Update of my summer

Well, I've not been too creative over the summer.   I have made several doilies, but have not blocked them.  I frogged the Patricia Kristofferson pieces I did.  I decided that I don't like her work.  To me, and this is my opinion, she creates these convoluted patterns for convulation's sake.   I'm sticking to mostly pineapple doilies and found a few Japanese pieces on-line that are great.  Also, I found some knitted doilies that I'd like to work up.  They uses 00 and 000 needles, and you need both dp and circular, so I have to stock-up.

I am just about to wrap-up a knitted motif afghan, called FALLING LEAVES. The pattern has popped up for several years and I decided its the appropriate design for some Peaches n' Creme cotton yarn that I purchased years ago on clearance at Michael's.  It hit me that the solids and variegated are all fall colors, 'cept the natural color skeins.  I'm dyeing the natural color into golds, browns and scarlets.  Now its just a matter of joining the over 300 motifs together in a random, yet pleasing-to-my-eyes, pattern.  Look for a photo here when its finished.  ( Another pledge that I won't make another motif piece, but of course I will)

I'm waiting for the Las Vegas weather to stop being in the 100 degree bracket to work on my denim quilt.  And of course, I've got a few patterns in my head that I'm gonna crochet or knit.  

Is it Spring Fever ?

Well, the past few weeks have been a period of no productivity - craft-wise -for me.  I finished a few doilies a few weeks ago, and finally got around to buying some rust-proof pins to block them, but haven't felt like working on getting them blocked.  So, they are sitting on a pile of aghans waiting for me.  I found a few great sites for some vintage thread patterns, and some really inspired me ... to save them.  I even found some great deals on-line for crochet cotton that accept PayPal (this way I don't have to spend any money, just use the money I've made from Ebay auctions).   So, everyday, I look on-line at patterns and forums, or through my library of saved patterns, but nothing is compelling me to pick up a hook and get to work.  We'll see how long this attitude continues. When I do get around to creating something, of course I'll post it here. 

  I've been spending some time indexing (data entry'ing) for a few genealogy sites (another of my hobbies is researching my family tree). Census records, birth records, Parish record, tax records.  I really like doing this. 
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Doily Doily Doily

I've been on a doily kick for the past few weeks.  I've made a few Patricia Kristofferson and a few others.  I've not blocked them yet, because I don't have any rustproof pins, and not a chance to head to Joann's.  As soon as I get them blocked, I'll post a few pix.

Cancelled Crafster.com account

I just sent an email to the Moderator's of Craftster.com.  I cancelled my account.

Yesterday I submitted a very limited post on the sub-category for crochet works.  To paraphrase, it said "look at my blog to see my latest work.Tell me what you think."  I chose to post this way due to the multi-step process that a user has to follow to post a photo on this forum.  Well, with in a few minutes, I got an email from a moderator saying that my post was being put on HOLD, saying that I 'appeared' that I was trying to increase the traffic to my blog. My post would remain on HOLD until I addressed this issue.  So, today, I re-posted in the same sub-category, using two photos (the same as posted here) and a very cursory paragraph relating to my Catherine Wheel Variation and a link to my blog (which was the same link that is part of my signature that is at the bottom of every post I submit to Craftster).   Again, with in a few minutes I rec'd another message from a moderator telling me that I should only post a link that directly links to the referenced work. 

After looking at the post, I noticed that a moderator had edited my post, editing the link so that it would go directly to my Catherine Wheel variation afghan.

I then noticed that the latest (at the time) comment  had four links in the user's signature.  The four links were to the user's patterns site, the user's Etsy account, the user's Revelry account, and a link to the user's web page.  Two of these link are sites that the user SELL their work

I felt that this was hypocritical of the forum to allow these types of links and yet be so concerned that my link, to my blog, was seen as an attempt to get traffic to my blog.  I feel that there are too many alternatives on the internet to have to deal with this.  So, most of my comments will be on Crochetville.com and here on my blog.

Catherine Wheel and Spokes

I first saw the Catherine Wheel pattern on mikeyssmail site on YouTube a few years ago.  This guy has some great instructional videos posted, even if some of the crochet terms he uses drives me nuts !  Mikey has instructional videos posted for two variations of the Catherine Wheel: the first is made of double crochets, and the second is made of treble crochets (Mikey calls this a Jumbo Catherine Wheel).

My version is the Jumbo Catherine Wheel, but I usually put a twist on almost every pattern I make. This version has two variations.  Only 1/3 of the rows follow the pattern.  The other 2/3 of the rows are "airy" versions, what I call "spokes".  I was concerned that the finished piece would be very dense, so the 'airy' wheels were created to combat that.

The other variation is that each row takes a 90 degree turn about half way through.  I came up with the turns to break up the monotony of row after row after row of the wheels.  With this technique the variations are literally endless.

I used four colors of Red Heart Super Saver that I frogged from afghans I made a few years ago.  I used a G/6 aluminum needle.  The finished piece is about 4' x 6', but I'm considering putting a border of single crochets to "frame" it.