Flagging Tape Plarn

I was walking by a construction site near my work and they had this plastic tape stuff strung up so nobody walked into the new asphalt.  It looked so pretty I wanted to run off with it and crochet something.  Turns out it's called surveyor or "flagging" tape and it makes cheap, fun plarn in a ton of colors without any cutting and tying.

I didn't do any rolling or fiddling, just crocheted straight off the roll.  This would be wonderful for outdoor projects.  It's made specifically for use outside, although I imagine it will fade after a while in the sun.

The test blob I worked up feels strong and stretchy.  So far I just have the pink but apparently you can order it in solids, stripes, and polka dots.  How fun!

Paper Flip Flops

Summer is finally on it's way out.  I'm saying goodbye with some tiny little flip flops.  I used paper for the base and ribbon for the thong but you could use just about anything.  Craft foam and cloth would be super cute.  The pink flowers are origami irises.

Here's a little diagram of how to put them together.  It's pretty easy, I just like making little diagrams.

Mini Mandalas

This will be my contribution to Mandalas for Marinke if I can get my act together.  They're worked on either 1.3mm or 1.65mm hooks using sewing thread.  The smallest pink one is worked using two strands held together and the largest rainbow one is four strands held together.  I think the blue one is probably three strands but it was the first one I did so I don't remember.  These are not the best photos - still working on figuring that part out.  Took a few more just holding them in my hand, I think those came out better.  I wet blocked them with a little starch to help them hold their shape.

The pattern for these is free from Wink.

Bonus photo of my little "helper".

All of Odin's blinks are winks.

Who's your favorite Supreme Court Justice?

I know who mine is.

You pass butter.

I have no more love to give today.

Very rough draft of darling Malory.

Welcome to Mos Eisley

If I ever move to Mos Eisley I think I would make this and hang it on my wall.  It's important to be proud of your home.

Just the text pattern:

Just the city pattern - not sure how I would do this part:

Bonus geek alphabet:

Mythosaur Knitting Project

My current project is a birthday present for a friend.  I've done one piece already and blocked it up - that one was tunisian crochet with a different symbol.  For this one I wanted to try out knitting a big rectangle and then using a duplicate knit stitch for my color work.  It doesn't matter if it's crochet or tunisian or knitting, changing colors is a huge hassle.  Also, different mediums have different dimensions so my original pattern meant for tunisian isn't going to work for knitting.  Is there such a thing as knitting graph paper?  My stockinette knit stitches are much shorter than crochet or tunisian stitches (and normal tunisian stitches turned out taller than tunisian knit stitches - why can't everything just be nice and square?).  I have a feeling that cross stitch and I are going to be the best of friends once I get around to actually working on the patterns I've made.  Too many ideas and not enough time.

My stitches seem like they're about 20 per 4 inches in a column and about 15 per 4 inches in a row so I'm going to set my excel sheet up for 40 pixel columns and 30 pixel rows and overlay a picture and place my stitches.

Using my same width of 41 stitches wide (plus 2 for each side = 45 total), the length comes out to 69 stitches high plus some garter stitch on the top and bottom.  I've got my rectangle made now so I just have to see how the shape comes out once the duplicate stitches are placed.  Are you supposed to block before or after you do duplicate stitch?....

Frankenstein never scared me...

This is one one of my many someday projects.  I think I'll always have more ideas than finished projects.  Maybe that's a good thing.  Christopher Walken didn't actually say this, it was some comedian I forget the name of but I thought it was so funny.  I want to learn how to do embroidery in this style.  Probably need to re-do the wording but this is good enough for now while it's still just an idea.

Homemade Hairpin Lace Loom

I decided to try to make a loom rather than buying one.  They're so simple looking, I just couldn't justify spending the money.  This is my little practice version made of wooden skewers from the kitchen drawer and some cardboard box parts (I think from some $1 glowsticks from Target - it was a "wild" night.)  It works perfectly well for my needs right now.  It would be easy to do an upgrade with some coat hangers or unused straight knitting needle and maybe some plastic.