Frogs' Eggs Shawl

Tadpoles!

Pollywogs!

Slimy green things!

I haven't blogged here for ages! I've been too busy buying 3000 pounds (= 1.5 tons) of weathered fieldstone for our new patio. Rocks are cheap! The price comes from the haulage. In any case, I think this new shawl (in Elvincraft, of course) will be good for patio sitting, and for hugging to my sore back muscles once I'm done setting stones. Pictures galore to follow...

Beauty, Brains, and Glamour

After my thrilling score last week, I had to go back into the Goodwill today, and so found this! Superbingo.

Make-It-Yourself Boutique

I hadn't been in a thrift store for months. But today I broke my junk diet and gave into temptation. I needed some broccoli sprouts from Shop 'n' Save, and Goodwill is right next door to Shop 'n' Save. How could I help myself! Lucky thing I went in, I don't know how I ever lived without this book. The author doesn't believe in patterns, and thinks that every mistake is a new design! My kind of gal! The inside tells you how to make Mexican Pants out of a man's old shirt, and then there's the Flower Petal Hat. Got to get back to reading it...

How To Clean The Craft Room

No dust!

A purty box to hold double-pointed knitting needles.

More tools of the craft.

Buttons and Lucky Charms, in clean jars!

The Happy Chair is where I dream up ways to make a mess.

I pulled this unused chair out of another room; it's the comfiest.

Shelves with actual Space!

I can't claim to have ADD, because anyone who knits lace shawls is by definition able to stick to the task at hand for a long slow time. But everyone has her distraction threshold, and mine is reached whenever I come across a pile of vintage needlecraft magazines. Since my craft room (which is small but all mine —Lucky Me! — and full of natural light) was overflowing with these, I found it very hard to buckle down and get organized. But I'd finally had enough of not being able to find anything! And it's Spring, so I really wanted to get rid of the five years worth of furballs which had accumulated under the shelves, and any lingering Bad Winter vibes. So yesterday I tied my hair off my face, took a deep breath and copious slugs of coffee, then went to town! I pulled every single item out of the room, then scrubbed the floor and washed the walls. The dust gave me a massive headache, so I took 2 Aleve and went back to work. Six bags of trash, four boxes of books, and three sheep's worth of undesirable yarn later, I started moving things back in. What made it back through the door had to be A) Purty, B) Useful, and C) Actually Wanted. Now this space feels much more energetic. Hooray for Spring Cleaning!

Smart Sewing, Stupid Sorting

I've come to the conclusion that if I'm ever going to organize the craft room annex to the Junk Dungeon, it's going to have to be done blindfolded. How can I possibly sort and discard if I keep running across cool old magazines like this one???? Because then of course I have to sit down for a while and admire great graphics and helpful hints. "A while" meaning about an hour. And then something within the pages, in this case the lined cardigan (what a great way to use my Liberty of London for Target kiddie sundress prints!), will make me jump up and start rummaging through my supplies and "create" an even bigger chaotic mess. Since I have a lot of similar reference material hidden in (highly disorganized) nooks, you can see where the day goes...

Chihuahua Hankie

Since she's providing the lamb chops and asparagus on Sunday, the person I embroidered this for gets an extra special hostess gift. Her three favorite things are the color pink, hankies, and my chihuahua Bridget. I think this covers that. I bought the linen fabric, then hemmed it, then added a simple crochet edging, then embroidered it. Whew! The image is from Sublime Stitching, which offers great embroidery patterns that always look clean, neat, and fun. (Instead of the messy do-it-myself designs I usually go with.) I love being crafty, but I have a secret residual shame about it, since I'm just a tad too old to be on the vanguard of this current Neo Craft Revolution generation. For me, crafts will always be associated with polyester lace, "silk" flowers, and mice in aprons. All too well I remember the horror I felt whenever a favorite Antique Mall became a Crap, oops-I-mean, Craft Mall. But now craftiness is chic and there's so much real intriguing talent out there! However, I do apologize for the recent turn of this blog to any old-fashioned junk hounds who abhor the sight of the hand-made. I am going to start showcasing my Lucky Finds again soon!