A New Year's Poem

I must admit that this poem started when I was thinking more about doing the church newsletter for this month rather than paying attention to church a few weeks ago. Yes, paying more attention in church is one of my resolutions this year. Anyway, I'm typing up the newsletter now and decided to share this with the couple people who might actually still be reading this sadly neglected blog.

Ready for my Resolutions:
by Keena Lindsay

I'm keeping to my resolutions
I'm brimming with hope for the year
So far, it's been really easy
And I'm sure I have nothing to fear

I haven't failed in my diet
Or fallen behind on my bills
I'm keeping on top of the housework
No dust on my window sills

I'm not saying anything nasty
Not one rumor has passed through my lips
I'm being kind to all children and animals
And leaving big whopping tips!

This year, I'm going to make it
I'm positive it will be so.
It's five whole minutes past midnight!
Just five hundred twenty-five thousand, five hundred and ninety-five to go!

And there you have it. The reason no one is paying me to be a writer lol. Sigh, back to the newsletter. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that I figure out why the computer has decided not to ready the memory card from my camera and fix it so that I can include pictures from the Christmas cantata ;)

A Little Something That's Been Bothering Me . . .

The hubby and I finally invested in a Netflix subscription and I'm happily rewatching my way through the first season of Glee. I was struck again by something that bothers me. I'm really glad to have a popular show aimed at teens with a disabled character. It gives a sense of empowerment. However, why does it seem that all the storylines revolving around Artie seem aimed at making us feel sorry for him? It feels like being given a pat on the back with one hand and smacked in the face with the other.

I have lived my life coping with a disability. I won't lie and say that I've totally come to terms with what I've lost physically and what I still have left to lose, but I don't spend all my time moping about it either. You can't. If you spend all your life handing out invitations to your pity party, you'll feel even more isolated than you need to. I've had my fair share of breakdowns and moments of self pity. I remember one time when my long-suffering college roommate walked it and found me staring at my books on the top shelf where she had placed them in a cleaning fit. I couldn't reach them and didn't know what I was going to do so I just stood there and cried about it. It's funny now, but it felt like a very low moment then.

If the entertainment industry is going to try and give disabled teens a role model, they need to work a little harder at it. Perhaps that wasn't the intention with the character, but if you think you can put someone on screen that fits into such an obvious niche, you're a fool to think they won't be looked to for inspiration. It's hard enough to accept the life and limitations that God has given you sometimes. Do I wish that I was born "normal"? Yes. If I were given a chance at a miracle cure tomorrow would I take it? Probably not. My road hasn't been easy or smooth and probably won't be as long as those around me, but it's made me who I am today.

So my advice to the writers of Glee: Artie needs to suck it up and stop whining so much. Oh, and please find him a wheelchair his legs aren't miles too long for. That is all.

New-ish Work

I've posted pictures of these on facebook and I'm finally ready to talk more in depth about these little guys.

I keep a notepad beside the bed for a good reason. Many nights, as I'm falling asleep, an image will pop into my mind. Something new to try and make when my brain and fingers are awake. I always try to jot these ideas down. Lots of times, I wake up in the morning and find that my notes make no sense to me or my brilliant idea isn't going to work for one reason or another, but sometimes it actually becomes something great.

My first attempts to make this butterfly pattern work resulted in the usual pile of twisted discarded thread. The basic idea was sound, though, and eventually I made a wing. I held a mirror up next to it to see just where to join the second half and finished the first one. I loved the way it looked, but it was turning on itself rather violently so I had to block it aggressively.

Pinned out you can see the butterfly starting to take shape. I left it on the blocking board until it dried and then added a layer of stiffener to make sure it maintained that shape and voila! A butterfly:

I made a two for a special order and they turned out beautifully. One had a body made of split rings stitched down the center and I attatched a cameo to the center of another.

This pattern is an excellent lesson in the importance of blocking. I don't have any pictures of the butterfly before I blocked it because it really did just look like a twisted mess. The first one is going to get pasted into my tatting journal so I won't forget this pattern. Hopefully, there will be a few in my shop soon :)

New Earring Designs

I know, I know, I've been neglecting my blog again. I can't help it. Writing patterns up in my tatting journal, filling orders, facebook, there are just too many distractions these days. But here I am to show off some new earring designs. So, while I've been off neglecting the handful of people actually interesting in reading about my life and projects, this is what I've been doing:

Shamrock Earrings

Bell Earrings

Captured Rain Earrings

Those are the new patterns I've added to my repertoire. Enjoy and take a moment to see some of the one of a kind items also in my shop.

Grumble, grumble, pattern, grumble

All right, I would just like to state for the record that the fact you can't copy from Word, Works, or Notepad and paste into Blogger is frickin stupid, annoying and useless!

Okay, got that off my chest. I'll feel a little better still after pouting and complaining about it for the next week and a half, but what can you do? So, because I love this pattern so much and want to share the love, I'm going to type this pattern out again. Now please go to my shop and buy something so I can tell that you all love me for doing this ;)

Old is New Again Shawl(ette)

I made my shawl with lace weight yarn and an F hook. Pretty sure it would work with other yarns/hook sizes and plan to experiment to that end myself. I'm not giving a gauge because, frankly, I'm too lazy to go measure it on the finished shawl or work up a swatch. Play around with it until you get something you like.

This pattern is an adapted version of shawl 7b in Beehive Knitting Booklets No. 9, A Practical Guide to Knitting and Crochet c. 1915. It has been tweaked to no longer be a full circle and written more simply.

Special Stitches:

Dc cluster: yo, pull up a loop in st indicated, yo, pull through first two loops, yo, draw up a loop in same st, yo, pull through first two loops, yo, and pull through all loops on hook. Counts as one st.

Beg dc cluster: ch 2, dc in same st. Counts as one st.


Ch 4, join with sl st to form ring.

Row 1: Ch 4 (counts as first dc and ch 1 now and throughout) (dc, ch 1) five times in ring, dc in ring. 7 dc with ch-1 spaces between.

Row 2: Ch 4, (dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1) in each ch-1 space across, dc in last st.

Row 3: Beg dc cluster, ch 1, * dc in next ch-1 space, ch 1, (dc cluster, ch 1) twice in next ch-1 space, ch 1. Repeat from * across, dc cluster in last st.

Row 4: Beg dc cluster, ch 1 *(dc in next ch-1 space, ch 1) twice, (dc cluster, ch 1) twice in next space. Repeat from * across, dc cluster in last st.

Repeat in this manner with one additional dc being worked between clusters in each row until there are 22 dc between clusteres. Begin edging.

Row 1: Beg dc cluster, ch 1, *skip next ch-1 space, [(dc, ch 1) twice in next space, skip next ch-1 space] twice, (dc cluster, ch 1) twice in next space. Repeat from * across, dc cluster in last st.

Row 2: Beg dc cluster, ch 1, *skip next ch-1 space, (dc, ch 1) in next two spaces, (dc, ch 1) four times in next space, (dc, ch 1) in next two spaces, skip next space, (dc cluster, ch 1) twice in next space. Repeat from * acrooss, dc cluster in last st.

Row 3: Beg dc cluster, ch 1, * skip next two ch-1 spaces, (dc, ch 1) in next two spaces, (dc, ch 1) four times in next space, (dc, ch 1) in next two spaces, skip next two spaces, (dc cluster, ch 1) twice in next space. Repeat from * across, dc cluster in last st.

Row 4: Beg dc cluster, ch 1, *skip next two ch-1 spaces, (dc, ch 1) in next two spaces, (dc, ch 1) six times in next space, (dc, ch 1) in next two spaces, skip next two spaces, (dc cluster, ch 1) twice in next space. Repeat from * across, dc cluster in last st.

rows 5-7: Beg dc cluster, ch 1, *skip next two ch-1 spaces, (dc, ch 1) in next three spaces, (dc, ch 1) four times in next space, (dc, ch 1) in next three spaces, skip next two spaces, (dc cluster, ch 1) twice in next space. Repeat from * acrosss, dc cluster in last st.

Row 8: Beg dc cluster, ch 1, * skip next two ch-1 spaces, (dc, ch 1) in next three spaces, (dc, ch 1) six times in next space, (dc, ch 1) in next three spaces, skip next two spaces, (dc cluster, ch 1) twice in next space. Repeat from * across, dc cluster in last st.

Rows 9-12: Beg dc cluster, ch 1 *skip next two ch-1 spaces, (dc, ch 1) in next four spaces, (dc, ch 1) four times in next space, (dc, ch 1) in next four spaces, skip next two spaces, (dc cluster, ch 1) twice in next space. Repeat from * across, dc cluster in last st.

Finish off, or continue in this manner for desired length. I did a row of beg dc clusters along the bottom to add little scallops before I finished off. Weave in ends and enjoy!

Happy stitching!

A better look

Ta-da! Finally good pictures! And it's even listed on etsy, I was productive today :) Rolling River Shawlette

I'll post the pattern as soon as I can figure out how to copy it from Works and post it here. It's not letting me for some reason and after taking half an hour to type it out in the first place, I really don't want to have to start all over again.

From the depths of time

I'm not scared of lace. Not at all. I mean, I tat, right?

Okay, I'm a little scared of lace. I can knit and crochet lace stitches like there's no tomorrow, as long as it's with nice safe worsted weight. My knitted lace never looks like the pictures and my thread crochet always buckles and ripples on me.

I've had some lovely lace weight yarn in my stash for ages. Every once in a while, I pull it out, fondle it, try a few stitches, cock my head from side to side, decide it looks like crap, pull it out and stuff it back in my stash again. Yeah, I'm a little scared of lace.

I finally decided to suck it up. It's time to work my way through my stash and put some new things in my shop. I just had to figure out what to do with the yarn. Lots and lots of false starts later, I landed on the perfect thing.

I knew from the start, I wanted it to be a shawl. Knitting seemed to be out of the question until I can learn more about patience and probably try blocking some of my swatches. (There, I admitted it, I don't tend to block things unless I absolutely have to.) I searched through all the books I've downloaded from antiquepatternlibrary.org and finally found something that looked simple enough to play with.

It was a circular shawl and I don't really like having to fold a great big circle over to drape it around my shoulders. I worked several rounds of the pattern as written until I figured out where to basically cut out a piece of the shawl pie. I did the foundation as written, and the edging as written, adding a few additional rows until it felt like the perfect length. And Ta-da!

I just love the way this turned out! The picture is awful, but I had to take it in my bathroom because it was raining all day yesterday. Better pictures coming soon and probably my version of the pattern. Stay tuned for that.

I'm working on another one in a solid color yarn that will be bigger. This first one is the perfect size for keeping the chill off your shoulders, but I want to see if I can make a larger one that will look as good. We shall see.