Good day

Had a busy time the last 2 weeks, but loads done!  Let's start with progress on the Spectrum blanket that Katlyn has decided she would like instead of the color bar blanket I started for her.  She still wants the color bar one, but it's going to be too big for a car blanket, so she has laid claim on my lovely stripes!  I love that this blanket is so easy to just go back and forth and the change in colors is fun.  I am very pleased with it.  

a bit of progress

I decided that I needed to get Groot finished up and potted so I sat down on a lovely sunny Saturday and knocked him out.  Added a bit more detail and got him potted up! 

finishing details

He turned out so darn cute!  Had to drag him around the house to get a good shot of his happy face. 

and he is done!

I was on pinterest and ran across this little potted four leaf clover and thought I would make it for Katlyn.  She had just commented how she really liked St. Patrick's Day and this was a cute little project that really took no time at all to complete.

part one

How cute is this face!

part two

Stuffing and sewing 

part three

And here he is all done up and hanging around on the mantle.

lucky clover

So I finished Groot, made the lucky clover and made a few more shamrocks and turned them into a garland to decorate the mantle.  I had a very productive Saturday.

Spring mantle

Katlyn ended up with 3 days off in a row so we decided to go up North for the weekend, well of course I need to gather yarn for the trip.  Really not that hard, I was just going to take the Spectrum blanket, since all 6 skeins fit in my favorite yarn bag nicely.  The problem I ran into was that I ran out of the turquoise yarn!  What the heck??? I bought what the pattern called for and used the called for hook size.  I don't crochet loosely so not sure what was going on.  I pulled out my ruler and checked gauge (something I never do!) Turns out my gauge was bigger then the pattern said it should be, but the problem with that is if I had in fact been at the proper gauge, the blanket would be a tight, stiff mess!  So not sure who tests these patterns but this is definitely off.  

Now this has thrown a hitch in my plans to take this blanket along.  It's Wednesday night at this time, we are leaving Thursday right after work and Joann's didn't have the Mint Blue last time I tried to buy this yarn, ugh.  I don't want to waste time driving all the way up there when I have to do laundry and pack and they might not have it!  Damn.  I'll just pack another bag to take, but wait....we drive right by Joann's on the way out of town, so I'll take this blanket and another just in case they don't have the yarn I need, whew!  

further along

This is the blanket I started when I ran out of yarn for the other.  3 strands together and a beast hook to handle it!  This is for my newest Grandchild. Gender neutral at this point.  Won't know the sex until late April.

new baby blanket

So off on the road trip with a quick stop at Joann's for my yarn emergency and (they had the yarn)  I get settled in the passenger seat while Katlyn drives us in her new car and this is what I encounter!  Flippin' yarn vomit, like seriously aggravating.  

yarn vomit

Since we were in town on a Friday while most everyone worked and Brooke had school we just kind of wandered about Windsor during the day.  Went to the book store, had some lunch and just enjoyed the lovely weather that Northern California has!

at the book store

Made much progress on the blanket while driving and took it outdoors for  photos.  Got the third color going.

it's growing!

We were busy bees the entire weekend, I swear we were in and out of cars constantly!  I love hanging out with my boys though. 

my sweet boy Steven

We went to dinner a lot

dinner

This spare blanket that I brought just happened to be in the car and I worked on it every time we drove somewhere, it grew quite a bit!

in the car

We went to San Francisco on Saturday and walked around pier 39 and had lunch and drove up and down crazy hills with a million other people!  I took loads of pictures with my camera while walking around and the weather was beautiful.  They have musical stairs on the pier that Katlyn and Brooke enjoyed.

making music

We took a lot of pictures including selfies.

girls and selfies

Snoopy outside a restaurant in Windsor.

girls and Snoopy

We did a bit of shopping after breakfast and acted silly.  Had a good time and man I love the weather up there!

Grandma's crazy

Home repair is something I do because it's just me and Katlyn so unless one of my boys is down visiting (Christopher) I do what needs to be done myself.  Katlyn's bathroom door knob has been sticking, where she couldn't get out kind of sticking.  So after her friend got stuck in the bathroom at 11:30 pm on Monday night and Katlyn had to wake me up to help I figured it was time to fix it.  Well I did a temporary fix by changing her knob out with mine for now.  I will get new knobs over the weekend for both bathrooms.  So after many pictures and texts with Christopher trying to figure out HOW to remove the stupid knob in the first place...seriously, I can replace the front door and the bedroom ones with no problems but I could not figure out the bathroom one!  Finally I got it off, it had been painted around and the paint decided it didn't want to let go!  A hammer and a couple of screwdrivers convinced it otherwise and I only got a little bloody...oh the joys of owning my own home!

I'm handy

Christopher was entertained with my antics, so 1 bloody finger, 1 smashed thumb and 1 jammed cuticle later the knob is in place and works!  I am hoping that the new ones will cause me less damage and pain! 

ok, maybe not so much!

And that's my story so far this month.  I have added another color on the Spectrum blanket, but will all the door knob repairs last night I forgot to take pictures of it, so that will be later.  We shall see how productive I can be this weekend!

Listening to:  Wicked Garden by Stone Temple Pilots