rostitchery

from my family to yours

 

attention gayle: i crocheted

my sister sabrina introduced our family to sushi.  when she was still a teenager, she got a job at a japanese restaurant, where to the best of my knowledge her job was to wear pretty kimonos and charm all the patrons with her beauty and wit.

for christmas this year, i made her a scarf, but not just any scarf.  unrolled and ready for wearing it is a mild-mannered length of yarnful goodness:

but rolled up and served in a take-out box, it is a yarnful bit of maki-sushi:

this is the very first crochet project that i have successfully completed, and it is all thanks to one bit of advice i got from an online friend: 

"the chain two at the beginning of the row counts as the first double crochet". 

WHY DIDN'T SOMEONE TELL ME THIS BEFORE?!?!?  no wonder all my things were always out of shape and wonky--i was only counting the double crochets that i actually made, not the turning loops at the beginning of the row.  this one little tip converted what started out as a hopelessly out-of-whack crochet craftastrophe into a delightfully in-whack pun of a scarf.  i am so proud of myself.

edited 24 december to add:  another friend gave me a link that has a very clear demonstration on what to do at the end of the row, it is even better and simpler than what i was doing which was trying to crochet into the turning chain:  bella dia's vintage vertical stripe crocheted blanket pattern

and now i know why people like to crochet--it is really fast, compared to knitting anyway.  and this scarf is very cozy, ella and i both want one.  mostly so we can be hip like gayle.

i felt a draft

oh the bitter irony--nashville is colder than freezing but we will once again be deprived of snow.

our house has what was advertised as the largest residential front door in nashville--a total exaggeration but fun to say anyway.  it is 48" wide, and it is less than 1.5" thick.  it is original to the house which was built in 1925.  for this reason, we can never just run out and buy a screen door or a deadbolt lock.  anything to go to or with or on this door has to be custom made. 

which is why i spent time and money to make a draft stopper.  the gap under the door is really big, and the draft coming under the door was even bigger.  you could literally feel the wind blowing around your ankles.  but i wanted a draft stopper that i wouldn't have to pick up and move every time i opened the door--the way i had been for the past 8 years with the blankets and towels we had been using--and one that would stay against the door when i left the house--and the blankets and towels stubbornly refused to place themselves accordingly.  then one late night when i should have been asleep instead of watching another episode of "unwrapped", i saw the perfect thing:  the twin draft guard.

but the amazing patented twin draft guard only comes in 35" lengths, and due to the afore-mentioned extra wide/extra skinny door, i was forced to totally engineer something that already exists.  which kind of ticked me off, which accounts for the fact that i didn't finish any of the raw edges.

   

i used 1/4 yard of ripstop nylon (slick stuff, so it will slide over our carpet), and two foam thingies that are used to insulate pipes.  the foam thingies came from the home depot, they come in different sizes but each piece is 6 feet long, i got 1" diameter and it cost $1.65 each.  so the whole thing cost about what it would cost to buy one, which isn't bad in crafting terms.

i cut the nylon a little wider than the door, and i cut each foam thingie to the exact width of the door.  i folded the nylon in half  the "hot dog" way, then on each long side i folded over a pocket big enough to slide the foam thingies in, with a space between the pockets just wide enough to accomodate the door.   i actually took a tuck in this one to make it even snugger--but don't make the pockets themselves too tight or the foam thingies won't slide in.

when the door is closed, the little excess on each end tucks up around the opening and fills the ends.

if/when i make another one, i think i will put batting in to fatten up the part under the door.

so now we're ready for winter!  anybody who wants to ship some of their excess snow to nashville, please let me know, i'll chip in on the postage.

tennis shoes, sea coins, and lemonaders

the christmas crafting is almost done, and i am really proud of myself for not going overboard.  every project has been something that used materials we already had, and none of them took more than a day to finish.  i feel so virtuous which is a nice way to feel in this virtuous season.

i was invited to ella's preschool last week to tell them about christmas in the philippines and something that stuck with everybody, kids and teachers, was that one of the main gifts there is fruit.  so i was thinking on getting each of the teachers a papaya which was always my favorite but they are expensive here, then i thought of clementines which i like too but then at aldi's i saw pineapples for 99cents so i got one for each of the teachers and aides.  ella's lead teacher is extra wonderful so for her we splurged and got a chocolate reindeer.

however i thought it might be weird to just hand somebody a pineapple, so we also made bookmarks, using torn tissue paper which ella calls "tennis shoe paper", some sequins which she calls "sea coins", and the laminator which she calls the "lemonader".  this was really fun and i'm thinking we'll make some gift tags or suncatchers this way too.  i made tassels with yarn and tied the bookmarks around the pineapples, and with that we had instant festiveness.

   

this is a super easy project that even little kids can do:  just tear bits of tennis shoe paper and lay them inside the plastic lemonading pouch, add as many sea coins as you wish, then run the whole thing thru the lemonader.  when they have cooled, cut them into strips, punch a hole in one end, and tie on a tassel.  all done!

if you don't have a lemonader, you can do the same thing with clear contact paper.  i've also tried DIY lemonading, using ziptop bags and pressing them with a warm iron, this works but it is kind of tricky, you have to be vigilant or you will end up with a lemonaded ironing board. 

we delivered the pineapples today and everybody loved them!  ok, i did overhear one parent make a snarky remark about "fruity homemade gifts", so no pineapple for her.  :D 

we heart the wonder pets

when the wonder pets first came on TV, about two years ago, ella immediately fell in love with them and assigned us each a character--she was linny, rudi was tuck, i was ming-ming. for months she would only answer to linny, and if i forgot and called her ella she would simply ignore me or patiently remind me that her name was linny. during that time she only called me mama when she was asleep.

this show is so well crafted that even the opera singers would sit with ella and watch the videos.  the first year, the wonder pets' christmas special was "the wonder pets save the reindeer".  in it, the wonder pets get a snowglobe that has their schoolhouse, santa is flying his sleigh overhead and the flyboat is not far behind.  all ella wanted that year for christmas was that "snowglove"--it was all she mentioned to santa, and it was the only thing she asked for even after looking thru pages and pages of the target wish book.  i looked high and low, in every store in town and online and asked all my friends and i never found one.  i reluctantly settled on one that had snowmen roasting marshmallows, an activity she loves, and she was so gracious when she saw it but it was obvious that she was disappointed that santa didn't make her the one she wanted.

 

my heart was broken.  to this day, i am still on the lookout for the snowglobe and if i ever find it, santa will bring it to ella even if it is july.  (luckily our tree is up all year so he will know where to leave it).

this year, they (little airplane productions, the makers of the wonder pets) made a new special, "the wonder pets save the nutcracker".  as a former professional ballerina who has lived thru many a nutcracker hostage crisis, i normally avoid all nutcracker spin-offs because, frankly, they are usually dreadful.  but ella wanted to see the wonder pets special because she has recently developed a love of "knick-knackers" (nutcrackers), and she doesn't have any of the emotional baggage that her mama carries regarding all things "nutty".  so we duly set a reminder to watch the world premier, and ella was counting the days until it came.

in the meantime, she saw a little blurb on noggin about making wonder pets ornaments.  their website (or rather, the nick jr. website that noggin redirects you to) has templates and a list of materials with instructions on how to make them, and she determined that we would make ornaments so we'd be ready when the christmas show came on.  we checked the stash and we had everything we needed, so i printed out the templates and the afternoon of the premier it was time for teamwork--i cut and she glued and we both painted and when we were done, we had the wonder pets.

these are my new favorite christmas ornaments.  i esp. love the "sea coins" (sequins) that she carefully and lovingly placed on each one in specific places that she had determined before we even started them.

i am NOT a fan of dumbed-down art made for children, but "save the nutcracker" is not like that at all, it is respectful of tchaikovsky and very entertaining at the same time.  if you have a chance, do try to watch this show.  i would say it is one of only two derivative nutcrackers i've ever liked.  this is a perfect introduction to the ballet, it gives the music a frame of reference that directly corresponds to the ballet (unlike disney's "sleeping beauty" which uses the ballet like incidental music).  it is just so rare and exciting to see a ballet not get mangled in the process of making it "accessible".  the nick jr. website has more terrific wonder pets crafts and activity sheets to go with this episode, including a song book and some paper ornaments that you can just print and cut.

and now it's back to the search for the snowglobe.  i pray i don't end up having to martha one. 

zen and the art of hair color

when i was a little girl, i wanted yellow hair.  i drew a lot of pictures of myself with yellow hair--with a groovy "that girl" flip on the bottom--but at some point i must have realized that i'd never have yellow hair, at least not naturally yellow hair, and eventually that dream disappeared.

   

then one teenage day, i decided i would have black hair.  pitch black, as black as coal, and i could get it right out of a bottle.  i felt so grown up and sophisticated, like i was becoming someone else, and when i rinsed that first hit of clairol out of my hair, i was hooked. 

it turns out that clairol is a gateway drug.  eventually, pitch black was not enough.  eventually, i wanted it more than just black.  i wanted it blue-black.  and there it was, on the top row of the shelf at the 5-and-dime:  clairol #124, natural blue black.  an hour later, i was exotic.

but it was only a matter of time before natural blue black just wasn't enough, and that left only one option--unnatural blue black, which at first made me feel daring and adventurous, but which eventually made me feel inadequate and unloved, because even lady clairol wouldn't go out on that limb for me and i was left with nothing but unreliable street colors, cut with a big dose of peroxide, to get me by. 

the detox was not pretty.  it involved a combination of awkward hair-growing out and a short period of my life spent hiding in my apartment.  i got thru it, and i'm clean now--well, ok, my hair is still blue black but nothing stronger than lady c. for me--yet i still occasionally flirt with the idea of revisiting my blue hair, although age dictates that soon i won't need the peroxide in order to make my hair white enough to dye blue.

these days, someone i love is having hair issues far greater than mine, so i did what anybody would do--i made her some hair.  and since hair you make can be any color you want, i chose to make hair exactly as i want it:  blue. 

elizabeth, this "hair" is on it's way to you, i'm sorry it took so long but it turns out i am much faster at making my hair blue than i am at making blue hair.  i love you, friend.  go be punky!

doggie sweater on the knifty knitter

it's been a while since i posted something for the knifty knitter.  i get away from it and forget how much fun it is, and then when i take it up again for a project i remember how much fun it is!

anyway, i needed a gift for my friend brenda who recently got a very cute little puppy and with winter coming of course i thought her cute little puppy needed a sweater. 

no, your eyes do not deceive you, this is not a cute little puppy, this is an irritating little stuffed cat but the cute puppy and the stuffed cat are about the same size, and the stuffed cat will sit still for pictures.

i knit this sweater right under brenda's nose, in the green room during an opera last month--she asked me what i was making and i said it was a gift for a dear friend which was not only not a lie, it was the exact truth. 

brenda had been asking for instructions on how to make such a sweater on the KK looms so here they are:

i used the blue loom, you could use any loom that is the right size for your dog.  the yarn was something fuzzy in my stash--i had already wound it into pull balls and had tossed out the label/band, but the red was chenille and the body was some bulky-weight stuff that ella picked out on a shopping trip this summer.  

cast on and knit several rounds to make a collar.  i chose to make a rolled collar but you could also do this with K2P2 ribbing to make a flat collar, or you could make a brim that is pulled up as for a hat.  change colors/yarns after you knit the collar, if you so choose.  then knit until the piece looks long enough to fit your dog from neck to front legs.

to make leg openings:  at the beginning of the next round, bind off enough pegs to fit your dog.  for this little sweater i bound off four pegs--for a larger dog, do more (i can't be more specific as i haven't tested on other sizes--but it is pretty easy to hold up the work to the dog to check).  then knit the same number of pegs as you bound off--if you bound off pegs 1 thru 4, then knit pegs 5 thru 8--and bind off another set of pegs for the other leg, in this case pegs 9 thru 12.  then finish knitting the round as usual.

ok, i hear you asking how to bind off and still have the working yarn at the right peg to knit--i do it like this:

wrap and knit peg 1--move the loop from peg 2 over to peg 1 and knit--then move the remaining loop back to peg 2.  repeat until you have four empty pegs.  your working yarn will be ready to continue knitting pegs 5 thru 8.  this makes a stretchy edge which matches the stitches that will be cast on in the next round to complete the leg openings.

on the next round, wrap the entire loom as usual and knit the pegs that have two loops.  after that, you just knit around as usual until the body is as long as you like.  to finish, i recommend K2P2 ribbing so as not to make a lumpy roll for the doggie to lie on.

that's it!  if you don't have a doggie to knit for, please consider knitting one or more sweaters to donate to your local animal shelter, they make very nice going home outfits for doggies that get adopted at christmas. 

a most excellent advent calendar

yes, that's right--two posts in one day. 

ella and i made our advent calendar this afternoon!  we used only materials we had at home--some envelopes that i had saved from bills (since we pay online, we don't use them), some magazines, and the advertising circulars from the sunday paper.

we cut the envelopes in half and closed the flaps, making little pockets. then we cut out red and green bits from the magazines, and cut out numbers from the ads. we pasted them all on, then we hung the envelopes on a piece of yarn on the mantel.

inside each envelope i put a piece of paper that has a short passage from the bible and a little treat to go with each one. the list of bible passages and treats came from a website that my friend julie found at a really cool website called danielle's place.

of course ella opened the first envelope tonight--the treat was a quarter, and she gave it to the child she is sponsoring thru save the children pal, mylene, which is in keeping with today's bible--mark 12:41-44--the widow's mite.

if you prefer, you could make this advent calendar and instead of bible passages you could put in ideas for advent activities such as "ride around looking at christmas lights" or "paint our nails red and green" or any other activity that you think your family would enjoy.   or of course you could just do the right thing and just put in chocolates.  :D

baby cradle and knot doll

this is probably the year we're all going to have to take back our christmas craft revolt, but let's be reasonable--this is not the time to rush out to the craft store to stock up on supplies--now, more than ever is the time for us to shop at home and use the craft supplies we stocked up on already. 

but my rule is that no craft for anybody outside the family shall take more than one day to complete, and shall use materials i already have on hand.  and thus was born this cradle and knot doll. 

 

this was the gift we gave to the twin sister of the boy for whom we made the tiddlywinks game.  the cradle is an oatmeal box, i cut out the front leaving a bonnet on the back.  we (ella and i) covered the box with fabric and trim--ella picked it all out from stash--then i sewed a little mattress and blanket. 

the knot doll is one of my all-time favorite gifts.  it is just a general body shape (unstuffed) that has extra long arms and legs which get tied into knots to be hands and feet.  i stuffed a piece of muslin for the head, and made a little cone cap out of the scraps from the body.  i never put faces on these dolls, that way the child can pretend the baby is happy or sad or yawning or whatever.

this little cradle is kind of sentimental for me--the lace around the bonnet is at least 35 years old, it was in my childhood trim box and called out to me when we were looking for things to decorate the cradle with, and the fabric we used for the knot doll body was the last fat quarter from over five yards of fabric that i dyed when i was first learning about fabric dyeing so it is around ten years old. 

this gift was super easy and of course my little mommy-child wants one for herself.  i hope to make another one before christmas, this time covered in twigs and rough material, to be a manger for ella's first nativity--i'm pretty excited about a baby knot jesus, i think his little tied hands and feet would be a fitting metaphor for a god who confined himself to the human condition.