Uncategorized
You are currently browsing the archive for the Uncategorized category.
Lately I’ve been taking my knitting from my desk to the couch where it’s warmer. Doing this made me think of all the different tools I take with me so I thought it’d be fun to do a post on them. When I knit a Mar Sock Monkey Hoodie these are the five essential tools I need (left to right): Knitting needles, crochet hook, tapestry needle, stitch holder and thread cutters.
Knitting needles: One of my favorite tools are my Addi Turbo circular needles. I love them. I use size US 3 needles, which allow me to do some of the color work on the front of the sweaters. I also like that they’re circular because they don’t fall and there’s no hassle switching between them. My needles were bent, but they still get the job done! :)
Crochet hook: I saw a lot of these while growing up since my Mom is an avid crocheter. She uses some pretty small sizes for her work! As for me, I use a Clover aluminum crochet hook size C. It’s perfect for picking up stitches, adding finishing to the edge of knitted fabric and tidying those loose yarn ends. Also nice for making winter hats. The crochet hook has become such a useful tool for me.
Tapestry needle: Once all my pieces are complete I use a tapestry needle to sew the seams together. It has a curved tip which is nice for sewing knit fabric; the tip peaks out from the puffy stitches. The large eyelet works great on double knit (DK) worsted yarns. I own a set of Clover Chibi jumbo darning needles. They’re nice and big and come in a little capsule so I don’t loose them easily. ;)
Stitch holder: I used to use stitch holders to put my projects on hold, but these days I get some proper use out of them. They work like extra needles which secure knit stitches in place. I use one to hold stitches at the top the hood. While one half of the stitches are on hold I knit the other half of the hood using my circular needles. After both ends are done I connect them at the top using the kitchener stitch. I have a set of 6″ and 7″ extra large Clover aluminum stitch holders.
Thread cutters: I fell in love with these cutters as soon as I got them. They’re cute and they’re the tool I use the most besides my knitting needles. They work great on thread and even thick yarns. I use them when I sew on the sewing machine because they’re not bulky like big scissors and they’re quick to grab. I bought these from an old Edmund Scientifics catalog but I recently ordered one and they’re nowhere to be found. :( I’d like another cute pair like these…I also have a pair of these. :)
Yarn: I wasn’t going to forget about yarn itself. It keeps my sock monkeys nice and warm. I’m still learning about weights and types because there’s lots to know about yarn. I use double knits. They’re somewhere in between baby yarns and yarns for adult clothing. I also like to use cotton mixes and I prefer strong bright colors! I keep my yarns in a large clear plastic bag so I can see them when choosing color.
I hope you enjoyed my knitting tools write up! If you’re a beginner or advanced knitter, I’d highly recommend the tools above. Knitting is like many trades when it comes to using the right high quality tools. I’ve bought some cheap stuff and it doesn’t work as well as the higher-end stuff. :)
Thanks to Toby for taking some of these photos!
Tags: brand, clover, craft, crochet, cutters, darning, diy, essential, holder, hood, hoodie, hook, jumper, knitted, knitting, maribel made, mars, monkey, needles, product, shopping, sock, stitch, supplies, sweater, sweatshirt, tapestry, thread, Tools, trade, yarn
The first Urban Craft Uprising show I went to must have been December 06. I wasn’t doing much crafting at the time, but having the urge to made me curious about the Seattle craft scene. This year’s first Summer 09 Urban Craft Uprising was great. I guess I couldn’t get enough because I went both days! Meeting people opening day Saturday was fun and the 3d felting demo given by Moxie on Sunday was pretty cool.
There were also a ton of things I really, really wanted (in no particular order):
Maluhia Designs Japanese fabric purses, covers, etc!
Fox & Clover necklaces
Amy Hevron art
Wooly Bison bags
Spooky Mama Creations jewelry
Manmade Monsters t-shirts
Polymath Design Lab jewelry and home
Population One bags
Thea Starr Kanzashi hair accessories
Devout dolls and oddities!
Chikabird fabric pencil notebooks
Hasenpfeffer Incorporated dolls
Friends of Socktopus toys
Jessi Taylor jewelry
Cake spy illustrations
Berkley Illustration! art
Orange House Press. I think you get the idea. :)
These are only a few of the great products designed and put together by some very talented and dedicated people (some of whom I met)! The photos I took on Sunday are some of the vendors and artists that day. I know I missed many faces so sorry about that, but feel free to fill in the gaps by commenting or adding notes on the photos. Oh yeah, I was asked if I was selling at the event, but not this year. Hopefully I can showcase some Mars Sock Monkeys at an Urban Craft Uprising show in the future. I’m looking forward to December’s show!
Jenny Hart from Sublime Stitching!
Kristen Rask from SCHMANSY
CJ (middle) from Lunaversoul
Libby from moth and squirrel
Creation Station
Scrumptious Delight
Fox & Clover
Little Black Rabbit
Maluhia Designs
Made by Moxie
Tags: 2009, Amy Hevron, author, Cakespy, chikabird, craft, Creation Station, demo, demonstration, Devout, dolls, event, felt, Fox & Clover, friends of socktopus, hasenpfeffer incorporated, indie, Jenny Hart, Jessi Taylor, Kristen Rask, Lunaversoul, Made by Moxie, Maluhia Designs, Manmade Monsters, maribel made, moth and squirrel, needle, Orange House press, polulation one, polumath design lab, schmancy, Scrumptious Delight, seattle, show, Spooky Mama Creations, summer, Thea Starr, toys, ucu, ucuLittle Black Rabbit, uprising, urban, Wooly Bison
Samantha and Simon Mars Sock Monkeys became the 7th and 8th custom sock monkey orders I received just before the end of 2008. Sam was finished and shipped here in London and unlike Sam, Simon was born somewhere above the waters of the Atlantic ocean during my 10-hour flight from London to Houston. He was finished in El Paso, TX and shipped to his new home in Canada a couple days before Christmas.
2008 was an excellent year! I have a feeling 2009 will be better. :)
Samantha Mars Sock Monkey
Sam comes with a puffy short sleeve canary yellow and hot pink hoodie with heart design. Sold!
Simon Mars Sock Monkey
Simon comes with a blue short sleeve dinosaur hoodie with the initial “S” on the back of his sweater. Sold!
Tags: 2008, custom, end, knit, made, maribel, mars, monkeys, samantha, simon, sock
Delia Hauser from Market Store Shoppe writes a bi-weekly style column called Chic Geek for the blogozine Fierce and Nerdy. This week she featured the DAMIA bow beret, one of my crocheted winter hats for sale on Maribel Made, in her column about winter fashion!
The article, Chic Geek: Planning Your Winter “Looks”, lists my bow beret (see “e” below) alongside other great hat designs created by some very talented designers like Liza Rietz, Paula Deer, and Piper & Paisley. Delia also points to some other great buys from a variety of independent and commercial retailers in the scarves, coats, boots and gloves categories for your shopping convenience. :)
I’m honored to be included in such a great list of known and up-and-coming designers, as well as some very successful well-known retailers like Marc Jacobs, Anthropologie, and Urban Outfitters. Some of my favorite designers in the article (in no particular order) include: Little Houses, Nothing.Everything, Liza Rietz, Tijusai, Spratters & Jayne, Carmelita Marie, Paula Deer, Alexandra Anderson, Tickled Pink Knits, Piper & Paisley and Just Vic.
Maribel Made knitwear is available for sale on etsy at Maribel.etsy.com. For more info about my crocheted hats see, The cap, beret and trilby: fall, winter and fashion hats.
Tags: article, beret, blog, blogzine, bow, chic, column, damia, delia, designer, fashion, feature, fierceandnerdy, geek, hat, hauser, independent, made, maribel, retail, shop, shopping, style, winter
Having come across the work of self-taught artist Stephanie Granshaw was much like being enlighten. As a portrait artist, Stephanie focuses on the beauty of the feminine through the drawings and paintings she creates. I can’t decide which I like best, her portraits of iconic women or her paintings with gradients and strands of color. I feel very inspired every time I look at her work. She’s amazing!
Steph works with graphite, color pencils, water colors, oils and acrylics. She has art prints available for sale in various formats and she is also open to commissions.
Kate by Stephanie Granshaw
This is one from her Circles Series.
These are from her Others Series.
Beautiful Potential
One of her paintings showing floral influences…
Blossoming Strength
Drawings and paintings above belong to Stephanie Granshaw.
Tags: artist, color, Drawing, feature, feminine, floral, granshaw, painting, portrait, stephanie
It’s October and a great time to put up my newest knitwear for sale! It took me a couple of weeks to make these hats but in reality the BRISA cap, the DAMIA beret and the EASTON trilby took about a year in the making to engineer.
It all started last winter when I ventured into making myself a cap. I had never even made a hat so it was something very experiential and once finished a few people asked me about it. Later in the year I perfected the brim and overall shape. The trilby, designed to be worn as either a sexy trilby hat or a cute bucket hat, spawned out of an accident while making the cap. I found that the chunky texture of the cap, if designed a certain way, could be easily shaped and keep it’s form naturally.
EASTON bow detail Trilby 2 in 1 hat
The beret is a London inspired hat. It’s everywhere! Although not in chunky form! ;) I decided to experiment with the puffy stitch and came up with a five star starting point to which I added 5 more puffy stitches in between. I ended up with 10 points around the hat, giving it a unique Lady Liberty like crown.
DAMIA bow Beret in Coral and Ivory
The chunky aspect of my hats comes out of curiosity and the urge to have even made a hat in the first place came from wanting to get more out of crochet. Crochet doesn’t seem to get as good of a wrap as knitting does and it’s not as popular either. Maybe it’s because when I think of crochet I think of doilies and somewhat unattractive items. Although that isn’t always the case. My mom makes some very nice (and useful) things out of crochet like shawls, bags and table cloths. I suppose doilies are the start of great crochet!
The challenge I posed myself was to make an elegant and desirable form of head wear with crochet. My designs may not be those things, but they do have 1 hardcore fan! I love them!! It’s obvious to me that if I wouldn’t wear them that I probably wouldn’t sell them either. Yeah, I’m sticking to that. ;)
BRISA button-band detail Cap in Purple, Pink and Green
Tags: band, beret, bow, brim, button, cap, chunky, crochet, fall, fashion, hat, head, ribbon, satin, trilby, warm, wear, winter, wool
While I was working on the LeAnn and Rhea twin monkeys, I couldn’t help think of another pair of twins from a story I was reading by manga-ka Bisco Hatori.
The identical twins, Kaoru and Hikaru from Ouran High School Host Club, are portrayed as loving homosexual brothers who lavish each other with attention while they cope in the egotistic world they’ve created (mainly due to the fact that no one can tell them apart). Their strong bond and affection in the story goes as far as it suggesting incest, which isn’t necessarily true, but the twins do use this aspect of their “love” as a selling point as members of the Host Club, an after school club in which its attractive and super rich 6 members accompany and host other super rich girls to kill time and boredom, while profiting off of them.
Later in the manga (more so than in the anime) both twins realize that they have each fallen in love with Haruhi, the heroine and also the only person that can tell them apart. Also known as the “commoner” (ha ha ha!), Haruhi is extorted into joining the Host Club as the club’s dog for breaking an 8 million yen vase which was to be auctioned at their school, Ouran Private Academy. Haruhi is able to attend the wealthy school based on a scholarship granted to her for her excellent grades. She officially becomes a “host” when the club members realize she (or he at the time) is actually good looking. If she’s able to be designated as a host 100 times (later 1,000) she will have paid off her 8 million debt to the club.
Just as the twins must resolve their love-triangle dilemma, they also have to deal with the fact that their friend, Tamaki Suoh or “King” and founder of the Host Club, confuses romantic feelings for Haruhi for fatherly affection. Tamaki (also theidiot prince character) and each of the other members of the club like Kyouya (the meganekko), Mitsukuni “Honey” (the lolit-shota) and Takashi “Mori” (the stoic character) are a story within themselves so I won’t even go there.
Interestingly enough, even though both anime and manga are quite lighthearted and fun, they do raise social class, money, family, gender and sexual issues. Its apparent that most all characters display a much more highly complex behavior than that of your typical high school teenager, making it a very interesting read. ;)
Tags: anime, bisco, club, comic, hatori, high, hikaru, hitachiin, host, Illustration, kaoru, manga, ouran, private, reading, rich, school, sexuality, story, teen, twins
Ah! My first post featuring someone else’s work other than my own.
Diamonds and Sprinkles by Jujulee creates unique and stylish acrylic jewelery. Julie, the woman behind Jujulee.etsy.com and her husband Scott, who also sells at Laser.etsy.com, work out of Salt Lake City where they produce beautiful laser art since 2002! The husband and wife team create lovely layered wall art, business cards, invitations, earrings, rings, pendants, and seem to be open to custom orders as well. The possibilities are endless…I had a monkey in mind the other day :)
Images belong to Julie and Scott Jones.
Tags: acrylic, art, business cards, custom, earrings, etsy, feature, husband, invitations, jewelery, laser, pendants, rings, shop, team, wall, wife
A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of working with my very first sock monkey custom order client. She was a delight and even ordered a second monkey! She also gave each of them their names, Punk and Star. They now live in the southern land of Australia! See Punk and Star Mars in action at their new home.
If you’re interested in placing a custom order for a sock monkey, please contact me at 
.
Punk comes with a stripe short sleeve black and purple sweater with skull and crossbones design and matching color beanie with pom-pom. SOLD CUSTOM ORDER.
Star comes with a short sleeve black and hot pink sweater with star design and matching color beanie with pom-pom. SOLD CUSTOM ORDER.
Tags: beanie, custom, hat, knit, made, maribel, monkeys, order, pink, pom pom, punk, purple, short, sleeve, sock, star, stripes, sweater
As I was exploring Berlin, DE last week with old friends and enjoying the nice hot weather with super cold beers, I got the warm feeling of summer coming ahead. So when I got back to London, I thought of going down to Brick Lane to scout out some henna to create a mendhi for myself (just in time for my b-day trip to California)!
I found a few options at a small grocer on Old Bethnal Green Road and bought the recommended Al Qamar CONE Henna Paste. I was expecting to buy the ingredients to mix, but this seemed like a much easier and faster solution. The guy behind the counter was right. This is by far the best £1 I’ve ever spent! There is no waiting for the paste to set and no messing with home-made cones, which made it super easy.
I was pretty happy with the end result. It’s a very nice dark reddish-brown color. You can tell that the design is darkest, where I began, on my hand so next time I’ll try removing parts of the henna towards the bottom first that way the design carries the same tone of color all through out.
This is what the design looked like before the paste was washed away.
Tags: al qamar, arm, bethnal green, branch, brick lane, cone, design, flower, hand, henna, mendhi, paste, sakura, summer, traditional, tube
