Early Mother's Day Gift

I swear I have the best bestfriend on the planet. She made me this hook case and I just love it! I'm not sure where she got the pattern I'll have to see if I can get her to send me the info on it, but it's soo neat. :D:D Thanks MKM! :X :D:D


Case Closed (hehehe)


Case Open (doesn't sound as silly does it?)

Other than that I've just been working on my current stuff. Did antoher Magic Square potholder last night and working on an exchange square today. Oh and still playing around with this blog stuff. Added some of my favorite pattern links today and submitted my blog to a couple of web rings.

My schedule is such that when I'm tied to my desk but don't have much work to do, I get to blog all I want. On the other hand when I'm not in the office I crochet only as much as I can get my family to let me. :P Maybe tomorrow I'll put up my bio...hmmm....

Productive Weekend

Hi Y'all. Well despite my 2 year old DD and my DH's best efforts to distract me with stuff like life (sheesh - what do they think I am? a wife and mother? HA! I am a crocheting monster...HAHAHAHA ~insert evil laugh here~) I actually got a lot of crocheting done this weekend. Ok - so they were little projects, but it felt like I got a lot done! LOL!!! (don't you just love quick and easy project - the instant gratification is addicting isn't it?) DH and I decided it would be nice if I crocheted a kitchen set for his mom for Mother's Day. This is only the second "kitchen" set I've ever made and the first time I've done any of these patterns. I felt kind of like an ADD crocheter though, jumping from one pattern to another, but I wanted to see how they all went together since I collected them from a bunch of different sources. Here are some links to the patterns:
towel topper here
dishcloth here
pot holder here

The pot holder pattern is the baisic "Magic Square" pattern. This link shows it with a patriotic theme, but mine was just plain. This was just the only link I could find that had the basic pattern included. Here's the pic of what I got done...

I'm not totally happy with the dishcloth and may take out the last round. Not sure though. Since I only did one of each item to see if they went together, I still have one more of everything to do to complete the set. LOL, so I'm only half way there.

Oh and before I forget. MKM sent me a pic of the slippers I made for her. Here it is:

See - it looks much better when they are being worn. :D

Ok - enough rambling!

T.G.I.F.

Check out my new l@@k! Cool eh? Unless of course you don't go for the minty green thing...lol. Ok so I might lose the background - or find something lighter...anyway.

I finally got a picture of the latest on my progress with Jeremy's afghan. Here it be!


This is actually folded in half, so it's twice as wide as what you see in the picture.

Here's a close up with some detail of the stitches.


Now that I have this button thing figured out (check mine out down below) I'm off to snatch a bunch from the blogs I frequent! :D

Mini Update

I got MKM's slippers done and in the mail yesterday. They were tuff but I got through it. LOL. Today I finished up a 12 inch square for the CLBSX exchange. On a fun note my partner is local to me and works in a yarn store, so tomorrow I'm going to meet her on my lunch hour to exchange our squares and check out the store. For some reason I have yet to go by despite my love of all things yarn. ;-) Lets pray I don't spend my whole pay check there.

Jeremy's afghan is coming along nicely. I need to take a picture of it this weekend so I can post it. I'm also starting to run short on yarn. So a yarn spree is in my near future. Maybe I'll find some good deals tomorrow.

Spent some time on Ebay today checking out crochet related stuff. I saw the neatest set of Brittany hooks, but the seller wants a LOT of money for them. Would be fun, but I just could not justify spending that kind of cash for hooks. Oh well.

Thanks for stopping by!

Russian Joining

Text link to the Russian Joining method I mentioned in earlier post.

Slowly getting the hang of this...hehehe

Good Morning...just some crochet ramblings...

I had to frog one of the slippers back down to the sole last night. That was a bummer, but I'm feeling better about fixing the mistakes I made and it already looks better. But now I have to finish them today so I can put them in the mail tomorrow. I hope my day gives me the time I need....so much for a lunch hour. lol - good thing I packed a lunch so I can eat in the office. :D:D

I haven't worked on Jeremy's blanket since the weekend. Kept getting yarn that was in bad shape which was frustrating because I spent more of my time working with the yarn than I actually did crocheting. One ball in particular was rolled in a double strand and cut at like 3 foot intervals. So I must have spent 2 hours using the Russian Joining technique to put it all back together so I could roll it into one continuous ball and actually crochet with it. Guess I can't complain to much though..this is only the first "bad" ball I've had from the three bags I bought at the thrift store.

I also spent some time this weekend organizing my patterns and of course looking through them all. Gosh there is sooo much I'd love to do....Time!!! - I need more time!!!! (or another pair of hands...hmmm....) :D My two year old dd found my Winnie the Pooh pattern book and I told her to pick one and I'd make it for her. So that's going to be one of my new projects. I also found another pattern for an afghan that just facinated me and I think I'm going to *have* to try...oh - make that two patterns...LOL.

Ok - enough ramblings - back to work ;-)

*My* Afghan

I just wanted to share with you all the most wonderful birthday present I've ever received. My best friend made this for me and it's is just soooo special I can't seem to find the word to say what it means to me. We are both mothers with small children and our time is sooo limited for stuff like this that it just breaks my heart knowing how hard she worked on this and how many late nights she must have had. This really is one of the most special gifts I have ever received.

I don't have a copy of the pattern but she told me it was a "Reversable Afghan" pattern, and that she added the edging herself. I don't know if the picture does it justice, but it has a wonderful weight. Kind of fluffy, but heavy at the same time. (and I love heavy blankets!) It is sooo cuddly. I just love it to pieces.

Anyway - enough of my gushing over this...here's a pic.


((You're the best MKM!!! :X:X:X))

Past Projects #2 - Mom & Dad

Here's another past project I wanted to share. Two years ago my parents moved out of sunny Southern California to a state that actually has four seasons. So this last Christmas I crochet hats and scarves for them. Well for my dad at least. For my mom I did a Prayer Shawl because I knew she would love it. The Prayer Shawl pattern can be found at the Lion Brand website. (sorry I have yet to figure out how to link to it directly without pasting the entire link - and I'm being lazy ) This was also my first time working with Homespun yarn and it was a treat! I did have to go a bit slower than I'm used to because everytime I tried to speed up it would snag, but the end results were well worth it. And in hindsight - going slower was kind of fun too. Sort of an "enjoy the process" moment.

The hat pattern was a "Crocheted Ribbed Hat" pattern I got here:
http://www.mielkesfarm.com/c_rib_ht.htm
I had a bit of a learning curve with this. I ended up making three hats of this pattern. The first hat I knew would be to small for my dad because it was a little tight on my head. The second one was a bit big on me, and the third hat I made was for my mom. I went ahead and sent all three to them. I told Dad to chose the hat that fit him best and give the other one away...lol (not like we are going to use them here). The scarf I did for Dad was just rows of dc's and I don't think I had a pattern for that.


Dad's (larger) hat and scarf.


Mom's "Prayer Shawl"


Mom's Hat

Past Project - Gramp's 80th Birthday Afghan

Good Morning..

I've decided to start journaling some of my past projects. The first one is of an afghan I made for my Grampa's 80th birhtday. This was by far the most complicated pattern I have ever done. The stitches are fairly basic...the "flag" portion is just sc, but it starts with a color change in the foundation chain and that was a challenge. It also took me about a dozen tries to get the stitch count right on the flag part. But after that it was just a matter of getting the color changes right. Also I wanted to let everyone know that I did get some help with this. I waited to long to start it so *My Best Friend* helped out by doing 12 of the squares so I could have it done in time for Gramp's birthday. (aren't best friends great?) - I do have to give a special mention to the fact that she is left handed and this was a tuff pattern for her to work, but she stuck it out and was a huge help!!! (((Thank You MKM!!! :X)))

Anyway the pattern came from the Leisure Arts Book #2986 - Contest Favorite Afghan Squares. Some of the changes I made to the pattern in the book were:
1) I used the flat braid joining from Pricillia's site instead of just sewing the squares together and
2) For the edging I put large shells on the top and bottom edges but only dc's on the sides.

Ok - now the pics...first is the completed ghan (folded in half so it's actually twice as long) and second is a close up of a square.

Enjoy!!!

Hello! Welcome to my crochet and crafting blog. I can't wait to get started. Please check back soon for my updates. Oh - and please be patient with me while I get this blog up and running the way I hope to. I'm a newbie at this so I may stumble around a bit till I get it right. Thanks for stopping by. I hope to see you again soon!

Jenn