3.6 Earthquake in Maryland this morning!!!

We don't get earthquakes in Maryland. Having said that in 2008 we had a 2.something and ~1996 we had a 2.something. I didn't feel either of those. Now I can cross this off my bucket list! I also never need to experience it again....ever.

I was dreaming and was incorporating the shaking into my dream until it woke me up. I thought it was the result of a truck going by on the highway. However, I live on a court and there is no highway anywhere nearby. (You can tell I was starting to wake up as the logic kicked in! LOL) I've always heard that animals can sense these things in advance and, with six kitties in the house, you'd think at least ONE of them would've had the decency to indicate impending doom. Nope. Nada. Nothing. Damn cats.

I told my Maine Coon when he finally sauntered by that he's no Lassie! He just blinked at me. :)

My radio alarm goes off just before 6 am. I've been wide awake since 5 am. I'm going to regret missing the hour of sleep later today, for sure.

I'm hoping that any aftershocks are so mild that they aren't felt.

Noro Taiko coral reef piece done

This is a wonderfully dyed (although sometimes scratchy to use) yarn. It's a silk and wool blend with some nylon and other stuff in it. I made it into a hyperbolic plane (n=1).

I used color 18 (unnamed!) that is blue with purples, pinks and greens. Very ocean-y IMHO. I hope this piece will scan since it's not too tall.

Errors on Hinzeit Halloween Sprouts chart

I hate it when there are errors in the color key and I hate it when there errors in the chart. So I doubly hate the Halloween Sprouts chart!!! In the witch section, the out line of the witch is with a symbol that is not on the key. I have assumed (and by looking at the picture of the finished piece on the cover) that it is black. So I used black.

I am stitching these as individual pieces so they can be made into ornaments for a Halloween tree. When I finished with the witch I started the skeleton. The chart is wrong! The bottom bone starts one space too far down on the stick. DEEP SIGH. I changed my stitching to keep the spacing even. I had stitched the candy corn around the edge of the witch and was going to do that with all the motifs. HA! With the stitch count off, the candy corn won't fit evenly. CRAP! I'm leaving it off. The candy corn doesn't fit evenly around the spider motif either so these both have that in common.

Today I decided to see if Hinzeit had these errors in their corrections section. No, they don't. I debated whether to bother to mention these and decided I would help future stitchers out by letting the designer know. Guess what? No contact info on her website! I've decided to post the errors here. Maybe she'll find them; maybe she won't. I don't care. I will think twice before buying another of her charts. I'll think three times before actually stitching one.

Volunteering at Folklife Festival was wonderful!!

I was so thrilled to be demonstrating how to crochet a piece for the community coral reef for the Smithsonian and teaching folks how to crochet yesterday. Even under the tent it was H.O.T.!!! Temps in the high 90s. Humid. But a breeze (blowing in a major severe thunderstorm it turned out). I made it back to shelter just as the advance raindrops fell. Whew!! What a deluge! But it didn't last long, thank goodness.

Late last night I realized I hadn't been crocheting. Guess it's because I was crocheting all day at the Festival! LOL

Smithsonian Coral Reef project

That's all I'm working on now is the Smithsonian Coral Reef project. This is the community satellite reef I've written about before.

I like to use Red Heart yarn (the Super Saver size is great). So many nice colors and color combinations. I've liked the pink camo color and wished I had a little girl to use the yarn for. Now I've got a piece of coral in it! :) I'm going to bring this piece to the Folklife Festival when I'm demonstrating/teaching crochet at the coral reef table. I don't care how many people handle it; it's acrylic and will wash well!

I'd like to start something while I'm there so I'll probably work on one of the basic hyperbolic planes. At home, I think I'll move on to some of the other coral shapes. I want to make more of a neat-o brain coral. I have one piece done and I think it'll look great in a cluster so I need more.

I think I'll probably get back to stitching in September!

Smithsonian Institution's Community Coral Reef Project

I am so enamored of this! I read about the crochet coral reef project on Stitch DC's blog. I attended a demonstration of crocheting hyperbolic planes at the Museum of Natural History in DC last Saturday. I immediately signed up to attend the lecture and workshop being held there this coming Sunday from noon to 4 pm. I'm so excited by this!!

Crocheting is the only way to easily demonstrate the mathematical concept of the hyperbolic plane. I'll let you Google it and let the experts describe the whole thing, but the bottom line is once you've completed one it looks like a piece of coral! How cool is that?!

I did a smallish one to test it out by chaining 18 stitches. Then single crochet in 3chains and 2 single crochet in the next chain. Repeat this stitch pattern until you're happy! My piece is about 4 inches deep. It grows exponentially and in doing so creates all sorts of ruffles and flourishes. Very pretty!

I am currently working on one in turquoise Red Heart Super Saver yarn. This yarn is perfect because it looks nice and has a great stiffness that enhances the coral appearance. This piece started with a chain 3, slip to join, then do 11 single crochet in the circle. My increase pattern is to single crochet in two chains, then do 2 single crochets in the next chain. It developed most unusually with it looking like a flower tube at first. Finally after 30 or so rounds, it began to flair and is now very curly and lettuce-y looking. I plan to stitch on it until the entire skein is used up. Probably a total of 200 yards (I'd already used some.)

I'm so into this idea and being a part of the Smithsonian's community reef that I volunteered to demonstrate/teach hyperbolic crochet at their table in the Ocean tent at this year's Folklife Festival. The exhibit will open in October of this year and I can't wait to see and it (and see if I can spot my creations within the reef!!).

To demonstrate a skill at the Folklife Festival has been a lifelong dream, but so unrealistic as to be unattainable. It was ridiculous to put it on my bucket list. After all, I don't earn my living as a folk artist or come from a foreign country where I am a folk artist. It was a dream. But now I can put it on my list and check it off in two weeks! I hope it's not scalding hot on the Mall, but I won't even care. :) :) :)

Bent Creek monthly swirls, gloom, sings, etc

Here is my progress on Time Flies using Bent Creek charts:





I originally thought I'd be finished in 2007 so I'd stitched the date on the left. In 2009 I picked it up again and corrected the date. Now you see it's just 20xx. I'm not even going to commit to finishing it this decade!! LOL
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