Valentines Update (or I love Valentines day and had to post over a week late))

This is a card I made with a big red love balloon!

A Pizza that we made, sadly this one didn't come out heart shaped like they normally do.

A beautiful pair of warm pink mitts made out of Manos lovingly made by my mom.

This photo of the red printed helmet I traced from a book I was given a while ago called "Faeries" it has beautiful images of faeries and elves, dwarves and every kind of magical creature you could imagine. This is a screen print that I did for Truckman for Valentines day of the helmet of the Irish king of faeries

These chocolates that I devoured with no shame.

Pinks, Permanence, and the Thunderbolt Kid

The photo to the left is of a scarf that I knit with some hand spun that I recently finished. I love the irregular texture of the way it knit up. I have a couple of batts leftover from a longtime ago that I was going to save for some needle felting, but will maybe try to spin. Usually by the time I have the tension set right on my wheel I've used up all my supplies to spin with!

   I've been reading the newest issue of The Permaculture Activist, a great publication that comes out 4 times a year each with a general topic, but comprised of articles written by permaculture practitioners, farmers, activists, and all the titles that you could come up with to call people! Past topics have included permaculture at home, Kids and Permaculture, preparing for peak energy descent etc.

   I'm also reading M.F.K Fisher who I recently read about in Ready Made Magazine, a mag that I mentioned earlier on a couple of posts ago. I'm reading As They Were, a sort of childhood memoir, poignant memories intermingle with prose about cooking, food, family life, and one persons experience that make up the history of our country and it's evolution over the last century, from what it once was.

   

To add one more to the list, I'm listening to a book on tape by Bill Bryson called The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. I've been told to read Bill Bryson for some time now, and I'm glad I'm actually listening to this book, as he is the reader. That is unusual in the book on tape realm. It's his memoir of growing up as a baby boomer in the 1950's and all the humor and real life obeservation that comes with having grown up during that time period. It is fun remembering a lot of common kid memories that lots of people share no matter what time you grew up in, and also learning through his eyes about the culture of mid century America. 

     I can envision being his childhood cohort in his adventures on the ice rink, the bicycle, and the icecream truck, even though the latter never came through my neighborhood as a child...I didn't grow up in the suburbs so I got the whistling wind in the pine trees instead. And of this I am very very glad.

Projects Smobjects

This is a bottle of Australian wine, part of which was consumed while I was making brownies and garlic pesto grilled cheese (mmm) and while other people were fixing bass guitars and broken Volkswagen Rabbits.

This is lovely pink frosting waiting to go on a batch of brownies in honor of a lovely dog that I know that has now passed on to that big field in the sky. Though I'm afraid she might not have been able to eat them herself, I'm sure she's snacking on all kinds of delicious doggie treats in dog heaven. Miss you Miss April.

In craftland, I've learned how to crochet a circle, I'm learning to knit a cable scarf in two colors, improvise my own patterns for 2 simple scarfs (check out my ravelry page for the Little Wing scarflette) and I've learned that yarn addiction is a fast and loose pursuit. No messing around with people that engage in this activity!

I've been reading Ready Made magazine lately. I got a couple of cool craft magazine that were sitting out for free on the stoop of a local smalltime general store, and that was how I got turned on to reading Ready Made. There is an upcycled scarf that they sew together using cut up sweaters and then dye them to your desired color. And also lamps, patchwork pillows, tables, clothing....

Orange Rumples

This is a picture of "Joe's Scarf" also titled "Orange Rumples" which is a Birthday present suspended in a serious state of delay. Hopefully this warm toasty gift will be delivered before long. If you'd like to check out more pictures you can check out my ravelry page, I've got a few up on there. As my first crochet scarf, this project took four skeins of  Berrocco Ultra Alpaca yarn and more than a few hours of labor, hopefully Joe G. will be pleased.

    Today when temperatures were lifted again (thank you weather gods) from the lovely 18 degreees below zero that we've been having, it felt perfectly appropriate to wear a simple sweatshirt and fingerless gloves outside. I can only imagine living in the upper midwest. Bless em and their cold toes. 

I've been marveling at this new site. It's called The Selby, (Todd Selby) and all photographs are of peoples living spaces. Artists, designers, crafts people, musicians, and all the places that they inhabit. The images provide small snipets into these peoples lives and are very inspiring to look at for fun and for decorating ideas and general creativity. 

Truckman and I watched a good documentary last night called 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama. A man sets off into Tibet on a shoestring budget to make a film and decides to attempt getting an interview with the Dalai Lama. Beautiful scenery, some obviously horriffic brutality of the Tibetan people, and much laughter and wisdom from the Dalai Lama. We enjoyed his happiness and frankness about humanity, peace, human relationships, and simple wisdom.

 Which leads me to this story...

Several weeks ago I was standing in line at a pharmacy at a huge chain store which I'm not proud of. I had had a disturbing argument with someone and all I could think about was how angry I was (this was just before New Years, and my plans were seemingly being ruined before my very eyes!) and I was festering there as I arrived at a line of no less than 15 people waiting for drugs at the pharmacy. All of a sudden I look over and there are two monks traditional dress on, walking through the shampoo aisle. Holding nothing in their hands, moving quickly, I only saw their backs, and their shaved heads, and then they were gone. 

   I took that as a sign, and decided to calm down. I started laughing at myself and felt an instant sense of relief.

 I have no doubt that they showed up for me, and maybe a few other people in the store that night, and man I was glad they did.

    

Inventory

This past weekend I helped out doing inventory at our local yarn shop. Many hours (not as long as some) un stacking, counting, and then re-stacking gobs of yarn. The picture here is of the mission falls yarn. I'm eventually going to make a scarf out of the deep red color pictured. Thebeautiful green sweater that you can only see half of is a design of Norah Gaughn who I love, but do not have the skills yet to knit anything of her design! The picture does not do her design justice so check out the links. 

   The Truckman and I are painting a room in his house together. A simply awful blue put there by the previous resident is horid! This person was a very un-skilled painter and managed to get dark blue paint on the rug, the ceiling which has grout on it, the wooden door, just everywhere. They also managed to paint over stickers and make it a miserable mess to repare. I beg you, if you are painting a room in the place where you live, either do it right, or let the resident do it! 

So we're slowly transitioning this horriffic scene to a lovely pale green color. I'll put up some before and after shots when it's finished. It would be too awful to only show you the before pictures!

An Oldy but a Goody

I decided to post a of picture here (but also on my ravelry account) of a scarf that I made a while ago. It's from Kids Knitting by Melanie Falick. A truely beautiful book with projects on how to make knitted puppet washclothes, a drop shoulder sweater, a snake, knitting needles, bean bags, all in beautiful colors and designs. I've always enjoyed looking at it.

   I helped out at the local yarn shop doing inventory over the weekend. Perhaps I'll post some shots of how neat and tidy I made some of those shelves when I was done with them! We all worked in teams, calculating and counting,Thanks to my mom for being my hard working number taking team mate we got it all done! We all had fun discovering the hidden yarns in the shop that we never knew existed. 

    I've got my eye on a few things now. I've set my sights on yarn for making the Williams Pullover Sweater and a pair of socks with some leftover yarn I have from making a hat for a friend. Hopefully my mother will be showing me how to do the latter!

I've acquired a renewed thirst in mystery's that I haven't had a for a while I got this and this at the library over the weekend and today. No I have no shame when it comes to mystery's, it's giving me something do when I go to the gym. One is on tape and one is a book. I also downloaded a few podcasts from the long list on crafsanity. Just find the descriptions on the long sidebar on her site, and then I just looked up the number on her listing under podcasts on i-tunes and downloaded the ones I wanted. I started with Amy Butler who's amazing fabrics you can find here.

Good and Neat

I have embarked upon cleaning a large portion of my living space, getting rid of clothes, books, art supplies, all things that were once useful to me, but are now finding their way to new homes and new people who will actually enjoy them. The main reason for the purge of items was to clean up my practice space for music. I have a spot to record, keep my instruments, music books, stereo's, mic stands, you name it there is a lot to fit. Here is a shot of my newly organized music area.

        This is a handmade slide that Truckman made for me out of a beer bottle neck. He sanded it, ground it down all by hand. He cut the neck from the main part of the bottle using a sharp stone and scratching the glass in a circle till it just popped off. This part would be much easier if you had a glass cutter. It produces a very nice warm sounding slide when played on a resonator guitar. I enjoy using it because it's the real thing!

This is perhaps the best late night snack I can think of. Candied ginger with green  apple slices and peanut butter. I suggest you try it if you can get your hands on some good salty peanut butter (Teddie is one of my favorite brands) and dried ginger slices with big granulated sugar crystals.

I bought more yarn to finish crocheting a scarf. My very first crocheting project. Check out the link to Berocco's great color pallet of Ultra Alpaca yarns. I'll post some pictures of the scarf later. 

We're gearing up for a bunch of snow here later today and into tomorrow. Lots of knitting to happen in the next day or so I hope when we get snowed in!