I measured carefully. I gave myself enough seam allowance and I gave myself extra ease through the peaks of the triangle. I’m not sure how it happened, but the triangles on my lining at the top of the bag are too small to fit the crocheted shapes. The rest of the lining fits perfectly. It looks like it’s a good thing that I bought extra fabric. Hopefully lining attempt #2 will work out a bit better.
I’ve been working on a new feature to start next month and it got me thinking about how my blog’s content has evolved over time. I’ve completely stopped doing some types of posts because I forgot about them and there are other types of posts that I’ve been contemplating, but I’m not sure if they fit on this blog. That go me wondering what you would like to see. I figured that asking you would be a nice way of getting new ideas. I made a convenient little poll, but I’d love to hear your comments as well.
Disclaimer: This sort of post usually gets me a handful of comments saying, “It’s your blog. Post what you want.” I will always post what I like to write about, but I value your feedback and this will help give me ideas when I’m not feeling quite so creative.
Last night I dug out all of my granny squares and started seaming them together. I left it flat so I can use it to make a template for the lining. I haven’t decided if I’m going to follow the lines of the granny squares to sew up the lining or if I’m going to simplify the seams. I’m leaning towards the former because it will hide the lining’s seams better.
I’m not sure what to do about the straps. My fabric store only had hard handles and I don’t really like those. Any ideas? I was thinking of getting an inexpensive purse from the thrift store and chopping it up to use the straps, but I don’t know what to do with the leftovers. I could also just use nylon straps like I put on my book bags. What I don’t want to do is battle with leather or pleather. I’m not sure my machine could deal with it.
Now that I’m on summer break, I’ve got a lot more blog reading time. I thought I’d ask for new blog suggestions and offer a few of my own. Plus, I figured I was overdue for one of these posts.
Here are some blogs I like:
Do you have any recommendations for me? Feel free to recommend your own blog if you’re not sure if I read it already. (I will admit to being terrible about leaving comments due to knitting while reading.)
I still had quite a bit of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes leftover after I finished my granny squares. I started playing with rectangular granny’s with the yarn held double and I made myself a little wool rug.
It’s pretty small because I ran out of yarn, but it’s big enough to make a nice bedside rug. It’s probably best that it’s small because I’ll have to wash it in the sink so it doesn’t shrink. The wool does feel really nice underfoot, but I was a little worried about what caring for a bigger rug would be like.
I’m thinking of making another larger rug using acrylic. I just have to decide on the colors. I wanted to make an orange and white one, but I feel like white on a rug is a terrible idea for someone like me.
I finished my last exam this morning which means it’s packing time. I’m about to tackle taking down the stuff on my bulletin board, but I thought I’d share it here in all its glory first. It has managed to sneak into being a regular part of this blog, but I’ve never shown how gigantic it really is.
I hated it when I first moved in because it was this disgusting tan color and it is so massive. One day I decided to get some home dec. magazines and completely cover the thing in colors and textures that I like. From there I just kept layering more and more on it.
On it there are…
I’m having a hard time deciding what to keep and what to toss. The knitting and cross stitch are definitely coming home with me, but I’m not sure about the other things.
People seemed to like my intarsia portrait of my dog so as a weird piece of exam-studying procrastination, I thought I’d share how I use photos to make intarsia charts. I like to use regular old grids so I have to adjust the image from the start so my chart works with my gauge. Here’s how I do that plus a brief overview of how to make the charts.
First you need to find yourself a photo to start with! Go get camera crazy. For this example, I’ll use a picture of a rather friendly sheep that lives near the Uni. If I take the picture as it is right now and apply a square grid to it and make a chart, my intarsia sheep will end up a bit squat.
Next you need to swatch with the yarn and needles you want to use. Measure your gauge. I have 5 stitches per inch and 6 rows per inch. My gauge isn’t square so I have to adjust something to make my chart turn out pretty. I find that it’s easier to adjust the image than it is to draw an elongated grid.
This is also when you should figure out where you’re putting your chart on your project and how big it should be, but I’ll come back to that.
Open up you photo in a photo editing program and find out the exact measurements of your picture. I use Photoshop and my sheep was 900 px by 598 px. From here it’s math time! The picture needs to be resized so it works with your both your gauge and a square grid. This usually means elongating the image. We’ll keep the width the same and adjust the height using the following formula: Image Height(Rows per in./Sts per in.) Round up to the nearest whole number. Here’s the sheepy math: 598(6/5) = approx. 718.
Resize the picture’s height. Make sure the width doesn’t change. To do this in Photoshop you need to have the “Constrain Proportion” box unchecked. The sheep is now 900 px by 718 px. The picture is ready to be traced to make an intarsia chart! Your options from here depend on what kind of software you have, but I’ll try to go over it briefly.
I make my charts by drawing over the image. The easiest way to do this is on a program that can draw simple shapes, and has a grid function. You can continue you to use Photoshop for this, but I prefer to switch over to Illustrator. I recommend Marnie MacLean’s tutorial for a more in depth explanation on how to make charts on Illustrator.
I’m going to try to keep things generic so this isn’t going to be super detailed. If it’s not already on, turn on your grid. You’ll need to resize your photo proportionally or adjust the scale of your grid with your gauge in mind so your intarsia fits on your project. I wanted a 3 inch sheep and I adjusted my grid so that it was about 15 squares across the sheep’s ears. This might take some fiddling to get just right.
Now you just need to trace your photo to make a chart! Draw squares of color using the grid as a guide to keep your squares in shape. If your program has a snap-to-grid function, it makes things a lot easier. Use your best judgment for color placement and keep in mind that you don’t have to follow the photo exactly. You might want to make things larger or omit details in order to make a more attractive chart.
When you’re done filling in the image with little colored squares, remove the background photo or completely cover it. Your chart is done! Go knit.
If you don’t have a program that lets you play with grids and shapes, you can do this the old school way. Print out your resized picture. Layer a piece of regular graph paper on top of the picture. Use colored pencils or markers to trace the image by filling in the grid and create your chart. A light box would make this easier. You can also increase the contrast and saturation on your picture before printing it to make it easier to trace.
My Bean portrait is a better example of how a photo can be used to make a chart and it’s a warning as to why you should adjust the image to match your gauge before making a chart. I neglected to do that step and that’s why Bean looks a bit fatter than she actually is in the finished piece.
Vanessa over at Mixed Martial Arts and Crafts interviewed me. It was quite fun to answer the questions and I recommend checking it out. We talked about books, blogging, and crafty stuff.
I have to go study Victorian literature and try to remember the names of the characters in The Return of the Native. Somehow I don’t think that-one-girl-who-wants-to-move-to-Paris is gong to cut it in an exam. Because of this, there probably will be more puppy pictures on Friday instead of a real post, but puppies are always fun.
I have my first exam tomorrow morning. I’ve been studying so I haven’t been doing much crafty stuff. I have been browsing old puppy pictures, though. These are from the day that we bought Bean. She was super tiny.
I finished my shawl last night. It’s nice to have to wear around my room when it’s cold at night. It’s warm and cozy. I’m just not sure if I can pull it off. But it’s warm! And it was fun to make.
I used a 5mm hook and 4 balls of Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca DK. It still needs to be blocked, but I’m going to leave that until I get home. I’ll share some action shots after I get it blocked and you can decide for yourself if I look like a lamb dressed as mutton.