Okay, so I said from the beginning that drawing every day was my #1 goal and posting said drawings each day was goal #2. Well, I stuck with the #1 and kept drawing even though I wasn’t posting them. Sorry for the mass post here, but it’s with good reason. I started and finished and submitted a new piece for the Beyond Audubon juried show in Chicago. It’s at the Women Made Gallery. I’m pretty excited because I just learned about it a week and a half ago and was able to get something together for it in just 9 days. Here is a little sneak peek of the piece:

Once I find out if I’m in or not I’ll show the full thing. I really feel like even if I don’t get in, it’s still a huge step forward in the right direction for me. I’ve never gone through “official” channels when it comes to juried shows. I’ve always just been invited or asked to submit something knowing that it would be included. Which I suppose is a good sign.

I guess I’m just curious if my work on its own will stand up and be included. If not, that’s fine. In my mind this project is already a success because I finished and submitted it in time (barely, but in time).

The next show I’m submitting to is a low pressure show with no entry fee and no jury. Everyone get in. I like those odds.

Anyway, more drawings tomorrow!

Kristin

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collaging with fabric,

and combining that annoying curling ribbon we all use with yarn to make a knit basket that actually stands up straight and a market bag that won’t stretch down to your knees after a few uses.

I’m so excited and thrilled and relieved and filled with joy to birth this beast out into the world. It was of course about triple the work either of us anticipated with many bumps, bruises and swearing (at least on my end) to get it finished. And I’m so happy we did! Because. It. Is. Awesome!

I’m going to be totally conceded here and say that this is the sweetest ebook ever…. okay I can’t be that conceded because I totally loved Knitting Game by Lee and Diane’s Craft Blog series of ebooks. How about I say that this is just one more awesome ebook in a long line of awesome ebooks put out by the newly annointed authority on crafty ebooks: CraftyPod Publishing!

It was so wonderful working with Diane, she was great to throw ideas around with, she was a great editor, she’s a wonderful friend and inspiration!

You can pick up this awesome beast of a craft ebook in the CraftyPod Publishing Shop starting now!

And if you order it between now and Friday 12th, 11:59pm – you will get a pretty sweet chance at winning one of these DecoArt paint sets.

Hooray! The first Craft Leftovers Ebook Card.Paper.Ribbon. is now out Today!

Happy Crafting and making and being creative!

Kristin Roach

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Hey, today is day 20 with no misses. I’m on the cusp of three weeks. I think I can keep this up no problem.

I cleaned up my home studio area this morning and started work on Beef it’s what’s for dinner (food chain series) piece again. I love that steer and it’s about time I finish up the crochet component. I finished the first round of single crochet through all the outline stitching and started on the second. It’s going to be an interesting challenge increasing correctly so a steer outline goes into a lacy rectangle. I love the way it’s looking. I’ll take a picture and share when I get a few more rows done.

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All that lovely tape, scissors, rulers, and other little tools. Ahhh… and  a few momentoes: the Editor’s Choice ribbon from the Maker Faire this past summer, a sewn heart from a Craft Leftovers reader, my flexie pink panther, and my synchronized sewing squad dog tag, haha. 

Here is the under drawing for the next painting in my Driving Midwest series. It’s finally back on track now that my studio is set up. I’m so happy to be painting again.

Jason was snapping photos kind of randomly to get the camera set up for a wedding shoot tomorrow. I kind of liked this one. It’s me working in the evening at my new desk. I had just finished the cover for the Holiday issue of Craft Leftovers Monthly (due for release November 15th).

And lastly, I’m teaching a workshop on crocheted snowflakes next month. I’ve started crocheting and blocking them up like a storm. A flurry of crochet activity so to speak. It’s been a lot of fun and I’m blazing through my stash of crochet thread — finally.

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Well, I’ve had quite a huge pile of wips building up over the last 6 months and I decided to go through my yarn ones today and try to figure out my plan of attack – getting them finished up and out of the basket so I can start wearing them around.

It’s funny that I said on Tuesday that a lot of my projects I couldn’t show you because after taking a seriously look I realize I have a ton just in the “yarn” genre, haha. The truth is what I’m Currently working on I can’t show you, but that doesn’t mean I can’t show you what I was working on before I dropped everything to work on the “current” projects. Soon to be finished I can’t wait to get started back on my mission of using up stash and finishing my wips!

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These two scarves just need their ends woven in and some fringe added to the top one – which makes me think I should do a little tutorial on an easy way to make fringe for your scarves. And then block them after that and they will be all set.

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I started these socks in… oh… February. It took me forever to get the first 4 inches done on the first one, then I blazed through to where I am now in like 2 weeks, then put them up for a bit because of working on a top secret project that I can’t tell you about until the winter – but that is worth it and I’ll be shipping it out of here next week and I am happy for that. I want to get on with other yarnie projects These will be high on the list to finish because they are sooooooo warm and yummy and I want them all set for the fall. They are made from ultra fine alpaca, yum yum yum. This is my take everywhere/when I get sick of what I should be working on/when i get stuck on what I’m working on project too, so it should finish up quickly once I get going on it again next week.

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I went on a Market Bag making craze a few months ago when I wrote up a pattern – yet to be edited and released to the general public (does anyone want to test crochet it? I’m sure it has some awesome mind blowing errors, haha). Anyway, after crochet 3 of them, this one got a little stuck on the hook. I’ll be picking it back up and finishing it soon though. It’s a great pattern because instead of expanding down, it expands out – really great for holding veggies and books and lettuce and yarn! I’m using up some stash yarn and really should have because I need a little more to finish this project:

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The Compost Critters from the January issue of clm – you can get a copy here. I really love these guys, so much so I want a pair for myself. I just need to finish the second one and all be all set. Another one of those patterns that I want to finish so I’ll be prepared for winter.

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This is another one where I made it as a pattern and then wanted one for myself. It was the Blue Filegree Hat in the Winter/Spring issue of Knit Scene. This is the first one I made that was sent off to the magazine:

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Another clm pattern I wanted for myself in the end. It has cables on both sides and is knit with the Green Prairie Fibers dk weight merino. I love the way this yarn is knittng up and can’t wait to get this finished for myself. Oh it was in the April issue of Craft Leftovers Monthly.

This scarf has been a labor of love – it’s a 27 row lace chart worked in mohair – yikes! It’s super soft and blocks out beautifully. I’m hoping to have it done for a Christmas present to someone who doesn’t know it’s them yet. It is about 1000 yards of yarn though and will be a beautiful stole. Once finished and pictures taken, I’m going to sell the pattern as a kit in the Green Prairie Fibers shop. It’s been on hold for quite awhile, but I’m going to start work on it again this month once I clear out a few of the above patterns that will be quick finishes.

This is a little something something for me. I needed something completely different to work on from time to time when I was feeling mad with working on the same project. I work on it on breaks and before bed. It’s the short and sweet shrug from the Happy Hooker. I’m going to make a it a little longer than the pattern calls for and wear it with tank tops and jeans. It only takes 3 skeins of cotton fleece and I just happened to have these three skeins in my stash from forever ago. Perfect!

And now for some handspun. I took a spinning class last fall and Rosemary let me hold on to the wheel to continue spinning until she taught the next class. Here are some of my spinning attempts:

That purple is actually some roving I dyed up myself. I really like the way it turned out.

I dyed the yarn on the right with walnuts. I love that pale tan. I’m not sure what I’m going to knit with this, but I think I place these two yarns together.

And for random measure, here is a temari ball I’m working on as a christmas present to myself for our tree:

So, plan of attack. I’m going to finish all the things that just need finishing first – like weaving in ends and blocking. Then I’m going to start work next on all the things that are over half way finished – the compost critters, the lacy waves socks, and the market bag. Then on to my ideal of having two projects to work on – one that’s a no brainer (short and sweet and then the cabled scarf) and something that’s high concentration – winter midnight lace scarf.

I’m happy to report too that the last yarn I bought was for those socks up there – except in san francisco I did buy two skeins of bulky brushed cotton, forgot about that. Okay so I’ve only bought two skeins of yarn in the last 7 months. I’ve been steadily finishing what was on my needles and hooks pre 2009 and working almost exclusively from my stash. And I have to say it feels awesome. I was actually able to consolidate the other day and now all my craft leftover yarn (all my stray bits) + yarn for kits fits into one bin. All my stash yarn fits in another bin. Then I have one other rubbermaid for yarn for kits. This is a huge improvement for me.

I think I’m going to make Thursday my check in day and whatever else I post about I will also post about my stash busting/project finishing progress. It will be good for me I think. It will help me to finish what I’ve started

And speaking of kit yarn, that reminds me. I have a whole ton of new kits made up to add to the shop and they will be going in over the weekend and to kick off new stock I’m going to have a big sale to try to destash some older kits. The sale will be from Monday morning to Saturday, August 1st. I’ll be adding new things each day, but everything that will be marked down, will be marked down by Monday.

Okay, and with that I’m heading out. I need to eat some food… lunch? I don’t know, breakfast was at like noon so I guess it’s lunch time now. Ha!

Happy Crafting!
Kristin

ps – I posted this on CL today, but I wanted to post it here too. And I wanted to let you know I’m alive and well and will start up with regular posting, well, today! I’ll see you again tomorrow. I’m happy that I have gotten quite a few deadlines and obligations out of the way.

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I used some doll rod scraps from another project to make some charcoal for myself. I haven’t drawn with it yet though, but my test marks seem very nice.

I also used a reject whittled crochet hook too – the funnest piece of charcoal ever!

And then here is some more – skewers and sticks:

I’ll be adding a tutorial on how to make your own charcoal as well as some instructions on drawing with charcoal in the August issue of Craft Leftovers Monthly. It’s going to be a great issue all about drawing – my favorite thing ever!

And speaking of drawing and loving it – I’ll be back tomorrow morning with a drawing daily post. Last week was an insanely irregular waking up schedule and I’m hopeful that I will be back to my regular routine starting tomorrow morning.

Oh and some random good news – I have my first Ames area show of paintings semi scheduled for October! I’ve started stretching canvas and finished gessoing my first. I’m going to work on the under drawing tonight so I’ll have pictures of that in the morning too.

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And in other news, I just rerelased the springy crochet headwrap on Craft Leftovers Today:

Hello there! Don’t I feel fancy. You can check out the post here and download the full pattern for free. There is a $1 suggested donation if you make it and love it.

See you all in the morning! Have a great night!

Kristin

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Two great things today! First, was the first class of a three part class on making a sun hat out of raffia – working with raffia being the primary focus of the class. It’s a challenge, but it’s fun and I love the way it looks crocheted up.

Second is that for the very first time I’m offering a pattern for sale in the Green Prairie Fibers Shop – That same crocheted sun hat. It has instructions for working with raffia and of couse, the pattern for the hat pictured above. The pattern is just $3 too. It works up in about 8-10 hours depending on how quickly the raffia will work for you.

Take a look at all the details and some extra photos in the shop.

I can’t wait for my Thursday volunteer day at the garden, I’m sure my hat will be the envy of everyone – well, not really, but that’s okay, Jason told me it looks really cute so that’s good enough for me.

You can see what other classes I’m teaching here, on the Classes Page of the site. And you can sign up for any of them by calling the Rose Tree Fiber Shop or emailing me at kristinmroach [at] gmail [dot] com .

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Tomorrow my friend Christina is coming over to paint. I can’t wait! We are going to do some still life paintings and just hang out. It’s going to be such fun!

-K

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I really like cows and steers – they are just really interesting creatures – so I decided to draw a frontal skeleton view. I cut one long piece of scrap museum board in half and taped it together with artist tape on the back (to be later taken apart and hung separately).

While sharpening my pencils I decided to sharpen them over the museum board. Then using a soft water color brush I brushed the shavings with a light coating of water and then water mixed with white acrylic paint. That was the wash I used for the ground of the piece.

From there it was just doing a little drawing and then a little painting over the top. I went with monocromatic because I really felt like it. Just the sudle pinks from the pencil shavings poking through was enough.

I knew from the start I wanted to play around with stitching and crochet in this piece. I figured it would just be a hodge podge of trying things out. After finishing the painted component – or at least up to the point it needed to be I started thinking about how steers are such a weird paradox of corn and beef and being in Iowa and that whole food chain issue and here I was chaining directly into a steer. I know that it’s a pun pretty much, but I kind of like that. And in many ways, crochet is the ultimate handmade because it can’t be commercially reproduced. And when the piece is done it won’t just be a little flag of crochet, it will be a full out lacey netting eveloping most of the painting and connecting the two panels together. I really like how this project has grown in content and concept very organically from that original impulse to draw pictures of a steer.

I’m hoping that by next thursday’s sketch challenge I will have it all finished up.

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This is the start of the second market bag. I am feeling pretty good about this pattern as I am taking detailed notes and typing it up as I go along. I should be able to get this done tomorrow I think.

Here are my worsted socks in all their in progress unblocked glory. As I’m sitting here I’m thinking to myself, geeze those would be nice to have on. My feet are cold!

And here is Jason’s mittens that I’ve been working on all winter. I feel guilty that I don’t have them finished yet. I wanted to have them done by Christmas, but I was working too much to allow it. At least he will have a nice pair to look forward to this fall.

I am in the process of updating my ravelry project and stash page. I think it might help me get a handle on things. I cleaned up my studio last night, really organized and went through things and I realized that I have litereally a whole box of yarn that I really don’t care to ever knit or crochet with. I’m not sure what to do about it. My Craft Leftovers asthetic tells me there is a project perfect for every yarn, but honestly, I’m just sick of it. Like I’ve knit with as much as I can and I’m just tired of the colors and such.

I have a whole bag of vintage mohair and I really, well, I don’t like mohair. There. I said it. It’s itchy and hairy and sheds those itchy hairy hairs everywhere. I’m sure I’m just having an oversight that can’t think of something nice. I can think of things that would look nice, but feel nice is a different story. Seriously? do you have an idea for it? I’m okay with Mohair blends – like Lamb’s Pride is nice – but this is 100% and from the 80′s – so not so soft and wonderful as some of today’s mohair yarns. Hmm. I should just make that my next challenge for myself. What to do with 6 skeins of mohair I don’t particularly care for. Oh and they are black, tan, and mustard yellow. I would say little cute striped mohair cropped sweater…. maybe… maybe I could wear a fitted long sleeve t under it? I don’t know, what are your thoughts on mohair?

Okay. I need to get out of here and run to the post office (hooray- 2 orders to send out today) and grocery store and then to teach beginning crochet at the Rose Tree. Busy busy busy – I love it!

See you all later!
Kristin

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I’m going to be teaching a class on how to make a crocheted market bag – this crocheted market bag. It was originally done with aloo yarn, and so I needed to make sure the pattern would work for other yarns that were readily available. I worked on this most of yesterday (on and off between the posting and whatnot and even mentioned needing to work on it in yesterday’s post). I ripped and recrocheted just about every phase of the bag. And you know what? I love it! I love having the time to fiddle and prefect and in the process of that I came up with a great idea! And that’s the way studio work, well, works! For me an idea leads to the process of making the idea a reality and then during the process (no matter the medium) I get better, stronger, ideas for the project I’m working on. And that takes time to see those new ideas through. And in this case I have that time and I’m so happy for it!

So here is the plan:

This will be the first version of a 3 part crocheted market bag. It’s made with cestari yarn (heather collection – color mint- looks light blue to me).  Think choose your own adventure. Select your bottom, middle, top, and strap. The middle part will range from easy to hard (chain st to lace chart).

I’ll have the pattern finished and written up and for sale in the green prairie fibers shop by mid april if not sooner.

and it will be free with the purchase of aloo yarn – because that’s the yarn the first one was made with

I’m working on the second version in hempathy. I’m not sure what I’ll work the third version in. I have some hemp for knitting yarn around here that might work, or some orangy cotton/linen/tencel yarn that might work too. Hmm. Maybe I will go with that because it would be fun and summery. We will see. I do know I’m having a ton of fun making these bags. I’ve listed this one up on Ravelry and will do the same for the others.

Another pattern in the works is some worsted weight winter ankle booties – this will go up on Craft Leftovers next week I think.

I’m also working on a project for knitty.com, but that’s completely under wraps -shhhhhhhh- until they decide to publish or not publish it.

In general I’m kind of stuck on sock knitting and crocheting market bags. I’m almost done with the cabled mittens for a friend of mine though so I think I’ll be able to send them out tomorrow (here that Emily? Hooray! almost finished )

Oh and one other thing. Tonight Jason is going to help me retrofit (am I using this word right?) my utility shelf to hold flats of seeds and grow lights! I’ll post pictures of that tomorrow. In March clm I talked all about how to test seed for fertility so I’m going to go through that process this week. I’ll be starting my seeds next week.

Okay, enough of this, time for lunch and then some more cleaning (if I’m sacrificing a shelf in my utility shelf, well, I need to find a place to put all that stuff).

I’ll pop back in later. I’m having fun posting again. It’s nice to have time for these things again.

++ Kristin ++

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