A Quickie Post

May was spectacularly busy for my family and I. I hope June eases up a bit! It's been Crazyville.

I haven't had much time for crafting, but I did want to pop in and say hello.

I finished a scarf:

This is the "Spring Ripple Scarf," and it's crocheted with Noro Sock Yarn. Sure is colorful, eh? Springy. I'm not exactly sure if I'll ever wear it...actually...with those colors, I think it would wear me. But working on it was fun and it looks pretty hanging in my closet.

We picked up Grayson and Angela from the airport on May 9th, and it sure has been great having them around. One of the first things Angela said to me (I think we were still at the airport!) was that she wanted to learn how to knit.

YESSSSSS!

That made me VERY happy, of course. So here she is with her first project, the "One Row Handspun Scarf." She's finished quite a bit more of it since this picture:

I think she likes knitting! Yay!

I had a day to do a little sewing:

I made four summer lightweight cotton elastic waist skirts. I absolutely lived in the two I made last summer, so I added to my summer collection. Easy as pie, washable, cool...they're great, even if they are a little dorky grandma farm-woman-looking. I love them.

These farm lady skirts will probably look great with my screaming Spring scarf, eh? And maybe some galoshes. Totally dig the crazy ol' lady look. People give you wide berth at the post office.

You haven't seen Mr. Bigglesworth lately, but he sends a big kitty hug:

He loves you all as much as I do.

I am really really really so very sorry that I have not answered hardly any email lately. Besides having visitors and deadlines, I'm having some health issues that I'm researching. No, I don't think it's serious, just sort of a puzzle. Giving up gluten, sugar and dairy seemed to solve many of my mysterious issues, but some remain. For instance, I suddenly seem to be allergic and/or intolerant to so many foods and substances! It's all so strange, because I've never been allergic to anything at all before now. So I've been reading every book and visiting every website I can in search of some answers. I'll hope I'll know more after my doctor visit next week. Wish me luck!

If it's Perjantai, This Must Be Finland

Uh oh. What day is this? Is it Perjantai? Or is it Lauantai? Because if it's Perjantai, I gotta get down to the post office and mail "ladydi's" prize to her.

I can see by looking at my calendar that my friend Anne sent me from Finland that it's indeed Perjantai. And it's almost Maauskuu! Where did all of Helmikuu go?

No, I don't speak Finnish. But I love this calendar. There seems to be an special occasion printed on every day! There's something that looks like "Valentine's Day" on February 14th, but I have no idea what all these other special occasions are. The Finnish must celebrate a lot. Maybe it has something to do with that mysterious white fluffy stuff that's covering most everything from Marraskuu to Maaliskuu; I haven't a clue. It sure is pretty, though.

Before we leave for the post office, let's check out my pillowcases I finished:

No, I didn't do the embroidery, although I've got the bug to do a little bit of embroidery right now. I bought these pillowcases from ebay and decided they needed a nice crocheted edging. I put the color choice up for a vote (thanks for voting) and blue won! What do you think?

I actually started a couple of more intricate crochet patterns, but they were too fussy and I frogged them. I like simple edgings that don't entangle your fingers in in the middle of the night, so I ended up with this pattern.

After I knit for a while, it always surprises me when I pick up a crochet hook again. Crochet is so fast compared to knitting! I like both, though. Crochet comes a lot more naturally to me, since I've been crocheting since I was a little girl. I just learned to knit last year and it's still a struggle.

Ready to head to the post office? Let's go!

The Kapaa post office is NOT an architectural marvel, so I'll spare you the front end view. It's got a slightly rusty tin roof, wood rot and a perpetually broken front door, so it fits in perfectly with the rest of the beach town. The tropical weather, especially down near the ocean, is not kind to structures of any sort. It's also not kind to cars, appliances, houses, etc. Besides, a hurricane comes along every ten years or so and knocks everything down anyway, so why bother building a monument? No worries.

The view from the side of the post office is much prettier to look at. The ocean is to our left. The mountain straight ahead is Sleeping Giant, but this is not his best side. You can still make him out, though. His head is the tallest lump and his feet are pointed toward the building, almost to the tree. Do you see him?

This is Blaine waving hello, who works at the post office and is so very nice. All the Kapaa post office staff are wonderful. If you win the next drawing, Blaine will probably be stamping your package "Do Not Bend."

Thanks for tagging along, I enjoyed your company. Perhaps next time, I can take you to somewhere else more exciting, like the Wailua Mini-Mart or the Kauai DMV! Hee hee...and you thought Kauai was just all beaches and breathtaking vistas....

String Theory

I know it's not for everybody, but I LOVE crocheting doilies. There is something so amazing to me about picking up a plain ol' ball of string and a little hook and making a perfect, beautiful, delicate snowflake with it. It's magic! I can't help but get philosophical as I watch the snowflake emerge slowly under my hands--it's like I'm taking cosmic randomness and making a crystalline "order" out of it. What was once a ball of cheap-o string is now transformed into a thing of beauty. Hey! Don't laugh. I'm deeper than I look, okay?

Today I vacuumed, mopped and did laundry. So you know what that means--a long forgotten object gets pulled out of the drawer in desperation, finally getting to earn its fifteen minutes of fame in blogland. Today's DBO (desperation blog object) is a doily I made last year. I plucked off the lint and fluffed it up for its shining moment in the spotlight:

Here is my black doily...oh...FIFI!! Get off that doily! Honestly....dogs. They want to lay on anything you're doing. Where was I...oh yeah. My black doily. I enjoyed making it, but working on it was hard on the eyes. It's a very simple pattern and it was easy to work on while watching TV. Sometimes, you can't do that with doilies because they can get very complicated. They're deeper than they look, too.

This is the doily I want to do next:

I think it's called "Waltzing Flowers" or something like that. I just love the way it swirls. But it definitely is NOT a TV doily. Making my flowers waltz will take some concentration. Ah well...another project to get to. Will I live long enough?

I'd also like to do a doily for each holiday! I bought a book from a marvelous crocheter known as "orientalmom" on ebay. She has a website, too. I totally stole these pictures off her ebay listings, I hope she doesn't mind. Here are some of her holiday doilies I'd like to do:

Valentine's Day

St. Patrick's Day

Halloween

Christmas

These next few doilies, I will probably never make. I don't think I'm crazy enough. This floral one is adorned with beads and is amazing. Give-you-cavities-amazing, if you know what I mean:

Sweet, eh? Pearly beads and everything. I would cry when my husband set a dirty pot on it, so I won't make this one. I think you need to be single in order to own a doily like this--it's probably written in the instructions somewhere.

These next two doilies are just flat out astounding. Brace yourself: you'll never think of doilies in quite the same way ever again. Here are the swans:

Gah! And the tea party:
Those cups and that teapot are crocheted! Can you believe it? I wonder what the directions read like? Round One: Chain 5, join, make teapot. Round Two: 10 dc in each 2 ch loop, crochet some imaginary friends to come have tea. Round Three: 20 sc in back loop, then speed dial Happy Acres for the men in white coats to come get you.

Back to cleaning for me, then dinner and a few hours with my tiny crochet hook and string. I'm still working on my blue pillowcase edging. I've started over a couple of times, but I think I've got a pattern that's just perfect now. See you tomorrow!

Reminder: sign up for the Happy Hula Hut pattern and fabric giveaway! You have until Tuesday the 19th at midnight. To enter, comment under the February 12th post entitled "A Very Happy Hula Hut Day." Only one comment per person, please!

Oh! And while I'm writing in italics, I want to remind you wonderful, wonderful people who leave comments (thank you so much, I love them) to leave an email address if you would like a response. Some of you ask questions and/or say such lovely things, I'd like to be able to email you back! There are some of you that I would love to answer, but I have no email address for you or your blogger info is blocked. By the way...a "URL" is just your website address or blog address, if you want to leave that instead.

A Quilted Valentine

Hawaiian Rainbow Basket Quilt, Red Variation; by Lisa Boyer 2007

Sigh...quilt pictures. They're so flat. Quilt pictures are usually taken from far away so that you're able take in the whole thing. But when I look at a quilt, I like seeing the detail and the texture. Let's get closer, shall we?

I love this red Hawaiian print border. It's such a beautiful red. And I love my binding! I like jazzy bindings.

I think I overdid the quilting a little bit. I should've used a thinner red thread. I used a thick red thread and quilted heavily like I usually do, but I think less quilting would've been better with this thicker thread. Oh well, live and learn.

In one of the comments, someone asked if I used a regular sewing machine to machine quilt. Yes, I do. I use my Bernina and my free motion foot and just go for it. I rarely mark unless I have a design out of a book I want to center somewhere strategic. I've also found that I like to keep my feed dogs up instead of lowering them! I discovered this by many, many years of forgetting to put them down. With the feed dogs up, they make a little popping rhythym on the backside--almost like a metronome--to keep my speed constant. I go very fast when I machine quilt. I just want to get it over with. It's not my favorite part.

I love the sudden dots that pop in and out of existence all over the quilt. Quantum physics.

When I teach machine quilting, I advise my students not to copy someone else's machine quilting filler pattern because it's difficult to mimic someone's design. It's like trying to copy someone else's handwriting! I give each of my students a blank notebook and order them to fill it up with doodles. Just doodle and doodle until you find a few doodles that you like and are easy for you. Practice them over and over. Then quilt your doodles over and over.

The machine quilting doodles I do (I think I have only ten in my repertoire) I've been doing since I was a little girl doodling on my homework or the phone pad. They feel natural to my hand and they just flow out of me without thinking. I'm a terrible artist; but I can doodle. So I do. Doodle.

My favorite basket. I never usually think to fussy-cut, so when something comes out centered like this, it's a fun surprise.

A closer shot of the border fabric and binding. The border fabric is a little deeper red than this picture shows. I think the first picture is the most accurate.


A pink bouquet and a handmade doily for you. Have a wonderful Valentine's Day.

P.S. Don't forget to enter the giveaway mentioned in the post below! Leave a comment under that post if you want to be in the drawing. Drawing takes place Tuesday at midnight.

Finishing, Starting, and Sometimes Frogging

Yay! My Cable Rib socks are complete! I took a lot of time to finish these because I could only do ten rows of knitting each night while my thumb heals (progress note: some thumb bending is now possible). This pattern is from "Favorite Socks" by Ann Budd. The yarn is Smooshy Dream In Color, and "Beach Fog" is the colorway. I knit them on one KnitPicks circular using the Magic Loop, my favorite method.

I love everything about these socks! First of all, they're the only pair I've ever made that actually STAY UP. The 2 X 2 ribbing is wonderful and I just may have to look for more ribbed sock patterns because I am sure sick of my other hand-knitted socks pooling at my ankles. I look like one of those show poodles with a little poof of fluff at each ankle.

I loved working with the yarn, too. I love the color and the springy feel of the yarn, not to mention that Smooshy is very generous with the yardage! These socks are very tall and I think I have enough left over for a third sock! I'll definitely be buying some more of this stuff.

Now that I'm finished with my socks, I've been yearning to make some mittens. Yes, mittens in Hawaii. I didn't say I was going to wear them....I just want to make them.

So I dug out my favorite knitting book from 1949 and found a basic pair for men or women:

Ten rows started in Wool Ease that I bought in Washington on our last trip. I've never worked with Wool-Ease before, but I think it'll be okay. I'm thinking that I will send them off to my dear son who would not want to hand wash alpaca or wool mittens in his dorm room sink. Thus, the blend. So far, it's a little splitty and rough to work with, but the knitted fabric seems to be fine.

I love old craft books. There's something just so sincere and unpretentious about them. Sometimes they're downright funny without meaning to be! Like this glove modeling job:

Doesn't she look like she's auditioning for a horror film? What was that photographer thinking? Did he not think the girl was pretty? Why not show her from the front? What is she doing? Being struck by a car? About to strangle someone? Did an axe murderer just jump out at her? Or is she laying face down, already the hapless victim of Gonzor, the big-footed squashing monster? A mystery.

I have a lot of old doily books, too. Here's a doily I finished recently:

I think this one is so elegant! I splurged and sent away for some quality Opera crochet thread instead of my usual Wal Mart brand. I wanted to see if it was any different. I must say, I was impressed. This thread seems to have a sheen and a nice body and drape to it that I haven't had before. I heartily recommend a nicer crochet thread if you're going to invest all that time in a doily. There you go, some doily advice. You heard it here, folks. You can find the above doily in this old booklet, should you run across it at a thrift store:

I've made three doilies from this book, including the cover doily. Definitely my favorite doily book ever. A word of caution, though. Old knitting and crocheting books are not for wimps! They assume you know a lot of stuff, and seem to be chock full of mistakes. Perhaps our needleworking ancestors expected mistakes and were sharp enough to catch them. I am constantly surprised and outraged when an old pattern writer leads me to work a row wrong. But then all I have to remember is that I'm alive and she's probably...well...not. Then I forgive her.

I was happy to find a fellow doily-lover, lover of quilts and old pattern books on the internet. Check out her new blog here: Sew Ritzy Titzy Yesterday, she posted the most amazing paper-pieced instrument blocks! Check out the piano and the violin. I think we may be long-lost twins! I wonder if she looks like Janet Evanovich, too...

Janet, do you like doilies?
(No matter...she's still cute...hee hee...)

Wee Creatures

This is Madison. He's a crocheted bear that I made for absolutely no reason at all except that I wanted to. Madison stands about 9" tall and he's made out of Patons Canadiana acrylic in "Beige." Madison is a Carolyn Christmas Savage Gourmet Crochet pattern and he was very easy to make. I love his shiny little eyes, don't you?

Hello, Mr. Happy Bear! My favorite part of Madison are his jointed limbs that you can move. The joints swivel around his cute little buttons:

Yes, I do love my wee creatures. Especially this one:

This is Mr. Bigglesworth. He has jointed limbs, too...but no buttons. Daddy lets him in in the early morning (he's a night owl kitty) and he sleeps at the foot of our bed with me until I wake up quite a bit later. I'm a terrible insomniac most nights--it takes me HOURS to fall asleep every night, so I wake up when my body decides that I'm rested, hopefully before the phone starts ringing or the postman comes to the door (embarrassing).

Uh oh...digression ahead, but here it goes. Is anyone else out there an unwilling night owl? Like...YOUR WHOLE LIFE?? Do you watch as the whole world pops out of bed smiling and fresh as a daisy while you're still trying to remember who you are? Seriously--it takes me about a half hour to emerge from my dreams and figure out what's reality and what's not.

If you've ever taken a quilt class from me, you know that we don't start until nine. Nine is still a little too early for my brain to be in charge of my mouth, but most people don't want to start around noon when I'm truly coherent. At nine, I can talk without drooling on myself, but only if I've had a couple of lattes and a cranberry scone.

Oh, how I envy morning people. How do you do it? I guess you could ask me the same question about being energetic when I'm up calculating yardage or writing a pattern at 2 a.m. Sometimes my body and mind are so active that just give up, get out of bed and go work out on my elliptical trainer. Or sew, or knit, or write my blog post for the next day. It IS nice and quiet here at night and the phone doesn't ring and no one comes to the door--so I guess it does have some advantages.

End of digression. Time for a different digression (how many am I allowed in one post?)

On several of my morning blog stops, the topic is, "What famous person do you resemble?" and they post a picture of themselves and the famous person. So here's me with my old haircut:

Okay...who do you think I get told that I look like? I could make this a quiz, but I won't keep you in suspense. I grew my hair out from this haircut because I got tired of people telling me I looked like Reba McEntire. In high school (1976), I was always told I look like Olivia Newton John! Someday, I'll scan in my high school picture and see if you agree.

Off to try to sleep. I've got a book, some Sleepytime tea, and a nice warm hotpad waiting...

Crocheted Edging Color Help? Anyone?

I just lurve these pillowslips that I found on ebay! It was one of those "miracle wins" where I had just picked the magically perfect bid amount and didn't lose the item by 50 cents like I usually do. And gosh, they are better than their picture! I love them. Yes, they need ironing and they smell like an old lady's closet plus a New Jersey post office plus a mail transport plane plus a Kauai mail truck plus a Kapaa mailbox--but I'll take care of that later. Right now, I'm dreaming about the crocheted edging I want to put on it. I dug out my trusty "101 Crochet Edgings" book and I can't wait to get to it! Trouble is, I'm not sure what color of crochet thread to use. I need your help. I'm trying to decide between the blue and the lilac. I'm leaning toward the blue because I already did this one in lilac:

Gosh...is there any thing prettier than a crochet-edged embroidered pillowslip? If I could, I would wear one.

So, I need your vote. I'm going to try out this voting widget provided by Blogger, but if it doesn't work, leave me a comment. Blue or lilac? The voting box is under my "About Me" picture. Leave a comment if you have another idea that doesn't involve orange in any way. (Orange ALWAYS gets me into trouble.)

Pink Day: Kitties and Roses

I had forgotten completely about this quilt. I was looking through some of my old quilt pictures yesterday, and came upon this. I vaguely remember that I made it in one day, and sent it off to the Kauai Humane Society the next, so I didn't much get a chance to contemplate it. I'm surprised that I took a picture of it, as I usually forget in my haste to get a quilt handed off to the proper recipient.

So it got me to thinking: how many quilts have I made that I don't remember at all and didn't take pictures of? What's more staggering is to contemplate how many quilts I have made altogether since I started in 1987! I sometime get this exact question in interviews, and it makes me freeze up like the proverbial deer in headlights. I can't even begin to estimate! Not a clue. Especially when I forget making entire quilts, like the one above.

I suppose I'll just have to make up an answer. "How many quilts have I made? Two thousand thirty-six at last count. But wait...that doesn't count all the imaginary quilts I've made in my head. Okay.....TWELVE thousand thirty-six. I think the kitty quilt above was number nine thousand ninety two. But let me check my QUILTOMETER just to be sure....oh yes, here it is. Nine thousand ninety two.

Beginning quilters, take note. Start your Quiltometers. If you get to be famous, you'll need to be prepared.

Speaking of forgotten, I wandered around to my rose garden yesterday and discovered these beauties. In JANUARY, people. Roses. In January. Kauai.

And yes, I crocheted the doily, thank you very much. I do love my doilies. I only grow roses so that I have something to set on my doilies, actually. And as of this date, I've made thirty-two doilies!

Okay, I made that number up, too. Dang. Looks like I need to buy a doilometer.

PS. The Kitty block above was made from the book, Curl Up Quilts by Goldsmith and Jenkins. I don't remember where I got the border idea and I'm too lazy to go check the book to see if I got it from there...but eh...whatcha gonna do?

Kauai in January

Brrrr!!! Can you feel the chill in the air? It's in the mid-seventies instead of the high seventies. I've had to switch from my usual tank top to a short sleeve T-shirt! Luckily, I haven't had to close any windows yet, except the one by my bed at night. My other four bedroom windows can stay wide open for now.

Hee hee. I'm mean, aren't I? This post was inspired by surfing my morning blogs and seeing all the wintery weather out there. I'll have to admit, I was a little jealous back in mid-December with all those beautiful snow pictures you posted, but now all I read about is how cold y'all are.

So sorry, but I have to take this opportunity to gloat a wee bit.

On Kauai, we have wonderful weather and fabulous beaches, but not much else. So when you Mainlanders blog about your grand thrift shops, fabulous quilt shows, giant discount fabric shops, local yarn stores (that actually have sock yarn...and wool yarn!).....well, I get jealous. So here's my little bit of revenge. This is the view out one of my sewing room windows yesterday.

Sunshine, emerald green grass, warm balmy breezes, all on a sleepy little island waaaaaay out in the Pacific Ocean. I'm not jealous of your white Christmases any more.

Elsewhere in my sewing room, someone is patiently waiting for my thumb tendonitis to get better:

I'm only knitting ten rows a night on my Cable Rib Sock, but my thumb still complains every morning. I've been sewing instead of knitting lately; perhaps in tomorrow's post I'll be able to show you what I'm making.

Time to get up and get moving. It's currently 75 degrees fahrenheit and the sun is shining. Time to get back into my sewing room.

Yet Another Cat Mat

It started out to be a small rug, really. But I chose the wrong yarn and it's too slippery and drapey for a rug. Honestly, the thing is so slinky that I can't even coax it to lay straight. I used Knit Picks "Shine"--which is a lovely cotton yarn for garments--but not the sort of thing you need to make a rug or an afghan out of.

I've thought of sewing some sort of twill tape or stabilizing thing around the edges, but that would just be adding more effort to a thing that I should've given up on waaaay before I sewed all the blocks together and added the crocheted border. I just kept thinking: "One more round of crocheted border on this thing, and it'll lay straight!" Nope.

So I have another "thing" for the cat to sleep on. The cat is the recipient of many of my failed objects, whether quilted, knitted or crocheted. Unfortunately, he refuses to sleep on any of them, which makes me feel like a COMPLETE failure. Meh.

"Sorry! I'm just a plain ol' carpet cat."