Found my crochet mojo!

I think my creative crochet mojo has cranked up to full gear.  I have been happily crocheting roosters this week!  And check out the peace sign!  Found a little pattern for it on ravelry.  When I saw it I knew I had to use it! 

This was some leftover yarn I had from a pair of fingerless mitts.  It made a great little rooster. 

This little peace sign takes all of ten minutes to crochet up.  You can find the pattern here. 

Oh, but there is more!

Whatcha think?  The flowers are so fun to crochet up.  I placed one on the top rooster for his tail...it was so freakin groovy I couldn't stand it!

Fancy Rooster!  LOL....I made his legs black and tied bows on them. 

It's so "folk artish"!  I've grown attached to these.  I did gift one of them last week.  It wasn't easy!  I was thinking about putting them in my etsy shop but that is as far as it has gotten.  I will make them up on request. 

Yesterday I grabbed two balls of the Lion Brand Amazing and crocheted up a Queen Anne's Lace scarf.  I think this is one of my favorite scarf patterns. 

Doesn't it work up pretty in this yarn!!  I have one I made last year out of Noro that I wear all the time.  If you haven't tried crocheting one up, I recommend it!  I made this one up in an evening.  You can find the pattern here.

I am now crocheting up the Luna Scarf and am enjoying it.  I'll be back next week with pictures of it. 

Christmas Crocheting

It has been a nice Thanksgiving weekend here.  After feasting on turkey and dressing, I spent time crocheting, Christmas crocheting!  I found this pattern on ravelry and immediately grabbed a hook and some yarn and started.  These are so much fun to make!!!  It's a free pattern at Le monde de Sucrette.  I have also become a fan of her blog...her crochet is off the chain! 

Putting together all these bright colors and adding buttons and pom-poms has been a blast.  They work up quickly, too!  I am thinking about doing a little garland with these, if I can get enough done in time.  Seems I can't find enough of it these days to get everything done. 

 Owlies Pattern Ready!!

I am happy to say I have my Owlie pattern done, and listed in my etsy shop!  Thank you to my testers who helped me out with this!! 

OMG...I just had a thought of little mini stockings with owls on them!!  I can see it!  Uh oh...think I have to go work on one! 

I hope everyone has a great week! 

Ruh Roh!

Oh my...I blinged out my little rooster with some buttons and embroidery.  Doesn't he look grand???  Especially against the cocheted pennies I have been doing.  I'm not sure what I am going to do with these pennies yet.  I saw some penny rugs at the craft show this weekend and really was drawn to how "folk arty" they look.  I work on these in the morning when I get up and drinking my tea...such a nice way to start the day!

Hootie pattern is just about ready for testing.  It looks like Saturday, when I can get some good pictures to go with it. 

Chillin'

Today I have been chillin' just doing things around the house, and yes, a little crochet time, too!  My jammies have been on all day!  It's fun to do that every once in awhile, and today has been the perfect day for it.

Check out the little Owlie and the ornament I did this morning.  I think they kind of go together.  A Christmas Tree loaded with these would be so cute!

This afternoon I attempted another...not sure how I feel about it yet.

I like the way the colors turned out, but it is a little too large.  I am going to give it another attempt and change it up a little bit.

My craft booth was a real success on Saturday.  I sold tons of Owlies and scarves.  I was very pleased, and very tired when I got home.  It's been a week battling a major sinus infection, followed by major antibiotics and a shot or cortisone.  I am finally feeling back to normal...I think the medicine actually makes you feel a little worse at first!

So, tomorrow is back to Monday and the normal, not a bad thing I guess.  Y'all make it a good week!

All Done But The Border!

Well, here it is!  All done except the border and some blocking.  I have to say, I love it! 

So, this is probably the last you will see of it until I get it completely done!  I haven't exactly decided on my border yet.  I do have a couple of ideas I am toying with.  I would happy to hear any suggestions y'all could give me!

Everyone have a great week!!

Baby Booties

How do you like the little pair of booties I knit up this weekend?  These are so much fun to do and super quick!  You can get the pattern here.  If you need a cute little baby gift in a hurry, these take all of a couple hours to do.  They are done on straight needles and seamed up the back.  I have started another pair, but changed up the pattern.  I am doing them on double pointed needles so there is no seem up the back.  It is working very well. I will share them with you when I finish and write up the pattern. 

Octagon Blanket is making good progress.  I am crocheting up octies and sewing them together as I get a good pile done. Working this way works best for me, I can actually see the blanket coming together!  Working in the evening with seaming up black octies with black yarn has been a bit challenging.

I found a girl on flicker who has totally impressed me with her crocheting skills.  She had pictures of this pillow, which has totally inspired me!!  You can find her blog here, and be sure and visit her flicker photostream...you will not be disappointed!

I will leave you with a sweet little picture of Phoebe.  I snapped it with my camera phone, so the quality isn't the best.  (I was standing next to her treat jar!  LOL!)

Miss Fluffy Pants!

Tah-tah!

Granny Blanket in the Making

Here lately I have been inspired with all the granny squares I have seen people doing on flickr and ravelry.  Needless to say, I had to join in!

Once again the Granny Square bug has bitten me.  I am now officially obsessed with cranking out these red and black octagons!  I have been wanting to do a granny blanket with black in it for some time.  And I do love red!!  So I grabbed some yarn from my stash and started putting colors together.

After crocheting up a few of these octagons and laying them out I knew I had the makings of an afghan.  I think this is really going to be pretty.  I plan on joining my octagons with a tapestry needle and black yarn, it will be a lot of stitching, but I think it will be well worth it.  The tones of red along with the one variegated yarn are really pleasing me. 


I used Square #31 from the Crochet Motifs book.  (I do love me this book!)

I also managed to put some left over Noro to some good use with another Queen Anne's Lace scarf!

I was in JoAnne's Fabrics and saw this book!  When I got home I grabbed my new book and a cup of tea, I couldn't wait to sit down and look it over from cover to cover.  As I was flipping pages I thought to myself, "this really looks familiar".  Well...it should be, because I had a copy of this same book on my bookshelf.  LOL!!  Can you guess I have a lot of knitting and crochet books??!  I could take it back, but I decided a crochet bud will enjoy having this so I am giving it to her.  If you haven't had a chance to check this book out, I totally recommend it.  It is truly full of inspiration!

I hope everyone has a great week!

I Love....

Crocheted hexagons in pretty yarn,

cute little snow people, and

a crocheted ruffled scarf with some bright white eyelash yarn!

Saturday evening I gathered together some leftover Palette yarn and got out my hook and began to play.  Then it happened...I got my granny square mojo back!  So now I have the beginning of a new scarf.  I love the colors and it is so light and airy.  It's so nice to be doing grannies again...how I have missed it.

I posed my latest snowman on those grannies.  Not to worry, I am not giving up snowmen, I am working on both.  I have quite a collection of them now.  They almost look like a little village.  

It has been a long Monday, and I am ready to sit back and work on my scarf!  Bye for now!

Binky for Summer

Greetings blogsters! I just finished up this little Binky I made for a new grandbaby of a friend at work. I'll bring you some more pictures when I am able to score some daylight hours. I snapped this little shot this evening, but don't want to press my luck...it's so hard to get a decent picture at night!

I'm smiling...it's humpday, and tomorrow is Little Friday, which means the weekend in rolling on in!

Sneaky Peak

Just a tiny sneaky peak at my finished granny square scarf. Love it! Love it so much, I made two! I am hating it so bad that I missed my window of the perfect lighting to get more pictures...so, they will have to wait for tomorrow! The colors in these grannies gets me absolutely giddy with that crochet excitement!

Stripey Scrappiness

Hey there all my bloggy buddies! My past weekend at SAFF has left me completely excited about all that I saw, and all that I brought home!! I am sure you all checked out my treasure chest of yarny goodness that I last posted!!

I have been busy the past couple of evenings working on a scrappy scarf. Just garter stitch with a lot of changing of colors. So far I am liking it a lot!! There is just a lot of ends to be woven in!! But I must admit I don't mind that at all...I love to see the little clump of pieces of yarn that I clip off. Why this makes me happy, I don't know, but it does. And mixing colors that you would never think would go together is exciting. For some reason it works! It's all fibery and textury! I will have more to come on this coming soon. It is close to being done!

I thought it would be fun to share some more yarni-yumminess on this posting! Unfortunately, I didn't get to take many pictures at SAFF, I was too busy trying to juggle my purse and my yarn purchases. LOL!! But I did get a couple pictures in.

Just look at that fiber!! I did end up bringing two large skeins of this lady's yarn home with me. She dyes it and spins it herself! At 72 years of age and creating this gorgeous wool!! My God! I hope to be that cool when I grow up! She was also selling hats that she makes from her wool. She said she had no pattern, she just did them! My kinda lady. Check em out!All that texture just makes me want to drool!!! I believe the name of her shop is Crazy Daisy (I think Daisy was actually a dog she had) Her name was actually Polly.

I met so many fellow Raveler's at SAFF! Everyone that I met was so nice, I instantly loved them...how could you not...we all had the same thing in common. An addiction for yarn!

During my ride home from SAFF I was able to finish up my crocheted ripple scarf. This is the one that I used sock yarn in. And I am so pleased with how it turned out. This is one of those patterns that I will keep in my library and use several times!

I love crocheting with sock yarn. It's so soft!

Here is a little scarf I crocheted up from a big hank of novelty yarn I bought at SAFF. It was a mixture of all kinds of fibers, ribbons, wool, fuzzy stuff, and glitzy stuff. As I was winding it I was thinking that I could make some of this out of my own stash!!! Just another idea to file in the idea library!

The North Carolina Mountains were gorgeous with that vibrant fall color and that crisp cool air! Loved every bit of it. And even though I would love to still be in the mountains, the color here at home is just as pretty! Let me share!!!

And these are just some shots around our yard! I do love me some Fall!

Friday Night Scarf

Named so, because I crocheted this up Friday evening while waiting on Brad's plane to come in! This is some yummy yarn my girlfriend brought back from China! It has great color along with a little glitzy thread through it. I used a half-double crochet, followed by a row of double crochet. And yes, as always, I made it super long! I don't know how long I'll be on that kick!



I have more of this yarn in shades of golds and think that may be something I can do this week in the evenings when nothing else really appeals to me!


New Project: Crocheted Skirt
I have had a request to make a crocheted skirt, in pinks and blacks. Here is my yarn selection, some gorgeous Lion Brand Wool!


I am experimenting with different squares. I can't quite decide what I like. Here is a sampling below. I did a few more samples last night, and will post those as soon as I can! This is my creative process...I work up some squares and put them together until I find what really strikes me. I'm actually wondering if I should throw another color into the mix! Any comments on this would be truly appreciated!!!



Of course, I love the black against this pink! It gives it that pop!

Brad came home for the weekend, which was so nice! The house has seemed so quiet while he's been gone. I was curious of how Phoebe would do when she saw him. She lost it! Started whining for him to pick her up! It was so sweet.

I cannot leave before posting a cute little picture of her I snapped last week!

Now how adorable is she I ask you!!

Small Plarn Tote Bag

What a way to recycle! Right? So, in a way I am doing my part and keeping those plastic bags out of the landfill!

This was a custom order for my boss. He had seen the other plarn bag I made and requested one a bit smaller he could give his girlfriend. I think it turned out very nice! I used Hobby Lobby bags. I cinched the upper sides to give the bag some shape. I definitely want to make some more of these if I can get some more "plarn" made...that's what takes most of my time in making the bag.

Two days until Christmas!! I still have one more gift to get, and some wrapping to do! And a new recipe I want to make for Christmas Eve. I'm ready for it...and looking forward to some time with my family.

Large Knitting Tote!

Yes, it is big!! But I plan on filling this fella full of yarn and projects so I can tote them with me wherever I go! Right now I have the outer shell done. I am working on a reinforcement for the bottom of the bag, and then a fully crocheted liner. Trust me, you could run over this bad boy with a truck and it wouldn't hurt it!

I am extremely pleased with how well the colors look together. It's exactly as I had visioned. And I would guess this bag is a good 30 inches deep. I have a pillow stuffed in it to take this picture!

I have an extremely busy weekend coming up, so I doubt I'll get to work on it much this week, and I need to put some focus on out new etsy shop...hopefully we will have some items listed this week!

Fun Distraction

I have to admit, I have been slightly distracted the past couple of weeks! My crochet has sat next to my chair on idle for a few days now. So today I got back into the groove and am working on my granny square tote bag with hopes of finishing it up soon.

In the meantime, my sister-in-law and I have decided to open an etsy shop to sell some of our cards. I love making cards and the idea of selling them sounds like fun. From there it has grown...Rhonda was talking about recycling in our crafts and was wanting to do something with the huge mountain of plastic grocery bags she had accumulated. I had a good size mountain as well! So, we got busy making some "plarn"! It's time consuming, but kind of fun, mindless busy work...which I love since it keeps my hands busy.

I crocheted up a nice size tote bag using Food Lion and Walmart bags. Actually it took longer to make the "plarn" than it did to work up the bag!



I'm quite pleased with the way this has turned out! Some of these will definitely go into our new etsy shop!

So my mind has been busy with creating some "upcycled" items for the new shop. I had a couple of wine bottles I had been saving with hopes of making something out of them. I got this idea from a girl I work with!




















I had a hard time getting a decent photo of this, but it gets the general idea across. I strung a strand of 20 miniature lights into the bottle through a hole I had drilled in the back. Added some artificial grapes, some ribbon, and a glass ornament at the top. Perfect Christmas gift for a wine lover.

So, now I am soliciting everyone I know for empty wine bottles! And I have all kinds of ideas of how to dress these bottles.

It would be so nice if I had more time to work on these things, but a full time job and life in general has to be tended to first!

Since Thanksgiving is coming and Fall is here, I have been sprucing up the house to cozy it up for the cooler fall nights. This is my favorite time of year! And here in NC, the colors have put on a beautiful show this fall!



















A corner of the living room. I filled up this urn with fall silks I have collected over the years!















I made this up in a matter of minutes using some artificial pumpkins I had, fall leaves, and a basket that was given to me! It's a pretty good size and sits next to the entry way to the living room. I added some miniature lights in the leaves and it glows! I think once Christmas gets closer I will take this apart and use the basket for some kind of Holiday arrangement. I've been picking up pine cones and think they would be so pretty in this basket.

It's raining outside, very dark, and a definite chill is in the air...I got on my comfy pj's and slippers and am headed towards my favorite seat in the house with my favorite quilt, and thinking I'll pick up my crochet hook for awhile until I head for bed! Sound a little bit like heaven?! It does to me!

Granny Square Tote Bag

I have my squares done and I am starting the assembly of my new tote bag. I would say this is the favorite step for me, I love stitching my squares together. Most don't like this part, but not me, it instantly transforms the squares. Did I say this bag is for myself? Yup, it's all mine! I have wanted an oversized tote to drag my projects around in with room for a couple of books possibly a snack, and whatever else I can fit in it!

I am lovin the colors. Half the fun is the designing as I go. I've never been one to draw things out although I do have a good picture in my brain of what I am wanting.
Sunday evening I got all my grannies stitched together, then cast on with some black yarn for the bottom of the bag. This step is simply knitting a seed stitch on circular needles.


I will probably continue this until I get it about 4 to 5 inches wide then bind it off and begin the bottom of the bag. I want the bottom to be flat and very sturdy! I plan on using this baby!!
It's only Wednesday...so maybe by the weekend I will get to finish this up! The seed stitch bores me a bit, so I am a bit slow with this part.

Meanwhile, here is some crochet inspiration I wanted to post for future use!

I thought this was so pretty! It looks like it is done in about five different colors...it's very impressive! The square looks fairly simple, but I bet it eats up some yarn.

Pretty...pretty...pretty. The colors in this are gorgeous.

Now this is just plain yummy! It's full of color and looks so soft.