Valley Con 2007

I finally finished my Katamari Damacy earmuffs yesterday, because I had to wear them last night! Our local sci-fi convention had a "Monster Bash" with costume contest, and I was cajoled into entering at the last minute by my human Katamari, Amanda. We didn't win, but we made Ernie Hudson (otherwise known as Winston from the Ghostbusters) and an old guy dressed as Death laugh, so it was probably worth it. Here is the finished product, along with my friends Megan and Chris:

I got lots of "Your costume is AWESOME!!!"'s from lots of drunk people (and a few who might have been sober). The ears are a little droopy and the antenna a little lopsided, so if I make another one ever there will be more poly fiberfill.

Yesterday, before finishing up the earmuffs, I also baked a Hot Buttered Rum Cheesecake with rum-caramel sauce. Excellent cheesecake, except you probably shouldn't serve the rum-caramel sauce around the kiddies, because the alcohol wasn't baked or boiled out. Or you can just use rum flavoring.

News

I've taken up a new hobby - origami! It's pretty relaxing, not as much as knitting, but I'm having a good time with it.

It's starting to get cold, so my next project once the newness of origami wears off is a pair of convertible glove/mitten thingies. I made a pair from this pattern last year and it's a good pattern, but the yarn I used, Wool-Ease, sucks. The yarn started to pile before I even finished the gloves, and after a week of wear they looked terrible. I'm using more of my Knit Picks Palette, with stripes of the various shades of gray. On the first pair, I didn't use the chart and don't plan to on the second one. I might find something in one of my Vogue Knitting books, we'll see how fast I start working on them.

A new yarn store opened up in Fargo! I've gathered that it's a leetle expensive, and we all know how I feel about expensive yarn, but I would still like to go. They had their grand opening on Thursday night and I fully planned to attend, but then it slipped my mind and by the time I remembered, I was immersed in God of War and had a couple of Bacardi Limons under my belt.

Clever things that I made

Something neat that I "made:"

I use the quotes because my creative contribution to this project included getting the needle-nose pliers out of the toolbox in the closet and using them to pry apart little figure eight connectors. These are some fun stitch markers that I've had in mind for a while. The purple charms came pre-made, and cost $1.47 for a pack of 4 at Hobby Lobby. The turtle was more expensive at $1.79, the figure eight connectors were 99 cents for a packet of 60, and the clasps were $2.94 for a packet of 10. So, I paid $8.66 total, or about 96 cents each, for 9 stitch markers. I like the clasps, because they're easy to clip on to the yarn or the needle. The ones I bought easily clip on up to a size 7 needle, but they make them in different sizes. And maybe someday I'll make my own charms instead of cheating!

I haven't seen the show "Firefly" or the movie "Serenity." In fact, I just had to go look up which is which. But when my friend Amanda needed a Jayne Cobb hat, I was up to the challenge, and here is the result:

She. loved it. I think it's a really cute hat, but the colors are ghastly. I might be up for making one again, just not in those colors. My favorite part is the pom pom, the first one I've ever made. Yay me! The pattern for this hat can be found here. The yarn is Lion Wool - I had the orange, and it was about $10 total for the yellow and red, but I ended up just paying for it all myself (instead of having her pay me back for the yarn) because I didn't even use half of a skein of each color. It was a really quick knit - after I got the gauge figured out, it took me about 3 days to get it done.

Last weekend, I made a very, very yummy carrot cake. It turned out really well, and the day after I made it, as I sat staring at my yellow thumbnails (caused by grating carrots into three cups of usable goo), it occurred to me that this might make some pretty yarn. I was further inspired by a) this article, conveniently e-mailed to me the day before I made the cake; and b) the story in one of the Little House on the Prairie books where Laura and Ma dye their freshly-churned butter with finely grated carrots to make the butter (and the table) prettier. (Incidentally, I spent a lot of time with my cheese grater and appreciate the effort that Pa put into making theirs - he put a bunch of nail holes at an angle in the top of a tin can. Brilliant.) Up until this point, I've only had a passing desire to ever dye my own yarn. A Google search came up with one person who had attempted to dye yarn with carrots, in a blog entry with little to no details about the process. On that far off day when I get ambitious, this is what I will attempt.

New Book

I have before me a copy of "Knitted Animals" by Anne-Dorthe Grigaff. The book itself is very small, and I definitely wouldn't have paid $30 for it based on its size. (Oops, I guess I kind of judged a book by its cover.) The animals are really adorable, though. The patterns are very simple, geared toward kids around 7-8 years old. Most of them are just one or two knitted squares folded and sewn together in clever ways. I appreciate that the author isn't tied to one brand of yarn, or really any brand of yarn at all. For example, to make the mother duck and ducklings, you only need "Duck-colored yarn." The most specific she gets is to say a type of yarn, like angora or mohair. She does get rather specific when giving instructions for finishing the animal, which I think a lot of books pass over. The two patterns that I can't wait to try are Peter the Hedgehog, (because really, how many hedgehog patterns have you ever seen?) and the Growly Bear with Big Heavy Paws. So, an adorable book, and if you can find a cheaper copy, all the better. (BTW, this is an import from Denmark, which might explain the price.)

**Edit** Something that could be important, but might not - while the author is very flexible about what yarn you can use, she (with a few exceptions) fails to mention how much yarn you should use. It looks like one 100g ball should be more than enough for most of the projects, but it's still something to keep in mind.