So the end arrives and new things begin....

Well, Spring has finally arrived! The cats tonight are obsessed with the idea that they can get to the birds settling outside, and have been "hunting" all evening. Clearly it's not working that well for them, as they have not managed to realize that there are screens keeping them in! It's snowed at least four times in March, but hey, it's Ohio. Welcome to bizzare weather in Ohio. We're expecing another huge snowstorm tomorrow, so hopefully we won't be snowed in towards the evening! Even if we are, that's alot of painting models and/or crafting that I can do during that time!

My living room looks like crafting supplies exploded all over it. My poor husband has been so patient with me as I've been trying to finish off the scarf, and I can finally state that I have finished it! That being said, there is scraps of yarn ALL OVER the living room that I'm still picking up and re-vacuuming off of the carpet even if I just vacuumed five minutes ago. As you can see, it looks like a train wreck occured as I made the final push to finish the scarf. It took about 8 hours of work after I got off of work on Friday to finish it, but it turned out to be such an awesome challenge!

Overall, there were  1800-2000 circles invoved in each the overall project. I suspect that there were closer to 2000 circles in the project due to it being close to thirteen feet long, compared to the originally requested twelve feet. It was a really fun challenge, and it was a very cool project to be able to think out of the box on. It is so easy with crafting to be stuck to following a certain pattern, and stifling your creativity in a way. This particular's project directions were to make a "Dr. Who inspired scarf that was  twelve feet long, and in three colors". So, I was left with a completely blank slate that allowed me to do anything. It turned out really cool looking, and there is nothing else like it in existence, as far as I know. It has inspired me to come up with designs of my own more often when it comes to crocheting and tatting, and I really enjoyed making and completing this project more than I can say, even if I did gripe from time to time that it was taking too long to finish. Then again, most people wouldn't be insane enough to tackle the challenge. But hey, what kind of crafter would I be that I didn't challenge myself from time to time? Well, time to sign off for the night. My wrist is telling me its time to take some ibuprofin and chillaxe in front of a movie for the rest of the night. Hope you all survive the snowstorm, and may your coming day be productive!

Crafting

 

 

These past three months have seemed to be all crafting, so i figured I would make a post about my latest insane project, after a endless afternoon of frustration of looking for just ONE single pattern, that, of course, seems to have been lost in a matter of a month...Oh well....Its a Wednesday, right?

 

I was asked recently (approximately 4 months or so ago) to create a Dr. Who scarf. I dont know if anyone is familiar with Dr. Who, but the person wanted a Tom Baker scarf finished by April. The scarf is ten to twelve feet long, with the original scarf being 12 feet and shrinking over time to ten feet. I thought about this for about...oh...five minutes...then agreed, thinking "How bad can it be? It's only a scarf..." My little naive self had no clue what a "Tom Baker scarf" referred to, nor its lenght. Suffice to say, as a I later started doing my research and recalling the conversation, I wanted to kick myself repeatedly in the head. I not only agreed to make a 12 foot three-color scarf, I also agreed to TATT a twelve foot, three-color scarf.

 

I dont know how many of you are familiar with Tatting. It s a form of lace making that has been typically last seen in my grandparents generation. It takes an inifinite amount of hours to accomplish one little doily, even though that doily always turns out beautiful. The doily on the right hand side is one that I Tatted for a friend. She loved it, and I've seen it used constantly in her home, so apparantl its witholding the test of time!

 

 

I have now been working two weeks on the scarf pieces, and after not only working full time, but also tatting full time, I have made disappointing little progress. Still, I am getting faster and learning consistently from my ever so time consuming mistakes. To date, I have 2 foot long pieces completed, one of which is still in need of trimming. You can see the pieces which still need trimmed and glued together, and it is also missing a matching strip of blue on each portion. It doesnt necessarily look like alot of work, but each little circle takes 5 to ten minutes to complete. Initially when I started the strips, each circle took 15 minutes to complete. Still, progress is progress, right?



 Each cirle is conected at least 3-4 times to the circles above, below and to the left and right of them. It makes it a very malleable, hardy material, and is turning out perfectly so far, exactly as I had imagined it. The shuttle is hand-made, through a combination of my husband and I's work. It took about 4 hours to make the shuttle, and seems to be holding up to wear and tear well. Still, only time will tell how well it stands up to constant use, seeing as it's only made out of balsa wood. Tatting, for all intensive purposes, is a fancy system of knots. There are two variations of tatting: shuttle tatting, and needle tatting. I learned the shuttle tatting, and have never really been tempted to pursue needle tatting. However, some people swear by needle tatting, and others, like me, swear by shuttle tatting. At some point when I'm rich and famous and have servants to do everything for me, I may learn needle tatting, but that is a LONG time in the future.

 

Off to bed, or more tatting, not sure which yet, but ending for the night. Hopefully I will have more in another week or so to post as far as progress, but...we'll see......A week is a long time in my world!

Labors of Love

I've always know that I have a moderate to strong ability to be able to crochet things, but I haven't realized until recently how I can extend that ability be able to bless people with the ability that God gave me.

Over the past six-ish months, I've been making baby things for my sister (which I have loved doing)!

I started by making a blanket for the new baby. I made Shane a square crib blanket when he was first born, but I wanted to try to do something different. So, I was hanging out with a friend one day, and she showed me a absolutely beautiful round floor blanket. As I was making it, several people asked me to make one for them because they wanted to thank someone for doing a big thing for them. I turned out amazing, and I will be making one for myself in the future! It was very much an honor to be able to make it to bless my sister and her future child.

I then started making baby booties from a book, and made several for people, but then realized that my sister is due in less than a month, and so I started frantically working on a couple things that she wanted for the baby immediately. I was very gratified when the pattern for the hat worked out without a hitch. I got the pattern off of a great website for free patterns (I unfortunately dont remember the web adress of the site). I cant wait to see it on my future niece!

I had a baby onsie pattern that, again, I had found for free online, and discovered that for some reason I kept having problems with the width and length of it. So, after making several to perfect it, I think I have finally figured out the pattern. Any recommendations, of course, are more than welcome. I made a pair of matching baby booties ( I love free patterns, just saying), and found some darling buttons to attach for closures. I'm going to make a skirt out of white, with a pink border, but am currently working on braiding string together for a sturdy waist. So, its not quite done yet.

I have realized, as I am making all of these things for people, that it is my passion to crochet and Tatt things for others. Only by making things for people can I best show the love that God had instilled in me for service. I'm just a little ashamed it took me this many years to fully realize it!

You know how sometimes you're just having that bad of a day? Let alone that bad of a week? And sometimes you dont know of anything to make it all better?

This past week was one of those, where every single thing that could go wrong went wrong. All the chemicals that I have to use at work were clogging up, I was being absentminded with my crocheting and had to rip things out three or four times, and it just kept going from there!

Well, I came home one day and was cleaning up the bedroom, when i heard an odd chewing sound, and I turned around to see a very peculiar sight that I normally am not allowed to see!

The kitten was watching me clean, and got bored, and then decided that hay tastes good. Normally we cannot catch the cat doing this, but the cat was clueless while I snuck into the living room to get the camera, and when I came back, the rabbit was eating on her side of the hay holder (in the cage).

She hadnt joined in into the picture yet, but she came up just a second later. It was just one of those moments that brightened my day and made cleaning and the whole week infinintly better just watching them interact and the kitten stupidly eating hay mindless of the fact that we actually feed her twice a a day! It was and is still a good chuckle!

On friday I had been trying to juggle bills, and finally finished and was tired and cranky, and looked over to see this sight. Both cats (who normally dont sleep near eachother) had fallen fast asleep with heads touching, in the exact same position, and both were purring. The sight of those two fast asleep for at least fifteen minutes in complete peace and cuteness just whiped away all reason for my being cranky. Of course since then they've not been as peaceful and have been "playing", but, you do what you can, eh?

Wow! Its been forever since I've posted. Over three years! Oops! The reason? Alot of new stuff in life has happened to me. I've been to school, gotten married and now have four "children" aka very demanding animals! And I still have a sink full of dishes to do today before dinner with my mom and grandparents!

My current household consists of a husband, Nathan. He is very goofy, has ADD, and has the memory of a goldfish (I don't know how many times a day I have to tell him things over and over and then say "Don't you remember when i said this to you....?") But I love him more than any other thing in this world, and I do not know what I would do without him.

The only other living things in the house are animals (no more fish though). Cadet is still around. Nate had taken care of her for a year or two until we got married, and through many of his family's objections, she came with us when we got married. About three months ago, she wound up having a cancerous skin tumor that got removed in time, and so we're very grateful to have us with her still.

We also have two cats. The siamese is a rescue, and is a very jittery thing that runs away each time you move or walk too fast. She's a real sweetheart though, when you sit down. She has a habit of eating everything she can...even salad.... Because of this she's a bit chunky, as you can well imagine! But yet a very beautiful, sweet hearted cat. She is named Liffin, or "thing" in Wolof.

The other cat, still a kitten, is named Minion and was found by a neighbour who started to feed it at a very young age, and wanted deseperately to find a home for it, and so asked us to watch it for a night until she could take it to the SPCA, and my husband, Nate, went and fell in love with it. The next day he looked at me with big puppy dog eyes and begged to keep it. Can you really say no when your husband looks at you with puppy dog eyes? Even now Minion is in my lap "helping" me type.

The last critter is a rabbit named Lady Emma. She was a christmas present to me and Nate last year, and Nate brought her home for me from Colombus. She's a Mini Rex about 4-6 pounds and has the sweetest temperament ever. She'll never bite you unless shes hungry or throwing a temper tantrum or thirsty, which is rare for her. She doesnt seem to realize that the dog is her natural enemy and will play with Cadet and Minion all day if she can. However, we dont let her out to play without supervision. Liffin, the siamese, is afraid of the rabbit, and so doesnt deign to play with Lady Emma, or Emma for short.The picture is kind of lousy, and her eyes arent actually red, but its fairly hard to take a picture of a rabbit, let alone a stellar picture of a rabbit where they aren't hopping around!

Well, off to dishes! Their frantic plea to be cleaned is finally reaching my ears. On with the day then!