2020 CHURCH AFGHAN

Update: This afghan and pillow sold for $350 plus $500 in donations at the church auction!

This is a totally different type of pattern than I have done before. It was fun to make.

 If you look at four squares together you should be able to see a light circle, plus the diamond shape in the individual squares. The pillow colors are reversed for contrast, which worked out well as I had just enough black to finish both.

I haven't found out what it sold for yet, so will update later.

I have started another afghan that I hope to donate next year. It might take me all year to make it! It is done in fine yarn and size 5 knitting needles, so there are lots and lots of stitches to be made. It is a good thing it is done in strips as I am doing a lot of correcting mistakes because I counted wrong.

Until next time. . . . .

BOING BOING!

Spring has sprung, finally! At least for now. There is a slight chance of a little snow tonight but highs in the mid to upper 40's for tomorrow so it won't last long. Hopefully we won't get any snowstorms this month, but there are no guarantees in this part of the country.

I have been keeping busy crocheting again. I had a special order to make an afghan using the jumbo bulky yarn. I had never worked with that before so it was a little bit of trial and error to begin with. The hook is huge, about the thickness of a broom handle. I finally got the hang of it, even though the stitches are still not as uniform as I would like. I usually hold the hook like a pencil when I crochet, but with the huge hook I had to palm it. I know many use hooks that way but that is not the way I learned it.

 This yarn is like chenille so it is fuzzy and warm.

Now I am finished with that project I am crocheting winter hats with the yarn I was given at my 75th birthday party.

Some of the yarn is shown in the bushel basket above, but when we got back home there was a whole lot more. It will keep me busy for a long time.

I am also hooked on working jig saw puzzles on the computer as I watch tv. That is very addictive! It is also a time stealer, so I don't get other things done. I should be "good" and not do those things until I have my other work done, but what is the fun in that?!

'They say' that when you get older you go into your second childhood. I guess I am there. I only want to play. ☺

CROCHET PROJECTS

  As the saying goes, "Long time, no see." I know I have been MIA for a long time. I promised some friends that I would post pictures of my latest finished projects. Below are pictures of a very soft chenille baby blanket that I made for my new great grandson last fall. He was born in early January 2019 and so adorable!

 I had a hard time showing just how nice it is. I made up my own pattern, a very simple single crochet, chain one, single crochet throughout the whole thing. This yarn is bulky and I just wanted something warm and cuddly for the baby to enjoy feeling the softness.

The next one is a two-tone green heart stripes afghan. It looks like strips but is made as one piece so there was no sewing together and that is what I like! When I am finished crocheting I want it done! This is a large afghan and really warm. If I didn't already have many afghans I would make this one for myself.

The hearts are made with raised cluster stitches. These pictures also do not do it justice and for some reason wasn't able to edit them. They also don't show the colors very well but you get the idea.

 This afghan has gone to the church for the annual auction coming up February 6.

Below is a poncho. This was really hard to get good pictures without a model wearing it. The long points are center front and back. The sides are shorter and slightly shaped to fit elbows, which is really unusual and I had not seen that before. It is an easy pattern and sort of lacy, which does not show well here.

Below shows a close-up of the neckline. The yarn is a brown/white twist.

I need to spend some time with the camera program. It is coming up so different than I am used to and is frustrating.

I will try to let you know what they sell for at the auction, providing I get that information since I won't be there to see them sold.

LATEST PROJECTS

Two baby afghans. My son requested one for a niece, and we decided on the rainbow one at the top. Since my Walmart does not carry much for baby yarns, I had to order online. While I waited for the ordered yarn I decided to start the second one in the other pattern as I had a large skein of that yarn on hand. I did have to buy another skein to finish and Walmart does have that one on hand. So now when they come this weekend, they have a choice to pick from. And I will have a spare in case of another order, or it will go to the church auction next year.

Now I am off to get the house ready for company in a few days. I hope to post again after company leaves. In any case, I hope you all have a great summer.

CHURCH AUCTION PROJECT RESULT FOR 2018

I showed you this afghan and matching pillow before. I made this one for my daughter, who had requested it. My friends said I should make the same one for the church auction this year, so I did. The difficult pattern was already fresh in my mind so this one did not take as long.

They brought $900 at the church auction! I don't know how much the person paid who bought it, but the rest was again raised by calling for $20 donations from the crowd, and added up to $900. Now I am on the hunt for a new pattern for next year.

A LITTLE BIT OF SWEET CHRISTMAS

There are no Christmas decorations up here. In fact, the fall things are still on display. One reason they have not been put away is that I can't get the spare closet door to slide open to get the totes. Another reason there is no Christmas displayed is that it is too difficult to bring all the totes in from the garage storage room while using the walker. And finally, I haven't been able to stir up much interest in doing either one. I pushed myself to get my annual Christmas letter written and printed along with the address labels. I had to go buy more cards since the ones I had left from last year are behind the closet door that won't open. I got the last of the cards mailed yesterday. 

Earlier this month I finally ordered some round pillow forms to finish the pillow that matches the afghan I shared earlier here .

And here is the pillow.

front

back

Can you tell the difference? This is all made in one piece and the pillow form is inserted before the last rows are done. Both the afghan and the pillow are done in a manner that I have never done before so it was interesting.

Now I am in the process of making a matching set to donate to the annual church auction. I have a little over 6 weeks to finish them so you know how I will be spending most of my time until then.

We are getting some very light snow today and predictions say 1-2", and it is supposed to stay cold so we might get a white Christmas yet. The snow always makes the Christmas lights so much prettier.

With that I will just add --

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU.

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

 When I wrote this draft it was still July! I can say that I did most of the work in July so maybe it still qualifies as Christmas in July. 😄 (oh no! Emojis in blogs!)
__________________________________________________________________________________

Not long ago daughter Lisa saw an afghan on Pinterest and suggested she would like one. I had her order the yarn which was shipped to me and I recently finished it.

Christmas peppermints!

This was an interesting pattern to make and something I had never done before. The written instructions were not making sense to me, and I can usually follow any complex pattern, but I was able to find a YouTube tutorial showing how to do it. After watching that, I found the instructions simple and I don't think they could have been explained any better. It seems there were a lot of other crocheters who did not understand them either so I am not alone.

The back side of the afghan is also interesting and looks totally different from the front. The back side is shown at the top of the picture - the motifs that sort of look like spiderwebs or electric stove top coils in red.

The pattern also has instructions for a pillow that looks like a giant peppermint. I don't have that finished yet as I need to get a pillow form first. That is also done in a very different way than I have done before and I have done a lot of different things in over 60 years. You are never too old to learn new things.

I found the free pattern on the Red Heart website here -- http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/peppermint-throw-and-pillow if you would like to try it. Once I got that pattern figured out it was quite simple so don't be afraid to try it.

Here is a picture of the sample I made with yarn I had on hand before the ordered yarn arrived. I think this pretty as well. There are many color combinations if you don't want a Christmas blanket.

 A single motif like this could be used as a potholder or a table pad to set a hot dish on, don't you think? But then I think I would put two together to make it thicker.

STAR OF THE SHOW

If you a fan of modern country music, and know who Thomas Rhett is, his current hit is "Start of the Show".

When I started working on this post I titled it CHURCH AUCTION, but "Star of the Show" was playing on the radio at the same time, and it fits.

This afghan/blanket was the star of the show at the church auction. It was again chosen as the featured item where the auctioneer asks for $20 bid donations from those who are not bidding to buy the item. They have chosen mine almost every year, which always amazes me. This one sold for $200 and made $600 in donations. It always makes me feel my time was well spent in making this.

This was not hard to make but did take a little bit of time in getting the squares to meet up 'perfectly' while sewing the strips together. And fringe always takes time, and I don't always add fringe even though the pattern calls for it. But I feel it adds a lot to this one.

 The one other project I managed to finish in time for the auction are the children's bear scarves.

 These came as kits with head and paws already made. All I had to do was knit the scarf and attached the head and paws to each end. The yarn is 'fur' or 'eyelash' type and worked up to a very soft and cuddly scarf.

They sold for $50 each, which made me happy as each kit cost almost $20 just for materials.

In this picture I tried to pose them as they would be worn to give you an idea what they should look like, but that didn't work out very well. I wish I had a child here to model them!

 If you are wondering about the white afghan used as the backdrop, that is one I made about 30 years ago, or longer. It has been an all time favorite over the years and I have made a lot of them from this pattern.

I have already started on some projects for next year's auction, though there is some talk about only have one every other year. But we do need some kind of fund raiser every year to help pay off our new building loan.

CHURCH AUCTION OFFERINGS

Our church auction was delayed 2 weeks because of a snow storm, so it might seem a little late for this posting this year. I could not find a special afghan pattern that I wanted to make so just picked this one as it is fairly simple, not so large, and quick to make since I got a late start. This pattern is called "Northern Lights". I think the colors and shading is very pretty. I didn't think it would bring in the big money like my afghans in past years, and it didn't. I was a little concerned that it would not sell for the price of the materials, but it did go a little higher. If it had not, I feel like I should just donate the cash instead of putting in all my work and time. I will work harder at finding a special one for next year.

Next is the piece I thought might be the pièce de résistance this year and I was right. This crocheted christening gown is the piece chosen to ask for $20 donations, and then people bid on it to buy. I understand that it made around $400, so this was well worth my time and effort.

My other donations were a trio of crocheted tote baskets in three sizes. I took the pictures on a chair to show the different sizes.

                                                        

The large one is the first one I made. It was a learning curve. Either I wasn't following the directions correctly, or else I just didn't like the way the directions turned out. So did things a little differently on the last two. I don't know if others can tell the difference but I am happier.  (The two pictures above are of the same basket.)

Each size has the colors arranged differently. The set of three came in one kit, so in order to have enough yarn of each color, it had to be done this way. But I did run out of the tan color so had to change things up a bit. It doesn't really matter, does it. At least I had enough of the other colors to finish them all. I did not hear what these sold for. The plan was to offer them individually rather than as a set. I think I need to make some of these for myself as I found them handy!

Now, to put my thinking cap on and pour over hundreds of patterns to decide what to make for next year.

ANOTHER AFGHAN

 CHURCH AUCTION AFGHAN

2015

I had a hard time figuring out how to get good pictures of this to show it off the best. I don't think I did a very good job but at least you get an idea of what it looks like.

It ended up being quite large. It was made from a kit and I was concerned I would run out of yarn before it was finished, as that has happened to me in the past. But I made it . . . . with only a small 2" ball of yarn left! That is really cutting it close!

I am writing this the middle of January, and the auction doesn't take place until February 4, so this is not being published until after the auction. I will let you know how well it does either as an update to this post or in a new post.

UPDATE: 
Just got the news that the afghan made $1000 for the church! I thank the gals that suggested this pattern as well as the color.

FRUGAL LIVING

I seem to be spending a lot of money lately, just on basic needs. But I needed to order yarn and pattern for my annual afghan that I donate to the church for fundraising. You can see those I made in other years elsewhere on this blog.

I need to get started on it soon so that I have plenty of time to get it finished by February when the auction will be held. I do have money set aside for this, but when I checked my Paypal account, I found I had more than enough there to pay for the things I ordered. The money in the Paypal account comes from survey rewards that I had cashed in and had sent to Paypal.

My order came to $84 (gasp!) but I had $95 in the account. So all the yarn I bought for the afghan, plus two other projects, is free to me. I call that very frugal living! I am sorry, but you won't get to see what I am working on until after the auction.

All the surveys I do are online and just takes a little time. If I did them  more regularly I would have even more money saved up, so I think I need to get busy again.

Pinterest Projects - Three

I just realized that today is March 1! Can you believe it?? It was just yesterday that we were talking about Thanksgiving, wasn't it? My goodness, the days and weeks just fly right on by.

When I was looking for American Girl doll patterns, I ran across a pattern for a sleeping bag with attached pillow, and thought that sounded like a fun thing to have with the doll. I had plenty of blue yarn left from making the Minion beanie hats, and my granddaughter's favorite color is blue, I didn't have to go out and buy more yarn.

This is not completed yet, but here is the picture -

The picture below has one of the leg warmers stuffed inside to give you a better idea of the bag and pillow.

The bag and pillow are made as one piece, which means there is no sewing together afterward! My kind of pattern! I really hate having to assemble pieces. The pillow is made first and even stuffed, before continuing on with the bag part. I thought it might be difficult to work with the stuffed pillow attached but it wasn't hard at all.

I didn't have any stuffing on hand (rare) but I did have a roll of crib size batting. So I cut several layers of that to fit and that worked out very well. I think it worked even better than wads of stuffing. I can never seem to get those wads even and not look lumpy.

The pattern can be found here.

This completes my Pinterest projects made while watching the Olympics. I have printed some AG doll dress patterns that I want to try later, but I need to get yarn for those. And I should borrow a doll to make sure that they fit before giving them to my granddaughter. They might also make it into the collection donated to the church auction if they work out well.

Another thing I did while the Olympics were on, is read a book on my Kindle during the parts that were a little boring and during commercials. I actually got more read that way than trying to read in bed, where my eyes tended to close before I wanted to stop reading.

Pinterest Projects - Two

The doll blankets did not take long. Another thing my granddaughter had asked for before Christmas was leg warmers. I finally found a pattern I thought she might like, and this is what I ended up with.

I must apologize for the poor pictures. I think I mentioned before that I am not the greatest picture taker, and I am not taking the time to take more to get the perfect picture right now. The bottom picture is actually the first one I took and the sun was shining in the window, but only covered part of the leg warmers. So then I closed the shade again to take the rest of the pictures, making for a dark room but better flash. I will explain the blue item tomorrow.

The pattern for the leg warmers is found here.

The pattern is for adult size using regular 4 ply yarn. I had plenty of the baby yarn left from the doll afghan so used that and a smaller crochet hook, and hope they are small enough to fit my granddaughter. If not, a ring can be attached to to the top and used for plastic bag holders, as per the suggestion of the person who made the others! Or maybe her older sister could wear them if she would be interested. The instructions do include how to measure the leg and adjust the pattern to fit it, but since my granddaughter lives 160 miles away, I decided to just go ahead and hope they fit. If not, I will make her another pair after measuring, providing she likes them, or even unraveling these and starting over.

Pinterest Projects

How many of you are Pinterest followers? How many of the things you pinned have you actually tried? I have to admit that I pin. . . . and pin. . . and pin, and never actually get around to making anything. It is sort of like all the recipes I tear out of magazines and newspapers that end up in a box or file and never made. At least on Pinterest they are much easier to find back and don't take up any space in my house!

During the Olympics I actually got a few Pinterest Pins tried. Applause, please!

When I watch so much television, I have to do something to release my guilt for spending all that time and not getting other work done, so I create by keeping my hands busy with needlework. Usually it is knitting the caps for Goodwill whenever I have the yarn available. I have made so many of them that I don't have to think about what I am doing. In fact, I can almost do it with my eyes closed, except I end up splitting the yarn in a stitch, or missing a stitch here and there. But that does mean that I can see what is happening on TV.

This time I worked on some things my granddaughter had asked for. Last summer she had asked me to make a blanket (afghan) for her American Girl doll, but I had totally forgotten that until she asked me in January if I remembered it. Oops! So off to Pinterest Land. And I found only one crocheted doll afghan specifically designed for the AG doll. Along with many, many more patterns for dresses, other clothes and accessories for that doll. In fact whole boards devoted to patterns for that doll. I knew the doll was popular, but not aware how much so. She has taken over Barbie that was the big deal when my girls were little. And after that it was the Cabbage Patch dolls, not only making the clothes for them, but also making the dolls.

Back to my projects. First I had to decide what I wanted to make right now, then had to print the patterns. Then I started on the afghan and ended up making two of them since I had plenty of yarn. One might get included in a gift pack of AG doll items to be donated to the church auction next year.

The free pattern can be found at this link:

http://ambassadorcrochet.com/2012/03/20/18-doll-blanket-free-crochet-pattern/

I wanted to use the same yarn that was used in the pattern sample, but that yarn has been discontinued by the manufacturer, so I used Bernat baby yarn. The bottom picture is not the best, but is meant to show both blankets. 

The afghan I used under the items is an old one, and has been a very popular pattern over the years. I lost count on how many I made like that. The one in the picture is the first one I made of this pattern, and is over 25 years old. It has been washed at least a hundred times and still looks good as new. It also happens to be the favorite pattern that Felix loves to sleep on. I wonder if that is because he came from my daughter and she had one of these afghans in her house from the time he was a young cat. ??

For the next project, tune in tomorrow!

Church Auction Afghan

This is the afghan I made for the church auction this year, which is coming up in about one and a half weeks. I love this pattern! I think I had to rip out the first few inches of the first panel at least 4 times, and then again after I had finished the whole strip. I struggled with getting the stitches right until I finally got it after several tries. After that first strip I loosened my tension and found it made a smoother finish, so after I had all the other strips made, I redid the first strip so that they all matched up. I love the way the strips are put together as well as the outside border.

This gives you a closer view of the stitches. These top two pictures are close to the true colors. I don't know why the pictures below look like a different color. I guess it shows I am not the greatest photographer. I just aim and shoot and hope for the best.

 This shows you what the back side looks like. It isn't as nice as the front, but it isn't bad either. It is just different.

When I saw this pattern in a Mary Maxim catalog, I just knew this was the pattern I had to make for the auction. It becomes tougher and tougher to come up with one that will attract the bids and sell as well as the years before. It must be unique, and in colors that might appeal to everyone, which is neutral and can be used in almost every room decor.

In order to get the pattern I had to order the whole kit which included the required yarn and only came in these colors. But the colors were perfect, and the yarn is Caron's Simply Soft. Since I loosened the tension a bit, I did run out of yarn and needed to buy one more skein of each color and only needed a little bit from each one of those. I used what was left to knit more hats for Goodwill so it is still going to charity. I am so glad the kit used yarn that is readily available in the stores and does not have a dye lot. I got the extra at my Walmart.

People often like the feel of Simply Soft as it is really soft and feels a little bit silky. This did make a very dense and somewhat heavy afghan, but will be really warm on the frigid nights we have had in recent weeks. I am looking forward to see what this will bring at the auction. Now, what can I come up with for next year?? Actually, I have already seen at least one new pattern in the catalog that I like so I will probably  be ordering before long.

Most Recent Crochet Projects

I made some things for Christmas gifts for the 9 year old twin grandkids - Joseph and Joelle. I didn't want to post them before they got to open the gifts, and since they had a delayed Christmas at home, they just recently opened them.

Joseph had asked me this summer why I never made him an afghan, since I had made one for each of his sisters in other years. I told him he never asked for one, but also, when I had asked my daughter if she thought he would like one, she didn't think he cared about it. He was more into toy cars at the time. I then asked him what color he would like and his most favorite color for everything is orange, and that is what he said. So he got this one for Christmas this year. . .

When I bought the orange yarn, I thought an afghan that was totally orange would really be boring, so I found the neon brights/black variegated with the orange almost the exact same shade, and thought that was perfect for a kid. I started with a general ripple pattern done in double crochet, but decided to change it up a little and did some rows in single crochet at random, as well as inserting the variegated colors in random stripes - both random placement and random widths, just to make it a little more interesting. Joseph was tickled pink (no. . orange) when he opened his present. He said, "I told Grandma to make me one, and she did!!"

Early in December my daughter said Joelle would really like a Minion hat and showed me a picture of one, which is a good thing because this old gramma had no idea what a Minion was! But when I saw the picture I realized it was from the movie Despicable Me. I just didn't know they were called Minions as I had not watched the movie.

I was able to find a free pattern online of the very picture she sent me at damnitjanetletscrochet.blogspot.com. There are lots of other cute caps and beanies there.

My daughter sent a picture of Joelle wearing the beanie and a huge smile, so she is really happy with it as well. It sure makes grandmas happy to know they made something the kids wanted and then really like them. They are so hard to buy gifts for otherwise, as they have far too many toys and electronics. They really don't need any more but their parents and other grandparents keep buying more for them. Now, what do I do for gifts next year?

This 'n' That - Finger comfort

Here is a tip for you crocheters. Recently I was checking some tutorials to see if I am doing some crochet stitches right, and I wasn't! After all the decades I have been crocheting, I guess I interpreted the written directions a little wrong. But that isn't exactly my tip today.

Do you know what these are?

Do you know what they are used for?

Some people call them pencil cozies. The name on the package says they are gel grips - for pens and pencils. They are found in the pen/pencil section of the store, and there are many in a package.



Here is how crocheters use them -

When I crochet large projects like afghans, my thumb  always got sore from gripping the hook at the flat part where the brand is stamped, and raised. These gel grips keeps that from happening, and it keeps me from holding the hook so tightly and therefore getting cramped. They would not stay in place as I worked so I wound a small rubber band at the top of the grip and now they stay in the proper place and I can crochet away without a sore thumb or cramped hands! Don't you like my color coordinating? I even found a little red rubber band for the red hook. I know you can buy hooks with the thicker shaft, but I have all the hooks I need so am not going to spend money on more. That's because I am a cheapskate frugal.

It took a little time getting used to them but I wouldn't want to be without them now. If this picture looks a little odd, it is because I am a lefty. I realize some of you hold the hook different than I do, so the grip may not be as important to you. You probably hold it more like I would hold a knife instead of a pencil like I do. The first time I saw someone crochet that way I thought it was really odd, but since then I have discovered many others do it that way also. And I found out that either way is correct. It is just a matter of how you learned and what you are comfortable with. I have tried it the other way and I had a hard time keeping my tension even, but I suppose if I kept at it I would eventually get it to work. But I don't need to change, and I have done it this way for maybe 60 years and it has served me well. But I will be using the grips from now on!

(rereading this I see I used a lot of 'buts' here, BUT taking them out didn't seem right either! This is the way I talk, so this is what you get.)