dreaming of spring and handmade challenges

Yes, I know. Aren't we all? It's just that this winter has seemed to drag on for an unconscionably long time. Here it is, the second day of March and I've yet to sight so much as the little green tips of snowbells, which are often seen around here in February, much less something truly cheerful like a crocus. These flowers pictured, sadly, are no more. I took the picture last month, the month before maybe. I think I need to get some more potted bulbs, I think. I don't often get cut flowers or even potted plants because of the environmental impact of the flower trade. They use more of the really dangerous pesticides than any other kind of crops. Sad but true.

Also sad is the fact that the second picture was taken only a few days ago, and it's still more or less what it looks like out of my window.



Not so much snow on the roofs and the snow in generally is a bit more... gray.







As a bit of a sad note, my beloved Creative Zen Vision M, which I've had for about three years now appears to slowly dying on me. I'm getting a really worrying white screen half the time when I turn it on. So I bought myself a Sansa Clip plus to hold me over until I can send my CZV to this guy I found in California who can fix it. Yes, this is unheard of. I am getting a small electronic device repaired instead of just (completely) replacing it. The clip plus is about the size of a small matchbook. It'll be great for the gym, I think. But I love my CZV. It has a good solid feel that no other player has, and huge storage capacity. 80G. No kidding. It's not even half full despite my huge music collection, the back-ups of my picture files and a bunch of video.

Why didn't I just "upgrade" to an iPod or iPhone? Part of it is sheer stubborness on my part. Another part is the 'cool' factor of the ipod. Anything too cool or popular, I generally don't want anything to do with, especially the smug coolness of Apple. All I know is, I'll probably always have anything but an iPod.


Actually, all this tech stuff is why I haven't full committed myself yet to
Dottie Angel's Utmost Challenge to buy only thrifted and handmade goods for a year. I really want to do it, but you can't buy hand crafted tech, sadly. I did compromise with my MP3 player, but sending it to get fixed rather than buying a schmancy new player with android and a touchscreen and all the bells and whistles. I thought about it and decided that I wanted to stick with my old friend the Zen.

And yet, I find myself thinking I will have to get a computer replacement in the next couple of months. Yes, all of us are incredibly lucky to have a computer at all and I will keep this one going for as long as I can. But truth be told, I'm working on a computer that my husband didn't find good enough to continue using. Not all of the USB ports work. It doesn't really have enough memory to run Vista properly. It chugs and spurts along and every time I use it, I'm afraid the next time will be time it doesn't boot at all.

So, just out of curiousity, how do you all balance your need to respect the environment (i.e. not buy new stuff willy-nilly every time you want it) versus wanting happy, fancy new toys versus just plain having stuff that works the way its supposed to?

Could I, in good conscience, say I'm doing the challenge but state ahead of time that I will be buying X, Y and Z new in the next year? There are some things you just can't buy used or hand-crafted. Like sometime soon, I will need a new bicycle helmet, because the one I have is looking rather battered, and you know, better safe than sorry. You can't buy a helmet used. I'm sorry. You just can't. It's not even that it's gross (it is), it's just plain not safe.

Which is all to say that, yes, I'm still thinking about taking up Dottie Angel's challenge, but that it's just a little more complicated than just doing it.

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.