yarngirl

Forwarding Address

2005-08-04T10:11:00.000-04:00

This blog has moved! Please change your bookmarks and RSS feeds to reflect http://withahook.com. All future posts will be at that URL. Thanks for stopping by!

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Breaking News

2005-08-01T19:55:00.000-04:00

The Snowflakes in July CAL is over and I for one had a blast. I got to talk about one of my favorite projects, snowflakes, with a lot of different people and we had some wonderful conversations. I loved to see the pictures of snowflakes that everyone was able to make, that has to be my favorite part of all. And they're still coming in! Don't forget, Snowflake Mondays are still going strong, so if you missed out on the CAL the calendar stays the same as far as snowflakes are concerned. Mondays are for snowflakes!

These are the flakes that I made:

There are individual photos as well in my Gallery, following the two photos I've linked here.

In doily news, Vera made this gorgeous doily, Hazelnut, from Coffee n' Creme Doilies. I instantly fell in love with it and rushed off to order the book before I looked at anything else. My copy arrived today (yay!) and I think I will be starting French Vanilla in the next day or so. I'd been planning on doing something oval for our dining room table but this one is speaking to me. I don't know if I can resist and stick to my oval plans. (If you read through the entry in Vera's blog that I linked, you can see the snowflakes that Vera made for the CAL.)

And finally, it's nearly moving day. Other than a final post at this URL stating that this blog has moved, this is the last post here at http://yarngirl.blogspot.com. All future posts will be at http://withahook.com so please change your bookmarks. I'll be switching the Bloglines subscription stuff so I think that'll technically stay the same if you read my blog that way (haven't really looked yet but think it's possible). I've moved some posts over to the new site but never could get the hang of importing my old posts from Blogger and so here they (apparently) must stay. Such is life. I'll still be migrating things over for some time to come, but I like the new template and formatting much better and am happy with how the blog works. I especially LOVE having all my stuff on the same domain/site.

Denise?

2005-07-28T10:09:00.000-04:00

Denise Augostine's site is gone again. *sigh* Please say it ain't so!

I'm thankful I printed out the patterns I loved, but I hope she comes back soon.

The snowflakes continue, four have been done so far. Not nearly as many as I thought I would have done by now, but I did do a couple larger than usual ones too. There is a lot of great snowflake conversation going on over at Crochetville related to this CAL. I'm having fun!

Pineapple Passion

2005-07-26T16:25:00.000-04:00

The doily has arrived in California!

Closeup of center section

This is Pineapple Passion, from the Absolutely Gorgeous Doilies book from Leisure Arts, featuring beautiful patterns by Patricia Kristoffersen. My favorite new stitch? The split double treble crochet stitch. Not nearly as hard to do as to say, but it did have me sweating for a little while. The doily is 14" in diameter, much bigger than the listed 12½" on the pattern. Go figure. Once I couldn't get even close to gauge, now I'm somehow managing to shoot past it! Bigger than planned for is better than way too big and definitely better than too small any day. I used DMC Traditions in 'Neutral' again, I think I have five or six balls of this now as it seems to be the doily color of choice these days. That being said, next week after Snowflakes in July is over I will finish a blue doily. Whatever was I thinking? ;o)

(In a perfect world my camera could have humored me and taken a better picture before I mailed off the doily. Or better yet, alarms and whistles should have warned me so I could have taken a few more before racing off to the post office. Lesson learned, if it takes an extra day to get it in the mail, so be it.)

Doilies... er... SNOWFLAKES IN JULY!!!

2005-07-25T18:56:00.000-04:00

I'll have you know I only have 2½ rounds to go on the Summer Splendor doily before it's finished. So close! It's for my mother, she has no idea it's coming and I have no deadline. Which, you know, is great because ~~some nitwit~~ I declared this week the Snowflakes in July week. My idea was that we'd all work on snowflakes together, all week long, every single day nothing but snowflakes. 39 people including myself stepped up and said this was a brilliant plan and are eagerly stitching at snowflakes at this very moment.

Hunh.

~~I'd really like to finish this doily though.~~

So on I go to snowflakes!! Unfortunately this morning I was suffering the affects of a minor stomach bug and could do little more but move Show-And-Tell posts from one section to another at Crochetville and/or stare blankly at the television. We'll most likely watch a movie later this evening and then I'll let my hook fly and whip up a flake to get the ball rolling here in Jasper.

I finally got my Herrschners order today, can you believe it? I'd ordered the Blue Ribbon Crochet book along with a snowflake doily pattern, a needle Chibi and some thread hook cushions. I linked Amazon though because I see the book is much cheaper there than at Herrschners. Somebody might as well save a buck and get it there faster than I did. I wanted it because of the doily pattern featured on the cover, I thought that was just beautiful. There are some equally impressive doilies inside, along with some gorgeous afghans and clothing. A nice book to add to any collection in my opinion.

Doilies in the Family

2005-07-22T12:55:00.000-04:00

Even though I tend to be the one sending doilies to various family members across the country, yesterday we received two very precious doilies in the mail from Rick's sister.

They both were made in or prior to the 1920's by their grandmother. They have held up pretty well in the 75+ years since their creation, they need some careful cleaning and then we intend to frame them. The first is 14x10 inches in size and the second 18x11½ inches. I had a heck of a time taking pictures of them, my camera will not show the stitches clearly. The first doily looks like size 20 thread, while the second is possibly size 40 or above. I'd need to compare it in order to know for sure and size 40 is something I just don't have. VERY tiny stitches.

I did finish the Pineapple Passion doily yesterday, which by coincidence is going to Rick's sister. I won't post the photo until she receives it, I want her to be surprised and I've given her the links to my blog and Gallery. The camera also didn't do a very good job taking pictures of the doily - sigh. It's already on the way to California I can't do a thing about new pictures now. It may arrive tomorrow but I suspect Monday is more likely.

2 - 2, yep TWO

2005-07-20T19:53:00.000-04:00

Lately everything seems to come in twos around here.

Two websites (that I'm currently working on building)

Two blogs (1+1=2)

Two doilies (the gift that keeps on giving)

Two cups of coffee (nothing wrong with that)

Two pints of Mint Chip Häagen Dazs (but not eaten at once, that would be bad)

Two inches of rain (from an incredible thunderstorm yesterday evening)

Two years old tomorrow (Maisie, the beagle)

Two times today I've had to restart my computer (it likes to crash, what can I say?)

Two times today I've had to set the time on the clocks (the power keeps going out because of lots of storms)

I'm sure there are even more twos if I take the time to think about it.

I was certain last night I was going to have finished a doily today. Since I stated that in two emails (another two!) and a conversation with Rick, of course I hardly had time to touch it at all. Maybe tomorrow. We'll be watching a movie in just a few minutes so I'll get two hours (!!) of quality stitching time in then for sure.

Has anyone else grown older while waiting for an order to come from Herrschners? The order I placed on the 11th still hasn't arrived though the tracking shows it has been in the "Jasper area" for two (cut it out!) days now. What's up with that?

63 and done!

2005-07-15T17:34:00.000-04:00

It's done, finished, complete! I can hardly believe it myself. For a whole year I didn't touch it other than to move the stack of squares from one spot to another. For a while there I was quite certain I'd never finish it and maybe should just stitch it together for a small lapghan.

The pattern, of course, is from Leisure Arts, 63 Easy-to-Crochet Pattern Stitches Combine to Make a Heirloom Afghan, #LA555. I used Red Heart Super Saver Rose Pink and Aran, and TLC Expressions Light Thyme yarns for this afghan. I started in on April 13, 2004 and finished it today. I'm certain I didn't think it would take well over a year to completion when I stitched up the first square.

A special thank you goes to Donna for starting the 63 Squares CAL in the first place, I never would have made this afghan if she hadn't made the decision to host the CAL. Another special thank you goes to Holly for starting the UFO or Frog CAL at Crochetville, it bascially kicked me in the butt and made me pick it back up again. I quite possibly would never have finished it if she hadn't made that post. Thank you too, all of you who have left a comment in the last couple of weeks cheering me on. You guys really kept me going, and I needed it!

Buh-Bye Dennis

2005-07-10T19:27:00.000-04:00

I'm starting to relax now; a few hours passing after landfall is all it took. My family in Florida reports some wind, some rain, and a few branches down. That's it. They never lost power and no flooding in their neighborhood. I finally was able to turn off the Weather Channel two hours after it moved through poor Pensacola. I did manage to get a good bit done when joining the 63 squares - I estimate finishing the joining sometime mid-week.

Thanks to all who commented, I'm trying my best to catch up on emails right now. It's amazing how a little stress can totally mess with your head!

Dennis and thread do mix

2005-07-09T21:25:00.000-04:00

But only as a form of therapy.

I've spent the last couple of days in a funk because of Hurricane Dennis tromping through the Gulf of Mexico. It's way too close to my parents and sister's family in Panama City Beach; I'm not a happy camper. I've spent more time looking at projections and forecasts and commiserating with Melissa (who is even closer than my folks to the assumed landfall) than much of anything else when I'm online. When I'm offline I'm calling my mother and sister and trying to sound optimistic and positive when I don't feel it so much myself. Don't believe it when the Weather Channel tells you the beaches are evacuated, it isn't true. People just aren't out socializing and having a good time.

I've started a Patricia Kristoffersen doily from Absolutely Gorgeous Doilies for Rick's sister. "Pineapple Passion" if anyone is keeping score. It's thread therapy and she and I are both excited about it. The pressure was on because she told me she wanted to frame it once she got it. It had to be a nice one, you know? So PK it is, making me happy because it's my first larger PK doily. Working on it in the evenings has been a good stress reliever for me.

Oh, and I got RAOKed today with the sweetest book from an anonymous Crochetville member. The sneaky lady put my return address on the envelope and didn't sign the card, I have no idea who sent it. I've not seen this leaflet before, "Sweet Christmas Angels" but they're just adorable. They use sport weight yarn and I particularly love #3 which is bottom right corner of the cover. She's perfect tree-topper size. Thank you so much to whomever RAOKed me, I love the book!

Flowering Mum

2005-07-05T19:07:00.000-04:00

I've been doing a happy dance around the house today and it just now dawned on me why I'm so happy. This morning I finished the doily I've been working on for the last few days.

It's from The Ultimate Doily Book by ASN, a pattern by Yalanda Wiese. DMC Traditions size 10 thread with a #6 hook. This one was a quick stitch other than when I made a mistake on round 21 that I didn't catch until round 23 and had to frog back a whole day's worth of work. It's for us, Rick picked out the pattern and it is now on his side of the coffee table.

I bought a couple of doily patterns from Hass Designs a few days ago; the two snowman doilies, I'm a sucker for anything snow oriented - scroll down the pages to see them. I can't help it, I love snow and snowmen and if I lived further north I may not want to see anything to do with snow. They both call for size 20 thread of which I have none; the next time I go to Michaels I will buy a few balls. I have time, I want to do a doily for Rick's sister in California before I do anything else.

Or um... before I start another doily...

I laid out the 63 Squares while I waited for the doily to dry after blocking today. I used safety pins and they are now all in their proper places by the grid in the leaflet. I'm eager to start joining them, 90°F or not. Better to do it now I think than wait another month when it's near 100°F in the afternoons. Maybe moving north isn't such a bad idea after all.

Snowflake Update

2005-07-03T22:44:00.000-04:00

So far, 39 people have decided to make nothing but snowflakes the week of July 25th.

Me
Chie
Tina
Ulla
Vera
Courtney
Becca
Jana
Karla
Jovien
Jen
Lani
Betty
Mary
Patty
Brie
Vims
Kimberly
Jess
Catherine
Melissa
Alison
Leanne
Amanda
Dee
Stephanie
Linda
Becky
Melissa
Jenn
Melannie
Lonna
Holiday
Laura
Stacey
Eva
JenC
Faith
Dawn
Kristen

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Snowflakes in July Along

2005-07-01T09:33:00.000-04:00

I have been thinking about choosing a week to do nothing but snowflakes each and every day. Seven days of snowflake goodness. I'd like to have as many flakes as possible available when December rolls around, for gifts, for me, for Christmas cards. Then I started thinking, wouldn't it be fun to have other people doing snowflakes with me during that week? I love Snowflake Mondays to see people making a beautiful flake here and there. It would be much more fun if more of my friends and new friends would make snowflakes too.

Here is the plan:

The week of July 25th, the last week of July, we will make nothing but snowflakes. Making it the last week of the month gives plenty of time for you to get your affairs in order. Finish those WIPs you've been diligently stitching away on; get those last minute gifts finished. Three whole weeks to get ready for one week of flakes.

Snowflakes can be crocheted or knit, can be actual snowflakes, snowflake doilies or even a snowflake afghan.

Only snowflake-y items can be worked on during the week. No fair cheating!

I'll make a webpage showing everyone who is making snowflakes, with a running tally of how many each of us made and the group together.

I made a pretty button to tempt you:

So, who's in? It's only one week, you know you can do it!

!!!!!

2005-06-29T17:01:00.000-04:00

I can't even think of a title, I'm so excited!

#63 Parallel Cables.

Sometime this week I'm going to lay them all out and see how they look together; get started on joining them. It's 90ºF here so I'm not overly excited to sit under an afghan for any length of time.

It won't be long though, I can't wait for much longer to get it finished.

Yay me!

tick tock...

2005-06-28T19:07:00.000-04:00

#61...

#62...

#63... tomorrow. (We had to go to Wal-Mart today, it was a lost cause. Tomorrow for certain. Why didn't I buy the Mint Chip Häagen-Dazs to celebrate?)

Tina won!

2005-06-27T22:52:00.000-04:00

Tina (who seems to be currently blogless but makes beautiful things all the same) said "I say snowflakes, the squares have waited this long, they can wait a little longer, right?"

The score was Snowflakes 2½ to Squares 3½, because Melissa said I could both. Tina was first though, and since I promised to do whatever I was told, I made snowflakes. If I didn't have to make a grocery store/post office run, I probably could have made three easily. Instead I only managed two.

Tina gets a prize for being the first to boss me around today (she even beat the dogs, that alone deserves an award!). I haven't yet decided what her prize will be but will send something to her on my next post office run.

Rick was so disappointed when I told him I was working on snowflakes today, he's just as excited as I am to see the squares so close to being finished. But tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow I will make great strides toward getting them done. I can hardly wait!

Snowflakes vs. Squares

2005-06-27T08:27:00.000-04:00

The debate that is going on in my head right now! Today is Snowflake Monday. I started square #61 last evening. I could finish them all today (or come very close), but it is Snowflake Monday after all. Waiting one or two more days to finish the squares isn't that big of a deal since I probably won't be joining them until the weather cools off somewhat. It would be so nice to have those squares finished though after well over a year of working on them. This will settle it. First person to come by and tell me what to do, squares or snowflakes, will get the minor thrill of bossing me around for a day. That doesn't happen often mind you, only a very select group of people get to crack a whip over my head on a daily basis. Actually, it's really just the dogs that boss me around here at home, other than that I'm very spoiled and don't get nagged at very often.

Speaking of snowflakes, I've been batting an idea around in my head for the last few days. Stay tuned to see if I do anything about it in the next couple of days.

53 'n Me

2005-06-23T19:57:00.000-04:00

Or -

El Wrongo!

The Crossed Puff Stitch

I stitched it. I frogged it. I stitched it. I edged it. I worked in the ends. Then I thought to close the book to see where it fit on the afghan. I like to find them myself, it helps me to remember where they will be rather than look at the chart in the book. You know, top or bottom, blah blah blah.

So I looked...

And looked...

But couldn't find it. So I flipped open the center to see the photo of it in the book to see if mine was so different than the pictured one that I just couldn't see it on the back. Oh yeah! I got a little crazy with those puffs. While there should be 11 crossed puffs in each row across, there should also be three rows of sc stitches in between each row of puffed stitches. I only worked one row of sc. It's way wrong.

Rick loves it, it is soft and plump and definitely different than any of the other squares. I would redo it in a heartbeat, but he loves it. I'm not so sure that I can omit the square from the finished afghan without his noticing.

I keep thinking that a rug of this stitch would be great for in the bathroom or something. I don't plan on doing it any time soon.

- - - - - - - -

Doily pattern picked out - it will be from The Ultimate Doily Book by ASN again, the same book that has the Pineapple Sundae doily pattern. Maybe this time next week I can get started.

D'oh Debbie!

2005-06-23T11:28:00.000-04:00

Vera said it much better than I ever could:

Does Debbie Diss Doilies?

If I wasn't 9 squares from finishing the 63 Squares... ermmm... squares, I'd start one today. But it doesn't stop me from drooling over patterns and planning the next one.

Actually, I have one in mind already.

Senso, spyware-o and yarn hunt-o

2005-06-21T21:42:00.000-04:00

I have a couple of observations about the Senso, not that I've used it yet. I've been too busy playing with the 63 Squares and the shawl (more on that further down). The DMC Senso I bought is a wool/cotton blend, kind of slubby looking and very soft to the touch. They actually had more than one type of the Senso at Hobby Lobby, but I liked the looks of this one the best. There was also a nice variegated thread too, it reminds me of a very skinny TLC Wiggles. There is also a linen and a regular crochet thread, all in size three.

Not only have I been battling ISP and DSL problems this week, I've also had a war with spyware to contend with too. I thought at first I had a virus because things were really crazy here for a day or so. I finally managed to get rid of 40 (!) really nasty malware and spyware files on my computer, including some zipped files that I know I never clicked on. At the moment I'm clean (I think) and clear (I hope). I'll be running the programs everyday though to be sure.

Finally, I wanted to say thank you in a very big way to the wonderful Holly, Celeste and Karen. After posting about the shawl and my yarn hunt last week, these three ladies came swooping to my aid with helpful tips and suggestions to make finishing the shawl a possibility. Holly is the designer of the pattern I am using and has provided excellent ideas and suggestions for stretching the yarn that I have now as far as possible. Celeste has spent a good portion of her time sending emails to people and places overseas, including one gentleman who works for the manufacturer of the yarn and promised to check their warehouse for her (me) this week. Karen has checked online and hopes to be visiting her favorite LYS in England in the next week or so in the hope of finding the yarn. Apparently the yarn is discontinued and explains the difficulty in finding it. I am amazed and touched at the lengths Celeste and Karen are going to help track down the yarn. Even if we never manage to get more, I will always be thankful for their help and friendship.

DSL and yarn goodies

2005-06-18T22:34:00.000-04:00

What a day! Yesterday afternoon our ISP was changed which has resulted in all kinds of interesting ~~nervous breakdowns~~ developments. Almost immediately I started getting change of password notifications from my old ISP email addresses. Those led to other various warnings and threats purporting to be from the email host. At first I thought perhaps it was related to the change but have since discovered that it's apparently an amazing coincidence. Still enough to give me pangs of concern throughout yesterday and today. The new ISP people set up the account name wrong and changed it for us, which then caused a service outage which finally ended when we drove 50 miles round-trip to have them reset our DSL modem tonight. We got back home around 9:15pm. If you know us you'll know that we very rarely if ever venture out of the house past 8:00pm; we are home bodies to the extreme. The tech support 'office' looked like it was anything but an office. Overflowing trash cans everywhere, cigarette smoke so thick in the air you could see it hanging. We are having serious reservations if this is the ISP we need to be with and may well change again, back to where we were I guess. They are the only other DSL in the area. Plus I can't get into my ISP supplied email account, which I usually use for family members. That in itself is not a problem, I can set up something else, but added to the list of other problems and I'm not sure what we're going to do next. If by some chance we turn off the computers tonight and you send me an email, then don't hear from me for a few days I hope you'll understand why.

We went to Hobby Lobby the other day (I have to have some sort of fiber related content after all!). I was not happy to see half of the shelves stripped bare. Rick found several extra large cardboard boxes full of yarn. I have no idea if they were to be stocked or just pulled from the shelves, but we scavanged through them anyway.

It wasn't the best selections in any case; unless everything was spread out over multiple boxes, I bought all of each of those colors they had. I will make kerchiefs with the cotton I think, and perhaps use the Senso for bookmarks for the bookmark swap. I also bought the Ultimate Guide to Pineapples for Your Home leaflet and Flower Garden Pineapple Doilies while we were there. I love the doily on the cover of the second book, I'm going to have to make that one sooner or later.

If I can tear myself away from 63 Squares. I'm up to number 50 now.

Actually, that means I'm up to number 51 now. Only 12 more to go.

a little help from my friends...

2005-06-14T20:32:00.000-04:00

Yes, please, I'm asking.

Back in March my Spring Secret Pal from England by way of Crochetville sent me four balls of stunning Wendy Nirvana DK yarn in the softest shade of lavender (shade 0287). It's an acrylic/mohair blend, oh so light and fluffy.

I instantly fell in love with it and hid it from myself to keep from using it for something silly and frivolous. I really want it for more than a hat and scarf set. Of course, it's been in the back of my mind for some time now and since I finished the rose filet shawl last week I've been itching to use it in something; the hard part was deciding what would make the yarn look its best. Since a girl can't have too many shawls and I dug out a ball Sunday night and started to make Holly's Butterfly Wing Shawl with it. The pattern is great and perfect for working on during movie nights, no counting and stitches up in a flash. The only problem?

The one ball only gave about 13 inches in length, from the back of the neck to the center point. I'm going to keep going until I run out of yarn. I suspect it won't be near long enough to suit me, small boned I'm not and I'd like it to fit around me comfortably. I've done some Google searches and hit eBay without any luck. There is Wendy yarn out there, even in the Nirvana line, but it's mostly on eBay and I had no luck finding the right color. I'm hoping that someone who lives in Great Britain (or Europe) knows where they can find this yarn easily. I'll gladly pay for it, shipping too and something extra for your trouble. It's possible I suppose that it's available here in the States but I am not having any luck finding it. No LYS in my neck of the woods to check 'just in case' so I'm border-line desperate.

If anyone can help me, I'd love to hear from you!

Points for Today

2005-06-13T23:59:00.000-04:00

~ No matter how much you think you have - 200g of yarn probably isn't enough for a shawl.

~ England is a really long way away when you don't have enough yarn and the yarn has a British accent.

~ Just because I like a snowflake doesn't mean it's going to like me.

~ Going to the mall only once a year and so many months means that you actually look forward to the trip (in a weird, twisted sort of way).

~ Beagles really never stop barking.

~ The phone doesn't ring when you're expecting a call about a certain shawl and doily sent through the mail.

~ It's always most humid just before bedtime. Or, 2:30 in the afternoon. Both, actually, it's a toss up.

~ Oddly enough, when you can't find a #6 hook that you were just using you can always find it in your seat when you get up. No matter how hard you searched for it while you were still sitting down.

Thank you Vera!

2005-06-08T21:01:00.000-04:00

Yesterday in the mail I received some lovely scarves from Vera. She sent them to me as a thank you for running the Summer Scarf Swap at Crochetville. They are beautiful and I am thrilled to have them. The white one is crocheted and the pink one is knit, AND the pink one matches the new outfit I just bought so Vera must have had a psychic moment.

Thank you so much Vera!!

Today I worked on squares and then made a trip to the post office. The Pineapple Sundae doily and Rose Filet shawl are on their way to California. I hated to see them go and will be tracking the delivery anxiously online until I know they are there. That is the hardest part of hand-made gifts; the sending them across the country. I feel good about it though and can hardly wait until the birthday to hear if she liked them. It's going to be a loooooooong weekend.

Tomorrow, more squares!

Rose Filet Shawl

2005-06-06T15:25:00.000-04:00

I understand that some people don't care so much for joining crocheted squares together, but I gotta tell you I don't care so much for tying on fringe. Really, if anyone had offered to come help I'd have jumped on the offer. Keep it in mind for next time, okay? I promise I'll do my best to help join squares for you!

This is the Rose Filet shawl and the pattern can be found here, I used just over 3 skeins of Red Heart Lustersheen in Warm Red and a G hook, with the remainder of the third skein and bit of a fourth for the fringe. I added a lot for the fringe. As you can see the shawl is huge. If it were in any other color but red I'd be forced to keep it for myself as I already have a red shawl - but now I want one for me too. I finished the body of the shawl last night and spent four hours today putting the fringe on and adding the top edging. Believe me, I never expected to get it finished in time to celebrate the birthday of a Red Hat Society Queen Mother in California (next Monday). I'm very excited! I think with this and the Pineapple Sundae doily I'm sending her also she's going to have a really nice day. At least I hope so. Now I just have to get them both in the mail!