On: that boy just aint right.

YOW. Here's some of the stuff I've made/taped together/slapped on other stuff and stabbed at recently (but not all that recently - the shirt I made last month, the DENTATA patch I made a year and a half ago, but the pins I made just a few days ago). I made a silhouette stencil of mein lieber drei hund and I've been going kinda nuts with it because I just love The Human Centipede so much. The pictures on the pins are all from National Geographic. The patches on my butt are to cover up big wear holes that began surfacing when I caught my butt on a nail leaving the Kodak factory - one hole is made and suddenly the whole ass gives out. The floral butt-patch says "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" ("In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming") (source, wikipedia) three times, but I broke the stencil after the first one and so the last two prints only say Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn. I have a much more pristine copy sewn to the inside of that one jacket I wears all the time.

I've been doing a lot of crafting this month (finally) because my wardrobe needs some spruce. Mostly I've been making underpants (because I'm too cheap to buy them and I fel that it's important to treat my ass well) and some stencilded patches (and more to come) but also I've been bleaching things. Here is my specimen shirt (twenty five cents at my favorite second hand store?!?) and the stripes that I bleached onto it to make it more sprucey. Also I seem to have misplaced my eyebrows and meet my hammock where I spend so much time?

On: that HORRIBLE monkey.

I fancied up some buttons a few weeks ago. These are pictures of those fancy buttons. Aren't they fancy? I cut circles out of national geographic then I wheat-pasted them onto buttons then when they dried I put packing tape over the pictures. When school starts again I hope lots of people campaign for things so that I can take their buttons and use them to my own evil dark evil purposes. You know. Like fireworks.

On: subways.

Last year I didn’t have occasion to go downtown very often so riding the subway was a real treat. The experience was terrible and beautiful; equal parts isolation-melancholia and underground beauty. This year I commute to school and enjoy my subway rides without the sadness – I read, I watch the tracks behind me, and lately I draw.

I’ve been having strange emotions for the last month and that’s what this comic is about. Sometimes I’m haunted by a sense of guilt for something I can’t remember, or maybe didn’t happen at all. Being around people sometimes/used to make me deeply uncomfortable, but I’m getting over it. Cracking the hermit shell takes time, rooting out squirrlish tendencies takes time. If you read this please tell me; was the emotion of the comic clear? Vague but accessible? Did it have an effect? Was it effective?

Today I am hangovered, as T-rex would say. I will eat kimchi noodles and then wander about. Delight! Reading week has begun!

On: old knitting whith new knitting in her mind.

My urge to knit waxes and wanes; lately it has been rather in the waxing but with packing-changing-and making all the preparations for a new life I haven't much had the chance. Until this afternoon I thought that I was moving tomorrow but now Sunday is the day. Dad and I will take the boxes to my new place then I will spend the better part of next week at the ol country estate...but this means that my work in progress is in a box somewhere. Maybe I labelled it?

Anyhoo, this got me thinking about how long it's been since I threw up a crafty post. Too fucking long. So here are a few pairs of gloves that I made...last winter? I had/have a thing for fingerless gloves. Maybe because I have yet to make fingered gloves. Or mittens. This will, perhaps, be my goal this winter!

On: work in progress. AKA week 16.

Week three

More sewing accomplishment.

I used bleach and a paint brush to make the stripes on this shirt. The fabric was an old cotton man shaped shirt which I cut up and rearranged to fit me better. It was fun but I felt a little dizzy when I was done; it was raining and I had to do this in the basement.

The pants are also bleached by me. I haven’t decided yet whether they need more work or if they are good the way they are. I gathered and tied the legs like you do for some tie dye and the bleach didn’t distribute evenly in all spots. We shall see if I prefer them this way.

On: new pants.

Those new pants. In progress since September, and shape shifting much to become present. I am very happy with the way they turned out, they fit perfectly.

I used old pairs of pants that I don't wear anymore, more pants from the second hand store (dollar rack) and fabric that I've had around. The zipper is new and gold, and the button is bronzy and from the second hand store. I hate making the waist part of pants so I cut it off of one of the pairs that I used to make the patches and sewed it on around the top; very effective and I think it looks neat.

The fabrics are mostly thin ones so my timing is excellent, though it has been raining here for four or five days. I'll have to go up to the attic to play if I don't want to go swimming.

On: accomplishments.

I have, as of late, gotten quite a lot of sewing done. This is lovely, as I have never excelled at sewing. This is due to my dislike of measuring, my wild ‘n crazy cutting skills and my tendency to give up when aI discover that my project is lopsided, sewed inside-out-to-right-side-out, too small, or when a shiny sandwich floats into view.

We have those here. Floating shiny sandwiches.

While I still don’t measure with, you know, actual tools, and I still hack at fabric like some kind of human who cuts wood for a living, I no longer give up part way through. It does sometimes take me rather a long time to complete a project-RE the pants I finished yesterday, begun in September- but I do complete the project.

For instance: I have made a serious effort to resuscitate ”The Pants” (see picture at right). The Pants which I always wear, which I have worn for the last six years, which I purchased second hand, which cause love at first sight in hobos, because of which I have overheard people questioning Nox, “Are those the only pants that City has?” This is clearly a serious matter, and has been seriously attended to. Disintegration was occurring so rapidly that I feared to wear The Pants for the entirety of the winter term- the touch of road salt would surely have melted them. The Pants are now entirely wearable and the only concern left is that of the gaping chasm that is their crotch. I have chosen to solve this by wearing boxers and appreciating the summery breeze.

If I may refer you again to the picture at the right of this text you will see that I am not only wearing pants, but a shirt as well. Aint nobody can say I gots no class. I made this shirt at around the same time that I performed most of my Pant repairs, shortly before embarking to Toronto. I count it lucky that this sewing urge coincides with a rejuvenated love for patchy/DIY/messy...fashion (?) as it compliments my sewing inabilities nicely. Huzzah!

In: Kensington Market, Toronto.

On: music of the Spheres.

Last night Nox and I went to Crystal’s house to play board games for her roommate’s birthday. On the way there I figured out some of the manual settings that my ultra-wide possesses and I had some fun taking timed shots. Ice cream cake and caramilk baileys were fed to me. We played personal preference, which belonged to Laura where cards with activities or things on them are chosen, then ordered after someone’s preference. Then everyone guesses who/what that person likes the most. Laura has had the game for a long time, and when she was twelve she replaced the people she didn’t know with new people; so where Gandhi was Justin Timberlake now resides. Someone had been replaced by “jolly rancher”.

Earlier on Saturday Nox and I tested out the bubble recipe that I got from my mommy (5 cups soft water, 1 cup ivory dish soap, 2 TBSP glycerin) with a bubble blower made from string and knitting needles. I deem it a fair success, though more practice is required. The bubble solution is so viscous that the bubbles don’t pop so much as they crumple, which is very fun to watch.

I am currently doing some major pants reconstruction, and preparing plans for the trip to Toronto that Nox and I are taking next weekend to see Faith and the Muse. I AM SO EXCITED! I was reading about them of wiki, I had no idea that Faith had such a resume: she’s worked with Christian Death and Sex gang Children.

One more exam to go :)