I need to start writing things down

It's really no fun to have minutes of searing inspiration that are then promptly lost to the cosmos forever. The last few days I have had several fabulous ideas of things to write about here...things I was really excited to share...but where are they? Not here is all I know. Brain is a literal tabula rasa. Bummer.

So, on to the photos!

With the clock ticking, it's heavy duty blanket time round these parts. This is what I have started for #1. It's one of the motifs from Happy Hooker's Garden scarf, joined as they go, so no seaming YEAH!!! The colors aren't showing to their best here, but you get the idea. I'm using Cestari's 3-ply DK cotton wool blend that I maddly bouhgt on clearance at my LYS (Borealis Yarns, if you live in the area...LOVE them!) because they were discontinuing it and it is SO great for crochet. It's working up fabulously and the motif is easy-peasy and quick. I can't wait to finish it and see her open it...she's going to love it.

And this is what I have hookin' up for my sweetie:

Originally was planning on doing it for our 10th anniversary at the end of the month, but I fell into the acrylic trap when I was picking out yarn. I wanted to be making something special. I knew he would hate anything not cotton and I knew I wouldn't be happy working in something synthetic. But I went to the LYS and I settled for an acrylic wool blend. And in colors that were nothing like what I had in my head. It was a nice one, really it was, but I worked it and ripped it and reworked it with a different hook and ripped it and reworked it again with a different stitch and finally faced the truth. I just hated the yarn. No, I didn't take a picture of it because I want to forget it.

So now I'm working in plain old cotton, and I have the natural with red stripes I wanted in the first place. Nice and nubby in parts and ribbed in others. Once I get past the second red stripe I'm going to work HHDC for the main, then repeat the stripe bands at the other end.

Oooooh! Just remembered...remind me to talk about obsession...my new obsession for spindles and things spin-y...oh and local yarns too...YUM!

My grandmother's hands

I wish I had a picture of my grandmother's hands.

I am slowly working my way through Hooked

I just read the essays by Annie Modesitt and Amy O'Neill Houck. Both deal in different ways with having learned to crochet and the connection that brings with their grandmothers. Amy has clear remembrances of being taught, of time spent of things made. Her essay is one of the best in this anthology. Well written, thoughtful and heart-felt.

It made me sad though. I don't have those memories, though I also learned to crochet through long hours spent with my Grandma Allaria. I don't remember what she told me. I don't remember what she showed me or how. I do remember what I made...endless acrylic potholders and those kitchen towels with the crocheted tops forming a loop to attached to the fridge door.

I don't remember what she worked on. I have no idea if the crochet embellished linens my mom has stashed away were done by her, or perhaps her mom? I do know my great grandmother came from Sicly in the early 1900s and this skill comes from her. I wish I had asked more questions. I wish I had been more interested.

When I was working on a blanket the other day though, something about how I was holding things brought a sudden flash of her hands. Her filed to a dagger nails pointing out stitches, running over the yarn.

I miss her.

I wish I had a picture of her hands.

simply amazing

This is real talent. Found the link at Crochet Me and just have to give them more snaps...Seriously, this is fabulous. I've been hoarding plastic bags, but wow, the bag I finally come up with is puny in comparison. Check out all of their work, there are some phenomenal charcoals too...

OK, this is seriously sad.

Every freakin' day I think of about a million things to talk about here, and every day I can't seem to eke out 5 minutes on the computer. It must have somthing to do with the fact that my days go something like this:

• wake shell shocked and sleepy armed from yet another night of finally giving in to the fact that #3 wants to be with me ALL THE TIME. (he's singing you a spit symphony as this appears on the page...I need to invent a spatter guard for the poor computer. YUCK.)
• gulp coffee while getting food in, clothes on, schmutz off of all 3 before hustling out the door by 8 am
• ...to drop off #2 at preschool and #1 at Kindergarten.
• return home to put #3 down for a nap, shovel the remains of breakfast (and perhaps dinner teh night before) off of the kitchen counters before collapsing with the paper and my own breakfast/lunch for 5 minutes before waking #3 to go pick up #2...
• ...and we come home again to destroy the kitchen while making lunch and simulataneously trying to keep #3 from poisoning himself with random leaves drug in from our glorious MN autumn, choking on a stray hot wheel car or electrocuting himself by somehow getting at the one unprotected plug left we thought safely behind the sofa.
• once #s 2 & 3 are safely napping...or at least I can pretend they are...I once again schlep out the mess in the kitchen, maybe start dinner, chug as much coffee as is left in the carafe before waking both to get in the car yet again to reclaim #1.
• once home I don my referee cap for the scrum that generally proceeds through the making of dinner until Daddy the Wonderful walks through the door, kids end up in bed and all grown-ups collapse (hopefully at least one of us with a glass of wine and some good yarn) in front of whatever we have on TIVO at the moment before once again attacking the kitchen and going to bed, where the whole baby sleep battle starts again.

Can you tell I'm a tad grumpy? I seriously need to find a way to get at the computer in the evenings. Our PC lives in teh same open space as the baby sleeps, but perhaps I can steal time on the hubby's wireless laptop if I'm especially nice...but honestly I don't think I have the energy for that. 9 months without sleep is just too, too much.

On a more yarny note, I have some things to share:

This is the ruffle scarf out of last fall's Interweave Crochet. Worked in Patons' Rumor, which is an alpaca blend and SO soft and fabulously bulky so this works up super fast and got super long since I didn't adjust the pattern. I can wrap it around my neck about a million times and still have nice flingy bits to toss about....but it's not for me, it's a teacher gift I'm so excited to give. She's going to love it. The colors go from a warm cocoa brown to an auburn to a gold...very cool.

Have made a few snowflake prototypes trying to find the size thread I want to use. Have pieced together the sweater for my niece, but think I will be making the sleeves and body a bit longer, so am holding off on the pics. have also started a blanket for the hubby about 5 times. Am working with a wool blend, mostly blend since I couldn't afford the pricetag for the 2800 yards I would need in natural fiber. I think that's why I'm having troubles, it's just not what I had pictured, and it's definitely not what I'm used to working with. Hopefully what I have going is right on now...will show you soon. Also started teh blanket for #1, based on the garden scarf from Happy Hooker, and this I am loving, worked up in a bunch of oddball colors of Cestari DK cotton/wool my LYS has had on clearance forever. If I haven't already said it, I LOVE this yarn, but apparently no one else does because the stores here have all discontinued it...maybe it's a difference between crochet and kintting...I think it's perfect for crochet...am going to have to beg them to sell to me so I can get more. Coffee cozies are also being thrown off right and left in my efforts to implement a "reduce, reuse, recycle" program for holiday gift giving this year...we listen to WAY too much Jack Johnson in the car, it's a bit like being indoctrinated.

The other great thing I did lately was this:

HUGE snaps to The Knitting Cook for bringing home made bread back into my life...it's been too long. If you haven't listened to her podcast, run now, go...really, go now. Faith is fabulous, and her food sings to my Sicilian soul...takes me right back to my grandma's East St Louis kitchen. This is her mom's honey wheat bread...well one loaf is, the other I bastardized with raisins and cinnamon with yummy results.

Small man has found a bag, must run...pray for sleep, will ya?

Sweet Procrastination

So, it's been awhile, though I'll honestly say it seems like I posted just yesterday. Where the time goes I'll never know, though I suspect the small people in our house are feasting off of it. Let's play catch-up shall we?

Sweet is not so sweet to me right now, though I've finished it as far as I can for the moment:

Yes, lesson learned. Antique mirrors are not made for picture taking...will try to have the hubby take a live shot soon so you can see it better. Love how it's shaped, was just hoping for sleeves and find myself a tad yarn short. I started sleeves, decreasing gradually and got to about the elbow of one before confirming just how woefully short that shortage willl be. Am currently contemplating the benefits of either leaving it as is for spring or girding my will for a foray to the LYS in search of contrasting cotton for the wide-ish sleeves I'm picturing. Am thinking brown to play off the dark tones, but maybe a blue would make it not so glaring?

With this out my window, I suspect the sleeves will win:

Yes, I know it's Minnesota, but heck, it hasn't snowed much before the New Year since I was little. OK, that's a wee exaggeration, but seriously, it's been more like 50 in December the last few years. Snow before Halloween is just not on, not on at all. So that kind of shocked me back to reality. There are only so many days left until the holidays are upon us, so I decided to put "sweet" on hold and start tackling my list. I popped these off last week with some left-overs from other projects...

Great teacher gifts. The scarf in front is the "one skein" from the Happy Hooker. That pattern has fast become a favorite, it looks great with all sorts of yarn and works up super fast, though I do use a bigger hook tham they call for to make it obnoxiously long. The one in back is done with thick and thin wool and a Q hook...basicly a hdc mesh so it's super simple but has good texture and drape.

Went on a road trip over the weekend, so had lots of time to hook:

The brown in back is the Fat Bottom Bag, again from HH. I'm working it in Lion Suede for a silent auction. The handles are bamboo, should be very fall-ish and striking. Am working it with a J hook and am burning through yarn though, need a third skein to finish it off. The lavendar bits are pieces for a childrens cardi out of Crochet for Tots (hmmm, spelled that with an "i" first time around...perhaps something to think on there... ;) ). Destined for my neice in Florida, so I'm working it in Cestari DK, which is 80% cotton, 20% wool. I l.o.v.e. working with this yarn, would make everything with it if I could. It's yummy. She's from southern China, so the colors should be very striking on her. The turquoise is the start of a bag for my SIL, making it on the fly, should be interesting. I'm imagining a slouch bag with various textures. The yarn is one of the JoAnn "sensations" line...Cossetta I believe. It's a wool acrylic blend that has a shimmery bit worked through.

WOW, does it feel good to be breezing through some stuff. Frogging the sweet sweater over and over was really affecting my outlook I think.

Other things in the pipe include a throw for the hubbie that complained I didn't make him one when I did everyone else last year...I was making him a baby damn it, wasn't that enough?!?! So, I'm playing make-up this year and doing something manly that will just be his. Hope to have it finished by our anniversary...it's #10 and that would be nice I think. So sappy, but here's a physical manifestation of my love...ugh, he may vomit. Pics of that next time about....the throw, not the vomit.

Also hope to make my mom a wrap, my sis some type of bag, the MIL a hat/scarf combo (love the textured one in the new Crochet Today...looks like it would work up quick, but the result seems elaborate...that may be it if I can find something luxe to work it in...at the core, I'm lazy), hopefully will have time for a blanket for #1 based on the garden scarf from HH, need something for the baby and have a host of snowflakes, mini stockings and cup cozies to make for friends as well. OOF, that seems like a ton. Better get going...

Sweeter than sweet

OK, I have to admit, I've been slacking on the "sweet" project, but look what I did instead!

Yes, that is one of many, many batches of silky, home-made apple-y goodness. Still warm from the pot cinnamon applesauce. We did the annual family outing to the orchard last weekend then it was freakishly warm for a MN fall last week (maybe where you are 80 is normal for October, but so not here...we're getting some glorious fall colors though.), so the project was delayed until things cooled off. Every year I make and freeze quarts and quarts of applesauce, because WOW does it bear almost no resemblance to what comes in the jar from the supermarket. Fresh from the pot it has been known to make me moan with pleasure. And the beauty of the thing is how very simple it is. You should really try it.

OK, on to the sweater. This was the progress I had made before said trip to the orchard. Sorry it's so blurry, but I can't get a pic taken in the mirror to turn out any other way it seems.

At this point, I had new skeins (working 2 at once, alternating rows with this handpainted stuff to try to even out the tone), and you can't tell from this pic, but there was a brown in one of them that is much more intense than in the other skeins. Knowing I am going to need every inch or yarn I have (9 skeins at 133yds each), had to take a break to mull that over. Have since resumed, and worked through those skeins and added 2 more, and I think I can live with this. The yarn is just all different and it's just going to add to the character of the sweater. After the bust, I switched from a J to an I, and it's shaping up well, a bit formed, but not too clingy. I'm just holding my breath at this point to see if I'll actually have enough for sleeves...please, please, please, I want sleeves!

"Crochet!"...a tale of redemption

Passing our house on a glorious day such as today, so glorious as to cause windows all over the state of MN to be thrown wide in hopes of catching every fair fall breeze passing, if the timing was just right, you may very well have heard the anguished cry of "WHY, oh why did I do this to myself AGAIN?!?!?"

And yes, you would have known that I once again committed the folly of purchasing the newest issue of "Crochet!".

Time and time again I've fallen into their trap, and time and again I've sadly lived to sorely regret it.

In hopes of staying out of the land of negativity, I'll just say I hope to some day learn that it's dear editors and I just don't see eye to eye...or perhaps that should be hook to hook. The styling, the yarn, the patterns tend just to not be to my taste.

Apparently today is not the day for that though, since I scooped it up, along with the latest Family Circle Easy Crochet, in a fit of crochet madness while perusing the local Barnes & Noble in search of the Oct/Nov Crochet Today.

Got home and while flipping the pages was again mentally berating myself for my folly when I stopped in shock. An article, and actual article I wanted to read. I started flipping pages faster, and there was another one, and a pattern I actually wanted to try out, sans fluffy edging, and another I could tweek to my liking I think. WOW. Guess this is what happens when we in the great white north get 2 successive days over 80 in October...

Here's the scoop:

• Designing from a different angle, part 2 covers vertical-row construction and utilizing short row shaping...not just for knitting any more it appears. (though if you've made the driving gloves from Happy Hooker you've already done it.)
• From Batt to Beautiful talks about taking wool roving or batt and making it crochet-able without spinning...can't wait to try this.
• the red holiday duster pattern is the one I'm imagining without the foo-foo edging (so not me) and in a nice natural wolly-ness for winter. Merino would be lovely.
• there are a couple of other sweater-y things I think I can adapt to suit my more "mature" mommy figure (can we stop with the crop tops yet???). want to try that tunic sans high fun furry neck and edges.
• and just yesterday, whilst proclaiming my love for wooly wormhead's latest hat-y creation aloud (ooohh and just was there to get the link and there's a note about a new online crochet zine?????? crochet insider, check it out!), was thinking about making a hat with earflaps that turned into a scarf and "bing" here it is today in "Crochet!".

So, they've got me again. You can lay money on me nabbing the next one in hopes that such heights will prove self-perpetuating. AGH.

Liking the FC Easy Crochet too...nothing revolutionary, as everything is definitely "easy" in terms of construction, but some things I hadn't thought of doing before...and a great fulled plaid table runner I can't wait to make into a bag!

Now that I've reworked the top of my sweet sweater 3 times, am hoping to make more progress and have some more pictures to share soon...next couple of days hopefully.

More sweetness!

More news on the Sweet CAL front. Dug out my beading stash and made myself some smart new stitch markers to replace the paperclips I've been using for way too long. Sterling wire with freshwater pearls. Ain't they cute? Slid on and off nicely too.

I want to say a few words about my yarn as the babe cut my last post short of the details. It's Araucania Yarns' Pehuen in "color 4". Great blues and browns. Hand dyed 100% cotton, nicely nubby but still s.o.f.t. Absolutely love how it's working up. It was clear as soon as I started swatching that there would be no trouble with color pooling, it's all very random and color repeats are very short. Played around with a few stitches, but since it's a textured yarn, it doesn't make sense to use anything fancy, so struck upon the extended sc as the winner and it's making a nicely uniform fabric that's not overly bulky. Almost did hdc before i realized the subtle banding goes in directions this bod definitely does NOT need more attention drawn to.

This was my first attempt, following the original template:

Wanted the neckline more open so frogged it and have redone it using Skamama's deeper neck and BINGO, lovin' it. Thank you Julie. Hasn't had a chance for it's photo-op though, so will hopefully be a bit further along by the time you see it. My neck's looking a bit more square-ish than the others though. Am hoping there's not more frogging in my future.

I didn't know how I was going to do with a sort of detailed project with all that's going on right now, but it's actually nice to have something engrossing to take me away. There's a tag for you, "Crochet, take me away."

Sweet anticipation

My very first CAL starts tomorrow! (OK, I really wrote this over the weekend, but was having trouble with the pictures, so it's going up now....and no, the button does NOT work cause I don't know how to do that...)

OK, I know, how is that possible...how am I not CAL-ing like crazy?

Oh so very many reasons. I simply can't handle working on one thing at a time, always have 500 projects going at once, and with 3 kids just haven't had the time to be checking in regularly with forums and blogs and the universe in general...all things needed for a CAL to be of use.

With #s 1 & 2 in school regularly, and #3 hopefully sleeping at some point a.m. and p.m. (a girl can dream, right?), I'm hoping this works.

Really, really, really hoping it works because I have another confession to make...I've never made a garment for moi before either. (Yes, the Cinnabar coat is in the works, but that's following the pattern and hopefully on it's way to turning out fab.)

Why? Because I HATE SEAMING. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I pretty much rework most patterns to involve little to no seaming. If I could institute one universal crochet pattern rule it would be for everything to be worked as continuously as possible, cause I'm lazy and hate the seaming.

So, imagine my delight when I saw this in the Fall issue of Crochet Me.

YEAH! (and quite the coincidence as I had just been listening to teh Cast-On episode with Franklin Habit talking about the percentages sweater from

Here's the yarn...more on swatching and the stitch markers I'm making tomorrow.



(and BTW, also finished up the chunky sweater for #2 and am working on a poncho for #1...nothing like love in the form of yarn! more on these later...)

Yarn therapy.

OK, when you have kids, you know it's not all sunshine and rainbows. But every once in awhile something happens that hits you like a punch in the guts, and it did for us yesterday.

#1 is 12 days into Kindergarten. We had dropped #2 off at preschool and were playing a name game on the way to her school...who in the car could name the most kids in her class. Adding #3's spontaneous 7 month old comments in and things were a little goofy. Until #1 says a name and follows up with "He's the one that hurts me." Then with further questioning goes on to describe a nauseating tale of playground bullying. Remember, I was driving. It's a miracle we're all still alive.

So, you can imagine what kind of day yesterday was. We got to school and I pulled the teacher aside, she's very concerned and we set a time to meet after school. Great. Now how to get through the day when I'm sobbing the whole way home? Alternating between crying and feeling like I'm going to vomit, it's clear things are not going to proceed as usual, my brain is just whirling and I need to shut it down or I'll be a raving lunatic by 3:30. I'd be grabbing #1 and running as far and as fast as I can.

Get #3 down for a nap, grab my iPod (loaded with back episodes of Cast-On and Craft-Lit) and head to my corner. Only, my chair is covered with pieces of the Cinnabar coat...cannot fathom trying to count rows and keep track of increases and decreases, so I set it aside and dive into my stash. And here's what came out:



I found some yummy, happy balls of Portofino cotton blends...Souffle (the green) and Paper (the blue) and went to town making a mindless boxy sweater for #2. You know, the kind you work all in one piece, with just a slit for the neck? I'm using hhdc and am really happy with the texture and how the colors are going together. The souffle yarn is a nubby 2 ply, and the paper is basically the same yarn with a paper-ish tape twisted in, making that tweedy effect when it's worked up. Both are soft and everything is nice and drapey. And, yes, I am changing balls mid-row. Guess I was not in the mood for neat and orderly, but with the bold colors and clean design it's working. I think this was plopped down WS up, the RS is much neater. It's going to be darling. This is where I got to yesterday, so of course it's now another UFO, but with the state of my mommy brain, I'll probably polish it off yet today, tomorrow latest, working to the dimensions of one of his favorite shirts, plus some for growth.

Something about the yarn and the rhythmic motions was calming. I always say it's like meditation for me...or maybe just escapism? Either or, yesterday the act of making was just perfect. I was doing something and my brain was calm...hmmm, maybe Brenda's voice and Pride and Predjudice had a bit to contribute to that picture too, but it worked. It got me through without obsessing every minute, the time passed....and I could still drive to pick her up at the end of the day, which I so wouldn't have if my sudden desire to dive into the liquor cabinet had won out.

Lots of questions, calls and a teacher conference later, I'm still very heartsick. I don't know what the answers are. Heck, I don't even think I know what all the issues and options are right now. I do know I'm sad, and I do know I need to feel like I'm taking care of my kids. For now, while I feel so helpless and out of control, what I can do is literally wrap them in my love. My guess is my stash diving isn't done and I'll be popping out other sweaters, hats, mittens, booties, animals and whatever with abandon.

Everyone wants the crochet!?!?!?!

Short post today as the babe is cutting a monster tooth, but had to jot down my shock and awe before it fades.

Finally got together with a group of knitty friends this morning. It was a part of a larger moms support group I belong to...a new effort on my part to develop a yarny community of mine own. There were several knitters and several new knitters and a few lapsed knit and crocheters picking things up again...and several knit wannabes. Or so they thought.

After goggling the now completed back of my Cinnabar coat (pic above...oops, below in previous post) and approriating my Interweave Crochet, I was awash in demands to teach them to crochet.

Shock and awe, I tell you. S.h.o.c.k. and f***-in' awe.

I have never, ever, ever been crocheting with a group and had knitters be impressed with what I was doing, much less want to learn. And never, ever, ever, never ever have I had people wanting to learn to knit turn away from the needles and happily sit hooking chains, slip stitches and sc instead.

That Cinnabar coat is one hell of a pattern.

Stepping into the confessional...

Hi.

I'm Dawn, and I have a problem.

I'm crochet-compulsive.

No, stop laughing.

Really, I am.


It started last year when I found myself unintentionally preggo with #3. Way out of control and in denial, I picked up the hooks again and haven't been able to put them down. There's way too much yarn stashed behind the chair in the bedroom, and many, many "works in progress" hiding behind the chair in the living room. And yet, I asked for yarn for my birthday...and my mom complied, gifting me with the ability to buy enough Cascade Eco Yarn to make me the Cinnabar Coat from the latest Interweave Crochet. That's it in the pic. Yummy cocoa brown, thick and warm enough for what MN has in store, I hope. Looking at it makes me want to go touch it, and hear the mellow click of the bamboo hook on my wedding ring.

Seriously, I'm a junkie.

I'm also attempting to make my way at home full time with 3 small people 5 and under, 2 english bulldogs, 1 newly transformed teeny-tiny leopard frog, 1 apparently obstinant tadpole and 1 husband all under my charge.

As you can imagine, the fabric of my life is not exactly compatible with my drive to crochet and crochet and crochet and crochet.

There's not much sleep, and many nights frustratingly spent laying awake thinking about yarn and hooks and yarn and projects and yarn and stitches and yarn. And the whole time I'm laying there not believing I'm not sleeping because I'm thinking about crocheting stuff.

Chaotic, brain melting days spent trying to hold even one of the 5 million things I should be remembering in my head as the baby cries because his new teeth hurt, while trying to make dinner and find a lost blankie and explain just why it isn't such a good idea to feed the grow-a-frog the dead bugs found amongst the dust-bunnies under the couch.

Gee, wonder why I ache for nap time and the hour at the end of the day I can pop in my ear buds, escape into a podcast and make row after row of neat stitches?

OK, so maybe it's not such a mystery.

But still, that's what this is all about.