Spring?

 

Spring has not exactly sprung yet. I thought it was well on it’s way but we have a prediction of 30’s for two more nights this week.  What’s up with that? This is the south for Pete’s sake. (Who is Pete anyways??) (And I’ve already put my plants out!!!)  :o(  Although the pollen has been bad the last couple of weeks, hopefully with the rain that’s expected this coming weekend it will be the end of the tree pollen. But I’m betting not. I’m tired of my car being covered in that fine greenish/yellow dust.

I have been crocheting a little bit. I’m actually ahead of schedule on a couple of birthday projects and behind on a baby project. The below E is a birthday project for my son. It’s just a simple table mat. I charted it out in no time, then wrote out the line instructions and to crochet it was real quick and easy. And I discovered this morning that I must have accidentally thrown away the line instructions. :o( They weren’t with the chart this morning and I know I had them together yesterday. I used Peaches and Creme cotton yarn and an I hook. The finished dimensions with one round of sc all the way around on it are 13 inches across by 10.5 inches down. Guys are so hard to make anything yarny for besides afghans and such so I thought this would be something different.

Along the same line I made two smaller table mats, if you will. I happened across the chart in my internet travels. I also wrote out the line instructions on this as well because it was easier to write it down and follow than to look at the chart and try to remember how many stitches of each color to crochet in the next row, and what row I was on. Plus it’s too easy to get lost for me. With the written rows I can crochet them then mark them off on my paper and I know exactly where I am quickly.

The yellow and black was the first one I crocheted. It’s a birthday present for a friend of mine’s husband in FL.  I hooked it with an F hook. Of course it’s smaller than the E mat above. I don’t have the dimensions with me. I’m thinking roughly 9x7 but I could be wrong. I loved it so much that I immediately made a larger one in green and purple with a G hook. I included the chart with where I found it. If you look at the chart though, you’ll notice that it’s off on the left side. I just added 3 blocks to make it even and center. :o)  I will definitely be making more of these. And more than likely with a bigger hook to make the mat bigger. On each of these, the ball I used to make the skull was the ball that I used the less yarn on. That’s with carrying the yarn on each line under the green. So I was thinking that I might be able to reverse the colors and get two mats out of two balls of color. I haven’t tried it, but I’m wondering if that would work.

Did you notice the chair that the skull mats are sitting on? I am going to cover it in crochet. It’s slow going. I only have one bar on the chair done,  you can see it in the pic. I have a piece almost done for the bar on the bottom side of the chair. It’s weird because it’s real easy to make too long the piece that you think is going to fit, so that it doesn’t fit. That’s why it’s going on the bottom side bar, because I started the row thinking it would fit the bar just below the one that’s finished and after 5 rows it was too long to fit there. I almost frogged it, but found that it fit the side bottom bar perfect. I can’t wait until the whole chair is done. This is a do-in-between kind of project that I can work on a little at a time when I get bored with the other works in progress that I have. It will be a ‘chair of many colors’. Random leftover yarns will be used to cover it. I’ve had this chair for many years, don’t even remember when or where I got it. I do know that when my daughter was in 1st or 2nd grade she wrote on it that she loved a boy named Michael. You can still barely see it on the back of the chair. The chair is all wooden.

I won something! From Crochet Today! It’s a stitch light. This little thing is handy dandy. It’s a powerful light that you can wear, turn on, and if you’re old like me and your eyes are getting bad, even with glasses on, you can see your stitches. Now I can use more black yarn and be able to see where my stitches are.  The strap on it is adjustable, and see that little pouch like thing on there?  It sits behind the light and has a zipper on it. They also sent me two yarn needles in this bag. You can put stitch markers or yarn needles or whatever your little ol’ heart desires, in it.  How awesome that I won this?! I’m not very lucky at winning things but I managed to luck out on this. :o) I like it. Do you know what else you can use it for? When the electric goes out. You can wear it and have full use of both hands. The light is very powerful. I was amazed at how powerful it is. Thank you Crochet Today!, I love it!

I also have written down a pattern for a shower gel holder (Bath and Body Works shower gel) made with cotton yarn, except I haven’t tested it but part way into the second one I’m making.  I like this. It holds the gel and when you need to use it you just tip it over, squirt your gel and the bottle stays in the holder. It also gives you more room on your shower caddy. It’s simple. I just need to get my rear in gear and finish the second one so that I can be sure the pattern is right before I post it. The pattern fits the B&BW shower gel bottle but when you run out of that you can fill the bottle with other shower gel if you wanted to and re-use it. I just had too many on the shower caddy so I needed room.  I have 4 different brands of shower soap/gel in there. (I know, I’m weird…….I’m like that with my shampoo and conditioner too. I don’t use the same brand day after day. Just can’t. I have that one, two different Caress and a different smell of B&BW)

I also have been working on some hats to donate for the BG’s. I would show them to you but I’m doing them exclusively for them for the runs for door prizes. They have skulls on them. :o) And of course I’m still fitting in hats for the doc’s Christmas order. I have the order half done. :o) I have a couple of other crochet ideas swirling around in my head. I hope they come to fruition. Sometimes what you think doesn’t always come out to the hands. At least not me. I can see something in my mind and try to recreate it through my hands and for some reason it just doesn’t work. But I’ve got plenty to keep me busy so I don’t worry about it too much. And then things like the shower gel holder just all of a sudden pop out. It all works out in the wash. :o)

Happy Spring! Where ever you may be I hope your flowers are starting to bloom and bring forth some color and joy to you!

TTFN
Kat
xoxo

Granny, Drunk Cake & Hats

 

Howdy! :o) Happy Friday y’all!  My most favorite day of the week is here and I thought I’d come visit for a short spell.

I have to tell you, our weather has been just the weirdest this year so far. The roller coaster is still happening. Between last Saturday and Wednesday I ended up with 7.5 inches of rain.  We needed it badly but good Lord did it come down in buckets. Saturday was the worst. 5 inches that day. Then Sunday was clear, sunny and a gorgeous 72 degrees. Then Monday was cloudy and Tuesday was another 2.5 inches of rain. Now we have cleared up again and darned if it isn’t chilly and going to be in the 20’s again on Sunday night/Monday morning. I wish it would make up our minds already!!

So….on to the good stuff. Drunk cake!! OMG. And believe me when I tell you that I ate the whole thing, by  myself. I’m single. I offered and had no takers so hey. One would have loved to partake but she didn’t want to venture out into the rainy night. (Didn’t blame her!) I made it Saturday afternoon. It was gone by Tuesday evening. At least I didn’t eat it all in one sitting! :o)

The particulars are: 1 box white cake mix, mixed according to directions with 1/4 cup of Baileys added in the mix. Bake according to directions. I think next time I will add a little bit more Baileys. Not much though. This cake was so moist, it was unbelievable and I think it had to do with adding the Baileys in. So now you’ve got it baked and you let it cool. I made a sheet cake in a glass pan. I had so much frosting that I decided to cut it in half and make a square double layer cake. I still have enough frosting in the fridge for another cake. Guess where I’m stopping on the way home from work today?  Mmmm hmmm….the store.  Anyways………the frosting. 

2 – 8 oz pkg.’s of cream cheese
3/4 stick of butter (I think my next recipe for this will cut the butter down to 1/2 a stick)
3/4 cup of Kahlua (uh huh, you read that right)
16 oz box of powdered sugar or 10x, whatever you call it

Let the cream cheese and butter soften. Put in a bowl and mix with mixer until creamed together. Add 1/4 cup of the Kahlua and mix well. Add some of the powdered sugar and mix well. Repeat with the Kahlua and powdered sugar until well mixed. Frost your cake.  :o) Easy peasy and omg………it is so darn good. Sinfully good. This is what happens when you have a rainy day at home and your mind works while crocheting. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!!

Crochet……..oh yeah. :o) I started a Never Ending Granny. The pattern is from Mikey at the Crochet Crowd. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and it’s the first listing in his albums on the left side of the page.  I was going full steam and as is par for me I put it down. It starts to get a bit unruly with all the strands of yarn…they tangle if you’re not careful. I am doing the 7 strand Never Ending Granny. That is to say it is 7 skeins of yarn and you work each one separately in rounds. You can also do 3 or 5 strand if the 7 intimidates you.  I chose 7 because I wanted it a good size when finished.  It is for my daughter’s birthday which is in October so I figure if I start it now I can finish it way before then. I started it with yellow and by the time I got to that color again I didn’t like it. So I pulled the yellow row out and substituted it with Tea Leaf…..the brighter green. I didn’t want to pull the whole thing apart so my plan is to put a flower on top of the yellow to cover it up.  I’m lazy that way. :o( But I think it will be ok. I really like these colors together. It’s much prettier in person.

About all I’ve done besides this granny since I last posted is hats. I got a good start on my 24 hat order for my Christmas order for the vet. A couple of the pics are a tad blurry….sorry.  I hate when that happens. You can’t see that they are blurry until you put them on the computer.

The next 5 consist of these yarns:
Red Heart Pale Yellow
Red Heart Pale Plum – lavender color
ILTY Light Peach
RH TLC Baby Calm Blue
RH TLC Baby Lime

   

  

These are all girly colors of course.  I made 4 hats out of a 7 oz skein of the RH Pale Plum and still have some left over. Not enough for another hat but how awesome is that?  The pale yellow and light peach are awesome together too. The peach kind of looks pink in person. These colors all remind me of Easter and spring.

The last hat I have to show you today is one I just finished up. It’s for a guy in one of the MC’s (motorcycle club) here in my area. The flying w is the club insignia. Some of you may have seen this on the back of a vest or two of motorcycle riders in your area. This club is nationwide with chapters all over. I have to tell you that this was a challenge for me. One, to make the w with the 3 flying parts off of the one side of the w, and two, to make it a size that it would fit on the hat and not to look too awkward, and three, to sew it on so that it would look halfway decent. It’s not totally straight but the best I could do. The wings coming off the side are what I don’t like about it. It’s not straight. I tried to go with the rounds. Sigh.

So that’s what I’ve been up to since I last visited with you. I’ve had another injection in my neck. The second one was a lot better than the first. I think the doc missed his mark on the first one. This one was no picnic by any means but the first one made me miserable for at least a week after. This coming Monday I go for one in my lumbar (bottom of the back) and then two weeks I get another lumbar injection. I’m hoping they will help me. As it is now I can’t sleep. It feels like two rods poking me in the back and I toss and turn all night long because I can’t get comfortable. I do the best I can under the circumstances. :o)

I hope this post finds you happy and well. May the sun warm your face and add a little sparkle in your eye. :o)

TTFN
Kat
xoxoxo