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the long and winding yarn

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Last night at knitting group, one of our members brought two huge bags of yarn she was destashing. I told her I had a friend who would love it and brought it home with me. I’m pretty sure my friend doesn’t have a ball winder and lot of the yarn was from abandoned projects. So I sat down in front of the tv and started winding balls.

I forgot how fun it is to deconstruct knitted items, especially handmade ones. Everyone weaves ends and sews seams a little differently. It’s interesting to reverse engineer the process.

resources: I’m sure I’ve posted these before. Some of my favorite tutorials for unraveling sweaters are from Neauveau Fiber Art. Photo tutorial here and video tutorial here. Also, here’s a short video on finding the “little v stitches” to unzip a seam super fast.

If you live in Lincoln, this weekend is the Goodwill 99 cent sale. A sweater’s worth of wool for under a dollar? You can’t beat that!

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craft weekend in progress

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I’m at another Get The Craft Out this weekend and working on a basket. It’s made out of recycled magazines and not quite as easy as I thought it would be.

I brought a few knitting and crochet projects that I haven’t even gotten out yet. Hoping I get a little better at this. Finished pic to come soon.

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restrained love for old books

The city library’s book sale was this week (and still going on if you’re local) and I exercised great restraint. I limited myself to two hours and $20 and spent less than that in both time and money. Even more surprising: I didn’t buy anything for myself. Since downsizing my personal collection and getting an e-reader, I’ve been very picky about what I purchase for permanent storage on our shelves. I also happened to be listening to Throw Out Fifty Things on the drive to the sale, specifically the chapter in which a woman had let go of twelve boxes of books in her attempt to declutter her life. (Maybe the universe was trying to speak to me?)

I found a few illustrated German dictionaries to add to my daughter’s collection and a very cool National Geographic Picture Atlas of Our World. Serious stuff aside, I bought some fun things including these Charlie Brown comic books.

comics

I remember spending hours as a kid devouring these over and over. After my daughter became addicted to this Mutts book, I knew she’d enjoy them. She commented that they were a little worn and was sad that someone didn’t take very good care of them. I had to remind her that they were printed the same year as I was born, ahem, and that they had indeed been well cared for over the (cough — many — cough) years.

Add in a few chapter books and a dinosaur drawing book and I had a very happy girl. Watching her read brings such joy to this mama. I hope she never loses her insatiable appetite for the written word.

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could cutoff jeans be more brilliant?

cutoff shorts

On the way to school: “Mom, my legs are cold.”
On the way home from school: “Mom, my legs are hot.”

I have a theory. Sometime, way back when, a child uttered those phrases over and over in a whiny voice, until her mother couldn’t take it anymore. The mother grabbed a pair of scissors and jeans with holes in the knees and BAM. Cutoff shorts were invented.

I’d like to thank her for that moment. You see, shorts and skirts are too cold for 50 degree mornings. Jeans and leggings are too hot for 80 degree afternoons. Cutoff shorts are just right. (This is starting to sound like a fairytale.)

My daughter just might wear these everyday until the first frost. Thank goodness I made two pairs.

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tiny crochet flower pattern

I wanted to make some tiny crochet flowers last week, and figured I could just add a petal to my four leaf clover pattern. Five petals were too bulky, however, and they looked crowded. I reworked the petal a little bit and came up with these cuties. Happy Spring and enjoy the pattern!

tiny crochet flower pattern

Tiny Crochet Flower Pattern
worsted weight yarn
size F/5 (3.75mm) crochet hook
tapestry needle for weaving ends

dc: double crochet
hdc: half double crochet
sc: single crochet
sl st: slip stitch

gauge: not important, but my worsted weight flowers are about 1 1/2 inches across.
Note: The smaller flowers were made with a smaller hooks and different sock yarns.

Make a magic ring.
R1: chain 1, sc into loop 5 times, pull loop closed, join with sl st in first stitch
R2: continue in the first stitch with a hdc, dc, chain 1, dc, hdc; *sl st, hdc, dc, ch1, dc, hdc* in each of the four remaining stitches, finish with a sl st

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I’ve been trying to document my creative projects at least once a day using Instagram. It automatically posts my pictures to twitter, facebook, flickr and my rss feed. If only it could update the blog! Anyway, if you are on any of these platforms, stop by and say hello!