Sunday, January 15, 2012

Tools of the Trade

Today I realized I bought something totally useful, 2 years ago - before I really had a use for it:

Fashionary Sketch Book

It was a great idea then. It's a great idea now and it's much more popular (also somewhat more pricey than it used to be). Note: You don't buy it on Etsy anymore.

The croquis template provided on each page is terrific - not to mention the reference materials sections (which are increasingly useful as I try my hand at art as well as craft). The template shape, however, is incredibly long and slim. Happily, the page is dotted so lightly with the trace lines that I can use them simply as a guide.

To complement the sewing cache, earlier this week my latest gift to me arrived by post:



Jordana Paige Crafter's Tool Butler - I bought the aubergine colour.

Let's just say, this thing was a stupid splurge as - by the time I added the unreasonably-inflated shipping - the price went up 30%. American businesses need to stop charging this way. I'll go to any lengths, at this point, to get an item elsewhere because I feel RIPPED OFF. If you're an American vendor, take heed: We Canadians actually still spend money. Don't make it hard for us.

Alas, the needle holder not stocked anywhere in TO and I wanted it, so Ms. Paige wins this round.

It's quite nice. Not sure if I'll love it in the course of time, but I needed a solution and I don't tend to like most of the knitting accoutrements out there. They always seem to scream homespun. At least this one is taking a stab at modern. Vegans rejoice: It's fake leather.

You'll note I haven't been knitting. It's weird, but I don't seem to function in the knitting and sewing head spaces simultaneously. They both take so much focus and they're very different activities. No doubt, knitting is much harder on the body. So while I've got some sewing enthusiasm going, and while I can still stand to recuperate from the physical toll of last fall's knitting, I will make sewing my primary craft for the next little while.

8 comments:

  1. I recently ordered a fashionary book and love it!! Haven't fully used it though. I have a weird thing of not wanting to ruin pretty things and keep thinking the moment I take the pen to it I might draw something horrible.

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    1. Suzy: The key is not to care! Once it's been gathering dust for 2 yrs you'll see what I mean :-)

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  2. Knitting really is so much harder on the body, and I keep wishing and planning and hoping to get back to sewing, but I never manage to find the big input of time needed to get a first project going. And sewing demands a bigger dedicated corner which would need claiming and setting up as well.

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  3. What a great idea! I love it - thanks for sharing it with us!

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  4. Intriguing. Is the idea that you trace to get a template, then modify?

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  5. Those templates must make things a lot easier. I had no idea that there were so many great tools for sewing!

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  6. The fashionary book looks intriguing. I used my previous croquis with a basic drawing journal, before it got abandoned in the packing frenzy. It should turn up somewhere in the unpacking frenzy, whenever that happens.

    I'm not sure if Knitting and Sewing cannot simultaneously reside in my head either, past experience seems to indicate that when sewing moves in, it pretty much kicks everything else out of its way.

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  7. F: There's no ideal solution! I do think that knitting is more inclusive. But sewing doesn't take the same toll, IMO. Fortunately, I love them both.

    P: It's really helpful!

    Susan: I think the idea is that you use the templates lightly printed on the page, but there's no reason why you can't change it up. I'm about a foot shorter than the model used in the Fashionary.

    E: It really is a great idea. I've been using the book quite a bit lately. It's totally fun!

    M: It's so hard to do them both at the same time. They feel like very different pursuits. Honestly, I couldn't think about sewing when I was knitting. (It disturbed me.) Now I can't think of knitting. I'm less disturbed, though, cuz now I've had a brief experience of the cycle of things.

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