Finishings...

I finished Mom's 3rd sock of the year, and I have 79 days to finish the other one. I did start it today though!! (no pic since it's her Christmas present!)

I also finished Grandma's afghan for my Mother in Law. She says that she loves it, although it is still folded nicely in the corner of her bedroom, but hopefully when it gets colder she will use it.










I have not finished 2 baby afghans and half the projects on my Pay It Forward list. Whoopsy!

Grandma's Afghan

Last Sunday, the day before school started back for the fall, My Husband's grandmother passed away. Our family was already in the midst of a crazy week, and the whole world was turned upside down for my Mother-in-Law in the span of 3 days.

Last week, my MIL went to Louisiana (where her Mom lived) to help her sister and brothers sort through Grandma's things and decide how to go forward as a family. They got back late Sunday night, and we went over to visit last night. The kids were SO excited!! They had missed their grandparents, and it had been a long week with them gone. They did bring back a few bins of items, things for herself and things for us.

For me, I got a bin of yarn, a navy Vera Bradley purse (!!!), and a BEAUTIFUL new quilt for our bed. I don't think Grandma ever even used it, and it is gorgeous and I can't wait to snuggle under it! I knew that Grandma was a crocheter since we have many items of her handiwork around our home, and I was excited about my project idea - the perfect thing for Grandma's yarn.







The little bin of yarn (I think like 1/20 of my stash would fit in there!)is of many assorted colors and many of them verigated, and none of them even remotely resembling the others. That was a little bit of a problem, but I am good at what I do so I came up with a plan.

I am taking a pound of off-white yarn and the little bin if colorful yarn, and making a granny square blanket for my MIL. The off-white, the base color, came from my own grandmother's stash that I inherited last year, and each square will be the off-white every other round, and one of Grandma's yarn colors in the other rounds, per square. The squares are quick, taking less than 15 minutes, but I am NOT looking forward to weaving in almost 900 ends! Some of the squares are pretty whacky, but I'm sure my MIL will love the tribute to Grandma. I have 13 squares done, I'll show you more when I have more to show!!

School is a time-suck

I have been out of school on Summer "break" for 8 days. I start back on Monday. I have finished up all of the pre-requisites for the Nursing Program at my school, now I have to wait to apply in January, and start next Fall. That is a REALLY long time to wait, especially since I am not the world's most patient of people. In the meantime, I am taking some other classes to finish the degree and keep the Pell Grant money coming in.

I had stopped working on yarn for a while, just due to studying constraints, but I am starting to get back into it now. Since we last talked, I did finish a few projects, though!

This is Baby Andrew showing off his blanket.











That's about it... and only because Mama wanted him out... and we all know that babies don't come until their blankies are done!

I am working on a blue baby blanket made from $.97/ball Pomp-A-Doodle. It doesn't have a baby to go with it yet... but I couldn't pass up a $6 blanket!! I also started working on a pink and green blanket from the book "Interlocking Crochet" by Tannis Galik. I am not very far because it is really confusing to me, but I am sure that I can figure it out with all my 30 years of experience!!

In other news, I had to disconnect the Hook 'N Stick website because I didn't have the money to keep it up, and with school I hadn't had the time to really give it the attention it deserved. We all know I can ignore the heck out of a website, but there I had to pay for it!

I will try very hard not to ignore you so much! Good luck to all the kids (and their parents) going back to school!

Pay it forward

About a month ago, there was a thing going around Facebook where you post a notice to do a Pay It Forward. Basically, you sign up for 1 item from someone participating (or 2 in my case) and you offer 5 spots for people to claim items for you. Since I picked 2 items, I'm doing 10 PIFs.

1 pink twirly scarf was first out the door since it was done and in my craft fair bins already. It is now happily residing in TX with one of my old school-mates. She loves it and has to fight off her 2 girls for it.

1 pair of socks went to my Mom on Valentine's day. They started off as Embossed Leaves by Mona Schmidt. They were my School Socks - the ones I would work on between classes and such. Because I was doing them at school during little snatches of time, I decided to forgo the pattern after 1 repeat so it was like a banded leaves thing. I finished sock 1 during winter break. During the January classes I worked on the 2nd sock, and decided that instead of doing a leaf band, that I would do 2 little intermingled leaves centered on the front of the leg. Fraternal twins, instead of identical. She was happy to get socks, and didn't really care that weren't really "matchy". Good thing!!








My 3rd PIF was a slouchy beret "Rainbow Swirl Slouch" by Jessica Fraser. I did it in Loop & Threads Charisma in Cream and the recipient loved it. I didn't get a pic, but I might make it again, only a little longer. It was cute.

My 4th PIF is another pair of socks, Dublin Bay Socks by Ryan Morrissey. I really love the pattern, easy to remember and cute. I finished the first one and started #2 yesterday.

Of my other PIFs, I have 2 more pairs of socks, a fabric bowl, a cutie apron, and I haven't decided on the others. This is fun, and I can't wait to get my goodies!!

After Hours, part 2.

I've been working out the design of this lbd for quite a while now. I thought I had it pretty good, but I've done a slight re-design that I think will work better. I love the sketches, and the concept living in my head, now to actually get it crocheted!!!

In other news, I started my 2nd semester of college, and so far so good. I managed a 4.0 last semester and I really, REALLY want to keep it!!! I'll be applying to nursing school in the summer, and if I want to get in, I gotta keep my gpa above 3.5, which means no more than 2 B's.

In other, other news, I've got 2 socks on the needles right now. I'm making Cookie A's Twinkle Toes (they were on Knitty Gritty, and really cute!)and the other pair started as Embossed Leaves from "Favorite Socks", but have now turned into my interpretation of them because I am A) lazy, and B) busy. They are not identical twins, more fraternal twins, and I think they are cute. Who said socks needed to match anyway, huh?

And finally, my baby turned 4. On Elvis's birthday (January 8), Sean, or Stinky to his parents, turned the BIG O4. He can't understand why he can't move to K4, since he is no longer 3 and shouldn't be with the "little kids" anymore. He's too cute for words sometimes, but here's 1,000 of them for ya.