hello pineapples

Why I suck at blogging

I am, unfortunately, an excellent example of one of my mom's sayings: "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". Oh sure, I take pictures and think of things to write about, but it all sits on my hard drive. One of these days, I'll actually figure out a way to balance my life and everything will be zen and I will get stuff done.

Until then, I attempt to blog sporadically. My reason for not blogging all that much?



my thesis. That sucker takes up a lot of my time/space/energy. I'm finally on track to getting it finished, but it has been a long slow process. I seriously cannot wait to have the final draft all bound up as a lovely hardcover thesis. Until that time, I keep trying to work on it and make time for everything else.

Having said this, I have been busy with my crafting. For example, a sock experiment:



The little guy made out of socks is Clem. The large, skinny orange cat is Alistair, who decided to check out my little photo shoot. The background is part of my attempt to be able to take better etsy photos. Fortunately, the cat is not in all the pics. The background was a another of my recent projects. I'm pretty happy with it, although I've yet to find a permanent home for it.

Anyway, 'tis late and I should be hitting the hay. Hopefully there will be more posts showing up here. I'm hoping to do some crafting while visiting California and getting pics,etc... posted online.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Monday, March 31, 2008 1 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, etsy

Live in Fear - Kill or be Killed: Sock Wars III

Oh yes! I have registered for Sock Wars III!

I hadn't heard of Sock Wars until my dad sent me a newspaper clipping about it. So when I saw that Sock Wars III is starting, I immediately knew that I had to sign up.

For anyone not clear on the concept of Sock Wars: on a given date you are emailed your "top secret dossier" which contains your target and a sock pattern. Your goal is to get your socks finished (they are your "weapon") and in the mail before you receive a pair from your own assassin. If I receive socks from my assassin before I finish knitting my own, then I am killed. Your death by knitting must be declared on the website. The target who is killed must send their unfinished work and contact info of their target to their assassin. This gives the assassin another chance to kill off yet another knitter. It is all very violent and fun sounding.

I'm going to have to step up my game when it comes to sock knitting. I've been working on the same pair for almost four years now! Although, to be fair, it's a project that I pick up for a bit and then put down for a year or so. When I recently picked them up to turn the heel, I realised that the last time I had worked on them was when we went camping on McNabs Island for our first anniversary - there was a map still in the bag with my yarn and half a sock.

I have knitted a pair of socks before, and they did turn out nicely, but I forgot to take a picture of them and they were a gift. That was my only attempt at socks. Part of my problem with socks is that I keep using this pretty Regia sock yarn that magically knits up a pattern (how do they do it?). As pretty as it is, it's quite dainty and requires bitsy dpns (maybe a 2.5mm?). My knitting style is more along the lines of chunky yarns and big needles. I was frustrated when I knit a blanket of 4mm addi turbos, so the idea of knitting on anything smaller than 4mm drives me crazy.

I have a feeling that I'll be using as chunky a yarn as possible for sock wars...either that or I've got zero chance of survival. I don't imagine I'll win, I'm just not that fast nor that dedicated, but I want to at least give it the old college try. I'd hate to send my socks on to my assassin with only a row or two done on one sock.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Friday, March 21, 2008 2 comments  

filed under: knit, sock wars iii

online marketing possibility or a flash in the pan

I came across a new site yesterday and the jury is still out as to whether it's worth my time. iMooch seems to be a form of online panhandling/busking. You create a something (they call it a mooch) and hope that people will like it enough to "tip" you. Tips are always $1. Since the site is still in beta, I gave it a go and posted pics of my sock monkeys. If I want to post another "mooch" or post one after the beta run, it would cost me $6. $1 goes to iMooch and $5 goes to my account. This is money that I can use to "tip" someone else. Not sure what would happen if I want that $5 back (instead of using it for tips). Eventually, you can cash out your "mooch" and you will get that money. the $6 fee seems odd. I think I'd prefer to pay $1 to post and then add tip money when I feel like it. So far, only one tip and that one is from a friend. boo.

Ah well, if it does work, then I'll be pretty happy to make money from this free post. Who knows, I might even pay to post something at a later date. I'll keep you posted.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 0 comments  

filed under: imooch, monkeys, sock monkeys

Six legged octopus? What the....?

In the fall, I made an amigurumi octopus from a free pattern on the knit.1 blog. At the time, I thought that six legged cephalopod was silly. Everyone knows that octopuses/octopi have eight legs! Or so I thought. Turns out that I was totally wrong:



Meet Henry, the six legged Octopus. He lives in an aquarium in the UK. Some say his name is Henry because of Henry VIII and his six wives, but really, it's because Henry alliterates well with 'hexapus'. Since I like alliteration and made up words, I can totally get behind that (they made up hexapus as he's the first and only hexapus, aside from the creature in It Came From Beneath the Sea).

All those nuggets of information are from the CNN news story I linked to above. And holla to the Ravelry user who told me about this.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Saturday, March 08, 2008 0 comments  

filed under: amigurumi, ravelry, wtf

Free Pattern Friday: Lobster time

My latest plush creation, which took frigging forever (well, just over a week really), was a felt lobster. He's off in the mail to his owner from a plush swap.



(please ignore my messy fridge)

I enjoy lobsters. That is not to say that I enjoy eating lobsters, but that I enjoy lobsters as a concept. You could say that they are my favourite crustacean. I've never actually eaten a lobster, which is sort of odd seeing as I live in a place where lobster is king. It is actually one of the few places on earth where you can buy a McLobster in the summer.




Seriously, I can only imagine that it's as gross as it looks/sounds. I'll try lobster one of these days, but it'll be fresh and not from McDonalds. And I probably won't be able to cook it myself.

My amusement with the lobster has even led to travels with a bobblehead lobster:



(Sadly, this is not one of the best photos I've taken of the lobster. Many of those were lost in the Toshiba Crash of '06).

Anyway, my lobster is not today's free pattern...but that's because no pattern exists. If I ever manage to make a pattern, I'll share it. Today's is for this guy:




A knitted lobster!

Words fail me. It is one of the cutest. The creator of this charming plush crustacean also has a pattern for a knitted buoy. I really enjoy the Maritime theme to her knitting. It speaks to the faux-Maritimer in me (I am technically what they would call a "come-from-away" or a "CFA").

Happy weekend!

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Saturday, March 08, 2008 0 comments  

filed under: free pattern friday, knit, patterns, plush, show and tell

Free Pattern Friday Saturday: Cozy Coffee

Recently, le husband has begun to use a french press at his office. Since there is already a kettle there, I guess it's easier than a regular coffee maker. I was a bit surprised when he expressed an interest in having a french press; he had been off coffee for some time now. But I guess the long dark winter semester and his upcoming thesis mean that coffee is a necessity.

So when I saw this pattern on design*sponge on wednesday, I was pretty excited. I think it will be queued up on ravelry as my next project (I'd start it right away, but it is still very much winter here and I need mittens). Apparently non-knitters can make something similar with an old sweater - or so says a commenter at design*sponge. Check out the videos at the CBC site for Steven and Chris to see what's up with that.



On the subject of coffee cozies, I've also found free patterns for coffee cup cozies at the blog Carissa Knits. She has two there, the Starbucks cozy and the Poison! cozy.

Of course, if knitting is not your thing, you can always buy a plush coffee cozy over on etsy, made by Nervous Onion (who I found via The Needle.org).

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Saturday, March 01, 2008 1 comments  

filed under: etsy, free pattern friday, good ideas, knit, patterns