The thing about living out here in the semi-wilderness is that it is incredibly muddy here in the rainier months of the year. This leads to mud, dirt, and any number of debris being tracked all over one’s shipping container room, and in the future one’s tiny house. This is why before I even moved out there I created this little door mat.

This poor little rug has been no match for the vast quantities of muck that get dragged into our room, but it does gather quite a bit of what would otherwise also need to be swept up. Plus, it’s super cute.

I washed it the other day in a washing machine I made out of a bucket and some rocks! We here at the Lookout Arts Quarry like to eschew all modern conveniences. Why? Um… Because it makes us look cool? 

Made out of old sheets/scraps of fabric that I cut into long strips and then knitted using some ridiculously large plastic needles, utilizing the ultra-fancy “garter stitch.” 

Here is a sweater I made for myself at the start of the new year. And then re-made for myself from the armpits up. And then remade from the armpits up once more. And will probably modify just a tad (change the hem, lengthen the sleeves a tad) when I have the patience to do it. I designed it myself and knit it up out of two giant hanks of Perendale Wool. Sweet, sweet stripey action.

These are one pair of legwarmers I made for the lovely Jen of Jen’s House of Chai as part of a trade. I made them up on the fly, and if you look closely I fudged up the pattern ever so slightly in the stripes. So they don’t totally match up. But they are similar enough that they look like a set and perhaps only make me look like more of an artistic genius, BECAUSE they match without matching. Yes.

My grandmother requested dishcloths for Christmas this year, so I made her some. I also made my other grandmother some (similar, but different!) dish towels. Both of my grandmothers are lovely, lovely women and it was fun to make them these practical but fancy gifts.

I also made myself some dish cloths, because they are super handy! And a great way to use up all this cotton yarn I seem to have randomly accumulated over the years…

(The warshcloths I made for my G-ma, which are the solid red and blue ones, are block’s from Nicky Epstein’s book Knitting Block by Block. The rest are patterns I improvised.)

(Yet another pair of armwarmers! Lovely, lacey armwarmers.)

It’s after the holidays and I have lots of posts to make on holiday gift creations. But before that, what I want to talk about today here is something that is incredibly exciting! And that is new years resolutions.

For the last few months I have been pondering this idea that I randomly sort of thought about one day and have been getting more and more excited about implementing it. It is going to mean being more crafty, creative, and creating better blog posts! As well as being more, you know, sustainable, eco friendly, intentional, and all that other hippie dippie lovelyness.

By the end of 2012 I want at least 85% of my wardrobe to be hand made.

This means that after the new year I will go through my entire wardrobe, count how many articles of clothing I own, and tally how many of them are hand made, partially hand made, or factory made. I will then, throughout the year, begin replacing more and more of the factory items with handmade items.

I would like to make a lot of things myself—which is one reason why I’m doing this. To really push my personal creativity and personal productivity. I would also like to support fellow artisan crafters by purchasing their goods as opposed to corporate companies.

I realize that there are some blurry lines when it comes to what is truly “hand made” and what isn’t. For instance, there are some really great screen printers who make amazing art… on factory made shirts. There are also some amazing clothes to be made by simply altering factory made clothes. I’m going to count these sort of items as 50% hand made in the tally of things.

Things that are made mostly from scratch or raw materials are the 100% hand made items. And then obviously, store bought factory made items are 0% hand made.

Because my purpose for doing this also extends to my desire to be more eco friendly as well as less supportive of extortive big company practices I’m also going to as much as possible source the raw materials that I use in my own hand made goods from companies that use good practices, or (even better) from recycled materials. This means more domestically spun yarn for knitting, domestically woven fabric for sewing, purchasing such things from local stores, and scavenging free piles and thrift stores for other materials.

I also hope to make regular blog posts about my progress with this and really stick with it for the whole year. Maybe next year I’ll even step it up a notch and go for the 100%, though right now I’m trying to be realistic about what I am going to be comfortable and happy with, and that means holding on to a few articles of factory made goods. I do not, however, plan on purchasing any factory made clothing in 2012. The last bits of clothing that I received for Christmas this year (which includes mostly socks and long underwear, which DO count in the clothing tally) are the last ones I hope to purchase or have purchased for me.

So expect updates on this, as well as regular updates on other crafty endeavors, in the future!

Happy New Year everyone!

Another Kerchief. These posts have been getting a little boring/repetitive, I know. It’s because mass producing stuff is boring/repetitive. Coming up next week: Exciting/creative plans for the new year!

And you thought all I knit were tiny tubes for cold wrists out of quality yarns? PFFT. These thigh high leg warmers are giant, 100% red heart acrylic, and these pictures really do not do justice to just how toxicly pink they are.

I have been in an armwarmer knitting frenzy. I’m sort of addicted to them in a way. I mean I’m making them to sell… but there’s also just so much you can do. They’re sort of like my sock knitting… Small, quick, portable, you can use any weight of yarn, you can do thumbholes or no thumbholes, you can make them more or less glove like, long or short, fitted or fat… They are a beautiful thing.

This is Elli Monster. She is amazing. She needed a monster hat. I provided this monster hat for her.

The ability to have the flap come down over the eyes was a suggestion made by a friend. Other than that this is pure Stephanie’s imagination, baby.

This is my raccoon inspired hat. Well, it’s not really mine. I mean I “designed” (/winged) it, but it’s not for me to keep.

Although, my sister did once say I reminded her of a raccoon…