Zeneedle...needleart as life

Am I Hooked?

Never explain: your friends don't require it, and your enemies won't believe you anyway. ...

What a great quote. The only thing I've ever seen an excuse do is make eyes roll. So rather than make your eyes roll with excuses about yesterdays post, I'm declaring that heretofore Monday will be Mellow Monday Post Day. Blog posts will be easy (perhaps even non-existent), at least, during the wonderful, warm, welcome days of spring and summer.  Through May and June (PS East), they may be Mellow Yellow (thanks for that Cindy!).

In large part, the weather wasn't warm or wonderful this weekend, but the rain, often a deluge of rain, can be a knitters friend. There was much knitting, even more spinning, and enough hooking to finish the Hot Pad Project. 

Over the last few weeks I've hooked a little here, hooked a little there. Overall, it's been fun, even if I do feel a little like am jilting the knitting. I'd rather be knitting, but this little bit of looping yarn with a hook has been fun. It certainly hasn't taken much time. One circle (half a hot pad) takes only 15-20 minutes, plus it's slightly addicting, which makes it easy to do the second half. In an hours time, there it is, one darling, rustic, durable, (slightly primitive), and very useful, hot pad!

This is a hot pad you can USE, albeit, not as beautiful as some I've seen from the swap group, but it will keep your hand safe.  The question remains as to whether this experience has hooked me on (once again) on hooking?  It has been easy, fun and quick and I may just keep the hooks at hand.

This rubber band ball has taken about 10 years to build.  It's rubber bands all the way through, weights 2.5 lbs and is about 5" high.  It bounces fairly well, too.  What do you think I should do with it?  I'm so over collecting bands and I'm tired of it hanging around the house.  Rubber bands just don't hold up the way they used to and some of the newer bands are already starting to rot.  I'd just give it a toss in the trash, but I know someone has an better idea.

 

Leave your most creative answer and you could win a prize. 

The Hook with Socks

Usually there are four different projects on my needles, but at this time I feel more than complete with only 2 things to knit and one big hooking project.

While hooking I seem to move my whole arm and shoulder in a way that causes soreness. I need to concentrate and figure out how to avoid whatever it is I’m doing and nip this aggravating problem in the bud. I'll take the process slowly and carefully so I can get to the finish without injury. I'm blaming the big hook and tough yarn. The pads will keep fingers from burning, however, which is the point.

The hooking has only begun, and would you believe, I'm already dreaming of making Babette….in the future…after resting my sore shoulder…someday…not right now…(holy cow). We'll see if that desire stays after making 10 of the Tumbledown pads (hot pads need to be double thick), as you can see I have 8 more to go. It has been fun to play with color and I am enjoying the hooking process. But, something else, something bigger? Hmm.....

There is no rush to start the next sweater and maybe that's naive, and perhaps smug, but the need to finish this pair of Monkey's is strong.  It feels right to enjoy the simple knitting, familiar knitting of yet another Monkey. The last Monkey was well over a year ago, but the pattern is forever etched on my brain...this is Monkey number 5, after all.  The other day a friend said I had OKD not OCD...I'm inclined to agree.

Enjoy your weekend...we're hoping to see the sun and feel its warmth!! No more snow!

What's Going On?

The spinning is easy...

Spirit Trail superwash BFL, two bobbins finished, one to go. (SOCKS!)

Heavy petting and copious drooling....

Spirit Trail 50% baby camel/50% tussah silk, dyed in peacock colors (TO LIVE FOR!)...

Planing, playing, hooking?

Sewing?

Perhaps.

Your Mileage My Vary

Have you ever kept track of your yarn mileage….how many miles of yarn you knit in a month or a year? I've been thinking about keeping track for 2009. By the time Lily and the Cedar Socks are finished I'll have knit 6,788 yds. That's 3.8 miles for 2009, so far. This might be a good year to keep track as the yarndage as it will include 12 sweaters worth. Of course, I will also include the mileage of my crochet journey, too.

I ventured into a big box craft store and bought some Sugar and Cream. For the Potholder/Hotpad Swap we can only use cotton or wool, and a thick cotton potholder sounded like a good way to go. In my stash is a bunch Tahki Cotton Classic in pretty colors, too (used for face cloths). I'll play around with both, but the sturdy, thick SnC may make a little more sense.  Potholder designs and inspiration seem to be unlimited (at least on Ravelry) and there are loads of vintage patterns available, too.  I think I've found the one I'll use (TBA).

An account executive dropped by our office yesterday and brought some goodies. The cookies look better than they taste (they might have benefited from a bit longer in the oven, imo), but they were so pretty I just had to share.

Yes, this post is to distract while I finish up another project.  Tomorrow something beautiful this way comes.

Outside the Box

Since I'm knitting outside my color box, I may as well stay on the outs. Before I was a knitter I was a hooker and I made everything from crochet.  Sweaters, vests, granny squares, lace, afghans, slippers...baby stuff, tons of other stuff.  In 1974 I learned to knit and rarely went back to the hooks.  This pineapple afghan is the only piece of crochet I've made since 1974 (made in 1986), except for the most recent hooked adventure, the Larger Than Life Bag (Rav link).

It took me two days of deliberation (with myself) to decided to join in the Potholder Swap.  Adrian has gone a little over the top for crochet as of late, as has Maryse. I'm always enticed, but never drawn completely in...until now. The potholders must be crocheted and that gave me pause...thus the deliberation, but in the end it sounds fun and a little different.  Time to oil up my rusty crochet skills, dust off the hooks and jump in. You have until tomorrow to do the same!

I'm spending the weekend with Lily. Whatever you do have a good one!

Livin' Larger

Yes Kim, I got a pedi last night and it was grand as it has been too long.  (No iris were hurt for this photo, the rain knocked them over last week.) 

Yesterday a bit of Kismet happened. Vicki saw my newly dyed blue yarn and named it Blue-tiful (Is that not perfect?) and Cassie published a new sock pattern.  I think the newly dyed, and newly named, yarn was meant to be knit into Loksins!, don't you?

A few months ago, if you'd asked, I might have said that there just wasn't much in crochet patterns to entice me away from knitting.  That was before I saw the Larger Than Life Bag on Lynne’s blog and thought it would be very fun to be 'vintage' (as the younger folks call what I call retro.  How'd I get to be retro OR vintage, anyway.  Hurmph.)  I jumped in with both feet and enjoyed wielding a hook again. It was amazing how quickly this project came together, and ultimately, the end product. The 'process' just wasn't knitting and, therefore, not as much fun. 

The idea of pulling out the sewing machine and doing something I hadn't done in a long, long time felt daunting at first.  This little Bernina came into my life around 1972-3 and by todays standards that would make it vintage, right?  It made most of my clothes (with my help) for several years and has stood me in good stead. A few years ago I had it refurbished and, once again, works like new. It's a basic machine with few extras, but it does a good job...a great job, in fact.  Sadly, it now resides  in the closet most of the time.  After pulling her out into the light of day and spending Saturday morning at her side, I think there maybe more sewing in our near future.  It wasn't as fun as a barrel of monkeys, but I would love to have a couple of skirts for warmer weather and no longer feel adverse to the idea of sewing them myself.  But, back to the bag...

The fabric on the outside is the same shade of brown as the edges of the bag. The fabric inside is a soft coral pink stripe that echoes the colors in the squares.  There is no zipper (I never use them unless I'm flying) and no pockets (unlike Vicki I always need a purse), so it went together simply, quickly (sorta) and fairly easily.  The handles were a stroke of genius are from a decided bit of laziness. While wandering (in awe) through the bigbox fabric store, I happened by the drapery isle and the drapery tiebacks caught my eye.  Wouldn't, couldn't, shouldn't they make good handles for the bag?  Since they were returnable (and inexpensive) I took them home to try, and YES, they worked!  The floppy handles in the magazine just didn't do it for me and I was happy to find this solution.

This Larger Than Life Bag holds a lot of yarn, so it is well named, too.  Count me happy!

Pattern:  Larger Than Life Bag from Interweave Crochet Spring 2007
Yarn: Louet Gems Sport - multiple colors
Time to Knit Crochet:  April 15 - May 22, 07