Such Sweet Hands

(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.