Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (25 February 2013)

In keeping with the season, here is a cute pattern for St. Patrick's Day. You can use this sweet leprechaun as a decoration or perhaps as a doll for a youngster.

Enjoy!

More St. Patrick's Day Items

Quick Post

I just saw this and had to share it with you. Enjoy!

My Vacation Project

I didn't do too much crocheting on vacation except for weaving in loose ends on some slippers I was gifting and making a few dishcloths at a friend's house and on the plane. Here's the dishcloths I finished--

The yarn I used is I Love this Cotton! from Hobby Lobby. This pattern is my favorite for dishcloths and it's a go-to pattern when I just need something quick and easy. Dishcloths are always a welcome gift for just about anyone so it isn't too easy to keep a stockpile of them in the gift drawer. 

Now that I'm home, I'm finding it hard to get into a project. I have 3 afghans started that are languishing away in my "yarn warehouse" room. I need to get my crochet mojo back because I have promised to make an afghan for a friend. I think I'll just see which one I have the most work done on and finish that one for my friend.

Take care everyone!

Hugs,

Sharon

Found a Great Yarn Shop

Hi everyone, I'm back from my vacation visiting friends in California. When I was at my friend's in Hemet, CA, I found a great yarn shop--Lazy Daisy. I decided to treat myself to a couple things of yarn that weren't Red Heart Super Saver. "Nice" yarn is a bit pricier so that's why I only picked up 2. It was a Saturday afternoon and we called the shop only to find out that they closed in about 10 minutes. The nice lady at the shop said she'd stay open a little bit later if we were coming right away. We hopped in the car and hurried to the shop. Becky was the very nice and helpful lady who stayed late and helped me with my selections. Here she is and a glimpse of the shop. Thank you very much Becky for your kindness and help.

 Store information:

Lazy Daisy

2127 E. Florida Ave.

Hemet, CA 92544

951-658-8134

Here's what I bought--

It's great to be home and I hope to catch up with my blog reading soon!

Hugs, Sharon

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (18 February 2013)

I'm on my way home today! Today's free pattern is for a cute, shamrock potholder in honor of  St. Patrick's Day that is coming up next month.

Enjoy!

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (11 February 2013)

Here is a pattern that is for egg cozies for your boiled eggs or maybe to use with your Easter eggs for a decorative touch. Easter this year is on the 31st of March so you still have time to make these before the big day.

I'll be flying home next Monday so I need to find another interesting pattern for next week.

Hugs, Sharon


Children's Easter Books

Two on Tuesday (05 February 2013)

1.  Appreciate having friends that are in reality, more like family should be than friends.

2.  It's great having a spouse who is secure enough that he doesn't complain when I go to visit friends for 2 weeks and is able to hold down the fort with Opi and Nellie Belle as backup.

.

Later 'Gator

A Throw for Another Friend

I made a throw for another friend out of a ginormous solid granny square. These are the colors of her favorite football team--the Vikings!

I have this post scheduled to go online a few days after writing it so that by the time you see this, she will have it!

Hope y'all are having a wonderful week.

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (04 February 2013)

I had set up today's post ahead of time and scheduled its posting for today because by the time you read this, I will either be in the air or in California visiting my friends. For the past 3 years, my friends have flown me to California from Kentucky to visit. They are very generous and fun friends to have. One of them I went to high school with back in the wild and crazy 1970s. We lost track of each other but reconnected about 11 years ago. Amazing with that many years passing, when we reconnected it was just like we had seen each other a couple weeks ago!

I got off topic here before I even got on topic! Here's the link for today's free pattern. It's a granny hexagon baby blanket. I love the "roundish" afghans and blankets and this one is very special because it has a granny-look to it too. I hope you enjoy it.

Hugs.....
Sharon

This is a pattern to use on a kindle:

More Granny Patterns

Going Visiting

Tomorrow morning, I'll be hopping on a jet plane to visit some dear friends in California. I'm so excited to go. I know many folks don't care for California, but I've lived there several times when I was in the US Navy and it's more like home to me than any place I've ever lived. I may be gone, but I have a few posts scheduled to appear here during the 2 weeks I'm gone. I may get a chance to do a posting or 2-- you never know. Y'all have a wonderful time and stay warm in this crazy weather we're having!

More John Denver

Homemade Fabreeze for Us Penny Pinchers

I've been hearing a lot of good stuff about making your own Fabreeze on Facebook and Pinterest. I'm going to give this a try. Here's the instructions if anyone else wants to give it a try. We all need to help each other out with the penny pinching. I need to dig up a spray bottle and give this a try!  If anyone has tried this let me know what you think.

Two on Tuesday (29 January 2013)

Now that I'm in my mid 50s, I love being able to get senior discounts. On Mondays, I like the discounts available at Burkes Outlet stores. You get 15% off on top of the other markdowns they have!  A couple weeks ago, I got a nice LEATHER purse. It had been marked down numerous times and then with my 15% senior discount I scored at $12! I'm so old, that I remember when most leather purses were about $20 full price. Ah, the agonies of getting old lol!

My friends. You can have many acquaintances but real, honest and true friends are few and we are lucky to be able to count them on one hand. I have a great friend who has sent me a plane ticket to fly from home in Kentucky to California to visit. This is the 3rd year in a row she has done this. I'll be in the air flying to our visit next Monday and I've been packing, unpacking and repacking for a month! I'm not excited about our visit at all you know.  We've been friends since high school and I graduated in 75 so it has been a long time. 

Wishing you a wonderful week!

Sharon M

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (28 January 2013)

Here is a link to a free pattern for a beautiful vest for the ladies. It has been designed by Kristin Omdahl.  It is very classy looking and would look nice with business casual clothing and jeans too.

Enjoy!


More Kristin Omdahl Patterns

I'm Sorry for Lying to You

Yesterday I told you that I wasn't going to buy any yarn unless I absolutely needed it to finish a project. I lied. Yesterday instead of going to Walmart to buy some white yarn, I went to Michaels. I had a 15% off coupon for entire purchase including sale items. Well, I found some Patons Classic Wool Yarn marked down from $5.99 to $2.99. I got 3 yellow (looks more gold than yellow) and 1 pumpkin color. I left 1 skein there and it was pink. I really need to stay away from yarn stores lol!

It's a Throw!

For those of you who were guessing about what this is--

It's a throw. Big enough for those days when you're feeling a little chilly but don't need a full size afghan to snuggle under.

Here's a couple more pictures--

A closer look at the edge--

For the main part, I used a solid granny square as my basis. A good pattern is found here. You can figure out your own color scheme. I used yarn that was in my stash. My goal is to primarily use stash yarns for projects this year and only buy yarn when I need it to go with what I already have. For example, I have 2 colors for my next project but need white so I'll be stopping off at Walmart today to buy some of that. 

This is what I did for the edge:  

• Go around the entire thing with 1 round of sc.
• 2nd round of edge: 

1. join yarn with sl st in corner.
2. ch 3, 2 dc, 2 ch, 3 dc
3. *skip 3 stitches
4. 3 dc, 2 ch, 3 dc in next stitch. *
5. Do rounds #3 and #4 all the way around.
6. After working last set of stitches, join in top stitch of starting ch3, finish off.

I used an I hook for most of this project. Even though all yarns were labeled as "worsted weight," the brown was somewhat thinner and the project started to pucker. I ended up sizing up to a J hook just for the brown yarn.

Thanks for stopping in and visiting. You are the best!

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (21 January 2013)

Here's a link to a free hat for a newborn. It is very pretty and looks like it would work for a quick "crochet fix."

Have a great week everyone.

Hugs, Sharon

Latest, Great WIP

Here's a look at what I'm working on. I can't tell you what it is or who it is for because it's a surprise!

  

I love these colors; they're a bit reminiscent of the 70s. This yarn came out of my stash so I was a good girl and didn't go and buy more. I've stepped up my crocheting lately. Thought the rush was over after Christmas but I wanted to make things to take to my friends on a trip I'm taking next month.

The weather this winter is crazy, very mild for us so far but this week the temperatures are supposed to dip into the single digits at night. All I can say about that is I'll be keeping the coffee pot full and hot chocolate handy too.

Take care, and stay warm.

I Finished a Few Things--

Here are a few things I finished up yesterday. Links for patterns on the bottom of the post.
A pair of slippers for a man made out of camo and brown yarns:

Here's a dishcloth. It's in my gift drawer now so if you need one, you can come over, have a cuppa joe and receive this dishcloth just for visiting   :

Here's a scarf. I've used this pattern before. I used Lion Suede Yarn, and that is a thicker yarn than the pattern calls for but I like it for this scarf. This is not a free pattern but you should be able to purchase this pattern online from various vendors. This pattern may look complicated but it is very simple to do once you've finished the first pineapple. Here's a pic:

Patterns:

• Slippers
• Dishcloth
• Scarf

  

Giggle, Giggle...

With the winter dragging on I thought that we could use something to make us smile. Have a fun weekend.

A Quick Project

Made a few dishcloths for a friend of mine--I have another coordinating one to put with these.. I had forgotten my project in the garage and I just didn't want to face the cold and go get it. I know you've seen some of these dishcloths on my blog before--I just love them and can't help myself lol! Anyway, here they are--

• Pattern

   

What I'm Working on Now

I'm working on a pineapple scarf now. Here's a small look at the design. I'm using Lion Brand Suede yarn to make this.

It's almost done so stay tuned for the finished object. Take care everyone!


The following ads are for pineapple type crochet patterns for the kindle and are only 99 cents today! If you don't have a kindle, you can get a free kindle reading app at Amazon to read these on your computer or other device.

A Couple Hats for the Guys

You may remember, that I had mentioned a few posts ago that I was trying to decide what to make for my friend's grandsons. They're big boys so whatever I made for them had to be somewhat manly. I decided to make them each a hat. They have to walk to school so I thought that a slouch style hat might be a good choice. Here's what I ended up with:

I'm so excited about my trip that I have started packing already even though I'm not leaving until February 4th. The background of the pictures is my suitcase!

This was an easy pattern--it took me a few rows to get my rhythm going and then it was a piece of cake to make.

• pattern

Thanks for looking. Hope y'all are having a great week.

Sharing a Spam Comment

Received an inane spam comment today that made me chuckle over the writer's attempt to appear to not be posting spam. Here it is (with links removed):

 Hi, i read your blog from time to time and i own a similar one and i was just curious if you get a lot of spam comments? If so how do you stop it, any plugin or anything you can suggest? I get so much lately it's driving me insane so any support is very much appreciated.  

Feel free to surf to my page :: #$#$%%%^$$# 
Look at my site -(&%(&)*_^%$%

Thought this was pretty humorous. Like I was really going to post the original comment. The included links were for what seemed to be online money lenders; I'm not sure because I was being cautious by not visiting them.

I moderate comments on my blog. Once in a while, I'll have to weed out some spam but by not utilizing a captcha, it is much user friendly.

Well, this is it for today. Take care...

More Spam Cookbooks

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (14 January 2013)

Do you have or know of a small dog who gets cold in the winter? Here's a pattern for a sweater that is adjustable for small dogs who might be a little chubby. Check it out. This is going on my short list of things to make this year. Enjoy!

Beautiful Sculptures

A friend sent me this in an email and I think that you will appreciate it too. It is amazing to me that all these sculptures are made of paper. Here's the video for your enjoyment:

If You Use a Kindle--

You may like this site. It has loads of free books. Most of them seem to be written by new authors so if you like what you read then it is beneficial to them to write a nice review. If you don't care for them, then you may still write a review or just delete the book and no biggie because it was free anyway. I rarely buy books for my Kindle because there are so many good ones available for free. I think it is important to note, that many books are free for a short time so before you "check out" make sure that it is still free. I have accidentally paid for a couple books because I got click happy when checking out.  I always love a bargain and thought I'd share this one with you. If you don't have a Kindle, Amazon offers free software so that you can read their books on other devices.

• Link

Hugs...