Just Call Me The Bag Lady

I seem to have an aversion to bags lately.

While in my internet travels in the last couple of days I happened upon this hobo bag pattern. What attracted me to it was the fact that it's all one piece. No seams to sew up.

This is such a simple pattern, but don't ya know I messed it up?  Oh I was so mad with myself....again. When I got to the last round of the handle, to go to the back side, I was off by 3 stitches! I counted 3 times to make sure, using stitch markers the last time. So what did I do to fix it? I went back and frogged 3/4 of the round and added the 3 stitches back in during the length of the round (meaning I had a bunch of regular sc in between each). [I'm having a heck of a time explaining stuff lately. My brain does not want to cooperate in it's thinking. ]  You know what I mean right?  Anyways, I don't know where I lost those three stitches except on the previous three rounds I guess, one on each. That's what I get for not counting. I just get lost in my thoughts while I'm crocheting.

You can find the pattern here. Don't you just love that little hand button?  I'm not sure who the bag will be for but I'm kind of leaning toward Kylie, for her birthday. I want to put a liner in it also and then fill it with little somethings in the bag, you know, like a little wallet, maybe with a couple of dollars in there. Stuff like that. She'll love it!
I meant to bring my rose that I was working on to show you how it's progressed. I guess that will be for next week.

We have a long weekend!! Yippee! Mine is going to be full. I've got plans to work in the yard and in the house. Fun huh? Well at least I'll be saving myself money by staying home. The older I get the more I like to stay home. About the only place I'll be going this weekend is to Ft. Stewart.

I hope the storms are done and everyone can have a good (as can be) weekend. Be safe and I'll cya next week!
TTFN
Kat
xoxox

I Changed My Mind

It's a woman's perogative right? :o) I'll get to that in a minute.

First I want to say that I'm sorry to my bloggy friends! I've been terrible at blogging lately. Busy is one reason, actually the biggest reason. I guess we all have our times huh? Maybe if I didn't have to work for a living it would be easier to blog more often. I am counting my blessings that I at least have a job to keep me busy.

Although if I didn't have a job I have plenty at home to keep me busy too. It's getting hot so the outside gets neglected more in the summer. It was 97 Saturday and 98 yesterday. Though they say we're going to get a cool down this weekend...in the high 80's. Which believe it or not is a big difference. I will be happy with it.

Anyways, I changed my mind on the Jill bag. I got the squares put together on Sunday and decided that I want to give it to Jen for Christmas. The squares from this post will be used for the Jill bag. I think the one for Jen will suit her better than Jill. I told Jill that I had something in the works for her but needed to put it together. I truly only lack 5 more squares and then I can put it together. Then I need to line it also, both bags are going to be lined. So that brings me to my next thing............

Next month I am going to buy myself a sewing machine!  Oh man....I'm really nervous about it too. I've never been good at sewing. And winding bobbins and all that stuff!!!  But I figure that I can at least make linings because they don't have to be perfect and they will be inside of the bags so any imperfections won't matter. Right? :o)   Wally World has a sewing machine for $69 with I think maybe 10 different seam stitches. I don't need anything fancy. Just something to make pillows and bag linings with. The pillows will be covered with crochet so those seams won't matter either, as long as they're not wonky as all get out!!!  I'm excited, nervous, scared, you know...all of those emotions of the unknown. 

Excuse these pics......they are a little bit blurry, dang it. But this is the former Jill bag, present Jen bag.

And you know what I'm thinking I might do? I might do some kind of a stitch on top of the joins. That's what I get for wanting to do different colors instead of the same color squares. See the unevenness (is that even a word?) of the join between the  maroon and purple square? The pattern is out of my Crochet! mag only it's done in an ecru/cream color and it's a join as you go. Which is ok but I wanted to use up some of my cotton threads and then join. I always have to be different, then it always ends up costing me.....

I think I need to find a linen piece with mostly the peach color for the lining. Hmmmm. I haven't done the straps yet. I think that's the last part, after I line it.

I also have been a little busy making a couple of things to send to my great niece who is in Turkey. That's where her daddy is serving with the military. My niece (her mama) saw a pic of this hat and wanted one for CeeCee. Well, I kinda made hers a little bit different but I think what caught her eye was the bee in the flower. I obliged there. :o)

I also made her a headband kind of like Kylie and Bella's too. I hope she likes them. I'm sending these off today in the mail.

That's all that's going on with me at the moment. Nothing big, no drama. Thankfully no drama. :o) Life is good.

I hope life is good with you in your little slice of the world today, and every day!
TTFN
Kat
xoxoxo

Fabulous Friday :o)

I have been so busy this week at work. My days are just flying by. I'm so happy it's Friday.

I haven't been doing a whole lot on the crochet front. I'm in a bit of a slump I guess you'd say. I've been working ever so slowly on some squares for a small purse and last night I started a flower for the middle of a doily/pot holder kind of thingy. :o) Yea...it's been that kind of week and boy am I glad it's over.

I took a couple of pics with my phone. I can't believe how much better the pics are than my camera! They are taken with an HTC Thunderbolt. I love my phone. It's the first cell phone I've every truly loved.

I'm trying to use up some of my Caron Simply Soft leftovers. I pretty much love all of them except that bottom one. The bright pink is kind of yukky.
I'm really liking the rose with the pink on the outside of the petals. I think it's cute.

That's all I have...for now. :o) I hope your weekend is bright, sunny and fun. It's going to be a hot one here in GA after about 4 nights of 40-50 weather. Cya soon!
TTFN
Kat
xoxo

My First Real Pattern!

Thank you for the kind remarks on my previous entry about Harry and his funeral. There were 800 people at the viewing but the funeral was a little bit smaller, probably because people had to work. It was still a full house in the church and in the procession to the cemetery. There were at least 150 motorcycles. I don't know if this is done in other states but in GA when a funeral procession is going down the road, other vehicles coming in the opposite direction pull off the side of the road and wait until the procession has passed. This is done in respect for the departed person. I get goose bumps just writing about it. I know they don't do it in FL.

It was hot at the cemetery and I almost fell out. I had to step back into some shade and squat down because if I didn't I would have made a spectacle of myself by passing out. And it was due to sheer stupidity on my part. I hadn't eaten anything all day and this was around 3:30 in the afternoon that we were at the cemetery. I felt pretty dumb.

Switching gears here, I'm kind of excited. :o) This weekend I made a couple of headbands that I don't know who I got the pattern from because I copy and pasted, instead of printing out the blog so it would have the url path on the bottom of the page. I do that sometimes because printing out a whole blog for a pattern wastes mega pieces of paper. So I apologize to the lady who posted the headband pattern on her blog. I can't even steer you to her blog. :o(

When I went to make the flower I made my own! And since I made two headbands, one for Kylie and one for Bella, the second flower I made I wrote down the instructions. I also took some pics. :o) So without further ado....here is my very first flower pattern. I don't even have a name for it! I hope I wrote my instructions down so you can follow it easy. It really is an easy flower to make. If you find an error or don't understand please let me know and I will fix it and help you. If someone else has made a flower like this then I apologize, but I really did do this on my own.....I don't copy other's work and pass it off as my own.

E hook
Caron Simply Soft

R1) Leaving a long tail, ch 4, join with slip st and ch 1
R2) 6 sc in ring, join with sl st
R3) Ch 3, sc in next st, around, join with sl st in ch 1. (6 ch 3 spaces)
R4) Ch 1, (sl st to the ch3 space, ch 5, sc in same ch sp, sc in sc) around. Join with sl st in first sc. (6 ch 5 spaces, 6 sc)
R5) Ch 1, (sl st to ch 5 sp, ch 3, 5 dc in same space, sc in 2nd sc {middle stitch between chain spaces} ) around. Join with sl st to first ch 1. Fasten off.
R6) Leaving a long tail make a slip knot with a different color. Now you will be working on top of the flower. Take your hook off of your slip knot and put it through the inner space under one of the petals and through the next hole. (See pics below) Put the slip knot back on the hook and pull under and back through the first hole {kind of like a front post stitch}. Sl st, chain 2. Go under next post and pull up a loop and make a sc and chain 2 again, around and then join with sl st in 1st ch.  {When you get to the double posts together bring your hook in the middle of them and make a sc, ch 2 and join. I started out this round just after the double posts and ended up having to split at the end.}
R7) 18 sc around, join with sl st.
R8) 2 sc in back loop of each previous row's sc. Join with sl st and fasten off with long tail left to attach to head band. I used one of my thread hooks, #3, to attach and weave in the ends.

All of these pics were taken by my HTC phone. I'm happy with the way they turned out. Much better I think than with my camera.
I also have started an original doily and was doing quite well on it until I got about 3/4 of R5 done when it started to pucker real bad so I will have to modify the round. I put it down and started these headbands. I somehow caught a creative mood and ran with it. 

Also, when my sister was here for my surgery I gave her a ball of red #10 Coats and Clark thread. She had seen one of my wip dish clothes of #10 light blue and commented on how she liked my dish cloths made of #10 instead of the thicker cotton, so I gave her one of my extra red balls. She called me yesterday to tell me that she made two of them, one with a single strand and one with a double strand and the first time she used them the color ran bad. The water was red. So my red, white and blue doily that I just made won't be washed I guess. If it is the white will become pink. That bites big time. Is that normal??? Or is it just the brand?? I've not made anything for myself before in the red, so I didn't know. I do now. :o(

Here's hoping your Monday will be a super one that will carry over into the rest of the week. Cya soon!
TTFN
Kat
xoxoxo

Goodbyes

Goodbyes are a hard pill to swallow. I don't like goodbyes, don't like saying it to tell you the truth.

I asked for tomorrow off from work, haven't yet received confirmation that I can take tomorrow off. I need to attend a funeral tomorrow afternoon of a man that was killed on his motorcycle on Tuesday. I don't want to go but I do want to go. I need to go but I don't need to go. Funerals leave me vulnerable and very emotional. I hate funerals but they are a vital part of grief and saying goodbye and it seems that they are happening much more frequently.

I've known Mr. Harry for quite a few years. He was only 65. He was part of CMA, Christian Motorcycle Association. He was a very nice man, very personable. He also sang and played guitar. He had a gospel group that played christian music and he wrote quite a few songs. I actually downloaded two of his songs yesterday so I could hear his voice again.

He was the kind of man that when you talked to him he made you feel good, made you feel like he was really listening and interested in what you had to say. And he made you feel like you were a very good friend, not just an acquaintance, each time he saw you. He is sadly missed by so many people. He touched a lot of people's lives in his lifetime and left a lot of people who loved him.  I saw him play a month or so ago at his church. That night keeps running through my head. One song sticks in my head and is one that I downloaded yesterday and the chorus line reads 'There ain't no Harleys in heaven Lord, but I still wanna go'.  Mr. Harry went doing what he loved doing, riding his bike on his way home from a religious retreat. May he rest in peace and may his family find comfort in the fact that he's where he wants to be.

I was going to do a post tomorrow to show you the red, white and blue doily I finished. If I can get off work I will be going to Mr. Harry's funeral tomorrow so I'll post it today.

It's only a 7" doily but I love the colors. Dummy me forgot the book that I got the pattern out of to show you but the pattern is called Snowflake. It's a real easy pattern and fairly quick to make. The pattern is one color but since I am on this rwb kick I estimated what rounds would be what colors and somehow I got it right so that it would look pretty good. Whatcha think? I was thinking of using a bigger hook and #3 thread and making another doily from this pattern. I don't know......I'll roll it around in my head for a bit.

Also for those of you out there who are superstitious...tomorrow is Friday the 13th.  I'm not real superstitious and normally those days are good ones for me. Tomorrow won't though, it's going to be a very sad one for me and a lot of others.  I hope you have a good one and good weekend also.

Do you know what TTFN means? TaTaForNow. I don't like goodbyes.......
TTFN
Kat
xoxoxoxo

Babies

It's so much fun to go to baby showers. Especially when there's a baby there too! Well she wasn't a baby as in small baby but a little 2 year old was there who isn't into the terrible two's yet. I had so much fun with her. Her name is Payton and she is the kind of little girl that likes everyone and will go to anyone. That's good but also bad. And she loves the little cherry tomatoes. She ate almost all of the ones on the vegie tray. She didn't want cake, she wanted tomatoes. :o) I was surprised when she ate because she ate almost everything there was and not picky at all. It warms my heart to see that.

Anyways....I did get the dress done in time for the shower! I was ecstatic. I finished the buttons up the morning of.  There were three button holes but I decided to only put two buttons on it because the third one was really not needed. And I decided not to put the turqua on the border on the bottom. It made it too stiff with both colors on there so after getting it almost half way around the dress I frogged it. I was afraid that it had misshapened the pink but it turned out ok.

The lighting isn't the best. I had to take them outside Saturday morning and put them on a dark towel on the back deck. I was happy with the end result and everyone oohed and aahhed over them at the shower.

I also finished Terrayne's box with a flower on the top. I thought it was pretty. I need to make some more. They're just too cute aren't they?

Yesterday was a quiet day. I stayed home and did laundry, cleaned a little bit of the shed out and took it out to the road and the garbage can (our garbage cans are very large and stay out at the road for the garbage men to pick up). I'm resolved to throwing out a bunch of stuff so I can get back in there and start doing my wood burning again. I'm missing that. It's a great stress reliever too.

I also finished my hearts for Warrior's Walk in Ft. Stewart for Memorial Weekend. I usually wait til the last minute for these but I figured since I had nothing else pressing at the moment I would go ahead and get them done so there would be no last minute stress. I'll take them to the meeting tonight to show the girls. I did them all different this time. I normally do them all the same.

In case you just joined me recently and don't know, we (Bomber Girls LRC) adopted 4 soldiers that lost their lives and have trees planted on Warrior's Walk in dedication to members of the 3rd ID of operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. We adopted these particular soldiers because we wanted to show love for our heroes and their trees didn't have much around them. A lot of the trees have little windchimes or other such things. It may be that these soldier's families live far away and are not able to visit their tree as much as they'd like. If you click on the Bomber Girl link above you can see the four soldiers that we adopted. We love them even though we never knew them. They are our heroes.

It's a somber occasion for me and I usually end up in tears thinking about them and how young they were to lose their life for me and everyone else. They paid the ultimate sacrifice for all of us. I am ever emotional when it comes to the military, be it the soldier or their families.

The top one is stuffed. I don't know how well that will hold up but I guess we're fixin to find out. :o) The second one is the one I had made before. The blue heart is white on the other side. And see the lines in the pic?? My dang camera is fixin to go. :o(  The last two were done with different hooks, same yarn. I used a G hook on the red trimmed one and an H hook on the blue trimmed one. None of these are my patterns but they are altered to suit me - fyi.

I also started a doily yesterday and was hoping to have it done to show you today but I have 2 rounds to go. It is also red, white and blue. I am on a rwb kick now. :o) But I love how it's turning out. It's really gorgeous. I can't wait to show you.

Well I best be getting to it here. I hope your day and week is the best it can be and that it exceeds your expectations. Much love to you.
TTFN
Kat
xoxox

Happy Mothers Day!

To all of you mothers out there.........have a wonderful Mom's day will ya? I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet but more than likely I will hang out with my little man and crochet.

TTFN
Kat
xoxo

Ahhhhhhh

Friday again......I love Fridays!

This week has gone by pretty quick. I am still working on the dress for Anistyn....the baby shower is tomorrow! I think I will be up late tonight and early in the morning to finish it up. I really want to give it to Terrayne tomorrow at the shower.

I had planned on doing a row of the pink and a row of the turqua a few rows before the bottom of the skirt and then finish off with the white. BUT...I tried that last night and the difference in the yarn did not look right so I decided to put the pink and turqua at the bottom of the skirt. The white is sport weight and the pink and turqua is medium. I have 3 more rows of white and then the two colored  rows. I've also decided to not go around the neck or armholes with color either. I'm thinking I will make a flower and attach it to either the waist or chest. That could change too. :o) But here is where I'm at now.

And before you ask - that thingy that the skein of yarn is on? :o) I work for a company that produces software (our division anyways) and I buy cd's to burn the software on. This is a spindle that the cd's come on and I'm always throwing them away. The yarn that I used didn't start from the middle of the skein, it's one of those outy skeins, which I hate but whatcha gonna do? So I put it on one of these spindles and it works great.

Sorry for the rant yesterday......I guess I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and it didn't take much to set me off. I really don't even want to think about it.....it's done and gone.

One last thing before I leave you to get on with your Friday and weekend........on the local news this week was a trucking company that was donating an empty trailer and the fuel to take donations over to tornado damaged places in Alabama, mainly Tuscaloosa. People there are needing donations of all kinds. I have 3 boxes put together to donate and will go through my closets this weekend for more to send. The trailer that left yesterday was full and it was such a success that they are going to do it again next week. My stuff will be included in that trailer. I am going to rally my co-workers here and see if I can't get more for the donation trailer. I feel good giving stuff that I don't need to people who do need.......desperately. I applaud the trucking company for their generosity to get the donations over there. As we all know fuel is not cheap these days, diesel is even more expensive. Without them we wouldn't be able to give where giving is needed at this time of devastation. I hope that my little bit will help someone and lift their spirits and let them know that there are people out there who care about them. I just couldn't imagine being them.

I hope your weekend is full of rays of sunshine to sustain you through any dark that might rear it's ugly head. Much love.
TTFN
Kat
xoxo

New Threads

Sometimes you just can't help yourself right? Well, I've had this link for a while and resisted it but then all of a sudden I was like, the heck with it, I'm going to order some thread. So I did.

I found these wonderful colors at Thread Art at $1.69 each ball. The only thing is that there is only 175 yards on each one. So you have to plan.....something that is really not in my vocabulary.

I'm contemplating doing a couple of my red, white and blue tree ornaments for Warriors Walk at Ft. Stewart in thread this year. I have one done in yarn already but I need three more for our adopted soldiers trees. I was thinking that maybe thread would hold up better than yarn. Am I wrong in this thinking?

Whatever, I just need to get on the ball because Memorial Day is almost upon us. It's been in the back of my mind but as usual I always wait til the last minute. That's one thing I hate about myself........and it's not everything that I procrastinate on either. Just certain things. Like my crochet.

Lastly today I want to show you something rather yukky but a part of life here in southeastern GA. I don't know what kind of worms these are but look at this worm hole haven. And there is a certain wasp, I don't know which one, but they will get on the outside and look for ways inside the haven to get the worms! I've watched them before and it's way too cool watching wild kingdom in action right in front of your eyes. I'd hate to be those worms!

I don't know about you but I'm happy to have woke up this morning for another day of life. I've been a pessimist my whole life and since the big C scare I am trying to find a positive in every day. Sometimes it's hard for a die hard pessimist like me.

I hope you have a wonderful day!
TTFN
Kat
xoxo

A Weekend of Crochet

Happy Monday morning to ya!

I hope you had a good weekend. Mine was filled with crochet. It was very nice here in southeastern GA. I had the doors open both days until late in the afternoon when my a/c kicked on. Both Saturday and Sunday morning the temp when I got up was 50. That's a tad chilly but actually felt good. When you get used to almost 90 degree days and then get a couple of 50 degree mornings it is chilly. What very weird weather we are all having this year so far huh? I only hope that the tornadoes will cease so that people can start rebuilding their lives.

And hey....what about Osama Bin Laden being dead?? I didn't learn of it until this morning when I got up to go to work. Normally my weekends at home consist of CMT, the Weather Channel or ID on the tv. I don't hear any news all weekend, unless someone calls me and alerts me to it, or I am out and about and hear something. I was happy to hear this news, but I was somewhat disconcerted when they said they buried him out at sea. WHAT??? What's up with that? And I want to see pics. Sorry but I want to be absolutely sure that he's gone. Those two things made me a tad uncomfortable. The world and my last 20 years have made me that way. My trust in a lot of things, the government for one, has gone by the wayside and I need to see that what they are saying is the truth. I'm sure I'm not the only one either. I'm sure there are many family members of the 2,976 people that lost their lives on 9/11 that want to see also, to make absolutely sure that what our government is telling us is the truth about this despicable man. It's about time but I can't believe it's taken almost 10 years for this to happen. It should have happened a long time ago.

ANYWAYS......as I said, I was busy all weekend crocheting. I finished Anistyn's blanky. I was happy about this also. I chugged away until I ran too close of running out of the truffle heather. And I didn't realize something until that time either. Did you know that all of the Caron 'heather' skeins have only 5 oz. in them, when the regular colors have 6 oz. ?? What's up with that too? I used the Truffle Heather and the Deep Plum Heather and they were 5 oz each. The Off White and Victorian Rose were both 6 oz skeins. So I had some left over.

I decided to make a little container with a lid in the same colors as the blanky, and I made a doily out of a real pretty pink (can't remember the exact color) #10 thread and #7 hook, and I put the doily in the container for Terrayne. And dummy me...I forgot to bring the book that I got the pattern for the doily out of. I got the book at AC Moore the other day. Sorry, I can't think of everything these days. I'm not totally through with the container though. I'm going to make an off white flower to go on the top of the container.

I also made a happy man for one of my friend's husband for his birthday next week. Men are so hard to make things for when it comes to crochet. I have a really hard time with that. So I thought I'd make something that hopefully will put a smile on his face. These are so easy to make. I've made quite a few of them. The lighting on the front side pic is horrible. :o(

I also made another heart and shell in the purple and cream that I told you about. I think I'm going to send both of these to my daughter for Mother's Day. And ya know what? I was quite surprised and just can't figure out what happened but the purple and cream one is smaller than the other one. Both were made with a #2 hook and both were made with two strands of #10 thread. What gives??  It's not a lot smaller but when I put them together I noticed the difference in size. Strange.

So that's how my weekend was. Full of crochet happiness for me. And Mr. Lick Lick, well he was in and out of the house and laying next to his mama when he fancied. He likes it when I'm home, but I think he also enjoys me going to work so that he can snooze his life away. He's older now and he has been doing a lot of that. I know my time is growing shorter with him, I treasure each day I can spend with him.

May the sun shine and spread warmth throughout your week.
TTFN
Kat
xoxox