Coffee Dye?

I found a webpage that talks about what to do with old coffee grounds. I found #17 interesting.

Dye fabric, paper or Easter eggs. Simply add used coffee grounds to warm water and let sit a bit to create a dye.

Do you think that would work on yarn?

Summer

Sunshine. Liquid heat
Waiting impatiently here
Still cold right now. Damn.

Gadget Gene?

I was Ravelling the other day and got involved in a discussion about picking projects. That got me thinking. My family has a well established gadget-geek gene. If it's a gadget, we all want it. Some of us resist better than others, but the wanting is still there.

I have realized that often I will pick projects because I think,"hey, that's a neat technique, I want to try it". So a new project leaps onto the needles. Now I am wondering if that is an off-shoot of the gadget gene, or a knitter's thing. Or is it possibly that knitter's all have gadget genes? Thoughts? Opinions?

Neverending Noragi

It's the knit that never ends

It goes on and on my friends

People started knitting it not knowing what it was

They'll keep on knitting it forever just because

It's the knit that never ends......

At least, that is what it feels like my friends

The knit that never ends....

Otherwise known as Noragi. Although I am debating changing it's name to Neverending Noragi

Thankfully, these are the last pieces. Just some seaming after these are done and then neckband stitches to pick up and knit.

Fingernail Friday

This picture pretty much descirbes me and my attention span.

And my fingernails can distract me too!

Stash Enhancement

Got some soft, squishable pretties in the mail today and I had to share!

It's from Dizzy Blonde studios and is beautiful stuff! I got one for me and one for the hubby. No bet on which is for who.

Tights that Stay Up

I wore a skirt to work today. Which made me ask myself a question. Why don't tights/pantyhose stay up??? I fell like I spent all day hiding in a back room of the pharmacy pulling up the damn pantyhose.

How Not To Sew a Bag

Today I tried my hand at sewing up a bag/purse/tote-like object.

I started with a big pile of cheap fabric. I spent a whole $1.50/m for 3 meters of it.

Then I cut 4 rectangles and a long skinny strip for the handle.

Next I sewed it inside out leaving a gap at the bottom to turn it right side out. Then I sewed across the corners of the bottom to make a boxed bottom and then I turned it inside out. Or should I say right side out? Here is the box bottom.Yeah, there are a few problems. Right off the bat, I sewed it right side out. So when I turned it inside out, that was exactly what I did. I blame the fact that the wrong and right side of the fabric are not really obvious. Also, I put my 'sandwich' of fabric together wrong.

I should have sewed the lining and the outside separately and then sewn them together across the top. Or something. I'm thinking I might want to go dig up that half remembered tutorial I saw online. (ya think?)

Then, when I boxed the bottom, clearly I did a poor job of lining up the side seam. Will have to work on that too.

All in all, not a bad first attempt. It looks bag-like. It has a boxed bottom, albeit poorly done. I won't be bothered to attach the handle and finish the top though. I fully expected to learn when I started out on this project and am fulfilling that brief quite nicely. I am very glad I did not attach interfacing to this. I made enough mistakes without adding extra things to mess up.

I think I will continue to haunt the cheap fabric bins and get some different fabric for the lining. At least that way I will (hopefully) be able to tell right and wrong side out!

I think I'm going to go knit on Noragi. There at least I am on fairly firm footing.

Ciao

A Day at Work

Whoo wee! The first day after a long weekend is always insanely busy and today was no exception. The phone rang every 30 seconds for the first 4 hours. A colleague and I discovered that a doctor had faxed in the same prescription to both of our pharmacies on the same day and the patient filled them both. For Percocet. headdesk

A client came in and told us that his doctor called us yesterday and said it was okay to give him his (wait for it) Percocet 5 days earlier than the written prescription directed. And got pissed when they weren't ready. Umm, buddy? We were closed yesterday and I am absolutely positive there was no doctor in Ontario in their office. Never mind small-town Ontario. So, you can take the shovel and spread the bullshit on the field down the road where it might do some good.

Little old lady came in and couldn't figure out why her battery operated razor wasn't working anymore. We got her some new double A's and she was good to go. We even changed out the batteries for her.

Had another fellow waiting for his (you guessed it) Percocet and he felt the need to regale me with his knowledge of what medications you can give a bunny rabbit. Cause you know that means he isn't abusing the Perc's he picks up every week.

Had a veterinary office call to see if we could get a drug I've never heard of. Turns out it is something they don't use in humans anymore and the vet had never heard of it either. Apparently he had a consult with the University of Guelph about one of his clients and that was the recommended drug. Sadly the recommendation did not come with a suggestion as to where to get it.

All that is just what I remember in between running to the phone to take verbal scripts from doctor's offices, advising customers on "what's good for a cold" and counting out pills and, oh yeah, gobbling lunch and taking a pee break.

Tired. Going to bed.
Ciao

Turning an Old T-Shirt into a Bag or Tote

I overdid the knitting a couple of days ago, and my wrist is hurting. So I decided to do some sewing. I am far from an accomplished sewer, but I can do a straight seam. Which is all that is needed for this project. My local grocery store is going to start charging for plastic bags. Since I am a frugal person, I don't want to cough up $0.05 for a bag I know costs less than $0.02. I am also loathe to fork out $0.99 for their 'environmental bag'. It is cheaply made, falls apart easily (according to people I know that have bought them) and they are small. So you need to buy a bunch of them.


To make your own bags for free, all you have to do is the following:


1. Get a tshirt. It does not have to be big. The ones I used were a ladies medium and made a reasonable size bag.

Feel free to use one without a cat on it. In my house it is rather difficult to fine such a shirt.

2. Turn the shirt inside out and pin the bottom edge together.

3. Sew the bottom together. Remove pins.

Yes, that is a very old sewing machine. Call it my version of environmentalism. I use this one and it stays out of the landfill. Also, it is the only machine I have!

4. Cut the sleeves off. I did not cut through both sides of the sleeve at once after the first bag, the handle turned out a little thinner than I would have liked. I cut around the armhole through one thickness of fabric at a time after that. Worked out better.

5. Cut straight down beside the neckhole on both sides and then across to make a square opening. This I did through both thicknesses of fabric at once.
6. the bag is done!
7. Repeat as many times as you have t-shirts or patience. All 4 bags took me less than an hour.

(idea cribbed from Random Meanderings. Hi Bezzie!)
Happy cheap recycling!

Fingernail Friday-Easter Edition

Happt Easter everyone!

Til Someone Loses an Eye

I spoke to a client the other day at work who had injured themselves while cutting wood for the fireplace. Apparently, they were trying to cut more wood faster. So they used a chainsaw and instead of doing one log at a time, they put 2 logs on the sawhorse. One under the other.





Things were going well whle the first log was being sawn. Then the chainsaw broke through to the second log. And bounced up. Apparently, said chainsaw was in poor repair, as the brake didn't kick in. The person almost took half their face off. The 'cut' goes from right temple, across their eye, down the bridge of their nose and through their upper lip. 6 inches lower and they would have cut their throat open.





As it is, the cut is healing well, but the right eyelid doesn't open. The vision is there when they pry open their eye, but the eyelid just doesn't work. I suspect they cut the muscle that would open the eye. They have an appointment with an eye surgeon soon.




Morals of the story folks....don't try to hurry things up AND for the love of kitties wear face protection!

Woo Hoo! It's Happening!

Sleeves that is.

I finished the front and am now doing the sleeves! Part on, dudes!

Ciao

How Cats Spend their Days

Ever wonder what cats doto occupy themselves? Wonder no more!

Pagan playing with her ball-in-a-tube

Trial by Allen Wrench

Today the hubbunny and I put together the new bed. That was a job and a half. Remember the good old days when the stores did it for you? Yeah, I'm old. I certainly feel old right now. The contortions required to put this beast together are for circus performers. Not knitters and video game enthusiasts. But it looks really good.

I do want to know a couple of things, though. First off, why do these things always use an allen wrench? I have screwdrivers aplenty. I even have a ratcheting one that is easy on the wrist with multiple choices for the type of screw. I am quite sure that 95% of the world has a screwdriver. So what's with the horribly unergonomic allen wrench?

Secondly, why does this happen after every project I have to put together myself?

For the record, I know what 5 of those pieces are. I screwed in a board backwards and since it wasn't critical, we left it. But what are the rest for?????