Mainly Crochet

Ta Da!

2010-07-27T12:06:00.000-07:00

Afghans!, a Crochet World SIP is hot off the press and will be on newsstands next week. Ask for it. Buy it and be in afghan heaven!

Biker Blanket

2010-05-23T09:45:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you just gotta make it! Vanna's Glamour is the metallic kick in this easy to make chained and studded( well, bobbles that look like studs) beauty. You can see it August 3 in the Crochet World Afghan Extravaganza. This extra issue is full of such cool pieces! Something for everyone....

moving right along

2010-01-09T13:14:00.001-08:00

I'm sure you've heard it before- this is the year I'm going to tackle all those UFOs. Well, here's the first of what I hope will be many. A very strange scarf made of a brilliantly colored green (photo doesn't do it justice) recycled silk with small bits of a recycled sari yarn mixed it. If nothing else, it will make for a conversation piece at work.

happy new year?

2010-01-03T16:07:00.000-08:00

The new year began for me about 1PM on new years eve, a call from my neurologist with the results from my spinal tap confirming a Primary Progressive MS diagnosis. 2010 should be a challenge.Lots of wool and knitting and crocheting over the weekend has kept me somewhat centereed. What would I do without my hooks and needles?

Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T08:34:00.001-08:00

Been ill, miss Maine and my family, boo hoo kind of day. I have a big box of Bartlettyarns in the living room to help take away some of my pain. Real wool in sheeps colors with lanolin. Woo Hoo!

Fruition

2009-11-17T14:34:00.000-08:00

Way back in April, I drove to Missouri and picked up designer Kim Guzman (and son Christian) and we drove to Big Sandy Texas to film the DVD for Kim's Learn to Do Tunisian Lace Stitches. What a trip! The whole process confirmed what an extraordinary designer Kim is, as well as what a genuinely wonderful person. Well folks, Learn to Do Tunisian Lace Stitches is now available at www.anniesattic.com. If you are afraid of Tunisian Crochet, it's time to lose your fear! Between the book and the DVD, you will learn the basics, and then learn how to put the basics together to create some of the most beautiful projects you've ever seen. If you are buying gifts for a crocheter this holiday season, this is a must!

Denim & Crochet

2009-11-10T20:06:00.000-08:00

Hard to tell that this hairy piece has a base of crochet. You'll have to wait til June Crochet World to see the instructions. Start saving your old denim jeans (get rid of those pants you're never going to fit into again!) and ratty workshirts of your boyfriends now and you'll be ready to create your own dustcatcher then.

sideways......

2009-09-29T18:24:00.000-07:00

....and I can't seem to fix it.
Check it out at

anniesattic.com

Grannies on the Table

2009-09-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

AS yet unpublished, Lion Cotton. I love these colors, they coordinate with the two paintings in my dinisng room by artist Dave Hill.

It has been a long, long time.....

2009-09-26T17:02:00.001-07:00

since I posted anything. Work has kept me mucho busy and what has turned out to be ANEMIA has kind of laid me low for several months. The adrenaline and hectic pace at work get me through the day with no problem, but when I get home I kind of collapse. So, no energy for much of anything extra.

My work schedule has changed somewhat. Instead of working on softcover books for Annies Attic, I've been made product manager for Annies Hook & Needle kit club. This is exciting because it allows me to keep familiar with knitting as well as crochet. Of course, I'm still editing Crochet World and have also taken on writing every third newsletter for the Talking crochet newsletter. So, please don't think I haven't been busy!

October brings time back in Maine for daughter Tobin's White Coat Ceremony in Portland. She's a first year med student at UNE Biddeford. It will be so good to see her and her husband and the grandchildren who have grown so much in a year. I'll be staying on Bailey Island, as I did this summer, my favorite place in all the world.

Loblolly

2009-05-03T09:43:00.000-07:00

Site of the inspiration for Girl of the Limberlost and only about 10 miles down the road. The prairie grasses had been burned off about 2 weeks ago, but the guide said in 2 weeks they would be waist high. I've never heard such birdsong in my life, everyone with wings out there had something to say! We saw geese and ducks and Red Wing blackbirds and egrets and hawks and herons and wild canaries and jays and robins. Loblolly, which I think is such a lovely name, means dirty water.

Yay Bartlettyarns!

2009-04-17T19:41:00.000-07:00

Bartlettyarns of Harmony, Maine has finally put their sportweight wool yarn in 4 oz. skeins, instead of just the one pound cones. Long a staple of the machine knitting industry, this weight is truly wonderful for crocheting. I used it in my Maine Woods shawl, which is part of the dyeing article in October 2009 Crochet World. We used knit one, crochet too's Culinary Colors and three shades of sheeps wool to handpaint the yarns and then I turned it into this easy to do shawl. Perfect for wrapping up on a cold Maine night.

Indiana Lama Invitational

2009-04-04T16:23:00.000-07:00

The Indiana Lama Invitational was held in Fort Wayne (40 miles north) this weekend. Like a scene out of Star Wars, there were lamas walking around in the crowds, behaving as if hanging with the humans was just an ordinary part of their routine. Some of the softest fiber I've ever touched, some exquisite knitting, crocheting, and needlefelting as well. And those bizarro lamas which strangely enough remind me of Mags. Same barely surpressed humor around the mouth.

and then there's the sky.....

2009-04-03T17:26:00.000-07:00

The only wild things out here in the flatlands are the sky and the weather. It all moves so quickly with no hills to stop it. Many civilized farmyards under wild and woolly skies.

a lot of things going on

2009-03-28T07:59:00.000-07:00

I've had a fascination with Red Heart yarns since I was about 8. Looking at the rows of colors in Woolworth's, I thought that nothing could be finer than having one of every color. Funny how sometimes you get what you wish for!

sex, lies, and videotape......

2009-03-17T16:19:00.000-07:00

well, maybe just the last one.My new favorite way to recycle! Knitting and crocheting with used videotape makes a very cool patent leather effect, but its stretchy and oh so sexy!

the many faces of crochet

2009-03-15T19:53:00.000-07:00

bearie faces for baby. cross-stitch on sc. Super Saver

Speaking of small furry animals.....

2009-03-14T07:23:00.000-07:00

it's been a while since Mags has been on here. She's checking out a camouflage toewarmer for me.

Did you know....

2009-03-12T17:53:00.000-07:00

that in pet shelters where handmade blanket donation programs are in place, adoption rates go up? It doesn't take an expert project to make a small furry life better. Use up those scraps and send the resulting blankies to your nearest animal shelter.

April's Shawl

2009-03-02T16:23:00.000-08:00

Because people have asked about what I was wearing in my April's issue photo: The shawl is simply made with Lion Brand's Nature's Choice Organic Cotton. 3 balls Pecan, 2 balls each walnut and Dusty Sage. There are only 50 sts. sc rows alternate with tr rows, beginning and ending with sc rows. The color sections are worked til the ball is finished. There's a sc edging all arnd that follows the same color as the section being edged. About as simple as it gets. Finished off in the photo with a Robert Howard shawl pin.

Lepidoptra's Lace

2009-03-01T14:30:00.000-08:00

Beautiful madelinetosh sock yarn made into a lacy neckwarmer. There's a slight bias to the pattern that makes the finished piece interesting. Very very soft wool that comes in the most amazing colors. Also for August's "airport scarves" article. This was actually made on an extended layover in Chicago at O'Hare during the same TNNA/CHA trip.

California Dreamer

2009-02-28T05:23:00.000-08:00

It has been a long time since I have posted!
In January, I went to both TNNA in San Diego and CHA in Anaheim California. In between were several glorious days spent in a small town Carpinteria, just south of Santa Barbara. Although on vacation, of course I had crocheting to do! I was working on my "airport scarves" for the August 2009 issue of Crochet World. In truth, this one, California Dreamer was done mostly sitting on the park bench in front of the public beach in Montecito, watching surfers and sandpipers and Pacific Ocean waves as I stitched.

In and out

2008-12-28T17:18:00.000-08:00

Window hanging by Mary McFarland, incorporating antique crochet and modern stitching. Hanging in my upstairs window, where I'm finally setting up my home office.
I've been working off the small buffet in the dining room since July, haven't had a lot of free time to set things up intelligently. But now, a room upstairs is the designated office room, complete with large glass desk and a phone that I have NO CLUE how to use. The poor unfortunates who have called me when I'm up here have been unspoken to and inadvertantly hung up on because I DON"T KNOW HOW IT WORKS. Perhaps some day I will have a job that requires rubbing two sticks together in a cave to make fire, hopefully with a sheep to keep me and mags warm.

Woowoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-12-05T15:43:00.000-08:00

There is nothing quite like holding the first issue of a magazine I've edited in my hands for the first time. What a rush! A huge debt of gratitude to all the designers and folks at DRG that helped me through this first issue. The cover is by Kim Guzman and you have to see the underside of this afghan, the play of top pattern/under ripple is sublime.And yes, that means you have to rush out and get a subscription NOW!

Round and round

2008-12-04T18:04:00.000-08:00

in a circle game. Sc and artful yarns made a very fun to crochet simple hat. A skein didn't quite do it, so I ended with 3 strands of very fine sock yarns held together. I love to play with yarn!

The many faces of crochet

2008-12-02T18:48:00.000-08:00

Cross stitch on sc. Bearie cute and not quite done.

not mine,

2008-11-29T08:42:00.000-08:00

but still very cool crochet. I bought this yesterday at the local Ten Thousand Villages shop. It's 8 strands of what looks like pre-strung seed beads mostly, with occasional bigger beads, every other ch grabbing a bead and then the 8 strands caught at the ends with a jewelry finding and clasp. I'm going to have to do some research re those findings because I want several more of these in different colors. Will post the pattern when I have the time to figure it out.

Arkansas Copse

2008-11-19T16:42:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I just gotta play with paint. Images of the landscape on my trip back from Texas wouldn't let me go til I did. The middle layer of sky was thick like icing, spilling over pink candy light. Small thick stands of foliage and then flat, cutover cropland,so many shades of brown.

Life Frequently Disappoints

2008-11-11T18:37:00.000-08:00

Crochet rarely does. And if it does, then you can tear it out and start over. Works for me.

Another life

2008-11-10T15:37:00.000-08:00

Occasionally I do go upstairs into the "storage rooms" and unpack boxes that I haven't opened since well before the move to Berne. I found a vest that I designed in petit point for McCall's Needlework and Crafts. When I was a child I thought having a subscription to that magazine meant you were truly an adult.Now I know that one is NEVER truly an adult, there's always that inner child, mine quite often lying on the floor having a tantrum.

Home from Texas

2008-11-08T16:51:00.000-08:00

Have I said I LOVE MY JOB recently? Just returned from another extraordinary trip, working with the wonderful ladies in the Big Sandy DRG office. Ate enough Tex-Mex food (fried ice cream!) to make the scale say unpleasant things to me, but tomorrow morning I'll be back to the fruit and yogurt and walking routine.

Placebo says it well...

2008-10-31T17:40:00.000-07:00

soulmates never die.(Max Liebermann painting)

Sometimes things end,

2008-10-28T18:41:00.000-07:00

but no matter how sad, the sun comes up again in the morning.

It has been a while....

2008-10-26T14:34:00.000-07:00

once again since I've had the time or energy to photograph anything and post it. Working 8 to 5 in an office leaves little down time for other pursuits. I do have to wear something other than the hol(e)y black sweatpants that were my uniform while freelancing. Here's part od my work costume, incorporating a bit of crochet.

Fallen Star/ IN crafts

2008-09-20T10:18:00.000-07:00

A turned and caned wooden vessel. Unfortunately the pile on the dining room table is too deep to find the card with the artist's name on it.
My circus star that becan to scrunch in too much. I'm gonna blame Maggie. She sat on it and jinxed it.

Night Sky in Berne

2008-09-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

It's getting cold. Time to make a sweater or two.

Bowl-ing Beauty

2008-09-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

Hand turned wooden bowl by Mark Twigg, Portland, Indiana. I had the happy good fortune of volunteering to spin wool at The Swiss Heritage Village yesterday (photos next week of me in prairie costume) and today I went back just to walk around and take in the sights. A wonderful old-time experience.

Passive Aggressive

2008-09-11T15:33:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we have attitudes about mommy going to work every day.

My World

2008-09-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

The inner sanctum of an editor.You were expecting a Laura Ashley interior? What a wonderful way to make a living. I'm surrounded by people with messy desks! Creativity is a beautiful thing.

Geese

2008-09-09T02:38:00.000-07:00

On the walk to work, a flock strolling through the grass by the radio tower.

Rain/Morning Glories

2008-09-07T05:18:00.001-07:00

The gravel pad that used to be the garage at this old house of mine is sprinkled with volunteer morning glories. We finally got some rain last night and this morning they showed their appreciation.

In and Out

2008-09-06T13:34:00.000-07:00

What does the day translate to? Today is a pocketed lapghan crocheted with TLC Cotton Plus.

Saturday AM

2008-09-06T06:34:00.000-07:00

After the whoosh of the work week, it's time to smell the roses, which in my case translates to play with the yarns. Spread over my dining room table is one skein of every color of Coats & Clark's new Designer Sport, with the colors done by designer Candi Jensen. A very nice alternative to the usual plastic-y primaries usually used for kids (there's still Sport for that). We will be using a lot of this, as the weight (14 sts = 4" with a size 8/H hook) creates a really nice fabric.
I had the opportunity to look over the new Nicki Epstein book and it makes me want to move to a Northern Island (not a tropical one- you don't need sweaters in the tropics) and just spend the rest of my life making one of everything in the book. It made me pull out the cables I had set aside for a bit. Everyone in Indiana keeps telling me that Winter is coming and that it's going to be a bad one. I figure after last Winter in Maine, how bad can it be? Still, you can never have too many sweaters (or too much yarn).

Night Flowers

2008-09-02T17:57:00.000-07:00

Outside my front door at night. Evenings often feel just like this.

Birdland

2008-08-27T17:33:00.000-07:00

Our walk tonight took us out on a dead end road that seemed to end in an infinite cornfield. We stopped at the no trespassing sign. On the way back a bird was clearly luring us away from a nest. I don't know what it was. It looked like a Robin, except that the brown on the back and the red breast were speckled, not one solid color. My bird book isn't helping.

Berne crossroad/crochet

2008-08-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

Endlessly flat cornfields. TLC Cotton Plus ripples.

Another nice thing about Berne

2008-08-23T14:07:00.000-07:00

Mags and I brought the rucksack a block and a half up the street and carried home a watermelon and a cantaloupe for $4.Yummy!

In case you were wondering.....

2008-08-23T08:13:00.000-07:00

The walking thing that I started last January has really paid off. I'm 30 pounds lighter and have dropped from a tight size 20 pant to a comfortable size 14. Still a ways to go perfection-wise, but I feel much healthier. Walks are not the effort they once were and the heat doesn't bother me. Trucking through the airport terminals has been a breeze. So, while I'm not looking to achieve a Nicole Ritchie body, I'm a healthier human being.

I'm as corny as....

2008-08-22T16:49:00.000-07:00

granny squares on the couch. For my editor's design page for Crochet World April 2009. This is like a pre-makeup photo! The cornfields go on forever in Berne.

I love my job

2008-08-18T17:47:00.000-07:00

Fluffy clouds over Texas, where I went to begin the part of my job where I coordinate crochet booklets. Mags had 17 (!) teeth pulled while I was gone. She's still a little under the weather.

Where I'm at

2008-08-08T17:12:00.000-07:00

End of a blue sky day in Berne

As I was walking down the street..

2008-08-02T10:48:00.000-07:00

my neighbor asked who gave me the flowers and I said me. He said that didn't count and I said, it sure did, cause I love me best of all.
So there!
crocheted doily by Janet Barnard, bought the vase at the antique store at the corner where I had lunch (alone)

I Heart Yarn

2008-08-01T20:18:00.001-07:00

For those of you who wonder if I ever crochet anymore- this is the vest I wore at CGOA. A camouflage-like mix of fibers and metallics, with the wonderful addition of Penny Faich's WE GOT THE BUTTONS fused glass buttons. Handpaint yarn from Maple Creek Farm in bamboo blends will make some sweater sets for me to work in- a few steps up from the hol(e)y black sweatpants I wore as a freelancer. Yarn it all!

Berne

2008-07-31T18:08:00.000-07:00

I can't say enough about the beauty and tidiness of this little town. The activity of choice is to work on your landscaping, everyone keeps things up so nicely and there are so many flowers. The local garden club takes care of the big pots of flowers downtown, with volunteers watering them every day.
My porch rocker came from Karen's Treasures, an antique/furniture store a short walk down the road. Her daughter carried it home for me. Nice to sit on with Mags of an evening. She likes to rock.

It has been a while....

2008-07-30T15:31:00.001-07:00

After not quite three weeks at my new job, I travelled back to New England to Manchester, N.H for the Crochet Guild of America's summer Chain Link show. What a fabulous experience! The monkey in the middle is me; Crochet! magazine editor Carol Alexander is on my left (your right) and Agnes Russell, technical editor extraordinaire, is on my right (your left). I met amazing designers, saw incredible crocheted fashions, and bought way too much yarn! Anyone wanting to immerse themselves in needlework should start saving their pennies and come to this show. It was bittersweet leaving from Manchester airport on Sunday. There was a boat such as is used frequently on the coast of Maine right in the terminal. One thing I've learned- happy or sad, moving on or staying stuck- Life goes on.
The Magnificent One had the spa treatment while I was gone. I'm fortunate that there's a wonderful vet that boards animals a block and a half from my house. She came back with shorter toenails, a shampoo, and finally! a decent haircut.
My first editor's design will be in my first February issue- here's a small preview. I love granny squares!

Arrived

2008-07-13T19:59:00.000-07:00

The thing about moving 1200 miles is that it doesn't hit you while you're moving, the need to get there snowball rolling kind of thing keeps you trucking through exhaustion, strange terrain, and any misgivings you may have entertained. I've survived my first work week, and once I remember my passwords in the appropriate places, I think I'm really gonna love it. Berne's landscape is like the Long Island of my youth, vast expanses of flat farmland, just this time without the watery surround. Berne was established by Swiss Mennonites and there are many Amish who live here also. Every so often I'll hear a noise that makes me think something might be malfunctioning (I'm in an old farmhouse, albeit on Main St), but it is always the clip,clop,clip,clop of the horse drawn buggies going by. Maggie thinks the horse poop is the bees knees and would like to chase the horses.

Ohio

2008-07-05T16:48:00.000-07:00

Sunset in the parking lot of the restaurant we stopped in for dinner in Ohio. Much flatter here already. We were to go as far as Van Wert before stopping. It stays lighter much later here.

Truck Stop in NYS

2008-07-05T16:42:00.000-07:00

The intrepid traveller watched the van while we made a pit stop.

First Leg of the Journey

2008-07-04T16:05:00.000-07:00

Spent the first night at my daughter's house in Vermont where I picked up my most excellent son-in-law Tim, who made the trip with me. Drove and unloaded the van too.
I've sent his nomination for sainthood to the Vatican. Photos are of Quayl's huge organic gardens, Mad River behind.

Leaving the Mountains Behind

2008-07-04T15:56:00.000-07:00

I didn't leave Maine until 5 in the afternoon, after a long day of finishing packing. The mountains in New Hampshire were spectacular, mist rising from the folds between the peaks. All the more poignant because I'm heading inland.

Mainly Crochet....

2008-06-28T08:05:00.000-07:00

OR What makes up a life?

My life as I have known it is packed up and loaded into a U-Haul van. There were only 34 plastic bins of yarn! That doesn't count what was in cardboard boxes. After the bins I stopped counting.

I'm about ready to start the next great adventure of my life- I've been hired to assume the post of editor at CROCHET WORLD magazine for DRG Publishing. I will also be editing softcover crochet booklets and work with the Hook n Needle Kit-of-the-Month Club. This means that I am moving to Berne, Indiana, which is SO exciting! Berne is a beautiful little town South of Fort Wayne. Now, if I stop writing this blog and get in the truck.....