April, no fooling

Happy April!

You won't get any "happy April Fools" from me though, it's been on my my personal holiday (bad word) list since I was ten or so, when my mom approached me with a pack of gum, and me in my gullibleness, in sheer delight that mom was giving me something sugary, put my fingers in the wrapper only for there to be a little snap, a spring snapping on my finger instead of a stick of gum in my hand. I know I insisted afterwords, my cheeks streaked with the tears, that my fingers had been pinched, but I can't say now whether that was true, or whether I was just shocked, hurt, and crying from the realization that the world can be a cruel place. Oh, and hi mom, I look forward to getting your email where you tell me that was nearly 20 years ago and I should just get over it.

I'm a bit relieved it's now April, and that I no longer have the dead weight of the National Crochet Month Freeform-Along riding on my back, weighing me down with the sour anticipation of having to catch up with the project and continue creating useless ugliness. I suppose I am just hamming it up a bit, but really, I prefer my projects to be useful and pretty, thank you very much. I did however like learning new crochet stitches, so I might just do my own little one-person useful-project-with-lots-of-new-stitches crochet along.
At least I didn't bother weaving in most of the ends.
I did wake up yesterday with the intention of finishing it, but I felted around a bar of soap instead (I'll post pictures when it dries).

I've gotten a teeny bit further into J's gloves, and nearly finished knitting another finger. A few days ago I also pulled out of the closet my mostly done Twist and Shout sweater, the only long-standing UFO left of the ones I brought to England. The body is finished, but I've ripped out the (fortunately) not yet attached sleeves which weren't done very well, and they are now drying and hopefully unkinking.
The freeform along hasn't put me off crochet though. I really want to make this Super Mario Brothers Blanket. My sister says she wouldn't mind a blanket (didn't tell her what it'd look like though), so I'll be making it for her as a Christmas present. Is anyone else thinking of making it? We can have our own little crochet along...

Speaking of alongs, I'm still doing the bakealong. Last week was jam-filled baked goods, so I made vampire cookies (if you make it, don't forget to flour the rolling pin as well, the dough is very sticky, and leave plenty of room in between each cookie, they spread). This week is something with lemon. Not sure what I'm making this week ... maybe a cake? Feel free to join the bake-along thread on ravelry, you don't have to a group member or anything like that.

It's spring!

Yes, spring!


J and I took a walk on Saturday. It was one of those guide-book walks with tidbits of information that you have no recollection of after.


As per usual we enjoyed the architecture.

A cemetery was part of the walk itinerary. Supposedly there were some mildly famous people's graves in this cemetery, but we didn't go searching for them. Instead we pondered the meaning of life, and thought about how at one point in time the local gravestone salesman must have been pushing obelisks:



And I took more pictures of flowers.




We also visited the Dean Gallery in Edinburgh.


When I got home this felted bracelet was dry.

It's made of dyed merino, the white streaks are bamboo fibers I added.

Right now I'm working on some felted flowers.

They aren't done yet. I'm still not sure what they'll look like when they're finished.

A felted vase with a rolled brim. I'm quite pleased with the brim (had to needle felt that).


I'm also now caught up with the crochet along. I tried to follow Rocky's advice and stick with one color range. And I think it helped a bit. But it still looks like it's been hit with the ugly project stick.


And, to top off the nice weekend, I just made some shortbread (bakealong).

Ugly, weird, and nice

I'm glad I'm doing the National Crochet Month Freeform Crochet-Along (CAL). I haven't done crochet in a while it feels like, and I'm learning some new stitches (I really like the crochet rings for March 9th).

Only thing is, the scrumble is turning out really ugly.

Now I ask you, what am I supposed to do with that? There's still 20 more days of the freeform along left, but I'm kind of doubting my ability to make it pretty in those remaining days. Perhaps there'll be a rip-out along on April 1st?

I took another felting class on Tuesday, we did felt pods this time.

We're doing 3-d objects next week, so maybe soon I'll have an insect or bird or something to accompany the pod.

The studio where I'm taking the felting classes also has a spinning wheel, so I've been going into the Wednesday drop in hours and teaching myself to spin.

tah da. This is from my second try at a spinning wheel. Hopefully in two more weeks I'll have a bit of plied yarn to show off.


Two weeks ago I tried to make a cloth headband, but failed completely. I blame it on the fact that I don't wear headbands. I put interfacing on it. That was a mistake because it didn't want to lie flat on my head. I also had measuring problems, and had to sew on more lengths of fabric to make it longer. I also didn't have any elastic in the house and thought I could just use a snap. Nope, bad idea.

Then I made this.

A bit of sheer ribbon, on the back is some black elastic (learned my lessson). The blue part of the flower is wet felted, with the middle needle felted on.

If you're interested in wet felting Felting Lessons has some excellent beginner videos. And check out how she organizes her the wool (in the background)!

Along (s)

This month is National Crochet Month. I was considering crocheting some amigurumi, and I will probably still do so, but then yesterday I saw on ravelry the National Crochet Month Freeform Crochet-Along (CAL).

I had a little bit of catching up to do this afternoon, but I'm now caught up with the pattern until the 6th, and I'm ready for the "along" part.


Another along, a cheesecake:


Made for the Bake Along on the Let's Cook ravelry group, though it remains to be seen if anyone else was really interested in this week's project.

I think I've made a cheesecake before, back when I was living in SF over 5 years ago, so I don't really remember the process. I did however feel a bit silly buying 5 packets of cream cheese at the store. The cheesecake turned out good, despite the fact that the recipe and reviews/hints stressed to not overmix, which resulted in a few (small) blobs of egg whites amid the cheesecake goodness.

On Saturday I went to IKEA for the first time in over ten years. They have everything there! Including an English breakfast, and I was very amused that the occasional loudspeaker announcements about store products were done by someone with a Swedish accent. Is it like that in American stores as well?

Just in case you were wondering what an IKEA looks like over here: