February became March

AND winter stayed...

(and stayed!)

Photo is first day of spring.  

It snowed again a few days later.

I'm ready to complain about the heat & black flies!!

ANYWAY...

I went to my first Spin-In February 21st. 

In Newport there was a room filled with spinning wheels and people spinning them. 

I was there by myself - a little frightened - when some lovely ladies welcomed me into their group.  They all raised angora bunnies and were the friendliest bunch! 

Lots of vendors were there selling fiber.

I came home with a roving in fall colors, some alpaca, llama (that I won) and some green dyed locks (which I would have left had I known how awful it was.)  Almost impossible to pull apart. Felted. Cotted? Don't know! Whatever it was... it kind of sucked. I managed to get 2 skeins spun of 3-ply by spinning thicker and letting the lumps and bumps go by.  Sort of. It's not really in my nature to let that perfectly awful clump stay put. NOT stopping every few inches to pick it off was a challenge.

It should be good for making some more felted bags and I'll consider it another lesson in not basing purchases on "ooh pretty!"  

I really need to be more picky when buying fiber. 

What I really want is a fleece fresh from a farm. Cut out the middle man and do it all myself.  Some WARM weather for drying it outside would be nice.

I finally got brave enough to try food color dyeing!

I also learned "pretty colors" blended together can make muddy, not quite what I expected colorways. It looked like a copper penny while spinning it, but the green of one of the plies really took over. 

I found a free felted bag pattern that I followed the 2 color striping sequence for.  

They are really quite addictive.  I've made 4!

I've been using some of my early handspun including the 20 year old stuff I practiced with. 

I also made one of these bags in fleece from the 2 Lagrange farms locally. 

Picture to follow next time camera is out.

I crocheted a bit...made 2 bunnies with requested purple sweaters. One still needs the face finished.

And I cast on for a sweater out of handspun. Hoping it fits.  A free pattern until the end of March.  My sweater attempt has become a UFO about to be ripped out as a bad idea. Not to mention freaking boring.

HAPPY SPRING!
(hope it begins soon ;)

 

Keeping the hands busy . . .

The longer you put off updating the blog, the harder it seems to be to get back to. I blame Facebook - where it's easier to pop a few photos into an album and see what the girls are doing.

Both daughters were home for Christmas and it was wonderful getting outside together. Winter this year has been so mild that trails were open enough to go hiking in search of several new local Letterboxes. Most of them were frozen solid in the holes they were buried in though, thanks to the melt/freeze weather conditions.
We introduced Jax to hiking while looking for letterboxes, but getting her to sit nicely while we stamped in will need some work. She does climb onto stumps and halt all forward momentum at a moments notice. She seems to think they make the perfect resting spot!

By Christmas I had about burned myself out with all the knitting mitten projects. By the time the girls left Maine once again I was ready for a different craft to take over my interest - and help keep the empty nest blues from taking over for too long!
First up was rediscovering Coptic bookbinding - logbooks for Letterboxing! I picked up one of the Crop-A-Dile eyelet setters. I love it - although it does take more hand strength than some of the promos advertised. Also the name brand eyelets are no longer readily available and the backs of the ones local craft departments carry really don't spread flat and smooth. Some of the edges are quite jagged and require an extra squish to hide the fact as best I can. The main thing is to get them squished enough so there are no sharp edges to snag a finger on! 

Of course as with all craft projects of mine, any can be tackled to the point of obsession! At last count I was up to about 30 finished logbooks. I had several packages of index cards and a pair of jeans to recycle into denim pocket logbooks. 

I'm thinking of holding a crafty yard sale this spring.

Next up on the crafting front was to dig out the crochet supplies and make a couple new bunnies. My box of finished things is always available for the girls to dig into and choose items for their friends or their little ones. It was getting depleted of bunnies!

As the 2nd bunny was nearly completed I "discovered" a free Dice Bag of Doom! pouch. It totally tickles me no end. I've finished 3 now using up odd balls of yarn.  (Nothing obsessive to see here folks. I bought 2 packages of eyes and there's one left :)

(Did I say Blogger had gotten easier? WHY is so hard to move pictures to where you want them?)

So crochet it is then

As the craft pendulum swings...

I could not bring myself to start the next quilt UFO.  Our living room is getting a bit of a makeover and not really the best setting for a quilt in progress, anyway.

For April and May I just felt like crocheting.
So I did! 

Edited to add pattern details:
All of these patterns were by Dawn Toussaint. Her website is here.
Koala pdf is free.

Graffiti in the Wild.

And other things...
We were driving to one of our favorite trout fishing get-away spots and I caught a glimpse of this bunny at the side of the road.

The pictures don't do justice to it's Bigness!
The rock is huge. We went by at quite a clip so I tried to remember enough landmarks nearby so we could stop on the way back. Turns out the mile marker is right next to it.

I've crocheted several tote bags and another doll. Ran out of yarn for one of the bags I've been working on, but found a lady on Ravelry with a half skein for $2. Waiting for it's arrival so I can finish.

I was intrigued by knit-like cables and bobbles done in crochet. The first time I tried to follow the pattern I gave up in frustration. A couple of weeks later I gave it another try. Unfortunately by then I had used some of the yarn from one skein for a doll sweater, making the bag come out half a strap short.

I followed just the front panel of the pattern (mostly) and then made up the rest myself. Searched for stitch patterns with texture and chose Seed Stitch for the back & sides. With the extra yarn I'll be able to do a flap as well, although I don't want anything as big as the free original pattern showed.

We've gone fishing nearly every weekend. The weather has been wonderful this year! Even our garden is doing well. Extra zucchini, cucumbers and summer squash WILL be pushed onto anyone stopping by. I put some out by the side of the road with a FREE sign and it was gone by afternoon.

2 weeks ago we put the canoe on top of the Jeep and headed to Sunk Haze Stream for a repeat of a past paddling experience, only to be honked at by a woman in a truck screaming, "YOU CAN'T GO THERE!" Apparently the property owner across the road wanted Friends of Sunk Haze Stream to buy the right of way, but they refused and took down the big welcome sign. Noticed the sign that said where to park was gone but no closed sign was put up. A cable was across the dirt road that went down in towards the stream, but we thought it was just to keep cars from parking down there. I didn't think they could deny access to a stream below a bridge on the main highway. If the drop away below the bridge hadn't been such a cliff-like climb we might have pushed the point.

Unfortunately we had the canoe all off the jeep before Screaming Woman objected. We loaded it back on, tied it down and drove to The Hirundo entrance of Pushaw Stream instead.
Please excuse the curse I placed on the property owner and it's close proximity to Penobscot River. 

Something about Spring floods rising to his attic.

Perhaps I should be careful what I wish on them, given my brother's slightly less close proximity to the same river.

Let my Nano go!

Mandatory Blog Update

Sara bought a new Mac iBook and took them up on their offer of a "free" iPod & iPrinter.
 
As the only family member without one of these precious musical iDevices, she decided to give me her old one! She promises all country music has been satisfactorily deleted. I blame her fondness of music with twang on being left with my mom a few too many times. It's now Pearl Jam packed with my love of Eddie Vedder (teehee!)

BUT shipment from Minnesota will be based on the update-iness of a certain mom blog meant to keep her in the loop. Further more, mom packed-lovingly care packages shall improve in both frequency and quality. I have accepted the challenge (and critical observance) that the most recent envelope stuffed with "junk mail" failed to deliver the degree of satisfaction she might have hoped a letter addressed from home should have. Let the updating trend begin!

Crocheting bunnies, babies and bags has continued at something of an amazing pace. Amazing that I have not gotten sick of them and moved on to explore yet another obsession. Switching to some past, present or yet unexplored craft of the moment is almost certainly a given. Sooner or later. I proudly present my 1st crocheted bag! My skill at following a pattern correctly proved fatal when at about Row 22 my stitch count had decreased from 96 to 88. Making the bag take on a bit of a pyramid shape.

Upon overnight reflection my state of denial was self-accepted and nearly the entire thing was ripped out and done over. Ripped out all the way back to Row 6. A certain offspring's voice echoing memory of "you are such a perfectionist" in scathing tone like an epitah. I told the voice to be quiet!  
Try. Try Again.
Doing something better (when 1st attempt goes terribly awry) continues to be a motto that takes me to my happier place. It only hurts for a moment. The unraveling is done quickly. Like yanking off a band-aid all at once. A certain Treasure Trove of quilting UFO's were unearthed yesterday. Briefly. I stroked the Circle Jeans quilt on top. It's in a stage of almost done-ness that really deserves a place back in the line-up to be finished.
Or else! My sewing machine might seize up from lack of use?

Keeping the hands busy

Nothing at all obsessive, compulsive: crocheting the same bunny pattern 6 times. 
 Is there?

Actually, this is a picture of the same pattern - 4 times plus my latest 1st attempt at a doll by the same designer.

Not surprisingly, I continue to prefer to have something to keep myself busy while waiting, rather than to sit doing nothing. I am a bit shocked by how much I'm still enjoying exploring crochet. A crochet hook and skein of yarn are the current 1st choice to grab up and shove in a tote bag to take on the go. (Crochet is MUCH easier to rip a section out and do over, by the way!)

I've decided I prefer some cotton or wool mixed in with acrylic yarn. I started crocheting with Red Heart Sport (100% acrylic) but don't care if I never use it again. Local availability and color choices being limited to what they are, I'm using TLC Cotton Plus for the doll/bunny body (51% cotton). But the clothing doesn't "drape" as nicely, so I've matched Naturally Caron Country with colors that go nicely, but the 25% Merino Wool makes it feel nicer as a sweater or dress.

These 2 sweaters are removable. The green one I experimented with my own design, once I figured out the pattern construction concept, but the turtle neck would have helped hide the "fat neck" look. (wrong color) I did make some pattern technique changes, based on what I've learned from knitting socks & mittens. No-sew picot border around the bottom of the sweater and waste yarn rather than casting off the armholes and then picking up stitches afterward. I've learned a lot from trying thses patterns and look forward to more experiments in doll sweater design.

These are the projects that have kept me busy during May & June. I needed my size 5 knitting needles to knit the sweaters but they were on a pair of socks I started in January. One was half done, so I finished it in an afternoon. The other is waiting at the start of the heel for me to have another surge of sock knitting desire.  

I don't see that happening anytime soon.

That CROCHET thing . . .

Aren't they cute?

Amigurumi.
It's what I've been doing the last couple of weeks. Never heard of the word before this year. Not real clear how you pronounce it either.

(It's a crocheted toy.)

Cowpoke was a free pattern found here.
He has curly, pose-able legs. Sort of.

Next up I had 5 little Easter-like Babies in bunny & bear snowsuits made before the brilliant idea occurred to put them in an egg carton so I could get a better picture. Naturally, I decided to make an even dozen to fill out the carton.

Instead of cutting the box in half.

You know. Normal & perfectly logical.
As apposed to seriously troubled and with too much time on her hands. Possibly?

It seems like the Wikipedia article detailing Amigurumi needs a little work. Some might take exception to an opening concept "Amigurumi have no practical use". (Looks like it was quote from a book, so I guess that makes it true.)

I suppose that depends on one's definition of "practical"?
(It's a crocheted toy!)
3 year old Ben was fascinated by the cow and 9 year old Kyle asked, "can I have one?"
Didn't actually take it but the kid is transformer obsessed, so any fleeting diversion of the moment can be cherished.

The description goes on to say, "The pervading aesthetic of Amigurumi is cuteness."
Can't argue with that, I guess.
I'll add Addictive, for the moment.

Although I've come across a few examples by now that I've thought, wow that's . . . so not cute.
Frighteningly awful.

WARNING!! (Should maybe think twice about adding this link. Sorry in advance?)
This crocheted woman giving birth (with a baby sticking halfway out) caught me a little off guard, I must say. YIKES!
NOTE TO SARA & STEPH: You may not want to click that link!

Don't say I didn't warn you ;)