Pinterest DIY #1

            According to the Oxford Online Dictionary, the second meaning for the word "fashion" is "A manner of doing something." Bringing it to nowadays, is no big surprise to see so many DIYs throughout the Ethernet that promise to save your entire life as well as change the way you see clothing style. I am a big fan of doing things in your own way. Clothing, hair, makeup, and even nail polish are statements either if you realize it or not. We are constantly judging others by their appearance rather we want to admit or not. 

             Moving forwards, I chose these two most pinned DIYs on Pinterest. The first one that I tried, the pink shirt tutorial, promises a "cute crop top for summer". You can find lots of pins of the same pictures, so I wasn't able to track down who firstly posted this DIY unfortunately. 

             I took an old T-shirt with some phrase expression from my home tow (that happens to be one of which I mostly say when speaking my native tongue, so I loved this tee). I didn't want my crop top to be too short, so I first cut just above my hip bones. When I tried to tie it I found two problems: 1) the back of the T-shirt would roll up and end up just above my waist, a pinky finger between the T-shirt new bottom and my bra; 2) My T-shirt wasn't long enough so I could tie a knot on my back and still menage to breath. Either that or the waist of the girl on the pictures is unbelievably thin. I have a 27 inches waist. A quick search on Google told me that the women's average waist size is 34-35 inches (140-150lbs weight). So, practically speaking, this DIY is just for petit rare/not-real women.

             Feeling frustrated, I had to throw out my beloved old tee. I wasn't satisfied that I would have to post a failed experience in my blog. Then I thought if I did post this experience, this would mean that I was taking my blog to where I wanted it to be: real experiences with real reports.

          That sounds awesome and all but I was feeling crafty and wanted to refashion something. So I took a new T-shirt that I received when got into this gym. This time I took an easier DIY. I wanted to try the no-sewing tutorial. I cut the collar first and maybe I went too down with it, leaving me with a cleavage that I'm only comfortable showing off at home, which is fine because I was intending to use this refashioned shirt at home anyways. I also cut the sleeves and the bottom.

          Now let me explain why the Approved-ish title. It would have worked if I had stopped cutting when the cleavage worked out. But I didn't. The advertisement says it is a no-sew way to refashion and I did feel the need to sew the bottom and sleeves since they were rolling up. I just hated the aesthetics of it. Since I didn't previously cut the T-shirt thinking about sewing, I didn't leave a room to do it, so the refashioned T-shirt ended up being a little too short even though I sew a ridiculously thin line (again, not the best thing to do but you have to work with what you've gotten). It would have been nice if there still was a couple of fingers going on the bottom though.

          The conclusion is that it's going to be a while before I ever try a refashion DIY again. I have no other throwaway T-shirts after all that. Or the courage to ask for my husband's help in untying a knot in my back before I pass out.

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Mrs. Vieira

Crochet Project #2

I, just as I guess everybody else, was confronted by the necessity of coasters once my computer table got a glass “scar”. I had this rest of cotton thread with two shades of blue after finishing my indoor front door mat and decided to try out some coasters. Yes, I love using rest of yarns just so I have a sense they fulfilled for what I paid for.

At first, I did the obvious: a circle. I thought it was quite boring so I gave up on this.

The thing is, I didn’t want something too elaborated. To me, the attention should be on the food and not what goes under my utensils. So I went to Google, yeah I did, and found “Wink” did a free pattern on coasters back in 2013. She did a great job with pink shades and named it A Set of Five Ombre Crocheted Coasters.

Since my thread was a little thicker than the ones she used, I only did three rows before finishing with the shy flounce. I definitely didn’t do what she calls the Contrast Round since my thread has different shades in itself. I think that would be too much information on something I didn’t want to take the spotlight.

I could have done only two rows before the last detailed one, but I wanted something that can go from a small mug to a larger glass or even a small bowl. 

 

I didn’t stop on glasses and mugs’ coasters. I did two dish coasters and a bigger one to put maybe a porcelain/china on top. I decided to do this because I still have not built the patience to crochet a table cloth, so my poor table needs some protection.

So just to keep things straight: 

 

1. To do the smaller one, as I said already, I did three circular rows and finished by making exactly what Wink instructs on her pattern;
2. The medium: Six circular rows. I didn’t keep track of how many stitches in each row, as long as you keep it perfectly circular, then everything is good. You can put your project on top of a table or any other flat/smooth surface to see if it is a fine circle. To do the flounce, I didn’t skip just two stitches between the shells (2 dc 2 ch 2 dc in same st), I skipped three stitches;
3. The largest: Eight circular rows. Just like the medium, I skipped three stitches between each shell.

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Mrs. Vieira

P.S.: Edited some bugs on the font size and type.

Crochet Project #1

Old winter hat turns into new beanie!

To do my first post I had to find some yarn I had not used yet. I found a small amount of green yarn waste from a previous winter hat I’ve done a loooong time ago. Looking at the green hat I concluded it was time to undo it and do another one since I didn’t use it that much.

I went to Ravelry website to look for some free pattern and after some time I found “Divine hat” by Sarah Arnold and decided it was time to finally do a beanie for myself.

At first you don’t see the pattern quite clearly but I’d say after the 7^th row you start to understand what is going on. The final result may be better if you actually do with the proper yarn Sarah Arnold herself recommends to be used. My yarn is a little bit rougher that I think it should be to this project but I really liked my new beanie.

It is an easy project if you are beginning your crocheting path, but it is also a pretty one for those more experienced. It requires 4 stitches: single crochet, double crochet, foundation half double crochet (fhdc), and back post double crochet (bpdc). But you’ll mostly do dc and fhdc. I explained sc and dc on Crochet 101. I’ll now explain fhdc and bpdc to you. Despite the name, they are very easy to do.

Basically, think of a dc stitch. Now, instead of inserting your needle on the loop of the stitch in the previous row, you’ll insert your needle behind/in front of the stitch’s knot. The difference between fhdc and bpdc is from where the needle is coming from. If it is in the front and goes behind the knot, then it is a fhdc as in the following pictures:

You star as a dc, doing a loop on your needle from the thread. Then you insert your needle on the right side of the stitch you want to pop up from the front of your project piece. You go all the way in the back until the needle appears at the left side of the stitch. You make a loop on your needle that you'll pull through the back of the soon to be popping stitch. You'll have three loops on your needle and you'll make a fourth one. From here it is just like a double crochet.

Now, if it is from behind and goes in the front of the stitch, you’re doing a bpdc stitch as in the following pictures:

Same as a double crochet: Make a loop on your needle from your thread before you insert your needle on the right side of the stitch you want to push back from the back of your project piece. You go all the way in the front until the needle goes to the left side of the stitch. You make a loop on your needle that you'll pull through the front of the stitch. Be careful here or you'll pull the wrong thread. Then you'll have three loops on your needle and you'll make a fourth one. From here it is just like a double crochet to finish it up too.

And if you do them in a succession it will look close to this:

This is actually the last 5 rows of my beanie. I felt the need to add a last row of single crochet stitches just to wrap it up.

So, since it is a free pattern, you can download it from Ravelry website. It was the second pattern I tried to do for a winter hat (I’ll probably do another post about my first attempt since it developed to a future project idea). It is a very nice explained pattern, not at all difficult to understand. As I also said in my Crochet 101 post, I learned crochet by doing it and I still get confused by the stitches’ names so you can trust me when I say it is not that difficult.

Here is my old and no-longer-existing winter hat and my brand new beanie:

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Mrs. Vieira

Introducing Mrs. Vieira

As Mr. Vieira wrote about last week, this blog is an idea to basically be another hobby of ours. I like to write very much and he likes to talk about stuff he enjoys doing, so we might as well join both in a single thing. We were a little hesitant at talking about personal matters but we figured we should just choose wisely what to say.

We both have had some turbulent past experiences that we grew from. He already wrote briefly about his experiences and now I feel like it is my turn to do the same.

I have incredibly low self esteem and a huge lack of confidence in myself. I have always been a little fat, somewhat chubby and that made me feel undesirable since my teenage years. I was bullied when I was around 13 years old. That is a very delicate age, so many things are happening inside our minds and body. I still feel the consequences from that sometimes. This huge gap in my esteem spreads to my confidence in other areas for some infuriating unknown reason when I let my barriers down.

At the same time, I learned to show a tough front to the world, so in some ways this pretending helped me internalize some things. I consciously know I am smart and worthy of good fortune. I have learned to build up walls around my inner self so nobody can hurt me anymore. To the exterior world, I do look like a very self confident person. My husband, I believe, is the only person that I truly allow to take a peek inside. This exchange between us has helped to solve some of our issues.

If you are reading this and you feel like you connect to anything I have said, or if you need to remember yourself that things will turn out alright someday, relax. Just give yourself a break from overthinking too much. I think low self esteem is just like an addiction when it is up to the “cure”. There is no cure. Some comment here, some situation there and you will be down the hill once again. Unless you surround yourself with people that love you for who you are. Or, in my case, unless you find a person that knows all of your weaknesses and still loves you.

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Mrs. Vieira

Introducing Mr. Vieira

As my first post, I decided to write about the blog and myself. First, Every Otter Thing was a long idea about a blog in which my wife and I could write about everything, every single piece of advice, mistakes, and achievements in our lives.

I am from Brazil, but at age of 18 I moved to the USA. It was nice to know another country, but I got a big problem: I’m terrible at speaking (even my native language). Can you guess how my English is? Well, not great. I can say how many times it made my life terrible, hard and annoying. I do not have a lot of friends. I do not have a good relationship with anybody (until I met my wife). Also, I have some nice abilities. I get stressed very easily, I loose focus/interest quickly, and many more. AKA It makes my life terrible.

For many years I thought I was cursed. I would question out loud: Why always me? I even did not talk about my terrible family, after long years of ignoring me and saying I was being “girly”. I could not be more depressed?. I got at a lot of bad relationships too. Because I wanted to hide my feelings and depression. Well, I got a rough teenager/young adult years for lack of support.

Well, It was hell. How can you fight against something this dangerous? With Patience. After long years thinking about all the bad stuff on live. I learned I wasn’t cursed. I was someone lost at the world, I needed to find my way. Doesn’t matter if I was alone, if I could find my way, I would be fine. One day I heard a phase: “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, It’s not the end.” Since then, it become my phase of life.

 I not too old, but I had to make a lot of difficult decisions: College or my current wife, Brazil or USA, New Car or live alone. But anyway, everybody has difficult decisions to make, it does not matter if you are old or new. Every time you fail, you should learn with it. Do not think you are worthless. Keep going. You will find friends, people how loves you what you are, experiences which will make history for your children. All of that. Just keep walking. Never give up.

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Mr. Vieira