After Midnight

Hello:

It's after midnight, and the weather has turned cold and rainy.  I hope that it is snowing in the mountains.  I worked all day today.  I trained for this International Test Proctor job for 6 hours.  I was able to knit a bit during the training.  I worked on the second of the 2014 Sampler Mystery KAL blanket square patterns.  I just realized that I don't have a photo of the square.

The squares are supposed to be about 6 inches each.  I doubled the first square, and, although I dropped down a needle size, I got a 15 in. square.

Since this is for a baby that is due in May, I am going to make two big squares for each of the first 4 patterns, and then one more square and sew them together for a 3 x 3 square blanket that will be about 45 in x 45 in without a border.

I finished one square of the second pattern, and cast on another square in that pattern.  That is what I knit today.  I should have been able to make more progress, but I wanted to take notes... Darn that Working!  I wasn't able to get a photo of the finished pattern 2 square, but will take one tomorrow morning before I leave for work if possible.

Right now I have the first row, and I will try to get that sewn together.  I need to sew together the red and black squares that I have finished for my Godson's afghan, too.  I have learned that sewing as you go is the best way to finish an afghan quickly.

I also wanted to post photos of the finished Mermaid costume:

The tail is pretty long, so it is hard to squish it all into one photo.

Here is the tail:

the sea shell bikini top:

and a close up of the sea star headband:

You can just see the sparkles in the aqua Caron Simply Soft Party yarn.  The tail was made with that yarn and Caron Simply Soft Paints in Spring Brook held together and a size N crochet hook.  The Sea Shell top is also Caron Simply Soft.  It is something old from my stash so I'm not sure of the exact color, but it looked sort of coral so I used it.

I hope to post a photo of my Great Niece wearing the outfit (after she is born... of course).

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a mermaids tail

Crack Dealer

Hello:

Today was another day in paradise.  It was clear, and crisp but not too cold.  For us, we have had a relatively dry winter.  Since I could see the Cascades so well today, I was noticing that there isn't much snow on them.

This might be a problem in the summer.  We depend on the snow melt for so much.  We get our power (hydro-electric dams), our drinking water (of course!), our agriculture, and our streams for the salmon from the winter snow melt.  If we don't have enough snow, we might have to conserve this summer.

But, enough about that.  We had a lovely day today.  Tonight I went to my neighbor friend, Lylamae's house to knit after tutoring.  She did not have a Ravelry account, until tonight.  She has been knitting for years, so has many patterns, but lately, I have been finding her free patterns on Ravelry and printing them out for her.  She finished the last project and wanted to make a hat but didn't have any hat patterns and was feeling uninspired.  So, I did it.  I helped her join Ravelry.

I explained how to search the Patterns.  We looked at hat patterns for about 1 hour together.  When I left, she was still at the computer, looking at hats and saying stuff like, "ooooo! look at this one, this one is really fun," and so on.

Addicted to Ravelry.  I felt like a crack dealer.  I fully expect to find her sitting at her computer next Thursday, still looking at patterns.

I have been working on a Mermaid Tail.  This will be for one of my HPKCHC classes, the Care of Magical Creatures Class where we are studying Kappas, which are Japanese water spirits.  One of the prompts is to craft something in the colors of the Kappas (yellow, blue and/or green).  You can also represent the Kappa's scales.

Well, this mermaid tail is just perfect for this class prompt.  My nephew and his bride are expecting a baby girl in May, and my niece-in-law sent me a photo of a baby in a mermaid tail and asked, "Um... Auntie, can you make something like this?"

I have finished the tail and the shell top, but only have photos of the tail so far.  I am also making a starfish headband.

It is just so cute!  The pattern is Set of 3 Mermaid patterns by Crochet by Jennifer.  You use a size N crochet hook, I had to buy one as I didn't have such a large hook, and hold two strands of worsted weight yarn together.  I used Caron Simply Soft Party in Sparkly Teal, and Caron Simply Soft Paints in Spring Brook.  For the shell top, I grabbed some pink/taupe colored yarn from my stash that just happened to be Simply Soft, too! 

It's a really well written pattern.  I love how the tail fins look.

That's not a very good photo, but the fins look really cool.

I haven't gotten called to substitute all week, but I have tutored every day.  I hope I don't get called in tomorrow.  I would love to make it to Fiber Friday.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a mermaid tail.