Super Secret Crochet Project Revealed!

I have been working, off and on, for several months on a large crochet project. You may have spotted some of the early attempts in the background of some of my advent calendar posts...but now it is finally finished! Ladies and gentlemen...Tom Servo!

"Actually, it's Serveaux."

He stands at nearly two feet tall, so we're talking life-sized here. He is made entirely from yarn and stuffing--a whole 12-ounce bag of stuffing, actually. There was no sign of a pattern anywhere online, so this is a combination of measurements I found on various bot-building websites, lots of pictures, and eyeballing it. I also have this four-inch Servo that came with one of the DVD sets, so I used him as a reference as well.

I started with the head and worked my way down. The head, neck, body, and "hoverskirt" are all one continuous piece, crocheted from top to bottom. The mouth is sewn on separately, and is actually three small pieces sewn together (top, bottom, and inside). The arms are one piece each.

I had some trouble with the detailing on his chest, which was originally the engine block from a toy car. I wanted it to be as simple as possible, without losing too much detail. The version I finally came up with has four separate pieces that are sewn together and then sewn onto the chest.

The tube around the bottom is just one long piece, and the other details on his skirt are also sewn on separately. They were originally pieces of plastic vacu-formed over the engine from a toy train set. There are six of them. I found the best way to space them out was to sew the front one on first. Then I placed the back one directly behind it. Then I placed two in between on one side, and repeated on the other side.

I also found some other great re-creations of Tom. Here he is, along with Crow T. Robot, in Lego form:

Via Reasonably Clever!

And this great plushie is made from felt and stuffing:

Via

Anyway, this was great fun to make! I took notes on all of the parts, which I am going to type up and have available as a pattern. Hopefully this will be within the next week or two.

Welcome to 2014!

Happy New Year, everyone!

I always loved New Year's Eve as a kid. We would always get one of those "party kits" with hats and plastic leis and noisemakers, and I loved the combination of "staying up late" and "making lots of noise." How often do you have an excuse to blow a party horn in the middle of the night?

Jason and I had a nice, low-key celebration at home. We had planned on staying in anyway, and all of the snow we got last night only reinforced that decision. I made baked meatball sandwiches:

They were easy, too.

Step 1: Cook frozen meatballs in sauce on the stovetop, according to package directions (I did 20 minutes over medium heat).

Step 2: Place meatballs on open buns and top with a handful of mozzarella. I sprinkled some Italian seasoning on, too.

Step 3: Bake at 425 F for 5 minutes.

Step 4: Profit! Or, y'know, eat.

We watched some bad movies, along with our friends on the Satellite of Love.

By that time it was about 11 PM. I broke out the party blowers and we made some hot chocolate to help stay awake.

We turned on the countdown on ABC a few minutes before midnight. The news anchors doing the countdown had nothing to talk about, so we just kept the TV on mute until the 10-second countdown. Then we set off some poppers, did our "kiss at midnight," and went to bed.

These are my top 3 goals for 2014:
1. Eat more vegetables. I try to eat a healthy balanced diet, with whole grains and fresh fruit and lean protein, but I'm pretty picky when it comes to veggies. Right now the only vegetables I eat on a consistent basis are baby carrots and tomato sauce.
2. Take a yoga class. My favorite form of exercise right now is walking. I want to try something to improve my flexibility and balance.
3. Make money from my crafting. This has been in the "thinking and planning" stage for a while now, so this year I am going to actually move forward. I am working on a Super Secret Crochet Project right now, and when it's all done I want to sell the pattern on Ravelry. I also have some ideas for things I can make quickly and sell at craft fairs, or maybe even get a table at a convention, and if that goes well I will set up an Etsy store to sell online.

Christmas Round-Up

Jason and I had an awesome Christmas. We got to spend time with my family and his on Christmas day and came home with all of this:

And also all of this:

Jason got me the 50th anniversary Blu-Ray, which came wit a neat little set of trading cards, one for each of the twelve Doctors (including John Hurt, but not Peter Capaldi). My brother got us Dalek and Cyberman coffee mugs. Mom got us a TARDIS cookie jar and a set of TARDIS/Dalek salt-and-pepper shakers.

I put our new pepper pot to use right away...and by "use," I mean "attacking the graham cracker TARDIS."

And finally, our friend Pat got me this Doctor Who/MST3K mash-up tee:

War Doctor: "Timey-what? Timey-wimey?" Ten: "I've no idea where he picks that stuff up."

Which reminds me, Jason also got me the 25th Anniversary set for Mystery Science Theater. Four new-to-DVD episodes, plus the episodes that transition from Joel to Mike.

It was great seeing everyone, although our day was so busy we had no chance to watch The Time of the Doctor. We watched it last night, thanks to Amazon. It made me happy. I will say no more, except that I am looking forward to Peter Capaldi's run.

Advent Calendar, Days 18 and 19

Seasons' Greetings from our snowman!

December 18: Have peppermint ice cream for dessert.

It was originally supposed to be peppermint milkshakes, but we decided on regular ice cream because we were both pretty full after dinner. We plan on making them this weekend instead. The ice cream is delicious all by itself.

We got Edy's Peppermint, but you can make your own peppermint ice cream by softening a container of vanilla (or chocolate...mm, chocolate and peppermint) and stirring in crushed-up candy canes. My grandma always used to buy the boxes of broken candy canes because she got a discount, and they were going in the ice cream anyway.

To make the milkshakes, blend together 2 cups of ice cream with 1 cup of milk, and top it with whipped cream, sprinkles, or crushed-up candies.

December 19: Movie night.

I went with a new twist on an old "favorite." Cinematic Titanic is the spiritual successor to Mystery Science Theater 3000, with...basically all of the former cast members who aren't doing RiffTrax. This includes Joel, Frank Conniff (TV's Frank), Mary Jo Pehl (Pearl), and the original voices of Tom and Crow. They riffed on Santa Claus Conquers the Martians a couple years ago, and right now it's streaming on Amazon (free for Amazon Prime members).

Good stuff. Man, every time I watch this movie, I find something else about it that makes no sense whatsoever.

Advent Calendar, Day 12

Today's activity: Movie night

It was my turn to pick. I decided to choose something I had never seen before, an infamous little variety show called "The Star Wars Holiday Special." Happy Life Day, everyone! Jason and I wisely decided to watch the RiffTrax version with commentary from the Mystery Science Theater guys.

The file was a video download, complete with "commentary" on both the special and the commercials included in the breaks. 

It's bad. It's really, really bad. We couldn't even make it all the way through. Still, the commentary made it at least somewhat watchable. And now I can say that I've seen it and I'll never have to watch it again.

Via

Advent Calendar, Day 2

Today's activity: Jason's turn to pick a holiday movie!

After debating between two different versions of A Christmas Carol (George C. Scott or Patrick Stewart), Jason decided to go a different route: Santa Claus. No, not the '90s movie with Tim Allen; that's The Santa Clause. This is one of two Christmas movies that were torn apart by the MST3K guys (the other one is Santa Claus Conquers the Martians). As TV's Frank so aptly describes it, "It's a stupid Mexican kids' movie!" Dubbed in English, and featuring a little girl, an inept devil, and the origin of the phrase "nightmare fuel."

Advent Calendar, Day 1

Today's Christmas activity: Put up decorations!

We have a miniature tree, which is nice because we can keep it in the hall closet when it's out-of-season. Our apartment has two bedrooms, but we have so much other stuff we would have real trouble storing a larger tree. I have had the mini tree since I was a kid. It was originally from the American Girl catalog, along with a set of ornaments.

Now a close-up of what's under the tree:

I'll take a TARDIS under the tree this year, please! Amy stands guard over the police box while the Doctor sits in the driver's seat of my Mini-Mates DeLorean, which was signed by Christopher Lloyd at Wizard World in 2011.

Care Bears, Tom Servo, and Davros. And Reptile. Poor Reptile--someone tried to kill him with a forklift.

The Doctor attempts to work the nutcrackers with his sonic screwdriver. He must have forgotten that it doesn't do wood. Speaking of, Jason and I watched this version of The Nutcracker while we were decorating, to help us get in the Christmas spirit.

Our tree topper is a finger puppet! We also have a few other decorations. Without a chimney, we had to hang our stockings next to the closet with care:

I made the stockings a few years ago. They were my first attempt at intarsia colorwork, and I think they came out pretty well. I embroidered the names and details afterward, but the snowman and tree are knit right into the stocking.

My favorite decoration is something I found last year at a toy show for all of five dollars.

The snowman is held together with Velcro, and it came with a bunch of different accessories. The extras are sitting in the red tin on the right, to encourage people to play around with different ideas. I want to have a different snowman every day until Christmas.

Thanksgiving Round-Up and Advent Calendar Garland (Geek Edition)

Jason and I had a great Thanksgiving, with lots of food and laughter. The Mystery Science Theater marathon was great. It was hosted by Joel, who was dressed as the Frugal Gourmet, but without the beard he ended up looking more like Chris Kimball from America's Test Kitchen. Anyway, they alternated between Mike and Joel episodes, with a little trivia game after each movie giving hints for the next one. Here's the lineup:
-Space Mutiny (a classic! One of my favorites)
-I Accuse My Parents (the only one I hadn't seen before; it was great to see a new one)
-Werewolf (most notable for the song medley they sing over the end credits. Tusk!)
-Cave Dwellers (the host segments are great in this one, especially the one about foley artists)
-Final Sacrifice (one word: Rowsdower!)
-Mitchell (everyone thought it was going to be "Manos: The Hands of Fate" but "Mitchell" is included in the latest DVD set they were advertising, in addition to being Joel's last episode)
The marathon ended with a cameo from the 'bots (who didn't have any lines) and then Joel encouraged everyone to have...a Patrick Swayze Christmas:

I wonder if this means they're going to do another online streaming event for Christmas. That would be AMAZING. 

When I was a kid, my parents would buy us candy-filled advent calendars, with one piece of chocolate each day in December up through Christmas Eve. We had an ornament calendar, too, that we re-used every year until the cardboard holder fell apart. I think we still have some of the ornaments, though. When I got older we traded in the candy for a garland of socks, with a piece of candy or small gift in each sock. We also did activity advent calendars for a few years, which is what Jason and I came up with for this December.

We came up with a list of holiday activities, which I typed up and printed out. The garland is made from stuff I found in the dollar bins at Target. The ornaments and gingerbread cookies were from separate garland kits, and they are pre-cut paper shapes. The penguins were from a foam decoration kit, and I had to punch the holes myself. After trying to perfectly center my quarter-inch hole in the top of each hat, I discovered that I already had a much smaller hole punch that would have been perfect for punching holes in the hands instead. Oh well. It looks fine as it is, and I would rather not re-string the whole thing.

I wrote the number on the front of each piece and glued the day's activity on the back. Then I decorated the front with the stickers that came with the garland kits. I ended up stringing it on thin yarn instead of the string that came with the garlands.

So what kind of activities do we have planned? It was kind of tricky to find things that work for us, because (A) We don't have kids (yet) and (B) We're both gone by 8 in the morning and don't get home from work until after 7. That leaves us with a limited amount of time during the week. For the weekdays, we'll both have several chances to choose a favorite holiday movie (like Die Hard!) Jason wanted to include Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem on our holiday movie list, but I nixed that. I can handle scary movies, but I don't like gore. We also came up with things like making hot chocolate or cutting paper snowflakes. I spaced out our "big" activities for the weekends, like baking cookies and going to see A Christmas Carol in Klingon.

Yes, in Klingon. 

This is going to be hilarious.

Stuff I Find Exciting

1. An Adventure in Space and Time: Jason and I watched this docudrama about the creation of Doctor Who back in 1963. It's very well-written and acted, with lots of good information for old fans and new fans alike. It might even be a good way to introduce people to the show!

2. Chi-Fi: Chicago's getting a brand-new sci-fi convention! And you'll never guess who they got as special guests. Well, unless you click the link. Or I can tell you now: Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy, AKA Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo from MST3K. I am SO excited! I have been a fan of MST since high school and I would love to meet anyone connected with the show. Jason and I have been watching a lot of Mystery Science Theater lately, because their 25th anniversary was just one day after the Doctor Who 50th. 

Now, the question with Chi-Fi is, how do I pronounce it? Is it pronounced "shy-fi"? Or "chai-fi" like the tea?

3. Turkey Day marathon: Speaking of Mystery Science Theater, their annual Thanksgiving marathon is back! I never got to see the annual twelve hours of bad movies when it was on television, because by the time I started watching the VHS collections it had already been off the air for several years. Jason grew up with it, though, and he assures me they're great fun. I expect nothing less. This year it will be streaming online at MST3KTurkeyDay.com.

4. Leverage is back on Netflix! Now is a great time to check the show out if you haven't already. Think Robin Hood meets Mission: Impossible.

5. Christmas is coming! I love everything about Christmas: buying gifts, making cookies, singing Christmas songs, decorating, watching the snow fall...December is probably my favorite month of the year. Jason and I are starting a new tradition this year. I made an advent calendar garland, which I will be writing about soon. Check back on Friday! Speaking of, if you are going to brave the crowds on Friday, please be careful. Personally, I will be doing most of my Christmas shopping online.

C2E2 Wrap-Up

Well, C2E2 was pretty awesome. My costume was a huge success. I got a ton of people asking to take my picture. A few were pretty surprised when I held up the BFNG (Big Frickin' Nerf Gun). One guy asked for my picture because he runs a Nerf blog. Here's the photo from his Twitter.


I met him while we were in line for Eliza Dushku. She was in a panel from 1:15-3:30. We got in line at 2:30, and by the time she showed up (15 minutes late, unfortunately) the line stretched from the middle of the convention floor to the bathrooms in the back. I asked someone if the autograph ticket was also good for a photo, and the woman told me, "She's not doing photos." There must have been a misunderstanding, because I meant that I wanted to take a photo with her. That was fine. But there were no photos of her at the autograph table. So, $40 and an hour and a half later, proof that I met Eliza Dushku. She thought my costume was cool, by the way.


She was the only celebrity I ended up meeting. The whole cast of Middleman was there, but they were charging for autographs too. If I had known that before we got there, I might have decided to spring for another autograph. Oh, well. I did get some great costume photos.

Fourth Doctor, Amy, and Eleventh Doctor! All very cool. Fezes are cool.


TARDIS fez. Cool squared!

We stopped at the 501st table, where I got a photo of a lady Stormtrooper. Jason was in his Trooper gear on Friday, and hopes to have his Palpatine costume ready in time for Wizard World in August.

Hooray for girl geeks! Side note: conventions are one of the few places where the line for the men's restroom is longer than the women's. I found that highly amusing.


The lovely female Mario cast. They wanted a photo with me, too.

I actually got very few photos of myself with my camera. This one was too good to pass up, though.


Jason spotted this lady and her robot buddy.


Speaking of Jason, he and two of his friends went as the nWo. They were also very popular with photographers.

Left to right, we have Macho Man Randy Savage (Jason), Hollywood Hogan, and The Undertaker.

One more. Johnny wanted to snag a picture with this Mario walkabout just as we were leaving.


The only bad part about yesterday was that, even though Jason and I were there together, we were unable to spend much time together. We came with a big group, which kept on getting broken up. Somebody wanted to buy t-shirts. Then someone else wandered off. Johnny needed lunch, I was in the autograph line, people wanted a photo of the nWo, etc, etc, etc. Incidentally, there are no photos from yesterday of Jason and me together. Also, stopping for photos can really wear you out after a while. When we got back from the con, Johnny had more energy than either Jason or me.

Will Action Princess Peach make an appearance at any more cons? Probably. I think I will don the dress and bazooka again for Wizard World. But I also need a day to walk around and relax a bit.

Want more costumey goodness? You can find all of my C2E2 photos here on Flickr.