Spring has Sprung?

This is the first, the very first sign of spring in my yard. This is short lived I know cause these cute little miniature Iris never last. They pop their little heads up while the ground is still cold and can be seen normally only a few days before a snow, or freezing rain comes and destroys them. But......they do make me smile, they do give me hope. They don't reproduce well, or perhaps because they pop up too early, they don't get a chance too? I have 3 clumps, but it doesn't seem like the clumps get any bigger with each they show themselves. Now this picture is cropped from the one below.
Because of where I had to stand (to keep from sinking into the rain drenched ground), you see my shadow. I tried to stand off to the side as much as possible and still be close enough to get the picture. The question is this. Which is the better picture? In other words, to crop or not to crop? I almost always do with my digital pictures (the only kind I take). Partially because it brings the item closer, makes it easy to see, and partially because it loads faster for blogging and posting on forums and uses less bandwidth and all those things. But, it occurs to me perhaps the non-cropped pictures show you more? With my shadow being visible you know we actually had sun....you know that round yellow thing in the sky. You've seen it, probably not much lately though. This second picture also shows how nothing else is green, telling you how early in the season the photo was taken. So, which is the better picture? Do you crop your pictures?

Please leave your comments, thoughts, and suggestions. I'm interested to learn what you think.

Completion of the 2nd longest Work In Progress EVER

This ghan has been in the works for far too long. For a friend at work. I blogged about here, but the short version is...I estimated yarn needed badly on this one. That doesn't happen often and by the time I realized it I was about 2/3 rd done. Soooooo, I had to frog it. Once that was done, I searched my stash for yarn that would blend and came up with the taupe you see on the 2 sides and in a the centers of several of the squares.
Here's a close up of the border which I liked and felt pulled the project all together nicely. In truth, I didn't care much for this ghan which was another problem in trying to get it done. I used a smaller hook then I would normally use for these stitches and yarn in order to make it nice and tight and warm. She doesn't like holes in her ghans.


Here's a close up of the squares again with a view of the boarder. She was very pleased with her ghan and once she got it placed on her sofa she skyped me so I could see it on her sofa. Gotta love technology. I had selected the yarn from colors in one of her sofa pillows. The design--circle in a square also comes from the design on her sofa pillow. It's a very large ghan, larger than I usually make; but was necessary I think to pull off the design and have the new color work.

Blues for Baby Luke, Granny Squares

Stage One of this baby ghan is HERE
15 squares thus far done, 12 of which are joined. The bottom row not yet joined in above picture. Note the 3 books these squares are from, plus a few standard squares where I just crocheted the basic granny, and 2 various circle in a square from an on line free pattern. This has been a bit more tedious then I like for a baby blanket, and has taken more time then I like...or thought it would when I began.

I joined my first ever CAL on RAV. Blogged about it here. Then after making a couple of squares decided to switch to The Blues for Baby Luke. Luke's my youngest nephews soon to arrive in this world's baby.

The book on the right 101 Crocheted Squares by Jean Leinhauser is NOT a book I would recommend. The patterns are poorly written and many are much smaller then I like. 4 and 5 inch squares don't appeal to me. Additionally, she has lots of squares that have applique's which I'm not a fan of, particularly not for a baby, or a ghan that get's lots of use and will need to be laundered. Many of her patterns are very similar to those found in other books which is also a bit surprising. This book though is no longer in print, and buying one now on line is quite costly.

The 2 books on the left, 99 Granny Squares to Crochet, and Contest Favorites afghan squares are both Leisure Arts books with a variety of designers. Each square has the name of that particularly designer. Thus far I've found the patterns in both these books to be much better/ easier to understand patterns. I would recommend both these books for anyone wanting granny squares.

I have 10 squares to go, then select border....hoping to get finished before she delivers.

Wine Clubs are Fun

I1 Papavero Primitivo 2009, Puglia IGT, Italy. Puglia is the heel of Italy's boot if you look at a map. That's where this wine comes from. It's Italy's hottest region with lots and lots of sunshine. You'll notice the bottle is empty, lol. Well to say we enjoyed it would be an understatement. It's on one of my favorites list. We joined a wine club about a year or so ago. The Wall Street Journal Wine Club. You buy a case at a time at a much reduced cost. You can select a mix of wines, or stick to a particular type. The fun is trying different wines. The card you see tells you about each of the wines, where they're from, what type of grape it is, what types of food it's best served with etc.
You get a notebook when you join and an extra gift. The first time we joined we received a very fancy wine opener and case. We've not used it much truthfully. It's large and somewhat a pain to get out and put away. We lost interest in the club after awhile and stopped our membership. They weren't good at sending the cards which annoyed me. However, just recently they contacted us to see if we'd like to rejoin and made us a really good deal. And so...we did rejoin. The above specialty glasses are quite nice were our gift this time round. They will indeed be used. They're small taster glasses, very nice stemware from Italy.

Do we know how to detect notes of this and that in a wine, either in taste or aromas? Not really. But, we do know what we like. Hubby says I'm better at picking up on scents and flavors then he is, and perhaps over time I'll get better. But, it is fun even without those abilities. On the back of the card you're to make notes, so you know what you liked and didn't in order to know what to purchase or not purchase in the future.

Notes on this bottle read: Great with Pizza. So, you see this isn't a stuffy thing for us. lol My note continues to say, "Plum does come out as it warmed up, some chocolate aroma's. $10.00 bottle. Buy Again

Buying it from the club in our case of mixed wines we paid less than $10.00, but with each bottle, we check the price her on the net to add to our decision whether or not to purchase again. You can see, my notes aren't those of wine connoisseur at all. They say if you like a California Zinfandel, you'll love this wine; it's Italian Cousin.

Definitely a wine I'd recommend, and hope to enjoy again.

Secondly Longest Running Work in Progress!

Opal 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

RAIN, memories of Mom

Rain, I don't actually like ran; it ruins good outdoor time, can alter ones travel plans, cause flooding can be dangerous...........But, RAIN makes me think about Mom. When I was young, most of the families in our neighborhood had electric ranges; Mom had gas. So when we'd have a rain storm and the electric would go; she'd warm up soup on the gas stove for all the neighbors. They'd walk through the yard with a pot of soup in hand and she'd put it on the stove. She'd laugh, cause she didn't really like the gas stove; thought it dirtier than electric--but it did have some advantages. In those days gas was considered old fashion, and all the new appliances were electric. I have an electric range; but hubby keeps wanting to buy a new one, a gas one. Gas is all the rage again it seems. All the cooking shows on TV talk about how superior gas is for even heat, all the chiefs use gas not electric.

That's not the only memory though that comes to mind with the word RAIN and my Mother. Back in the day before people spent hard earned money to buy special irons, or pay for distilled water (that was certainly a luxury only the wealthy could afford); Mom would put out large pots or bowls when it rained to collect rain water to be used in the iron and to water the house plants. More natural for the plants, without chemicals and all, and apparently better for an iron also; as the chemicals are what clogged up an iron.

It also seems rain water was a special thing to do for ones hair. She'd rinse our hair in rain water when she had enough. No need to pay for hair conditioners and rinse when you had rain water on hand. Now days, I suppose the rain water is full of junk and so perhaps that wouldn't be so advantageous?

AND, let's not forget the ever NOT stylish but wildly popular plastic rain-bonnet! Now for those of you younger then me, this may not bring back a memory; but if you're as old as dirt like me...well then, that's another story. Do you remember rain-bonnets? The one pictured is the more stylish model, however the one I remember most was folded back and forth like a fan with little plastic ties and fit into a plastic sleeve that measured about 1 inch by 3 inches. They snapped back folded when you pulled on the ties. Mom hated those things, older women always wore them back then. You know older women had their hair done once a week, or once every other week and so couldn't risk their style getting wet. No proper lady would go out and about without a rain-bonnet tucked neatly in her hand bag. Anyway, every-time Mom would see someone put one on, she'd tell me to shot her if she did that when she got older. I found this rain-bonnet a few years ago and was going to include it in a gift as a joke to her. I never did give it to her; though I know she would have rolled her eyes.

Then there was the time the family was camping during one of the summer vacations and it was raining and raining and raining. We were at Lake Erie, and Dad was outside trenching around the tent to try and keep the tent dry. He wasn't a happy camper, actually I don't believe anyone was. Mom grabbed the old 35 mm movie camera and had me open the tent flap so she could film Daddy trenching with a little camp shovel. As she's filming it, we all got to laughing and Daddy said this was his most favorite thing to do, next to swimming across a lake with man eating Piranhas. Needless to say, the mood was much better after that. And, it wasn't too long after that, that the sun came out.

No, I really don't like rain; but I do have some pretty fond memories. Thanks Mom.