writer's blocks

i made some more progress on the 200 blocks afghan, this picture is of the squares that will be the centre of the blanket, at least that's what i've decided so far:

another random square, loved the pattern, not sure about the colour placement, but that's something i can decide as i go along.

the pictures are not that great, i'm having a harder and harder time trying to get decent shots out of this camera, and end up having to do a lot of editing, but you get the general idea.

the last one i've done is called 'old vienna', not really sure why, unless the little filigree designs are suppose to emulate some sort of bavarian decoration.

i quite like this pattern, again the picture is just not doing it justice. somehow the colours seem to look different in every picture, but they are all the same, trust me.

incognito...

this camouflage item may be a hat for cee, or it may be a tea cosy, he hasn't decided yet.

i also have a similar ball of yarn that may or may not be masquerading as a pair of matching gloves...it hasn't decided yet.

"pengooins is practically chickens..."

yes, it's true, nothing says merriment more than a crocheted penguin with a red vest and ear muffs:

die-hard looney tunes fans will recognize the post title as a quote from one of my all-time favorite cartoons with bugs bunny, playboy penguin, and some poor, starved tramp on a box-car train who uttered the line whilst looking hungrily at the penguin....no worries, the cute penguin never got masticated, and neither will this little guy...that is unless the killer shih-tzu gets hold of him...

i do loves me some penguins, and i found this pattern in a super book called 'tis the season to crochet' by bobbie matela...aside from having the afore-mentioned and pictured penguin, along with a myriad of charming accessories patterns to go along with it, like scarves, wreaths, candy canes, christmas lights, etc., there are some really cute decorations in this book that practically scream out "crochet me!" plus there are even some festive clothing patterns in there like hats, mittens, snazzy evening wraps and jackets and a purse. in my opinion, this book is really worth a look see, it may even rate a hug or two.

and this just in...the 'scarf that never ends'......

still hasn't.

but you can see that i've definitely been working on it, because here's what it looked like when i blogged about it last:

yeah, sure, it was last MARCH, but that's just semantics, so stop being so picky...i told cee he will be able to (not) wear it this winter...and i'm sure he won't...not wear it, that is...

lest we forget

today is the day we honour the men and women who served or still are serving in the armed forces to protect our country. at the 11th hour of 11th day in the 11th month, we pause for a moment of silence to remember the thousands of men and women who sacrificed their lives fighting for freedom during war or peace keeping missions.

we wear poppies on our coat lapels because a canadian soldier and physician, lt.-col john mcrae, saw poppies growing next to the grave of a friend who had died in battle and was inspired to write the poem 'in flanders fields', which is recited in some form at every remembrance day ceremony. i made this poppy, but i've also bought several--they are famous for 'jumping' off your coat--because the proceeds go to the royal canadian legion, helping ex-servicemen and women.

don't forget to remember

blog blanket blatherings

so yeah...i think winter is officially on its way...we've already had the ceremonial 'turning on of the furnace' and the rest, well it's all inevitable...like making afghans...for me a 'winter' thing to do.

this square (and the next) is from the "200 crochet blocks" book--which i love, just ask cee, and he will regale you with stories about me hugging this book--was that so wrong?!--the colours look much better in the real, but don't most things? Plus our camera isn't exactly the newest anymore...it serves its purpose, i suppose. the dark square is a plum/purple, then sage green, what i would call a delft blue, and then gray.

i have been having the hardest time picking just a few squares out of this book...there are just so many that look good to me...incidentally if you are thinking of picking up this book, do so!! i really couldn't recommend it any higher--come on, if a grown woman hugging it isn't a good enough review of it i don't know what is!


i will probably only go with about 4 or 5 different squares for my first afghan, all with these four colours.

hopefully by the end of this winter i will have decided on which square patterns to use, but i wouldn't bank on it....it's a bit strange, really, i'm not usually this indecisive. no wonder though, because the possibilities are endless...in case you were wondering, i really do love this book!


i joined the crochet along over at the 'ville so hopefully seeing everyone else's projects coming together will inspire me to stick with it.

hey, that looks oddly familiar...

well it should...that is, if you are a faithful reader of my blog...okay, stop laughing, it could happen...but for those who don't frequent this corner of my fuzzy brain, this is my yo-yo scrap afghan that i started...oh...last may and i abandoned it when the humidex made our temperatures go over 47 celcius last summer (that's 117 F for all you fahrenheiters) plus when i realized all the little ends that have to be woven in with the joining of each little yo-yo, i kind of stuffed it away in favour of less tedious projects.

but with the falling of the leaves and the lowering of temperatures comes the instinctive need to crochet blankets, afghans, throws, rugs, anything with which you can cover up. I dragged out ole 'scrappy' and started working again. i have disciplined myself to try to join at least five yo-yo's a day...this way it will get done, albeit eventually. i think in spite of all the tedium it will look nice and 'homey' once it is done.

there is another ghan started...it's a bit of an experiment though so no pictures...i don't know how far i'll get with it but we'll see...it all sounds so mysterious, doesn't it? like some freaky weird science project or something. really it's not that bad....or is it? (cue spooky music...fade out)

baa ram ewe

well, 'socktober' is almost over, and i am almost done my second pair of knitted socks (blue ones for cee this time) i've been scanning the sock patterns ever since i picked up the double-pointed needles. it truly is addicting. my kitchener stitch is getting better with every sock, too, which is somehow very gratifying. yes, it really does take so little to make me happy.

i did a pattern test for one of the clever ladies at the forum:

this sweet little stuffed sheep doubles as a change purse, very cute and not hard at all to make.

who you gonna call?!

the 'mystery cal' on the 'ville concluded last week, and here's the result. this ghost with the most will most likely end up as a tote bag (with a similar, suitable spooktactular picture on the other side of course) or a basket/box lined to put treats in.

now that i've done a graph and changed colours (even though it was only 2) i am feeling a bit more brave and may tackle something a little harder...we'll see.


and, as promised, here's the 'scary backside' of the graph--no, i won't show you my scary backside, so stop asking, or relax, in case you were quaking with fear--it wasn't as scary as i thought it would be (flashback to youthful embroidery days, when mom always said 'the back of your piece should look as pretty as the front!'--this is why you don't see any embroidery work done by yours truly!)

this was a really fun way to introduce myself to this technique.

one sock, two sock

and just like that, i'm a sock knitter:

socktoberfest rolls along...these things may be just as addicting for me as dishcloths...there's already a pair for cee on the needles right now. i must say, the tamale socks are very cozy to wear, and fit my feet exactly...in the past the foot part would be too long in regular socks for me, because, you know, i have ridiculously small feet--although with age they seem to be growing...or is that just spreading--all i know is my shoe size is bigger than it used to be.

uh...what is that?!

this time i honestly don't know...but i have a sneaky idea what it might be. i'm doing this as part of a 'mystery crochet along' with a suitable 'hallowe'en-type' theme on the 'ville, hosted by one of the clever ladies there. We get 8 rows posted every day (you are looking at 16 rows there, hence two day's worth) i have been wanting to try a graph or intarsia project for a while, but could never summon the nerve--now it looks like i've begun one without realizing it. when it's done i will be sure to post the final result--including what the 'scary' back side looks like--no, not mine, the project's.

thanks, that was fun

well, not really, but what can you say when you look out the window on october 12th and see this:
i can think of a few things, most of them not fit for print, and let's just say they got said, by both of us, when we saw 'it' coming down...'it....that four-letter word...snow...at first i convinced myself it was just tiny hail...but alas, i was bobbing like so much flotsam and jetsam in the river of denial...and yes, those are my flowers getting dumped on...poor things, they are looking most sickly today i'm afraid. the sad part is that they were still doing relatively well, but now...not so much. the snow is gone, but the chill remains. snow in october is nothing new for me...when you grow up living fairly close to mountains, you can see snow in every month of the year...if it's spring or summer, it just doesn't last...more like thick rain...but here...they don't usually see snow here until late november or december.

we didn't even get it as bad as our u.s. neighbours to the south...apparently they got 60 cm in buffalo alone...many power outtages and such..and a few of our tv channels that come from that area are out as well so they must be having problems. not sure how far the storm travelled, but it was a strange one, to be sure.

i finished the tamale sock and am almost done it's fraternal twin...i am liking knitting socks more and more, so there will most probably be a large pile of homemade socks soon, to add to the ever-growing stash pile in the corner our the living room, which cee has taken to calling 'mt. kiki'--his subtle way of saying 'clean up yer crap'.

old dogs and new tricks

do you notice anything different about this knit stockinette swatch?

how about now?

something a little different about the needle, right? like the fact that there's a hook on either end?...well, that's because this 'knit' stockinette swatch is actually tunisian crochet! ooooh, ahhh...astounding, right? yeah, yeah, i know, whoopee ding dong...but hey, it excited me...i learned how to do three different tunisian stitches, thanks to kim over at crochetville, who offered a free online tunisian class....which i actually missed (because the older i get, the more i forget) but the text is on her blog and i learned just by reading it! this stitch pictured is called 'tunisian knit' stitch, which was the one that blew my mind because it looks so much like knitting...she also taught the 'reverse afghan' and 'afghan' stitch....it's a little funny, because while knit stockinette tends to curl in from the sides, this tunisian knit curls horizontally from the top and bottom...but that could be because i'm just learning, and i'm told that tunisian tends to be tighter than regular crochet, so it could just be my beginner attempts...the back of it is also a lot more bumpy than knit...the reverse afghan stitch resembles garter knit. i love to learn new things, so i was really psyched...and i just learned that the majority of times i type the word 'stitch' i actually type it 'stich' and have to go back and correct it....i should point out that the hook in the picture is not a 'tunisian' hook, but something called a 'cro-hook' or 'double-ended hook', but it worked all the same...a tunisian crochet hook has one hook at one end and a stopper or knob at the other, but is longer than a regular hook...of course i think one or both of the hooks is also called an 'afghan hook', just to make things more confusing...

at least someone was excited for me:

um...

yeah....

that's..

um...

really...

great...

got any snacks?

some progress on the tamale sock....it would seem to me that i'm over the 'hard' part, or more like the most confusing part, which for me was the heel...so far i am really enjoying knitting socks, and have been eyeing other patterns to try....cee thinks that's pretty weird, since i don't normally wear socks, but you never know, this red beauty could adorn my pudgy little foot someday, and he might--probably--just end up with a pair or two... gee, those double pointed needles look quite intimidating, don't they? rather like they belong with the accoutrements of a torture chamber...'fetch the dpns, boris...i'll make him tell me where the microfilm is!!'

kicking my heels up

is this a sock i see before me?

well...not yet...but it very well could be...someday. maybe. thanks to some inspiration i decided to take the plunge into 'socktober' well, more like i decided to learn how to knit socks...i have crocheted them before, but never knit, always secretly coveting other people's talent for knitting socks.

you can see by the picture i have only just started, but so far so good...let's see how long it takes me to get stuck...i keep calling it the 'hot tamale' sock...no, you don't have to tell me that it's not necessarily 'normal' to give inanimate objects names...but when i look at it i think 'hot tamale! i'm knittin' a sock!'

that old feeling

it's been one of those weeks...i've started and frogged at least 4 different projects, started a crimson cardigan (the pattern states it's easy) and made not one, not two, but three errors in the first 3 inches (it's worked in one piece to the armholes) and had to rip it all out--yes, my working on it every day for almost a week only got me 3 inches in...for a minute i actually considered leaving in the mistakes as they weren't that noticeable and i was feeling lazy, but i ended up with the wrong amount of stitches, and now it's all gone. i keep hoping i'll get some inspiration, but it looks like i've hit a slump.

i don't know if it's the weather--it's rained almost every day for the past two weeks--or what my problem is, but i just feel so blah and can't get into anything i've got going here. i look through all my patterns and search online and nothing seems to interest me.

i keep wanting to start an afghan, but we have so many here--now i know some of you are saying 'is there such a thing as too many afghans?'--but in my case i suppose there is...we have nowhere to put any more, and i'd make them for family, but sending them to my family and friends would cost a fortune in shipping, and cee's mum can make her own....dilemma, dilemma.

i did finish up a few things for my sister's friend's new baby:


i like the hat, it reminds me vaguely of jiffy pop, which we used to get when we were kids...the popcorn in the little metal pan and when you pop it on the stove the top of it expands like a big dome...you can still get it in some stores here. i also made a cardigan with this yarn, just using a plain stockinette stitch.

i've done a few charity squares and tested a hat pattern, in the hopes that it would get me going again, but nothing seems to work. i know this feeling won't last long, and i'll be banging away on something new soon, it's just a little depressing.

i even did a search on knitting and/or crocheting groups in my area and could only find one, and it's a knitting group, they specify knitters only, which i thought was really snobby and elitist--i mean come on people! what about those of us who do both? i'm surprised they didn't specify what colour or religion the people had to be, too! where on earth did all this animosity between crocheters and knitters come from anyways?