An F.O., and an Almost F.O.

Well this came out of nowhere. I don't know why, but I crocheted this cradle purse the other night. I had an overwhelming desire to start a new totally useless project. This is what came out of it... I was going to save it for.... ? I don't even know what. But my six year old convinced himself it was a 'boy' baby and took it.

Here it is as a purse.

And this is what I have been working on all day today. I woke up way earlier than I usually do (6:20 am). I got my coffee and started working on finishing this.... Finished my coffee, took a shower, got ready, worked on it some more... I have been working on it all day.

Finished the giraffe's spots, fringe, and horns. Sewed it all up. Finished the door and window, sewed them on and embroidered them.. Then sewed them to the ark. (Also finished the port holes and sewed them on...)

Sewed up the bird and embroidered the eye. Embroidered the eye and mouth on giraffe..

Finished the elephant, sewed it on to the ark.

I also did the fish, and sewed that on. All that's left to crochet is the turtle. Then sew on all the other things. I'm taking a break for now. The major stuff is done. Ugh~~ All that embroidery. And sewing... Hopefully it will be done soon. So I can mail it to the little guy~~ before he isn't little anymore!!

I was also thinking about making him a crocheted bunny... Hmmm.... Maybe after I finish up a few things I have to get done. I have NOT joined the March CAL for CFAC. #1: I still haven't mailed out my newborn stuff from the last newborn challenge!! :0 #2: I just have too much going on. #3: I don't have the money to mail the stuff right now anyway (reason for #1...)

My mourning doves have been coming to visit me every morning. We think they live in a tree across the road from us (my husband said he saw them fly into it a few times). So I don't know why they come over here to my front porch. There isn't any seed in the front yard. Strange. But I don't mind. :-D

More Baby Bee Yarn!!

I had posted in the 'In Search Of' thread at Crochetville to see if anyone had a half a skein laying around maybe of this colorway so I could at least finish my sockie with it.... Well someone offered to look for some at Hobby Lobby next time she went and she found it! Yay!! I paid for the yarn (it was on clearance, too~~ Bonus!!) and the shipping, but still.... she went out of her way to get it for me. Now I can finish my sockies, and make a matching hat, too. And, she sent me a postcard! Thanks so much, LaDonna!!

Thank You, Pam!!

I posted on a yahoo group I am in (Crafting for a Cause) about running out of yarn for some sockies I was making (I also blogged about them, here). Well someone (Pam) said she might have some of that in her stash. THEN, she went to Hobbly Lobby and looked for some of it for me, too! She wasn't able to find any, but she sent me what Baby Bee yarn she had so I can make some more sockies (and a cap to go with it!) Thanks so much, (again) Pam. :-D

She also sent me some beads (I had sent her a beaded stitch marker, previously; that I made):

Sorry 'bout the poor quality of my camera (sigh). It doesn't do well with taking pictures of objects close up or small.... I bought some more beads, to go with the pink ones Pam sent:

Guess what my husband bought me last night at Home Depot?!! My very own set of needle nose pliers (?). Yay!!! We spent about at least a half an hour looking for snap pliers (couldn't find any). Then my husband said 'Do you want me to buy you some of your own pliers to make those bead things with?'

This, folks, is my husband's pair I had been using:

You can't tell very well, but they are totally rusty and dirty. Every time I would use them, I would just be very careful to not get anything dirty. The last time I used them, I thought, 'I should see if I can clean these up a little'... Well now I have my own brand new, clean pair. This is a picture of the latest stich marker I have made with the beads that Pam sent, plus the ones I bought to go with:

I am making these to send to people as gifts. This one I am sending to my friend who crochets, with a few other things.

Well, 'til next time~~~~ ;-)

A Pair of Mourning Doves!!

Yesterday morning, I was sitting here by the computer drinking my coffee. I kept hearing this noise. I thought it was our six year old awake, making noises already (he is the king of weird noises maker) :P But he was still asleep. I looked out the front door thinking it might be a bird or something (Duh!!) It was a mourning dove, on the front pillar (?) to the front patio. See it on the ledge? It made me so happy!! Then, later on, I saw there was another one; on the other ledge. It was like they were guarding my front door. ha ha. I think they are mates, because one is really fat!! (Eggs!) I read about it a little bit, here. It says they usually lay two eggs. I went outside later to water my tree in the front yard and get the mail. I looked for a nest up on the roof, but I couldn't see anything. There is a link you can click on somewhere on that site if you want to hear what a mourning dove sounds like. I love it. :-)

But, today they are back again. It makes me so happy for some reason. Maybe because we had Mourning Doves in Michigan. Makes me think of *home*... I want to read what kind of seed/bird feeder they like. I could put one by my little tree. I have a bird feeder in the back yard; one with seed, one with suet. When I first put them out, the birds started to come to them. But I hardly see any birds there anymore. :( And the seed hasn't gone down at all, either. Maybe we need to plant a tree there so they feel "safe".... We don't have any animals and our back yard is all fenced in. So it has me stumped. Oh well. Maybe I'll move those to the front yard for the mourning doves. That would be so cool if we got to see the baby birds. I wouldn't want to hurt them or make the parents abandon them though. Well have a great day everyone...

Central Park Hoodie Progress!!

Yay!!!! Both fronts are done!! I don't believe it myself. I finished the right front last night. Then put them together and noticed (grrrr!) the left front was one cable higher. So, I pulled the edge out and ripped it back (brave, huh?) to the little stitch marker row. And re-did it. I was on a knitting rampage yesterday. (And I was making dinner at the same time.) Whew. No wonder I was so tired last night. ;P I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy that I am this far and now I am more determined than ever to finish this sweater.

I also cast on for the sleeves. Yes, sleeves. :-) When one is done, both will be done. Someone I used to clean house for told me how to do that. (I was still a young knitter, then...)

After the sleeves, I just have the hood and the trim & buttonholes. I feel like I am so close now. This is a huge deal for me. My first sweater for me, and cables. When I finish this I am going to have a party.
I really only have five projects going right now that I know of. So I am also getting my WIP pile down (WAY down), too.

~ Central Park Hoodie
~Navajo Afghan (almost half done?)
~Noah's Ark Afghan (almost done)
~Love Bug (wings to do and legs to sew on)
~Peppermint Bear (arms to crochet and sew on)

I do have the pair of sockies that I ran out of yarn for, too. I am starting to get in control here. I have even finished projects from years ago. (The 'Eye Dazzler' afghan, the baby Koala...) I know one thing that I need to stop doing is joining KALs and CALs, unless I am already working on whatever it is for... That does *stress* me out. Or adds to my obligations...

Well I hope you are all having a good day and a great weekend to come!! TGIF :-)

Two More FO's

yay.... I feel like I am getting things under control (somewhat). I started these socks soon after we moved here. I know that because I had to come here and check to see if my box was here yet when we were still living in the other house... It is yarn that Miss Kitty sent me for the slipper swap. I have one pair of socks I knitted for me, but I wanted another pair. I LOVE these. I tried to get the colourways the same, but it was almost impossible. Oh well; it is close and I think they are so cool. Thanks again Miss Kitty if you read my blog at all.... I still have enough yarn left to make probably a kids pair of socks or slippers, or something....

And, I finally finished the twelve year olds' koala. Yay!! I made the adult size for him. This is the first time I have done the adult size. I think I like it better as it is not so small to try and handle. Although I do love the baby koalas. He wanted an all grey one. Not a fluffy tummy, but fluffy ears. :P I still haven't heard what he named him (or her).

I should have posted a picture here of all the clothes I am sending to PBWH. They were ALL (except a pair ofpants my sister gave me that are NOT a size 7/8, more like a 5/6, that I am sending...) from our twelve year olds' dresser drawers!! :0 I will have to post a picture. You will not believe it. I went through each drawer and re-organized everything: Shirts drawer, underwer/socks drawer, etc, etc..... He had junk mixed in with almost every drawer. It's no wonder he could never find anything. I told him, 'Don't put junk in with your clothes.' I left at least three drawers for "junk"; games, instructions for lego kits, drawings, a latch hook rug he will never do... you get the idea. ;)

Well that's all for now folks. Hope everyone is having a nice day. Today will be library day for us, I think. I have to return some books due back today, and run a couple of errands. They still have the old recycle bins up at WalMart, here. I LOVE that, and now I am recycling again. Yay! I stopped because my husband hates having to pay for anything and especially for 'garbage'... (sigh) I already took up three big bags full since we moved here. (I already sliced my finger open on a tin can, too~~ that was my own fault~~ another 'duh' moment...) Til next time ~~ :-)

Sockies with Worsted Weight

I wanted to try making some sockies with bigger size needles and worsted weight yarn to see how big I could make them. I was hoping to make them for bigger kids. They only came out to a six month size. They're for the Feb KAL for CFAC. I'm going to send them to the Pretty Bird Woman House.

This Is The Big One...

Well.... I thought it would get me the 'Cool Mom of the Year Award' or something.... (sigh).... He wasn't as excited as I thought he would be. Oh well. He is the type of kid that will say he doesn't want something but then change his mind. Or act like he isn't impressed, but later on I see him playing or sleeping with the thing.... (He was sleeping with Fen the Spotted Puppy last night.) Kind of a big let down for me. I tried to keep it a secret all this time so he would be totally surprised, but he wasn't..... (little stinker!!) :P I think he saw the Spiderman bag and thought it was a new toy or something, to be honest. He will probably like it as time goes on.... (He wanted to do his hair spikey today 'like Shark boy'.) :P (Sorry bout my messy corner... We just moved here three and a half months ago and I am still trying to organize/put stuff away here and there, and my craft area is always the last place to get organized....)

Here it is, finished. I was going to make another two of these for the other boys but the 12 year old said he doesn't want one. FINE!!! I'll make some for other kids who might appreciate them.

I also finished the afghan part of my Noah's Ark Afghan for my newest nephew. Yay!!! I just have to crochet all the little parts and sew them on. That should go fast. I already started the 'ark'. :)

It measures 36" x 48", so it will be a good size for when he is a toddler, even. I wasn't even really going to make this afghan. I bought the pattern. I thought it was really cute. I like doing ripples the most of all afghans. I just didn't feel like it. But my Mom kept bugging me about it.... So, I made it. (I did make two full sweater sets for him; plus we went in BIG time on a camcorder, and a bunch of t-shirts and other stuff...) Anyway. Well that was my big project. (Sigh...) :(

For Your Viewing Pleasure....

And since I don't have any pictures of projects to post lately... I thought I would share a picture I took of some burros we saw one day (last summer) while driving around looking for a new area to live in. These were just in front of someone's yard. I thought they were huge dogs at first; out of the corner of my eye. LOL I actually said 'What?', stopped and backed up... (And took a couple pictures). They didn't even seem scared by us. We stayed there for at least five minutes before I said 'Okay the people who live in this house are going to come out and start yelling at us in a minute'...


Here they are hugging..... (all together now.... aaaaaawwww....) I thought it was so sweet. I wonder if burros mate for life. They seemed to be a couple. They may have been amongst this group of burros, since this was in the same area as those were, too.

We didn't end up moving to this area it was way too small of a town. The small town we live in now is just the right size for us. (Could stand to at least have a JoAnns or a Michaels though for crying out loud...)

Well I will most likely have a picture of something BIG to post soon.... It will be a mystery until I post it though..... I will give you a hint though, I have posted about this before. Mwaaaaaahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaa.......... (No, I have nolifewhatsoeverwhydoyouask?) ;P CU later all. :-D

Koala

Meet Sam.... The latest addition to our (stuffed animal) family. :P He just arrived today (after I finished crocheting him :P). This has actually been a WIP since.... probably around Feb of '07 so two years. Not bad compared to some of my other projects... With all the fires going on in Australia, I have been reading to our boys about the koala that was injured and showed them the picture on the news. Well, that got them should I say "re-interested" ? in koalas, again. They have the ones Essie sent us, and I just yesterday or the day before got one at Walgreens for 99c. Then our six year old said he wanted me to crochet him one. (How did I know that was going to be coming?....) I said 'I already have a pair of socks you want me to knit you, a blue lovebug you want me to make and now a koala? You are going to have to decide on just one. Which one do you want most?' 'Koala'. (whew...) Then I started digging through my stash for some grey yarn and remembered the one I had started. Well the six year old said he wanted that one. I finished it today. Sorry the picture is blurry and does not do Sam justice, he is adorable in real life! Blossom was somewhat nervous about him, at first....

We had to coax her out of hiding.

They slowly started towards each other.....

Aaaaaaw!!! Now they are like brother and sister! :P I just love these little koalas. I am making an adult one in grey for the twelve year old. The sixteen year old said he wanted one, too. Then he said 'I'm just kidding.' But now I am going to make him one. I need to find some sportweight variegated around here.... Well stay tuned for the grey koala, and a Love Bug I have almost finished too. I was doing so well finishing up my projects, then BAM!! I went a little crazy making toys. Well I am sure it will be out of my system soon and I can get back to my regularly scheduled crocheting and/or knitting.

On a side note: My son named his koala Sam, and I just learned yesterday that the injured koala's name is Sam, too! :0 How weird is THAT?!!!

Another Pair Finished...

I got the LAST skein of this shade of grey yesterday at Michaels. It didn't have a wrapper, but I grabbed another color for the cashier to scan. So I finished these last night. They fit my six year old perfectly, so they will be for a boy size 13. :) I am partial to boys. I guess they don't get a lot of boys stuff.... Who knows.

I got all the rest of the stuff I will be sending for my Cabin Fever Swap package, too. We are supposed to get hit with some snow tomorrow, here. Driving over the mountain pass on the way, yesterday; it was raining. Then as we got up into the mountains, snow mixed w/ rain. Then just rain.... On the way back, it was snowy, and had already covered everything. It was so pretty. Almost like being back in Michigan. Except for the mountain. :P It was almost annoying, people were pulling over to the side of the road. It wasn't even bad road conditions. The roads were wet, and snow was coming down, but they weren't even slippery or snow covered. People freak out if it even rains here. Oh well. I hope the post office doesn't close down if it snows tomorrow. :0

Socks, Socks, Socks...

Or sockies, socks, socks.... These are all the other pairs of socks I am working on. These sockies I ran out of yarn for.

These socks, which I also ran out of yarn for (sigh). But I found a little more (yay!) in my yarn bin, so *maybe* I'll have enough to finish them. If not, I'll at least have enough to work on them some more tonight. When I run out of yarn, I can start working on these again:

These are mine. I got the yarn from Miss Kitty in a recent swap. I started these socks right away after, too. I actually finished one, too.

Well I'm off to try and finish something around here.... ;P Til next time~~~

They're Multiplying...

I made another pair of the fastest socks pattern. ;P This is an adult size. I think I might be crocheting too loose on this pattern for some reason. It seemed perfect for the child size, at least it fits our six year old perfectly. I think in the back of my mind I'm thinking 'This is a sock it's not amigurumi. It's supposed to be soft...' Well this sock will fit probably a size 13 foot. It measures 12.5 inches long. I will send it anyway. I know someone has to have size 13 shoes. My Dad does! My husband and 16 year old both wear a size 10 shoe. Now I am working on a pair like these socks, but in grey. Same pattern. Those were the last ones I made from this pattern, too.

I got my 'Cabin Fever Swap' package yesterday!! It was weird, I was at the kitchen table with the six year old. I saw a UPS truck on the road behind our house. I said 'Look, there's a UPS truck. Maybe we'll get a box today.' :0!!!! We DID get a box!! Not from the UPS truck; from the USPS truck. But still. ;P Look what Jennifer sent me! Everything was wrapped up so nice, I got to open a bunch of presents. (Course I don't think *I* opened a single one, the kids opened them all *for* me...) ;) LOOK at this gorgeous yarn, I love it. The weight, the color, the feel... It's Berocco Comfort. I have never tried any of Berocco's yarns, I don't think. I don't know what I will make with it, but whatever it is (probably a pair of socks!) will be for ME. :-D She also sent me some beautiful Brittany size 7 dpns. I didn't have that size, and I LOVE using wooden or bamboo dpns. (I have never had brittany's before, I usually buy bamboo or 'ivory') Since regular dpns hurt my hands. And some gorgeous beaded stitch markers! This is my favorite thing lately, I have quite a little collection now!! (She sent FIVE of them!!)

And, a new 'quickie' sock pattern (to try out my new brittanys with!!). I was SO tempted to start a pair right then and there. But I already have four pairs of socks going. Yes, four. Well, technically, three now (see above). And one is a pair of sockies that I ran out of yarn for. :( So, really only two pairs.... ANYWAY~~~~ I can't wait to try out this quickie pattern! She also sent me the YUMMIEST 'Snickerdoodle' candle. I have it sitting next to me right here, I love the way it smells. I lit it yesterday for a little bit. I don't want to ruin it. And the cutest 'knitting' card. I love that. I have the hardest time finding any notecards with knitting on them. The last time I found some was at Michaels, I think-- YEARS ago, and I haven't seen any since...

Thanks so much Jennifer, I love it all. *Hugs*!!!

A Potholder, Just for Something to Show...

... or Hotpad, if you will. :) I just wanted to make one of these, after seeing some that someone else had made on a yahoo group I am in. Aren't they cute? I am surprised I haven't seen this square before. I made it into a hotpad. The original square is like 12 inches wide. So I quit after the red and did sc's in white. Then joined the two together w/ red.

For the back I just did a white granny until it was big enough. I would have made this in cotton but since I didn't have any pink or red... I did it in acrylic. Selection is not good in this town. Have to go into the big city to get anything. ;P

How's things in your neck of the woods? Til next time~~ :-)

Did I Ever Post This Picture Before?....

This is of our oldest son (who will be 17 this Spring!!) :0 ....when he was a toddler. He was under two years old, here. He would always get into my crochet hooks and try to crochet. I was afraid he would fall and poke his eye out, or something; so I gave him a really big plastic one and a ball of yarn. :P Here he is crocheting. Incidentally, he is the one out of all our boys who does crochet. He hasn't in a long time, but he does know how. He's more into his guitar and keyboard now, though. ;) I am going to have to save this one for the Graduation Party. :-D

A Pair of Slippers, Another Pair of Socks, And I Got A New Doll

Ruby's slippers, of course. :-) I love this pattern. Done in 'Warm Brown' and 'Cherry Chip' yuuuum.... :P

And another pair of the fastest socks in the west. :P I lost the label for this yarn so I don't know what it is but I think it will be for a girl. My son wears his to bed.

And this is my new doll. The kids always like to try the toy machine (?) at WalMart (the one where the claw drops and picks up a stuffed animal or doll? what are they called?). Well yesterday we went to the machine, and I saw Raggedy Ann just sitting there on top. I said 'I have to get that one!' So I asked my 12 year old if he would try (he is the KING when it comes to getting the animal/toy at these!). And after the fifth try, he got it. :-D He would have gotten it on the first and third tries, but the claw was pretty loose. I am so glad he got it. I love Raggedy Ann. I think I had two when I was little. I wish I would have kept them. But I got to a certain age and said 'Dolls are stupid.' Now I like them. And I have all boys. Go figure.... :P

While I'm talking about toys from 'the machine', this is a pink bear they got once and gave to me cuz it's pink. :P I like it, though! I also have a 'Michigan' bear from the machine in the WalMart where we used to live in Michigan.

Well have a good weekend~ what's left of it. ;)