11.14.2004
Yes, I know it looks like I've abandoned ship over here. I haven't offline, just not sure how to document the process and how it fits into the whole site. Still working on that. I won't saw this project is a failure, but not quite a success at this point.
BUT - I'm finally getting a chance to do the apartment purging I shoulda been doing in March. Been adding very little to the Brandysphere, being a fish that's grown to the size of my bowl. But haven't been getting rid of enough.
The frustration with the election has gotten me in just the right angry, fed up mood that I'm throwing shit out.
A three foot stack of magazines is nearly gone - having torn out articles I want to save. I'm down to 600 emails in my Inbox, after 3300 (!!!). Making things out of available materials.
Back to cleaning all the rocks in my fishbowl...
posted at 11:34:56 PM
8.31.2004
State of the Brandysphere - August
Diagnosing myself with "August Brain," I did very little this month. BUT remarkably, I actually cleaned my apartment!
Heavens, no, you say.
Yes. It's true.
Family visiting can do that to even the most reticent slob. Happily, it puts me in the perfect frame of mind for September. September, November and December are ripe with craft shows. Now that everything is in it's place, I can get my hands on all these unfinished projects to make new work for this season of craft shows.
Hip, hip hooray!
posted at 1:22:34 AM
8.9.2004
Bag O' Bags Taking Shape
Here's the progress from vacation on my tote bag made from recycled grocery bags crocheted together.
It's about 11" in diameter, 4" high. I crocheted all of of the ball you see if you scroll down. Man, this stuff is hard on the poor fingers. If you're going to crochet plastic bags, stay far away from the thicker ones that have a slightly rubbery feel. Very resistant. The red bags and some of the yellow were that kind of plastic. Very taxing. Plain old white bags are a breeze.
It's looking lumpy and none-too-pretty, but it is taking shape. Now a hiatus until I collect more bags in the right colors. May have to raid the bag stashs of friends...
posted at 5:30:07 AM
8.1.2004
I'll being sketching, resting and reading in Minnesota with family until August 10th. Might blog, might not.
posted at 2:48:02 PM
7.31.2004
State of the Brandysphere - July
Sorta back on the wagon. I know this is hard to believe, but I'm finally cleaning my apartment. Having the exterminator (maintenance - happily no pests) in my apartment Wednesday was sobering. He was in the apartment no more than two minutes, but he had to tiptose like a mountain goat on along the narrow path of carpet to the kitchen between piles of stuff.
As I said in the Me blog:
I was telling Kent about how they exterminated the building yesterday. They must have started at the top of the building, because they knocked bright and early. In a bathrobe and sheepishly, I let the exterminator in the spritz the magic bug killing juice in the bathroom and kitchen. The apartment is still being rules by the laws of entropy, so this poor guy had to walk a narrow path to the kitchen past piles of clean and dirty laundry, books, papers and junk. I apologized and he said, "Oh, this actually isn't that bad." !!!
Now, I know I am a slob. I know I never get to science experiment in the corner slob. I never get to complusive collector with 50 years of daily newspapers bad. It could be a lot worse. But I do live alone in a small spac and a bajillion projects.
Kent said it best, and he lived with me about a year, "You're not too many cats messy. You're too many ideas messy."
----
BUT I am cleaning a bunch. And even though it's wasteful, I'm ditching a bunch of cardboard boxes and plastic bags. Better to purge and free up space than to retain it all, waiting for uses and ideas. But see what goes out into the trash, makes me more careful about what comes in.
And I'll have several visitors in August that'll keep me on track.
posted at 11:19:52 PM
Bag O' Bags!
Last year I started collecting grocery and shopping bags in snazzy colors to try my hand at crocheting a tote bag out of sliced and diced plastic bags. A small drawer filled with bags.
Then I happened upon Mimi Kirchner's blog Tuesday (see 07.27.04). That reminded me of that project on haitus. I'm going on vacation tomorrow, I thought, "Perfect, mindless craft to bring on vacation!"
So, here's the progress so far:
The big pile o' bags.
Two bags flattened out and ready to go under the knife.
Those bag sliced into roughly 1" wide strips.
The big pile o' loops.
All of those loops were tied together alternative black with a color. Ex. black, white, black, red, black, white, black, yellow, etc. Then those were wound up in a big ball of plastic "yarn."
And as you can see, I started by crocheting a spiral. It's about 6" in diameter here. I'm going for a circular tote bag, big enough to take around the neighborhood for errands - with handles big enough to throw over my shoulder.
More progress after my vacation. I wonder how far I'll get.
More links here.
posted at 7:59:42 PM
7.18.2004
Thrifty Knitting
Here's a great tutorial on How to Unravel a Sweater, written and photographed by Ashley Martineau.
posted at 6:53:23 PM
