I need to figure out how to make this guy

i'm drawing him everywhere. for a while i drew my fivetrees logo everywhere and it made me really happy. and now that lives in business card and price tag land. but this little 'pillar is going to have to be 3-d. what worries me about him is A. the bend from neck to torso and then torso into wee pointy tail (both being vital to his cuteness and obvious pluckiness) and B. I've always had a very rigid rule about all of my soft critters not having mouths (they keep secrets better that way). But this 'pillar's tiny mouth really makes him what he is.

really proud of this one

part of my larger series of toys. i am terribly proud of her. . . but she is also the tamest I ever want to be again with this idea. She's only gnaw-your-own-arm-off cute, and, though I am especially proud of figuring out how to crochet an intertube in my first go, her future compatriots are going to need horns or more eyes or stranger accessories.

everything after Delia has to be creepier or more tongue in cheek or over the top. but she's a solid start and test of my stick-with-it-ness.

What's up? D'Know

Hi, Dad

It's maybe a little bit weird to put a picture of my Dad here. . . but it's such a handsome photo, and there's a lot of subtext here, as in any photograph, that's maybe not visible to the naked eye:

1. My mom took the photo with a small digital camera. She's not a trained photographer, though she clearly has a good eye and the day and the sky were really cooperating--because the set up of the shot and colors and the composition blow me away. So, for me, this is a photo both of my Dad and my Mom.

2. Dad is standing amongst soy beans near the end of a particularly difficult growing season in Ohio. Flooding after planting. Scrapping corn for soybeans. Then too dry conditions. It's a miracle these plants--the Plan-B plants--are there and so handsome for the shot. And a triumph for my Dad after a season of worry.

3. This photo is where I came from--people who work hard and make things with their bare hands. It's a proud start for me. It's a humbling start for me.

4. Nature's design is often the best design. . . which we all know, but sometimes, I think, forget. Especially those of us living in cities. Green and brown. Grey and green.

5. Plus, you know, subject/object, signifier/signified, Roland Barthes, yadda yadda. . .

pin cushions

I wanna make pin cushions.

These are some of the bases--crocheted and then felted. Just like the cups I use to make my ringcatchers, but deeper. The tops are going to be a tiny mound covered in embroidered material.

But A. I haven't quite figured out how to attach them in a pretty unobtrusive way that doesn't look chintsy and B. I can't seem to light a fire under myself to do the embroidery.

I'm a craft procrastinator. . . but maybe posting the picture here will inspire me to get a move on.

No, you shut up

Although Titus--the Beastlie--could give the little lambkins below a run for her money. Plus, the descriptions of the Beastlies Leslie writes are always undeniably witty and charming.

Shut Up

Who in the world can stand this kind of cuteness?
Yeah to Lennie Beaumonde of Etsy. The little cloven hoof points are the clincher for me.

Finishing

I got my act together yesterday and finished up a number of scarflettes. Admittedly with the help of several movies (and maybe a glass of wine or two) distracting me from the fact that I was doing what I hate most--weaving in ends. The Duchess was on that list. A beautiful movie, but when, oh, when, is Ralph Fiennes going to just be uncomplicatedly sexy again? He's an actor I hate to hate. . . grrrr.

These pictures capture a few of the finished products. All will be available on Etsy soon!

I should stop making scarflettes soon. . . but it's so cold here! Only a high of 7 degrees yesterday. It's getting hard to believe that there may be a time of year when we don't need woolen accessories to keep us warm.

yummy new yarn

Just got a whole box of new yarn flavors and I can't stop playing with them. I love knitting and crocheting and knitting and crocheting, but I should start pushing myself to try new things. And one of my weaknesses is that I hate finishing things--hemming? weaving in ends? blech. I made my wedding dress, but took it to a seamstress to hem. . . ridiculous. The picture included here is of a bunch of scarflettes I made with the new yarn, but that I haven't been able to talk myself into finishing.

redonkulous.

Inauguration

I'm not sure what the words are today to express the wonder of this moment. . . but my husband and I are going to dance the first dance with President Obama and the First Lady tonight. . . in our little bungalow living room, and then sit down and plan how to do the volunteer work we should have been doing for years.

Thanks, Obamas.

twins on the horizon

This is one of the two heads I have made for the forthcoming conjoined twins. I have an idea ruminating right now, so I can't do any more work for a few days. So, instead I bought redonkulously huge wooden knitting needles and I'm going to knit a gargantuan cowl! or maybe crochet. I'm not sure yet. But there must be inauguration coverage on the tube somewhere to entertain me while I figure it out. . .

Chewing my own arm off

it's hard for me even to deal with this, it's so cute.

Alicia Kachmar has put together a whole helpful list of tips for attending tomorrow's inauguration. The above picture falls under the category of "what not to bring." and the whole thing is advice from her "snow proof safety cone." (the redonkulously cute orange guy in the middle there). My man has a phrase he uses when something is too cute to be believed: "So cute I want to chew my own arm off."

I aspire to reaching that dangerous pinnacle in my work. . . Alicia is clearly already there.

Check out her whole site at www.aliciakachmar.com

the weather outside is frightful

it's been insanely cold here. sub-zero temperatures. the man and i are starting to get a little cabin fevery, but it hurts to go outside. the upside is that all i want to do is stay in and play with wool.

i'm starting a new project--conjoined twins that i intend to be cute/creepy. little girls, but tentacles may also come into play. we'll see. so far all i have are their heads and i want to think and go slow so that come out just right. i mean to have them done before Valentine's weekend.

Some of My Early Work

A New Crochet Day is Dawning

I have been tinkering with toy making for about 2 years now. I started inexplicably crocheting critters and little beasties in February of 2007. I had never crocheted before, though I had been knitting for nearly a decade (self taught in both things, so i don't even really know if I'm doing either "correctly"). I was terrifically sad at the time. . . the sort of sad that some people would probably have sought out real help with. But doctors and me? Not so much.

So, I took up crocheting and started making a whole menagerie of cuties. Their cute faces made me really happy, if only briefly. (important to note: my man and wee mutt also made me happy. . . but nothing was terribly effective, even as cute as my man and mutt are). Eventually, when they started to take over my office in a giant heap, I realized I had to start selling them to clear space on my desk and to pay for the new habit of making them.

And so I started five trees. . . still a very fledgling enterprise on etsy and the occasional Renegade Craft Fair. But I've started to want to make much more complicated critters--more detail, larger in size, maybe much stranger in design. I'm excited about this--thus this blog. I'm thinking about making the bigger, crazier pieces and charting their progress as I go here, while simultaneously trying to teach myself how to write patterns. I'd like to start sharing how I make the smaller simpler stuff. . . to spread the joy--some patterns for free, some for sale through Etsy.

Hello You!

This is my very first blog post for five trees. This is public, but I think I need this place to keep ideas going, to have an assignment to keep up on in addition to constantly finding time to knit and crochet and design around my day job. The man and I have begun seriously considering parenthood and I hear all of these horror stories from the new parents in my life about children sucking away all of their time. To be honest, I don't believe it, and I secretly think they're doing something wrong. That is a horrible thing to think and also to admit to--I love these fledgling parents who are friends and family and I shouldn't be assuming that they're doing something wrong! I'll know the truth soon enough. . .

But in the meantime, this blog is also about fear. . . fear that a little ankle biter will come along who will take my life away from me or that there will be a tiny person on the planet that I love so much that I will willingly give up all of my time (and my artwork and my creativity) for them. Afraid of that loss of my own thing, but also afraid of the actual love, the size of it, the weight of it, the enormity of it. How can such a huge thing exist?

I don't want to be terribly personal here. Just this once maybe.