Monthly Archive for September, 2008

Pantless, Sign-Waving, Grease-Stealing Home

I’ll be back in Oklahoma next week to provide some moral support to my dad, who is undergoing some much-needed surgery on his back. (Go Dad!)

In preparation for my trip, I checked out the hometown newspaper to see what’s up. The recent police calls tell me that not much has changed.

5:49 p.m. - Check Person. Headed toward corner liquor store, no pants on. Handled.

4:39 p.m. - Check Person. Walking in between lanes yelling at people holding signs that God will provide. Handled.

10:33 a.m. - Theft Report, Wendy’s. Lock busted off, someone stole grease, third time this happened in past six months. Report.

A Rapt Audience

Guess who stayed up waay past their bedtime to watch the first presidential debate?

punditdebate

Each declared their candidate the winner, of course. The follow-up spin will likely last clear through next Thursday…

Prizes Take a Bath

We all know that Tubby can’t resist giving everything in sight a bath.The prizes that PrettyCranium won last month for her photo of Tubby are no exception!

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Looks like everyone’s having a good time.

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PrettyCranium says that when they aren’t getting scrubbed, the toys are keeping her company at her office at work. Great!

iTunes to the Rescue

My favorite person this week is Ryan, a support person for the iTunes Store. He helped me re-download all the music I’d ever purchased from them and lost when my hard drive crashed last month. That’s a ton of music!

itunes
I have 99 songs (5.8 hours worth) with the word “love” in the title!

It’s funny, I get emails pretty frequently from people who have lost patterns they downloaded from my shop, and I’m always happy to send the patterns to them again. But it hadn’t occurred to me that Apple would do the same for their customers. They do!

After contacting their support via this page, I got a detailed email from Ryan explaining how I could download my music again. Then he followed up again the next day just to make sure I understood how to do it. It was easy and very fast. Thank you Ryan! (In case Ryan isn’t an avid reader of my blog, I also sent him an email thanking him.)

Coming Soon: Boo the Bat!

A new pattern is coming soon to the Mochimochi Shop: Boo the Bat!

boo_comingsoon

Check back on October 1st for the not-so-spooky pattern.

Free Pattern: Resisty the Resistor

This is a free and easy pattern for everyone to enjoy. Please check out the Mochimochi Shop for more patterns that you’ll love!

Hey geek knitters! Give your Captain Capacitor a sidekick with Resisty the Resistor! He may be a resistor, but he likes to think of himself as irresistible.

resistyresistor1

You’ll need:
- Worsted-weight yarn, such as Cascade 220, in gray, blue, and small amounts of red, purple, green, and yellow (or other resistor color combinations)
- Set of size 6 US (4.0 mm) double-pointed needles
- Polyfil stuffing
- Tapestry needle
- Safety eyes

Gauge: N/A!

Abbreviations:
CO = cast on
k = knit
st(s) = stitch(es)
rnd(s) = round(s)
dpn(s) = double-pointed needle(s)
kfb = knit into front and back of stitch
k2tog = knit 2 stitches together

—–Pattern starts here!—–

Body (Note: Stuff body bit by bit as you go. Also, if you want to avoid jogging in your color changes, follow techknitting’s instructions for “traveling jogless stripes” )
With gray yarn, CO 4 sts onto one needle to work as I-cord.
Rnd 1: [kfb] 4 times (8 sts)
Distribute sts onto 3 needles and join in a rnd
Rnds 2-17: knit (16 rnds)
Rnds 18-19: switch to blue yarn and knit 2 rnds
Rnd 20: [kfb] 8 times (16 sts)
Rnds 21-22: knit
Rnd 23: [kfb, k1] 8 times (24 sts)
Rnd 24: knit
Rnds 25 and 26: switch to color 1 and knit 2 rnds
Rnd 27: switch to blue yarn and knit 1 rnd
Rnd 28: [k2tog, k1] 8 times (16 sts)
Rnd 29: knit
Rnds 30 and 31: switch to color 2 and knit 2 rnds
Rnds 32-34: switch to blue yarn and knit 3 rnds
Rnds 35-36: switch to color 3 and knit 2 rnds
Rnd 37: switch to blue yarn and knit
Rnd 38: [kfb, k1] 8 times (24 sts)
Rnd 39: knit
Rnds 40 and 41: switch to color 4 and knit 2 rnds
Rnd 42: switch to blue yarn and knit
Rnd 43: [k2tog, k1] 8 times (16 sts)
Rnds 44 and 45: knit
Rnd 46: [k2tog] 8 times (8 sts)
Rnd 47: knit
Before continuing, attach eyes.
Rnds 48-64: switch to light gray yarn and knit (17 rnds)
Break yarn and draw tightly through sts, making sure that the body is completely stuffed before closing up.

Feet (make 2)
With light gray yarn, CO 6 sts onto 3 dpns and join in a rnd.
Rnd 1: [kfb] 6 times (12 sts)
Rnd 2: knit
Rnd 3: k3, [kfb] 6 times, k3 (18 sts)
Rnds 4-9: knit (6 rnds)
Rnd 10: k3, [k2tog] 6 times, k3 (12 sts)
Rnd 11: knit
Rnd 12: [k2tog] 6 times (6 sts)
Stuff before closing up, break yarn and draw tightly through sts.

Making up

Bend Resisty’s “legs” down at 90-degree angles from the striped part of his body. and use mattress stitch to attach feet to legs.

resistyresistor2

Toys Meet Prizes

Not one, but TWO of the winners in the 2008 Mochimochi Photo Contest recently shared photos of the toys in their winning photos meeting the prizes they won!

kayk’s Bobs halted their dance party to inspect an unusually small capybara…

toymeetsprize1

And then they took their new plastic tofu blocks for a ride!

toymeetsprize2

And denise.y.cheung’s Stackable Cats and Slugs ditched their game of checkers to check out their big box o’ goodies from Japan!

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(I especially love the cat and slugs reading the little note I included in the package.)

I’m happy to see that someone’s having fun with the prizes!

Pretty Odd

I was summoned for jury duty recently (it involved waiting for a few hours and not getting my name called), so I had occasion to walk around the vicinity of New York’s City Hall. There are a surprising number of odd lots stores in the area. Why, I don’t know, but I stepped into one out of curiosity.

(I apologize for the bad photo quality; my camera phone was scratched a while back when it fell out of my purse during an airline check-in and skidded across the floor.)

This particular store had a generous supply of the usual: candles, small gadgets, Panasonic batteries, and a random assortment of packaged foods.

oddlots1

I thought these Spider Man piggy banks were interesting. Or rather, the sheer number of them was interesting. Are there that many people in this world who desire a Spider Man piggy bank?

oddlots2

Then, toward the back of this brightly-lit store was a section of… Adult DVD Movies?

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I partly convinced myself that the “Adult” in “Adult DVD Movies” means “not G or PG-rated DVD movies,” but I still wasn’t going to get close enough to the giant pile to read the titles.