Meatlocker Monday!

What? You thought I would get rid of this after the first one? Nope! Today I bring you Joe Manganiello from True Blood.

Stay tuned for an update on the Harry Potter Scarf tomorrow!

All Things Must Pass Away...

I'm not the type to quote songs like an emo kid, but I thought these lyrics were oddly fitting after the past 72 hours...

Now the darkness only stays at nighttime, 
in the morning it will fade away 
Daylight is good at arriving at the right time 
It's not always going to be this grey. 


(All Things Must Pass Away - by George Harrison)


I know I wasn't the best grandkid, Grandma, but I love you and I will miss you.

And now for something COMPLETELY different...

... I bring you 'Meatlocker Monday' to chase away the Monday blues.

First up is Sam Worthington. Nom.

Tune in next week for more Meatlocker Monday... now back to our regularly scheduled programming :)

The trials of making a Harry Potter scarf

A friend at work promised her boyfriend that she would knit him a Ravenclaw house scarf like what you see in the movie version of Prisoner of Azkaban. This friend knows that I'm a big fan of Harry Potter too, and that I crochet, so I was enlisted to help her find a free pattern that she could use. We eventually found one that she could use, but in the process I had actually found a number of crochet patterns for house scarves and I decided to make my own.

The problem was that the nicest patterns feature Tunisian Crochet - which is something I've never done before. Basically, instead of using a normal crochet hook, you use a specialized hook that looks like a cross between a crochet hook and a knitting needle. I found one at a local Joann's, bought some yarn, looked up a bunch of pictures and youtube videos, and got started.

It turns out that while Tunisian Crochet seems mind boggling at first, it's actually not that hard; the pattern I'm using just requires the basic tunisian knit stitch and nothing else, so I had it down in less than an hour.

Then I ran into a problem; the first pattern I was using was from Sewhooked.org - however it required that you count the rows. Sounds easy right? Well it's a pain in the butt to count rows with the knit stitch because they blend in so well together. Also, whenever I would try to count them, my fiance would give me a hard time by tossing out random numbers just to screw me up. Then I found CarmenBee's pattern, and started using that because it only required you to measure in between rows of stripes, and I liked her stripes better. However, even though I was measuring, the grouping of stripes still seemed a little off at times... so I broke down and counted while the fiance was distracted by a video game, and it turns out that I had 33 rows in the first section, 34 rows in the next, and 32 in the following two sections. Since there are supposed to be seven groups of stripes, I figure I can balance things out by doing two more sections of 32, followed by a section of 34, and finished off with a group of 33 - and in the future I'll ditch the measuring and just count.

Other than that the scarf is turning out quite nicely despite a bit of a wave at the one edge (I know that's because I'm not keeping the tension consistent, which is a problem I have no matter what I'm crocheting) It's really thick compared to other scarves I've seen, and since you're supposed to fold it in half lengthwise and whip stitch the edges together per Sewhooked.org's pattern, that will make it even thicker!

The first post is always the hardest...

Because I never really know where to go with it or what to say!

Season, a friend, is doing a 365 days of projects blog over at Idle Hands. When I was chatting about it with her one day, she suggested that I start my own blog about all the sewing and crocheting I do - so here I am :)

I was introduced to sewing because of my involvement with the So Cal Renn Faire; when you go as frequently as I did back then, you feel kinda weird just showing up in jeans and a shirt - so eventually you'll start to put together your own faire garb to blend in with everyone else. However the problem is that a lot of the garb stores at faire are quite expensive, and, being in between jobs at the time, I didn't have the money to spend on them. Well, either after me pleading, or because she was tired of me complaining, my Mom taught me how to sew, and by the time Faire had ended that year I had made my own chemise and skirts. Then, later that summer I gave bodice making a shot.

I've come a long way since then. My first bodice was made off of a simplicity pattern, and I used a websites alternative adjustments to make it more period. It fit, but the shoulders were a little loose and it didn't offer the support it was supposed to. A few months later I would meet a group of girls (who I work with at Faire now) and they've taught me everything I need to know about making period clothing, and the rest is history.

(only in Vegas could this group walk down the street without any strange looks)