Möbius Dick?

Möbius Dick?
The  8ft Möbius strip to form the bottom, sides and shoulder strap of a crafter's tote

Back to work on the crafter's tote project.  The 2012 Secret Santa project.  I'm beginning to wonder if this is my Möbius Dick, my white whale, my nemesis, the thing that is going to take me down with it.

It is getting harder and harder to hang on to the shining vision this project was when first conceived the summer of 2012.  But I am still at it because I did not have the skill set to do a project like this.  I am developing it tho.  On the job.  Trial and error.

So much error.

The gross underestimate of the time it would take even if all went well and there were no unexpected snags was the first but not the worst miscalculation.  Underestimating the amount of thread it would take (and thus cost in money and more time) is in that same category.  Both of those are minor compared to not understanding the physics of the design.

When I finally had all the panels in a state where I could pin them together last fall and see the bag in 3D I discovered that it would be the tote from hell for anyone trying to use if for its intended purpose.  It would take two people to load it--one to hold it open.

Who would want a duffle they couldn't load without help.

I spent months brainstorming concepts for solving that issue and I think I found the solution. It is just going to take more time and materials.  I finally got all those materials in place.  Now for the time.

One of my concepts didn't need extra materials so I've been working on it while I shopped and waited on orders.  That was to double the Mobius strip over at the ends to re-enforce the four corners of the bag's bottom a bit.

This involved finding the exact center of the bottom of the Mobius and marking it by running a grey yarn through to the exact center of the other side. Thru the mesh without catching threads so the yarn can be drawn out once no longer needed.

Next count the joining loops on the bottom of the front/side panel strip. Then split that count in half and start counting the loops on the Mobius from the center, marking with the grey yarn where the front corner would belong--first on the right then on the left.  Then mark with another grey yarn the line two inches out from that and then fold that over and stitch it with the same brown thread.  Had that much done on one side when the pic was taken but have the other side caught up.

Now I'm crocheting the joining loops across the fold where the ends of the front panel wrap around the sides to form the pockets.  I'm about half done with one side.  Working brown on brown is very difficult.

Next will be sewing a dark brown grosgrain ribbon along both front and back inside edges of the bag bottom which will serve to re-enforce a bit but more importantly serve to hold the microfiber pad in place on the bottom which is one of the three such pads intended to firm up the 3D form.  There will be one on both the front panel and the back panel as well.  The back panel will also be strengthened by the doubling over of twelve inches of the panel to form an inside pocket along the back wall.

Once I have that ribbon sewed on and all the tails tucked the Mobius will be ready to join with the two panels.  But there is a lot of similar prep work to be done on each of those panels before they are ready.  But at least the pastel colors will make working with the panels much easier.

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Crocheted Newsboy Cap

Crocheted Newsboy Cap

This was supposed to be my husband's Christmas present but will be his Valentine's gift instead.

I had no pattern.  I watched several videos on YouTube of different styles of
hats being crocheted and picked up the techniques I needed--increasing and decreasing stitches, making bills etc.  Then I Googled Newsboy Cap and feasted my eyes on the images.  Then I started working the round, increasing steadily until it was about eight or so inches across or 23 inches in diameter.  The first tine I reached the 6 inch mark I found it bunching up and ended up taking it all the way out and starting over.

After that I worked it like a sculpture.  I knew the shape I wanted and guestimated where and how many increases and decreases were needed.  There was bit of taking work out that didn't look like what I was aiming at but not nearly as much as I expected.

I tried it on in front of a mirror at the end of every round once the 'sculpting began.  That helped me guesstimate better with fewer fewer 'missunderguestimating.

It grew on me so that I now want to make one for myself.

shhh but I'm hoping to hand this to him in person on V-Day.

Crown him with my love.

I poured my love into every stitch.

And not a few tears.

Hoping he doesn't hand it back...

19 days... :(

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My Sister Snagged a Smile Outta Me

My sister presented me with a 'just because I'm thinking of you' gift of six skeins of Bernat Fleurettes Peacock yarn yesterday.  I actually smiled.

I started winding one into a ball last night but ended up with a great big wad of snarls.  But at least I'm finding this know soothing to untangle.  Unlike the emotional one I've been working on for 18 days now.

To the left of the snarl is the hat I'm making for Ed.  It's supposed to be a newsboy cap.  I hope it turns out to be in the end.  But I'm not working from a pattern.  I couldn't find one I liked for free online so I read a bunch of different hat patterns and watched a bunch of crochet hat videos and took the info and made my own blend of it.

Basically I'm sculpting it as I go, increasing and decreasing or neither in the appropriate sections to create the shape I'm after.  We'll see.

It was supposed to be his Christmas present but I didn't get it done in time.  Then I was aiming for Valentine's Day but the fiasco of the last two weeks has slowed down the project. And now it's too late to get it in the mail in time to reach him by Saturday.   I'm half afraid now that once sent I'll get it back stamped 'Return to Sender' but I know he really wanted it.  It was something he asked for last fall.  So maybe...

I think I should put a warning label on it to keep an inhaler handy since he is apparently so allergic to my tears.

I have a fantasy of being able to hand it to him in person on Valentine's Day.

What can I say?  I'm a dreamer.

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Crochet Möbius Strip Prep

Crochet Crafter's Tote: Möbius Strip Prep

I finally got all of the yarn markers woven into the mesh of the Möbius Strip.  One marking the middle of the bottom.  One marking the opposite side of the hoop where the twist will be trapped inside a wrap.  And two on each end where the pockets will be formed by the wrap-around the front/sides panel.  The bottom edge of which can be seen under the Möbius strip in the photo.

I did two for the ends so that I could fold it over to double the bottom of the pockets as one of my efforts to reinforce areas to decrease the floppiness of the bag.

The reason for the yarn markers was to ensure there was a straight line across the width so the corners of the bag would be positioned so as not to put any skew into the mesh across the bottom--no puckering, no discrepancies in width and length between the opposite sides and so forth.

At the midpoint between the two yarn markers on the left I crocheted a row of 6 chain loops for joining the bottom of the panel to.  I will be doing the same on the other end.  I just got those two yarn markers in tonight.  My visual impairment makes this a challenging task.  The first one took me nearly three hours while the second one took less than half an hour.  I got that second one in on the first try while the first one had to be removed wholly or in part repeatedly as I kept zigging to the side

The 6 chain joining loops are already crocheted around the outer edge of the panels but for where the Möbius strip needs to be attached to form the front side of the pockets I'll need to crochet a row of the loops on the outer edge of the third column of squares on each end.  The back side of the pockets are covered by the joining loops already on the panel forming the back, top and front flap.

Mom is leaving for my brother's tomorrow and my sister is going to the coast with a friend so I'm going to be free to focus on this as much as my eyes will allow between now and Sunday evening.  My goal for the weekend is to have the front panel joined to the Möbius strip before Mom gets home Sunday evening.

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Möbius Mopes

Möbius Strip for Crocheted Tote

I thought it was about time I presented a picture of the  crocheted Möbius strip that has been such a frequent topic of posts in the last two years.  Especially since it is going to be the main subject of this post.

All I can say is 'arrrrrrrgh'

The crocheted crafter's tote is moving like cold molasses.  Nearly three years in the making and now two years late as the intended 2012 Secret Santa gift for my sister-in-law this project has been a frustration from about four months in when it became obvious I was unlikely to finish in time.

There was no pattern because it was born in my head in the shimmering vision that remains the only consolation and hope and the second to top motive for keeping at it.  But the vision did not take account of realities like the limitations of time, materials and skill.  Not to mention physical: pain in tendons and tense muscles, and fatigue with the 12+ hour days, eye strain and sleep deprivation.

I guess I was still too much of a newbie at crochet to pull off something this ambitiously elaborate.  But it has been my education.  I joke that I have had the equivalent of half a dozen college level courses in the process.  The finished tote will serve as a sampler of my skill set.

• I learned over a dozen new stitches and patterns including a couple I invented.  
• I learned design in color, texture and shape.  
• I learned design in engineering, materials, and structure. 
• I learned to better estimate time and thread needs. 
• I learned to control stitch gauge to maintain 4x4 inch squares with a variety of stitches/patterns 

The Möbius strip is a bear to work with.  It's starting chain was 8 ft in diameter so folded it is nearly 4 feet long and 11 inches wide.  It's intended to serves as the bottom, sides and shoulder strap for the tote.

Seen from the right front corner.

The front panel wraps around the front and both sides.  The Möbius forms the bottom and comes up the sides inside the side panels to form the back of the side pockets.  The other panel comes up the back and over the top and partway down the front.

The tote won't be as big as seen in the pic above as changes to the original plan became necessary.  It was intended to hold a standard size quilt as my sister-in-law is a quilter.  It will probably still hold a quilt WIP until the batting is added tho.

The struggle now is in identifying the precise 6-chain loops at each corner of the bottom that will be woven into the 6-chain loops on the two panels of blocks.  This involved finding the center of the bottom and top and counting the joining loops on the panels then out from the center of the bottom of the Möbius.  Then weaving a grey length of yarn across the width in the center and both ends.  Then adding the joining loops for the bottom sides across the width of the strip.  I've only got that done for one side.  I still need to repeat for the opposite side, counting out from the center, weaving the yarn, and adding the loops.

Weaving that yarn through the 2-chain mesh that forms the Möbius fabric is difficult.  My vision issues make it doubly so.  I wish there were another way to be sure the corner loops are directly across from each other.  As hard as that is I'm not sure that crocheting dark brown on dark brown across the fabric instead of on its edge doesn't top it for challenging.

Once those tasks are done I'm hoping the loop weaving task will go smooth.  Once those corners are identified and the bottom is joined to the appropriate edges of the panels it should just be a matter of weaving the loops up the four sides.

But that isn't the end of the challenges. There will be more rows of the joining/decorative loops to crochet and the wrapper for the Möbius twist at the top of the strap, and the buttons for the front. There's the hundreds of tails needing tucked and I still need to sew on the lengths of grossgrain ribbon to strengthen and reenforce the fabric.  Especially at the edges.  For when I tried improvising a joining with clips and twist ties I discovered that it was impossible to load the bag without someone holding it open.

For several days after that I felt as tho the entire project had become as complete a flop as the bag acted.  But I brainstormed some ideas for fixing the problem.  I won't know how well they will work until I'm able to implement them.  Which I can't do until the bottom edges are joined.

For months I've only been able to work on this project either by taking it over to the yarn shop to spread out on the big tables or working on the weekends when Mom is gone and I can move stuff off my craft table onto her side of the bed.  But this past weekend I managed to rearrange some things and preserve enough room on the craft table for working on it all week.  It should move along a bit faster now.

Here's hoping the mopes are bygones.

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Winding Up to Wind Down

For this pic I have the corkboard balanced on the stool alone to reveal the balls of thread and skeins of yarn waiting to be wound.  I find winding them a very soothing activity which works well with storydreaming, praying, listening to audio books or watching videos.  Or thinking about WIP or future WIP.

Less than half of the yarn and thread in that box is visible as the box goes back nearly a foot more.  As soon as the pic was taken I moved the corkboard back in place and then there is only a 4x4 inch square in the left corner where the item(s) being wound are accessible.

That's where the bulk of my December Joanne.com order went to.  There is more yarn in a large bag under the card table and then there is the yarn I got on my birthday and the yarn I got on Mom's birthday...

So I have many hours of serene winding to do.

I love handling the thread and yarn.  It makes me happy.

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Time and Space

The crafter's tote spread across my workstation

Bradley wants to help.

A shortage of time and space is still a factor in making progress on the crafter's tote that was supposed to have been my sister-in-law's Christmas gift in 2012.  Two years late!!

I really thought I was going to make it for Christmas 2014 when I finished the Mobius strip in late September.  But I ran into another engineering problem in November that took me several weeks to (maybe) solve.  The solution entailed shopping for supplies, including online which order did not arrive until ten days before Christmas.

I'd already set it aside to focus on the Christmas gifts I could get done for local family once it became obvious I could not get it in the mail in time to reach the Rogue Valley before Christmas.

Last summer I rearranged this room again (an endless project itself) to make room to set up the card table so I'd have room to spread the tote panels out to work on them and to assemble them with the Mobius strip into the bag.

But then I unpacked the rest of my craft and sewing supplies which were still in the boxes I'd packed when moving out of our trailer spring of 2013.  A necessity since all my holiday supplies where among them.  I'm still have trouble finding homes for everything without resorting to piling the card table high with whatever is not in use that moment.

The big Joanne.com order in December and the several craft shopping sprees between my birthday in November and Mom's birthday January 3rd added to the problem.

*sigh*

It's only when Mom spends the weekend with my brother's family in Portland that I can clear the card table by piling stuff on her side of the bed.  She leaves Friday afternoon and returns on Sunday evening.

That is also the only time I can work on the big sort and organize project in this room, the bedroom and down in the basement.  A project which competes for urgency with the tote as it's not only for making daily life easier while I'm here at Mom's but to make moving and setting up my own household easier when the time comes.

So its a tradeoff.

This weekend I'm working on the tote.  Which will mostly mean getting reacquainted with it after a month's hiatus.

The active project surface has been this corkboard set across the edge of a box and a stool.  Bradley knocked it off twice and I once.  All three times it was loaded and spilled thread, hooks, needles, pins, buttons, beads, ribbon, pattern pages, notes, threaders, thimbles, scissors, measuring tape....

...and whatever WIP(s) were on it.

The time I knocked it off the corner landed on my toe.

I solved the problem by giving up leg room to move the stool to the front right corner.

The corkboard is covered with microfiber pads for blocking projects off the hook.  The picture of the puppy and kitten is a laminated card I use when working with glue or tape.  The stack of candy boxes are trays containing small projects or materials and tools. There's another stack of larger trays behind that one.

The box under that end of the board used to contain materials, tools and small projects but it was a hassle getting into it so I stuffed it full of yarn and thread not on the hook which needs to be wound before use.  That's what's happening to that ball of yarn on the corner.

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It's In the Bag(s)

Craft Bag Facelift

 I had this idea over a year ago and finally just got fed up with waiting for the 'right' time to do it.

The time was now.  It fits the theme of my year.

The bag was one my Mom gave me years ago--because it was blue.  She got it while working with the RSVP senior service group--one of her many 'alphabet soup' associations.  Alphabet soup was my affectionate nickname for the committees, support groups, governor's councils and a variety of other volunteer activities she was involved in from the mid 1980s  right up until her stroke in 2008.  

Now I want it to represent my 2015 focus on getting things done.

And of course that One Word.

Five cheers and three high-fives for anybody who can guess what the missing three letters are.

And a triple kowtow for anyone spotting the triple pun.

Hint: there is also a punctuation mark missing

The Materials

 7 stitches to the inch plastic canvas
white parashute cord for the background
metalic blue nylon blend cord for the rim
neon aqua nylon twine

It was all stuff I already had.  If I'd had to buy something for it I might not have got started on it now.

Frayed

The nylon twine was something I picked up at the Dollar Tree over a year ago thinking it might be fun to crochet with.  It was on the hardware aisle among the tapes and glues and bungee cords.

Working with it has some issues tho.  It frays after enough times forcing through the holes doubled over in the eye of a needle.  I can alleviate that by using shorter strands.  The strand I worked the 's' with was over a yard long.

Then there was the pain in my fingers from pushing and pulling and twisting that needle to get it through.  Until I figured out that if I could firm up the end with tape or glue I didn't need a needle any more than you'd need a needle to lace your shoes.  Same was true of the other two cords.  Goodbye needle.  Goodbye 90% of the frustration with the first day's work.

Except the tape and glue have to be re-applied frequently and they taste terrible when I forget and put the end in my mouth.

I'm wondering if melting them with a match might work better.  But I'm not sure I trust myself to do it.  Especially not in the house around all this fiber and paper.

Or maybe an iron?

I decided it was time to stop depriving myself of the nice things I designed for myself.  It was meant to be motivation for getting the gift items done first--especially that one Secret Santa project that is now two years past due!.

But there are always going to be gift items on the hook and another gifting occasion on the horizon.

I think it is possible to do both.

Meanwhile, I'm working on a slideshow of all the fiber art WIP.  I might split it in two--Joy for Joy and Joy in giving.

Any idea what's 'in the bag(s)'?  i.e. what the post title refers to?

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Block, Blocked, Blocking

Too soon to crow, but...

I started crocheting again last week.  Picked up the Rooster Filet that was my Secret Santa project last year.  Still not done tho its been in the stage of nearly done for six months.

As always I'm having issues with the finishing.  Not just getting it finished but with the finishing techniques that turn a fiber art project into a useful item.  This is the case with ninety percent of my unfinished projects.

Crafter's Duffle.

Including the Secret Santa  project from 2012 that is still unfinished primarily because the Mobius strip (that pile of brown on the left above) became too bulky to carry around after surpassing 4 inches in width and required a complex put away/get out protocol to prevent the thread tangling in the strip or loosing track of the working loop and risking unraveling an hour's work while fixing it.  Not to mention the time it took to fix it.

This has been a formidable block to working on the Mobius Strip for with a 5-10 minute get out/put away process it felt pointless to get it out unless I was sure of at least 45-60 minutes of uninterrupted work.  Time blocks of that size are rare and far between with all the duties I have here at Mom's and when I have them on the weekends she is at my brother's I usually need them for the sorting, organizing, rearranging projects and writing, research and exercise.

That is a getting-it-finished issue.  The finishing techniques issue is with the over 200 tails needing tucked on the panels seen in the picture to the left.

The Mobius strip is to serve as the bottom, side-pockets' back and carry strap for the crafter's duffle I designed myself in July 2012.  Working on it consumed the six months before Christmas 2012.  I worked 6 to 8 hours a day through August, stepping it up to 8-10 through Thanksgiving and then 16 to 20 through December 23.  I'd so miscalculated how much work was going to be involved!

I fully intended to maintain at least the 6-8 hour per day until it was done once I returned from the three week visit to Mom's in January 2013 but then the lifequake rocked my world and I never got to go home except for a few short visits until early May when there was no home to go home to.

I took it on the coast trip last Saturday and got a good 90 minutes of work on the way.  I thought it best to leave it safe in its bag for the return trip after we climbed back into the van with who knows how much sand in our clothes and hair and whatever that sticky stuff the wind plastered us with.  I could feel on my hands and face and legs where skin was exposed so knew it had to be in my clothes as well.

In that 90 minutes though I did make it all the way around one edge or 1/2 the entire Mobius or 8 feet of 2 chains + single crochet, repeat.  All the way around plus 18 inches.  Completing a Mobius round or both edges is 16 feet and adds 1/4 inch to the width.  It is now at 9.5 inches and I'm aiming for 12.  I'm sure I'll be speeding it up with practice. I was once doing the whole 16 feet inside 90 minutes.  Or two episodes of Stargate or Desperate Housewives or Madmen.  This weekend while Mom's gone it's going to be Star Trek Enterprise.

I'm probably going to be sorry I set it down that way to set up the photo shoot for the rooster filet.  Especially considering the unexpected offer of help I received:

No thank-you Bradley.  Not Helping.

Actually Bradley was asking me for help and holding my work hostage until I complied.

The rooster filet issue was with the blocking.  No amount of blocking was going to make a trapezoid into a rectangle.  The bottom was four inches wider than the top and one side was two inches shorter than the other.

This was probably the result of:

• working on it in too many different moods which can change the tension causing the stitches to tighten up or loosen up
• switching crochet hook sizes by accident which changes the size of the stitches

My solution was to work a row of slip stitches all the way around, adjusting tension intentionally to tighten up the looser stitches.  It seemed to be working until I got to the third edge--the wide bottom.  I worked it over and over before getting it right.  I probably reworked it a dozen times.  Sometimes I'd skipped stitches which caused the fabric to bunch.  That's a vision issue.  But the primary problem was keeping the tension just right.

I think I finally got it.  The test blocking looks promising though I still need to finish the 4th edge.

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Stardate What Now?

What could you do with the world’s smallest 3D printer? Klaus Stadlmann demos his tiny, affordable printer that could someday make customized hearing aids — or sculptures smaller than a human hair. (Filmed at TEDxVienna.)

Can anyone tell me what the Stardate is?  The Star Trek replicator is now here.  Maybe the transporter is next?

I am over-the-top excited about 3D printing.  I can imagine a hundred applications a minute just in my areas of interest.  For starters:

• creating that miniature bodkin for tucking the beginning and ending threads on my thread crochet
• beads of every size, shape and color
• scrapbook misc
• Christmas ornaments
• cake decorations
• babydolls
• knickknacks
• jewelry and jewelry making misc
• organizing containers in custom sizes
• bookmarks
• shoes with perfect fit
• replace missing parts
• toys
• puzzles
• games

Imagine taking the web entrepreneur concept to the next level.  Today many of the online stores sell digital products like ebooks, music and video.  What if they could sell physical products that you download the minute you pay.  

Of course it is still a digital product--the program that instructs your own 3D printer in making the physical item so you would be supplying the raw materials in the substance used by your 3D printer.  Of which there are quite a few alternatives already though each alternative raw material requires its own printer.  

The materials in use already include paper, plastic, nylon, metals, ceramic.  The printers themselves come in various sizes from large industrial sized that can make things the size of a car and bigger down to this small one featured in this video.

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Mystery Boxes

My Joanne.com order that arrived Monday

More space hungry stuff in this small, crowded room.

No mystery to me what's in them but I'm keeping mum for now.  Mostly because I don't have the time for a long story tonight.  I will leave one hint: it's to do with the room project that has monopolized most of my time and most of my posts since Christmas.

Meanwhile they're blocking me from my HABA (Health and Beauty Aides) which is very inconvenient for preparing to go anywhere--whether out or to bed or to shower.)  They also crowd my path to the mini-tramp.  But that is better than being on the tramp which is where my nephew put the two smaller ones the day he brought them in for me.

So they can't stay like that for long.  But I have had too many time sensitive commitments this week to deal with them and most likely I need to wait until Mom is at my brother's again this weekend to find the space to open them and prepare them and place them and put them to use.  There will be some assembly required and then some minor rearranging of things in here and there is no room in here now to do either.

That makes two hints.  Here's a third: although they will take up more space than those boxes once assembled I'm sure they will free up more space than they use.

Watch this space.

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Another Crochet WIP Finished

Crocheted Dishrag

Another of the many projects I had going for my sister.  This is the fifth one of those I've finished since Christmas Eve and the 9th overall.  Plus have made significant progress on two large projects.  By keeping small to medium sized projects within reach or on my person (pockets, wrist bags, etc) I'm making use of many stray minutes throughout the day.

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Easy-Peasey

My new Tattoo Ott Light
I assembled it myself!!

It took me nearly a month to prepare a spot for my Secret Santa Christmas present.  And when I finally did, I was on my own for getting it assembled.  My husband 300 miles away, my sister 40 miles away and my nephew asleep which amounts to being a million miles away.

So I set out to figure it out for myself.  I had to read the tiny print of the instructions with a magnifying glass which meant a whole lot of putting down other things so I could pick up the paper and magnifier and then putting the down so I could pick up the items referred to.

I even had to repair a washer that was bent before it would work. It was a very small ring with a split in it.  I used a leather hole punch I found in the tool box to squeeze it back flat.  After that I was able to get the bolt on the long screw attaching the arm of the lamp to the base screwed down flush so it wouldn't cause the lamp to wobble nor scratch the furniture.

Even with that snag, in less than an hour I had it working.

Now I can't wait until this room project is done so I 'm free to sit under it and read, write or crochet.

Well, as you can see, I didn't wait.  I got out the crochet just to see what a difference it was going to make.  That just whet my appetite for more.  But I mustn't get too distracted yet...

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Looming

Overseeing the loom setup is Blue Mews my Muse.
Her head is a pincushion.  She wears my Spirit of Joy dolphin bracelet as a crown
and my Heart of Joy pendent as her breastplate. 

I'm about to embark on yet another fiber art.  Not just yet another project but yet another craft genre: Looming.

The belt featured in yesterday's Nostalgic Nudges post which Mom made for herself in her early twenties intrigued me so much I had to figure out how to make a bookmark using the same stitch.

I set out to reverse engineer it. My first glance assumption that it was crochet was disabused  as soon as I got a closer look at it edge on.  I picked and pulled and stretched and poked at the stitches for several minutes before realizing it was loom work.  I confirmed that with Mom when she got back Sunday evening.  The loom was handmade with nails on a board.

I hated the thought of pounding two rows of nails into a board tho.  The thought of the resulting weight and bulkiness repelled me as well.  I also knew that to accommodate the size 10 and 20 crochet threads I'd need slimmer nails than Mom had used for medium weight yarn.

I was picturing those slim nearly headless nails I'd seen on Dad's workbench over the years but I suspected my sister would not want to hunt for them in the chaos in the garage and would probably deem it more economical to go buy a handful but even that would take time she doesn't have this week as she gets herself, Mom and the household ready for her week out of commission following her Monday oral surgery. So I was reluctant to impose this on her before she leaves Sunday but nor did I want to wait until sometime after she returned to get started on a project.

I wanted to strike while the iron of my enthusiasm was still hot.

Letting my imagination roam over possibilities,  it landed first on Styrofoam as a substitute for a wooden board and I knew there was plenty of that laying around here among product packaging.  Those slim nails would probably work in that too but I'd already ruled them out for now.  My imagination then visualized those round pointy toothpicks but a quick glance in the cupboard revealed there weren't enough which also meant an errand I didn't want to impose on my sister.

It was a day or two before I thought about the foam-core boards Carri uses in her matting and other art work.  I liked the thought of them better than the Styrofoam because they were thin, light weight, sheer-edged and very portable.  I think it was some several hours after settling on the foam-core boards before I thought of straight pins.

Now that I had the concept complete I needed to set up a proof of concept which you see pictured above.  I quickly realized after starting to put pins on the second side of the ruler that I wouldn't be able to space them correctly that way.  I'll have to do one side and then turn the ruler around, making sure to position it so that the first pin will be aligned with the first pin on the first side.  This would be the way I'd have to do it for objects wider than the ruler anyway.

Carri gave me several foam-core scraps of varying sizes and I'm going to use a slimmer one for the bookmark and I won't be actually creating the loom until after I've got this room swung back into a productive arrangement again.

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Nostalgia Nudges

A few fond memories showed up among Mom's things over the weekend of the stuff shuffle.

Many of these knick-knacks I remember from my days as the family duster.  Mom taught me how when I was five and would hide pennies under them to encourage me to lift each item up.  As I got older the pennies morphed into nickles and dimes and then stopped around age 9 when an official allowance was implemented.

Mom made this belt she told me last Friday.  I don't remember knowing that before.  I do remember seeing it in her dresser among other accessories but I don't remember seeing her wear it.  I suspect that was because she never regained her tiny waist after my arrival.

I jumped to the conclusion that it was crocheted when I first spotted it again Friday but a closer look revealed that was mistaken.  I was mystified by it for several minutes but was finally able to reverse-engineer it.  I'll save that story for tomorrow.

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2 More Finished Crochet WIP

Pink and White Anchor Bookmark

 For a belated Christmas gift for someone I'm going to be seeing at Mom's birthday party tomorrow.

Anchor Bookmark is my own name for this type of bookmark.  It has nothing to do with the stitch pattern but rather the long string with beads on the end.  The string can be doubled over and act as a simple tassel as in the picture.  But to use as an anchor bookmark you

• pull one bead snug against the top of the bookmark 
• place the other end of the string inside the back cover of the book 
• drag string over the unread pages to 
• place bookmark on page you left off.  
• pull on the top bead until the bottom one is snug against the bottom, letting the excess dangle
• While reading you allow the bookmark itself to dangle down the back cover and it won't fall out.

I used Aunt Lydia's bamboo white size 10 for the two-chain mesh body and a cotton size 20 pink  for the 5dc fan border that may have been DMC but with no label I'll never know.  It was in a bag of partially used thread that was given to me.  It could be decades old.  I wish I knew where/if I could get more as I'd collect the whole pallet.  It has a silky soft texture similar to embroidery floss.  And it has a plastic core which I've yet to encounter anywhere else since I started crocheting in 2009.

I made the white bookmark about 2 years ago and it languished in one of the collections of bookmarks still needing to be blocked, have their tails tucked and attired in their decorative wardrobe.

Trinity Stitch Hot Pad

This one's for Mom's birthday.  Altho when I made it I intended it for a hot pad and probably for myself since it is one of my colors, I decided to put on the finishing touches and give it to Mom for her meal tray pad that keeps her plate from sliding.

The body which was completed about two years ago, was made with Aunt Lydia's size 3 Bamboo in Cruise Blue using the Trinity Stitch which is a dense 3 together stitch in which you yarn over and pull up a loop three times before pulling thread through all three loops.  It's a relative of the pubb stitch.

For the border I used Red Heart Coffee Brown in size 3 and a single crochet.  For the hanging loop I mad a long chain with the Cruise Blue just after finishing last row and slip stitched it to first chain of itself then as I completed the full round of the border I did a single crochet wrap around that chain.  then wrapped the very long tails around the flimsy base of the loop to create the strengthening shank.

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Crochet Gift WIP

These are a some of the gifts I was working on for Christmas and didn't get ready in time.  I will be working hard throughout January to finish these and others plus a few birthday gifts.  Many need only small finishing touches--tail tucking, blocking and decorating--but several require substantial work yet.

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3 More Crocheted Christmas Gifts

Purple Mesh Bookmark with Vintage Button

These three were all gifts for my sister that I finished late.  I'm working on more.  Will (I hope) be doling out several more over the next couple of months.  I have quite a few in progress intended for her.  Many finished all but tucking tails and blocking and adding decorative touches.  Most small like the bookmark several medium sized like the 'sponge' and wallet below and a couple large and/or complex.

She isn't the only one for whom I have collections of projects in the works.  I hope to finish several for Mom's birthday next Friday.

There are several more buttons like that in Mom's vintage collection (that I've confiscated) diamond rhinestones in a pearl white setting.  They would make great earrings if I could figure out how to mount the posts on the back.

Purple Mesh 'Sponge'

This one wasn't a WIP.  I began and finished it in about 4 hours.  I used the Sugar n Cream cotton yarn, intending to make a dishrag but got about half done when I realized it was already hard to wad up in my hand.  I noticed that folded in half it was about the size of a sponge so I topped it off with the green edge and then crocheted the three edges together.  I took out and put back in sections of the purple edging several times trying to get it to lay flat and stay square.  As you can see, I gave up.

Variegated Purple Wallet with Button Flap

This one has been kicking around in my all-but-finished WIP bag for years.  It was the first project I started that wasn't a bookmark tho I did start and finish a prayer shall before I finished crocheting the rectangle for this.

So who can guess my sister's favorite color?

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Crafty Christmas

Purple Wreath Bookmark

Here's the small gifts I put together for my mom, sister and nephew after I learned Monday evening that we were going to have gift exchanges here after all and I panicked at the thought of being the only one not giving anything.  I wasn't expecting it as our family did not celebrate growing up nor did Mom as a child.  Our church considered it pagan and nothing to do with Christ.

In the first few years they lived here Carri and her son, who was then in his pre and early teens and had celebrated all his life, kept their celebrations private and limited to their rooms downstairs.  But I guess my sister has been slowly acclimating Mom to the concept and she now joins in and seems to enjoy it.

I  had several projects in the works for each of them (for Mom it was birthday presents for her birthday January 3rd) but most were too far from finished to get them ready in time.  So I started new tiny things.

For my sister this purple wreath bookmark.  Actually it was a total accident as I was trying to whip up a quick finish to one of my projects for her and was experimenting with using the Solomon Knot aka Love Knot as the solution for making an approximately 4x4 inch square as the back side of something for which the more complex front panel was already complete.  After putting in three rows tho I realized it was massively distorted.  It was ruffled and when I tried to lay it flat it formed the wreath shape naturally.  My first thought was 'Christmas tree ornament' and that was my intent as I stitched the edges together and tucked the tails.  But then I had a idea for how to turn it into a bookmark.

Double Tasseled Blue Mesh Bookmark

This was one of the things already in the works for Mom.  The pale blue 2 chain mesh was already complete and one row of the variegated 3 chain mesh border was on.  I whipped on the second row and added the tassels.  The second long tassel with the beads on the end is an innovation I've started adding to some of my bookmarks (even the store bought ones) and its for anchoring the bookmark in place to prevent loss.

Below I demonstrate with the cover I needlepointed some years ago:

Bookmark Demo

The weighted string or braid is placed in the back of the book (or anywhere that is at least a dozen pages or so ahead or behind your place.  The bookmark itself marks your page.

I miscalculated the length for this one and it will only work for books slightly taller than paperbacks and smaller.  Ideally it should be long enough to work in a full size hardback with an inch or more to spare for crossing over several hundred pages.

'L' Key Fob

Carri had told me Tuesday afternoon of her intention to sign Levi up for driving school for his 'Big' gift.  Which gave the idea for the key fob.  This was the third version.  The second one was nearly done when I decided it was too lacy and flimsy and bright for a guy's fob and unraveled it back onto the ball.  That had been Christmas green using a patter of alternating single and double crochet with a single strand of size 10 thread.

For the final version I used double stranded size 10 in frosty green and fudge brown with the solid half-double stitch.  The border is fudge brown size 3, also half-double crochet.

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Crafty Joy

Crafty Kitty

Crafting has taken over this room in the last two weeks.  Here Merlin is looking up at me from under the open drawer of Mom's antique desk as I get this shot of part of my crafting work space.

This shows:

• the blue tray holding lots of small stuff like needles, scissors, thread snips, crochet hooks, ribbon, straight pins, sewing thread, needle threaders, buttons, beads
• the red microfiber dishrag I'm using to block small crocheted pieces
• the use of opened drawers to extend work space and to keep thread and yarn balls that are in play
• the laminated white card sticking out from under my laptop for putting a light background behind the crochet making it easier to see.

Crafty Christmas

Another view of the blue tray at an angle catching the clipboard holding the sheet of graph paper on which I've rearranged a filet pattern to suit my needs.  More on that as soon as I have a significant section of the project done for a meaningful picture.

Crafty Joy

More projects and supplies to the left of my chair.

Getting back into the crafting has been a joy and has me flabbergasted as to why I allowed it to fall away over the last six months.  It began with my New Year Intent to 'Finish more things than I start in 2013 which kinda muffled my muse.

And then there was what I know now was a misguided rule I set myself to stop working on all other fiber art projects until I got last year's Secret Santa project finished and delivered to my sister-in-law.  That rule did not take into account:

• the bulk of the crafter's tote project making portability iffy at best--first I could no longer take it away from home then it became difficult to move from room to room with it
• the difficulty in getting it out and putting it away made spontaneity impossible so that I could no longer pick it up on impulse when I had a few minutes to work with it--with it taking 5 to 15 minutes to get out and put away I tended to wait for blocks of time of 30 minutes or more which rarely occurred
• how doing less of something accelerates the trend towards doing nothing at all
• how dissing the muse puts it in a sulk

Whatnots

Behind my swiveling chair is the box containing what I refer to as the bookmarks wardrobe--items for decorating bookmarks and other projects--buttons, beads, novelties, charms...   This is showing only the top of two layers and it is only one small box of many.

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