Making a Spud Zapper

I won some fat quarters at the fabric shop in Humboldt, KS when I was in town for the Biblesta parade in October.  Since I don't quilt anymore, they were sitting - gathering dust.  What to do with them?

DD#3 came to visit a week or so ago and mentioned that her Spud Zapper had died a horrible death and a light bulb came on for me.  I could make Spud Zapper and Therapy Bags from the fat quarters.  AND.... I promised her I would make a tutorial so she could see how I made the Spud Zappers and could make them herself.  So here goes - 

What you will need:

• a fat quarter or about 1/3 yd of 100% cotton fabric
• 1/4 to 1/3 yd of 100% cotton batting
• cotton thread
• scissors or rotary cutter
• cutting mat (optional - only required if you're using a rotary cutter)
• an iron and surface for ironing
• pins
• ruler

Here's the fabric I chose:

This piece of fabric is about 18" x 22".  18" x 18" would be sufficient.

Press the wrinkles out.  This step is not required, but the fabric will be much easier to work with and the finished product will look much nicer when you're done.

Cut the fabric length-wise into 9" x 22" pieces.  I've folded the fabric in half here to make it easier to use on my small cutting board.

Cut one piece of batting to the same dimensions as one of the fabric pieces.

Now stack the fabric pieces right sides together then put the batting on top.

Sew a 1/2 inch seam on the short ends of the stack.

Turn the fabric to the right side so the batting is sandwiched between the fabric.  Press the ends so they lay flat and smooth.  Top stitch the ends if you wish (optional).

Fold one side of the fabric towards the center.  About 3" from the end.

Now fold the opposite end so that it overlaps the 1st end by about 2"

Sew up the sides with 1/2" seam allowance.  You may have to gently pull the fabric to sew over the thick spots.

Now you need to turn the spud zapper right side out.

Ta-da!

HOW TO USE IT:

1.  Wash 1 large or 2 medium potatoes
2.  Wrap potato(es) in paper towel.
3.  Put wrapped potato(es) in spud zapper.
4.  Microwave potato(es) for 4-6 minutes, then let sit for 4-5 minutes.
5.  Carefully remove potato(es) from spud zapper and put on plate.
6.  Prepare potato(es) just as you would a regular baked potato.
7.  Yum! Yum!

Slow police response

On my way home yesterday evening at about 8:35, I saw a little boy (maybe about 3 yrs old) walking up 3rd street alone in his stocking feet. I called 911 and notified the police.  The 911 dispatcher took asked me for a description of the child and my location, yada, yada.  The child turned up 2nd st and continued to walk while I followed him in the car until I got to my house, then I got out and tried to persuade him to sit with me on the porch steps and have a drink or a snack.  He would have none of that and took off up 2nd street again.  I followed him to be sure he didn't get hurt or anything.   There were a couple of other neighbors keeping track of us as well.  I let my husband know that if the police came to the door, that the boy and I were on the move and they could contact my cell phone.  The little boy continued to walk up the street, crossing the street at the circle and at Craigmont (never looking for traffic, thank goodness traffic was almost non-existent at that time) then heading up the hill.  I was really having trouble keeping up, he was moving really fast and I could not convince him to slow down or hold my hand or come back towards my house with me.  I could not get him to talk to me either.  He just kept saying 'walk'.  At the corner of 1st street  and Craigmont, he walked up to a house and tried to go in.  I was hopeful that this was his house and my problems were over.  When he rattled the front door knob (which he could barely reach), the people who lived there 1st looked out the window then finally came to the door.  He did not belong to him. They called 911 too.  The young man of the house was able to grab and hold the boy though, so at least we were stationery; although the boy wanted down and wiggled and squirmed trying to get away.  I was glad it was not me trying to hold on to him.

I made my 911 call at 8:35.  When I looked at my watch while the boy was being held by the young neighbor, it was 8:52.  About 5-10 minutes after I checked the time, the police finally showed up and said the mom (actually was the grandma) was on the way.  She was very distraught and said that she had inadvertently left the garage door open and the boy had slipped out.  She did not acknowledge all the people who had helped keep her grandson safe, but left with the boy and the policeman, presumably to go home.

20 minutes???? for a report of a small child wandering the streets alone. It takes me less than 20 minutes to drive all the way across town from Longview to Lotawana, why did it take them so long???  I was, to say the least, disappointed in the response time of the police.  At the same time, I was very pleased that my neighbors were all concerned and participated in protecting this child.  At least the child is safe now.

 I wrote this account down to help me remember all the details.   My memory isn't what it used to be, and I thought there should be a record of this somewhere.  As I look back on my actions, I think maybe I should have dragged the boy (even if he was kicking and screaming) into my house, or at least to the front porch, to be sure he was safe until the police got here.

WIP Wednesday: 2012-05-02

It is May already.  Doesn't seem like it's been that long since Christmas, but isn't that the way it goes sometimes.

I started an online class on Tunisian Crochet last week.  I'll do a review on the class soon.  I've already completed 2 washcloths which I will post on Friday.  Today I'm posting my WIP from the class, the Multi Garment.  It's a sort of sampler of different tunisian stitches:

Another project that has shown some progress is my Tunisian Tee.  I've finished the 1st full body block (gosh, that's sound like a wrestling term), and am ready to start the next block.  There is a Tunisian Crochet-A-Long on this project that was scheduled to be complete a long time ago, but I don't think anyone ever finished the project.  I'm struggling with the pattern a bit and not having much luck getting help.

My Bumbleberrypie afghan is resting today.  I did manage to weave in all the ends on the completed squares and will start joining them soon.  Not sure how many more I'm going to need or if I'm going to stop doing squares and start thinking about a border.

This poor shawl that I was testing for a designer on Ravelry had to be ripped back 19 rows.  Her pattern called for 200g of fingering weight yarn, which was exactly what I had in my stash and no more.  I was about 2/3 through the LAST row when I ran out.  GRRR!  In the pic below, you see the almost finished shawl.  I've ripped back to row 30 now and am omitting row 31 in order to have enough to finish the shawl.

The shawl will come with me for my hair appointment this afternoon.  Maybe I can get a little bit done while I'm sitting under the hair dryer.  I'm getting my hair cut and COLORED.  This is unusual for me, but L commented how I ought to color the gray, so I'm going to try it.  It'll probably run all over everywhere when I ride my bike and sweat glisten until I drip.

FO Friday: 2012-04-20

Yay!  I have another finished object this week.  It is a shawl that I made to test this pattern.  It came out very pretty.  It's designed to use 1 100g skein of fingering yarn.  And it used almost exactly the whole skein.

WIP Wednesday: 2012-04-18

Only 2 WIP's to comment on this week.  The others had no progress.

Bumbleberry pie afghan - I sewed in the ends on the remaining finished squares.  Now I need to sew together what I've got and see if I'm going to need more or if it's time to add a border and finish it up.

And here is the Fuschia Fiesta Shawl Pattern that I am testing for a designer on Ravelry.  I've got 22 rows done.

FO Friday: 2012-04-13

Yeesh!  Friday the 13th.  But it hasn't been a bad day at all.  I did an hour of weight training this morning followed by 45 minutes on the stationary bike and now, 10 hours later, I feel like I need to go exercise some more.  Not very likely.  LOL

One project was finished this week -

WIP Wednesday: 2012-04-11

I've got several items on the hook today:

This is a shawl pattern that I am testing for the designer.  Right now I'm on hold and waiting for the designer to get back to me with some answers to a couple of questions.

This is the swatch for the beginning of a Tunisian Sock-in-the-round CAL.  This is the pattern.

 No progress on this one this week.  I'm WAY behind in making squares for the Granny-a-day CAL.

This one is still languishing.  I've folded it up and put it in the pile on the cutting table.  Don't know when I'll get motivated to work on it again.   Here's a link to the pattern for the square.

I work on this one when I go to the laundromat.  It's almost getting too big to carry with me though.  Haven't been to the laundromat yet this week, so no progress.  Pattern is from the Interweave Fall 2011 issue.

Rats!  I've run out of the yarn for this one.  It was a cone from Pisgah & Co., that I bought when the closed their factory in North Carolina.  It's Peaches & Cream 100% cotton, but it doesn't have the same texture as the cones and skeins you can get at Walmart and other big box stores.  Not use what I'll do with it.  I could re-do it in a smaller size, maybe; or re-do it and add another color; or just frog it and save the yarn for something else.  Hmmmmmm.

FO Friday: 2012-04-06

I worked pretty steadily all week, but do not have any finished projects to show for it.  There are a couple just waiting to have ends sewn in, etc, but I just can't get motivated enough to do it.  Just so I have a picture posted for today, here's a FO from a few months ago -

FO Friday: 2012-03-30

Yay! I finally have some finished objects to post! Both are the products of testing patterns for designers.

Cold Shoulder Pullover - This is done in tunisian knit stitch (tks) and uses a simple short row technique to shape the shoulder/armhole. Pattern has not been posted to Ravelry yet.















Bobble Fringe Scarf - An interesting technique that starts with a mesh and works a chain into the mesh.  Very clever.  This pattern isn't available yet either.

WIP Wednesday - 2012/03/29

Yes, I know today is Thursday and I'm a terrible blogger.  But the alliteration just isn't as pleasing as with the 'Wednesday' in the subject line.  Besides, I wasn't ready to take pictures and all that stuff yesterday.

So, do I have WIP's to talk about?  Does a dog have fleas?  I've got more WIP's than I can list.  I'll just do the top 5 or so.

1st my big news.  I was contacted by CGOA to mail in my portfolio for review for the Crochet Master's Certification.  Finally!!!! I mailed it Saturday and they confirmed receipt on Tuesday.  It has been assigned to a reviewer.  The email from CGOA said the the reviews can take up to a month and two reviewers will examine it.  So, I may not know anything to 2 months or more.  But at least I'm seeing some activity after waiting 9 months to be contacted to mail it in.

Modified Snowflake Afghan:  I've finished the body of the afghan and have started the edging.  I had 3 rounds of edging done when I decided to change how I was doing it, so I've actually done the edging twice.  Still have a couple of rounds to go and I'm thinking the afghan is too square.  But I'm dealing with that.

Bumbleberry Pie afghan: Didn't work on this one at all this week. Still lots of squares to be joined.  This is part of the Granny-A-Day CAL.  I think I'm about ready to finish making squares and start an edging, so will need another square project for the CAL.

 

Betty's Tunisian Tee: This is made in an entrelac fashion, but it's not easy to see in the pictures.  I gained a few rows this week.  I've tried to photo it around something since the bottom triangles have been joined in a circle.  At least I'm not still ripping out everything I'm putting in, I'm actually making some progress.

Spiral Afghan:  The spiral afghan that I had started last week has been undone.  Although I like the pattern, the yarn and hook didn't give me a soft drapey fabric.  I'll have to re-try this one later.

Poppy Afghan:  My poor, poor Poppy Afghan.  I frogged the edging back to the 1st round which is a round of dc.  I haven't decided whether to remove that round as well.  My options so far for rescuing the afghan are:

1. Take all the edging off and just leave it un-edged (I don't think that's a real word).
2. Take the rest of the edging off and start over with a new color.  I just can't see the edging I had planned in red though.
3. Either leave the dc round on and just finish the afghan there
4. Or try to do a different edging that will take less yarn and only uses what I have rescued from the previous, unfinished edging.

 

Stash Bag:  I got tired and needed to do something small with no pressure so I started a stash bag - 

 

Biking - the first day

Finally, the day I've been waiting for.  It's been over a month since I got my road bike.  I've been training for 6 months now.  Today is the day.  I'm going to take my bike out on the road for the first time.  I've been riding it stationery on a trainer since I got it so today is the first day I get to actually RIDE it.  Coach says we're supposed to bet in 100-200 base miles before the riding season starts in 2 weeks so I'm starting today.

My plan is to practice in the parking lot behind the strip mall close to my house.  There is a bike shop in the mall and the guys there are really helpful so I should be close to assistance if I need it.  I'll drive to the parking lot from my house because I've never had to mount the bike, dismount, start, stop or use the brakes.


So, I drive to the parking lot and walk around to the back of the van to get the bike out ....... and hit myself in the head with the back hatch.  Ow!  I don't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing that I already had my helmet on.  Good thing because it protected my head.  Bad thing because I'm pretty sure I hit my head because I misjudged the distance because I had the helmet on.   I mostly just shoved my glasses into my face, so my nose is a little tender now, but no permanent damage.

Ok, ok.  Now I have to get on the bike.  I lay it over like the coach showed me and swing my leg over.  Hurray!  It worked.  Uh,oh.  I just remembered that coach said you should check the pressure in the tires at least once a week.  I swing my let back the other way and get off the bike.  Open the back hatch back up, carefully keeping my face out of the way.  I get the tire pump out and look at the valve stem on the tire.  Hmmm, there's a funny little thingy on the end of the stem.  I turn it to open the stem.  Put the hose from the pump on the stem and psssssst, all the air comes out of the tire.  Now I have a flat tire ..... and the funny little thingy broke off in the tire pump hose.  Now I have to visit the bike shop for help.  They helpfully sell me a new inner tube and show me how to change a tire and air it up.  No, I still haven't actually done it myself.  While I'm there, I also buy a new stem bag for the front of my bike to carry my nutritious snacks in for when I actually ride for more than an hour.

Now I'm ready again.  My checklist - helmet, yup, sunglasses, yup, water, yup, tire pressure, yup, sunscreen, yup, snack, no.. but I don't intend to ride very long today.  Again, I do the little trick where I lay the bike over and swing my leg over it and get on again.  Whew!  It worked again.  I spend the next 45 minutes riding back and forth in the mostly empty, back parking lot.  Practicing turns (you do not turn the front wheel, you lean), practicing stop and starts, practicing using the gears and brakes.  I've forgotten about my shaky start.  I'm a serious bicyclist now.  I'm good.  I can ride.  I just can't get off the bike.

When it's time to leave, I carefully stop the bike and lay it over to get off.  Stopping was okay, standing on one leg, laying the bike to one side to bring the other leg over.  Uh-oh, my balance went out the window and I lose it (need to do more core work).  I start to tip and I'm unable to catch myself.  Heroically trying not to fall on the bike, I fall over it and land on my backside in the parking lot.  I'm sure the roofers on the duplexes behind the strip mall are trying hard not to laugh.  It was not graceful or pretty.  I humbly got up, put the bike in the van and drove home.  I have a tender nose, sore wrist and knee, and a couple of bruises on my leg; but I'm going back out tomorrow.  I only did 6 miles in the parking lot, I need more base miles.

2012-03-24: The Week That Was

Where do the days go?  Seems like the week just started and it's already done.  Just did mostly routine things this week.  Boring!  But it didn't feel boring all week.  All of my crochet stuff can be seen on my Ravelry Project Pages.



Review of the week:

• Fitness/exercise (the diet has been mostly kaput)
• Saturday -  HIT on the bicycle in the evening
• Sunday - HIT
  
• Monday - weight training in the morning (upper bod)y, HIT
• Tuesday - HIT
• Wednesday - Water aerobics (the fitness center has lost their lease so water workouts may be coming to an end)
• Thursday - Zumba in the morning, Bicycle Spin Class in the evening
  
• Friday - weight training in the morning (legs), HIT
• Crochet FO's
  
• Cold Shoulder Pullover Test
• Bobble Fringe Scarf Test
• Crochet WIP's
• Snowflake Stitch Afghan
• Sunburst Granny Afghan
• Bumbleberry Pie Afghan
• Stash Bag
• Betty's Tunisian Tee
• Other stuff
• Got my hair cut on Friday
• Talked online to #1son several times.  We both like bicycling, only he does more actual riding than I do.
  

WIP Wednesday - 2012-03-21

I may not complete this post before midnight, but I started it on Wednesday!  These are my current WIP's (well, at least the ones I can get to).  Wherever possible, I have provided information to the pattern information.

Bumbleberry Pie afghan: Making slow but steady progress on this one. Lots of squares to be joined.  This is part of the Granny-A-Day CAL.  I think I'm about ready to finish making squares and start an edging, so will need another square project for the CAL.


Bobble Fringe Scarf test:
Signed up for this test on 2012-03-11.  I rummaged around for some #5 yarn. I don’t use it very often and was not optimistic of finding any any in my stash, but there was some in sack of yarn that I got through freecycle last week. Yippee! Don’t know for sure yet how to combine the colors, but it should be suitable for testing.  Progress has speeded up today since the test is due on the 23rd of march.  I've finished the base grid and am ready to make the vertical chains.


Betty's Tunisian Tee:  I worked on this one a little bit at the doctor's office today.  Joined the 1st 2 triangles into a circle and started the 1st block.  This is made in an entrelac fashion, but it's not easy to see in the pictures.



Snowflake Stitch Afghan:  no change on this one this week


Spiral Afghan:  I started this one to see if the yarn from the Snowflake Afghan above would like this pattern better.  I do like the way it looks.  Do NOT like the way it feels.  There is no drape or softness at all. This one will be re-incarnated into something else.


Poppy afghan:  My field of poppies on white met with a disaster a couple of weeks ago when I spilled (well, I dripped) some tea on it and I tried to wash it.  The red yarn faded and all that snowy white yarn turned a very light pink.  The pink isn't a bad color, I just didn't have any of that color to finish the border.  I've decided to remove the partially completed border and replace it with a red border.  Not exactly what I had envisioned, but I think it's a way that I can salvage the project.  This one is also part of the Granny-A-Day CAL mentioned above.

WIP Wednesday - 2012-03-14

These are my current WIP's (well, at least the ones I can get to).  Wherever possible, I have provided information to the pattern information.

Cold Shoulder Top test:  Deadline on this test is 2012-03-15.  I've got all the seams done and I'm working on the ruffle.  Should be done today.


Bumbleberry Pie afghan: Making slow but steady progress on this one.  I love looking at stacks of squares.


Bobble Fringe Scarf test:
Signed up for this test on 2012-03-11.  I rummaged around for some #5 yarn. I don’t use it very often and was not optimistic of finding any any in my stash, but there was some in sack of yarn that I got through freecycle last week. Yippee! Don’t know for sure yet how to combine the colors, but it should be suitable for testing.


Betty's Tunisian Tee:  This one is almost in hibernation.  Every time I take it out to work on it, I end up unraveling it back to the base triangles.


Snowflake Stitch Afghan:  This one is my fair project and I'm not very happy with it, but I'm too far in to switch now.  I've started doing the border, although you can't really see it in this picture.  I do not like the way this yarn is pooling/striping.


Spiral Afghan:  I started this one to see if the yarn from the Snowflake Afghan above would like this pattern better.  I do like the way it looks.  Do NOT like the way it feels.  There is no drape or softness at all.  I may have to try again with a bigger hook.