Aprons and Stargazer’s Site

Someone on an email list to which I belong asked for links to apron patterns. Her preference was for them to be crocheted. I decided to do what I thought would be a quick search for them on Google. My quick search ended up taking more than an hour to complete. This was because I kept finding interesting sites that might have what I was looking for. What fun!!! :)
I limited myself to sites with free patterns with the exception of one site that offers both a freebie and one for sale.

Here is what I found:

These are links to crocheted aprons :
Crocheted Apron
http://www.knitting-crochet.com/crochet/aproncro.html

Apron pattern originally from Two Sisters
Here is a knitted apron:
http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2006/sep/knitting/knit1.pdf

Lion brand has apron patterns:
http://www.lionbrand.com

I also found a Blog about aprons:
http://angrychicken.typepad.com/tieoneon/free_patterns/index.html

Here is a knitted apron from a link on the Apron blog:
http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring04/PATTpartyapron.html

One of the stops along my way was the Stargazer’s Site. This time I saw some pages I have either never seen or maybe never paid attention to before. She has a whole page dedicated to Women Only and Other Sites of Interest. Looking down a little on the left is a link titled Homeschool Links.

Enjoy!!

As of 8-11-2019 : Please be aware that some of these sites are no long available. In order to maintain the integrity of this site I am keeping this list of Resources.  If you choose, you can look up apron patterns using your favorite search engine.  Another choice is this page on Dish and Wash Cloth Mania: Aprons

You can also do a pattern search on Ravelry

Update on 12-25-2020: I have updated most of the links on this page. The exception is the link to Stargazer’s page which I cannot locate on the Web Archive.

 

Glasses

There are times when life doesn’t go the way we hope it will. This is one of those times for me. About six weeks ago my nursing license was re-instated. I let it lapse several years ago when I quit working to become a Stay at Home Mom who homeschools. Shortly after it arrived in the mail, my glasses got broken. This is a big issue because it means that driving is very difficult to say the least.

I am now in the process of waiting on new ones to arrive. It has been more than two weeks since new ones have been ordered. I am still waiting. This should not be a surprise. It normally takes labs a long time to grind my prescription properly. It was even like this when I lived accross the country shortly after getting married so I know it is not just the labs in this area. Hopefully they will be ready by this weekend. In the meantime, job hunting is limited to online searching. It is a safety issue not only for myself but for others as well.

So much for complaining…. I am not the one in charge of this. I know that God knows what is going on and why. If it were up to me, I would have been working for the past several weeks.

While I am waiting for my glasses to arrive there is plenty of time to do other things. Most of them are not exciting, but that’s all right. Here they are in random order.
1.My family is getting plenty of Mom time.
2.The house is getting a bit of extra attention.
3.Loose ends on a lot of crocheted hats are being woven in. There is someone in my town waiting to recieve them so they can warm heads of children.
4.Dish and wash cloths are being knitted. One is on the needles right now. Most of them will be given away either to family, friends or charities.
5.I owe my very patient mother a pair of slippers. These are long overdue. I know what I will be doing tomorrow.
6.There are scarves to be made for the Orphan Foundation of America. These won’t get
mailed until January of 2007, but it is not too early to work on them.
7. There are blogs to be updated.
8. There is data on the hard drive to be backed up.
9. Some Library books need to be read so they can go back.

The list only mentions a few things to be done. This is Wednesday evening and we have been told my glasses will be ready by Friday. Hopefully they will be.

A Few Things

I found an interesting Blog while working online a few days ago. It is called Bittersweet.
Take a look at some of the patterns on the Free Patterns page for some real treats. Even my husband enjoyed this.

As usual I have been busy adding patterns to Dish and Wash Cloth Mania. It has grown so much and so fast that I am amazed. There is always something new to add.

There has even been time to knit this past week. Here are some pictures of what I have made:


These are both made using Grandma’s Favorite Dishcloth pattern that I have used before. They got done while riding in the van and during family reading time. I used Peaches’n’Cream Emerald Frost for the one on the left. It was in a cone that has been in my stash for a long time. The other one is from some Cancun Cotton made by Columbia Minerva. I got it from a thrift shop a few years ago and have been waiting for some inspiration to use it. The pattern is quite simple but was what I needed this week end.

Blogging Goals

My goals for posting here have certainly not been met. I have been spending so much time adding links to Dish and Wash Cloth Mania that even knitting and crocheting have fallen by the way side.
That blog has grown more than I thought it would. I even managed to give it a custom header. Doing that made for some interesting learning.

I will try to get back to working on some charity projects later today or tommorrow. The priority project is a pile of hats with loose ends waiting to be woven in so they can go to new homes. Then there scarves and more hats to be made for others for the winter.

Busy!

I realized a few minutes ago that I have not been writing about knitting or crocheting here in the past several weeks. There are a few reasons for this which all come down to life getting in the way.

The hard drive on the computer quit working the Friday of Labor Day weekend. My plans were to gets a lot of things done on the computer that weekend. We have a ‘new to us’ computer purchased from my favorite store: EPC. They are the best in our entire area in my opinion.

Another reason for not posting is that I have not been knitting or crocheting very much. We have been taking a lot more family time for talking, playing games like Scrabble and family reading. We are home schoolers and those activities take priority. There are times when I knit or crochet during family times, but I have not done so recently.

The last reason for not posting here is because there is a new blog in my life. It is:
Dish and Wash Cloth Mania. I am collecting lists of free Dish and Wash Cloth patterns found on the internet. When I began the project my original site was here:Dish and Wash Cloth Mania.
The lists of patterns grew very quickly and I chose to move it to a home that would allow for its growth. My free time is being spent adding to it. At the moment it mostly has knitted cloths on it. I am working on adding more crocheted ones to it. This weekend a lot were added. It is taking longer than planned because there are only so many hours in a day.

The past cople of days have been interesting. I accidentally locked myself out of my Yahoo accounts on my favorite browser. This did not make me   a happy person. It interfered with plans to do some things on line. A few things got done because we keep more than one browser on our computer.

This morning in the middle of  breakfast it dawned on me to use one of the other browsers and checkYahoo  for groups  that offer help for users of my favorite. Presto!!  After only a couple  minutes one was found. The wonderful people on that group answered my questions and the problem was solved. I am impressed and pleased!

Not only did they solve the problem, but they taught me a few things as well. Learning can be so intersting and fun! This one reason I enjoy computers so much.

It’s been almost three weeks since by Nursing license arrived. My computer’s hard drive quit working shortly after I made my last post here. Job hunting without a computer was almost impossible. So now I am doing some serious job hunting.
I now have a different computer with a brand new hard drive and lots of memory. I have spent a lot of time setting it up to suit my family and I, but mostly me. It has been a fun job. The hard part is recovering some of my links. This time, they are getting backed up every couple of days.

Hard Drive Quit

Wow!!!
The past few weeks have been so very busy. It’s hard to believe that it has been so long since I have written anything here.

The main reason for this is that my old hard drive quit working on the Friday of Labor Day weekend. That was a real bummer because my original plan to to spend lots of time on my blogs over that weekend. Oh well….Life happens like that sometimes.

Instead of lots of computer time for me and lots of video game time for the guys, we had lots of family time. That was a very good thing. Since the computer is home now, I am getting caught up on blogging and emails.

I have been busy knitting some ballband dishcloths to replace my supply of dishcloths that are wearing out. Crochet projects include weaving in some loose ends on squares for a charity project. There are also a bunch of hats with loose ends waiting to be woven in before it gets any cooler outside. Those are going to a local charity.

Nursing!

I have been waiting for this day for the past few weeks My nursing license arrived from the State Board of Nursing. To say I feel excited is an understatement.  I have honestly missed nursing. It is time to re-enter my chosen profession.

I chose not to renew my license several years ago when I chose to be a  Stay at Home Mom. At the time it was more important for me to be at home  full time than it is now.  The needs of my family have changed.

<>In the weeks since applying for reinstatement of my license I have begun to realize that it is important to me as an individual to have my license back.  While the money I will bring into our family is needed and important, being a nurse is  part of who and what I am.  It influences my choice of food; health care providers; my parenting style; the volunteer work I do for charities ; my stand on some political issues; my housekeeping habits and other areas of life.

As I reflect on these things, I wonder if perhaps it is because of who and what I am that I chose to be a nurse. Is it the “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” question applied to nursing? It could be.

Regardless of the answer to that, there is one thing of which I am certain. I am glad to be an RN and to be looking for a nursing position.

I have a feeling this is going to be the start of another  adventure…..

<>

Long Time

It feels like it has been forever since I have written anything here. Life has just been busy.

We have geared up academics now that the end of August has arrived. This means me concentrating on being organized and preparing lesson ideas a few days in advance. Even if they are not written down, they are in my head…..What a scary place to be. LOL!

For the past few weeks my only knitting or crochet time is in the car with my husband on the way to and from work. Mostly I am making some MDK Ballband dishcloths. Not only are they an addiction, but since I make them using 33 or 39 stitches, they fit my hands easily and well. There are more than a dozen in my kitchen. This way I don’t hesitate to be particular about changing them often.

Today I realized that the last week of August is approaching. This means that I had better get busy and start making some dishcloths as Christmas gifts for some people on my gift list. I can’t name them in case they happen to read this. It is also time to get busy making some red scarves for the Orphan Foundation of America. Last year I did not learn about this until a few weeks before scarves needed to be dropped off for them. This year I want to be prepared for this event by having some scarves made in advance. Once it gets to be a little bit cooler my needles will start having red yarn them.

I have rambled enough for now…..More will come later.