Sew I See!

The Old-Fashioned (crochet) Sampler is on hold-- not for too, too long, I hope.  It's already well beyond "afghan weather" around here, for one thing.  For another, I just wanted a break from it.  I had been making slow progress on the Billowy Delight (knitted) scarf, but now that's mostly set aside, too.  It's better than it was, but still not the most fun thing I've ever knitted.  I can see this one taking me a loooooong time to complete!  I probably need to get a good audio-book going so that I feel more motivated to work on it-- because I still want to make the scarf.  Not remotely ready for frogging. To improve matters (ha ha), I decided to start a couple of new fiber-craft projects.  (This will certainly help with that mile-long to-do/finish list.)  First New Project:  Crochet Cacti I've had this trio of teeny-tiny terra-cotta pots for years.  I can't even remember for sure if I bought them myself or was given them...

There are a few more squares to share! Another Kingcup: A Marigold: And a second Willow: After making those, I spread a quilt with white backing across the bed and laid the squares out more-or-less at random.  (Tried to get a fairly even color distribution, but didn't agonize over it.  This definitely will not be the final layout.) I always have a hard time deciding what to do, in instances like these.  I'm sure I'll be satisfied with it, in the end, but it's hard to make up my mind. Looking at these squares, now, it's all too easy to start that tired old game of saying, "Oh, does that blue look ok with the other colors?" (It looks better "in person", I think... Most of the colors seem somewhat off in the photos.)  Or "Hm... Does the golden-green stand out too much?  How about the pistachio?"  But I've been down that mental road before, so no , they're all staying put.  My real questions revolve aroun...

I took some (awful) photos of the latest batch of squares for the Old-Fashioned Sampler afghan.  Here's the mosaic: 1. Danish Square , 2. Italian Cross , 3. Peony , 4. Bright Flower , 5. Lemon Stripe , 6. Fudge , 7. Framed Flower , 8. Circle in a Square , 9. Daisy Chain , 10. Seville , 11. Edwardian Fancy , 12. Peony The colors are off, and some of them are very blurry if seen up close-- not to mention that the squares haven't been even remotely blocked-- but at least it gives you an impression of them.  (Heh.  A bad impression, maybe.) - - - - - - - I picked up the Billowy Delight (a.k.a. Billowy Clouds of Alpaca) scarf again!  Sadly, I'm still not loving it.  I mean, I love the way the finished projects look, on Ravelry, but I'm not loving the actual knitting.  I keep hoping that will change, and it's not so bad as I remembered, but still not joy in every stitch. The problems are these: First, tension.  Keeping the tension right wit...

Luna broke out of "her room" (i.e. the dining room, which we've temporarily stripped of most furniture and sectioned off from the rest of the house) last night and had herself a good ol' time.  It's not the first time this has happened, but it's the first time it's happened that Trixie didn't let us know. Also, it's the first time that Luna noticed my yarn, apparently. This morning, I was greeted by this mess: And this was after Donald tidied things up, he says.  (He happened to be the first one up today and wanted to soften the blow.) Ugh. At least it was only acrylic yarn.  It could've been worse.  There were finished squares she could have chewed into bits (not to mention furniture, walls, cables, etc.), and there's a ball of laceweight on the coffee table that she probably could have gotten, if she'd been determined.  Still, not the sort of thing to fill a crocheter's heart with joy. The yellow-green yarn was the ...

I've been slowly working on more squares for the Old-Fashioned Sampler.  (Sorry, no photos.)  I'm starting to repeat some of the squares I liked best, now.  Still no specific number as a goal, but in theory I'd like to make it big enough to cover our bed, so there are plenty left to hook.  I haven't picked the knitted scarf back up.  It's sitting right where it's been sitting for the past few weeks (or however long it's been), just waiting... We have several "home and garden" projects going or in the planning phase right now, too, and I've been trying to get some things done before summer really kicks in, because I loathe that heat and humidity and know I won't want to be outside much then.  Problem is, there's so much to do-- and so many projects seem to hinge upon something else.  Oh, and while we're out there working on something, we start really looking around and thinking about what we see-- and end up with yet another t...