Happy Thanksgiving!

I really hope everyone is having a healthy and happy day!  We finished all of our cooking last night so that we could get up this morning, relax, and watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade (just love it, even after all these years!)

An update:  my friend Jocelyn is now in Patagonia and still sending fabulous pictures (isn't technology amazing?!)

Mmm, imagine being able to sit and look at that vista with such beautiful yarn and hook in hand!

Yarn in Chile

My globe-trotting friend Jocelyn and her husband are traveling around South America, and I just got a picture of a yarn shop she came across:

 

I can always count on Jocelyn to send me great pix of crafty sightings!  She also found this great link with some wonderful home design ideas, using crochet to create a comfortable and beautiful environment.  I'm itching to make another pillow covering for myself, but I've got a few other projects that just must be done first...  I hope to be posting some photos of my own soon :-)

The Windy City

Yup, I just got back from Chicago!  The weather was beautiful, and I got a chance to walk up and down the Miracle Mile.  The reflection "bean" is really cool:

I also got to visit two yarn shops -- Loopy, down on West Polk, and We'll Keep You in Stitches, up at East Oak.  What a contrast in atmospheres, but both really interesting and chock full of beautiful yarns.  Loopy is located off of South Michigan Avenue, in a down-to-earth neighborhood.  It's huge, with two floors and multiple rooms (there was a knitting class going on downstairs), and an amazing selection of yarns.  I was really tempted by the buffalo yarn, and, although a very generous hank, at $45, I decided to skip it this trip.

We'll Keep You in Stitches, on the other hand, is located off of North Michigan Avenue, in quite the upscale part of town.  It's up on the fourth floor of a small building wedged in between some swanky stores.  I didn't get a pic :-(  It's in one small room, but a whole wall was well stocked with yarns and needlepoint supplies.  Now, here I did splurge and get two French crochet and knitting booklets by Anny Blatt. 

So, I had a great time, but it's always great to come home.  As I heard someone say "Chicago is like New York, but the people smile."

The Renwick Handi-Hour

My, my, what busy times we are living in!  But sometimes you just have to put it all aside and have some fun!  I got my chance last Thursday night at the Renwick Gallery.  Such a beautiful and interesting museum, across from the White House, that is part of the Smithsonian Institute.  Well, they have been having these happy hours where they offer crafting materials, live music, and, hee, hee, craft beers!  All in one of the huge exhibit rooms upstairs.  I saw people making the loveliest tile coasters, felt flowers and cup cozies.  Janie from Looped Yarn Works and I were there to demonstrate knitting and crocheting.

Aren't we cute?!  We had such a great time!  I really want to send out a special shout-out to April who stopped by to show us these beautiful pop-top bags that she's been making.

So, if you are in the DC area on Valentine's Day, sign up for the next Handi-Hour!

Flat as a...

Pancakes!  Mmm, mmmm.  We were really craving some this past weekend, but had no Bisquick or prepared mix.  Why should that stop us?!  I did some research on the 'net and discovered that it's probably as easy and certainly healthier to mix up my own batter.  Here's what I came up with and wanted to share.

In a blender, combine the following ingredients:

1 to 1 1/4 cups of all purpose flour
1/4 cup of quinoa flour (or plain quinoa flakes)
1/4 cup of oats
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup milk (you might want to add a little more as you start mixing)
1 to 1 1/2 Tbsp butter
1 tsp sugar

Start blending and see thickness and consistency and add a bit more milk so that resulting batter can be poured but isn't too thin.  Hard to describe, but after a batch or two, you'll be a pro.  Enjoy!

Mussels or Muscles?!

The other day I got a pleading-for-help message on Etsy -- a crocheter was so excited about making this beautiful vest, but was having problems understanding some of the instructions.  She asked if I could help her figure out the next steps in the project.  So, I went to investigate and discovered that the pattern designer/writer is Danish.  I think she might have used a Google program or something to translate the pattern, and interesting things happened as a result!  The instructions kept referring to making stitches "in the next mussel".  After looking at the original Danish pattern and looking up the original word, I discovered that another meaning of the word "musling" is ....   SHELL!  So, she was trying to describe our shell stitch :-)  Mystery solved!

Mobi

No, not the whale!  It's the means by which one can create an ebook for Kindle.  Since I just went through this process for 101 Crochet Tips, I wanted to share.

Now, first step -- get over your fear of the computer and html :-)  It's really not that hard, especially when a wonderful person posts everything you'll need.  Helen Hanson has a blog on which she very methodically has laid out each step to take.  She really makes it fun and is very responsive when you have a comment or question. I carefully followed each step she suggested, and it worked!  A bit of advice -- be really precise in how you name files and insert the code because just one letter out of whack, and it will not work.

I'm realizing that I haven't posted my musings on running a small business in a while, and I know that, frankly, that's what some of you are more interested in than the crochet.  So, keep a look out for such postings soon.  I feel like I'm still figuring out this blogging thing ;-)