Last minute hand-made gift: cable headband

 Now...

my classmate is heading for Michigan tomorrow, and I had to make last minute gift, despite of my thesis deadline. So... well, not much that I can make.

Name of project: cable headband
Time required to make: 1-2 hours
Difficulty: easy




The tools and materials that I used:
- wool yarn (using something from Australia, 80% wool, 20% polyester, worsted)
- 5.00 mm circs knitting needle
- cable needle (optional)
- hook, any size, just to help you sew in the knitted cable
- scissors
- glue, adhesive ones if you can. Do not use double tape, it won't work.
- plastic bando headband

How to make:
- co 6 sts, make sure that you leave tail about 30 cm to weave the ends.
row 1 (RS): p1 k4 p1
row 2 (WS): k1 p4 k1
row 3, 5: as row 1
row 4, 6: as row 2
row 7 (cable): p1, move next 2 sts to the cable needle, put in front, k2 on the next 2 sts from the left needle (LN), move back the sts on cable needle to the LN, knit the 2 sts, p1
row 8, 10: as row 2
row 9, 11: as row 1
repeat row 7-11 until the length of the knitted cable is enough to cover the bando headband.



- seam the CO part of the cable, by folding the left and right rows to make a small sack for the plastic headband ends. Seam the left and right rows for at least 1 inch along the knitted cable. Use hook to help you with this, or use a wool needle. Cable (RS) side facing upwards.
- do the same thing to the other end of the cable.
- Apply glue on one end of the plastic headband. Put the applied end into the weaved small sack at the end of the knitted cable. Make sure that the cable is facing upwards before you put in the plastic headband.
- carefully apply the glue, inch by inch, and stick the cable onto the plastic headband. Gently press the cable so it lays flat on the headband. Make sure the glue did not stick into the RS of the cable.
- when you reached the end, about 2-3 inch left, apply the glue until the tip of the plastic headband. Carefully stretch the cable and gently put the plastic headband into the other end of the weaved cable.



- wait until the glue is dried
- the cable headband is ready for use!



Stay tuned and keep crafting!

Playing with hair

 My random glory of playing with my, or other people's hair.

Great thanks to my victims.

Thesis poncho!

 So I finally finished this.

I know that I supposedly write thesis, but I can't help that sometimes my head just does not  want to think about the numbers. So I crochet this poncho instead.

The yarn was Top Yarn, which I used for other bolero project last year. I have left over of 2 balls of yarn, so I bought another 3 balls and voila!

The basic pattern was pineapple, and the pattern was from Lady Boutique (Boutique-sha) no. 3165, and the pattern number was number 20.

I am so happy with the result. However, before you see the result, I must tell you that the result was supposedly like this:

too lazy to scan, so I post the pic from internet :p

and the result is like this:

in the school's secret garden

Why?
well... i am too lazy to use the suggested yarn and needles. So, after I recalculating, I made 6 pineapples to surround me (wrap me, exactly).

I'm happy with the result ^^

stay tuned and keep crafting!

sneak peek! thesis capelet!

 Just a sneak peek of my recently done capelet.

I crochet this during thesis writing. Just to keep my sanity.

This is the capelet during blocking.

Wait for the complete story! ^^


stay tuned and keep crafting!

dried flower book mark

 One of the class that I take this semester is fragrance herbs cultivation and use. Few weeks ago, I had a chance of learning how to make dried flowers (and leaves, of course), and the teacher decided that we should make a hand made card or something. My senior decided that we should make book marks, and also birthday cards. I was in charge to make the book marks.

This card is made with:
- A4 paper (find a hard one, not just white paper. Cut half by dividing the length, and cut one of the halves into 4 smaller pieces)
- dried flowers
- ribbon/yarn
- paper glue (preferably glue stick)
- cutter, scissors
- laminating plastic for finishing, and the device
- optional: tweezers

And... without much planning, here's the bookmarks before I wrote stupid latin words on it, and before I put the plastic for lamination.

The species there are (The one that I know only):
- English Ivy
- variegated leaves English Ivy
- Flowers of Oxalis purpurea
- small african violet.

I'll update with the final result ^^.

stay tuned and keep crafting!

Corset cut t-shirt

My junior asked me to cut t-shirt for her. I got to say that I like cutting for her, since she's a rare kind of Taiwanese girl who knows how to style herself. And she has a good taste.

The t-shirt was a club t-shirt, means that there're probably 50 other people who has the same tee. The fabric itself, it's not as elastic as i wanted, since I think they mixed it with Rayon or something, so I wasn't dare enough to make any big holes.

I decided by making a corset cut on the back. So that the tee will have waist line.

 

First, cut by 1.5 cm at the back, both sides, to make the corset line.



And weave them after pulling all the strings made from the cut.

And since the tee was still too big, I added another corset line. This one is shorter, since I don't want to bottom part to be too narrow, so it won't pulled up when she wears it.



I cut the bottom seam line to make a halter, and cut the sleeves, weave them, and used the sleeves seam line to make a string and bind the shoulder part.

Before I do the finishing touch

I didn't further cut the back and front part, because I want to preserve the printed something (I think it was related to their club).
Removed the neck seams, and made some cuttings to show more skin.

And this is the comparison of original cut, and the the aftercut.

View from the back

View from the front

If you want to learn more about t-shirt cutting, go to youtube, and find itsblitzzz. She has lots of videos on how to cut the tees. Love her cutting style (and tattoos, they're so beautiful!)

ok then... stay tuned and keep crafting! :D

Craft and me

I love craft.

I'm obsessed with craft.

I remember I started to learn crafting since I was in elementary school, 3rd grade. I moved to a new school, and they have a hand craft class on their curriculum. They even separated boys and girls hand craft class. We learned how to cross-stitch (simple x kind of cross stitch, not the one that's similar to embroidery), embroidery (which I hate the most), and crochet. Amazing, isn't it? They taught me those kind of hand-craft at school. And I love it.

I think, I should thank my mom a lot about crafting. She was a tailor before becoming a chef, and being exposed to fabrics, threads, sewing machine (Singer with the manual pedal), I grew without feeling that crafting is a foreign activity. My mom also provide me tons of books at home. Mostly are encyclopedia. And what's more amazing is that the encyclopedia is in English, a language that I haven't master until I was in junior high school.
 The books were my second teachers in learning many craft, and thus, I am a very versatile crafter. I would not say that i am a craft artist. I do craft because I want to, or when I need to.

So what are the kind of crafts that I learned do so far?
Let's see...
1. cross stitch
2. embroidery (simple ones, but I have high enthusiasm on mountmellick, drawn thread - hardanger, stumpwork, etc).
3. crochet
4. knitting
5. patchwork (oh, I really hate patchwork. No hard feelings, but I hate cutting the fabrics).
6. beading - jewelry (I like stringing than weaving), 3D stuff
7. beading - embellishment
8. basket weaving
9. recycling and remake things
10. anything that I can combine with plants, like hanging pots,
11. hand made home decor
12. recently trying so hard to shape things with polymer clay
13. macrame
14. batik and dyeing

That is as much as i can say. I don't really do much eh?

If I have an opportunity to learn more craft, what would i learn? (not necessarily in order)
1. glass making. Especially making the weird shapes. I also want to learn about making glass bead.
2. decoupage. I'm not good at paper related craft. Really.
3. sewing (amazing, I am a daughter of a tailor, yet I can't sew.)
4. pattern making
5. house painting, if this is considered as craft.
6. ceramic and glass painting.
7. pottery making
8. basketry with real rattan
9. paper and book making

Craft is basically my way to express myself, and sometimes to run away from the boring life, or from work pressure. Even when I am very busy, I always squeeze some time to produce craft. Otherwise, I might be gone crazy.

Hopefully, I will be able to periodically inform you about the craft that I produced. I will also make some tutorials, and probably some ramblings or idea about craft. And although I can speak several languages, I will only use english, and indonesian language here (yes, I'm an indonesian).

Ah, and fyi, I mostly do knitting or crocheting. So don't get surprised if you find plenty of them here.

Well... that's all for craft and me.  Stay tuned, and keep in touch!