Things Are Looking Bright!

I have something awesome that I want everybody to see....

Ta-DA!

Don't you just love it?  (Can you tell that I do?)  It's like a bag of Skittles popped open...and somehow serendipitously arranged themselves into orderly rows of colour.

This is a simple granny stripe.  If you want to know more about what's involved with the pattern, you should check out Attic 24, my go-to web space for all things granny.

It takes 15 minutes to make a stripe.  Multiply that times 27 rows and you've got 405 minutes.  Divide that by 60 and you'll know that I've sunk 6.75 hours into this blanket already.   Oh, and I started it yesterday.  (I should mention that I learned I could watch full episodes from HGTV online yesterday, too. That may have had something to do with it.)

It's not quite finished yet.  There's the whole deal of working in ends.  (The yucky part.)  And I'm going to put a border on it.  I still have lots of the berry colour left, so the border will be mostly in that shade.

It just feels so good.  It's crocheted in mercerized cotton so it has a nice weight to it and it's cool and silky to the touch.

Some baby girl needs this blanket.  And it's going to be for sale.  Stay tuned.

Loving The Little Things

This weekend, we took a little road trip to Kingston and Ottawa. It truly was a whirlwind adventure--less than 24 hours in each city--but so much fun. Just the kind of mini-cation I needed to make summer vacation feel a little more real.

The theme of the weekend seemed to be loving the little things. Here's a quick photo tour to show you what I mean:

Paint test strips on the 401.

Reassurance that I won't catch bubonic plague from the hotel room remote.

Great book (I Capture The Castle) and book title (Lady With a Spear!? what?) on the hotel room shelf.

Accidental detour off the beaten path.

Awesome sink backsplash at The Sunflower Cafe in Perth.  (I don't normally take photos in public bathrooms, but...)

Cute quotes on bath products in our Ottawa hotel room.

Proximity of the watermelon display to the "Expectant Mother" sign.  (Some things just go together!)

A no smoking sign...in the operating room...in the Diefenbunker.  (Smoking everywhere else was okay until the 1980s.  Seriously!  Cigarettes in an underground bunker!  What were people thinking?)

THE MOST AMAZING tuna melt with tons of crunchy veggies at Alice's Village Café in Carp, ON.

Now, on the crafty theme of little things...I'm beginning to realize how much I love granny squares. In 20 minutes, you can have a little piece complete.  (Nevermind that I will need 56 of these little squares to make a blanket.)  It's very satisfying...and not so suffocating in the summer heat as a full-on blanket project.

They're also a great way to use up scraps.  The centre of all of these squares is made from small bits leftover from another project that I haven't quite finished yet.

Here are some finished granny squares.  Aren't they sweet?

Working in ends is definitely not my favourite part.  There are definitely a lot of ends to work in on scrappy projects like this one!

In the battle of "finished" versus "almost finished" squares, it appears that "almost finished" is winning.

Of course, I have several projects in the queue that I should be working on first.  I have some projects I have promised to make for people...but sometimes some beautiful yarn just calls out and says, "Crochet me first!"

Today being a lazy, rainy day, I'm sure there's some more crocheting in the plans...

My Stitch-cation Gets Underway

My scrap jar is filling quickly!  Yesterday, I started on my Summer Stitch-Cation challenge from The Crochet Crowd.

 Here are my first five of twenty squares, complete:

Granny square in shades of blue.

Pink and yellow popcorn stitch square.

Granny #2 with a pink flower centre.

Back loops square - a bit nautical?

Front post trebles square.

I took them outside to photograph and I must say, they look even brighter in the sun than on my couch.

In other news, I am taking my chances with drying my favourite quilt outside and hoping the birds choose to poop elsewhere today.  (It's so nice out today, the fresh-air smell should be worth it!)

One more square for today and then it's time to assemble some shelves in the basement for all the teaching gear I brought home for the summer/next year!  Sigh.  I think I'll crochet slowly...

Hello, Summer of Us!

It's the first day of summer holidays, the first day when I can sleep in, so of course I woke up wide awake at 6:00am! We're heading up to Dan's old family cottage this weekend for some nostalgic R&R with cousins and Dan's brother's family. So really, I should be packing and getting us closer to our goal of leaving by 8:30am. However, Dan's sleeping in the attic (no, I didn't kick him out, my Snoogle and I just hogged the bed last night).

I could pack my bag for the weekend...but it's in the attic! I could wrangle together a collection of yarn for the trip, but it's up there, too. I suppose I could pack the cooler...but that seems like a last-minute job and sitting on the couch writing this blog and feeling my little clownfish swim around inside me is much more appealing.

Summer vacation has officially begun. Report cards are over. I do have a few more hours of classroom organization to do, but that can wait until after the weekend. I have decided to start my mat leave at the beginning of September, so I won't be going back to work this fall. My due date is not until the beginning of October, so I have three months to slowly but surely get our new house in order...and time, of course to make lots of crafty things.

My report card distraction blanket didn't get very far, a sign that I was focused on work more than play. Here's what it looks like now:

More of a short scarf than a blanket at this point.

I also have a rainbow granny stripe blanket started, using scraps of mostly Bernat Satin Sport from a giant tote...but I can't decide if I want to keep going with that, or if I want to frog it and turn it into triangle bunting for our yet-to-be-established nursery.

This crochet granny triangle pattern is a great way to use up scraps and have some fun with colour play. Plus we've decided to keep the nursery it's plain boring taupe colour since the house was freshly painted when we bought it a few months back...and any child of mine better have lots of exposure to bright, cheerful colours!  Some bunting, some blankets, maybe a quilt and we'll have it rainbowed-up in no time.

Oops. And there goes my actual alarm clock. Guess I'd better get off the couch and make this prepping for the weekend thing happen.

Look What I'm Making Now!

Here's my latest work in progress. It's report card time, so I needed something repetitive and mindless to get my hands busy when my brain starts to slow down. Nothing like a few rows of crochet to make you feel like:
(a) you're accomplishing something and
(b) there's a steady rhythm to life

Both if these are great feelings when report cards begin to feel like a never-ending job that's taking way longer than you thought it should!  (Side note:  It always takes longer than I think it should.  About twice as long, in fact.  But there is comfort in the fact that I won't be writing these again for a while.)

This is a return to an old pattern. It's not my pattern, but you can find it online for free. You can also check out my previous adventures with this pattern from June 2013 and December 2012 in my blog archives. And, hey, if you're lucky, you can come back and view the finished product on my blog in a couple of weeks...or maybe less. Crochet progress is typically inversely proportional to progress with everything else in life.

Pattern Drafting Part 1: NotMartha Buys Fabric

I purchased the "Design And Sew An A-Line Skirt" Craftsy class just before March Break this year, with intentions of making it my March Break project.  Unfortunately I spent most of March Break sick in bed and the class got pushed to the backburner.

The great thing about Craftsy is that you can put off taking the class until you're ready.  (It's all videos and discussion boards than can be accessed asynchronously.)

The not so great thing about Craftsy is that you can put off taking the class until you're ready.  (This is a site for motivated crafters.  I don't always fall into that category!)

However, sewing that skirt is on my to-do list for this week.  I do have some fabric at home, but nothing from the fabric shelf was calling my name, so I headed to Len's Mill today to check out my choices.

Here's what I came home with:

Dancers and robots!  Two fun fabrics for two fun skirts.

This fabric is actually called "Biker Bugz," which makes me think these are motorcycle parts.  I'll still call it my robot fabric.

Close-up of the dancer fabric.  I love the silhouettes of the jazz musicians in the background.

Yes!  If all goes well, I'm going to be heading back to school with a robot skirt and a dancing skirt.  The fabric is in the washing machine right now, getting pre-shrunk so that I can make the perfect fit.

I won't be starting the skirts today, though: I didn't look at the instructions very carefully and after watching the first two video segments, I've realized that I need to get a fashion design ruler and some tracing paper.  (This is serious stuff!)

Guess I'll have to tackle something else from The List!

Freezing rain day

I haven't blogged since the last snow day, I don't think. Technically, this is not a snow day but a freezing rain day. I won't worry too much about technicalities. I'll just worry about enjoying my free time! Here's the project for this morning:

WIP Wednesday - Granny Bag

Today's project started with reaching into my bin of sportweight yarn and spotting the following three colours nestled together:

Unlikely allies.

These are definitely not three colours that I would normally combine into one project, but with a bit of black between them, it's turning out like funky stained glass.

Granny bag in progress.

On my way home from taking hubby out for lunch this afternoon, I browsed through Generations thrift store and found a bin of "Sassy Singles" (their label, not mine...but I love it!) priced at 5 for a quarter.  (Five cents each!  What did you buy for 50 cents today?)  These are all clip-on earrings.  I learned when making my pomander that clip-on earrings are actually the easiest costume jewelry to work with.

Behold, the merry widows.

I also picked up two novels to add to my bookshelf: Brown Girl In the Ring (a 2008 Canada Reads finalist) and The Sentimentalists (Giller Prize winner).

A Solution For Every Problem

Crochet isn't just about finding calm in row upon row of neat stitches or finding joy in the giving of homemade gifts, it's also about finding satisfaction in problem solving.  If I could solve all of life's problems this simply, I'd be a super hero.

Problem:  After deciding upon a repeating pattern for my chicken foot blanket, I realized I was running short on certain colours of yarn.

Solution:  Add in a row of circle-in-a-square squares.  (Thanks to Manner's Crochet and Craft for the basics of the pattern.  You'll probably find a better tutorial there, so I'd encourage you to follow the link.  I added an extra round of white sc and a round of black sc  Make sure you do 3scs in each corner stitch.)

Here's a circle-in-a-square patch.  It's a bit bumpy and lumpy because I just pulled it out of my bag.

So far, I've added 5 of them along the edge of the blanket.  Looks like 6  will do the trick!

Also, I officially ran out of just the right weight of bulky black yarn that I'll need to finish this project.  This blanket was a stashbusting project, but I decided it was okay to bend the rules a bit and buy a big ball to help finish this off.  (I did use a 50% off coupon, so even if it's cheating, it's only 50% cheating.)

WIP (Work In Progress) Wednesday

I'm continuing to work through my stash of leftover worsted weight yarn.  I've still got most of a big Rubbermaid tote full, but I'm having fun playing with colours and learning a few new stitches.

This week, it's the Chicken Foot stitch, from Robyn Chachula's Crochet Stitches Visual Encyclopedia, mentioned two posts back.  I'm crocheting it in horizontal rows (of course)...

...but ultimately I think I'll end up creating a blanket with vertical stripes.  I know it's all simply a matter of perspective, but I think it looks cuter this way.  Originally, I was working it up in random stripes, but I decided that there were just too many colours for the randomness to work.  Regularly repeating rows add a little balance to the chorus of colours.  (...or at least I think they do.  What do you think?)

This blanket is a great project to work on while watching TV.  I think Monday night is going to end up being my couch&crochet night, because the TV lineup on the one channel we get is actually really good: "The Voice" and "SMASH" are both light and lovely shows to watch while winding down.

Ooh, yes!  Yesterday I made and tackled a huge to-do list, so I finally mailed off my monogrammed creation for the Initial Heart Swap.  Fingers crossed that the package makes it to its destination by Valentine's Day!  I'm looking forward to sharing that yarn-free craft with blogland once it gets to its recipient.

I'm sharing this post at tamisamis' WIP Wednesdays and Musings From The Fishbowl.

Crafting On The Bright Side

My Crochet Stitches Visual Encyclopedia arrived earlier this week.  Designer Robyn Chachula has an engineering background, so there are many helpful comments relating to structure and texture, and it's become my new bedside reading.  I found a simple tweed stitch in the book and used it to start this project:

 I'm calling it "Technicolour Dream-Tweed."

Working with lotsa colours means lotsa ends to work in.

Here's a view of the stitch up close.  It's simply staggered single crochets and chains (chain one over a single crochet in the row below, single crochet in the chain one space from the row below).  This is a great stitch for beginners.  It also works up fast and is helping me use some yarn from my stash!

I'm sharing this post on Visions of Sugarplum's Fibers on Friday and Wisdom Begins in Wonder's Fiber Arts Friday.

This week's dabblings.

What a busy week it's been, work-wise!  Most days ended with me crashing on the couch with a bag of yarn for short bursts of crocheting/relaxation.

I've been playing around with making flowery granny squares.  I started with a pattern, but I've since altered it to suit the yarn and my liking.  I think this could become a lovely throw:

I haven't actually put any stitches into this since December, but I did move the bag that this project was in.  Its on its way to becoming a wrap for me:

I found some cotton squares that I had made, originally thinking that I'd put together a sampler-style baby blanket, but decided that I might turn them into washcloths instead, after seeing how Mel at Lazy Daisy Crochet rolled them into bunnies for gifting.

I'm sharing this post in Visions of Sugar Plum's Fibers on Friday.