Can Recycling Undermine My Image?

Anyone who knows me at all, knows that I have recycled before it was called that. My recycling of gold came from my inability to give up on a ring that was reduced to melted lumps. Since that was not the look I was going for and I was determined not to buy more gold (at the time it was $35) I grabbed some tweezers and started pushing around the gold while heating it.
Another great moment in saving the planet came when I discovered that cats can easily adapt to newspaper instead of kitty litter. This also saves enough money to pay for the subscription.
Now I find that I am shipping allot of packages. I put my shawl pins and Cable Needle necklaces in beautiful jeweled tone silk zippered pouches. I hand write a personal note. I include a few brochures from friends' businesses. And then I take the whole shebang and wrap it in a ...oh my God, plastic bag from the local grocery chain. Besides being free, they are light, water proof and keep everything safe and rattle free. I imagine that the recipient uses the bag for a further purpose till the end of time. But what kind of first impression am I making? I gag at the thought of buying (gag motivator #1) fancy colored tissue which I would crumple up (gag motivator #2) to fill the box and cushion the enclosed item.
I have used newspaper which serves the same purpose but feels like a lateral move. My goal is to use something that is free and classy. Any suggestions?
Blog On!
Leslie

You Know It's Fall On Cape Ann When...

Photo by Kate Glass, Gloucester Daily Times

...political signs crowd the Halloween lawn displays

...the wind shifts to the northwest and roars right down the funnel that is Folly Cove.
...the Dairy Train closes until spring.

...the fall foliage display at the Rockport dump is spectacular.

...whale watch season comes to an end.

...Christmas displays appear in the local stores by Columbus Day.

...it's cool enough to crochet a mohair shawl and be grateful for its warmth as you work.

...there is no more baseball.

Red Sox Winter

Rain at Fenway: Photo by BBC News

"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart.
The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.
You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.
Today, a day of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone."
--A. Bartlett Giamatti, "The Green Fields of the Mind"

Thank you, 2008 Red Sox. You did your best with what you had this year.

-Maureen

Fiber-Craft Day, October 4

These are nurses, not nuns. Don't be scared!

If anyone will be in the area this weekend, we are having the second annual Fiber-Craft Day at the Rockport Community House at 58 Broadway Saturday, October 4th from 12 noon to 5 p.m. Mapquest directions here.

The event is free to the public and we encourage all ages to participate to explore and learn about the fiber arts and artists. Try your hand at knitting, weaving, spinning, crochet, observe new techniques in designer rug making, and more. There will be exhibitors selling yarn (Rob and Laurel from Coveted Yarn with yarn from $2 to $50 a skein) and other items. People will also be demonstrating their craft, for example, Leslie will be demonstrating metalwork. You can watch, learn, socialize, sit and work on your craft or whatever. While you are there, please cross the street and say hello to Helen at Helen Parker Textiles at 67 Broadway. My Pumpkin Hats are in the window there!

If you’d like, please bring something for the pot luck lunch. (I will be demonstrating eating during this part of the event.)

This event is hosted by several members of the Essex County Needlecraft Guild under the auspices of the Rockport Community League. For additional information, just email Leslie.

Be there or be square!

- Maureen

Avast, me hearties!

Arrr, September 19 is Talk Like a Pirate Day! Get yer pirate name. Then talk like a pirate or yer a stinkin' blige rat. Swill some grog and caper to the hornpipe. Shiver me timbers!

- Captain Mary Bonney (Maureen the other 364 days)

Happy International Crochet Day!

Sept. 12 is International Crochet Day. To celebrate, I'm doing a couple of things. First, I'm showing off my latest Finished Object. This is a scarf from a CAL (Crochetalong) on Ravelry. The pattern is called the Sweet Loopy Scarf, and the yarn is the astonishingly gorgeous Rayon Metallic from Blue Heron. This photo does not do the yarn justice. It has subtle sparkle from gold to complement the Raspberry colorway, and the scarf actually has a little more magenta in the mix than shown here. I got the yarn from Coveted Yarn, an online store owned by friends Rob and Laurel Porter of Gloucester. Rob is adding new yarns every week and really growing the business. It's exciting to see it happen and because I live nearby, I get to see some of the new yarns "in person."

I'm also meeting my friend Helane at the Barnes and Noble in Burlington, MA today for coffee. I told Helane that I'm bringing crocheting with me. So, to celebrate the day - I'll be hooking in public.

- Maureen

Michael Phelps, the Red Sox, and Barack Obama

That title sounds like the punch line to a joke, doesn't it? I will now explain how I got 8 ravelympics medals to equal Phelps.

The tote bag surprised me by only taking 8 days. I had 9 days left in the Ravelympics, so I decided to challenge myself by doing a lot of little projects instead of another big one.

The five baby hats were done in my identity as part of Team Red Sox Nation. These baby hats are for charity. My friend Rob Porter owns www.covetedyarn.com, a website with many amazing yarns in varying price ranges (as well as lovely Leslie Wind shawl pins). Rob found out that Beverly (MA) Hospital didn't always have hats for the newborns. Thus was born his quarterly contest. If you donate any knit or crocheted hats to him for the hospital, each hat entered will be counted as an entry into a drawing for a $50 gift certificate to his website. There is no limit on the number of hats you can send in. Please make them newborn or preemie size; the hospital will accept any type of yarn. To be eligible for this quarter's contest, all hats must be received by end of day on September 30. All hats should be sent to: Coveted Yarn, PO BOX 6015, Gloucester, MA 01930. Please include contact info so Rob can let you know if you win!! (If you include your e-mail he will include you in mini sales he runs for entrants.) Oh, and you do not have to use yarn purchased from Coveted Yarn. Rob says, "I'm not that guy."

So anyway, I got 5 gold medals for the hats. 2 more to go.

I then did two washcloths for Team Obama. We are part of another Ravelry group, Knitters for Obama, that is knitting and crocheting items for homeless veterans. The shelters told our organizers of the need for hats, washcloths, scarves, fingerless mitts, lap robes. With very little time to go in the Ravelympics, I just did the two washcloths. Only one is pictured above, because, really, do I need to take up bandwidth to show you another crocheted square? The Knitters for Obama are continuing on, and right now I'm working on a hat.

So that's the end of my story of the eight gold medals. What I really won was newfound knowledge about Kool-Aid dyeing, a beautiful tote bag, the satisfaction of charity work, and positive messages on Ravelry from the US, Canada, and Japan.

Sounds like a cute little event for crocheters and knitters, right? We got the final statistics from Ravelry yesterday and they are mind-blowing. During the Ravelympics, participants completed 6,764 finished objects using almost 2 million meters/1,240+ miles/2,183,131 yards of yarn in 56 countries.

- Maureen (known on Ravelry as RockportMo)