About Half Way

 ALMOST THERE!

I will be finished with the afghan by mid-May so my friend will have it waiting when the baby girl is born. Will post a photo here later today.

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Later today turned into tomorrow! Sorry!

42" wide by 28" long so far…The next photo if looking down the rows the width of 42" and when all is said and done it should be about 50" long.

PHOTO OF MY FIRST FLOWER FROM MY SEEDS!

MY NEW ROCK!

I am one of those people who picks up pretty rocks. I had to leave a bunch at each move I have made over the years. This one is HUGE and I did not pick it up on the side of the road. My friend Jimmy (from junior high and high school) and his wife Alberta gave it to me. I think it was she who acquired it. They both worked for a copper mining company (he is retired) and this is from that mine. It's beautiful! I am so appreciative!

FAMILY

Nephew Paul and his sister my dotter Megan. They are making vegan donuts - well she is making them and he is eating them! LOL! She is the mother of my Eva, girl of the cardigan.

This is the group photo…my younger brother Jon, his wife, and my little sissy, Cindy in the aqua sweater I gave her. Paul to the left, Megan in pink and her sweet hubby John to the right. Baby Zoe in pink, Ellie next to her, brother Jack above her, and Eva off to the right in a plaid top. Jon's family is as sweet as sweet can be….all of them.

MY BEAUTIFUL GRANDDAUTHER!!!!!

This is Amy Jo. She is the eldest of the two granddaughters at 15. She cut her hair and her mom let her get it silver-ish like many of the kids her age. Not sure if she is doing it to look more like those Korean kids or more like Megan Rapinoe! LOL! Megan's dad is a friend of my brother (above).

BROKEN RING FINGER JOINT

I have had quite a few interruptions on the baby afghan not to mention my previously broken finger has been acting up. It is rather crooked at the knuckle and bumpy! Who would have thought a little break could cause so much trouble. Since it is a new injury to bone the weather changes are harder on that area than my arthritis in other areas. It will settle down after some time has past.

BUMMER!

My friend Bev is making hats to donate to the hospital cancer ward. The one here will not accept them during the COVID crisis, especially for children. Not even blankets or afghans or Comfort Shawls. I am thinking of donating to the local church which gives to people in need. I have yet to speak with them, but will next week.

CARDIGAN

Eva put on a smile to wear her new cardigan which is HUGE on her! LOL! I made a small…same with the hat.  I think I am going to have to make toddler sweaters and hats if I can't do any better than this. It will be large on her next year, too. Note how far the sleeves are rolled up and hot far down the shoulders come. At least it will last several years if she doesn't hate it!

AFGHAN

I posted a photo of it - last week I think.  I just wanted to post about the way I do (normally) decreases. I haven't tried it on a chevron pattern, and doubt it would work well since this decrease is mean to get rid of the stitch entirely leaving the area "vacant" not filled in.  I created a post on how to do it about a year or two ago.

I created this way of doing it many years ago, and found it to be super helpful.  I hope you do, too! 

CAT'S SLIP STITCH DECREASE

MY EARLY MORNING PHOTO

Those clouds in the distant sky are not clouds at all. Those are a peek into the blue sky while the rest is all dark and cloudy. I think that the moisture in the air made it brighter looking, but trust me…the sky was actually a dark grey and those white puffs were really a light blue.  My yard is greening up but oh, so slowly. Bermuda grass does not come back very fast at all. Glad to have planted fescue and perennial rye so at least there is some pretty color.

BABY BLANKET GROWING

WAVE/CHEVRON PATTERN SO PRETTY!!

I am enjoying making this blanket, EXCEPT having to do it on my counter height dining table.  I have to have it taller on something to keep it away from dogs and dog hair. Looks like I have enough of this beautiful discontinued Waverly yarn to make it about 48” long, and it is 42” wide.

I do the side dc a little different than other people. I found it on-line, so not my invention but that of another girl.  When I am at my computer rather than the iPad I will copy the link to that page. It takes just a bit of practice, but it makes a LOVELY stitch, one that you can’t tell is not a regular dc.

EDITED TO ADD:  I see all these years later people have posted about this way of doing it and sort of claimed it as their own. Could not find the original post about it from about 2009. THAT person invented the stitch, but you would think that others have. It is called, NOW, the Chainless Double Crochet” and Moogly has posted about it. I didn’t read her post as when she posted about my Air Crochet stitch she acted like it had been around for years, no credit to me. Same with Interweave and Doris Chan. So, I’m a tad bitter even though the lady is quite talented for sure. 

EDITED AGAIN! I found the site...it was created by Nicki’s Homemade Craft in 2009. She calls it the  A Stitch Less Ordinary, No-Turning-chain Double Crochet and has several lovely

YouTube videos on it. Too bad people don’t refer to it.  

Here she is on Ravelry. Took a bit to find her but glad she is there. She actually won an award for this stitch.  Christine

 

This is Tommy Socks. He is the cat in the family, but because the dogs want to eat him, he has to have his own enclosure.  He really does seem to like the security and his ability to get out on his own, plus have his own bedroom just for cats!

Found this little fellow crawling around on the Crepe Myrtle.  There seem to be a lot of them around.

It is hard to see the flowers planted in my “river”.  This was taken just after they were planted. Two days later and the flowers are starting to take shape.  Will take another photo in a few days to compare.

LIFE IN TEXAS - HOME ON THE RANGE

These are long horn cattle…but from AZ. My friend Jimmy and his wife own a ranch there and he put these on the ranch to have something to look at! LOL! He sent me the photo as I was telling everyone I have this great love of cattle photos.

The thunder storm went through and gave us all big hail. It was warm enough that it melted fairly quickly, and other than the thunder and lightening show, the hair was the highlight.

This is my front yard. Literally. It goes from the corner of that light colored fence in the background to the light orange flag on the right, to the corner you can barely see of the mail box station. I have 21 feet of roadway in front and almost all of it is the driveway. I'm on the curve of the corner and they divided it funny. I would not have purchased the house had I known ahead of time that it was setup like this. My bad. Felt like the landscape should help emphasize and thus deemphasize the space. Trees and flowers to follow next week.

The puppies. Well, Brodie is 150 and soon to be 6.  Riley is 118 and will be 3 in October. Ginger is 125 and Coco is 120 and they will be 2 years old next week! So, at least three puppies still. Considered mature adults around 4 years old. Poor Riley needs something in his bowl to keep him for eating too fast.

Texas bluebonnets on the field behind my house. They are EVERYWHERE! People mow their fields mid to late March and then not again until the flowers are fading. It is quite a show. You have to let them die out and re-seed or else you won't have any the following year. It is like a religion!

Texas longhorns. Prettier than the AZ cousins!

The Eastern Rosebud in bloom behind my house.  I may have posted this before. So pretty! They are pretty well finished blooming those pretty flowers. Now am fighting the June Bug. Trying to capture and kill off as many as I can at night so they are not around to lay eggs.  This month the lawn is being treated for grubs…the babies of these awful beetles. That should kill off the ones 'down under' but any eggs laid in June will have to be dealt with at a different time. They have munched on the roots of all my trees when are struggling as it is from the ice storm. Now the beetles are munching on the new leaves. Grrrrrr!

BABY BLANKET

 CHEVRON BABY BLANKET

I actually made a swatch to see how I liked the pattern I chose for colors! 

This is just a three up three down pattern with three dc in top stitch and then 3 dc tog in bottom stitch. It is a 10+1 pattern. Very simple and easy to remember yet not boring.

My girlfriend in California wanted a gift for her friend who will be giving birth in June or July I think. I said I would do it as long as I could find a simple pattern. No squares to sew together! This is so scrumptious.

My BIG complaint is that Bernat discontinued the Waverly line and I can't find any more of these three colors so it will be what it is when I run out!! At least the colors are pretty!

STORM!

We had a super thunderstorm last night. It was weird as the wind on the surface was blowing north and the wind higher up was blowing south!  You could hear the thunder and see the lightning an hour before it hit our area. It moved slowly so had to keep the dogs in. I read that lightning can strike 10 or more 

miles away, so stay inside until it is long gone.

The hail was HUGE! Glad my car was inside. I saw the neighbors scrambling to get theirs in! The roof sounded like someone was throwing rocks.

Eva's Cardigan

Aurora Girls Cardigan

By Jennifer Middleton

Ravelry

I have always had a difficult time with apparel for one reason or another…didn't have the right yarn and too lazy to go shopping, couldn't find the right hook, didn't do a swatch, etc.

Well I did everything right on this one and I think it is STILL too big.  I shortened the length as her mom said she is short for her age, and shortened the arms, too, Then you have to account for the arms and how to size them, Thought I did a bang up job on this,

And STILL it looks too big. 

Proof will be in the pudding when she tries it on. The "good" thing is the cool season is about over in Boston so if it is too big like I suspect, she has time to grow into it next season! 

Beanie below is a prime example

Winter Rose Beanie

By Jasmine Brakenbury

To show how small it is with my hand in view…below is the same piece I started.

The pattern is on Ravelry, on Etsy, and she has her own blog Ocean Peak Designs.

Now you can see how much she rolled it up! I did the size SMALL which would be for a toddler. She is such a cutie….hopefully she can actually use the hat before she hates the color!

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