Passing time

Right now I’m just passing the time until all the utility companies open so I can pay bills. I’d much rather stay home and work on this than spend money on “trivial” things like electric and water

I’m basing the shawl off the Sunday Market Shawl by Vanessa Carter, but I’ve changed it a bit.  Instead of casting on 30 stitches, I did 60 because I like wider stoles that cover more of my back.  I’m also adding beads randomly through it.  I hope it turns out well…I’ve used beads in knit projects before, but not of varying sizes and since you drop every third stitch to create a decorative ladder I hope that the beads don’t cause issues with dropping them when it comes time.  I think it’ll be fine though!

I’m using a super super soft merino from one of the recycled sweaters.  I’m holding it double since it’s kind of between a fingering and sport weight.  This is such a nice, mindless knit after the Hemlock Ring.  There wasn’t a whole lot of thought involved with that after the center, but it felt like the feather and fan went on forever.  This is just plain old stockinette until right before binding off.  I can read or watch tv while working on it without worrying if I’m screwing up a pattern.  Every couple rows I’ll spread the shawl out and decide where to add a bead by marking it with a safety pin.  Simple!

I didn’t sleep much last night so I’m sure by the time I get finished with my running around today I’ll be exhausted.  Gutter woke me up at 4:00 this morning to let me know that I’m a bad Mommy for not getting up and giving him food.  Then Moxie decided she needed cuddles and threw herself over my hips, pushing Cordova even farther under my ribcage and making Paul wake up with a start saying “HUH?!” LOL, crazy.  So, because my husband and fur children are snots, I’m treating myself to a hazelnut caramel iced latte at Sonic.  So there!

Hope the weekend will be good for everyone…do something fun!

 

Guitar hero, now with more pink!

My guitar is done, and I’m fairly pleased with it despite the problems I ran in to.

The first problem I ran in to was with the pink paint. It had a much thicker consistency than the black (maybe due to it being a different brand…I don’t know) and even after a test spray it coated my face plate with a bit of a lumpy texture, so I got some bumps I wasn’t really happy about. It’s a satin finish…not sure if that has anything to do with it either. A few coats took the worst of it away though. You can still see small bumps/imperfections, but in person it looks far less worse than in pictures.

I used the Dresden Dolls plane logo for part of the design. They’re my favorite band and I love that logo! If you haven’t heard of them, please visit their site!

This is where I ran in to my second problem. I used some packing labels Paul brought home from work for the stencils I used. They’re sticky, but not too sticky because I wanted to be able to remove the stencils without marring the paint. Apparently they weren’t quite sticky enough for the detailed work I was trying to do because the paint feathered all along the edges You can really see what I’m talking about in the next picture.

Dirty Business is the name of a song by the Dresden Dolls. I love it, so I chose to name my guitar after it You can see the way the paint feathered out under the stencil. In retrospect I should have used masking tape and many many thin coats of paint instead of four or five thicker coats. I sprayed some paint into a paper cup and hand painted around the plane logo to clean it up, but I decided to leave the feathering on the words because it just seemed fitting. It was an unexpected design element!

I even did detail work on the rest of the guitar:

Details were hand painted. They’re a bit shaky, but I liked making it all match. I learned a lot with this project. I learned to test my paint better, do many thinner coats instead of a few thicker ones. I learned to be more fastidious with my stencils and that spray paint is near impossible to wash out of paint brushes. I still love the way it turned out, despite it’s unexpected design elements

I finished the pink cabled strap too.

I’m probably going to have to wind up lining the back side because it’s a little stretchier than I expected. It turned out pretty well though!

I also started two more knit projects this weekend.

I pulled the Valpuri top that I was making for my Mom apart, and started a new project with the yarn.

I just kept having this nagging feeling she wouldn’t care for the top, so I started the Hemlock Ring Blanket. I’m actually using the instructions here though, instead of the original instructions from the vintage pattern. I think this will be much more to my Mom’s liking and she can use it for whatever she likes. It’s a pretty nice cotton yarn so she could use it as a tablecloth, a blanket, a shawl, whatever she wants. It’ll probably wind up a giant doily or a tablecloth for her outdoor table. Mom and Dad just bought a new gazebo/pavilion so they’ll be spending a lot of time out there this summer. I have a feeling she’ll probably use it out there. it’s a beautiful pattern and I may queue it up again later to make one for myself!

I also started work on my Burridge Lake Aran Afghan.

I got a pretty good amount of it started for as little as I worked on it this weekend. I’m using the no cable needle method and I’m liking it much more than if I had to knit, move stitches to cable needle, knit, knit stitches from cable needle, repeat. I can move the stitches over into a twist and then knit them all in a row. It’s an interesting technique…maybe I’ll do a video on it one of these days.

So, that’s what I did this weekend! I wanted to update yesterday but I spent a good chunk of the day laying in bed in agony from a friggin’ migraine. They always seem to hit me when I’ve got plans that don’t involve cleaning house.

**And to you WordPress. Shame on you!!! You don’t log someone out halfway through a big assed post where they lose half the damned thing when they try to publish! You suck right now!

 

Crafty Weekend Ahead!

After errands (okay, before errands, but don’t tell!) I did some craft shopping. Shopping in general really, but crafty stuff was obtained as well. When getting ready to take Paul to work today I realized I had pretty much nothing to wear. One of my last presentable tops had fallen off the line on Tuesday and dear Moxie dragged it through the mud. Since I hadn’t washed it yet I resorted to wearing a paint stained tank top with my hoodie over it to cover the worst of it. I decided that it was time to find at least a couple of decent tops.

I found one adorable top at Walmart. It’s white with red and coral-ish plaid, poof-ish sleeves and a scoop neck. It buttons down the front. BAAAD description, but it’s really quite cute. I probably look pregnant in it because it dips in under the bust, but I don’t care. I also stopped at a thrift store and was really pleased to find five shirts and a brand new pair of pants. It should have come up to about $13.00, but they were doing half off today so I got everything for $6.50 and they threw in a purse for free. I’m not complaining! I also found several pairs of pants that’ll fit Paul so I’m going to go pick them up later today.

Back to the crafty stuff though…

I picked up the paint to mod my guitar faceplate!

I’m kind of scared! I doubt I’ll be able to screw it up completely and even if I do I’ll still be able to play my guitar once it’s dry, but I hate failing and once I start with this I can’t really go back. Wish me luck, seriously! I’m excited, but nervous!

I also found some beads:

They were on clearance for $1.50, which is about half of what they cost originally. I wouldn’t have bought them otherwise! I like the different greens in the package and I thought it might be fun to do a shawl or wrap with random beads thrown in. Now I just have to find an appropriate yarn.

I also picked up yarn for a blanket I’ve been wanting to make for awhile now:

It’s just plain old Red Heart SS, but I really loved the color. I always stop and look at it when we go to Walmart and I finally bought some. I just checked the pattern and it looks like I’ll need about twice the amount I bought…whoops! Anyway, the afghan I’ve been itching to make is this one here. It was originally (as far as I know) in MAGknits, but since magknits was pulled down the designer is hosting the pattern on ravelry as well as a pdf on her own blog. Now, I hate making cables, but I absolutely adore the way they look, so I’m going to try to start this project with a positive disposition and hope I find it enjoyable. I WANT to love cables, I really do! I just get irritated with the fiddling of the cable needle slowing down my knitting. I’ve learned how to do cables without a cable needle, so I’ll have to really look at the pattern and see if I can do it that way.

So! I’m going to quit blabbering and go put my first coat of paint on my guitar faceplate. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

 

Busy with boring stuff

I’ve spent pretty much the entire day between reading the best of Craigslist and catching up on cleaning from the weekend. It’s been made slightly less boring by a link that Vegas Jenn sent me. At Chore Wars you can create a character, join/create a horde and get experience points and gold for doing chores. If for nothing else, it prompts me to get my butt in gear and try to get some much needed cleaning done.

My bento for today isn’t very pretty, but it’s functional and tasty:

Homemade chicken and rice soup with carrots and celery, whole wheat saltines and chocolate pudding for dessert.  My tummy has been off for the past few days, more than likely because of the nacho cheese we used on our homemade shredded beef nachos we made on Friday night.  They bothered Paul too and I think it might be due to the spiciness of the cheese.  I’m a total wimp when it comes to hot stuff and Paul doesn’t really care for it either so we almost never eat spicy stuff.  Oh well…that’s what we get for caving to our cravings.

That’s about it.  Nothing exciting happened over the weekend, we stayed home and I slept a good portion of it away.  I started a top for my mom for her birthday.  It’s called Valpuri, from Berroco.  No, I still haven’t learned my lesson about hating cables.  They’re beautiful and I think my mom will like the top (at least I hope she does) so it’ll be worth it.  If I can finish it without throwing it across the room.  We’ll see.

 

bye bye bonnie

I took Paul to work again today so I could run errands. In the 15 minutes it took me to get from the airport and back she’d murdered Bonnie.

I’d used this bento to house some Strawberry Chex last night for some late night munchage and I guess the smell was too alluring. I’d only used this bento twice

Oh well…moving on.

My yarn arrived in the mail last night but I was too lazy to take a picture. The color is not quite accurate, it’s a little lighter in person. I’m in lust with it and I can’t wait to make something FOR MYSELF with it. I haven’t decided what just yet though.

I also actually finished something too! Remember that afghan I posted about months ago? The oddball block afghan? Here’s the link, refresh your memory. Remember now? Good.

I started this a long time ago but I was trying to structure it too much. I started with the first block and I got about 3/4 of the way through it and put it down. Someone uploaded the patterns for the blocks on Ravelry and it flicked my interest on again. I picked the 19th square to start on and finished it just this morning.

If you look, you can see where I jacked up the pattern. On the right, the very last repeat of blocks, I didn’t change the colors so it’s the same as the blocks below. Oh well. I seriously doubt it’ll be that noticeable when it’s sewn together with all the other ones. I was just way too pissed at my mistake to fix it and I think I’ll just call it a signature instead of a knitting flaw!

Here’s the back too, so you can see how wickedly neat my stranding is

That’s about it. I’m going to go vegetate on the couch because I have run my ass all over this town today.

 

Eggs and knitting and miniatures, oh my!

Happy belated Easter/Ostara/Spring Equinox to any who celebrate! Not having kids, we don’t really do baskets or egg hunts or any of that fun stuff, but I decided to dye some eggs last minute yesterday. They’re colorful, cheery and make me happy!

Nothing special, just plain old liquid food dye, but they turned out pretty. I used some neon food dye for the first time and granted, upped the amount of dye/vinegar ratio in the water, but I was very pleased with how vibrant they turned out. They were even prettier before I dumped them back into the carton for storage.

While shopping for egg stuff I came across these adorable monkey containers:

They only stand about 3″ tall or so and I thought they’d be perfect for my bentos! I figured I could use them for dips, yogurt, fruit/veggies, etc. They’re so cute and they’re really easy to clean since there’s not too sharp of corners or crevices inside. I love cute stuff

On Friday, I decided that I wanted a new book to read. I’d written a list of a few books I’d heard about recently that I wanted to try to find. Of course, I left the list at home and didn’t remember any of the titles or authors so I fell to my standby–craft books! I decided that I wanted to find a book on miniatures that delved a little more in to information on scale and covered several topics. I was super excited when I stumbled across this book:

It covers a lot of history on miniatures and is full of pictures. They’re black and white, but still impressive! There’s a whole spread on Queen Mary’s “doll house”, and I only put that in quotes because I think it goes so beyond just being a doll house. It’s a true work of art. Besides all of the rooms being hooked up to light and water, every piece was painstakingly made to scale over a three year period by experts who studied the original pieces in the mansion. Absolutely breathtaking.

The book is a little on the old side, (Copyright is 1975) so there are a few supplies that are no longer available, BUT, there are things comparable out there and I’m sure I could hunt some of it down if I decide to make anything from the book. They have a chapter on woodworking, one on textiles and even a chapter on how to make scale pieces from found objects. Awesome! I was even more excited about picking it up when I found out that it was a used book and the price was only $8.50 ($8.99? One of the two) The other miniature book I’d had my eyes on was smaller, had less information (though it was in color) and they wanted $25 for it. Score!

To go along with all that miniature talk, I thought I’d flash a picture of a work in progress:

I’m not going to say what it is, just that it’s made out of a ping-pong ball and that it’s really effing hard to divide a half sphere in to even pieces! Hopefully I’ll have the piece that has yet to be revealed finished by the end of the week so people can figure out what the hell it’s supposed to be!

Finally, some knitting content…

I’ve been using a lot of my spare time the past few days knitting. It’s starting to get warmer, so why am I breaking out the wool?! I mean, once it starts getting hot around these parts, that’s it…it’s frickin’ hot and we don’t get much in the way of cool days until usually the end of October. Well…it’s because I got bit by the shawl bug. That’s right…this giant bug made out of lacy wool swooped down and smacked me with a load of stitch markers and told me I must knit a shawl. To please the shawl bug I got out some of my prettiest recycled wool and cast on not one, but TWO new shawls.

This one is called Cozy, from Knitty. I’ve been looking at this pattern for about three years now but there was something that I didn’t really love about it. Then I saw one that a lady on ravelry had made and I fell in love with it. The pictures on Knitty’s site just do not do the pattern justice. This is a rectangular stole. It calls to cast on 85 stitches, but I cast on 115 because I wanted it longer. I think once I finish it and block it out that it’ll be really big and it’ll open up the pattern well.

The second one is called Kiri (Link is to a .pdf file). It’s a triangular shawl with a leaf repeat and I think it’s absolutely gorgeous. I can do lace pieces with charts, but unless I’m completely focused I screw them up every time. This pattern has the option to knit the shawl using a chart or written instructions - I chose to use the written! I’ve decided that all lacy patterns look like caca until you’re finished with them and can block them. Once the piece is spread out you can really see the details.

Okay, I think I’d better go before I post so many pictures it takes a year for my page to load. I didn’t do any bento preparation this weekend so today’s lunch will be thrown together last minute.

 

Fruit & fiber

Here’s today’s bento:

I’m calling this my “I feel like crap and don’t really want to eat but know I need to” bento. It’s just strawberry yogurt, cantaloupe, grapes, a few dates and a few bland cinnamon cookies.

I also wanted to post a picture of the latest dishcloth I’ve made

Over the past year or so I’ve started this cloth around five times. I always got confused or bored with it and tossed it down, but it was this weeks cloth for the dishcloth group on ravelry and I decided to finally bite the bullet and finish one. I used Sugar n’ Cream striping yarn and I really like how it turned out. You can find the pattern here.

I think I’m going to go crawl onto the couch and pretend that my back has been magically replaced with…I don’t know…something that doesn’t hurt.

 

Oops, these too

When I did the big photo dump on Monday, I forgot to add these:

I haven’t used them yet, but I’ve used one of my knit cloths to scrub the floor before and it worked wonderfully!  I can only imagine that having one attached to a mop instead of having to get on my hands and knees on the floor will be great.  They were really quick to make and even after these two I still have about 1/3 of each skein left…enough to make at least one more!  I found the pattern while browsing ravelry, you can find it here.

 

Monday Catch up!

I had a really nice weekend! I spent the whole weekend shopping, crafting and cooking - what better, right?

Friday, after we’d ran errands ( you know, paying bills, all that pain in the butt stuff) we went to GameStop and I picked up Leisure Suit Larry (Magna Cum Laude). It’s a smarmy, mature rated game and it’s funny as hell. I rented it some time ago and really liked it. They had a used copy at GameStop and with the credit we had on our card I got it for free! After that I hit the Dollar Tree that was conveniently next door and found a few bento supplies.

I got the Hello Kitty bento there. I also picked up some little plastic picks there.

We hit Safeway after that just to pick up some soda for Paul, but wound up leaving there about $50 poorer because of the great deals we found! They had grapes for .75 a pound and I started buying up some supplies for my bento lunches.

Even though Paul was tired I made him take me to another dollar store before we went home. I don’t think it has a name…now that I think about it. I picked up the other two bento boxes shown above, as well as some tiny cookie cutters and a HUGE bag of chopsticks for a buck. There were probably 200 packages of chopsticks in the bag!

I wandered around there and was thrilled when I came across these:

They’re obviously not top quality, but I think they’re nice starters. I plan on making some mods to them. The little hutch’s doors don’t open, but if I can find some super tiny hinges I’ll be changing that. I think the second piece will become an entertainment center and I might put the desk in my crafty room. I read on the package that there are six different furniture pieces in the series so I think I’ll be popping back over there periodically to see if I can find the other three.

I finished some knitting this weekend as well! I’ve noticed a growing trend in the grocery stores of racks upon racks of reusable shopping bags. At .99 apiece they’re a good deal, but why buy them when I can make my own that are not only bigger, but cuter and more unique?

I used this pattern on size 15 needles. The body of the bag went super quick and I modified the pattern to in the round so I wouldn’t have to seam the bag. I also picked up only 60 stitches for the top on size 10 needles. The handle felt like it took forever, but I think it was just because I was impatient to finish it. I hope to make several more of these. It holds an unbelievable amount, probably more than I can comfortably carry at once!

I also promised pictures of the miniature foods I’ve been making, so prepare for several more pictures!

This is my favorite so I’ll post it first! Chocolate cake with vanilla frosting, covered in purple fondant with a teensy white flower on top. I cut a piece out of it so you could see the frosting inside It’s just barely an inch across.

Tiny potatoes and carrots!

A perfectly toasted loaf of french bread.

A dozen various donuts - two maple bars, two glazed, two apple fritters, two jelly filled, two frosted, and two cinnamon twists!

Three super tiny hostess cupcakes. These little suckers were so fun to make but hard! Those squiggles on the tops were so hard to make! The cupcakes are only about 1/4″.

A whole bunch of crisp red apples! I need to make a little basket to put them all in.

Finally, a set of eight plates.

They’re currently unfinished. I need to sand them smooth, paint them and glaze them. I’m looking forward to making matching bowls and a little scared of the challenge of making cups to go with them.

Hope I didn’t kill your connection with all these pictures! I plan on posting a picture of my bento lunch this afternoon. I know y’all can’t wait!

 

Fiber food

I’ve noticed I’ve been a little lax on posting the last week, but it’s mainly been because I’ve been working on stuff and trying (trying being the key word here) to do a little housework.

I’ve been knitting away on a cardigan for myself called Mr. Greenjeans. I’m calling mine Mr. Tweedjeans since I’m using some of that monstrous mountain of tweedy yarn I posted about awhile ago. I didn’t mention the sweater before because honestly, I’ve had a lot of false starts on sweaters for myself lately. This pattern is a top down raglan and I’m past the waist right now so I think it’s safe to say I’ll probably finish it. There’s still quite a ways to go, but I’ve done the most tedious part…the bust! I put the sweater on waste yarn and tried it on and was surprised to find it was kinda big on me. I was expecting it to be a little snug. No complaints though, I like large comfy sweaters much better than ones that are snug and constricting.

I took a break on the sweater to make an instant gratification project.

I’ve always loved little crocheted and knit food items.  They’re cute.  This little guy took me less than 30 minutes to make, not counting the time I played around with the sprinkles and trying to get creative with the photo.  If anyone remembers the little alien I made awhile ago, this cupcake pattern is from the same designer.  Hannah Kaminsky is so darn creative.   I put a few drops of strawberry scent in the fiberfill before I finished sewing it up and it smells so good!  I queued a bunch of different knit and crocheted foods on ravelry so I’m sure I’ll have more to show soon.

On Friday Paul and I went to Laughlin with my parents and had seafood buffet.  I’d never been in the Avi casino and it was pretty nice to get out of the house and DO something.  I ate a ridiculous amount of crab (and little else!) and afterwards we played slots for a couple of hours.  We took a little over $100 with us to fool around with, with no intentions of walking out with anything.  I never expect to win anything, that way I’m not disappointed when I don’t.  We blew through it pretty quickly.  In the 11 or so years we’ve been going to Laughlin together we’ve always used our last $20  in mad money on dollar slots.  This time was no different and we were happily surprised when I hit $140 over the course of three different slots.  We basically got a free dinner and a few hours of entertainment for free :D  Yay!

Paul took a vacation day so he’ll be home today.  We’ll probably spend the day lounging and I may or may not get around to painting a couple of cabinets in the kitchen.  I’ve had this idea for a random geometric thing for awhile now.  We’ll see if it works out.  If I don’t do it today, I’ll get around to it soon I think.