Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Help Wanted!

Do any of you have any good chemo cap crochet patterns that you like that you could share with me? I searched around but didn't find any that I really liked.

Thanks in advance for your help :)

Monday, September 24, 2012

My Pet Peeve



I don't know about you, but I really, really, really don't like it when I try to follow a pattern someone has written and keep finding errors.

I crochet to relax, not to get stressed out!  I have been trying to make this simple dishcloth for two days now and am about ready to throw up my hands and say "ENOUGH!" 

Please, please, those of you who write patterns, please double and triple check them before you share them with others! I mean, honestly, is it wrong of me to expect a pattern to be correct?

Okay, I'm off my soapbox now.. going to give this one last try and then I give up!

EDITED TO ADD:

I just realized that this is the second time this has happened to me from this same person's patterns, so unfortunately I am going to have to stop following her blog. I figured out the pattern for the dishcloth, glory hallelujah!

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Progress



I am making progress on my Granny Shawl. I am really loving the colors that I picked out for this too.

 
Picked up an ergonomic crochet handle at Wal-mart the other day. Still not sure if I like it or not.
 
Going to be watching football with Mr. S. today, so more progress to be made on it today. Happy Sunday!

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Happy Wednesday

Hi everyone! Hope you are doing well, and that the weather is nice wherever you are. I absolutely love this time of year, it's not in the 100's anymore and the nights are cooling down. I will be getting out my Halloween decorations before long!

I started the Granny Shawl I told you about in my last post. I haven't gotten too far, only a couple of rows, but I can already tell that it will go fast once I get going on it. Here is the progress so far:


I am using Red Heart with Love yarn and so far, so good. It is way softer than the Red Heart Super Saver and is not much higher in price. Since I don't have a Hobby Lobby near me (yet!) this yarn will have to do.

Here are some pictures of random things around here:


Butterfly bush in our front yard.... it is huge and attracts the hummingbirds. Our cats love to sit in the window and watch the birds all day. Mr. S. calls it "kitty TV"  ha ha!

Speaking of hummingbirds, I was out back one day and was just sitting there with my camera and got this great shot of three hummingbirds at one of our feeders:

 
The area in Arizona that we live in is known for its hummingbird population. We get so many species of them, and they are just fun to watch. We have feeders in our front and back yard both and we have hummingbirds at them all day long.
 
I have not posted a recent picture of our adorable Malti-Poo, Lulu, in quite awhile, so here she is:
 

She will be a year old at the end of next month. We just love her to death and cannot remember what our lives were like before she came along!  One of my next crochet projects will be to make her a sweater. :)

I have been trying new recipes again. We are trying to eat healthier around here, and although Mr. S. loves vegetables, I'm afraid I am not a huge fan of them. I saw this recipe yesterday and it looked good so I thought I'd give it a try. Boy am I glad I did, because it is scrumptious!  It is a Raw Veggie Salad, and the beauty of it is you can really include whatever veggies you like. I did not add radishes because we don't like them, so I added more snap peas. I used pine nuts and pepitas, and since I had them in my pantry, some dried cranberries. Here is what it looks like:




 


It is mixed together with a Citrus Poppyseed dressing... as Rachael Ray would say, yum-o!! It is a great mix of sweet and sour, crunchy and soft, tangy and mild - well, you get the idea. Give this one a try, you won't be disappointed.

Recently I also tried making my own homemade pickles. The first time I made them, I used the method you can find at Jillee's blog here. They came out really good, although Mr. S. says I added too much garlic (I didn't think so!).  The other day while shopping at the Commissary (grocery store on the Army Post) I found a kit from a company called Pepper Creek Farms. It had three varieties you could make - Kosher Dill, Polish Dill and Bread and Butter pickles. They only had enough pickling cucumbers at the store for me to make two of the three varieties, so I made the Kosher and Polish ones. They turned out yummy too, and the nice thing about this kit is that it only takes 24 hours in the refrigerator and you have pickles.


I got eight pint jars of pickles out of it, four of each variety. I only paid $6.99 for the kit, and I notice that their prices on their website are higher than that (you can check them out here, the pickles are under Gift Sets).  I may go back and get a couple more kits.

Okay, I think that's enough rambling for today. I need to go buy vacuum cleaner bags, make a few phone calls and maybe head to the grocery store. Have a great rest of your week.



Monday, September 3, 2012

Gaga for Grannies

 
I have such a love affair with the Granny Square. It is one of my very favorite things to crochet, mainly because it is so versatile. You can make your "basic" granny square, but there are also so many other things you can do with it.

I was perusing Pinterest the other day and found some things that were quite interesting.


A Granny square lampshade.  I'm thinking this might be a safety hazard!

 
Granny Square Parasol. So cute... maybe not practical, but cute!


Granny Square Birdhouse. This is so adorable, but I'm not sure how well it would hold up in the weather.


Love, love, love this Granny Square Ball. The link went to an Etsy shop, so no pattern, but shouldn't be too hard to figure out.


Can you imagine how much time it must take to make these Granny Square Cookies??


Love this... so colorful and fun!



I saw this Granny Shawl pattern on Tangled Happy the other day (do you follow it? If not, you should!) and fell instantly in love:


So much so that I bought some new yarn (gah, like I need more!) and plan to start it ASAP. If you love it too, here is the post from Tangled Happy:  http://www.tangledhappy.com/2012/08/granny-shawl.html

I'm going to be visiting my nephew and his wife and two adorable little girls next month in Virginia, so I need to get this done before then. I'm sure the weather will be much cooler there, so it will come in handy.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend :)