Crocheted Things

Is it a sting ray? A bat? A bird? I intended it to be one of those things, but my intent wasn't obvious. This finger puppet doesn't live with me anymore, so I can no longer stare and brainstorm ways to make it look more like what I wanted it to be. That's a good thing.

At least this tortoise toy looks like a tortoise, but before I decide to crochet again, I need to remember my deep breathing exercises because damn those loops get tight! This toy tested me in many ways, and now I'm stuck with a huge bag of polyfill that is larger than my yarn stash. 

As is the way with handcrafted gifts that I'm making for the first time, I become frustrated in the 11th hour and I hand it over to the boy to finish. His job was to add the eyes and the mouth.  He did a commendable job on both.

This is our melting jack-o-lantern, just a few days after Halloween. It was rigid and proper for most of the day, but as I was leaving the house I noticed it leaning a little to the right. By the time I returned home, only a couple of hours later, it had melted completely and was laying on our doormat. Our poor, poor pumpkin ended his life in our compost bin, so at least the worms will be happy.

Oh, but it has not been all about frustrating projects and melting pumpkins in these parts. These November days are ridiculously warm and sunny, and the beaches are the ideal place to enjoy them. I know we need more rain and that these sunshine-filled days are cutting into potential snow time, but I'll savor them while they last.

Baby Heart Pattern

The Tilden Park Scarf is an easy ruffled and ruched infinity scarf that adds a feminine touch to any outfit.

My sock yarn scrap stash is multiplying! Two balls of leftover skeins have somehow learned the birds and the bees, and now I'm left with a bunch of odds and ends that need a new purpose. Since Valentine's Day is approaching, the red sock yarn called out to me, and after a few tries I ended up with these sweet baby hearts. My hearts are around the size of a nickel, and each one took roughly 5 minutes to crochet. Instant gratification at its finest!

I like to make these hearts into tags that can be tied to anything (and anyone).

Materials
• 2 feet of fingering weight yarn

• Size B/2.25 mm crochet hook
• Tapestry needle

Abbreviations
ch chain

dc double crochet stitch
hdc half double crochet stitch 
sl st slip stitch


Directions

1. Ch 4. Sl st into first chain to form a ring.
2. Ch 3. Into the ring, dc 4 times, hdc 3 times, dc 1 time. This forms half of your heart.
3. Still crocheting into the ring, hdc 3 times, dc 4 times.
4. Ch 3. Sl st into the first chain from step 1.
5. Weave in ends. 

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Dimsum Steamer Head

 

I think this is the best knickknack ever! The boy has returned from his business trip, and before he collapsed from exhaustion, he gave me this dimsum head magnet from Din Tai Fung in either Hong Kong or Taiwan. While this still doesn't make up for having to walk Mingus for 10 days, it's a start.

The New Year is creeping up, and since I detest all the listicles going around the web, I'll spare you any type of year end round up or any resolutions (which I never make since I believe in fixing things I want to change right away instead of once a year). However, I do want to finish my neverending afghan. And soon! I have 2 more balls of yarn left, and so far I've crocheted 101 stripes. The picture above is old. Now, when I hold up the afghan, it covers my head, so that makes it just over 5-feet high. Dreary and cold weather, old episodes of Being Human, some episodes of Ice Road Truckers, season 1 of Portlandia (which is so, so Berkeley), Manhattans and martinis, and horrible congestion that is keeping my energy level diminished has made for record breaking crochet marathons. 

Funny, but I don't have anything on the needles. Everything I'm working on requires a hook.

Happy New Year, blogosphere! See you on the other side.

Reds and Orange

The first red is from these felted tree ornaments I made using the Cocoknits tutorial. Since I was using some Styrofoam balls that I had earmarked for a different project, they were a little too big for felting (2.5-inches across). I made a huge mess in the kitchen between all the yarn bits, boiling water, and copious amounts of detergent. Out of the 4 I made, 3 were good enough to give away. The wool yarn scrap coating on the 4th ball just wasn't thick enough and it kept on breaking as it dried. Will I make these again? Perhaps, but if I do, I'm going to use 1-inch balls instead.

The second red is from these watermelon radishes. Although they were delightful raw (crisp, peppery, and slightly sweet), I still gave them a toss with some heat and a little pancetta fat. They were delicious, but then again, isn't everything more delicious with pork fat?

The orange is this hot off the press looped scarf. The stitch pattern was modified from a sweater I thought about crocheting until I realized it was just the stitch pattern I adored. The scarf is made from my stash yarn, Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool. I have a few more hanks of the stuff, and since the one pictured is already looped around my friend's neck, I immediately casted on (chained on in crochet-speak?) for another.

I've been on my own for a little over a week, and the meals I've been putting together for myself have been strange and frugal. Besides pancetta, I haven't cooked any meat. Red quinoa, hummus, and pan roasted radishes was lunch. Dinner from a few nights ago included an avocado, one bunch of kale, and pasta with a slow cooked, fire roasted tomato sauce. It feels foreign to cook such small amounts, but I'm not a fan of eating the same thing over and over again.  Lest you think it's all been healthy, the holidays have also brought parties filled with butter and sugar laden goodies and booze. Hm, maybe that is why I am eating more simple fare when I cook for myself.

If I cook like it's summer, will summer come?

Sunshine seems increasingly rare these days, and the past weekend was full of wind and rain. Yet, I had a 1/4 pound of cherries that needed a purpose. Since they weren't that sweet, I stewed the cherries with some vanilla sugar, a pinch of salt, bourbon, and a splash of balsamic vinegar.

I roughly mashed them after stewing, then folded them into vanilla ice cream batter. Since I was feeling lazy, I didn't commit to making a vanilla custard. Instead, with a nod to the Ben and Jerry's ice cream recipe book, I whipped a couple of eggs and added sugar, milk, and cream to the batter. It was simple and more airy than a custard based ice cream, but the drawback is that it isn't as rich (only 2 egg yolks versus the 4-6 I'd normally use) and is hard to scoop. Still, is there such a thing as bad ice cream, especially when served with bourbon whipped cream?

I'm almost finished with another cardigan (someone please stop me!) that I can post soon. But for now, I'll leave you with a picture of my afghan. I stated the afghan on 5/24/10, and as of today I have 85 rows complete. I'd love to have this complete by the end of summer, although with the way this summer is starting out,  I should try to finish this ASAP.

Some Gift Knits

Greaseball wasn't too irritated with me. This picture is taken post sweater fiasco: I wanted to try a dog sweater I'm knitting up on him to see if it would fit. He's not a dog, but he walks on 4 paws, so I wanted to see if the front leg spacing (front paw spacing? arm spacing?) was correct. Ooooh boy. He did not like that at all, and this is the cat who can sport a pimp hat and a beret. His points of contention were that he's much more plump than my brother's dog and he has almost no neck, so this meant that the sweater was too constricting around his shoulders.

Onto some of the gift knits from last Christmas. A friend of mine has twin daughters, and I've been meaning to knit them hats. I told him this after he gave me a present, but I hope he knows that I was sincere and not just doing the "oh crap, now what do I do?" reflexive present maneuver. Their colors are totally girly, pink and lavender, so I was forced to visit my LYS. Such torture! The hat was made with Karabella Yarns Merino Superwash, and it is perfectly soft for little girls' heads. The initials on their hats were a compromise because my friend had asked that I embroider the girls' names onto the hats, but when he spelled the names out for me and they were over 10 letters apiece, I made a mental note to only use their first initial. I'm a little suspicious that he also wanted their names on their hats so he doesn't get them mixed up, but he wouldn't confess to that once I pointed it out. The pattern was just something I made up: a seed stitch brim and a stockinette cap. I added some contrasting crocheted flowers to the side so they wouldn't look so boring.

I also crocheted this hypnotic tawashi for another friend. It turned out super cute, as do most things that come from Japanese craft books. Which makes me ponder what is it about Japanese things that make me and other women I know go gaga? Age-wise, I should be over my Hello Kitty and Company phase, but since I'm not, I don't even go into Sanrio stores for fear of leaving with some cutesy chachki that I'll end up giving to my friend's daughters.

Attack of the Killer Ninja Tawashi

Beware the super stealth ninja tawashi! Ninjas are taking up a big part of my brainwaves, and I'm not sure why. I made this little guy while I should have been making a gift, but I could not help myself. The ninja just wanted to be made, and I was merely the humble vessel. Crochet patterns are a pain to write out, but pretty easy to chart. Perhaps I'll make a ninja tawashi chart so more ninjas can materialize and take over the world.

I also spent a little bit of time sketching my perfect ninja in AutoCAD. I'm sure that's what my high school drafting teacher had in mind when he told us that we were learning an invaluable skill. Cracking open the CAD to sketch ninjas sounded like a fun thing to do, so I did it with gusto. I think these are going to be incorporated into a new project.

 

What project? Probably an embroidery project because that's another thing sucking up part of my time, in a most pleasant way, of course.  I have a vision of legions of cartwheeling ninjas embroidered onto napkins.

And speaking of napkins, the picture above is a joint gift project by the boy and I. Gotta love a husband who sews! We found 100% hemp material at Dharma Trading Co., and we snatched up a few yards. He cut them up and hemmed them, even adding some cool mitered corners. I personalized them with some French knots and split stitches. It's funny, but as of two days ago, I never embroidered in my life. Thank goodness for kind strangers who post videos!

I think the coolest thing about embroidery is that the start up cost for the necessary tools are cheap. Although I admit to having $50 of stuff in my cart at one point (so many fancy, unnecessary tools!), I walked out of the craft store only paying $5 and some change.

I also made a demented rainbow dishcloth for a relative. This is the relative who sent me a Betsy Ross Pig ironing board cozy that was later used to cover low window at and old employer's bathroom. For this relative, the louder the colors, the better. I used a lot of my kitchen cotton scraps, and added a double crochet border. 

What did I ever do before learning how to crochet? I really like it for the neat borders that can be added quickly to any project. Before I learned how to crochet, to get the same effect I would have to do an applied i-cord, which is neither fast nor fun.

I have some other gifts to share, but they'll have to wait until after they're gifted.

My Pimp Paw is Strong!

The Tilden Park Scarf is an easy ruffled and ruched infinity scarf that adds a feminine touch to any outfit.

  

 Big G, the notorious C.A.T., is the most wanted hoodlum in our neighborhood. Among his rumored activities are pushing catnip, stealing food from kitties, and threatening the other toms. You see, there is only room for one player in this 'hood, and his pimp paw is strong!

Remember, folks, Halloween is right around the corner, and your cat does not want to be left out. Check out my other free patterns for dressing up your cat or your kid.

Materials

• 40 yards of worsted weight purple yarn for the hat. I used Cascade 220 in colorway 7807
• 10 yards of worsted weight yellow yarn for the gold chains
• Size J crochet hook for the hat
• Size K crochet hook for the gold chains
• 12 inches of  5/8-inch ribbon in an animal print
• A couple of feathers. Mine feathers were plucked from a catnip mouse.
• glue
• tapestry needle

Gauge 
4 sts in sc = 1 inch (I'm a tight crocheter, so check your gauge)
Finished hat has a 10.5-inch circumference around the sides (not the brim)

Abbreviations
[ ]     repeat instructions between brackets
ch     chain
sc     single crochet
sl st  slit stitch
st(s) stitches

5/28/11 Edited sc increases so stitch counts are correct.

Directions
Using the magic ring method and the smaller crochet hook, ch 1. SC 5 into the loop. Pull the tail tightly to close the hole and sl st into the turning chain (the first ch 1).


Top and Side of Hat
Rnd 1: Ch 1, sc into base of sl st just made, sc 2 times into next 5 sc. Sl st into the turning chain. (12 sc total)
Rnd 2: Ch 1, sc into the base of the sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 1 sc, sc 2 times into next sc ] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (18 sc total)
Rnd 3: Ch 1, sc into the base of the sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 2 sc, sc 2 times in next sc ] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (24 sc total)
Rnd 4: Ch 1, sc into the base of the sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 3 sc, sc 2 times in next sc ] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (30 sc total)
Rnd 5: Ch 1, sc into the base of the sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 4 sc, sc 2 times in next sc ] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (36 sc total)
Rnd 6: Ch 1, sc into the base of the sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 5 sc, sc 2 times in next sc ] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (42 sc total)
Rnd 7: Continue to sc into the next stitch (you are crocheting in a spiral) until the hat is 2 inches high.

Brim
Rnd 8: Ch 1, sc into the base of the sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 6 sc, sc 2 times in next sc ] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (48 sc total)
Rnd 9: Ch 1, sc into the base of the sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 7 sc, sc 2 times in next sc ] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (54 sc total)
Rnd 10: Ch 1, sc into the base of the sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 8 sc, sc 2 times in next sc ] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (60 sc total)
Rnd 11: Ch 1, sc into the base of the sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 9 sc, sc 2 times in next sc ] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (66 sc total)

Cut yarn. Using a tapestry needles, thread yarn tail through the last stitch and weave in tail. To get my hat to have crisp edges, I soaked it and blocked it on top of an upside down measuring cup. When dry, glue a piece of ribbon and a couple of feathers to the hat. I used plain old Elmer's glue, but feel free to use some other type of adhesive or to stitch the ribbon into place.

Gold Chains
Using the larger crochet hook, make a slip knot. Ch 1 until you have a "gold chain" long enough to wrap around your cat's neck, then cut yarn and thread the yarn tail through the last stitch. My chains varied from 16 to 21 inches, and I made 4 necklaces. Tie the necklaces together at the base.


As always, if you make this, let me know! I continually troll my patterns on Ravelry looking for new pictures, so if you're too shy to contact me, post a picture of your pimpin' cat in Rav and I'll be sure to see it!


http://spindlesandspices.blogspot.com

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Summer

The sluggish days of summer are here, at least for those of us who are subsisting on a risotto and ice cream diet. Activities in the kitchen have alternated between my pressure cooker and my ice cream maker, two tools that have become synonymous with summer cooking at casa wildtomato. I don't have nearly enough pictures of the things coming out of the kitchen, making this a rather lame blog post, but I'll summarize some recent successes and mishaps.

• Green tea ice cream made for a recent Thai and Tub party (Thai food potluck followed by a soak in a hot tub). This was my first attempt at a custard based ice cream, and tempering eggs was not nerve-wracking as I had been led to believe it was by a certain individual who clearly wants the world to eat less ice cream. Because the cooking gods couldn't let me have such unfettered success, they made me drop the remaining eggs in the carton onto the floor. Or perhaps one of my dogs did a special egg drop dance to the gods earlier in the day.
  
• Cherry sorbet. Yum. All I did was pit some cherries, pummeled them in the food processor, added sugar, heated the mixture until sugar was dissolved, let cool, and tossed it into the ice cream maker. It's funny how I say "all I did" followed by a bunch of steps, but "all I did" expresses how easy it is to prepare the sorbet. The cookbook I used for this sorbet method, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison, suggested measuring out the fruit puree, dividing it by four, and using that as your sugar measurement. I did that, but my sorbet turned out too sweet even with a squeeze of lemon juice. I should have trusted my taste buds more.
• Cinnamon ice milk. Since the green tea ice cream contained 6 egg yolks and 2 cups of cream, I wanted to make something that still had a creamy mouth feel but omitted the egg yolks and cream. I started by breaking 6 cinnamon sticks into 1-inch pieces, toasting them over a hot cast iron skillet, and adding them to 4 cups of whole milk, a pinch of salt, and 3/4 cup of sugar (again, too much sugar). I simmered the mixture for about 20 minutes, then turned the heat off and continued to steep the cinnamon sticks in the milk for another hour. The mixture then went into the refrigerator to cool down. All was going well, until I decided to be clever and add some xanthan gum, leftover from making gluten free cupcakes, into the milk. I thought a little xanthan gum, an emulsifier, would make the ice milk seem just as decadent as the fatty stuff, but it just made it weird and gummy. Yeah, the whole point of making food from scratch is to not have weird stuff like xanthan gum in your food, but I was tapping into my inner mad food scientist. I added 1/4 tsp of xanthan gum powder to the 4 cups of milk, and it was too much. Chewiness isn't a coveted ice cream texture. At least the cinnamon flavor rang strong and true. Next time, I'll omit the xanthan gum or at least reduce the amount by half. To salvage the chewy ice milk, I blended it with a handful of blueberries and some almond milk (pictured above).
• Brown basmati rice. Easy peasy in the pressure cooker. 25 minutes.
  
• Cauliflower and potato curry. 10 minutes in the pressure cooker.
  
• Split pea dal and spinach soup. 35 minutes in the pressure cooker. I'm in awe of the cooking times.
  

Other than cooking, I've been working on the afghan. 19 stripes and counting! My plan of using the yarn store as my stash backfired when I almost could not find some of the colors I needed when it was time for a refill. So due to paranoia, I now have more balls of yarn that I care to look at taking over my closet.

Summer is just another excuse for the dogs to seek and conquer sunbeams. I tried to join them, but I was too hot within 5 minutes.

Giddyup Kitty!

The Tilden Park Scarf is an easy ruffled and ruched infinity scarf that adds a feminine touch to any outfit.

Giddyup kitty! When your cat dons this itty bitty cowboy hat, don't be surprised when your cat sneaks out to go the saloon to down a frosty glass of milk or tries to lay down the law with you.

Check out my other free patterns for more cat headgear ideas.

Materials
• 30 yards of worsted weight yarn. I used Lion Cotton Solid.
• Size J/6.0 mm crochet hook
• Tapestry needle

Gauge
• 4 sts in sc = 1 inch
I have a feeling I'm a tight crocheter, so you may have to go down a hook size or two if you crochet on the loose (aka normal) side.

Abbreviations
[ ] repeat instructions between brackets
ch chain
sc single crochet
sl st slip stitch
st(s) stitch(es)


5/28/11 Edited directions to fix increases so stitch counts are correct.
Directions
Use the magic ring method, ch 1. SC 5 into the loop. Pull the tail tightly to close the hole and sl st into the turning chain (the first ch 1).

Top and Side
Rnd 1: Ch 1, sc into base of sl st just made, sc 2 times into next 5 sc. Sl st into the turning chain. (12 sc total)
Rnd 2: Ch 1, sc into the base of the sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 1 sc, sc 2 times into next sc ] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (18 sc total)
Rnd 3: Ch 1, sc into the base of the sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 2 sc, sc 2 times in next sc ] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (24 sc total)
Rnd 4: Ch 1, sc in next st to end. Repeat Rnd 4 until the hat is 1.5 inches high

Brim
Rnd 1: Ch 1, sc 1 into base of sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 3 sc, sc 2 times in next sc] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (30 sc total)
Rnd 2: Ch 1, sc 1 into base of sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 4 sc, sc 2 times in next sc] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (36 sc total)
Rnd 3: Ch 1, sc 1 into base of sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 5 sc, sc 2 times in next sc] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (42 sc total)
Rnd 4: Ch 1, sc 1 into base of sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 6 sc, sc 2 times in next sc] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (48 sc total)
Rnd5: Ch 1, sc 1 into base of sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 7 sc, sc 2 times in next sc] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (54 sc total)

Finishing
Using the tapestry needle, thread yarn tail through the remaining st. Weave in tail.

If you make this, I'd love to hear from you. Have fun humiliating your cat!



http://spindlesandspices.blogspot.com

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Ripple Effect

I am very inspired by a friend's ripple afghan. Until I saw her's, I associated the ripple stitch with orange and brown. And tassels. The seed was planted.

When prodded, the boy confessed that he has little to no intention of making himself another sweater. "Too many other hobbies," he said. That left me with 9 balls of green Wool-Ease, which is a little too squeaky for a garment, at least any garment I'd knit for myself. However, crochet and Wool-Ease go together like chocolate and salt*, so I picked up 6 more balls of Wool-Ease in different colors, and I am rippling. Hear me roar!

So far, this is measures about 50 inches across, unblocked. At the end of this, the afghan will live on our blah leather chair from Ikea that needs an infusion of style and color.


I finished another Boteh a month or two ago, this time out of Madeline Tosh Sock. Ooooo, this yarn is drool worthy - I now understand all the buzz about Madeline Tosh. Once this afghan is complete, I'll treat myself to some Madeline Tosh DK and knit a Tea Leaves Cardigan. But for now, the afghan is an interlude between cardigans since I just finished (and need to photograph) Radiate. I knit a Coachella a couple of months ago, too, but I haven't been motivated to photograph myself.

*For those peeps living in the Berkeley area, here's the skinny on where to buy salted chocolate. Berkeley Bowl West has the Sea Salt Lindt bars for under $3, and Monterey Market has Vosge's Barcelona bar (sea salt and smoked almonds) for $6 and Scharffen Berger Almond and Sea Salt bar for around $3.50. The Lindt is my favorite since the salt crystals are bigger and add a nice crunch.

Obey the Tawashi!

In honor of the boy turning one year older, I immortalized him in yarn. Behold "The Boy" tawashi!

I made a couple of them. Although tawashi are for washing things, he's not sure how to use it because it is odd, perhaps even disturbing, to wash yourself or anything else with an image of yourself.

Can I be this happy doing my chores?

I can if I crochet and knit these tawashis! The boy has sworn that I've said the word "tawashi" over 1000 times in the past few days. I think he underestimated. (My apologies to anyone who has seen me in person in the past week, because whether you wanted to or not, you've had to listen to me yammer on about this. If this made you confused or just plain bored, do not read further.)

These pamphlets are full of specialized cleaners. Need to clean your horizontal blinds? There's a tawashi for that! Need to clean your computer keyboard? There's a tawashi for that, too! Need to dust your car or shoes? Well, you get it.

Where did I find these wonderful tawashi booklets? Kinokuniya, of course! When I kept on mentioning tawashis and my quest to venture to Kinokuniya in order to peruse their Japanese crochet books, my friend thought we should go together so we could also visit Bazaar Bizarre. Little did we know that the bigger event that day was the Cherry Blossom Festival, which meant that San Francisco's Japantown was full of snack booths. Yay! I snarfed down a strawberry and pineapple shaved ice. Japanese shaved ice is fluffy like snow, and you can eat it solo, or pair it with sweet red beans and ice cream. I should have taken a picture, but I was too busy eating.

I also have many non-tawashi FOs that I need to photograph and share, but tawashi fever still has me in its grips.

Scrubbie Dots

My buddy, kim-chi crafts, is off to Colorado to start a new adventure. I sent her off with some of these Scrubbie Dots (Ravelry download - must have an account). These are addictive to crochet, and the results are so stinking cute that I couldn't stop!

I need to make a second batch. So, so cute.

Boteh

I guess this means I am a crocheter.

I finished my first wearable object, and I managed to wear it proudly coupled with the owl sweater today. After work, I met up with a friend who fondly mentioned how often she wears a store bought scarf I gave her when she was in my wedding. It grated it on me all night that I gave this Very Important Person a store bought scarf, but in my defense, I've only been intoxicated by yarn fumes for the past 3 years and I've been an old married lady longer than that.

At the end of the night, I gave her the scarf. I love this scarf, but I can always make another one. She was kind of shocked, as was I (did I mention how much I love that scarf?), but it felt right.

If you want to make one, too, the pattern is Boteh Scarf by Kathy Merrick. This Boteh was made with Dream in Color Smooshy in the Spring Tickle colorway. I found the yarn a little squeaky to work with, but it was nice and soft against my neck and it seemed like a hard wearing yarn.