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Simple Dismemberment Plan Potholders

Another one for the "potholder series," if you will. These Dismemberment Plan tribute potholders were designed for this amazing girl who regularly opens my eyes to new music, so I thought what better way to celebrate her birthday than to pay homage to one of her established music loves?

Photo credit: T. Tough

Actual album art:

Click the potholders tag to see the others!

Thank You/Autumn Card

Last October, this musician did an amazing favor for me, and I couldn't help but remember and still be grateful this October. I decided to make a second thank you note, and this is what I came up with:


I seriously love the fall.

Florida Invaders

Floridians see Florida differently than other people do.

The creepiest thing I have ever made

Brian Simpson doll. (Is that redundant?)

The man himself:

Custom Bridesmaid Dainties

I probably shouldn't be blogging about any of this . . . .

Bridal dainty detail:

Knitted Beer Coozie

I've never been one to use a beer coozie ever, but I needed to make a quick thank you present for a friend, and he loves beer, so I thought, why not knit him a coozie. I did it with variegated yarn and personalized it with felt and embroidery thread (my go-tos).

Scream! Emoticon Pillow

Because life really is that exciting when you hang with KG.

Happy Birthday, girl!

(Blue knit pillowcase with neon/glow-in the dark emoticon embellishment.)

Pizza Cucina

Monitor Lizard (aka dragon)

I'm working on a piece of art to trade with a talented lady, and this is the main detail. He's a monitor lizard, originally all the way from the Nile River, who now lives in Florida, just like me. He's 17 inches long and 5 inches tall. I created him using felt and embroidery thread.

I used this photograph, which I found on the USGS page of Nonindigenous Aquatic Species, as my model. Isn't he just as handsome in real life?

Because he's so long and the Internet isn't, I figured some people might want to see close-ups to check out the detailing (mainly me). Here's his head:

His middle:

And his tail:

I'll post the full project when it's done! Hopefully in the next week!

Culture Vulture Book Jacket

Culture vulture: A person with a predatory interest in the arts.

Complementary Chowder

Dancing Buns

Kris got a hole in her shirt, which is the worst! But we fixed it up with a couple of dancing bunnies.

Abbey Road Potholder

I got new batteries, so, yay, for more detailed images! This was more fun than I expected, but I still would've liked to have done more with it.

(Just in case you are somehow unfamiliar with The Beatles' album Abbey Road...)

Slanted and Enchanted Potholder, take 2

How could I deny enjoying the process of duplicating this potholder based on the album art of the Pavement record, Slanted and Enchanted for ThrillerMag's "What Is Indie?" issue?

I tightened it up a little bit, making the area the art covered take up most of the potholder, which I think is an improvement. I also went with white for the border and left out the yellow entirely, which may or may not have been the best take on it, depending on what attracts you most about the busy album cover.

Here's a closeup:

Unicorn Pillow

I stitched a unicorn onto blue fabric, then stuffed it with filling for 10 billion hours. Here it is in all its glory. After finishing, I realized I didn't give the unicorn a horn. Is a unicorn a unicorn without a horn? Maybe I should call it Rainbow Pony Pillow. Either way, Travis is stuck with it.

I also made new pillows for my bed. They only get to be in the background, though, because the unicorn pillow is too special to not be front and center in every pillow picture from now til the rest of eternity.

House slippers for Ma

These pictures are way dark, but the slippers actually turned out admirably. I was into them.

STOCKING stitch, Fascinating.

I've been playing with different patterns, trying to come to terms with all of the maneuvers so that I can pick out exactly which pattern I want to use for the adult-sized booties. As I've been knitting along, I've noticed something very, very obvious about knitting:

If it doesn't feel right then it isn't right.

It really shouldn't be difficult. When you're knitting the way you're supposed to, you naturally get into a rhythm. If the yarn feels too tight around the needle, something is wrong. If you don't like what you see, something is really wrong. If you can't figure out how on earth to continue the stitch because yarn is just criss-crossing everywhere, put down the needles and watch TV or read for a little while.

Knitting kind of feels like doing friendship bracelets when I was a kid. Crossing the threads in different patterns, it was a monotonous, endless task. And that's what knitting is, too: the same thing over and over again until when? Until it's done.

That's kind of how it is with a lot of things, eh?

I know this isn't particularly enlightened, but I kind of like the relationship.

Knitting101

I learned how to knit! !!!!! I'm beyond excited about this new and freaking insane avenue for passing time. Did you know how many different knit stitches there are?! Did you know about different needles and different styles and how individuals develop their own unique handling with the needle as they do with holding pencils?! Knitting is like handwriting. Awesome.

This is my first project with my first skein of yarn. Shout out to Christin Upshaw who "showed me the ropes" (leave me alone, I'm ecstatic).

My favorite part is how perfect the rows look. It's so satisfying. Once you get into a solid rhythm, they just churn out. Row after freaking row.

OK, so maybe my absolute favorite part is having a badass scarf that I would probably never be willing to spend money on from a store. Also, I'm a Floridian and have no excuse to be purchasing warm weather fripperies.

Up next, adult-sized booties. Oh purling, I will destroy you.