Baby A is here!

Baby A arrived December 20th at 2:23 pm, weighing 7 pounds 8 ounces and 20-1/4 inches long. She's beautiful!

God bless her and her happy (but tired) parents!

Grand-Baby A to Arrive!

We have news that Grand-Baby A is on her way!
It's going to be a loooong day! LOL
I can hardly wait!

December 8th

Not that I haven't been working on anything... still making clothespin angels, and also working on a shawl, but not very much.

With Christmas fast approaching, seems like we have been busy going places and doing other things, so I haven't had too much time to crochet.

Have been selling a bit of yarn on Crochetville, so have been spending time doing that, going through my yarns, taking pictures, posting the sale on C'ville, pm-ing & emailing potential buyers, packaging, going to the P.O., things like that. I have sold quite a bit, so I'm happy.... although there are still a lot of boxes and tubs full of yarn... some I'm not ready to part with yet.

The grand-daughter's due date is today, but no news from The Stork yet. I know her parents are ready and waiting. The last month of any pregnancy is the longest.

December 1st

I've been busy destashing yarn over at Crochetville and am pleased with the responses.
On the other hand, I took advantage of a yarn sale and free shipping at Joann's website and received my yarn yesterday. I bought Rainbow Boucle (11 ounce skeins) for $5 each and the regular price is $8.99 per skein. I love that yarn!

Still working on Thread Angels (see previous post). Mailed some out yesterday to good friends. I feel badly that I didn't send them something more, but I've been very busy making things for my Grand-daughter Baby A who isn't here yet.

Baby A is due December 8th and I can hardly wait! Hubby & I will be making a trip in January to meet her. We bought her parents a webcam so that we will be able to see her "live." We tested out the webcam connection last weekend and it sure was fun to see each other and talk live.

Mailed the package to my Holiday Gift Exchange partner at Crochetville yesterday so she should have it next week. Those swaps are certainly a lot of fun.

Thread Angels Ornaments

I've been working on crocheting Thread Angels. These little beauties are fun to make. The little dresses are made and put onto special clothespins which then can be simply pinned onto a Christmas tree.

Don't let the simplicity fool you. I timed myself and each one of these takes me 2+ hours to make.

I have a picture of all that I have made so far (and I still have a few more to make), plus a single picture so you can see one close-up.

Spiderman Afghan

Here is a photo of the Spiderman Afghan that I finished yesterday. Image is clickable.






The pattern stated to repeat 3 rows, which stated main color for 2 rows, then 1 row of black, which I did. On page 2 of the pattern, it stated that the color sequence was 4 rows of main color and 1 row of black.

The pattern directions were conflicting in this regard. What do you expect from a free pattern? I'm not one to read ALL the directions before beginning a project. So, my main color rows should have been wider. Oh well.

Painting & Crocheting

For some reason my camera is telling me that there is no memory card. Hubby says it may be in backwards but I can't get the little "door" to open all the way. So as soon as that is resolved I'll post a picture.

I've been painting interior doors in the house. Whrew, there are a lot of them, especially when I'm also painting closet doors. We are doing a bit of "home improvement." The doors were originally brown and after priming, I'm painting them white. Quite an improvement! I've been working on them for 2 weeks and still have 3 doors left to paint, though I noticed that several of the doors will need another coat of paint. Hopefully I will get that finished today if I don't run out of paint!

My latest project is a Spiderman Afghan. A friend of mine is expecting a baby in March (I think) and one of her other children thinks that they should name the baby "Spiderman." So she is referring to the baby as "Spiderman" although they are not going to know the baby's gender until the birth. I thought this would be a fun gift for the baby. I'll try to post a picture later when the memory card is figured out.

Baby Bunting

Here is the finished Bunting for Baby A.
Made with TLC Baby Sport yarn.
It made up very quickly.

Borrowed Hook

The same friend who borrowed my iron also borrowed one of my crochet hooks. She needed it to finish the edging on an outfit she was making for Baby A.

She brought over the outfit to show me (at the same time she returned my iron, see the post below titled "Don't Loan Your Iron to Anybody"), so I know she is done using it.

So I emailed her and asked her about my hook and she said she had left it in the cup holder in her car and to come by and pick it up next time I was out.

I had to go out to the P.O. the next day, and I stopped by to pick up my crochet hook. She said it was still in her car and to go out and get it. I told her that her car wasn't outside. Oh, she said, my husband must've taken it somewhere. No idea when he'd be back and I didn't want to sit and wait for his return, so I went home.

Yesterday my hubby had to go out and I asked him if he would go over and get my hook out of the cupholder of her car. He was apprehensive about doing it, but I assured him that it was perfectly okay. When he came home, he said there was no crochet hook in the cupholder. *sigh*

So I sent her an email to please let me know when she finds it.

Sure, it would be easier to just go buy another hook, but I live in a small town and there is no store where I could purchase one. Which is why she borrowed mine.

Crochetville Secret Pal Reveal

My Secret Pal for the Fall 2007 swap was Texasredhead! She has been absolutely amazing and an absolute gem of a SP. Here you see stitch markers, patterns, knitting needles, crochet hooks, a combination knitting needle/crochet hook holder, crochet thread, lots of yarns, sticky notes, herbal tea, a Chibi needle set, a hand-made ruffled hot pad, and a beautiful hand-made scarf. Oh, and don't forget the chocolate truffle!
Thank you so much Texasredhead!

Don't Loan Your Iron to Anybody

My good friend "D" asked if she could borrow my iron. Normally, I hate to loan anything to anyone. I take very good care of my things. And, after all (I reasoned), she is making something for my future grand-daughter A. So I figured, why not?

She said she would return it the next day; she just needed to iron a yard of fabric. So she said. That was Thursday.

On Sunday night, I sent her an email to ask if she would please return my iron because I would need it on Monday.

She brought it back Monday. It looked like this when she brought it back. Even the handle was dirty. Yuck!


She didn't say anything, like "I'm sorry to bring it back this way." Nothing. Believe me, when I loaned it to her, it was pristine.

And no, I didn't say anything about it either. We're friends. And she made something for my future grand-daughter A. But I will tell you I was shocked she brought it back looking like that.

Here's what it looks like now, after I cleaned it up. It took me a good half-hour to clean it up, including the holes (with Q-Tips) with a good iron cleaner.

Nobody will borrow anything from me ever again. Don't even ask. And no, "D" doesn't know I have a blog.

Baby Bunting

My current project is a baby bunting. It's going fast. Done in Red Heart sport yarn.

Here is a picture of the pattern.

Christmas Dress Details

This is the skirt detail. The berries are French knots. Notice how they are placed in the same locations on all the holly motifs.

The next photo is the back detail with pearl buttons.

Finished Red Afghan

Here is the finished Red Afghan.

Below are 2 pictures of the edging detail.

Red Afghan

I finished the afghan today. Horray!

Unfortunately, my camera isn't working for some reason. Will have hubby check it. So frustrating when things that are supposed to work, don't. *sigh*

I'll get a picture posted soon.

Finished Christmas Dress

Here is the photo of Baby A's Christmas dress. I'm so glad I finished it in time for the Baby Shower. It was the only handmade gift she received!

I was hoping to finish the matching afghan before they left, but that didn't happen. I finished the flower border, and am still working on the edging. I will post a picture when it's finished and I've blocked it.

Today hubby & I have a quick trip to make for home improvement purposes, so my post today has to be quick and brief.

I'm on Row 46 of the round afghan. It looks much the same as in my previous post, except bigger. The bigger it gets, the longer each row takes since there are more stitches.

I am done for now with the fall cleaning; later I will tackle the closets and drawers. That will be a big job... especially since I have been shoving stuff I didn't know what to do with or where to put it into drawers and closets. haha Actually I have one closet done and had to be merciless; anything clothing related that is too big or too small gets recycled and clothing with stains or holes gets tossed. I know, one must have at least one "grungy" thing in case you want to paint or something. Unfortunately I have too many things that I could keep for that purpose. Have to say good-bye to those!

So I need to put in more crocheting time if I'm going to get this afghan finished in time for the baby shower.

I'm going to be very busy with company & activities this next week so there will be no post next week. I'd rather be spending time with my company (and you thought I'd say I'd rather be crocheting!).

Red Afghan

Baby A's dress is blocking and will post a picture when it's finished and all the ribbons are added.

I've been Fall cleaning! Moving furniture, shampooing carpets, sorting things out and putting other things in new places (or where they really belong). I even vacuumed the books and my daughter thinks I'm nuts, but my hubby has quite the library and it's just easier to get on a ladder with the vacuum and take care of all the dust they collect. I mentioned that he should pack some of them away if he doesn't use them, but then there's the problem of where to put the boxes. Right now they are all on bookshelves, 4 shelves high that cover a whole wall and they are full. We had to add some more bookshelves a while back, and I managed to claim 2 shelves for my books.

So I have managed to start a Red Afghan for Baby A. I haven't worked much on it, but here is a progress picture.



It doesn't look like much right now. I have a zillion rows (55) to crochet in the spiral or pinwheel pattern before adding the flowers. I plan to make them in white so that it will stand out and be feminine.

It will look like this:

By the way, my computer is sooo slow it takes me a long time to download pictures and then do all the adjustments that need done, as well as write a little bit and then upload pictures to the blog. So my new posting day will be Fridays from now on. Thursdays for some reason are just very busy days for me.

Almost Finished!

Almost finished with Baby A's Christmas Dress! Sorry for the delay in posting to my Blog, but I was having troubles yesterday with uploading pictures.

As you can see, the dress is nearly finished. I thought I would have it finished by yesterday, but I've been fall cleaning and shampooing carpet and there was a day or two that I didn't get any crocheting done at all.

All that needs done is the buttons on the back, then it needs a hand washing and blocking... and also a bit of ribbon to be woven in the eyelet rows. I'm not going to add ribbon to the skirt bottom though; just around the sleeves and at the waist. I will use white ribbon.

I'm thinking that a little slip might be needed underneath, and I have some red satin that would be perfect.

Notice there are little holly berries on the wreaths, done with embroidery French knots.

So when all that's done, I'll post one final picture of the completed Christmas Dress.

Baby Dress for Christmas

I'm still working on Baby A's Christmas Dress.
The bodice is completed, and now working on the first sleeve.
It's starting to look like a real dress!

The back of the bodice will have 3 little buttons. Which reminds me, I need to find 3 little buttons in my button stash!

I'm in the midst of doing some fall cleaning in order to get ready for family company the first week in October. I cleaned the guest room & shampooed the carpet in there. Decided that the nightstand needed painted and I'm doing that today. Next I need to finish putting things back in there. Trouble is that I don't want to put everything back in there, so I'm sorting things out too.

I want to get all the carpet shampooed so it's done and everything nice & clean. I also need to get invitations all made out for the Baby Shower. Wow am I busy!

Baby Dress for Christmas

This lovely little dress doesn't look like much right now, but I'm almost finished with the skirt portion and this is the picture of what I've done so far.

This is a Christmas dress for my soon-to-be-born Granddaughter A. She is my first granddaughter and is expected to arrive in December. I have a Grandson D who is almost 13 years old, so it's been a while!

The Christmas dress is made with crochet thread, and may take a long time to complete, which is why I started it now. I'll be posting progress pictures every week.

Prairie Star Afghan

Good Morning!

I've been working on this Prairie Star Afghan and it is almost completed. I just have to finish the edging.

This has been in the works for a long time, and it is to be a wedding gift for Josh & Tabitha, who are going to be married in early October.

I used yarn from my stash, so it can officially be called a "stash buster" afghan.
The pattern is free here:
http://www.purplekittyyarns.com/free-patterns/Prairie-Star-LW1295.pdf

The diamonds were easy to make. I had no problem with diamond placement at the beginning of the pattern, since all the diamonds were placed in the same direction. I had trouble with placement when some of the diamonds had to be placed sideways and joined to the diamonds placed up & down.

Yes, there was some ripping, and even some *gasp* cutting, as I got carried away and placed too many around when I should have not placed so many on the sides. Those I had to cut off. *gasp* But since this afghan is a join-as-you-go (no sewing!), cutting off the extra diamonds was easier than ripping them out. Why you ask? Because I wove in the ends after completing each diamond. Sometimes I cannot find my own ends!

In retrospect, I should have paid closer attention to the diagram. But in my own defense, I'll say it was easy to get confused.

Birthday Socks

I am going to try to post at least once a week. Though I'd rather be knitting or crocheting! Just so you know.

Here are the socks that I made for my daughter for her birthday:

She said right now it's too hot to wear socks, but for sure will start wearing them when the weather gets cooler.

I'm sorry the detail doesn't show up well, or at all, but believe me, they are beautiful! I found the pattern on the yarn site. The socks were made with Tofutsies yarn by SWTC or South West Trading Company, color number 731 (I think).

Socks!

Welcome to my very first Blog! This is all new to me, and very exciting! I figured if my friends and family can do it, so can I.

I'd much rather be crocheting or knitting though.

This Blog will be a way that I can share what I am working on with friends & family. Everybody is always asking what I am working on...

I will share a few of my most recent projects with you.

The first was inspired by my daughter, who graciously gave me some Tofutsies sock yarn for my birthday. She said it was to knit HER a pair of socks. How sneaky is that? I told her I had never made socks before.

So, rather than practice with the lovely (and expensive) Tofutsies yarn, I bought some worsted weight yarn at the Dollar Store to make a pair of socks for ME.

Here is the result:
















Since they turned out so well, I made an identical pair of socks for her, which she said would be perfect for *gasp* bed socks!

The pattern was a free pattern called Horcrux socks and can be found here:
http://www.knittingasfastasican.com/FreePatterns/Horcrux%20Socks.pdf

I chose the pattern because it could be made with worsted weight yarn, and it had a simple design. I was totally amazed at how easy (but time-consuming) they were to make.

I think I am hooked on making socks now.