Shield Knot to Color

So lately I've been caught up drawing knots that are inspired by some of my favorite geeky things. Since most of them are very recognizable trademarked logos, I'm using them for personal use only. This one though, inspired by Captain America's shield, is just inspired. So I'm uploading it for you all to color and looking forward to seeing how you'll color it!

Click the images below for the larger versions of the knotwork to print and color.

Small jpg:

Large transparent png:

This is the knot I'm using as my profile picture on Facebook right now:

Mr. Rogers cross stitch pattern

So I was thinking about Mister Rogers lessons of kindness and encouragement to be yourself, and decided this would make a good cross stitch design. I did the design, made my computer stitched version (I haven't stitched it yet in real life) and posted that version to my Facebook page. A lot of people liked it.

Here's the pattern for that- it stitches up to 9 inches wide and 7 inches tall on 14 count, takes only 4 colors of thread, and can be framed in a standard 8x10 frame. Click for a larger version, print on landscape mode.

My son saw me working on it, and suggested I do a Steve Rogers (Captain America) version, TG saw it, and gave it her approval. I didn't change the text, but added a bit of stars and stripes and a captain insignia. 

Here's the digitally stitched version of that one. 

The Turnip Girl's newest costume

So The Amazing Turnip Girl has been working for weeks on a new costume. Now, if you've been following The Adventures of a Turnip Girl , you know that all her costumes are what's called "closet cosplay". It's an inexpensive form of cosplay that uses things that are easily available in creative ways. She's not casting rubber, or spending hours drafting patterns to sew. She starts with an idea, and heads to thrift stores and garage sales to pick up the pieces she needs. It takes a fair amount of creativity, and involves sees possibilities in the shapes of things. For this particular costume, the only brand new items in it are the buttons, spray paint, glue and a zipper.

The shirt is a lightweight sweater, that was modified heavily. she removed one arm to make room for the armor, and created tac style pockets for it and added a full length zipper. All hand stitched in. The knee pads were a huge find. She got those at a local garage sale- 50 cents for the full set of pads. The others are set aside for other costumes. The armor on her arm is made using paper mache, so is the knife and gun.

The glove was a good find too. She found that actually alone in my things and asked if I was going to do anything with it. Um.. not so much. A pair of gloves, I might crochet an edging for, but a lone glove? She happily took it.

All those straps? She bought a lot of belts. One was the wrong color, but a quick coat of paint fixed that! She used fabric to make a harness back piece for some of the belts. The holster and sheath are hand stitched from black vinyl.

She's getting really good at paper mache isn't she? 

The mask is paper mache glued to fabric. The star was stenciled on, using Frog Tape to get a really clean edge.

So in the process of working on this costume, we found out that part of Barnes and Noble's Pop Culture Nights was a Marvel night! She was excited, no waiting to wear her costume, she even had to hurry to finish it! There were a LOT of Captain Americas, it was hero night at B&N.

The Winter Soldier won, and people stopped and complimented her costume.

Batman is 75!

Batman's 75th Anniversary Celebration is underway, and DC is partnering with comic book stores around the country to celebrate. So The Amazing Turnip Girl asked me "Aren't you going to do anything on your blog for Batman?"

Check your local comic book store to see if it's participating. My local comic book shop, Bosco's will have cake, masks and discounts on Batman merchandise and books.

See, I'm a Dick Grayson fangirl, from when he was Robin in the elf booties on Superfriends, to Nightwing in the 80s with the silly wing costume and the popped collar, to 90s long haired bad boy Nightwing, the red costume and Grayson. Without Batman there would be no Robin, and so no Dick Grayson.

So I put together this quick printable treat box as a tribute to Batman. I hope you enjoy it.

Click the image below for a larger version to print on card stock, follow the instructions on the printable to make it.

The figure in the photo is a Funko Pop! Nightwing that a good friend of mine got me as a present. 

Book Review- Star Wars Ice Sabers Cookbook

When you buy this cookbook, you get the really cool ice saber molds and that's probably enough for a lot of you. Because the ice pop molds are really just that cool.

The book has 30 recipes for frozen treats. There are only 3 recipes for ice pops in Darth Vader Red, Obi-Wan Blue and Luke Green. The rest of the book is easy to make recipes inspired by the movies.

My daughter, who has strong cooking skills, really likes Chewie Chocolate Cheesecake Pops. This is one of the recipes that doesn't look like something from the movies, but each step is explained well and they are easy to make. A basic chocolate cheesecake without a crust is baked, frozen, cut into pieces and dipped in chocolate.

Sometimes the tie between the movie and the dessert is a catchy, rhyming or punning name such as Bananakin Splits or Tauntun Bon Bons. Other desserts like Ice Cream Clones look like something from the movies. The Twin Suns Sherbet Bombe is my favorite visually, it's simple to make and stunning. The name that had me laughing out loud is the incredibly refreshing citrus Mos Icely granita which is also my favorite recipe in the book.

So a fan, especially a younger fan who is learning to cook, would enjoy the cookbook. The recipes are simple and really nice for a hot summer day. The recipes are clearly written by author Lara Starr, and the photographs by Matthew Carden are just delightful, featuring lots of action figures with the various desserts. It's a soft cover book in full color.

The molds! One cup of liquid is enough to fill all 4 molds with a couple tsps left over. The molds stand easily in a fridge and the pops release easily after running a bit of warm water over the mold. They are fantastic, and I think even adult fans won't be able to resist crossing ice pops at least once.

 The recipes use American volume measurements.

Published by Chronicle Books- check out their Facebook page for contests and more information about their books.

The green pops above are not a recipe from the book. The Luke sabers from the book are a lot brighter green. The pops shown above are my own recipe- Mint Matcha Tea Ice Pops

You can get the set using my Amazon.com affiliate link. I'll make a small commission if you use the links below which helps pay for this site.

U.S.A. U.K.
I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, I received no other compensation, and my review is my honest opinion of the book. You can read more about my review policy here.

Superwholock First Rule cross stitch

I had another plan for today. But this idea tickled me. The above is a digital rendering of the cross stitch pattern below.

Superwholock is a name for that cross section of fandoms that love Supernatural, Doctor Who and Sherlock (BBC)-which would mean my whole family. We watch all 3 shows together, and get into long conversations about the shows and the characters. Yeah, we are a bunch of geeks. Happily so!

The pattern is 100 dpi, and I didn't make color suggestions because it's only 5 colors. Black, grey, blue, light blue and yellow. I think a metallic blending filament would be nice for the chrome on the Metallicar (fandom name for the Impala that Dean drives on Supernatural)

The first rule of Supernatural  is
Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole. (my husband has the teeshirt!)

The first rule of Doctor Who is
The Doctor lies. (TG has the teeshirt!)

And finished off with the quote from Sherlock Holmes-
How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?

Click the image below for a larger version to print and use as a pattern. If you're a Superwholock fan, you didn't need the above to explain!
1 is black
2 is TARDIS blue (TARDIS)
3 is light blue (bee wings)
4 is yellow (bee stripes)
5 is grey (chrome on Metallicar)

Picking the season for Doctor Who was hard! Christopher Eccleston is my daughter's first Doctor. For lots of great geeky pins, crafty and humor, check out The Amazing Turnip Girl's board. It's my account, but she does all the pinning for that folder, and it's a geekfest. 10,000 pins and counting, she spends hours scouring the net and Pinterest for the best fandom nerd things out there.

How to make a comic book cover clock

As I've mentioned before, my family is happily geeky and comic book love falls in that geekdom. So we have boxes and boxes of comics and some of them are in less than pristine condition. Never, ever cut up a comic unless you know that it's not a collectors item, preferably only comics in "loved"condition. The comic above isn't valuable and I have duplicate copies of it.

You will need:

• comic book with an intact cover
• thermal laminating machine 
• 3 or 5 mil letter sized pouch (I used 3 mil- glossy)
• small sharp scissors
• paper trimmer or large scissors
• pen- ball point worked on my laminating pouches
• Clock movement kit- I used #10043 from Klockit, the shaft is short, and perfect for thinner faces.
• hands for the clock- you can pick free hands from Klockit when you order the movement, a second hand costs a little extra
• battery for the clock

About thermal laminating machines- I have a couple of them, the one I used is a very fast Black and Decker model that is a little on the pricey side. A much less expensive option that does take a little while to warm up is the Scotch thermal laminating machine. I have one, and used it for years, and can recommend them for hobby use. Links to both at the bottom of this entry!

So to start, open your comic to the middle and unpin the staples to remove the cover intact. It's easier to trim it straight if you can cut right along the fold or in the case of my comic, it had a line down the middle. 

Cut the cover in half, then find the middle. You'll bring the top and bottom edges together, and make a small crease approximately in the middle of the fold.

Repeat lengthwise, then you'll have a small folded + in the middle of the cover.

Now the thing about lamination is there has to be an outside edge of the lamination for it to be sealed. So to create that edge for the hole for the clock shaft to go through, I used the brass washer from my clock kit and traced around the outside of that. Place it directly over the + and trace with a pen.

Then cut out the hole using the small sharp scissors, cut just slightly outside your traced line.

Now you put the page in your laminating pouch, and run it through your laminating machine. 

Now you need to cut your hole for the clock movement shaft. This time I used the larger of the 2 hex nuts that were in the kit and traced the inside.

Use the small sharp scissors again to cut out the hole. Then check it on the clock movement, if you need to make the hole a little bigger trim just a shaving around the edge until it fits.

Now it's all set to go, pull out the clock movement and trim the edges around the cover remembering to leave at least a 1/8th to a 1/4 inch of clear lamination all around the edges. Then install your clock movement following the instructions that came with it.

Now you have you own comic book clock! The same technique will work with all sorts of paper projects, the key is having a fairly stiff lamination. When you hang it, it will stick out from the wall the same distance as the clock movements thickness.

About The Warlord- The Warlord was written and illustrated by Mike Grell, and it was one of my favorite comic books when I was a kid. My mom didn't like me reading comics so a lot of the time my Uncle Lamar would sneak them to me. He was fond of all sorts of titles, but mostly not the superhero books. The Warlord was a favorite of his. I'll probably make another one of these with a Green Lantern cover for my husband. 

Graph Comparison- Transformers in bead, knit and cross stitch charts

I was going through a lot of old files today looking for the graph for a purse I made a few years back. Still haven't found that, but did find these old graphs, done to compare graph types.

Beads- the most popular stitches are brick and peyote. The most popular beads are Delica size 11 cylinder beads. So that's how I planned these graphs. Delicas are slightly smaller from hole to hole then from outside edge to outside edge. When you're working in peyote stitch, generally the holes will line up vertically. Peyote is also offset by half. These graphs are original size, so they don't need to be clicked. Shown shaded and I have no idea now what my reasoning behind that was. Because of the aspect ratio, these are 39 beads wide and 36 beads tall.

Knit stitches, working up from a cast on edge instead side to side, are shorter than they are wide. So if you graph something on a square graph, it might work. But more likely it's going to come out squashed. It varies some, but generally, the ratio is close enough to Delica type beads that a knitting graph will work on loom or square stitch for beads. Click on the images for larger versions. These are meant to be used for smaller washcloths. (but would also look awesome at the bottom of a scarf!) 40 stitches across and 57 rows tall.

Cross stitch is done a straight squared graph, which makes it the easiest. Pixel art works well for cross stitch and that's probably how these were designed. Click on the images for larger versions. 60x60 (roughly, since apparently I didn't square off this graph properly)

I have no idea if that's helpful to anyone, but it was fun finding them! There are tons of different kinds of graph paper available for free on my old classic webpage here.
Oh, this is the purse that got me searching. As soon as I find the graphs, I'll post them!

Shopping at Garage Sales

Today was another lovely day in Anchorage. The reason I haven't been updating much is that I've been enjoying the sun. This day was a little overcast, but light, fluffy clouds in a blue sky with moments of shade. My daughter and I have been trying to take walks daily, and today I suggested "Let's look for garage sales!" - not the way my husband does it, which is to ask me to look at the paper, find the ones we should go to, then working out the most effective route. We just picked a direction and started walking.

Some tips on walking around for garage sales:

• Wear comfortable shoes and socks. Seriously, I have a blister on the bottom of my foot. 
• Bring cash, in singles and fives
• Bring a bag!
• Dicker! Part of the fun of garage sales is dickering. Remember, people want to get rid of the stuff, and are usually willing to dicker.
• Carry a list of sizes for people in your family- I do this anyway because I'm the primary clothing/shoe buyer for my whole family, and you never know when you're going to find a great deal on something just right.
• Think seasonally- just because it's 75 degrees out, if you live in Alaska, at some point, you're going to need sweaters.
• Look at crafty possibilities
• Don't buy just because it's a great price.
• If you see something you just can't carry home but you have to have, ask if they are willing to hold it for you. 

We found two garage sales. One of them had an unused hot water bottle in a cute teddy bear cozy. The people holding that sale thought it was hopelessly old-fashioned, and it had been a gift to them. Just so happens, we've been planning to buy a hot water bottle.

The second one was the bonanza for my family.  They had lots of DVDs including seasons of shows we didn't have and do enjoy. I found a copy of Jack of All Trades for my husband. It was the only Bruce Campbell show we didn't have. TG was thrilled to find Star Trek: The Animated Series. They also had partitioned trays for kids meals in great, super cute shape (I like them for bead projects), and a cute, small pink knitting loom set. Just as we were leaving, we spotted a steampunk looking little cricket sculpture for my son. We wound up with 1 movie, 5 tv seasons, 3 trays and the knitting loom kit  and the cricket for $22.00. Yay! Since Jack of All Trades was something we were planning to buy anyway and it's about 20 dollars on Amazon, it was a great deal.  

When it was all over, we had walked about 2.5 miles, got some good exercise and had a lot of fun together. We stopped at the coffee stand by our house on the way home, where a bikini clad barista made us perfect iced lattes. 

Here are some printable signs for your own garage sale in 100 dpi jpg format. They can be colored in, or you could print on Astrobrights paper. The image at the top of this is also in 100 dpi if you want to click on it to print a larger version. Because garage sales are awesome!

Ready Player Everyone 2x2 printable boxes

I hope you enjoy this tessellated design, it's inspired by my entry for limited palette Spoonflower geometry contest. The rules were to use the purple and green, and use only geometric shapes. I knew that I wanted the cross shaped tessellation with it's irregular offset and circles and triangles. While I was setting it up, I noticed it looks sort of like a game controller, so added the squares in circles.
ETA: You can vote for your favorite and see all the great entries here.
Here are 3 different colorways, including the original palette. Click on the images to download/print larger resolution versions. Print on card stock. Cut, score, fold, glue!

Book Review- Knits for Nerds

This collection of fandom inspired knits is just fantastic. Toni Carr got contributions from other designers and put lots of her own patterns in the book. There is a good range of skill levels as well, so beginners will have patterns they can use, and more advanced knitters will also find some lovely lace items. The patterns are written out clearly with fun photos of finished items modeled by roller derby girls at Neil Gaiman's house.

As a long time geek, I was thrilled with the books and movies covered.

The Lord of the Rings inspired  Toni Carr's pair of hobbit slippers and Ashley Fay's Light of Eärendil Shrug, a lacy ethereal shrug patterned with leaves.

Neil Gaiman's Death and Mr. Nancy both make an appearance in felted knit hats. A tiny top hat for Death and a bright green fedora for Mr. Nancy.

Firefly makes a strong showing with the Aim to Misbehave Brown Jacket, cunning socks and a cunning scarf.

Star Trek is covered with a Next Generation sweater, an original series mini dress and tribbles.

Also covered are Doctor Horrible,  Real Genius, The Big Bang Theory, Temeraire, Harry Potter, Wicked Lovely, Star Wars, and Doctor Who in a variety of projects like fingerless gloves, stuffies, sweaters, shawls and bags.

For the male geek, there is a unisex Harry Potter inspired book bag, a sweater that looks like a Star Trek- The Next Generation Uniform, a wonderful cabled sweater vest and Mr. Nancy's Hat.

The end of the book includes a key to commonly used knitting abbreviations, and an overview of how to knit with photographs.

My daughter, who is a proud nerd and fan, and who loves to knit snatched this up as soon as we got it, and took it for 3 hours. She chortled and giggled and got very enthused. Her favorite patterns are the above mentioned green fedora, the cape pictured on the cover, and  Aim to Misbehave jacket, which is a lovely longer jacket for Browncoat fans and the Big Bang Theory Raj inspired cabled sweater vest.

My favorite projects are the shrug mentioned above, the Super Awesome Fantastic Mega Super Cute Manga Leg Warmers which are flared to look just like illustrated chibi style legs, the colorful Tank Girl socks (I love Tank Girl!), and the adorable, quick to knit, button eyed Creepy Filler Bunny.

You can get this book directly from the publisher, Andrews McMeel Publishing

My reviews are always my personal and honest opinion. You can read more about my review policy here.

Book Review- Build Your Own Free-To-Air Satellite TV System

So, this is different than my usual reviews right? So why a book on FTA satellite TV systems? Because this is one of my husband's two favorite books from 2011. The other one was fiction.


First a quick definition- Free-to-air satellite transmissions are transmissions that you don't have to pay a subscriber fee. The satellites transmit the stations, sometimes encoded, but frequently not, so if you have a dish that's positioned correctly, you can pick up those stations. You pick up those stations with a satellite dish. While you can certainly have a dish system installed that you pay a monthly fee for, this book is about building your own system to pick up free signals. 


My husband is a tinkerer who has been messing with building antennas for years. FTA satellite antennas were the obvious next step.

This well written manual is written for non-experts and hobbyists who are just getting interested in building home satellite television systems. The language is very clear and defines the technical jargon in easily understandable ways.

You learn how to set up anything from a small dish or if your budget and area zoning allows, a 6 foot dish. 

A resource list allows you to find the materials needed to build your dish, and sites that will help you position your dish according to location.

The book also explains about how satellite transmissions work, going into the science in a clear way.

There is also information on setting up surround sound for the best satellite television experience possible.

I'm really impressed with how well it covers the subject matter without becoming too dry to read. It's laid out in such a way that it's easy to find what you need to go back over while your building your system. 

In a world where a lot of people think they have to have cable or a paid satellite service just to get basic channels, this opens up a lot of possibilities in finding free transmissions for a one time cost. If you're in an area where cable is not an option, or you don't need premium cable stations, this is a great alternative.

My husband was completely inspired by it. Our neighborhood will NOT allow a 6 ft dish, despite how much he wants one now. 


If you're like my husband, or you know someone who is as interested in such projects, I really recommend this book.

We don't have cable, at first, it wasn't an option for our neighborhood. Now that it is, it's something we've found we can live without. So this is a good, less expensive option for us. It costs less to set up a basic system than cable does for a year. 


You can get this book directly from the publisher, McGraw Hill Professional, 

My reviews are always my personal and honest opinion. You can read more about my review policy here.

Manga science and math geek happiness

Now that school is getting ready to start again, I'd like to bring your attention to No Starch Press's wonderful Manga science and math series.

These are brilliant. Instead of teaching what's traditionally very dry and boring material in normal text book fashion, they are illustrated in manga style, with stories that explain how the math and science work in real world applications that really helps retention of the material. These are not just kid level math and science either. If you're interested in learning more as an adult and only have a passing knowledge of physics for example, these books will help you understand it better.

My son really loved the Electricity book, my personal favorite was the guide to physics which explained Newton's Three Laws of Motion very well. One of the real advantages of the manga style is that movement is easily shown in cartoon format. We know what cartoon movement looks like and can apply it to real life movement. The wrap stories and characters are super cute and the chapters have more information in them once you understand the basics.

You can get the books from Amazon, but  No Starch has a deal for getting all the books for 75.00, or you can just buy them one at a time and get a free e-book with the purchase of a print book. So, the Amazon.com link is an affiliate link, the No Starch link is not. The best deal is to get them from No Starch if you're interested.

I'm really looking forward to reading the Manga Guide to the Universe next! If you've been reading this blog long enough you know my family loves planetariums!

Alien mandala coloring page

This one was a lot of fun to make. The reason I based it on 3 was because after trying prime and Fibonacci number sequences, I wasn't happy with how the looked. So a little more research popped up that a lot of close encounters involved the number 3.
Do I believe? I try to keep an open mind. I listen to Coast to Coast AM every night while I'm going to sleep. Like Fox Mulder, I want to believe.
The crop circle designs aren't an exact copy of any crop circle that I know of, but they are inspired by the elegance of the crescent designs that have popped up.
The friendly alien is because it's seems rude to assume a threat. Maybe they just want to borrow a cup of sugar?
It's whimsy. Not a statement of my beliefs, or meant to insult anyone else's beliefs. It's fun, and I hope you like it!
Click on the image to download the full sized version. You can also use this design for embroidery, pyrography or any other crafty uses. I think it would look wonderful embroidered using glow in the dark flosses and I'm thinking of doing that myself.

Font used is Street Expanded by Graham Meade.