Thursday, December 23, 2010

My place of work likes to claim that 30% of our salary is in benefits. I don't quite agree since most of those benefits are not something I have any reason to use. But I do like that we get 2 days off at Christmas and 2 days off for the New year. It just happens that this year, we get the 2 days BEFORE Christmas since it falls on Saturday so that means I'm off today. I'm also taking vacation for the 3 days in between holidays so I will be off 11 days in a row! Anyway, I was stressed earlier in the week as I learned that the appraisers needed to come out and take more photos. (I'm taking advantage of lower interest rates) That meant more last minute intense cleaning when I could have been finishing up my Christmas purchases and I didn't understand why they needed photos they had already taken. Well...just before leaving yesterday, I emailed to try to pin them down to a time and that's when I got the good news that they had everything they needed and wouldn't be coming out. Yay!


That means I slept in this morning and have been more or less relaxing all morning. I did put towels away and fed the cats but that's it. It's not noon yet. I'll move into gear after noon. Really, I will.

I decided last night to try a photo and see if the hooded cowl will look the way I think it will. Once it's washed and blocked, the edge won't curl but it fits around the face the way I thought it would. I'm a little over halfway now.

Last night I also crocheted a little Irish Rose. I'd been surfing recently and found myself inspired by Lily's Ms. Crochet. There was one flower in particular that I want to learn to do but .... wouldn't you know it....the Antique Pattern Library is in the process of moving to http://www.newmediaarts.org and isn't functional yet. I have several printouts already on Irish Crochet and even have a book somewhere that I'm not willing to hunt for this close to the holiday. So I guess it will wait until next week but in the meantime, I needed a little IC fix.

The scanner tends to flatten the motif and part of the charm of Irish Crochet is it's 3D character. So I tried photographing with the macro lens and it works okay but seems dark so I tried shining a flashlight and got this quirky kind of photo.

It's NOT NOON YET! I'm having fun. I intend to continue having fun. (smile)

You know how tatters like to bling their tatting shuttles, scissors, picot gauges, and just about every tool they own?

Twinkie Chan blings her crochet hooks! You can find the tutorial on A Beautiful Mess!

The size 14-16 crochet hooks I use in tatting are probably too skinny to take on bling but...hmmmmm...if I had one of those plastic "ergonomic" softies on the shaft, that could work! Not that I have any of those softies, but it's an idea!

Okay,okay....I'll go wrap some gifties!


9 comments:

  1. Wonderful cowl! Brilliant!
    Fox : )

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  2. Great the echarpe cap gina she is well to you

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  3. Carry on with the relaxing - you SO deserve it. Me? I've been happily plodding around in snow most of the day and now have achy, achy legs!!!!
    The hooded cowl looks fabulous. SOOO pleased thos guys didn't come to take more photos - the plonkers!!! Right, I'm off to eat!!!

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  4. Your cowl looks wonderful! I love the Irish crochet rose... one of my favorite items to crochet! Blinging hooks... oh, dear! I think I will close my eyes and not think about how beautiful they look... maybe I should take one little peek at the instructions...

    Merry Christmas!

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  5. The cowl is coming out good Gina. I want it...LOL
    Oh the Irish rose. I wonder when I will ever finish my doily with the irish roses.

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  6. Oops...comment from Kathy N that I thought I was deleting from my mailbox AFTER I'd approved it. Fortunately I got to copy it before it went away forever!
    "I'm so happy that you have some time off; but I'm almost afraid to see how much MORE you will accomplish!

    I do LOVE the Irish rose. What a pretty color! And the cowl is coming along beautifully. It would seem that you have to to really concentrate while knitting that pattern.

    Thanks for the info on the Antique Pattern Library.I didn't even know they were 'moving.'"
    ********
    I didn't know either. I went to the site and it didn't show up right so I went to the yahoo group, actually to look for posts on Irish Crochet, but the conversation going on was about it moving. So now you all know!@

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  7. Enjoy the time off.

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  8. The cowl looks good and very warm, I did one myself a year ago and have enjoyed it a couple of times in the bad snow we are having here.
    The rose is very pretty. You are so talented in many crafts.
    Merry Christmas and enjoy the days off.

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  9. Love your cowl....such pretty colours! Happy Holidays!

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