ishkabibble

February GG ~ I CAN SEW!

Hello, stitching buddies~ I hope you're all doing well and enjoyed your Valentine's Day. I decided I've been healthy for far too long and spent the day groggy and coughing, yay! Luckily it doesn't seem to be one of those that will linger forever (knock on wood). We're set to get a few inches of snow today which is fine with me; I'll just snuggle up with some blankets and cats.

I'm starting to long for spring though... we bought some special seeds I'm anxious to try. What are they, you might ask? Well... Carolina Reapers, Trinidad Scorpions, and Naga Morichs. :D We greatly enjoyed our Bhut Jolokia last year (more readily known as Ghost Pepper here in the States) putting them in all our various chili/bean dishes and my husband enjoyed sharing them at work. But enough rambles, onto GG~

click for more info!

before

after

I can count this for GG because it's being worked on the huck towel gifted to me by TiffStitches. Thank you! :D It sort of has started to look a little more like nothing, or maybe possibly just random greenery. I wanted to see if I had the widths right; it feels very weird for me to start at the bottom of a stitch but all of these towels have been like that. It makes me nervous until I know for sure the width is centered, or at least centered enough that the "weight" of the design looks centered. It's a bit difficult to tell in the picture, but there are actually two different greens in there now.

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yes, let's take pictures of PJs!

The sewing machine can actually sew! What a strange adventure this was. Here is an unglamorous shot of a pajama set I made. I figured my husband could have the first clothes made on the machine since he spoils me. :D They look really huge but are somewhere between a medium and a large. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to find a dressform at some point.

zig-zags!

I am glad I started with the pants. If I had started with the shirt, I'm guessing nothing would've been finished as I would've nuked the whole project. The shirt is a stretchy material, not quite jersey but almost like a poly-spandex blend. I'll have to get back into the store and see if I can get a picture of the bolt end to know for sure. These older machines do not have built-in zig-zag capabilities and zig-zag stitches are quite necessary if you don't want your stitches to break when the fabric stretches! So I got to play with one of my fancy little attachments. Let me tell you, after breaking three needles in a row, I was about to start stabbing things in the craft room and possibly the rest of the house. One panic run to the store later, and armed with fresh ball-point needles, it finished up easy as you please. I still need to master the tension needed with guiding this type of fabric on the machine.

look at that plaid

Not very perfect, mind you. I am not so good at sewing in a straight line just yet. The plaid on the pants sure helped with that though! I think if I make this pattern again, I will change a few things. Those buttonholes seem like they should be vertical slits in the waistband. Maybe a different fabric for the shirt; something more T-shirt-y. I really liked the raglan sleeves. Waistbands in general will require patience and practice. That was an adventure -- I redid it three times because I thought the elastic was twisting inside the band. I am pleased that most of my seams lined up very well with the plaid. Plus I got to use a button from my (new-to-me) stash!

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Seasonal Hearts

Next up, 2019's second Gifted Gorgeousness Giveaway! I chose this one because of the hearts although it joyfully contains all the seasons~ This is a set of cute small patterns on a single leaflet by The Needle and I featuring four different seasonal hearts with a primitive feel! I rather like the Americana one for summer. And I like how they're all finished! Once again, no fancy extras will be included in this giveaway to cut down on shipping costs but it will go worldwide!

Gifted Gorgeousness Giveaway Guidelines

Be a ~~minion~~ follower (upper right corner of my blog)! Feedly, bloglovin', etc. do not count as there is no way to show it! I am sorry; blame blogger for this one.
Comment and tell me you would like to be included in the drawing!
Open worldwide!
No winning twice in a row (example: the winner of March's drawing would not be eligible for April's).
Closing date: February 28th, 2019 23:59 CST.

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

blog: version desktop/FF

Lastly, I am requesting a little help! When I was on a different computer, I noticed something different about my blog. I normally use a Windows-based desktop with Firefox as my main Internet browser. This is how my blog looks on it.

blog: version laptop/Chrome

When I was on the laptop, I was using Chrome for the browser and this is how my blog looks. My banner is completely missing, as well as the little side images denoting the blogger widgets. Don't mind the difference in flowers; my laptop's screen is smaller than the desktop's.

highlighting the weirdness

How does it look on your device? Do you see the banners? What do you use (computer/tablet/etc)? I'm hoping to figure out if it's my personal settings (I have very strict script blocking/anti-ads/high privacy settings on all my computers) or if it's a problem with the special code itself. Thank you for your help; this really bugs me!

Random #1: Winner and Deliciousness!

Well now! January left me behind and it's February! I guess I'd better get my random post in before it turns to the next GG already. I do hope February will be a bit warmer on average; so far we're starting abnormally warm (I may even have windows open today!) after a week of terribly cold temperatures. Of course, it will be back to Winter later this week.

image found through Google search

First up, the winner from last month's giveaway of the cute snowman by Homespun Elegance. There were two entrants and the random number generator chose comment number one: Ariadne! Yay! Please let me know your address and I'll have it posted out at some point~

a pile of string

I've been working on a few items of interest, and this one doesn't get included in the GG posts. It is ~~affectionately~~ grumpily known as the "rats nest" -- a veritable pain in the tuchus of a knit! I'm trying to be somewhat mindful of our household waste production and plastic bags are up there with being everywhere when going shopping! I have plenty of cold sacks and cloth bags for regular groceries. This little bag will be for loose produce when it's complete. It's very light and airy and is making good use of the mountain of crochet thread I have ~~hoarded~~ stashed.

little more open

I really love the idea of this project but I think I am just far too tight of a knitter to function well with magic loop method. :( It leaves huge ladders between the "loops", not large enough to be a problem but they are noticeable. Plus the random mistakes that would be a nightmare for me to pull out... I will finish it out of pure stubbornness and then find some other pattern to battle! I had hopes of loving it and making it for gifts but alas, not this pattern.

This does make me sad because it limits my options of knitting smaller things. I am fine knitting in the round or flat. Maybe I should really focus on mastering double points (they still leave ladders too, though). Bah! Not every crafting endeavor turns out well.

we have a stem/leaf!

I also started the next Flower of the Month stitch, October's calendula (marigold). I seem to be missing one of the colors in this despite it being marked as "owned" in my spreadsheet, hmm. I have no other projects containing it so it is a mystery where this bobbin got to!

his

hers

Totally random: These scrumptious milkshakes were from a local ice cream shop. Oh, they were so delicious. The one on the left is a cookies 'n' cream shake with chocolate dipped Oreo cookies and other deliciousness. The one on the right is a vanilla bean shake with chocolate dipped strawberries and other deliciousness. They are served in pint-sized mason jars with the rim dipped in chocolate. My husband didn't want to waste a single second taking photos of them and dove right in ahaha. It was a wonderful treat for us and totally counted as lunch, right? :)

it's possibly a thing

Lastly, there's this little teaser for the next GG. Until then! :D/

2018 Recap: Books

Whoops, one more recap post! This is my annual "I do occasionally read words instead of writing too many" post where I cover what I read for the year, plus a bit of a ramble. I wound up trying, and failing, to keep track of the manga read. There are just too many! It's especially "bad" in the winter when I curl up with the cats and my laptop and just... binge read all evening. Imagine all the crafting I could have done! Oh, well, I am enjoying myself either way. :)

image via Google image search

Italicized is a book I have never read before.
Italicized and bolded is never read and a new-to-me author.

Jingo (Terry Pratchett)

The Last Continent (Pratchett)
Carpe Jugulum (Pratchett)
The Fifth Elephant (Pratchett)
The Truth (Pratchett)
Thief of Time (Pratchett)
The Last Hero (Pratchett)
Night Watch (Pratchett)
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Pratchett)
The Wee Free Men (Pratchett)
Monstrous Regiment (Pratchett)
A Hat Full of Sky (Pratchett)
Going Postal (Pratchett)
Thud! (Pratchett)
Wintersmith (Pratchett)
Making Money (Pratchett)
Unseen Academicals (Pratchett)
I Shall Wear Midnight (Pratchett)
Snuff (Pratchett)
Raising Steam (Pratchett)
The Shepherd's Crown (Pratchett)
The Unadultered Cat (Pratchett)
Gilgamesh (Stephen Mitchell)

I started the year continuing the Discworld series. They just kept getting better! I was surprised at The Last Hero since I didn't realize some would be young adult novels too. There wound up being several like this which made for quick and enjoyable reads! I had hoped to finish the series by June but sometimes there wound up being too much of a delay between books (some had to come from the far corners of the state). I finished in the middle of July. It's great to have them all read though bittersweet that there won't be any more to enjoy. I cried reading The Shepherd's Crown.

My husband got me The Unadultered Cat off of my wishlist for Christmas last year thinking it was part of Discworld. I had that book on my list before I ever knew of the Discworld series! I have no idea where I had heard of it though.

After Discworld, reading books kind of slowed down as I worked on getting caught up on our National Geographic subscription. I had several months worth of backlog to get through. There were a few library book sales during the downtime and I stocked up on some new (and old) material. So, this year isn't as good as previous years in terms of numbers. And now I have a new series of books to watch for hah.

My husband wanted to read a bit more in terms of stand-alone books (most of his reading is on the computer) and wanted to keep track of them.

Ringworld (Larry Niven)
Eat That Frog! (Brian Tracy)
Creativity, Inc. (Ed Catmull)
Gilgamesh (Stephen Mitchell)
Extreme Ownership (Jocko Willink & Leif Babin)

I'm really glad he's joined a bookclub at his work! He seems to be enjoying it too, even though they only read one chapter a week of their chosen book. I often feel like we're holding library books hostage but the librarians are great at encouraging keeping them until they're finished. :)

owned media - why yes, we DO like Asimov, have you noticed?

Because we've gotten a healthy collection of books, one of my ~~goals~~ whims for 2018 was to sort of organize them so I wouldn't wind up with duplicates. I think a lot of people might use GoodReads or something similar to track their books. My solution was simple and less elegant: a Google spreadsheet! We had already started one for our CDs ages ago (we have as many CDs as books -- we love music!). It eventually grew to have separate pages for manga, movies, and video games. I like this method because it's easy to search on my phone whenever I ~~accidentally~~ find myself in a bookstore or at a thrift store. According to the sheet, we have 275 books (excluding manga, my craft books, and some miscellaneous items). It sure felt like a lot more when we moved...

I think this year I will tackle my craft books. I really like vintage craft magazines and books. Ravelry is a great place to log them but not all of them are listed and I have no scanner to contribute. I think it will be easier to have everything in one spot anyway.

thread stash

On a stitchy note, I also have a spreadsheet for my floss. :) I think we just really like spreadsheets (I also have them for sewing machine attachments and my Corelle set, and my husband has several for his things too). If you're interested in this stitchy one, you can find a copy here. You'll need to save it to your own Google account if you want to use it. She has since updated it to contain the fabric calculator and floss availability, but the newest colors are not in there. They're easy to add if you have basic spreadsheet knowledge.

Okay, that's all the recap posts for me. I've already started on 2019's list with a whopping three finishes. They're children's novels though, so nothing too extreme. :) There's still a little time to enter the first of 2019's Year of Giveaways, if you'd like!

January GG ~ From the Last to the First

Aloha, friendly readers~ I hope you all are enjoying your worldly weather. We've had a huge snowfall for our neck of the woods. It has been many years since the area has seen this much. It was wonderful. I restocked our snow ice cream for when we forget what winter is like in the midst of summer. We shoveled snow (a lot of it). Luckily my shoulder has healed nicely. Last week was the first week it felt "normal" so it was good timing, and the shoveling of the snow didn't do anything other than make us sleep really well. :)

scale in inches

Of course, now they're threatening the same thing could happen this coming weekend! I wonder how much of this current snow will melt before then. Certainly not the mountains of shoveled stuff! Oh well, I love it all! :D This was a lovely atmospheric gift which segues nicely into the next item of interest, January's Gifted Gorgeousness!

click for more info!

First up, I made my first ever shawl! It's a shame I couldn't get better pictures of it; this red just seems impossible. It was made to match this hat, gifted to my husband's grandmother back in September. I spent quite a while looking for a pattern to try! I wanted it to have shells (like the hat) but still have somewhat open stitches so as not to be overly warm.

didn't mean to match the carpet

Technical Details

"Tranquil Tea Wrap", crochet, freebie pattern by Lion Brand Yarn found here (ravelry).
My ravelry project page here.
10mm (N/P) hook.
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in autumn red.
Started: October 17, 2018, Finished: October 21, 2018, unknown hours.

As you may notice, this was a blazing fast finish (for me) at only four days! I think the gigantic hook helped though it felt odd using one so large. Plus the sitting around at grandma's house made for excellent crafting time. I made a few modifications, namely doing another repeat of the pattern to make the shawl longer. I also did not do the edging as the pattern indicated, instead opting to keep the scalloped edge of the shells as the last part. Afterwards, it received the spa treatment of a gentle wash and then a light blocking. I don't much care for blocking acrylic but it opens up the shells and spacings so nicely.

assembly in progress

Next up, yes, finally the husband cube, and finally a cube~! I had fun with this...mostly. I used iron-on interfacing to give the rather floppy jobelan some stiffness and to close up the holes in the fabric weave so stuffing wouldn't leak out. Also it helped with this very fray-some fabric! I outlined each of the glyphs in DMC 310 and then went insane and joined them together with gold metallic floss because I enjoy suffering, apparently. I wanted to do it this way to mimic the logo of the series which is in black and gold. I then braided a small loop of black and gold crochet thread which must (must!) have something wrong with it as it is incredibly fragile. I may at some point go back and make another, sturdier loop of something else but for now, I'm waiting to see if it's okay as-is.

assembly complete!

I rather like how it turned out, though it is much bigger than originally anticipated. I don't think he'll be taking it to work after all, so it is proudly displayed atop our media cabinet where most of our video game consoles live. As I was stitching it up, I had to laugh at myself. I was stitching it on the closed top of the sewing machine. Wouldn't that have made quick work of the cube!

what a crazy floss toss

For Christmas, my husband got me the remainder of the "old" floss colors of the DMC collection! I would be complete now if it weren't for those silly new colors. :) I greatly look forward to bobbinating these but I've run out of plastic storage containers. It's so hard to find them in colors other than pink, blue, purple, and clear. There used to be a whole bunch of options available! Even eBay has failed me. I'd really love a yellow one but alas, I'll probably just wind up with another clear one.

a year of giveaways!

Lastly, I've been toying around with this idea for a while. I have a small pile of patterns I've picked up in various thrift stores so I wanted to try a Year of Giveaways! Each GG post in 2019 I will have one chart up for grabs, and I will announce the winner in my random end of/beginning of the month post. Since these are all thrifted designs, some might have some markings on them. I will make note of the ones that do in their individual posts. Here is the first chart!

PFC #14

This is an older Homespun Elegance stitch from the Plain & Fancy Collection called "Snowmen - Tall & Small". This a totally clean (was it ever stitched?) chart. They're really cute and I love the idea of having a twig broom embellishment! No fancy extras will be included in this giveaway to cut down on shipping costs so you will have to source your own twig haha. I will ship the pattern worldwide though!

Gifted Gorgeousness Giveaway Guidelines

Be a ~~minion~~ follower (upper right corner of my blog)! Feedly, bloglovin', etc. do not count as there is no way to show it! I am sorry; blame blogger for this one.
Comment and tell me you would like to be included in the drawing!
Open worldwide!
No winning twice in a row (example: the winner of March's drawing would not be eligible for April's).
Closing date: January 29th, 2019 23:59 CST.

Thanks for reading this edition of Ishkabibble Babble and good luck to anyone entering! \:D/

what to do after it snows?

2018 Recap: I Beat My Own Record!

Aloha, faithful blogger minions! Here it is, the last post of 2018 and it might be a bit long! I've once again copied my list of finishes and I am so (overly) excited to see that I surpassed my previous record of 18 finishes with a grand total of 27 for this year, YAY!

2018

January - Birdhouse - 18-count white Aida, kit by Design Works Crafts
February - Tiny Parlor Cat - knit, freebie pattern found here (ravelry)
February - FFIII Logo - white hardanger, pattern by me
February - Gingham Bird - 14-count white Aida, freebie gift in Enjoy Cross Stitch, Christmas 2012
March - Floral Bouquet - 14-count perforated paper, kit by Mill Hill
April - American Flag - 14-count white perforated plastic, kit by ?
May - Fan Bookmark - crochet, freebie pattern found here (ravelry)
May - 4th of July - 14-count white Aida, freebie pattern found here
June - Nargacuga - 20-count light tan jobelan, pattern by me
June - Basic Socks - knit, freebie pattern found here (ravelry), modified to fit my feet
June - Fan Bookmark - crochet, freebie pattern found here (ravelry)
June - Star Stitch Washcloth - knit, freebie pattern found here (ravelry)
July - A Flowering Hat - crochet, freebie pattern found here (ravelry)
July - Serendipity - sewing, rewired and ready to run!
August - Chair Boots - crochet, pattern in Crochet World Omnibook, Fall 1981
August - A Flowering Hat #2 - crochet, freebie pattern found here (ravelry)
September - Vintage-Inspired Coasters - crochet, freebie pattern found here (ravelry)
September - Ghost Microkit - 14-count black perforated plastic, freebie pattern found here
October - Curtain Transformation - sewing, remaking single panel curtain into two lined panels
October - Tranquil Tea Wrap - crochet, freebie pattern found here (ravelry)
October - September Aster - 14-count ecru huck towel, freebie pattern found here
October - Cuore di Halloween - 14-count orange Aida, freebie pattern found here
November - Chair Boots, set #2 - crochet, pattern in Crochet World Omnibook, Fall 1981
November - Gingerbread House - 14-count perforated plastic, kit by NeedleMagic, Inc.
December - Ceadeus - 20-count light tan jobelan, pattern by me
December - Fan Bookmark - crochet, freebie pattern found here (ravelry)
December - Husband Cube - 20-count light tan jobelan assembly of six stitches, pattern by me

The Stitches

an eclectic ensemble

This was a pretty big year for stash-busting stitchy things. Dyeing fabric I already had, using up old beads and buttons, stitching little kits from giveaway wins or thrifted finds...

III and VIII

The biggest deal for the year was finishing Final Fantasy III and getting both it and FF VIII framed. While I wasn't happy with the framer, I am pleased to have all three stitches (including the previously framed VII) up on our wall.

fine artistry at its finest

I also finished the last of the sides for the Monster Hunter cube and turned it into, well, a cube! There will be more on this in January's Gifted Gorgeousness but for now, have a little teaser picture of my glorious 3-second sketches trying to work out placements. :D

missing Oct Nov Dec

Only managed one huck towel this year, but there's just three more to go! I keep playing around with other ideas for these. I wonder if they'll ever truly be finished or they will become one of those projects, where you just keep adding to them as whim presents itself. :)

The Knits

cat feet cloths

Knitting kind of had a low presence this year. But I did two things I've really been wanting to accomplish -- an amigurumi and socks! Yay! Too bad the socks took a zillion years of restarts but I eventually got a finished product that I can wear.

The Hooks

hook it all!

Crochet was everywhere this year with nine projects! I made a modification to some of the speaker cozies, whipped up some chair boots, a couple of these flowering hats, a shawl to match the one hat, several fan bookmarks (not shown), and a set of eight coasters. The shawl is my first ever and will also be included in the next GG post.

The Sewings

Serendipity!

Ooo, a new category this year! This was the year to fix up the sewing machine found waiting to be scrap metal. So exciting for me! I haven't really sewed anything new with her but I did hem a ton of curtains. I've had some heavy winter drapes for years, but they were puddle length and that Does Not Work with my cats. So I made them floor length. Much better! I think it was 8-10 panels I shortened.

an appropriate length

I also hemmed my kitchen curtains. This was a single, long, unlined panel with tabbed tops. It became two shorter, lined curtains with just a regular top. I also made some "tiebacks" with some of the leftover scraps and reused two buttons that were up on the original tabs. From more of the scraps, I also made a very small pillow stuffed with a little catnip from a destroyed kitty toy. Item-Stealing cat loves it! And has currently hidden it...??? I've checked under all the couches!

Random Blog Stats

Most Views: 191 views - A Heartfelt Hallowe'en Blog Hop
Most Comments: 28 comments (excluding my own replies on no-reply bloggers) - Easter Treasure Hunt ~ A Blog Hop!
Least Views: 54 views - September Smalls ~ The Return of the Microkit
Least Comments: 10 comments - September Smalls ~ The Return of the Microkit

All of the blog hops are my most viewed and commented on posts! An odd one out was November's GG post which had almost double what other GG posts had. It still wasn't enough to topple the Hallowe'en Blog Hop though! Serendipity, Redone was also a fairly popular post which makes me really happy. That was an amazing project for me!

This year as a whole was down from previous years. Blogger has gone through some changes (not necessarily good ones) and had some issues. Instagram and Facebook seem to be taking a lot of traffic away from here. I'm not going anywhere, yet. I very much dislike what FB has become and am considering deleting mine altogether; I rarely post on it anyway. Instagram is owned by FB so I have no desire to even start an account there.

2019 Goals/Plans

I wound up not participating in the 2018 Ravellenics, probably because of those dang socks haha. Kind of a bummer but there will be others where I can try again!

As far as SALs, I'll be joining Gifted Gorgeousness again (this is 2018's linkup). It seems like the only SAL on the planet I feel like I can actually contribute to seeing that I love making gifts and making use of items gifted! And possibly making liberal use of shoehorns (cough). I will be dropping the Smalls SAL. I felt too pigeonholed for some odd reason. Maybe there wasn't enough shoehorning power available. Due to Sheer Stubbornness™, I don't like jumping in and out of SALs as a project presents itself nor forcing myself to work on a project just to have something to fit in. It makes me feel like I'm neglecting things which is not the point of any SAL! So, a great idea for a lot of stitchers; it just didn't fit in with my rather random crafting style.

I would like to start the next Final Fantasy stitch. I feel like I must have something nerdy going on or my life is incomplete! As for which one... I'm still not sure. There's one I'd really love to do, but the logo will be difficult, both to make into a pattern and actually stitch. There's a "small" one I'm considering as well which would have another one done rather quickly (in terms of my pokey stitching :D). I'd also like to have at least one more of the Flower-of-the-Month huck towels done.

For the other crafts, I would like to knit my first sweater. No particular sweater or cardigan in mind; it could have long sleeves, short sleeves, tunics, fair isle, anything will work as long as it goes on the upper body and isn't a shawl or scarf. I would like to knit another Tiny Parlor Cat; possibly a little Peanut for my husband's desk herd. I'd love to make use of the sewing machine to make actual clothes! I'm not sure how much "from scratch" items I'll wind up making.

Did you read all that? :) Thank you for sticking with me! Even if I stitch a lot of weird things, I draw encouragement and inspiration from other bloggers. Here's to 2019 and 30(?!) finishes!