Ravelry Invite!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!

I got my Ravelry invite! Yeah!!!! I was very tickled to get it. I'm still trying to learn the ropes, though. My only completed projects, of course, I have no pictures of. One would think that as many times as that has happened to me, I would remember to take the confounded pictures before I let them go out the door. Oh, well. I'll do that next time :D

I can be found here: http://www.ravelry.com/people/beatacrochets

I need to gather all my hooks and needles together since Ravelry has that super hook and needle inventory all set up. I hope to do the same for my stash, too.

I'm off to get some stitching LOL

Light at the End of the Tunnel

I have now finished the body of the Gift Afghan. Whew!! I sure am glad I started this thing in May or I would have never finished this thing in time. As it is, it's still taking me forever. I had thought I would have it all done, washed and wrapped and just sitting around waiting by now. Anyhoo, as soon as I get the border done, I'll get pics, never fear. I'll get them posted shortly thereafter. I do love how it has turned out though. I am also sure, even if I do say so myself, that it is going to be a HUGE hit with the recipient. Hubby has confirmed it. He is such a sweetie. So, as I get ready for Thanksgiving dinner and the big birthday date with said hubby, I will be working away on the border for this big ole thing and hopefully get it done in time.

Changing My Mind

I have changed my mind about where the scarves I made for CrochetWithDee's scarf challenge are going to go. I had them all packed up and ready to go when I posted my last entry. Well, I forgot to drop them off and I have now decided to send them to the women's shelter to help those that are getting out of abusive situations. My mom was one of those women many years ago when I was very small, but she had someplace to go. I cannot imagine getting out of that kind of situation and having no where to go, especially with kids. I hope the scarves will help. I have been inspired (by Dee) to make up some hats to go with the scarves, too. Getting a scarf is nice, I guess, but a matched set always seems to make me feel even more special and I want to make sure that these women know that there are people who care about them and believe that they are really special.

Busy As A Bee

For a change, I've been rather busy in the past 2 or 3 weeks. The beginning of the month was horrid. I was sick for almost 2 weeks, being misdiagnosed as having the flu when I really needed an antibiotic. So, I didn't get a whole lot of stitching done then because the wrapping of the yarn and the way the fibers twisted made me queasy (who'd a thunk it). Anywho, I did get more scarves done before I got sick. I was able to get 6 whole scarves done, see:

They were wonderful to make. As I think I said before, I never have really much cared for making scarves in the past because I would make them about 40 or 50 stitches wide and it would take forever to get them long enough to suit me because I have always wrapped my scarf around my head and neck. So, I have never believed the people on the various groups I belong to when they said that scarves were so easy and fast to make. Well, this time I decided I was going to try making a scarf lengthwise instead of widthwise. Each of my scarves for this year's challenge is 200 stitches long. I also opted for more open patterns. They are each very warm and cozy and I still can't believe I was able to whip them up so quickly. I only did one with fringe as you can see. I'm not a big fan of fringe. It looks nice at first, but the washer tends to end that pretty fast. I did do a picot edging around the yellow one and a border around the purple one.

I really enjoyed making those scarves and they are now at our local Christian ministry awaiting new homes.

My other project has been ghosts for each of the girls in my daughter's Girl Scout troop. We are actually 2 sister troops, 1 Brownie troop (my daughter's troop) and 1 Junior troop. I designed a little ghost that I have dubbed a "Ghoul Scout". I made one for each girl and leader, and as you can see, the Brownies have brown sashes and the Juniors have dark green sashes. The leaders have light green sashes because I seem to remember leader shirts with pale green pin stripes on them from years ago, but that may have been Boy Scouts. Anywho, what do you think?

We're helping with the Halloween carnival at the community center where we have our meetings. We'll be decorating the different rooms where the games and such will be held and we will also be helping man the stations during the actual event.

Each girl that shows will receive a ghost and be able to proudly wear their "ghoul scouts" to show their participation in our service project. I do hope they like them. I also hope like everything that I made enough. I know we have about thirty girls, so I divided up the green and brown sashes and made equal numbers of those. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I'm still plugging away at the gift afghan. I now have 4 complete strips joined together and I have 2 blocks completed on a fifth. I started the third block yesterday which I will be finishing today. I hope to get another one done later this evening.

I have dicovered scarves!

I recently decided to participate in the CrochetWithDee's "60 Scarves in 60 Days" challenge, as you may have noticed from my big ole button. Anyway, last year I made one to practice my newly aquired knitting skill. It took forever! I had been hearing how fast and easy scarves were to make and I was so not convinced last year. I made it wide enough and long enough to wrap around your head and use as a hood as well as a scarf. I realized this year, that that was my problem. I had all this yarn left over from the baby afghan I just finished and decided to use all those skeins to make scarves for the challenge. So far I have made a red one, an orange one and a purple one. The red one is a simple V-stitch, the orange one is a kind of net stitch and the purple one is a lacy shell pattern that I saw online and thought I remembered it correctly, but I didn't and so it is just a little bit different. Here they are:I'm planning on making more. Hopefully one of each color I used for the baby afghan.

Fresh off my hook :-)

I just finished the baby afghan I have been working on for my sons' martial arts teacher.

I chose the "Adoring Hearts" pattern for 2 reasons. One, because hearts are the universal symbol for love and every baby should be surrounded by love. Two, because the Boljacks' have decided to wait until the blessed event to find out if they are having a boy or a girl. This way, I've covered all the bases. I chose to use a rainbow theme for much the same reason as Number 2 of the pattern choice. And, finally, I chose primary colors because I believe that babies, especially first borns, are surrounded with pastels and while that may be to promote calm or whatever, I feel that there ought to be a touch of bright colors somewhere along the way.

It turned out to be a little bit bigger than I had anticipated. It is 39x43 inches. I had originally envisioned a bassinet-sized version, but it kind of expanded on me. That's okay though. Kids need plenty of room to grow :-D

I used Red Heart Super Saver throughout. The colors I used are: Cherry Red, Pumpkin, Bright Yellow, Paddy Green, Royal Blue (I think), and Amethyst. I used (for the first time) a Clover bamboo hook, size H for the squares and a Boye hook, size G for the border. I whipstitched the squares together as I went and I used a back-loop only single crochet for the border. I separated the colors in the border with white because I didn't want the border to take away from the design of the body of the afghan. I am rather proud of it.

Lessons I've Learned

In a recent post on the Crochet Partners group, we were asked what we had learned from our fellow CP'ers. I thought about this for a little while and I remembered where I was when I first joined. I was in a very not very light place at the time and crochet was all I had to keep me going (well, not entirely. My kids went a long way toward that end too.) I had signed up for a crochet newsletter and at the bottom of the newsletter was a link to the Crochet Partners as a place to go for questions and advice. So, I checked it out, signed up and introduced myself.

Since joining Crochet Partners I have learned the magic adjustable ring for granny squares and the like, a chainless foundation (which I used to make my mama's sweater) and I learned how to appreciate not only others' work but also my own. I've always had self-esteem issues and at this particular time in my life, those issues were even more pronounced. I found that I was able to pick up on patterns fairly easily and those that were confusing I could make sense of them with a little time. My mother-in-law was a wiz with ripple afghans, but had trouble following a pattern. I finally realized that I could do stuff way more complex than my mother-in-law and even my mama. It was a lightbulb moment, or rather a lightning moment. I realized that I was good at what I did. I started taking pictures of my finished projects (thanks for the digital camera Aunt Kay!) and started sharing those pictures with the folks at CP. I cannot even begin to tell you the lift I got the first time I posted my pictures and started getting responses. I smiled for the first time in months and when I got "Great work" from a lady whose books I own, and other professional designers that I had patterns from in various magazines, well, I again am at a loss for words. It was really a huge turning point for me. Two years ago was when I made my mama her sweater. It was the same pattern I used for my sweater and one I made for my mother-in-law. My mama showed it off at the next family gathering (Christmas Eve, I wasn't there) and the next day when I showed up with kids in tow, I was met with a quickly hushed conversation. I jokingly asked what I had done and my aunt Wanda told me that they were just talking about my mama's sweater. I was wearing my mother-in-law's sweater since it was our first Christmas without her and so I really got to show off my work first hand.

The following month I made my cousin a baby afghan for his first baby. The mother of said cousin took a fit over it and asked me to do one for a friend of her's for a baby shower. I said of course and then that following September at the family reunion I got another "order" from another aunt. It was so cool! I made some business cards and attached them to the afghans with the care instructions written on the back. Being business women themselves, they were rather impressed that I had taken the thought to add that little touch. They are still suitably impressed with my work and I am more than happy to make stuff for them when they ask.

The encouragement that I got and the tips I received for making my pics a little more professional looking were so awesome. Couple that with the fact that these things were said by total strangers, people that never even new I existed before I joined the Crochet Partners and my spirits were taking a major 180 turn.

I joined Crochet Partners in 2002 (I think). It all started with my rainbow sweater, moved on to a Star Wars afghan for my husband and the rest is history. My depression is mostly gone and I no longer sit and think about how I can't do anything. I stitched through the depression that followed on the heels of the fall of the twin towers and the death of my dearly loved mother-in-law. I now carry my needlework with me everywhere. I learned to knit last year and am getting into trying patterns. I usually keep one crochet project and one knitting project with me at all times. I've crocheted in doctors' offices, the dentist office, my daughter's play dates, girl scout meetings, my family reunion, and even in the theater parking lot when I went to pick up my husband and older son from a horror movie that I didn't want to see. Church is kind of hard for me since I don't stitch during the service LOL. I look forward to finding new and interesting places to do my stitching. I even made a crocheted yo-yo for a lady at my doctor's office so she could take it home to duplicate it. That was super fun, there!!

So, I have learned and grown so much in the last 5 years. I no longer bite my lip in public when I'm petting yarn in the store or describing my stitching passion. I know now that I am not alone in my excitement and I will proudly talk about the pros and cons of different hooks, yarns and kinds of patterns or projects. I am a crochetier and I am proud of my obsession ;D

New Button!!!

Wow! Thanks so much to fibersbytracie for helping me to add this wonderful new button to my blog. I participated in the scarf challenge last year for the first time and I'm going to do it again this year. I'm really looking forward to it. Last year I was just learning to knit and I practiced my knitting by making a scarf in stockinette stitch. This year I'm going to try out a new crochet pattern and I might even do another knitted one.

The gift afghan drags on. I still cannot get past that one square. I think I'm going to just sit down today and get it done. I'm sure that once I get that square done that I'll be able to go faster. I'm going to try to get it done by the end of October. So, until then here's a preview:

I'm rather proud of it so far.

The past several days I've been working on the baby afghan for the karate teacher's wife. It's turning out really good and I'm really looking forward to getting it finished. I still haven't decided what kind of border to do. Maybe I'll do a matching border and do each heart in a different color all the way around. I've been thinking about doing the back loop double crochet border that is used in the pattern book for this square pattern. I'm going to have to give it some more thought.

Making Progress

I got to the store to buy some more purple yarn to finish the border on the Operation Purple Heart comfortghan I was making and low and behold there was not even a shelf tag for what I needed. I was in a panic. Then as I was walking out of the aisle to tell DH "let's go" I passed the Red Heart Super Saver White and thought, "I'm going to need some of this next trip for the baby afghan. Well, it hit me then that I could do the final round of my ghan in white. Boy, was that a big DUH moment for me. Anyway, I got a skein of the white and brought it home. I finished the border, got a picture and away it goes to bring the comfort it is designed to bring.

I got started on the baby afghan after I finished the the comfortghan. I had to frog the last row of the border before I started the white, so I used that little ball of purple for the squares that will be used in the baby afghan. I'm using the Adoring Hearts pattern from the Leisure Arts book A Crocheter's Garden of Afghans. I'm going to make white squares with different colored hearts, with the hearts being the colors of the rainbow. I got 2 squares with purple hearts done last night and I hope to have enough purple to get the other 3 done today. I'm going to whip stitch them together as I go. Each row will have all one color of hearts. So I'm hoping to get the purple row done today and then I'll move on to the blue. I've got enough yellow, I think and maybe red. I'm going to have to get green and orange, though. Looking at the 2 squares I did last night together, I just know it's going to be beautiful! Pics soon, I promise :)

I finally got started again on the gift afghan. The square I'm doing is sooo tedious. The rows are short and it is taking me forever to get it done. I put it down a couple of days ago to give myself a break, hoping that when I picked it back up again that I would be able to just go ahead and finish it. Well, that didn't work. I picked it back up, did about 6 more rows and then had to put it back down again. I'm not going to get the afghan done in time to enter it in the fair like I had hoped, but I still have plenty of time to get it done in time for the giving. I'll post some pics tomorrow.

I started a knitted kitty. After reading an article in Knitting Daily about the healing power of knitting stuffed animals, I realized I had found the perfect project for the yarn my MIL had bought before she died. She got some Red Heart Plush in Dark Purple and Light Purple to use to make me an afghan for Christmas that year. Unfortunately she died before she even got started on it. I inherited all her yarn and thread. The yarn has been laying around her for more than 2 years now and I haven't been able to do anything with it. I started an afghan, but couldn't finish it. I'm going to make this little cat (maybe a couple or 3 or more) and name it for her.

I started another set of runes and a bag to put them in. I lost the first set I started with the worsted weight yarn and am going to do this set in size 10 thread (yellow). The bag is shaped like a cauldron and is done in some pink variegated sock yarn I had in my stash. I have it half done and am looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Finally, I have completed all my swatches for my Learn to Knit correspondence course and my Masters in Basic Stitches crochet correspondence course. I have the address to send my knitted swatches to, I just have to get a box and get them sent. I have to finish up the questions for the crochet course, and I have misplaced my papers. ARRGGGHHHH!!!!! I am sooo not happy. I think they might be buried in our bedroom somewhere, but I'm not sure. So, that's one of my goals for this week is to get the bedroom decluttered and cleaned up so I can, hopefully, locate my papers and get them finished. I bought my second notebook for my swatches and answers. After getting all the swatches in page protectors in one notebook, I found out real quick why they say to use 2 notebooks :) So, as soon as I get my papers found I'll be able to get the questions and get them mailed out in a couple of weeks. It looks like it's going to be a couple of more weeks before I'm able to get my knitted swatches sent off too. Oh well, at least I've got the stitching done. I'll let you know when everything comes back though.

What I Have Been Up To

My, my how time do fly! I've been through 3 trips to the hospital with kidney stones, hubby was in the hospital for a week and my FIL was in the hospital for 2 weeks.

I've made a birthday dress (sewn this year, not crocheted ) for DD's 6th birthday and have finished my swatches for my CGOA Basic Stitches course as well as the swatches for the TKGA Learn To Knit course. The knit swatches are ready to get in the mail, well as soon as I get them blocked and I need to block my crochet swatches too, but I also need to get the question part of the course finished. I'm hoping to get the knit swatches sent off this weekend and the crochet course completed and sent off by the end of this month or the middle of next month at the latest. Here's the dress:

I'm still plugging away on the gift afghan for that family member. I can't say too much about it, because I think they read my blog occassionally. But, after losing the pattern book for a month, I finally just ordered another one. If I find the first one, I'll take the extra one to the library. Anyway, I did finally get the new one in and was able to get started back up on it. I now have 3 of the 7 strips together. I do have to get more yarn. I haven't been able to get all the yarn I need at one time, so I'm depending, rather foolhardily I admit, on the "no dye lot" thing from Red Heart. I'm sooooooo tickled with how it's turning out. I can't post any pictures because of the whole "they might read it" thing.

I'm almost finished with an Operation Purple Heart comfort ghan for Heartmade Blessings. I got to within one square of the border and ran out of yarn. Arrg!!!! So I have to wait for DH's payday to get more yarn for that too. I'll get pics up as soon as I get it done though.

I found the doily I made last year for another family member and then lost it. I have it carefully packed away until after Thanksgiving when I will get it out, get it blocked and wrapped for under the tree. I am so glad I have at least one out of the way and I don't have to worry about it.

We recently found out that our beloved martial arts teacher and his wife are expecting their first baby! Yeah!!! I love making baby stuff. So I'm making an Adoring Hearts afghan and maybe some little clothes too. The afghan is going to be white with different colored hearts. Each square, or at least each set of squares will have a different color of hearts. I'm rather excited about it. I'm going to use primary colors instead of pastels. I am a firm believer that babies need bright colors. They can actually see the contrast between white and bright colors and the bright colors will be much more empowering, I guess, than will pastels. After all, little boys used to be surrounded by red and other power colors, while little girls were awash in pastels supposedly to make them more docile and "feminine". The expecting parents are going to wait until the big day to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl. That's another reason I'm doing primary colors.

School started today for the kids, so I should have more peace and quiet to get some work done, I hope so anyway.

Latest Project

Here is my newest "hot off the hook". I made a comfortghan for my daughter's girl scout leader who has been through a whole lot in her first term as a girl scout leader. I make squares and assemble afghans for Heartmade Blessings , and I asked to do this afghan for her. It turned out great. I assembled with Caron Simply Soft in Heather Grey and while I was working on it, when the sun hit it through the window, it looked like one of those satin-finished pewter picture frames.

I took this picture right after I pulled the afghan out of the dryer. In actuality, each of the squares has a small tag attached with the name of the person who made it and where they're from. That is what makes these afghans so much fun.

I love making these. It's fun to see all the different places the squares come from. It's really fun to see the faces of people who receive them. They usually can't believe that so many people who don't even know them have put that kind of time and effort into something for them.

It's also sometimes frustrating to decide on the right border to use that will fit in with the kind of colors and feel of the squares. I used a picot border. I started with a round of sc and then did the round of picots. It looked pretty good if I do say so myself:

My gift afghan progresses nicely. I've got enough yarn to last for the next couple of weeks and by that time I'll be able to get the rest of the yarn to finish.

New Squares

I had promised to make a square for a Heartmade Blessings comfortghan and since the assembler was going for a garden theme, I decided to make a square from a book called 63 Crocheted Cable Stitches. It's called "Bouquet of Flowers". I've made one for that gift afghan I've been talking about. It was all in the one solid color. Since the comfortghan was to be a garden theme, I decided to try playing around with the colors for a little more realism. I started out with a camo background thinking it might have a sun and shadow on grass look, but it didn't. I was almost done, though so decided to finish it. Wow! was it pretty. I did another one to send as the one I promised and used light blue for the background and red for the flowers (I used yellow for the flowers on the camo square) and here's what I got:


I was so tickled at how these squares turned out! I surprise myself that way sometimes. It's always fun when it happens, though.

Three Months

Wow! It's been three months?! I always lose track of time. Well, let me get you up to speed :)


I finally learned how to knit and have started working on following patterns. Here's what I've done so far:

This teddy bear pattern seemed an easy one and it was. I've made another one in a pink/purple variegated yarn, but I don't have a picture of it. I've also made a couple of headbands. I have a pattern for a corset tee that I really want to make for me, but before I tackle that I have a dress to make for my dd's sixth birthday in June. Stitch-wise it's pretty simple, but the shaping and the funky yarn for the skirt are what's going to be the challenge.

I'm still working away on the crocheted cables afghan I started in January. I plan to enter it in the state fair in September. Since it's going to be a gift, any ribbons/awards I get will be included as a tribute to the receiver's influence on my crafty side.

I have all the swatches done for the Crochet Guild of America's Masters in Basic Stitches correspondence course I received in last month. I now have to answer the questions and block all of my swatches. I know I should have blocked them as I finished them, but I've never blocked anything and have put it off. Now I have all 20-odd swatches to do at one time.

A Brand New Shiny New Year

How time flies when you're stressed out. Oops! I meant having fun :)

This year, I decided that I wasn't going to set up a big ole list of projects that I won't even get half done. No. This year I have only 2 afghans that I plan on concentrating on. One is a graph afghan for son #2. I've done graph afghans (Star Wars) for dh, ds #1 and even my brother (even though the only graph part was the logo at the top. So, I asked ds #2 what kind of afghan he wanted, hoping that he wouldn't want a piture of any kind. That was a fruitless hope. Of course he wanted an afghan like Daddy and Bubba. He is big into Kingdom Hearts video games and has an absolute love for the weapons from said game. They're called keyblades and he even got a couple of life-sized ones for Christmas. So that's what he wants on his afghan. So I get to sit down with graph paper and pictures of his favorite keyblades and graph it out and color it in. That part of it I don't really mind all that much. It's the cross stitching that is really tedious. Anyway, he wants not just keyblades. He also wants to have the skull from The Punisher. He agreed on alternating squares of keyblades and that skull. I just happened to think that I'll need to get pictures of the logo for Kingdom Hearts and The Punisher. Panels for top and bottom, you understand.

The other afghan is for a birthday present. I can't say who for, since I think that person occasionally drops by my blog. Anyway, I bought the Leisure Arts leaflet 63 Crochet Cable Stitches. I started it in Red Heart Super Saver Cafe, thinking that would be a great color for said recipient, but although I love, love, love the color, it just doesn't speak that person's name to me. So I am now in search of another color. I'm going to keep working on the brown one while I'm getting the other two ready to go. It will give me something to work on in between keyblades and be a nice change from the other color (whatever that may be).

Dd has already asked me to make her yet another birthday dress. Her birthday is in June so I'll have plenty of time. I'm hoping to get her to pick something besides pink ;) After almost 6 years, I'm about pinked out. I would like to do a nice lavender or maybe a robin's egg blue. I nice shade of green would also be great. Oh, well. I'll just have to wait and see what she picks out.

So, that's my list of projects for this year. It's not very long. I don't have a project for almost every month of the year and I will definitely be able to get it all done. I'm hoping to add knitting this year. I'm learning and I am eager to be almost as proficient at knitting as I am at crocheting.

Speaking of proficient crocheting. I almost forgot to mention that I will be trying my hand at the Masters in Basic Stitches correspondence course from Crochet Guild of America . I'll have a year to complete it, so that's another reason I haven't tried to plan a whole load of projects for this year. Wish me luck!!!