teeniest sweaters in the world
I have yet to see the movie Coraline. My friends tell me it's good, but I'm not a huge fan of animated movies, so I'm hesitant to go see them. I usually just wait until they are on video and friends own a copy. Not really the best way to approach such things and my friends who like animation tsk-tsk me when I say that I don't. However, I am somewhat intrigued by the crafty element of Coraline. I'm even more intrigued now that I've seen this:
Holy Cow! That's some tiny knitting with even tinier details in the knitting. It blows my mind that Althea Crome has the patience to knit on such a scale. Damn straight I'm "fascinated" by how she knits on such small needles! I know how frustrated I get when I knit socks on 2.75mm needles and she's working on 1mm or less! I think it is less fascinated and more dumbfounded. I can't even begin to conceptualize what it would be like to knit tiny gloves on .0001" needle made out of wire.
Having said all this, her work is pretty darn amazing. Such detail! And on such a small scale! It is making me overuse exclamation marks!
(found these links via the blog popped up on the grid, that I found via my friend Ally's twitter - oh the layers of the internets and that web 2.0 stuff).
Posted byHello Pineapples! on Sunday, March 08, 2009 0 comments
filed under: arts and crafts, craft in film, knit
Craftiness in Music
I really enjoy these bird illustrations by Kate Wilson. They're adorable with amusing little descriptions (and available in her etsy shop).
My enjoyment of her work coincided with my discovery of a video for Lenka's song The Show. The bird in this version of her video reminded me a bit of Wilson's birds:
that particular video (according to lenka's youtube page) was directed by James Gulliver Hancock and Lenka. I've never gotten into paper crafts, but they usually impress me. I also love the fonts (i am self-taught font geek) and the embroidery (or what looks like embroidery) in the video.
Lenka's adorableness seems to know no bounds. Check out the official video for The Show (the song itself is adorable) and watch for the plush awesomeness:
Plush birds and tomatoes! How fantastic is that?
Oh, but the awesome doesn't stop there! Here's a stop motion video of embroidery by Lenka:
My lukewarm fandom based on the song The Show has officially turned into full on crafty geek fandom. I believe it is time to get myself a copy of her album.
Posted byHello Pineapples! on Sunday, March 01, 2009 0 comments
Happy Pancake Day! Celebrate with a free pattern!
It's Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), which is all about the Pancakes for me. My friend J.Lau and I whipped up a batch for dinner and they were awesome. We made regular pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes, and raspberry/chocolate chip pancakes. We then smothered them in butter and real maple syrup. The raspberry/chocolate chip were the favourite.
A few hours later, I'm still feeling stuffed on pancakes. But I don't want the day to pass by without sharing Urban Threads' awesome one day only free Mardi Gras design. You have until midnight Minnesota time to download the image or an embroidery pattern (for machine or hand). Or download them all. It is Fat Tuesday after all, which is a day that is about excess (or cooking up fat and eggs before lent. or flashing strangers for plastic beads. whatever).
Posted byHello Pineapples! on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 0 comments
filed under: embroidery, free pattern friday
Good thing: All Ears Earmuffs
Does Martha Stewart have a trademark on the phrase "good things"? I hope not. Not that i'm about to start using it regularly on the blog...but I'd rather not face a cease and desist from MSO Inc.
But I digress before I even begin...
I was at the library yesterday and flipping through a copy of the Holiday 2008 issue of Vogue Knitting. This is not a magazine I usually read because I have a bit of a love/hate for Vogue Knitting. I "hate" (well, strongly dislike) the overall look of the magazine and I think most of their patterns are overly froufrou or would be highly unflattering on the general knitting population. And I do hate the idea of spending a lot of time and money making what looks like it would be a lovely knit dress, only to find out that it really doesn't suit anyone larger than an XS and will lose shape after wearing it once or twice. But, I do love seeing some of the knitting accessories that are featured in the front of the book or dreaming about having the time/money/body type to knit up my own Michael Kors sweater tunic in something lovely, like cashmere. Or having the patience to knit up a sweater on size 0000 needles.
But I happened to pick it up anyway. Probably to see what sort of Nanette Lapore knitting patterns they were going to offer. While flicking, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a little write up on the All Ears Earmuffs.
I was instantly smitten by the idea of knitting up my own headphones!
(photo credit belongs to all ears earmuffs)
Seriously? They are genius! I don't even like earmuffs and I love the idea of these, mostly because I love my iPod, but Halifax weather (it's cold from about November to May) often means cold ears. These would be perfect for the days when I don't quite need a hat, but I do need to cover my ears to keep a cold wind out.
Sadly, the kits are priced a bit out of my budget (to be fair, pretty much everything is out of my budget right now. Food is pretty much our only spending right now), starting at $34/$41 for an acrylic/wool or cotton/acrylic blend. You can spend as much as $174, if you felt like knitting up some beaver fur headphones with a leather band (yes! knitting beaver fur! although, strikes me as a bit too rich/opulent for my tastes).
I do like that they are knit and crochet friendly, although I think I prefer the knitted version. For the time being, I might try to knit up some headphone cozies for my own big headphones. They're not really portable headphones, but they will seem so much more practical if they double as earmuffs.
Posted byHello Pineapples! on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 2 comments
filed under: consumption, crochet, good ideas, knit
Post no. 101
Moving sucks.
That is all.
Posted byHello Pineapples! on Saturday, January 31, 2009 1 comments
Knitting video games?
I can't decide if I'm excited or confused by this Wii game. I love knitting, I love the Wii (although, I rely on friends to get my Wii fix), but Kniittiing? I guess the trick is that you learn to knit and then knit patterns of different levels of difficulty. You start with a tea towel, move to a sensible hat, and then ... an octopus toaster cover? But of course! That is the natural next step in your knitting career. (actually, it probably is. Once you figure out the practical stuff, then you knit something ridiculous).
Anyway, I'll just have to rent it and convince one of my Wii owning friends to let me play this. But I fear it will be something akin to Cooking Mama's Cook Off, which was the worst game I have ever played in the history of video games. I suspect I will only really love the Rabbids games for Wii. Those are just plain awesome.
Posted byHello Pineapples! on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 1 comments
The flu: a work in progress
As I mentioned before, I'm a huge hankie fan. So when I was trying to think of things to embroider on them, I thought that I'd look for images of a flu and cold viruses. My thinking was that a hankie comes in handy when you're sick. I had trouble finding an image of the common cold that I liked. The images of rhinovirus that I found looked a lot like a ball with stars on it. But the flu looked embroiderable:
Apparently those are false colours, but I liked them and decided that they'd look cool.
Since hankies are often pretty thin, I often just lay them over whatever image I'm using as a template and then trace the image with a washable fabric marker. For this one, I drew freehand, making it look as much like the flu virus as possible. For parts that are supposed to be darker, I coloured them in dark.
This was meant to be a test run for a possible series of hankies to sell, but right now it's taking far too long to complete. The french knots are taking the longest. I might try a smaller or less complicated version at some point. But for now, this one is all mine.
Posted byHello Pineapples! on Saturday, January 24, 2009 0 comments
filed under: embroidery, work in progress
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