Ripples

I am still working on the quilt, slowly, but …

I took a break to do some crocheting. After a few months away from it, I don’t seem to have forgotten how. Whew.

This is a gift and it is also a stash-buster. I think I can tell you the original source of most of those yarns – the orange and bright green are from the Flower Afghan, while the robin’s egg blue and chocolate are from my Herman-the-Elephant and Basil-the-Dog amigurumi. I’m not sure where the off-white comes from – probably something I was going to make but never did. Anyway, it’s a nice, sturdy washable blanket … and as you may have guessed from the size, it’s a baby blanket.  I seem to know a lot of people who are pregnant or new parents right now.

The other day when I’d just started this blanket I ran across another Chevron Baby Blanket pattern at the Purl Bee, which included the following paragraph:

If you lived through the 60s and 70s perhaps you have vivid memories of a chevron afghan. Perhaps you appreciated it at the time; were indifferent to it in the 80s; despised it in the 90s; and have developed a deep affection for it over the past decade, itchy acrylic, zany colors and all!

And indeed, I DO have such a memory of a chevron blanket, below, that was given to my family by a family friend. As a kid it was my second favorite blanket behind my Absolute Favorite Blanket. This afghan was one of those early crafts that made the idea of the “handmade blanket” such a desirable thing in my life. Looking at it now it’s dreadfully seventies in both color and style (avocado chevrons FTW!), plus the yarn is Seventies Acrylic – in other words, scratchy. But I still love it.

One day the seventies will come back into style and we will all be encouraged by crazy designers to love avocado and mustard again. Until then, blankets like these must be loved for their memories!

I like to believe, however, that my modern version is both prettier and comfier than my green blanket!

Comparison of A to B

Let us compare, shall we? This thing here that I’ve started (obviously not done) …

… is supposed to look like this picture here:

Does it?

Obviously, I haven’t gotten to the blue yet.  Obviously this is an experiment. I had no idea if my idea would get across the required visual idea of the picture – that is to say, lots of yellow and blue, and about a billion details that fade away as you get farther from the photo.

I think it might need more yellow, and a lighter color of yellow at that. But that may just be me being picky.

New Stuff, Cool Stuff

Things I’ve found of interest out on the interwebs lately:

• Victoria Gertenbach of Silly BooDilly (one of my favorite quilters) is being creative again, this time stitching on handmade paper.
• I’ve often thought it was nearly criminal that the tech industry ignores the incredible achievement of Ravelry and its rabid community of supporters just because it’s technology focused on yarn. This article on Slate doesn’t, at least.
• I loved Columbo.  Totally wish I’d though of making Columbo and Dog out of yarn, but I wouldn’t have done as good a job as June.
• Design*Sponge did a Visitor’s Guide to Oakland, and it’s pretty good! I can tell the author has never lived in Temescal, though, she missed a lot of great stuff! She also forgot the town of Montclair in the hills, and didn’t include my favorite pub Cato’s in Piedmont. She did get the vibe of Oakland right – sure, it can be gritty, but most of it isn’t, and it’s full of a wide mix of interesting people doing a lot of interesting things.

In other news, I seem to have recovered from my vacation. I also had a birthday. Those birthdays really are relentless in their yearly appearance, aren’t they? I’m now thirty-six. In honor of that I’ve created a list of 40 things I want to do before I’m 40. If I accomplish them, it’s going to be a busy and fun four years!

In contrast to last time’s “I-can’t-think-of-a-project” mentality, I have actually begun work on not 1, not 2, but 3 new quilts. This first one will be around 2′ x 3′. You may be able to guess the inspiration for the quilt these fabrics represent (I posted it recently), but I doubt you’ll guess the new technique I’m trying out. I’m not even sure I can technically call this a quilt! But I will anyway.

As you can see, Wesley is intensely curious about what I’m doing, as usual. This next quilt was inspired by a pair of earrings I saw my boss wearing. It’s going to be the smallest one of this group at maybe a little larger than a foot square, but it will be oval or round, depending on how my sketches turn out. It will be constructed out of some of my newest kimono silks.

The last quilt that I’m going to start on, for which I have no photo, is theoretically going to be bed-sized. I say theoretically because I have to overcome the terror induced by my last large quilt effort. I remember vividly how much work that took and how much swearing. But it is a request of long standing, and will be a gift to my brother. Jeremy, YOU know which design I’m talking about!

It feels nice to have projects to get into again!