My First Scarf

My first finished crochet project!

I owe a big thanks to Karen, at Needle Arts of Georgetown. She helped me select a great high quality yarn and then walked me through single and double crochet techniques.

The next day, she helped me out when my scarf was mysteriously shrinking... turns out you really do have to count those stitches to keep from losing one every row.

The next day, she helped me untangle a massive knot.

Then, just a few days later, she showed me how to finish the scarf and hide those dangling yarns.

Thanks, Karen! I couldn't have done it without you.

Pockets, Pockets, Pockets

In my forays into painting and crocheting, I don't want anyone to worry that I've given up on sewing.... crocheting is just easier to do with a toddler on your lap and painting is quieter in the evenings after babies have gone to bed.

But I was looking around for some inspiration for my next sewing project and wandered back to LiEr's blog and found....

Pockets.

Lots and lots of pockets.

As in, more pockets than I ever even knew existed.


She has tutorials for all of them, though my favorite is the one pictured, the inset pocket with frame because she's right. Small children think hidden pockets are like magic.

On her blog, you can see her pocket quilt and she talks about how she used it as an Advent calendar and is now giving away the second one. (Fingers crossed. Pick me. Pick me.) But it does inspire me to make my own Advent calendar. How fun would that be?

And if I start before the New Year, I have a hope of finishing it before Thanksgiving.

I'll keep you posted.

A Basket of Yarn

When I was a little girl, I had a dollhouse and a bear family lived in it. Mama Bear always had a basket next to her chair that was filled with little tiny balls of yarn that I rolled up for her.

How nice is it to become Mama Bear?

The Other New Hobby

This is Strawberry Shortcake. She is sporting a brand new CROCHETED scarf-like thing.


The point is, I guess, I am having a very merry Christmas and my amazing mother-in-law gave me hand-me-down crochet things and Hobby Lobby money and my fabulous mother gave me a gift card that is going to turn into some one-on-one crochet lessons here pretty soon.

The New Hobby

I had the honor of having many very special grandmothers and great grandmothers. One of them, Mama Robbie, learned Spanish, took trips to exotic places, went back to college for a philosophy degree and learned to paint all after she retired.

I always knew I wanted to be like Mama Robbie when I was older, but it recently occurred to me that being like Robbie could be really hard work and I should start now.

So I took up painting.

My first painting was an acrylic because twenty minutes of looking at painting books taught me that you need special stuff to clean up oil paint and I still have a toddler.

I bought myself a "how to" kit that walked me through paint mixing and techniques like gridding to copy a design. I picked this one of an old mill because it was for my sister and her married name is Miller, so you know, it's funny.

The Millers by RC

Overall, I was really pleased for a first attempt at a landscape and my first painting done in a medium other than poster paint. I mean, you can totally tell it's a mill and the water actually sort of looks like it's cascading down the rocks. The leaves lack detail, but I think that's a style some people do on purpose, so I'm happy with it.