It was a busy end-of-the-semester, and while I occasionally did a small project, I didn't have the time to write about them. This was kind of unfortunate, because I picked up some knitting needles and some instructions during a stop at home, but I never actually got a chance to play with them. And now the holidays are omg! here and I don't have presents finished, or in some cases, even started.

I wanted to do a pretty scarf for someone, and I started with this pattern, which seems straight forward, but I realized once I had gotten to about motif 30 that I was somehow not joining the motifs properly. I frogged all but the first one, and went back and reread the pattern. Still couldn't see what I was doing wrong. I went and looked at the pictures of the gazillion other projects that people had done, apparently without this difficulty, and figured out a way to do it right. Now I have started over, but I think I am probably done for the night.

The worst part is, I'm not even sure if the person this is for will even like the thing.

After this scarf, I still need too do.

• purple fingerless gloves
• sew in ends on ornaments, starch or glue
• two XL loom hats (one is already started, I just got bored with it)
• something for a gift exchange at a party this weekend
• something for my sister's bf
• finish Jay's wool scarf (he is stationed in Afghanistan this winter. send safe thoughts!)
• make four penguins for my mom

The last two can probably get done after Christmas, since my mom really uses the penguin as a post-holiday decoration, and the accompanying knit helmet-liner my friend is supposed to be making is not finished yet either.

Good grief, it's T-9 days.

Have some items for a charity auction... and once again, I am sort of stuck on what to write on the tags. Usually it just says something like "textile arts by" and my name, which you either know or you don't. My sister had a chop made for me in China, which I was going to use, but I still don't have the right kind of ink for it - some thick vermilion stuff I have to order.

I think that at some point I may switch to "strands together," after my project (hint: read back entries). Not sure about this set. So far for this auction I have a white lace snood (buncover) and I should have another awesome choker done on time.

I finally have found a project idea small enough that I can do them quickly and keep them in stock in an etsy store: lace earrings. I can use a variety of techniques, and they don't take more than ten minutes. Pictured here is a pair I made for myself.

I spent the weekend working on accessories, which I think came out pretty cool. Unfortunately, one of them seems to have gotten misplaced, which is sort of annoying, but it was just one of the footsies. I can make another one pretty easily. Maybe I'll find some cuter buttons for mine. Lisa and I went out and got some nice ones for hers. I also did a pair of and a half of fingerless gloves, but I think you've already seen those.

I am pretty excited about having finally done something with at least some of the silver thread. I was afraid I'd never have any ideas at all. I suppose I need to come up with some sort of earring to match the choker. Anyway, I actually had to do the pattern in a smaller hook size than they suggested, which I thought was interesting. It's amazing to me how a tiny difference - half a millimeter - can transfer to huge size differences in the work.

I should mention that more views of most items are on flickr.

It's not that I haven't crocheted anything lately. It's that I've run out of the Caron Simply Soft I was using on my project and won't make it to the store to buy more until next week. I'm trying to get some out of my system because I start my first clinical student teaching experience on October 20th. I'll be going to an elementary school down the road in Malta. I am both very excited and very terrified by this prospect.

So the most recent completed project was a blanket for a new addition to the family at home, an adorable young calico cat named Rosie Cotton. In my crochet resurgence last winter, I made a blanket for our older calico, Goldberry. Goldberry is not really happy about the interloper in her home, so Rosie lives 98% of the time in my bedroom there. At any rate, I wanted to make the project a little more of a challenge, so I chose four squares from Jan Eaton's 200 Crochet Blocks. What I learned is that I might go absolutely nuts trying to do a whole blanket in blocks that weren't identical - it was difficult to fit them together. I then went home and spent some quality time cuddling and photographing this adorable new cat.

Three more of my projects are featured on their patterns on Ravelry. This is super cool. I already had one - the blue and white bunny - but now I'm starting to feel like maybe I am pretty good. That, or I do obscure projects no one else does. Still waiting to get my hands on a copy of the CLF book. Feel like everyone has seen it but me.

I've been trying to work up some crochet projects for the classroom - and if I can, I secretly suspect that this will be my own crochet publishing undertaking. This is a long-term project though, and likely won't be done until the summer after I graduate, if not longer - I'd like to be an actual teacher before I offer the thing to other teachers. But it's in my head as an idea. Maybe I could find some other crocheting teachers to contribute.

Last but not least, if you use two macs, like I do, and they are often on the same desk, as mine are, and you are cheap like me, check out teleport, which will let you control one mac with the other's mouse and keyboard. It doesn't have shared display functionality, but it does do drag and drop file sharing and synchronized clipboard. This is hot. And it is free, and it did not take me much fiddling with Leopard to make it work. Super kudos to the folks at abyssoft for making it and then making it free.

I will briefly move away from my usual world of crochet geekdom and take a trip into the vast universe of cookery.

When my friend dearmary  moved a few months ago, she gave me her rice cooker, a silvery behemoth of an appliance that I had not previously encountered. My first thought, on viewing it, was to wonder when I was ever going to need to make that much rice. I figured there must be something else I could do with it.

I wandered onto Amazon and found a sweet deal on The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook. It languished in my bookshelf for a while, while the rice cooker itself languished in a cabinet. Eventually, pinkraver  busted them both out to make an awesome asparagus mushroom risotto, and I began to realize the utility of this amazing appliance.

I have begun to suspect that I may never need to cook anything on my stovetop again, which is a HUGE relief in a kitchen that my housemates refuse to help keep tidy. Between it, and the slow cooker, and my beloved little George, I am pretty much golden. I actually have discovered that I like rice, which was previously sort of a boring food that I did not want to eat. I am infinately saddened that it is too big to take home with me to my mom's house this weekend. What will I do? How will I cook anything?

I love you, rice cooker. I love you so much.

I have finished it at last!

The last corner tells me that there is clearly some geometry in this stitch that I don't yet understand. I will have to contemplate it as I begin the full size blanket for my sister, but I think she's chosen a single color. Thank goodness!

The story behind this stitch is that my sister's much-beloved baby blanket is done in it, but we had no idea what it was. My mother just remembered that my great-grandmother could do it at 90-something. So Katie and I spread the blanket out and took some photos of it, up close like, and I started to send them places. Mostly folks couldn't help me, until I got my ravelry membership. I posted it to one of the boards and I had my answer (and a link to a helpful tutorial) in about an hour.

So this piece was initially me messing around with the stitch and some colors I liked together to get a feel for it. What I learned is that even if your yarn is dye-lot-free, you probably should make sure you have enough of it to start a project. That awesome dark purple color got discontinued on me, so I had to adjust my plans accordingly.

I really had to make myself work to finish this piece. I can't say the process was a joy, because of all the color changes, and it's lop-sided. Possibly a more skilled crocheter would have gotten the sides neater or hidden it with a better trim. I'm considering investing in a wooden hook - a shorter one - since Katie picked the same yarn, which was somewhat slippery, even on my ergonomic hook. There's got to be a way to make it a less trying process.

The baby blanket moves ever closer to completion. I wait for the mail. I do homework. I play WoW.

I watch far too much "true crime" type television. It's like a freaking obsession.

And I made this guy for a very special friend.

I did just get in an assortment of eyes from Suncatcher eyes. They're just beautiful. I can't figure out what to do with them yet. I also have some really cute googly eyes with lids and lashes on hand that I want to use - since I now have a hot glue gun.

If you don't read my private blog, then you wouldn't know that we have a new cat at home. My next project is probably a toy for her. I know - distracted again!

Long Projects
Doomling Baby Blanket (more than halfway)
Katie's Blankie 2.0 (yarn not here yet)
John and Amy's Wedding Tablecloth (oh gawd)

Short Projects:
Burp Cloth
Alexus's Doll
Ami for Krista
Amanda's Bird
Heather's Ebil Piggy
3 squarecats, 2 black, one purple
Lisa's Anklets
RDA dragon

Super-short projects:
Hats for WOMS craft sale (on loom)

Future: Christmas
Consider learning to make snowflake ornaments or angels for friends.
C: fingerless gloves
Ma:
G:
K:
D:
M: small dresser filet
Gb: tiny toy of some sort
H:
L:
J:
Mo:
R:
J:
K:
L:
Ku:
C:
Sh:
J: Stripey Hat
F:
Housemates: Something small x7. Meep.

Conclusions:
Less WoW, more crocheting
Acquire DVD player.
Consider not crocheting for R, K, J, L, Ku.

So after writing that last entry, I got around to actually doing some crocheting.Perhaps it was the matzoh ball soup my friend brought over that inspired me. Nothing says "feel better, you bum," like homemade soup, particularly homemade Jewish soup. I hunkered down on the mini futon thing and turned on A & E for a true crime day and got to work. I finished the first of the two doilies in July, but I had never bothered to take a picture, and the second one got bunched up in a baggie as I carried it around with me. I'm not good at blocking these things yet, so I will have to send it home to my mom. She's in Canada for the next five weeks, so it'll be a little curly for a while. I've decided not to start on the third in the pattern trio for a coupe of reasons. For one thing, with the addition of the television, I'm running out of surface space. For another, I keep thinking of other things I need to do.

After I finished the doily, I started on a glasses case for the aforementioned soup friend. I had intended to do it in the same yarn as dad's hat, but textured stitches seemed a bit much with it - it has a lot of body. So I got out the simply soft and a cute carry-along thread I picked up on a whim earlier this year. I may still decide to add a cord to this, but I have two weeks until her glasses arrive.

So while I still need to finish the baby blanket of doom, I also have decided to start some burp cloths for people having new babies - I mean, I have a pound of Peaches and Cream. I was going to start on it, but the cotton seems to have absorbed the original owner's cigarette smoke really well, so I got liberal with the Febreeze and left it in front of my air cleaner for the night. Obviously, I'll wash everything I make with it before I give it away.

Also on the project list is a quick ami to make for the daughter of the owner of my favorite restaurant, who turns three next week. I'm excited, because three means I can go ahead and use safety eyes. (The new owner of Cartagia Piggy's nine-month-old fell in love with it and I worry about it a lot, because I hadn't intended it for her.)

My dad wanted a warm hat for his birthday, one with a lot of coverage and sized for his larger head. I found this awesome chunky wool-blend on sale at my LYS and did this for him on the Knifty Knitter - I try to do most of my hat and scarf type projects on them, to save crocheting time for lace and ami. Not that I'm doing much of those right now, but possibly once I get past my current baby blanket hurdle, I'll have more projects to talk about. He did request a pompom for the top, but the basic pom-pom skills I learned from girl scouts have failed me, I think I'll need to get something to help me make them for yarn this big.

I picked up a really neat book on making braids and cords at the library. I get tired of the crochet-chain cord because it has a lot of give, which makes it not very useful for a lot of things, and I haven't purchased or made a spool knitter.

I inherited a ton of yarn and thread from a friend of my mom's who can no longer crochet. Included in it is a ton of silver thread. I will never need silver thread again as long as I live - perhaps I should look into swapping some of it. I've also got a pound of Peaches and Cream cotton in a natural color. I think that I am going to start making burp rags for expectant friends rather than blankets.

I wanted to avoid political discussion in this blog, but I had to share this captioned photo, which says almost everything for me.

I have been working on the same small project since the first of July. This is -terrible-. But I had it in my market bag and spinach got on it and i had to throw it out and start over (and make heroic efforts to save my thing of thread).

Well, and my WoW toon hit 70. And I took a summer school class.

Look, I was just not in the mood okay? But now I'm gonna finish it - and start Amy and John's wedding preset. As soon as I figure out how to read the chart.

I should have gone to bed and stopped watching Babylon 5 and finished this project later, but instead, it is complete.

I still have this Cascade Copa I picked up at the lys for the project - because I didn't use a damn bit of it. It just turned out to be annoying as all hell to work with. Now I need to figure out something that I can do with it that doesn't involve buying any more. Maybe it just doesn't crochet well, and I can give it to my mom to knit with or something. Still, it maddens me. I want it to be something awesome. Instead, it's sitting on my desk.

Oh well. Next stop, once I write my paper on "Reading Don't Fix No Chevies," is the small doilies. They have such awesome names - fairy wings, and pixie, and sprite. And my thread is blue.

It would totally help if I was reading the book instead of blogging.

Update: No paper. Just reading. 

I got started on my daffodil pens. Once I consulted with my mom about the colors real daffodils are, I found I couldn't quite put the project down. Part of it is that the stuff that mom made for my room is so great. But really, it's just that I love a good crochet project, and this one seems to be right in my sweet spot.

It seems that I'm fated to study flow. I'm reading a book about male literacy for my summer class, and the authors talk a great deal about the kinds of reading tasks where young men do and do not achieve it. Then today's post from Zen Habits was also about flow in your work. I'm not entirely sure I believe that things are non-coincidental, but it does seem like an important concept to understand.

So what is flow? Well, you can certainly look at the wikipedia article, which in this case does not seem to be full of bullshit. Basically, flow is a place of awesome, pleasurable productivity. It requires challenges that can be met, which is what crochet is all about for me. My dad and I sometimes look at my work with a sense of surprise - if you had told us during my childhood that I would have ever developed these sorts of fine motor skills, we would have been very surprised.

Finding flow seems to be key in succeeding regularly in life. Doing work that is a grindstone, that eats your soul ultimately seems to cause damage in the long run. Other tasks which are too simple are also pretty bad for you. Instead, the key seems to be finding a place where challenges really work.

Now I'm going to get back to work on my daffodils.

In lieu of the several projects I have done a few stitches of and wandered off, I will give you this very awesome XKCD.

Here's a hint about my project list. My main focus right now are decorating projects to complement the one-stroke craft items (tray, flowerpots, pictureframes) that my mother did to liven up my room. I found some crochet thread in just the right shade of blue, and a sparkly thread to liven up some flowers (one of the flowerpots is empty, awaiting penflowers).

Along with my pots and pans, I had my folks bring up the box of crochet patterns my mom's classmate passed on to me. Most of the magazines are from the early 90s - and some of the stuff shows it with hideous awefulness, but I have found some other stuff that is timeless and gorgeous. I wish that older magazines and books were in the library on ravelry, but I suppose it's just a matter of time.

I've applied for a job at my LYS and the vintage clothing place with the same owner. Cross your fingers for addiction funding.

So I was beaten into submission by one week's notice of a need for a present, and ended up taking a brief survey of my stash. I was doomed, I decided. So I went to ravelry to find a basic, easy pattern, and now I have produced the lovely you see pictured here.

Really, this was not that hard, and I've already started on a second one, in a slightly more complicated pattern. I feel like I've passed some sort of crochet test.

I wish I had starch and a blocking board, but alas, I do not. Nor am I likely to acquire any.

I think once I am tired of the doilies, and have made some headway on my to-do list, I will learn filet crochet next. I have a terrible temptation to do a set of curtains for my room in Covenant or Order symbols. 5 windows = 5 symbols. It would be total win. If proving to the whole world that I am a huge damn geek means win, anyway.

But seriously, the possibilities fill me with glee. How hard can it be to take care of lace curtains, anyway?

Moving has put me in a crochet void. While my room is now organized enough I wouldn't feel guilty starting a project, it would be nice to have, I don't know, a desk to do detail work at, or a bed to sit on. My to-do list is expanding, and that frustrates me.

• black squarecat
• purple squarecat
• desert-bound squarecat
• something for harley*
• finish baby blanket
• finish wash cloths for mom
• make wash cloth for self
• drawstring bag
• gloves for sarah

*trying to decide between pig, bunny, or bear.

Colchester, Chloe. Textiles Today: A Global Survey of Trends and Traditions. New York: Thames & Hudson Inc, 2007.

Denton, Patricia. Personal Interview. 8 Apr. 2008.

Frost, Patricia. Miller’s Collecting Textiles. London: Octopus Publishing Group, 2000.

“Global Organic Textile Standard.” International Association Natural Textile Industry, 2006. 10 May 2008. < http://www.global-standard.org/ >

“Ingeo” Natureworks LLC. 10 May 2008. < http://www.ingeofibers.com/ingeo/home.asp >

Meadows, Lindsey. “Crafting the Green Dream.” Online posting. 14 April, 2008. Ravelry. 10 May 2008. < http://www.ravelry.com/newsletters/issues/12/articles/crafting-the-green-dream >

National Center for Education Statistics. Women in Mathematics and Science. Washington DC, 2007.

Roach, Kristen. Personal Interview. 23. Apr. 2008.

Stoller, Debbie. Stitch’N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker. New York: Woodman Publishing Company, 2006.

“Threads of Comfort: The Work of our Mothers’ Hands.” Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles. 10 May 2008. < http://lacismuseum.org/threadsofcomfort-08.html >

Walton, Perry. The Story of Textiles. New York: Tudor Publishing co, 192

This toy is also made of the Ingeo yarn, in a particular style known as Amigurumi, a particular Japanese style of crocheting small toys by crocheting in spirals. I learned the art in an online community that I found while I was looking for information on crocheting. The Internet is playing a huge role in the lives of current crafters – it allows the creation for communities based on specific interest rather than constraints of space. While local groups still enjoy popularity, focused technical or interest-based groups allow crafters to focus on the skills and topics of their choice.

Two of the biggest supports for this project were the ravelry.com groups “Greencrafting,” and “This Is What a Feminist Knits Like.” They provided an opportunity for crafters to share their ideas and expertise with one another and with me in a unique way.

The current period of globalization has created a unique opportunity for us to see who the other seven billion people on the planet are, and to examine our connections to each other, and to the earth itself. When we consider the traditional domestic crafts of women, we honor their accomplishments, and can make our own choices about our lives, and the lives of future generations. We have the opportunity to do this now as a community of crafters, both women and men, weaving our strands together across the planet.

Both crafters and producers of craft supplies are starting to think about the impact of the materials they use for their projects and the impact it has on the environment. While there’s certainly something to be said for acrylic in terms of it’s lasting value, making items that are reusable and lasting is only one part of a larger movement towards environmentally friendly materials.

According to the Global Organic Textile Standard, textiles labeled “organic” must be made from at least 95% organic fibers. Many artificial chemicals and carcinogens are prohibited in any stages of their production and the standards are lengthy.

Many other environmentally friendly fiber options exist beyond organics. These include recycled silk from sari factories (sari silk), silks made from banana stalks, as well as fibers made from bamboo and hemp.

The body of this small purse is made from a fiber called Ingeo, which is made from 100% annually renewable resources – namely corn. The corn is put through a simple process to reduce it to plant sugars, which are then fermented and transformed into a high-performance polymer. Fiber is then extruded from the polymer. The fiber is both compostable and chemically recyclable, which makes a nearly closed life cycle. The border is made from mohair, which can be produced organically, and in a closed dye system that produces nearly no pollutants, and the button was salvaged from the trash.