Checking In

Hey! Checking in with you and giving you some updates and showing you some crochet love today! :o)

The update on Shane is that he is still missing. Anyone living in the New Orleans area may see a billboard up with his face and info on it. I know one is on I-10 and I think there is another one but I didn't see where the location is.   And Johnny has been having one heck of a time. Today he is having surgery to put a shunt in to relieve pressure in his brain. He took a bad turn but thankfully he turned back around. I'm going up to see them next week as I have some time off. My Cin sister is needing some large hugs and she doesn't know it yet but she's going to get some. :o) And that brings me to my crochet love.

The first one I want to show you is something I made for Johnny and wanted to take up last weekend but woke up with a migraine of a headache and not feeling good stomach.  I'm not sure how he feels about receiving flowers but I wanted to give him some to let him know that I love him and want to put a smile on his face. Some guys don't like getting flowers. I hope he'll like these.  I used a salad dressing jar for the vase, and I used wooden skewers for the stems. Other than that it's all yarn and marbles!! I wanted to make more flowers and stems but with the marbles it just wasn't happening. It's all in 'guy' colors. No girly colors. :o)

I think I found a new use for my marbles! I have 400 pounds of those suckers (different colors and sizes).......how many vases do you think I can make? :o)  I have another idea for them but haven't put them to the test yet. That's to come in the future.

My next love is the bag that I mentioned in my last post that I forgot to take a pic of. Only I have put a lining in it.  I love this bag. Love the colors. The yarn is Bernat Mosaic.....Oceana I think. Yea I know...I've been having a love affair with Bernat Mosaic lately. I just love the color combo's.

This is not my pattern and as is par for me I forgot to grab it up this morning. I'll have to edit to add it. It came from one of the many blogs I have to the right in my sidebar. (It's called the Kiss Me bag... in the same place I found the hobo bag)
And my last love for the day until next time is the wallet I made to go with the blue shell bag. You'll have to forgive my sewing. I am just learning. It's not been easy. The hardest part for me is keeping the material straight to sew a straight line and it not going all askew underneath the foot of the machine. Any tips on how to keep it straight are DEFINITELY welcome! :o)  And I kinda boo booed too on the lining up of the material. But ya know what? It was from the scraps of the bag lining so I was limited. And ya know what else? It gives it character...........lol. Sigh...........

If you haven't figured me out yet, I am somewhat of a perfectionist with stuff I do. I used to be anal like that but have calmed down a lot in my older years. :o)  I'm trying to eliminate stress on myself and that's a huge stress... perfection.
So, my bloggy friends, that's my love for you today. I have other loves in the works as usual. One that I started several weeks ago, that I put down, was calling my name and I picked it back up last night. I think that one is on the boards for getting finished in the next night or two. I'm anxious to show you. It's a pattern out of one of the crochet mags to make a bowl. I'm loving it and can't wait for it to be done. This will be the first one I've done. I'm excited!

I hope your corner of the world is just the way you want it to be today and full of love and happiness. Cya soon.
TTFN
Kat
xoxox

Friday Eve!

Hey ya'll. Thank you so much for the prayers and good wishes.  Shane still hasn't been found, and I'm very worried that he won't be coming back. I soooo hope I'm wrong but it's been 2 weeks now. I'm trying to keep the faith.

Johhny has gone through a few rounds of chemo. So far so good in that respect. He is responding as anyone normally responds to chemo. There is going to be a donation drive held for bone marrow match/donors and to be put on the bone marrow registry.

It has been HOT as HADES here in GA. Not to mention smokey bad from fires in the southeast. It's funny how a fire in FL can send it's smoke this way. The other day we had ash floating in from the fire way down in south GA from the Okeefenokee Swamp. That is just unreal. Well over 100 miles away and ash is floating here. We need rain bad.

On the crochet front I have been working on a few things. I realized earlier that I didn't take a pic or two of another bag I finished.  I'll try to remember that tonight. I have started another hobo bag and it's half finished. This one is done out of Bernat's Mosaic - Mosaic. I'm going to have so many bags it's not funny. But ya know what? They are quick and I like the looks of them and the recipients will love them because they are useful. And they were made with love. :o)

The last time I was at AC Moore's I picked up some cheap bangles. I am in the process of making a small bangle purse for Kylie for her birthday. In pink. :o) Whatya think? I can't wait until it's done. I can only do a few rows a night on it because it kills my hand. And you can see it is sitting on the color of the latest hobo bag I just told you about.

I have been all about purses, bags, money holders lately.  I conjured up this one from Viki's suggestion on the first one I made with the line in the middle to hold paper money in. Only dummy me wasn't thinking and decided to use #3 thread instead of yarn and I used the same starting chains as the thread one. Guess what? It came out smaller. I should have used at least 5 more chains. Oh well, no biggy. I decided to close the one end up. I didn't like it plain so out of the many little scrumbles I have laying around I liked this maroon rose on it. So then I needed some how to close it up and went through all of my buttons and the only one I liked was this Celtic looking one. I like it. Mostly the two colors together I think. As usual the lighting on this one sux.

Below is a pic obviously before the button, but I did it on our copier at work. The true colors show much better.

I also made another money holder like the one from this post only in the Bernat Mosaic blue/green color. I can't remember the name of it but the bag that I did and forgot to take the pic of is done in the same colors. I made it for Johnny's mom, Cin, and gave it to her..........with some surprises inside. :o)

I think that's all that has come off of my hooks since I talked to you last. Though it feels like I'm forgetting something but that's ok. That's a normal feeling for me these days.

I hope life with ya'll has been good. Each day is special and one that you can never get back. I also hope we all get the relief we seek, whether it be from the heat or the water. It seems we need what they in the midwest have and we have what they need. Can we switch for a while???  Much love to ya'll. Talk to you soon!
TTFN
Kat
xoxox

Frustration and Sadness

Hey guys......I'm here today but not with it. I haven't really crocheted a whole lot since I last posted. Between being in a 'funk' I've got two things going on that have me worried.

The first one is that one of my BG sisters' son was just diagnosed with HLH (Hemophagocylic syndrome lymphohistiocytoses). He went into a Savannah hospital May 18th and they just moved him to the Medical College Hospital in Augusta last week because they couldn't determine definitively here what was wrong with him. She has been by his side this whole time, not leaving the hospital for much at all. He's 23. They finally diagnosed him and started aggressive chemo and he has to have a bone marrow transplant. They are in for a rough time and have already had a rough time of it. 3 of us girls went to see them Saturday to help cheer them up and see if there wasn't something we could do.

I gave Johnny one of the little 'critters' that I made that were inspired from the Uglee doll donations. Remember this pic? I gave him the little green haired one.  He loves it. It's something he can throw against the wall when he gets frustrated.  That one out of the 3 was the most 'manly'.

And the other thing that has me very worried is one my co-workers who worked in this office with me for at least 10 years has gone missing.  He moved back to Louisiana a few months back because a)he wanted to be closer to his family (he had none here) and b)he could do his job out of his house.......so it was a no brainer. 

Late Thursday night/Friday very early morning he was on his way home from shooting pool with his brother. He failed to make a curve and wrecked his car (flipped it). He got out of the car, got in touch with his brother and told him he wrecked and said he was ok. His brother told him he'd be right there. When his brother got to the scene of the accident the police and ambulance were there but no Shane. It had only been 20 minutes since he had talked to him.  Shane is still missing.  Those of us in this office that were close to Shane and have known him for years are very worried. His family is frantic trying to find him. They are not sure if he actually did get injured, as in a head trauma and passed out somewhere or if there was some kind of foul play involved. They truly know nothing except that he called saying he was ok and then he vanished. They have set up a community page on Facebook - Help Find Shane Fell. If anyone reading this lives in Marrero or Harvey LA please if you can spare an hour, go help the family out looking for Shane. We just want him found, one way or another. The not knowing sux really bad.

It's very hard sitting here in Georgia while they are looking for him in Louisiana and we are helpless. My mind has been on Shane and Cin and Johnny. Please say a prayer for them all.  Thanks guys....cya soon.

TTFN
Kat
xoxo

Just Messin' Around

I had some Medusa yarn left from the last hobo bag I showed you Monday and it was calling me. "Pick me up, play with me, make something out of me!"  LOL

So I did. I had previously thought I would like to make some kind of 'wallet' or something to that effect, but I didn't know how I was going to go about it.  I received my newest Crochet World mag yesterday and after reading through it I picked up the Medusa and my E hook and proceeded to make a 30 chain sc foundation. (Since I learned how to do that I only use that method for starting a project. You can find it here.) I crocheted 15 rows of sc and then went around the outside of the whole piece with sc. When I got to where I started I did the first long side in 4dc shells, sc on the short side until about halfway, stopped and put a button on the opposite side in the middle, crocheted a chain of 22 and then backed it down to 20, then 18 until I was satisfied that this wasn't too long to hook on the button, then proceeded with 4dc shells on the long side and then ended the short side with sc. I then went to the inside of it and crocheted a chain of 15 from one side to the other to secure paper currency. I left the ends on because I'm not sure that I'm going to keep it like that...we'll see. I like it, but I kinda don't. Something about it is bugging me and I don't know what.

The result was below. It only took me about an hour and a half to produce. I think I need to refine a few things on it but overall I didn't think it was too bad. As usual the pic colors don't do it justice. I took it outside and the light outside wasn't bright enough.

I just love quick and easy. :o)  Try and stay cool....it's seriously hot out there.
TTFN
Kat
xoxo

Bags and Babes

My, it was a hot one this weekend! I spent most of my weekend inside crocheting. The only time I went out was to walk Leo to the road for the mail on Saturday, water the plants and go to the store yesterday morning.

It doesn't seem like I got a lot accomplished but I guess I did. Friday night and part of Saturday I made some critters, babies, whatever you want to call them. I was inspired by the Charity post for the Uglees I posted on Thursday. I was told this morning that I should make more. They are kind of cute and I had fun making them but was ready to quit by time I got the blue one done.

The rest of Saturday I spent putting together the squares I had made for the Jill bag. I had a heck of a time with this. What I had problems with was the joins on each square. The number of stitches on that side of each square was off, and where the join was, was so tight I couldn't get my hook in the stitch. Anyways, when it came time to put the two sides together I was off by 7 stitches! Ugh...I hate when that happens.

I do like how the colors turned out though. On the gusset and around the top of the bag I used that dark blue that I used in some of the squares. Now I'm done with it until I can get the sewing machine to make the lining for it. Then I'll make the straps.

And last but not least is another hobo bag that I started and finished crocheting yesterday. I love how the colors turned out, although it's kind of hard to see in the second pic because of the lighting (I took the pic this morning at work).  This one will get a lining too. So now I am up to 4 bags that need linings! The sewing machine will pay for itself real quick won't it??  I did this one with a G hook and used Bernat Mosaics yarn in the Medusa color. I have two other colors in the Bernat Mosaics and I'm seriously thinking about making more bags. I'm truly the bag lady! :o)  I love the way the Mosaics turns out in color on the bag. It's almost one whole row of each color. And while I was at the store yesterday I happened to spy two small skeins of Caron Paints in the color of Oceana which you can see the tips of in the first pic. Those will be for a bag too. Gee...guess what everyone is getting for Christmas this year?? lol  I truly love how they work up so quick and no sewing up of seams. You just have to make sure and count. :o)

Lastly today I want to show you Leo's usual spot while I am crocheting. I happened to notice him yesterday with his little arms curled up under him and it was so cute I just had to take a pic. The second one is him laying outside yesterday afternoon. He had a shower with me yesterday and this is what he does.......goes outside and lays on the ground. :o(  Of course he was dry, this was several hours after his shower. But still....

I hope your day is marvelous in every aspect! Cya soon.
TTFN
Kat
xoxo

Charity Post

Wow....2 posts in one day! This is only the second time I've done this.

Just a quicky to let you know that if you like amigurumi and charity you can do both and help out the kids in Joplin.  Go have a look here if you are interested.

That's all I have to say.
TTFN....again
Kat
xoxoxo

Red Riding Hood

What started out as a scarf that was actually very pretty, ended up as a hood. I started this quite a while ago and it was stashed away because I was very far along on it when I noticed that I had dropped a couple of stitches somehow at the beginning and didn't realize it. That end was wider than the the end I was working on. So I got disgusted and put it away to frog another day.

I've been at crocheting odds lately and I decided I would get it out and frog it. But when I got it out I looked at it and an idea hit me. I wondered if I could make a hood of some sort out of it. I really didn't want to frog it because I loved the stitch on it. I had done a dc, sc in one st, sk a st. The fabric created from that was gorgeous. This pic below doesn't do it justice and the lighting is horrible huh?

I folded the scarf, that I had done so far, in half.  So I decided that I had to close up the back for the hood, which I did with sl st. When I got to the point where the ends of the hood would come around the front I started to do sc on the rest of the one side and then on the edge of that end. I continued on around the end and when I got to the front of it I started doing rows of dc on the long edge to make the scarf/hood deeper in depth because it was too narrow. I believe I crocheted five rows of dc and then when I got to the end of that 5th row I was at the other end and finished that end off with sc to match the opposite end.  Does all of that make sense?

I then sewed on a heart button and there just so happened to be a hole big enough for the button to close it up on the front.

It looks rather funny in the front but ya know what? I don't care because this is going to be my hood!! Yep, something for myself instead of for someone else.  The front of it will be inside of my jacket and my neck will be covered up. I can wear it riding on my bike and my helmet will fit overtop of it, or I can wear it out and my jacket will cover it nicely. It's snug on the back of my neck so my jacket should come up to it and be covered good. My main objective here is keeping my neck and ears warm. Jeez I don't take good pics. Ugh........

I skyped with Kylie last night and showed her and she wants to borrow it for her Little Red Riding Hood costume for Halloween.  :o)  We did homework last night. That is one smart little cookie. She had a writing assignment where she had a picture of a snowman, a child and a bird. Her assignment was to make sentences, at least 7, about the picture. The first two had to tell about the beginning of what was going on (setting it up), the second two about the sequence, or next as she put it, of what happened next. Then two sentences in conclusion and then one for the end. She ended up having 9 sentences and she didn't need much help from me except for the spelling of a few words but I was impressed.   For a seven year old I think she's way ahead of where I was at that age. That I can remember anyways. I told her she was a very good writer and asked her was that what she wanted to do when she grew up. She said yes, that she'd already written a few stories. She read me one that she wrote about her whole family being whisked away by aliens. It was pretty good too. She said she wasn't done with it yet. I can't wait to hear the ending. :o)

Well that's about it for me for today. Not sure if I'll be able to post tomorrow or not. Sure has been busy in work land lately. It's all good. :o)

I hope life with you is good and it stays that way!! Cya soon.
TTFN
Kat
xoxo