New home!

Hello yarny friends!

I'm over here at String Theory these days, talking about life and hooks and needles and such. Stop by and say hello if you're so inclined!

Cheers!

Hats Off To Liz!

Hats Off To Liz!

So yeah, that's what I've been up to for the past 10 months or so. 

Margaret Mead had it so right when she said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever does”.

Thanks to all the dedicated knitters, crocheters and yarn donors who are so incredibly generous with their time and talent. You are simply awesome in just about every single way, and I'm eternally grateful.

Yarn people are the best.

And what a trip it was...

So, a year ago tomorrow I began my journey, hooking my way through the year one square at a time.

I could wax poetic about the quest (God knows I'm not above a little waxing), but aside from the fact that My Beloved is making me a grilled cheese sandwich in advance of an evening of movies and games at my sibling's house and I don't have much time to write, I'm not altogether sure there is anything especially poetic to say.

I loved the journey. I enjoyed the challenge of choosing a new pattern every day, catching up when I missed a day or two, finding patterns that reflected the changing seasons, and figuring out what to say about the creations that tumbled from my hook and fingers at the end of the day.

But I don't know that it taught me anything all that momentous - except that that's not necessarily a bad thing. Not everything is a lesson, nor does it have to be. Not everything needs to have a deeper meaning. Some things are just pure enjoyment. Pure escapism. Pure creativity at its most pleasantly satisfying best.

Sometimes a journey is just a journey. Moving quietly from A to B and enjoying the travel time in between.

Enjoying the travel. Those are absolutely the journeys I like best, and I'm so happy that this was one of those trips.

December 31, 2009


A rising sun motif to usher in the start of a new year and a new decade. And, of course, still more adventures in crochet.

Stay tuned...

I have a feeling...

...that by the end of this journey, there will be holes.

And yeah, more that just crochet holes. Punny, that.

I've tried to hook one motif per day. I really, really have. That was my grand plan all those many months ago. And I think I've done pretty well, all things considered. Work, illness, family obligations, plain old bad days - given all those variables, I've done pretty well if I do say so myself.

The last time I checked, I was about 8 or 10 motifs behind.

But the thing is, I'm not sure I'll be able to catch up. As the holidays bear down upon me complete with their own contractual obligations - including some Christmas hooking - it just might not be possible for me to actually catch up.

But I think that's okay.

As it says in the header, it's the journey, not the destination. And sometimes the journey isn't as easy as you'd planned.

I happen know that in spades.

But still, I keep going. Holes and all.

November 24 & 25, 2009


Another dishcloth. I'm addicted to cotton.



Now, it dawned on me as this was taking shape that it totally does NOT fit into the whole "motif" theme. It's more of an object than a square. You could not make an afghan out of a string of these crocheted Christmas lights.

The problem is, in addition to this pattern, I'd also printed out had a pattern for a Christmas light dishcloth - and that's what I thought I was making. I was watching Glee whilst hooking, and it didn't sink in until I was too far into the project to turn back that I was using the wrong pattern.

I blame TV.

The end.

Can't seem to stay away from Christmas...

...or dishcloths.

November 23, 2009


I think this would be a cute stocking stuffer wrapped around a small bottle of dish soap.

After all, if you HAVE to clean dishes, you might as well be festive about it.

Angels and reindeer. That's what they should call this episode.

I'm not entirely sure that the first two motifs really look all that much like angels, but that's indeed what they are. One is a tiny little ornament, the other is a dish cloth (although I'm not sure I understand the logic behind using an angel to wash up after your spaghetti dinner. Or the desire, for that matter).

Anyway, if you squint - or, perhaps, use your Picasso glasses - I'm sure you'll see the angelic resemblance.

Luckily there's no mistaking Rudolph. The nose gives him away. Or maybe it's the vacant stare...


November 19, 20 & 21, 2009






Ah, Christmas. I love you.

Icky sicky

There are far, far worse things than this cold - or whatever it is I'm cooking - and I thank my lucky stars that all I'm dealing with is a runny nose, sore throat and crazy fatigue.

But still, eeew to being sick. And a one finger salute to germs while I'm at it.

November 16 & 17, 2009




Thank heavens for tissues with lotion, Halls cough drops, chicken soup, hot tea, a kind husband, and a 1992 Christmas magazine with a handful of Christmas crochet crafts in it.

I've been hit! I've been hit!

Despite my best efforts (seriously, I've been single-handedly keeping the hand sanitizer companies in business), I seem to have come down with a bit of a plague.

Just a little one - and I'm hoping it stays that way since I haven't been allowed to get the H1N1 vaccine yet. Which, of course, really means who the flock knows what I'm cooking up?

Luckily sitting on the couch feeling like crap is also a good time to hook. And catch up on missed hooking.

'Cause there seems to be some of that going on...

November 13, 14, & 15






Special thanks to Shanna for, quite out of the blue, sending me Stitch 'n Bitch: The Happy Hooker, which is where I found all three of these patterns.

It's got heart

If I hadn't been so lazy, I'd have photographed the little heart motif before I sewed it onto the hat.

But I was indeed very lazy (it would have involved moving my ass off the couch and climbing up a flight of stairs). So I didn't.

So an entire hat it is.

And that's the kind of day it was.

November 10, 2009


Fortunately I found enough energy to drop the hat in the mail this afternoon, along with all kinds of love and kisses. It's winging its way to a friend who is due to have her baby early next week.

A harbinger...

Snow. Ick.

I love snow that falls in the weeks leading up to Christmas, but I'd be more than happy for spring to start at the stroke of midnight on December 31st.

Yeah, yeah, I'm Canadian. We're hearty. We laugh in the face of snot-freezing wind chill forecasts. We scoff at blinding whiteouts. We flip a mittened bird at treacherous driving conditions.

Or so they say, anyway.

'Cause some of us don't. Some of us loathe shoveling snow with a fierce passion. Some of us would rather eat shards of glass than drive in a snowstorm. Some of us get so cold we feel it from the inside out. Some of us haven't skied since it was a mandatory part of the grade 9 gym curriculum.

Snow is pretty. But I'm into watching it from afar these days. Waaaaay far.

Or, simply crocheting it from the comfort of my couch by the fire.

November 9, 2009


There is a snowflake in there somewhere. It was more obvious before the flake turned into a square, but it's there.

Just like it'll be there on my driveway in the not too distant future.

Siiiiigh.

She's alive! She's alive!

...And not just alive, but totally addicted to the leftover yarn from my Mom, which I employed to make all three of these motifs.

I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that it's not even top quality stuff - just some acrylic Vanna's Choice from Lion Brand. But it's just so thick and cozy, and the colours are so deep and rich and lovely.

It feels good on the hook.

And in the heart.

That's all I can offer by way of explanation.

November 6, 7 & 8, 2009


This is a square motif from the Interweave Crochet afghan pattern I mentioned in my last post. I think the purples just work so well here, somehow. See? Cheap yarn can be purdy!


This is one of two flowers meant to embellish a tea cozy. I haven't seen a tea cozy since the 1970s at my Grandparents' kitchen table, keeping their Brown Betty toasty warm. Hmmm, I may need to make one now...


This square is HUGE. It's probably 11" x 11", and although it's from an afghan pattern, I'm thinking it would make a pretty funky pillow. Which I may get around to making one of these fine days.

Cozy

My mom started a tumbling blocks afghan late last winter, finishing it up a month or so ago. It's absolutely gorgeous and so well worth the hours and hours of knitting, changing colours, and sewing in ends.

That's what I think, anyway. At 69 with pretty severe arthritis, she may have regretted the undertaking once she discovered what a mammoth job it was going to be, but I still think it was worth her blood, sweat and tears. It looks beautiful in their living room, and with the chilly weather slowly creeping in, it was completed just in time for cuddling under snowy skies.

As she always does, she passed along the leftover yarn to me, much to my delight. Expected delights are delights nonetheless.

I used some of that yarn to make this pretty motif, which was designed for an afghan pattern from the fall 2009 issue of Interweave Crochet magazine.

The colours are so deeply saturated, and the yarn is thick and soft. And it came from my mommy, which makes it as cozy as can be.

November 3, 2009

I might get additional yarn and pick at this afghan over the winter, just like my mom did.

Bullseye!

This is an appropriate motif for today, since at the moment it feels like someone has shot an arrow into my head just above my left eye.

Stupid barometric pressure headache.

November 2, 2009



And now me and my aching noggin are heading to bed.

The end.

Boo!!

I know it's incredibly morbid, but every year I get a little kick out of saying that Thomas is going out for Halloween as a ghost.

Really, this is probably only genuinely funny to My Beloved and I - everyone else just laughs nervously when I whip out this annual joke - but in addition to the fact that I really do somehow find it amusing, it makes me feel closer to Thomas.

On a day when people are parading their more-adorable-than-usual children in an unending stream up to my front door in costumes so precious they make my busted uterus ache, it's nice to feel extra close to Thomas.

And so, I make the joke.

And a little cotton ghost washcloth too.

And all's right with my slightly warped world.

October 31, 2009

And now I'm off to bed, which is the only way I can guarantee I'm going to stop eating the leftover chocolate. For at least the next 7 or so hours anyway...

Hat's off. And on. And on. And on.

This is the first few rounds of a hat pattern, with the addition of a quick little single crochet border to finish it off.

I've been working on a couple of special order kids hats using this pattern, and thought the initial couple of rows would make a pretty motif perfectly suited for a certain little crochet odyssey.

Plus, once you get into the swing of an addictive pattern it's kind of hard to get out.

October 28, 2009

Somebody help me! I'm trapped in a hat!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

But let the real stuff fall somewhere else for at least another month or so, m'k?

Thanks.

October 27, 2009

With apologies to my friends in Colorado who were dealing with blizzard conditions on Sunday...

Lest We Forget

Every year about this time, little red poppies start appearing on the lapels of Canadians and Britains. This 90-year old tradition started as a way of remembering the end of World War I on November 11, 1918.

Along with a moment of silence at 11:00am on November 11th, we wear the poppies to remind us of the sacrifices of the soldiers who fought and died for the freedoms we enjoy today.

And usually someone, somewhere, recites these lines...

In Flanders' fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders' fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high,
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders' Fields.

John McCrae, 1915.

October 26, 2009

For those who never came home, we remember.

One BIG square...

...which also serves as proof that I WAS preoccupied with blankie squares the past few weeks.

This, after much sewing, is the finished afghan. If you look closely, you'll see it's half knitted and half crocheted. It was a Mom and me collaboration - a gift of yarny love for my sister who turned 42 this weekend.

October 25, 2009


Happy Birthday Kathy!

The road to crochet hell...

...is paved with good intentions.

And gray-ish lasagna noodle ninja throwing stars.

October 22, 2009


Siiiiigh.

In the meantime...

Mary, I will absolutely prove that I was working on a blankie this week by taking its picture and posting it here when it's done. I'm nothing if not a shameless attention whore when it comes to displaying pictures of my crocheted stuff (ahem, clearly...), so stay tuned.

In the meantime, here's an off-centered flower in a lovely soft blue that looks frustratingly bland and gray here, and a teeny tiny little cotton granny square.

And now, back to the blankie...

October 18 & 19, 2009




I'm at the sewing together stage. And there will be callouses.

See? Attention whore.