Mariana Mystery Shawl--A Prayer Shawl

Mariana is a municipality in the state of Minas Gerais. It was the first village, town and capital of the state of Minas Gerais. It was in the seventeenth century one of the largest producers cities of gold to the Portuguese crown. It became the first capital of Minas Gerais to participate in a contest where the village that has scooped most amount of gold would be elevated to City being the capital of the then Captaincy of Minas Gerais.

“Mariana Shawl”, designed by Aloisio santos 

 is a prayer shawl for Christmas. The proposal is that we can knit this shawl sending out good vibrations for all the people who have lost their homes and need to start over

The pattern will be available in 3 clues: 
06/12 first clue 
13/12 second clue 
20/12 third clue 
The shawl is semi-circular. The techniques used are: purl, knit, ptbl, yo, k2tog, ssk, central double decrease. 

“The Bento Rodrigues dam disaster occurred on 5 November 2015, when an iron ore tailings dam in Bento Rodrigues, a sub district of Mariana, Brazil, suffered a catastrophic failure, causing flooding and at least 13 deaths. At least 16 people have been injured. About 60 million cubic meters of iron waste flew into the Doce River. Toxic brown mud flows reached the Atlantic Ocean 17 days later. It is still unclear the total impact and environmental consequences to river and its wildlife. This incident has been described as the worst environmental disaster in Brazil’s history”

Puff--Puff--Puff

This crochet scarf caught my eye--what is this stitch?  I didn't have a clue, but do not be dismayed--we did some investigation to find Puff Stitch!  And it comes on a website--crocheting for dummies!  There are a couple of videos too that will help you navigate this stitch.

Designed by BrenBoone

The following comes from Crochet Guru

Step 1: Yarn over the hook.

Step 2: Insert the hook into the stitch.

Step 3: Pull the yarn through the stitch.

Step 4: Bring the loop up to match the same height as the previous stitch. There should now be 3 loops on your hook.

Tip #1: If there are no previous stitches and the puff stitch is your first stitch made, pull the loop up to at least match the height of a half double crochet stitch. The puff stitch may even be pulled higher if you choose to do so.

Step 5: Yarn over the hook.

Step 6: Insert the hook into the same stitch.

Step 7: Yarn over the hook.

Step 8: Pull the yarn through the stitch.

Step 9: Bring the loop up to match the same height as the previous loop. There should now be 5 loops on your hook.

Step 10: Yarn over the hook.

Step 11: Insert the hook into the same stitch.

Step 12: Yarn over the hook.

Step 13: Pull the yarn through the stitch.

Step 14: Bring the loop up to match the same height as the previous loop. There should now be 7 loops on your hook.

Step 15: Yarn over the hook.

Step 16: Pull the yarn through all 7 loops on your hook.

Tip #2: If you would like to add more loops to make your puff stitch even bigger and puffier repeat steps 10 through 16.

Step 17: Chain 1.

Winter Blanket in Crochet

http://www.lillabjorncrochet.com/2015/11/about-winter-blanket-by-emma-aldous.html

This is the most gorgeous crochet blanket I've ever seen!

Needle Weaving!!

Needle Weaving

Let's do some needle weaving!  This is the way I became interested

in loom weaving!  A friend was needle weaving a baby blanket

over a large frame--I couldn't believe it!  So, off I went to

find a frame and begin.  But, here is a whole list of information

on the internet!  I didn't have anywhere to turn to for info.

Needle weaving

and oh my gosh--

Pinterest has tons of photos and other stuff!

I think I'm going back to my 1970's roots.....................

Itchin' to Stitch!

 When I stumbled (yes, I stumbled while surfing the web!) on this website--I stopped!  I took a second look!  what caught my eye?  Well this, of course................................

A spinning wheel in felt with decorative stitches--more investigative work is involved on my part.

These gals are doing fairy tale ornaments!

How cool!  and unusual!

This one is from Sleeping Beauty.  

I won't go into details why this is so inaccurate--

I was just thrilled to see a spinning wheel in stitches!

Here is Cinderella's slipper!

And Little Red Riding Hood.

Telling Stories Through the Needles' Eye

is the place for these fairy tale ornaments!

A Special Day for a Special Gal

Happy Birthday to our First Born Grand daughter!

Precious at 6 months

Fabulous at 6 years!

Outstanding at any age!  An artist!  

A shining jewel in our crown!

She is the apple of our eye!

A clown at times!  She makes the whole world sing with

happiness! 

Truly a caring, gentle soul!

A Lovely Lady!

Happy 25th birthday, dear Melanie!

Time Involvement! Or Procrastination?

Since I've been cleaning out my mother's house and our summer home, I thought it was time I clean out our regular home!  There have been binders in my studio filled with odds and ends of information  for years!  Years, I say!  Many Years!  Wonder why I saved some of these pages--from magazines, printouts, copies of old patterns, purchased patterns?  Once I've made the pattern, I don't usually go back and make another one--I'm ready to move on to another adventure--ah, here are 1,000 of pages that need to be gone through.

 of course, when you go through all that paperwork, you come across a pattern or technique you want to do again or maybe, do just because you didn't make it in the first place!!

Stacks and stacks of paper!  I don't want to even think of how much I spent on copy paper...............

or those clear plastic inserts for each of those pages!

I pulled this pattern out--maybe, I'll get it made BEFORE next fall!

and this sweet pattern--I've always wanted to knit these up for special friends

Oh my gosh, I even found a hand written pattern from my Granny.

She used to crochet these coat hangers as gifts--lovely things!

A pattern for an unique bag--must save this one--even if it isn't in English!

And I've always wanted to weave this pattern!

Okay, now that I've cleaned out the shelves of binders,

I'm ready to start on a new page--

gee whiz--I"m ahead of the New Year resolutions!