Craft Wonderland for Christian Crafters!

Well, my friend Ishy of TechnoChicks has started up another new forum: Craft Wonderland! So far, I've racked up thirty-eight posts in four days, and we aren't even "really" up and running. But feel free to come join; we DO have stuff going on.

Since it's a "Craft Wonderland," the theme is Alice in Wonderland. And in case you were wondering, yes, we ARE all mad. In fact, Ishy is the Mad Hatter; I'm the Queen of Hearts. OFF with your head!

Okay, all better. :)

On a serious note, we have some great features. The most interesting one to me is our Member Showcase, which is just that: a subforum where every member can create a thread to showcase all their creative stuff, whether it's digital art or photos of your work; you can also include writing, whether it's creative writing or short essays.

Speaking of creative writing, Ishy is working on the Creative Writing forum. Should be fun; Ishy is a very creative person, and quite a good writer. I'm working with the Art and Digital Art section, as well as Papercrafts (which is currently part of the Other Handicrafts section. Ishy and I are both working with the Knitting and Crochet section, too.

Know what we have that other craft forums don't? Faith Talk and Prayer Requests. That's right: Craft Wonderland is a Christian-oriented craft site. You don't have to be a Christian to join, but you do have to respect our faith. So, we'll be keeping it clean. Yay!

For the low price of nothing, all this can be yours. So come join us!

Belliveau Shores-Gulf Cove Hat!

I finished crocheting my first hat from a pattern (about a week and a half ago)! Yay me! And not only that: I customized the pattern!

I love hats, and cloches are one of my favorite styles! So when I saw THIS pattern, I couldn't wait to try it! I really couldn't justify going out and buying more yarn, though, and I had three skeins of Paton's Classic Wool in black...which, conveniently, makes up about three-quarters of my wardrobe.

Okay, so I have some really great (if basic) yarn that I bought on sale...except that it's thinner than the Lamb's Pride Bulky for which the Belliveau Cove pattern was written, and thicker than the Lily Sugar and Creme called for in the Gulf Shores hat. But I really can't go buy more yarn. So, I forged ahead and customized the pattern.

Like I said, I used Patons Classic Wool. That yarn calls for a size 7 hook, but I only have a G and an H, and none of the stores carry a 7. So I used a G. I added an extra round of double crochet stitches after round six; I increased it by one stitch every six, for a total of eighty-four stitches going into the shell stitch portion. If I were to do it again, I would make my increase round single crochet or half double, and add an extra round of shell stitches before the shaping the bell (round thirteen in the pattern). But I had already frogged several rounds to go back and add the extra round on the crown, and I was not about to crochet the same section a third time! Instead I added a single crochet edging, which helped lengthen it just a bit.

All in all, though, I'm very happy with my new black hat. :) And just in time for the really cold weather (by Atlanta standards) from the last week. Now I'm making an amigurumi "Fat Kitty" from Crochet Me. :) Light blue with embroidered eyes, since it's for a baby boy!

Behind the veils...

I think the average person would be so surprised if they were a fly on the wall at a dance rehearsal! Every single woman in my dance company has been dancing for years; Ghala and I have been dancing for over a decade, with the same troupe! But you wouldn't have known it if you had seen us practicing last night.

We're working on double veil right now, and boy is it a challenge! And it's not just any double veil combinations; I would swear Saroya has searched for the most mind-bogglingly complicated moves in existence! We snagged the veils on our jewelry and hip wraps, tangled them around our arms and legs, caught them on our skirts, and generally became ensnared. One set of evil veils were dubbed "the veils that ate Atlanta." Not our most shining moment.

On the bright side, I did come up with a way to gracefully transition the veil out of a front butterfly wrap through a spin. So it wasn't a total loss.

Moral of the story: Next time you see a dancer performing, give her some credit. That stuff is hard work and takes months of practice!