There's no excuse

No, really there is no excuse for the three week or so (no, I'm not counting) absence from blogging. I may have bored the shit out of you if I had blogged though, 'cuz there's nothing going on.

I did finish the Here There Be Pirates hat though:



I've worn it, quite a bit in the past few weeks.

I lost a bit of my mojo lately. I have been attempting to make Frankensocks since the first of the year, but the pattern is just not working out for me. I moved to crochet to try the Chronium Star Baby Blanket, but I don't think my crochet skills are there yet.

So I made some amigurumi food instead:







Thinking that I warmed myself up on crochet, I attempted the star blanket again, but no go. Then I tried the square hole crocheted hat from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders with some Noro Kureyon that I purchased on eBay about 4 years ago. Mind you, this is the third time I've attempted this pattern. I had to stop the first time because I found out there was errata, but the errata had been taken down from the publisher's website while they've revamped. I did attempt, with the errata, to crochet this but it just looked like a big fugly head doily, so I decided that this pattern isn't a good match for me.

Instead I knit a different pattern from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders:





The hat came out great, and it fits both of us. I made it yesterday while sitting on the couch watching Beverly Hills 90210 on DVD.

This was my first time knitting with Noro Kureyon. My thoughts while knitting with it ranged from "wow, this stuff is cool" to "*I* could spin yarn like this". The thick/thin can be really apparent when there are spots in the knitting that are "gappy" due to it being thinner. The bulges from it being thicker don't bother me though. I have one more ball of this colorway, so I'm making some mittens, using some label-less deep purple Lamb's Pride-like stuff* for the cuffs.

*It's like Lamb's Pride in the sense that it is a single and feels like it has mohair in it, but I don't think it's Lamb's Pride because it is a bit thicker and doesn't seem to felt (I tried).

In other news, it's snowed about 5 times since I last posted. Twice this weekend alone! We also had a week of weather that was between 1 and 15 degrees (I hope that is over). I'm ready to kick winter in the taint and move on.

Also, Ellie had her annual appointment and has been put on a diet. I wonder why:



She's on Hills R/D, which we can only buy at the vet's office, and is really expensive. It's okay for Ken to eat it as well.

Speaking of Ken, he's doing pretty well. He bit the shit out of ZMrK's hand this morning, and tried to eat some of my yarn. He also enjoys lunging on Ellie and biting her, and had an obsession with the walls of my closet one day:



I wonder if we have mice.

I discovered that that fucking orange cat that I call Curtis has been pissing on our front porch. I don't know whose cat he is; I think he belongs to the people next door. He's out all the time, and the lady behind me feeds him. He's not neutered, so he travels all over the neighborhood, pissing off all the other cats. He likes our yard because we feed the birds. I've seen no evidence of him killing any of the birds, yet, but it could happen one day. We've had up to two dozen birds in our yard at one time. ZMrK came home to find a hawk in one of the trees, so the large number of birds is attracting predators.

I just hope that the landlord doesn't think the cat pee smell is from us, you know? They've been showing the upstairs apartment (which has been vacant since Sept. 1; know anyone looking for a 3-BR?), and I don't know if people are picking up on the cat pee smell. I can just assume that others don't have the awesomely fine-tuned nose that I do. Fucking orange cat.

I won't promise that I'll post more often, but I'll try.

Octopus!!!!

I made a cute amigurumi octopus recently!

Ellie likes it.



She likes the camera too.



This little guy is from Amigurumi World: Super Cute Crochet by Ana Paula Rimoli. I used some leftover Lion Brand Cotton Ease from one of ZMrK's hats and a size F crochet hook. It took about a week to crochet.

I'm not sure what was more time-consuming -- embroidering that mouth or sewing on each little leg. Speaking of legs, he's nice and round with these spindly little legs that we always call "Babe Ruth Legs". I couldn't find any photos of Babe Ruth that showcased his large stomach/skinny legs, but here's a photo of Ken that comes close:



Other craft news: I'm almost done with Poseidon. I had a problem with the edging on the 2nd sock. I was trying to use the instructions that would make it mirror the one I've finished already, but I keep knitting it so the wrong side shows, so I'm just going to use the instructions for the 1st sock and not have them mirror each other. I've put that aside for now and have started on a hooded t-shirt pattern that I got for free at WEBS. I'm using ArtYarns Serenade, which is cotton/angora. It's good, mindless knitting for when I don't want to pay too much attention. Plus, I wanted something to wear to the spring Sheep and Wool Fests.

I picked up a stack of vintage knitting magazines today at an indoor yard sale that was advertised on Craigslist as a "knitter's yard sale". Mmmmmm. There are some groovy-assed 60s Spinnerins and some early 60s Vogue Knitting books. I also got some Columbia-Minerva and Bernat books, and some Red Heart Super Saver (for afghans) for 50 cents a skein. Can't beat it!

Snake!

Don't worry, Ophidiophobes, it's not a real snake, but one made with yarn and a hook. Does that make you feel better?



Plus, he's really goofy looking, with buttons for eyes and a crooked embroidered mouth. And have you ever seen a snake done in the colors of the Swedish flag?



Project: Snazzy Stripes Snake from Mr. Funky's Super Crochet Wonderful
Hook Size: F5
Yarn: Old Brittany 4-ply lambswool that's been in my stash since early 2005
Started: January 1st
Finished: January 19th

This was my "I'm going to learn how to crochet, dammit!" project. I probably should have chosen something that does not have a finished size of 43" long as my first project. But it was an excellent learning experience for me, considering that I did 95% of it WRONG. No, not "different", WRONG. This is how one performs a single crochet:

Insert hook into foundation chain or stitch, yarn over and pull through chain or stitch (2 loops on hook). Yarn over and pull through both loops.

I didn't do that. I think I did something more like a slip stitch, where I inserted my hook, yarn over, draw yarn through both the chain/stitch and the loop. And you know what? It HURTS to do that for over a yard of crochet. It's really tight, and it takes forever. Once I figured out what I was doing wrong, I looked at my work, briefly thought, "should I start this whole thing over again?", then I said Fuckitol! and just finished it. That last 2/3rds of the head went by really fast! As a result, the snake's head is HUGE in relation to his body.



I didn't have any of the cool stuffed animal eyes that are used in the book, and I didn't have any googly eyes large enough for him, so I made my own! I just used small black buttons that have a buttonhole on the back of them (don't know the technical term for these), and standard 4-hole white buttons that are somewhat larger. I embroidered a mouth on him, which is hard to do and keep it straight. The receipient of this beautiful piece of craftsmanship (craftspersonship? craftsselfactualizingindividualship?) -- ZMrK -- does not care if the snake is a little bit wonky, he thinks it is awesome all the same.

I have no idea what my next crochet project is going to be. I mostly wanted to learn how to crochet so I could make really cute Amigurumi toys, so I think I'm on my way to doing that. I'll probably also make cute hats, baby stuff, and afghans (I miss the crochet afghans my Nanas and Aunties used to make! I know my rat Desdemona chewed one up, but I don't know where the rest are.)