stuff I want....

Of course, there's nothing like thinking about going on a "stuff diet" to make you want a bunch of new stuff. Not handmade stuff. Not thrifted stuff. But shiny, pretty, brand new stuff.

I want....

this perfume

a Diana lens for my DSLR

a new computer. In pink. With windows 7, please.

just about everything from the new Liberty of London at Target collection.

this dress from Monsoon.

Just a few things

I've been watching the Olympics and crocheting up a storm. I've got 75 of the 100 or so granny squares I want for the new blanket I'm planning. At least I hope 100 squares will be enough. Have you been watching the Olympics? What's your favorite sport? I've always loved all the figure skating and ice dancing categories, but this year I've been loving the various ski categories, like super-G, which is funny, because I won't have anything to do with skiing in real life, as it combines two of my least favorite things- high places and the cold.


I took a fun and fast color quiz. Apparently my color is yellow, which I wouldn't have thought. Supposedly this means that I can't help searching for new ideas, methods and styles. And that is so true about myself.

My sister's baby is finally home from the hospital! He's such a cute little peanut. Seriously, he's too small for even newborn sizes, but just a little too big for the premie sizes. I've been told he won't be that small for long. His name is Oskar. How cute is that?!

I've been thinking about taking Dottie Angel's Challenge to only buy handmade or thrifted/second hand items for self and home for a year. More about that later.

This photo made me squeal with joy at the sight of it. The color. The little birds! If only I knew where I could get the paper, I would totally have an accent wall in my dining room.

The finished blanket

It just occurred to me that I'd never put a picture up of the finished blanket. Honestly, I'm as pleased with this project as with any project I've ever done. It just came out so nicely. I wish the pictures had come out better, but this is the best one I could get. In person, the colors are brighter, darker and more saturated.

As you can see, I used Attic24's join as you go method of joining the squares together. It's just so much neater looking than any other method I tried and it's actually a lot easier than you think it will be. I highly recommend her tutorials in crochet. They're so clearly explained and photographed. I hope some day, someone asks her to write a book on crochet, because honestly her tutorials are better than any book I've found thus far.

Then I finished it off with six rows of granny triplets all the way round and a final row of shell stitch. I'm not sure I did it "right". It works, but since I figured it out by looking at the shell stitch on a vintage afghan I bought on eBay, who knows if it's the "official" way to have done it. Doesn't bother me too much. I'm a knitting heretic and often don't do things the "right" way in knitting (the way I do my perls makes most knitters go "what the hell are you doing?!). So why should crochet be any different, right?

Anyway, I have to say, I started this crochet thing most because I wanted a way to make a biggish baby blanket for my sister's new baby boy in a really short amount of time. And it was fast. Way faster than a similarly sized blanket would be if I knit it. But boy, has this become it's own kind of addiction. In the time since I finished the blanket, I've also crocheted the front for a throw pillow, no pictures as yet and 1/3 of another afghan, this time bigger and for myself. And I can't see myself stopping any time soon.

New Socks!

In addition to the afghan I've been working on, I finished a pair of socks for myself. It was kind of exciting becauseI haven't finished a project for myself in some time. I've been doing so much charity knitting (Last month, I sent off dozens of hats to the Dulann Project). And then there's gift knitting I've done as well, little Christmas presents for friends at work, which sadly, I didn't get photos of.

So a finished pair of socks was exciting.

The yarn is mini mochi by Crystal Palace. In the ball it seemed a lot more pink and a lot less blue and purple but overall, I'm pretty happy with the result. As for the pattern, I hate to be vague, but I've been knitting socks with this pattern for so long, I'm not even sure if it is a proper pattern written up any where. I've made, well, I can't even tell you how many socks I've made with this pattern over the years. I've lost count.

It's a simple pattern. 72 stitches on the needles. Double points, thankyouverymuch. I've never been able to make the various circular needle techniques work for me. My sister is very much into socks on two circulars and always goes on about how much she hates double points and wonders how I can even use them. If you ask me, this is just another illustration of the fact that there is no one right way to knit. Circs work best for her, DPs work best for me.

I've got another pair of socks on the needles, just started. And I'm done with the afghan, but no photos as yet. Soon, I promise. And I've bought yarn for another crochet afghan, which I'll start as soon as the yarn arrives in the mail. Ah, yes, it feels good to be back at the needles after spending nearly the whole summer and most of the fall without doing a bit of hand work.

Doing what we can do.

I'm sure you're all like myself, feeling more than a little shaken by the news from Haiti. The devastation is incredible, made all the worse by an infrastructure that was nightmare-ish at best before the earthquake. I'm sure you know already, but if you didn't, Haiti is the poorest country in this hemisphere and lacks decent roads, hospitals, schools and utilities like clean water in most places in the country.

You've probably heard about the Yele campaign by Wyclef Jean and of course, the Red Cross. I did the thing where you text Yele to 501501 to donate $5 to the Yele Haiti foundation. Red Cross also has a texting donation thing. But I also heard that there may be delays of that money getting where it needs to go. I don't consider the money I spent texting a donation wasted. In 90 days when the money gets there, work will still need to be done in Haiti. They money will go to good use, I believe.

But for a more immediate response, I looked to my favorite charity- Doctors Without Borders, and discovered that they already had a presence in Haiti and had treated over 1,000 people already and had more response teams and a portable hospital on the way. I donated as much as I comfortably could. And I'm asking anyone who reads this blog (and I know there are at least a few of you) to consider a donation to Haiti in some way, whether by texting Yele to 501501 or by clicking through on the picture link above to Doctors Without Borders and making a donation to their secure website.

Thank you.

I've learned to granny square!

It's true. I've learned to crochet. I never thought I would. I'll admit, I had that knit snob attitude. You know the one. No need to explicate my sins of attitude any more.


But seeing wonderful projects around the web and on flickr and on my favorite blogs slowly and gently brought me around


I started simple. I got a real life friend to teach me the basics, then went home and made a few squares in plain yarn for practice. Then went out and bought myself an armload of Berrocco Comfort worsted weight and just dove right in. I picked the yarn because out of the washable/dryable yarns at the shop, it had the best colors. And since it's planned to be a gift, I didn't want to saddle someone else with handwashing. I've done thirty something squares out of the sixty four or so I think I'll need. I can't decide if I want to put the yellow border that I was planning on, or to just join them as is.

wanting pink

Maybe it's just that it's been so dreary and gray here, but I've found myself obsessed with pink lately. Honestly, I'm not much of pink kind of girl. I hated the color when I was younger, only having warmed up to at all in my later years. Even now, I tend to favor the deeper, almost raspberry shades of it if wearing it. I tend to avoid the pastel versions. Despite that, I've been yearning for pink this last month, of all shades and tone.



I've been dreaming of a pink kitchen, just like this one I saw on Apartment Therapy. Maybe once the expenses of the Christmas season are over, I can start to save up to transform my little, dark kitchen, with it's blue-gray counters and floors into something bright and cheerful like this. So far all I've been able to do is buy one of those floral thermos flasks on eBay. Another pink kitchen I like on Apartment Therapy. And yup, another one of those floral thermos flasks.








Though I'm trying not to solve my mood problems with shopping, I did buy myself a new pair of pink boots. They're Crocs. I know. Was that a pink pig I just saw fly by? I'm hoping that the rubber bottoms will keep my feet dry in this winter that has been pretty wet so far, and the lovely pink color will lift my spirits. Sadly, I missed out on the bright berry pink pair and had to settle for the pale pink pair.




I want to move here. Right now. Right past winter and Christmas and into spring and white dogwoods and a little pink house. And a pink that's just right. Not too screamingly flamingo, but not so baby pale that you might mistake it for white. Picture by Catface3. I don't know who owns the house, but I envy them.




I've been reading Casapinka a lot lately. I love her style and reading her archives has kept me busy most of the weekend.


Isn't this a charming couple? Isn't the lady lovely in her pink kimono? I found them this morning at the thrift store, for $.49 each. They're salt and pepper shakers and were actually used as such. When I cleaned them up, there was still salt and pepper inside them.








Adorable pink kitty nose by Lissalou66. Don't you just want to kiss it? I wonder how she got the picture? Any time I try and get a closeup of my sleeping cat, she wakes up and walks away. Very camera shy, my cat.