OMG! Heart

Hello Kollabora.com! You new crafty website you… Hmm, what to say about this new online community slash craft site that’s kind of like a when Craftsy met PS I Made This and I Spy DIY love triangle?

1.) Somebody over there is my long lost craft twin.
2.) Fiberistas unite!
3.) Seriously though, did you make this site for me?
A.) Kraft Krush!

I first heard about it through a lovely welcome note I got in my inbox! On first glance, I liked the layout and design, visual yet minimal Pinterest-style moodboardy. M.I.A. as interpreted by Saved By The Bell font. But further exploration revealed it’s chock full of great projects and handy features for the savvy crafter.

I raided their pattern library for some great projects. Here’s just a few of my picks, take a peek, you get the idea. :) Join the Kollabora community too and share your knit love. Heck Yeah!

❤ Patterns range from Free to Pricey! Quick to Fair Isle.

❤ It’s not just for Knitting and Crochet, but also features Sewing and Jewelry! The Quad-fecta.

❤ Fun Fact: Kollabora features many knits/designs from people and places I love!! Many already featured on my site. Sister from another misterrr! I also met a bunch of the Kollabora team at this year’s Maker Faire where they had a really fun booth full of Berninas and Novelty Yarn.

❤ Bonus: Kollabora makes shopping for your project materials easy! Just click on a project you like, check the items you need, {pattern, yarn, needles}, GO! And voila, all the materials you need for that one project without having to click all over the internet (lazy fingers) for them! x.x $$$ Q.Q

Patterns In This Post:
Florence and the Machine Sweater
Novita’s Snood Dogg
Fair Isle Capelet
Greta Capelet
Halloween Origami
Read More »

Snow Pea by We Knit You A Merry Christmas

I saw these on Daily Mail and had to repost. They’re awesome knit patterns for the holidays. They make great fun little knit gifts. And books make great gifts for knitters too. Patterns contain both knit and crochet items.

❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

We Knit You A Merry Christmas By Debbie Harrold, $7.95
Mollie Makes Christmas By Mollie Makes, £5.79

Via http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2234120/
Mollie Makes Photo from Mathilde

Check out these awesome dog and cat knits by Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne. Great to make as gifts for dog lovers. Great books to give as gifts for knitting lovers. Fabulous and affordable. AWESOME!

Knit Your Own Cat By Sally Muir & Joanna Osborne, $10.17
Knit Your Own Dog By Sally Muir & Joanna Osborne, $10.17
Knit Your Own Dog: The Second Litter By Sally Muir & Joanna Osborne, $9.56

Via http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2234120/

Imagine if the clothes you wore were not only eco-friendly but eco-cleaners? Above is Professor Helen Storey, a London-based fashion designer, with her eco-cleaning jeans that purify the air as you wear them. Yes, her jeans which she’s been testing for 2 years claim to clean the air of nitrogen dioxide, a harmful air pollutant.

Helen along with Tony Ryan, a professor of Physical Chemistry at Sheffield University interested in polymers and soft nanotechnology, developed a fabric treatment that can turn everyday clothing like denim jeans into air pollution cleaners!

The product is actually not just a denim jean but a laundry additive called Catclo that is made out of nanoparticles of titanium dioxide. These nanoparticles of titanium dioxide are triggered by sunlight. When triggered, it causes the particles to react and this reaction absorbs NO2 in the process. It is simply added to laundry detergent, clothes are washed in said detergent, and voila! Your denim (or any article of clothing) will now be coated with nanoparticles of titanium dioxide.

Helen Storey and Tony Ryan with their pollution cleaning jeans.
They will be at the Manchester Science Festival. This weekend Oct 27 – Nov 4 2012.

How does Catclo work?
“Catclo contains nanoparticles of titanium a thousand times thinner than a human hair. When clothes are washed with Catclo these particles are deposited on to the fibres of the fabric. When the catalysed clothes are worn, light shines on the titanium particles and it excites the electrons on the particle surface. The excited electrons try to react with something and the first thing that they see is oxygen because it’s in the air just above the surface of the particle.” — Tony Ryan

It’s not available yet but it’s in the works. Read more about Catclo, just how much air it cleans, and if there are any drawbacks. Check out their website, Catalytic Clothing for more about their project.

Oh the possibilities!
Just think. How much pollution in NY could be offset if just the crowds of people that jam up Times Square alone (Everyday during rush hour? During the holidays? On New Year’s Eve?) were all wearing eco-cleaning clothing? In Los Angeles? Tokyo? Shanghai? Delhi? Or any high population modern city where human traffic could actually be used for a practical purpose?

You don’t even have to be wearing it! Perhaps flags, curtains, patio furniture upholstery, any textile that sits outdoors can be turned into air pollution cleaners!

The simple act of line-drying your laundry in the sun could double as air pollution cleaners too. Anything from bed sheets to table cloths, towels, curtains whatever that can be machine-washed and line dried would work too. It could not only help offset any pollution caused directly or indirectly from machine-washing clothes but it also saves energy from not having to run the dryer.

On an industrial level, textile manufacturers could potentially offset their entire process if the fabrics they worked with were all treated with this product while working? Before being shipped? Who knows!

It’s a cool concept and hopefully will not only become a reality but open doors to new concepts and ideas for other eco-practical solutions. Read more about Sustainable Fabric and E-Textiles where technology meets textiles in some of my previous posts.

What is Nitrogen Dioxide?
Nitrogen Dioxide or NO2 is a toxic emission most commonly produced by cars, airplanes (or any engine that uses gas to run), power plants, gas heaters and stoves etc. It’s what most people are referring to when they say air pollution! It’s in general one of the largest man-made air pollutants in our eco system. It’s that haze you see over LA on an especially polluted day.

Read More »

Usha Butterfly by Usha, India

What do you look for in a Sewing Machine?
Especially your very first adult sewing machine? Style? Cost? Features? I struggled with my first machine because I didn’t want to invest too much as a beginner. I just needed something to tinker with… Taking sewing classes to start is smart because you can learn and try out machines at the same time. But what about when you’re ready to buy?

I didn’t want to spend too much yet I still wanted the best machine I could find for my purpose. Basic yet versatile, so I could easily try whatever type of sewing struck my interest. Well-built so I could sew comfortably and for many projects to come. And lastly, something I wouldn’t outgrow too fast.

How much would that cost? What options were available? What’s a good value for the price? There’s lots of options, it’s hard to know where to begin. So here’s what I found during my research. Whatever your budget or purpose, hopefully this list will help you research and find just the right one. It’s a comprehensive list of home sewing machine manufacturers and the factors I used to narrow down options. You can get a decent well-built machine ranging from $70 – $160!

Sewing Machine Brands in Other Countries
Elna, Switzerland Website
Baby Lock, Juki, Japan Website
Consew, USA Website
Feiyue, China Website
John Lewis, UK Website
Kenmore, USA Website
Necchi, Italy Website
Usha, India Website
Yamata, China Website
Toyota, Japan Website
Merry Lock, Taiwan Website
Michley Tivax, USA Website

Sewing Machine Brands in North America
Singer, USA Website
Janome, Japan Website
Brother, Japan Website
Bernina, Switzerland Website
Husqvarna Viking, Sweden Website
Pfaff, Germany Website
Juki, Japan Website
Ikea, Sweden Website

Ikea SY, $69.99

Singer Promise 1409, $91.99

❤ Price/Cost
$200 or below. Entry-level beginner machines usually range from $100- $499. To be honest, I wanted to see if I could get away with a kids’ hobby sewing machine for $100 or less but I found a vintage machine for $25 and went with that to start instead.

Under $100 can get your kid a great first sewing machine or budding home sewer their very own machine to experiment on. Affordable enough to take the plunge, plus it’s cute! It can even get the savvy crafter a very functional sewing machine that will serve them well.

Under $200 is generous enough to cover crafties like myself who need a solid basic they can rely on and grow with who doesn’t want to invest in the holy grail of sewing machines yet until they find what kind of sewing they’d like to focus on most!

$499 can buy a machine that can handle the seriously savvy or creatively crafty mom who not only sews for their pleasure but can double as a tailor, halloween costume maker, throw pillow/curtain/tablecloth maker and casual accessories designer/etsy shop owner on the side.

It’s a strict budget but it’s realistic. It can buy a trusty sewing machine that can both perform all the essentials and grow with you at the same time. Great for the dabbler, great for the serious kid learner, crafty mom, or for an adult learner like me who wants to gradually try it all.

Vintage Singer Treadle 66, $25

Singer Fashionmate 7256, $160

❤ Features & Options
Straight Stitch, Back Stitch, and Zig Zag Stitch are all I needed. They are also the 3 most basic and most essential stitches needed for all beginning to intermediate sewers. Every modern sewing machine comes standard with these stitches.

Removable Sewing Bed. Hemming pant legs or sewing cuffs? Working with sleeves or skirts? Anything tubular where you will have to sew around the edge of a ring is difficult without this feature. The base of the sewing machine will pop out revealing an arm-type base. You should be able to slip a sleeve or pant leg on there and sew it around. Not all modern sewing machines come with this feature.

Foot Pedal Operated. Every modern sewing machine comes standard with foot pedal operation. Vintage machines do not though. They can come with anything from a knee pedal to a hand crank.

Sewing Feet and Bobbin Winders. Like detachable feet for Zipper or Button-hole makers, and Bobbin Winders. Bobbin Winders and Zipper Feet usually come standard with modern machines.

Reliable Stitch Length/Tension Control. Adjustable Tension Control is also standard among all sewing machines. Being able to control how tight your stitches are is handy for basting and working with different textiles. A machine that can do this reliably and accurately is important and not all machines can promise this.

Durability. How long the machine will last, if the feed dogs can reliably feed different textiles through, and how accurate the stitches are are what make a sewing machine reliable and durable to me. Perhaps if it can sustain long periods of accurate sewing at its maximum speed is also a factor.

Read More »

Above photo album can also be viewed at my Imgur Gallery.

Hello, Maker Week NYC 2012!
The 3rd Annual Maker Faire just blew through town. It also happened to mark the 1st Annual “Maker Week” here in NYC! As declared by Mayor Bloomberg, September 24-30 is officially Maker Week and is an entire week dedicated to DIY science and crafts! Yay yay yay!

Thanks to Kollabora.com, I got the chance to go to Maker Faire this year to check what new fangled gadgets and crafts were on the menu.

We saw a cool Cupcake Man Car which was a guy driving around in a cupcake shaped car he built. Saw some butterfly bikes, the Katy Perry Unicorn complete with flaming unicorn horn, ate some gyros and shish kebab on a stick, and checked out some craft booths and stalls.

It poured buckets of tornado rain when we got there but we holed up at the Kollabora booth to wait it out. We ended up meeting some of the lovely Kollabora Team and Finger Crocheting some necklaces!

Last year at The Faire there were so many knitting, sewing, and textile booths and demos like Free Motion Quilting, Fabric Dying, Singer Co. etc. More of the fun attractions/events/booths like Craftzine machine knitting cosby sweaters, the solar sewing guy who powered his sewing machine with his bicycle, steampunky bike contraptions, super mario radio-controlled car races, and oddball independent artists were not there this year either.

This year they had less than half the textiles and crafts featured as last year. It was mainly overrun with arduino and 3D printing booths. Also, much larger name companies like ASUS were there with a Speed Build Competition and 3D graphics video games complete with special glasses. Crif Dogs was there!

And… it was about 3 times more crowded! It was jam packed and food lines were atrocious. Blecch the Rat! It felt a lot less organized in general. Perhaps it was because I went at the tail end (2pm ish) of the last day (Sunday) and missed an entirely different schedule on Saturday? On top of Maker Faire not expecting such a huge turnout? Oh well.

Top Right: Micro Amigurumi Garden Gnomes by Mochimochi Land. Each are sold in kits with everything you need to create your own.

Right: Boombox Bag and Cassette Tape Pouch in Needlepoint by Jenny Henry. Each are sold in handy Needlepoint Kits.

Bottom Right: Toasty Time Hoodies w. Mitten Pockets. Yup, they’re knitted!

Notable Crafties @ The Faire
Mochimochiland.com, Mochimochi Land – Micro Amigurumi Knitting Kits
Mondaysprojects.tumblr.com, Mondays Project – Handmade Pottery
Billywolfnyc.com, Billy Wolf – Fine K-9 Coatery
Romanhills.com, Roman Hills Yarn by Lisa Roman
Loopoftheloom.com, Loop of the Loom Saori Weaving
Kollabora.com, Kollabora – Online DIY Community for Makers
Intheseam.com, In The Seam – Dog and Cat Pillows
Jennyhenrydesigns.com, Jenny Henry Designs – Needlepoint Kits
Lifewithtigers.com, Life with Tigers – Handmade Toys and Gifts
100actsofsewing.com, 100 Acts of Sewing by Sonya Philipp
Ambushbog.com, Ultra Lite Spindles – Yarn spun with cat hair! Eep!
Sprysprout.com, Spry Sprout – Geeky Kid Clothing w. comic-printed fabrics
Toastytime.com, Toasty Time – Hoodies w. Mitten Shaped Pockets
Dearsweetdarlings.etsy.com, Dear Sweet Darlings Handmade Rabbits

What is Kollabora?
Kollabora is a new online crafting community that’s just joined the “block” party! =^..^= It’s a cross between PS I Made This, I Spy DIY, and Craftsy. It has a fresher focus IMHO featuring projects that pair classic crafts like Knitting or Sewing with edgier materials and fabrics and modern takes on those same classics with projects like Big Stitch Knitting! Where Craftsy has a more Martha Stewart feel, Kollabora might appeal more to urban hipster or fashion industry creatives. Find out all about them in my post.

Above: Lindsey, on the far right, is wearing the Bushwick Cape, a featured project on their site. It’s a classic Simplicity Sewing Pattern you can sew yourself! It’s simply matched up with a more contemporary fabric (red/black flannel check) to give it a fresher look. If you got to check out their booth, it was filled with yarn and Berninas, and mobbed by tween girls!

Read more about Maker Faire and my trip last year here:
http://www.omgheart.com/2011/09/16/maker-faire-nyc-2011/
http://www.omgheart.com/2011/09/21/omg-heart-goes-to-maker-faire/

Cupcake Guy Car @ Maker Faire

Knit Picks In Touch Gloves Pattern w. Touch Fingertips

Literally, it’s a thread that conducts electricity! So iPhone 5 dropped today (if you pre-ordered and hit the option to pickup in-store that is…) and “Apple Fans are Jubilant”. Big Whoop! $800 for a phone is really incredible especially considering advanced technology these days (should be readily available and definitely affordable) and it’s never $300 better than its predecessor so… But it does make this post somewhat more fitting.

Don’t you hate it when it’s freezing cold outside and you have to text a friend or answer your smartphone but can’t because your gloves are on? I do! But not enough to have to wear one of those types of “digital-ized gloves” you see in a lot in sporting goods stores. But now I have another option, I CAN MAKE MY OWN PAIR!

I just discovered this thread while browsing through a Knit Picks flyer on the train the other day. The photos above are from Knit Picks and if you look closely at the Pointer Finger and Thumb you can see a little added embellishment on the fingertips. Those little embellishments are stitched on using Conductive Thread! The Conductive Thread allows the wearer to operate touch devices like iPhones, iPads, Galaxy Tabs, your new Galaxy S3, (my Android HTC Inspire) etc.

How Does It Work?
This Conductive Thread is a 2-ply thread made of steel fibers and can conduct electricity and complete circuits just like a wire. It comes in a little bobbin containing about 4-10 meters of this special thread. Simply sew it on to the fingertip of your next hand-knit gloves and voila! Instant “E-Tip” gloves. I don’t know just how effective this Conductive Thread is in practice but it could be worth a try for my next glove project.

Firefly Baby Booties w. LED Lights!

E-Textiles and Conductive Clothing
There’s been a lot of “digital” clothing and accessories for awhile like jackets that are wired to charge up your mobile phone when placed in a pocket or plugged into a panel and of course sport gloves by the likes of North Face or Marmot with conductive pads on the fingertips that allow you to operate your GPS tracker while scaling the iciest peak on Mount Everest. So this little bobbin of conductive thread is especially nifty because now it means we can add this to any one of our own homemade projects! GO DIY TECH!

Electronic textiles (e-textiles) are fabrics that have electronics and interconnections woven into them, with physical flexibility and size that cannot be achieved with existing electronic manufacturing techniques. Components and interconnections are intrinsic to the fabric and thus are less visible and not susceptible to becoming tangled together or snagged by the surroundings. An e-textile can be worn in everyday situations where currently available wearable computers would hinder the user. E-textiles can also more easily adapt to changes in the computational and sensing requirements of an application, a useful feature for power management and context awareness.
–E-Textile Research Lab, Virginia Tech

Makezine has a nice little blog post about it here. Googling “e-textiles” or “conductive thread” will also generate a wealth of info on anything from conductive fabric to wearable computers to programming arduinos (which is what threads like these are especially useful for).

Where To Buy
Conductive thread comes in bobbins or spools and can come in varying diameters, lengths, and resistances. Knit Picks sells this thread in bobbins of about 4-5 meters each for $4.99 each. Spark Fun sells this Conductive Thread in various lengths and diameters for more advanced projects. Prices range from $2.95 for 30ft to 175 yards for $39.95. They have a wide range of 2-ply, 4-ply, thick, thin, extra-thick, and even thread with different connectivity resistances. So check out their page for the best option to suit your needs.

And ZOMG! My personal fave – knitted shorts and pants?! WIN!

Check out these 80s-inspired geometrics a la Saved By The Bell. But better! The designs have an 8-bit slant IMHO that can appeal to anyone from the Brooklyn hipster to the 80′s throwback lover to the video game nards. Either way it’s a fresh take on knitwear that has a younger edgier vibe yet still classic enough to have a wide appeal. Move over Dwayne Wayne (sunglasses) and Lisa Bonet circa Cosby Show and A Different World! Go Knitwear Today!

I first saw these in an L Mag I picked up while trolling Prospect Heights… We just finished watching Jiro Dreams of Sushi (corny music but cool film about sushi as a craft). So, guess what? Sushi time! We went to eat at Taro, then Sky Ice (homemade ice cream slash thai home cooking eatery…), then sampled a few spoonfuls of gelato at Caramello where we learned that gelato is less fattening than traditional ice cream. No egg and less air makes a rich, dense, smooth confection with less calories! The sorbet (Limetta!!) was seriously decadent too with zero dairy yet all the rich and creamy mouth feel! Passed by the Barclays Center all blacked out, the new home of the Brooklyn Nets… Then while walking back to the train, we spied this flyer on ye olde stereotypical stoop and snapped one up to read on the train ride.

Annie Larson is a knitwear designer based in Bushwick, Brooklyn by way of Minneapolis, MN and originally from Seoul, Korea and Wisconsin. From reading her bio it looks like she’s a machine knitter who “bought a 1980s sweater-creating contraption in January of 2009″ (a Brother KH-965i to be exact) and never looked back. A former clothing designer for Target, Annie quit her job to pursue knitwear and what is now ALL Knitwear, her clothing line.

You can shop online for her designs at ALL for Everyone. Or at Madewell here on Broadway. Tops are around $260.

Via
http://www.allforeveryone.com/
http://ofakind.com/designers/7–all-knitwear
http://www.thelmagazine.com/

Love that Batman is knitting!

Happy Labor Day Weekend! It’s the last official weekend of summer. Le sigh. But hopefully these new comics I discovered will keep you in good spirits. CHECK IT OUT!!!

Worsted for Wear, a comic strip created by Rachael and Josh Anderson, does not always feature Batman in his knitting stance! But it does have a lot of knitting anecdotes I can relate to. It’s a nice geeky little slant too with nods to nerdy pop culture from comics, movies, guy knitters, work etc.

I’m not so into Batman personally but love that they’re both featured together. And, of course, love that there’s a comic strip dedicated to knitting and crochet anecdotes.

P.S. I saw Dark Knight Rises and thought it was a really fun action movie, so I gave it an A+ for Action! However, my BF, who is a Batman fanaticus maximus, hated it… Too much side story that deviated too far from original story lines, not enough Batman, and no new cool gadgets for the wow-factor… The Batman purist in him was downright insulted! Ah well. Onward to more knitting comics…

Been there!

Oh, Crochet is not THAT bad!

Yay! “Famous guys” knitting!

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Rachael and Josh will have a new knitting, crochet, or yarn anecdote for you to enjoy! According to her bio, Rachael is “an avid knitter and life-long Batman fan!” who also happens to love to draw and make comics! AWESOME SAUCE!

If interested in more knitting-related comics, check out their website. All their comic strips are posted there. You can Buy a Print through their site too.

Via Worsted for Wear by Rachael and Josh Anderson

Woman and child sewing together in a yurt in the Kyrgyz lands.
Wakhan Corridor, Afghanistan.

Above is the winning picture for the National Geographic Traveler – 2012 Photo Contest by Cedric Houin. This captivating photo first drew me in by its strong sense of place. A snap in a moment of time, present day, yet so far away as to seem ancient. Then I noticed the remarkable textiles and cultural garb and then the antique sewing machine. And then best of all – she’s sewing!!! A fellow modern day sewer worlds away in a completely different context yet not so different. Novel!

This image was shot in the Kyrgyz lands of the Wakhan Corridor. The intimacy of this everyday life moment, shot inside of a family yurt, is in total contrast with the harsh environment these nomadic tribes live in. On the right we notice a television and a sound console. These tribes live weeks away from any village by foot. In spite of being located at an altitude of 4,300 meters in one of the most remote areas of Afghanistan they are equipped with solar panels, satellite dishes and cellphones. Ancestral ways of living, with touches of modernity. –Photo and Caption by Cedric Houin

National Geographic contributing photographer Alexandra Avakian, one of this year’s judges, shares her thoughts on the first place winner:

I’ve slept in the guest yurt of Kyrgyz nomads in remote mountains while on assignment for Elle magazine; the location is hard to reach and off the beaten path for most travelers, and therefore of educational as well as aesthetic value.

Baobab Trees, Morondava, Madagascar. Photo by Ken Thorne

This year the National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest had over 12,000 entries of daily life from 152 countries and the photos are always breathtakingly stunning. From a moment in time at the ends of the earth to extraordinary landscapes, the transportive images are unforgettable. Winners receive awards from trips to prize money and of course get to share a slice of their beautiful culture, land, or just a snapshot of their travels. National Geographic also provides these awesomely beautiful photos in high-resolution wallpapers for your desktop, iphone, or ipad!

Via http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2189479/National-Geographic-reveal-winners-2012-Photo-Contest.html
Via http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/traveler-magazine/photo-contest/2012/