Mersydotes

Hello everyone!  This is Penny.  Today was a big day.  First, I woke up and went outside.  Then, I sat on my chair in the morning sun for a while.  Then, Mommy had to take me to the vet for a rabies ouchie.  But it wasn't so bad- the vet was very nice, there were biscuits after, and I even got to ride in the NYC puppy taxi. I hope that you all had a good day today! Lots of love, ~Penny

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........ Here's a secret: there's a new cat in our house.  She's black and grey with one light sock and a little tail dipped in paint:  She's from the Caron Critters kit, and I've decided to name her Maybell.  The kit came with the stuffed bits already knitted and a ball of yarn to knit or to crochet the scarf.  I thought it would be nicer to knit the scarf so it would be longer and match the knit stitches on the kitty parts.  Although it would have been fun to knit the kitty bits by hand, these kits really are perfect for beginners- just a long scarf of knit, purl ribbing.  Very calming, very meditative. I'm sad to have finished this project- like that feeling when you finish a really good book and have to say goodbye to a friend- but I think Maybell will enjoy hanging around her owner's shoulders, keeping an eye on the world and its comings and goings. But who will her owner be?  That's another secret that I can

My lovely friends and fellow Yarnettes joined me for coffee the other weekend, and surprised me with 12 skeins of Pebbles yarn in a granite rose color way.  It turns out that I am the third owner of this massive pile of yarn which has been bouncing from stitcher to stitcher looking for a home and a purpose in life.  I think it's found a home at last with me. I can understand why everyone has been confounded by this particular yarn.  It's chunky and fuzzy and knobbly, and it's actually really hard to figure out what to do with it.  I suppose if we were fiber artists or yarn bombers we'd freeform crochet a masterpiece that showed off its texture, but, alas, we are but humble yarnsters. And so the pretty, knobbly yarn became sets of humble, beaded coasters.  Using a K hook and a simple crocheted circle, they turned out to be nice and squishy and pleasantly rustic looking.  I added the wooden beads afterwards by sewing them onto the edge- I couldn't crochet

Happy Friday evening, one and all!  The apartment is clean, dinner is in the oven, the windows are open, and there is a smell of rain in the air.  I've got Vivaldi on the radio and, just for a moment, all is right in the world. This week's warm-up coaxed the tulips in our building's courtyard to open up and greet the sun.  There are gentle aspects of NYC that I'll never quite reconcile with its overall feeling of being a human meat grinder,  and the explosion of springtime flowers in Queens is one of them.  I'm grateful our super put in extra bulbs last fall even though it would have also been nice to have our oven fixed, bathroom tile patched, door painted, black mold treated, and window screens put on.  But hey, the flowers are beautiful! And speaking of flowers, last week our whole little apartment became a garden:  It feels good to be surrounded by green again.  And the herbs have already become my best friends in the kitchen.  I've bee

So, the month of March has completely slipped past here on the Mersydotes blog, but now April is here and so am I, ready for spring and everything that is fresh and sunny.  The days are finally longer, and sunshine has been coming in our living room windows early in the mornings.  Queens is also budding with flowers- instead of snow flakes, white blossoms have been falling off the trees and drifting past on the wind. And I've been taking a moment just to play with colors and stitches in the afternoons: It's been fun trying to mimic all the different fruit slices I can think of that can be made out of circles!  The scale of my fruits are wildly incorrect with watermelons as big as oranges and grapes no smaller than limes, but it's been a lot of fun just to work with the nice, cool cotton thread.  The kiwi, though caused much controversy: Mr. Mersy came home and I proudly showed him my newest fruit slice and made the mistake of saying, "Guess