Whose Idea Was This?

Ok, so maybe trying to do 8 hats in one weekend was a bit of overkill. Here are the last two, finished last night amidst much growling and snarling. I think I'll take a wee bit of a break from doing any more UBW hats even though the pattern is dead simple. And at least I used up a fair amount of my stash. Not enough to warrant doing any major yarn purchasing but ha, when did that ever stop me?



Today was payday (thank goodness) so I got to go buy the yarn I needed to finish this monstrosity on the left. This is truly one of the ugliest hats I've ever seen and I'm amazed I'm even posting it in my blog. But since I started it, I had to finish it. It looks like something Zsa Zsa Gabor would have worn on "Green Acres." But I do like the colors. I'm just hoping the novelty of novelty yarn wears off soon and we can all go back to crocheting with plain old worsted weight yarn. After hearing all the horror stories from people who had worked with eyelash yarn before I was expecting the worst. It wasn't that bad though. I'm sure I missed a few stitches but since this hat WILL NEVER BE WORN OUTSIDE THE HOUSE, who cares?



So now I'm going back to working on this little project. This is one of the squares I've made for the Crochetdude's "Monet Afghan." I'm working it up in good ol' Red Heart Super Saver because that's the only worsted weight yarn I could find in variegated colors I liked. And since this afghan is supposed to look like one of Monet's paintings I thought it appropriate to use the color "Waterlilies." I think I've done five squares - only seven more to go!

The Hat Factory

Her name is Anna Belle. She lives in South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Each day she gets up to tend to the eight grandchildren she has living with her. There are no parents around to help out; they've all left to do whatever people do when they've abandoned their children. Anna Belle wrote to me and told me that she prays to God for the strength to get through each day.

Now I'm certainly not God, but that doesn't mean I can't help Anna Belle out as well. So this weekend I decided to spend my time making hats for each of her grandchildren. I have no idea how many are granddaughters and how many are grandsons but what the heck, I figured I'd just make them in a combination of colors and hopefully everyone will get a hat they're happy with.

That's Lydia, my beautiful hat model in one of the hats I made. If you're good at that counting stuff you'll notice I only have six hats in the picture, I hope to get the other two finished tomorrow.

All of the hats were made from yarn from my stash and are a combination of Red Heart Super Saver and Caron Simply Soft. The pattern is of course Dot's wonderful UBW hat.

I suppose a lot of people would wonder how I could sit around all day crocheting the same hat over and over again. I wonder about a country that turns its back on its Native people.

Thwarted At Every Turn

Today my friend Kerry and I went to the monthly meeting of the South Bay chapter of the CGOA. At least, that's what I think they called themselves - the meeting started at 9am. On a Saturday. Umm ... what? There are very few people I would agree to do something with that early on a Saturday morning. Kerry is one of them.

But I'm glad I went; I met a lot of nice ladies who are FAR more talented than I'll ever be. I even met Mary Jane Wood, the co-author of "Crocheted Socks! 16 Fun-To- Stitch patterns". I had planned on bringing my copy along for her to autograph but uh ... I forgot. Did I mention the meeting started at 9am?

However, I did remember to bring my Little Star afghan which I'm making for Project Linus. I was sure I'd memorized the pattern so I left it at home. I was wrong. Was it dc3, ch2, dc3 or dc3 ch1 dc3? I had not a c-l-u-e.

Fear not, I'd also brought along the yarn and the PATTERN for a preemie ripple afghan. When will I learn? It is unlikely you will ever see a picture of a completed ripple afghan in this blog. I am "ripple challenged". I don't know why, it's one of those mysteries of life. But I was determined to crochet SOMETHING. So I had the brilliant idea of making a 12" square for charity. All I had to do was pick a lovely stitch from my stitch book, chain a 12" chain and voila, a beautiful square! My square was ... 14".

Was it any wonder I had to come home and have a brownie and a cup of tea to steady my nerves? Don't these look good? They ARE. Made from scratch even. With not one, not two, but six squares of Baker's semi-sweet chocolate. I made them last night to replace the disgusting ones I made on Thursday. Why is it when you've got one egg and one cup of flour left in the house the recipe you decide to try turns out like CRAP? Another mystery.

So after replenishing the chocolate level in my bloodstream I did what I always do when I begin to doubt my crocheting abilities. I made a hat. To be specific, Dot's UBW (ugly but warm) hat. If you've never made a UBW hat, you don't know what you're missing. To find out what you're missing, just click the link on the right that says "Crochet By The Hook" and you'll be whisked off to Dot's blog. Where you will find so many wonderful hat patterns you will be speechless.

Lily says, "Hey Mom, where's MY hat?"

Late To The Party

OK, so I'm roughly two years behind in the blogging craze but I really didn't think I had anything worthwhile to say. I thought I'd have to post great inspiring, philosophical thoughts that Socrates might have written, had blogging been around in 400 B.C.E..

And then I started crocheting. And as everyone knows, if you crochet you must also blog. It's like an unspoken rule. In fact, if I was really smart I'd write a book that combined the two. Something like "363 More Crochet Stitches and 85 Blog Templates." You get the idea.

So who IS the latest person to hop on the Blog Bandwagon? Well I'm an accountant by necessity and a writer by nature who lives in one of the many suburbs surrounding San Jose. Actually that's kind of a misnomer because San Jose is just one big sprawling suburb itself. So perhaps that makes Campbell a Junior Suburb.

I live with my three cats, DeeDee, Wilma and Andy. My two mice, Lily and Daisy. And Ralphie, my betta fish. In the world's smallest one bedroom apartment. But the rent is cheap and I have easy access to two main highways. Which in the Bay Area is a major selling point. Here's a recent picture of DeeDee and Wilma. They're fighting over who gets to sit on the quilt my Mother just made for Wilma. Wilma is on the left and DeeDee is on the right.









Back to crochet. After all, that's why you're here, right? To marvel over my Works In Progress, to gaze in complete astonishment at my finished projects, to drool over my stash. Oops, got a little carried away there. Here is my latest finished project, a preemie blanket for Project Linus.











Fascinating, no? Well this blogging business has left me completely exhausted and it's after the witching hour. I'd best get to bed. 'Night all.