Wildflowers Cowl Completed and Patternized

I finished it! I actually finished it a while ago, but haven't gotten around to writing the pattern or anything.

So here is the pattern:

What you need:

1 skein of Red Heart Boutique Treasures, I used the color way Abstract (151 yards, 70% acrylic, 30% wool, worsted weight.)

Size 13-15 circular knitting needles, less than 30” cables

Two place markers

Abreviations:

CO- Cast On

BO- Bind off

K- Knit

S- Slip

PM- Place Marker

YB- Yarn Back (Bring the yarn to the back of the needles like when you knit)

YF- Yarn Front (Bring yarn to the front of the needles like when you purl)

* - Repeat pattern from *

Pattern:

 CO 70 st, PM, CO 69

Join in the round with one K stitch; be careful not to twist.  

Round 1: *YF, S 1 purlwise, YB,  K1, repeat from * around (end with a K stitch)

Round 2: *YF, S1 purlwise, YB, K1, repeat from * around (end with a slip stitch

Round 3: * K1, YF, S1 purlwise, YB, K1, repeat from * around 

Repeat rounds 2 and 3 until your cowl is five inches wide (or however wide you want it to be).

BO loosely, block if you wish.

It works up very quickly and it's a little hard to stop knitting once you start. I'd love to see pictures if you decide to make it! 

EDIT: I finally got around to measuring the needle size and it's US 15. Also you need only about 120 yards because I had 30 leftover. 

Am I Obsessing Over Nothing?

Not really.

It all started in the summer of 2007, when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book and the Order of the Phoenix movie came out. It was then that I decided to read the entire series. I had already seen the first five movies; I practically grew up on the first two and the third was my favorite for a while.

It took me a very long time to read the books- the fifth one probably took about six months. But finally, I finished. And read them again. And again. And again. And again. And again. I must have read some of them eight times in a row.

As far as I can remember, here are the things I have been obsessed with in order, from 2007 to 2012

Harry Potter (2007-2009)
Lord of the Rings (2009)
Enchanted Forest Chronicles (2009- 2010)
Artemis Fowl (2010-2012)
Doctor Who (2010- )
The Dark is Rising (2011)
The Avengers/ Superman/ Batman (2012)
The Adventures of Merlin (2012- )

So in the past five years, I have been obsessed with eight different things.  That's pretty sad. Two of them are still up and running. Of course, it would be really sad if I weren't still obsessed with Merlin seeing as I've only been watching it for a week and a half. (Or is it sad that I'm already obsessed with it?) And Doctor Who, well, it's not the sort of thing you can stop being obsessed with. Especially with series 7 currently airing.

Who knows how many other amazing things there are out there, just waiting to be discovered? And to think, five years ago I thought Harry Potter was the only best thing in the world.

Not Just Another Chicken

The other day, my brother's friend found an abandoned chick in the parking lot of AutoZone.  The chick was welcomed here that afternoon and we set up a pen for her outside.

She promptly escaped and chose to run around with the big mean hens, who tried to peck at her even though she wasn't bothering them at all.

However, while they are mean to her she is very nice to us. We suspect that she was a pet and was left on the side of the road by some angry parents, which is why she is so comfortable around humans. She jumps up on our laps. She jumps up on our shoulders. She comes chirping at the back door at night, wishing to sleep inside.

We have named her Penny. She's just starting to lose her down, so we reckon she is about 8-12 weeks old. And she is the nicest chicken I have ever encountered.

Doctor Who Day, 2012

Exactly two years ago yesterday was the very first time I watched Doctor Who. Exactly one year ago yesterday was the day me and my friend Rose had a sleepover to celebrate our one year anniversary of Whovianity. Yesterday was the day we baked Doctor Who cookies and figured out how old Amy Pond was and how long she and Rory have been married.

We baked sugar cookies in the afternoon  and then after dinner we cut them out and baked them.

Who is this Docy- Thor person, and why is he impersonating a Norse god?

Since it was Artemis's 16th/ 19th birthday on the first of September and we had lots of extra cookie dough, we made him some cookies too. 

From the left, Rose, Anya (me), and Rose's evil and identical twin sister, whose cheery smile isn't fooling anybody. 

 As you can see, we forgot to make the 'D' in 'Day', so Rose did the honors of cutting one out of paper. It wasn't edible, but at least we didn't have cookies spelling out 'Doctor Who Ay'.

Happy birthday, Arty. May we never delay it by almost two weeks again. 

And what a day for the Rolling Stone to publish this: 

What a great day from start to finish... apart from having to do geometry, all my other school, and nearly getting sick on cookie dough. 

Next year... will be even better. 

A Picture Is Worth 1000 (or 242) Words...

The floor of the patio was made up of two substances; flagstones and loose grey and brown pebbles. The flagstones took up only about a quarter of the space, while the pebbles dominated in quantity.

There was a wood burning clay oven amidst the pebbles, with a base about three feet high made of uneven bricks and a dome made of brown clay. The doorway to the oven was charred from years of use. Judging by the relatively new looking one, the door has caught fire before. A pair of common fireplace tongs had been leaned against the oven, and looked rusty as though they had been left out in the rain. All of the pebbles surrounding the oven were coated in ash.

Only two of the four poles supporting the roof over the oven were visible, and hanging from the roof was a string of white lights, like Chinese lanterns. 

In the background was a tree with wooden planks nailed to the trunk, as though forming a ladder up to a treehouse. Two chickens strutted around the patio, matching the few hiding further back behind a fence. An orange extension cord was draped over a wooden footstool, and on the wrought iron table in the center of the flagstones was a tool of some sort covered in a tarp. Also on the rather crowded table were two lanterns and an empty bottle of whisky, as well as a bottle of beer.

It Was Irresistible

So, a few minutes after I published my last post, I cast on about twelve stitches with my new yarn and did a swatch in linen stitch. My mom has been doing some linen stitch scarves which are absolutely beautiful, and I've been tempted to make one as well, but until today haven't done much about that.

I've also been looking at cowl patterns, and so decided to combine the two ideas... a linen stitch cowl.

I cast on 140 stitches, and started to knit. It's a very simple pattern and doesn't take a lot of concentration. So since this afternoon, I have knit:

It's about two and  half inches, and I still have seventy of the original hundred grams left, so I think it'll be just the right size.

Almost Selfless

When I go to craft stores, I usually spend the majority of my time there in the section devoted to yarn. I rarely buy all the yarn I want (actually, I don't think I've ever done that), but I love to just look at it all.

Today, I bought two skeins for myself, a rare gesture of self love. One of them was because it was on sale , and the other because it was so beautiful I couldn't resist it for more than five seconds.

It reminds me of watercolors and impressionist paintings. And sunrises. And sunsets. Any my favorite color combo (pink, yellow, and orange). And about a million other beautiful things. I love this yarn. (No, that's not a reference to I Love This Yarn. I just love this yarn.) 

I have no idea what I'm going to do with this yarn, but  when I get inspired to knit something with it, I don't think I'll be able to wait. 

I also bought four skeins of Loops & Thread Charisma, three dark gray and one purple. I bought the purple because there was a sale, two for $5, and I was like, what the heck. So I bought it. Happily. And without second thought. 

I love yarn.......... 

Shamrocks and Weeds

A couple of weeks before my sister's wedding, my sister-in-law, Augustine, hosted a small bridal party. We went to the Spiral Diner in Dallas, and then continued onto Augustine's house, where there was to be an afternoon of eating things with sugar in them and making cards.

Unfortunately, Augustine's mom, Catherine, has several balls of crochet thread and a lovely pattern for little heart bookmarks, so I was sitting on the couch with her the entire time, crocheting. I'd never used crochet thread before, so it took me a while to get the gist of it, but I made a sweet little pink bookmark:

A few weeks later, me and my mom stopped of at the new Michael's that opened pretty close to us, and we bought some thread and needles, and I got a package from my Grandma with some more thread in it, so I'm all stocked up for a while. I made a few more hearts... and then got into designing a couple of my own bookmarks. 

Two flowers and a shamrock. The shamrock needs some work... but I'm very please with the flowers. Which is why I have decided to share the wealth and write out the pattern! 

What you need: 

A very small amount of crochet thread and corresponding hook. I used size 5 thread and 2 mm hook for the yellow flower, and size 10 thread and a 1.15 mm hook for the white and purple flower. 

Abbreviations: 

Ch: chain

Sl st: slip stitch

St: stitch

Sc: Single crochet (British double crochet) 

Ch 6 and join in a circle with a sl st. 

Round 1:Sc 10 into the circle (you may need to make a ch 8 originally so that all ten st with fit)

Join with a sl st to first sc. 

Round 2: Sc 2 into every st around, join with a sl st (20 st)

Round 3: *Ch 5, skip over one st, sc into next st, repeat from * around. Join with a sl st

Make a ch a little longer than you want the bookmark to be, go back 6 st and join with a sl st, repeat round 1-3, break yarn and pull it through. Weave in the ends and your done!

Please do not copy or sell this pattern. If you find any mistakes, please point them out to me so that others will not suffer from the mistakes of this incredibly complicated pattern. 

Windows to the Soul

When I was in fourth grade, I took an art class at a co-op. One of the projects we did was a drawing of an emu. This drawing was one of the few I've done that actually looks good (included in this scant collection is, of course, my drawing of Tony Stark). But I am rather proud of one I did a few minutes ago. It took me about fifteen minutes, give or take. Possibly one of the reasons I'm such a bad artist is that I am unable to spend any time on a drawing or painting.

First, I took a picture of my right eye on my iPhone. Then I zoomed in on it and took a screen shot. I also zoomed in on that and took another screen shot, but I didn't like that one.

original photo

zoomed in version

When I saw how cool the zoomed in version looked, I decided to sketch it, something I'm not profoundly good at, as I mentioned multiple times above.

But the result, I think, is better than I expected:

Although, if I'm perfectly honest, my representation of my own eye looks like it could belong to any number of species, including lizards. 

Give Me A Dalek Any Day

As we all should know, Asylum of the Daleks aired today at 7:20pm. That's in Britain. Here in America, it's only 4:00. But big deal.

I'm not watching it until tomorrow, but seeing as I'm extremely excited and can barely contain myself, I decided to crochet a little something to keep me happy when I'm, with any luck, terrified tomorrow afternoon.

exterminate!

It's a Dalek! I'm so happy! Of course, if it were made of something more dangerous than acrylic wool (such as metal) and was more than six inches tall, I would be anything but happy. 

I've never really liked the Daleks. They aren't scary, not to me anyways, they have very obnoxious voices. I'm sure I would probably die from fear rather than extermination if I ever came face to face with one, but when they're stuck inside a screen, they're just another annoying robot. 

That's not to say I'm dreading Asylum of the Daleks. It looks absolutely amazing. And Daleks are a necessary part of Doctor Who. Without them, the show would just be so much slimy green martians. And Weeping Angels. Weeping Angels are another necessary part of Doctor Who. But the Lonely Assassins are much better monsters than the Daleks. 

Anyway, I crocheted my Dalek, and I started to write down the pattern as I went, but then I decided that when I crochet, I kind of just do whatever works and it's kind of confusing, so I'll just let y'all use one of the many other Dalek patterns out there. Or if you really, really want my Dalek, you can request the pattern in a comment and I'll see what I can do for you.