Petite

I felt festive for Halloween this year so I made a chart from the silhouette of the Oogie Boogie Man from The Nightmare Before Christmas. I hope that everyone else enjoys having another TNBC knitting pattern floating around as much as I am!

• US size 5 needles if you are a loose knitter, or size 6′s if you are a tight knitter
• Roughly 20-40 yards of any worsted weight, 100% cotton yarn
• If necessary, a crochet hook for fixing dropped stitches, a pair of scissors, and a sewing needle for weaving in ends

Pattern

CO 38 Stitches
Row 1 (RS): K across
Row 2 (WS): K across
Row 3: K across
Row 4: K across
Row 5: K across
Row 6: K4, P30, K4
Row 7: K across
Row 8: K4, P30, K4
Row 9: K18, P2, K18
Row 10: K4, P2, K1, P10, K3, P14, K4
Row 11: K17, P5, K9, P2, K5
Row 12: K4, P1, K3, P8, K6, P12, K4
Row 13: K15, P8, K6, P4, K5
Row 14: K4, P1, K5, P4, K10, P7, K2, P1, K4
Row 15: K5, P2, K7, P10, K4, P5, K5
Row 16: K4, P1, K5, P4, K11, P6, K2, P1, K4
Row 17: K5, P3, K5, P11, K3, P6, K5
Row 18: K4, P1, K6, P3, K11, P5, K3, P1, K4
Row 19: K5, P3, K5, P11, K2, P7, K5
Row 20: K4, P1, K7, P2, K11, P4, K4, P1, K4
Row 21: K5, P4, K5, P9, K3, P7, K5
Row 22: K4, P1, K7, P3, K9, P5, K4, P1, K4
Row 23: K5, P5, K4, P9, K3, P7, K5
Row 24: K4, P1, K7, P3, K9, P4, K5, P1, K4
Row 25: K5, P5, K4, P9, K2, P8, K5
Row 26: K4, P2, K7, P2, K9, P4, K5, P1, K4
Row 27: K6, P4, K4, P9, K2, P7, K6
Row 28: K4, P2, K7, P2, K4, P2, K3, P4, K4, P2, K4
Row 29: K6, P5, K3, P2, K4, P2, K3, P7, K6
Row 30: K4, P2, K7, P3, K1, P5, K2, P3, K5, P2, K4
Row 31: K6, P5, K2, P3, K5, P1, K2, P8, K6
Row 32: K4, P2, K5, P1, K2, P2, K1, P6, K2, P2, K5, P2, K4
Row 33: K6, P5, K2, P2, K8, P2, K2, P5, K6
Row 34: K4, P2, K5, P2, K2, P9, K1, P2, K4, P3, K4
Row 35: K7, P4, K2, P1, K8, P3, K2, P4, K7
Row 36: K4, P3, K4, P2, K3, P11, K4, P3, K4
Row 37: K7, P4, K8, P1, K3, P2, K2, P4, K7
Row 38: K4, P4, K3, P3, K1, P3, K1, P2, K1, P5, K3, P4, K4
Row 39: K8, P3, K5, P1, K2, P2, K2, P1, K3, P3, K8
Row 40: K4, P5, K3, P2, K1, P2, K2, P2, K1, P5, K3, P4, K4
Row 41: K9, P3, K3, P2, K3, P2, K5, P2, K9
Row 42: K4, P5, K3, P5, K1, P3, K2, P3, K3, P5, K4
Row 43: K9, P4, K1, P3, K9, P3, K9
Row 44: K4, P6, K2, P10, K2, P1, K3, P6, K4
Row 45: K10, P3, K13, P2, K10
Row 46: K4, P7, K2, P12, K2, P7, K4
Row 47: K11, P2, K12, P2, K11
Row 48: K4, P7, K2, P12, K2, P7, K4
Row 49: K12, P3, K9, P2, K12
Row 50: K4, P9, K2, P7, K3, P9, K4
Row 51: K14, P2, K22
Row 52: K4, P38, K4
Row 53: K across
Row 54: K4, P38, K4
Row 55: K across
Row 56: K across
Row 57: K across
Row 58: K across
Row 59: K across
Row 60: Bind Off

Materials

• 30 yards of worsted weight yarn
• Size 6 needles
• Button (if doing buttoned version)
• Sewing needle to weave in ends

Gauge: Unimportant, but it’s 6 stitches = 1 inch. Headband shown in the example photos came out 1.75 inches (4cm) wide.

Key
k: knit
k: purl
yo: yarn over
k2tog: knit two together
drop extra yo’s: drop extra yarn overs
RS: Right side
WS: Wrong side

Pattern

CO 10 stitches

Row 1: k all stitches
Row 2: p all stitches

Continue knitting in st st until you have roughly an inch of knitted work, ending on a purl row.

Row 3: k1, [yo, k2tog] x4, k1
Row 4: p all stitches

Repeat rows 3 & 4 until you have about 18-20 inches of knitted work, or until the piece is as long as you prefer. End on a purl row. Remember headband will stretch.

This portion makes the buttonhole.
Row 5: k all stitches
Row 6: p all stitches
Row 7: k4, yox3, k2tog, k4
Row 8: p5, drop extra yo’s, p5
Row 9: k2tog, k8, k2tog (8 stitches)
Row 10: p all stitches
Row 11: k2tog, k4, k2tog (6 stitches)
Row 12: p all stitches
Row 13: k2tog, k2, k2tog (4 stitches)
Row 14: p all stitches
cast off

Sew on button to the middle of the knitted area at the beginning of the work. Weave in loose ends. Put on headband and enjoy!

*A note: I personally have difficulty keeping my edges neat and always slip the first stitch of my work. The slipped stitch is reflected in my example photos but not the pattern itself.

I got my engagement photos done yesterday and they turned out quite well, IMO. I thought I would share them on here for those who aren’t on FB.

Whole set can be seen here on Flickr

Photos were taken by Sarah Belcher of Forever Photography

The patio garden I planted last year turned into a bit of a disaster once we moved into an apartment with a real patio. The plants were nice but none of the vegetables plants yielded much in the way of food and there was very little patio available to sit and enjoy once it was full of potted plants. My new plant this year consists of no pots. I have been able to implement this plan thanks to Big Lots, who had the previous years’ Topsy Turvy planters available for $2.50 apiece.

I already have peas growing in the strip of dirt available in my patio, and I have an additional planter for strawberries that will probably be hung in a few weeks, once the school rush is over (I have two weeks of school left and then finals; meaning many, many assignments, especially when you include all the papers I need to finish/rewrite that I’ve put off all semester. Life in general is on hold for the next three weeks, though that’s normal this close to the end of the semester. After that I have two jobs lined out over the summer. Go me!).

Some general info for those who are unfamiliar with Topsy Turvy planters: each box comes with a planter that has the wires already attached and a hook that you can hang the planter from. I didn’t know going into this that potting soil and the actual tomato plant had to be bought separately, or I probably would have tried to grow one of my own earlier in the season to save a few bucks. Granted, given the size of the box this probably should have been obvious, but I do wish there was a product list somewhere on the box to eliminate the guesswork. Home Depot has my back, and I was able to buy a large bag of potting soil relatively cheaply. Plant prices seem to be fairly universal. At the very least, I can certify that the prices of plants at Home Depot are the same as at KMart.

Ramble ramble ramble. Here is a picture of my tomato plant in its topsy turvy planter, hung just a few hours ago.

Last month I participated in a gift swap on Ravelry for the first time. I had a lot of fun with my partner’s package, made her a hat and bought about $30 worth of stuff that I thought she would like. I shipped the package on 3-day shipping over a week ago and since: nothing. I thought that maybe the package had arrived and person I had been assigned had, perhaps, just been busy and not gotten around to making a confirmation post but I recently asked the person in charge of the swap about it and evidently my swap partner is known to be pretty good about that sort of thing. Plus. I checked her profile and found that she had posted on other message boards recently.

In summary, I am beginning to suspect that my awesome package has been lost by the postal service. I have my fingers crossed that maybe there has been an unforeseen error (misspelled address or something) and the postal service is sending it back to me, thus the delay, but I really don’t know. I didn’t buy insurance or delivery confirmation for it because I am a cheapskate and am now deeply regretting my actions. Sarah (my sister) is really active in gift swaps on this website and she told me that the postal service lost two of the packages sent out in the December swap, thus she has sworn of the postal service and now worships at the altar of FedEx. I don’t have the funds (or the time) to do another swap in the next few months but I may have to keep these alternate shipping methods in mind for the future if this is how it’s gonna be.

First some sad news: my old man cat Big Hairy (the black and white cat in previous posts) was put to sleep several weeks ago. He had a saddle thrombus and I’d really rather not go into the details of that right now (though if someone asked I wouldn’t mind chronicling it in a separate post in the future) but suffice to say putting him to sleep was definitely the humane thing to do. He was 19 years old, which makes him well past being a centenarian in cat years. I had really hoped that he would live to the big 20, but ah well.

I would like to say that out of respect for his memory I waited a decent amount of time before getting another cat, but then my mom took me to the humane society “just to look around” a week later and I ended up coming home with this:

He is a 3-year old siamese mix and yes, he is cross eyed. He is also declawed but I swear that’s coincidental. I don’t advocate declawing cats and didn’t realize he was until after I had already decided to get him. He is also overweight and I am going to be rationing his food for the rest of his life, but eh. I actually had him on a diet cat food for a while but neither I nor Percy were very fond of it, and I’ve since switched him to a holistic cat food that we both are in favor of. I figure if I’m going to ration his food there’s no need to take even more fun out of his life.

I named him Percival, though we mostly call him Percy. My boyfriend calls him Demon Cat from Hell. We hadn’t realized quite how spoiled we were with Big Hairy, who mostly slept and snuggled for the last few years. Percy jumps on stuff and chews things up just for attention. We know this because he tears things up in our presence A LOT but not so much when we aren’t at home. He also can be perfectly sweet one minute and lean over to bite you the next. I think he’s kind of bipolar, but I still love him to pieces.

Anyhow, it occurred to me after a few weeks that Percy could maybe use a friend, and after getting the okay from our landlord I offered to get Mike a cat for Christmas. He has a much longer patience span than me but after a few weeks we ended up coming home with this:

We eventually decided her name was Scout. She is a 6-month old torty/tabby. We also got her from a humane society, albeit a different one than Percy.

If getting Percy was behavioral shock than Scout was almost a panic attack. For the most part she is perfectly sweet and doesn’t have any of the weird personality quirks Percy has. Nevertheless, it had been a really long time since I’d had a kitten. Mike tells me that climbing the curtains and running around for no good reason are perfectly normal behaviors for kittens, but it’s not something I was used to.

Mike had wanted to wait a while before getting a second cat but I’m glad we didn’t. My main reason for pushing it was because I was certain the longer we waited the more difficult it would have been to adapt Percy to having a second cat around. I still think I was right. Percy harrassed her almost non stop in the beginning, though he never drew blood or anything like that. They’ve gotten used to each other since and sometimes I even catch him licking her face.

Also, he stopped maniacally biting our feet shortly after we got her.

I decided to try growing vegetables this year, and so far have… encouraging results? What I mean is, they’re growing, but I’m really not sure if I’m going to get any actual food off of these things. Anyhow, it’s an experience, if nothing else.

Here is the garden, as of about two weeks ago. From left to right you have tomatoes in the large grey containers, peas in the three smaller ones, and a banana pepper plant in the green one. I have also planted a bell pepper plant since this picture was taken; it was a gift from Deanna.

Ever since I moved in and expressed a wish to grow vegetables my grandparents have offered to set aside a bit of their lawn for me to play in, but I chose to do containers instead. I figure it’s an investment for future apartment living. When we do clearance on garden center at work this year I’m probably going to stock up on these stupid containers. The good ones are effing expensive.

My tomato plants. The ones on the left I bought pre-grown at work for like, 99 cents apiece after the seeds I originally planted decided to never grow. I’ve actually gotten two edible cherry tomatoes off these things this week, which is encouraging.

I’m insanely happy about the ones on the right because they did grow from seed, and are growing fairly fast. They probably won’t have fruit until later in the season, but my mom says that ones grown from seed tend to produce a lot more fruit than the ones you get pre-grown at the store. I’m pretty curious about this one and hoping it works out, if for no other reason than I really can’t remember if I planted big tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, and am DYING to find out!

My peas. What can I say, I also love peas, and it helps that they are easy to grow. In fact, I also grew these from seed. They are starting to fall over now because I haven’t given them anything to climb, and Deanna has offered me some of the posts she got for her garden this year. I’m intending to replant them in a bigger pot before I take her up on that, as putting the stakes in these little pots would be kinda stupid. Plus, the white plastic pot is actually cracked because Mike stepped on it (we were moving a couch, so I forgive him), and needs to be thrown out, and since I recently had to throw away my spider plant and asparagus fern (RIP) due to the evil, EVIL of the fungus gnats I’m wanting to use these clay pots to plant new ones.

And last but not least, the banana pepper plant. This was an impulse buy, as I’ve never seen anyone else grow one but it sounded really good and was like, $3 at work. I’m thinking I need to look up directions on how to grow one though, because the stalk is turning purple, which I think could be a sign he’s getting over watered. Plus, I have no idea what time of season to expect food off of this guy. But if I can get him to live, well, I DO like banana peppers. Especially in salad…

I saw this a couple of weeks ago and decided I HAD to try something with this label on it. Label of cat juggling fire = automatic win. Luckily (for me) they offered a sweet wine, as I never seem to like any other kind. I’m drinking it now and it’s pretty good. Will probably buy it again at some point.

Previously I posted about washing hair using baking soda and vinegar. As I mentioned, the vinegar works pretty well as a detangler but not as well as a normal conditioner, so it’s probably a good idea to deep condition it once in a while. Here is your guide for improvising deep conditioner at home. You can use any combination of these ingredients to help out your hair. I generally just mix everything together with a fork, but some people prefer a blender. To each their own.

Egg: Works great as a base and is consistently the first ingredient I use when I start mixing together a conditioner. The protein in the egg white is very good for hair, helping to repair damage. The yolk is good for your follicles. Either part of the egg will add shine. I’ve read that a lot of people like to separate out the egg and only use either the yolk or the white on their hair, but I generally just use the whole egg. Keep in mind you can get too much of a good thing. Exposing your hair to too much protein can cause it to break, so make sure to only use this as a once a week or less type of thing. If you have super long hair use two eggs. Leave the egg in for at least 15 minutes. Rinse the egg out in cool or lukewarm water so it won’t scramble in your hair. The only issue I have with using egg is that I find the smell unpleasant, though I find that adding some of the other ingredients listed below can help mitigate this (especially with lemon juice and cinnamon).

Yogurt: similar to the egg, it repairs damage and adds shine. Make sure to use a plain yogurt bereft of artificial sweeteners, as they can be bad for your skin, especially if you are acne-prone. In addition to having a protein profile similar to the egg, the active cultures in yogurt are also good for your hair and scalp. Yogurt is an especially good one to use after sunburn, as it can help soothe irritated skin. I personally prefer the egg, as it is cheaper than the yogurt and I just like it better, but if you want to avoid the egg yogurt has some benefits the egg doesn’t provide, such as smelling differently and being safe to rinse out in warm water. There’s also no reason you can’t use them together, if you want.

Olive Oil: Some people hate adding real oils to their hair but I find that olive oil (especially when coupled with the egg) is especially beneficial to dry, frizzy hair. I never make conditioner without using a teaspoon or two of olive oil.

Honey: There’s a lot of interesting information on the internet regarding the restorative effects of honey on hair. I’ve read some articles where people claim that adding it to your hair treatments can help regrow thinning or even balding hair. In my case I’ve found it helps regrow broken hair and also think it is beneficial for split-ends and flyaways. This is another one that can also be helpful if you’ve sunburned your scalp.

Lemon Juice: This obviously isn’t a conditioning agent but it can still be beneficial as long as you restrict it to a teaspoon or so; enough to get beneficial effects without weakening the conditioning agents. Lemon juice is particularly famous for being a natural lightener, especially for people with light-colored hair such as blonde. It is also useful because, like vinegar, lemon juice helps loosen and rinse out product that can stick to hair. If you want quicker action as far as highlights in your hair try spraying lemon juice on it and sitting in the sun for a while.

Cinnamon: this one is also a natural lightener, though it’s more favored among people with darker hair as it tends to add highlights with a brown tint, unlike lemon. Be sparing with this one, as too much of it will make your scalp burn. The other nice thing about it is it’s pretty much guaranteed to make any mixture you add it to smell much nicer. I’ve read that if you really hunger for cinnamon highlights you need to try leaving it on for a couple of hours instead of just fifteen minutes and you’ll see much more visible effects.

Some ingredients I haven’t tried that ought be mentioned:

Avocado: With the nutrient, fat, and oil content in avocado this makes perfect sense to me. I personally haven’t tried it because they’re expensive and I prefer to eat them instead of saving part of the avocado for my hair.

Cocoa Powder: The opposite of lemon juice and cinnamon, cocoa powder will make hair darker. The person I got this info from uses it to keep her hair a nice, even black.

Other oils: may be beneficial for hair, but I have great faith in olive oil and prefer to not deviate.

Mayonnaise: a lot of the ingredients you end up using when you mix an at-home deep conditioner are in common mayonnaise. I’ve read several positive reviews from using this as a conditioner. Personally, I’m not a fan of the smell, and besides we stock veganaise instead of regular mayonnaise, and I have no urge to use it in my hair.

Vinegar: both white and ACV vinegar are extremely common for hair use. It softens hair and helps rinse out product. Since I use it as a daytime conditioner I have no urge to add it to my weekly deep conditioner as well.