Christmas cards.

I realise I'm running late with these, but in my defence I was sick as a dog last week, when they should have been made and sent off. Trying to come up with an idea for the design when you should have made something yesterday = not the best way to get the creative juices flowing. But then I remembered this piece of envelope art that I did a while ago for Poli with stencils and markers...

...and the card I made for Tarek and Candy's wedding, using stencils and origami paper...

You can have a lot of fun for £1.50, which is what you pay for one little book of these stencils at Foyle's. So anyway, then I thought, what if I took some Christmas wrapping paper and stencils... and this was the result:

I think they came out kind of pretty! Unfortunately, the glitter-glue pen I got from Ryman's ran out after four cards, so that's the end of the line for this design. This is Not Good Enough, Mr. Ryman! Oh well, I've still got some other colours of glue, and some different wrapping paper, so I'll probably try to do another version later on. Maybe. In other news, my Sutra scarf is coming along nicely: 

It'll have to take a back seat to finishing those Christmas cards, though - and making individual envelopes for them, since they're all different sizes. Measuring stuff is for sissies, clearly, or so I thought last night. And I've still got to buy a Christmas tree and drag the damn thing home...

A bit of knitting

Lately, I've started knitting again. It's making me absurdly happy. I put off important things (like going to the bathroom, or drinking water) because I just have to finish one more row. As if I'm reading some kind of thriller or something. I sit next to Victor while he plays video games, and knit, while I express polite interest in what he's doing - instead of trying to wrestle the controller away from him so I can play Valkyria Chronicles. It's like I instantly turned 80.

Last year, I knitted a Noro Silk Garden scarf that might be longer than I am tall. I knitted at work, on the bus, everywhere, and I was pretty happy with the result. And now, I'm knitting two scarves at once (which is a bit like reading two books at once) - a Noro one for a family friend who recently did turn 80, and a Sutra scarf based on , well Sanzo's sutra from Saiyuki. If you haven't actually read Saiyuki (what's wrong with you?! Kidding) I will post a picture here for your edification:

As for why I'm doing this, Minekura Katzuya, who draws Saiyuki, isn't doing so well these days. She's been having surgery for fibrous dysplasia on her face - basically, part of her right jawbone had to be taken out, and replaced with a bone transplant. It's supposed to be incredibly painful, and it'll be a long time before she comes even close to looking normal again. Inspired by how the people on this website collected fan art and over 2000 paper cranes for Minekura, a few of us want to send her some fan art of our own. And since I can't draw, I had to make something else... hence this:

I've never made anything from wool this thick before, but the whole point was that I want to be able to finish this quickly. So it's not as even as I would like it to be, but I'm still pretty happy with it, considering that I bought the wool today and have managed to knit this much in just an afternoon. I was never, ever going to try for the Chinese characters (or is that supposed to be Sanskrit?), but Minekura herself mostly draws them as navy blue squiggles. Poli thinks this would be the ultimate geek accessory. And even if it doesn't come out perfect, at least it'll be warm and cosy. Fingers crossed it'll cheer poor Minekura up...

Making candles and making the finals

When I stayed with Åshild last week, she wanted me to help out making candles. She assured me it would be perfectly safe, since she had the recipe off the internet. Well. As you may or may not know, the last time I messed about with hot wax I wound up in hospital, so I was more than happy to let her handle the actual dangerous bits. I did do some very helpful stirrings of the pot, though. 


First, Åshild shaved wax off a big red candle, possibly enjoying the whole knife-wielding thing a little too much. Then, instead of boiling the wax in a saucepan (hello, burn ward) we melted it in a plastic bowl that we put into the saucepan. Much safer. And it worked like a dream, the wax melted in no time at all. Åshild poured it into the shot glasses that I'd prepared with wicks earlier, and we quickly worked out a chopstick system for keeping the wicks straight while the wax stiffened. 


Åshild also did a quick taste test, and assured me the wax was super yummy. 
I'm kidding, it was only strawberry jam. Looks pretty realistic though, right?


That last picture is our little army of candles - the green one was made from leftover bits of a yankee candle. 

Also, thanks to a timely text from Kaz, I found out yesterday that Angela and I made it to the Manga Jiman finals! I immediately went out and brought some blackcurrant fruit flakes to celebrate. No, really, those things are so yummy, they're like crack. Blackcurrant crack. Anyway, you can see our names at the top of the list here, but don't get too excited, that's only because we're listed in alphabetical order. And we're competing against 12 other entries, so I wouldn't hold my breath. In fact, I'm trying not to think about it at all, since they won't announce the actual winners/placements until the prize-giving ceremony on February 18th. Anybody want to tag along for moral support and free booze, let me know and I'll see what I can do about invites. :)

First post ever...

I'm starting a blog because a) I want to, b) it's the only way I'll actually be able to comment on Rub7's blog (no, really - anonymous commenting = totally impossible) and c) hopefully my friends that I never see will want to read it, and this will bring us closer together. In a totally non-romantic way. I just want to write about neat stuff I make (or help out in the making of), and all the awesome tins the husband and I own (it's Victor's fault, his obsession with boxes has rubbed off on me, just like his Australian accent has). About everyday stuff like making comics and fixing our flat up and trying not to dress like a dork.

So anyway, in the spirit of doing things and making stuff, here are some earrings that I made for a friend a while back, to match piece of jewellery she already had. The idea for how to make them - snap a bead in half and glue them on the spiders' backs - popped into my head as I was about to fall asleep one night. It was one of those, "By George, I've got it!" moments. Thanks to Epoxy glue (apparently known to cause cancer in the State of California, but since I'm in London I hope I'll be all right) the bead halves finally stayed on, and I felt just a little proud of myself.

Edit: Ugh, the picture came out all blurry. That's what I get for taking photos with my phone, I guess. I promise you, they looked cooler in real life.