Hi, my name is Kris, and I share my home in Illinois with my husband of 25+ years, 3 boys, 2 fluffy cats, and one goldfish. For years, beadwork and jewelry-making was my first love, but in the last couple of years, I’ve become smitten with the fiber arts. I spin and weave, and my favorite yarns to make are crazy art yarns. I love the concept of Saori weaving—the imperfection of the pieces gives them their beauty. I also enjoy crocheting and some knitting, and want to get better at both this winter. Creative re-use and keeping stuff out of the landfills is important to me as well.
Allergies: Some perfumes have chemicals in them that can give me asthma attacks. Since I don’t know which they are, it’s best not to send me anything that has floral notes, or has been sprayed with Febreeze. Febreeze is one of my triggers. I can also be triggered by cigarette smells, if they are strong. If you like to make soaps or scented things, it’s pretty safe to send me anything food-scented (fruity, spicy or baked goodie smells). Just no floral anything. I also need to avoid angora, even thought I love it.
I really miss swapping. I have had to stop for a while due to some hiccups in our business from the economy. It’s getting better, but our income is still not reliable and we have catching up to do, so I’m concerned that I could get into a swap and then not have the cash to do a good enough job. I’m currently looking for work, and once I find a job, I’ll be back to swapping. We just have too many people not paying us for me to take the chance otherwise. I love making and receiving wonderful handmade surprises. I would be thrilled if you pick me, and I am quick with the communication, so I can help you clear your negative in a hurry. Being picked would be a huge treat for me right now.
I love koi, anything to do with wool and spinning, and learning new crafts. I want to learn needle-felting and wet-felting. We just moved to a new house in a new state right before we had a flurry of money trouble, so I have not been able to get as much art on the walls as I’d like to have. I’d have to say that hang-able decorations are my biggest want. My style is cheerful and bohemian, with lots of color. Think “old hippie” or “quirky”, and you’ve nailed it!
I do not like knick-knacks or anything that requires shelf space. Life is too short to spend it dusting curios. In our new home, we have less space, so any horizontal display areas are already pretty crowded. I’m also not a fan of “dark” things or depressing colors. Day of the dead stuff is fine, because it’s bright and festive; however, gore and goth is not my thing.
Wall art you could make for me could include painting, textile arts like weaving, wool art, altered art, quilting, you name it! Surprise me! I would even enjoy a tye-dyed hippie wall hanging for my son’s bedroom.
Another HUGE wish I have is for
warm shirts for my youngest son. He is only in kindergarten, but he is in size eight, and growing! I can’t keep up with him. If you want to make decorated shirts for him, his tastes fall pretty much in line with the average six year old boy. He’s not hard to please. If you want to start with a thrifted item, that’s cool. I’m very big on creative recycling.
I’ve started a
Pinterest board to give you some ideas, big and small, of things I’d like. If you have the time and want to stalk my other boards, you can also get a feel for my aesthetic that way...
http://pinterest.com/laughinglark/craftster-swap-inspiration/Crafted Wishlist:---Cheerful wall art
---Wearables for son
---Useful things for my home, like potholders, soap bars (see allergies), socks for my chairs!
http://pinterest.com/pin/61361613644326084/---A needle-felting kit would be aewsome!!!
--- Backstrap loom about 18-19 inches wide. If you can figure out how to make all the parts for a backstrap loom, I’d love one. I have warping pegs already, I just need the basic loom parts. You might be able to have your hardware store do the cutting. The flat wooden parts could be made with long paint sticks or yardsticks cut down and sanded. I’ll hunt for links, and add them here. If you speak Spanish, you may find better links that I can, though. The loom is basically a group of dowel sticks and probably not hard at all to make. I just can’t buy wood at the moment. I’ve locked down my craft spending tight. I can provide my own backstrap--just need the wood parts. If you want, you could sew a backstrap to go with the wood parts, then I won't need to make one.
http://backstrapweaving.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/backstrap-weaving-the-backstrap-loom-all-those-sticks/This one is helpful:
http://weavezine.com/content/backstrap-basics---A peg loom for rag rug weaving. This is a long shot (it could get heavy to mail), but I have wanted one of these looms for AGES. If you have access to a drill press or a good set of spade bits, this would not be hard to make. With one of these looms, I could knock out all the rag rugs I need to keep our feet off the cold floors in a hurry, and also use it to make Christmas presents. I would like to be able to weave areas up to 24" across, and don't need any clamps, just the wooden parts. I don't care if it's not perfect-looking, so long as it functions as a pegloom and the pegs are evenly spaced. Use stuff from your garage if you have lumber and dowels lying about. If you can do this, I would be beyond thrilled!
http://pinterest.com/pin/61361613644326459/A pegloom in use:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAC1wX7-9gMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvzFxvVJ9bU---I need 2 sewn plastic bag holders to contain the bags near where I use them. The holders need to be hang-able, and a fun retro print fabric would be awesome.
---Shopping bags! I always need shopping bags!
---I need a
crossbody style sewn purse in colors that would go with a chocolate brown winter coat, but are somewhat cheerful as well, to help me thumb my nose at winter. Only thing to keep in mind is that I’m almost fifty, so cute or kawaii prints might not be the best for me. Hippie, retro or sophisticated fabrics like velvet or brocades (or a combo!) would be great. The purse needs to be close-able, since I sometimes have to ride very crowded public transit and could be bumped and have things knocked out. I also need at least two pockets sewn to the inside for easy access to small items. The crossbody style is important, so I can keep my hands free to hold bags and hold onto the bar on the bus while standing.
---Top whorl drop spindles with a notch or two in the whorl edge. I always have several spindles going—the more in my collection, the merrier!
---
Stenciled project bag that says: "Spinning:
Because knitting isn't weird enough!" About the size of a grocery shopping bag, and maybe with an image of a spinning wheel on it as well, but the words will be just fine by themselves. Choose a strong fabric or decorate a sturdy purchased canvas shopping bag for this project--I will use this bag for years! I spin in public all the time, and people sometimes wonder what I'm doing, and why.
Supplies and extras:Dye. Either acid dyes for wool or cold water dyes for cotton. If you tried dyeing and did not like it, partial jars are fine with me. I cannot use Rit or Kool-aid, though.
Spinning fiber, natural or vegan: Anything but angora. Even raw stuff is fine. I can clean it if there is not too much VM in it. I have an old drum-carder and hand-cards.
Wool, mohair or other fancy or novelty yarn—I can use any amount. Even really tiny balls. I’m going to learn freeform crochet this winter.
Sugar and Cream or other brands of cotton yarns, even smallish balls of them. I'm making dishcloths and tawashi as part of my Christmas gifts this year. Any colors!
Soft acrylic yarns. Any size balls. They have to be soft, though. I’m making some hats for the kids at my boy’s schools. The schools keep a box of hats and mittens on hand for kids who need them. Red Heart is too scratchy for most of the kids and gets left in the box. If it feels soft on your face, it will probably be okay and will end up warming a child. Small balls are fine—the kiddos like colorful things and I can make stripes. Any thickness of yarn-- I can crochet some strands held together to get my desired gauge if it's really thin yarn in colors school-age kids would like. Yarn that is obvious baby colors might not be the best for these kids.
Bits of yarn and fiber to feed to my drum carder. If you have really short bits of this and that, I can use them. I mean, even two inch bits!
Chenille yarn. Weavers love to throw in some chenille for texture. Any amount would be welcome. Same goes for fun fur and the like…
Angelina sparkle fiber.
Tube watercolors. I want to start painting again. If you have a used set you don’t need, sent it my way.
Circular knitting needles. Any kind, any size. Longish ones would be really great so I can learn the magic loop, but I also need some shorter for hats or cowls.
Thanks for reading this enormous post!
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We have a financial mess on our hands and I can't be sure I would have money for postage. I thought we would be through the worst of it by now, but we had a series of bad things go on with the rentals that wiped out all of our progress, and then some. This will be a 100% hand-crafted Christmas at Chez Lark, so I will be around Craftster a lot, and following this thread, too.
