Our 2018 costumes

It’s that time of year again. Once again I crocheted my costume, and built Jake’s costume from cardboard. I’m a giant squid; he’s a vintage convertible.

Stuff I finished recently

Big catchall post.

I recently finished #100wikidays, a personal challenge in which you commit to write a new Wikipedia article every day for 100 consecutive days. I did all biographies, mostly women, as usual; looking over the list, there were only two that I’d even heard of before the day I wrote their article. (This is how I usually work; if I don’t previously know anything about the subject, then I can’t say anything about them without a source. It still helps to know something about their historical context, of course.)

There were at least a dozen African women (because I was also doing the Africa destubathon for part of the time); a couple of Cornishmen (because of the West Country Challenge–sensing a theme?); two blind organist/composers from Philadelphia; one mother-son pair of artists; a lot of North Carolinians (partly because the NCPedia is online, unlike a lot of state historical encyclopedias); a few Guggenheim fellows, and a bunch of US women active in the peace movement. I even wrote two of the articles in a hospital bed when I needed an emergency surgery for a kidney stone. Here’s my whole list of 100 new articles. It was fun and I’d recommend it.

I also, recently (as in today), finished my contributions for the Yarn Bombing Los Angeles installation “California Yarnscape”, which will happen at the Autry Museum in spring 2017. Here’s my crocheted “Sequoias”, inspired somewhat by 1930s WPA posters for the national parks:

Also, somehow, I made two Halloween costumes this year; my son’s was the more ambitious, a rolling tarantula of funfur and pantyhose and wire and so much duct tape…

Mine was four pretty easy pieces (but I love the elaborate hat); an alien priestess costume, based loosely on the Sisterhood of Karn in old Doctor Who.

Finally, look for Jake and me in this flashmob video made at Venice Beach last Sunday. You’ll need to look closely; I’m in a black hat and red dress; Jake’s in his blue Convaid chair. This was also a lot of fun to do.

Halloween 2015: Crafty round-up

It was another fun season of crafting for Halloween this year.   For daughter, another Pokemon hat (Espeon, this time):

Crocheted Espeon Hat on daughter

Also crocheted some Sylveon ears for her friend to add to a headband:

Crocheted Pokemon headwear

For a friend’s preschooler sons, I crocheted Darth Vader and Batman hats/masks:

For myself? A giant crocheted bird costume.

For son, I built another cardboard/duct tape/spray paint wheelchair costume, this time “Rocketship to Jupiter”:

We photographed it at Trash for Teaching, because we got some of the materials for making it there. He won best costume at his teen dance, and we also won $100 in Crafted Cash at Crafted in San Pedro, so it was a popular costume.
For the yard: my Little Free Library got a monster costume: