The Clownies Are Ready!!

The clownies are all finished!  I hope my friend likes her pink one, and the green one will be posted on Etsy pretty soon.  Once the finishing touches are on the pattern, it will be posted as well.  Whew!  Oh, and a big shout out to Margaret, the best pom pom maker I know :-)  Contact her at her shop, WinterCrochet, on Etsy for your own wonderful poms.

Where Has the Summer Gone?!

It's really hard to believe that tomorrow is September 1st.  And, even though it's still pretty hot out there still, there really is a different feel in the air.  That "back to school" feeling, even if you don't have any kids around.

And, the baby duckie -- well, he's not such a baby anymore and will probably be flying away soon.

And I am, as always, spreading myself too thin.  Have I sewn on the pom poms?  No.  But, my strategy is to wait til the other poms arrive, then sew them all on at the same time (at least that's what I'm telling myself :-).  Thursday, I'm hoping to stop by Looped Yarn Works because, of course, I must frolic among the new fall yarns!  And breathe in the yarny air and actually begin to figure out a schedule of beginner crochet classes!  I'm looking forward to teaching crochet again, and it'll be so convenient.  I think I might offer Tunisian Crochet classes again too.  I was just ahead of my time a year ago when I offered the class -- I've been noticing a lot more articles, books and patterns with Tunisian Crochet coming out recently.  It really is a fun technique to try, but we'll see...

Alright, as I'm known to say, stay tuned!  Let me leave you with a philosophical thought:  what you don't like and can change, you should change; what you don't like and can't change, you should learn to accept. 

Duckie Update

So, the mama duck has not been around the last week to 10 days, but let's look at happier times:

The baby has grown quite a bit since this picture actually, but s/he is still doesn't seem ready to fly yet.  I'll try to capture him/her floating around in the fountain, s/he really does seem quite at home in those moments :-)

Oh, while I'm giving updates, I just got the sample white pom poms from WinterCrochet (who is on Etsy) -- they are just PERFECT!  All I need to do is sew them on the green clownie and take some pix.

Ok, which means I got me some work to do!

Pom Poms and Ducks

What do the two have to do with each other?  Oh, nothing, just trying to come up with compelling titles ;-)

But, I do have something to say about both.  First, the pom poms.  I think I've found someone to make them for me, whew.  Just working out the details, but all I'll say right now is that Etsy is wonderful for finding artisans and crafters who can make just about anything for you to your specifications.

As for ducks, there has been a continuing saga at my condo complex all summer.  We have a beautiful fountain in front of the building, and a mother duck has made it her home.  She started out the summer with 4 baby ducks, but alas, only 1 seems to have made it.  Can you imagine the trials and tribulations of trying to protect your chicks in the middle of DC?!  I saw her leading 3 of them down the street towards a major thoroughfare earlier in the summer.  What has been amazing is watching the humans become fascinated by her and her struggles.  People were stopping traffic to try to protect her!  Thankfully, she finally seemed to figure out that the fountain was the place to stay put.  She and her baby would snuggle together on the ledge, or she would sit while the baby would swim around and around. 

Last weekend, though, another duck came for a visit.  The three of them hung out all weekend, but then on Monday, the visitor duck and the mother were gone, and the baby's been there by him (or her)self all week :-(  I guess it's the way of the duck world, but it just seems so sad by human standards.  Well, the saga is not over -- mama duck is back this morning!!  Maybe this was a test run to see how baby would do without her.  I guess she's just got to start toughening up baby so that s/he will be ok when it's time...

Again, what's been so interesting is the reactions of the humans around here.  There seem to be two camps:  one that worries about the ducks bringing diseases or nuisance, so they seem more concerned about keeping the ducks away and the other camp that seems to want to be sure the ducks are comfortable and taken care of.  The latter camp saw to it that a ramp was propped up in the fountain so that the baby could make it up to the ledge when people saw s/he was struggling to get out of the water.  I admit, I think I'm in the latter camp -- I find myself looking out the window all the time or stopping by the fountain to be sure that the baby is still swimming around or resting on the ledge.  Mmmm, I think we need a webcam!

The Clownies Live!

Ok, so they are still without pom poms, but both have been put together.  The green clownie still needs his collar too, but I should be able to whip that up soon.  The pom poms though...

I'm realizing that I think I used a different yarn than Nana did for her clownie -- it's just not as soft, so apparently, that is the big difference between Red Heart's SuperSaver and Classic yarns.  I'm not the biggest fan of these yarns, considering there are so many other, more natural yarns out there that are reasonably priced as well, but I admit that this is a great yarn to use for making the clown doll because it does work up uniformly and keep the spiral shape pretty well.  Now I'm itching to make one using the Classic yarn, so I will report back on that.

Now, about those pom poms...