quote of the day
“Paint that door and that knob and go for it.” – Paula Abdul
I am so totally going to start using that.
Archive for February, 2008
crochet on a snow day
Yes, I finished my Tunisian crochet prayer shawl — and I’ve already begun another one. (Pete helpfully agreed to demonstrate the finished product before it’s donated.) During Sunday’s ice/snow extravaganza, we were all confined to home for the day. So I dug out an old project and am attempting to revive it. I had made 49 small solid-colored granny squares, and decided at some point that I needed to stop. Now I’m bordering each of the squares in red, and I plan to join them into a lap blanket. Or it might be a dog blanket. I don’t know. At least it’ll be out of the UFO bin.
In other news, did you know Wisconsin has had a record-breaking snowfall this winter? Yeah. There was also this thing where about a thousand motorists were stranded for about 10 hours on a stretch of I-90 right outside Madison. It’s been interesting, and I can hardly wrap my mind around spring being a month away. It seems like a faraway imaginary place.
tunisian crochet rocks the casbah
I haven’t even shown pictures of my Christmas haul, but one of my favorite gifts was a Tunisian crochet hook, personalized with my name burned into the side. I didn’t even know how to do Tunisian crochet, but it looked interesting and I love to learn new stuff.
It turns out that Tunisian crochet is very easy, fun AND looks great when you mix random yarns together. Which makes it a perfect stashbuster for all those little quarter-skeins of leftover yarn that tend to pile up over time.
After a few practice swatches using cheap acrylic, I gathered up some of my favorite leftovers in the purple family and tried my hand with three-color Tunisian. Basically, you alternate three different yarns and it creates a variagated effect very easily. Most of my yarn was already multicolor, so I was a little afraid I’d end up with a monstrosity. What do you think? I love it.
In fact, I was sad to finish. My mind wandered to the ever-present Lion Homespun prayer shawl project. I’ve made three prayer shawls for my (new thought/new age) church to donate to people in need of support, but I can’t say any of them were all that fun to make. For one thing, Homespun is a pain to work with – it’s very splitty. It’s our yarn of choice because it’s: (1) inexpensive, (2) readily available, (3) looks nice worked up, (4) very easy to care for. My two Homespun traditionally-crocheted shawls were slightly wonky because it was hard for me to keep track of where the loops were. I’m also not the best at keeping the sides straight. I knitted my latest one because I’m faster and more skilled with knitting than with crochet. Except it was so slow and boring that it took me at least twice as long to finish.
I decided to rip out the few inches I’d completed on shawl #4, which was languishing in a plastic bag. Then I started working it in Tunisian. And look! It’s only been about a week, and I’m more than a fourth of the way finished. It’s so addicting that I keep picking it up even though I have socks to work on. What’s especially impressive to me is that the shawl is my at-home-only project, so I’ve made progress without car passenger time or waiting in line time.
Today’s another busy day in a long line of busy days, but I had to take the time to tell you about my latest obsession. And so it goes.
little shop
We just returned from the best high school musical production I’ve ever seen: “Little Shop of Horrors.” I thought there might be some mishaps and mess-ups because it was opening night, but the performance was perfect.
Moon was one of the set decorators, and worked many long hours helping transform the auditorium into a skid row flower shop. (Brooke was part of the crew, too.) She’s at the wrap party, and I’m sure there will be much giddiness and celebration.
I can’t think of a better way to start a weekend.
