Cunt rags

This last week has been interesting. Note that I say interesting. Not bad. Interesting. I wonder if it is actually a curse to say 'may you live in interesting times' or if that is another one of the many western appropriations of things oriental. Suffice to say that if it were a curse it would be a good one. But I digress. Last week was interesting. For a start I was bleeding. Much as I have tried I cannot bring myself to rejoice in my monthly bloodyfest. I am however at least coming to terms with it enough to be resigned to its inevitability and appreciative of whatever effort the body goes to spare me pain.

In order to make the period more livable I made myself a batch of cunt rags. Okay so it wasn't for myself really. I was following instructions. It was that kind of week. But lack of initiative and good instructions work quite well sometimes. And so they did in this instance for me. I made five cunt rags that I packaged prettily and put in a shop and then I proceeded to make another three for me. My mother was favourably impressed as she had expected them to be made out of ugly fabric. They are made with much effort and much love and of some very pretty fabrics. If I'm going to bleed and be in pain for a week I may as well at least enjoy myself!

So here we have pictures:
All of them laid out flat. Don't think you can tell from the photo but there are tiny little snap buttons at the edge of the wings.


Pretty fabrics with pads folded so you can see how they'd actually look


More pretty rags. I'm going to put princess faces on the pink one. layer upon layer!


And not to miss the emergency services fabric. also the deer.


A fan picture coz it's my blog and I can.



I made them using a pattern that Kirky had made for me. They were simpler to make than I expected and I wished I had an overlocker but managed perfectly well without. They are not the insert kind of pad but that suits me quite well since I use the moon cup anyway and I really only need pads to protect from leakage. If I were using only the pads I'd combine them them with some circular insert style pads for my days with heavier flow. I don't like inserts that leave the shell to come in contact with the blood coz that usually means I end up washing the shell anyway.

Here is a list of links in case you're interested in making your own or finding out more about them.

Information alone:
Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloth_menstrual_pad/
Try and ignore the sales pitch
http://www.gladrags.com/

Cloth Pads:
Luna pads
http://www.lunapads.com/
Basic pattern
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=18462.0
My personal favourite
http://shewhorunsintheforest.googlepages.com/

Tampons:
Crocheted or Knitted
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=82588.0
rolled rather than stuffed
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=178151.0

A week and booties

So I did end up writing a first draft of the paper on framing. And the new deadline involves having an edited draft ready by this Friday to show my supervisor. Again. Ah well it's never really over till it's over. Which is when exactly??

I saw a cute post on craftster that shows you how to make knitted mary jane slippers. So I decided to give it a shot.

Here they are flat on the chair. I can barely knit so I made a trial pair for myself out of left over yarn. I used a garter slip stitch which you can barely see on account of the yarn I used being quite bobbly to start with. So the pattern just makes it look more or less bobbly in some parts. But I did manage to make them. And sew them up in a day. A personal best for me!



And here they are on my feet. Not very impressive looking I'll admit but I am quite proud of myself for making them at all. Especially given that for most of the time making them I was feeling fairly homicidal... like ripping up everything in sight and breaking things would've afforded me a great deal more satisfaction than being constructive. In any event, I knit with a vengeance!



Ha! Then I sat on the floor with my new booties and wiggled my feet. And admired my feet, my bright green fishnet knee-highs and my little sliver anklet. I didn't add any straps to them because I'd by then decided that they were a trial pair. And because I didn't have the patience. But I shall make another pair sometime soon!

In other news, I have blue toe nails. They make me happy too. And I am being invited to display some of my craft in an arty space. So that'll be fun. Also I'm reading 250 pages on various obesity myths. But that'll be another post.

Stay sane.

Random rambling

Top three things on my list:
1) make insulin bag for nick,
2) research for zine,
3) write paper on framing.

1) Sigh. Serious lack of crafty motivation. I have drafted a pattern though. Tomorrow is a saturday. I shall attempt it. I'm having much the same problem with this bag as I am with my thesis: being scared about it not being good enough. Which is related to perfectionism as well but is mostly about fear! In both cases it's quite a well founded fear since my thesis is being supervised by one of the biggest names in the academic circles and Nick is about the most critical and pernickity person I know. Damn these overachieving nutters. However, in the words of Tremaine of Barham, "I shall contrive".

2) Where do I even begin? There is such a variety of anti-fat sentiment around. And try as I have I can't find a decent zine that discusses the issues (gender, race and class) with any degree of clarity. Well, I shall be blazing a trail of glory shall I not?! It seems to me that most of the interesting research on fat has been done in academic circles and of necessity in academic terms. As a result several excellent books have languished unread. The Obesity Myth by Paul Campos is a case in point. I really enjoyed the book and thought it was well researched and excellently written but could've been reduced to half it's size without compromising either the argument or the diversity.

You're going to hear a lot more about the politics of fat in weeks to come. Consider yourself warned.

3) I've been procrastinating writing this paper for months. Hmmm... since I've done no work this week, I shall come up over the weekend and do some.

On that upbeat note I shall hie me home.

To begin

Right. So I've been intending to start a blog for a while now. Now I have. Why? Because when I write things on my list ticking them off makes me happy. That's a weird sort of person I am. Ah well, nothing anyone can do about it. except me, of course. And I don't want to.

I'm in a swap at the moment that needs me to be gaimanly-crafty. No small feat you understand (assuming that you've read something he's written). Was having a pretty thorough mind block at around 10 this morning and now I'm full of feasible ideas. Which is important. And quite different from being full of excellent ideas of other varieties. The point is that I now know what I'm going to make. I even have a list of things I need in order to make the things I intend to make. The world makes sense again.

I'm not doing much in the way of study at the moment. Which is bad and wrong of me I'm sure, but I don't really think so and even if that were true I wouldn't really care. Don't you have times when just breathing, walking around are enough to give you a strange sense of contentment mixed with despair? I do. I'd quite like to finish my thesis though. If for no other reason besides that once it's done I never have to do it again.

Hug that thought to sleep little bird.