Some happy finishes...

I missed my fellow Yoppers last week.  I had a vertigo attack on Saturday and even after the spinning stopped, it took it out of me for a few days.  Fortunately, by Tuesday I was feeling mostly myself again and I was able to make up for lost time.

Note:  All of my links below open up separate windows so you won't lose this page (I know sometimes I wonder about that when I'm reading someone's blog and I'm hesitant to click - so I thought a mention about it might be worthwhile.)

Had I been feeling well last Sunday, I would have shown my three As Time Goes By squares:

They turned out a little larger than the Don't Fence Me In squares, so I'm thinking I may not block these.  I probably need to make a few more squares in this blanket before I settle on what will be the final size of the squares - and deal with them all in a way that will make them stitch together nicely.

I love these patterns and the videos by Polly Plum.   The videos make the squares a breeze to make.

Also, I had made another set of stitch markers (or progress keepers as knitters use them):

I am really enjoying making these and have some more ideas brewing.  

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And then later this week I finished my Leaping Stripes and Blocks blanket:

I like how it turned out, but I would have liked it more if I hadn't made it quite so wide, so I could have made it longer to fit an adult, or made two baby blankets.   As is, though, it will work well for a child (probably up to a pre-teen age).  Now I need to find a child for it.   ;^)

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And now I'll leave you with a couple of videos (that I found online) of a young man who a dear friend and I had the pleasure of seeing in concert at a small music club in Indy this past week.   Ian Ethan Case's specialty is playing double neck guitars - and we were treated to a number of creations of his on those instruments.  But my favorite song he performed was done on a kalimba.  I think this was the song he performed for us:

As good as the video sounds, in person this song (all of his music) was absolutely mesmerizing.   If you stick with the video (it's only around 8 minutes long) I promise you - it will make you dance.  Right there in your chair.

And if you've never experienced a performance on a double-neck guitar, here you go (about 6 minutes in, though, he pulls out the kalimba again, and then goes back to the guitar.):

It was nearly midnight when the concert ended, but I could have stayed for hours more, I think.  ;)

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To see what other Yoppers are up to, visit our group on Ravelry.

Marking stitches...

This week turned out to be anything but full of leisurely crochet that I anticipated when I wrote my YOP post last weekend.

I've been doing some part-time companion care for an elderly lady since mid-summer (basically, I'm a fill-in for her regular care-giver).  Well, this week the regular gal took ill and I ended up working every day (or evening) except Tuesday.  I'm not complaining - I've really grown to love the woman I "keep company with" and the pay feels generous to me.   BUT...  When I have a week like this I realize how hard it is to get anything else done!  It's all very good, but it's not my normal.  And oh, my house shows it.  Not that I'm a model housekeeper (I am not), but sparing you the details...  it looks a bit rough here.  I desperately want to declutter and vacuum and dust!

All that said...  I did make something this weekend!  Yes, I did.

I was inspired by Sandra at http://farmgirlsam.blogspot.com/ to get out my beads and wires and all the paraphernalia needed to make some stitch markers.  And on Saturday I set up a little stitch marker factory on my dining room table.

I made some fun and funky ones:

And then I decided it would be really clever of me to make some autumny-looking ones: 

I know these look like two pictures of the same markers, but they're actually two different sets.

And since Christmas is right around the corner, I decided I might as well make me some holiday-inspired stitch markers:

And lastly, I decided to make some knitting stitch markers because well...  I haven't given up completely on the idea of knitting something substantial enough that some knitting stitch markers will be a necessity.

Granted, they are not the most sophisticated-looking, but I can't get over how easy these were to make:

And that's pretty much it, folks.  I crocheted just a bit in the evenings on my Leaping Stripes and Blocks blanket, but it looks essentially the same as it did last Sunday, so I don't see a point in taking a picture.

This week I hope to catch up some on my Last Dance squares, and maybe even finish a WIP.  Big talk, I know.  Check back here next week to see what I actually manage to accomplish.

To see what other YOPPERS are up to, visit our group on Ravelry.

The madness got even crazier this week...

Finally!   I managed to get Part 10 finished of my Mandala Madness.  It may not look crazy, but this part was the craziest (most intricate) part to date.

I think (after this week) it will be too large for me to get the whole thing in a picture shooting straight on - unless I lay it outside in the grass and hang out of an upstairs window to snap a picture.   I'm tempted...

Truth be told, I'm not real crazy about all that white in this last part, but I'm hoping it feels less...I don't know...white, I guess, when I do the next sections where I'll be using blues and green for Parts 11 & 12.   I'm ready to be finished with this thing - I think it's about 58 inches across now - but it needs something beyond that last pink and white part to anchor it (both color-wise and stitch-wise).  I know part 11 won't be enough to finish on, but I'm hoping by the end of Part 12 I'll be happy enough with it to call it a wrap, and that it will be perfect for a child or maybe a pre-teen to wrap up in it.

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Yesterday I attended the Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival in our little town.  I guess it's held here at our county fairgrounds every year (I know it was here last year, but I heard about it too late to attend).

Anyway, it's the first of its kind I've ever been to.  It was interesting seeing everything from raw fleece to cleaned and carded fleece, to roving fibers, to undyed yarn, to beautiful colors of hand-dyed, hand-spun yarn, to commercially dyed and spun yarns.  There were booths where crafts persons sold beautifully carved drop spindles, ceramic and wooden yarn bowls, shawl pins, yarn soaps and soaks, and there was even a booth that sold homemade fudge.  Mmmm...   I almost forgot I'm foregoing candy and sugar right now - it smelled so good it almost pulled me in like a magnet.

In the end, though, after walking around for an hour (and 10-15 minutes of that were talking with a friend I ran into) I decided there was nothing there I wanted badly enough to part with my cash for.  Which surprised me.  I had hoped to find a pretty yarn bowl, and would have bought a hank or two of hand-spun yarn if it begged me to.  But there was nothing I felt compelled to buy.  It was both a relief and a disappointment.

Ah well...  I do think I'll go back again next year.  It won't all be new to me and maybe I'll have a better sense of what, specifically, I'd be interested in buying, rather than just hoping something "calls out" to me.

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On another note...  I've been enjoying using my newly made stitch markers this week, but I've learned an important lesson.  These really need to open wide to make it easy to attach to a stitch.  I've concluded I much prefer the lever back earring fasteners, and following after that the large lobster claw fasteners.  The smaller lobster claws work, but they're small enough that it's a bit too fiddly for me to be completely happy with them as stitch markers.  I may remake those some day.  They're usable.  Just not preferred.

So note to myself...   buy more lever backs:

And as my fellow Yoppers have been mentioning for a month or so, we're getting ready to wrap up this Year Of Projects year.  A YOP year runs from July through June and that means we've only got three more Sunday's worth of YOP posts!  On July 3rd we should be posting our first post of the next YOP year.  It is in this first post where we reveal our personal goals regarding what we hope to accomplish with the fiber arts - though I've also loved reading about non-fiber creative pursuits fellow Yoppers have posted about from time to time.

If this sounds like something you'd enjoy doing, I invite you to join us.  It's pretty low-key, but at the same time hugely encouraging.  Each person decides what kind of goals s/he wants to set and then just gets on with it and blogging about it.  Some people are very specific about what projects they want to finish, others (like me) use their goals list as an idea generator.  I am motivated better with a list of ideas rather than a list of specific projects.  There is no pressure if a week (or a month, or more) is missed.  But I'll be honest.  I set for myself the modest goal of posting once or maybe twice a month and once I started I managed to not miss a single week!  I've really surprised myself at that.

Sooo...come check us out!  And please consider joining us.  The more the merrier, and the more creative we all are!  Click on the graphic below to visit the Year of Projects group on Ravelry.

Small things...

I couldn't manage to finish Part 10 of my Mandala Madness this week, but hopefully next week I'll get this challenging round completed.  It appears to be a doozy!

With the knowledge that I wouldn't be able to post a progress picture of the Mandala Madness I set to work finishing a project for the Weekly & Washcloth CAL on Ravelry.   After looking at several tutorials on crocheting a simple wrap bracelet, I put this one together with some wooden and glass beads, some shell beads, and some fun dangles that were retrieved from no longer worn jewelry.

The anchor charm is new, but it works really well as a clasp hooked onto the old oval-shaped reclaimed jewelry part.  This isn't how I anticipated holding the bracelet together, but I like it!

And while I had my beads out I decided to finally make me some stitch markers.    I thought I had more earring parts, but with just two of the ones pictured below I could only put together two mushroom stitch markers.   I really need to get more earring wires at the earliest opportunity, 'cuz these mushroom stitch markers are begging for some buddies to hang with.

With plenty of lobster claw clasps, I was able to put together some other sets.  I think these funky beads make cute stitch markers:

And these mis-matched "jewels" make a fun eclectic set below, I think.  I don't know why, but they remind me of a tea table set with a varied assortment of china.  Is that weird?  I actually like that they're not matchy-matchy.

I'm probably way too enamored with my own handiwork, but I'm so very excited to finally have some cute stitch markers.  I have some plastic non-closing ones that are useful at times, but when I've needed something that closes I've resorted to paper clips or safety pins, or pulling an earring out of an ear to use in a pinch, even.  Don't laugh!  Okay...go ahead and laugh.  It's not that I don't value being enterprising and using what is readily available, but there's something to be said for using attractive tools.

And with these pretties at my disposal I will happily get back to work on my Mandala Madness and other projects.  To see what other Yoppers are up to, visit our thread this week on Ravelry.