captain easychord

spring has finally hit tennessee! i think! today was absolutely gorgeous! growing up in the snow belt, spring was such a rewarding season after 5 or 6 months of grueling cold and soul-crushing snow. since the album came out, i like to celebrate the change of seasons by putting on stereolab's sound-dust and celebrating the lovely change of weather. this is a quintessential spring album for me. it's funny how some songs or albums are tied so strongly to parts of our memory, like the time i was driving home from class during a blizzard and leonard cohen's "avalanche" from "songs from a room" just happened to be playing. i can't listen to that album during the summer, but i digress. anyway, i have fond memories of having the windows down on my car, listening to this stereolab album, driving to my job at the archives and saying hello to the niagara river and lake erie on fine may mornings (when spring usually hit in the homeland). definite plus of living in the south: having spring 2 months early!

i had to get away from the dishcloths! i am happy to report i am up to 30! yes! only 10 (or so) to go! so, i spun this past weekend with the roving i picked up from etsy. behold!


It's about 208 yards and a merino colonial blend! Oh so soft and squishy! I love it! I have absolutely no idea what I'll do with it, but I'll sure it'll come to me. Eventually.

It was so nice to spin again and get away from cotton. Don't get me wrong. I love me some cotton, but everything in moderation, including moderation.

Golden Hands are the Devil's Playthings

After finding out from the lovely Marissa and Denyse about the sheer and vast publication glory that is Golden Hands, I spent the last of my money that was in my Paypal account and purchased this:

I think I might be addicted! I haven't done cross-stitch since I was 9, but that shouldn't stop me, right?

The Decline of Country and Western Civilization

This past weekend, my folks came down to visit and I am happy to say dishcloth creation was put on hold while wedding planning took over. We also went to the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium downtown, which was great, but I digress. When we weren't running around tasting cupcakes or discussing red Gerbera daisies, we thrift stored (hello, DIY center pieces) and hit Nashville's finest used bookstores. I scored bigtime!

I found this one book from 1973 called "Sew Exciting! Sew Simple!" that is right out of that era's vein of feminism that is sort of self-aware and apologetic, and is sort of like, "It's okay to want to sew your husband a terrycloth bathrobe! Women have been doing it for ages!" It's kind of hilarious. I will treasure it forever.


The other, "The Color Book of Embroidery" is sort of a hippy dippy 70s acid trip through embroidery. It does have a primer on smocking (yay!), but some of the projects are downright frightening (think weird elves) and there are creepy baby blankets that are kind of hilarious. This book was a whopping $2.00. The other was 25 cents. Yes. 25 cents. I picked up another for 2 bucks that is aptly titled and "Encyclopedia of Needlework" which I reckon will come in handy (no pun intended).

The peach colored pillowcases in the background were a gift from my aunt. The beautiful crocheted ends! The other was found thrifting this weekend for 69 cents. I intend to make and apron out of it.


Now this book is a certifiable doozy. It's called "Golden Hands : a comprehensive guides to knitting, dressmaking & needlecraft." Oh, the Kaftans! The owls! It has some utterly amazing things. While looking at some Russian Orthodox-esque tapestry designs in this book, my father told me a story of how he loved the movie"Dr. Zhivago" so much (who can blame him?) that he asked my grandmother to make him a tunic shirt much like Omar Shariff's shirt in the movie. Yeah, she did. WITH EMBROIDERY.

That, ladies and gentleman, is what's in my gene pool. I've just got to tap into that well some more.

that's entertainment

my roving arrived from etsy today and let me say it's more lovely and squishy than i could have ever imagined. the parents are flying down from the rust belt to thaw out a bit, and i intend on using that as a spinning demonstration as they have yet to see the spinning wheel in action.

the wizard arm shirt has gone on hiatus, as i unfortunately have to do things like go to work and clean my house. so it goes.

but fear not, gentle reader, i am not neglecting the dishcloth. while i have greatly strayed from the original pattern, i have happily wandering into the realm of the geriatric, and have whipped up quite of few granny squares in a small amount of time. stella is quite fond of them, as you can tell. it's only driving me moderately batty. plus, having such lofty goals is a really nice motivating force.


this is probably my favorite granny thus far. behold its old lady glory:

labour for learning

this weekend. what a mess.

i had a burning desire to make a smock. after some extreme googling and finding some sublime inspiration and tutorials, nothing seemed to come out right.

i did all the measurements as per the instructions which left me with something which my friend elizabeth described as "wizard arms."


no thanks. desmond dekker couldn't even save me.

on the dishcloth front, i have a bunch of granny squares completed and am trying some non-granny-squares (gasp!) crocheted dishcloths, but they're taking too long. i could not even finish a single one during the entirety of the oscars.

oh well.

i could also blame this on the massive misfiring of neurons (or whatever caused my massive banger of a migraine that left me incapacitated and seeking dark spaces all of saturday and most of today). things just aren't right. hopefully tomorrow will be better.

next craft i want to tackle: the embroidering of tea towels.

hot grannies

i found away to save my sanity! ramona explained the mystery that is known as reading a crochet pattern, and i was off to the races. i totally had a granny square dishcloth done before american idol was over (i voted twice for the dude who did the creepy and awesome version of the monkees' song). behold!

stella (our little grey cat found wandering on the street at our old apatment) was quite pleased with it too. she must be thrilled for me too, as she wouldn't leave it alone! she was hugging it, swatting it, and giving it lots of love. and yes, dear reader, i have 3 cats, i knit (and crochet!), and am a librarian. i don't have a bun. yet.

stella swipes:



stella loves:

big dreams for a one-trick pony

oh dear. this weekend.

i think i am reaching near burnout status on those dishcloths.

i was having a hard time starting them, doing YOs. come on, now. the first half of those things are the easiest part and i was messing it up. it was time to take a break. so, i spun some lovely silver alpaca roving i had, and proceeded to get it all over my black shirt while watching My Favorite Year with Peter O'Toole.

so, i managed to get some crocheting done. let's play what's wrong with this picture:



could it be that i forgot the hdc (half double crochet) border on the right hand side? could it be that i was so engrossed in "pride and prejudice" on masterpiece theater? correct!

on the wedding dishcloth front, they are coming along. maybe once my crochet skills get less wonky, and can contribute some of those to mix it up a little and save my sanity.

friday binges

hello, roving. you will be at my house soon. all 8 oz of you:



in other craft related news, my crochet skills are improving by leaps and bounds! so, i tried to crochet a heart for mr. wheezy-to-be and it ended up looking like a malformed kidney. i'm a beginner. i seem to have gotten the whole single and double crochet ruckus down, and granny squares are my friends. best friends, even.

so, this weekend, it's back to the regular old dishcloths. the garter stitch knit dishcloths. as much as i may want to procrastinate, i must keep on keepin' on, or i will have some very disappointed guests at the wedding shower, and no one wants that. i could tell myself i could practice my crochet and CROCHET the dishcloths, but we all know that i would lose valuable knitting time in the process, and time is of the essence, blah de blah blah.

must focus.

but once that roving comes, though, all bets are off.

love in the retail trade.

i think it's time for an intervention. someone call the authorities stat.

i can't stop knitting or crocheting with cotton.

the latest offenders:


i also just completed a giant cotton granny square. i think i'm in love.

i tried crocheting a wool heart. it just didn't feel right. my fingers were crying for cotton. should i be concerned?

granny squares et al.

this weekend my friend ramona came over and we experimented with all things crochet. i first must note that she is an extremely talented crocheter, and crochets beautiful doilies LIKE THE WIND. after seeing this in the Craftzine Blog, we decided to give one a go ourselves! well, it's still drying, and i'm afraid it's a) not salty enough, or b) too big for its britches. i think a smaller doily may be in order.



but it was fun! i may just starch the hell out of it when it's fully dry and see what happens.



while we were waiting for that to dry, ramona introduced me to the glory that is the GRANNY SQUARE. i'm a continental knitter, so holding the yarn was easy peasy for me, and i made to semi-respectable looking squares! apparently, my tension is uber-tight, but with some practice, hopefully, that'll get better.

BEHOLD, THE GRANNIES (and my grandmother's red crochet hook) :