Twisted Strands

Hookin’ Up! My Review of Poppy&Bee

2011-07-17T00:19:00.001-04:00

Today is my day in the month-long Hookin’ Up project being run by Kathryn over at Crochet Concupiscence. I’m reviewing the blog Poppy&Bee, which is written by Natalie in New Zealand. I was excited to talk to Natalie, since New Zealand is one place I would LOVE to visit sometime. I’ve heard it is so beautiful there. One thing New Zealand is known for is its sheep, and where there are sheep there is YARN!

Poppy&Bee is a fairly new blog, just started in January as a companion site to Natalie’s online store of the same name. (Poppy & Bee are the nicknames of her two young kids by the way.) Natalie left her teaching job and is now a WAHM, selling her handmade crochet goodness and being home with her kids. What a great life! I know I at times fantasize about quitting my job and crocheting for a living, I bet others of you do too.

Reading Poppy&Bee, I feel like Natalie is taking me along on her journey as she establishes her business. Selling at craft markets, photo shoots for her website, networking with other crafters, oohing and ahhhing over new yarn. She writes with a nice friendly conversational tone, like we’re just having a chat over coffee (or would it be tea in NZ?) She has a fondness for owls, as do I, and this is my absolute favorite of her items:

Is that not ADORABLE!! (And the baby’s cute as a button too lol.) And she makes these hats in all sizes from newborn to adult. I’m in love.

I asked Natalie a few questions about herself so we could get to know her better…

When did you learn to crochet? I see that your blog is fairly new, what inspired you to start an online store for your crochet work?

I learned to crochet while still young, maybe 8 or 9 years old. My Mum and my grandmother are both very talented handcrafters and I was always watching them and trying out whatever they were doing. Crocheting took a very long hiatus until I had children, and I recently started up again after leaving full time work to be at home with Poppy and The Bee (my darling children).
The online store came about because I really am so used to being able to find things online myself, and enjoy the process of listing and presenting things online. I like being able to say ‘head over to poppyandbee.com’ – easy with no need for anyone to search through etsy or felt or anywhere else – even though I do list on those two sites as well. Being online allows me to spread the New Zealand Crochet love internationally too – and so many people are looking for the fine NZ yarns, and I am very lucky to have easy access to them here, and then to be able to make them into something yummy and handmade to share is fabulous!I would love to blog much more than I do, but I seem to run out of hours in the day to fit everything in! I’m working on a way to function without sleep – but am not having much luck yet.

(Natalie, if you find a way to do that, LET ME KNOW!)

What are your favorite things to make? Favorite yarn?

Ooooooh – favourite yarn at the moment is Possum (I know, I know – but in New Zealand they’re pests destroying our native vegetation). An amazing fibre with similar properties to Alpaca – and a lovely feel to it when working it. Mix it in with some NZ Merino and you have squishy yarn heaven. My fingers sigh when I start using it! Favourite things to make? I’m working through my hat phase at the moment – I have about 120 patterns in my ‘make me now!’ folder. I’d love LOVE to spend some more time on shawls and lace-weight work, but now that I sell what I make, it’s really hard to price them to sell with the hours and hours they take to make. The eternal dilemma of the crochet garment maker! I’ve started a pair of socks about three times, and love Amigurumi just for the frivolous distraction.

How hard or easy are you finding the WAHM life?

Loving it! I find it impossible to have enough hours in the day (particularly because I procrastinate about the sensible ‘Mum’ jobs like tidying, cleaning and groceries in favour of crocheting), but love being able to collect my children from school. The Bee tells me he loves having an ‘At the Door Mummy’ after school. I am a primary school teacher, and even though last year I taught where he went to school – I was never at his door at 3pm to collect him. Now he loves stumbling out for a big cuddle and tells me all about his day without having to wait. I do miss teaching and my cool and lovely colleagues I’m working on a way to incorporate it into crochet by running lessons and developing learn to crochet kits, but definitely don’t miss the hours and hours of prep!

So that’s Poppy&Bee! Natalie recently did an interview with New Zealand Handmade too, which you can read here.

Hookin' Up Project

2011-07-16T12:18:00.000-04:00

So tomorrow is my day to post a blog review for the Hookin' Up project, which means that today MY blog is being reviewed. Jen at Rip It Good has written such a nice review of Twisted Strands, I'm so flattered, thank you Jen!

And be sure to check back here tomorrow when I'll tell you about a very special blog!

FO Friday July 17th

2011-07-15T04:01:00.000-04:00

I missed FO Friday last week too, what with being out of town, so I haven't had a chance to tell you about my wire and bead crochet class. It was awesome! We spent about six hours working on our necklaces, alot of that time was spent just trying to decide on what beads we wanted to work with. Making the necklace was actually fairly simple, you thread the beads onto the wire and crochet a chain, moving a bead up into your stitch every once in a while, however close or far apart you want them. The instructor kept saying "there aren't any rules, just do what you like, very freeeform"--that doesn't work for left-brained me, I need structure and patterns to follow lol! Another woman in the group is an accountant and we got a good laugh out of our need for "rules".

I chose a copper colored wire (28 gauge) and red coral chips for my necklace, along with a lot of other red and pink beads. The necklace has 5 strands, and the instructor did all the finishing for me, made the clasp, etc. So here it is....

It's just the right length for how I like to wear necklaces:

I wore it to my yarn playgroup last night and someone asked me right off "oh did you crochet your necklace?" I've gotten several compliments on it, which is fun of course. And the store where I took the class has an AMAZING selection of beads, so I bought some more and I hope to be making some more jewelry soon!

Head over to Tami's Amis blog to check out more lovely FO's!

WIP Wednesday July 13th

2011-07-13T14:59:00.000-04:00

I'm back! I missed out on WIP Wednesday last week due to a business trip--I really tried to write a post before I left but it just did not happen. Too many things to do to make sure the rest of the family survives while I'm gone! If you have kids and do any traveling, you'll know what I mean.

The best part of traveling is that I get more time to crochet! Not only on flights and while waiting in airports, but during conference talks as well. On all four of my flights I made sure to choose an aisle seat on the left side of the plane, so my elbow could stick out in the aisle and not bump a seatmate while I crochet. You do have to be careful that your elbow doesn't get smashed by the drink cart tho. Now how many people do you know who pick their seat assignment based on their crafting? Yes I am a geek, I know it and I don't apologize for it lol.

So, I got eight squares done for Knit-a-Square during my 3-day trip! Not bad at all. And I FINALLY used up all the purple wool yarn that I got in the yarn swap back in February! As you can see, I have now moved on to green:

I also started a new scarf this week, the pattern is Clapochet, it's a crocheted version of a knitted shawl called Clapotis. I'm making it narrower as a scarf instead of a shawl, like I did for the Crocus Bud. I'm just not a shawl person, but I do like accent scarves! The yarn is YUMMY, it's a merino/cashmere/nylon blend, soooo soft. And the color is such a rich variegated earth tone, I love it.

So that's what's on my hook this week. Be sure to check out lots more lovelies over at Tami's Amis!

Hookin' Up!

2011-07-02T19:54:00.000-04:00

I wanted to let you in on a fun crochet blog project going on this month! Hookin' Up is being hosted by Kathryn on her blog Crochet Concupiscence. Each day one of the participating bloggers will review the next blog on the list, and I'm looking forward to finding out about some cool new blogs that I haven't discovered yet! On July 16th, my humble blog will be reviewed on Rip It Good, and on the 17th I'll be reviewing Poppy and Bee. You can see the whole blog list here, and as of right now when I'm writing this post, there is still one spot left for someone on the 23rd, so if you have a crochet blog and would like to join in the fun, send Kathryn an email!

In other news, my bead crochet class was AWESOME today! I am currently wearing my new necklace, and even The Teenager really likes it! I don't know if I can wait till FO Friday to show it off, so you might be seeing it sooner lol.

Have a lovely weekend!

2011--Mid-Year Review

2011-07-02T06:00:00.001-04:00

Since 2011 seems to be half-gone already, impossible as that seems, I decided I ought to check in on some of my goals that I set for myself way back in January, both for craft things and the other parts of my life. I seems I may have fallen just a teensy bit off the wagon in terms of some of the things I said I was going to do this year. Oops.

As far as crafting goals, there are 3 things I said I wanted to do this year:

1. Knit-a-Square: I want to make at least as many blanket squares as I did last year, which was 108. Total as of 7/1/11 is 43. So I'm not halfway, but I have some good stitching opportunities coming up in the form of business travel and vacation, so that square count should be heading up nicely over the rest of the summer.

2. Bead crochet: This is actually a goal left over from 2010 as well, but today is the day! I decided the only way I'd get started is to take a class, so from 11-5 today I shall be crocheting with wire and beads--I'm psyched!

3. Crochet myself a sweater: Uh-oh, I forgot that I set this goal. And I STILL have no idea what sweater I would make for myself! I need to stop dithering and just pick something and DO IT.

Other goals I set this year:

1. My physical well-being: I'm still walking about 4 days a week, and I feel pretty good. I have decided to try Tai Chi as an exercise to increase my balance and flexibility, I've got a couple of dvds, and if I just get out of this chair and stop reading everyone's great blogs, I might actually start doing the exercises!

2. Spiritual growth: I'm still listening to the Daily Audio Bible podcasts every day, so now I'm halfway through the Bible. This has been a real blessing to me, and I know I'll stick with it the rest of the year and finally have read the whole Bible!

Earlier in the year I was trying to set smaller monthly goals too, and let's just say that particular practice has fallen by the wayside lately. Life sure gets busy, doesn't it? But perhaps summer is a good time to try and get back in the swing of things, right? SO--in July I am going to set myself a goal of:

1. Use my tai chi dvds!

2. Clean up my spare bedroom/craft room--oh dear, it has gotten bad.

3. Do at least 2 family activities--hey, it's summer!

And how about all of you? Did you make any resolutions back in January? Let me know how you are doing on your own goals!

FO Friday July 1st

2011-07-01T04:00:00.000-04:00

AUGH!! It's JULY! No no no, can't be.

Anyhoo, this week I can show you my finished prayer shawl:

I think it came out very nicely, and I finished it just in time, since I can't face having something big and hot on my lap when the weather tops 90 around here. The pattern can be found here if you are interested!

I also made a cute little something this week:

I think this heart is just adorable! I learned a new stitch too, the edge of the heart is done in Crab Stitch, also known as Reverse Single Crochet. It's not a hard stitch, although it feels kind of awkward at first, and mine definitely is not consistent all the way around. I watched a couple of videos on Youtube to help me get the hang of it, just search for "crab stitch crochet". The motif is part of the Teen Throw free pattern on the Caron Yarns website, and it's designed by Andee Graves who is an absolute sweetheart! She has a wonderful blog too, you can visit her here.

Tomorrow is my Wire and Bead Crochet class--can't wait! Maybe I'll have something awesome to show you next Friday. Have a great weekend! And check out more Finished Objects at FO Friday over at Tami's Amis.

WIP Wednesday June 29th

2011-06-29T16:37:00.000-04:00

Today's Work In Progress is a very l-o-n-g project--my crochet learning curve. Talk about something continually in progress! I guess I would consider myself an intermediate level crocheter--I can read patterns and charts, I can do alot of stitches beyond the basics, I've tried some techniques like Tunisian and mosaic crochet. On the other hand, I've never made something where fit was crucial, and I've tended to stick with "ordinary" yarns. So, the Crocus Bud scarf that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago was my very first project with sock yarn. Last I showed you it was being blocked:

And here it is all done!

Close up:

I really like it, but I noticed something when I put in on--it wasn't holding the block. The scarf was getting longer and narrower instead of staying in the nice open lacy pattern. I thought maybe it was just the weight of the yarn, the pattern calls for lace weight where mine is in sock weight. Or maybe I needed blocking wires instead of pinning it out. Or maybe I hadn't let it dry thoroughly when I blocked it. So I blocked it again, and let it dry for about 3 days, but still the same thing. So I asked around on Ravelry and learned a WHOLE BUNCH of stuff I didn't know about sock yarn! For instance, many sock yarns are a blend of wool and nylon, which helps the yarn "spring back" into shape better after it's stretched. That's a desirable property in a sock, right? But not so much in a lacy scarf. Dug out the label for my yarn--75% merino, 25% nylon. Eureka! There's my issue.

One raveler gave me a lot of helpful info to consider:

"More than anything, spring back has to do with quite a few factors and can’t necessarily be applied the same way to each and every yarn. Those factors are: nylon content; natural fiber content (is it superwash wool? is it low crimp fiber that will hold a block great, like cashmere, alpaca, llama, cotton? is it a toothier wool, like shetland, as opposed to a high micron count like merino? does the yarn have a high twist, lots of bounce, or low twist, little or no bounce?); manmade fiber content, other than nylon (rayons like bamboo block really well, acrylics can be “killed” with a steam block, but it has to be done very carefully so as not to melt the acrylic); and how the blocking is done."

Other helpful things I learned:

1. Sock yarn is generally "fingering weight", but a fingering weight yarn might not be sock yarn. Sock yarn is usually blended to be well-suited to socks (doh!), like my yarn with 25% nylon.

2. Many sock yarns are made with superwash wool, which can behave quite differently than other wools when you get it wet to block it, it has a tendency to grow alot but shrinks back when it dries.

I may try to steam block my scarf, or I may just frog a few rows to shorten it, since it's a bit long as is. Definitely was a learning experience for me! And I'll know a bit more going into my next "fancy yarn" project.

Be sure to head over to Tami's Amis for more great WIP Wednesday

WIP Wednesday June 22nd

2011-06-22T13:27:00.000-04:00

This Work In Progress Wednesday is sponsored by......

SUMMER VACATION!!!

Yes, summer vacation is FINALLY in progress here! Today was the last day of school, and I confess I am feeling a bit nostalgic. I walked Miss G home from school for the very last time. The last time we will ever walk home from school together, since next year she will take a bus to middle school--sniffle sniffle! Last Friday was the 5th grade closing ceremony, and it was so sweet. Then last night was the 8th grade closing ceremony for The Teenager, and "sweet" wouldn't exactly be the word I'd choose to describe it! There's a WHOLE lot of change that goes on between 5th grade and 8th grade! And speaking of changes:

Miss G, on her first day of kindergarten:

Miss G, at the end of 5th grade:

The Teenager, on her first day of kindergarten:

The Teenager, on her way to the 8th grade dance last night:

Ummm, wow. Where did those kids COME from?

In other news, I've got nothing new on the hook but I finished my prayer shawl and my scarf this week! I'll show them off on Friday. Now I'm trying to decide what to start next--gee, maybe I should peruse my huge Ravelry queue, ya think?

Hope you all are having a great week, and thanks for stopping by!

WIP Wednesday, June 15th

2011-06-15T07:00:00.001-04:00

Woo hoo, I actually have something to show this week! Did you know that Saturday was Worldwide Knit and Crochet in Public Day? So I went out and crocheted in public! My yarn playgroup always has an event for WWKCIPD, in fact the first time I met these lovely folks was two years ago at this event. We had a great time and got alot of nice attention from passersby. I forgot to take photos though, darn it--I was too busy FINALLY starting on my Crocus Bud scarf. Last month I showed you the shawl pattern and my swatch here. Well, thanks to crocheting in public on Saturday and a couple of long meetings at work this week, I've got it done already and it is blocking as I type!

I think I'm going to love it.

Couldn't get the whole thing in one picture, it's about 6 feet long:

Like my fancy blocking mats? Yeah, beach towels. Whatever.

I've also done six squares so far in June for Knit-a-Square. I don't think I'm ever going to finish up this purple yarn!

Other than that I have been enjoying our FABULOUS weather this week, what a welcome break from the 100-degree stuff we've had recently. Oh, and I found an almost-new gas grill for $35 at a yard sale on Saturday! Ours is all rusted out and we were looking at new ones so this was quite the score.

If you'd like to participate in WIP Wednesday on your blog, head on over to Tami's Ami's and join the fun!

Thankful Thursday June 2nd

2011-06-02T07:51:00.000-04:00

Such an easy choice today for Thankful Thursday!

Happy Anniversary to the most amazing husband. I can't believe we've been married for TWENTY-SEVEN years! We're not possibly that old. But then again, I look at these young people and think "who in the heck ARE they?"

June 2, 1984:

I love you sweetheart!

WIP Wednesday June 1

2011-06-01T17:40:00.000-04:00

Holy crap, it's June already! And to be honest, the only thing I'm working on this week is keeping cool. We've been having a spiffy heat wave since Sunday, today was a bit cooler as it only got to 94 instead of 97 or 98! Tonight we are supposed to get some thunderstorms, I'm looking forward to a little relief.

So that's it, nothing to see here but a woman trying not to melt into a puddle. Oh, here's a good idea:

WIP Wednesday May 25

2011-05-25T10:12:00.000-04:00

It's Wednesday again? ALREADY?? And the last Wednesday in May, too. Our weather is getting decidedly more summer-like around here this week. Don't like the hot and humid, nope nope nope. I'd better finish my prayer shawl before it gets too hot to have the thing on my lap!

But no prayer shawl to show today, instead I have a new square (and another started) that I've made for my favorite charity, Knit-a-Square. I'm rather behind on my goal of nine squares per month, but I know I'll catch up when I have vacation time and trips over the summer. Anyway, here's this new pattern I LOVE:

I'm still working through all the purples that I got in my yarn swap back in February, lol! Remember this?

I got this pattern from Skye's Images of Life blog. She starts with a chain 46, but for me a chain 31 gave me a square about 7 inches wide, then I added a hdc border to bring it up to 8 inches for Knit-a-Square. I think I will make several of these! And to see what other folks are up to for WIP Wednesday, just hop on over and visit Tami's Ami's blog.

And I can't let today go by without mentioning another special Work-in-Progress. A very long-term project in fact, one that's been going on for exactly twelve years today! Happy birthday, Miss G--we love you!

WIP Wednesday May 18th

2011-05-18T05:59:00.000-04:00

See, I promised, I do have something new for this week! I have started making a scarf using the Crocus Bud Shawl pattern. Here's the shawl:

Pretty isn't it? It's a Valley Yarns pattern, and you can buy it here if you're interested.

I'm making it much narrower, as a scarf instead of a shawl. And I'm using a sock yarn instead of lace weight that it calls for. I made a swatch and blocked it, and I think it's going to be very nice!

I'm still working on my prayer shawl, hasn't changed too much since the last time I showed it to you. And I've made a few more charity blanket squares. I feel like I've been spinning my wheels a bit lately, time to get back in the crochet saddle!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

My finds from MD Sheep and Wool

2011-05-15T17:58:00.000-04:00

I haven't shown you what I bought at the Sheep and Wool Festival last weekend! Now first may I say, I am pretty much on a yarn diet, meaning I don't buy new yarn unless I have a specific use for it. And there are literally HUNDREDS of vendors at this show, and I'm not much of a yarn connaisseur (wow I spelled that right first try). Some folks come to this festival specifically to pick up certain yarns from certain vendors, and some of that stuff is EXPENSIVE. Those weren't the booths where I spent most of my time.

First off, they have some really fun buttons to buy (the kind you pin on, not the kind that go through buttonholes). My FAVORITE one that I got last year is this one:

This year I found this one!

Man of the House is not amused. But I was happy because I actually found several with crochet mottos instead of all knitting sayings. Here's all that I bought:

I bought these two adorable little finger puppets:

And this pin:

And this magnetic shawl clasp--now I need to make a shawl.

I think this little cutie is my favorite--it's a little zippered felt pouch to keep things like yarn needles and stitch markers in. Adorable!

I also bought some things to help with my resolution to make some jewelry--beads, glass pendants, and little balls made out of felt. There WILL be jewelry making going on here!

And finally, yes I did buy a bit of yarn. I love to get a bargain, so I got these small skeins from a bargain bin of "mill ends"--the ends of a color run that aren't big enough to make a full skein. I plan on making some skinny scarves, or maybe even using them in some jewelry!

And all that fit in one little bag! Not like some of the people who were walking around the festival--when you're a spinner, you need a LOT of fleece!

And don't be too shocked, but I do have something new for WIP Wednesday this week--I promise!

How I spent my Mother's Day

2011-05-13T15:45:00.000-04:00

Actually, I spent a good bit of the whole weekend here--9 hours over 2 days. The weather was absolutely perfect, and I had such a great time! Sheep judging, sheepdog demonstrations, great lamb to eat, and HUNDREDS of vendors selling everything a fiber lover could possibly want!

So what was there to see? There were sheep:

And more sheep:

And more sheep!

Somehow I got an awful lot of pictures of sheep behinds. They also have some very cute fronts of course:

Awwwww! And there were alpacas too! I love alpacas.

And there were so many beautiful things to look at. Some were on display by vendors:

Some were entered in a judged competition. These next two pictures are felted--they look like watercolor paintings!

And other things were being worn by their creators!

On Sunday I watched the Sheep to Shawl competition--amazing! Each competing team has 5 members--a shearer, three spinners, and a weaver. And they have 4 hours to shear a sheep, comb and spin the fleece into yarn, and weave it into a shawl! Each team comes with their loom already warped (all strung with the threads needed to make the shawl), then as the spinners get yarn made, the weaver creates the shawl. It was so cool to watch.

Combing out fleece:

Three spinners and a weaver in action:

There was a junior team too:

Their finished shawl:

The 2nd place winner--isn't this gorgeous?

And the winning shawl on the right:

I have more photos up on my Flickr page if you'd like to see them. I had an absolutely MARVELOUS time, and I can't wait till next year!

In case you're looking for me this weekend....

2011-05-04T17:30:00.000-04:00

You'll find me right here!

This is one of the biggest fiber fests in the whole country, and it's only 10 minutes from my house! How lucky am I? Last year was the first time I went, and WOW it's amazing. Actually it was a bit overwhelming, huge and packed and it was really hot. This year the weather looks cooler, and I'm planning on spending most of Sunday there, and probably part of Saturday too. What better Mother's Day present than a day immersed in all things yarnilicious?

Anyone else who's planning to be there?

It's May!

2011-05-02T15:51:00.002-04:00

And nobody tells it better than Julie Andrews!

Thankful Thursday

2011-04-28T19:46:00.000-04:00

BUSY! Life has been crazy busy lately. (Perhaps you noticed that I haven't done a blog post since Thankful Thursday last week?) I started filling in activities on the Master Calendar for May, and I don't see any sign of a letup.

SO--today I am going to be thankful for being busy. I have lots of meetings going on about Miss G's upcoming transition to middle school, and I am grateful for all the teachers and therapists who care about her and want to help her do well. I've got lots going on at church, and I am so thankful we found this church family and how involved and connected we are there. We're having a yard sale on Saturday, and I'm grateful for the abundance of things that God has blessed us with, and perhaps someone else will buy them and enjoy using them. I'm going to a Pampered Chef party tomorrow night, and I'm so thankful for friends and for the chance to have a fun evening out. Work is very busy, but I am SO grateful for a good job and coworkers who are also good friends. The Teenager has lots of stuff going on, and I give thanks that she likes school and has friends and activities that she enjoys so much.

So today I choose to be thankful for my busy busy days, because it shows me how much God has blessed me in all the different areas of my life. And I can use one more blessing--the energy to keep up with it all!

Thankful Thursday April 21

2011-04-21T17:23:00.000-04:00

Today I am so very grateful for friends. The kind of friends that time and distance seem to have no effect on. When we were in Williamsburg this week we saw some people that were very good friends when we lived there, which was quite some time ago. We haven't seen these people much more than a half-dozen times in the past 24 years, and yet we can sit down with them and chat like almost no time has passed at all. I know that we all have changed, but when we get together it is truly like "old times". Those kinds of friendships are very special and such a wonderful blessing. And that's my Thankful Thursday for this week!

WIP Wednesday, April 20th

2011-04-20T18:50:00.000-04:00

The main thing that is in full swing this week is...

SPRING BREAK!!

Finally, spring break is here and so is spring. Both have been a long time coming this year. We just got back from four days in Williamsburg, had a very nice time. It's a very special place for us, it's where Man of the House and I met and fell in love (awwww!) and where we spent our first three years of married life. I got my bachelor's degree at William and Mary, and hubby did his graduate work there. We still have some friends who live there and it was so nice to visit with them. And it was our first visit there when the kids were old enough to appreciate the historic stuff, so we did a bunch of touristy stuff in Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown.

We saw lots of the usual sights of Williamsburg:

The Wren Building (on the W&M campus)

The Governor's Palace

The Magazine

Miss G hanging out with Thomas Jefferson

Man of the House ended up in the stocks--well-deserved I am sure!

And there were tulips in bloom EVERYWHERE, it was absolutely gorgeous.

We had a very nice time! And now the Teenager is off to the second half of her excitement, her long-delayed trip to NYC to see Phantom of the Opera. This is the trip that was supposed to happen after Christmas but got wiped out by that pesky blizzard. She is beyond excited! And Miss G and I get to hang out at home by ourselves for a couple of days and settle back in after vacation. I'm looking forward to some down time.

No new crochet to show you today, I made a couple of blanket squares and did a few more rows on the prayer shawl while I was away. I'm hoping to have something new on the hook next week tho--if I can just decide which project I want to make!

The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Project

2011-04-15T16:01:00.001-04:00

If you spend any of your time in the fiber world, you may have heard about the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef project. It was begun by Margaret and Christine Wertheim, two sisters from Australia who wanted to bring attention to the devastating impact that global climate change is having on coral reefs. It turns out that crochet is an excellent medium for creating coral shapes, and at the same time is an excellent model of complex geometry--who knew! Here is a bit of background from their website:

One of the acknowledged wonders of the natural world, the Great Barrier Reef stretches along the coast of Queensland, Australia, in a riotous profusion of color and form unparalleled on our planet. But global warming and pollutants so threaten this fragile monster that scientists now believe the reef will be devastated in coming years. As a homage to the Great One, Margaret and Christine Wertheim of the Institute For Figuring instigated a project to crochet a woolen reef.

The sisters, who grew up in the state of Queensland, began the project in 2005 in their Los Angeles living room, and for the first four years of its life the Reef took over their house, gradually expanding to become the dominant life-form in their home. At the same time the project began to expand into other cities and countries until it has now become a worldwide movement that engages communities across the globe from Chicago, New York and London, to Melbourne, Dublin and Capetown. The Crochet Reef is a unique fusion of art, science, mathematics, handicraft and community practice that may well be the largest community art project in the world.

The Crochet Coral Reef has become a traveling project as well now, with satellite exhibits touring to various cities around the world. One of these shows has been at the Smithsonian in Washington DC for the past several months, and I finally got down to see it last weekend--just in time since it's only there for another week. It was AMAZING. In addition to some pieces from the Wertheim's original reef, local crocheters from the DC area had made pieces and combined them into a huge mound of "coral" in the center of the exhibit. It was so cool! I could have spent hours looking at all the individual pieces that went into making the reef--the colors and shapes and detail were just incredible. I also took a ton of photos but somehow the pictures don't do justice to the three-dimensional nature of the sculpture.

Here is a video of Margaret Wertheim explaining how the reef began and what it has come to mean. It's about 15 minutes but really well worth watching!

(The direct link is here if your browser doesn't like the embedded video.)

And some of my own photos:

Look at the details! In this picture, the piece on the left with the blue and purple is a giant clam:

Part of the reef was done in whites and grays to show the "bleached coral" that happens when sea temperatures get too warm and the coral die and lose their color:

And look at this adorable sea urchin!

Branched coral:

This one is all beaded crochet--WOW.

I love this photo--see the jellyfish hanging in the middle?

I put some more photos in an album over on my Flickr page if you'd like to see those as well, just click here. And if you get a chance to see one of the exhibits, DEFINITELY GO! And if you want to go to the one in DC, move quickly, it closes on April 24th.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Thankful Thursday

2011-04-14T20:28:00.000-04:00

I am thankful for SO MANY things today, and topping my list are:

---An absolutely beautiful spring day today,

---SPRING BREAK FINALLY and the next 10 days off work,

---All of my online friends who understand the excitement of yarn,

---And my wonderful hubby who's having a birthday tomorrow. Love you sweetheart!

Hope you are having a good day today too!

WIP Wednesday, 4/13/11

2011-04-13T21:47:00.000-04:00

Can't believe it's Wednesday again. Time just keeps flying by, we're nearly halfway through April already! (Got your taxes done yet?)

I don't have anything brand new to show you, but I did get a LOT done on my prayer shawl this week! It helped that I had an all day training seminar yesterday and I crocheted for about seven hours during the talks. And I would have gotten more done but I ran out of yarn lol! Here was my prayer shawl last week (13 rows finished):

And now today--37 rows done!

The pattern only calls for 6 more rows before doing the edging, but I think I may want it a bit wider than that. But I feel like a made great progress this week! I'm itching to start some new things but I don't crochet for myself during Lent, so for the next ten days I'll keep working on the prayer shawl and blanket squares.

I also wanted to show you some lovely crochet I found at a thrift store:

It's a dresser scarf, or small table runner perhaps, about 44 inches long. It's in very good condition, but I really don't have any place I would put it on a dresser or table. I'd love to incorporate it into something else, like stitch it to some fabric and make it into a bag maybe? I'd love to hear any ideas any of you might have for something to do with it!

Happy crocheting!

April Resolutions

2011-04-09T13:40:00.000-04:00

Looks like I'm a bit late reporting in on my March Resolutions, the Crochet and Knitting Blog Week took over my regular schedule for awhile there! Annnnd.....it really doesn't matter anyway because my March resolutions pretty much went unresolved. Oopsie.

Since I have a bunch of new followers recently, I'll fill you in that back in January, I set a couple of long-term goals for the year, and decided to also make a couple of short-term resolutions each month. The long term ones, I'm happy to report, are going well! As the weather is gradually getting better I've been walking outside more, although I must say that Crochet Month and Blog Week did keep my keister (kiester? keester?) parked in front of the computer quite a bit. And for my spiritual goal, I'm still listening to the Daily Audio Bible reading every day, and I am really getting alot out of it. It's helping me recognize some areas in my life where I've been putting in considerably less than my best effort, and I think I'm turning some of that around.

But then there was March. In March I intended to find three more new meals to put into my incredibly boring menu plan, and to get everyone working on ten minutes of straightening up around the house every day. Ummmmm, not so much. So hey, I guess I better keep those goals around for April eh? Maybe some of my newer followers can help me out with the meal thing. In fact, I'll make it a challenge! Post a recipe here, or email it to me, and at the beginning of May I will pick my favorite. Whoever sent it to me will get a small token of my appreciation! (I have no clue what, but surprises are good right?) And I'll include those who gave me meal ideas last month too.

Hope you are having a great weekend wherever you are! I'm going to see the Hyperbolic Crochet Reef tomorrow at the Smithsonian, I'm really looking forward to it. I'll be sure to tell you all about it next week!

Thankful Thursday April 7th

2011-04-07T05:00:00.000-04:00

Thankful Thursday is going to be a weekly happening here on Twisted Strands! Sometimes I get so wrapped up in my hectic life that I don't stop to really be grateful for everything that I have, both the major things and the little blessings that come my way every day. And there is SO much that I have to be grateful for!

What's on the top of my thankful list right now? That's an easy one:

It's SPRING!! Spring is my very favorite season. The weather gets warm and everything blooms in gorgeous color. I try not to get too giddy out of sympathy for those who get miserable with allergies this time of year, but spring just makes me happy!

WIP Wednesday, April 6th Edition

2011-04-06T05:00:00.001-04:00

Hi there and happy Wednesday! Now that things have gotten a bit back to normal (or back to the usual state of ABNORMAL) around here, it's time to have a WIP Wednesday. Confession time--with all the excitement of National Crochet Month and then Blog Week, not a whole lot of actual crocheting got done at Chez Twisted Strands in March. But I did manage to fit in a bit here and there. Remember all this pretty wool yarn I got in my playgroup's Yarn Swap last month?

I've started making squares for Knit-a-Square with it:

Not a bad start. I neglected my prayer shawl all month too, but did get some more rows done on it at our monthly meeting last night:

I'm listening to a very good book right now as well that I'd like to share with you, called Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love, by Dava Sobel. It's a very interesting biography of Galileo, and includes a window into his relationship with one of his daughters who was a nun. They corresponded frequently, and over a hundred of her letters to Galileo survive. I'm enjoying it quite alot. I find it interesting to learn that a man as brilliant as Galileo also got a number of things quite wrong! For example, he believed that the tides were caused by the movements of the Earth as it revolved and rotated, and he also thought that comets were not in fact actual physical bodies, but that they were reflections on some phenomenon in the atmosphere.

400 years from now, do you think people will look back at us in 2011 and marvel at our ignorance? Do you think that with all our technology and advancement we are still just completely WRONG about some of the scientific facts we think are true? For me, I don't think that there will so many radical instances in the future of discoveries showing us that we are totally wrong about things. I think our knowledge will continue to grow immensely, and I believe the biggest advancements will likely be in medical treatment and in technology/computers. I just don't imagine such complete upheavals such as in Galileo's time. What do you think?

It's Been a Crazy Month!

2011-04-04T11:00:00.000-04:00

Wow--the past 5 weeks since we started National Crochet Month have been quite a ride! I had planned on doing alot of posts for NatCroMo, including the giveaways. And then when Crochet and Knitting Blog Week came along, well of course I had to join in that fun. So I've averaged 4 posts per week since the beginning of March, and I've gone from 25 followers to 70! And there's no telling how many wonderful blogs I have found thanks to my new followers and the other participants in Blog Week.

I just wanted to say how much I appreciate all my readers taking the time to visit Twisted Strands. I have enjoyed all your comments. And wow are there alot of fiber-related blogs out there! I had no idea just how many there are--I have spent SO much time in the past several weeks finding new blogs to read, I have gotten considerably less crocheting done, I know that for a fact. And I have definitely learned that doing an interesting attractive blog post takes time. When I heard about the A to Z Blog Challenge going on in April, part of my brain said "wow that sounds really cool!" and the other part said "NO we cannot post every single day for another month!" Well, sanity has prevailed and I won't be doing the A to Z Challenge, although I still think it's an awesome idea.

So, what's coming up at Twisted Strands now the dust is settling from the past month? Well, look for me to continue with WIP Wednesdays and I'll be adding Thankful Thursdays too. Also, April is Autism Awareness Month, and since someone very near and dear to my heart is autistic, I'll be posting some about that as well. And of course I'll be prattling on about random things that come into my head--don't say I didn't warn you!

Have a great week everyone!

Julie

Books and Hooks WINNERS!!

2011-04-03T19:26:00.000-04:00

Thank you so much to all of you who entered my Books and Hooks giveaway! I hope you have had a wonderful weekend. My children did the honors of randomly selecting the two winners, so without further ado:

The winner of "Crochet for Today" and a size Q crochet hook is:

Sarah.Crochet!

And the recipient of "Geometrics" and another size Q hook is:

Enid!

Sarah and Enid, please email me your mailing addresses (jbkcrochet at gmail dot com) and I will get your prizes out in the mail as soon as I can. Congratulations, and thanks to everyone for your interest in my blog!

Julie

Crochet and Knitting Blog Week--Day 7

2011-04-03T00:05:00.009-04:00

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It's the last day of Crochet and Knitting Blog Week! I've had a lot of fun coming up with posts and reading so many new blogs. And I am so grateful for all of my readers! I hope my blog brings a little bit of pleasure to your day.

Day seven: 3rd April. Your knitting and crochet time.
Write about your typical crafting time. When it is that you are likely to craft – alone or in more social environments, when watching TV or whilst taking bus journeys. What items do you like to surround yourself with whilst you twirl your hook like a majorette’s baton or work those needles like a skilled set of samurai swords. Do you always have snacks to hand, or are you a strictly ‘no crumbs near my yarn!’ kind of knitter.
Tips: Last year we had a topic asking about the actual location of where you knit or craft, this is similar but not the same. Try and concentrate on all of the little aspects that make up your knitting time. Maybe you always head for for your Flaming Lips CD when taking on simple knitting but prefer a bit of Brahms when tackling more intricate work, or maybe you enjoy knitting with audiobooks or complete silence. Perhaps your crochet time is never complete without a cuddle from Tiddles the cat.

Flaming Lips CD--uh, no. Christopher and/or Jet the cat--sometimes.

Let's see--when do I crochet. I have a full time job, a teen with lots of activities, a "tween" with a different bunch of stuff to go to, a husband, a house, 4 pets, I teach Sunday School, etc etc. Some female comedian once said, "When they make a movie about my kid's life, I'll be listed in the credits as 'Woman Driving Car'." Oh yeah, I can relate!

I try to sneak in my crafting when I can. Definitely while watching TV or a movie after the kids go to bed. DEFINITELY if I have a meeting at work. I usually take a small project along with me anywhere I know I'll have to wait--doctor's office, oil change, etc. Sometimes I even get annoyed if the doctor calls me back too soon and I haven't had any crochet time!

I do love socializing when I craft too, I just don't get many opportunities to do so. I have a Wednesday night "yarn playgroup" but I don't get to go that often, and I go to an annual craft retreat that is an absolute blast! But most of the time I'm more of a solo crafter, snatching bits of time with my yarn whenever I can manage. This is also the primary reason that I haven't gotten to pursue my interest in making jewelry, like I mentioned yesterday (See, I told you there was a good segue!) My crochet time is best suited to mindless, relaxing, uncomplicated work that just lets me zone out. Working with beads and wire and such is going to require some concentrated periods of time when I can really focus on doing something new. That kind of time is tough to come by in my life!

I AM going to make some jewelry tho. I promise, I will! Probably as soon as the kids grow up and move out....

Crochet and Knitting Blog Week--Day 6

2011-04-02T00:05:00.000-04:00

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Day six: 2nd April. Something to aspire to.

Is there a pattern or skill that you don’t yet feel ready to tackle but which you hope to (or think you can only dream of) tackling in the future, near or distant? Is there a skill or project that makes your mind boggle at the sheer time, dedication and mastery of the craft? Maybe the skill or pattern is one that you don’t even personally want to make but can stand back and admire those that do. Maybe it is something you think you will never be bothered to actually make bu can admire the result of those that have.

Oh this is an easy one for me! I want to crochet jewelry. With beads and wire and yarn. I especially want to make necklaces. There are lots of awesome earrings out there but I don't have pierced ears, so I'm not into wearing earrings.

I'm talking about things like this:

And this:

And this!

I've made exactly one thing in wire crochet so far, a pendant, and I did this about 2 years ago.

(it's a leaf)

Why haven't I done any more? I think it's a matter of how and where I craft. Which is a perfect segue into tomorrow's topic, so I'll leave you with a cliffhanger until then! Tune in tomorrow, Same Craft Time, Same Craft Channel!

(20 bonus points if you are as old as me and get that pun.)

Have a fabulous crafty weekend!

Oh, and don't forget the Books and Hooks Giveaway! Drawing will be Sunday April 3rd at 5 pm eastern US time.

Crochet and Knitting Blog Week--Day 5

2011-04-01T00:05:00.001-04:00

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Day Five: 1st April. And now for something completely different!

HAPPY APRIL!! Now if spring weather would just get off its butt and get here, I'll be eternally grateful. Today's topic for Crochet and Knitting Blog Week:

This is an experimental blogging day to try and push your creativity in blogging to the same level that you perhaps push your creativity in the items you create.
There are no rules of a topic to blog about (though some suggestions are given below) but this post should look at a different way to present content on your blog. This can take one of many forms, but here a few suggestions:
•Wordless, photographic post
•Video blog post
•Podcast
•Cartoon/sketch of an idea
•Write about a subject from a different perspective (for example, you could write about a day in the life of a knitted sock from the point of view of the sock).
•Interpretive modern dance (why does someone always suggest this?)
•A poem or piece of rhyming verse
•Stop motion animation

Cripes! Usually I can be pretty good at this type of thing but my muse must be on vacation in the Bahamas or something. Stupid muse. Anyway, out of this list there wasn't much I could choose from, since I have no idea how to do a video blog or a podcast, and you do NOT want to see me do an interpretive modern dance, trust me.

So, since I'm rather addicted to word puzzles of all varieties, I created a word search for you! I had a lot of fun making the puzzle, and I hope you enjoy solving it.

Now, since this thing looks rather on the small side here (particularly if you have "not young" eyes like I do and spend at least half your time tilting your head every which way in order to read what's on the page in front of you. Not that I'm old or anything), just click on this link here, and then right click on the picture and choose "Print Picture". (If you're in Firefox you may just have to print the Flickr page itself.)

I'm so looking forward to reading other blogs today and seeing what creative things everyone came up with! Have a great Friday.

Crochet and Knitting Blog Week--Day 4

2011-03-31T00:05:00.001-04:00

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Day Four: 31st March. Where are they now?

Whatever happened to your __________?

Write about the fate of a past ~~knitting~~ crocheting project. Whether it be something that you crocheted or knitted for yourself or to give to another person. An item that lives with you or something which you sent off to charity.

I've got a couple of good candidates for this one. First, I give you....

THE SCARF THAT ATE MANHATTAN!!!!

This is the very first project I made after I re-started crocheting a couple of years ago. I wanted a nice warm circular scarf that I could also wrap around as a hooded cowl. I went to JoAnns and picked a really pretty, soft yarn, Lion Brand Homespun. This seems to be a universal newbie crocheter experience--buying a bunch of Homespun and finding out it is incredibly hard to crochet with! Because of the yarn texture it is very hard to see your stitches, not a good thing when you're learning. I also misjudged the size and made it way too big. And it's heavy--it weighs about a pound and a half! Too heavy, too bulky, and it likes to choke me.

These photos may be the last time I wear the thing.

I'd also like to tell you the tale of another item, this one that I sent to the Knit-a-Square charity in South Africa, although I didn't actually crochet it myself. I found an old worn stadium blanket at Goodwill, brought it home and felted it into a nice warm piece of wool, about 2x3 feet. Not big enough for a blanket on its own, but could be sewn together with other felted squares to make it a good size. So I sent it off to South Africa. Several months later, in one of the e-newsletters that KAS sends out, I saw this photo:

Look at the boy in the background, wrapped in a blue and green plaid blanket. That's the piece I sent! Here's another photo of him, in the center front:

This made me feel so amazing, and made my small efforts seem so tangible. A little boy is warmly wrapped in something that I helped with. Seeing those faces really motivates me to make as many things as I can for charity.

If you'd like to know more about Knit-a-Square and how to help these beautiful kids who have nothing, not even a warm blanket to call their own, please visit their website here!

Crochet and Knitting Blog Week, Day 3

2011-03-30T00:05:00.001-04:00

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Day Three: 30th March. Tidy mind, tidy stitches.

Ugh, let me start off by apologizing to anyone who got an unfinished version of this post Monday night--I was writing it ahead of time and accidentally hit the "publish" button. Not very talented of me.

ANYWAY--here's the real post! Today's topic: Organization.

How do you keep your yarn wrangling organised? It seems like an easy to answer question at first, but in fact organisation exists on many levels. Maybe you are truly not organised at all, in which case I am personally daring you to try and photograph your stash in whatever locations you can find the individual skeins. However, if you are organised, blog about an aspect of that organisation process, whether that be a particularly neat and tidy knitting bag, a decorative display of your crochet hooks, your organised stash or your project and stash pages on Ravelry.

Oooh, this is not going to be pretty. Notice the third sentence in that paragraph? The one that starts "Maybe you are truly not organised at all..." I think whoever wrote that was looking directly at me at the time. I was off doing something else when God was passing out the organization genes, no question about it. Well, even though no one mentioned that this blog week was going to involve airing your dirtiest laundry, I took up the dare to photograph my stash, warts and all. Maybe one of you will take pity on me and offer to come over and organize it for me lol!

My main stash storage:

There is some organization here, like I do have all the wool yarns in one drawer, all the baby yarn in another. But it's not terribly neat. And you can see all the overflow onto the floor and table. Now I do have a bit of organization of my patterns in the box you can see on the floor:

But I don't keep up with it as well as I should. I print so many patterns off the web, and somehow never seem to get them filed in this box.

This is the small storage I keep in the living room for things I'm actively working on. The pile of books on top are crochet books checked out from the library. Once again, there's not much rhyme or reason to what is stashed in the drawers here.

And yet another place to keep yarn! Next to the sofa where I crochet while I watch tv. Don't want to ever be out of arms reach from a hook and a skein of yarn!

And lastly, my main project bag. Also not neat and tidy.

I have made peace with the fact that I am never going to be an uber-organized person. Never. My desk at work is always cluttered, and yet I can usually put my hand on any file I need. Maybe I've learned coping skills over the years, I don't know. I definitely do like keeping my projects on Ravelry, it let's me track my progress and also keep track of patterns I would like to make. Maybe that will spill over into my off-line crafting chaos--baby steps, right?

Crochet and Knitting Blog Week, Day 2

2011-03-29T00:05:00.016-04:00

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Day Two: 29th March. Skill + 1UP

Here's the topic given us for today:

Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?

Looking back over what I've done in the past year, I don't think I can point to any big improvement in my skill, or new techniques that I have learned. But I think my biggest change is that I've gained more of a sense of my own "identity" as a crafter. It's been less than 3 years since I picked up a hook, after more than a dozen years of not crocheting. And during that long "sabbatical", the internet transformed the world of crafting just like every other area of life you can think of. The amount of information available is ASTOUNDING. I felt like a little kid, every new project I saw made me go, "Oooh! SHINY!" I just wanted to do EVERYTHING. My queue on Ravelry (my list of projects I intend to start) got ridiculous, like 45 items. I was also well on my way to achieving SABLE (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy). I was the poster child for crafting ADD!

So, who do I think I am now? First of all, I have realized I am a CROCHETER. I've tried knitting, I've done "knooking", which is creating knit fabric with a crochet hook. And I've discovered that what I really like is crochet. It's my zen, my relaxation, my calming center. And I've found that I get tremendous satisfaction out of making things for others. I'm not a bag person, or a shawl person, or a hat person. But when I have a stack of blanket squares to send to Knit-a-Square, a charity which distributes blankets to AIDS orphans in South Africa, I feel like my small effort is going to mean so much to a child who has nothing.

Crochet has given me a way to be creative, a means to help others, and a whole pack of friends both in cyberspace and in real life. And I only see more and better things coming in the year ahead!

Oh,and don't forget to enter my "Books and Hooks" giveaway! I'll be picking the winners at 5 pm eastern (US) time on Sunday April 3rd.

It's Crochet and Knitting Blog Week! Day 1

2011-03-28T00:05:00.002-04:00

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Hello, and welcome to the first day of Crochet and Knitting Blog Week! Yes I know that's not the "official" title, and I certainly am non-discriminatory regarding the fiber arts, but crochet just has to get first billing here lol. ANYWAY--if you're interested in knowing more about the idea behind CKBW, you can read all about it here. I, and hundreds of other fiber bloggers, will be posting each day about a designated topic. So please--settle in and just come along for the ride!

Day One: 28th March. A Tale of Two Yarns.
Part of any fibre enthusiast’s hobby is an appreciation of yarn. Choose two yarns that you have either used, are in your stash or which you yearn after and capture what it is you love or loathe about them.

I'll tell you right up front, I am NOT an exotic yarn kind of person. For one thing, I can't stand any wool next to my skin, except maybe 100% merino. And once we start getting into the really nice fibers, the price goes up beyond what I can justify. But the main reason I stick with "workhorse" acrylic yarns is that nearly everything I crochet is for charity, so I definitely want to get the most yarn for the best price!

So when we talk about "workhorse" yarns, two come to mind right away: Red Heart Super Saver and Caron Simply Soft. Just for grins, I looked these two up on Ravelry to check out the number of projects (the following are screen shots from the Rav page):

That's right, over 55 THOUSAND projects on Rav using this yarn. And then there's Simply Soft:

Again, well over 50 thousand projects. Someone sure is using these yarns!

But not me. The thing is, I don't really like either one of them. Red Heart Super Saver I find not to be soft enough to my liking. And Simply Soft has a nice soft feel, but the yarn splits like mad when I crochet with it. Drives me nuts! Alot of people seem to have this same problem with Simply Soft, but others like it just fine. So as much as I want to use inexpensive yarns, the Big Two just don't do it for me. What's a crocheter to do?

Enter: HOBBY LOBBY. Oh, my! I had heard from friends what a great store this is, and last fall we got the first Hobby Lobby close to me--I was there the day they opened! And Hobby Lobby has their own line of yarn called "I Love This Yarn". And you know what--I do love it! It's soft, it doesn't split when I work with it, and they have a big range of nice colors and weights. What does Rav say about it?

Looks like it's got quite a way to go to catch up to Super Saver and Simply Soft. But I will definitely be helping it to increase the number of projects. Oh, and if you like cotton, I Love This Yarn cotton is the softest 100% cotton I've tried!

OK, this was more than 2 yarns lol. I always tend to overachieve.

Please come back again tomorrow for Day 2 of Crochet and Knitting Blog Week!

"Books and Hooks" Giveaway!

2011-03-24T20:01:00.001-04:00

It's time for my final giveaway to celebrate National Crochet Month. And actually it's a double giveaway--I will select two winners this time around! Here are the prizes:

Book #1, "Crochet For Today"

Lots of nice patterns--afghans, baby things, sweaters and more.

And Book #2, "Geometrics" by Ruthie Marks.

This book has some amazing projects--I really love the square tote bag on the back cover! And of course the star afghan on the front is a very popular pattern.

The first winner I pick will get book #1, and the second winner will get book #2. And as pictured with the books, each winner will also get a brand new size Q plastic crochet hook! Somehow I ended up with FOUR of these in my collection, so I'm sharing my overabundance with my my lucky blog readers.

Entering is easy! Just leave me a comment on this post saying you would like to be entered, and also let me know if you are a follower of my blog, that will get you a second entry. I'm going to run this contest through April 3rd, a week from Sunday. Entries have to be in by 5 pm eastern (US) time on the 3rd.

And one more announcement--March 28th to April 3rd is the 2nd Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week! (Or the Crochet and Knitting Blog Week as some of us prefer to call it.) It's going to be very cool, there is a suggested topic for each day of the week, and hundreds of folks will be blogging as part of the fun. You can go here to read all about it and sign up to join in with your own blog.

Happy crocheting!

For your Oooohing and Ahhhhing Pleasure

2011-03-22T21:40:00.000-04:00

Today I just want to show you some beautiful crochet. I am so amazed at the talent people have, and often in their ability to complete items that clearly took months or even years to make. It's really fun to peruse some of these. First up we have Miroslava Gorokhovich:

W-O-W. Check out all of Miroslava's photostream here on Flickr. It's just astounding!

Here's a gorgeous afghan that really has me thinking spring!

(Image by MyNameIsClare)

And thinking of spring makes me think of birds too, like this little beauty here!

I have to send you over to Flickr to see this next one but it's worth the trip--this is such a clever idea and it looks amazing.

Doilies on the stairs

Another awesome afghan, this one a sampler of many different crochet cable stitches. Every square is so well done, it's really terrific.

(Image by JRoKnits)

For all you Mario fans, this incredibly clever afghan was designed and executed AMAZINGLY by Gege of Gege Crochet:

She blogged the whole process of making the blanket, you can read it here.

And last is a particular favorite of mine, crocheted afghans that look like quilts. The patience and fortitude required to make these is HUGE, as they consist of many many many small pieces that all have to be sewn together in the correct pattern. The following are done by Micki, aka thing4string:
Double Wedding Ring

Prairie Star

Tumbling Blocks

Hope you enjoyed this lovely eye candy, and have a fabulous crafty day!

Flea Market Mystery

2011-03-21T19:24:00.000-04:00

On Saturday I went to a craft sale/flea market to look for anything interesting I could pick up cheap--I love yard sales and flea markets just like I love finding bargains at Goodwill, like my $10 afghan! Anyway, one of the tables had some crafting supplies, and for the excellent price of $2 I acquired this collection:

Now some of this I'm familiar with, the crochet cotton at the upper right, and to the left of that is some 26 gauge wire I can use for jewelry. But then there are these things:

The stuff on the far left, called "Tinsel Tex Braid" seems alot like what holds some of my little decorative Christmas bows together. The "Tinsel Tex Wrap" label was around one of the spools of gold stuff when I bought them. So I asked the all-knowing Google to find me info on "Tinsel Tex Wrap". Google decided I actually meant "Tinsel TEXT Wrap" and offered me an assortment of websites on the subject of making custom fishing rods and fishing lures. Google doesn't know me very well, does it? When I insisted I did mean "Tinsel TEX Wrap", the only thing that looked remotely craft-related was about floral arranging. So this is my mystery--do you know what this stuff is commonly used for? And am I crazy for thinking maybe I can crochet with it? I really want to try making crocheted wire jewelry, and this stuff seems pretty sturdy yet flexible. I'm willing to give it a try, but I'm just curious if anyone knows what this stuff actually is used for. And yes, I do sometimes buy things without knowing exactly what they are if I think I can find a use for them lol. I believe it's a condition called "Hey-I-might-be-able-to-use-that-sometime"-itis, and I know it must be genetic because my father is exactly the same!

We have a winner! Giveaway #2

2011-03-20T20:39:00.000-04:00

Thank you to everyone who's been reading my blog! I've more than doubled my followers in the last 2 weeks and I am so grateful to all of you for coming by. Miss G did the honors this time of randomly selecting a name out of the lovely crocheted hat. The lucky winner of the cotton yarn and "101 Double Ended Hook Stitches" is......

Congratulations to Clara! Here's her comment on the giveaway post:

Clara said...
Oh yes, please enter me in your giveaway. I am one of your followers! I loved that movie too.

Clara please send me your snail mail address and the goodies will be coming your way. BTW, Clara's blog is Clara's Crochet Room, please go by and visit her. It's one of the first crochet blogs I started following and she's just great.

And speaking of giveaways, I was a lucky winner this week as well. I won a copy of the new book "I Can't Believe I'm Crocheting Socks!" I have to admit I have not crocheted a single sock in my life thus far, but now that I'll have this book, I'm going to have to give it a try. The giveaway was on Two Hands Healing and Creative Arts, a blog written by Andee who is not only a fabulous crocheter but also a published designer! Please drop by and visit her blog as well, she's such a sweet person. I've "met" so many great folks through blogging and Ravelry!

We had an absolutely gorgeous spring weekend around here, and I'm rather sad to go back to work tomorrow. Hope you had a lovely weekend in your corner of the world. I have one more giveaway in store for Crochet Month, so stay tuned!

The Right Tool for the Right Job!

2011-03-17T04:20:00.001-04:00

(That's a quote from a movie, bonus points if you can name the speaker! Hint, it's said with a Scottish accent.)

Hello! I promised we'd get back to yarn today. I want to show off my fabulous new tool. Almost every true "project" requires the acquisition of at least one new tool. Even Man of the House agrees with me on this, although his definition of what constitutes a "tool" probably differs from mine. A couple of weeks ago I showed you this wool afghan I got for $10 at Goodwill and am frogging to reuse the yarn:

This was the first batch of yarn I had frogged, all ready to be wound into balls on my handy ball winder, and I decided to try winding the yarn without using a swift.

(Swift: 1. n. An adjustable device on which a hank of yarn is placed in order to wind off skeins or balls. 2. Slang: smart, clever)

A typical yarn swift:

The choice to do it without a swift was less than swift, let me tell you! I ended up with a tangled mess of green yarn. NOT happy. Now here's the thing about yarns swifts--they are expensive! Like $60 or $70 expensive. Really hard for me to justify, especially since I don't need it that often. And spending that kind of money would kind of negate my frugal find of $10 for the afghan. But I recalled having seen on a blog that someone had built herself a swift out of ordinary household items, thusly:

There's a whole blog post here about how to make one yourself. Pretty clever and resourceful! I tried to duplicate this, but somehow it just didn't work well for me. I ended up with yet another mess. But I am now happy to report that I am the proud owner of a lovely, useful, and reasonably priced yarn swift--behold!

I found this at Scott's Mountain Crafts, and I couldn't be happier! I've used it to help me wind several balls of yarn and it works very well. It takes about 5 seconds to set it up for use, and it's nice and compact for storage:

Best of all, it was under $30 including shipping. Perfect for me! If you've been considering getting a swift without breaking the bank, I think you'd really like this.

Do you have any favorite tools for your yarn projects? I'm always looking for things I didn't know I needed!

Have a great day everyone!

WIP Wednesday--March 16

2011-03-16T07:46:00.001-04:00

Happy Wednesday! The weekend is getting closer, hooray. I know Wednesday is my usual day to show you some work-in-progress I've got going, but today I want to show off a very special Finished Object instead.

Taa Daaaa!!!!

Yes, Miss G got her braces off yesterday!! We are all very excited. It's been over 2 years of trips to the orthodontist, food restrictions, pain and nuisance, but what a beautiful smile now. She keeps telling me her teeth feel strange, I'm sure they do! She gets her retainers tomorrow but only has to wear them full time for a couple of weeks, then only between dinner and breakfast. No worries about accidentally throwing them away with the lunch trash at school.

Thanks for letting me crow about this today. Back to yarn stuff tomorrow, I promise!

New Giveaway!

2011-03-14T17:36:00.000-04:00

Congratulations again to Carol, who won my first giveaway. I hope she makes lots of marvelous things using her new book! And now for my second little contest in honor of Crochet Month, I have another great book for you:

Double-ended hook crochet, also called Crochenit or Cro-hooking, is worked similarly to Tunisian crochet. The primary difference is that in Tunisian you never turn your work, whereas in Double-ended hook crochet you turn the work after some rows. This book has great instructions for how to do the technique, and beautiful color photos along with the stitch patterns. If you've not done Crochenit before, what better time than Crochet Month to learn something new?

(If you would are my winner and would really prefer a knitting book, I still have Top Notch Knits available for you to choose.)

Along with the book I am offering up some lovely yarn this time:

Isn't it pretty? The colors really put me in the mood for SPRING! The top yarn is Natura 100% Super Cotton worsted weight in lovely Orchid, a total of 7.5 oz, otherwise known as 210 g for those of you metric folks. Oh, and I have absolutely no idea what "Super Cotton" means and what distinguishes it from ordinary, mild-mannered cotton. Maybe it has a cape:

Sorry, I digress--I just love that movie! Anyway, back to the yarn. The other yarn is Patons Cotton DK in "Mad Magenta", 5.25 oz (150 g). It makes no claims of super powers, but you could make something super-pretty with it!

So--the giveaway! Same routine as before, just leave a comment on this post to be entered, and if you are a follower of the blog please mention that to get a second entry. That's it, easy as falling off a log! But don't do that, the water is realllly cold this time of year. Oh, I'll do the drawing at 5 pm next Sunday, March 20th. Good luck and happy crocheting!

Giveaway #1 Winner!

2011-03-13T18:23:00.000-04:00

Today's the day for my first giveaway. The Teenager offered up a lovely crocheted (not by me) hat for the drawing:

A bit blurry, but there are the names in there:

And the winner, drawn randomly by the teenager is:

Congratulations Carol! And I'm sorry for the quality of the photo, I know you are not blurry in real life!

Carol's comment on my giveaway post:

"Love the crochet motif book, haven't seen it before. My first visit, just popped over from the Lucy Group on Ravelry. I shall be following your lovely blog.
Happy crochet month.
Carol xx"

Happy Crochet Month to you too Carol! Send an email with your address to jbkcrochet at gmail dot com and I'll get the book right out to you.

Well that was very fun, and I'm so happy for all the new people who have come by my little blog in the past week. I'll be posting another giveaway tomorrow, so make sure you visit again!

And today I leave you with another photo of very cool crochet. I want to go out and buy a car with an outside spare just so I can do this!

See you tomorrow!

For the Healing of AIDS

2011-03-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

Today's post is a more serious one that my usual. March 6-12, 2011 has been designated as the National Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS. Here is the mission statement from the website:

"The National Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS is the coming together of all people of faith to unite with purpose, compassion and hope. Through the power of God’s love we will educate every American about HIV prevention facts; encourage and support HIV testing; advocate for the availability of compassionate care and treatment for all those living with the disease in every community in America; and love unconditionally all persons living with and affected by HIV/AIDS."

As I've mentioned here before, the charity that I support most through my crafting is Knit-a-Square in South Africa. This wonderful organization gives blankets, hats, sweaters, and hope to orphaned children, most of whom have lost their parents to AIDS. The need is staggering--it is estimated that there are 14.8 millions orphans in sub-Saharan Africa, including 1.9 million in South Africa where Knit-a-Square operates. It's so simple to help--just knit or crochet 8" blanket squares and send them to Knit-a-Square. The squares are sorted and bundled, then sewn into blankets to be distributed to orphanages. At times they also request hats, sweaters, and even "cuddles", little sleep sacks to keep babies warm and cozy.

Please consider using your talents to help these children who have so little and need so much! You can find all the information you need on the Knit-a-Square website, and I'm happy to answer any questions as well.

I thank you, and so do these children!

W.I.P. Wednesday--March 9th

2011-03-09T08:00:00.005-05:00

Hello and greetings to all of my readers! I'm so happy that several new folks have found my blog, and I'm looking forward to picking a winner of the giveaway on Sunday! You can enter anytime up till 5 pm eastern time on Sunday. That's 5 pm daylight saving time by the way--those of you in the US, don't forget to "spring forward" this weekend. I hate losing that hour of sleep but I love having it stay light later in the evening.

So it's Work-in-Progress Wednesday here, and this week I can show you the start of my new prayer shawl:

I think this is the first one I've made that is worked lengthwise--starting off with "chain 190" was a little intimidating! And with such long rows it's taking a while for the pattern to show itself, but I hope to make more progress on it now that I'm getting familiar with the pattern. It's a free pattern too, you can get it here.

And here's a close-up of one of my favorite crochet helpful hints:

When I stop working on something, I put a locking stitch marker in the live loop, and slip on an alphabet bead with the letter of the hook size I'm using. This way I don't misplace the hook, my work won't unravel, and I know what the hook size is! It's SO helpful to me since I can't rely on my memory for squat anymore, and I may not be using the hook size in the pattern--this way I always know which hook to pick up.

Oh, I also have an FO (finished object) to show you--my shamrock garland, adorning my desk at work!

It came out pretty cute I think!

I'll wrap up this WIP Wednesday post with the VERY BEST work-in-progress that I have seen this week:

The very first blooms of the year in my garden--Mother Nature is definitely working on spring, and I am soooo thankful!

Have a wonderful day!

Julie

Giveaway Time!

2011-03-07T07:00:00.002-05:00

Hello there! In honor of Crochet Month (and also achieving 25 followers of my humble little slice of Blogdom), I'm going to have my very first giveaway! And I'm offering up this book:

It is FABULOUS! It takes alot for me to decide to purchase a book, I guess I'm cheap lol. I take alot of books out from the library, but I rarely find one where I immediately say "I MUST have this for myself!" Here are a couple of the squares I have made out of this book for the Knit-a-Square charity:

Motif 114

Motif 109 (one of my faves)

But it's not just squares, there are circles, triangles, hexagons, flowers of all sorts, even hearts. Every design is beautifully photographed, and all patterns are given both in text and symbol.

Now I know some of my readers are knitters, but if you have any interest at all in crochet this would be a great book for you as well! But I will give the winner the choice of this marvelous book if you would prefer:

I bought this book when I thought I would get into knitting, and I absolutely LOVE the blue sweater on the front. But I've come to realize that crochet is really my love, and even if I do knit I will NEVER knit well enough to make that sweater lol. So I'm happy to offer up the book to someone who can get good use out of it.

So--rules for the giveaway. Leave a comment here--that's it! If you are a follower of my blog, leave a second comment telling me so, and you'll have a second entry. Easy as pie. Oh, and do leave a web address or email so I can be sure to contact you if you are the winner. International entries are welcome! I will randomly draw a winner at 5 pm eastern time next Sunday, March 13th. 13 could be your lucky number!

And speaking of giveaways, one of my favorite blog friends is also having her first one. Please be sure to check out Coffee 'n' Crochet, it ends on March 16.

And finally, your crochet eye candy for today--go look at this BEAUTIFUL work over at Where is She Now. Wow wow wow!

Yarn Swap!

2011-03-06T07:50:00.001-05:00

Like the new blog look? That icy snowy background just had to GO, I'm in the mood for spring!

I had such fun yesterday at my "yarn playgroup", Columbia Sip 'n' Knit. We held our annual yarn swap. Beforehand I went through my stash and picked out some thing I knew I wasn't going to use but that someone else might like. Most of this came from my sister when she was de-stashing--some yarn could come with a whole genealogy lol.

So--there were just a few things to choose from at the swap:

Isn't it just BREATHTAKING? It's like an entire smorgasbord of yarn! Three tables full, and even more in boxes and bags on the floor. And not just your basic yarns, there was some cashmere and silk and merino and handspun--it all looked so yummy.

So, what did I come home with?

Yes, that is two THOUSAND grams of 100% wool worsted weight yarn. And it's all going to become blanket squares and hats for my favorite charity, Knit-a-Square. Knit-a-Square is a group in South Africa which collects 8" blanket squares, sews them together, and gives the blankets to AIDS orphans. They take squares made of all types of fiber, but for some of the children they need things made from 100% wool, because of wool's natural fire-retardant properties. Some kids live in places where their only source of heat is from a fire or open-flame heater, and it's important that they have blankets made from wool, not acrylic. So I was THRILLED to get this much wool at the swap!

And I did pick up a couple of things for myself, just a bit of fun yarn to play with:

So clearly this was NOT a "de-stashing" event for me, since I came home with more yarn than I got rid of. Oh, and all the leftovers from the yarn swap will be donated to senior centers, etc, so all the yarn will get a good home. I can't wait to dive into my new yarn!

WIP Wednesday (sort of) for March 2

2011-03-02T12:16:00.000-05:00

So here we are in March! I'm always eager to be rid of February, knowing that March will bring warming temperatures and flowers and blooming trees and spring, my very favorite season. The bare branches and gray color of winter seems so drab to me, so come on spring!

This WIP Wednesday will be more of a report on my "Goals in Progress" from February. Long term, I have continued listening to the Daily Audio Bible podcasts every day and it works so well to listen on my drive in to work. The distractions of the day have not kicked in yet, and I can usually keep focused on the readings and not drift away too much. I did not exersize as much this month, but I pledge to get outside more now that the weather will be improving--another benefit of spring being on the way!

For February, you may recall that my resolutions involved reinvigorating my boring dinner menus and sorting out my disaster of a spice cupboard. I am pleased to report that I did indeed cook three new meals during the month! They all involved chicken, but hey it's a start right? For meal #1 I tried roasting a whole chicken in the crockpot. It definitely was easy to do but I found the chicken came out kind of dry. Edible, but not ideal. I don't know if I should have basted or what? Any helpful hints? Meal #2 used leftovers from the crockpot chicken, cooked up in a casserole with rice, cheese and broccoli. My brood is not a big fan of casserole type stuff, but this turned out to be the best of the three "experiment" meals, receiving nods of approval from the test subjects. For #3 I went to the crockpot again to make Crockpot Chicken with Cornbread Stuffing, which sounded delicious but didn't quite live up to its promise. The "stuffing" came out as rather a mushy lump--it tasted ok but the presentation left ALOT to be desired. And too much taste of overcooked broccoli.

I also expanded my dinner repertoire by going to Let's Dish--have you tried it? It's not exactly cheap but it is SO nice to go and make meals there and then just take them out of the freezer to make dinner. You choose which meals you want to make from their monthly menu, and they have everything prepared that you need to put the meals together. You stick it in the freezer, and follow the instructions to cook each meal when you are ready to serve it. It is SO convenient, I wish I could afford to do it more often.

Now on to the spice cabinet! Man of the House told me he approved whole-heartedly of this goal when he read my blog post, he too was tired of things raining down on him every time he opened the cupboard. Here's the "before" shot:

I couldn't turn the spice turntable on the lower right because there were too many other things blocking it. In fact the whole lower shelf was pretty much a disaster. And I had to move at least five things anytime I needed to get flour or sugar down. I also discovered that I had multiples of the following items:

Dill--2 bottles
Cayenne pepper--3 bottles
Curry--2 bottles (I don't even LIKE curry!)
Caraway seed--2 bottles
Thyme--2 bottles
Cumin--2 bottles
Lemon pepper--2 bottles
Yeast--4 expired packets

And the prize for the oldest thing in the cupboard? A package of slivered almonds with a "Sell by" date of 11-06-2007. That's less than 4 years expired right? Certainly not the oldest thing I've ever found in my kitchen lol. I have to give credit to Man of the House for helping me get this done, as he cleaned out the pantry last week, which freed up space for me to get the less-used stuff out of the cupboard and into the pantry, and I now I can actually find stuff in here. Doesn't it look spiffy?

I can find everything and spin the turntable and not risk a concussion!

So I need a couple of goals for March. I'm going to ~~inflict~~ make three more new meals for the family, and I'm going to have everyone spend ten minutes each evening straightening up some part of the communal living space. We get kind of lax about regularly scheduled chores around here, so I'm setting a goal for everybody--am I a great mom or what?!

Welcome to March--IT'S CROCHET MONTH!!

2011-03-01T10:00:00.005-05:00

March is International Crochet Month! Are you ready to PARTY??

Well, I AM! I figure there's no better opportunity to bolster my fledgling little blog than to have some fun crochet-related content during this auspicious month-long celebration. So..........

I plan on sharing some awesome crochet examples with you, some of my favorite websites, AND a couple of giveaways! So won't you join me in celebrating the awesomeness of crochet? To give you a bit of inspiration, check out this video of one AMAZING lady.

(If the video doesn't load right inside my blog, go here to see it instead.)

PS: If you are on Ravelry, please come join the fun at the 2011 Crochet Party board--it's a BLAST!

It's DNA Day!

2011-02-28T17:00:00.000-05:00

On February 28, 1953, Frances Crick announced to the patrons of the Eagle Pub in Cambridge, “We have discovered the secret of life." Crick and his collaborator James Watson believed they had finally worked out the structure of DNA.

The article outlining their proposed structure was published two months later in the scientific journal Nature. Of course we now know that they borrowed rather heavily, and without giving credit, to several other scientists. Most notably, Rosalind Franklin had developed an x-ray crytallography image of the DNA molecule, and this was a tremendous help to Watson and Crick in postulating the double helix structure.

Ummm, yeah sure, I can see that! Why, anybody could tell that's a double helix right?

Well, I freely admit I would not have come up with the structure myself, but I am oh so grateful for this discovery for eventually leading to the very cool job that I have! I'm much more into applications than basic research anyway lol. And I just couldn't let this auspicious date pass by without giving it proper due.

And here's a teaser: Watch this space tomorrow for an exciting announcement--it has absolutely nothing at all to do with DNA but I think you'll like it!

WIP Wednesday! February 23rd

2011-02-23T19:36:00.000-05:00

Hello all! Well it's been over a week since I did a post here, finding time to blog isn't as easy as one would think, is it? But my hooks have been pretty busy the last couple of weeks, so here's a little sampler:

Shamrocks!

I like my Valentine's heart bunting on my desk so much I went searching for the perfect shamrock pattern to make another bunting for St. Pat's day. Initially I liked this one alot:

But then I found this 4-leaf clover pattern and it's going to make great bunting!

Cute, aren't they? Here's a link to buy the pattern on Ravelry if you'd like to make some for yourself!

I've also been making some squares for Knit-a-Square:

I'm also felting some wool sweaters I bought at Goodwill to cut into more squares. And I've started a new prayer shawl, but no pix of that one yet.

Over the weekend I started frogging an afghan to reuse the yarn--what fun! I bought this wool afghan at Goodwill (LOVE that place, can you tell?) a few months ago:

That's a whole lot of wool yarn for only $10! I've frogged a few small things before but never something this size. So far I've pulled out the border and one section of each color, wound them into hanks, then wet them and hung them up to pull the kinks out of the yarn:

All ready to be wound into balls and crocheted into something new! And I still have about 3/4 of the afghan left. A fair bit of work but so worth it for the yarn.

I've also been playing around with a couple of new crochet techniques, but I'll save those for another post. It's so nice to be so busy with hooks and yarn!

Have a fabulous week!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T19:14:00.000-05:00

I hope you have had a good day today! Man of the House and I went out for Thai food Saturday night for our V-day celebration, good stuff. Today felt like spring outside! The high was around 60 degrees, oh I could just hug that groundhog for not seeing his shadow! Maybe I should have sent him a Valentine.

And befitting of the Feast of Saint Valentine, I decked out my cubicle at work with a little heart-y cheer:

I crocheted most of the hearts last week during a long boring meeting at work--sometimes I wish I had more of those meetings! The pattern is on Julia Crossland's blog, here. It was so easy, I'm thinking of making several seasonal versions--shamrocks, colored eggs, pumpkins, I could keep my desk festive all year round.

Have a wonderful day!

Another week flies by.

2011-02-13T15:34:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy one. But then aren't they all? This week was full of most of the usual stuff--work and volunteering and school and speech therapy yada yada yada. I didn't have anything new and exciting to show for WIP Wednesday last week, but I do have something new and exciting now! Some-ONE new and exciting that is.

Meet Jet:

Jet is a super pretty, super sweet little lady who was up for adoption at a local cat rescue place. She came home with us yesterday! She's getting used to us and her new surroundings, we've been keeping her isolated in one room but going in to see her frequently. She likes hiding under the desk but she comes out alot to snuggle and be petted. So far she seems like quite the little love bug. This afternoon we put our old cat in Jet's room and let Jet explore the rest of the house. She's seems a bit freaked out by all the space and stuff and people. Right now I would like to get her back in her own room but she is hiding under my bed and showing NO inclination to come out! I hope she isn't settling in for a long winter's nap.

Christopher, our current feline occupant, hasn't seen Jet yet, but he knows something is up by smelling her on us. We haven't seen any sort of reaction from him yet, but when they finally get face to face it may be another matter entirely.

So that's the new member of the family! It's nice to have a new kitty, especially after we were all set to adopt Bobby but it fell through. Hopefully the adjustment will be smooth and our current cat won't cause too much trouble. Jet had other kitties where she lived before so she's used to sharing. I know she's happy to be out of the cage where she's been for the last few weeks!

A week into February--already?

2011-02-06T17:15:00.000-05:00

I just realized that we are almost a week into February and I have not reported on my goals for January. Good thing my goal wasn’t to do things in a more timely fashion, eh? Well, let's take them in order:

1. Physical well-being: I got on the treadmill this month--several times! The weather around here has mostly been cold or snowy or icy or any combination thereof. I may have walked outside twice. Today is actually in the 40's so Man of the House and I went for a walk, but dodging piles of stuff that's still frozen and wading through small lakes of what is melting made it a bit interesting. I can’t wait for better weather!

2. Spiritual well-being: I've listened every day to the DailyAudioBible.com podcasts. It's working really nicely to put it on my MP3 and listen on the way to work. Before all the distractions of the day kick in, know what I mean? It’s a little harder to find a quiet place for it on the weekends, but I have kept up every day. I think I would not keep up with this if I was having to find 15 or 20 minutes of quiet reading time, so the podcasts are making this work for me!

So my short-term January goal was to start working with the school on what we want in place for our autistic daughter when she goes to middle school in the fall. Made a load of progress on this one! Early in the month I contacted the educational advocate who was recommended to us. A couple of days later we got notice that the annual review of Miss G’s educational plan would be on the 27th. Good thing we got moving! Thanks to a couple of snow days, we had that meeting this past Thursday, and the advocate had been able to observe Grace in the classroom prior to the meeting. I think we got a lot of our concerns out and have a good agenda in place of what needs to be done in the next couple of months to plan this transition. I’d say I did pretty well on my January resolution.

So I guess I need a mini-resolution for February. Very mini in fact, since it’s already the 6th and there are only 28 days this month. I think there are a couple of places in my house I need to tackle before they make me crazy! Like the spice cabinet in the kitchen--every time I open the cupboard, something falls out on me! And speaking of things to do in the kitchen, we are in SUCH a rut menu-wise. It doesn't help that Miss G has about 4 things she'll eat for dinner and that's it. But even for the rest of us, I seem to make the same meals over and over and it's BORING.

That settles it--in February I will clean out my spice cabinet AND make 3 new meals for dinner! Any help you can give me in meal ideas would be oh so appreciated. What's your favorite thing to cook for dinner?

WIP Wednesday and Groundhog Day

2011-02-02T16:15:00.000-05:00

Wow, 2 huge celebrations on the same day! Can you stand the excitement? And reportedly Punxsutawney Phil did NOT see his shadow today, thus predicting an early spring. I'll take it! In fact, it feels a bit spring-like outside today, which is perfectly MARVELOUS. We've had some of everything falling out of the sky in the past week: snow, sleet, freezing rain, possibly frogs and locusts. Joking aside, there have been a lot of trees damaged and power lines down due to ice and heavy snow. Very lucky here at our house, just some branches down but no major damage. Some pretty scenery with everything coated in snow and ice. My favorite shot was this one of our bird bottle. A bit hard to see, but a clump of snow is perched on the dowel right where a bird usually sits in summer.

So--WIP Wednesday on Wednesday AGAIN! Will wonders never cease. I do not in fact have any crocheted groundhogs to show you, but I have been prepping for that other major February holiday--you know, President's Day! What do you think, George Washington in amigurumi? Or maybe a tapestry crochet rendition of Mount Rushmore. Sure, easy as pie.

How about we settle for some hearts in honor of Valentine's Day? I've done a couple of them so far:

On the left is a Granny Square heart, The Royal Sisters blog has a fabulous tutorial for this one. The one on the right is this adorable Teeny Tiny Crochet Heart Bunting at Julia Crossland's blog. I love the bunting, so I'm going to make several more of this hearts to bedeck my cubicle at work. They already know I'm crochet crazy, so this won't surprise them a bit.

And I've got a couple of other heart projects on the hook, so check this space again next week!

W.I.P Wednesday for January 26

2011-01-26T12:49:00.000-05:00

And it's actually on Wednesday! This timely post is brought to you today by Mother Nature's W.I.P.:

Yeah, it's another sloppy one out there. We're having a mix of rain/snow/sleet/who knows. Our weather around here is very influenced by our proximity to the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic. A very small shift in storm track can make all the difference between a couple of inches of rain, an inch of ice, or a foot of snow. The kids are off school again, and since the weathermen have no idea what the rest of the day will bring, I stayed home too. Thus giving me time to do a post!

So having left you last week with my very unsuccessful attempts at the Falling Water scarf, I simply must share with you how very cool knooking can be:

Now THIS is what I'm talking about! I went up to a bulkier yarn and a larger hook, and just look what great knitting you can produce with a crochet hook. I feel MUCH better about having gotten somewhere on this, I just did not want to concede defeat to a stupid ball of yarn and stick of wood. And having gotten this far, I'm now going to frog it! Yes, frog it. I may go back and do it in the Red Heart Fiesta (attempt number 2 in the last post if you're keeping track lol), but not right now. I've got alot of other things I want to work on more than this scarf at the moment, so I'm going to press on with them and come back to this some other time. Typical of me, so impatient when I've got something I want to work on!

I started tinkering around with this last night:

It doesn't look like much yet I know, I trying to improvise something I saw that would be a cute Valentine's Day doodad. Which incidentally is just over 2 weeks away so I'd better get creating.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are having a wonderful, crafty week.

Some of my Favorite Craft Websites

2011-01-24T10:36:00.001-05:00

Good morning and a very happy Monday to everybody! OK, I'm a bit happier than usual because I am taking the day off. My girls have no school today and the Teenager is under the weather, and I didn't sleep well AND it was only 7 degrees F (F is for f-f-f-frigid!) when I got up this morning. All very good reasons to stay home and get some things done around the house.

We had a pretty busy weekend, and I got thoroughly tired of going out in the cold cold weather. Best of the weekend was going out to see The King's Speech--REALLY great movie! Man of the House and I don't get out very much, so it was very nice to go and see an excellent flick together. If you haven't seen this one, go do it! One of the previews looked interesting too, The Company Men, alot of good actors in it.

We had planned to go out yesterday and bring home a new member of the family. This is Bobby, isn't he a beauty?

A friend of a friend needed to give Bobby up and was having trouble finding someone to take him. On Saturday we cleaned up our guest room to be Bobby's temporary space while our current resident cat got used to the idea of a new kitty in his house. But Saturday night we found out that Bobby's temporary caretaker has decided to keep him. So I have a clean guest room (wow!), Bobby has a good home, and we are now on a serious search to find a new kitty to love. It saddens me to see how many animals are listed online who need homes!

I thought I'd share with you all a few of my favorite crafting websites, the places where I get alot of ideas for projects I'd like to do. Most of them are yarn related, but some showcase all kinds of crafts. (For a list of my favorite individual crochet blogs, see my Stylish Blogger Award post.)

In no particular order:

1. Ravelry--Absolutely my FAVORITE website of all time! If you don't know Rav, it is a community of people who love fiber. It's an amazing place where you can find friends, search patterns, chronicle your projects, get advice. I'd have trouble living without it! You have to sign up to join (it's free tho), and it's SUCH a great community. My username on Ravelry is dnadiva, so look me up sometime!

2. Craft Gossip--My fave "all-around crafting" site. They collect the best ideas in many different crafting areas, and I love ogling all the amazingly creative things people can do.

3. Craftster--Another website with many different crafts. What I particularly like here are their monthly challenges, it's so awesome to see what people create! This month's challenge is Gingerbread Houses, which I just love. And for total inspiration, check out their Craftster Best of 2010 Awards--oh my word, such talented people there are out there!

4. Dollar Store Crafts --Lots of neat ideas of things you can do CHEAP (or "frugal" if you prefer). I'm all about doing things with minimal expense.

5. Thrifty Decor Chick--Not strictly a crafting site, but she has all sorts of ideas on how to add pizazz to your house without spending a lot of money. Warning--if you read this site too much, you will start to believe that you can buy that ugly vase in the thrift store and turn it into some gorgeous piece of art. This has happened to me. Unfortunately, I am still as un-artistic as I have ever been. Anyone want 2 large glass vases covered in jute twine that I bought on clearance at Michael's over a year ago?

6. Not Martha--This would make my list of favorites just based on its name! I am not a Martha Stewart, I will never be a Martha Stewart, and MS would run away SCREAMING if she ever came in my house. But Not Martha is not just a great name, it's a great website of fabulous crafty ideas, links, shopping hints, food ideas. Check it out!

I hereby I apologize if you now spend the rest of the day perusing these websites. I hate being an enabler. No, actually, I don't--I love sharing cool crafting stuff with all of you!

PS: Speaking of cool crafts, please check out this GORGEOUS necklace that Mindy is giving away over at In The Loop! I really want to learn to do these but it would be even better to win one.

One of those weeks

2011-01-21T18:58:00.000-05:00

Well, I promised you something new and exciting on my hook for Work in Progress Wednesday! OK, so Wednesday was two days ago, but we'll not quibble over such picky details, right? So, you've waited long enough, and here it is!

(Sound of chirping crickets)

Yeah, it's been one of THOSE crafting weeks. Do you have them? You're all set to start a really cool new project, and no matter what you do your CRAFT turns to CRAPFT. I started a Knook-a-long in the Knooking group on Ravelry to make the Falling Water Scarf. (If you're on Rav you can see the pattern here. Gorgeous, no?) Now at this point you are probably asking yourself "what the heck is knooking?" Knooking is a very very cool technique in which you knit using a crochet hook with an attached cord. Here's one of my knooking hooks and a swatch of knitted cables. Awesome, indeed.

This isn't Tunisian crochet, or slip stitch crochet, both of which can make stitches that look like knitting. This makes actual knitted fabric, and it's fabulous for folks like me who love crochet but DO NOT get along well with the two pointy sticks. I've made a few items before with knooking, including some blanket squares and a hat.

So, last weekend I went yarn shopping and picked out some lovely, soft Caron Spa to start my scarf! And this is as far as I got:

The yarn was very slippery to work with and I decided it just wasn't going to work. So next I chose a great shade of Red Heart Fiesta:

Much easier to work with, but I decided that the yarn was too busy and was overwhelming the stitch pattern, which is primarily why I wanted to do the scarf! Back to the drawing board.

Now at this point, someone on the knooking group mentions that she uses a different way to make her knit and purl stitches in knooking that is much easier for the purls. I'm intrigued so I grab some different yarn and do some swatching:

I like it! Back in business. But I need another yarn so I go to the store (such hardship!) and pick out a lovely merino/silk blend and start again:

Yeah, THAT got real far. The stitches that seemed so easy with a worsted weight and H hook were just NOT working for me with this yarn and a smaller hook. As of now I am weighing my options:

Option 1. Make it with the Fiesta since I like the yarn alot, and so what if the stitch pattern stands out less.

Option 2. Pick yet another yarn and give it a go.

Option 3. Chuck the whole thing and go make myself a nice easy CROCHET project.

I may or may not have something to show you next Wednesday. I've learned my lesson about making promises of coming attractions lol. BAD idea.

Oh, and if you'd like to learn more about knooking, try this blog, it gives a great intro to how to do the stitches.

I'd Rather be Knooking

Have a great weekend--do some good crafting!

Monday, Monday

2011-01-17T11:05:00.000-05:00

So--happy Monday! For those of you in the US, you may be enjoying a relaxing Monday holiday like I am. At least I was having a relaxing morning until my cleaners showed up at 8:15--they usually don't come till at least noon! And let's just say that I didn't have the house all ready to be cleaned yet. Yes I do clean for the cleaners--well I have to straighten everything up anyway, get rid of all the clutter etc. So my nice leisurely relaxing morning got a HUGE shot of adrenaline! (Laundry baskets are excellent when you have to clear horizontal surfaces in a hurry.) But now my house is spic and span and all I have to do is sort out all the crap from the laundry basket lol.

I did get some crafting done over the weekend, plus I went to JoAnn's (twice!) and Hobby Lobby. Good times! I finished the very pink baby blanket:

And I started on something new but am having yarn choice issues. My first try was the Caron Spa, but it was too slippery for what I was doing and it was making me nuts. Next I tried Red Heart Fiesta, and it's really pretty but I think the stitch pattern doesn't show up well due to the yarn texture. So now I'm off to my stash to see what else I can try, and if I don't find anything there I guess I'll have to go back to a craft store! That would be a real hardship you know.

I shall report more on the project and yarn choice on WIP Wednesday!

No snow day here!

2011-01-13T15:34:00.000-05:00

The weather gods seem to be taking pity on us this year, once again a major storm has gone by and barely touched us. We got MAYBE a couple of inches Tuesday night, and schools only had a 2-hour delay on Wednesday. Yay! Now if we could just get temperatures up in the 40's where they are supposed to be, I wouldn't feel so darned cold all the time!

And in other news, a big thank you to Shanti at Wires and Yarns who has passed along this award!

It's nice to know that some people are reading my blog, I know I'm not the most profound or talented person out here, but I almost always have something to say lol!

So--as part of the award I'm supposed to tell you 7 things about myself.

1. I married the first real boyfriend I ever had. We met when I was a junior in college and we will celebrate our 27th wedding anniversary in June!

2. I've had bright red hair all my life and HATED it when I was a kid! But I've grown to appreciate my hair and the attention it brings as I've gotten older.

3. I'm an American but lived in Canada (Vancouver) for 3 years back in the late 1980's. States I've lived in are Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, and Maryland.

4. I did 2 master's degrees in 4 years and never wanted to see the inside of a classroom again!

5. Cross stitch used to be my crafting love, but I haven't done any in years. I think I would have to use a magnifier now, I have "old eyes" and have a terrible time seeing things up close, with or without glasses. Crochet is much easier on the eyes!

6. My eyes are 48 years old, along with the rest of my parts. Some days my parts feel alot older than that tho.

7. My secret fantasy is to quit my job and buy an alpaca farm. I'd have a bed and breakfast where I could host fiber weekends, and we could spin yarn from my own alpacas!

Now I'm supposed to pass along the Stylish Blogger award to 15 other bloggers that I like. So here are some of my favorites that I hope you will enjoy too!

FutureGirl.com
Suzie's Stuff
Enthusiastic Crochetoholic
Tickety-boo
The Sunroom
Hooked on Crochet
The Diary and Blog of a Crazy Crocheting Fool
The Left Side of Crochet
Suz Place
Northern Hi-lights
Itchin' Stitchin'
Butternut Street
I'd Rather Be Knooking
Cozy Spirit
Everyday Ephemera

I didn't get a "W.I.P. Wednesday" post done yesterday, due to not getting the anticipated snow day, but I hope to have something new on the hook to show you next week!

Snow or No?

2011-01-10T18:32:00.000-05:00

So--which will it be? That dreaded "S" word is in the forecast but the weathermen are hedging big-time. Frankly after last winter:

I'd be just fine with NO snow this year! We've had a couple of little dustings and that's been entirely manageable. But I'm NOT in the mood for being snowed in! So if you're having snow this week, please keep it where you are and don't send it my way!

W.I.P. Wednesday for 1/5/11!

2011-01-05T16:04:00.000-05:00

Today I can show off my ALMOST finished baby blanket:

I'm more than halfway done with the last round of the ruffle. Soon it shall graduate from WIP to FO!

And my newest WIP will be in progress for the whole year, the first 1.5 squares for Knit-a-Square:

only 106.5 to go to catch up to 2010!

I had the idea to include other WIPs besides my crafts:

The book I am currently listening to: The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson. If for some reason you've been on Mars and haven't heard of these books, this one is the 2nd of 3 in the series. I really liked The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and this one is awesome already!

What I'm making for dinner: Reheating some homemade turkey noodle soup, mmmmm. It is great soup weather these days.

Around the house: Yes, my Christmas decorations ARE all still up! They'll come down this weekend. I did take down the tree on my desk at work today. I just hate putting Christmas away.

Who's sharing my chair: My nice warm kitty!

I hope you've got lots of good things in progress in your life today!

The Other Parts of My Life...

2011-01-03T16:29:00.000-05:00

While I would be most happy if my life consisted primarily of fulfilling my crochet goals, alas there are so many other things of life that demand much of my attention. And so I reluctantly put on my big-girl panties and set a few non-crafting goals for 2011 as well.

#1--My physical well-being. Last spring I realized that I had been eating all the wrong stuff and getting next to no exersize, so I started eating better and got back into walking as much as I could. And from May to November I lost almost 20 lbs and really felt alot more energy returning. I've fallen off the wagon a bit the last 6 weeks or so, what with an illness and the weather and the holidays, but I'm going to get back walking (on the treadmill if the weather is lousy) and try to at least maintain where I am now. My dad and grandfather have type 2 diabetes, and I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant, so I don't need to be heading down that road. If I could just exersize walk and crochet at the same time, I would be the happiest person on the planet!

#2--My spiritual life. This goal is a big one for me, but I'm really going to try and stick with it. I've never read the Bible all the way through, so for Christmas I asked for The One Year Bible for Women. I also found daily podcasts of the readings at dailyaudiobible.com. So since I listen to audiobooks on my commute anyway, and the length of the podcast is just a little longer than my one-way drive, it should work really well to listen to the Bible readings on my way to work! I did it this morning and it was awesome, just as I pulled into the parking lot the podcast was closing with a prayer, it sent me into work on a wonderful note.

#3--Set a smaller goal each month. I read this on another blog and I think it's a great idea for me and my oh-so-short attention span. Things seem to slip by me without getting done if I don't have a concrete plan, but I always manage to do stuff when a deadline is looming. So if I self-impose monthly deadlines, I'll be much more efficient (at least in theory)! My January goal: Put the school district on notice about what we want for Miss G for next year. I haven't talked much about my family yet on this blog, but our 11-year-old daughter has Aspergers Syndrome (high-functioning autism), and she will be going to middle school in the fall. HUGE changes compared to elementary school, and we have some definite ideas about what we want in place for her. And we know that our ideas are not necessarily what the school district will want to do. So this week I will be starting with the special ed coordinator at the middle school and getting this ball rolling! This morning I read on Niki's blog, Butternut Street, about her fight to get her autistic son an appropriate school setting--it's so nice to connect with others who have the same issues.

You all are going to help keep me honest--at the end of January I will report on the school issues!

Have a wonderful day, thanks for stopping by!

My Last Day of Christmas

2011-01-02T13:58:00.000-05:00

These 12 days have really gone fast. I'm not excited about the thought of going back to work and all the rest of our usual routine tomorrow, but I'm thankful for having had this extended time off. The past few days I've been reflecting about 2010 and also thinking about what I want to focus on in 2011. Crochet has been so good to me this year. I've cultivated wonderful friendships online and in-real-life, and I can't believe how many new people I've met just since started up this blog last month! I'm so excited for what is ahead for this year.

I can only remember having 2 goals with regard to my crochet this year. The first was to try and make 4 blanket squares per month for my favorite charity project Knit-A-Square. Umm, I think I did ok on that one. My grand total for the year (drum roll please): 108 squares, 5 hats, and 2 sweaters. KAS has become my passion in crochet, I try to always be working on something for them. It's the kind of crochet where you can just zone out and relax and let your mind be quiet for awhile--the very thing I need more of in my life. If you're a member of Ravelry you can see my KAS projects here. (And if you're not on Ravelry but you love fiber arts, GO JOIN UP! Rav is awesome.) For 2011 my goal is to at least equal the number of squares I made this year. And I already finished my first one on New Year's Day, so I'm off and running! I also want to spread the word about KAS in the year ahead; the more knitters and crocheters they have, the more orphans will be kept warm!

My other crochet goal was to do some bead crochet, and I didn't get to that one. I know why--it isn't something I can just pick up and work on while I watch TV after the kids go to bed, it requires more concentrated time and set-up etc. But it's still something I want to try, so I'll keep it around as a goal for 2011.

I made a few other things in 2010, including a couple of prayer shawls for church and my nearly complete pink baby blanket (still need to finish that last round of border!), and also a scarf for myself, my very first lacy project.

My goal for personal crochet in 2011 is to make myself an actual sweater! I've been looking at patterns for what seems like forever, and I've decided it will be a cardigan, but I'm still dithering on which one. Any suggestions of favorites you have?

I did craft something non-crochet for myself, this bracelet that I made at my wonderful craft retreat in November. The beads are made by cutting magazine photos into thin strips and then rolling them very tightly. It's murder on the fingers but I liked the result, and I plan to do some more. Maybe I'll even team this up with my bead crochet goal!

Well, I think that's enough to keep me out of trouble for awhile. Good luck with your crafting goals for 2011!

1/1/11

2011-01-01T16:58:00.000-05:00

I just had to make a post with today's date! Geek that I am, I love dates that have symmetry or sequential numbers. Today's date is just perfect!

Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I hope that you had a lovely time ushering in 2011 in whatever manner you chose, whether it be partying with friends or going to bed well before midnight, knowing that the new year would still be there to be greeted when you got up this morning. The K family spent New Year's like we have for the last 10 years, on a family retreat at a nearby church camp. It's a great time for those of us who aren't into a party scene--activities for everybody, good food, fun, and fellowship. The weather was lovely (FINALLY!) and we had a very nice couple of days.

I can't believe there is only one day left of my Christmas vacation (sad face). Tomorrow will be a day to prepare for the return to reality for all of us. Reality is highly overrated in my opinion.

Before I go, two quick notes about giveaways. First, I won a lovely tote bag in a giveaway from Clara's Crochet Room! She has alot of crochet goodness on her blog, so go check it out. And look here-- Paula is giving something away for the next 11 days leading up to her birthday!

See you tomorrow for my look back at 2010, the Year that Was!

On my 7th day of Christmas...

2010-12-28T19:39:00.000-05:00

The winds finally calmed down and we actually poked our noses out of our den! Although we didn't get any snow here, it's been fiercely cold and windy. Today was better though so we went to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. They've been having an exhibit of work by Walter Wick who writes the "I Spy" and "Can You See What I See?" kids books. It was really cool, they had many of his photos and also some of the models that he uses in making his books. The details that goes into his photos is AMAZING. It was a nice antidote to our cabin fever, I think even the Teenager enjoyed it!

In other news, Miss G, who is slowly recovering from the cold she had for Christmas, has been breaking out in hives on various places all over her body today. I guess she thought things were too dull around here lol! I can't remember her ever having hives before, this morning they were on her arm, then on her upper legs around noon, and now all over her legs and her back. I'm going to go give her a soothing bath which I hope will help with the itching. Poor kiddo, she is not having the most fabulous Christmas break!

No crochet time for me today, but I have just one more round of the border to go on the baby blanket I'm making, so hopefully I've have something for show and tell in a day or two!

My 6th day of Christmas...

2010-12-27T21:20:00.000-05:00

...was cancelled on account of snow. At least The Teenager's trip to New York was cancelled. She could have gotten to NYC on Amtrak, but the Long Island Railroad was closed all day so my niece couldn't get into the city. They were supposed to go see "Phantom" together tonight. Fortunately I was able to get refunds for the train ticket and hotel, and the show tickets were exchanged for another date in April. But I do have one very sad teenager today. I'm very proud of the way she's handled it though, she has been really mature about it despite being hugely disappointed. I think she may be growing up! (Sniff sniff)

In other Christmas news, I thought I'd show you a few crochet goodies that were under the tree for me! I got some yarn from Miss G and a new comfort hook from Man of the House:

As you can see I've already been taking the hook for a test drive.

Man of the House also gave me a couple of crochet books:

(Can't wait to "sink my teeth into" that first one lol!)

And the Teenager bought me this beautiful crocheted angel ornament:

This is BIG for her to get me something crocheted. She seems to think I have too much of a yarn/crochet addiction. Silly girl, like there could possibly be such a thing!

I've been spending a good bit of time these last few cold days sitting in front of the fire crocheting. I hope you have been enjoying your Days of Christmas as well!

On my 5th (?) Day of Christmas....

2010-12-26T14:29:00.000-05:00

I can see I'm going to quickly lose track of which day it is! When you have an extended period of time off the days seem to blend. Not that I'm complaining!

I hope you had a very nice Christmas Day, as we did here. Miss G, 11 year old, decided to get sick on Christmas Eve with a cough and fever. So I went to early church by myself, which Man of the House and the Teenager went to the late service. Miss G did get into her Christmas dress for the obligatory photo however:

Man of the House and the Teenager were very spiffy looking as well!

We have a rule in our house for Christmas morning--the girls can go downstairs at 6 am to see what Santa brought and open the things in their stockings. Then they can wake us up at 7. This is the same rule my parents started after my sister and I got them up one year at 4 am, and they hadn't gotten to bed until 3! It's a good rule, and it helps the parents be less cranky on Christmas!

Today we are mostly doing the same as yesterday--enjoying a cozy fire, playing with Christmas gifts, watching new DVDs. At least I did get dressed today, yesterday I never got out of my jammies! But today I am also anxiously watching the weather. Not for us, our snow forecast has been downgraded to only about an inch. But The Teenager asked for only one thing this Christmas, a trip to New York to see Phantom with her older cousin, whom she idolized. Much money has been expended on show tickets, train tickets, and hotel reservations for her DREAM DAY which is scheduled for tomorrow. One teensy problem--New York is supposed to get a blizzard tonight. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send lots of good thoughts that the trains will run tomorrow and they will get the streets clear enough for travel! It is going to be very very ugly around here if things get cancelled.

Tune in tomorrow for further updates....

On This Blessed Day of Christmas...

2010-12-25T12:00:00.000-05:00

May the peace and joy of this holy day be yours throughout the coming year.

On my third day of Christmas....

2010-12-24T11:22:00.000-05:00

I am celebrating the Wonder of this holy season...

I am wishing you Joy...

And Peace....

And Love.

Have a blessed Christmas!

On my second day of Christmas....

2010-12-23T15:27:00.000-05:00

I made color-coded yarn bows for all my presents! Here's just a small sampling:

Man of the House get white bows, The Teenager gets blue, and Miss G. will have pink ones. I've been having fun making pom poms and other decorations for the gifts. And as an added bonus it will elicit much eye-rolling from the teenager, who always scoffs (nicely) at my yarn obsession.

Can't wait for Christmas morning--only 2 more sleeps to go!

On my first day of Christmas....

2010-12-22T17:49:00.000-05:00

Today is the first of my 12 days off of work! Thanks to Christmas and New Years falling on Saturday, and my employer-mandated furlough days, I only have to use 2 vacation days to get a full twelve days off. HEAVEN! I was pretty busy today, wrapping and grocery shopping and getting my hair cut. And my most Chrismas-y thing:

The "Show-Me-Your-Tree" Blog Hop!

I've already shown my tree, but here it is again for good measure, along with some of my most special ornaments:

The first year that Man of the House and I were married, we made salt dough ornaments--it was very creative considering how left-brained the 2 of us are! Amazingly many of those ornaments have survived 27 Christmases and still hang on our tree. The oldest ornament is the one from 1966 when I was in nursery school. I love all the memories on our tree!

Click on the "Show-Me-Your-Tree" button to add your own tree to the blog-hop--I love looking at everyone's decorations!

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Another Christmas present!

2010-12-21T13:36:00.000-05:00

After saying in my last post that I'd won my first blog giveaway, yesterday I found out I won another one! Melinda at MoCrochet has gifted me these two awesome patterns. Thank you Melinda! I can't believe how many great crochet blogs I have found since I started my own just a couple of weeks ago.

Now to finish up a few things here at work before I take the next TWELVE DAYS off. I guess this will be my twelve days of Christmas! Goodness, the big event is nearly here.

My newest Christmas ornament!

2010-12-19T16:10:00.000-05:00

Isn't it lovely? I won it in a giveaway on Teresa Kasner's Crochet and it looks perfect on my tree. It's so delicate and beautiful. What a great prize for my first win in a blog giveaway. Thank you so much Teresa!

Winter must be here...

2010-12-16T17:06:00.000-05:00

It's snowing out there today. We do often get some snow here in Maryland in December, usually just enough to look pretty and to royally mess up the roads and people's plans! You may have heard just a bit in the news last winter about the snow we got around here--Snowpocalypse, Snowmageddon, etc! Frankly I'd be happy to have no snow at all this winter, but I guess a little is to be expected right?

Here's what my front yard looks like this afternoon:

You can still see the blades of grass under the snow. But for comparison here is what it looked like a year ago, December 19, 2009 when we got a foot and a half:

Poor baby Jesus is completely buried! And Mary's head is barely visible above the snow. I'm hoping not to see any snow that deep for a long, long time!

W.I.P. Wednesday for December 8

2010-12-08T13:26:00.000-05:00

This week I'd like to tell you about my favorite charity project and perpetual work-in-progress:

Knit-a-Square!

Knit-a-Square (KAS) was founded just over 2 years ago by Ronda Lowrie and Sandy MacDonald to help children in South Africa who have been orphaned, mainly due to the AIDS epidemic. Knitters and crocheters from all over the world make 8-inch squares and send them to South Africa, where local volunteers stitch the squares into blankets to be given to children. I heard about KAS just a couple of months after I picked up my crochet hooks again after a hiatus of a dozen-plus years, and making squares has become my passion! My goal at the start of 2010 was to make 4 squares per month. Well, the squares pictured above bring my total to 105 for this year! And that is just a teeny drop in the bucket--in 2 years they have received over 120,000 squares to help keep this children warm!

Why do I love making squares? I get to try out so many new patterns, there are TONS of ideas out there for doing squares, and an 8-inch square works up in just a couple of hours. That's another thing I love--they are fast! I'm an instant-gratification kind of girl, and this fits my personality perfectly. But most important, I love that I helping children who have so little, whereas I have so much.

Please look around the Knit-a-Square website, and consider making some squares (or a sweater, or a hat, etc) to help warm a child in need. And thank you so much for reading!

Crochet Popcorn Garland

2010-12-07T15:55:00.000-05:00

I found this very cute pattern to make a crocheted garland that looks like popcorn and berries. So I used it to decorate the little Christmas tree I have on my desk at work. Rather festive, don't you think? I'm not sure it was faster than stringing actual popcorn, but it's more reusable!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The Season of Advent

2010-12-02T18:11:00.000-05:00

I really love Advent! For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the tradition, in many Christian faiths the four weeks before Christmas are the season of Advent, the time to prepare for the coming of Jesus. One of my strong memories from my childhood was having family Advent devotions every evening. We had an Advent wreath of black wrought iron that held four candles, and lit one candle during the first week, two during the second week, and so on. We have carried on this tradition with our children, and no matter how busy the season is, we try to have devotions together every night.

Several years ago I found this wonderful ceramic Advent wreath on ebay:

(Take it from me, ebay can be VERY dangerous for someone who collects Nativity scenes as I do!)

We have a few books of Advent devotions that we use:

The Advent A to Z is wonderful for young children! Even though my girls are a bit old for it now, we still like the lessons in it. The Light in the Lantern is good for older children, its stories use alot of symbolism and folk tales.

The kids love this Advent calendar, and look forward to putting a figure up on the scene every evening after we have devotions.

Blue is the color symbolizing Advent, so this is the banner we hang out front during this season before Christmas:

Advent is a very special time in our home. What traditions are important to your family at the holiday season?

W.I.P. Wednesday!

2010-12-01T17:13:00.000-05:00

Borrowing an idea I saw on another blog, I'm going to make a weekly post of Work-In-Progress Wednesday. This will (hopefully) also encourage me to take pictures of my projects as I go along, so I can see that I'm actually getting somewhere!

Today's W.I.P is a baby blanket I'm making for church. The pattern is done on the diagonal and I like it alot, it's so easy, and it comes out nice and square even if your gauge varies along the way. (Who, me?) If you'd like to try out the stitch, you can find the pattern here.

The blanket:

And the "helper" who doesn't seem terribly impressed. Maybe pink isn't his favorite color.

Welcome To My Blog!

2010-11-28T17:55:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally have done it, I've started a blog. I hope to use this site to chronicle my crochet meanderings, my science musings, my motherhood debacles, and anything else noteworthy that I come across. I hope you will come back and check on me as I get things going!