Handsawing the night away

My partially finished canvas frame!

I love art classes, and working on art generally, but one of the big issues can be cost. I have a couple strays, but for our next project in class, we're going to need 3 canvases.

I'm not exactly swimming in money and I love a good project so I was searching Craigslist (online classifieds basically) and checking materials costs for stretching my own canvases. The most of expensive of these being canvas, but I found a great deal and bought an absolutely GIANT roll of it from a really lovely woman for very cheap because she was closing her studio. This meant, hoooooray, no worrying about canvas for a while!

I also sauntered down to the hardware store and picked up quite a few strips of 1x2's and quarter round.

There are these things called miter boxes which contain slots for a bunch of different angles, so you can saw within one of these slots and get, say, a 45 degree angle cut with much more ease than, how I'm doing it now! I am marking the angle and then just handsawing with wild abandon and I've definitely found there is some skill to the saw!

My frame looks a little Frankenstein's monster so far but I don't think anyone will notice once a canvas is stretched over it and I have the pride of having made it :)

Oh, and my knitting is coming along quite nicely too!

1930s Three Hour Sweater Progress

I had been hesitant about my start with this sweater due to having a super busy week and being unsure of whether I should add on stitches to my sweater or not! The band was seeming kind of tight, and I ended up pulling it out and adding another four stitches for good measure. I think I tend to knit a little tight.

I'm about two hours in so, I don't see this being quite a three hour sweater - I think that's the consensus though anyway! I'm through the ribbing though and that took the longest.

Also, I already got oil paint on my knit cap! I get really messy when I'm painting, but I figure a little thinner will take it off?

Knitting Update!

So I've had about two knitting classes so far, and I have to say they've got me really excited! After the first class I practiced my stockinette stitch until I ran out of yarn and it all looked pretty uniform and, no numb fingers!!

There's my very first ribbing too! So many exclamations! I'm just very excited to be on the path to my first sweater :)

Right now I'm working on a grey wool hat that should be finished this Monday night. And then another project lurks around the corner...

It's really nice having handwork to do lately. I've been staring longingly at my sewing stuff, but I just don't seem to have the time. With knitting I can take it anywhere I go so it's inspired me to keep an eye out for portable sewing, etc. In fact, I have a 30s leather glove pattern I picked up just a while back and recently got the chamois to practice with (phew, it stinks and the box proudly proclaims it is tanned with 100% fish oil).

How is everyone's Winter going? I haven't even looked at blogs in what seems forever so I've got some catching up to do!

Dress Peek

Just a little peek at my dress. The yellow is a bit more vibrant than the picture shows, more like a deep mustard. Oh and I went with the ruffle! I'm pretty pleased with it. I think it looks pretty close to the pattern art.

School Comes to an End and Winter is on the Cusp

I finished with school for the term and I ended up with straight A's! I was working pretty diligently the last week or so with my web development courses.

Here's a link to what I was working on: Things Found Vintage

You may have taken the guess already but I'm thinking about making the leap to my own site and really revving up output and become more rounded with what I sell. That's a pretty rough layout, but it's where I'm headed. I was almost thinking of changing my shop's name to something a little more creative too - the current one is a bit dull. Maybe that's just me?

I have been working on my dress again! The super lightweight cotton I am using has been pretty finicky so there have been some breaks in between progress (to accomodate wailing and gnashing of teeth.) Thank goodness the sleeves are through with, I look forward to working with a stiffer, or at least thicker, fabric. I think I've been dragging my feet about finishing because I know I can't truly finish until I get a proper buckle for the dress. Does anyone else do this? And how don't I have more buckles with the ridiculous amount of random notions I have?

Since classes have been out I have been at the gym almost every day. I cut down quite a bit during finals... on everything else but school really and so I think a few pounds snuck up on me!

Remember those girdles I purchased? They were sent on the 23rd of last month but they haven't shown up yet. I'm still crossing my fingers because they were shipped out of England and they're having some real weather problems lately from what I hear. Portland is real similar when it snows everyone throws up their arms and runs around in panic until most the city's population just huddle inside.

I've been on a bit of a shopping binge and so I'll post a few pictures of my goodies too. I need to keep it down to window shopping for a while now... A lot of the purchases were worthwhile, and all good deals (I see a good deal and my hand just reaches for my wallet automatically.)

Speaking of buys, I got some sleeves for my patterns! I'm going through and besleeving them all, finally! I think it might take a while but this means I'll be able to move them around with a little less worry. I'm also trying to order them all by date. Then maybe I'll let you see my collection. Let's just say I got 500 sleeves and I'm not really sure it's enough...

Preshrunk Today, Estate Sale Tomorrow

I've been putting off all sorts of projects because most of my stash is NOT PRE-SHRUNK!
Today I went on a bit of a rampage (I think it's because I've been sick and kind of antsy) and shrunk all of my wool. I was a little anxious about the results because I decided to go with the wet towels in the dryer method, but it worked perfectly and now I can use wool whenever I get the urge (this is a hint about a near future post on cold weather wear!) If you're feeling adventurous with your wool, I got my specific directions from the Off The Cuff Style blog. I don't have a dryer so I'm not sure how hot my towels were as much as I tried to dart across the lawn to the laundry room with expediency, my dripping towel bundle and appropriately wet shoes.

There are all sorts of rayons I am getting hand washing going on too. I have limited space for drying so it's my extended project. I did however wash my lining fabric for my plaid skirt. Remember this?:

Well, shortly it will be lined and banished to my wardrobe (not without a picture escort of course) and a new project on its way in.

Tomorrow I am going to an estate sale after being out of the loop for a while, hopefully I'll have some good finds to show off afterward.

MIA Already!

It's been a long week away from my new blogging world! And, wow, five followers already, thanks you guys, I look forward to reading your posts!

Soon, my scattered posts should be a thing of the past. My own computer broke down earlier in the year and I've been without one since. Well, I got a new one! It's supposed to be here sometime mid to late next week and I'll be able to get rolling on posting and keeping my Etsy store more regularly updated. I'm very excited!

I'm starting to get into the swing of things with school. I'm taking web development classes mostly. I used to create a lot of web sites in my spare time and so it's nice to get back to it. Plus I'm taking a drawing class for me. I'm not very good with drawing, but I've got hopes to get better at it.

Onto projects:

Remember how I was having trouble with the purl stitch? Well, I decided to go a little more modern with my approach and watched some YouTube videos.

I haven't checked out any of the other videos - and there are plenty - but this helped me make my first stockinette stitch!

I dropped a few stitches but I'm pretty proud of it!

And, in case you thought I forgot about the Hollywood Pattern skirt, I was about done and then got the notion that I should probably take the time to line it. So here's a little picture of the progress on that too (by the way, soon I will get better at this blogger layout with the pictures and all! Haha)

And I know I haven't mentioned anything about combat sports yet. Today I went to the Oregon Open to root on my friend, and fellow gym mate, Jenny. This was her first BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) tournament and the competition was really tough. She's only been at it a short while and the Beginner's bracket was 18 months or less. I think she got a lot of nerves out of the way and it was good to experience competition. I haven't competed yet because I'm a bit of a wuss about it so far. I just always want to be really prepared. Here's a photo of Jenny at the beginning of her very first match!

I have to go get my cardio in before the gym closes so I'll leave you with that. Bye guys!