Baby's Blanket Set

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  May it be a happy, healthy, safe and prosperous one for all of you!

Another project I worked on this past month was for one of my girlfriend's who is expecting her first child.  Her hubby knows it's a boy, but she prefers to keep it a surprise for herself.  She "allowed" him to be told after one of the sonograms, but made him promise not to tell her in any way, shape or form.  So far he's done pretty well with it!  lol

This project is based on Carol Alexander's pattern in the Nov 2007 issue of Crochet! magazine.  It's in two parts - one is a blanket made up of squares, and the other is a blanket with a pillow pocket.  A lightly filled pillow insert could be used if wanted, each blanket could be used separately, or combined together with a long stretch of tie to become a sleeping bag.  I need to finish sewing the pillow insert to complete this set.  I really don't like doing sewing!!! (cringing)

I want to word the card to mean that the pink is for mother's love - feminine side, blue is for father's love - masculine side, the green is for the start of new life, and the white is for God's light.  So far, everything I come up with is a bit on the awkward side.  I have 2 1/2 more weeks before the baby is due to come up with something.  I'm open to any suggestions!!!  (hint, hint, wink, wink)

Have a good day!  :D

Christmas Rush is Over!

Now that the Christmas rush of making gifts is over..........Whew! I hope you all had a good holiday, and that you now have some time to rest those achy hands!

I have a few pictures to show. First up is proof that Dee from Crocheting with Dee (scroll down to Dec. 16 entry) really is knitting now! Both were taken at our guild meeting last month, the second is a close-up of her hands - using circulars!!!!

Woohoo, Dee! Now you're getting bi-stitchual! lol

I had been doing up some more of my preemie blanket/hat/booties sets for our guild to donate to the hospital, along with a bunch of chemo hats for donation. This picture is only four of the 7 complete sets.  I didn't get any pictures of the chemo hats, but from the sound of it, they were needed.  We were going to be donating the chemo hast to the hospital in January, but the hat coffers were empty. So a request for early donations came at  our last meeting.

I was able to get some chemo hats for Olivia, who is 12 and undergoing treatment for leukemia,  made up also. Unfortunately, only one (so far!) is in a color she asked for- RED- in Country from NaturallyCaron.com.  I haven't had much luck finding a lot of color choices for Country in the stores by me. She had asked for purple and orange also. I wonder if I can squeeze that picture in here, too! lol

This is a free pattern from Rheatheylia called Divine Hat.  What a great pattern! It makes up very quickly and was a lot of fun to watch grow! I hope Olivia likes it as well as I did! I'm going to be making a few more using this pattern, too.

I was commissioned last week to make up a baby sacque/hat/bootie set for one of the women I work for. It's now done except for the booties and putting the tie on the sacque. Neither will take a whole lot of time. She had watched me making up the preemie sets and chemo hats on break at work and never once mentioned anything about wanting a set for her granddaughter - until Friday before Christmas! We were laughing about all the comments she had made on the other projects, and how it never even dawned on her until.......so it will be a New Year's present rather than a Christmas present. The baby is 2 1/2 months and large for her size, so I made this up for about a 6 month old to last her through the winter. Grandma is quite happy with it. Yay! lol

This has turned into quite a long posting! Sorry about that! But this has been just a few of the things I've managed to get done this month. Missyboo is at Grandma's for a two day sleepover, and Hubby is out plowing driveways today, so....for the first time in quite a while, I have some free time to get other things taken care of! Like this! :D

Have a good night.

What I've Been Doing

I hope you've all had a good Thanksgiving week/weekend this year!

It's been a while since I've written anythin here, so here's a bit of an update.

I've been busy working and re-working one of my patterns that's going to be published, and finally got it to the point I was happy with it. The first one was SOOOO easy, lol, but the second one drove me NUTS!!! So once I find out when it will be ok to do so, I'll post here and on Ravelry that two new patterns will be available. :D

I joined Dee's challenge, 60 Scarves in 60 Days, very late last year, and was able to make 4 scarves. It's now in it's 5th year! This year, I was able to get 9 done - five for Special Olympics, and four for the Salvation Army drive that my guild does annually. Those four also included matching hats. All were in various sizes to cover small-medium-large. The last time I looked on Ravelry, the count there was 421! And that doesn't include the total from those doing this challenge that are NOT on Ravelry. Have you gotten a grand total yet, Dee?

I had made some chemo hats for my 13yr. old niece's friend, who has leukemia. My sister called the other day to give me an update on the hats. Olivia is now bald from her treatments, and she loved her hats. I was also told that the three I made her are the only ones she will wear because they don't make her head itch! So.... if any of you are making chemo hats, I used NaturallyCaron.com Country.  She loved the colors and styles, and they fit well now that she's "hairless". Olivia and her mother both want to know if I could make some more for her.  Gladly! I get to do some in red, purple and orange this time! (oooohh, the possiblities with that color combo!!!)

This past week, I've been making preemie hats and booties and blankets like mad. Our guild meets in a conference room at a hospital, and the hospital does not charge us money. They just ask that we contribute chemo hats to their Cancer Center, and preemie sets for the maternity ward. So far I've got nine sets done, and hope to get at least one more set done this weekend. Then next week I'll be moving on to a full week of chemo hats. I'll be turning them in at our December meeting next week.

Other than that, it's been pretty quiet around here yarn-wise!

Have a good night. :D

Getting "Hooked" Up

I now have my own "Designer" Page on Ravelry!  Woohoo!  Now I just need to write up all these patterns I have floating around in my head, and get them posted! Then I'll really be getting "hooked" up!  lol  If you're on Ravelry, look for me: missyboo.

Right now there is only one, Color Twist Hat. Let's see if I can get a picture in here.  Ok, that didn't work, so I've linked a picture to the title of the hat from a previous post.  That pattern is available in the book called Crochet Liberation Front's First Ever Book, available on Amazon.com.

Have a good night!  :D

2009 CGOA Conference

Now I have to save up my pennies again! Yesterday it was "announced" that the next CGOA Conference would be at the Buffalo Convention Center, August 5-9, 2009. I don't have the words to tell you how it felt to go this past summer! Unbelievable, fantastic, outrageous, scary, nervous, exciting, informative....just to name a few. If you ever get the chance to go, do it! Hubby is now officially retired from his "formal" job, so I won't need to worry about conflicting schedules there with Missyboo not being in school, and I've got enough "seniority" at work to be able to get that week for vacation without any problem, so........hmmm!