tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-304062152024-03-12T20:55:32.106-07:00Tork's Naked KneesProjects that I have crocheted beforeLitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30406215.post-40908295111105572272008-11-19T18:46:00.000-08:002009-05-16T14:06:39.777-07:00In Your Face, TorKnockerToday my buddy Tork told me that I should take up needlepoint. As if I don't already have a craft that I can use to construct completely sweet things he can't even figure out. Yeah, needlepoint is cool, but I can only concentrate on so much at once.<br /><br />Besides, crochet allows me to make awesome things.<br /><br />Recently I created the Awesomest Thing I Ever Made. It has even unseated the previous Awesomest Thing I Ever Made, which you haven't seen since I never got around to taking pictures of it.<br /><br />I got a couple of pictures of the new thing, though.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiyV9sCtGX_xjSQcuMpWWDenAz07c7HJTMB5HeJLRVXBJ8Gz9pDzqxrTFWpoYsfzzduoqlB8yHC1u7OGaXHhrv49bNekkl7CC5vm8Js_1Ozz4z_j2_qRryuAGesx_jOwMFRM7j/s1600-h/CatTunnel.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 231px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiyV9sCtGX_xjSQcuMpWWDenAz07c7HJTMB5HeJLRVXBJ8Gz9pDzqxrTFWpoYsfzzduoqlB8yHC1u7OGaXHhrv49bNekkl7CC5vm8Js_1Ozz4z_j2_qRryuAGesx_jOwMFRM7j/s400/CatTunnel.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5270566236134501778" border="0" /></a>This, in case you can't tell, is a cat tunnel. I bought five 11 (or so) inch brass rings and crocheted around them to construct this thing for my cats to run though.<br /><br />This wasn't my idea, by the way. I got it from pictures of one that somebody else posted. The "pattern" I used* recommended 9" rings, but my cats are fatasses and I didn't really see how they'd be comfortable in a tunnel that small. I think the size rings I got came out just about right.<br /><br />*I looked at a pattern, but you don't really need one for this. If you have any experience with crochet you can do it. There are 14 rows between each ring, alternating half double crochet and double crochet. That's about as much pattern as you need, and that much structure isn't even necessary.<br /><br />So I made this thing over the course of many weeks and finally set it out for the cats fully expecting them to ignore it forever.<br /><br />Two of them did.<br /><br />But sweet dumb Felix decided to make it his second home.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfvbY24HVb7UV11SeXVP5blZyosD8thRzXznQFE7Qy0UVJ3qNhI2vxp2jLxMMZue0ercQejBNrYZ1YFeX7IItjtQOiLQcu7mOj2o7iUXp6iBp4zipsYZpkwz0oI5LZzI7lGLUK/s1600-h/CTFelixCensor.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfvbY24HVb7UV11SeXVP5blZyosD8thRzXznQFE7Qy0UVJ3qNhI2vxp2jLxMMZue0ercQejBNrYZ1YFeX7IItjtQOiLQcu7mOj2o7iUXp6iBp4zipsYZpkwz0oI5LZzI7lGLUK/s400/CTFelixCensor.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5270566241120214770" border="0" /></a><br />Sorry about the censor bar. My blog is cursed. Pets whose pictures I post tend to disappear forever. I like having Felix around, he appreciates my art, so I had to take steps.<br /><br />I'm really happy with how this came out. It used up a lot of scrap yarn that I had lying around (much of this yarn was remainders of previous projects featured on this blog) and got to make a cool place for Felix to hide from my dog. It's really awesome and I'd recommend this project to any cat owner who crochets.<br /></span>Litahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30406215.post-7722016756662880882008-08-20T18:55:00.000-07:002009-05-16T14:22:16.076-07:00I made a cake!It's my dad's birthday today, so I baked him a cake. This one is different than the cakes I usually make, though. This time I wanted to break out the bucketloads of food coloring and attempt a rainbow cake.<br /><br />I made the cake batter itself from a boxed mix. It was lemon cake mix because lemon is my favorite kind of cake. (Dad probably would have preferred chocolate, but it's hard to dye a chocolate cake and make the color show up.) I knew I'd be working against the yellow of the original cake batter going in, but boy howdy! Betty Crocker uses some heavy duty damn food coloring in her cakes! She does NOT want you screwing around with the colors!<br /><br />I did anyway. I also made a huge mess doing it. It was fun.<br /><br />I told wurwolf about it and she told me to take pics, so now you get to see me frosting this cake.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Z690ow5ipAj4PMVV-JKN0-y8_1H8RpDEYCoZTd-FqFOVWif-MQ4AtatJVPr6PIiRB_qnjjEgnWRADCQXCYEP2iUyFX_AcqRWjdfmrmlC2q7D2FZhDHmsQsYT0TiGbn_Fb5y-/s1600-h/100_0713.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Z690ow5ipAj4PMVV-JKN0-y8_1H8RpDEYCoZTd-FqFOVWif-MQ4AtatJVPr6PIiRB_qnjjEgnWRADCQXCYEP2iUyFX_AcqRWjdfmrmlC2q7D2FZhDHmsQsYT0TiGbn_Fb5y-/s320/100_0713.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236789483989850754" border="0" /></a><br />Yeah, I'm frosting these on the washing machine. Behold its ancientness. The kitchen is pretty small and kind of a mess and there wasn't room.<br /><br />That cake on the right looks pretty scary, I know. Some colors weren't meant to be golden, brown, and delicious. Green is one of them.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjt2ZLlsexfk7rh3MOkW2wY4hrYT9zL8_nCorh0klaPEZWX-qRAzzEwZqdC-yc5rWikMRCknDmOp5EDkpntm-3x7gGqmTMatE9p_O5bp_2kVjv34WzNmB_ouh5EPJCSttXumLm/s1600-h/100_0714.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjt2ZLlsexfk7rh3MOkW2wY4hrYT9zL8_nCorh0klaPEZWX-qRAzzEwZqdC-yc5rWikMRCknDmOp5EDkpntm-3x7gGqmTMatE9p_O5bp_2kVjv34WzNmB_ouh5EPJCSttXumLm/s320/100_0714.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236789493646066226" border="0" /></a><br />Eww. And so is purple. The cake is fine, though! It's just the food coloring! There is no mold present in this cake! I just baked it today!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhglL8gbq6abjE1otntraZmsxWTqR7ljXDCT7GKCi2Zu6hLv_Mwe-rB1dk6Ln0g-vj1t1aTd4jCfvcNwBN-6_y2DwMVq3rRJ9-3ZqZEKr3meGCpkwCrrZH_6pyyjHyeUb-tAIfL/s1600-h/100_0715.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhglL8gbq6abjE1otntraZmsxWTqR7ljXDCT7GKCi2Zu6hLv_Mwe-rB1dk6Ln0g-vj1t1aTd4jCfvcNwBN-6_y2DwMVq3rRJ9-3ZqZEKr3meGCpkwCrrZH_6pyyjHyeUb-tAIfL/s320/100_0715.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236789503453267522" border="0" /></a><br />The other layer looks much better as it is where I stored my warm colors. The greenish bluish purplish layer goes on the bottom.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTQlRAV247LC8Ps_HW5t3cSMss-M51QZpW-2xO6i3n7n-uUrXQTYuIqR8CrQVfiulSj0H1dBwYjmlink7wZMZrBTXMXxN0fHQqWHqbGuV3m95Xuuh4xe-53iqN0VPsec0nkXMY/s1600-h/100_0716.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTQlRAV247LC8Ps_HW5t3cSMss-M51QZpW-2xO6i3n7n-uUrXQTYuIqR8CrQVfiulSj0H1dBwYjmlink7wZMZrBTXMXxN0fHQqWHqbGuV3m95Xuuh4xe-53iqN0VPsec0nkXMY/s320/100_0716.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236788965623903522" border="0" /></a><br />Though the cake came from a boxed mix, the frosting was made from scratch. I don't cotton to canned icing. This stuff is just butter, a LOT of powdered sugar, a little vanilla, lemon zest, and enough lemon juice to make it spreadable. It's good stuff. I considered making the frosting some unholy color, but I figured there were sufficient weird colors involved already.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh75rfVKtaMVIfLyLU3zvzWhTvw0zn4fV9hAGnRxonP7ernVyFRlwDAq-S7CjM5tEqmlL_aClg1cCTqUvvMXnzA-_Og-U0mNx8IENvPLGeTRxBK0o6fv5Ciat1ulpbMQVTOvvvp/s1600-h/100_0717.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh75rfVKtaMVIfLyLU3zvzWhTvw0zn4fV9hAGnRxonP7ernVyFRlwDAq-S7CjM5tEqmlL_aClg1cCTqUvvMXnzA-_Og-U0mNx8IENvPLGeTRxBK0o6fv5Ciat1ulpbMQVTOvvvp/s320/100_0717.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236788972123912770" border="0" /></a><br />Middle part frosted!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_DD0SYx7Ii3PsL8s2wUhqgxAJodRSHbjAEeeIRrHz559eFfnxAPoS96lKzDmw9V5Pvt1bzwVvgaeFl7yO7S8aMFJDAFMdhnsFAiv906e6k_73ZoImE1j45FD9aNs35Dzl1ThP/s1600-h/100_0718.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_DD0SYx7Ii3PsL8s2wUhqgxAJodRSHbjAEeeIRrHz559eFfnxAPoS96lKzDmw9V5Pvt1bzwVvgaeFl7yO7S8aMFJDAFMdhnsFAiv906e6k_73ZoImE1j45FD9aNs35Dzl1ThP/s320/100_0718.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236788983760871138" border="0" /></a><br />Top layer is on! I know that you're supposed to put the top layer on upside-down to make the top flatter. Hell with that. It's too easy to tear up the top of the cake that way. Besides, the colors would show up in the wrong order if I did it that way. (Assuming they show up at all... I won't know if this worked until the cake is cut. This is scary.)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPcKaxlHUJXkrqWTBCGJo0a3vLRZY1pBQWsLAXJ9GwIkNOpc39_gXn-MEBXUURLre2mtwrpGc9ZUhacpSVwOqj_flVG9mFqzDb8HUllJXRUUB2gZc1ZSvPOES2jcBBjldB4GJ1/s1600-h/100_0719.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPcKaxlHUJXkrqWTBCGJo0a3vLRZY1pBQWsLAXJ9GwIkNOpc39_gXn-MEBXUURLre2mtwrpGc9ZUhacpSVwOqj_flVG9mFqzDb8HUllJXRUUB2gZc1ZSvPOES2jcBBjldB4GJ1/s320/100_0719.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236788991909313746" border="0" /></a>The idea is you put a TON of frosting on top, and then push it over the sides to frost them.<br /><br />I'm not left handed. I was only holding the spatula in my left hand so I could take the pic with my right. I knew you were wondering.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZa5_aO6EqGbVZ2PcNztosoTlvzukari3L8oXgIyEOOflMzUL0pXYMElPuSolCUNwNhYhGUCg95Mfi8DyTmJNq1rm9CvaTOI_Xg8XYlcAf6GEiN5O_jQ-wNZGdFklK-4P8ser-/s1600-h/100_0720.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZa5_aO6EqGbVZ2PcNztosoTlvzukari3L8oXgIyEOOflMzUL0pXYMElPuSolCUNwNhYhGUCg95Mfi8DyTmJNq1rm9CvaTOI_Xg8XYlcAf6GEiN5O_jQ-wNZGdFklK-4P8ser-/s320/100_0720.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236789008807043250" border="0" /></a>Over the side it goes! Now to smoosh it around there!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6GeMnYWi2ASWB7ug_DGfi_S0dPKS25dTMyZg6pkX5-6-hQ3SqYra6p19NywJTAFtjQ0WIQHLtCDCTIkQ_5Je9Ue5Fr2gYMbniIGBINXEg7qz2b7NTqO-W45jglSH_vln6ylPd/s1600-h/100_0721.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6GeMnYWi2ASWB7ug_DGfi_S0dPKS25dTMyZg6pkX5-6-hQ3SqYra6p19NywJTAFtjQ0WIQHLtCDCTIkQ_5Je9Ue5Fr2gYMbniIGBINXEg7qz2b7NTqO-W45jglSH_vln6ylPd/s320/100_0721.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236788360813313570" border="0" /></a>ALWAYS remember to dip your mp3 player in your frosting! THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT STEP, PEOPLE!!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlSoVPcLzEX3qREBUSyNEWT32FykyWEm2rjuBWDYpAu15WqvJVRnMHe14NHtkrZxBq-uLa4KYNeq87DecMXEBwTu6mRISf506K7NwTkF2H2R9rfQuEyiUkrGpTxAd4D0kZyzLl/s1600-h/100_0722.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlSoVPcLzEX3qREBUSyNEWT32FykyWEm2rjuBWDYpAu15WqvJVRnMHe14NHtkrZxBq-uLa4KYNeq87DecMXEBwTu6mRISf506K7NwTkF2H2R9rfQuEyiUkrGpTxAd4D0kZyzLl/s320/100_0722.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236788371183670626" border="0" /></a><br />The cake is pretty well frosted, but I still have a lot of icing left. On it goes.<br /><br />(I learned long ago that "Holy shit that's a lot of icing!" is way better than "Dammit, I ran out of icing and now I have to make more!" The icing recipe I've always used never makes quite enough to frost a whole cake. Doubling it yields way too much. It's better than trying to figure out the numbers for one-and-a-halfing it, though.)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-RCouSCYyzhb19y23HvatmQ00dxVo14xNzxPW5k-zRWLlxBqke9d7MZvlU7mjkATrlGa2Kmi-_GyhicrFO7HHIY_ubf5fSy24sOKyiQX7njqe21QsOzIJm7FR0sJOmDZxZS3P/s1600-h/100_0723.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-RCouSCYyzhb19y23HvatmQ00dxVo14xNzxPW5k-zRWLlxBqke9d7MZvlU7mjkATrlGa2Kmi-_GyhicrFO7HHIY_ubf5fSy24sOKyiQX7njqe21QsOzIJm7FR0sJOmDZxZS3P/s320/100_0723.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236788380360603970" border="0" /></a>Mmm. More for the cook. (And you guys can totally have some, too. Totally.)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJo2mKorJaPRzA-DgIs536Ow64hxL4vln8rKzd8vRJ6lR_t-W4K8OKfl2FHBnDs4g4Rio11mRfnjqAcBlZwQ7-Lg1yvjZ-lyoLzRD72-RQXMOKKuCDoskZV0L7qTBJvzTqsr3m/s1600-h/100_0724.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJo2mKorJaPRzA-DgIs536Ow64hxL4vln8rKzd8vRJ6lR_t-W4K8OKfl2FHBnDs4g4Rio11mRfnjqAcBlZwQ7-Lg1yvjZ-lyoLzRD72-RQXMOKKuCDoskZV0L7qTBJvzTqsr3m/s320/100_0724.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236788390474376498" border="0" /></a>Pull the parchment out of the bottom and I'm done! Hooray!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu61bDLvA-w6QsHHZnKkTtpLEswI6TsfJSR2WqshimDVopmTwcOiGw-o-3WlKt9Sa57y3tSGYuSnQ_GJ2lCDiBCvzk3R1_6wn_9l6iKlfX8qXmGZYLxLUZje918tErNxfZLEtZ/s1600-h/100_0726.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu61bDLvA-w6QsHHZnKkTtpLEswI6TsfJSR2WqshimDVopmTwcOiGw-o-3WlKt9Sa57y3tSGYuSnQ_GJ2lCDiBCvzk3R1_6wn_9l6iKlfX8qXmGZYLxLUZje918tErNxfZLEtZ/s320/100_0726.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236788393492191138" border="0" /></a>As important as the cake itself is the Cake Barricade. This is a vital ingredient that keeps your cake from being devoured by roaming packs of wild dogs (or one determined poodle). I'd say we lose at least one cake a year to poor guarding and bad dogs.<br /><br />So... You want to see this thing cut open?<br /><br />Me too!<br /><br />But it's pretty rude to cut up a birthday cake when the birthday person isn't present and ready to eat, even if you did make the cake yourself. You'll have to wait. It is only at the moment that I slice this thing that I will discover if my experiment worked.<br /><br />I can hardly wait!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">UPDATE: </span><br /><br />It's a few hours later now, and we've cut the cake. Let's see what we've got!<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKRnv5BfRikn1SXUAN4hogZUuPxQiaT36p7zTCt_YuClEhsWAy2V3-LZizo02m7FqZO-AkiJu1_FMhanDTFwL4S0ZfmcSGHubUI4QASyOOmE9ynrsY2289DquGGt_GIYkMuArt/s1600-h/cake.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKRnv5BfRikn1SXUAN4hogZUuPxQiaT36p7zTCt_YuClEhsWAy2V3-LZizo02m7FqZO-AkiJu1_FMhanDTFwL4S0ZfmcSGHubUI4QASyOOmE9ynrsY2289DquGGt_GIYkMuArt/s320/cake.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236848721968179682" border="0" /></a><br />This is a special cake cutter dealie some lady gave me. It's not really worth it most of the time, but it does help me with those First Slice Jitters. That first slice always comes out crappy!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOYSCe_BnKVz7KUsnpg7YEODZ42vpHDoC_honipF2Vsq-omQzyFv2MLluTP9zmG6RNCFQJ2zUSUYdg8MCxuxcBF09MvQAq6ksTP1qA5fs5_U6F1oF0YMu9cadHcovxXapmX0OY/s1600-h/cake_03.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOYSCe_BnKVz7KUsnpg7YEODZ42vpHDoC_honipF2Vsq-omQzyFv2MLluTP9zmG6RNCFQJ2zUSUYdg8MCxuxcBF09MvQAq6ksTP1qA5fs5_U6F1oF0YMu9cadHcovxXapmX0OY/s320/cake_03.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236848729654430226" border="0" /></a>Ok, we've got a few pieces out of there and check it out! Looks good, especially when you think about how scary it looked without the icing and all. That's not icing dribbling down the middle. Well, it <span style="font-style: italic;">is</span> icing, but it's not dribbling down. There's a crack in the cake and it's just in there. Whoever gets the piece with the icing trench is the winner of the cake!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTAQntQIoa1QaukLh2SQLmjsFERa4Lh7Gmt3M1rTDTvTeg132edfip9XClKUXj7_yfmPK83P99Uh6UylUeZw9ue3_ui2QSImDYAH-TopZCze28xBfr-SX_qpgTirpjw048L-DA/s1600-h/cake_05.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTAQntQIoa1QaukLh2SQLmjsFERa4Lh7Gmt3M1rTDTvTeg132edfip9XClKUXj7_yfmPK83P99Uh6UylUeZw9ue3_ui2QSImDYAH-TopZCze28xBfr-SX_qpgTirpjw048L-DA/s320/cake_05.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236848750052871266" border="0" /></a>I pretty much got the effect I was hoping for. The six colors go down in layers in the proper order from red to purple. I could have swirled them together, but I wanted to see how it would turn out this way. I'd have liked the layers to be a bit flatter and more even, but I'm cool with the wavy effect, too. I'm just glad the colors didn't bleed together!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsom6yY-YkbOpHo5h7RAADNYtOTXZoCCvrOWGEXn9v-8-NqjGZ91lp_lvYe9hMFxjvbUwBtNJw9NzD52wrYT0l8EyQ-Us2tO1dj-m5BwQ0ZyB5d7g2fBxXgsz7pcRSZg_vvTYe/s1600-h/cake_04.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsom6yY-YkbOpHo5h7RAADNYtOTXZoCCvrOWGEXn9v-8-NqjGZ91lp_lvYe9hMFxjvbUwBtNJw9NzD52wrYT0l8EyQ-Us2tO1dj-m5BwQ0ZyB5d7g2fBxXgsz7pcRSZg_vvTYe/s320/cake_04.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236848741554192418" border="0" /></a><br />So there you have it! I'm going to consider this cake a success. By the way, wurwolf and I were talking about whether my Dad would appreciate all the extra effort that went into the colors and stuff. I can tell you that, as expected, Dad's reaction to this cake was the same as Dad's reaction to every other cake I've made him, whether it was good or disasterous:<br /><br />Hey! Cake!<br /><br /></span>Litahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30406215.post-1112473218115485972008-03-26T13:19:00.001-07:002009-05-16T14:23:29.640-07:00My Grandmother had a Cat Named Socks<p>He was a real booger, too.</p><br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><p>(By the way, I'm testing out a new blog editor, so things may or may not look or act weird. So if the blog's screwy, this is why.)</p> <p>So the title is just a "clever" way to say I made some socks. <a href="http://torksknees.blogspot.com/2007/04/my-toes-get-cold.html" target="_blank">I've made them before</a>, and always planned to make more. Now I've finally gotten around to it. Both pairs I'm showing you today I made while at school. It's a convenient time to make smallish things.</p> <p>The first pair is <a href="http://torksknees.blogspot.com/2007/12/visit-from-yarn-fairy.html" target="_blank">the project I mentioned before</a>, that used horrible atrocious yarn. Take a look at the finished product:</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.google.com/Carmelita9000/R-qvmBIFEnI/AAAAAAAAAmI/mv3G6l6HAd0/100_0671%5B7%5D.jpg"><img style="border: 0px none ;" alt="Shield your eyes" src="http://lh6.google.com/Carmelita9000/R-qvnhIFEoI/AAAAAAAAAmQ/7NJpMANK9Ho/100_0671_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg" border="0" height="443" width="396" /></a> </p> <p>Scary, huh? I think so. But as I told my horrified students, (the sensible ones were horrified, anyway, there's always one or two who will say, "I think they look awesome!") it's not like I'm planning to wear them to the Queen's Garden Party. They're slipper socks to wear around the house, pretty much, and they work fine for that.</p> <p>Making these socks was mostly pretty straightforward. I do have one nit to pick, and that's that the people who wrote the pattern are under the impression that women do not have calves. The cuffs go in a straight tube up from the ankles leaving no room for the natural curve of a woman's leg. Yes, the stitch used on the cuff is stretchy, but it's not <em>that</em> stretchy. It took me a long time to finish these socks because I knew if I just stitched up the cuff like I was supposed to I'd never be able to wear them, and I was undecided on how to go about solving my problem. I thought about a couple of options with creative lacing and whatnot, but in the end I just went back in with my hook and added to the cuff. They're pretty comfortable, now.</p> <p>The little colored thready worm looking things are a part of the yarn, lest you think (like some of my students did) that I went in with a needle and thread and added each one individually by hand.</p> <p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW_-v5zHOJwW8M1dbf7I6Ye4YlXi8u8A7h887MjGjoKwOiCiZHpKfqjMZh3sFJJKbzAqTS7WRetsQ2EBlGxV9c-JXTZ0_M-_JWu-ebCoI4IVrTxBFND-cDgHpQPQzLnXvmEY5T/s1600-h/100_0680.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 189px; height: 245px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW_-v5zHOJwW8M1dbf7I6Ye4YlXi8u8A7h887MjGjoKwOiCiZHpKfqjMZh3sFJJKbzAqTS7WRetsQ2EBlGxV9c-JXTZ0_M-_JWu-ebCoI4IVrTxBFND-cDgHpQPQzLnXvmEY5T/s320/100_0680.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5182148814844531522" border="0" /></a>As you can see, it's just regular yarn and there's this colored thread in there that every so often emerges in this brightly colored protrusion.</p> <p>It seemed like a good idea when I was buying it, and I'm sure this kind of yarn has its place in the world, but it didn't thrill me while I was working with it. Not great sock material. As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, I was in a hurry the morning I decided to use this for my new sock project.</p> <p>I know those thread tumors look like they'd be uncomfortable to wear, but fortunately they seem to naturally form on one side when you're crocheting in the round. You just have to make sure that side is the outside. Observe:</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.google.com/Carmelita9000/R-qvqRIFEqI/AAAAAAAAAmg/ebtDSf3ZWwU/100_0675%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="border: 0px none ;" alt="100_0675" src="http://lh3.google.com/Carmelita9000/R-qvrxIFErI/AAAAAAAAAmo/U-mHziTD9h8/100_0675_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg" border="0" height="300" width="394" /></a> </p> <p>That's the inside of my sock, and while I had yarn maggots appearing on the inside of the cuff, on the darker part where I was crocheting in the round they all stayed on the outside where they belong. These socks are pretty comfortable as long as I don't do lots of marching around in them, which I wouldn't because look at them:</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.google.com/Carmelita9000/R-qvtxIFEsI/AAAAAAAAAmw/R80ZdKAvAHg/100_0673%5B5%5D.jpg"><img style="border: 0px none ;" alt="100_0673" src="http://lh4.google.com/Carmelita9000/R-qvvBIFEtI/AAAAAAAAAm4/vGSwAtHiF20/100_0673_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg" border="0" height="316" width="396" /></a> </p> <p>And now, to prove that I'm capable of making things that are not horrible, my other pair of socks:</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.google.com/Carmelita9000/R-qvwhIFEuI/AAAAAAAAAnA/ILtVHuMvSJU/100_0672%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="border: 0px none ;" alt="100_0672" src="http://lh3.google.com/Carmelita9000/R-qvxxIFEvI/AAAAAAAAAnI/dJElmEDrT-Y/100_0672_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg" border="0" height="377" width="391" /></a> </p> <p>I absolutely love the yarn I used, though it's too expensive for me to make anything big out of. It's even more colorful than what you can see in these pictures, with the yarn being made up of three strands of differently colored variegated yarn that nevertheless seems to work together to make a nice rainbow effect. The pattern goes for so long, though, that you can go through a whole ball of yarn and not get back to the color you started with. This can make it hard to change yarn seamlessly, as you can see in the toe of the right sock and just after the heel in the left sock. </p> <p>(I still had plenty left in my yarn ball when I changed yarns for that left sock, but it was all coming out so dark and so... green! I wanted something brighter and with less greens in it. And then the new skein, after being nice and orange for a few rows, had to go right back to the green again. Doh!)</p> <p>This is awesome yarn, even if the skeins never match even when they come from the same dye lot. You should buy some:</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.google.com/Carmelita9000/R-qvzBIFEwI/AAAAAAAAAnQ/TMDfiEjfIjs/100_0678%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border: 0px none ;" alt="100_0678" src="http://lh6.google.com/Carmelita9000/R-qvzhIFExI/AAAAAAAAAnY/McMRq0uZU7A/100_0678_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg" border="0" height="263" width="389" /></a> </p> <p>True story. My 12-year-old (half Mexican) cousin was feeling all full of himself and snarky, as 12-year-olds often do. He asked me to show him what I was working on and looked at the yarn and we had this conversation:</p> <p><strong>The Boy:</strong> Eww! Your yarn smells!</p> <p><strong>Me:</strong> That's because it's <em>Mexican</em>!</p> <p><strong>The Boy:</strong> Um... I was just kidding. It doesn't actually smell. I was just saying that.</p> <p>Ha! That's how you put an insecure adolescent who is testing out his sense of humor to get a feel for what's funny for the first time in his place!</p> <p>The yarn isn't actually Mexican, by the way. The label says it was manufactured in South Africa, so I guess in a way I just played Sun City. I love these socks.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.google.com/Carmelita9000/R-qv1BIFEyI/AAAAAAAAAng/5vbEoQIIOsI/100_0677%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="border: 0px none ;" alt="100_0677" src="http://lh6.google.com/Carmelita9000/R-qv1hIFEzI/AAAAAAAAAno/exNZnbAEd-s/100_0677_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg" align="left" border="0" height="252" width="240" /></a> I used the same pattern on these that I did on the other socks. This time, though, I knew ahead of time that the cuff would be a bastard. In order to fix the problem before it became a problem, this time I made the cuff shorter. It's only half as long as the pattern tells me to make it, and so these socks fit perfectly.</p> <p>As a side note, I never tried these socks on until I was taking the pictures for this blog entry. They fit really well, though, and I'm still wearing them right now.</p> <p>Socks!</p><br /></span>Litahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30406215.post-4784980634760595082007-12-06T17:24:00.001-08:002009-05-16T14:24:03.650-07:00A Visit from the Yarn FairyToday you get two Two TWO updates for the price of one!<br /><br />I'm sure you're excited.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />First off, I'm going to tell you about something that happened at school a couple of months ago. (I was too lazy to post about it right away.)<br /><br />I am a substitute teacher.<br /><br />A lot of people, when they think of substitute teaching, especially subbing high school as I do, imagine some poor harassed soul dodging spitballs, attempting vainly to enforce some semblance of order, fighting to be heard over all the jeering, and wondering how her life went so wrong as to bring her here. There are definitely days like that, but fortunately these are few and far between (for me, anyway). I like being a substitute teacher and wouldn't mind continuing to be one for a few years yet if it paid better or offered benefits.<br /><br />But anyway.<br /><br />People don't tend to know that there is a lot of down time in subbing. Teachers have no way to know for sure who they're getting--or even if this person is familiar with the subject of the class--let alone whether this person is sane or competent. (Some subs are craaaaaazy! And is it any wonder with some of the crap we put up with?) Smart teachers learn fairly quickly not to assign anything to complicated. This means I spend a lot of time cooling my heels while kids watch a video, read, do worksheets, do bookwork, or just have a "study period." I wrote the rough draft to this blog entry while watching an English class write a timed in-class essay.<br /><br />This is all a long-winded way of saying I get a lot of crocheting done at school. I read too, but the crochet is less attention-stealing.<br /><br />And <span style="font-style: italic;">that</span> is all to lead up to my story. We English majors can get wordy once we get going. We can't help it.<br /><br />The story is this:<br /><br />A while back I was scheduled to sub for the same class for two non-consecutive days in the same week. On the first day, I don't know, let's say it was Tuesday, I spent a lot of time working on my latest abomination (to be featured here when I finish it) and a little time explaining myself and my horrible creation to stunned students. ("I was in a hurry when I picked the yarn.")<br /><br />That afternoon at the end of the day I found this under the front driver's-side wheel of my car:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpjoK14B6lsP9Eb8pa5phe1DWCp2D_vGUqb9eleX1zt8QD9xeEdCAuAMcp1CZFbWBm1y_w9ssqecRe8c7e0lkxSzK-MGbEYH588CryrZfBOzMprkRilFkAssbFnO8XOmv0vtv5/s1600-h/yarn2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpjoK14B6lsP9Eb8pa5phe1DWCp2D_vGUqb9eleX1zt8QD9xeEdCAuAMcp1CZFbWBm1y_w9ssqecRe8c7e0lkxSzK-MGbEYH588CryrZfBOzMprkRilFkAssbFnO8XOmv0vtv5/s400/yarn2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5141036037516979378" border="0" /></a><br />How did it get there? Who was responsible? I don't know. The popular theory (popular with <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">me</span> anyway) is that some student who regards me as his or her favorite sub saw me crocheting in class and then saw the yarn matching my terrible project in the front seat of my car (I should leave yarn in my car more often), put two and two together, and took it upon him or herself to provide me with yarn that is more tasteful (defined as yarn that does not cause you to try to stab yourself in the eyes when you see it).<br /><br />Why put this yarn under my tire?<br /><br />I don't know. Kids are weird. Or maybe he or she put it on the windshield and it rolled off.<br /><br />The other theory, let's call it "The Lame Theory," is that some other yarn enthusiast was carting yarn around the parking lot when a ball of it fell out of her arms or bag or whatever and happened to roll under my car. Let us put this silliness aside, shall we? I mean, that's a tall order to expect somebody to swallow. We all know people give thoughtful gifts to their substitute teachers all the time, right? Right???<br /><br />Well, just because it's never happened before doesn't mean it can't happen now.<br /><br />Just in case, I did bring the mystery yarn back with me to school that Friday, where it sat on my desk waiting to be recognized by a student who would either claim it or take credit for it. A couple of kids agreed that it was weird that I would find it under my car, but nobody fessed up to being responsible for its appearance.<br /><br />So I tried. What else could I do? The yarn's mine now, and I still don't know how it got there.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">****<br /><div style="text-align: left;">Now for an actual project I've completed. I made this while waiting for <a href="http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/uploads.php?user_id=1003919&nstart=1&asset_type=story">my Sims</a> to load:<br /></div></div><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCBKxQ1MkBp2tMrTzkCXcNptVaPYy6qSOu6dN8-cQfQHgZ-zErvf1hmzLjDXLQG09dE7w-v5fUIt-jJgmHvmEUeiapNVIk1wMylyWFnxB4s5R4AG7fPeVQeIUnnHD4Uz1pKXSm/s1600-h/salvagescarf2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCBKxQ1MkBp2tMrTzkCXcNptVaPYy6qSOu6dN8-cQfQHgZ-zErvf1hmzLjDXLQG09dE7w-v5fUIt-jJgmHvmEUeiapNVIk1wMylyWFnxB4s5R4AG7fPeVQeIUnnHD4Uz1pKXSm/s400/salvagescarf2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5141036041811946690" border="0" /></a><br />Sims are slow little buggers.<br /><br />If the yarn looks familiar it's because you have seen it before. This is <a href="http://torksknees.blogspot.com/2007/03/thrift-store-sweaters-revisited.html">the yarn I scavenged</a> from <a href="http://torksknees.blogspot.com/2007/02/trip-to-thrift-store.html">all those sweaters</a>. I still have tons left over.<br /><br />The scarf itself is in the neighborhood of 11 feet long. I didn't use a pattern or anything. I just chained until it looked like I had a decent length (boy did I) and went from there.<br /><br />I wanted a long scarf, but this is crazy long. If I hang it from my neck (without wrapping it around at all) it nearly reaches the floor. It's pretty wide, too, (8 inches) making it a lot of scarf to handle.<br /><br />I haven't worn it out yet, but the rainy season is finally starting (here in December) so we'll see what happens.<br /></span>Litahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30406215.post-90967200025601164542007-10-13T10:04:00.000-07:002009-05-16T14:30:01.438-07:00I have cold hands.I think it's part of being tall. You have longer arms and legs so by the time your blood gets to your hands and feet it's not warm anymore. It's a rough existence, being a giantess.<br /><br />Anyway, this last Summer I made my customary week-long visit to my grandmother who lives a few hundred miles south of me. She knits and even taught me to knit when I was a little kid, though I never got past making blankets for my Barbie at the time. She watches my crocheting and tells me how impressed she is because she could never get the hang of something so complicated. I watch her knit sweaters and things with these fancy designs and say the same thing.<br /><br />We shop for yarn while I'm visiting, and that's fun. I like looking for yarn in a bigger town that has something resembling a selection, and she gets to look for yarn with somebody who doesn't hate looking for yarn. (My cousins, who do most of the driving for her, just aren't into it.)<br /><br />All this buildup is to say that on my most recent visit to my grandmother's house this last summer I bought some yarn. Not having any particular project in mind for the yarn, I only bought two smallish skeins of each kind. I keep swearing I'll quit doing that because it's an awesome way to end up with lots of mismatched yarn and nothing to do with it, but I can't stop myself. When I got back to my grandmother's house I looked at all my yarn and thought, "What was I thinking? What's a project I can do with such a small amount of yarn?"<br /><br />Well, here's the project:<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4ngTAY0Vhn9_sQDAgOa6PjA7pfd0STaRve4UT2qcDSYiU78aICBaYzLvhfoqJ6ixjS6gyTsdvPz1E85MYh3wwtYPNucQ_RUtvB9aKGhJqpqYrnlBYwCRIDNsTwB-Hi4EUw__P/s1600-h/fingerlessgloves.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4ngTAY0Vhn9_sQDAgOa6PjA7pfd0STaRve4UT2qcDSYiU78aICBaYzLvhfoqJ6ixjS6gyTsdvPz1E85MYh3wwtYPNucQ_RUtvB9aKGhJqpqYrnlBYwCRIDNsTwB-Hi4EUw__P/s400/fingerlessgloves.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5120868997788962482" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Fingerless gloves. I love them, because, as I said earlier, I have cold hands. Mittens and regular gloves are great for warming your hands, but I like fingerless gloves better when I'm at home because when I wear them I can still type or crochet or play video games or read or whatever. I'm wearing a pair right now. It's great.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSG6nFZL7CLTFc9ELWqUfi4Ntw8XoGuy9LxS6GW-rErNDn9prbnlqYkOLUde2yC0OTrByYdtes5SYnTGSqQgBc3B5HkcgZir3j0LSXvI6HiPF9u6B0F-to5nJtOudijvwtIuui/s1600-h/greenglove1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSG6nFZL7CLTFc9ELWqUfi4Ntw8XoGuy9LxS6GW-rErNDn9prbnlqYkOLUde2yC0OTrByYdtes5SYnTGSqQgBc3B5HkcgZir3j0LSXvI6HiPF9u6B0F-to5nJtOudijvwtIuui/s400/greenglove1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5120869002083929794" border="0" /></a><br />I wrote the pattern for these more or less by myself. I didn't have a glove pattern with me at all, but I've made gloves and mittens before and remembered the basic idea of how they went together. I had to come up with the numbers of stitches and what little shaping there was on my own.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZA9zxUt5Fn-eJp7WB5mu9Jbt3XNBadJFemASakdBuJdYJO9Bw6b71XdzA8b_5ScRawI-HEwthwzs0-MJb1C5uNqNllmeRR0wfXUHI1Dr2FC2h36MfNT0hl1h1eh82WXrI5TL7/s1600-h/purpleglove.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZA9zxUt5Fn-eJp7WB5mu9Jbt3XNBadJFemASakdBuJdYJO9Bw6b71XdzA8b_5ScRawI-HEwthwzs0-MJb1C5uNqNllmeRR0wfXUHI1Dr2FC2h36MfNT0hl1h1eh82WXrI5TL7/s400/purpleglove.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5120873717958020866" border="0" /></a>It took some trial and error. I was trying to make each glove take one skien. If you've done much yarn shopping you probably know what size skien I'm talking about. The sort of smallish medium size that a lot of novelty yarns come in. Just too small to do much useful with. I had to redo my first glove (one of the reddish ones) a few times to make the cuff shorter because I was running out of yarn. I like the cuff length now, even though it's not as long as I initially envisioned it. It's a convenient length.<br /><br />The green and red pairs I made over Summer vacation. The last pair, shown below, I made once school started again. That's why it didn't get in the first photo shoot with the other two pairs. It was tardy. It's also the pair I'm wearing as I type this.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHrsfEhDHZE0yCCt2RqF0xXlme9e-MW0r05lZsThm7y8NFKpQGEuesok0g13MIVEbsHCnYiQs680jERZQt4UkKrQAVlObQVFcwdOKq8aYAlAJeG0cQaYIpLNi3isqApCCuZPDW/s1600-h/snpgloves3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHrsfEhDHZE0yCCt2RqF0xXlme9e-MW0r05lZsThm7y8NFKpQGEuesok0g13MIVEbsHCnYiQs680jERZQt4UkKrQAVlObQVFcwdOKq8aYAlAJeG0cQaYIpLNi3isqApCCuZPDW/s400/snpgloves3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5120869010673864434" border="0" /></a><br />This pair has the distinction of being the only pair that came from a skien of yarn that was of a useful size. It's denim yarn and I am in favor of it, even though these gloves are less attractive than the other two pairs. They're sturdy and reasonably priced, at least. I got both of these gloves out of a skien of denim yarn and could probably have gotten another pair if I'd wanted to.<br /><br />I guess I'll give you the pattern, now. I used a G hook. I'd say the yarn was on the skinnier side of worsted weight, though I can't tell you for sure because all three yarns came from those Commie yarn companies that don't actually tell you what the official yarn weight is, I guess so that if you get a pattern that asks for their specific yarn you can't fudge it with somebody else's of the same size. Jerks.<br /><br />These gloves are made to fit me. If your hands aren't the same size as mine you'll have to work out how to adjust the numbers of stitches or the lengths to make it bigger or smaller on your own. Sorry. Also, I don't know what the gauge is. Try it out and if it doesn't look right, adjust accordingly. Again, sorry. I can tell you that if you want a longer cuff, just make your starting chain longer. You'll eat up more yarn this way, though, so watch it.<br /><br />Anyway, here you go:<br /><br />Using a G hook, ch 11, leaving at least a 10" tail<br />sc in each ch across<br />*ch 1, turn, sc in back loop of each ch across* until piece measures 6" (cuff made)<br />ch 1<br />sc 27 stitches evenly along the edge of the cuff piece and join at the first stitch to form a ring<br />sc in each sc around (marking the first stitch of each round) until you're 3 1/2" from the cuff<br />ch3. Skip 5 stitches (thumb hole made)<br />sc around in each sc around for 1 1/2 more inches.<br />Sew up the side of your cuff using the long tail you left at the beginning.<br />Weave in ends.<br /><br />I don't really write patterns much, so I hope that was clear. If you're trying to make this and my pattern is nonsensical, go ahead and ask me about it in the comments.<br /><br /></span>Litahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30406215.post-64376815589928449682007-09-12T20:47:00.000-07:002009-05-16T14:30:30.296-07:00Meet PepitoThe nice thing about being a crocheter is if you find your real friends to be lacking (looking at you, Tork), you can always make yourself some new friends to hang out with. This one is mine. His name is Pepito.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3UinpqwnRIFR0I9lUw8uP6-9hUsvJRyN0oCciEkfyFUJZ0qie3F0DVo32IslBus-76lLiQrBF7KNN7bCitZr-mTj7hfjVluAOlebx2OBWV0cube6Ml05Yns31E_XPtjtEjadh/s1600-h/frontpepito.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3UinpqwnRIFR0I9lUw8uP6-9hUsvJRyN0oCciEkfyFUJZ0qie3F0DVo32IslBus-76lLiQrBF7KNN7bCitZr-mTj7hfjVluAOlebx2OBWV0cube6Ml05Yns31E_XPtjtEjadh/s400/frontpepito.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5109531033821777858" border="0" /></a>I want you to try to guess what kind of animal Pepito is. Think about it.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP0qrWPH8z_Bg-xEKH8KEPcCPZNBQnGx16k4br35Etk2CeNrFFaJG_aHl8pkiZAowVu6TozJPyOpKA5T7RD3WVmT91Gfnz_I93EknpLUWSElY4PxjEvz9PHbfnUrzp50e0CsA1/s1600-h/sidepepito.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP0qrWPH8z_Bg-xEKH8KEPcCPZNBQnGx16k4br35Etk2CeNrFFaJG_aHl8pkiZAowVu6TozJPyOpKA5T7RD3WVmT91Gfnz_I93EknpLUWSElY4PxjEvz9PHbfnUrzp50e0CsA1/s400/sidepepito.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5109531038116745218" border="0" /></a>Wrong! Pepito is not a donkey! He is, in fact, supposed to be a chihuahua.<br /><br />I know. He doesn't look like one. That's the least of his problems. Of greater concern are his lopsided ears, crooked nose, and, well, this is just pornographic:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwvKckFzAopHfRC8F1E9uUUnEQKBe0XNjbNqGhqXmAAkEUcgDfU56QWpNDGMqzqWitPtl4HdqsKFLMVegJ97TVMaPKRUU2W8m5E3MKp25xHBxTD_l6BgESZ9UVNUQZcLm7HnVm/s1600-h/pepitobutt.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwvKckFzAopHfRC8F1E9uUUnEQKBe0XNjbNqGhqXmAAkEUcgDfU56QWpNDGMqzqWitPtl4HdqsKFLMVegJ97TVMaPKRUU2W8m5E3MKp25xHBxTD_l6BgESZ9UVNUQZcLm7HnVm/s400/pepitobutt.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5109531033821777874" border="0" /></a>I won't label this attempt a failure partly because I like the little guy in spite of his troubles, but mainly because I don't think he's a failure on MY part. I blame <a href="http://www.katcrochet.com/chi.htm">the pattern</a>. I'm sure the person who runs Katcrochet.com is a very nice person, but the pattern is translated from Japanese. The only reference picture is the straight ahead shot shown in the link, which hides a number of sins and some important information. There is no good way to tell how or where you're supposed to attach arms and legs and heads and tails and ears and things. Just a chart. A chart in Japanese. That's all.<br /><br />So my new friend is a lopsided burro-perro with an anus. Thank you, Japan!<br /><br />That pattern picture is so misleading. There is a reason all the pics so far have featured either me holding Pepito myself or laying him on the floor. This is why:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4yfr6hwO64imgEFG2thTzADV0QWDC8zwFx7MVHncHuMYTKy7h4NkjkXqkWzo3iTSqC0qd1DLEH26RqYa8btD_VJtVwQ30h8uZFRVtUJkz6thyphenhyphen2FTEttd4pUKUMIVR2HLgM7Ep/s1600-h/standpepito.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4yfr6hwO64imgEFG2thTzADV0QWDC8zwFx7MVHncHuMYTKy7h4NkjkXqkWzo3iTSqC0qd1DLEH26RqYa8btD_VJtVwQ30h8uZFRVtUJkz6thyphenhyphen2FTEttd4pUKUMIVR2HLgM7Ep/s400/standpepito.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5109531166965764114" border="0" /></a>Rise up and walk, Pepito! Walk!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7BHZDDejBld6Ui2dtQi0A1ofta6xbAbsBu2CfuZUXwGAgt80ABKZjZXIiwmne-zc3lPGqr0TtO5pjJG2xkwMLyo79s_RieamNZ1UiIMzQKYKHLQt3kbucaTFbovCk5qLhJphH/s1600-h/pepitonose.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7BHZDDejBld6Ui2dtQi0A1ofta6xbAbsBu2CfuZUXwGAgt80ABKZjZXIiwmne-zc3lPGqr0TtO5pjJG2xkwMLyo79s_RieamNZ1UiIMzQKYKHLQt3kbucaTFbovCk5qLhJphH/s400/pepitonose.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5109531038116745186" border="0" /></a>Oh. Never mind.<br /><br />Poor Pepito. He's face heavy. His little spindly hollow legs cannot hold him up. Poor little donkeydog.<br /><br />But you know, when I think about it I realize this is not <a href="http://holeeecow.blogspot.com/2006/08/god-has-given-me-sign.html">the first time a donkey has appeared unbidden in my world</a>. Could Pepito be the second manifestation of Jesus's donkey? The very donkey whom Man's Savior rode around on Palm Sunday? Maybe it is. Maybe God is trying to tell me something.<br /><br />Maybe Pepito would be able to stand up if he had Our Lord on his back to offset the weight of his huge noggin.<br /><br />Oh well. I'll close with a picture of Pepito in his natural state, one of repose.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigD2ntde0BQorTvfXLEE6okcfzDxs5OtkIfwe3-2cJ874T0a4bQK4NnCBvU409NfpOYLdfvY_8_bH5xbNJZ-258xU3D__dcsNUL59jIe-7KwId0alpijcEZzJS6XtXqfXJuemc/s1600-h/pepitorest.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigD2ntde0BQorTvfXLEE6okcfzDxs5OtkIfwe3-2cJ874T0a4bQK4NnCBvU409NfpOYLdfvY_8_bH5xbNJZ-258xU3D__dcsNUL59jIe-7KwId0alpijcEZzJS6XtXqfXJuemc/s400/pepitorest.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5109531038116745202" border="0" /></a><br />I love you, Pepito.<br /></span>Litahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30406215.post-43771734705586090812007-04-25T12:39:00.000-07:002009-05-16T14:31:24.915-07:00I love to make 'em Shrink!And now for a blog entry that has absolutely nothing to do with crochet! Instead we'll be talking about something else that is very near and dear to my heart. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinky_Dinks">Shrinky Dinks</a>.<br /><br />I miss the hell out of Shrinky Dinks. Back in the 80's they were big and they were so much fun. A simple Google search will fill you with hope that it may be possible to find Shrinky Dinks now, should you dare to look. BS. They're gone and they're not coming back. (They're not coming to my town, anyway.) The world mourns. <br /><br />Except that I was recently at a local pet expo and I saw these:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiKi6qPvtPJb9MXqiDDfAZYgv_FA3XI486aT-wCERrSNxkItGI5O5djB1gHC7fGl0JXyKz6GII1FP1NnUoDT8dL-bfKJktfAu5iMlz5BPl6QTS4i5RD-Ea5k0Y6xYzA8yn7gkr/s1600-h/100_0547.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiKi6qPvtPJb9MXqiDDfAZYgv_FA3XI486aT-wCERrSNxkItGI5O5djB1gHC7fGl0JXyKz6GII1FP1NnUoDT8dL-bfKJktfAu5iMlz5BPl6QTS4i5RD-Ea5k0Y6xYzA8yn7gkr/s400/100_0547.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5057453078221894146" border="0" /></a><br />And the world rejoiced.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />Yes, these are Shrinky Dink pet tags. Awesome. Open up the package, and this is what you get:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6o7iKQYPF9sEK2QL_EaAsMWaj08hG6g7rF3nyboL0fHAaSkXVWGknN8l14HJ325_7ELxTtR-JwlOWr3hObg2prmq1nNP-V8BGHYzSKqygyKuhaThzOGTJmnLEfZYU6eznAwXG/s1600-h/insidepack.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6o7iKQYPF9sEK2QL_EaAsMWaj08hG6g7rF3nyboL0fHAaSkXVWGknN8l14HJ325_7ELxTtR-JwlOWr3hObg2prmq1nNP-V8BGHYzSKqygyKuhaThzOGTJmnLEfZYU6eznAwXG/s400/insidepack.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5057453086811828802" border="0" /></a><br />As you can see, they already colored in most of the tag for you, so it's not exactly like the old Shrinky Dink experience. With the old Shrinky Dinks you'd color the thing in yourself, and since you were probably a little kid like I was the coloring job may not have been fantastic. Nevertheless, through the magic of shrinkage the coloring would look really awesome when the whole process was said and done.<br /><br />I wouldn't get that exact experience, but it would be something close. Instead I had to try and write information for my pets on the three tags. The dog tag was easiest, as it was also the biggest. I was able to squeeze my whole address on there. The cat tags were tiny and it was impossible to get any information other than the cat's names and my phone number on there.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmhPhDJnc3wT3hpSU8AiZY6N9M7qVuk261weXUDI_L6OnWoqpm3iwj_VtXC_WPXCUEZt2S8DYUtYIUUG15d-bzTGCFt7vCtfHh9lqsF3OW7GHWkgVBvjpQcQgt6enEaXAkiJ-8/s1600-h/oven.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmhPhDJnc3wT3hpSU8AiZY6N9M7qVuk261weXUDI_L6OnWoqpm3iwj_VtXC_WPXCUEZt2S8DYUtYIUUG15d-bzTGCFt7vCtfHh9lqsF3OW7GHWkgVBvjpQcQgt6enEaXAkiJ-8/s400/oven.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5057453228545749586" border="0" /></a><br />While you're struggling to write tiny writing with a Sharpie pen, you're supposed to be preheating these cardboard squares. Something gross fell in the bottom of the oven recently so this Shrinky Dink experience was a smoky one.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL9kBetCcPME4D6a1uw34J0xw7UPTGWJM_xbV9IrMeDr4dEHP6LDYEMBLxGHsm1KgdllM5rRoZL4E5wbOpuFWoRhEXO-qOCz0Ds3Ixs2pWDeyXST1mesezSxeB84nQ6o5xeeCW/s1600-h/oven2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL9kBetCcPME4D6a1uw34J0xw7UPTGWJM_xbV9IrMeDr4dEHP6LDYEMBLxGHsm1KgdllM5rRoZL4E5wbOpuFWoRhEXO-qOCz0Ds3Ixs2pWDeyXST1mesezSxeB84nQ6o5xeeCW/s400/oven2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5057453228545749602" border="0" /></a><br />The tags are ready to go in. I hope you're not incredibly offended that I blurred out my personal info. Stalker.<br /><br />I tried to take pics of the tags in the process of shrinkage, but the door to the oven is just dirty enough that you can't see much. Oh well. Here they are coming out of the oven:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCMkdyimX9TrdID8ectZUvQIirJmsgQF4PzK2609SMtUwnY07HYhx4LgTRjYVod9y4Zhfgx68b6PQDTM5qiCGF4FY-r4iSl3CgPsPXEQNTOWiDPuCo1ZzLd5Pgm60tLpdv_BDB/s1600-h/cooked.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCMkdyimX9TrdID8ectZUvQIirJmsgQF4PzK2609SMtUwnY07HYhx4LgTRjYVod9y4Zhfgx68b6PQDTM5qiCGF4FY-r4iSl3CgPsPXEQNTOWiDPuCo1ZzLd5Pgm60tLpdv_BDB/s400/cooked.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5057453082516861474" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8tImrpSeOCnveB2VCKi_F5GwLX1vcO0qFXKU9JStRYQbNOlzLg8029wtg9Eyjx8lApTS7wichXqoA8y1r00QAyesDk6sL_RjIJaus9EOYshtjk6Y9w8zHOH4PoNwL3InS21-O/s1600-h/flatten.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8tImrpSeOCnveB2VCKi_F5GwLX1vcO0qFXKU9JStRYQbNOlzLg8029wtg9Eyjx8lApTS7wichXqoA8y1r00QAyesDk6sL_RjIJaus9EOYshtjk6Y9w8zHOH4PoNwL3InS21-O/s400/flatten.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5057453086811828786" border="0" /></a><br />If any of your tags are curly, you're supposed to flatten them out with a spatula. So I did.<br /><br />You can't see it because of my Paint Shop skills, but my writing totally shrunk up tiny. Still readable, though, except for Oscars where it was really hard to fit my phone number in there.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBhlSm5yrTIkB5zDXjBZmsE-aiXMDcx2zbIURO-6uXCuMWIRkM1k-a6PVJWxxpsO2s3yUgYk6UuTFS7xVVU5IKI5YcuKyMqkoxNaefvIWLYS8vYqHT2u30HTrCDA8ACksFRvkv/s1600-h/sticker.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBhlSm5yrTIkB5zDXjBZmsE-aiXMDcx2zbIURO-6uXCuMWIRkM1k-a6PVJWxxpsO2s3yUgYk6UuTFS7xVVU5IKI5YcuKyMqkoxNaefvIWLYS8vYqHT2u30HTrCDA8ACksFRvkv/s400/sticker.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5057453232840716914" border="0" /></a><br />This was the hard part. Well, this and the writing of the address. You can just barely see it, but this is the part where I put a clear plastic sticker over the top, I guess to keep the address from scratching off. There's not a lot of room to work with, so I was scared I'd get it all crooked.<br /><br />The sticker for Mindy's tag was too small to cover the whole address. Cheap bastards!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzq5p2j7fsSl1oMlIwOZ__yvEB_rxTrUzbABzGCFEN2xZydRLacWlLyP56OGWf_jTl15Rvdv0lHH3PsZ8Do7nj4B8YSx75fecRMZnvVew3R_NDU5PpoDkrcsc9g95j8fGnqalR/s1600-h/alldone.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzq5p2j7fsSl1oMlIwOZ__yvEB_rxTrUzbABzGCFEN2xZydRLacWlLyP56OGWf_jTl15Rvdv0lHH3PsZ8Do7nj4B8YSx75fecRMZnvVew3R_NDU5PpoDkrcsc9g95j8fGnqalR/s400/alldone.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5057453082516861458" border="0" /></a><br />Here's the finished product, which will show up on your screen about the same size as they are in real life. Now I just need to get some pliers so I can affix the hardware.<br /><br />This didn't quite fill my cravings for a real Shrinky Dink experience, but beggars can't be choosers. It was still fun.<br /><br />Mindy, the dog, is turning 4 today, so happy birthday to her. Yay!<br /></span>Litahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30406215.post-53581127284424648772007-04-15T22:09:00.000-07:002007-04-15T22:41:08.735-07:00My toes get cold.So I was visiting my grandmother last Summer, and one of my cousins came by the place for a visit. He was about 11 at the time and wanted me to show him how to crochet. I was glad to, so we searched the house for some cheap yarn he could use. (My grandmother knits, but we didn't want to use her nice yarn just to teach crochet.)<br /><br />We finally found some Red Heart Super Saver in the bottom of one of her closets and set to it.<br /><br />Unfortunately neither of us counted on two simple things:<br /><ul><li>I have many fantastic teaching abilities, but I suck at teaching crochet.</li></ul><ul><li>He is 11 and has a very short attention span.</li></ul>So he was holding the yarn and the hook wrong, but I was powerless to show him how to hold them correctly or to explain how he was holding them wrong. (In fairness to him, there are numerous accepted ways to hold both the yarn and the hook, but he was still holding both wrong.) He managed to chain a bit and then get a few stitches done, but couldn't work up the ambition to keep going.<br /><br />So ended the crochet lesson.<br /><br />Not one to waste an opportunity, I frogged his work and used the yarn to make these:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw8hXSHxu2FVZlEquRgxn1tpvKbQhQIZIMhpVQNaIxWJ4YrFdmvd_2-xDIAMRQfysRZDvIl3lCu_-dWP7Q_kvSMy2RD1erCSATE5TTp9QXM9aj3BGhPqQdoBq4kp31Zge-p4fy/s1600-h/socks1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw8hXSHxu2FVZlEquRgxn1tpvKbQhQIZIMhpVQNaIxWJ4YrFdmvd_2-xDIAMRQfysRZDvIl3lCu_-dWP7Q_kvSMy2RD1erCSATE5TTp9QXM9aj3BGhPqQdoBq4kp31Zge-p4fy/s400/socks1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5053894620437474098" border="0" /></a><br />Socks!<br /><br />My grandmother's yarn is the purplish, bluish, pinkish variegated yarn. As you can see, I ran out of yarn near the end of the second sock. I wasn't too overcome with love over the color of the yarn (I did find it at the bottom of a closet, after all), and I didn't want to buy a whole new skien of it just for the last couple of inches of toe, so I used some other yarn I had lying around. You may recognize it as the yarn I used to make <a href="http://torksknees.blogspot.com/2006/12/gift-for-furballs.html">this blanket</a>. I don't remember which project came first. <br /><br />I kind of like the one red toe. For one thing, I always know which sock to put on my left foot. For another, when I wear these socks it kind of looks like I've recently suffered some horrible foot injury, which is kind of cool.<br /><br />I know the socks look awful lying on the floor like that. They're not so bad on:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw1OUbK9zy0B5j_rJsKroXRgiAJgaaSt4iBdzcOh6YIv-qPXJNdTZGDMk504zdRq7DdNYQuDV-JA0kuTDv6EJQPfHbSI4GMzK6bSBLFFy6aA7Zio68iAWOuCmKAbWJ_7bQ379L/s1600-h/sockson.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw1OUbK9zy0B5j_rJsKroXRgiAJgaaSt4iBdzcOh6YIv-qPXJNdTZGDMk504zdRq7DdNYQuDV-JA0kuTDv6EJQPfHbSI4GMzK6bSBLFFy6aA7Zio68iAWOuCmKAbWJ_7bQ379L/s400/sockson.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5053894620437474114" border="0" /></a><br />They're more slipper socks than anything else. The yarn I used is too bulky for the socks to fit inside most shoes. The knobbly stitch is kind of uncomfortable to walk on for too long at a time anyway. But for just hanging around the house on a day off from work? These socks rule.<br /><br />I definitely have more socks on my list of future projects. I'd have to use a finer yarn, though.<br /><br />Some day I may show you a pair that I started and then aborted, but there's not really enough of that to fill out an entire post. Maybe I'm due for another post of failed projects.Litahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30406215.post-88709690720837066462007-03-31T11:07:00.000-07:002007-03-31T11:21:29.279-07:00Um.... Holy crap!The title is, of course, the first thing I said this morning because I had, at just that moment, flipped over today's page in my crochet calendar to find this:<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6EAkDO0vsgs8_0cF9GpRaLH62vmgzUKk5XaXy1ScQQSAppiJ6truDVniiNzc1Lxc5Gm_WfnfK4auI4LW27o0rWlsXu7M5C0nduOzZsq6EZvd2_234JbV1sRiX6_u9MCxSSnC4/s1600-h/BlueFuzzy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6EAkDO0vsgs8_0cF9GpRaLH62vmgzUKk5XaXy1ScQQSAppiJ6truDVniiNzc1Lxc5Gm_WfnfK4auI4LW27o0rWlsXu7M5C0nduOzZsq6EZvd2_234JbV1sRiX6_u9MCxSSnC4/s400/BlueFuzzy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5048152381113697202" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Can you blame me?<br /><br />I spent several minutes thinking my crochet calender had flown completely over the edge of the Cliffs of Insanity and looking forward to the crazyness to come when I realized that this page also covers the first, April Fool's Day.<br /><br />Oh, well.<br /><br />I guess there's still hope that this is just a coincidence. These are the people who brought us <a href="http://torksknees.blogspot.com/2007/01/youre-not-making-it-better-people.html">Baby Abraham Lincoln</a>, after all.<br /><br />There is a real update coming. I'm just trying to decide which project to talk about.<br /><br />P.S. I've just been informed that the guy in this picture looks like an uncle of mine. I'm not sure how to feel about that.Litahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30406215.post-45821555436871895612007-03-13T17:16:00.000-07:002009-05-16T14:34:16.131-07:00Thrift Store Sweaters: RevisitedFINALLY, I'm ready to tell you how my sweater unravelling went! It took forever because of camera-related technical difficulties, but I've finally done it.<br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><br />I'll start out by introducing you to one of my favorite tools ever, and one that came in very handy for this project:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOzpcepy61XIOm3QOctxaqbpb3nTFQe4LsWhIvayHhFMxaT9V3rQl7O_2WopzvO75UhgtPZMIVvU37clMZLOB43UsrawihqjwPAeH77I0OHuu84eskR5TpscKEATiE7Qfl9Nme/s1600-h/seamripper.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOzpcepy61XIOm3QOctxaqbpb3nTFQe4LsWhIvayHhFMxaT9V3rQl7O_2WopzvO75UhgtPZMIVvU37clMZLOB43UsrawihqjwPAeH77I0OHuu84eskR5TpscKEATiE7Qfl9Nme/s400/seamripper.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5041569578944028114" border="0" /></a><br />My trusty seam ripper. I love this thing. I've had this very seam ripper since I was a little kid and my grandmother was teaching me how to sew. As its name might imply, this thing is perfect for taking seams apart. Just jam the pointy end in there and use the sharpish part in the crook to cut the threads. (Easier to do than to explain). Then rip the seam open as far as you can (fun!) and repeat. Every crafting person should have one of these. They're great.<br /><br />They're good for shoulder pads too.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ0CvSSkcty5eVOKO0c_p8uEg3e7KOYygnt3XOiM-yI0LhhncdTw20CuF0VriZeJ638zUTpcchiA56nFO1_JLWwhzgNez2tN_nz3mdRAurZLA_KFli_rbbcoFS9yivhbrxWvUN/s1600-h/spad2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ0CvSSkcty5eVOKO0c_p8uEg3e7KOYygnt3XOiM-yI0LhhncdTw20CuF0VriZeJ638zUTpcchiA56nFO1_JLWwhzgNez2tN_nz3mdRAurZLA_KFli_rbbcoFS9yivhbrxWvUN/s400/spad2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5041569978375986658" border="0" /></a><br />Lots of times a shoulder pad will only be held on by a thread or two. It's way easier to remove shoulder pads with a seam ripper than with scissors because with scissors it's easier to accidentally snip into some of the yarn you're trying to save. Don't even get me started on how well they work on removing labels. Yay for seam rippers!<br /><br />So while I ripped up many sweaters, the only one I'm going to give you the step-by-step for is this one:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilSG9lMBTVDuN6f08vBoB05vKTE9qsBW4A6GRhtEYXWouApFzfXFo3p46WfCt7U25QUwGeCLUSIEyUB2wRFxrWu-uol4l8K3ccMqDYCrvW5izvAg6zeMpXxpLa8hfnOjy3doDW/s1600-h/tneck.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilSG9lMBTVDuN6f08vBoB05vKTE9qsBW4A6GRhtEYXWouApFzfXFo3p46WfCt7U25QUwGeCLUSIEyUB2wRFxrWu-uol4l8K3ccMqDYCrvW5izvAg6zeMpXxpLa8hfnOjy3doDW/s400/tneck.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5041569982670953970" border="0" /></a><br />The reason for this is that this sweater was the biggest pain in the ass, so there's the most to tell.<br /><br />Before I get too far into complaining about this sweater, there is one reason I liked it. The yarn was big, which made it easier to photograph. This is pretty much the only pic of a good seam I got where you can kind of make out the seam:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh82MFZ9p85aVogXmJ_RcxvFHfFwKSGjqNeHm6hhWvVvXfeerC0uAvUBtb56yX-s3frUYd32GSFr_7el-JVTTcdU45F8eUh4JNbOdnyKe8-rAfTBZXGuYP-6F_b9PhkOAGk-N2w/s1600-h/seamnfuzz.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh82MFZ9p85aVogXmJ_RcxvFHfFwKSGjqNeHm6hhWvVvXfeerC0uAvUBtb56yX-s3frUYd32GSFr_7el-JVTTcdU45F8eUh4JNbOdnyKe8-rAfTBZXGuYP-6F_b9PhkOAGk-N2w/s400/seamnfuzz.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5041569574649060802" border="0" /></a>You can see near the top where I've started pulling the seam apart. If you're lucky, the seam will be crocheted and you can just find the correct end of the magic string and pull and the seam comes apart. (This does NOT reduce the usefulness of the beloved seam ripper! You never know when you might get stuck! Besides, it helps when getting those seams started.)<br /><br />Anyway, there's a reason this sweater was a bitch, and you can barely see it in this pic:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha89Ue7bftw3rlYz6VkTAuOC0waBACfB2_6wCN5c0aiBYtzYx9lzBjLUuWlKsoeY6DR4rC_8AFtOogZJKwHiTFUB-vCCqd3XwFyh55GNvIxeOysDTqnzxwj6iVfXBp-gUxVvej/s1600-h/fuzz.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha89Ue7bftw3rlYz6VkTAuOC0waBACfB2_6wCN5c0aiBYtzYx9lzBjLUuWlKsoeY6DR4rC_8AFtOogZJKwHiTFUB-vCCqd3XwFyh55GNvIxeOysDTqnzxwj6iVfXBp-gUxVvej/s400/fuzz.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5041569570354093458" border="0" /></a>Fuzz. Lots of fuzz and lint all over this sweater. It had actually melded itself into the fibers of the sweater and made the deconstruction a much more difficult prospect than just pulling on a string.<br /><br />My preferred method for unraveling is to unravel straight to a yarn ball winder, like so:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja_OTmzgddvCs0668tFysWdjGfFmi01h-fhPUYSBfPj6CZoKBRsD-UgAC8vxKmbN3poxFf0wT3E_1QRoyNPZrLL_29K-8FsBR0CrcjAYu7gb6CpcY4TU-3d1Yo8k6ZFLrIzynP/s1600-h/winder.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja_OTmzgddvCs0668tFysWdjGfFmi01h-fhPUYSBfPj6CZoKBRsD-UgAC8vxKmbN3poxFf0wT3E_1QRoyNPZrLL_29K-8FsBR0CrcjAYu7gb6CpcY4TU-3d1Yo8k6ZFLrIzynP/s400/winder.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5041569986965921298" border="0" /></a>If you have a cooperative sweater you can just turn the crank and it will just pull the yarn along and do most of the job for you. This sweater wasn't so cooperative. The lint made the yarn stick and just turning the crank to do the unraveling would have threatened to break the winder at worst, and wind the ball far too tight at best. Besides that, I don't want to wrap up all that lint.<br /><br />That meant that I had to pull out long sections of yarn by hand (which in some cases took a surprising amount of muscle) and then go over every inch and pull off any large hunks of lint.<br /><br />After a while I had big balls of fuzzy lint floating around my table and that became irritating, so I broke out the scotch tape:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0DSkn1TXXa5x_-jzFrMzCjgU-KBZv15Rbxu3KlW-C7JUfbZ2lLfOdbtKMHFUHm4usl9Nzbj4pwSFT9LqWFpjLUKlzErq9kSp7XnAG0v-TG5HMrx-TvxbR-a6cflO-QHh_2Wv6/s1600-h/lintape2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0DSkn1TXXa5x_-jzFrMzCjgU-KBZv15Rbxu3KlW-C7JUfbZ2lLfOdbtKMHFUHm4usl9Nzbj4pwSFT9LqWFpjLUKlzErq9kSp7XnAG0v-TG5HMrx-TvxbR-a6cflO-QHh_2Wv6/s400/lintape2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5041569570354093474" border="0" /></a><br />The tape was good for wrangling the lint and keeping it out of my hair. That doesn't look so bad, I know, but this is what I ended up with after doing one sleeve:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSZ_AstnoxDuKiqlV0nnDyU1VGZgx7wUq-ARHxt1pvzrs36cQoVhC4JNXSQHs9CkrV0VfJWCiFOfMy3yTEWBBCD32F2IckH3Nh4yZQd2Anqt-wFCaagIV1YH2VMYDwW-ZUgazX/s1600-h/lintapes.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSZ_AstnoxDuKiqlV0nnDyU1VGZgx7wUq-ARHxt1pvzrs36cQoVhC4JNXSQHs9CkrV0VfJWCiFOfMy3yTEWBBCD32F2IckH3Nh4yZQd2Anqt-wFCaagIV1YH2VMYDwW-ZUgazX/s400/lintapes.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5041569574649060786" border="0" /></a><br />And this is some <span style="font-style: italic;">very densely packed</span> lint!<br /><br />One sleeve later, and this is what I get:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic9fArIO2SfVP6GlGvA3HMdrzdrBjj-NWJUgpG57iarAgwiHxH8LuUhdXpIBlVkL4mxVM7rOU2TSwO6Z5W_BbNI7pdGfmr-_UWsPC57NfglnumpGfTNOjsbeSA-nxDm-qM8Rt5/s1600-h/tneckdecon.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic9fArIO2SfVP6GlGvA3HMdrzdrBjj-NWJUgpG57iarAgwiHxH8LuUhdXpIBlVkL4mxVM7rOU2TSwO6Z5W_BbNI7pdGfmr-_UWsPC57NfglnumpGfTNOjsbeSA-nxDm-qM8Rt5/s400/tneckdecon.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5041569982670953986" border="0" /></a><br />And work goes on and on. Five sweaters later, and here are the results (with some comments thrown in):<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPqj-xZ1VOQmujESSI-0nfRf8ZMj6kFY2GDiie-frlvc_Jk-RoqLNL4fX-X5oQ8HfJhZ03_rbmNxHBW-bdiFQ3d3TXtsBA8aiQf4eCNmJ2UG2BhABOw1F9-CoUuNROzmQza-0D/s1600-h/tyarns2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPqj-xZ1VOQmujESSI-0nfRf8ZMj6kFY2GDiie-frlvc_Jk-RoqLNL4fX-X5oQ8HfJhZ03_rbmNxHBW-bdiFQ3d3TXtsBA8aiQf4eCNmJ2UG2BhABOw1F9-CoUuNROzmQza-0D/s400/tyarns2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5041578813123714658" border="0" /></a>One ball of yarn for each sleeve, and two each for the front and back.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPEulbLYO-I9VRINj63EnYoMlGCpc6qCcpaFE_AxlQPyBwQAnQ3ww5z-AyaVQMe-jEfea_ErwhbgvFX5866Bu149zxBvUhucQOOmj4sPA8pz_faEG7yT9bQnQZr9Pi_QXqrLbh/s1600-h/whiteyarn.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPEulbLYO-I9VRINj63EnYoMlGCpc6qCcpaFE_AxlQPyBwQAnQ3ww5z-AyaVQMe-jEfea_ErwhbgvFX5866Bu149zxBvUhucQOOmj4sPA8pz_faEG7yT9bQnQZr9Pi_QXqrLbh/s400/whiteyarn.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5041579135246261874" border="0" /></a><br />The white sweater was also a pain in the butt, but not because of lint. This yarn wasn't twisted very tightly when it was spun. You can kind of see this in the one piece of yarn trailing off the bottom ball there. This meant that if at any time I pulled the yarn too overzealously there was a very good chance that I would tear it apart. Very annoying.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEvCGQc6JelwHLj_WHMtyjhsWH9PI2DLib5cbssGNbQzRr-Om4LYnZDLOh9JizwQRasRw8BdVXnqPAXZP2BnrL94SpcAT9SGL9lvL_Ad8Ko9sBkdE-O9FH9XdLoEk3ZrBhYTI5/s1600-h/greenyarn.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEvCGQc6JelwHLj_WHMtyjhsWH9PI2DLib5cbssGNbQzRr-Om4LYnZDLOh9JizwQRasRw8BdVXnqPAXZP2BnrL94SpcAT9SGL9lvL_Ad8Ko9sBkdE-O9FH9XdLoEk3ZrBhYTI5/s400/greenyarn.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5041578808828747298" border="0" /></a><br />The green gave me no trouble, mostly, except that the seams around the shoulders were bad seams and that cost me a lot of yarn.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwky8W91VE1VOXeX_eYvkBkT8DpX9m7N84LwfVJuIYsUEG3oWE2blRyHfsxZJeUCDXYDGWGcq0mWnTWQebE4TOKv2cUhoaMsUsiWHNgWYfQUsIA3UKYupxvB2G-fFt6lsIEWkt/s1600-h/pinkyarn.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwky8W91VE1VOXeX_eYvkBkT8DpX9m7N84LwfVJuIYsUEG3oWE2blRyHfsxZJeUCDXYDGWGcq0mWnTWQebE4TOKv2cUhoaMsUsiWHNgWYfQUsIA3UKYupxvB2G-fFt6lsIEWkt/s400/pinkyarn.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5041578808828747330" border="0" /></a><br />The pink yarn came from what was once a GAP sweater, which according to one of my sweater unraveling tutorials, is a good kind of sweater to rip up.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM9bgmUw03FeGZQHKrqkuuc_pwBOhH2Tl4i5reNBmVyvjon1M3ah8SfR9Fa7bUcwCSMA1IFpwY9NxIXQk_PP30AIpKIGCdDXHwof2TrjaKWeDZQNT4GUnID9uBhzNbKI4UsPVM/s1600-h/redtower.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM9bgmUw03FeGZQHKrqkuuc_pwBOhH2Tl4i5reNBmVyvjon1M3ah8SfR9Fa7bUcwCSMA1IFpwY9NxIXQk_PP30AIpKIGCdDXHwof2TrjaKWeDZQNT4GUnID9uBhzNbKI4UsPVM/s400/redtower.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5041578813123714642" border="0" /></a>Nothing much to say about the red yarn. I just like this tower I built here.<br /><br /><br />And so concludes, at long last, the great sweater odyssey. I already have a project in mind to use some of this yarn up (from my crochet calendar, no less!), but I'll have to finish a couple of other things first. I can hardly wait!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWEQ1-I5gSahJ8XqebLwS9H1eYsdM7gxQ4b8N-vxcogNAVE-fgW300HvrKVlBceryWR0wTsncn3agomZ6D5sCoFcpTiF_cg81uzvmMLrAQ7z3obCbfLdqRrGOZtcXnrMfJoIvG/s1600-h/groupyarn.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWEQ1-I5gSahJ8XqebLwS9H1eYsdM7gxQ4b8N-vxcogNAVE-fgW300HvrKVlBceryWR0wTsncn3agomZ6D5sCoFcpTiF_cg81uzvmMLrAQ7z3obCbfLdqRrGOZtcXnrMfJoIvG/s400/groupyarn.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5041578808828747314" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPqj-xZ1VOQmujESSI-0nfRf8ZMj6kFY2GDiie-frlvc_Jk-RoqLNL4fX-X5oQ8HfJhZ03_rbmNxHBW-bdiFQ3d3TXtsBA8aiQf4eCNmJ2UG2BhABOw1F9-CoUuNROzmQza-0D/s1600-h/tyarns2.jpg"><br /></a><br /></span>Litahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30406215.post-28818027797848418562007-03-09T23:09:00.000-08:002007-03-09T23:34:21.413-08:00Friendly Blog RoundupYes, I'm still alive!<br /><br />A new post about those sweaters of mine is soon to come. I've unraveled them and taken pictures documenting the process, but technical difficulties with my camera made it extra difficult to transfer the pictures to the computer. I've found a work-around, but I'm not quite ready to post yet.<br /><br />In the meantime, allow me to plug some blogs for my friends:<br /><br /><a href="http://holeeecow.blogspot.com/">Holeee Cow</a><br />This is my other blog which I co-run with my friend, wurwolf. We take a look at fundamentalist Christian tracts and make snotty jokes. But from the perspective of non-fundamentalist Christians. Yeah, we're a little weird. But the blog is funny. I think so anyway.<br /><br /><a href="http://cootiescards.blogspot.com/">Cooties Cards</a><br />This is wurwolf's personal blog. She likes to make greeting cards for her friends and family and show them off here. She makes nice stuff. If you're into card making or scrapbooking or stamping or other paper crafts (except maybe origami) you should check this out.<br /><br /><a href="http://tork110.blogspot.com/">Tork's Blog</a><br />Mostly it's about video games, but sometimes he talks about sports and maybe even tv shows he's seen. Take a look into the mind of the nerd from whom this blog got its name. See if you understand a single thing he's talking about. None of the rest of us do.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.themickeryfiles.blogspot.com/">The Micerty Files</a><br />Mickry is the nice guy with the name I can't type. He became jealous of the resounding success of Tork's blog and came up with one of his own, only to become even more jealous as time went on and Tork's obsessive-compulsive updating put Michey's post count to shame. The rivalry between Tork and Micthy is surely one for the ages.<br /><br /><a href="http://torksobjectifiedknees.blogspot.com/">Tork's Objectified Knees</a><br />This is Rimmi's blog where she shows off her fantastic mosaic creations. Her craft is beautiful, but I can't get past her stealing her blog title from me. Accept no substitutes! I exploited Tork's knees first!<br /><br /><a href="http://pm-lairofvillainy.blogspot.com/">PMS Lair of Villainy</a><br />PM is an evil criminalistic jerk. That's why when he saw that all his friends had blogs he felt the need to swipe the idea for his own. He's a funny jerk, though, and that's why we like to have him around.Litahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30406215.post-7550719111535278482007-02-10T18:41:00.000-08:002007-02-06T05:14:12.126-08:00More patterns for your amusementI know, I'm supposed to be telling you how my sweater deconstruction is going, but I'm not ready for that yet. I'm working on it. For now, here's a couple more patterns from my crochet calender.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfoSf6yXFN4e3QhDv_vrrNFmjwaDPDefhm50tOFiDs-3kIfzX2VwocF0x9-P8E9Oh0yoUzVgGRiOxB2bTntoQcpPwc4zv40zVDspcwoIWGTMj9ad7HaYPKwV1wPmC9LRSQlKqW/s1600-h/brattygeisha.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfoSf6yXFN4e3QhDv_vrrNFmjwaDPDefhm50tOFiDs-3kIfzX2VwocF0x9-P8E9Oh0yoUzVgGRiOxB2bTntoQcpPwc4zv40zVDspcwoIWGTMj9ad7HaYPKwV1wPmC9LRSQlKqW/s400/brattygeisha.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5030101719321272418" border="0" /></a><br />This one is almost so awful it's awesome. I love everything about it. Look at that. Memoirs of a <span style="font-style: italic;">Bratty</span> Geisha? Brilliant! Obviously the Geisha pictured is none other than Hatsumomo.<br /><br />I kind of wonder, why a Bratz doll? You'd think Barbie would be more the Geisha type. Bratz is commonly regarded as her low-rent cousin. I don't know if you ever read <span style="font-style: italic;">Memoirs</span>, but if Barbie were a Geisha, I think Bratz would be the ones who tie their obis in the <span style="font-style: italic;">front</span>, if you know what I mean. (*wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*)<br /><br />But somehow that just makes this pattern even more fun for me. Honestly, if I knew any little girls who played with Bratz dolls I'd consider making this. I'd consider buying a Bratz doll myself just so I could do this if I had a hope of getting the right yarn. Sadly, the pattern just tells you the brand of yarn to get and not the size, and as you know my town is not great for finding yarn. Oh well. <br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnhenS8mVzP_vwSE5io-8k55kU38Lvw8iSJgoKJrDKkELel2oQl60qJjntMGVV7cAjPbJqYOGcDF8v84ccFmAQcE6QxDb-2uNjzqJKwAbaDZmPK9H3eoqBVLyQ4q4XUgHFhHAp/s1600-h/IMG_0001.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnhenS8mVzP_vwSE5io-8k55kU38Lvw8iSJgoKJrDKkELel2oQl60qJjntMGVV7cAjPbJqYOGcDF8v84ccFmAQcE6QxDb-2uNjzqJKwAbaDZmPK9H3eoqBVLyQ4q4XUgHFhHAp/s400/IMG_0001.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5030101723616239730" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I obscured the actual crochet instructions here because the pattern is so short that to just post the picture as-is would be pretty much to post the pattern, and that's not right. Pattern designers have to eat, even if their patterns are... kinda weird. <br /><br />So what we have here is a pattern for a very tiny bra. I don't know how small it really is, but it would be too small for a person to wear. I don't know if it would be small enough for our bratty Geisha to wear or not and I don't plan make the thing to find out. On the back of the pattern is a short poem on the virtues of bras and friendship. Because this isn't just any bra. It's a friendship bra. Whatever the hell that's supposed to be.<br /><br />I just don't understand anything about this one.Litahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30406215.post-84475736854077397122007-02-03T18:15:00.000-08:002007-02-03T18:49:32.891-08:00A trip to the thrift store...There exist, on the Internet, a couple of <a href="http://neauveau.com/recycledyarn.html">very good</a> <a href="http://www.az.com/%7Eandrade/knit/thrifty.html">tutorials</a> on unraveling sweaters for the yarn. It's a good way to get some way cheap and sometimes interesting yarn that you wouldn't necessarily come across in the store. I recommend either of the linked tutorials if you want to try this yourself, but I'm especially fond of the first one because it has more pictures. The only thing out of either tutorial I don't like is this one sentence from the second:<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:85%;"><b>I would not recommend this as something <i>fun</i> to do (especially if you have more money than time) but if your yarn budget is meager this is an affordable way to get your hands on a sweater's amount of quality wool.<br /><br /><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><br /></b></span></blockquote>Screw you! You can't tell me how to have fun! I actually find unraveling sweaters to be a total blast. I think it appeals to my destructive urges that everybody has. (Everybody has those, right?)<br /><br />You know I'm an expert in this because I've frogged a whole TWO shirts in my day. One was an old, ratty, kind of greenish knit tank top that I had hiding in my closet. It had good seams and seemed like a good choice to sort of try out my skills on. The other was this peach-colored old lady cardigan (it had embroidered flowers and everything on it) that I bought at a garage sale. Here's a couple of samples of the yarn I got:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgILgVmG5OOfHwI3-927LI7ssqvywNzskmNjiN00kUU0xdCdEyjbmyurQe1qeFxF-LSR-xjmIyM7tSc9Ijyf3iB0fdB7C1j-eIEbc6iolYstE3mgvbFPTOdVbUa5PuCRrN3qwsk/s1600-h/salvageyarn1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgILgVmG5OOfHwI3-927LI7ssqvywNzskmNjiN00kUU0xdCdEyjbmyurQe1qeFxF-LSR-xjmIyM7tSc9Ijyf3iB0fdB7C1j-eIEbc6iolYstE3mgvbFPTOdVbUa5PuCRrN3qwsk/s400/salvageyarn1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5027502465615166514" border="0" /></a><br />I know the green yarn looks gray. It looks gray in real life, too. I don't know why, since the top it came from was definitely green. As you might expect, the old ratty-looking top yielded old ratty-looking yarn. It was my first time, though, so I felt good about it. I made an old ratty-looking washcloth from some of the yarn. It would be pictured here, but I can't find it. That's just as well.<br /><br />The rather thick-looking yarn from the old lady cardigan turned out to be three strands of thin yarn. That's ok, though, I just rolled it into the ball that way and when I crochet it I crochet the three strands together. I have used this yarn to make myself a pair of fingerless gloves, which were ugly (peach is not my favorite color), but which I liked anyway. I'd show you a picture of them, but I can't. The dog ate one and then the next day went back for the other one. I was really unhappy about that. Maybe one day I'll remake them, but so far I've had other projects to look at.<br /><br />Anyway, on to the point. Today I went to a local thrift store and picked myself up five new sweaters that could have warmed my community's poor to unravel. Well, not <span style="font-style: italic;">new</span>, but new to me. They all have the advantage of having good seams and while the yarn may not have been huge in all of them, it wasn't tiny either. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPzQ0CUSDfHeQkzdrqHeaizwgBkRWXUEp2xuTCtW6-7YwjW7mCSIPWMnuVRuhMVV1mxHkTpD2pk7vTzt7FPICRyUaA_C6S-9jPix33KOlf9QvK6WhI8ZZH1j2fEw8Do4VEiB8A/s1600-h/sweater3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPzQ0CUSDfHeQkzdrqHeaizwgBkRWXUEp2xuTCtW6-7YwjW7mCSIPWMnuVRuhMVV1mxHkTpD2pk7vTzt7FPICRyUaA_C6S-9jPix33KOlf9QvK6WhI8ZZH1j2fEw8Do4VEiB8A/s400/sweater3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5027502465615166530" border="0" /></a><br />When I got home I washed them all (yes, together) in the hopes of eliminating that (just wonderful) thrift store smell. I was banking on the red shirt (actually more rust colored than red, but the camera makes it look red) being old enough and having been washed enough that it wouldn't turn the off white sweater pink. (This was a real concern, since the red sweater has enough suspicious stains on it that it's possible it's never been washed.) The off white sweater isn't pink now, but it does have lots of red lint on it. Yay!<br /><br />Tomorrow I'll pick a sweater and begin the frogging process. I will, of course, take some pics and include a blog entry on my progress. Fun!!!Litahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30406215.post-288154554790688202007-01-31T12:52:00.000-08:002009-05-16T14:37:41.381-07:00Some Hats for my BrotherMy hat model Vena is back, and this time she's modeling some hats I made for my brother! <br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><br /><br />But first, check this other hat that has nothing to do with my brother:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaGwSrxcYHUMwdcdEMSNksoWOEQ9QI4QJ_Zw738aIKil7HiNNOSGyMDPjSbhCHxGn2SOyHW-5RLOUt24Dolt_9tt87o6t39v8g8HXVnvPBDA-0vj62yFPbi5ZfOHTTsfXSSnrZ/s1600-h/pinkpurple.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaGwSrxcYHUMwdcdEMSNksoWOEQ9QI4QJ_Zw738aIKil7HiNNOSGyMDPjSbhCHxGn2SOyHW-5RLOUt24Dolt_9tt87o6t39v8g8HXVnvPBDA-0vj62yFPbi5ZfOHTTsfXSSnrZ/s400/pinkpurple.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026302827391672418" border="0" /></a><br />I used two different kinds of yarn for this. It looks like I used a pink yarn and a purple yarn, but actually I used a purple yarn around the base and a purple/pink <span class="hw">variegated</span> yarn for the top. Yeah. Like you care, right?<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdKSvEI3XvGCLdyZapmQpwENjMzNdmVKWounMsEZz1EBFKbMRr5362qjwIh9nzS-VEvZlRwd_wQwwDhY3F-i7xMTB1DOaGoSAayEEKpPmtvoSt68_c0jMZQ2nZ_1HYkM0KarkP/s1600-h/pinkpurple2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdKSvEI3XvGCLdyZapmQpwENjMzNdmVKWounMsEZz1EBFKbMRr5362qjwIh9nzS-VEvZlRwd_wQwwDhY3F-i7xMTB1DOaGoSAayEEKpPmtvoSt68_c0jMZQ2nZ_1HYkM0KarkP/s400/pinkpurple2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026302827391672434" border="0" /></a><br />Actually, although I think it looks ok, I'm unsatisfied with this hat for a few reasons. <br /><br />The first is that the pattern just plain sucked. The hat is actually supposed to have a puffy little pom-pom thing on the top, but when I tried to make it the pattern was so confusing that the resulting mess looked less like a pom-pom than like a purple and pink crocheted booger. The picture included with the pattern was no help since the hat was photographed from an angle that didn't show the pom-pom. I didn't have a clue how I was supposed to attach that to the top of the hat and make it look ok, so I left it off and I think the hat is better for it.<br /><br />Secondly, this town is crap for buying yarn in. The hat required sport weight yarn, and the only sport weight yarn I could find was in baby colors. I didn't really want a purple and pink baby-colored hat, but there wasn't much I could do about it. The worst part was when I asked the girl in the yarn section at Jo-Ann's if they had any sport weight yarn and her reaction was pretty much, "Spore...t waaaait?" It's a pretty basic yarn size, and it's somewhat disheartening when the person who works at one of your key yarn suppliers has never heard of it. I believe it's possible to buy non-baby sport weight yarn in this town now, in Wal-Mart of all places, but it's been a while since I've needed to buy any so I could be wrong about that.<br /><br />Finally, the hat just doesn't fit. It looks like it fits, but it's too small. These things are supposed to loosen up a little with wear, so I've let Vena wear it for a few months now to try to stretch it out, but it still leaves divots in my forehead whenever I try to wear it. I should probably just find some little girl who likes purple and pink and give her the hat.<br /><br />But anyway, on to my brother. I've made many hats for him, and I'd like to share them now. In case you're interested, the patterns for all the hats that follow came from the excellent <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Stitch and Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker.</span></span></span></span><br /><br /> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAU2hqFnAufsWhW6bRn6lnXLiIPdn55dRaadB5ONDA2bMLeSh6PQ1tPgmrv3lzA2sX958npQOFuCpuclYLvCAhDV5YiL4GZbOQ__e4XUMNGQNjvlgNRJLlRMeAOSqElTBOUMaD/s1600-h/earflap1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAU2hqFnAufsWhW6bRn6lnXLiIPdn55dRaadB5ONDA2bMLeSh6PQ1tPgmrv3lzA2sX958npQOFuCpuclYLvCAhDV5YiL4GZbOQ__e4XUMNGQNjvlgNRJLlRMeAOSqElTBOUMaD/s400/earflap1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026301586146123794" border="0" /></a>This is the first hat I ever made for my brother. He picked the pattern and the yarn.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhNBxwdfbx4nzWJ9dalwLGkPlq5T2SloxJBZSFSxwR0EUOmdDWNhNq0i5ODrQiYJabFKSiBzjM5Gm5_VGcTvM7EZRngt6ongjWITkmQG1H0h9JnRmGia2mETO4syovtabWgPWt/s1600-h/earflap2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhNBxwdfbx4nzWJ9dalwLGkPlq5T2SloxJBZSFSxwR0EUOmdDWNhNq0i5ODrQiYJabFKSiBzjM5Gm5_VGcTvM7EZRngt6ongjWITkmQG1H0h9JnRmGia2mETO4syovtabWgPWt/s400/earflap2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026301590441091106" border="0" /></a>He liked the earflaps. That was one of the main reasons he picked that pattern. He wanted something unusual.<br /><br />He <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">told</span></span> me he really liked the hat.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioN0W_rAESww84m3UqbBvHJdfYo5OmfD4Dpu9KKeeDGnPA3rBL95LEvitFpjsO4Zl3F7e8tNsVpEc0f-laF7voWLoIdJbu1niV8XCdPUFegg7nvHfAxxfDWGEoFjtHIz9oZ8LS/s1600-h/flapsup1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioN0W_rAESww84m3UqbBvHJdfYo5OmfD4Dpu9KKeeDGnPA3rBL95LEvitFpjsO4Zl3F7e8tNsVpEc0f-laF7voWLoIdJbu1niV8XCdPUFegg7nvHfAxxfDWGEoFjtHIz9oZ8LS/s400/flapsup1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026301590441091122" border="0" /></a><br />Since I made him the hat my brother has become a trucker. He's away from home for long periods of time. Often he has to sleep in very cold places and it's not like you can just leave the truck heater on all night. It gets very cold in there sometimes. He tells me there are mornings when he wakes up and he can see his breath in the air before he even gets out of bed. Seems like a good place to have a hat, right?<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw2yOGk66U4gH-h3yxAK0AKKQp1iLXstf-HZW0XD3JT29jAkD4qU_YaDjkRFX4tV9OJprFmgfk9pi3Jd9iDOE9UQzn_9llUnrr7fMsOK3C3TaesenZ6pVXuTrgdfZU7N441SOn/s1600-h/flapsup2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw2yOGk66U4gH-h3yxAK0AKKQp1iLXstf-HZW0XD3JT29jAkD4qU_YaDjkRFX4tV9OJprFmgfk9pi3Jd9iDOE9UQzn_9llUnrr7fMsOK3C3TaesenZ6pVXuTrgdfZU7N441SOn/s400/flapsup2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026302835981607042" border="0" /></a>So how come over Christmas while I was poking around in his room I saw the hat sitting there and not with my brother on his trip in his cold truck?! Huh?! (The hat was in plain site-- I'm not so nosy I was digging around or anything)<br /><br />He says it's because the hat is too big and it falls off his head. Huh. I can see that when I put it on Vena, but Brother never mentioned that until it was obvious he wasn't wearing it. Before that he told me he wore it all the time. He never told me it was too big. Hmph.<br /><br />Anyway, I guess that the last two hats are in the bad hat category, but so you don't think I'm completely incompetent, I have managed to make good hats.<br /><br />Despite his total dissage of the earflap hat, Brother did ask for more knitted caps (<span style="font-style: italic;">knitted?</span> Hmph!!) for Christmas. I decided to give it another shot. Since he was going to be out of town on Christmas day, I had a little extra time to finish the hats before I needed to fork them over. Here we go:<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVRp0SR1g9HB1xvUPLqw_wTKbf8oRirwK9jxTUygoEWME-PcYG24eG3mcsqrZ7f9XUEs_hQh1TMkgpNAKzefGt4Ye67Om9835M5JIX6qFgzdYtr1bGnIvpV0vAVUAkRPIZEREx/s1600-h/bighat1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVRp0SR1g9HB1xvUPLqw_wTKbf8oRirwK9jxTUygoEWME-PcYG24eG3mcsqrZ7f9XUEs_hQh1TMkgpNAKzefGt4Ye67Om9835M5JIX6qFgzdYtr1bGnIvpV0vAVUAkRPIZEREx/s400/bighat1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026301246843707346" border="0" /></a>I made it big and bulky on purpose. The idea is warmth. It's not too big, though. I tried it on myself before I gave it to him and it stays on fine. It comes down over the ears, which is nice.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg9pd9vfMb0w4QK2D5fHunxOaG_uvMi14J4n1VseGaencJH51OwOenMyr_9L7DCC9qxEb1X5pQDE4Bb8p3wNeW6mdks2ogK8S4rMBy5yBCRdWFT4LmDgC9apAwbB7BMspIHoH6/s1600-h/bighat2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg9pd9vfMb0w4QK2D5fHunxOaG_uvMi14J4n1VseGaencJH51OwOenMyr_9L7DCC9qxEb1X5pQDE4Bb8p3wNeW6mdks2ogK8S4rMBy5yBCRdWFT4LmDgC9apAwbB7BMspIHoH6/s400/bighat2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026301246843707362" border="0" /></a><br />I think I was in some kind of 70's mood when I bought all the yarn for these creations, by the way. You may notice a sort of 70's color theme. This hat, for example, matches my couch. The big hat came out in some kind of cool camo-ish stripy patterns, which was entirely unintentional. Just like the stripes on the next hat.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXM955nplAZu3wAdOxNGD2i3V9VtrP09ARkMxse5Akk8r7K6kA0pOA6_hbcdvY4CvChOjVxSeXlipZX5uM2ATHncQh-1psoYYfw9d_Vx_aYKSUPxdv4ATx_ywmFsfJNJ6shZ8X/s1600-h/stripebeanie2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXM955nplAZu3wAdOxNGD2i3V9VtrP09ARkMxse5Akk8r7K6kA0pOA6_hbcdvY4CvChOjVxSeXlipZX5uM2ATHncQh-1psoYYfw9d_Vx_aYKSUPxdv4ATx_ywmFsfJNJ6shZ8X/s400/stripebeanie2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026302835981607058" border="0" /></a><br />A more traditional basic beanie hat.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvCzyuSRVcfPwy4XKmHh3z6kgadBbMX6BVSTFiHF-v2-0NxSp8cfimjsQBFWpXBMleVIKJlZLFguYhVPLTgdKpE1FoEMRfnIdnzuQH4F6OvW40B1lCl5qAiORm3zXxjuN5BNjt/s1600-h/stripebeanie3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvCzyuSRVcfPwy4XKmHh3z6kgadBbMX6BVSTFiHF-v2-0NxSp8cfimjsQBFWpXBMleVIKJlZLFguYhVPLTgdKpE1FoEMRfnIdnzuQH4F6OvW40B1lCl5qAiORm3zXxjuN5BNjt/s400/stripebeanie3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026302840276574370" border="0" /></a><br />I really like how the colors look here. I think they go well together.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD3s7wDWbB9AZRCKNt3OYVntcKn8qtM08-Am16Obtkl3ni-CzamRxledidd_sETFX37hqwDsokdcpSxf_-E0VJZIx1WGYIzWeCAFNunfvqZkv7QAFhPAddVFGAR0Eo5Tqgyyxz/s1600-h/beanietop.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD3s7wDWbB9AZRCKNt3OYVntcKn8qtM08-Am16Obtkl3ni-CzamRxledidd_sETFX37hqwDsokdcpSxf_-E0VJZIx1WGYIzWeCAFNunfvqZkv7QAFhPAddVFGAR0Eo5Tqgyyxz/s400/beanietop.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026301242548740034" border="0" /></a>Though, as I said, the stripes were completely unintentional. They just came out that way. You can tell when you look at the top of the hat. It's all smooged and random up there, and that was how I'd hoped the rest of the hat would come out. I'm not opposed to the stripes, though.<br /><br />Speaking of stripes...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaAQj9D8H8u-5vytIXj7LOjNdvXQiJg1VOaciccTOMFnAANBDyXzRBI46-GIoCoAMnfdB30QBM6gkV5yr6cif-LgnKqK2Xfp5ISII1ipyCIr7NhkLn3QrW87FGhWw54nM8gO1Y/s1600-h/coolbean1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaAQj9D8H8u-5vytIXj7LOjNdvXQiJg1VOaciccTOMFnAANBDyXzRBI46-GIoCoAMnfdB30QBM6gkV5yr6cif-LgnKqK2Xfp5ISII1ipyCIr7NhkLn3QrW87FGhWw54nM8gO1Y/s400/coolbean1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026301586146123762" border="0" /></a><br />This hat was intentionally striped. I used one of those self-striping yarns. Red Heart Strata.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG3vI9km5k1FxWgkJNVGQJtE2AvEgvDudFYFeIm8_n12Z6-o_bAvU-jwTBRSuUYbqJwYfJwna_M0ksLW7KUHkWk65SEwlAPxtj9aGO42r4bkYgK6Wxu2ubzNDxpIgjkveFdfeG/s1600-h/coolbean2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG3vI9km5k1FxWgkJNVGQJtE2AvEgvDudFYFeIm8_n12Z6-o_bAvU-jwTBRSuUYbqJwYfJwna_M0ksLW7KUHkWk65SEwlAPxtj9aGO42r4bkYgK6Wxu2ubzNDxpIgjkveFdfeG/s400/coolbean2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026301586146123778" border="0" /></a><br />I really like how this hat came out. It's one of my favorites of the bunch, and a hat I'd make for myself. The next hat is my other favorite.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWEwFRCBSccfg6q5-OY94A5i38fqnp7GYz84Vhyt24FalX37Mr6FNUIIHhTfuWNlyoAQFiM4_jD8nmksRZw3cSsSk3SjRUyz8LgqSHuYjFJEd2J7n9JsQDzHeeuOk0LAX2Zp3K/s1600-h/3bean1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWEwFRCBSccfg6q5-OY94A5i38fqnp7GYz84Vhyt24FalX37Mr6FNUIIHhTfuWNlyoAQFiM4_jD8nmksRZw3cSsSk3SjRUyz8LgqSHuYjFJEd2J7n9JsQDzHeeuOk0LAX2Zp3K/s400/3bean1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026301229663838114" border="0" /></a><br />Finally! A yarn that didn't insist on striping itself against my will!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC99xxnyCFvzzHDnoQoG9shS_eF33d-oncERCbXNf6ordLF7Yp7oA5eT2ORf3K0LXE48DdK27NK8E7_pYx2ag5p0alddAexik-w0qx5GYubV6yggE7j5VIzDtNo3z5zbaSpxOH/s1600-h/3bean2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC99xxnyCFvzzHDnoQoG9shS_eF33d-oncERCbXNf6ordLF7Yp7oA5eT2ORf3K0LXE48DdK27NK8E7_pYx2ag5p0alddAexik-w0qx5GYubV6yggE7j5VIzDtNo3z5zbaSpxOH/s400/3bean2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026301238253772722" border="0" /></a><br />After my other yarns striped, I was glad when this one chose to come out in a nicely randomized pattern. This is another hat I'd actually wear myself. I am, of course, speaking as somebody who is not really a hat person.<br /><br />Here comes the last hat:<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiFgTPbZvvJh-RM7TsVjP7ceBVElsPOaE5WMZpZL_6NwCZ3NXoLyKpTvUe1RP_TQdbHa2f8hfuyFtekOmshvL9XappAu2vWvSbX_43KLQUPCpKkz6JMK4Vt9HeIjeyToHB0Im7/s1600-h/tanhat.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiFgTPbZvvJh-RM7TsVjP7ceBVElsPOaE5WMZpZL_6NwCZ3NXoLyKpTvUe1RP_TQdbHa2f8hfuyFtekOmshvL9XappAu2vWvSbX_43KLQUPCpKkz6JMK4Vt9HeIjeyToHB0Im7/s400/tanhat.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026302144491872322" border="0" /></a>This one was finished well after I gave the other hats to my brother. In fact, I only finished it this weekend and haven't had a chance to give it to him yet. As you can see, it's another bulky hat.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj45XyiYCiXERudO7GVGfAjjcVbak9S16N2jgl3EjnKm3BxrDbmOj27wc19-9tO7Y2HAjv2hvYfSfXDDwnd2XdO2xjQrVrpfCe_0K6x4kK_-sfOq1CBE-dzRzVcTOEYr4eSDorl/s1600-h/tanhat2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj45XyiYCiXERudO7GVGfAjjcVbak9S16N2jgl3EjnKm3BxrDbmOj27wc19-9tO7Y2HAjv2hvYfSfXDDwnd2XdO2xjQrVrpfCe_0K6x4kK_-sfOq1CBE-dzRzVcTOEYr4eSDorl/s400/tanhat2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026302183146578002" border="0" /></a><br />I think the single color works well with this hat. It's nice and plain and understated.<br /><br />Brother claims to like the other hats I've given him. He darn well better. I worked hard on these! He tells me that on especially cold nights he'll layer all the hats at once, with the big bulky one on top. He's going to stretch them all out if he keeps that up, and then he'd better not complain to me that they're too big! Then again, it's possible he's not wearing them after all, and is just saying he likes them to make me feel better. Who knows? I like them, though. And now you can judge for yourself.<br /></span>Litahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30406215.post-18732576966196263492007-01-15T13:38:00.000-08:002007-01-28T16:47:43.062-08:00You're not making it better, people!So I got one of those <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Crochet-Pattern-Day-2007-Calendar/dp/157939261X/sr=8-1/qid=1168897523/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-5019846-5787102?ie=UTF8&s=books">Pattern-a-day</a> calenders this year. The implication that they have 365 patterns is pretty much false, since some patterns are long enough that it takes a few days to display all the pages and Saturdays and Sundays share a page. I can live with that, though. Also, so far I haven't seen any patterns for anything I actually want to make, but that's ok. The year is still young.<br /><br />But you know what? There is a reason that crocheters are sometimes assumed to be weird old ladies, and this is it:<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_vz4U0qFRDJhUIK7ur0snCQiUzZy_4roSwkp9zO2dBvmeqasQBQ5xC-rXa9Ma5dFYIM8JKDKdErmDC9KQWP7oLnWyohhe3dPQ96f-Z18JtZJwbZYltNcipem_zNE73jnBTGeO/s1600-h/babyabe.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_vz4U0qFRDJhUIK7ur0snCQiUzZy_4roSwkp9zO2dBvmeqasQBQ5xC-rXa9Ma5dFYIM8JKDKdErmDC9KQWP7oLnWyohhe3dPQ96f-Z18JtZJwbZYltNcipem_zNE73jnBTGeO/s400/babyabe.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5020375864519937362" border="0" /></a><br />Goodness. Who would make this? If you actually see somebody trying to put this on their baby, a call to Child Protective Services may be in order. No wonder some kids grow up to hate their parents.Litahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30406215.post-1166224392997696202006-12-15T14:58:00.000-08:002007-04-25T13:04:33.533-07:00A gift for the furballsToday I bring you a pet blanket:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7972/3260/1600/796204/petblank.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7972/3260/320/956897/petblank.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>I initially made this for my dog, but for some reason or other it ended up on the couch under my cats instead. They seem to like it.<br /><br />My main reason for making it wasn't any great desire to give my pets something to lie on. I had just bought a whole bunch of yarn for an afghan project and then decided almost instantly that I hated said yarn and would hate to crochet a whole afghan out of it. It was my desire to use up the yarn that inspired me to make this.<br /><br />Here's an extreme closeup:<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7972/3260/1600/326253/pbdetail.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7972/3260/320/778544/pbdetail.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Don't mind the occasional hair that's visible in the pic. I didn't clean the blanket before snapping the pics. This is actually the clean side.<br /><br />I used no pattern to make this. I just made a chain until I liked the length, and then crocheted on it until I liked the width. I wasn't sure which stitch I wanted to use, so I used all three. I just did a row of single crochet, a row of half double crochet, and a row of double crochet and then repeated. I like the effect.<br /><br />Because I was making this thing in an effort to use up yarn I hated I decided to crochet with two strands of yarn in order to maximize the yarn usage. It worked pretty well and I ended up with a nice, thick, cushy blanket, in spite of the scratchiness of the original yarn.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7972/3260/1600/870384/pbcorner.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7972/3260/320/178906/pbcorner.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />The edging is some reddish fun fur that I had lying around that actually amazingly matches the yarn. I like it. Though the yarn the actual blanket is made from is washable, the edging is not. Guess how I found this out?<br /><br />Yep. When I did finally get around to washing the blanket the edging felted together. I really don't care. It still looks ok (though much different), and even if it didn't it's just a blanket for my cats to shed on anyway. No harm done.Litahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30406215.post-1166053476891561932006-12-13T15:22:00.000-08:002009-05-16T14:38:14.121-07:00A place to rest your weary head......if you don't mind a few divots in your face.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7972/3260/1600/57442/pillow1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7972/3260/320/693981/pillow1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Introducing the first and only pillow I've ever made. I plan to make more in the future, but that's just one in a long list of projects on my shadowy "to do someday" list. I have no definite plans.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7972/3260/1600/132495/pillow2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7972/3260/320/112828/pillow2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>I made the pillow for my mom. She picked the color to match the decor in the living room. I'm not a big fan of how the stripes came out on the pillow (and I don't think she is either), but it's ok. Mom's too nice to try to hide her new pillow even though it doesn't look as good as we'd hoped; it sits out in a prominent position on the couch.<br /><br />I used what my pattern book called a popcorn stitch, though I've also seen it referred to as a bobble stitch. I've noticed that no two pattern books seem to agree on what constitutes a bobble and what constitutes a popcorn.<br /><br />I do think it's interesting that it came out in fairly clear vertical stripes, considering that I crocheted it horizontally. Check how it came out all plaid on the back:<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7972/3260/1600/201798/pback2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7972/3260/320/63673/pback2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>It would have been cool to skip all that silly popcorn on the front and just go straight to the rockin' plaid on the back. The big thing I like about stripy yarn is seeing how the pattern will come out in your project.<br /><br />The pillow cover came out a little small, so I had to tie the middle button to the button hole to keep it looking nice.<br /><br />You can't tell from the above picture, but I ran out of yarn partway through. I'd bought the amount that my pattern said I needed to complete the project, but the pattern lied. Mostly the pillow looks fine even though I had to use a ball of yarn from a different yarn lot to finish, but the brown is slightly lighter with the new yarn ball. You can tell below:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7972/3260/1600/201798/pback2.jpg"></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7972/3260/1600/968480/pbackdetail.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7972/3260/320/821719/pbackdetail.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Overall I'm proud of my pillow, even though I don't love the color scheme on the front. It's also the first project I've ever blocked. That was an irritating experience because I couldn't figure out how to make my iron steam satisfactorily.<br /><br />Thinking back on my experience pinning down the pieces of this pillow and arguing with my iron always reminds me of the movie <span style="font-style: italic;">Memoirs of a Geisha. </span>There aren't any similarities at all, it's just that my brother and I had gone to see it earlier that day. As you might imagine, the mental link I have between my pillow and that movie irritates me deeply. Read the book instead. The movie blows.<br /></span>Litahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30406215.post-1160004189622304432006-10-04T14:57:00.000-07:002009-05-16T14:38:39.295-07:00Bad HatsOk! As promised, a crochet post!<br /><br />As the title would suggest, this post is mostly going to be about hats. And not very good ones. I confess, I haven't mastered the whole hat thing yet. But I'm working on it! And today you're going to see some of my early attempts.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><br />But first, a scarf:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/1600/scarf.1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/400/scarf.1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Not a hat, I know, but it does match a hat that will be featured today. This scarf was my first attempt at color changes. I had varying levels of success.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/1600/edges.1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/400/edges.1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />If you look closely at the above picture you can see what I mean. When I first started out I had no idea how to change colors so that your final stitch of Color A wouldn't carry up into your first stitch of Color B. I did work it out by the time I finished, fortunately. Then I promptly forgot what it is I did so that I had to relearn it next time I did a project featuring color changes. (You'll see that one in a later post.)<br /><br />I'll deliver on the promised hats in a moment, but first I'd like to introduce you to my model, Vena:<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/1600/headside.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/400/headside.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a> I bought her today. She makes a very good hat model, especially since I'm too shy to model the hats myself. As you can see, I forgot to remove her price tag.<br /><br />She was four dollars! Cheap!<br /><br />If it seems silly that I bought this dummy head just for the blog, remember that should this blog thing not pan out I can always duct tape a brick to Vena and throw her through <a href="http://holeeecow.blogspot.com/">wurwolf's</a> window. Vena has many powerful uses.<br /><br />Don't look at Felix, my cat, who is lurking around in the background where he doesn't belong. I like him and I know from experience that bad things happen to pets featured on this blog.<br /><br />On to an actual hat:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/1600/bigfloor.1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/400/bigfloor.1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />This is the very first hat I've ever made, and ties with one other hat in this post as the worst hat I've ever made. It doesn't look so bad on the floor, I know, but wait until you see it on:<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/1600/big.1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/400/big.1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Poor Vena. She has been blinded. This hat is supposed to be a beanie. I suppose it would be perfect for Charlie Brown or maybe a basketball, but it does not work for real people! Or even fake people with semi-realistic head proportions!<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/1600/bigscarf2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/400/bigscarf2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />One fun thing about wearing this hat is that if you turn your head quickly the hat does not turn with you. It matches the scarf nicely though, at least.<br /><br />I did learn one big and very important lesson from my experience with this hat:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Gauge is important.<br /><br /></span>I did not really get this before, but I do now. So while this hat gets an award for suckulence, it's worth it because now I pay attention when a pattern tells me to use a certain weight yarn and a particular size hook. Rookie mistake, I know, but I was a rookie at the time.<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />Fortunately, there is one way to almost redeem this hat, and that is by pushing it far back on your head, like so:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/1600/bigback.1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/400/bigback.1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/1600/bigbackside.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/400/bigbackside.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Do this and it almost looks like I meant to do that. Of course, the hat will drop off your head at the slightest movement, but that's no big loss. It's not a very good hat anyway.<br /><br />The next hat was another learning experience. It was my first time using mohair.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/1600/mohair.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/400/mohair.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Some people recommend beginners use mohair because it's so fluffy you can't see the mistakes you make. Mohair is also bad for beginners for the same reason, I find. Not to mention that it's more difficult to handle than a smoother yarn; the hook likes to catch on mohair.<br /><br />The finished hat doesn't look so bad, but there are some issues, which I'll get to.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/1600/mohairclose.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/400/mohairclose.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>The hat is <span style="font-style: italic;">almost</span> too big, but it works out. It looks looser on Vena because she doesn't have any hair. On me it's comfortably loose, but not so loose that it is in danger of falling off.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/1600/mohairback.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/400/mohairback.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>I had the most problems with the seam, as you might expect with a beginner. The usual difficulties that come with learning to crochet in the round were compounded by using a yarn where I couldn't see my stitches. You can definitely tell where I had to move from one round to the next. It kind of comes to a point in the back-- most likely because I didn't know where the join was supposed to go and there are too many stitches back there. Of course, I couldn't tell you for certain because I can't see the stitches.<br /><br />Stupid mohair.<br /><br />But the hat isn't so bad.<br /><br />Now for an actually good hat:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/1600/goodhat.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/400/goodhat.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>The pattern for this hat was the very first real pattern I ever had (though not the first pattern I've ever used). It took a while before I was confident enough in my pattern-following skills to give it a shot. I used two colors of fine yarn (black and blue, obviously) and twisted them together, which was fun until the yarn balls wanted to get all twisted up wrong and I had to unwind them.<br /><br />But anyway.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/1600/goodside2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/400/goodside2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />This hat is almost too small, but it's supposed to loosen up with wear. If I ever wore hats, that might happen.<br /><br />It's true. I make all kinds of hats, but I never wear hats. I'm told I have a good head for hats. I keep thinking if I keep making hats I'll want to start wearing them, but it has yet to happen. Oh well.<br /><br />After finishing that hat I had some yarn left, so I decided to make a second hat with it. Then something went wrong:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/1600/biglil.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/400/biglil.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Hat number 2 is considerably smaller than hat number 1. I don't know why.<br /><br />It doesn't look so bad there, but look at it on:<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/1600/wimpy2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/400/wimpy2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Poor Vena. She didn't expect to make her debut like this.<br /><br />I still don't know why this hat came out so small. It literally fits neatly inside the other hat. No squishage necessary. I used the same pattern. Same hook. Same yarn. I don't know what went wrong here.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/1600/wimpyside.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/400/wimpyside.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Look at that travesty! She looks like she would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.<br /><br />Yes, I know. As soon as I saw that something was going wrong I should have frogged the whole thing and started over. By the time I noticed, though, it was pretty clear that I was running out of yarn. I wouldn't have had enough yarn to finish the hat correctly anyway, and since I'd bought the yarn while out of town I couldn't just run out and get more.<br /><br />So we're left with the munchkin hat, which is the hat that is tying with the big hat for worst hat I ever made. It may even be worse because 1, there's no way to make that thing attractive and 2, I learned <span style="font-weight: bold;">NOTHING</span>.<br /><br /><br />So those are my first attempts at hats. My next post, when I get around to writing it, will feature a project that I was a little more successful at. I can't dwell on my blunders all the time!<br /></span>Litahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30406215.post-1159997550764707822006-10-04T14:27:00.000-07:002007-04-25T13:03:57.217-07:00Ok! I know! I'm a slacker!It's been a while since I posted. I know that. There's a good reason, actually. Only a week after I posted that picture of Pickles on the blog he flew away.<br /><br />I wasn't there when it happened, and how it happened is something I won't go into right now. But suffice it to say that I felt a bit awkward about coming back in here after I'd just finished talking about the bird. Thinking about it made me feel sad and still does.<br /><br />But anyway, that's depressing and I don't want to depress you. This blog is supposed to be about crochet, not lost pets. I'm working on a new post which I will put up soon. It will actually be about stuff I've crocheted.<br /><br />So more cheerful, I'm hoping.Litahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30406215.post-1156364018423915922006-08-23T12:28:00.000-07:002009-05-16T14:39:23.229-07:00Let's get down to business!Wow. This must be what, my third "starting" post in a row in this blog so far? I'm doing this for reals this time, though.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><br />I thought I'd start by showing you some of my early work. Behold, my very first swatch, which I still have because I'm an overly sentimental sop and I don't throw things away like I should:<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/1600/swatch1S.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/400/swatch1S.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />I like to think it looks a little bit like a crochet map of California. Of course, it's <span style="font-style: italic;">supposed</span> to be perfectly rectangular, but you can't have everything.<br /><br />You can see how at the top (technically the bottom, but I don't display it that way) I made my foundation chain way too tight and then the whole thing bunched up when I started doing the actual crocheting in the following rows. I don't remember what it was like to make this thing, but I must have had to fight like hell to get my hook through the loops of that chain.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/1600/pickwswatchS.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/400/pickwswatchS.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />This is my parakeet, Pickles (aka The Buzzard, aka You Green Little Snot, aka You Noisy Bastard, aka Crapfactory, aka Little Terrorist, aka @!!!**!), cheekily refusing to pose with my swatch. When I <span style="font-style: italic;">don't</span> want him near my crochet I can't get him out of it.<br /><br />He makes it very difficult to get any work done because he likes to be with me, but he also likes to try to eat anything I happen to have in my hands, be it a crochet hook, a pen, or a (computer) mouse.<br /><br />My very first "real" project was a blanket. Personally, I do not recommend making a blanket your first real crochet project. It's so big! It's probably better to go with something smaller, but still rectangular, like a scarf. That's what most people start with. But no. I did a blanket.<br /><br />Not even a blanket made up of a bunch of little squares sewn together either. A great big blanket all in one pattern.<br /><br />I started with a test swatch to make sure I had the stitch down:<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/1600/testsquare2S.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/400/testsquare2S.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Here's the actual blanket, all freaking 100 rows of it:<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/1600/Blanket_fullS.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/400/Blanket_fullS.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>This thing took over two years to make. I couldn't tell you exactly how long. Part of it is that a blanket of that size is unpleasant to work on during the Summer, especially around here where it gets into the hundred-teens and we don't use our air conditioner much because of the power bills.<br /><br />Factor in that I had to put it up when we got a puppy until she was old enough to know better than to try to eat the thing while I was working on it, and then do the same when we got kittens, and that adds on a big chunk of time.<br /><br />Also, I have a terrible tendency to absolutely hate any craft project by the time I get to the end of it. Usually I end up giving it up. Crafts that are dead to me now because of this tendency of mine include (but are not limited to) sewing, embroidery, and latch hook. I just take so long to finish that I either hate it or lose interest before I get done. I have no idea how my interest in crochet managed to survive the thing that killed so many other crafts for me, but it did.<br /><br />Now that it's all done, we keep it draped over the top of the couch when it's not in use. This is a good place for the cats to lie on it and dig at it with their claws. A nice way to treat your first project that you spent over two years on, no?<br /><br />I'll close with a close up so you can see the stitches:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/1600/blanket_zoom1S.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7972/3260/400/blanket_zoom1S.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Not hugely complicated for a beginner. This stitch might make a nice scarf. It's all double crochet, which is nice. 2 dc, skip 2, 5 dc in 1 stitch, skip 2, repeat.<br /><br />I did all the work on this blanket through the back loop, mainly because I was too inexperienced to know I was supposed to be going through both until I was pretty much committed to what I had been doing. I think the effect was nice, though.<br /></span>Litahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30406215.post-1156279597992438492006-08-22T13:33:00.000-07:002007-01-28T16:18:23.695-08:00Restart!I've finally decided what to do with this space.<br /><br />I like to crochet, so I've decided to use this blog to share some of the work I've done. If you asked me how long I've been crocheting, I'd probably initially want to tell you it's only been a couple years. If I think about it, though, it seems like it would have to be at least four. Maybe a year longer than my dog's been alive, and I think she's three. I still think of myself as a beginner, maybe even intermediate when I'm feeling extra brilliant, but that's probably a big lie, too.<br /><br />I am definitely still learning about the craft, though, which is definitely a good thing. If I get to the point where I feel like I have no more to learn then somebody should probably puncture my big fat bloated egotistical head so I can get through my door. Besides, I like knowing that I still have a lot left to try. And there are definitely <span style="font-style: italic;">a lot</span> of different kinds of crochet projects I haven't tried yet.<br /><br />I've just taken some pictures of some of my early crochet work, and I'll have a new post for you, coming right up.Litahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30406215.post-1151524007033585312006-06-28T12:42:00.000-07:002007-01-28T16:16:31.944-08:00In the beginning...Creative name for a first post in a blog, no?<br /><br />Just so you know, I am not Tork. He's a friend of mine and he's got a knee fetish.<br /><br />I don't know how often I'll actually use this blog, or what I'll use it for. I mostly set it up so I could have a Blogger profile when I contribute to another blog I'm working with a friend on.<br /><br />I might just use it for random stuff that doesn't fit in with the style of the other blog. I might just let it rot all lonely and afraid with only this post to keep it company.<br /><br />We shall see.Litahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04367549793825684579noreply@blogger.com2