The Daisy Hat
I finished up the Daisy Hat last night and it came out pretty cute. It's small, but it's done with an e hook so I'm thinking g maybe to have it bigger than a newborn size? We'll see. I'll start on the matching purse today at lunch. I'm getting a little nervous about Katrina - we leave for convention in the Keys in 11 days. Excited - yes, but since we had to cancel last year's convention last minute due to the hurricanes i'm a bit apprehensive. At least I'll get plenty of crochet time - not while i'm actually there (cause i'll be uber-busy) but on the 6 hour drive that i'm not driving each way! I havent decided what i'll bring with me, maybe the christmas gift afghan i havent started yet. Guess that's it for now.
Last night's crochet group
Well, I finished the little drawstring purse before i even got to group last night! So I brought some flippity flops to work on and got 4 pair done plus added fur to 2 of the ladies' scrunchies. The purse came out ok, i'm not overly thrilled with it but i'll put it up for sale and see if anyone buys it. I brought my Too Cute book in today and plan on starting the Daisy pattern - a yellow hat w/white petals and a yellow/white petal/green leaves as a handle little girl purse. I like the purse SOO much more than the hat, but it's a pair and i'll make it that way. Not sure what will be after that, I guess I have a couple days to figure that out. I told my group about the tin foil pattern and i think they are all going home to try it - which is good since I havent tried it yet. We'll see what happens with that. Guess that's it for now.
A few things
United we Stand is DONE!!! it came out very nice, and I'm proud of it - hopefully it will sell.
My bear purse did not sell on ebay, so off it goes with me to the Craft Fairs. I've got 2 on the weekends surrounding my birthday - 10/29 at the Salvation Army Home for the Holidays Craft Bazaar, and 11/5 at my son's school. I turn 30 on 11/1, and my b-day party will be on the 5th so that will be a pretty busy day!
I didnt get anything done yesterday - I went home sick with a stomach bug and slept until choir practice at 6:30. Crochet group tonight, and I'm going to bring another purse from In The Bag - a drawstring one made from thick chenille (which i got for 2.40 a skein) in grey and homespun in this greyish/whitish, should be cute and I'm pretty excited about it. I'll have made 5 different ones out of this one book - well worth the 6 something I paid for it! Oh, I did start a baby blanket - I whimped out... I found one I liked and started it and it was kinda hard, made harder by baby yarn, so I frogged it and am doing a big granny square in solid white. It's nice but nothing fancy, maybe I'll do a fancy border with some ribbon or something.
Guess that's it for now, more later.
The nylon purse
I finished the pocket flap bridal purse - i just gotta do the weaving in the ends and it's finished, except I would like to put some beads on it - I just dont have any... guess that means a trip to walmart! I had left over nylon so I'm making a little drawstring purse too, it's small, and meant to dangle on a brides wrist. The nylon is so pretty and shiney and white! Perfect for a wedding.
I got SOOOO close to finishing the United We Stand last night, and I realized that the strip I was about to stitch on was upside down... so now that means adding 1 row and ripping 1 row... should be done at lunchtime today.
Drew got me thinking hard about doing a booklet - and I had some pretty cool ideas last night in my 3am vicodin induced ramblings about doing it on crocheting with household materials - plastic bags, kitchen twine, even aluminium foil! Havent looked at it again this morning... but I think they are still good while not on pain meds. Lesson of the day #1 - at 29 I had NO business doing a front roll just because my 4 year old could (hence the vicodin). So, I'll write out my patterns and if I get brave I'll have it done. From what I could tell it's about $200 for the publishing package on Lulu. I'll have to dig a little deeper since I couldnt find where I did the price calculator last time. Anyway - thanks dude, you get a free copy... if i actually do it!
I found a pattern online for a baby blanket I like... finally! I've been trying to find a cute one for a friend thats having a baby in December. We'll see how the pattern goes, I'll probably start that after this one is done.
Crochet group Wednesday, that's about it.
the new purse
I finished the pures, and although I like the colors together, I think it's a little lopsided - but only a tiny bit. Wonder if anyone will notice? I cant quite figure out how to fix it, especially since I had already "fixed" it a bit from being even MORE lopsided. Hmm, quite the quandry. ok, just took a couple pics on my phone, let me upload them.
See, the right side is less angular than the left, i'm confused. Oh well, I am not ripping it out, so if it doesnt sell it'll be some lucky persons Christmas gift!!
United We Stand
Well, I got the skein of RHSS burgandy to finish up the afghan and I got safety pins to put the stitch markers together (I had done the beadwork at work since we had some extra beads from convention lying around - and hey... free is good), and I think they turned out pretty nice. Stabbed my pointer finger with the wire and it STILL bleeds if I press on it and it hurts like crazy... especially since I have to type with that finger... but oh well. I just need to finish them with my needle noses so no wires are sticking out to mess up yarn work. Since this is my first swap I'm pretty excited about it, I just hope that I did ok - I'm not a beader... obviously! Um, oh ghan, so I got the first red stripe finished on one side last night and that's it. We had to stop go shopping at hellmart so I didnt have much time for actual crocheting, but at least I now have the yarn to finish it. When we went to that area of the store my hubby was like "but you have bins FULL of yarn, why dont you use some of THAT?" Well, cause I dont have anymore RHSS burgandy... But I did start a purse with some of my stash yarn.... didn't quite work like I had hoped, but hey it's was only $2.19 to get the half done afghan off the couch and into the "done" bin, so I think it's worth it. He did also complain a bit - "open the trunk so we can put the groceries in" me - "um, well, I COULD open the trunk but it wouldnt do us any good since there's no room in there" him - "you still havent taken that crap out yet?" me - "Uh, no." Mind you the craft fair crap has been in my trunk since 6/25... and I guess it's about time to take it out, maybe tonight if I remember. hehe.... hehehehehe. It's such a sad existance!
I was able to stitch a few rows on the purse this morning while Jake drank juice and watched Recess before we had to head out the door. I'm not sure if I like the way it's coming, at least the part where the handle will go. It's kinda strange and not exactly symetrical - so either my increases/decreases dont match for whatever reason or I did it wrong or it's a bad pattern. I'll have to play with it to see if I can get it right - that's what I brought with me for today at lunch.
I had thoughts of making a little halter for a friends little girl that turns 4 next week - with yarn I already have. I have some really nice simply soft in 2 different blues, and they would match her eyes really well, so I think I'll do it with that. Hmm. It's a terrible addiction... but cheap presents!
Last night's baby conversation didnt go too well, and when I saw the breakdown of finances I understood. We have a week and a half to make a decision on if we want to try in September - so pray for me... guidance would be nice... a yes would be nicer!
The new purse
Well, during lunch I got most of the way done with one side (I HATE when you have to do 2 sides and stitch them together!). It's coming out pretty cute, but I'm having to change up the top a bit to fit my handles instead of the recycled cool whip tub tops they use (and I still dont understand how they MEANT it to work), but that's ok I think it will come out pretty cute. I like the color combo, the pink's like country pink and the handles are pretty light wood so they go well together. That's it, just thought I'd share that real quick since I'm trying very hard to NOT work! I've surfed more than I care to admit in the past hour since lunch ended, and i'm running out of things to find....
started another purse (hangs head in shame)
Last night was choir practice so no crocheting at all! Yesterday at work I was able to finish up the star field - it's all stitched together, but I didnt have a chance to start the stripes. I also didnt have the chance to get the rest of the yarn I need for it and it's not enough to kill the 45 minutes at lunch I have today to crochet.... so... I started another purse. I know, i know - yeah yeah! It's homespun Boston Rose, it's a rather funky purse from In The Bag - (cant find a pic of it) the Fur Handled Bag. BUT - i'm using round wood handles instead of the fur handles and there will not be a fur accent on the bottom. Just a pink round bottom (kind of crescent shaped) with wood handles. It should be cute, i'm rather excited about it. I should have brought in the yarn for either the Christmas ghan or baby ghan... but I didnt! OOPS! Oh well. Maybe when I'm done with this one... yeah right!
I was wandering around Crochetville and found the posting about the Cookbook. It should be exciting, and I'm looking forward to submitting some recipes. Drew "The Crochet Dude" recommended Lulu for publishing, and so I peeked around their site. I have thought about doing a booklet, but need to figure out how many patterns I have made that I'd want to publish. Although most of what I crochet is scavenged from other peoples patterns (or at least the idea behind their patterns) I have made a few of my own. Usually I'll learn to do something - like the pocket purse - from somewhere and do a bunch of variations on it. Although you have about a billion different patterns for pocket purses - I have made some pretty cute ones! Or, I'll take a stitch that I like and make a pattern around it - I made a fancy chenille capelet from the flower stitch and it came out so nice! Anyway, pretty much a "lets pretend for a minute that I'm not too lazy to do it". I'll keep thinking about it for a while and see what happens. Maybe I'll get inspired!
Guess that's it for now. ttfn.
Last night I didn't get too much done - worked a little on the nylon bag, that thing is a pain! The stitches come out pretty easily if my hook falls out, which sucks and it makes me wonder how I'll be able to finish it off - I usually do a knotted slip stitch, but I'm afraid it'll come out, even if I do zig zag my ends. Maybe I'll have to open the end - it's 3 strings twined together - and knot them and then weave it, hopefully that will work. I'd hate to finish it only to have it fall apart! I also worked a little on my last star row, I'm almost done with the last star of the last star row, then, because these are join as you go I have to do the last row of them all, I've already joined 3, 3 more to go. Then the stripes - and I realized I'm out of RHSS burgandy that I'm using for the red stripes. Oh well, guess I'll HAVE to venture over to either walmart or joanns to get some more. I heard that the Fashion Bug next to Joanns is having a sale, so maybe I'll head over ther (shhh, don't tell Travis). I brought that one with me to work on at lunch, I should have at least all the stars together and a start on the first red stripe - until I run out of yarn that is!
Upcoming projects: Well, assuming that some wonderful person RAOK's me some RHSS medium sage I'll finish the pillowghan. Guess I could work up until that point, maybe after this ghan is done I'll do that.
I also have to make a ghan for my son's God Parents for Christmas, and a baby blanket for a friend that's due beginning of December. I still havent found a pattern that I like for it yet, but I'll keep looking. I have this Jamie baby that I got at Joanns for .30 a skein (the little ones) and I think I have 6.
I would like to make some more cowboy booties for the craft fair. I'd also like to make the lion if I can find the fluffy mohair for the mane. It's so cute, and everyone seems to think the stuff out of that book will sell well. I've already got the moo cow set, hershey kiss and rose. I probably ought to finish up the last bootie of the Christening Gown set and sell that too, but I was kinda thinking to keep it and enter it in the fair in January. We'll see.
Choir practice tonight, and a swim date for Jake tomorrow. No crochet group this week, and next week will be my last one for almost a month because I'll miss the first one in Sept because of Convention. Oh well, i'll be in the keys - guess that'll be better than group anyway... maybe! hehe. That's it for now.
Fireman slippers shipped
I finished up the fireman slippers and they came out very cute. I was going to take a pic this morning before I shipped them, but I couldnt find the camera - hubby must have it with him? Oh well. I'm sure she will like them, and I cant wait to get my bracelet that I traded her for!
We went to Epcot on Saturday and I made the rose hat out of too cute crochet. I'm not happy with the way it came out, once I find the camera I'll post a pic. I'm not sure why it does what it does - flips the petals up instead of down, but I'll have to figure out a way to fix it. Each petal is (on a ch 4 or ch 5) a sc, hdc, 3dc, hdc, sc. Maybe it's just too many stitches on each ch? It seems awful tight, and it has you making all the framework chains from top to bottom, then making the petals from bottom up. If I redo it i'll do the petals as I go - round of chains, round of the petals on the chains (if that makes sense). And from top to bottom - it got pretty difficult to do those petals while trying to stay away from the row below it! That's it.
Fireman slippers
So last night I saw with a hook 4 sizes too big and still had to add extra stitches on the beginning chain - from 12 to 17, and I had to play with the stitches a little to get the footprint right. I had Jake stand on a piece of paper and I drew around his foot and added a little bit and that worked fine. I dont have a link to the pattern for them, but here's the pic. I changed it up a little, but not much. I started with the 2 yellow bottoms and after that I ran out of yellow - UGH! So I found a closeish match for the top yellow stripe (I dont do the top top one) and those will go to my son and I'll do another pair in the new yellow (did that make sense?) The gal that is buying them is also a beader and she makes beautiful jewelry so I am going to try to swap her for a bracelet I fell in love with. You can see her stuff here:
www.ecrafter.com/jessicasjewelry . I forgot to take a pic of the booties but she did and she will forward them to me and I'll post them then.
My first Sale - Received
I got an email from my buyer last night - I had sent her the 2 pair of cowboy booties and a pair of fireman booties (cause her hubby is a fireman). She said that the 2 pair of cowboy booties were adorable and made her teary and the fireman booties pushed her over the edge. She was very happy - which makes me thrilled! She wants me to make her other son (about 5 I guess) a pair of matching fireman slippers. He's just a half size bigger than my son so I at least have a guideline which is good. Maybe I went overboard because it was my first one - I stuffed each bootie with tissue paper, then wrapped each pair in a sheet of tissue tied w/a rafia bow in different colors. My thank you card was in handmade paper (though not by MY hand ;)) and I included a couple of my business cards (maybe she can get me MORE business). I was very proud of it - both the booties and the presentation and I'm so excited to know it did not go unnoticed.
Anyway - I finished the incredible fur purse and it came out very cute. I changed up the handle (design and from handleS), which is good cause I ended up with about 4 inches incredible left!
Yarn from Home Depot?
I was talking to my hubby about getting some nylon cording to crochet some purses with - I've seen them done but havent seen any patterns for them and the cording that I found was at walmart (not joanns) and only in black and white and a small cone was almost $4. So, Travis suggested the nylon cording for tying down tarps and gardening purposes from Home depot. Hey, i'm game - so he and his dad went to Home depot to get stuff for our fence (a year after the hurricanes blew them down - i'm so excited) and while they were there he bought me some white not nylon but similar cording - 500 feet for $8 - and his dad paid for it when he paid for the fence, so it was free to me. It's pretty, shiny but kinda hairy to work with but is turning out beautifully. I figure I'll make a little pocket purse and add some sequins and beading for a bridal purse - it's perfect for that! I'll post some pics once it's done. I still didnt get the incredible fur purse done yet but just HAD to try out my new "yarn".
Oh yeah
AND I just signed up for my first Crochetville exchange - the stitch marker exchange. Of course I had to look up what stitch markers look like (becides the package kind). I use bobby pins so I think I'll make little twirrly dos on those with some beads - hopefully my partners will like them.
Project list update
Right now I'm still working on the United We Stand afghan, I'm about 2/3 done with it - it's broken down into 3 sections - the star row and surrounding stripes, I've done and stitched together 2 and have the whites of all my stars done and 2 of them have blue. They go pretty quick so I'm hoping to have it done by this weekend. And although I should have brought the stars with me to work on at work during lunch I didnt. I started something new
, the Incredible Fur purse http://michaels.com/art/online/projectprint?width=80&pid=e02631 since i had bought the incredible w/matching fur like a month ago.
The Pillow Ghan. This has become the bane of my existance! I looked at it again yesterday and I was very good - I did not throw it across the room! I have 5 squares to finish that all have 5-6 rows (all different colors) to go, then stitching it together (after I figure out HOW to stitch together a pillowghan). I am stuck because one of my rows I need RHSS medium sage and apparently I bought it on clearance and they dont make it anymore. Not at Joanns, not at walmart, I need to check Michaels. I put it on my RAOK wish list, maybe some sweet soul can check their stash and part with half a skein - I dont need much - Really! SO, that is on hold with a reason!!
That's actually it, 3 projects - the purse (which will be done today), the patriotic afghan and the pillowghan. WOO HOO - gives me room to find something else to work on. ;)
Finished - I finished the cowboy booties that I needed for the sale and I also whipped up a pair of fireman booties (her hubby is a firefighter) as a perk (shh, it's a secret). Hopefully that will make her more inclined to bring me more business. It was so fun wrapping the little things and making the thank you card - I did a nice job and I was very proud.
I also did another bag from the In The Bag book - highly modified, but it was my first thing with handles. Lucky for me Joanns has handles 1/2 off this week so I got 2 pair. The one I did was red homespun & red fun fur together in a little 6x6 pocket purse and a pair of 4.5 inch bamboo D shape handles. I forgot to take a pic before I packed it up. I now have a wood (not the bamboo kind) 5" O handles that I need to find a good purse to go with.
I think that's it.
Some new pics
I got a few pics of some of the things I've done lately.
The Cow bonnet and hoof set - I shoulda taken a side shot so you can see the rest of the hat, maybe when I do the craft fair I'll do that.
The Hershey Kiss baby hat - this came out so cute, I was very proud of it. This came from my "Too Cute Crochet" book.
My "organized" yarn stash
I was asked to post pics of my recent oragization of yarn! BUT, I did go yesterday and buy some more (hangs head in shame). It's a sickness I tell you!
My First Sale
Well the baby bootie lady sent me an email again, she's going to order my Cowboy Booties - but she wants 2 pair so guess what i'll be working on this weekend! I'M SO EXCITED!!!! I'll have to make another pair for the craft fair too, but i'll need some more brown yarn (i'm just hoping I have enough for the other pair - I think it was old and wrapperless when I got it). Anyway, I just had to share!
I've been doing pretty well on my afghan - i had finished the bottom section (stripes, stars, stripes) and i've finished the middle stars and just started last night on the top stripes. It's coming out nicely and I'm pretty proud of it. I've only spotted one mistake that I cant fix (I found it on the stars after it was attached to it's friends when I was doing the stripe on it). Oh well, I faked it nicely.
Crochetville
Well, I joined Crochetville and i'm excited about it. I've posted a few pics of my work and have gotten some really nice feedback. I just wonder if people EVER post negative things? I know that if I dont like something I just dont post, but if I do like something I will post. Like my mama taught me - if you dont have anything nice to say...
I'm half tempted to do a CAL but only half. I like the Cathedral afghan but it looks difficult and I cant find the pattern. Becides, I dont really need the cheerleading. I'm getting along on my afghan, it's coming out really nice. I've got the bottom section done (3 stripes, the star line and 2.5 stripes) and now i've got my 2 half motifs and 2 full done (to the joining row) with only 3 more full to go before I can join them. I really like this join as you go thing, it beats the heck out of whip stitching - which I HATE!!!! It is going a bit quicker than I thought it would, it's also taking more yarn than I expected. I'm using RHSS burgandy and soft navy and MainStays White. My next afghan (for a Christmas gift to my son's God Parents) will be this one: well, i cant find it. I did one already, that's what the pic is of. This time it will be celery instead of the tan and cream instead of burgandy.
It's basically this -
W/ Color 1 (C1) ch a bunch - this will be the bottom (in mulitples of 4) sc in 3rd from end, ch 3, sk 3 sc, repeat to end. with C2 attach in ch 3 w/sl st, ch 3. 2 dc in same, 3 dc in next ch 3, to end.
attach C1 with sl st in sc from row 1, ch 5, sc in sp before next 3 dc, ch 3, sc in sp before next 3 dc, repeat across ending with dc in last st of row 1.
Keep going with pattern to desired legnth. 3 rounds of sc around as border.
I know that isnt really a pattern, but it gives you an idea. It looks really nice and I get many compliments on it.
YAS Strikes again...
I type this as I cover my face in shame... I had to stop at wal mart last night for play doh for Jake for school. They actually had it which made me happy because it was store #4. The Play Doh was 1.67. I only had $1 in cash - oh well, i'll have to charge it... but I CANT just charge 1.67... NOOOOOO. I had to go back to the yarn section - 7 skeins later I could leave. But, at least they are for a project that I'm doing for Christmas (and some white for the one i'm on now) AND it was the cheapie walmart yarn that's only 1.77 a skein.
It's such a sickness!
My yarn stash
Ok, so my yarn stash has gotten to be a little out of control and I can never find anything when I go looking. My original idea was to get some of those under the bed storage bins to fill up and put in the garage. I got 5. 3 are currently holding finished projects (2 are still in the back of my car from the last craft fair 6/25!!) and the other 2 had misc yarn in them. Well, garages being what they are, my boxes were dusty and cob-webby and generally yucky! So, yesterday i got motivated to actually organize my yarn. I gathered all my yarn (yes ALL of it) on the bed and seperated it by color. The chest of drawers (3 are dedicated to yarn, the 4th has scrapbook stuff) has whites, then greens/black and 1 drawer of both thread, cotton & acessories (extra hooks, jewelry making tidbits, beads, etc). In the closet I bought one of those 3 drawer plastic double wide storage thingies (yeah, that's the technical term). It has 1 of baby yarn, 1 of funky yarn (fun fur, glitterspun) and the redhat i have yet to embellish, and the bottom drawer has homespun and the leftover sensations from my martha poncho. I have my 1 box of finished in the closet, and in the other 2 bins are greys/browns/silver and blues. On top of the 3 drawer are 2 pounders and my model doll. There is also a walmart bag FULL of little balls of extra yarn that I know i'll never use but cant throw away! it is now all organized but I really need to get the stuff out of my trunk... i just dont have anywhere to put it - well, maybe the garage!! ;)
That's it for now I guess.
Project list update
Well, I finished the hershey kiss hat - satin ribbon and all and it looks adorable. I also finished the Martha poncho which came out better than I expected and worked the way it was supposed to I think. I started on a new afghan - United We Stand out of LA American Pride Afghans. It's coming out very nice and I've finished one row of the stars and i'm almost done with the first red stripe and I just started it yesterday, so it's going pretty quickly. After this one, I SWEAR I will finish the pillow ghan.
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