cooking : crafts : organization : gardening : thrifting : going green
I discovered a few years ago that the world’s best dish scrubbers are handmade with inexpensive cotton yarn. But I’d always thought it was the bobbled crochet stitch that made them so great. Not so! I actually think that a seed stitch works even better for creating a grime-fighting texture. And I love the way [...]
I had a bunch of leftover yarn from a secret project (which I will tell you about later), so I got to thinking it would make an adorable blanket with blocks of bright colors. The final version was just about big enough to cover my 4′x6′ rug. Since I was using my leftovers, but also [...]
Even though it’s kind of a gloomy day here and I couldn’t get a great picture, I wanted to show you what Mike got instead of flowers for Valentine’s Day. It’s an orange tree! They’re mandarin oranges, so they’ll be pretty small, and I’m not sure if we’ll get any this spring or not. But [...]
So while the world was enjoying two 80+ degree days in a row (in March??), I was inside feeling achy and taking my temperature. I managed to catch some kind of bug that came on really fast and made me extra whiny, given how beautiful it was outside. Anyway, I kept my hands busy by [...]
October’s in-between-y weather calls for a scarf that’s cozy but not so stifling that you had to take it off the minute you got indoors. This lacy lightweight scarf can be made with just about any yarn you like (bulky yarn will just make it a little larger), but I used super soft organic merino [...]
My knits have a new home! I’ve thought for a while that all the items I knit or crochet don’t really fit into the “recycled and rescued” philosophy of my Etsy shop, so I decided to give them their own shop, Mary Marie Knits. As Mike can tell you, I have a real passion for [...]
The other day as I was slogging away at the zillionth row of my ripple blanket, I realized that if I made it as big as I originally planned it was going to be absolutely gigantic. I definitely overestimated the width. And not that a huge cozy blanket isn’t a good thing, but I didn’t [...]
I might actually be slightly less than halfway done with my big blanket, but I try not to think about that. Because if I imagine that I have more than the work I’ve already put into this left to do, I might explode. (Though it looks kind of long and skinny in this photo, measurements [...]
So I took a break from my retro ripple blanket to make a gift for a friend who’s expecting a baby next month. I basically used the same pattern but did four rows each of three different colors (neutral since we didn’t know the sex of the baby). The only thing I would change is [...]
I’ve been moving along on my ripple blanket, row by super long row, and it’s starting to look more like a blanket and less like a scarf. You could darn near cover half a leg with that.
Two of my crochet patterns — vintage hanger covers and a colorful granny square pillow — have been published in a new book. You can now order So Pretty! Crochet, by my talented friend Amy Palanjian, at Amazon.com. 
