Reliving My Youth

My friend, RubyRedRuca, sent me this link for a pattern of a GORGEOUS crocheted jumper dress for my daughter. Little did she know what Pandora's box she was opening up. Oh, My, Goodness was I in love! I love jumpers, opaque stockings, mary janes, the list could go on and on. If I could wear them all together without feeling silly, I would. So instead I live through my daughter, dressing her up the way my Mom dressed me when I was little.

So after I viewed the dress pattern, I began looking through the whole site falling more in love and then the artists blog which brought back so many memories! I come from a long line of creative women on both sides of my genealogy. My Mom was crafty, always sewing up cute little dolls. My maternal grandmother, I called her Gma, was an amazing seamstress and avid crocheter (back in the 70's). I am blessed to have many things in my home that she created for me! My paternal grandmother, MiMi, did it all as well and still to this day, in her late 70s, she is sewing up pillows, embroidering and embellishing them. It was the memories of my childhood, taking sewing classes with my cousin, visiting the local craft store to pick out a cross stitch project, visiting my Gma MiMi's favorite place, the Piecemakers, that all came flooding back as I viewed Alicia Paulson's studio and gallery of sold items. In 16 years when I retire, that's when my children will be all grown up and in college, I hope and pray to have a studio like hers to escape to EVERYDAY!

Love'm, Love'm, Love'm!

Here is another dishcloth pattern from the Big Book of Dishcloths. I wanted to make myself some dishcloths that would match my dinnerware. I love the color combo, but they don't quite match my dinnerware. Oh well; I think I'll add it to my "Give to a Friend" basket. I have some yarn in route so hopefully those colors will work out better. :)

God, I love dishcloths!

On my last visit to Joanns I picked up a crochet book on dishcloths. I loved it because it had a lot of cool stitches in it. So yesterday I grabbed my black Lily Sugar N Cream yarn and started making pattern #53. It looks like a Spanish style flower to me; very pretty. As usual, 4 rows in, I realized it didn't look quite right; so I pulled. I tired again, no good, had to pull it. Finally on my third try after reading the directions, what felt like a billion times, and viewing the pic provided, I got it! WOW, did it crochet up fast! It turned out so good that I think I'm going to make a dozen of them.

What A Relief

My friend LOVED her hat! I'm so happy that she loved it, not liked it, LOVED IT! My husband delivered the hat to her husband so I didn't get to see her wear it, but hopefully in a couple weeks she will be well enough for guests. I can't wait to surprise her with a couple more. Although, I did get to see my friends baby in his new camo beanie and he looked SO adorable! Wow, I'm so motivated to get creating.

Last Minute Idea

I'm going to visit my friend and her new bebe today and decided to make him a matching beanie YESTERDAY AFTERNOON at 4pm. I swear my friend, Shell, is wearing off on me; she is the queen of last minute crochet gift projects and ALWAYS finishes in time with a gorgeous gift to give. So I finished it this morning and I'm pretty happy with it. I used one of my daughter's baby dolls to display it for the pic., it looks really funny, she is 1 1/2 yrs old so her babies are small like her. Thank God for quick projects to get you motivated!

Camo Blanket

I wanted to make my oldest friend a cool baby blanket for her new shnukies and I wanted to use camouflage yarn; what could be more cooler for a boy than camouflage! So I came up with this little design; it is simple, yet Cooolll, plus it is SUPER SOFT.

Too Pissed Off to Hook

The slouchy hat was such a disappointment that the thought of picking up my hooks to crochet irritates me. So I haven't crocheted since Sunday. I really need to get over it! My friend, who I'm making these hats for, and I have been corresponding via email and she informed me her favorite color is purple which gives me motivation to start another hat. My Joann's shopping friends suggested this nice yarn with purple and blue in it and I think I'll use it that for the next one. God I hope this one turns out better!

Not Working Out

Sloucy Hat turned out WAY TOO SLOUCHY so I pulled a couple rows and tired again, but that didn't work either. :( So I've decided to put it to the side and try another pattern. Maybe I'll come back to it and try again or make it a bag instead; we'll see.

Not Bummed Anymore....

I figured out what to do with the oilcloth. YAYAYA! I'm going to or I'll pay someone to make this little lovely an apron.

Totally Bummed!

Although I made myself promise that I would only talk about crocheting, I must VENT. I want to make a seat cover for my daughter's baby sit that is attached to my bike. My bike is pearlescent white with pink accents so I thought it would be cute if I made a pink and white polka dot cover for her seat. I looked HIGH and low for this print on oilcloth material, found it online and ordered it. So today the package arrives and I'm so excited, but that excitement turned REALLY FAST to disappointment when I saw the material. The pink is all wrong, doesn't match, too dark; I'm so bummed. So I'm back to square one: a head full of great ideas of what I want to make without the supplies, this so F*&kin SUCKS! Not to mention, I'm stuck with 1.5 yards of material. AHAHAHAHAH!

I really need to finish one of my WIPs so I can feel accomplished.
:(

Sorry, I Just LOVE IT!

This dishcloth is so pretty. I had to show the the detail up close, BEAUTIFUL and Oh, So Soft! I really need to learn to knit.

***Gorgeous Gift***

My friend, RedRubyRuca, knitted this dishcloth and gave it to me as a gift. THANK YOU, I love it!!!

One of many...

I finished the Nubby Brim Hat. YAYAYAYA! So in the end I had to modify the pattern since I wasn't using the exact weight of yarn called for. It called for chunky and I had medium so I just added 2 additional increasing rows, then crocheted evenly from there until it measured 3.5", followed the rest of the pattern to create the brim and, VOILA, it turned out fabulous! It turned out so much better than I thought it would. I'm very excited to give it to my friend!

I started making her another hat last night, a Slouchy Beret, and of coarse 5 tr stitched rows later, I find another pattern online that I liked better. To late now, I am NOT starting over! Weeellllll......I would of, but the Pros out weighed the Cons so I'm sticking with the original beret. The feature of the hat that I'm not too keen about is the pom pom. I've got to figure out something else to place there. If I would of thought of it sooner, I could have modified the pattern so there wasn't a hole there the size of a quarter. Now I'm stuck . Hmmmm......maybe I could crochet a piece that looks like a large button.....Hmmmmm.

Hats Off To You!

Bobble Stitch Update - Late last night while watching Nancy Drew with my son, I finished my Bobble Stitch Dishcloth. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that stitch. Maybe it's because I love polka dots and the bobbles mimic dots or maybe it's because that stitch is SO DAMN EASY and works up FAST or maybe it's both, but regardless, I LOVE IT! I going to make a series of pink and white dishcloths because it's my favorite color, next. My friend, RedRubyRuca, knitted up a brick wall style dishcloth using those colors and I'm IN LOVE with it, so once again she has inspired me to make my own. :)

Hats Suck! - Now, it's time to Bitch about Stitch! I love accessories: hats, scarves, shoes, purses, jewelry, etc. So I yearn to make crochet versions. Although, when it comes to hats, I screw it up every time. I can never get the gauge down and it really pisses me off. I do the little gauge test and all is well, but when I actually get 1/3 of the way in, TOO SMALL! So I'm pulling it AGAIN and having to modify; what's F*&Kin new!

Two down, One to go!

I finished the Post Modern Dishcloth yesterday, YAYAYAYA! Now, I must make one more to complete my vision of three. I decided to go back to the Happy Hooker book and found the Bobble, Puff, Popcorn Stitch, as it's labeled. I first tried the Jiffy Popcorn Stitch and hated it, too puffy. So I looked through the pages again and found the Bobble, which is perfect and I LOVE IT! I'm not too excited about the my yarn choice, but it's all I have in my stash that will go with the other two. :) I seriously need to make a trip to Joann's or Michael's!!!

Works In Progress (WIPs)

I added a new list of my WIPs. Soon I will add picture links to each work so you can see where I'm at with it. So after I take some pics, I'll link them.

*Post Modern Stitch Dishtowel* I wanted to make a solid yellow dishtowel to go with the Pineapple Brick Wall towel and I came across a pretty cool stitch in the Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet The Happy Hooker book. So I decided to crochet a towel using it; I think it looks pretty good so far. I just have to find one more dishtowel pattern because I have this obsession with making things in threes; odd numbered items are more visually appealing than evens.

*Nubby Brim Hat* Hats are going to be my newest crochet obsession. My husband and I have a friend who was just diagnosed with Leukemia about 3 weeks ago. She has had 10 chemo treatments so far and is beginning to lose her hair so I thought I would create some Cool Ass hats for her to wear.

*Chrip* My poor little birdy who has been placed on the back shelf for now. :(

Completed :{ )

After a little bit of a rough start, I completed my Pineapple Brick Wall Dishtowel, cloth; whatever you want to call it. I pulled it 2xs thinking I was miss counting the stitches, but no. When crocheting the 2nd row of bricks, the pattern said to sc 2 stitches, dtrc, then sc 5 stitches, but the 5 was too many. The dtrc wasn't falling in the center of the previous row to give it the brick pattern. So, I decided to sc 4 stitches instead and it worked. I'm very happy with how it turned out. I love how it is stripped on one side and a brick wall pattern on the other; pretty clever (as my Gma would say). I want to make another one, but this time with colors that aren't so BRIGHT!

Itchy Fingers

I've been so busy the last week with the preparations for the 4th of July that I wasn't able to make a trip to the craft store so I put my hook and yarn to the side. Then I came across a pattern for a Brick Wall Dishcloth and my fingers started itching.

I have a friend who received knitted versions of these as a gift and have always admired them. So when I came across a crochet inspired pattern, I had to, had to try and make one! So far so good, 33% down.

Flikr On! :)

Flikr photos are officially viewable. A HUGE thank you to my friend, RubyRedRuca, for helping me get my flikr badge to show up! It was so easy that I feel rather stupid for not figuring it out on my own, but oh well, thank God for friends.

Chirp update:
I haven't had a chance to go get the poly fill for Chrip so he is in limbo. We are having a big bash for the 4th of July which includes closing our street off, so I've been quite busy with the preparations. I'm hoping to make a trip out to my local Joanns this weekend; I got a coupon in the paper with a sweet deal (as my boys would say). Will see if I stick to the plan! :)