Crochet Blocking Board & Vibrant Vintage Crochet-a-Long Blocks

 

Post # 22: Holly Berries for Holy Bear

     Here it is...I actually finished the collar I had promised for Holly Berry. If you're wondering about the title of my blog today, it turns out that some of the younger members of Holly Berry's extended family have trouble pronouncing her name, as is the case with young folk sometimes, so occasionally she has been called Holy Bear. Well, we met just the other day, and I've got to tell you, either adorable name suits her just fine. She is one cute wiggle-butt, and I mean that in the most endearing way! What I don't need to tell you, is that I am a self-proclaimed dog-addict. I love dogs. I always have. I always will. It is not by accident that I end up involved in groups of fiber-art type people and almost all of them either have dogs or cats, or take in foster pets, or volunteer at the Humane Society, or have farm animals like chickens, goats, llamas, alpacas, & who knows what else. They say like attracts like. Fiber. Fur. You get it. But dogs are my first love. Enough said. (Sorry DH)!
 
     As I revealed in my last post, the final collar ended up looking quite different than the way I had originally laid it out (and there must have been about fifteen other variations in-between).

On the left is her original collar.On the right is the design I began with.

I ditched the white beads and added some shells I had found at the beach that I painted with iridescent paint.

 The leaves and stems on my fig tablecloth just begged for some playtime. I guess I have a bit of an attention problem. Maybe it's more of a distraction problem. Actually, it's not a problem at all. Hmm. Smile.

 The night I started on the collar I had just hemmed another pair of jeans for DH. The pieces of denim I had cut from the bottom of each leg were sitting on my table, and once again I thought this would make a fantastic base for a dog collar. If Dear Hubby was taller I guess I would have had to come up with another solution, but I love denim for this purpose and this is simply the way it was supposed to be. I also wanted to add some leather, which I cut and braided, and I added the shells for a Florida influence. The flowers are crocheted in cotton, and it is non-mercerized, so it is not ultra-shiny, and will not wear as well as the mercerized type. It will fade and it will get fuzzy. I've tried these out on Alice and I actually like the effect that age and wear has on it. It's kind of like how it's acceptable that your favorite pair of jeans fades and breaks in and wears over time...it just makes it better, even though it makes them look older.

 I could go on and on adding things, like these size 11/0 pearl white beads, till the cows come home. Sometimes I don't know when to stop or when to stop changing my mind, but it's all part of a fun and interesting process. I've spent most of my life following directions, orders. road-maps, signs, charts, graphs, and other people and their ideas, but lately I've been breaking out of that mold and I've really been enjoying mixing things up a bit: still using all of my organized charts and graphs in the crocheted flowers and the beadwork and knitting that I so love to do, but now adding a dimension of play that I had not fully allowed myself to experience before. THIS IS FUN!

     At this point I was auditioning different crystal and bead embellishments, pinning them in place temporarily until I could make up my mind. I eventually traded out the square crystal for a Swarovski margarita. 

It seemed to me that the colors needed a bit more oomph and then it hit me...Holy Bear! Holly Berry needs some holly berries! Also, since all birds and dogs seem to love each other, I felt that Holy Bear should have a little bird sitting on her shoulder chirping away, waiting for her three eggs to hatch. See her little suede beak?

Here's Holly Berry, aka Holy Bear, posing with her mom, Deborah. 

It's not always easy to get a wiggle-butt dog to pose for the camera.  ;-)

 Isn't she cute? She's so darn cute I can blame her for my inability to decide which photos to include,

so I included almost all of them, and It's Holly Berry's Fault! 

I especially like how well her new collar coordinates with her mom's knitted jacket. 

Thanks Deborah, and thanks Holly Berry, for helping me to find my peace. I think you look beautiful in your new collar and I really enjoyed creating it.

Finding peace in creativity,

Meryl

Post #21: Holly Berries for St. Patty's Day & Me, NOT Stuck in the Middle

   Here is a preview of a project I've been working on for Holly Berry, who is the medium-sized dog companion of a very talented fiber friend. If you've read my earlier posts you've probably seen some of my dear Alice's embellished collars that I've made for her. One day while at one of the four fiber-art-related groups I attend regularly, I felt the impulse to ask this friend what size her dog's neck was and if she had any old collars lying around that she could spare...and would she mind if I either built a new collar on top of it or took it apart to reuse the hardware? Of course, she said yes, brought it the following week, and I've been working on it (on & off) ever since.
   I recently started on this new jaunt in this, the middle of my middle-ish decade, nearing the center of what some would term my double-nickle year, that time which struck fear and horror on the faces of some who have gone before me, but, not me..oh, no. For me, it only brings a sense of boldness, of testing the waters, and I find myself signing myself up to do things that I may have time or inclination to do...or not. But I sign up to do it anyway. I question myself. But I do it anyway. What I'm referring to is deliberately following my instincts...listening to the spirit within me...going with my gut...leading with my heart...call it what you will I try hard, well, that's not exactly right...I relax into not second-guessing myself. Maybe deliberately wasn't exactly the right word, but then again, maybe it was, given all my past conditioning to "go against my gut." Anyway, many times these days I don't quench what I feel led to do, and boy, it feels great! I simply go ahead and make the commitment, not really knowing the direction this will lead.
   That's quite a switch for a former manufacturing planner and scheduler who had to know every last detail ahead of time and have everything worked out in advance. All of my boxes had to line up, my numbers had to add up, my squares had to be filled in, the lines had to be straight, etc. Then, wouldn't you know it? I decided to try quilting some years ago, and I loved it. It was the late-90's and I was sewing quilt tops on a machine and doing some hand quilting and some machine quilting, but mostly on the machine. It was so anal-retentive and precise, all of the lines were so neat and the measurements were so like my old planner job. Really, I'm not kidding. But I honestly have loosened up (ever so slightly, but I feel the top is about to blow off the volcano any second), and I'm enjoying my newly found playtime. All of the tight rules of perfection have boxed me in too closely and it is time to color out of the lines a bit. I NEVER did that as a child. It's about time I did. However, I don't wish to abandon all the rules, for they do have their right and just place in our physical world, for what good would any collar be to Holly Berry if it was only 10" long, even if it was the prettiest collar in the land? I promise, Holly Berry's new collar is the specified 15-1/2" from buckle-tip to  buckle-tip.
   The only problem my freedom has created is that now I tend to have an even harder time making decisions, always changing my mind, auditioning different colors and materials, trying new techniques. It seems I've gone from one extreme to the other. But I am also learning to be more patient with myself in the process, and that ain't so bad either. Maybe my rubber band will bounce back toward the middle again. Haha, the middle, kind of like me!

In these first nine photos, the top collar was her original collar. Of the other items, only the blue leather, the cream leather braid, and some of the crochet made it into the final collar, which is now complete. I will post pictures very soon; I just don't feel I should post them here until after Holly Berry and her faithful fiber-lovin' companion have seen it first.

Finding peace in creativity,

Meryl

Post #17: The Best Audiobooks Money Can't Buy

     Dear Hubby loves to read, and many times while I am working on my 10ThousandProjects he will read aloud to me. This is fantastic, as it is really difficult, if not impossible, to either knit or crochet or do beadwork or other handwork while reading at the same time, although I really do enjoy a good story. Watching a movie on television will sometimes work out, but most of the time it ends up just adding unnecessary background noise. Audiobooks are really great, and I especially like them when they are read by someone special. 

     DH (Dear Hubby) really loves old novels, the ones you can get for free that are prior to 1920, pre-copyright; he especially likes westerns and historical adventure stories, but we read many other types of non-fiction together as well. Sometimes he'll read an entire book to me over a period of days or weeks, but on other occasions he will simply share a passage or two that he finds interesting from whatever he is reading on his own. Such was the situation a few months ago: We were sitting quietly. As is often the case, the only sounds to be heard were the soft snoring of the dog and the faint clicking of my knitting needles. All of a sudden DH broke the silence to share this little tidbit with me: "As a Zulu chief, it was beneath his dignity to work with his hands.”* My reply to DH rolled off my tongue with no hesitation: “I guess I'm no Zulu chief.” 

     The thought of going even one day without working with my hands strikes a level of fear in me that words cannot express. I choose to not even go there in my mind. Now, that does bring to mind another friend's recent blog post regarding hands and crafting. If you are interested in fiber and beads and creativity, (and if you are reading this, I assume you are), then you may very well enjoy this too, so please check it out @ http://urbanstitchstudio.blogspot.com/. You won't be disappointed. And while you're at it, have an awesome day!

 These are the knitted and felted catnip mice I made for

Bear, Moose, Meiko, Sake, and Laci, my sister's five cats.

After I started, my friend Beverly and a whole bunch of other fiber friends knitted mice that Beverly then graciously stuffed and painstakingly sutured them closed after felting so they could be sold and the proceeds were donated to the Humane Society of Tampa Bay. Here are some of them before they were felted and stuffed.

Finding my peace in creativity,

Meryl

*The book from which DH was reading: “Allan Quatermain"
Here's a link to the Kindle download page:
http://www.amazon.com/Allan-Quatermain-ebook/dp/B000SN6IOQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1358812010&sr=1-1&keywords=allan+quatermain

Post #14: What has the DMV got to do with crafting?

     Now I ask you, what has the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) got to do with crafting? Maybe for you, nothing. But in my world, that's not the case! I got the renewal form for our auto tags in plenty of time for me to renew online. I guess I got so involved in my "projects" that for one reason or another I never got around to renewing. By the time I noticed it, the only way to not have expired auto tags was for me to go down to the dreaded motor vehicle bureau in person. Only for me, it is not something to dread, as I am always prepared. I never, ever, go anywhere without something in my purse to keep me occupied, whether it is a book to read in the Kindle app on my phone or a craft project I can work on while I am waiting, I am never bored or impatient. (Well, almost never...I'm certainly not perfect)!
     On this particular day I grabbed a book I had gotten from the library, Nicky Epstein's “Crocheted Flowers,” I made sure to have some small balls of cotton yarn and a crochet hook in my purse, and off I went to the DMV. When I got there at 11A.M. it was quite crowded; there was even a line to get a number. Mine was C305. When I sat down I looked up at the board and saw they were up to C272. Instead of being dismayed by this, I thought, “Oh, good, it’s time to crochet and relax.” Yes, I know I'm weird. Just ask any of my friends, they'll agree!
     

This is how I occupied my time (almost 2 hours) at the DMV. 

    Later I switched to another type of small flower I found in the book. I ended up making five or six of them in various colors, and then I made some more the next day. This morning I thought they might look nice on a collar for Alice, so I took some more discarded denim along with collar hardware from another old worn-out collar of Fido's, and this is what I came up with:

I added a fringe flower center made from the leftover yarn scraps.

This is one happy dog!

Alice loves to pose for the camera.

 

Please be patient with my photography skills. I'm using my

iPhone and really need to work on taking better pictures.

 

 Until next time...

 

Finding peace in creativity,

 

Meryl