Tis the season to be jolly, and tis the night to hang holly!  That's because we are snowed in.  No joke.  The snow isn't that deep - maybe 12 to 15 inches now, but the wind is blowing so hard that it hits the windows, melts and then freezes, so our windows are covered in ice.  The wind also seems to be melting the snow and then it refreezes or something because it is coming down half snow and half ice...hurts to get hit by it.  Snow or no snow, the doggies still have to relieve themselves outside.  I'm beginning to think that we may need a somewhat covered area out of doors for the poor darlings for just such weather.  This is the second year in a row that we have been hit with "global warming" and have snow up to our knees.  I have lived here five years and this is also the first year we have had zero degrees.  I'd like to find that Mr. Gore and make him sit out in the lawn all night just to see what global warming is really like. The idiot.

Took my nearly 10 year old lab to the vet as she started coughing a week or so ago, and then would not eat.  The eating was off and on.  The coughing had subsided, but for her not to eat she had to feel bad.  Turns out she has and enlarged heart (congestive heart failure) and has lung cancer.  I can just barely write about it, let along think about it. She has been my darling since I brought her home at 9 weeks.  Just doesn't seem fair that she should have to suffer and that she should have to leave five years short of when she would normally go.  We just give her medications to make her comfy, and so far she is feeling better.  I hope it continues that way for a long time, but from what I have read from when the coughing starts they generally have about 6 months left. And, of course, there is the cancer which might take her sooner.  Sort of takes the jolly out of the season, except that she seems to feel so much better and more like her old self, it is hard to actually accept she is that sick.  I do love her so.

So, crochet wise I finished the Raspberry Fool doggie sweater which hopefully will fit my SIL and brother's doggie.  It is really cute!  I used Vanna's Choice by Lion Brand. Worked up fast, too.

I started working on a pair of wristlets from the Caron International site, and will write and show more in the next couple of days.  

I hope your Christmas is peaceful, uneventful, quite, lovely, and white.

Baby In Her Smocked White Dress

Seems like last year that I made this dress for Alice - thinking it would fit her at 3 months rather that 6 or 7! I was so pleased and so very thrilled to see it on her at last. Heidi brought it with them when they visited for Thanksgiving so I could see her in it and take a couple of snapshots. Unfortunately, I didn't get too many, and Hubby
didn't take any with the good camera. Oh, well - I do have a couple. She is such a cutie with reddish brown hair and big blue eyes.  More photos.  The pattern is from the book Adorable Crochet for Babies and Toddlers by Lesley Stanfield.  I would buy it again...I love her designs!  Hopefully, she will have more books soon.

The afghan for my SIL is in the throws of it's last breath! Hooray! I am making Tunisian Squares, 9x9 and am in the last row (not separate squares that I sew together - one big project). I'll put an edging on it, and then single crochet along where the squares meet as I don't like the look and don't want a backing. Then I'm done and off it goes to Little Sissy.

I am also putting together a package for a family that the church adopted. An abused woman and her 3 daughters who are in a shelter. I've got some hats and a few potholders (sigh - hate to give them up!), and a baby sweater and hat. I'm probably going to toss in a shawl if I get it done. Am doing a Serafina in white. Our church is usually pretty generous, and those that don't buy give money so they will have enough to eat out and buy some clothes, plus a little. Always feels good to help someone else. That is what makes Christmas merry, after all.

Seraphina Shawl

What a fun project! I'm blocking it as I type...so tomorrow pics will be posted. I grabbed a large skein when shopping and didn't realize it was not the Rainbow Boucle - but used it anyway. Still turned out nicely in pinks and grays, but will start another one using the "correct" yarn in the not to distant future. See here...

As the pattern says, once you get the hang of it, the pattern is pretty easy. Basically on Ravelry there are some posts that give some info, and the web site has a great pattern posted.  Google it by name, Seraphina Shawl.   Although it isn't a Doris Chan pattern, it IS very Doris! Lovely pattern. You can get it on Crochetville (it is free).  The photo is on my photo page. When done in the Sensations Rainbow Boucle it is one outstanding looking shawl, so want to try that one as a gift - my only complaint about that particular yarn is that it can pick if you aren't careful.  Had lots of compliments on the shawl today at church. 

In the meanwhile, I need to get a photo of the finished product of the vest I made for my dearest friend Leonora. I sent it off without photographing the final product. Dumb.

I am mid-stream in making a Tunisian afghan in big blue checks for my SIL. Would like to finish before Christmas, but don't know if I will. It isn't her Christmas present, but would be nice to start on another big project soon, which is why I'd like to be finished. I always have a large one going and add the smaller ones betwixt and between as I get tired or bored or strained ... whatever ... when I spend a great deal of time on one pattern.

Later!

Maggie, Chuckie and Sami rest

Twas the night after Thanksgiving and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a doggie or two or three or four.

We had some nice down time after our Thanksgiving rush, and I finished up lots of gifts. Made a nice cowl for my niece (pattern and photo to follow tomorrow) and think she will like it. Would love to have made it a bit longer, but ran out of yarn...one of life's little mis-steps in crocheting.

I hope to make a few doggie sweaters for the little ones, but haven't found any I really like except for those in knit. I am hoping to adapt one into crochet and see how I do. Chuckie, the Shih Tzu, is really the only one that seems to get cold, but the newly found
Terrier, Sami, hasn't been with us during a winter so would like to be prepared. Molly, the big Black Lab and Maggie, the Border Collie, love the cold snow so they don't need anything. Well, anything I can make.

Crocheting has been the answer to a prayer for me this past 18 months. It keeps my mind calm, and my hands busy. I don't get bored as easily now, and carry yarn projects with me wherever I happen to go. Lately, I have been stepping into the foyer in church and crochet there while listening to the service. It has always been hard for me just to sit still, even as a youngster. Crocheting is a great way of keeping my mind and hands busy while listening to what's around me, whether a service, a talkative husband, TV or radio.

Now, isn't all that inner peace worth learning a new skill?