Art, crochet and craft spaces I’ve found interesting lately:

1. Dviese (together)., 2. NaperonTabuleiro, 3. Regata com croche, 4. more organizing, 5. Gargantilha rosas, 6. Inhaler Holder (Inhalatorhoesje), 7. MY CRAFT BOX, 8. Frenzy Scarf, 9. jersey niño ganchillo, 10. Porta Canetas Trapilho, 11. Mushrooms, 12. crochet trims on pillowcases…, 13. chaqueta niña ganchillo multicolor, 14. Granny Squares Stool, 15. Out into the Garden we go again!, 16. Crochet chenille hat, 17. Divine hat back, 18. my mochi plus rainbow, 19. Not sure yet if I like this hat…., 20. Curve of pursuit, 21. wool eater, 22. my studio from both sides, 23. Stuffy Love, 24. Yellow Wide Bottom Crochet Purse 1, 25. circles done! (C365:234) [Sept 16, 08], 26. Crochet experiments, 27. Little Crochet Baskets, 28. crocheted bracelets, 29. crochet corn, 30. 4 Crochet Snowflakes

Mosaic maker courtesy of Big Huge Labs/FD’s flickr toys.

Found this at Yarnmarket, I was looking for the complete list of the Harmony Guides series of stitch books. Craft snob that I am (!) I assumed that if volumes 6 and 7 were on crochet stitches, there must be 5 other crochet books I hadn’t read yet. This is the current list of available Harmony books. Some original volumes are out of print.

Posted for reference (italics mine):

# The Harmony Guide: 101 Stitches to Knit
boxed kit of 101 cards with booklet
# The Harmony Guides: 101 Stitches to Crochet
boxed kit of 101 cards with booklet
# The Harmony Guides: Cables & Arans
from the original Harmony Guides Vol 2, 3, & 5
# The Harmony Guides: Knit & Purl
from the original Harmony Guides Vol 2, 3, & 4
# The Harmony Guides: Lace & Eyelets
from the original Harmony Guides Vol & 3
# Harmony Guides Volume 1: Knitting Techniques
# The Harmony Guides: Basic Crochet Stitches
# Harmony Guides Volume 4: 250 Creative Knitting Stitches
# Harmony Guides Volume 6: 300 Crochet Stitches
# Harmony Guides Volume 7: 220 More Crochet Stitches

And from Amazon, listed by latest publication date:

• The Harmony Guides: Colorwork Stitches: 250 Designs to Knit by Sharon Brant (Paperback – Jun 1, 2009)
• The Harmony Guides: Crochet Stitch Motifs: 250 Stitches to Crochet by Erika Knight (Paperback – Jul 1, 2008)
• The Harmony Guides: Basic Crochet Stitches: 250 Stitches to Crochet by Erika Knight (Paperback – April 1, 2008)
• The Harmony Guides: Cables & Arans: 250 Stitches to Knit by Erika Knight (Paperback – Oct 1, 2007)
• The Harmony Guides: Knit & Purl: 250 Stitches to Knit by Erika Knight (Paperback – Oct 1, 2007)
• The Harmony Guides: Lace & Eyelets: 250 Stitches to Knit by Erika Knight (Paperback – Oct 1, 2007)
• 220 More Crochet Stitches: Volume 7 (The Harmony Guides) by The Harmony Guides (Paperback – Jan 1, 1999)
• 300 Crochet Stitches (The Harmony Guides, V. 6) by The Harmony Guides (Paperback – Jan 1, 1999)
• 220 Aran Stitches and Patterns: Volume 5 (The Harmony Guides) by The Harmony Guides (Paperback – Jul 1, 1998)
• 250 Creative Knitting Stitches (The Harmony Guides, Vol. 4) by The Harmony Guides (Paperback – Jul 1, 1998)
• 440 More Knitting Stitches: Volume 3 (The Harmony Guides) by The Harmony Guides (Paperback – Jul 1, 1998)
• 450 Knitting Stitches: Volume 2 (The Harmony Guides) by The Harmony Guides (Paperback – Jul 1, 1998)
• Knitting Techniques: Volume 1 (The Harmony Guides) by The Harmony Guides (Paperback – Jul 1, 1998)

Go see Jane at  Grammieknits for a nice New Year’s contest

that will have you thinking in a good way.

get it, thinking/brain?

Ok, just go.

(ends Jan 15)

via Dandy @ purpleisafruit

image courtesy of Monster Crochet *

I can usually motivate the writing muse with something visual – I had a quick but enjoyable walk in the park with the puppy this morning after the kids were off to school after winter break. There’s a tennis court behind (or in front of, depending on your direction) the park and it’s landscaped with those potato-sized river rocks that have always held some odd fascination for me. Did anybody else love painting rocks as a kid? The melding of art and organic did it for me, plus it was a portable “pretty” to admire wherever the mood struck. I vividly remember a red daisy with a yellow center I made with some too-thick possibly musty acrylic  leftover from a paint-by-numbers set.

I’ve seen a few crochet-covered stones here and there on the interwebs. (Even a flickr pool for them!) And I do love me some crochet covered things. Until just recently I was plagued by a series of creepy dreams involving real pets covered in yarn and faux fur.

So now I have an empty D*nkin’ Donuts travel mug in my right pocket because I can’t get enough caffeine in my system before walking to the bus, my phone in my other pocket, and the dog, who hasn’t been walked in too long and is straining to smell the thousand other animals who have passed by in the time since we’ve been here. I want to pick up a rock but realize, as I have before, that it’s technically stealing (an admonishment that I’m sure I heard from my parents as often as I’ve given to my kids). There are a few seniors gathering for tennis, but I wasn’t too worried, except I was because as I quickly scanned to area for a good one – oval but not too bumpy, granite-y instead of slate and bent down to grab it, I chose too quickly and immediately regretted my haste. How could I go back for another? Surely that would seem suspicious. I start to think about my “new” project – never mind the number of old new projects that are not finished.  I can cover it in the green thread I found yesterday when I cleaned out the coffee table drawers. It may look like moss. Now I’m daydreaming and I know it – what else could I cover in crochet? I could make little yarn leaves on those fallen branches over there. A theme! Maybe I will have an exhibition, a retrospective!  – but I’ll have to learn some type of doily-like pattern. Picots? I think I have some pattern books. Urgh, but I really don’t like thread crochet..oh, what is this now, a roadblock, put up by me? in my mind?  How very unusual…

So we start back and get to the crosswalk and I still have the rock in my hand. Will some passerby or motorist see me and know of my transgression of the pedestrian/park ethics code? I pretend for a second it’s a special dog training device. I wait for the light to change and try to put the rock in my pocket but but it doesn’t fit, and I can’t switch hands with the leash puller so I stand there awkwardly, pushing the walk button a few more times than needed.

Headed home though, a funny thing happens. I start to enjoy the weight in my hand. It’s warming up a bit and the sky looks clearer. Lucy’s caught some scent on the wind, and she looks happy too.

I’m going home with my rock and my dog, because that’s pretty much how far in advance I’ve planned my day. It could be worse.

“Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity” – Jones, Chuck

Some free time, scrap yarn and money saved. That’s a success any day.

Blogged from my iPhone

I agreed to do a craft for my youngest’s school party , and they were pretty much covered as far as juice boxes and munchkins (the theme is “Halloween Breakfast”.) It needs to be something quick and easy, plus not messy. So I dug through some supplies in my “studio” and found some large jingle bells.

I figure I can paint them orange at home and have the kids string them onto green or brown yarn/ribbon along with some felt or foam leaves. I probably need to do a test run with my 5 year old at home to see how easy it’s gonna be. Maybe they can crayon a face onto it if there’s time.

Idea two is to have them poke cloves into some clementines and make a nice “pumpkin face” sachet. I think it’s kinda cool because there’s a lot for the senses, the scent of oranges and having to manipulate the cloves. It’s all natural materials, which of course is a plus to me, but the messiness factor may be an ugh to the other moms.

It’s tomorrow morning – what would you do?

Political Puppets by Lion Brand Yarn
Free pattern for each candidate.

10 Gift Ideas For Crochet Lovers

Rachel gets crochet inspiration whilst window shopping.
From her free pattern site.

A Matched Set
Spanish language blog featuring photos of women posed with their dogs and wearing garments spun from pet hair.

Martin makes a crocheted ring bracelet.

Another great holiday (or anytime!) gift idea, Crocheted Nesting Bowls at the design blog Apartment Therapy. Look for the diy links in the comments section.

“Fanny Fallal, although she was not rich, nor person of rank, was a very fine lady. She would pass all her time reading novels and working crochet, but would neglect her household duties; so her husband who was a very nice man, and fond of a very nice dinner, became a member of a Club, and used to stop out very late at night, which led to many quarrels. How foolish it was of Fanny to neglect her household duties and not make her Albert happy at home.”

Image courtesy of The Hook and The Book

(please excuse minor technical difficulties)

After a fairly productive morning (I moved 2 courses of landscaping rocks in the yard, came in, baked a dozen healthy muffins from scratch and started a weightwatchers-friendly cauliflower soup), I looked at the godawful mess I just made in the kitchen. I peeled garlic for the soup and wondered what to do with those few loose cloves that always fall off the bulb. I usually keep them in a cheapie purple easter basket in the pantry with potatoes and other root vegs, but they always fall to the bottom and dry up or get moldy. I needed a little container, but someting flexible that wouldn’t tip perched on toppa the spuds. I suddenly got very excited about finding some yarn and a hook, but composed myself, finished the soup and sort of cleaned up.

I get jazzed about being able to make something that I need, and not having to wait for it. It makes me think of colonial times or maybe the great depression, when the tenet was to make do or do without. I occasionally go overboard with hoarding (my basement “craft space” holds way more than just my yarn stash) and I freely admit to being an active thrift shopper (making new buttons for an old coat in my Ravelry queue) and sometimes, when I need to clean out the closets, I recall a trip to the John Waters-esque American Visionary Arts Museum in Baltimore.

The museum of “outsider”/self taught art was closed for renovations save one gallery. I saw the embroidery of a woman named Myrellen from Knoxville, TN. Her husband committed her to a psychiatric hospital in the 1940’s, there she saved tiny pieces of thread from clothing, sheets, etc. to stitch artwork and messages, her entire autobiography onto a denim coat.

Though the coat was similar to the long dusters that the burnout girls in my 8th grade class wore in 1981 (you know, when dinosaurs roamed the earth between classes), more memorable to me was the frame of mind this woman was in to unravel rags to obtain materials for her work.

Myrellen was later treated with electroshock and thorazine and retained no memory of her work. She denied ever making it.

Now how can I throw out that old sweater with the hole in the neck that is under a pile of workout clothes in my closet? Because I’m not insane, you would answer.

I crochet, therefore I have therapy. I spy a nice big addi turbo hook and some jewelry making hemp sitting in a drawer in my coffee table, waiting for this moment to come along. I used hemp once before for a coin purse and that stuff hurt like a mothertrucker in sc at a small gauge. But this I could handle.  I had previously toyed with the idea of fashioning a little catchall for the bathroom sink or dresser like (a. recent. pattern. I. saw. that. I. can’t. find. now. that. I. need. it. the. story. of. my. life.com), so I had a maybe 2′x3″ dc patch started. Boy was I like the wind. You have to understand, my 4 year old’s favorite pastime is climbing all over my lap the instant I plant my butt on the couch, yarn be damned; but I persevered. Tadee tadah, lookee here!

I hdc’d around the edges of the bottom, adding an increase in each corner on every row. After about four rounds, I wanted to tighten it up so I went 2 rows sc, then a sc with decreases. And since I just learned crab stitch edging, I finished it off nice and purty, ‘n even wove my ends so I could show it off  fill it up and put it back in the cabinet.

So I got’s me a garlic nest, in about 20 minutes or less. The kitchen will probably look the same after 2 hours, though. One thing I’m not obsessed with is cleaning, unless you count my obsession about not doing it. My husband often tells me he wishes I had the “good OCD”. Like him.

“Oh, this old thing? Just part of my “creative rehabilitation”, ya’ll!”
* Link over to Extreme Craft’s photostream for images from the Glore Psychiatric Museum in St. Joseph, MO or check out a gallery of works by Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching fame for a modern “outsider” look at traditional embroidery.