in the pictures with the pattern. Here's the pattern.





This past weekend, MLKJDay, and Inauguration Day were spent with my brother, his wife, and their dog. Once again, few photos were taken, but here's my brother with his wovel.



LTM in his Xmas apron. The apron was constructed according to this terrific pattern. The ties are adjustable so it should fit all manner of folks. I have no idea where the fabric is from--I just found it in one of my overflowing tubs. The green is a heavyweight and the blue/white used to be a tablecloth. Now it comprises the tie and the somewhat haphazard decorative patches.



Here, cutting up the best duck I've ever eaten.


Two weekends ago, SAH (I think those are her initials? hmm, can't remember), ARP and I attended the Benson Bunnies/Omaha North Vikings high school basketball game. The Bunnies and the Vikings are big rivals, I'm told. The Bunnies did well in the first quarter, and although their play deteriorated a lot in the following 3, they still managed to pull out a win. No doubt, I am obsessed with the fact that they are called the Bunnies. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of the t-shirts that said, in scary font, BEWARE THE HARE.

The Runnin' Rabbits:


Bunny Pride:


SAH and ARP:


The tough-guy strangely-dressed-like-Rocky Bunny mascot:


Home of the Bunnies:


My brother's Xmas present. The pattern, modified in length and width for a tall, broad-shouldered guy, is Elizabeth Zimmermann's Ribwarmer. The yarn is Paton's Classic Wool Aran. This is the first time I've knitted an attached i-cord border and I think it worked out pretty well. I still need some practice in joining the end to the beginning. I attached an old tag with his name on it that I found in one of my mother's sewing boxes and would have posted a picture of it here, except, well, it has his name on it. It was also my first time blocking something and I wonder how people do it without getting those little waves where the pins are. They are especially noticeable along the bottom.



The Mystic Valley Band, my new officemates:



In other news, I have a terrific new roommate. Perhaps she too will appear here soon.

. . .

spray painting is more exhausting than you might think

. . .

hiatus

After a 3.5 year law-school lacuna, I have returned to a project started in the fall of 2003. There are others, I'm sure, but this one had the most done and took up the most mental and physical space. It will be good to get it done. I hope to have it done by the end of the week. But right now it's time to drink a Shiner Bock.

. . .

project questions

SKP writes, enthusiastically: How did you make the lampshade??? just by covering the existing, ugly one?? I, too, need a cute lampshade!!!

I writes: I thought about covering the old lampshade but I didn't like how it changed the color of the light that came through (it was rather yellowy). So I xacto-knifed the shade off its metal pieces. There's one metal circle at the top with three arms that reach down to a small ring that is put on a post on the top of the lamp and is held on by another little metal bit that screws down on top of it. Then the bottom piece of the shade was just another metal ring. At first I tried to make wire struts between the two rings so that I would have a shape to stretch the fabric over, but that didn't work--it was too hard to make the things the same size and they wouldn't hang straight (I suspect the wire was not of a heavy enough gauge). So then I just decided to let the fabric hold its own shape. I looped the top of the fabric around the top ring and sewed it down, then looped the bottom of the fabric around the bottom ring and sewed it down. The bottom ring serves as a weight and pulls the shade into the right shape. It's kind of hard to explain, really--when I do the next one, I'll take more in-progress pictures, if you want. It was a pain because the bottom ring has a slightly larger diameter. Also, I think I might add some white interfacing to the inside because the fabric is too transparent--the lightbulb's too bright, and you can see all my seams. I didn't have enough fabric to do it all in one piece, hence the strip at the bottom that goes in another direction--that bottom strip is actually composed of three different pieces. It's hard to make the fabric exactly the right size, if you're making it out of pieces. It doesn't hang quite straight everywhere.

And Angela writes: what is that bag made of?

I writes: The bag of bags is made of bags, that's the beauty of it. I cut up brightly colored plastic bags into strips and then knit them into a ... bag!

-Over and out-
. . .

presto chango

You may remember this ugly lamp:


It now looks like this:






I experimented with a few other fabrics for the lampshade, and I still have to do the second (identical lamp). If you have a preference, please let me know. Here are some of the others I tried out:










This one would be composed of several different pieces of cloth:




. . .