Ballerina Puppet progress

Here's what I've done so far on the Ballerina Puppet pattern from Laura's Left Hook. The head and both arms are done, plus the little finger hole thing that goes inside the head. One half of the body is finished here. I still have to do the other half and the legs. Then put it together and finish off with the hair. The little ridge on the body is where I'll attach the tutu.

I think it's going to be so cute! It's a little smaller puppet than I had pictured, but it will be perfect for my granddaughter's little hands. :O)

Ballerina Puppet - Beginning

I'm testing a pattern for Laura's Left Hook of her Ballerina Puppet. I just love this pattern! She did a great job of writing it and it is very easy to follow so far. :O)

Here's where I have started the head. The yarn I am using is actually a slightly more creamy looking off-white than the picture shows. So far, I'm not overly happy with the Red Heart Soft Yarn. It splits too easily while crocheting, but it was the closest to flesh-colored yarn I could find.

I think my granddaughter will end up with this puppet. She's in a little preschool dance class and wears a little tutu... and looks adorable! (No Grandma bias here.... yeah, right! Ha ha!)

I'll post more as the project progresses...

This picture is similar to the pattern I'm testing for Laura.

Bunny Blanket Buddy Completed!

First, I hope you all had a very Blessed Easter! We were with family on Good Friday and Easter Sunday and we had a very nice holiday weekend. I thank the Lord for this holiday we can share and be thankful for what He has done for us.

It's finally finished! And just in time to give to my grandaughter for Easter! Yeah!

Now, I have to tell ya what happened with the eyes (things happen for a reason)... I mis-read the bottle of fabric glue (which I was going to use to attach the googly eyes) and would not have had enough time to glue them on and have it dry to give to her. No problem, I figured I would simply crochet some eyes.... Nope! My case of crochet hooks was nowhere to be found (it was hiding from me, I just know it! Ha ha!) So my daughter Taylor came to my rescue and said, "Mom, how about if I make you eyes with my plastic canvas?" "Yes!" I said very excitedly. (Can ya picture it?)

So we cut it to size and she got to work on them. I figured I would just whip stitch them on and add tiny eyelashes. Mind you, this was all happening on Easter morning. I would see my grandaughter early that afternoon! Yikes!

Anyway, all things worked out and here's the finished blanket. I'm so pleased with this one! And I like these eyes so much better. :O)

Notice how I attached the ears? I used really big buttons! I saw in a magazine an amigurumi bunny and the ears were attached like that. I thought it looked so cute, so I decided to do these ears the same way. Like a lop-eared bunny.

You can see one of the hand pockets here.

Here she is trying it on! I think she really liked it. She didn't say much though... I think she didn't quite know what to do with it. Ha ha! That's her daddy (our oldest son) with her. :O)

Okay.... maybe not? Ha ha! Don't ya just love that face? LOL! I'm sure though that she'll get plenty of joy out of it. Nothing like snuggling up in a comfy play blanket. Ooooh, I just wanna kiss those cheeks!

The hand pockets were my own addition, and were not in the original pattern from Vanna's Afghans A to Z. Also, changing the ears and using the stitched eyes instead of the googly eyes was a change from the pattern. Finally, instead of 38 rows around the blanket, I stopped with 35 rows, and it was still plenty big enough for her! I'm so happy with how it turned out. :O)

Bunny Blanket Progress

Here are the pieces before being attached, or stuffing the muzzle. I also haven't gotten the googly eyes yet. But I wanted to share the progress so far. I have today and tomorrow to get this done! Yikes! This is for my grandaughter for Easter.

The ears & muzzle are just put in place on the hood, but I wanted to show how the ears are white on the inside and pink on the outside, so I turned one the other way. The original pattern shows the ears attached to stand up, but I like them laying down, and I think they would fall kind of down when it's on her head anyway. :O)

Here's both ears as they will lay when attached. Also, I changed the ears slightly from the pattern. I thought the pattern's ears were too straight, so since I'm making these ears lay more like a lop-eared bunny, I widened them a bit towards the bottom, which you can see with the ear on the left. I like them much better. :O)

I've also added hand pockets to the two side points of the blanket. I plan to make it so my grandaughter can pretend to be a bunny with this blanket! I'll post pictures tomorrow (hopefully) of the finished blanket. This blanket pattern was from the book Vanna's Afghans A to Z.

I've got a few more surprise details to add. What are they? Well.... you'll just have to wait till my next post to find out! Ha ha!

Bunny Blanket Buddy started

Here's my progress so far on the Bunny Blanket Buddy for my Grandaughter for Easter. I found this pattern in the book Vanna's Afghans A to Z (page 12) It's called a Blanket Buddy and it will have a hood in the corner that looks like a bunny face. I am also planning on adding a few more cute touches which I will show you as I do them. I can't wait to give it to her!

I think I'm on the 24th row here and I need to do 38 rows before starting the hood. Darn, those rows take forever to get to the corner as the blanket gets bigger! LOL! I know it looks like the start of a pinwheel! Ugh! But I will block it when it's done and that will fix it.

Closeup of the stitches

Comfort Shawl

The picture on the left is me showing off my comfort shawl... I hate how I look in pictures, so I trimmed the picture to just show off the shawl. My daughter however, is a complete ham! LOL So maybe I'll just have her do my modeling from now on. Ha ha!

You can find the pattern for this shawl at LionBrand.com. I just love it! It's so warm and cozy. The pattern called for Chenille Thick & Quick, but I used Jiffy Mohair-like yarn and a size P hook (I think), and I also made the starting chain a little longer. I had been gifted a couple of skeins and it felt so soft I wanted to use it. I didn't have quite enough, and the color was no longer available, BUT, I found someone on Ebay who had some so I was able to finish the shawl! Yea!

You can barely see it in the pictures but I'm using a crochet hook as a shawl pin to hold it in place on my shoulder. I saw that on the internet somewhere and I thought it was such a cool thing. Ha ha!

Winter Love Afghan - changes/progress

Here's an update on my Winter Love Afghan. I've changed how I was connecting the squares together, by using the Flat Braid method. You can find a video tutorial HERE. I love this method!

I'm using Vanna's Choice yarn in Cranberry, White & Dusty Green. The cranberry & green match my Living Room colors. I've got two full rows done and I need to have 8 rows for the full blanket (8 rows of 5 squares = 40 squares; 20 of each pattern)

I am anxious to get it done, but I will have to put it aside (again) for a bit to crochet my grandaughter's Easter gift - a Bunny Blanket. More on that later.... lol

These patterns are from SmoothFox's Etsy Shop. I used the 7x7 Easy Snowflake Square pattern, and the Revised Heart of a Child pattern (which I 'revised' just a little for my needs. lol)

Lattice Rose Rug

Lattice Rose Rug

Pattern from Crochet! Magazine, March 2009 issue

I finally finished the rug for my Mom's birthday! The pictures are when I blocked it and had it drying, but you can see how I did. I had it blocked on a foam board with towels over it, and this was the first time I tried to block anything. I'm really happy with how it came out! I can't wait to give it to her. Her birthday is Feb 25th, but we're celebrating on Sat, so I'll give it to her then.

Close-up of the Flowers in the Center

It wasn't as hard as I thought it might be, but it was a bit of a challenge doing the 2 strands together through the whole thing... a little hard on my hands. lol

With the pattern was an identical pattern for a matching doily, done with cotton thread instead of worsted weight yarn, so I'm going to give my Mom the pattern since she crochets with thread and I don't. She makes beautiful doilies! So this way she can make a matching one for her bedroom. :O)

Winter Love Afghan... beginnings

Heart Afghan progress

I had posted about this afghan before (I called it the Heart Afghan), but at that time I was doing grey squares between the red heart squares. I changed my mind. :O) Those grey squares just weren't working. The top 2 squares on the left are stitches together, but the other two are just laying kind of in place. I used Vanna's Choice (love that yarn!) in White and Cranberry.

So, I got another pattern from SmoothFox which was the snowflake square you see here. I thought it looked so cool with the red hearts! Both squares are from SmoothFox and they can be found in her Etsy Store. I used the 7x7 Easy Snowflake, and the Revised Heart of a Child (which I revised again for my needs. *wink*) patterns.

So this afghan will be great during Winter, from Thanksgiving straight thru till Valentine's Day! Sort of a Winter Love thing. LOL! Yeah! That's what I'll call it...

Winter Love Afghan

Yeah, I like it. LOL! I'll keep you posted on the progress, but I had to put it aside for a bit to do my mother's birthday gift, and start on an Easter gift for my grandaughter.

Crimson Ice Flower Granny

I've just designed my first Granny Square! It's a 5-sided Granny (so, yeah, technically it's not a 'square' LOL) I love the 3D effect, and the little "icicle" spikes keep it from curing up too much.

Crimson Ice Flower 5-sided Granny

I had fun doing this one. It just popped into my head (yet, again lol) when I was trying to figure out what to do with my Heart Afghan that I'm working on. I can't use this 5-sided one with that afghan, but I will make one sometime using this pattern.

I have the pattern available for free. You can click HERE. The pattern also has an option to add another row of white if you so choose.

Recent Hats & Scarves

Here's a few of the hats and scarves I made for Christmas gifts this year. I couldn't post these hats & scarves earlier because they were a surprise. :O) There's still a couple I need to get pictures of. I forgot to take pics of them before giving them as gifts! :\

Sunshiny Day Hat & Casual Scarf

This is my daughter being her random self. LOL! (And yes, those are Jonas Brothers posters behind her. lol) This is the pink hat and scarf set I made her for Christmas. The pattern for this hat can be found HERE, however this pattern called for a puff stitch, but I chose to use a popcorn stitch instead. My puff stitches were just coming out way too tight! lol And I adapted this Casual Scarf pattern in the same way to match the hat.

Brown Hat with Red Trim

This is a hat my husband asked me to make. This one wasn't a Christmas gift, it was just because he wanted to keep his head warm. :O) I basically did this one on the fly, from memory with a pattern from Mikeyssmail on YouTube. I just used the basic increases that I've used before with his pattern for beanies and just periodically tried it on my husband's head! This one of course, has the extra fold up rim, so it's not really a beanie. :O)

Camo Hat

You're being watched!! :O LOL! And, last but not least, is the Camo set I made for my younger son. I can't remember which pattern I used for this one. I'll have to look it up and add it here later. This has a basic scarf to match but it's not in the pic. He's always got this hat on his head! LOL

Now to get a pic of the black hat I made for my older son, the scarf I made for my granbaby's mommy, and the scarf I made for my best friend, and the hat & scarf set I made for another friend... More pics to come (I hope) LOL!

Heart Afghan beginnings

Well, now that the Holidays are over, I hope everyone had a Joyous Christmas and enjoyed a nice start of the New Year. My first blog of 2009 is the start of a new afghan. Only the 2nd afghan I've ever tried, and the first one was started 35+ years ago.... and is STILL not finished! LOL


This was my own idea. Very simple really. I'm using Lionbrand Homespun yarn for the gray (Eduardian color) squares and the white borders, and Vanna's Choice cranberry color yarn for the red hearts and the white squares (which aren't done yet). I hope these two yarns will go together okay. They're both so soft!

The cranberry hearts are part of a pattern called Heart of a Child from SmoothFox's Etsy shop. I really LOVE this heart pattern, which will be in the center of a white square when finished.

Then I will be connecting the gray squares alternated with the heart squares for the afghan. This one is for me. :O) I've spent months making things for everyone else so now this is for me. My recliner is in a chilly part of the room so I can't wait to get this one done! It's going to be so soft and warm! :O)

It was a very Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas was so special this year. We spent it with just our family - just my husband, myself and our kids... a nice quiet day enjoying the blessings God has given us, and the wonderful gift of family. Our oldest son also visited with our grandaughter and she was just a joy!

We had a special addition to our family this year - a precious little doggie who arrived on Christmas Eve. His name is Mr. Bean and he is a little 4 pound Shih-Tzu. Mr. Bean is 4 years old, is very shy and needs lots of love and attention which he is getting and adapting to quite well. :O)

He is such a loving and special little soul, and seems to have become my little shadow. LOL! You can see he's wearing his little DOG SWEATER I designed and crocheted for him. It fits him quite well!

My husband gave me a special gift as well. It holds balls (or cakes) of yarn. With this yarn stand, I can have up to 6 different colors at my fingertips while I crochet! My father-in-law helped him make it. I came up with a much smaller idea, but I didn't expect this! I LOVE it!

I need to add a rubber washer in the middle of the dowel to keep the two cakes separate. This will go well with the Scripture Afghan pattern that my son gave me, and the vintage-type sewing basket from my daughter. My mom used to have one of these when I was a kid and I always thought it was so cool. And I can't wait to try the Scripture Afghan! :O)

Our kids requested that we go nowhere for Christmas day and we gladly granted that wish. We had such an enjoyable day. Just spending time together, having fun and making probably the best Christmas dinner we have ever had! LOL We made a surf-n-turf dinner and it was wonderful! We played some new games and just had a great time! My daughter had a very Jonas Christmas. LOL She was given several gifts of Jonas Brothers items which she loved!

Oh, and my two youngest kids also got me jars of Elderberry Jelly! I love the stuff, and have only been able to get it from Lancaster, PA when someone takes a trip there. So, it's a very special treat for me. :O) Ya know, Smuckers used to sell it in the grocery stores when I was a kid. I miss that. lol

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas too! Now, I've got to get started on more crochedting. LOL

God Bless!

Striped Keyhole Scarf

Another Christmas gift is complete! I made this Striped Keyhole Scarf for my Grandmother. She is 90 years old and going strong!

Striped Keyhole Scarf

I just love this pattern! I saw a similar type of scarf for sale on the internet, but I could not find a pattern for what I wanted, so I made one! You can find it HERE. It's really quite easy to make.

Now, on to the next gift! I have 2 hats yet to make, finish the trim on one scarf, get the buttons for my DOG SWEATER, and crochet the rest of my SNOWFLAKE ORNIES.
Merry Christmas!

Popcorn Garland on our Tree!

Remember that POPCORN & CRANBERRIES GARLAND I posted about earlier? Well, we decorated our tree today and I got a great picture of the garland on our beautiful lighted tree! My free pattern can be found HERE.

The Garland on our Tree

I just absolutely LOVE this garland! It just says old-fashioned Christmas to me. Actually, where we had to put our tree this year was more in a corner so we couldn't put as many ornaments that would be able to be seen, so we picked our favorites, the really special ones, and the tree is still loaded with ornaments! But that's what Christmas is about... the memories, the special ties with loved ones.

May you have a happy, joyous Christmas!

Doggie Sweater

Crocheted Doggie Sweater

Here's a new thing I've come up with. A little Doggie Sweater! This one was made for a little dog about 4-5 pounds. My friend breeds adorable little Shih-Tzus and she gave me the idea to try to come up with a little sweater for them. They're such sweet, loving little babies.

You can find the pattern HERE. This doggie sweater is made with 2 buttons, so you don't have to pull it over the dog's head.

This is my own design and I had to guess on the size, since I didn't have one of these sweet little critters at the time, but it fit my little Shih-Tzu perfectly when he arrived.

Snowflake Ornies

I've been busy making Christmas gifts! This year I'm doing a lot of hand crocheted gifts, which I'm really enjoying. I wanted to get back to a more old fashioned type of Christmas and not so much of the commercialism and materialism associated with the holiday in recent years. One of my latest are these cute little snowflake ornies!

Snowflake Ornaments

They're done with a sport weight yarn, white with a thread of silver going through it. Then I'm adding a little loop of silver thread so they can be hung on the tree. These are so quick & fast! Each one only takes me maybe 15 minutes to make

I found the pattern HERE. It's actually a pattern for a snowflake garland, but I just made the separate little snowflakes. I chose not to use them as a garland since I've made my own popcorn & cranberries garland for our tree (one of my free patterns listed on the right), but these are just so cute as little ornies! I just love them! I'm trying to do at least 15 of them... more if I want more than one on my own tree! LOL I've got at least 2 sets of 4 ornies to do and other single ornies as little gifts. I'm also busy making a few beanie hats, a few different scarves, 2 hat & scarf sets & a neck warmer for my grandmother. Are we sensing a theme here? LOL!

I've also been working on a new original pattern for Christmas (no, not this year, LOL) It'll be ready to purchase in late Winter/early Spring 2009 if all goes well, so that you'll have plenty of time to crochet this one for next Christmas. :O) I just need to test out the pattern to make sure I've got it right. Keep watching for it!

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!!

Cushy Slippers

These are slippers I made for a birthday gift. They were relatively easy to do and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. They actually look better on the feet than they do in the picture though, I think. LOL

Padded Sole Slippers

They have a double layer sole - the pattern called for 2 separate soles made and then crocheted together one on top of the other. They feel so wonderfully cushy on the feet! I may just have to add that aspect to other slipper patterns I do if I can.

I found the pattern for these Padded Sole Slippers on Ravelry HERE. (You need to be a member of Ravelry to view this pattern, but if you crochet or knit, it is worth joining and it's free!) Again, I used worsted weight yarn I had in my stash. I can't wait to give them.

Water Bottle Sock

This was a fun one to do. Every night I freeze about 1/3 to 1/2 of my bottle of water, then fill with water when I'm ready to go, and it keeps my water nice and cold at work. And the bottle sock absorbs any condensation that accumulates on the bottle. It's actually gotten me to drink a lot more water which is a good thing. :O)

Water Bottle Sock

That "flower" section on the top half was a first for me... It was a little confusing at first and I had to try it, frog it, and try it again, but once I figured it out it was kind of fun to do. I actually did this at work in under 4 hours! Yeah, it gets kinda slow at work at night. LOL

I found the free pattern HERE. This fits a 24 oz. water bottle perfectly and it has a neat little drawstring at the top. Why not use a bigger bottle? I like to drink water, but not THAT much! LOL!

Black & White Checkered Scarf

Another project for this Christmas. A Black & White checkered scarf. Well, okay, so it's actually charcoal gray & white, but who's keeping track? LOL! That's what I had available, and I always try to use up some of my stash if I can (before it gets too big.)

Checkered Scarf

I made this as a Christmas gift for my older son's girlfriend and it was the first time I had tried the checkered design. A friend on a crochet Yahoo group pointed me to THIS pattern (actually for a dog sweater), and I used only the part of the instructions that made the checkerboard pattern and adapted it to make my scarf. I made each color 3 sc, and did that for 3 rows before alternating the colors. Then I edged the whole thing in the gray. By the way, if you try this, your yarn may twist up a lot so you will have to stop periodically and untwist it. I haven't yet mastered the art of keeping my yarns straight. LOL

My left hand cramped up something awful doing this one! I think I was tensing my hand up too much trying to hold both the yarn I was actually crocheting with and also the yarn of the alternate color that I was crocheting over top of. I used Lion Brand Homespun yarn, which is very soft and has this cool looking bumpiness to it, but which makes it really hard to see my stitches. So that, I guess, added to my cramped hand problem. But, all in all it came out pretty good I think. About 3/4 of the way through the scarf I was getting the hang of it and was able to relax my hand a little, but even now that it's done, my hand still gives me fits now and then. Aspercreme to the rescue! LOL! (I've been told that Tiger Balm works better, but I like the 'no odor' thing. LOL)

I also received some great tips from a YouTube crochet friend, Mikeyssmail about proper posture and positioning of your body in the chair when crocheting to ease tension. Thanks Michael! :O)

Merry Christmas all!