RS – Finished the Linen StitchScarf and Tarragon, the dinosaur/dragon (Free pattern!). She also did a little DIY to recover a piano bench and she and her partner made an under the shelf cutting board holder. Below is a picture of RS’s FOs from 2014.
RS’s plans for the next three months include Dryer Balls, Toe Up Socks using the Sherman Toe and Heel Method, more Care of Magical Creatures stitch markers, Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman, and a scarf to match a hat she made for a friend. In detention she will be working on a Hitchhiker, a top down raglan sweater, and another pair of Pieces of Eight mitts.
TK’s plans include some Caliometry for classes, Socks and the Jane Hat for detention, and the Roselein Hat or a Capelet for Order Mission projects.
FlyLady‘s Five Minute challenge. Pick a place in your house that needs cleaning, set the timer for five minutes, get going! RS has found it very helpful and read about it in the book Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.
Tiny Kiwi is still doggedly plugging away at her Fibonerdy Shawl. In addition, she sets up a small counted cross-stitch pattern by Textile Heritage Collection to begin working on.
Rambunctious Sky is working on her Sashiko Cardigan and thinking about casting on a pair of socks.
It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Finished Objects!
RS made the Crystal Peak Snowflake by Deborah Atkinson which is published on her snowflake-a-licious Snowcatcher blog. She also made two smaller snowflakes by ending on early rounds. The thread is Daiso Cotton Lace Yarn #20 in Marine Blue.
She’s also finished her Gemini shirt! Needs blocking. It has a slip stitch edging added around the collar to keep it from rolling. What a good idea!
We talk about RS’s tragic-for-her, fantastic-for me, sweater that sadly/happily fits TK better. More news on that when it’s out of time-out.
RS also took a video of how she did the slip stitch crochet edging on her Gemini:
TK shows how she organizes her embroidery thread snippets on a piece of foam, pinning everything to keep it in place. She also uses the same piece of foam for needle felting, blocking small knit pieces, and keeping her macrame threads organized while she works.
Use pins with large heads, place them close, and your threads won’t wander
I Spy: Nature Lover’s Segment
TK is still complaining that everyone has apparently missed the “It’s still winter!” memo, and is happily peeping and beeping away, nesting and getting ready for spring. She also went out and bought a hummingbird feeder for our dad (since he likes hummingbirds…there’s no accounting for taste), so hopefully we’ll tell you how well it works in a few weeks.
Ear Party
TK has Lorde‘s song Team stuck in her head, but recommends checking out the rest of her stuff if you’ve only heard Royals so far, as it’s all great. She also rocks some great Hermione Hair! (How can that be bad?!)
We’ll leave you with one last link to a live version of White Teeth Teens, as her live stuff is also awesome.
TK also tangents a bit and recommends Rookie Mag, a website by and for teenage girls. If you are a teenage person, or know one, we recommend it.
Come on over and share what you’re listening to on our Ear Party thread in our SotHF Ravelry Page! Music, books or podcasts–anything is fair game.
We also tangent a wee bit again (Us? Nooo!) and start trying to quote Mr. Bennet, with the correct line being, “For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?”
Walks in the Urban Wilderness
RS is still (still! STILL!) sick, so only walks once. Until she gets better, her fitness goals are on hold and/or whatever she can manage.
TK meets her goals by walking 5 times. (Her current goal is 4-7 x a week)
TK reviews Wet n Wild’s Fastdry polish, color is SaGreena the Teenage Witch
…long story short…it’s bad, which is sad ’cause it’s a perfectly beautiful emerald/fig-beetle green. For a full review listen to the podcast.
TK talks about other uses for nail polish, and talks about some art pieces by one of her old metal arts instructors, Michael Dale Bernard. We don’t have permission to show his pieces here, so we’ve linked to one of the pieces that TK was talking about. A lot of his stuff is for sale, so if you see something you like, contact him! His pierced work is amazing and it’s all by hand. (!!!)
We also talk about practical uses for small completed cross-stitch patterns, so if you have a different idea on how to utilize the small piece TK shows, drop us a note here, or on Ravelry! She’s very open to suggestions.
RS gives advice on how to carry yarn up the side of TK’s Fibonerdy shawl, since TK was nervous about messing it up.
And last but not least, a link to TK’s two-colored crochet Mulberry Hues Shell Scarf that she references when talking about carrying color along the side of your work.
That’s all for this week, and thanks for joining us!
Projects of the Moment: WIPS Progress Report (0:26)
Rambunctious Sky plugs away at her Gemini shirt, while Tiny Kiwi finally cracks into her Fibonerdy Shawl. Progress! Glorious progress…
Timber makes an appearance! He’s always nosy, but then appears less than enthused by his moment of fame. Oh the fickleness of cats!
TK needs to sit down and calculate how many rows a day she needs to accomplish her shawl in time. 50% needs to be accomplished by the 28th of February, and it needs to be done by the end of March. Will she or won’t she, friends?! RS is taking bets now! (Ok, she’s totally not, and probably won’t condone betting, but she’s not typing the show notes! Bwah ha ha! Here’s to hoping she doesn’t read through them!) >_> Moving on…
It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane–It’s FOs! (4:14)
RS gets inspired, gets fabric scraps from the creative re-use place and makes a mini-quilt collage to hide her sinks knobbly knees. Pink topstitching! TK warns RS not to try sewing over Velcro made for hard surfaces, as the glue is super tacky and will gum up your machine, but thankfully RS’s machine couldn’t handle it anyway! Crisis averted!
TK makes the Dahlia Circle, but mis-pronounces the book it’s out of (she’s slightly number dyslexic aka dyscalculic, so bear with her)–it’s *75* Floral Blocks to Crochet by Betty Barnden, and it is an all-around lovely book.
Now what though? Is it a doily? Is it a coaster…perhaps even a knee-warmer?…Pillow cover? Sigh.
Things to Hyperventilate Over (4:10)
TK enthuses about the old anime show called Mushi-shi that she’s watching. Available on YouTube for who knows how long, so check it out! She’s really enjoying it. The little supernatural mushi are pretty adorbs.
RS is STILL SICK! This is a redonk amount of time to be sick so the doctor prescribes 6 hours of “Yummy Man” aka Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. A&E version of P&P wondrous, and soothes the soul.
TK watches the much older BBC P&P on Netflix, laughs at it’s stiff & dated Darcy, and enjoys its saucy Lizzie.
Shiny! (15:28)
TK gives a tip to jewelers or anyone aspiring to be one…spring for good ear wire/hooks, and round the ends with a cup burr! Use nickel-free silver! Real silver! People have allergies! It’s a real thing!
Slytherin Nails! The mini-segment (17:03)
Star Attraction nail enamel by Revlon, color is Reality Star
Polish has steel(?) filings as very fine glitter suspended in the green polish, and the bottle comes with a magnet on the lid to make a sort of star-burst pattern of glitter in your wet polish. On my hands, this one chipped too much and too often for me to be completely happy with, but the color was nice and the starburst pattern was something a little different. I may try it on my toes to see if it holds up better and if it stains with long use (it didn’t with 1 week of wear!). I’ll probably do this one again for St. Patty’s Day as the starburst reminds me of 4-leaf clovers.
I recommend gooping it on in one coat to make sure there’s enough filings to make a pattern and to make sure it doesn’t dry too fast (which were two problems I had), and you really have to hold the magnet there for a while to make sure it sets properly without dripping back out into a uniform color. It’s really hard to keep the magnet close, hovering over your nail in just the right spot to make the pattern without dinging it. I tried using another strong magnet, but it was too small to work the same as the one in the lid. This one really is a balancing act and while over-all I still liked it well enough to use it as a once-in-a-while color, it definitely didn’t make the cut for every-day nail color.
OT…Off Topic–We talk about how good we’ve been not buying yarn and reigning in our spending…by not going anywhere. No mink yarn for us! Sadness!
Brainy Moments–How To: Tips and Tricks (20:35)
RS rambles on about waist shaping, tells you to compare your project to a piece you have that already fits well, and modify your pattern to add or take out waist shaping so that the finished project fits you properly! RS would like to get the book Little Red in the City by Ysolda Teague because it has a good reputation for teaching you how to make sweaters that fit your body.
TK discusses the Fit to Flatter group on Rav and elsewhere
TK also shows off how to make some cute decorative LED flower lights, out of a battery-operated string of Christmas lights and some cheap flowers from the Dollar Tree.
TK’s critter count is high this week with a visit to both the Huntington and the Nature Center: Great Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, Allen’s Hummingbirds, Mallards, American Coots (so cutes!), Red Eared Silders (turtles), Pied-Billed Grebe, Crow, Fox Squirrels, California Ground Squirrels, Western Fence Lizard and a Western Box Elder Bug (or two).
Also, if you dislike my willy-nilly capitalization of bird, plant and animal names, read this, and heap it up with a side of I really don’t care. But with LOVE. ❤ Always with love.
For bigger pictures, go to our Flikr. If you know what the plants are, drop us a note! We’d appreciate it. 🙂
Such pretty purple stems with the green leaves. A+ job, Nature!
Lovely bracts, as well
Some enterprising child or squirrel stuck a nut in the center of this stump
Musical Menagerie/Ear Party! (33:15)
RS talks about Brian Eno–no wait! Don’t change the channel! RS appreciates ambient music for it’s power to help you chill out. RS has BE’s Music for Airports on every device she has, so maybe you should check it out too, if you feel a need to relax. We seem to have a need for relaxing things to listen to. What does that say about us?! Maybe we should go tuck seeds in stumps ourselves.
TK talks about the Armenian Duduk, a wind instrument, and the Chinese Pipa, a stringed instrument. Check them out and broaden your musical horizons, you won’t regret it!
Here’s also a link to a Chinese ensemble. This one just cracks me up at how hard they’re working and how into it they are. This other group is much more mellow, if you’d like to start with something less frenetic, although I’m not always enthused by the Erhu parts…
Walks in the Urban Wilderness (36:08)
RS met her goal of walking twice a week, even while STILL being sick, so wow!
TK met her goal of walking twice a week, and exceeded it so talked about upping the ante. She also discusses the merits of setting a flexible goal, with a minimum that’s attainable and a max that pushes you a little harder. TK’s new goal for this week is walking 4-7 times. We’ll see how she does!
Random Remnants (39:10)
TK talks about the wacky legwarmer/kneewarmer challenge in Slytherin House this month. TK references RS’ Octopus Phone Cozy. The pattern for the applique octopus is the Demi Octopus. (Which is really a sextopus because it only has six arms, but hey! Accidents can happen.) She also talks about the colorful geometric beaded leg decorations that the Kuna Indian ladies in Panama wear, but to make a knit version sounds a lot more problematic. Got a good wacky idea? Drop us a note here or in our Rav group!
That’s it for this week! If you have any questions about any thing we cover in our podcast, feel free to drop us a note here, or in our Ravelry Group. 🙂 Thanks for tuning in and stopping by!
Plans Ensue! (Slytherin Break Month Activities)
Sisters Of The Holy Fiber 