My Latest Binges

My pain requires distractions. I can knit (loom-knit) to keep my hands busy. I watch shows to keep the mind occupied during the day. Those who might criticize might take drugs for your pains. They don’t work for me. This way, something productive happens while I watch or listen to a story.

Sometimes my brother and son and or husband join me. I like having others to watch with. I will watch it alone, but I want others with me because then we can talk about the show and things I might have missed or interpreted otherwise. How do you like watching shows, alone or in groups?

So my newest favorite is Outlander, It has surprised all of us how much we like this show. In fact, I am starting to read it (listen on Audible, too) tonight.

When my brother and son and husband aren’t available to watch with me, I am working my way through Riverdale, which can be a bit much even for me.

And Royal Pains, which is getting better in the later seasons. My biggest complaint is the little brother and how irritating he can be, but as he is married and has a wife to pull him in line, it grows on you. The doctor does seem to have a lot of McGivers using balloons.

We are finally caught up on Fear of the Walking Dead. Tonight’s show was fun with the old west ghost town. And I laughed so hard a couple weeks ago when there were flying zombies!

And now we’re into NOS4A2 It isn’t as scary as it seems on the commercials. In fact, it is kind of interesting.

My husband loves and has drawn me into Jessica Jones. We’re watching the latest season.

What are you watching?

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The Unyarner

In the life of those of us who spend a lot of time with yarn, there are the ribbit days. You know when you have to rip and rip what you’ve worked so hard to make. They call it frogging. I’ve just lived through a couple of these days that look like this:

(Pixabay)

First, my fine-gauge sock loom broke. When it was just one peg I managed to put the extra loop onto another nearby peg and work it. It was a pain but doable. Then the one next to the broken one broke. There was no way, that I could figure to work the extra loop. I thought I could capture all the little loops on a circular knitting needle but… you know how an idea doesn’t work in your head and just can’t be done.

I had another sock loom in the process, too. But I wasn’t happy with the yarn or the colors. Both socks had the ribbing, leg, and heel done. That’s the hardest part. But I just wasn’t happy with that one and the broken one was useless. There was nothing left to do. Rip it out! And twice my lap looked like the picture above.

It took two days to figure out how I was going to deal with my goal of making a couple pairs of socks. My hero, my husband, bought me some Gorilla Super Glue. My hero, my brother, glued in the pegs. I honestly don’t hold a lot of hope for that loom but it was worth the try. Besides that particular loom is only about $15. If I decide to go that way.

Meanwhile, I found another loom and started another sock. I hope this one lives. I’ll share it when it’s finished. Oh, what the heck. Here’s the life of a yarner!

Hard to believe that this will be a sock looks like a sick tambourine!

Another Finished Project

The yarn was a fuzzy mohair type (there was no label on this donated yarn). The loom was the fine gauge small (toddler) KB. The pattern was my own invention. Brim two by two ribbing the rest 1 row flat knit stitch, 1 row U-wrap, 1 row e-wrap, 1 row purl, and then what I hear is called an upper purl where you take the flat working yarn down through the loop on the peg and bring only the resulting loop over the peg leaving the first loop where it was. It gave a bit of a textured stripe. ??? I don’t have a model to put little hats on. This one I used my coffee cup. In this first picture, the brim is down.

But the brim looks kind of cute up, too.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Oooooo! I Wanna Make!

From LoomaHat.com another cute pattern. Can’t wait to try!

 

Acorn Stitch Pattern Video for the Loom

Answer

Between here and FaceBook, the answer was overwhelming. Sadly as I didn’t want to sew anything else. But I guess you all were right as I think they are cute.

Funny how maroon they look when it is really a rich brown with beige. And the hats are bigger than I caught with my cell. The eyes are black and the noses beige so it is not as light as it appears in the picture. Again, this is loosely LoomAHat’s Tiny Doll. The tutorial can be found here:

Questions

Okay. Though I’m finished with the dolls I have a couple of these guys that are soft and fluffy. They seem like gingerbread men or teddy bears. I didn’t put in the child-proof eyes as I think the yarn would still permit the eyes to pull out. Not sure I want to sew on eyes or faces.  So I’m asking you: Face or no face?

Hat or no hat?

I don’t think these will go to young babies as the furriness might not be good for little ones that put everything in their mouths. But they are soft and cuddly. I have two of them and then I move on to other toys.

Thank you for your help in advance. 🙂

By the way, these are made similarly to the dolls and the tutorial is on my blog two days ago.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Rosy (Rosey!)

Linda’s prompt for this SoCS is Rosy. Which I am going to change to Rosey. You’ll see why. I hope.

In many parts of the country, we are experiencing a lag in the Spring-ness. It is so all-encompassing that this meme is showing up on our FaceBook feeds.

I say that because here is it windy and raining a LOT. The good part is that it might forestall fires. But the wind doesn’t and the rain comes with lightning, so– not so much. Anyway, I was forced to take the dog (Kali) out as is her way. I opened the screen door and the wind nearly tore it out of my hand. I nearly closed it on Kali and the wind had it again. Now I see this black creature climbing down the steps as Kali was climbing back up.

Rosey and Teddy are the indoor cats. Too many predators to let them be outside. So I ran down the steps in my socks and picked up Rosey.  She’s usually a sweetie and so cute, see:

But as I pick her up and tell Kali to go up and in the house, Rosey turns and does this to me:

I didn’t even know she drew blood until after I sat down. I was FaceTiming with friends and I showed them. They had me leave the conversation to clean it and treat it so it wouldn’t get infected.

Today as I was trying to finish a couple more dolls, Kali and Rosey sat on my lap, I think to make it up to me, but it makes it hard to sew with those two taking up the lap-space.

(This picture wasn’t taken today. I wasn’t on my bed in my PJs! And they were on reversed sides! But you get the idea!)

So where was I? Oh yeah! I finished my last dolls. The last thing I do is put a dab of color on their cheeks giving them a rosy glow.

I won’t include the tute here. as I shared it on yesterday’s blog. But I think I am done with the dolls for a while. I have to sew some other toys in the next couple of days. This feeling of accomplishment gives my soul a rosy glow that nearly matches my Rosey scratches! 😀

 

 

Finished Friday

Yep, there are more dolls! Still a lot of body parts to sew and stuff. But two finished! Yay!

The doll on the right has sewn on eyes. The one on the left has the childproof eyes. Since this latest batch of dolls is going to people with dementia or Alzheimer’s so I think I can get by with these. I don’t like sewing and I need lots of light for putting the doll together. So I can’t work on them at night. That’s when I do the rest of my knitting.

The dolls are based on LoomAHat’s tiny doll. I work my newest ones on the KB baby bootie fine gauge loom that has 24 pegs like the one Denise uses on this YouTube tutorial.

Thursday Threads

These are the finished products I can share for today. There are lots of little bodies that need to be stuffed, sewn and eyes I need to finish by Saturday.

The doll was made on the purple KB loom (24 pegs). He is about five inches tall. I have changed how I make the arms as I just use the four pegs that line up over the middle of the legs. I knit those four back and forth until I have about 31 rows then pull the first row back on the pegs and knit together. The rest of the doll is according to LoomAHat’s instructions:

The little hats are on the white KB loom following the instructions that came in the package.

I love the finer gauge of these looms. It takes longer but the results are nicer. I think. \

Besides the body parts to sew, I have several new projects starting:

This is an adult hat on the left on the larger KB loom and the one on the right is another baby hat. The colors are off in the pictures. The adult hat has two strands, an olive green strand and variegated lighter green to beige. The baby hat is pinkish orange that is SO soft.

 

This is a HERS of the KB HIS and HERS sock that looks the color of a 50/50 ice cream bar.

 

This is my 10-Stitch done on just a piece of the Martha Stewart kit. I have gotten bored with this one and frogged it several times. I may make just a lap-ghan elderly or frog again and give up on something that large and stick with toys and hats. I do like the color combo here, though.

Monday, Monday

No this isn’t about Mamas and the Papas. Just couldn’t figure a good title for this small bloggy. Besides, bet that earworm took! 😀

I don’t have enough time to gather all the looms to do a Make-it Monday: Two sock-looms are in use, there are a few dolls I need to stuff and sew closed, a little hat for a doll on the littlest loom, a baby hat on the next bigger, all in process and nothing near finished product.

So, while knitting, binging, right? Tried Royal Pain but too flirty and not enough medical to keep my interest. I’ll try again later. Instead, I went for an old favorite that has added new seasons: Call the Midwife. I love that show. I miss Miranda (Chumie) but the newer cast is still sweet. One of the best parts of this show is following women and health issues over the past couple of centuries. If you were there at the beginning, there were few cars only bicycles. They even went through war.

I’m at about 1962 in a most recent episode. They talk about Kennedy and Cuba crises. So it isn’t just the women’s health it shows what else is going on in the world at the time. On the last episode, they showed the results of the drug given for morning sickness back then Thalidomide.

This show doesn’t hold back when it comes to things women have been through over the years. I do so wish the midwife was a more acceptable way for birth. My last two were homebirths so I have a love for that kind of birth. Don’t get me wrong. There is a good reason to have hospitals and doctors on hand, but I think the woman to woman care is missing for those who need to go to the hospital.

My second experience in the hospital were people running around yelling the phones were out. My first was a most uncomfortable affair with not the slightest care as to what I wanted or what baby and I actually needed. I studied a lot about being a midwife, but by the time I had babies three and four, I didn’t have the time or energy to go for it. So this show helps fulfill some of that. I find I love all the characters and how well they tell the story. And that music gets me going! I can guarantee that I will shed at least a tear with every viewing! This is a herstory that everyone should watch and maybe get the other side of history.