Speaking of Crochet...

I finished this little cutie up this morning. This is another free pattern, this time from the very talented Mia Zamora Johnson of "Owlishly". She calls this one "Huevitos - Amigurumi Easter Eggs". I decided to do a different pattern for my older nephew, whose favorite color is blue, and to give "Bunny Boo" to my younger nephew.

You can get this adorable free PDF pattern by clicking on the link I have listed above to Mia's blog. There is even an Owlishly Flickr Group! Fun!

Crochet Can Save Your Life!

This is amazing: I just heard this remarkable and happy story, amid so many heartbreaking ones, coming out of a tiny village near L'Aquila, Italy where they experienced the devastating earthquake earlier this week. A 98-year-old woman, who was pulled-out alive, said she spent the time (not knowing if she would live or die) crocheting as she awaited being rescued.

Amid Italy's earthquake rubble, 98-year-old woman is pulled free
John Hopper in L'Aquila
The Guardian, Wednesday 8 April 2009

Whatever faults Maria D'Antuono may have, wasting time is not among them. The 98-year-old villager, from Tempera, near L'Aquila, yesterday became one of the latest survivors to be dragged from the rubble left by Monday's devastating earthquake in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. For 30 interminable hours, she lay below the ruins of her house, a few miles from the epicentre.

So what did she do to while away the time, not knowing whether she would live or die as rescue workers dug towards her? The answer, it seems, was "crochet". According to the Ansa news agency, D'Antuono was pulled from the rubble to cheers from the crowd and briefly answered questions from a reporter for Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset television network before she was taken to hospital. Asked how she had passed the time since her house had collapsed on her, she reportedly said she had been busy with her hook and wool.

Living here in Southern California and having lived through two moderate quakes and hundreds of smaller ones, my heart goes out to the Italians. It is extremely disconcerting to have the ground underneath your feet, which you think of as "solid ground", shake, rattle and roll and bring such devastation and death. You never get used to it.

Cute Amigurumi Bunny

I received an email offering this adorable free amigurumi Easter Bunny pattern for "Bunny Boo" by Tamie Snow who has a blog called "Roxycraft" and just had to make one! This was my first-ever amigurumi project and I found it to be fun and easy. This is the first one I finished this afternoon and I will be starting another one this evening. I'm making them to put into my darling nephews' Easter baskets - I hope they like them! The lighting is not real good in these photos, as it's been a very cloudy day with intermittent sprinkles at times.

Make sure to check out Tamie's blog. She also has her adorable patterns available on Ravelry.

Spring Flowers

Here are a few examples of crocheted flowers that I'm making up as part of a joint "project" with my sister-in-law Maria. I'm using a #9 steel hook, which is fairly small. It was a little hard getting used to at first (my hand kept cramping-up on me!), but it's getting much easier. I've gotten about 25 flowers made so far. I make them at night while watching television. They are a pretty fast crochet and I especially love the effects I get with the variegated threads. The largest flower I'm doing is the size of a half-dollar and the smallest so far is the size of a quarter.

Knitting Break

I'm taking a break from knitting "Poinsettia" for my mom to do a little crocheting on this afghan that I had started over a year ago with some leftover yarn I had from another afghan I had finished. It's hard to see, but I attempted to get a good closeup shot of the blackberry stitch that is done with the variegated yarn. It gives a nice detail to the otherwise basic ripple pattern. This pattern is called "Springtime" (#4 on the back cover) from an "American School of Needlework" booklet that was published in 1978 that I had picked-up years ago at one of the Super Yarn Marts in the Los Angeles area. I loved that store. It was really the only place that had a great selection of yarn and patterns at that time. Our choices were more limited then; there were not all the great independent yarn shops or the craft stores that we have now and there was no internet. Boy, have things changed!

It has been in the 80s for the last week here in Southern California. It feels like spring. I was out picking up leaves from all the wind we had last week and replaced a lavender plant that died. My lilacs even have a few blooms on them which is amazing, since it's so early and my roses are doing great. I had cut them down in November, which was a little early (I usually prune them down around New Year's) because the leaves were looking so bad, but now they are doing great, save for the damn aphids that seem to show up every year. Ugh. I just keep wiping them off with my fingers while holding the hose and spraying them off. I don't use any type of pesticides in my garden and I was able to keep them pretty much at bay last year by doing this. I then put down some shredded western cedar in the planters around all the roses and plants, which besides looking really nice, says it repels pests (I'm not sure which ones - certainly not aphids!), helps keep the soil moist and keeps the weeks from sprouting up. The garden is coming along. My next project is to get the backyard fixed-up. I have my work cut out for me! Tomorrow I will be blocking my cousin's scarf so that I can give it to her this week for her birthday/belated Christmas gift!