Crafty Christmas Swag

by Kelly

I received much crafty swag for Christmas this year:

My early experiments with tatting have shown me that while tatting is simple to do, it's difficult to do beautifully without practice:

And although we didn't have a white Christmas here, beautiful fluffy white flakes are now falling.

New Year's Eve is fast approaching. Resolution time. I resolve to be happier with the things I have, and less driven to change the things I can do nothing about. In fact, that may be my permanent resolution.

Mitten Tree Contributions!

by Kelly

Merry Christmas Eve! Best wishes for a happy holiday. Best wishes even for those who are gathered on a beach in sunnier climes, watching a parade of decorated boats. Actually, no - pooh on you.

In other news, the Mitten Tree contributions have been delivered! Just in time for cold and snowy weather.

The heap seems to be about the same size as last year...

 

Yay for warm hands and heads! And surprisingly, our contributions were supposed to be distributed just before Christmas break, so the kids will have something to wear when they're outside playing in the snow. If there is more than a dusting of snow, that is. And do kids even play outside anymore, or do they spend most of their time snuggled up near a warm Internet connection?

Oh well, it's the thought that counts, right?

And speaking of thoughts, best wishes to all for a happy holiday. May the next year be merry and bright. Fingers crossed.

End of the World Calendar Shopping

by Kelly

So as you can see, the world didn't end after all (or at least, not yet), which means that now I have to go shopping for a calendar. As usually happens, we have 'inherited' three calendars already, but these calendars really don't suit us, for various reasons. Hand me down calendars rarely do, am I right?

So first up is this one, which doesn't have anything to do with crafting. I would only go with this calendar because my husband calls this 'the alien dog' and that's perfect for an 'end of the world' mindset.

via Amazon

I do agree with my husband, by the way - that dog has a suspiciously large cranium to be just an ordinary household pet. Admittedly, it's terribly cute, but can you really trust it not to be part of an alien incursion force?

Then there's this one, which doesn't involve a craft that I can actually do but is too beautiful to pass up:

via Amazon

I could hang this on our wall and be plagued with guilt that I haven't taken any steps to broaden my crafting horizons beyond window shopping for pretty fabrics.

Then there is this one, which involves a craft that I do know:

via Amazon

But I already have a full agenda of knitting/crochet projects planned, so do I really need more projects? Ahh...no.

For sheer eye-candy, though, this is my favorite:

via Skein Queen

Gorgeous, right? Limited supply only, so act soon....

The one I was really leaning towards is this unravelling scarf calendar. Until I saw the price, that is. I think fifty-nine dollars is a bit steep for a calendar. Admittedly I would use it every day, and it is multi-functional, but still...

via Generate

Pull on a thread and the day unravels...very nice. WHY didn't I think of that?
I found this via 1 Design per Day, which has lots of cool calendars that you should really check out, including one that uses bubble wrap.

So the search goes on. Luckily I have plenty of time, seeing as how the world didn't end after all.

via Amazon

Maybe I'll just save myself some money and use the night sky as my calendar. Hey, it worked for the Mayans. The more things change, the more things stay the same, right? Sometimes they even come full circle.

Mickey and Minnie Mouse Christmas Ornament Pattern

by Kelly

Sorry for the brief hiatus - it's been a very busy week here. But I did find time to  make some cookie ornaments.

These are super easy and very durable. So durable they might even be pet proof, although pets will certainly try to eat them. I used this easy recipe from allrecipes, which is my goto online recipe book. If you'd like to make these cookies water proof for outdoor use, I'd suggest spraying or painting them with some kind of polycrylic sealer (the kind you find at the hardware store). Speaking from experience, they do tend to dissolve easily if they get wet (for example, if you happen to knock over your morning beverage on the counter where they are lying), and there's nothing sadder than a soggy cookie ornament.

And if you don't have time to make your own, they're available in our shop for a limited time.

I also crocheted some cute Mickey and Minnie Mouse ornaments for the tree.  These are very simple and take about three minutes each, so they're perfect if you need a last minute stocking stuffer.

This is a free pattern, and if you wish to make these for your own use please feel free. You can not reproduce this pattern in any part for profit, or claim it as your own.

Mickey and Minnie Mouse Christmas Ornaments

Materials:

Black worsted weight yarn

size G crochet hook

optional: 1" wide fabric ribbon (I used red with white dots) and red sewing thread.

Gauge isn't super critical for these. You can easily adjust the size by using different yarn or hooks. Mine came in at about 5" (measured across both ears).

Pattern:

Main head (make one)

1. Make a magic ring and sc 6 into the center.  Pull tight and mark your first stitch (I use a paper clip). Ch 1.

2. Work 2 sc into each stitch around to your marker and join with a slip stitch. Ch 1.

3. *Sc into first stitch, work 2 sc in next stitch. Repeat from * around to your marker and join. Ch 1.

4. *Sc in first two stitches, work 2 sc in next stitch. Repeat from * around to your marker and join. Cut yarn end and fasten off.

Ears (make two)

1. Make a magic ring and sc 6 into the center. Pull tight to join and mark your first stitch. Ch 1.

2. Work 2 sc into each stitch around to end. Join with a slip stitch, cut yarn end and fasten off.

Sew ears to head (with yarn or black sewing thread) through two or three stitches only. This will help your ornament look like Mickey or Minnie, and not a teddy bear.

Optional: Make Minnie's hair bow.

Cut about a 5" length of ribbon. Fold a flat bow with your ribbon and sew it to Minnie's head with red sewing thread. You could use black thread, but I found it showed up against the red ribbon, while red thread disappeared into the black yarn. For a great tutorial on how to fold flat ribbon bows, check out this YouTube video.

That's it, you're done! Add a hanger of some kind and add it to your Christmas tree to proudly show your love of all things Mickey and Minnie.

Only eight days 'till Christmas. But who's counting?

How to Fix a ColecoVision Gaming Unit That Shows Weird Picture

by Kelly

We interrupt our regularly scheduled crafty post to bring you a special feature - old school video game repair.

Santa came to our house early and brought us the ColecoVision gaming system that my husband wanted when he was a kid. Only 29 years late, but hey, you can't have everything. Including, it seems, a working game system.

No Cartridge

With Cartridge

We tried to clean it (that's what the giant sized bottle of rubbing alcohol on the table is all about) to no avail. Luckily, through the magic of the Internet, the solution was less than a minute away.

We landed on Joomla!, which I had never heard of before, but it's a great site for those with a love of archaic game systems. And there was our solution - an easy, in depth tutorial, with pictures. Cheers, Callan, our faceless Internet adviser, and thanks for the help!

All you have to is change the power switch. Get out your solder braid or your handy dandy vacuum pump solder sucking system, if you have one. Ah, how I miss the high-tech soldering stations that I had access to at school.

Switch removed

You can repair the switch itself, if you're a traditionalist, but that requires disassembling the switch, cleaning the contacts, applying new dielectric grease, and reassembling said switch. Frankly, that seemed like a huge pain in the a**, so we chose to install a new switch.

Once you've done this minor repair, you can do the happy dance, when your system works like new:

 

So if you're in a similar situation with your ColecoVision, just visit Joomla!'s tutorial and in no time you'll be up and running. One tip on taking apart the ColecoVision: there are three case screws under the silver label on the front of the unit. If you're a patient person, and lucky, you should be able to peel up that label and reapply it with no problems. Don't take it all the way off, just lift each end until you find the screws, then stick it back down.

Sorry to go off topic, but I just had to share, and never fear, our next post will be about crafting. Or backyard birding. Or books. Probably.

The Sweater Project

by Kelly


The sweater project begins:

This is a project from the kit I Taught Myself Knitting, produced by Boye. Some people slam this kit because of the 'outdated' patterns, or because they found it difficult to learn from, or because the materials weren't adequate.  I personally would give this book 4 stars, and think it's a great resource for beginning knitters, provided you have access to YouTube. 

I freely confess that I learned how to knit by watching YouTube videos. It's cheaper than classes, easier than trying to decipher diagrams or drawings in a book, and you can consult YouTube in the middle of the night when a project has gone awry and you need a helping hand.

The Boye kit does provide great guidance in 'what's next'. It walks you through the process of learning to knit, and the projects in the book detail exactly what you need to know, with page numbers of the lessons.  For example, for the sweater I'm working on, I need to know lessons 1,2,3,4,7,8, 10, 14, and 16. In other words, I should be able to knit, purl, increase and decrease, knit to gauge, join yarn, and seam. If I can't, I probably shouldn't tackle this project yet.

Since I have never knit a sweater before, I needed a simple pattern that has been tested. I decided I would rather not learn from an online pattern that might be full of errors and typos, and would only confuse me further. I'm sure that I'll be plenty confused as is. And the Ravelry page (I heart you, Ravelry) doesn't have any errata for this pattern, so I'm hopeful that at least I'll be working from good instructions.

I can already say, though, after knitting three gauge swatches, that I don't think much of this Bernat yarn. It doesn't seem to wear very well in the washer, though it's advertised as 'machine washable'. I might end up hand washing this sweater, and it would have been nice to know this ahead of time. Still, we'll see what the finished product looks like.

Stay tuned for the next week or so, to see how it goes.

Awake with the Birds

by Kelly

Another potently pink sunrise.

In the photo it actually comes off as more mauve. Interesting.

Meanwhile, word has gotten around the neighborhood that I'm offering a free breakfast. Take a look at some of the visitors I've had over the last few days.

 

Our cat is a confirmed birdwatcher. He lurks under the Christmas tree, which is right by the patio door, so that he can watch unseen. Occasionally he meows in frustration when he sees a particularly tasty morsel fly off, stuffed with seeds or peanuts.

And speaking of Christmas trees, we've decided to put up the artificial one. Mostly because we had to go to our other house to get ornaments anyway, so if we used the artificial one, we wouldn't have to make another trip to get a tree. Chalk one up for laziness.

Of course, now it's time to unpack all the non-working light strings and get to work on repairing them. Sigh.