Remember me? What can I say, summer happened and all desire to maintain a blog went bye-bye! I haven’t really been doing much crafting, as the weather has been so nice for the past couple months. It’s too much to sit inside with a pile of wool on my lap when the sun is shining!

We are still in our same house. We are in no hurry to move, but it’s not like any offers have come yet. :O But that’s okay. The market is terrible. All our friends are here in this area, and it’s SUMMER! When it happens, it happens. We’ll pack up our things and move north, saying our temporary farewells to our good friends. And we’ll say fond and final farewells for those people in life that I we really won’t miss. Like, I won’t miss Mr. 17 Year Old next door racing his dirt bike up and down the street. I won’t miss his friends parking in front of our house all the time. Things like that.

I did start some knitting a few weeks ago, but have little progress to show. None, in fact. I frogged it out tonight! It was a window valance in feather and fan stitch. I was slow going on it, and once I got to the stitch pattern, I mucked up somehow and my cast-on number was off. Or I mucked up the lace part. I don’t know. I’ll restart… maybe tomorrow. I have an incentive to stay inside right now, actually, I discovered streaming television and have been catching up on the new Dr. Who series. I like it, it’s humorous. Way campy at times, but really, what do you expect? The actors are pretty decent. The character of Rose is kind of annoying, but Billie Piper plays her well. Christopher Eccleston is strange to see as a Doctor, but he grew on me after the second episode. I like his inappropriate reactions, and his giggles in the peril of danger.

I also got another hobby, this time not so much craft related, but it’s an addiction like crafting is. I don’t know why, but I got into Blythe dolls. I purchased three in the past month. I have a Primadolly Ashlette named Annuszka who I am completely customizing, a My Best Friend that I named Tatiana, and coming soon is an Ashton Drake Gallery reproduction of one of the originals, a Pretty Paisley. I don’t know what I will name her. They’re really kind of lovely and intensely creepy all in one big-headed doll. Their eyes shift directions and colors with a pull string, so you can make them look like they’re up to something. A Flickr group I am entertained by is Blythe Behaving Badly. Moo ha ha ha. The photos of excessive drinking and debauchery are hiiiighly amusing. Though that customized boy Blythe is FREAKY.

Anyway, if you are on Ravelry, look me up. I’m Lelah over there. I haven’t gotten all my projects and stash up, and I probably won’t get to the stash for a while (it’s in storage). But look me up all the same.

Oh, if anyone in S Plainfield/Piscataway area of NJ goes to the PetCo on Centennial Ave, NEVER use their grooming services! I entrusted them to give a bath and a haircut to my lovely dog Barnabus, and they cut him so unevenly, and even CUT his poor doggy skin! It was not good. I am still upset over this.

I wish I was crafting more, but things are so upside-down here at home, I just don’t have the motivation to make another huge mess. Like in school, I couldn’t study unless the house was clean. I can’t even sit down to watch tv and knit, I just can’t relax. My husband decided to buy a sledgehammer and crack up part of our walkway. There was just cement on the left side of our stairs, which was off-balanced and pretty yicky, but I suggested he save time and money by just buying an antique horse trough and I’d plant flowers in it. Now he’s planning to tear out the box hedge on the other side, and doing this huge landscaping thing to get our house ready to sell.

What we need to be doing is getting a storage unit and start loading all the stuff upstairs into it. I called a realtor yesterday, and she’s coming over Sunday to tell us what we really need to get done to sell the joint.

This is our first house, and while I am excited to move to LoHud, I really got settled here. Especially since this year was so difficult for me emotionally. I am super lucky, my husband got a really great job where I don’t have to worry about working. I know this. I just am not well enough to be dealing with an upheaval like this. Change like this is not good for me right now. But it absolutely has to and is happening. I know I sound completely normal when I write here, but in real life I have this tendency to panic at change, it really distresses me.

AND IT DOESN’T HELP THAT MY BIRTHDAY IS IN 9 DAYS AND I WILL BE 29!!!!! AIIIIIIII! Where did all the time go? How am I married, a homeowner, have a college degree, own five animals, own a car… and still fee like a huge mess of a person? Some days I don’t even know if I am a person. Good Lord, I need some comfort.

This is scary and wonderful all at the same time. I’ve been wanting to get out of NJ since I moved here with my parents from Ohio. So now it is finally happening. However, this means that my hubby and I have to get this house ready to sell, and scout out a town to live in up there. We don’t know the area at all. Yesterday after church we took a drive up to the Beacon/Fishkill area. Beautiful! But, a little too pricey. The taxes up there are a lot lower than what we’re used to, but the houses in those towns are like $100k more than what we want to pay. We went to a random open house, and met a realtor/broker. He has lived in the area all his life, and mentioned some new houses going up in our price range. I don’t really want to live in a development, but it will be good for our future kids. And a new house means no DIY projects that have to be done!!

I want to type more, but my dog is giving me the poop whines.

And sadly because of that, my list is short this week.

There’s something so dainty quaint about porcelain, and I found this link via Whip-Up. The link is a link to her blog, where Penny details her most lovely crafty life. I love craft blogs that incorporate some real life into them. Can I be Penny when I grow up?

Are you diapering and into sewing? Or childless, like myself, but like to sew little cute things? This SewShoppe store has all you need for making a cloth diaper- from the fabric to the hook-and-loop tape.

I am SO glad that Amigurumi is getting popular for knitters. Because then I can make more cute things. These twin cherries are too cute.

Make a cover for your Moleskine!

I *love* this sweater. The many buttons are what does it in for me. And the placement of them is sliiiighty nautical (you know, the nautical pants…). You could knit this while watching the entire Horatio Hornblower series (what? you don’t own it??? YOU NEVER HEARD OF IT??? Siiiigh.) All I need to say about Horatio Hornblower is IOAN GRYFFUDD. The man is hotness in a circa 1805 British Naval costume. The tights… the hat… the hair… Okay then.

On a more serious note, my heart goes out to the students at Virgina Tech. My very own cousin was in the next building over from the classroom that was destroyed. I can’t imagine how losing him would affect me, because he has such a great life ahead of him. He’s getting married this summer, and is working on his PhD in Mathematics. Can you imagine what all the wounded and dead had to look forward to in their lives? It’s just all so sad.

I don’t think I want the search engine job, it requires someone with a linguistics background, which I have, but it’s only a short term contract position. 4 months. Hmmm. No! At least with the agency I have short spurts here and there, but they take care of everything. Yippee.

On the craft front, I have started The Garter Belt’s Sizzle sweater. Hot, eh? Although I am not one for showing my bewbs, as I have none. So I am making it a size larger than me so I can wear a shirt underneath. Why show off something you don’t have? Heh!

Well, have a great weekend everyone.

But as always, please send the links *you* like to lelah olender at gmail dot com. Without you, This list really shows the “I” in “I Like It A Lot”!

Sewn, stretch cast-off for knitting. Who can remember which Elizabeth Zimmerman book the stretchy cast-off is in? Not me. And do I even like to read her books? Not really. I majored in Linguistics, the theoretical branch. I like knitting patterns as technical as they can come- basically, patterns and puzzles concerning words was my major! So. This is a tutorial, which I like because the photos make it very easy to understand. Which is good, because then you don’t waste time trying to figure out convo-speak means in a technical world (knitting is technical, trust me, we discussed it in my old computational psycholinguistics class, along with Jacquard’s punch machine for weaving, which was the first computer ever).

Here’s something to employ that new technique, summer socks for flip-flops. They look really fast and look like they’re good for those in colder climates- when you transition to wearing flip-flops, your feets hurt when the bands are, because you lost your calluses from last summer. These socks would help pad your delicate winter tootsies. This pattern is no excuse to start wearing flip-flops to the office! You can’t get away with “…but I have socks on!!” here. Only in Japan, in maybe a restaurant or teahouse, and maybe if you were an employee.

Now, the only time I ever made soap was when I was little and I melted my Mom’s good soap in the frying pan to make “new” soap. It was a long, hot summer day. I was bored. I used the stove by myself. Needless to say, I got in big trouble, and I even got grounded! Ha! But this recipe looks really easy, and if I did it now, I certainly wouldn’t get grounded. Especially since you’re not just melting soap in a frying pan!

SpiritCloth is back! This time she shows us how to color fabric with crayon. The finished result she shows isn’t what you’re picturing… it’s really professional looking.

The Yarn Museum is a virtual museum that spinners post photos of their artisan yarns on. For a fiber addict like myself, this is such eye candy. I haven’t submitted anything yet, but I certainly will. What spinner would shy away from being a part of that? They have categories, sort of like challenges, so it’s not only organized, but it’s interesting. People here are really creative, taking a very, very old craft and making it so new and now.

Do you also sew?Fitzpatterns has a whole set of free downloads for some really cute, urban, contemporary clothing patterns for us cool types. Well, I’m not so much cool as I am a big dork, but I try. I really like the woolen cape, I printed the pattern out, but right now I can’t afford the $70 of fabric it requires (and I also went… $70? I could *buy* one for that much!). But if you are a die-hard sewer, it’s cute to make, and would be stunning if done properly and sewn well. Spending that much isn’t an issue then. Take me for example. I spent $60 on 9 skeins of yarn last week to make the Hourglass sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. It is tweedy, though. I love tweedy things.

Well, that’s all for this week! Keep coming back here, though. I do post between Tuesdays, I’m not actually all talk!

I followed a basic diaper shape, used part of a microfiber towel, a tablecloth, and some vintage fabric. Also used was elastic and Velcro (the superglue-on kind). My machine gave me some major issues- I couldn’t sew through the damn thing to sew on the Velcro! Now I know to sew it on beforehand, before I sew the sandwich of layers together. But the sticky kind is super sticky, so that works. Sewing super-sticky velcro gums up your needle, as I found out.

This type is called a “pocket diaper”, you put a folded up cloth diaper inside, as a soaker. Basically, the back is left somewhat open (the elastic on the outer layer covers the opening), so you can put the soaker inside, and when the baby poops or pees, you can take it out easily, throw both in the wash, then air-dry. I’m going to open a http://www.hyenacart.com to sell them when I make them, so look out for this one! I will post the link on Thursday when my site is up.

1. Gather supplies: stock pot, 4 jelly jars, measuring spoons, measuring cup, dyes (I use Dharma Trading Fiber Reactive Dyes), and white vinegar.

2. Soak wool, or yarn in bowl of water to pre-wet. Here I am soaking 8 oz of Lincoln top.

3. Fill stock pot almost half-way with water, set on stove, start on high heat.

4. Measure out 1/8th of a teaspoon or however much you want for your color density/saturation. Put each color in each separate jar.

5. Add a half cup of white vinegar to each jar.

6. Fill jar to almost to top bump with water.

7. Place jars in stock pot (careful, water is starting to get hot!)

8. Carefully arrange yarn or top or wool into each jar. I just went one end to the other. If you are doing skeins of yarn, it’s best if their umbrella swifted into 2 yard hanks.

9. Admire pretty colors (photo not necessary!).

10. Set timer on stove for 45 minutes, or until all color in jars is gone. When water is boiling, turn down stove to medium, so it simmers.

P.S. Your kitchen will smell like vinegar, it’s best to crack a window!

To remove wool, turn off heat and wait wait wait until it is cool. Trust me. I have burned myself before by being impatient. Then when cool, remove and rinse out in tub/utility sink. Then hang it in your shower to dry, I like to hang a hangar on the showerhead and rope the stuff on.

Hope you find this useful!