Charity square edging

Away this weekend with family and friends staying in rustic cabins on the edge of the Big Thicket National Reserve. Found a little time to work on my current charity lapghan project. I am edging lapghan #8 in black and pale turquose before joining with a slip stitch in the latter. We have almost reached our goal of ten lapghans after just four Yak and Yarn meetings. Yay! Fortunately I am not the sole joiner of squares in our group so the pressure is off and I'm working at a leisurely pace. I have heard that joint square making projects often founder and stall when joining is left to one person!

Crochet at Pop Shop Houston

Escaped from the family for a fleeting visit to Pop Shop Houston at Silver Street Studios on June 13th. Obviously I was scoping out crochet for sale!

Mostly excited about meeting Jess aka @cultgrrrl http://www.cultgrrrl.com  She designs amazingly edgy pieces and I couldn't resist this day of the dead skull.  She told me her grandmother taught her to crochet and complained that her tension was too tight but then Jess found her calling with amigurumi - fantastic!

Another exhibitor http://www.shopwithasha.com had cute crochet key chain characters and this awesome change purse. Of course he will hold my stitch markers! Mia told me she made the easier creations and her friend the more tricky ones (my purse is one of those!)

I also spotted a huge display of crochet mounted taxidermy critters by http://www.nothingbutapigeon.com but the stand was unmanned so walked on by....next time! There is another Pop Shop scheduled for November. 

Floral headband for teen

I don't usually make things on request (non-crafters assume we whip up yarn projects in minutes, if only!) but this particular sweet teen spotted this on my Pinterest board and her mom is a very close friend who offered to pay me for it (naturally I will make it gratis!). The pattern is from www.redheart.com entitled Elegant Floral Headband. Of course I dug into my stash and didn't have the thread that was called for so using a thicker yarn had to reduce the number of chains, size of leaves and substitute a 2 single crochet cluster for a 3 double crochet cluster for the flowers to keep the scale similar. My ten year old approves and has predictably requested one too!

School holidays begin

I have been neglecting the blog because we had a very busy last week at school, the kids are now off for the long long summer holiday and my husband's sister has been visiting from England. I did however teach our visitor to knit (I'd got her started a few years back so she opted to refresh those skills rather than try crochet). I bought her a pair of size 7 bamboo straight needles (easier for beginners than circular) and flecked moss green yarn from the sale bins on my workshop day at the yarn store so she could go home with a scarf just begun.  Here is her practice piece.

Craftivism: Message in a bottle

I'm a huge fan of craftivism (craft + activism = craftivism) after reading Betsy Greer's book "Craftivism: the art of craft and activism".
 http://craftivism.com/books/craftivism-the-art-of-craft-and-activism/

Betsy Greer defines craftivism as “a way of looking at life where voicing opinions through creativity makes your voice stronger, your compassion deeper & your quest for justice more infinite.”

Here's a review of the book from the very marvelous blogger Kathryn Vercillo: http://www.crochetconcupiscence.com/2014/06/important-craft-book-craftivism-by-betsy-greer/
I do recommend reading it!

Anyway I have been spreading the word of craftivism ever since and here is an example I found just this week on my daily amble around the neighborhood with the dog and kids. Other dog walkers told us a group of teenagers had assembled it.