Inspired by Resurrection Fern who really does a lot better job than I did. I think I should try beading rocks next with lacy motifs. Her site? Pure eyecandy.
( click for image )
Cryptic note-
And I was hoping it was purple! Because they only count if they are purple, and you need a counting hippo.

Comic book day yesterday, and while I was walking by HT, I spotted a Black Flag teeshirt that was almost exactly like the one I had 20 years ago. I think I squeaked. I pulled one of my complete frequent buyers cards out of my purse (my last one! I give most of them away since I usually only buy clearance stuff) and ran in to claim the shirt. See.. my old one? One of my favorite shirts ever. I got it while I was in Minnesota, and wore it constantly for a while until it got borrowed by ___ and at some point got stolen. (Not by the person who borrowed it I don't think, but I'm not sure where it wound up) Well, it cost twice as much as my old one, but I have one again. I'm happy.
Since it's nearly Halloween, they have a BUNCH of costume teeshirts. So since I was using a card anyway, Mike got a gold Starfleet teeshirt for one of his co-workers, and a Spider-Man shirt for himself, so he's got Spider-man and Venom now. I also found a Captain America shirt.
See.. here's the thing about Captain America, the very last costume my mom sewed for William when he was 3 was a Captain America costume. She hunted through remnants and my scraps to get all the pieces and piece worked the stripes et cetra, making up the costume as she went along. So when I saw that shirt, I knew I had to get it for William. E looked around, but didn't see much she really wanted.
We had to go to the Evil Empire of Unethical Consumption for a couple things, and our local outpost of the Mr. Sam's Evil Empire does still have it's craft and fabric dept. Since E didn't want anything from HT, I gave her a 10 dollar limit and let her hit the remnant bin.
Home again, home again. We watched last week's episode of SPN. Usually E watches with us, but she was more interested in LOTS OF FABRIC! and was in her room happily starting another doll. After it was over, I whispered to Mike "Want to mess with her? Put on the first ep of Sarah Jane Adventures"
As soon as she heard the name Sarah Jane Smith we heard this SQUEAK and a hurried "I'm coming!" and she slammed out of her room. Because if you are a complete Whovian geek with *2* Sonic Screwdrivers (and can tell the difference between them) who keeps your money in the secret pocket of your psychic paper holder and makes Model Magic TARDIS ornaments for the Christmas tree? You can hear anything with any connection even when you aren't paying attention.
We also picked up a couple rocks I can crochet like Resurrection Fern (fantastic blog).
I also saved a couple empty soup cans from when I was sick so I can crochet around them for 70s style pencil holders. When I was sick when I was a kid, my dad would make me one of the only things he could. Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup and Ritz crackers from his stash of both. We don't usually get Ritz crackers or canned soup but when I'm sick that's what I want.

I posted a crocheted nunchaku pattern to DETP this morning, you can find that here.
I also made myself a little lacy cuff based kind off of this pattern, kind of in this case meaning, same basic shape, except I made up the pattern as I went along, mine is lacier and instead of being made out of fingering weight, it's made from size 10 crochet cotton.
( pretty! )
I checked the size of the motif against my nano and I think I'm going to adjust the pattern to make a new nano cozy.

Really kind of boring beading though, but it's for a tutorial on how to follow a graph for a friend so I'm doing basic peyote beads. Figure if the friend needs it, other beaders need it too right?

Other than that, trying to convince Mike to write me another guest blog, because the world needs more of his ranty, cursing honesty. Maybe this one can be on defensive drivers being a hazard on the road. He's busy taking notes for a stand up routine, when I laugh myself he writes himself a note. I think he should write a bit about the power of gravity and black holes and the total suckage of the galaxy, but he probably won't. He will probably write about Minty the Elf though.

Let's see.. nunchaku are half finished. I came up with 3 methods to fill them depending on usage and well.. how patient you are filling things. I'm not very. I used one of the 2 quick methods so I wouldn't have to deal with lumps from using too much stuffing at a time.

Considered a craft ninja costume with patchwork appliques, a knit shawl for a mask, carrying plastic canvas shuriken and of course, the crocheted nunchaku. Someone who could disappear in a cloud of glitter. The thought amused me entirely too much.

I got my swatches from Spoonflower, you can see them here.

Because I just read him my icon.

Today we went to the zoo since I was finally feeling well enough after a week of rotten weather that left me cranky hurty and overly emotional.
At the zoo, he was laughing at me, because I was taking pictures of mushrooms. I tried to explain it to him, but finally just settled for him pointing out those very pretty and poisonous mushrooms that are sort of orange and red so I could get pictures of them. Because mushrooms are cute. I did not take pictures of naked alpacas but I did tell them they were naked for a good cause.
I also got some good pictures of magpies, and we saw a blue jay teasing the snow leopards. See, the snow leopard enclosure is completely fenced in, and it kept bouncing on the top of the fence just over the leopards head, the leopard would get right under it, and the jay would scold and sound like it was laughing.
It was funny. We spent a good 10 minutes laughing at that jay's antics. Caw caw!
--
Recently Nova played the episode about black holes at the center of the galaxy, and the wonderment of scientists finding proof that there was evidence of black holes at the center of most galaxies. I was really exhausted with hurting that night so I went to bed in the middle of it rambling as Mike tucked me in about the silliness of the scientists being so surprised. I said "It makes sense, because of the orbits and stuff that the universe operates on gravity which isn't very well understood. It's the power of suck."
He kissed my forehead and said "Go to sleep Shala."
So I asked William. "William, why does the moon orbit earth?"
"Gravity."
"Why does the earth orbit the sun?"
"Gravity." (at this point he's giving that "Mom, you're crazy, but I'll humor you." look)
"Okay, galaxies rotate, the sun and other stars rotate, what's in the middle of the galaxy?"
"Probably a black hole."
See??? He's not a scientist! But given the givens, he thought it made sense that a black hole was in the middle of it all. And I was right. It's the power of suck. Or gravity.
---
I'm crocheting nunchaku. Which led to a very silly conversation. I mentioned that I was sizing them for myself. I looked up the standard dimensions for traditional nunchaku. The cord should cross the palm with just enough for the sticks to hang over the sides, and the stick parts should be long enough when held to protect the forearms. Mike said "They are crocheted, they will not protect your forearm." and I said "Yes, but I have to size them to someone and my hands and arms are the smallest, and I want them to be as accurate as possible."
"They are soft plushie nunchaku, not weapons."
"But they COULD be. I could fill them with steel shot."
"And practice the subtle art of chet (pronounced shay, like the end of crochet)"
"Mike, you're being silly."
"Oh, I'm SO sorry."

Working on- crocheted nunchaku (pattern will be available when I finish them)
Cupcake box sized for a standard cupcake (will be posted soon)
Tutorial for reading a peyote bead graph

On deck- Article on shaping peyote around objects with gorgeous examples by Miss Teri, and some sort of ogala butterfly project.

( bun cover! )
You can find the pattern here.

The last crochet or knit pattern from Star Gift Book No. 150, the rest are embroidery patterns or yarn crafts and I'm still deciding if I'm going to post them for completion or not.
( Fish Mobile )
I think this pattern would be cute in thread for phone charms and such.

( silly in jokes with your partner + youtube video )

Well, I did finish my bun holder last night, but I didn't keep track of my stitches because bun holders are sort of personal things, and what fits my hair might not fit yours. At some point I'll have to write a tutorial for making them though. I put my hair up in a basic bun, and then put the holder over it and slipped in a bent vintage steel dpn, and it held very securely until I took it out a few hours later. I'll see if I can get a picture later.
Hopefully today I'll get a bit more done.

I really absolutely want the new Kindle but some how I think I'm going to have a hard time convincing Mike I need two just because the new one has more memory and a native pdf reader, and I don't want it enough to not still want my Kindle 2 since the size slides so easily into my purse and is so very convenient.
Tuesday morning the new Southern Vampire book came out, and it was so neat to have it pre-ordered, turn on my Kindle first thing when I woke up, and be done reading it by noon.
Still weather achy. Still not absolute ruler of the world.

I relisted the earring pattern set here.
Other than that..yesterday I wanted to get some good lace for a choker, and I was mourning the fact that Three Sisters fabric wasn't opened anymore. Mike took me to Seams Like Home and I found fabric there. Like most of the independent fabric shops in town, it's got a strong quilting theme, but I did find the kind of lace I wanted, and amusingly enough, it was stock from Three Sisters! The owner of Seams Like Home bought their stock and merged the two stores! E got a bunch of scraps for her dolls and we also picked up some elastic and buttons to make bento belts for our new bento boxes. (and I splurged on some German sequins, because I love sequins)
We stopped on the way home for dinner at New Sagaya.
So today I'm going to finish up a new bun holder I'm making myself, and E and I are going to make bento belts decorated with buttons.

( Picture )

So while I was making it, I had to frog 3 times because I've never done flat non-increasing pineapples, all my pineapples were for things like doilies and ruffles. Mike and I were talking, and I was trying to explain what I was doing, and the geometry involved.
And I finally said "But all this just makes no sense to you does it? You don't even know what a pineapple is." and he replied
"It's a crocheted lacy design that starts with a curved base and decreases towards the top." and my mouth fell open.

"It's like learning a new language. Eventually with total immersion, you pick up a lot."

You can find the pattern here.

So I'm not sure I'll be able to get this posted before I lose my connection again.
I posted a crochet pattern to Don't Eat the Paste, but like I said, I'll post here as well as soon as I can trust my connection. It's a pineapple patterned thread nano pouch.

I won't make it to chat tonight because really? The last 16 hours, I've been lucky to get in 30 seconds of connection before I'm dropped again. The techs at my isp are working on the issue though.

Remember my Little Bat crochet pattern? Well, I've been really eager to show off what Share made with it and posted to Ravelry, but I had to wait. She made a bride and groom set for her Dad and Step-mom to give to them for their wedding. Here Comes The Bat.. aren't those the cutest?

I was talking with jehanna today about marmalades and jams, and how cute a little vampire orange would look on a jar of marmalade made with blood oranges. We also talked about what would be in a goth jam. We decided on blood oranges, pomegranates (juice probably, it's a lot easier than dealing with seeds!) and cloves. After a bit more thought, I wonder if a touch of wild roses would be good in our hypothetical goth jam.

I didn't make jam or scones today. Mike is sick, and I think I'm coming down with it. So I made dinner a couple days ahead, and a big pot of chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles. I even put brussel sprouts in it for Mike, and carefully served mine up without them. I still think they are evil. When I was a kid, my mom once told me I couldn't leave the table until I finished my brussel sprouts. I'm sure you can all guess how that ended. Yeah.. when she woke me up for school the next day, she decided I didn't want to eat them a lot more than she wanted me to.

Almost done. One crochet pattern left after this, and the rest are yarn crafts, appropriate for
children to do with your help, and for grandparents to ooh and aww over. This pattern made me nuts, and I edited just a bit because it kept changing how it expressed the stitches, sometimes from one row to the next the spacing in the abbreviation would change. Other than that, I didn't edit the original text.
( Gift Doily )

As promised. I even colorized the picture so you could get an idea how they look colorized. The reversed colors for the matched set, I didn't do. But I'm sure you'll be able to imagine. And shudder. Be afraid. Be very very afraid.
( Crocheted Potholders )

Also from Star Gift Book No. 150.
( fluffy crochet! )

Well... the spine finally tore on it. I knew it would. So I'm going to try and get the whole thing transcribed in the next couple of weeks.
Of course.. I haven't shown you the horror yet. That will have to wait. I'll post it on Friday the 13th, it deserves a special day all it's own. It really truly does get worse than the odd hand puppet on the cover. But today's project is pretty. I think I'll need to see if I can graph out the pattern in international crochet symbol at some point, because following it in my mind in the written form made me a bit dizzy.
( Sunburst Rose Doily )

I spent today mostly reading, cooking, and working on my scarf, I'm halfway through the second round, and it will be 4 rounds total. (strip method donchaknow)

I also spent a little while transcribing a couple new patterns. This time, knit patterns. The first one is fairly wearable. The second, really customizable, but for the most part? Not recommending the customizations they did. Well.. E loves one, and I like one. Can you guess which ones we like? But I think it would look too cute with embroidered flowers and rick rack, because rick rack makes everything look better.
( No date in this book )
It doesn't say, but the Loops variation is the one you need the crochet hook for. And check out the flowers hat! Yep. Those are pom pom flowers. It sort of reminds me of those swimming caps with plastic flowers attached.
Did you guess which variation I liked and which one E likes?

I love this stole pattern. It's done strip method, and has a flower-y look to it.
It's from 1952.
( Barbara Stole )