Driving, Crocheting and the "Yart"!



New Gloves!



Initially you will wonder what this post has to do with crochet but keep reading...it's a funny story!

Joe and I have been "kinda" looking at getting a new vehicle.  My Jeep Liberty has been a great vehicle but the gas mileage is not the best.  Miss Liberty peaked over 100K miles on our last trip to Kansas.  As if by clockwork things started going wrong.  A/C not all that great...a few hail dings here and there....2 windows wouldn't roll down anymore with out a heck of a lot of duct tape...and then the clutch went out.  After a couple of months of sitting in the driveway Miss Liberty went "under the knife" and got a new clutch...yeah!  But that still didn't help with the 15mpg and we really didn't know if we could fix, rig or ignore the next problem.  "Bulldog" Joseph spent hours online looking for just the right car.  Spaceous enough for just the two of us and our cleaning gear...high mpg...economical...manual transmission.  It's the last one that seemed to get us.  Saturday we got on the motorcycle with the plan to make this huge circle through KC, Lawrence and Topeka looking at some cars we found online.  Only one of those were manual....the first one we went to.  We already knew we wanted a manual transmission so why we went there first is beyond me but by the end of the day that's the only place we went to and came away with an appointment for Monday to bring in the Jeep for a trade-in estimate.  Then the craziness began.  "Bulldog" got back on the internet and found the almost exact same car in Omaha for $3,500 less...seriously how can we not jump on that?!  We called, they offered to hold it if we'd put some money down.  This was at closing time on Saturday night, they were closed on Sunday, if we played our cards right we could be there when they opened the doors on Monday morning...so we declined to put money down.  4:30 am Monday morning we are up, do our rounds and get on the road for a 4 hour drive.  We were within an hour of arriving and Joe thought he would call and let them know, leave a message, whatever.  Surprisingly it was answered and that's when we were told the car was already being sold.  WHAT??  Well apparently someone called after hours, got ahold of a salesman that was more then willing to take their deposit to hold it until Monday.  Well CRAP!!  On to plan B...we turn around and head to KC....but if any of your live near the Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa border you know there is some river flooding going on.  Needless to say we had to go out of our way a little to get the road we needed.  We called the KC dealer and said we could be there around noon...he was busy til 3.  We decided to keep cool in the movie theater.  FINALLY we make it to the dealer, wait, go through all the appraisal stuff, wait, sign papers, wait, and GET THE KEYS!  Ya wanna know how much we got for the Jeep???  $3,500  God sure has a sense of humor!  So we are the proud owners of a Toyota Yaris.  My husband thinks we could fit in inside our F350....and it looks like a go-cart so it has been tagged as the Yart.

On to the crochet portion!!  Since we were doing all this driving (we finally got home about 7:30 pm) I had time to crochet.  I've made these gloves on a a commission project for a friend and I really like how they turned out.  When I got this tiedyed, rainbow colored yarn I thought it would be a GREAT time to make another pair.  They are available on my Etsy.com store so get them while they're hot!



The last picture of me and Miss Liberty...crocheting away!



I'm guessing they took about 7 hours to complete these~

ECU (extreme close-up) purdy colors!



Available at my Etsy shop!



Got the keys and heading out!

Yart nose...

Yart butt...

Don'tcha think it would fit inside the truck??

SEE YA!!

Hanging on to the edge of the face of the earth....




Graduation Day!
Joe, Micah, Joseph (the GRAD!) and me.

 

Life has been a whirlwind since returning to the land of Oz in April.  I had tons of pictures and then an SD card that went bad...super frustrating mind you.    On to the news....

After returning to Kansas we went straight north to see little Micah.  She has gotten sooo big since our last visit in the fall.  It was so cold and windy and just completely uncomfortable our first month back.  I was really in a state of sadness and feeling a bit of cabin fever.  I would work on crochet projects to keep warm but nothing really had my hook on fire.  I made the cutest little dress for Grand-daughter Micah and now I don't have any pictures...:(  I will have to wait for her mommy to have a photo session with it...after they have found a place to stay as I'm sure it's boxed up right now.  It was made in a wonderful mercerized crochet cotton.  It has a drawstring neck so she will be able to wear it for a longer length of time...I hope.  I do believe she can wear it as a shirt as she grows.  It is a lovely periwinkle and spring green with flowers on the tie and I made an extra one for her hair.  It turned out so well and as I was making it I was thinking of adapting the pattern to make on my size!  It was absolutely wonderful to see Joe, Liz and Micah before they headed west again.  Dr. Joe finally graduated and Papa Joe as soooo proud!  He accepted a job back in Colorado so it sounds like that's were we will head this fall for a visit before going south for the winter.  Some more graduation pics.

Very Proud DAD!



Micah, Joseph & Liz




I just love this picture!

I also finished a beautiful Asymmetrical Wrap from a pattern I purchased on Etsy.  I made two, one for a friend of mine and one for display at the local Farmers Market that I've been vending at, more on that later.  I also made a couple of Super Star Slouchy hats for some friends of mine that own a "Rockstar" business.  I had to make her star with sparkle yarn because she really does shine!!  I was also honored by her husband that wants the hat I made to be his special performing hat when he rocks the piano!

ROCKSTAR HAT



Capelet



Then I bought this Pirate Sock Monkey pattern.  I just couldn't resist.  I originally bought it thinking I would make some for the Sippel family.  Then I had my Farmers Market Partner In Crime want to do a textile trade...heck yeah!



The towl on the left is from my awesome trade. Click here to see more where this came frome!



Speaking of Farmers Market....while here in KS I figured I would get out and meet some new people and try to brighten someone elses day with my crochet creations.  Every Wednesday morning bright and early I pack up the big truck with my goods and go sit on the court house lawn with about half a dozen other vendors that either have too much stuff or nothing else to do on a Wednesday morning.  I even came up with the cool idea of using my Ladder Ball ladders to help display some of my wares.  Even though I have everything from baby blankets to wearables the two biggest sellers so far are my Soft Necklaces and Wash Blossoms.  I oringinally called them Bum Blossoms (cute huh?) but my husband thought it a bit tacky.



Wash Blossoms - be happy when you wash dishes or bums!



The totally cool ladder display.



Yarn for gloves!

Finished fingerless gloves (aka texting gloves).



Special Order - A rewarding challenge!

 

Baby Cuddles - I just like this picture.



Soft Necklaces - made with ladder yarn and a single bead to slide up and down for sizing.



Broomstick Lace Friendship Shawl

FINALLY!!  This shawl turned out absolutely beautiful.  The open loop strips are what is referred to the broomstick lace, or it can also be called jiffy lace.  This is a free pattern that can be found here.

I wore it to a Red Hat function and got so many compliments!  For those of you that don't have a clue what Red Hat's is all about...at least from what I've observed...it's a gathering of ladies 50+ that get all dolled up in their finest Red and Purple, the gaudier the better, and go out for lunch.  How fun is that?!  Well as many of you know I fall a few years shy of the 50 mark so I am not able to wear the traditional Red and Purple, thus I am referred to a Lavender Lady and must adorn myself in Pink and Lavender.   Sooooo...that was my inspiration for this shawl!

ECU (extreme close-up) of the broomstick pattern.

 Before I sewed the border on.

 Broomstick lacing the border's inner edge.

 ECU of border...yes it was a bit difficult to hang on to!

Finished shawl...how cute is that?!

The broomstick technique was so fun and popular that I will be working on some more patterns and teaching the basic technique to some of the winter texans.  I hope they love it as much as I do!!

Here are some other things you can do with the broomstick technique.



What about these lovelies?!





This is the scarf pattern we will be doing in class.



Until next time....

Ebay Yarn Addiction

Oh for the love of ebay!!!

I did some shopping today and came away with these beauties!!! 

What a beautiful color combination!!  This yarn is 60% wool (a blend of Himalayan goat fiber and soft New Zealand sheep wool) and 40% recycled sari silk fibers. 

I love the idea of using recycled yarn...especially high quality yarn at affordable prices!  This is an 85% silk/15% Cashmere blend.  A beautiful red that I am looking forward to!

100% Cashmere!!!!  WOOHOO!!  Isn't is pretty?!  This is another recycled yarn and  I can hardly wait to wrap it through my fingers and see what lovely garment is just dying to get out!!

So I will be happily searching my patterns and getting inspiration for these lovely yarns.  YEAH...SO EXCITED!

Wednesday is Craft Day!

Good windy afternoon!!  It was 72 degrees this morning in deep south Texas and now at nearly 5pm it is 43 degrees...seriously.  When the weather changes here it is NOT foolin' around!  The good thing is that it never lasts long, a couple of days maybe.  So today was craft day at the RV park and it made me realize it's about time that I updated my blog.

Remember this pic from a few weeks ago?  

Well this is what the Rockstar blanket looks like now.  The star is finished but I still need to come up with an edging.  I hope the new owners will like it!!



Here is a picture of one of my newest projects.  I'm doing a mock seed stitch that I think is beautifully textured.  Using the Aran yarn with the flecks of color only add to the texture...I can't wait to see how this turns out! As a finished product it will be a smock type jacket with a couple of buttons on the front.  It already feels like it will be very warm...I wish it was ready for today!!!

Don't you just love this purple!!!  I'm learning a broomstick lace technique using large knitting needles.  This will be a shawl but I can already envision so many cool things to do with this technique.

The edge of the shawl will have these pretty little flower squares to finish it off.  It looks so dainty! 

This is a sample of the craft project for today.  It has been called both Indian and Mexican Weaving, so I guess it depends on where you are from.  This is my pinwheel design but there were soooo many patterns to choose from.  I may do another pinwheel on either side in red to resemble fireworks.

In other exciting news....

I have officially joined the Crochet Guild of America.  I am really excited about this venture.  I am hoping that I will be able to carve out some time in my schedule this spring to work on their masters certificate program.  

This weekend I will be attending a bellydance workshop event called Rio Raks.  I have not had the opportunity to do much dancing this winter so I will be one sore puppy!!  But a happy puppy will be I! 

Don't forget to visit my website!!  I currently use ShopHandmade.com but am SERIOUSLY considering Etsy since it is so well known and followed better than ShopHandmade.  Does anyone else use ShopHandmade?  Etsy?  Opinions and comments welcome!!

Stay warm and be blessed!

Scarves for Special Olympics

YEAH!!  34 Scarves were sent to the Special Olympics Texas courtesy of Port Isabel Park Center!

Stripes were definitely 'IN' this season!



All bagged up and ready to ship!



These were my personal donations to the cause.  Which is your favorite??

The park is already asking when I'll have the new colors for next year, they must want a head start or something!  The colors weren't announced until about November last year so they'll have some time to wait.  If you'd like to get in on the fun visit ScarvesforSpecialOlympics.org or visit their facebook page and you'll get updates as they come in!

Holiday Project Catch-Up!

I hope everyone had a FABULOUS Christmas and a wonderful new year! 

It is the busy season here in south Texas and I've been hoppin'!  The RV park is filled to the max for the months of January and February.  I am somewhat of an activity director, keeping the guests fit and busy!  I teach fitness and line dancing classes.  I lead a craft classes where I'm always looking for new ideas!  We have a Wii game night, breakfasts on Saturday morning and Hymn singing each Sunday afternoon.  BUSY, BUSY! 

Here are a few of the projects that I finished for the holiday season (upon writing this I find that there are a few that I forgot to take pictures of :(  Oh well.)

This is the beginning of my very first intarsia project.  I had so many little balls of yarn I thought I'd lose my mind!  Once I got a good system down I totally fell in love with it though!  



The yarn "madness"!


 The finished product for little Oliver, I even had some leftover yarn for a little hat!


Oliver enjoys his new hat and blanket!



 I couldn't leave the new big brother out.  Meet Peanut...this is from a pattern by a fellow blogger, you can see more of her patterns here.



Made a scrap monkey for Oliver's big brother!



 I've always wanted to do cross bookmarks.  This didn't turn out as planned but cute nonetheless.

Blocking an angel bookmark.

 Flowers for the kitchen!

Dish rags, the center of the left one has a scrubbie for the center!

This is another intarsia project that I am working on for a good friend of mine.  It is a baby blanket with their family's treasured "Rock Star" pattern.


Rock Star!

A couple of our craft projects here in the park!


Discharge Dye



Embossing on a paper bag and beach glass.

I'm not sure what I'll do with the beach glass...maybe work on my wire wrapping technique??

Embossed an old flower vase...filled with my Anniversary roses!!

Couldn't you just touch them!  They smell wonderful!

I'm working on another pineapple shawl (the purple on in my profile pic) this time in a heather gray color...very pretty.  I'm also playing with a bit of mohair, not sure what it will turn into yet though.  I was given the idea that I should make some necklaces...I'm truely intriged by that idea!  In one of my previous posts I talked about my scarves for Special Olympics.  That project is park wide and we will be collecting our scarves and mailing them out next week!!  WOOHOO!!  I will be posting pics so stay tuned!

As always keep your comments and suggestions coming, I enjoy hearing from you!