72-squares block for twinfibers

Yesterday, I finished up the quilt block I made for Jessica/twinfibers for the SewConnected block swap. She sent out vintage sheets and pillowcases. Here’s what I made for her:

Italian Greyhound with Poppy painting

Mary Detwiler from http://www.dogsinpastel.com/ got back to me, and it’s okay that I post a picture of the wonderful original pastel of an Italian Greyhound that I bought from her last week. Here’s her Etsy Store and here’s a picture of the painting I bought:

This little sweetie looks just like Iggy Pop.

The painting came in an 8×10 mat, but I’m going to have it matted bigger so I can put it in a bigger frame.

Etsy Artist

Some time last year, I found an Etsy artist who did some wonderful, fanciful, whimsical, silly IG paintings.  I was soooo disappointed when I finally decided to buy some Iggy art that I couldn’t remember what her store name was, and I couldn’t even find her when I searched for “italian greyhound.”   I thought one of the prints was called “Iggy Bus” and I googled that but just came up with a bunch of Iggy Pop (the singer; not my dog) links.

Well, yesterday while I was in the shower, I had an “Ah-Ha!” moment when I remembered that I may have saved her store name as a favorite.

So, I checked, and sure enough there it was:  dreamdog.  She’d closed her store down to deal with a family emergency and thought she’d be reposting by February 15.  Since that date had come and gone, I sent her a little convo (which was quite gush-y, but I was so excited to have found her that I couldn’t help myself!).  She wrote back last night and let me know the print I was thinking of was called “Iggy BUG” (not bus)–and it’s of three Iggys driving a VW Bug (which I think is too funny!).  She also posted one of a sphynx cat that I asked her about and told me to keep watching because she’s going to be posting some brand new prints over the next several days.

I was going to wait to see her new stuff before I bought anything, but after perusing her sold stuff, I decided to get a move-on because some of her prints are limited editions of 100 or 200 and she’s been selling them since 2006 (I wanted to make sure I got them!).  This is what I bought:

• “Iggy Bug”, an 8×6; one of 200
• “Come Float with Me” (looks like Annie and a friend), an 8×10; one of 200
• “Sweet Iggy” (also looks like Annie), a 9×7; one of 100

I checked out her website, too, (www.dreamdog9.com), and found a wonderful Iggy painting called “Skinny Vinnie” that she painted for the “Ig Times” publication.  It’s an hilarious picture of an IG dressed in a 3-piece suit with a fedora, smoking a cigar.  I’m SO hoping that’s one of her new prints because I’ll buy it in a heartbeat!

Anyway, I’ll keep checking back to see when she posts anything new.

Oh, yeah.  I’m on the fence about the sphynx cat.  It perfectly depicts Moke’s expression, but it’s a pink cat and all three of ours are black.

ElleJW Dog Prints

ElleJW on Etsy got back to me and let me know it’s okay to post pictures of the Italian Greyhound prints I bought from her on Etsy (here’s her store).  She has some lovely water color and ink prints of various dog breeds.  Here are the ones I bought from her:

The first one (a 5×7 print) looks like Annie; the second one (also a 5×7 print) looks like Mylo; the third one (a notecard) is the wrong coloring for Iggy Pop, but it perfectly dipicts her expression and body size.

The prints already came matted in 8×10 mats which is very nice; I just had to pop them in frames, and they’re finished.  I’ll have to have a custom mat cut for the notecard, but it’ll definitely be worth it since it’s a signed, limited edition, too.

!@#$% Cheap piece o’ crap yarn

Ha! Ha!  This is what I get for buying cheap, $2/skein yarn:

So, yesterday, I happily sat down to start making another block out of 200 Crochet Blocks.  I wanted to use my new Red Heart Designer Sport yarn.  Well…  I couldn’t find the end of the yarn in the center of the skein.  So I fished around and pulled out a big wad of yarn with the end firmly wrapped into the center.  Because I’d pulled out such a big wad, I decided I’d better start winding the yarn in a ball.  It’s only 3 ounces, but I was mildly p.o.’d that I’d have to stop and wind it into a ball.  So… I’m happily winding away when I came across a snag–I couldn’t pull anymore out of the skein because it felt like there was a knot.  I tugged on the knot, and out belched this HUGE, HUGE plug of yarn that only left a shell of the skein.  So then I was a little more p.o.’d, but I thought “no big deal, I’m winding it anyway, who cares if it came out in a big plug like that?”  Oh yeah?  That’s what I get for thinking.  I spent the good part of the next hour trying to untangle that huge knot.  I was REALLY p.o.’d at this point, and I finally gave up in sheer disgust; a measly $2/skein is not worth my time and effort!

So…  I immediately dumped that twisted, knotty yarn into the trash (after taking a picture of it), stomped upstairs, packed the other 9 skeins of Red Heart Designer Sport yarn I bought the other day back into a Michael’s bag and then stomped them out to the car.  I don’t what that crappy stuff in the house anymore!  There’s a REASON it was only $2/skein:  because it sucks!

The good news is that I’m happy to have found this out on the first skein I tried to use.  If I’d spent alot of time making new blocks then came across this problem, I would have been REALLY smoking p.o.’d!

I bought MORE yarn (but it was on sale!)

So today I went to Michael’s to buy some frames for my new Iggy prints (more about those later), and while I was there, I skimmed through their yarn section (which, by the way is supposed to be getting a major overhaul this spring, and let me tell ya, it NEEDS it!).  I looked at tons of labels and I still couldn’t find one that SAID it was DK weight (which is the weight suggested in the book I’m using, 200 Crochet Blocks).  So, I checked out the label on a skein of TLC Essentials yarn (which is what I’m currently using), and it’s a “4″ (medium).  So, I found some Red Heart Designer Sport yarn that says it’s a “3″ (light).  It was on sale for $2/skein and I liked the colors so I bought 2 each of 5 colors (Aqua Ice, Celadon, Dusty Blue, Blush Rose and Terra Cotta).  When I got home, I photographed it and added it to my stash on Ravelry, and guess what–it’s DK weight! 

So…  I totally didn’t need anymore yarn because I actually LIKE the colors of TLC Essentials yarn I already bought, but…  it feels kind of plastic-y and scratchy.  So, I just need to decide if I’m going to change colors (again).  And, if I am, I need to figure out what I’m going to do with the 8 skeins of TLC Essentials I bought.

[Later...]  We just went out for Chinese, and now I’ve decided what I’m going to do with the TLC Essentials yarn I bought!  I’m going to use it for the 12″ blocks I’m making for the 12″ blocks crochet-along on Craftster.  Then, I’ll use the new Red Heart Designer Sport yarn for the 6″ blocks I’m making for the other crochet-along.  Yeah…  that sounds like a plan!  The only bad part is that I’ll have to re-make blocks, but it’s early in the year so there aren’t that many to re-make (and that’ll keep me busy and out of trouble!).

Big Round Crochet Block

Well…  I finished my Big Round crochet square from 200 Crochet Blocks, and I’m sooo disappointed with it.  Well… not disappointed in it, but I’m disappointed that NONE of my squares are the same size without some serious manipulating on my part.  I’m having to leave out two rounds here, one round there, add one row of sc, etc. to get them all to 6″

BUT…  there’s a group on Ravelry and I read that several people are having the same problem.  Then I read a reviewer on Amazon.com who said that the book suggests DK weight yarn for a 6″ block, and she’s using “regular acrylic” yarn which is yielding an 8″ block instead.  Well, I’m no good at knowing yarn weights so I checked out DK weight yarn on Ravelry, and it’s 8-ply (11 wpi–not sure what that part means; it’s ??? per inch, but what???).  Then I checked out the TLC Essentials acrylic yarn I’m using, and it’s 10-ply (8 wpi).  OH!  I just found out:  the “w” stands for “wraps”–I’m still not sure what that means, though.

Anyway…  it looks like I’ll start all over, use the same size hook on each square, and hope that each one turns out the same size with ALL of the rounds.  Thankfully I’ve only made 6 squares so far so starting over isn’t that big a deal.

More Iggy Art is Here!

Yesterday, the last of my iggy art arrived.  I am SOOOOOO happy with everything I bought.  The stuff that got here yesterday are all signed prints from limited editions, and I got really low numbers (if that matters?).

The pencil drawing by David J. Rogers is 23/500.

The notecard by ElleJW in London (named “Unsurely”) is 11/50

The profile caricature also by ElleJW (named “A Little Uncomplicated”) is 12/50

The straight-on caricature also by ElleJW (named “Eternally Yours”) is 5/50

I’m calling the prints from ElleJW “caricatures” but they’re really not; I just don’t know what style they are.  They’re wonderful little watercolor and ink drawings.  She matted them already so they’ll fit in an 8×10 frame.

And speaking of frames, I just got the new Michael’s sale ad in my inbox, and most of their frames are 40-50% off this week.  So guess where I’m going this morning!?

Iggy Prints

I’m sooooo excited!  My new iggy prints have started arriving!  Yesterday, I got:

• the 7.5×24 watercolor print from dogstuff.com.  It’s a signed print (146/900)
• the linoleum block print I got from Etsy by Nydam Press.  It’s signed, but the signature is the size of a pinhead.  I wish she’d signed it MUCH bigger!
• the geisha girl and igs playing poker mini posters from cafépress
• the 1950-ish Austrian tobacco trading card

I LOVE all that I’ve received so far!  I have the pencil drawing and the ig caricature prints left to receive.

Totally didn’t need them but…

I just ordered an ultimate 11-piece Brittany birch crochet hook set.  The only hook I needed/wanted was a 3.75mm/F hook because I only have that in a blunt-nosed metal hook that I don’t like, and here I ended up with 10 hooks in addition to that one!  Why, why, why (!!!) do I spend money like madness when I’m obsessed with something?  The only reason I really wanted this set is because I like the cool turned decoration at the ends of the hooks.  Here’s a picture I got from the Brittany website.  Are these cool or what?

The set I bought came from Jimmy Beans Wool and doesn’t come with a silk pouch like the $101 set, but I’m good at making crochet hook rolls now.  Or better yet, I’ll banish those nasty blunt-nosed metal hooks back to their zippered case and use that roll for the new birch hooks instead.

Anyway, I don’t know why I didn’t buy this set when I was searching for wood hooks???  I don’t guess I saw this kind because I was focused on bamboo at the time.  And don’t get me wrong–I LOVE the bamboo hooks (I just like the turned ends of the birch hooks better!)