Busy Crafters

The first beaded bracelet knit up quickly on size 0000 needles...although I have eyestrain from knitting with what are essentially sewing needles...I hope the colors aren't too frou-frou for E's teachers; they are rather pastelly and glittery-pinky...fey (as in fairy-like), just E's taste...



I do like the dragonfly clasp:





And while I've been dealing with beads, A was finishing his Imperial Walker. He used the spray booth that E and I got him for Father's Day last year for the first coats, then did the weathering and faux-dirtying. Plus the joke. I think it's great:







Pippin snoozes through it all, as usual, oblivious until food is in the offing...



And sweet to my ears...my mother, who swears she's a total wash in the needle arts, looked at our Ripples and commented casually..."I wonder if I could learn to do that..." I'm treading lightly, but I have very high hopes for her ultimate indoctrination...perhaps at our next Ripple Clinic (which, I believe, is tomorrow).

Heaven's in the Beads

Remember when Laura and Mary and Pa find the sparkling Indian beads left along the creek banks, in "Little House on the Prairie"? Such treasure, beads are. My little package came today from Earthfaire, and I must begin stringing for E's teacher's gifts, tonight if not sooner. How tantalizing, as good as food:




I also mentioned the finished scarf pal scarf, in cashmere:



I'm pleased, although I certainly did see some fancy footwork out there on the scarf pal website. But this one is soft as soft can ever be and pretty, I think, although maybe not the most elaborate...it smells good, too, because I like to pack my works-in-progress with sweet-smelling soap in ziploc bags. I try to get a scent by theme. This was Burt's Bee's orange, because my pal said she was fond of fruits but not florals.

Then there's dear heart Rowan Ripple. I think I'll just call her Rowan from now on. She's almost done, alack alas:



Here's my fave color run:




And here's a cozy moment: me, my Sissy, E, and our three blankies--finished giant Lion Brand granny, Rowan, and Sissy's worsted Ripple:

I Have Finished a Scarf

Yes, it's true. I have completed a project. I used to be a consummate completer, but lately my lust for newer and better projects, more and more of them, has left me with with an inundation of works-in-progress...but, yes, I have a full-on scarf for my scarf pal. This has galvanized me to complete two afghans tonight. They are so very very near to graduation. One is Rowan Ripple, and I shall be sad to see her go out into the world. She is like a daughter to me. Okay, don't tell E I said that.

The Trees are in Leaf

It happened so suddenly! I mean, not suddenly at all--I watched closely as the knobs showed themselves, and the buds, and the flowers burst, and the pollen drifted, and the little green baby leaves appeared...and then suddenly yesterday, after a really fierce windstorm left foliage and debris all over our street, I looked around and all the trees were thick with their summer finery.

And I am in a literal storm of projects. They consume my every waking thought, and all my spare moments. I have become completely obsessed with yarn. I mean, obviously I'm obsessed. But I'm at a new level of obsession. I have five, count 'em, afghans on the needles--two ripples, Lizard Ridge, two granny 'ghans one of which is just one giant square, from a Lion Brand kit. I must say that their color combo is quite ingenious--when I unpacked the yarn, I wasn't totally thrilled, but all together it has a very nice effect. I'm also still working on gifts for all the teachers--knit beaded bracelets for some, lacy scarves for others. And several pairs of socks, still. And my International Scarf Exchange pal's scarf, a narrow lacy cashmere confection.

Sissy and I showed our friend how to ripple. She is beginning a baby ripple in a beautiful shiny twisted yarn in colors I love. Just spreading the joy a little...

Spring Beads

I've begun work on a little end-of-school-year project, knit beaded bracelets for E's kindergarten teachers (there are four of them!!) and head-of-school. She's leaving her cozy little church nursery, my alma mater, for first grade at my other alma mater a few blocks away. If she ends up at our college, we'll be three for three! I am really haunting my old stomping grounds with a vengeance...

The beaded bracelets are based on a wonderful kit, Bead Soup, from Earthfaire, a website chock full o' lovely, lovely beads. I've ordered a few times from them, and my orders have come lovingly packed with pretty ribbon and tissue, and generous samples of extra beads besides. I'm a big fan of their particular brand of customer TLC. Their bead mixes are inspired. And I adore working with the teeny weeny little knitting needles, from size 0 to 000! It's easier than one might imagine.

In honor of my newest endeavor (as per my mania, the ninth current work-in-progress on the needles!!!), I purchased an inexpensive little pale blue china dish to hold the beads--I like pretty containers for beadwork, so that I can admire the little sparklies as I go.

Bright Colors and Plastic Bits: My Marriage

A's craft is model airplanes, WWII-era fine-scale military aircraft. He gets the same feeling of happiness and quivering anticipation from this




that I get from this



A, with his stacks of unmade plane kits, respects my shockingly comprehensive yarn stash. With his drawer of tiny little bottles of paints, my box of needles and hooks. I even began to peruse "Finescale Modeling" and take an interest in faux weathering tecniques, and A admired the sock heel-turning process. I think an entire marriage can be built on co-dependent crafting! That, and music.

The finest product of our mutual obsessions is E. She knits AND models--her first little knit purse this past summer, and just last week, with Alex, a snap-tite model of a Blue Angel. She'd seen them flying in formation over her preschool roof garden during last spring's Fleet Week, and especially asked to make one. That's one crafty girl.

Back to Brooklyn

We arrived torn and frayed at midnight, toting a bag full o' barbecue and a great big psychological hangover. Family visits can be taxing. But Texas is pretty darn fun.

I missed my ripple afghan so much that I actually began another one in San Antonio--but the guilt of the Rowan Ripple weighing heavy, I had to go on the cheap. We went to Hobby Lobby, where I purchased many skeins of Sugar n' Cream yarn. Granted, it's cotton. But in a moment of confusion, addled by the Texas sun, I decided to use only variegated yarns of all different color combinations. I have very mixed feelings about this new ripple...okay, I'm being polite to him. I just don't like him. I really don't. And now I'm committed to this bad relationship. Here he is, the boorish new boyfriend:



Eew.

Waiting for me when I arrived, though, to soothe my compromised crafting, was a package of sale Rowan:





The photo doesn't quite capture the cheery colors, but I have high hopes for their incorporation into Good Ripple.


Here are some of my favorite things in Texas...

Loveliness in the Texas heat:



Old Guy resting on his log at the San Antonio Zoo:



Ahh, Sonic, you give us the gift of the unnaturally-hued Cherry Limeade:



Delightful.

Didn't I See You Down in San Antone on a Hot and Dusty Night?

Tomorrow we leave chilly Brooklyn for Texas:



Last night, worrying over the lists in my head that I always run when we're about to travel, I picked up some of my silk and tried out an invention, a little ripple purse:



I'm not sure what I think about it, but I do like the middle button. I crocheted a tube of three stitches, coiled it, and stitched it together. I'm going to try some more when I return from San Antonio.

Thank goodness, Jet Blue allows knitting needles and blunt-point sewing scissors! I can work on my scarf for the International Scarf Exchange. Of course, I'll be covered with matzoh crumbs and magic marker smudges from E...no, she's a good little traveler. The crumbs and smudges will only be of my own making...

The Ripple of Old

I've just remembered a ripple I made for E when she was a baby. I took it out of its storage bag--it smelled so sweet!

we put dr. friz on the ripple and he ran all over [writes E]. Here's Dr. Frizzle, taking in the sights a little blearily:




Yesterday I double-parked on Sullivan Street and ran into Purl to quite literally grab the last few skeins needed for my new Ripple:



And here's Ripple, maybe 2/3 of the way:

A Different Ripple

Cast aside in a corner, ignored for its prettier cousin, Ripple, is the Lizard Ridge afghan-in-progress:



Made of Noro Kureyon (which my Japanese pal tells me is pronounced "crayon"), a pattern from Knitty, it consists of many many wrap-and-turns, which results in a peculiar bubbling. This disappears when blocked, but is actually kind of a neat effect:



I like Kureyon for its sometimes spectacular color runs; it's a little rough, a little homespun, but reminds me for some reason of the Bread and Puppet Circus in Vermont, where we used to go some summers. Not really my bag anymore, but homely and wonderful at the time. Kureyon is definitely still my bag, for reasons nostalgic first and aesthetic only second.