Tiff Crochets

Andy and Maddie spent Father’s Day playing on the Wii, while I was able to sneak off to finish picking up a few items for dinner tonight. I cooked a citrus-glazed pork tenderloin, parmesan risotto and green beans for the dad in the house. Maddie helped out by setting the table and then cleaning off the table after dinner. Laura is gallivanting around Montana at the moment and has not called yet for her daily check-in. She is enjoying her two weeks of one-on-one time with her grandma.

I finished picking up the last few items for my tawashi swap at Ravelry today and found a never-before-seen (by me) magazine. Have you seen Living Crafts ? It was full of many craft options that are budget-conscious and rather eco-friendly.

I’m starting to work on a new handbag tonight while the Wii play continues (it’s their day - non-stop Zelda and tennis would drive me mad). I’m making Jennifer Fletcher’s Meadow Handbag . I’m looking forward to seeing more patterns, both crochet and sewing-related on her site Fable Handmade Goods in the future. I tried to use something from my stash, but all of my good yarn is set aside for projects-in-progress, so I picked up the new Vanna’s Choice Baby in Berrylicious while at Michaels today. I wanted to go with a green because it seems to be my new favorite color, but went with the pink after finding a perfect set of wooden buttons in the clearance aisle. I think I have the handles already, but if not, I’ll head to Hobby Lobby tomorrow before driving to Houston for the week.

The dishes are done, the kitchen semi-clean before the pecan pie gets taken out of the fridge, the family is beating their virtual opponents at tennis, and I am going to sneak off to take a bath (hot temps in Houston mean lots of swimming to be done!) while all is quiet.

… on this heart of mine. Because you’re mine, I walk the line.

Although this beautiful yarn from Lone Star Arts has more of a deep green when you see it under the right lighting, it reminds me of the man in black, Johnny Cash. Plus, it’s named “Walk”. Now, every time I look at it or think about what to do with it, I sing “Walk the Line”. My attempts to do the knit thing with the socks just isn’t cutting it, so I’m thinking of ideas on how to use beautiful, handpainted fingering weight yarn in ways that show off the colors and portray crochet in a pleasing light.

Where did I get this beautiful yarn, along with an amazing laceweight yarn also from Lone Star Arts, MadelineTosh Frida, and so much more? At the DFW Fiber Fest back in April where I also found out that I do not spend enough time socializing in person with fellow fiber lovers. I need to get to all of the meetings that are close to me. Unfortunately, everything seems to fall when either I have a prior obligation, the girls have a prior obligation, or Andy has bowling. I do have Mondays free and I think there is a knitting group that meets at a local coffee shop. Just what I need - coffee and adults to hang out with. I’ll be a blabbering boob and they’ll cringe when they seem me walk through the door because I won’t stop talking!

I am also keeping a close watch on the skies tonight. Yet another storm system is moving through the DFW area, creeping me out with the tornado warnings. It’s at times like these that I miss hurricanes and the Gulf Coast.

My antibacterial acrylic yarn arrived today all the way from Japan, thus beginning what promises to be a great addiction. While I love the look of most amigurumi, it has a fatal Tiffany-flaw in being three dimensional and requiring tight stitches. It makes my hands hurt so much that I lose the joy in attempting anything ami. I’ve tried and I will not share the horrific aftermath of my work. Look at this gorgeous tawashi creature though!

I ordered the yarn on etsy, after reading about it in the Tawashi Town group on Ravelry.  There are two members who sell the antibacterial acrylic yarn, OkinawaOtterKnits and Ichigonopantsu.  I’ll be ordering more soon because I easily see me using up all of this yarn over the weekend.  If you are a family member reading this, I should warn you now that you’ll be getting a few of these on your next birthday.

I ended up having the server go down on me last night while in the midst of finishing this post, but alas!  That gives me the chance to post photos of two of the three tawashis I made today.  I gave the other one away to one of the kids in my class.

This is the Ohina Tawashi (Rav link).  Now that I have the knot placement down, this is getting easier and easier.  This poor person is headless until after our trip to the school book fair as soon as I publish this post.

This is the Linked Ring Tawashi (Rav link) (direct link to PDF here), and I am proud to say I interpreted the Japanese pattern all by myself!  I wish I had done the outer edging in the black.  Of course, I can always make more!

Off to the book fair!

I’m too excited to go to bed to catch up on the hours I missed this week because of my other obsession (yay!  The ‘Stros beat the Cubs today!).  Tomorrow I am heading to the DFW Fiber Fest, held in some place called Addison.  I know approximately where it is and recognize the main highways, but it’s not in my lovely new home of Ft. Worth but somewhere in between here and that other city known as Dallas so I know the chances of me getting lost are rather high.  It is, thankfully, in the opposite direction of Texas Motor Speedway, which is on my major road of choice (and most familiar) in the Westoplex, and hosting some crazy race this weekend.  I am so giving away the fact that the only car racing I know involves Tom Cruise driving in a Chevy Lumina.  I am hopelessly tempted to drive north a few miles and at least see if I could hear Big & Rich playing tonight at the Speedway.

I have much more exciting links to share with you:

Did you see the CRAFT video podcast with Jess and Casey from Ravelry??  I am definitely wearing my Rav button tomorrow and Saturday at the Fest.

My sewing skills are limited (but growing!  I’m trying!), but I definitely want to make a few of Elizabeth’s bags in the future.

I thought I could find more exciting links to share, but I was distracted by thoughts of what the heck to bring with me tomorrow to work on!  I think I’ll bring Something Red and the Seija blanket so that I can show off my wicked multi-fiber craftiness while doing some volunteer work at the yarn/raffle table.  I’ve packed my camera so hopefully I will remember to take photos.

Hi!  I’m alive!  Things were so out of control hectic during February in this household that I don’t think I have ever been so happy to see March arrive safely and on time (some times it does seem to arrive late, so thus, “on time”).  If only March would also behave and not bring a freak snow storm immediately following a nice, warm 80 degree day all will be well.

I’ve started a few new projects that I’ll try to take photos of tomorrow during daylight hours.  For now, I have pictures of an amazing complete rainbow that appeared after a storm about a month ago.  Bare with me, there are three photos so you can see the complete thing.

More pictures of the sky!  The girls and I sat outside watching the total lunar eclipse a few weeks ago.  This is the best photo that I managed to take over two hours.

I bought a few skeins of new yarns at my LYS last week and can’t wait to find my yarn winder so that I can play with it.  Until then, the yarn gets to play in one of the new baskets I grabbed at Target in their world marketplace 75% clearance aisle.  I picked up two skeins of Cascade Yarns Luna and one skein of  Bristol Yarn Gallery Lyndon Hill.  I think both will be used to make summer hats for the girls.

Is anyone else out there watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles?  I hope that it is picked up by Fox for a second season.  I loved the use of Johnny Cash in the big action scene.  I made Andy watch it with me this afternoon.  He’s mad that I watched the season without him, but we can never come to an agreement on a time to watch TV together, so I usually watch alone.  I was finally able to view Garret Dillahunt as someone other than creepy Francis Wolcott and accept that Brian Austin Green does not live perpetually in the 91210 ZIP code right as the season came to an end.

Person Francis Wolcott

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