Lazlo Hollyfeld, cyclocross, etc.
Sunday was a super busy day. I can’t quite remember what I did Saturday (something about blueberry pancakes and sewing) but Sunday was pretty darn packed. I got up at 5:30 to go with my brother to Monterey to see him in a cyclocross race. No, really, while I will readily admit I am not a morning person, I did actually get up at that time, drive 2 hours to Monterey, and stand out in the rain and the cold and stand witness to five rounds of bike race. I really love my family, and my brother’s my best friend. Thus I do unlikely things for them. He looks mad, eh? Mad at the race! I think I took about 50 pictures of him.
Actually, I do remember some of Saturday. I spent an inordinate amount of time fixing up my craft room. It’s just been a giant mess, and I had to sit down and finish a Christmas gift (which I can’t show you now). I had to clean up enough to actually do some sewing, and plug in a few wires. I’m not going to lie to you. It was painful, and it’s not done. I had five boxes of crafting stuff to unpack, lights to install, things to hang up, etc. I barely had that many clothes to unpack! My obsessions are taking over my life.
It seems that I am definitely going to have enough space to craft. However, since my brother comes to my house a lot, I want him to feel at home, not like he’s camping out in my studio. So the goal is to have a crafting space I can close off and make “disappear” (I do like dual purpose rooms, anyway). The room has a big closet and a giant second closet with shelving, so I have both a sewing workspace (the closet) and storage (shelving) I can close off. Plus I’m stealing the dining table (all six feet of it) for a project-work table. There’s also a lovely bed in it that I’ve wanted for four years, and there will be a bookshelf and actual decorations at some future point. Maybe. It seems like a lot to organize right now.
All this is necessary because I’ve determined that next year I’m going to sit down and really do a lot of sewing in the artistic sense. I also plan to finish 2 big crochet projects and a couple small ones. I have a notebook CHOCK FULL of ideas, and I really want to make some of them come to life. So much has happened in the past couple of years that it feels as if it’s gotten in the way of my ability to make stuff. Now that something has really happened, I want to stop thinking about the direction of my life for a while, and do some craft and art instead. Lord knows I’ve got enough projects-in-progress and ideas-in-progress to keep me busy for 10 years.
In honor of the fact that I’ve once again decided to put my sewing machine desk in a [rather big] closet, my brother has decided I need a name tag that says Lazlo Hollyfeld on the sewing room/closet. I am slightly mortified, yet I do understand. If this reference baffles you, it’s the name of the 1970s genius/nerd who went insane and lives in the dorm’s steam tunnels in the movie Real Genius. Real Genius is my favorite movie, being a nerd and all. I’d rather be Chris Knight (my 2009 Halloween costume), but I’ll settle for Lazlo for now. I’ll leave you tonight with a few quotes from the movie …
Mitch: Did you know there’s a guy living in our closet?
Chris Knight: You’ve seen him too?
Mitch: Who is he?
Chris Knight: Hollyfeld.
Mitch: Why does he keep going into our closet?
Chris Knight: Why do you keep going into our closet?
Mitch: To get my clothes – but that’s not why he goes in there.
Chris Knight: Of course not, he’s twice your size – your clothes would never fit him.
Mitch: Yeah…
Chris Knight: Think before you ask these questions, Mitch. Twenty points higher than me? Thinks a big guy like that can wear his clothes?
[EIGHTIES MONTAGE!!!]
I love that movie.
Winter’s Warmth
One thing daily November blog posting does is make me remember every last thing I’d considered writing about during the past year. There are people who set themselves up for daily blog posting for a year, and I just can’t understand how that lunacy works. However, I think that getting back into writing and thinking about crafting at this time each year is ultimately good. So today I remembered I’d wanted to post about these afghans:
A couple of years ago I was in my mother-in-law’s closet for whatever reason and saw the giant stack of afghans that she’d made. You may remember Jennifer taught me to crochet 6 or 7 years ago, and in fact my first project (now abandoned) was one of these blankets in two shades of blue. I ultimately decided not to continue that blanket because (1) it was made from Red Heart, and there are more enjoyable yarns to work with, and (2) the center of it was incredibly wonky, the result of my not achieving any sort of tension control for about 15 rows.
Jennifer tells me she used to work on one of these blankets during the winter to keep warm. Jeff always talks about the wood stove that kept them warm at one of their houses, one of the old plantation-style houses in the South that didn’t have central heat or air. The blanket would just keep getting bigger and eventually cover her lap, and be finished by winter’s end.
When I was making my grandparents’ blanket it was sort of like that. It was very warm as it grew! It sounds very Little House on the Prairie to make a blanket to keep yourself warm on winter nights, but actually I consider that a great idea. One of my aunt Becky’s friends does hand quilting, and I believe he quilts it in the winter as well (he lives in the oft-frigid northern Iowa) but not in the summer.
Anyway, I think that these are pretty awesome, and I wanted to share her hard work and effort with you.
Jeremy’s Head
Isn’t this excellent?
He’s described it as his “mid-winter” hat. I told you it was warm.
He looks very mountain man-ish. 
By the way, when I didn’t like my color changes on Draft 1, I went to the Interwebs, and came up with a list of articles how to crochet color changes the right way. I’ll update my other post with the chart with these.
How to Crochet Using a Chart or Graph (includes color change)
Tapestry Crochet – right or left hand color changing. From Carol Ventura, who’s written tapestry crochet books.
How to Switch Colors and Use a Chart – Crochet by April Draven
An interesting yarn-joining/color-changing technique. Russian? Maybe.
