Monday, August 31, 2009

the journey of a free form purse

Here's the yarn I'm starting with for my free for purse. I want it to be in various shades of green (olive, mossy, lime, etc), browns, tans, oranges and a hint of purples / wines.
Here's a close up of the purse start. The liner is a piece of navy blue valour. If I remember correctly, it was re-purposed from a piece of clothing. I figure I'll just lay the pieces over top as I go along until it's the right size.
Here's a yarn I'm especially fond of. It's Nobo (No Boundaries) purchased from Walmart. I bought 3 balls as I absolutely LOVE the colors in it! Here's a glass pendant I found in Walmart as well that looked like it needed a home:) It will look perfect on my purse as a button I think. They were clearing out all their craft beads and stuff.
Here's a close up of it. The colors in it were really pretty (although the picture doesn't do it justice)

Friday, August 28, 2009

Yarn haul! (aka: pay dirt! or: hitting the motherload!)

I made a considerable haul last week! A lady I know works at a seniors center and gets yarn donated all the time. Someone donated a LOT of crochet cotton but the seniors have a hard time working with such a small thread due to poor eyesight, arthritic hands, etc., so, knowing I crochet, she asked me to come pick it up! There are 29 balls of it!!

Don't they look like a bunch of pretty jewels? :) There were a few discontinued yarns like the 3 balls of Coats & Clark Speed Cro-Sheen in the top right hand corner.
And some I've never heard of like the 3 balls (2 cream and 1 silver grey) of Bernat Cassino. It's very pretty and has a slight sheen to it. The ball of Red Heart Lustersheen is old as well. I don't even remember the label like that! And the Walmart price tag of $1.44 for 2 oz. kind of gives it away; It's now $6.47 and 4 oz.!


pictures and revision of afghan

I did it. I actually took pictures like I said:)

I have to make a revision to the afghan I told you I found. It isn't as old as I thought, OR the afghan I thought it was. I took it out and had a good look at it and looked at the pattern; it was from a book of afghans called "Sweet Dreams" 10 Baby Afghans to knit and crochet, by American School of Needlework. Book 1013 (13). It was called "Snowbaby" designed by Joan Kokaska and had popcorn stitches above every shell (which I left off as I wasn't very good at them at the time and I figured if I did them all, I'd never get the afghan done! :) I made a baby sized one for my dd and decided to use some blue and white yarn I had to make a bigger one.

There was another afghan in the book I always swore I'd make, but never got around to it's called "Bedtime Tales" by Julie A. Ryan. It is a zoo theme where the animals have 3-d tails! It's adorable.




Sunday, August 23, 2009

sorry for the loooooong delay in posting

Wow! It's amazing how time can slip away from you without realizing how much time has gone by! I just took a good look at my blog and realized nearly 6 months have gone by since my last post! YIKES!! It's high time I remedied this. Ok. New goal: to try posting minimum of 1-2 times a week.

To update you, personal and family life has been very hectic with a lot of ups and downs over the last few months. Work continues on the basement with the spare room (my design studio:) being drywalled and painted (just have to put on the last coat:) as well as the rest of the basement drywalled.

The last few months of school were busy for my 2 dd's, with the last couple being the most hectic. Now we are in the process of back to school shopping for clothes, supplies, etc.

Family from England were here for 2 weeks in July so time on the computer was limited to checking emails. We spent a lot of time on the beach and boating. Great fun was had by all.

Knight has now started having seizures at a year and a half old (7 in the first month!). Researching seizures in dogs, getting him on meds to stop the seizures (none since he's been on it), researching alternative solutions, etc have taken up a lot of our time and energy.

We adopted another kitten (white with ginger ears, ringed tail and very pale giner marks on the paws) right about the time Knight started having seizures (which didn't help matters any.) Merlin is doing very well and doesn't take any guff from the other 2 cats or the dog! He usually puts the other cats on the run from the food dish, which we are trying to teach him is bad manners:)

On a crochet note, my yarn, patterns, and other crochet supplies and tools are in the spare room for now (until I decide to finish painting the room). I'm in the process of going through everything to see what I actually have. I just found a very old afghan I started 20 yrs or so ago!! It's only 18" or so long with no yarn to finish it, so I was thinking of finishing off the yarn that's there and make it a very short lapghan or shoulder wrap and find a local seniors home to donate it to. I'll try to take pictures later.
I have an idea I will find quite a few goodies I'd forgotten about:)

I've started making myself a free form purse to replace my other 2. One has to be repaired and the other is too small. I used a navy blue piece of valour for the lining. I think it was a piece of clothing in it's last life time:) It will now be re-purposed. I'll try to take pictures along the way so you can see my progress.

I want to make myself a crocheted felted purse as well and have several ideas, but need to find suitable wool yarn:( A local sewing and knit shop gave me the name of one in the area that has lots of wool yarn. I will go check it out once the kids are back in school so I can shop in peace :)

Well, I should go work on sorting my stuff out. :0)