We're gonig to the Fair!

I discovered PLARN (PLastic yARN) a couple of years ago and have had some fun with it...

In case you're not familiar with PLARN, it's plastic yarn made from those plastic shopping bags you get at your local retailer. Instead of throwing them away, I reuse, recycle or upcycle them. In this case, you might call this an upcycle.

Tomorrow, I'll be entering the one-day contest "Recycled Wearable Art" at the San Diego County Fair. Here's what I'll be entering:



Yes, they're wearable!


This particular PLARN is from The Home Depot!

There is no pattern for these - I just winged it!

Oh, did I say that contestants get into the Fair for FREE?!! An added bonus!

That Crochet Guy meets CrochetDad

That Crochet Guy (Ken Jones of Philadelphia, PA) and CrochetDad (Gene Saunders of Temecula, California) finally meet.

Ken and I belong to a fairly exclusive club: Men Who Crochet

We've admired each other's work, so when our trip was in the planning stages, I contacted Ken to arrange a meeting when I got to Philadelphia.

Here we are at the Starbucks on 19th and Chestnut in South Philly.

Traveling to Philadelphia

It's been a long time since my last post, so this one will be a little longer than usual. Stick around, I'll try not to bore you.

We (my wife and I) drove from California to Philadelphia to attend our daughter's college graduation.

Some pictures along the way:

Our first stop was to visit my wife's brother in Lyons, Colorado.

Elk in Estes Park, Colorado

Another stop was in Aurora, Nebraska. We arrived early in the afternoon, and decided to take a walk around the neighborhood. My wife spotted this house for sale and wanted me to take her picture. The asking price was $89,900. It was built in 1900. It needs some fixing up, but that seems like a great price (if you want to live in Aurora, IL).

909 L Street, Aurora, CO

While driving on the way to Aurora, we spotted a wide load on the freeway. It turned out to be windmill propellers (the kind that are used to generate electrical power) - I estimate they were at least 100 feet long.

Wide Load in Nebraska

The next stop was in Wilmette, IL to visit the Baha'i House of Worship. An impressive building and the only Baha'i Temple in the North American continent.

CrochetDad at Wilmette


I took this great night shot of the Temple

We brought along some of our own food which required a blender. We got tired of trying to find a rest stop with an electrical outlet, so we stopped at a Target and purchased an inverter to power the blender from our car. It turns out the inverter had insufficient power, so we took it back. We'll have to look for a more powerful model...

The inverter worked just long enough to make one shake.

Here's the blender in a rest stop restroom

Our next stop was Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. I took so many pictures, I knew my wife was getting impatient to leave. Here's a couple of pictures of the American and Canadian (Horseshoe) Falls:

American Falls

Horse Shoe (Canadian) Falls

We stopped at an Arby's Restaurant in Pulaski, NY. Outside, in the parking lot, there were these two spaces marked "Buggy Parking" ostensibly for the local Amish. I asked one of the servers inside if they were used much, she said "No, they go to McDonald's". I thought that was ironic, since McDonalds didn't have reserved spaces for Buggies.

Reserved Buggy Parking

My crochet project (Alpine Frost Scarf) was completed, although I don't have a decent picture of the whole thing yet. Here is a closeup of the stitch pattern.

Alpine Frost Scarf (closeup)