brown stripe

a few weekends ago, i picked up a couple of promotional notepads from a conference i attended.



i cut off the header, then folded the squared paper to form a textblock.

i used some scrapbooking paper to make a cover (inside and outside). the book's dimensions are about 3"x5".



i borrowed the book non-adhesive binding volume 1 from the library. i tried out the long stitch through slotted cover, using some blue sewing thread.



spine detail:


again, i had a bit of a problem with the glue seeping through the cover.

knitted mittens - second season

last year was my first time knitting mittens. but i had used thick cheap yearn, so they barely lasted one season.

this year, i knitted another pair, using thin yarn, made of wool. this resulted in a finer knit, which will hopefully keep my hands warmer.



i tried to follow the same tutorial as last year:
http://www.needlenook.on.ca/free/nn106.pdf

but i had to make lots of modifications to account for the thinner needle and yarn:
- cast on 60 stitches.
- k1 p1 ribbing for 36 rounds.
- when making thumb gusset, knit 3 rounds even after each increase.
- increase until there are 21 stitches between the purled stitches.
- after setting aside the 21 stitches, cast on 3 stitches, for a total of 60.
- knit 32 rounds even.
- shape the top, decreasing until a total of 28 stitches.
- for the thumb, pick up 21+3 stitches.
- knit 20 rounds even.
- shape top, decreasing until 18 stitches.

it came out alright, even though my knitting is not completely even. i just need more practice.

zombiefie six

last week, i found via notcot some patterns for zombie papertoys: the zombiefie six.
http://thunderpanda.com/thezombiefiesix/

yesterday, i invited friends over to watch some scary movies. and so, the previous night, i was up until 3:00am, cutting and gluing these pieces together. my fingers were covered with white (elmer's) glue. it was fun.







i set the papertoys on my tv. cute.

exercise books

when i was in elementary school, the school provided us with exercise books. over the years, we accumulated a number of these partially filled notebooks. it seemed like a waste to throw away, so we've kept them in storage for all these years.

finally, i've found something to do with them. i un-stapled all the books, and re-bound the pages into signatures. i took the covers of one of the notebooks, and covered it with scrapbooking paper.

the cover i took was blue. i covered it with thin beige scrapbooking paper. i used white glue, which seeped through, resulting in those weird blue spots on the cover. after the binding was done, i made the mistake of pressing the book in between two heavy phone books, before the glue completely dried. when i took off the phone books, it left those white marks on the cover. so basically, i completely messed up the cover of this notebook. but it's not too big of a deal, since i intended to use this as my own private journal, eventually.

front cover, with blue and white spots:


inside:


spine detail: