Rose Hearts for Valentine's

Here's a great new pattern that I found at this blog, i heart handcrafts. I thought these might be cute to sell at the market, just before Valentine's Day.

Aren't they lovely? They look good in red and pink.

I made four of them. I did tweak the pattern a little in a couple of spots, and I prefer how mine turned out. They're adorable, but what to do with them?

I decided to attach a chain stitch string to them, and sell them as little hangers -- hang them on a small wall, or around a door knob, or over a chair finial or a newel post -- anywhere! This would make a cute addition to a Valentine's gift package, I think.

This pattern is a keeper! But be warned:  if you try this crochet project, the pattern is a bugbear, and very strange. You have to concentrate and do exactly as it says. I retyped it, adding notes to myself at points in the pattern where I was tempted to guess at the writer's intent. Good luck!

O Happy Day!

At last!

For Christmas, Adam got me a year's subscription to Victoria. I haven't had any new Victoria magazines for quite a few years. My mother and I pass the old ones around, and the copies I have here are well-worn and well-loved. Some are nearly 20 years old.

I can't wait to read through it slowly. Reading a Victoria, for me, is like eating something delicious, very slowly, savoring every word, every picture. I keep my copies in the bathroom and read them while I'm soaking in the tub. From the cover, this one has an article on tea (yes!) and one on starting a small business doing what you love. Well! Those are both right up my alley. I do think I detect a long soak in the bathtub tonight! Thanks, honey!

Front Yard Art

Julia's art teacher is, unfortunately, out of town this week, so it was left to me to provide her with a few hours of painting practice. I asked Carroll Karlak for assistance again -- remember?  Carroll is our old painting friend who's now gone from us, but has left us with lots of lovely art! Like this:

This is a painting of hidden birds. The children have always loved it, counting how many birds they can find in its depths. We set up our table and paints in the front yard because it's a beautiful day.

Julia is much better at replicating another artist's work, and she's bolder with her color, imagination, and strokes. Here's Carroll's bird:

(Carroll's piece is under glass, so reflections interfere. See the house in the reflection?)

And Julia's version:

Julia's full page is very colorful. She packs in the birds and is aggressive with her background:

I'm much more cautious, simplistic, and untrained. I have a hard time getting bold colors, as she does.

Julia does a good job of layering her images on the page. I don't. But she practices much more than I ever do. I'm happy as a dabbler :) It's interesting how, even with the rankest amateurs, distinct styles are evident.
Julia's:

 Mine:

 Julia's:

 Mine:

She gave all the birds names too, of course. She's really into naming animals. Must be an Edenic thing. We had lots of fun, but I must say -- art is time-consuming! Over two hours at it, and we had two pieces of paper with birds, and lots of it that we weren't necessarily pleased with. We like to cut the pages up, keeping the images we like, and throwing out what is indifferent. But in order to get very fine results, one must spend even more time at it, practicing, learning technique. Like all art, I suppose. That's why artists must love the doing of their art. If you don't love it, you simply can't bear the time sacrifice needed to be any good!

A Grand Day Outdoors

I'm a liar. I have no right to claim it's a grand day outdoors. I've barely been outdoors today. But it is grand. I poked my head out the door and saw this:

I wanted a shot with Julia and Sandy together. Sandy loves to lie in the sun. But she immediately hops up and comes to whoever is moving -- in this case, me.

"Sandy! Come back!" Julia says.

Sandy dashes.

I look closer. Julia is painting a balloon left over from her science experiment. She's cut up paper and odds and ends, and she's painting them on. Notice the bare feet. It really is a pretty day.

I should be on my bike, cycling through town. I should be smiling with the wind in my face. But after several months of chilly, and then cold, one gets used to hibernating. One is comfortable hibernating. Then at last one realizes one is too used to hibernating, and hibernates on warm days. This must end.
Remember the warm beach days?

Remember dark green ferns on porches?

Early crocuses drinking sunshine?

Sweaty gardeners drinking lemonade?

My Lady Banks Rose in Statesville. I do wonder if she's still there. In June she was such a display of yellow, and inside, beneath her arching branches, Julia and Sandy would hide in a fort of shade.

Some trees seem to shout! Beauty and light burst from their tips. This huge weeping cherry welcomed us to our neighborhood.

Soon, soon, it will be time for sun-warmed sand and cotton clothes. I need to stop hibernating.

Julia's Reading List

It's been a while since I did an orderly post about Julia's academic work this year. Today I'll focus on her literature study; that's my specialty, so I freely admit that I keep her well-supplied with good reading matter. Plus, she likes it. My goal is for her 8th grade reading to be about half at her grade level, and about half high school level, say 10th grade. My goal in high school is for her to be reading college material, so she'll be well prepared (and even ahead) when she goes off to college.

Here's her reading thus far this school year:
Treasure Island by  Stevenson
Little Women by Alcott
"The Hound of the Baskervilles" by Doyle
The Jungle Book by Kipling
"Ozymandias" by Shelley (She memorized and recited this.)
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Orczy
The Call of the Wild by London
4 short stories from Chesterton's Father Brown Omnibus
Excerpts from Whitman's Specimen Days
The Red Badge of Courage by Crane
"Gift of the Magi" by O Henry
"The Adventures of a Shilling" by Addison (Okay, this is totally not late modern, but it was so cute.)
"A Pair of Silk Stockings" by Chopin
"A Wagner Matinee" by Cather
Whose Body? by Sayers
Death on the Nile by Christie
"The Outcasts of Poker Flat" by Harte

Here's what I hope she will read the rest of this school year:
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Bierce
Daisy Miller by James
"The Secret Sharer" by Conrad
Animal Farm by Orwell
Lord of the Flies by Golding
In the Land of White Death by I-forget-his-name
The Hiding Place by ten Boom
The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway
"A Rose for Emily" by Faulkner
excerpt from My Antonia by Cather (or the whole thing, if she wants to)
Our Town by Wilder
I'll be adding plenty of poetry by writers like Frost, Cummings, Wilbur, and others.

The core of my list comes from Susan Wise Bauer's book The Well-Trained Mind. I made many changes. Many of the books she recommends for 8th grade Julia did not want to read (Gone with the Wind, Laura Ingalls Wilder's books, the Anne of Green Gables series, The Yearling), and many I felt were simply below her reading level (Number the Stars, Rifles for Watie, Across Five Aprils), and she was ready to read the better book that is a level up, like Red Badge of Courage or The Hiding Place. Several selections are merely to prepare her for longer or tougher reading by the same authors, later -- Conrad, Hemingway, Chopin, Faulkner, and Whitman fall into this category.

This is a hefty reading list for an 8th grader, but Julia, who loves reading and has a quick mind and excellent vocabulary, does it with ease. Other subjects are challenging for her. Homeschooling allows me to maximize literature, her specialty right now, and stretch her in this area. If she were still in a classroom, she'd be bored silly with reading in an 8th grade classroom, complaining to me and acting out in class. I know this because I've taught 8th grade literature. I also know this because it happened in elementary school.  She was bored with the reading then.

If you're considering homeschooling seriously, know this: it can provide you the opportunity to nourish and stretch the strong areas of your child's academics, the things they love. You can dig into them, expand them, strengthen them. You can put your child light years ahead -- not to be competitive, but to keep them interested and engaged in the the things they love. There's nothing sadder, academically, than a child who's grown to hate the subject he used to love, simply because he's been bored to death, waiting for everyone else who doesn't love it. In homeschooling, there's no joy-killing waiting. It's one of the best perks of this method, if the parent is willing to do the work to help his child explore his favorite field.

The Second Purse

Remember the bobble stitch purse I made a while ago?  It turned out well:

But I made 2 different sized straps for it, and had the larger strap left over. So last night during the Super Bowl, I crocheted one half of the new purse, which will be larger, to go with the larger strap.

 This front panel of the purse is about 12" wide and 9.5" tall. It's a combination of bobble stitches, double crochets, single crochets, front/back posts, and some open work on the top.
The large strap still looks very snakish to me.

 Here's a close-up of the bottom of this panel. I did 4 rows of bobble stitch. Then six or so rows of straight double crochet to fill out the body. I felt it was important, for the look of the purse, to do the heavier stitches on the bottom of the purse and save the lighter ones for the top.

 Here's the top. I put one more single row of bobble stitch, to tie the purse together. Then about 3 rows of single crochet. Then I did a row of alternating front/back post double crochet. Then a row of double crochet. Then another row of the alternating front/back posts. Then I did a row of 3-chain loops across. Then I put a pair of double crochets in each loop for one row, and again on the last row, placing pairs of DC to separate the pairs in the previous row.

 I'll make the back panel the same, I think. Then I'll stitch them together and make a fabric liner for the inside, plus a pocket for keys or something. I'll post a picture when it's finished. This item will be for sale at the market.

Surprise!! More Crochet - haha!

I found this flower pattern over at Lacy Crochet blog. She calls them swirl flowers.  You can make them quickly, and as large or small as you like. It's a long chain, with clusters of double crochets.

It's not a very deep flower -- rather flat -- which might be useful in some patterns if you don't want a flower sticking way out.

I also made myself a winter hat.  I didn't have a written pattern to work from; Julia has a hat I like, and I was able to look at it and figure out how it was made. It's pretty standard -- start with a circle at the crown, gradually making a flat disc, then curving in. The crown is made in double crochets, but the body of the hat is a pattern of double and single crochets in clusters.

I gave a little extra bulk at the back so it could droop down. Then I tacked the "droop" to the back/bottom of the hat, so it would stay. For some reason, when I see it on me, I always think of the Seven Dwarves' hats. Hmm.
Another point of interest on this: a couple of year ago I tried to make a hat, using Julia's hat as a pattern. But I hadn't been crocheting very long, and just couldn't figure out the patterned part. I made a hat using straight double crochet on all rows. But this time -- after crocheting more complicated items for a year or so, I could look at the hat and discern easily what the maker had done, and replicate it. It's fun to realize that you're making progress in your skills.