Scitchet Knits (and everything else)

SongsWithoutWords wanted to see the pretty knitting bag mentioned in this post.

@maglab said: What’s wrong with arrays?

In respect to this post.

They have insulted my mother!

No, really.  It kinda depends on what you mean by "arrays."  If you mean putting the notes and LED pin numbers for each song directly into the code and not in an external input file, my experience is that is a recipe for disaster, especially since once I finish it, I will make it available for anyone to use.  I would like it to be easy for a non-programmer to be able to change the songs and configurations.

Every time someone goes in and changes something in the main code, you are just asking for typos to happen (at least, that has always been my experience).  How do I get random typos 15 lines away from what I just changed?  I have no idea.  I am just special like that I guess.

My second reason for not wanting to do that is that it is going to be A LOT of data.  I don't want to type that all in manually to the main code (the major problem here is that the arduino coding platform leaves a lot to be desired in terms of functionality).  I'm planning on eventually having somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 songs with different LED light up configurations, and possibly a motor and bells.  I would much rather use Open Office or Excel to enter all that in and then save it to a text file.  It will save me tons of time, typos, and formatting mistakes.

If we're using math speak, as opposed to CS speak, the data will still be in arrays.  Which brings up one of the great mysteries of life, why can't we just all agree on the names of things?  Between math, cs, physics, and astrophysics, there are so many things that are the same yet have different names based on which discipline you are "in" at the time.  This causes way more confusion than is necessary.  Okay, I've strayed off topic.

How about a technique book today?

The Knitter's Companion by Vicki Square is an excellent quick reference.  There is a little bit of everything in here.  It is by no means in-depth.  It is just little bits from all of knitting.

Yes, you can use Google much the same way, but I like having the book.  I can write myself notes in it, I can use it when I'm not plugged into the internet, and I like books.  Also, I don't have to weed through 10 million hits to find the one I want.

I like the diagrams.  Some books have hard to understand diagrams, but this book has great diagrams.  I also seem to always understand the directions, which is nice.

I adore knitting/craft/cooking books and magazines, and I have plenty, so I thought I would start reviewing them now and again.  Here is the first one:

Doomsday Knits

I was a Kickstarter backer for this book, because the premise made me happy.  Amongst several of my groups of nerdy friends, it is widely believed that my crafty arts will be my ticket into a position of honor and value in any post apocalyptic society.  I can knit, spin, crochet and weave if I have to, garden, bake, can, etc.  I'm also good with circuits and machinery.  So this seemed like a book written for me.

I have many projects from this book that I want to make:  Apocketmitts are first on my list, but I love Baby's First Principles because it is a baby blanket with skulls; I want to make Circuit for me too with some conductive thread for touch screens; Ditch the Tech looks super comfy; Fennec just looks cool and would be awesome for my sister-in-law; I want 10 of Fatigued in different colors; Fission looks fun and would make a great gift; the Grom-mitts are way bad-ass; I would wear Ozone all the time; I want 20 Technologicas in different colors; who wouldn't want a Utility Corset or five? Wayfarer is so pretty; and Thrumviator would be great for all of our cold-weather-living family.

The writing in this book is fantastic.  There are great doomsday themed extras and the patterns are arranged by the type of apocalypse. :-D  This is definitely my kind of book.

Why did I decide to fill in the stick?  The tutorial just had a back stitched outline of the stick.  Why do I make things difficult for myself?

The stick is taking forever on this, but I'm almost done.  Just two more branches.  Then the grass and the firefly wings and I can put in the LEDs and the battery and be done!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm making this for one of my nephews, and I have a frog and firefly for the other one that I plan to make.  I can't wait to finish this because I have a cross stitch creation I'm dying to start.

So, I'm making a thing.  I don't know what it is yet.

I really liked this lace-vine pattern.  I really want a lacey shawl/wrap/poncho thing.  I was looking for other stuff in my stash several years ago and stumbled across this yarn.   I started knitting.

The yarn itself I like.  It is bulky, it is soft, the color is pretty.  The yarn ball, not so much.  It is tangled and HUGE to the point of almost being unwieldy.

At the moment, this is in my "on pause" collection because the yarn ball was annoying me.  I'm sure I'll get back to it before too long.  I kinda like having no idea where this is going.

I found some big-ish craft beads cleaning out some craft supplies.  They are blue-ish and might become a part of this at some point.

Super Awesome Nummy Bars

These are inspired by the dark chocolate cherry granola bars that my husband loves and our local store stopped selling, and "Car Snack #2" from The Homemade Pantry by Alana Chernila.  Basically, I'm using Alana's process with my own recipe.  Once you have the proportions down, you can put in any ingredients you like.

Syrup:

1/2 cup of butter

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup honey

1/3 cup maple syrup (or 1/3 cup more honey or 1/3-1/2 cup peanut butter)

Dry Ingredients:

2 cups of rolled/old fashioned oats

1 cup of dried cherries

1/2 cup sunflower seeds without the shells

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds without the shells

1 1/2 cups nuts (I did 1/2 cup each of peanuts, almonds, and pecans for this batch)

1/2 cup shaved, unsweetened coconut if you like coconut

1/4-1/2 cup sesame seeds

1/2 teaspoon salt

You will also need chocolate chips/chunks.  I usually use a mix of dark chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate, but you can do whatever makes you happy.  Peanut butter chips are also delicious.

Directions:

Melt your syrup ingredients over medium-low heat stirring occasionally until it is all melty and delicious.

Mix together your dry ingredients in a bowl.  Do not add chocolate (or do, just be aware that it makes the whole process a lot more messy if you add it now).

Once the syrup is all melty, mix it with the dry ingredients so that they get completely coated.

Heat oven to 350 F.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  You'll have to decide if you want thick or thin bars.  If you want thick (more chewy) bars, go with a small cookie sheet.  If you want thin (crunchier) bars, go with a large cookie sheet.

Cover the parchment paper with as much chocolate as you want on the bottom/top of your bars.

Cover chocolate chips with the other ingredients and smooth down with a spoon for an even layer.

Bake 15-35 minutes (depending on thickness) until the edges are a darker brown.

Cool completely.

Flip out of pan and cut into bars.

Try not to eat them all in one sitting.

I prefer thinner, crunchier bars, but the majority of this batch is headed to my husband's stash at work, so thick and chewy it is.  I also recommend making the chocolate layer the "top" when eating these, because it can get messy on the bottom.

As soon as I get something finished, this is up next.  I'm making it for my oldest nephew for his birthday in December (his brother got the snake one for his birthday this year).

I have also noticed that I have lost the dark grey ball...  I will need to find that.

The Morehouse critter backpacks are pretty easy to knit.  In fact, if you can do basic increases and decreases (and may slip a stitch now and again), all of the critter knits I've done are really easy stitch wise.  If you want a "next level" project after knit/purl rectangles, I highly suggest them.  They look super complicated, but they really aren't.

The ravelry.com page for the pattern is:  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/owl-backpack

Even if I’m only going somewhere for like two hours I ALWAYS BRING KNITTING. But then I worry, you know? What if it’s not enough? What if I finish the project before I come home? You know what? I should pack another project. Maybe two more.

Me too! 

Yay!  Rakestraw spinning!

What you see here is my road-trip spinning.  When we are road tripping, I mostly knit, but I love having fiber with me, even if I don't spin very much.  Since we aren't really road-tripping this year, I dug this out and decided to work on spinning it up anyway. 

Rakestraw spinners may be a tiny bit noisy, but they make up for that my letting you spin anywhere, anytime, in any position.  I love that I can recline in my chair to spin.

The fiber is a beautiful Corriedale top.