Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Crafts: Fair Isle Knit

I've always loved knitted items done in fair isle knit. Fair isle knit typically uses about two to five different colors to create its patterns. Here are some examples of some typical fair isle sweaters:
jumpers
This is a knitting technique I would love to get really good at, so I've started practicing with a much simpler two color pattern. It's more time consuming, but it definitely gives your knit a special quality that solids and stripes don't have.
hearts
This scarf I'm working on is on a size 8/16 inch circular needle done in stockinette stitch. One thing that makes fair isle knitting so much more complicated is that you are working with multiple colors of yarn simultaneously, constantly changing colors every few stitches.

It's challenging, but that's part of the fun!

Friday, January 20, 2012

Crafts: I've been knitting...a lot.

The chilly fall and winter weather we've been in lately has inspired me to knit a ton of circle scarves. I just love knitting and it's a much more functional hobby now that I'm in Seattle. Thinking of patterns and matching different colors has been fun. As you can see I've been trying to perfect my striped skills.
scarfpic
All of these were knitted in stockinette stitch on circular needles, which I've just learned to use recently. Seriously, circular needles are one of the best things to ever happen to me! They allow you to knit in a round, forming a tube shaped piece.
circularneedle

knitty.com


I'm planning to get a lot of practice in and hopefully master some really awesome (and more complicated) knitting techniques.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Something Creepy...

Kevin has been helping me work on some projects lately and one of them was a great logo design for some of my upcoming works. Using a piece of embroidery I made a while back and his amazing design skills, we came up with an official Creepy Girl logo. As most of you know, Creepy Jen is one of my nicknames and I really wanted to honor it.

When Christmas came around, one of Kevin's gifts to me was a custom made stamp with my logo.
stamp

He had it made through Impress Rubber Stamps. They did a wonderful job and it came out nicer than I could have ever hoped.

Now what's it for? Hopefully for something new and great.
Check in for more updates!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

West Side Story - Seattle

Hi all! It's a new year with new posts. Happy 2012 everyone! I'm back and hopefully it will stay that way for a while.

I'd like to start off the new year with a post about my favorite musical/movie of all time: West Side Story (winner of the 1961 Oscar for Best Picture). It's been my favorite since I was in intermediate school and my love for it has just grown over the years. So imagine my excitement when Paramount Theater here in Seattle announced that they would be showing the original Broadway play this month. I jumped on it and bought the best tickets I could get on the day tickets went on sale.

It was a completely different experience seeing it performed live. The dancing was incredible and the songs were sung beautifully. I was on the edge of my seat the entire performance.

Here's me in front of the marquee all ready to get my musical on:
westidestory