I persist in attempting to organize the area of my house known as the yarn annex.

I have finished with the easy parts, and am now left to sort through huge tangles of yarn from myriad unfinished and completely forgotten projects. Some of it is so bad, I am nearly (but not quite) tempted to clean house.

The other day I dragged six plastic containers of yarn into my son's room, emptied it onto the floor and tired to conceive of a system where I would be organizing like with like (the main lesson I have taken away from Hellen Buttigieg's show, "neat.")

One container houses all that I could find of my Tivoli (now defunct) acrylic yarn. Another is filled with Cascade 220, and Lamb's Pride yarn that is 15% mohair and 85% wool (both felt very well, but I find the Lamb's Pride very itchy). A third container is dedicated to the brand Classic Elite as I made a seemingly endless number of "good buys" of their product lines.

Another container is dedicated to various cottons, a fifth to "onesies" (those irresistible skeins that go with nothing else I own but were "too good" to pass up), and the last one houses my precious Manos del Uruguay. I say precious because floating around in my gray matter somewhere is the perfect project made of this yarn. I have been acquiring the yarn for years, and one day, I am certain the project will reveal itself to me.

It's been a long time since I last managed to post a new entry. A lot has happened since then. For starters, all three of my children are a year older, as am I.

The new year brought the idea that I should have a new year's resolution, and mine is to finish my unfinished crochet projects. I have been making good progress, but anticipate needing another 10,000 days or so added to this year in order to get everything done.

I started using Clover crochet hooks, and I love them. I had intially resisted using them because I wanted something more colorful. I bought the Clover G-hook because it was the millimeter measurement I needed in order to make a skirt featured in Doris Chan's "Amazing Lace" book. the skirt came out great, and I was totally taken with the hook and proceeded to buy myself a nearly complete set. By the time I had pretty much every size I use they came out with the brightly colored hooks.

As part of my new year's resolution, I am going to try to tidy up all the loose ends of my life, not just the yarn ones.

Overlay Crochet

I ordered Melody Macduffee's Overlay Crochet correspondence course from the CGOA (Crochet Guild of America) sometime last week, and this week the invoice showing payment arrived with the note that the instructor had been notified and that I could expect delivery in 6 to 8 weeks. All I could think was "quel(le) horreur"! Was it even possible that I would truly have to wait an additional 6 to 8 weeks after having spent much longer than that overcoming my personal inertia and finally ordering the course?

In a bit of an existential panic, I got on the computer, located a current email for Ms. MacDuffee and sent a polite (I hope) but pleading email asking her to say it wasn't so. She did and replied with a sweet email telling me that they [the course materials] were going out in "today's mail," today now being yesterday.

I was elated to get the email and ever since, I have been contemplating yarn combinations: do I use black as a background and go for a Notre Dame stained glass window color scheme, or do I do yet another piece in homage to Dunkin Donuts making use of Red Heart Super Saver brown, shocking pink, and pumpkin? Maybe I should use black, but find slightly grayer colors and draw on the box the Tivo was shipped in for inspiration. Decisions, decisions.

In any event, to anyone who might be interested in checking out overlay crochet Melody MacDuffee's work can be found at melodysarts.com and instructions for ordering her overlay crochet course can be found at crochet.com under Resources. If joining the CGOA is beyond your budget or interest, Melody also has an instruction book for overlay crochet that has been published by Kooler Design Studio and is being distributed by Leisure Arts. The ISBN is 160140888. If you plug this number into your favorite search engine, it will bring up several places for you to purchase the book .

Crochet Update

A couple of weeks ago I made a pineapple skirt from a pattern in Doris Chan's book, Amazing Crochet Lace. I found the skirt to be exactly that: amazing. I liked it so well, I am making another. It works up quickly and can be worn over jeans, another skirt, or a slip.

I have used the suggested yarn for both skirts (Paton's Grace, a mercerized cotton), if not the suggested color (the first was ginger -- a light green, the second is tangelo -- a varigated yarn with orange, ecru, and beige), and I even managed to get the gauge right with my new Clover 4.5mm hook.

( Tangent: I had resisted purchasing a Clover crochet hook, but there were no other hooks easily available that were the 4.5mm size. Once I used the Clover crochet hook, I became a convert and have been looking for excuses to purchase an entire collection since I used it. I would probably like them better if they came in shocking pink, lime green, and lemon yellow, but I have to admit that they are a wonderful tool despite the drab color.)

While I have read some less than flattering reviews of Doris Chan's book, I found it to be at least as good, and better than many crochet books that are published, and completing the pineapple skirt has infected me with a joi that is the whole reason I crochet.

In addition to the patterns which I find eminently adaptable, it is really inspirational. The story of how she came to create "exploded lace" as she calls it, was worth the price of the book as far as I'm concerned.

Finally, if you do decide you want to tackle any of the projects, make sure you read and understand how to make the single crochet base stitch as given in the directions Chan provides. I am the sort of person who is usually in a hurry and skims over things in order to get to the making of the project. That said, I cannot stress enough how important it is to understand and practice the SC BASE stitch before you begin the project. This stitch makes it possible to get the skirt over your hips, and it would really suck to do all that work and not be able to get the skirt on.

What I liked best about Doris Chan's approach to crochet is that once I got going on the project, I got more excited about it. Apparently Ms. Chan has a new book due out September 18 of this year titled "Everyday Crochet: Wearable designs just for you." I'm betting that I have it before summer officially ends.

Mr. Funky's Super Crochet Wonderful

is just exactly that: super crochet wonderful.

Last week I found myself at Barnes and Noble while my nine-year-old was at sailing lessons. I had stopped in for reasons unrelated to crochet, but I cruised past the craft section, just in case there was something new that I hadn't seen. How fortuitous for me that on this particular day I took the time to peruse the crochet/knitting section despite the fact that I had done so at this very Barnes and Noble within the previous seven days. There on the shelf, beckoning to me, was a predominantly purplish maroon book with limey green letters that proclaimed "Super Crochet Wonderful."

I can't really describe the feeling that washed over me when I looked over the book, but it only took me a few seconds to determine that I was going to buy it. The book was so cute, I would have bought it even if I didn't have a 10% discount card.

I like everything about the book:the amigurumi that populate the cover and the first half of the inside of the book; the way the author, Narumi Ogawa, encourages the reader to expore all the possibilities of crochet; the impeccably clear directions and cool charts.

So, is the book as great as it looks? I set out to test the patterns myself this afternoon as I said lakeside at sailing lessons. Armed with my 3.75mm Skacel crochet hook and a skein of Red Heart Supersaver worsted weight warm brown yarn, I tried out the pattern for "Sebsastian le Hamster." I am happy to report that the directions were easy to follow, and had I remembered to bring along stuffing, eyes, a nose, contrast yarn for the hands, feet, and muzzle, as well as a jaunty orange for the beret, I would have been able to complete the hamster with time to spare. Not being that organized, the hamster is in my bag and mostly done.

I will definitely be experimenting with more of the patterns in this book. If you want to check out the author's website, she can be found at http://misterfunky.com/index.html

"Can't you just give us the answers?"

This was a question one of my 7th grade students asked yesterday as we finished a review for a test today. The question stuck with me long after the school day ended. Usually, their questions are lost in a miasma of repetition. Can I go the bathroom? What? May I go to the bathroom? Why do we have to say "may I?" Can we have snack; I mean, may we have snack?" Do we have silent lunch today?

The test did not go well for a lot of them. They are, for the most part, struggling with the following concepts: absolute value and addition and subtraction of negative numbers. I try to explain to them that they have to take the time to figure it out, that me giving them the answers is insufficient, that all I can really do is give them the tools to figure out the answers, but that ultimately, the answers are theirs to find, not mine to give.

They are, however, not reassured. Like many of the other questions they have for me, they expect action (signing a hall pass) or at least an answer (Yes, you do have silent lunch today). They are not the least big comforted when I tell them that it is up to them and that they must take action. Everything is new. The endlessly hurt feelings as they jockey to find their places in the world. When they say things that are mean and thoughtless, they think it will hurt my feelings they way it would hurt theirs. They are genuinely sorry, even if only for a few seconds.

Monday is a new day. Perhaps they will find some answers.

I have other interests besides crochet, not least of which is wrinkle treatments. I don't know what it is I like about them so much. I know that part of what I like is the ritual. Not just the ritual of using the products, but the ritual of going out to buy them. The way I slip my flip-flops off at Walgreen on a miserably hot summer day and cool off while I peruse the labels of the myriad products. Or perhaps, it is finally having the house to myself and making use of whatever preparation awaits. One of my new favorites is the revita-lift mask by L'Oreal. What I like is how unapproachable I am when I have the mask on my face. It is as if it is a barrier between me and all of the things in my life that encroach on my psyche. Sort of a moat for the soul. Then there is the glycolic peel. It is so easy, but so effective. Then there are the lotions I keep in my drawer at work. I apply them to my face whenever I I need to ward off the world. I do love wrinkle cream.