Here is a hat made from the wool B. brought me from Iceland last week. On the loom is the next hat made in the other color she brought me. I am getting better with working on the loom (I can say after undoing 5 or 6 earlier versions!). Last night, while watching something else on YouTube, I found a new way to hold the yarn so it does not unwind. I feel quite smart today and it goes faster. I never could knit a round object this completely and evenly without the loom. So these looms are good for children AND old women!
Last Friday I finally got the bloom loom from China via Amazon. It smelled so moldy I threw away the instructions and box. I washed the plastic parts in a Clorox solution and dried them in the sun. Now they are okay. I am eager to try them. That is why last night I was watching tutorials on YouTube. All of this is so much easier on my old eyes. I even noticed that I missed some dusty places around the house that I did not see last week! That is good too!

To be fair and correct I need to show you the newest Hello Kitty. She is smaller than the previous version. This one also has the identifying ribbon by the ear. I am out of white yarn that I want to make a new dolly, too.
Underneath the chair I show the bakery haul. I have been crocheting foodstuffs (am I that hungry on my diet?) along with the butterflies.  Today I want to make new boots for Kitty, the girl. I need that pale yellow yarn now on her feet for Oreo cookies and I think red would be a better color to carry out the bright colors of her clothes and hair.
On this version of Hello Kitty I doubled the threads on the whiskers and feel that looks so much better. Seeing this photo I see how necessary the red boots are. Her feet here look to be part of the bakery stuff!
If this computer program would allow it, I would whack off the top and bottom of the photo to fit the interest area better. No such luck! Time to return to crocheting. I am getting angry with the computer!

I have this ready piece for the next show, "Small Works", at Gualala Arts Center next week. Werner liked the entry and has given me so much advice that he offered to deliver it on Tuesday. I am pleased that I got the idea of putting this creature, named "Portrait of my Neighbor," in a dolly dome display.  I am thinking that maybe I should be putting my beaded animals in one. They do make a size that would fit them for about $12. on Amazon.

I had the feeling that it was harder to see the piece in the dome so I snapped a close-up. I see that with domes I will have to set up a new photo background as the window, and my view from it, get into the picture. This photo might give the impression that I have gone back to beading, but that is not true. This work is about 2 years old.

I made the kitty Hello  to go with Kathleen, the girl from London. Under the chair are some of the baked goods the pair have purchased - a cupcake and two Oreo cookies!

So you can see them better. I need a more brown color of yarn for the vanilla cookies which I have ordered today from Amazon. That yellow is just too sunny!

Here is a better picture of Hello, the kitty. It seems the Sanrio company in Japan is having trouble telling Kitty (Kathleen) from her cat Hello and mixes the two up all the time - for 40 years! I find it typical for Japanese to be unable to organize information such as this. It is amazing how many people world-wide are ready to accept their confusion! The important thing is that the pair are cute!

Yesterday I had so much trouble with my vision that I have decided to show my crocheted works in this blog instead of waiting for myself to get back to beads.

The only beads on this dolly are in her eyes! Yes I have taken a vacation from beading by crocheting and this week I made this dolly. I have been using the tutorials in YouTube and have found them very helpful and inspiring. I have found I can crochet with only 1/2 looking (mostly by feel) which is a lovely switch from pressing my nose against a needle and beads.
My foot is finally completely healed. My new fear of bead needles could be part of my resistance to beading. Also the dark weather helps make me grab for yarn instead of beads. The big question now is whether I make a new dolly. I am surprised that of all the things I crocheted in the last month it is the dolly I wanted to show you.

Prince Charming did get into the Shameless show at Gualala Arts Center where he caused many laughs. I even got emails from people who enjoyed him and were
glad to make his acquaintance. This is the first time an entry into  a GAC show got emails! So I am counting him as a success.

Along with Prince Charming was this "girl" saying "Oh Yes!" also. Yes, that is a condom in here mouth/purse. People did not get this joke so easily, nor did she sell. With the show  overLing-Yen has already brought both back home where they sits on our old cold wood-burning stove. 

The past two months have not been good ones for me. In the first week in November I stepped on a needle and it broke off in my foot. There was a circus getting it out ending with a trip to Fort Bragg hospital where Dr. James, a surgeon finally found it and got the 1/2 inch  piece out. Not to mention are the attempts by two other doctors that left a huge cut up area in my left foot. Today it is finally showing signs of healing shut and there are moments when I can step on the whole foot again.

Like Jennifer Cruise I have put away my normal creative outlets and turned to crocheting. Instead of beading and posting here, I have crocheted masses of potholders, baby blankets, Christmas decorations, flowers and too much other stuff. I am trying to get back to beading but my old eyes are preferring to tangle threads. I will see what 2015 brings me!

This is the beginning phase of Prince Charming. In case you cannot read the note that will sit at his side in the exhibit "Shameless" it reads.

Meet Prince Charming

1. Give him an air kiss.

2. Life him up to see if he has turned into a Prince.

When one lifts him up his erect penis is visible. I hope he gives the visitors to the show a laugh.

While doing all of that ( I shortened the dildo by a couple of inches, and sewed it securely to to his bottom and added jewels to the crown) I got out the prototype for my summer version of the Frog Purse. Now being quiet, I had the nerves and serenity to redo the mouth of this frog. It is even better than ever and all the repeats of making frog mouths is paying off as I finally know what to do in the corners where life peeks through!  I will put this frog in CHAC in Point Arena as Barbara had asked for him even before I had his mouth fixed. I have things to make for Christmas but am finding that the tiny pieces for the puff star give me cramps in my hands to hold them in place while making them. I have found all the jobs for Christmas very invasive. All I want to do is bead on my frogs and anything else makes me jittery and unhappy.