The replacement snappy pencil pouch

Once upon a time, a great tragedy befell the original snappy pencil pouch that I made for Brad.  The story goes like this:

Brad loved his pouch and carried it everywhere he went at the high school where he teaches.  Occasionally, when he's out and about on campus, there is an inevitable call of nature.  I am informed that men's bathrooms don't have handy purse hooks or shelves by the urinals, so Brad was attempting to take care of business while pinning the pouch between his chin and chest when disaster struck.  The pouch did NOT make it through intact after an emergency session in the washing machine (apparently the measuring tape segments inside yearned to be free), so Brad sheepishly called me and humbly requested a replacement.

Thank goodness I wrote down the measurements I used when I altered the fabulous Sew Can She tutorial for a Snappy Coin Pouch, so recreating it was no problem.  I used some navy duck cloth for the outside, and added an important design element (that was actually called for in the original tutorial, but unfortunately omitted from the original pencil pouch) -- a swivel snap clip.  Said clip was actually recovered from an old dog tie-up that Corey had fashioned before we figured out that tying Connie up made her crazy.  Now, it can be used to secure the pouch to Brad's pocket or belt loop when his hands are otherwise occupied.

For the inside, I used some Star Wars fabric that features technical specs of various vehicles from the movies.  I picked up the fabric from the remnant bin, of course.

Brad was very pleased with the addition of the swivel clip, and has also requested a shelf to be installed above the urinals just in case he's carrying something else without such a handy dandy clip.  Luckily, the high school administration agreed and the shelf is currently on order.  Cross your fingers and hope this pencil pouch stays out of other tragic situations!

Guest post from our little brother, Jordan -- Memoirs of a Gigolo: A-dog's Afghan

Alternate Title: The Gigolo Strikes Back

I just completed another afghan for a lifelong buddy. This one was for the one and only A-dog. He was my roommate at UC Santa Barbara in the freshman dorms. We didn't really get along much that year as he was always studying physics and I was always partying. Our friendship really blossomed during the sophomore year when we didn't live together- we apparently make great friends but horrible roomies. Here he is enjoying a cuppa on a sunny Seattle morning:

And here he is after a successful farmer's market extravaganza- never mind the Drano.

He was the best man at my wedding, and the decision was a very easy one. A-dizzle fo' shizzle. I cannot adequately describe how cool this dude is, but I can point you in the direction of the A-fro he is wont to sport. I recently spent a month on my motorcycle touring the southwest with a full five days visiting the Dizzle's house cooking gourmet food and thinking deep thoughts while hackey-sacking. I don't have many pics of the two of us together- we simply aren't the sort to take a bunch of duck-faced selfies- but here is one from Santa Barbara:

For this afghan, I converted a granny square into a granny rectangle and just kept adding row upon row. I used four Caron Pounders of white and three different blues of increasing shade. I started off with a single row of each, then double rows, triple rows, and finally quadruple rows in order to create a pond ripple effect. As you can see from the zoomed-out shot, my corners began to outstretch the sides and the afghan is a little distorted. I think this is due to using a ch-3 for the corners instead of a ch-2. Or possibly because any pattern will reveal its weaknesses in a real world application when you take it to undue proportions:

When I was nearing the end of the triple-row iteration I began to be concerned about how much yarn was left. I weighed the remainder of each skein but needed a way to describe how much yarn was used per unit crochet. This led me to spend an intense caffeine-fueled morning deriving an algebraic expression to predict my yarn usage. I ended up with:

y = 64(nx) + 4[(X1-1) + (X2-1) + ... + (Xn-1)]

where x describes the row numbers of that particular color and y is the number of "stitches" where 1 stitch equals 3 double crochets. This counts the initial white row as row zero and requires a factor of +32 for the white yarn calculations.

Using this equation it was possible to determine the values of grams of yarn per stitch. I then calculated the number of stitches required to complete the afghan: the crunched numbers revealed that I had sufficient quantities of each color to complete the pattern, but just barely when it came to the dark blue, which makes sense because it uses more yarn for each pattern repetition than the other three.

Once I was done with all this BS I realized that MS Excel could aid me in these calculations with about 10% the effort. I used it to double-check my results and the equation held true.

I'm really digging this afghan. Part of me wishes I didn't tell the Dizzle that I was crocheting him an afghan, because then I could simply keep it for myself. I enjoyed many hours of winter warmth with this sucker draped upon my lap as I added row upon row. Here is the concise list of full albums listened to during the crochet process:

Arcade Fire- The Suburbs (I really should point out that A-dog sent me this album as well as Reflector right before I commenced the project. I don't mean he drop-boxed me some mp3s, I mean he really sent the physical albums purchased from a real store. Home-Dizzle rocks the house again)
The Avett Brothers- The Second Gleam
Beck- Mellow Gold
King Crimson- Starless and Bible Black
Live- Throwing Copper
Jim Croce- Greatest Hits Volume II
My Morning Jacket- It Sill Works
Radiohead- The Bends
Arcade Fire- The Suburbs
Russian Circles- Station
Yes- Close to the Edge
The String Cheese Incident- Born on the Wrong Planet
Phish- Rift
Ween- The Mollusk
The White Stripes- Get Behind Me Satan
King Crimson- Larke's Tongues in Aspic
The Mars Volta- Deloused in the Comatorium
The Builders and the Butchers- Self Titled
The Builders and the Butchers- Salvation is a Deep Dark Well
Arcade Fire- The Suburbs
Blind Melon- Self Titled
Gomez- Bring It On
Ween- White Pepper
Yes- Drama
Pink Floyd- Animals

A-dog and I discovered the band Yes together, and spent many priceless college-age nights tripping out on The Yes Album, Close To The Edge, Fragile, Going For The One, and Drama. He wrote a college paper on the Drama album and its meanings. Deep stuff. I remember a Hunter S. Thompsonesque road trip to Sedona, AZ that was spent listening to Yes albums in my beat up Civic hatchback. Good times.

If any single ladies in Orange County (Costa Mesa, specifically) are reading this, you really need to track this dude down and attempt to date him. You'll never meet a more cool, competent, and capable cat. He's the CSO of a profitable optics company that makes laser prisms for all sorts of top-secret contracts, and is a gourmet cook to boot. By gourmet I mean that he uses an all-copper bowl to beat egg whites. Try it and see. A-dog meditates, performs Tai-Chi, and loves a succulent dry-aged steak as much as the next king. Oh, and he keeps his bachelor abode spic-and-span. I can't wait until he flies out to TX this summer to visit me for some good homie chillin' times.

Oh, right, this is a blog about craft projects. Sorry for all the A-reminiscensces. Here's another pic of the afghan to distract you from my best homie ever, the hellarighteousdudeskillet known to most as the A-dog.

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A note from Erin -- I am totally flying to Texas and stealing this afghan before Jordan has a chance to give it to A-dog. The colors are fantastic, and this is THE coolest use of a granny square-ish pattern!  I'm not experienced enough with granny squares to know why the corners are a bit pulled out.  I don't think blocking is the answer because that wouldn't really hold up with an afghan.  Who cares, though?  This afghan is still ridiculously awesome.  The math Jordan used to calculate the amount of yarn he'd need absolutely kills me.  He is a closet genius.  I can't wait to see his next project!

Running

I'm still waaaaaaay too scared to ever attempt a full-size quilt, but I am having fun testing my piecing skills on table runners.  No matter how hard I try (and how much spray starch I use), I still have issues with things going wonky.  I can't even imagine how crazy it would get with these tiny mistakes compounding themselves over something the size of a quilt.  It boggles my mind how Corey's Granny was able to make such a perfect queen-sized quilt for us.  Anyway, here are two of my latest finished table runner attempts.

This one is to replace the Valentine's Day one on my kitchen island.  I am not always known for getting holiday decorations put away immediately after a holiday passes, but I'm definitely known for bitching about things like the Christmas lights that are still up (at the very end of February!!!) at the entrances to our neighborhood and at various homes around town.  Good lord, people.  I know it's cold outside and you don't necessarily have to take the lights down, but do you have to still keep turning them on (or forgetting to turn off the timers) every night?  This table runner is sort of St. Patrick's Day-ish, but it could work year-round.

I wanted to try a fun technique I read about at Actually Amy for piecing with HSTs (half-square triangles) where you sew two squares with right sides together (all the way around) and then slice and dice on the diagonals.  Open them up and voila, you have four squares made of HSTs!

The fabric was from a pack of fat eighths that I had bought on a whim months ago.  The binding is just packaged quilt binding.  I probably should have added sashing around the edges so the binding wouldn't cut off the points of the diamonds, but I'm still learning!

To quilt it, I spray basted some felt to the back (and added some dark green Kona cotton as the backing) and then sewed on either side of each of the seams.  Holy cow, that took a ton of thread.  I had to run back to the store for more to finish.

The next one was made from a bit of a bundle of fat quarters I had also bought on a whim.  I used the stack & slash method from Samelia's Mum (the same one I had used for Ivette's table runner), but put two rows of them on top of each other to make it fatter.  Charlotte declared this one to be an Easter table runner, so maybe it will go on the kitchen island once St. Patrick's Day has passed.

The batting is felt and the backing is some left over navy bottom-weight fabric left over form Peter's Halloween pirate vest.  My machine was NOT pleased for some reason with this choice, and kept skipping stitches while I was quilting it (even after I changed needles, rethreaded the top and the bobbin threads, changed tension, changed settings, etc.).  Lesson learned -- use a lighter-weight fabric for the backing.  It probably would also help if I got a walking foot.  I quilted using the same "sew on either side of the seams" technique, but I only sewed around the blocks.  I got tired of picking out the quilting with the skipped stitches and decided this was plenty of quilting for a simple table runner.

Afghan Ahoy!

So, I have said for a long time that I would never crochet another afghan (the time! the cost! the boredom!), but when I heard about Moogly's Afghan Crochet-a-Long, I was intrigued.  To make a long story short, my favorite crochet blogger organized a fun project where she would post a free pattern for a 12" square (also called a block) every two weeks, and 24 blocks later, voila-- you have an afghan!  Well, you need to sew or stitch them all together, but still, the hardest work will all be done.  Plus, a whole community of crocheters (hookers is my preferred term, of course) will be doing it all together, communicating via Facebook and Ravelry.

I was still a bit skeptical that this would be as fun as it sounded until my awesome playgroup and crochet buddy, Joann, said she was going to give it a try.  All right, I thought.  Let's go!  8 weeks later, here's how I'm doing so far:

Bam!  I am having a blast.  It is so fun to post pictures of the completed blocks on Moogly's Facebook page and on the Moogly CAL 2014 forum on Ravelry.  We're all using the exact same patterns, but each hooker chooses his/her own yarn brand and colors, so everyone's blocks are turning out very different.  It is so amazing to see everyone's afghans coming together.

Oh, sorry-- Sonia wants me to post this picture of her posing with the blocks:

Because of all my doily crocheting experience (good grief, those patterns are complicated), I'm not having much trouble with the afghan block patterns.  But, on the Ravelry forums, anyone who is having trouble can post their questions and even upload pictures of their partially-finished blocks; then, other hookers can respond and give help where needed.  I am so in love with Ravelry (click here to check out my projects).... Once again, I have Joann to thank for encouraging me to get in involved with that website.  It's a great place to keep track of all my projects, see other projects that people have made with the exact same pattern that I am using, and find new and fun patterns to try.

Anyway, back to the Moogly Crochet-a-Long....  I am using 4 different colors of worsted-weight Caron One-Pound yarns.  The "claret" red isn't as bright in person as it is in these pictures.  I'm edging each block in the same dusty navy color to give a more homogenous look to this patchwork quilt.  Here are closer pictures of my afghan blocks (which have not yet been "blocked", which means soaked in water and pinned into a perfect square shape):

Anticipation Mystery (by Margaret MacInnis)

Catalina (by Julie Yeager)

Hugs N Kisses (by Aurora Suominen)

Veronica's Rose (by Melissa Green)

I can't wait to see what other blocks Moogly chooses for us to crochet!  And I'm dying to see how the afghan will turn out.  This is going to be one heavy blanket....  I'm definitely not letting Sonia use this one in her fort-building activities with Daddy.  I'll have to find a good place in our new house in Texas to display this labor of love.

Detroit Tigers tote bag

Charlotte's elementary school is holding some type of fundraiser that I haven't really taken the time to understand, but I know each class is supposed to put together a themed basket full of fun things to be auctioned off (or something like that).  I was informed that the theme was "Detroit Tigers", so I figured I could sew a little something for the basket using some Tigers fabric.  Unfortunately, Jo-Ann's was out of said fabric (though I did find University of Washington fabric for some reason???) and I was too lazy to drive all over the place to hunt some down.  Appliqué to the rescue!

The solid fabrics are both duck cloth.  The chevron fabric is a thin quilting cotton.  The straps (it's one continuous loop, so maybe I should just say strap?) are a nylon webbing.  As usually happens when I design my own bag, I am not thrilled with the outcome and would do many things different if I ever made it again.  For future reference, my cut list was two pieces of 18" x 9" in navy, one piece of 18" x 10" in orange, two pieces of lining cut to 18" x 14" (probably should have been more like 18" x 13.5"), and the nylon webbing was 3 yards long.  I boxed the corners at about 5 inches (along the hypotenuse).

For some reason, I thought it would be cool if the logo was on both the navy and the orange parts of the tote bag, but in hindsight I wish I had made it smaller and only sewn it on the navy part.  I also was an idiot and chose chevron fabric even though I always hate using it because it's almost always printed off-grain.  Let's just hope the poor soul who purchases the Room 17 Kindergarten basket doesn't notice.

Despite my best efforts, one strap ended up remarkably longer than the other.  I have absolutely no idea how this happened.  There's no way to get the strap off an adjust it, so I'm going to have to cut the strap down near where it meets the bag and take a bit out.  Let's hope I can sew it together cleanly enough that the purchaser doesn't notice.  I'm also not thrilled with how there are teeny threads sticking out from between the stitches around the "D".  I keep trying to trim them, but I can't seem to cut them close enough.  So, I'm not in love with this bag, I will most definitely not bother putting a label with my name on it inside, and I hope to heck that no one I know buys our class basket!


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Erin's crochet project bag & bagsket

Ages ago, I was trying to figure out a good design for Brad & Amanda's Gallon o' Games Bag, and set aside a prototype that had not ended up as I had envisioned it.  Erin happened to see it when she was visiting and declared it the perfect bag for her crocheting projects.  I happily handed it over, and promptly forgot about documenting it.  Luckily, Erin recently remembered that it had never been documented on the blog and sent me these photos.

The bag has a draw string top and the sides are made of clear vinyl -- Erin shares a love of see-through bags, just like me.  The fabric at the top was purchased waaaaaay back when I was first learning to sew during law school (probably in 2001 or 2002, from a dinky little sewing machine retail and repair shop that also carried a bit of fabric).  The red fabric on the bottom is from an old tablecloth that had been a wedding gift but met an untimely demise not long after.  The handles are black nylon webbing, I believe.

I like the ornery cat, chillin' in the background of the picture.

That bag was actually not the first crochet project bag I had made Erin.  Originally, I made her a "bagsket" (using Foofangle's tutorial)  It turned out to be a little small for Erin's purposes, since she's usually working from full skeins of yarn.  This is the top view, with the drawstring top closed:

And with it open:

The fun thing about the bagsket is the nifty pockets all along the inside.

Smaller skeins of yarn fit better in this bagsket.

This was one of those hard lessons learned when using directional fabric.  Yup, those flowers are upside down.  DOH.

On one side, I got them right side up.  The funny thing is, Erin claims she didn't even notice until I pointed it out to her.  I should learn to just keep my big mouth shut.

As long as Erin keeps crocheting us awesome stuff, I'm happy to make her 18 more project bags and baskets!!!

Nate's Dragon

No, not PETE'S dragon.... NATE's dragon!  My friend, Pauline, saw the Smaug that I made for my dragon-loving husband, and she asked if I might have time to whip up a dragon for her husband for Valentine's Day (note that I waited to post this until after Valentine's Day!).  We looked at a bunch of dragon patterns, and Pauline chose a really cool Asian dragon pattern and, after slyly asking her husband what color he would like for a theoretical pet dragon, chose blue with gray highlights.  And here is the finished result!

I think I need to take a break from dragons for a while-- the patterns for both Smaug and this dude contained errors and it took a lot of mental energy to guess what the pattern author intended.  Are dragon patterns cursed?  I had similar issues with the baby dragons that I made for Rose last year! Oh well.  All of those dragons still turned out awfully cute....  I'll probably crochet another dragon before I know it.




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