A quickie project

Poor Hubby's been pestering me for a while to make him some practice poi.  What's a poi?  This, or rather, these are poi.  Poi also refers to the performance art that makes use of them.

Anyways....so I promised him the  poi...and then I got busy with other stuff.  You know how that is, right?  Finding myself between projects, I remembered that I needed to figure out how to make some.

Bright, yes?  Hubby wanted something bright and cheerful, important since he might find himself getting whacked rather frequently with them.  You know, anything to stay upbeat, right?  He chose some Red Heart Super Saver acrylic yarn in Bikini.

I cobbled these together starting with a 24 row sphere from this pattern...but worked only to row 11...from there I worked one plain round, then decreased as per pattern (round 15) until I got down to 37 sts...then I decreased one more stitch on the following round and then decreased every other round by 6 stitches until there were only 6 sts left...then I crocheted those 6 stitches around and around until they were long enough for his arms...20 inches in his case.  Then I worked back and forth across half the stitches (3sts) until long enough to go around his finger, then I sewed those stitches to the 3 unworked ones in the tube.

As you work, don't forget to insert a baggie filled with beans, or some tennis balls into the sack before you get too far with the decrease rounds and can't get them in.  With my gauge (no...I didn't measure), the tennis balls were a tiny bit smaller around, but not enough to matter.

I will say it's a good idea to pull at the cords as you work, to simulate the stretching that will occur as the poi are swung around in the air.  I've read that too long is worse than too short, as far as cord length goes.

Having said that, I'll have to do some mods to this pair of poi...the finger rings are too loose (they stretched, too), so I'll ravel them back by about half the length they are now and then finish them off again.

I think the boy was really happy to get his poi! :)

Tasty...but mostly to kitties

Is it me, or does Boots look a bit perplexed?

I think she's having a difficult time choosing which sardine to kill and eat.  It took her a few minutes to decide.  It always does.  It's one of the most frustrating things about my mom's cat.  By the time she's decided whether she wants to play...I'm the one who lost interest.  LOL

She did come around, though.

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One whiff of the catnip and catmint from the garden that I stuffed those babies with and she was on. it.

I made this cute can of sardines using a free pattern from Lion Brand Yarn.  This one, actually.
Hmmm we need some better pics, no?

Aha!

This pattern was pretty easy, and fun.  Though as always, I had to do some tweaking. 

First the yarns...for the sardines, I used Caron Simply Soft in #9710 Country Blue.  Yarn Bee Soft Secret in Fog for the can.  I'm kinda used to the SS's splitty ways, but holy cow!  The Soft Secret was kind of a pain to work with.  Every time I make stuff from this ball, I like it less and less.

So for the tweaking business...

I made a different tail for the fishies.  I closed the tube by crocheting across through both layers (3 sts) and if I remember right,  ch 3, dc in the first st, slip st, and hdc, dc in the last st. Turn and ch 1, then sc x2, sl st, sc 2. Finish off.

I'm not the biggest fan of sewing up, so I made the can seamlessly by crocheting the bottom, like the pattern, picking up and sc around the bottom.  Again, just like the pattern.  Then, instead of finishing off, I just sc back and forth, picking up the adjacent edge and crocheting it with the last, or st on every row until I was satisfied with the length.  Then just back and forth until it was the same length as the bottom.

Oh yeah.  That's one happy cat.

Bienvenue

sur ma petite cuisine.  Voici ma brioche.  Mmmmmm...brioche.

I've so been looking for an excuse to make these.  What better excuse than for an AD&D game night?

I was pretty focussed on my baking and didn't pause to take many pictures...though I did find myself murmuring in *my dismal French as I mixed and rested and rolled and turned my way through this recipe.  

When I make this again...and there will be a next time,  I'll roll out the pastry a little longer side to side,  to make the roll a bit smaller in circumference.  These little pastries rose and rose.  Right over their muffin cups, and nearly onto the oven floor, had I not given them a turn half way.  I will say ma brioches took about 6 minutes longer than the recipe--about 26 minutes.  

Dig out your cutest black beret and make. these. now.

*The stuff I was murmuring made no sense to the g**gle translator thingie.  I knew my grammar was pretty bad, and now I'm also losing vocabulary, too.  So I apparently make up for it with gibberish.  At least no one has to smell of elderberries, oui?  :)

うまい

I crocheted a cute little sushi  on Sunday...it looks almost good enough to eat, eh?


Hmmmm...

    

                   wha?

   

              

  

                                 It's a fish, too!

Fish to Sushi by Irene Kiss.  

I used quite a bit of stash yarn for this...old stash yarn at that.  The nori was made with Mountain Mohair in Balsam.  Rice in Caron's Simply Soft in White.  I improvised a dab of wasabi in Loops and Threads Impeccable in Grass.  So easy, just 5 sc in a magic ring, increase by sc 2 in every stitch, then sc 2 tog 5 times on the next round,  then finish off.  The fish was made with  Mom's old yarn...quite possibly some old *Zayre yarn in Tangerine, since I found an old yarn wrapper in the box.  Even from the little I could find on the 'net, it does seem to match up.  Not sure about the cream :)

Since it's not a toy for a child or pet, I felt pretty good about using some cute little buttons for eyes.  These are .25 inch flat buttons with little shanks. Sewn on, and some yarn wrapped around the shank to give it a nice finish.

Such a fun project!

For Mom

I made a little pincushion for Mom on her day back in May...I really am catching up now, aren't I?

Sometimes it's hard to know what to do with all those pins as you're carefully ticking along at the sewing machine...it seems a pincushion is never handy.  Well not any more:

These are so cute and fun to make!  Look here for the tut!

Mom was especially glad I made it since she's been working on a quilt...wanna see?

And a close up of one of the blocks :

It's from an issue of American Patchwork and Quilting :

I tried to make her a swanky cake a la Nigella Lawson :

'Fraid that wasn't successful at all.  Oh it's pretty...but the meringues didn't hold up at all.  I think it would have been better for this cook to just have baked meringue discs separately from the sponge.

It is the thought that counted, right?

So there's a bit to catch up on

...perhaps not a lot of hijinks were had, but I did make a few things.  Sometimes even though the depression I feel tends to rob me of my ability to socialize, it rarely leaves me totally unable to create.

I did a bit of sewing.  The DH has been gently reminding nagging me that I need some new clothes.  I'm really surprised that I've not made it to "What Not To Wear", yet!  LOL  Jeans and T-shirts are de rigueur to camouflage  my zaftig frame.  Instant anonymity.

Once in a while I'll "shop" around on the 'net to scope out some cute togs.  I totally love this page...the smocks are to die for!  I love, love, love smocks.  I really think the printed jeans are fun, but I wore those a long time ago in high school.  This page, too, has some really cute stuff, but I wouldn't actually wear that out of the house.  Much to the chagrin of DH, he really likes cute feminine things on me.

Anyways, what did I sew?

Smocks!  Of course!

These are McCalls #5665.  Sadly, recently discontinued.  Though you can see it here.  I did view "A" with "B"s under sleeve.  I just didn't feel the poofy sleeves.  For the lavender version, I just put the button fronts on the fold using the extra yardage that would have gone to the button plackets and that made the front ruffle a bit fuller.   I'm thinking I might make one more iteration--mostly to copy this one:

It's really rather like the lavender one, save the button placket goes through the yoke and the sleeves are different.  And I've got very similar fabric. :)

So here's a peek at the sleeves:

A cute, ruffled bottom...much better than that pouf!  Though I'm not showing you the gaffe at the top of the sleeve.  Let's just say that one should really pay attention to the sewing before one takes the scissors and grades the sleeve cap seams.  <sigh> Yep, sliced right through some of the sleeve head on the right sleeve.  So I darned it, after I darned it some more and went on.

I'm working through that stack of fabric from a few posts ago.  There's a bit to catch up on yet, so see you later!