Hats!

In my last post I mentioned not being able to focus on anything so I made hats. . . lots of hats.  I wanted to share the joy of my inability to read a pattern for several weeks. 
First was Allen's hat, 100% wool left over from Leigh's Christmas socks

From 2010-02-04

Then Sydney's hat

From 2010-02-16

Then my headband/earwarmer

From 2010-02-04

which became another hat for Allen because of my inability to measure gauge or my pig-headedness to just NOT.....but does it really matter?  Can we just move on now?
So at this point I still have no hat.  January in the midwest requires one to have a hat, unless you're a 12 year old boy who would rather just complain about how cold it is....but I digress.  Following the completion of the mitten/gloves, it was finally time for MY hat; my thick, warm, cozy, keep-every-part-of-my-head-and-ears-warm hat.  It became my latest knitting nightmare.  Now, when I make mistakes, choose not to read a pattern, choose not to measure gauge, etc. I get frustrated but there's no sense in getting upset or angry because it's my own fault.  But when I do use a pattern, and I do measure gauge and it still comes out wrong, then I get a bit testy! Ok, the gauge thing I'll take partial blame for, I did measure but measured in seed stitch but the pattern said (see, I did read it, just not all of it) to measure in stockinette even tho the only thing done in stockinette is the earflaps, go figure.  So I have the lady at the local yarn shop order the pattern book for me.  Her website says she carries Sundae yarn so I don't bother asking her to order that.  When I went to pick up the book and buy the yarn I find out she doesn't keep it in stock, but she can order it for me. Sigh.  Long story short, I opted for three strands held together of yarn from Dollar Tree in just the right colors.  Once finally vindicated that the pattern was indeed incorrect I was able to move on and finish the hat.  But alas, as you may have guessed because my gauge being unknowingly off, it was too big...another sigh.  Now my husband can be the best maker-of-lemonade ever...he says he likes the hat and will add it to his collection and procedes to wear it around the house the rest of the evening.  I did forego the 6 inch pom-pom the pattern called for.

From 2010-02-04

Of course with all the wrinkles ironed out I just HAD to make one for Sydney!

From 2010-02-16

(bad picture from cell phone as she left for school!)
So with one final attempt I actually finished MY hat!  No, not the one I imagined for myself but I love it, it fits AND its keeping my head and ears very warm. . . :-) 

From 2010-02-16

(panda is for modeling purposes only, the hat is MINE!!!)

God bless your stitches,
nance

I Thought They'd Never Get Done

Have you ever had one of those projects you think is going to just fly by? Me too. But did you read the heading of this post? Guess again!! Sure I thought it would be challenging, I'm fairly new to knitting and my repertoire so far has only consisted of dishcloths, socks, mittens, hats and a simple rectangular/mobius wrap. Then came the convertible mitten/gloves (insert scary music here). When I couldn't find a pattern using WW yarn that I liked I thought I could improvise - start with a mitten pattern then just add fingers and make mitten tops, sounds so simple...until I got to the fingers then everything just started to collapse into a twisted pile of black spaghetti yarn. First attempt I used US8 needles because that's what the ball band recommended. When I got to the fingers, the stitch count was equal to the size M so I went with that. Now, I've never done anything like fingers on a glove before so this was a challenge but I plowed my way thru and made 8 lovely fingers, WHEW! I tried them on, figuring if they were a little loose on me they'd surely fit my brother....the mitten part fit just the way I'd hoped, the fingers just BARELY fit ME! UGH!! Back to the patterns. When I looked at the size L glove pattern there were WAY too few stitches. So I backed out a few rows and increased 16 stitches over 3 rows. So they were shaped a little weird, they're just gloves...for my brother...for hunting (does it sound like I'm justifying? I AM) Back to the fingers. Now that I'm experience at doing fingers the four on the first glove didn't take too long. I tried it on, nice fit. I held it up to admire my work....oh my! It looked sort of like, how can I put this tactfully, a "Jemima" doll. Do you remember those little flat dolls made out of black fabric with four or five little braids sticking straight up out of her head? (please don't send me "you're a racist" emails/posts, they used to have these when I was a kid and that's what we called them). As much as I wanted to keep justifying, I just couldn't. I have a certain, unwritten standard for my work and these would not do, not even for tramping around in the woods, living in a one room shack for a week with 5 other guys and no shower. It was THAT bad!


So I've had this illness since before New Year's Eve and by the second week of January (week 3 of the mitten/glove calendar) I could no longer look at them. My head was just foggy and I couldn't focus very well on anything, let alone a patternless mitten/glove. So I set them aside and made several hats. Knitting lots of rows, round and round in Stockinette was about all I could handle.

Two weeks later, I thought I would try again. I totally dismantled them down to the cuffs, changed to a US4 needle because they seemed a bit holey while I was taking them apart, and decided to use the Line By Line Mittens to Gloves pattern from KnitPicks that I used to make Mom's mittens. Her mittens seemed to come out a bit small even though I was right on gauge, I thought "WW yarn instead of DK and US4 needles instead of US3, I'll take my chances". My husband Allen and Andy seemed to have the same size hands (somebody had the idea at Christmas that they measure them against each other) so I was having him try them on thru every step. And finally, after a month, my brother will have a finished pair of mitten gloves to take hunting.

From 2010-01-25

From 2010-01-25

Crying And Rolling My Eyes

I believe I have just read the funniest blog post I have ever seen to date. Note - I have only within the last six months stumbled upon several good yarn-based blogs and try to stay current with their happenings. This blog I just found by clicking and clicking and clicking deeper into a rabbit hole - I can't even remember what the original click was!
Now, my blog is not humorous in nature, I never meant it to be. I think I have a good sense of humor (don't we all?) but not good enough to lighten anyone else's day over and over again. But I love to laugh (or do "the look" as the kids say) when my dear husband does something ridiculous so the kids will have a special memory of something or other. This blog entry, the part about the neice's dolls, literally had me in tears, and I really do mean LITERALLY. "Luckily", because of my never ending cold this winter, I have a box of tissue at my side at all times and I had to reach for it no less than three (3) times to get thru this post. I'm not sure what it was, the content (oh my gosh that's SO Sydney!) or the writing style (OMG that's so Brendyn in a few years!) or some combination of these and other things but it's the best laugh I've had in a LONG time. Thank you, Franklin, for sharing and your book is already in my Amazon shopping cart :-)

The Panopticon

God Bless Your Stitches,
nance

From This to That

My current project was started about 7 months ago but got put on hold for various other projects.  I found a sweater at my favorite thrift store (mentioned in previous posts, my obsession for recycling sweaters) which originally caught my eye because of the color, a beautiful salmon-y pinkish/orangey color.  Only to read the fiber contents tag to give me that deer in the headlights look - 40% Wool, 30% Viscose (still not really sure what that IS, i'll have to google it), 20% angora rabbit hair, 10% cashmere.  It feels amazing, and looks like it was very well cared for.  So I took it out to begin dismantling it when this thought occurred to me....."Sydney, come here and try this on!"  But it wasn't the whole sweater I wanted her to try, geez, it's a ladies medium and she's only 8!  No, I wanted her just to try on the sleeve. . .on her leg!  "What?!!", she said. It had such a pretty cable pattern and she had been asking me to make her leg warmers for dance.  I immediately had 100% compliance. Lo and behold, it fit nicely and the armpit reached just above her knee.  So the project began. . .I want to share the progress here with pictures but please forgive that i've already taken out the first sleeve and started the first leg warmer construction.  I'll share details while I do the second one.

So here's the sweater, minus one sleeve.

and the cable detail.

God bless your stitches!

New and Different

So much for being a better blogger! With new restricted access rights at work I have been unable to just whip up a new post during a boring conference call or on a lunch break. I was told to clean out my mail because it was taking too much space and found the long-lost email address I could use to send a post. This is my first time using it so we'll see how it goes.

What's on the hooks you ask? Not much these days. I spent the summer making blankets for our Children's Pastor's grand-kids, three of them. The fourth, the oldest got one when he was adopted a couple of years ago, the newly adopted youngins coveted it so I couldn't resist. They live in Texas so it was nice to make them all out of cotton during our warmer weather. I sent them with grandma so they would remember HER giving them rather than "some lady at grandma's church that we don't even know". I hear they are well-loved blankies which makes me very happy :-)

Now, just because my hooks are empty, which is not entirely true because I'm sure I have a few UFOs floating around the yarn stash, does not mean my yarn has been idle. Much to the contrary! I have been busy perfecting sock construction! I have now made two pair for my daughter, one for my husband, a pink pair for my sister who had a mastectomy this summer, a pair of "yoga socks" (no toes or heels) for my daughter's dance teacher and two pairs for Christmas which shall remain nameless in case they're lurking. ;-) OTN right now is another pair of "yoga socks" for a friend of the dance teacher who feels guilty about not giving away her pair when her friend admired them. Making them out of DK weight on #5 needles hoping they'll get done a bit quicker. Christmas socks pair #2 seemed to take forever (3 weeks) because I made a longer leg than usual trying to use up most of the yarn...still probably have 2+ total oz left. At this rate, I may have to shorten the sock list but hoping it won't come to that.


God bless your stitches!

Back to blogging

I am bound and determined to be a better blogger. I've been reading a lot of other's blogs, fiber related of course, and they make it seem so easy....a few random thoughts about this and that, a couple of pictures of work in progress (ok, in my case that could be the size of an encyclopedia volume)....i could do that, right? i really like the idea of a blog being like a journal. i go thru phases of journaling, i have at least a dozed of those really pretty books with lined pages, mostly only half used! so here is to the rebirth of my blogging/journaling - YEAH! So, to keep it related to yarn i'll start with this....

Something OTHER than crocheting?

After about a 14 month delay, i am once again trying my hand at knitting. Blaspheme you say? Well, i've got barrels and barrels of yarn laying around (really, i'm not kidding...just ask my husband and kids!) so anything to use it is fair game in my book. Anyway...last January (2008, so i guess technically that's not LAST January but a YEAR ago January) I made two New Year's resolutions 1. Learn to knit, 2. Unravel all the sweaters i bought the previous March (2007) when they were all $1 at the Marklund Thrift Store before buying any more at the 2008 March sale.

Number 2, well that was just unrealistic. You see in between the barrels of yarn are bags of sweaters yearning for new life. Besides once you really get underway with a resolution its the end of January and February is short to begin with and 2008 was a leap year...so march (and the new sale) came up VERY quickly. I did make some progress but not enough to call myself even marginally successful with it given the number of new sweaters acquired. However, to my credit, this year I stayed completely out of the thrift store until i was 100% certain all sweaters were hidden from plain view!

So what happend with resolution #1? Having had this thought that i would love to knit a pair of socks in my head for quite a while i had purchased several pairs of knitting needles from my favorite thrift store on one of my sweater excursions. I got out my little $1 version of Knitting for Dummies and turned to the Continental Knitting chapter. Being a Crocheter, mom told me it was much easier to learn that rather than the way EVERYONE ELSE knits! Yep, Mom's right again. (boy I hope I'm so much right when my kids are grown) So on to the Knit stitch. Pretty straight forward, I can do this. I started with about 6 inches across on my size 10 needles. After about 2 inches of that i was bored (later to find out this is called Garter stitch). On to the Purl stitch. About an inch into serveral rows of purls it looked remarkably similar to a bunch of knit stitches . BORING! and this doesn't look like ANY knitting that i've ever seen. where are all the stitches that look like little V's? that smooth, draping texture that every sweater i've ever worn has? Oh, that's the next chapter, the stockinette stitch. the problem arose when i found out my purls were twisted wrong...hmmm. nobody who knows knitting could figure out what i was doing wrong (becuz they all knit the OTHER way). not that it was awful but i could tell they were tighter than the knits and once i was shown they were twisted it REALLY bothered me. the perfectionist in me just couldn't tolerate it. "darn you knitting!" "into the closet with you!!!"

sigh, the story eventually has a happy ending but that's another day....

God Bless your stitches,
nance

It's been a WHOLE year?!!!

Wow, what a lazy blogger I am! Or maybe just busy? Not always with crocheting but life in general. God has really been working in our lives this past year. More on that to come in my Battles in the Spiritual Realm blog. I started many crochet projects last year and actually finished most of them by the literal end of the year. What's left to complete are MY afghan (yes, I think I'll actually get it done before the end of winter), a bag using Omega nylon, and a baby sweater/hoodie (once I figure out why the sleeves don't fit into the openings in the body!). I also have a poncho about 1/2 done that was started about 3 years ago...toying with the idea of frogging it but might dig it out and finish it for early spring usage, we'll see. I don't have any big projects in mind as of yet. I would like to use up a lot of my current stash. I've been making baby hats for people out of left-overs. I would also like to do more recycling of sweaters from last year (and the year before) from the thrift store $1 clearance sales....which would give me lisence to buy more sweaters. I haven't taken apart a sweater in MANY months. I did use one 100% wool sweater to make a blanket for Allen...used my mom's knitting machine during a sleepover with the kids over Thanksgiving. But once done it was just WAAAY to scratchy so I felted it and gave it to the dogs. They LOVE it!! nothing wasted :-)

Hibernating

Wow, it has just been a crazy crochet time! So many projects to get done for birthday and Christmas gifts....yes, I did get them ALL done and then some. Most I did not get pictures of because they were given almost as soon as they flew off my hook! One I am particularly proud of I do have a picture of. I made a bag given to my step-son's girlfriend. When I started it, it was not intended for this gift, it was going to be for me but then it came to me, Emily is studying environmental conservation...a bag made from a recycled sweater and shirt from the thrift store would be GREAT for her. It was going to be a "welcome back to school" gift but it was not done in time so it became a Christmas gift. I used a LionBrand pattern, part of the yarn from two recycled 100% cotton sweaters, a recycled 100% cotton shirt and a magnetic snap. The pattern is not something I would do again...WAY to many pieces to sew together for my taste, but I like the way it looks. The lining was seamed together by machine - thanks mom :-) - and the main lining and strap lining were sewn in by hand using a blind hem stitch. Very time consuming but I was really pleased with the way it turned out!

So now it's time to slow down again. I've been unraveling sweaters from my huge haul at the thrift store "all sweaters $1 sale" last spring. But there are babies on the way this summer so I won't be slowing down for long. Part of hibernation is looking for patterns and planning the year's projects. whew, it's good to be January!

God bless your stitches

Summer's Almost Gone

Wow, I have been way lax on blogging this last month! I've completed several substantial projects, a baby blanket for a missionary couple who just adopted a baby boy, Abraham. It's made with Sinfonia 100% Mercerized cotton. Each color was assigned a number and my daughter rolled a die to determine which color to use next and how many rows of that color. It was a fun project. Done it a week, I think it was the quickest substantial project I've ever done.

The other was the blanket for my husband that I started in May. Definitely the biggest project I've ever done!!! I think there were about a hundred ends to weave in, maybe more. Sure glad I did them as I went. I used the majority of six different colors/cones of Peaches and Creme cotton. He chose the fiber, I chose the colors with his stipulation "it has to be bright, psychedelic." The colors are a bit brighter than the picture shows.It was definitely a summer of bright colors.

And the last project of the summer (insert picture here soon!) is a dress I made for my daughter for her first day of school. Again Sinfonia (there was a huge clearance sale in July!!) in Tourquoise using a Drops Design pattern. She opted to not put the contrasting detail on it. I really liked the look of it when it was done but it seemed to stretch a bit as she wore it ... I am considering lining it.

Until next time, God bless your stitches!!

Thrift Store

The Marklund Thrift Store has become one of my regular stops lately. They drew me in with their 50% off sale a few weeks ago. That's when I got this bundle.
Looking for blankets/rugs to line the dog crate, I found this large, never opened, factory stapled, bag of yarn and stuff. I had no idea what the project was supposed to be because the paper enclosed was folded to the inside. There were many, many hanks of some kind of yarn,
a very large piece of burlap and some kind of hooking tool. It was marked $15 and but it was 50% off. I didn't want to buy more acrylic, I like to look for wool or unusual fibers (in sweaters) when I go there. Hmmm, so what to do. I flipped the bag around several times and then saw a hole in one of the plastic seams. The yarn felt very scratchy. Since this looked quite old, could have been some low quality acrylic. Still not satisfied, I continued to look closely. I noticed each hank was tied with a piece of string with a tag and a hand written number on it, most likely a color code for whatever this project was meant to be. Then I saw it, one of the tags was flipped to the other side and printed on it was "100% Pure Virgin Wool"...ooooo, the felting possibilities!!!

Icelandic Shawl

Today is not just about crochet but about knitting. Even though I don't knit, I subscribed to the Knitting Daily weekly newsletter just for patten ideas. This is one of those ideas. Next week Knitting Daily is going to publish the knit instruction for this shawl. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it....I don't know if it was the colors or the patterns of the rows or what. All I know is that I HAVE to make this. So, not knowing how to knit this presents a couple of challenges....
1. I don't know how to knit
2. Not sure I could even correctly read a knitting pattern
3. Don't know if I could translate a knitting pattern to crochet
With that said, however, I am determined...I WILL figure out a way to make this shawl!! Stay tuned.....

The NEXT Next Generation Crocher

Wow, I'm so proud!! Meet the NEXT Next Generation Crocheter, my daughter Sydney. She learned to make a chain last summer when she was 5, couldn't get the hang of the first row of SC. She showed an interest again last week so we found her hook (AMAZING!!), I let her pick out some yarn from the scrap stash and she was off making necklaces and bracelets out of chains in no time . She found a basket to keep all her stuff in - hook, yarn and a pair of scissors. Yesterday she wanted to learn the next step. So we got it all out and she actually did pretty well with the first SC row this time, finding the "bumps" on the back of the chain was much easier than the two loops...whatever works best. On to the regular row of SC...she struggled a bit finding the two loops but she is a very determined child. We put it away before she got too upset and we'll try again tonight. She loves when I bring home new yarn and let her go to the craft store with me....this apple doesn't fall far from the tree!!

Freecycle - Oh Yeah!

My first score with Freecycle!!
Yesterday I picked up my first package from a Freecycle person. It was listed as "miscellaneous craft items, some new some started, stretcher bars, yarn, etc." Since I have an alert on YARN I got an email and answered right away. Most of the items I could not use but might be able to pass along to other crafters but then there was this bag of yarn labeled as "Elsa Williams NeedleArt Collection" Tapestry Wool Needlepoint Yarn. I saw wool and thought "felting". The lables say Moth Proofed Fast Color 100% Wool. I did a burn test on some pieces without labels and it all seems to be wool. I have no idea how old this stuff is. Smells kind of musty, like my beloved gramma's attic :-) . I've never seen anything like this. The skeins are tiny (Blistex tube to show size), 40 Yds, no ounce measurement but I guess for needlepoint and tapestry that's not really a concern. I can't wait to scan thru the Crochetville Fulling and Felting section to get some tips on patterns, hook sizes, etc. I felted a swatch from a sweater I recycled a few months ago but haven't done an actual crochet felting project yet. The creative juices are flowing.

Recycled Yarn Project

So the results of my thrift store recycled yarn project are mixed. The first sweater I worked on was the jackpot. Upon dissecting it, I remembered something about looking at the seams. Some are GOOD seams, some are ICKY seams. The good ones are when a sweater is constructed by all the pieces being made to the correct shape then sewn together. The icky ones are when the sweaters are cut from a large piece of knitted "cloth" and a serger is used to keep all the loose ends from fraying. One of my bargain sweaters had good seams (the striped one) the other two have "icky" seams. From the striped sweater I got between 14 and 15 oz of yarn. It was knotted in the seam at each color change. I showed it to my daughter and we decided this is now what I would use for the "crazy blanket" because it really was crazy. I trimmed the knots but pretty much left the yarn in tact as it came off the sweater. I don't mind knots as much as some I guess and I'm going for quantity yardage. I know my daughter won't care at all.
I imagine it's not going to be very big but that's not the point. The initial point was to see if I could be successful at taking apart a thrift store sweater, the secondary point was to quickly make my daughter a blanket. Here's the progress so far....I've used about half the yarn.

Thrift Store Challenge

Last Thursday my daughter saw me working on a comfortghan for my friend's brother and decided blue was her new favorite color and I had to make her a blue blanket. So I opened up the stash and let her look for blue yarn. Being only 6 years old she doesn't understand weights and fiber contents of yarn, however she does have a very good sense of color. I directed her towards the myriad balls of Lion Brand Kitchen cotton I had picked up in the clearance bin of Michael's because they didn't have labels. I have made a couple of items out of various balls but there was still a lot left, many in navy or medium blue. She picked one of each of those as well as a lonely 2.5 oz ball of Sugar 'n Cream light blue. I could tell she already had the design in her head. She said she wanted one like I made Roxy (our 12 year old Schnoodle). I found 3 hanks of rug yarn at the thrift store and made about a 20 inch Granny Square "blanket" for her. I asked her to draw me what it looked like. She was frustrated because she didn't have the right color crayons so we just talked about which color would go in the center, then next, then next. She also apparently decided she was not quite through with her "pink" era because she wanted me to use the left over balls of pink and purple from the skirt I recently made her. I told her "this is going to be a crazy blanket." So I put everything into a project bag and planned on working on it over the weekend.

Then on Friday, on my second trip to the thrift store near work I again went looking for one of those huge bargain bags of yarn I've heard others talk about. What I found was a knitted dishrag made with Sugar 'n Cream for 50 cents. I grabbed it thinking I can take this apart and mix it into the "crazy blanket". Then I thought, "...hmm, taking things apart...." I've heard of people finding great sweaters and recycling them into yarn for something new. Since I was in a thrift store I thought I'll just browse for a sweater that doesn't cost too much so I don't feel bad if I wreck it. I saw a huge rack of them right in the middle of the store. Touched some really nice wool, cashmere, angora, etc. but couldn't bring myself to want to dissect them because they were so pretty. All the sweaters were tagged $4 so I thought that was a great deal if I could find one to take apart. For some reason I was drawn to several cotton ones. I picked three that I liked the color of. I also decided to get a really pretty light bluish gray lambswool/angora cable cardigan for my daughter (as a gift, not as yarn). So began my adventure into yarn recycling. Now as a co-worker has pointed out, "you don't NEED to do this for yarn, you have plenty of yarn!" True. I consider this just an extension of my craft. So here are the sweaters in their original form......The pink ones are 100% cotton,

stripey is a cotton/acrylic blend (VERY SOFT! and pliable).

Modern Day Doilies

What to do with a doily?

It seems that just giving someone a doily these days is impractical to say the least. I made this one for my mom, matted and framed it as a wall hanging (16 x 20) and gave it to her for Christmast 2006. I wasn't sure how she would accetp it...she'd either smile politely and tell me later she really wouldn't use it or she would actually like it. Holding my breath as she opened the wrapping, her eyes widened and she turned to me and asked, "did you make this?". Proudly I said, "yes I did"....I think she really liked it. Brought tears to my eyes. Even now at 43, for some reason (and I'm sure I"m not alone in this) there is a little girl in me that just wants to please mom.

Sanity Check

Poncho and cap "sanity check" projects

In The Beginning. . .

It's hard to say how long I have been crocheting....I started by watching my mom when I was quite young (hence the blog name "Next Generation Crocheter"). My mom always said it was cheaper than a "shrink". Having three kids in 5 years (not uncommon during that time period - early 60's) and now having two of my own only 3 1/2 years apart I understand her comment! :-) So I watched as she crocheted, sewed, needle pointed, counted cross stitched....she did it all! And at one time or another so did I thanks to her. I've gone thru periods of each craft. I don't know when I learned each so I'll take a rough guess at 7 years old being the genesis of my craft-hood. I don't remember ever finishing a crochet project when I was young. I have memories of odd shaped pieces with miscounted rows but nothing in my mind's eye is complete. I have vague memories of my mom explaining how to read a pattern - or at least the abbreviations for stitches. So that is the old testament of my crocheting days....and just as in the Bible there is quite a long time between the end of the Old and the beginning of the New.....

So on to the new testament of my crochet-hood. About 5 years ago my sister-in-law knitted our kids each an afghan. Mom never knit anything as far as I knew so the concept of *knitting* an afghan seemed absurd to me! I knew a bit about the craft; tried to teach myself when I was about 12 I think but failed miserably. So my thought pattern started with "how on earth can you make something 45 inches wide on a knitting needle that's 12 inches long?" Preposterous!!! So I asked mom and she told me about circular needles. Aahhhh! After seeing the afghans Deb sent I got over my "hysteria" of knitting afghans but still remained a "crochet snob". As a gesture of good-will and thanks, I decided to make Deb an afghan. I had a grand idea for one in my head - who needs patterns?! So I bought a book of stitches, a full set of aluminum hooks (because this was going to be the first of many projects coming and I needed to be prepared) and I think 6 balls of yarn (LionBrand woolease sportweight, in a wheat/confetti-ish color) - "that should be plenty and I'll probably have some left over." I decided that since I was quite out of practice, I would stick with a simple single crochet, making strips about 6 inches wide that I would sew together. I had no idea how big it should be so I thought I would make a strip with a ball of yarn and then go buy enough balls to make it wide enough...one ball one strip...sounded pretty simple, right? Yeah, right! Remember the odd-shaped pieces I mentioned earlier? Well the first 10 rows turned into a slightly askew triangle of sorts so I decided to actually LOOK at the book of stitches I purchased and saw that I was supposed to do an extra chain at the end of each row....rrriiiipppp. I finally got to the end of the ball of yarn with a relatively straight piece. I brought it to mom's one weekend and she almost, but not quite, gasped about me doing it in sc stitches. That didn't bother me, it was a nice piece so far; the yarn was soft it didn't feel THAT heavy. However after one ball of yarn it was only about half the length I imagined so I went and bought 7 more balls - two for each strip and I would have to put it together with something. So I finished the strip. Then life with my second child along with work got to be more than enough so it all got put into a Jo-Ann's bag never to be started again. I eventually ripped it all out and keep the yarn for making test swatches of new stitches I find.

Three years went by without even thinking of the craft, then I decided I wanted to make my daughter a pair of slippers for Christmas 2004. I didn't have a pattern, had no idea how much yarn I would need but I was determined. A lady I worked with was always knitting something (usually socks) and she also crocheted so I asked her advice. We went to Hobby Lobby one lunch break and I bought two skeins of Caron Simply Soft (pastel variegated) 3oz each I dug out my crochet hooks, still at the bottom of the bag of yarn! I stared at them. Then I had the brilliant idea to look on the internet for a pattern, maybe I could find something....Boy, did I. Once again overwhelmed, I called mom. I emailed her some of the patterns I found and asked her advice on what I might be able to finish in about a month's time. Mom was great!! She looked at the patterns, gave me good solid advice based on my level of skill and time and also looked thru her books and magazines and found a pattern (that I ended up using), scanned it and emailed it back. To shorten the rest of the story, my foray back into crocheting was successful (I finished the slippers in plenty of time), I called my mom with enough questions that it seemed to re-ignite her interest in the craft and the woman at work took the opportunity to teach two of our team mates to knit and we did it together at lunch as often as we could. Mom is still crocheting (again) currently making premie hats for a nearby hospital, Ray is still knitting scarves for his teddy bear collection and grandma and I crocheted a doily for the knitting lady (sorry, her name escapes me!) when her contract ended and she left the company. I can't tell you off the top of my head how many things I have made since those slippers but I will touch on them I'm sure in future posts. I love to crochet and mom was definitely right, it's cheaper than a "shrink"! :-) Until next time....God Bless your stitches.