Poetry

Please check out International Poetry Month which starts tomorrow and is hosted by my daughter Bonnie McClellan. You can use the button to the right of this post or you can go directly to her site here. This is great fun and when the end of February rolls around, the poems go away, so read them while you can! While you are at it, read about her life in Italy here.

Intuitive Crochet?

I guess I can call this Intuitive Crochet because I have no idea where it is going. I just started, pulled it out and started again. I am using some yarn I spun out of plastic newspaper bags. I spun it with a copper colored rayon thread which had a tendency to get all tangled up. I am not sure what I was doing wrong but I think everything was just too slippery. I should have just crocheted the bags without spinning them, but I have done that before and wouldn't have learned anything new!

Plying Yarn

I plied some yarns yesterday and then crocheted them into a hat! A week or so ago I bought this flower loom thingy at the thrift store, I had a piece of the plied yarn that was really wierd with seam binding etc. worked into it and not very well. It did make a nice flower for the hat though.

Oh How I love To Play With Beads

Remember that phrase? It is from Amal and the Night Visitors and is said/sung by one of the three kings. I know just how he feels. I love to play with beads. I have been playing with them for a long time although at my age, I can say that about almost anything! My old studio was next door to the local Bead Lady, a good friend. If I needed some beads, I would just walk next door to her tiny studio and go through all the jars and little drawers . Then, I spent a good amount of time, making and selling polymer clay beads. I still have boxes full of them. And,don't forget paper beads, quilled beads etc. Recently, challenged by filimental (Come Together Over Beads), I have been working on one beaded piece a month. I have to admit, that I got a jump start by immediately doing three pieces! I am working the way Robin Atkins says to work--intuitively. My favorite. I put one bead down and then another and so on. Using this method, I am never bored and usually excited about what I will think to do next. It reminds me of when I was doing needlepoint. I did a lot of that too! But I was bored with the designs and got to where I hardly ever finished anything. Then I decided to try my hand at doing my own designs and did I have fun. I finished every piece because I was having such a good time stitching my own designs and adding or subtracting things as I went. I am having that same good time with the beading. I have my project spread out on a felt covered padded board (thank you Jane Dunnewold). I have every package of beads I think I might use, sorted into a plastic box. I have the beads I am using in little piles on the felt board. The piece itself is in one of those square PVC frames. I hate the needles. I can't seem to thread them! I wonder why. Ha! Anyway, if you like to "play with beads" come along with us. The badge is on the right side of this page and the "page" is at the top, under the spirals. It will be fun. I promise.

Birthday Pie

Knit Wit

playing around with knit
handspun
commercial
on needles
on knitting frames

Helpful

My 90 year old Mom is very helpful. She is so helpful that she drives me crazy. Whenever I am cooking, she comes into the kitchen and cleans up after me. What is wrong with that, you might ask. Well, let's say I am stirring something on the stove and I temporarily set the spoon down. When I reach for it again, it is gone, She has picked it up, washed it and put it away in a place it doesn't belong, so that you can't find it again. Or perhaps I am chopping vegetables and I have several of them on the counter. When I turn around, they are gone along with the knife.

"What happened to my carrots," I ask.

 "Oh I put them away." replies my Mom.

She throws away the paper towel I am using and carries off my dish towel. If not actively engaged in cleaning up after me, she stands in front of the pantry door waiting to jump in and help.

She often straightens up around the house. Don't leave anything out if you want to find it again. She puts things away and then doesn't remember where she put them. I might find my glasses in the pantry, or my book in her room. Speaking of books, I don't have to be concerned with finding books for her to read. She reads the same book over and over. She stacks about three of them next to her on the couch and reads from one or the other. Have you ever read a book that you didn't want to end? My Mom has that problem solved. Her books never end. A dream come true--the perpetual novel.

We had some cold weather recently and I wasn't prepared. I still had a plant on the porch that was too big to bring in. I grabbed the closest thing, an old insulated jacket and threw it over the plant with a large bath towel over that. Next thing you know, my Mom has brought the towel in the house.
"I found this on the porch," she says.
 "Is that my jacket out there?"
"No Mom, it is an old paint stained jacket of Dad's. It is covering my plant. I would never put your     jacket on the porch."
This morning it was very cold. When I went downstairs I found the old jacket on the back of a chair. Mom had thoughtfully brought it in last night. I don't have the heart to go look at the plant.

In A Spin

Carnival In Rio

The results of practising my spinning on a drizzly afternoon. I thought it would be fun to name my yarn like the real spinners do! The darkest green yarn was spun from fleece. The other yarns are commercial yarns which I plied on the wheel. At the end, I added the bright green to spark it up a little. Oh, and I tried to add some metallic sewing thread but that was a big mistake as it tangled up in everything and made a big mess. I am sure there is a better way to do it, but I will just keep messing about. An infinite number of monkeys with an infinite number of paint brushes......You know how the saying goes I am sure.

Experimental Squiggles

It is hopelessly wet and grey here and has been for many days. At least it is not too cold and the drizzle has put an end to the Cedar pollen. I have been playing at making Squiggle knit scarfs. I learned it from Filamental at ididntrealeyes (look! I made a link). She always inspires me! So far, my shawls are just experiments with yarns I have on hand. The blue one is novelty yarn and a thin green rayon. I thought the pom pom one would be really cool, but something is not right--the pom poms are too regular, the background yarn to heavy? But here is something fun. I have been trying to think of a way to make curtains for my studio, curtains that I would like anyway. I don't really need them for privacy. So I tried hanging these shawls over a window and they look interesting and different. They are fast and fun to knit. Maybe I could use string and perhaps I could spin something for the nubby yarn. That should be easy for me! ha! 

 

Most Popular

I don't know about you, but I find this very interesting. I have published around 120 blogs on a variety of subjects. As it says in my header--Whatever strikes my fancy! From reading the stats, it seems that my posting titled A Nodding Acquaintance (August 19, 2010) is the most popular. Being technically challenged, I am not sure how to tell exactly how many people have looked at this blog posting, but whenever I check the stats, A Nodding Acquaintance is listed. I wonder what makes it so popular. Why go there and not to some other posting? Interesting don't you think?

Cylindrical Containers

I am a sucker for cylindrical containers. No matter what it contains, potato chips, coffee, cookies, rum, a painted wine glass, if it comes in a box shaped like a cylinder, I want it. Here are some cylinders I recently coverd with Locker Hooking. It is not easy to judge the size as the Locker Hooking does cause the canvas to shrink a little. The one in the foreground is done with yarn that I spun--the first. It was perfect for Locker Hooking but not much good for anything else!

More Sketchbook Pages

Flower Drum Song

Flower Drum Song
4x4
Here is a new beaded piece
on top of a Squiggle scarf I made like Filamental's
but not as cool!
The Flower piece in the beading is a bit of costume jewelry
from somewhere.
I ran out of the dark grey beads
 and couldn't get anymore as they had a huge sale (how did I miss that?)
 A good lesson.
Buy more then you think you will need.
On the other hand, running out of something does make you more creative!

Sketchbook Project

Pages from the sketchbook I am working on
frantically
 as the deadline approaches!