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...)