Do you need a yurt?

Kate Pokorny is crocheting a yurt.  A yurt is dome shaped shelter, looking like a wooly igloo.  She is trying to raise $5,500 for the materials.  In one photo Kate is seen standing on 200 pounds of Dorset wool in her parents' backyard in New Hampsire.  The diameter of the "yarn" used looked larger than a strong man's arm.    For more info google  Yurt Alert.  To do this she has to study various aspects of math related to constructing a curved surface that will retain its shape. If you donate to her project she will send you a mini crocheted yurt. Good luck Kate.

DIP

DIP=do it in public. Crochet where others can see you to promote crocheting. I do this frequently. I DIP at the bus stop, in the waiting room, in the cafeteria at work, in my backyard, on the bus, on the "EL,' in restaurants, at the movies using lighted hooks, in the park, by the river, at friends' homes. It might be called addiction. I don't know. But what I do know is that sometimes my hands get darned cold crocheting outside waiting for the bus at the bus stop, especially on the corner of Foster and Kimball where there is no bus shelter going east or west on Foster. Well-- hopefully this winter I won't be as cold because I crocheted a complete set of DIP accessories, including mitten/gloves where I can pull off the mitten part which covers my fingers including my thumb and crochet with only my fingers showing.

I started out using a pattern. But doggone it, I got lost in the pattern, so I frogged and started over without a pattern, just with a picture of what I wanted in my head. I did pretty good,too.

The right thumb cover folds back instead of outward. that was the only mistake. I chose not to frog that thumb but to live with it. I now have a very large matching runny nose scarf, part of which you can see to the right of the foto. I also have a cute but a bit frilly hat with pull down ear flaps. About the only thing not matching are leggings.....just kidding...but do you remember leggings? They sure kept us kids warm.

If you pass by the corner of Foster and Kimball and see this huge pink fluffy smurf-like person crocheting in the cold Chicago winter -- that's me. I am enjoying myself being creative and DOING IT IN PUBLIC. And yes, people do stop and ask me what I am "knitting" so I respond that I am CROCHETING a....

Ahhh...

Foto 1 is the back of Diane's sweater. 2 is the dress Donna crocheted for her granddaughter and 3 is the front of Diane's gorgeous sweater. The joy of seeing the finished product is an "Ahhh." The satisfaction of teaching that person to create the finished product is heavenly. I was pleased as could be when Donna said that it was a little too big so she went back, frogged a couple of rows, and then decreased as she re-did those rows, so that it fits...and she just did it without my help. that is the mark of both a good teacher and a good student.

NIC March Meeting, 2009 photos.

We had a fashion show from the Double Stitch Twins at the March, 2009 meeting of the Northern IL Chapter of the crochet guild of america. Their crocheted shawls are versatile and imaginative in their use. It was fun and delightful to see their overwhelming enthusiasm for the art of crochet translated into their kind of fashion items.

Crochet and creating

I was standing in the backyard; a green dollar bill in one hand, and a lighted match in the other. I lit the bill and watched the green change to orange. When the fire reached my fingers and I felt the heat, I dropped the remains. Because the dollar was mine, I could do anything I wanted with it because I have freedom of choice. I am free to do whatever I want with my dollar bill - I could make a stupid, bad, intriguing, fascinating, wise, creative, imaginative or even useful choice (like spending it for more yarn). I could even crochet with it... If Pauline could crochet with ice cream, then I surely could crochet with a dollar bill!

This is how I feel about a ball of yarn -- it is an inanimate object but I can put life into it --crocheting booties and putting them on 5 day old Mikala's tiny feet - really puts life into them! I wonder if this is how God sees her very animated creations. The most like-God act of creation is to create a baby like tiny Mikala. And following this line of thought, giving birth to our yarn creation is starting the process of crocheting strands of yarn - one little slip stitch is all it takes to create something like this:

Cardinal and Berries

Merry Christmas. May all your Christmas' be filled with yarn, beauty and crocheting. This photo was taken on my way to work one very cold Chicago morning. I heard the Cardinal singing, and looked up to see this tree which was winter-cold barren except for this bright crimson cardinal breakfasting on the tree's only attachment - bright crimson berries. He stayed there long enuf for me to pull out my little camera and get several photos of feasting on the berries against this perfectly blue sky.

I haven't blogged recently, my apologies. Life has a way of taking on its own momentum. I created a new pattern which I have crocheted for Christmas presents for my friends. Now that Christmas is upon us, and they have opened their gifts, I can talk about it without spoiling the surprise. I've designed a cover from my steering wheel. It took several drafts before I got it right - so I have lots of too large and too small steering wheel covers around the house! Here is a foto of one of them which actually fits... if you want the pattern please e-mail a request for it to calumet133@yahoo.com. Put Steering Wheel Cover in the Subject line. The one in my car is bright red and white variegated -is that how you spell variegated?- cotton yarn, with a matching head rest cover, and antenna topper in the form of a boot - which is really really cute.

New Afghan pattern. Dr. B.Otto showed me an afghan that one of her students made for her - it was so unique. I had never seen that pattern before - even tho it consisted of double shells, it looked as if two afghans were made separately and then somehow attached -- then I thought maybe it was done as an overlay or maybe an extended stitch of some sort. I contacted the crochter - who gave me a copy of her 30 year old pattern - and I was wrong on all counts. I invited her to the NIC of the CGOA, and asked her to bring some of her work - which is totally exquisite and breathtaking. I hope she comes. She is obviously passionate about crocheting.

Spend Today Crocheting

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives. Spend it crocheting.