Back in the summer I got a ball of Lion Brand Jeans Yarn to try it out. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to make with it, but eventually decided that I wanted some type of headband. After some seraching on Ravelry, I found this 50s Style Knotted Headband.
Because it used so little of the yarn, I made more in every size, infant to adult.
On a completely unrelated subject, I just saw that my 11th blogiversary passed in October. Unfortunately, no posts from that year remain, but here is a link to my oldest remaining post which is, appropriately, a Thanksgiving computer background. I should do some more of those things and post them on my Ko-Fi this year.
And I almost made it. I mean, I did make 31 drawings and use all of the prompts from the list, but I just finished today. That means it took me 5 days longer than it should’ve, but I did stop to focus on the Snuggle Bug Sweater I was test knitting halfway through the month.
This time around, I used a mixed media spiral drawing pad. I have to say, I kind of regretted that choice toward the end because all of my skin tone markers are dried out. But I wanted to use what I had, and I had this notebook sitting around.
I definitely got sloppy with my proportions over time, and started rushing them to just be done, but I also ended up with quite a few that I was really happy with. I also really liked drawing in a bunch of different skin tones and hair styles. That was something that we really didn’t do in school and I hadn’t really been doing since I finished school either. But it definitely makes this collection of drawings a lot more fun.
I’m really glad I went with Amy Mebberson‘s list of prompts this year. Having the structure of focusing on outfits instead of just a bunch of random drawings definitely helped in coming up with something to draw every day.
I have participated in the #BlockPartyWithGina Instagram challenge run by Gina of Ridge and Roots three times now (but somehow only wrote a wrap up post once), and it really is something I look forward to every time it is announced. Though I am realizing that the things I want to do with block printing might require some different tools and perhaps a little more time dedicated to each block. I always feel like I’m rushing each design because I procrastinate too much in the beginning stages.
It’s tough to pick my favorite block this time around, but I do love that I figrued out a way to do two-colored prints. Might’ve gone overboard by doing so many of them with that technique, though. I think that caused a lot of my rushing this time.
This design I originally wanted to do half this size to be the front of a card, but I wasnt’ able to get the definition I wanted. Instead of continuing on and forcing myself to finish something I didn’t like, I restarted and made it full size. I like it way more this way. It’s also available on my Etsy page.
This design is the first one that I actually abandoned. I kept trying and trying to fix it, but couldn’t get it to do what I wanted. Eventually I got so frustrated with it that I stepped away from the whole block party project for a week, despite knowing what I wanted to do for the next design.
Once I finally admitted to myself that I wasn’t happy with the direction this card was going, I was able to move on and make something that I did end up really ahppy with, even though it didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted it to, either.
Unfortunately, because I backed this block in cardboard, I was unable to get as consistent prints as I wanted with this block, it’s not ready to be on my Etsy. I am going to fix the mounting issues and make a better run of them soon, hopefully to post before the cut off for the holidays.
I think my favorite of all to make was this final print. The print portion was done in a single color, but I embossed the spiders indiviually after printing. I didn’t get these finished in time to list before Halloween this year, but I’ll hold onto them to list in time for Halloween next year.
All in all, I think this Block Party was the best yet. I learned a lot that I want to implement in my printing, and I made quite a few blocks I was really happy with. Next on my to-do list, printing on fabric!
Casey Kay B 