Bright Colors and Plastic Bits: My Marriage

A's craft is model airplanes, WWII-era fine-scale military aircraft. He gets the same feeling of happiness and quivering anticipation from this




that I get from this



A, with his stacks of unmade plane kits, respects my shockingly comprehensive yarn stash. With his drawer of tiny little bottles of paints, my box of needles and hooks. I even began to peruse "Finescale Modeling" and take an interest in faux weathering tecniques, and A admired the sock heel-turning process. I think an entire marriage can be built on co-dependent crafting! That, and music.

The finest product of our mutual obsessions is E. She knits AND models--her first little knit purse this past summer, and just last week, with Alex, a snap-tite model of a Blue Angel. She'd seen them flying in formation over her preschool roof garden during last spring's Fleet Week, and especially asked to make one. That's one crafty girl.

Back to Brooklyn

We arrived torn and frayed at midnight, toting a bag full o' barbecue and a great big psychological hangover. Family visits can be taxing. But Texas is pretty darn fun.

I missed my ripple afghan so much that I actually began another one in San Antonio--but the guilt of the Rowan Ripple weighing heavy, I had to go on the cheap. We went to Hobby Lobby, where I purchased many skeins of Sugar n' Cream yarn. Granted, it's cotton. But in a moment of confusion, addled by the Texas sun, I decided to use only variegated yarns of all different color combinations. I have very mixed feelings about this new ripple...okay, I'm being polite to him. I just don't like him. I really don't. And now I'm committed to this bad relationship. Here he is, the boorish new boyfriend:



Eew.

Waiting for me when I arrived, though, to soothe my compromised crafting, was a package of sale Rowan:





The photo doesn't quite capture the cheery colors, but I have high hopes for their incorporation into Good Ripple.


Here are some of my favorite things in Texas...

Loveliness in the Texas heat:



Old Guy resting on his log at the San Antonio Zoo:



Ahh, Sonic, you give us the gift of the unnaturally-hued Cherry Limeade:



Delightful.

Didn't I See You Down in San Antone on a Hot and Dusty Night?

Tomorrow we leave chilly Brooklyn for Texas:



Last night, worrying over the lists in my head that I always run when we're about to travel, I picked up some of my silk and tried out an invention, a little ripple purse:



I'm not sure what I think about it, but I do like the middle button. I crocheted a tube of three stitches, coiled it, and stitched it together. I'm going to try some more when I return from San Antonio.

Thank goodness, Jet Blue allows knitting needles and blunt-point sewing scissors! I can work on my scarf for the International Scarf Exchange. Of course, I'll be covered with matzoh crumbs and magic marker smudges from E...no, she's a good little traveler. The crumbs and smudges will only be of my own making...

The Ripple of Old

I've just remembered a ripple I made for E when she was a baby. I took it out of its storage bag--it smelled so sweet!

we put dr. friz on the ripple and he ran all over [writes E]. Here's Dr. Frizzle, taking in the sights a little blearily:




Yesterday I double-parked on Sullivan Street and ran into Purl to quite literally grab the last few skeins needed for my new Ripple:



And here's Ripple, maybe 2/3 of the way:

A Different Ripple

Cast aside in a corner, ignored for its prettier cousin, Ripple, is the Lizard Ridge afghan-in-progress:



Made of Noro Kureyon (which my Japanese pal tells me is pronounced "crayon"), a pattern from Knitty, it consists of many many wrap-and-turns, which results in a peculiar bubbling. This disappears when blocked, but is actually kind of a neat effect:



I like Kureyon for its sometimes spectacular color runs; it's a little rough, a little homespun, but reminds me for some reason of the Bread and Puppet Circus in Vermont, where we used to go some summers. Not really my bag anymore, but homely and wonderful at the time. Kureyon is definitely still my bag, for reasons nostalgic first and aesthetic only second.