Lookee here

You can get one too at spell with flicr Thank javajem for showing it to me.

I'm thinking of making it my banner up there on top. What do you think?



I've been making toys for the Ravelry group Helping Kids at Hopkins. So far a knitted bunny and bear - and last night I finished a little crochet bird. The bird is my first actual attempt at Amigurumi. What fun! The bird directions were extremely simple, but I'm ready to tackle something more challenging now. The toughest thing about these is facial features. We have to avoid choking hazards, so none of those cute little plastic eyes and noses. Unfortunately, my embroidery skills are akin to the giant sewing cards given to blind children. Srsly. I am most proud of my bear nose. After three tries, I got it perfect.

I never thought I'd like crochet. I'm still not convinced I'll ever go "Oooo, I must make that crocheted thing . . ." other than these Amigurumi. It is better for creating a n eyeball or a bear's nose, I can tell you that. I guess each craft has it's place in my world :-)

Back to the hook . . .

Knitting on the Road

Knitting in the car works for me. Don’t worry; I’m not driving at the time. We love to take driving vacations, and often there are long stretches of highway with absolutely nothing to look at. This is when knitting has been a godsend for me. I used to fall asleep a lot, leaving my husband to fend for himself when it came to looking for the next highway. Of course navigation has always been one of his strong points, but I like to follow along and note places of interest.

I polished off two (count ‘em 1-2!) projects in the car. I had started a scarf for my niece in my crochet class back in February. I had mostly put is aside and had about 14 – 18 inches done. I really needed to get cracking for her Birthday on Easter. Working in the car, I finished a scarf about 4 inches wide and 6 feet long. I made it like that to double and wrap around, slipping the end through the loop. Pre-teens love to play around with fashion so I left her options. Since I had never done it, I asked for some help and added the fringe at K1P2 one night. I’m glad I took their advice to hold off on cutting the fringe – Jessica wanted it just the way it was. I wish I’d gotten a picture of her in it but I plum forgot to.

Next was a pink chemo cap. At Stitches East last year I made a miniature hat knit top-down. I also saw an adult pattern called Karlchen and experimented with my own top down version. It has a nipple at the top (tee hee) and four peaks to let some air circulate or keep the crown off sensitive scalps. I put in a little eyelet while I was working my increases. It adds a bit of a feminine touch. I still had a good bit of the yellow left, so I designed a little fairisle pattern too. I wish now I had thought to do a Mickey Mouse head for my Disney vacation, but working out the simple design was tough enough. I had to guess on the look with hand drawn long-box graph paper. I kept it veeeery simple.

That makes four chemo caps so far for me. For John.

Chapter 22 - I Design A Rainbow Crochet Hat

Introducing . . .

R A I N B O W

a crocheted top-down hat designed by Bonnie Martin

My first FO in crochet and I had to design it myself. I am still working on a little scarf for my niece Jessica, but I bought the absolutely most decadent yarn for a hat after my crochet class on Saturday and couldn't find the perfect pattern - so I winged it. Ann (my partner-in-crime in the class) had begun to crochet this amazing scarf in lush shades of brown. We both wanted hats from the same yarn and Shea, our instructor started us on the road with a sort of verbal pattern. I scribbled what the two of us could remember and we both started it after class. But I didn't like the haphazard look of the crown where she told us "oh,if it gets ripply just decrease a stitch here and there". The double crochet was fast but had too many holes for me. I searched online, but everything was close fitting like a ski cap. I found a pattern that was close and made a few adjustments for curly hair. I was off.

And that ripply thing gave me an idea to keep my curls from getting squished around my face.

My new hat was a joy to work on and when I decided it was too tall on my head, I easily pulled out the ruffles and a few rows with no damage to the yarn. I loved the way it had ended in the gold, so I did a cut and paste when I restarted the last row. Brilliant.

So. You want to know what it is, right? inka by GARNSTUDIO is my new favorite yarn. This stuff is from Norway(sigh). The website is impossible to view unless you have incredible patience but I include it to give them credit. (a friend who lives there now told me about their internet system - it sounded atrocious) There are no free patterns but the website lists two of my LYS who are distributors for patterns. I have two more skeins and I know how to use 'em. I want to reproduce my pattern with another hat as a gift then I'll publish it here at tinkknitz.

Look at how the colors meld. There's no clear-cut beginning or end. While you're working the yarn a little dot of the previous or next color will appear and a myriad of shades in between. The entire skein is chromatic. I've never been fond of rainbow themed paraphernalia, but when I saw this I was a goner.




Can you eat yarn?

Crochet? Okay!

I had my first crochet class on Saturday. After a slow start it's not that tough. Knowing how to handle yarn and recognize a mistake quickly helps. The instructor is very laid back, almost too laid back. She didn't know the answer to a few of my questions saying "oh, it doesn't matter", or "I don't know 'cause I am left-handed". Handedness can be a real factor when it comes to which way to wrap in knitting. I wanted to know if the same was true for my most recent venture into needlecraft before I developed a rhythm. A buggered up rhythm. But mostly we got along just fine. She was full of praise at our efforts and we were chaining, and doing single and half-double crochet within the two hours.

I have, however, been labeled a perfectionist.

Yes, I admit I came home and ripped the whole thing out. It was too wide despite her calculations based on my gauge. I really did want a long thin scarf as a gift for Jessica or Stacey. Now that I've been at it for a few evenings, I've got even stitches. Thing is, I really am not fond of the whole crochet *look*. I do want to try it as an edge as soon as I can though - that's the whole reason I decided to take up the hook.

I finally took a picture of the Christmas gift Debbie gave me with her gift card. Bobby and I were in Kohls to return one of the pairs of slippers I got him and I spotted it in the clearance section. (Did I mention I love Clearance Racks?) A 13" dark brown cube with a rich leather-look/feel finish. There's a hinged lid tethered with a sturdy ribbon on the inside. It was meant as a file cabinet, but I could tell the bars for the hanging folders could easily be removed if they were a nuisance.

It was 60% off.

I thought about the space where I've been piling my various knitting bags, patterns and books in the living room where I sit in the evenings to knit and watch TV with Bobby. This would fit several small projects, my most used references and kit. Cool!

Bobby was a bit skeptical at first, but I have returned my knitting to it's home every night.