SwirlsOnline Blog

I have a blue-green sweater that my sis gave me many a moon ago. It is one of my favorites, the biggest reason being that it is my favorite color. (Do you see the eerie matchy of the sweater yarn to my site colors?) Only slightly behind that reason in that it is sparkly. Sadly, the sweater is going bad due to its popularity with me and it’s many wearings. Thusly, when I saw this color sparkly yarn in a store, I just had to buy it. The theory is to knit a new favorite sweater. But I am a terrible knitter that takes forever to finish something just because I get bored and move on to different hobbies. But here’s hoping that if I post it, I will knit it.

Newly inspired yet again, I finished spinning some purple-blue stuff I got way back when. I was so pleased! Then as I was organizing my lamentably chaotic closet, I found another 4 oz. of the stuff today. Sigh. But, it is an awesome color…even Sara agrees. (I had to fight her off of the fluff, let me remind you of the first part that I spun that she just adored.)

So look at this cool bookshelf that I got as a gift this past Christmas. Now if only I would actually put everything away so that it can be used…

Hey, Look at me doing my first fair isle project. It’s scary and fun at the same time. I had never heard of steeks before in my life. And the very idea of CUTTING my knitting is freaking me out. We’ll see how it goes…

Check out this fun and simple bracelet that I made as yet another gift. ‘Tis the Season and all that entails. Gives me a good excuse to play with my toys and make stuff.

I dub thee… Squiggles. For obvious reasons, of course.

So even though I wasn’t posting, I did manage to make a new pendant for someone as a gift. At least it’s something, right?

Phew! I am ridiculous in my non-posting. Sigh. Oh well.

Here is a Holiday pic of my very first Christmas tree in the new apartment from my new camera (thanks sis!). Enjoy!

And take a look at this fun little video in part thanks to the Alvin and the Chipmunks website. My bro and I were playing around with the Munk Yourself thing… Just click on the pic.

A week ago, I had two parties to go to, and you can never go to a party empty handed, right? So through a strange and round about text conversation I had with one of the hostesses of the parties, it came about that I would make mini egg rolls for her.

The history of the only party food that I make is this:

I had a class in 8th grade where we all had to bring in food from our cultural heritage and share it with the class. In my 8th grade brain, I thought ‘fried rice’ immediately. And I would request that my dad make it. Diabolical, I know (can you guess the heritage?). Again through conversation and whatnot, it came about that I would make egg rolls instead and this without my dad. Don’t ask me how that happened, parents are a tricky race. Granted, my dad did teach me how to do it, and helped me with the slightly messy rolling of the wrapper part. Mom helped me fry the rolls with as little oil burning and splattering as possible. In the end, the egg rolls were a big hit and added to my short short list of foods that I choose to cook.

So years later, my roommate at the time and I decided to resurrect the egg rolls for a different party, and now it’s all I do.

Of course, two parties and family…that’s a lot of egg rolls.

Step 1. Buy supplies

Step 2. Marinate meat and make super secret sauce (I used a free recipe from the internet).

Step 3. Chop like a mad beast

Step 4. Cook meat and Stir Fry with veggies

Step 5 and 6. Do Step 4 three times because your wok is too small to handle the load. Sweet!

Step 7. Wait a day because it took so long to do Steps 1-6. Then proceed to roll mini wrappers (suspiciously looking like pre-made won ton wrappers) into cute little mini egg rolls.

Step 8. Show picture of 154 mini egg rolls before they are fried because 1. it looks cool, and 2. you were too silly to remember to take a final picture of completed egg rolls. Yeah, sorry about that. In the end, I had more innards left, so I got more wrappers and made another 54 mini egg rolls for the family to share. All told, I made 208 rolls. And not one was left over!

Yeah, that’s right, you heard me. That roller coaster, you know, the one that is the tallest fastest, nastiest ride in the world? Well, I almost expired on the spot when I saw it go tossing people around like rag dolls, but I did indeed force myself to go on that ride this past week. I went to Six Flags with family and friends, and they are all gluttons for punishment…yes you are. They love roller coasters and what can you do when you are with those that love? You have to go on the rides too.

I don’t really remember much because I think I blacked out as soon as I sat in the torture seat. Ok, so I am exaggerating. I didn’t black out, though I claim that I was in shock before, during, and after the ride and that’s how I survived. You know the high squealing freaks that go on rides and you want to slap them to shut them up? That’s me. On every roller coaster. It is my coping mechanism. Blame my grandmother who told me as a young child that if I was afraid, I should scream, and I wouldn’t feel so scared. It’s true, by the way.

Actually, after I managed to blank out the memory of crashing to the ground at unfathomable speeds, the rest of the roller coasters were fun, and I didn’t scream on them. But that’s just because I left my brain and my vocal chords somewhere 456 feet in the air, never to be seen again.

My favorite ride was Nitro. Lots of really big hills, but no fear of imminent death. And El Toro was great too, wooden, but also no fear of imminent death by car flying off of crickety wooden track. It’s a new wooden coaster that is much more secure. Um, as secure as a person can be flying around in a little metal tin can on a track that only physics can explain. I can’t fully describe my fear. However, to those of you who don’t know me, you would be shocked that I went on Kingda Ka at all. 

I am mightily pleased with myself for doing it once. I can’t say as I would do it again, but who knows?

Then you need a string for your finger.

A friend of mine recently asked if I could make a ring that looks like a piece of string that is tied into a bow. There were some issues figuring out how to get that to work, but after a few tries, I managed to get something. I personally like option 2, but who knows?

Option 1

Option 2

And for a size comparison…