Posts Tagged Crafts

You all know the stereotype:  The obedient and subservient wife who could cook a gourmet meal, make her own absolutely fabulous clothes and decorate her home beautifully with things created with her own hands.

The Stepford Wife. Martha Stewart. June Cleaver. The more recent version: Sandra Lee

You know. The stereotypes good little feminist girls love to hate, because they represent a lack of independence, a willingness to define yourself by what services you can provide to your man or your children.  They represent servitude rather than freedom, an obsession with fitting in and being exactly like everyone else, with keeping up appearances and keeping up with the Joneses.

But the face of the woman who loves to cook, craft, and sew is changing. No longer is this only the realm of the June Cleavers of the world, the WASP bottle blondes with the botox smile. Crafts and Cooking aren’t just for boring old ladies or cookie-cutout wives anymore.

No, the only common factor for the new crafty, cooking, home-maker woman is that she is exceedingly uncommon.  She embraces her weirdness and her differences and her independence even as she embraces those things that once defined the “domestic.”

Take a look at me, for example: I am a geeky girl who cares more about the latest video games than in what some celebutante wore to the Oscars, who happily streaks her hair pink, purple, or fire-engine red when she can get away with it, who loves tattoos and punk music and has a mind that is very happily at home in the gutter in which it generally resides, and who has a mouth that could probably make a sailor blush. The only pairs of stockings I own are all fishnet (and mostly torn) and I have to be really in the mood to put on a dress.  Most of the time when at my leisure, I’m found in a snarky t-shirt and unravelling jeans.

The New Face of Home Cooking - Natalie, from Bake and Destroy

I love to sew, cook, knit, crochet, embroider – you name it. I devour recipes and play with them to make them my own. I modify store-purchased clothes to make them better suit my (tending-toward-punky) tastes. I sew elaborate costumes for conventions, and I knit or do cross stitch to relax. I have been known to be an insomniac baker – getting up and baking odd things in the middle of the night because I can’t sleep. (My office loves me for this…)

There’s Natalie, over at a foodie blog I love called Bake and Destroy. Not only does she have some really tasty recipes to offer, she has some of the most beautiful ink I’ve ever seen and shares my love of punky clothes, odd haircolors, and good music.

There’s a forum for domestically inclined punkers over at Punk Rock Domestics that can always be counted on for some good recipes and fun projects. Naughty Needles and Knit Porn have some awesome knitting patterns and advice for knitters, including some gorgeous burlesque outfits to knit and some bondage related crafting advice. (Ever wondered how to knit some cuffs with d-rings ready for the ropes?) There’s an entire section of patterns over on Ravelry for “adult” knitting patterns, and there’s geeky patterns enough to keep me knitting for decades. (My Ravelry Profile).

As far as books, since the new knitting revolution began with Stitch ‘n Bitch, there’s been an increase in books with knitting and sewing patterns that girls (and guys) like me might actually want to make, wear, and/or decorate with, including Domiknitrix, Punk Knits, and Subversive Cross Stitch. Etsy is full of people turning these sorts of crafts into a business, especially with the new popularity steampunk, diy, and maker cultures.

These aren’t your mother’s crafts anymore. For those of us who love to craft and cook, but like things that are just that little bit different – you aren’t stuck with doing the same old samplers anymore, and cakes and cupcakes are no longer required to come with cute doilies underneath and piped flowers on top.

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On top of being a writer, gamer, sci-fi addict, and bibliophile, I have another obsession: Crafts.

From the first moment my aunt taught me how to embroider, or my grandmother explained the inner workings of her ancient Singer sewing machine (while making my Rainbow Brite Halloween costume, no less) I was hooked. Eventually, I taught myself how to macrame, crochet, knit, decoupage, bead-weave, and even solder.

I have a serious case of ferret-mind when it comes to crafting projects as well.  I’ll get about halfway through one project when, “Oooh, shiny!” another project grabs my interest.  It’s usually the “ordinary” projects that sit about unfinished, though. My interests in crafting follow the same track as my interests in everything else:

I like my crafts geeky, funny, and cute.  Right now, I’m about a foot into a Season 16 Tom Baker Era Doctor Who Scarf. You know, the extra long and apparently impervious to harm scarf that the Doc used for everything from measuring to rappelling.  This, of course, goes right along with my reawakened Doctor Who obsession.  Why do I want a Tom Baker scarf? It’s not for a costume or anything. Pretty much I want one because I can.

I’ve also found myself watching a lot more TV lately since I’ve cut back on Warcraft, and I’ve never been very good at just sitting still and watching anything. That’s why I tend to prefer interactive activities, like video games. If I’m going to be watching TV for a long time, I want something else to do with myself too, like knitting, crocheting, sewing, snuggling with the BF, etc.

Mrraghrgrrrlggglrrgraghrggrlll!

I have other geeky crafting projects waiting in the wings too. I still want to make that Super Mario Blanket, if I can ever get my chart-maker working again. (It crapped out while I was trying to make the pattern.) I really want to make a handful of knitted murlocs to give away to folks who would appreciate a knitted murloc.

And, of course, there are the costumes.  I still have a utility-belt-bustle to make to finish off my Con steampunk costume, and I’d really like to use some of the LED and lighting techniques from my new craft-book Fashion Geek. The idea of using electronics in fashion and crafts is so amazingly geeky and awesome that I can’t wait to play around with it a bit.

I’ve been really excited to see the number of equally geeky folks my age embracing crafts and DIY stuff as part of the growing Maker culture. It’s so nice and satisfying to create something with your own hands.

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Image via Wikipedia

Specifically, Retro Game Knitting!

Or, actually, crochet would probably be the better option in my circumstance.  A  knitted blanket of this sort would end up way too heavy for life down here in the heart of the deep south where 40°F is “OMGITSFREEZING TURN ON THE HEATER GET THE SWEATERS OMG!” (Yes, my Canadian friends, I’m quite aware that we’re wimps.) However, for you folks who live where it does get cold enough for thick knitted blankets, the same charts should work for both.

I’ve had a plan for quite a while to turn the original set of Super Mario Bros. maps into a set of panels that I could stitch together into a blanket.  Since all of the maps would be too much for one blanket, I’m dividing them up into “blue maps” and “dark maps”.  I’m going to work on the blue maps for my blanket ’cause I like blue.  For my source images, I’m using the awesome Super Mario Bros. maps at Ian-Albert.com

An average blanket to fit a Queen sized bed is 86 x 94 inches.  There are 16 panels.  So each panel needs to be about five inches high, 94 inches long. I made my charts accordingly, each square on the chart representing a square inch of knitted or crocheted stitches.  To make sure you get the right size, you should check your gauge to see how many stitches it’ll take with your chosen yarn.

As for the charts? They’re after the break.  Click on the thumbnails to get the full size.

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