philomena scarf

moving right along...

Turkey Trot

The Angie and I did the 5K Turkey Trot for the Food Pantry again this year.  (Curt did the 1 mile fun run - proud of him) I made matching turkey hats for us.

Sorting Hat

The tail is done!!!

As last time, the finished pictures are after the break- just hit "more" to see them.  I made several changes to the pattern - see my Ravelry project page if interested.

A Tail

So, somebody  (who will remain nameless - but most of you can probably guess) wanted a mermaid tail snuggle sack.  I'm crocheting it, with Bernat Blanket yarn.  Very snuggly.  Very turn off the heat I'm hot kind of warm.  I did screw up and have to rip back, for some reason after decreasing to 48 and 40 I missed the FIVE rows of HDC and only did ONE row of HDC in the middle - it came out way to short for a supposed grown woman.  

I did change a few things in the pattern (shocking I know) I did the crochet cast on where you do the chain and the first row of HDC at the same time.  I saw it on the show "Knit and Crochet Today" awhile back, but they did chain and SC.  I also joined in the round and made it as a tube to avoid that seam later ( and telling myself the seam in the bum would be uncomfortable)  I'm 4 rows from seaming the bottom and then just have to make the fins, but I needed to take a picture for one of my Fraggles - so since I haven't finished anything recently I thought to post an update.  I am putting the pictures below the break line so if said person sees my post she won't look ( I don't think she looks at my blog - but just in case - we have a rule if she sees a gift before it's given she can't have it - so no point in taking chances!)

Creating my own Devil's Den!

I've decided to create my own Devil's Den, populated by my favorite ever Devils,  Brodeur was first, Stevens probably next followed by Tootoo. And I think I'm going to make a large one for NJ -- the mascot (really love that guy)

Christopher's Easter Bunny

Might I add he spent much of Easter carrying it around and playing with it... I only hope I stitched the neck up enough, he seems to want to carry it by the head!

(love my pompom maker - how cute is that tail?)

 

Nothing finished

I am however, totally in love with this coat that was recently added to Ravelry.  It is the "Gypsy that Remains"  I'm not sure, but I think you may need a Ravelry account to use that link.  I'm torn.  I want to make it, however, as more of a knitter than a crocheter, I'm not sure I actually have the skills to make something like this.  It takes 14 skeins of yarn (2900 yds) so timewise - forever.  I guess we'll find out which way I go in the future..

Joana Vasconcelos

OMG!  Google her!  Right now!  She's a Portuguese artist and her installations are absolutely stunning! As you know,  I end up using my Google-fu a lot for Nerdopolis and Nerdwars, especially at the end of the month when I'm helping fellow Fraggles work their projects into challenges.  Yarnardent made a doily and this artist was mentioned in the  description so I Googled her.  WOW!  Since it was a doily I found these pictures:

But then I saw all these pictures of giant shoes!  I am so in love!

And my inner Starwars geek squee'd at this:

I want to use this as inspiration for a much smaller project somehow:

She works with wrought iron to!  How cool is this teapot???

 

Octopuses!

Boot Cuffs

I've been on a boot binge.  Yup, binge.  I went from one pair of tall boots to 5, and bought a bunch of new short boots.  I really like all the boot cuffs I've been seeing on Ravelry, and when I saw them in the store I liked them - but I have thick calves so the ones in the store really don't work well. So I dug around my acrylic yarn bag and found some thicker yarn so they would work up quickly and knit one pair and crocheted another.  I actually have 2 more in progress as well. 

 You can actually see an awesome "hack" I picked up from my daughter.  Pool noodles at the dollar store can be cut and you can get 1 1/2 to 2 pairs from one noodle depending on the height.  The things they sell to put in your boots to keep them upright start at $8 a pair -- and that's TJMaxx's price!! so I did all my boots for $4 instead of $40!!

 

Want to join Team Fraggle?

If you've known me awhile - you know I'm involved in NerdWars and Nerdopolis on Ravelry.  I'm captain for Team Fraggle in Nerdopolis.  We're a small, friendly, laid back team, main goal is not coming in last, life happens you know?  Sometimes projects don't get done on time - but an end of month deadline sometimes helps.. Signups for the next tournament (starts Feb1 ends Apr 30) run through the 27th.  Link for signups is HERE, you do need to be on Ravelry to play.

If you more do, larger longer time projects, Nerdopolis has the Summit Seeker challenge - you gets stars (points) for progress during a given month. If you have a lot of WIPs there is the Area 51 challenge - where following the theme is optional and you can submit 2 things for stars each month.  If you tend to volunteer or donate (stuff or$) there is a different charitable focus each month to get a star (donated stuff doesn't have to be made that month) There is even a section called The Lab - which is for non Ravelry specific crafts. Beading, painting, colouring, baking,sewing there are a tons of non fiber craft options to explore.  And then there are three challenges each month, which get answered with a Rav sanctioned project.(knit, crochet, spin, dye, weave)  You can get one star or the max 5 stars (there is a badge for over 5 stars- but only 5 count for the scoring)

Was in some Card Swaps

On Ravelry, I'm usually in the monthly card swap on the Tiny Owl Knits group.  It's one card and if you want to add something as long as it still fits in a flat envelope that's a choice. (they had some issues with bubble envelopes not getting to their destinations - especially overseas, and trying to keep costs down.) But for the holidaze, I did that swap, The Cave (group for hermit and recluse wanna bees on Ravelry) had a card swap (just a card) everyone sends to everyone, if someone didn't want to mail overseas they would just get domestic partners, and if you wanted to do it by email, only partners ok with email.  So I think that was 26 cards. 

 And then I thought the Card Swap concept was such fun - that I ran one on Backstage Team Fraggle (the group for the Nerdwars/Nerdopolis Fraggle teams). 

 Then at the last minute Team Iron Throne (another Nerdopolis team) decided to do one - only it was three partners and each partner had a secret word  that you had to put in their card.  When you received your cards - your code words spelled a phrase from Iron Throne.

 My phrase was "Words are Wind"

I have a thought... I'm going to use christmas cookie cutters and cut out the images on the card. Use crochet thread to crochet (hopefully - never crocheted with thread before) a "frame"  then use  Christmas coloured fingering weight yarn to attach them all into a garland for next year.... eventually I WILL have a handmade tree! (well not tree but decorated tree)

My Christmas Cap Tree Topper

If I'm honest, it was supposed to be a blinking hat.  But my crochet skills aren't that great, and my head is big.  So it will be my tree topper instead.  I crocheted in blinking LED lights into the brim - made a pocket in the back for the control pack and batteries.  Sigh. 

 

Two books I can't say I read cover to cover

Colorful Crochet Lace.  I got the book from the new arrivals list from the library. There are a lot of gorgeous garments in this book.  I don't have the crochet skills to pull them off, it would take me forever to crochet 100yds of yarn, and reading lace charts is confusing to me.  I liked one of the bags, but I seem to have gone to making a new felted bag every year to not really using handbags in general, so that won't happen either.




I got this book from the library also, for Curt and I to flip through to see potential stops in our travels.  I wrote some of them down - didn't know River Horse had moved.. good to look at before a road trip!

Any Interested Crafters---

The Muppets new show premiers Tuesday night (and there's an outside chance I miss it)  This inspired us to bring back Team Fraggle on Nerdopolis.  Team Fraggle ties it's craft projects to anything Henson related (and seriously folks - between the original Muppet Show and Sesame Street it's the easiest team out there unless someone creates Team Webster or Team Google..) but people have used his really early coffee commercials, the TV show dinosaurs ( anyone remember that) Farscape, Star Wars, Dark Crystal, Labyrinth (who could resist Bowie in those pants??)

Sign ups run now until the 27th - you do need to join Ravelry (Social Media - I describe as a cross between facebook and the world's biggest fiber related datatbase although since I',m not on facebook I may be wrong)
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravelry
 It's a free site (with over 4 million users as of April 2014) for knitters, crocheters, weavers, spinners, dyers probably forgetting some category and a ton of fun!


Here's the link to team sign ups if you're interested!

http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/nerdopolis/3106430/26-50#48

Stinky Fish Hat

This hat was for a Nerdopolis entry- the challenge being myth or folk tale.  It was inspired by Fionn MacCool and the Salmon of Wisdom.  Or rather by my friend's son's Irish Myths and Legends book, and my love of teasing my friends about their "Irishness".  I did the crochet version, because currently the knit version would take more than a month to complete. (Nerdopolis rules - you can enter something you started before the month started, but have to enter it during the appropriate month, and I didn't know about this legend until mid-July) 

I made it to fit a child's head, I'm planning on giving it to Christopher, and it was just a tad too small to fit on my glass head.  So it's kind of weird shaped as I stuck it on a wax lumiere (candle inside wasn't lit) to take the pictures.  Now I need to find a book about fish to give him with this. 

 
 

Three FOs for you.

First for St Patrick's Day - I crocheted a hatband to wear.







For the Epic Pi Day 3.14.15 I made a beaded pie pin:



And finally - my socks!


 

Not much to show

Not much to show on the crafting front this week.  I did finish the neckband of my vest, need to do the armbands, but that required more counting than I could successfully accomplish (had a low grade headache for most of the week) so no pictures on that yet.  I started a hexagon afghan for my mom from yarn leftover from projects I made for my nephew Christopher.  I screwed it up already - but I can work around it.  I made hexagon 1, then 2 then 7.. so I had to pick up 2 sides to do 3 and I'll have to fudge 4  a bit, 5 will be fine... no picture of this yet either.  I also got about 1/2 the foot of my second sock done.  Hopefully next week's post will be filled with pictures. 

What I actually have a picture of:



I crocheted a bunch of "charms" (shamrocks and some leprechaun hats) then crocheted a gold hatband and attached them.



close up

Light Sabers & Shoulder Seams

One of Nerdopolis's challenges this month is something inspired by a favorite villain in another Nerdery.  Clearly, I had to use Darth Vader (if you ever heard my phone go off, I have several Star Wars sounds for various things).  I also needed something I could accomplish in the short month of February.  Rules have changed when NerdWars and Nerdopolis split apart, but both got rid of the requirement that a project be started that month, however, since I didn't have anything started that was appropriate, I needed a small project. 

What do you think of when you think of Vader?  His helmet?  His voice? His lightsaber?  I went with the lightsaber, and made 2 - one for the Burt's Bees lipbalm I always use, and a slightly longer one for the kind that the Angie uses (pity it doesn't seem like she'll be joining me on the Dark Side anytime soon)  I used beads for the buttons on the sabers.  The original pattern was written for a heavier weight yarn - so I had to adapt it to sock yarn since the scraps I had in the colors required were sock weight.  Overall I'm pretty happy with them.



In  knitting  updates, I finally finished the back of my Tracery Vest and seamed the shoulders!!  Not I just have to do the neck and arm trims(two color ribbing) and block.  It is conceivable that I will have this finished by Easter!  (Now that I said this - watch and see what life hurls my way) I probably should have taken the picture before I picked up stitches for the neckbanding...




I also started a pair of two color toe up socks.  The pattern I chose for the instep doesn't really show in the dark yarn - but plain socks take me twice as long to knit, so I'm sticking with it.  Also the other pair of socks I made with Bearfoot yarn really bled out a lot of color when I wash them (handwash with Euclan!!) so I'm expecting these to fade quickly and maybe the pattern will show more then.  The toe and heel will be done with some leftover Happy Feet yarn - it goes well together - and Happy Feet makes me happy!