Cheers to finishing a holiday present!

I’m having a lovely holiday-ish day & evening, which my cat Callie is helping along … doesn’t she look helpful? She’s a whole pile of fluffy trouble.

Today began with a very large breakfast …  so I’ve said I’m nuts about weekend breakfast, but I don’t buy two packages (each) of bacon and sausage like my dad does. When I came downstairs this morning, there was an awesome superfluity of protein and condiments.

I had my dad put away the baking mix, though. Baking mix doesn’t get used in my house. I’m very serious about this. I use my classic Betty Crocker pancake mix, and don’t try to make any other kind of pancakes Chez Miriam.

Then it was off to spend a lovely afternoon with my friend Paula at a craft fair. I got some good stuff, I thought, and I was impressed by the number of vendors who were candidates for running pipe shops. You cannot see what I bought yet, because then people won’t be surprised. I believe possibly that I have triumphed in relation to a certain younger relative while still maintaining my buy-handmade pledge, but we shall yet see.

I am very appreciative of my couch right now, which allows me t0 relax and watch the Food Network. There’s a Paula Deen/Cat Cora vs. Robert Irvine/Tyler Florence Iron Chef Battle on and today’s secret ingredient is sugar. I love Paula Deen - I can’t cook any of her food for fear of instant heart attack, but the woman is hysterical and her food appeals to the southerner in me.  I like cooking fritters, too.

I think it’s worth noting that I finished a holiday present - a scarf for my brother’s girlfriend. This was the scarf that was intended to be plaid, however the plaid did not work out although I did do some helpful experimenting, so it turned out to be a lovely striped scarf. The last step was fringe … and then the scarf was done!!!

The scarf finishin’ was not easy because Callie took a great interest in it, although at first she pretended to ignore me… but eventually she had to give into her instincts and try to take it away from me.  She was very interested in the process of trimming the fringe.  The picture after this that I didn’t take is of her leaping on me and trying to take the scarf away.  But I rescued it, and all is well.  My brother is pleased with the result, and I hope Stephanie will be

Flower Scarf: a new WIP

Christmas WIP:  I’m making three crocheted Christmas projects this year and am well into two of them.  I still don’t feel like I have quite enough to post on my crochet along, but maybe by the end of the weekend I will have managed to make a significant amount of progress.  Enough, anyway.

The Flower Scarf

Inspiration & Pattern:  As is my wont, I have researched this whole flower idea thoroughly.  I LOVE flowers, so I’ve been interested in making them for some time.  Then I ran across the 100 Flower Scarf pattern and associated flower designs at Applehead and decided I needed to make one.  In this case it’s actually not for me but for my teenagerish cousin Chelsea.  I’m crossing my fingers that she likes it.  I really have no idea what a 14-year-old might like.  I really want her to like it, so I’m actually a little nervous about giving this to her.

I also liked Charlene’s white flower,  the flower motifs at ChezCrochet.com, and also found some inspiration in Bernat’s flower power rug, although really what I needed were some motifs.

My Additions:  I decided, after practicing them a bit, that the flowers I’ve seen and tried are just too small for what I have in mind.  I wanted more like 4-5 inches across.

Then I went to the yarn shop and found some yarn I liked - Chelsea’s allergic to a lot of things, so I wanted to go for cotton.  I found Cascade Luna in four colors - butterscotch, green, chocolate and white.  Those decided the rest of the pattern direction.

The colors I chose were selected so I can make sunflowers and white daisies (some of my absolute favorites) and add leaves into the mix.  I’m keeping to a sort of ladder/trellis manner of putting it all together.  I hope it will look really garden-like and fun when I am done.

I took me most of last weekend to work out proper flower patterns I like, and really, I keep experimenting with each new one I do.  Most of the flowers will be just a wee bit different in this scarf.  Slightly different sizes, slightly different looks to them.  Makes it more interesting, IMHO.  I’ve had a lot of fun with it.  I’ve made about half the flowers now and a few more centers, but have run out of yarn.

Sidebar:  I am posting a couple of pictures of my new WIP, but these pictures are crap.  My camera continues to deteriorate, meaning the quality of my photos continues to do so as well.  I am not pleased.  Cameras are expensive, and to have one go south just a year after purchase makes me quite unhappy.  It’s a Nikon Coolpix L5, so it’s not a super expensive camera, but it’s not crap either.   Or at least, that’s what I believed.

New Books …

These two books are all about style, and a certain je ne sais quoi.  You’ll need to forgive me that last because in this context, it’s a bad pun (you’ll see).

I have no design training.  None.  I took one art history class on medieval manuscripts, and one on photography over a decade ago, and that is the sum total of my art classes.  And I think that my lack is bothering me.  One of the things that training of whatever kind helps you to do is to focus your ideas and thoughts, to give you a vocabulary to discuss whatever it is, and to give you the tools to express what you know.   I have a lot of that in some areas, but in the design area I have almost nothing.  And it’s turning out to be a pain - here at home trying to figure out how to make stuff and oftentimes at work where we work with designers fairly frequently.

So I suspect that recently I’ve been unwittingly trying to give myself a crash course in design in the only way I know how.   I get books I think will help, and I research the crap out of my subject, I analyze it until it’s in tiny little easily digestible pieces. Then I fiddle with things, replace some bits with other bits, throw stuff out I don’t like, pin up stuff written on or stapled to little index cards on my bulletin board I like.  And ultimately, I usually figure out what feel like I’m missing.

I got these two books, not because they’re my style, but I think it’s because of that “I don’t know what” part I just mentioned.  Both have distinctive styles.  So I’m looking at things that have a recognizable design element, and figuring out how it was achieved.  Design is kinda funky that way, though, because in so many cases the sum is really more than its parts.

First, things with a French look.

Simple Sewing with a French Twist: An Illustrated Guide to Sewing Clothes and Home Accessories with Style (via) by Celine Dupuy

The first book - I was watching it for a while at the store. Thinking to myself, “Maybe I need to subscribe to Marie Claire. Maybe this is cliche. Should I get it?” So yeah, I was a little unsure about buying. Then I found this review over at disdressed which made me feel better knowing what to look for in the book. I think that I may make a future couple of birthday presents from this, you know, just in case anyone I know likes French stuff (you know who you are, Ms. Eiffel Tower. If you see this book, tell me if you like anything).

Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts (via) by Joelle Hoverson (Author), Anna Williams (Photographer)

I’ve wandered through PurlSoho.com quite a bit and noticed this here book, which was written by one of its owners Joelle Hoverson. She also wrote Last-Minute Knitted Gifts … but I don’t knit. “Last-minute” in this context is supposed to mean that the projects can be completed in 8 hours or less. To me, I’m not sure that equates to last minute for me, given my extremely limited crafting time frame, but I’m interested in trying them out. Well, once again what I’m interested in the style here - again, how it was achieved, the fabric choices, the end result.

This book I was interested in for the same reason I look through certain patterns and books, wander by certain designers, read certain blogs. There’s a certain contemporary crafting lifestyle/style/something that is present here. It’s certain shape and fabric and color choices … PurlSoho stocks many of those fabric companies that work with independent designers, in fact.

So those are my two books.  On the more technical side, I also ordered a book on crocheting tartans.  I’m curious about how that works.  Maybe it will help with my scarf