The Damned Are Welcome Here

Bringing out my gothy inner child

  • HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL THE DAMNED

    One of the Damned

    Good to see you again, dear damned ones. Your presence here is most assuredly appreciated. All damned ones are welcome here.

    To start, I have officially made it my goal this year to post every second Thursday come Hell or high water. Do I truly believe I will manage this? Yes. Yes, I do. I’m casting off my curmudgeonlyness and throwing it into the ether. At least I’ll do my best. My curmudgeonlyness is horrendously extensive, but I’ll at least give it a good shove. So, I am getting stuff done this year. That’s it. I’ve said it. A promise is a promise. I am doing it.

    Now, last post, I should have shown you my idea about dancing skeletons. They were popular in the Middle Ages. I quite like these ones:

    Quite spry in their boniness, aren’t they. But, then, the dead have such easy lives.

    Not sure how this is going to work, but I do like the idea of this in filet crochet. Was thinking of doing this in a “bone” colour, but adding more colour with fabric paint. Would that work? Hope so.

    So, on to the spider coat. Ordered the red Bemberg lining from Gala Fabrics and it’s not quite the red I wanted. It’s a bit orangey. Should know by now that ordering red anything online can be rather precarious. Gala Fabrics does offer free samples, but, stupid me didn’t take advantage of that. I ordered red Bemberg lining from them a few years ago and it was a true red. Thought I would be getting that colour this time, too. Oh, well, another expensive lesson learned. It is a nice orangey-red as orangey-red goes so decided to use it. Money is tight right now so can’t be buying lining over and over, hither and yon, and such like.

    The linen shirt itself is done. It fits and looks quite fetching. And you can’t really see any of the blunders. Black anything is hard to work with but great for hiding inaccurate stitching. So, now, I just need to finish crocheting the skeletons and figure out how to join them together. Thinking of doing all filet crochet and have the skeleton motifs on an angle. Not sure how that will work exactly, though.

    I do have good news about the skeletons. Spoke last time that one went missing, probably on some necromancy expedition, has returned home. Hope it enjoyed its adventure and can now settle down.

    For the pillow sham, haven’t done anything except get a drop cloth. That means that I now can paint the Aida fabric. As mentioned in an earlier post, I got some fabric paint to cover the terrible beige of the Aida and make it a nice light to medium grey. Don’t want to make a mess when painting. My diminutive apartment is enough of a shambles without sloshing grey paint every which way. Knowing myself as I do, if there is an opportunity to make a mess, I won’t be able to stop myself.

    And, now, extended drumroll please, I can start working again on the Dali jacket. Got my new printer up and running. Will print out some Dali pictures soon and present them for your perusal.

    Thank you, dear damned ones for your considerable thoughtfulness in your attendance here. Hope to see you again in two weeks.

  • SO MANY PROJECTS AND SO LITTLE TIME, BUT I AM ACCOMPLISHING THINGS

    One of the Damned

    Bless you, dear damned ones. Pleasure to be at your service again. It’s been a while, hasn’t it. But I did actually work on stuff. Wonders will never cease, will they.

    So, anyway, been working on the spider coat: Cut out the body and sleeves, attached flannel to the inside of the velvet. Gives it a nice cushy feel to the velvet. Learned that from Kenneth King in one of his books. I think it’s from Designer Techniques.

    Tried to hunt down my copy to check, but couldn’t find it. I know it’s here somewhere, but it must be hiding. Anyway, he shows lots of nifty ways to spiff up the clothes you sew. Good ideas for hiding the places that you mess up. I heard a seamstress once say that every mistake is a new design. Good thing to remember when I make all the mistakes I make. And, yes, there are oh so many.

    The linen shirt is coming along nicely. Almost finished sewing the shirt itself. Just need to finish hemming the sleeves. Do need to add the elastic at the cuff, but have to wait until the lace is attached.

    Still have a long way to go with that, though, the lace that is. Going ahead with the filet crochet skeletons for the lace on the cuffs and just the skulls for around the neck opening. I’ve only done five motifs so far. Thought it was six, but one of them seems to have wandered off. Hope he enjoys himself out in the big bad world.

    And for the Dali jacket, will soon start again doing some work. Yay. About time, isn’t it. Got a new printer and some of the printable fabric. Wish I had just bought the printable fabric and got on with the printing, instead of trying other things. Really did waste a lot of time and money trying to save time and money. Have I learned my lesson? Don’t be silly. Of course not. That would be too sensible. Once I unpack my new printer that was delivered three weeks ago (or was it four, probably five), I can start printing out pictures of Dali’s paintings and jewelry. Then actually attach them to the coat I made who knows how long ago. Time does seem to get away from me.

    The pillow sham is mostly figured out. The front wall of the house will be missing and the rooms will show. There are two rooms on the main floor: living room and library, and the front door is closed. Second floor has the master bedroom, master bedroom closet, bathroom and a kid’s room. The attic inside the gable of the roof will show, but don’t know what will be inside that. The rest of the roof will just be shingles, but maybe also a dormer window.

    And it only recently dawned on me that the windows need to be gothic, you know, pointy at the top. And the front door, too. Yeah, that didn’t take me long to realize, she says with a sheepish grin on her face.

    Speaking of not having finished much, maybe I just need to lower my standards. Love this cartoon:

    And, I’ve been thinking about a new crochet project because, apparently, I don’t have enough going on. Yeah, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. But maybe it could be something to sell the pattern for. Not on Etsy, that’s for sure, but maybe Ravelry, or something like it. Anyway, I got the idea from the skeleton motif I’m using for the linen shirt cuffs. Filet crochet in the round with a bunch of dancing skeletons. Not yet sure how this is going to work. Lots to figure out.

    So, things have been going fairly well, knock on wood.

    Thank you so much for visiting. I am always pleased when the damned frequent my establishment. Hope to see you again soon.

  • PROJECTS ARE ACTUALLY COMING ALONG, JUST NOT QUICKLY

    One of the Damned

    Welcome, Damned. Lovely to see you again. Your presence warms my heart.

    So, I was ever so hopeful that I could get off my bum and get this post published three weeks ago. I already knew how to start, though maybe that was part of the problem. I was going to say “Would you look at that. She has a new blog post just two weeks after the last one. Miracles will never cease.” Yeah, well, that never happened. Can’t say I’m all that surprised, though. Why are things so hard?

    On the bright side, I bought a new sewing machine. A pretty good one, actually, for not much money. It’s a Singer Heavy Duty Mechanical and quite lovely. (Is “lovely” a proper description of a sewing machine? Don’t know, but I’m going with it.)

    I actually can give credit for this picture, for a change. It’s from Michael’s website, which is where I bought it. It’s the same one that YouTuber Prickly Alpaca bought for herself a while ago and she quite likes it. Since she sews a variety of fabrics and thicknesses of fabric, and doesn’t seem to have any complaints, thought I’d give it a try. Quite happy with it, so far.

    Can’t afford it, but I tell myself that I genuinely need it. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

    Anyway, started working on a new coat since I’ve had to put the Dali jacket away for a while. Have some black velvet and want to make a spider coat. Well, a coat with spider web decorations. Can’t make a coat out of actual spiders. No, that is definitely not in the realm of possibility. Nope, nope, nope.

    So, don’t want to do buttons and will have hooks instead. With an embroidered spider web and a little spider where each of the four hooks will be. Have eight of the little spider charms, but haven’t figured out other places put them. Except, maybe one dangling down the back somehow. So far, only designed the webs and prepped the fabrics, but it’s a start. Going to interline the velvet with flannel to make it nice and toasty warm for winter.

    Been working on the black linen shirt and think I made a decision about the lace. My sister found this absolutely wonderful crocheted doily on Pinterest and there’s someone on Etsy who sells the pattern. Just look at this wonderful design:

    The skull looks kind of scary. Prefer that to the somewhat cutesy skulls I’ve seen elsewhere. It’s designed by the very talented Ann Wanamaker. You can check it out along with her other stuff on her Etsy shop, Creative Works by Annie.

    Had originally thought to include black velvet ribbon with the lace, but not sure how that will work, now. But I will include several skeletons, altogether. Been working on a sample of the design in some size 10 crochet thread. So far, the pattern is good.

    Have actually started sewing the shirt while pretty much following the instructions on Vincent Briggs YouTube channel. He made an eighteenth-century “Pirate Shirt” sewn on a machine and so far it’s working well. I will say, he’s quite a strange boy, but that’s what I like best about him.

    Well, it seems as if I actually accomplished things recently. Hooray for me. I had hoped that writing these posts would push me to finish more. Guess that sort of happened, so not all bad.

    Thank you, dear Damned ones, for coming. Always nice to have you here.

  • AH-CHOOS AND SNIFFLES, WHAT FUN

    One of the Damned

    Welcome, damned. Such an honour to see you. Hope you are well.

    Been having immense fun with a cold. The merriment of all the coughing and sneezing and nose blowing, oh my. Particularly the nose blowing. I’m well stocked with tissues, so at least there’s that.

    Don’t know if it’s because of my cold, but I’ve been having fits of nostalgia lately. Started thinking about some older music I used to listen to. First up is Concrete Blonde, a band from back in the nineties. Loved their music then, and still do, specially Joey and Bloodletting. Too bad they’re not around anymore.

    For other music, I was a big fan of Claire Pelletier back in the day. Don’t know how many times I listened to Galileo, my favourite. She sings in French, but it’s still easy to understand her, even if you only know a little French. Always liked that about her. Two other old favourites of mine are Enigma’s Beyond the Invisible and Ute Lemper’s The Case Continues.

    And the troubles continue with the Dali Jacket. That Bubble Jet Set stuff I got really did what it was supposed to do, which, I guess, is good. Unfortunately, though, it also wrecked my printer. Some kind of doohickeys are now out of alignment and I haven’t been able to get them back into alignment. Yelling at them doesn’t seem to work. So, Googled how to fix them, but what is it with instructions on the internet? You go to a webpage, it tells you that to fix the problem, you do this, this, this, and that. So you do this, this, this, and that. But, nothing is fixed. Why is that? Do people who post instructions not check their work? Apparently not. Was hoping I wouldn’t have to buy a new printer for a while, but that doesn’t seem likely. Great, more money to spend.

    And, in my last blog post, I think I wrote that I had ordered printable fabric from Staples. Yeah, well, I did receive a package from Staples which made me quite hopeful. Unfortunately, it wasn’t actually printable fabric. It was graph paper. Three packages of it. A useful product, but not quite what I was looking for. So, again, people, check your work.

    Started thinking about the lace for my linen shirt. Maybe crosses. Celtic crosses, perhaps. Have a couple of ideas that I sort of like. Did examples in thick yarn to start with. Here they are:

    Need to try them in the thin crochet thread I plan on using for the shirt. Although, been thinking of changing my mind, again, and goin back to pentacles. Haven’t figured out yet how that is going to work.

    Ordered Aida cloth for my pillow sham and it arrived, but I hate the colour. It’s called pearl grey, but for some reason it looks beige. I’ve seen grey pearls and they don’t look beige. Don’t know whose job it was to name the colours, but they were wrong. Very, very wrong. No self-respecting goth girl would ever use beige and I am, at the very least, a self-respecting goth girl. A pox on all your houses, brain-deficient namers of colours.

    Grateful, as always, dear damned ones, for your presence. Hope to soon have another blog post for your perusal.

  • FRUSTRATIONS ARE BECOMINNG THE NORM, UNFORTUNATELY

    One of the Damned

    First thing I want to say is that I hate Etsy.

    I hate them. I hate them. I hate them. Really want to stress the point that I absolutely and unequivocally hate them.

    Started setting up my shop and everything was going swimmingly until I had to upload a selfie. Two selfies, actually. But for some reason, Etsy couldn’t access my camera. The camera works. I’ve given permission to Etsy to access my camera. But it keeps telling me it can’t access it. I am utterly done with Etsy.

    So, I’ve been thinking. What if I just started another website and sold my stuff on its own. Would that work? Will have to look into that.

    Whatever I end up doing, I want to spend some time like this:

    Anyway, onwards. Did a bit of work on the pillow sham and I have one question: who is the idiot who thought it would be a good idea to use 18 canvas? Oh, that’s right, it was me, she says with a sheepish look on her face. For those not in the know, Aida canvas is named by the number of threads there are in an inch. 18 canvas has 18 threads per inch. Anyway, thought I’d continue with the 18 count because apparently, I don’t have enough misery in my life.

    That’s what I thought while I was doing a small sample, but nope, nope, nope, and again, nope. This is way too hard. I’m using both magnifying lenses I have, one on top of the other, plus my reading glasses and nope, nope, nope, and nope.

    Okay, I think I’ll do this in 11 threads per inch. I hate to spend more money for new Aida cloth, but what’s a semi-blind goth girl to do? Pry open her wallet, again, and get something better, I guess.

    Something is going well, actually. Started making my linen shirt. Cut out the body and the sleeves. I like Vincent Briggs YouTube video about machine sewing a pirate shirt and think I will follow it for the most part. He’s pretty good at explaining things. You can find the video here. And I ordered the cotton crochet thread to do the lace. Got it from Yarnspirations. Great website, by the way.

    Now, for the Dali jacket. It’s not going well, not as badly as Etsy, but still bad. Got the Bubble Jet Set stuff and followed the directions. Thing is, my printer can’t seem to cope with it. Don’t know why, exactly, but it may be because it made the fabric thicker. It keeps getting caught up in my printer. Do have to say that the Bubble Jet Set stuff really works. With one of the mangled pieces of fabric, I let it dry, as they say to do, and then put it in some water and, drumroll please, not a single spec of ink leached out. Nothing. The water I put the fabric in was clean as a mountain stream afterwards. Stupendous.

    So, now for my last try at this, I ordered printable fabric from Staples. If that doesn’t work, I think I’m going to have to give up on the Dali jacket. I’ll do some kind of slow stitching with other kinds of bits and bobs. Maybe in purple and green, a combination I love. Everything might still turn out okay, but this whole thing has really been exasperating, to say the least.

    You know, you just want to make something nice for yourself and everything that can go wrong does.

    Okay, enough bellyaching for now.

    If the Dali idea doesn’t work out, was thinking of using this image for inspiration:

    Beautiful, isn’t it? Don’t know where I got this picture, so can’t give credit. Would like it to be a bit more goth, though.

    Thank you all for coming. Hope to provide a new post in two weeks.

  • READING, READING, AND MORE READING, AND SOME CRAFTING, TOO

    One of the Damned

    Okay, been thinking about something: why is it I can never find what I’m looking for when I’m looking for it. But another day, when I’m looking for something else, it pops out and says “Hi, did you miss me?” Okay, not really, but it feels like that. Very frustrating.

    Have you ever read Tom Robbins’ book Skinny Legs and All? Part of it is about some inanimate objects (Dirty Sock, Spoon, Can o’ Beans, Painted Stick and Conch Shell) who become animate and go on a journey together. I feel that the inanimate objects in my apartment know when I’ll want them soon and they take off on a journey, bastards that they are. Anyway, highly recommend. The book, that is, not inanimate objects going on journeys. And the scene where Spoon gets all polished up. Oh, my.

    Went to Maiwa to see if they had any mordants I could use for inkjet printing, but they didn’t. One clerk there mentioned the bubble jet stuff, but it’s more money than I want to spend. While at Maiwa, though, another customer told me to boil the fabric for an hour and a half to get lots of gunk out of the fabric. That’s supposed to help the ink stay. Tried it, but didn’t get really any gunk. And didn’t have any more luck with the colour not leaching out.

    So, okay, I decided to pry open my wallet and get the proper stuff. It’s called Bubble Jet Set 2000 and, unfortunately, had to get it from is that place that will not be mentioned on this blog. By the way, am I fooling anyone when I call it that.? You, you know, all four of you who will read this blog, must know the place I’m talking about.

    Anyway, it was supposed to come yesterday, but then they let me know it wouldn’t come until next Saturday. Annoying, but it does give me a reason to slack off on that project for a week, so there’s that.

    Have started planning another project. I mentioned in my first ever post that I wanted to make a black linen shirt with lots of scrumptious lace on it. Couldn’t decide whether to buy some nice lace or crochet some. I think I’ve decided to crochet it. Something like this would be superb:

    Would like to order the thread from Yarmspirations, but, first need to figure out what I’m going to do. Have some blue cotton crochet thread to do some samples. Originally wanted to include pentacles, but now thinking upside down crosses would be easier. Like these:

    Finally, got the Aida cloth for the pillow sham I want to cross-stitch a goth house on. Would like to get a lot of detail going. The cloth is grey and a bit darker than I wanted, but it will do. More on that in weeks to come.

    Started the process to get my Etsy shop going. This was back in June, but surprise, surprise, I haven’t finished doing that. Do you know that you have to pay a fee to start an Etsy shop, now. It’s only $20, but still.

    Not sure what to call it. First thing for sale will be a kids book. More on that when it’s ready to sell. Second thing will be a pdf pattern for a kid’s crocheted detachable collar.

    And, you know, it’s kind of strange, but I haven’t been listening to much music lately. Wonder what that’s about. Did find another song by Shinedown called Daylight. Love the line “It’s amazing what the hard times can reveal, Like who shows up, who walks away and who’s for real.” Have gone through some hard times myself in the last couple of years so these lines say a lot to me. The boys in Shinedown are young, but kind of smart.

    Also, been listening to The HU and love their song Wolf Totem, the version with Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach. It’s a mixture of metal and Mongolian throat singing which makes a great combination. And, lastly, been listening to a song I found last year that I’m now back into. It’s UMAI by the group Shireen. Love the long coat the lead singer wears. Oh, the ideas going ’round and ’round my head about what to make.

    Less music, but more reading. I got out of reading for a couple of years, but now I’m back into it. Have two books on the go right now. One is The Count of Monte Cristo. Enjoying it immensely. Read it once years and years ago, but it’s better now.

    Also reading Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives Of Mary Wollstonecraft & Mary Shelley. Absolutely fascinating. Mary Shelley is the one who wrote Frankenstein and Mary Wollstonecraft is her mother, and also a writer. If you’re a woman and you think you would like to live in the past, read this book. The limitations placed on women’s lives are jaw dropping. It’s by Charlotte Gordan, by the way. If you want to order it online, try McNally Robinson. They don’t have it in stock right now, but they can get it for you. They also have physical shops in Saskatoon and Winnipeg. I’ve only bought books from them online, but they’ve been wonderful.

    Anyway, I think that’s all for today. Thank you, dear damned ones, for coming. Hope to see you again, soon.

  • NOT MANY ACCOMPLISHMENTS. JUST LOTS OF DREAMS.

    One of the Damned

    First, sorry for the lack of any posts for the last seven weeks. Hard to believe it’s been that long, but, oh, well. Amazing how it gets easier to avoid things the longer you avoid them.

    It’s not that I’ve been all that busy. Just … I don’t know. But I’m back now and I hope I’ll be able to return to writing a new post every two weeks or so. Did manage to finish a present for my sister. It’s a crocheted detachable collar with sheep. My sister loves sheep. And she’s old enough not to have to be a grown-up anymore, so it suits her.

    While not that much crafting has been done, I have listened to a lot of music. Some that I’ve returned to and some new ones.

    Nightwish’s song The Islander. Listened to this a lot last year, then kind of forgot about it. Love the video, but one thing is strange.  The men are dressed in coats and the woman is wearing a sleeveless dress. And she doesn’t look old enough to have hot flashes. Guess she has to be sexy, but the men don’t. No surprise there.

    Another song I listened to last year was Trobar de Morte’s The Unquiet Grave. Love the clothing.

    The rest are ones I’ve just recently gotten involved with. Imagine Dragons song Sharks. Good beat and fun video.

    And for some heavy metal, there’s a couple of songs from Five Finger Death Punch: Wash It All Away and Judgement Day.

    But my favourite in the last few weeks has been Shinedown’s song A Symptom of Being Human. There’s a line in it about getting his invitation to the lunatic ball. Now, I keep hoping to get my invitation. Just need to figure out what to wear. Decided awhile ago that the style of clothing I want to wear is punk goth Victorian gentleman with steampunk accessories.

    Would that be a bit overboard? What am I saying? There’s no such thing as overboard. It would be the lunatic ball after all.

    Besides, in the words of Vincent van Gogh, “Normality is a paved road. It’s comfortable to walk on, but no flowers grow.”

    Now for the Dali jacket.

    Tried the salt thing on the prints. It helped keep some of the colour, but not enough. Vinegar did actually work quite well, though. After putting them into vinegar, rinsed them in water and most of the colour stayed.

    Was thinking of checking what Maiwa has for mordants. Here’s their website if anyone wants to check them out. They sell stuff that’s already made (the artisans are in India, I think) and what you need to create stuff yourself (fabric, dyes, etc.). Will go there soon.

    And now to include what I’ve been obsessing over recently:

    Sorry, again don’t know where I got it.

    Think that’s all for today. Thank you for coming. Hope to see you again in two weeks.

  • TIME FILLED WITH MUSIC AND MY DALI JACKET

    One of the Damned

    First, I’ve been listening to oodles and oodles of music the last couple of weeks. Thought I’d share some of my particular favourites. Two songs are by Lewis Capaldi, and the videos for them are just too delightful for words: Strangers and Wish You The Best. And, couldn’t stop listening to Paris Paloma’s Labour. Great feminist song. Last, but definitely not least, KALEO’s Way Down We Go. Enjoy.

    Now, on to the crafting that’s been going on, when I haven’t been listening to music, that is. Or while I’ve been listening to music.

    Did actually manage to print on some fabric. Yay!! Ironing freezer paper to the fabric went well. Put the fabric wrong side up in my printer on the first try, though. Why is it when there’s a 50/50 chance something will go wrong, I always get it wrong 100% of the time. Weird that.

    Managed to print it out correctly on only the second try, and that was nice. Still can’t believe it really worked. Well, I did watch some YouTube videos so it’s not like I figured it all out on my own. But, hey, managed to do it, so, yay!

    The paintings did come out darker than I would have liked. Maybe I can find some lighter versions online. Nice that you can steal what you want as long as it’s for your own use.

    Did do the heat set thing with a hot iron, but the blues disappeared when rinsed with water. The other colours stayed. In this picture, the bottom print is how they both were originally and the top one was after rinsing.

    Yes, I know, terrible picture, as usual. Sorry. Not much more to say on that subject.

    Now, don’t know if I just didn’t use enough heat for as long as I should have. Or maybe a better method would be using a salt solution or vinegar. Thanks, Dorothy, for the ideas. Oh, and this time, it’s the Dorothy I know, not the music group (reference last blog post). Will have to google how to make it colourfast.

    For the embroidery, I’ve been obsessing quite a bit over this:

    It’s maybe a bit busy for the Dali jacket, but I do like what’s going on here. Sorry, can’t give credit. Have no idea where I found this.

    Anyway, I have lots of embroidery thread in practically every colour under the sun, and lots of different beads. Would like to get some narrow velvet ribbons in an assortment of colours. But, altogether, it shouldn’t cost too much for the decorations. I am a quarter Scottish, so sometimes saving money soothes my very soul. Unfortunately, I’m three-quarters spendthrift, so there’s that.

    Guess that’s it for today. Thank you to all the damned for blessing me with your time. Hope very much you come again.

  • DREAMS OF CRAFTINESS

    One of the Damned

    Wish I could have accomplished more. But, onwards.

    Thank you, damned, for coming.

    Been glued to YouTube a bit too much. Love Dorothy’s Raise Hell video way too much. And to the Dorothy I know, sorry, but it’s not you. Here’s the video, if anyone is so inclined to give it a listen.

    Adore the song Savage Daughter. Here is Ekaterina Shelehova’s version. Learned most of the lyrics so far. They’re often whirling around in my head. Just gave another listen to it since I had to find the link. Need to sing heathen songs by the light of the moon (third verse). That should give me some motivation.

    And have been watching a lot of YouTube videos about slow living. Sounds like a nice way to be. Calm. Relaxed. Meltdowns kept to a minimum.

    No. Doesn’t really sound like me. My brain doesn’t want to slow down. It wants to keep thinking up stuff when it’s not repeating the words to Savage Daughter, that is. I don’t have attention, oh, look at the birdy, deficit disorder. Sorry, old joke.

    Did make great strides on the Dali jacket. Put together the body of the jacket and it fits sort of okay. Sorry, but no picture to show. Took one, but it turned out even more appallingly bad than my usual pictures. And I even ironed the jacket to make it look nice. Oh, well.

    Next is to print the Dali paintings on some white fabric I have. Along with the paintings, there will be other bits of things: ribbons, beads, embroidery thread, and who knows what else. Should go through what I already have before making a trip to the various craft shops nearby. Oh, the places I will go.

    Another project I actually started on is the sari fabric for the wall behind my bed. Sewed the ends together to form one big loop. That seam will be strong enough to hang the fabric from picture hooks near the ceiling. (Did I explain that adequately?) Can’t quite reach the height I’d like for the hooks, so will get my brother to help next time he comes over. He can earn his dinner that day.

    Did make a decision about the rug for the living room area. It’s going to be like my welcome mat: rows of single crochet and then cross stitch on top. Do need to save my pennies first since it will necessitate a lot of yarn.

    For the image to embroider, I was thinking along the lines of this:

    Or maybe just the haunted castle part, with the moon, of course. But I love the idea of a scary road leading up to the castle. Now that I look at the picture again, I see that I’m going to have to simplify this, but the picture does show the ambiance I’m going for.

    What else have I been working on? Crocheted a bit with the massive amount of yarn my sister attained recently. It’s part of a big project that I hope will not prove too much for me. Will speak further in the coming weeks.

    Hope the rug comes to fruition. Keep thinking of big projects to do but have trouble getting them started. The stuff I manage to finish is the simpler stuff. I do sometimes wonder whether I can actually do this.

    Okay. Enough. Have to remember:

    Excuse the language. Felt it needed to stay. And, sorry, can’t give credit where it’s due. Don’t remember where I got this. Now, on to better things.

    Really would like to begin the linen shirt with lots of crocheted lace on the cuffs and at the neck. Mentioned it in my first post. Also, haven’t designed the embroidery for the pillow sham, either. Mentioned that in an earlier post. Lot’s to do.

    Wouldn’t it be nice to just be able to think these things into existence? Yes. Yes, it would.

    Anyway, thank you, once again, to the damned who have come. My best gothy wishes to all of you.

  • CRAFTY MANEUVERS AND FUTURE STRATEGIES

    One of the Damned

    Welcome to the damned. Thank you so much for coming. Your presence here warms my little damned heart ever so much.

    Didn’t do all that much, but the crocheting part of the top hat is finished. Gave myself a bunch of extra work by not following the pattern designed by Melivia Mutch. By the way, her Etsy shop is HookedbyMutch. She sells patterns for hats and scarves. Love her stuff.

    Here’s what the top hat looks like so far.

    Anyway, thought I wanted a taller hat and added 16 rows. Should have been 25 rows and I did 41. Tried it on before doing the brim and liked the height. Crocheted the brim and then didn’t like it that tall. Too much like a President Abraham Lincoln stovepipe hat. So, undid the brim and eight rows, then redid the brim. Tried it on and it was still too tall. Again, undid the brim and eight more rows, and then redid the brim. Finally got what I liked and it was the original pattern for the hat. Like to say lesson learned, but it probably isn’t.

    Anyway, now have to figure out what frivolities to add. Going to Michael’s next week to see what catches my fancy. Probably will get some steampunk sort of stuff, but maybe other kinds of bits and bobs as well.

    For the Dali jacket, I made the changes to the pattern that I talked about a blog post or two ago. Did a mock-up and I think I like it. So that’s going well. The rest of the jacket pattern pieces will be as used before. Didn’t take a picture of what’s done so far. Figured it would be terrible. Will show what the jacket looks like once the inner and outer fabrics are together. Before the slow stitches gets started.

    Have some other ideas for the jacket. Found this a week or two ago, and I absolutely love it. Sorry, didn’t make a note about where it came from. To whoever created it, stupendous work. I’m absolutely flabbergasted.

    Got me to thinking that I don’t have to use just whole Dali paintings. Could also use pieces of them and have other embroidery around them. Much to think about.

    Have also been enjoying some YouTube videos of Elena Rugal Studio. Love her freeform crochet, in particular. She does masses of other stuff, as well. If you like crochet and want to go down a rabbit hole you never have to come back from, I wholeheartedly suggest this channel.

    And I have started on a large project. My sister procured for me a ton of yarn, well fourteen pounds anyway, for me to bring out the creativity on my not so gothy side. Do plan on starting an Etsy shop selling patterns for crocheting. I’ll start with scarves with flowers. Hope to do something original, but we’ll have to see if that comes to fruition. Will provide further facts and figures as soon as they become available.

    Suppose that’s it for now. Thank you for coming, damned ones. Enjoyed your fine company and hope to see you again.

    3 responses to “CRAFTY MANEUVERS AND FUTURE STRATEGIES”

    1. Donnalee of Laughing Dakini Tarot Avatar
      Donnalee of Laughing Dakini Tarot

      Great tarot-based jacket–and when crocheted top hats go wrong, they can wind up covering toilet rolls, or at least they did for a long time in the bathrooms I knew!

      That is a ton of yarn–enjoy!

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      1. One of the Damned Avatar
        One of the Damned

        Well, maybe if I do use it as a toilet roll cover, maybe it will create some stylishness in my bathroom. Thanks for the idea.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Donnalee of Laughing Dakini Tarot Avatar
          Donnalee of Laughing Dakini Tarot

          ahahaha! It would add that personal touch–I have seen some gorgeous bathrooms, but wonder how they keep the lovely things like paintings and fabrics from water and steam damage from showers etc.

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