Hit Me With Your Best Shot

I’m not sure how this happened. All I know is that I ordered some yarn from KnitPicks and kept looking at the crochet net stitch and then suddenly I was using the purple and Kelly green to make a shrug that Pat Benatar would be proud of.

I mean honestly, let’s all take a step back and think about this for a minute. I’m pretty traditional with my crochet. I like granny squares, I love perfectly simple scarves made out of rows and rows of treble stitches, and yet you had me two radically bold colors and suddenly I’m rocking out to David Bowie (The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust to be exact) and thinking (oh so vainly) about how good my shoulders look when I cut the necklines out of t-shirts.

So I followed my instinct. I took hold of the purple yarn and my trusty crochet hook and suddenly I could hear Duran Duran singing, I could feel my crimped bangs falling in my eyes, I could see the brightly colored eye shadow: I was back in the 1980’s.


Now that it’s over and done I don’t really know what to call it. I meant to make a shrug and what I like about this shrug is that it’s size and weight allow it to be more than just a shrug. But it’s not just about what this design is, not just the practicality of it. No, this is about more than what this design is meant to do; this is about a style (which makes it ever so hard to find the perfect name.)

And so, Ladies and Gentleman of Blog-Land, I give you
The Bangles Would Love Me 80’s-tastic Something Happened and I'm Head Over Heels Scarf
Happy Crafting,
The Snail

Ode to Donna Reed

Dear Friends,

Like the Snail, I would like to begin my blogging life by admitting to you something that I don't normally share. So here it goes:

I have a confession to make. Despite all of the money I have sunken in to college in an effort to become an empowered, independent, working woman, I have a secret. I truly long for nothing more than to be a 1950s housewife. Honestly. Make fun if you must but I think it is every crafter's dream. Imagine a life filled with cake decorating, intricate sweater knitting, floral-print pastel dress making, and joyous days spent crafting and baking! Plus, all of those cute housedresses you would get to wear! This desire has only been fueled by my interest in the not-so-distant past that I find evidence of in my lazy Saturdays spent prowling around estate sales and my favorite antique and vintage clothing stores. Its always been amazing to me that I can look through other people's things and then take home bits and pieces of this romanticized past and create the collage of time periods that is my present. There is something so exciting and special about finding evidence of a life and a time that I otherwise wouldn't have known about.

To me, the true essence of the 50s housewife is her apron. Nothing says "I'm excited about cooking and crafting!" like a cute, well embellished apron. Even better if that apron perfectly coordinates with her outfit and if it has matching oven-mitts. Seriously. I think my interest in the perfect apron started about a year ago when my grandma gave me her lovely old orange apron with a tiny green and white flower print. It's pretty fabulous in that tiny old grandma way that I love.

When I got a new sewing machine to for Christmas it was only natural for me to begin teaching myself to sew with the simplest thing I could think of. The first thing that came to mind was, of course, an apron. I would make the perfect apron!! So I set out to make a little half apron for my cousin's birthday which, incidentally, was the next day. Now would be a good time to mention that I'm not a very practical person. Nonetheless, the apron ended up being just as simple as I expected to make. (that is not usually the case) I'm really pleased with the way it turned out and am excited to try again. Here's a picture of Emily modeling her new birdie apron. (The bird is also a pocket!)


I think Donna Reed would be proud. Next I'll take on a full apron. I'm pretty sure I can handle it.

Cheers!
Owl

Feelings about Felt

These past few weeks have been so incredibly full of yarn that my mind is having trouble recognizing anything else. You see about a month ago I fell down my stairs and broke my ankle and now all I do is lie around, watch DVD’s, sleep an incredible amount and play with yarn. My latest endeavor involved felting. I wanted to see the difference between my favorite crochet stitch felted and the general knitted stockinette stitch.

I love the pattern crochet makes, I love the freedom of crochet. For some reason knit feels restrictive to me, something about a needle in each hand makes me feel less creative than when I just have the hook and the yarn. There is no logic behind any of it, just sentimentality and a stubborn “but I don’t want to learn a new style” attitude. But I think felting is the one thing that makes me put down the hook and pick up the needles without complaint. The amazing texture and durability that comes out of felting knit goods makes me completely forget my disdain for the needles.

So these past few days have been the felting experiment days. My godmother (who has been taking care of me while I am on crutches) is a batik artist so her washing machine is set to an extra hot temperature. Because of my lack of mobility I decided when felting this week that using the washing machine would be easiest for everyone involved but I really want to use my Godmother’s boil out tubs and a wash board next time just to see what it’s like. The crochet retains it’s design in the washing machine, it is more of a shrinking process than an actual felting but nonetheless it is still pretty and different, it gives me new options for crochet. But the true art comes in the felted knits.

My godmother tells a story about how she was first taught about felting. In art school she learned about a tradition where the felters would take wool and poor boiling hot water over it, wrap it in a blanket and then tie it to the back of a horse to agitate it. I think this would be my preferred way of felting if I had a horse and a lot of time on my hands.

In the end my knitting really paid off with the creation of this felt clutch. I love the boldness of the colors and the strength given to the material by the felting process. On the other hand this is a purse I crocheted and felted and while I still love the colors and style of the purse and I can tell that some strength was added in the process it is nothing compared to the drastic change that occurs with knit.

I need to go finish some projects and enjoy the sun,
The Snail

The Snail Ponders Patterns...

“And thirdly, The pattern is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules.”



I have a confession to make and it is a serious one in the world of all things craft. I hate patterns. Well, that’s sort of a lie because anyone who has ever seen my bookshelf knows that I own too many craft magazines and pattern books and if I really hated them I wouldn’t spend all that money on them. Well, sadly, I buy them mostly for the pictures. I very rarely open to the pages with the actual patterns, only in my most overdramatic moments (like when I throw knitting projects on the floor and call the Owl to tell her I’m a talent-less hack) do I open to those pages with jumbled letters and numbers.



Maybe it was because of the way I learned to crochet; with no books or instructions in sight, my mother just kept moving the hook and yarn from her hands to mine guiding me through every move. Or maybe it’s because I don’t like being told exactly how I am supposed to create things, but when I buy pattern books or magazines I just look at the pictures and start. If I truly can’t figure things out, to the point of wanting to put down the hook and never crochet again, then I’ll open a book or read a pattern but only for the smallest bit of help. Then I just pick up the hook and yarn and let my hands and my eyes figure out what comes next. I love watching the yarn take form into new shapes and designs and never really knowing exactly how, it makes it so I can never truly make two things exactly the same and I like that, I like the adventure of it all.


“Patterns!? We don’t need no stinkin’ patterns!”

Through my eccentric style of crocheting Lefty – the awesome dino – came to be. He was made out of scrap yarn after a strange message from the Owl about dreaming of a world filled with crochet dinosaurs. He’s not perfect and he can’t stand up on his own but he’s the first dino I’ve ever made. I used the single crochet stitch for his entire body and I made each part of his body separately and then pieced them together. I didn’t initially mean for him to be pink and green but that is what happens when you begin running out of yarn faster than you thought you would. Of course my craft life would be much easier if I would just follow the patterns but really, what fun would that be?

Well, I'm off to work on lovebirds, gauntlets, and a felted handbag,
The Snail