Wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong

There are a whole bunch of things wrong with this square. I'm not sure any of the mistakes are obvious enough to notice, particularly if you don't have a picture of the "real" square for comparison, but there are mistakes nonetheless. A-plenty.

I was watching TV while I made it so it's not out of the realm of possibility that I was distracted enough to have read the pattern incorrectly, but I'm pretty sure I was doing exactly as it said.

I read, re-read, pulled out rows - did everything I could - and no matter what I tried, it was clearly going to turn out catastrophically wrong.

So I just ad-libbed what I thought seemed right instead, and this is the result.

It's not right - the blue petals are supposed to be somewhat dimensional, for one thing - but it's close enough.

And sometimes close enough is just fine.

September 29, 2009


I think my luck with the 1991 magazine may have finally run out. Alas.

A blast from the past. Or three.

All three of the motifs posted today come from patterns I found in an old magazine I uncovered in the basement last year when I was sorting through crap for our garage sale.

It's from September 1991, which is a good 12 or 13 years before I even learned how to crochet.

There are some eye-wateringly atrocious sweater patterns in it (very late 80s Cosby style - weird colours, big patterns, boxy as hell), but there are also some very charming afghan patterns and granny square-esque motifs mixed in with the fashion disasters.

It was a pleasant surprise.

And it's nice to get those kind for a change.

September 24, 25, 26, 2009






The pack rat in me is feeling very smug right now. She KNEW the magazine would be useful one day...

Today, yesterday and the day before that

One of these squares just doesn't belong here (with apologies to Mr. Rogers).

And it's not the square. Or the circle. It's the weird diamond-esque yellow oval.

I'm just not feelin' it. It's kind of lumpy, a little misshapen, and just...odd. It's like a stylized, yarny, "Always with wings" (with apologies to Proctor & Gamble).

September 21, 22 & 23, 2009






And now I'm going to stop apologizing and get on with my day.

Ahhh, that's better

It's much easier to blog when the camera and computer play nice.

And without further ado...

September 18, 2009

I used a scrap of hot pink Bernat Satin to make this little heart, but ran out just before I could finish.

Instead of scrapping the whole thing, I decided to use a bit lavender to finish the job.

I realize it looks like it's been patched, but I think that's fitting. I imagine if you could see my figurative heart, it would be delicate tangle of memories and loves held together with white glue, duct tape, and bits of string.

Life will do that to you.



September 19, 2009

Bing Crosby has nothing to do with crochet at all, as far as I know, but I think it should be noted that crocheting on a Saturday evening while watching back-to-back Bing Crosby movies is a very cozy thing to do.

And, as an added bonus, blue flowery things emerge from your fingertips as if by magic.

See?



September 20, 2009

Sunflowers remind me of Fall and my sister. Fall because they're such a deep, fall-y yellow, and my sister because she inevitably brings giant handfuls of them to your house if you invite her for dinner around harvest time.

I like things that never change.

I like her too. Kind of a lot.



While I had all kinds of time to look at but not update my blog, I noticed that I was four motifs behind. September 2 and August 4, 9, and 22 were motif-less.

So I took a little extra crocheting time this weekend to catch up a bit...





There. TOLD you I wasn't slacking!

Technical difficulties

It's very hard to do a daily blog that requires photographs when your camera and computer have decided not to like each other.

Fortunately I happen to live with my IT guy, so I'll be back and posting (with photographic evidence that I was NOT simply slacking these last few days) tomorrow.

Until then...

Butterflies

Apparently the Monarch butterflies - who fill Southern Ontario's skies with tiny orange and black stained glass windows in summer - are fewer in number this year. The cool, wet weather has, so the butterfly counters say, inhibited their reproduction.

Which is a shame. I love watching their crooked, laboured flying and effortless gliding.

They make me think of my Grandmother and my boy, both gone, but both still as beautiful to my heart as the delicate wings of a Monarch.

When I found this simple butterfly pattern (made more simple because I didn't embellish mine with beads, as the pattern indicated) I knew I had to give it a try. Three times.

September 17, 15, and 4, 2009


I have no idea how such fragile little creatures make it all the way to Mexico.

They must be packing tiny little bottles of tequila...

Bonanza!

I'm having ridiculous fun with this month's issue of Crochet! magazine.

At least I think it's this month's regular issue - it's actually possible that it's a special issue. One of those "25 great gifts to make" kind of issues.

I could find out, but that would require going allllll the way downstairs. And that just ain't gonna happen.

Anyway, whatever the case, I'm enjoying it.

One of the purple motifs from last week, the teapot coasters, the posey from yesterday, and today's crazy lavendar rose - they're all from this magical issue.

Excellent. Just excellent!

September 16, 2009


And no, they didn't pay me to say that.

Although I could use the work and likely would if they offered...

A proper cup of tea

Ahhh, there! THAT'S better! The same little teapot hooked with 100% yarn and felted.

Yeah, the pattern knows best. Lesson learned.

I'm really loving this. I think four of these in complimentary colours would make such a cute hostess gift...

September 13, 2009


Luckily I happen to have three complimentary colours. And someone who I think would rather like a set of wooly teapot coasters.


And yesterday, a little flower.

Since my real life flower garden is woefully in need of attention (and substantial repair, thanks to the marauding voles), I decided to hook a sweet little yarn posy. A reminder of the summer blooms, now fading, that will soon be a memory.

That was fast.

I'm not complaining because I loathe the heat, but seriously this summer was really more like a handful of hot days strung together by weeks of chilly days.

And by chilly I mean perfect. 1970s summers perfect. Low 70s. No smog. No humidity.

Perfection.

September 14, 2009


I just hope the winter is as kind to me as summer has been...

A spot of tea?

This little teapot motif from Crochet! magazine should really have been done in wool. It's supposed to be a felted coaster (an idea that's so cute I may pass out), but I wondered what it would look like unfelted, worked in an acrylic yarn.

And now I know.

And now I think I need to make one in wool and felt it like the pattern said I should.

Patterns, like moms, usually know best.

September 12, 2009


And now I'm off to have a cuppa.

Me? Suggestible? Noooooooo.

Lather, rinse, repeat

I think I'm all purpled out now.

Really, I'm pretty sure I've got it out of my system.

Maybe.

September 9, 10 & 11, 2009






It's kind of like when you get a song stuck in your head. Only with colour...

The cottage

When I was a kid we spent every single summer vacation at my Grandma and Grandpa's cottage in Muskoka, from the time I was three months old until I was in my early twenties.

I loved it. Truly adored every second of every day we spent there. I could wax poetic about the glory days by the shores of Tasso Lake for hours. Hours, I tell you.

Every once in a while I'll smell something that elicits a scent memory of the cottage - summer sweat, musty books, a damp forest floor, dry leaves, or some heady concoction of all four - and unexpected pictures of the cottage flood my mind, to my greatest delight.

Pine sap stuck to my bare feet. Bactine on mosquito bites. Noxema on sunburns. Bonfire smoke clinging to my clothes and hair. Melted marshmallow guts burning my tongue.

Looking back, it was all good. All of it. Every sweet moment.

The cottage is gone. Sold by my Grandfather when his mind was slipping back in the mid 90s. And both my Grandparents are gone now too. But the memories remain.

Yesterday and today's squares somehow remind me of the cottage. The sandy earth tones and the cedar green, of course. But especially the 1950s rusty brown and avocado that covered the ancient cottage furniture - remnants from a bygone time that found themselves living out their retirement years up at the lake.

If I could go back, even for five minutes, I would do it in a heartbeat. I'd walk down to the shore, push my feet into the sand, and touch the surface of the water with the flat of my hand.

And just be.

September 7 & 8, 2009




If, when I get there, I get to choose my heaven, it might just be the tiny cottage on Tasso Lake.

Labour Day

Long weekends usually start with good intentions and end in gloriously unabashed slacking. And this one has certainly been no exception.

My Beloved spent a few hours out in the garden tending, mowing and weeding. But me? I stayed inside crocheting and making muffins with some of the apples we bought at a local farm on Saturday. And then crocheting again.

And again.

Ahhhhhh. That's the ticket.

September 5 & 6, 2009




To make up for my slothfulness, I'll be turning 1/2 bushel of Roma tomatoes into tomato sauce today.

Eventually.

The last rose of summer

Okay, this square is not a rose. Nor is it technically the end of summer (not for another 17 days or so). But Labour day weekend has always felt like an ending to me. And even now, more than 15 years since my last official class of any kind ended, I still feel a "back-to-schoolness" in the air. In my air.

I wander around kind of aimlessly during this time, wishing for a reason to by notebooks, paper and a brand-spanking new pencil case. Wishing for a new beginning. Or some sort of exciting new change.

Who'd have thought that not going back to school would still make me wistful after all these years?

And so once again I say, thank goodness for crochet.

September 3, 2009


They won't cure anything, of course, but crochet, wine and chocolate all make excellent band-aids.

This I know for an absolute fact.

I'm just going to stop apologizing...

...for being behind and doing terribly disorganized things like posting Tuesday's square on Thursday. The lure of the sun and crisp/cool/warm early September days are distracting me.

Yeah, that's right. I'm blaming God.

Step aside, the lightning bolt should be arriving any second now.

September 1, 2009


And now, the garden beckons...

Pink

Sad news from two friends in the last few days has made me want to seek out bright, cheerful, happy things - like a very, very pink square. Not so that I can pretend that their sorrow doesn't exist or doesn't matter, but so that I can remind myself that there is still beauty in a world that often seems so cruel and so ruthlessly unfair.

So pink it is.

And my sincere sympathy too.

August 31, 2009


It is, of course, possible to feel sad when you're looking at pink. But I still think it helps.