Yarnification

I finished this a couple of days ago but just took it off the blocking board last night. I have got to get my new big piece of cardboard set up with the doily blocking template on it. I have the hardest time making doilies come out round doing it freehand.

I experimented with blocking on this one. Lori mentioned after I posted about using some 300 or so pins on the last one that she hardly uses any, just around the edges, and then not long after that I saw a post of Julie’s at Crochetville where she talked about starting out pinning in the middle and taking out the middle pins after moving to the outer parts.

When I read that, light dawned on marble head and I realized that I don’t necessarily have to leave all those pins in the middle once I’ve got the outside done. Also this one didn’t ruffle as much as the Prairie Star did, so I think even doing it my old way I probably would’ve only used about a hundred or so LOL. Anyway, I tried taking out the middle ones after I’d gotten things stretched out further toward the edge, and in the end I just had a circle of pins around the outside edge. I think it came out okay though I can totally see some places where it isn’t quite round (hence the need for the blocking pattern).

So maybe I won’t need a million billion pins when I get around to blocking the Pineapple Squares Thing.

Anyway. Completed Pinwheel Treat doily:

(Clickable for full size and pattern info.)

I kept wondering why sometimes my photos come out with a reddish cast like this one did (it’s white, actually), and I finally realized that all the ones that came out that way were taken under compact fluorescent lighting. Regular fluorescents don’t seem to do it, and neither do incandescents. This camera is soooo picky.

The thread hair kerchief (the one that looked like split pea soup in the photo I posted last week because I took it under the light with the compact fluorescents in it) is coming along nicely. I think it needs about four or so more rows, then the edging. I really like the one I made out of worsted weight cotton, so I’ll be really happy to have this one done, too.

I’m growing out my bangs, so I’ve been trying to come up with creative ways not to have my hair hanging in my face. So I’ve got the headbands I made a while back, and now these kerchiefs for some variety. I checked yesterday after I got out of the shower, and my bangs are now down to somewhere around my mouth. That’s when it’s wet, though; it’s probably somewhere around the middle of my nose once it dries and curls up. It’s looking like I’ve got another six months or so to go before I have the option of not wearing something to hold it back all the time.

I’m it! I was tagged by Lori:
Write down 5 of your own idiosyncrasies, then if you wish, tag 5 people.
This could be a little hard because I’m more than a little quirky!

1. I have to put on my shoes and socks a certain way. First the socks (left sock, then right), then put on the shoes (left, then right), then lace them up one at a time (left, then right), then tie them one at a time (you guessed it—left, then right). I know this is peculiar and possibly a sign that I am stark raving mad, but at a young age I somehow got it into my head that it was bad luck not to do it that way. About a year ago I decided this was more than a little loony, so I told myself that this notion that Something Bad would happen if I didn’t do it that way was ridiculous and made a point of putting on one sock and shoe (lacing and tying and all) before moving on to the other one.
    
   What happened that day? While I was at work, some punk-ass adolescent boys shot out two of the four plate-glass windows at the store with an air rifle, to the tune of over $700 because our insurance policy doesn’t cover the plate glass (and even if it did I think our deductible is a thousand dollars). Theoretically this is a coincidence, but really, after a thing like that, I’m not up for any more experiments. I’ll just be crazy instead if it keeps us from having to replace any more glass.
2. I don’t put milk on cereal, ever. I mean, I can’t drink milk anymore anyway, but even when I could I never put it on cereal. In my opinion wet cereal is just plain nasty.
3. I have a fascination with office supplies. I can happily wander around Staples for an hour or more looking at paper and pens and things. I especially love paper.
4. (Lori’s list reminded me of this; I’m just the opposite on this subject.) I feel there can never be too much sauce on a pizza. I order pizza with no cheese and extra sauce. The best pizza I ever had, maybe 15 years ago, was the “plain” pizza at a place called Sally’s in New Haven. It has no cheese but garlic all over it, and it was so good that some days I think it’d be worth the 12-hour drive to New Haven to get some.
5. Why am I having trouble coming up with a fifth idiosyncrasy? It’s not like I don’t have plenty of them…Okay, here’s another one: I recently started taking photos of roadside historical markers (like this one). Partly because I have a fascination with them and must stop and read them whenever I see one, and partly because I intend, once I have enough photos, to put up a web site of historical marker photos. This web site will most likely be of no interest to anyone but me, but that will not stop me.

(I haven’t figured out who else to tag yet since I’m behind on reading blogs so don’t know who hasn’t done it yet…)

Thank you to everyone who complimented my snowflakes or otherwise left a comment recently! I’ve been really terrible about responding to comments lately; I have all these comment notification emails in my inbox and though I always fully intend to reply to them, I’m pretty bad about actually doing it. I don’t mean to be rude. I’m just a little flaky about remembering to answer my email. So thank you, and I’m sorry for not replying individually!

Because I apparently do not have quite enough projects going on already:

I’m at the end of round 12 (of 24). Pattern is the Pinwheel Treat Doily [PDF file] at freepatterns.com. After I started it, I noticed it’s by the same designer, Della Bieber, as the Prairie Star doily. I need to see if I can hunt up any other patterns she’s done because I really love these two of hers I’ve seen so far.

I’m worrying about Kittycat today. He had been fine for I guess a couple of weeks now, but yesterday he started peeing in inappropriate places (like on my bed—guess who spent yesterday evening washing sheets?) and has been going to the litter box a lot. I started watching him like a hawk, and he doesn’t appear to be feeling particularly unwell; he’s still running around and playing, is eating well, and so on. He definitely does not appear to have any blockage (my sheets can attest to that), but still this isn’t normal. I called the animal hospital earlier this afternoon and explained what was going on, and also explained that we just plain don’t have any money right now to bring him in (still reeling from the last time, and there is just not any money to do it), and what did they think we ought to do to keep him from getting sick again?

The vet called me back just a little while ago and agreed that it doesn’t sound like an emergency right now but that he may be getting another infection (which is what I was thinking) and offered to try a course of antibiotics without seeing him since we can’t pay for a visit just now, and that we should watch him really closely for any signs that he may be getting worse or developing another blockage.

I swear next time I see this guy I’m going to hug him. I didn’t know what on earth I was going to do.

Here are the rest of my Snowflakes in July Along flakes, finally got them blocked last night.

Going clockwise from the upper left of the photo, the patterns are Pretty Snowflake from jpfun.com, Blue Hightlight Snowflake from Dainty Crochet, and the coaster version of Denise Augostine’s Dreaming doily pattern. It looks just as much like a snowflake than a coaster to me, so I decided to go for it. Unfortunately her site is down so I can’t link to the pattern. I’m so glad this was one of the things I printed out before her site vanished!

I hadn’t seen Dainty Crochet before, and there are some great free patterns there. I especially like the Sweet Daisy doily, which is now on my to-do list.

Okay, I fixed the link in the snowflake post from last week. Apparently it was broken. Guess that’ll teach me to put up a post without bothering to check the links afterward…

I ended up finishing four snowflakes for the crochet-along. Three of them still need blocked, though. It was a busy week for me, so I decided I’d just make as many as I could and block them all at the same time. Only I haven’t quite gotten to that part yet. Hopefully tonight.

Right now I’m back to working on the hair kerchief. I’m doing this one in #10 thread. I think I’m about halfway there with regard to how many rows are left, but maybe a third of the way through considering that each row is longer than the last.

It’s showing up on my monitor as a kinda hideous split-pea soup green, but it really doesn’t look like that in person. It’s more of a spring green. When it’s finished I’ll try to make sure I take the photo under different light.