On to happier things.

One of the things I found while rearranging the stash yarn this past weekend was all the yarn I bought (as my birthday-present-to-myself) for the Color Bar Blanket.

This is, as you can see, a blanket made of single-color granny squares arranged to look like the one type of test pattern (Interesting - I guess I didn't realize there were other than the "standard" B&W or "standard" color ones, but that site shows quite a few)



The first squares of the colors representing cyan, magenta, and yellow in the test pattern. No, they're not a perfect match for the actual pattern but they were as close as I could get with Wool of the Andes.

So these are the first few squares - I actually began this last night (did the first of the cyan squares). I've been keeping a small, simple project in my room next to my bed because I'm once again having the typical summer problem - hard to fall asleep. Part of it is the frantic pace of summer teaching - as much as I love it, it's kind of hard to shut my head off at the end of the day. Listening to quiet instrumental music and knitting or crocheting something that's an "autopilot" project (that doesn't require much reference to a pattern) helps.

The nice thing about granny squares is that they are a fantastic "autopilot" project. Once you've familiarized yourself with the progression, you don't need to look at the instructions again - and if you put the square down midway, it's very easy to pick up the next day and know right where you are. (It's kind of a relief to have something to work on that doesn't require a row counter).

I also like granny squares because, as I said before, they're FAST - I can finish one in less than 15 minutes. So you get those little charges of gratification of having "finished" something.

I'm going to do these bit by bit - making a few squares of a color as I feel drawn to do it. I think if I went through systematically - making myself make all 14 black squares first, for instance - I'd get sick of it really fast. (I briefly contemplated the idea of doing it systematically as a sew-as-you-go, because sewing the things together will have considerable activation energy for me to get started on it - I don't like that particular finishing step.)

This is one of those things that although I may not have a particular tie to the idea (never worked in TV production and really, you don't even SEE test patterns much any more), it amuses me and appeals to me to be able to make a bunch of granny squares that then work up into something recognizable. (Perhaps someday I'll work up to one of those pixel-picture blankets. Not sure what I'd do - I've seen Mario done as one but I have even fewer ties to Mario than I do to a test pattern. And it is maybe a little beyond weird for a woman as mature as I to be sleeping under a Mario blankie. Or maybe not. I don't know. Perhaps I will just do a lot of pastel colors sometime and make like a Trip Around the World setting - that would be fun done in lots of pastel colors of fine-weight yarn).

Perhaps I will look into the idea of doing Moomin pillowcases. I can picture them in my mind...though oftentimes the projects I picture in my mind are not quite as satisfactory in actual execution.

I will have to look for line drawings. Not sure if there are any online that would be usable; that's a search for when I have more free time. I know my copies of the books have drawings but they are quite small and would need to be sized up either by photocopier or by redrawing them larger. (I might also consult the nifty reprints of the Moomin comic strip I have to see if there are any good drawings in there).

****

I finished one little project this weekend.



This is that granny-square scarf made out of Shire Silk. It's not quite as drapey as I hoped it would be but it still works OK.

Here's a closeup of the scarf. Pretty much standard granny squares:



It took about a ball and a half of each color. If I had had more of the pink I would have made it a bit longer, but I based the number of squares I had on the absolute limits of the pink yarn.

****

If you follow the news, you may have heard that someone set fire to the Texas governor's mansion. This was one of the historic mansions - I think the 4th oldest still in use or something like that (and one of the more historic buildings in Texas). The only saving grace is that most of the contents were in storage as it was in the process of being renovated.

I have to say, vandalism (and arson seems a particularly insidious form of vandalism) is one of those things that makes me irrationally angry. To me, it seems so selfish and so pointless - why do it? Does it give the person some kind of sick pleasure to know they've destroyed something, especially something that may not be able to be replaced? Is it that they have a lack of control in their lives, and they feel this is something they can control? Is it a "if I can't have nice things, no one can?" I really don't get it.

Working on a college campus, from time to time I'm confronted with the effects of vandalism - people damaging the gardens and plantings on campus, graffiti, and, once, spectacularly, someone stealing one of the "Gators" that the groundscrew uses, tearing up the lawn with it, and then crashing it in my building's parking lot.

And it's like, that's so stupid. If it was a student - they just basically stole from the college and from themselves, because money will have to be diverted to fix what was done wrong. If it's a resident of the state who pays taxes, it is as if they stole from themselves (because a lot of the funding of the university comes from state taxpayers). Oh, I know - people in the heat of the moment don't think of that but I do and it frustrates me.

****

There's a very funny (well, funny to me) buckle-up ad out there - I think it's specific to the state of Texas but those of us in the Red River counties see it too, because most of our tv stations are based on Texas. They're playing a piece of Western Swing ("I saw miles and miles of Texas...." and it ends with "I'll live here 'till I die."). You see all the various stereotypes of bad drivers - the woman putting on makeup and ratting her hair while she drives, the businessman talking on a cell phone, the Tiny Old Man who can't see over the steering wheel of his Cadillac. (In other words: most of them are people I have encountered on the road.). The voice-over makes the comment that, even though YOU may be a very safe driver, not everyone else is, so you need to buckle up.

Heh. Maybe I like that because that's essentially the warning I give to my students when we head out on field trips where I'm driving one of the campus vans: I've never been in an accident (well, other than being rear-ended with it being the other driver's fault) but that doesn't mean the other people on the road are equally good drivers. (I say it that way because I do feel the need to remind them, but I don't want to sound like the mother hen* and say something like "This van isn't moving until you've all clicked it!")

(*Even though I kind of AM.)

Here is the third of the little amigurumi toys I spent my break making:

Her name is "Sakura," which is Japanese for "cherry blossom." (And also is the name of a company that makes craft supplies, specifically Pigma pens.).

She is made out of Shire Silk- a 100% silk yarn by (IIRC) Plymouth. It's kind of a raw-silk yarn, it's sort of "crunchy" and textured. It's really nice to crochet with, or at least I found it to be.

I was originally going to give her a Hobbitish name ("Shire" Silk, get it?) but when she was done, nothing came to me, but Sakura seemed to work.

The finished bear is tiny - as you can see from the photo - she's maybe 3.5 or 4 inches tall. The yarn feels really nice made up into a toy, firm but "squishy" enough to be pleasing to hold. One of the things I like about making these little toys is that you can use lots of different yarns and see how they look and feel. After completing the bear I went back to the shop and bought another skein of the pink (I had about half of the first skein left over) and two skeins of a pale green that coordinated well with the pink and am making single-color granny squares to make a little scarf out of. (I'm nearly done with the granny squares but then they must all be sewn together).

Making granny squares is fun. The pattern's easily memorized (and I guess there are different variants of it out there) and they go together quickly. I do think doing them each in a single color looks a bit more "up to date" than the multicolor kinds (which for me are reminiscent of the 1960s-70s craft books my mom had when I was growing up).

Actually, I wonder when granny squares first originated? I associate them with the "hippie days" because they were in fashion then but I suspect they're older than that. (1930s, maybe? It seems like a lot of "good craft things" came out of the 1930s). When we were up visiting family near Traverse City, my mom and I took a morning and went to the Grand Traverse Lighthouse (which is interesting but rather expensive to get into - you have to pay for a state park pass and THEN pay admission to the lighthouse) and it was decorated in the style of the time (early 1900s) that it was an active lighthouse. And there was a large granny square afghan on a chaise in the living room. And I wondered if that was an anachronism or not (like a lot of museums, the interior decor was largely assembled from purchases of things that "might" have been used at the time, rather than everything being inherited of-a-piece from the original owners). So now I'm curious when granny squares were first used...whether they were the product of a particular designer's mind, or, if like so many of the basic craft procedures we use, one of those things that just kind of appeared or evolved on its own.

Another use of granny squares is to use different colored ones as "pixels" to make pictorial afghans. There's the "Color Bars" afghan (representing the RBGCMYK test-pattern from color television) in "Happy Hooker" and I think I've also seen a Super Mario afghan out there. (But you could do anything, if you had graph paper, a good imagination, and the fortitude to make as many single-color granny squares as required.)

I think once I finish the scarf I might start on that "Color Bars" afghan, now that I've found how "friendly" granny squares are to make - if you're doing just a single color, they're pretty portable (all you need is the yarn, a hook, and something to cut the yarn with as you finish the square) and they're something easily enough done when you're attending to other things (like trying to read the map for your father to help him avoid bad construction).

TChem got two of the un-guessed movies, so I added her name (plus a little of my commentary on why I love those movies) to the post from a couple days ago.

And here's the amigurumi humpback whale I made over spring break:



His name is Boris. I chose that name because of a book I had when I was a child. It was about a seafaring mouse (Amos) and a whale named Boris (he was actually a grey whale, I think, in the book). Amos built himself a small ship and set off to travel the sea. But one night, enraptured with the beauty of the world, Amos rolled off the deck of his little boat.

He has just about prepared himself to meet his Maker when he is rescued by Boris, the whale. Boris offers to take Amos back home - and so Amos rides on Boris' back, eating plankton and swimming when Boris needs to dive. The two become fast friends and both shed a tear when the coastline of Amos' home comes into view.

As he swims for shore, Amos calls out to Boris that he will never forget him, and will repay the favor some day.

Of course, Boris chuckles to himself that there's nothing this tiny mouse could ever do to help HIM, but that he still loves him and will never forget him.

Some years later, during an awful storm, Boris finds himself washed up on a beach.

By amazing good fortune, it is the beach that Amos lives near. Amos happens upon his old friend and promises to help. After Amos runs off to get help, Boris thinks despondently, "What can the little mouse do to save my life?"

But Amos comes back with a couple of elephants, who roll Boris down the beach and back into the ocean.

I remembered this book - the basic storyline of it - all these years because it presents one of the fundamental "morals" I learned growing up: always take the opportunity to do a good turn for someone. Because you never know when someone - even someone you would think never could help you - can come back and help. (And I would add, as an adult: you should take the opportunity to do a good turn for someone whether they can ever repay you or not).

Here's another picture of Boris, showing the cute little "knobbules" you make on the whale's nose using French Knots:



Humpback whales also make me think of that famous Far Side cartoon, where scientists have dropped a microphone into the ocean and the whales (thinking it's karaoke night?) come up to it and sing "Louie, Louie."

(In one of Larson's books, where he talks a little about modifications that were made for international distribution, he says that for one of the Scandinavian countries, they didn't think enough people would know "Louie, Louie," so they changed what the whale was singing to, "I'm singing in the rain...just singing in the rain..."

Larson said it wasn't QUITE the same, but was still funny in its own right.)

I finished the little hyperbolic-crochet ball



The pattern is from "Kooky Crochet" but I think there are instructions for hyperbolic crochet out there on the Internet. The only advice I can give anyone wanting to make one is to get really, really friendly with single crochet, because you're going to do a truckload of it.



This is more true to the actual color, and here you can see the actual size. I could have kept going but I got really sick of single crochet and so I just finished it off.

And because I can't resist bad puns, or the opportunity to turn something into a version of a Cat Macro when it comes along, here are a couple of additional thoughts about the hyperbolic ball:



(And yes, I know, "exponential" should imply a power relationship, but in ecology we even consider the sort of doubling that bacteria do as exponential growth). The larger it gets the faster it grows, and that even works with simple doubling.



And that "comment" may not literally be true, but it sure felt at it as I approached the end of the ball.

I'm back in love with working on the Vintage Vertical Stripe blanket.



I've added several more rows over the past two days. The blanket is probably about 1/5 done (it measures about 12" so far and I want it to be wide enough to actually be usable).

What I've been doing - I keep all the yarns I'm using in a box, which got shunted into my bedroom in one of my periodic "people are coming over and I need to remove the traces of Teh Crazy that exist in my public rooms!" cleaning times. So I think that's what got me off of working on it now. So what I decided to do was get the next few rows' worth of yarns out - deciding on the colors - and just line them up next to me on the sofa. When I'm done with them - or if I have a color or two completed and have to get up for some other reason - I just take them back and get more.


***

In case anyone's wondering, Northern Illinois University is not the school I did my graduate work at, nor is it where my parents taught. I know the campus very slightly because I did a summer Chatauqua course there back in 1992. (I knew a professor or two up there in the Biology department - Dr. Sorenson in particular - but they may be retired).

Still, it's a sad thing, and something that gives one pause if one teaches on a college campus. I just wish that everyone who had emotional or mental problems (because honestly, I can't think of another reason for doing what this guy did) would get help instead of doing something truly awful.

I have a tradition of ordering myself some kind of birthday present.

(Usually it is yarn).

This year is no exception. I wasn't overly enthused with the color bar blanket from the SnB crochet book when it first came out, but you know, every time I look at it, the cleverer I think it is as an idea.

And this week, it finally tipped over from the "you know, I want to make that someday" to an "I really want to make that and I need to see if I have the stuff to make it!"

(And it's probably as close as I'll ever get to making something with granny squares...don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on granny squares qua granny squares, but all the color-changing and color-matching probably would stall me out permanently - I'd get too locked into a "will these colors blend or fight" dilemma of indecision).

But the color-bar blanket is SIMPLE. Solid color granny squares, you make a whole mess of them, and then attach them together so it looks like the test-pattern when a tv station is off the air (which is not so common any more; it seems like during the off hours they just run those execrable half-hour-long adverts that are euphemistically termed "paid programming")

I thought I might have what I needed in my stash. But several of the Wool-Ease colors the original called for have been discontinued, and I don't own even partial balls of them.

So, perhaps against my better judgment (wool is not always the best crocheting material because of splittiness), I ordered the closest colors of Wool of the Andes (from KnitPicks) for it. (And I tried harder to match the RBGCMYK colors of a "real" color bar - some of the wool-ease colors are a bit off, for example, the C isn't so very Cyan.) (And I don't like mixing yarn types, so I just bought WotA for every color, even though I probably do have a magenta-enough Wool-Ease.)

(they're discontinuing a number of colors of Wool of the Andes. And you know, that kind of bugs me. I'd rather a basic yarn be made in all kinds of colors, always, regardless of what the fashion mavens say is "in" this season). I wasn't sure that everything would match PERFECTLY, and some of the yarn was really inexpensive, so, for example, I ordered two different reds and will see which one works best when it gets here. (The other one? Probably hats for charity, or mittens, or something. There's a fair amount you can do with 220 yards of worsted-weight yarn).

I like the idea of the blanket, not just because it's amusing, but because it seems like it would be an excellent carry-along project: grab your skeins of green yarn and go make all the green squares. When they're done, grab the magenta, etc.

(And yes, yes, I still have the Vintage Vertical Stripe Blanket that is sitting all sad in its box because I've not worked on it for months. Shut up.I'm going to get it back out sometime.)

Well, I completed my first-ever (well, first-ever successful) bit of thread crochet:



This is the first doily in the "Kyuuto: Japanese Crafts, Thread Crochet" book. (They show it done in blue).

It's not PERFECT (I think I sort of misinterpreted some of the chartwork towards the edge so it buckles a little) but it's pretty good, I think, for a first effort at something I tried once and couldn't do.

***

I made Harvard Beets today. There are a lot of recipes out there, but the one I used is from the Settlement Cookbook.

It's the same basic recipe that my mother used over the years. I have to admit I was a bit apprehensive trying these, because I remember once or twice when I was a kid, I either asked to try these, or my father persuaded me to try them (Harvard Beets are one of his favorite vegetables) and my reaction was pretty much a classic Cooking Defcon 2. But I figured that I was older now, and I liked things with vinegar now, so it was worth a try.

Oh, and a word on beets: I'm not normally a fan of beets qua beets. What vegetable-lovers praise as 'that earthy flavor' is something I find distinctly off-putting. So for "earthy" vegetables, I must find some seasoning that either covers the earthiness or renders it less harmful-seeming.

So anyway, I made them. Slowly and experimentally put one of the slices in my mouth. Chewed it. Not bad. Not bad at all. Chewed a bit more. Good, in fact. Ate a few more slices and decided that they were pretty delicious, and had no hint of the offensive earthiness I've experienced in some of my other root-vegetable experiments.

In fact, I've concluded I like Harvard beets better than pickled beets, because they are less sharp in flavor, and because the sauce adds something nice - the bit of flour in it makes it almost a little "velvety" or something.

Definitely something I will be making again as it has the added virtue of being fast (especially if you use canned beets - which may also be a way of reducing the dreaded earthiness; I seem to remember my mom usually making beet dishes out of "real" beets, in other words, ones dug from her own garden, and they were pretty "earthy").

It also is the kind of recipe I think of as an "emergency" recipe, where all the ingredients are things you either have on hand otherwise, or that are a nonperishable item (the canned beets being the only thing I might not otherwise have on hand, but canned beets will keep 3 years or more on the shelf).

So here it is:

2 T butter
1 T flour
1/2 cup sugar (you can use less; I might next time, they seemed a bit sweet)
1/2 t salt
1/4 cup vinegar (I used white wine vinegar; some other recipes merely suggest using wine, so use what you have on hand. I think these probably would be good made with wine).
1/4 cup beet juice (or water, if you've cooked beets from scratch)
2 cups sliced boiled beets or 1, 1-lb can sliced beets.

Melt the butter over low heat, mix in the flour. Gradually add the sugar and liquid and stir until the sauce is clear and slightly thickened. Add the beets and heat through.

This is best when it's really piping hot but isn't too objectionable even at room temperature.

As for the name, I don't know for sure why they're called Harvard beets. They don't seem to be distinctly crimson, nor do they feature any ingredients particularly famous for coming from Cambridge MA. One site I consulted said that it was possible the dish was invented by a Harvard student, or that they're actually named for a British tavern whose name wound up being mispronounced as Harvard.

I don't really know, but they're good.

There is also a variant where you can put grated orange zest in the mix - probably not very much would be needed - and that might be good as well. I have seen a few online recipes that include pineapple and pineapple juice and I do not think that would be so good (too fruity) but your mileage may vary. Some recipes use cornstarch as the thickening rather than flour.

But I had good success with the recipe posted above, so it will probably be the one I continue to use.

There's also a crock pot recipe for them out there, but again - they're so fast to make on top of the stove that it seems kind of unnecessary to do in a crock pot. (It took me less than 15 minutes to whip them up.)

Thanks for all the nice comments on Kenobi.

(Bess - it might just be the having-had-a-break. Or it might be that I typically feel more energetic during the winter months. Or it might be that I'm making a greater effort to eat more fruits/veg and less sugar. Or maybe that I've switched from the sweetened fruity yogurt to plain yogurt, which is more economical and probably better for me.

But I think it might mainly be a change of make-up. For years I had used Clinique, believing it to be the only brand that would not make me break out. But it's a drag having to drive an hour's round trip to replenish, or remember to order on-line early enough so it will come in time for when it's needed. I have a friend who sells Mary Kay and she offered to let me try some of their line - just to see if I liked it and if it agreed with my skin. It does, and I find their lightest-shade foundation is a far, far better match for my skin - it's more of a true ivory-pink - than the Clinique ever was.

And I'm making an effort to use concealer on the undereye shadows. And I've begun, at her suggestion, using an eyebrow pencil to "fill in" the pale outer corners of my brows (not quite so fond of the suggestion - although it's a good one - that I periodically "clean up" by plucking a few stray hairs to shape them better. Not fond of doing it but it looks good enough to be worth doing). I like the slightly darker brows; I fancy it gives me kind of an "old Roman" look (like some of the women in old Roman or Byzantine mosaics). So it's probably the makeup but it might also be being more rested).

I've been working more on my first-ever doily. It's the basic doily from the "Kyuuto: Japanese Crafts - lacy crochet" book I talked about earlier. It's surprising to me how easy I'm finding it - I remember fighting with the crochet cotton when I was younger, and how the perspiration from my hands as I struggled and ripped back and re-did turned the cotton limp and an unappealing greyish shade.

But it's almost like a switch turned in my mind and I understand how to do it, now - and it's satisfying to motor along, referring to the symbolcraft pattern periodically (one of the nice things about these round crocheted things is they have either six-fold or eight-fold symmetry, typically - so once you've done one repeat, you understand what to do for the rest of the round).

My mom's mom crocheted a lot before she lost her sight. She did lace crochet as her "fulfillment" craft (as opposed to the sewing and mitten-knitting that she did so her family would be warm). I have a few pieces of the lace she made (my great-grandma, whom I never knew, also loved to crochet and I have a piece she crocheted).

It's funny but as I work on the doily I can almost imagine my grandmother's hands guiding me as I work, or her standing behind me and looking approvingly over my shoulder. And it delights me that I can turn out something so comparatively delicate (I don't know why I'm surprised: I can knit lace out of fine yarn but somehow being able to crochet with cotton thread feels like a real triumph. Perhaps because I tried before and couldn't do it, and now I can do it pretty easily).

I like historic crafts, things that I feel my grandmother or great-grandmother would recognize. Someday I want to invest in some of the reprints of the old Weldon's magazines that Piecework has produced - even if I never make anything from them, I still think it would be fun to look at them.

Next finished item.

You've seen the first of these before, but here's the completed pair of the "Bordello" socks:



I like the pattern and I like the colors. The yarn is a little different - it's one of the "seacell" yarns, which I think makes it a bit warmer (and it seems a bit less breathable than pure wool).

The pattern is very similar to (but fewer stitches than) the famous Jaywalker socks by Grumperina. (I think also, the relative positions of increases and decreases are swapped, but I could be wrong on that).

I thought the yarn was roughly sportweight - it certainly seemed heavier than Opal or other sockweights I've worked with - but I see on Ravelry and elsewhere it's described as a "sockweight." (The pattern I used had 60 sts on size 2 needles and could not have been any smaller. There is a smaller size on the pattern if you have tiny calves and feet but it would not have worked for me).

I plan on keeping the pattern (it is printed on a little oaktag "sleeve" that came on the yarn) and using it again with other yarn that will work (I have some sportweight Socka self-patterning yarn in the stash - quite a bit of several colorways, in fact).

****

I'm still thinking about the next sweater. I pulled out the yarn and the pattern for the Airy Cardigan and I'm considering swatching for it. I think the yarn I am going to use (Jo Sharp Rare Comfort Mohair) is a bit hairier than the GGH Soft Kid (and it may be a bit thicker as well). I'm hoping that doesn't lead to problems when it comes time to drop the stitches in the edging, but we'll see.

It's another one of those "knit the edging first then pick up a bazillion stitches to knit the body perpendicular to how the edging's knit." Which reminded me that I still have poor Samus tucked away somewhere. I'm almost done with the edging for that, and then I could pick up stitches. I should also get that out and work on it some.

Instead of swatching last night, though, I worked some on the quilt-in-the-frame. I do want to get this one done THIS YEAR (finally) so I think I'm going to try once again to devote at least 10 minutes a day to working on it.

And another New Year's "resolution" of sorts - I've been working on a doily from "Kyuuto: Japanese crafts, lacy crochet." This is one of the books I bought over Christmas break - I kept putting it back on the shelf and then going back to it. I told myself I didn't need a book on lacy crochet - I had tried it before, and I wasn't very good at it. But then I reminded myself: that was back when you held the working yarn wonky and your gauge wasn't very consistent, and you've changed that now. And I thought again: there are probably hundreds of old doily and other lacy patterns free on the internet. And I reminded myself: yes, but this book is so cute. And it has a couple of neat "useful" items in it as well as the doilies and other pretty things.

So I wound up buying it, and when I was coming back home, I made a quick side-trip to JoAnns fabrics for some crochet cotton (and was dismayed that they didn't have "Knit-Cro-Sheen," which I had decided was the correct size based on the hook size required...but I bought some other brand in a comparable weight and started.)

It turns out that that jar of "vintage" hooks I bought a year or so ago in McKinney has most of the sizes I need. I'm using a "3" right now - it's a short old steel hook and it makes me happy that it's being used - I tend to feel that old tools don't really have a "life" unless they are being used for their purpose.

A blog entirely devoted to finding and linking to amigurumi patterns: AmiList.

While the Baby Snow Dragon is cute and winsome, this dragon is far more traditionally dragonish.

I think I need one.

I plan on making one at some point.

(I also want to try to find - or, heck, maybe just re-print-out - the copy of the pattern for the Crocheted Totoro. I broke down and ordered "My Neighbor Totoro" on dvd, so I think I need a Totoro for while I watch it.)

I did a couple of things already this weekend. (Well, I also mowed the lawn, and changed my clothes -it's very humid here - and went grocery shopping and then swept up the pecan catkins that have fallen all over everything, and changed my clothes again, and changed the air filter in my house).

I also made baked pretzels:



The recipe is from that bread book I was talking about earlier.

They didn't get as brown as I anticipated but they are done through. (Maybe they overcooked them for the photo in the book, or something.) These are just baked, not boiled first (like typical soft pretzels are, or at least typical American soft pretzels - I don't know about the authentic German way of making them).

You glaze them with water with salt and a tiny bit of sugar dissolved in it to (try) to make the sea salt stick. I think if I do them again I'm going to cut back on the salt in the glaze, or leave the sea salt off altogether (it doesn't stick very well) - they come out extremely salty (or at least extremely salty for my taste; I tend to like things much less salty than most people).But they are good, nice and chewy - the recipe has a little rye flour in it.

Maybe the saltiness is because they are described (in the book) as being typically served with beer. Maybe all that salt is to get you to drink more beer, or maybe the salt stuff just tastes better with a beer on the side. I'm not a beer drinker so I don't know...

I had forgotten how good it feels to knead bread. (I had mostly been making stuff in my bread machine). It's a very "centering" kind of motion - it's repetitive and uses a lot of muscles, and it also seems to me that it's something you almost have a "genetic memory" of - my mother bakes bread and her mother baked bread and her mother before her baked bread - probably back all the way to a point where either the families didn't have a means of cooking bread (and let the village baker do it) or back to some tribal state where kneaded bread wasn't a common foodstuff.

Kneading feels like a very ancient motion to me. It's kind of like knitting in its way. I think I want to make more bread this summer. It's enjoyable* and the bread that results is a lot better than store bread.

(*I was going to say "it's fun" but it's really more than that - it's satisfying, and kind of self-reassuring in a way - like, "if you know how to bake bread you will be able to take care of yourself, no matter what happens.")

I also finished another wee amigurumi. This is the smallest one I've ever made, and if I do say so myself, one of the cutest:



It's the Tiny Striped Turtle! (The name of mine is Tessa). If you want one of your own, you can find the pattern at Crochetville; it's written by someone with the screen-name KristieMN.

Tessa is sitting on my newest bookcase, the one that houses (some of) my collection of mystery novels. She's about 3" long by 2" tall and is made out of small bits of two colors of wool-ease.

Here's another picture, showing just how adorably tiny she is:



I'm really tickled with how she came out.

And a couple of comment responses:

Jennifer, I think the red wasps are just predators and not parasitoids (it would be cooler if they were parasitoids). I've seen them carrying off caterpillars before (actually tomato hornworms so I wasn't too upset about that!) I'm hopeful the caterpillars may make it to pupa stage because the dill hasn't flowered yet, and it's often the flowers that seem to attract the red wasps (and it strikes me that I could cut the flowering heads off before they got started to help prevent that). I also haven't seen as many of the wasps right now; I think it's because it's such a wet year.

I also looked up the hungry hungry hippos game - the colors are pink, yellow, orange, and green, as dragonkitter said (I was remembering a blue hippo but it seems there are only four in the game). I might make myself a hippo off of that pattern I linked to...I think I have some yellow yarn that's not too far off of Hungry Hungry Hippo yellow. (I'd really like to make an orange one but I haven't any sherbet-orange yarn and I don't feel like venturing out to try to find some).

I'm really digging making all the knitted and crocheted toys. Part of it is that it's nearly instant gratification - things work up so fast. But there's also something - I'm not quite sure what it is - the satisfaction of making something that's kind of sculptural and 3-D - about it that pleases me.

I have yarn ahead to do another one of those monsters. I think Olaf needs a sister or maybe a cousin. (I think this one I'm going to make more true to pattern, and give just one big eye and do the funny embroidered mouth-with-teeth).

I'm glad my colleague and I got the fieldwork done yesterday; it's raining like crazy this morning and we might even get hail.

I've been, as I said, picking away at the various bigger projects I have going right now. Last night I added a few more inches to the left front of the Kenobi jacket.

I'm also working, off and on, on this:



It's the vintage stripe crochet blanket. It's fun to work on - there's no shaping, there's no counting, you can just pick it up and go to work on it. And at the end of every row, you get to pick a new color. I have a big bag full of scrap yarn (and some wool-ease "repurposed" from the socks it would never really have been used to make at this point), so I have a lot of colors to choose from.

I think I now see Kaffe Fassett's point about color: if you're going to use multiple colors, use a LOT of colors, and don't worry too much about matching/clashing. The more colors I add on to the blanket, the less that scarlet-red jumps out, or the more the purples blend.

That said - there is probably going to be a higher proportion of green and brown to the other colors in the finished blanket - just reflecting my own preferences in color and how I buy yarn. (There will probably be a fair amount of blue, as well).

And here's another thing I finished over my vacation:



This is a toy dog knitted from the directions in Tara Jon Manning's "The Gift Knitter." As I said, this book is mostly aimed at knitting for babies and for dogs, but the toy interested me because of its mode of construction. What you do is cast on at the tail, cast on more stitches on either side for the back legs, cast off stitches for the belly, cast on more again for the front legs, cast off for the neck, and do decreases for the muzzle. So bascially what you are doing is knitting the toy flat as a single piece. Then, you sew the legs into tubes, sew the belly seam from the snout to tail, and it's done. I just used some scrap yarn I had - the coat is made from the dark blue Muskoka left over from Olaf. (Actually, the coat is more complex to knit than the dog itself is.

I've named him "Fido" as he looks like a very traditional sort of dog, and so should have a very traditional sort of dog-name.

Mmmmm, donuts.....arghghghghghgh



Everybody likes donuts!

This is a little crocheted donut (well, actually, it's just about life-size for a donut). It's a pincushion - all of the "sprinkles" are glass-headed pins. (I bought the prettiest pins I could find...). This is the part of my mom's birthday present I made (she doesn't read the blog so it's safe posting it here).

One other reason I love these little amigurumi things is that they're so fast - the donut took me like 45 minutes to make.

If you want your own, the pattern's here.

(I also forgot to mention yesterday that the Cinco de Mayo parade had a couple guys driving really tricked-out lowriders in it. Hahahahaha. You know? As much as I can't STAND it when boom cars drive through the neighborhood late at night, I have a soft spot for when guys (or women) modify their cars to make them "their own." I've enjoyed occasionally watching "Overhaulin'" or "Trick my Truck" if they happen to be on when I feel the need for some tv. And it strikes me that that must be a pretty fun career - using your skills to either renovate or personalize people's cars. Judging from the reactions the people have when they see their newly done-over car [and yes, I know, on those shows it's done as a surprise for the person], it must be pretty emotionally rewarding. There was one woman - she had an old convertible named, I think, Bessy - and the guys totally remade it for her. She was practically CRYING when she saw it again because she couldn't believe how beautiful they made it.

So yeah. I think lowriders and the like are pretty cool. Just, guys, please don't drag-race or drive with your radio set on 11 in my neighborhood late at night. Thanks.)

I think I am going to start the crochet blanket I linked to. This morning, while picking out clothes for the day (my closet for clothes is also my craft-closet - it's a big, walk-in closet) I grabbed a few balls of wool-ease sitting on the shelf and started assembling them in a common place.

I think I'm not going to worry about what fiber-type is in this; at first I thought, "I should just do wool-ease and superwash and maybe some acrylics if I have any lying around so it's machine washable." But, you know? How often do you wash blankets anyway (I mean, unless you're dust-mite-allergic and the doctor tells you to?). So I think I could live with hand-washing, which is good, because then I have oddments of Lion Wool (bought for toys) and other wool yarns on hand that can go in the mix.

And Charlotte, I have seen the ripple blanket, but for some reason I like this one better. I think it's because it's a very similar stitch pattern to one that one of my great-aunts used for afghans she made. (I actually have one- tucked away somewhere - it's blue and gold and is the old Red Heart Wool they used to make. Kind of scratchy and not very luxurious, but still: Aunt Ceil made it, and it's warm, and it's mine.)

A huge, huge, SQUEEEEE! over the Mauritius Dodo crocheted toy pattern at Crochet Me (they are warning that right now the site runs slowly; there must be a high volume).

Oh, I want one of these.

I suspect that other fans of biology/extinct critters/even Thursday Next will be impressed.

I'm working on research this afternoon. Going over a paper and adding to it, putting in some further results. I notice that at one point I referred to the sunflower family as the ASSteraceae. I think I need to change that.