Crafty weekend

Hmm… I’ve been up to some crafty things this weekend. On Friday, I pulled out a Faberge egg needlepoint canvas that I’d started long ago. I just had the background left and started on it while watching some anime. I was filling it in with plain old tent stitch so it went relatively quickly. I finished it up tonight and I think I’ll turn it into a Christmas ornament after I find some fabric for backing. ^_^

This morning, I went by the Rag Shop to see if there was any good stuff left for cheap. It’s really disappointing that the chain is going out of business since it was one of the only places I could get sewing patterns locally and the only other big crafts places I know of in the city are in Staten Island, which is probably the toughest borough to get to without a car (not to mention the $9 bridge toll if you do have a car >_>;). The store here was probably one that had been doing well, too, since it had just moved into a new, larger space last year. -_-

Anyway, the needlework stuff was almost gone as well as the fabric. Didn’t find anything I wanted in either section. There seemed to be a lot of fuzzy yarns like Fun Fur left though. (Maybe, because they’re really only good for little things like scarves? A whole sweater in one of those would probably look weird.) I’d always thought it would be fun to play with some of that stuff but had never bought any before since it was $5 for a little ball. Picked out a bunch of different colors and got 14 skeins for $2 apiece. :-D I’ll probably crochet a scarf or two and work bits into tassels mixed with other threads. (My brother asked if I was planning to get a cat. >_>)

Went to Barnes and Noble later in the day and browsed through the stitchery magazines. I picked up an Australian embroidery magazine called Inspirations which had some interesting looking stuff like stumpwork which I haven’t experimented with before. (For some reason, that particular store seemed to have mostly imported needlework magazines and few of the American ones. O_o) Might not actually do anything from it right away but it’ll be good to stash away for when I want to do something different. I’ll probably work on a couple more little crafty projects and get my sewing room set up before getting back to costume making.

Speaking of cosplay, I’ve been meaning to write up a list of potential costumes. Maybe, I’ll work on that tomorrow after I finish up some paperwork.

Convention and cosplay planning

So, I’ve been thinking a bit about what conventions I’ll go to within the next year and the next few costumes I’m likely to make. Thoughts on conventions so far:

MangaNext: Will go for a day.
NY Anime Festival: The Javits Center isn’t ideal for cosplay but will definitely go since it’s local.
Katsucon?: Never have gone before and I’m wondering if it’s worth trying to go next year. I’d like to travel for at least one con other than AB but mid-February doesn’t seem like the best time of year to travel.
Anime Boston: Would definitely go since I loved it this year. ^_^
Anime North?: Very unlikely at this point. My family didn’t seem to like this last trip to Canada much so I doubt I can get them up there again next year and it’s probably too much of a trip to do on my own.
AnimeNext: No dates announced yet but will go like every year.
Otakon?: Don’t know. Maybe, if there were groups for some of the obscure stuff I cosplay and people I wouldn’t see at any other cons going. I didn’t care that much for the con itself when I went last year and skipped it this year.


I usually try to do one new costume per con but right now, I’m thinking I won’t bother with making anything new for MangaNext. For that, I’ll probably pull out my newer Ayame since it’s only been worn at Anime Boston and I don’t have any great pictures of it. Instead, I’ll concentrate on stuff for December and next year. Compared to last year, most of my stuff this year has been pretty dull since all the Ayame problems tired me out and left me unmotivated for some months. But another couple of weeks and I should be ready to jump back into working on some more elaborate stuff!

( 19th Century Count D for NYAF )

( Maybe, a Gankutsuou costume for AB? )

( I’ll finally get my Sora costume done sometime next year… )