Our 'new' Sheltie

This is Ceasar, the Sheltie who joined our family in September. He came into rescue in July, 2009. He had been shaved for some reason. This picture was taken shortly after he arrived. Now, (March, 2010) he has a full coat and thinks he's quite handsome (as do we!).

When you're ready to think about a new 4-legged family member, please think about a rescue rather than a breeder and especially in place of a pet store. Most dogs coming into rescue are already house-broken and beyond the chewing age and other puppy annoyances. No matter what breed you like, there is probably a rescue group who would love to help you find a new forever friend.

I finished the bedspread and will block it when the weather is better (will put it outside on a sheet to block). The teal shawl is almost done. I had a project in mind but abandoned it when I decided it was just beyond my mental capabilities. Since the stroke, I've not been able to follow a lot of directions and the pattern I wanted to do was just beyond my skills. So I dug out some UFO's (un-finished objects) and will try to get them ready for Etsy. I plan to start listing again after the first of the month.

Well, no pictures today. Just wanted to prove I was still alive. Since my last post, Bob's illness, surgery, the holidays, unending medical tests and chemo have pretty much put any idea of posting on a back burner. Right now Bob is in the hospital recovering from an infection so it's pretty quiet at home. The dogs realize something isn't right and are pretty subdued (most of the time).

I have to admit it has been a pretty productive winter for crocheting while waiting in doctor offices, hospital rooms, etc. I have finished 2 shawls - magenta and royal blue and a tablecloth that started as a doily and grew to be 54" square. There were several headbands as I worked out a pattern for my brother the cyclist. And I have almost finished a bedspread that I started 5 years ago - just a final row of single crochet around the perimeter. I started it our first winter in Arizona. After the first summer, it was big enough that I put it up during warm weather and only worked on it during the winter. Now I'm working on a teal shawl. It's far enough along that I'm already planning my next project. It gets to be a challenge to have things that are portable when I really don't 'do' little items very often (except requests from family).

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!