Reminiscing

For reasons I don't quite fathom, it seems that this weekend always brings to mind, memories of my early years. 

The other day, I was looking for a traditional pattern that I might use and begin a new quilt.  My source for traditional patterns are quilt pamphlets that i have saved for quite a few years.  When I had young children and my Mother and I shared the joy of first child/first grandchild we both like to make things for that baby.  It was also around that time that I began to learn about and regularly work on making a quilt or two a year.  My Mother would find in shops or 2nd hand stores old (even then they were old) quilting pamphlets.

Some of these were reprinted from the 1930's and 40's or even as late as the 50's, some of them are the original issue.  Many of these were even reprinted in the mid to late 1980's so you may have seen some of them -- I do have alot of them along with the first year or two of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine.   I don't really keep magazines now, but somehow I have become attached to this old stash of pamphlets and magazines.  They are so familiar they are dear friends of mine.

This pattern, Clay's Choice is one that I keep coming back to.  I am not likely to make it using the template method of cutting the pieces, but I think I will create a scrappy set of these blocks -- I have a dresser that I actually use in my dining room and it is in need or a bright runner across the top, so perhaps this is my next project == a short summer project, possibly with the aim of hand quilting it while sitting in my swing in the backyard and remembering the days when I would sit with my Mom on her backyard swing with baby Neil sleeping between us or while he unsteadily sat on a small quilt on the grass doing what babies do.

Zip Up Headphones, Simply Made at Home.

Every once in a while an idea comes along that is so obvious and so simple you say, Why didn't I think of that?  Well, I didn't think of it, but I am going to pass along the home made version of this idea and if you don't find yourself making this for yourself--you could be making it for your teenagers or your other half or your dad or just anyone who picks up their earphones and has to spend 5 minutes or longer untangling them before you plug 'em into your music device...

Just browsing across the internet, looking for stuff I came across this particular product  - they call them zip up headphones...

(thats my husbands wrinkledy chin)

As I worked out a homemade version, I took pictures as I went -- now this is so very easy, it barely needs an explaination, but I will give you my little system for putting them together.  If you can thread a needle and make a running stitch you have all the expertise you need to make these for yourself...

My photos are not so great today cause it is dark and rainy and cloudy which makes the inside lights look really yellow...  Anyway, any questions, leave a comment at the end.  I love this idea and I think that anyone who can sew this together deserves to have one, so my homemade version has no restrictions or copyrights or rules.  I don't know if there is a copyright or restrictions on this idea, so for now, I say it is a free idea until someone sends me a nasty letter...  I think they would be a bit tedious to go making dozens to sell, but hey, you never know, someone out there may have the time and inclination...

Anyway, Go get a needle and thread and hunt up a really long zipper -- 42" will cover the job from one end to the other, but 22" will work okay too.  Or any zipper in between, but 22" is about as short as you can go without leaving too much out to tangle itself...  Oh, Zippers aren't cheap -- unless you find them at the second hand store, or you have an old hoodie that you want to carefully take the zipper out of -- but if you use a jacket zipper, you might have to do some extra stitching at the bottom so that the zipper pull doesn't go all the way down and come undun and all your stitching will be for naught...

Here is the second set of zip-up headphones that I made compared to another pair that doesn't have the zip-up treatment. (the zipper is stiff enough to keep the ends from twisting and knotting)

To start this little project -- It should take you less than an hour --- first, lay out your headphones on a table or on your lap, make sure they are straight and together -- no knots.  Next, get your zipper and unzip it for about 6 inches.  Thread your needle, use a regular sewing needle, not too big but not tiny either, tie a knot at the end and sort of hem the rough edge in. Working on one side of the two halfs of the Zipper, fold over the top bit of the zipper and sort of wrap it around one headphone wire right up near the ear piece, sew the fabric so it goes around the wire.  This is a bit of a tricky manouver but fiddle with it and you will get it.  Now if you can see in the photo below once you have the zipper fabric wrapped and sew just below the earpiece it is quite easy to continue covering the wire with the zipper fabric part. 

Sew along the wire, make sure your don't nick the wire with your needle, you just want the wire encased in that bit of folded over fabric -- also keep the fold clear of the zipper teeth, cause you want to be able to easily slide the zipper up and down later.

When you get to where the two wires join, stop at this point and secure your thread and knot on the inside of the fold over.  Now, start the same thing with the other ear phone and wire -- you need to make sure that the teeth of your zipper are facing, if you twist it, you will end up with a problem and you won't be able to close up the zipper.

This photo shows pretty clearly how the wires fit in the fold over that you are stitching.

When you get to the "Y" joint, bring together the two sides of the fabric and making sure to keep the wire inside what is now a tube, sew all the way to the bottom of the zipper.  Finish off the bottom by folding under the ends and making it look neat.

You got this, just by looking at it, RIGHT?

Let me know if you didn't, I am so excited by this idea, I had to put it out to my readers TODAY!

Oh and to see the stitching a bit better just clik on each picture and the photo will open larger for you, then just clik on your back button to get back to these sorta instructions...

CH-CH-CHanges

Learning little bits all the time, so I had to go explore some of the background stuff that allows each blog to look just a bit different from everyone else.  So this is the 'easy' design that I have put onto my blog now. 

Any Opinions?  Any Suggestions?  or just How's it look to you?

Within Steps of My Front Door

There comes a Time...

I KNOW!
A quilt is an heirloom.  Or is it?  I guess it depends on the kind of person one is.  There are those who treasure and keep the quilts or other things that they have inherited from grandmas or aunts.  Then there are those who collect heirlooms, purchased from various sources, and last there are the ones who create these heirlooms.  I have to say I am a little bit of each.  I have a few things that have been passed along to me from grandmothers and aunts.  And I do care about them and enjoy looking at them, especially the things that I can remember the exact spot that they were placed in my gramma's home, or my aunt's home, or even in my mother's home. 

Now, I make quilts, and other things like afghans and scarfs and drawings, and dabbled a bit with beads and paper crafts -- I rarely think of these as ever being heirlooms.  I give away most of it and then it is up to the reciever to think of it in anyway they like.

Some things I make quite a few years ago.  There comes a time when something that I have kept for a long time has either lost its "shine" or just plain has become not so important, no matter what it was...

I made a small quilt many years ago -- about 1975, I think.  I bought a scrap pack of fabric -- Winnipeg where I lived had/has many sewing factories and with some of them you could buy a bag about the size of a zip lock large freezer bag of scraps from the factory -- I would buy an bag now and then and experiment with various blocks and rarely actually finished a quilt, but I did that time.  I wanted a blanket to lay on the floor so my son would have a bit of a soft spot to land in his attempts to walk.  This little quilt was not used often and then was put into a storage trunk, which over the years gradually filled with my favourite, "don't give away quilts".

I was looking through that trunk awhile back and decided that it was time to make space in it, so I pulled out 4 small quilts and decided that I will use them for whatever purpose comes up next.  Well, the sit up, crawl, stand up and walk quilt was top of the pile -- it has a new life.  Now don't be shocked and don't give me guff about its new life -- yes it is hand quilted and yes it was made 35 years ago, but I think I really like the new job this quilt has...

AH, yes, it has become a dog bed blanket!  I would be shocked at using a quilt, especially a hand quilted one for a DOG!   But its my quilt and my dog, and they go together...   I could not bring myself to cutting up this quilt to either make a fat round teddy bear as is often the fate of old quilts.  It just seems that after all these years this little quilt wanted to be used as it was meant to be used...  If the corners get chewed and the colours fade from too many washings, this quilt I think will be happy to take up its life with a purpose again, rather than laying hidden in a box for another 35 years.

Patriotic Salvage Mystery -- early prep

To make some of the prep work for the mystery quilt on the upcoming long weekend a bit easier, I thought I would give you some ideas of how to choose your fabrics.

The 3 fabrics you see just above will be what I plan to use.  These are fairly old fabrics from my stash, they are not quite the RED And WHITE of the Canadian Flag, but this is what I have.  In this case the dark brick red is going to be my main, or background fabric, with the pink and very light polka dot as the two contrast fabrics.

Here are a few more variations of fabric choices.  As you can see you do need to choose three fabrics for this project, each fabric should be quite a high contrast from the other two.  Choose either the light or the dark for your main or background; with the middle or medium fabric as your "important" contrast.

Your secondary contrast will be using the least amount of fabric, say in the above choices, the blue is the secondary contrast, so you will use less than a fat quarter, the white may be your background and will use the most fabric, probably about 3/4 of a meter, and the burgundy is your first contrast and will use about 1/3 to 1/2 meter.

This last choice of fabrics might be an interesting christmas choice. So keep in mind that as long as you have three strongly contrasting fabrics they should work very well in this project.  Just because it is called Patriotic Salvage, doesn't mean you have to go with these colours -- perhaps dark blue, mauve and a very light yellow -- wouldn't that be a pretty one. 
Also for those wanting to make this a scrappy adventure I would suggest that for the maximum effect o this pattern that you should stick with not just the choice of light to dark, but if you choose as your background say light blues, you should stick to perhaps a variety of light blues all very closely related, the same goes for the other contrast fabrics, if one is a red contrast, make sure that you use a number of similar reds in the positions called for.

I would also like you to consider fabric for to  border  this top.  It is planned to have a single border, and you will need about 1/2 meter of fabric for it...  You might want to use the same fabric as your main background fabric, or something that co ordinates but that is completely different.  The border will have a interesting technique and will be the last step of the project and does require, two more supply items that I hope you can gather from your stash --- some worsted weight yarn about 2 meters or less in length, any brand, can be acrylic or even cotton, but should be a green, light or dark or in between, then you will need some felt -- as little as 8" square and it can be real wool felt or just the synthetic felt that kids use, try to match it fairly closely to your green yarn.    

Pearl updated

The first few days of a new puppy in the house is totally facinating and we of course are still "in love" with her...

I suspect that the two or three night time wake-ups soon will become an irritant, but it does come with being a new puppy owner.

On the third day, it appears that she is paper trained, the corner in the room with layers of newspaper is where she heads several times a day, she had caught onto it by midday yesterday and we have had no 'accidents' since...

We went for our first adventure out onto our neighboorhood street and she was much intimidated by the cars and trucks that went past. She stuck real close to our legs -- sometimes making it difficult to take a step for fear of squishing a puppy. She found a few spots along the way to get a sniff of her surroundings and I am sure signals that told her another dog has been this way.

There is so much to look at, sniff and explore --- but really this is not a doggie blog so I will try to keep Pearls appearences on the blog to a minimum, but GEE. She is just so darn Cute...

Introducing.....

Pearl.

We have been waiting for this little girl for a few weeks.  Her full name is Pearl Hefty Barker -- an excellent name for a dog.  She is a Border Collie from Likely, BC.   She has three smaller brothers and she doesn't seem to be missing them one little bit...

We have been thinking on and studying what sort of little buddy to add to our home for quite some time now.  I knew the right little girl would come along.

And she seems to be quick of mind...

By the end of her first day HOME she was pawing at the back door to be let out to do her 'business'...  The Breeder did say she has been paper trained, but we haven't even set down any paper for her.   The first day, may be just luck, do you think?

The name Pearl is a family name that has sort of dissappeared, so we thought we would bring it back in this little girl.

Pearl is what the word Margaret means in Greek, or so it says on a number of baby name lists -- My Mom's name was Margaret.

Pearl is the title of one of my favourite albums... Janis Joplin recorded a set of songs that were released just after her death in 1970/71 and it has always been part of my music collection.  And finally, Pearl was the name of one of my Grandmother's sisters -- they called her Pearly and though she has been 'gone' a long time the name is revived and we hope that our Pearl can live up to her "gem" of a name.

So there you go, Introducing Pearl

Glad to be HOME

Well, Las Vegas really is something...

But

While it was interesting, it is not a place for me...

Most of the time, it was like being a fish out of water.  I like quiet days and peaceful nights -- The ROAR never stops on "The Strip".

I get up out of my bed at home early every morning, even when I have nothing particular that has to be done, I very much love to hear the birds in the morning -- There are no birds twittering and tweeting at 4am on the Vegas Strip, but there are sultry women leaning on a gangsta's arm at a gaming table, or standing at a bar and swaying slightly and you wonder if a slight breeze may topple her over.  

Now don't get me wrong, there is alot of WONDER in the sights along the Vegas strip -- in particular I learned the reason for the high prices on designer goods -- my favourite part of the whole experience was walking in the shopping mall at Caesar's Palace. 

Purses, and shoes and jewellery, dresses and the art of it all!  MUHMMMMM... Beauty is there to behold, lovely to look at and lovely to hold.   With enough $$$$ in my pocket I could easily succomb to making these extravagant purchases, which to many others are not extravagant but just part of the necessities of life...

When you take the time to really look you can understand why a little bag like this Fendi, costs so much.  The design is just a touch neater, nicely proportioned and excudes SPECIAL... Then you look at the pattern, and the workmanship the stitching, that had to be done by hand, not by a machine and you come to understand why this deserves its price tag...

Tiffany and Co.  window...

the display design is even special!  Just set yourself along a forest trail and think of the peace and beauty that you experience on that quiet green trail.  Look for the Jewels in amongst the ferns in the rainforest.  Watch closely for the butterfly flitting just above the slugs sliming their way beneath the dead leaf litter on the forest floor.  Then.  Look up --- see the sparkle in a piece of rough bark on a tree rising to the sun shiny canopy?  Oh, hey, look there, a sparkly pearl dangling from a cedar branch...  Do you see that in this window display?  I did.  I had a real hard time pulling myself away.  The thought crossed my mind while looking at this.  Who wouldn't want to capture those diamonds and pearls, just out of reach?

Everything is BIG.

When you get outside and walk along the sidewalk between hotels, you experience the day life -- not quite so well disquised as the nighttime frenzied hopelessness that peeks out between the cracks.  The daytime streetlife, while filled with tourists shopping at places like the M&M store or at the Coke Store, also has the desperate street hawkers, trying to make a buck by selling something that you definately don't need.  I almost fell for a collection of stick on "gems" to decorate my finger nails -- ONLY $30!  And I long ago stopped putting coloured enamel on my finger nails...  Damn those sales people do have a knack...  Lucky me, though, not quite good enough -- or was it my Son, saying Come ON, Mom, we're waiting!  Lets Go!  Thanks to my Son, I am saved that 30 dollars...

There is so much to say about Las Vegas, and I am sure that those who live their barely notice the Trap of the Strip, they go about their daily lives just the the majority of people anywhere else, go get groceries once a week, take the kids to school or to the park, figure out if they can buy shoes now or wait til next month...  At least I hope thats the way it is!

That Touristy Part of Vegas is not for me.  I am so happy to be Home...

Bright Lights, Big City

Yes, Bright Lights and the big city...

I am going on an adventure!  A big adventure to me -- but it seems EVERYBODY else has already been.

I am a city girl, who thinks about living in the country. I dream about a babbling brook in the back yard with a winding pathway between really big cedar, pine and spruce.  I have dreams about walking the dog (I don't even have a dog) along these quiet out of the way trails, that I don't have to leave my yard to get to...  WAKE UP!  Since I don't have my own yard like that, I make do with local parks and trails and dream about a handsome border collie walking along with me...  Right now, it is usually my husband who walks with me and he even barks on occasion, but he is getting too old to chase squirrels or jump for a frisbee...  Maybe I should get a dog??  Well, thats off topic, now...

SO,  Now I have planned and paid for a BIG CITY holiday?  Why, is it because I am influenced by outside sources?  Probably!  My son being that main outside source -- he has been to this big city 5 times!  Okay so my first time to a really big American city.  Am I looking forward to it?  I love new things and this is going to be many new things, so YEPPERS, I am looking forward to it!  What to expect?  They tell me lots of walking -- I'm not so good at walking, but I will cover as much ground as I can without making myself so tired I can't sleep.  Did you ever get that tired?  I have done it a few times...

We will be staying at the big pyramid, THE LUXOR, but there are other things to see.  At one time a few years back I yearned to go to the Mandalay -- I was "into" watching PBR (Professional Bull Riding) and the season finals were at that hotel a few times -- well, I never quite got there, and now I never even see PBR on the sports channel, maybe it is still on, I just don't look for it...

There are SO MANY things, events and sights, shows and even tours out to the grand canyon, that it is almost overwhelming, so, because it is the first time, I am trying not to have expectations and have actually not planned or bought any extra event tickets.  I can go again, if I want, or need.  So I consider this to be an exploratory adventure, mostly to find out if it is worth my time and effort to go again.  

Perhaps because I dream about trees and rivers, trails and beaches, mountains and mossy wooded nooks, I may find that a drive along the Oregon coast would suit me better, or a weekend trip to ride the ferry at Boswell, BC will be as much fun as I can stand?  Sitting on a bench at Pentiction, BC or Parksville on Vancouver Island may be what I really prefer -- but hey, its always nice to know that for sure, so don't look for blog updates here, til next weekend when I am home again.

See you again, in a week!

PS. Did I say, this all happening in Las Vegas, Nevada...

Reading

Mostly I read blogs.

But I bought a real actual book yesterday.  I was just browsing through the bookstore at the mall -- actually I was at the mall to get in some walking indoors, cause it was raining outside.  I read a few lines from this book or from that book, then i picked up a book that I could not put back on the shelf.  It was so funny, to me anyway, that it caused tears to run -- how often do we get to laugh that hard?

So, I bought the book -- Sh*t My Dad Says, by Justin Halpern  this book comes from a series of comments by the author's father that he posted on Twitter.  So of course, I had to google the author and the Twitter bit...  check out http://shitmydadsays.tumblr.com/ to see a compilation of the tweets.  I continued reading this book during the afternoon, yesterday -- my husband was quite irritated, I was too happy, I guess -- he went upstairs to watch the Blue Jays play with the Rays, hitting and running after a ball in a big green field somewhere at the centre of the universe aka Toronto.  Oh, for those who object to swearing, there is too much of it in this book for you to read, so don't bother to check out the web link above, you'll just get mad at me for sending you there...

I also found a web page announcing a pilot for TV of this book (Sh*t My Dad Says) is being made with William Shatner as the Dad -- sure hope to see it come to fruition - hoping that it stands up to the quality writing of the book...

And on more reading.  A Canadian Blogger, from the big TO aka Toronto, writing about an experiment of being a '50's housewife.  Quite a challenge considering she is too young to have even be the daughter of a 50's housewife...  Just being old enough to be the granddaughter of one...  Facinating reading though from a younger persons perspective and the effort it takes to avoid some of the 'conveniences' of today.   My own experience was as the child of a 50's housewife so I do see a few things differently and the fact that I grew up 'countrified' made a huge difference in the food experience.  Where the city cook used cans and odd combinations, too much sugar and city conveniences, being on a farm, things were more plain -- sugar was not in abundance because it meant a trip to town to get it...  Check out Jen But Never Jenn at
http://www.jenbutneverjenn.com/2010/05/welcome-to-50s-housewife-experiment.html

I think I will go and do some sewing, it is supposed to get warm this afternoon so I can go and sit on my back yard deck and read some more Sh*t My Dad Says -- this book reminds me of my brother, though.

Tawashi

I BROWSE the internet -- EVERY MORNING!

There is an endless list of things to learn, discover and then do-it-yourself!

I discovered TAWASHI on Saturday Morning.  These are scrubbie/wash cloths, depending on what you use to make them.  Basically Tawashi is the Japanese term for dishcloth, so it encompasses all sorts of designs and it just happens that these little round ones caught my eye.  I found the idea on the Ravelry (you have to sign up and be a member) and there is one free pattern but I sort of adjusted my project.  You can also check out  tipnut.com (http://tipnut.com/ ) and do a search on the site for the word/project tawashi, which is the pattern that I used for these.

To use them as a scrubbie for the kitchen, a "rough" acrylic type yarn is suggested because it will softly scrub your dishes, also the acrylic or nylon yarns are more antibacterial.  These ones though that I made I used a no name "overstock" cotton, that I purchased at Wal-Mart for $12 for two of those huge balls, not those piddly little ones that cost $1.50 each.  

These ones that I have made, will be my new face/bath cloth -- they feel really nice on the skin and hold lots of soap for a good scrub down.  They are simple -- infact an excellent beginner project, and fast and satisfying. 

I have some yucky blue acrylic yarn, that I plan to use to make another couple and see how they work as the kitchen wipe up cloth. 

I have let my hubby use one to wipe the counters in the kitchen -- he says he likes it because he doesn't have to be folding and refolding a plain square 'rag' to do any wiping up and it fits his hand nicely.

 (I cook, he cleans)

Too bad I have discovered these so late, I think they might have been close to ideal for my Mom's arthritic hands, not too big and heavy, like the square ones we are all used to.  Well, if she had tried them out, she would have given me her honest opinion as she was never one to hold back on her opinion of things...

Well, must get on with my day...

Patriotic Salvage

Is anyone up for doing a Mystery Quilt?  I hope so, after you hear some of the details, it may just entice you to take part!

Patriotic Salvage is what it is going to be called -- This year, July 1, the Canada Day celebration is on Thursday, and July 4th , Independence Day, is on Sunday so if you are going to stay home and enjoy your own back yard how about taking on a 4 day Mystery Project?   This will be a small quilt, with some fairly small pieces, but we will be using an interesting piecing technique that will keep your pieces accurate and inline.

Supplies that you will want to have on hand:
Fabric - cottons work best - as described in the next paragraph
about 1 meter/yard of light weight, non woven, fusible interfacing -- must be fusible!
Rotary Cutter, Cutting Mat, Acrylic Rulers of various sizes, but AT LEAST a 6 x 24 inch, works for everything, scissors, thread, sewing machine and all that goes with it.

As the name of this Mystery Project suggests, it will be somewhat Patriotic and the idea is to work from your stash.  If you are Canadian, you will want to check through your stash for REDS and Whites -- reds from pink to dark red, and Americans, I would suggest using light blues and dark reds or light reds and pinks with dark blues.  Of course if you do not want to follow those colour choices, you will be looking for lights and darks -- that is very light and medium to dark of any colour, so this is basically a two colour quilt -- or you could just use two colours, but using salvage fabrics from your stash will be part of the whole idea -- oh, and you will not need more than about 1 metre (a little over a yard) of light and  about the same of dark fabric choices...

The project will not take up more than a couple hours each of the days of the long weekend, starting on Thursday and ending with finishing details and suggestions of purposing this little quilt on Sunday, and that way, if you need you can use the Monday for final touch-up and finishing...  The Project will be appropriate for Beginner to more experienced sewer and you may just add to your repertoire of quilting knowlege.

Hows about that?
I sure would appreciate it if you leave a little comment on this post to let me know if you are interested and plan to work along on that weekend.  Thanks!

PS - there will be no charge for the pattern or tips that go along with this project but if you do not work along with the project, it may not be on this blog after about July 8...

Still on the Crochet Kick.

Just a quick update of the progress of the Quick? scarf.

This is the first 4 rows, or you could call them rounds, cause this doesn't go back and forth, it goes around, with the foundation chain being the very centre.  The foundation chain is 253 chains, the first 3 being the first dc, then dc to the end, in the last chain, dc three times, now without turning over make a dc on the other side of the previous chain, continue to dc in each chain til you get to the three chains that form the first dc, in the base of this dc, make 2 dc then slip stitch to the top of the first dc. 

 Next round change colour (white in this case) chain 4, this makes half of the "V" stitch, dc in top of previous round dc, skip 1 stitch, *dc ch1 dc in next dc* of the next round for 250 stitches now as you go around the curve you will make a "v" stitch in every dc of the previous round, then continue the "V" stitch for the 250 stitches around, again to form the curve, form the "V" stitch in every dc, join to first chain 4, in the 3rd chain with a slip stitch.  the fourth round is worked the same as the previous round, except at the ends, you will form 1 extra "v" stitch between the 3rd and 4th "v" stitch of the previous row...

TO BE CONTINUED...

Oh and as an afterthought, I decided I would mention Plan 52 -- it is not abandoned and is progressing along, not as quickly as hoped but it is going in the right direction -- I am considering a name change to Plan 38....

My Camera -- Out of Commission...

Good thing I have two!  The older camera has given up the ghost.  It is a Sony well made. I suspect the whole aspect of being digital and all the bits that go with being digital, makes for a shorter life span.   I guess it just doesn't have the capability to go on for an almost unlimited number of years.  I mean, I still have an Olympus Trip 35 purchased roundabout 1978.  When I am feeling old fashioned I can load it with 35 mm film and point and shoot and it works...  The sony digital is about 5 or maybe 6 years old, I am told that is a good life expectancy for that camera... Progress?

Long Thin Scarf

I am still working on the idea of long thin crochet scarfs.  The first one from the pattern link I gave in the previous post is an excellent example of quick and easy -- to create quick and easy is not so easy as one might think.   I took a hint from some of my Mile-A-Minute booklets that I have, but did not want to copy straight out of it.  I want to create something from my own brain.  I am sort of stuck though, I have five rows and am now stuck for a border or an edging. 

I went to the second hand store this morning to see if I could find some inspiration there and picked up three older knit and crochet magazines....  There is a border used on a sweater pattern in one magazine that I think might be just the right finishing touch on the current scarf.   I will get working on it later today.

Crochet Stitches Dilemna

Another place that I have looked for inspiration is an old instruction book that I have had forever; Mon Tricot Knitting and Crotchet Dictionary a french publication but printed in english.

 I have had this book for probably 30 years and until recently never thought too much about the descriptions of stitches!  Probably because I don' t refer back to much anymore.  It is the european system.  I always thought that the American compared to European was fairly simple, dc in american being tc in european.  I went to do the stitches according to the description in Mon Tricot, I found that a American/Canadian double crochet was not a triple crochet in European as I had previously thought (or is french crochet different than english?), it is actually a half triple crochet!  A triple in Euro, is another loop yet! 

Then, of course something simple like YO is not what it is called in the Mon Tricot book that I have, it is WRH meaning wrap round hook...  The book also has no single crochet stitch it is called a double...  I have concluded that this book is very difficult to use if I read the instructions.  If I look at the picture of a pattern I can fairly easily figure out the American/Canadian version of what it describes...

And still on the subject of differences -- using the diagram system for following a crochet pattern, which seems to becoming more and more popular, the stitch symbols used are also different. 

The American/Canadian symbol for a single crochet is a short up right stroke with a cross piece half way,  and as I said there is no sc in the euro system, or maybe it is a dc, which is symbolized as a single upright stroke.

So then the Am/Can double crochet has the same symbol as the Euro treble crochet, but as I said, a double crochet doesn't actually translate to be a treble, but a half treble, for which the symbol resembles a capital "T"-- then there is the double treble in euro but what do you think that might be in Am/Can??  Well at least the chain stitch is the same in both systems of crochet - a oval on its side...

Does any of this make any sense, to you? Me Neither!  I guess my gramma taught me the stitches and didn't really name them for me, so when I finally figured out what stitches were called I was following the Am/
Can language and not the Euro language of crochet.   It really makes the translations difficult as I said earlier, but for some strange reason after more than thirty years (maybe closer to 50 years?) of this old Mon Tricot Stitch Dictionary being in my possession, I am not ready to give it up, just yet.  It has some interesting pattern stitches that I have yet to tackle...

Give me a few more days to figure out a finishing round to my own long scarf...

Project Process - Processed Project

I have taken up another little challenge, you may notice a "button" near the bottom of this page on the left side, it is the Project Process Challenge.  Not really a challenge per se, but a pledge to show how a project progresses from idea to completion.  I will try to post some of the things that I do and how ideas percolate, get started and the road to completion.

But, not today.

The middle day of a long weekend.  I started and finished this scarf today. 

I saw this scarf on another blog yesterday -- and I am sorry I cannot point you to that blog, but I can point you to the instructions for this super quick crochet scarf. 

I often like to test out things with 'less' expensive yarns to see how well I like it -- I do like to crochet, but oddly, often I do not really like what I make for myself -- other than afghans, so a test with a acrylic yarn (worsted weight) - (the "super saver" size ball is more than enough) produced the above result.   This pretty, One Skein Crochet Scarf will probably be passed along or donated to my local Christmas bureau and I think, I may just make one for myself, now.  It is so long that it wraps around me little neck twice.  And still has rather long dangly loose ends. 

If this pattern interests you too, go to http://www.patonsyarns.com/data/pattern/pdf/instruction_1858.en_US.pdf

It is quick to crochet, especially on the middle day of a long weekend -- if you stay at home.  Well, we did go explore the Flea Market this Morning and the Veggie Market where we got the weekly supply of plant goodness...  And still, I got this whole scarf completed.  Yes, I think I will make another...

A thought that I did have while working on this scarf was that I thought perhaps, those Mile-A-Minute Afghan Patterns would also work well to create a quick scarf similar to this one today.  I am going to have to look up some of those to see how they might work as quick scarfs and maybe keeping it to one skein...

We'll get back to that idea in a day or two...

Spring Fever

I was mostly raised on a small hobby farm.  I think, because of that my nostalgia impels me to grow things come spring and summer.  The last few years my little town house yard has not been able to support life in any great abundance.  For two of those summers the complex I live in has been undergoing major exterior renovations and even the plants that I had, ended up trampled and destroyed by worker men...

Late last summer we decided to build a new deck, refurbish the old and create a step down system in our sloped yard.  Now we have no grass or exposed earth, so everything that I want to grow is done in containers except for the small back corners where a wild fern has sprung up and I planted some given-to-me Hostas.   Now, I am able to start to learn about Container Gardening, what works and what doesn't.

My yard now is not only 'earthless' but in past years has been very overshadowed by surrounding cedars that were long ago planted, they are in the 50+ years, I'm sure.   Recently though the owner of the cedars has had them trimmed up on his side so we also took the opportunity to trim back some branches on our side.  Now our yard is opened up and it can be considered partly sunny.  A few spots in the yard may even support sun loving plants.

So this is the beginning of my little garden.  I went so far as to create a name and a sign for my space.  I happened to have a piece of wood so painted it and then -- I don't know where this idea came from -- placed 4 left over blocks from a previous quilt onto the wood, wrote the garden name (THE PATCHWORK DOG GARDEN AND SANCTUARY) and with a sponge brush and a small can of Varathane paint, covered the whole piece with about 5 layers of Clear Gloss Varathane.

I certainly adds that quilt lovers element to my space!

A week early of the established and recommended planting date here in Canada (May 24, or Victoria Day Weekend) I have set out the seedlings that I started in doors -- BASIL and THYME, and planted some purchased starters.  Mostly Herbs will fill my container garden, SAGE, ROSEMARY, LAVENDER, and even CATNIP.   Now with the opened sky, I decided to try tomato and being sometimes a bit odd, I saw a do it yourself project to grow tomatoes upside down.

Here is the beginning of the upside down tomato plant.  This is a small grape type tomato.  The do-it-yourself project that I read about used a two litre pop bottle but said that it did not produce very many tomatos possibly due to being root bound, so I decided to try it in a 4 litre milk jug.   Lots of time to go, to see what happens with this tomato plant...  I will try to keep you posted as to this WIP!

The Big Bang Theory

Another post with no pictures...

Did you ever have an idea pop into your head that you thought must be so funny that everytime you thought of it all through the day, you would smile or giggle to yourself?

Well, I had one of those the other day and had to send my son, who is somewhat of a science nut and definately into astromomy and other such things, an email to tell him about it -- fully expecting to get the usual Ha Ha Mom, response.  

So what I sent him was this question.  If there was nothing before The Big Bang , how big could the Bang have been?  It may have been so small that it couldn't even have been heard if there was anyone or anything to hear it, so it may not even have been a big bang.   This question seems so far out and so rediculous that I did giggle about it all day.

So my brilliant (well he thinks he is anyway) says, yeah, Mom that is quite likely, anything to start is always smaller than what comes after, cause everything expands or grows at it progresses...  Do you think the Big Bang was smaller than when your irritating neighbour starts up the lawn mower on Sunday Morning?  Mind you this all depends on whether you are privy to the idea of a Big Bang theory or if you go for the idea of everything being created by a specific entity...

And no, I don't ALWAYS write about quilting or crochet...

Quick organizing idea.

no pictures this time...

anyway, the other day I was making a fabric cover for a journal type book and somewhere in the back of my head I was thinking about what I call my Password Book...  The two ideas sort of melded.

I have a old notebook that I write down the username, web address and password to a multitude of websites.  I know they (who are they anyway?) say that you should memorize your password and not give it out to anyone.  BUT GEE, there are more websites that I visit that need some sort of password, so I have to write them down -- AND because I did have a computer crash a number of years back, I now also write down not just the web name but its "http://" address too.  It is amazing how hard it is to rebuild a Favourites list or the RSS Feeds list from memory.   So everytime I log on to a new site I put it into my little notebook.  Handy, but still has problems the main problem being finding where I wrote down which site...  So thats where the bright idea popped in.  REDO all those website addresses and passwords into a regular address book -- the kind with the A, B, C's with tabs on the sides.   I have now discovered I have more web sites that I visit than I have actual friends.... hmmmm...  Sure makes it easy to check the password for any particular site -- by the way, there are a couple of my websites that are not written down -- the bank, is the most important, it is easy to remember that password because it is different than any of the others.

Another tip to do with keeping your web pages and passwords relatively easy to get back into is that I only use about 4 different ones that I use over and over and over,  but never on financially sensitive sites -- I don't think anyone looking to steal from me will care that I have a password for Lion Brand Yarn, or for the Ravelry site....   And the last computering tip...  You know those sites that insist that you have a question and secret answer?  Well, I have the same secret answer no matter what the question is-- so, What High School did you attend?  twofoursix  or how about What is your Mothers Maiden Name? twofoursix  and maybe they might ask What is the name of your Pet?  twofoursix...   (by the way, twofoursix is not my actual answer for anything it is just an example in this case)

Hope these were a couple of useful ideas -- mind you if you have money sensitive sites or sites that can give away personal information, I would advise a more secure system, but for the web sites that really just want to know how often you visit using the same answer for everything should be fine... 

Next up -- part of the Challenge to Finish

I haven't been very attentive to the ongoing Challenge to Finish, but finally I have some progress to report on one of those old WIP's that has been around just a bit too long.  I have 80 some squares made up -- these were an exchange of blocks with a local group of friends, 5 of us exchanged completed blocks.  I think I am the only one who has not finished (this was about 2 or maybe 3 years ago we traded blocks!)  Well, I have pulled out the blocks and decided it is time to put them together -- though a bit differently than my friends.  I have decided to make 2 quilts from those blocks, so I sorted through and the first quilt is using all the red, brown, purple, yellow blocks and the second will be using all the greens, blue, and yellows...

So I can say I have finished up the red brown top...

Now just to get it layered and quilted...