Kalira Makes Things

Crafty sideblog of @Kalira; currently hyperfixating on: crochet.

[kaliracrafts]

Hiya, I'm @kalira and I craft!

Mainly (at the moment) crochet, but I do all sorts. (Older once-pinned post has a broader list here.) I have been most of my life - I was raised by a seamstress, who taught me to sew and also either taught me or encouraged me to learn and try all kinds of other things.

I try out new things sometimes, especially when my library system hosts a crafting evening!

Expect mainly: crochet, sewing, cross-stitch

Some: painting, origami

(And more which may or may not be predictable.)

I tag by type of craft, materials, WIP/finished, year finished, type of item, recipient (for presents and sometimes commissions), my pets (and by name), backlog for old projects I'm sharing now.

I also talk sometimes about materials, planning, design work, and Crafting While Spoonie, as well as markets and other events.

All images have alt text.

(New year, new pinned post!)

[kaliracrafts]

Cherries Cross-Stitch

A tiny little piece! (That's a wallet photo sized frame, so 2 x 3 inches.)

This was done at a library event; I already know how to cross-stitch, but I mean. . . (And if I'd felt guilty about it - the event was full and I got a message beforehand reminding everyone who signed up to please cancel their reservation if they couldn't make it, to allow someone else the spot - well . . . five people showed up. Total. There were sixteen reserved spots. Owch!)

I did worry and wonder if I should cancel, to be honest - I had just moved in to stay with a friend at the time, back in February, because due to healthcare bullshit my IV meds were late for the second month in a row, and I had been getting dangerously weak.

I also learned a trick I've never seen/considered before for starting to stitch without a knot, which was nice and helpful!

We had two patterns to choose from - a striped heart and the cherries.

I chose the cherries, obviously. (You may see cherry designs pop up in my crafting not too infrequently; I've always had a fondness, but my very favourite musical artist is Acid Black Cherry and that does increase my fondness. ;))

They had the featured colours of the patterns laid out, of course, but at the right you can see the heaps of other colours for us to trade them out if we wished. (I traded out the red on mine for a brighter one.)

They also had stacks of pre-cut aida (far larger than necessary!) each with a needle through it, and hoops, on each table.

(I had to get help from a librarian to get my aida in the hoop! Ack! I was weaker than normal even for me, but it made me feel a little better that she struggled with it as well. ^^;)

I finished stitching the whole pattern that evening, which was neat!

(I know it's small, but really, a short one-sitting stitch, still! Even more so for being in a decidedly non-optimal condition.)

I also tweaked it a teeny tiny bit (like, a change of few little stitches).

Also, it was quite nice of them - we got to take the hoop and needle home as well, and of course the printed patterns (I got one of the heart patterns as well) which were free-to-use ones (the cherries are from DMC). The librarian encouraged me to take some extra pieces of the aida she'd cut for the evening and some of the accidentally-too-small stacks on the supply table and some lengths of embroidery floss if I liked as well!

Very nice of her, and the things were added to my embroidery craft drawer.

[kaliracrafts]

Cat Stitch

(Just practise, because the stitch looks very cool, but also like the kind of thing that requires some practise and experience to look cool.)

I was correct in that. I can see the cat shapes on mine, but it's not very defined or anything, exactly.

Of course, you have to start with basically shells on a chain, which is tricky in its own way. . .

Also, since I was experimenting, I didn't work the ends in as I went, and man, confirmed my inclination to do that regularly.

There were so many ends by the time I was finished! Imagining making something large with this pattern . . . and worse, if one didn't weave in ends (or crochet over them) as one went. . . Oof.

Still! It does look cool! And perhaps I'll do something with it eventually!

. . .but no idea what or when I might.

This swatch has been dropped in the kitchen washcloth basket, however.

(Project on Ravelry)

[kaliracrafts]

Light Kerchief

(No pictures of me wearing it, currently; forgot to get a friend to help me with that, I guess.)

I made it last October, hoping for something comfortable (I used to wear kerchiefs all the time, especially all summer working at a ranch) and light enough not to overheat, but. . .

I haven't actually worn it at all this summer; I don't know that it would be too hot (more than existing is too hot, this summer) but the slight curve to the edge makes it slide back over the top of my head all too easily when I'm wearing it, (though it doesn't help that I'm out of practise wearing kerchiefs) and also it poofs out a lot at the sides.

This was my first time using a granny square style stitch at all!

(And I haven't since, either. . .)

It was pretty easy!

. . .it did get a little interminable, but I think any kind of stitch would in this sort of thing, really; it took like 18 rows for the base? (I also used a lighter weight of yarn than the pattern calls for, so I expected it to take more rows, which it did.)

Then time to add a pretty edge. . .

And to finish it off, pretty tie ends!

Also if I'd known that it would wind up being impossible to take the end of my chain (I used a double chain, partly for stability/strength) into one of those tie end decorative leaf/feather motifs I would have tied it off somewhere along the kerchief, but instead I would up having to fiddle with it a fair bit connecting the motif to the chain right at the end. Oh, and if I make another, I'll make the ties longer - this one has just enough length to tie at the back of my neck and the motifs be close but not right on top of the knot; a little more leeway would be nice!

Took me a little over 5 hours total.

(Project on Ravelry)

[kaliracrafts]

Native Patchwork

Another library craft! The pattern is Wind Clan; not from my tribe, but the teacher (and a handful of his family!) were sharing their own (he apparently does little events frequently; his cousin also showed off some of her clothing designs and alterations), and it was all very cool!

It was also nice to get a chance to knock the rust off my sewing skills with someone looking over my shoulder, so to speak - I've been wanting to pick up sewing again, but I needed to troubleshoot my machine and also hadn't done much of any sewing since . . . I was a teenager.

So it's been a hot minute. >.>

As I was leaving (first to be finished, even though I was the last to get started and my machine kept unthreading itself and I had to get a hand to re-thread it) the teacher told me 'dang it's like you already knew what to do! hardly had to tell you anything!'

I guess my old skills came back pretty quickly and well!

(Though using the rotary cutter, which was a bit dull, was a bit rough on me with the myasthenia issues, especially with multiple layers.)

We started with two long strips, seamed together on one long edge, then cut into equal width strips crossways, half one colour and half the other.

Then seamed together again, alternating colours, at a diagonal offset, and edged with bias tape on the long sides.

(Only one other person chose contrasting colours - he chose pale pink and medium blue - and while by all means make everything your own, I did wonder if any of them have seen many Native American designs. . .)

I could have gone with another shade of bias tape but I liked the purple for the contrast with both those colours!

And, of course, stitched onto the bag without stitching the bag closed by accident. . .

(We had a choice of making a bag or a towel.)

Aside from being super fun running the class, the teacher was also really good - as in, I got home confident that I could do it again myself without any further instruction. I haven't tried it yet, but I still am and perhaps I will!

[kaliracrafts]

Small Articulated Snake Amigurumi

Another present . . . and one of the trickiest amigurumi I've worked out.

Granted, I did wing it . . . but I winged it after taking two tries using patterns, that didn't work out.

The first two tries:

The snake was originally supposed to be a bookmark, but. . .

Yeah perhaps that's a later project. I guess. By the third try I so very much didn't want to be working on the dratted thing, either, but I was running short on time and also was in that feeling like 'if I don't work it out now, it's going to be A Time before I do, if I ever do'. So. Onwards.

And it was tricky, but workable!

Started the head from an oval, rather than a point, and I think that helped a good deal as well.

Still decided to stick with stitched on eyes (same yarn but in a silvery grey) rather than trying to fit safety eyes in the little head.

Still winging it from there, me pinging a friend like does this body size look good for this head size?

(Yes.)

Good! . . .but still putting it aside for the night there; I'd taken two runs at snakes already! Oof!

Took the snake with me to an appointment the next day, though, and worked on it in the waiting room.

When I got home I went ahead and worked out the length and the wire, and installed it in the already-stuffed head (with a loop and a bend so it wouldn't poke through the nose).

Of course, that meant I had to work the rest of the body and the tail decreases around the wire, which was a pain and a half, but I think more workable than threading the wire in after would have been. (I also stitched the end of the tail through that loop at the folded end of the wire, to secure it there.)

The decreases/tail were winged a bit, but they turned out all right!

. . .looks a bit weird so very straight, though. Fortunately!

The wire works out super well for a nice slithering snake!

(It is re-wiggleable as well, though it's floral wire, not something made for this, so it probably wouldn't stand up to being constantly bent and re-bent around.)

With a slightly heavier wire, though, could probably make, say, snake armbands or bracelets, which sounds super fun to me actually!

(Project on Ravelry)

[kaliracrafts]

Snail Stamp Stitch

Ah, another snail!

(Another present for the same friend, as it happens - though this one was planned, and the other was a bit of a pull-together-from-existing.)

Friend loves snails . . . and snail mail. So when I saw this cross-stitch pattern, I mean! I had to!

Hardest parts when I picked it up . . . measuring to the centre, and getting the fabric in the hoop with myasthenia issues.

The back also got messy quite quickly while I was focusing on keeping the front neat and tidy.

(In fairness, I also hadn't done any cross-stitching since I was a teenager.)

Took the project along to @mad-madam-m's for our weekly date - I generally bring a project when we're at her place; I sit at her kitchen table and stitch and we chat while she cooks. ^.^

Finished the whole snail before dinner!

(And the back wasn't so bad, considering. Just that one snarl, mostly.)

And after dinner and our show, while we were hanging out, I started the border as well.

Stitching the snail into a box!

And, of course, adding the wavy stamp edge.

(I realised belatedly that I miscounted when I was setting up the border, but I did not want to undo the whole wavy line and all four sides of the base box, so I fudged a little on two diagonally opposing corners.)

(Can you see the difference in the two I stitched there? Probably not without looking closely. A couple friends said they couldn't even after I pointed it out, so. And with it balanced diagonally opposite, doesn't look 'off' so strongly.)

I got this far and while I could have filled in the stamp border with another colour (as per the pattern), even though time was at this point rather short . . . I chose not to; I like the hollow look and I think it goes nicely with the design of the snail itself!

I was playing thread chicken on that last one or two wave points, and thinking if I have to get a new length of thread for the last three stitches I swear. . . (My villain origin story will be littered with such cases.) But I did not, happily!

. . .of course at this point, about 10pm the day before I planned to be gifting this present, I now need to figure out how I'm finishing the stitch, which I have absolutely not planned.

Time to get creative!

Plastic canvas, cut to a precise size, sharply creased aida with the stitch on it, and complementary shade of yarn.

Time to start stitching again!

To a precise area measurement, of course. And it took way longer than I thought it would. But! Put it together with a nice neat edge, trimmed for prettier corners. . .

Looks a little rough, still, though.

Took another scrap of the yarn and gave it a frame edge over the raw edge of the aida, as well.

Quite neat, I think, considering! I did consider adding a hanging loop or something in the process, but chose not to, leaving it just a framed piece.

Q was super delighted with it, and I was delighted with her delight, it was quite fun all around!

[kaliracrafts]

Snail Amigurumi (Magnet!)

Isn't he cute!

. . .alas, he turns instantly head-downwards if not supported.

And adding a magnet was my attempt to fix a similar problem with him when he was first made - because he immediately faceplanted.

Alas!

(It was also a bit of a sketchy pattern; example, 'attach pieces' with no guidelines on how/where. Another from a book I bought.)

When I was first making him, head downwards, there was a bit of spacial weirdness before I realised that the direction the eyes pointed was different than my natural guess.

Also me showing a photo to a friend partway through like 'very reasonable new pattern'. XD

(She guessed correctly that it was a snail from that second photo.)

The shell makes me think of macarons, though.

And then 'attach the shell to the body' as per pattern.

I think I did a decent job with that, though! Alas, sleepy snail immediately faceplants when set upright . . . and it's not like there's any room in his body for a weight - and any weight in his shell would only tip forwards, pretty sure.

So after he'd been sitting for a couple of weeks I thought, okay, how about attaching a magnet to one side of his shell! Perhaps he'll stay up if he's hanging on a surface!

. . .well, you saw how that worked out, but ah well.

I attached the magnet with glue but also with a crocheted webbing of a lighter, thinner yarn in a complimentary pink over it, especially since the magnet is an unfinished surface.

A very loose webbing.

I do like snails, but while this one is very cute - and I wound up giving him as a gift to a friend who loves snails, when I needed at least a small additional gift for her ^^; and she loved him - I don't think I'll make this exact one again. I can't think of how to change the pattern so that the resulting snail won't immediately faceplant, for one thing!

(Project on Ravelry)

[kaliracrafts]

Spooky Decorative Book

From a library event back in October (shocking; libraries do love a theme!), which taught me a few things.

I made mine rather simpler than some of the other folks at this one, but I was surprised how much the cover looks like a leather cover, when painted black (no doubt browns would have a similar effect).

The books they set out for us were ones weeded from their collection or donated and not appropriate for their collection (mine, for example, is an outdated mathematics text if I remember correctly), and they had already been prepared for painting and generally decorating.

Mostly because it would have taken quite a bit more time if we did that step ourselves, I think. >.> But it's crinkled tissue paper hot-glued to the cover, giving it texture. (It's only just wrapped around the edges of the cover onto the endpaper, but I think I'd take it a bit further around if I were doing it.)

Several of us noted that if you paint too heavily or too roughly the tissue paper will, soaked with acrylic paint, not unexpectedly, tear. I only had one small one, and I put it beneath the bat sticker. XD

It still took a fair bit of time to dry, leaving me sitting there aware of the limited event time passing and with nothing to do, problems that are absent in home projects.

Before painting, or between layers, you could also use a hot glue gun to make raised patterns - one person did a very neat variation writing a 'title' on the spine of theirs and then painting over the raised letters.

I kept it simple, obviously - black over the cover, pale blue edging the pages, the skeletal bat on the front. . . - though I'm not super into it as a purely decorative piece, and I might turn it into a book box eventually!

[kaliracrafts]

Kitchen Scrubby Cloth

So I had in progress a set of five washcloths for the kitchen. . .

A keen eye might be able to tell that is not what this is. Sort of.

I went to a library yarn hangout in January intending to work on something else, I don't even remember what (amigurumi of some kind, I believe, from the hook sizes I brought), but then right after I parked, I got a phone call with Bad News I'd been stressing out and exhausted chasing down and trying to avert for weeks (months).

So when I sat down, I didn't have the brain or the emotional bandwidth to work on amigurumi, especially not something more complicated, and I thought, you know, I have the red cotton with me, I'll just start the next in my kitchen washcloth set.

But. Crucially. Though it didn't occur to me and I got started on the counts etc. (the kitchen washcloths are about 34 stitches wide starting off a double chain and 32-34 rows tall) and began working rows. . .

I didn't have the hook size I use for the washcloths with me - I don't have a crochet hook case (it's on my list of to-solve-with-crafting problems, actually; I've tried shopping for one but find nothing I like) and so I extra don't bring a lot of hooks with me to the hangout - 1-3 usually, depending on what I'm working on, and just one or a couple projects, again depending on what I'm working on and if it's something I'll want to work on straight for an hour and a half or not.

The washcloths use a 5.5mm hook. This is made with a 3.5mm hook.

I realised when I had maybe a dozen rows that it was super tight and smaller than I expected and Realised, and ngh, and had to explain to the librarian after I muttered 'I am a smart person, I am'. >.>

I debated, then went fuck it, I'll finish it as is, the tight weave might work well for a more scrubby kitchen cloth. It's good! Might need to make some more, really, if only to fill out the set along with the regular washcloths. XD (Though it might have been nicer, if I'd done it on purpose, to use a different colour yarn, so as to see at a glance which one I'm grabbing from the basket under the cabinet.)

I finished it the same evening, partly in an attempt to disassociate from the Bad News stress and upset.

(Project on Ravelry)

[kaliracrafts]

Mini Aroace Rose

After I took a shot at making two-coloured roses, I thought. . .

Pride roses might be fun! And I had the colours for aroace pride already (bought for another project; I haven't tried that one yet).

. . .it was quite challenging changing colours that many times, with embroidery floss, and loose ends everywhere. But!

(I also measured out looking at another embroidery floss rose how many petals should be in each colour to be sure that the outer rim should all be the final colour, and the others all have close to or around one full round of petals as well.)

Plus the same green for the calyx and stem I've used for all my other mini roses thus far.

It now lives with @mad-madam-m, and apparently the extra-long stem fits perfectly in a little vase she keeps on a kitchen shelf!

(Project on Ravelry)

[kaliracrafts]

Kitchen Washcloths

I made one as practise/learning moss stitch, pretty early in my crochet career so to speak, and . . . I really like using it in the kitchen, so I set up to make a set of five more!

A project I started in June . . . last year. And finished in March of this one.

It's fine!

Honestly, it only took so long because I kept crocheting lots of other stuff - for markets, for presents, for immediate need things. . . And these were easy to put aside. Small and not pressing!

Of course, I wanted to take a photo of all of them together before any of them had been used and washed and whatnot, so I also couldn't use the ones I'd finished as I went, which was more frustrating than the delay in general. . .

But so it goes! I may, hopefully, have gotten better at judging sizes for squares as I went - and the practise at consistency with moss stitch and not having the sides pull in concave was (hopefully) helpful.

They now live in the basket in the kitchen, of course - when they're not hanging out over the sink, or in the dirty kitchen laundry basket. XP

I still love using them! (I might have to make more.)

(Project on Ravelry)

[kaliracrafts]

Corn Maiden Corn Husk Doll

A quick bonus! The 'bonus table' at the keychain library event - the storyteller lady who was running it told us the story of the corn maiden before we started Craft Time and said that if we liked we could also make a corn husk doll.

I wanted to try that! After I made three keychains, I checked the time and decided I'd better do it then. >.>

I was a bit sloppy on her here and there (and the assistance/instruction we got on the process was not terribly helpful, to be honest), but I'm pleased I got the chance and all, and I like her!

Not bad for starting from-

(Though the tiny rubber bands on wet corn husks? Oof, tricky!)

[kaliracrafts]

Native Style Keychains

Another library event - and in fact, the same day as the medallion earrings one back in November; I left that one to go to another library for this one. XD

This one was much better and more fun though!

We were told the origin of pony bead crafts for Native Americans (and the name 'pony bead'), and then told there were four tables with four different styles of keychains to make, with instructions and a bin of premade bags for them at each, and we could make as many as we wanted and had time for.

We were also told the scale of difficulty. I started at the beginning!

That far left one, very simple style.

All the beads were in the bag already, though I did look through some colour options. These ones aren't my favourite either, but better than the other options I had. (I might give this one to my brother sometime, actually. We'll see.) I arranged the order, of course.

Moved to another table along with two of the folks I'd been sitting with, who were very nice and I chatted with (a queer couple at my guess).

Switched out one of the colours on this one! . . .and also the bottom beads, because I had those flowers in my bag for it, that were supposed to be ending both strands, only they wouldn't fit together through it, so the teacher brought over an organiser box for me to pick through, and while I was at it I traded yellow for purple . . . and decided to use butterflies and flowers on split strands instead.

I used this one on my car keys for a bit!

(But it's a bit long, especially when I clip my car keys on the outside of my purse while I'm running errands and stuff.)

So after a while I switched it out with the third style!

Can you guess I switched all the colours out on this one?

The teacher brought over an organiser again and told us to choose whatever we wanted to swap out colours, and I think all three of us there at the end switched out all of them.

Also as I was arranging my colours/order and deciding how I liked it, the I-guessed-queer person sitting beside me looked over and went 'oh I love your colours! ... oh' paused and looked me very directly in the face 'I love your colours, those are great colours'.

They are, aren't they? ^.^ They're on my car keys now!

(Then we split up; one of the persons I'd been chatting with came with me to a Bonus Table, and the other went to the most complex keychain table to make a full set of four.)

It was a lot of fun, both the craft - which was super easy, of course, but that was perhaps quite good after the argly one before - and the chatting with the nice folks there.

[kaliracrafts]

Medallion Earrings

Another library craft event! (Back in November, during Native American Heritage Month.) Unfortunately with a quite not good teacher . . . even more unfortunate because apparently she does this as a job?

Oh dear.

Also this is as far as I got in the process.

(That was with me staying a full half-hour longer than the projected hour of class time, which was what the teacher said they should use. Note that I am familiar with sewing, beading, and combining the two.)

Poorly calculated timescale.

We had little premade kits ready for us, at least, when we got there:

Though not with the beads prepared (not that we got to choose colours either, they were just elsewhere - and she handed us tissues to contain them).

I did at least learn how to do this kind of stitching beads snugly around a central point! (Roughly.)

Could have been better, but worked out all right!

However from there, the instructions were to trim the batting around it closely (but not cutting any thread/stitches, of course), and then stitch it onto a matching cut circle of the shammy cloth by doing a little looped bead border.

Cool, cool. Uh . . . how?

The teacher took my piece away to show several of us how to do it, but turned to a position so that I could see literally nothing of what she was doing in the process. Non-ideal!

I tried to express that I couldn't see, and she ignored me; when she handed it back to me I tried to say I still didn't know what I was supposed to do and she walked away ignoring me.

Eventually I got her attention again and told her I still didn't know what to do, and she took it away and did another couple of edging loops, turned partially away even though she was only showing me this time, and with her hands entirely blocking my view.

Then handed it back and walked away and I went um excuse me-

I started fucking guessing, honestly.

She came back around and told me I was doing it wrong, and actually finally showed me, partially, where to loop the needle through, leaning over where I was working, but logically speaking looking at it, she repeated firmly "make sure you're on THIS side of the thread, this side!!!" . . . basically, she said keep it to the right side of the loop, which was, looking at the ones she did, backwards from what she actually did. So she looked at it in my hands and didn't account for the fact that it was mirrored from how it would be in her hands.

When a few people had to go (when the class time was over!) and asked if there was any reference or anything to look up online that would help them finish, she said "oh yeah you can find it online, super easy".

(She did not give any further advice including what the techniques are called.)

I somehow doubt I'm the only one who never finished the project.

[kaliracrafts]

Floral Turtle Amigurumi

Whiiich I didn't finish, actually; I had it hibernating for months planning to finish it before I realised that it was actually really aggravating. (The pattern was . . . not well written.)

So I have these pieces just sitting about. Perhaps I'll toss the fins to let the cats play with them (without the trailing tails).

The top shell had an interesting technique with a spiral of HDC to leave loops for working the spirals and working off the flat side, which I have used in other shapes/structures but not like this before.

I'd still like to make a turtle, perhaps even a floral turtle, but perhaps I'll wing it rather than this pattern (which had gaps in it, very annoying), or wing adjustments on a different base pattern. . .

(Project on Ravelry)

[kaliracrafts]

Acrylic 'Stained Glass' Bookmark

Another library craft evening! (From November.)

We were supplied with precut pieces of acrylic, and a choice of four patterns printed on paper to choose between; taped the paper to the acrylic so that it wouldn't slide around!

To make the stained glass effect, we used clear craft glue mixed with only a little bit of acrylic paint to make the colours. As we discovered, a lot of no, less than that! with the paint mixing!

(Which of course translates to a fair bit of adding more glue, oops; see how full the red well of the palette is up there.)

I didn't plan out a whole lot in advance, just made it up as I went along, starting with some favourite colours. . .

But I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! (Maybe a bit more planning next time, but not bad!)

After that, used a black sharpie to mark out the lines of what would be metal channelling in real stained glass. Which was a bit messy, but . . . all right. (Perhaps solid black paint might be nice, actually.)