Part of life's eternal rhyme

Black and Yellow garden spider, Arigope aurantia. Finished this one just this afternoon. 

I'll be the first to admit, Readers, that I tend to find beauty in the strangest things. 

I'm working on a new project for my Etsy shop: a set of three embroidered spiders, all among the genus Argiope. These spiders are all known for the beautiful colors on their abdomens, and the striking designs on their webs. 

I hesitate to say that I like spiders. I don't mind when I see a little 8-legged thing scurry along my windowsill, and love seeing a perfectly spun web. I think a more appropriate word is that I appreciate spiders, as my blog name implies. 

Plus, Charlotte's Web has had its impact on me. 

As a kid, I always imagined a spider's voice sounding like Debbie Reynolds. 

My sweet fiance has been helping me work on my drawing skills. The black and yellow garden spider, pictured above, was totally free-handed. 

The process goes down like this: I'll pick a spider, find a good image, and simply sketch what I see until the resulting picture is passable. 

Well, my drawings are still a bit Napoleon-Dynamite-ish...but the above rendition of the St. Andrew's Cross Spider will do. 

Then, I make use of one of my favorite embroidery tools: my iron on transfer pen. I trace my sketch: 

And iron the image onto a swatch of fabric: 

Voila. The Arigope keyserlingi is ready to be stitched.

I'm not sure how I'm going to finish and present these 'lil beasties. I saw that I could get some simple wooden embroidery hoops wholesale, but I'm thinking a small wooden frame might be the best way to go.

I'll keep posting as these guys progress, Readers!

Until next time!

<3

The invasion has begun!

Wait...

What's going on here?

Could it be?

Is it POSSIBLE?

Did I ACTUALLY FINISH SOME PROJECTS???

Yes, Readers, it's a miracle! I've FINISHED SOMETHING!

Two and a half YEARS, Readers. The above blanket took me two and a half years to finish.

The project was knit in two pieces: one with the faire isle space invaders (not bad for my first attempt at the technique), and one that was all black (to cover up the "floats", which are long pieces of yarn that hang on the back of the blanket). The piece with the aliens only took me a few weeks to finish; I was excited and motivated to learn a new knitting skill, and I had a ton of time on my hands as I was unemployed.

The plain black piece took me forever, I must admit, partially because I had just found a new job as I started it, and also because I have the attention span of a small insect.

SQUIRREL!

image found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squirrel

Sewing the two pieces together was frustrating, I must say. To save time, I attempted to sew the blanket together using Dumpy (my sewing machine). It worked...but not very well.

I had to adjust the tension about six and a half billion times, and the project seemed to eat up ALL of my black sewing thread. On top of that, the acrylic yarn I used was VERY stretchy. This made the edges pull weird while the blanket was going through the sewing machine (although, this is probably because I didn't adjust the Dumpy's feet correctly, so the yarn isn't entirely at fault), so instead of being a nice, neat, rectangle...the finished blanket turned out to be more of a rhombus.

All in all, the blanket turned out quite nicely. Next time, with a project of this size, I'll pin it together and sew it by hand using yarn instead of sewing thread.

I hate to admit it...but I'm already getting a head start in the way of Christmas decorations.

Yes, Readers, snowflakes. Already. Don't judge.

I've got a plan in place for the craft fair season. Snowflakes, and lots of 'em.

I'm also making some of my own snowflake patterns, Readers! I'm in the process of finalizing/testing one, so stay tuned!

For flakes that are meant to be Christmas tree decorations, I'm going to put them in groups of either four or six of the same pattern (depending on the size of the flake). I've had several people mention to me last year that they would prefer decorations that match, so I'm gonna give that idea a shot.

Also, I'm going to try and make a few tree toppers this year!

image found here: http://myoldejunque.ecrater.com/p/12170267/

I'm thinking of doing something similar to the above topper, but take away the ribbon/buttons/flowers, replace the hair with a lacy circle of picots to imply a halo, get rid of the puffy sleeves and change her arm position so the arms are out (so that she looks like she's proclaiming something), make her bright white instead of ecru, add beading to her wings...

Heck, I might as well start from scratch, huh?

Looking up ideas for various tree toppers has sparked a debate with my fiance. He insists that a STAR belongs on the top of a Christmas tree, not an angel.

He also suggested crocheting Cthulu in a Santa suit.

Well. Maybe I'll make ONE star just for him.

And maybe a Cthulu hat.

I'm trying a new stiffener for my lace projects. This new stuff makes me a bit nervous, I have to admit, since I can't pronounce a single ingredient they list in it and it stinks to high heaven. Plus, this stuff is notorious for ruining your clothes if you spill it on yourself and let it dry. My usual hippie-dippie stiffening methods (the cornstarch method/sugar method) were both simply too messy and time consuming, and the flakes didn't turn out as stiff as I'd like.

The first batch of snowflakes turned out almost creepily perfect, though. And since I haven't sprouted a second head, I guess I'm alright as long as I open a window and keep a fan running.

I've also been doing a ton of embroidery lately.

It's kind of a tradition, Readers, for me to embroider a set of "day of the week" towels for people I love who are getting married. My brother and his wonderful bride to be are tying the knot in less than a month, so naturally I've been stitching away!

I know for a fact that both my brother and future sister in law read my blog ;-) So, John and Jen, I'm posting your tea-towel "previews":

So happy for you guys! Love you so much!

Until next time, Readers!