Well loved

I love to watch my girls play with the stuffies I make.

So what if they get worn or ragged, that's what I made them for.

And that is why I will continue to make them for my girls.

That, my friends, is a finish!

Finally, after a few months break from the hooks, I got back at it. This baby afghan was made for a friend who was expecting her first little one. The nursery was decorated in a Jungle theme and I thought the colors would go along nicely with it.

This stitch is so simple but creates a nice fabric for a warm blanket to snuggle in. It is simply sc in one stitch dc in the next.

The baby, Hunter, made his grand entrance on July 24th. His Mom was such a trooper, first child, no epidural, and 18 hours of hard labor.

I got the pattern and color idea from a afghan I found on Pinterest, and comes from Cap's Crochet & Crafts. I didn't follow it to a T but pretty closely.

The border I came up with on my own. To hook it:

Ch 4,

in the same stitch 3 tr crochet

skip 2 stitches and slip stitch.

repeat around the blanket.

After spending months away from the hooks it felt so good to feel yarn in my fingers again. I took a break to work on making hair bows and head bands for my girls and to try to sell. My seester and I took a table full of hair bows and headbands to a flea market in Pineville, NC to try to sell. After 5 hours in the 100 degree heat, booth rental, and gas expenses I cleared about $30.00. Totally not worth it! So all my ribbons, bows, clips, and headbands were put into bins and stuffed under the bed. Maybe I will bring them out again one day, but for now I will just stick with making bows for my girls.

I have a granny stripe on my hook and am halfway finished with it. Its going to be a Christmas present for my brother and his wife. I will show it to you hopefully soon. Also, I just want to say a thank you to all the followers who stuck around while I have been gone. It really means a lot.

TTYS!

Locks of Love

It was past time for a haircut for my girls. Maranda was born with a head full of hair and it has always been long. People would stop us in stores and compliment her hair. While it was beautiful it was a chore. She is so tender headed and would cry when I would brush her hair. With summer coming she asked to get it cut off. It took me a lot of debating to agree but I finally did. This past Saturday I got it cut. Eleven inches gone with a few snips. I talked with her about Locks of Love and we have decided to donate her ponytail to them.

A moment of shock when I handed her the ponytail.

Before.

After.

She looks so grown up here. I am so proud of her for doing this for a little boy or girl to have a wig.

Caroline has baby fine hair that just always looks stringy and nappy so I decided to get hers chopped too. She was only able to have 8 inches cut not enough to donate.

Sassy and a little sweet.

It's a chilly rainy day here thankfully the weekend is coming and I am planning on breaking out the sewing machine and whipping up some summer dresses for the girl. Hope you are all having a great week and wonderful plans for the weekend.

TTYS!

Life

Hi Y'all! I am still around, just not as much in blog land lately, but hope to change that coming up soon. I had to get a new computer 'cause the other one just left me high and dry. Things have been slow on the crochet front lately, I have been sneaking around with the knitting needles a little here and there. Lets just say I won't have to buy dishcloths for a long while. The amigurumni bug has bit this week, I started a Weenie Dog pattern that is so cute. No pictures downloaded to the computer yet but will show you some as soon as I get them on here. I have some crappy cell phone pics on my Ravelry page of a couple of the dishcloths if you wanna take a peek. My user name is Marcarmom.

I have to run, my kids are jacked up tonight like they are on a sugar high, but will be catching up soon.

Happy Spring to all and TTYS!

Doing the Dishes....

I hate doing dishes! Point, blank, and simple. I have a dishwasher that is starting to loose its cleaning power, its probably about 12 years old. So anyone want to guess what I have been doing? Yeah, that's right, the *$#& dishes! I figured that if I had to stand and scrub that I could at least do it with a nice new dishcloth or two, or enough to fill my dishcloth drawer. These quick little projects pack some awesome scrubbing power.

This is a quick design I came up with to crochet these dishcloths and here is how I did it. They took me less than a hour to make.

Peaches & Cream

size G hook

needle to sew in ends.

chain desired width-on the red I started with a chain of 31, the multi colored I chained 26

1. sc in the second chain from the hook and each ch across

2. ch 1 and turn. Extended single crochet in each sc across

3. ch 2 and turn. HDC in stitch across.

4. ch 3 and turn. Backpost DC in the first stitch, Frontpost DC in the next. Repeat BPDC and FPDC across

    to the end.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the desired length of your dishcloth then repeat rows 1-3 for the end rows. Or if you want both ends to have a SC row repeat rows 3-1. I finished the edge with a round of reverse single crochet. Sew in ends and scrub a dub.

Hope you enjoy. Now I have to go start dinner which means more @*$& dishes to wash. Maybe tonight would be a good night for take out!

TTYS!

Hex a Day in 2012

 I had this bright idea on New Years Day to do a Hexagon a Day through the year. It will be a way to hook a little everyday without being pushy on those days I don't really want to or don't have enough time to work on anything bigger. And if I miss a day or two its no big deal, these hexagons take just a few minutes to work up, so it will be easy to play catch up.

January the 3rd, and three completed hexagons. I have lasted three days so far, which is longer than some other bright ideas I have had. I am using Lucy from Attic 24's pattern and am doing the join as you go method.

Ok, I am about to show you something completely ridiculous and embarrassing. Don't judge me, please!

This is my yarn bin. Ugh! My face is red! I am hoping this project of mine will clear out allot of this. This bin is thigh high, as long as my couch, and at the point of overflowing. I tried organizing this complete mess this past Saturday and got aggravated and just threw it all back in.

On to a different subject, Pammy Sue is starting up a Crochet Along on a round ripple afghan. Go drop in on her blog and check out all the details. She has also started up a Flickr group so check it out also.

Well looks like I am starting out this year as a chatty Cathy. Three posts in as many days, maybe I will be so much better at this blogging thing this year.

TTYS!

Allow me to introduce you...

to my our new little girl Stella. She is a  6 weeks and 1 day old little freckled face darling! We got her today from my Seester, you might remember this post where I introduced her Mother. Stella looks just like her mom and has the same sweet laid back temperament. I know she is going to be the perfect addition to our family.

Such a sweet face! She had her first Vet visit today for shots and weighed in at a whopping 2lbs 4 oz. She was the pick of the litter. I picked her out the day she was born, and just knew she had to come live with us.

Stella is the second Boston Terrier I have had. She is laying in my lap right now, wrapped up in a blanket, and snoring like a grown man! Off to look up sweater patterns, she shivers like crazy!

I will post later to tell you about a new year long project I started yesterday.

TTYS!

Been puttering around...

No big projects being worked on around here. Just a few little "instant gratification" ones to get me by. I did this Queen Anne's Lace scarf in Vanna's Choice color Ducky. I love the color yellow but it washes me out, so I thought a scarf would add just a little color without making me look like a corpse.

A cute little flower that took less than a hour to hook. The pattern is the Slinky Crochet Flower by Teresa Richardson. She also has a youtube video for directions. I made this one with I Love this Yarn! Sparkle and also one with a cotton yarn. I like the look of the cotton one better.

I made my daughter this Rosie Rabbit from Michelle at the Royal Sisters. She has the pattern for sale in her Etsy shop. This was made with  I Love This Yarn! Sparkle, and is my 6 year olds favorite color. I am starting one in Pink Sparkle today for my 4 year old.

Another flower quickly made. The pattern is Flower Pin by Dot Matthews.

Same pattern. I added beads with rhinestones to the center of each. I found these beads in a dollar bin at Dollar General.

I am working on a black Queen Anne's Lace and a red one for a co-worker. She is gonna model them for me around her college campus and hopefully get me some orders.

I hope this new year is a great one for you. May you be blessed with health, wealth, happiness, and lots of hooking time!

TTYS!

Sights and sounds of the Season.....

The big guy has come and gone and was very generous to my little ones.

Our "Elf on the Shelf" has completed his mischief mission for the year and hitched a ride back with Santa last night.

Christmas plays were performed.

Teeth were lost. Three in the last two weeks.

Stockings were hooked and hung. I made 26 of these little stockings from Sucrette and gave them out to classmates and students.

Gag gifts were given. I just love my favorite Sis-in-Law!

Presents were distributed, paper flew around, and squeals of delight were heard.

An afternoon horseback stroll was enjoyed (without the sleigh). This is my nephews horse, Cherokee, being led by my brother who celebrated his 35th birthday yesterday. Happy Birthday baby Brother, we love you!

A good time was had by all.

Our Christmas was

Merry and Bright,

and I hope you and your family

have had a wonderful day.

Much Love to each of you.

TTYS!

Christmas Hats

My girls were going to be in the Christmas parade in my hometown last week, so of course I had to make new hats for them to wear. Turns out they were not going to be in the parade (thanks Uncle Phillip for not registering in time :-D) but they got to wear the hats to enjoy the parade anyway. I used the Hat with Bow pattern I posted last year.

I love this picture! For once they are not fighting or pulling each others hair. Sugar and spice, HA! Everyday is like WWE Smackdown around here.

Snaggle tooth! The tooth fairy has made four stops here in the last month. Twice last week. If she has a tooth that is the least bit loose she will not give up on it until it is out. Thank goodness she has no more loose ones, Mama is broke!

I never get tired of looking into these baby blues.

I hope you all are having a good night wherever you are. Time to crack down only 10 more days until Christmas and I have hardly started shopping yet. On a good note, hopefully tomorrow I will have a ripple afghan finished for a six year old cousin. Hope to have a Ta-Da post this weekend.

TTYS!

Thankful

Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving day! I hope you Gobble till you Wobble!

Aunt Alines Hats

Testing.

To Infinity and Beyond.......

Ok, so there is no beyond, but I have made a couple of Infinity scarfs.

This little one was made using one skein of Vanna's Choice in Mustard. The pattern I used was Caron's Bellflower Infinity Scarf.  I needed another skein to make it long and able to loop around, but I didn't have one so a short one it is. It's very warm and would have probably been too thick looped around anyway. Has anyone else noticed that Mustard is a popular color right now?

Now for my second one. I made this one in about 4 hours on Friday. The yarn I used is Lion Brands Tweed Stripes in color 206 Woodlands. LOVE this colorway! This was my first time using a self striping yarn and will definitely use it again.  

I started out similar to the patter for the Mustard scarf, and changed up the shells a little. 

Here's how I did it.

-2 skeins of Lion Brand Tweed Stripes

-H hook

Start with a chain of 34.

ROW 1-

DC in the 4th chain from the hook.

*Skip next two ch's.

2 dc, ch 1, 2 dc in the next ch.

dc in each of the next two ch's.*

Repeat from * to the end. Ending with dc's in last two ch's.

You should have 4 shell clusters and 5 two dc spaces.

ROW 2-

ch 3 and turn, dc in next dc.

*in ch 1 space of shell- dc, ch 2, dc

skip to 2 dc's and dc in each.

repeat from * to the end with a dc in the last dc and a dc in the top of the ch 3.

ROW 3-

ch 3 and turn, dc in the next dc.

*in ch 2 space of shell-2 dc, ch1, 2 dc

skip to 2 dc's and dc in each.

repeat from * to end with a dc in the last dc and a dc in the top of ch 3.

Repeat rows 2 and 3 until you reach the desired length. You could leave this as a scarf or sew the two ends together to make a Mobius or Infinity scarf.  I hope I explained the instructions well enough, but if not please feel free to leave me a message.

I have dinner simmering away in the Crock Pot, Beef Tips and Gravy. Pammy Sue at Scotty's Place posted the recipe a while back. This is always a hit with my family. Basically you just add a package of beef tips, (I use the large pack, got a lot of mouths to feed here) and 2 cans of Beef Gravy. Throw it in a crock pot on high for 4 hours. I am going to cook some egg noodles and add them to it. Perfect for a chilly day. I am gonna go now and make a Butter Pecan Pound Cake. If you would like the recipe let me know, I will be glad to share.

TTYS!

I've been in the ripple!

A yarn ripple, not the bottle. But then again the evening is just starting! I decided to join up with Heather and Lucy's ripple-a-long. Just in case you haven't see or heard about it, all the info is here and here.

I am using leftovers I already have. I am sure I will have to buy more of the Sea Blue. I am using it as a main color and will put another color in between with the hopes of not using the same color twice. The pattern I am using comes from Lemond De Sucrette. Here is a link to her pattern. It is a chart, but very easy to understand. Similar to Attic 24's pattern but with a little more ripple. There is also a Flickr group, go check it out, join up, and start rippling.

This is a pair of shoes I fashioned in my favorite college teams colors. Garnet and Black for the South Carolina Gamecocks. I found the shoes on sale for $10, brought them home, and added polka dot grosgrain ribbon flowers. Go Gamecocks!

Gonna run for now. Time to get in to the ripple for the evening, maybe both kinds!

Hope ya'll are having a great weekend!

TTYS!