…anybody still there?

Wow, you take a couple days off and before you know it four months have gone by! So, for the dozen people still here…sorry about that.

For some reason, can’t explain why, when the weather gets warmer, the creativity level plummets. The last thing I wanted to do this summer is wrap myself in wool, make something for someone else in wool or touch wool in any way, shape or form. But ever since our first cool rain storm, the Creative Bug has crawled out of his hibernation hole and he’s HUNGRY! The bigger problem that this creates is there is a huge gift list and now I’m left with only three months to get them done!

I will say though, the summer was great. Did a lot of travel, worked on the tan (completely gone now) and enjoyed living. I did get a little older (so this is what forty feels like), got a little wiser, realized Wiser isn’t as much fun as Crazy so locked them in a room together for a while so they could battle it out.

Two things that I feel great about though, even though I went silent for several months, people are still sending wonderful feedback on the Diamonds in the Rough scarf, consistently saying that it’s one of the best masculine crochet scarves they have ever seen. So to ease my guilt, you can now download the pattern for FREE. But you better share pictures of your completed scarves.

The other thing I’m happy about is people are still purchasing the Crochet Propaganda items (no, those are not going to be free now). Thanks everyone.

So, here we go. Getting back on the fiber wagon.

Did you ever get one of those project ideas that just keeps nagging you until you create it and then once you finish it you realize that you probably just made something that will strictly be for your own enjoyment because in all honesty, who but the dedicated attendees of the The Clean Show would even get the humor?

That was me yesterday. It started on Wednesday when my fiber buddy and I went back to Knit ShTICK to see what was going on. While chatting with everyone around the double-wide craft table, the subject of the meaning of laundry care symbols came up (I can’t even begin to tell you why). My brain kicked in and thought (solely to itself), “Hmmm, wouldn’t it be nice to have the garment care symbols on something cool?” My brain failed to tell me how important it thought this idea was, until Saturday when it chose to think of nothing else but.

So, pulling from the Project Care Tags I designed, I went forth and Zazzled my way into Laundry Land.

Somewhere out there, a professional laundry worker is laughing their hanger off.

create & buy custom products at Zazzle

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Crochet tattoos seems to be as popular as crochet itself, but I did manage to find five very cool ones out of the ten. I was pleasantly surprised to see a drop-spindle tattoo. How cool is that?

What no doily tattoos? (And yes…I checked. Nothing.) And why is it when you search for “doily tattoo” on Flickr you get “Tattooed Baby Pig?”

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I love creativity. I scoot on the carpet over out-of-the-box thinking. But some boxes were never meant to be crawled out of for the safety and wellbeing of the universe as we know it.

A crochet breakfast? Sure, it’s cute. I have no problems.

A knitted peacock hat / gas mask combo? Sweetie, drugs are illegal and do bad things to your brain.

How about a hamburger dress? This burger is going straight to my hips!

A cashmere donut necklace anyone? A must-have when attending the Policeman’s Ball.

And finally, the bacon and egg jellyfish. It’s a bacon and egg jellyfish. Need I say more?

It’s always exciting when a new yarn store is born (they’re so cute when they are young). And even more exciting when that new yarn store is in my back yard! This past Saturday was the grand opening of Orange County, California’s fiber haven, KNIT SchTICK.

The doors opened at 11:00am, and by the time I got that at 11:15am it was packed. As you walk in the white marble floors and dark wood furnishings are the perfect backdrop to showcase the wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling displays of yarn. I knew there was going to be no way to take it all in this trip.

The Cascade 220 Superwash seemed to create the most buzz. I couldn’t help but smile as I heard an older woman and her friend approach the Cascade in awe, “Oh, Gladys! Cascade Superwash! You must try this dear. It’s wool that you can wash. Imagine that.” And yes, it was there, in a multitude of colors.

At the moment, the focus is yarn. They don’t seem to be stocked with accessories yet (e.g. hooks, needles, etc.), but given the fact that they only signed their lease twenty-two days ago, I was amply impressed with the amount of stock that they did have. I definitely don’t have to wait for them to get more for me to go back. I think I got off easy this trip. I walked out with (after I paid) only a cake of Filatura Di Crosa Fancy Semana Italian yarn and a bottle of Eucalan no rinse wash. But I’ve had a taste and now there is no telling how many times I’m going to have to go back.

KNIT SchTICK

355 S. Bristol Ave.

Costa Mesa, CA

knitschtick@aol.com (they are very good at replying)

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Um…well…actually, there’s nothing exciting going on right now. I’m sure something exciting WILL happen. But for now I give you aerial views of Castaic Lake and Yosemite Valley that I took from the plane during my trip to Portland.

Mmmm…pretty.

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Have you ever wondered how to have an avatar show up when you comment on people’s blogs? Or, more directly, “How can I have a cool little picture show up that identifies me when I comment on Double Treble?” The answer is pretty simple.

Create a globally-recognized avatar with Gravatar (that’s what I did). When you create a free account with Gravatar, you are also creating an identity that goes with you to all the sites you comment on. Once you create your identity, it will be associated with your email address. When you add that email address to your comments, your personal avatar will show up. And not just on my site, but any Gravatar enabled site (I know I’m not the only site you visit. I’m okay with that. My therapy is covered by insurance.).

So, bring some color and life to your comments by adding your own unique visual identity.

We all get ideas for making original and unique things. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. And sometimes, we just aren’t sure.

Such is the case of my Spring Awakening scarf (working name). The idea was to make a semi three-dimensional scarf that had flower plants that wrapped followed the length of the scarf (from the bulb below ground to the flower on top). Two of the stems are stitched on top the scarf to create a raised stem. It was designed with four colors and acrylic yarn (Vanna’s Choice) to keep the cost down.

Once it was completed, I sat back and asked myself, “Who would wear this?” Maybe everyone. Maybe no one. I just don’t know.

So it’s up to you now. Do I tie a rock to it and sink it in the deepest lake? Do I put the pattern to paper and make it available for everyone? Or, is it close to good but I need to cut away the not-so-good parts and rework the pattern?

Take a look at the pictures below and make your choice in the poll. Your choice to help…or save the world of fashion as we know it.

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One of the absolute highlights of my trip to Portland, OR for the Knit & Crochet Show was swinging by a little tucked-away shop called Yarnia. I had first learned of Yarnia when a certain crochet dude (aka The Crochet Dude) told me that it was a must-see while I was there.

The basic concept…ok, the ONLY concept of Yarnia is that you are able to pick fibers of your choice and then have them brought together to create your own custom yarn.

When you walk in you feel like you are in a fiber wonderland. Even though it’s a small space, you are overwhelmed by the choices. Cotton, hemp, wool, silk, acrylic…it just keeps going. I felt like a kid in a candy shop.

I knew the only way I was going to get through this was to enlist the help of the store owner. Having guided many an over-excited hand, she was more than happy to explain the layout of the fibers, hints and suggestions for getting exactly what I wanted. No I just needed to figure out exactly what I wanted.

After, what seemed like days, of matching, re-matching, miss-matching, over-matching and de-matching, the choice was finally made, which should result in a one-of-a-kind, double knit weight yarn that was destined to be something as yet unknown.

Then the fun begins. Your choices are threaded into this little beast of a machine (we were so trying to come up with a nickname for it based on Narnia, but failed miserably when we realized we couldn’t remember any of the characters from the movie).

With a flip of a switch, the little beast goes into action and you stand mesmerized as your choices become your creation.

If you ever find yourself in Portland (and who wouldn’t want to find themselves in Portland), hop across the river and spend a cappuccino or two over at Yarna (bring your own cappuccino…but you’ll thank me, the store begs to have you sit in the rocking chair, sipping a cappuccino while your yarn is made). If you can’t make it to Portland, at least grab a cup of coffee and go to their online store.

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So there is a new iPhone app available for the crocheter or knitter called Ewe Stash (Treeness, LLC). First reaction, “Wee! A new app for crocheters and knitters. Have to have it!” Second reaction after seeing the $2.99 price, “Why do I need this?”

The goal of Ewe Stash is to give you the ability to easily manage your stash of yarn, needles and hooks from the comfort of your iPhone. In theory, this is a great idea. You’re cruising for patterns at a store and want to see what yarn you have that might work. In practice, I’m not so sure. Knowing how we crafters work, if we are in a yarn store looking at patterns, most likely we are going to buy the yarn that’s right in front of us. You can never, NEVER have too much yarn.

The other downer is populating the database with your stash, needles and hooks. If are hip enough to have an iPhone, my guess is that you are hip enough to be on Ravelry and have already populated your personal stash/needle/hook database there. The idea of doing it a second time…no thank you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in a store and popped on the Ravelry site from my iPhone to look up patterns and stash information. Works for me.

Ewe Stash does allow you to have pictures for each of your stashed items, even your needles and hooks (Ravelry does not let you have pictures of your awesome wooden hooks), BUT you can’t enlarge them to see a closer view. You are stuck with the 3/8”x3/8” thumbnail picture. No thank you.

The final feature of Ewe Stash is “By linking Contacts, you can make sure that your stash never runs low.” Again, in theory this is a great idea. But what it means is that you have to add all of your favorite yarn stores to you iPhone Contacts. If you are proned to calling your yarn dealer in desperation (“Dude, I need some DK weight virgin wool in eggplant real bad.”) then this is a feature for you. Personally, I would rather yarn store contact information was stored in the app itself and not in my personal contacts.

Would I buy it if I didn’t need to use the app for writing a review? No.

What would make it worth the $2.99 price?

Enable zooming of stash pictures.

Yarn store contact information housed in app, not in Contacts.

Have a Wish List option. I would like to go to a yarn store, take a picture and store information on yarn I would like to have in the future.

Option to sort by color, not just weight, fiber and name.

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