The Gift

A present from my 4 year old. :)

He was outside playing tonight with my husband and our 7 year old. I heard the door open and he came in saying he had a flower for me. I was totally expecting it to be another dandelion -- my 7 year old brings these "flowers" to me proudly on a regular basis and whatever he does, the 4 year old follows suit. I haven't the heart to tell them they're not really flowers but weeds. It would break their hearts and it's such a sweet gesture, so I lovingly put my "treasures" in water. :)

Anyway, he came in with this and presented me with a perfect daffodil that he'd picked from outside. So pretty! And boy was he proud of his gift! His eyes were glowing with love that made my heart just want to burst. He's so sweet!

So of course I had to take pictures to have a memory of the first time he's brought me a flower.

In shooting, I liked the way the petals were backlit from underneath from laying on my lightbox, so I shot a tight macro of just that.

Such a perfect perfect gift.

Prairie Star, take 2 and a half ;)

Updated due to discontinued color and one that wasn't true to tone.

Prairie Star, take 2

My possible color palette for a Prairie Star afghan for myself.

I wanted neutral tones with some soft greens because I LOVE green (especially sages.) I put together several other possible palette choices (see below) but just kept coming back to this one.

Someday maybe I'll do the blue and green palette group. :)

Ripple-Along

For the Ripple-Along CAL at Crochetville. I'm using Bernat Baby Coordinates in white, baby pink, and sweet pink.

I started this a few weeks ago and then put it down for the Crochet-A-Quilt CAL. I want to do the Patriotic CAL, too, but not until I've got this one done. I need to get some of these UFO's out of here and either gift them or donate them. They are taking over my living room!! lol ;)

Rainbow Sunrise

Isn't this a pretty sight to wake up to? This was the sky off our balcony this morning.

It only lasted just long enough for me to notice it then get my camera and take a few shots. After that, the sun had risen higher and those beautiful hues of golden and blue were gone.

A nice start to what will hopefully be a great day. Hubby and I are packing the boys up and going down to Chicago to see the White Sox host the Kansas City Royals. I'm SO excited. I haven't seen the Sox play live since 2002. We used to go every year, but things have been hectic the last few years. But since hubby is on vacation and our oldest son is on Spring Break this week, we thought it was the perfect chance.

Happy Easter!

Have a wonderful Easter, all!

The Grand Finale!

And here it is, all completed, and just in time, too! :)

Ya'll I'm SO happy this is done! There was a while there where I was convinced I was laboring for nothing, but I'm happy to say that it's all done, ends are woven in, and now it's off to my niece's party!

I can't wait till she opens it.

I'm so excited because this was my first small motif afghan and I did it! I've been in fear of these because all the ones I'd found were sewing together assembly. These join-as-you-go patterns are a much better fit for me. :)

Here's a closer look to see the border and all the colors:

















And here's something I think is interesting: a progress chart I made up from my photos. The anal mathmatic nut inside me going, you know? ;) (click photo for larger size)

An End in Sight

Diamonds are DONE!!!!

YAY! Now just to try to do all of the blue border tonight and maybe start weaving in some of these ends. The rest of the ends I'll do tomorrow before the birthday party (which starts at 1)

I'm also hoping to get done in enough time to wash it to make sure the ends all stay where they're supposed to and to get rid of the inevitible dog hair that makes its way into my stitches. grrrrr.

But those diamonds? I BEAT THEM!

Pluggin' Along

Progress report #3!

160 diamonds done! YAY!

Let's "Git 'Er Done!"

Progress report #2!

After a grueling day yesterday of literally crocheting almost every waking minute, I now have 121 diamonds completed. WOOHOO!!

Looks quite a bit different now.

Let me tell you, though, I thought I was going to go out of my mind working all those white ones. I just got so *sick* of doing white I wanted to throw it out the window. ;) But at least all the white diamond blocks are done and I won't have to do more until the very corners. Wee!

Here's a wider shot to see all of it so far:

Crochet-A-Quilt CAL

Progress report with piccies!

I've completed 55 diamonds on this baby and am right now starting the white diamond groupings around the star. So far the pattern has gone pretty well!

This is for the Crochet-A-Quilt CAL over at Crochetville. I started this Sunday night and need to get this done by Saturday. EEEK! I hope I can get it completed. It's for my niece's birthday party.

Yup, I know, I've already completed an afghan for her, but when I saw this, I wanted to make this one! (Maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment - trying to take on a huge project like this one in a week??)

So anyway, here it is. I was SO intimidated by the pattern when I first started out. I've never done a square (or diamond) motif afghan before. Putting all those little pieces (so MANY of them!!!) together just seemed like such an impossible task.

But I decided to give her a go anyway because the Prairie Star Afghan Pattern is just breathtaking. I think I'd like to do this one again someday in colors for me (yea, like I need another afghan) ;)

A wider shot to see all of the middle star:

Here We Go Again ;)

MAM #2

Another Mile-A-Minute CAL entry ;). I had so much fun with the first one I decided to do another one! This is also my own design -- just kind of winging it. But this one is MUCH easier than the last one.

My sister in law bought this yarn a couple of years ago when she wanted to learn how to crochet. It didn't go well for her so she gave the yarn to me. It's been sitting here for quite some time and today I thought it would be perfect to try out this granny MAM pattern idea I had in my head. I'm liking how it looks so far! :)

---Baseball talk ---

I started this today while listening to the White Sox baseball game on the radio. My husband and I are HUGE White Sox fans (have been since childhood for both of us.)

I feel bad for the Sox. After such a sensational year last year and the World Series title, losing two of the first three games of the season has got to be a little disheartening. I hope they won't let it phase them, though. Hopefully with tomorrow's day off they'll be up and ready for Friday night's game in Kansas City. :)

It's Finished!

Yay! I'm so pleased with how it came out!

I decided that just 3 strips was going to be wide enough and then started joining. I researched just about every way of joining motifs that I could before I settled on the Flat Braid join, which I LOVE. It was relatively easy (though tricky in some spots) but really went pretty quick. I also like that it really does lay flat and matches the pattern design I made up beautifully.

For the final edging, I was going to do (5dc, sk 2, sc, sk 2, 5 dc...) but decided that was not the right look at ALL, so I just went with (sc, ch3, sk 1, sc...) which I think added a nice little frill at the edge but doesn't take away or distract from the main pattern of the afghan.

I'm still in the process of making the final adjustments in writing down the pattern. I have pages of scribbles and crossed out sections from where I frogged. ;)

Anyway, my first Crochetville CAL AND my first Mile-A-Minute is finished! BIG smiles!

Here's some other shots:

MAM CAL update

Just a little update -- I've finished Strip #2! Yay! Went a lot faster than the 1st one, thankfully!

After measuring the two of them side by side and accounting for the space between where the join will be, I'm thinking I'll only need two more strips. Weee! Makes it easy on me :)

I'm having fun with this one! I can't wait to see what it looks like when I get the strips joined!

MAM CAL

Strip 1!

For the Mile-A-Minute Crochet-Along over at Crochetville. This is the first MAM I've done simply because I'm not crazy about doing motif afghans. I love the way they look, but I hate assembling them. ;)

This is my own design that I'm making up as I go along. I figure it will be probably 3 or 4 more strips like this one and then joining. If anyone has any tips on joining MAM strips, I'd be grateful! :)

The body of the strip was easy and took about an hour. The rounds of edging has been a nightmare. I've stitched and frogged and stitched and frogged and so on and so on. I started this yesterday and crocheted quite a bit last night and eventually after tearing it and my hair out, I decided I needed to get it away from me and go to bed and then wake up to look at it with new eyes. Uggh! I have a new appreciation for those of you who regularly do your own designing for ANY type of crochet item. It's difficult! And I'm by no means in the same class as several of the people whose work I've seen on threads in the forum. Wow.

Anyway, I think I've got all the kinks worked out now and have everything I've done so far written down so I *should* be able to work pretty fast for the rest of it. And then my next great adventure will be joining them.... *sigh* I hope that goes smoothly.

A couple of close-up shots:

Think Pink

Finally finished this one. I think I started it about a month or so ago and set it down because I'd already done two in the same pattern and was kind of "tired" of it. I'm not quite sure who this one will be going to - I've had 3 different little girls in mind while working on it.

I like the way it turned out - almost like looking at cotton candy. :)

I've had to take a few days off of really working on anything. It's that time of the year for me right now - the time to be sick as a dog. Uggh. A sinus infection doubled up with a small case of bronchitis is no fun, but hopefully a few more days of antibiotics and I'll be almost 100%.

Diamonds & Lace

It's finished!

I took a few days off doing this one to work on the Rectangle Granny and the Homespun afghan (I'm going to frog the LB pattern and start a different one -- more on that later.)

Anyway, I LOVE how this turned out. It drapes beautifully and looks so lacey. I'm very happy with it, if I do say so myself.

For the edging I just did a border of DC's all the way around (to match the DC row between the pattern sets) and then a simple picot edging to give it a delicate feel. This was my first time with picots; they were slow at first but I love the finished look.

It's going to be hard giving this one away. I'll have to remember to write down my pattern first!

Thanks, Erin!

Hot off the hook! ;) I just finished this one this afternoon. I got this Rectangular Granny pattern from Erin's site - I love the pattern! It's just too cute.

I hope things start to get easier for you soon, Erin. My thoughts are with you.

Works In Progress

Started this one yesterday. I don't have a pattern for it -- I've been working from two tiny pictures of an afghan for auction on ebay. Sadly I didn't bookmark the auction link, I only saved the pics so I can't provide a link to compare.

I'm really pleased with the progress so far. It's been deliciously easy to reproduce this one, mainly because it's very similar to the one I did for my son T. That one was called "Diamond Trellis" and the pattern came from a Leisure Arts book I've got.

Well this one, according to the ebay auction, is also called "Diamond Trellis". The stitches are exactly the same only the layout of them is different. I decided to do this one where it's stitched horizontally with the starting chain being the long side. That way the stripes will be vertical rather than horizontal. I can't wait till it's done!

Here is a close up shot of the pattern:

#2

From a pattern I found in my Leisure Arts "Our Best Baby Afghans" book, but I modified it a little bit. I didn't like the placement of the lacey tr's in their example, so I switched them around. I think maybe only 9 more rows and this one should be done.

#3




The 2nd ripple I've done. I keep going back and forth on whether I like the colors I picked for this one. Made with Caron Simply Soft White, Victorian Rose, and Plum Wine. This one is completed except I still have yet to weave in all the ends. Uggh. I'm not looking forward to that job!

#4

I got this pattern off the Project Linus website: it's called "Star Shell." It's time consuming for sure, but I love how soft it is. There's still quite a bit more to go on this one. I'll get around to it someday ;)

#5

Another one in the pattern of C's blanket. I'm using Bernat Softee Baby in pink, purple, and pink parade. The edging will be in pink.

#6


I got the pattern for this one off of Dot's site. I'd been looking for a basket weave pattern that went from side to side rather than working in square motifs. (I haven't had much luck with motif afghans yet.) This was exactly what I was looking for. I did modify it a little bit -- instead of repeating each weave four times, I'm only doing two.

#7

Another pattern from my Leisure Arts "Our Best Baby Afghans" book. There are so many good ones in there! This one is definitely going to take me a loooooooooong time. Most of it is sc which I'm not as fast at as dc or tr (I don't understand why). The accents of long and extended long dc are what attracted me to this one. It's going to be beautiful and I think my youngest son will get it. He's been eyeing it.

Little Boy Blue ... and green?

Just finished this one last night. This is the same pattern as C's blanket but this time in Bernat Softee Baby in mint and blue. It will be a gift for the new grandson of the teacher my son had last year.

A close up: