Amazing art in crochet

What do you crochet? Afghans, dishcloths, doilies, sweaters, shawls...There are plenty of possibilities. The hot thing right now is amigurumi, a Japanese word for small crochet of real items. Animals and movie characters were some of the first projects, but there is such variety. There is a book of amigurumi sci-fi and horror creatures such as zombies, there are cute sushi, and tiny desserts. I've just found a website of very unusual ones, but the design & work are amazing. This site has an Easter Island Head, Tongue Idol, bird totems, spirits.
"Easter Island Head"
Caution: There are human body parts, if you're easily offended, don't look.
Peek at the little birds, instead:
"begging baby bird"
"contented birds"

This site is definitely part of my "Art in crochet", amazing artwork.

Sticks Hooks and Shuttles Calendar

Elmore-Pisgah, the company that makes Peaches&Creme has produced a calendar of knit, crochet, and tatting patterns. The proceeds go to charities, check it out.

Crocheted Peace Sign

I found this tutorial while I was searching for patterns for Christmas ornaments. We're crocheting ornaments at our August CGOA Chapter meeting. We normally do ornaments or snowflakes in July, Christmas is July! But this year Margie and I talked about the Chain Link Conference in Manchester.

This tutorial has a special feature that I don't think that I've seen anywhere else. When you roll your mouse across a picture, it flips to the left-hand version. Pretty cool way to have a tutorial for left- and right-handers without doing the entire tutorial twice.

I think that I'll use some of my glow-in-the dark yarn to make a few peace signs for the tree. That's if I get any input on decorating this year. When Hubby & I got married we started a tradition of hand crafted ornaments for our tree. I was always sewing, crocheting, doing beadwork and experimenting with all types of crafts for small tree ornaments. When the children came along, I started making a different ornament each year, one for our tree, and one for each of the girls. When they were ready to go out on their own, they had a large box of ornaments. Family supplemented what I made, like a cousin who did a cross-stitch of baby's first Christmas, and a sister-in-law who made a wooden cradle for the first Christmas, and Grandma & Grandaddy who purchased ornaments at craft shows across the country while traveling in their motor-home. But our tree was all handmade ornaments for many years. As the girls got older, they started buying ornaments and receiving some from friends as gifts. For the last 3 years or more, they have enjoyed selecting a theme and decorating the tree with their ornaments.

Peace to all, even if I don't get my peace sign ornaments on the tree this year.

Dazzleaire yarn review

I've been very busy with crochet-related things, some is paperwork, others are things that I can't mention, yet. But I hate to post that I know things that you don't know, it's so nah, nah, nah, middle-school-like. But Tuesday at our Hooks n Needles group, I was told that I need to update this blog. I explained that I've been catching little fun things, putting the link into a post, and then saving it as a draft. NOPE, they said, that doesn't cut it. New Post, please. So I promise that I won't pop this into a draft & save it for who knows how long.

Marty Miller has written a great review of the New Dazzleaire yarn. I think that most of us of "that certain age" remember Dazzleaire quite fondly. And we spend a lot of time questioning why they don't bring it back. So we were quite happy to hear that Caron was bringing it back. Yeah! Then I went to the website and found that it was a #5 Bulky. Boo! The original wasn't bulky. But I've had several co-crocheters try the new Dazzleaire and declare it as nice as the original. Marty's review is quite favorable. So now, what shall we do with some new Dazzle? The Blue Skies Jacket from Tammy Hildebrand, that I made last year with some Jiffy (is that right?)That pattern would look fabulous in Dazzleaire. It's added to my ever-lengthening queue.