Lotus again

Lotus Blossom Tank

Done! And it fits good and my bra straps don't show. Fantastic! It's nice to finish something that's been hanging over my head for several months.

I'll try to get a better picture sometime.

Lotus Blossom Tank

Here is my best effort at lightly blocking stockinette with a cool iron and pressing cloth. Hmmmmmm. I think this is what the designer means. . . .

Not much left on this project! I put it away for several months because the weather turned cool and I was way more intimidated by short rows than I should have been. It was no problem. Somehow I thought the straps were complicated short rows, but it's actually just a few rows on the back that have short rows, and the straps are very easy decreasing.

Ah Ha!

Thanks for the blog layout tips, Jennifer!

Under construction

Please bear with me. I haven't figured out how to show my progress bars on this new template--worrisome.

This is how such a little dog takes up so much room on my bed. Leave some room for me!










The ballerina marshmallow person.

The Nexus of Cuteness

My friend Marta took this picture of Dodger, Paul, me, and her friend Priya at the dog park this weekend. Priya has excellent taste in shoes, heehee!















Paul and I get hands-on when Dodger and a puppy get noses-on. He was the wiggliest, most hyper, teeniest pug puppy I've ever met! He never stopped moving and jiggled like a bowl full of jelly. And Dodger wanted to dominate him. Thus the supervision. (picture by Marta)

Belated Easter

Craft forecast

I mailed the fruit and veggie napkins to my g-ma (grandmother) today. I'm trying to reign in the craft spending, and I have so many projects laying around, I can entertain myself for weeks if not months to come. Here's some highlights:

Marshmallow creatures--I have not one, not two, but three marshmallow creatures to hot glue together. I completely missed the deadline for the Easter bunny and Easter chick (too busy anticipating my trip to Chicago). The third one is a ballerina marshmallow person. A coworker assigns these to a small group of us at work periodically. We bring them in and she takes pictures and we giggle incessantly. Very fun; I recommend it. It all began with the marshmallow nativity scene, if you remember that.

Lotus Blossom Tank--I am working up to figuring out the straps to this top. I can feel that I'll take up the needles in the near future and finish it! It's definitely my next big knitting thing.

Embroidery--I've got two pillowcases (lilac colored) to stitch sublimely.

Absorba--With coupons, I've been slowly gathering giant spools of dishcloth yarn in order to make the Mason-Dixon bath mat. Only one more to go! I don't have a bath mat, so it would be especially useful for me.

Ripstop dress--Oh Lord, the poor Ripstop Dress has been sadly abandoned on my craft table. I regard its presence every day, but lately haven't carved out a chunk of time to overcome the hard part of the pattern, the keystone front placard. I'm sure the rest of the pattern is easy-peasy.

Puffy-sleeve jacket--I have the fabric, but I won't start it until I finish the Ripstop Dress. So it's totally in limbo.

Sock-monkey purse--This is a fabric purse made with cotton fabric printed with extremely cute sock monkeys. I have all the materials and I've had them for a loooooong time.



Sadly, I have even more materials laying around. My current knitting project is a dishcloth KAL and I've been a stitch short the past few rows. It's a lace pattern, and oddly, I swear it looks totally fine. Maybe I ought to rip it out and start again, though.

Craft purchases I would like to make are Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's new book and Wee Wonderfuls's large-footed bunny pattern and spaceboy and robot patterns. I can finish small sewing projects like toys!

Las Veduras Napkin

The veggies! Is garlic a vegetable?

El tomate y el ajo queremos comer la zanahoria. [The tomato and garlic want to eat the carrot.]

Las Frutas Napkin

I completed this napkin during back-to-back episodes of Law and Order--very fast. I will make a matching veggie-themed one. Hope grandma likes them!

Back from Chicago

Whoooooooweeee! I'm back from wonderful Chicago, where I had a great time. Now I'm exhausted. This photo was taken from the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Paul: That's Lake Michigan. It's named after a state.

Pillowcase 4

Pillowcase 3

Backstitchin'

Pillowcase 3 with "Scooter Babe" design. Mod! British! This is the reverse side of Pillowcase 1 for Abby.

Pillowcase 4 with "Lucha Libre" design. This is the reverse side of Pillowcase 2 for Chad.

Pillowcase 2

My bro-in-law will have sweet rock 'n roll dreams on this here pillercase.