Art, Craft and Needlework, January, 2014

[Ivy]

Nancy, Do the needles need to be bamboo?

Does anyone know anything about "PLARN"? I think you cut up plastic grocery bags, but am trying to figure out how in the world does anybody measure that, keep the cutting lines straight, and if you knot it when you come to the end, in order to crochet a 4" round scrubbie with it.

Guess I can "Google", too.

[Nancy]

Ivy no they do not need to be bamboo. I think plastic or metal will be fine, just work on some knitting every day for 10 to 15 min. And it will come to you.

If you like groups maybe they have a guild near you that knits.

My first gift to h. Was a scarf it rolled on the edges I had not learned how to make it lay flat yet. That was when I was a jr. In high school. (Doing a seed stitch or checker board pattern knit 4 purl 4 corrects that.) I am not good with pattern following with the kids here.

Debbie Macomber is quite the knitter. Way beyond my skill level I am only an intermediate if that.

[Nancy]

One of the things I enjoyed the most was the sweater my granny made me in that checked pattern I wore it a lot in the third grade. She made my cousin a striped 36" long stocking cap.

[Ivy]

Nancy, Thanks for the knitting info. I have so many up-coming crochet projects that I don't know when I'll be able to make time for knitting. I want to find a pattern with the needle size and yarn requirements. I guess I can do that in my spare time, to get prepared.

Yes, I've seen the covers of some of Debbie Macomber's knitting books, plus a book I own of hers has some knitting patterns in it. She's so gifted. Writing AND knitting, both.

I printed up some headband patterns for myself.
I have a dneighbor-friend who's Dmom's wild for 100% plastic canvas nylon yarn scrubbers! Now my friend wants some for herself (she offered to pay $) AND for her Dmom. I have yellow/red, her Dmom's kitchen colors. My Friend's kitchen is black, grey, white, but she uses red for accent colors. I need to make a trip for more nylon yarns, in order to make my friend's colors. I printed up patterns though.

Also, I have a neighbor-friend with memory problems, she's forgotten to crochet, I tried to re-teach her, but her mind's gone too far the other way. I'd love to crochet her some yellow/yellow variegated dishcloths.

Also, Dgrson-4.75 turns 5 in Feb., so I want to crochet him a striped ear flap hat and 2 mushroom toys, from the Mario video game. Next, will be dgrson-turning 3 on Apr. 10's hat, but might make him a Mario mushroom cap with 2 toy mushrooms. April's starting to warm up, so the ear flap hat might be too warm. I want the boys to be different and unique individually as THEY are, in what I crochet them.

I never did the bedroom FOCUS this week, except washing the mattress pad and the sheets, DH made it back up. I could work on the bedroom on Sunday while DH watches the Seahawks game OR --- CROCHET at these little projects, which are nagging me at the back of my mind. So bedroom a bit, in baby steps, and then crochet in baby steps. I can do a few things in the bedroom, during commercials and before and after the game's over.

Now-- I'm way behind in my reading, too. It's so very hard for me to prioritize things out: How do YOU, ANY of you, do your prioritizing? I put self-care first, then God, then DH and my cat, family, friends, neighbors, but my writing makes the crochet and reading get out-of-sync with everything else. But self care comes first. If Mama's not happy- nobody's happy!

[Nancy]

I got some knitting done today yea! Working on a new color on tne rainbow k2 p2 prayer shawl project this week it is maroon color that I am knitting up this week.

[Harriet]

Shopped for what dd15's generation is calling "beanies" today. (I would have called them "toboggans", and when we mentioned this to dstepson35, he agreed with me.) Anyway, with so little winter left, dd couldn't justify the money. Thought I'd show our knitters and crocheters here what they are selling in the malls and for how much. They were everywhere you turned - displayed along walls, on mannequins, on head-only figures, on the tops of clothing racks. She would have bought at least one of the simpler ones shown here from A and E outfitters, but they were $16 each and the sweatshirt she wanted there was only $12, so she decided she'd just stick with the beanies she has for this winter. Just thought it might be interesting to you to see how popular knitted and crocheted head wear is these days. You are on the cutting edge, lol.

[Nancy]

I wish I could find that Sea hawk lime green yarn for hats & stuff!

[Ivy]

Nancy, Have you looked at WM, Joann's and Michael's for those colors of yarn? If you have, perhaps Red Heart or Caron or the Joann's sites on-line have them.

I crocheted a scrubbie flower out of 100% nylon yarn and I'm on dishcloth #2 now.

I got out afghan yarns for 3 striped Granny afghans in nice colors, for the youngest grands for Christmas. I wanted to be sure I had enough yarns on hand because I don't want to purchase any.
1- dgd will be pink, white, and lavender
2- dgs-turning 3 soon, will have light blue, navy, and white
30 dgs turning 5 next month will have red, white, and blue

I want to work faster on using up my "stash" so planned out the grands afghans. I'll do a rectangle afghan for myself after my Granny stripe is done. But first, it's to get the "just because" kitchen items done for dfriends.

[Ivy]

I went through my yarn stash. I have 1-Lbs. of the Seahawks' blue & nearly 3/4-Lbs. of their green. This green is from a long time ago, about 5 years, but they're both either RHSS or Caron Pound. I found a pots hat for men/women at this site, under "Head Huggers: Crochet Pattern: 10, called "Double Crochet Ports Hat Patterns" and also a striped cap for children called "Remembering Gage," under Head Huggers: Child's Cap Crochet Pattern: 5. I'm going to make our dgson's b-day cap in blue/green stripes, for his 5th b-day and mine will be blue with 2 - 3 stripes at the end or near the end. Here's the site for caps in both knit and crochet. They're chemo caps, but are nice, warm, snuggly, and look nice. I've crocheted them before for non-chemo people and kids. Or is someone cares to donate, they can and they have a "suggestions" rules-type page for info for that, too. Here's the links

http://www.headhuggers.org/patterns/cpatt10.htm

http://www.headhuggers.org/patterns/childpatt05.htm

I don't know quite how or why the "crochet bug" bit me again, but after Christmas, doing so much crochet, I needed a break. So I concentrated on snail mail and stories, our home, relationships, etc... Then, I got to crocheting dgd's hats, and it's just snow-balled.

Nancy, I hope you can find Seahawks' colors some place, too, if not in your stash, maybe in a store in town or on-line. But I know how you feel about using a card now, since that breech in the news for such a long time.

[Nancy]

I am going to look in my stash I have looked at the stores mentioned here w/out success.
Oh well no worries!