The Crafting Thread

[Macha]

@tek https://gvhg.org/fiber-fest/?fbclid=IwAR3Y08Yp6uLIcQdBvTGSzxE5WrN35KXoviSJjP79STHhpMYJbKICfgGlbo8

I just had to ask one of my Fiber friends. They go every year.

[JinShei]

I did a sewing thing (link because uploading a ton of pictures is a pain)

[surreality]

Crafty people alert: Michaels has a '20% off your entire purchase including (most) sale items' thing today.

All strung beads are thus 70% off. Yeah. (I pretended the bead aisles did not exist.)

Filled in some floss gaps, but not a whole lot of them really. 'This coupon is good for a whole bunch of small inexpensive items' isn't a usual offering, so...

...uhm. Between my mother and I, we learned something new: once their registers hit XXX(?) lines (item line... then there's the discount line, etc.) they go haywire and have the register equivalent of a hissyfit of beeping and 'fuck you I am not working the rest of this day fuck you fuck you fuck you AND the manager AND your little void codes, too!'

(Funnier: between the two of us -- she also bought beads and such, I got some paint in addition to floss, so lots of small inexpensive items with the additional line for the discount... it was barely over $100, most of the $ for the paint we're sharing.)

Actual conversation as we left:

Mom: "It's weird that their registers have a hardcoded line limit."
Me: "Is it? ...or is it weird we've never hit it all these years, until now?"
Mom: "I don't know if we should be proud or ashamed of ourselves yet."
Me: "Both is good."
Mom: "Both is good."

(Mostly, this is a heads-up if anyone else wants to take advantage of that coupon since it's just today, but the conversation was too funny to not share. In fairness, we do both craft things to sell, me for a living, so, uhm, we spend a lot at Michaels any given year.)

[Macha]

@JinShei Oh my gaaaaaaaaawd that is so cute. I LOVE the fox fabric.

[Macha]

@surreality I've always been more of an AC Moore girl, but with them shutting down - I had a friend decide I needed more soap base - and they ordered it for me with store pickup at Michael's. I 'had' to pick up a silicone mold for hearts - Because I am hoping to sell Valentine's stuff, and I didn't have a heart mold.

The girl at the counter totally hooked me up with the biggest discount she could, and in return, I signed up for their rewards thing. It looks like I will end up going there more.

[Auspice]

@surreality I probably shouldn't tell you then that they do 40% off your entire order online every so often then.

They don't like those for the in-store, but they do allow it for in-store pickup.

This is how I fleshed out my DMC so well over the past month.

Huge order of floss.
$12.
etx

I think a lot of people ignore the online since they won't ship stuff like floss, beads, etc. But since you can do the in store pickup for those........

The 40% off your order is my friend.

ETA: wow I jacked up..that first sentence. This is why I should wake up more before posting.

[surreality]

@Macha Our Michaels is annoyingly conveniently located right by Bed, Bath & Beyond and Target and Trader Joe's.

They chose wisely re: location.

(Our AC Moore is like... half an hour away around nothing else we need more than twice a year tops, so... )

@Auspice I love the 40% off pickup and do it a lot, too. They are a nightmare on floss, though, unless it's packs. Their inventory is ten miles off accurate for the one near here, and I've had 2 week waits while they order a thing they were supposed to have while I sit there twiddling my thumbs. Like... they supposedly had black aida today! They had NO AIDA today. (Especially irritating 'cause the paint we got is pretty iridescent metallics and I wanted to try to do some background texture on some to play with.)

ETA: also, they're... not really paying attention at that one. That's how I ordered the etoile tin, for instance... and I was really lucky because they'd hung the '35 new colors' tin on that post... and put that in the bag instead. I was so lucky I caught that before we left.

[Macha]

@surreality AC Moore was next to Staples, on the way to.. a lot of things. So it was super easy.

My Michaels is in the mega mall - which I avoid esp. because - you know- Pain when walking long distances.

[Auspice]

@surreality

Yours must do things differently than the ones here in Austin. If they don't have the item, they just cancel it off your order and refund it. Which was fun during Steotch when we realized our group of 14 was trying to fill out the 60-odd floss list, another group was trying to, and people who were unaffiliated.

For a couple weeks in August if you walked into any Joanns or Michael's in Austin, the floss section looked like a wasteland.

[surreality]

Also: dammit, the cat had JUST let me finish boxing and bobbinating one of each of the colors I do have (most are just one, but still, doubles get to live in a box) before mom called and was like '...I shouldn't tell you this, but... ' re: coupon.

Ours always looks like a wasteland. The sad thing is that I know they had just restocked this week, and that poor section, omg. My inner fussbudget just wants to sit on the floor sometimes and put things where they belong until they tell me to leave every time I see it.

I grabbed one each of the 'odd' flosses they had in stock (a few color variations, a few light effects) and one each of 'whatever y'all've got from 0-500', which... was not a hell of a lot all told. I am a super sucker for variegated stuff, though, so I keep looking at the darice/iris bulk pack (ETA: this one -- https://www.michaels.com/ombre-embroidery-floss/10622000.html -- because some of those colors look super neat!) to order online at some point. I keep hoping they'll get it in store so I can at least squint at it, but they never do. (The Prism tie-dye one has some neat multicolor ones, if you like those. Dyelots vary greatly, though.)

[JinShei]

@Macha Thanks! It was meant to be much simpler than it came out but she loves it. She teaches primary school so..

Altho she keeps telling me they are red pandas but I doubt it.

[Macha]

@JinShei You make me wish I could afford a sewing machine and had the room for such a thing. I want cute dresses. Damn steroids. I miss my old cute dresses.

[JinShei]

@Macha This is all new to me! I claimed our dining room and now everyone eats on the sofa Steroids suck though

[Auspice]

I really really really wish I could sew.

I want a cloak for the Austin Witch Fest.
I want a couple haramakis.

.... probably more stuff but those are top of the list.

But sewing machines and I have a History. I'm cursed.

[Macha]

@JinShei We don't have a dining room, really, in our apartment. And my roommates actually /use/ the little pub table in there sometimes.

[JinShei]

@Macha How rude of them.

[Macha]

@JinShei Well, they DID let me keep my crafting table and cart in the living room for like... 5 months, before I finally figured out a floor plan for my tiny room so I could fit everything.

[surreality]

@Auspice Cloaks are pretty straightforward. Is there someone in the crafting group where you are you could maybe work out a trade with? If you pick up the fabric, and they make the cloak, maybe you make something for them with their materials? Some things would be a huge ask, but a basic cloak is definitely something within the realm of 'reasonable request to put out feelers for a trade' about, unless you have something super fancy or elaborate in mind. (Even some of the things that look super fancy and elaborate aren't a huge complicated investment of effort, fwiw.)

[Auspice]

@surreality said in The Crafting Thread:

@Auspice Cloaks are pretty straightforward. Is there someone in the crafting group where you are you could maybe work out a trade with? If you pick up the fabric, and they make the cloak, maybe you make something for them with their materials? Some things would be a huge ask, but a basic cloak is definitely something within the realm of 'reasonable request to put out feelers for a trade' about, unless you have something super fancy or elaborate in mind. (Even some of the things that look super fancy and elaborate aren't a huge complicated investment of effort, fwiw.)

I asked! There's someone that might be able to, but I am also about to be 'past the point of broke' unless I find a new job. I'm only going to WitchFest because it's only $5 a ticket and I got my ticket a month ago.

[surreality]

@Auspice Gah. If I had one laying around, I'd send it your way. Sadly, both of the ones I had got destroyed over the years.

Gorgeous black crushed velvet -- hey, cut me some slack, it was 1991! -- one my mom made me as a HS graduation gift? Someone "borrowed it for the day" stole it. I caught them with it 5 years later! ...and they gave it back! ...pinned together with bleach spots and missing the antique clasp that had belonged to my grandmother gone and 'replaced with this newer thing I should be super grateful!' AUGH.

My father threw the 100% imported Italian wool one I spent hours sewing by hand into the dryer 'because wool smells like wet dog when it's damp'. It maybe would have fit a small dog by the time it came out... (OK, heartbreaking as it is, it was funny watching him be all 'look, I don't know why you're crying, it's FINE!' as he tried to snap-flip 'unfurl' it and it stopped at toddler size. He shook it over and over like he was expecting more cloak to fall out for a good minute with an increasingly confused look on his face. 25 years later this is at least a little funny!)

My cloak luck is Greek tragedy levels of bad, or I would offer to help somehow.