Origami Roses

Greetings all! I'm back with a quick project I worked on about a week ago.

That is, it was supposed to be a quick project...

Do you remember this photo, from my turtle history?

I made these roses from construction paper for Mother's Day two years ago, using this tutorial. By now, sitting by that window has faded them to this:

Crazy!

So my mom asked me if I could redo them in something that will keep its color. My first thought was origami paper. Her first thought?

This is the same shiny stuff they wrap around poinsettia pots in the holiday season. It's pretty to be sure, but I'm warning you now, it's a bear to work with.

A paper rose might take me ten minutes. Might. Lots of pre-creasing.

However, these beautiful foil roses?

Each one took over an hour.

The problem with these is they don't stay when folded. They crease easily, but it won't stay put! I had paper clips hanging all over the place during the shaping steps, until I could lock the darn things in place.

But really....

SO worth it. They're gorgeous.

Now the white rose, of course, hadn't faded, only the pink and yellow had. But my mom was thinking, "Well, won't that one matte rose look odd against all that shiny-ness?"

She looks at me and says, "Why don't you try aluminum foil?"

I surprised to find out that the aluminum foil rose was significantly easier. The folds actually stayed in place (better than paper, actually); the only problem is that in both aluminum foil and the foil paper I had, it's difficult to reverse a fold (you know, make it fold the other way)...the foil doesn't like change, I guess.

But again...

TOTALLY WORTH IT.

Aren't these just beautiful? I am seriously considering screwing all gender stereotypes and making a bouquet of these for my boyfriend next Valentine's Day. Just so I can do it.

 
SO PRETTY. I'm a little obsessed.

Again, if you'd like to make these, the tutorial can be found here. Once you get the hang of it, it's quite easy. After two roses I could do it from memory. Please show me pictures if you try it!

Edit: Okay, so, um, ridiculous story. How many of you are familiar with the blog Inside Out Style? It's this really fabulous style blog by Australian image consultant Imogen Lamport. She has all these great posts that always focus on finding what is best for you. You'll see in my list of blogs I follow that I do read a few fashion blogs (it's one of my new interests), but I just don't talk about it much. But I have to say, Inside Out Style is one of my favorites because it's so practical and applicable to me.

So why did I mention this in the first place? Well, Imogen has a feature called Weekend Reading, and guess what link popped up there?

OMG YES. THE LINK TO THIS VERY POST.

Sorry, I'm just blown away that someone so "high and mighty" in the blogging world would have even noticed something written by me. It's exciting, and such an honor! :) Thank you, Imogen! Please visit her blog and/or take a look at the other bloggers in this week's Weekend Reading!

-Annie

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Foundation chain joining woes

Hello again!

So recently I made another infinity scarf as a present for a family member. It uses this pattern, but for this particular scarf I used fewer repeats per row and a larger hook.

Yay, pretty! No action shots on her, but she liked it...hopefully I can get pictures sometime.

Now, I don't remember what black magic I called upon last time to get a simple whip stitch to suffice for the joining seam, but my foundation chain for this scarf was ridiculous.

I wanted it to be able to stretch with the rest of the scarf, so I went up two hook sizes and chained somewhat loosely. I ended up with the most insanely loopy, messy-looking foundation ever. It stretched just fine, but can you imagine how shabby the thing looked when I attempted to whipstitch the ends together? There were loops popping out everywhere and it was just a mess!

It was then that I recalled something I had seen...somewhere in the blogosphere. Hopefully someone can enlighten me as to where I got the inspiration for this idea...are you ready? It's a revolutionary idea...it could change the very world........

REMOVE THE FOUNDATION CHAIN WHEN JOINING

Revolutionary, right?

Okay, so it's not that exciting, but I've gotta tell you, it's a great idea! Check it out...

Where's the join?

Do you see it?

Right here!

Not too shabby, right?

I can anticipate this working nicely for a lot of things that require joining something to the bottom of a crocheted piece, and possibly even nicely finishing the bottom edge of a piece. I plan on experimenting with that later. :)

Plus, it helps to get rid of the stretch issue without being forced to start with a foundation sc or dc row.

I put together a photo tutorial for the method that I found worked best. If you'd like to see my way of joining two crocheted pieces by replacing the foundation chain, please read on. :)

I liiiiiiive!

Well, hello there everyone! I must apologize for the long, long hiatus, but schoolwork does not wait for anyone. *sigh* That, and my life has been thrown in all manner of directions since I graduated (heck yeah, I GRADUATED). I will be a medical student this fall (XD YES), which I predict means I will have even less time to craft than I have in the past few years. It's a sad thing, but, eh, the sacrifices we make for our futures, yes?

Anyways, a good bit has been happening on the crafting front in the past (almost three!) months, and I'm super-excited to share it with you. However, although I'm sure you're all on the edges of your seats, today's post isn't really about anything crafty. I thought I'd share a little something and just let you all know that I am, in fact, alive.

There is a second-hand store near my school called The Bottomline, and they have a fabulous mission to provide lightly used, work-appropriate clothing at great prices. I've found a couple great things there, but nothing (NOTHING) compares to what I found at the end of my finals week.

That jacket? Isn't it gorgeous? Sorry for the awkward photo, a clotheshanger did not wish to make itself available. However, the jacket itself is not the awesome part. Are you ready?

WHAAAAAT???

My dear friends, I paid less than 5% of this beautiful, NEVER-USED jacket's retail value. $9.00 for a Michael jacket. Let me tell you right now, I am the person who prowls the clearance racks at clothing stores. I cringe when I pay more than $20.00 for just about any wearable item. It boggles my mind that I own this. No, it's not a vintage Chanel dress I found for a dollar or something nuts like that, but it's so exciting, especially with the expensive thrift stores in my area. >.<

Ah, don't you love thrifting?

So the story goes that a hotel chain (I can't remember which) used to have this as a part of their uniform. They changed their uniform, and, lo, The Bottomline is inundated with boxes and boxes of these lovely jackets. And, lucky me, who hadn't gone thrifting in months, I walked into the store when only three or four were left, saw this hanging on a display, and instantly snagged it.

It's fate.

I'll be back periodically in the coming weeks with more crafty posts. Much crocheting and sewing has taken place, and more is taking place and is planned for the summer. Here is just a teaser of the many things I have to share with you.

Mad photoshopping (AKA Paint.net) skillzzzz

Thank you for stopping by!

-Annie