Anyhow… today, I had a joyful time in my studio.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright)

One of my dear friends, artist, poet, author and creative genius, Sylvie Nicolas, came for a visit.

Sylvie and I have been friends for more than 20 years, and even though we live a thousand miles apart, will remain friends to the ends of our days….

Sylvie is on her way to take up the position of Artist in Residence at the Banff School of the Fine Arts.

We haven’t seen each other for a couple of years, so having her in my studio today was definitely a HUGE celebration!

Talk about FACES OF JOY!

We kept bursting into carols of laughter and joy and delight and giving each other huge hugs!

Of course, the cameras had to come out….

and ahem….

the crochet hook, also!

Sylvie is a magical woman, a Gypsy spirit of charisma, style and panache. She wears hats like nobody’s business!

Her pink and green shawl kept nudging me….. so, it was absolutely natural that my crochet hook should start to fly in response to the imagination and inspiration that was bubbling up in the studio!

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Oh, what fun!  We just kept cracking up as one of my ‘Gnome-dome’ hats took shape on her head…. more pink! more green!

A flower here, an earflap there, a big cherry colored bead on top, there…. and gales of laughter!

And soon the hat was done…..

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

and sadly, all too soon, our visit was over….

for now….

and so is the Face of Joy Challenge…. but I hope that people will still be able to discover joy and create images of that joy.

We need all the joy that we can be, find and share!

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

I have carried it around in bags, moved it from table to desk and back, taken it out, put it back, taken it out again, sighed, and put it back …. and  just haven’t been able to finish it.

Why, why why, I snivel? It’s a simple little cap!

Alright.

Yesterday, I read a note about March being crochet month. I even joined a Ravelry group in celebration of Crochet month!

I decided- this is it!

Crochet Month is here- I am gonna finish that cap in honor of Crochet Month! (actually ALL months are crochet month for me, but that’s just being pickie pickie)

This cap is for a friend. He shaves his head and gets cold, so he likes to wear neat little caps. BUT, he owns a bistro (where my husband’s jazz trio plays all the time), so the caps have to be light enough to not make him uncomfortable when he’s making magic in the hot hot kitchen.

I made him a cap a few months back and it was too heavy, so I said, ‘No problem…. I’ll whip you up a light weight one’.

He can’t tolerate wool and cotton gets too floppy really quickly (I crocheted elastic thread into one of the caps he loves so he can wear it again) so it’s synthetics for him.

I just wrote up a tute on how I split the yarn for his cap

I took out the unfinished cap and glared at it, demanding to know why it was being so reluctant to come together.

Tahdah! the answer presented itself!

It wanted a spool knitted edge!

I whipped out my trusty little spool knitter, and whipped up a cord. I used more of the Caron Shadows, but didn’t split it.

I spool knitted a 22 inch long cord on all 4 pegs, then sewed the ends together.

Then, the cap just flew along!

The only problem was, that I had started at the center of the crown of the cap, and adding the spool knitted cord was, pardon the pun, a corker!

I ended up making the most complicated manoevers to  join the spool knitting to the cap, that I could never write the pattern out.

My husband tried it on and we decided it was quite fetching on him, so I am in re-design mode now.

I am designing and working on  another one – going in the opposite direction from the first one.

I’ll be able to write out a vunderbar pattern for it.

Here’s the finished Version #1 of the Jazz Cap

This is Babette, my new model.

Isn’t she wonderful? I bought her in a hat shop last summer when Jim and I were buying sunhats.

The shop owner had bought out a millinery business that had been going for 50 or more years.

She had several of these lovely ladies languishing without hats, so I was thrilled to adopt her.

Please welcome Babette to her new life as a blogmodel.

And, now, it’s back to work on Jazz Cap #2….. more later……

(image source: photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay. Copyright, not to be used without permission)

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

Here is the link for the pattern for the earflap style baby cap that I designed for the Knit One, Save One campaign for the Save the children fund:  Baby Cap

Image source: Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

How about a quick and easy crocheted cap to keep you and your friends warm this autumn and winter?

Here’s my pattern for the world’s easiest crocheted cap:

Noreen’s cap

Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Post from: Hankering for Yarn