Free Form Spiral Doll Blanket

I enjoyed working on this last night. It worked up fairly quickly to. I'm using Red Heart yarn and an H hook. When I make another one I will likely try a larger hook to see if the blanket will have more drape that way.



I'm making this for my dd as a doll blanket. I'm having fun exploring the possibilities of free form crochet. In the future I want to make some baby blankets for real babies. I like the idea of making something on the funky fun side in bold and bright colors. I even like the pastels my daughter picked out for this one. (I'm not a a pastel colors person. I love bold colors even on babies)






Overall I'm liking the look. Especially how things are adding on to the outside but if you look at the last photo the project really doesn't lay flat and it's bugging me.



You can see that I added too many increases. I may frog back to the beginning and do less increases unless I get some suggestions on how I can salvage it.

Cemeteries in Europe

I found cemeteries in Europe fascinating. In Denmark they were more like mini-gardens. I liked to stroll through them when wandering the streets in Copenhagen.




This burial plot was in a cemetery very near where I lived. Some of my classmates that lived in my Kolegium (Danish Dorms) had a picnic lunch in the lawn area just behind this grave site. Many of the gravestones had little bird figurines that looked like sparrows. I asked a few of my Danish friends but they didn't know what I was talking about. The sparrow figurines seemed common so there has to be some reason or significance to them but I still don't know what it is.



Here's kind of a bird's eye view of a cemetery in Jutland, Denmark. You can see all the mini-gardens.





At the Jewish Cemetery in Prague you would find little notes placed under stones. My guess they are well wishes/ notes to honor the dead.




The Jews in Prague were limited in where they could live so their cemetery was very crowded I found the stones so close disturbing and touching.







A Cemetery in Italy next to the Santa Croce Church. As I have been googling facts to remind myself about the places I visited Europe. I found that there are a famous artists buried here that we never found or I forgot to take pictures.


A visit to Pere-Lachaise a visit to pay my respects to Jim Morrison:

Soft Purple Baby Blanket

Last night I finished a baby blanket I was making for my dd but is now for one of my dh's co-workers who just had a little baby girl. I hope they like it.

Here's a picture of it and a close up of the stitch I used:





I love the softness of Caron Simply Soft yarn and the fun texture such a simple stitch gave the blanket.

I have had some requests for the pattern for this blanket. So, I worked out a written and symbol pattern so you can make the blanket any size you want.

Materials:
H hook (or hook best suited to yarn you are using)
Needle to weave in ends
I used ww Caron Simply Soft but any weight yarn should do. You will likely need to increase or decrease the foundation chain to make a blanket the size you want.

I needed (I think because I did not keep close track) 2-7oz skeins of each color to make my blanket. I made a xtra large baby blanket.

You can make it all one color or more than one color. I changed colors every 8 rows.

stiches used: dc, frdc
changing colors

Foundation Row: chain any odd number

First Row:
dc in the 3rd chain from the hook; dc to the end (should end with and even number of stitches.)

NOTE: this is different than your usual for dc (usually with dc you go in to the 4rth chain from the hook, just pointing this out because it's not an error.) Your turning chain will be ch2 instead of ch3.

Second Row:
Ch2. Turn. *fpdc , dc across* repeat *to* ending with a fpdc around the last stitch.

Repeat the Second Row as many times as necessary so the baby blanket is the lenght you want.

Another note:
I wrote the wrong shorthand or another form of the shorthand
rfdc =fpdc

All We Are Saying.....

Is Give a Peace a Chance!















Some wall art I found on a walk in Prague.





Another Mural somewhere in Denmark (I think)




This one is I took in Berlin. Kein Briss means no outline which is what the mural seems to describe.

Catching a Rainbow in Europe

As I slowly add all the photos (it takes about 15-20min for each set of four!), I question all the record keeping I do. Where is the balance of recording what you do to the point that you are too much the observer and not enough of a participant? It's hard to seek the balance.

When my daughter Jade was born I bordered on the observer too much. Then I swung the other way and I didn't take any pictures for a while and I regret it now. As I go through the photos of my travels I find it difficult to remember everything. I didn't keep a good written journal of things I did and places I went. Pictures are worth a thousand words but only if you have a good story to go with them. Thankfully, I do have a few stories to share. Yet they often don't have a picture to go with them. Go Figure!

I'm also a different person now so some of the photos have less of a meaning to me now than they did then. I was studying Landscape Architecture at the time so I took lot of photo's of path details and fountain thinking I would use them for inspiration in the future. Some were places I went to take my own pictures because I had already seen them in my classes. Now those same photos although beautiful seem superfluous.

I wonder when I get the chance to go back will I take as many pictures? Well, likely because when I go back I want to share the journey with my kids. Hopefully I will find the right balance of participant and observer.




My girlfriend and I were walking back from visiting a Villa in Florence (I think this is in Florence) and we were struck by the broken glass on the top of this ornate garage door.

Below are just three of the 20 or more pictures I took while visiting Villa D'este, the garden of 1,00o fountains, in Rome.








Just pure luck but the sun came out as were at Villa D'este and I caught this rainbow dancing in one of the main fountains.



A sketch of the same fountain.



This fountain was not working while we were there. I was a bit disappointed I wanted to see it.


Hopefully this is readable. What happened after visiting Villa D'este.

Blast from the Past - My life in Europe

We bought a scanner.

So I am loading up the slides of my travels in Europe and the four months I lived in Copenhagen, Denmark. So far the pictures I have uploaded are kind of random. Just for fun I plan on sharing some of them here. So keep checking back. I plan on adding pics here and there and maybe a few scans of my journals too.

I might as well because it's taking a LONG time digitize all my slides. I have about 800 of them ;P



Pigeons on a Bridge at the Copenhagen Botanical Gardens. I was fascinated with the Pigeons that I saw everywhere.


Brandenberg Gate in Berlin


Where The Wall WAS. I was really excited to where it was although the wall was torn down the year before I got there.


A Zebra from the Berlin Zoo.

More to come soon.

Tagged - I'm it - Four Things

4 jobs I have in my life....

1. Life Guard
2. Swim Lesson Instructor
3. Waiter
4. Garden Maintenance

4 movies I could watch over and over again:

Movies, I love movies when I watch them but I often can't recall much of them or I go blank with the question. Listed below are movies I have watched over and over again but I'd say I am at my limit with them:

1.Shrek
2.Madagascar
3.50 First Dates
4.Totoro

4 places I have been on vacation:

1. Prairie Creek Redwoods in California - Camping
2. Oregon Coast camping with Friends and the kids
3. Sea Island Georgia - luxurious resort with my dad, stepmom, sister, and brother when I was 9 or 10 years old.
4. Paris, Berlin and Prague

4 Websites I visit Daily:

lately it has been:

1. Crochetville a forum for crocheters around the world
2. When I am reading blogs more regularly I often check to see if my friends Tracy or Tracie have something say
3. I'm on a few flickr photo groups and I look through those almost everyday to see new pics.
4. Google - I am forever looking for things new and different

4 of the my favorite foods:

1. Cheese(s) - brie cheese, sharp white cheddar, havarti, provolone, mozzarella...
2. Quiche from Wheatfield's in Lawrence, KS
3. steamed broccoli with pesto and noodles
4. Vegetarian Ling , Ling Pot Stickers
And one more for
5. Rudy's whole wheat thin crust pizza with pepperoni and Italian sausage

4 places I'd rather bee right now:

1. Sometimes I wish we could still be living on the West Coast
2. Longing to get off the computer make my coffee and crochet
3. I wouldn't mind some kind of vacation some where fun as a family
4. Some time this spring or summer I will look forward to a weekend for myself bu home alone. I like where I am.


4 Cars I have owned:

1. Mazda GLC - I drove it for my 3-4 years in college then it died
2. Honda Civic 2 door hatch back. It was my first car with a clutch. We drove that car to when we moved from Kansas to California AND then from Cali to Washington State. That Honda died in Washington.
3. Toyota Corolla - It's pretty old but still going strong.
4 - There is no fourth car.

4 bloggers I will be tagging?

Who will I tag? Tracy tagged me and Tracie who are the only good friends I know with a blog. It's not fair!

So for now I won't

Welcome to Fiber Star

This post was my first post from my former blog which all posts (hopefully) have been moved here.

Fiber Star (because secretly I want to be famous), is my place to share my wisdom and inspiration in my fiber arts journey. My current passion is crocheting.

I'm also learning to knit and dabble in felting, tie dyeing, and low-water immersion dyeing. Currently, I'm dreaming about teaching crocheting and dyeing, selling some of my designs and things I make, and writing articles about crocheting and other fiber arts.

I usually have several crocheting projects going at once. You can see some of my finished work and works in progress if you click on my flickr button on the side bar.

My project list just seems to get longer and longer:

FreeForm Crochet

Amigurumi, crocheted stuffed animals. I have made a few cats which I will share in a future post with a pattern too.

Make myself a poncho.

A baby blanket for my dd's baby doll(s)

A crochet stitch sampler

Make the colorwaves sweater (I already have the yarn.)

My ds wants me to make him a red sweater.

I want to improve my Spiral Baby Cardigan design.

I also want to make some hats and maybe a poncho for a young girl I found out has leukemia.

Crocheted slippers

A crocheted skirt

make the easy going hoodie and make the make an hemp necklace just below.

low-water immersion dye some fabric and clothing that's looking lonely and neglected from Dharma Trading Co.

Tie Dye some socks

Dye some yarn

And more.....

Meet Lila

Lila is a Baby Critter I made from How to Crochet Adorable Amigurumi by Carolyn Christmas Savage. I will need to alter the body pattern by adding extra stitches and use a smaller hook because the multi-colored yarn was much thinner than the blue.

Life...Lots of Learning

Life...Lots of Learning

I'm feeling a bit guilty that my last blog post was so long ago but I have been busy with my new love, crocheting. I've made myself a crocheted jacket and I just finished a sweater for friend's baby. I will post some pictures soon to my flicker account. Now, I am making some Celtic Cross squares to make a poncho for myself. Jade wants me to make sweaters for her dolls and baby blankets too.

I have also been doing lots of reading mostly slogging through Peaceful Parenting for a Peaceful World by Robin Grille. If you want an easy this is not it. Some parts are very difficult to read and quite disturbing. Yet it is filled with some amazing information and lots of research and out right support for breastfeeding, co-sleeping, baby- wearing and working with your kids rather than using punitive discipline. So if you like detail this is it.

If you want and easier read try Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves by Naomi Aldort. I AM really enjoying her book. It has me reconnecting with my goal to be on my children's side, TRUST them, and know that their emotions are not them, that validating what they are feeling helps them not to learn to be better people but it helps them know who THEY ARE. Listening to my kids can be very hard for me sometimes because it physically hurts me when they hurt emotionally and I can tend toward wanting to fix it so the hurting stops for me. Aldort reminds me to separate my hurt from theirs and let them be.

Jade and I are reading together Just Ella a different take on the Cinderella story which has me thinking of the song by Suzy Boggus "Hey, Hey Cinderella what's the story all about? ....Does the shoe fit you now?" Jade has also been listening to Ella Enchanted another Cinderella story over and over again. Ella, in Ella Enchanted, has a curse that she has to do whatever anyone commands her to do, a curse of obedience. I wonder what Jade sees in this book. We are not raising our children with obedience.

Today, Jade and Corbin were talking about if we had more gravity on this planet they would weigh more. Which had me doing a little snoopy dance in my mind and wondering where the heck did they learn that?

Jade is in the kitchen right now making quesadillas herself and her brother. As she went in to the kitchen to make them she said, "I’ll make them, Corbin, you don't even have to lift a finger." Then Corbin preceded to life his finger in the living room while I was working on a pair of nun chucks Corbin asked me to help him make.

Corbin has been doing a lot with legos lately too. He likes to combine bionicle pieces with other lego sets. He also likes to take a part lego people and put them back together.

Now its' time help Jade Bake a cake and tonight I look forward to seeing the moms in my homeschool group, chat, and eat some good food.