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Monday, March 27, 2017

Last Week - Crochet April the Giraffe

I didn't post any updates last week (I know, not unusual for me to skip a week or two here and there) but I had a good reason last week...I was in the hospital.  I had surgery last Monday (Mar 20) to remove a tumor from one of my parathyroid glands.  I stayed overnight and everything seems to have been successful.  I go for a follow up this week and I expect a good report.

However, that left me home all week and I didn't feel too well the first few days after returning home and to be honest, I am still feeling very tired so I was home all week, resting up and I just am not one to want to sit - I like to watch TV and movies but my hands are generally busy.  So after I started feeling better, I picked up my crochet hook and some yarn and got busy.

Saturday I was binge watching Ally McBeal on Netflix (I have been re-watching it and found out that they are taking it away on April 1st so I want to finish it before it goes away) and I was looking on Facebook to see if April the Giraffe had her baby yet and she hadn't so I decided to crochet my own Giraffe - thinking maybe that will help move April's baby along.  (Still no baby as of yet)

I found this Amigurumi pattern on Lion Brand's website, and thought that the new Color Wheel yarn by Loops & Thread would be just the right amount (I still had plenty left even though they are smaller skeins).

Have you seen the new Loops & Threads Color Wheel Yarn?  It is so pretty - smaller skeins and smaller prices - about 90 yards and was on sale recently for $1.19 each.  When I bought it, it was buy 2 and get 1 free.  There are so many colors!!!  I want them all!!


I bought a few a couple of weeks back because (a) they were on sale and (b) someone on Ravelry asked if I would make her some granny squares because she wants to make her daughter a blanket like the nuns and nurses made for Chummy on Call the Midwife.  I told her I would make her some and send them to her (which I plan to do this week) - so luckily I had a couple of giraffe colors in there (Gold and Lt. Gold are the colors I used).  You can see them there on the 2nd shelf from the top (the first 2 colors)

So...I started Saturday night and worked on it off an on and finished it Sunday afternoon.  I am calling her "A.J." (which stands for April, Jr.).  How do you like her?







Friday, March 17, 2017

Funny Friday - Old School Surgery

You have to be a certain age, I think, to get this one.

Happy St. Patrick's Day !


Thursday, March 16, 2017

Cold Spring

Even though it has been 27 degrees the past few mornings and the wind is pretty unbearable and freezing cold....the flowers still think it is spring so they've been putting on quite a show.







Wednesday, March 15, 2017

W.I.P. Wednesday

Good news...my sister-in-law loved her slouchy hat that I mentioned last week and liked receiving a surprise in her mailbox.  I am so glad.  I wasn't sure of the color but she loved it - yea!!

Also, last week, I mentioned that I crocheted a ski hat for Bev's Country Cottage.  As a result of that, I had a LOT of leftover baby yarn.  I wanted to do something productive with it and started thinking about my friend's daughter that is expecting a baby in August.

I really hadn't planned on making her a baby afghan because (a) the mom-to-be and I are not all that close and (b) the mom-to-be is 17 years old and I didn't think she would appreciate it - it seems that the most millennials just don't appreciate or want "home-made" gifts.  If it isn't something you can't purchase with an app or they didn't see on Facebook or Pinterest, they are not interested.  (I speak in general terms).

Plus...after the bad experience I had in giving a time consuming, and what I thought, a beautiful afghan to my 2nd cousin (another millennial), I just didn't want to waste my time making a lovely baby afghan for someone who would just toss it aside like wet newspapers.  (Can you tell that I am still a bit miffed about that and I still haven't gotten a thank you card and the baby is now 4 months old?), but I digress.

So, at any rate, even though I do not know if it will be appreciated, I had all this left over yarn so decided to use it to make my friend's daughter a basic granny square afghan.  I really like how the colors are coming out so far.



I do hope that it will be appreciated and loved but I can't control what other people do.  I found out yesterday that her aunt is also making her a granny square baby afghan but it is different - she is making one large granny square in a baby blue color (similar to the one below), so they will be a bit different. 

The good thing about granny squares is they work up fast.  The other good thing about the one I am doing is I am joining as I go, so no sewing them together at the end.  The only drawback is all the colors, while pretty, it slows me down each time I have to stop and change the color, which is a lot!!

I'll be out of commission next week - having a small surgical procedure to remove my one of my parathyroid glads so not sure if I will be up to finishing this next week but hopefully so...we shall see.



Wednesday, March 8, 2017

W.I.P. Wednesday

Happy Hump Day y'all.


I hope you are having a good week so far.  I have done a little bit of crocheting over the weekend (not this cute camel though).

First, Beverly, who owns and operates the website Bev's Country Cottage, asked me to make this hat for her to post on her website.  She has tons of great and FREE patterns so be sure you check her out.  She found one pattern that was missing a photo so I made this hat for her to post with the pattern.


 At first I didn't think I would like the color combo but I used the guidelines for the pattern (although I used a different yarn) and found that the colors were actually quite cute in the end.  However, I had a bunch of yarn left over...so I decided to start making little granny squares and will end up piecing together for a small baby blanket.  Perhaps to give to a friend's daughter, who is due in August.  (Photos to come).

Also, my sister-in-law had mentioned a few times that she would like a slouchy hat.  Not sure how serious she was or what she had in mind exactly but I saw some pretty Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable Waves yarn at Hobby Lobby one day and thought it would make a nice slouchy hat so I picked up a couple of skeins (glad I got 2 because it took about 1.25 skeins).  I don't care for slouchy hats for myself (they look awful on me) but I hope my sister-in-law likes it.  Then again she might think "why in the world did she make this for me?"  😆  The color is called Lakehouse (how nice is that?!) 


Although the yarn was not all that easy to work with (it goes from being super chunky, to being baby fine in a split second and does that throughout), I did like the end result and the colors.   I had never made a hat with this type of brim before - it was different and I kind of like how it worked up.  I switched to a smaller hook for the brim and wonder if I should have gone done 2 hook sizes but it is done now.

I guess for now, I will finish up the unintended baby granny square blanket (which I never expected to do but want to use up that nice baby yarn).  After that, I will start a knitted shawl that I plan to give to my mom for mother's day (I knit slow so wish me luck with that).

Until next time...happy hooking!!