Even those of us for whom the Internet constitutes an additional limb need to be unplugged now and then. Maybe I should say we especially need to be unplugged now and then. It’s nice to fill up the battery with some good old-fashioned face time.

So the last time we spoke, I was waxing poetic over ball point pens. Since then, I’ve decided to let some of them go. They’re up for grabs in the shop for a limited time. You might want to hurry, since I am prone to change my mind at any time and go back to hording them all for myself…

I’ve also put some crochet hooks back up for sale, both ready-to-ship and made-to-order. If you hesitated before, you might want to take a look now. I picked out a brand new set of nine patterns to choose from, and I also added another hook size, for those of you secretly lamenting the lack of #7s.

Aside from updating the shop, I’ve been slowly (oh, so very slowly, in itty bitty dribs and drabs) cleaning up the dining room, getting my work space back in order, and transforming the room from dumping ground back into potential eating area. My goal is to get it cleaned up to the point that it looks like a dining room once again, albeit one that has some clay supplies out on the table. Slowly but surely.

I’m also working on a new sweater for me. Have I mentioned that? I wanted a cardigan hoodie, but I wanted something that would work up relatively quickly, since I’ve pretty much had my fill of long term projects at this point. Mom and Dad gave me a WEBS gift card for Christmas, and I used it to get myself some Northampton Bulky in Old Barn Red. I’m making a Common Ground with it, and I have to say, it was working up very quickly. Until I got to the diamond lace pattern.

I’ll save the knitty gritty for its own post, but suffice it to say, there was a lot of un-knitting, re-knitting, counting, un-knitting, and re-knitting again. Being my first experience with lace, it was to be expected, but it was still a little frustrating.  I finally finished the lace pattern last night, although I really should have been done with it a few days ago. With that behind me, I have hopes of getting the sweater done by the weekend. Bulky yarn and big needles mean that it really does go very quickly when I’m not making mistakes!

So, I think we’re caught up now. I’ll try not to be such a stranger this week.  And thanks in advance for taking a peek into the shop!

Years ago, after a particularly prolific polymer clay kick, I had a wicker basket filled nearly to the top with clay-covered pens. It was wonderful! I’d run my fingers through them, dump them out, arrange and re-arrange them on the floor… sometimes by color, sometimes by pattern, sometimes in a gloriously long rainbow. But eventually I sold all but about ten of them, and it really wasn’t very much fun playing with ten pens.

I’m happy to report my pen-making mojo is back. Over the last month or so, I’ve added a nice selection to my supply. In fact, I made twenty four of them yesterday alone!

So now I can play with them by color (plum in this case)…

Or by pattern (triangles)…

Or I can set them up in a gloriously long rainbow.

Sweet. You know what, though? When I have them all laid out like this, I can clearly see underrepresented colors and patterns. It makes me want to sit down and crank out another few dozen to fill in the gaps.

Last night, after I sanded and buffed my last pen, I sat on the floor deliriously happy pushing them around into piles. Neil suggested ever so gently that I really ought to sell a few. What?? And diminish my supply?? Never!!

Well, that was what I said to him, but in actuality, I do know he is right. Sometime soon, I will open the shop for a few days and let these pens go to some good homes. For now, though, if you will excuse me, I have another rainbow to build.

[edited 1/25/12: the shop is open! fifty different pen varieties up for grabs! check it out.]

I am home. Yay!

I had a great time, claying it up at the ‘thon as usual, but I am glad to be home. We moved to a new hotel this year, and while the work room was much improved over previous years (so spacious!) the hotel itself was on the creepy side. Apart from the ornate lobby, the place was pretty rundown. The heat in my room stopped working last night (it was 16 degrees outside!) and so I slept under three blankets, and I kept on my socks and my heavy wool sweater. Frigidity was a theme in that hotel. Just crossing the lobby from the elevators to the work room made me feel like a human icicle. I took a hot shower this morning, just to thaw myself out!

So it’s especially nice to be back home, sitting here in the family room next to a crackling fire, under the blankie of love.  The kids are doing homework and the husband is working on his magazine.  It’s all so cozy.  Warm.  Much appreciated.

Eamonn just asked me sweetly for some hot chocolate. How can I refuse? Must take a quick break.

Ok, hot chocolate duly made, and some Zen Tea for me. Now, what was I saying?

Oh, yes! Clayathon.  Less-than-stellar hotel aside, it was a great time as always. I wish I could have stayed another day, because I think I still have a few projects in me wanting to get out.  Here’s what I did manage to accomplish, if you’re curious:

First was the crochet hooks some of you ordered.  I particularly love this batch above my previous ones, because they are so shiny!  (Oooooh shiny!)  I sanded them as I always do, but this weekend I had access to a buffing machine, and I took advantage of it.

Next I worked on using up some of the leftover pieces I have been accumulating from all of the hook-making over the last several months.  I put several strips of the different patterns from the same color family together into one big sheet, and used the sheet to cover what I like to call these “crazy quilt pens.”

The rightmost 13 pens were done that way.  Then I took a break to make some new canes in a new color family (see below). I covered the leftmost four pens with the new canes, and then did 2 more crazy quilt pens with the new scraps I generated.

These aren’t finished yet.  They still need to be sanded and buffed. Maybe I’ll get to that mind-numbing job someday…

These are those new canes I  mentioned.  The one on the left is my usual Triangle design, and the rest of them are just kaleidoscopic experiments with what I had left of the colors I used for the triangles.  In a very uncharacteristic move, I just winged-it with the kaleidoscope canes, and probably couldn’t repeat them if I tried.

(Ok, I’ll be honest, I do remember exactly what I did to make these canes, but it’s only been a day and a half. I promise you, I won’t have a clue within a week.)

Late in the day yesterday, I switched from caning to do a little mokume gane. My mother-in-law had asked me to make her some replacement “stones” for a decorative object that had lost some of its pieces.  These came out just as I had envisioned.  Unfortunately, I envisioned the wrong colors.  Duh.  So, I will have to try again with greener blues and yellower browns.

My last project was this quickie.  Terri gave me a few channel bracelet blanks, which I filled with leftover pattern strips.  I was so thrilled to get these brass blanks, because they are perfect companions to the skinny mixed-metal bangles Neil gave me for Christmas this year.  It’s great to be able to add a little color to the stack, I think.

So that’s it! And once again I am consumed with the urge to get a buffing wheel for myself.  I mean, would you look at those shiny hooks?  No way can I get that look by hand.  I need to find an inexpensive bench grinder with a muslin wheel. Any tips from any of you who have one?

Let’s chat about this so I can put off my return to Real Life(TM) for a little while longer, k?

Before Christmas I showed you how I went down a crazy path, and made a whole set of coordinating crochet hook handles for myself.  What I never told you was that I tried to use one of the hooks a few hours later, and it was terrible.

I’ve heard people say that they are fiercely loyal to the brand of hook they use, and that some brands just don’t work as well as others for them.  I accepted this, but thought it was kind of silly.  I mean, a hook is a hook, right?  Well, I just could not get that Boye size E to work for me.  I moved up a few sizes, and then down a few sizes, and none of them would obey my command.  I felt like a complete spaz using them – I was so surprised that I couldn’t make them work!

So there I was with a lovingly-made set of hooks that were useless to me. Useless!

Since then, I’ve worked little-by-little, in between holiday preparations and festivities, to make a whole new set for myself.  This time I covered Susan Bates hooks, which I have no problem using whatsoever.  Like the last set, I covered all of the handles in some variation of my Triangle cane pattern, making each of them coordinate with its own metal hook color.  Each hook was given Triangles in a different color scheme, and all of them are different from the ones I used on the original Boye hooks.

What can I say? It helps to have a sizable stash of canes to dip into when I need them!

My honest opinion is that the Boye hooks (on the right) are more attractive than the Bates hooks, when viewed all together like this.  But beauty doesn’t particularly matter when I can’t do so much as make a chain with them, I suppose.

So there it is – sixteen hooks.  And even after all that, I’m still in a hook-making mood.

Shocking, I know.

This coming weekend is the annual Clayathon, and I thought I’d make some more hooks – for you! 

I’ve re-opened the shop for a very short time, and you can place an order for a custom-made hook, just like you did at Christmas time.  I have a selection of nine different patterns to choose from so none of us gets bored with the same-old same-old (and by “none of us” I mean “me”).

Just like before, you can also order pens or shawl pins if you wish.

And if there’s anything else that I’ve ever made that you are dying to have, leave a comment!  My Clayathon time is largely unplanned and I might be able to arrange it.

Ok, so go order a hook if you like! And don’t wait too long… I have to stop taking orders noonish on Wednesday so that I have time to order the hooks I need before I leave for my trip!

Thanks

Another year, another Project 365.  This was my third one, and I so enjoyed it!  These are a few of my favorite images.  You can see the rest on flickr or picasa (your choice – I’m in both places at the moment, waffling between which I prefer more).

This time around I gave myself a theme of “up close and personal” for two reasons:

1. it would force me to pay attention to the little things in life
2. it would give me some practice with close-up photography

I think it was a great success! Why? Because I had fun with it, because I am pleased with so many of the photos I took, because I’ve learned a thing or two, and because I am not ready to stop!

I felt this way when I did “a year of mornings” in 2010, too.

So, what’s on the docket for 2012′s daily photo project? I’ve decided to call it “a year in the life,” which is basically just a cheap way out of making a decision at all… I suspect there will be a lot of close-up shots taken in the morning, though… stick with what you love, right?

Speaking of things I love, would you like to see the 2011 handmades?

This isn’t just a highlights mosaic. This is all of them! I feel like maybe I was less prolific this year than in previous ones. There are still so many unfinished projects living in my brain (and some that have gotten a hold of my credit card to purchase supplies and are living in little bags my house).

You can see these completed projects up close here on the blog, or you can check them out on flickr or picasa.

So. It’s January, 2012. So many pictures to take and creative projects to tackle in the coming year.  The world is brand new with possibilities.  What should we do first?!

I’ll be making my gift-giving list later today, and getting myself all organized – I can hardly wait! I love this part: the planning and the scheming.  I’m not too big on the shopping and the wrapping, but I perk up again when it’s time for the giving.  Such fun to play Santa, I think.

So, I’m not really doing the handmade Christmas thing this year.  Not on the grand scale I usually do.  But there was one project that really caught my eye last week, and I just had to add it to my list.  I’m not going to say what it is, just in case one of my sons happens to read this post, but I will give you the link (click here!) and trust that those boys will be good enough not to sneak a peek…

So, did you look? There could hardly be a more perfect crochet project for me to undertake for my boys than that one!

So I ordered a bunch of cotton yarn, and I saw that I needed an E hook. Perhaps you can guess what happened next?

Well, with all of the hook-handle-making I’ve been doing around here lately, I just couldn’t bring myself to start a crochet project with a plain, boring, unembellished hook.  (Really, can you blame me?)  So I decided to cover an E hook. But, the thing is, I have had it in my mind for some time that I would like a nice coordinating set of hooks for myself, and it seemed that stopping with just an E would be wrong somehow.  Now I know you know where this is going…

Allow me to present my new hooks:

This was originally a set of Boye hooks (I really hope I like working with them – I didn’t have the sense to try one out before I covered the whole crazy set) and each hook is covered with a different color variation of my Triangles cane design.  They all match, but they are still different enough to tell them apart at a glance.

I love them!  I sanded and buffed them all, just like the ones I made for the shop recently, and I just love to pet them and feel how smoooooooth they are.  (I know, I have a problem…)

Later tonight, I will curl up on the couch with my project instructions, my colorful box of yarn and my new E hook, and try my hand at this amigurumi thing.  I don’t know if I can manage to finish the entire project – it’s a little ambitious for me, particularly with just a week before Christmas – but even if I only complete part of it, that part should still be gift-able.

Let the merrymaking commence!

Yesterday I allowed myself to be distracted (for an hour or so) from my book store packing and shipping duties by the thought of a new pen.

I do think about clay-covered pens often (usually as I am pulling apart the couch or rifling through somebody’s backpack, desperately seeking something to write with).  Pens and pencils have a habit of disappearing around here, but it always seems to take the special clay-covered ones longer to go missing.

So, I do think about making myself a special pen often, but the thought is generally fleeting.

Yesterday, though, the idea of sitting down at the clay table to make a new pen nipped at my heels like an enthusiastic puppy, until I put down my clipboard and indulged the urge.

I really wanted a red-ink pen covered in a pattern that featured red prominently.  So I made one. And then, because I had more patterns in those same colors, and because of that darn nipping at my heels, I made three more.  Four fun-loving red pens covered in a seductively-smooth coating of red, blue, and yellow clay.

And that would have all been fine and wonderful (and the perfect place to stop) except…

…I suddenly needed (needed, I tell you) one in purple.

By the afternoon, I had made enough hook handles to determine my best practice for future orders.  By evening, I had sanded and buffed the daylights out of all of the handles I made.  By bedtime, I’d gotten the order form up on the website.

A very very hooky day, if I do say so myself.

And so, without further ado, I am so happy to present: the new Polka Dot Cottage Gift Shop, featuring Made-to-Order Polymer-Handled Crochet Hooks!  I’ll be collecting orders for the next week (or until I have as many as I can realistically handle), and then it will be all hooks all the time over here at the Polka Dot Cottage World Headquarters!

I greatly appreciated all of your valuable feedback about these, and am truly looking forward to filling your orders.  You can choose your hook size, hook brand, handle pattern, and whether or not you’d like an indented thumb rest.  I will have them completed and shipped by mid-December, hopefully well in time for gift-giving.

Oh, and for those of you who don’t particularly care about crochet hooks, I’ve decided to add a little something: you can order custom-made shawl pins and stick pens, too.  Stick pens make great teacher gifts, especially in red ink (hint, hint).  Enjoy!

This morning, I was still quite eager to see how the whole clay-handle-on-a-crochet-hook idea would work for me, so I decided not to wait for the granny square cane to come to fruition.  Instead I tried it with another design from my stash. (It’s a plaid cane, like the one in the shawl pin lesson.)

So, what do you think?

There’s a lot about it that I like.  In particular: the hook size (G) that is embedded in the top, and the super smooth sanded and buffed handle.  I haven’t spent much time actually using the hook, but the few chains I did make felt good.  I know the color of your hook handle really shouldn’t make much of a difference in your crochet experience, but it kinda does!  It makes it somehow more artsy and fun.  Or something like that.

I wonder, would you go for these hooks, if I made them in a variety of colors and sizes?  Would it be worth re-opening the shop for a week or two, and stocking it with a selection of them for gift-giving purposes? Or even for totally selfish keep-it-yourself purposes? Really, I’m not one to judge…

Thoughts?

Shhhh… I dare not say this too loudly, lest I jinx things, but I think I may be on the verge of getting my claythings out again.

I may be ready to bring my vision of a “granny square cane” to life.  And then turn it into crochet hook handles. Or covered pens. Or shawl pins.  Maybe all three.

Perhaps I’ll re-open the shop for a few days sometime soon, and have a pre-Christmas sale.

But keep it under your hat for now, as the muse is as fickle as my workspace is messy, and the 48 little packages of Premo I bought today would really like the opportunity to become something special, very very soon.