Hackers, Yarn Tangles and Old Eyes...

Hi all -Hey just a quick apology.  Apparently my long neglected little blog got hacked and so there was a bogus post up which also showed up on facebook.  I think all is well now, but am hoping that didn't cause anyone a problem!

And... as long as I am throwing up a post, here is pic of one of my latest projects.  Just finished up this shawl last week.  Believe it or not, it is actually for me! My BFF pointed out I seem to rarely make stuff for myself and you know what?  I realize she is right!  So, that made this extra fun!  I even splurged and bought the "nice" yarn for this one which was a silk and merino wool blend.  Very cool and feels great.  Although... if I plan to do too much of that in the future well then monogirl needs to get herself a yarn ball winder because for whatever reason, the nice stuff comes in hanks, not skeins, and a hank needs to be wound into a ball before you can use it.  This is not a quick easy process.... just ask my husband cause he was the designated yarn ball winder and knot untangler and even though he is quiet talented at both.... a yarn ball winder would make both of our lives easier I am thinking.  I have this one on my Christmas list.   Of course then one also needs a yarn swift... like this...and OK that is getting kinda pricey.  Of course now I am thinking the husband probably wishes I would not get those things which would probably lead to not buying the expensive yarns.... I could see his thinking on that. ha!

Anyway, this was an easy pattern and made a beautiful shawl.  I got both the yarn, and the free pattern from Expression Fiber Arts.  She has nice stuff.  The free pattern is here if you are interested.

I also finished up a blanket project the week prior for a gift.  Loving the blanket and its hard to give away cause I'd be happy to cuddle up in it, but a picture will have to wait until said gift is with said recipient.

After 2 big projects that took some time and effort monogirl's head needed a break and so for a quick easy project she is now doing a little cross stitch Christmas ornament.  Of course these days my 50 year old eyes need a little assistance apparently so I broke out my new lighted magnifier thingy... I saw this on one of the crochet boards and FB and figured it would help when stitching dark yarns (cause it is impossible to see the stitches!).  Who knew it would be necessary for multiple projects, cause I do not remember needing these tools when I last stitched... like um years ago.  Of course it's not a boost to Monogirl's ego that the ornament kit appears to be for children... and says complete in 30 minutes and Monogirl is on her 3rd evening to work on it.... Maybe it's because I need an even better lighted magnifying thingy like this one.... Since I like the wear around your neck version, this would be even better by Monogirl's chair right?

Well I am off for today.  Again - sorry for the bogus post but glad it gave us a reason to visit again!
Blessings!

Mr Unicorn & Miss Elsa

 
Yes... day two of the great crochet pattern post.  Are ya ready? I have to make this a quick one so lets get to it.

Here you have a Miss Elsa hat.  Elsa.... is that right?  I am totally not a "Frozen" expert but I am thinking she was the one with the braid.  ha!  I spotted this pattern on pinterest and fell in love with the cute braid and snowflake.... AND I just happened to have all the materials on hand so I was thinking this would make a great hat for the Handmade 4Him shoe box project.  I'm right right?  Of course.  Was there any doubt?  You can find the pattern here.  I made the 3-6 years size.  The hat was pretty simple.  Snowflake a little more detailed.  Braid was just attaching and braiding.

And here we have Mr. Unicorn.  I keep thinking it should be Miss Unicorn cause of the pink and rainbows... but can only seem to think of him as Mr Unicorn.. so we shall go with it.  Mr. Unicorn seems to be one my most popular projects lately.  A friend from church found this pattern and asked if I'd make it for her daughter's 3rd birthday this month.  How could I refuse a cute unicorn for a cute little girl?  Kylie found the pattern, it's a free pattern here.  The body, arms, legs, horn were all easy enough.  Doing the mane was a bit tedious and work intensive.  I had never made curly q's before so I had to experiment with a few different hooks and number of stitches to get them to curl as tightly as needed.  Sewing .... not my best thing.  So sewing the body together gives me a bit of stress because you want him to sit and look right.  It came out well though and I am hoping the birthday girl will be happy with him.  Pattern is also available on Ravelry here.  Here are a few more pics too!

And that is all we have time for today!  Hope you have a great weekend!  Happy Crocheting.... cause like really... what else is there to do right?

Make Mine Crochet

Hi there!  This year and OK.. I guess last year too I have really gotten back into crocheting.  When we lived in Illinois I used to crochet all the time.  When we moved to Indiana back in 2001 I got into scrapbooking and it was allll consuming and I have the room in my house to prove it.  Ha!  I kind of forget about my crocheting.  How does that happen?  I mean I learned when I was a little girl.  My Mom took a class to learn to crochet and I seem to have come out of the womb wanting to learn and do any craft I see someone else doing!  I'm all oooooo what is that? Can I play too?  Which is why the room I mentioned has supplies for scrapbooking, crocheting, knitting, embroidery, cross stitch, painting, drawing, Bible journaling... You get the idea right?  Well lately as I mentioned yes... Crocheting it is.  And reading.  Always reading too.  Pretty much always am in the middle of one book or another and always have it with me.... Mostly.  Currently reading The Scrapbooking Mystery series  and I have 13 books from the library sitting next to me just waiting their turn.  Currently I am on book 2!

Anyway back to crocheting.... I've been sharing my projects on Facebook and a few of my friends have asked to share the pics with their friends so I told them I'd get them posted on my blog so the friends of friends would have access to them.  So the pic above is my latest completed project and my first attempt at the "graphgan" technique.  Graphgan is done using the corner to corner stitch (which I love) and then following a graph and using yarn bobbins to create the image in your crocheting.  There is not a specific pattern for this pillow.  I just found the IU symbol thru Google and then used Sttich Fiddle to put it into a graph.  Graphgans are NOT easy.  I had 5-6 bobbins going at a time and if you aren't careful flipping your work you get tangles... If you aren't careful following the graph you get the scramble image that makes no sense... And yes I almost gave up twice! Ha. There are graphgan tutorials here.  You can also Google graphgan or check Pinterest and you will find tons of resources.  There is a tutorial here on how to do the corner to corner stitch.  I love this stitch.  Your project starts with a single square rather than a beginning base chain and then grows square by square diagonally.

I made this pillow as an end of year gift for my Kids Hope friend.  She is in 4th grade and says she loves IU and wants to go to college there.  She saw a Unicorn I made and asked if I knew how to crochet IU and this is what I came up with.  She loved it and said she was taking it to college with her.  Too cute!

This project was a hat for my project at our church called Handmade 4Him which is a year long promotion to make handmade items to include when we pack our Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes in November.  I used a variegated yarn from Hobby Lobby in their "I Love This Yarn" brand....and I do love that yarn.  It's awesome!  The pattern was linked to me on Facebook when my Niece saw it and hoped I'd make her a hat... Which I of course did.  The pattern can be found here. It's a quick and easy project.  You'll like it.  

So there are two.... I have lots more to share but blogger is giving me stress at the moment... And no one needs that.  I will be back later with more!  Leave a comment if you have questions and I will try to answer next time.  

Blessings!  

P S. A lot of the patterns I've used are from Pinterest. Feel free to follow my knit and crochet board here:  http://pin.it/Mt8BCVD

Ten On Tuesday

1) Yes... I showed up....for a possible 10 on Tuesday.  At the moment I only have like um 4... on Tuesday but that just doesn't sound as nice.  Let's see what we end up with. 

2) Here you have a pic of my current project.  Bought this in a kit from Mary Maxim because I fell in LOVE with the pink color.... shocking I know and because I liked the raised stitches. Loving it but am also ready to be done with it and move on to one of the 101 projects waiting in the wings. 

3) I work at our church.  Not news to you right?  Well it is such a blessing.  Especially days like today when my boss.. the Pastor walks around singing at the top of his lungs.  Love that and am thinking I need to burst into song right along with him next time. 

4) Are you ready for Valentines day?  Or are you in the "it's just a made up card holiday" camp?  I am soooo NOT in that camp.  When I was a little girl my Mom told me a story about when she was in grade school (I think) and a boy that liked her gave her a giant heart shaped box of candy.  It was so big she had to wrap both arms around it to carry it home.  I loved that story.  I love romance.  And yes I could not wait until someone wanted to romance me and give me a giant heart shaped box of candy.  The husband God had for me?  Totally fits that description.  We always enjoy Valentines day together.... and this week, for us, it will start on date night!  Can't wait. 

5) Speaking of date night, my BFF sent me a link to this blog today and I love love love all these cool ideas for dates!  I mean how creative to make this gift for her husband for Christmas?  I might totally have to steal some of her ideas.  I love how she took pics and made a scrapbook page for each monthly date too!  Awesome!  Of course she also makes me want one of those instax cameras all over again too... I mean it comes in pink and I don't have one.  That is reason enough to get one right there.  ha! 

6) This would be my gift for J at Kids Hope tomorrow.  Cool like confetti looking polish, a sparkly headband and a I *heart* volleyball bracelet.  Did I do good for an almost teenager?  Is it a bad thing that I am 48 and I like it too? 

7) A friend gave us some of those little poke in the ground solar landscape kind of lights.  We live in the country and our driveway is HARD to find in the dark so we used two of them at the bottom of the driveway to help guide us home.  We also live on a highway.  No sidewalks.  Barely a shoulder to walk on or pull over if needed.  Being outside of town and heading out into more country I don't know where anyone would be walking to anyway.  However... one of the lights went missing?  Where did it go?  Did someone drive out here just to pick one of them up and take it with them?  Did someone happen to walk by and need a light to find their way?  Did it like blow away in a tornado I don't remember?  It's just gone.  Makes no sense.  I mean you'd have to purposefully drive out here and pull in our drive way and choose to take only one light.  This does not compute.  If someone had driven over it or hit it and knocked it in the ditch.... well that I'd understand.  Would a dog pull a light out of the ground and carry it away?  Or is the universe just messing with me?  At least we could still find the driveway with the other light.  Well... until someone.... like probably the people working on the sewer line... GRRRRR .....smashed that one. 

8) I realized today that I recently told you that we got a great Christmas gift in the form of a new great nephew but then blogger and its picture loading issues prevented me from showing you.  Well... .blogger is still pressing my buttons with its picture loading issues but I found away around that... so here you have little Elliot.  Is he not the cutest thing ever?  No.  I am not biased. 

9) Still reading the Elm Creek Quilts books.  Started #16 today! There are 20 in the series so I am on the downside and excited to be through the whole series.  You'd think a series that long would get boring or redundant but she has a cool way in each book of picking a different part of the timeline of the story and maybe the whole story is about the earlier generations. Then the next book in the present.  Then the next focuses on another member of the team or goes back and picks up a story that started a few books ago.  It's been very interesting and I've really enjoyed them.  Thank goodness for the library and the inter library loan thing because I've been able to request all 20 books thru them from libraries all over the state of Indiana. 

10) Trying to get the bedroom ceiling fan replaced (from the power surge).  Not liking anything we see in the stores.  Very much liking ones like this online.... but they are all WAY more than the budget.  Another cool one.... but with an over $400 price tag?  Really?  Hard to go that route when Lowe's has them under $200.... but they just are not that cool.  Do I have to pay for the coolness factor? 

And lookey there.... I made 10... yay Monogirl. 

Be back soon!  Blessings!

All Crochet... All the time.

Or is it all books... all the time.  Or perhaps all scrapping... all the time?  I am thinking it's a toss up and depends on what day it is here at Monogirl's house. 

Yes... I actually finished a crochet project.  Someone alert the media because this is definitely a newsworthy event.  I found the pattern for this scarf in my first one skein wonder book which I checked out from the library.  Of course as soon as I got the book home and spotted like 101 projects I needed to make well then I of course had to quickly buy my own copy. My finished creation here pretty much looks like the photo in the book, especially since I hunted down the exact yarn that was used in the example.  And what wonderful yarn it is.... I highly recommend it.  It has a wonderful, soft, nice expensive socks kind of texture.  LOVE.  Loving my scarf and loving a finished project!  I just might have to wear it to church tomorrow.... assuming we can make it out of the driveway that is.... cause yes.. more snow is coming. 

And since I've been all in a crocheting kind of mood, yes, I caved and bought the cool set of crochet hooks.  Who knew crochet hooks could be cute, colorful and comfy.  I started a new project using one of them and they are pretty great.  The set seems expensive, but if you price it out with buying a hook at a time?  Well its actually a pretty good deal to get the set if you are an avid crocheter. 

I checked out a few more crocheting books from the library, mostly because of wondering about this whole "Tunisian crochet" thing, but when I was getting those I also spotted this one. Hooked Throws.  It has some great small afghans and wraps in it.  It has a beautiful "vintage lace" looking wrap that I am going to make in green to go in the new living room.  Yarn just arrived today.  Love the Internet for searching for the same yarn as shown in a pattern.  Plan to start that one as soon as I finish my latest project which is a "kerchief" from this book... .which I am going to review for Netgalley. 

In other fun this week my pottery barn pillows and throw arrived and yes... they are awesome.  LOVE how thick and soft the throw is and the pillows?  A feather filled, soft, thick chenille pillow?  In the perfect colors for my living room? Um yes please. No wonder they call them "grand" chenille.  I completely concur. 

Yes.. I am behind on blogging this week.  I have not been feeling so great.  I am on the tail end of strep throat and a sinus infection.  CFS has been rearing its ugly head as well.  Last week in Sunday School it was freezing in our room yet Monogirl was hot... Monogirl is also 47.  The ladies and I were discussing the possibility that menopause symptoms are beginning to rear their ugly head as well.... We came to the conclusion that um CFS, Depression and perhaps Menopause means that any day Monogirl is actually able to leave the house and function, well then we should count that as a day Monogirl is doing really well.  Can I get a second on that one? 

Finished another Amish Novella Collection as well as a book called The Outcast for Netgalley.  Loved An Amish Love.  Especially the last story... and OK... the first.  But the last one was about an empty nest couple finding a rekindled, new and exciting love and relationship with one another and I really liked that!  The Outcast?  It was awesome!  I need to get a review posted but let me just say it was great.  There were several things going on that kept me reading because I just had to know what was going to happen?  Who was the baby's father?  What was Ida Mae's back story?  How was it all going to work out and um was there anyone that didn't have some kind of secret? 

This morning as I was trying to text my husband I sat here pressing all around on the back of my phone trying to find the power button.  It then occurs to me that it was my phone in my hand... NOT my Kindle fire and therefore there was no power button on the back.  I am thinking this is a sign Monogirl has too many electronic devices.  Either that, or she has lost it completely.... which is quite possible.  Especially since quite often when she is reading a regular print book she keeps having this urge to press on a word to get the definition... only to discover that real books don't offer that option like the Kindle does.  I'm OK. Really.

In Kids Hope this week my friend and I played played basketball. Yes, again.  She asked me if I wanted to play Horse... so of course... we played Horse.  This is an event that has likely never occurred in my lifetime.  I am thinking that calls for a scrapbook or project life page don't you?  I have discovered that I am nearly incapable of making a shot from the free throw line... but there is a line just in front of that that I call the "short people's free throw line" that works pretty well for me. I have no idea what that line is actually for.  Did I make a basket?  Yes.  Several.... jump shot and all.  Did I even win a game?  Yes.  Be very impressed.  Did I also discover that basketball should apparently be offered as a daily work out kind of thing because of the soreness that came to Monogirl later?  A big yes on that one.  I also decided that it is likely called "Horse" because one smells like a horse for the rest of the day after playing....

Miss Sophie has an infected foot.  The vet gave her a shot of antibiotics and told Darrel he didn't know if it was possible, but it would be helpful if we were also able to soak her foot in Epsom salts for 10 min. or so each night.  Right.  Not only get a cats foot wet... but soak it?  Like keep it in the water?  Yes. Well leave it to Darrel Doolittle to be the one and only person on the planet to manage to have already soaked Miss Sophie's foot not once... but twice for at least 10 minutes each.  She fought it at first, but quickly discovered that Darrel was going to win that battle and settled for holding still...... soaking her foot..... and yelling at us about it the entire time. 

And that catches us up a bit for the past week.  Tune in over the next day or two... hope to get that review posted.  Blessings!