Some Quick Cabin Trips

Trip 1:

  While we waited for my dad and Bill to get back from running some errands, we found out that Jake from LingoNetworks drives an '88 Pontiac usually.  His grandparents have a similar place to ours and when he was 8 years old, his grandparents had deer that would eat from your hand.

  Later that day we met Carol, Rick, and Buddy from the Boys Home Christmas tree farm.  They were very nice, the kind of people you invite over.  Rick offered to let Bill try his thermal scope, but warned him that it'll probably end up costing him money because there will be a good chance he will want one of his own.  They had really good timing because it was just before we started packing up to go out to dinner.  They had seen the new mailbox and had decided to take a chance.  They were hoping that we were full-timers, but we had to disappoint them.  Though with how often Bill and I have been out last month, we are almost there.

Trip 2:

  Got in and then quickly unpacked the car so we could enjoy a fire.  There is supposed to be a big meteor shower on Saturday night, but it got started on Thursday.  I saw about 11 shooting stars the first night we were out there.

  The coyotes were wandering around and yelling at each other.  One was even about 275ish yards away at one point.  Bill confused it with his flashlight.  It seems that either the tree frogs or the whippoorwills get to call to each other.  So far I've heard one or the other, sometimes both in one night, but never at the same time.

  I made some savory oatmeal while Bill did boring work stuff.  On our way out to get some parts to fix the mower, we saw a FedEx and a UPS truck making a delivery at the house with the pony and really cute cows.  We hadn't seen the animals out front lately, but we saw them back again today.

  The first place, Pleasant View Repair Shop, lost their storage facility to a fire at the end of December and are rebuilding it.  So while that would be a good place to go to in the future, they currently don't have any stock.  They do have a very cute cat who came right up to me for pets and rubbed against my legs.  There was also a pug in the office that Bill gave some attention to.

  We tried one other place, but they also didn't have stock at the store.  To make ourselves feel better, we got ice cream at Smiley's.  The Coconut Pie ice cream was really good.  We saw an adult and a young turkey when we were almost back to the cabin.

  Bill played around with his new metal targets while dinner cooked in the slow cooker.  I found a small black snake on and in the big stump by the front door.  From the size, I think it's the one I got the whole shed of.  I was then rude to him and tried to take some pictures with flash.

  We ran out of time to make another fire, but we did manage to play Future Me Problems.  We've brought that game with us about 3 times now and have never played it before.  It was a pretty fun, chill kind of game.

  On our way out we saw about a dozen turkeys.  Some were younger and smaller.  It's fun seeing all the various wildlife.

Rocky Takes the Garden State

Thursday

  Missed seeing Mamma Mia being shadow casted, which sounded interesting.  There will probably be another chance to catch it at another Rocky Convention.

  We stopped in at the big rest area and got some quick dinner that we were all a bit disappointed by.  Steven managed to order from Nathan's Famous hotdogs before their ordering kiosk stopped working and they didn't know what to do.  Wendy's was then swamped and the food took quite a bit of time to get out.

  One last thing we did was that Steven and I used the massage chairs at the rest stop.  All the various delays, including being stopped by a car accident on a bridge, meant that we didn't get in until 12:34am.  The first people we ran into that we knew were Alex and Husband, which is funny because they were the first people we saw that we knew at the last one.  The lady who checked us in used to work at the larger hotel and said she liked doing the event check-ins and that ours was no big deal.

Friday

  While I was curious what all Rocky Fit Club would entail, there was no way I was going to be up and ready to go to be able to get down to the registration table by 9am.

  Our shower was interesting.  The temp was either a bit too cold or a bit too hot.  When you switched it from bath to shower only about half of the water switched over.  At one point I had noticed that the tub was slowly filling up, but once I had finished shampooing my hair, I noticed that the drain had caught up.

  The price of breakfast at the hotel was a bit steep, so we went to Pierce Street Bagel Cafe.  I got the Egg Sandwich with Beef Bacon on an egg everything bagel.  We then saw Alex and Husband again.

  We found out that late last night one of the elevators got stuck with some people in it.  Turns out one of them was claustrophobic, which is why there are signs on there today saying a max of 6 people at a time.  It didn't really help anything because there were many times the elevators would move up and down slightly when the doors were still open and everyone onboard was standing still waiting for the doors to close.

  Since there weren't any panels we wanted to see at the time, we stopped in at Bottle Republic to see if there was anything we couldn't get at home we could get here.

  While putting some Worry Worms out I found out that one group was leaving tiny plastic ducks around and another was leaving 3D printed dicks.  I love the fact that I'm not the only one leaving things for people to find.

  I got to see more people I knew before going to Stateside Tap + Tavern for dinner.  It turns out there were 30 casts represented at this con!  That's kind of crazy to think about people coming from Texas and California!

  It was unsurprising that Shock Treatment was really good.  Everyone always puts a lot of effort into their costumes and performances.

  At one point when I was hanging out in the smoker's area, someone came up to me and told me that I was really cool because I had a cigar.  I hadn't meant to, but I ended up staying up until 3:30am.

Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver in 302 Kaleidoscope - Hook: 5.5mm

Saturday

  Since I got to bed so late, it was a slow morning.  On our way out one of the elevators tried to smoosh me between the doors.  Got a bite for lunch and then hung out briefing before Repo the Genetic Opera.

  It was another great showing of Repo this year.  One of the people who played the grave robber did it again this year and I was really excited to see them do it again.  There were some great callbacks and while I would like to remember them for next year, I will probably forget them.

  Lubrano's Pizza was our next stop before it was time to get onto the bus for the big show.  We took the First Student school bus to The Brook Arts Center.  While waiting outside one of the people in line in front of us went to Tacos Pizza for a quick slice.

  We were told that the theatre has lots of ghosts.  Their prop bags had little poppers in there for the Frank/Rocky wedding scene.  They had a bit of trouble raising and then lowering the screen.  It became everyone's favorite character, and we chanted Screen often.  Sal Piro got one of the Guiding Star awards, it was passed around to everyone so we could all be part of it since he's not with us anymore.

  During Eddie's scene they had 6 Columbias, 6 Eddies, and 4 Franks to then kill the Eddies.  We also learned a new callback of "It stuck to her thigh, like a whole stick of butter" and I might be using that from now on.

  We hung out for a bit more when we got back to the hotel but made sure to get to bed before 3 am this time.

Sunday

  Nothing officially was going on, but lots of people were loitering in the lobby getting some last minute hangout time with new friends or anyone they hadn't seen in a while.

  Since it's a callback we do, and we were near one, we stopped at a White Castle on our way out.  I've actually never been to one before now.  I got the cheese sliders and some chicken rings.  The chicken rings were the best part, though now I've tried it.

  It was so much fun to see all the people I met last year and to also make some new friends.  Friday Nite Specials held a good convention, and I was able to get 30 worms distributed.  I already miss being there, even with the scary elevators.

More Hats and Nature Pictures

Pattern: Dreamy Josephine by Tracy Pipinich - Yarn: Lion Brand Jiffy in Mulberry 190 and 307 Denver - Needle: US 8 and US 10

  We got a slightly later start than we had planned, but that seems to be fairly regular for us.  This mostly meant that Zack had to cook his hamburgers in the dark since he wanted to grill them.  It also made setting up his telescope trickier.  After dinner Bill made a fire and we sipped on some things and a few of us made s'mores.

  The day started overcast but that also meant that it wasn't going to be too hot, at least I hoped.  The guys built the new table while I slept in some, so I was the last to get my biscuits and gravy.  Most of the guys spend most of the early day shooting at the metal targets we have while Steven and I sat on the porch.  He was playing Pokémon and I was knitting.  Once they switched to the watermelons, we moved closer to watch.

  After a quick lunch of hotdogs and watermelon, not the same ones from before, we went for a short hike.  We went our usual route and looked at the old foundation.  Jim found another bottle, but this time I made Bill carry it down.  On the way back I ate a wild blackberry.  We were feeling a bit lazy, so Zach got out his drone and took some fun pictures.

  Steven and I saw a hummingbird while we waited for the others to get done what they were doing.  I’m thinking we might need to put a feeder out and possibly attract more.

Pattern: Dreamy Josephine by Tracy Pipinich - Yarn: Lion Brand Jiffy in Mulberry 190 and 337 Springfield - Needle: US 8 and US 10

  It decided to rain while we were playing board games and eating chili for dinner.  Between games I finished the hat.  I wasn't sure that I was going to, but I won yarn chicken with only about 3" left.

  The rain let up for us to get one more fire in before the end of the trip.  It was pretty relaxing, and Bill had fun setting some cardboard on fire.  At some point during the campfire, fog had rolled in and stayed through the morning.  Zach made breakfast sandwiches while the rest of us discussed how we slept.

Pattern: Side to Side Ribbed Hat by Sally L.M. - Yarn: Lion Brand Jiffy in Mulberry 190 and 307 Denver - Hook: 6.5mm

  We got to Smiley's Ice Cream early and ended up having to wait half an hour for them to open.  Always worth it.  I was the first to order for the day and decided to get the half banana split this time, though they ended up making it wrong.  They put chocolate syrup on instead of whipped cream.  They remade it and were nice enough to let us keep the first one.  She asked if anyone would eat it, and Zach was a few people back in line, so I just said "Hey, wanna eat this?" and we made the people in line laugh.  They didn't know that we knew each other so it made it even funnier.

  The long worm on the bottom is a test for something I have planned for closer to Christmas.  I know it's a bit early to be planning for that, but it's been on my mind a lot recently and I'll still need to do a few more tests to be sure it's ready.  I like it with the 46 chains, two for the extra on the tail, and how the ears are on the outside of the eye double crochets.

I Mean, It Is July

  With how many Worry Worms I've made so far, it's hard for me to believe that I didn't even know they existed until fairly recently.  If I hadn't spontaneously joined the Facebook group Random Acts of Crochet Kindness in late September 2021 then there is a chance that I still wouldn't know about them.  The long color change on the bottom ones using Retro Stripe is a really fun effect.  I'm going to be looking into more yarns with long color changes in the future.

Pattern: Side to Side Ribbed Hat by Sally - Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver in 304 Aurora Print - Hook: 5.5 mm

  Since there are so many people in my charity group, I decided to see if there was a place I could donate some of my items to closer to the cabin.  They may have less people who would make things to donate.  I may have found a place.  I had sent a few messages to some of the churches local to the area.  There were a whole bunch to choose from.  Only one got back to me and they are pretty interesting.  They have never done a collection of items, but they do help out at a soup kitchen every few months and are willing to take some things.  They also run the church out of their house and have a Bed & Breakfast attached as well.

Pattern: Hurricane Hat by Andrea Guldin - Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in Tapestry Ombre 2744 - Needle: US 8

  I've still been feeling like I'm stuck on a pattern rut, so I decided to do something pretty radical.  I looked at my Ravelry queue.  It has somehow gotten to be over 200 items.  While I don't know how many of the sweaters I will be making, I think I'm going to work through some of that list.

  The yarn had a knot in it, changing the color from a solid blue to a solid red.  At first I was annoyed, but then I figured I'd see how that sudden change affected the pooling.  I like how the color swirl changed directions, it's not something I would have expected.

Pattern: Slippy Hat by Cristina F - Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in Golden Days Ombre 2709 - Needle: US 8

  I apparently had a lot of patriotic yarn.  I have been trying to go through some of the older yarn I have and the two patriotic ones are Caron Simply Soft, but seem to only have about half as much as the ones you can find in stores right now.

  June may have passed, but I still would like to make some rainbow hats.  I just also would like to get my yarn stash a but more under control before I go out and buy a bunch of yarn.  I know I would be buying the yarn for a project, but if I'm working on that project it means the rest of the yarn will just still be sitting there.  I would also like to be able to get back into making costumes for anime conventions, which means I'll have to clear off the space in the middle of my craft room, which means I will have to work through enough of the overflow that everything will fit on the shelves I have available in there.  It's good that I can knit and crochet in the car, because that means I get some good working time on the way to and from the cabin.

Are You Tired of Hearing About The Cabin Yet?

   I find it interesting that worm with the fun hairstyle in the first panel has a thicker upper body.  I ran out of the first skein of the Red Heart Super Saver in 302 Kaleidoscope, but I had some Red Heart Super Saver in 304 Aurora Print near me.  I was feeling lazy and they are both part of the multi color line, so I figured I could just finish that one before getting another skein of the kaleidoscope.  I had noticed that kaleidoscope had bits that were thinner, but I didn't think it was as different as it seems to be.  These are also both back from when Red Heart Super Saver had dye lots, so they have been around a while.

  Speaking of fire, even though we technically weren't.  On the way down to the cabin we saw a semi-truck on fire.  We also saw a lot of dumb people who didn't know how to stay out of the way of emergency vehicles.  There were a lot of emergency vehicles and I hope all the people who were involved in the incident are going to be okay.  Three ambulances, two ladder tricks, two tanker trucks, one heavy duty tow truck, an even more heavy duty tow truck, a truck with a trailer usually used for race cars.  We were stopped for a few hours, but couldn't find any details online at the time.

  We saw some live mice this time.  I went to go check one of the drawers I've seen mouse sign in a few times and saw something weird when I went to open the drawer a little.  A mouse turned to me when I opened it more.  I told her hello and we looked at each other for a bit, neither of us knowing what to do.  I moved the drawer a bit more and it jumped off the back into the one below it.  Since we have at least one house mouse we are going to have to find a collective name for them.  Any mice in my parents' house are named Teeny, and any in my house are called Carrot Cake.  I'm leaning towards Patty for these.

  The next day we gave Steven a tour and saw one more mouse in the far shed and another one climb down from the rafters on the porch.  Bill played around with the mower while the rest of us watched.  There were also a few deer who wondered by at various points of us relaxing.  One was even less than 50 yards from us and while she was unsure of us and left the area, she didn't run away scared.  At one point we had a dotted wolf spider hang out with us for about 3 hours.  We named him Magic Mike because he had legs for days.

  We got lunch at El Charro since we've driven past it so many times and a lot of the other things we looked into were closed.  It was pretty good food.  The ground beef could have used a bit more seasoning but we liked the salsa a lot.  Our last stop before heading home was Smiley's Ice Cream to make sure we were completely stuffed.

  We had brought some card games, but never got around to playing them.  Overall, it was relaxing and exactly what we all needed.

Mainstays Medium Acrylic in Blue Multi

Mainstays Medium Acrylic in Blue Multi 

Overall ratings: 4.3/5 from 123 votes (Ravelry) - 4.5/5 from 28 votes (Walmart)

Average Cost: $2.98

  I saw Bag-O-Day Crochet talking about this yarn on her YouTube channel and while at Walmart for something else, decided to pick up a skein.  It is in the running for the Rainbow Hat Project, so I wanted to try it out.  I don't know why I keep picking yarn with turquoise/teal in it, since it is so hard to photograph.

Way better than Red Heart!!!!

This yarn is way better than Red Heart! This yarn is soft when working. This yarn DOES NOT SPLIT like Red heart does. I absolutely love this yarn and brand! It is a great yarn to begin with. I will be ordering boxes, at least three closed boxes so my son (first project ever!) can make his ginormous Afghan without the thought of “are they still going to make this yarn so I can finish?” Anyone as a true crocheter and knitter knows this pain and scare! If you haven't tried the yarn out, do it! Spend that $2.4?! I'm so glad that I did! It also had great color change too! Perfect for a C2C blanket!

~ Jennifer (two years ago) 5/5 stars

Pattern: Side To Side Ribbed Hat by Sally L.M. - Hook: 5.5 mm

  I had assumed it would be about old Red Heart Super Saver level of acrylic scratchiness because it is cheaper than Super Saver.  I was very wrong though and it is so soft and nice to work with.  I do wish it came in more colors though.  However, it does come in enough solid colors right now to work for the Rainbow Hat Project.

Buy it!!

Perfect yarn -- I love it!! I crochet a lot -- make blankets to donate to children's groups and this yarn is perfect for that. Great quality and great price -- so much better than Red Heart. I've yet to find a skein of this yarn with pieces knotted together, which is a real nuisance -- it pulls easily from the center of the skein. The solid blue and teal yarns coordinate perfectly with the multi blues. I would definitely recommend this yarn.

~ Patty (a month ago) 5/5 stars

Pattern: Lucky Bamboo Hat - Needles: US 8

  I'm really glad that I found Bag-O-Day Crochet and watched her video on this yarn because I know I would never have given it a chance any other way.  I saw on Ravelry that the yarn is discontinued, but I also read somewhere that they had discontinued it in the past and have since brought it back.  Unless something happens between now and when I go to start making rainbow hats, I think this is going to be the yarn I am going to use.

Treasure Hunting

  Krissy and I went thrifting recently and I found some goodies.  I got the iPod Nano for $4.99 and the PokéBall for $7.99.  They had the charging cord for the iPod separate and with some other cable, but I still have some old charging cables around, so I didn't need it.  It charges, turns on, and came with some music.  I'm oddly excited to own Melissa's I and the music she liked to listen to when she last used it.  The Vera Bradley clip case is also a nice touch.

  I have charged the PokéBall and it turns on, but I haven't checked to see if it will connect with the game or not.  I checked it by pushing the button, and it doesn't seem to have a Pokémon in it.

 

  Last year we went to RKOcon and this year we plan to go to the same convention, though since it is being hosted by another group, it is called Rocky Takes the Garden State.  Since the Worry Worms were a hit last year, I'm going to make some for this year, but this time I'm planning ahead and can make them before we start heading there.  Depending on how many years we go, I think it would be fun to make them differently each year, so they kind of become a collectors' item.