Such Sweet Hands

And for a little while, you’ll also find me here.  Hosting the Lion Brand crochet-along.

Thinking I need to do photo a day again soon.  That will certainly get things moving here on the blog again.

(I started this entry sometime in March or early April)

I started this granny project about a year ago, but it went into certain hibernation for many months. One reason for the hibernation? The cubby box that holds all the yarn for the grannies became the favorite cute and cuddly curl up spot for Tiger Lily. What can I say? The girl has great taste. I’m sure if I ever finish the granny project she’ll want to sleep on the blanket, but probably enjoys the fluff of so many skeins and balls of yarn piled on top of each other even more. When I finally reclaimed the box from her I found skeins shaped like trapezoids. All the yarn had just been flattened and squooshed… at least I know they were squooshed with the loving attention of a sweet cat making her bed. Of course I did cover the yarn stash, I placed a couple of layers of towels on top of the cubby so her “nest” didn’t become a nest of fur in my yarn! Yeah, if I wasn’t such a weirdo, if I was practical, I wouldn’t have let her sleep there anyway. I would have moved the cubby box and kept her away from it. I did try to make her a bed with another cubby box, but no amount of folded towels could create the same cat approved nap spot as a pile of Blue Sky Cotton and Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille.

So I rescued the yarn and grannies from the cubby, replaced it with yarn I’m less interested in, and put some towels on top in case Tiger Lily decides the cubby is still worthy of her naps.

I was in a real funk at the time. Unsure whether I wanted to continue to contribute to the craft world as a designer and often overheard as saying I just wanted to send all the yarn away and turn my “office” back into a dining room. So, while I was feeling totally uninterested in making any designs that had to be pitched, written up, edited, and such, I found myself laying on the couch and staring at this small collection of grannies spread out on the rug in front of me.

Shuffling the squares around like puzzle pieces or building blocks led to catching up on weaving in their ends. A few days later the squares still lounged on the rug while I started sorting out all those squooshed balls of yarn. The balls of yarn got thrown into the mix on the rug and finally I couldn’t resist grabbing a hook and playing with all those great colors to make some more squares.

So the whole time I was babbling about getting a job out in the real world and saying I had no crochet mojo left I was cuddled up to all these granny squares…

Good Morning, even though it’s past noon…

Today, I have a little tip for ya! I could go on and on about cork bulletin boards. I have several and I put them to all sorts of “non-bulletin board” uses. Cover them with fabric to make them soft and pretty and you have a great portable, pin-able surface to place your work on.

I love my swift and winder, but I don’t really have any furniture that I can attach them too. Most open surfaces in my place are too thick for the adjustable clamp thingies. Then there’s the table that’s too nice and I don’t want to scar it. There’s also the problem of clutter. When I’ve had the swift and winder set up in a more permanent way I’ve found the set up gets in the way of other things or piles of said things get in the way of my actually using the swift and winder. So, most of the time the winder and swift live in a shelf cubby. When I need them, I attach them to one of my fabric covered cork bulletin boards and Voila! I have a portable winding set up to use as I please. I like to place the board on top of a stack of sturdy floor pillows so I can sit on the floor and watch teevee while I’m on a winding spree.

Plotting a cross stitch project is really quite satisfying. Working all those sweet little x’s is also satisfying. The last time I did any cross stitch I was about 10 years old, but I remembered how nice it felt to work lots of perfect little cross stitches and I got a craving for it a bit ago. The craving intersected with a new friend’s birthday and here we have the result. Even though the birthday, craving, and motif idea happened back in February I only just sat down to work it up last week.

I now find myself wanting to make more cross stitch pieces based on themes my loved ones like. And that stripey heart motif is too precious not to use again… I’m also considering a little cross stitch memorial to the ‘87 Cabriolet that I loved so dearly and recently said farewell to.

What do I do when I reach the summit of the mountain? (Delivered by gondola of course, not on foot!) Well, I take a little lay down of course! And I’m tellin’ ya it felt like true luxury, lounging there with that amazing view and that spectacular diffused sun. I know it’s harder to breathe at a higher altitude, but that is one great place to just sit and take a deep breath or two.

I didn’t feel confident enough to ride down from there, but next trip I promise I will!

Will bring my crochet hook and yarn up with me next time…

Rob rounded up a small crowd (coincidentally all folks from Crafotnite) of our pals to spend a week in Mammoth Lakes.  We’ve been having a great time, cooking yummy breakfasts and dinners, playing a bit of Apples to Apples, oh….  and snowboarding too of course!  I’m taking today off though because I’ve fallen twice on the same spot on my hip and I’m a bit limpy.  I plan on getting some crocheting done today, but I really just want to nap.

Photo taken by Tania: that’s me, Aaron, and Rob.

So I didn’t post in January because I was just a fevery snotty mess most of the time, wallowing in career/identity crisis, and generally pissy and pouty that my dear January (I know many others think very little of January, but I love the month of January!) was so poopy as a result of the snot and the fever and all. My apartment fell to messy ruin, I got very little work done, and even my birthday was dampened by the general ick I felt all month… So blogging on a regular basis would have consisted of comments about snot consistency and color and existential angst about what I am or am not doing with my life. Not really what I expect you visit a mostly “crochet” blog for…

Then the few attempts I’ve made at writing a rundown of January have met with sloppy disappearances… for example wordpress just totally disregarded some changes I made to said rundown, and *poof* my eloquent and brief, yet entertaining description of all things January 2008 went away. Sigh.

And now February is almost over. Ack.

So I’ve been doing my best to catch up in all the areas neglected while I was snot-filled and wallowing in January. Not doing the best job of it, but life just goes on whether I’ve caught up with the laundry or not…

The photo I’ve included to brighten things up is of one of the cakes I made for Lion Brand. I had a real ball crocheting these up, this one reminds me of Ube cake… one of the yummiest cakes ever. Ube tastes sweet and light without being too rich. It’s just really satisfying to eat and who can resist a purple cake? I don’t have any ube photos myself, but here’s one I found on Flickr.

More on the cakes and other adventures later… I swear!

I sometimes get bummed at the new year, superstitious that how I spend my first days of the year will hold sway on the rest of the year.  Our New Year’s Eve was a lovely time spent with some good friends and I got to share spice cake cup cakes I devised earlier that day.  Then New Year’s day started with late morning visit to the gym.  Yes!  We woke up only hours after getting to sleep to go to the gym!  I even walked to the gym!  Rob’s Christmas present to me was a bunch of sessions with a trainer…

So things sort of started on a great foot.  Then the Flu came to visit.  First Rob came down with it.  This is a guy who usually refuses to stop even when he’s sick.  But this time he retreated to bed, hiding under the covers and reminding me he felt sick every 15 minutes.  He had a hard time resting though because the apartment across from our window is being repaired and we’ve been suffering through floor sanding sounds.  At one point I found the fevered Rob in bed humming the same sound as the sander…  poor fella.

…and then I fell to the nasty flu.  I haven’t had the flu in so long I forgot that it feels any different from a cold.  I will be first in line for the Flu shot next year!  I am amazed, the flu fever will not be reasoned with.  That flu fever refuses to obey Tylenol or my repeated murmurs begging to let me be.  I’ve spent 3 long shivery days in bed and even placed a desperate call to my mommy in Florida to come take care of me.

The floor sanders are still going next door and the fever is burning it’s last bit ( I hope) and it’s time to get this year rolling.  I’ve got a project due this week and TNNA is happening too.  Now if only I can get my head wrapped back around crocheting gorgeous cakes and my coughey-snotty-feverey self pulled together and ready to see all my favorite yarn pals at the trade show.

Is it really almost the middle of January already?

Insert balls of yarn instead of sweaters and you have my Tiger Lily…

November was such a fun, crafty, catching up with folks kind of month that I will certainly be sharing some photos and details on what’s been going on in my world lately. In fact, the entire fall was busy and packed with stuff. I spent one week of each of the last three months away from home and paying long overdue visits to family. September was Gainesville to see my mom and step dad, in October I visited my hometown (Lubbock, Tx) to see the grandparents and Houston to see my brother and his motley crew of 3 sons (managed to squeeze in time away from the nephew mob to reach my sis in law how to crochet!) and last week Rob and I spent a week in Philly paying visits to his folks. Phew.

Now I’m home and planning to stay put for at least a month before various events and snowboarding trips take me over. I’m stewing all the ideas, input, and inspiration that all that travelling and fun stirs up. Quite honestly my brian* is on overload, all sorts of ideas ranging from how to finally make my bedroom closet useful, baking I want to try, plants I want to nurse back to health, quilting I’m itching to play with, a desire to knit socks, a fascination with bookbinding, a whim to read every Jane Austen book, an adoration for all types of trees and leaves, a story I want to tell through stop motion animation, and the wonderful feeling that I am finally starting to improve my credit rating… *take a breath*n and for every non-crochet idea/whim/desire I have there is at least one crochet idea, I promise you. It all makes me twitchy and impatient and I wish for a magic wand to make any thought materialize instantly!            ~Stay tuned

*I often mistype B-R-A-I-N as B-R-I-A-N… sometimes I wonder if my brain calls itself brian… I’ve decide to come forward with this quirk and if I mistype brain as brian in this blog I’ll trust you’ll bear with me…