Fiber Monday

 

In Which We Are Finally Done With The Blue Shawl!!!

You read that right, folks, in a nearly three hour marathon of work, I have finally completed the blue shawl!!!

It's probably hard to tell in this shot, but it nearly spans
my twin mattress in every direction!

A more refined shot of it crossed over itself

This thing is at least as wide as my armspan and does indeed reach down to my tailbone.  I finished the top by making a 3dc, ch2, 3dc shell in the 3rd chain of every chain space of the final actual row. That was the longest part of the final jog to the finish.

There's probably a couple yards of thread left - not enough to make anything bigger than an ornament or something like that. I'm very very pleased with this result, and once it's finally blocked and the ends are sewn in, it'll make a fun addition to my shawls.

If I had been sensible, I would not have made a mesh shawl with such a small gauge of fiber and such a tiny hook, but no one could ever, ever accuse me of being sensible lol.

The final count of time spent on this shawl was twenty hours, one minute, and around twenty nine seconds. That's a timer of 20:01:29!

Here's where I tell you how much this would cost if I charged minimum wage for this very shawl: $276.35

It's a nice shawl, to be sure, but I'd probably never find a buyer for such a simple garment at that rate. This is why crochet you find in department stores makes me cringe. Since crochet is to complex to automate, that means a human being had to make that $25 handbag, and they had to do it by hand, and they probably got paid pennies to do so.

It makes it very hard to sell handmade items when mega corporations are wage-slaving the craft so they can pump consumers for profit.

How do crafters price things? I honestly have no idea how much the shawl would be worth.

Regardless, I'm really glad to be done with this project, and I can't wait to start on the next pattern.

I did have one more thing to discuss before going the hickety heck to bed, and that is this: I have finally found someone who actually understands those vintage patterns I'm so in love with.

The YouTube channel is called Just Vintage Crochet, and the lady who runs it is an absolute delight. She has a calm, clear voice, she explains things clearly, and sometimes, she randomly crochets things up from vintage patterns without knowing what she's making until she's done. If you've ever wanted to learn how to read properly vintage patterns, absolutely check her out! I maaaaay be trying out a pattern or three from the channel eventually.

As for me, I'm going to rest up. Tomorrow I'll be back to blather. How are all of your own projects going, folks?

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Have Made Progress on the Shawl...
But Have Nothing To Show For It.

That's right, I forgot to take pictures of the blue shawl I'm working on despite all the time I spent on it. Sorry, guys.

And when I say I spent a long time working on it, I mean it.

I spent over three hours crocheting one project this week!

Since I time myself using videos, that means that over the course of 8 sessions (eight separate videos) I crocheted a good 2" of length and probably 6" width. And each session was about 23-24 minutes long. I am thinking that I'll be trying to do more things using that Video Timing Scale.

I spend a lot of time watching videos. Maybe if I Did More Things while watching videos, I'd get more done lol.

Actually I'll try that tomorrow and we'll see what happens! As it is, I'll be doing more work on the shawl. Maybe I'll even remember to take a pic and post it on Twitter or something.

I'll be perfectly honest, my family and I took a trip to the planetarium at UMO on Friday and I've been completely wiped out since then. Some of that could be attributed to my overindulgence at Dysarts, but let's be real, you cannot underindulge at Dysarts.

You must fully indulge.

And you 100% must have pie.

So maybe that's why I'm a little draggy lately lol.

Regardless, tomorrow's another day, and I'll test my Videos=productivity theory and get back to you.

For now, Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Fiber Monday

 

Y'All Ready For Some Shawl?

Because yeah, I worked on the shawl for a whole... hour and 26 minutes this week, bringing my efforts up to a total of 6 hours 53 minutes or so.

And it's not even halfway done.

So if I was to charge an hourly rate at my state's minimum wage ($13.80/hr), I'd have to charge over $95 for this thing just based on labor!

And this, kids, is why there's no such thing as a "fair price" for handicrafts and artwork.

But enough about that, you'll want to see the shawl!

Yup, that's my knee in the shot at the bottom left
and my laptop in the top right.

I've got quite a bit of work left to do on this shawl, and while it's one of the easiest shawls you can make, it's also incredibly slow going with a 2.75mm hook and lace weight cotton.

It's really pretty though.

I kind of wish I had another cake of the green lace from this brand so I could make another shawl in a more springy color... maybe add some cute little pink & white sakura blossoms onto it as décor...

But nay, I shall finish this sucker!

And then I shall make another project!

Who knows what that shall be. We'll find out.

Anywho, I'm gonna go brush my teeth and put a hot pack on my neck for reasons I'll explain tomorrow (they're very silly reasons). I hope all your projects are going well!

That'll do it for me tonight.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which This Is Kind of A Catchup Blog

I'm going to be honest - I didn't draw at all this past week. Sorry. Mostly I have simply been busy and haven't made time like I thought I would. Probably after next week I'll have a better grasp on my art! I do, however, have a series of updates and one quick sketch to put out there for this week!

So, Monday.

I did do a bunch of crochet - in fact, since last week I've worked on that new shawl for almost 2 hours and 10 minutes! That means it's been a total of 5 hours, 8 minutes, and 45 seconds with a 2.75mm hook and lace weight yarn!

Yes, it's very meshy.
Also, yes, I've worn a small patch into the touchpad of my laptop.
That's life.

Now, as for Tuesday blathering, I went on some adventures with my guy and our friends on Valentines to have something of a Palentines Day filled with sushi, burgers, and fun. It was a fantastic trip, I ended up with a massive dark chocolate Kit-Kat, and we got to hang out with cute dogs.

All in all, it's been a fantastic week!

Also, the writing is going pretty good on my manuscript! I had a day where I did no writing (yesterday), but I made up for it last night. In total, I've written 1176 words since last week! And I've got a good idea of where the story is headed, too.

As for art...

I've been bitten by brainworms about a Weird Western idea I had way back in the day regarding a man who was made to look like a demon and had to wander around the desert trying to clear his own name.

Like a lot of story ideas I've had, it's grown up a lot since then, and now I think Devon "The Devil" Deepenham has a deeper well than I'd imagined.

Maybe I won't be as cruel to him as I've been to some of my other characters lately.

That seems unlikely, since the poor man is basically a Frankensteinian monstrosity who escaped an unscrupulous circus sideshow in the twilight of the Civil War...

Anyhow, here's a quick sketch I mocked up of his profile in about 10 minutes:

"The Devil"; pencil sketch; 2023 [ANIMAL]

Oh boy am I not happy with that. I need a lot more practice with profiles before I can get him right. His face is all scrunched up.

Then again, I only gave myself 10 minutes to crank that poor boy out.

I've got work to do with him, especially since I'd really love to figure out a simplified version of him to draw consistently.

He's such a delightfully visual idea.

Next week's looking to be a lot like this week, so I apologize for that, but hey, I'll keep trying to do art no matter what. I can't guarantee it'll be *good* art, though.

Anywho, that'll about do it for me tonight. I have writing to do, sleep to catch up on, and some cranberry/elderberry juice to sip like a fine wine (if you haven't tried it, try it, it's incredible). And if you want a say in next week's art, go ahead and shoot me a coffee over on Ko-Fi with a message telling me which category you'd like - Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Geometric, Location, Word!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Have Crocheted!

First things first - it doesn't feel at all like a Monday. Today felt like a Sunday, and a particularly weird one. I've been even more tired than usual, lately, but that hasn't stopped me from crocheting!

First we have the water bottle holder I made for my dad!

It was my father's birthday recently, so I made him a simple wool water bottle holder. Did he need one? Probably not, but it's always good to have one on-hand. I based this off of several patterns on Ravelry while making my own choices. The wool is very old and had developed a sticky, dusty texture from having gone unwashed the whole time. I took a little fragrance-free, color-free laundry detergent and some cold water and gave the thing a soak & scrub. After a good long soak, I took it out, wrung it gently and then rolled it dry in a towel before hanging it on the towel hook in our bathroom.

It's now in fantastic shape sitting on the table, awaiting use.

In Other News, here's the shawl I've been working on this month.

This week's progress was made over the course of about an hour and 40 minutes. It's coming right along, I think. Eventually, it will switch over to a darker blue, but we've got a while yet before that happens. I just hope it happens at the start of a new row. I'm sure I can fudge it to make that happen...

Regardless, I'm still plugging along, hooking and drawing and typing, and while I may feel ridiculously sleepy most of the time, I shall persist.

or something lol.

I'm also still using videos as a means of timing how long I've worked on something! That's been a lot of fun, actually. I strongly recommend it. I don't recommend having the Autoplay feature on, though, because then you might not know how long each vid you've watched while working was! You might be surprised by how much you can get done during an episode of Food Wishes or Oliver The Beagle.

Anyway, I think I'm going to get my words in over on my manuscript now.

If you want a say in this week's art work, feel free to drop me a coffee over on Ko-Fi with a message telling me which category (animal, vegetable, mineral, dedbert, location, geometric, word).

And as always,

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Finished The Shawl!!!

I did it! The shawl is 100% finished!

Laptop for scale

Yes, that says 54 inches (137cm)

It's shockingly warm, and I only have a couple feet of yarn left! 10/10 would crochet again.

And how long did the whole shawl take? 6 hours, 53 minutes, 23 seconds. Or so. About 7 hours and a full Mega skein of yarn! It'd probably be several regular sized skeins of worsted weight yarn with my J-hook. I did have to switch from double crochet to half-double crochet on the last round, though. I would've run out of yarn 3 inches from the end otherwise!

And what did I do after finishing one obscenely cozy shawl?

I started a second one.

We'll see if I actually have enough thread for this, but it's being made with a 2.75mm hook and lace weight yarn/thread in a cotton/poly mix. It's very soft, but also very splittable and it yarn barfs terribly, but that's just life sometimes.

At a little over an hour in, this is still only about the size of a cellphone. It's not big, but it is deliciously delicate and flowy and drapey and it'll be lovely for spring/summer. Why another shawl? Why not. It's what I grabbed and started, after all.

As for the leftovers from the last project, I think I'll take a K-hook and start turning it into a neckline for a Goblin Sweater. We'll see how that goes. I'll try and record the Goblin Sweater, too.

Next week, I'll have more crochet to show you - the lacy shawl, maybe that Goblin Sweater, who knows what else!

For now, though, I'll be adding another hundred words to my manuscript, maybe sketching, and then? I'm going to bed.

I am hilariously sleepy lol.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC