Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year Crochet Resolution

I don't take nearly enough pictures of Christmas. Now everyone has a digital camera and we spend lots of time talking about the settings and all that. "Forced flash off inside!" is my camera mantra. We had a lovely Christmas. Nana (my mother-in-law) came and spent most of the week with us and my Mom and Dad are close by so they came over too. Having them with us makes us feel like the holiday is extra special. We got a couple of new video games and are having fun playing them. Guitar Hero is the biggest hit. My husband thoughtfully wandered into the local JoAnns on Christmas Eve looking for gifts for me. The ladies helped him pick out Gingher scissors! He also got one of their awesome ironing board covers with the measurement grid on it. Most wives wouldn't really think of an ironing board cover as thoughtful but I did specifically ask for it and it is awesome! I got other wonderful things too like nice cookbooks and a Gees Bend art quilt book.

Last night we cleared out all the decorations. This is a few days early for us, but the stuff was getting all dusty and I was starting to feel like it was all closing in on me. Sewing is back on the dining room table. I had a lovely evening last night listening to podcasts with my 6th grade son. He was assembling a new Lego set he got and I was cutting beautiful fabrics for some overdue baby quilts I want to finish.

I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions so no thoughts from me about dieting and exercising more in the new year or anything like that. As I look back on the year and my blog it occurs to me that I keep meaning to tell you that I realized this year that those magic scrubbers you make from those Japanese crochet books are scratchy acrylic yarn and not cotton.

Flower Scrubbers

Okay these are cotton... I test drove a few versions. The cotton is more absorbant, but the ones I did in cheap Red Heart acrylic (which is generally sort of awful to use) are really scrubby and nice. They are great to use in the shower or bath like a loofa and they launder well. I even made one to do the shower floor and it works great. Most of the ones I made I have not photographed. Sorry about that.
P1010711

So in the new year, I plan to remember to knit cotton dishcloths, and crochet acrylic scrubbies.

If you know me in real life. I didn't forget your Christmas card! The time felt really compressed this year and I didn't get my cards out on Christmas Eve like I usually do. This time I threw in the towel and have decided to send out Valentines or snowy greetings instead...

Happy New Year!

5 comments:

PHML said...

HAPPY NEW YEAR ^_^
May this New Year bring you lots of Happiness, Joy, and Good luck.
Flowers're beautiful!

AmyDe said...

It sounds like a perfect holiday to me - family and treasures and everyone doing what they love at the moment. Ours was (is) that way as well this year - lots of books and stitching, and wii, and more.

Thank you for the tip about the crocheted scrubbies. I always hate that the cotton ones look so lovely, but don't really work so well at actually being "scrubbie" and I LOVE linen, but it's expensive and sometimes hard to find. Good to know about acrylic - thank you.

I hope your New Year (the day and the progression) are filled with more of the things you love and that satisfy your soul.

AJ Bindel said...

I love these scrubbies, Susie! I just read about the acrylic ones in the latest issue of CRAFT. Too bad I'm not very good at crochet. The flower design is too cute & I adore the blue and brown combo. Any chance you might sell some dish scrubbers in your store? Let me know!

Happy New Year!

Amy

Anonymous said...

how did you make the roses shown in the pictures above?

IamSusie said...

Anon- Those roses were a pattern in one of the Japanese books I linked to. You do a single crochet spiral circle, crocheting into the back loop as you go around. Then you go back around doing two double crochet into each single crochet front loop of the spiral. Voila! Rose! Add a green leafy loop for hanging.

It doesn't hang flat although it looks like it does here.