Baby items

Gender Neutral please ... we want to be surprised! So using the green (I know the picutres make it look blue but trust me it is a mint green) and yellow & white yarn that my daughter purchased I made the baby blanket & then the smaller one with the left over yarn. Then I used the left over yarn from both of those for something not pictured here yet. I used the left over yellow & green TLC yarn (3 ply sport weight) for the newborn baby sweater (the one I mentioned the other day Toni's Newborn sweater found at Bev's Country Cottage ck out yesterday's post for the link to the pattern) so the green for the sleeve switch to yellow for the body when it was time to work the back I switched back to the green then back to the yellow and then back to the green for the second sleeve ... & I love it! .... and I used the size 3 thread I picked up in Italy to make the yellow & red (I know it looks orange!!! but that is the red next to the goldenrod yellow making it appear orange) ... hexagon sweater & I simply trimmed it plainly since my daughter thought the post stitches made the sleeves too puffy & therefore too girly looking.
And if you caught the little green hat in the photo showing the above mentioned items all together good eye! Yes I used the Lime TLC for the newborn sweater & for the hat (I designed it but am not sure it is ready for sharing ... I may need to fine tune it just a bit.)

I do have more pictures to share (and as we all know I haven't even posted any of my Italy pictures yet... Yet being the operative word here) ....

Anyway for today let's be satisfied with what we have :)

Wishing you all frog free projects!!!!

(Oh yeah my car looks like new I should show you an after picture ... but it's been cold, rainy & even some snow flakes (big wet ones that I dislike so very much) so no pictures of my car have been taken & to be honest I probably won't get around to it any time soon. So suffice it to say & to know my car has been repaired beautifully. )

Okay really going now ... have crocheting at the library this afternoon (and I boldly told two young ladies that I expect to see them there this afternoon to learn how to crochet ~ one has a little one & the other is expecting!)

I hope they both show up... I'm off to gather crochet supplies :)

TY for comments/ & Hello I"m home again!!!!

I have returned safely home again. And I just browsed the blog here for comments to see if I should get back to my writing ... and I want to thank Sherri & anonymous & Jaye for your comments. I have so much to share with you all. I will have to try & organize my photo's & my narratives. But as always I would love to do my best to help anyone with their crocheting so Jaye and anyone else reading who has a ? for me regarding crochet I will do my best to answer you so you can progress with your projects. But I can't help anyone if I don't know what you need help with so please feel free to contact me or leave a comment. Once I'm aware of your need I will do my best to help.

Also need to share two baby patterns that I recently worked up and loved! While I was visiting with my daughter I completed the baby afghan, and made a small receiving sized blanket that will fit over a carseat just right if needed, also a hat, and a newborn sized sweater & another baby sweater to leave with her. I will make more things now that I'm home & bring them with me in March. Also since I am aware of at least 6 women all expecting between late Nov. & March I will be in baby mode for my crocheting projects. While with my daughter I did make 2 other baby sweaters but due to my way of thinking they will go to someone else (my thought is that it will be too warm where they live by the time the baby could actually use the sweaters so I'd rather make more size/ age / weather appropriate items).



I got both patterns from Bev's Country Cottage ... the first one is a hexagon baby sweater ... it is so easy and quick and I loved working it up! The second one is Toni's newborn sweater ... it too is very easy & quick to work up. I'm working on a second one right now but had to modify the pattern to accomodate the yarn I'm using. The pattern is really easy to follow however I decided to make this one with a size 3 cotton so I had to increase my beginning stitches to equal the size made when worked using a 3 ply baby yarn with a size K hook ... I'm also working with a size F hook with the cotton so once I managed to get the length correct I had to work 2 rows to equal 1 row in the pattern to match the height of the stitches. So right now I am almost half way through this baby sweater & I love how it looks.



Then I could not be in Jacksonville, NC and not visit with Freddie!!!! She has moved and is considering changing her yarn store's name from Phootsy's Yarn Cottage to something else. She is now located in downtown Jacksonville NC at the corner of Chaney & Ruth and I pray she has increased business due to all the work involved in making the change of location. I showed her the things I had been busy making while with my daughter. She loved the hexagon baby sweater & went to see Bev's site & the original & that lead to the real original and we were amazed at how easy this pattern is and you can trim it anyway you want to. I have made this sweater in 4 ply ww acrylic yarn, and in 3 ply sport weight yarn and in size 3 cotton yarn. Loved all 3 of them. My daughter has the cotton one & I will be giving away the other two here in the Northeast where I believe someone will get better use out of them.



Okay so back to work ... so much to do & so little time!!!! Also need to get my photo's organized and posted this week. In the meantime here are the links to the patterns I mentioned



http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/tonis-newborn-sweater.html



http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/hexagon-jacket.html



Go check them out & see if you don't enjoy the easy way they work up. I'll try to post my pictures of them soon.

As always wishing you all froggy free days :)

I'm leaving on a jet plane ...

and I won't be back again ~ Until late October that is...
And although I'm leaving & going on a plane I am not sure it is a jet plane LOL. I haven't packed yet ~ the clothing portion of my packing won't be a problem but my yarn & projects will cause me some concern. I am sorry but I have trust issues. I am not sure I trust my projects or my yarn to travel in my checked bag. So I want all of my projects to be in my carry on/tote bag. Then my concern is that it may end up weighing way to much for me to carry. I have a lovely yarn tote bag on wheels but I think it won't meet the carry on size requirements. I have to double ck & it it meets the size for carry on's then I have to see if everything I need to carry will fit inside.
I should return with pictures of all my crochet items to share. My batteries are dead for my camera or I would have already shared my shrug in progress. So that too will wait for my return.
I wish you all frog free projects!

Check this out!

http://www.mychurch.org:80/blog/30635/coolest-video-ever

This was too cool not to share it with all of you... I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

After the accident ...

Here is what my car looked like after the accident... I was driving home (after my uncle's funeral we left his grave to go have a meal with the family & friends then I dropped my mom off at her home and headed home myself) ... waiting for the light to change I was driving straight opposite me a young woman was also waiting for the light to change... when the light went green she saw green & just went ahead with her plan of making a left hand turn at that intersection. Meanwhile I was driving straight. When I realized she wasn't stopping I veered to the right trying to avoid her hitting into me but that failed. She managed to hit my car and as the photo's show it will now need two new doors.

I'm fine. She is fine & her car does have some minor damage compared to mine. But the main thing is that cars can be fixed while people need to be okay & not need repairs after an accident!!! I pray that she is fine & will continue to drive only more aware of her surroundings.

I have a rental car so I can still get around however I will be changing it ... the one they had for me is one I really don't care for! It is a Dodge Caliber ... looks great, is brand new (only 3500 miles on it) however even though I am short (5'3") I hit my head getting in the low ceiling of this car... once in the driver's seat I can not see the front of the hood. I don't know about other drivers but I was taught to know my boundaries ~ that means I need to see the end of the hood both on the left & on the right front. I can't see any of the hood basically in this "car". I shouldn't have taken this one home but I honestly felt better to have something in case of an emergency then nothing at all. Now I don't want to drive it even in an emergency. Hopefully one of the cars that I would be more comfortable driving will be returned & ready for me today really soon :)

So I guess that counts as my review of the Dodge Caliber ... I wouldn't want it but you might like it... after all everyone is different.

Looking ahead ... I plan on sharing my photo's (some that is after all I took 3500 pictures while I was away & upon review the first 100 outdoor pictures I took were no good. They were all blurry ~ which you can understand since I took them in a moving boat!) and as brief a write up of my trip as I can manage (LOL if you've been reading my blog then you know I write the way I talk ... so basically wordy ~ although I have been trying I promise you to keep it to the facts & really important info only). I also hope to have a photo of my shrug ... it is now at a stand still since I have to decide just how I want to proceed ~ I have the back exactly as I wanted it so that is excellent and that is all you'd see when I finally get the photo taken to share w/you. I have something in mind for the sleeves however I just haven't worked out the execution of that idea yet.

Wishing you all frog free projects & accident free driving!!!