Yarn, it’s not just for dinner

True to form, my day started with a little chaos. As I was climbing out of the passenger side of my car in front of my office building, my cell phone launched itself out of my purse and into the gutter.

Crap.

I thought momentarily about leaving it there for the city rats to make prank calls. But, after careful consideration, I decided a rescue attempt was in order for several reasons:

1) I try to be as green as possible and it didn’t strike me as sustainable to purchase my 37^th cell phone (one must upgrade, you know) unless absolutely necessary. If you need further persuasion on this point - check this out.

2) I just moved to a new office this week and I didn’t yet have phone service. Without my cell, I might miss the two calls I get every week.

3) My entire personal phone directory is in that phone because I am too lazy to create a backup directory.

After going up to my office and recruiting my co-workers for advice and assistance, I had a plan AND a back-up plan. And . . wait for it . . . both plans involved YARN. And quite nice yarn. It’s this glowing green Elsebeth Lavold angora yarn that I got as a souvenir in Georgetown at Stitch DC. I’ve been using it to make this:

Crocheted scarf for my sister-in-law made with a simple alternating shell stitch from one of my favorite crochet stitch dictionaries.

So, with plans in hand and a ring tone in my heart, I returned to the street.*

Plan A: Make large sticky ball of packing tape, attach to lovely yarn, lower tape ball into sewer and poke at tape with long stick-like device to cause adherence to phone.

Result: As phone was resting in puddle of shallow sewer water and assorted decomposing things, the tape became immediately wet and useless.

Plan B: Commandeer Co-worker A’s water cup, attach lovely yarn to handle, lower cup into sewer, use Co-worker B’s broom to sweep phone into cup and pull to safety.

Result: Triumph! Phone was retrieved and was only mildly wet on exterior and still working.

Here is my phone expressing thanks to the yarn for its role in the rescue operation.

So, the lesson here is never leave home without yarn. Aside from being able to work on holiday gifts while in line at the ATM behind the guy apparently attempting to APPLY FOR A MORTGAGE, it could save your life or, better yet, your phone directory.

*Safety Note: Obviously, safety is a significant consideration in executing any plan requiring one to be on their knees in a city street during the morning rush hour. For the benefit of OSHA inspectors lurking on my blog (stop laughing - it could happen) and others concerned for my well-being, I must state that two of my co-workers accompanied me to the street and kindly stood guard to make sure I was not squished by a bus during the rescue operation (or maybe they just followed me out there to witness me making a complete arse of myself in the middle of downtown).

The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes

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Well, in my case, it’s the knitter’s children that had no mittens. With all the gift knitting and crocheting around my house lately, I had neglected to notice that the weather was FINALLY turning cold enough to warrant the covering of bare patches of skin.

In fact, I’d been so pre-occupied that I had to be notified of this weather development by my oldest son, M. When M tried to use the backyard swing on Saturday, the chains were too cold for his hands. I found him fruitlessly rummaging around in our sweater/hat/scarf bin trying on several pairs of mittens and gloves. Finding them either too small, too big, or not meant to be worn on your hands (e.g., "Honey, that’s a hat."), he asked me if I could make him some. Duh.

After watching my parent-of-the-year nomination burst into flames before my eyes, I immediately drug M upstairs to go stash diving for mitten-worthy yarn. After both he and his brother had selected yarn for their mittens, I set to work. In 24 hours, they were done. Note: Each pair only took about 1 hour to make, but my progress was frequently interrupted by our dirty laundry pile which, having turned into Mount Killamybacka, required some serious attention on my part. But I digress.

Here's the other pair (there was some collusion on the design) :




Nothing fancy, but they are perfectly functional and will likely slip into the sock/mitten black hole within a matter of days requiring replacements. I used a very simple pattern that is available for free on the Lion Brand website here. (Unfortunately, unless you’ve registered at their website, the link might not work for you.)

Well, the laundry awaits.

Someone pass the whipped cream . . .

. . . 'cause I'm about to have myself a big slice of Kitty Pi!!!

I recently completed this very popular cat bed pattern for my sweet Gracie. I was really going for comfort and stash busting with this project, so I used lots of scrap wool left over from a recent frenzy of felted projects. The pattern for this bed is a knitting pattern, but after reviewing pictures of other Kitty Pis on Ravelry, I decided that a crocheted fabric would be less floppy. I'm stoked about how it came out. And Gracie quickly staked it out as hers.

This is how she looked at 3:00 a.m. this morning when I took the first picture. (How do they sleep like that without a chiropractor?)

This is such an easy project. (hint, hint, to all the newbie crocheters in my SnB - time to let go of the dish cloths!) It's basically just single crochet (or knitting) in the round with a standard formula for increases in each round to expand the diameter.

When you're ready to make the sides, you just do one round of single crochet in the back loop only of each stitch. This magically turns the fabric at a right angle. (I still get excited every time this happens.) Then it's just round and round and round in regular single crochet . . . until it's tall enough to suit you or you just can't take the excitement anymore.

How big to make it? Well, you just have to wing it. All wools felt a bit differently, but my rule of thumb is make it about 1/3 bigger than you want the final piece to be. As for the felting process, again, it's part magic and part luck, but here are some good instructions for felting.

So, if you gotta kitty or even a cold-natured, not-so-big doggy, consider giving this pattern a try.

Well, here ya go.

I've gone and done it. Here I sit. On a blog. With a virgin post. I've resisted the urge to start a blog for quite some time. Until now, the thought of adding any further commitments to my life seemed nothing short of absurd. But, as absurdity is a frequent visitor to my world, it's not much of an excuse.

So, what will this blog cover? Yarn and the various things that people, mostly me and my yarn peeps, do with it. That's it. And that's quite enough. It's a topic that occupies quite a slice of the cyberspace pie already. I nibble and taste that pie every night as I click through my favorite knitting and crochet blogs. Maybe I can add a little something. Perhaps not. Either way, no one gets hurt.

But I must admit it will take all my strength not to wax political, philosophical or maniacal. There are things going on in this world that cut my heart right out on a daily basis. But I have other outlets for those musings. As for yarn blather, my family, coworkers and friends (those not already sucked into my madness) are threatening to mutiny if I don't stop pestering them with updates on FOs, WIPs, frog sessions and fiber crawls. Though I feel compelled to note that there are those that benefit quite nicely from my little obsession. Case in point:

So, here ya go. I give you Club Yarn. Stop by when you can for your daily fiber allowance. See what I'm up to or obsessing about. Let me know what you think.

ps. A big 'ol shout out to T for helping me get this blog going and to lil' H for being so patient because this assistance was provided in the middle of his dinner.