Monday, June 30, 2008

Supporting the Next POTUS

You may notice a new little bit 'o swag over there on the right side of my blog. Patriotic colors, links to another blog...yep, that's it!

Over on Ravelry, I'm a member of a group of amazing people - Knitters for Obama (KFO) - who are working hard to do their part to get Senator Barack Obama elected in November. The camaraderie within this group is something else, but beyond that, even, is their dedication to this cause.

During the primary season, the group got together and knitted a blanket with the Obama campaign's logo on it. Along with several dozen other prizes donated by members, it was put up for a drawing. The rules: for every $5 you donated to the campaign, you got a ticket for whichever prize you wanted. The group raised over $8,500. And we're doing it again!

This time, we have a knitted blanket (with a little crochet thrown in) in the shape and colors of Old Glory, with each of the 50 states and D.C. represented. We're also offering a crocheted blanket in varying shades of Democrat Blue, and once again members are stepping forward with tons of additional prizes. The drawing begins Independence Day and runs through August 7, so please consider donating to Senator Obama's campaign this summer!

Next time on KFO Update: Warming preemies and veterans...

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

It's a blog-morph...

As usually happens, something I've begun has generated a result completely off from my original intent. This time, it's this blog. Originally intended to be a documentation of our family's letterboxing adventures (hence the title), it has morphed into a showcase and journal for my crochet projects, as well as a place to share about the family. (And will shortly become somewhat political, as I'm having a hard time keeping my opinions about the current Presidential race to myself.)

I am still learning to love my hop-skip-and-jump approach to life. You see, I have what I consider a severe lack of sticktoitiveness. I get on kicks - currently it's crochet - that may last a few weeks, a few months, even a year or more. While I'm on a kick, I am certain it's going to be my creative outlet for years, if not decades. And then one day - bam! It's done, interest for it is nowhere to be found, and I move onto the next thing. Genealogy, digital scrapbooking, writing for children, crochet, letterboxing, altered books...these have all been vehicles during the process, and most of them come in and out of focus in my life.

Jodi was the first one to tell me this cyclical approach to things is not only normal but good. What I have seen as lack of focus she sees as great creativity. I like Jodi. Not only does she encourage me in my wanderings from obsession to obsession, she often joins me in them. She's a prime model of the creative lifestyle, and I only have to look to her to gain confidence in my own nomadic projects. Plus, she's a teacher, and I still have enough of that authority-pleasing little girl in me to love a teacher's praise.

And there you go. This "In case you hadn't noticed, this isn't a letterboxing blog anymore" post turns out to be a "Jodi helps me realize my coolness" post. As usual, I like the result better than the intent.

Those pin-things are sharp!

When last we left our heroine, she was facing this sewing to-do list, to which "take in waistband on Nicky's too-big PJ's" was added.

...time passes...

And ta-da! The PJ's, karate uniform, and dress pants are all marked off the list. (The crowd goes wild.)

The bag lining is mostly done. Twice! The first go ended up two inches too narrow, thanks to a misinterpretation of the tutorial I was following. Ah well, it's fixed now. I got the flap lining sewn on, complete with magnets...

Before:


After:


And the interior lining is sewn, with cell phone and pen pockets and nifty little "Fashioned by Aimee" label from the box mom bought me about twenty years ago (no exaggeration):



...and it's pinned in place!



Who knows if it will get hand-sewn in tonight. It's 6:15 and I haven't even contemplated dinner. (Hey Hon, feel like stopping by Subway on the way home??) I've left the most labor-intensive job for last...I'll probably get to it on Friday. Behold the pile of pants awaiting cutting-off and hemming! (And please ignore the stained carpet. Have I mentioned the two young boys in the house?)


Tuesday, June 24, 2008

A little structure is always a good thing

Behold the canvas lining for the messenger bag:


I wish I could say this was my brilliant idea, but nope, I've seen several other people use it in their bags, and I think it's great. The canvas will not show; the black lining will cover it completely. I've been waiting to get to this point before dragging my sewing machine out of the closet. On the take-up-the-kitchen-table-for-a-few-days list are:
  • Line this bag (woo hoo!)
  • Repair torn pocket in Jason's dress pants
  • Cut off and make shorts out of all the boys' holey-kneed jeans from last winter (Poor Nicky in his old shorts and long legs! He's long overdue for these cut-offs.)
  • Sew about eleventy thousand (more or less) stars to Nicky's karate uniform jacket

Monday, June 23, 2008

The Messenger Bag Comes Together

Last night, I finished the last piece of the messenger bag for Swis and stitched the three pieces together. Voila!

This is just the shell. Next, it will be lined with plastic canvas (for structure) and then black fabric (for lining!), and I have magnetic closures for it as well. I'm pretty darn thrilled with it, except for the strap length, but I've complained enough about that off-blog that I won't bore you with it! Suffice to say that it's a fair bit shorter than was intended...

Here's a photo for scale. I will NOT complain about how I look in it. ;-)


Sunday, June 22, 2008

Kid & Puppy Fluff

As we usually get to once or twice during the summer, we're puppy-sitting for our dear friends. Meet Kaleigh:

The boys love having Kaleigh over, especially since we're a dog-loving family without a pooch of our own these days. (And we'll be poochless for the forseeable future, until we figure out which - if any - breeds are compatible with Kalen's allergies.)

Kaleigh turned fourteen this year, and I remember the day Heather got her in my freshman year of college. Jason and I had been dating about three months. Heather and her husband hadn't yet, although they would be married a full year before us. Age before beauty, and all that... (Man, she's going to get me when she reads this, but it was just sitting there, waiting to be said. Can you really blame me??)

Isn't that crown the perfect advertisement for Medieval Times? We went for Father's Day, at Jason's request. Later that evening, Kalen dubbed himself King Kalen. Thankfully, he has little knowledge of what kings really do and has not yet commanded any of us to do his bidding. He feels all-important, however, which is pretty fun and quite important for a Royal Highness, make-believe or not.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Green-Green Pool Wallet

When we go to the pool in the afternoons, I don't like to take my wallet with me - just my driver's license and our seasonal pool passes, which amounts to four cards total. I've been paper-clipping them together and tossing them in my pool tote, but I can see losing them pretty quickly in that ginormous bag. So, here's my new Pool Wallet:

I used single-ply spiral-cut plarn made from a medium-sized Barnes & Noble bag for the body, and trimmed it in double-ply brown grocery store bag plarn. (I will be posting two different plarn-making tutorials in the days to come to answer some of the questions I've received.)

Green-Green Pool Wallet

Materials:
One ball of green plarn
Scraps of brown plarn
Hook: J
Yarn needle

Gauge: After 3 rows, measure against your cards and make sure the piece is slightly wider.

With Main Color, ch 15.

Row 1: Hdc in 3rd ch from hook, hdc across. Ch 2, turn. (Ch 2 counts as first hdc in next row here & throughout.)

Row 2: Hdc in ea. hdc across. Ch 2, turn. (13 hdc)

Rows 3 - 13: Repeat Row 2.

FO & weave in ends.

Fold piece in half and make sure your cards will fit. With contrasting color, blanket stitch* up one short side through both layers. Turn corner and blanket stitch across the top through front later only. Turn corner and blanket stitch down the other side, through both layers. FO. Attach contrasting color to back layer at top corner and blanket stitch across. FO & weave in ends. Embellish as desired.

*Good blanket stitch tutorial here.

Feel free to make this for yourself, and to link back to this post to share the pattern! Please do not claim the pattern as your own, but you may make these for yourself, friends, and for resale if you like. If you sell, please note on the tag: Designed by AimeeCrochets. Thank you!

Monday, June 16, 2008

A Message for You, Swis!

My sister (often referred to as Swis, long story) is waiting patiently for her plarn messenger bag. I'm happy to report that the front panel is finis! She may just have to pry this particular gifty out of my fingers. I'm loving it to bits.

Of Plarn and RAK's

I finally got my camera out, so I could share a photo of the gorgeous RAK I received from Pam:
Will you just look at that home-spun yarn?!? I've never touched anything like it, and I'm in love. My favorite is the green/yellow hank in the middle, which is her Carmel Apple colorway. (Visit her etsy shop here: Thistleknit) I would take a ton of that without complaining! Hint, hint... ;) Twelve Oaks is also incredible, and the one my mom immediately picked as her favorite when I showed her the box of goodies.

Anyway, on Saturday, I made Jason's day by buying four plastic totes to store my plastic bags. Our dining room was being overrun, and I could tell his patience was close to wearing thin. What wonderfully patient spouses we crafters must have! I now have a well-organized stash of plastic, waiting to be "spun" into plarn.

I even went so far as to organize them by color and bag thickness, so I can find what I want for any project. Sometimes I really am my mother's daughter.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Baaaaaa!

I've been RAK'd!

For those unfamiliar with the acronym, RAK stands for Random Act of Kindness, something with which I've long been enamored. (See my senior quote, umpteen years ago.) Ravelry has a RAK group, which is handled quite nicely. Anyone who wants to may join, and members post monthly wish lists. Other members comb through the wish lists, and as they see things they can pass along, they do so. It's purely giving, without expecting anything in return. It is so much fun to read through the lists, and Jason can testify that doing so is always accompanied by little outbursts such as, "Oh, I have some of that I don't need!" and, "I know where I can get those!"

Well, today, I received my first RAK! A lovely woman, Pam, who works nearby, emailed me, and we arranged a time to meet. I picked up a box of lovely, yummy yarn, mostly hand-spun by Pam herself! I'm so excited, and I can't wait to figure out what to make with it. Right now, I'm thinking maybe a granny square purse for the fall. She also included some buttons, purse hardware, and a cute little notebook. (One can never have enough notebooks and notepads, I always say!) Not least importantly, I got a big hug from a new friend.

When I heard that Pam had a RAK for me, I looked up her wish list. She had very little on it, but one item I knew I could provide. She loves all thing sheep, so I quickly whipped up this little gal last night:


Isn't she adorable? I named her Fauxy McCrackle ("Faux"y because the irony of a sheep crocheted of acrylic yarn does not escape me, McCrackle because her stuffing is - what else? - plastic grocery bags). Fauxy now lives on a shelf in her new Mama's office along with several other miniature stuffed sheepies.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Water, Part Deux

Just to add to the amazing water journey this week, Nicky decided today to tackle the giant water slide. (Yes, we're talking the kind you see at water parks!) He hated it - he didn't like being dumped into the pool of water at the bottom without goggles. But he did it, with no prompting from me at all.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Speaking of Water...

Nicky had his second swimming lesson today. Miraculous, I tell you! First, though, a little background for those who have tripped across this blog and don't know the situation...

Nicky was born 12 weeks prematurely, and one of the results of this (the only one still around, really) is a combo of Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) and ADHD. (For a brief intro to both, read Kids in the Syndrome Mix. Your public library probably has it, and it has the best synopsis of both issues I've ever seen.) The SPD has been his major hurdle in life. SPD presents differently in every person who has it, and in his case, it manifests in oversensitivity to physical stimuli (including temperature, noise, and - to a lesser degree - texture), dyspraxia (weakened hand & upper body strength and the resulting fine motor issues), etc. Water on the face and head has always been a tantrum-inducing stimulus. Bath time = not fun. Shower time = let's not even go there. Pool? Hah!!

So, combine that oversensitivity to water with a lack of pool access, and the kid - now eight years old - has spent very little time in water. This has always bothered me, mostly for safety reasons (I believe every child must be a strong swimmer), but also because I have fond memories of hundreds of hours of pool time as a kid, and I knew that if he could overcome this hurdle, he would be opening the door to endless fun. Four years ago, we enrolled him in Infant Swimming Resource, which, despite the fear and - some would say harsh - "push through it" technique to which he doesn't usually respond well, did result in him being able to doggy paddle his way across the pool. However, as I mentioned above, we have not had regular access to a pool, and that skill was gone in a flash.

Fast forward to 2008. Our county opened up a brand-new, awesome aquatic complex just a few miles from our house. (Mom: "And this, boys, is why we pay sales tax." Kids: "Yay, tax!") An indoor lap pool, indoor instructional pool, and outdoor water playground (complete with floaty-currenty-river-thingy, water spraying everywhere, and kid- and adult-sized water slides) all add up to irresistible temptation, at least for me. And they offer swim lessons. Nicky had his first lesson yesterday, during which he put his face in the water a couple of times. Today, I lost track of the number of times his face got wet (on purpose)! Yesterday, after lunch, we went back and hit the outdoor play area, and wow! Both kids had a blast, and Nicky even went off on his own, bouncing his way around the river several times and basking in one of the calm pools. As we left, he declared, "Swimming is now my favorite activity in the whole world!"

More than multiple stops on the honor roll, more than his advanced blue belt in karate, more than anything else he's accomplished to date...I am more proud of his conquering this fear than any of it.

Monday, June 2, 2008

To the Pool!

Summer is now officially allowed to begin, because (ta-da!) I've finished my pool tote. And I'm thrilled with it. It's crocheted completely of Kroger grocery bags, which is why it took a month. (I'd crochet as much as I could until running out of bags and continue after the next shopping trip.) I finished it off with polka dot ribbon in exactly the same blue as the printing on the bags.

It's perfect timing, too, because Nicky's swim lessons began this morning. (I couldn't get both boys in this month, so Kalen will start with a session in late July.)

I also finished another nifty project this weekend, but that will have to remain a secret, as certain people who have access to this blog may find one under their Christmas tree this year! I started two more projects over the past couple of days with the same restriction.

However, my newest plarn project is for my sister, at her request. I'm making a messenger bag out of bags she sent me from Virginia. (Giant grocery stores have bags in a beautiful aqua shade I can't get here in Georgia!) There aren't enough blue bags for a complete project, so I'm creating a striped bag that will showcase the blue nicely. I'm excited for it and am improvising it, so I'll keep track of the pattern as I go. If it turns out well, I'll post it here for anyone who wants to make one.