Craft Enabled, Domestically Disabled

Costume reference post 2.

Also under the cut.

Costume reference post 1.

Saving these pictures under a cut so I can explain them to others later:

Agata sweater

I had this lovely pastel yarn I got at a yarn swap that I didn't quite have enough to put into a full sweater, so I combined two different color-changing yarns to make this one. 

Pattern found here, but I did several customizations.

1.Took out the buttonholes because they just plain Looked Bad. I had to sew them closed and I guess I'll use a shawl pin. Also made the arm ribbing a lot shorter and tapered the sleeves for similar reasons.

2. Added ribbing on the bottom of the sweater because I still had some of the pastel yarn left and I wanted to use as much of it as I could.

3. I REALLY sized down the sides--they're only about 7 inches wide--because otherwise it looked like it'd come out really huge. Trust me, it's big enough already.

4. I added pockets for the phone. I sewed them so that the hands can go in sideways and it holds the phone in there a bit better. They close on the top, two full sides and leave one side half open for hands. 

I belong in Anatevka

I've been doing set painting again.

"Hi, aren't i the one who does signs around here?" Why yes, yes I am. 

I also did more "weathering" on the  door frame. Everything else I painted wasn't that interesting in this one.

Western Wrap, finished

Continued from here. (I left off the fringe, obviously.)

I started this on January 19, so 22 days, though some days I didn't work on it. A ridiculously fast project, love it. I had so much fun with all the different colors of yarn. 

The fun thing about this is that I can wrap it/pin it on in both directions. A friend also suggested that I could just have them out as giant lapels as well. 

Updated later: I have added rainbow heart buttons along the shoulders (thanks so much to Mary Moore for the positioning of these!) so I can just pin them on instead of juggling two shawl pins. It's a little awkward, but overall works. 

 

A cool fashion exhibit I saw.

Just wanted to repost this over here for people to look at. Not my crafts, but still fun.

In progress mixed balls of yarn project

Awhile back I saw a cool-ly shaped sweater. I liked the diagonal look of it specifically. 

Unfortunately, it was offered on Temu. And ONLY on Temu. I couldn't, i just couldn't. I spent a few months trying to find anything similar enough to that style to make myself.

The closest I got was Western Wrap on Ravelry.

I also keep wanting to do projects with balls of yarn around the house--or frankly, random small balls of yarn I picked up at the yarn swap last weekend. So instead of following the stripe pattern, I've been combining balls of yarn. First green mixed with blue, then blue mixed with purple, then purple mixed with blue. Pink is up next eventually.

Here's a sample of the first bunch of rows. 

And with more colors added in.

Here's the front right side of it so far. 

Probably needs more blocking later, but I'm happy with the color blends here.

Mermaids

Unfortunately I am STILL STUCK HAVING TO MAKE GIFTS because somebody is having an ocean-themed birthday in early January. Hence, last minute mermaid making. Seriously, I am tired, I am sick of amigurumi (I note I said this to a friend last night and she was all, "me too,") and I am DONE WITH MAKING PREZZIES FOR AWHILE. This is the last bit of any of this for 2023, y'all.

I was making this unicorn mermaid pattern, which I found online. However, it's originally in Spanish and frankly, I think there were some issues with Google Translate. Honestly, I'm not sure if it's my own mental breakdown/brain-deadedness going on, or translation issues, or both, but I redid the head four freaking times and I never got it to come out looking like the pattern and had to make my own nose snout for it instead because it was not shaping correctly. Also I used up the last of my safety eyes in this size and apparently there are none to be found anywhere in my region because safety eyes haven't been shipped to any craft stores for weeks, so I had to improvise. (The only ones I found were put in the tiny mermaid below.) 

But hey, it's done...and then I was told birthday girl wants an Ariel. 

Frankly, this isn't my best work, but I am tired and brain dead and I needed an easy pattern to follow (Ravelry link). I improvised the hair and bra. 

NEWS sweater

Here's my last project of 2023, just in under the wire.

Back at the last Stitches, I took a class in Lily Chin's "NEWS" sweater, which is a way to put together a sweater out of whatever yarn you have around the house. You're not supposed to really disclose how it's done, but essentially you make a front and back panel, then pick up stitches on the sides, then get to the sleeves. My sample sweater in class, a tiny one, can be found here. 

I needed something ... not taxing on the brain... to make and finally got around to trying this with leftover balls of yarn around the house. You make a front panel and a back panel, the latter of which is about an inch longer (though frankly, this one can go either way), then pick up stitches on the sides to put it together, I did a little crochet around the neck for a few rows to tighten that up/finish the edges.

The sleeves are where I had trouble since my instructions seemed to pretty much work for the tiny sample sweater and not exactly for actual human body and arms. I ended up binding off on the edges and then doing most of the sleeves back and forth decreasing per the pattern, but then it really shortened the length of the sweater and I had to add on four more inches at the bottom so it didn't come out a weird crop top. 

u

Honestly, it's kinda weird/hideous but also sorta works for me?  The yellow really ties most of the yarns together (except for where I had to fill in at the bottom edges with a yarn that was close to the others but had no yellow). 

I can't even open my eyes in pictures or brush my hair any more. Depression and very little sleep for the last 2 months--I've slept more than 8 hours about 4 days out of 60 of late and usually it's about 2-5 hours a day if I'm lucky--will do that, I suppose. I'm out of resources and ability to pose pretty. Oh well. 

Snowflake

I was going to do this in full force, bigger, but my brain is dead and I cannot. Also I really hate working with tiny crochet thread, but it came out too big if I used bigger yarn. I give up. 

This is the last Christmas gift I make for the season, I've had enough. I had to make gifts this year due to "I'm going to lose my job next year" issues, but also my job has psychologically FRIED ME and frankly, making anything semi-complicated was difficult. 

On a related note: NYT: The Emotional Gamble of a Hand-Knitted Gift Knitting scarves, sweaters and other presents can take a lot of time, money and energy. But there can also be a deeper cost: hurt feelings.