Good things come in pairs…like arm warmers in the colors of winter and laced up the side with sky blue AND a free-wheeling bolero made with “left-overs”. I love the look of crochet stitches with huge yarn. I can’t find a substitute for Rowan’s Big-Wool…it is simply the best for its loft, colors, softness, everything. There’s a bit of Rowan’s Country Wool in here too…lovely. I’m swooning over crochet right now…I don’t know what comes over me, but sometimes I’m so crazy about crocheting I can hardly stand to put it down and I’m grumpy when things (or people) get in the way. I feel badly about the latter, because, REALLY now, crocheting isn’t worth that, but there it is…the state of my creative frenzy…I have a loovely granny square going in pinks which will, I hope, become a shrug eventually; I finally started a beautiful, lace-up-the-back crocheted tank in Blue Sky silk, and I’m still working on the colorful blanket, and I have so many other crochet projects that I’m itching to start! I ‘m also having a blast with my beginning crochet class…3 lovely ladies all picking it up so quickly! And the knitters in my Monday night beginning knit class are equally as wonderful and quick to learn. Then there’s Maggie’s crochet through the week…my husband does not understand how I can work so much with all things knitting and crocheting and STILL come home to pick up hooks and needles as if I didn’t skip a beat. Truly, my jobs only serve to fuel the flame of my love for yarn, for creating something pretty out of strings. I’m grateful for all of it!
Monthly Archives: January 2008
Princess Finery
The most fun in the whole wide world is when all the things I love the most converge. Just before Christmas I began thinking about what my sweet, soon-to-be-six year old would want to do for a birthday party. A Princess Tea Party! I presented the idea to her and with big eyes and more ideas than we knew what to do with, we set out together to make a great time for her and 3 other Kindergarten friends. I made these little fingerless gloves for the girls, they made princess hats with jewels and froo-froo to glue on, we “did” their nails, fingers AND toes, they drank tea and lemonade, ate cucumber sandwiches, carrots, almonds, and lots of cake and ice cream. And all this dressed in their princess finery! I think though, that I had the best time of all, watching them and being a part of the frilly, girly time. I have been melancholy lately about how fast time is flying, that I no longer have wee ones, that my last child is now 6 years old. But I’m concentrating on being in the present, in the moment (not in the past) and inhabiting all that six (ten, and thirteen) years old has for me and for them. It’s wonderful to be a part of it, to contribute creatively to it, and to drink in all the memories.
Stash Enrichment…
Among all the lovely things I received this Christmas was a gift certificate to a yarn shop in Boone. I wasn’t able to stay long enough to enjoy browsing and redeeming the gift certificate, so I went back up to visit my parents a few days after our Christmas travels. I was able to go “sans enfants” and therefore spend as much time as my mom and I liked perusing the yarn shop and making just the perfect choices. These lovely balls of Tonalita were among the final picks. As I drove home relishing the beauty of winter colors, I realized they were ALL in the yarns I had picked out. It amazed me to see outside my car windows, the dusty blue of the winter sky, the hay colored “weeds” on the sides of the roads, the bluish gray of the slightly damp road, the hazels, chocolates, dark browns, beiges and to see all of this in the bag of yarn sitting happily next to me. I do think color is a very powerful thing. It has an imperceptible influence on me. And it isn’t only the bright happy colors that bring joy…I’m finding a real connection with these rich, dark, misty colors and I can’t wait to dive in, make something out of them, and wear them. I’ll show you when I’m done.
Christmas Day Quickie
Er, umm, well, uh yes, er no, not quite, but anyway…this simple little wrap really was a fast make! It had to be, for me to be able to make it and then wear it on Christmas Day! The design, called Square Wrap, is by one of my new favorite designers, Sarah Hatton. The pattern is found in the Rowan Magazine, #40. These Rowan Magazine’s are world’s you can get lost in…wonderful knit and crochet designs paired with beautiful outfits (costumes actually) that make you want to dress like a gypsy or a medieval peasant princess. I’m all into legwarmers, fingerless mittens, capelets, and ponchos…smaller knit and crochet pieces that take your regular wardrobe and transform it into something…well, something else, I’m not exactly sure what. This wrap is addictive…my second one is blocking as we speak (or read).
