Taz is Complete! (And he has a new home)

Here he is! I didn't have my "good" camera that I normally use for my photos, so these photos aren't the greatest, but they're here. :) His new home is with my dad. BTW,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!! Dad's b-day was November 23rd: Thanksgiving. :) I sent Taz out and he got there the day before. I'm glad Dad liked him. Now, I just have to put the finishing touches on the Barbie Doll Dress.

BIL's afghan is nearly finished and will be posted as soon as I can. Goodness knows when that will be though!

I also have a pair of baby booties started. I have no particular purpose for them except to have something to do, but a co-worker has a baby boy on the way and my Uncle DJ and Aunt Teresa have another on the way in March! I'll definitely make a blanket for this little one like I did for Zachary. JC (the co-worker) has been given at least a dozen blankets from the women at work, so he'll have enough to go through his next kid(s)!! I'll wait and see what goes on as far as booties and such to decide whether to give him the ones I'm making soon.

I'm finally down to just 2 projects going at once, and one is almost complete. I would probably have more, but our gang at work made a comfort-ghan for my cousin who lost her little boy. She also used to work with us. I'll post pics and tell more of the story later, but for now I have to go.

TTFN!!

Pineapple Barbie Dress-Update!

Well, I finally have "finished" the Pineapple Barbie Dress...I think. The last time I thought it was finished I brought it home and found out that it was *not* made to fit an 11 1/2" tall Barbie. What's the problem? The top wouldn't go up over Barbie's top! LOL. :) After letting it sit on my dresser for over 2 weeks and letting my own frustration subside, I finally picked it back up. Needless to say, I frogged (rip it, rip it) almost half of what was already completed. Finally, I THINK (after hours of stitching and frogging) I came up with a solution! Tell me what you think!

Where the pins are on the back, I am planning to put fasteners. The one on the lower part of the dress will be a small metal snap. I'm not sure how to fasten the top yet, though. And dear Mike says the straps are too narrow at the moment, so I'm probably going to add a ruffle or simply single crochet one row around the existing stitches. I will also have to starch since the skirt has lost some of its "oompf" as I've continued to work. I guess I'll figure the rest out as I get there! I'm just proud that I was actually able to do this much with the top!! (Yes, I did write down the steps as I went along, so I can pass it on to someone else or just keep it to myself!)

And before I sign off, I want to send a quick shout out to my baby sister, Mariah, whose birthday is this Saturday.

Happy Birthday, Mariah!

Love,
~~Tara~~

Yes...I DID fall off the face of the Earth

But I'm back now! LOL ;) I haven't stopped crocheting, though! I have many, many projects that have been started and a few that have already been completed. Crochet has been the only thing that's kept me sane through Mamaw's 2 heart attacks in 2 months, Mike going away for 2 weeks, and working 8 hour shifts again. Obviously, this will be kind of long since I have several FO's (Finished Objects) and WIPs (Work*s* In Progress) to show. Here we go!

I started on the Pineapple Barbie Dress by Tweety Rose for my baby sister, Mariah. (P.S. Don't tell her! LMAO! And, if you're reading this, Ri, look away.....NOW.) Here it is on one of my Barbies. This was taken after only 20-25 rounds were complete. It has 35 total for the skirt; I haven't even begun the top and sleeves yet! Of course, Murphy's Law kicked in: after I started to get moving on it pretty quickly, I hit a spot that I can't figure out!! AAAAACK!!! Hopefully, my email to Tweety will help me out some. If not, I guess Barbie will lose 5 rows of her gown! *Insert shrug here* Oh, well! Just as a fun aside, this dress has also become known as the "Doilly Dress" at work and was started by my friend JC. It's also one of those projects that people keep asking, "When are you gonna get that thing done? How long have you been working on it now??" In answer to the first...Probably, NEVER! lol. The second: Counting from the time I started it, two months. But that wasn't a solid 2. I have had to stop occasionally out of sheer boredom with it and work on other projects, like the ones listed below!

My other WIP is a "Taz" that I'm making for my Dad. (Dad, don't look now!) I haven't taken a recent picture of him with arms and legs, but here are his humble beginnings:
Some of my co-workers are teasing me since his nose, at this point, seems to be bigger than his head! IMHO, he looks more like he's staring at the ceiling! C'est la vie. I may actually try to stuff his head so it's more full (and, therefore, taller). My other option is to remove all of his facial pieces, move everything down a smidge, then re-sew and re-stuff it. At this point, option #3 sounds the most appealing...leave everything right where it is and consider this Taz to be "artistic and individual"! Besides, Dad will love it anyway....RIGHT, DAD??? lol. :) For anyone interested in the pattern, it is in a now discontinued book-Looney Tunes Bugs and Pals to Crochet. It also has Bugs, Tweety, and Sylvester.

A friend of ours has just added a new addition to his family. So, congratulations Tommy and Noel. Christian Thomas was born at 5:23 am, August 26th weighing in at 7 lbs, 1 oz and 21" long! Tommy called and gave us the good news that day, and I decided to whip up a quick baby blanket. I had some extra Simply Soft yarn waiting to become a project, and this was the one. I have a pattern for a round afghan that I decided I would try. My wonderful hubby, Mike, helped me with the arrangement of the colors that I had chosen. And in about 48 hours, Baby Christian's blanket looked like this: Cute, huh?

Last, but not least, a gift I did for the 5-year-old daughter of another friend. I have nicknamed her "Monkey" as she's always bouncing around, climbing on things (and people, especially Mike), and chattering away! I whipped up a quick little monkey just for her. She even called me after her dad gave it to her to say "thank you" and "I really like him". How sweet is that!? Love ya, Kiersten!

Okay, so I think that gets me pretty much caught up on current projects. I will be posting pics of Taz as soon as he is complete...and the Barbie dress as soon as I figure out the next step! So, TTFN, and keep stitchin' and smilin'!

Janet's Overdue Recognition!

These beautiful potholders are courtesy of a dear, sweet lady that I met on the CP list...Her name is Janet Ford. They were a gift from last month (like I said-WAAAAAY-overdue!) for helping her figure out a name for her blog. She posted a request to the CP list, but I was the only person who responded. As such, I was surprised when she decided to send me a gift as a "thank you."

Since she had an unusual spelling for her nickname courtesy of her DH (dear husband), I suggested she use it...http://www.crotchet-ywife-y.blogspot.com Recently, I read in The Encyclopedia of Crochet by Donna Kooler, that "crotchet" was one way of spelling "crochet" in the early days of crochet. Of course, we know which one succeeded! lol. But I thought that was interesting since Janet's hubby called her his "crotchety wifey" as a joke playing off the word of crochet since it's her hobby! Too cute!! ;)

Also, much to my surprise, after our mini vacation, I was checking our mail and Mike and I received an anniversary card from Washington. We had no idea who it could be from...none of our family lives in WA state. When I read it, I was soooo touched to see that it was from dearest Janet! How sweet is that!? So, here's a great big "Thank you" to a wonderful friend that I never would have known had it not been for the wonders of the internet!

Mamaw's Mother's Day Gift

Well, I gave Mamaw her "Gypsy Scarf" and head scarf on Mother's Day. I'm not exactly certain she liked them. And even though this is a VERY light weight yarn, she feels she can't use either one until Fall.

I am currently finishing the purse that goes with it, but I am using it as a carrier for the scarf set since I KNOW it will be too small for Mamaw to use as an actual purse! :) <---At this point, the purse is still a WIP (aka Work In Progress). Well, it was a few days ago when I took the picture. All I have to do to it now is add a carrying strap and tuck in my loose ends. I just don't have the pic taken yet.

Here are the pictures I had my DH, Mike, take for me. I don't have a "head model" and, of course, I couldn't talk Mike into modeling for me! LMAO! ;) So, this is me modeling everything: Here is a front view of the head scarf. I like the little pom-pom thingys! It is almost big enough to be worn across the shoulders, but that's because I added four extra rows to allow Mamaw to wrap up when it's windy out. This is the back. It comes down longer and would probably have looked better in the picture had I not had my hair up in a pony tail! And my loving husband, the goofball that he is, decided that there should be a side view of the head scarf as well...I think he just wanted to see what I would look like in a mug shot! What do you think??

The scarf was intended by the pattern designer to be a hooded scarf. Originally, I did follow the pattern as written in the May issue of "Crochet!" When I was finished, the scarf was only 6" wide, and barely enough to cover the head, so I took it apart (only the hood section) and let it be what it wanted to be all along: a scarf! The scarf is really all that ended up being "exactly" as the pattern was written...with the exception that it wasn't left hooded. As I said, the head scarf had 4 rows added. But the purse is a whole other story! I could pretty much say it's my own pattern. The stitches are the same, but that's about it! I am trying to write it down in terms that other people might actually understand, and I hope to post the pattern for others to try soon. I'll just take it as it comes, though. :)

Well, this is all for now. I could write more and add some more pics from some other things that have been done, I have been awake since 3 AM, and am exhausted!! So, for now, this is it. We'll see what the rest of the day brings and if I will have time to update again.

TTFN!

MIL's Potholders Finished!

I can hardly believe it's May 1st already! I have had my MIL's potholders and towel toppers done for a while now, but I haven't been well enough to be on the computer this week. I have been off work exactly one week now due to my Fibromyalgia, and plan on going back tomorrow. The towel toppers are from part of one set of a pattern in Leisure Arts "little books" Kitchen Decor from the "Country Garden Kitchen Collection." Bette over at CP helped me out with how to get them started using a steel crochet hook as shown here with my regular hook to hold the previous stitch in place.

The potholders were from the same book. The pattern for them was called "Classic Kitchen Potholders" and originally had only 3. I wanted to make more than that, so I reversed the colors and made 6: 3 with a yellow backing and 3 with white! :) The pattern also called for brown centers, but since no brown was used in the towels, I used black instead. IMHO, the white with the black center turned out a little bland looking. I just decided to leave it, though, since it is still the opposite color of it's partner.

After I got the hang of the steel hook technique, I finished one towel topper, went to Wal-Mart, and found a pretty daisy/sunflower button to put on it. That's when I decided I wasn't going to make just ONE topper, but two! I also added the white and yellow border to set it off just a little bit more from the black. After all was said and done, this is what I ended up with! The yellow/white border does go all the way down the edges of the top, but since it folds under, you can't really tell. :( Oh, well. Maybe I'll make it differently next time! After all was said and done, here is the whole set of two towels and six potholders that I have made. I plan on giving these as our Mother's Day present for my MIL. I know she'll love them. She actually picked out the original towel that I transformed from "regular towel" to "pretty towel that can hang from my oven door!" LOL. ;)
And, yes, I know there are a lot of pictures in this post. Hey, I have to make up for the last week that I wasn't on here to post pics in progress! Plus, Mike and I are going on our "honeymoon" this week. So, starting Thursday, I won't be here at all! Okay, so we're only going an hour away for four days, but at least we're celebrating our first anniversary in a special way. We both had to work right after we got married, so we didn't get to go on a "true" honeymoon. I'll probably take Mamaw's Mother's Day present with me to work on, though! I'm making her a matching set of a hooded wrap, scarf, and small purse. And, of course, I'll post pictures! Maybe I'll even post a pic or two of our mini-vacation too!! C-ya!

Finally Back!

I have had the sweaters done for quite some time now, since about Thursday, but I have been in such a bad flare with my Fibromyalgia that I haven't been able to post my results. This is what I ended up with: Light Green: 4 & 5/8 oz; Gray-green (I was wrong in thinking it was just dark gray and the sunlight allowed me to see this before I combined the two...it also allowed the neighbors to think I was crazy as they drove by staring at the girl on her sidewalk pulling apart a sweater! lol) Oh, yeah, again-Gray-green: 2 & 1/2 oz; White from purple added to white from green sweaters: TW 1/2 oz; Tan: 1/8 oz; Light Blue from the green sweater: 1/2 oz.

From the all-gray sweater I got the following...White: 3/4 oz; Black 1/4 oz; Light Blue: 3/4 oz; "Gray": 8 & 3/8 oz. Why did I put the "gray" in quotes? As I found out when I started unraveling, it's not really gray. Instead, it's black and white twisted into one strand to appear gray! I hope you can read what I wrote on the paper and see the yarn itself. Here is a pic I took to show what they had done: Honestly, I don't know who the company was because the tag had been cut out due to my sensitive skin not being able to handle the itchiness of it. In any event, I have concluded it is approximately a DK (double knitting) weight yarn with all 4 strands together. Unfortunately, I have about a billion 12" +/- strands due to the seams that were made when the manufacturer put it together...all the ends were already cut! BOO HOO! :( Now, I just don't know what to do with the yarn! lol.

I also found another sweater that I had in a "to be recycled" box with my sewing stuff as it had lots of little yarn pulls coming out of it. Now, I'm debating with myself if I should take it apart or not. Decisions, decisions.

I have nearly completed the towel hanger and pot holder set I am doing for my MIL and will post pics as soon as it is done. I have 3 of six ph's finished and the towel topper done except for a button. I hope she likes them! :)