Craft Enabled, Domestically Disabled

The Dissent collar

Followup from here.

I had to design my own since I didn't really like any of the patterns I saw. It got a little weird, I guess. I was working from this photo.

1. Chain 40 sts for ties, place marker, chain 70 for middle, place marker, then chain 40 again. 
2. Ch 1, sc for 40 sts, then dc for 70 sts, then sc for 40 sts, cut yarn.
3. Reattach yarn approximately 12 dc  sts into the chain, then make dc's for 46 sts, turn. 
4. Chain 13. Do 3 sc in the next chain from the hook, then 1 sc in each chain down to the bottom of the chain, do one more sc into the neckline. Turn, sc in each st back in the other direction until the last st, then do 3 sc into the last stitch and then slip stitch into the other stitch next to it at the top. Then slip stitch back along the line you just crocheted to get back to the neckline again. 
5. Chain 15, otherwise do the same as the last row. 
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for 22 more times, for a total of 24 dangling bits. 
7. Sew each dangling chain to the next chain. Press the edges up against each other and sew back and forth under them, pushing the edges up so that the edges are raised up to make a ribbed sort of look. 

Comes out looking about like this. Forgive the lighting issues of ah, photographing black on black.

As for the beads: I didn't have anything that really looked like rhinestones around the house (or at least, not that many of them), so I ended up doing my own thing and raiding a large bin of glittery pastel-ish beads I had around the house. I sewed on 5-7 beads or so per each section and then sewed beads around the collar.

Here's a photo of it on. I'm so sick of looking at my sad pandemic hair, so here is an awesome purple wig instead:

And thus endeth the RBG Collar Series, I suspect. I've got all her signature ones now.

If I bother to dress up for Halloween (I did not make a costume this year, for obvious reasons) I will probably be either RBG or Gert from Runaways with this wig. 

Another Ruth Bader Ginsburg collar

Someone designed a "Majority Opinion" collar (original seen here). 

The pattern is originally designed to be started around a gold chain with big links, which I did not have around the house. I ended up crocheting it and then sewing on random beads to it, and I found some random gold necklace in the bottom of my beads, folded it over, and sewed it to the neckline.

I think it's kinda semi-hideous, actually (using random beads is pretty weird), but what the heck.

I don't know if I'll do a "Dissent" one or not, I sort of feel obligated to once I did two collars, but I don't really like it very much? 

My second gallery show is now online

Rainbow of Chaos.

 

Hawaiian presents

We are going to Kauai this year for Christmas, so I figured I would make appropriate gifts.

Milagros

So while I was on vacation I bought a metric asston of charms related to the move I am planning to make next September. I'm still trying to get used to the idea of the whole thing, so I was going to make a bracelet to replace one I'd lost in August.

And I did...but honestly, putting it on was like wearing a freaking porcupine. Memory wire bracelets probably should not be massive charm bracelets. So it didn't seem right to me, but I didn't know what else I wanted to do with all of those charms.

Then while at a liquidation book sale (sigh) this weekend, I found a book: Crafts for the Spirit: 30 Beautiful Projects to Enhance Your Personal Journey. And it had an idea for a travel altar with beads and charms hanging off of it. That combined with me going to a Day of the Dead exhibit that night and I thought, "milagros! That's what all these charms are anyway, really."

What are those? Here's a good explanation.

"As part of a religious ritual or an act of devotion, milagros can be offered to a saint as a reminder of a petitioner’s particular need. They are normally placed by worshipers onto altars, religious shrines and on sacred objects. They are used to assist in focusing attention towards a specific ailment, based on the type of charm used. They are also offered as thanks for answered prayers, so that others can receive the benefits for their own ailments or needs. Milagros come in many shapes, each shape representing one or more needs or prayers."

That sounded about right.

So I went to the dollar store, where I found a small wooden oval with a hanger attached. I cut out some fabric and sewed it to the wood around the edges (note: you can't do the usual "sew it inside out and flip it" with wood), then ended up sewing lace around the edges to cover up my bad sewing. And then I sewed my entire freaking charm collection to the new portable shrine.

I think I'll hang it up at work.

 

Working on my Halloween costume

This is what it looks like so far. Ish.

Giant Hawaiian Flower Bling!

I found a metric asston of awesome resin flowers at about three bead stores in Arizona (I'm on vacation and doing tons of bead shopping), and HOLY COW THAT WAS AWESOME. I last found/used up a stash of these in 2004 or so, so I'm very excited about this. I love to layer flower upon flower, like this.

But how do you get this awesome layered garden effect in jewelry? I found a solution...

I did THIS out of memory wire and beads.

About 9 inches of green is between each layer of flowers.

It's rather complicated to put on, but looks awesome.

 

The state of the crafting today

It's not good.

My show is down, sigh, but at least it lives on online.

The peacock jacket is maybe 70% done, which is awesome. I have about 5-6 more inches to add to the back feathers, then I'll start in on the crochet bits. However, the project is too darned large to haul around in public to work on any more, which means I am not getting much done on it. Even worse, I now have a giant online problem (I have a billion posts saved in Bloglines) that has to be taken care of by October 1, so every single moment at home is saving documents before they get deleted....argh. So I'm not even working on it at home now either.

As for my "portable" project, Version 2.0 of the Saturday In The Park Dress.... I am going to have to utterly frog it. Not because the knitting is not going well, but because the yarn I bought for it on vacation is just fucking awful. People gripe about my usual Caron Simply Soft sagging a bit--and it does, don't get me wrong-- but this Dark Horse stuff? I tried the dress on and the neckline had sagged down to the bottom of my boobs. WHAT THE HELL? (Also, the gauge on it was so weird that I had to make it in really large needles, which were making it even floppier, I swear.)

Now I am debating whether or not to go back to making the dress in the old yarn I bought it in, which is firm and pretty, but unsoft and not suitable for warm weather. (Not that we have any of that any more after this summer, so does it matter any more?). *sigh* I am so irritated. I don't have in person access to Quality Yarn (except on vacation, and guess how that went), plus that costs a bundle when you like to make stuff that needs 1200+ yards, but... DAMMIT.

I really suspect that those two projects (this one and the #12 skirt) are just so cursed that I shouldn't bother to try to make them, somehow.

Though I have good news: Beadstrology.com exists, and I have gone out and bought the supplies to make an astrological necklace now. Something to cheer me up in the days of crafting gone bad...

My online gallery of my show is finally up.

I swear, I've been Photoshopping this ALL WEEK.

And here you go. It's just like walking through the thing in person!

Jewelry I made lately