Behold... coasters!

Summer school is over, and I'm celebrating my final few weeks before the 08-09 (oh my gosh) school year with new kinds of craftyness! These are the Calla Coasters from Purl in NYC.

I've taught myself to crochet as well as knit! I've also been hand sewing backings for them. They're coming out very nice, especially considering that the sum total of my prior hand sewing experience was making a few beanbags in college.


Half of the coasters are knitted, and the other half are crocheted. I have two colors of naturally plant-dyed organic cotton yarn and five different quarter yards of fabric. The plan is to make a ton of these, but we will see how long my patience (and materials) hold out. It takes me twice as much time to do the sewing part as the knitting or crochet, unfortunately.

With my somewhat unexpected success with crochet, I've treated myself to a new book- Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts! Lacy Crochet. (Go look at the photos...)

Anyways, I am having a ton of fun and wish I still had months of summer to go. The last few weeks until school starts on August 25th are filling up fast. We're still (still!) waiting for news on the house. I drove by the other day and it looks like the owners have moved out. (The mailman also said it was vacant.) It's now been 86 days. No one at the lender returns phone calls or emails. Still no other options...