Yeah, I'm crocheting, see? I made these wristlets from Drops Garnstudio. They were easy-peasy and simple-pimple. And they speak to a growing obsession of mine: gloves, mitts, wristlets, armwarmers... Any kind will do.
Although these are hibernating, t'were I to use Ravelry parlance, these lovely Manchettes are part of the obsession. I picked up StitchDiva's new pattern, as well as a couple from CopperScaleDrago from Ravelry to work on. But a bigger post on the topic is coming soon - I'm just gathering all the pieces together right now....
In the meanwhile, I spent some time today at Astroland in my beloved Coney Island, as it was its official last day of operations. As you know, I am enamored with this gritty, beautiful part of Brooklyn, and it kills me to see it devoured by scumbag developers with no sense of history or community.
On a final quick note, remember how last week I talked about all the wineries I went to? Some good and some less so? Well, color me shocked if a couple of the wineries mentioned didn't reach out to me! Duckhorn, bless their hearts, appreciated the nice words I had to say about them. They were well-deserved, let me tell ya!
And to their credit, Artesa, whom I completely dissed, also wrote to me asking for a more constructive version of the criticism I leveled at them. Fair enough, and I respect that they contacted me after what I said. While I've not heard back from them after sending them a more thoughtful version of my experience, I am shocked that the wineries even bother reading SubwayHooker, let alone sending me emails about what I've written! Go figure.
I can't help but notice that several of my last posts have not been about crochet. Funny, that. What with this being a crochet blog and all. Whatever.
But that doesn't mean I haven't been hooking, no siree bob! Here are a couple of projects I've been working on in my less-than-spare time:
Remember that manchette I yapped about a while back? Well, I actually started making it in red cotton thread. Go figure. The picture is not great, I know, but you get the idea.
I also am nearing completion on everyone's favorite Chanson en Crochet. See?
I think I only screwed it up a little bit by falling off the count, but it's been an interesting challenge to recalculate the pattern every other row to accommodate my self-inflicted mess.
Oh, you want a close-up? Okay:
There's more, but I want to tell you about what I did yesterday in celebration of my show opening the prior night sans major screw-up. The Brit and I hauled ass to my beloved Coney Island to see the world-famous Mermaid Parade. This year, we viewed it from the boardwalk, a much better spot than our usual street vantage point. If you click on the photo to the right of this post, it'll take you to a bunch of photos from the festivities.
Is it just me, or does this shot remind anyone of the Coral Reef Project? I'm just sayin'.
As I've said before in this blog, I am not a religious person in any way, shape or form, but I approach that fervor when it comes to the Mermaid Parade. It's founder, Dick Zigun, is an amazing guy (and Yale School o' Drama grad, no less), who is also responsible for the Freak Show and Coney Island USA. Here's a link to his site, in case you're interested: http://www.coneyisland.com/.
Little-known fact alert! Your SubwayHooker used to dance in a GoGo show at Sideshows by the Seashore when she was younger, cuter, and thinner! Yes she did! It was called Wildgirl's GoGoRama and it ROCKED!
So you know, Coney Island is under serious threat of being turned into an "entertainment mall" by evil real estate developers. To my mind, Coney is one of the few genuinely democratic places left in NY -- a grungy, fabulous amusement area that is free for anyone to roam through, walk on the boardwalk, or dip a toe in the ocean. It would be sad beyond belief if this were to be lost to luxury condos, franchises, and chains. Dick's site has loads of info on how we can all help stop the ravages of under-thought overdevelopment of one of the last real places in New York. Bloomberg's gonna hear from me, I can tell you that!
Hello dears. So while you've all been sleeping a-snug in your beds, the Hooker has been hard at work pulling in some interesting bits of history for your perusal. Ever hear of a Manchette? Me, neither. Sounds like something that helps you chew. But it is, in fact, a lovely precursor to everyone's favorite fingerless gloves or wristwarmers. Oh sure, you're all so cool with your mitts on, aren't you? But so was the fashionable crocheter of 1848. That's right. The hipsters swirling around in outfits like this were madly hooking their exceptionally beautiful and delicate manchettes--13 years before the Civil War. My gut is that, despite the technical explanation from Wikipedia, these lovelies were probably less about being a wrist cozy and more about dressing up a plain blouse or jacket, but I am charmed by the notion that our foremothers were crocheting these simply because they are so cool.
So I am thinking that the fingerless glove can do with some fancifying, don't you think? For this and more inspiration, take a look at the Antique Pattern Library, which has thousands of pages of gorgeous old crochet patterns to pore over.
Yeah, I'm crocheting, see? I made these wristlets from Drops Garnstudio. They were easy-peasy and simple-pimple. And they speak to a growing obsession of mine: gloves, mitts, wristlets, armwarmers... Any kind will do.
Although these are hibernating, t'were I to use Ravelry parlance, these lovely Manchettes are part of the obsession. I picked up StitchDiva's new pattern, as well as a couple from CopperScaleDrago from Ravelry to work on. But a bigger post on the topic is coming soon - I'm just gathering all the pieces together right now....
