Where Unencumbered Meets Obsessive.

Yes, friends, it's that time of year again!  You might think, swim? Bike? Run?  Oh, no, on the contrary, it's time to crochet some hot-rockin' wear.  It's warm, we're sitting in a lounge chair, and hell if we're going to dither all our time away with a magazine or even our smartphone.  Girl, it's time to finish those projects that have been sitting around all through the nasty season.  And when I say nasty, that word has so many delicious implications I can't begin to tell.  First, a moment to acknowledge the completion of the hot-pink cover-up.  Started this thing as a tank top, last summer, even as a potential gift for training buddy, Jilly.  When Jilly announced that she hates pink, what was I to do?  Immediately begin shaping as a full-length rrrrarrrfest for summer 2013.  And here we go:
I can't say I loved working on this thing. 

OK, I'll say it: "rrrrrooooaaaarrrrr!!!!"

the lovely fisherman knot that weaves the whole object together got tiresome, and I had some difficulty with sizing ( I figured it would be hanging off of me and I'd be stuck with a sack.   When I finally shrank the dimensions, my method was haphazard at best. What can I say? Sometimes the idea is more important to me than the execution).  Finished this bad boy ON my forty-sixth birthday.  Hell, if this dress don't say Cougar, nothing else will.  I'm in the game for good and that's where I'll leave it.  Woman, Hook, Italian 100% Cotton Yarn (mille fille) and I'm ready for whatever.  Next Installment, Ashby wants one for herself, and naturally I have a bit of this delicious yarn leftover.  But of course!  It may take another year, but most likely ready for Door County--love shaking up some protestant sensibilities up north, and this is the game that'll do. 

And on to my Ode To Crochet Goddesses!  Doris Chan, as has been mentioned multiple times on this very blog-site, has created yet another feast for the hook and eye.  She calls this the Rockin-Red Dress, from Interweave Crochet, but it's actually an ode to Leiutenant Uhura's Dress in Star Trek. 

Peter Nolan loves Uhura, and so what would I do but re-create this fab streamlined one-piece dress?  We're far from completion, but when I ordered the yarn, months ago, I knew I had my work cut out for me.  This, as we say in the trade, is a design meritting serious, or complete concentration.  Not for the faint of heart, or for anyone who is even thinking about multi-tasking.  Started work on reading the pattern a few times in the deep dark months, but there was no respite from the insanity.  Now, with a few days on the pristine, still, Oregon Coast, I am able to read, study, puzzle, ravel, and unravel.  My heart is a-flutter. We are actually making progress:


A swatch. Standard quiver pattern.  This took months, alone.

As I muddle through the pattern, my brain loosens up, ever so much.  Deciphering a Doris Chan pattern feels like a complicated math or programming problem.  Of course this implies that I think that Doris Chan is about the most bad-ass programmer on the planet.  Yup.  She's one smart cookie and her work is so incredibly beautiful.  

Day four in Oregon.  Yes, this is 10 full rows of the pattern and it's my yoke/neckline!!!!

Here we are poolside.  I'm finally breathing the satisfaction of knowing that we're not going to be ripping out the first four rows for ever more, in fact, there is hope.  This deadly soy-silk variegated yarn is going to be put to good use and Uhura's dress will live on, further into history. 

Unencumbered Meets Obsessive.

And then there is this. Woman, hook, yarn, sun, poolside. Need I say more? Unencumberd on steroids.  Pump me up with some free time and some fresh air, detox after a long run with my seventy year old companion, throw some blue water, chlorine and poolside chat into the mix?  Golden.  Now why was I slamming the Kava Tea last week??  Who cares.  Unencumbered Meets Obsessive.  This is where fulfillment lives.  Go out there and find it for yourself, because lord knows nobody's gonna let you feel this good on your own.