Trying to be back

After the boys left both Katlyn and I came down with something that we thought was going to be a cold, but Katlyn only had a quick bout of a sore throat and nothing really else.  I had a slight sore throat but now I am having major allergies, so really have no idea what the heck we are going through at my house, but my eyes itch and I sneeze like crazy and my head just feels full!  Ugh, not to mention the tissues I am going through at a very fast rate.  We have been drinking loads of tea too.
Really hard to get any crocheting done, with itchy, watery eyes.  I have managed one finished blue/green glove and started the next one, but that was while the kids were still here!  Got all the rounds done on Steven's hat the other night while watching Doctor Who, but haven't added ear flaps yet.  sigh....so much to do and me incapacitated.  I will try again tonight since I'm sure there will be more of The Doctor on tonight's viewing schedule though Katlyn is wanting a bit of Harry Potter too, but either way I can sit on the couch with my box of tissues and a cup of tea and crochet some ear flaps!  Maybe I'll work on the sister to this....

Glove 1 finished and at the park :)

I have pictures of the Boys visit, but they are on my laptop, which is at home and not here at work.  I will get them up tomorrow if I can remember!

I'm off to do some work, anything that doesn't require bending over because when I do my head feels like it wants to pop off!

Listening to:  I Dare You by Shinedown

Back soon

2 of my Boys are in town visiting and my Granddaughter, so I'm pretty busy this weekend.  Back soon :)

Valentine's

Well here it is the one day of the year that's hearts prevail :) I really have no care for the holiday itself but certainly don't begrudge anyone who loves it.  I do like my hearts and used to take lots of pictures of all kind of hearts, but alas I really can't be bothered, lost that passion I guess.  Wow, I am really coming off as a downer with the start of this post, I better eat some chocolate!  

Just some yarn love this morning!

Started a new set of gloves, this time in blues & greens.  I am loving them so far.  Started with Cascade which had strands of green and blue and of course have to have the super soft Angel Hair in there and the next (far right in the picture) is Watercolors by Lion Brand.  I had a label on the green, I used some in the pink pair I made but since it was just a bit of leftover pink yarn I had forgotten what it was.  Now the yarn is long discontinued but if you run across it be prepared for intermittent bald patches!  There is a white thread through out and it appears that the green and colored bits twist up with that, well have experienced more then once (at least a half dozen times with the other balls of this) just the white thread, the green having pulled apart.  I have managed to camouflage it well enough it the scarves and with these gloves, but it is rather annoying to run across.

1 of 2 started

  And now on with more annoyances.....WHY oh why do I have to start a skein off like this!  I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to get this mess sorted!  All just to get to the middle pull.....grrrrrrr!!!!  Plus it is Jiffy yarn that is fuzzy and the fibers all kind of stick to each other making it very difficult to get apart, really I should just cut it and toss the mess, but I cannot be that wasteful!  I did get the mess untangled and started the next row on my glove, just ranting for the sake of ranting right now.

Mess of knots

My Sister brought in a bag of Hershey's Hugs when she came into work this morning, so chocolate goodness all around!  Hope everyone is enjoying their day!  I best get to work on this mess of a file that is spread across my desk right now! I'll leave you with a heart :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Listening to:  There's Only One Way to Rock by Sammy Hagar

Done

Finished the gloves and they turned out so cute!  I am really pleased with them and want to make more, more, more.  I love that they worked up so easy and fast and used up bits of yarn, not really a stash busting kind of project since they really don't require a lot yarn.  I did like digging through my yarns and finding ones that went together and I do like the mixed textures and that they don't match and that I just made them up as I went along.

Anyway there you have them, I love them and Katlyn does too (she was my hand model for that shot!)

Listening to: Just the dryer and the puppy chewing on something he shouldn't be...gotta go!

Friday! Yipee!

Looky here, I got one off my hook and another on.  My sister gave me a bag of mixed yarns yesterday to play with different combinations of colors & textures, so once I finish this pair I will start another!

A better picture then yesterday, but really still not the best.  I am going to have my Daughter help me in getting a picture in nature light instead of my horrible office lighting when the pair is complete.

Finished.  Yarn top to bottom...Jiffy, Paton's Divine, LB Suede, Sensations Angel Hair, unknown, Bamboo (I think Bernat) and Sensations Beautiful.

Started

 All yarns are in the first were rounded up from my stash and the second one will be from my stash and from my Sister's stash.  Now with the size of my stash I could easily make a pair of these for everyday of the week....for all the females in my family....and any males that want them, though somehow I cannot see any of my boys asking for a pair ;)  Brooke will be down to visit next week and I am going to make her a pair, letting her pick out the colors herself and fitting them to her hands  Should be fun!

I'm out, gotta get ready to go home, it's Friday afternoon and I am happy!

Listening to: Let You Down by Three Days Grace

I have a short attention span

I am terrible at having so many projects going at once, not just crochet even.  Not just crafty stuff either, household things.  When I moved into my condo it was full of stuff and on top of that I had my own stuff, so packing up the previous stuff and then unpacked my stuff kept me pretty busy, but I was very easily side tracked, so while sorting through things I would come across an item and find a use for it in another part of the house and go put it away and start working in that part of the house, seriously this went on all of the time, I had to make a list to keep myself somewhat on track :)  Now see even typing I go off track!!  Back to my crocheting, I saw fabulous gloves last week while cruising around the internet, I think when I was checking and updated by links over there on the sidebar in fact and came across someone looking for a pattern to make these pretty things!

So sweet!

I loved them and thought they looked so fun and heck I have so much yarn, but well life has a way of making me forget things IF I do not write them down or pin them!  I have found though that things that are meant to be tend to cross my path again and it just so happens that checking on some pages yesterday I ran across Me MaDonna  and she had figured out her own way to make the gloves herself.  Clever girl!

Her finished version.

Instant love I'm telling you and this time I pinned them AND remembered them later at home.  I went digging for some bits of yarn to see if I could give them a go and was very pleased that I could indeed do something without a pattern and pretty random.  Ok the picture is crap, but I love the gloves, I have this one close to done and excited to get started on the second one, going to go digging in my Sister's stash on my way home tonight because she has some chunky yarns that I don't.  When I showed Katlyn this morning, she liked the colors, but said they really needed to be worn with long sleeves.  

Officially the worst picture ever!

So that's my update for today, again still not done with Steven's Bender hat, sigh that poor hat keeps getting shoved aside.  One day, one day!

Back to work now!  

Listening to:  Dr. Feelgood by Motley Crue

Almost forgot a title.....

Ok pictures as promised :)  I pulled out a heart pattern last night that I printed awhile ago to make a heart garland and of course never did, but decided last night I wanted to try the heart and see how easy it was.  Conclusion, super easy and could have continued on the next round of the pattern but I like the size in is now after 2 rounds. Not sure if I will continue on making more or not, but we shall see.

Little heart I whipped up last night using cotton yarn

Katlyn wants a flower for her black & white striped beanie, but doesn't know what color she wants it in.  I had this Malabrigo out already and the bright orange of it is striking so I whipped up a flower for her....no go on the orange.  I guess I will try purple tonight and keep this pretty little thing for myself!

A flower for Katlyn's striped hat in Malabrigo, Tiger Lily

Now these are the square I played with on Saturday.  First up is colors inspired from Cath Kidston, I again saw a blanket on  Pinterest  and loved how it looks and am pretty enamored with the line anyway (and Greengate, but I will have to move out to England to get it apparently!)  Fished through my stash and did a granny square.  Don't know if I will ever continue but I like making granny squares up in fun combos for a new blanket inspiration!

Inspired by Cath Kidston colors

Here is another smaller granny that I had written out on a "granny's to try" post-it that I have.  2 solids rounds, a variegated round and then a white round.  Can't recall if I saw this combo out in the internet world  or not, it's not pinned on my board so I can't remember!  I think I like it, I might have to do more of these little squares and try putting them together and see how it looks.

Red Heart Yarns, Pink Camo, Lt. Raspberry and white

Up next is the gray beanie that I am trying to turn into a Bender hat for my Son.  Almost done with the basics, just a couple more rounds and then ear flaps.  Everything else will be add ons, the eyes and the antennae.  I put up a picture of Bender so there is a reference, I am making just his head above his teeth.  I have a sketch I drew up somewhere.....let me find it and take a picture.  Ok found it!

My sketch

Gray beanie base for the Bender hat.

This is Bender

There we go, my official crocheting update.  Nothing major but cranking along!  Hopefully get the beanie finished up with the basic hat bits and start on the ear flaps tonight.  It will be good to get this done since I wanted it for a Christmas gift and here we are into February already!  

I need to get a swap package together too of reds and pinks as I was informed that my partner has already gotten my package in the mail!  I have scouted the yarn and just need to order it now.  Best be off and get something done today before my boss notices I'm not typing for him!

Listening to: Breakfast in America by Supertramp

Superbowl Monday

First things first, I have no crochet pictures, even though I completed the black & white striped beanie and made 2 different sample granny squares...I forgot to get pictures of them!  I was cooking this weekend and getting ready for Superbowl, so tried to cram my normal weekend duties into Saturday.
I have food pictures :)  I am liking food photography at the moment, so food plus my iPhone are kinda my thing right this moment.

Soon to be salsa!

I couldn't resist how pretty this looked in my red colander after I washed them up.  All shiny and so full of color!

Jalapeno Crescent Poppers 

Found these on Pinterest a few weeks ago and pinned them to my food board, had to try them!  So good, I made them pretty spicy adding more then the called for jalapenos, but I like spicy and so did everyone else at my Sister's.  I also made BBQ Chicken Wings at my Daughter's request and a 7 layer bean dip.  My Sister made Corn Salsa, Guacamole and Sliders.  Plus we had the assorted cheese/salami/cracker tray and chips & dips.  Even the game was exciting this year.  I managed to crochet through most of the game working on Steven's Bender hat (haven't taken pictures of it since it's just a plain gray beanie right now.)  

Kid enjoyed the game ^.^

I finished off a star blanket yesterday that I stumbled upon while looking for some green yarn.  Decided Kid needed a new blanket, that's it in the picture that he's laying on.  The blanket had been sitting incomplete for quite awhile now and since I had completed the last of the navy blue round, all I needed to was snip and sew in the loose bits and fortunately I had done the sewing in of ends as I changed colors so it took 5 minutes and Kid had a new blanket.

Almost time to go home for the day so I better get things locked up!  

Listening to:  Seven Days of Lonely by I Nine

Happy Friday!!

Excellent that it's Friday.
I have things to do and really nothing like the weekend to get them done!
I am nearing completion on the Black & White Striped hat for Katlyn.  So that will be off the hook either tonight or tomorrow and just need to get a flower made for it.

24 rows total on this with 4 bands of each color stripe.

So yeah, that's my wonderful fun filled post for today, pretty exciting stuff right!  I have been cranky lately, probably that's just from missing my boys.  I need to take a trip, though Christopher is planning to come down and bring Brooke for a visit right after Valentine's so there's that to look forward too, I always love to play with Brooke and am gathering crafty ideas to keep her busy and get new art from her....wicked Grandma I am :)

Happy Friday!!

Listening to: Awake by Disturbed

Bright and Cheery

According to Puxatawney Phil we will have 6 more weeks of Winter.  Living in Southern California I am wondering where Winter is in the first place!  It's a bright, sunshiny day here in the San Fernando Valley with the temperature at 72 degrees right now, so if this is Winter now I wonder what the next 6 weeks have in store for us!

Now for this evening the DVD I ordered came in the mail today

One Piece Collection 4

We watch a lot of anime lately.  My Daughter loves it and has gotten me watching all these shows and quizzes me on the names of characters!  Seriously hard too, because they are not names like Harry or Ron, they are names like Kyoya & Tohru and I seem to have this hard time remembering them properly and my Daughter finds it amusing.
On the bright and cheery my sister brought these in for me today

Seriously, my love for polka dots is crazy :)  And they're red to boot!  Happy me, I am taking them home and fishing out the perfect vase for them to sit so pretty on my kitchen counter!
I have no picture of crochet, but I have managed 3 rows today on Katlyn's black & white beanie all while she was doing the driving, first to school and then after school.  So soon, very soon it shall be done and I can get the flower on.  I am in a swap this month and my partner loves project bags, so while I was going to do a heart garland this being February and all, but now I may just whip up another project bag!
Nearly the end of the day for me, so I better clear off my desk.

Listening to: Winner Takes All by Sammy Hagar