Have you seen the September 2010 issue of Yarn Forward???

(yes, I KNOW it’s only the middle of July… and YES… the SEPTEMBER issue IS out already)

Anyway… it features one of my knitting patterns!

I’m such a newbie to the world of print publication… and this is all so wildly EXCITING to me!!! The hard part though, is keeping it a secret until the magazine is published. It’s months and months and months from the time a submission is accepted by the magazine, until it actually appears in print. And all that time, I have to keep it a secret from you guys!!!

Which is insanely difficult – because I’ve become quite accustomed to sharing my crafty exeriences with you. I tell you guys EVERYTHING!

Almost impossible to be designing… and drafting… and stitching… and photographing… and pattern writing… and NOT breathe a word about it to anyone.

All the while, I am totally ecstatic about it – and have no one to share the joy with. Mr Goldfish is a a gem, and he really tries to be supportive, but he just doesn’t get the whole craft thing the way that you do.

Can’t wait for my contributor copy to arrive…

Here’s a preview of the magazine.

And here she is… my kokeshi doll…

The embellishing of the crochet hook case with scrap embroidery thread continues…

Who knows where it will end???

Added a vibrant green to my ripple blanket…

I was so sure that I had taken a photo of the original jumper, but can’t seem to find it anywhere.

It was beautifully hand knit, but had never been worn.

I can imagine that very few people would look good in this particular shade of green.

In small doses, it really brightens things up…

But an entire garment in this one colour??? Ugh

Meanwhile, I scored myself almost 700g of pure wool to craft with. Just took a little bit of unravelling first.

Some days I feel super creative… I’m driven to push boundaries, and work outside my comfort zone.

Other days I just like to stick to the straight and narrow.

No prizes for guessing which zone I was in when I started embellishing the crochet hook case…

I mean… there are so many temptations out there… how can a person not want to sample a little bit of everything??? It seems only natural to me.

Now, before you all start tut-tutting at me… I’m not referring to marital monogamy…

I cannot stick with just the one project, and see it through from start to finish, without getting distracted by something new and shiny.

I didn’t even manage to stick with the one ripple blanket…

And so… here you see the OTHER ripple blanket I am working on. This one is worked in single crochet, with a colour change at the end of every row.

Sometimes you just need a change of scenery…

Thanks to Kyliie and Elle for solving the mystery of this square!

It is the PUMPKIN PATCH SQUARE, click here for the free pattern

So, now that I’ve finally found the mischevious square… any ideas on what I could use it for???

The first thing that springs to mind is to make a cushion to match the afghan, but I’m feeling a bit ‘meh’ about that idea.

Maybe I could keep it aside to use in a freeform piece at some point in the future?

Or donate it to someone making a charity blanket?

What would you do? I’m not feeling particularly attached to it.

Look at what my friend Dawnie bought for me.

Isn’t she a treasure???

This is the best hook storage system that I have ever used.

Four zippered pockets…. which are just the right size.

Pocket 1 contains bits and pieces – wool needles, scissors, gauge ruler, tape measure, etc.

Pocket 2 contains my 3mm and 4mm hooks

Pocket 3 contains the 5mm and 6mm hooks

Pocket 4 contains my less frequently used hooks. There’s two bundles… one is all the hooks smaller than a size 3, and the other is all the hooks from 7mm and up.

Best of all, it’s totally portable – so I can take my hooks anywhere I go. Too convenient!

Only problem… it’s a little bit boring.

(but I can fix that)

And by boring, I mean to say… it is a SINGLE colour!

Now it’s a wonderful colour… my favourite, in fact… but still, I’m feeling the need to jazz it up a little. I’m thinking along the lines of freeform embroidery.

I could add a few stitches here and there, as it takes my fancy. It wouldn’t be a project which I rush to get finished… but more of a ‘work in progress’ which I keep adding to as the months and years go by.

Then it will really be MINE!

Thanks for all the wonderful feedback on my new ripple project.

There’s only been a tiny bit added since the other day.

I think it’s going to be one of those long term projects. I don’t expect it to be finished this winter, but it WILL be done by next winter.

Part of the delay has been that some of the yarn I plan to use is still in jumper form, waiting to be reclaimed!!!

(so I have some frogging to do)

On average, it’s taking me an hour to complete each band of colour (two rows). So what you see pictured at the top of the page here is about six hours worth of crochet. I’ll probably need to put about 100 hour plus into it, all up.

I cannot successfully fuse plastic.

I’ve tried and tried and tried.

Perhaps I am missing that all important “plastic fusing gene”… it’s just not part of my brain’s chemistry

I seem to end up with holes like these:

and part which don’t fuse like this:

Can anyone help me with where I am going wrong???

I’m using plastic bags which are sandwiched between two pieces of baking paper

Then ironing over the top of them, no steam.

I’ve tried every possible setting on my iron, but none of them yield good results.

Help me if you can!

Remember when I went away on my crochet retreat?

I packed all the essentials before I left…

I had BIG PLANS to piece together my 2009 square-a-month afghan, but I only took 24 squares with me… for a 5 x 5 blanket…

Well…

The whereabouts of the missing square was a HUGE mystery, and I was even beginning to doubt whether or not I had actually made one…

I mean, I was PRETTY sure that I DID make it… but there weren’t any photos of it anywhere, and I hadn’t added any details on my ravelry project page either… so maybe I didn’t make one???

And so I made another…

And finished the afghan completely!

Well…

It turns out that I DID make that square, and the reason there were no photos was because it hadn’t been blocked yet.

And it still hasn’t…

But then neither has the afghan, which is why I haven’t posted any photos of it yet.

So, I have no idea what pattern I used for this square. If you recognise it, which you might, since I know that lots of you joined in the CAL last year… could you please leave me a message, and let ME know what pattern I used???

Thanks