Nancy
I know this is knitting, but we should all be aware that the craft style doesn't matter. Ms. Clara Parkes, a fiber artist and author, had her Optic Waves shawl stolen at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. It was on Friday morning just before the festival started, from the Brooks Farm Yarn booth. She is trying to get the word out about it, so I'm passing the word on to you. Here's a link to her open letter about the "event ". What a shame to have spent all that time making something others would want to see and have a pattern for, only to have it stolen. I hope it comes back to her.
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I know it's been awhile AGAIN! since my last posting. Sorry about that! But now that my week of vacation has started........hopefully I can get something accomplished in a timely manner. ;p
I was reading thru some of my emails and found this posted. I find it absolutely amazing that it can be done, and so beautifully too! Check it out. You'll need to go a click or two into the site before choosing the word "WORK" to see more pictures of her projects. Amazing! Here's a teaser picture. Just don't say I didn't tell you so! 
She crochets over objects. Talk about your freeform! lol Actually, to me it looks more like Irish Crochet without the use of traditional motifs. Either way, it looks good to me!
There are lots more pictures on her site to see and "wow" over.
Have a good night, talk to you soon. : )
Hi Everyone,
It's been a while since I've had time to sit at the computer for a bit. Missyboo is a Brownie, and I had the good fortune to be "Cookie Mom" for the troop this year. This was the week for all monies to be collected and deposited from the girls, have cookie booth sales, and get all orders logged into the Girl Scout cookie system. On top of my work hours changing (and not for the better!) Most of my computer time has been spent this past couple of weeks on cookie emails! Too bad they weren't edible. But then, I guess it's a good thing they weren't. I might not have been able to get out the chair!!! lol
Anyway, I turned in three more chemo hats for my local guild club's collection last Sunday. There were 118 new hats collected! I'm guessing that should put us around the 500 mark since January. We had a visitor late in the meeting who came to learn how to make chemo hats. She's going thru it herself, and wanted to make hats for herself and others too. She was told to go thru the hats gathered at the meeting that day and pick one out for herself. And let me tell you, there were some absolutely gorgeous hats made!!!! It ended up she picked one of the three I had turned in! I was so amazed that she did that, considering how many pretty hats were in the bag! To me, mine were just there, and I drooled over the other ones. Is it that way for everyone else too? lol 
At least this time I got some pictures of the hats I turned in. I kept forgetting to take my camera with me, or to take pictures of the other hats I had made. One of the women at the meeting was nice enough to take these pictures and send them home for me to add to my collection. Now let's see if I can get that picture posted here!
I made these using Lion Brand CottonEase, and I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to make 4 adult sized hats out of just one skein each of these three colors. I plan on submitting a picture and pattern for the fourth hat I made to the Crochet Liberation Front group that started on Ravelry as they are in the process of putting a few of their own crochet pattern books together to be published.
So who knows, I've sold one pattern, now maybe I'll get one pattern published! Now wouldn't that be cool?! ;-D
I'm still plugging away on my mystery top that's a mix of knit and crochet. The upper portion is now done. I had to take both the left and right sides apart and frog them twice since I know so much about knitting. They were a bit on the big side. The front portion of the arm hole area just barely covered to the middle of the breast. That's a bit too "open" for me! Rip-it, Rip-it. Downsizing in progress. LOL But it's good to go now! Just need to finish up on the lower portion, add a sleeve or two, and viola, one done top. Hopefully it will be done in time for the CGOA conference in July!
Well my computer time for the day is up. I need to get some pictures taken for Missyboo's science fair project, and put a hem in a couple new pair of work pants before going to bed. Especially the pants part. I kinda ripped a hole in my last pair getting into the car to go home on Friday. I'm just glad it was after work! It would have been em-bare-assing otherwise! LOL
Have a good night. :-)
Oh, what to make?! I've started on my top from my new stash buy last week. It was originally going to be Hubby's, but after getting a few rows, there was NO WAY he was going to wear that shade of green! I think its great, but it's definitely on the feminine side of the green family! lol Guess that means I get to go do more shopping!!!! YAY! I don't know about you, but usually some other "stuff" follows me home when I go yarn shopping. I'm always glad to see who/what decided to come with me! lol
After a few false starts, I decided to make a top that was a combination of crochet and knit. But nothing like this one! Mine is, and will be, a very simple one in comparison. Only one main color, and maybe another "background" color. So far, it seems to be coming along really well. I'm hoping to have it all done in one piece, or I should say in several pieces that are put together as it goes along. No seaming at all. It starts at the bottom front waist area and goes up and around to the back waist area, all in one piece. Then each side is added.
So far there are only two problems with it. #1: I didn't make the shoulder connector from the front to the back quite long enough. That's what happens when you're at work, no mirror is around, and neither is anyone else for the time being. It felt right, bottom front even with bottom back. When I got home and showed Hubby, the real deal was "laid" out. I did 20 chains to connect the front shoulder to the back, should have done at least 30. So instead of the bottom edges stopping just above the natural waist, it will be more of an empire waist. But I can live with that. #2: I can't figure out (or remember how I did it before!) to get a part of my crochet trims to intertwine with each other. I had planned on using this trim to connect the center front and back to the left and right sides of the top. Like I said, no seaming! I know that doesn't make much sense right now without seeing a picture, but I'm not taking any until I'm done with the project, so you'll have to wait to see! lol And that's all I'm telling you about it, too!
I needed an off-white to compliment this shade of green that was a bit finer weight than the green, so off Missyboo and I went to AC Moore's. We ran into a couple of ladies from my crochet group there at the check out and laughed about the supplies we each had. Yarn and more of it! lol I only went for some off-white. But some grape and rose colored chunky followed us to the checkout. I said ok, you can come home with us. Visions of sugar plums turned into tops are running thru my head. Colored cables, raised textures..............can I make the picture come out into my hands? Only time will tell. I know I won't! ;-D (yet)
Have a good night. : )
Woohoo! We went shopping today! Hubby, Missyboo, and I decided to take a Sunday drive that was multipurposed. It got us out of the house and into the sunshine, we tested out my new GPS system from Christmas (pretty cool!), and put in a re-stock for my stash. Along the way, we found a new site to explore later in the year - Gillette Castle State Park in Connecticut.
I had seen a posting in one of the online groups I belong to concerning a "bin sale" of yarn at the Connecticut Yarn and Wool Co. in Haddam, CT. You would be able to pick out all your own yarns to fill the bin for $300. That made me curious to see what kinds were available. The "bin" was one of those really large-sized Rubbermaid type bins, and if I heard the man right, you kept the bin also! The store carried lots and lots of wools and all-natural wool blends to choose from. In almost any variegated color you could imagine. Mostly from a local farm a couple miles away. All hand dyed. Along with some cottons, mohair and a limited amount of bamboos. But, ooooh, the colors on the bamboos! I think I'm glad I didn't see the bamboos until after I had made my purchase! (I'm still wiping the drool just thinking about them!)
I didn't buy a "bin"ful since the choices to pick from were limited to discontinued colors, changed dye processes, and returns. There was very little solid colors to choose from, and not enough hanks of closely matched dyes for a full garment. I would estimate 99% of the choices were the wools. I have to be careful on that part since Hubby has a wool allergy. We don't know if it's to the lanolin and other oils, or to the wool itself. But I did buy some yarn that was a blend of cotton, silk and lambs wool, and some cottons. I told him I would make a small swatch for him of the blend to wear for awhile in the waistband of his jeans to see if that combination bothered him. Fingers are crossed it's the lanolin and oils in "adult" wool!
But I think I did get a pretty decent deal. I came home with 15 new hanks of cottons and wool blends in an assortment of color, yardage from 200 up to 350/hank. If you made a minimum purchase of $79, you could fill (read stuff!) a small shopping bag to the brim from the "choice" yarns for free. So my new stash averaged out to about $10/hank counting in my freebies. I was happy. I have enough to make a top for Missyboo, and a sweater for Hubby and me. 
Missyboo was in loooooove! We had found a real honest-to-gosh castle and she was there to see it! But it's closed for the season. My niece is coming to stay with us for a while this summer, so we told Missyboo we'd come back when the castle was open for tours. Everything was all smiles again. She was quite excited to "discover" a small picnic area that included a stone fire pit and very small enclosed garden box. Gillete Castle was home to early 20th century (boy does that seem weird to say!!!) actor William Gillette, who was best known for playing Sherlock Holmes on the stage. It was completed in 1919, and in his will, he insisted that it not fall to "some blithering saphead who has no conception of where he is or with what surrounded." It became a state park in 1943. What gorgeous river views!!!!! We'll be sure to take the camera with us in the summer!
When I first opened my Christmas present to see my hubby had gotten me a GPS system for my car, I wasn't quite sure how to take that. Was that his "polite" way of telling me to "get lost"? Did he figure I couldn't find my own way out of the driveway? Or, were we supposed to get out on the road to "sightsee" more? (what, with the price of gas these days?!?!?!?) We had never used it until today. It was pretty cool! It only gave us directions for one wrong turn the whole trip, and then it immediately took us around the block to get back on track. Hubby set it up last night so it would be ready to go first thing this morning. He has the time on the darn thing set wrong. Now we have to take the battery out and start all over again with the set-up. Teehee, snicker snicker, and he figured I would be the one to get lost?! LOL I really don't care if the clock reads the right time or not, but I do know it will be plugged in on the way to NH for the conference in July!
All in all, it was a most excellent trip today! Have a good night. :-)