A Cowl, An Owl And A Teddy Bear

Hello,
 I hope everyone is having a good week. I have still been going kind of slow, not much running around,  and certainly no housework. He he. I am feeling a lot better though and I went back to work on Monday. I have made a few more things to show you. I finished this Bellflower Infinity Scarf that I was working on for a CAL with the group Everything Zen on Ravelry. We make all kinds of different things in that group. It is lots of fun and we have really nice people in our group. Come join us if you like. You don't have to participate in all of the CAL/KALs that we do and if you want to make something you are invited to start your own CAL/KAL. Here is the cowl.

It is for me, but she is my model.
  Autumn has had to take a backpack to school since she started kindergarten last year. We have been walking to work since April and the backpack has been bothering her. She has broken her collarbone twice and the backpack strap hurts on the side where it was broken. One day I let her carry one of my bags and she carried it like a messenger bag. She loved it and it didn't hurt her shoulder. She wanted me to make her an owl bag. She said it had to be really big. So I made her this.

The wings are also pockets. She loves it and used it yesterday.
 Today is the birthday of one of the babies in the nursery I work in. She is also the daughter of my friend, Heather. The same lady who came to help me when I hurt myself last week, she is also my boss. I love her baby. She is a funny little thing. I made her a little teddy bear to carry around and play with. I used scrap yarn and worked it up while watching a documentary last night.

Looks like I need to put a nose on it. Ha ha. Somehow I forgot that until I saw the photo. I have time before work. So, that is what I have been up to this week. I will talk to everyone soon. I still have more to show you. :)

P.S. The bear is no longer noseless.

Autumn's New Sweater

Hello,
 How is everyone doing this week? I have had the last two days off from work. Not because I wanted to, I slipped on some wet leaves on Wednesday and landed on my artificial knee. I am am going to be ok, but it was pretty scary. I dropped my phone when it happened and I couldn't get up. I tried to call my friend, who was driving away from my house, and my phone wouldn't work. Autumn helped me get inside to the computer chair. It has wheels. I got online and emailed a few people, my phone was dead and I had to get ahold of my husband. Then I got on Facebook and tagged a couple of people and asked for help. My boss, Heather, was here within minutes to help me. Whew, I was so terrified that I had broken a part of my new knee. Will came racing home and long story short, I am ok, just really sore. The upside, I have had lots of time for my hobbies. I finished Autumn's hoodie. She picked out the yarn. I wasn't sure how the yarn would look and then we had to wait almost two weeks to get one more skein to finish it. The pattern called for 1,000 yards, I used more than 1,300 yards and I checked the gauge. That kind of stuff drives me nuts. I don't live close to the yarn shop and I had even bought an extra skein just in case, but it still wasn't enough. It was worth the wait though. She wore it to school today.

 I am so proud of my little girl. She was with me when I got hurt and she was such a great little helper. She was scared but she did everything I asked her to do. We don't have a landline, I don't think very many people in the US do anymore. She was ready to go start knocking on the neighbor's doors to find me some help. Facebook is attached to email and most people have smart phones. My boss heard her phone ping and checked and saw that I had posted that I needed help and she came right over. Several people saw my post and were ready to come over. Made me feel a lot better. I am so clumsy. Made me feel like an idiot to fall like that. I really want to thank my friend, Heather Wyjack and her husband Tom, for coming right over. I admit, I was a complete emotional mess when they got here. So that is my post for the day. I had planned a different post, I need to talk about some awards that some friendly bloggers have given me. I will do that tomorrow. I also have a couple of projects that are just about done. I will talk to everyone soon. :)

Tuesday's Tallies - Granny Love Update

Hello,
 Autumn is my favorite time of the year. I am loving this fall more than most. We have our new house that I love living in. The place we were in before was always temporary, even though we lived there for two years. We have our privacy, we have nice neighbors, my daughter has two little friends that live next door. This is a good fall season for our little family.
 I have been working on my Granny Love blanket. I have around 60 more squares to go and then I am done. Whew! I have changed it considerably since the last time I posted about it. I will show the changes pretty soon. I don't want to show the whole blanket until it is done. I am close. Here are the squares I finished this week.

There are about 100 sitting here. Doesn't look like it when they are all piled up. Like I said, I made a major change to this blanket and I can't wait to show it. Pretty soon. This project is part of the One-A-Day group on Ravelry and Gingerbreadgirl hosts a link party every Tuesday. Go check out everyone's neat work. There are some really beautiful projects on the go. I will talk to everyone tomorrow. I have more things to blog about. :)

How To Crochet A Flat Join

Hello,
 Thanks to my blogging friends, Lucy, Teresa, and Karisma, for helping me figure this out. This isn't the very best video and I am kind of nervous about putting myself on video. I think it will help people figure out the flat join. Like I said in last week's post, I am sure I am not the only person to come up with this method, but I did figure it out on my own. This is a nice way to join squares or any crochet work that you don't want to sew together. It doesn't have the bump in the middle like a lot of the joins I see.  Here goes.

I hope this works, please remember, I am not a professional video maker. Lol. I will post again tomorrow. I a lot of things to show and talk about right now. I have just been too busy to blog. Talk to everyone tomorrow.:)

Update, Trying To Post A Video

Hello,
 I have been working on making a tutorial for the flat join. We made a video and I watched it and it looked like it turned out just fine. I can not get the video to upload on to the post. I have no idea why. So back to page one. If I can't get it to work I will take photos of the steps tonight after work. I was so happy to have finally gotten the video made. My husband works evenings and finding time when we are both home and awake at the same time is not easy. He took the video for me. Anyway, I will post something tonight. Hopefully it will be the video, which will be easier to follow than still photos. I have a lot of things to blog about too. It has been a busy crafting week for me. Talk to everyone tonight. :)

A New Pillow and a Flat Join

Hello,
 How is October going for everyone so far? I am loving it. It has been cold here since last week and I am so glad. Time to finish my cardigan I think.
 I made this granny ripple blanket this year and had lots of yarn leftover from the project. I didn't know what to do with it and made a few squares, just to see what I could come up with. The squares were small and only had four rounds. There were a pile of them. I also have a few pillow forms in my stash of craft things. I have wanted to make a pillow to go with this blanket for months. Yesterday I sat down and made this.

I added two rounds to all the squares and made three more. I only had 15. Six rounds made the squares large enough that they would make a patchwork and fit the pillow form perfectly. I sewed the squares together. That was alright for a small project like a pillow but it had me thinking that there had to be a better way. The join as you go method looked funny to me with this particular pattern and I don't like the bump or raised ridge that comes with slip stitching or single crocheting them together. I messed around for a while and figured out how to make a flat join. I am amazed that my mind somehow put this together.

It is a perfectly flat join and looks nice as the rim of the pillow.

No bump in the middle. I am sure I am not the first person to come up with this, but it is the way I will join certain kinds of squares from now on. No sewing.

I am going to write  a tutorial for this when I get home from work. I need help taking the pictures. I can't seem to photograph myself crocheting. Lol.
 This blanket and pillow will go in the den in the basement, once we buy the couch. For now it is keeping me warm and cosy while I crochet or read in the evenings. I love the feel and weight of it. It is the only blanket I have made with dk yarn. I am going to make a few more.

 I hope everyone has a great Monday! I have to go get ready for work now. Talk to everyone soon. :)

September

Hello,
 September is my favorite month. It is the beginning of fall and the leaves start changing. It starts to get a little cooler without being cold yet. There are birthdays every week for my friends and family. I think I was busier this September than ever before. I had a great month.
 I finished the last present for the last birthday party. Autumn wanted me to make another one of these, I made one last March for another friend's birthday.

Looking a little lop-sided, but her friend loved it. We also gave her a Build-A-Bear yourself kit. They are kind of cool. The kids can sew their toy together and stuff it themselves at home. Only $10. for the gift instead of the $40.+ Build-A-Bear gets you for if you go to their stores. The little girl's party was a slumber party. Autumn's first one. Five little girls running around giggling. They live next door and I half expected a call in the middle of the night to tell me Autumn wanted to come home. She stayed and had lots of fun.
 We had the television to ourselves for a change and tried to watch Neil Young's live concert last night. Right in the middle of Powder finger, one of my favorite songs, they broke into the show to say two rap artists were fighting at the BET awards. I was so mad. I don't like rap and I highly doubt the anyone watching Neil Young cared about rappers either. They talked about it for 20 minutes. Argh.
 Today was a perfect Sunday. I got up early, as usual. Made my coffee and snuggled up on the couch for some hooky time. Yesterday Autumn and I went to Hobby Lobby to get her friend a present and I let her pick out some yarn for a hooded pullover that I have been planning on making her. I worked on it this morning and I think it will be done in a few days. It is working up really quickly. Here is what I have from my coffee session on the couch this morning.

It is very bright, but she is six and can get away with it. I actually have the front done too, but for some reason the photo didn't transfer.
 I bought some polar fleece ( at Hobby Lobby) for a blanket for Will's man cave. He plays guitar and I thought he would like this with a border crocheted by me.

Apparently I did a good job picking it out. When I showed it to him he said 'Cool, Stratocasters'. I acted like I knew what they were. Ha ha. I will show the blanket when I get the border on. The last thing I worked on this morning before I had to get up and do chores, is a blanket I am making for one of my nephews for Christmas.

This will be a great big patchwork blanket with five different colors. It is bulky and fast to work with.
 This has been a really nice weekend. Yesterday I met with the trainer at the gym, I joined on Tuesday, and was shown how to use the wt. machines. I can tell you that I am really sore today. Even my fingers hurt. No lie. I have been trying to get back in shape. I started to walk to work about 6 months ago and now we live twice as far, I still walk though. I have never done any wt. training before. Wish me luck. I thought it was pretty hard. I did feel like I really accomplished something when I was done.
 Today I am sore, but I still cleaned the house, made supper and then I made a couple of apple pies. I only make one or two a year, but I love to make them.

As you can see, one of them has already been tasted. Dinner hasn't even been served yet. Lol. I am not the one who ate the pie either. The other pie is for my friend. If my arms weren't sore after yesterday at the gym they are today after making pies. I hope everyone has had a fantastic weekend. I will talk to everyone soon. :)