I hate chiggers!

I really hate the little boogers. I don't know if you have these little critters where you come from, but here in Missouri, we have plenty! I'll ship you some if you want to try them out. You will receive an official certificate of insanity along with a box full of freshly mown grass, guaranteed to have chiggers in it. For the curious who still have some grasp on their sanity, this Wikipedia article explains a little more about the critters.

What this article doesn't tell you is exactly where the little boogers like to bite. They tend to go for areas with the most warmth, which in turn tends to be near the unmentionables. While I myself do not have any chigger bites in the areas in question, they are near enough to convince me to suffer in silence without scratching, at least in public. I don't feel like explaining exactly what I'm doing to the stranger next to me in line at Wal-Mart. Hydrocortisone is my friend right now!

For those of you who have left me comments on my previous posts, thank (both of) you! I did see them, I'm just not yet adept at figuring out how to reply to them.

I finished my pattern for Night's Candles this week and got it uploaded to Ravelry and to my Etsy store. Now that I've got it published, here are some pictures!





With most of my designs, familiarity breeds contempt. I usually like the combinations my testers come up with better than my own. While the ones I've seen in the testing phases are lovely, I'm actually pretty proud of this one!

I'm working on Miss Austen right now. Hopefully she'll cooperate with me. I'm making her in mohair and I really shouldn't work on her when I'm sleep deprived. I've already had to frog rounds 2-3 times. Blech. I haven't decided whether to self publish her or to submit her somewhere. Hmmm....

I've also come up with an idea for another shawl, based on this painting and the poem that goes with it, particularly the following excerpt.

There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.



OK, OK, so it's not weaving, it's crocheting, but I really want to make one in this colorway.
It reminds me of the colors in the blanket.

Granted, the poem itself is rather depressing. I was so totally in love with it in high school. I also had a thing for Edgar Allen Poe. I think I must have been emo before they called it emo. Oh well.

Look at me, rambling on. I guess I'm making up for lost time. :D

Brainstorming

The Flower Trellis Shawl is finally done. I'm taking pictures to put into my pattern to help explain the stitch better. Although I've taken notes on the edging, I have yet to write up the pattern for it. Anyway, here is the FO.



I've come up with more patterns! *Looks skyward* Thank You, Lord! Ok, ok, so they're not patterns yet, but I do have the ideas...

Three Circular shawls: Night's Candles, Pleiades, and Dryad.

One triangular shawl that I don't have a name for yet. And a few more ideas for others that haven't really taken shape yet. I'm so excited! I think I'd crochet 'til my arm falls off if I could (but then I'd have to learn to knit with my toes, and I'd stink up all my good yarn).

Anyway, I'm really excited. I don't know if this whole selling patterns on Ravelry and Etsy thing is going to work, but I'm really hoping it will, at least to some extent. Maybe I'll make enough to pay for my yarn...

I was going to blog today, but...

I have too much to do! We have a revival at our church all this week. We're going, of course.

My Flower Trellis Shawl is coming right along. I only have 80 or so more flowers to go. I've also gotten a few more ideas for other shawls. Ok, only one really. Two are knitted and I have no idea how to write or chart them. One will be based on the hymn My Father's World, and the other will be based on a compass rose. Theoretically, anyway. The other is a crocheted shawl, and I've never seen anything like it.

The yahoos are screeching, so I have to detatch myself from the computer. More pictures...er...later. Ish.

Stash Cash!

Hey, there's a new site called Revolution Money Exchange. It's like PayPal, but they don't charge fees for selling...which is great if you want to sell off some of your stash. Also, if you sign up before May 15th, they give you $25.00 free! I've already got mine and am eyeing even more wooly goodness! Click the button below if you're interested.

Wow!

I haven't been on here in forever! Quite a lot has changed since I last posted. I started homeschooling my oldest daughter, who is doing absolutely awesome!

I'm teaching myself to knit. I have some cash/silk from Colourmart that is begging me to work with it, but since I have 3 shawls, a baby blanket, and a curtain to knit/crochet, it's going to be a while.

*Sigh* Ah, well. Life goes on.

Maybe sometime soon I'll get batteries for my camera and actually load some pictures of the yummy yarns I've procured, but for now, it ain't hap'nin'.

In the beginning....

I learned to crochet when I was 11 years old. My grandma Marie helped me make the world's ugliest purse out of cream colored acrylic yarn. It was pretty much a big square with all kinds of mistakes in it. I got bored with it pretty quickly.

About 7 or 8 years later, I decided to pick up a hook again. I made a 4'x6' afghan for my Grandma Pat. While decidedly better than the purse, it still is far from being a masterpiece. I worked as a telemarketer for a while (you can put up your crucifix and garlic, I'm not doing that anymore) and while we were waiting for our headsets to beep in our ears, indicating that someone had picked up the phone and progressed from, "Hello?" to "If anybody is on the #!#%#@% line, you had $#!$ better talk now or I'm going to !#%!^@^! hang up!!!!", there wasn't a lot to do. So, I crocheted. Then, once again, I got busy being young and stupid, and didn't touch a hook for years.

Now, I'm a full time stay at home mom of 4. I crochet primarily for stress relief these days, and lately I've been a very prolific crocheter! It's one of those "You don't have to be crazy to do this job, but it helps!" things. I plan to post some pictures of finished projects soon. I'm just lazy about putting the pictures online. I've made 3 seraphina shawls (and am on my 4th), 4 of my funky monkey skinny scarves, 1 adult version of the pumamouse sleuthing shawl, and about 4 kids' versions of it, a poncho for the daughter of a friend of mine, and about 6 or 7 dishcloths. I also have a delicate web wrap in the works. It's made of cream colored silk chenille that produces shudders of delight in all who touch it. I've got a scarf in the making of this funky thick/thin rayon chunky yarn, and I've already made a wrap out of it for my sister Rebekah. I also made a baby blanket for my cousin Amanda. Yeesh! I've made more than I thought I did. All this has taken place in just the past few months.

Speaking of prolific crocheting, I think I've injured myself. I never thought of crochet as a sport, but I definitely have a sports-type injury! My wrist hurts when I crochet and it hurts all the way up my arm. I think I'd better take a break for a day or two.

Getting Started

Hi! My name is Jen and I'm just getting started on here. I've started this mainly to post finished crochet projects, but this may wind up being a little bit of everything by the time I'm done. Who knows?