greetingarts

three needles later

A few weeks ago I saw Lori's project that she made for her daughter (scroll to the middle of the post), and it was exactly what my girls needed, too.  Simple supplies, a little email guidance, and a free Saturday afternoon.

I had everything on hand, and the girls picked out the buttons.  A rough sort of elongated rounded triangle was cut out, and two short seams had to be sewn for each hair wrap.  Actually, I sewed French seams since I don't have a serger and wanted these to last as long as possible with no fraying.  But still, the amount of actual sewing was minimal, and yet... I managed to use three, count 'em, three sewing machine needles before I finished the project!  I know you're supposed to change needles often, but three seems a bit excessive.  Dang, those towels are thick.

But I'm so glad I finished them.

Because hair washing nights are so much more fun and tear-free.

hurry up, April!

No, it's not that I'm anxious for Spring to arrive (honestly, half the time I don't remember it's Winter.  Tomorrow it's supposed to be near 80 degrees!), it's just that I'm so incredibly excited about the publication date on two books I just found while I was surfing the net, waiting for my meatloaf to bake. 

I know you've seen this book and the fantastic projects that have been produced because of it, but now look!  It's coming out in English!  All the aesthetics and sheer loveliness of Japanese craft books, but in a language I can understand!

But we're not done with the excitement yet.  Another one!  I think it's wonderful that publishers are tapping into this niche, and find it worthwhile to translate the text and introduce the books to a new market.  I can only hope that this is just the beginning.  What next?  Softies?  Amigurumi?  The cute felt books, please.

Oh wait.  They already have some of those.  Hooray!

one of these things is not like the others

In between nursing sick kiddos (yeah, both are now sick, of course) doing laundry and trying not to run out of the house screaming and tearing out my hair, I managed to finish up my birdies for the swap.

As you can see, I totally changed course after I finished up the first one.  I felt like a slacker, so I decided to try my hand at doodling some of my own bird designs.

 

Heavily influenced by these adorable beauties, here's what I came up with.  Yeah, I know.  I'll leave the serious drawing to others.  It was kind of fun, but an artist, I'm not! 

You can check out the Flickr group for more birdies that are on their way to Regina.  I can't wait to see which ones get to live at my house!

good luck and good fortune

Hi, meet Edward.  He'd like to wish you a Happy Chinese New Year.  He was made by my 6 year old who stayed home from school today because of a slight fever she had when she woke up.  I think my sister jinxed me when we spoke on the phone last night and she asked me if the kids were healthy.

Becca seems just fine now, obviously as creative as ever, and after a half an hour of TV, we're reading and doing a bit of homework.  I wasn't going to turn on the tube at all today, but I caved in for a little while mostly because I really didn't want to miss a new TV show this morning.  So cute and funny, I just love that pig.

Anyway, why am I talking about pigs?  It's the Year of the Ox, and maybe that will mean good news for the economy.  Well, one can always hope, right?

found

So, the light box has been found.  My husband pulled it out of the one closet in the entire house (really, I'm not kidding) that I didn't check, the "tech" closet where we store all our old computer software, manuals, floppy disks, inactive cell phones, electric typewriter.  And you know how he knew right where it was?  Because he put it in there in the first place.  He may have been a bit baffled as to why I wasn't completely grateful to him for finding it, but I figured he's the one who caused me all the grief in the first place!

So the swap birdies are getting made.  But you know what the ironic thing is?  When I excitedly went to trace the pattern onto my wool felt, it ended up being too thick and I had to find another transfer method anyway.  Crazy, huh?  Still, I really am very happy and relieved to have it back.  Thanks, honey!

how do you lose a lightbox?

I have two 1" bias tape makers, because I bought one when they were on clearance at a store years ago, then couldn't find it when I needed it, so bought another one when I just had to have it right away.  Now, of course, I know where both are.  You know, in case, for some reason, I must use two identical bias tape makers at the exact same time.

I also have at least four or five sets of size 3 double pointed knitting needles, because sometimes you just don't feel like rooting around for that half-finished sock before you start another project, and the same goes for crochet hooks, embroidery needles, skeins of embroidery floss, safety eyes, disappearing ink pens, whatever.  A dollar or two here, a few quarters there.  I know I have a half-used bag of fiber-fill somewhere, but often it's just easier to get a new bag with my 40% off discount coupon.

But one light box is enough, and that's where I draw the line.  I can't for the life of me find mine.  I know exactly where it was before Christmas.  But then I hosted a Christmas Eve party for a few friends and relatives, and now I don't know where I stashed the light box in my cleaning frenzy.  I've searched every closet, every box, shelf, table, stack, nook and cranny.  Even the garage.  And I can't find it.  I'm the one who put it away, and now I haven't a clue where it is.

I was all set to start on some embroidered birds for Regina's swap, but now I think I might have to change my plans.  Maybe some freehand cutting and embellishing, maybe crochet, maybe paper?  I dunno, we'll have to see what develops.  And maybe right after I publish this post, my light box will want to come out of hiding.

So, what's the biggest thing *you've* ever lost?

delivered

Now that the package has landed, I can show you all what I've been working on for the past few months...

a colorful granny square blanket for Jhoanna to hang on the wall of her girls' bedroom.  I used an H hook and worsted weight yarn in 14 different colors.  The blanket is eight granny squares across and eight down, each square has four rounds and is then bordered with black.  I think it's about 40" x 40"?  Somewhere around there.

I tried really hard not to get too picky about my color placement, though I was very conscious of having each block be unique and not repeating any color sequences.  I didn't follow a specific pattern, just used a photo of a blanket that Jho liked for reference.  If you're interested in granny squares, Purl Bee has a very nice tutorial, and there are tons of others out there, too.  I absolutely despise seaming and weaving in ends, so I just crocheted the grannies together as I went along, crocheting right over the ends, too.  I should have taken pictures as I went along, but I did a quick search and this seems about the same as what I did.

Then I wanted to make something fun for Jhoanna's daughters, so I crocheted a BLT for them to play restaurant with. 

Bacon and lettuce closeup.

The tomatoes were hardest, believe it or not.  Of course, after this sandwich was made, my girls wanted a couple of BLTs too.  But, honestly, I don't know if I'll be able to recreate what I did here or not.  A few things I got patterns from as I was searching the net, but the links have since been removed or the sites disappeared, and then the other stuff was just made up or adapted so much that they bear no resemblance to the original instructions.  I've really got to learn to write things down...

Anyway, now that these projects are finished, I have to find something new.  Or, maybe finish up a few of the dozens of works in progress that I've already got going?

happy chibis

Just as we were getting ready to say goodbye to 2008, my girls and I received a most special delivery from Jhoanna, who makes incredibly cheerful, adorable, carefully crafted softies.  I feel fortunate enough to call her a friend, and how very lucky my girls are to be the proud mommies of two Happy Chibi Girls, custom-made especially for them.

Their names change quite frequently, and are added to so that they're alarmingly long, but I think the jist of it is that one of them is called Kiki, and the other is Kiku.

And look what this Mommy got.  I absolutely adore this book, every bit as much as the first one (which has sat at my bedside table since my cousin brought it back for me from her honeymoon), and Jhoanna also included the Australian Homespun magazine with one of her patterns in it.  Oh, and I'm supposed to share the chocolates with my husband. I guess I can handle that.

Thank you so very much, Jho.  You can find four very happy chibis in this house.

in the cold

Nine days without the internet, people.  Nine. Very. Long. Days.  I had no idea I depended upon my beloved DSL so much.  Not just for my daily dose of blogging and email, but also for knitting and crochet patterns, recipes, weather and news updates, music and sanity in general. 

And now that my connection appears to be back, I'm not really sure how long it will last, since I think the repair was made on the telephone line that my husband supposedly cancelled a few weeks ago.  So, uh, if I disappear again for a few days, weeks, whatever, it's because they screwed up again and I'm sitting here in front of an "unable to connect" message, pulling my hair out.  I'm not ignoring your email, really.  I had 487 emails to wade through as of yesterday, today there are more.  Hopefully I'll catch up sometime before 2009 gets too much older...