07.14.10
Posted in Book Reviews, felt projects, hobbies, knitting and crocheting at 7:13 pm by Administrator
A few days ago I was doing my usual online snooping, when I came across some cute pin cushion designs. I wasn’t looking for pin cushions (I was flipping back and forth from various news articles to various craft sites, heh), but you know how one link leads to another, and lo and behold, I found a reference to a book called Pretty Little Pin Cushions. I found that my library carried a copy, so I checked it out and dove into my craft supplies to see what I could whip up.
The instructions inside included the pattern pieces that needed to be blown up 200%, but since I don’t have a copy machine at home that would do that, I just decided to make up my own pattern based on their instructions. Being that I had never done this before, my pin cushion ended up being quite large, ha! But I didn’t know that when I first got started. Here’s what it looked like in progress.
I actually only followed the pattern idea, but the rest of the design was mine. The pattern I used for the little crocheted flower on the top is from another book I have called Crochet Bouquet by Suzann Thompson. This book includes very easy to read simple flower patterns.
This is what it looked like completed.
And here’s a side view of it.
Now, I knew when I saw these little pin cushion ideas that I would get addicted to them and have to make several before moving on. I’m always amazed at how creative some people are, and love to look at all the stuff people share on the net. I’ve gotten so much inspiration from other crafters on the net. So, for my part, when I finish my projects, I will try to upload them to share as well. Oh, and the next one will probably be smaller, too, heh. Probably about 1/3 of the size, I think, would be better.
My review for the Pretty Little Pin Cushion book about a 7. I felt that the instructions could have been better as well as the designs. I think a person who doesn’t have much sewing and/or embroidery experience might have more trouble with this book. Also, some of the pin cushion designs involve knit and crochet, but doesn’t give the instructions for those patterns, just the shapes of how the pattern pieces should look like. I know how to knit and crochet, so can pretty much figure them out. But for someone who doesn’t, I don’t see how they would be able to make those patterns. However, I still liked the book because it gave me ideas. It was fun to try and quick as well. I’ve found that there are a lot more free patterns online employing so many different techniques that I’m itchin’ to try them out! Can’t wait! Too bad there’s only 24 hours in a day. . .
Marlakins
Permalink
07.06.10
Posted in gardening, hobbies, knitting and crocheting at 12:57 pm by Administrator
Today marks nine years since my last blood transfusion. Despite the gloomy weather outside, this is a wonderful day for me! I’m just taking it easy, working on my favorite things–crafts. . . Like any other craft addict, I have a few projects going on at the same time. Some are “years” old, sigh. But, my resolution is to finish up my old projects and plug along on any new projects so they don’t last for years. Here’s a new project I started a couple weeks ago.
It’s called “Grapevine Wreath with Floral” by Donna Dewberry. The completed stitched size should be 14″x11″. Here’s how far I got about a week ago.
Here’s how far I am on it today.
And did I say that it’s hard to just work on one project at a time? Well, I started on something this Sunday. This might end up as a small bathroom curtain if it turns out decent. I’m thinking of adding beads on the bottom.
The pink ball, I’m thinking of using to make another curtain for my back door. Not sure yet. I’ll have to work up a swatch to see if I like how it drapes.
Another project that has been hanging around here for “years” is this cross stitch mermaid by Mirabilia. I LOVE her designs! I’ve finished all the cross stitching, but just need to add the beads now. I’ve got the beads off to the side.
Uh, yeah, got lots of wrinkles. . . hope it irons out okay once I’m done.
And as if I don’t have enough projects to work on, I picked up a few more patterns that I found too irresistible to pass up. I’ve long admired P Buckley Moss, and couldn’t pass up a few of her cross stitch patterns.
Then my girlfriend found out that I love Mirabilia patterns and she picked up several patterns for me that I just adore!!! I told her a few of them that I liked, and had no idea she would pick them up for me! Oye. . .
I thought I already had a craft stash big enough to last me my lifetime. However, somehow my stash keeps growing! I’m trying to get a grip, but it’s hard being that I’m such a craft addict. . . Well, at least I’m keeping my hands busy and staying out of trouble. And the icing on the cake is that I’ve been able to indulge in these things hardly ever giving a thought to my once obsessive occupation of trying to heal my aplastic anemia. Life has been good. God is great.
I’m off to the Theodore Payne Foundation to hunt for some drought resistant plants. Happy 6th of July everyone!
Marlakins
Permalink
06.12.10
Posted in Playing the Tourist, gardening, hobbies, knitting and crocheting, museums at 8:34 pm by Administrator
Today I was able to make a quick trip down to the Huntington Library in San Marino. I really love that place, so it was a shame that I was only able to spend a couple hours there. Usually whenever I go there I have to visit their cactus garden (they have the best collection that I know of here), but today I didn’t have time. Instead I bee-lined it to the herb garden because they were having a special exhibit which featured natural dyes for yarns. Oh yeah! But first. . . I had to wend my way through their rose garden.
The only other rose garden that I know of that is comparable to this one is the one Brian and I visited during our trip to London. I forget the name right now, but I sure took a lot of pictures there! Maybe some time I’ll upload some of my rose shots.
So not far from here was my intended destination–the herb garden. Towards the back perimeter they had tables and charts set up with dying information, including some samples and a small demonstration.
This woman was very nice and helpful (actually all the women there were!) Not only did she give me lots of information, but I learned something that really made me happy–one doesn’t have to use mordants to dye yarns! Woo hoo! Mordants have been one of the things that have kept me from taking the dying plunge. I didn’t want to use any toxic chemicals, and now learning that I don’t even need to use a mordant and that I can use herbs right from my garden or even kitchen I can feel another hobby coming on. Granted, using a mordant is supposed to help the colors hold fast and fix more brightly, but I’m not that picky. Here’s a chart with samples this woman had on display that her son made back in 1977. The colors, while faded a bit, still held well enough for my taste.
There were also other fiber addicts there demonstrating their talents like this woman spinning yarn.
Another woman was sorting through some fleece. Again, I was able to learn more information about fleece from her, which is good to know since I still have my fleece to work on that I got from my trip to the Isle of Man.
There were also women working on different types of looms. This is a small rectangular loom by which one can make small woven pieces to sew together.
Apparently there are quite a few different shapes used for weaving. I was shown one that I’ve never seen before–a triangular loom.
I do have a more complicated loom that Brian bought me years ago, which I have still never used. . . I guess I just look at all that threading that needs to be done before weaving, and I just can’t seem to get myself to do it. Or maybe it’s really that I’ve been too lazy to figure it all out. But when I saw this knitter’s loom, it looked very simple and something that might be a good starting point for me.
Oh yeah, now that I could see myself dabbling in. This particular loom is called the knitter’s loom by Ashford. The woman explained to me that Japanese kimonos were originally made in strips 14″ wide and then sewn together, thus explaining some of their striped patterns. I could see trying this! Look like fun to me, and yes, I have plenty of scrap yarns to test it all out, too.
By this time I had already spent about 1 1/2 hours here, and still wanted to visit the Chinese garden Matty told me he wanted to see. So off we zoomed back through the garden.
This path lead down to the Japanese garden first.
Then we veered off to the Chinese garden.
And another shot.
Gorgeous! I really love the Huntington Library gardens! I could easily spend the whole day there, but alas I didn’t have time. So not long after strolling through this garden, we had to head back without even a peek at the library museum, bookstore, or cactus garden, wah. . . maybe next time. I thank God that there are some really creative and talented people out there who can create such beautiful, peaceful environments, not to mention the amazing variety of nature that God has given us to tend and cultivate.
Marlakins
Permalink
06.02.10
Posted in hobbies, knitting and crocheting at 9:18 pm by Administrator
Originally I was planning on blogging about The Ayatollah Begs to Differ by Hooman Majd since I finished reading it last week. Which, by the way is a pretty good book. But with all the distractions on the news lately I almost forgot about it. I’ve been keeping an eye out on the BP Oil leak, then I came across this article, “Niger’s Agony Dwarfs the Gulf Oil Spill.” Oye. . . too much depressing stuff happening together. Too much, too much! I need a break from all this depressing news, so thought I’m just gonna blog about my crafts right now.
I’m one of those people who likes to do two things at one time especially crafting because I don’t want to feel like I’m wasting all my time crafting. So, I generally read and craft/knit at the same time. Well, there has been a lot to read recently, so I’ve been cross stitching like crazy. Plus I’ll add that it’s all my friend’s fault because she got me back into cross stitching, and now I’m hooked again. I think she and I are going for broke cross stitching Christmas things. Between the two of us we have lots of patterns to work from, but could we settle for that? Sadly, no, and just recently we received our shipment of new patterns to work on, ha, ha! She called me late one night to share a link on cross stitch kits, and so we went online shopping. Here’s what I’ve done so far using our old patterns.
Yep, being the rug rat that I am, I’m still using up old supplies that my friend and I bought years ago hence the “wrinkled aida cloth,” heheh. I’m hoping they iron out okay. . . I did try to put a few of them together to see what they would look like stuffed. They’re the ones in the clear plastic bag. It’s kinda hard to see them well in the above pic, so here’s a closer look at some.
And while I’m at it, I also finally got to work up some of the organic Peruvian cotton my sister and her hubby gifted to me a couple Christmases ago. . . Here are the lovely skeins.
Oh wait! I have to back up a bit to tell my story. . . 
A few weeks ago I was diving in my yarn stash hunting for my next project. I found some yarn and a lace book that I had purchase a year prior. Yes, a “year” prior. I decided I was in the mood to learn how to do this lace pattern in this book. So I wound up the yarn. Then, the following morning I tried to knit. For some reason I was having the hardest time. Things were not going well. I knit, ripped back, knit, ripped back, knit, ripped back, I don’t know how many times! Then I decided that maybe the yarn wasn’t right for the size needles and such. So I dove back into my stash and found another very old skein that looked like it would be suitable. So back again, I knit, ripped back, knit, ripped back, knit, ripped back. . . Oye! Something was wrong! I looked over the pattern and counted, and lo and behold, the cast on instructions were wrong! Grrr. Just looking at their graph, instead of 49, I should cast on 52. So back I went knitting and when I got to the fourth row when things went wrong again. . . I thought, I must have knit something wrong again, so back again ripping it down to the start. Knit it again, and again, and again. Finally I decided maybe there’s a list online for errata on this book. Sure enough there was errata, but not for this pattern. Hmmm. But I “know” there’s a mistake because I had just found the cast on was the wrong number. So I looked on Amazon for reviews on this book, and what did I find? A few comments stating that this book was “rife with errors!” Argh! I just went blind trying to work that thing up! Okay, so now my ego has been battered that maybe I can’t really knit after all. I dug around trying to find lace patterns that I liked, but nothing was working up to my liking. Here’s a sample of “some” of the things I tried working up and then abandoned.
Yes, there was more than this. But while straightening out my pattern folder, I came across a pattern from Lace Style by Pam Allen and Ann Bud. It was a cute little shrug that had open work. Hmm, I thought, I just may have the right yarn for that. And so I pulled out my Peruvian cotton. Once I started to work it up, I felt that this pattern and yarn were going to work. Here’s what it looked like in the process.
Ah, yes! This would be perfect for California weather. And with the big loose knitting it worked up really fast. I was done in no time. Here’s the completed shrug.
I will vouch for this organic Peruvian cotton yarn. It drapes well, and it’s very soft. I think it only took three skeins, so I still have about 7 skeins left to work up another project, woo hoo! I will also vouch for Pam Allen and Ann Bud patterns because this is the second pattern of theirs that I’ve worked up that worked beautifully. Good instructions! Which is much appreciated by hopelessly addicted knitters like me.
Marlakins
Permalink
05.15.10
Posted in Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, family stuff, knitting and crocheting at 4:10 pm by Administrator
Just to update my yarnie projects, I’m happy to say that I actually finished a long-time project that I had almost forgotten about. . . my Babette blanket. . . I still need to block it, but I’m just not looking forward to doing that just yet. So, anyway, here it is, finally.
I placed it on my sofa to help give it size perspective, so here’s another shot at what it looks like laid flat.
Yep, another funky project that somehow caught my attention. But now that I got that out of my system, at least I’ve learned some things in the process and will be doing some things differently if I choose to make another Babette blanket. My oldest son isn’t too thrilled with this style and calls it my “Dr. Seuss” blanket. But I’ve always enjoyed Dr. Seuss, so maybe that’s why I like it? Ha!
Anyway, so moving right along. I think I mentioned in a previous post that I finally learned how to do entrelac. Well, I found a pattern that looked simple and kinda nice, so here’s what it looked like in progress.
And here’s the finished project–a shrug. . .
I’m finding it handy in our mild weather. The days are generally too hot to wear a full sweater, but the nights do get cool enough to warrant a little back and arm covering. I think I may be dabbling in a few other shrug patterns.
Then a while back I finished another multi-directional scarf pattern by Iris Schreier, so while I was clearing out the pics on my camera figured might as well share the finished scarf.
Then last week I finished another pair of socks for Andrew. However, he’s shy about modeling socks, so Brian did the honors here.
Oh, and while I’m at it (cleaning the pics off my camera), I might as well put in a little plug for Larch Hanson’s seaweeds. He’s my main seaweed supplier and a couple weeks ago my order from him arrived.
Our family likes to use seaweeds not only for flavoring, but also for micro minerals. We like to purchase the family pack which consists of a 1/2 pound each of kelp, alaria, digitata, nori, dulse, and a seaweed mix for soups.
Here’s what they look like outside of the plastic.
I’m so glad we have a person such as Larch who harvests these seaweeds with conscience and care. If anyone knows about seaweeds, it’s Larch! So if anyone is interested in ordering seaweed in bulk, check out Larch Hanson’s site www.theseaweedman.com Orders can be place through his website or by phone at 207-546-2875 or via U.S. mail: Maine Seaweed LLC, P.O. Box 57, Steuben, ME 04680
Good quality stuff! We’ve been using him for more than five years now, I think.
Okay, I think I’m updated now with my camera pics. Erp! Wait, I just remembered, no, yesterday I tagged along with my oldest son, Andrew, to a class trip they took to a museum yesterday. I have more pictures. . . but that’ll have to be for another post. . .
Toodles for now!
Marlakins
Permalink
04.27.10
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Playing the Tourist, knitting and crocheting at 12:13 pm by Administrator
Some people like to accuse Christians of disregarding the earth because of what they “think” is taught in Genesis 1:28.
28“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
It’s the word “dominion” that they like to run with. And in reality, I can see why some people run with that word because I have seen it myself where “some” Christians do in fact reason that this world is only temporary so we have every right to do with it as we please be it cut down all the forests and pollute the land and air with wild abandon. They want no restrictions. However, I would like to assert that not all Christians believe that. I for one think that Genesis 1:28 refers to man being good stewards of the earth, and the “dominion” part of it has to do with our ability to reason and our capacity to think and plan/organize. This is a far cry from recklessly plundering our natural resources without regard of the future ability of the land to regenerate healthfully. Just think that within the very same verse God instructs man to “be fruitful and multiply.” How can man fulfill that command if he pollutes the environment so badly that nothing will grow, and animals struggle to reproduce, and their own children are born with birth defects as a result of that pollution? Therefore, I submit that having dominion refers to being good stewards of the earth that God provided for us, not a license to rape the land, air, and oceans.
So in my little ways, I try to be a good steward of the earth, too, by trying to do green things. Granted sometimes it seems so overwhelming as I look at our trash cans and realize that we do in fact contribute to a lot of waste that clogs up our landfills. I have endeavored to recycle and cut down on plastics and anything toxic that I can think of. But I am guilty of owning and going through several computers and various electronics, consume countless batteries and other excess packagings, and enjoy long-distant traveling. But with this duality, I have become sort of a pack rat with things that aren’t donate-able. I hate to waste and throw things away. . . so I try to donate old stuff when I can. But what to do with the undonate-able stuff? Then on Earth Day I happened to see a video of a woman using scraps of fabric from old shirts and turning it into yarn that she knit up into scarves. Oye! I’ve got lots of old rags. . . even old jeans and bed sheets that aren’t really donate-able, but I still don’t have the heart to throw away. What to do?
Well, I decided to try it and make a small rug out of one of my old bed sheets. Here’s how it looked when I started. I had already started ripping before I thought I should take a picture of my progress.
After I stripped the sheet down, I started to connect the pieces by just tying the ends together and wrapping it up in a ball.
Then it was ready to knit. This is what it looked like half way through.
And here’s my little rug completed!
Yeah, I know, kinda of a funky rug, but hey, it works! Not sure if I’ll just leave those ties sticking out or tuck them in or what, but I’m loving that now my old sheet that was essentially unusable is now going to be used again. It’s completely washable, too! And the added bonus to this project is that I not only recycled, but “upcycled” something. Heheheh. I love it.
Okay, so that’s my little recycle project, but while at Santa Monica last weekend we saw a larger scale green project in the works there. It’s a system called “SMURRF,” Santa Monica Urban Runoff Recycling Facility.
The yellow tank in the foreground has dirty, gritty, oily water in it where it is filtered and cleaned. As the water passes through the system it ends up cleaned as shown at this stage.
As described in the placard, the water that is captured in the SMURRF system comes from the city storm drains, which contains a lot of debris and which ordinarily would go straight into the ocean without being processed first. But this system captures some of that dirty water, cleans it, then recycles it to water the landscape. I love it! Not only is the dirt prevented from entering the ocean, but the lawns are also fed and maintained.
Thank God for people who have the genius to know how to put these facilities together. Now that’s a good use of a scientific brain, and what I think would qualify as a good steward of the earth.
Marlakins
Permalink
04.06.10
Posted in gardening, hobbies, knitting and crocheting at 5:45 pm by Administrator
Hope everyone had a nice Resurrection Sunday. Ours was quiet except for a short-lived excitement created by a little rocking and rolling from the Baja earthquake. Thank God it was mild for us considering it was a 7.2 in Baja. It was a rolling kind of earthquake rather than the jolting shaking kind. And it was kinda long in duration as far as earthquakes go. Then today I just read that there was another earthquake in Sumatra. Oye, Haiti, Chile,Taiwan, Baja, now Sumatra. . . what is going on?
Other than that, things have been business as usual here in the Brown household. I continue to read books. I’m still reading Dark Sun: the Making of the Hydrogen Bomb. Still want to blog about The Day We Lost the H-Bomb, but just haven’t gotten around to it, yet. Just picked up Sugar Fix at the library today. I also bought another book that I haven’t started reading yet called Nuclear Showdown, North Korea Takes on the World. Then some of the nice ladies in my knit group have been knitting scarves for a charity. The organization is called “Handmade Especially for You.” They supply handmade comfort scarves for these abused women. One of the ladies in my group has been knitting up a storm for this charity and has recruited a few of us by giving us yarn to knit, too, heheh. Apparently, Handmade Especially for You has donors who supply them with all sorts of yarn. They wind them up and make little kits, so that all you have to do is just knit up the ball of yarn until it’s all gone. And it goes really super fast, too, because the scarves are knit on “large” needles such as 15s or 17s. I didn’t pick out the yarns or colors. They do that for you, including the fluffy parts on both ends. I still need to tuck in the loose ends. Here are how the scarves turned out.
While I’m on the knit subject, I also finally learned how to do entrelac, so I can now tick that off of my list of things to learn. I’ve only made a small swatch as I’m not sure what to do with this stitch as of yet. I was originally gonna make a scarf with this stitch, but decided that I didn’t like how the back is not as presentable as the front, and I tend to like my scarves reversible. Plus the yarn I was using is self-striping, and I didn’t like how the colors were pooling. But here’s the swatch I made.
I think I’ll reserve this stitch for something that’s not reversible, or try to figure out how to alter the pattern so that it is somewhat reversible.
We also got a little more rain the other day! Yay! That always is good for the plants, which by the way, we have our first produce. . . artichokes!
We planted this artichoke plant last year, but didn’t get anything until this year. Plus during our winding spell this plant fell over on it’s side, and I was concerned that we had lost it. Brian just propped it right back up with some rope and viola! We now have artichoke!
My seeds were pathetic. . . and before I could replant, Brian came home with these!
I feel like I’m cheating getting them all started up like this, but oh well! If all goes well, they’re gonna be organic string beans!
Then something Matty ordered in the mail a while ago finally came. . . His paulownia tree.
We didn’t expect it to be so small! Ha ha! But Matty likes it just the same. I like how he and his dad have been working in the yard this year. When it gets cleaned up a bit more I’ll try to share some pictures of our herb garden. I’m hoping that we’ll get some fish back there, too, but we’ll see. It got kinda wild while we were away in the Philippines and it rained like cats and dogs. Boy, did the weeds grow up like they owned the place. We’re still trying to catch up with that between my regular house chores and hobbies. Hopefully soon we’ll have a handle on it.
As another nice garden surprise this year, it appears that one of our random seed planting bloomed into this.
I love poppies! Flowers do make me happy. This reminds me that once upon a time I wanted to try to plant edible flowers. Hmmm. Another thing to add on my list. . .
Okay, well I think I’ve rambled on long enough, so will start working on dinner now. Oh! Speaking of dinner, I should share some pics of Aaron’s lumpia wrappers. That little guy is such fun in the kitchen. He definitely encourages me to try new things. But I’ll have to share those pics later.
Marlakins
Permalink
03.24.10
Posted in hobbies, knitting and crocheting, quilting at 7:44 pm by Administrator
Since each year seems to be flying by faster and faster, I’ve been trying to train myself to just keep working on some project each day even if it’s just for a few minutes at a time. I figured that way I’d be able to chip away at my list of “things to learn” while at the same time using up my craft supplies and making something either useful and/or decorative. While in Thailand, I picked up a few plain cotton shirts for my boys. I really wanted the ones with embroidery on them, but I didn’t find any. So I bought these plain ones thinking that I might try to put some embroidery on them myself. Well, it’s been a while since I’ve done any hand sewing, but since I do like to hand sew as well as cross stitch, I decided why not try practicing some embroidery by making little crazy quilts?
Okay, so here’s a picture of a couple of the plain shirts I bought. I’m thinking of embroidering around the collar and down along the slit in the front.
Well, I haven’t done it yet because I haven’t decided on what design to make, yet. But I did get my feet wet a little by jumping back into embroidery by trying my first attempts at a few crazy quilt patches. I figured I have so much scrap cloth from my patchwork days that it should be a good way to practice while also finally trying crazy quilting. So here are a few of the scraps I picked out, including cutting one red piece in the shape of a heart.
I stitched all these scraps together, then practiced some hand embroidery on it. I ended up making three squares. Here’s what they looked like when they were “somewhat” done.
I actually ended up stitching a bit more on these including some buttons and seed beads as well. The heart on the bottom square was still not sewed on in this pic, either. At first I didn’t know what I was going to do with these, but then I decided that my storage boxes looked a bit like they needed some decoration. Here’s what my storage boxes looked like before I put on the squares.
And this is what they look like after the squares.
Yeah, it’s a bit funky, I know, but I guess that’s why they call them crazy quilts? Anyhoo, I’m happy with the results because I feel like I’ve killed a few birds with one stone–using up my scraps, getting a feel for what crazy quilt making is like, decorating my storage boxes, and getting some embroidery practice in.
Other projects I’ve finished is this hat for Brian. He wanted a double layered knit hat, so I decided to try my hand at making a reversible hat. I figured if I just knit from the top to the brim, then back again I could just flip the hat inside out to make it reversible. I decided to make it plain on one side and striped on the other to test it out. Here’s what it looked like after I cast off.
If I tuck in one side it looks like this:
And if I flip it inside out, it looks like this:
This was my first attempt at making a double layered hat, and at the same time I figured out how to make it reversible, too. Another check mark on my list of things to try and learn.
I also finished my multidirectional scarf, which is also a new technique for me.
I used Iris Schreier’s pattern from her Modular Knits book. I love her technique because there’s no picking up stitches, they’re all live, so no hand sewing any pieces together. It’s all just knit along the way. Now that I’ve learned that, I want to try other modular knit patterns.
Then Matty was moving things around in his room and we were talking about wall hangings. He remembered that he liked one of my old patchwork tops I was working on “years” ago. I happened to still have it stored, but not finished. I pulled it out, and he still liked it, so I’m gonna try to finish it up this year as well. Here’s what it looks like so far.
I actually found that I still have quite a few patchwork tops that I haven’t finished and are still just stored. . . So, I guess that’s another thing on my list to do–finish my old projects! But I think I’m gonna work on the small ones first. Here’s another small one that I’ll try to get to this year as well.
If I eventually do finished these, I’ll try to post them.
Okay, so back to being productive! Oh, I also just finished reading The Day We Lost the H-Bomb by Barbara Moran today. My! Another captivating story! Will try to post my comments on it another time.
Toodles for now!
Marlakins
Permalink
02.26.10
Posted in hobbies, knitting and crocheting at 7:34 pm by Administrator
Last night we visited the Barnes and Nobles at the Grove because I heard that Crazy Aunt Purl was going to be there for her book signing. I honestly haven’t read her book, but I wanted to check out the scene anyway. After listening to her speak a bit, I decided to hit the cooking section and the crafts section. And oh boy! There is no end to great books and people with tons of inspirational projects, wah! I think I’ve got plenty of craft supplies, but there are just so many different types of crafts that I think I’ll have enough to do for the rest of my life. . . And it made me remember that I really should try to use up my supplies. . . which, I actually got back to chipping away at this week. After returning from the Pines, I spent about a week getting things back in order. This week I got a chance to pull out the crafts and “yarn.” Ohhh. . . heheheh. But I gave in to one of my temptations and bought a little pattern for an amigurumi. It was just too cute to pass up. It’s called the Signature Escargot by Elisabeth D. I started it last night. This is what it looked like.
This morning I was able to finish it! And now Petunia has a new buddy. . .
Modest little gal, heheh. I was working off the pattern from my computer, so the picture of what the real Signature Escargot should look like can be seen on the computer screen behind. I didn’t have the other supplies like the plastic eyes or the fancy flower on her head. I just stitched on the eyes and sewed on a little ribbon instead. Here’s another picture of Petunia with her new friend.
Hee hee! For anyone who hasn’t seen Elisabeth D’s work, check out her flickr photostream. She’s among the best amigurumi designers I know.
The other project I’m working on is really just to help hone my knitting skills. I’ve been interested in modular knitting, and I really like Iris Schrier’s modular designs because her patterns use live stitches and there is very minimal sewing, if any. So here’s a picture of a skinny scarf I’m working on to get a hang of one of Iris’s multidirectional patterns.
Her instructions are very easy to follow, and I’m happy that I’ve gotten an early start in the year to learn more skills to improve my knitting. I still have a list of other things to learn, but at least one item down! I’ll try to post a pic once this is completed.
One other project I managed to complete were a pair of socks for Matty. He’s the picky one and wanted a sock combo of wool and cotton. So I knit up a pair with two strands of yarn–one sock wool, and the other crocheting thread. Here’s what it looked like in progress. The leg part is in plain blue partly because Matty didn’t want the leg portion cotton, only the foot portion. I tried to match up a thicker yarn for the leg to make up for the foot portion.
And here it is completed.
I wondered if it was a little too thick to wear in shoes, but he wore them to school the next day and loved them! Ha! He said they were soft and comfy. That has inspired me to make him another pair using the same two strands of yarn (but different color). One of the gals wants me to teach her how to make socks tomorrow, so I’ll try to get another pair started then.
So that’s what I’ve had going on the yarn front. I did pull out some of my old patchwork tops that I had worked on years ago, and think I will try to complete a few of them this year, hopefully. I’m also getting interested in sewing an embroidery again. . . oh, oh. . . I also want to try out more cooking recipes. I have plenty of them that still need trying. Well, at least yesterday Aaron and I sowed some seeds. I hope this year we’ll have a better crop than last year. Aside from the Mandarin oranges, the rest of our crop was pretty pathetic. . . I think we were being too conservative with the water being that we were suffering from drought. At least we got a lot of good rain the start of this year and the soil looks much happier. We’ll see how long that lasts. . .
Toodles for now!
Marlakins
Permalink
02.03.10
Posted in Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, Playing the Tourist, food and restaurants, knitting and crocheting at 8:22 am by Administrator
Since everyone officially decided against going to Sabong to see the underground river, we decided to go into town the next day to see what’s there. We were told that it was about a 15 minute ride in the tricycles. Daddy decided that his back could handle that, so the lady who coordinated the tours and activities called up three tricycles to take us into town. Aaron and I shared one tricycle. 
It’s a little easier going over the bumps in one of these, but it’s also a lot dustier. No matter,when in Rome. . . In about 15 minutes we arrived at Narra’s town center. 
Many things were sold here such as veggies, meats, and fish. They also had other goods like clothing and house supplies. There was also rice and breads. This is part of the fresh meats section . 
And here are some of the dried fishes. 
I was also able to find some nice sarongs for a good price (half of what they charged for them in Bohol last year!) This is a pic of one of them. 
Then Mommy started her usual “hurry, hurry, let’s go now.” So off we went back to the resort for our lunch, which I ordered a soup called “binocoy,” a Palawan specialty. We had tasted it the night before, and wow, was it good! I’m hoping to try to figure out how to make it once we get back home. Binocoy (and I’m not sure of the correct spelling) is a chicken soup with cyote, finely chopped ginger and other veggies served in a young coconut. I’m guessing that there’s also a tad of chili pepper to give it a little zing. Here’s a pic of what it looked like. 
After lunch I suggested that my parents go for a nice massage treatment at the resort’s spa. It didn’t look like much from the outside. . . 
But when we entered, we found that it was very cute in there! The atmosphere was very relaxing! They had little structures for the different treatments. Here’s a pic of their wet exfoliation room. 
Actually, off to the right are the showers, the curtain to the left is the sauna, and the room straight ahead is the wet exfoliation room where two people can be treated at once. This is what the tables looked like. 
I had to take a pic of this without Mom and Dad there because while they were having their treatment Mommy said if I took a picture of her there she’d break my camera or my head, whichever was easiest, ha ha! Basically, the way the treatment worked was they ran warm water under the top mat so that you’re lying in warm continually flowing water. During that they rub pureed cucumber all over you, then ground rice, and then finally shaved coconut. They let me watch the process, and in so doing I got so tempted that I decided to have a treatment, too (as did Auntie Lits and Uncle Al). While we lined up for our treatments, Aaron and I waited in one of their waiting areas. Of course, I had to knit. . . 
From where I sat, this was the view. To the left of the pic is their jacuzzi area, and the structure behind the trees just to the right is their reception area. 
To the immediate left of where I was sitting was the dry massage area. It’s elevated and open. Mommy allowed me to take a pic of her and dad here. I stood below the stairs when I took this picture. The nice thing about this set up is the weather was so nice that it was especially pleasant and peaceful to have a massage out there. They also had very calming music piped in. The massage was done using pure coconut oil. The girls took their time, and the total time given to each of us for both the exfoliation and massage was two hours! Oye! 
That’s Mommy getting pampered, and Daddy’s on the left getting pampered by another masseuse. When it was my turn I had to hold myself back from groaning out loud in pleasure, ha ha ha! The weather was perfect, the atmosphere was extremely relaxing, and having a massage at the same time was just heavenly! The stiff neck I developed on the way into the resort left me after this massage, and I awoke the next morning feeling very refreshed and limber. Okay, so once again, I’m out of room for pics, so I’ll continue on another post later. However, tomorrow I’m probably not going to be able to post, then the following day we’re headed off to Bangkok where I’ll be offline for four days. So I’ll try to update in about 5 days with the last part of “Palawan Ho!” when we get back to Manila. Toodles, and take care! Marlakins
Permalink
« Previous entries Next Page » Next Page »
