After The Sunday Funnies...Muckety Monday

Yes, as parents and even as grandparents we have to sacrifice some things so the children can benefit. Some sacrifice more than others!

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After The Sunday Funnies...

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This past week was 'Knit In Public Week'. I was a participant. But I'm ALWAYS a participant. My knitting goes with me wherever I go and I don't hesitate to whip it out in front of everyone if I have time to kill.

In my daily travels out and about in the usual places, I did see a few people doing the knitting in public thing: at work, the mall, doc's offices, Dunkin Donuts, sitting in the drive thru at McDonalds (yes, McDonalds is true) and even the airport. I guess the memo got out! If there were Sonic Drive In's around here, I probably would have seen it there too. When I was living down south, going to Sonic to get my daily diet coke and knitting while sitting there in the car was the norm for me. No place is off limits when it comes to me and my knitting. And strangely enough I don't get odd looks and stupid questions from people about what or why I'm knitting in public.

It's so nice to see at least SOME people doing something in public besides yakking away on their phones, texting a mile a minute and not involving themselves in what's really important in life: KNITTING!

I say every week should be knit in public week!

Have a knit pickin' good day ya'll.

After The Sunday Funnies

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A day late here. But working on catching up.

Have a knit pickin' good day y'all!

After The Sunday Funnies

So here I am late with the Monday Funny...again. I've been busy. Working. Working. And more working. Right now I have more work than I know what to do with. But I'm not complaining mind you. I'm extremely grateful to have so much, especially in our down trodden economy these days. Work is good. Yes it is.


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Knitting is a disease. Once it's in your blood, there's no cure. It goes with you wherever you go. It doesn't matter where you are; it's gonna rear it's head and make it's presence known.

So what if people stop and stare. Give 'em and wink and a smile. It's surely contagious. This is the kind of disease you WANT to spread to the world.

Let there be a knitting pandemic!

Have a knit pickin' good day ya'll :o)

After The Sunday Funnies...Muckity Monday

Today's funny pretty much speaks for itself. It can't get any more Monday than this!

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Happy Monday ya'll :0)

Ain't Got No Mo Rocca

The Ravelry community chose to beat up on Mo Rocca because of an arbitrary comment he made about hand knit sweaters: "Home made sweaters are always itchy". Uh oh. It's time to duck and cover. In coming!!! Mo had better cover his itchy ass! And beat up on him the knitting community did - in the form of harsh comments on Ravelry...which made their way to Mo's eyes. Rebuttal was in order. The result was this story on CBS Sunday Morning.

I wish to post a disclaimer here: Mo says at one point during the story that a person should not "drink and knit". Drinking and knitting CAN and DO go together. Just ask Crazy Aunt Purl http://www.crazyauntpurl.com/ . I did a lot of drinking and knitting while going through my last divorce. It's not to say that the next day you won't discover grave mistakes in your knitting and subsequently have to frog the project because you have NO recollection of knitting any stitches at all the night/day before! But yes, they can co-exist.



So, I like Mo. I even liked him when he was doing the crazy comments on 'This is The 80's' etc...on VH1 years back, stupid as a lot of those comments were. But he was kinda cute in a raggedy old teddy bear that needs a little repair kinda way- even with the little hint of lisp he has; and I hate listening to people with a lisp. But that's another post for another time. I'm proud of him for "movin' on up" to CBS news. Can we look forward to Mo taking Katie's place on the CBS Evening News? Probably not. But one can dream......

Warm Me Softly

I found this video on You Tube and thought it was just the coolest thing. It's an ad for Natural Gas. But it's concept is sheer genius. Watch for yourself and feel the warmth!

After The Sunday Funnies...Muckity Monday

This would be me if there were such a thing as 'The All Knitting Channel'. Aaahhh Monday....

Froggy Went A Courtin'

I said something in my most recent post about frogging some knitting I've been doing. 'Frogging' in knitting terms refers to the unraveling...or as I more aptly refer to it as "ripping the damn thing back to the beginning"...of a current OTN project when a mistake(s) in the knitting has been discovered somewhere along the way. Usually the only way to correct it is to unravel it to the point of the mistake and redo it. The term frogging came to be because when unraveling knitting, it makes a 'ribbit ribbit' sound. Sort of.

Anyway.

I do on occasion rip back something I'm knitting. Believe it or not, it typically doesn't frustrate me when I have to do this. I just kinda take it with a grain of salt, do what I gotta do and move on. I LOVE to knit and would rather be doing that than most any other thing I can think of, except maybe sing and get lost in my music - it's a very close race there. Most knitters find frogging a rather offensive action to take, especially if one has invested countless hours and miles of yarn in current said project. But this doesn't mean that I NEVER get flustered about having to frog something. I've had my moments. A few of my frogged projects have found their way to being balls of crinkled yarn filled with catnip for the cat. He gets the better end of the deal in this thing.

OK. So after rambling on about frogging here, I'm getting to the real point of this post: When I find the need to frog some knitting I have in hand, my brain ALWAYS finds it's way to a Tom and Jerry cartoon from my childhood. Don't ask me why this happens. It's just the way my brain seems to work.

The cartoon is called "Pecos Pest". Jerry's Uncle Pecos comes from Texas to visit his nephew and is preparing to be on a TV show. Uncle Pecos carries around his guitar and sings pretty much all the time. He also breaks guitar strings like they grow on trees...or in this case, on Tom's face. [Insert a fearless Uncle Pecos and the plucking of long whiskers here].

The song Uncle Pecos is constantly gracing us with is "Froggy Went A Courtin' Crambone". His version of it is WAY better than the version I learned in first grade. Especially with the stuttering and the substitution of other words because the stutter prevents him from singing the correct words here and there.

The very talented Shug Fisher (aka Shorty Kellum in The Beverly Hillbillies) voices Uncle Pecos in an otherwise wordless feature. It's mind boggling how well he voices this part. Throughout the years of their existense and popularity Tom and Jerry were never given speaking roles except in very early shorts where out of the blue Tom or Jerry may say one word...but very rarely. The animated shorts relied entirely on sight gags and silent voice slapstick, a method that worked very well for Hanna-Barbera.

It's a a full six and a half minutes of hilarity. I'm sure I've seen this cartoon short a thousand times in my life time and it NEVER fails to make me guffaw like the very first time I saw it. It's a kind of humor I grew up with and relate to. Again, don't ask me why. It just is. The creators of Tom and Jerry, Hanna-Barbera, were sheer genius in their day.



Last night I was knitting along and even without having to frog what I'm working on, Uncle Pecos and his Froggy Went A Courtin' came to mind. I've been humming it ever since. I woke up this morning with the tune in my head, complete with all the cartoonish sound effects that make it so great.

I've included the animated short here for your enjoyment. I hope the next time you must resort to frogging some knitting, Uncle Pecos and his little ditty will pop into your head. It really does keep the production of cat toys to a minimum.

Dig them c-c-c-c-c-c-c-razy boots man!

Have a knit pickin' good day ya'll.......Ohhhhhhhh doodle bop nop bop Crambone!

A Purl Of Wisdom: Swatch What You Say

I should know better than to open my big bazoo about certain things I think or feel. I'm a believer in "watch what you say or it might come back to bite you in the butt". Such is true in the world of knitting...at least it is for me.

I've been known to spout off on more than an occasion or two about how much I dislike knitting gauge swatches. I think it just wastes valuable fun time knitting the actual project at hand. But I will knit a swatch if somewhere in my head there's doubt. I didn't have doubt this time.

Anyway.

This past week I started knitting stuff for a small layette for my sister's baby. She's due in June. I figure this will give me enough time to knit up some cute little things and get them sent off to her in Texas. (I have to keep reminding myself that where she lives is a sauna in sweltering heat come bout April...and I'm sitting here in Massachusetts up to my neck in snow and sub freezing temperatures...so she really has no need for to head to toe merino wool).

Again - anyway.

I'm ticking right along on a little sweater and some knitted Mary Jane's for her to be able to use come the fall. The projects are simple in the knitting and fun to do. About half way through the sweater I decided to measure and see where it sits gauge-wise. Big. Way, WAY BIG. And of course I didn't knit a swatch prior to starting the sweater. So "a frogging I will go". Dang it all.

Me and my big mouth.

Have a knit pickin' good day ya'll.

Hello Again

Hi there people! It's been a long time. The time for me to post is LOOOOOOOOOONG overdue. So I'm here today ready to jump in with both feet and get this blog train rolling again!

The last time I posted was Thanksgiving. Even that was short and sweet. The holiday season was busy on this end and it left little time for blogging and certain other things of that nature. But the holidays were good here and it's nice that things have finally slowed down to the point that I can actually think about other things besides the daily grind.


I stayed busy with crafting. The week before Thanksgiving I started making Christmas Tree decorations for our tree as we had to start from scratch in the Christmas decoration department. That was great fun. It has long been a tradition in my family to make tree decor and that's something I've carried on with proudly through the years. It mainly has to do with LOTS of poster board, glitter and glue - and lots of patience. I managed to get a tree full of stuff made and then some: the 'then some' was extra stuff I made to send to my daughters in Tennessee and Florida. I'm still working on glitter creations as I've vowed never again to wait until Christmas time to start playing in the glitter. It will forever (or for as long as I'm able) be an ongoing process year round. It was just too much fun to box up and put away for another year.

I have several glitter things in the works to ship off to family in Texas and Arizona. These things will probably be a 'Christmas in July' completion and the recipients hopefully will be happy to have a little taste of the Christmas spirit in the middle of the summer heat. I was very pleased with what I completed and everyone else seemed to be also.


I also made Raggedy Ann's and Andy's out the wazzoo! I love making the Raggedies. Have been doing it for going on 30 years now. It never gets old or wears itself out. I love the timelessness of the classic Raggedy Dolls. The patterns for them have changed some through the years. But no matter the changes, I keep the clothes and faces as close to the original as possible. The only pattern company that produces the Raggedy pattern now is Simplicity. And I ran the gamut of pattern companies searching in the fabric stores and online. I had to purchase a new one and was somewhat disappointed with what I found. I used to use a McCalls pattern that I loved and bought repeatedly through the years as I would wear them out. But McCalls doesn't make it any longer.

What I found in the new pattern was the lack of iron on transfers for the embroidery of the facial features and the little heart on the chest. McCalls always included yellow iron on transfers for the embroidery. I used tracing paper under a self modified facial pattern instead. Also, the eyes have changed for fabric painting purposes. It also came with instructions to make a 'wig' to be sewn on for the hair instead of the classic sewing in of the yarn along predetermined lines marked throughout the scalp directly on the doll head. The pinafore has changed from a classic sash being sewn across the width creating the ties in the back to elastic being run through a casing. I tried these new pattern changes with the first doll I made and didn't like most of the results. So I revised the pattern enough to reflect the classic elements: an embroidered face instead of painted: the classic zigzag under-eyelash instead of the star burst type eyelashes surrounding the eyes. I did keep the elastic in the pinafore as this is a time saving effort and I do like the look of it. I also drew the lines on the scalp to sew in the hair. I made a wig with the first one and DID NOT like the look...and what a pain to make!

The ~best~ change to the new pattern was Andy's hat. The old pattern had me setting a top into the brim and the new pattern has me adding the brim to the top. Doesn't sound like much as I'm explaining it here but it is quite the difference when working with the pattern. Also the new hat is a little taller so it can actually be seen when looking at a front view of the doll. The old hat was rather short and couldn't really be seen from the front because of all the fluffy hair. You had to turn the doll to the backside to see it.

I completed several dolls the way I wanted them and they were a big hit for little ones at Christmas and recent birthdays. The Raggedies will be another year round project. I have lots of family with lots of little ones...and the birth of more in the summer. So the Raggedies will be a staple of this old gals perpetual repertoire.

I haven't done any knitting since the first part of October. I had some health issues to deal with and it kind of threw a wrench in the works where the knitting was concerned. For a while I was too sick to mess with it. By the time I felt well enough to do it again, I lost interest and haven't picked it up since. I picked up the sewing and the quilting again instead.

I have lots of knitting UFO's and am getting the itch to pick up the needles again. I need to finish all the stuff I've started before I take on new projects. But spring yarn catalogs are arriving and it makes me nuts wanting to dabble in new(er) knitted projects. I swear knitting is a disease. It's a lot like Alcoholism: It's easy to say I can put it down any time I want, but the need to do new and exciting things almost always takes over and I'm addicted again. Is there a twelve step program out there for knit-a-holics? Or quilt-a-holics for that matter? Or glitter ornament-a-holics? Or crochet-a-holics? Or Raggedy-a-holics? And numerous other craft-a-holic type stuff? Cuz if there is, I need a sponsor(s)!!!!!

On to other things~ A couple of weeks ago we made a whirl wind trip to the heart of the Pocono's in PA to visit my daughter and her family from Florida. Her husband had a job interview there and we jumped at the chance to make the six hour drive to see them. I saw my grand babies. It was soooooooo great. They're growing so fast and am keeping my fingers crossed (and everything else I can cross) that the son-in-law gets an offer and they move closer. Tampa Florida is a twenty two hour ride and something I can't do. So having them so much closer would be fabulous.

My Grandson Ayden, My Daughter Anna, and My Grandaughter Chloe Amidst Chloe Birthday mess!

In other news, my sister in Texas found out a few weeks ago that she's expecting again. Normally this would have been kind of run of the mill news in our family as the vast majority of the family females are Fertile Myrtles and seem to pop out babies like Pez dispensers. But my sisters' case is a little different.

First of all, this was completely unexpected and totally took her and her hubby by surprise. She thought she was DONE eight years ago. Secondly, she turned 45 this past December. She thinks she's too old for such a thing again...and her doc told her point blank that her eggs are old and that makes her high risk (doctors really have a way of making you feel good about yourself, don't they?). And thirdly, for her, getting pregnant was always a huge effort and never came easily. She has a daughter who's 22 and another who just turned 8. The 14 year gap between the first two was a big deal back then. The 8 year gap between the second two isn't as big, but big enough to keep my sister raising kids until well into her 60's. So by the time it's all said and done she will have spent 40+ years raising kids. Not that that's a bad thing mind you, but she was kinda looking forward to getting the eight year old raised and off on her own so that dear Sis could spend her golden years in some peace and quiet!

The best news is that Sis is healthy and the baby is too. Last week she had another intensive Ultra Sound and an amnio to look for Downs Syndrome and a couple of other things. All her tests came back with good results. She's now comfortable with and accepting of the idea and is looking forward to it. She's not so frightened any longer. She also found out it's another girl. She's thrilled. She loves the girlie stuff. Me too. Gets my brain to churning bout quilts and stuff! But I'm partial to little boys too...as I have three of each. She's due in June...just when the Texas heat has pretty much set in. But Central Texas heat starts to rear it's ugly head in March. Add storm season to that March through June and it makes for a rockin' good time y'all! :\ It can make for a pretty miserable pregnancy. Sitting under the the A.C. is bout all anyone in that condition can do.

But we're all happy everyone is OK and are looking forward to the new addition late spring.

In my absence from Blogger in the form of an author, I did keep up with what everybody else in blogland has been up to these last couple of months. It was so much fun to see your creations and families and fun. There were even a few sad moments out there. But I did read you all every time you posted and have been kept apprised of whats going on outside my four walls. It's always inspiring to me to see what you do in your daily lives on the home front and the creative front. Blogger is such a great thing.

In the near future, I will be setting up an Etsy shop as I have lots of things I want to put out there. My daughter and her husband in Tennessee use Etsy for their duct tape creations (Ductile Designs) and have great success with it. It has inspired me to expand my own creative efforts and show the world what I have going on. I will post here at some point the date of the opening of my Etsy. I'm so excited!

It's soooooooo good to be back here and have the creative juices flowing again, both figuratively and for real. I feel human again.

Valentines Day is sneaking up on us fast...and Easter is too. And then Summer. Oh where do I find eight arms and hands and 47 hours in a day to get it all done? I can hardly wait to figure it all out!

Have a knit pickin' good day y'all!

Some Reflectin', Some Quiltin', and Some Knittin'

I've been on a sabbatical for some time now while I've tried to figure things out where my life is concerned. I took time off from writing and pretty much everything else. I've functioned in a most repetitive, robotical, mechanical kind of way for a few weeks now. But seems the time has come to snap out of the funk and get on with things. That's a good thing, BELIEVE ME.

My heartfelt thanks to all those who wrote to me expressing concern and sending me well wishes. They were (and YOU ARE) appreciated more than you know!



While things are still not back to 100% in some areas of my life, I have been doing what I know best...in the creativity department at least. I've been sewing, and quilting, and knitting. It's been excellent therapy except for the fact that I'm soooooooooo slow and don't turn out the projects as fast as I'd like. And I've had Christmas as inspiration to create the determination to get some things done. So, as the Christmas deadline is ALREADY looming (gees, where did the time go this year?!), I've cranked it up a few notches and have two quilts, two knitted afghans, and various other small projects in the works.



I would have preferred to be singing with the band and staying busy on that front, but it just hasn't made itself available to me for a while now as I've had no gumption in that aspect of my creativity. My music has ALWAYS been the best medicine for whatever ails my soul, but even this, my real love of all things that I love, hasn't been the fix I've needed. But what I have done is listen to an awful lot of it whilst working on other said projects...with a few bottles of wine to keep it all company.



So the wine days are behind me now...at least in bottle form. Maybe a glass of it here and there. It's nice to have it in front of the fire in the evenings...now that's it's cool enough to have a fire in the evenings. (I can't believe we're already facing winter and sub freezing temps and snow...LOTS of snow - UUGGHH).



But anyway, the quilting has been great. And the knitting has been great. Along the way, I've discovered some great places to shop for fabric and yarn in Providence, RI and Fairhaven, MA. I've come up with some fab deals in those areas to keep me going on this front. The inspiration has been tremendous and it constantly fuels the want to finish all these projects.

Some peeks here at what's OTN and in the quilt frame. Can't divulge too much cuz it spoils surprises ya know!



Here again...I'm STILL without a decent camera to take pics good enough to do them justice here. My phone is all I have and seems the more I use it, the worse the picture quality gets. But it's all I have for now and will have to do...still! Renovating a house and just trying to make ends meet these days leaves money for little else...and the camera thing is definitely considered a "luxury" at this point.

This past week I joined a 'Christmas Stocking Swap' that Andrea over at Indigo Blue is hosting. This should be lots of fun. I've not participated in a swap before and I loooooooooooove to make Christmas Stockings. My swap partner is Molly from sewquiltwhatever and crochetingmyworsted. (Sorry, but even after all these months of blogging, I STILL don't know how to create a link within my own blog. I CANNOT figure it out!!!) You can catch their blogs <------- over to the side here in my blog list. But this stocking swap thing should be lots of fun and am going to get started on that this week.

It's good to be back and am hoping to get back here to post more often. There's lots going on in the way of beautiful fall scenery here in New England and the critters in the house are always entertaining and I'm busy, busy, busy with the projects.

Have a knit pickin' good day ya'll!

Knit Pickin' - Pretty Book

I've not posted any this week as I have been busy prepping for a yard sale we're holding this weekend. It's been quite the task going through all kinds of stuff to decide what goes, what stays and how much things should cost if they end up in the 'go' pile...and there are LOTS of 'go piles'. Will finish it all up tomorrow and the big sale is on Saturday. Hope it ALL goes. I don't want to haul ANY of it back into the house!

In the meantime, I thought I'd take a break and pop in for a minute to give you a peek into my favorite knitting book. I have lot's of knitting books, but this one is by far my favorite. Probably a fave of some of you too.



This is Morehouse Farm. Margrit Lorher and her husband Albrecht live in upstate New York and own and operate a Merino sheep farm that produces the wool for the fabulous yarns they make and sell. This book is really beautiful in it's photos and the story of how Morehouse Farm came to be.



It's definitely a story book....and I still love 'story books'.



My copy of this book is rather dog eared as I've looked at it A LOT the last couple of years. I love it and have used it so much!



My cheesy camera does not do these beautiful pictures any justice whatsoever. Just take my word for it when I say 'beautiful'. Margrit has all kinds of great projects in the book also - all of which I hope to complete someday, one at a time.



Enjoy!



...and have a knit pickin' good weekend too!

Knit Pickin' - Pillow Talk

The last year and a half of my life has been about starting over...and starting over in every way imaginable. One of those ways is putting a household together completely from scratch.

So while doing all the things necessary like getting the basics to set up housekeeping, there's also the little things that add to the aesthetic quality of making a house a home. I yard sale, shop thrift stores and the like, and make stuff, etc. We are also currently renovating an old Cape Cod style home we acquired last fall. All this has been quite the task and quite the adventure, to put it mildly. But it has been great fun and it all has been like working with a blank canvas to create the living environment most conducive to and most comfortable for our current lifestyle.

It is true the old saying: "It's the little things that make a house a home". So one of my latest projects to 'home-ify' my house is knitted throw pillows. I got the idea from Morehouse Farm. Margrit Lohrer who runs a Merino sheep farm for her fabulous knitting yarns in upstate New York, and who knits like a banshee, has made some beautiful knitted throw pillows through the years and that's where I got the inspiration to do some for my house.

I'm starting with just simple, basic stockinette stitch to showcase the colors I've chosen for a pillow or two. Then I will move on to some more elaborate stuff like cables and some entrelac. Right now the most basic of knitting techniques is great fun - simple and mindless in the work. I'm currently working on a seat cushion done in entrelac and it has been a challenge finding a tutorial dumbed down enough for me to get the hang of it. But I finally figured it out and it is going swimmingly. But it does require quite a bit of 'paying attention' to what I'm doing at the moment, so it's nice to put it down and go to the stockinette stitch for a while. Doesn't make my brain hurt so much.



I have so many different kinds of projects in the works that it's nice to take a break from one thing and go to something completely different, i.e. going from knitting to embroidery, or crochet to quilting. Keeps my fingers nimble and my mind sharp...as sharp as it can possibly be at this age now. My mind is mush most of the time these days, which really ain't such a bad thing either when I think about it. I can just play dumb to a lot of things and get away with a lot! Getting old does have it's advantages!! Not that I think I'm truly old. It's just nice to be able to use it as an excuse occasionally when there's things I 'might' need an excuse for. So, it keeps me out of trouble. Just so long as I "tend to my own knittin' ", I'm OK.

Have a knit pickin' good weekend ya'll !!

Knit Pickin' - I've Been Busy

I've not posted much this past week as I have opted to be busy with various projects I've had in the works.

I finished my 'Providence Rose Garden' granny afghan a few days ago. It's so good to FIIIIIINALLY have this completed. In this last month or so, every time I thought I'd be able to sit and finish, something else would come along to take me away from it and then it would be days before I could get back to it.



This past week I've been bogged down with some sort of cold/flu like crud that sweetie brought home over the 4th of July holiday. It hit him hard that following week and then I got it this past week. In the throngs of coughing and feeling pretty crappy, and in between reading all your lovely blogs out there, I've managed to finish the afghan and work on a couple of other projects too.

So here's the afghan. Will be showing you what else is in the works in the next few days. Am working hard to get stuff ready to be put up for sale this coming fall in addition to doing things for my own house too, i.e. the afghan for an old rocker that sits in my dining room. Have some knitted throw pillows in the works for various places around the house too. Have taken on some entrelac knitting and thoroughly enjoying that. Been crocheting like crazy too...and doing some embroidery...and designing a doll or two.



Soooooo.....

There's lots of stuff to keep me busy for the summer and lots of stuff to show you as it goes along.

Hope ya'll are having a fab summer week. It's raining here...AGAIN. A good day to sit and knit. Certainly not gonna get out and about in this weather with the crud I have. Napping and crafty stuff as I feel up to it are about all that's on my agenda for today.

See you soon. Have a knit pickin' good rest of the day ya'll!!!

Addendum to today's post: I would VERY much like to be able to give you better photos than what I have been, but as the case may be - I don't have a real live camera to do the deed with. I have to rely on my phone to take pics for now. A nice digital camera is on my wish list - hopefully for Christmas. My good cameras were something that went when I broke down and sold nearly ALL of my worldly possessions a couple of years ago, and until now, haven't really had a need for another. So, please pardon the dull, unclear, lack of detail photos until I can rectify the situation. The afghan you see here has a scalloped edge, but you CANNOT see it well in these photos.

Knit Pickin'

Am working on a scarf right now to add to the collection of things that will be offered up for sale later on this year. I have several knitted projects in the hopper at the moment and bounce from one to another so as not to get burned out with each particular project. The scarf you see here I have just started. It is being made with a sumptuously soft Alpaca wool from Bernat - Natural in color. I looooove working with this stuff. The softness I feel as I work with it is relaxing and soothing. It is even more wonderful to wear.

I seem to do most of my knitting and crocheting in the warmer months instead of the more traditional colder months, as most knitters and workers of fine spun goods tend to do. I think my yearn to do this stems from my childhood.

During summer vacations from school, my mother and grandmother would each find things for me and my little sister to do...to keep us out of trouble mainly, and to stay cool when it got to be too hot to play outside in the central Texas summer heat. One of the first things they would do is go through their yarn stashes, select bits of it they didn't have plans for and set us to crocheting.

I always loved digging through their boxes and bags of yarn. It was like going through a treasure chest and finding diamonds and rubies and sapphires and emeralds. The colors of the yarns were always so bright and vibrant...and my favorites were always the calicos (they call them ombre and varigated now). My sister and I made lots of pot holders and doll blankets with the beautifully colored yarns.

My grandmother preferred to knit and my mother preferred crochet, though they each did both. They were traditional cold weather practitioners of the crafts. In summer months they sewed and quilted. I'm just the opposite. Yarn calls to me when it's warm, and sewing machines and quilt frames holler at me in the cold. I believe the latter also to be because of the 'reversal' to keep us occupied during winter vacations from school. Whatever they weren't doing is what they would have us do.

So my 'bass ackwards' method of seasonal crafting keeps me busy year round and seems to serve it's purpose: the warm and wooly things I work on in the summer are ready to snuggle under and wear by the time it gets cold. The light, cottony, sewed and quilted things created in the cold, are ready for spring. Seems like a pretty good way to go about business...and scratch the itch of itchy knitting fingers for now.