Because I FELT like it...

Guess I had the upcoming move to NZ on my mind when I made this little flightless bird today. My stovetop attempt at felting him had limited success, but he is a little sturdier right now. Our friend Jenny gave me some hairy, organic, burgandy wool yarn that I thought would be good to use. It became even hairier after cooking the little kiwi a bit!

Reminds me a bit of a nanlet. Guess it would actually be more like a stevelet. Hmmm...

Project KIWI

OMG! We are moving to New Zealand!!!!

On a lark, I applied for a faculty position at the Southern Institute of Technology, teaching Recreation Therapy classes. Not only was I offered the position (with great moving assistance, etc.), but my wife and I have decided to leave sanity behind and move around the world with our family!!!!

I'm moving in about 4 weeks, so I'm SWAMPED with work and stress. However, I do have time to say that I've already located a LYS in Invercargill (the city we will live in). I'm thinking with all of the sheep on the south island, they should have some AMAZING wool yarn available. (?!)

More soon!!!!

my jellyfish!

So yesterday, I had THREE long, boring meetings to sit through (why call it human services if I'm not ever available to serve the human's that we are there for?...). By the third meeting, I had to occupy my mind with something fun so that I didn't start sobbing in front of my supervisors.

My mind wandered to Lady Linoleum's amazing crochet jellyfish. Although I am certainly still a novice when it comes to crochet, I've been thinking alot about how to work different things recently. SO, I had this idea, and today had to see if it worked. I pulled some vintage Coats and Clark "Baby Wintuk" - 'Pompadour' and my trusty H-hook and started hooking away.

Although it pales in comparison to Regina's, I was ecstatic to see that it worked! I really am happy with it! One thing I like about this yarn is the extra strand of 'bling' worked in; I don't think you can see it in the picture. Reminds me of the refractive quality of some of the jellyfish we saw recently at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga (if you are ever passing through, GO!).

Can't wait to make some more!!!!

Additional comment: Due to insomnia, I've created a pattern that I hope others are able to follow. If you want to try to make your own jellyfish creature, go to my new pattern page!

back again

So, inertia kicked my ass and I haven't started back blogging like I thought I would. The important thing is that I'm getting back in the swing of doing some 'stuff' again worth blogging about! ;)

My dig cam is still packed up from vacation, so I'll have to bore you with words for now. My latest, greatest obsession is soap making. Using my program's budget, I recently purchased some glycerin blocks, a "Life of the Party" soap kettle (glorified crock pot) and some misc essential oils and such. Craft group went way better than expected Monday, and I wish I had pics to share of all of the great soap that we all made! For sure I'll have some by next Monday since we are doing it again (but adding more cool stuff like oatmeal and such).

I haven't been hooking much yet, but I'm actually designing my first afghan square. Conceptually, it is really cool, but I haven't had the guts to try it for real yet. I've got some practice yarn that I will use. It is actually one of two patterns I want to try to work out. The one that I'm actively problem-solving is inspired by the eye of a peacock feather. The other one will be more of a free-form lily-pad/pond kind of thing (I think). I'm really excited about putting my thoughts into action. If I ever get a semi-coherent pattern worked out that actually looks decent, I will certainly post it on the site to share.

Well, gotta get back to work, but wanted to post so that I'm officially blogging again!!!