What's next?

There's a high and a low after finishing the Christmas gifts. But my wonderful gift of a Kindle sure added fuel to the embers! Though it came with a leather "case" this was more like a book cover, it did not encase it.

So I crocheted a case for it, that is so scrumptious. So now, I've got a new product design to add to my Etsy store.



On Ravelry, there is a call for a swap of Kokeshi dolls.

I'm going to try and make the five required before the year is out -- it will push me to think about faces.

Mother Tree and Alternative Yarns

I crocheted a root out of length of languishing hemp for Helen Hiebert's project.



http://helenhiebertstudio.com/Helen_Hiebert_Studio/Mother_Tree_Project.html
It is a delight, as a papermaker to support this woman whose writing
so informed my practice, to demonstrate my gratitude.

This seems to me, upon reflection, part of my own exploration of non yarn/alternative fibers. Long overdue as a papermaker, I bought someone's destashing of paper yarn. Paper yarn making has long been a consideration, but it seemed so labor intensive and beside the point as a fiberholic...

I've been unable to find seagrass for a reasonable price (including shipping) but
I bought some jute and sisal to play with, after I complete my necklace of cotton string.

Yet now, as I begin to spin, it's all connected and all returns. The best moments come when i make these connections between endeavors and desires, like hand made books, my poems on handmade paper, my folded books on handmade paper about handpapermaking, and now I have on the list, to create crocheted covers for handmadebooks.

Maybe i won't shred all the jeans to make paper-- perhaps I should make yarn of it!

All Hands

I tried and tried to get seagrass to make a seagrass hat-- but I couldn't bring myself ot pay $12 including shipping for something that's $3 or so a pound.

But this began my thoughts about non-yarn fibers for crocheting and I remembered an old favorite: cotton twine.

And so I made first the one handed, the two handed bracelets.

The one handed done with an F hook and the two handed done with a G hook.

Making the Presents

Fortunately, I made a sale on Etsy and so I promptly spent the money on buying Christmas gifts to be: wool and alpaca to make cowls. I so covet the one I made for my dear brother in law. His inspired the others. I was blessed to have won some Shetland Chunky by Patons and using doble strands made a gorgeous tube of comfy, fashionable warmth.

Next completed is the one of grey highland wool and black alpaca for my bff.

I started one for my niece out of a black boucle with purple bits, but I've set it aside.
I started one in irish moss colored wool and alpaca for my father's widow.
And I've got Mayan gold to create one for my sister, but I'm in search of another
fabrice texture.


My brother in law's is hdc and dc. My bff's and niece's are fpdc.

Making Gifts

Doing my taxes plunged me into despair from remembrances of losses suffered last year
and reminders of new disappointments. I earned $403 and paid $145 in fees and spent $1020
on materials. Awful as it was, it was an excellent exercise. I sold more patterns than I did any other creations... so that should be my emphasis.

For holiday gifts I'm giving cowls... mine are more about when a hoodie meets a collar.

I started one using FPDCs on a Lang Joke --- a boucle mix of wool,mohair, acrylic, nylon and elastic-- and a L hook.

I started another using in double strands of brown Shetland Chunky by Patons using a M hook. ( I won this yarn and have fretted for nearly a year on how to use it. This dark almost chocolate brown will make a handsome gift for my DBIL.)

They recommended a J but the single strand seems very much a regular worsted to me, not a bulky and working with the M hook
makes everything a bit looser than I prefer--- but it suits the emerging garment.

This one begins with hdc for 4 rows and then expands with the dc and at one point I add a stitch and then I add a stitch again. I could see how a more pronounced funnel shape would also work.

I'm thinking of buying fingering and worsted to make some others and want another fabric. I did a swatch of sc-dc and like the nubbly texture having used and oversized J with a worsted weight acrylic. Now I don't know how this will translate with a multi
strand on a M/N/P but I'm excited to try. The multistranding is not for bulk or even speed, but for color, loft and a structure I envision...an architectural statement of
warmth. I'm guessing these will all be about 220 yds....

Christmas 2009

I was roaring into Christmas while I still had summer energy. I finally made an adult sized tree hat, as I envisioned last year---vs. just saying in my pattern that one could.


And I made a tree that could be a kid's hat.


And I made a slimmer version of my tree.

I really love my tree,that it evolved from reading a lot and making a number of others.
I would love to explore more shapes and forms, bu alas, I don't have any suitable yarn to play with... I would like to try to build one of oversized leaves...

Linked Flower Scarf

I got a box the other day from Simon and Schuster... i had not clue what it was til i opened it...

My 2010 Crochet A Day Calendar arrived and my Flower Link scarf pattern is in it!

This particularly sweet, not only because the pattern was rejected by Interweave ( so if at first you don't succeed try, try again)

but because my models were my neighbors from the complex I stayed in, in Rochester while learning to live my life anew as a paraplegic and awaiting my home's rehab.
Everyone there was physically challenged or elderly-- a requirement to be there.

It was a hellishly hard and horrible time and I missed the art i used to make and crochet was both a salvation and communication. I offered weekly crochet lessons in that building. One of my "students" died just a couple months after mastering increases
and churning out hats for her relatives. Even as she waned, she came and hung out at
classes to cheer those with more energy on.

The picture used by the Calendar taken on a sunny but chilly day in the courtyard I used to love to roll to... the pattern was about turning poison into medicine.
by hand
from heart