Tis the season!

I listed the first Christmas item on my Etsy shop today. I'll be adding a several things over the next few days. Not a lot of truly Christmasy things but things that might make nice presents - useful, pretty and handmade. Shop at AnnCrochets@etsy.com. I also have a lot of things on PhotoBucket under the name AnnCrochets.

Well, I am amazed to see it's over a month since I posted. That's what happens when life gets in the way of good intentions. The dog bed was not a success. I may try it again with 2 strands of yarn and see if it works better. In the meantime, I've not been working on THE tablecloth either. I have started a wool shawl thinking I might have it ready by Christmas or at least cold weather. I know it wouldn't be enough in Indiana in winter but other places might find it just right.

And I've got a request from the granddaughter that I'm trying hard to deny. She wants a crocheted teddy bear - and a crocheted elephant. It's sweet that she has enough confidence in my crocheting skills to think that I can just whip them up. But I'm not sure my skills are up to a project like that. And then there's the fact that I don't like crocheting little things. I'm happiest when crocheting on the biggest possible item. And I want to do it in one piece - not a bunch of parts assembled to make a big project. So I'll just have to think about it and maybe convince her a store-bought teddy might be better since she could have that right now. One that I crocheted, on the other hand, might not be done in time for her wedding (she's 4!).

They're done!

Got the two afghans done for my granddaughter's friends. The pictures are above. The smaller one is about 32 x 20 plus ruffle and the other is about 53 x 25 plus ruffle. I decided to go with ruffles on both. Hope the kids like them.

Now I'm dividing my time between several crochet projects and computer learning. Indiana Sheltie Rescue is having a picnic in Sept. to celebrate 10 years of rescuing shelties. I'm making a prototype dog mat to see what everyone thinks. This mat will be made of yarn scraps to I might eventually use enough yarn to justify buying more! During digging out the yarn for the mat, I found a couple of UFO's (unfinished objects) and will get them ready for the picnic too. I'm going to have some of my crochet stuff there to sell. ISR receives 20% of most of my sales and 100% of things made from scraps and donated yarns.

Then there's this computer thing. ISR is now using Twitter as their 'official' communication tool. Well, I have a blog, FaceBook, PhotoBucket, multiple email addresses, etc. So now I'm learning yet another system - Twitter - and also learning a system I got to manage it all! At my age, who'd have thought I'd be knee deep in technology! I think I need a laptop to keep up with it all from my rocking chair!

Only for the grandkids

In the past two weeks I've taken on a couple of new projects that have taken me away from my intended pursuits. As a bit of background, I've done a couple of small blankets for my granddaughter which she loves. She calls them 'poofies' - who know where that came from! Two weeks ago when she was staying with us, she said two of her little friends needed poofies too. She even knew what colors she wanted for each. Well, what crocheting granny worth her salt could turn down a request like that? I certainly couldn't. So I've made two small afghans - sized appropriately for a 2-year-old and an 6-year-old. I finished the second afghan this afternoon and blocked it. Oddly enough, both afghans came out not quite the size I wanted, so I've blocked both of them before adding the edging - not something I normally do. I've decided to do a white ruffle edging for the bigger afghan since the colors are white and shades of blue for a little girl. The smaller afghan is also for a little girl and it's white, pink and blue. I may put a white shell edging on that one. But I've still got all the yarn ends to weave in and then crocheting the edgings so I'll be lucky to get them done this weekend. Until then, not much is getting done!

I worked on 'the' tablecloth for a while tonight for the first time in probably 2 weeks. I just finished round 47. It has passed the point of taking one hour to crochet one round. So it's going to progress more and more slowly as time goes on.

I've not made much progress in putting numbers together for figuring the hours of work in a crochet piece. I really wish I'd spent more time absorbing things my uncle the engineer told me. At one time I had mathematic formulae for figuring things like how much thread I would need to increase the size of a doily from X" to Y" and other things like that.

Better Late Than Never

I'm still working on 'the' tablecloth but it's slowed down recently. This most recent picture shows it about two weeks ago. It was at about round 42 and I'm up to about round 51. It's grown to over 38" in diameter.

I'd been intending to get back to this for a while but life has a way of interfering. Since the last time I posted, we've added a new family member and we're all in the process of settling in together. We are now fostering a Sheltie for Indiana Sheltie Rescue. He's getting accustomed to us and we to him - the canine equivalent of seeing how everyone squeezes the tube of toothpaste. Now we're waiting to see if we will pass or fail the course 'Fostering a Sheltie 101.' One of the biggest challenges we face is continually finding new foster homes for the dogs because the foster families fall in love with the dogs and adopt them. Eventually, even the biggest family reaches a limit and there's no room for a new foster dog.

It's been a cool, wet summer in Indiana but we've not had any major storm damage here from all the rain, wind and lightning. The Indiana State Fair is going on and it's always fun to go look at all the exhibits, animals, activities - and PLEASE don't forget the food!!!

I recently had a fellow Etsian tell me that my work was under-priced. That got me to thinking about how to explain to you about the time involved in something like a tablecloth. I'm trying to come up with some figures but it's a slow progress. I'll try to have it organized into something semi-coherent in the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, hug a Sheltie!

July 4th (early)

Here is the lavender baby blanket I mentioned a while back. It's so soft and has a sheen to it. It would also make a wonderful shawl - just fold it in half.

I'm still working on the tablecloth. The pattern is called "Big Event' by Hiroko Hanai. I'm up to round 32. We're not expecting a big holiday. We did all our celebrating last weekend with the hometown birthday celebration. I'm trying to work on more booties for Cason. I need quiet to concentrate and there's not been much of that available lately. I did one little blanket for Cason earlier and last week made another. This is also blue but is larger. I'm not sure what there is about the pattern but both kids seem to really like the feel of the blanket. Since all 3 are made of different yarns, I'm assuming it's something about the pattern/stitches that they like.

I got Dee's tablecloth blocked and she's very happy with it. She's still not sent me pictures as I asked.

I'm still working on learning FaceBook and all the other things related to my shop at Etsy. I seem to take one step forward and three back. It gets discouraging at times. And I worry about things at ISR (Indiana Sheltie Rescue) in today's economy. Donations are way down and dogs keep coming in. I wish I could get some regular sales income coming in to help ISR.

Busier than ever

I've made some progress on the tablecloth but not much. I stopped to crochet 10 filet stars for the incoming Worthy Matron of my Eastern Star chapter. And our son and daughter-in-law had a yard sale last weekend that we did a lot of work for. This weekend is my hometown's 175th birthday celebration and that's been a lot of work lately. And the weather went from wet, cold spring to muggy summer hot overnight so it's not been much fun to be outside at all. I usually like to sit outside in the shade and watch my hummingbirds and other birds in the yard while crocheting.

Here is a picture to show the progress I've made on the tablecloth. I used some gold thread to mark the round I was on with the post on June 12 to show much I've done since then. I'm currently on round 25.

Staying busy

I started a new project Monday (June 8). It will be my portable, carry-along WIP (work in progress) until it outgrows being portable. And if I stick with it, it will eventually grow beyond portability. It's now Friday and I'm up to round 18. Things worked in the round, as this is, start out with just a tiny circle - usually not much bigger around than a pencil. Then it grows round by round. Eventually, it will take well over an hour to work one round. This is a tablecloth that has 100 rounds and is about 14" in diameter now so by my math (which is admittedly poor) the tablecloth should be 70" or more when I'm done.

Work, work, work

A friend came out Monday and we spend the afternoon working on Etsy things. Sandy is really good with computers and their various programs. And she's got good ideas and a good camera - what more do I need in a friend! We hadn't seen each other for a while so it was a good excuse to reconnect.

She had a lot of good ideas. One big one was related to my photography. She commented several times about various items and said the photos just don't do them justice. She took several pictures of the lavender baby afghan and I'm sooo pleased with them. They show the pattern better than any picture I've tried to take. I wish I could post it here but I can't right now - it's read only. But she has me convinced I need to take a different type of picture - maybe even use live models.

My brother is also helping me with picking an avatar. I took pictures of several small doilies and he's going to put them into avatar size and we'll see what they look like. I'd like to settle on an avatar soon to go ahead with the whole theme of a logo (as much as I hate to put Lady out of a job). I'm also looking for business cards and back to trying to put together a brochure.

I'll take Dee's tablecloth to her Monday. I will wash it and dye it Sunday then just keep it in the frigerator until Monday. I'll block it at her house. With that project over, I've got a request from Jessica for booties for Cason as well as a little blanket like the one I made for Aleutia. The blanket is a no-brainer but the booties take a lot of concentration (for me) so that will have to be a project for a quiet day - and I'm not seeing any of those coming along for a while. Maybe I should ask that my Mother's Day present be a day by myself.

Shame on me

When reading this, just keep in mind that I just finished rearranging all my yarn and thread after bring about three trash bags full of 'supplies' home from Arizona......

I went to Senior Day at Goodwill today with good intentions. I was looking for some jeans and I did come home with three pairs of pants and a pair of shorts. But I also found some thread and yarn that I just couldn't resist. There were 3 cones of sport weight yarn - teal, magenta and blue - that I would guess to be 1# cones and all were full. There was also a 7-oz skein of tan sport yarn and a tall cone of white crochet thread - size 10 and at least 2# on the cone. All this for less that $5! I'm one happy camper tonight!

I also finished crocheting Dee's tablecloth so in a day or two, I can get the ends tucking in and put that in the FO pile. Later I'll pick a day to take it to her house to dye it and block it. I'll try to remember to get pictures before then. I am pleased with it and hope she will be too.

Home Again

We are back from Arizona after a (thankfully) uneventful trip. We even had a tail wind to help push us most of the way home. The first orders of business were to meet and get acquainted with our new grandson and catch up with the rest of the family. Everything is pretty much back to normal now and I'm ready to resume blogging and reopen my Etsy shop. I've already updated my policies and such and will be restocking the store either tonight or tomorrow. So I guess I'm ready for spring!!!