New Website

Hi Folks - This blog was transferred to my new website a few weeks ago. I am no longer monitoring this site. The Green Girl blog and the Knitty Scribe blog can now be found at www.ozdustdesigns.com. Please come and join us there.

Peace and joy to ya all...
The Green Girl.

Oz Dust Designs is Live....

Hi Folks - quick note to let you know that this blog and the Knitty Scribe will now reside on my website. Please continue to follow the Green Girl as http://ozdustdesigns.squarespace.com/.

The Green Girl Blog will be a year old in just a few days - come check out the new web site and take part in the fun and giveaways as part of my celebrating your support for a full year.

Peace and joy to you all.....
The Green Girl

Hunny Bunny....

Bob, Louise, Roger, Dave (DH)

Well we are half way through the week and it feels like Monday. It was great to finally have some time with DH as he had a nice four day holiday. We did some visiting with his parents and his older brother and sister in-law on Sunday. The two hour drive is always a nice time for us just to chat and for me to get in some knitting. Thank the heavenly saints that knitting in the car doesn't make me motion sick like reading does. The trip home always happens in the dark, so I get to do a little star gazing, which is always nice. Since we're far from the city driving through farmland, the stars truly twinkle.

I have been wondering what to do for product for my Tiny Tots line in the Green Girl World for several months. I love making things for children and I didn't want them cut out of the Green Girl experience. Lately, I have been knitting with cotton for my dishcloth swap. This gave me an idea to start playing around with something that the wee ones might like and that would be easy for moms to clean. And so the Hunny Bunny was born. Hunny Bunny is basically a cotton cloth made in one piece to resemble a bunny. It can be loved, used in the bath or even used as a teething cloth (I've found that babies like to nubs of the garter stitch on their gums when they are teething.) Hunny Bunny will come in six colors - pink, purple, green, yellow, blue and natural. I'll be posting some in my Etsy shop in a few days, but I'm going to try and make a great quantity for the holiday craft sale that I am going to participate in this year. I think these are great for adding to a stocking, a baby shower gift, etc....

I can see now that the rest of the summer is going to be very busy. I have a commissioned project to work on as soon as the yarn order arrives, plus I have one new pre-made scarf to add to the collection (it just has to be made) and three patterns to create for the collection.  As they say, "No rest for the wicked."

Well, that's the latest,
Peace and joy to you all.....
The Green Girl.

Independent....

Hello one and all - it is the Independence Day weekend here in the good old USA. Picnics, BBQ's, and all manner of celebration is underway. Although I am not always proud of the actions of my country, I love my country and I love the freedom it affords to be the person that I am. I take my citizenship with great responsibility - just because I can does not mean I should.

On this weekend out of all the rest, it is time to think and ponder what it means to be a US citizen. This very thought brings up great debate within our land. I did nothing to hold the freedoms of US citizenry,yet I am fully free due to the passions of others and I am thankful. There are people that have come to these shores looking for the idea and the dream of what we tell the world it means to be a US citizen. To all those brothers and sisters of the stars and stripes, I salute you. Your struggles and your devotion to gain your independence in the United States, is an example that epitomizes the very basis of what it means to be a US citizen.

To all the people that will become a citizen of the United States this very weekend, I welcome you into our family.

Happy Independence Day to all the peoples of the United States - may we all give thanks for our chance to live in a free land. And may we all think and act responsibly as citizens of that free land.

Peace and joy to you all.....
The Green Girl (who is just a little proud now to be Red, White and Blue on this weekend)

Scruba Dub Dub...

Yesterday was a day filled with fun, laughter, and food poisoning. Rewind - day started out well (except for the ants, but let's just not go there as it's too depressing.). DH and I went to lunch together at one of our favorite local sandwich shops and then I dropped him at work so that I could keep the car, run errands and go see a friend that is recovering from knee replacement surgery. Forward - I'm standing in line at Walmart after having a major shopping attack in the cotton yarn section of the store. All those colorful little balls of cotton on sale for 1.54$ - no one could pass that up. Oddly enough I had only gone into the store for pasta so that I could try out a new recipe that I've been working up. Well, as I stand there in line I became violently ill - everything started to move in slow motion - sweat starting running down my forehead - then the wave passed and I went to the car with my purchases. As soon as I got back home the next wave hit and I was shall we say indisposed for the next hour. I called off the trip to visit my friend and relaxed for a while sipping tea. Muse never noticed me as she was enthralled by all the new toys I had apparently brought just for her pleasure - aka the new cottons. As soon as I was better, I pulled out a new yarn - Peaches n Cream Ivy League and started to make a Nubbie Scrubbie. This is another dishcloth pattern suggested by my Dish Cloth Swap group.

The cloth lives up to its name as a scrubbie - it is very nubbie. I can see it also being used as a body loofah, but it is too rough for the face or neck.

After completion of the scrubbie it was once again time to go get DH from work. I'm still not feeling 100% this morning, but I believe I'm well on my way back to the living.


Peace and joy to you all....
The Green Girl

Sharing - Caring - That's What Knitter's (and crocheters) Do.....

It's Wednesday and it feels like Friday already - actually, I don't know what day it feels like as they all seem to run together during the summer. Yes - that's right sports fans, it is officially summer now! For those of you that love this time of year - enjoy to the fullest - the rest of us will wait patiently for our lovely fluffy snow to return. I think seasons are fantastic as everyone gets a choice for what's just right for them, you just have to remember to be patient when it's not your turn. A lesson that hopefully we learned in kindergarten.

Well, the members of the Dish Cloth Swap chose their favorites from amongst the nine that I made and now I have to type up the tags and send them off. However, we have someone in the group that is a huge enabler, she is willing to pass on all kinds of new patterns and ideas just for the asking. Well Ellen, you have made Muse ecstatic - she's juggling the colored cotton and making up rhymes and songs every day. As it is my place to keep the peace, I have indulged her and made a practice version of the Mitered Cross Square . This pattern is well worth the donation to Japan's earthquake relief fund. As Ellen tempted us all with a super lovely version of this as a dish cloth, I decided to try my practice square as a dish cloth as well. Ok - it is easy to see that Ellen's is better, but I shall carry on as I begun and make more and then one day mine will hopefully look as nice. This is my first effort and it has not been blocked yet in this picture. It's on the blocking board now. I used US size 4 bamboo needles to make this smaller than a blanket square. 

Sugar n Cream - Crown Jewel Ombre & Hot Purple

As I am a lefty the problem how to knit this in the proper order arose. After a little fiddling in order to get the directions correct, it was a very easy pattern. If you are a lefty you knit the miters in the following sequence -1,4,3,2. I added a single crochet border once around in order to keep the size from growing too large.

So, to all the knitting and crocheting enablers out there- enable on.... You're all the best.

Peace and joy...
The Green Girl

A Tisket, A Tasket.....

Well all of the lovely dishcloths for my Annual Dishcloth Swap group are made and the group members are voting on their favorite five (I got on a fling and made 9 and now I can't decide.)

These are two of my favorites. The blue is a self striping cotton (Sugar n Cream) and the yellow is a speckled cotton that reminds me of fiesta corn (also Sugar n Cream). So, far these two have several votes from the group as well, so it looks like I will be parting with them. Yes, that is the idea, but I fell in love with them during the process. I'll just have to make more.

As I was knitting the cloths, I fell in love with all the lovely cotton/cotton blend colors and decided to whip up a self-designed crocheted basket. I'm sure there are other crocheted basket designs running around, but I whipped this one up all on my own in about two hours (I had to have a pizza break along the way.) I love the color - it is called aloe vera, which I think is perfect. I am considering designing a line of these in different colors and sizes as an offshoot of the Green Girl's - Oz Dust Designs. As Oz Dust Designs is a knitted fashion accessories line, I'm considering this as a home accessories crocheted line. I'll let all of that stew around in my brain, get some input from Muse and see how it all melds together. DH is working all weekend, so this is a bit a of design weekend for me. I'm hunkered down on the sofa, watching old movies, knitting and drawing all day and night. Then, presto, flip - I'm crocheting. Muse is having a grand time. She was sitting in a pile of cottons earlier and throwing them at me - this is her favorite way to inspire, she throws colors at me. Let's just say that dear old, Muse knows what works!

Well, I'm off for a cuppa tea and a biscuit and one more hour of designing and then to bed with a book (in my case a Kindle.)

Peace and joy...
 The Green Girl.