Earth Day Watermelon Trivet and Graduation Day Trivet

Happy Earth Day, everyone!

I've finished a couple of wiggly trivets designed by Susan Lowman and thought I'd post them here today.

The first is the Watermelon Hot Pad which was published in Crochet World magazine in June of 2008. (Please click on the photos to enlarge them).

This second pattern for Graduation Day was also published in Crochet World magazine in June of 2009.

I love Susan Lowman's designs! She has a Ravelry page with her projects and designs  here - susan lowman

Let's see, I've also started a new Bohemian Sisters challenge brought on by my sister Cindy.

She has challenged the B.S.ers to make a sort of Mini-Me doll in the style of Salley Maver's dolls.

So, this last weekend I began this project.

I tried to dye the wooden beads for the head by staining them with tea. (I at first thought I could just rub them with tea bags, but after that failed I had to soak them in tea for about half an hour and then let them dry.

Next, I painted the faces with whatever I had in my closet. Paint, nail polish, sharpie marker. (Good grief!)
This project was a lot harder than I anticipated. (And I haven't even begun to make the clothes or body yet!)

Finally I put a coat of varnish on them and let them dry overnight in the garage.

Here they are all strung on pipe cleaners. I did all the beads I had because I knew most would look terrible and I will just pick the best of the bunch for my Mini-Me doll.
One bead size is 1/4" and the other is 1"
I need to look through my yarn stash to find some that looks like my hair. This will not be easy as it has many different colors. I don't have any acorn trees around to steal the caps off for the doll's hat. I may have to make something myself.

Let's see. Oh yes. I also bought a Knook crochet hook kit and have been learning how to use it. Very slow going.
I'm trying to make a vest like the Herrschner's pattern I made called the Ultra-Easy Vest. (It's posted in my Ravelry page here
But I'm Knooking it. I've done the long wraparound piece at the bottom and the two sides which will be the front of the vest. But my string is all fraying and snaggy now so I'm thinking of doing the back by tunisian crochet with my cabled afghan crochet hook.
I'll take a few pictures later so you can see what I'm talking about.

Lincoln Link-Up

This past weekend I made a trip down to Mount Vernon, Illinois to the  Cederhurst Center for the Arts to see the Salley Mavor Exhibit.  My sister Cindy and her friend Mary came down from Wisconsin and we all brought our Lincolns so we could see each others' projects.

Here they are all laid out on the hotel bed. Cindy took this photo.

Mary's (on the left), is quilted. Cindy's, (top right), is done with felt pieces, and you've seen mine already, (bottom right), cross-stitched.

I took this photo and the next.

After we saw the Salley Mavor exhibit we headed up to Lincoln, Illinois where we stayed the night  (Cindy and Mary stopped in Lincoln on their way down before I met up with them and had their photos taken with their Lincolns for the local newspaper. I haven't seen if they printed the photo or an article or anything, I'm not even sure what paper it was for, but if they do I will certainly add that to this post!)

The Salley Mavor exhibit was amazing! If you are familiar with her work then you will also know about the book Pocket Full Of Posies which is what this exhibition is all about. About half of the artwork from that book is on display at Cedarhurst until May 5th or 6th. So, if you can scoot out over there to see it you really should. We're so lucky to get a chance to see it up-close. The detail is unbelievable. 

http://weefolkstudio.com/

So, as a remembrance of our trip, I made three trivets - one for each of us - to commemorate our Lincoln Link-Up.

It's crocheted in the "Wiggly Crochet" Susan Lowman style. I designed it myself. He's so scary looking I told the gals they could use the trivet, not only for Lincoln's Birthday/President's Day or 4th of July, but they could take it out for Halloween or Day of the Dead/ Dia de los Muertes too! LOL!!!!

I had such a great time and I learned a lot about the civil war, (as my sister read aloud from a Civil War recipe book she purchased at the Lincoln museum while Mary drove us around).

Now we need another project for the Bohemian Sisters Club!