Sunrise Sunset

Is this the little girl I carried?

Is this the little boy at play?

I don't remember growing older,

When did they?


oh, alright.. I love that song. And the name of this afghan is Sunrise, Sunset. And all the time I've been working on it, the song has been going through my head.






It's still in progress, but thought I'd show off what I have so far. This is TLC Essentials in Navy & Steel Blue.

The pattern is free at www.coatsandclark.com You have to search for it, it's not easily found.

Mani di Fata

Some Free patterns at an Italian website.

Main site is

http://www.manidifata.com

to see the site in English, click the british flag at the top.

The free patterns are at these links. ONE Of these days, I will try the cloche.

Circular Motif Slippers

Daises

Ivory Shawl with Flowers

Little Flowers Belt

Trendy Cloche

Bathing Suit

Sleeveless Medallion Top

CD Holder

Flowers for edging sleeves


I've started work on an afghan for a girlfriend's dad. He is having some health issues with cancer. Pictures later.

Pineapple Cap

My own creation:






White ones made with Aunt Lydia's Baby Denim in White and an I hook.




Purple (it's really a dark purple.. looks orchid because of flash) is Red Heart WW and an H hook. I like the look of the Baby Denim better.. I did the RedHeart just to see how it would work up in a commonly used acrylic.

Modeled by my adult daughter. Face not displayed for internet safety and her request.

Back to Earth (broken arm update) & Caps to the Capital

Well, thought it was about time to post an update.

Daughter didn't need surgery, nor a cast, and not even a splint. The doctor only put her in a sling (for protection) and said that the break isn't out of alignment at all. In fact, according to our radiologist, the break is a classic example of a fracture that you can only see by the "fat pads" (whatever that is) and he has put the xray (sans her name of course) in his teaching file.

So, she's been going around the house in her sling and gently exercising her arm (per dr's orders). She can now even type with both hands (I remember what that is like.. having only one hand to type with.. back when I broke my shoulder).

We go back to the Orthopod this friday for followup and probably more xrays.

On the Crochet Front:

My afghan for the CALPALs FiletAlong is FINISHED...










Closeup



Sorry the picture quality is so bad. It wasn't daylight when I made the pictures, so no way to drag them outdoors for really good photos. If weather clears up I'll try to do better.

And I've gotten myself involved in another charity project. Caps to the Capital is the name of it and it's about crocheting (or knitting) little caps to help newborns in developing countries.

Here's what I've gotten done so far:






The little caps whip up really quickly because they want caps between 9 & 11 inches in circumference (tiny babies!!). This is a joint effort of Save the Children and Warm Up America and there is a whole set of instructions, including patterns, on how to get involved on their site. It IS a pdf file to download.. but even those with older computers (like me) need not be afraid of it. I only run 128 of RAM and I was able to download it without trouble.

That's all for now... my show (CHARMED) is about to start.. and then have a busy day planned.

Tripping on Air

My daughter broke her arm at camp today. She's home and in a splint and we go to the Orthopod in the AM to see if surgery or a cast or if she can remain in a splint.

Rose Filet Afghan in Progress

I finally got started on the Filet Afghan for the CALPALs group.

Here's one skeins worth of work






I'm using Caron Simply Soft in the color Soft Yellow. The odd scraps of blue & yellow yarn are what I use for stitch markers. I like using scrap yarn for things like that... makes me feel thrifty and frugal and all conservationy.

Let me tell you how dense I am sometimes. Even thought this CAL officially started on July 1, I didn't go and get my yarn till yesterday. I kept thinking I'd make myself drive 50 miles to where the "real" stores are instead of just doing Wallies here.

I finally realized that aint gonna happen.. so off to Wallies I go. Now, if you look at the picture of the afghan I'm making, it looks as if it is made in squares. Right? sure I'm right.





So, while going into Wallies, I had a brainstorm. Why not make each square in a different Rose color.. there are pink roses, yellow roses, lavendar roses.. etc. Just whatever I want.. then join them. It will be beautifully different!!

So, I bought some Pink, Lavendar, Offwhite and soft Yellow Caron SS.. (only 1 skein of each) and came home.

So, I'm sitting here getting ready to crochet and notice the beginning chain is 185 stitches. Hmm that's a little long for 1 square, but whatever.

It's not until about the 4th row that I realize this afghan is made all in one piece.

Man do I feel DUMB. What's worse is that I've had the pattern for at least a week and have skimmed over it several times .. even LOOKING for the joining instructions and not seeing them. But I read very very fast and sometimes miss important things, so it didn't occur to me that I wasn't seeing the joining instructions because THEY WEREN'T THERE.

I feel like Homer Simpson... really dumb.

Here's what else I did dumb this week. I had a battle with a ?softsided? *could've fooled me* suitcase AND LOST.





Yarn taking a bath.






Looks like I'll be busy awhile today. I got tired of the all black background and also my comments were badly messed up...so I changed templates and lost all my previous comments :( :( and also lost all my buttons on the side. This will be FUN to fix. Glad I know a little html.. otherwise I'd be completely lost.

Humble Pie

Pass the Ketchup.. I have some words to eat.

Back on April 23, I blogged about being turned down for an exclusive Crochet Group and how I understood, but my feelings were still hurt.

I find myself on the other side of the fence now and it's a strange feeling.

A little history... back around mid to late April, I was doing most of my crochet hanging out in two places, Crochetville (a moderated board) and Crochet Partners (a moderated mailing list).

I used to also spend a lot of time at the LiveJournal Crochet site, but it died and altho the moderator has brought back the posts.. the responses are no longer there. I feel I understand why she did what she did, but LJCrochet is STILL greatly missed.

Then suddenly one day, Crochetville was no longer available. It was there, but instead of being able to read and post, there was a sign up that it was down for vacation for the moderators. Yikes!! This happened with no advance notice to most of the members. Well, people panicked .. and made contact lists on Yahoo groups and other places. Some of the yahoo groups ended up morphing into new boards. I got invited to a couple of the new boards and have found one of them to be very friendly and "I'm lovin' it".

The ketchup part? It's invitation only. Open mouth and insert foot (hope I washed it lately). The new group is called CALPALs and we do LOTS of Crochet-a-Longs (the CAL part) and we're all friends (the PAL part). I think this group is a MUCH MUCH MUCH better fit for me than the group that turned me down. Hmmm do I wonder why? nah, I know why.

Crochetville came back in a day (or so.. don't remember how long it took actually) and I'm still active there, but have found a new home away from home. Thanks to the creator and the moderator (ya'll know who you are) of CALPALs for inviting me. I think/hope we will have a long and happy friendship.

and I understand why the C'ville moderator needed a vacation.. it was just a shock to all of the members for it to happen so suddenly.

New favorite Link: (crochet related): http://www.jessica-tromp.nl/free_crochet_patterns.htm

Tons of stuff there...Including advice on how to enlarge patterns!!! BUT, you need to be able to crochet from a diagram.

Almost off my hook: A Honeycomb shawl (my pattern) in White Omega Sinfonia for my niece for graduating from Community College. She did this all on her own.. no financial help from anyone. YEAH ASHLEY!!!!! Onward and Upwards Girl!!! She's now studying fashion design.. still supporting herself. I predict we will see great things from that young lady. All I have to do is fringe the shawl (after weaving in the ends and gently washing it) and then package and mail. Packing and mailing will be my downfall.. I'm horrid at that.

My son is retaking part of his TAKS exam today. Prayers, good wishes, Light a candle, say a MoneyHum (Heinlein fans?) that he will pass it this time. Only missed by 1 point last time. Gotta pass this to graduate HS (what a crock huh?) I wish I could still vote for Kinky Friedman.

So Much to Say

so much to say, so much to do.

Last Friday was sooo wonderful. My kids (who were away WORKING at camp woke me up at 7:20 am... "Hi Mom, it's our day off"!

They voluntarily took the dog to the vet to have stitches removed and I gladly did their laundry in return!!

The boy left after lunch to go visit his Not-a-girlfriend(uh huh.. riiiight), and dd and I had some alone time which was wonderful.

It was sad when they had to go back, but they'll be home again Saturday. :) :) :)

I'm supposed to start a FILET CAL over at CALPALs (more about CalPals later), and have finally gotten the pattern I want to use. It's called "Yellow Rose of Texas"




I finally have the pattern (got it on eBay.. love it, saved time and gas $$) now I have to decide on yarn. I'm leaning heavily towards Caron SS in Offwhite.. which is a very creamy french vanilla color. Aunt Mary's yarns is going out of business, so I'm thinking about calling them and see if they have enough millends in that color. hmmmm

I've also been tempted into starting ANOTHER Cal for Noreen Crone-Findlay's Butterfly Shawl that's shown in the Summer issue of Knit.1 magazine. Read about the shawl and it's creation at Noreen's blog.

Someone on the 'ville asked how many wips we had. I sat down and counted mine.. at it was a staggering 14 (or 17 if you count the blankies that I still need to weave ends in on). That is depressing. Why do I want to start two more?? I guess there's just something about new beginnings that is irrisistable for me.

I was accepted as an Unknowable Shrone some time back and have not had the time to upload a button or do a bio for the site. I just went and looked and can't find myself on there. Hmmm.. I know I received the email. Maybe I should reply to it??? LOL

Well. time to publish this post and do some other things on the web.. I'm sure I will be back to say more.