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Showing posts with label Crochet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crochet. Show all posts

Friday, July 27, 2018

Looking for Old Sweater Pattern,Knitting Cardiac Collage Afghan, Downloading Problems

 
Here's Cardiac Collage in it's early stages.  This was before adding other colors so things have grown quite a bit from this start.  But, this is the start from my hospital sitting, during a cardiac event my husband had.  Hopefully the next picture I will be able to show you more.  Having some ipad issues and so am using a shared computer and therefore not able to show you the new picture just yet.


This crochet sweater is one I made for my Mother YEARS ago.  I loved the pattern and wish I still had it.  It had great inset raglan sleeves and ribbed sweater bottom and sleeves.  The pattern was well written.  I don't know how I lost it, or I sorta think maybe I loaned it and never got it back.  It was made with sport yarn.  I've posted this once or twice through the years in hopes of someone recognizing the pattern.  I've searched antique patterns but haven't had any luck finding it.  From memory (almost 100% certain), the picture on the front of the pattern was a pretty mintish green or blue-green.  The pattern was I think a Leisure ARts Pattern.  One of those single leaflets that opened and had a pattern on the front and the back.


Not a great picture, used phone but was by a window so it's a bit light.  You can however see some progress with Cardiac Collage.  Since it was small it was/is portable and therefore has come to forefront.  I plan to make squares using up odds and ends and then piece them together.  The squares with have different numbers of colors, different amounts of shared colors.  Truly no symmetry to it.  Somehow, the lack of symmetry and predictable pattern seems fitting for cardiac collage (cardiac events are not at all symmetrical).

Haven't watched any good English TV of late, as hubby and I have been involved in other matters.  But, I do have a question for you.  Have tried to download movies and or tv series from my ipad using my Amazon Prime Membership so that I might watch something while on a couple of long plane rides.  I've googled and it appears I should be able to do that.  However, I do not see a download option.  Google tells me you can watch now, or download...any help on this would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

Monday, January 01, 2018

A YEAR in Review

Today is January 1, 2018.  Happy New Year to you all.  We stayed in last night, had a good dinner, then popped the cork at 12 mn, watched a bit more tv as we were enjoying the bubbly and called it a night.  I hope if you were out and about you were safe and warm.
That's the last completed projected, emphasis on the word completed for the year 2017.  This knitted afghan wasn't yet laundered or blocked in this picture, thus it's not laying out super nicely.  Once blocked it will be added to the donations for the homeless through my blog, Bridge and Beyond.
This afghan was completed just prior to the one above.  Was pushing hard at the end of the year to get them done.  The center pink was a small square someone had donated to Bridge and Beyond, and I added to it, to make an afghan.  It too was laundered, blocked, and donated.
This was a cute ferry garden we saw while traveling in Ireland in the fall.  The trip truly being a highlight of the year.
You can talked about Ireland and Scotland without thinking about Castles!  WOW and then some.  I've posted some, and will continue to post about Ireland and Scotland on my travel blog, Traveling Suitcase.  Please enjoy traveling virtually with me.

In some respects this has been a good year, I traveled to Ireland and Scotland, as mentioned above.  I returned to a favorite spot, Hilton Head and Park City in Utah for vacations both with hubby, daughter, and girl friends on different trips.  I love to travel.  But, it's also been a difficult year.  I've lost a cousin rather suddenly that took me by shock.  Somehow we all think we have endless time and can do tomorrow, or call someone tomorrow.  Just isn't always the case.

Politically, I am extremely dishearten by the person occupying the White House when he's not playing golf at one of his private clubs and charging The American Public for it.  

I hope 2018 holds some improvements for people suffering from illness.

And tomorrow, will be another day, January 2, 2018

Hope you noticed a new badge I added to this blog to join a blog linky party that focuses on yarn!  Oh lovely yarn.  Check out the badge upper left, Ginx Craft.

Sunday, December 10, 2017

Calories, Crocheting, Charity and Wine

 I have many friends I know personally who use a Fitbit, plus I have a ton of on line friends who wear a Fitbit.  I love the little device and have met face to face with several of my Fitbit friends after knowing them on line.  I consider that a real plus.  It's really lots of fun meeting up with people you chat with on line.  My steps have been way down though lately.  I don't enjoy walking outside in the cold.  It didn't used to bother me.  Last winter I went to the gym and used the treadmill, but I haven't even gotten back into doing that.  I need to.  A couple of those pounds have found their way to my waste again.
 Aren't these cute?  Colorful too.  When my daughter was home for Thanksgiving she and I made these.  Well actually, I made a couple and she made about 10.  I took the picture early in the process.  These are water filter covers.  She's part of a group that sends water filters to Uganda.  Trouble is they are rather fragile and break easily, so they came up with the idea of making a filter cozy out of cotton.  These crocheted cotton cozy help protect the much needed water filters.  I've got a good mound of cotton in my stash and we'll no doubt make more when she comes home for Christmas.  My problem is you need to crochet quite tightly which is hard on my arthritis, so I can't make as many as she can.  I had to switch projects, to something that would bother my arthritis less; and I was trying hard to finish a couple of afghans for my charity, Bridge and Beyond.

This is a wine rack.  Can you tell?  LOL.  It was a kit.  Hubby and I've been looking off and on for one that would fit our space, so we could save space in the kitchen cabinets where the wine and wine glasses have been.

AND.....here it is all put together in corner in the dining room.  It holds 2 cases of wine, though you can see we have some empty spaces.  It holds a dozen wine glasses.  We're pretty happy with it....and it was on sale!

Are you getting ready for Christmas at your house?  I've barely begun.

Sunday, March 06, 2016

Pick a Project

Good grief, I had no idea it had been so long since I'd blogged here.  I knew it was way way over due, just hadn't realized it had been 8 months.  NEVER in all my blogging years have I gone so long without blogging.  So, this will be a bit of a catch up.  Life's been busy.  I've kept up with blogging on Bridge and Beyond (My charity blog dedicated to taking care of the homeless), have traveled ALOT, have made walking daily and or going to the gym a big part of my daily routine which has greatly helped my arthritis and reduced my cholesterol level.

 The 3 cotton washcloths (knitted), were found when I decided I needed to clean up and organize my project bags.  Totally had forgotten I made them.  They were donated to Bridge and Beyond.  The purple scarf/mobius was also found in a project bag.  I'd started it for darling daughter who loves purple.  The yarn is called Marbles and it's really soft, and very nice to work with.  She decided she'd prefer an infinity/mobius scarf over a scarf scarf .  So...

I finished it and she's a happy camper.  Worked on it after she came home for Christmas, and had it ready for her when she came home to celebrate my Dad's 90th.    Really pays to go through project bags more often.  I also found some extra knitting needles that I thought I'd lost.  LOL
Started this for her as well with yarn given to her as a Christmas gift from a friend.  I think the idea was for her to have yarn to work on something, but it's very very fine fingering weight yarn which she wasn't comfortable with.  Frankly, I wasn't thrilled with it either, so she and I decided to use double thickness.  The gift yarn is the two darker colors, while in Hilton Head I purchased the pretty lavender to blend with it.

Finished this afghan while in Hilton Head also.  One needs lots of yarn and projects for an extended 3 wks vacation.  We go in Jan and Feb so it's not beach weather. And it keeps me busy while hubby's enjoying his golf.  This afghan was made from donated strips I assembled for Bridge and Beyond.  It's called Navajo.

This is Rusty Nail, another ghan I assembled while in Hilton Head.  This one from donated squares and rectangles (some knitted some crocheted).  It was a bit tedious, in that the sizes varied a lot so some rows have 6 squares, some 7.  Both displayed as they were being blocked after being laundered. You might notice the 2 different carpets...we stayed in 2 different locations.
This ghan Dusty Rose also traveled to Hilton Head.  I got started on assembling it, but didn't get it completed while there.  It's also a mix of knitted and crocheted squares from donations of varying sizes through Bridge and Beyond.  Had to spread it out here at home to see what to edge and attach next.  This ghan is still in the works, though progress is much farther along then when this picture taken.

AND found this work in progress also in a project bag....not sure I'm overly happy with the way it looks, perhaps thats why it was buried?  Will give this some thought to decide whether or not to continue or frog this.

AND....yes I need my head examined, as you see I've purchased more awesome yarn and patterns for more projects.  Really....the kit on the left was 65% off, so how could I not order it?  The greens are called woodland I think and the yarn with the orange mix is called Fall.  Why order just 1 kit when you can order 2 at 65% off?  Sorry the yarn on the right and pattern has no picture, it's a triangle type scarf that's called out to me several times, and it was still as good deal at 35% off.

Wish I could tell you that was it for my work in progress projects, but it's not.  I know I have a scarf I started for myself a keyhole scarf that I took off the needles (don't know where I left off), and I know there's at least one ghan I started years ago tucked away.........really tucked away, I haven't even found it, but I know it's here.....somewhere.  I only worked on project bags in my office, not the ones in the basement.  That will have to be another time.

Looking forward to visiting my blog log to see what you all have been up to.  Sorry for the length of this post......but after 8 months...what can I say.

Monday, October 21, 2013

They called it Mellow Yellow, Memory Monday

I remember when I crocheted this sweater for Mom, one of the first I'd ever made.  I remember how jazzed I was at being able to match up the striped and how excited I was when I came up with the idea of stripping it to solve the.........I don't have enough of the mellow yellow yarn.  Yellow was Mom favorite color, she always said yellow was a happy color.  This was a Christmas present long ago, see those really big glasses........remember when those were in style?  Made everyone look like an ant with great big eyes.  lol

I wonder what happened to that sweater?  Mom's gone and so is the sweater.  I've lots or loaned the pattern and have looked many times to find and purchase it again.  The sweater is a raglan sleeve sweater and so well written, would love to make another sweater or two using the pattern.  Though it was crocheted it had the look of a knitted sweater, I thought.  I remember the picture on the cover/leaflet that the pattern was in was a woman wearing this sweater in a pretty soft almost minty color.  It's basic dc and the yarn used was sport weight yarn............long before we had all the wonderful choices of fibers we have today.  Does anyone have one of these vintage patterns?  Pretty sure it was a Leisure Arts Pattern.

Miss Mom and miss the pattern.

(wish this was a better picture)

What's your Memory Monday?  Post a picture and tell us about it, add the blog badge with a link back here.  Be sure and add your name and blog post url to the linky and let's have fun and get out there and visit.  Let's see if we can get others to look back...doesn't have to be eons, at fun memories.


Sunday, March 24, 2013

Going Backward is no Fun

I feel like the Texas two step....going backward with my work on this Iris and Lillies Afghan.  All squares have been edged with various rows of purple.  I'm using a different joining then I typically do.  Normally I tied the whole ghan together and crochet all the way across and or all the way up and down.  But, that means you have to have the whole ghan on your lap at one time.  I needed this to be a bit portable...so decided to work in blocks of 4.  Plus felt it just wasn't quite wide enough at only 4 squares across, so by joining the 4 blocks and adding extra rows I could gain another couple of inches.  So first block of 4 done, 2nd block of 4 done, and when I went to join the 2 blocks of 4.......they weren't in the right order!  Somehow I had flipped them and couldn't maintain the diagonal design.  Kept moving the 2nd block around to see if I could use it as it was elsewhere in the ghan to avoid frogging it....to no avail.  I've added enough rows that it was probably 3 oz of yarn worth!  ERRRRRRRRR

But, it had to be done.  So, I redid the 2nd group of 4, and now have those 2 blocks joined.  I think I'll be happy with the additional width I've gained.


Flipped this around, thus the strange angle but thought you might better see the difference in width I'm talking about.  This is the way I see the ghan being used, but had to take the picture the other way at the time.

I'm in need of unknitting several rows on my DD's green sweater also, just haven't brought myself around to doing that yet.  Going backward on 2 projects at the same time was just more then I was up to.

Year of Projects (11) links in tabs across the top of the page.  And Let's Get Social Sunday (9) in the meme tab.   Looking forward to catching up with everyone, as I've been a bit behind.


Thursday, May 03, 2012

Pay it Forward - Surprise!


Spotted this post yesterday while making my blog rounds for (WIPW) work in progress Wednesday, and liked the idea. So, left my comment on Clean Cup, Move Down, indicating I would be posting and continuing the Pay it Forward, Random Act of Kindness....whatever we want to call this.

The rules are as follows:
  • I will send a surprise gift to the first three commenters on this post. The gift will be handmade by me. It will be sent sometime in the next 365 days. It will be a surprise. We all love getting surprises in the mail, right?
  • To sign up and receive a gift, you must play along, too. Pay it Forward on your blog, by promising to make a surprise for the first three people who comment on the post.
  • You must have a blog (that is updated, as I will blog stalk you to find the right gift for you).
  • After commenting here, you must repost this or something similar to your blog in 48 hours. If not, I will choose the next person who comments.
It's a beautiful day here today in Central Ohio, the sun's out, the windows are open (what a change), and the birds are chirping. On tap this weekend is mowing, girls night out and watching a cooking demonstration, drinking wine, a mini class reunion. Should be lots of laughs involved. Hoping to throw some knitting time in there, and maybe a bike ride.
Enjoy, the rose is from my Dad's yard. A Rosa Rugosa, old time rose that smells heavenly. Mom always loved it and when it blooms, it makes Daddy smile.

Sunday, April 08, 2012

Bouncing my Beach Ball


Beach Ball is finished! Right now it's bouncing around in the washer and will soon be laid out and blocked. Here it measures about 49 inches, but will grow probably 1-2 inches during blocking.

I used the Winter White and the pink in multiple rows around the edge and was thrilled to find the right color of turquoise in my stash to add several rows of it to the border...finishing with a fluffy ruffle.

My check my designed stash to see what afghan to work on next. As always, this afghan will be donated to Homeless Families Foundation through Bridge and Beyond.

I've continued to work on my blue lacy (feather and fan) scarf also. Making wonderful headway with it, though may put it aside and switch to something else for awhile.

Hubby and I had a lovely Easter Brunch with my 2 brothers and their wives, and my Dad today. Hope you all had/have a wonderful Easter Sunday. Sun's out bright, and I would like to take a bike ride, but believe it's too windy for my legs to push against it.

Happy Stitching all, Year of Projects Posts in the tab across the top of the blog. The Badge and link available in the right sidebar. Please join us.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Growing through Crochet

I can see it now, a ball of mint green yarn (possibly rug yarn from memory), and a red crochet hook. Boo-boo gave me this special ball of yarn and plastic crochet hook. Boo-boo, no..that wasn't her real name. I never knew her real name. She was a rolly polly person, as wide as she was tall. She, I think was Pam's Aunt. Ok, so now you wonder who the heck is Pam...ok, I'll start at the beginning.

I was young, grade school age, probably 7 or 8 from memory. Pam was my best friend, and she lived right next door. Boo-boo, I think was her Mother's Sister. She'd come to visit and sit and crochet, hour after hour after hour. I'm not sure she could move around well, as she was always in the rocking chair. She made dollies, lots of them. I was in awe of her making what appeared to be knots with this hook thingy. I'm sure I must have bugged her death, asking question..."what's this, why do you do that, what are you going to do next, why are you doing this...you get the picture. I remember sitting watching, staring. She probably wished this little girl would go home and leave her alone; but...one day she presented me with a ball of mint green yarn about the size of a softball and my very own red plastic crochet hook. She taught me to make a dollie. I'm sure it was..................."lovely!" Mom said so, and we all know, Mom's don't lie about such important things as kids accomplishments. lol

I think then I bugged Mom for yarn. Yarn was not in the family budget, but one day she bought me Red Heart Variegated Yarn...looked sorta Mexican, and in fact, I think I've seen this variegated since. A whole skein...all 4 oz. She bought or had (I don't remember) knitting needles. She taught me to knit and purl. I made a fabulous, stylish, and very trendy scarf. We called them half scarves in those days. They covered the ears and tied under the chin. I think she cast off for me, and she crocheted the edge and a tie. I wore that thing! Really, I wore it. I've not found any pictures in the family photo's to prove it, but I remember it.

So now, I know how to crochet and knit! A child prodigy really, all the neighbors said so.

A lady who lived several blocks-- away, within walking distance in those days anyway. Now days I'm sure people would hop in the car. Anyway, this lady, who's name I would love to know had a shop in her basement/cellar. I'm pretty sure there was an outside entrance and so, it being an older house was probably a cellar. I also remember the ceiling being really low. Somehow, I found out she had this shop. It was right next door to drug store. I'd go and look, lovingly touch and dream of making such things Some were knitting, most though I think were crocheted. She made those dolls with big dresses, afghans, baby layettes, coat hangers and so much more. I don't know how much stuff she sold in those days, but her basement cellar was a favorite place for me to go as a young girl. I think I managed to buy one or two items. Maybe she let me, cause I was there so much.

We moved away from that darling little town, and I never saw Boo-boo or the shop lady again.

Fast forward, I'm now married and hubby is going to school during the day and working full time in the evenings. I'm working full time first shift at the hospital. I had lots of alone time, I needed a hobby. I remembered back, went to the store, bought some yarn and a blue metal crochet hook size J, and one book. I struggled to get my hands right, looked at the picture..........this was long long before the internet, long before u-tube. I made an afghan after some doing. Nothing fancy, double crochet stripes, 3 colors for my Grandmother who needed a lift. They were colors that matched her furniture. I felt like I had accomplished something very special. If only Boo-boo and the shop lady could see me. I think they might like to have known, the little girl that pestered them so long ago, the little girl they took patience to teach..........remembered.

grandma's ghanI have this afghan now. Grandma is gone, Boo-boo, and I'm sure the shop lady is gone. Sadly, so is my Mother, who taught me to knit. But, I remember.

I remember this green, is about the same color as my first special ball of yarn. I've continued to grow, and so has my crochet.

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Secondly Longest Running Work in Progress!

work in progress Wed meme
Opal ghan stage 2Opal Ghan. A co-worker gave me a pillow from her sofa and requested a ghan. I've made ghans for her previously, before carpal tunnel and arthritis were an issue. She doesn't like open stitches of any kind, she likes solid. When I was younger that wasn't an issue, but it is now. That's my excuse for this being the 2nd longest running WIP I've had in all my years of crocheting and knitting. I started this ghan with one idea in mind. I rarely use a pattern when making ghans, as I like to wing it. I'm actually good at that, good at seeing what something will look like, and guestimating how much yarn to purchased. NORMALLY that is. Somehow with this, I was really off. I was coming along nicely with the project, probably about 2/3 of the way there, when I grab the bag to select another skein of yarn and realized............YIKES! I didn't have enough. m I'd had it long enough I knew there was no reason to even try and match yarn, plus....couldn't ask her to buy more or give me money to do so. Sooooooooooooo, checked my stash and decided the taupe (see 2 side panels), would blend nicely. So, frogged the whole thing (except squares), though I did take apart those that had been joined. ARGH

Rip it, Rip it, I really hate frogging. Often if I run into a snag I'm able to change midstream without having to do that. Not this time. And so, the project continues. Here you see it in stage 2. The other problem I'm dealing with is working from both ends of a skein of yarn, can't risk running short with this 2nd design. So, I do a bit on the middle, then a bit on the side panels, then make a square or two. Not at all the way I like to work. I need to constantly keep counting and measuring to be sure the 3 pieces will come together properly.

The other problem I'm having, I don't like what I'm working on. I'm not a fan of the colors and I find working on something I don't like, or am not excited by difficult. I am however forcing myself to keep this out in the open and work on it a bit each and everyday, even as I work on other projects. Breaking it up like this helps.

Someone please pour me another glass of wine!

RAV

Monday, January 17, 2011

The last of the garage sale hats, completed!

4 hats for the homelessThese 4 hats are the last from the partial hats needing completion from The Garage Sale. I've mentioned this before. (HERE) and (here) Am happy to have those all finished and on heads of those in need through Bridge and Beyond.

I started this fun multi-colored scarf also for Bridge and Beyond the other day at hair dressers. Needed something I could do without my glasses on while I was getting rid of the gray. That process seems to take alot longer then it used too...hum, must be because the gray is more gray and there's more of it. GROAN! This is called kaleidoscope and is probably the softest Red Heart Knitted Worsted Yarn I've ever used. Wonder why it varies so much from color to color?
crocheted scarf for homelessThe picture makes it look more orange then it is. I might have enough for a matching hat too since this is for a child. We'll see as it progresses.

We've been busy redoing our bedroom which has been a pretty major project. In a small house, it's hard to have places to move furniture in order to paint...AND before you paint you have to repair places (Spackle and stuff like that). These projects always take more time and become more involved then one thinks it will before starting. Always! New bed will be delivered in a couple of days so we need to get the painting finished before delivery. We moved our bed into the other room, but had to move the bed from their to the basement. See what I mean...always more work then you think it's going to be. But, am anxious for it to arrive. We both feel like we'll sleep better going to more space, a King. Sometime down the road, we'll need to do some changing around in the room we moved the bed too...cause it's over crowded now. But, one thing at a time.

As always busy busy, how bout you all?

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Oh Baby

start of Candy LandCandyLand is the theme for this OddBall Baby Blanket.
I had issues with this blanket. Firstly didn't realize it wasn't a knitting worsted weight blanket. Was trying to follow suit and used Caron Simply Soft (which I had on hand, and hate using), but it was purple and to close in color to the section already here. I didn't want to buy more yarn, even though baby yarn or sport was suggested. Found some fingering weight yarn in my stash still nice and clean in it's original closed plastic bag. Fingering is too thin, so I used 2 strands. Since I had quite a bit done and had to frog, I went with your basic garter here to get this on it's way. I had held the group a bit and felt badly about that. The yellow next to the purple looked nice.
Mossy Delights startBarely started here in this picture, though since photographing have made some good headway with this one. This one is titled Mossy Delights. I'll be the last knitter on this OddBall. I'm using Pique Triangles which is a nice two sided stitch. It's best not to have a right and wrong side with blankets, though that can't always be accomplished. I love all the greens.
close up of border for ConfettiThis is a close up of Confetti, where I was on Border Patrol. I crocheted this edge and used up some green confetti looking yarn so was able to stay in theme with my border. I found this border (and the one I used for finishing up my daughter's ghan for Bridge and Beyond), in a nice leisure Arts book by Jean leinhauser titled 50 More Crocheted Afghan Borders. #4531 I like the book, it seems to have a nice mix of borders to use for different types of ghans.
Confetti Baby Blanket CompletedAnd here's the completed Oddball Baby Blanket, Confetti. The Oddball group is on Rav if you're interested. There's a group for baby sized blankets, full size ghans, and even pet ghans. Everyone does their bit and the blankets do a bit of traveling before they're donated. The baby blankets are all donated to children's hospital's around the country for those in need.

This is some of what I've been busy doing. Still many projects in the works, but a bit here, a bit there and slowly they get done. Though it seems for every completed project I start 2 or 3 more. lol How bout you? What are you up to? Remember busy hands are happy hands. Even if they're not hands that are knitting or crocheting.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Sometimes Ugly Changes

ugly hatUsing up odds and ends from basket beside the chair (my knitting and crochet station), I made this hat of whatever for my friend who asked for an ugly hat for a gift exchange. One of those white elephant things. Some of the yarn is knitted worsted weight, some is bulkier (Light n Lofty), and some was fingering weight (though I mixed it--the green with another light weight blue). As you can, no rhyme or rhythm for the colors either.
crocheted ugly hatTo add to the ugly, tacky, weird, funky............whatever, I added bows that don't match. I used purple and tangerine bows, there is no purple or tangerine in the hat. I used black curly things as well. After all, I had a pile of them needing to throw out, so why not throw them in for contrast. LOL

My friend actually ended up thinking it was cute, vs ugly. But, it will serve the purpose anyway. Talk about fun to make! What's the ugliest thing you've knitted or crocheted?

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

I've got a gaping hole!

Blue StashThis is my BLUE Stash. I dumped out both plastic bags, sorted and looked and looked and looked. Was just about to give up when TADA. Found what I needed.
matching yarnSee that wee little bit laying on the area in need. I made this ghan for SIL a long time ago. It's a miracle I had any of the right color still left. I knew I wouldn't be able to match it new. This little bit must be what's left from the last time I repaired this ghan. So laid it out and stitched here on the table on the deck.
ghan needing repairYou can see how badly this poor ghan needed repaired. This ripped was close to 12 inches long.
Here it is in the works. After I stitched it up, I was able to launder it. Then I rolled it a lot with one of those sticky lint things trying to remove some of the doggy hairs that didn't come off in the wash. Then I spotted another rip. Now I've got to see if I can match the off white. Fingers crossed; but don't think that will be as hard. Yikes this ghan was really hurting.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Yikes, What is this? Don't go Barefoot!

One evening a few weeks back hubby and I were walking out through the backyard with cocktail in hand to reconnoiter the flower beds; as we often do after a day of working in the yard. It's sometimes to admire our work, sometimes to plan what to do next. Hubby often doesn't have shoes on at this point. Me, I'm rarely without them. This pictures shows you why. Seriously I happened to look down and saw this big ugly thing. I think if you stepped on it those pinchers could do some damage. It was about 2 inches long and gave me the creeps. I went in the house to get my camera and hubby's shoes. I wasn't about to step on this wearing sandals--to much of a chance it still might get my toes or something. So, I took it's picture then waked it good a couple of times with hubby's shoes. It wasn't all that easy to kill either. Then scoped it up and tossed it way behind the shed. Maybe it'll be food for some of the critters.

You see anything like this in your yard? Any thoughts what this ugly things was?

I'm gonna pick up some yarn now and make some yoyo's. I've not made or donated these little buggers (lol, couldn't help myself) before; but am currently in a bit of a funk about what to work on; so this mindless but useful item seems like a good idea. I'll be using R,W, and Blue variegated for Fisher House.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

How many is too many?

knitted bright and lofty scarf on the needles
How many projects is too many projects? I've gone back and forth in my knitting and crocheting organization. Working on multiple projects, a different project each day...working on only one at a time, trying to finish one before starting another....working on big projects at home and taking smaller projects with me for breaks at work or car rides etc.

Add to that the difficulty of balancing charity knitting and crocheting, with things for friends and families....and or once in a blue moon something for self. It's a process, one I see lots of knitting and crocheting Bloggers discussing. Towards the end of last year I decided I would finish all my WIP (works in progress) before starting new ones. That plan went by the way side. Why? I'd go shopping because a friend wanted to, or because someone was having a good sale and every-time I did that yarn would find it's way into my hand, into my house. It would call out to me....I'm here....I'm here, please come see and play with me.

Sooooooooooo, I would start something new. Then I thought perhaps I should have exactly 7 projects going, so each day of the week I would work on Project Monday, Tuesday etc. I thought about that, but didn't do it.

Soooo, now I need to count how many projects I have going:
  1. I have Fun and Funky Scarf (knitting) Gift
  2. I have 2 balls recently rolled of fabulous Mango Moon (will be knitting) Me
  3. I have corner to corner ghan for homeless (knitting) Charity
  4. I have granny squares for homeless (crocheting) Charity
  5. I have Candy Corn Ghan for Victory Camp (crocheting) Charity
  6. I have Opal's Ghan (crocheting) Friend Request
  7. I have Bright and Lofty Orange Scarf homeless or passion of the heart (knitting) Charity this is the item pictured here.
I think that's right. So, as it turns out I do have 7 projects after all. Does 2 being balls rolled count as a project? Does the purple green unidentifed specialty fiber not mentioned above but in my mind for a special someone count? I worked on #1 yesterday; I could perhaps finish it today? (though this is a scheduled post so by the time you read this it's no longer today...lol). So, you see my quandary.

Back to my questions how many is too many?

Sunday, January 03, 2010

Taking Stock

I pushed hard towards the end of year to turn lots of UFO (unfinished objects) into FO (finished objects). I didn't get them all done, but improved the situation 10 fold.

Taking a counting here:
Need to make the mate for this mittencrocheted mitten which is crocheted and would be nice and warm. I really disliked doing this pattern, I remember that, which is no doubt why I tossed it aside. Though I didn't remember it, way down at the bottom of my basket. The basket I keep by my chair. Now to make matters worse, I don't have the hook I used with it, so wonder what size I used? And I need to find the pattern. Normally...I'm better organized and have the pattern and hook or knitting needles with the unfinished object (UFO)

Finish my scarf (which I didn't get done for New Years like I planned), but fingers crossed I'll get it done by the wkend. This is the 2 different sized needles, Condo Stitch I've blogged about in the previous post.

Finish Candy Corn (which is the longest running unfinished project I've ever had). Seriously I found where I had blogged about this in the starting stages way back in June of 2008. It would be constantly pushed aside when I was working on other things. It's crocheted, a big granny, but piecemeal and irregular in design as you can see. I like funky things.
Finish The Circle's in a square ghan for a co-worker. I love the look, but this isn't an easy carry along and do elsewhere type project. So...I need to work on it here at the house. I have brought the bag, pattern and yarn being used for this up from my storage shelves....hint hint.