Today Makes 3 Years! Wow!

Wow.  Today makes 3 years of blogging crafts.  Crazy how time goes, isn't it. For Rad Linc Craft's 3 Year Blogoversary, I thought I'd make a quick posts of blogs or sites that I've run across that have inspired me.  The full list is way to large to include, but here are some of my faves.

Craft
Make
Craftster
CraftGossip
Crochet Pattern Central
Crafty Pod
Dabbled
Chica And Jo
TotallyTutorials
Dollar Store Crafts
WolfDreamer

I'm sure I'm missing tons of great stuff out there.  What are some of your favorites?

Winner announced: July's Giveaway, Part Two

Awesome... so it's time to announce a new winner.  The prize for this giveaway is a Zoo Amigurumi book called "A Zoo For You", featuring 11 zoo animals to learn to crochet.

I, again, listed the names of the previous giveaway's entries followed by this giveaway's entries, and used random.org to pick the winning number.

And the winning number is 1.  Congratulations to Emily.  :-)  Get your crochet hooks ready. ;)

Emily, I'll ship the book to you in the next few days. :)

Thanks to all that has entered.  I hope to have another giveaway soon, just not sure when or what quite yet. 

New projects coming soon.  Stay tuned. :)

Unicorn Amigurumi: It's just Despicable.

I created this pattern a few months ago.  Fair warning tho, this is my very first pattern, and I've only made one unicorn.  But, I think it turned out pretty well... so I'm sharing it. (I'm quite proud of it!!!! )

Let me know if there are any mistakes and I can correct them.

A few quick notes:

* #sc + inc means sc in the next # sc’s, then 2 sc in the next sc * repeat all the way around.
* #sc + dec means sc in the next # sc’s, then skip one sc, and sc in the next sc * repeat all the way around.

Body

use white yarn. Periodically stuff with polyfill.
1.  5 sc in a magic ring
2.  2 sc per stitch
3.  1 sc + inc
4.  2 sc + inc
5.  3 sc + inc
6.  4 sc + inc
7.  5 sc + inc
8.  6 sc + inc
9.  7 sc + inc
10.  8 sc + inc
11-30.  1 sc per stitch
31.  8 sc + dec
32.  7 sc + dec
33.  6 sc + dec
34.  5 sc + dec
35.  4 sc + dec
36.  3 sc + dec
37.  2 sc + dec
38.  1 sc + dec
39 … decs until the hole is closed.

Leg (make 4)

in pink yarn:
1. 5 sc in magic ring
2. 2 sc per stitch
3. 1 sc + inc
4-7.  1 per stitch (on 4th row, backloops only)
switch to white yarn:
8-12. 1 per stitch
13. 6 dc, 1 sc, 1ss , finish off.
Stuff with polyfill before attaching

Head

use white yarn. Periodically stuff with polyfill.
1. 5 sc in magic ring
2. 2 sc per stitch
3. 1 sc + inc
4. 2 sc + inc
5. 1 sc per stitch
6. 3 sc + inc
7. 1 sc per stitch
8. 4 sc + inc
9-11. 1 sc per stitch
12. 5 sc + inc
13-15. 1 sc per stitch
switch to grey yarn.
16. 5 sc + dec
17. 4 sc + dec
18. 3 sc + dec
19. 2 sc + dec
20. 1 sc + dec
21... dec until the hole is closed

Ears (make 2)

use white yarn.
1. 4 sc in magic loop
2. 1 sc + inc
3-6. 1 per stitch
finish off leaving tail for sewing.

Neck

use white yarn.
1. Chain 15, join into a ring with ss.
2. 4 sc + inc
3. 10 dc, 10 sc, finish off with ss.
stuff with a bit of polyfill between attaching the head and the body.

Horn

use yellow yarn.
1. ch 2, 4sc into 1st ch, link back to 1st sc with ss.
2. 1 sc + inc
3. 2 sc + inc
4-8. 1 sc per stitch
finish off.
stuff with polyfill before attaching.

Eyeball (make 2)

use white yarn. Stuff with polyfill before closing.
1. 3 sc in magic ring
2. 2 sc in each
3. 1 sc in each
4... dec until the hole is closed
use black yarn.
make a french knot for the pupil.

Assembly:

Sew legs to the body, the dc’s of the leg is the outside side of the leg.
Sew the neck to the body.  The dc’s of the neck will attach to the top of the body.
Begin attaching small side of head to the body.  Half way through, stuff the neck with polyfill.
Sew bottom together when attaching ears to head
Sew to attach horn to head.
Sew to attach eyes to head.
Embroider a line between the white and grey yarn of the head using the pink yarn.
Attach pink yarn for the tail and for the mane of the unicorn.
Use pink felt for inside of ears and for tongue. For the tongue, I cut out a pill shape (like the tongue shape folded over), sewed it in on the fold line, add some glue and fold.

More pictures:

Enjoy ! :)  I'd love to see the creations if you guys follow this pattern. Feel free to post it on the flickr site.

Please do not reprint this pattern on your site or any other page.  Feel free to link to this page. :)

Random Portland Street Art

Portland seems to be a very artistic place.  While I walked around the downtown area, there was art everywhere.  Anyway, I took more pictures. :)

BTW, the free rail zone is just freaking awesome.  Kudos to Portland for having such a great rail system.  It got me where I wanted to go effectively and efficiently.

Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, OR

Recently, I went to Portland on a business trip.  This was my first ever trip to Portland, so I tried to make the most of my short time there.  Luckily, I didn't have to go far to see some pretty awesome art.  Art work was scattered around the downtown area.  Also, I gotta thank my twitter friend and fellow crafter @SisterDiane (check out her awesome blog too) who  followed thru with some awesome suggestions of crafty places to go.  I couldn't go to all of them, but I was able to go to the Museum of Contemporary Craft.

The Museum of Contemporary Craft is a nice 2 story museum located in downtown Portland. While I was there, the exhibit was "Laurie Herrick:  Weaving Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow."  It was an amazing exhibit.  Laurie Herrick taught weaving for Oregon College of Arts and Crafts.  The exhibit was a collection of her work, as well as a contemporary perspective of 5 artists' interpretation of her patterns through a variety of new mediums. There's also a table of all sorts of mediums that people are invited to try weaving on cardboard looms.

I took pictures. :)

This one had incredible texture.

I love this pattern.  So simple and yet, not.

Here's the cardboard looms where you can try your hand at weaving.

Woven clothes.

Here's a closeup shot of one of them. I like how the colors mix.

I like this one too.  :)

 Here's a closeup.

This one was eye catching.  Very dimensional.

Anyway, if you're in the Portland area, you should totally check out the Museum of Contemporary Craft. The admission is only $3 and you can go through the whole place with a leisurely pace in about an hour.  There's also a store where you can buy things from local crafters.

Summer Harvest: Freezing Green Beans

Hopefully, your summer harvest is going well, and you're loaded with so many green beans and tomatoes that you don't know what to do with them.  :)  If that's not the case, it's okay because this preservation technique will work with store bought (or farmers market bought) beans as well.

What you need:

Green beans
Salt
Sauce pan
Water
Ice
Freezer bags

Here's what you do:

1.  Boil water and season with salt.  This increases the boiling point of the water so the temps can get just a bit hotter.

2.  While water is coming to a boil, prepare the green beans.  I generally cut of the ends, and then cut them into sizes that will fit in the bags and wash them.

3.  Prepare ice water in a bowl.

4.  Now we'll do what's called blanching.  I generally do this in small batches because I never think to use a large pan.  You just want to make sure you don't over crowd the beans in the pan, as that will change the temp of the water, and make it not as efficient in blanching.  I also do things in small batches because it's much easier to not over-blanch them when you only deal with small batches.

4a.  So, to blanch the beans, put the beans (in small batches) into the boiling water.  I stir a bit to make sure the beans have evenly spread in the water.

4b.  Keep the beans in for  3 minutes.

4c.  After 3 minutes, take the beans out of the boiling water, and quickly submerge them into the ice water.  Keep them there for several minutes til they are no longer warm.  This basically shocks the bean and stops the cooking.  It's how you get the nice bright green color in frozen beans.

5.  Remove the beans from the ice water, and dry them.  You can now stick them in freezer bags and put them in the freezer ready for use at a future date.

Now on Facebook!!!

Some exciting news.  Rad Linc Crafts now has it's own Facebook page.  If you enjoy this blog, please "like" the page on Facebook.  You can do so by clicking "like" below.  Thanks very much.

Winner announced: July's Giveaway, Part One

Happy August, peeps!  I can't believe how fast this past month, let alone the past 7 months have gone.  As the last month lies behind us, so does part one of July's giveaway.  However, don't forget about part two of July's giveaway: the Zoo Amigurumi book.  Those of you who have entered in the Tea wallet giveaway have been automatically entered to win the Zoo Amigurumi book.  You can improve your chances by entering again thru the Zoo Amigurumi Giveaway post (giving you 2 chances for the book).

Okay, so for starters, I listed all the names of the previous (nylon flower book) giveaway, and then listed the names of all that entered in this giveaway, and put numbers by each name.  Then, I used random.org to pick the winner.  Here's the list of names, and the screen scrape of the randomizer.

Congratulations to JennieVTurner, who has won the tea bag wallet and the $10 giftcard. Yay! Enjoy the wallet and giftcard. Please comment on this page with the same google profile that you used to enter. Include your email address or twitter, or some way I can contact you to get your mailing information.  I can remove the comment afterwards. Thanks.

Thanks to all that has entered this giveaway.  Again, don't forget about the next giveaway. :)  There's still time to enter.  Just visit the giveaway post and make a comment. :)