Pokémon and birds and...that's mostly it

Hey all! I exist, just consumed by work and FR stuff right now.

If you follow my personal, you might know one of my 2020 goals is to really work on art-which I said this year, and kinda did. But I’m taking it a step further this upcoming year, and not letting my (limited) pride get the better of me. That means revisiting the basics of stuff I’ve done but maybe haven’t done in awhile, and trying new stuff. I’m even going back and forth about joining S.killshare and taking classes there (if anyone has any experience with that, please let me know what you think about it!), in addition to the art center and similar options (and YT, of course).

We’ve started organizing a spot in the basement for art, which will be...interesting, given it’ll be very cold in winter and might get wet (not completely flood, per se, but I’ve gone down and found water on the floors several times. Hopefully having this space set aside will make me more inclined to do art.

I’m also considering maybe selling some art, if I feel confident enough? Would anyone be interested in that?

What I want to ask right now is, for inspiration’s sake, what do you all want to see. Printmaking? Drawings? COPIC? Watercolor? Yarn art? Something else? I think knowing what others might want will help me focus my attention and tailor my art space. There’s no promises these things will get done, but this is gonna be a journey and I want input from those here for it.

So if you have any opinions, suggestions, ideas, ect., I would love to hear it! This includes mediums, challenges (I’m gonna try to do Kaijune this year, really) projects, art movements to maybe study, artists to watch and learn from (like art YouTubers), and all of that good stuff.

It's done! I've finished my crocodile stitch cape, added the buttons, and it turned out lovely! This has been a pattern I've wanted to do for over a year, so I'm glad I finally got it done.

I'll spare you all pictures of me in it because honestly I look ugly as sin on camera.

Things are progressing!

After finishing the blanket last week, I really needed a break to just work on small things. So I made a beaded bag. And then kept making beaded bags.

After taking my first (bottom right) into work to ask people what they might pay for something like it, I learned one of my supervisors is a sells handmade cards. Now she wants me to remake my f.acebook account and join her crafting group to help promote my crochet. I really don't know what to say.

So after finishing the third bag and completely making a fourth bag today, I went back and finally finished the cape portion of my hooded cape! It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be (the neck is a little hard to see in the sample pictures). That extra little bit at the top I'd where the buttons go.

And they're done!

Like I mentioned before, I'm not the most thrilled with the blanket, but I'm glad to have it done after over a year, and pretty proud of my first modular piece. Already I want to pick a color scheme for a more traditional shaped blanket, but I think I should wait a bit (if we go into quarantine again I'm starting right away). Plus I think a Tegami Bachi one would be really cool (but would require a border on each hexagon or something.

Meanwhile, I got this bag whipped up in a few hours, and it turned out really nice. I have a few more ideas that maybe I'll try playing with before I go get more iridescent beads for another...or I could tomorrow...ahh I don't know.

That said I worked on this this evening:

So since I'm almost done with the blanket I went out today and bought glittery beads, because I want to make more beaded bags and plus they're quick to make which world be nice after so many big projects. As I sorted them by color, however, I found something unfortunate...

There were two variations if clear: one with rainbow glitter and one with straight gold glitter. It was near impossible to tell if you weren't looking. So that was a headache to sort out.

I am done assembling and all the ends have been weaved in! Now all that's left is the border, which will be in cream.

It's not my favourite tbh, but that could just be because I've been working on it so long and had all the issues with the baking soda. Hopefully I'll do another one with a different color palette and a more rectangular layout. The hexagons are fun and make, tbh, but the blocking and assembly is a pain.

Cape progress!

And here’s a look at the blanket! The final ring is about halfway done, and then I just need the cream border stitches.

It’s honestly pretty small, and admittedly unwieldy as is-I can’t imagine trying to make something bigger. But that could just be a matter of how I’m putting it together. Also, it does gather in some places from where I pulled too hard attaching the hexagons, but for a first try on a modular project I think that’s par for the course.

Bonus scrap cup:

Progress on the crocodile stitch cape! The top picture was Sunday (and shown on one of my rp blogs), and the bottom is as of tonight!

It’s looking really good so far, and I think I’m nearly halfway done, considering I start decreasing after this set of croc stitches and then make the hood. For those who haven’t seen, I’m following the pattern for this cape, and loving it! I’m even tempted to make another one in red, just for fun...and other colors, too!

Other than that, I’m on the final ring for my hexagon blanket, which I’ll try to post pictures of tomorrow. Then I just have to do the border.

Already I’m trying to decide what to do next. As long as I’m watching anime, I really have no excuse not to work on the fan and feather afghan I need to finish knitting (so I can then switch to right-handed knitting, and...yeah you’ve heard all of that). But another hexagon blanket, this time with a different layout and colors also seems fun, as does another cape. I also found a pattern for a crocheted fan and feather shawl, and part of me wants to try to crochet that crocodile stitch shawl again-with how long these rows are, those increasing rows will feel like nothing!