Beginning of the year starting with a bang!

Well the first new thing for this year is one of my patterns that was sold at the CGOA conference in 2008 iscoming to light!  This one is also with Caron, using their NaturallyCaron.com Country yarn.  This stuff is nice!!!!  It's a mix of wool and microdenier, and crochets up beautifully.  I don't know if it will be on the "front" page, or in the crochet patterns section, but it's supposed to be up on the Naturallycaron.com website sometime this month, so if you see a red cabled throw, it's mine!  lol   I'm really excited about seeing how it photographed!  My pictures of it were taken at night, and night time photography and I usually don't get along too well. 

Then late in January I was contacted to do some contract crocheting for another CGOA member I met in Buffalo for a men's sweater.  We were about in the middle of the pattern when I realized there wasn't going to be enough of one particular color.  The designer was told there was no more of that color, it was a mill sample.  So between tweaking the pattern to fit the amount of yarn available, frogging to fit in the tweaks, and meeting the deadline, Missyboo had a doctor's appointment.

She was then sent from that appt. to a bone specialist in the Bronx to review her MRI films and give an exam.  We were told everything was presenting itself as Ewing's Sarcoma, a malignant tumor on her leg.  Missyboo was admitted to the hospital that afternoon so she could get a contrast MRI and contrast CAT scan of her chest done before morning.  The dr. wanted to do a biopsy the next morning, and as an outpatient, the scans couldn't be done the same day. 

The biopsy plug was examined in the operating room, and initial exam indicated it was clean.  Several other samples were also tested from around the area because the Xrays and MRIs showed a white-shaded area on the bone and in the surrounding soft tissue.  Now we wait until Thursday to do a follow up visit, check her dressings on her leg and to get the official pathology reports.  I'm scared shitless right now, but fingers are crossed that the initial operating room testings will be like the ultra sound tech telling me I was having a girl, then delivery confirming I did.  Not the opposite.

In the meantime, Missyboo is "running" around here with a pair of crutches since she's not supposed to be putting any weight on that leg.  I tease her about entering her in a crutch race and naming her Crutch Demon.  That makes her laugh.  Which makes me feel a bit better.

Have a good night, and give your kids an extra big hug telling them they are loved.

Mario and Luigi

I was browsing around online the other day and came across this site.  It's called Wolfdreamer off the Hook, and  Linda Potts has made some the neatest Mario Brothers characters and Pokeman characters plushies I've seen in ages! Actually I've never seen any plushies of these characters before, at least not crocheted one.  Here's one of her pictures of the Mario brothers, Mario and Luigi.  She has patterns of almost all the Mario characters up and running on her site, along with quite a few other characters, all beautifully done.

Missyboo and I both have a few of the Mario games.  For Missyboo's birthday last year, Hubby found Yoshi's Island for Nintendo DS.  For Christmas, he found one                (c) Linda Potts                for me, saying he didn't want to hear any more of "Mom, you've got my game!"   

This year Nintendo, working with Wii, came out with the new Super Mario Brothers game to be played on Wii.  Up to 4 players, and I'll tell you, it's VERY interactive.  Just ask my aching head from Missyboo jumping on it!  lol  Even Hubby got in on the action the other nite.  He found out that if you hit the "A" button before being completely killed off, your character will be "bubble-ized" and float to safety.  Then you just need to worry if someone else will pop you bubble for you and let you out!   So you'll have to excuse me while I go make up some mascots for game night!   ;D                                                     

2009 Coming to an End in 12 Hours

I went to work this morning, in the dark, dark of morning, no rain, dry roads, no snow.  Six hours later it was snowing so hard, it would have been easy to get visual vertigo watching out the front window of the train.  

I'm pretty sure the person who did the visual effects for Star Trek was a Northerner, as watching all the stars when the Enterprise went warp speed is the same as watching the snow come flying at you thru the window of your mode of transportation at the moment.   This was my backyard when I got home today!  Pretty cool, eh?  Yes, pun intended!  lol

I finally caught up on all my Christmas gifts that needed to be crocheted up.  And I always tell myself that I'm going to get them done early in the year so there's no last minute, frantic, stitching going on.  Of course, that never works for me.  It didn't this year either.  So.....the week and a half before Christmas, I found myself with  hats that needed to be made up.  I succeeded.  Barely.  Family Christmas this year was on Sunday, and I was still weaving in the last of the tails when everyone started arriving.  Wheewww!  My hands still hurt from all those stitches!

I put all the hats into a pile and starting with the oldest first, let them pick which coloring they wanted.  I used the same pattern on all of them, my Reversible Strands for Men, but switched up the coloring.  I had four skeins of Caron's Simply Soft, and got eight hats from that.  I still had some leftover from making Jalapeno Sunrise jacket, and got two more hats from that! 

Out of those 10, I needed 6.  The remaining 4 are going to a friend who's son is in the the National Guard Reserves, and most of his unit is being shipped over to Afghanistan shortly.  She's been doing a collection of hats and scarves for each member of his unit, with the first people being shipped over getting first choice.

As this year comes to an end, I am still surprised (and happy about it!) that the Reversible Strands for Men seems to be a popular hit with crocheters on Ravelry, based on the amount of downloads this pattern has generated there alone. 

It's been a quiet year, crochet-wise for me, but still busy.  Hopefully the new year will bring new wisdoms and ideas for me to make new patterns that others will like just as much if not better.

I know there are are least two new things I want to accomplish for 2010, and they both include cables.  Another thing is that I would love to finally get the hang of doing pattern sizing, as quite a few people have expressed their wish to have the pattern for a top I had made.  But...right now I only know how to make things my size.  Or Hubby's size, or Missyboo's size.  I haven't been able to quite get my brain to accept that sizing is mostly a matter of mathematics - # of stitches/rows per inch.  Never one of my strong points.  (sigh)

But here's wishing you all a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year to you and yours!

Have a good day!  :D

End of the year? Already?!?!

OMG!  This year went so fast!!!!  It's December already!  How'd that happen so quickly?!?!?  Eesh!  Well I guess I know why it happened for me - 12 hour workday, 4 hours home, time for bed, 12 hour workday............

I did manage to get a few things done this past couple of months.   I was only able to do 10 sets of hats and scarves for the 60 Scarves in 60 Days challenge.  All are going to the Salvation Army in Danbury this coming up week.  Here are a few sets I remembered to take pictures of before sending them off on their way.    The set on the left started out as just a hat, Lisa Naskrent's Stonehenge from her Rugged Mountains Collection.  I made up the keyhole scarf to go along with it.  It's sized for a child, 4-6 years old.  The purple set started as just a scarf, Dee Stanziano's neat new pattern, Tumbling Clusters Autumn Scarf.  I made up the hat to go along with the scarf.  (seeing any pattern here yet? lol) The last picture is from my Reversible Strands for Men (and Women, too!) hat pattern.  And again, the scarf is another off-the-hook-made-up thing to go with it!  The scarf actually shows what each side looks like, one side "cabled", the other "smooth".   I hope the recipients like them as much as I liked making them up!

My HHCC guild had its annual end of year sale two weeks ago, and I actually had some items ready to go on time this year!  I had made a layette set for a boy and a girl, another couple of hat and scarf sets, and some Baby Bunny Blanket Buddies in both pink and blue.  (try saying that name 10 times fast!)  The pattern is from Lion Brand ( you'll probably need to register with them to see the pattern), and the kids love them!  Sure beats dragging around a big blanket!  Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of them before they were off the table.  Ah well, can always make more!

Missyboo has now received her first knitting project from me.  We had gone to Gillette Castle in CT this past summer, and on the way home, stopped at Connecticut Sheep and Wool yarn store in East Haddam.  Missyboo fell in love with a sweater display in her favorite color - pink.  "Mommy, can you please make this one for me?" came right along with the big blue puppy-dog eyes.  Didn't matter to her that it was knit.  Oh, no.  "It's yarn and my mommy can make anything with it."  So of course, yarn and pattern both came home with us. 

It took a bit to get the pattern figured out from the way it was written.  After a few swatch rows, I realized it wasn't going to work.  Something wasn't right, here!  "Help!!!" says me to my local knitting expert, Margaret Hubert.  "It's like this", says she, and viola!  Here it is with it's very own crocheted edgings to keep the curls down and out!  Missyboo loves it, and I thank you very much, Margaret!  The sweater has enough "give" to it that I think she'll be able to wear it for year or two before it gets too small.  (my 8 yr old is now 4'6"!!! How did that happen?!?!)

SOoo... reading back over this, I guess I did do a bit of work since September!  It sure didn't feel like I did, tho!  Couple more projects on hooks and needles to finish off the year, then it's time to start anew!

Hope you all had a good holiday last week, and in the upcoming months!

Have a good night.  :)

It's Lily!

We had our 8th Anniversary guild meeting yesterday, and we celebrated it with a workshop by Lily Chin!  She has a new book out, Crochet Tips and Tricks, and it's well worth adding to your collection!!  There are tricks to getting rid of those nasty "holes" at the ends when doing the taller stitches, how to get any swatch to "soften up", how to not worry if you have enough chains by not doing them at the start, to never sewing buttons on again!  And lots more in between. 

She has a knitting version out with the same type of tricks, too.

I had taken this class from her at the Chain Link conference in Manchester, New Hampshire last summer, and had an absolute blast.  She's a great teacher, and knows how to make the class a lot of fun.  I had as much fun in class yesterday!

Lily even signed in my book that I was a sweetie.  Shhhhh! don't tell anyone, it'll ruin my reputation!!!!  ;D

Have a nice day.  :)