Some Promised Pictures

The latest handwarmers. Added some fun fur to the cuffs and crocheted a flower. Two strands of fingering yarn held together, purple n white. I love them.

And here are three more sets in the works. The pink pair I cross-stitched a heart on to one of them, I think I like it. I'm thinking of putting pink eyelash on the cuffs.. or maybe pink eyelash/purple fur. Not sure yet. The blue/red pair on the left I think will be a birthday gift. The pair in the middle I was trying out crocheting a design into them. haven't decided if I want to make the second mitt, or frog this one back to before the design.

Some funky yarn I got for myself from Stitches n Stuff in Longview. I love that store. And how cool is it that it is in the "Afghan Romance" book? Not sure what I plan to do with it, but I had to buy it. I did find a pattern for it at www.trendsetteryarns.com, but I dont have enough. Oh the pain, the pain. LOL

And this is the yarn my dear sister gave me for christmas. I've had the most wonderful time trying to decide what to make with it. I'm leaning toward the Seraphina shawl, but havent decided yet.

And the last picture from tonight..a shawl made from one of the free patterns from Tabitha's vintage crochet. It called for two strands of #10 thread held together throughout, but I used LB Homespun and a large Crystalite hook (I think it was the M, but not sure). This color is called Waterfall. I used 4 skeins and didn't quite have enough for the pattern, but I like the way it turned out and that's what counts!!! I have more to upload, but it's time to get off the pc awhile.

New computer on the way

Just got the email from Alienware: my new computer has been shipped. yeah!!!! Now I have to clean out my cubby where the old computer has been. boo!!!!!

On the crochet scene: Finally wove in the loose ends on the Seraphina shawl. I'm really loving it, even though it does have small amount of wool in it and makes my back itch a lil. I've almost finished a peasant shawl (from Tabitha's vintage crochet newsletter), but making it in homespun instead of thread, so I'm having to adjust the pattern a little. Made two more pair of handwarmers (I think I'm addicted to these.. lol.. I even slept with a pair on the other night). Oh, and I finally worked out the skull n crossbones, from a graph from Glampyre's site, but it's a knitting pattern, so had to improvise a little. It came out huge, like a pillow size. I'll keep it, make a back and have a pillow.

Then today.. I found this at LiveJournal
designed for crochet. I love Live Journal's crochet community, they always have the neatest stuff.

well, better get off of here and make some headway in cleaning up the mess in my old computer cubby. Till next time....

Things I've made

Thought it would be good to link my picture trail stuff here:

Shoulderette (3x or larger)

Baby Hats for Kayla (my grand niece)

Various things I've made

The Hearts & Diamonds throw in the last link is my current favorite afghan to make. I've made at least 8 of them (wish I had made pictures.. but christmas was a rush) and have only kept 1. I'd like to sell it on eBay, but no way would I get what I put into it.

I sat down and figured out that it takes me about 50 hours to finish one (it has 28 hearts, each heart takes me one hour to crochet..) at any reasonable rate of pay.. wow.. then there's the cost of the yarn to be considered. But since Valentine's day is coming.. maybe I should give it a try.. hehehehe.. I'd probably be wasting my money tho to list it. Perhaps I should go with the Ioffer site.. free listings I do believe.

Too many people in the computer lab where I work to feel comfy with dragging out my crochet. I like it better when there's no one here. :( Oh well, at least I got my assigned angel mailed. Special angelings aren't on a deadline so that's good.

I'm itching to get home and work on the handwarmers some more.

TETA

One of my teens goes to TETA today... won't be home for 4 days. It will be very quiet here.

I've been working on making more handwarmers.. trying various weights of yarn. I've decided that I like either sports weight.. OR fingering weight doubled.. two strands held together. I will post pictures when I can. (soon).

I felted a purse.. but forgot to take before pictures.. duh. That's what comes of felting at 2am.. you forget little details. I need to run it through at least once more, you can still see the stitches. I tried to improvise a pattern for felted ballet slippers, but they didn't turn out right. they look like a giant brown wooden shoe. :)

Also been making angels for the Angels for Hope group.. and gosh.. I have a shawl that I need to weave the ends in on, another shawl that I've decided I need to frog back to where i added on a skein.. the join shows badly. There's a crocheted bias scarf that I need to finish.

Oh, I wish Michaels would put the Moonlight Mohair on sale.. I've fallen seriously in love with that yarn, but at 8.99 a skein, it's a little steep. And ridiculous for me also.. as my family tends to be allergic to animal fibers.

Time to go get ready for work...Glad I gave notice and I only have to do this for about 3 more weeks. yeahhhhhhhhh. Then I'll be able to devote more of my time to blogging and crochet.. and maybe even do a lick of housework now and then. hehe.

I was shown this link today.. some of the wildest hats (scary too) that I've ever seen. http://www.anacam.com/hats/customers/customers.html

I haven't posted for awhile because the news in this corner of the world hasn't been the greatest. Our community lost another teenager this weekend in an automobile accident. The family was rear-ended by a driver who has a history of DUI (and admitted to have taken Xanax). On the bright side (?) there was only one fatality and there could've easily been more, as the car landed in water and a couple of people were found floating face down.

We're a small town, where everyone knows everybody.. so this double whammy has hit the community rather hard.

More later....

Very Sad Day

I heard on the news tonight that a young lady from our town was kidnapped while leaving work late Wednesday night, and was found dead today. Very tragic. They held a candlelight vigil at her place of work at 7pm tonight. We didn't go, didn't know the girl or family, but still my heart goes out to them.

Not much I can do to help this situation, but added an Amber Alert ticker to this blog to maybe help prevent further tragedies. We need something to alert the public when older teens and adults are abducted. In this situation, Amber alerts weren't done because the young lady was too old, she didn't fit the Amber alert parameters. I understand that there have to be protocols, guidelines, rules.. but sometimes those rules need to be put aside.

RIP Megan Holden.

HANDWARMERS!!!!

Insomnia struck again last night and I finished my handwarmers. The yarn is Moda Dea's Sassy Stripes and they took less than one skein to finish. I'm happy with the results. I basically made a pair of gloves without fingers, but put a little fphdc, bphdc ribbing around the finger part.. also made some other minute changes to the pattern.

I think I'll work on some other variations to this.. like, if the yarn was plain (less busy) a pattern or design could be worked in. Might even work with this strippedy (is that a word?) yarn, but would have to be in a completely different color scheme. So many things to ponder.

I tried starting a skull & crossbones scarf tonight too, tried just regular sc, and have tried tunisian, i'm not happy with either results so far. Phooey.

Exam time

I can't believe I made Supreme Nerd... omg. Time to go home and crochet somemore...

Our Tree Cat

Before being tucked in

His royal majesty, Thunder, enjoying his new bed.

Catsup Poncho

I found the PC unoccupied for a moment and grabbed it long enough to share the Ketchup Poncho.

Let me explain the name....I've been asking my teenage daughter if she'd like a poncho, she told me she most definitely did NOT want a poncho. Period. Knowing how popular ponchos have become, and knowing that she, like most teens, will eventually want to look like her friends, I told her I was going to buy her a big bottle of ketchup. "Why mom?" "To make it easier to eat your words when you change your mind"

Weeks go by, and while I'm trying to organize some of my yarn, I show her this scrap of vintage Bernat Dorlaine that I had gotten in a grabbag (again from eBay) and she said Mom, that's pretty. If you were going to make me a poncho, I'd like one out of that.

Luckily, I had found more of the Dorlaine, in the same color even, on eBay and snapped it up before someone else found it. She and I went through the poncho patterns online and found one she liked..and the Ketchup poncho was born.

(her hair isn't usually in braids, she was bored during christmas break)

close up of the yarn, took only slightly over one skein (fringe is what went over)

Giant Brown Doily

Here's the giant brown doily, aka catbed in progress

The colors of "Dawn" brand wool I had to work with. Pattern called for bulky wool, so I used two strands held together.

And here it is, prefelting, with the wool and hooks inside. BTW, I found out that this yarn hasn't been made since at least 1985 and it could possibly be older. Wow.. it has held up well.

first attempts

Trying to learn to felt and to blog all in one day.

I have all this unwanted wool yarn, all in shades of brown (ewww), that came with some other yarn I DID want in an eBay auction. The frugal me said I couldn't just throw it out.. the thrifty me said resell it on eBay...the creative me said, didn't you want to learn how to felt?

Guess who won.

I made the catbasket at http://serendipity.gpvm.com/catbasket.html

I also took pictures along the way and will upload when I figure out how to do it.