The Baby is Coming, The Baby is Coming!!

Now that I have finally finished the Star Wars afghan, I can move on to the baby afghan for my cousin. The pattern I originally picked out was quite a bit more involved than I anticipated, especially since I'm kind of in a hurry. I need something I can work on in the evenings while watching tv. I decided on a couple of 12-inch squares I found at HeartMadeBlessings , one is called Cable Hearts and the other is called Adoring Hearts. Since I'm making these with baby yarn (White and Mint Twinkle) and a size F Boye hook, the squares actually turned out to be about 8 to 8 1/2 inches. I'm going to make 6 of each square and put them together alternating the squares in a 3x4-square layout. I'll get pictures of it when I get it done and post them here for all you guys to see.

It's Done!!!

I finally finished that Star Wars afghan for my son. I am so tickled!!! I'm still trying to figure out how it got to be so much smaller at the top than the bottom. Of course,

I was never all that particular about stitch counts on the final rounds of the squares or anything like that, so that's probably the culprit. My son doesn't care. He's been waiting a year for this thing and he is perfectly happy with the way it is. Now I can move on to the baby afghan for my cousin whose wife is due February 4. AHHHH!! I've got to get crackin'!

Another new pic

I am now in a position to be able to participate in crochet exchanges again. YEAH!!! I've kind of missed them. I've been kind of separated from my crochet family since about August, so I'm very glad to get back and get to meeting and greeting fellow stitchers. I usually try a new pattern of some sort for my exchange partners so I did a square from A Crocheter's Garden of Afghans by Leisure Arts called "Granny's Zinnia". I just got the book yesterday, so I was tickled to have a reason to try something out. It turned out pretty well I think. Dh even said "Cool colors" :) I only hope my exchange partner will agree.

New Projects, New Pics

I finally got a picture of my new and improved Angel Square. I originally designed this pattern for an exchange partner when I couldn't find a pattern that "spoke" to me. Recently, in planning a HeartMadeBlessings comfortghan, I decided that my angel square needed to be 12 inches so I could use it for the afghan. It was rather fun to sit and stitch and then frog since I was doing it voluntarily instead of having to frog because of a mistake. I'm rather happy with the way it turned out.

I'm moving now

It's funny how a project can sit for months and never be touched and then all of a sudden when it does get picked back up, it just flies to completion. That is the way my mom's sweater went and now my son's Star Wars afghan. That afghan especially has been hanging around for almost a year. My son has been ever so patient and very philosophical about it. He told me last night that he knew he would get it eventually and sometimes stuff just didn't work out as planned. My husband's afghan was done in about a month. I just could not get going on this one after about two rows worth of squares. I did join as I went though (which I didn't do with hubby's) so at least I haven't had all those squares to keep up with. I now have all assembled and the only crocheting I have left is the border. I finished the cross stitching on two(!!!) squares last night and so now I only have one square and the logo panel at the top to cross stitch. WooHoo!!! I've already told my other son that I'm not doing anymore Star Wars afghans for at least a year after I get this one done. I'll probably wind up doing it, or at least starting it before the year's out if he decides he wants one bad enough LOL :)

My New List

I sat down and made up a list of projects for the new year. Here's what I've got so far: finish son's Star Wars afghan (I'm down to the last 4 squares!), a baby afghan for a cousin who's due in February, finish brother's Harry Potter afghan, finish another cousin's footsie afghan, butterfly afghan for sister, troll dolls for aunt, game bag for other son, camo afghan for nephew, love knot shawl for best friend as well as an angel afghan for same friend. Now, by the way I've got this worked out (and if I can stay on schedule LOL), I'll be done with this stuff by September. Of course there will be other projects that will come up, but I'm hoping that they won't cut into my list too badly. If nothing else, since these are all going to be Christmas/Yule gifts, I've got about three and a half months of fudge time :) And I'll remember to get pictures of everything before I gift it away.

I Did It!!!

I got Mama's sweater done and on time. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find my digital camera so I didn't get pics before I gave it to her. As soon as I find it though, I'll be getting her to model it for me so I can get pics to post here.

I also got another row of squares put together and added onto my son's Star Wars afghan. I'm going to be working on it today exclusively. I figure 3-4 days on it and then the last 2 days working feverishly to complete my brother's Harry Potter afghan. That's not going to take all that long, though.

I hope to find my camera soon so I can get pics of all this stuff.

Almost Done

Mama's sweater is almost done!!! YEAH!!! Her birthday is this Saturday and it's going to be her birthday present. I'll get some pictures on here as soon as I find my digital camera. It's gone awol again. I decided to do the collar and button panels in the solid green and it looks super! :)

She thinks she's just going to get a visit and sweater on Saturday. I have a special cake and other goodies in store for her as well. Thursday and Friday nights are going to be pretty busy in the Ball kitchen.

And the envelope says......

After hearing from several of my Crochet Partners, I have decided to go with edging each scarf with the same color and then using that color to join them. It is simple and gives me a way to play with the size. I have also thought about doing a logo panel at one end like dh's Star Wars afghan. If I can find a good copy of the Harry Potter logo, it shouldn't be too hard to transfer it to graph paper for the afghan.

I started the first sleeve to Mama's sweater last night. I think it is going to go pretty quick. I expect to have both sleeves done by the end of next week. That weekend should see the completion of the sweater and the addition of the buttons. After talking to Mama yesterday, I'm thinking of something in bone (well resin or plastic, of course, but bone colored). She doesn't want silver or gold and wood is just not the look I want. I'm very excited about this birthday. I very seldom can get Mama to agree to celebrating, but this year I have the sweater. She has to work on her birthday, but it falls on a Saturday so I can pile all the kids in the car and surprise her at lunch with a special birthday cake and her present all wrapped up. My oldest son helped me come up with the cake idea for my chocoholic mother. We're going to make an eclaire cake, except we're going to use chocolate graham crackers and chocolate pudding instead of honey grahams and vanilla pudding. It kind of locks up my jaw when I think about it, but Mama will like it. I may also help the kids to make some of my son's original Scooby Snacks. They are chocolate wafer cookies sandwiched around chocolate icing or creme, dipped in melted chocolate and rolled in cocoa krispies or cocoa pebbles. Yes, your jaw is locking to and some of you may have queasy stomachs, but Mama loves them. That will be the kids' present to her. She can take them home and eat on them for the rest of the week.

I'll be starting my fudge making pretty soon. I like making fudge. I usually wind up making 2 or 3 different flavors and making up some sampler plates for the boys to take to school for teachers. They have so many teachers each that it's not practical or affordable to buy each and every teacher a gift, but I want them to know that their time and effort with my children is appreciated. I'll be making some extra batches of some of the favorite flavors for friends and family. Baking is another thing I'll be starting on soon. I've got less of that to do than the candy making, but I still want to get started a little early.

HP Scarf Directions

I happened to think this morning, that I did not include directions for the scarves I'm making for my brother's afghan. I made it up myself by deciding how I wanted the afghan to look and how big I wanted it. So, here it is:

Using worsted weight yarn and a size I hook:

Ch 37
Hdc in the 3rd ch from hook and in each ch across; ch 1, turn.
Hdc in each st across; repeat this row for a total of 17 rows.
Repeat for 17 rows of each color.

I made a total of 13 color blocks. I haven't done a guage yet, but my scarves are about 12-14 inches wide and it fits a single sized mattress from edge to edge, none hanging over. I'll try to get a couple of pictures and some color names later today.

Harry Potter Scarf/Afghan

Well, I finally got started on my brother's Harry Potter afghan. I decided to do wide scarves in each of the house colors like the ones in the Sorcerer's Stone movie. So far I've got the one for Hufflepuff done and I'm working on the one for Ravenclaw. I still need to get the yarn for Griffondor and Slytherin. I don't know how I'm going to join them yet. I'm thinking about doing an edging around each scarf to use to join them together. I'll have to ask my friends at Crochet Partners . I know they'll have a ton of ideas. My CP friends were the ones who inspired me to do this afghan in the first place :)

My mom's sweater is now waiting for the sleeves. I have now completed the back panel and both front panels and gotten them joined. It looks great so far. I'm trying to decide whether to do the collar and button band in the solid green or the ombre green. I've been working exclusively on the HP afghan this week, but next week I'll be spending every minute I can on getting my mom's sweater completely finished. And of course, I'll take pictures to post before I wrap it :)

The Star Wars afghan for my son is nearing completion. I have 10 squares left plus the logo panel. WooHoo!!!!!!!! My son has been so patient and nice about it, bless his heart. I'll be glad to get it done.

After the new year, I'll be starting on a baby afghan for my second cousin, whose wife is expecting their first baby. As of right now, I've decided on A granny square pattern on a Red Heart SuperSaver label. It's pretty, it's simple and it's made of the SuperSaver yarn so I know it will be durable. I even think I'll stick to the colors the pattern calls for. I'm definately going to take a break after that. I'm going to take a break from marathon crochet sessions and go back over my wish list of stuff I want to make for other family members and start on those things in March :)

New Death Star

Well, I have been requested to make another Death Star. Dh thought it was so neat that he wants to send one to a friend of his for Christmas. I'm glad that I figured out how to make that thing. It's such a fast project, even for me. The only thing is that I'll have to look at pictures of the last one to figure out where to put the eye. I think I will also attach to the last stitch of each round to the first one instead of making continuous rounds in a spiral. That way when I go to do the back stitching for the middle line, I won't have one slanted line making a jump from one end of the line to the other. It's okay if you keep that part to the wall, but I'm just not happy with it. I started to attempt the hot sauce bottle cover of Darth Vader, but with it being in black, I put it down after I got the head/helmet done because I was working at night and having trouble seeing it. I need to get one of those daylight lamps. I've put it on my gift list.

The Star Wars afghan inches ever so slowly toward completion. I've already told my other ds that it's going to be at least a year before I start on another one. I hope to have this one done in time to wrap it up and put it under the tree. I just can't seem to sit down and crochet for long lengths of time like I did last year. I'm going to start making time though. I had a whole list of stuff I wanted to make and it just didn't make it. I cut that list down to just a couple of things that I felt like I absolutely had to make this year. I swear that I'm going to start in February in order to get next year's presents done.

New Blog

Well, this isn't exactly a new blog, but my main crochet blog is going to no longer exist as of November 30. The host has decided to no longer provide that blog service. So, here I am. Now for the fun part: transferring all of my entries from the old blog to this one and changing the link in my email signature line. It's going to take a lot of time. I've got quite a bit of info on that other blog. I didn't realize until today just how much I had put on there. Wish me luck!!!

Time Flies

I can't believe how the time has gotten away from me. Well, I'm not really working on anything new. I bogged down by the depression bug when I didn't get my son's Star Wars afghan done in time for his birthday. I kept looking around my house thinking about all of the house cleaning that needed to be done. I've been rather neglectful in my rush to try to get that afghan done. I also just hit a slump. I just haven't felt like crocheting as much. So, I decided to put the project bags aside for a while and let it rest. I started working on my house the FlyLady way and, boy, has it made a difference. The project bags rested for about 3 days before I was digging into them again LOL. My work isn't constant, but it is much steadier progress than I was noticing before. So, I've got my son's Star Wars afghan going as well as my mom's sweater and my brother's afghan. I don't know if I'll have time to get all that other stuff made for Yuletide gifts like I wanted to, but I'll have the immediate stuff done anyway.

I did get pictures of the camo book cover that I made for my nephew's birthday. I was told he even actually uses it and everything!! So, I'm going to get my house in order, crochet during breaks and everything will work out. Right?? :)

Didn't Make It

I tried as hard as I could, and I still didn't get the Star Wars afghan done. I cannot believe I let this happen. I decided that I would use a couple of the squares I haven't attached to the afghan yet to make a pillow. I had planned on making a pillow to match the afghan anyway, I was just hoping to get the afghan done first. I think that I'll be able to get the afghan done by next week, so I'm going to keep plugging away at it. I'll post a picture as soon as I get it done.

Toy Tote

I took Baby Girl to her first birthday party last week. I had made the birthday girl a bassinet purse. Well, the her 10yo brother couldn't keep his hands off of it so I asked him if he me to make him one too. I was joking at first, but then I got a mental picture of it. Of course, the said "NO!!!", but then I explained that I could do one without the hood and in camoflage yarn. "Oh, yeah!!" he said. So, last night while watching Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and made a little tote bag for his soldier men. I started the same as the bassinet purse, but did 3 rounds of dc in stead of the 2 rounds of tr that form the ruffle. The last row of dc is for the drawstring : 1 dc, ch 1, sk next st, 1 dc. Then I did a round of sc followed by a round of reverse sc. For the drawstrings (I made 2), I did ch 101 and slip stitched across. I rather like the way it turned out. I can't wait to give it to him.

Mini Death Star

I was stumped for something to make for dh's cousin for his birthday. I know he's a big Star Wars fan, but the only Star Wars thing I've done the afghan. No way. I only had one day!!! Well, in a mad search through patterns, I came across a hackey sack pattern, done in thread that I had originally intended to be a golden snitch. Well, done in worsted weight yarn instead of #10 thread made it about the size of a softball. I added details in black done with a back stitch and Voila!!!! A miniature Death Star. I sure wish I could get some of these ideas to George Lucas and get permission to use these designs to sell and stuff.

Now I just have to find a box to wrap this thing in.

Baby Girl's Bikini Top

I have had a skein of Red Heart's Bikini yarn for about a month. I haven't been able to decide on anything to make with it. Well, Baby Girl is always trying to take off with my foundation garments so I decided to make her one of her own. I spent a lot of time frogging, but I finally hit on a look I liked, at least for the triangles. Now to put them together. That entailed more time trying it on and taking it back off, frogging and redoing. She was getting very impatient. I finally got it done and on it went. She strutted around the house feeling all grown up. I'm rather proud of it. I'm trying to practice getting a picture in my head to go from there into the hook and translated into yarn. Man, that's a lot of work, not mention frustrating. My next idea is a full length cloak. I don't know if I want a hood on it or not, but probably. I'm going to save that for after the holidays.

Crocheted Runes

It is amazing that no matter what I"m reading, when the word "crochet" is there it immediately draws my attention. I was reading an article on runes and seeing the word "crochet" stopped where I was reading and my eyes went straight to that word and started reading from there. It was directions on how to make a set of crocheted runes using size 10 thread. Well, I thought I'd give it try. Boy, was that square tiny. And you had to make 2 of them and slip stitch them together?! There was no way I could do that; they were just too small. Well, about a year or so later I'm sitting here trying to find something new to crochet and happened to remember the directions for the runes. So I dig through the yarn that I inherited from my mother-in-law and lo and behold I found a misty sort of blue. I tried out the square and TA-DA!! I had a size I liked as well as a color. Instead of making 2 separate squares though, I did a row of back loop only into the last row of the square and then completed the second square from there. That gave me both squares connected by a sort of hinge that I could use to just fold the thing in half. I used a sunny yellow to back stitch the design on one half of the rectangle, folded it in half and slip stitched the 3 sides closed. I'm looking forward to having a whole set made (along with a bag to put them in, of course!) :) I'll post pictures of the whole set as soon as I get them done.

Working With Variegated Yarns

A message was posted to the CP list about working with variegated yarns. This got me to thinking. Why have I always loved variegated yarns? This is what I finally decided on. All those colors at one time, knowing that the colors are going to change at regular, measured intervals but at the same time not knowing when or how that change is going to take place depending on the stitch/pattern that is being used. For example, I have made granny squares that have each round a different color. My sweater I made, had the same color repeat for every other row, so that when I did the pattern rows, the sequence gave a rainbow effect. I also made a snake with camoflage yarn and it turned out to have the darker colors on one side (which I used as the top when I sewed on the eyes) and the lighter colors on the other side. Completely unplanned on my part, yet anticipated once I notice it. (it also looks like I planned it that way to the average Joe on the street LOL therefore making me look extra smart with a hook and yarn ).

On the other hand I made a baby afghan with Homespun in Blue Ridge where I wanted to let the yarn do the talking rather than a fancy pattern. I did it in nothing but straight rows of double crochet with a row single crochet and then reverse single crochet around the edge. I didn't get pictures of it, unfortunately before it was sent to the expectant mother, but the effect was stunning. Even though that color is a pretty even mix of blue and gold, the afghan looked like a clear night sky: all midnight blue with specks of gold.

When AC Moore had a two-fer sale on their Red Heart Super Saver yarn, did I take advantage to get yarn for the various holiday projects I have on the board? No. I went through grabbing up different colors of variegated yarn that I wanted to try out. Don't get me wrong, I love solids. I did that same sweater pattern in soft white for my mother-in-law last year for Christmas and enjoyed every stitch, and have actually done a lot (if not most) of my recent projects in solid colors, but my first love will probably always be variegated.