Frumpy Week

I'd say that it's been one of those weeks this week, but it hasn't.  I got a panicked phone call from my hubby on Wednesday morning that Lulu was having problems.  Her hind legs were paralyzed.  This is our 6-year-old blind cat who's been a total rag doll for our 3-year-old daughter.  She's had a really rough health history and this was very sudden.  She had hopped into the bathtub to get her drink from the faucet and was totally normal when I left the house.  It's saying something about her character when she was trying to *not* bite and scratch in spite of her pain and fear.

It's pretty likely that she an arterial blockage, possibly from a clot.  We held out the hope that the blockage could be cleared with meds, but it didn't happen (her legs were warm when she went to the vet, but were cold by morning) and we said our good-byes on Thursday.

Yet Another Coffee Cozy

Patterns for coffee cup sleeves (aka cozies) abound, but I hadn't found one that I really liked.  It needed to be big enough to fit my ceramic "to go" style cup and had to be wide enough to protect my hand from whatever sadist set the temperature on the hot water dispenser.  This one's pretty stretchy and really easy to have as a take-along for those times when I'm stuck waiting.  The photo below shows the sleeve on a ceramic tumbler.  It seems to fit much higher on the paper cups (nearly to the top on the 20 oz hot cups that I've been running into lately).

H hook
Worsted weight cotton (this was from either a "Peaches and Creme" or a "Sugar and Cream" skein)

For a wide cup band, start with ch 28, for a shallower band (the size of most paper sleeves) ch30 and stop before the 4th round of DC.

It's pretty simple - alternate SC and DC rows, increasing the SC rows by 2 evenly spaced stitches (with the exception of the 1st and last SC row). The wide cup increases by 6 stitches and the narrow one increases by 4.

The numbers in parenthesis are the count for the row and count the slip join as 1 space/stitch.

CH 28, join with slip stitch (30 for shallow sleeve)
Row 1 - ch 1 and SC in next space, SC each stitch. Join w/ sl in ch1 (28/30)
Row 2 - ch 2 and DC in next space, DC each stitch. Join w /sl in 2nd ch (28/30)
Row 3 (increase) - ch 1, sc in next space.  Make 6 sc (7 for shallow sleeve), 2 sc in next dc, make 14 sc (15 for shallow sleeve), 2 sc in next dc, and continue sc to end. Join w /sl in ch1.  The 2 sc increases should be equal distance from each other & if you fold the sleeve at the increases, the join should be in the middle. (30/32)
Row 4 - ch 2, dc in each following sc. Join w/ sl in 2nd ch (30/32)
Row 5 (increase) - ch 1, sc in next space.  Make 7 sc (8 for shallow sleeve), 2 sc in next dc, make 15 sc (16 for shallow sleeve), 2 sc in next dc, and continue sc to end. Join w/sl in ch. (32/34)
Row 6 - ch 2, dc in each following sc. Join w/ sl in 2nd ch.(32/34) - this is the last row for shallow sleeve
Row 7 (increase) - ch 1, sc in next space.  Make 8 sc, 2 sc in next dc, make 16 sc, 2 sc in next dc, and continue sc to end. Join w/sl in ch. (34)
Row 8 - ch 2, dc in each following sc. Join w/ sl in 2nd ch. (34)
Row 9 - ch 1, sc in each following dc.  No increases this row. Join w/ sl in ch1.

Finishing: cut yarn leaving a tail and pull through the slip stitch.  Weave ends in with yarn needle.
et viola!

Edit: I managed to make my hand very unhappy with me this summer (be kind to your tendons).  As a result I've noticed that my crocheting has loosened up & I've had to decrease the stitches that I've used by 1 to get the same size.  The bottom of the cozy when completed is approx 4 3/8" wide (folded) and the top of a tall sleeve is just a hair over 5" (again, folded).

Raising Good Kids

Getting a little frustrated here.  I'm trying to find parenting stuff and kids' books on morals and whatnot without getting into the G*D argument.  I'm running into crazy amounts on how to "properly" expose your kid to the Bible (including putting G*D into Science).  On the non-religious hand, I'm running into "How to raise your kid without G*D".  Damn it! I'm not looking for G*D is Dead/Fallacy either.  It's up to my kiddo as to how she forms her views and I'm not going to stuff either argument down her throat.  Yes, I'm as fed up with proselytizing Atheists as I am with the door-to-door Jesus salesmen.  And I will admit that there are a few paths that I might counsel her against (sorry dear, but do you really want to be considered property? No, he doesn't have a right to beat you.), but the choice is hers. 

Any suggestions? It's just so interesting that it'd be difficult to find a generic "it's not nice to be mean to other people even if they're mean to you" type book without getting into a Christian reading of the Golden Rule.

Please be aware that I'm moderating these posts, so don't even bother with the "You need to find Jesus" posts. 

Popsicles

Yeah, I made popsicles.  The weather hasn't been that warm out here (while the rest of the country has been hating the heat, the Pacific Northwest has been wondering when Spring was finally going to arrive).  Since the weather's been uncooperative, I settled on buying frozen sliced strawberries.  I do have some strawberries in the garden (unlike last year), but not more than what I could eat while picking :-)

• 3 cups sliced strawberries w/ sugar (i.e. 24 oz container of strawberries from Wally World)
• 2 bananas
• 12 oz coconut milk (for some reason I had a gallon of coconut milk that I froze in ice cube trays & used 6 2-oz cubes) 

Combine in blender and pulse until the desired consistency.  The fat in the coconut milk helps keep the crystals small and gives the bars a creamier consistency.

I filled my large ice pop molds, my ring pop molds, and 3 out of 6 of my small pop mold spaces (a "Back to Basics" brand set that was cheap at Bi-Mart).

My favorite storage boxes

I love fishing boxes.  Not those big tackle boxes, but the Utility boxes that both Plano and Flambeau make.  Yes, these same companies make the bead boxes that you can find at JoAnn's and Michaels, but the fishing boxes tend to be cheaper and easier to customize.  I keep jeweler's tools, beads, silver (the rust inhibitor boxes keep the silver shiny), KAM snaps, and my machine needles in these boxes.  Not to mention paint brushes, drawing pencils, and charcoals.

I typically pick up my boxes from the local Bi-Mart store, but when I wanted a certain size and configuration (to fit into my fishing tackle box-turn art box) I found what I needed at http://www.tacklewarehouse.com.  The prices are good & they offer a 10% military discount.

Sweet Bernette - Conquering Corners

Total "Yay Me" experience today.  I've had a serger for years and it's been cussing fodder and straight-lines-only.  Last year, I picked up a vintage Bernina Bernette 5-thread serger that had hardly been used because it intimidated its prior two owners (love Craigslist).  Today I finally managed round (outer) corners without totally screwing up.

Threads had a short "buy this copy" bit on how to conquer your serger.  The thing that I had never thought of worked - stop and lift the presser foot while going around the corner.  This made a tight turn easier and less like trying to turn an old pickup after the power steering failed (ocean liners turn easier).

Now Cakes' two yards of Rampunzel fleece is a real blanket!

My Favorite Homemade Cleaner

I received this recipe as a wedding gift.  No joke.  The crunchies will probably flip because it uses ammonia instead of vinegar, but I really like how ammonia cleans.  It's an amazing degreaser, but folks are turned off by the smell (but for some reason highly perfumed stuff is fine) and the scare factor (just don't mix it with any product that may have chlorine bleach in it).  I've actually used ammonia solutions to wash years of cigarette smoke scum off of walls and blinds easy-peasy.

To make 2 quarts (conveniently, the size of an ammonia bottle):
1/4 cup Ammonia (I use Lemon)
1 cup Rubbing Alcohol
1/2 teaspoon dish soap (I'm bad and just do a small squirt)
Water to make 2 quarts

I use this stuff everywhere: to soak off the gunk on the stovetop, to clean my laminate floors, my daughter's "artwork" on the furniture (the alcohol helps dissolve ink).