Spring flowers

The last several days have been beautiful!  With temperatures in the 80's spring is here (perhaps not here but close).  The trees and shrubs loaded with buds ready to burst.  I have even seen spring flowers.  Many of the early bloomers are out!  Daffodils, phlox and magnolias are blooming, pushing away the gray dreary days.

I am dream of planting our garden and setting out pots of flowers.  Spring is definitely in the air.  I know it is still a bit early for planting and gardening but a girl can hope.  While I wait for that last frost to pass I am crocheting up my own little flower garden.  It is blooming slowly with each little flower.  Much like spring, it seems in no rush to arrive to it's destination. Happy to just bloom each day.

Crocheted Granny African Flower (also known as Paperweight granny) is a quick little crochet I have been quietly working on anytime I have a moment.  I am using a pattern I found on Craftpassion.com.     These cute little flowers of mine still need a white border row, but are pretty just to look at even without.

Poncho for me (almost)

I finished up my crocheted poncho!  I have been wanting to make myself a poncho for a while, 4-5 years?  With all of the things going on around here plus, my 1 year hiatus from yarn work and the lack of a pattern well it just didn't happen.

I stumbled upon this Lion Brand Pattern for this Laced Edge Poncho (maybe in an email) and armed with my wicked new crocheting skills I got to work.  The pattern calls for multiple colors of Vanna's Choice . The yarn is a cotton blend I had in my stash.  I found at Tuesday Morning so long ago I don't remember what city I was in.

I crocheted along for weeks here and there and then this happened. Perhaps it is a scenario you are familiar with, or perhaps not,  but it goes a little like this....

You are happily knitting or crocheting an item and your child/pre-teen/teen, who normally takes no notice in your craft becomes interested.  Not just interested but Super-Duper excited.  She/he doesn't casually ask about it, doesn't quietly become interested but with sudden and intense enthusiasm Loves It.  They ask to try it on.  They cuddle it.  They even ask the dreaded, "Who is this for?"  and without waiting for an answer they ask, "Are you making it for me?"  And then you are lost.  Doubt may creep into your mind and you think, "No, this is MINE."  But then the final nail is driven into the casket.  "It is like a warm Hug from you when ever I wear it."  This project that was once destine for your closet now has a new owner.  You cannot in anyway, shape or form deny this child the happiness this project has brought to them.  After all you can always make your own.  

  TA-Da.  a new poncho for me or Emma. 

Maybe we will share.:)

evermore

Over the Christmas Holiday the family and I went North to visit family and friends.  All and all we traveled 2300 miles round trip!  This translated into a ton of time spent in the car.  Knowing this I prepared a large bag of yarn and crochet hooks to keep me busy.

I crocheted these cute Sock Monkey hats for my niece and nephew. While visiting in Ohio a friend helped Me start these little cuties. She shared the pattern she used over at Repeat Crafter Me.  The hats were a simple project for my beginner crochet skills.

Speaking of beginner crochet.  While in Pittsburgh, Mom and I taught my younger sister to crochet.  Here is her first wash cloth.  TA-DA! She did great considering she is does not have any previous yarn working skills.  I think she was inspired to learn after a trip to the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh with her youngest.  The day she was there with him they were doing a project with yarn.  The instructor asked her son to add a piece of yarn to the project.  When the instructor started to explain yarn he said, "Yea, I know.  My whole family knits." He was so proud of us.  Aren't 7 year old great!

I also crocheted several wash cloths.  Here is a small sample. Many were left with the people we stayed with on our trip as a smallish.  Thank You for having us in over the holidays.  These are the few I remembered to take pictures. The two circle wash cloths Kitchen Lovelies are from Fiber Flux.

I also made two granny square wash cloths using a combination of several different patterns.

While staying with friends in Michigan I worked up this cute little hot cocoa ornament.  I found this pattern over at I'm Frayed Knot.  It is sooooo Cute! This was the home of the friend who started me on my knitting journey.  While there we learned that we were both picking up crochet.  How Crazy it that!  We hadn't even talked about it.  She made a hot cocoa ornament also which I brought home and promptly hung on my tree to enjoy.

Hooked

Over the long Thanksgiving weekend I was able to finish up the George's Vest for my Nephew.  You may remember this post where I shared the vest, and the demise of the vest. Well once I cast on the correct number of stitches I was able to whip up this cute vest in only a couple of appointments.  (Anyone else measure the difficulty of their projects based on the number of appointments it takes them to get through?  Or is it just me? )

Like I was saying, I finished the vest except for one thing, the crocheted edging around the neck.  I have crocheted once or twice in my life without much success.  I can't seem to figure out what to do with the working yarn, and hold the piece I am working on. When I knit I hold the yarn with my right hand.  When I crochet I hold the yarn with my Left.  This simple change is so complicated!  My left hand just does not want to cooperate.

My mother has crocheted for years.  She has taught me multiple time to crochet with relatively little success.  Over Thanksgiving weekend she came down and we worked on crocheting once again.  This time I think I am Hooked.  To date I have crochet this cute little bow-tie and 3 washcloths.

With luck this time it will stick.