Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Holiday News in November 2005


Contrary to popular belief, I do know how to knit as well.

The problems are when I knit, it is limited by my carpal tunnel syndrome pain, or my neuropathy, take your pick, grrrr! It is not fun. When one or the other takes over, then I can actually knit in spurts and by timing myself. There is no way around it.

I was trying to teach my friend Scott how to knit. http://grannyguy.blogspot.com/ Grannyguy wanted to learn how to knit, and I tried to teach him with the help of a webcam. I think we laughed more than he learned. He was a great student and I had him make the first cast on stitch at least once. I was only able to show him two times. We laughed too much and had to stop.

I learned to knit in 1988 when I got sick and needed to stay in bed for a month or so. I would have gone crazy. I am a Taurus with a Leo rising and a Gemini moon, and that Gemini needs to be occupied, well the Taurus does not like the idea of just doing nothing either. I decided to teach myself how to knit. That was on the Fall of 1988, I made a sweater that I wore for a New Year's Party, turquoise and black I remember, vertical lines of course. I learned to knit on my own and have created lots of nice sweaters , scarfs. I tried to do socks, but got frustrated, and I guess I did not have as much time as I do now that I am retired by disability, to patiently do it.

I will try to make socks later on either by crochet or knit. Well here is my scarf which I think will look terrific once is done. I am making the pattern as I go. I thought a cable in the middle will be something cute. I may crochet a border around, I don't know yet. On the other hand I am making another vest from http://thecrochetdude.blogspot.com/that will be done sometime in the next two weeks, as I am modifying the pattern to fit me. I am a little bigger than his original model. LOL. This is my Xmas Tree, and I already have 9 presents under it, I shopped early, or made my presents early, then I wrap them as I go.

I am now in charge of two groups in the internet. I am excited beyond belief as these two groups have been entrusted to me.

1.http://groups.yahoo.com/group/men_with_needles/
2.http://groups.msn.com/crochetdepot/

So if you are interested stop by the groups and join, you will see how much fun we can have.

Thanks for stopping by and looking at my blogs, I think I have created as many as 7, but here are the most important ones in blogger. You should visit http://bajoranbear.blogspot.com/ and tell me what you think, maybe not LOL. It has all been made possible by the aid that Scott Hooper, Grannyguy , offered me , so what best tribute than this fun sites to remember our friendship and love. Oh before I forget , I am reading some books which I will give a critique later on, they are books for crocheting. Have a great day, tomorrow is hump day the week is almost over. LOL.

Friday, November 25, 2005

ThanksGiving is, was, and went Here!

Welcome to the Holidays!
Hi everyone, The holidays have been a little rough this year, with the passing of my friend Scott, but here in his honor I am doing what I do best, living life to the fullest. LOL.

I have set up my table for the holidays all hand made, watch out Martha Stewart. I have also set up my tree, isn't it gorgeous, I used all my stuffed animals for decorations.
Do you recognize anyone? This year I dediced that I was going to keep the xmas decorations boxes, even the tree box upstairs. I wrapped them as if they were gifts, you can see Eeyore sitting on top of the xmas tree box. So I did this on Thanksgiving day, and I even had time to bake a Pumkin Cheesecake
which was delicious, the crust is made out of ground almonds. It is a success. I actually made two, one for home.

Remember the black N silver pot holders , well they were for my friends Javier and Bob. We had thanksgiving dinner at their beautiful home. He wants more pot holders, because they match their kitchen perfectly.

So here we are giving thanks for life and for the ability to be alive in our beautiful country of ours. Their home is like a museum no matter where they haved lived.


So here are from the left, Bob is at the head of the table, followed to the left by yours trully, then Mike , Javier at the other end, then Albert and Richard. The meal was magnificent, and we were very greatful for having such an extended family available and be able to give thanks.

Thanks you for stopping by, and may the Holiday Spirit fill you with joy, good health and happiness. Remember to get a gift for yourself, I already have three. Peldor Joi!

Monday, November 21, 2005

Holiday Hats


I hope that you enjoy this Holiday Season, no matter what holiday you celebrate. I have plenty of things to do. I have been very busy with my new group at http://groups.msn.com/crochetdepot.



So here is one of my hats, a festivities hat. I loved making this hat and as a matter of fact I gave it to my massage therapist. She can wear it properly and she looks very sharp in it.

These are two other hats that I have worked on and they feel wonderful.

Believe me if these pictures do not give you the holiday spirit, I don't know what will. LOL.

This hat on the left I found that it needed to have a lining. I put a felted lining. The reason behind the felted lining is that the stitch is too wide or big I guess, and the cold air gets through it. I hand stitched the felted cap, and once the liner was in place, the hat became very cozy. You have seen my mane of hair , LOL. The Santa's helper hat is very soft, made with chenille yarn and some kind of fake fur or eyelash yarn.

I had problems with some activist like the guy on the right here. He was in front of the yarn store making a statement. I decided to ignore his statement and go forward with my projects.

I hope you had fun, I have been a little distracted, and somehow sad. I am having a great time managing the new website and making my holidays happier. I hope you have a great thanksgiving, I will come back with pictures. Peldor Joi everyone!!!

Friday, November 18, 2005

In Memoriam Scott Hooper 1966-2005

Scott Hooper was born 11-11-1966 and went to spirit 11-2005. As of this moment I don't know the exact time or day of his death, but Scott Hooper has gone home. It was confirmed by an acquaintance of ours today. Last nite Scott came to me in a dream to tell me he has passed away. I was disturbed by the dream and woke up. When I woke up I found Scott sitting at the side of my bed smiling at me, he then vanished. From my life experience when anyone has come to me in a dream to tell me they have passed away, has always been true.

I met him about 3 months ago through the internet, you know one of those crochet groups. He proceeded to invite me to join his Crochet website. He coached me in my blog, in my writting. In the brief time that Scott came into my life he stirred emotions, he stirred creativity, he gave me his unconditional friendship. Can you believe it in a short time we had a fight. I learned from him so much, he learned from me as well. He will not be forgotten. I wish I had more time to spend it with him, but he is gone now. I called him everyday and while at the hospital to give him encouragement to live and have fun. We always laughed so much even when he was sad or he wanted to be serious. Still I can hear his voice and him calling me boricua.

Scott is now timeless and has no pain, no disease, no hunger, no needs. I am happy that he gave me his love and friendship and that we talked almost everyday. I will miss calling him, I will miss hearing his laugh. Scott Hooper has finally gone Home. I will like to yell out load to the Heavens or the Klingon Afterlife; Stovakor and I would say "Beware a Klingon Warrior is about to arrive" . Good bye Tito, until we meet again!

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Silver N Black Pot Holders


I am very excited. The fact that I am getting many projects finished is a wonderful experience of accomplishment.

As of now I have finished the black N silver pot-holders for my friend Javier, a week ahead of schedule, Woohoo!!! The Pot Holder on the left is in Tunisian Crochet and the one on the right is sc and dc alternated for twenty five rows.

The Potholder on the left has a 3 strands, but only two at a time are used throughout the pot holder, I alternated the use of two strands of the specialty yarn along side the black acrylic yarn. The edging is done with the three strands held together. One of the strands has a look like it has glitter in it.

Well I will keep you posted on more of my projects, I am actually working on a single cabled knitted holiday scarf, I will have a progress picture next week, so far I have just started it.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you like my table, next week I will present you with one of my culinary specialties, Pumkin Cheesecake, a la Low Carb. I am also making home made craberry sauce. I want to be spared from the high fructose corn syrup deals in the market.

I don't knit much, but I have been known to make a beautiful sweater or two. I love cables and making sweaters can be very rewarding.


On Ebay I had the opportunity to buy the wonderful BOYE NEEDLEMASTER INTERCHANGEABLE NEEDLE SYSTEM. You have almost all the needles that you need. Is one of my personal xmas gift to myself. Until later then have a great end of the week. Peldor Joi!

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Holiday Placemats Pair

Here is a view of the placemats just finished. I am so critical of my work, but when I am looking at them so close; then when I see them on a picture, I see how Kool they look. I am still working on other stuff which is not that hard to do. I just was so excited to have this done in time for the holidays. If you want the pattern, let me know, I can email it to you.

My hands have been pain free thanks to the rotating of the time of doing these fun projects.

I believe that I mentioned the fact that I was getting myself very deep into Tunisian Crochet Stitch, the following pot holder companion is in such stitch. This one that I just finished is in a row of sc, dc, alternating for 25 rows, the edging is a simple crochet edging with 3 sc in each corner.As you can tell I am working on my presentation as well LOL. The texture of the material is very nice and the look is exactly what I was hoping to achieve. Function, form and visually pleasing items. Given the fact that it is acrylic caution has to be used. It is not a piece of fabric that you can put a sizzling pan on, but rather something to protect the dinner table or counter top from being scratch or warped by some hot plate. I believe it will be able to hold a pyrex from the oven without worries about melting.

I am just featuring the texture of it here, when I am done with the pair that matches it, I will display them side by side.

This christmas style pot holder is in Tunisian Crochet by itself with a sc edging on it, it is basically 100 % cotton. Tunisian Crochet is a very interesting style stitch. I can see making a sweater in this stitch. I will need a lot more practice and this gives me that opportunity.

Thank you for the opportunity of being able to share my craft with you. Live long and prosper!

Friday, November 11, 2005

Of Reds and Greens and in betweens!!!


I don't know where the idea of the colors, green and red , for the holiday season came from, but it's all around us. I personally like the colors and they are very festive indeed. If we add white to the colors and music we will have Mexican or Italian party colors, both with lots of delicious treats for the holidays. Before we get to the holidays, I get so many ideas and so little time. I know it is not uniquely my situation, I believe it is a conspiracy from the 10 worlds of yarn and needles. Here on the top you will see a pair of my Holiday Pot Holders. They are made in Tunisian Stitch Crochet using th yarn by Sugar N Cream.
I am also working on placemats. They are very clever. They look like a gift, here is one finished, and I am working on the other one, which is in greens, with a red ribbon. I made them mostly acrylic; I can hear Martha Stewart in my voice intonation, LOL. I thought that making them mostly acrylic, they will be stain resistant. We shall see is my premise was sound, as time goes by.

I have about three more works in progress, Heidi the crochet doggie, and Drew's vest, a second version of the one done a while ago. Why so many works in progress? It helps my neuropathy, by chnaging the focus of the stitch and the pain. I am also working on a pot holder for a friend of mine for the Thanksgiving Holiday. It's going to be black acrylic yarn with the Bernat Matrix "Server Silver" yarn which will give it a silvery look, just like his kitche counter which is black with sparkles. I hope you have a great weekend and let's see what kind of crochet or knit mischief I can get myself into. Peldor Joi!

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Santa's Little Helper




Well here you have it, I am Santa's little helper doing one of the things he does best, working with needles, in this case crochetting some pot holders and some placemats, going around and around, never getting dizzy.

In my spare time, when I am away from Santa, I cook. This pizza I made from scratch, well , almost from scratch, I bought a whole grain pizza dough, added some cooked lamb, diced tomatoes, olive oil, extra fiber . garlic, ground flaxseeds, sliced shiitake mushrooms and shredded cheddar cheese , red peepers, sliced black olives and some onions. I enjoy eating in my house a lot, specially freshly made foods. Fresh cheese cakes, sourdough bread, almond cookies, I know somewhere on the Internet Martha stewart listens cautiously and attentively.




This is part of my successful pizza cooking. I cover the extended dough with a light spread of olive oil. Sometimes I use pesto, and let me tell you it is delicious. Secondly my other secret for pizza is that I cooked the dough before putting the toppings on it, for about 10 minutes. You take it out, let it cool a little , say five minutes. Later you arrange the toppings on it. It goes back to the oven for some Ten to fifteen minutes. Bing! You have a pizza ready to eat. Thirdly , the pizza could not be perfect if I did not use one of my Tunisian Stitch Crochet Pot Holders. (on the right of the picture). Very holiday-like don't you think?

Finally, to close the night, while I was taking Buster Brown, my dog, to the park, there were some thunder and lighting. I was transported to my childhood years and I was laughing at the fact that my grandmother was so clever. She will tell us that the thunder sound was the sound that God's angels made while they were helping God move his furniture around in heaven. Why would I believe that? Well besides that you will believe everything your grandmother told you, in the tropics where floors are made of marble or terrazo stone, if you push a piece of furniture, like a table or a heavy sofa with wooden legs, they will make a similar sound. LOL It worked, we really did not get scared of the sounds of thunder and lightning.

Monday, November 07, 2005

The Holidays, I remember now!



Welcome to the season to have fun, as a puertorrican you learn to have as many paid holidays as you can, and have as much fun as you can. It's about celebrating diversity, eating and drinking in all honesty. LOL.

There were times that I remember when the idea of the Holiday Season would have given me a stomachache, a headache , depression or simply a reason to be miserable, let us say many years ago. As a child my life was full of material objects and very little affection. My Yaya, the nickname for my maternal grandmother, was the only person who was physically affectionate with me. She played with my toys and me, even when she did not know what they were, she was there with me and I remember.

The only time I remember my father playing with me, I must have been around four years old and had a little construction set made of wood. That was the one and only time and it ended up with him hitting me, for whatever reasons.

The Holiday season, no matter what holiday you celebrate, may be full of good and bad memories, resentment, sadness, and yes happiness too. Happiness seems to escape some of us, or maybe we scare happiness away, because we enjoy being in an unhappy place. Believe me it is not easy to have a good attitude after so much unhappiness in my life, but what do I have to lose by treating myself nice and with love? Maybe I will be happy!!!

I enjoy the holidays to the max, I decided many years ago that I was going to have the greatest of times every year, no matter whether with company or alone, for the rest of my life. Easier said than done and believe me that overcoming the childhood sadness and abuse is very important to anyone who has undergone such trauma. I believe the most important part is to make sure that you have the best time possible, no matter what happens. Never rush to buy gifts, never make it a point to give gifts or receive gifts. What do I mean? Give because you want to give, give without attachments and you will experience true happiness. At the same time receive with joy and gratitude, even if your next stop is the Goodwill Store.

I always made plans for a special meal, ahead of time, something simple, but that I may be able to share with some friends if that happens to be in the agenda. I would start buying presents from August of every year. Sometimes, as you know, I make my gifts. One important part of giving is to release the gift completely. When I give a gift yo may go ahead and do whatever you want with it, that's why it is a gift, right?

To make sure that I make my contribution to Happiness in the Holidays I would do certain things. 1) Give a contribution for food to a food drive. 2) Give a cool toy to a toy drive. 3) Make sure I am in the happiest of moods constantly. 4) Give some money to a charity of my choice. 5) Get a present for myself and wrap it. 6) Do not allow the grinch to steal my holiday spirit.

Oh and to the point of all this writing. I remember that we had an aluminum tree. Do you remember those? More over, we had a light that had a plastic wheel in front of it with four colors. The wheel turned and the tree changed colors. WOW!!! Technology at work, LOL. As a child the tree look humongous, and there it was, the town of Bethlehem, covered in snow, with little people. You can imagine that coming from a tropical island, where the weather is always around the same, snow was a fascinating item for me, still is. I remember there where these colored glass birds attached to the tree with glass filaments for tails, I remember the glass spheres and I remember the electric shock. Well somehow our christmas tree had a short and because it was metal, sometimes you touched it and it gave you a little shock. Talking about having kids not touching the tree. I dared sometimes and I did not get a shock, but sometimes I did. I remember now. I remember the Star at the top of the tree! I remember looking at all the wonders that were in the branches, the glass spheres had things in them, it was fascinating! I remember!!!

Friday, November 04, 2005

Hooked on Crochet Magazine Oct 05 Issue



I was looking at the "Hooked On Crochet" Magazine for October 05. There are lots of interesting projects for the making. Autumn Roses Doilly looks very interesting. I am not sure if I will try to work on it at this time. The Lace coasters, now that's another story, they look like a quick project that you can do in no time, I have some terry style cloth cotton yarn that I may use for that. The pattern is made with size # 10 cotton, I have plenty of that as well. I get it at a Record Store, Discolandia, 2964 24TH St San Francisco, CA 94110-4132 View Map (415) 826-9446, in the Mission District, of San Francisco, where Sylvia, the owner, has all kinds of assorted threads for crochetting.

The Sunflower Sachet pattern is nice as well. Fill it up with some homemade poppouri and watch out Martha Stewart.

There are plenty of patterns for everyone, I like the Kid's Carryall Tote bag, is very clever and will definitely make any kid smile. The sweet Tulips hat is also another nice and easy pattern for a 9 months to 2 year old baby girl. I bet you if you increase it by 1o to 20 stitches it will fit and older girl, age 5 to 10.

The Party Favors for Halloween are a very clever set of quick patterns for a children's party. Not a bad issue I will have to say. I look forward to this months Issue.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Double Crochet a perception in talking!


Do you know what a double crochet stitch is? I could not explain it to you, but I could show you what it is and how to make one. When I was in the ARMY I spoke enough English to get me by, but not enough to make jokes. When I made my first joke in English I knew then I was startting to learn the language. There were many people laughing at me, and many people who took the time to teach me. I did not let that bring me down.

Lately I get tired of speaking a foreing language, it becomes more dificult to be able to express the thoughts that come from my head through my brain, to be spontaneously translated into another language through my vocal cords. Nevertheless everyday I engage in the language ritual, some days are better than others. The first thing that happens when you speak a second language is that people have to be very direct with you. I need to give feedback to people and get it as well. Why? you may ask. It is by experience that sometimes people had thought they said something funny and it went over my head, or I was trying to communicate a need and was not heard or was misunderstood.

All in all being a bilingual person is no picnic I will tell you. Sometimes you have both languages running through your head, sometimes one language takes over and the day goes into a different zone. I got this Bajoran script, Bajoran is a made up language from a Science Fiction world, but let it be Klingon for that matter. Can you grasp the idea that there are some terms that can not really be translated? I believe so and it is no fun. I deal with misunderstandings constantly as I look at the facial expressions of the people I talk to.

Imagine a language where there were no words for fear, murder, violence, hunger, incest, sin, disease, homelessness, and sadness. I dream of the day that this will come true. As far as us humans go we take our language skills in our vernacular tongue for granted. We take life for granted. We forget that certain terms don't even exist in someone else's language.

A man in the jungle feels rich as he has everything that he needs to survive and even thrive. Some of our ancestors came over this side of the world and thought different. A man that was barefoot, who had a loin cloth, who hunts for food, who does not own land was considered poor. A man that did not believe in our god was considered a savage.

When I learned to crochet I learned to crochet in English. I will have to study the lessons in Spanish to be able to understand the patterns in Spanish.

The most frustrating time for me is when I want to say something and I find no word in English or Spanish that comes to my mind to express what I want to say. I get frustrated I freeze and finally you go it, I become mute.

May your travel be without incidents! Peldor Joi!

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Hatshepsut At De Young Museum


Welcome to the Hatshepsut Queen To Pharaoh Exhibit at the De Young Museum. As you can see I am your host through this little tour.

Today being the First Tuesday of each month, the museum is free, you only pay for any special exhibitions like this one.

As you can see I am wearing one of my hats. It was rumored that the Prince of Wales was around. I put on my best smile and was ready to meet him. We never saw the prince, I did not think he was worried about missing the free Tuesday thing you know.

As the tour went along we went to the basement of the museum where the exhibition was taking place.


Me and some of my friends were ready to make a line and go and see the exhibit. Let me tell you, there were a lot of people. The museum has been closed for many years being reconstructed and made earthquake-safe, whatever that means. So here we are at the beginning of the exhibit. There were an impressive amount of artifacts, of course not as many as the Cairo Museum, but enough to give you a taste of Egypt.

Now this new museum has an observation tower where you make a line and go in groups of 6 to 8 people in this elevator to the 9th floor. From the ninth floor you will be able to see parts of Golden Gate Park that you will miss unless you were a hawk. From this altitude you could see a lot of the park amenities like parts of the Japanese Zen Tea Garden, at the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

Finally we went to the gift shop and looked at the Book Of the Dead. We conversed what from the book of the dead called our attention. I have always been attracted by the scarab god Khepri and other people said different things. We talked a little about life and death, then decided it was time to leave and live. We did not see anything that we really wanted at the Exhibition Store. All that gold jewerly was too much for my simple life, and when I die I am thinking of a simple cremation, so I did not think that I wanted to buy anything for this lifetime or the next or the afterlife for that matter. Please feel free to come back and experience some of my other adventures and life in pictures, that I will be bringing to you.


I want to thank you for your indulgence in my discoveries and the travellings of my hats. A gentleman always wears a hat in public, or at least a Skull Cap.

Almost two years without blogging August 2020

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