HK, & I've been digging.....

Right now McDonald's is giving away Hello Kitty prizes with their happy meals. So I went 3 times this week ;o) I'm a vegetarian, but there are plenty of carnivores in my casa, so if my spouse or son don't want the cheeseburger, I split it between my dogs! (See, nothing goes to waste!)

Here's my booty--
a cute canister with different outfits on opposite sides, depending on whether you feel like a princess or a ballerina. It comes with HK clip and stickers, very cute. And 2 HK pouches with velcro closure. (Wonder what they think about a grown woman coming through the drive-through asking for a happy meal, with no kids in sight? Time and time again. Heh!) Time to make another run... :D

On the subject of HK, I have to tell a story. I bid on and won some flannel Hello Kitty hawaiian fabric from Ebay, sometime last year. I was so excited that I won, couldn't wait for my 3 yards of fabric to arrive (total with shipping ~$15)--it was destined to become flannel pants! Let's face it, Hawaiian HK-pants are the next best thing when you long for Hawaii, but can't go, and your locale has single digit temperatures!!!

But, when it came in the mail, I was (unhappily) surprised to see that the background color of this fabric was AWFUL. I mean horrible. Words cannot describe what a nasty pink it was. And the kitties were a wierd yellowish color--either the paint faded on the fabric, or it was "glow-in-the-dark white"--if you catch my drift. Anyway, I couldn't see myself wearing such a nasty color of flannel pants, no matter if they were hawaiian Hello Kitty!

So I bought a bottle of RIT tan dye, and overdyed the whole thing in my washer. I'd heard that was a good way to tone down fabrics and make them go together like a tea-dye.
So now I have antiqued hawaiian Hello Kitty fabric for my winter flannel-pants! Ha ha!

In knitting news, I found some cool links I've never seen: I like this blog, she's in Italy. She designed a nice bag to be rid of plastic bags at the store....

Hmm, when I get to spinning, some day, when I have a wheel, I will order a whole fleece, and clean and card and do the whole shebang myself from start to finish. This would be a good source for the fleece (or right now, for their wool yarns...Cool.)

I really like this site, all about cozy cottage living. I love that, it seems to be my inherent style (if I have a style at all!)

Wow, look at all the Latvian mittens! I learned about this site, from this post at Habetrot, so amazing to see all the beautiful knitwork en masse! Takes my breath away....And oh, do I ever love the Habetrot blog. To dream of being in any place she pictures, and the fiber sisterhood going on all over the planet, with or without internet! Wowee. (Look at the leaping lambies!)

Now for the digging: I went diving into my crochet thread stash. Have been a lace crocheter for many years, and I knew it was time to document my WIP that have been sitting there for a while. Since knitting fever hit me, I have not done much thread crochet (well I kinda stopped all textile fun while getting my degree and career running...but now I'm back, baby, with a vengeance!)

Here's the first item I pulled out:

it's a lace edging that I was either planning for a pillowcase edging, or a window valance. Pattern was a chart from a library book by Better Homes and Gardens. Don't even have any idea what book (I copied this about 15 years ago!) It looks almost done to me, I will have to decide what to do with it. Think it would look great on my bed as a pillow edging (very luxurious!)

Next thing I found was this pattern for a curtain:
My wonderful, beautiful grandmother bought me all this thread when I told her I wanted to make this pattern (I still have balls & balls of this).
My gramma is no longer with me, but her love and generosity will always be. I should finish this; will work on it with cherished memories of her in my heart. :)
I had hand copied the pattern--don't know where it's from, but I remember the picture of the finished curtain was amazing. Huge and lacy.
Wow, that is some lacy note-taking. Some of those pages are double sided! I was a very determined crafter (WAS?!) Heh!

I also found this in the bottom of that project bag:

It's a trivet in progress: my grandmother in law had one of these, looked like a cluster of grapes, and had green leaves crocheted at the top of the cluster. Look how they're made:

Very thrifty use for bottle caps! I stuff the cap with a large cotton ball, then crochet rounds of purple variegated thread around, attaching them at some point to the other ones. Should finish this, too!

Don't have a recipe chosen yet, hmm, will have to get back with that. Must get hair cut and colored today, must, must. Has been 8 months!!! (Yikes, don't ask.)