Thanks for all the nice comments on Kenobi.

(Bess - it might just be the having-had-a-break. Or it might be that I typically feel more energetic during the winter months. Or it might be that I'm making a greater effort to eat more fruits/veg and less sugar. Or maybe that I've switched from the sweetened fruity yogurt to plain yogurt, which is more economical and probably better for me.

But I think it might mainly be a change of make-up. For years I had used Clinique, believing it to be the only brand that would not make me break out. But it's a drag having to drive an hour's round trip to replenish, or remember to order on-line early enough so it will come in time for when it's needed. I have a friend who sells Mary Kay and she offered to let me try some of their line - just to see if I liked it and if it agreed with my skin. It does, and I find their lightest-shade foundation is a far, far better match for my skin - it's more of a true ivory-pink - than the Clinique ever was.

And I'm making an effort to use concealer on the undereye shadows. And I've begun, at her suggestion, using an eyebrow pencil to "fill in" the pale outer corners of my brows (not quite so fond of the suggestion - although it's a good one - that I periodically "clean up" by plucking a few stray hairs to shape them better. Not fond of doing it but it looks good enough to be worth doing). I like the slightly darker brows; I fancy it gives me kind of an "old Roman" look (like some of the women in old Roman or Byzantine mosaics). So it's probably the makeup but it might also be being more rested).

I've been working more on my first-ever doily. It's the basic doily from the "Kyuuto: Japanese Crafts - lacy crochet" book I talked about earlier. It's surprising to me how easy I'm finding it - I remember fighting with the crochet cotton when I was younger, and how the perspiration from my hands as I struggled and ripped back and re-did turned the cotton limp and an unappealing greyish shade.

But it's almost like a switch turned in my mind and I understand how to do it, now - and it's satisfying to motor along, referring to the symbolcraft pattern periodically (one of the nice things about these round crocheted things is they have either six-fold or eight-fold symmetry, typically - so once you've done one repeat, you understand what to do for the rest of the round).

My mom's mom crocheted a lot before she lost her sight. She did lace crochet as her "fulfillment" craft (as opposed to the sewing and mitten-knitting that she did so her family would be warm). I have a few pieces of the lace she made (my great-grandma, whom I never knew, also loved to crochet and I have a piece she crocheted).

It's funny but as I work on the doily I can almost imagine my grandmother's hands guiding me as I work, or her standing behind me and looking approvingly over my shoulder. And it delights me that I can turn out something so comparatively delicate (I don't know why I'm surprised: I can knit lace out of fine yarn but somehow being able to crochet with cotton thread feels like a real triumph. Perhaps because I tried before and couldn't do it, and now I can do it pretty easily).

I like historic crafts, things that I feel my grandmother or great-grandmother would recognize. Someday I want to invest in some of the reprints of the old Weldon's magazines that Piecework has produced - even if I never make anything from them, I still think it would be fun to look at them.