Category Archives: Crochet

I am clearly on a housewares binge.

Posted on July 27, 2007 by | Comments Off on I am clearly on a housewares binge.

Coasters, coasters, and more coasters, followed by dishcloths, and soon more coasters. With a brief break as soon as the supplies arrive to make a special order, which they should today. I ordered some more thread for me along with the thread for the order, so thready things will probably take over once housware-sy things have been exhausted.

It’s the cotton. I am having an absolute love affair with cotton yarn. I love how it looks, I love how it feels, I love how it works up, I love the colors it comes in, I love how sturdy it is, and I love that I can afford to work with it. Looooooove.

I’m sure I’ll get back to the creature creating before long, if only so that I have some to put in a show that’ll be happening in January (though they’re so much fun their time will no doubt come again anyway), but I suspect when I do they’ll be entirely made of cotton.

It’s just that good.

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Posted in Business, Crochet, Design

Yet another odd weekend.

Posted on July 22, 2007 by | Comments Off on Yet another odd weekend.

Sounds like a blog name. LOL.

We were supposed to do a yard sale yesterday and didn’t. I needed to pick up the Harry Potter book so I went hunting for the thread to do a special order with while I was out. I only managed to lay hands on one color I’d need (and white), so I’m going to have to order the other, which is (of course!) leading to a teeny crisis of sorts, because shipping and handling is weird and I can’t figure out how to work the ordering so that it doesn’t give me a headache. I’ll be ordering it today, though, whatever I decide, so that I’ll have plenty of time to get this done before the baby makes his appearance. If he waits until he’s scheduled to, anyway…

More troubling is that Michaels is apparently about to redo their yarn section. They were already ripping it apart at the first one I went to. And I’m not liking what they’ve done so far, though we’ll have to see what’s what when they’ve finished. It looks, though, like one of the things they’re doing is cutting their selection of crochet thread in half. Cebelia is gone, except in white and ecru. At least they still had more than one size of those. *sigh* The second one I went to had the colors on clearance. I also picked up some clearance Sugar ‘n Cream in the big 12 oz skeins. I’d have loved to grab one of every color, but I restrained myself. 5 bucks. 5 bucks! And I couldn’t manage more than three without invoking the credit gods, and they have a job to do getting thread at Joann’s online today so I didn’t dare.

Did I say *sigh*?

So that all turned into a pretty extensive trip. I took the kids with me and they were, for whatever reason, absolutely angelic. Go figure.

So I got home, tried to figure out how to order most cost-effectively for a while, and when that got frustrating, dived into the Potter book and read pretty much non-stop through to the end. And I liked it. And that makes me very, very happy.

So today I’ve got to finish a couple of things I have pending for the shop, and do the cleaning I’ve been threatening to do while it’s reasonably cool, and do that ordering, and…I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but it ought to be busy. I’ve still got stash to detangle, charity squares to send out, and a couple of shop descriptions to add metric measurements to, too. Oh, and a squiggle to finish and figure out how to fix. So yeah. I’m scarce. And that’s before factoring in that I’m doing this all at half-speed, because this baby will be here no later than four weeks from tomorrow…

I’m tired just thinking about it. Also insanely happy. Those things tend to go together for me, weirdly enough.

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Posted in Business, Crochet, Life

I’ve still got to get the pictures off the camera…

Posted on July 19, 2007 by | Comments Off on I’ve still got to get the pictures off the camera…

But I’ve got what I think are some rather amusing ones of the kiddos ripping the stash from its home and thoroughly tangling it up.

*sigh*

I spent several hours last night straightening out the worst of it, which was stupid because it was a third of a 2 dollar hunk of yarn. But it’s MY hunk of yarn, dammit, and I’ll be damned if I’ll let the little shits kill it.

How I’m going to handle a third, I don’t know.

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Posted in Crochet, Life

5 weeks to go.

Posted on July 18, 2007 by | Comments Off on 5 weeks to go.

And I’m feeling both panicky and too tired to do all that needs doing. The weather doesn’t help. It seems to be 86 and humid every day, which is entirely normal and just a bit obnoxious, all at the same time. Today it looks like it’s going to rain, and the cloud cover is making it even harder to stay awake than it otherwise would be.

Oh well. *shrug*

Here’s a pic of the squiggle for you. I’ve been adding a row every few nights as I get around to it between other projects. It’s sort of pretty and hideous at the same time, yes?

squiggle716.jpg

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Posted in Crochet, Life

Another weekend down.

Posted on July 16, 2007 by | Comments Off on Another weekend down.

And it turned out to be a busier one than I thought it would be. Ought to seem downright relaxing compared to this week and next weekend, though. We’ve got a yard sale to prep for and the sale itself Saturday, on top of all of the other work going on, so it’ll be exciting, that’s for sure.

Whoever said it was supposed to be less humid today was wrong. Jerk.

I got my favorite creature ever up at the Etsy shop–that would be Clyde over there, and I love him so much I want to just keep him for myself. So sad to let him go, but if he can make somebody else smile the way he makes me smile, it’s all good.

I’ve got several other things within a reasonable distance of being finished, but there’s not likely to be too much crochet going on this week with everything else that needs done. I’d like to get the squiggly out of my hair, at the very least. I’ve also started working on some squares to send to this effort. Just because. And there’s still a creature or two in the works. And I’m still plugging away at the patterns…

Eeeep. I’d better get going and get going!

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Posted in Business, Crochet, Design, Life

Scattered.

Posted on July 13, 2007 by | Comments Off on Scattered.

–Writing patterns is hard. Not so much the writing, but the doing something reproducible. I tend to just-make-it-come-out-right even when I’m following somebody else’s pattern, so doing something in a way that can be communicated to somebody else is really challenging me.

–I made a creature last night that I am just completely thrilled with. Even the goofy expression on his face, born of my subpar embroidery skills, makes me happy every time I see it. Pictures as soon as I can get a few minutes without the kids helping, and then he’s going in the shop.

–Er, that’s it. For the moment. The husband saved me the Michaels ad, because he’s a very, very good husband, so I’m off to see if there’s anything I’ll be wanting just begging me to come buy it. 🙂

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Posted in Business, Crochet, Design

A teeny rant.

Posted on July 12, 2007 by | 2 comments

Somewhere in my drafts I have a half-written ode to cheap acrylic yarn, written in response to the overwhelming impression I’ve developed lately that the prevailing opinion is that using most acrylic yarns to knit or crochet with is akin to painting the Mona Lisa with Crayola watercolors.

And I’m sorry, folks, but I have to call bullshit on that one.

It depends on what you’re doing. It depends on your budget. It depends on what use the thing is going to be put to when it’s finished. It depends on whether you’re sensitive to wool or not. It depends on whether you have lovely memories of RHSS projects past.

There is nothing *inherently* wrong with it.

It makes me sad when I see posts like these containing lines like these: I did not use the colors stated in the pattern, and the yarn is Red Heart (gulp). Because what she’s done there is absolutely lovely, and I’m sure the finished project will be absolutely lovely, and it just makes me crazy that using a cheaper yarn in colors you like is something to gulp about.

So there.

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Posted in Crochet

Just finished taking another batch of pictures.

Posted on July 10, 2007 by | Comments Off on Just finished taking another batch of pictures.

So there should be more in the Etsy store today. Hooray!

I’m really rather excited about even having the thing in existence. I think I’ll fall apart completely if somebody buys something. Well, after I get it shipped, anyway, lol. Wouldn’t do to lose it before then!

I finally came up with a wing configuration I more or less like for the critter whose wings were bugging me. Now I have a set of feet to figure out. Have I mentioned lately that this is a hell of a lot of fun?

I have so much planned, but I also have a baby who will be here in 6 weeks so I’m going to have to slow down a bit soon in order to get everything ready for him. Right now I’m spending, best as I can figure, 4-5 hours a day on this venture overall, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but when combined with the demands of a pair of toddlers and the need to get the house in shape feels like I’m running full out.

In any case, more creations! Coming soon! 😀

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Posted in Business, Crochet

Ah, the weekend.

Posted on July 9, 2007 by | Comments Off on Ah, the weekend.

Now that it’s over, I can get some rest. LOL.

Seriously, it was really, really nice. And I even have some crochet to show for it, coming up a little later. I’ve got pictures to take first. I finished the purple coin purse/card wallet…that was my big accomplishment. And really? That’s not such a bad one, you know?

I also totally failed in my quest to make vaguely alien-looking butterfly wings. But I know an awful lot about what’s not going to work now.

Ack. Off to grab another cup of coffee…

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Posted in Crochet, Life

One of the nice things about always having a portable crochet project going on…

Posted on July 3, 2007 by | 2 comments

Is that it makes long waits in doctors’ offices much less annoying.

I’m very nearly finished with a new card wallet I’ve been working on after the adventure I had trying to see the midwife today. I really, really felt sorry for all of them in there…it was one of *those* days…but I got quite a lot accomplished, so it worked out for me, anyway. LOL. It’s nice to work without any kids helping from time to time, too.

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Posted in Crochet, Life