In an interesting turn of events, an Italian reader, Lila, found my Knit Felted Catnip Mouse pattern, and asked permission to translate it to Italian to share on a crafting board she’s a member of. I said, “by all means, yes!” and her work is currently in progress.

Lila was nice enough to share a link to pictures of her first finished topolino, as they’re known in Italian. Here it is: http://crea.ornato.it/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=101&p=483#p483

She appears to be creating a chart for the pattern as well, which will be a bonus even for those of us who only read and understand English.

I’ll be linking to the translation once Lila’s done with her work. Many thanks, Lila! I appreciate how hard this must be to do!

Carol over at Knitting Knot surprised me last night with an award!

I was so touched – thank you, Carol!

It seems that the protocol is that I now have to pick ten bloggers who similarly make my day. Only ten? Wow…this is going to be hard…

Okay, in no particular order, here they are. Some of these folks are real world friends that I don’t see often enough. Some are blog friends I’ve come to love as if I saw them in person every day. Some are just people who tell really inspiring and interesting stories about their lives. In each case, my heart beats a little faster and my eyes light up when I see that they’ve published a new post:

• Judith at Bead Line Studios
• Julie at Little Cotton Rabbits
• Liz at Liz Knits
• Elspeth at Knitting and Television
• Dave at Cabin Cove
• Sara at FabricNFiberFanatic
• Valerie at Further Adventures of the Secret Yarninator
• Claudia at Heal My Life
• Angela at My Tangled Threads
• Sarah at Everything Fibery and Crafty Except My Beading

There are so many others I could name, so I hope no one feels slighted for not being on the list. I love you all!

First things first – I’ve posted a review of the new Potter Craft Book, The Yarn Lover’s Guide to Hand Dyeing, over at Shopping Jen. Do go read it – there were some, um, interesting developments in the process of examining this title.

Second – over the Thanksgiving break, I’ve had a chance to think about the place that blogging holds in my life. I originally created my blogs with the intent that they would support, and help me to explore, my crafting.

I have generally really enjoyed the process, writing blog posts, making connections with so many people who have become friends. Which is why I was really surprised to find last week that I felt relieved not to have to blog. That had never happened when I’ve taken breaks before.

I had plenty of time to think about the why and wherefore of that discovery. The conclusion I came to was that the blog was no longer being driven by the crafting – the crafting was being driven by the blog. I had reached a space where I would alter my crafting choices so I had something to blog about, make myself work on projects when I didn’t feel like it, and more.

I had become a blogger, not a crafter. And Crafting Jen is supposed to be about my development as a person who crafts. Not as a blogger.

Clearly, the blog has started to get in the way of me doing what I really want to be doing. It makes sense, then, to change that.

I’m not saying I’ll never blog again. But it will only be when something really noteworthy happens, like whenever we finally get a new pair of Rattie babies to add to the family.

As for Shopping Jen, I had already pulled that back to a “when I have something to review” basis, and I think I’ll leave it there. So it won’t go away, either.

I realize this choice will make it difficult for my readers who don’t use a news aggregator like Bloglines or Newsgator to read. I’ll understand if you can’t keep checking back to see if I’ve posted something new. But I have to do what I have to do.

As a corollary to the above, I’m also going to stop reading the vast majority of the fiber blogs I follow. There are some that are genuinely entertaining that I will continue reading. And of course, there are some of you that I feel a special connection to whose blogs will stay on my roll as well.

If I am known to have read your blog in the past, and I disappear, please know that it’s not you. I just can’t keep reading all the blogs that I do, and writing a blog daily, and continue to pursue my crafting in a way that is meaningful to me.

Freebie Fridays will also disappear, though I may offer a freebie on random occasions where I come across something to good not to give away. I won’t promise anything – we’ll just have to see what develops.

It’s been a long, strange ride, and I’ve learned a lot from my blogging, and from all of you. Maybe I’ll come back to this one day, maybe not. Meanwhile, I’m leaving the blog up so the information it offers will still be available to all who want it.

Thank you to all my friends and readers, and have a very Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

One of the many, unanticipated benefits of having this blog has been the good friends that I’ve discovered online. One of those is Sara, a scrapbooker out in Utah who blames me for her new addiction to knitting. (To which I say, hey, I never held a Double-Point to her head! LOL)

Out of the blue a week or so ago, Sara asked me for my mailing address. And lo, over the weekend, this arrived in our Post Office box!

Maneki Neko pendant from squidglass’ Etsy shop

Sara did a good job of noticing things I like – kitties, Japanese things, glass art – and picking a gift that I will wear with joy for years to come. I’m still deciding what to do for a cord – bead a necklace? Tie a simple waxed linen cord? Find a chain?

In the meantime, this little kitty waves up at me from the desk in front of my computer, bringing me a “forever” greeting from my friend Sara. Thank you, Sara!

Shopping Jen

The new review blog is live, though a little barren so far. You can find it at http://www.shoppingjen.com. I hope you’ll bookmark, subscribe, and visit it often – I plan to post content fairly regularly.

I still need to write the About and F.A.Q. pages, and add an e-mail link. I’ve put up a “Welcome!” post, however, and have began seeding Shopping Jen with updated versions of reviews I’ve written over the last couple of years.

Today’s re-visited review is the book The Art of Beadwork, by Valery Hector. I originally wrote it in June of 2005, and it appeared on the now-vanished beadwork blog, Confessions of a Chantraphile. (All of Chantraphile’s posts were imported here – no worries about lost material!)

Later this week…

I’m planning to do another giveaway over the weekend! Be sure to stay tuned – I think it might just be handmade bead jewelry this time!

Elspeth caught me, she did. I don’t normally care for memes, but this one is pretty simple, and actually a bit fun. So here goes!

The game is SCATTERGORIES … and it’s harder than it looks! Here are the rules:
* Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the questions.
* They MUST be real places, names, things … NOTHING made up!
* If you can’t think of anything, skip it.
* You CAN’T use your name for the boy/girl name question.
* If your name happens to start with the same letter as mine, sorry, but you can’t use my answers!

My name:Jenny

1. Famous Singer/Band: Jewel
2. Four letter word: jazz
3. Street: Jump (For real – three of them, in Bucyrus, OH, and in Pasco and Collier, FL)
4. Color: Jonquil
5. Gifts/Presents: Jewelry
6. Vehicle: Jetta
7. Things in a Souvenir Shop: Jelly (or Jam)
8. Boy Name: Jonathon
9. Girl Name: Jessica
10. Movie Title: Jumanji
11. Drink: Juice
12. Occupation: Jazz singer
13. Celebrity: Jennifer Anniston
14. Magazine: Jet
15. U.S. City: Juneau, Alaska
16. Pro Sports Teams: Utah Jazz (Jazz is a useful J-word!)
17. Fruit: Jamun Berry
18. Reason for Being Late for Work: Just Because
19. Something You Throw Away: Junk
20. Things You Shout: Jumpin’ Jehosephat!
21. Cartoon Character: Samurai Jack

Okay, I’ll admit to using my Google-fu in places. Could never have come up with a fruit starting with “J” otherwise, and I’m clueless about sports teams!

I’m not going to tag anyone – this is making the rounds pretty well. But if you feel like playing along, go for it!

What a week we had last week. Let me start by saying how very grateful both Gryphon and I were for the massive outpouring of sympathy, condolences, virtual hugs, and love you all sent in comments and e-mail. I didn’t even try to answer anyone until today, but I think I’ve gotten all the individual responses out now. My sincere apologies if I’ve overlooked someone.

I couldn’t help but think, as I saw your comments come in, back to the days when I used to work in offices. I can’t imagine the kind of co-workers I had in those gruntwork data-entry places understanding what Star’s loss meant to us at all. “It was just a rat, for crissakes! Get ovah it!” I am so glad that I don’t have to deal with that sort of clueless person anymore.

No, instead, I have my blog, and I have you, my wonderful blog friends, who rose to the occasion brilliantly with a full understanding of how even a rat can touch our hearts, and rip a little piece away with them when they leave us.

Tuesday was a day that was already so over-full of errands, doctor’s appointments, and other urgent matters, that I even had to ask a friend stay at my house most of the day to receive a package that required a signature. On top of that, when we went to bed on Monday night, we had decided that Star was having too much difficulty feeding herself, and getting about, and that it was time.

The veterinarian was able to fit us in on her lunch hour on Tuesday. She assessed Star’s condition and agreed that we were making the right decision for her, reassuring us in our choice. Gryphon and I cradled Star in our hands. It was over quickly.

We curled Star, as if sleeping, in a fabric travel water bowl for pets that the girls loved snoozing in, along with a couple of her well-chewed plastic frogs, and a whole walnut. Having no outdoor space of our own, a good friend allowed us to bury Star in a small patch of trees in her backyard.

I was shocked by how much losing Star impacted me. I’ve lost pets before, but apparently rats have touched my heart in a way that dogs and cats, as much as I loved them, never could. It’s taken until today before I felt I could get a grip, get my focus back, and try to move on.

As for Sable and Lola, we feel blessed that Lola came into our lives when she did. Sable, while she clearly understands that Star is gone, has made a good transition, having Lola there already to sleep with. And I think this photo I took last Monday shows that she’s accepted Lola as a grooming partner.

Yes, it’s been submitted to the most excellent blog, LOLRats. Don’t know if they’ll post it, but at least you get to see it here. If you like cute pictures of ratties, do click through to LOLRats and browse the photos there, you’ll have a good laugh!

Thank you for riding through the blog silence of the past week with me. I’m back now, and actually have some different sorts of things to offer you this week. It’s going to be a Reviews Week, I guess, since I’ve recently been sent a backpack to look over (goodness knows how I get on these lists!), and even a couple of knitting books to talk about. I’m thinking there might even be a give-away posted by next weekend. Oh, and I did some knitting last week, in spite of my funk, so you’ll get to see the latest pair of finished socks. As soon as I’ve finished them, that is, but I’m only two rows away from binding off …

Stay tuned, it should be interesting!

I didn’t forget to mention this on Monday, but that post was long enough, and had other things to deal with. So here I am today, with my public Thank You to Leesa, a blogless blogfriend.

Leesa surprised me big time when this arrived in the mail on Saturday:

That’s a handmade “Wristlet” bag, made by Midnight Creations, an Etsy shop (www.midnightcreations.etsy.com). Leesa said (in the beautiful card pictured behind the bag), “So there I was, browsing on Etsy…It was fibery, fun, functional, full of color, fabricated by hand, feline-oriented, and just screamed “FOLKCAT”!”

She was oh, so right – and so very sweet to buy it and send it to me! If you look closely, you can see it even has a beaded zipper pull, with the focal bead being a nice purple one. And the zipper pull is on a lobster claw, so it could even be taken off and used as a row marker for knitting!

I already have the perfect use for the bag. When I go out with my knitting, my notions travel in a couple of cheap, plastic pencil pouches I got in the (former) $1 Spot at Target. How much classier to put them in this wonderful bag, especially when the tote I’m carrying everything in is a felted piece handknit of Noro Kureyon. At last, a notions pouch worthy of the knitting bag!

So Leesa, thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU! I LOVE IT!

I found this over at my friend Sarah’s blog. I take these quizzes now and then as a lark, never expecting serious results. This time, I was a bit surprised. Take a look at the results first, then read below for why this is so freaky.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Your Score: The Cougar

Here’s your results! Your spirit animal has a Nobility ranking of 13 out of 18.

Your spirit animal is the cougar. It is a stealthy and deadly protector. With a cougar as a spirit animal, you have nothing to fear in this world. Your life is blessed and you are on the right path. You will still have hard times, but you will pull through them, always stronger for your travails. Congratulations, few are fotunate enough to have such a spirit animal!

***Wondering how this animal was chosen for you? These questions were carefully thought out to see how important you hold certain virtues such as: humanism, self-knowledge, rationalism, the love of freedom and other somewhat Hellenic ideals. Some of the questions were very subtle. Your score was then matched with an animal of corresponding nobility. However, you shouldn’t think this was a right/wrong sort of test, but more of an idealistic values test. It’s ok to not hold these values, you’ll just get an animal spirit of lower stature if you do!***

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Okay, here’s why this freaked me out a bit.

Quite a number of years ago – at least 11 or 12 – I was handed my first spirit animal by a stranger in a mall. Gryphon and I were looking through the tumbled stones in a Nature Company store. There was a funny little woman – plump, dressed more like a hippy than a fashion plate. You know the type.

Hmm. Actually, I am the type, aren’t I?

Anyhow, this woman was running around the area with the tumbled stones, showing everyone a piece of agate she’d found, and saying “there’s a lion in this stone!”

She showed it to me, and sure enough, the layers of color in the piece had made a silhouette that looked like a female lion or a puma, seated, head turned to the left, and right paw slightly raised.

I made a comment about how interesting it was, and thought nothing more of the matter. I naturally assumed that the woman was planning to buy the stone herself. But, no – a few moments later, she suddenly walked up to me, place the lion agate in my hand, and said, “this is for you.” Or some such words – I can’t remember them exactly, now.

I was aware enough even then to pay attention to signs, especially when they’re handed directly to you. I thanked her and purchased the stone.

Not long after that, I participated in a guided meditation session for meeting your spirit animal. A female mountain lion took me on a journey, not below the earth, but into the sky and to the sun.

And now, this little quiz tells me that a cougar (mountain lion, puma) is my spirit animal.

I think I may need to have a chat with Cougar again.

Well, today is simply getting away from me, so I’m not going to take time to say much here. I want to thank everyone who’s been offering such nice compliments about my Weavette squares and quilt squares. It’s one thing to think for myself that the things I make are pretty – it’s quite another when someone outside yourself agrees. So, thank you!

Thanks also to the many comments and e-mails from those who are kindred spirits in Tea. It’s nice to know I already have a community of like-minded friends in my new Tea Fancy. I think I need to go brew a cuppa…

Before I do, though, my wishes for a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend to all of you. Gryphon actually has Monday off from both jobs, so I’ll probably not post until Tuesday. Don’t know what we’ll do yet – we’re not outdoors people, and there’s a prediction of scattered thunderstorms on Monday – but we will at least take the day at our leisure and enjoy it. May you all get to do the same, no matter how you choose to spend it!

Bet that got your attention, huh? The funny part is, I didn’t make that up just to make you look – I have a genuine reason to refer to “Giant Marsupial Rats”.

One of my Very Good BlogFriends, Valerie, is currently traveling around Australia visiting family and friends. She’s been able to stay somewhat connected while there, so there have been very interesting posts of her adventures, complete with photos of Aussie wildlife.

She’s also been very sweet in thinking of me while she’s there, and has sent these postcards. That’s a kookaburra on the left (kookaburra sits in the old gum tree, eatin’ all the gumdrops he can see…). The creature on the right, however, is the source of this post’s title.

Valerie posted about her visit to Rottnest Island, and the creatures known as Quokkas, in her post here. The quokkas are cat-sized marsupials, and as friendly as squirrels in a city park. (Read – they come up to you and beg for food!) Dutch settlers thought they looked like rats – and they do, somewhat, including a long, naked tail. This is what gave the island it’s name – Rottenest, or Rat Nest, recently shortened to Rottnest.

I think Valerie knew how much I’d love the idea of a friendly, giant, marsupial rat. After all, we’re a very rat-friendly home here. We even have our own versions of rats’ nests!

Sable’s Den

Sable is still fond of the tissue box we gave her for the Rattie Birthday celebration. These days, it lives on an ottoman near the front corner of my chair, just beside the table that their cage rests on. She’s taken to spending most of her daytime sleep hours (while I’m home to supervise, of course) curled up in this box, under the celestial throw that they also like to crawl around under.

We’ve always kept a tissue box inside the cage for nesting, too. That’s a favorite spot for Star. I caught her sleeping in it at the same time I took the photo of Sable above, but I don’t think Star was too pleased to be disturbed for the picture!

Star on a Knitted Blanket

That’s a garter-stitch knitted washcloth, aka Rattie Rug, folded up for a nice cushion. Fear not, Star was not irretrievably disrupted – moments later, she curled back up and is now snoozing comfortably.

Handspun Monday

It’s not always about actual spinning, it turns out. Some days, it’s about making things with my handspun.

I’ve mentioned last week about the Weavettes looms that I purchased at NH S&W, and showed pictures of my rapid progress in weaving squares on them. Most successful so far is the pink/orange/red handspun yarn, which is coming out a lovely, heathered tweed in variations of light and dark.

I am definitely going to make a throw pillow from these squares. Each side will have four 6″ squares in the corners, separated by central vertical and horizontal bands of 2″ squares. That will make a 14″ pillow, a size I can easily buy a readymade form for.

I found vintage weaving loom books on the web in PDF format, and picked up a simple texture to add some interest to the whole thing. Half of my squares will now be done in plain weave, but half in texture, and I’ll mix them half and half on each side of the pillow.

Here’s a comparison of the two weaves – plain on the left, textured on the right.

Weavettes squares – plain (l) and textured (r)

All my plain squares are done – 4 large, 13 small. So far, I’ve got 2 large textured squares, with another in progress, and 8 small ones. Not much further to go, and I can start sewing these all together.

Cooking

The idea of doing more stir-fried meals is definitely catching on for me. On Sunday, I improvised a very nice Beef with Broccoli in Oyster Sauce (with red pepper strips for added color), which Gryphon couldn’t stop giving me compliments for all night – and into the next day. Positive reinforcement like that will go a long ways towards making me want to do this again!

And I already have – last night, even though Gryphon was at work, I made a nice big pile of Tofu, Asparagus, Snow Peas, and Water Chestnuts. Kept the sauce simple on this one – just soy sauce and rice wine vinegar, with a little toasted sesame oil as a finishing touch. Would have loved some ginger in it, but I didn’t have any in the house.

Had a large bowlful over rice for my dinner, and packed up two more sizable servings that Gryphon can take for his meal at work over the next day or two. It’s got me eating better, and it cuts down the number of work meals that Gryphon has to assemble for himself – making it a little easier for him to manage both the full-time and part-time jobs together. Win-win all around, I’d say!