I'm Baaack

Sorry I haven't posted in a good while. I have gotten a lot of crocheting done in the meantime though. I'll have to add the list to my side bar. But here they all are (I think!)--Last night I finished the big Granny rectangle afghan for Kaitlyn. I have also made 5 more market bags. Tried some different patterns and finally came up with one I like; it is actually a combination of a couple of them. Made 2 hot go cup cozies (like the cardboard wrap-around ones); 2 new dishcloths in a very different style. That's all I can remember at the moment. I'll have to check and see if I'm missing anything. (edited to add: Oh I also did a small bowl in daisy ombre to hold my Splenda packets. Turned out nice. Also did a small square potholder/hot pad.)

We made our weekend trip to Gatlinburg after tax season. Had a good time and relaxed. It rained on us most of the time but that was okay.

We did have an experience the week before we went to Gatlinburg. On the way to Louisville to visit with friends, a wild turkey hit us. Now you wouldn't think a turkey could do that much damage but it did! It hit our grill then slid over the hood and across the roof of my car. We had to have the grill, it's supports, the medallion on the front all replaced, it damaged the hood and it had to be removed, repaired and repainted. All in all, insurance allowed almost $800 after our deductible to get it fixed. And they provided a rental car for the week that my car was in the shop. I'm just glad it didn't cause a full wreck with us hitting another car or something. Luckily there was no other traffic around us at the time.

I ordered a bunch of yarn and it is due to arive today! Love getting more yarn! This is all cotton yarn on cones, with one exception and that is a cone of super petalspun rayon that I want to use for a shawl. It is all from Peaches 'n Creme. I'm gonna have fun!

I'm bad...I didn't take any pictures this weekend, either. One of these days, I'll get it done and have a huge post full of pictures of finished objects.

I made another market bag yesterday; it is a different pattern than the other 2 though. I don't like the finished product as well. I started another one today that is like the first 2 except I made the base larger. Still working on the sides and I think I'm going to run out of yarn before finishing. Yikes! I'll just have to finish with a different color of cotton yarn. I would rather it all be the same, but since this is bigger, it won't be enough. I'm sure I have some other that will blend okay with it.

My big news of the day is......We booked another cruise today! It is not until the end of April of NEXT year but we like to plan ahead. We will be cruising with some of our cruise friends on our favorite ship---Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas. It is at a great price right now and will be going to the Mexican Riviera. We've never been there so it will be all new ports for us. Just found out about the cruise this morning and booked this afternoon. So I've been excited all day and not able to think about much else (that's why the bag isn't done yet!).

Sorry I have been AWOL lately. I have been busy at work. I have added several finished objects to my list but haven't posted about them because I keep meaning to take pictures of them to post. By the time I get home in the evening, I forget about taking the pictures. I'll "try" to do that this weekend.

I will say that I started another afghan yesterday. I am doing a Grandmother's Flower Garden with hexagon motifs. The original pattern shows a cream or white background but I am planning to do mine with a black background. I think it makes the colors stand out more. I will need to make 473 hexes for this and I have made 35 so far. Still quite a way to go! This is one that I will probably work on a little at a time as I get the colors. I am planning on using left over ILTY yarn from other projects for the flowers. Hopefully, I'll only need to buy the black for the background.

I tried to get the yarn last Saturday to make an afghan for Kaitlyn but the Hobby Lobby I went to was out of the pinks that I wanted and I didn't have time to go to another one. And since she requested 2 shades of pink, that is what I MUST have! Don't want to disappoint her!

Oh, yes, I will say that Patti was surprised and really liked her angel wings shawl. She has been telling me at work all winter that I could make her a shawl and her favorite color was yellow. So last weekend I decided to make her one. I made it Sunday afternoon and gave it to her on Monday.

I found another 'green' bag pattern this morning that I want to make. I really like the ones I made last weekend but this one is bigger. I'm thinking about making it to carry yarn projects. I couldn't lift it if I put groceries in it like it was intended! May try it this weekend if we don't make it back to HL to look for Kaitlyn's pink yarns.

Another Finished Object

I just finished my jacket in light peach. Which reminds me....I still need to do the seams on the last poncho so I can officially declare it 'finished'...will try to remember to do that tonight. I think I will start on another shrug like the periwinkle one but in red this time. I need something easy to work on this weekend as we are going to Mama's so don't want anything that I have to do too much counting on while there. Whew, that was a long sentence! Hope it makes sense.

Just a quick note before I leave for work.....

My fingers are working again! I was able to crochet last night and this morning! Gee, I really missed being able to crochet! It is one thing when you decide on your own to take a break for a couple of days, but when your fingers just won't work without hurting is a totally different thing!

That's all for now; time to leave for work.

Just a short post today.

The garbage cake was a hit yesterday.

I've worked some more on the jacket. I need to make it longer than the pattern calls for because I want it to come at least to my waist; I don't want it to be cropped. But it is slow-going right now. My fingers are bothering me today (dear old Arthur!) so not feeling much like crocheting. That usually makes my hands feel better and loosen up some but not today. So spending more time reading or surfing the net. Been looking at different afghans and deciding what I want to make. I've been thinking about a scrap yo yo design for a while but think I might get too tired of it before I ever got it finished. Or maybe a hexagon granny. And I have several other ideas in the thinking stage, too. Don't have to decide anything yet at any rate.

Wow, it is hard to believe it has been a week already since I last posted. I still haven't gotten a picture of my shrug. But since then I have made a poncho in Montana Blue Homespun; well, all except for sewing the side seams at least. And last night I started another jacket. I have most of it done already. I am within 4 rows of finishing the body unless I want to make it longer (which I probably will) and finishing the sleeves to whatever length I want. This is made out of ILTY in a light peach. Looks nice and spring-y.

I took a vanilla candle in to work last week. It about drove the ladies crazy; they said it smelled like birthday cake. So they said I had to make a cake and bring it to the office to make up for smelling the candle all week! So this afternoon I made a cake to take to work tomorrow. It's not a birthday cake, but it is a cake, all the same. It is called "Garbage Cake" and is a really rich coffee cake with lots of brown sugar and cinnamon in it and in the topping. The recipe is from my cookbook that I published in the early 80s. Hard to believe that was almost 30 years ago! Time sure flies!

Only one more month to go and tax season will be over! Yippee! And that means we'll soon be going to Gatlinburg for a long weekend to celebrate another season being finished. And I'm thinking about what project I want to work on while there.

Oh, I added some 'blinkies' on my sidebar last night. Hope you like them.