Showing posts with label project x project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label project x project. Show all posts

Project x Project: Sweaterdress Beginnings

Tuesday, May 31, 2011


I walked miles in the heat of day last week to arrive at the Redmond-based craft store Ben Franklin, my favorite local yarn shop (LYS). I mulled over yarns of differing color and weight, imagining their eventual feel and drape on my body, feeling them as I would a lover between my fingers...

Eh heh... well, I do get quite giddy when I make a new yarn purchase. Anyway, a few weeks back I began dreaming of a sweaterdress that I wanted to make as a summer project, and I have finally settled down with yarn and needles to start it! In fact, I may even try to do two if time allows. The pattern for the first one, called "Monica's Tunic" and offered through RedHeart, can be found here.

Although it is not technically a "sweaterdress" according to the pattern, this tunic will be long enough by completion to fit me like one (short people are awesome). I have decided to make it out of a brown and blue variegated (self-striping) yarn that is chunky instead of worsted, which meant that I have to alter the pattern in order to make it knit up correctly. After one tireless hour of crunching the numbers, I have my pattern set up for the rest of this voyage. Updates will come as the piece continues to grow!

Check out what else I've been knitting.

Project x Project: Sweaterdress Fantasies

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Ok, so I know that summer is approaching. And I know that my attire will soon be changing from heavy winter coats and thick stockings to light dresses and t-shirts.

But I am still fantasizing about a sweaterdress.


Ever since making my skirt project, I have wanted to move onto other sorts of knitted clothing. I have had a few sweater-making fiascos in the past, but I hope that this time I can get everything just right and make me a fabulous sweaterdress. This will be my great summer project, something to move slowly and carefully on, something to ponder about endlessly until it finally comes to fruition.


Here are some of the patterns I've been contemplating*:


Project x Project: Aspirations and Experiments

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

I am a list addict. That's right, I've admitted it (yet again). And for the upcoming summer I have made a list with subsections of items that I want to begin or complete during that time.

But this time I've done three things that are a tad bit different with the list:
1. I have made all the statements into "I want to..." forms
2. I have decided whether they are an aspiration or an experiment and indicated that
3. I have put a reason next to it about why I want to do such a thing

Project x Project: Chugging Along

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

At one point in my academic career, I wasn't going out. I would haul up in my room, do my school activities, and come home. And, while this might work for some people (my boyfriend included), I get a serious case of cabin fever.
So, although it's not technically a "project," my personal goal for these last few weeks has been to go out somewhere and do something cool each week. Last weekend, I kicked it into overdrive by going to Brooklyn for a Refuse the Silence interview and going back to a park that brings up a lot of memories for me - mostly from pre-college, when a hip hop festival was being hosted there! So, enjoy the photos below and let me know what you think about personal time versus work time management.



Project x Project: Pressing the Record Button

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

A project that I have wanted to launch for a while, but have not yet dared to test out, is to read some of my work aloud and read them as podcast-like posts for this blog. Today I am taking the plunge. I will start with a story* that I wrote for a creative writing class I did last semester, since that seemed related to the previous post I put up about academics and creativity. Enjoy, and be sure to tell me how I did in the comments!


*This story will also be posted after the jump for people who choose to or can only read it rather than hear it. Yay!

Project x Project: To Slump or Not to Slump?

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Sometimes I feel like productivity is the only way to go for me. I have to be seriously working on something, giving it my all, making plans, and working through them as steadfastly as possible. But, as you can imagine, it is pretty difficult to keep up that level of productivity all the time - especially when juggling being a full-time student and part-time worker. So it can feel sometimes like I'm in a bit of a slump.

This week, for example, I have taken off some time from work to spend with my boyfriend as he visits me for his spring break. I have done a lot of my homework in advance so that we can spend time together but, as you might imagine, there is still some downtime when we are enjoying each others' company without necessarily having a plan to structure the day. And that's when I get antsy. Shouldn't I be working on something? Should I read ahead in my book for the week after next? Should I start working on that collage project that I have been meaning to start? The questions keep on coming, and yet I don't actually enact any of these things. Is it a slump?

I have always wondered if this is really and truly the attitude of a perfectionist. Feeling slump-y just because I haven't started working on my "next big thing?" Sounds like it. But the feelings are there all the same, making me feel like a little kid squirming around at the opera.

So, I am going to open up the question to you. What do you do when you start to feel like you're in a slump? Is there anything that remedies these feelings? How do you spend your time? Let me know!

Project x Project: Drawing as Stress Relief

Tuesday, March 1, 2011



As all college students know, you can get in over your head pretty easily with the reading, essays, and exams required of you in your collegiate life. And sometimes you need a break.
Crashing for a couple extra hours doesn't usually fit into my schedule, so to take time off yesterday, I zoned out and used a different part of my brain to draw the pictures above. I have been working a lot on shading and trying to figure out the "appropriate" uses for colored pencils - I'm still not quite comfortable with them, but they're getting easier!
I eventually want to take more drawing classes and use them as an outlet for the rest of my intense work schedule - for now, it's just a nice mini-project to be done in my break time.
How do you relieve stress? And what do you do in your "down time" usually? Let me know!


(by the way, late post tonight, so sorry if they all smoosh into one this week!)

Take a look at some other drawings that I've done.

Project x Project: Coming to a Mailbox Near You

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Now that this website re-vamping business is finished and I am slowly but steadily working myself back into a regular balance of life and school work, I have realized my complete lack of something I've craved since I was a child: real mail.
I thought about why people don't write letters as often anymore and all the myriad reasons why the internet and other forms of communication are used... but it still gives me infinite joy to open up my pathetic little campus mailbox and receive a letter or a zine or even just a flyer (when I'm desperate).
So, taking on the personal initiative, I have decided to start sending little bits of mail far and wide in the hopes of reviving that old school art of postcard/letter sending. Be prepared, friends and family, for the upcoming onslaught of mysterious envelopes and flashy pieces of paper coming your way.
And don't be alarmed if I ask you for your address.

Check out some of the other creative projects I've been working on.

Project x Project: Minor Frustration

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Why is there not a button to be found in Manhattan past 6pm? Honestly, I have to get this out of my system - there are no craft stores in the city it seems that are open past 6pm and, even without craft stores being open, there is nowhere that will give me buttons! I even went into Urban Outfitters and attempted to buy the extra buttons that you get with coats off of them, but no, you must buy the entire coat for one little button. But, I digress.
This week has been otherwise a really good one for projects; I have finished my skirt (except, of course, for sewing the buttons on), I have started a new Photoshop project, and I am generally closing up shop for the year. It's nice, but also sad. My Etsy won't open until January for logistical reasons (such as: how will I ship if I'm overseas?) and there are a lot of things milling about in my head that I can definitely put into motion come next year.
But for now, it's all about taking a break from my regularly scheduled programming and starting something new. Sewing? Cooking? I've said these things before, but there are probably other things that I want to work with while I'm away. I was thinking about doing some more intense photography things over the winter break and also perhaps doing a bit of drawing, as I have indulged myself by getting a new sketchbook.

Anyway, that is all for later! For now, I have to get over my frustration at the small things. All my projects are coming together quite nicely, but they are taking a bit more time and effort than I thought. Such is the way of the errant crafter...

Check out the final result of this skirt project!

Project x Project: Skirts and Artwork

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

I am working now on my second mysterious knitting project - a teal wool pleated skirt (pattern courtesy of Knitty). I won't show you a picture of it just yet, but I am about halfway done with that and I am working towards the finish line hopefully before I leave the country - and my knitting needles - behind.
I have also made the decision to launch my Etsy shop once I have returned to campus in January because I don't believe it would be possible to sell my things from Bangladesh. In the meantime, I'll be working on some new pieces for it, which is really exciting!
In the meantime, enjoy a new drawing that I made to celebrate the end of classes and tie a lot of my photographs together:
(click to see it better)

And, as for goals for the winter break and the future, I really want to learn some cooking and hand sewing. I know the simple work of both of them, but it will take some dedication to get me past just repairing a hole or cooking a very simple curry. Wish me luck!

See the finished skirt project!
And check out some more drawings and art that I have created.

Project x Project: Headwrap Complete

Tuesday, December 7, 2010


Victory in the face of finals!
I have completed the knit headband (one of my two secret projects, in case you were keeping score), and it's glory is featured above!
Having other projects like that one really keeps me sane in the face of other more overwhelming tasks, like art projects and essays. I am occasionally asked why I like to be crafty and make things with my hands, and I think that this is the true reason. It is something that I can do with my body rather than my mind, and it helps me de-stress in a lot of ways. Although sometimes it can be a little stressful - as when I am folding 20 zines in the computer lab and checking how much time I have left until class - at least it is something that I enjoy doing and something that rewards me at its completion.
Have a happy Tuesday, everyone!

Check out some other creative projects and knitting that I've pursued.

Project Check-In: Great Success!

Saturday, December 4, 2010

(click for a larger version!)

There's nothing like completing something to make a week complete, and this week resembled a stress ball like no other, let me tell you.
I made good on four claims this week: finishing Phase 1 of Etsy preparation, making a micro-mini zine, emailing the zinesters that I have admired from afar in my zine assistant job, and (the biggest one) finishing my life-size final drawing project.
The final product, pictured above, is probably one of the hardest and most stressful projects I have worked on in a very long time. It is 4 ft x 9 ft in size and, although I could have done a traditional life-size version of me, I decided to go abstract and multi-media on the assignment. Thus, it is a mixture of ink and brush, pencil, and pen drawing. Although I "started" by making outlines and studies before Thanksgiving break, this project boiled down to me doing a little work here and there in class and then spending my Saturday from 10am to 5pm (7 hours) in the studio to finish it up. Just like my NaNo novel, it ended up with me as a crazy marathon artist plunging into the depths of prolonged creativity.
This week was a great success on many fronts, but I think the best one is that I found that I could beat stress by confronting it head on and pummel at least some of it into the dust. While I still have papers and other work to do, I allowed myself this week to give into the temptation of working on other projects and finally finishing up a grand one. Let's hope next week goes just as well!

(click again!)

Check out more of my creative projects in my Project x Project series.

Project x Project: Setting Up Shop

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

I feel that sometimes I stick my fingers in too many pies, but since it was Thanksgiving last week, I figured it can't hurt to stick them in one more. I have had some really gorgeous knitted items for selling that have been hanging around my room since last year and I just haven't had the gumption to put them out there on display. So, when my roommate bought a sapphire ring off of Etsy and told me about the wonders of that website, I suddenly became very interested.
Although I am not the world's most prolific crafter, I know that I can do commission pieces in 1-4 days if given the time (and depending on the size of the piece!). I also, by actually going on the site, realized that people don't just sell craft-related things - they sell zines too! And this is one of the major problems I have been having as a startup zinester. How do you get your work out there to an audience that you have no idea about? It's much less public than blogging and a lot more intimate of a relationship, so far as I'm concerned.
So, tonight, I will enter Phase 1 of my plan to sell crafty things on Etsy. Phase one includes: taking stock of the items, taking grand product photographs, pricing the items. Perhaps by this weekend, I will enter Phase 2: setting up the actual internet space.

Wish me luck! And stop on in when the shop is up if you have a need for any of the following goods/services.
1. Knitted goods
2. Knitting or bookbinding lessons
3. Commission wire jewelry
4. Commission knitted items
5. Commission hand-made books or journals
6. Zines


Check out the fruition of this plan at my current Etsy shop!

Project x Project: Winner!

Sunday, November 28, 2010


Allow me to take the liberty of using this post as blatant self-congratulation. I won National Novel Writing Month, and this morning I really didn't think it was possible. But, after some well-timed procrastination, in just this day alone, I wrote 15,000 words and FINISHED!
Good luck to everyone that is still chugging along - you can do it! I did, and I was in the hole yesterday night.
Also, that monkey up there? That's totally me when I finished.

My writing and stories are available for your reading pleasure.

Project x Project: It's Hard Out Here for a Transcriptionist

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Whoops! This post is a little late, but I will still count it as a daily post because it's the wee hours of the morning, which, in my head, are counted as the late hours of last night.
Anyway, this post is about expanding your horizons and how it can be so very frustrating at times.
Take the example of my brief stint as a transcriptionist. I have been working with an interview for my forthcoming post at Refuse the Silence*, and I found it extremely difficult. I was omitting words and going back over things four to seven different times just to get things right. My punctuation was all flubbed and I had to do some serious editing to bring it up to the standardized interview transcript state. Thankfully, it is now quite well done and I feel happy about the work that I put in.
The point of this story is that, in trying something new, my experience was less than perfect. It was downright mediocre in the beginning. And I think that applies to anything and everything you first try at. I was also listening to a podcast today that told me about the history of home economics (actually, it's a fascinating topic), and I found that the most intriguing part was the assumption that women did not automatically make good homemakers - they needed science and depth of analysis. That agrees well with my personal viewpoints, both by breaking the stereotype that a woman is a natural nurturer and by showing off one of my favorite self-motivators: you have to try things.
Try and fail. Try and succeed. Try and do an ok-not-quite-perfect job. But just try them out - maybe you'll make a method and set a trend.
That's what I'm telling myself about pretty much all my projects right now; from grant proposals to NaNo to knitting myself a skirt, there's no harm in first trys.

*If you are interested in reading this interview that I did with a certain awesome Barnard administrative director, please look out for my post in the next week or so at Refuse the Silence.

Project x Project: Balancing Act

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

This is just a short post that's going to roll in under the radar - I've been trying to furiously catch up on word count today, so I've written 3000+ words and have come up to 25,150. I need to be at 30,006 by tomorrow at midnight, so between then and now I have to write about 5000 words to catch up. Never fear though! I think I can do it, and do it well.
But, I wanted to talk about how it is to balance a really busy personal life with a really busy professional/academic life because I have to do that pretty much every day of my Barnard life.
I think that strategizing is always really important if you want to undertake something outside of your prescribed work that isn't considered a "leisure activity." For me, writing and blogging is slowly becoming part of my personal "work," just like making arts and crafts is both for love and profit. So, some strategies that I try to employ (albeit, not always consistently) will follow below:

1. Know your busy days and give yourself a break during those
I know that for me, Thursday is my longest day (9am to 9pm!), so I try to do any homework I have before or after that day so that I can just chill in the middle

2. Make time that is solely for your personal project(s), make time that is solely for your professional/academic project(s), and make time just for goofing off!
When you want to be a successful Barnard woman, or a successful person anywhere, it can sometimes feel like you have no time for anything else. You are consumed by work. But I think that making a specific time for things like hanging around on your bed, picking out your morning clothes, or just doing simple relaxing things are not just fun, but they're necessary to keeping you sane.

3. Don't stick with an activity that you hate
Just because you're involved with it doesn't mean that you have to stay. Sure, it's hard to quit something, but the assessment question is always: will it make me more happy to replace this with something else? That something else could be free time OR another project - that is up to you.

4. Prioritization is key
I've said it before and I've said it again: lists, prioritized lists especially, are the way to force yourself to achieve in any situation.

5. Put yourself in "dangerous" situations sometimes
Risk taking is something that is super important when you are doing any sort of project. On a personal level, my risk-taking involves making friendships that are concrete and lasting here. That is hard for me to do because I'm afraid of being hurt sometimes. But how else can you reach out in that situation? For whatever goal you're working on, take small risks that lead to bigger ones, and make sure that everything you do feels right.

6. Finally, and most importantly, it's OK to fail!!
Failure is part of the process too. Do you think that my NaNo novel is going to come out with a glowing halo on it? No way! It's going to be a steaming pile of something you don't want to get on your shoe, but if I really want it to shine, I'll work on it till the bitter end, and if I don't, I'll chalk it up to failure and move on. I think that the most important thing about failure is letting it happen, letting it wash over you, and then letting yourself be free of those complex emotions surrounding it.

That's it for tonight! Maybe I'll come up with more tips later on, but for now, I'm going to sleep!

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in some other lessons I've learned, including 3 Ways I Beat Writer's Block to a Pulp.

Project x Project: Playing Catch Up

Monday, November 15, 2010

Today I worked on just about everything but NaNo, which I told myself that I was going to catch up on completely. I did not write one word all weekend and, as a consequence, have to write 6107 words at least by tonight's end to be on track. I think I can do it, but that word count on paper just seems like a really daunting task.
Which means that I'm going to talk about confidence building and what that means in a project.

I sometimes get nervous about big projects. I feel like I don't have enough a. resources, b. stamina, c. intellect, or d. time to do any of it. And sometimes I don't even get off the starting blocks because of this mindset. But, to take a lesson from the SOCLR leadership handbook, I believe that Vision and Passion are the two most important things that a leader needs to have. And thus, to be a leader, I have to follow through regardless of the other things I may lack. I have to tell myself that they will come up along the way if I keep working.
That is my first piece of advice: just keep working. NaNo has taught me that, if you get discouraged, you just need to write through it. You just need to push on because there is always time for revision - in December. And nothing builds confidence as much as having a large body of work under your belt, even if it's far from perfect.

My second piece of advice pertains to an organizer's nightmare: juggling commitments. What happens when you're writing a paper, working two jobs, working on a novel, writing grant proposals, and trying to get a decent amount of sleep all at the same time? Chaos, obviously.
But I think that the chaos can be cut down if you work on prioritization. If you need a day for yourself, take it. If you need a few extra hours of sleep, go for it, so long as whatever you're working on is not too time sensitive. I think the point is to take care of yourself before any of the fabulous projects you're working on. You are not your projects, and you will have as much time as you need.

Finally, in pursuing all of your visions, somewhere along the line your passion may dwindle out. I am guilty of this, guilty of giving up in the face of the obstacles that I see in my way. But I think that, instead of putting down the burden when working on a tough project, it might just need to be re-framed.
I have experimented with this idea when it comes to work. Sometimes I just don't want to go into the office or do some other commitment - but, if I think about it in a positive light, it helps me get through. Now, I'm not going to lie, it doesn't make the experience completely enjoyable all the time, but at least it can keep you going while you are recuperating from the passion doldrums. The next time you have to do a difficult task, try to find the positive things that make it worthwhile: for instance, although it might be isolating in the library, at least you get to read something good for a while! Or, at least, hopefully.

Alright, now I'm on to my 6107 for tonight. Wish me luck!

Project x Project: How Did This Start? Moments in a Writing Life (NaNo Day 5)

Friday, November 5, 2010


I have had a lot of embarrassing moments in my writing career.
Looking back on it now, it seems that my childhood addiction was paper. I have half-finished or quarter-finished or even one-page-out-of-150 finished journals lying about my house, ones that have not been cracked open for years (fortunately, nowadays I am re-using that paper for my class notes).
As a pre-teen and teenager, I wrote depressing poetry that was cringe-worthy - my journals were full of unrequited love notes (as I had many a great crushes in my youth) and poems that expressed my angst and depression in stranger language than I thought possible to construct.
I felt unafraid in the 6th grade to print out my 100+ page unedited novel, put it in a binder, and present it to my middle school English teacher for editing. He never got it back to me, and I was too shy to ask for it back. That was also a year that I started writing query letters to editors about whether they would take that meager bit of work.
I submitted poems to several contests, some of which were for children much younger than me, and ended up feeling embarrassed and even more misunderstood.
And then there were the diaries...

When I list these anecdotes out, I still cringe and giggle nervously. But I am also weirdly thankful that they happened. Because I now feel like a much more mature writer than I was when I started. In between those silly flights of fancy, I also got out there to take classes at Richard Hugo House, read my work at poetry slams, and feel strong in starting (and sometimes finishing) a long piece. I got to experience the full gamut of emotions - from apathy to zeal - of writing.
And now, as I hurriedly try to get back on word count for my NaNo novel, I realize that becoming a writer is something akin to climbing a craggy dragon's back while it's still trying to buck you off. A laughable and enormous task, but one that can only be taken one scale at a time.
I leave you with a thought proposed to me by my African American literature professor: whatever you write now will eventually be published as your juvenalia, your early works before you penned the Nobel prize winner.

7,003 words

Read more about my NaNoWriMo attempts and successes.

Project x Project: Questions (NaNo Day 4)

Thursday, November 4, 2010

I can already tell that Wednesdays and Thursdays are going to be the hardest ones to keep up on NaNo. After returning to school and not having the entire day to gallavant off into novel land, I have been slammed with late hours and been mired in writer's block.
But, all is not lost. Pushing NaNo into the small spaces of my life really forces me to do it without editing or breaks or anything like that. After reading the pep talk today, I was also really inspired by the idea that things don't have to have a direction to be relevant - Mercedes Lackey was talking about fanfiction, but I think it can apply to everything.
So, here's my little adjunct for the writers out there that want to get started on something: start with a question.
What must your character do in order to get from one place to another?
What will your character be wearing?
What will the world be like?
What is the purpose of this gadget?
What color is the sky?
All of these things can change throughout the progression of your work, but if you are taking the thing on as a whole, it might become daunting. Writing out the questions allows me to frame things as a dialogue in my mind - even better, bouncing ideas off of someone else can generate a more pronounced effect.
I think that when we are trying to create something, it's best to take it in these small chunks and work them into the broader piece. And the moment of generation can be daunting to a lot of people. So pose questions to yourself about what and why and where and how and who. See where it takes you.

And my update on word count for today? It's 11:40pm and I haven't done my word count for today, but I am on par with the 3 day count, so I'll get there!

Read more about my NaNoWriMo attempts and successes.

Project x Project: NaNoWriMo Day 2

Tuesday, November 2, 2010


(I carried this plant all the way back from Virginia)

For everyone out there who feels like they're drowning in word count: you are not alone.
Today my roommate and I returned from Virginia to New York City. Our cumulative journey consisted of a 4.5 hour bus ride, a 30 minute cab ride at stomach-churning speeds, a nice Italian dinner and an hour braving the supermarket lines so that we wouldn't go hungry for the next week. All in all, we were out from 11am to 8:30pm. And I haven't worked on my NaNo yet.
I'm trying to channel both inner harmony and the energy to stay awake long enough to finish my word count. Wish me luck.

Oh, and, happy election day!

Read more about my NaNoWriMo attempts and successes.