Works in Progress: Crochet Cloths

It's really starting to look like we're moving.  Piles of boxes line the dining room walls and the cupboards and cabinets house-wide are increasingly empty.  This is all very good, but I've had to slow the packing a bit as we still have to live here for another 4 weeks.  

Somewhere in all those boxes are my sewing things.  As luck would have it, I'm feeling especially inspired to sew this week.  Pawing through fabric and patterns (to pack them) will do that.  

So I've been expending my creative energies via crochet.  I needed some new dish cloths, so I tried out a couple of patterns and picked my favorite.  Then I kept going.

I''m a little obsessed with these flower-topped bundles.  They're great fun to line up and admire.  These are already up in the Dapple Shop with a few more colours to come.

I've also begun something on a whim because I saw it on Pinterest.  Oh Pinterest.

Just one square doesn't look like much, but maybe I'll make enough for this retro circles blanket.

What colours would you combine with this blue?

Finding Joy

It's all the little things that are bringing me joy these days.  All the seasonal treats, the pleasures of early summer. 

A bowl of itty bitty, sunny sweet strawberries -- still among the first from our patch.

Leisurely strolls with my favorite people.

Arugula pesto and goat cheese for breakfast, lunch and snack.

Watching some things fade so something else can take their place.

Something like a new colour of Columbine from the farmer's market.

Quiet evenings with pretty yarn and new ideas.

Puttering in my Etsy shop and adding these pretty crochet baskets to the line up.

What's bringing you joy these days?

Works in Progress

Sometimes I go about my day and write about it after the fact as a means of reflection.  Sometimes, to be completely honest, I add things to my day specifically so I can write about them. Blogging and living is a two-way street.  And every once in a while, life catches me up and I'm so inspired, so driven that I can't take time out to write for fear of missing something while I do. That's where I've been lately.  In the garden.  At the sewing machine.  Taking long dawdling walks in the sunshine with my Little Miss.

Would you like to see a few of my projects?

This will be a sweater for Miss S.  It's by far the most involved crochet that I've done, but it's turning out well.  I'm using this pattern.  I have the back panel completed.

I'm also sewing a couple of play dresses for Miss S.  Frustrated with the selection of toddler patterns from the usual sources, I'm trying a PDF pattern for the first time.  This is the "Anywhere Dress" available from Go To Patterns.  So far so good.

There are some new items in my Etsy shop too.  For summer I thought I'd branch out a little and make a line of casual table linens.

The Sea Breeze collection is already the shop and I'm itching to get to work with this summery fabric combination.  I need a glass of lemonade just looking at it.

Now it's back to work for me, but I'll try to surface a little more frequently.  Do you have anything interesting on the go?

Of Primroses and a Crochet Project

I'm encouraging spring with this planter of blue and yellow primula.  My heart skipped a beat when I first noticed the annuals for sale last week.  Could brighter skies and longer days be just around the corner?  These omens of sunshine sit on the front step and make me smile every time I walk past.  That's what flowers are supposed to do, right?

Primroses of not, it's actually been a soggy couple of days around here and I'm spending more time curled up with my crochet.  I think one of my favorite things about crochet is that it goes so well with curling up.  There's no need to sit at a sewing desk or run back and forth to the ironing board. These days, I'd much rather enjoy my down time sitting down.

Here's my most recent project.

This soft airplane toy is for my little nephew.  I didn't think to take a picture of it until it was time to wrap it up.  There wasn't a lot of light left, so you'll have to forgive the photography and believe me that it's very cute.

Project Notes:
For those who are interested, the pattern came from this Etsy vendor and was very easy to follow.  I had a bit of a light bulb moment while stuffing it and added a rattle. Between the soft, knobbly texture of the crochet, the floppy wings and tail pieces and the rattle, I think Baby Boy will find lots to appreciate.

So here I sit, with one foot in the garden and the other curled under me in a comfy chair.  It's the impatient season.

A Moment in the Life

Dazzled by all the beautiful online glimpses of other people's lives, I set myself a little challenge this afternoon.  While the Little Miss napped, I crept through the house to search out my own bits of macro beauty.  The rules:  no cleaning up before taking the shot, no arranging or turning to catch the light.  In short, no touching.  Just document the moment.  Take a freeze frame of life to see if there is anything lovely -- anything thought-provoking or meaningful or blog-worthy -- in this very ordinary moment of my life.

Would you like to see what I found?

Tea, anyone?  My Little Miss loves setting her tea table on the ottoman.  She stirs and pours and narrates.  Soup.  Tea.  More more.  Salsa.  There's always something new on the menu.

Just a few feet away, my crochet project sits on the couch.  Last night yarn hook came to hand and I didn't know quite what I wanted to make until it was done.  What should I do with it?

Don't trip on the train!

Piled atop the sewing machine, another project.  This one was started with more intention (but I won't tell you how long ago) and is almost done.  It's a shirt for me.

Sitting pretty on the dining room table, a bunch of rosemary.  A little green from the garden goes a long way on a rainy winter day.

And that, friends, is a what I found in this ordinary moment.  

I'm still trying to settle on my reasons for blogging and what I want to write about.  It's a process, a growth curve.  I think this little challenge has helped.  Blogging is quickly becoming, for me, a way to freeze an ordinary moment and examine it for meaning or beauty or even ambiguity.  It plays toward the examined life.  And the shared life, because I'm starting to make friends and look in on their moments.  

What's laying around your house right now?

This and That

Fall feels more like winter.  Several mornings this last week I woke to a wonderland of frost, enough to change the quality of the early light in my windows.  Cold and bright.  Strawberry plants gleamed red and green under their silver frosting and a sad looking potted geranium froze right over.  (I had better unclog that pot before it cracks.)  Even the patio furniture changed under it's whitewash of frost.  Miss S, bundled in her too-big coat, wasn't nearly as thrilled with the changes as I was.  Crunchy grass is harder to walk on and cold fingers and toes aren't as nimble as they should be.  She contented herself by scraping frost off a patio chair with her sandbox toy while I marveled and photographed.  Then back inside to play by the fire.

That was first light.  We were out again, ambling home from the grocery store, at dusk.  Puddles aplenty reflected the dying light, as if to extend the short day.  Miss S munched an apple.  We keep a box of them in the garage and Miss S has a hard time passing by without stealing one.  

A little new-camera fun.  I used the selective colour setting here to drown everything but Miss S's coat and hat to monotone.  The light is soft to start with and I think this effect enhances the mood of the moment -- quiet and grey with a shining path of light to lead us home.

That was last week.  Today looks more like this.

I'm nursing a sick husband and conserving my own scratchy voice.  Miss S is at Nana's for the day, breathing germ-free air and giving mommy and daddy time to rest.  Chai tea from a cheery red mug and a new crochet project are on the agenda.

Feeling Blue

I like blue.  It makes me feel tranquil and content, perhaps because some of the nicest things in life are blue.  The summer sky.  The sea.  My daughters bright eyes.  These dried hydrangea flowers are still blue as blue can be.  It's a good thing I brought them in when I did, because the last few days have brought enough rain, wind and hail to tatter the garden.  

While Miss S naps, I'm working this bundle of squishy blue yarn into a set of baby leg warmers.  Last night the urge to crochet took hold.  I really wanted to start a new sweater for Miss S, but that requires more than scraps, which requires planning ahead.  Instead I dug out the pattern for these little leg warmers and settled in.

The pattern, by the way, is one that I bought a while back from this Etsy shop.  It's a sweet design and, after a little experimenting to get the gauge right, I'm finding the pattern easy to follow.  I might even make a pair for myself as the pattern includes an adult size.  Maybe they'll be blue.