To Boldly Go Where No Monkey Has Gone Before...
While visiting Palm Springs recently, my mom & I went to see Star Trek. Which was awesome! For both the classic Star Trek fan (mom) & non-fan (me - I havent' seen a full episode of any generation of Star Trek). I mention going to see the movie because of this guy:
The Spock Monkey (not Zach Quinto) is currently on Etsy and his creator has a couple of other comic/action hero geektastic monkeys available in her store The Sock Drawer. But you may want to hurry over...she doesn't have that many Spock Monkeys in stock. I like that she has kits available with instructions, patterns, and materials. Nice idea. I may have to try my hand at making one of these for my mom, seeing as she is a fan.
Posted byHello Pineapples! on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 0 comments
filed under: craft in film, etsy, found crafts, sock monkeys
What I did on my spring vacation
A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was set up at the Halifax Crafters sale. It went fairly well - not as well as the Christmas sale, but that is to be expected. I really love being at the Crafters sales as I find all the other artists/artisans to be so inspiring. I need to come up with a better display for the September sale. Not exactly sure what I'll do, but I'll come up with something.
My favourite guy at the sale (and sadly, I only had my camera phone with me) was this dude:
His name is Reginald and he wore a tutu. I really need to get better at taking pics of my work. But the tutu was an afterthought, so I didn't think to actually get a photo because I was focused on the sale itself. Anyway, Reginald was the first pair I attempted to sew on my machine. I screwed that up in so many ways, I just couldn't manage to make a monkey out of him. But I still had this body and other appendiges that were so goofy, I couldn't just abandon him. So I played around one day and came up with Reginald. I'm going to keep messing around with other sock/plush creatures and monkey accessories (like tutus). Need to keep things fresh.
Something new I'm trying is embroidering eyes on the monkey and then sewing the buttons on top of that. My reason for doing this is that I prefer monkeys with button eyes, but customers with wee ones like embroidered eyes (for the safety of their own little monkies). So this is what I've come up with:
Right after the fair, I headed off to the Palm Springs area to visit with my parents. My mom and I spent some time working on monkeys. My mom is my source for awesome socks. Check out the collection she has for me:
Those are just some of the 75+ pairs of socks. Her cat Deano was a fan of our craft time:
I succumed to a nasty flu on my return, but now that I'm getting better, I'm getting back to thinking about crafts and monkeys. Right now I'm working on one of the red monkeys that the cat is sleeping on. A baby shower is coming up. The red & black monkeys, believe it or not, are a hit with babies. Most people like to buy the more pastel-ish monkies for babies, but the wee ones love the bright contrasting colours. A friend's kid would just stare at hers for ages. And at two months old, that was as much of a sign that she liked the monkey as you could ask for.
Some of the leftover monkeys joined their friends at Love, Me Boutique on Saturday. I still have a few hanging around the house and may look into putting them on etsy in the near future.
Posted byHello Pineapples! on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 0 comments
filed under: cats, crafting while traveling, sock creatures, sock monkeys
Halifax Crafters Spring Sale
oof. I've been Worst Blogger Ever. well, Worst Craft Blogger. I've been working on fashion blog with a friend for the past month. It's super fun, but no excuse for ignoring this blog.
This weekend is the Halifax Crafters Spring Sale. Love these sales. So much creativity and awesomeness under one roof. The North Street Church is bursting at the seams with handmade goodness. Lots of people were out yesterday, despite the crappy weather. I'm hoping for another good day today. Although I'm trying to think of a different display for today. I wasn't feeling yesterday's display.
Speaking of today's sale, I should go get ready and get out the door.
Posted byHello Pineapples! on Sunday, May 03, 2009 2 comments
filed under: craft fair, sock monkeys
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
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