Just wanted to post a few new photos before Daren takes the PC back (again).
Here’s the white Shells and Flowers Shrug, or more accurately, one of its sleeves:
In my defense, it IS difficult to take a photo of yourself with your camera phone when you don’t really want anyone to notice what you’re doing.
And here’s Dana-mee’s finished place mat, which she is happily using every day at school:
Right. Logging out now.
A year ago I didn’t even know there was such a thing.
However, since I still have not learned how to wield knitting needles, I shall have to make do with my trusty crochet hooks. Let’s see … the last time I crocheted in public was in November 2008, in a hospital corridor doubling as a doctor’s waiting room. Other than all the lunch hours spent crocheting at my desk, of course.
My crochet fixation is now such that I can bear having simultaneous projects on my hooks, in various stages of completion, without fretting over finishing them in the shortest possible time. Don’t believe me?
Here’s my Lacy Cardigan WIP, which took what was left of the white Cannon thread. It’s a Japanese chart pattern from Pierrot. I can’t read kanji, but I just wanted to see if I could make something based on a chart. I started with a front panel, adjusted with an additional repeat since the thread yielded a smaller gauge. Should I continue?
I did a few rows of a black Romantic Shrug, but put it on hold while I look for a better brand of black thread. I am not that happy with the black Cannon thread, as it is quite dull and lacks the shine of Cannon’s other colors. I also have another Romantic Shrug in progress, this time in burgundy:
(Figures … I have a photo of this WIP, but none yet of the finished Vanilla Romantic Shrug. LOL.)
And last but not least, I’m doing a Renaissance Tiles Place Mat in lavender for Diana, which should be finished in time for the school opening on June 8:
The pattern for the place mat is on FreePatterns.com, but registration is required before it can be downloaded.
Who says crochet isn’t fun?
Relocation: Last night, I moved the site over to its new home at HostHelpers.Com. It took about two hours, me not being the brightest bulb after a full day’s work. Special thanks to the folks at Hosthelpers and to Podz’ Wordpress restore guide — it’s a lifesaver.
Recovery: This morning, as I was leaving for the office, I discovered that my Creative Muvo TX FM wouldn’t play, having picked up a couple of Trojans, undoubtedly from last night’s labors. As of this post, the virii have been sent packing, the latest drivers and firmware have been installed, and 97% of my music has been restored (all but three songs — the available space on the player was cut by 9 MB after the install. Sigh.)
I started working on this last April 13. After two days, I had a lacy WIP:
On April 19, I finished the first sleeve and realized just how lacy the shrug really was.
At 1:30AM on April 26, my (first) Romantic Shrug was completed. And, since I couldn’t take a photo or have one taken at that hour, I waited till just now to do it.
I’ll be starting on the next one as soon as I get more thread. Mimi thinks I’m a fast crocheter, and I suppose I am, at that. (Thanks, Mimi.) Would be faster if I lived next to my Local Yarn Shop (LYS), but then Daren and Diana would probably never speak to me again.
I started crocheting my white Shells and Flowers Shrug last March 14, but when I ran out of white yarn, found myself working on a cappuccino-colored one to pass the time. This time I made bigger stitches, so it’s slightly looser than the ones I did earlier. I finished it on March 31, but photos were taken just a few minutes ago:
And, not having replenished my stash of white just then, I decided to try my hand at a shrug for Diana, using Cannon multicolor yarn.
Here’s how it looked on April 5:
I wanted to make it a bit loose for Diana, so that it wouldn’t constrict her movements, and to ensure that she could wear it for at least a few more months. I started with a base of 30 rows for the body, made and frogged the first sleeve (too tight), added three more rows to the body and frogged them again (too big), and settled for adding one more row to the original 30. After a few more experiments with the sleeves, this is how Diana’s shrug turned out:
And now I’m looking forward to working on another shrug pattern, which Mimi generously sent me. Thank you, Mimi!
I can’t wait.
She told us that she’d made First Honorable Mention days earlier, but there’s nothing quite like seeing it in writing.
Or seeing her smile after the long graduation ceremony, sitting in McDonald’s and still wearing her honor and club medals.
Or putting those hard-earned medals away, together with her diploma.
We are so very proud of you, Daren.
Congratulations!
These have different covers from the ones I originally owned, but the contents are exactly the same:
I’ve gone through both books already, to make sure that no pages are missing and (naturally) to reacquaint myself with the stories. So far I’ve read East of the Sun, West of the Moon, Why the Sea is Salt, Two Frogs, The Colony of Cats and The Magic Carpet to the girls. As of this posting, Diana has read The Golden-Headed Fish and The Emperor’s New Clothes on her own!
Reading the books is like reuniting with old friends. It’s much the same feeling I had when I was 11, rushing into the house after school, impatient to open the books at exactly the right pages to re-read my favorite stories.
Still need to take shots of other new arrivals (Odd and the Frost Giants and Marvel 1602, the latter being a delayed Christmas gift from Kira. Soon, soon.)
Here’s a (not very good) photo of the second shrug I made using a pattern created by Mimi Alelis for Cannon Design Studio:
(Note to self: upload a better shot later, preferably taken or modeled by someone else.)
I like this pattern so much that I’m making at least two more shrugs for myself, one for Daren in blue, and another for Diana, in an as-yet unspecified color. The Little One isn’t too keen on the Natural/Undyed WIP I wrote about earlier, so it may still end up frogged.
Incidentally, I met Mimi on Ravelry, when I asked for her help after getting stuck while making Daren’s Cintura con Fiorellini. Thanks so much again, Mimi.
This morning, someone came in and mentioned that something set in motion some months ago would need to be rehashed, re-worked, re-done, and re-started. (Yes, I am deliberately being vague.)
After the person had gone and I had stopped tearing my hair out, I wondered aloud, why wasn’t this studied properly before implementation? Why do it the hard way? And, randomly, would Ford build a car and sell it without checking if it would explode while being driven?
Later in the day, I read a newspaper clipping that reprinted a Wharton article titled Goals Gone Wild: How Goal Setting Can Lead to Disaster. Which is how the universe informed me that yes, Ford DID do something of the sort.