Lake Lois, NOT

This picture is my neighbor's backyard. She's had so much standing water lately in her yard from all the downpours I believe you could go fishing.
We've had more snow then normal this winter, and we've had far more rain then normal. One wonders what will happen come April. April is when we're suppose to get rain. Lordy, think I might need to keep my boat handy. The day after I took these pictures we had cold and snow again and so her yard then looked like a ice rink. What a mess. We used to get water in our basement from her yard, as we're a bit down hill from her. A few years ago she had work done on her basement and drains etc, which took care of the problem we had in our basement with water. So....now she has tons of water in her yard which beats the heck out of in her basement and ours.

It's a good thing her yard is fenced, some small child could drown in that water.

Oh how I long for warmer weather. Perhaps this means it's on it's way?

Baby Luke's Blue Blanket

Baby Luke's Blue Baby Blanket. This granny square baby blanket started as a result of my joining my first ever CAL. I've made more granny squares then I can count through the years, and more ghans then I can count too; but I'd never joined a CAL. Doing so, got me making squares differently, using patterns I've not used before...actually using a pattern is rather unique for me. I'm a bit of a winger of many things. But, I really got into this. I used 3 different pattern books. Blogged about the books and patterns HERE where you can see it coming together.

I'm very pleased with this blanket. I love the mix of blues (4 shades of blue), none of which are traditional baby blue. I stitched the squares together using the whip stitch method. Which while much slower then crocheting them together in the join as you go method; I believe I still prefer. I've really gotten into making borders and have yet to use the same border for any of the recently completed afghans I've made or assembled from the various groups I'm in. Taking time to do a border I think really gives it the Finished look.

Baby Luke came into this world on Friday March 18th at 1:34 a.m. weighing 6 pounds 9 oz and measuring 19 inches long. Congrats to Mom and Dad (Heather and Ryan). Ryan is my youngest nephew, so once again I am a Great Aunt.

So many projects In The Works

*I return all WIP comments*
This afghan is a real piece meal effort. Some of these squares are squares, others rectangles. Some of these squares are knitted, some of these squares are crocheted. Some of these squares are big and some are small. The largest squares are around 12 inches, and the smallest is about 5 inches. As you view the picture about 2/3 of the squares have been edged and joined. I'm going about this in a different manner then I typically do. I'm edging in one color (dark forest green), and joining in a different color (dusty rose). Normally I use the same color. I'm using the join as you go method (crocheting squares together), sorta. I say sorta, because it's not continuous due to the variety of sizing and the need to piece meal, with lots and lots of measuring to determine how it will come together.

My stash often dictates how I put ghans together, as well as what method I use. I see what colors I have that will work, how much I have on hand. Crocheting them together takes more yarn then whip stitching them together. Whip stitching though takes longer. Crocheting them together adds texture. I didn't have enough of either the dark green or the dusty rose to do this all in one color, and thus decided on the merging of the 2 colors. I think it actually is helping to pull all the various shades of green and pink together; so rather like the look so far.

This is a ghan being made of so many different sizes of squares because the squares come from lots of people. They were donated through my blog, Bridge and Beyond for the homeless and abused Mother's and Children at Faith Mission.

I like to name afghans I work on, and have so named this one, Rose Garden.

**Added most popular posts to the right side bar, please check them out.**

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.