A more "serious" set of ear buds.

By serious I mean no pastel colors and no bow at the junction of the two earbuds. The cord has little alternating loops on it. I think the earbuds are darling, but obviously I designed and made them (and am a tad biased). So judge for yourself.

Voila.

Bow and Bud Love!

-Bow Girl

New doily (on a green chair in Lopata Gallery)

Today I got to go to the EnQuest/Activities fair to work the mug booth. I got free ice cream and tie dyed a shirt. I also made this. I emailed the pattern to my Gmail, opened it on my phone, and voila. So I took a picture of it in Lopata Gallery against a green chair bottom for contrast.




I kind of like lacework... I have been using slightly different strategies for getting the loops over each other, which has made it easier.

Bow Love,
Bow Girl

Blanket Progress

Here is my blanket as of August 21st. It is getting bigger. It is slightly larger than a shawl at this point, and quite a bit longer. I have done a few color stripes (1 or 2) since this. The going is pretty slow since each row is 352 stitches and each color stripe is 4 rows (0ver 1400 stitches!) I am also doing some interim things like lace projects as well. Lace requires practicing a lot. See post from yesterday.



Bow, blanket, hat, lace, cupcake, and whatever else I've crocheted Love!

- Bow Girl

Trying out more thread lace patterns.

I am not a huge lace-making fan, because thread is so thin and difficult to work with sometimes. It also looks very loopy and I can't really tell what I am making or if I am following the pattern correctly until it is nearly finished. However, I picked this doily to make, and I think it is helping improve my technique.

This one seems to have managed to look decent. : )

I'm not sure what to do with it. Maybe put it on the back of my door? Who knows... I want to put it somewhere where it will be somewhat appreciated but not scrutinized, so maybe I should put it in public... I am always hard on myself when it comes to lace making, so I am glad to be even a tiny bit pleased. It was fun to make though, and thread is getting easier for me to work with the more I practice.

Bow Love,
Bow Girl

Bows and Engineering.

Induction went well. All the orientation student staff people decorate hard hats. Mine, naturally, has a bow on it.

What else would a bow girl do? Plus, it made it easy so I didn't have to wear a bow underneath.

Bow and orientation/induction love!

- Bow Girl

Off day.

I am having an off day. But I am working on a lacy doily. I will post soon when I feel more like normal bow girl.

-Bow Girl

My new favorite bow.

Made of Nacho's wool, scalloped ribbon casting with an Irish Rose. Voila!





Tomorrow I can reveal more.

Bow love,
Bow Girl

Bow and headband, all in one!

I have been so busy lately, that I came up with an idea. A bow/headband all in one! It has bows, but they are just... on the headband. Take a look at this pattern I invented.

This is Paco, my alpaca's, wool.

In other news: I am working on my blanket and other random things.

More to come soon!

-Bow Girl

A bit disappointed...

I am a bit sad that no one voted... I always love to exercise my right to vote. However, I got a small but unanimous Facebook consensus. Hexagon... However, I think I may redesign my hexagon tiles... We shall see.

I was sad because today is day day 158 of my bowstravaganza... and I still have some people who don't think I can do this!

But you know what? To quote dear old Martha Washington, wife of the namesake of my dear university:

I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition.

To put it plainly: no one is going to steal my bow thunder. : )

Bow love,

Bow Girl.

Please Vote!

Hexagon vs. Square. Please vote for your favorite in the comments.

These are my two new patterns I whipped up. One will probably become a blanket.

Bow love!

- Bow Girl

So you are probably wondering... What do I do with all of the wool I shear off of my pet alpacas?

So you are probably wondering why I am up at 5:00 AM pacific... I went to sleep at 12:30 AM pacific but still woke up at 5:00 AM because I naturally wake up at 6:45 AM central time. So I actually woke up a few minutes late. Plus I have been getting up at or around 8:00 AM eastern (which is 5:00 AM pacific), so there you go!

In YARN news, I have two alpacas, Paco and Nacho, and I waited 4 years to send in their fiber for refining and spinning into yarn. The spinning company suggested we only sent in the "blankets," which refers to the high quality wool off their backs. So we sent in the 4 "blankets" from each animal. I expected to get about... 2,000 to 4,000 yards of wool. I got 13,790 yards back from the spinner!

13,790 yards! Are you kidding me?

That is 10 yards shy of 138 times the length of a football field. Can you imagine walking a football field 138 times to line it with yarn? I can make at least two HUGE blankets. At least.

My silk bamboo yarn is 102 yards per spool and that is $5.99 retail. I got about 135 times that much yarn back from the spinner. All 6 spools of alpaca wool weighs 15.3 pounds!! HOLY MOLY! I cannot express to you HOW much yarn that is. A baby blanket takes about 1,200 to 1,500 yards of yarn, while a larger blanket can take up about 2500 to 4000 yards. I can make 10 baby blankets (3 feet wide and 4 feet long) and still have more yarn. Not to mention, the colors are so natural and gorgeous. I look at the wool and say, "Paco, Nacho! This wool came from my beloved pets!" and that means the world to me...

I did NOT expect to feel an emotional connection to the wool. But I SO did. I can't sell it. I can't. It is the most luxurious and gorgeous wool I have ever had the privilege to behold. Each skein can make more than one blanket... So I wouldn't have to weave in tied ends!

I am proud to present Paco and Nacho's 4 years of work below:

All 6 spools.


Close up of Paco. Below is Nacho's.

Alpaca love!

-Bow Girl

Back from New England!/Alpaca wool!

Hi bow peeps! I am back in California. New England was beautiful and amazing and I had great seafood (I loved the Salmon, etc.!). I like using polysyndeton, so please excuse my use of conjunctions.

Here are some slightly outdated pictures of the progress of my blanket:

I still need to weave in the color/spool changes. Here is a closeup.
What do you think?

In other news:

I got the wool from the alpacas! There are 3 GIANT spools from each alpaca. So amazing. I will post pics of my blanket that are more recent and of the new wool soon.

Now I've got to take care of my laundry.

Bow Love and more to come!

-Bow Girl

Symbolic

The blanket-in-progress lies on my undressed mattress.

I moved into my room, 103 D, about 9 and a half weeks ago. I slopped all of my possessions, most of them tied inside of clear trash bags, onto the bed and floor. Then I dressed my bed... I crocheted a lot on that bed, propped up against my two pillows, sitting next to Vanilla, Chocolate, and Colby, my 3 stuffed college companions. I won Chocolate at a free dinner, I made Vanilla at a Build-A-Bear at a college event at the Science Museum by Forest Park, and Colby is a black lab that I got when I purchased my first winter coat from Eddie Bauer.

But today, my blanket of experiences is longer than when I got here. When I got here, I only had one blanket... I bought it. I didn't really appreciate it. In fact, it has been tied in a clear plastic bag under my bed all summer until a week or so ago when I moved it out.

I am not sure I can really, truly appreciate an experience of another... to be given a blanket is much different than to make it. You can tell me of an experience, and I can size it up. I can take it to heart. But to make my own blanket... I have done that this summer. Metaphorically. I have had so many learning experiences, both good and bad. I have learned a lot about myself.

And so now I am ready to take leave of 103 D. The bedrooms to the left of mine and around the corner from mine are empty. And soon mine will be too. But away from here I walk with bamboo silk, ready to continue my blanket, both metaphorically and literally.

To extend the metaphor: I am not 100% sure what I want the blanket to be in the end. How big, what colors, etc. I am not sure I can ever be certain of what I really want, since I only have my own blanket of experiences. However, I know I want to keep working on this blanket the way I have been going at it this summer.

My bed is naked. My stuff is gone. But the blanket is just at its infancy.

Crochet love,

Bow Girl

New Directions

I kept dreading having to work on my peacock project... so I decided to shift gears.

I have been a bit under the weather since yesterday afternoon. Luckily crocheting doesn't require much exertion, so I have been working away on the new project.

Here it is! It is shown sprawled across my bed, but that is the width, not the length. It is between 200 and 33 stitches across, but I don't really feel like counting the exact number at present. I would say about 250 if I had to guess.

I quite like it. Okay, you got me. I adore it.

Blanket love!

- Bow Girl