tad 2010-27 Happy Spring

Mailed out my TAD swap today and while thinking about what happens when TAD ends, I was inspired to make this card. is this considered a pop up card? 
  

you pull on the small piece on the bottom (first pic; below the rainbow) and it grows as flowers come up on top (second pic). closeup of the "flowers (scraps from the cutouts):

and sorry to my TAD swapper for ruining the surprise inside the card (hopefully you haven't been following/reading my posts to notice).

from karizmatic’s posterous, thing-a-day

tad 2010-26 OX

I had a craft party just before moving to SF and my friend, Ferrie, brought 3 boxes of fabric of all types and sizes. I couldn't figure out what to do with the small pieces and just didn't want to throw them away…I've just recently realized that they are perfect for making stuffed toys like this one. It's an OX!

     

I actually didn't have enough of one color to make this, but I really dig how the combination of the 3 colors came together (parts from the same scraps: head and belly/bottom; horns and tail; body). Unlike the elephant and mouse I did a few weeks ago I decided to skip the pattern and free hand the shapes on this one and sew it by hand (I don't know why; I just felt like it). I also used the shreds of scrap fabric from the cut outs as part of the stuffing. Finally, I crocheted the nosering, left a long tail at the end and used the tail to sew it into its nose. (I say it because I assume the recipient will name it; are there girl oxen?) I used the same yellow yarn to "brand" it with my initials on the bottom.

from karizmatic’s posterous, thing-a-day

tad 2010-25 Soon Devoured Tofu

This (soon dubu, aka korean tofu stew) is my favorite dish ever. PERIOD. There is something so special to me about the heat of the dish, both in flavor and in temperature. I love the arresting chokes on the first couple of bites from what feels like the chili flakes scraping my throat raw and the heat that radiates throughout my body when I take a bite of a whole piece of tofu. I cheated a bit and used dashi stock instead of making homemade fish broth. I DID used my homemade kimchi for the veggies. I was sweating the whole time I ate this thing and had to take a shower right after eating it from the stink of sweat and garlic. Alas, I can't wash the garlic scent in my breath (sorry to anyone I happen to see and come into close contact with in the next couple of days). I'll probably make some other "thing" today, but I'm not sure I can make anything else today that will make me feel as proud.

from karizmatic’s posterous, thing-a-day

tad 2010-24 Double Sided

I think these are double-sided fabric yoyo pendants (I haven't added any attachments like pins or hooks, so what they will eventually be is TBD). one picture is the opposite side of the other)

  

A thought: last year I didn't know TAD was only one month long and was sorely disappointed when it ended. This year, I've been a little more prepared, but somehow it doesn't seem any less sad. If anything, I think I am just sadder a little sooner. Anyone else getting the blues about it?

(On the bright side, since I'd like to try ending on a positive note, i dished out a bit of that kimchi I made yesterday to my neighbors today and just got a thank-you-it-was-good-with-my-dinner-tonight email, so it must have been good!)

from karizmatic’s posterous, thing-a-day

tad 2010-23 Kimchi!

At least I think I made Kimchi. I bought a whole lot of extra cabbage last week and really needed to find a way to use it and I've been wanting to try making my own kimchi for a while now. So, I found and I followed these instructions: http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/easy-kimchi, but I didn't have 10 lbs of cabbage, so I think this is going to have more sauce than cabbage. I'll know if it's any good tomorrow, I guess.

from karizmatic’s posterous, thing-a-day

tad 2010-22 Running Behind

Running behind on my post and last night I went to San Francisco City Knitter's Meetup. I met some fun folks, but that scarf I was working on the day before is still not done. Thought I'd post for the record.

from karizmatic’s posterous, thing-a-day

TAD 2010-21 scarfing up. some korean.

1. trying to finish a scarf form a sweater i unraveled that was supposed to be the love of my life's valentine's day present…worked most of the day on it and it's almost done… here's a progression:

  

2. i also made bibimbap at home today and wanted to throw a question out there… i chickened out and bought an already mixed vegetable pack at the korean market today that came packaged with kochujang (red pepper paste?). it was OK, but didn't have the proportions of each ingredient i wanted and would have been great to make my own… i keep reading that i have to blanch the veggies in separate pots of boiling water… has anyone ever done it in the same pot? does it screw up the flavors? if you've done it, is there a special trick, like the order in which i can put the veggies in that will let them keep their flavor? any other tips/tricks? also, is there a web resource where i can see the differences is between the large selection of kochujang paste in english? (i know, i really DO wish i could read and speak korean – it's on my list!)

from karizmatic’s posterous, thing-a-day

TAD 2010-20 Conductivity!

i'm a day late on this one… on friday, i tried to make some iphone friendly gloves and ran into a couple of snags when i worked on the thumb (but this wouldn't be fun without the adventure, right?). so, the next morning, i decided to abandon the thumb for a bit and work on the index finger. i adjusted based on the lessons learned and managed to get a functional index finger iphone friendly glove!

here's a quick demo (sorry about the lighting!): 

from karizmatic’s posterous, thing-a-day

TAD 2010-19 Conducting Efforts

OK, so I got some conductive thread (CT) for Valentine's Day (what can I say, I'm a nerdy girl!) and it finally arrived in the mail today. YAYY!!! First project I wanted to try was to make our gloves iPhone-friendly. I sat the thread in between a known working battery and LED and it worked! So, excitedly, I went straight to work – immediately I had problems threading the CT into my needle and it ended up unraveling the thread so, now I'm working with 4 loosely spun conductive yarns. These loosely spun yarns created a knot while I was threading my first pass and I ended up having to cut about 1.5 inches of the thread just to cut loose from the crazy knot! With all that happened, I wanted to make sure it was still conductive, so I used the glove to sit between my hand and the iPhone and tested conductivity – still works (whew!). I'm still having some challenges: when there are frayed edges on the iPhone side, it works great, but who wants a black glove with silver hairs growing out of their thumb? So, I cut the edges to clean it up and it stops working. So, I thought I'd post it up here in hopes of maybe some pointers from others who've used this before (???). It's probably just my imagination, but it also seems to work better the closer my touch point is to the iPhone contact point. Any insight/pointers out there?

from karizmatic’s posterous, thing-a-day

TAD 2010-17 Back To It

I went to Cambria for the weekend and brought only one project to work on: a scarf made out of the wool sweater I unraveled last week. Most of the time, we were disconnected from the rest of society, visited with our friends, stayed in our pajamas, watched movies and ate a lot of food. A LOT. We did go out one day to look at some elephant seals:

from karizmatic’s posterous, thing-a-day