I Know Why the Caged Bird Bites

I'll get back to the title in a moment. I'm going to start with a different bird.




Mom finished crocheting this a couple of days ago. This is Kate Alvis's  Funky Little Owl Potholder, made with dishcloth cotton.






Then she got on a roll and started looking online for more crochet patterns. This time she found Doni Speigle's Flower Coaster pattern. I think she's planning to make more. They may be gifts.






I lent Mom some dishcloth cotton for for the flowers. She picked some out when I went to storage to get more yarn for the Epic Adult Surprise Jacket. The different yarns looked so pretty together that I had to take a picture.






The Epic Adult Surprise Jacket is coming along nicely. I'm glad I found these colors. There's a lot of blue and green, and a big red and orange section. I think these pinks and purples will balance those colors out.






This jacket is going to look a little crazy, but I think I can pull it off.






I'm ending with something sad. I don't think I've ever mentioned Dewi, the family parakeet, on this blog. Our family had her for 11 years. Last Saturday she quit eating. By Sunday morning, she was gone. The video above was filmed just four days earlier.

We knew she had been having some problems. We took her to a bird expert at Tomlinson's back in May after she started pulling out the feathers under her wings. He contributed the itchiness to old age, and he said she was thin. We knew her time was short, but we didn't think she'd be gone so soon.

I've debated whether the title I used for this entry is mean. Since we found the other bird, which Katie and Aaron have named Pico, I've wanted to write about Dewi. This was the title I had in my head.

We wanted a male bird, since we've always read that male parakeets are friendlier and more likely to talk. We've had several parakeets over the years, and all but Dewi have been male. Dewi surprised us.

Dewi was always angry and easily frightened. It was a long time before she showed any interest in interacting with us or even leaving her cage. And she was a biter.  These are traits I've always attributed to her sex.

After we had Pico in the house, I thought maybe we had been too hard on Dewi. Pico is sweet and didn't seem afraid of us, very different than Dewi. Maybe it wasn't fair of us to expect Dewi to conform to a role created by humans. The qualities that make a good pet bird aren't the qualities that make a good mama bird. Perhaps she was programmed to be more concerned with protecting her "nest" than sitting on our fingers.

I started to wonder what other birds would have thought of Dewi. What would have her role been if she lived with a flock of birds?

I had planned to expound on this further before we lost her. Now that's she gone, I can see that we accepted her, even if she wasn't what we were expecting, and in return she accepted us. Over time she began to come out of cage and sit on our shoulders while she picked at our shirts and our hair. She would get on our plates and try to eat our food, and we would let her. We were friends, and that's what mattered.

Twice More Without Feeling (and My Weekend at Shiloh's)

I feel like this sometimes.

About a week and a half ago, I House/Dog/Lizard sat for Aaron's family. You've met Spiny before. This is Shiloh. She spent most of Friday and a good portion of the rest of the weekend just like this, looking out the window, presumably waiting for her family to come home.

Shiloh is a good little dog. She rarely barks, she won't chew on your shoes and she's housebroken. As long as she stays away from other dogs, she's very well behaved. Shiloh just wants to be loved. She greets just about everyone that comes into the house, hoping that they will pet her. Once she establishes that someone is a friend, she follows them all over the house.

Shiloh doesn't like to be alone for long periods of time, especially at night. So that's why I spent the night there. I felt bad because she stayed up late with me the first night. I didn't realize that she wouldn't go sleep in her doggy bed until I went to the bedroom with her. In fact, she wouldn't even walk into the bedroom unless I walked in first, (Fortunately, she napped on the couch while I was in the living room, so she got some sleep in.)




By the second day, she was spending less time looking through the window. But she really perked up when Katie and Aaron dropped by.




Katie knew where Shiloh's clothes were, so we played dress up. There are three different knit and crochet items in this picture. Mom made the light blue dog sweater that Shiloh is wearing. She engineered it herself based on a store-bought sweater Shiloh already had. Later, Mom told me that she saw a bunch of knitting patterns online for basically the same sweater. She reinvented the wheel with this one. I'm still impressed.

In the shoe box, there's a Shiloh-sized purple scarf that Aaron's Mom knit. And the blue thing just outside of the box is a little neckerchief that Katie crocheted.




Shiloh makes me want to get a dog when I move to my next apartment. I could benefit from daily walks and waking up to a happy face and wagging tail. I've never been a dog person. When I was little I was terrified of them. I'm much better about dogs now that I'm older. Still, I don't know how I'd handle living with one. I'd need a dog as sweet and well behaved as Shiloh, and I suspect dogs like her are hard to find. 

Having fun with Shiloh was a nice distraction from all my pain problems. My procedure a couple of weeks ago went pretty well. The good news is that I'm confident that the Supraorbital Nerve is the problem. There was a very distinct heavy feeling where there is normally tingly pain.

The bad news is that it didn't last. Some tingling was back by the time I was in the car to go home. Two days later, it was back to normal, if not worse. Now it seems like my supraorbital nerve is back to its usual tingly state.

I finally had my follow up visit last week. We're doing this whole thing two more times, in hopes that the steroid will build up in the nerve. My next procedure is tomorrow. I'm up way too late blogging about this. It's hard to sleep, wondering how much relief I'll get and how long it will last. And I can't wait for more trigger point injections. Those worked really well on my back and shoulder for about a week and a half.

Through all this, I'll be staring out the window like Shiloh, waiting for a permanent solution.

At least I've met my deductible.

How to Make a Monster Cake

Katie's birthday was on March 6. I knew I didn't have much to spend on gifts, so a few weeks before her birthday I offered to make the cake. I wanted to do something creative, not too difficult, and made with a cake mix. This is what I came up with:


It's Monster Cake with a side of Om Nom Cupcakes.



It took me a while to decide what to do. I considered making this Rainbow Cake after hearing about it at a party, but I decided six layers were too many. I also considered a different Rainbow Cake, but I didn't like the idea of a cake made from cake mix and Sprite. (Later on I read the directions more carefully and found out that it should work with regular cake batter. But by then I was already sold on monster cake.)

While I was brainstorming, Mom showed me a Taste of Home magazine that featured monster cupcakes for Halloween. These looked too difficult for me to make, but they inspired me to make this cake.


I needed a cupcake for the eyes, and I was going to have a lot of extra batter, so I made a "side" of cupcakes. I think the "Om Nom" on top complemented the monster.

Katie had suggested a rainbow chip cake a while back, so that's what Mom bought, along with white icing that came with sprinkles. (The icing had a catchier name than "White Icing with Sprinkles" but I can't remember it.) Mom bought it before I decided what my cake would look like. Luckily, it worked.


I think I used a nine inch round cake pan. It may have been eight inches. Whatever it was, I learned the importance of flouring the pan after you grease it. We ended up with some crumbly spots around the edge.

I used cupcake papers for the cupcakes, so I didn't have to worry about greasing the cupcake pan.


(Putting the candles in the mouth was Mom's idea. I wanted to put them in two of the cupcakes.)
I mixed the batter according to the directions on the side of the box, filled the round pan and poured what was left into the cupcake papers. I ended up with really big cupcakes, so it may be possible to get seven cupcakes out of the rest of the batter.

Once everything was baked, out of the pan and cooled, I started assembling the cake. I cut one of the cupcakes into three rounds, and iced each one with the white icing. These would be the eyes.

Then I mixed yellow and green food coloring into the remaining icing. I used the ratio recommended on the side of the box for "lime." If I were to do it over, I would have made the icing darker.

I iced the cake with the green icing and placed the three cupcake rounds along the top of the cake for the eyes. The rest of the icing went on the five other cupcakes.


I made a trip to Central Market while the cake cooled to get cake decorations and some gifts (including chocolate covered orange peels and chocolate covered gummy bears.) I wanted to get some prepackaged icing already in the tube to add the details, but the options at Central Market were pretty expensive. I ended up getting some embellishments from the bulk candy section instead.


I bought Strawberry Licorice Pinwheels for the mouth and the "Om Nom" on the cupcakes. I unwound the pinwheels. There was a nice groove down the middle of the licorice, so cut them in half lengthwise. I cut the licorice into pieces for the mouth and teeth. The monster ended up with such a big mouth because it was easier to go with the curve of the licorice rather than trying to reshape it.

By the time I got to the cupcakes, I was tired from cutting the licorice lengthwise. Stirring the food coloring into the icing and cutting the licorice were the two parts of the process that hurt my shoulder and back the most. So the pieces I cut for the N and M's were fatter. I used the swirly middle of the pinwheels for the O's.

The pupils in the eyes were those Gummy Raspberry and Blackberry Candies with candy "seeds" on the outside. I picked out three blackberries and put one in the center of each eye.

Finally, I spread the sprinkles on the three remaining cupcakes. My creation was complete.

(Yes, they have matching shirts.)
Katie liked the cake. She was surprised, especially since she had forgotten that I volunteered to make the cake in the first place. I'm pretty proud of myself. There are lots of cake ideas on the Internet, but I came up with an original idea. And now it's on the Internet for other people to use.

As usual, there are more pictures of the cake and the party on Flickr.

Parting Shot: Other People's Projects (OPP)
Katie and Aaron just finished sewing their own zafus this week, with some help from Mom. They wanted to make their own to sit on in their martial arts classes. Of course, I had to take a picture of the finished products.

Maybe I should save this until Halloween...

Back in December my aunt and uncle came to visit, and as they often do, they brought along some of my late grandparents' things. Among many photographs, vintage costume jewelry and a few newspaper clippings, we found this:


When I saw this doll, I knew I'd have to blog about. And not just because it's crocheted.

The doll looks pretty normal here, although it is very seventies. But if you unfold the blanket, things start to get weird.


That's right. The baby's body is attached to the blanket. It's like there was a nuclear explosion while the baby was lying on the blanket and it fused to the baby's body. Or a regular baby doll got left in a hot car and melted.


The head is attached to the blanket at the base of the "skull," and the arms and legs are attached at the "shoulders" and "hip joints" in a similar fashion. The hands are made of the same hard plastic as the face, complete with a baby bottle permanently fused to the baby's right hand. However, the feet are crocheted, and they seem to have been folded over and sewn to make it look like someone bound the poor baby's feet. And if you look closely you can see the line between the body and the blanket. It looks like the creator crocheted a small pillow, then started crocheting around the edges of it to make the blanket.


The story is that one of my grandmother's coworkers crocheted and sold a bunch of these dolls to people in the office. My grandmother bought a couple for her grandchildren. I didn't get one of these dolls, so we suspect this all happened before I was born.

The babies scared the daylights out of my two older cousins. I don't know if it was the melted body that scared them, or if they just thought the baby doll face was creepy. I'm not sure if the babies went back to my grandmother or just got put away for awhile, but they got rid of them.

Or maybe this is what scared them:



AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!


If I haven't scared you off, you can get a closer look at what's behind the face here. Basically, it's a ball of Poly-Fil stuffing in the foot of some old pantyhose with some more stuffing behind it to round out the back of the head.

I didn't know that stuffing, pantyhose and a piece of plastic could be so scary.

I revisited the Creepy Baby after Mom told me she found a pattern for the same type of doll online. Although it is the same concept, the Puppet Dolly in a Blanket is not scary at all. I think it's because the head isn't a plastic baby doll head, so the face looks like it's the same "species" as the rest of the body. The face can't be pulled most of the way off. Also, the blanket is a different color than the baby's clothes, so the baby's body doesn't look like it's melting. And it's a puppet, which works really well with the attached blanket.

In other words, good job Judith.

I'll leave you with this US Postal Service ad that seems to embody the same kind of creepiness as our Creepy Baby.



(Is it just me, or is the idea of "scary clowns" a fairly new one. I imagine coulrophobia has existed as long as clowns have, but in recent years it seems like the general public tends to find clowns creepy. I still like clowns. As long as their faces don't come off.)

Friday Bits and Pieces - a list

1. I'm approaching the halfway point on the Tapestry Cowl. However, it hasn't seen much action recently because...


2. I've been swatching my KnitPicks yarn for Decimal. The swatches above are, from left to right,CotLin, Merino Style and Shine Sport. I haven't broken into the Gloss yet. I don't have official measurements, but it doesn't look like I won't make gauge with the Merino Style. The CotLin may be hard to make gauge. Right now I'm using a US Size 1 with the CotLin, and it just doesn't feel good. Shine Sport seems more promising.

3. I have a new screen on my bedroom window, and there hasn't been any flies since last week.


4. After nearly eight years, I decided it was time to get the bunny some new stuff. Her water bottle has been leaking for years, and either her litter box is leaking, or she's hanging her butt over the side. So I put in an order to Bunny Bytes and it came in today. The litter box was bigger than I expected, but I think she needs it. I also got her a toy as a treat.


5. Bunny Foo-Foo is cute.

6. Tonight is my CPAP titration study, where they'll help me get fitted with my CPAP while I sleep. I'm excited because I'm looking forward to sleeping better. Still, I suspect it will be a long night.


7. Here's my parting shot - a little OPP (Other People's Projects.) This is Carrie, and apparently she is the Noro Queen. I loved her "fake isle" sweater. (Not to mention the Noro Clapotis she's holding.)

Scarf Circle Time

I hadn't been to Gauge in ages, so it was especially nice to spend some time there on Saturday.

I came in because I got an e-mail about the store's scarf circle (aka the traveling scarves.) Everyone in the circle starts their own scarf. They knit five inches, put their knitting on a stitch holder (or scrap yarn) and pass it on to the next person. The next person uses their own yarn and knits five more inches. The scarves rotate around until everyone has knit 5 inches on each scarf, and you end up with a scarf that everyone has knit on.

The interesting thing is that I actually don't remember signing up for the scarf circle, but my name was on the list. I'm glad though, because I do want to participate.


I decided to use the yarn leftover from Katie's Beret for my scarf. (I used Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in Amy's Vintage Office.) Unfortunately, the leftover ball had been bouncing around my knitting bag since I finished the beret, leaving me with a tangled mess. I tried using the ball winder, but winding by hand ended up being a better choice.


Ta da!


I considered more complicated stitch patterns, but the seed stitch looked so good on Katie's beret, I decided it would look good on my scarf. I used US size 7 needles, the same ones I used on the beret. I left it at the store for the next person, along with a note with all the pertinent information. On the 27th, I'll be able to pick up the next scarf to work on.


I had some time to hang out while I was there and talk to the other knitters. This pile of mohair locks was in the background the entire time. No one knew why it was there, including the staff. I had to get a picture of the mystery mohair.

Are you ready for OPP? (Other People's Projects)


Alexandra had two Simple Yet Effective Shawls that I fell in love with. She is knitting this one out of Be Sweet Bamboo.


Here's the first one she knit out of Noro sock yarn. (I don't remember if it's Kuyeron Sock or Silk Garden Sock.)

I definitely want to make one of these shawls.


I'll leave you with the swirlies. Forgive me, but I forgot who was knitting this (if it was you, let me know), what pattern it was and what specific yarn it was. I do know this is a JoJoLand pattern, and I think it uses their yarn as well.

OPP - Katie's Crochet

Last Thursday we celebrated my sister's birthday, where I overwhelmed my sister with a lot of Crockpot Monkey Mix. (I also went overboard with the powdered sugar.)


(BTW - That's Mom's wheel in the back with some of her yarn draped over it.)

Things were a little backwards that night, because I forgot my knitting, but my sister pulled out an afghan that I haven't seen her work on in ages. It's time for OPP (Other People's Projects.)


It's a fairly simple chevron crochet afghan made with Caron Simply Soft Brites. I'm not quite sure where she got the stitch, but it's not a formal pattern. It's lengthwise, so the rows take a long time.

There's a closer look at the afghan here.


I'm not sure where Katie got the idea to crochet amigurumi-style mugs, but that's what she's been doing. She just goes for it without a pattern. This one has whipped cream on top. (There is another view of it here.)


Katie also got some "latte-colored" yarn so she can make more mugs.

There are more pictures from our birthday celebration here.

OPP: Sewing Edition

I seem to be "nesting."

I'm at Mom and Dad's tonight. The big Ravelry party at The Knitting Nest is tomorrow, and I want to get there early. Mom and Dad's house is much closer to the shop than mine, so I'm spending the night.

Earlier this evening I tagged along while my parents went to Home Depot to look at water heaters. I found myself drooling over detachable shower heads, plants and decorating ideas. These are the type of things I never think about. Add in all the Crockpotting, and it seems really weird.

I've also been thinking more about sewing. It seems like a good time for some sewing OPP (Other People's Projects.)


Mom made this in one evening. Apparently the fabric basket tutorial from the Pink Penguin has been making the rounds among sewing bloggers. Now I want to make one too.

I think I'm going to put the Pink Penguin on my Google Reader. And find that sewing machine I picked up on Freecycle ages ago.


I have a better yarn stash, but Mom has a better fabric stash. (Which makes sense, since she actually sews stuff and I just talk about it.) She has started a coin quilt similar to this one using stash fabric. I really like the fabric choices, because they go together without being too "matchy-matchy." It's very authentic.


Last Saturday, while I was assembling my spinning wheel, my sister's boyfriend was learning how to sew.

Aaron goes to Texas State, the same school I graduated from. (Except it was still Southwest Texas State when I went there.) He found this Bobcat patch, and decided that he wanted to put it on his Texas State sweatshirt. And he wanted to do it himself.


Mom showed Aaron how. Here is his practice sewing.


When it was time to actually sew on the patch, Mom found some glittery gold thread on hand that matched the patch.


Here's the finished product.

I did a little bit of sewing as a kid, but I have some trouble with little things like straight lines, even stitches and cutting along dotted lines. I don't consider myself proficient in sewing, but I know a little bit. Maybe I'll pull out that sewing machine.

Someday.

Roc Day Party

(Gigi has good taste. She likes wool and wrapping paper.)

I hadn't even heard of Roc Day until a couple of days ago. It's on January 7, right after the twelve days of Christmas. It's day the spinners got to work. (It's also known as Distaff Day.)


Emily (above) decided to have a party to celebrate Roc Day on Sunday. (Sunday wasn't technically Roc Day, but close enough.) She invited a bunch of knitters from Gauge. The party included a ham dinner, champagne, gelato and a White Elephant stash swap.


We spend the first hour or so knitting and talking. There's Ceci with Gigi, and Ana knitting a Bumble Bee Baby Surprise Jacket.

(As I mentioned yesterday, I ran out of yarn for Jules' Gloves during the party. Luckily I had a back up project.)

After we chowed down, it was time for the white elephant swap. The Baby Surprise Jacket showed up again.


Jane got an abandoned Baby Surprise Jacket. It was hilarious when she opened. Everyone oohed and ahhed over the yarn, then cracked up when the UFO came out of the bag.

Actually, Jane didn't end up with it in the end. Faye was the final person to steal it. It was some nice yarn, and came with the needles, so it was in demand. I think the person who started it was relieved to see it go.


Ana got ended up with a skein of my Kool Aid yarn from ages ago. I decided I didn't need all four skeins. I think she appreciated it.



I opened a nostepinne from Craftiness. It was promptly stolen from me.


I ended up with a notion kit from Ana. It included Ana's stitch markers, a holder for the stitch markers and a nifty gauge.

We haven't had OPP in a while. (Other People's Projects) You saw the Bumble Bee Baby Surprise above. Here's some of the other projects I saw at the party.


Robin wore her Klaralund sweater (Ravelry link) made from super soft Malabrigo Worsted in Dusty Olive.


Faye wore her hat. I think (but I'm not positive) that it's the Virtue hat (Ravelry link) knit in Malabrigo.


Finally, Emily still had her tree up, adorned with the rings we helped her knit in November.

I like Roc Day. I think we should celebrate it again next year.

You can see all my Roc Day pictures here.