Felted Clogs the 6th… May 24, 2010

A brief history of Felted clogs as knit by Karen.

1. Made for Anna.

My first foray into felted clogs.  Ignored yarn requirements, bought two skeins of clog color and one of sole color.  Made it work by holding clog color and sole color together for inner sole of clog. Purple and black.

2. Made for me.

Paid attention to yarn requirement, apparently forgot how to count though. Compensated by picking up or dropping stitches randomly throughout to keep the stitch count right. Clogs still turned out super cute.

3. Made for Debbie. This pair was practically perfect except that I used a different kind of yarn. On my prior escapades I used Cascade 220 or Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride. For this pair I heard that the brown sheep naturespun  felted a lot faster – as I do my felting in a front loader this was ultra appealing. What I did not expect is that it would felt totally differently than the other yarns.  I consider this the wonkiest looking pair ever and there is not picture as I think they were felted at about two minutes before they were gifted.  They are also the warmest thickest pair I have made- so the recipient was still quite happy.

4. Made for Beth – again no picture – again, finished at the last absolute possible minute – there may be a pattern here but I refuse to acknowledge it. Lavender with purple soles – I used Hobby Lobby I Love this wool, and it was a slower start felting, but once it decided to felt – it felted.

5. Made for Kacey – and since these live with me and are frequently spotted in the wild (she wears them to school..yeah I am that mom, the one who lets her kid wear their slippers to school…) but still – no picture. These were a complete hybrid knit – all or the other purple and black leftovers held together in an amazing yarn conservation sytem effectively using all kinds of leftovers and still becoming felted clogs.

6. Made for Frankie -

who is graduating high school, and is nice to my freshman kid. The idea struck and I raided the stash using one skein of Brown Sheep Naturspun in bulky weight to knit all four soles! Beware clog knitters – this left ONLY enough to sew the sole together, not enough to do the cuff or attach the second sole, so for that I went back to pair No. 3 and used some of the purple to do the job. The blue was a skein of Lion Wool I had around thanks to my inability to resist a clearance sale.  The best part is these have a little racing stripe around the sole, which can not be considered sporty, since this is a slipper, but sure is cute.

So there it is – my most frequently knit pattern. Maybe I will learn to start more than two days before gifting is required

UFO to FO, Cathedral Rose Afghan… May 20, 2010

So a long long time ago, in a galaxy far away I saw the ultimate afghan pattern. I figured I would never make one, but set about checking on the pattern anyway…you know…just in case. Well it turns out that the pattern was from an old Annie’s Attic book – long out of print. The problem here is that now not only was I liking the afghan, but it had been deemed unattainable – making it that much more interesting to me.  I began emailing Annie’s Attic and asking for a reprint. Using multiple email addresses so I would look like a lot of people (Sock Puppets’R'us) Anyhoo, whether my emailing worked or whether someone at Annie’s said “hey look, people are paying lots of money for this old book – maybe we should consider it….” I will never know.  But the unattainable FINALLY became attainable. < Now you can even download it, saving yourself the mind numbing two week wait for slow boat shipping via smartpost.
I bought yarn and proceeded to attempt this blanket during the summer Ravelympics of 2008.   If I could crochet 24 hours a day I might have finished it.  Being a human (and apparently a mother – short people in my house kept asking for things…they must be mine… they look like me) I did not succeed.  Not only did I not succeed I burned myself out on it. So I put it away…far far away. Finally when Ravelympics 2010 rolled around I began to think it might be a good time to break it out again…and this time there was actually a pretty good chance I could have finished it – except for the short people. The tallest of the short people volunteered me to help with costumes on a musical where the sewing of 19 skirts and the hemming and altering of a multitude of ballgowns began.  So I basically failed at finishing for two consecutive Ravelmpics.
But the afghan did in fact finally get its day. In truth it got finished a couple weeks ago, but this is the first chance I have had to give it the blog post it is due.

The Cathedral Rose Afghan.

At a total of 84″ from side to side there is a deceptively HUGE amount of crochet here.

Entirely Red Heart Super Saver <1. It had to be washable. HAD to be.  2. If I made it of anything else I would have had to put it in a safe deposit box – the yardage in this thing is….intimidating.  While I was making it I had my doubts, but once it had been washed and dried it is nice and soft awesome for snuggling with.

The totals?  18 skeins of Super Saver – with not a lot left over.  That is a total of 5,712 yards of yarn.  3.25 MILES of yarn.

The pattern is surprisingly easy – at times it is mind numbing.  the fortunate thing is the construction is genius so that a little common sense can carry you through when nothing else does.

And the final product? Amazing. Beautiful. HUGE. Great for a snuggle with a short blanket thief, there is enough to go around I am so happy I finished this that it makes me giddy – and every time I sit wrapped up in it, or toss it over the back of the sofa I get a little thrill of accomplishment.

So there it is the long path from UFO to FO, the agony of defeat, the thrill of victory, and the need to find a new long term project.

Ravelry Page

The blog has been playing dead…. March 12, 2010

Or maybe that has been me. It is kind of hard to tell.

But – right now my life is starting to look a little sane. As in not quite as crazy as before. Before crazy was well and truly bat-crap-crazy. So now the insane just looks relatively sane.

Suicidal Tendencies had this to say about it “Who the hell you calling crazy? You wouldn’t know what crazy was if Charles Manson was eating Fruit Loops on your front porch.”

Only he isn’t. Not on my front porch at least. That said methinks it might be time to truly consider some blog CPR. Hate to stand around and watch this baby choke on her tongue. Plus it seems it would be wise to brush up on my WordPress skills as they may actually come in handy for the job that pays the bills. And we all know that these days a job that pays the bills is nothing to be sneezed at. I will shake my fist at it and curse it during the off hours, but truly I am not sure that really makes me feel any better, rather I think it just gives me something to do.

For those expecting the crafty content – I have actually made a few things, but I have to fix my dis-functional picture storage system stop being too cheap to pay for my damn flick’r account.

That said – I think I will do my taxes this weekend and perhaps as a reward for that I will re-up the flick’r.

Back soon y’all – just like a blank billboard – keep watching this space.

Dance the night away… September 28, 2009

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Originally uploaded by mintlatte

So this weekend I sent my girl (left) to a Homecoming Dance.
How on earth can you stall father time? He is running and I would settle for a nice crawl.

She came home just before her coach turned into a pumpkin having enjoyed her time as the bell of the ball.

Mel – thanks for the dress. It was super cute on her.

Some are dripping with pearls…. September 6, 2009

Me – I was dripping with teenage girls.  DD finally got her birthday party – and I beat a hasty retreat to my sewing room.

I am finally attending the yarn tasteing at Knitted Peace after wanting to go to one for a while and not being able to – that and just the general disarray of my needles had been forming thoughts in my head for some time.  I needed a way to keep track of my Options set so that I knew which points I had available.

There are times when I have something in mind and I sit down with random scrap fabric from my stash and just start cutting as sewing and ripping and experimenting until I get what I want.  This time I hit the jackpot – I got what I wanted on the first try.
Looks pretty simple from the outside – but inside is where the goodness is…

The pockets around the outer edges hold 16 sets of needle tips!  (More if I double small sizes in pockets Inside is enough room for all the other knit accessories I like to have handy – so finally I have a small accessory bag I can just throw in my knitting bag and run with.  Actual size is 8″ x 5.5″ x 2″.

This one is truly providence as I expected to go through at least a couple of iterations before I got what I wanted.  I didn’t even have a zipper on hand, and ended up using the zipper from one of those plastic bags sheets come in.  (reason I save so much worthless crap – someday I might need it – and I DID So my zipper pull says “imex vinylpackaging”  LOL.

Perhaps there is something to be said for letting ideas permeate for some time – I am truly happy this worked the first time, but if things keep working the first time, I may never get to my “good” fabric

Crochet what… August 28, 2009

Crazy scarf?

Embarrassing old lady shawl for a teenager?

Nope its a

snuggie for boy. Ever since he saw the infomercial he wanted one – size was no deterrent he had to have one.   So in celebration of the cheesetastic everywhere I presented him with a mom crocheted green snuggie. Told you it was bad.

Back to school night…. August 26, 2009

The public schools system of torturing parents everywhere.  If we replaced waterboarding with repetitive back to school nights I am sure that we could get something out of those terrorists!

For all those parents who are thinking I am a wack job right now, let me ask what have you really ever gotten from going to back to school night? Usually for me it is just a heads up for which teachers my children are likely to hate. As of last year I am 100% dead on with girl – I can always tell who she will get along with.

Now Boy is in elementary school – so back to school night has a function – free ice cream Also boy likes to meet his teacher ahead of time and in elementary school back to school night is BEFORE they start school.  With DD it falls after the start date so things are set in motion already, I am powerless to do anything but sit and listen to the teachers tell me their rules, usually things I have already read and signed – so why go? At least I have a pretty good idea of when the shit is gonna hit the fan.

For all those curious about the crafty side of mintlatte’s crafty space – soon my friends I shall be posting an object of unspeakable horror.  I have been watching infomercials with my son – and we discovered something he couldn’t live without.  A quick scan of internetville awakened me to the fact that there was a pattern for this item… I think it is probably the worst thing I have ever made – right behind this crazy flight of reason…

Wow. Just Wow… August 25, 2009

My Kacey girl is 15 today.  She just started High School yesterday.  When I left her at the school I longed to cry – or just drag her back into my arms and take her home, where I could protect her from the world at large.   I didn’t do either.  I just said goodbye and watched her walk off into the school that is basically her second home now.

All I can do now is trust her.  And I do.  She is smart and self aware – and I think she might even listen to her mother sometimes – for this she deserves some major teen points.  It isn’t always easy to listen to your parents.  But still my heart flutters just thinking bout what lies ahead for her.  I look at her and I see big dreams, all of them within her grasp.  I just hope I have it in me to support a big dreamer.  Big dreamers can be squashed by doubt, there will be plenty of people in her life who will doubt her, so it is my job to believe in her.  Every day that I see her work her way through the world it gets easier and easier to believe.

Silly Kacey – Your mom loves you and thinks you are brilliant.  Happy Birthday

Been a long time since a ….. August 19, 2009

Yeah. So no apologies here.  I am guiltless blogger, blogging only when I feel the need. Right about now I am feeling awful needy.  I can’t help but feel that things at the day job are not going so hot – and it is things that are far beyond my control.  None the less I am bucking up and doing what I always do which is whatever work throws my way

Despite the work situation other things in my life are becoming VERY clear.  My daughter has been possessed by a psycho teenager.  Let’s face it  – the most important thing in the world right now is HER – in fact the entire frickin’ universe revolves around the status of her hair.  Sans the flavor of the moment (blue.  I just finished dying her hair blue.) there was no way she was going to start school.  Seriously.  Her little world would have crashed around her over blue hair.

Now I do remember the frantic feeling of a bad hair day way back when.  When my awesome wall o’ bang cut with the fiercely hairsprayed side slick back just didn’t work.  Days when my perms were too frizzy (I find it hard to believe there was such a thing as too frizzy and yet my perms always were too damn frizzy).  These days the fact that my hair is intact on my head is enough, I would go to work with bed head most days and it wouldn’t matter one whit.  So I find myself far removed from what she is experiencing right now – and yet am trying so hard to be properly sympathetic without losing sight of all the things that are important.

I have spent a lot of time reading lately, and it seems I have discovered  a lost love.  I have buried myself in books as though I have been starved for them for some time.  Any books, even the crazy trashy beach reads are holding me like they were high literature. Which means no book reviews from me.  Seriously a guilty pleasure is just that  – guilty. I will say that I did read pride prejudice and zombies – and I completely understand the hype.  Freakin’ awesomely crazy good and true to the original in some very bizarre ways.

And with that I leave you to wonder just how bad my taste truly is.  One thing I know is this – at least my hair isn’t blue

Foodies Unite….. February 16, 2009

Ok, so there are lots of bloggers and some of them post pictures of all their gourmet cooking. Food in glorious photos that highlight the color, the texture, the beauty that the blogger has found deep within the food. Photos that highlight the blogger’s skill with foods, staged with lovely plates and table settings. I was pretty sure I would never be one of those people until I wandered into my kitchen and created this.

Note the reflection of the krispy wrap on the retro laminate table top,  the way the light plays on the subtle nutella waves, the sheen of a machined square krispy treat.

Foodies unite… just not in my kitchen.