love

a purse? 

a tote?

pillows? 

not sure yet, but i looooove this fabric

thrift store find

i was at a local thrift store with my best friend the other day and i kept wishing i had my camera with me (even my phone was dead). i found a number of old reader's digest books that i wanted to turn into purses (and use the pages for some fabulous wall decorations), she found an adorable yellow shower curtain and then we saw this: 

there was a set of 3 of them. one round. two square. one orange. one purple. one green. i have never seen anything like this before and i was so intrigued! it's clearly a trivet made with vast amounts of looped yarn, but how?! 

i had no cash so my wonderful fat lady friend (a story for another time) bought me this little gem so i could figure out how to make it.

i haven't had the heart to rip it apart just yet but as soon as i figure it out i'll post the how-to. anyone seen a trivet like this before? thoughts or insights on how to do it?

happy birthday dear monster

today our little maddie face turns one!

long ago when we lived up at honeyrock there was a wonderful dog named sadie. we loved sadie and when her owner talked about breeding her we told him we wanted one of those pups! we didn't really think that would happen but last winter he let us know that he was in fact breeding her and that one of her pups was ours! 

sadie was a champ and had TEN puppies. last april we went up to pick one out. rick handed me this little bundle and said "I think this is the one" and he was right! i loved her right away (even though they were mostly just balls of fur and poop at that point). this is her that day in april. 

i tied a green ribbon around her neck and we went home for another month until she was ready to come home. at that point we thought we were going to call her zoey (after the daughter on the west wing) and the wonderful ribbe & ledbetter kids spent a lot of time loving on "zoey". by the time we were ready to go pick her up we were pretty sure zoey wasn't the right name. 

i had always wanted to name a dog wrigley, but it turns out every cubs fan in the world names their dog wrigley. not original at all. so we talked about other cub names: sandberg- sandy for short. perfect right? too perfect. no one would ever realize that a yellow lab named sandy was named for ryne sandberg. every other cub name i could think of wouldn't work for a girl dog. until...maddux! some say he isn't really a cub since he played most of his career for the braves, but to me greg maddux will always be a cub. so we set off to pick up little miss maddux. 

 

that's her the day we picked her up and she's been our faithful monster ever since! 

here she is this week- blissfully unaware that she's about to cross the bridge into adulthood: 

 

and yes. if you're wondering, she's very pleased that her namesake has returned to the cubs. very please indeed.

happy birthday maddie monster! we pray you'll have many many more!

there's a new yarn in town

i was on one of my weekly (or biweekly) trips to joann fabrics when i saw a new endcap of yarn that made my heart skip! the author of the wonderful book that taught me to crochet has created a new line of yarn. all natural. clever names. gorgeous colors. peruvian sheep's wool. alpaca. bamboo. oh the wonder of it all! i bought one of each type and brought them home to find out what these yarns are made of. 

the colors alone are enough to make you swoon! 

first the facts: 

$4.99/skein. 

the alpaca is a 3 oz/132 yard skein. 

wool & bamboo are both 3.5 oz skeins. 

wool is 155 yards, bamboo is 177 yards. 

all three are medium weight yarns. 

the alpaca calls for an I-9 crochet hook while the bamboo & wool suggest a size K-10 1/2.

so i pulled out my hook (size G) - which is smaller than they suggest but it's my favorite- and crocheted a little swatch of each type of yarn using my new favorite: seed stitch. i use a variation that repeats single crochet and a chain in the first row. in the next row you sc into the chain and so on. i love the stitch because it's fairly closed and yet still soft and stretchy unlike a full swatch of single crochet.

so....the swatches all turned out about the same size. and they're purty. take a look (sorry about the sun coming through the blinds...a professional photographer i am not!)

 

so here's the verdict: 

third place- alpaca love (shown here in "fern").

this yarn is actually only 20% alpaca- with the other 80% being wool. that makes it lighter than a yarn with more alpaca but also scratchier. it feels a bit like a polyester yarn with more fiber to it. i liked it but it's not as cozy as i was hoping for alpaca.

second place- full o' sheep (shown here in "meadow")

this is 100% peruvian wool and my favorite color out of ALL the stitch nation yarns. for a 100% wool yarn i'm impressed by its softness, but it's still a bit scratchy. i also love the look of this yarn in its skein and wouldn't mind just looking at it all pretty in its wrapper- but once i started using it the yarn got fairly fuzzy. this would be an issue if anything needed to be pulled out and redone (which i do often)

first place- bamboo ewe (shown here in "mermaid")

this fabulous yarn is 55% viscose from bamboo and 45% wool making it the perfect blend of warmth and cuddly softness. it still has a bit of scratch to it, but i would definitely wear it up against my skin. no fuzzing issues either. this was the smallest of the swatches- which could be my inability to keep the tension the same. i have since purchased "sprout" and i'm hoping to get "mercury" as soon as i have another 50% off coupon ($2.50 for all natural yarn is wonderful!). then i shall make something wonderful. not sure what yet.

so there you have it. one new yarn brand. three new yarns. all wonderful. one winner. great idea debbie stoller!