Mmm...Donut (shoud have been posted 9/12/10)

I think even Homer Simpson would be proud!

 

This project was actually one that I did specifically for my boyfriend. He LOVES donuts (and not surprisingly, the Simpson’s, too)! I don’t think it matters too much which kind it is, but his favorite is chocolate glazed. When I saw this pattern, I just KNEW I had to make one for him, and probably one for myself, as well, eventually. For some reason I ended up making him a burger first (I made us each one), and it took me quite a while to eventually come around to this project. I did the main body during the first half of a high school football game because it was BORING (I’m not into sports, just the marching band), and the rest I finished off at home fairly quickly (even though I did procrastinate about a week in the finishing).

One thing that I was really happy about was figuring out the icing drips! I started a banana split project a year or more ago that I abandoned for several reasons, one of which was because I couldn’t figure out the drips on the topping (another reason is because one of my cats stole the vanilla scoop, and I have NO idea where it could be!). The pattern I saw online was one that was for purchase only, and I wasn’t having ANY of that! Haha! I deviated from the donut pattern because I felt the drips didn’t quite look like I wanted them to as written. Granted, the perfect donut usually doesn’t have drips, but I like my projects to have character! This is also why I put some “sprinkles” on my boyfriend’s donut, even though he prefers his food without embellishments. When I made his hamburger, I left the “sesame seeds” off the bun for that reason, and since it turns out he really doesn’t mind seeds on his burger bun, there was no real reason for me to have left them off, and I just refused to fall for that again! :D Make it sparkle!

If you are interested, here is the link: http://www.crochetville.org/forum/showthread.php?t=32761.

So why crocheting?

I got involved in yarn crafting because I wanted very specific items that weren’t easily accessible at the time. Years ago, I taught myself how to knit because back then, I couldn’t find any Hogwart’s scarves online that I liked. I actually found a scarf on eBay that were squares of felt sewn together! Yipes! Can you just picture the horror?! Eventually the scarves became commonplace, and so I gave up and bought two in Slytherin colors because my knitting tended to curl under at the edges. Turns out that even though I rarely wear scarves (it IS Louisiana, and the winters usually aren’t too bad, but guess which one I DO wear), I ended up collecting a nice assortment of them, some I’ve made, others were given to me, and the rest were purchases. I did crochet one that was REALLY awesome(technically it is a shawl)! Eventually I will make my way to othe shawls and hip scarves (I eventually want to be a gypsy fortune teller for Halloween, and I just love belly dancing, anyway!).

My foray into crocheting occurred because I was being cheap, and because Renaissance Festivals can be very expensive! I wanted a snood (there are arguments on the internet that this isn’t the correct term for it; it is basically a hair net, like the one Drew Barrymore wore in Ever After), but wasn’t about to spend $15 on something that was basically just string (I have since found some online for a more reasonable price, but I’d still prefer to make my own). I couldn’t find a good pattern online (mostly just small ones for buns), and I had to learn how to crochet, anyway, so I started looking online and in books. That’s when I discovered AMIGURUMI! All the tiny animals and food was just TOO CUTE! I couldn’t resist, and I fell in love!

Crocheting turned out to be much easier for me to learn than knitting, but it could be that I already had yarn work experience. So I started making other things, and promptly forgot about the snood. When I finally did remember about it, I tried to make my own pattern (I am fairly good at doing this, now), but it turned out HUGE, so I unraveled it! I do still have issues judging how big a project will turn out. This week’s project is a perfect example. When I first started making the donut, I thought to myself that there is NO WAY something that started so mall could turn out “slightly larger than an actual donut” as the pattern indicated. Boy, was I wrong! For now, I don’t mind living by trial and error. Even if I have to unravel quite a large chunk of project, I’m quick enough now that it isn’t as big a loss as it would be with knitting.

"Let's play a game called 'Who is your daddy, and what does he do.'"

I’m not sure if it would be more appropriate to say that reading and restaurants have “ruined” my life, or vastly improved it. On the one hand, reading has made me realize that nothing in the dullness of reality could ever compare to the excitement of other worlds found in books; restaurants have made me realize that previously home-cooked meals have all been dull, lifeless, and even monotonous. Conversely, were it not for books, my life would indeed be boring, and likely unsatisfying, could I not escape from this dimension into another as a completely different person; were it not for restaurants and my quest to find ways of obtaining better tasting and more interesting food, I never would have learned that I could travel to new worlds without ever leaving my kitchen!



Either way, it should be obvious that my two primary loves in life are books and food, in no particular order. To me, they are as necessary to my life as air and water are to everyone else. They are the foundations of my life, my inspiration, my escape from drudgery, my consolation when I am down, my reward when I am up. In short, books and food are my everything. But not everything I do is books or food, although they tend to color much of what I do.


A friend encouraged me to start this blog to show off some of my many crafting talents. I call this blog “Out of the Frying Pan…Into the Fiber” because that is just what my crafting involves: fibers of various sorts and in a multitude of forms! I bet you thought this was going to be a blog about the experience of turning into a raw foods vegan! ;-) My primary medium is yarn, and I LOVE to crochet! It just so happens that much of what I crochet is…food! The particular style of crochet that I like best, called AMIGURUMI, defined by Wikipedia as “the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures.” The article goes on to explain that “amigurumi have no practical use; they are created and collected for aesthetic reasons. The pervading aesthetic of amigurumi is cuteness.” I very much agree! Just hearing people squeal with joy at seeing one of my completed projects is reason enough to make them. In addition to crocheting, I have dabbled in knitting, am proficient in cross stitching, I have been known to throw together a costume or two (sewing is often involved somewhere), and plan to further learn crafts involving fibers, such as papier maché and quilting, in the near-ish future. I have big plans, I do!


These are my tangible passions, but what about the rest of me? I grew up in a small town, and I vowed to leave as soon as I could! I never could quite understand what was so exciting about driving around town and through the Sonic parking lot, nor could I figure out HOW this was socializing, if you are in your car, and everyone else was in theirs. But that was apparently the thing to do! Very few of my high school friends actually lived in my town, so I had no cause to do something I considered idiotic. My mother refused to let me leave the state, much to my dismay, so I ended up in New Orleans at Loyola, majoring in chemistry my freshmen year, then at LSU majoring in biochemistry for the remainder of my undergraduate years. I stayed at LSU for a Master’s degree in Biological Sciences, with an emphasis on (in this order) embryology, molecular biology, and reproductive physiology. Yeah, as you can guess, that got me nowhere. I am currently working for state government (nothing related to my majors) and attempting to become certified to teach high school biology. How does this tie in? Well, I do eventually plan on crocheting various bacteria for my science class! :D It’s on my list. ;-) But I really do love biology; it fascinates me to no end, and except for plants and ecology, I never find it boring! However, when I was in high school, I didn’t like it one bit! With the exception of anything that had to do with history (ok, maybe not Dr, White’s history classes, which were kind of fun and eventually led to ANOTHER interest of mine in an indirect way – Ren Faires and SCA, if I can ever get back into it) or civics, biology was my least favorite subject. Just shows the right teacher CAN make a difference in someone’s life. What WAS my favorite subject in high school was CHORUS! I am STILL kicking myself in the ass for not taking classes in college, or at least joining an extracurricular group, all because I thought theater people were “weird.” Silly me! My mistake. I LOVE musical theater! Of all the music genres, that is my favorite (granted, I don’t like ALL musicals, just more than most regular people). My day just doesn’t seem to go right unless I can sing in my car on the way to work! I also like 80s music, 70s (but not much of what was considered rock & roll), mostly late decade (probably my siblings’ influence, since they were all about 11-15 years older than me), some 60s, and lots of singer-songwriter stuff from those times. I seem to have a particular dislike of music from the 90s and 2000s so far (with a few exceptions).


So here I am stuck in a job the won’t take me anywhere (still a LOT better than other jobs I’ve had), and my life seems to be driven quite a bit by “how cheap can I get this, and can I make it myself for cheaper?” Ultimately, this is why I learned how to cook. Eating out nearly every day quickly ran me broke! And I swear that one day my “famous last words” will be “I can make that!” Some attempts have been more successful than others.


So the ultimate purpose of this blog is to show off and share the products of my many various “I can make that” statements. I have plenty of completed projects that have collected over the years, and I will eventually get around to posting them in my gallery. My goal is to produce at least one project a week (once I get up and running), but I may post about other projects, either past or present, and I may post a cooking blog now and then (I don’t consider these projects, per se, unless I am hosting a theme dinner/party). Many will be crochet, many will be papier maché Halloween stuff, since the season is upon us! I also have a few sewing projects up my sleeve, if I can find the appropriate material! I look forward to sharing my journey with you, and I hope you enjoy following me. I love making things for friends, so if you ever have a request, PLEASE don’t hesitate! At most I may ask for cost of materials, although if you WANT to give me extra as a tip, I won't refuse. ;)