Afgan Progress

Here's the latest image of the afgan. It's coming along nicely. I'll probably finish it up while I'm at my parents's house. Well I took the plunge and signed up on E-harmony.com and Match.com to see if I could find my true love. I plan to start working out the first of the year, or when I get home from Richmond. so maybe I'll lose some of this weight and won't be so horrible looking. Then maybe men will find me more attractive. Actually, it's not that bad, I just have a bad self image problem. I liked it better when I was anorexic and wore a size 2. But I'll be satisfied with a size 6. lol. Well I've been up since 1:30 this monrning and it's now 6:30, so I think I'm going to go back to bed.

Afgan Progress

Well, here's the progress so far on the afgan. It's going slowly but at least it's keeping my hands busy. I'm thinking socks for my next project. They look fairly easy to do and kind of fun. We're having really warn weather here for this time of year. I wish it would turn cold and snow. I love it when it snows. I like to bundle all up with my winter hats and scarves and gloves, and boots. but I'm still wearing my burkenstocks with my wool socks. That probably sounds kind of geeky but it's actually kind of comfortable. I'm going home for Christmas on Monday so I won't be posting as much for the next week I hope everyone has a great Christmas and holkday season.

New Afgan

I'm still diligently working away at my afgan, here is a photo of how it looks so far. I'm just starting the off white. It's taking a long time because it's using a single crochet variation stitch. It will definately keep my lap warm while I work on it. I do still wish that I could do that zig zag stitch. I'm not sure what my problem is with it. I never come out with the right number of stitches at the end of the first row. I've never had that problem before. Anyway, this will work just as well, maybe not as pretty but functional. I need to think of more projects that I can do after the afgan to keep busy, if anyone has any ideas let me know. I'm thinking another sweater. I have lots of patterns for those. Maybe a scarf. I'm tired of doing hats. I just like looking at all that yarn sitting there in the basket. It's comforting somehow. That's why I love yarn stores, seeing all that yarn just makes me so excited about what I could create with it. I wish I could afford the expensive yarns but on my budget it's michaels and Jo-Annes and sometimes Wal-mart, although they have reduced the amount of yarn that they carry. Well I've got my coffee now so it's time to start crocheting.

keep on crocheting

Since I finished all of my Christmas projects my hands were sitting idle so I decided to crochet an afgan. It's in really pretty colors, hunter green, light sea foam green, off white, and maroon. I tried to do a zig zag stitch but for some reason I just can't make it work. I've tried countless patterns with that particular stitch but to no avail. So I went with a different pattern, one that uses single crochet variations. It's going to take a while but it's what I need a long project. I can take it with me when I go home for the holidays.

Joy

Joy.... I finally finished the sweater I was crocheting for my son. It looks wonderful. I used alpaca gray yarn so it is very soft. Now I have no more projects laying at my feet. So I think I'm going to start an afgan ... one with a zig zag pattern. I'm pretty much ready for Christmas, packages wrapped, cards sent, cookies baked. All that's left is to pack my suitcase. It will be a rousing time at my parent's house this year with everyone there. Well it's the middle of the night so I'm going back to bed.

Bad Day

Today is a bad day. I'm having a hard time staying out of bed. I spent all day yesterday crocheting a skinny scarf and it is going so slowly because of the small yarn and hook that it just burns me out. So today I just want to hide beneath the covers. I'm just burned out on crocheting, my body aches from sitting in one position for so long. Everything is ready for Christmas now I just have to mentally prepare myself for the trip home. At least I don't have to worry about the dog since she is being borded. I'm leaving on the 22nd and returning on the 28th. I will be a long stressful trip. My mother keeps telling me that she has all sorts of projects for me to do when I get home so at least I'll be busy. And I'll get to see my son for a couple of days. I hope it will be a good trip.

Frustration

I've been trying for two days to crochet hats for my brother and son. I'm using extra bulky yarn and it's affecting the size of the hat pattern so the three I've made have been too big. I've even tried washing and drying them to shrink them down. This only made them bigger. Now I'm trying for a fourth time to alter the pattern size to see if I can come up with the appropriate sizes. I'm frustrated to say the least. Fortunately they work up fast.

Just Ramblin' On

I haven't posted anything for a while. Mainly because my life is boring. I'm still crocheting for Christmas. Finally finished the sweater for my niece but am afraid it's going to be too big. Now I'm doing hats for my son and brother. I'm using extra bulky yarn so they're really chunky. I decided that I couldn't get the alpaca sweater finished in time so I'll take it up after Christmas when I'm not so stressed for time. I did get all of my Christmas cards finished and ready to mail. I've got my tree up and my door decoration on and my presents wrapped. So I'm almost ready.

I have to tell you about my most favorite purchase of the season. I bought myself a pair of sock monkey slippers at Target. They're to die for. So cute, I just love them. I keep them on all day long.

Well that's it for today.

Yawn, yawn, yawn

Yawn, I went to bed at 9 last night and woke up at midnight. Hows that for a good nights sleep. Oh don't worry, I'll go back to bed soon. But first, I'll play on my computer, crochet and maybe read a little. I'm reading the series by Stephenie Meyer starting with Twilight. There are 4 books and I'm on the third one. They're about vampires and werewolves. They're written in such a way that you don't want to put them down. The first one is called eclipse. They have made a movie out of the first one and my friend Sharon and I went to see it yesterday on opening day. I wasn't impressed. Unless you were a big fan of the series you wouldn't have understood what was going on. It was slow and devoid of any action. I pretty sure they won't make a movie of the rest of the books. I've really enjoyed the series and it has been a fast read especially for such lengthly books. All 4 books are almost 650 pages each.

It was interesting that during the movie you could tell who the fans of the series were because they laughed out loud during the appropriate funny parts and said things during the appropriate comment parts. It would seem that the books have a very large following. I visited their website the other night and there was a clock counting down the hours until the movie opened in theaters and links to a multitude of other fan sites. And to think I had never heard of them until my friend Sharon brought them over for me to read. Thank you Sharon.

My Artwork

In this posting I'll highlight some of my artwork. If you want to see more of it you can go to my website at www.wingdancerart.com. I have two kinds of artwork. My collage posters. These are a compilation of images put together in an artful way to relay a message of one sort or another. They deal with music, technology, art, society, etc. Each one is 24"x36" in size. I've also taken each image and made it into a greeting card that I sell as a set. There are 8 cards in each set for $8. I love making these collages. Each one takes hours to put together but in the end it is so rewarding to see the finished product.

The second type of artwork that I do is mixed media collage on canvas. These works deal with memory. They challenge the viewer to look inward and find memories from their childhood with which they can relate. The viewer forms an emotional bond with the work as they see pieces of their own life played out on the canvas. They also form emotional bonds with works that touch on subject matter that may deal with issues that are personal in nature but not necessarily from their own past. I will often use found objects in my pieces as in the ones pictured. In the one on the right called Happy Birthday I used silverware, wire, ribbbon, candles, tacks, and a feather. and in the one on the left called Fishing I used an antique hanky. I love making these pieces of artwork I just wish I had a studio. As it is I have to use my apartment and there just isn't the room that I need to work.

Thought I would continue yesterday's theme of toy collecting with one last photo of my PEZ toy bin. Yes that's a huge Rubbermaid tub filled with PEZ containers and other small toys. I always tell my son that when I die that will be his legacy, my toy collection. The Buzz Lightyear character on the right is a bubble blowing machine. And that's Scooby's van up at the top. Pretty cool if you ask me.

And now for a different theme I'm going to talk about my tattoos. I have six of them. Two on my upper right arm, one on my upper left arm, one on my upper left chest, one on my upper left back and one on my lower back. The one on the lower part of my left arm is the comedy-tragedy symbol. I got that to symbolize how I feel about my bipolar disorder, happy and one minute and down and depressed the next. The skull on the top right shoulder is for death. I think about death a lot and contemplate suicide especially when I'm depressed. The cross and the image of Christ are for hope that one day everything will be ok and I'll finally be happy. The Celtic symbol on my chest matches one on my friend Lisa's chest, we got matching tattoos because we're best friends. And last but not least the feather on my lower back goes along with my nickname Wingdancer. I've always wished I could fly so I've adopted the feather as a symbol of my desire to be free in this life and to fly away from all my troubles.

I really enjoy getting tattoos, the pain never really bothers me. It's almost soothing in a way. I want to get more of them but I have to save up the money because they're so expensive. My tattoo/piercing guy is really good. He's done all my ink and piercings. I have 9 piercings. Three stretched ones in my ears, one in my eyebrow, one in my nose, and one in my bellybutton. I had two in my mouth and one in my tongue but I took them out. I'm thinking of having the mouth ones put back in, I miss them. The tongue one I'll never have done again and if anyone ever asked me I'd tell them not to get one. It will ruin your teeth. You bite it all the time and it cracks your teeth.

Well that's my tattoos. Hope you liked them.

collectables

Today I'm going to talk about my toy collection. I collect kinetic toys. I love them because of their whimsical qualities. Some of them you wind up, some of them you just push a button and they whir into motion. I have pooping reindeer and Halloween cats. I have bobbleheads. Some walk, some shimmy, some roll, some jiggle - the thing is they all do something.

I've been collecting these toys for years, I actually had a rather large impressive collection a few years ago but had to let it go when I moved due to space restrictions. I'm starting to build it back up again. Some of my favorite catogories are: Toy Story, Mr. Potato Head, PEZ Dispensers ( I have hundreds of these) MacDonalds Happy Meal toy sets, Sponge Bob Square Pants, Scooby Doo, and the list goes on.

Right now I don't have any place to display my PEZ dispensers so they are stored in a Rubbermaid container under a table. Every time a new series comes out I purchase it and put it inside. I have to admit to eating the candy so most of them aren't in their original packages but that's ok I'm not in it for the money I just like collecting them. Maybe one day I'll have a house and the space to display all of my TOYS. Until then they just sit around my house. A lot of them are on my computer desk and I play with them while I work on my computer. I'm sure a lot of people would see my hobby as immature but to me it's just fun and interesting. It takes a lot of imagination to create these toys and I can appreciate that creativity.

Cold Days

The days are getting colder here in the mountains of VA. I'm still resisting turning on my heat. I have a heat pump and my electric bill is always so high in the winter time. I try to stay warm by sitting in the bed watching tv and crocheting. I'm still working on Christmas presents. As I said in my previous post I started a sweater for my brother and it's coming along nicely. The yarn is alpaca and it's so soft. But I think I'm going to need more than I bought even though I figured it up based on yardage. It's working up a lot faster than I anticipated. I still haven't started my other nieces sweater yet. She may get a picture of it for christmas with an IOU.

I just ordered the book Cool Crochet and it should be here within 10 days. I ordered it from Amazon. I had seen the patterns on Ravelry.com and liked what I saw and the book was only $3.70 plus tax so I figured why not.

Trouble with new stitch

OK, OK, I may not be the smartest grape in the bunch but up til now I've never met a crochet stitch I couldn't do. Well yesterday I met my match. it was the back post double crochet. Try as I might I couldn't do this stitch. I looked it up on google for examples and photos of how to to it and ended up forgging my work at least 3 times before the yarn knotted up and I had to actually throw away about four rows when I had to break off the yarn and start over. If anyone out there has done this stitch successfully please let me know. I ended up just doing a front post double crochet followed by a regular crochet instead of the back post double crochet. It looks ok, not as pronounced as the effect they were going for but it will do. I also had to imjprovise the pattern when they told me to do two rows of front post double drochet one right after the other. You have to have a row of double crochet to work the front post double crochet into so I improvised that because I couldn't work a row of front post double crochet ingo a row aof front psot double crochet which is what the pattern was telling me to do. Any way I got it done in my own sort of way. Now it's just double crochet the rest of the way up the front.

As far as Angie's teal sweater goes, I'm about 1/2 way through the front panel. I've finished the back panel. I still have the sleeves to go. This one is taking a long time to do. I work on it while I watch tv so the time goes faster and I don't get bored. But my back and butt get tired of sitting for so long. I feel like I need to get up and go for a walk or something.

I looked at the thrift store yesterday for sweaters I could frog for yarn but I didn't find anything. I was disappointed. I thought for sure there would be something, they used to have such a large suupply of sweaters but now they don't. I may go to the other ones today to check and see if they have anyting. If for no othe reason than to get me out of the house.

This is the sweater pattern that I'm using for my brother for Christmas. It's from the book "The Crochet Dude's Designs For Guys". I'm crocheting it in Bernat Alpaca natural blends grey. It's a bulky yarn No. 5. The stitch is new to me, it's a front post double crochet. I've never done this stitch. And I'm not sure whether to make him an extra large or just an extra large. I'm thinking an extra extra large probably. This next one is the pattern for my niece's sweater. It's from Crochet Magazine, March 2007. It involves an intricate floral stitch edging. I'm not making the purse to go with it, just the bolero. It's got button holes and I've never made those before so both patterns will be a challenge.

Bears

Today's blog is about my bears. I sew bears as a hobby. This one at the right is a sample. He's done in short brown fur. The cloths are made from scraps of other cloths that friends have given me. I have made shirts from antique table napkins that were absolutely beautiful. They don't make this particular bear pattern any more so I guard it with my life. They don't make any good patterns any more. You have to resort to buying books on bear making to get any kind of patterns these days. The cloths to the right are another set I made for the bear. There is a set of shorts and a pair of PJ's. I display the bear using an antique doll trunk as a backdrop. I used to sell the bears at craft shows but it became too labor intensive and I couldn't make enough money to justify the time. Each one takes hours and hours to make.

Christmas Sweaters

I've been working on Christmas sweaters so I thought I'd do a blog with photos of my progress to date. The patterns on this page are from the March 2007 Crochet Magazine, and the book Plus size crochet, Fashions that fit and flatter by Margaret Hubert. This is the sweater that I'm making for my sister-in-law only I'm using black yarn. It's a really easy pattern. I've already made one for my mother and it turned out really nice. I used Vanna's yarn that I purchased at Michael's. It works up really fast and sews together nicely. The first Photo is of the back of the sweater. The next photo is of the front sides of the sweater. Since it's a bolo everything looks so small. But, my sister-in-law is a small woman and it looks just right on her. The last

picture of the black sweater is of the sleeve in progress. I hope to be finished in a couple of days.

This next sweater is for my niece. It's worked in a shell patten and is really pretty but it's taking a really long time to work.
The second photo is of the back of the sweater. I used a no. 4 yarn instead of a no. 3 yarn so it is working up larger than it is supposed to but I'm hoping it will work out anyway.

Two Sweaters

I'm still working on two sweaters for Christmas. I'm finally making some headway. I can see them taking shape. I returned some yarn to Michael's today because it was to big, patten called for 3, it was 4. And I figured I can't work on 3 sweaters at once anyway. But next month I'll buy some yarn and try to start the third sweater for my niece. I'm still waiting for my Crochet Dude book to come in the mail, then I'll have 4 sweaters to crochet.

I uploaded a bunch of new photos of paintings onto my art website today. I had to reduce the size of them to fit everything in. These were from my years at VA Tech. It's too bad I only have five pages on the website to use. I could always upgrade but I don't want to pay the extra money.
Well I'm off to watch Smallville reruns.

It's cold this morning. I'm refusing to turn on the heat until I just can't stand it any longer. I've enjoyed my $45 electric bills this summer. Unfortunately I don't think it's going to last much longer. Plus it's raining outside and the dog refuses to go to the bathroom in the rain in the yard. She has to be walked, and I'm not one for walking in the rain. But I think I'm going to have to get the umbrella out and brave the elements this morning, for her sake.

I'm still trying to crochet as much as possible but I only have two months left to finish these sweaters. I don't know if I can do it. But I'll give it my best.

I woke up in the middle of the night and misread the clock thinking it was 5:30 when it was actually 12:30. So I got up and took my meds and ate breakfast and sat down to the computer and it was a full half hour before I looked up at the clock and realized my error. I stayed up for a couple of hours before going back to bed. I'm not sure why my internal clock is so messed up.

I'm hoping some of my movies come in at the library today. It will give me something to look forward to this evening. But I don't know if the interlibrary stuff goes on over the weekend. Who knows.

I've been posting more on the groups at Ravelry. Nothing big, just introductions, that sort of thing, Kind of easing my way into it.
Well that's all for now.

Today I added several more pieces to my projects page at Ravelry. One of those was the long skinny scarves that I crocheted for the craft show last year. Here is a photo of them. They were crocheted out of ribbon. Unfortunately I didn't sell any so now I get to wear them. They were really fun to make and the ribbon was fairly easy to work with. It took two balls for each scarf.

I have to go to Roanoke on Tuesday, I was thinking about looking up any yarn shops that might be in the area. I'd like to see if they have any patterns that I'd like to have. I'm thinking about making a really skinny scarf and am thinking I'll go to Mosaic and buy the yarn there since it won't take very much, and I'll need a thinner type than I can get at Michael's or Wal-mart. I just wish I had more money. There never seems to be enough. Isn't that always the way tho.

Nice Day

Today is a good day. I'm actually feeling ok. Went to the thrift store this morning looking for stuff to use in my art work but struck out. Did find a rug for my kitchen, a couple of VCR tapes, and a shirt. Isn't that always the way, you end up with a bunch of stuff you didn't plan on buying. Oh well.

The dog is actually behaving herself right now. That's a nice change. She's 16 years old and in her senility she barks a lot at pretty much nothing at all. She stands there in front of me look for all the world like there is something I should be doing to make her happy. But for the life of me I can't figure out what it is, And so it goes. But I don't know what I'd do without her. She's my constant companion. She's a beagle cocker mix and quite cute.

My sweaters are coming along nicely, hopefully they will be finished by Christmas. I ordered the Crochet Dude book so I can have some patterns for the men on my list. I just need to crochet faster. And so now I'm off to do just that. Later.

Mags

I saw that issue of Juxtapox and it really was great. I especially liked the article on Polly Morgan. It makes me want to go out today and do some bargain hunting for found objects.

Two new Mags

Bought two great new mags today. Juxtapoz Art and Culture Magazine, and Cloth * Paper Scissors Collage Mixed Media Magazine. Both of them Rock. They've given me tons of great new ideas for my artwork. They not only work with paper but also fabric and found objects. There's a great article about Monica Canilao. Seriously, if you can find these mags at your local bookstore they're worth the price.

Anxiety Day

Today I'm having an anxiety kind of day. I suffer from generalized anxiety disorder and some days it's just more out of control than others even though I take several kinds of medication to keep it under control. Today I'm a bit off the wall. I've tried to crochet. I get one row of one sweater done and another row of another sweater done but can't settle down to get any real work accomplished. It's very frustrating. I've tried reading but to no avail. What I really want to do is shop. That always seems to help. Unfortunately you have to have money to make that work. I've spent an inordinantely large amount of time screwing with the computer; playing with my web page and Ravelry.com. I've called everyone I know who is home. But nothing helps, I feel like I'm jumping out of my skin today. I do wish that I could get more done on my sweaters, I'm feeling the Christmas time crunch. Well I think I'll go to the bookstore. Later.

Ramblings

Started a new sweater today. This one is for my neice. It's a rather interesting pattern worked in a cluster style, I'm not sure how it's going to turn out since I'm using a larger guage yarn than it called for but the same size hook. We'll see. If it starts looking bad I'll pull it out and change hook sizes. I didn't check my guage I'm bad about that, actually I wanted it to be a bit larger than the pattern called for.

On a different note: I've looked at a lot of other people's blog pages and noted that they have photos inserted. I'm thinking about doing that with mine. I also need to add more photos to and organize my flicker web page. Right now it's just a hodge podge of photos with the art ones mixed in with the crochet ones. And every time I look at it I think oh crimy I need to be working on a new piece of art. But with Christmas fast approaching and three sweaters to finish I think that's on the back burner for a while.

New Stash

I'm very excited. Yesterday a new Books A Million opened just up the street from my house. I stopped by to peruse the crochet books and found a great book of plus sized sweater patterns. I'm making my niece a sweater for christmas and had not been able to find a great pattern but this book had just the thing. So I bought yarn, Vanna's Choice, a yarn that I really like and by the way can afford. It was actually on sale for just $2.00 a skein. I was also excited because my Ravelry Market bag came in the mail yesterday and I used it to put yarn for another sweater in to keep while I work on it. It was perfect. I'm planning to order The Crochet Dude Designs for Guys from Amazon today. I need a book with men's patterns in it and this looks like a good source. I've joined several groups on Ravelry, now all I need to do is start joining in to the group discussions. I've said a couple of things but nothing big. I'm still learning my way around the site. Well gotta go for now.

It's raining outside

It's positively pouring down rain outside this morning. I made a run to the grocery store at 5:30 to pick up a few things and nearly drowned. Yech! A good day to stay in and crochet. Maybe I can finish the baby sweater. Only on sleeve to go. then I still have two more sweaters to crochet up and then to top that off I have to buy the yarn and crochet two more before christmas. I'm not sure I'm going to make it this year. I should have started earlier. It was much easier when I was crocheting hats and scarves for everyone.

I've joined several groups on Ravelry. Groups for artists, people with tattoos, piercings, mental illness. quite a few actually. It was quite exciting to look thru the groups and pick out the ones I wanted to be in. And I had someone choose to have me as one of her friends, I was honored. It's turning out to be quite a nice web site.

Particularly difficult pattern

I'm having trouble today with a difficult pattern. An arm is giving me trouble. I've crocheted it in at least 5 times and ripped it out as many. It's just not right but I'm trying to watch TV and crochet at the same time so this may have something to do with it. Actually I'm watching reruns of Smallville. Not that I'm a great Superman fan but I've watched just about everything else the library has to offer and I'm not great at multitasking. I guess I'll hash out the sleeve in the morning when I'm fresh and can spend my undevided attention on the project. It's a baby sweater and shouldn't be that hard, I just think I'm not paying enough attention to the directions. Anyway, back to Smallville.

Threads

Today's thoughts are about threads. Or maybe more specifically yarn. I love yarn. I love the look of it the feel of it the smell of it but not the price of it. In my wildest dreams I can afford to go into a yarn shop and buy anything I want. But at 16 dollars a hank it's out of my price range. So I stay with Michael's and buy the off the shelf stuff. I've been thinking about ordering it on line it's not quite as expensive that way. I want it all and I want it now!! I just can't handle delayed gratification very well. I wish I had more money to spend. I wish I could crochet faster. Maybe I can sacrifice food for yarn, I need to lose a few pounds anyway.lol. Anyway just some thoughts for the day. See ya!!

Current crochet projects

Today I thought I would talk about the projects I am currently working on. Since it's nearing the holiday season and I'm short on money everyone gets croched ware. I'm working on a Jackie'O sweater for my little niece, it's in a beautiful shade of blue. Then there's the bolo sweater for my sister-in-law in black. I've made this one before and it's really nice. Then another different bolo with lace for my niece. It's also in black. I still have to come up with something for my brother, and my other niece. I just gave my mother a sweater so I guess we can think of that as an early Holiday gift. I'll try to post these patterns to the website as I get more adept at doing that

Random Art Thoughts

Today I've been thinking about my art. Mostly about what's been blocking me. I haven't produced anything in months. You see my art is about memory, more specifically having the person viewing it experience memories from their past that are triggered by the pieces of artwork. Truth be known I'm running out of space to put the pieces in my apartment. I haven't had a show in several years. I actually need to submit some of my pieces to some shows but just haven't gotten around to it. What I need to do is build a web page but I can't afford the software. So isn't that a conundrum. Ah well something will come of it then. Maybe I'll show some of them here in my blog, it's better than nothing. Well with this I'm feeling inspired so I'm off to stretch a canvas and do a bit of painting. Later!!

The first day of blogging

Today is the first day of a new experience, blogging. I've heard about it, read about it, seen it, but never had the nerve to do it. But today that changed. I became part of an online community called Ravelry, it's a knitting and crocheting community and they have links to blogging addresses so I thought why not! I can ramble on as well as the rest of the population. So this is my first blog entry. TADA!!!