Chains & Video

These are the 40 base chains for the Waffle Lattice Shawl I'm making. They almost completely cover a full size bed. And I thought I would finish this project today!! I didn't.

I'm usually pretty good at reading a pattern and visualizing the work involved. But I totally underestimated the size of the shawl before felting. And is going to be big, big. I have started on the cross chains and I do think I'll be happy with the finished project. But it's a lot of chains.
And tonight at church we made videos. Here I am in the back of the closet, in front of the green screen (which was very, very green) and surrounded by lights (which were very, very hot). We talked about the ministry we are involved in - I'm a leader in the Celebrate Recovery program - and about the changes that God has made in our lives. I had never sat down before a camera like that before, but it was a lot of fun.

I tried to find some volunteers for the video project later. I was surprised at how many people really seriously don't want to sit down in front of a camera and talk.

New Yarn! New Stitch!

I currently have six projects going. One, a butterfly blanket, almost finished, that will probably be put aside until after Christmas. Two, a knitted shawl, half done, that is also probably going to wait. Three, a shawl I started today. Four, a jacket that I'm waiting for the yarn to get here. Five, a Christmas tree skirt that I have some of the yarn for. And Six, an afghan that I haven't started and don't have the yarn for and would like to give my husband for Christmas. I think I'm going to be very, very busy over the next couple of months.


This is six balls of Cascade 220 and they are not quite as bright as in this picture. I've actually started this project today. I'm making the Waffle Lattice Shawl in the Fall 2007 issue of Interweave Crochet. It's coming along pretty good and I have high hopes of finishing it tomorrow.
The fall 2007 issue of Vogue Knitting includes a pattern for a Shell Lace Jacket which I have absolutely fallen in love with. The VK jacket is red but I'm going to make it in green. I've got the yarn on order and I'm having to endure the hardship of waiting for it to be delivered. But since I do own a pretty hefty yarn and needle stash, I did some practicing on the cockleshell lace pattern today. This includes a purl 15-stitches together maneuver! Not something I do very often, so I figured the practice would be good. You can see that my second try came out much better than my first.

Geometrics by Ruthie Marks

This is a neat book. Ruthie Marks uses geometry principles to create some really interesting patterns.The book focuses on three geometric principles, dragon curves, golden ratio, and fibonacci sequence. And if, like me, your comprehension of these principles is a little rusty, there's an understandable explanation of each one.

But I have to admit that it was the star afghan on the cover that caught my eye. It is an example of the golden ration and is worked entirely in front post double crochet which gives the blanket a very smooth appearance.

Geometrics includes a wide range of patterns - scarfs, rugs, afghans, wall-hangings and pillows. There's one shawl pattern in the section of dragon curves.

I plan to adapt one of the rug patterns to a blanket for my hubby as soon as I can buy the yarn.

Rock City Waterfall

Hubby and I took a trip back in September to Chattanooga, Tennessee. We had a wonderful time. I'll post a few pics as time goes by cause one must have a break occasionally from books.

Chattanooga is really a beautiful city. And there are lots of things to do there. There's Ruby Falls, an Inclined Railway, the Chattanooga Aquarium and Imax, dinner cruises on the river and lots of beautiful scenery. And of course we had to See Rock City. I had been there once as a child and it was neat to go back as an adult.

This is the waterfall near Lover's Leap at Rock City.

Scarf Style

This book of knit and crochet patterns is one of my books that I just love to browse through. Scarf Style has 31 patterns, mostly knit, although there are four crochet patterns included.

Some of the scarfs are more shawl than scarf and two of the patterns are really shrugs. But there are some beautiful patterns in here.

Some of the earliest printings have errors. There's a list of corrections at here.

I do wish that knit and crochet books would make more of an effort to even up the mix of knit and crochet. Twenty-seven knit patterns and four crochet patterns is really not fair to the crocheters who buy this book.

And as long as I'm on this soapbox, I also wish that publishers would note on the Contents Page exactly which patterns are knit and which are crocheted.

Home Again!

Hubby keeps mentioning that I haven't put a picture of our new dog on my blog, so here she is! This is Pepper Doodle, a medium-sized, mutt-type dog.

We acquired Pepper when she showed up outside hubby's office looking for a new place to stay. He scooped her up and brought to our home (after a brief detour to the vet's office).

She's a young dog, still full of all that happy peppy puppy excitement. And she is incredibly friendly. I really don't think she was homeless for very long.

She has managed disappear once by creating a hole in the wood fence in the back yard, leaving a puppy sized hole in said fence. She stayed gone all that night, and the next morning crawled back through the hole and showed up at the back door like nothing at all had happened. (And we were so worried about her being all lost and all alone.) Hubby has since covered the hole with some plywood and there have been no more escape attempts.

She's also a thief and loves to grab things and take them outside. She steals shoes, towels, CDs, and coffee cups. She even managed to steal hubby's power drill and take it out back. We are looking for ways to discourage this thievery thing she has going on.

But I think we will keep her. She is slowly starting to settle down and become part of the family.

Jean Kinmond's Crochet Patterns

Just to prove that my obsession with collecting pattern books is not a recent thing, here's a book from 1969.

(Note: I did not actually purchase this book in 1969. I was only 6 years old and my prized possession at that time was a green plastic Disney Jungle Book bag that I proudly carried to school each day.)

I picked up this slightly used copy somewhere and it's not a bad book although the print is really tiny. And it still has the original dust jacket!!

Crochet Patterns was written for the more refined lady of the sixties. There's no groovy hippie-type patterns here. The thread color used falls mainly in the white/ecru family. And each pattern starts with the charming phrase "Commence with xx ch".

There are patterns for tablecloths, mats, runners, and chairbacks along with a few wearables. Actually, there is one pattern for a tailored blouse that I hope to try one day.

The patterns are all for thread crochet. Obviously, Jean Kinmond designed for Coats because each pattern calls for Coats Mercer-Crochet thread in various sizes. And a quick google of her name brings up several different books for Coats.

Toilet Roll Covers

Yes, I own this book. What else can I say? I thought the cover was very cute and even my husband laughed when I showed off my new purchase.

It's a real book - with patterns - of toilet roll covers. And it's English, as in East Sussex, from way across the Atlantic ocean.

Now I don't have anything against English people or products, but they just don't use the english language in the same way that we Americans do. So reading the book is slightly odd - what with the mentions of colours, stocking stitches and double crochet that isn't a dc stitch at all.

But, all in all, it is a cute book and I may actually make a piggy TP cover one day. The book has patterns for 30 different toilet roll covers, there's sweaters, polar bears, keyboards, and drums just to name a few. Nine crochet patterns and the rest are knitted.

And now for something a little different...
Over on Crochetville, some of us in Mississippi have been talking about meeting up, for real, in person. And we actually did it!!
Meet Craftytoo, CD Bear, and me! We spent the day in downtown Columbus, MS (a very lovely spot). We talked, we ate lunch, CD Bear taught a class, and we played with yarn. The afternoon just seemed to fly by. It was lots of fun and I made new friends!

Did I mention there was yarn? We met at Yarns Downtown. And there was lots of yarn to pet, and comfy chairs to relax in. If you are ever in Columbus, be sure to drop by.

And you know I came home with a bag of yarn and another book (of course).

Vogue Knitting Crocheted Shawls

Now I absolutely love shawls, so this book was a must-have. It is from Vogue Knitting's On The Go! series and is a small book packed with some wonderful shawl patterns.

Although there is a small how-to-crochet section, this book is best for crocheters with some of experience crocheting and reading patterns.

I like this book and several of the patterns are very high on my to-do list. Crocheted Shawls has 21 patterns from mohair to ribbon, spiral to box, mesh to snowflake, triangles to rectangles. Honestly there's only 1 pattern in this book that doesn't appeal to me and I've already figured out a way to "tweak" that pattern to my liking.

Crochet Flowers

So it is National Blog Posting Month. And there's a contest, which I've joined for two reasons. One, I would really like to get back in the habit of blogging. And, two, I've thought of a theme. I've been wanting to get some form of organization to all my crocheting books and this is a perfect excuse to catalog the books that I have.


I'll start with a brand new book that I just got today - Nicky Epstein's Crochet Flowers. It's a beautiful book that I'll be browsing thru for quite a while. The book contains patterns for over 40 different flowers. There's also several project patterns including a felted purse, a hat and a bridal bouquet. And there's a great shawl that I hope to get around to soon.

Directions are given as both written patterns and symbol patterns. (Yea for the symbols - that's my favorite way to read a pattern!!) The only negative thing I've found is that the measurements of each flower are not given. And it would be really useful to know just how wide that pansy is before I started.

But I do like the book. And since flowers don't use much yarn, it is a great excuse to buy one skein of some truely wonderful yarn!!

Half-way!!

I've been miserably stuck at home for the past 4 days coughing and sniffling. I've had nothing but time on my hands and I've done some crocheting and some knitting.

I alternate between crocheting and knitting. I'm a much better (and faster) crocheter, but I'm determined to learn to knit. I've been (slowly) working on A Beginner Triangle from A Gathering of Lace.

And I hit the half-way point this weekend. I'm just thrilled with this tiny little point!! It's taken forever to get this far.


(Not the best of pictures, but I'm sickly...)

Published, Ravelry, & Purchased

I've heard that good things come in threes and it must be true.

Good Thing #1 - On a whim, I submitted the pie picture below to allrecipes. The recipe didn't have a photo and I figured mine was pretty good, even though it is a tiny bit fuzzy. So I checked today and, well, the picture you see here was taken by me. That makes me a published photographer, doesn't it? It's a small thrill for me.

Good Thing #2 - I finally got my Ravelry invite. I picked the user name "Duckie" over there. (Just 'cause I think ducks are cute.) Haven't done anything more than lurk around the site, really haven't had time to do much more. But it looks interesting and I'm sure I'll post a few things there later on.

Good Thing #3 - I got a package in the mail. Amazon may well be my downfall. It's a whole website full of books and other neat stuff, gold box specials, and the ability to pre-order crochet books that haven't yet been released! I check Amazon every day. And the package was one of the books I had pre-ordered.

What can be cuter (and more useless) than a toilet roll cover shaped like a pink pig? Yes, I bought this book because I thought the cover was just too cute. So, I've got my late-night reading covered for tonight.


Gotta Go - Have a good one!

Puddin' & Pie

I cleaned out one of the kitchen drawers yesterday. Does anyone else stick miscellaneous items in kitchen drawers? We do - strange little doo-dads, notes to remember, and hubby saves wire nuts.

I don't know why he saves wire nuts. But he's like a squirrel hiding acorns when it comes to wire nuts. Little piles turn up here and there around the house. It's one of the strangest things about him. He's an addiction counselor - why does he need so many wire nuts?

Anyway, one of the kitchen drawers had become so full that it no longer opened smoothly. We were having to grab the handle and JERK to get it opened. So I dumped the whole thing!

And amongst the wire nuts, doo-dads, rolling pins and cloth napkins, I found a recipe all folded up. A recipe for which I just happened to have all the ingredients. So we now have one well-organized clean kitchen drawer and we had pie last night. And it was all very good.

The recipe is Grandma's Butterscotch Pie from allrecipes.com. I even made the crust from scratch! And served it up with a lite dusting of nutmeg!

Boteh Scarf

Finally finished, blocked and photographed my Boteh scarf. The pattern, designed by Kathy Merrick, is in the Spring 2007 issue of Interweave Crochet. I used Lorna's Laces Shephard Sock yarn in the color Gold Hill. I thought the variegated colors would make this a nice fall scarf.

And it did turn out very nicely I think. I made it just a good bit shorter than the pattern so it is a bit more wearable for me. There's a closer shot below of the pattern repeat. This was a fun and quick project.

Baroque Jacket

Pattern: Baroque Jacket

Designer: Stitch Diva

Yarn: Brown Sheep's Cotton Fine

I bought the Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet book because it contained this pattern, although it is also available from Stitch Diva's website. Picked up some yarn and I finished this several months ago. But it looked so bad that I tossed it in a drawer and left it there. Now I am trying to finish all the unfinished projects around here, so I pulled this back out and blocked it. Wow! What a difference blocking made (and I apologize for the lack of a "before" picture). It is really a nice jacket and I've already worn it.

The original pattern calls for ribbons to be woven through the lace and tied in front. But I opted instead for raiding my button stash and adding some loops for button holes.

The yarn is a 80% cotton/20% wool mix and looks great but it was a pain to work with. It just kept splitting and I almost gave up. But I think this project was well worth it.

Lacy Treasure

Well, the shawl is still a work in progress, but I did finish a baby blanket.

It's from the book Keepsake Baby Afghans and designed by Kay Meadors. I used Bernat Coordinates for this and I have to admit it turn out gorgeous! The yarn has a bit of nylon in it and the finished blanket just sparkles. So pretty!! But the same bit of nylon made the yarn a bit tough to work with because it kept splitting. ARGHH - hate in when that happens. This blanket is going to my newest step-grandchild. I just know he will love it.

She Still Crochets!

Yes, it is true. I'm still crocheting but somehow, the blogging thing isn't going quite as well. Here's a quick update on recent projects.


Here's a true confession - I hate doing fringe. I tend to do it slo-o-owly. I've spent more time on this fringe than I did on the entire shawl and I'm only half-way done. But the shawl is gorgeous and really needs the fringe to hang properly. So I'm giving myself one week to finish this. Watch for an update next Wednesday!!


I'm working on the Boteh Scarf from the latest issue on Interweave Crochet. The yarn is a variegated shade of Lorna's Laces sock weight that I picked up on eBay. Did anyone else notice that the written directions and the stitch diagram in this pattern were ever so slightly different? The diagram is correct.




Finally, during a brief spurt of spring cleaning I came across this doily. Isn't it cute? It's Irish Crochet and in desperate need of blocking. I vaguely remember doing this but I have no clue where I found the pattern.

More about the Sunflower Afghan

Perhaps the most popular thing I've made is the Sunflower Afghan. I'm still getting comments and emails about it!! It is gorgeous and challenging and is one of the few blankets I've made and kept.
So here are answers to what I get asked most often:

1. As far as I can determine, the pattern is available only in the kit from Mary Maxim. I have seen one copy for sell on eBay.

2. I am not interested in selling my pattern at this time. I plan to make use the center motif to make a large circular afghan one day. I also am a BIG Supporter of crochet designers and their copyright. I will not make you a copy of the pattern and email it to you. (That would also be illegal)

3. The yarn I got in the kit was Red Heart Super Saver.

4. Here is my version of the errata for this pattern. (Thanks to Rita for the Rnd 12 point directions, because I forgot to write down what I did there.)

Sunflower Motif B:

Rnd 9: Join Color 2 with sl st in any ch-2 sp, ch 1, 2 sc in same sp,...

Rnd 12: Join MC with sl st in last st worked, ch 1, sc in same stitch, sc in each of first 4 sts, …
Also the directions for the point on Round 12 are incorrect. It should read “dc in each of next 6 sc, (dc, ch 3, dc) in ch-2 space, dc in each of next 6 sc, …”

Rnd 13: Join Color 1 with sl st in first st worked,…

Rnd 14: Join Color 4 with sl st in next ch-2 sp, 2 sc in same sp, …

Rnd 15: Join Color 2 with sl st in last ch-1 sp worked, ch 1, 2 sc in same sp,…
Rnd 17: Join MC with sl st in first st worked, …

And that's about it. I do thank you all for the comments and emails. Let me know if I've forgotten anything.

63 Squares Afghan

I've somehow managed to almost forget about this blog. Promise - I'll do better! It's been rather busy around here.

I have been doing a lot of crocheting. And not so much picture taking so I'll fix that too! As a matter of fact, the afghan that I started last summer has been finished.

Sixty-three 7-inch squares and each is a different stitch pattern. What a challenge it was! The individual squares were not that difficult (with a few exceptions). But by the time I would get comfortable working the repeats, the square was finished and then I had to learn another pattern.

But I think it turned out pretty good! There's yellow and four different shades of green, since I ran out of one color and couldn't find the same shade at any of the local stores. And it is pretty big - the full photo is spread out on a queen-sized bed.

I gave it to my Aunt when I saw her at Christmas. She loves it so much that she even mailed me a hand written thank-you note the next week! That note was the best thing I got for the holidays. It's great to be able to give love and happiness through crocheting.