illicit diversions

I found a few neat people recently.

Craftzine linked to The Ongoing Project’s crocheted collar, which looks beautiful!  It is going on my list of things to try out sometime soonish. I’m not exactly sure what 2-ply means, so I see some experimentation in my future.  I have some very light stuff I use to crochet snowflakes, but I’m not sure if that’s too light or too heavy!

I recently came across Whip Up, which I feel like I’ve seen before, but maybe not. At any rate, it is a great little collection of how-tos and tutorials for most things crafty.  I re-discovered a nifty little idea for reusing fabric scraps and old egg cartons.  *adds to list*

I have two projects that I’m actively working on at the moment, despite my project list at ravelry claiming I have 4. (It took me a while to figure out the difference between queue, project, and favorites.)

The first is a pair of the Daisy Stitch Hand Warmers from Purlbee. This is actually my second time knitting them, and I like to think that making the first set taught me a lot about knitting. I’ve gotten a bit better at managing the tension so the knit-3-together part isn’t quite so painfully difficult. I’m also changing up the pattern in that instead of doing stripes of different colors, they’re going to be yellow with one or two red stripes across the back of the hand, above the thumb hole! It looks really cool in my head. I also need to go read some thumb/finger patterns, because I’m not quite convinced I’m doing it right yet. There is a lot of post-knitting tightening things up in that area.

My second project is Anne Elliot Spencer by Canary Knits. It is an adorable little cropped shrug thing, the technical term for which is apparently a ’spencer’. Who knew? I’m starting that in a the nasty cheap acrylic from Red Heart, as I feel like I’m going to do some serious fucking up before I get it right. Somehow, I feel like I shouldn’t use the nice yarn until I am confident in my ability to make the actual pattern. I did cave and pick up a beautiful orange yarn for my second go at the spencer. I have some amazing dinosaur buttons for Jo-Ann’s that I feel will really make it an amazing garment!

I also have a pretty bright pink that is just barely hot enough for me to want to wear. I want to make it into a super-hot-yet-somewhat-badass cardigan/shrug item, but I haven’t quite found the perfect pattern.

Craftzine posted about a new embroidery pattern shop called PimpStitch (tagline: “Keep Your Stitch Hand Strong”), and after admiring the adorable patterns, the name finally registered and I could feel my jaw dropping.

Really? Someone thought that was a good name? I mean, they got racism, sexism, and domestic violence all in one go. I’m almost impressed.

Maybe I’m being a little hypocritical here. I am a slash fan, and I speak completely seriously of pimping music, authors, and fic to other fans. But this context is so completely unexpected and inappropriate! And unnecessary! The fandom usage of ‘pimp’ is to show other fans awesome things in a way that brings joy to everyone involved. This usage of ‘pimp’ is faux-cutesy and vomit-inducing. I’m not really seeing any use that either reverses or negates the negative connotations of the word or is subversive to the usual meaning of the word.

I realize that not all crafters identify as radical feminists, or even feminist at all, but I expected better of both Craftzine and their demographic. It’s too bad, really, because I would totally buy Tamie Snow’s adorable octopus pattern, except I cannot give money to any entity with ‘pimp’ in the name. Sorry Tamie, I’m just going to have to draw my own adorable octopus.