New spring projects

Spring fever - what does it mean for you? For me, it means I'm eager to start lots of new projects. The trouble is finding time to finish all of them.

I did finish my Granny Square Hat for the class I taught last Saturday. We had a great time. All the fibers that people chose looked wonderful! I used Rowan Silk Wool DK and the others used either Frog Tree Alpaca, Cotton Rich DK or Alpaca Silk Georgette. The hats are all going to look great! I can't wait to see the progression when they come back for the next class.

A while ago I received an email from Interweave Knits about how “HOT” crochet is right now. I have been mostly knitting and weaving recently, and hadn't really done any crochet in quite a while, so I started looking at our crochet books and magazines. I found the Boteh Scarf in Interweave Crochet Spring 2007 and it looked so neat! I thought I'd use a yarn I've never used before, so I selected a spring pastel of Anne by Schaefer. This was very interesting to crochet (not difficult). I am almost done - only about an hour of single crochet remains around the scarf. It will look amazing once it's blocked. I also started a crocheted felted bag from the Crocheted Pursenalities book. I cruised through about half of it, but got sidetracked by another crochet project...

We've been discussing recycling and the environment, both here at the shop, and at home. I have been using fabric bags at the grocery store since 1985, but thought I could use something more up to date. I decided to create a pattern for a crocheted re-useable bag that I could teach a beginner's crochet class on. I'm using Tahki Cotton Classic in some fun colors. I started with a ring of chains and single crochet for the bottom and I'm now working on the sides. I am thinking about some easy beginner crochet stitches to do (in the round) other than single, half-double and double crochet. I want the bag to not be more solid and less “mesh” as I do not want anything to fall out. And then some new patterns arrived from Cabin Fever and the Felted Fairisle Tote Bag (knit) caught my eye. So of course, I started that. It's a quick knit and it will be a great bag. You could certainly use more than the 2 colors it calls for as there are several distinct bands of pattern. I am eager to see the finished product – less than 50 rows to go! This is such a fun knit, and a great introduction to color knitting, that we are doing a class on it.

Sounds like the beginning of a joke?

Once there was an inexperienced hooker, a giant snow-woman and a snowmobiling dog... But really, this was just my weekend!
The hooker part has to do with my crochet hook, which I picked up, after a 2 year hiatus. Barb recently taught a granny square class, and I got inspired... after all, I do love those granny squares. I took four gorgeous shades of the Jo Sharp Alpaca Silk Georgette and a size F hook, and reintroduced myself to hooking. Made myself a cute little beanie. Loved every minute of it, and am now inspired to finish some crochet pillows I started a couple of years ago out of the 200 Crochet Blocks book.
The giant snow-woman is - I guess - the largest snow-woman ever - or so the sign said. It's in Bethel, Maine, and this is what it looks like from a half mile away.
This is close up. See how tiny the person is at the base of this thing? And folks, that's a HUGE crane.Pretty cool! They think it will be there until June or July.
The snowmobiling dog - yep, it's true. Marc's aunt lives in Maine and loves to snowmobile. So does Baille, her Scottie. This is Baille's snowmobiling attire:It's a funny sight, for sure, but it doesn't really surprise me, because this dog also loves to kayak

And the snow in Maine? WOW. Lots of it. Like 4 feet in the backyard. And drifts that are 12 feet (or more) tall. At first we thought these were 2 mailboxes. But it's really just a little joke for drivers by. The top of the sign is at about the 5 foot mark. Really hard to tell in a picture.

Fruit Smoothie, anyone?

Yep, I'm getting thirsty. That's what these new colors of Blue Sky Alpaca Silk remind me of! We recently discontinued a few colors of this yarn so we could bring in these 6 beauties. They are so fun and happy and springlike. Would love to use them all together somehow...