Another doily

Here is a picture of the doily that I made this past weekend. It's a really pretty doily and fairly easy if you can read between the lines. I have found that with alot of doily patterns, the creater assumes you know things that you might not know. If you are a beginner, like me, I tend to want everything step-by-step. I like to make doilies in a methodical manner. In other words, I follow the pattern per batim, and if there is something in there that the creator assumes I know to do and doesn't put it in the pattern, chances are I'm going to be lost and have to do some frogging. That's the way it was with this pattern. I loved the finished product, but I found myself having to back track and figure some things out.

I've made this one before in other colors, but I made this one in a variegated purple. It's Aunt Lydia's, I think. It came out really pretty. I'm pleased with it. It has some mistakes, but if you don't look too closely, you won't find them.

Doilies

For some reason, I'm back into crocheting doilies again. Chie, you will love this. I was surfing around on the Internet looking for free doilies patterns and found this. I've been wanting to make a pineapple doily for a long time and since I'm just beginning I wanted to find a pattern that didn't look too difficult. I don't know how difficult this pattern is, but I love this. I can't wait to start one. I think I may try to start it tonight.

Jazzercise

I've been thinking that I need to do some type of exercise to help me lose weight and get back in shape. I remembered that about 20 something years ago I went to Jazzercise and I loved it. Of course I was about 45 pounds lighter then too, but I remember loving it. Why I stopped going, I don't know. Since then I have never found any type of exercise, including walking, that really made me want to stick with it and do it. I had been talking about this to Eddie off and on for awhile, so about a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about it again and he said, "Well, why don't you start doing that next week?" I guess it was just the push I needed because I decided that I would, especially since what I was doing (which was nothing) wasn't working, so I thought I would try it.

I had talked to the instructor a couple of weeks before that and she told me that the first class is free and then I would get a discount for the rest of the classes. I went with great fear because I figured I would be the only person there who was overweight and that I would be clumsy and uncoordinated. I was looking to see all these wonderful bodies in their cute outfits and here would be frumpy me. Well, there are women of all ages, sizes, and shapes in that class. I felt great from the very first time and I was hooked again right away. I signed up that night and I've been going ever since. I started last week and have been 3 times this week and already I can tell a difference in my waist line. This morning I was able to put on a pair of jeans comfortably that had practically cut off my circulation before I started this class. I'm also watching what I'm eating as well. Cutting out junk food and trying to eat healthier. So far, I love it and I'm still clumsy and uncoordinated, but hopefully that will get better with time. At any rate I'm having a ball. It doesn't even seem like exercise.

Dishcloths

I know that I've posted this before, but this is what I've been doing lately. Knitting dishcloths. They are so easy and don't require alot of organization like sewing does. Sometimes with sewing it's such a big production because you have to get this out and that out. I guess I just haven't been in the mood for all that. These dishcloths are so easy and I can do them while watching TV. This one is called Grandmother's Favorite Dishcloth. The only difference is that I use size 10 knitting needles instead of the size 6 or 7 the pattern calls for and they come out a good size.

Fancy Nancy

For some reason I have been thinking about making dolls recently. I go through these phases of wanting to make small cloth dolls and then their clothes. I think this time it all started when my friend told me about a life size paper mache fairy that she had made a few years ago. She just got a job teaching art in a K-12 school and she told me that she took it with her to keep in her classroom to show the students what can be done with paper mache. I wish I could be in her classroom. I'm sure I would learn alot.

After that, I started searching the Internet and found a cute pattern for a cloth doll. Several in fact, but I thought this one looked fairly easy, and it was. The pattern is called Fancy Nancy and can be found here. Here is a picture:

And then, here's my version:


She has a little bit of a wrinkled face, which I found out later can be remedied by using t-shirting stretch type fabric. This was not mentioned in the directions, so how was I to know? In fact, come to think of it, there were several things not mentioned in the pattern, but I figured them out. She's not perfect, but I think she's really cute.

A couple of days ago I was looking through my photo album that has quilts that I have taken pictures of from the quilt show that I've attended in Nashville and found this picture.

Her name is Hypatia, the Library Fairie. Since I work in a library I thought this was really intriguing. Her story is below:

Hypatia, the Library Fairie

Barbara Chojnacki
Westerly, Rhode Island


A library may seem a strange place for a fairie. You generally find them out of doors, among the wildflowers, flitting alongside a monarch butterfly or sipping dew from a buttercup. Dark paneling and musty-dusty old books hardly seem a congenial environment for fairies. Yet, that is where you will find Hypatia, if you look hard enough. She is rather unobtrusive for a fairie. Her hair is the color of well-worn leather, and her wings mimic vintage feathered endpapers. Her wine-colored dress blends into dark corners. She speaks barely above a whisper.

Yes, Hypatia is a Library Fairie. If you have ever frequented a library you have encountered her kind. Oh, yes, you have. Hypatia may have been the one who welcomed you, a timid pre-schooler, into story hour. She held your hand while you were led into a world of enchantment. So you DO remember. That was before you were told by well-meaning adults that fairies, like Santa Claus, did not exist. She’s still there, just as she’s always been.

Hypatia brings poetry to lovers, romance to the lonely and forlorn, and adventure to those without the health or wherewithal to seek it themselves. She finds the just the perfect recipe and saves the day for a nervous hostess. She helps those in sorrow find solace in the words of those who have gone before.

Sometimes we literally need a knock on the head, and Hypatia is not above doing just that. Have you ever walked down the stacks and had just the right book, at the right time, fall on you? Hypatia again. You might hear her muffled giggle as you bend to pick it up.

Hypatia is ageless. Her capacity for hard work has not dimmed - if anything, it has gotten stronger. There are so many books, more books all the time, books of words that can heal or hurt, words that can unite or divide. Hypatia realizes these words must be shared, that ignorance is not a stop along the pathway to peace and understanding. Thus, Hypatia chooses stacks and shelves over flowers and fresh air.