Valerean

I started off 2025 with a terrible experience that for me took a lot of time, meditation and forgiveness to get past. That seemed to set the tone for the entire year; I'd be happily working, and then suddenly some disaster, ailment or unkindness would derail me and then I'd have to work my way through the fallout. It was that classic lather, rinse, repeat situation that never seems to improve. This past month has been a mirror to the first one, ending 2025 as badly as it began. My relationships shifted and changed, the world became colder and more hateful, and it seemed like there was nothing I could hold onto while I recovered from whatever cruel thing that had happened -- only there was. My creativity was always ready to pull me out of the poisonous to me situations, as well as my writing and my wonderful day job. It sounds trite but it's true; that really helped me manage all these toxic incidents without sinking too deeply into depression. To see some of my...

I started off December with my usual bad luck by spraining my worst trigger finger. That didn't stop me from crocheting, so I made a dishcloth and scrubbing pad out of the strangest cotton yarn I've ever thrifted. Once my sprained finger mended enough to come out of the splint I stitched the first two mini-quilts for December: an art piece using junk jewelry that I called Inner Child, and an homage to Etsy seller 14carrot, who inspired this project, with one of her lovely quilt tags. As physical therapy for my sprained finger (and because I finally learned how to do a granny stitch rectangle properly) I made this throw out of thrifted yarn in fun, non-Christmas colors. My third mini-quilt for December was this stitch practice piece with a pretty vintage Napier snowman brooch that I thrifted. This fourth mini-quilt for the month was a patchwork piece I salvaged from a pillow cover with a concealed panel during my quilt detective days. My fifth mini-qu...

Some news that is both bad and good: evidently my old writing blog, which still attracts over 3K visitors per day, isn't considered valuable enough to merit Adsense advertising, which passed on investing in it. Since my personal blog has much, much lower traffic I've removed the Adsense connection here, too. I was hoping to use advertising to cover some of my medical insurance premium costs, but I'll have to find another way. The good news is that it's kind of a relief, as I would have no control over what they chose to advertise on my blog. In other words, never mind about ads showing up on the blog -- not happening! Ha.

When I decided to clone a shop window display cardigan I had no idea it would become such a fun project. I just wanted something rather mindless to work on during the holidays that served as physical therapy for but didn't stress my right hand. I started on the project with just that state of mind. It was fun picking out the yarn for it from my stash, and then finding the right pattern, and challenging myself to get it done before the end of the year. I don't often make garments on a whim, so the novelty of working on something I could wear (right away, too) added extra joy. I am not very fast at doing anything anymore, but I am still pretty speedy at crochet. While I've been working on the cardi I've also been watching videos from young crochet business makers and what they're dealing with on YouTube. I really admire these youngsters for trying to make a living doing what they love. I am one of the very few who was able to do that with my drea...

The yarn lot I bid on at the last minute just arrived, and I got an exotic vibe just opening the box. Someone was a collector of fun fibers for sure -- and I love the medieval-looking copper basket. Here are the eighteen skeins came with the basket, and most are unused and still have labels. The majority are wool but some are synthetics and a few are very exotic. The basket itself isn't ancient, of course, but just made to look like it is (the green patina is actually paint.) It's still charming, and I will definitely put it to good use. As I suspected, the yarn is very rare and pricey. I looked up info on what had labels, and nearly everything was discontinued and now being sold for exorbitant prices. These two skeins alone are worth $21.50. This skein of Tahki Chinchilla imported from France is a mohair blend that I've never before seen -- about $10.00 a ball. I added up prices on everything that was tagged or had labels, and added $5.00 pe...

Unstoppable is one of my favorite movies of all time, thanks to Denzel Washington, Chris Pine and Rosario Dawson, a wonderfully simple plot, and almost nonstop action laced with the perfect amount of character depth and development in a film format. The premise: Based on true events, the movie depicts what happens when a slacker railroad employee makes a series of mistakes that turns a train into a speeding, unmanned runaway missile of molten phenol and diesel fuel. The unlikely saviors are Frank Barnes (played beautifully by Denzel), a 28-year veteran railroader being forced to retire with half-benefits, and Will Colson (Chris's best role to date, I think), a newly-hired rookie having family problems due to jealousy over his pretty young wife. These two start out not liking each other, but are forced to set that aside in order to chase and catch the runaway before it derails and destroys a highly populated area. This is a very blue-collar workplace sort of story that shows...

It's funny how things stay with you as a maker. Back in September we were walking around Winter Garden when I saw this boutique display window. The little color block crochet cardi caught my eye, mainly because it looked pretty simple. Given that it was simply granny stitch I also thought I could make one myself. At the time I was working my white and abalone V-stitched throw, so I filed away the pic and the idea. I thought about that cardi in the window a month later when I finished a thrifted granny stitch ripple baby blanket that I thrifted. And again while I was working on a granny stitch ripple throw of my own. I would have tried to make it, only I had two quilting projects waiting in the wings and I really needed to make them first. Then my holiday bad luck struck and I badly sprained a finger, pretty much wiping out any chance of working on my two quilting projects for the next month. I can still crochet, however. I went on my paint program and worked...

Yes, the happiest day of the year has finally arrived. Much as I love Christmas, December 26th is the day on the calendar that is farthest away from the next visit by Santa. I can breathe a sigh of relief and not think about all that good luck, good times and good cheer that I love so much for a whole 365 days, starting today. Okay, the sarcasm is mean, I admit. Before you judge, you should really read some of the Christmas stories on my blog. They are not for the faint of heart . I think I will celebrate by taking my guy out for lunch. Our neighbors gave us a Culvers gift card, and I do love their shrimp. :) Image by Rosy / Bad Homburg / Germany from Pixabay

Merry Christmas from Valerean.

Last week my guy and I visited to the local no-kill cat shelter to make a donation and visit with the kitties. This has become an annual tradition for us, and one of the few bright spots of our holidays this year. To see more pics, check out my album here. We also go to honor the memory of our cats Jeri and Jak, whom we lost to old age many years ago. The cats at this shelter are abandoned pets, strays or feral, and many are in rough shape. They are treated by a vet, looked after by staff and (if appropriate) made available for adoption. The shelter just built a new building which has become a separate facility for elderly cats so they can live comfortably. It's very humbling to go and sit with the kitties. Many are friendly and will come up to me for a head scratch, even some that are recovering from injuries and/or neglect. Others want nothing to do with us and run. On our visits we offer attention, and money, but it's the folks who run and staff the shel...

I know I said I was done thrifting for the year, but that was before our utterly inept government made health insurance into a nightmare. Since I've decided to have a no-spend year next year in order to deal with the 148% hike in my premiums, I'm giving myself permission to thrift whatever I want until the end of 2025. Which starts with this interesting lot of yarn in a neat vintage container. That yarn looks pricey to me. I'm currently using a basket to hold skeins for whatever crochet project I'm working on, and the darn thing keeps giving me splinters and snagging the yarn. This metal container will be much better. Stay tuned to the blog to see what it looks like when it arrives. :)

After watching Glass Onion a few years back I decided to give the sequel Wake Up Dead Man a go. I'm not in love with Benoit Blanc, the supposedly master detective character, and the cast of characters from the first film were very unlikeable, but I did think the writing was okay. This sequel is star-studded and filled with a lot of religious hoopla, both downsides for me, but what the heck. It's Christmas! The premise: a former boxer and currently disgraced young Catholic priest is sent to a remote parish where the old priest in charge is chasing off his congregation with his fiery and highly prejudiced attitude. From the beginning the old priest takes a strong dislike to the young one, and does everything he can to patronize and alienate him. The old priest also has a bizarre control hold on a small group of his most loyal parishoners, all of whom seem to be worshipping him instead of God. Then the old priest is murdered in the middle of mass, and everyone decides t...

This little cobbled together utility quilt that came in the trio lot is actually really sweet; the original maker may not have known how to piece but still put a lot of work in it. I'm going to use it as a mat for under my home office computer chair, so I laundered it and it held together beautifully. There are a few seams that have popped or torn that needed to be sewn down. What was used for batting migrated and bunched in one corner, so I decided to remove that. The batting was cobbled together, too, and included part of an old flannel blanket. This is what made up the bunch in the corner. I repaired the seams that needed it, and the quilt went to join my other utility quilts in the closet.