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…

If you haven’t already checked it out, week before last I contributed a spooky, tacky, pattern and story for the CRAFT pattern podcast. You can go here to download the pdf. I played around with telling a story to go along with the pattern. I hope to do some more things like that because I have a head full of imagined creatures with stories that need to be told.

One morning I sat at our table prepping the Triplets for a photo shoot, sticking a curved needle through their heads to run thread for hanging and posing… Rob was sitting beside me eating his breakfast and jumped a little at the sound of a needle piercing a rubbery dolly scalp. He gasped and looked a tad spooked. That’s my kind of Halloween fun:)

I could go on and on about how I adore Maker Faire. I love the idea of being a “maker”, I am grateful Make and Craft give their own angle on what it can mean to be a person who makes stuff. But before I get too gushy I’ll just say how awesome it is to meet the people at Maker Faire. Both times that I’ve worked in the Lion Brand booth we’ve seen a nice variety of people wanting to know more. Know more about crochet or knitting or yarn or simply wanting to know what we’re doing in our corner of the Faire. I love that! I find people with no interest in things boring and since this is an event where everyone is encouraged to be interested, it’s certainly not a boring time!

I lost count at how many hands I helped crochet, but I can tell you it was a lot. And more folks wanted to learn about crochet than knitting! Then there were the familiar faces! It was great to see and work with Liz and Karen from Lion Brand again. And several folks I met at the last Maker Faire stopped by and hung out with us too. I’ve always loved the summer camp reunion sort of vibe a bunch of us have going at TNNA and now I’m starting to feel the same thing with Maker Faire. It’s truly wonderful that we can all meet up and bond over these things we love to make!

New faces:

Karli taught knitting in the booth and brushed up on her own crochet skills too. Her new yarn store Gauge will be a very crochet friendly place if I have anything to say about it! She has the kind of Texan dialect I’ve always envied. When I start speaking in my native dialect I sound brusk and staccato, but Karli has this sweet ladylike Texan lilt. She was kind enough to drive me in to the fairgrounds both days and she even brought me a cappuccino! I look forward to returning to Austin and checking out her store in the not too distant future.

I also finally got to know and hang out with Jenny Ryan, a fellow Angelino. That’s the way things just go sometimes, I hide out in the crochet hermitage so much that I have to meet other Angelinos in far off places like Austin! Having dinner with Jenny, Natalie, and Faythe Levine was one of the highlights of my whole Texas trip. Bonding over the odd behaviors of the work at home creative life included the dark secret that we’ve all been following Britney’s exploits a bit closer than we’d like to admit. It was also funny that when searching for a restaurant, we sat in Nat’s hotel room searching for a place on the hotel’s list of suggestions that actually had a good website. Just one of the many little quirks I enjoyed learning I share with all these awesome crafty girls. I have to note here that there was a long drought in my life (late teens/ early 20’s) where there seemed to be no one around who was like me, so now in my adulthood I am still so thankful to find even more kindred spirits.

And I got to get Faythe started with crochet! It was so awesome to meet her and get to know more about her film.

All this said, I never even made it into the bigger hall(s) full of robot fun. I just didn’t have the time or energy! There are several things I’m bummed to have missed, but there’s always the next Maker Faire right? I didn’t get to see much of Austin itself either, but I had enough great company to not have been too bothered by missing robots or seeing any of Austin’s famed cool spots. On Monday morning I boarded another flight and headed to my home town Lubbock, Texas… more on that tomorrow.

My friend Aaron made this cutie pie birdie at our weekly crafty group meet up last week.  He just learned to crochet a few weeks ago, taught by our friend Tania.  And how did Tania learn to crochet?  From Teach Yourself Visually Crocheting!  She stumbled upon the book in a store and taught herself to crochet long before she even moved here from the east coast and the various connections that brought us to meet, become friends, and craft together weekly even existed…    I think that’s really cool.

The fall issue of Knitscene is headed to your newsstand if it isn’t already there. There isn’t much crochet in it. My scarf and a flaming bowling ball bag by Regina Rioux Gonzalez. There are some lovely knitted sweaters and the photography is nice. Will have to make note to self to nudge them to have more crochet next time!

This is the same little scarf that appeared in my photo-a-day run last March.

There’s certainly more to chat about. It’s been a busy and very social month. Several good friends are moving away this summer, all moving on to new and exciting adventures. There’s a wedding this weekend too. You’ll hear more from me about that, I’m currently enjoying watching the stain of my first ever mehndi deepen and can’t wait to wear my new sari to the beach side ceremony. Lots of pictures on the way!

Look what landed in my mailbox today!

The July/August Issue of Crochet Today includes my pattern for a sweet, quick, and fun to work up stole/capelet, the “Rolling Waves Stole”. For all ya’ll recently entranced by ripple patterns, it’s a fun stitch pattern that flies off the hook once you get the hang.

There was a slight difference of vision in this case, the powers that be at the magazine added some length and a border. That’s how the cookie crumbles and I’m not displeased with the outcome of combining my whim with their needs. Because we don’t get to keep the samples, I still need to finish up my own to wear to a beach side wedding in a few weeks. The one (or two I might whip an extra up in a different color) I make for my own use will be a tad different. I promise to share pictures and input on taking a pattern and changing it up to make it your own.

I also want to note that I really enjoyed working with Moda Dea Fashionista to make this piece. It’s a nice acrylic yarn with an almost chenille sort of texture. Well, chenille-like in the richness of the colors and the look of the texture. Without the worming and chenille weirdness! It works up nice and soft and light with just the right amount of cozy warmth for a light wrap. I bet worked in a tighter gauge it could make a great granny motif bag…

I found the crochet roll stashed in the cube where I’ve been keeping all the yarn a wrangled up for granny square diversions. *Phew* Remind me to tell the story of the time I lost my entire needle and hook stash and how it was returned to me sometime. . . .

Meanwhile, I just learned that Amy Swenson’s new book is out. My little coin purse project “Assembly Required” is a part of the line up, which also includes a sweet toddler jacket by another Amy we know.

The Assembly Required project was the muse for all this button and doodad fun.

Making a simple useful cloth is one of my favorite things to make in my personal crochet time. I wish to cover my friends and loved ones in blankets and sweaters and toys made by hand, but I simply don’t have the time. I can give anyone I think might enjoy it a pretty little square of handmade cloth to use as a washcloth or a hot pad for holding a hot bowl of soup. Something small and simple to let someone know I want to contribute something comforting, useful, and pretty to her life. . .

I use mine for holding tea mugs and bowls of soup. A good friend recently told me she uses one (the purple one in this photo, to be exact) as a washcloth when she bathes her daughter. She says it’s soft and sturdy and everything you need for a baby’s bath. I feel humbled that this sweet little cloth is an integral part of her daughter’s bath time.

It feels good to sit down and make something so useful and simple. They’re easy to whip up too! I like to bundle the cloth with something else, a package of tea, a fancy soap, etc. You don’t even need gift wrap, just a string or ribbon to tie it up with.

I often use Blue Sky Alpaca Cottons (Dyed or Organic) and Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille. Anything that can stand up to washing and repeated use, as well as creates a nice, useful fabric. If you’re making a washcloth I suggest working with cotton, I bet hemp might be nice for an exfoliating cloth. The texture is part of what makes this useful cloth as sweet as it is useful. Bobbles, stitch patterns full of mixed stitches, anything that creates a crunchy, yummy texture will work. With just a smidge of planning you can pull double duty trying out new stitch patterns and making a useful cloth.

You never know whose daily ritual (be it bath time or tea time) your cloth could become a part of.