Spring Mystery CAL

It is also called 'Mother's Day CAL'. I joined it at Crochetville. I love doing a 'mystery CAL'. That was one of the reasons I joined a dishcloth knitalong group. It was a 'mystery' almost til the end. That group is closing at the end of this month. :( Anyway~~ This is the first one I did, in WW cotton w/a G hook. Later on I was bored and so I did one in thread, too:

Here is Day 2. They are starting to look like bowls (or maybe eggs?):

Someone else (who is incidentally doing the same color thread as mine) posted a picture of her progress, and hers is doing the same thing. So it is probably what it is supposed to look like. Actually, everyones' does. Maybe it is a basket? So far the 'mystery' items are corrugated cardboard and ribbon and flowers. Hmmm.... The suspense!! I know I'm a big dork, but I think it's so much fun. :-D Oh, I ran out of the ecru WW (on the very last stitch,

Fridgies

I have been making a lot of them lately for some reason. (Fast, cute...) :) The rainbow is actually a 'pin', from the June '08 issue of Crochet World. I thought it would be cute as a magnet. Lots of glueing. But still fun. Then later that same night I (stayed up late) made 'Jose Jalapeno' for our youngest son. (Sigh....) Long story. If you have ever watched Jeff Dunham, you know who Jose Jalapeno is. I don't like the kids watching him, but we saw a video w/ him and our youngest son thought 'on a stick' was the funniest thing ever. So I made him Jose Jalapeno... I used the Hot Pepper Fridgie pattern. Then started looking through all the other patterns at the 'Fun Fridgies CAL' (which I have been in for a while now). Liked the Notepad Basket Fridgie. Made one. Then made another one, and another one... That pattern is SO cute, and so much fun! I am still making them. :) Here are the first three I made one night:

I wanted to try and use other things besides the roses, since I only had four. I went to WalMart to see if they had any. Nope. Well I didn't feel like driving for an hour to *try* and see if other WalMarts, or Michaels, had any.... So I finally thought 'Oh yeah, what about those little wooden thingys I got at JoAnns, a long time ago...' I made the apple to one to put on my own fridge. :P Well the only *papers* you can put in them is a 2x2 post-it cube, and that is a tight fit. So I tried chaining 18 to make a little bigger one. (You would have 30 dc if you did it this way). And added one more row to the pattern. They aren't too much bigger, but would still fit a bigger sized post-it pad or paper in:

And are still cute. I put one of the original ones I made next to them so you can see how much difference there is. I already have two ready to go for RAOKs. Need to go get some more yarn to make one certain color of one. Hopefully I can find some more ribbon roses to put on, in different colors.

A Dishcloth and a Bunny

:P Well I couldn't think of a good title for this post... This is a guitar dishcloth I started and finished yesterday. Started before dinner, finished after dinner... I found it on ravelry by typing 'guitar dishcloth' in the search engine thingy... I found a whole page of about 530 or so patterns. (This was on there, but you will have to go through them all to find it... ): Digknitty Designs
It takes a while to load fyi ;) I think I will never run out of dishcloth patterns to try. :-D

Our youngest son saw a baby bunny in our front yard the other night. He was looking out the blinds in the living room and said 'A bunny!' So we all ran to look. :P It was so cute!!

You can't see it very good, so I zoomed in:

It was eating what little patches of grass we have. Then, last night I saw a big one in the front yard. I don't know if it was the mama or what. I didn't see the baby at all. Once in a while when we come home if it is just getting dark out, we will see a rabbit by our garage. So they must have a den (? what do rabbits call their houses?) around our house somewhere. It was neat just watching them.

I started the second sock (again) the other night, too. I am past the heel flap and all that; and I'm on the 'gusset'. It's going good so far. After that I will have to start the Earl Grey socks.

Meet "Scribbles"

I just finished this little guy up last night. I finished his I-cord neck tie this morning. :-D I wasn't sure how he would turn out. (I was using two strands of WW held together, and it seemed like it was going to be too stiff. Plus it didn't look like a bear, LOL!) But once I got it sewn up; and the arms, ears and eyes on, it looked like a bear~ and I fell in love with him!! But I had to give him to my six year old, who I was making him for. :( (His left leg isn't wonky, it must have got squished under him, when I put him on the couch to take his picture..) I have crocheted lots of bears, but this is my very first knitted bear. I used a pattern from an old Family Circle Easy Knitting magazine I have. (Fall '98). It was pretty vague~ but I kind of like those kind of patterns. We went to a site with teddy bear names , cuz he couldn't think of a good name. So I read off all the names to him; and he picked Scribbles, or Cinnamon. I liked Scribbles better, for him. Cinnamon not so much. Maybe if he was a brown bear. :P I like knitting bears, I think I foresee lots more knitted bears in the future-- now that I know how easy they are. (Maybe with only one strand, it will be even more easy next time...) :D

Another Dishcloth and Rectangle Man

"Super Rectangle Man", that is. :P The 12 year old son wanted one. (I knew he did!!) :P He picked out the colors. Then I got to the legs and said 'What color do you want the legs?' He picked out yellow. So I said 'It's Super Rectangle Man'. :P Fortunately, I didn't have any red fun fur!

I also finished this dishcloth yesterday. Got two projects done (that I am not supposed to be working on anyway ;P). I saw one that CroJulee did and looked up the pattern on cpc. I made it for our oldest son. He plays guitar and piano, and it's his job to do the dishes after dinner. :P I told him (jokingly at the time, but it really happened..) that I was knitting him dishcloths for when he gets back (he is gone til the end of March). He said 'I don't like washing dishes with those. The grease sticks to them and you go to wash the pan and it sticks back on the pan and gets all over' Hmmm.... (That never happens to me.) So, I don't know if he will like it or not. But, I am making him a second one, this guitar one. (If you click on 'available for download', it takes you to her whole page of dishcloth patterns for sale~ :0!!! There is enough patterns there to keep you busy knitting dishcloths for the rest of your life!!) If he doesn't like them, he can use them for coasters or save them for when he gets his own house or apartment... (Guess I made it to go in *my* kitche, though, didn't I?....) Who knows. He does like anything I make him, though; so we'll see. Now to just start and finish the Earl Grey socks I wanted to make him, too. (Got to finish the second sock for the six year old, first, though.... sigh....)

I am thinking about doing another one of these, in yellow, for my Grandma. She plays piano. And likes knitted dishcloths (she had one in her dish drainer one time, that she bought at a rummage sale and said she likes them...) I am almost 99.9% positive I saw a 'piano keys' dishcloth on Lisa's site, too. Maybe I will buy that one next. :P

Recent Fo's... (Nothing I Am Supposed To Be Working On..

I made these comfortghan squares up for Dawn at Crochetville who just lost her grandmother suddenly. So very sad.

This is a dishcloth I knitted on a dishcloth weekly knitalong group on Ravelry. It is called 'Yarn Over Cable Cloth'. I didn't really want to do it but once I started knitting it, it grew on me. Now, I really like it and think Imight just re-do my whole kitchen based on this dishcloth! I love this colourway. It is 'Country Side Ombre'. Nothing in my house is lavender and green, though. So I guess I will have to give it away. :P

I like how the back side just looks like ribbing. So you could use either side and it will still look okay. ;)

And, more recently (except the fish, which was pre-dishcloth) I have been knitting catnip mice to send to someone. I used to love making these, to give to anyone I knew who had a cat. I used to try and make them in wool, only. Now, I don't care I will use acrylic. (I don't think cats care, either... so why waste my wool? :P)

Speaking of wool.... I haven't done any more on the second sock for our six year old. (Sigh...) I guess I really got disgusted. I should force myself to finish it, though. Before his feet grow another inch and they won't even fit him! :0

Oh, you can get the catnip mouse pattern here. I made the light blue one with this pattern, since it is less brainwork (for me, anyway :P). I think it looks almost exactly the same, too. The bumpy part is just slightly less bumpy. ;)

Rudy the Rectangle and a Corner Granny

(Dishcloth, that is...) This is Rudy. The Rectangle. I got a free tear off sheet at Michaels this weekend for him. And, the six year old wanted one, of course!! "But with fur on the outside, and white arms & legs"... Which is fine, but I really do not like working with fun fur. It makes me SO irritable!! But, I survived.... :P You can find the free pattern online, too at Michaels dot com: Rudy the Rectangle He is pretty cute.

And here is the dishcloth I made yesterday. From my new dishcloth book(let?): Kitchen Kolors. If you have the book "200 Crochet Blocks" by Jan Eaton, square #7 is very similar to this. I'm sure there *has* to be a free online square pattern out there somewhere, too. But I haven't found it yet and don't have time to look for one right now. (Sorry.)

I already used it to wash dishes with. I like it. :) Well that's all for now I hope everyone is having a good Monday.

I Strayed From My Socks...

I did try to work on them yesterday. But I was knitting along, and noticed there wasn't two purl stitches where there should have been. Only one. Huh? I noticed the knit stitch right next to the purl was really loose, too. Grrrr... Looked inside to see if maybe I could just fix it without having to go back a few rows... I could not figure it out. So I ripped two inches of ribbing out and am back to only one sock. Sigh... I was too irritated to even mess with it yesterday. So I worked on some hotpads from my magic ball I have been saving up. (Above picture)

This is what the inside looks like. All the ends are inside. And here is the front of the first one I did:

The back:

Then I made a second one, which I think turned out even cooler! I like the way the colors came out in this one. Pretty cool how just tying yarn together can come out the way it did....


The back and front of the second one (the front is more blue):

Okay, I don't know what I was trying to do with these pictures ... I used the Mielke's Farm 'Double-Thick Diagonally Crocheted Potholder' pattern. It is on crochet pattern central, under potholders/hotpads; but the link hasn't worked for me for quite some time. Don't know if it is the site or what.. It's my favorite hotpad (potholder) to crochet. I keep forgetting how many to chain in the beginning. For these I chained 36. I think I would chain 46 next time. These are pretty good size but I like 'em a little bit bigger....

When Life Hands You Lemons... Make Lemon Curd!

And scones to go along with it... Yum! I made these this morning. (You would need approximately five lemons to actually make this or 1 cup lemon juice....) Here is a recipe for lemon curd that is *somewhat* similar to the one I used. Except you would use 1 cup lemon juice and sugar, and only 3 Tbsp of butter. And, I cut that in half. Are you totally confused now? :P The scones are raisin scones *reminiscent of Ireland*. Here is one raisin scone recipe. I can't remember the one I did (I did the lemon curd last, so it is still fresh in my mind... but not for long... :P) Here is another one. This one sounds kinda like the one I used, but I also sprinkled sugar on top of them after brushing w/ the egg white.

I have been very, very good with my projects lately. Only working on one at a time, until it is finished. I actually feel better doing it like that. Otherwise I get even more *ADD* feeling (not that I am, but...) if I get a bunch going at the same time. This is a pair of socks for our six year old. While I was doing the socks/slippers CAL/KAL last month, he really wanted a pair. I did make him a crocheted pair of socks. But I had been wanting to knit him a pair too. Actually I want to knit them all a pair. I found a 'recipe' for his size socks in the book 'Folk Socks' by Nancy Bush. It's very similar to the one I have been using. I was surprised to find a regular pair of socks in this book. The label is missing from the yarn, but I know from a previous post that it is 'Wildfoote' in the 'Master Grey' colorway. I got it at the LYS in Traverse City, MI when we still lived there. (In Michigan, not Traverse City~~ don't I wish?) Last night I was finishing up sewing in the loose ends on the first sock; and I said, 'I have a surprise for you Eon'. 'What?' I showed him the sock. I said, 'Did you know I was making this for you?' (no) He kind of smiled. I said, 'Try it on'; so he did. He said, 'It feels like a real sock. It's not all bumpy on the bottom. Like this sock.' (The other sock he had on.) Then later on, he said; 'Will the other sock be done by bedtime?' LOL!! (It was bedtime right then.) I got it started, though; as you can see...

I have the yarn and pattern planned for the 16 (almost 17!!! :0) year old's socks. I was looking through Ravelry one day, to see if I could find any ideas. And I stumbled across some Earl Grey Socks. (That will take you to the actual pattern, not the Ravelry site.) I thought those would be perfect! He loves Earl Grey tea, and would like those socks too. Easy peasy. I still have to think of something for the 12 year old, though. Sigh... If I know him he would probably like something plain, all one color. We'll see...

The Ark Is Finished!

Ha ha! It took me more than forty days and forty nights, but... ;P It's done! I may still sew on the turtle's legs & tail; because that will bug me... But. It's done. I started it on December 23rd, 2008. Finished it on March 2, 2009. So a little over two months. Two and a half, approximately... Not too bad for me~ the person who doesn't finish things. Anyway~~ I wanted to make all the ark and animals in more 'realistic' colors. The ones they had in the pattern were ridiculous. A purple elephant, a pink giraffe. A pink turtle.... I guess maybe if you were going to make it for a girl, you could do those colors. I also would have liked to make the ocean and sky normal colors. Kinda hard cuz they'd both be blue... Oh well. I am so happy it is done. It measures 36" x 42", I believe. Good size for even when he is a toddler.

Jodi's Merry Go Round

I haven't made a doily in a long time. This used to be one of my favorite doilies to make. Course, I only had about three doily patterns.... (Three of my aunts crochet and they would give me copies of patterns of doilies they made that I liked...) It's called (as the title states) Jodi's Merry Go Round. I think the last time I made this was for a secret pal swap in April of '07. In red. I really like it in colors; even more so.