Baby You Can Drive My Car

Baby shower tomorrow, for Samantha, a friend's daughter. I made a baby afghan for Sam when she, herself, was born, so I wanted to make something a little different. Since the father-to-be owns a car repair shop, I thought I'd try designing a set of toy cars.

I was aiming for a retro look. It took a while for me to get the shapes just right, and I don't know much about car styles, but I like the way they turned out.

The main yarn is a smooth DK weight, acrylic for easy washing. I first thought of buttons for the accents, but safety first for baby!

So, instead of buttons, I used a metallic yarn for the headlights and rear lights.

I hope the sweet baby girl enjoys playing with them as much as I enjoyed making them!

Knit and Crochet Olympics and Little Yellow Ducks

I've been crocheting every day, even through the hot and stormy weather, but can't share what I'm doing yet--I'm making items for magazines to be published next year. Cute stuff, if I do say so myself.

With the Olympic Games coming up, Ravelry (the greatest knit and crochet site!) will be holding their own version that knitters and crocheters may participate in online.

I definitely will be entering their "Toy Toss" event, and I will be designing and making some little yellow ducks to benefit a site that encourages blood and organ donation. Everybody wins in this Ravelympics--stay tuned for updates!

Great find at the Vintage Bazaar!

Two or three times a year, the Pettengill Farm holds a Vintage Bazaar, a collection of high quality, vintage-inspired handmade items and "antiques." There's plenty to pick through for DIY-ers, too, stuff like old buttons, beads, drawer handles, marquee letters, paper ephemera--that kind of thing.

I looked for paraphernalia I could use for my diorama series, old movie scenes done in crochet. In particular, I've been searching for a small, black train that would fit in the scene I'm working on from Some Like it Hot. I found this little gem in a box of old trains:

And even more perfect, is the fact that the name of the train line is mentioned in one of the best quotes in the movie:

Sugar: I come from this musical family. My mother is a piano teacher and my father was a conductor. 
Joe: Where did he conduct?
Sugar: On the Baltimore and Ohio.

And, as if that didn't make me happy enough, in the next booth I found another perfect item for a scene I'm planning from another movie. That, and sunshine, fresh air, real lemonade, and bumping into old friends, made it a wonderful day!

Rainbow Scarf

I hastily crocheted a rainbow scarf in thread for a vigil for the Orlando victims this week.

It's hard to stand for yet another "moment of silence" when all you want to do is cry and scream. This madness has to stop.

Fairy House

The Pettengill Farm hosted a fairy house walk last week. My entry was a beach-inspired crocheted tent made of driftwood, with a little twig chair, both decorated with crocheted starfish.

Thousands showed up for the walk, a benefit for the local PTA. Kids dressed like fairies and gnomes--so cute!

I'm already making my plans for next year's fairy house!

New crochet designer!

I'm teaching Kayleigh to crochet, and she showed up at the next session wearing this cute crochet hook holder she designed herself--she's a natural!

"Celtic Knot" Afghan

Our nice neighbor, Jimmy, came by to plow our driveway and shovel our walk this past winter because he knew my husband was recovering from back surgery and couldn't do it himself. Jimmy, kind man that he is, refused to take any money from us for it.

Well, I know the best way to show someone how much you appreciate them is to crochet something for them.

Jimmy is originally from Ireland, and has a darling accent. I wanted to make something appropriate to honor his country of origin and his loving memories of it.

I found this free pattern by Carola Wijma (you can download it if you are a member of Ravelry), so I made up 40 "Celtic Knot" squares in traditional Irish colors: green, gold, orange, and black, with a border in an off-white that reminds me of those gorgeous knit Irish sweaters.

The squares are each made up of separate pieces that are then woven together. It looks a lot more complicated than it is, and it worked up pretty quickly--my favorite kind of pattern!