Flagel Knitting Files

Recently friends sent me this photo:  Really French French Fries  The photo came with this note:  "Something to keep your needles busy; found this online (haphazardly) and thought you may get a kick out of it" .  (Don't know what you two were searching for when you stumbled onto this, but thanks for sharing.)  Kick out of it; yes, yes, yes, I had to investigate.  These fries are actually crocheted and the details are what make them so special.  I had to find out who did this and how. Thank goodness for Google and an ability to search images that match a simple phrase of "knitted French, French fries".  Within seconds I found the image on Pinterest and could follow it back to its source. These fries belongs to  Kate Jenkins  from the UK.  She lists her work as crochet art.  In December she took her French French fries and added either reindeer horns to some and Santa hats with beards to others for the holiday...

Yes, yes I know it has been a while.  I have this thing called work and it sometimes distracts me, then I have holidays or vacations and they, too, distract me.  But I am now back and have a few things I've completed while we were apart. Remember U900 with Rabbit U and Bear 900?  It was way back in January of this year.  If you don't quite remember, here's a reminder U900  Ukulele They have these wonderful videos you can watch, just search for U900 and be sure to add ukulele or you'll be looking at phones.  (Just for a quick aside, I visited one of my sons recently and he was humming a couple of their songs.  He seemed pleased he remembered the songs associated with these little guys.  I have such a weird influence on my boys/men!  The family that watches videos together stay together I guess.) At any rate after much working to achieve articulated arms (pipe cleaners work well for this) and several failed attempts to cause the leg...

The knit and crochet blogosphere has been going nuts over Dolce & Gabbana's Miss Sicily Bag, a part of their Spring 2012 line.  Here it is in all its glory: Miss Sicily Bag by D&G Check out this Neiman & Marcus website   to get all the details.  It is designed to offer "homespun comfort as it adorns both dressy and casual ensembles".  I remember the granny square vests and sweaters of the 1970s.  The homespun items (and generally speaking back then they really were homemade, if not homespun) weren't that easy to wear in either dressy or casual settings because like this bag, they are so very colourful on their own.  I can't really image what one might wear with this beauty in 2012 except for the ubiquitous black dress or pants and blouse. But it is the price tag that is most amazing -- $2,895.  I think at that rate I could create one for anyone who wanted it, not that I expect much demand.  Sourcing the hand...

So I am actually sitting here with the Superbowl game on and have yet to see any blue and white scarves, but I will continue to scout for them.  I'm told by one of my Indianapolis checkers that there are scarves all over the city.  So I should be able to find some.  (Perhaps if I had watched the 5 hours of pregame I might have seen some. but I had no intention of spending the day on the game.) According to a Canadian advertiser, I should order my pizza now before it is too late.  (It is about 3:45 pm on the West Coast so dinner won't be served for a couple of hours.) No need for me to worry since I've already got the pizza covered.  My last post about this slice was taken over by the cuteness of my great-nieces and my brother with his newest grand daughter so I thought I could repost the pizza.   It is, of course, another food of choice for the game. Here it is.  I think I'll have to make another slice or two soon since I've cracked into my orang...

So it's time to start thinking about what to serve at my rather small (does two make a party?) Superbowl Party.  Since it won't be much of a shindig I thought about cutting back, perhaps all I need is a bit of beer and some sort of chips.  And, of course, since this is me, they will be knit. Here's my take for beer:  A fuzzy bottle of beer, must be aged on the outside!  Perhaps this wasn't one of my most successful efforts.  I used the following pattern .  Should you click on the pattern you'll see the photos show a bottle that is much less furry and more realistic looking.  Since I didn't have quite the right colour of brown (or green for that matter) in stock when the urge to make this hit me, I used some stash that was the right colour, but not the right texture.  Thus the aged look with, let's call it moss, on the bottle.  I hadn't figured out I could shave off that fuzz when this bottle left my care. This was o...

I remember when Lex was very small I used my right index finger and thumb pressed together to create a beak and my remaining fingers as head feathers.  He named the finger birds Beaky.  I was responsible for managing the Mama Beaky and he created the Baby Beaky.  The difference in the sizes of our hands was part of the fun.  As I think about it, it's hard to believe I lacked the wherewithal to figure out something like finger puppets would have made the game better, but then we did have lots of fun telling stories to each other.  Perhaps this was the start of his having to be creative, when all he had was his hand to use as a toy. So when I had a chance I decided that Kai should have finger puppets to tell his stories.  I did some looking on the internet and found this free  pattern .  It includes instructions for a Lion, Tiger, Bear and Elephant.  If you compare mine with the photo on the pattern you'll see I ...

After my beloved Green Bay Packers fell out of the running for the Superbowl this year I can honestly say I lost interest in which teams are in it; but that won't keep me from watching the game on Sunday anyway.  I have a special reason to watch this year. I learned to love professional football at home.  Every Sunday afternoon during football season the entire family, Mom, Dad and my two brothers and I would sit down to watch Bart Starr, Paul Hornung, Forrest Gregg, Jerry Kramer and Ray Nitschke win games.  (If you don't know those names there could be a couple of reasons:  1) you haven't paid that much attention to the Packers or 2) you just aren't as old as I am.) In fact for Superbowl II played in January 1968, my Dad bought a colour television so we could see the game in all its glory.  I remember the Ice Bowl as it is lovingly referred to (the temperatures outside in Green Bay that Sunday were something like -15F or -21C sans the windchill an...