Michelle Makes Things

Hi. I'm Michelle. Sometimes I make things.

[michellemakesthings]

“Just A Girl and Her Cactus” is NOW ON YOUTUBE!

If you follow me on instagram (@michelle_agresti), you’ve definitely noticed my cactus videos. Well, it’s been a few MONTHS so I’ve put them all on youtube. Watch me positively-affirm my cactus to varying degrees of success and personal growth. Will I achieve self-actualization or just continue to lost my mind remains up for debate. 

[michellemakesthings]

Hey hey I started posting the conversations I have with my cactus on Instagram and people for some reason like it?? so take a look @michelle_agresti or #justagirlandhercactus if you're in need of some POSITIVE AFFIRMATION

🔊🔊🔊 I positively-affirm my cactus & it is THRIVING, thought I’d share #fridayaffirmations #inspiration #youcanandyouwill #cacti don’t need water they need #LOVEANDLIGHT (at Washington Heights, Manhattan)

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#TeamJacobi of @wolf359radio in the studio and a fan interpretation. There could not have been a better week to be working with all the wolf crew. #keepyourfriendsclose #studioslumberparty #ATeam #wolf359 cred to @sangheilisord

[michellemakesthings]

THANKS GUYS

Hey Wolf people—I just wanted to write a "thank you" to all the people who approached me about "Memoria." I'm a bit unsure about how to do this Tumblr thing and this is the best way I could think of to answer you without re-posting the things you've sent me (not sure if you'd want those public). I am so happy that I got to be part of something that had any sort of positive impact on you. As an actor, that's the dream: that I share myself and it makes the world brighter. And of course, this thank you would have to include @personalinsanitymoment @mewthril & @iamzachvalenti for bringing me on as part of @wolf359radio. I deeply appreciate your kind words and the things you shared, as well as all the things that the wolf fandom does, and know that I'm awkwardly stalking the tags and liking almost everything.

[michellemakesthings]

OH MY GOD, MICHELLE, THAT EPISODE. HOLY HELL. BLESS YOU. THAT WAS BEAUTIFUL.

I’M SO GLAD THANK YOU AND THANK @mewthril FOR WRITING IT I THOUGHT SO TOO

[michellemakesthings]

dear michelle, in case no one's told you lately, ur lovely and wonderful. ❤️

That is so sweet of you! Thank you for taking the time to send me some positivity. Paying it forward!

[michellemakesthings]

Two years, ONE MILLION DOWNLOADS, and 5 hours of recording later, here's Team Jacobi #ATeam @wolf359radio's party. While Noah & Zach are smiling, I am still overwhelmed at the incredibly thoughtful gifts Gabriel had just given us & am unable to chill. So so happy&grateful to have been added to the crew for season 3 & be apart of this wonderful project—congrats are in order to all #wolf359 #millionaires #audiodrama #nochill

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Today’s @wolf359radio recording session got us silent raving to the music in our heads—just like the last recording session #tbtuesday #andthenkeplercomeshome

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I made a table, I was really proud of it, and I made this video. 

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Obtained in 798 Arts Zone in Beijing—currently wearing this charm in both ears (principle behind this: fake it 'til you fake it). 

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Spotted in the 798 Art Zone in Beijing, China. Could definitely get behind making some handlebar warmers…

[michellemakesthings]

ARM-KNITTED WALL HANGING

The idea was to hang my pictures/random pieces of paper I accumulate and just can't throw away on the wall of my room from string with wooden clothespins. I tried just stringing the string (that make sense?) back and forth on the wall in a zig-zag, but it looked strange. Then, I tried making a grid out of the string, but it didn't quite work/was weird. I was in a bit of a limbo with what I was going to do with the pictures/papers and the clothespins I had until...

MY ROOMMATE SHOWED ME THIS VIDEO ABOUT ARM KNITTING.

Its been billed by "the media" as a hipster trend. What is it? It is literally knitting with your arms. As in, you treat your arms like knitting needles. The videos and articles online say "it's a great way to quickly make a fashionable circle scarf!"—which is only partially a lie, so, awesome. 

Basically, the advantages are thus: quick because the gauge is so large (arms are thicker than the largest knitting needle I have ever seen, which, considering I haven't seen many knitting needles, wasn't that large, but still), you don't need any knitting supplies other than yarn (and two arms, or substitutes for arms, which are required for arm knitting), easy to learn (although about as easy to learn as knitting with actual needles, as it is only knitting but with arms)  and the really large holes can be an artistic choice. The disadvantages are VERY large holes (not great for warmth), easy to tangle (hard to keep it untangled when so much yarn, such large gauge, and so many fingers involved—see weird bits above in pictures), and that things like circular scarves only look like/function as scarves when the yarn used in very thick. 

After I had spent an evening trying to learn how to arm-knit from the internet, I had solved my picture-hanging problem. I WOULD JUST ARM-KNIT A GRID FROM WHICH TO HANG PICTURES. 

Used:

thin yarn 

2 arms

wooden clothespins 

wall-hanging tape (this from Target, which I use because this is the wall of my college room, and it all needs to come off easily at the end of the year so I don't get fined)

things to hang from the clothespins (or, "mmrs" as Fall Out Boy calls them)

Pattern:

1. Learn to arm knit from above video. 

2. Cast on a lot of stitches. I honestly didn't count. I had a REALLY long tail (explained in video), like several feet long, and I cast on stitches until it was shorter. In hindsight, I lucked out that my wall-hanging fit my wall. When you do it, you should measure. By measure, I mean cast on a couple stitches, see how long they stretch, and compare that to your wall (exacting? maybe not. Up to you to come up with a better method). 

3. Arm knit your heart out, until you decide that your large, rectangular piece of knitting is as big as you need it to be. It's like making a really wide scarf that you are going to hang on your wall. 

4. Finish off your arm knitting. Now it's time to hang it!

5. I hung this by putting wall-tape on the back on my clothespins, and then sticking the clothespin to the wall and clipping in the yarn. Thus, this wall-hanging is held to the wall by the clothespins. I'm sure you could glue the yarn to the clothespins if you wanted, but I just clipped it because I don't have a glue-gun right now. 

6. I wanted a stretched out, irregular kind of look (which is why I messed up on the arm knitting and left lots of weird holes! Just kidding, I'm just not great at knitting with my arms), so I hung each clothespin up one at a time, with the wall-hanging coming up with it. What I mean is that I didn't hang all 4 corners and then work from there. (If you didn't screw up your arm knitting) You could make it more even. 

7. I added my pictures and clippable memorabilia to the clothespins. BOOM DECOR

My favorite thing about having this above my bed? Being able to shout, "I knitted that with my arms" every time someone sees my room.

[michellemakesthings]

UPDATE

Grandfather has just reported that he uses the nose-warmer I made for him two years ago on the reg. PRIDE. 

[michellemakesthings]

Mouse Nose-Warmer

A twist on the tried, tired, and true "I've got your nose!" joke. A mouse has got your nose, because a mouse is your nose-warmer. 

Same as this pattern, but added little eyes and a nose (by using a yarn needle to move the yarn through the back of the nose-warmer and around over the top and then tying it in the back. I used 3 strokes (?? right vocab?) for each eye, and a whole bunch to make the nose. Technical explanation of my complex embroidery, right? The whiskers were made by folding a piece of yarn in half, putting the loop end through the nose-warmer where I wanted the whiskers to be, and then pulling the ends of the folded yarn through the loop. The trick is to not pull the loop end from the back of the nose-warmer to the front, but rather along the front surface of the nose-warmer, so that when you pull the ends through the loop, you have knotted the piece of yarn around one stitch on the outside of the nose-warmer. 

Made as a gift for a friend filming her senior thesis project in the cold…she has one thing that Steven Speilberg wouldn't—a warm nose. 

[allirense]

[michellemakesthings]

So in the next chapter of Michelle making things, I just made a twitter. "Building an online presence" is something the internet/my internships have been telling me I need to do. Joining the rest of the world also seems like a good idea.

But, I am bad at the internet. Tweeting is awful and embarassing. I'm pretty sure I sound like I'm 70 years old. Correction: like a really out-of-touch-with-the-internet 70-year old, specifically. Help?

everybodyreadingbooks (via @meghugs.)

[michellemakesthings]

ONE OF A SERIES: Second-To-Worst Thing I've Ever Knit

Seen above as (from top to bottom, right to left): its full glory, a head covering (?), a kerchief (??), a headband (???)

It was supposed to be this. 

I should know this about myself, but I never should have attempted anything as large and this small scarf pattern. I have no attention span. Like, I barely watch TV shows because I have trouble staring at the screen for that long. 

So, if you didn't click through the first time, this is the pattern. I followed it. Kind of. Well, I tried. I made a lot of mistakes—so much so that at least part of the pattern is unrecognizable. I kept the edging in tact though (= a win). Then, instead of repeating the pattern, I just did a billion rows of the mesh border until I ran out of yarn. Hence, the mangled lace pattern mess at the bottom tip and the wide expanse of random mesh for the rest of it. Then I wanted it to be OVER so I stopped.

The pattern is called BASIC lace triangle scarf. LIES (or rather, this speaks to my knitting skills). 

I'm giving it to my mom?

[michellemakesthings]

Welcome to the worst thing I have ever made. 

HOW NOT TO DO THIS: 

DO NOT try to knit and then felt an oven mitt if you were too lazy to make a test swatch and then see how it felted. 

DO NOT not (double-negative) check if the yarn you are using actually felts. 

DO NOT spend three weeks knitting a giant kind-of oven mitt shaped object if you haven't done the things mentioned above. 

DO NOT put the monstrosity through the washing machine three times in a desperate attempt to force the yarn to felt. 

DO NOT give to a friend and then apologize.