Whimsy

This little lady is a self portrait of sorts...    She is kinda chunky in the body and not too concerned about wearing matching  tops, slacks or sweaters.  Sometimes she finds a funky necklace or broach or ring at the second hand store and wears them every day for a month  then puts them away and forgets them.

Most mornings she forgets to brush her hair and it goes a bit wild when she takes the dog for a walk before anyone else in the neighbourhood is awake.   She likes to sit on the balcony of her townhouse and look down on her little piece of land where her daisies and hostas, and peppermint are just peeking through the soil and pine for the days, soon to come, when she can get out and plant some geraniums (she plants red geraniums every year in memory of her Mom) and tries to grow some beans or tomatos or spinach.

There's not much more in life that a little lady like this could ask for and she finds herself to be happy most of the time...

Well, now, the dog Pearl, is anxiously waiting for her walk in the park, so away we go....

Check out the Needle and Thread Network today for links to blogs all across Canada.  Stop in and visit and say hello -- everyone loves it when you leave a comment -- remember if you visit someone in real life, you do say something so just cause it is the virtual world, you shouldn't visit without telling them that you enjoyed coming by...

PS.  I should say that this post was somewhat inspired after reading this blog...  http://maryanntate.blogspot.ca/  - a cloth doll maker's diary (also on the needle and thread network)

Undun

"She's come undun
She didn't know what she was headed for
And when I found what she was headed for
It was too late..."

That bit of lyric from the Guess Who song, UNDUN seems to pop into my head whenever I have to redo something or undo a project that has not worked out. 

Now as I understand it, Randy Bachman wrote the song about a girl at a party who took LSD that did not agree with her, and then of course, It was too late...

Now when I start a project (back a day or two to WIP Wednesday Granny Poncho) then get to a point where it has progressed some distance, I think of that song and wonder if it is too late.  And of course it is NOT!  Even though I had decided to make a poncho and had crocheted almost two full balls of yarn, I decided, it wasn't working or looking like it would suit me at all, so I started pulling the yarn and soon it all came undun!

Rerolled into a nice ball, and my crochet hook sitting idle by the ball of yarn, I started to look through my books and magazines for something else to begin work on.

I haven't yet decided.

Collections

This week I have been busy looking at my STUFF...

Did you ever hear what George Carlin had to say about Stuff?  Life is trying to find a place to keep your Stuff -- that's what your house is, a place to keep your stuff... (check out You Tube for a video of George talking about Stuff)

Well, some of my Stuff, though it is not really in the way seems to be spending its time in boxes being forgotten  about and even though these pretty things once made me happy to just look at I don't seem to have enough shelves so I can look at my THINGS...

So some of the things in these cardboard boxes in closets or the basement has just been sitting for too long.  I have come to the conclusion that these pretty things have worn out their welcome in my house...

It seems like I have been in front of the computer for hours every day this week!  I have been adding things to my ETSY (just click on the word etsy if you are curious to see more) store.  

Sometime in the late eighties I began collecting evening bags.  They just caught my eye and in those days, I really did go out to evening 'bashes' and had occassion to wear something pretty!  So a collection developed.  Then as with some collections, family and friends notice, so when they see something that would go with your collection they pick them up where every they find them and you get additions to your collection for birthdays or christmas or even just cause they thought of you (and isn't that always nice?)

But, I don't go out much anymore and I thought these evening bags could be made useful again.   One thing I will tell you, in researching them, I was somewhat surprised that My particular favourites were not particularly sought after...   See that gold bag up there?   Similar bags, same brand name, were listing on various collectible sites for as much as $99.00!   I can't remember where, or how much I paid for it, but certainly not that much. 

But I am selling in my shop, I don't price it quite that high, cause I do want to sell it and make someone else happy to wear it and show it off... 

Well, my head is getting a bit clogged up this week checking out stuff on the internet.  Now that I have achieved one goal this week, my other goal still looms -- it is getting late to be doing income taxes, so that is what is on my agenda now.

Just have to give myself a bit of a kick in the butt, load the tax prep program and get with it.   Once I get going it never takes as long as I thought it would, so....

I think I will have a cuppa tea first....

WIP Wednesday - Granny Poncho

Yesterday I joined a Crochet-A-Long on Le monde de Sucrette  I received a few balls of Vanna's Choice Yarn for Christmas/Birthday gifts and was planning to start another granny square afghan, but when I saw Angie's post about this Granny Poncho it seemed to fit perfectly what I wanted.

Sometimes I get up really early, like 4:30 am but there is often a bit of a chill in the house and I drag around a quilt wrapped around my shoulders -- seems I can never find a sweater - but there is always a quilt on the back of one of the chairs in the computering room... 

So I figured a granny square poncho can as easily be laid on the back of my computer chair and once it is over my head and on my shoulders, it will stay in place unlike a quilt that keeps sliding off.

So this is the start to my poncho.  I haven't really planned out the colours for it as my other Vanna's Choice Yarns are green and a grey tweed, which won't go with this burgundy.  I am thinking that I would like to "progress" the colours of yarn in wide bands from this burgundy through a even deeper red to a middle then dark brown and onto a black -- I think that is called ombre, when the colours progress from light to dark or the other way around.

I am also linking up to The Needle and Thread Network  and Freshly Pieced.

Today, is a day at home, so I will be working on my granny poncho and doing some furniture organizing in my sewing room.  I am planning to  build/create a ironing surface on top of a old dresser (a project I saw somewhere on the internet).   This hopefully will eliminate an old rickedy ironing board that I found about 10 years ago sitting by a neighbourhood garbage bin...  Yeah, if its a good enough find, I do take home other people's junk!

PS.  and if you have found me through the two WIP links, check back in my blog to the previous post about my adventure to the Fibre Fest here in Abbotsford last weekend and the project that I created after learning a bit about rug hooking.

Fibre Fest - Rug Hooking

Ah....

Something a bit different, but not too different.  It still has to do with fabric and I actually had all I needed right here in my stash because I was making alot of wool quilts and wool applique pieces for a while.

So I have a small box of felted wool and even had a piece of burlap that i had got at the second hand store (where else?) just before christmas because I was thinking of doing a burlap wrapped christmas wreath, that I never did get around to.  Good thing, turns out.

So using my small hand quilting frame (which has been on a shelf for a couple of years waiting to be used) I first cut some strips of the felted wool from my stash.  I used a regular crochet hook to pull through the 1/4 inch strips and here are three test patches.

At the first booth at the show, was a lady who was selling roving and felted and hand dyed wools and she was demonstrating the rug hooking technique by making these cool Cone Flowers...

I thought a kit with instructions would be just the thing but she said no she had no kits and was quite happy to show me the process.  Not at all difficult, well, except when it came to the double petals, I had a Hellava time getting them to sit right without making the flower look too bulky.   Took a couple of tries and a couple of re cutting the petals (she had not pattern) because figuring out the proportion to the center.

Well, it was a fun little project -- not sure if I will do more, but they would make a good, hand work in front of the tv project.

Definately the easiest part was making the round rug hooking flower centre.

And here is the flower broach that I made this morning.  I'd say about 2 hours, including gathering together the various elements to put the project together, finding the pin back thingys for the broach which took opening and closing afew drawers!

And the back of the broach -- no one sees it except you -- while it is being worn, but I do know it is a bit messy.  Next one, if there is a next one, hopefully will be a bit neater.

That was a pretty good start to a Sunday, and now I really should go do real WORK, like sweeping a floor or dusting a shelf or petting a cat...

Enjoy your Sunday!

Blog Stuff -- Statistics Counter

I posted about a year ago that on this blog I have a little tool that runs in the background, but I did not go into detail about how this works.

It doesn't just count how many visits that this blog has had, it does so very much more.  It tells me things about the visitors who come to read my page.  It does not tell me your name or your address or your phone number or what size dress you wear.

Do you watch the TV show Criminal Minds?  Well, if you do, you know Penelope.  Penelope is the computer geek.  She finds out things and does searches and follows where cell phones go.  Well, with the StatCounter that runs in the background on my blog I can not only count how many visits my blog receives but I can also know where those visits come from.   Say you do a google search and find my blog.  My stat counter can tell me that is how you found my blog.  Perhaps you clicked on the link that I leave at the Needle and Thread Network on WIP Wednesday, my stat counter tells me that is how you or rather how your computer came to my blog.  If I  leave a comment on someone elses blog and you clik on my name and it brings you here, I can check my stat counter and be able to tell exactly who's blog you found me at.  

Not only can I tell where and how you found me, I can also see where you go next.  If you click on a link on my sidebar, my stat counter will tell me that you went to another blog and exactly who's blog that is.  If you leave a comment, whether or not you leave it as anonymous (whatever your reasons for that are) I can tell when you left the comment and I can tell where you were when you left the comment.  The stat counter records your IP and your location.  If you are on a desktop or lap top in a specific city, my stat counter can tell me which city.  It cannot tell me which street or even neighbourhood, just your city or area.

Many Many blogs use this type of tool, because we are then aware of where our audience is and we can also see if a particular computer visits the blog on a regular basis.  Sometimes, and I have found that this almost always is true for government or large business, there is a 'signature' left that names the Owner of a particular network or even can name the owner along with the site of the particular network.  I suspect that government and some business 'signature' their computers so that from their end if ever need be, they can track WHERE their employees have used the computer on the internet.

I love to check my stat counter not only because i can count how many visitors I have had, but interesting things such as how long you were on my page, what operating system your computer uses, if you are viewing or commenting from a cell phone or ipad or itouch.

I can also look back for a 90 day period (or I can pay a monthly fee) and have all the stats kept for as long as i want, which can tell me if a visitor comes to my blog one time and never again, or visits my blog daily or even more than once a day. 

One of the features I find quite useful is that the stat counter will tell which blog post is more popular and even which day of the week, on average gets a larger audience.  So with that information I can choose to post on a particular day or days each week and I can stick to what proves to be the most popular subject...

If you have a blog, you might consider a more thorough counter than something that just clicks off numbers.   I am always amazed at some of the locations of computers.  This past week, I had visits from Victoria, BC, Winnipeg, MB, Toronto, ON, Sydney Australia, Phenom Penn, Vietnam,  Tokyo, Japan, and practically every state in the USA.  I can tell if you are on a home computer or if you are using your employer's computer and there have been a couple of government or business computers used to visit my blog (which I would not encourage, because if you are surfing the internet on your boss's time you are technically stealing from your employer).

Now unlike Penelope on Criminal Minds, I cannot connect your ip address with your home or work address (if you employer has placed a signature on the work computer, I am able to tell who you work for and your employer places a number letter combination in that signature that can tell the company techie which computer at what office is surfin the net )

Every computer leaves its ip address where ever it goes, whether it is recorded by a stat counter or not.  That is how criminal activity is tracked by the police and used to figure out if  someone is downloading illegal materials.

So, just to keep you, my reader informed on some of the computer stuff that is not commonly known.  There is a use for parental controls on your home computer and certain tracking or blocking devices that your employer may use that you might be unaware of. 
Play it Smart!

Getting close to the weekend -- and I have a few promises to keep today so I am off on my little Cosmic Wave to follow through on those obligations --- and a bit of fun stuff - I am going to buy myself a Colin James CD today...

Scribbled Adaptation

Quite often when I see something that I have not seen before I become very exited about HOW DO YOU DO THAT?  I suspect that many craft people whether they sew, or quilt or knit or even build things with wood or metal are much like that.  We want to know! We want to learn!  And we want to do it for our self.

Two days ago, my friend Doris dropped into my place to show me the latest item that she had made...  She was excited about it and saw it on http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/scribbling-the-basic-recipe and had to try it out.  (the ravelry page tho refers you to a book or magazine called Mason Dixon Knitting for the actual instructions...

You know how things are -- you inspect the item -- a scarf - and study the stitching, but there were a couple of things that I did not have in order to make a scarf like the one Doris made.   But the look and feel of it fermented in my mind....  All afternoon and all night...

Finally I decided to change what I saw in the pictures on the ravelry web page to what I had on hand -- a large size crochet hook, a cotton sock yarn and one ball of 10 years ago eyelash specialty yarn...

I came out as close to what was in my imagination as anything I have ever made before! 

Now, as I understand the concept with knitting you need to use a large size circular needle -- Doris used a 12mm.   You knit your fine yarn or string and introduce a specialty yarn or ribbon or whatever you choose at intervals along the way.

Not a completely new concept but since I liked the feel of what Doris created I determined to make a test piece and then proceeded to make a full scarf, not knitted but crochet...

I somehow got into my head a name for this scarf -- not often do I name scarves!  But this one begged to be named the Jump for Joy Scarf!  It makes me happy...

Isn't it great when simplicity can make your heart sing?

Now onto the next thing... I am working on putting together a large quilt using a method I learned about yesterday at quilt guild meeting.   In a few days I hope to show you the details or a bit of a tutorial of this "new to me" technique.

I am linking today to the Needle and Thread Work In Progress Wednesday -- just clik on the link on my sidebar and you will be taken to the site where you can then go on a blog tour of a dozen or so Canadian Blogs...



Family

The last few days, seem to be centred around my family...

My brother Mike, who is one of the funniest people I know, sent me an email that I just have to share -- but keep in mind that we have a sister who has pretty much disowned both me and Mike.  She has her reasons, tho I don't come close to understanding them.

So, it is my sister's birthday and even tho she doesn't talk to us we still remember her on her important days...

Mike said in his email to me.   " We decided to have a birthday party for Kathleen, we had cake and ice cream and balloons and then we all went bowling.  The best part of the party was we forgot to invite Kathleen!

Now, we don't have any hard feelings for our little lost sister, but we do have our fun when just the right event comes along!  And as you can see she was our special little project, way back when!

The past couple of days are not all sunshine and roses as we did go through a bit of a traumatic event.  It made my heart pound and my stomache churn...

My younger son was in a car accident on his way to work early Saturday morning.  Without going into details, even though it was an accident at high speed on a major freeway, he is walking around and sore and has sustained a couple of injuries that will keep him off work for a bit.   One thing that really surprised me, is that he phoned me first!  Before 911, before anyone!  He said he couldn't even think what to do other than phone his mom!  (I do have to say tho that his main injury was that he had a concussion)  I am so thankful that only the car -- his first car at that, took all the damage and my son is still here to deal with the problems that such an accident causes...

Now, to get on with the week and one thing else I am so very thankful for - a sewing room to go into to relax my mind and let the little difficulties of life disapate while sewing bright happy fabric pieces together!

And of course, the obligatory cat photos... This time Archie is wanting to take centre stage and insists you see him at his best...

And I have to say, here he is too, hugging my shoulder and only as a cat can, he clearly shows the ecstacy of the moment, being held by his 'mom'....

Wishing everyone the happiest of Birthdays and if you can, perhaps go talk to the Mad Hatter and he may arrange a Happy UnBirthday for you if you are needing one.

Now, I am off to make a birthday cake too!  Seems to be the thing to do!  Oh and my cousin Karen is having her birthday too -- and my nieces in Victoria on Thursday, and my friend Gordie had his birthday a week or so ago!  Definately a day for Birthday Cake, don't you think?

Granny Square Quilt Block! Really?

I have been seeing this quilt block on various other blogs around the internet and since I have that 'shoe box" full of 2 1/2 inch squares, I thought well here's a chance to use up some of those squares...

This box of squares never seems to diminish!  Which is of course my own fault, because whenever there is less than a fat quarter of any of my fabrics I tend to spend a few minutes and cut that piece down to either 2.5 inch or 3.5 inch squares -- so you know, somewhere in the background is ANOTHER shoe box full of 3.5 inch square...

It really doesn't take long to do a batch of these "Granny Square Blocks"  which I think may also be called, Many Trips Around the World (but you will have to go google that to verify it if you want)

Instead of doing these blocks (as suggested on another site) in rows, I found it to be easier to make a stack of nine patch blocks to start with.   Then I made the 'frame' which was a print fabric and 3 plain white squares and sewed that piece (I shoulda taken a picture but forgot) onto the nine patch. Pressed the whole thing and trimmed it up square...

I managed 20 blocks in about 4 -5 hours...  Kept me occupied and made a dent in the shoe box of 2.5 inch squares.  That is until I checked around the sewing room and discovered a half dozen scrap ends of other projects and proceeded to cut them into squares which I'm sure added more to the box than I started with!

Well, maybe tomorrow I will work on another stack of these blocks, because this set is going into my ETSY shop.

Now for a change of pace, I am going to go into the kitchen and see about creating a batch of cookies... Its been a couple of months since this house has seen home made cookies....

Knit Mitts and Crochet Sweater

Whew!  My sewing machine has been sitting idle this past week, but I have kept my hands busy, and my bum in a comfortable chair -- its favourite place, actually!

Well, truthfully, the organizational and clean-up bug came to visit so everyday this past week, I was pulling things out of corners and drawers and shelves and piling them in the middle of whatever room I happened to get the urge to work on... The main bedroom, the kitchen, the upstairs bath and the 'linen' closet...   I am most impressed by my progress in my bedroom, tho.  But I am not showing you a picture, cause it is just a bedroom...

In between these frenzied bouts of organizing, I sat quietly and either finished up those grey mittens I dreamed about last week...

Which, I just might send to my brother Joe in Winnipeg, even though winter is coming to an end, there are still some cold days ahead, I'm sure...

And also crocheting two short sleeve cardigans, which I am hoping will suit my twin great neices in Victoria, BC, Greta and Lucy who are soon to be celebrating another birthday. It is hard to keep track of kids in the family who live in a different city, so these two cardi's are a guess at about a childs size 6/7... They were fun and easy to make up - well, the green one, which I finished up on Saturday was easy and now I am about half way on the pink one

I used a baby sweater free instruction I found on the internet and instead of baby yarn, I used a fairly new yarn, Waverly by Bernat which is almost a chunky, but is really soft and I am hoping the girls  will like it.  I increased the number of stitches by about 20%, added a button tab to the front for a three button closure instead of a neck ribbon as on the original, and used a "V" stitch for the lower body of the cardigan.  I am quite pleased with my adjustments but of course the ultimate test will be once the girls get these, if they fit properly and if they like them...

 And of course, Walter must make his appearance in the blog story, so here he sits, overseeing the progress, so far made on the pink short sleeve cardi.   Walter does like to help with any unnecessary unravelling of crocheted rows, which he tends to do unsupervised and without any care as to how far back he undoes the crocheted work that I just did.  

I am thinking, I will work a bit in the sewing room, it seems there is a "thing" going around quilting blogland of a "granny square" quilt block, so I am going to play around with making a few blocks -- even tho I have no particular project in mind.... Remember the shoe box full of 2 1/2 inch squares?  That is the box I am going to pull out again for a couple of hours of play...

Enjoy your Monday!  and if you just can't, think about Saturday, it is coming!! (and so is Christmas)