Lace Shawl Envy

My mother-in-law bought Victorian Lace Today for me as a Christmas present, and then took me to Needle Nook in Decatur to buy some yarn.

I picked out some beautifully soft 100% merino in black, laceweight of course. I'm going to start with one of the simpler shawls, so I can get an FO sooner. But my REAL goal is this absolutely gorgeous hexagon shawl, which I intend to make in dark red. It's huge, though: it takes eight skeins of Kid Silk Haze, and it's knit on size 5 or so needles. I think it's five feet across, or something crazy like that.

It will take me a lifetime to finish it, but I really want it. <3

I'm thankful for the internet!

I think 2007 has been very good for me artistically, in a large part because of my online life!

I've done a few Craftster swaps, and now I'm doing lots of Swap-Bot swaps; that keeps me creating.

And for graphic design, I've done lots of avatars, signatures, and icons, plus some banners. Sure, they're usually small, but that means I have to think carefully about color, typeface, proportion, contrast, and everything else. It's hard to design small, and every element must contribute to the design: no freeloaders!

I even found the North Gwinnett Polymer Clay Meetup, which lead to some silver clay classes with Barbara McGuire!

I've really missed having artists in my life, since I finished my degree. I never thought the internet would help fill that gap!

My new goal is going to be at least one new project every week!

See more progress on: Make at least one art/craft project every week

Inchies just seem so fun...

I’ve made ATCs and scrapbook pages, and I’ve made lots of avatars. Inchies are a natural next step, right?

One inch square pieces of art; I love it! Who says art has to be BIG?

See more progress on: try my hand at making inchies

I think I've created a monster...

I’ve done two (three?) Swap-Bot ATC swaps, and I’m signed up for about five more. I think I’m getting the hang of this, don’t you? :)

See more progress on: swap artist trading cards

Thank you, Ravelry!

Well, I didn't find out about ThankRavelDay until today, which is sorta later. So I'll take this chance to express publicly just how impressed I am by what Jess and Casey have done! I'm so glad they have put so much time and ingenuity into it.

If you aren't familiar with it, Ravelry is a knit and crochet community. That's very simplified, though. Ravelry's biggest strength is that virtually everything is interlinked! It has some really unique features, too. The best may be the forum radar: you can watch the new forum posts from all over the site pop up one after another on one page. It's fun.

The quality level of everything on Ravelry is very high. Jess and Casey have done an excellent job!

Swap love

I can't believe I didn't discover online swaps until a year ago! It's so me: I love making stuff, and I really appreciate handmade things other people make. But the best part? I love finding ways to add a little extra something to make my partner smile! It's almost like planning a surprise party...

I remember first reading about artist trading cards sometime around 2005, and I was so excited. I immediately rummaged through my supplies and whipped up a couple. Only one problem: no one–and I mean no one–wanted to do ATCs! How was I supposed to trade my artist trading cards if no one made any to trade with me? So unfair!

Fast forward to early this year. Somehow, I magically discovered the ATC section on Craftster. (Okay, I'm slow; I know it's been there forever...) Suddenly, I could trade with more people than I could ever imagine! Finally, in April, I did my first real swap: Artist's Choice ATCs! Could it GET any easier?

Since then I've done a few different ATC swaps, but I recently found any even better way to swap: Swap-Bot! I can't explain why, but I think I like it even better than Craftster for swapping. Right now, I'm signed up for or already participating in five, ranging from ATCs to saved images to pressed pennies!

My photo shows some of the wonderful goodies I've received this year; sorry about the dead grass, but once I realized how long it would take to find a large enough piece of fabric that was not covered in cat hair, I decided to take pride in my adherence to the watering ban (serious drought in Georgia). So, that a dishcloth, Bible verse, and chocolate from anxiousdog at Ravelry; a glass jar of goodies and PotC cross stitch kit from Jenlar at Craft Wonderland; ball of yarn to contribute to my Rapunzel scarf out of a big box from Swap-Bot; and an owl ATC and tea from Raven, also at Swap-Bot.

And speaking of Swap-Bot swaps... If you're one of my Blog Love 2 partners, welcome! :)