End of March?

As I peer through my window I see not our normal seasonal downpour of rain, but snow. Odd that, really, it should be windy and rainy in the northwest, snowfall at the end of March.

I haven’t written much because last week the sun came out. Yes, the sun came out, the birds were singing and it was time to fix the garden up. With life becoming more and more expensive, especially with two growing kids who are eating me out of house and home, the garden will be important this year. So, I rototilled the new area, raked out weeds, and put my soil ammendments on top of it. I would have done it another way, but I didn’t have tons of cardboard or time. Next year, I’ll do it in a biodiverse way.

I got everything seeded in, and even have a few starts of cold weather greens. I can’t wait for the Pak Choy, and the Kohlrabi. Even the grapes got moved from their nursery spot to a new (permanent) home.

What does this have to do with crochet? Not a lot other than it provided me with several new design concepts. Rototilling and weeding leave the mind open to many thoughts, and the more pleasant ones being about crochet.

Right now I’m working on a low seam sweater. Front and sides worked one piece, sleeves done separately, and then length added to fit… I’m not sure I’m liking where it’s going for writing a pattern, but I know I like the sweater It’s for me.

And who knows, I may be able to wear it without it being too warm, since the Farmer’s Almanac says it’s going to be a fairly cold April too… Welcome to climate change, we get to have colder than normal weather…I suppose that’s not a bad thing when you are in my business!

 Keep those hooks warm!

Hey don’t forget to check out the patterns on LULU…

Crochet Liberation Front Podcast…check it out!

Ok, I have entered a new world…podcasting. I always thought you needed an I-Pod to listen to these things, then I found out you can just download them to your computer. Then Brianna Mewborn of the Crochet Side Podcast interviewed yours truly, and folks were asking for a CLF Podcast. So I downloaded software and began recording. I listened to Brianna’s podcast and Marly’s podcast, The Yarn Thing Podcast. I learned a lot.

 So at around 12am today I got the bugger uploaded and ready to be downloaded. It’s short only 24 mins long, but I’ll be producing one a month for your crochet listening pleasure.

 Check it out here: http://clf.mypodcast.com/2008/03/Episode_One-92458.html

We’ll see where this leads to!

Simple N Sweet Swing Cape Cover Art

Simple N Sweet Swing Cape Cover ArtOriginally uploaded by CMHS yarn & designs (laurie wheeler).

At long last I finally managed to get the cover art up and change the “looks” of this download on my Lulu store front! http://www.lulu.com/camanomade

This is the easiest cape! Loads of fun to make and to wear! The model is my teenage daughter, but it fits mom too Two strands of bulky yarn and a big hook and you’re off and running!

Check it out!!

(Grrr…working on things in the wee hours of the morning lead to bad linkage…all fixed now!)

Spring Foliage Face Cloth

Spring Foliage Face Cloth

Originally uploaded by CMHS yarn & designs (laurie wheeler).

I’ve been making face cloths to beat the band! Why? Shrug, I dunno I just do it sometimes. Especially, if I’m feeling a little stressed out. Frankly, it’s something I can make in a day, or not, it’s easy, I don’t have to count (much), and I can make pretty, functional things.

This is one of several that I am making for a collection of decorative face cloth patterns. It’s useful, but also a great way to learn a new stitch! Much more fun than swatching IMHO.

This takes pattern testing to a whole new level!

Christmas time was such a crunch (I know you’re with on that one!) that I forgot to write about the lady who purchased by Crochet Sleeper Sock pattern from  my storefront on Lulu.com.

Now, I know I wrote my sock patterns as carefully and meticulously as I could. Mostly because I was frustrated with a great deal of the crochet sock patterns I had looked at in learning to make socks. So, I was pretty anal about writing my of instructions, yet still being the perfectionist that I am, I worried if they were clear enough.

So, this lady purchases the sleeper sock pattern. She makes 18 pairs AND made a yarn substitution AND different sizes and the instructions were perfect. Ok, if you want to know if my pattern works? How’s that for testing! Check it out! It’s a really easy sock to make, great first time project. It’s not the perfect “in shoe” sock, but it’s great for kicking around the house, wearing in sandals (hey if you live in the Northwest you’d understand the whole NEED to wear socks in your sandals!), and of course to sleep in to keep those toesies warm!

Check it out on Lulu!  and on Ravelry you can see her version of the sock too! Click on my profile (Camanomade) and then on my original designs tab, and then on the Crochet Sleeper Sock…Her’s are too cute

Easy, Fun, and Green!

Coin Purse

Originally uploaded by CMHS yarn & designs (laurie wheeler).

This little coin purse was inspired by a design by Jan Neitzel in the book Kooky Crochet by Linda Kopp (Lark Publishing). The pattern is called “2 Liter Purse” and gives instructions on how to make either a larger “make up bag, or see through purse” or a coin purse.

I modified my first version to create this little gem, that can be used as a key chain or snapped onto a book bag/back pack!

Using plastic bottles (soda/water) and ribbon yarn you can create fun and very green gifts!

I am making these for all the kids in my life. Using different yarns and colors, I’ve even had request from the boys for these fun purses!

The original pattern is just a straight coin purse with no strap or attatchment.

BTW I totally love Kooky Crochet. I got a million gift ideas out of reading through the pages, and there is actually more than one pattern I want to make. It scored! Especially in the easy/fun category!

Spring, Spinning Group, CLF and more

Spring looms so very close! I think it is my very favorite season. I get to inspect my garden now, watching the promise of this favorite of seasons…Leaf buds ready to burst forth into glorious shades of green. Narcissus blooming happy little yellow flowers. There’s one very motivated French Lavendar that has decided to bloom early, and my roses are leafing out (ever the harbinger of a late frost).

With spring my urge to spin yarn deepens, and I make hurried last minute crochet projects. Once my urge to spin sets in the crochet hooks get set aside for a wee bit. I have a lot of yarn to spin because I “have to”, but this time of year spinning becomes a natural urge, a must if you will!

Yesturday our fiber art group (also known as our spinning group) met yet again, and there were only a few of us, and only I brought my wheel. We had naalbinding, knitting, crochet, and drop spindling  and that constant chatter of life to keep our hands and minds busy. A concert of female bonding. Not that male bonding couldn’t occur, we were just short that gender THIS meeting.

All are welcome to attend the fiber arts group that meets in Stanwood, WA. We meet at the Lighthouse Christian Fellowship, just off Pioneer HWY. Please contact me if you wish to attend, I’ll give you quick and easy directions.

Spring also brings with it the beginnings of the Crochet Liberation Front First Ever Book! Submissions for publication begin this Monday (St. Patrick’s Day) and run through May 5th. If you are a member of our Ravelry group, check out the locked and sticked thread for submission guidelines! If you aren’t! Join Ravelry, and join our group and you will be eligible to submit. You don’t have to write patterns, you can submit stories, hints/tips, ideas and more! Just join, we’re all in this together and it’s going to be a wonderful endeavor.

Right now I’m working on fixing the website again, I’m having troubles getting a few things done, hopefully my time will free up this week to get to the bandwidth needed to load photos, and finish the CLF Chain Gang information!

I’ll be working on getting more up on the CLF Blog as well! Never ending projects, which is good, since I hate to be idle. I love to work and be busy, and creative! I think what I love even more is helping others create as well!  Which leads to the CLF Yarn Club (Free Form Crochet Club) Newsletter…I’m working on that…it too will be out this week

I was put back a bit by the old shoulders, yet they are on the mend and I’m getting back to task.

And Spring is coming…I can’t wait! I love the cacophony of colors and birdsong, Spring is indeed my favorite season.

Up Coming Events~Handspinning

Hey don’t forget the Lulu Store folks!!  

It’s that time of year again! Hand Spinning Demos abound!

 The first of this season is at the Camano Island Libary, located in the Terry’s Corner compex on Camano Island, WA. Myself and Ann Hopkins will be there with our wheels, fiber, and a few yummy baskets of clean fiber to fondle!

Learn all about handspinning and the fibers we use this coming Thursday, March 13, 2008 from 6:30 pm to 8:00pm all welcome!!

Our local spinning group meets this coming Saturday at 4pm at the Lighthouse Christian Fellowship in Stanwood, WA. Potluck. Bring yourself, your handwork, or desire to learn! (All fiberartists welcome, you do not need to be a spinner to attend!)

Bec Thomas and I will present “How can a goat make a coat?” at Camano Island State Park, Friday July 4th at 7:30 pm in the Ampitheater. All welcome, admission free to the public!

Saturday July 5th, myself and some qualified helpers will be teaching young people and their families how to make felted purses!  Wool and rocks, water and soap! Dress for getting wet! Time: TBA!  The newly opened (June 21st) State Park: Cama Beach, will be the venue for this event! Come on down and join us! All ages welcome, free of charge!

Crochet in the NY Times! Yay!

Congratulations to the crocheters in New York! The NY Times wrote a lovely article about the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Project!

Read all about it HERE!!

Arts / Art & Design

Want to Save a Coral Reef? Bring Along Your Crochet Hook

By PATRICIA COHEN

Published: March 4, 2008

This environmental version of the AIDS quilt is meant to draw attention to how rising temperatures and pollution are destroying the Great Barrier Reef.

Shoulders, spinning, business and more…

Well, getting older stinks. You know when you are in your twenties and all the older people say things like, “You really shouldn’t carry such heavy things,” or” carry that carryon that way,” or” both your kids on each hip….” You roll your eyes and keep doing it, and then sometime in your late thirties or early forties some part of your body goes “twang” or “crunch” or worse make no noise but hurts like hell…

 Folks, I have now dislocated my right shoulder three times in 12 months. How? Working out of short raw sheeps fleeces. It doesn’t happen when I am plying and repurposing, it doesn’t happen when I spin roving or mohair, or a nice romney. It does happen when I use the short draw technique and it’s a sticky, short fiber.

 So, I have concluded that spinning is going to be done in rovings, because washing fleeces hurts me too…I just can’t physically do what I have been doing for seven years. It stinks, because I love doing it, well I did love doing it, but when it hurts to high heavens it’s time to stop.

I’m still going to sell the Scrumblini’s and my designer yarns, things will just be done differently. 

I’m also gearing up to accept submissions for the CLF book, and I’ll be reworking the CLF Chaingang club…I think I’ve found some better ways to do it…stay tuned for more information on that…

Ooooh and on a real positive note, I’m just now filling out the form that will make me a vendor at The Knit and Crochet Show in Portland, Oregon this September. Come on down and visit with me at the Oregon Convention Center September 11-14!!