Workin' at home. (thanks to the "ice day.")

I have been doing some knitting and crochet - my goal this weekend is to finish the Art Mohair stole I've been working on for like, forever, and also to finish Gloria G. the Baby Triceratops.

The light today has that particular winter feel to it - it's almost a cold sort of sunlight, like it's bouncing off snow. Cold and clear and it seems like it doesn't have to penetrate much humidity to get here...Crisp.

And a couple more things around my house that I never photographed (because they were made or obtained Pre Camera) but that I've noticed in the past couple days and that make me happy.

A pillow from the funny vintage-y style snowman fabric that I used in a quilt. When I started planning the pillow, the one thing I KNEW was that it had to have ball fringe. Because ball fringe makes vintagey fabric even moreso.

And I love the unexpectedness of its color combination - the periwinkle background, the hints of red and chartreuse and orange in it.

(Two of my Christmas moose - Broose and Spruce - are sitting next to it).

And this is a little toy mouse:


I think her name is Lisa. She also has a pair of little pink overalls to wear but I like the Christmas dress on her better. You can't see it but she has a perfect little tail made out of a crochet chain of embroidery floss (and her pantaloons have a little "buttonhole" in them to accomodate her tail.) I made her probably back around 1992 or so. (So no pattern is available, sorry! I look at a lot of the things I've made over the years, and looked at all the small-scale pattern-merchants online and thought, dang, I could have hundreds of people across the country making sisters to Lisa...)

And there's also this:


This is NOT amigurumi. Or at least not amigurumi in the sense of being made today, and being made from a Japanese pattern. I suppose this is another piece of evidence that many trends in Japan originated in the U.S. and it took the Japanese to make it "cool."

The little guy - he's supposed to be a little space-alien dude - is named Ringo. I bought him at the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market probably around 1988 or so. (I made the little scarf he is wearing). He was just so cute sitting on the table - the woman had a number of different little toys made up, most of them from patterns like those Annie's Attic used to sell. Ringo was the cutest though - he is made out of white yarn with a little silver tinsel strand running through it. (I remember it was one of those rare instances of me seeing a thing and thinking "I have to take that home with me!" Luckily, Ringo was only like $2.50 or so.)

But the similarity to "modern day" amigurumi is striking.

normally Ringo sits on one of the bookcases in my bedroom but I think I'll leave him sitting out in my living room this season - after all, he's white, red, and green.

As I said, I've been doing a little research work at home. And in between downloading species lists and doing computations on them, I've been surfing craft-blogs which always makes me happy and inspired. And one thing I saw that I eventually want to make is this vintage style crocheted blanket. That makes me so happy. It is so bright and so cheerful and it would be warm and it makes me think of grandmothers and little cottages in the wood and sitting in front of the fire making something pretty and warm and useful. All that good stuff.

I'll probably add more links in here as I work and surf and find things.

But right now, things are good - I have two more hours of the jokey local radio hosts who have the afternoon show, then it's the cartoons I like (the QUBO block. Yes, they are "e/i" cartoons and aimed at younger kids. But I like them because they do not feel they have to be "edgy" which so many cartoons do). And this weekend, the Harry Potter movies are on tv. Rawk. I love the movies - not because I have any kind of bizarre crushes on Snape or anything (although I know there are people that have written about just such a thing) but because I love the world that the movies create. The little touches - the fact that the brands the wizards use are different from the "muggle" brands, the whole school-story aspect of it, the unusual names. (I mean, really: Diagon Alley. How can that NOT make you smile a little). Just the whole other-world-with-all-kinds-of-lovingly-imagined-detail that I like so much.