Guac Away

Back in December, I shared I had solar-dyed four more balls of crochet thread. Now I have added two more new colors!

A third ball has been soaking alongside these two new balls, but it isn't quite dark enough for me, so it's back in the jar in the window for at least a couple more weeks with fresh pigment in hopes for better saturation.

I just love my avocado skin- and pit-dyed crochet thread colors. I've used plain white worsted cotton to tie my thread hanks prior to dyeing for years now, and I've collected quite a few 12- to 14-inch scraps over the years (four or five strands for each hank) I've never been able to discard because I'm such a "use what you have" and "waste not" nut.

I don't know what I'm going to make with it yet, but I tied all the scraps together and wound them into a ball one afternoon while Lizard slept and I had to do quiet things to keep from waking him. I'm kind of looking forward to coming up with a fun pattern and/or project for this new addition to my avocado collection!

Tweet

Decisions

Last week, I asked my friends and family if I should begin shaping the tail so I can bind off at the end of January, start a new snake on February 1, and finish the year with 12 little unique temperature snakes about two feet long each, or keep going and wind up with a 24-foot snake at the end of the year. I got two responses, one that whatever I do will be cute as can be, and the other a warning to be wary of making a long snake if the forever home might one day be a kid who might play tug of war with it... I must confess, I never considered that second possibility. My eyeballs are still sort of rattling around in my head over that.

I was leaning toward 12 little snakes because one month of growth would be easy to tote around if, by chance, we happen to go anywhere this year. Nothing planned, but I do still keep hoping Lizard might be able to handle another trip one day. I also considered the possibility of making each snake two months long, which would be a pretty cool finished length, in my opinion. I'd wind up with six very unique four-foot-long snakes.

My mind was made up a couple of days later when I saw, for the first time, Planet June's temperature snake CAL photo gallery. I decided I want my own long, long, very long snake!!!

But then a couple of days later, I was trying to come up with a name for my snake. And boy, have I seen some cute ones! Caution Ramen, Fang Ramen, Assault Ribbon, Speed Bump, Slithery Shoelace, Hiss Tube. Suddenly, I was back on the monthly or bi-monthly kick because I wanted to use all the cute names I came up with...

Psychedelic Angel Hair, Lumen Udon, Bulging Bucatini, Plump Pappardelle, Tallow Tagliatelle, Tubby Tube, Paunchy Pici, Roly Poly Tuffoli, Stocky Gnocci, Stout Kraut, Chubby Buddy... I bet I could stay up all night and coin new names!

I briefly considered calling "her" (I think I've decided my snake is female... maybe so she can be bigger than whatever other temperature snakes I create, and she can be the mama mamba...) Desi because there are just too many decisions to make!!! I toyed with the idea of naming her Fredrica, Freddy for short, and I hope you pick up on the connection. I finally named her Mercurina. Because that's so much prettier than Mercury. And I've still got more than a handful of cute names for her offspring!

Tweet

Holy Guacamole!

The awesome tomatoes from my raised-bed gardens this year necessitated the purchase of avocados. Which meant time for me to dye!

Of all the natural dyeing I've done, avocado skins are my favorite, and the pits are NOT the pits, but my second favorite.

After three months of sitting in my living room window, soaking up sun and avocado skin and pit pigment, four new hanks of crochet thread have joined my stash.

I cannot wait to begin using these threads again!

Tweet

Heart Strings

(affiliate links to my designs)

No, not the book!!!

It feels like it's been forever since I began my crocheted heart amigurumi kick. I work on the hearts mostly while Lizard is sleeping. It's something I can do quietly.

I finished the blues back in June. Greens didn't take long because I didn't have that many. That's a hint I need to dye more... But not today.

Pinks took longer, not only because I had more shades of pink than green, but also because life just got in the way. Hallucinations are on the rise, changing seasons means garden cleanup, and there have been a few unwanted visitors in the basement. I might elaborate on that next Tuesday...

Finally finished the pinks this week, and I've had such fun photographing my collection of hearts!

When I create greeting cards (which I absolutely love doing) the most difficult part sometimes is trying to come up with something sweet on the inside, and we're, unfortunately, not talking chocolate. Darn it. Anyway, with all the heart amigurumi photos I shot late Tuesday night, it was time to challenge my brain and get back into the habit of trying to rhyme. (Sometimes...)

I'm about to start the purple hearts. I thought that would be my final batch. Because I do not have many hand-dyed shades of red, orange or yellow. (In part because true red is so difficult to achieve when dyeing.) I might go ahead and combine all three of those colors into yet one more batch of hearts, but that's not a project I look forward to because I don't get as much joy out of working with those colors. Which is why I don't have many of them! (I actually ought to dye more because I do love shades of autumn. Just in photography more than in crochet.)

With all the tomatoes I harvested out of my garden prior to our first freeze last week, I decided it was time to make another avocado salad, one of my favorite garden treats of all. I use my own homegrown tomatoes, onions, chiles (when I have them, farmers market when I don't), cilantro, chives and basil, then add in store-bought pink Himalayan salt, garlic, and Olathe sweet corn, plus black beans I soften and cook from scratch, and the pièce de résistance... store-bought avocados.

Which means... time to dye!!! Which free time I don't have a lot of. But with eight more pits and half a Mason jar full of torn skins, how could I not?!? Now I'm super excited to try to quickly finish my purple hearts so I can make a batch of tiny heart amigurumi with my shades of solar avocado dye!! (I just finished winding the first two new colors, and I can't wait to use them!!!)

Tweet

Blue is My Love

(affiliate link to my GCU shop)

Six weeks later, I've finally finished making a heart from each of my hand-dyed, solar-dyed blue crochet thread colors. I remember the days when I could complete a project like this in just a couple of weeks... But, no more bus and/or train commutes for me!

It may have taken a while, but it was a labor of love. Double love, actually. Nothing says love more than hearts! Well, except maybe chocolate...

I think when I first began this project, I was intending to make a necklace of crocheted blue hearts. I got impatient the first couple of weeks, though, and made a five-heart necklace. It turned out okay, I think. I'm not so sure I'm inspired to make another blue heart necklace.

(affiliate link to my Etsy shop)

I took short breaks to make four other blue crochet thread necklaces for my Etsy shop. I'm really glad I did. But now, six weeks later, I'm a little tired of blue. Hard to believe! Never in a million years thought I'd ever grow tired of blue!

(affiliate links to my Etsy shop)

Before I finished the hearts, I photographed what I had so far for a few greeting card images. That was inspiration enough to keep me going to finish the project.

(affiliate link to my GCU shop)

I don't have as many of each color family in the rest of my hand-dyed, solar-dyed crochet thread collection. That makes it a little easier to contemplate repeating the feat with green, reds and pinks, then purples. (There probably aren't enough oranges or yellows to make an Etsy project.) When I first began my blue heart project, I was determined to make a heart from each color of thread I've dyed. Like I did with my little owls back in 2019.

I just remembered I made butterflies from all the colors in my hand-dyed stash back in July of 2018.

(affiliate link to my Spoonflower shop)

I just realized somewhere there are two or three empty gum Altoid tins full of dragonflies. I never got to finish them. I think that was right before Lizard's total knee replacement, which would be an acceptable excuse for never finishing. Except now I'm going to kind of be craving that...

Oh, my heavens. That made me search. Hadn't planned on that when I started this blog post. But now found. I think the challenge may be effectively renewed now...

Also found was another long-forgotten project in the same hiding place. I don't know if I planned to make one of every color in my hand-dyed stash, but my goodness, they are so darned cute, how can I resist???

I've gifted about half of my little owls in the last year. The kids I teach on Sundays love them. As do my grands. I'm not so sure any of the boys would be as fond of hearts. I can see eye rolls and hear "Eeeeewww!"s and "Ick!"s without even showing the boys. Yet, the yearning to create and photograph never stops surging through my soul. I'll probably do the green hearts next because the new me is driven to finish what I start before I take on anything new. At least that's the goal...

Tweet

Wordless Wednesday

Tweet