Native American Summer

I've been a bad blogger! It's this hot weather, it makes me lazy! Not only have I not been blogging, I haven't been doing as much crafting either. I've really slacked off on my books. I've made some buttons, because those are a little less time consuming, and more knitting. Actually, I'm more excited about knitting than I have been in a long time. While I was in Sacramento, my mom showed me real quick how to crochet, which is something I've been meaning to learn forever. I love granny squares! I think I might also be ready to try to learn to knit in the round again. I want to make tote bags, and I really want to make a crazy quilt, to use up my stash. The other thing I would like to do is make hats and blankets for charity. If that is something that interests you, here is a link to some programs in the San Francisco area http://www.imagiknit.com/charity.html from one of my favorite yarn shops in the city.

I went to the art store today, which was actually kind of embarrassing because I had just been there yesterday and I saw the same people working there, and I don't really know why that is embarrasing, but it is. I was picking up some drawing fluid and screen filler. I had read about tusche in this really cool old screenprinting book that Steve got me for my birthday, and I thought it sounded like a clean, easy way to make screenprinting screens. Unfortunately, tusche is hard to find, and when you can find it, it's pretty expensive. Today I was looking at the Make It! blog and she was talking about drawing fluid, which I had never heard of before. I looked it up and wikipedia and, ta da! it is like an even cleaner, more modern type of tusche! I am really excited to try it out. My adventures in screenprinting so far have been more like misadventures.

I have to work on my homework before it's time for pub quiz. I have to draw one room in my house in partial blind contour. Ugh. I hope it takes less than an hour.

mel

Adventures in Knitting

Oof, it was really hot the last few days. It's been making me super sleepy. Too sleepy to work on books and too sleepy to blog. I've taken up a bit of knitting again, because it is a more lying down friendly activity. I'm making someone a birthday present! and it is coming along much more quickly than I had expected. I always forget how much fun knitting is when I don't do it for a while.

Yesterday I was in the Etsy forums looking for some advice on how to better my cruddy pictures. As expected, everyone was super helpful. But I tried a makeshift light tent, and I tried natural light, but still nothing was really working out for me. I think I need to get some of those clip on lamps. I did get a few that I think turned out ok:

This is a book I made out of a Bay City Rollers record cover that Steve got for me at Goodwill. These guys really liked plaid, they were fully decked out in it, and, guess what? turns out they're from Scotland! Unfortunately, they were not that cute so I had to feature their awesome kicks instead of them.

These are some buttons I made out of an old First Aid book, also purchased at Goodwill. Graphic, aren't they? I made nine buttons like these, all from the wounds section of the book. There are so many more awesome illustrations, just waiting to be made into buttons. I really like the colors. I think I'm going to sell these in sets of three.

I'm very excited about these pictures because these are going to be the first two items I'm going to list in my Etsy shop! Steve is helping me figure out what I want to do about pricing and shipping and all that stuff, and then I'm doing it! So please check it out and let me know what you think. Here is a link: roska.etsy.com

Tomorrow I'm driving to Sactown to visit with my mom and sisters, because it is just not hot enough here. I need it about 20 degrees warmer. Ugh. I always forget when I plan to go there just how damn hot it is. Hope you stay a little cooler than I will be.

mel