When I found a bag of yarn – well not hard in my house – in cakes rather than skeins, I was thrilled. I loved the feel of the yarn. However, one skein of each color was in the bag. So what do you make with a single skein of yarn? Well I opted to make scarves. It was fun to design different combinations of stitches to create these scarves. In there you will find more than just the one type of yarn as I had other yarns that made the pile. I took pictures of the yarn and asked my nieces and nephews do you want. I got a variety of answers.
However, I want to thank my models Aimee Jahns, Lara and Brian Zielinski, and Rebecca Schreier for donning my creations and showing them off. Lara Zielinski and Victoria Troemel for taking the pictures. Victoria Troemel for making the covers. Without the support of these people, these patterns would be sitting in the bottom of a drawer.
Three booklets with nine patterns each of scarves. Twenty seven scarf patterns which take a night or two to make. Need to make donations or presents? Try out these new patterns.
I’ve finished a scarf for one gift. Last night I worked on the edging for a fleece blanket for the mother of a friend. Vicki told me her favorite scarf was ratty so I told her to hit her stash to find yarn for another one. I started that last night.
At work, I meet up once a week to crochet with a co-worker. This week I’m working on a cloth to put in the door of a refrigerator under the ice / water in the door. Water collects there and I was asked if I could create something to fit in there to soak it up. I’ll be working on that today during our weekly session.
I’m hoping the weekend will be busy with crafting. I need to clear off some of the projects on my sofa. There are a ton of them. Some of them need prep work and some need finishing. If nothing else, I’ll pop in DVDs and watching those while I crochet. I’m binge watching Designated Survivor. I have one more disc to watch to finish the first season. Then I’ll determine whether I’m interested in the second season which I’m hoping is all on On Demand. If not, I may have to wait for it to come out on DVD and get from the library.
It’s been a stressful week. Monday is Mom’s day – I go to the nursing home to visit with her and do anything she needs me to do. Tuesday this week we met with the county person for aging to talk about the programs. I also got grumpy with one of her doctor’s offices about scheduling. The end result – I’m pretty sure that doctor’s office doesn’t like me but mom’s appointments got moved to a city half the distance from her location. My sister Aimee and I are doing funeral planning today – no mom is not dying but we are being proactive about the process. Plus for the county programs she has to have fewer assets and funds. Long term the county programs will help her more so better to spend down her accounts.
I also need to find time to read some books. I have four or five books which I need to read and review. People have sent them to me so I feel obligated to get them read. I’m working on a tough one where it is a bunch of essays. The authors use a lot of big words to say nothing. It’s disappointing – at least so far. I’ll continue to work my way through it. The nice part about the essays is it gives me short goals to get through the book faster. But it’s a large book – 300 + pages I think. My goal is to set the book next to me. Then I can read an essay or two between crocheting. I’ll see how this works. I’m hoping the other books are better and more interesting.
My day yesterday did not go as planned. This is not a surprise to me – rarely do my days go as planned. But last night I was kicking myself for taking a nap instead of getting things done. Vicki went to bed early and I opted to work on the computer.
This meant the publishing I was going to do in the morning got done last night instead. I have eight new crochet patterns out. There are links to them on my website. They are all on the Crochet Patterns page.
My niece asked me for headbands so I created new ones for her. In doing so, I took pictures and wrote the patterns. This means there’s a new Half Dozen Thread Headbands available. She also wanted a bandana which lead to me creating Bandana X.
I had two student workers graduating – one wanted an afghan and one wanted scarves. The blanket is called Framed Tipped Lattice and the scarves are Climbing Vine, Lattice, Shades of Blue, and Sparkling Squiggle. I finished an experiment for my daughter which is really a mini scarf – Puff Chain Scarf.
I’ve got a couple more in the works but they aren’t quite ready to be published. The patterns are done, I need to work on the components.
Today, I’m working on publishing stuff until my niece gets here, then I’ll be working on cleaning and organizing my office and hopefully tackling some of the dining room. It depends on how long stuff takes us. I’m hoping we can get a long list of things done but I know my plans never work out. I’m going to go with the flow. Anything finished is an improvement. If it reduces the chaos we’re living in right now, that’s all that matters. I have two more places to market my stuff. Then I’ll be getting off the computer and start on the other stuff – I hope.
Seven crochet patterns have been published! I’m thrilled to have finally had time to get them out. These have been on my todo list for quite some time.
I was off work yesterday and was going to do it then but I’ve got upper respiratory crud on top of my gout flaring. I slept most of the day – not even crocheting until evening.
Last night I was trying to sleep and couldn’t breath. I tried different levels of reclining but realized none of them were going to work. I also tried having a cloth with eucalyptus, lavender, and rosemary on it to inhale but I couldn’t get any air through my nose. Eventually I got up and took a hot shower with the essential oils. It helped a lot until I sat down to sleep again. It was after 2 am before I got to sleep though.
Sadly, Ken has the same crud so we are both struggling to accomplish anything other than breathing, coughing, and surviving.
I’ve been working on an afghan for my youngest daughter. I’ve got it about half done but I need to have Ken hold it up so I can see it. I think the graph caused a flaw and I need someone to hold it while I look to see if I have to rip out some rows and adjust so it looks right. It is a corner to corner graphgan.
For those who don’t speak crochet, this means I’m working from one corner to the opposite – diagonally across the piece. It also means I’ve taken a picture and made it into a graph. This happens to be the Packer’s G symbol. The issue is the G is surrounded by a circle which is difficult to do on an afghan. When I looked at it last night, I thought the circle part wasn’t quite right but I double checked my row against my graph and they match.
The next step is to decide if I need to adjust the graph / pattern based on how it looks. I might but I need to see it held out and a little away from me. I can’t really do that – so Ken will hold it up for me.
The rest of today will be spent napping and crocheting until the daughter gets home. Once she’s home, we will see what happens. It depends on what she needs / wants. Unfortunately, she has the same crud we have.
For the crochet patterns I published today go to my web site to find links. The Amazon links aren’t up yet but should be by Monday or Tuesday. My todo list is still quite long but at least I made progress.
I’m a crochet nut. It is one of my favorite relaxing things to do. In the last year or so, I’ve combined my love of crocheting with my love of writing and have published a number of projects. In one book – I’ve gathered up four patterns for scarves. I’m giving away three copies of this on Goodreads!
If you’d like a chance to win one of these, follow the link below and sign up for one. Good luck!!!
Ken went off to visit the girls and I’m just back from dropping him at the airport. I get to be home alone for the next week! I am very excited about this as I plan to WRITE until my fingers fall off.
I sent Ken with goodies for the girls. I’ve been crocheting for them for the last two weeks. They got two scarves and something like twenty six coasters. Virginia requested the purple and gray combo and then Stephanie sent me her color choices. I got baby yarn for the scarves so it would make a nice light scarf. They both turned out beautifully. I LOVE the yarn and will be purchasing it again.
Now their stuff is done, I have to turn to my other projects. I have a scarf I’m working on for Vicki which is almost done. When it’s done I’ll be working on the gifts for my student workers and my niece who is getting married. I have four gifts to get done by beginning of May and one by July.
While I’m alone this week though I’m going to focus on writing. My short story didn’t place for the contest I sent it to but I think it’s good enough to publish so I’m going to polish it up some more, add a couple more scenes and put it out there for purchase. For the rough draft, I have two or three more scenes to write and then it can go in the editing pile.
I just finished writing Murder Next Door. I know exactly what I want for a cover (I think) so I have to figure out if I can get a photo of it or if I will try to get a picture (drawn) for it.
This week I have three things I want to get done – Wayfarer Aegis (which is just the two or three scenes), the Defenders third book, and the Wayfarer sixth book. All three projects are started and in varying degrees of being written. I just need to finish them.
On the drive home, I tried to settle into one of the stories to see if I could plot out the first steps. I think the Aegis is going to be the first one. Part of that is because it is so close to being done. I need to write about so little to polish it off and then I think I can send it to my test readers. If they don’t have any problems with it, I can start the editing process and get it out for publication. The other two are going to be longer and more complicated to write, edit and publish.
Enough with sharing for now. I’m on to writing. Adara and the Aegis here I come.
This is of course the variation on what I did over the summer. I didn’t even wait for the actual spring break to start. Friday the week before I left work at 10:30 and headed for home. Alex met me at my house and I finished getting packed. He loaded the van. We hit the road about noon I think.
Our drive down was long. With Alex driving, we went through Chicago – downtown Chicago. I don’t like to go that way but as passenger I don’t get to pick. Alex thought it would be shorter and mileage wise it was. Time wise it ended up taking us like seven hours to get there.
Vicki fed us on arrival and Alex unloaded the car. Everyone has made fun of my craft bag that I took but I did get to a good bit of my crocheting.
I’ve been playing with lace patterns. I’m not big on working with thread so I’ve been using different threads to make lace projects. One of them was a lace purple sparkle scarf which I gave to Vicki on Friday:
Friday and Saturday I worked on scarves. Here are a couple of pictures of the different ones I made:
Vicki and I went to JoAnn Fabrics on Saturday and got some great deals. They had yarn on sale and I tried out two new ones that I discovered I loved – Red Heart Shimmer which is a smaller yarn and soft. It is easy to work with and sparkly which is always fun. The other yarn was Deborah Norville Serenity Chunky – crayon box. It is a heavy yarn and the colors were stunning – bright and fun.
Now in case you haven’t heard this before when I get new yarn I want to dive in and start creating with that new yarn. I had new yarn from the shopping trip and I had new yarn that Vicki had sent to me (but wouldn’t let me touch – it was TORTURE!). Friday and Saturday I worked on ruffle scarves. These are quick and easy projects. Of the haul of yarn, Vicki picked out the ones she wanted so I just sat and worked on scarves.
I could not resist the new yarn I’d purchased and started with the Crayon Box to make a hat, scarf and wristers. The array of colors were just stunning and both Vicki and I loved how these turned out.
After the crayon box yarn, I picked up the shimmer yarn. Oh that turned out BEAUTIFULLY! Vicki’s favorite stitch is the crocodile stitch and I had that book with me so I handed it to Vicki and told her to pick out a hat pattern. The crocodile stitch is a yarn eater and she picked two patterns. I ended up making her one of the hats in the book. I also made a scarf and added the flower from the hat pattern to the scarf. I also made her wristers using crocodile stitches and the stitch from the scarf.
I’ve also been putting off making slippers for her. I’ve had the pattern for months but the yarn she wanted me to use was thicker and heavier than the pattern called for so I had to make adjustments. I stayed up until three in the morning one night and finished her slippers.
In addition to all of Vicki’s stuff, I worked on kitchen sets for two of my nieces. Dish towels, dish clothes, sponges, and pot holders for both sets.
When I left Vicki’s, my craft bag was significantly lighter – mostly because Vicki kept a lot of the items I made. This last Friday on the drive home I worked on mesh bags and make up pads for myself. I got those done on the drive. Saturday Ken and I helped a friend move. I drove and he packed the van. While sitting in the van, I worked on potholders. I got four of them done yesterday and today.
I also worked on Vicki’s afghan. It is octagonal and takes a long time to do one row. However, I did work on it and got several rows completed.
Today I worked on a solution for Vicki. She has to put Tiger Balm on her back. Unfortunately she can’t really reach where the lotion has to go. In order to reach it she is using her back scratcher. However, she is concerned about the balm having an affect on the wood. So I crocheted her a cover for it so she can put the balm on the crochet cotton to go over the top of it. I’ll be mailing it to her this week.
In total, I’ve made the following:
17 scarves 4 dish towels 8 pot holders (4 of which were actually for me) 5 sponges 2 hats 2 pair of wristers 2 dish cloths 1 pair of slippers 2 mesh bags 10 make up pads and a strange cover for a back scratcher
In addition to the crocheting, I made homemade pizza and meatballs for Vicki as well as putting tiger balm on her shoulder daily and cooking the meals with Alex. It was a GREAT week, very relaxing and productive.
I have been crocheting a lot lately mostly because people ask me for stuff and I’m stressed. Crocheting takes me to a different place. One of the hardest things when crocheting for others is working with the colors they pick. I LOVE bright and fun colors. They are cheerful. But when someone says can you make me this and make it in colors I don’t necessarily love it is a bit harder for me. However, I do it because I know that not everyone is like me and loves those brighter colors. If the colors they pick make them happy that is what I work with.
Here are a few of my projects:
Bibs for a sweet one year old:
Boxes for a variety of people:
Scarves:
Coasters:
Makeup pads and bag:
Washcloths / Dishcloths:
These projects have been done over weeks of work. Some of them will be gifts, some have already been claimed and taken, some I sold – mostly though, they were made with care and helped me destress. All I can hope is when I give them to the people who end up with them – they appreciate the work and care that went into making them. The next project – well there are so many to choose from. My biggest question – when is the next yarn sale?
