hello pineapples

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

Blog of the Hour: Embloggery

Happy New Year! The holidays are winding down, my New Year's day hangover is subsiding, and I'm about ready to face 2009. Things will be busy Chez Pineapples: I've got a lot of work to do, I'm hoping to blog more consistently, and we're moving to a new apartment. And that's just January.

But let's start the new year off with a new post about a recent blog discovery: Embloggery.


December 9-10, 2008, originally uploaded by thirdpersonpossessive.

It's absolutely fantastic. Not only does Nicole Wolfersberger free-hand embroider the posts (no tracing, no writing it out in fabric pens), she does this almost daily (puts my lax blogging habits to shame!) and the posts are so much more than the embroidery pictured. You can click on links in the images to get a fuller meaning of the the blog post. For example, each letter in this post has a link to a different article or blog on Google and libraries.

The genius of this post is that it says so much without ever "writing" a word on the subject. It's actually kind of refreshing. Blogs that write a treatise on the subject du jour are a dime a dozen. This one is visual and lovely, but is so much more than just the visual. And depending on the entry, you have to work at the meaning. This one is a little easier to follow than other entries.

This blog is the kind of awesome that makes me wish I could think of something as brilliant. At the same time, I'm quite happy that someone else has thought of it: despite the fact that I embroider, I can't even begin to wrap my head around the amount of time and energy that goes into each post. Better for me that I get to admire her work.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Friday, January 02, 2009 2 comments  

filed under: blogs, embroidery, good ideas

Bought: A Pin Cushion in a Flower Pot

I am completely enamoured by new arrival at work:



Yes, it is a pincushion in a flowerpot! It's called Pincushion Posy and made by Freehand Embellished Apparel (sadly, I cannot find a website or etsy shop for this person). It's made from recycled pantyhose and wool and decorated with buttons, beads, and pearly stick pins. Oh, and embroidery scissors (which I've been meaning to buy).

Since I picked up an unexpected shift yesterday morning and I need scissors anyway, I bought it before anyone else has a chance to do so. I had my pick of the bunch and I think it took me a half hour to decide which one I liked best.

It's a delightful little creation. Prettier than the standard tomato pincushion and a stylish alternative to the arms of my chairs. Even Mr. P was excited by it (but then, anything to keep pins and needles and scissors out of the furniture).

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Sunday, September 28, 2008 1 comments  

filed under: bought, good ideas, love me

Free Pattern Friday (Finally!): Dover Samplers

I have a bad habit of signing up for mailing lists online and I end up with all sorts of junk mail that I totally asked for. I get notices about shops I can't afford (like a local fancy-pants department store or net-a-porter), about ebay searches and academic conferences. Sometimes it's a bit much. But the one thing I've signed up for and actually really like getting is the Dover Free Sampler.

Dover is a publishing company that you might know for their odd assortment of paper doll books (like fashions of the 70s, famous child stars or the Queen Mother), colouring books, little books of stickers and "tattoos", and "stained glass" colouring books. Some of my favourites from their collection are the political paper dolls. You can get both Bush presidents, the Clintons and now McCain and Obama. You can totally re-write the American political landscape with your own set of dolls (actually, you could re-write American history with a collection of paper dolls from Dover).

They also do CD-ROMs of clip art and fonts. Some of the clip art collections are a bit lame in my book, but there are others that I totally dig. It's all royalty free fun for "professionals and hobbyists alike" (their words, not mine).

So where does the free pattern come in? Well, some of the free clip art that comes in the Friday sampler are things that I want to use as embroidery patterns. Check out some of my favourites:

US States colouring book:


Early American Design motifs:



Both of these were found in the sampler. And best part? You get the full size image, so you can play around with the size.

And then there is the clip art for which I no use right now, but I like them and file them away under the category of "inspiration" for future projects:




You also get e-mails about sales or deals, but so far, my budget doesn't allow buying anything like that - especially when I can get some of it for free. It's worth signing up for and even if embroidery isn't your thing, you're probably crafty enough to find some use for them.

Happy crafting and I'll be back soon-ish with more finds. And with some projects that I've been working on lately (I've got a couple of embroidery projects happening that I'm a little bit in love with).

xoxo.
pineapples.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Friday, September 12, 2008 0 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, free pattern friday, good ideas

Craft Related Injuries

I think I have carpal tunnel syndrome.

While I am quick to assume the worst and go all hypochondriac by diagnosing myself on the internet, the truth is, I have quite a few symptoms. Mainly, my wrists hurt like hell and I get a tingling in my hands.



The carpal tunnel, while not directly caused by crafting, has been a total (pardon the pun) pain to deal with.

This is a HUGE problem seeing as just about everything I do involves using my wrists. At this point, my thesis is all typing and writing. When I've got free time, I'm usually writing by hand, using the mouse to arse around on the internet (facebook and google reader may be my downfall), or embroidering/sewing/knitting/crocheting: all things that require similar repetitive motions by my hands and wrists. And until now, all done without much thought to ergonomics (my bad, but my desk and chair really don't understand ergonomics). For over a week I've been forced to avoid such things as it meant severe pain. The only thing I've been able to do is read or watch TV. It's getting better, but it still hurts a bit as I type this. So frustrating.

But I may have a solution. At the very least, I have something that might make my wrists hurt less. I was reading an old issue of Knit.1 (the winter 06-07 issue) that I picked up at the Library and found the Lion Brand Stress Relief Gloves.



I think I need to buy a pair. Bonus: they're only $16 (hooray affordable!). Although, I'd probably consider getting them if they had cost more. Anything that promises to ease the pain, even just a little bit, is okay in my books. Because I have crafts to do and a thesis to write!

xoxo.
Pineapples

(This was a surprisingly painful entry to write, and not just because of my wrists. For some reason, my brain is refusing to function quite right and I'm struggling to put together a couple of coherent sentences. I think I need to go to bed early).

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Wednesday, August 06, 2008 2 comments  

filed under: craft related injuries, good ideas

My crafty friends are awesome

One last post before I head to bed.

I always knew my friend Sara/Grammardog was one heck of a crafty bitch, but now the crafty whole world knows it! This crafty lady created an impressive looking headboard and posted a how-to on craftster. It was so awesome that Craftzine blog posted about it earlier this week (I'm behind on reading my blogs).



Isn't she awesome?

And if you think that's pretty good, then you should see what she can do with a sewing machine - I love her quilts. They are fantastic.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Monday, June 09, 2008 0 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, crafty friends, good ideas, show and tell

Free Pattern Fridays: Under the sea..

It's been a week since Sock Wars III started and I am miraculously still alive. My hopes are not up for being a terribly successful assassin, seeing as I've barely managed to knit the cuff of the sock. I have frogged the frakking thing too many times to count. I've really been struggling with the patten for the leg of the sock and screw it up just about everytime. I'm hoping that after trolling through the Sock Wars forums, I've figured out how to get it right (although, no clue as to what I've been doing wrong. And don't even get me started on the teeny needles and skinny yarn).

Despite my distaste for skinny yarn in general, I am impressed with the choice of yarn for this year's war: Tofutsies by Southwest Trading Company. The crazy thing about this yarn is that it includes chitin as part of the fibre, which means it is made from crab and shrimp shells! WTF? (Apparently this stuff makes it naturally anti-bacterial).

Since there are sea creatures used in creating the yarn, and there is a local environmental group, along with a favourite yarn store, working on a project called Stitchin' Fish, which is a knitted/crocheted sea floor (similar to that of the Institute for Figuring's hyperbolic coral garden), I thought I'd find some patterns that would help to create the sea creatures on their wish list. While both The EAC and The Loop's blog do offer you free patterns, I've decided to hunt down a few with the magic of google.

If you've been following along at home, you may be familiar with my posts about octopuses, crochet octopuses, and other sea creatures to knit. Sea creatures are something I really dig when they are made of yarn.


So here are the patterns:
A Coral Reef from Lion Brand. The only trouble with Lion Brand is that you have to sign up in order to access the free patterns.


Hyperbolic knitting. And from the same person, a copy of the pattern to make a small jellyfish (a Christmas ornament, but totally do-able as a small submission to Stitchin' Fish). Or there is the jellyfish made from recycled grocery bags, which is an awesome way to get a few plastic bags out of the system.

Finally, there is the sea anemone.

As soon as I finish these socks/get assassinated, I'm starting in on some deep sea knitting.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Friday, May 16, 2008 1 comments  

filed under: crochet, free pattern friday, good ideas, knit, sock wars iii

Free Pattern Friday Saturday: Cozy Coffee

Recently, le husband has begun to use a french press at his office. Since there is already a kettle there, I guess it's easier than a regular coffee maker. I was a bit surprised when he expressed an interest in having a french press; he had been off coffee for some time now. But I guess the long dark winter semester and his upcoming thesis mean that coffee is a necessity.

So when I saw this pattern on design*sponge on wednesday, I was pretty excited. I think it will be queued up on ravelry as my next project (I'd start it right away, but it is still very much winter here and I need mittens). Apparently non-knitters can make something similar with an old sweater - or so says a commenter at design*sponge. Check out the videos at the CBC site for Steven and Chris to see what's up with that.



On the subject of coffee cozies, I've also found free patterns for coffee cup cozies at the blog Carissa Knits. She has two there, the Starbucks cozy and the Poison! cozy.

Of course, if knitting is not your thing, you can always buy a plush coffee cozy over on etsy, made by Nervous Onion (who I found via The Needle.org).

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Saturday, March 01, 2008 1 comments  

filed under: etsy, free pattern friday, good ideas, knit, patterns

Cathy of California's DIY Pincushions

here's what the pincushions look like that i will be demostrating at the LA county fair on sept 22, originally uploaded by cathyofcalifornia.

So, for the someone who might actually be reading this, I'm not a very good blog writer. I'm trying, but it is not my forte. Possibly because keeping it focused on my crafts means actually getting projects done, photographed, photographs downloaded/uploaded, and so on and so forth...a lot of steps for a procrastinator. In an attempt to be a better crafty blog person, I will share with you some super cute things I find that are craft related - and hope that we aren't all reading the same blogs.

My first item for show and tell...let's call it "show and tell wednesdays"...is these adorable pincushions by Cathy of California. I think they're quite lovely and if I had money, I'd totally buy one of these kits. Actually, I'm more in the market for a wrist pincushion, but that doesn't make these any less adorable. I'm also a huge fan of her mushrooms, but what I really dig about these is the make it yourself-ness of them. I also really dig her fabric choices. I'm a sucker for pretty fabric, even if I don't have a specific project it. I just like owning it. Same thing for pretty yarn, which explains my yarn stash.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Thursday, January 31, 2008 0 comments  

filed under: good ideas, show and tell, wish list