Just when I thought I was ahead of the game

I thought I had finished putting the loops on all of the panels and had moved on to the sets of leaves. I need 60 sets of leaves and 60 flowers. I'm using sport weight yarn and a size 0 steel hook. Yeah, not exactly the recommended size but it's making them tighter and giving them a bit of a curl so it all works out.

But as I'm putting the panels in their holding bag I find one that hasn't been trimmed with loops yet! I did a happy dance yesterday thinking they were done and now I've got to trim another. Ugh!!!

Oh well, onwards to the end. I've got about 2 weeks left to get this done and shipped out.

Untrimmed panel and leaves

Woo Hoo!!

I've finished the 6 hunter green panels for the Irish Lace and Roses afghan. Now on to the side trim that will join them.

After that I'll start on the actual roses and leaves once the sport weight SOFT white arrives. I mistakenly ordered off white instead and boy what a difference. Luckily my husband said why send it back, you know you'll use it at some point.

On to the loops!!

Irish Lace and Roses Afghan

I ran across a pattern called Irish Lace and Roses Afghan from Annie's Attic and fell in love with it. I decided to make it for my mother's birthday in September. It will be Hunter Green and Soft White so it goes with her bedroom colors. So far I've completed two of the panels and am close to finishing the third. It's a pretty easy repeat for the panels. They are each 110 rows long but they fly by. I still need to get the soft white in the sport weight to make the roses out of.

I really love the way they are joined, it looks like it's braided. Here's the progress so far.

Crocheting my little heart out

Believe it or not I have actually been busy. I have been doing a lot of crocheting.

First up is the baby blanket I did for a co-worker who is having a little boy. The pattern called for a size G hook, but I ended up moving up to an I to get the right gauge. I don't know if it's me or the patterns, but sometimes the gauge works and sometimes it doesn't. I used Bernat Baby Sport Yarn in Baby White and Baby Denim Marl and really liked it. Here's the finished item made from the Little Boy Blue afghan pattern which I believe is a Red Heart pattern. The only thing I didn't do was the embroidery on it, just ran out of time, but I still loved the outcome.

(ignore the dates, the camera wasn't set)

Next up was a quick blanket for a new baby girl for another co-worker. I used the Bernat Baby Sport again in Lavender and Baby White. The original pattern used one color throughout but I switched the edging to white. The ribbon around the edge is really nice.


I was really happy with the way they both came out and now I'm working on an afghan for my mom's birthday called Loop-n-Lace Irish Lace and Roses. It will be in Hunter Green and Soft White.

More to come!

Duchess Dean Jones - May 1991 to June 15, 2010

Born in May 1991, Duchess Dean Jones was a gift from my sister Lory. She was seven weeks old when I brought her home and she had me wrapped around her little paw immediately. My mother never liked cats but between Duchess and Sam (my sister's cat) she was won over. The "Dutch Kitty" as she called her made it her job to keep an eye on her after her surgery.

She greeted me at the door when I came home from work, if I was late she let me know it. She loved to play and she loved to watch the birds that perched in the trees outside the bedroom window. She even tried talking to them and made pretty good chirping sounds for a cat...lol

While Sam was with us she let him do all the talking, unless tuna was involved then she became very vocal. When Sam left us she decided she had better speak up and we had many, many conversations throughout the years. Although she was a cat, she seemed more human than a lot of humans I knew.

Although she hated car trips (I imagine she thought she was going to the dreaded vet) she rode shotgun on the move to Michigan. She became quite comfortable at the Motel 6 (pet friendly) and it was probably because all the rooms we stayed in looked exactly the same. Once she got to the farm she had a whole new group of animals to watch. Geese, sheep, dogs, baby chicks...she watched them all. To my amazement the cat who ran and hid until she decided she liked someone quickly showed her trust to my husband. Obviously she knew a good guy when she saw him.

Even more amazing was the relationship she developed with Mist the Border Collie. None of my friends would believe she shared a home with a dog, let alone went nose to nose with her without pitching a fit and baring claws, but she did. I attributed it to mellowing a lot in her old age.

Unfortunately, that old age caught up with her. She lost the hearing in her right ear shortly after her 18th birthday but she adapted well. Later on she started showing other signs of her age and in the past week it all started going rapidly downhill. I spent as much time with her as I could holding her and talking to her. She left us this morning at 7:20am while I held her. She was 19 years old but she was and always will be my green eyed, pink nosed kitty girl.

There are a lot of stories and memories and I will treasure them forever. She was there during the good and the bad. She kept me sane. She was a joy every second that she was alive and I'm going to miss her for the rest of my life.

Be well my kitty girl and say hi to Sam for me.

Weird Stuff

For some reason I've been getting redirects on my blog and it's making me more than a little angry. Anyway, I've been off work sick for almost 3 weeks now and am getting more than a bit antsy.

I've got a couple of things I've been working on that I need to take pictures of and post. I'm hoping to get the camera to cooperate. I think it's time to invest in another one.

During my surfing I found a Granny A Day crochet along that I've joined (have to keep track of the group commitments) which should be cool because I've got LOTS of odds and ends yarn to use up and it will give me a chance to learn new granny squares and hopefully end up with a very eclectic afghan when all is said and done.

Now off to get something accomplished.

Snow day

Lots of snow last night and my truck didn't care much for it this morning so I'm home now with crafting on the brain.

One really great thing I came across was The DIY Dish from You Can Make This.com. They will have a series of videos on crafting of all kinds. They are also doing an awesome contest giving away TWO Janome machines. One is an embroidery machine and the other is a sewing machine. I'd love either one...I'm not picky...lol

Here's the first video:



I love the You Can Make This site. Lots of really great projects to inspire.