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September 30, 2009

Knit Aviator Baby Hat

CRAFT: Cozy Up to Yarn

When my son Huck was born this spring, the Craftzine team bought him this adorable hat from the Ikeasaurus benefit auction, which was raising money for a sick baby named Ike in Austin. It made me happy to think of one baby helping another. And now Huck's finally big enough to wear it! The hat was knit by the very talented Beth Reyburn and is perfect for cool San Francisco autumn days.

I also got a photo and an update on Ike's health from his mom, Kari:

Ike-a-saurus is now a rockin' 13 months old. The trach isn't slowing him down at all, even as he crawls upstairs and tries to throw himself in the laundry hamper. He enjoys watching So You Think You Can Dance while he learns to walk, silly boy.

He is still at very high risk for dangerous respiratory infections, so we have to be vigilant with our hand sanitizer, and Ike isn't allowed out of the house, except for doctor's appointments and walks around the block. We're very busy teaching him how to chow down on things like high cal/high fat Greek yogurt so that he can pack on some pounds before the spring. If we can get his weight up, he'll be able to travel to the specialists in Cincinnati for airway reconstruction surgery. Then he'll finally, finally be trach free.

It's not easy around here at Chez Ike-a-saurus, but with the support from our friends, family and community, we're weathering everything surrounded by more love than we could ever comprehend.

Ike is not daunted by any of this, and despite everything, he's even trying to talk. (Something the doctors told us he would never do with the trach.) Here's a link to Ike jabbering, and here are some pictures. He's our sweet boy, and we are stunned every day by how he touches the lives of everyone around him.

Three cheers for charming, brave Ike and his wonderful family and friends! And three cheers for my amazing, thoughtful, big-hearted, crafty coworkers!

Sophie Blackall's Missed Connections

Sophie Blackall has an amazing series of illustrations in her Missed Connections project. She takes "missed connections" classified ads and visually represents them through her enchanting illustrations. From her blog: "Messages in bottles, smoke signals, letters written in the sand; the modern equivalents are the funny, sad, beautiful, hopeful, hopeless, poetic posts on Missed Connections websites. Every day hundreds of strangers reach out to other strangers on the strength of a glance, a smile or a blue hat. Their messages have the lifespan of a butterfly. I'm trying to pin a few of them down." She also offers prints of her illustrations in her Etsy shop.

This Week in Craft Fairs

Here's your weekly craft fair roundup! If you have an event coming up, please add it to our online calendar. To get your call for entries listed in future blog posts, .

Coming Up This Weekend:
Craft Stash Swap
Harker Heights, TX
Saturday, Oct. 3, 10am - 2pm

36th Annual Ozark Arts & Crafts Show
Ozark, MO
Friday, Oct. 2, 9am - 7pm
Saturday, Oct. 3, 9am - 7pm
Sunday, Oct. 4, 9am - 5pm

First Friday Indie Market
Greensboro, NC
Friday, Oct. 2, 4pm - 9pm

Stitch Rock
Delray Beach, FL
Saturday, Oct. 3, 12pm - 6pm

Call For Entries:
Bg Craft Fest
Walnut Creek, CA
Saturday, Nov. 14
Fee: $50
Deadline to apply: Oct. 16, 2009

Indie Mart
San Francisco, CA
Sunday, Nov. 8
Fee: $75 - $150
Deadline to apply: Oct. 8, 2009

Conejo Valley Moms' Annual Holiday Boutique 2009
Thousand Oaks, CA
Saturday, Nov. 7
Fee: $60
Deadline to apply: Oct. 31, 2009

Deluxe Indie Craft Bazaar
Oklahoma City, OK
Saturday, Dec. 12
Fee: $75 - $170
Deadline to apply: Oct. 15, 2009

2nd Annual Funky Finds Spring Fling
Fort Worth, TX
Saturday, Mar. 13, 2010
Fee: $75 - $185
Deadline to apply: Nov. 15, 2009

Market Day
Des Moines, IA
Saturday, Oct. 24
Fee: $20
Deadline to apply: Oct. 17, 2009

From Scratch
Allentown, PA
Saturday, Nov. 14
Fee: $30
Deadline to apply: Oct. 15, 2009

I Made It! Market
Pittsburgh, PA
Sunday, Nov. 22
Fee: $40
Deadline to apply: Open until 50 vendors are signed up

I Made It! Market
Pittsburgh, PA
Saturday, Dec. 5
Fee: $40
Deadline to apply: Open until 50 vendors are signed up

BUST Holiday Craftacular
New York, NY
Sunday, Dec. 6
Fee: $260
Deadline to apply: Nov. 2, 2009

University of Virginia Artisan's Bazaar
Charlottesville, VA
Thursday, Nov. 19 - Saturday, Nov. 21
Fee: $50 - $100
Deadline to apply: Oct. 12, 2009

Plush You! in Seattle Opening October 9

Plush You! is an annual exhibition of really amazing art plush. This year it's taking Seattle by storm at the following locations:

Plush You! Artist Reception: Friday, October 9th 5 - 10 pm

Schmancy
1932 2nd Ave, Seattle, WA, 98101
Fancy
1914 2nd Ave, Seattle, WA, 98101
Nancy 1932 2nd Ave, Seattle, WA, 9810

Artist Reception: Saturday, October 10th 5 - 10 pm

Bluebottle Art Gallery and Store 415 East Pine Street, Seattle, WA, 98122
The Anne Bonny
534 Summit Ave East, Seattle, WA, 98102

Handmade Nation will also be screening at Northwest Film Forum on October 10 and 11. There's also a Plush You! kick off class on October 3rd where you can learn to make toys from old sweaters!

Sarah London's Wool Eater Blanket

This Wool Eater blanket looks so very complicated, but Sarah London's instructions make it seem easy. The colors are quite inspiring, and the texture is to die for!

How-To: Snowflake Pumpkins

I love the clever way Merrilee of mer mag created these charming paper Jack-O-Lanterns. She's cut them out paper snowflake-style to create symmetrical, fun faces! See her blog for all the steps.

Knit Your Own Team Logo Scarf

CRAFT: Cozy Up to Yarn

By Michelle Kempner
Fall is an exciting time. The leaves are changing, the kids are back to school, and football season is starting up. Since you are starting to pull your knitting needles and yarn back out of the closet, why not use them to knit a scarf to support your favorite sports team? The scarf could have an image of the school mascot or a professional sports team logo. You can design the pattern yourself using photo software and the existing sports team logo and have a very unique scarf to wear to games.

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Mixing Fibers: Free Knit Pin Cushion Pattern

A common problem when working from the stash, is having only a small amount of each type of fiber left. How can you successfully combine cotton and wool in the same project? How can you combine acrylic with silk? Should you? Would you? Could you dare? (Yes, I totally stole that line from the Spooky Old Tree). Yes to all three! Of course your should.

By combining fibers in the same project you can start playing with texture, color, and drape in ways never possible. I love taking advantage of a fiber's inherent property and pairing it with another to create various affects and looks.

A few guidelines to get started
1. If using a combination of wool and anything else remember that the wool will felt and the other fibers will not. This can be used to your advantage, or end up in the reject bin. I combine wool and cotton in the Perfect Dishcloth so it will intentionally felt the wool as you use it as a dish rag. In this case it make a semi harsh scouring pad perfect for use of teflon and the like. The un-felted cotton gives it a nice texture that a just wool felted rag would not have.

2. If you don't want your project to gather, use the same gauge throughout your project. Like the felting, this is not a rule, just keep it in mind. This can mean using all the same weight, or changing needles/hooks for each section of yarn. It can be used to your advantage to have a thinner stretching yarn combined with a thicker yarn that has less give. Like an alpaca with cotton.

3. Winding yarns together is a great way to get a new yarn from three old ones. I used a cotton, wool, silk, and acrylic all together to make the great bulky yarn in this crocheted scarflet.

Knit Pin Cushion Pattern

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Ask CRAFT: Photographing Your Projects

If you have a question for Ask CRAFT, shoot me an email at becky@craftzine.com, or drop us a note on Twitter! We'd love to answer your crafty questions on any topic: technique, projects, crafty culture, or anything else! Each week the answers are here; include your name, where you're from, and your website or blog if you have one!

Michelle Hiskey writes in asking:

I love the photos on Craftzine. Even if i have no intention of making the craft, i appreciate the photo styling and details. can you supply tips on how these photos are made?

It's true that having great photos will make your project more likely to get attention on our site. Here's my advice.

Know your equipment

You don't have to have an expensive camera to take great photos. A simple point-and-shoot digital camera with at least a 3 megapixel resolution will serve you well for almost all applications. You can really go crazy spending money on cameras, but don't spend a lot before you learn a lot, to make sure you're getting what you want and not just an expensive paperweight. Once you've got your camera, read the manual. Lost it? Look it up on the manufacturer's website. It's imperative that you know how to operate your camera including setting the white balance and any manual exposure settings you camera may have. Oh, and get a tripod, even one of those small desk ones (I recommend the Gorillapod or ModoPocket).

Lighting, lighting, lighting!

Lighting is the absolute most important aspect of photography. Photograph near a bright window, or invest in a few hardware store clamp lights and play with their arrangement around your photo area. You can build your own softbox to diffuse them, even, and a light box, too. Look through your camera's viewfinder at your subject and try to minimize glare and strange shadows by positioning lights above, below, in front, and behind your object.

Setting the scene

Professional photographers often use a seamless backdrop (fabric or paper) draped from the wall out to the floor/table, as it eliminates the line where the horizontal surface of the table/floor meets the wall. You can do this at home with a piece of fabric (iron it, please!) or some solid-color wrapping paper on a roll (Ikea has it for cheap, natch). You may choose to photograph your project in a more natural setting, in which case you should think about props and background scenery. If it's a food project, make sure your kitchen counter is clean! You get the idea, look at your photo as if you're seeing it for the first time, and check for what might catch the viewer's eye (both positively and negatively).

Software touchups

If you're going to learn only one Photoshop technique, let it be Levels. Available under Image > Adjustments > Levels, it's great for making your photo really pop by making the lights lighter and the darks darker. Don't be afraid of the histogram in the window that pops up, it will soon be your best friend. It's showing you the distribution of lights and darks in your image. I like to drag the outer sliders just a bit towards the center of the histogram. Leave the "preview" box checked to see what your modified image will look like. This small tweak can make a good photo great. Avoid cheesy watermarks or other image manipulations. Keep it classy!

Share!

Get your photos out there! Put them on Picasa Web or Flickr, and add them to the CRAFT Flickr pool! Use them on your blog, make an Instructable, go crazy (and have fun)! If you can't get enough photography projects, check out Photojojo. Got photo tips for us? Share them in the comments.

Iconic Characters Reborn as Lego Sculptures

I've just spent way too much time browsing the CubeDude Flickr gallery of legendary characters in Lego form. The various Star Wars characters are fantastic, the Walter Sobchak (of The Big Lebowski) makes me want to cry in joy, and the in-process sketches are fascinating. Enjoy!

[ via The Coolist ]

Robot sorts pancakes

Who is eating all these pancakes?! PT @ MAKE writes:

Wow! This robot sorts over 400 pancakes per minute. Right around 1:15 it gets amazing, it seems like it's sped up, but they need to slow it down in the video to show it off!

Computer vision, robots, and pancakes; I don't think this morning could get any better.

How-To: Easy Fringe Fleece Scarf

Marie of Make and Takes shares how she made this simple fringed fleece scarf with one line of stitching and a handful of cuts.

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