hmmm ... maybe I had better post something a bit more normal here?

but what?
(what the $#&$%^& is normal anyway? lol)

This http://www.newscientist.com/channel/fundamentals/mg18524911.600 probably isn't exactly normal, but it is interesting reading ...

er ... this probably isn't what most would call "normal" either ... but it is normal for me ... lol
- This was part of an e-mail I sent to a yahoogroup I am on (the rest of it was a big pile of links for crochet patterns) ...

"... where did my evening go?
oops?
... so much for an early night!
... and the B$%^%^&^%& dog came wandering in here, a little while ago, with the open bag of honey/sesame seed/etc coated peanuts ... dh left them on the coffee table ... the dog found them ... I don't think I really want to eat honey/sesame seed/etc and dog drool coated peanuts ...
... at least, when he finds things lying around like that (or shoes/toys/etc) he usually does bring them in to show us what he has found - which means if it is not something he is supposed to have, we can take it back ... but when what he finds is a bag of something he can smell is edible, he tends to drool rather a lot ... and when he drools while carrying an open bag of food - guess where the slobber goes? ... so I don't really want the bag of nuts back! LOL (odd thing is ... he found a container of chocolate eclairs (sweets/lollys/candy/whatever u call it) just after Christmas ... and he didn't bring those to show anyone! ... we just found him licking the last of the wrappers! ... luckily there wasn't much chocolate in them - chocolate is NOT good for dogs ... but their taste buds don't know that ... )
er ... time i was asleep ... "

yep - definitely normal for me - it IS time I was asleep now too ... lol

I suppose I could give you a list of what crochet/etc I have done lately ... well most of what I have done ... this was what I e-mailed to a crochet yahoogroup I am on, I sent it a week or 2 ago so it doesn't include the fact that I also finished a fabric box with stitching/beads/etc decorating it and I made a very small quilt ... (yes, another one - similar to the one I mentioned at the top of the list, but a bit smaller) ... anyway ... here is the list I posted ...

"So what have I finished recently then? ... er ... I finished a quilt a couple weeks ago ... only a small one though.Actually I have finished more crochet stuff than quilty stuff lately ... I made a beanie (for dd) and a scarf (4 dd) and another scarf (4 dd) and another beanie (4 me) and another scarf (4 me) and another beanie (4 me?) and a matching bag (4 me?) and another beanie and scarf (I might sell those?) and another beanie (4 me) and a few odd little scrumbled thingys that are the results of experimenting with ideas for lapel pins (because someone at work said she wanted one but didn't know how to describe exactly what she wanted - so I have been having fun doing different things and I don't really mind if she doesn't like/want any of them because I can use them for various other things ) and a scrunchie that sort of looks like a mutant pink echidna (4 me) and a weird scrumbled thingy that I will probably use as a scrunchie (because it didn't work as a lapel pin but it sort of does as a scrunchie) and a bag I just finished this evening ... and I am part way through another beanie (or it may end up being the matching bag if I decide it will be better to do that and start again with the beanie ) ... and I have also started a ... something ... so far it is 3 red squares that are the same size and one that isn't ... oops?! - I made the first 3, then stopped doing them and started the bag that I finished this evening, then I just grabbed the ball of red yarn and made the 4th red square and then I realised I had used the other hook that was in my bag - the bigger one - for the others ... LOL ... so I stuck the bigger hook IN the 3 squares and then kept using the hook I had been using - to start the beanie! ... I will make another red square (the same size as the other 3 ) later ... then who knows ... I might make 3 more smaller ones too ... or I might not ... depends what I end up deciding to make ... LOL ... it will probably be a bag of some sort ... but, knowing me, that could change without notice at any time ... LOL
Andrea,
disorganised in Dunlop...
up too late, again ..."

yep ... that last bit is "normal" (for me ;-)

oh yeah - the beanie I said I was in the middle of ... is now finished - it tried to become a bag ... but then it didn't - it ended up still being a beanie ... and the red squares ... are still red squares ... I got side-tracked again ... I started (and finished) another beanie ... in a sort of icey blue/white yarn and white ... and I have started a bag with the same yarn (because I was in the middle of watching some tv show and too lazy to get up and get/do something I should have been doing instead) ... and I have also started doing some grey/black/white scrumbles (for a shawl ... or something similar ;-) ... and I kind of ended up with some extra ones the other night ... for reasons best explained by pasting, in here, the e-mail I was writing while I was crocheting them!
... what this actually is, is a reply to someone's post - they mentioned some yarn on sale, and asked if anyone knew what stitch a couple of things were worked in (sorry - can't give a link - the pictures were on a members only page) ... and I had an answer for both ... sort of ... lol

" Hi All,
That question "What stitch??" caught my eye ... lol
My answer to that is in the second half of this e-mail (I thought I had half an answer but I think I might now have the whole answer )
...but, first ...The first thing I found when I actually read the message was this

------ Original Message -----
From: "Silver"
> Lincraft have a sale on Flutter yarn if anyone's interested -
> ... Plan on knitting them in garter stitch. Do we have any knitters on
> the list who can recommend what size needles to use and
> how many
> stitches?

Knit?! ... why not crochet? LOL
... I know - Knitting is probably easier for that fluffy stuff ... but - I have crocheted a couple of scarves for dd in that stuff, and another couple (for me) in some other equally fluffy stuff and I found a way that makes it a lot easier to follow where you are up to and looks/feels good too - I crochet the feathers/etc together with some matching 4 ply crochet cotton - the scarf feels nice, hangs nicely ... and the cotton makes it easier to see where the &*^&*&^ I am up to ... I think I used a 6.00 hook (it was the biggest metal one I have ... for some reason Aluminium hooks feel a bit nicer to use than plastic ones do - and I needed some way to decide what hook size to try first ) and I think I used 12 stitches, but that was for a fairly narrow scarf.

Now ... re those stitch patterns -... the greenish one looks like some kind of Tunisian crochet (otherwise known as Afghan crochet or Tricot) stitch ...
Janice might know
... there is a row of Trebbles all around the edge and the row inside that on the bottom of the square looks like a row of the basic Tunisian crochet stitch (the one Janice calls Tunisian Simple - often the only Tunisian crochet stitch that people know )
... I wonder if I can find the info on other Tunisian stitches that I know I have hiding somewhere ...?

...hmmm ... on top of that pile of folders was a pile of patterns and stuff I wanted to try out ... I have not even looked at them for ages ... of course what I wanted was not IN the pile ... it was actually beside it! LOL
... the "it" that I went looking for is an old folder that Janice threw out (I was there at the time so I grabbed it ) ... it has instructions on how to do several Tunisian stitches ... drats ... doesn't have pictures ... (I think the idea was that she taught people in her class how to do the stitches and they crocheted their samples to go with the instructions ... or something like that ... )

I just made a little square of "Tunisian Cross Stitch" ... and guess what - it looks just like the stitch in the dishcloth! LOL ... except my little square is grey ... and it is the other way up - I think the bottom of the photo is actually the top when it is being worked .
So that is one stitch figured out ... if you can't find any instructions online/in a book/etc (a google search just seems to turn up lots of pages of junk about doing cross stitch onto bits of tunisian crochet ... but I think I have seen that stitch in a crochet book somewhere once - it had several Tunisian patterns in it), then maybe Janice might be able to e-mail her instructions? ... or, if she is busy but she doesn't mind me spreading them around, I could probably explain it to someone who knows how to do Tunisian crochet, but not that particular stitch ... maybe ... lol
btw ... the grey yarn (and the hook) that I had handy is what I am using for some "Scrumbling" (free form crochet) I am doing ... probably for a shawl (but - knowing me - it could end up as anything ... especially seeing I have only just started it this evening) ... so ... I now have another "scrumble" for it - the little Tunisian square I just did! LOL

Now ... the purple one ... kind of looks like that birds tracks pattern someone mentioned ...but not quite ... there are groups of stitches facing different directions in the purple square, but with the birds tracks they all seem to be facing the same way ...hmmm ... I think the left side of the photo is the top of the work ...

I think I found it!I am not sure, because the photo is a bit small (lacking in detail) but I think it might be the "moss stitch" that is on this page - http://home.att.net/~susanBinKC/patterns/squares6.html

hey I think I like this stitch! ... I hate having to crochet into a foundation chain - so any stitch where you only have to crochet into half of them has gotta be good! LOL

wow! ... for something that looks so fancy - it is surprisingly easy! ... methinks I might make something using moss stitch sometime (it would look good for/in a scarf or a vest or somesuch) ... and I will probably also do a couple more rows on the bit I have just done - then I will have another "scrumble" for my shawl/etc - it was a good excuse to grab the yarn again and try out the stitch, instead of going off and doing what I was supposed to be doing ... LOL
btw ... it looks like the stitch in the mauve discloth ... so I think now we might have the answer for both squares! LOL

hmmm ... actually it doesn't look exactly like the mauve dishcloth ... it may be a slightly different variation of the same idea - there seem to be 3 stitches in each group not just 2 like in the moss stitch ...

hmmmm ... I think that looks a bit more like it ... the moss stitch is groups of of a dc and a tr - so I tried doing dc and tr and dtr (yo twice, draw up a loop, and pull through 2 loops 3 times) ... and it kind of looks even more like it.... but I still might not have the exact same thing - mine is acrylic yarn, not cotton ... and I would kind of need to be able to actually poke and prod and pull at it to see exactly how it was done ...
I did a few rows with groups of a dc and 2 trebbles ... just to see if that looked more like it ... not sure (need to poke around and count stuff that I can't do with a picture ... lol)
and I did a little bit doing it backwards (the trebbles first then the dc) ... didn't look right ... hmm - I wonder - is the photo reversed?
I now have a few more "scrumbles" for my shawl/whatever ...
methinks I had better stop before I go batty ...
oops too late - I already am ... LOL (I have been for years )

now I have this really weird "scrumble" that starts off with that backwards version of moss stitch stuff I did ... then gets carried away and branches out into loops/groups of even more dc, tr, dtr, etc ... then it kind of goes off on a tangent with a bit of tunisan crochet growing out the side (a triangle thingy because I increased at the start of each "pick up" row) that has mostly plain tunisian stitch but a couple of rows of tunisian cross stitch kind of snuck in there ... oh - and it has a funny round dangly thing hanging off it too ... lol... so much for going to bed with a book (that was what I WAS going to do before I got side-tracked looking at some e-mail that I probably shouldn't have looked at, while I was in here to check if I had any e-mail that I did need to read/reply to before next time I come in here ... ) ... the book will have to wait for another night (I was going to read it these school holidays ... but school goes back in the morning and I still have not started it ... lol) ... I might read it tomorrow night - might be just what I need after my first day back at work after 2 weeks off ... lol
er ... I now have dangly bits on 2 of the other moss stitch/etc bits too ... oops? LOL
... I had better go to bed! ... I might have still been up this late if I had gone to bed with that book ... but ... I probably would have been finishing it about now (or putting it down and going to sleep anyway ... unless dh is snoring ... lol)
btw ... I also found something else I want to make too - http://www.seafore.com/original/shell.html
Andrea,
disorganised in Dunlop
(up way too late for someone who has to get up for work in the morning ... ) "

er ... it is "way too late ..." now too ... maybe I should go get some sleep ...

btw ... one day I might get organised and actually post some photos of some of this stuff I keep talking about ... LOL

goodnight ...