look what i bought

this my friends is a spider catcher. i am irrationally afraid of spiders. i cannot even play with fake plastic spiders during the 'minibeast' topic at school. i cannot bring myself to kill them or catch them, choosing instead to quake in fear if a see one. but those days are past me now!

you simply pull the trigger which opens up the plastic bristles at the other end. you place the bristles over the spider and release the trigger. the spider is caught and easily released outside as the bristles hold but don't squish. and it's all at arms length.

they give you a fake plastic spider to practice on, but i threw it out as i didn't like it. so i practised on my snail door stop. luckily i haven't had to use this on a real spider yet but i know there are 3 big ones lurking somewhere in the depths, i've seen them.

who is the queen of crafts?

that would be me.

i just made the christmas card star and it's beautiful. it almost made me cry a few times as the base shape doesn't take into consideration that all the points are going to be ever so slightly bigger than the template because of folding and card thickness. so getting your points to lay flat on the base is impossible, but creative gluing can achieve the perfect star!

here are my tips if you want to attempt the crafting glory...

you don't need 20 cards as the instructions say, you need around 10 as you can get 2 points out of every card front.

glue the base shape onto the back cover of a card and score the fold lines with scissors! scoring is your friend. make this first so it's good and dry when it comes to gluing on the points.

trace around the point template on the back of each card front with a pencil and scrape on the fold lines with a ruler and scissors. this way you score the card and it makes for a perfect fold. remember, scoring is your friend.

hold each point in place to ensure it's really stuck before trying to glue the next one.

good luck and happy crafting!

maybe i'll try the 3D snowflake next.

so you think you can knit? : the drop stitch scarf

this is a quick and easy scarf that doesn't require much concentration. here's the original pattern that i tweaked my pattern from.

you will need:
15mm needles (or smaller)
1.5-2 balls of thin to medium yarn

cast on 16 stitches
knit 6 rows
knit 1, *wrap yarn around needle twice, knit 1; repeat from * across
knit, dropping extra wraps from previous row
knit 6 rows (you should still have 16 stitches)
repeat until you reach desired length, end on a set of 6 knitted rows, bind off.

so you think you can knit? : the beanie hat

this hat is totally adorable and easy. the trickiest part is starting.


you will need:
1 50gram or 75 meter ball of thinner yarn
5mm circular needles
1 or 2 place markers

cast on 91 stitches

do NOT turn your work around, spread the stitches around your needles so that the first stitch you cast on is at the top of the left hand needle and the last stitch you cast on is at the top of the right hand needle.

make sure that your stitch row is not twisted in any place.

place a marker at the first stitch you knit (it's also the first stitch you cast on)

start knitting as normal, the last stitch you cast on will magically become attached to the first stitch you cast on. you should now be knitting in a circle and each time you complete a circle, it's called one round. this is why you need the marker, you need to know where you began so you can keep count of rounds.

alright, are you with me still? if not, check out this site, or this one.

so we've cast on 91 stitches.

4 rounds of knit 1, purl 1, repeat
15 rounds of knit
knit 11, knit 2 together, repeat to the end of the round (k11, k2 tog, rp)
knit 1 round of which you should have 84 stitches (k84)
k10, k2 tog, rp
k77
k9, k2 tog, rp
k70
k8, k2 tog, rp
k63
k7, k2 tog, rp
k56
k6, k2 tog, rp
k49
k5, k2 tog, rp
k42
k4, k2 tog, rp
k35
5 rounds of knit (or until you reach the desired size)
weave the end of your yarn through the 35 stitches, pull tight and knot off. knot the beginning of your hat.

TA DA! you have a hat that you made all by yourself!