Work complete!

You know...I think it took less time to design and stitch the pattern than it did to clean it up for publication and put everything together, but...



The pattern for the design I made for Valdani is finally published and now you can stitch it too!

I'm feeling rather accomplished, considering that it seems like so small a thing to get it put together and listed.

Go get it!

Impromptu Contest.

I'm having an impromptu contest out of boredom. You do my work for me, and you get a chance to win random craft supplies. It won't be much...it's not The Most Awesome Contest of the Year...but it'll be free and straight from my stash.

The reason I'm not LISTING what's in said prize package is because I (and my readers) do so many types of crafts that it's hard to put together a fun prize that everyone would want. However...if you want to know what could be in it, remember that I do ridiculous amounts of embroidery. I knit and crochet. I quilt and sew. I spin yarn and felt (wet and dry felting). I dabble in lace and other random nonsense, and my bead collection is getting out of control for no good reason. I also hoard books and have a couple extra copies of certain things. It's not that it HAS to go (though some of it probably should)...it's just that I need your opinion and I'm willing to bribe you to get it.

Are we on the same page here? Good. Now here's what you have to do to enter.

I am in the middle of designing two biscornu (cross stitch) patterns with a Christmas theme, and I want to use the same colors with both of them. Problem is, my supplier (Valdani) sent me more colors than I can use in the collection, and the colors are so awesome that I can't pick a favorite. I'm counting on readers to pick a favorite for me. There are only two choices, so it's not that difficult. It's just that I'm completely undecided so I'm bribing you to help. *shakes mystery box* IT COULD BE ANYTHING!

Here are your choices:


One


Two

The only difference between set one and set two is that 2 of the balls in the front row are different (the gold and the green). Do you see why this is hard? I have to decide which gold and green go the best with all the other colors.

YOUR MISSION (if you choose to accept it):

Pick a favorite between options one and two.

Comment with:
Your favorite.
The type of crafts you normally do or enjoy (I have to know what to send you if you win!)
A way to contact you if you win (email address, blogger name, etc) and your name so if you DO win, I'm not telling everyone that Kleptosaurus39284 won my contest.

Do that and you get one entry into the Impromptu Contest.

If you link on your blog or other site, comment here with the link (I will verify) and you get one more entry into the contest.

Not too grueling, is it? Now the fine print.

Contest ends at 11:59pm EST on Friday, October 2nd, 2009
Winner will be chosen by using the random # generator at random.org.
Maximum of 2 entries per person.
This is an international contest, so readers in other countries CAN enter.
The winner will be posted on this blog (check back!) on Saturday and contacted via email. If, for some reason, the winner cannot be notified by email then I will only post the winner here. The winner has 1 week (until Oct. 10th) to contact me to give me shipping information for their prize. If I am not contacted within that week, I will select another winner again using the random number generator.
Prize is chosen at my discretion and may contain materials, tools, completed bits or pieces, or any combination of the above.
Blog owner is not responsible if products you make with prize materials do not match but you use them together anyway and end up featured on the Homemade Hilarity blog.

This blog post will self-destruct in...wait...no it won't. Good luck!

Busy busy!

Last week I had to sew up some drunkard's path quilt squares to teach a class on curved seams at work. Curved seams are surprisingly easy and this is my current favorite quilt square.

In other, more important news, I am DONE with the design for Smac and tomorrow it will be on its way to meet up with the Valdani people in Romania



Tada!

Close ups of:



Front



Back

It's on a temporary mount for now. Hopefully they'll replace the mount when they get time. For now it'll be easy to ship and transport.

I'll be putting this pattern in my Etsy store hopefully later this week if someone wants a copy.

Now I can start these socks...

Update

Mostly spending my time working on the design for Smac. It's coming together nicely and I'll have it out on time. For those following:



My TUSAL jar is filling up fast as well.



I'll have to get a bigger one :D

Taking a friend out for birthday dinner, and then going back at the Smac design.

Do you remember?

Remember when I showed this pic and said it was all knitting supplies?

Well, you've seen what happened with the beads. The fabric underneath though? I'm done with it.

Behold...a new place to store my crap.



It had to be done because I bought a bunch of new DPNs (double pointed needles) from eknittingneedles.com and though I haven't tried them out, the price was certainly right and I needed DPNs. Unfortunately, they arrived and my already overstuffed craft drawer was not pleased by me trying to add all of this:



I'm not sure about 'premium' but they certainly are bamboo DPNs and I got tons of them for the bargain basement price of $24.95 and free shipping. I haven't had a chance to work with them yet.



Now they have a custom home just for them. Note that my 'writing' when I embroider is about as awful as my real handwriting. I can read it, and that's what matters, right?



Circulars, crochet hooks, and other assorted odds and ends. Email address included in case I (please goodness no) lose it.



Rolls up okay, in spite of some of the pockets being crooked. (I'm a kamikaze crafter...)



Glad I finally got to it and got it done. Only took one day.



Coffee fuels my world. Dunkin' Donuts knows this, and sent me free coffee. Their coffee is delicious.



Said present couldn't have come at a better time, because without brain power, I resort to playing with floss.



It got pretty bad while I waited for coffee to brew. I'm better now.

For those following, I'm making progress on the design for Smac as well:

Plush Particles

I got this idea from Particle Zoo, but needed some pronto, so I drafted some patterns and cranked these out tonight. I'll probably order the real ones soon, but the person I'm giving them to (birthday present) appreciates things *I* make. This is a proton, neutron, electro-neutron, electron, up quark, and down quark.



I didn't have nifty tags like theirs so I hand embroidered some felt tags. They'll do.



Making some progress on the design for Paris as well. I've got the center of the pattern partially complete at this point, and will probably be done with it by the time the border is done.

Also, I was recently interviewed by a fellow blogger. check it out and poke around if you want to :)

Knitting socks, and Valdani threads.

My order from Knit Picks came today. I'm trying to learn to knit socks (shouldn't be too hard) so I can knock it off my list of 101 things to complete in 1,001 days. The color of the yarn is Peacock multi (sock yarn) and the brown yarn is for some Men's Convertible gloves (there'll be pictures of the pair I'm currently finishing up soon...this is yet another pair).

In an interesting twist of events (common around here), JoAnn's asked if I'd teach a class on how to knit socks that will start up this fall. You betcha?



Welcome to crash course crafting. My name is Rabid and I'll be your host for this roller coaster ride...

In other news, remember Garden Party? The free pattern is here. At any rate, I'm making a much bigger and more intricate one for Valdani to take overseas.

The color of the thread is the same, but the fabric is different and the design will be adapted considerably so it'll look different.



If you're interested, keep on coming back. I have to have it out of here by August so it'll be another mad dash to the finish line. Just how I like it.

Packages!

Look what came to my doorstep today.



Two packages! I have plans for these *rubs hands together*.

Problem is...these are supposed to go in the same pattern but they don't match.



I am not a happy camper. This design is on a deadline.

Garden Party

Work complete!

I'm so happy to be finished with this little hardanger design, not because I hate it (oddly?) but because I worked so hard on the details in this little pattern and they've really shone through in the end.



Little details like the hardanger border around the window here. It took quite a bit of tweaking to come up with a sturdy border this size that didn't look plain our out-of-place. I even stitched the hearts separately from the rest of the border so that they would pop out and not get lost in the other stitching.



There's the back, for people who like to see how things are made.

I'm happy to be done with it, and I'm probably going to distribute the pattern here in a couple of days for those who are interested.

Crafting away...

That's what I was doing this weekend, making sleeves for a Muslim friend of mine to cover her wrists. 13 pairs since she's going on an extended out-of-country trip.

I've been busy as usual. Putting some finishing touches on some new articles for local crafty events and in my free time (har har!) I've been working on this:



Remember that hardanger I started last week? Now I'm almost done with the design and once I complete it and put some finishing touches on the pattern, I'm going to offer it here for free.

Working with this thread, I wonder if it can be used for tatting. I bet it could. Especially in the smaller sizes. With all the time in the world...

I'm going to dunk this pattern after I complete it and test Valdani's 'colorfast' promise. Who wants to watch?

SO BUSY

I have been so busy doing this and that, I haven't had hardly a chance to update here.

Here are some things I've been working on:



Finished this in like 2 hours. Ravelry likes to get me in trouble with funny patterns. This is supposed to be a knitted condom, but the striping in the yarn made it look like a tiny fruit hat.

I rarely have time to knit or crochet, but you can't go wrong with yet another organizer when you have this many projects going around. Ravelry inspired me with a knitting basket, which is felted.



That's how far I've gotten on it. I'm not done because I'm spinning the yarn myself.

In other news...



This is the start of a custom order. It's a hardanger design. Did the pattern myself and I'm debating posting it here for those that would like to do it. I'll be posting more pictures as time goes on. I'm using valdani perle cotton #12 with 28 count quaker fabric.

Anyone interested in a free hardanger pattern?

New shipment!

What's this? My new shipment from Valdani! I'm testing colors for my upcoming kits because I want one of them to contain Valdani threads. Being a designer is awesome.

Oh that's right, I probably haven't blogged publicly about my kits.

They're educational kits for my favorite type of embroidery, with some of the best supplies available in the market so that people get a good understanding of what to look for when they're choosing their own supplies in the future. I've tried threads from all over the world and I've done some truly wonderful and awful things to them to make sure that I know which products to recommend to others. 2 of my 4 beginner kits are already being tested. I want the 3rd to have Valdani threads.

Would you like to know which products I've tried and how it turned out? I'm getting ready to write reviews and comparisons on some of my favorites...

But, to focus on what's important here...let's talk about you, my dear readers.



I hope you like purple, because that's what color I'm getting ready to do my new sampler design in. Of course, if you don't like purple, that's okay too...because you get to pick your own supplies.

The pattern will be available here, on my blog, for free. I may even run a contest with it. Anyone interested?