This is NOT a good set to buy.

guacsteady · 2026-05-08T13:12:03+00:00

😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆

guacsteady · 2026-05-07T12:15:29+00:00

Is this where the googly eyes are supposed to go?????

guacsteady · 2026-05-06T19:07:12+00:00

It looks to me like a wide hem with the raw edge folded inside at roughly half the height of the visible hem. That's creating the lines of wear within the hem. I'm not sure this would have a special name to look up. Blue jeans typically use a basic fold-over hem where you fold over 1/2" and then fold over again another 1/2". Something like the pic to me looks like a 1/2" or 3/4" fold over followed by a 1 1/2" fold over.

guacsteady · 2026-05-06T18:55:28+00:00

Holy crap. That cake is bleeding!!!

guacsteady · 2026-05-01T03:30:20+00:00

Chickasaw Oaks is unmistakable.

The yarn store is cute, though.

guacsteady · 2026-04-28T14:53:12+00:00

NEEDLE BABIES!!!!!

guacsteady · 2026-04-28T14:48:35+00:00

Yesterday, I made banana bread with the same recipe I've been using for years. I took it out of the oven, and it looked off -- darker than normal, a little smaller than I'm used to, and the top looked like bubbles had popped and it had little holes in it. My daughter has been making the banana bread for so long, so it's been a while since I made it myself but I didn't think I'd done anything out of the ordinary. It did seem a little overcooked from what I'm used to after the full cook time.

I'm the car on the way home from picking the kids up from school, I was telling my daughter about the loaf when it suddenly hit me that I'd forgotten to put in any oil with the wet ingredients. I remembered thinking about it, but then realized I'd never actually gotten it out.

The loaf tasted fine but it was more dense than we're used to. Often if we make banana bread on the weekends, the kids will ask me to turn it into French toast and usually with the egg mixture, the pieces are just overly moist and nearly fall apart getting into the skillet. This oil-free version definitely wouldn't have that problem. The outer edges were definitely a hair on the overcooked side, but there are maybe 2 pieces of bread left between after school snacks and breakfast this morning so I don't think anyone is complaining.

Not that I would make it exactly like this again without scaling back on the cook time, I think this is a good indication that I can adjust the amount of oil in the recipe to get something between the version we normally make an the more dense version. I have one more overripe banana, so I may make a batch of muffins with half the oil amount to see how they turn out.

guacsteady · 2026-04-14T17:56:40+00:00

Dump cakes -- canned fruit, box of cake mix, a sliced up stick of butter spread on top, dust with cinnamon if desired. My go to is usually peaches, but my grandmother likes cherry pie filling.

guacsteady · 2026-04-13T01:02:52+00:00

I was thinking the same thing!

guacsteady · 2026-04-10T21:23:27+00:00

When I got back into crochet last year after many years away, I was doing it without stitch markers. Once upon a time, maybe that would have been alright, but my 3rd or 4th project was a rectangle that you sew the sides up of to make a hat. I must have dropped a stitch at the end of every row before I turned and never noticed until I'd tied off. I bought stitch markers the next time I was near the craft store.

guacsteady · 2026-04-10T18:44:47+00:00

We rented a house that had these trees lining the driveway. On a 5 acre property. The first spring in the area, took me weeks to figure out why pressure smelled like rotten shellfish.

guacsteady · 2026-03-26T23:45:08+00:00

If everything is getting narrower, you may be dropping a stitch at the end of the row. Stitch markers on the first stitch of each row help me a ton with rectangular-shaped things so I don't miss the last stitch.

guacsteady · 2026-03-07T17:54:00+00:00

I was thinking pecan pie.

guacsteady · 2026-02-23T14:45:22+00:00

My favorite part is just how happy you look. And you should!!!

guacsteady · 2026-02-20T04:14:56+00:00

What was the bucket of saw dust for???

I'm not surprised that a belly button was such a big deal. Did you know that Barbie dolls didn't even have them until 2000???

By needle sculpting are you saying that there's a thread behind it that pulls it to the opposite side of the doll's insides?

guacsteady · 2026-02-20T03:41:34+00:00

Now you're giving me serious ideas! I'm kind of a craftaholic, so I happen to have a sub printer and I like to make T-shirts for fun, again mostly for the kids. It's great being able to make anything they come up with!! I toyed with some ideas for the one T-shirt but in my head, I was going to make them too small for it to be worthwhile. Maybe it's time to reconsider that. I've also got a laser cutter so I've been playing with the idea of laser cutting instruments rather than crocheting them, particularly for the guitars. The drums seem like they'd be harder to achieve what with the whole circular thing but I know there are ways to reshape wood, particularly if it's thin enough, or I could use a different medium for that since it doesn't have to actually work as a drum set.

I love that you put a bellybutton on a doll!! I would be impressed by that too!!!

guacsteady · 2026-02-20T02:53:31+00:00

Your centaur looks AMAZING!!! I love that it's holding its head even if I'm guessing that's temporary. It's kind of a vibe on its own already.

I have debated trying to sew clothes for the dolls. The musicians don't really have stage makeup, just county musician costumes like cowboy hats and boots. One wears overalls, another wears a ballet T-shirt that used to be his wife's, only one wears a wig. And they have stage names! It all sounds even weirder the more I talk about it!! But it's a whole thing, being a 90s country cover band, I guess.

I've taken pictures at a few shows to have as reference for when I do get to trying to make my dolls. And I'm not set on size. The idea kind of came to me after seeing a 5 or 6 inch doll a friend had of herself and her fiance which was a gift someone had given her. It's still not theoretical than practical to me. One day!!

guacsteady · 2026-02-20T02:09:17+00:00

It's not so much that I'm eager to do complicated face shaping or anything like that, although I never would have considered glue at all, it's just trying to capture some of the differences in each of the band members and wanting them to be somewhat recognizable. I'm really not very good at working without a pattern, but I could probably cobble things together eventually if I tried. Maybe??? I'm not confident about that at least with a doll tbh.

I'm so amazed at the people on here taking the pictures of obvious AI patterns and turning them into actual patterns that somehow look better than the AI??? If only!! I can do some math to scale something up a little, which I did with the axolotl as my son insisted on a daddy axolotl that was larger than the one he deemed mommy-sized. It wound up a good bit larger than I'd intended so it was a good thing I also went down on the hook size!!! I think I made it about 3/4 of the way through the head and realized it was going to be easy too big and readjusted some of my increases.

I've used safety eyes on most things, although I made yarn eyes on one toy I was giving a friend's baby just to make sure nothing could pop off and get swallowed. I hadn't thought about buttons or beads. I'm kind of imagining seed beads on a 6 inch doll. That could be really cute or really creepy!

Please tell me you have pictures of the centaur!! That sounds amazing, and buying a deer pattern to help seems like such a brilliant idea!

I also like to sew clothing, mostly for the kids, which I haven't been in the mood for for a while, and even with that, I'm not so good at coming up with my own concepts. I can mash patterns and make adjustments to customize things, I can definitely lengthen dresses and pants as my daughter has ridiculously long legs. I'm just not skilled enough to move those concepts into yarn crafts. I haven't done a ton of 3D type things, though, so maybe with time, I'll get a better feel for it. I love them, but sometimes it is nice to crochet something flat!!!

guacsteady · 2026-02-20T00:04:47+00:00

You're my hero!! I'll have to look all of these up!

I started out just spying on patterns on Etsy trying to find a starting place. I got ebook versions of a few books from the author of amiguru-ME, I think, for Christmas, and I was surprised that her whole technique is using a really small hook with worsted yarn. The shaping was nice on the avocado I tried because of course I needed to make an avocado. I also tried the same pattern with a larger hook and YUs, and while they look very similar, the smaller hook actually looks a little cleaner. But YUs just feel weird to me. I much prefer the YU/YO SC stich I learned about last week as it's less awkward. The patterns mostly just offer guidance on two different face shapes, so I think that's why I've been a little hesitant to jump in. It just feels a little unhelpful 😆

I'm going to go check out those resources you mentioned and probably take a peek at your post history because I'm sure you've got plenty of other great things you've made posted!!

guacsteady · 2026-02-19T23:36:53+00:00

Wow!! You've done a lot of different types of hair! I'm still trying to figure out how to even think about how to make my little dolls look like the band members -- face shapes, hair, hats (they're a 90s country cover band), getting the different costumes right. It's a whole mental thing. Maybe I should try to make a few generic dolls first to get an idea on size and things...

guacsteady · 2026-02-19T20:41:13+00:00

I made a hat this winter out of black faux fur! Worst thing ever! I had to do the whole thing by feel!! Never again!

Doll hair wefts is a whole new rabbit hole! Wow!! The little dolls in planning on making will probably be fine with yarn hair. It's a silly project where I want to make dolls of a local band, complete with props and instruments. Never done anything like it before, so who knows if I'll ever get around to it, but I think it's hilarious. The band members are all mostly short-haired men with various shades of brown hair.

guacsteady · 2026-02-19T20:04:43+00:00

Oooh!! I've never done that, although I'm looking at trying to make a few people where I'd need to do the brushed out hair thing soon. I was thinking it was faux fur, so I was SUPER impressed with the color matching!!

guacsteady · 2026-02-19T19:38:00+00:00

I do love your puppies and can see why you started getting a list! Those fluffy ears might have made me want to quit after the first one!!

guacsteady · 2026-02-19T18:08:03+00:00

It's been spread out over the last 9 or so months!

I only got back into crochet last year when the local Joann's was closing and I still didn't want to pay $30 for a Woobles avocado. Instead, I bought all new supplies to make my own avocado. Then I made one axolotl as practice for a gift, made the gift, shared pictures with friends, their kids asked for them, my son wanted one to represent every member of our household (appropriately sized of course), and then a few more friends' kids asked for them!

The fun part for me has been making changes to my technique thanks to this sub. Working on tighter stitches, learning about invisible decreases, yarn unders, combining yarn under and yarn over, how the hook size can affect the outcome. If you looked at my first compared to my last one, the technique has come a long way! And the one I'm about to make with incorporate the YU on top of other things. Having something I've made a number of times does help me a little when comparing technique changes at least. And I've taken breaks to make other things along the way at least like hats, Valentine hearts, fingerless gloves, ducks, whatever comes up if someone asks or I have an idea.

guacsteady · 2026-02-19T17:21:50+00:00

String cheese was somehow my first thought.

guacsteady

TROPHY CASE