Things in Jars

One of the craft ideas I have been bashing around is to crochet miscellaneous things (like small octopi, weird aliens, whatever...) and then put them in jars with mock-scientific labels. As ideas go, it is one. I googled the idea ("amigurumi in jar") to see what's out there... and holy cow, the internet is weird.

Some things are really cute, like this Spider in a Jar from 1400 Amigurumi Patterns:

(Ngaw look at his widdle eyes and legs ^_^ )

Other things are really cool, like this baby alien (and others) from These Loving Hands

and the eyeballs in a jar:

Or just really awesome, like these mushrooms by SquidHead (she also has lots of octopus amigurumi ^_^ this makes me happy)

But what caused me to double-take was this, by Lil' Spider Baby:

Yep. It's a foetus in a jar. Why this disturbed me, whereas the eyeballs or the needle-felted teddy-bear foetuses in one of my earlier posts didn't, I have no idea. Maybe we should ask Freud or my mother ^_^

Gadzooks! A post!! a.k.a Musings on amigurumi basics and why reading instructions is important

A NOTE BEFORE I BEGIN: My posts will henceforth be written offline and then dragged around on a flash drive until I get somewhere with internet. Hence the date on this and hopefully future posts. I have not lost my mind (that I'm aware of), despite what the contradiction between the written date and the posting date may imply. That is all. As you were, gentlemen.

As I'm sitting here writing this (overly delayed) post, I am mentally facepalming so hard my brain might haemmorhage. If you'd care to listen to my misadventure in the form of a melodramatic rant, read on :) If not, skip to the TLDR (Too Long Didn't Read, for those who don't know) at the end ;)

I've been crocheting for around a year now, after learning how to do so from a series of magazines called The Art of Crochet, which I bought whenever I happened to wander into a CNA. I don't wander into CNA's terribly often, so I have the magazines more or less in pairs with a ten to twelve issue gap between each pair ;) Regardless, I learnt how to do the basic crochet stitches, and learnt that most patterns are simply modifications of those stitches. Simple, right? And really, since all I really want to make is amigurumi, I should be fine, right? So this intrepid little crafter promptly bought all the yarn she could lay her grubby hands on, and started making things from a friend's copy of Creepy Cute Crochet.

And they were hideous. Tiny malformed abbherations which looked oddly ribbed and stretched and god knows what else. I went onto the internet (yay for the repository of all knowledge!! \o/) and the all-knowing internet told me that all I really needed to do was turn my crochet work inside-out before stuffing. Ta-da, no more ribs! Yay, mystery solved, shove the tiny abbherations into the corner, my world is good once more.

Or is it? Ever in the back of my mind was the niggling doubt about the tiny abbherations... their tiny bodies all weirdly elongated... in a night-sweat of being haunted by my past failure (what? crocheting is serious business, yo) I looked up some product reviews of Creepy Cute Crochet, and some others complained of the same problem. So it's not just me... I'm not the problem, right? RIGHT??? And in a fit of denial I have not made anything from someone else's pattern since. I made up the pattern for my Bunnies based loosely off what I have seen in other patterns, and a vague understanding of the effects of increasing and decreasing on the shape of an amigurumi. For the most part, I think I did pretty well. But my stitches still didn't look as tight or neat as some others, and the tiny gaps left by decreases bugged me. I finally sucked up my pride today, and happened upon Planet June (who has recently come to Cape Town! Where I live!! How cool?? *dies*) and her lovely tutorials.

MIND. BLOWN.

Because I had learnt to crochet normally, for non-amigurumi purposes, I had been taught to crochet in the back loop only (BLO). Which is dandy when you're doing someting like double crochet (UK treble crochet) back and forth, makes a pretty pattern, world is shiny. But as a method for amigurumi, it sucks quite a lot. Your stitches are immediately longer and more open than they would be if you crocheted under BOTH loops. Which makes sense. Also, it makes your invisible decreases, you know, invisible. *claws at face a little*

Which brings me to the point of my long and melodramatic rant... I may have to rework all my patterns, because the shaping is entirely different depending on how you stitch. I do know that how you do it is a matter of personal style, but I feel that the methods suggested by June are far superior to what I've been doing. Wibble. But at least I have learnt something new, and hopefully my amigurumi would be better for it. I wonder if maybe I should try my hand at Creepy Cute Crochet again, and see if my results are better this time round?

Aside from all that, I have been working on some very enjoyable projects and ideas. Now that I'm on holiday I will hopefully do more crafting. And more blogging! My lack of internet has been very frustrating, but I think by writing my blog posts and then just dragging them along on a flash drive until I get to somewhere with internet I will end up being more prolific. Rather than just ranting at myself in my mind like a crazy person ^_^

TLDR:
- Read Planet June's tutorials. Your life will be better for it.
- I will have to remake my old patterns and am being a big girls' blouse about it.
- Crochet patterns often assume you know things that you don't. Always make sure what they expect of you before whining about your amigurumi looking mangled.
- I hope to blog more by writing my posts as they occur to me, and then posting them when I can.

Mother's Day Cupcakes

I am a very bad blogger... I feel somewhat guilty for not posting for so long. In my defense, however, it is exam time, so I'm at home (internet-less) knee-deep in textbooks. However, I finally have some pictures of the cupcakes I baked for Boyfriend's mom for Mother's Day (I may have mentioned them). The recipe is from one of my innumerable recipe books (I will check the exact book and exact recipe when I get home from the internet cafe, and edit this post as soon as I know). Suffice to say that the cake bit has fresh raspberries and lemon zest in, and the icing is made from vegan cream cheese and raspberry jam. They were sweet and tart and amazing. And thanks to my friend Claire at Claire Gritten Photography, they look just as good in photographs! :)

As an apology for lack of recent posts, here, have some pictures and be happy!

omnomnom cupcake.

EDIT: they are in fact Sweetheart Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes, from The Everything Vegan Cookbook by Jolinda Hackett. :)

HorrorBunny Progress

I feel somewhat bad about only posting again now, but I have been run off my feet the past little while, with a really busy test week behind me. I took this weekend off, and spent most of Saturday baking and finishing off Cthubunny and Wererabbit :D Why yes, I am finally telling you what the hell I've been working on. I also baked a banana loaf and some cupcakes for Mother's Day, which was on Sunday. My amazing friend Claire has taken pictures of all the crafts and baking, so the moment I motivate my lazy self to go get the pictures from her, you can admire the fruits of my labours.

In addition to the two HorrorBunnies (and one other bunny) I have now finished, I am stitching together a third addition to the motley HorrorBunny group, FrankenBunny :) I am especially excited about him. Hopefully Claire and I can go take some fun shots of the bunnies when they're finished.

Tattered Rags Creepy Ragdolls

Posting about creepy ragdolls put me in mind of a pic I'd once found whilst browsing for inspiration. My amazing internet-sleuthing skillz (read: Google-searched "creepy rag doll") led me to this blog. Jodi Cain is awesomely talented and makes epic rag dolls of win. As a fan of things creepy, gothy or macabre (and possibly cute), her dolls make me too happy for words. You should check it out.

Additionally, I would like to mention that browsing pics of creepy rag dolls earns you some pretty strange looks in a varsity computer lab. Though the looks aren't quite as strange as the once I get for gurgling like a retarded seal when Google image-searching amigurumi... I don't do that any more (Google amigurumi from campus, not gurgle like an idiot). But, I mean, LOOK HOW CUTE IT IS *dies*

Song of the Morning and progress reports

So the song of the morning is thankfully once again a good one: A Desolation Song, by Agalloch.

In terms of crafting, progress is being made on the collection of amigurumi I will henceforth call the Horror Bunnies :D I'm having way too much fun making them. However, all good things must, come to an end... or at least be put on hold until my TEST WEEK FROM HELL (TM) is over *sobs*. However, I hope to at least finish the three I have been working on before the week is out, since I doubt my short attention span will keep me entirely plastered to my books. Not least since with 2 of the three I need only do the finishing touches.

The finishing touches have made me consider the merits of using different materials for eyes... which would be best: safety eyes, beads, buttons or felt circles? I have a fairly limited range of safety eyes available to me at nearby habby stores, so those are mostly out, whereas buttons and felt come in a million different colours and shapes. The downside of felt is that I then have to try to cut the circles out to be the same size and, you know, circular. I have surprising amounts of difficulty with this. Hmmm... finishing touches may be put on hold until I successfully source buttons in the colours that I need. I suspect the ragdoll-look of buttons may actually suit the Horror Bunnies, but you guys can judge for yourselves when I finish them and post pics.

Recipe: Baba Ghanoush

This garlic-y aubergine dish is one of my personal favourites, and I make it regularly. It makes an amazing dip or spread, and I often use it on veggie patties. It can also be served as part of a mezze platter with olives, pita, fresh veg, hummus etc. Here's the Wikipedia entry for it, for those of you who are interested in the background of their food :)

Ingredients
4 tbsp tahini (mine is store-bought, but it is possible to make your own, something I wish to try someday)
1 large aubergine (or two smallish ones)
4 cloves of garlic, mashed
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
4 tbsp lemon juice, more to taste
dash of olive oil
salt and pepper

Method
1. Prick aubergine skin all over with a fork. Place in oven, pre-heated to 220 degrees Celsius, and roast for about 40 minutes, until the aubergine is soft.
2. Allow the aubergine to cool. Once it's cool, cut it open and remove the pulp, discarding the skin. VARIATION: once out of pure laziness, i just cut the aubergine into chunks into my food processor, skin and all. It yields a more stodgy, less fluffy result, but since I mostly use it in wraps or as a topping, I decided I preferred it that way).
3. Place the pulp in a food processor with the the ingredients and process until smooth.
4. Check for seasoning, adding more lemon juice or tahini as required (I've found some variation in different brands of tahini and not all lemons are equally sour).

Voila! It really is very easy. I prefer it when it's still slightly warm, but other people feel it's best served after a few hours of refrigeration.

Finished a project (finally)

The Cthulhu backpack I made for my friend Ian is finally complete! Unfortunately I didn't take a picture (st00pid me) but Ian swears to send some of him and Cthulhu in action :D

That sounds a bit dodgier than it is... a bit of backstory may be required...

My friend Ian and I started running together a few years back, and due to him being more dedicated than I, he has gone from strength to strength with it, and has now been running some marathons. He asked me (quite a while ago) to manufacture a Cthulhu for him, which he can wear on his back with the Cthulhu peering over his shoulder when he runs, particularly runs he just does for fun.

Making the Cthulhu was quite a challenge for me, as big plushies are not really my forte. The harnass was tricky too, but hopefully it will hold *fingers crossed*. If it doesn't, I will just have to make a new plan :)

Hopefully I will have pictures soon!

Song of the Morning

Miraculously, the song stuck in my head this morning is ACTUALLY polyrhythmic and something I enjoy :D

Backbone by Gojira

Wow that's a lot of public holidays

This long weekend has primarily been spent in bed crocheting, or sewing the Cthulhu plushie for my friend. The crochet has mostly been me working on an original pattern for little bunny amigurumi :D (Easter and the accompanying sugar rush may have gone to my head...). I'm really very excited about the pattern, because I have literally a squillion ideas for what kind of themed bunnies I want to make with it ^_^ Hopefully pictures will be posted soon...

But before I give too much away, I'll tell you about the other thing I'm very excited about. A friend of mine told me about a restaurant in Muizenberg called Closer, which I would very very much like to go to. There aren't a lot of designated vegan (or even vegetarian) restaurants in South Africa that I'm aware of, so hearing of a good one is very exciting! Though, it occurs to me that I should probably do more research into the matter before making such sweeping statements -_-".

But... SO MUCH TO BE EXCITED ABOUT :D *bounces around*

P.S. I've had a LOT of sugar

Killer rabbits and other Easter joy

OMIGOD WANT!! http://bit.ly/UKMCd Get me one for Easter, please? I should probably make something inspired by this...

Star Wars amigurumi

Browsing the net (I'm really not getting any work done) I found this link to Star Wars amigurumi! How cool? And the google image search for amigurumi is dangerous... my brain nearly imploded from the cute...

Song of the Morning and work avoidance behaviour

Song of the morning: Body Crumbles by Dry Cell from the Queen of the Damned OST.

Other than that, I spent the afternoon yesterday studiously avoiding my assignment (due for this afternoon... I have yet to start) in favour of working on a Cthulhu plushie for a friend of mine. Good to see I have my priorities straight :D

Song of the Morning etc

So this morning was a combination of misc songs from Dr Horrible's Singalong Blog. Which is not a bad start to the morning at all :)

Furthermore, I managed to make some progress on the Totoro amigurimi, but my attention span was hijacked by inspiration for some embroidery and felt badges, and the fairly pressing fact that a friend of mine will be down from overseas soon, and I owe him a Cthulhu plushie which I have yet to start *sigh*. Fortunately there's a long weekend coming up, so I have at least SOME opportunity to craft, in between hunting for Easter eggs! ^_^

As a very joyous aside, I found some plastic Easter eggs at some of my local stores (one set of which are shaped like DINOSAUR HEADS- how cool?) filled with vegan-friendly sweets. This makes me a very happy camper.

Teddy Bear Natural History

Whilst browsing the internet like it's my job today, I found some pics of needle-felted bear skulls. Intrigued, I followed the link to this website.

I really am absolutely amazed. Stephanie Metz is a sculptor, and her needle-felting work is both innovative and thought-provoking. No, really. My two personal favourites are the Teddy Bear Natural History and Overbred Animals collections. Both of these collections are commentaries on bioengineering (particularly of animals for human use) and human conceit. This isn't limited to just food animals, but pets as well.The jarring imagery she uses definitely takes a very harsh look at human-centric behaviour and the food industry.

I find this particularly amazing because I am both a genetics student and a crafter, and aside from the quality of her work, I love the fact that she has used a medium I generally associate with purely frivolous crafts to get her opinion across.

I'm not really being excessively eloquent here. Though if you follow the links her work speaks for itself, and I think that the broad scope of the commentary means that it's relevant to everyone, not just veg*ns.

DISCLAIMER: Rights to the above images belong to Stephanie Meitz, and are reproduced here without permission, but with respect.

PS: w00t for teddy-bear skulls! (sorry, it had to be said)

Song of the morning

This morning is a combination of "Hell to the No" from the Glee soundtrack (judge me not) and a friend of mine's re-imagining of "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot: "I like goth chicks and I cannot lie..." etc. If I can gain said friend's permission, I'll post the lyrics as he sees them. I infinitely prefer his version.

I also feel the need to point out that the songs I wake up with are in no way representative of my actual music taste... I think it's mostly a case of my groggy brain being unable to entertain me with anything more than "Happy Birthday to You" or "Twinkle Twinkle" (two common sinners) so very bright and early in the morning.

Promises, promises...

In an attempt to remind myself of what I want to post, and out of an inability to leave my new toy alone, I have compiled a brief list of projects I am working on and favourite recipes that I wish to share.

Recipes

• Baba ganoush
• Hummus
• Chickpea patties

Crafts

• Black steampunk gloves
• Totoro amigurumi (made from the free pattern designed by Heavens_Hellcat)
• Cthulhu amigurumi
• Zombie-Killer t-shirt dress
• Shoulder Cthulhu (don't ask... all will be explained and revealed).

As you can see, I suffer from a short attention span, so things tend to happen at once.

This list reminds me of the fact that I need to make a disclaimer: I will only be posting patterns or recipes which I created (should I feel inclined to do so); however, I will be posting pictures of the results of recipes or patterns designed by other people, and credit them. Obviously.

Vegan Zombie

I lol'd at this. :) Thanks Gabs!

Song of the Morning

This will hopefully become a standard thing, as every morning I wake up with a song in my head.

The Dickies- Banana Splits

First Post (TM): What the heck is this blog?

As my highly unoriginal, but very accurate, post title may have indicated, I felt that this post should seek to define what I'm hoping to achieve with this blog, and to introduce myself. The stiff and formal tone of this post may also indicate that I'm not entirely sure how to go about it... *deep breath*

Essentially, I'm a slightly crafts-obsesses student, with a passion for cooking. I'm hoping to show off the things I make, get inspiration and share my recipes (as well as some of my abysmal cooking failures...).

My passion for cooking arose more as a personal challenge and general pig-headedness on my part... I want to make food that is both inexpensive and delicious but also fits in with my requirements of any given food. Well, I'm not sure how to present this to you without my readership (current number= 0) going "ew" and running away, never to look at my blog again. I may as well come out and say it... vegan.

Phew. That was hard :) Now, please don't stop reading. I have no intention to turn my lovely future blog preachy or dull, but instead fill it with noms that people of all culinary persuasions would happily eat. I also hope to suggest variations on my recipes for people who eat a wider range of food groups than I do :D

So that's me and the blog, but who is it aimed at?
-Crafters
-Anyone with food allergies, vegans, vegetarians, omnivores, people keeping kosher...
-People who cook for them
-People who eat
-Poor students
-People who read my blog because they love me (Hi Mom!)

I'm also trying to get a grip on the controls for Blogger, and hopefully soon my post will be pretty too :D

Yours in noms
Mekhetling