Tag: crocheting

Crochet Addiction

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting

I’m going to visit Vicki for a week.  Ostensibly it is to help her with her shoulder – make sure she gets the Tiger Balm on it and isn’t doing too much with it.  However, that is not the only thing I will be doing while I’m gone. 

Our week is going to consist of a lot of me nagging her to stop doing stuff, watching movies or tv shows, and for me crocheting.  I’ve started organizing what I will be taking and realized my crocheting will take up more space (i.e. a bigger suitcase) than my clothes. 

In my defense, we aren’t doing anything other than hanging out in her apartment so I have to make sure I have enough to keep me busy.  Plus I have to take stuff to do when we hang out with her friend who is coming over to craft with us.  Plus I have to have contingency projects in case I get bored with what I am currently working on or if I finish them all.  The hard part will be in narrowing down on the things I have going on in my head for projects.  I have definite ones I’m working on with deadlines but after that I have things I want to experiment with.  For these, it is a difficult question of how much to take.  When I’m at home, it is easy enough to just grab what I want but with going to Vicki’s how much of these possible projects do I want to commit to taking with me and how much space will I have for these types of things.

My daughter suggested I make a to-do list – something I’ve been avoiding because I seem to have an addiction to those as well.  I’ve started one – a bit detailed as is my usual obsession with them.  It is a spreadsheet with different columns for the different parts of each project. 

I’ve got plastic bags with zippers from sheet sets and comforters that I’m using to pack projects together.  This is great for keeping everything organized and preventing damages from occuring while I’m traveling.  I really like these and when I return I may use them for storage in my craft room as well.  When I finish the projects, I’ll be able to put them back in the bags to keep everything organized.  Does this sound obsessive? 

On top of my crochet projects, my daughter wants me to bring down my stuff for the quilts I make for the girls.  Don’t get excited – I’m not a quilter.  Essentially I take large sheets and pin them with batting and then sew them together.  I use yarn to tie them.  I made each of the girls one when they were little and I’ve told all three of them it is time to get rid of them.  They refuse until I replace them.  I’ve had the material for a long while now but can’t kneel on the floor to pin them together.  Vicki says she will do it for me.  This may require a third suitcase. 

People are going to think I’m moving in for a month when I show up at her place.  The good thing about this is everything will be on wheels so should be easy to get in and out of her apartment.  I may have a bit of an addiction when it comes to crafting and crocheting. 

Creative Gene?

by eileentroemel, posted in Life

My daughters have a new etsy shop (http://www.etsy.com/shop/StephanieRoseCustom?ref=shop_sugg).  Skull Scarf
Most of my family are creative in one way or another.  I have a niece who is an amazing artist, another niece who makes amazing jewelry, a sister who knits and quilts, and so many others (if I list them all it will take forever and I’ll probably still forget someone).  More than this generation though, my great grandfather painted carriages.  He was so good he was one of the few people locally who did gold leafing on carriages.  My grandmothers were both very creative in the handcrafts. 

I read (skimmed really) an article that talked about fears being a genetic memory.  My question is for all the big scientists out there – can creativeness have a genetic component?  All of my daughters are good with color and composition.  My youngest daughter oozes with talent with her painting, sewing, crocheting.  My middle daughter crafts a dozens of ways – making amazing ornaments, wreaths, and so much more.  My oldest daughter draws beautifully and her counted cross stitch projects are incredible.  Obviously with my crafting skills and Beth’s crafting skills (family friend) they were raised with crafting days.  I just wonder if it is more than that. 
It also makes me wonder if work ethic / entrepreneurial endeavors are also genetic.  I have my editing business on the side, Vicki has her Simply Natural by Vicki products, and Stephanie and Virginia are working together to build Stephanie’s sewing / crafting business.  I know my father and grandfather had a gun selling business as well as my dad sold seed corn.  My grandparents ran a shoe store.  We descend from farmers mostly (but then who doesn’t really). 
The question becomes is this nurture?  Did I learn about working hard and trying different business because my parents worked hard and then I passed it down to my daughters?  Or is there a genetic component?  That might be interesting to find out. 

Think about it.  My great grandfather ran his business for painting carriages.  If it is genetic memory or a gene then has it been passed down in my family alone it has manifested in a variety of ways and there are tons of cousins and half cousins.  This is the great grandfather who had a dozen kids.  I wonder if talent can be traced back through the generations to an original talent? 
Nature or nurture for crafting and creativeness?  I don’t know but I do love crocheting and benefiting from my family’s creativeness as well.

Nature or nurture for crafting and creativeness?  I don’t know but I do love crocheting and benefiting from my family’s creativeness. 

Time Sucks…

by eileentroemel, posted in Life
There are just some activities that suck up your time.  You say “I’m only going to spend ten minutes on…” and then suddenly it is hours later and you are still on that site. 
This week while I’m home alone all day I have certain goals – mostly to work on cleaning my office.  This means while I am checking emails and so on I have to avoid sites like Ravelry, Pinterest, and Facebook if I’m to accomplish anything at all. 
Don’t get me wrong I LOVE wandering around these sites.  I find inspiration and laughter and a lot more on the sites.  However, I lose time like it is leaking through a sieve.  If I want to accomplish stuff I have to not look at those sites. 
The other thing that sucks up my time is the Kindle Fire that was just handed down to me.  I’ve been setting it up and removing things from the carousel.  I like the format but Kindle missed the mark when they didn’t allow you to put things in folders on the Fire – now if anyone knows how to do that – they should let me know. 
Along with setting things up I’ve been playing games on the Fire.  Backgammon, word games, Phase 10, Skipbo, and so many more are on there, and last night I spent hours playing backgammon, and others.  I will not be touching it today as I have too much to do. 
I have a crochet to do list and the other tasks in the office I want to get done.  Since my gout is bugging me today, it will likely be a crochet day.  I have a long list of what I need to do for crocheting.  If I can’t accomplish one goal, I’ll work on the others.
However, I will be avoiding those damn time sucks as they steal away all my good time so I cannot get done the things I want to get done – even if they are fun to spend time doing.  

Crocheting

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting
I have been crocheting a lot lately mostly because people ask me for stuff and I’m stressed.  Crocheting takes me to a different place.  One of the hardest things when crocheting for others is working with the colors they pick.  I LOVE bright and fun colors.  They are cheerful.  But when someone says can you make me this and make it in colors I don’t necessarily love it is a bit harder for me.  However, I do it because I know that not everyone is like me and loves those brighter colors.  If the colors they pick make them happy that is what I work with. 

Here are a few of my projects:
Bibs for a sweet one year old:

 Boxes for a variety of people:

      

      




Scarves:

Coasters:

Makeup pads and bag:
                                                    

Washcloths / Dishcloths:

These projects have been done over weeks of work.  Some of them will be gifts, some have already been claimed and taken, some I sold – mostly though, they were made with care and helped me destress. All I can hope is when I give them to the people who end up with them – they appreciate the work and care that went into making them.  The next project – well there are so many to choose from.  My biggest question – when is the next yarn sale? 

Flowers – ones that my black thumb can’t kill

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting
Update:

Vicki loves her new curtains.  The valances – which I thought were going to be too long – were just right and could have possibly been a bit longer even.  Here are some shots of her dining room windows:

This shows the valance a bit closer:

Here is her bedroom curtain tied back:

The final products turned out better than I thought they would and Vicki was very pleased with all of them.  The bedroom curtain definitely blocked the light and helped her to sleep better.

Original Post
I’ve been working on a valance for Vicki’s dining room windows.  In my motif book, there is a flower line which is quite fun.  This fits Vicki and she marked it with one of her little tabs (this is what she does to all my crochet books in the hopes I’ll make her all the things she marks). 

I finally finished the valances for her two windows in her dining room.  I made 62 flowers of 4 different designs.  These were quick little flowers which took very little time to make but they are quite fun.  The one on the left (peach petal with white smaller petals and orange center) is an adaptation from the patterns because I wasn’t thrilled with how the third style (yellow/green petals peach center) worked up and looked. I ended up doing two of this style and they are the center flower for each of the valances. 

In the book the flowers are put together with fishing line so they look like they are floating.  I joined mine together with green chain so it looks like a vine. I could have just done a simple chain but that seemed a bit boring.  Instead I played with a leaf pattern.  I was going to try to make a triangle type leaf but the few things I tried I didn’t like.  As I was playing with the design I realized it would be easy to use the Crocodile Stitch for leaves.  In the picture below you can see where I did just chaining and then a different spot where I put four crocodile stitches in a row.  These four were worked directly above each other.
I also played with the spacing of the chains – from number of chains to number of leaves as the pictures show.   
When I did the crocodile stitch I discovered an interesting occurrence when I worked the stitches from the last stitch in the crocodile stitch instead of slip stitching into the center to make them straight above each other (see above).  When I worked the next crocodile stitch from the last stitch it created a coiling affect which I liked – see the picture below.
So Vicki would have two unique valances – I started the vine with a crocodile stitch for one and two crocodile stitches for the other one.  

In general I would chain a certain number of times (generally 5 or 10) before I added another feature sometimes a flower, sometimes a leaf or four.  As you can see from the picture below, I would sometimes put the flowers very close together.

I got the flowers to hang differently from the vine by varying how I attached the flowers.  In the picture below the left hand flower (white petals) is attached with a slip stitch at the bottom and top of a petal.  The right hand flower (pink petals) is joined by slip stitching on either side of the center flower.  The white flower hangs differently which adds variety just like you would see in nature. 

 This last picture shows a variety of flowers and leaf sequences.  Vicki will be tacking them to her wall around the upper part of her window (unless she decides to use a curtain rod to twine them around).  These will hang down in whatever arrangement she puts them.  My only concern is that Sasha may think this is a toy for her to bat at and play with but that isn’t going to be my problem. 

This is just the valance and the curtains are going to be a café type curtain with dots all over it in the same colors.  It should look good when we are done.  I’ll try to take a couple of pictures and post them later.  

Balance

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Writing

One of the things I struggle with most is finding a balance in my life.  I’m either too focused on work, school, or whatever and forget to take time for me. 
This week I had a long to-do list for homework I wanted to get through.  It involved three chapters, videos, and labs for science, three books, excerpts and comments, paper, and final project for Prose Stylistics.  In addition to that I had a long list of crocheting I wanted to get done including three graduation gifts which are time consuming. 
For a change, I think I’ve found a balance (temporarily I’m sure).  Yesterday is a perfect example.  I spent four hours working on homework.  I finished (well all except a final read through) of my paper, read the last nine excerpts and wrote comments, and I worked on some comments for science.  This four-hour session was spent at my computer and by the time I was done my legs were bothering me. 
After I was done at the computer I took my science book with the intention of sitting in the recliner and reading.  Instead I watched some TV with Vicki and then took a nap.  After the nap I worked on crocheting a grad gift.  The rest of my day was spent either crocheting or enjoying my down time. 
This morning I am working on homework until Vicki comes back with our friend.  Then I will work on crocheting because they will be playing on the Wii and it is too distracting for me to do homework.  However, I can enjoy their company while I work on grad gifts.  I won’t have to feel guilty for the down time because I will be putting in some study time before they get here.  I may finish another chapter of science or just make progress on it.  I don’t know how far I’ll get but I know I will feel like I balanced out my day by working this way. 
Without a doubt, I will struggle with having balance, but for this past week, I can at least feel like I found some semblance of it during my vacation time.  My to-do list didn’t get done – either one of them – but I did make progress on both.  Maybe that is the point, especially for someone like me who always has too long of a to-do list, I got something done on both lists and made progress.

Long Weekend

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life

I’m taking a four day weekend.  Yesterday, I took off and even skipped my class.  I stayed home and spent the morning studying for my science exam and taking it.  I think I flopped it.  I knew the material would get progressively harder and I have a tough time with science. 
The rest of the day yesterday was spent doing nothing.  Well okay I worked on a few little things like crocheting and – nope really did nothing.  I took a shower in the afternoon and tried a new shaving cream Vicki made and we watched top chef. 
Three more days to enjoy on this long weekend, I’m trying to plot out my time.  Saturday, we are doing batch cooking.  While Vicki is making cookies this morning, I’m going to create a cut list for the batch cooking.  This will give me a starting point for all the dishes we are going to make.  Then tomorrow when we get started I’ll know what needs to be done first and can start before Vicki has to be in the kitchen.
Aside from that I have to start the next unit for science and finish writing / editing my paper for my Prose class.  If I manage to get all that done, I will work on crocheting.  I have a number of projects I want to work on.  I may have to put up the card table and look over my yarn to determine what yarn I want for which projects. 

For all the wonderful people who wished my happy birthday – you made my day yesterday – thank you.  It is very affirming to have such an outpouring of well wishes.  I’ve turned 49 and I know a lot of women would be freaking out about it.  I just feel like I keep getting better.  This year I’ll finish my second bachelor’s degree and will hopefully move forward with my writing and a few of my other goals.  I don’t feel like I’m getting older, but that I’m getting better and better.

Busy

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life

It has been a busy week.  I’ve been crocheting a bunch of things – finished a gift for a friend, bib, and worked on a baby afghan.  I’ll be making a few more bibs today.  One of Vicki’s friends wants some and one of my faculty is pregnant. 

My niece was coming out today but isn’t able to now so instead of hanging with her I will do movies and crocheting.  I hope we can reschedule but we are both extremely busy. 

Yesterday I didn’t use the office chair at all to get around the house.  It was all walking.  It hurts and I tire easily but my foot doesn’t hurt too much and it isn’t swelling.  Hopefully this means I can go back to work next week and manage on my own.  That is the plan at least. 

Last night as I was trying to fall asleep I came up with several things for the books I’m working on and also for the grant I’m writing.  Now today I hope to have the time to get them down on paper – at least the ideas if not the actual writing.  I’ve a lot to do in the next three days before I go back to work next week.  I just have to be careful not to overdo things.

Success!

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life

Today I spent most of the morning driving for the first time in six weeks or so.  My foot is swollen but not too severely and it is slightly painful.  This is a huge improvement from the last six weeks. 

For the last two days I’ve woken up with my toes / foot feeling normal – not swollen.  This is a huge improvement for me because my toes have felt like they were going to burst like a balloon. 

Vicki and I did the errands.  Vicki still had to do all the running into the stores and places but I was at least able to drive her there.  I’m hoping this means next week when I go back to work I can go back without her having to come with to help. 

If it still feels good tomorrow I will start walking more in the house.  I’m hoping I’ll be able to walk more easily by the time I go back to work next week.  It will also be nice to be a bit more independent rather than relying on others to do stuff for me.

I will be smart about it though and not over tax my foot.  There is no sense in pushing myself too hard and then not being better. 

I’ve been working on lots of crocheting while I’ve been laid up.  This week I’m working on a gift for a friend and a baby blanket for my sister to give to one of her student workers.  One of my daughter’s friend was looking for bibs and I have a great pattern for them so I’m going to make up one to see if she likes them.  If she does I’ll have her pick some colors and make a few for her.  So there is plenty to keep me off my feet and busy and continue healing.

In My Head

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized

In my head I’ve written a dozen blog entries but every time I’ve sat down to write one I either get interrupted or can’t think of what I want to write.  So I’ve been stuck in my head for a couple of weeks.  Now my daughter can tell you that my head is a scary place to be. 

We’ve been busy around the house with trying to make meals ahead so we have left overs for lunches.  Also we bought some sweet corn from the stand at our butcher shop and cooked it up, cut it up, and put it in the freezer.  Vicki made chicken carbonara that I had for lunch all week.  It was delicious.    

I’ve also been crocheting, watching movies/DVR stuff, and reading.  I finally finished Secret Lives, the 650 page book I was reading.  Next I have to write the review for this book.  Now I get to move on to other books that are on my list.  I’ve been working on holiday gifts.  I’ve gotten a number of smaller projects done. 

In the next two weeks I need to get my office cleaned up and my bag ready for school.  I’m taking three classes in the fall unless I decide to drop one of them.  This means I have to be organized and on top of everything.  I’m definitely not there yet.

This summer has flown by and I’ve not gotten as much done as I wanted to.  However, I’m trying to not stress out about that as I have gotten some of the things done and made progress on the things I didn’t complete.  It is nearly time to switch gears from summer down time mode to school year mode.