…Stefanie Japel Knits…

Class Announcement!

I’ll be teaching at Unravel here in Las Cruces on March 28
(Check with the shop for time and fee.)

We’re going to work through the Textured Circle Shrug from Glam Knits: 25 Designs For Luxe Yarns

You can choose any worsted weight yarn (including any of the new cottons, linens, hemp, or blends at the shop) to make this a great accessory for those of us who live in the desert!

Here’s what the collar looks like when it’s all finished. You can see how it curves around the neckline and even has a little height to the fabric at back neck.

TA-dada-DA.

Sorry if my rugged patio is distracting! I took the photos for today’s post outside because now that it’s nice weather, Mazie wants to be outside ALL THE TIME. I’m encouraging it!

AND…Here’s where I am on the crochet rug. It’s only about 2 feet long, so I need to keep going. I’ve got a lot of these fabric strips, but they may not all go together colorwise. We’ll see.

The whole point of crocheting this rug is to get rid of junk lying around (fabric strips) and save $$. BUT. I’m looking at the colors in this rug and wanting a new set of towels for the big bathroom. Hold me back. Maybe I can somehow add some of these colors to the towels we already have?

…and yes, that deserves a blog post! It’s title-worthy!

We get about 360 days of sun in this part of NM, so I really relish these cool, cloudy days.
I’m making a chicken / black bean / rice / tomato / cilantro / onion / garlic soup in the crock pot and doing laundry. Mazie’s taking a little nap.

It’s quiet, cloudy, cool, and the house smells of soup and clean clothes! I’ve got the windows open and there’s a breeze and lots of birds are chirping. I’m so effing COZY I can’t stand it. It’s cozy with a little tinge of rainy-day melancholy.

I started working on a new rug for the bathroom. The one we have now is made of recycled saris, and little threads of silk are everywhere. (It’s been through the washing machine many times.) Mazie has been spotted eating these threads…so I’m putting it elsewhere.

The new rug is (going to be) crocheted. I used to make a ton of braided rag rugs, and have lots of strips of fabric. Crocheting seems like a more direct method of construction. No braiding. No sewing huge braids together.

This is about an hour’s work.

I don’t have a pattern, I just chained about 10 sts, then dc and turn, sc into each st of chain. Then at each end, I do 2sc in every-other ch, to turn the corners smoothly. (In other words, I’m winging it.)

My hands are a mess right now, aren’t they? I’ve been stressing the last few days and my eczema is in full effect. And I’m biting my nails. I can stop biting them for months at a time, then something triggers it again. If I file them down all smooth, I can usually stop. I read someplace the nail biters are perfectionists. Which is why we / they bite. Can’t stand any jagged edges. I think it’s nerves, more than anything.

I’ll be signing copies of Glam Knits at Unravel tonight, starting at 5:30.

Last night I got together with a couple of girlfriends and knit.

And here’s the start of Cindy’s Reclamation scarf. She strung semiprecious stones onto beading floss and is adding them into her scarf as part of her Project Spectrum project. It’s going to be really neat. She’s knitting it with sock yarn on 3s.

Here Kathryn and I are modelling our Lemongrasses (this was actually the week before last week):

Today my mom seems to have Mazie’s cold. We usually get up and have breakfast, then go over to Grandma’s and hang out, but today…we are on our own.

My mystery quilt is over there, so we’re finding other stuff to keep us busy.

So far, we have:
Had breakfast, had lunch with Daddy, done a load of laundry, made our beds, started to sort the folded laundry so we can put it away…all while listening to the kids’ XM radio station.

This station is so cute. If you have XM radio (we get this station through the satellite TV) and kids, you should give it a try. Mazie is a real music person, and she loves to listen to the silly songs and sing and dance.

I’d still like to make it to the PO and maybe the health food store. We’ll see.