My life flows on

Lots of creative energy and creating happening around here, but most of it by my daughter Olivia who is busily applying to art schools.  Life was pretty stressful as she put together her application for Cooper Union.  Aside from wanting to see a portfolio of your work, Cooper gives their own home exam.  Applicants are given three weeks to create six projects in answer to six  prompts provided by the school.  Each project could include several pieces of art. Olivia worked long and hard.  I was her assistant - buying supplies, getting photos printed and generally trying to stay encouraging during the long hours of work.  There was no sleep for Liv the night before the submittal was due and only an hour and a half for me.  The package of original work had to be hand delivered to Cooper in NYC by 4 pm the following day.  Carol came over to be my brain as we assembled the final package and my co-pilot on the journey into the city.  What a relief when that package was delivered complete and in time!  

The Cooper Union Foundation Building which houses the schools of art and architecture.

 No matter what happens now, we are all so proud of Olivia for taking on and meeting this challenge. I thank my dear friends for encouraging her (and me) during this journey. 

So what else has been happening?

I made two granny squares from a pattern I saw online.

I took up my knitting again after several years respite.  This is a scarf made with pomp-a-doodle yarn.  I love the texture but probably could have picked simpler yarn to refresh my knitting skills with!  I'm pretty good with knitting.  My main problem is what to do when I drop a stitch.  Challenging enough to figure out noramlly, but almost impossible to decipher with the pom-poms.  But it is working up into such a nice soft scarf.  My thanks to Liz for getting this started for me!

Daniel's blanket is moving along slowly. Progress was completely brought to a halt by an enormous yarn tangle.  I was starting a new skein of Simply Soft and somehow created the biggest tangle I have ever seen!  It took Carol and I, and a scissor, working on it simultaneously for nearly an hour to detangle the mess.

I  started playing around with colors and striping patterns for another tea cozy.  Haven't decided on anything quite yet.

Lastly, I started crocheting borders on 8 inch squares the ladies group at church are making.  Finished squares will be assembled into blankets to be donated to a good cause.

Hope you have all been well and are finding some creative time for yourselves!

A little here, a little there

Been working on a  bit of this and a bit of that this week. No overwhelming progress on any one project.  Just snippets here and there. Some weeks are like that, aren't they? Now its Friday evening. Hubby is away in the Netherlands, one daughter is at her waitressing job, the other sitting at the table working on her portfolio for art school and my son will soon be off to his middle school dance. What to do, what to do...


I played around with these small granny squares this week.  I can't show you what I did with them until Debi gets the finished granny square for her swap (sorry I am soooo late!)

I did a few more rows on Daniel's blanket.  I need to spend some time writing down what I have actually done!

In the last week or so I experimented with making other granny squares just for fun.  This first one is a wee wobbly around the edges (okay, its very wobbly around the edges). I want to make it again but play around with the colors so that they appear to radiate from the center.

This one was my first attempt at a granny with a circular center. I didn't use a pattern because I want to understand for myself how the increases work.

Today I had a nice afternoon with three good friends.  Good conversation, yummy food ordered out  from the local pizzeria (except for Carol's sandwich which was supposed to be grilled goat cheese with arugula, avocado, walnuts and celery but mistakenly ended up being basic grilled american cheese ), and some crafting.  Liz got me started on a knit scarf using pomp-a-doodle yarn.  I have not knit in quite some time so this is a good warm-up.  As soon as I am warmed up Liz will show me how to make leg warmers/boot toppers for my daughter.  Enjoy the weekend!

Inspirations

Where does your inspiration come from? I started playing around with granny squares after making one for a swap with  Debi Y. I played around with different color combinations and liked what I was getting but wasn't 100% sure where it was all leading.  Then Santa, in the form of my husband, gave me this beautiful Vera Bradley tote bag for Christmas.  (I had admired it while we were Christmas shopping and he remembered!)  I love the combinations of the lights and jewel-tone colors against the black background.

I took a second look at my stash and realized I had many of the same colors. 

There's a few I did previously that may have to be weeded out, but maybe not.  We'll see.  I am planning to connect them and edge the blanket with black.  Stay tuned for yet another work in progress.
Peace,
Cynthia

Granny Squares and Left Handedness

I made one of these 6 inch granny squares for a swap I'm in and decided that I wanted to make a whole bunch more for my own blanket!  I've always admired but never made a granny square blanket. And its a good use for all the yarn I bought earlier in November.  (Note to self - I am using a size G hook)

  I love making these squares except for the fact that my thumb really hurts!  Ouch!  Joint pain. I think I need to experiment with other ways to hold my needle.

 I am left handed but I crochet with my right hand. This is because my dear Omi (German grandmother) taught me to crochet and she was definitely right handed. She came from a time when being left handed was just not allowed!  As a matter of fact my mother was also left handed. This was quite a consternation to both her parents who tried to force her to use her right hand. At that time my grandparents owned a German bakery/luncheonette on 2nd Avenue in New York City, not far from Bellevue hospital. The doctors would come in for coffee and a bite to eat.  They saw what was happening and told my grandfather that it was very damaging to force a child to be right handed against their own natural inclination. So, good for Grandpa, he and my grandmother immediately stopped their attempts and allowed my mom's left handedness to blossom. As it turned out both my brothers and I are all lefties. Omi, who lived with us my entire life, was simply surrounded by lefties!  While she accepted it, watching me chop vegetables with a large knife in my left hand always gave Omi great anxiety. "Ach, ja!" she would say. "You are going to cut your fingers off using a knife with your left hand like that!"

Omi tried to teach me to knit and crochet left handed but it was just too difficult for her to figure out. So I am a righty in these things.

Now, what to do about my aching thumb?

Square number 1 hanging out in front of my doll house.