Repairing my Furin (Japanese Wind Chime or Wind Bell)

A few years ago a friend of ours who is half Japanese and grew up for the first several years of his life there before moving to the US, went back to visit his mother's family.  He brought us back a beautiful iron bell, or furin.  Similar to a set of wind chimes, they are hung mostly in the summer in Japan.  Either indoors near a window or outdoor on a eve of the house.  The ringing of the bell is equated with the sound of summer in Japan.  Here's some info about them from an online travel magazine:   

For some people, the relaxing sound of the furin paired with the sound of the Japanese cicada eases the summer heat.  The furin has a piece of paper hung from the center of the bowl shaped bell. When the wind blows, the paper catches the wind and moves the clapper to produce the sound. Thanks to the paper, the furin is able to emit the gentle sound that everyone likes enjoy during the summer months.  Furthermore, the paper is used to enhance the feeling of a cool summer breeze. The paper allows us to visually see the wind. Even when the paper moves from a light breeze, you suddenly acknowledge the presence of the wind. It is the secret of how to feel cool even on the hot and humid days of the Japanese summer.

The bell has hung on our porch for about 5 years now, but recently the cotton string broke, which in turn let the paper float away into the wind.  I though about repairing it with new paper and cotton string, but my friend Vikki drew my attention to another Japanese tradition, Kintsugi, or repairing broken pottery with gold, in order to highlight the breaks, rather than hide them.  Showing the beauty of the new life the object has received through repairing it.

So I repaired mine with some treasured bits and bobs from my beading stash, including a stunning handblown glass focal bead (the black one in the center of the string), some round quartz crystals, picasso art glass beads, seed beads, bead caps & spacers, and a large crystal pendant I've been holding onto, awaiting the perfect project.  I'm not sure it will ring as often as it did with the paper wind catcher, but I do love the site of it repaired and rehung on my porch, with the beads highlighting its ongoing presence in our lives, and reminding us of friends we don't see often enough.

Silk Cloud Waves Shawl

This project has been in the works for a long time, and I'm thrilled to report it's finally done. 

Backstory: I bought the kit in March of 2016.  I had gotten pregnant in February and was over the moon excited.  When it came time for our first doctor's appointment, we were told it was an ectopic pregnancy, and that I would have to have emergency surgery that day to end it and save my life, and while they were at it they had to take out my right fallopian tube which was scarred, and would result in another ectopic if we tried again.  I was so shocked and devastated.  I wasn't allowed to DO anything afterwards, just rest on the couch.  I finally convinced Jim to let me crochet because I needed to do something or go out of my mind.  I browsed the web, and saw this shawl pattern from DGY, and bought it to give myself something to do.  But they didn't ship the kit for nearly 2 weeks, so by then I was back on my feet.  

At that point I threw myself into getting back to the gym and taking care of myself, and being the healthiest I could be, so that hopefully we could start trying again in a few months.  I couldn't look at the yarn, because it reminded me of the sadness.  But by December, I decided that maybe I should take it up, and use it as a way to work through my feelings and heal, and give a gift to myself in honor of the little life that never came to be.  

Since then I've worked on it in starts and stops.  Sometimes it makes me sad, other times it doesn't get to me at all, and sometimes I just forget about it.  But I've really pushed myself to finish it over the last few weeks.  When I finished the prescribed 100 rows, I had a bit of yarn left, so I repeated the pattern until I ran out, giving me 110 rows.  I like to say I literally gave this project 110%!  It's 75" long, by 24" wide. 

I am thrilled with how it came out, but don't think I'll be taking up a project with such a thin yarn and tiny hook again anytime soon.  It was tough on my hands.  The pattern is called Cloud Waves, and I bought it as part of a kit from Darn Good Yarn.  The yarn is their lace weight silk, in shade Enchanted Forest.    This was my first project that has needed blocking, and it certainly helped me get over my fear of blocking such a delicate piece.

Strawberry Dishcloths

When I saw this adorable pattern, I knew I had to make it!  It's the Granny Strawberry Dishcloth pattern, free from Yarnspirations.  The granny triangles were a breeze, but the leaves and stem were a bit more confusing.  In the end I mostly followed the pattern and just winged the last row by sight.

The yarn is Red Heart Scrubby Smoothie in Cherry & Sugar'n Cream Scents in Aloe Vera.  I hadn't realized it was scented yarn when I bought it; I simply liked that shade of green best.  The smell is so subtle that I didn't notice it when I was working with it, and will be curious to see how it smells while doing dishes.  I actually had so much green left that I ended up doing a few solid green cloths.  The round is the Fire Blossom pattern on Ravelry, and the square one is something I made up for a friend, that I call Amber Ridge.  I ended up sending one of each to friends from the Crochet Shawl-Along in mini care packages. 

Joint Effort Protego Shawl

This is a buddy-created project, by the absolutely amazing Shannon Cooper at Flew the Coop & I.  Recently I've been working on shawls for a few friends who are going through rough times, and was getting a bit behind trying to finish them in a timely manner.  So Shannon offered an awesome solution; she had started this shawl, and offered to send it to me, along with a second skein of the yarn, so I could finish it.  I ended up adding 13 rows of the written pattern, then a row of single crochet all the way around, to give it a more finished looking edge.

The pattern is the Mystic Morning Wrap, and is free!  The yarn is Lion Brand Mandala in Chimera.  It's made its way to a new home, and is bringing some cheer to its recipient.  :D

Shannon, thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and generosity!  It is truly appreciated.

Set of Chunky Mandalas for our Bedroom

Monday I was feeling the need to make a quick and easy project.  I grabbed some Bernat Maker Home Dec yarn from my stash to make a few mandalas/doilies for our bedroom.  The yarn is a chunky knitted hollow tube of material, somewhat like tee shirt yarn, but more even and without seams in the way.  It's incredibly soft, and I am definitely going to make some more projects with it.  I like how the chunky yarn keeps them feeling fresh and modern, rather than fussy & old lady.

The large mandala is made from the Bloom Mandala Centerpiece pattern.  I did the first 6 rounds as written, and since it was getting pretty big, I did an amended version of the 2 border rows.  (If you want to do what I did, then for the first round of border, sc between each group of 5 dc, then 6 ch. For the second border row, sl st, sc, hdc, dc, picot, dc, hdc, sc, sl st in each ch 6 space around.) 

This one took my just one evening, watching tv after dinner.  It's amazing how fast this yarn hooks up!  It's about 16" across and a bit over 1/4" thick.  Hhere it is on the chest of drawers in our room.  It fits just right under the antique pitcher & bowl my parents gave us.

The smaller pair was made from the medium size pattern in the Aunt Aggie's Trivets pattern.  I did the first three rounds as written, then as it was getting close to the finished size I wanted, I improvised a new round 4.   (sc, picot, sc in the dc's in the points, sc in next 4, repeat)

These are about 7" each, and took just a few hours yesterday morning.  I made them to go under the lamps on our night stands, and like how they soften up the look of the room. 

Jenny's Rainbow Shawl

This shawl was made for a friend-of-a-friend that I haven't met.  She is also a ginger artist named Jenny (a musician), and she means a lot to my dear friend David.  David is absolutely one of the best human beings I've ever had the privilege to know.  He's the person who is there, no matter the time, no matter the place, just because you called him.  When he told me about what happened to Jenny, I knew I had to help in some way. 

Backstory:  Just before Christmas in December 2016, Jenny was driving home a friend who had a bit too much to drink that night when she, herself, was hit head on by a drunk driver.  The impact was so severe that it ripped the front wheel off the driver's vehicle, throwing it into Jenny's windshield and crushed her left leg in the door causing her immediate and severe physical trauma.  She sustained multiple lifelong injuries, including hernias in her spine, injuries to her brain, a damaged sciatic nerve, and more.  She's also the single mother of an 8 year old daughter, and unfortunately due to New York state law regarding auto accident insurance, Jenny has ran out of medical coverage.   Though she has a dedicated team of doctors and specialists, who have helped her make several breakthroughs in her healing, she still needs daily & monthly trips to neurologists, physical therapists, chiropractors, message therapists, pain management specialists, etc.  Her recent lack of coverage has caused several major setbacks; the lack of physical therapy and massage has caused her to, once again, lose the feeling in her left leg.

Her savings account has been depleted since the accident and she has been forced to sell most of her musical instruments and performance gear to stay afloat and remain stable for her daughter.  To make matters worse, she was informed by her doctors that due to the several brain injuries she sustained as well as the damage to her vision she will be unable to return to the marketing career she spent 13 years of her life in.  When all of this happened, Jenny didn't tell friends how badly she was hurt, as she didn't want to be a burden, but thankfully she finally let friends like David know.  David has started a Go Fund Me page for her.   

My husband and I donated, but I knew I had to do something else for her, to let her know that people are thinking of her and rooting for her, even if they haven't met her.  So I started on a comfort shawl for her, hoping it could be a warm hug when she needs one.  The pattern is called Lost in Time, by Johanna Lindahl, and is free on her website.  I used 2 skeins of Lion Brand Shawl in a Ball in the colorway Restful Rainbow.  This was my first time making and adding tassels to a shawl, and I am really happy with them.  I love how the whole shawl came out, but if you're going to try the pattern, know that it's a bit wonky to read as it was translated from Swedish.  Last night David sent me a few pics of Jenny wrapped up in it.  Apparently she's kept it with her while dealing with doctors offices and insurance companies, so I'm glad to know it's brought some measure of comfort. 

Stashbusting Dishcloths

Just a quick post today.  After finishing my dishtowels, I had partial skeins of each color left over;  just enough to make a few dishcloths.  These were each made with the Fire Blossom Dishcloth pattern.  I have to say, while I found the yarn a pain to hook with, it's a dream to wash dishes with.  Thick and soft and awesome at cleaning pots and pans.