Working on Working

  Hi! Crazy Lady here, back with more problems again... Insomnia has been hitting me harder than ever, so I should apologize ahead of time for... Well, most of this, I suppose. When I do sleep, it never lasts more than two hours. It's been this way for over a month (two; three?) now. My brain is in a constant fog, and I find it harder to concentrate with each day that passes. Which is NOT going to help me with any of the mess I've uncovered: 

  Yay, my pattern notebooks have been found! They were misplaced in the move, and I've been hoping to find them so I could get back to work on some completed patterns that have yet to make it here. Since I had some things to do on the blog anyway, I thought I'd start typing them up. (Maybe a bad idea to do any work... Anybody remember the time I deleted the blog's background?) What I thought would be a simple task turned out to be a bad idea, indeed.



  The patterns in one of my lost notebooks were created while living at Dad's. Writing in the dim light from the TV with my book balanced on the couch, I didn't have the best penmanship. Well, I never do consider my handwriting to be good but this chicken scratch looks unfamiliar to my eyes. The letters of many abbreviations are smashed together, the writing fades to almost unreadable towards the bottom of the page, and I have sticky notes stuck to the pages which are fortunately more readable, however, I have no clue what they are for.



  What. A. Mess. And here I was thinking this would be a mindless task! Nope, this is not a job for tired brain and eyes. BUT... It's not like this is a total disaster, because at least I've found the notebooks. There's a chance I could decipher all of it someday, I just need to be able to find the time that I never seem to have.



  Hmm. Time. Like the time I wasted while searching for the link above? I got a little too distracted while searching for that post, and I ended up browsing my own blog for awhile. There are so many broken links! SO. MANY. And all of them are my own fault for creating my tutorials with Guidecentral instead of publishing my own content.



  They said it would be a great opportunity. I would get so much EXPOSURE (good god, I hate that word) and my own blog would benefit. They said I would make money, which I did for a time. First it was $7 per tutorial, then it got dropped to $4. I became suspicious when I was nearing my last payment threshold and they wouldn't let me publish any more tutorials. Dollars short of receiving payment, they shut the monetary side of the program down. But it's okay, they said we were more than welcome to keep creating tutorials for FREE, because well, you know, it's great exposure.



  Guidecentral didn't last long after that. (Aw, I wonder why?) We had the opportunity to download our own materials before they shut the site down, but I suffered another setback when my PC crossed over the great Fiber Optic Rainbow in the sky. I never recovered any of my work and I was left with a ton of broken links that were eventually forgotten among the bigger stresses in life.



  So... More good news! I now have another PC that's about to get hurled over that stupid rainbow. It used to work for at least 20 minutes before freezing, but it's getting worse. (No joke, it has frozen on almost every paragraph of this post.) After going through all the brains (OS, drivers, troubleshooting, etc), I opened the case up to check out its guts. Looky what I found:

  Could that be it? Well I'll just plug that wire all the way back in, then... Push; falls. Push harder; falls. Entangle wire with another wire so it will stay put; FALLS. Grrrr. If this is the problem, I'm not fixing it by simply plugging it back in. Use gruff mechanic-voice here: I'm gonna go get the duct tape and a hammer. If one don't fix it, the other will.



  This became motivation for me to hook up the previous desktop to see what I could do. I had worked on that machine for hours after it failed, trying to resurrect it from a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) just to get a Black Screen of No Return. (That's when I made the mistake of going to Walmart to buy the only piece of HP I could find.) So yesterday I set the old machine up on the floor, not expecting much from it. After three-ish years of being unplugged, the booger started up without a single problem! Then it crashed as soon as I started trying to pull my files.



  This is good news though, because it means not all was a total loss. My files are there! I just have to get them so I can load them onto... Oh... Yeah, there's no point in putting them on this piece of HP, is there? (LOL I suppose it didn't like me insulting it, so it froze again as I finished that sentence.) Since I still have the case open on this thing, I took another look and found the hard drive to be as warm as a freshly poured cup of coffee (mmm, coffee), so I'm guessing this won't be solved by some Windows updates or wiggling wires.



  The harsh reality? This is a simple issue that's pretty easy for me to fix: By a new PC. Pull the files from this and the old one. Load them onto new computer; begin working again. So, what's the problem? What I can't fix is the rest of my life where everything is always falling apart and I can't seem to stop it from affecting my work. And "it" just keeps piling up. What would be nice if I had a husband that wanted to lift a finger with any of those other things.



  I understand that Rip van Winkle can't help me with technology problems, but it would mean so much if he just made his own sandwich for lunch, or unpacked that lunchbox when he gets home, or do some of his dishes or laundry... You know, take care of yourself kind of stuff. Clean your own truck? It would have been even better to get a hug after my cats died. Something... Anything. I am so tired of this life that I would be happy to just walk away from everything and get a job at Walmart or a gas station or something so that I could leave this (unfinished) house and forget that I'm basically a maid that works to the tune of someone else's snoring.



  *Sigh* Gee, that feels good to say to people who might listen. He can't see the problem when he's almost always staring at the back of his eyelids. When he's awake, it's the TV he stares at... But that's after asking me to put something on to watch because he "can't figure out how to use the remote". He can't make his own food because he "can't find the dishes" and "can't get the directions right" for how to cook a Hot Pocket. And I can't see myself dealing with this much longer, but leaving my marriage will only result in another major upset in a life that has been derailed so many times that it's an official train wreck. Until I make a decision to stay or go, I'm just going to keep working on working.



  This post sure jumped the tracks as well, huh? My point is that I've had trouble finding the motivation to get back to work when I'm always faced with another issue to solve (or work around). And I'm starting to see that it's not all my fault... Things need to change. It's going to start with him microwaving some leftovers or going hungry. (Update: That resulted in him not eating until after 9pm when I finally set food in front of him because apparently I have no spine.) I have 50+ broken links to fix and most require the creation of a new tutorial. Forget that lack of inspiration! I already have a list of tasks ahead of me and it's time to get to work... As soon as I'm done spot-treating the concrete out of his work clothes.



  You may guess by my rambling that my mental state isn't at its strongest, but I'll be okay. Writing about it often helps me to work out my problems. And the more I reread my own pathetic words, I get mad instead of sad. When I'm sad, I'm only able to do the bare minimum of work. My "duties as housekeeper" burn up all the energy I have. When I get mad, I do things. Sometimes those "things" are me throwing half his stuff out the door while yelling "I can't take any more of your crap piling up!", but hey... It's doing something, right? *Disclaimer: He has at least refrained from bringing anything that came from a dumpster into the new house. He puts it in the shed instead.



  The more I think about it, the extra work of fixing those links might pull me out of this funk. Maybe going through those tutorials will help inspire me to get back to creating patterns. If I can't fix all the broken things in my house or my broken relationship, then I can at least fix the broken links on my blog. I can't wait to get to work! I'll start as soon as I'm done picking up the paper towels he's been throwing on the floor behind the trash can.


Thanks for listening, or at least pretending to. It doesn't matter if anybody reads this, it just helps to vent sometimes.

Happy Crocheting!

Floor Pouf WIP

  A hoard of plastic grocery bags has already started piling up in the new house. I absolutely refuse to let an entire closet get packed full of bags again! (Well, it was only the bottom-half of the closet...) A sane person would probably go dump them in the recycling container at the grocery store. But of course, I chose to punish myself by beginning a massive plarn project:

  It doesn't look so daunting sitting there all by itself in a picture, but this one has turned out to be a monster. A long-envisioned project, I always knew this plarn floor pouf was going to be a big job. That's why it had always been a "long-envisioned" project instead of an "already-started" or "finally finished" project! Why, oh why do I do these things to myself? I should have known better.

  I'm creating a bit of a color pattern by using 15 grey bags, then one black bag. And I'm being serious about it, replacing broken pieces along the way so I can keep the color repeating the same all the way around. This is partly so I'll be able to go back and count exactly how many bags were used in the project, and also so that it doesn't look too bad and I'll be proud to display it as part of my home decor. (If I EVER finish it!)

  I began with a flat circle in half-double crochet until it measured around 20" in diameter. The splashes of black were random during the increases. The color pattern began repeating evenly once I started working even to create the sides. Each group of 16 bags works into one round, plus about 5 stitches. I'm currently on what I thought was round 32... After counting the bags by color changes, I think I'm off on my count. There's 8 dashes on the flat bottom (128 bags) and about 20 vertical rounds (320 bags), so no matter what round I'm on, I'm getting close to 500 bags in the project!

  Oh, and there's the stuffing: Any pieces of the loops that break while joining, bags that aren't fit to cut up for material, and all the tops and bottoms that get cut off to create the plarn. With the extras thrown into the filling, I'm probably over 500 bags already. And I've still got a few more vertical rounds to work for the sides, plus the top will probably use the same amount as the bottom. I'll need some extra bags to make up the stuffing, so I wonder if I can end up with 1,000 bags in one project? (Side note: It's time to make some reusable bags.)

  My original hope was for the pouf to be stuffed only with bags, but as it grows I'm thinking I might have to use some stiff foam around the edges to help it keep shape. I'm afraid the smaller pieces of scraps will work through the stitches, so I'm tying them up in more bags to keep the mess contained. Unfortunately at this point it looks like those bags of scrap material are going to make some bumpy filling. No matter how much I squish or smash them around, the bags of bags just won't settle into a perfectly round shape to fill out the edges.

  Once I get closer to finishing, I'll try stuffing the edges with loose bags and keep the bags of scraps in the center. Maybe that will squish out in a smoother shape while the scrap bags can give more density to the middle. And if that doesn't work, then there's an old yoga mat out in the shed that would probably make a great lining, and I could still consider this project 100% recycled material.

  Those minor problems aside, the big issue I'm having with the project is my choice in material. I'm using "giant plarn" again (check out the Giant Plarn Rug pattern), but this time I'm using a hook instead of finger crochet. It's really hard work! The plarn is cut 4-5" wide and I'm using the loop method, so the material is double-thick. I'm working with a size P/10mm hook to keep my stitches tight, and there's a lot of resistance using a plastic hook with plastic yarn.

  The hook digs into all the wrong places of my hand and my arms get tired from moving the project as I work. The bigger it gets, the worse it is to work on. Just think: This is only a floor pouf. Originally, I wanted to make a full-size bean bag chair of plarn. NO WAY! I'm glad I settled for the smaller version since my sanity is already close to the edge... I know that to be a fact, because I'm considering making a second floor pouf to match. Wouldn't it be cool to have one for each end of the couch we still don't have yet?

Happy Crocheting!

PS Dear friends, I began this project and this post before "the news" came out... I can't stand listening to the news right now... If I hear the "C-word" one more time I'm gonna jump out the window. And that would do me no good because it's only about a 12-foot jump and I'd probably just end up in the hospital with a broken leg and then I'd get the corona - oops, I mean the C-word .

  Jokes aside: I don't want to say "it" because I'm tired of hearing the C-word. I really didn't want to write about it, but we all need to vent sometimes, right? Feel free to click off if you're sick of hearing about it, too. I'm sick of people acting like morons and hoarding toilet paper. I went shopping yesterday and couldn't even get a simple bottle of dish soap because our local Walmart isn't enforcing limits on items and people have hoarded the store empty of everything (sparing anything in the health food section). Last week they were allowing people to purchase entire carts full of gallons of milk, this week they have signs up stating there is a limit of one, but they're letting people go through self-checkout with however much they want. 

  But don't worry, they do have an employee at the front of the store rationing out sanitizing wipes for your cart!... The lady dropped ours on the floor, then picked it up and tried to hand it to Rip while making direct eye contact, like "you didn't see that, did you?" And he just stands there looking at it in her outstretched hand as if it's the plague itself. She says "this is to wipe down your cart" in the way one might speak to a child, and he just stood there looking at it for another good 30 seconds before she threw it away and got another one. She knew what she did.

  Also, there is no cat food. Please... Please tell me people are just hoarding for their pets as well and some folks aren't choosing drastic measures over what's left in the health food section!

  Towards the end of my shopping trip, I had a brief conversion with a little dude's mom over the lack of bread. Little dude jumped in and said "It's so stupid! Everybody should only take what they need and leave the rest for people that need it. People just need to isolate for like TWO WEEKS, it's not like it's the end of the world or something!". Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to nominate this 9-year old for president... If that kid can get it right, what's wrong with the adults? (Also, I hate the fact that "isolate" and "quarantine" are now part of an average 9-year old's daily vocabulary.)

  Be smart. Stay safe. As crafters, I think we have an advantage at keeping ourselves entertained. A creative mind can take you to all kinds of places. I can't personally relate to the people that are going nuts from boredom while in isolation. (I already live my life that way and I think I prefer it.) But I can understand the stress of your whole life changing and you having no control over it; I sympathize with the people leaving stores empty-handed; I can relate to everyone's fear of catching this virus.

  Maybe we're not all on the same page, but the world is united in a fight right now. Let's all try to stay level-headed and get through this the best that we can. It's really hard for me to put into words something like "my heart goes out to anyone affected by this", because it's like the whole world affected by this in one way or another and that seems like such a shallow blanket statement compared to the depth of the situation. So whatever it is I'm trying to say... I mean it. 

Remember that it is important to stand together in times like these. Just remember to stand together while remaining at least six feet apart.

💓

A Simple Blanket

  I couldn't help it... The local discount store sent out a flyer that listed Bernat Blanket yarn for an awesome price. I didn't need more yarn. I just need to finish my house so I can unpack the yarn I still have. But I just couldn't help it! I only went to the store to see what colors they had available, and somehow a bunch of it ended up in my basket. Oops! Well, long story short... A blanket happened:

  I'm only faking the guilt. It felt good to buy yarn all in one color (my favorite color) to make a blanket that I want. It's plain, it's black, and I love it. It is also very, very warm! I've wanted to work with Bernat Blanket for a while, but always found it a bit out of the budget for the amount you get in a ball. (It made my Wednesday Wishlist back in 2015 and I still haven't tried it!) Since I didn't get a chance to go to Ollie's until two days after the sales flyer was released, I expected to find this yarn already gone. I lucked out and started digging through a box full of yucky bright colors to find all I could find...

  Eight balls of "Coal". Only eight. Remaining colors: Bright pink (yuck), bright yellow (ugh), bright green (blech), and orange (NO). Not a single ball of a nice color like grey or white. So I hoarded the last of the good color and hoped I could make something from it.

  I was worried about buying it from the discount store. The motto at Ollie's is "Good stuff cheap", and I love the place... But I've found that not all of their stuff is so great! I had a frustrating experience with a box of trash bags that were split up the sides, and I would never consider buying their "slightly irregular" clothing (some of which looks more like factory defects), but I had to take the risk with this yarn.

    It wasn't much risk at the discount price anyway. Eight balls at $1.99 comes to a grand total of $15.92. At the original price, the total would have been $55.92! But wait, there's more! Since I'm a member of Ollie's "army", I had an additional coupon for 15% off my purchase, so that reduces the price to only $13.54.

  Including tax (7.5%) brings the total back up to $14.56. I think I could afford to buy a few balls at full price if I ever decide to make the blanket a little bigger. Who knows? Maybe I'll find more on discount again some day.

  As for my worries about the quality of the yarn, I have no complaints. Each time I started a new ball the center was extremely hard to find and I'd end up pulling half the ball out before I found the end. That's an issue I've also had with similar yarns so it was kind of expected. And there were a few balls that had knots between about three feet of yarn... That's always annoying but I've had the same thing happen with almost every yarn I've ever worked with. I can't condemn it for either of those small problems.

  The only thing I'm really disappointed about is that the color isn't worth much for taking photos. I thought this would be a good pattern to share because I was able to work out a 46" by 50" throw with only eight balls of yarn. But if I can't get better pictures, it discourages me from finishing a post with a pattern.

  Even though I like the feel of Bernat Blanket, I'm not interested in purchasing more unless I can get another awesome deal. It's soft. It's fluffy. And it's so heavy! It washed and dried like a dream, but it's sooooo heavy. It's really warm, and heavy. At only 46" by 50", it's like one of those weighted blankets. I thought about buying more to expand the size, but I fear making it larger might suffocate me in my sleep.

  It's the first official completed "just for me" crochet project in the new house, and I'm proud of it. But I think this throw will never get much more use than being an accent piece on the couch or a chair... If we ever get furniture! We're still sort of camping out in the living room with a futon for a bed and one of those cheap card tables with my two computer chairs for a dining set. Including the $3 deflated bean bag chair I found at the thrift store and our two plastic patio chairs, it's quite the setup.

  Which leads to house updates: Nothing! There's no progress made on installing the flooring because I'm still stuck on the laundry room disaster, but I've made the decision to hire an electrician to deal with the outlet and then we'll see if we can work out the vent afterwards. For now, my dryer plugs into an outlet that just sits on the floor and I have to stick the vent out the back door every time I do laundry. Eh, what's the rush? I'm sure that setup is entirely safe and up to code. 😬

  The good news is that Rip van Winkle went out and bought a new TV, so at least we know what his priorities are... Same as always: Turn on the TV; fall asleep with the TV at full volume; snore loudly and continuously to compete with the noise of the TV. Some things never change, but electricians can be paid to change outlets.

Happy Crocheting!

Holiday Throwback

  The holiday season is upon us and all I really want for Christmas is to finish my house! Of course that won't actually happen in time... You can see my updates in the last post in case you missed it. In the meantime, I'd like to remind you that there are a few simple holiday-themed projects already available here on the Crochet is the Way blog:

• First, there are these Simple Snowflakes that use a modified picot stitch to create sharp points:

  Note: The links back to my tutorials on Guidecentral are no longer available... It seems I have some cleaning up to do on the blog! But you can find a photo tutorial for how to make the picot stitch in the pattern for the Eye of the Emerald Mandala.

• Next we have a Holiday Trio of patterns which could be used as ornaments, jewelry and more:

  Again, this is another post which contains links that no longer work, so I do apologize for the inconvenience! (I suppose that's always something I can work on getting done if I have my house finished in time for the holidays next year.) However, I do think the pattern for the candy drops is very simple to follow. Imagine making them using giant plarn and finger crochet like I did for my Giant Plarn Granny Squares!... That would make a cool yard decoration. (And the links actually work in that post, so you can get a photo tutorial and a video, too!)

  The Christmas trees are more complicated, and the snowflake earrings are probably the most difficult just because of the way I wrote the pattern. They finish in just two rounds! You could also make them with a worsted weight yarn and bigger hook for some quick decorations.

• For the last of the snowflake patterns, there is another multi-pattern, the Snowflake Set:

  As a bonus I'll include the link for the followup post in which I turned these pieces into a wall hanging, however, it's less of a tutorial and more of a "what NOT to do". I really should just stick to crocheting!

  There are a few more holiday-themed patterns to be found around here, but I had some trouble retrieving more pictures. Check out the ever-popular Angel Decoration and the Magic Angel as well.

  Also if you're interested, the Holly Holiday Table Runner is for sale in my Ravelry store:

  Please enjoy these patterns while I remain on hiatus. I'm eager to return to working on new patterns, but this house is just... What's the word I repeatedly used in the last post? UGH.

  I was happy to finally get my washer and dryer hooked up until we realized that the dryer vent hookup is pushed too far into the wall to actually use as a hookup... And then there's the outlet that came out of the wall when we moved the dryer back out to fix the vent... UGH again. Spray-foam insulation is NOT the proper way to attach an outlet to the wall! I'll save the pictures of that mess for the next house-update post.

  Until then,

Happy Crocheting!

From Crochet to Construction Worker

  After another lengthy absence from the blog, I have a ton of WIP photos to share with you. However, there's not much crocheting going on around here anymore! I can't say I'm not crocheting at all because I have had a few projects on the hook recently... But for the past year my main job title has gone from crocheter to construction worker. At least I can share with you the first completed (crochet) project since we bought our nightmare new house:

  This crochet kit has a short story: My stepdaughter is learning to crochet (yay!), and she asked for some help with this "easy" project. I'll give that kit a short review of "not for beginners". Requiring single, double and triple crochet stitches, along with embroidery to complete the facial features... Plus fringe and sewing on a button? I wouldn't consider this an easy project for a beginner! (It wasn't all that easy for me with the sewing and embroidery, either.) 

  Sure, the package contains everything you need, but much of it fell short on quality. The DK weight yarn has a loose twist that splits easily, you barely get enough yarn to finish the project (no room for mistakes), and even the included yarn needle had a too-small eye that made threading the yarn a pain.

  That's all the crochet I can share with you after almost a whole year. The rest of my "WIP" photos might be a warning of why not to buy a foreclosure house unless you're prepared. The good news is that we're moved in now, but the bad news is that we're living in the middle of a construction zone. Boy, does this house have a long story which will require more than one post to finish! Here's a great place to start:

    

  I prefer to not have more colors on my walls than in my yarn stash. Painting the house was the easiest thing I could get started on, so as soon as we got the keys I began filling all those holes. Even that couldn't be an easy job because of the weird things I kept finding along the way, such as "what is this wire for and why was it painted to the wall?" and later discovering that every window had one of those wires painted to the wall around it. Thankfully, we learned it was just for an old security system. It was easy to cut the wires off the rest of the way and patch the remaining holes.

   So why couldn't the previous owners do the same before they painted? More on that later... There are so many questions we'll never answer, like: Who thought it would be a good idea to hang that shelf (the bulky thing on the floor) from nothing but drywall? Why did they remove almost all the kitchen cabinets? (Not shown in the next picture: Why did the remaining cabinets not go all the way to the wall even though the counter top did?)

  Maybe the answers were in the biggest question I kept asking while working: What is that smell? Marijuana was that smell and it would get really heavy at times, overpowering the scents of urine (yuck) and what I presume was carpet powder used to cover the smell of the urine. Once we started finding drug paraphernalia stashed in random places, I stopped trying to answer the questions of why. I just assume drug use had something to do with forgetting to paint the walls all the way to the ceiling:
  

  As soon as we found the burnt glass tubes stashed under the edges of carpet and in light fixtures, the answer became even more clear: This wasn't absentmindedness caused by smoking weed... We're dealing with some screwed up crackhead stuff here. That helps explain the window sills that fell off because they had been glued on, along with the double light switch that only operates the exhaust fan in the bathroom while the real light switch is on the other side of the wall:

   Should I bother mentioning another color on the walls, or the vanity that is chest-height on me? Oh, there were so many more problems just in that bathroom alone. But we can move along, because there's plenty more problems rooms to tour. Yup, plenty of rooms that look like the walls were used as a dartboard:

  I've patched a lot of holes and I've covered a lot of colors. I now have the experience to inform you that it takes two coats of primer and two more coats of paint to cover a color like this:

  The dark room was supposed to be my office, but it has now been changed to the kid's room. And that's because the room that was supposed to be the kid's room still looks like this:

  The most I can say about that situation is "UGH". Let's move on to what we found when we removed (what was left of) the kitchen cabinets:

    WHY? What were they thinking when they cut through a main stud in the wall to fit in a diagonal drain pipe that is ridiculously far away from the water lines? I know exactly what happened here... They moved the sink over from its original location, and had enough skill to move the water lines. But when it came to tying in the new drain pipe to the (much-needed) vent pipe... Um, NO. That's not how you do it! 

  Thankfully, Rip van Winkle has enough plumbing experience to fix that problem. It took some thinking and some fighting with it, as well as a few trips to the hardware store, but we finally got that situation straightened out: 

  And with my skill of patching drywall, we turned it into a proper-looking and proper-working kitchen sink... Well, I guess it's still just plumbing in this photo, but now we're able to use our fully-functioning kitchen! 

  There are still a few major problems to work on, such as the other bathroom:

  Yes, those are floor tiles used on the wall; and no, they didn't put them up the right way so they are falling off. Oh yeah, and there's another color! Not shown, I already painted the BEIGE ceiling. But who cares about the paint color when tiles are falling off the wall? (PS, grout goes in between the tiles, not over them.) I won't even show you the state of the tub in there. It makes me gag every time I look at it. Plus that tub's drain isn't plumbed into the pipe... Ugh, the whole bathroom needs to be renovated, but at least now we can use it as a half-bath.

  There are other minor problems I'd like to fix someday, like the baseboards:

  And there are other minor problems I've already fixed, like how this door casing was on top of the light switch cover:

  Actually, fixing that wasn't so "minor" after all! The doors shown above and below both needed to be replaced along with their frames, which I had a basic idea of how to do. The job ended up being more difficult because I chose to save money by going with a frame kit instead of buying a ready-hung door in a frame.

  Well, I learned how to build and install a door frame! And the previous owners had already provided an example of how NOT to do it:
 

   Oh, and we saved more money going with the frame kit because I ended up finding the non-existent bathroom door hanging on the air-handler closet which is located right in the middle of the kitchen. I guess they figured since the door couldn't close in that messed-up frame, they might as well use the door somewhere else. Because who needs a bathroom door, right?

  But the frame for that closet wasn't made for a doorknob to latch in, so the door didn't really close there, either! I reclaimed the door for the bathroom, and we purchased a much-cheaper bi-fold closet door for the air-handler. While Rip van Winkle was installing the bottom piece for that, we found the strangest situation yet:

  Is that Styrofoam under the tile? WHAT?!? It took me a while to finally figure it out. We were purchasing the supplies to install some laminate flooring, and I saw the underlayment... That's the Styrofoam stuff we found under the tile! Why would they put that under tile? Oh, I figured that out soon enough: There's another layer of tile under what you can see. They tiled over tile. And in between the two layers of tile, they added a layer of the stuff you use under laminate flooring. It's like that in both bathrooms and the kitchen. UGH.

  Well, it was easy to decide that ripping out two layers of tile is a renovation that will have to wait. For now, we'll keep dealing with the flooring that pops and cracks as you walk on it. You just have to be careful when in bare feet, because the chunks of grout that keep breaking out really hurt when you step on them.

  There are so many more messed up things I could share about this house! I was hoping to get to some before-and-after photos soon, but I have a whole 'nother post worth of "what we had to fix". I'll simply finish the complaining the "WIP's" with the most confusing thing I can't stop thinking about, even though it doesn't really matter one bit... How in the hell did they get this nail in the wall like that?

   Okay, that's more than enough for one post. I wanted to put a "big reveal" together when the whole house was done, but it looks like that will be a while! For now, I'll give you a sneak peak at how my (self-designed) kitchen turned out:

  There are handles on those drawers now, too. And last weekend, the mess in the laundry room got turned into a washer and dryer! There's still so much left to do, but it feels so good to finally have a place to call "home" again. Until next time...

Happy Remodeling!

Oh wait, I think I can remember how this is supposed to go...

Happy Crocheting!

😉 

One Year and Counting

  Dear friends and followers, I have neglected you and the blog for far too long. Life has become so overwhelming that I just couldn't bear to write anything at all... Every post would have been another rambling mess of "it's getting worse". More than a year has passed since we lost our home to Hurricane Irma, and we're still living at Dad's (for now). But if all goes right, we will be closing on our new home within the next few weeks! Now that the gears are turning in the right direction, I'd like to update those of you who have been worried and share some photos to prove I've still been at the hook:    

  I was super-exited to share this cardigan with all of you as soon as it was finished, but I couldn't. I probably would have continued blogging (and complaining) throughout this ordeal if it weren't for all of the tech-related issues that came crashing down on me. On top of problems with all of my devices, I couldn't access the blog for about three months... And that was a really scary time of not knowing what to do, how to fix it, or if the site's security was at risk. It turned out to just be a glitch on Google's side, but by the time the problem was resolved I had lost all motivation to write.

  Once I finally got my tech together enough to try working on anything, I was faced with over 2,000 comments that needed moderation. Trying to sort the real people from spam was the most overwhelming part. It seemed like the load of spam increased every time I responded to a legitimate comment.

  Convinced that my comment section has become tainted, I made the decision to delete ALL comments. I'm sorry to anyone who has left a comment and didn't get a response. I'm sad to see it all vanish into non-existence: The wonderful conversations with friends, so many thank you's, a few minor debates, heartfelt stories shared by others and all the stuff in between is just... Gone. 

  That thought is what made me realize I'm still not ready to get back to full-time blogging. The comment situation once again reminded me of how many times I've had that "gone" feeling over the past year (and counting). There was the initial loss of the house, then my cat Gilly was killed by one of those damned poisonous toads. I wasn't sad to finally see my stupid car go... But when we stopped by the property to make sure the car had been removed by the buyer, I was nowhere near prepared for the "gone" feeling that struck me when we saw what was left of our house (and what was left of our un-salvageable belongings inside) demolished into a heap of rubble, scattered across the ground and piled in a construction dumpster. It took one piece of machinery to crush ten years of our lives into a garbage heap. I cried for hours afterward. And then I went home and crocheted the pain away.

  So even after I regained control of the blog, I just...Couldn't. I couldn't decide what to do when I ran out of yarn for that vest. I couldn't concentrate on patterns to publish. I couldn't find the time to make tutorials on my new schedule. I couldn't stop feeling like everything near me breaks and somehow it's all my fault. I couldn't bear to keep bringing you all down with more of my bad news... Hell, I couldn't even bring myself to catch up on anyone else's blog because it felt like too much pressure. I couldn't fake being happy and I couldn't admit how depressed I've been. I couldn't even put any of my pictures into a post that made sense, so I dumped them all here and just stared at the page every time I tried again.

  Then I finally realized: In all those "can't's", there's one thing I can do. I can start somewhere. Anywhere! And maybe it doesn't have to be perfect. Maybe I don't spend as much time as I'd like checking grammar and labeling photos... It bothers me, but maybe all that's not so important. Maybe I don't have to concentrate so much on writing a pattern for every single thing I create. Maybe sometimes I just share a little. Maybe I'll finally learn that a pattern is not a total disaster just because I decide that I don't like the colors I chose to create it, like with this scarf: 

  C'mon, we all know there's no chance of that last one happening... Anybody remember the time I ripped back an entire shawl because I didn't like the way the colors were pooling?

  I am very pleased with the way the shawl above came out... But I made a tiny mistake while writing the pattern, and it killed any hopes I had of getting the design into my store. Although it will give me a great excuse to buy more of that beautiful yarn for another attempt, it's going to have to wait. Right now my mind is dedicated to inspections, surveys, insurance and closing; along with getting utilities and internet turned on when all that is done.

  Once we close on the new house, there will much work to do before we can actually move in... It's a foreclosure. First it needs paint, because I think there's more colors on the walls, ceilings and doors than in my yarn stash. Then it needs a good cleaning, some kitchen cabinets, appliances, and hopefully not much else because we still have to replace all the furniture we lost. Plus, there's the actual moving... Sigh. Yes, it will still be a while before I'm ready to be back full-time. But it's good to finally have the motivation to write something.

  You still won't see me on social media, and I'm not sure if I'll ever go back. Besides the spam that passes through filters here and on Google +, I'm sick of being harassed on all platforms by random guys that seem to think women are only there for a date... With all the spam-junk I have to sort through, I don't need pictures of any man-junk - Thank you but NO, I'm not interested in running away with a Nigerian prince - Since when did personal messaging part of Pinterest get so darn naughty?

  So, I've been kinda disgusted with the internet. I hope you can understand why I've retreated into the darkness. I'll be back, I promise! Just remember, we don't use that word "soon" around here anymore... We just wait patiently and hope things don't get worse.

Happy Crocheting!

SlipperMania!

(A quick side note about the faux-fur hooded cowl that inspired this project - The post for how to finish the hood is on hold until I get the fitting checked, which requires a baby. Of course I don't have one of those things and it's proving difficult to borrow the one that the cowl was made for...)

  And now on to my latest trend: Slippers! While working on my last project, the thought hit me that the shaping of a hood could also be used to create the heel of a sock. Although I was sort of right, I'm not happy with the look of the results. I'd like to show you how I made them anyway, because looks aren't always everything and these sure are some comfy-fitting slippers! Follow along and you'll soon understand why I'm calling this post "SlipperMania"... 

  I made that first pair of slippers with bulky-weight Charisma yarn, thinking they would be perfectly warm and toasty for the upcoming cold snap. There's three things I didn't like about them:
1) Bulky weight slippers might be too warm. My feet are perpetual blocks of ice, but five minutes in these slippers had them melting into... Well... Sweaty feet. Yuck.
2) The design was made in a slightly different way than what you'll see below. There was a gap left over which needed to be closed with some decreases, and I wasn't excited about the work it would take to write that pattern in multiple sizes.
3) It took two skeins of Charisma to create one pair of slippers.

And that's when I decided to grab some worsted weight to try again with an easier design...

  Nope, not pretty. But they are so comfortable! They're sort of like that one pair of pajama pants that you love to wear until unexpected company shows up while you're in them, and the next thing you know Aunt Cindy reaches out to pat your arm and asks if you've been drinking too much and are you feeling okay?...

  Well, maybe you'll have a little more dignity in these slippers than those eyebrow-raising pants. Heck, wear them together with the pj's and be proud of the mess you are. What matters is being comfortable, right? 😉 Okay then. Let's learn how they're made:

 Begin by crocheting a circle that will reach from the middle of the heel to your ankle bone. Once you reach that size, you'll need to put two flat sides on the circle.

-Divide the number of stitches in half, then divide that number in half again. My circle was 48 stitches around, so:
48 / 2 = 24 ; 24 / 2 = 12. This will be the number of stitches for each flat side.
-Work even across the first side. In the last stitch (12th for mine), increase to create a corner. Because of the size of my circle, I needed to make 3 stitches to stop the corner from pulling.
-Make another increase in the first stitch of the next side, then work even until you've reached your number of stitches.

 Now, turn and work in rows across just one flat side...

 Keep working in rows until the length of the piece reaches from the heel to the base of your toes.

 Begin decreasing. This pattern was worked in half double crochet stitches, so I used a dc2tog stitch for my decreases... In hindsight, I wish I would have used a sc2tog instead. The dc2tog left a bigger gap than I like. Although it's not so bad that (adult) toes would slip out, I just think the sc2tog would have blended into the pattern better.

 And now, here's the biggest mistake I made with this pair... You'll make two pieces for each slipper, then sew them together. I wanted to make one continuous seam, but I hastily bound off when I "finished" the pieces. Here's what I should have done to make that work:

  I should have worked back across and down the side, stopping at the "corner" of that first flat side.

THEN bind off. You'll be able to use the tail to sew from the ankle hole, around the toe, down the base of the foot, then up the back of the heel; all using the same thread. In the end I just sewed them together as far as I could with the tail, then used another piece of yarn to sew up the toe and top of the foot:

 Mistakes aside, it worked and I liked the result... At first. The rounded heel fits perfectly; just the shape I was looking for. And that odd little jog where "round" meets "rows"? It creates some compression around the arch and hugs a foot in all the right ways. Although odd-looking off the hook, the whole slipper stretches for a snug fit and doesn't look so weird once you have them on. Just go back and see that first picture for an example. Not bad at all, right?

But once you take them off?...

 Oh, no. Put a pair of those in Aunt Cindy's stocking, and I bet she won't be asking any more questions about how you're feeling. She'll just be at the head of your "intervention" next weekend.

  And that was the end of SlipperMania that day... But wait, there's more: The next day I sat staring at my stash and noticed I have a lot of Red Heart Super Saver in orange. I don't like orange and I don't know why I have so much of it in my stash. Why not use it for practice yarn so it doesn't hurt as bad if I end up throwing some away?

 While I'm at it, why not abandon that idea of two-piece slippers and make some that don't have weird shapes or seams that require more attention than I'm capable of?

  Yup, using that orange yarn was a great idea. These fit even better than those space socks I started with, and I think they use less yarn, too. You might notice that mine are a little dirty now because I've been wearing them out to the garage, not caring what the concrete might do to them because they're orange. I don't like orange, but I think I love these slippers anyway.

  As for that one skein of Red Heart Super Saver that I was hoping to kill with a pair of slippers? Well, it also was used to make a pair of children's size, then toddler size, and finally a little tiny pair in a size that I still have to measure to label. And there's still enough yarn to make another adult pair. I realized that SlipperMania was a little out of hand, so I decided to take a break and show you my trials and errors before working on the pattern.

  Then there was a delay in getting to this post because I just happened to try a different yarn (Hipster) and a few adjustments to make a really nice pair of stretchy socks. They were so nice that Rip van Winkle spotted them and said "ooo". Then he felt them and said "ohhhh", and I haven't seen them since... It must mean they're good socks if a mud-covered, truck-driving man decided he wanted them, right? (Just keep letting him think it was his idea; never mind that I was already making them in his size.) Perhaps they'll eventually turn up in the laundry so I can get some pictures to share in the next post. And hopefully my SlipperMania has calmed down by then so I can actually get to writing that pattern.

Happy Crocheting!