Things old ladies do...

[thestrangequark]

Spot's Meow wrote:

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^That is going to turn out so awesome! I love the colors.


Alright, here are my granny squares. I haven't cleaned them up yet so it's not perfect, and it was hard to pick up the right colors in this lighting, but you get the idea. Black borders with alternating white, blue and purple (well, more of a wine color) starburst pattern.

See, this is really pretty. It doesn't have the eye-boggling technicolor dreamcoat color scheme of the example I posted!

Now, my mom is crocheting me an afghan, and my sister is knitting me a sweater! And it's a sweater you guys might get a laugh out of. It's not done yet, but she texted me this photo of her progress. She's wearing it here, it'll fit me a bit better, as she has bigger boobs than me and I have a smaller waist:

[macloudt]

^That. Is. Awesome.

[thestrangequark]

^Isn't it?! She was talking about making one for herself, and I offered to buy her the yarn if she'd make me one too!

[macloudt]

You must send Wil Wheaton a photo of you wearing the finished product. He'll love it.

[thestrangequark]

^I'll tweet it at him!

[KimM]

Spot's Meow wrote:

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^That is going to turn out so awesome! I love the colors.


Alright, here are my granny squares. I haven't cleaned them up yet so it's not perfect, and it was hard to pick up the right colors in this lighting, but you get the idea. Black borders with alternating white, blue and purple (well, more of a wine color) starburst pattern.

Lovely! I like how black framed squares look like stained glass!

thestrangequark wrote:

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That is all kinds of great! Your sister is wonderful and talented!

[Peach Wookiee]

Rhubarbodendron wrote:

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I think both the grey and the black-bordered one are going to look awesome!

Not at all! Both are a lot of work to make. I think they'd be too exhausting for old people.
When I was a child, my mom used to make rosettes but the prob is always how to use up the fat afterwards and so she hardly ever makes deep-fried things anymore.
i'd love to try krumkake (I have a recipe that sounds quite authentic) but I haven't been able yet to find the necessaty tools. Yet another alibi for the trip to Sweden and Norway I'm planning for my 50est birthday, heehee

I don't know who got the krumkake iron for my mom, but it was made in Pennsylvania. And I just checked Amazon. They have those irons. If you have an electric stove, those are great. Otherwise, get a hot plate and use that at medium-high heat or until water splashed onto the iron dances around. For the rosettes, I used one of those bucket fryers called a Fry Daddy and filled it with canola oil. I put the cooled oil into an old shortening tub and will put it in a collection box at the local community center tomorrow. It'll become biodiesel!
I was glad to learn how to finally do both of those on my own. Mom can no longer teach me and I have no grandmothers left.

[Rhubarbodendron]

oooh, I never thought of Amazon! Thanks for the tip!!
I am hesitant to throw away something edible (the frying fat) and in my area they don't take collect it Therefore I strain it through a coffee filter and use it for pancakes and the like. It's not quite suitable for frying meat because there are traces of sugar, cinnamon etc. in it that won't always fit with meat.
The prob is that it takes me a year of pancakes to use up the fat from one bunch of rosettes.

[Peach Wookiee]

Wow, a year? That's incredible. And the Nordic Ware one on Amazon looks the most like mine. And my pleasure.
If you're looking at other places, I'd suggest areas with a heavily Scandinavian population. If you're anywhere near Minnesota, that's a place to start hunting.

[Rhubarbodendron]

Unfortunately, I am rather far away from Minnesota. Some 6000 miles, I'd estimate. I'm Bavarian

Contrary to the US, pancakes are not part of a regular breakfast but a sweet lunch here in Germany. If you make them more often than once a month you might experience some resistance from the meat-loving fraction of the family

[Emher]

thestrangequark wrote:

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Now, my mom is crocheting me an afghan, and my sister is knitting me a sweater! And it's a sweater you guys might get a laugh out of. It's not done yet, but she texted me this photo of her progress. She's wearing it here, it'll fit me a bit better, as she has bigger boobs than me and I have a smaller waist:

Okay, that is actually turning out really nice. Much better then the original.

[Peach Wookiee]

Rhubarbodendron wrote:

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Unfortunately, I am rather far away from Minnesota. Some 6000 miles, I'd estimate. I'm Bavarian

Contrary to the US, pancakes are not part of a regular breakfast but a sweet lunch here in Germany. If you make them more often than once a month you might experience some resistance from the meat-loving fraction of the family

Nice.

[teya]

RoJoHen wrote:

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And that makes me happy. However, I feel that it is a skill that is slowly disappearing, and that makes me sad.

Knitting & crocheting go through boom & bust periods. Currently we're in a boom period, and much credit for that has to go to the internet & social media. Fiber artisans are no longer isolated--the internet has expanded our markets beyond our local yarn stores.

ravelry.com is a network specifically for knitters, crocheters & hand-spinners. The site is 5 years old and has over 2 million members worldwide.

I knit, crochet, spin (both spindle & with a wheel), sew. I design my own patterns. Since I'm ADD, they have to be complicated in some way, either lots of colors or a complicated stitch. Otherwise, I get bored.

Swatch, sketch & beginning of a summer lace pullover (knit):



Detail from a crocheted cotton blanket:

[thestrangequark]

Emher wrote:

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Okay, that is actually turning out really nice. Much better then the original.

Thanks, and to everyone else who complimented her! I'm passing on the comments to my sister. I've been trying to encourage her to set up an Etsy shop for ages! There are a lot of things going on right now that are making it difficult for her to get a job, but I think she has enough talent to be at least somewhat successful, and that could be the boost her confidence needs. I've even offered for her to use my Etsy shop space, and to redo my shop to reflect dual ownership and cover all her posting fees for her (she's pretty short on cash). I think it's finally starting to get through, though! Yesterday on Facebook she asked people what they thought a reasonable price was for a hand knit, uniquely designed sweater!

[Tora Ziyal]

Y'all inspired me to photograph a corner of the afghan I made years ago.