The "Oinga Floinga" Hat

I believe this speaks for itself...

Ol' Yellow Eyes

Buster ~ when his food dish is empty.

Knit One, Purl One

Boy Howdy. I finally get knitting. I have purchased every kind of knitting needle out there and it was finally the Clover Flex needles that did it for me. These are only about 5.5 inches long with a bead-ended cable. MUCH more comfortable in the hands than traditional straight needles, and far less awkward for this crocheting fool. (Joann's is having a 50% off one item sale in case you'd like to try a pair.)

I was piddlefartin' around on Sunday and finally decided to break these needles out (I purchased them months ago.) Grabbed a beginner dishcloth pattern at Lion and went for it. Below is the finished product.



I find that knitting is a bit more fussy than crocheting. It seems you spend a lot of time positioning the yarn in order to make a stitch (bring it forward, send it backward, push the stitches up on the needle, push them down on the needle...) But it's ok, I did manage to develop a rhythm.

I obviously need to practice casting on. My cast-on stitches are all uneven. I also need a bit of work on keeping the tension more even as I knit. But I'm getting it. This was a great beginner pattern as it had you frequently change stitches and row patterns, but not so often that you'd lose track of where you were at. So I think with a few more dishcloths or simple scarves under my belt, I'll be ready to rock and roll!

Fuzzy Baby Harp Seal

The second challenge for July at CFL was to crochet something you'd find in or at the ocean. I've been buying up Planet June's fuzzy amigurumi patterns ~ mostly because they are just too cute ~ and decided to finally make one as it was perfect for the challenge. So here be my fuzzy baby harp seal.


Seal and whale not to scale

If there's a next time, I will definitely use larger eyes and place them closer to the muzzle. The little 9mm eyes are just a tad small. But I think it will still make it's way to a special little girl as soon as I finish the other item I'm making for her :)

Happy 4th of July!

Star Spangled Banner
Funny Jokes at JibJab

Pain In The Butt Party Lights [Wire Is Not Yarn]

One of the challenges at CFL for July is to make something you'd find at a party in any fiber. I know. I made up the challenge. You'd think I'd pick something I already had in mind ~ kind of a perk, ya know? Hah!

I've always pondered making the Excruciatingly Painful Party Lights, and I thought, 'hey, these would be perfect. I'll just work up a crochet version!' Ah-HAH!

Well, lemme tell ya. Crocheting with wire is a real treat. First, your fingertips get sore as all get-out. Then, there's gaining mastery over the wire. Word of advice ~ wear band-aids and if your wire doesn't come on a spool, put it on one! I'm sure I would have found this advice on the net if I had taken a second or two to look. Oh, and don't use your nice wood hooks. Grab your least favorite Boye or Bates. I didn't make that mistake, but after wrestling with the wire, that thought did occur to me.

Once I got the knack of it, it started to go a whole lot better. Well enough so that I'd post the instructions for others to give it a whack. So here you go!



Pain In The Butt Party Lights



Materials
26 gauge wire in your choice of color
Teardrop shaped beads
1 String of Mini Lights (I'd recommend a string of 10 or 12 if you can find them, not the strand of 35 that I bought!)
Size H / 5.0mm hook
Soothing music

Ch 23.

Row 1: Ch 2, 2 dc in 1st ch, dc across to last ch, 2 dc in last ch; turn.

Row 2: Ch 3, dc in 1st dc, dc across to ch-3, 2 dc in ch-3; turn.

Row 3: Repeat row 2, finish off leaving a long tail.

Finishing

Sew seam. With ending long tail, sew up seam. With both tails together, make a few tight twists. Cut wire and discretely tuck in end.

Stretch to shape. Stretch your piece both lengthwise and widthwise. Shape into a cone shape.

Add beads. Cut another piece of wire about twice the diameter of the bottom of the cone shape. thread a bead onto the wire and give it a couple of twists. Thread through the last row of stitches. Continue in this manner until you have a nice bead edging.

Secure to light string. Cut a small length of wire and thread it through the beginning chain. Place your 'globe' over the base of the individual light. Pull up wire around the top where the string wire meets the light base. Twist the two ends together, cut and hide the end.

Personally, I don't know how Zabet Stewart got control of the wire with knitting needles. I am amazed no hook was involved. Let me know if you're brave enough to give this a go! LOL

Letter to New Line

I was ordering (yet another) Sideshow Weta statue and stumbled across an announcement that New Line had extended an offer to Sam Raimi to direct The Hobbit. Sam Raimi ~ in case you never go to the movies or pay attention to who directs ~ was the director for the Spiderman movies as well as, The Evil Dead. If you're a hard-core sci-fi/fantasy fan, you would have noticed that Joxer The Mighty appears in all of Sam Raimi's films as it's his brother Ted Raimi. Somehow, I don't think Joxer has a role in The Hobbit.

So because I'm fanatical when it comes to LOTR, I just had to write a letter. I submitted it via New Line's site.

"This message is directed to Bob Shaye & Michael Lynne.

Dear Sirs,

I am surprised that the following topic is not on your FAQs page by now considering the volume of mail/email you must be receiving. I'm a little late to the ballgame, but would still like to express my thoughts regarding the making of The Hobbit and the 'prequel' you have planned.

Sam Raimi is a good director, but would not be a good alternate to follow Peter Jackson. New Line and Peter made history with the LOTR movies and thrilled millions of fans with a long-last realized dream of seeing Tolkien's story on the big screen. That venture was perfection as the 11 academy awards show.

You now have the never-to-come-again opportunity to complete that history. Don't fuckitup."

Think that will convince them? LOL

Dragons

Don't meddle in the affairs of dragons for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

Whilst I sew squares together today, it will be dragon movie day (sometimes, I like to watch movies in themes.) On the venue are:

• Dragonheart
• Reign of Fire
• Eragon
• Dungeons & Dragons
• Dungeons & Dragons - Wrath of the Dragon God

These should keep me from napping and ensure that I don't doze off as dragons are not quiet creatures (no guarantees though.) Here be the squares I'll be sewing together today:

This is one afghan that will definitely need blocking when it's done ~ no skating though without it! No-sir-ee. And a tip for you should you decide to make this pattern... on rnd 3, replace ch 5 with ch 3 or ch 4 to reduce the loopiness. I thought of this once I finished the first 8 knowing that it would make for unruly squares unless I reduced the ch. But rather than rip back 8 squares, I chose to proceed with the remaining 40. Sometimes I'm not bright.

And what are you doing today?

Random Stuff

Although we seem to have escaped the 'leash law' ticket (yay!), Yoda didn't fare as well. Because she had to be left in the shelter over an entire weekend, she managed to get a nice nasty case of kennel cough. So all this week we have been medicating her which has NOT been fun. She does not like to take her medicine and it usually takes both me and my husband to administer it. She's been medicated for 3 days now and she's just starting to show teensy-weensy signs of improvement. (I've had another 'first' in my life and that is picking a dog's nose. ick.) I'm hoping by Monday morning, she will be a lot better and we'll be on the downhill slope with this thing. Poor baby.

I put the PK doily aside for a bit and picked up the Solo afghan. All of the squares are done. Now comes the [daunting] task of sewing them all together. This is my least favorite part. So much so, that I've been known to not finish an afghan because of it. But I'm going to discipline myself and dig in tonight. My husband went off to the car races, so I have the whole house to myself!

But before I do that, please excuse me while I rant a bit about Bernat's Solo yarn. It's full of knots. Not just a knot in a skein here and there, but virtually every skein and sometimes more than one! Needless to say, there was a lot of waste and I had to end up buying more yarn to finish. So that $1.59 per ball sale was for a reason I think. Since the yarn is discontinued, it must have been to get rid of mill ends or something. If not, it could be the reason why the yarn has been discontinued. On the bright side, even with having to buy more, it was still a cheap project and I do like the way the afghan is coming out. Just be forewarned should you decide to take advantage of a sale you see for it and buy extra.

MySpace. I registered for an account just so I could contact someone in particular to ask a question. Then I forgot about it. That was about a month ago. Since then, I've had several teenage girls requesting to be added to my friends list. So yesterday, after having to have my password resent, I clicked on their names to see who they were. Basically, they were all a bunch of slutty little girls who were posting links to their naked pictures. Yep, just what I want to add to my circle of friends. You betcha. These little slut-puppies [I am most certain] are serving up your hamburgers at the local McDonalds, so the next time you're there you might want to ask that girl at the drive-up if she washed her hands before handing you your Happy Meal.

Now where did I put that new package of yarn needles?

Macaroni

I've been jonesing for macaroni salad. Quite frankly, I could live on macaroni salad. Not yours though, just mine. Isn't it funny how something so simple can taste so different depending on who makes it? Don't even talk about grocery store macaroni salad. There's something unnatural about it.

So I'm making macaroni salad today. Wanna make some with me? Then we can veg on the couch, crochet, watch movies and eat macaroni salad together. Here's my formula in case you're feeling adventurous:

Mini's Macaroni Salad

Get out the big pot and sturdy spoons, you'll need them plus:

32 oz. bag Anthony's Elbow Macaroni (cuz it's never sticky and says so on the bag)
12 hard boiled Extra Large Grade AA Eggs (cuz we want to die young and pretty)
2 large cucumbers, peeled and cut into pieces to your liking
1 large red onion, chopped
Sweet pickle relish
A big jar of real mayonnaise (see eggs)
and if you want more color in your salad, a couple of chopped tomatoes

Boil the eggs, peel and put in the fridge to cool them off. Cook the macaroni according to the package directions. Throw it in a colander (or 2) and rinse with cold water. Let it drain. In the meantime, chop up the cucumber, onions and tomatoes. When the eggs are cool, chop them up too.

Rinse out and dry the big pot, cuz it's all going back in. First the macaroni, then all of the chopped ingredients. Throw a couple of dollops of sweet pickle relish in there too. Now for the mayonnaise. Scoop out half the jar into the pot. Now get your big sturdy spoon and start mixing all this stuff together. Add more mayonnaise as needed and mix it up until it's the consistency you like.

When all mixed together, cover and put it in the fridge for at least 4 hours. This stuff gets better the longer it sits!

Now, what are we crocheting and what movie are we watching?