School notes

I attended the winter music concert for the local high school today.  The kids did an amazing job and I really enjoyed hearing the strings.  I love watching the bows bounce across the violin during a performance.  Plus the kids played a song called the Regal Overature and part of the song required them to pluck the violin strings.  The other sing titles I remember are Procession for a New Day and Brandenburg Concerto No. 3.  All nicely done. 

When I was at the school I got a chance to chat with a little five year old I formerly babysat and she graciously tried on my two finished Soley Granny Squares Hats for me.  I wanted to see if my sizing estimations were correct.  When she put the smaller hat on her head it was clearly too tight.  She looked up, then leaned close and whispered to me, “My head is too big”.  That little girl is still the cutest!  Unfortunetly I couldn’t get a photo as my batteries died on me.  

I must have taken too many pictures of these chairs from the band room.  I just thought the handwritten numbers were interesting.  The little purple message is also informative. 

I spent half of high school in Massachusetts and ‘yeat’, or for added emphasis ‘yeat da bun’, was a very popular swear word to write on school property.  The word was banned from school vernacular but it was inked on bathroom stalls, etched into wood desks and written anywhere else conceivably possible.  The origin and meaning of the word was not obvious and I remember a few debates as to what the word literally meant.  The school newspaper even had an article on the word once where the author attributed the word to horse dung.  The article about ‘yeat’ from the online Urban Dictionary doesn’t mention horses though.  Has anyone else heard of this slang word?   

Stay tuned.  The next post will have more of Crafty Christina‘s Soley Granny Squares Hats!

Read Full Post »

Jump right in

This is the Soley Granny Hat Pattern from Crafy Christina’s blog.  I used a size G crochet hook instead of the prescribed I hook.  The result is a hat sized for a three to twelve year old.  I used Red Heart Super Saver in bright yellow, spring green and royal blue.  I wanted to make a boyish hat but the color order bothers me.  I wish I had switched the yellow and green so it doesn’t look like yellow flowers with a blue center. 

Otherwise this pattern was a fun distraction from projects that are on my Christmas WIP list.  Grannys are always satisfying to crochet but I didn’t enjoy the multitude of ends.  Oh the ends! – but I did jump right in to make another. 

The purple and green version was crocheted with a size F hook which would fit a one to three year old.   I used RHSS pale mint, lavender and TLC eden green. 

The first two rounds of my upcoming granny blanket pattern was used to make the circular center.  The only difference was I used double crochet instead of half double crochet.  By replacing the the center like this the squares are more rounded and therefore the border around the hat isn’t as even.  I want to try another with the first two rounds in half double and see if that would help the border straighten out.     

 

Here you can see the difference in starting rounds.  One with the regular square start and the other with the circular foundation. 

*That’s cool* a random fact

Green Iguanas are a tree dwelling farmed food source in Central and South America.  Because of this, they are often referred to as ‘chicken of the trees’.

Read Full Post »

Tiny glowing votives

Here in the San Juan Islands we got a few humble inches of the white winter stuff today.  The snow covered almost every surface, just not very well.  It’s good for packing though.  If there’s more snow tomorrow I want to make a snowman.  There should be enough to make a little one. 

I’ve been on a short hiatus from the actual act of crocheting and with my hooks on vacation and all, I took them outside to enjoy the view. 

I am busy with crochet related business though, organizing the testing session for my new free granny blanket pattern.  You can read the thread on Crochetville and see what the testers have swatched. 

If you’re just itching for a granny square blanket and can’t wait for the free pattern to turn up, give these a gander:  

A Microspun version on the Lion Brand website has a similar color scheme. 

For giant granny square worked in the round with a shell border try the Large Granny Square Blankie by Lisa Wolf at Bev’s Country Cottage. 

In other news the snow completely covered the Christmas – ahem – holiday lights that are coiled around the deck.  Little by little they melted quarter sized circles all along the deck.  Scientifically speaking, it was interesting to see how much snow a little bulb could melt but I didn’t give it much attention.  

Then at dusk I saw that the light illuminated the snow surrounding the bulb and it looked like a bunch of tiny glowing votives.  They seem very cozy in their little snow caves. 

 

*That’s cool* a random fact

Thomas Edison tried over 1,500 different materials for the filament in his first lightbulb including fishing line, coconut fibers and hair taken from a friend’s beard. 

Read Full Post »