February

There are 13 posts tagged February (this is page 1 of 3).

Valentine Daisies to Crochet

If you have yarn and know how to crochet a granny square you can make a blanket of daisy squares in all the Valentine colours. It is a simple pattern, the main thing is to change yarn colours to create the daisy. The colours in this pattern are really perfect for Valentine’s day. But you could use any yarn you have, leftovers from other projects, in shades of red.

DIY – Grandma squares with Daisies / Daisy Squares
by BautaWitch

As usual, I have used the yarn Catania, a 100% cotton yarn with lovely luster that is available in about 50 wonderful colors. I have crocheted my squares with a 3.5 mm crochet hook to make them compact and tight. I have planned to make a beach bag and/ or a cushion for my hanging sofa at Landet.

How-to-step-1-daisies-by-BautaWitch
Cast on 5 ch and make a ring from them using 1 sl st. 2. 12 sc around the ring and finish with 1 sl st. Remove the yarn 3. Choose a new color and crochet 4 ch in any st = your first dc. 4. 3 dc in the same stitch.How-to-step-2-daisies-by-bautawitch

5. Pull the crochet hook out of your stitch and thread it through the 4th ch in the first dc, then through your last st and then crochet them together with 1 sl st. 6. A further clarifying image of the above (5). 7. The result is a bumpy petal. 8. 2 ch.
How-to-step-3-daisies-by-bautawitch
9. 1 dc in next st in ring. 10. Another 3 dst. 11. Pull the crochet hook out of your stitch and thread it first through the 4th ch in the first dc, then through your last st and then crochet them together with 1 sl st. 12. 2 ch. You now repeat image 9-12 until you have 12 petals.

How-to-step-4-daisies-by-bautawitch
Finish the round with 1 sl st in the 4th ch in your first dc. 14. Remove the yarn. Your Daisy Collar is ready! 🙂15. New color. 2 ch in any ch-loop. 16. 2 hst.

How-to-step-5-daisies-by-BautaWitch
17- 18. Time for the first corner. 3 pcs, 2 ch, 3 pcs in next ch-loop. 19. 3 htr in the next 2 ch-loops. Next corner as picture 17. Repeat until you have crocheted around the whole flower. Finish the round with 1 sl st and to get to the next ch-loop make another sl st in next htr. You who crocheted granny squares before, will now recognize you!

How-to-step-6-daisies-by-BautaWitch
21. Time for ordinary “granny squares”: 3 ch. 22. 2 more in the same ch-loop and then 3 pcs in each ch-loop BUT when it’s time for corners you make 3 pcs, 2 ch, 3 pcs. 23. Voila, your box is ready! If you want the larger one, crochet one or more rounds according to picture 21-22. 24. The more the better, right !?

SketchCrawl: Drawing Marathons from Around the World

The basic idea: to record nonstop everything I could around me with my pencil and watercolors. A drawn journal filled with details ranging from the all the coffee I drank to the different buses I took. After a whole day of drawing and walking around the city the name seemed quite fitting: “SketchCrawl” – a drawing marathon. The crawl was more tiring than I imagined but also more fun and exciting than I had thought. Giving yourself this kind of mandate for a full day changes the way you look around you. It makes you stop and see things just a tad longer, just a bit deeper … needless to say I loved it.

I soon figured out it was much more interesting to do the marathon with a group of artists instead of all by myself! And so SketchCrawl turned communal. After a whole day of drawing it proved to be amazingly interesting and inspiring to share and compare other people’s drawings and thoughts. Different takes on our surroundings, different details, different sensibilities.

The next step was making the SketchCrawl a World Wide event: having people from different corners of the world join in a day of sketching and journaling and then, thanks to the Internet, having everyone share the results on an online forum.

So here it is, we have a website now, a few Crawls behind me, some by myself some with friends and artists from around the world … and hopefully plenty SketchCrawls ahead of us.

– Enrico Casarosa, San Francisco, California – February 2006

via SketchCrawl™ – drawing marathons from around the world.

The 52 Weeks of Pagan Art Journaling Project

The 52 Weeks of Pagan Art Journaling project has already begun. Create a personal art journal which will have you tapping into the depths of who you are and what has developed in your soul, your heart, your inner depths). Take what you really believe in and bring it onto the page in words and images. Read more and see the others participating at Aradia’s Cauldron.

Starting in February, with Brighid’s celebration of Imbolc, I’m starting 52 weeks of pagan art journaling project. So join me if you like as I post weekly prompts to get you thinking about what your path means to you, in words and art!

What is an art journal, you ask? The concept is simple really (even though it may seem a little daunting sometimes). An art journal is a journal that you use words and art (sometimes more art, sometimes more words) to record your thoughts, ideas, and feelings in.

The journal can be as fancy and as simple as you would like it to be! Some people draw amazing pictures, while others, like me, create simpler pages. They can be colours, sketches, collages, or anything else you’d like. Sometimes a page can be image based, other times it can be more text based. Art journals let you play and explore.

Bookmark Collectors Virtual Convention

Do you have a bookmark collection? Do you use bookmarks at all or do you just turn down a corner of the page you are reading and close the book on it (the dog-earred method)? I like having a bookmark. I do buy one now and then. But, being shoved into my purse, moved from backpack to purse and then forgotten on the nightstand awhile, a bookmark tends to take some abuse and get lost. Most of the time I use the folded corner to mark the page I’m reading. But, I really like the idea of having a bookmark collection. Now, I just need to find whatever stragglers are left.

Bookmark Collectors Virtual Convention: Bookmarks have been in existence for as long as there have been books, and for the bookmark collector their meaning goes beyond their mundane purpose of marking a position within a book. Made out of materials that vary from paper to precious gems, they are pieces of art, souvenirs, craft samplers, time capsules, and cultural flotsam. Although their prices vary from free to thousands of dollars, collectors ascribe value based on personal meaning, judgment of beauty, and fit within a series.

The convention is planned for February 20 – 21st at 8:AM, PST.

Public Safety Communications

 I’m looking into the 911 Operator course. It will start in February at the Georgian College in Orillia. These are some links I found tonight which I want to save. Kind of interesting to find so much out there. I didn’t expect to find anything much at all.

Proven Ways – designs and provides quality training and consulting in Emergency Services Communications. PROVEN WAYS has partnered with Ontario Colleges to offer students the opportunity to become certified as a “PUBLIC SAFETY COMMUNICATIONS PROFESSIONAL”. This full service communications course is designed to fit everyone from people interested in becoming communicators to senior communications operators. These courses are all best practices in areas of dispatch, call taking, 9-1-1 and advanced CRITICAL CALL MANAGEMENT subjects.

Note : Proven Ways is the business offering the course I am taking through Georgian College. I cut and pasted the above description from their site, that’s why it has the extra large punctuation.

Ontario Fire Communicators Association –  Fire Communicators are those responsible for the processing of requests for emergency and non-emergency assistance received via 911 lines, administration lines, the radio system or direct contact with the public. We work closely with Communicators from Police, EMS and other services to provide rapid, effective responses. We take our role in Public and Responder Safety most seriously, and continue to seek ways to enhance professionalism and our levels of service. The occupation of Fire Communicator is indeed a proud one, the vital link between the public and the emergency service response.

The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials- International.
The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials – Canada – The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, Canada, Inc. is a voluntary, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the enhancement of public safety communications. It serves the people who supply, install and operate the Emergency Communications Systems used around the Country from coast to coast to coast. Members come from every type of public safety organization in the country, including 9-1-1, police, fire and emergency medical services as well as emergency management, disaster planning and federal search and rescue personnel.   Job postings for Canadians.


National Emergency Number Association 
NENA (National Emergency Number Assoication) Ontario – NENA is an association that brings together a vast community of people who work diligently to make the 9-1-1 system what it is today. It is a group in which to generate ideas, share information and plan the the future of systems and services that keep the public safe. NENA is made up of individuals from Police, Fire and Ambulance agencies as well other interested parties who work together to make sure that the system works and keeps working well into the future. Includes job postings for Ontario.