Finding unexpected treasures...

Another good week in the books! We welcomed rain and cooler weather last week and for the upcoming week at least.  I've gotten some more seeds planted, but more on outside things in another post.  

A day-trip to visit out of town friends yesterday was so satisfying. They're nearly finished with several years worth of updating their beautiful old house, and I thought something akin to a house-warming gift might be appropriate.  I toted along some doilies I've made and asked my friend if she'd like any or all of them.  I was thrilled when she said she'd love them all!  And then she led me to another room where she immediately placed one on a table under a clock.  It fit the spot perfectly!  In color and in size. 

Then this afternoon, we went to the second day of our local library book sale.  The deal of the day was to take anything/everything you wanted, and simply give a donation.

I told Greg as we headed out that I would love to find some old pamphlets or magazines with thread crochet patterns.  Doilies, filet crochet...  Anything like that.  Though, to be honest, I had no great expectations of finding anything much at all on the second day of the sale.

Were we ever surprised to drive up and see every table still full of books, dvds, and more books and more dvds!  And sooo many audio books.  It made me wonder if we even own a CD player anymore...

The first thing I did, though, was walk through the whole space (which spanned half the parking lot) looking for the craft section.  About ready to give up, I decided to check the section called "Home and Garden".  THERE were the crochet books!  I flipped through, looking for thread crochet and found one that looked kind of promising (if you don't look too hard at the cover):

How that frightful looking angel made the cover, I can't imagine.

With everything for the taking for one price, I didn't even bother to look inside the book.  I trusted Annie to have something in this Favorite Thread Projects book I might like to make.  

Finally, after scouring the crochet books, and not finding much that was interesting, I decided to make my way around the huge expanse of double-wide tables lined up end to end to check out the other side of the Home and Garden section - where honestly...  I imagined even less desirable things were relegated to.

On the other side, I didn't see any crochet-related books, and was about to move on to other things when I noticed a plastic bin full of...  what, I wasn't sure.  Upon closer inspection, I saw it had some craft publications in it.  It was packed so tightly, I had to pull things out to sort through them.  I saw some pictures of doilies, that looked promising.  As I was starting to make piles on the table for different types of crafts, Greg walked up and asked what I'd found.  I was holding one thing in my hand, when I said, "I found the mother lode"!  At first he thought I meant the item in my hand, but when I explained that I meant the tote full of all kind of craft magazines and pamphlets, he suggested I just take the whole thing.

"The whole thing?  Do you think I can?  It's a lot of things!"

We went to ask at the check-out table if that would be okay.  They laughed and said, it was not only okay, but wanted to know if we wanted the tote too.  "Really?  Does that not belong to anyone?"  They then told us that two sisters had donated all those craft publications and a bunch of books because they were moving from their home into an assisted living situation.  The booksale volunteers were happy I had found what felt like a treasure to me.  I hope somehow the sisters hear how thrilled I was with their donation. 

The box was so full, I couldn't manage it, so I put some things in a bag and Greg carried what was left in the tote to the car.  And I then scoured the rest of the sale.  We found some promising books and dvds, and after nearly two hours we headed home.

Wanna see the tote?  Liz (Highlandheffalump), you might just want to turn away for a moment.  😆

This 23-inch tote holds who knows how many craft publications.  In pulling some out, I've seen quite a few crochet magazines and pamphlets, a bunch of general craft magazines, and at least one cross stitch magazine.  I'm starting a pile of publications for plastic canvas, and thought I'd ask here if these are worth donating?  I'm guessing people still do plastic canvas stitching because I see the supplies in craft stores, but I've never done it (and don't plan to start) so I just don't know.  Please weigh in on that, if you have an opinion.

I'm pretty tickled to have a stash of craft publications to look through at my leisure.  While most everything is "old", many crochet patterns can be made new again simply by using modern colors schemes.  And sometimes one finds a gem in an old book or magazine that is so old it is new again.  Honestly, I would have loved to have found even older items, but this will be fun. I plan to take my time going through it all, but I'll try to remember to make note if I make anything from this treasure trove.

In terms of actual handcrafting I've done this past week, I finished a doily I've made before (in fact, one of the doilies I gave my friend yesterday was a version I had previously made in a solid color):

I wasn't too sure about this as I crocheted it, but blocked, I kind of like this two-toned version of "Dawnglow" done in Salmon and Ivory Peach.  Funny thing, though...  When I blocked it, I wanted to alternate making the scallops pointed and rounded. I had it all pinned out and I got to the last scallop and realized it wasn't going to alternate correctly. I studied the doily, counting the scallops, and compared it to the original and only then did I realize I finished this with one too few scallops.  Somewhere near the center I had goofed, but as hard as I tried, I could not figure out where the mistake happened. 

Truth be told, I'm glad I didn't realize the mistake before it was too late to correct it.  I had previously ripped out and redone the pineapple section of this doily because I didn't like the way I changed colors the first time.  If I had discovered that I didn't make the correct number of sections/scallops before sewing in all the thread ends, I would have been so disheartened.  And tempted to rip it all out and start all over again.  And what a needless thing that would have been.  As is, I have a nicely finished doily, and maybe...  maybe I'll make it again in another color being sure it ends with twelve sections so I can do a pretty alternate points and scallops blocking.  

~~~~~

And with this wonderful cooler weather I decided to try to finish the Granny Goes Large I started last autumn.  If I focus, I might be able to finish it this week.  

As I near the end, I'm trying to decide if I should do a border in yellow/gold or in a medium tan/brown/cinnamon color called tobacco. Opinions?