Planet Nice Crafts

I apologize greatly Earthlings for postponing a blog post time and time again. Planet Nice is still in existence..it is still rotating on its axis…it is just stretched a little too thin from time to time. I was able to take a short fieldtrip to the Art Institute of Chicago with the main purpose of seeing the Georg Jensen: Scandinavian Design for Living special exhibit (the closing date was September 9 th ). It was very worthwhile: many silver pieces and a few furniture and other home product pieces in addition to the background information on the designers and their sketches. The notable time periods were Art Deco and the iconic, sleek Mid-century modern. I never know if photos in museums will turn out worthwhile so I focused only on the chairs, but in two of the photos you can see tableware pieces in the background. Here is the sample: The one below has a light fixture too, I believe its style is called artichoke - very similar aesthetic to the pieces I saw on my travels ...

Hello Everyone! The humidity continues this summer – there has not been much of a break, and I have been trying my best to stand tough though I do get fatigued more quickly. Speaking of breaks, the three weeks to Fall semester is soon over as a week from today I will have my first day of classes. Does anyone complete as much as they really want? From a project perspective, the green hat was re-done successfully! I was meticulous about counting stitches and used more stitch markers leading to no mistakes so I was content at last. Here is a photo of the now completed hat: I can let you know of three differences compared to the previous hat: two rows added to the bottom band, more uniform diagonals, and lace pattern going higher. Also, there was only an itty bitty piece of yarn left. So, I am ready to move on to yet another hat with the previous purple yarn used for the fingerless mitts. Though Planet Nice Crafts is planning to continue with two more knitting projects,...

Planet Nice really enjoys the month of World Cup as it provides the best background to the crafting activities. Duration is long so you have a full day, this year from 7 AM to about 3:30 pm, to give the environment a little extra energy. This post is a couple days later than I wanted; this semester, school is a full-time venture and I am attempting to keep disciplined, putting homework before Planet Nice. As for project updates, a reverse in orbit has occurred since I last posted. Here is a picture of the headband: No, you are not seeing things. It IS the yarn back in a ball. The previous headband was going very well and there was yarn left so it did grow to a cap. A problem arose when I washed the cap, it stretched and grew to a very large size! I was hoping for a bit of shrinkage but I received quite the opposite. After trying three attempts to shrink it, one even involving the use of a microwave and reading that this was not uncommon for superwash wool – I decided that...

Though the hours of daylight have been increasing as we march to the Summer Solstice, here in the workshop of Planet Nice, there has been a loss of ambient light. How? Is this evidence that the workshop is truly on another planet? No, the workshop is not on a different planet but now that the trees have budded out and the leaves are nearly full size, the great Southern windows are shaded. Though ambient light is now more strongly filtered, the advantage is that temperatures are almost always comfortable no matter how hot it gets outside…humidity is another story. 😉 An update to the cashmere neck warmer or scarfette is well – here goes. It made it to 8 inches: Then it made it to the previous goal of 15 inches with plenty of yarn left: The FINAL length is 24.5”, which is a wonderful length for a scarfette. So, I am very very pleased because at this length, it can be a useful item for someone. The knitting did become familiar but because of the multi-ply nature of ...

Well, because PBS did NOT ask me to do a guest post on their blog for Civilizations, I am just going to have to do one here 😊 The first 2 episodes have aired and are available at http://www.pbs.org/civilizations/home/ . I thought they were fantastic.  As promised, the show delivers a global perspective from Mesoamerica Mexico to Prehistoric Spain to Ancient Greece, Italy, Egypt, Jordan, and China. T he photography, both of the close-up details and the landscape with the help of drones, is breathtaking. Just from my traveling experiences, it may be better than actually being there meaning to watch these remote, historic places from the comforts of home so that you can focus on the actual objects of interest without having to worry about anything else is kind of a treat.  The “big” pieces of art, no matter how early in time they were created, are beautiful and represent the awe-inspiring potential of human achievement in my mind. Other pieces are more haunting such as the ...

Hello loyal readers! Now that the quilt is finished, time yesterday was spent on planning the next projects for Planet Nice. Thank you to those who took the survey – it was fun to collect some data and it did influence the decision process. The most attractive time periods of design were post-World War II or Mid-Century Modern and the big block between the two World Wars with Art and Crafts, Art Deco, and Art Nouveau. The most popular project types were women’s clothing and home accessories. There are endless possibilities here. After looking at the survey results, I started going through my existing supplies: books, fabrics, patterns, laces, kits, and everything else. I did want to have a project that was more portable this time, because I am hoping to make it to Needlework Night at the local library to spread the joy of Planet Nice! And, I would like to have a project that minimized the supplies necessary to be purchased. One of the motivations of Planet Nice is to start using ...