Stix on the Beach: Tales From The Happiest Hooker!

Croakin' & Crochetin'

A knitting frog vs. frogging your knitting.

I walked into my bedroom the other day and found a crocheted frog knitting. I wasn't totally shocked, 'cause I'm the one who made her. The knitting part, though, was a bit of a surprise. She looked quite stunned when I quickly snapped a photo.

I crocheted Froggy Without A First Name as a Christmas present for Mom. It's a super easy pattern from a vintage MacCall's Christmas Knit & Crochet magazine. I'll be adding details over on my Ravelry project page — you know, the important stuff,  like the hook sizes, an enlarged photo of the written pattern — stuff that'll make it easier if you want to make one too!

My mom's fondness for frogs might have had something to do with my obsessive habit of catching and cleaning 'em in a cereal bowl when I was little. I'm still really confused why there were so many frogs in our backyard. We lived in the outskirts of  L.A. —  not Louisiana!

The secrets out! I'm a natural blond.

By the way, if this long-limbed amphibian seems familiar to some of you: I made a black & white boy one a few Christmases back. I'm thinking next Christmas I'll crochet up some tadpoles.

Square Roots

For many, many years, my New Year's tradition (versus resolutions) has been to toss out the junk and reorganize everything  in my bedroom. A symbolic clean start. I'm a little behind this year — doin' things more meticulously — because I've realized the desire to put down roots here at the apartment — you know — for now.

At the moment our bedroom looks like I threw a tantrum — except for the cozy corner shown above. And since I brought up corners — I finally got the granny square down! It just took me two years. It was so super easy and made so much sense that I actually got kind of scared. I mean, what the hell was wrong with me before? Although, I did use a bit of magic this time!

While I was finishing up the Ripple I started thinking of ideas for my next big crochet blanket. You know, the one I'll say will be complete by the summer of next year — but in reality, it will be a 40th birthday present to myself. And I came up with two!

One of  'em is the simple three-color granny square in the basket above. I wanted to go with the smaller crayon box after the Technicolor Ripple. And yes — I'm aware that Everyone and their Drug Dealer is obsessed with this color combination right now — but I've loved it since I was around six years old and I'm looking for the photos to prove it. In fact, this granny square blanket is inspired by my favorite bed comforter from nineteen eighty-one.

The second blanket is inspired by something very close by. It will have more sides and more colors than the granny square.  And I'll have more details on that later.

Wishing You (and your drug dealer) A Happy New Year!

A Ripple of Kindness

Remember there's no such thing as a small act of kindness.
Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.
                                                                                             ~ Scott Adams

Today is my thirty-sixth birthday. Those of you with long-term memory may recall that way back last year on December fifth, I declared the Ripple to be done by this date. But then Half-Human Hybrid Faerie-Penguin Elves came in (minutes after I took a full Percocet) and completed it days before Christmas!

I seriously could not have kept up the momentum over the last few weeks (and over the past three years!) without the encouragement and excitement from so many fans of this blanket. The incredibly positive response to the Ripple (on the blog ~ Flickr ~ Ravelry) since '08 has been the greatest gift!

So THANK YOU! I send to you all Warm & Cozy Ripples of Wishes!