Mandela Madness

Having been a member of the Official CCC Social Group on facebook for several months, seeing everyone's beautiful work, I've decided to try the Mandela Madness. It uses a lot of techniques that I've not tried before so it presents a great learning opportunity. Furthermore, there are videos which are very thorough in explaining every detail. Although my mother taught me to crochet initially, I'm mostly self-taught and make things up as I go so I'm not sure exactly where I'm supposed to put the hook for some stitches. I hope that I'll be able to improve my technique and produce better finished items.

Materials

I'm using the Scheepjes Colour Crafter Purple Passion pack which I bought from Wool Warehouse. They send your order in lovely bags so it's a delight to open them and a nice way to store the yarn. This isn't my favourite colour palette but I'm treating this as a challenge and way to improve rather than thinking about the finished product. I don't want to use expensive yarn on something that I will probably look at when I'm done and say "I could do better now".

Tools

For the moment, all I need is a crochet hook, scissors, and a darning needle. I'm using my favourite KnitPro Symfonie hook. They're silky smooth and lovely to work with, as well as being pretty to look at with bands of colour. The scissors I'm using are some that were going to be thrown in the bin at the hospital as they are single use only scissor. They're very sharp and convenient. They have a cardboard sleeve so they don't stab me when I take them out and about with my crochet or knitting.

And we're off …

The Mandala Madness is now on the hook. After frogging 3 times, I now have the first two rows done. Why did I frog it? The first time because the initial chain was too big, the second because I miscounted the stitches, and the third because I ended up with a loose stitch on the first round. I'm not completely satisfied by the version I have now as the tension is a bit off on the first couple of stitches of the first row but I hope it will be ok. We'll see.

Wet Felting

On Saturday I went to a one hour wet felting class at Kedlestone Hall. They are decorating the hall using wet felted baubles and acorns, using a blue and gold colour scheme to match some of the rooms there. I made one of each of these although I can't say I did a particularly good job!

Materials

For the acorn, I used carded wool in a yellowish colour. This wasn't a good choice as it is too close to the colour of the acorn cup it was to go in. The acorn cups had been sprayed gold.

The bauble was make with red and green carded wool, a polystyrene ball, fine glitter, and a bauble top.

Warm water and soap were also used, as well as some netting and bubble wrap, although the netting and bubble wrap are optional.

Technique

For the acorn, a small amount of wool was rolled up and then another piece the same size was placed with the fibres in the opposite direction. The whole thing was soaked in warm water, and then some washing up liquid applied. If you put too much washing up liquid on, the suds go everywhere! Once the wool blob is wet and soaped, you roll it in your hands, like rolling Plasticine into a ball. You keep doing this forever. Well ok, not forever but for maybe 20 minutes or so, until the piece is firm and much smaller. Once it's firm, you shape it into an acorn shape, let it dry and attach an acorn cup with PVA glue.

I'd asked if I could use two colours for the acorn, but was advised not to. The reason for this is that the first bunch of fibres is not visible so using a different colour wouldn't achieve anything. However, for the bauble, I used some green strands to create a swirly pattern on the ball. I did actually lay them straight on the red fibres but when I rolled the ball in my hands to felt it, they swirled around. I was quite pleased with the effect.

To make the bauble, I laid fibres in one direction to enclose the polystyrene ball, and then overlaid those with another layer of red wool with the fibres in the opposite direction. The green fibres were then laid at right angles again to the top layer of red fibres. I then applied a load of glitter and used the same technique of rolling the wet soapy mess in my hands. For this item, I did however also wrap netting around the ball and
roll it on the table. This seemed to speed up the felting process.

Once the ball was felted, a bauble top has to be inserted through the felt so it pops into the polystyrene. This is quite tricky to do but is made easier by poking one arm of the bauble top in first and then the other.

Tips

I had a problem with the finished acorn having a big crack in it. This is probably because I pressed too hard initially when I started to roll the ball of fibres in my hands. This could be disguised by added some extra fibres over the top and re-rolling the ball.

If when the item dries, part of it sticks up, this is because it hasn't been fully felted. To fix this you can just re-wet it and get rolling.

Cellini Spiral Weave Necklace

Using another kit from Beads Direct, I made this sparkling purple necklace. The spiral is a tube, so the ribbon and cord is just threaded through.

Materials

The project uses beads of varying sizes: size 6, 8, and 11 seed beads with some bicones, and some beading thread. The ribbon and cord necklace it's threaded on came ready made as part of a grab bag of goodies.

Tools

The only tools needed were a needle and a pair of scissors.

Method

I followed the instructions in the video linked at Beads Direct. I enjoyed making this necklace but it did take some time. Sometimes it was hard to pull the work tight enough so there were no gaps between the beads.

Keyring

I made a few of these cubic weave pendants a while ago. My husband was using one on his key ring. The ring of the key ring frayed the thread so I used wire instead.

Materials

I started making these using a kit, and then bought some extra beads to make more: 4 mm pearls, size 15 seed beads, beading thread, eye pins, jump rings, key ring ring.

Tools

For the pendant itself, I used just a beading needle. For the wire work at the top, I used round nose and flat nose pliers.

Method

I followed the video from Beads Direct's Take a Make Break Cubic Weave Pendant to make the pendant, and then used eye pins to form the wire loops attaching it to the key ring.

Other

The kit also contained some bicones which I've combined with the pearls in this pendant.

I had some beads left over from another kit and wondered if these irregularly sized beads would also work. I was quite pleased with the contrast of the order of the cubic weave and the randomness of the colour and size of the beads. I will need to reinforce the bail on this one so the keyring doesn't fray it. Since the beads in the bail are bigger than the size 15 seed beads I used on the other pendants, I can probably use fine wire to replace the thread.

Matte Fire Polish Bracelet, Necklace and Earrings

I started making the Beads Direct Take-A-Make-Break Matte Fire Polish Bracelet a few weeks ago. I had to stop because I had a problem with my shoulder. I enjoyed making the bracelet and so as there were plenty of beads left over in the kit, I made a necklace instead of making a second bracelet. I also made some matching earrings, taking a small segment of the bracelet./

The necklace and bracelet can be combined to make a longer necklace.

Materials

I used a kit from Beads Direct which contained Preciosa Czech Fire Polish 4mm Bead, Preciosa Czech Fire Polish 8mm Beads, Toho Size 11 Round Seed Beads, Toho Size 15 Round Seed Beads, 2 Rose Gold Plated Magnetic Ball Clasps, Nymo Beading Thread. I also used a pair of rose gold plated earring hooks.

Tools

Just a beading needle and scissors to cut the thread. I didn't need any pliers for this project as the beads are attached directly to the earring ring hook loop and the magnetic clasps using thread.

Technique

Although there was a project sheet included with the kit from Beads Direct, I followed the video showing how to make the bracelet. I was particularly interested in making the daisy-like flowers between the beads. First a triangle is made, then it's made into a cross and finally into a flower.

Grey Hat

All the commercial hats my husband has bought or tried on have been too small so I decided to make one for him. I finished it today.

Materials

I used 100% acrylic yarn from B&M. It came in a 300g ball and I used around 60-65g. The ball of yarn cost £3.99, so the hat cost around 80p to make.

Tools

Circular needles, double ended needles, a darning needle and an emergency crochet hook.

I used circular needles until the last few rows where I had to switch to double pointed needles. I haven't used double pointed needles before, and did have a little bit of trouble with them. I dropped a stitch and couldn't see it until I'd finished off the hat. Fortunately I have crochet hooks lying all over the place so they came to the rescue to pick up the dropped stitch.

Pattern

I used a pattern I found on ravelry. It's Ribbed Watchman's Hat by Channah Koppel.

Rag Rug Hooking

A few years ago I saw someone demonstrating rag rugging. I decided back then that I'd like to try. Well, on Saturday, at The National Trust Back-to-Backs in Birmingham, I got the opportunity to try at a two hour class in the front room of one of the houses. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being in the setting and learning a traditional technique. For some totally unknown reason I decided to draw my poppy with three petals instead of four. Oh well, I'm more interested in learning a technique than in what I made.

Materials

The base material used was common 10 ounce hessian. This is the hessian used for upholstery.Cheap hessian is too loose, and other hessian can be too stiff. Originally, old sacks were used.

The red and black material is t-shirt fabric, cut into long thin strips (approximately 1.5-2 cm wide and as long as possible).

Tools

We used a very sturdy crochet hook like tool which has a sharpened tip for bodging through the hessian. Originally something like half a sharpened dolly peg would have been used. I don't know how that would work without having the hook to pull the fabric through the material.

Technique

Following a pattern drawn onto the hessian, you work on the right side of the design, pulling loops through from the reverse of the fabric. The reverse of the piece is tight, the front is loopy. On the back of my piece you can see there are the ends of the strips where I ran out and needed to use another piece, and also in some places where the fabric was cut a bit wide/rough in places.

Introduction to Linux

Well, my previous project didn't last long. The pressures of work, and number of hours I've been working, have overtaken everything. I've just taken a week off, so I feel a bit less exhausted, and have the energy to start another course. So many half finished courses that I was thoroughly enjoying but ran out of steam to complete. So many more courses I'd like to take.

On Friday, the long awaited Linux Foundation course Introduction to Linux was released. I have a basic knowledge of Linux but many gaps so I'm looking forwards to filling those in. Another thing that I find useful about taking courses is vocabulary. I have very few words for things. I don't speak tech-speak. I don't remember the names for things. I remember concepts and ideas, but I'm really bad at labels for them. I'm not sure how anyone at work has the faintest idea what I'm talking about most of the time.

When I took one of Udacity's first courses, cs101, there were comments on the forums telling people to search for the answer instead of asking. I think that's horrible. One of the biggest problems when you're starting off in a subject is not being able to find answers for yourself. Even Google, with its auto completion and predictive suggestions can't work out what to tell me if I ask about a thingy that makes the whatsit do this. As a beginner, you don't know what is available. You don't know what to ask to get the answer because you haven't got enough of the picture yet. I would have to ask my husband or friends to give me the words to be able to look things up for myself.

Anyway, back to the course. I've been looking forwards to this for a long time. I hope I don't run out of energy before I complete it.

Week 1: Likes and Dislikes - Webpages

A Page I Like

Page: League of Legends page
Genre: Gaming
Category: art

• Beautiful rich images
• On mouseover, parts of the page highlight and extra details are shown, revealing something visually interesting. For example, the branches down the sides of the page. These touches do not convey any content.
• Images of champions are monochrome but on mouseover become richly coloured. This indicates to click, on which an information screen opens up. The wall of text wasn't so enticing. It was two paragraphs of text with no title or indication of what it was about without reading it. It's white on a dark blue background. I find it very hard to read white on a dark background and find I am reluctant to try.
• There is a video modal. The video player has the controls visible, which I find very important. I very quickly stop watching videos when there is no indication as to how they are. Around the video player is ice. It is a small but it adds interest to the page.
• The social sharing and branding icons at the bottom of the page seem completely out of place.

A Page I Don't Like

Page: Audible
Genre: Sales
Category: inaccessible, printed page

My main dislike for this page is from a functional point of view. The site sells audio books. The page consists of a large image which contains information about the site followed by a paragraph of text. The information in the image is not relayed in any other form on the page. Because it is an image, when enlarging it, the text becomes fuzzy. This site is not accessible to those who have visual impairments either requiring large text, or the use of a screen reader.

This page does not take advantage of the media. It looks to me just like a printed page put online.

A New Project

Background

Last year, CSS Zen Garden became 10 years old. I'm not quite sure why I went there again recently but it took me back to when I first made a webpage, back in the 1990s. That, and the consequent pages, were to distribute information to my students so that if they missed a lecture they could still access all the material they needed. This was for maths. No support for symbols. To get past this, I made images of the mathematics by taking screenshots of LaTeX and I painstakingly included images in my pages. I made as little into images as I could so there were symbols for less than or equals to, or subset or union. I was somewhat obsessed with my pages passing tests. I checked my page with Bobby, which checked for accessibility, and the W3 validator, which checks for correct markup. I'm sure the html I wrote back then was horrible. Without CSS, formatting was done using tables embedded in tables embedded in...oh dear, yuck!

In 2003, CSS Zen Garden made its appearance. Oh how I admired those pages. The feeling of wonder I felt back then comes so easily when I think of the beautiful sites that could be created from the same page. How I longed to be able to do something so beautiful but I didn't. I had done some very basic css to get away from those horrible tables, but by then I'd left my job and the need to make pages was much diminished.

Today

Now, 10 years on, we have so many more tools at our disposal. CSS is so much more powerful. Browsers can display more. The new pages on CSS Zen Garden are so much more amazing than ever. The creativity shown by these amazingly talented people is wonderous. The interactivity and interesting features included in the page makes me want to stay there and just play. I want to learn two things.

1. What is it about the pages that I love? What makes me want to stay? What makes me want to play?
2. How, technically, are the pages created?

For the first part, I'm going to pick two pages, one I like and one I don't like and try to work out what I like and don't like. For the second, I'm going to pick a page from CSS Zen Garden and investigate how each feature is made.