Acting on a hot tip from a Ravelry forum, I checked out the Dollar Tree in Oxnard last week. I found a bunch of Patons yarns, although they were of the furry, fuzzy, and sparkly variety (which is now out of fashion, hence the dumping at Dollar Tree). But, when you do freeform knit and crochet, those novelty yarns come in handy here and there. So, I bought these seven skeins, and I'm already using the purple one on the lower left for a project with a looming deadline. Wish I would have found the pinks before I made and shipped off my scrumbles for The Pink Project; guess there will be more pink items in my future.

On Friday after work, I thought I'd cruise over to the Dollar Tree in Santa Paula to see what kind of offerings they had. They only had a few skeins of Lion Brand fur yarn (no thanks), but they did have tons of nice beaded trims on cards (36" lengths) and lots of cool carded buttons. Here is what I brought home. I think I may be able to use the purple beaded trim on the previously mentioned project.

So if you are a crafter, you might want to check out any Dollar Tree stores in your area. You never know what you might find there! (All this for just $20.00!)

This is the 36" x 36" panel I created for the International Fiber Collaborative's Gas Station Project. I was originally going to crochet a panel, but then I liked this idea better. I wanted a real graffiti style, not a perfectly lettered style. I really like the money print fabric, and I backed it with an American flag print. I signed it on the back with my name, location, and date. It's a banner, and not a quilt, since it doesn't have any batting inside and it's two layers.

About 800 panels have been collected to cover an abandoned gas station and pumps in Syracuse, New York. This is from the web site:

The goal of the International Fiber Collaborative is to provide an opportunity for people who enjoy working with fiber arts, whether professional artists, hobbyists or students, to come together from all over the world to express their concern about the worlds extreme dependency on oil. This year’s project is called the World Reclamation Art Project (W.R.A.P.). Participants have crocheted, knitted, stitched, patched, or collaged 3 foot square fiber panels that expresses each participants concern about this topic. Simply by designing and creating these panels and participating in this project they are, in the larger picture, expressing their concern about this important subject to the rest of the world.

Pink is definitely NOT my favorite color. It ranks just slightly above neons and those gawd-awful 1970s shades of harvest gold, avocado green, and rust-belt rust.

However, when I found out that my friend in freeforming, Prudence Mapstone, was spearheading something called The Pink Project to benefit breast cancer research, I said "I'm in!"

Prudence is collecting scrumbles (what we call the little bits and pieces of freeform crochet and knitting) from fiber artists worldwide once again for a massive project. Amazingly, for someone who is not fond of pink, I had some pink yarn in my stash. I did buy the dark pink for these scrumbles so I would have a little more contrast. It's fun to play and experiment, and see where the yarn takes you. I made the one at the top and the one to the right of it while I was staying at my mother's place. For those, I referred to Helen Jordan's recent book, Textured Crochet. (Helen is a member of the International Freeform Crochet group on Yahoo, too.) Making the curly spirals was kinda cool.

So now I just have to post this photo to The Pink Project forum on Ravelry, and put them in an envelope and mail them off to Prudence in Australia. I'm hoping that one day I get to travel as far as some of my creations do!

Last night I returned from a week out of town. I took a week off work for Family Medical Leave, so I could care for my mother, who is recovering from knee replacement surgery. She had her left knee done three years ago, and I took a week off then to help her. At that time, she developed a blood clot, which is serious business. This time she was prescribed injections of Lovenox so that wouldn't happen again. I had to give her daily injections into her abdomen. People, there is a reason why I am a social worker and not a nurse. I had never given an injection before in my life. I was a little apprehensive, but it was easier than I thought. Okay, I can be a nurse now!

Truth be told, it was easy work and a relaxing vacation for me. Mom isn't very demanding and she is easy to get along with. My work consisted of food shopping, meal preparation, dishwashing, laundry, medication administration, vacuuming, bringing in the mail, and being a general go-fer. I took plenty of knit and crochet projects, and I worked on a few things, but not as many as I would have liked. I think the main problem was back support, because I missed my sofa recliner. Mom has a computer and Internet, so I was able to read email and surf the Web. My sister stayed with her the weekend before I got there, and she took over when I left Friday evening. I took Mom to her follow up appointment with her orthopedic surgeon on Friday, and she wasn't aware that they were going to take out her many staples. I had to leave the room, because I cannot stand to see a loved one in pain. When I left for home, she was doing fairly well, getting around with her walker. She does have to take pain medication, though.

Mom has four cats, although I never saw her newest cat, a previous feral stray she named Clementine. Clementine remained under my bed in the guest room for the entire five-day period I was there. In the top photo, clockwise from the top, there is Moo, Lucy, and Lady. Moo took a shine to me right away, as she is a sweet, friendly female. I found out that Moo had been found when she was a kitten by my niece, who kept her at my sister's house. My sister's other cat, a male named Junior, didn't get along with Moo. When my sister put her home on the market to sell, she brought her cats to my mother's home temporarily. Junior is back at home, but Moo stayed. The other cats are older and more sedate, and my mother doesn't really need a playful two-year-old kitty jumping around on her knee. So I offered to take Moo home with me. I cleared it with my sister, and she approved my adoption, so Moo came home with me last night. Our other two cats, Muffin and Zeus, are getting used to her. I think they will all get along just fine. Moo just wants to be everyone's friend. She isn't hiding like Zeus did when he came here....maybe because she slept on my bed and hung out with me for five days.

My husband Joe said, "Are we becoming crazy cat people?" I don't know, but I think three cats are our limit. We spoil them rotten and give them lots of love. Moo has big round eyes and she always crosses her front paws like that. Tonight after dinner we went to Petco for kitty treats and new toys. There's never a dull moment in the Cat Lair!

I've been melancholy since last Wednesday. I attended a vigil and walk in Ventura, observing the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War. Later I heard that about 140 people attended. There were two vigils in Ventura, and seven altogether in Ventura County. Our numbers are growing, along with the discontent with war casualties, war spending, the economy, gas prices, and so on. I hope people are realizing how all of those issues are interconnected. At the vigil, participants were reading true stories written by those whose lives have been adversely and directly affected by the war. I teared up, and I almost started crying hard. It's incredibly sad, and I feel so helpless. Also, last week I found out that a dear art quilter friend of mine has been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. When I heard that, it felt like a punch in the stomach. My cousin, also in her fifties, died of cancer last year. I see too many obituaries of people in my age group dying of cancer. That has had me feeling depressed and very mortal. (Not to mention my day job is that of geriatric social worker, which is not exactly a bundle of laughs.) My mother had her second knee replacement surgery last Wednesday, and she is recovering well. I'm leaving tonight to go stay a week with her in San Dimas, where it is very hot right now. I'm taking several knit and crochet projects to work on. I will have Internet access, too.

Here are my photos of the vigil and walk. I took a beautiful natural crystal candle that my friend Nicole gave me for Yule last year. It holds a votive candle....I put in a red one, symbolizing the blood that has been shed. My candle did not blow out during the entire time it was lit in the crystal. At this point, I don't care who gets the Democratic nomination for President, I will vote for either one (although we are rooting for Obama here). McCain wants to stay in Iraq indefinitely, and I wouldn't be surprised if "Sarge" wants to bring back the draft. He is scary, and we just cannot let him win. Anyway.....photos:

So a week and a half ago, I stopped into Jo-Ann's Fabric and Crafts in Oxnard, looking for a certain fabric I need for a project I'm working on. What did I notice but the sale fabrics reduced to another 70% off the already reduced prices! I did some quick calculations in my head, and realized they would be only 75 cents to $1.00 per yard. That, my friends, is about as cheap as you will ever find. So, I thought I would be kind and help those Jo-Ann's employees who have to shuffle and replace the bolts by purchasing the remaining bolts of a number of fabrics, mostly batiks from India with a little African mudcloth thrown in. I love bold colors and designs, so these will be great for art quilts, quilt backs, and maybe some purses or other wearable art. Even though I will outlive my fabric stash at this point, a true fabric addict cannot pass up a sale like this! (P.S. I did find the fabric I originally went in for, too. It was a good shopping day!)

Today I finished the pattern Lacy Leaf Cocoon by designer Annie Modesitt, from Interweave Crochet, Spring 2006. There were many mistakes in the written pattern directions. I finally Googled it to find out the problem, and I found the corrected directions on Interweave Crochet's site here. The yarns I used were cone yarns purchased from eBay: the rest of the slubby rayon I used for the Capricious Capelet, and a thin cotton chenille. I did make some changes; I used an I hook instead of a G to make it larger; I shortened the sleeves appropriately for my arm length, and I did the buttons differently. It's hard to see the sleeves on the dress form, but they flare out in a bell-style. Once I found the corrected directions, it was not a difficult design to make. I have some concerts coming up that I can wear it to, which should be fun. It's kind of Stevie Nicks-like, isn't it? Too bad I don't look like her!

As a freeform crocheter, I had seen Jane Thornley's website a year or so ago when someone on the Yahoo Freeform Crochet group brought it to our attention. I think I even bookmarked it. However, Jane's patterns are knitted, and at the time I was more engrossed with crochet. Now I've been going back and forth between knitted and crocheted projects, and when I saw Jane's Feather & Fan Organic Wrap in the Stitches West fashion show, I was smitten. I bought the pattern and I reacquainted myself with her website. Then on Ravelry, someone from Jane's Ravelry group posted info on a KAL (or "knit-a-long") to the various freeform forums that I read. It seems that devotees of Jane's luscious "free range knitting" patterns were starting a KAL on March 9, featuring her Cultural Fushion Wrap.

But where should I get my inspiration? What place should I choose? I certainly have a wide ranging selection of stash yarn for a number of options. Then I thought about the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado. I had always wanted to see the Grateful Dead when they played there, but in those days my kids were young and we didn't have a lot of money for travel. Joe and I did make it to Red Rocks several years ago to see Phil Lesh (of the Dead) and Friends play there. It's quite a hike to get up there, and the air is thin in that altitude, but what a magical, beautiful place it is! I found this photo on their tourism board site (look, I'm helping to promote you!), taken at night. I was now inspired to select my yarns based on this color palette.

I need to buy some bamboo circular needles in size 13, because these aluminum needles are too slippery for slick yarns like ribbon yarn. I've also learned that doing long, or dropped, stitches in some yarns (like ribbon) is tricky, and it's easy to drop the wrong stitches. But I'm having a blast playing with yarn, which is my therapy. Who needs Prozac when you can have yarn?

On Saturday evening, March 8, Joe and I went to the west side of town to the Bell Arts Factory. They were having a benefit event to help Art City with the costs of getting their space up to code. I've posted here several times with photos during Art Walks of their mostly outdoor stone sculpture studio, which is shared by a group of artists. Art City was recently inspected by the City of Ventura, and they were found to be in some serious violation regarding their structures and such. They've been around since 1985, and stoneworks from that studio are in collections worldwide. I didn't realize that Huell Howser had taped an episode about Art City (probably for his PBS show California Gold) until we saw it being shown on video at the event.

There was live music on two stages, food and drink, and my longtime friend Lucy was there in her persona as "Purpllicious the Clown", making animal balloons for the kids. (Lucy has the most awesome hair salon you have ever seen, although the photos on her site don't do it justice. It's for kids and "grownups who think they are kids". It's like Disneyland meets Pee-Wee's Playhouse. She's having an open house and potluck soon, so I have to go see what she's done to the place lately and take some photos. Lucy said she now has a train that goes along the wall throughout. She cut my kids' hair when they were little, and she gave my grandson Devin his first haircut! Lucy will always be grateful to me for turning her on to Rainbow Glasses.)

I saw so many dear old friends there, it really amazed me. It was great to catch up with folks on our lives. We got there too late to hear my friend and co-worker Donna Lynn, but we heard Sus Cortez and my old friend Phil Salazar, who was playing fiddle with Left of Memphis. He was headlining the event with his new band, the Harlem Holler, but we didn't stay that long, as the event ran from 3:00 to 11:00 p.m. (I wrote about Phil here before, and posted photos when he jammed with Bob Weir's band Ratdog, when they played the Ventura Theater about a year ago.) And of course we walked around and looked at all of the artwork on display. The Bell Arts Factory is in an old mattress factory, and there are a number of individual artist studios and shops. I purchased a new beaded leafy bracelet, as well as a red beaded skeleton necklace with matching earrings, from a jewelry artist who had a table there. (Her work was very nice, and I'm picky about what I buy, since I can make the stuff myself.) I loved these hanging wall art figures below. Joe and I left after a few hours and went for a late dinner at Nature's Grill on Main Street. Another "arty" weekend of fun!

Friday evening, March 7, I attended the artists reception for the new Fibervision show, Frame of Reference, at the Santa Barbara Architectural Foundation. Lots of people came, we heard many positive comments, the food was delicious, and the art quilts looked fabulous. I haven't been able to attend the last two monthly meetings due to being out of town for other events, so I really appreciate the hard work our Fibervision members did to put this show on. I do have one quilt in the show, my Homage to Hundertwasser, which is the quilt on the left in the second to the last photo. I met two new members who have recently joined our group, including a woman who actually met Hundertwasser once, and she told me the story. The show runs until March 28, so if you will be in the Santa Barbara area, the details of the show are here.