Merry Christmas!

And Merry Chrismoose, too!

It's Christmas Eve!

Time to get your reindeer in a row!

Flora!

Well, here it is, all nicely painted with Koolaid. I got the flower wet and then just applied the dry powder, more intense in the center and then progressively lighter. I'm quite happy with it. :) Here's the basic pattern from Knitty: Flora

Knitty's Flora Flower

This is the flower from Knitty's Flora. I made a couple modifications ~ once I got all the petals on one needle, I knitted an extra row of seed stitch, and then decreased before casting off. Joined up the petals, wove in all the ends. This will be petal pink tomorrow, courtesy of Koolaid. I'm also going to find a nice big button for the center. I thought this pattern was really pretty, I liked their idea to use seed stitch. I thought about felting it to make a brooch, (it's currently 5 and a half inches across, but I like the seed stitch look so much I will probably leave it the way it is and just put it up somewhere for decoration. It would be cute on a pillow, too.

The Birds

Today I just wanted to put up pictures of my two birds,

Horus and Pippa.

Florals

I tried out this cute granny square, but only used two colors instead of four. This way it sort of reminds me of those groovy flowers from the 70's. Pattern here: Easy Daisy

Also made a flower pin out of Noro, using the first round of pattern #23 here: Flower Afghan

Snowflakes are done!

Well, here they are, the finished snowflakes! Some are thread, some are yarn, some have beads. Some are stiffened with epsom salts, and some with a glue and water mix. They all have iridescent glitter-glue, though it doesn't show up in the picture. These are lots of fun to make. More snowflake links here and here.

Snowflake Afghan

While following snowflake links around the 'net I came across this beautiful pattern: Snowflake Afghan. I made one of the motifs yesterday to see how it looked and if the pattern was easy to decipher and something you could memorize.... and I like it. It's a really unique and pretty design.

I just made this as a swatch out of stash yarn, of course I'd use a dark blue for the background, and I think the white I used was sport instead of worsted (which actually came out kind of nice... hmmm) but anyway, it shows the general idea. The pattern was easy enough to follow (although wherever it says "repeat 4 times", it's actually 5 times).... the white part takes some concentration but is interesting, the blue part is straightforward bordering, so maybe that would be a nice change in pace back and forth. I'm trying to think if I could/would honestly do enough of these for an afghan. I've made three full-sized afghans before so I know it IS possible. And I did say yesterday that I wanted a Project.

Snowflakes & Carpeting

Snowflake mania continues here at Chez Squirrel. I have a big stack of them in various sizes, some from thread, some from yarn, some with beads. Today I'm planning to starch them, so I will wait to take pics until they are all at their crisp finest.

I have learned that I'm not a big fan of the thread and the tiny hooks. I persevered through some of the tiny ones, but it was a relief to get back to the yarn. This has not stopped me from toying with the idea of buying a used copy of '99 Snowflakes' and working through the entire book.

By the way, I decided not to get the new carpet just now. I wanted it (oh, how I wanted it) but from a practical standpoint, I think it's better to wait. We are at least going to get the old one professionally cleaned, so that should help. Ah, well. I guess I will go take down the caterpillar ticker so I don't have to look at the thing anymore.

Might start an afghan. I found a free pattern for one with ... you knew this was coming .... snowflakes, I will do one of the sections later and see if it's fun to do. I'm also considering finding a copy of that famous book about the 63 squares and making that a Project for 2006. I don't know why. I just feel like I need a big project right now to think about, plan for, and get involved in.

Fancy Snowflakes

I went to the craft store this morning and bought some Aunt Lydia's crochet thread and a size 7 steel hook, and some beads. I made the above two snowflakes (the little one on the right was my first one, and I just noticed I need to fix the last segment), paperclip added for scale. Boy, working with that tiny of a guage is a whole new thing, I tell you! We're into doily territory here. But I tried to adapt and keep going, I guess you get used to it eventually. I can't wait to see how they'll look after they've been blocked and dipped in the cornstarch mix. The big snowflake is the same pattern as the one in the post below.

Snowflake Sensations

Well, I've done what any self-respecting crafter does when faced with a mountain of WIP's..... I've tossed it all aside and started a brand new project. In less than 24 hours I've become obsessed with crocheted snowflakes. Printed a million and a half patterns off the internet, started a new folder, tested out two of the patterns, and am off to the craft store tomorrow to buy cotton thread and an eensy beensy steel hook. Check out the picots!

See Some Snowflake Patterns

Vintage Daisy

A few days ago, Crazy Aunt Purl mentioned spotting a "delicious little beige Toyota" that was a vintage Luxury Edition. Here's a link to her post with a picture of that car: click

Now as it happens, we have one of these little cars, too. It's a Toyota Corona Luxury Edition, and it was made in 1980. She's a quarter of a century old! My Dad bought it for me about 10 years ago, fixed it up and painted it white, I promptly named her Daisy and drove her happily for years. She's still running like a clock and is still one of our family cars.

Here's what my Dad had to say about this type of car: "They made a lot of Coronas, most of them were 4 door sedans, very few were liftbacks, and even fewer were Luxury Editions. A Luxury Edition included dual outside chrome mirrors, upgraded interior, intermittent wipers, and cruise control." Here are some pics of Daisy:

Isn't This Cute??

From the Garden

Any botany types out there know what this is? I'd like to know. Someone gave us this tree as a gift when it was very small, now it is growing big and producing these interesting little pods.

And here is a December hibiscus:

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My Christmas Cactus has buds on it, too! I don't want to move it right now to take its picture on the webcam, but I was looking at it today and saw them. I keep mine out on the porch. It's pink. I have another one that is a cutting from a cactus I had a very very long time and loved dearly, I hope the new one is old enough to bloom this year!

Carpet

We might be getting new carpet! I have waited for this moment for ten years. The carpet when we moved here was, shall we say, less than pristine, and we also had a water pipe in the attic leak through the ceiling last month. Because I like to think positively I went ahead and made up one of these cute little tickers. We actually already have the carpet all picked out if we decide to go ahead with it. The color is Almond Bisque. *sigh* Doesn't it sound wonderful?

{editing 12/15 to remove ticker since I decided not to get new carpet yet}

I have been wondering about the logistics of the whole thing. About moving everything out of the office and living room. (the only two areas of the house with carpet) Still, it sounds very exciting. And I mean........ ~*~Almond Bisque~*~. Come on! :D

Swan Planters

I mentioned my collection of vintage swan planters in the "100 Things" list, thought I'd put some of them up here on the blog. I bought all my swans on ebay.

The whole thing started because the bathroom has turquoise and white swan wallpaper, and pink tile. It's very 50's! I thought a turquoise swan planter would be a cool accessory, so I typed 'swan planter' in the search box on ebay, and found the swan in the first picture. I thought he was wonderful and started looking for more. All my swans are turquoise, pink, or white. I had lots of fun hunting for them. Most of them were relatively inexpensive.... the cheapest was $1, I think the most expensive was $12, most of them I tried to find at 3 or 4 bucks. Of course, there was shipping on top of that. But the room is so beautiful. All those swans really make me smile.

Fuzzy Feet In Color

Here's a pic of the Fuzzy Feet after the Koolaid dyeing. I tried something new: I soaked both socks with water, laid them in a pan, and then applied the Koolaid powder straight onto the wet wool and pressed it in. I was going for rainbow striped socks, and if I'd shown more patience and done a color at a time I think it would've worked, but I got on a roll, applied everything at once, and they turned out more of a free-form multi-color. I like it a lot though, reminds me of those fancy variegated yarns.