... may have been exaggerated.
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day 32 -- i had a longer post planned. i was going to talk about my day. going to the flea market and the local farm stand and then seeing my niece who brought me this awesome bag from italy (she spent a semester in florence) but decided that simple was the way to go today. the flea market was a bust (lots of bad junk) and it's too early in the season for local produce (but not for fresh eggs!).
so lately i've been feeling uninspired and i don't feel like knitting or writing blog posts or taking pictures. this is the 5th time i've started this stupid post. how do you all find the time or have the energy to do what it is you do every day? TELL ME!!! ( i'm doing that thing that i do. i've been comparing myself to others again and falling short. i've got to stop that. )
anyway, earlier in the week when i saw kristen's wonderful crocheted scarf, i thought it might be fun to change things up a bit and do a little crochet too for a change.
i looked for a suitable pattern and finding nothing that caught my eye, i just started crocheting.
and it sucked. like a hoover. so i frogged it
and i've got nothing.
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day 29 -- a post about sucking and wips that aren't anymore.
hey kids!
know what this symbol means?
it means someone needs our help.
elisa's dad is in a VA hospital in iowa far from family and friends and needs a blanket. and i think that if we all pitch in and knit (or crochet) just one square each, we can help his daughter give this man a little love and warmth and help him get back on his feet.
so here's the plan:
knit or crochet a square. preferably in a worsted weight-ish machine washable yarn. this blanket will be at the mercy of the VA laundry service. i'm sure the laundry staff are very hard working and do an excellent job on laundry, but i think it's safe to say that this blanket will not be hand washed in cold water with eucalan. just a guess.
try to get this square as close as possible to 8 inches square, blocked. use a ruler if you have to. (i know, that was snarky. but i know how you knitters are about following directions.)
when you're ready to send the square, just contact either me or elisa and we'll send you an address.
boston area knitters who would like to send a square can give/send the square to me and i'll send them off to elisa.
thanks kids!
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ETA: some of you have asked for a few more details, so here goes.
Timeframe? As soon as you can, next couple of weeks would be great.
Colors? Any color is fine. Just maybe not pink? or other girlie color? He is after all a grown man.
Thanks so much for interest in helping us out!
blogging seems to have taken a back seat to life it seems. it's not that i don't have anything to write about, it's just that i can't muster the enthusiasm to do so. if i think about this whole blogging thing honestly, clearly i write for myself of course, but i also write for you. because if i didn't write for you, i'd write all of this down in a notebook and leave it on my desk and not have anyone see it. every time i post, i'm taking a leap, thinking that someone, anyone, would give a shit about what i care about. or don't care about.
thus concludes the navel-gazing portion of our program.
i'm thinking that for the time being i shall blog using the list format. i like lists. and i don't have to come up transitional phrases to link my paragraphs together. yay lists!
1. work on the house has been going on at a feverish pace. friends and family have been here almost every day, tearing things apart and putting things back together so that by the end of today, the goal is to have all windows not only installed, but all exterior walls re-insulated and tyveked, prepped for siding. this is very exciting news. but it's also meant that between the work on the house and certain inlaws being in town (and only being notified at the last minute of their visit *cough*), that my original plans of fun and frolic for the labor day weekend, including a couple of dinner plans with friends, were put on hold, punted if you will. it truly was a "labor day" weekend. (if you knew my out of town inlaws, you would agree too.)
of course i say that as if i actually broke a sweat. yeah, my role on the project has been more administrative than anything else. but someone has to make the runs to home depot and the sub shop.
2. on the crafty front, i have been working secretly on a little project. and it's not yarny. i'm a little nervous about talking about it here, since i go from really liking what i've done and then thinking it's lame. but i'm more likely to think what i do is lame anyway, and then watch someone else do exactly what i've done after the fact and watch them succeed and me sit here cursing myself and calling myself a big fat loser.
3. i've got as far on the larger than life bag as i can. i've sewn the squares together and crocheted on the bottom and sides. now comes the sewing of the lining. well, the fabric purchase first. yeah, i'll let you know how that goes.
4. i got a haircut. i actually took some "before" and "after" pictures in my bathroom but they're horrible. partly because i used my crappo camera in an artificially lit bathroom with a dirty mirror while still wearing my pajamas but also because i look like shit (even with the new haircut). but it is what it is. let's just say that i really like my new haircut. my roots have been taken care of, and my handful of grays are hidden away (it is still very important to me that i only have a handlful of grays.). if you live in the boston area, and are in need of a new look., i can highly recommend the lovely danielle. she does a great job. she's charming and sweet. she's a friend of elisa's (who she misses very much) and she feeds you snacks. SNACKS! plus, how can you resist her super cute website?
5. i had my first class this past week. there's nothing like the smell of chemicals like acetic acid and formaldehyde to take you back to your younger days. what's been eye-opening is to realize two things: 1. i love school, and 2. i love biology. who knew? i'm not 100% sure that this class is going to help me prepare for the subject test, as i'm thinking that it might not be rigorous enough, but the discipline of studying may be all i need. good news though. i have an exam the wednesday BEFORE going off to rhinebeck, not the wednesday after so at least the 50 pound biology text won't be eating up precious fiber haul space in my car.
6. that's all i've got for now.
7. the end.
another two months have passed and it's time for my june-july project spectrum retrospective. for these two months, the colors showcased were red, black and metallics.
i thought that working with this color triad would be easy since black and red are two of my favorite colors. but they're also winter colors to me. i don't even wear red and black in the summer. i did manage to finish a "red" project though: the boteh scarf from the spring '07 issue of interweave crochet.
yeah it's kind of a dumb picture but i didn't feel like modeling it. anyway, the pattern called for two skeins of lorna's laces sock yarn, so i used a 100g skein of sock yarn (of unknown pedigree -- i just know i bought it on ebay) and a size F (3.75 mm) crochet hook. i think my "petals" or whatever you want to call them, were smaller than in the original pattern so i was able to make 20 of them rather than 16 as written in the pattern.
yeah i didn't check gauge but it's a scarf. a scarf always fits. this one ended being 76 inches long. anyway, even if you're a relatively new crocheter, i think you can give this a try (just check for the errata first). it's deceptively simple and very fun to make. honest. kind of cool looking and a great way to dip into your sock yarn stash. go on. i know you want to make one.
having half done projects makes me a little anxious. i'm not project monogamous but i don't like to have too many projects hanging around before i start something new. i certainly didn't want to bring an old project on my vacation (which actually starts 2 days from today and not three as i mentioned yesterday. i found out yesterday that my weekly friday meeting has been cancelled -- yay!).
if you're one of my contacts in flickr or a friend in ravelry, this FO isn't going to be a surprise, but if you aren't .... i present to you ....
a giant granny square!!!
my version of the granny square is 34 inches square and is finished off with a simple single crochet edge.
my baby niece needed a spring/summer blanket and so i collected all of my random skeins of sugar 'n' cream cotton and got to work. initially i was going to make a bunch of smaller squares and you know, sew them up, but then i decided that a giant granny would be so much more fun. and less of a pain in the ass.
like for my version of the ripple afghan, i selected the colors at random, without pre-planning, and the sequence of colors never repeat. i used a size I (5.5mm) hook to keep the blanket nice and drapey. i'm really happy with how this turned out and maybe some day i'll make one big enough for a bed.
and LBK (little black kitty) seems to like it too. (by the way, don't be afraid to knit or crochet something other than dishcloths with sugar'n'cream. it's cheap, colorful, easy care, easy to find, and softens over time and washings.)
more FOs tomorrow.
i've lost my voice. well not entirely, but when i do try to speak, i've got this 2 pack a day for the past 20 years, smokey, lounge singer sort of voice. it kind of sucks, although the guy across the hall kind of thinks it's sexy. hey, i'm all about "sexy." hahaha. (ouch that hurts).
anyway, this post has nothing to do with my voice, or lack thereof. except that maybe the way my voice sounds right now might have something vaguely to do with the title of this post, in that i sound like an old whore.
so about the hookin'. i've lost the knitting mojo too which seems to be going around. i think i'm in a rut. well i know i'm in a rut. but i didn't think my rut would infiltrate the knitting. but i guess it has. so i've been crocheting instead.
using the big giant t-shirt ball and a giant size Q hook (i think) i'm just single crocheting a couple of kitchen mats/rugs.
although insanely simple, i find single crochet here to be very satisfying. much like garter stitch can be.
and because my baby niece needs a spring/summer blanket (that's what her mom says) i pulled out my sugar 'n cream cotton stash/scraps and started a giant granny.
finally, because i get anxious if i have less than 3 projects simultaneously in the works, i have some simple socks going. these are knit. you know, for the commute. the t-shirt yarn ball is just too big to fit in my bag.
the rippling has ended. let us take a moment to reflect ....
started: march 1, 2007
finished: april 30, 2007
approximately 60" x 60"
knitpicks merino style
knitpicks andean treasure
size H crochet hook
softwaves ripple from 200 ripple stitches by jan eaton
the original plan was for a much longer blanket. a rectangle. i like rectangles. but i ran out of yarn. and i wasn't about to buy more. (have i mentioned that the ball bands lied? that the skeins that i did weigh, weighed in at 15-20% less than indicated on the label? just be forewarned.) can i tell you how happy i am that this is finished?
this morning, i caught one of my cats with her little face pressed up against the bedroom window. she had spied a bird sitting on the neighbors fence and probably would have gnawed my hand off just for a chance to catch him. in the past couple of weeks, i've been trying to pay extra close attention as i look for the first signs of spring. so far as i can tell, that bird is it.
now on to something totally unrelated. i've made very little progress on my ripple blanket, only managing to crochet 10 2 row bands of color in 10 days. but i'm halfway there.
i've been crocheting the ends in as i go along so that i don't have to weave them in later. i promised julie a picture of what that looks like, but i'm lame and didn't get a shot in this time. but i will.
monday, i was so grumpy, i actually considered quitting blogging. or at least taking a break. "bah!" i thought. "i can't handle the pressure!" and i thought of other things, but i won't go into them here because then i would be participating in over-excessive navel gazing and woe-is-me pity-partying. like i tell my 2 month old niece ... "there's no crying in [fill in activity here]."
but today i'm better. good enough to give you my list of "things i like monday "on wednesday.
1. i like that dunkin dunuts, in honor of it being the first day of spring, is giving away free iced coffee. i love iced coffee. and when it's free, it's even better. i picked one up on my way to work this morning. i'll stop by on my way home. woo-hoo.
2. don't tell anyone because people will think i'm crazy but i kind of enjoyed our little snow storm this weekend.
and let me tell you why. because i could hang out in my sweatpants at home guilt free. i mean, i couldn't get the car out of the driveway, let alone drive safely down the road. so i stayed home.
i baked bread. and i baked brownies. the bread was good. i hear the brownies were too.
"hey! where do you think you're going with those brownies?"
and while sitting on the couch i knit and i crocheted. sometimes almost simultaneously -- one row on the blanket, one row on the sock, that kind of thing.
the old -- my ripple blanket.
the new -- socks.
3. by sunday, the driveway had been cleared and the roads were clean so i got to spend time with the inlaws and my niece, eating corned beef and cabbage. lots to like there. (i love cabbage. when that happened i haven't a clue.)
how creepy is that doll? guess which one is real? heh heh
finally, napoleon thanks you for all of the birthday wishes. or he would if he were not a cat. so on behalf of my old cat who tends not to really give a crap about anything except for tuna and cold fresh water (in protest to his water not being cold and fresh enough he's taken to straddling the toilet bowl and trying to drink out of it.) i would like to thank you for the wonderfully warm birthday wishes.
have a good wednesday!
so while i'm not knitting baby things, i've been rippling. (crochet-mockers, please hide your eyes. it's not a toilet paper cozy, but i know how sensitive some of you knitting snobs can be. ha!)
i have 30 different colors of approximately 50g each so that explains the busy-ness. the randomness of the stripes is intentional. i started out by chosing colors with my eyes closed, but i got two yellows one after another. so i had to take back some of the control. but other than a some veto power, i've kept the color sequence pretty hap-hazard. i've got 10 more color bands before making it halfway.
i started thinking about this post last friday because i actually had several things pop into my head that i liked. can you believe that?
1. i really really like this. i saw this notebook "system" (i love "systems") in the pages of the latest issue of Blueprint (it's about fucking time with the third issue of blueprint. martha! what are those blueprint people doing?! let's hope they can publish more than 2 issues per year this year!) i'm still a paper-based planner type person, mostly because i find electronic systems rather confining. i mean, how do i draw a picture of something? anyway, the "system" is still a little pricey for my taste (and it's 2007 and they only offer a 2008 calendar) but maybe later.
2. i'm really liking crochet. especially working on this blanket. yep, that's what that big bag of yarn was for.
i've jumped on the ripple blanket bandwagon. check out the special ripple blog to see what others are doing.
3. i like that saturday i was able to drive around in my car with my sunroof open. it was 59 degrees. woo-hoo! so yes, tomorrow we'll be freezing our asses off again, but saturday it was almost 60 degrees!
i haven't done much knitting or crocheting for charity this fall. my total for caps for kids .... goose egg (although i did donate some yarn).
but i have been "working" most saturday mornings at graceful stitches. and remember this?
ta-daa!
my favorite part of this bag is the button. 5 skeins of mercerized cotton (i don't remember the name of the yarn, but we carry it at the store) with a size 5 crochet hook. oh and it's for sale.
the wheels started turning a few months ago after stitchy mc yarnpants announced that her book was coming out. there was much rejoicing of course. and sucking up. (because of course who doesn't want to be chummy chummy with a published author. ) and finally, inspiration. others are inspired by nordic patterns, complex lace, beauty in nature, gorgeous yarns. i'm inspired by scary clowns made of red heart and the nausea inducing yet oddly comforting granny square.
i present to you my latest crochet incarnation ... "The Kitschy Kozy."
made of non-kitschy patons classic merino, the kozy can also be crocheted in red heart (preferably). i used odd balls of paprika ("shag carpeting" rust), dark olive ("avocado"), old gold ("harvest gold"), chestnut brown ("ugly fake wood paneling" brown), and red.
would you like a kozy to protect your museum of kitschy book? it's really quite simple.
the front and back of the kozy were made of 4 4-rowed granny squares stitched together. how big your squares end up being depends on your gauge and the yarn you're using, so experiment. with the right side of each panel facing you, on one side of each panel, single crochet an even number of rows so that the the total number of single crochet rows is as wide as the binding of the book is wide. sew the binding edges together so that wrong side of each panel are facing eachother. then starting at one of the binding edges, single crochet around the whole mess. i needed to only crochet 1 row. again, depending on the size of your squares, you may need to crochet more rows.
to attach your kozy to your museum of kitschy stitches book, make 2 chains that when pulled taut are long enough to reach from the top edge of the book to the bottom and attach to the single row edging.
to create a tie closure, to keep your book closed, make two chains and attach one to each panel opposite the binding side. then tie.
voila! you're done. and your book is protected and decorative at the same time.
about a month ago, claudia blogged about this relic her mother had found stashed away. a crocheted stole, carefully crafted by claudia's adolescent hands, she was ready to throw it out like an old rag. "crochet!" she exclaimed. blech! in blue, no less! double blech!
so i told her i'd give it a good home. this blue stole had lasted this long, it deserved to be finished.
check out the change in gauge though. on the left, are the first few inches. did she use a different sized hook? were her hands relaxed and happily crocheting? on the right, are the last few inches. was she hating the stole? hating the crochet? was her dislike of blue so overwhelming that she would forever associate it with crochet? were her hands clenched so tightly in crocheting hating frustration that her stitches were half the size? was this the beginning of the end for the crochet? and why she's a knitter today?
who knows?
a lot of the items that i create, i do so to make others happy. i'm all about the process. i could knit squares all day and be perfectly content. but if i make something specific, it's usually with a recipient in mind.
case in point ...
oh.um. ah...that's not what it looks like. um. hold on. let me fix that. um. [blush]
phew. that's better.
here's my crocheted bone. i knew that there was a pretty good chance that i'd run into laurie at NHSW so i thought it would be fun to crochet a bone for mr. etherknitter. plus, i figured it would also be good for a giggle. for me anyway.
(and it passed the time during my niece's dance recital. two and half hours of vanilla ice (ice ice baby) and tutus, just to get a momentary glimpse of her. the sacrifices i make for my nieces. if i don't win "best aunt on the planet 2006" then i don't know what else it will take.)
i always feel a little weird posting pictures of something that i gave as a gift. but if i had kept it for myself, i would have posted pictures. or if i had given it to a non-blogger, i would have posted it. so i'm posting.
i present to you the demon twins that i made for melanie's demon twins.
i used kim's amigurumi pattern from crochetme and sugar'n cream yarn. i find them to be deliciously evil looking, in the best possible baby way of course.
a couple of saturdays ago (april 15th to be exact) after a couple of years of online correspondence, i finally met kim of crochetme online mag fame and co-author of these two fabulous books on crochet. (i've been pushing the first one on everyone i know who wants to learn crochet.) and if that's not enough, she's also a regular contributor to knit.1.) (i don't rub elbows with just anyone, let me tell you.) she was visiting family in boston; me, i was at work (yes working on a saturday -- rat bastards) and needed a break. so we made plans to meet at park street station because i was taking her to windsor button. have i ever said how much i love windsor button? every yarn animal under one roof: everything from red heart (yes red heart people) and cottonease (yes they still have cottonease -- sorry cathi -- no baby pink though) to lamb's pride, cherry hill, and manos, colinette. a yarn for every budget and project. not to mention feather boas.
then we went to south station to meet up with josie. i got us a little lost (i know embarrassing) but not horribly lost -- we just ended up walking a little bit farther than we needed to. josie is a crocheter originally from north carolina (with a cute little accent) who now lives in rhode island. we then headed off to quincy marketplace for lunch and then back to windsor button, where we laid down some serious cash. mmm yarn.
kim was exactly as i imagined she would be. we hit it off right away. to this day, i'm still a little amazed about how this works. josie on the other hand, was a total bitch. HA! JUST KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!! i think i scared her just a little at first,but again, when we began to talk about yarn and crochet and crafts and age inappropriate footwear and jobs and life, everything just seemed right. i didn't want to go back to work, but i had to. rat bastards.
phew, thank god the word is out. i can now yell from the rooftops (after having to keep it a secret since december) about how proud i am of mrs. mcyarnpants. because you know...she's got a book coming out. go congratulate her now. (i love how i try to get traffic going to her blog when she's got a bazillion more readers than i do.)
anyway, what many of you probably don't know is that i've got a design over there on her book website. not too proud to ride on the coattails (or cocktails) of her celebrity, i'd like to point you to my latest creation .... the aluminum can tissue cozy. so dreadful, it's almost a thing of beauty. really. you should see it up close. (see, my name's really there!)
anyway, congratulations stitchy! and thanks for allowing me to bask in your brilliance. i couldn't have done it without you.
say hi to pinky -- my march project spectrum mascot.
i made him using kim's "dude" pattern from crochetme, adding ears and a tail and a little collar.
when i was looking for my eiffel tower pictures for the letter E, i found this photo:
La Maison Rose (the pink house) is a little restaurant-cafe in montmartre, probably my favorite neighborhood of paris. La Maison Rose used to be the home of the artist Utrillo (1883/1955) and was once a hang out of Pablo Picasso's and Gertrude Stein's.
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and i got word that leah received the post card i made for her, so i can show it to you.
just some fancy paper, pink tissue, red crocheted flowers and a little acid green cotton stuck all together with the aid of a hot glue gun.
the other day, i mentioned that when i should have been concentrating on my olympic event, i was partying with needlepoint. i even brought it to the closing ceremonies *gasp* but was shamed into keeping it in the bag (which is fine, since it would have gotten in the way of the drinking of beer).
anyway, jackie asked to see it anyway. and who am i to say no to jackie.
so this is the piece that i've been working off and on for a few days now. it's a door stopper kit that i purchased in bermuda. i love this little pink house.
i finished this piece ages ago. it needs to be properly blocked and framed.
(i found this piece at the bottom of a bag, so i needed the mouse and camera to keep it flat).
finally, this piece is the largest i've ever attempted and it's almost done. unfortunately i've run out of the sky blue cotton, and i'm going to be a little short on the white of the house. so this piece will continue to be on hold at least until the summer when i go back to france. (i think i bought this canvas a good 10 years ago).
and because i'm a born multi-tasker, i crocheted a couple of hand soap cozies last night.
(i wonder if these are kitschy enough for stitchy?)
that's all for now.
to break up the monotony of the log cabin squares, i whipped up a little something for a 3 year old princess. here's the original picture from the latest interweave knits crochet.
here's my rendition...without dog and child
a little close-up on a pompom
and just so you all understand that I WILL LIE DOWN ON THE FLOOR FOR YOU PEOPLE!!!
ok, i've got some fuzzy feet to start. i joined my first knit-along .... if this doesn't get me to knit socks i don't know what will.
