When it Grows up--

It'll be a shawl!

I almost always work on 2 projects at a time. The yarn I'm using is Carons Dazzleaire that I found at Dollar Tree so it was a real steal bargain.  Anyway this shawl I'm making is reminiscent of the shawls many of us wore back in the 70s. I don't have a pattern as such for this but rather some notes I copied and saved quite a few years ago (from a posting somewhere) from a lady who made similar shawls.

I'm still working on my squares for the toddler-sized blanket I'm making and it's my #1 priority right now.

Well, It's My Birthday...

It's my birthday now that the clock has inched past midnight. I'm now (gasp, choke) 55 and that means I'm eligible for senior discounts at a few more places lol! Hubby gave me a choice for my birthday present--new 6 panel doors on the bathroom and linen closet or a Kindle Fire. I chose the doors because I have been waiting for them for more than a few years. Last year hubby decided he was going to retire and we would live off of his military retirement check so things have been tight and our little home improvement projects have slowed way down and so I decided that it was less selfish of me to have the money spent on the house and then it would be for something just for me. I have saved almost half of what I need for a Kindle Fire in gift cards anyway.

Back to my birthday stuff. I was the oldest granddaughter in my  mom's family and I was born on my grandma's birthday. Grandma was one special lady--very spiritual and full of love for her family. Here's an old picture of my grandmother, grandfather, my siblings and 4-eyed me on one of our joint birthdays.

Have a great day everyone!

Slow Going...

I'm working on a toddler sized afghan. My inspiration was a baby blanket pattern that I'll be enlarging a bit. Squares, squares, squares--how I love thee but how I loathe sewing your ends in! Here's my status as of today:

I'm sewing the ends in as I go along; it makes it slow but in the end I won't be faced with a gazillion of them.

I'm not going to post the pattern until I'm finished because I want to keep "the big picture" a surprise until the end.

Take care everyone and have a great week!

Like to read?

You can get Used Kindles and even a refurbished Kindle Fire on Amazon.

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (05 March 2012)

Here's this week's link to a free crochet pattern. It is for a soap holder. Has anyone used one of these? What do you think about them? I haven't used one but I like the idea of making one and using up all the small scraps of soap.

Have a great day!

Soft Yellow Baby Blanket

Last night I finished this sweet little baby blanket. I saw a picture of a similar baby blanket and I thought, "I don't even need a pattern to make one something like this." So I made my own version. Baby blankets seem to be my thing lately. I started another one last night and I think  I'm going to make it a little bit larger so that it will work through the toddler stage too.

Wishing everyone a blessed day...

I'm Late With Link to Monday's Free Pattern

Here's a link to Monday's free pattern. I'm so slow but I guess it's better late than never. :)

Enjoy!

Sunday's Projects

Today, or I should say yesterday, I finished one pair of slippers that had become a ufo (in the bottom of a basket) and also made another pair. The ufo pair, was a super-sized pair for a man.  These seem to take a lot longer than a ladies pair of slippers. Here's a look at them:

These slippers are made out of 1 strand of brown and 1 strand of navy blue yarn.

The next pair of slippers are sized for a woman. They are made out of 2 strands of light purple but they are slightly different colors. I  made a flower for the front of these and here they are:

I started another baby blanket but since it has a lot of granny squares, my C.A.D.D. started kicking in after weaving the ends in on the 1st few squares. I'll work on it between projects so I don't get burned out with it.

Hope y'all had a nice weekend and I'm wishing you a great week. Hugs...

Just Wondering...

I went to a blog and the blogger offered some very nice patterns for free. Now, why would this blogger not allow you to copy and paste pattern into a blank document, nor offer a pdf? Am I supposed to sit in front of my computer as I crochet? I don't mean to be a whiner, I just don't get it.

Baby Blanket Finished

I finished another crochet project today. I made a baby blanket. It's made from yarn in my stash. The main color is a creamy white and the rest is an aqua color and a variegated color that has blues, tans and greens in it, kind of reminds me of the ocean. Anyway, it is just a giant granny square with a simple picot edging. Here's the pictures of it:

Hope y'all are having a great weekend. Hugs to all...

I Am Amazed....

The designer of the pepperoni pizza scarf I just finished sells hers for $140!
I think I like mine just as well made out of my stash yarn!

I just had to post this because I am in shock at how much she is charging!

Traditional Winter Hat for Youngster

I was perusing some pattern books that I've had for eons and decided to make something from one of them. This is a kid's hat (comes in adult size too) that I decided to make. It is made out of double strands of worsted weight so it is quite thick when finished. I know that it will keep some youngster's ears toasty warm.

The hat is part of a set that includes a scarf and matching mittens. I didn't have enough coordinating yarn to make all 3 so I decided to make just the hat. It was very easy to make. This is the book that also has the pattern for my favorite slippers. Here's a picture of the book:

I started a baby blanket today. I think I have my CADD (crochet attention deficit disorder) under control at the moment and hope to stay in a productive mode.

Guess this is it for now. Take care everyone...

The Funny, Goofy Project is Done--Finally

Here's the reveal for the funny project I was working on but ran into a problem with. It's a pizza scarf! I got the pattern from Twinkie Chan's book Crochet Goodies for Fashion Foodies 20 Yummy Treats to Wear.

It was very easy with the exception of the crust and it confused the heck out of me. Twinkie does have a video tutorial  that helped and here it is:

Untitled from Twinkie Chan on Vimeo.

I ended up not using all the pepperoni that I crocheted because I thought there were more than enough and I was a bit tired of sewing them on :).  Without further ado, here's a few pics of it:

And a close-up of the crust that kicked my butt:

My colors looked similar to what was used in the book but I think they're actually darker so maybe I should call it the "Over Baked Pizza Scarf." I do like it but not sure where a woman of a certain age such as me would wear it. I'm going to put it in my gift drawer for now.

OK, that's it for now folks!

p.s. Here's an ad if anyone is interested in this book. I was excited to note that it is now available for kindles too!

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (20 February 2012)

Since I'm suffering from CADD (crochet attention deficit disorder) I thought maybe I'm not the only one and that's why I'm posting a pattern that will finish up quickly. Today's pattern is for coasters that have a St. Patrick's Day theme. Enjoy!

OK, My Funny Project Still Isn't Finished But These Are

I'll admit it, sometimes I suffer from CADD-- Crochet Attention Deficit Disorder. I was a little frustrated with my "funny" project so I took pictures of a pair of slippers that I recently finished--

I modified the original pattern because I was using partial skeins of yarn and wanted to be sure I had enough so I shortened the back portion of the slipper. I was going to wait until I had several more pair done before I showed them to you but I figured it was ok to show them now because I'm also going to show you a picture of the scrap 'ghan that I finished last night.

It is truly one heck of a gaudy delight! The next time I make one of these, I'm going to go ahead make it a double strand 'ghan with one strand being black. I think the black helps out with multiple colors that don't necessarily  match by themselves.

OK, this is it for now. I really need to kick the CADD in the butt and finish my other project before the Fiber Fairy goes "poof" and turns it into a ufo hidden in the closet!

Y'all take care and stay warm. We may get our first real snowfall this weekend so I'll be wrapped up in an afghan wearing some crocheted slippers as I hook on a project.

Hugs to all...

Ran into a Snag with My "Goofy" Project

I ran into a problem with the last bit of crocheting on my "goofy," fun project. Luckily, I found a video tutorial to help me. Seems like I'm not the only one to have this problem. Anyway, as soon as I'm finished, I'll post pictures and a link to the video tutorial--shouldn't be much longer!

Since I was frustrated with my fun project, I switched over to my scrap 'ghan. It's getting pretty darned big so I'll be finishing it up pretty soon. I'm down to only a few small balls of left-over yarn so I'll consider using up the small odds and ends of yarn a success.  Guess this is it for now.

Have a great day everyone...

Did You Ever Crochet Something Goofy?

I am currently working on a project that is a bit off the beaten track for me. I just wanted to make something fun so I am. I'm not going to spoil it and tell you what it is but I'll let you know that I had to crochet 30 round motifs as part of it. I think I have about a 1/2 hour or so of actual crocheting left then there is the loathed assembly and weaving in of the fearsome ends. I hope to have this project finished in a day or 2 and then I'll do the grand reveal;-).

Had a nice Valentine Day. It was son #1's usual day to do laundry but he made brownies while he was here too. Son #2 came over on his dinner break at work and had his meal here. DH gave me a stash of chocolate--a heart full of peanut butter cups and an assortment of other chocolate. We had pizza from one of our favorite places--Papa Murphy's. For those of you who don't know about Papa Murphy's, you buy a pizza from them but then you have to bake it at home. They assemble the pizza as you watch. Our favorite is loaded with all the meats, pineapple and extra cheese. It is so Yummy!

Much to my little girl's distress, I dressed her up in honor of the holiday but she ran right to her dad to be undressed.

Later on, both "kids" cuddled up with their dad in the recliner amid a pile of throws--

Take care everyone...

Happy Valentine Day Everyone!

For my family--

And my friends--

To Wait an Hour--Is Long
To wait an Hour—is long— If Love be just beyond— To wait Eternity—is short— If Love reward the end—  by Emily Dickinson

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (13 February 2012)

Today's link is for a beautiful cardigan from Vogue Knitting. I hope you enjoy. Have a great week everyone!

Me and My Boycotts...

Some of you who have been following me for a while are probably aware that I will boycott companies that I consider to be substandard in their service or quality of their products. This year, I have started my boycott of Walgreens because they no longer accept Tricare (the military/military retirees/military dependents) medical insurance. Even though they have offered to not raise their prices for a few years, their prices were still 20% higher than other participating pharmacies so they were basically given the boot when they refused to "get with the program." I miss using the coupons out of the Sunday paper at Walgreens but Walmart will accept some of them. Please check Walmart's coupon policy because there are some "tricks" to using coupons from their competitors.

The other company I have been boycotting for almost 3 years is Taco Bell. Why??? I am boycotting them because if I wanted to eat taco-flavored taco shells rather than taco shells with filling then I would have bought a bag of tortilla chips at a dollar-type store! If you visit Taco Bell's website, you will see false advertising pictures of food items that look like they're meant for hearty eaters contrast this with a blog entry from April 2009 and you can see a picture of my taco-flavored wannabee taco. The thing is, I wrote them an email and they never bothered to respond to it. When I was on Facebook the other day, I saw a Taco Bell ad on the sidebar. It connected me with their Facebook page. When I saw someone had complained about a skimpy amount of filling on his food item I directed him to my blog entry about this and now that I've publicly brought this to Taco Bell's attention they want me to go there and fill out a complaint form or call a toll-free telephone number. If they're seriously interested in "fixing" this problem then they can contact me because I contacted them 3 years ago. By the way, we now call a local Mexican restaurant and order our tacos there, go pick them up and end up with tacos full of filling and a bonus of tortilla chips and salsa for about 2 dollars more.

Am I the only one who boycotts businesses? Let me know!

In our area we're supposed to have the coldest days of winter this weekend. Hope everyone is staying warm. Hugs to all...

Just Wanted to Share This With You...

As I was skipping around Pinterest, I found a picture for what looked like simple slippers to crochet. I clicked on it and I noticed that I could embed the pattern in my blog to share with all of you. Here it is:



It's going to be coldest weather of the winter here this weekend so I hope all of you are able to stay warm--snuggle up with the afghans and crocheted slippers! Hugs...