Tag Archives: Crocheting

Still On Vacation

Last week flew by in a hurry! My original plan was to write here at least 2-3 times. Life and my family had other ideas. We were busy everyday last week with one or two exceptions.

Here are pictures of a couple projects I found last week and am currently working on;

Scrap Blanket

The yarn is Peaches and Creme Worsted Wt. Cotton.  I am using a combination of yarn on cones and some from grab bags. It is little over half way finished at this time. The pattern is a ripple that was originally designed for a scarf exchange about a year and a half ago.Please excuse the loose ends. They will get woven in later.

Diagonal Baby Blanket

This is made from Peaches and Creme Lilac Ombre.

 

Basket Rib Towel

This is was started last weekend on the first day of vacation. It is the Basket Rib Towel by Traci. I am using Baby Blue Peaches and Creme worsted Wt. Yarn. This is for my kitchen.

I will post later about some of our adventures.

Promises to Myself

I have thought a lot about making New Year's Resolutions again this year. Because the truth for me is that they normally get broken very quickly, I have decided against making any. Instead, my choice is to make some promises to myself. On the surface, it might not seem like there is much difference in the two. For me there is a huge one. A promise is a firm decision that must be kept. A resolution is not nearly as strong.

Here are a couple of promises I have made to myself, listed in no particular order:

  • I will work on losing weight and improving my over all fitness on a daily basis. I do not  want to  end this decade of my life  overweight and out of shape. One of my Grandmothers died a miserable death of heart failure and and I am going to do everything in power to avoid the same fate. 
  • I will use the contents of at least one of the four 19 quart containers of yarn in my stash. These containers and others have  yarn from Grab Bags purchased from Pisgah Yarn and Dyeing Co. in the past couple of years. There are already some specific plans for it.
  • I will try some of the patterns from a variety of sources that I have been saying for years that I will try. This is the year to do so.
  • I will finish the partially completed baby blanket that has been waiting to be done for months.
  • The gift for the grand daughter of a friend of mine will be finished and delivered.
  • My dishcloth blog: Dish and Wash Cloth Mania will have much more time devoted to it than it has had for a very long item. It has been ignored all too often in the past two years. From now on things will be different.
  • I am going to try very hard to blog here at least once a week. One of my goals is to be more creative in how this is done. This is a work in progress.

There are lots of things I want to do and write about this year. I am not making any promises about them. We will have to see how life works out.

May each of you have a Blessed New Year!

Vacation-Yes!

Following the proper procedure set forth by my employer, I requested vacation time two weeks in advance. My request was for two whole weeks, including weekends, one of which is my regularly scheduled one to work.  The  new schedule came out today and it shows I am on vacation after Friday of this week!!

I am so excited! We have been planning this time off for the past month and a half.There is lots of family time planned for fun and household projects. A lot of my free time will be spent completing some UFO’s; starting some new projects  and working on both of my active blogs.  There is so much to do and only two weeks to do it. 

Fiber News

Some of you may remember me talking about the Comfortghan that was started a year ago for a friend of mine a little more than a year ago. It has taken a long time, but the squares are finally done!  I am now weaving in the loose ends on them. In typical fashion for me, most of them have been done as I go, but there are still the ends from the center and a few extra long ones that need some attention. My goal is to complete this task by a week from tomorrow. I want ot get the afghan completely sewn together the following week when I am on vacation from work.

On the knitting front there is not much going on. I am limiting the amount of knitting to a bare minimum until the crocheted afghan is completed. The one project being worked on is a rug  made from Peaches and Creme Double Worsted by Pisgah Yarn and Dyeing Co. The design is my own and will be posted when the rug is made.

Life and Knitting

It has been almost two weeks since I last posted here.
Life has been busy but  not exciting.Here is some of what has been going on:

  • I continue to knit and crochet in odd moments.
  • A few dishcloths have been made. Some will stay here while others will go to assorted new homes.
  • Work continues on the Comfortghan for a friend at work. It is going very slowly.
  • My family and I have been diligently cleaning out and rearranging the basement of our home. This has consumed the past couple of weekends I have not worked for my employer.
  • Work is going through a super busy phase. There are days when I come home so tired it is all I can to have a snack combined with family time and go to bed. Sleep takes over.
  • This is allergy season for my family. It saps our energy. We sleep, try to eat healthy foods  and force a lot of fluids to keep going.
  • As a person with heart disease, exercising is a must. Walking daily, or at least trying to, is a priority. I can now walk almost a mile before needing to stop and catch my breath. My goal is to be walking five miles daily by my next appointment with the cardiologist.
  • We homeschool. Family time and teaching/learning time are a high priority and as such dominate life in my household.
  • I belong to some online email groups and have another blog. Mail is way behind in all of these areas. I feel badly about it, but am trying to catch up.

These are the things that have taken my time and attention from this blog. It is life and it is important.

Early Morning Writings

It is hard to imagine that I am up and awake at this hour. Normally I prefer to be in bed asleep long before now. It has been a busy few days since my last post here.
The new washing machine  was delivered on Thursday, Sept. 20 at the time it was scheduled to do so. It works wonderfully. There has been a lot of laundry done this weekend thanks in part to its presence in our home. That combined with my Fall Cleaning mood has meant a very busy weekend. The house has been de-cluttered so much that it has been worth the time and effort.

I have been struggling with the lack of progress on the gift for my friend who lost her child this past summer. The crocheting is easy. The hard part of the process is that when I work on it, I sense her sorrow and pain. This might sound totally crazy to some people, but it is the truth. Of course, she is in my prayers daily, but she is even more so when I am making her gift. At this time, it is only 1/4 of the completed. My goal is to have it completely made and ready to give to her by the middle of October. It will just take a bit of self discipline to do so.

I have spent my knitting time in the past few days  making coasters and dishcloths. I find these to be wonderfully relaxing items to make. I will post pictures of them later this week.

My treat to myself for the past two days has been lots of computer time. It has mostly come in the form of adding  patterns to Dish and  Wash  Cloth Mania. Last year I promised to have an ample supply of Holiday related links to patterns listed on the site. Hopefully there are plenty this year.

Dishcloths

As some of you may know, one of my other blogs is Dish and Wash Cloth Mania. While I was sitting here this morning adding links to some of the pages and generally updating the site, I came across this article: Lots of Cloths by Cathy at Wishing I was Knitting at the Lake.

Thank you for writing it. :)

I read the article a couple of times to take in all that she says. First of all, she offers an interesting variation on an old dishcloth pattern. It sounds like an idea well worth the try. It has been added to my list of “Patterns to Try”.

Secondly, is that she expressed a lot of how I feel about making dishcloths and the arts of Knitting and Crocheting. As a teenager I secretly wanted to be an artist. On the talent end of it I was a bit short to say the least. Because of some eyesight issues, not only do I literally see the world differently than most people, but I do not have some hand/eye co-ordination skills. For me this means that I know what I want to write or draw and how I want it to look, but cannot make it happen on paper or canvas.

This is where my hooks and needles come into play. When I pick them up I can do almost anything I choose. I can change the color of a pattern. The size can be changed either by adding a border, adding or taking away a multiple of stitches, or changing the number or rows made. I can use different stitch combinations than what the original pattern suggests. Did you ever try a garter stitch top instead of a ribbed top on a pair of socks? Did you ever uses a 1×1 rib instead of a 2×2 rib in a pattern? I can also use more than one strand of yarn to make an item. Did you ever take a ‘new to you’ pattern from a stitch dictionary and use it in a scarf or dishcloth? Did you ever combine 100% cotton knitting worsted yarn with #10 crochet thread in a dishcloth? How about crocheting or knitting with large hooks or needles? Have you ever used a yarn other than that called for in a pattern? ( Be especially careful with this one. A gauge swatch could be a life saver with it. ) Have you ever tried making up a stitch pattern? Have you ever made an item using a Cro-Hook or the Tunisian stitch? These are some of the ideas that come to my mind to try.

Hats, scarves, mittens, baby bibs, afghans, doilies, dish and wash cloths and other items become unique creations when these things are done. It is amazing to see a simple scarf pattern look different by using different sizes and colors of yarn. My imagination can and does run wild with ideas. The possibilities are endless. Now all I want is more hours in my life to turn my ideas into reality.

Maybe I really am an artist.

Finished with Squares

The last of the loose ends on the squares for the Rebuilding Greensburg Project have been woven in! My husband spent his share of time sitting at the kitchen table keeping me company while they were being done. It made the task much easier. He such a sweet heart. :) They will go out in the mail in the next day or so to their next stop on their journey to those who need them.

I look forward to seeing the afghans that are made from all of the squares which have been made for this.

Squares and Loose Ends

I stopped making squares for the Rebuilding Greensburg Project a few days ago with the exception of one last square that remains on the needles. It is not quite half finished but will be done in plenty of time to go into the box being sent out very early this week.

Much of my free time today has been spent weaving in loose ends on theres of the squares. It does not matter if the item is small or large, knitted or crocheted. I do not like weaving in loose ends. My dislike is so bad that doing this chore is put off as long as possible. Every time I start a project, I promise myself to weave them in as I go, but I never do. This time there was a good reason. Between work and treatment for a medical condition my days have been super full in the past couple of months. It has taken planning a reasonable amount of organization to make the squares. My original plan was to take time on my days off to weave in the ends. Life did not work out to allow it. Details such as parenting, laundry and other Mom jobs have taken priority. Time is running out and I am in a real time crunch to finish this project. My family is being very understanding about it. They are not objecting to the attention I am giving to the squares this weekend. Actually they are most likely grateful that the box of squares in the kitchen will be out of the way soon. :)

It’s back to the squares for now.

Still Here and Knitting

I am still here and knitting. Most of my knitting time continues to go to making squares for the Rebuilding Greensburg effort. The box that has been set aside to hold the squares is gradually being filled.

This week I finally allowed myself to visit my all time favorite thrift store. It is only open once a week from 9am-12 noon. I don’t allow myself to go there often because I always bring home too much good stuff. This week was no different. I found a lot of old knitting needles and other fiber arts related tools. This was a fun find since collecting such items is part of the hobby of fiber arts for me.

A walk into the Book Room of this delightful place was a treat by itself. Hardback books were being sold “$2.50 for 10” or 25 cents a piece. Some good books came home with me. The best one of them is : Illustrated Patchwork Crochet. This book has been on my Wish List for a long time. I have never gotten around to looking for it online. Finding it in  person was a wonderful surprise. There has not been as much time as I want to read it. That will come.