Celebrating – Page 9

I Love New York

April 13, 2014April 14, 2014Celebrating, Creativity, Health and Self CareLeave a Comment

Running a little late getting a blog post up this weekend. I was having too much fun traveling last weekend and have spent the time since my return playing catch-up for work. So this post will be a bit longer than usual.

I took a flight into Newark airport Friday April 4th. For whatever mysterious reason, the flight was 2 hours late leaving Denver. Fortunately I was prepared and had plenty of yarn projects along to crochet on, as well as books to read. Including a hat I was working on for my husband.

I was heading out to visit my dear friend Jan, who lives in New Jersey. As part of our weekend we had planned a Sunday trip into NYC to visit the Lion Brand Yarn Studio and the Japanese bookstore Kinokuniya (home of the awesome sauce Japanese Stitch Dictionaries).

Jan had it all figured out for us. We would park her car at the train station near her house and take the NJ Transit to Penn Station, walk to Kinokuniya and meet Mary Beth Temple and my friend Maven there, then have a picnic lunch in the park across the street. Afterward Maven was going to introduce us to the adventure of taking the subway to travel to the Lion Brand Yarn Studio, where lots of my NY area friends would be meeting us for some fun time yarn shopping and visiting.

While I was having a delayed flight Jan hurt her foot very badly. Wasn’t broken but it was very swollen and painful to walk on. She managed to pick me up at the airport, but was having real doubts about the advisability of her going into NYC on Sunday. She suggested that I go to NYC without her, but I didn’t want to do that. Afterall, I came out to NJ especially to spend time with her.

Jan and I have a joke from all our adventures together. We hit a snag in something, or I hit a snag in one of my genius ideas, and I say “I have a plan!” or as is sometimes needed it is, “Okay, Plan B (or C, etc…).” So I looked at Jan Friday evening once we were back at her house. “Plan B time”.

First of all we needed to help Jan’s foot. Fortunately I never travel without my Arnica Gel and my homeopathic Arnica tablets. Referencing the first aid formula for injury, R.I.C.E. (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation), I had Jan sit down and elevate her foot while I treated the bruised area with arnica gel then iced and bandaged the foot. We spent the rest of the evening visiting and crocheting, then got Jan tucked up with her foot elevated and newly iced.

By morning her foot was feeling a bit better but it was clear that she shouldn’t be tromping all over NYC on it. So it was time to investigate another way of doing things. I knew that Mary Beth was planning on driving into the city for Sunday, so I sent off a text message to let her know what was happening.

Mary Beth. being the awesome friend she is, said that she would be happy to come get us Sunday and drive us into the city. Of course Jan felt bad because she lives further south than Mary Beth, so it would be a lot of back tracking to come get us and return us home.

Time for a Plan D at this point.

“Mary Beth what is your address?” I put it into my handy-dandy GPS program on my phone (have I mentioned how much I love my phone?). Jan and I look at it and realize it is actually an easy drive for us to go to Mary Beth’s house. “Okay, how about we drive to you and park there? Then you can drive us into the city?”

The activities for Saturday were a trip to see our friend Pam who lives only 20 some minutes away from Jan. First we made a stop at a local Target store though. I needed supplies for a compression bandage for Jan that would fit inside her shoe.

And we needed Chocolate. Ghiradelli’s new Intense Dark line is lovely, especially the Cabernet Matinee squares. I discovered these on our family trip for Spring Break and they are my new favorite chocolate that is easily available commercially.

We had a great time at Pam’s house. Took about 35 minutes to get there because it was a beautiful out and everyone that had a car in New Jersey was on the roadways (okay, probably an exaggeration, but that is what it seemed like). Pam fed us a wonderful lunch then showed us some of the beautiful stuff she has been crocheting lately. She also showed us her gorgeous collection of crochet hooks. The antique steel hooks and their ingenious little cases and such were really amazing. I was having so much fun I didn’t take a single photo. After crocheting together for a while and visiting we headed back to Jan’s house. Fortunately the traffic had improved.

That evening Jan and I spent looking at her hook collection and listening to music while we crocheted and visited. Her foot was feeling better and looking much improved. We were very glad that we weren’t going to be walking all over NYC though, and confirmed with Mary Beth what time we would be arriving at her house the next morning.

The next morning we packed up a lunch and what we would need for the day, then got in the car and drove to Mary Beth’s house. My GPS on my phone was working great and we were on track, though we kept seeing signs saying we were headed for the George Washington Bridge. Jan was getting a bit worried because she knew we didn’t want to cross the bridge. Fortunately all worked out, turned out Mary Beth would be taking the George Washington Bridge into NYC when she drove us in.

MBT Driver Extraordinaire — Mary Beth Temple: NYC Driver Extraordinaire

At Mary Beth’s house we met Cinnamon, the attack angora rabbit. She was very cute, but wasn’t going to let us pet her. We also got to say hello to Mary Beth’s daughter and see her prom dress, then into the car and on our way to NYC.

We drove around in NYC for a bit and Mary Beth pointed out some of the sights to us. I tried to get a picture of the Empire State Building, but wasn’t quick enough. Soon we were at the Kinokuniya bookstore. Mary Beth dropped us off in front of the store and went to find parking for the car. We actually were there a bit before the store opened at 11 a.m. Just across the street was Bryant Park where we were planning to picnic later.

Once we were in the store we headed straight to the section with all the Crochet and Knit books. The next 45 minutes sped by as Jan and I explore the books and tried to narrow our choices down. I was amazed at my self-control.

I ended up choosing only 3 books to purchase, I already have a pretty wonderful assortment of Japanese Stitch dictionaries at home, so that helped me to limit myself. Jan had quite a few that she wanted to get, and since her birthday is next month, I picked one of them to purchase for her as an early birthday gift.

Mary Beth visits the store regularly so she was set for books, but needed to find some stickers for her daughter, she kept wandering back to check on us. Then Maven joined us, she was exercising self-control and wasn’t looking at the books on this visit. Mary Beth showed us the Moleskine graph paper books she had found. She likes to use them for planning designs and likes them in a variety of colors.

So I had to go investigate the options available. They even had the blank page ones I love, and in every size you could ask for. I chose a set of 3 19x25cm books with gray covers. I like to draw on the outside of them. They are the perfect size for when I travel, large enough to sketch in and slim enough to not add a ton of weight or bulk to my luggage.

I had my choices lined up and Jan had hers, it was time to head up to the cashiers to make our purchases. But then I saw these awesome ear buds. I have been needing to replace my old ear buds for my MP3 player, and who could resist these adorable hot pink little owl ear buds. I was going to, but Jan always helps me indulge. And they are so cool when I’m using them, sort of like jewelry.

Next on our agenda was some food. We knew we were going to be tight on time during this visit, so we brought our lunches and planned to have a picnic at Bryant Park. We so lucked out because the weather was amazing. It was warm but not too hot and there was music happening at the park, though we had to chuckle at Mary Beth because some of the music was a bagpipe band (her daughter is a champion Irish Step Dancer).

One of the really neat things at the park was a display of the maquettes from a project in Scotland called “The Kelpies”. They were so graceful and wonderful to see and are only going to be exhibited at the park until April 22, 2014. You can see more about the large installation in Falkirk Scotland and some photos of them in Bryant park at this website.

Maven took a photo of Jan, Mary Beth and I in front of one of the Kelpies. Then it is time to head off to the Lion Brand Yarn Studio. I had been wanting to visit this store since it opened. Lion Brand is a sponsor at many of the CGOA events I attend and have been telling us about the shop since it opened.

Finally, we were there! And the display in the front window was the yarn Taj Mahal. We all took some photos of it then headed inside to explore the shop.

I had been telling my friends in the NYC area that I would be at the shop 1p – 3p. We got to the shop about 12:45p and one of the first people we see is my dear CGOA mentee, Jessie Rayot.

Then other friends kept showing up. In the end there were 9 of us. We all had a great time shopping for yarn and goodies at the shop, as well as meeting other yarn enthusiasts. We even saw Lily Chin who was teaching classes upstairs in the classroom that day. She was surprised at seeing all of us as well.

It was really wonderful to see my dear friend Sarah, who moved from Vancouver, WA to Brooklyn, NY last summer. She came to the shop with her daughter and almost 2 year old granddaughter.

Jan and I were having a great time checking out all the yarn and other yarn implements. I managed to find a number of goodies that needed to be adopted. I purchased 3 different color balls of the Martha Stewart glitter ribbon yarn (sparkly) , 2 colors of the Wool Stainless Steel thread cones (more sparkly), and 2 hanks of the amazing bulky wool. I also got some nifty bamboo stitch pins (Jessie thought they would make good shawl pins and I was thinking they look like miniature knitting needles), a set of Hiya Hiya crochet hooks, and a cool South Hampton foldable tote.

I’m very excited about my new set of Hiya Hiya hooks. This set was amazingly affordable for as many hooks as it contains, as well as the beautiful case. The case even has room for tape measure, scissors and needles.

And this really neat tote bag, it folds up such a handy size to travel with. But opens out into a very generous size. It will definitely be joining me on my trips this spring and summer.

As 3pm drew closer everyone prepared to say good-bye. We loaded up in Mary Beth’s car and settled down for the return trip to her house, then Jan and I hit the road for the return drive to her house. I got to drive for most of it as I am trying to get used to driving her car. This July I will be flying out to Newark again and we will be driving up to New Hampshire for the Knit and Crochet Show.

Monday was my last full day visiting Jan. We had an All-day Jammie day, playing with hooks, yarn and our new Japanese books. I also got online and registered for the July Knit and Crochet Show. It’s always more fun picking out classes when Jan and I are plotting together.

Tuesday was a rainy drive to the airport. Fortunately I managed to get thru Newark airport security without too many delays or adventures. I had gotten to the airport with time to spare and was glad for it. While waiting for my flight to board there were 2 other crocheters at the gate, so we had fun talking about yarn and different crochet projects. Once the flight boarded I continued working on the hat for my husband and read my book.

After, what felt like a very long travel day I was back home and ready to crawl into my bed and sleep for about 10 hours. That was about 7 p.m. Colorado time, though my day had begun at 7 a.m. East Coast time (5 a.m. Colorado) so it was understandable that I needed some sleep.

As always it was a wonderful time visiting with Jan and seeing the rest of my yarnie friends. I’ve definitely decided I really enjoyed my NYC adventure and I need to go there again in the not too distant future. It certainly is a city with a lot to offer, though I was continually amazed at how many people there were out and about. And that was on a Sunday, which is basically NYC Lite.

Lights, Camera, Action

March 23, 2014May 31, 2014Celebrating, Creativity, Crochet, Humor3 Comments

No, I haven’t gone Hollywood on you. But I am doing quite a bit of video work these days.

As some of you may be aware I am writing the “Technique 1-2-3” articles for “Crochet 1-2-3” now. Issue #11 coming out this May will be my first article in my new role. As part of this assignment I needed to make videos demonstrating the techniques.

I had been wanting to do crochet videos for a long time. But being a recovering perfectionist was getting in my way. Fortunately, the job offer from “Crochet 1-2-3” forced me to finally jump in and give it a try.

At first I thought I would need a fancy digital camcorder, then Kimberly McAlindin (the editor in chief at Crochet 1-2-3) told me that she recorded her videos with her smart phone. Really? That surprised me, and got me wondering how well my smart phone would work.

Last March I had splurged and purchased the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 phone for my business. I’m still exploring all the bells and whistles on it. I was delighted to discover that I could shoot good quality video with it. I still needed a tripod so that I could use both hands in my demonstrations. I figured the local camera shop in Boulder (Mike’s Camera) would have something that would work.

When I got to the shop I found the types of tripods I was looking for right away. There were loads of ones designed for use with the IPhone. Unfortunately the options for a phone as large as my Note were very limited. With some help from one of the camera specialist though we finally matched a tripod to my phone.

My Smartphone held in the tripod from the back. — My Phone held in the tripod from the back.

I wanted one of these with the bendable legs so that if needed I could grip it around the top of my regular camera tripod. This is the Joby Mpod Mini.

Smartphone in the tripod from the front. — Phone in the tripod from the front.

I really liked how this tripod allowed me to see the screen of my phone without any obstructions.

When I got home I started experimenting with how to get the right angle and distance from my hands for filming. The little tripod was great, but it wasn’t high enough off the table. My regular tripod was too tall for what I wanted. I know, it all sounds a bit Goldilocks.

Then I hit upon sitting the camera on top of a little box, perfect height, but it kept wanting to tip over and was wiggly when I was filming. I needed something sturdier. So I dug out a glass jar, filled it with pennies and decorative glass marbles to give it plenty of weight. Popped the tripod on the top and squeezed the bendable legs tightly around the lid. Unfortunately, when the camera was at the proper angle the little tripod and camera wanted to topple off the top.

Never fear, there is always Duct Tape (and mine is Purple). Taped up the little tripod and suddenly every thing was perfect. Setting up the rest of my “studio” was easy after all the tripod drama.

Currently my filming studio is my dining room table, nice big window to my left lets in loads of natural light and there is room for my backdrop, additional light and the necessary project supplies. Eventually I hope to be filming in my design office or art studio. Who knows it might be both locations, depending on the craft and technique I’m showing.

Check out the Crochet 1-2-3 website in May to see my first videos. For my first foray into the waters of video work I think they came out fairly decent.

Boys can Crochet Too

March 11, 2014Celebrating, Crochet, NatCroMo4 Comments

I always chuckle when people tell me it’s too bad I only have boys, assuming that only girls are interested in hand crafts. I hope to teach my boys that they can do and learn anything they want to, regardless of other folk’s assumptions of gender related roles.

It is interesting how there is an assumption, in American culture at least, that only women knit, crochet or sew. Historically that hasn’t been the case.

Up to and during World War II many men knitted and sewed. Darning and knitting their own socks was a regular occupation for WWII soldiers. Before the industrial revolution most of the Knitting Guilds were male only.

And closer to home, when I taught a “Crochet Club” at our local school my star pupil was a 5th grade boy. It was so fun to see the boys (and the girls too) getting excited about crochet and building on their skills each week. The mother of my star pupil said that he and his sister won gift certificates at our local Michael’s Hobby and Craft store. When they went to use their prizes they both headed straight to the yarn section and had a wonderful time picking out yarns to purchase.

Today was a real celebration and time to bond with my youngest. He finally decided he wanted to learn to crochet. I had some of those big pink Lion Brand hooks and some nice chunky yarn that he was fascinated by. He will soon be turning 8 years old, so it’s a perfect age to learn to crochet.

He named his hook “Flamingo” (because it is pink and has a pointy head) and made up a whole story to remember the steps of making a chain stitch. “Flamingo goes under the yarn, then bites the yarn, puts his nose down and pulls it into his den”. He was having so much fun crocheting that he didn’t want to stop. Truly he is my son.

Is there a youngster in your life that would like to learn to crochet? A great way to celebrate National Crochet Month is helping others learn the joy of playing with yarn.

Whoot! It’s National Crochet Month

March 3, 2014March 3, 2014Celebrating, Crochet, NatCroMo1 Comment

Saturday was the first day of March and the beginning of NatCroMo. An entire month to celebrate all things crochet.

I didn’t get a blog post up because I was out celebrating crochet. I was at the Longmont Yarn Shoppe to do a book signing of my “Texting Mitts” booklet and to teach an afternoon class on the Granny Fans Scarf.

Had a really great time with my students and it’s always fun to hang out at the yarn store. I even bought a couple more balls of yarn. Both were for projects I already had in the works.

I needed an additional ball of Crystal Palace Mochi Plus in the beautiful blue/green toned colorway. I had started a short version of my Granny Fans Scarf, but one ball wasn’t quite enough. Fortunately LYS had a ball of the same colorway and dye lot that I had started my project in.

I had purchased 2 balls of Berocco Boboli Lace, but needed a third ball for the project I wanted to create. But LYS didn’t have a 3rd ball of the color I had selected so I returned the 2 balls (I hadn’t actually started crocheting with them yet) and picked out 3 balls in a different colorway. Actually it was a happy accident, because I think I like the new colorway better. It is crocheting up beautifully and I can hardly wait to show all my wonderful readers what I’ve made. That’s for later this month though.

So how are you planning on celebrating NatCroMo? Look around your area for events to crochet with others or learn to crochet if you’ve always wanted to. I’ll be at LYS quite a bit this month, as well as making a trip down to Denver to visit all my stitching friends at the LambShoppe. If you are in the Denver or Longmont area stop by and say hello. You’ll get to meet lots of people that love to play with yarn.

Valentines Day

February 13, 2014February 13, 2014Celebrating, Creativity, Crochet, How Tos1 Comment

I’ve been told I have a big heart. I don’t know if that is always true, I do try to be a generous person and to treat folks fairly and kindly. The past couple of years I have posted a number of patterns on my blog of heart motifs. Most of them are small quick projects.

With Valentines Day only a day away, it’s good to have a quick project to crochet up. So I wanted to show you what another blogger, Cintia came up with using my “Crocheted Love” heart pattern.

These adorable baskets. The ones pictured above I made using Premier Yarns Serenity Chunky Weight with a size L (8 mm) hook, and Lion Brands Thick n Quick Super Bulky yarn with a size M (9 mm) hook.

You can find Cintia’s tutorial on making this sweet little basket at her blog My Poppet. Her idea of using a super bulky yarn got me thinking about doing that with some of my other heart patterns.

So I decided to work up 2 hearts using my “Simple Sweetheart” pattern and Lion Brands Thick n Quick Super Bulky yarn with a size M (9mm) hook.

I fastened off the 2nd heart with a long tail and wove in the center tails on both and the ending tail on the first heart. Then used the long tail to sew the 2 hearts together with a running stitch just below the tops of the stitches.

I left the stitches at the top of the hearts un-sewn to make a little pocket. There is a Dove Dark Chocolate heart in there, and would be room for a little note or card as well.

Then I used a length of yarn to make a loop to hang the heart with and knotted it together.

I made the loop just long enough that it can be moved out of the way to insert a candy and/or note. When the loop is pulled up it holds the pocket closed. You can hang it up somewhere for your Valentine to find as a sweet surprise.

I hope all my readers have a wonderful Valentine’s Day, filled with the joy and laughter of loving friendships.

Crochet for Your Valentine

January 24, 2014January 24, 2014Celebrating, Crochet, Crochet Design1 Comment

If you haven’t seen these 2 new designs that Red Heart has published on their website now is the perfect time to check them out. Valentine’s Day is just 3 weeks away.

First up is my “Here’s my Heart Gift Bag” which is an ideal size for a small gift of cookies or other goodies. The picture shows it as a fun little tote for a toddler, but it is a great bag for anyone you want to show your love to this Valentine’s Day.

The lace edged heart on the front is actually a little pocket, where a note or small card can be tucked away.

Need a gift that you can stitch up super fast? How about my quick little “Valentine Heart Coaster”. These medium sized hearts are worked in Red Heart Super Saver. They only take about 17 yards of yarn, so you can get approximately 21 hearts from a 7 ounce skein of yarn. You could also work them in Red Heart Soft yarn and use them to embellish the ends of a scarf if you have a bit more time.

So pick up your hook and crochet up some hearts for a special gift for your Valentine.

A White and Windy Christmas

December 24, 2013Celebrating, CrochetLeave a Comment

It was a bit breezy on my mountain this Christmas Eve day, fortunately it has finally calmed. We got quite a bit of snow today as well.

Fortunately most everyone is here staying with us. So we won’t have to get out in the wind and snow to go anywhere for Christmas visiting.

I made up a flurry of crocheted thread snow flakes to celebrate the season. The larger 2 snowflake designs come from the pamphlet of snowflakes that I designed for Universal Yarns Nazli Gelin thread. The smaller 3 are just some “doodles” that I came up with whilst playing with the thread.

Sometimes my favorite thing to do is “doodle” with my crochet hook. It is a great way to un-lock the creative juices and can often inspire new design directions. Playing with snowflake ideas is a great way to explore the possibilities of geometric motifs. It is also a really fun experiment to see what will happen when I pin out the snowflakes and use the fabric stiffener on them. Sometimes a design that looks a bit “blah” will be converted into a beautiful lacy surprise.

For those of my readers that celebrate Christmas I am wishing you and yours the very Merriest of Christmastimes. Everyone else, I hope you are having a wonderful day enjoying the slightly slower pace that Christmas seems to bring.

Christmas is Almost Here!

December 19, 2013Celebrating, Creativity, CrochetLeave a Comment

Since my last post the days have gone zipping by.

Had a wonderful trip home to Kansas to visit my family. Lots of good food and cuddles with the little ones. Especially fun was holding my great niece, Ms. L. She was only 3 1/2 months old at the time of our visit and very snuggly.

I made her a blanket and a little hat from Lion Brand Cotton-Ease. Keep an eye out on MainlyCrochet.com this coming Spring as I will have a pattern on there in Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice Baby yarn that is based on the same pattern I created for the blanket. Haven’t decided about the hat design yet.

Now Christmas is less than a week away. Yikes! I really am not ready this year. Between all the distractions of dealing with the fall-out from the flood in September it seems that I am further behind than usual. I am not alone though.

Most of my stitchy friends are all scrambling to finish gifts for the holiday. Many of them say they don’t start their gift stitching until Thanksgiving weekend. If you are making small things that can work out. But a few of them are making sweaters. Hopefully they will be finished in time.

I have been so busy with crocheting samples for upcoming designs in 2014 that I have barely had any chance to make gifts. The baby blanket was finished in time for our Thanksgiving trip only because I ordered the yarn in July.

One of my favorite things to crochet for Christmas gifts are snowflakes. Best bit is they are relatively flat, so easy to mail. Unfortunately I don’t think that will be happening this year. I might get a few little snowflakes done to wrap with gift cards.

I have had a few small designs published in the last couple of years. So if you are looking for something quick to finish for the big day these might fit the bill. I know I may be looking into some of these myself for my holiday celebrations.

Little Christmas Wreath - M2H Designs — Little Christmas Wreath – M2H Designs

My little Christmas Wreath is super quick to crochet. It can be an embellishment on a gift or card, even works as a brooch when sewn to a pin back. You can purchase the pattern for this on Ravelry. The pattern has photo tutorials as well as stitch diagrams to make it easy to crochet and complete.

For snowflakes check out my Little Snowflake here on the blog from December 2011. It is only 5 rounds of simple stitches so is very quick to crochet up.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday surrounded with people you love.

Hectic Holidays

November 25, 2013Celebrating1 Comment

This week is Thanksgiving here in the US. My boys are out of school for the week and it is family time. Too often these weeks for school holidays are hectic and hazardous to our relationships. So this week I am going a bit quiet on the internet in order to enjoy the time with my family and friends, plus all the accompanying visits.

I’ll still be crocheting when we are all sitting around visiting, and there might be the occasional tweet to update. But I won’t be spending much time on Facebook, Ravelry or even my blog.

I have so much to be Thankful this year. Not the least I am thankful for all those in our community and further afield that have helped out as all those affected by the September floods here in Colorado work to get back to some sort of “normal”. In particular our amazing volunteer firefighters who sprang into action in the midst of the crisis and got so many to safe shelter.

I am thankful that my house was untouched by the devastation, though our lives have been impacted by the aftermath. I’m so glad that so few in our community were loss, though the losses suffered will be a permanent part of all our lives forward.

I am thankful for all the friends that have reached out during the past 2 months, and all the wonderful friends that are always in my life. Not sure how I have been so fortunate to have so many in my heart and life, but they are everyday blessings that make my life richer.

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and in particular some lovely time spent with your family and friends during the holiday. I’ll be back later next week. Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

A Wedding to Celebrate

November 22, 2013November 22, 2013Celebrating, Crochet DesignLeave a Comment

Tomorrow my very dear friend T’s daughter is getting married. I have known this young woman for most of her life. T and I met when her daughter was only 18 months old. I’ve been privileged to be a part of her and her younger sister ‘s lives as a sort of honorary aunt. So at the wedding I am very likely to be a bit tearful.

This wedding has been, like many weddings, in the planning for awhile. And with weddings on the brain, I was pleased that my bridal thread designs for Red Heart are all available on their website now.

There is my “Bride’s Garter” pattern. This garter is embellished with a layered and beaded flower, similar to the flower on my “Flowered Wedding Favor Box“. And the lace pattern of the garter is a double sided version of the lace edging on my “Something Blue Hanky”.

If there is a wedding in your circle coming up soon, these are some lovely designs to crochet for the bride. And remember you don’t have to stick to the traditional colors. Aunt Lydia’s Size #10 Classic Crochet Thread comes in over 50 different colors.

Time to polish my dancing shoes in preparation of a happy evening of celebrating. And make sure that I have lots of tissues on hand for the tearful moments.