Swarm!

One day a few weeks ago when I came home from work I discovered we had been invaded by ladybugs and stinkbugs! Thank God it was more of the former than the latter, but for some reason they were all congregating around one window, and I had caulked up that window earlier this year so I don’t know how they were getting in! They were all over the curtains, flying around and bumping against the ceiling, and just crawling wherever their little legs would carry them. I had to vacuum them all up and take them (and the curtains) outside. It was interesting because a couple years ago it was the stinkbugs that had invaded this one window in my daughter’s room. They got all over her window, all over the curtains, flying around and bumping into things, and when they fly they sound like little airplanes so the noise was scary to my daughter. Ladybugs and stinkbugs start swarming in the fall every year, looking for a place to spend the winter. Here is a picture I took of a few of them huddling in a corner. Could they be conspiring against me? Hopelessly lost and awaiting their demise? Hibernating? You decide:

That was two weeks ago and believe it or not, 3 of them are still in that corner today as I write this! One thing I discovered a couple years ago about ladybugs is that they are like chameleons and try to match the color of whatever surface they are on. The curtains were tan, and the ladybugs had tan shells trying to match it. The floor was brown, and they were trying to match the color brown. I didn’t know they did that.

Crafty...

Recently I became the Craft Coordinator for the Children’s Ministry at my church. Basically this means that I prepare the craft supplies for the teachers to use each week, and create a sample of the craft for the teacher to use as a guide. All the crafts are from the Kid’s Quest program. I didn’t make them up; I just followed the directions on how to make them. Here are a few of the crafts I have been working on:

The raven

The pig

Daily Bread

Bean name

Growth chart

The temple

Sheep

Cute!

Knit knit!

That's what a friend said to me the other night as I was logging off, and I loved it! Then I thought to myself, I really am addicted to loom knitting now. I was on YouTube the other day looking for new loom knitting techniques and I found quite a few. I tried one called the honeycomb, and here's how it turned out:

This is a closeup of the loom with the honeycomb pattern. It was so much easier being able to follow along watching someone do it on YouTube! It makes the pattern on the scarf much larger and bolder.

These are the two projects I was working on last week:

I made the hat using three different kinds of LionsBrand Homespun yarn I had leftover from other projects. It is tightly woven together, as opposed to how loose and gently the honecomb pattern feels.

Next up: I will master the baby hat and booties.

Knittin' Season Part 2

Here are closeups of the first hat I made and the baby hat.

This is the last hat I made so far. I like the three colors together and I am knitting a scarf to go with it. I plan to try other patterns and color combinations as I grow more and more comfortable with using the round loom. I also hope to figure out how to create a cable stitch on the loom, or at least something that is similar to that.

The Beginning of Knitting Season

The Knitting Bug has officially bitten, and now that I've bene knitting over the past few weeks, I've got lots to show you!

First of all, this is the loom set I received as a gift, and then I just bought some Homespun yarn to practice with. I should have written down the color but I don't recall what it is now. Maybe later I'll go to Lions Brand website and look it up.

There are a set of 4 looms enclosed, and I used the blue one and the green one so far.

This is a photo of the second hat in progress. The first hat was easy to make and only took two hours to do. I didn't make much of a brim on it since it was just practice, and when I first started I wound the yarn on too tightly and it was nearly impossible to knit that way so I had to start over. I found that making sure the yarn is somewhat loose helps make knitting easier. But the first hat, even though I used the Homespun yarn which is weightier, is too light. You can see your hand through it, so I decided to double the yarn as I used it for every hat after that. The first hat would be good just to keep a light chill off your head in the early Fall. The first hat is the one on the bottom left.

This was an experimental hat I made where I tried to create a "bump" in the middle of the hat, but I don't think it came out right. Maybe if the bump were a different color or shape?

I GOT BIT, and other news

I notice that the days are getting shorter again, and suddenly, out of nowhere… OUCH!!! I got bit! Right on my hands! Feels like I got bit on my heart too. Uh, oh…. It was the KNITTING BUG! The loom knitting species, to be exact. I was all set to get started the other night but other chores got in the way. My wife bought me some round looms for Father’s Day that I haven’t used yet, but I took them out of the package so that they would invite me to get busy at a moment’s notice. I hope to set about starting my first hat before the weekend is out. I’ll keep you posted.

Sometimes friends can influence you more than you realize. I have a friend who recently challenged me to reach out and be more open to people and positive experiences, which is a good thing. Knowing him, he’s probably reading this right now with a bit of a chuckle. This is also something I’ve been challenged with at church as of late. All of the challenges have shown me areas where I need to improve, and I’m certain this will become evident in my art over time.

I’ve also rediscovered an interest in art therapy. It has been years since I thought about art therapy, but lately I have been giving art therapy exercises to a friend and it has been exciting to see his progress. I have to do more research to see if it is a serious or capricious interest. Right now it seems like a serious interest.

Berry-pickin

Today I went berry picking in the backyard. We have wild raspberries growing all over the place. When we first moved, I was suspicious of eating wild foods. But then I finally tried one and ummm! They were good! And I didn't die. So we eat them every year. Now because of all the rain we have a bumper crop of them: