Tough Week

It's been a really tough week this week all due to my son getting sick and ending up needing to be hospitalized due to dehydration.   While he's now on the mend, that meant that all my crochet classes for the week had to be canceled.  

The week brought some crochet challenges & pleasures though and I thought I'd share them a bit:

1.   I got the recent issue of PieceWork magazine ... if you're a bride then you'll want to check it out as it's filled with dresses & accessories from the 1700s to today.   There's various patterns in it including for tatting & for crochet.  Everything featured in this issue is absolutely delicious!

2.   I was prewarned by the doctor that we may be headed to the hospital so I had put together a "crochet kit" -- my plan was to turn the flower grid featured in the above mentioned magazine into something called "flat bead crochet."  Unfortunately, I had forgotten to pack beading needles and the local craft store didn't have any.

3.   This didn't stop my son, however, from insisting that the nursing staff check out my crochet work.   He handed them a hat I had crocheted out of the deliciously soft Homespun yarn as a future donation -- the same hat that he ended up claiming for himself!  (LOL)   He was proud of the hat, and also wanted to ensure that they knew I crocheted baby blankets & hats for their preemie ward.   (I guess this means he's quite proud of his Mamma.)

4.   Getting back to the hats, I had volunteer lunch duty for my daughter's class on Monday (just prior to learning my son was to become so ill) -- and I had decided to seize the opportunity to crochet while they ate.   I brought the Homespun yarn with me and started working on a future hat donation.   The kids were amazed!   They asked nearly a million questions about it and my daughter was pleased to be able to answer most of them.   Then, afterwards when we got home, my daughter checked out the pile of hats I had already finished and opted to pick one out for herself.   She wore it to school the next day and said that all the kids had fun petting it's softness while inquiring if it was the same hat I had been working on the day before.   I think I'll make it a habit of bringing my charity projects with me each time so the kids can see how things are created.   Who knows -- maybe there's a child, or two, or three, or more that would love to learn how!!

So what's up for now?   Now with my son home and feeling a bit better (he's being monitored today) I'll get my crochet kit together for tonight's volunteer duty at the school (bingo).  This time, I'll be sure to pack those pesky beading needles!   :)

 

BTW:  If you're interested in subscribing the PieceWork magazine I mentioned, check out the website known as BlueDolphin.com as they've got the best price I've found thus far for a subscription.

 

Excited: CGOA Conference

I'm so excited!  The CGOA has announced that the National Conference Brochure is online -- so I spent the last few days going over the classes, and events and picked many to participate in.

Then yesterday I booked my room, and today completed the online registration -- now all that's needed is waiting.  Waiting for the Confirmation for the classes & events, and Waiting for about 90 more days for the actual event to begin.

I'm so excited.  I had such a good time at last year's conference!  (visit my picturetrail album to see images) and think it will be even more special this year with more of my CGOA Chapter members attending!  :)

Too Delicious

I'm sure you've shopped at a yarn store or local craft shop where yarn just leaped off the shelves screaming "ADOPT ME!!" or "TAKE ME HOME WITH YOU!!" and you do!   ... this is a phonemonom that apparently I cannot excape! 

No matter how hard I try ... I close my eyes; I put my hands over my ears; I run.  But to no avail.  By the time I'm by the front register, my basket is full of ever-so-delicious goodies that are just too scrumptious to put back on the shelf!

So my latest "Adopties" are two different colored ribbon yarns by Fantasy Manetto Hill Yarnery, and one ball of Berroco's "Suede."  I plan on crocheting myself two shawls with the ribbon yarns, and a simple bag out of the suede.  (I'm having fun looking through books to select various stitch patterns for the two shawls, and will "just wing it" for the bag.)

Of course I'm a gluttant for punishment as I will be inviting this phonemonom to strike again by visiting a new yarn shop in my area sometime in the next week (or should that be spelled "weak" since I cannot seem to say "NO!" to these yarns wanting to come home with me???).  

Who knows what I'll come home with next!!  (Hmmm, that reminds me, I'll need to find new stashing places for these little babies until I'm ready to use them!)  LOL

The Lion's Share

Finding the right yarn for the fleece blanket with a lion & tiger on it proved challenging.  I settled on one yarn (lion brand's fun fur) only to find another (Linie 67; Como).  After sewing the ends under with the Linie and crocheting one row of single crochets I've decided that perhaps I should mix the Linie and the fun fur together.  I'll have to report back on how the results are. 

The important part of this, is that my ds is happy I'm at least working on his blanket!  In the meantime, he's kidnapped my shawl and said it's his until the blanket is ready.  LOL  

Other exciting news is that one of my crochet students revealed to me that she's interested in teaching crochet!  (Whoo hoo!)  She's been taking my classes since I first started teaching, and I know she'll do a fantastic job!  Right now she wants to take the CYCA Certification Course, so I've got to get busy finishing setting that up. 

Warning: Website "Lifting"

For those of us that spend hours upon hours building our websites to reflect our personalities, hobbies and such, please take heed of this warning!

While I was surfing the Internet to see all the sites of which were linked to me (by the way, Thank You Very Much; I'm VERY Flattered!) I did find a website that had "lifted" my website -- and I promptly notified AOL who hosts my website.!!  Since then, I see that the "duplicate" website has been removed from the Internet (TG!)

I did check out the duplicate site, and apparently it had all my links & such, and apparently no harm was done.  But, if this can happen to me, then certainly it can happen to others...and in case you haven't noticed yet, there's a lot of creeps out there mixing crochet searches with smut.  So it's always good to surf the net and check out who is linking to you, and how your page is listed.  In my book, it's time well spent.

Whew!  Now with this off my chest, I can get back to designing a very special Mother's Day bookmarker! :)

Bell of the Ball?

...well, not exactly! 

Last night I did volunteer work at my kids school (Bingo night) by working on the floor.  While the game was going I stood at the front of the room and worked on a bookmarker I'm designing.  The rest of the workers were men.

Two of them took interest in what I was doing; one asked about the business aspect of working for yourself (since I teach), and the other inquiried about historical aspects as he has fond memories of his Great Grandmother "doing this" and still has two "heavy" afghans she had created.  It was quite fun to share this information with them.

As I stolled the asiles to confirm winners & hand them the prize money, I received many wonderful compliments about the scarf I was wearing (Berroco eyelash mixed with the Berroco Candy FX with an N hook).  Then, towards the last hour, one of the bingo participants approached me and explained to me that she has trouble crocheting in the round.  I gave her my business card and hope to hear from her in the future. :)

Overall, it turned out to be a great opportunity to quietly promote crochet.