An idea for leftover bits of DGY ribbons

So I'm watching this video- and thinking "Hey, awesome use for leftover scraps of Darn Good Yarn chiffon or silk ribbons."

But a couple things- the yarn is recycled- use recycled plastic too. If you don't mind the shape, I'm wild for milk jug plastic. It's generally white or translucent and I use it for barrette backings, building disks, stencils, planters, scoops, I literally have a kitchen drawer full of milk jug plastic cut into sheets from gallon jugs to use for all sorts of things.

Otherwise- yogurt containers, whipped top containers, esp the ones with labels that can be peeled off easily- plus most plastics can be painted if you can't get printing off of them and don't want it showing through the ribbon.

Now, everyone has that friend who keeps every container that comes into their kitchen, the give you seed starts in plastic yogurt containers, they pack lunches in sour cream or margarine tubs and that person is awesome. Except for using margarine (vegans excepted) , but you probably have friends who don't do that. (I'm not that friend, don't even ask. But I do pack my husband's lunches in Lock & Locks because of a nasty accident a while back. If you absolutely don't want it to spill, Lock & Lock) Those friends? If you point out that it's good to want to save the environment and the best kind of recycling is re-purposing? They will sometimes save you things. Then you'll be the one with a big bucket of soda pop tabs waiting to be turned into armor as soon as you feel like working on something really boring for hours. Oh, wait- anyway, ask. You'll wind up with containers.

Secondly-
The only folds bias tape should have in a project are the nice ones down the length. The card wrap folds are easy to get rid of- use a hair straightening iron.

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So the above was written as a FB update and wound up getting a little longer than expected. I'll be honest- at 3:am, when my sleeping schedule is all inside out, and given the really amazing week I had last week (more on that later) - I tend to get a little enthused, run on, and have very little control over my stream of consciousness. It's good though, because that's also the time that I get the most inspired. 

Illusion crochet afghan idea

When I was working on the tumbling blocks boxes the other day, I built the blocks from triangles. Geometrically, the shape is hexagonal, and hexagons are built from triangles. So last night, I went to bed completely exhausted, and apparently mumbling "It should work. Crochet equilateral triangles are easy and cubes are made from hexagons." Then went on to explain to my husband who hadn't asked that I mean 2 dimensional representations of cubes so it would make sense. Apparently I failed, but he was very patient about it.

So an example of a 2 d cubic representation is the tumbling blocks design which works out on triangle graph paper like this.

(I like modular granny square (or triangle!) crochet, it's very mindless for when I'm watching television and just want something in my hands)

So that's been done before. What I wanted was more of an illusion. If you look at the image at the top of the page, it can either look like a cube with a corner cut out of it, or a corner with a cube in it. So how would that look graphed for modular crochet?

The illusion relies on the varying tones, it's most effective in a monochromatic color scheme which probably will mean different yarn brands that are the same weight. Now I need to swatch for gauge and find the right colors! As a hexagon shape, it will be good as a throw I think.

Here's some graph paper if you want to play with your own ideas. I'd love to see them!

Thoughts and buttons

I reviewed 50 Heirloom Buttons to Make: A gallery of decorative fabric, needle-lace, crochet, and ribbon and braid closures you can create, my review was probably the last one posted if you want to take a look. I really liked it but it took a long time for me to get all the way through it because I read it in fits and starts. This is one I really recommend the Kindle version. The images are probably much better in the paper version, but it's out of print and costs 75 dollars, the Kindle version is only 9.99.

The book inspires me to crochet frog closures for shawls and such, so I'm working on a frog now to use in another project and see how I like it.

My favorite uncle can't have sugar, and so every year for my b-day I come up with a recipe for him. This year I'm going to make him sugar free whoopie pies. I'm planning on a chocolate coffee cake with an orange filling. While I was thinking of ways to do the filling, I realized for kiddie pies, you could use unsweetened drink mix for flavor and color. Need to try it at some point and see how it turns out.

Free comic book day and other stuff

I told K that we are all plague-y because we had plans to meet tonight until I got sick too.
I do plan to go out though. It's the first Saturday in May which means Free Comic Book Day! Yay!!!
If it works like last year did at our local comic book shop, everyone gets 3 comics each but you *can* go to both Bosco's and wind up with 6 comics each. Which we do. Which really shows the world just how comic geeky my family is. The Free Comic Book Day website has a participating store locator that works with zip codes.
Last night I worked on a small electronic project. I'm working out a simple method using copper wires to make tiny led lamps to fit in decorated jars that can be turned on and off through a simple mechanism. This is complicated by the fact I know nothing about electronics. But leds and 3v batteries are simple enough. I don't need to mess with resistors.
Nearly done with The Turnips scarf. Made a necklace for William I'll get a picture of soonish.


Some of my most recent reviews on Amazon:
Fairy Parties by Colleen Mullaney
Curious Folks Ask: 162 Real Answers on Amazing Inventions, Fascinating Products, and Medical Mysteries by Sherry Seethaler
Totally Twisted: Innovative Wirework & Art Glass Jewelry by Kerry Bogert


If you find them helpful, please do vote so. I finally made it into the top 1000 reviews on Amazon. It's been a mini goal of mine for a while. 

Ideas, links and thoughts

I finally made up an Amazon.com Listmania list of some of my favorite cooking and craft related free books for the Kindle, they are all in public domain and all available on Project Gutenbergas well. Here's my list.

I was reading KissThisGuy.com this weekend, actually I was singing it to my family, looking up favorite songs. I realized, that would make the BEST party game. Go there, find songs, and make little slips of paper with the misheard lyric, the actual lyric, song and artist. Fold slips in half and put them into a bowl and let your guests take turns taking out slips and singing the misheard lyric. Prizes for the people who guess the most right songs and artists, and for the people who perform the best so the songs are recognized.
*singing to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody* Scare a Moose, Scare a Moose, Will you do the fan tango?
Dr. Kiki used to do a podcast called Food Science that was one of our favorites. We would hook up the iPod to the tv and watch it together. The episode with nitrogen frozen ice cream was one of E's favorites. We've made ice cream using the two canister method before, and I actually do have an ice cream maker. But I think next time we are going to try this dry ice method. It looks like a lot of fun. Dry ice can also be used to carbonate soft drinks using this method. We usually use yeast. It does create a slight alcohol  content in the beverage, but not enough to worry about.

Also Spoonflower is selling people's designs if they wish now, which means I can make some of my patterns there available for sale if there is any interest. You can see the designs here. I have them in vector format so I can resize and recolor fairly easily. What do you think?