The end of August already?

My first attempt at Hairpin Lace.

Well, I'm nothing if not predictable. No writing since June. Not much to report. Get up, play with kids, go to work, make food, come home, make food, make half-hearted attempt at house cleaning, stay up too late crocheting or reading, go to bed, do it all over again. There, now I'm all caught up.

But, wait! There is a change coming in the near future. I've gotten a new job! I'll be a secretary/receptionist for a carpet company one town over. I'll be closer to my kids every day and I won't have to work weekends! YAY! I won't have to slap sandwiches together anymore! They have no problem with my kids coming in after school and I can crochet when business is slow - HOLLAH!

Kid #1 started school yesterday. Third grade this year. She has the same teacher I did, too. Her bestie from last year is not in her class this year, which stinks, but we'll make it through. Two other girls have the same back pack which is almost sacrelige, and they have no homework on Fridays. That's the report I got when I came home from work.

Kid #2 starts his first year of preschool tomorrow. WAAHHH! When did my baby get big enough for school? We went to the open house they had to get him acquainted with the class room and his teacher. He loved it, of course because I had been worried that he wouldn't.

As for crocheting, I have been working on baby shower presents for two ladies that are due about a week apart. My cousin-in-law is having a girl, and my bestie from HS is having a boy, both in November. So for my C.I.L. I've been working on: a granny square blankey, a sweater, and three pairs of booties. All worked in chocolate, aqua, lavendar and hot pink. Sounds crazy, but it's really pretty. My B-HS is getting a sweater, two pairs of booties and maybe a blanket if I'm up to it. It's all worked in chocolate, pale blue, cream, and tan. I'll post pics when I'm done with it all.

I've also got ideas for Christmas presents for my momma, sis, neice and daughter. All the booties previously mentioned and the slippers I'm going to make are from patterns I bought at Sylverdesigns The cutest shoes evah! They are so sweet and little and they just make me want another little poop machine.

Gotta go get ready for the daily grind. Four days and counting, Baby!

I can't believe I've not posted a thing since April! What is wrong with me? Too much drama at work is what. gggaaaaaaahhhhhhhh...


So here is my finished bag! Yay! I didn't line it, 'cause I didn't feel like the headache, so the handle stretched waaaaaay out and I had to tie a knot in it, but it's done. And I. Love. It!


And this is that ol' puppy I had been talking about. We renamed him Zeke. He's a handful, but he's cool. He likes to chase his tail and chew on chair legs and pee and poop on the floor 5 minutes after you bring him back indoors. When he growls he sounds like a pig grunting and sometimes goes through this little quirk where he has to race through the house at top speed, grunting and dodging around everything in his path. He's an odd little dog and fits in perfectly.

Got the sweater done in plenty of time for my mom and it fit. Couldn't really tell if she truely liked it - we'll see when cool weather hits again. =/ Oh well. Now I'm at work on a sweater for myself and a small version of the above purse but done in red, white and blue for Josh's aunt down in Florida.

My birthday came and went in this interim. It was a jam-packed day. Full of visitors and surprise gifts and then I had to go to work. But, all in all...

One question - If person A knows that person B does not have a green thumb, why on earth does Person A buy Person B plants year after year, only to watch as Person B kills them off slowly but efficiently, with inconsisent watering and iffy planting placement ensuring that the plant will get either too much sun or not enough.
I don't know... I'm rambling. I need to go to sleep. I'll try to keep up here, but you never know.

More about dogs and some crochet talk too

We've decided that in the best interest of the children and for my sake, we'll be getting a new puppy sooner rather than later. Saturday, after work, we'll be taking a trip down to Vandalia to meet Beau, a Lhasa Apso/Chihuahua mix, and hopefully bring him home. I've spoken with the woman who is taking care of him and his brother; they've been placed in a foster home to help them assimilate to people and other animals. He's brindled with a long body and short legs, and he likes to bounce around a lot. I'm excited and apprehensive. I hope this works out well.
When we lost the dog we had before Howie, I was devastated. She had been Lorenne's first dog and we loved her dearly. She had gotten in the family way when some people built a house near ours out in the country and their very large golden retriever met our smallishly medium size mutt, Black. Well, she also had histoplasmosis, a lung disease. We were unaware of it at the time, and as the puppies grew and became more taxing on her system, her body was unable to fight the infection. After a week spent at the vet's office, taking aggressive meds, too weak to have surgery, Black began to miscarry the puppies and wasn't able to survive. It was a sad horrible day. I still tear up thinking about that dog. We waited nearly two years before we finally decided to get another dog. We looked in the papers for unwanted puppies and couldn't ever find anything. We finally went to the local pound and found Howie. We got to keep him for two years. Yes, that's him, after he climbed up into a tree to be with Lorenne.

If something happens to this new dog, we're only having fish from here on out. I just set my heart too much on these animals. It hurts too much to lose them. What a bawl bag I've become. Jeezalou.

Okay, something that won't make me cry to talk about. Crochet!

I've got most of my new bag done, just need the top edge and handles and a lining sewn in. Which means I've got to drag that blasted machine out and manhandle that old thing around until it does what I ask. This bag is much much bigger than I thought it would be. I guess I should have really looked at the finished measurements, but why would I do something like that? It's still beautiful and so brightly colored, I can't wait to carry it around. I'm also working on a cardi for my mom for Mother's Day. Done in black so she'll be able to wear it whenever. I have the back and left side done and have started the right front. Just leaves the sleeves and the seaming (always with the sewing, frickin' frackin' sewing!). Fingers crossed that she likes it. We shall see... photos soon.

The loss of a pet

I'm gonna go about this slowly because I'm having a hard time of it.
The hubby decided he wanted to go to a trapper's supply company's open house this weekend. He got Friday off, and I got Saturday off and we reserved a room at the Super 8. We were excited to be going, all of us, just to be getting away for the day. We got everything ready to go, and when Lorenne got off the bus we loaded up the big purple jelly bean (the van) and headed down the lane. I had put new stickers on the mail box earlier in the day, and realizing a grammatical error (misplaced apostrophe), made Josh stop so that I could fix it. Got back in the van, and as we waited for a truck to pass on the road, Josh told me to yell at Howie, our dog, who, by that time, had caught up with us at the end of the half mile lane. (We were only going to be gone for the night, so we didn't bother taking him anywhere to stay. He's a country dog.) Howie was waiting, crouched in the ditch, for that truck. I opened the door to yell and no sooner had his name passed my lips, the inevitable happened. It was the most tragic thing I have seen happen with my own eyes. I flew out of my seat and flung the side door open to hug and comfort and cry with Lorenne. Luckily, Kellen didn't really realize what had happened. Then, poor Lorenne thought he might still be alive and I had to tell her, "No, honey. He's gone. He didn't feel a thing." Josh told me that the driver of the truck was white with sadness, could see he was sick with regret, when he stopped and came back to Josh and Howie. Said he could hear us crying and just felt awful. Josh explained to him that we didn't blame him at all. It was Howie's own fault. That ding-dong mutt dog didn't have an ounce of sense in his head. Never had.
Josh carried Howie's body into the grass on the side of the lane and we drove back up to the house. Found a nice spot under one of the mulberry trees and Josh dug the hole while the kids and I went around and picked up Howie's favorite chew bones to put in with him. After Josh got him buried, we nailed his collar to the tree, and we placed five red tulips on his grave and talked about our favorite memories of him. Kellen liked it when Howie would lick his face. He said it tickled. Lorenne liked it when he would come up to her room and watch her play. I liked it when he would play soccer, really dribbling the ball with his feet and running along. I'd never seen a dog play soccer before. Josh remembered when Howie would lick at his pants leg in one spot until it was nearly soaked with slobber. We also remembered the stuff that drove us nuts. Like when he chased the birds away and got sprayed by skunks ALL THE TIME, and would dig in the flower pots and in the garden, and the time he buried the chicken carcass in the sand box, or how he would bite every sports ball we left outside until he popped it. We loved him in spite of all those irritating things he did, because he was our irritating mutt dog.

We still went to the open house, driving on back roads in the dark through unfamiliar territory until we found the town. But our hearts weren't in it. We came home early yesterday, driving home in the sporadic rain fall, heavy hearted. All because of a dog who thought he could win a game of chicken with a pickup.

Rest in Peace - Howard Johnson Wilham

"Howie"

5/16/07 - 4/17/09

Easter Weekend

Well, Easter was lovely. Saturday morning, before work, we dyed and painted eggs. The kids had a ton of fun with that. Kellen decided to paint over most of the dye work, but they were still just beautiful, and their little faces were just precious. Saturday afternoon we went to my Mom's down in Morrisonville. She made lamb (YUM), ham, mashed potatoes with two kinds of gravy, asparagus, green beans, it was all good. The kids hunted eggs and played. Then Mom, Lorenne and I played Scrabble. We had to take Gramma home and then got home ourselves by 9:30. Then up bright and early at 6:30, had to wake the kids and coerce Kellen into hunting eggs. Almost had a lost one, but Josh found it in the basket in the bathroom. The wily Easter Bunny! Went off to church. The kids wanted to stay with us for service instead of going to the nursery and to Jr. church, so we crammed them in between us. They were pretty good. Lorenne was reading the words to the songs off the overhead projector and belting out the tunes for all she was worth. It was great to hear her little off key voice warbling. Kellen was very quiet. But they both started to get tired right around the sermon. During one pray they both found that if they put their feet on the pew in front and rubbed their shoes together it would make a satisfying little squeak. Then later on, Lorenne gave a big over-exaggerated yawn and stretch. Good grief! After church we made a stop at my aunt's house then off to his grandparents for dinner. Ham and mashed potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, rolls and lemon cornmeal cake to eat. Josh's grandpa was able to eat quite a bit, but had to leave the table when he started feeling sick. The chemo he's taking to fight this cancer is really doing a number on him. We got a really nice picture of the whole family, everyone is smiling and the kids aren't pulling faces.
BUT... our clothes dryer had quit on us. Josh worked on it today and found the problem. After a grueling 12 hour night shift, he ran back to Lincoln to get the new part, and had the dryer working in no time. That man is a gift, plain and simple. We were really fretting over having to get a new dryer and using up the last of our tax return on an appliance. But, rest assured, Josh was to the rescue, and he did it all with a smile on his face. He can fix darn near everything. He's so smart. ('Course he is, he married me, right? hahaha) Anyway, the pool fund remains intact. Yay!
I worked most of the day crocheting. Finished the shawl in the previous post and worked out the pattern instructions and made the joining diagram. I think I'll try my hand at more designing. But first I have to finish the cardi and purse for me, and the cardi for my mom, before I work on anything else. No more buying yarn! No matter how good the sale at Herrschner's is.... A girl can hope, can't she?

Easy Lacy Shawl - Crochet Pattern

Easy Lacy Shawl
Yarn: Bulky weight (5) Used: 2 skeins Patons Rumor Colorway: Fern Heather
Total yardage: 168 yards
Hook: L

Motif: make 9 for small (work two extra motifs to go up every size, making sure there is always one more motif on top row than on bottom.)
Ch 4. Sl st to join in a loop.

Round 1: Ch1. 8 sc in loop. Slst in first sc to join.

Round 2: ( Ch 7. Sk next sc. 1 sc in next sc.) 3 times. Ch 7. sc in joining sl st of previous round. (4 loops, 4 scs.)

Round 3: Slst, catching both top loops of ch, in first 4 chs of first ch7 loop. Sc in top of ch7 loop. ( Ch9. Sc into middle of nect ch7 loop.) 3 times. Ch 9. sl st into first sc to join. (4 ch9 loops, 4 scs.)

Round 4: Ch 1. (11 sc in ch9 loop. 1 sc in scs.) 3 times. 11 sc in last ch9 loop. sc into ch1 to join. (48 sc)

Round 5: Ch 1. (1 sc in each of next 3 sc. Ch3. slst into same st (picot)) 15 times. 1 sc into each of next 2 sc and into sc of previous round. Picot. Slst into 1st sc. Fasten off.

To join motifs:
Follow pattern to first corner picot of second motif. Ch 1. Sc into corner picot of first motif. Ch 1. Slst to finish picot. Join net 3 picots and next corner picot in same way, following pattern. Continue with pattern to finish round.
Join 5 motifs in a strip.

For 6th motif, join in this way:
Work corner picot for 6th motif. Join next picot of 6th motif with picot of 2nd motif left of center. Join middle picot of 6th motif with joined corner picots of 1st and 2nd motifs. Join next two picots of sixth motif with next two picots of 1st motif.

For 7th-9th motif, join in this way:
Work corner picot for 7th motif. Join next picot of 7th motif with picot of 3rd motif left of center. Join middle picot of 7th motif with joined corners of 2nd and 3rd motifs. Join next picot of 7th motif with right of center picot of 2nd motif. Join next corner picot of 7th motif with center picot of 2nd motif and right corner picot of 6th motif. Join next 4 picots of 7th motif with corresponding pictos of 6th motif. Work to end of Round 5. Repeat for 8th and 9th motifs. (For 9th motif, join 1st corner picot with middle picot of 5 motif then continue joining following pattern. Weave in ends.

joining diagram (does not include edging or ties.)

Edging and ties:

Join yarn with a slip stitch into right corner picot of 1st motif. sc in picot. (Ch 3. Sc in next picot.) 5 times. Ch3. sc into 1st and 6th motif join. (Ch3. Sc in next picot) 7 times. Ch 3. Dc into 6th and 7th motif picot corner join. (Ch 3. Sc in next picot.) 3 times. Ch3. Dc into 7th and 8th motif picot corner join. (Ch3. Sc in next picot.) 3 times. Ch 3. Dc into 8th and 9th motif picot corner join. (Ch 3. Sc in next picot.) 7 times. Sc into 9th and 5th motif join. (Ch 3. Sc in next picot.) 8 times. Ch 3. Dc into 5th and 4th motif picot corner join. (Ch 3. Sc in next picot.) 3 times. Ch 3. Dc into 4th and 3rd motif picot corner join. (Ch 3. Sc in next picot.) 3 times. Ch 3. Dc into 3rd and 2nd motif picot corner join. (Ch 3. Sc in next picot.) 3 times. Ch 3. Dc into 2nd and 1st motif picot corner join. (Ch 3. Sc in next picot.) 3 times. Ch 3. Sl st into 1 sc. Ch 40. Fasten off and tie a square knot at the end. Join yarn into sc in opposite picot corner of 5th motif. Ch 40. Fasten off and tie a square knot at the end. Weave in all ends carefully.

Kellen's Mittens

Came up with these mittens after my son lost his second pair of store bought just this year.
Worked up in plain ol' Red Heart yarn with an H hook. All sc will be worked in flp only. sized for a three year old.
Round 1: 20 foundation chain (fdch). Join with a slst in bottom of first fdch. sc in first st.
R2: sc in flp around. (22 sts) ch 2
R3, 4, 5: fphdc around first st. hdc in second st. *fphdc around next st. hdc in next.* Repeat to end. Sc in sec ch and mark st as first in round.
R6, 7,8,9: sc in flp around. work evenly. (22 sts)
R 10 (increase round): work 2 sc in flp in last st of last round. sc in flp in first st of round. work 2 sc in flp in second st of round. work evenly to end. (24 sts)
R 11: work even
R 12: work increase round (26 sts)
R 13: work even to last 3 sts. ch 3 (working in thumb hole)
R14: new beg. st will be second of above ch 3. skip last three sts of round13 and first three sts of round 14. work sc in flp in next st. work evenly to end. (23 sts)
R15, 16, 17, 18: work evenly. at end of R18 do not work last two sts. lay work flat and mark sides of mittens.
R19 (decrease round): sc2tog last two sts of R18. sc in first st of R19. sc2tog next two sts. At the next marker decrease in the same manner. work to end. (19 sts)
R 20: work even
R 21: work dec. round (15 sts)
R22: work even
R 23: work dec round (11 sts)
R 24: sc2tog every two sts. (5 sts)
Leave a long tail to sew seam.
Thumb:
R1: join yarn with slst. Sc in same st as join. Mark as first st. 9 sc around opening. Do not join.
R2,3: work even.
R4: sc2tog. sc in next 2 sts. sc2tog. sc in next 3 sts. (7 sts)
R5: sc2tog three times. Leave a tail to sew seam.
work a "rope" of fch to attach to mittens to thread through sleeves of coat so mittens will not be lost anymore.