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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Afghan Needs a Name

This afghan needs a name. When I first laid out these donated squares (Liz from Bridge and Beyond), fall foliage hit my brain; later as I began to work on it, I thought perhaps Garden Patch....and now not so sure. They are fall colors, but something about the squares made me think garden. This isn't a very good picture, I'm not edging it in white though it looks like it, it's off white/ivory. The squares had nice long tails and so I used the green Liz had edge them all with to sew them together, then decided to increase a bit by edging the strip in the off white. Current plan is to join the strips then with the off white, and find dark green in my stash to do a couple of rows around the whole ghan, then maybe a row of orange and finish it in green?

Thoughts on a name? This is another of afghans made to be donated to Bridge and Beyond.

I've promised myself I will work on a scarf I started long ago this week..., but am close to finishing this ghan, so ....we'll see.

What are you working on for Work in Progress Wednesday? Badges and links in the sidebar. Asking everyone using on of the linky's to please get rid of your captcha's. The filters for blogspot work great, you really don't need them. Having captcha's and approving all your comments is doubly un-necessary. The new captcha's are even harder to see then they used to be. Some have seen post this request before...I did for our Sunday YOP. Try it without for 2 wks, I'd be surprised if you'll have any trouble without it.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Yippee Skippee, I have lots to share on Sunday

Mother Earth Done, literally just finished the border last night before bed. Still have a few tails to weave in, launder and block and then this baby will be donated to Bridge and Beyond for Project "Welcome Home. Very happy with the way the colors played out here, even though once I started joining it, I had to make a few adjustments from the original design.
Crocheted Camo scarf, now finished and has already been donated to Bridge and Beyond, my charity (hop over to the blog and check it out). In fact, this has already been delivered, as I made 2 large donations this past week.
A red and black chunky scarf in the works, on the needles as we speak. This is the 4th scarf I've made/worked on that wasn't ever on "the list".

Since last weeks, YOP post, I've completed The Cotton Cloth Calendar Challenge and it's pictured a few days ago, HERE, on Finished Object Friday. I finished Mother Earth, and I've almost figured out where I left off on the scarf on the WIP list, Diagonal Buckeye, and plan to work on it this week; as I decide which afghan to work on next. The afghan list never ends. Feels good though to move a few more items to the done list. My updated YOP list is found in the tab across the top of the blog.

Badge, and link for YOP in the sidebar, please join in on the fun.

Friday, February 17, 2012

The Calendar is Full

This is the cotton cloth for the month of March, doesn't it look like an Easter Basket? Though I think the pattern, Garter Stitch Checks would show up better with a solid fiber, you can see it looks a bit like a basket. Or maybe that's because I know that's what it's suppose to be? What do you think? I love the colors, it's very springy looking to me. This completes my Cotton Cloth Calendar Challenge, so this is sorta a Done and DONE on this finished object Friday post. hehe

January = White and snow
February = Red and Valentines Heart
March = Easter Springy colors, and a basket pattern
April = Green and white, fresh and growing after the rains
May = pretty pink flowers
June = Beachy-ness
July = Red, White, and Blue Patriotism
August = Scourching hot, bright yellow and orange sunny
September = Fading Colors of summer
October = Brown, and orange Candy Corn
November = Green, orange, gold leaves changing colors
December = Red, Green, and White Christmas


This was a fun project, I learned some new knitting stitches/patterns in the process. With the exception of January, the cable stitch learning to do new things on small scale like a cotton cloth is a good idea....the cable wasn't a good idea, as cotton has no stretch when your knitting and it was rather hard on the hands.

Finished Object Friday Badge and link in sidebar

Darling Daughter asked for a mound a cotton cloths, not for dishes body clothes. I've been giving them to her as I made them. The last one was mailed 2 days ago. Enjoy, DD.

**Please let me again ask everyone who enjoys meme's, linky parties to please please please stop using those dang captcha's on your blog's. It is soooooo time consuming, and sooooooooo frustrating, and in many cases truly over kill. Most of you who use them, also have your settings set to approve comments. If you're approving them anyway, why use captcha. You're going to delete spam. AND, the filters on blogspot are so good, they catch the spam without comments needing to be approved and without using captcha. Please at least try blogging without the captcha for a 2wk period and see how well the filters work. Those things are killing my eyesite.**
sigh...steps off soap box

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

A yarn a then Some

In Memory of Hannah Chisolm, born Augst 15, 1865, died June 19, 1944. This is a work in progress. I've spent about 10 hours researching this small, hand carved stone. This stone and others are in a very small cemetery I spotted from my bike on a recent vacation on Hilton Head Island. The brief story is, the cemetery is that of slaves and descendants of slaves. About half the stones were like this, hand carved, others a bit rougher, and a few more modern. Only several families of names, Williams, Chisolm the most prevalent. I assumed it was a slave, and or someone very indigent since the stone was hand made. You could easily pass this little unmarked graveyard by, the stones are small and covered with thick pine needles and low hanging branches of trees. It's in the backyard, so to speak of a large very upscale condo building which faces the 18th green on the famous Harbour Town Links Golf Course. I knew enough of the history of the Island to know it had been inhabited by Union forces early in The Civil War, that the rich plantation owners had fled when The Confederates lost control of the Island. I knew other slaves flocked here for protection The Union Forces offered, and remained after the war,when the Island was virtually abandoned. There was no bridge or electric to the area until 1950-1956. The Slaves and their descendants had meager lives with little involvement of the outside world. The Bridge, Electric, and interest in lumber then vacations ended that.

This stone has the earliest birth date visible/readable; plus there are probably many buried souls unaccounted for under the layers of pine needles, where wooden markers have gone by the wayside through the years. Was Hannah a slave? Was she born free? I couldn't help but wonder. My research so far into whom this woman was is inconclusive. One fellow researcher believes he's found her on census with husband and children; I'm not so sure of his findings, as I find information about several large plantations in the area with listings of a slave named Hannah. I question her last name, is it hers, or did it belong to her owner? A work in progress that puzzles me. I've blogged a great deal about this trip and 2 others to Hilton Head, pop over to my travel blog if your interested. Traveling Suitcase.
I would truly love to find the whole yarn/story of Hannah
Meanwhile.......Mother Earth Afghan is slightly over half put together and work on it continues. I assemble many afghans for Project, "Welcome Home", you can read all it on my charity blog, Bridge and Beyond.
A basket type stitch here on this cotton washcloth, though I believe it's difficult to see with the pretty variegated Easter Colors. The stitch/pattern would probably show up better with a solid color. Even so, I think it's pretty. This is March's cloth, the 12th cloth in my Cotton Cloth Calendar Challenge.

Not pictured but on the needles is a bulky red/black scarf. Size 15 needles if that gives you any idea of the bulkiness of the yarn.

Work in Progress Wed Badges and links in sidebar. Hope you're all keeping busy.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Mother Earth and List Adjustments

Mother Earth Afghan in the works here. I named this Mother Earth because of the various browns representing the earth, blues for the skies, greens for the grass and trees etc. These squares are very nicely made by my friend from HS, Joy. After designing the ghan, I selected off white/light tan for join and have edged all the squares and will join with a single crochet...which I've been calling join as you go incorrectly. Was watching video's a few days ago and realized my mistake. I've not yet done the join as you go, and after watching the video and realizing it's not joined at every stitch won't be using that method. These ghans need to be sturdy as they're Linkdonated through Bridge and Beyond, my charity blog for Project, "Welcome Home". I often sew squares together and find when the squares are all different sizes this works well.
This crocheted camo scarf is the 3rd scarf I've made of late that hasn't been on my YOP list. It too will be donated to Bridge and Beyond when completed. I should focus more on my list, but often need easy no count type projects that travel and thus............scarves, which are always needed. On Friday, you saw Red Marble a knitted scarf, and prior to that the gray shades version also using Marble yarn.

Rather then redo my list every Sunday, please click on the tab across the top of the blog to see the changes and updates. Notable since my last post completion of another ghan (Red Brick), and completion of the 11th of 12th cotton cloth for the Cotton Cloth Calendar Challenge which were both shown on Friday's FO post.

YOP Badge and link in sidebar, join in the more the merrier

Friday, February 10, 2012

Red Friday

Red Brick AfghanFinally, folks...home playing catch up and here's a picture of the finished Red Brick Afghan you've seen on work in progress Wed etc. I'm pleased with how it turned out. All the different sizes of squares and rectangles, knitted and crocheted were cemented together with Red. Had thought I'd include some brown, but nixed that idea once I saw it coming together nicely with the red, and once I reviewed my brown available in my stash. This afghan was donated to Bridge and Beyond (my charity blog), through our program, Project "Welcome Home".

Staying with the Red theme, here's the February cloth for my DD for my Cotton Cloth Calendar Challenge. 11 are now done, and in her hands. The only month remaining is March which will be Easter type colors.
side 1 cotton clothSide 1, though since I photographed this I decided to add a bit to the edge and crocheted a couple of rows. It just didn't lay nicely in my opinion.
side 2 cotton clothSide 2 here.

Still apparently focused on Red, though it wasn't really planned that way, lol. Here's the Red Marble Scarf you've seen some of on WIPW.

Red Marble ScarfIt might get donated to Bridge and Beyond too, but it might (haven't yet decided) find it's way into my closet. Been a couple of years since I've made myself a scarf....hum...though I did just recently purchased yarn in Hilton Head (I blogged about it on my Travel blog, check it out) at a really cool yarn shop for a scarf for myself...it's barely started.

Hope you're all keeping busy and finishing up lots of projects. Links for Finished Object Friday in my sidebar. Come join the fun.

**Since writing and scheduling this post, the Red Marble Scarf was added to the donations for Bridge and Beyond. Like I said above, I did just buy some yummy yarn in Hilton Head for myself.