Future Farmers

I thought the little girls might enjoy picking their own berries, so off we went to a local pick-your-own farm.
 
We ended up with 3 containers of vine-fresh strawberries - hubby's favorite - 

and another of super-sweet raspberries - my favorite. 
  
Leia was put off by all the bees around the raspberries, but Leanne either didn't realize what they were or didn't care, because she was matching me berry for berry down several rows.
 (And yes, she picked out her own outfit this morning. She loves those boots.)

The girls enjoyed the picking but their favorite part of the trip? Not the animals . . .
 
Or driving the truck . . . 
 
but playing in the sand pit. They would have spent all day here if we'd let them. 
Maybe they're future construction engineers rather than farmers.

Obsession. Not Just A Perfume

Obsessions. I get 'em. Want to see the latest?
 
Happy Hippo and his cousin, Fatty Lumpkin, both created by the amazingly talented Heidi Bears (see all her patterns here.)
 
I've had Happy on my radar since the pattern came out, but Lumpy's release pushed me over the edge into 'must make all the things NOW' land. (Lumpy can also be a non-rocking horse, a unicorn or a Pegasus. Or one of each.)
 
The directions call for changing yarn color on 4 of the pattern's 5 rows. Which translates to a minimum of 8 tails for each and every one of the 44 motifs, for a grand, almost overwhelming, total of 352 tails. Minimum. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate weaving in tails??

Solution? Multi-colored sock yarn to the rescue.
 
I'm doing the center 3 rows in a pink/green/purple variegated yarn, with the last 2 rows in off-white (above). 
 
I experimented with doing just the last row in off-white, but wasn't happy with losing the petal's curve in row 3.
 
So now it's all about counting - 26 pentagons and 12 hexagons, each in their own little bag,
  
with octagons, heptagons and 2 cute little nose-agons still to come. Happy is slowly coming to life.

Best Hubby Ever, Again

Hubby has been working on converting one of the upstairs bedrooms into . . . . .
 
a stash room for me!  New paint, new carpet, new shelves, new same grand-girl helping me celebrate the start of the big move-in.
 
I have a craft room, but it's full up with boxes and boxes of yarny stuff. Now that I'm more into sewing and quilting, I want to arrange things so I can have my sewing machines set up all the time - somewhere other than on our dining room table. And hubby seems to think the pool/ping pong table should be used for something other than a cutting table. Silly boy.

Tomorrow we'll get the rest of the shelving units and Operation Reclaim Our House begins. After pics coming soon(ish)!  

New Favorite Sweater

Started this back in April as part of a crochet-along with the Thursday night AFY group. I've worked on it a little here and a little there over the past few months, and as of last week, it's finally DONE! (Ravelry link)
 
Love how it turned out and, miracle of miracles, it fits.


This started life as Wild Flower by DROPS Design, a free pattern for a cute cropped jacket with long sleeves.
  
Since I didn't want a cropped jacket - or long sleeves - I made significant changes along the way. Lengthened the back, changed the angle of the front, shortened the sleeves, changed the edging, used a thicker yarn and a smaller hook . . .
  
But the one thing I kept exactly as-is? 
 
The back medallion. It's what I love most about this design, and what sold me on making it in the first place.
  
I had a few hiccups along the way, especially re-figuring the part where the  curved back meets the not-the-same-curve front. I tore out each section - back, front, sleeves, edging -  5 dozen 3 or 4 times before I was finally satisfied. 

 

I'm still thinking about adding a button to the front, but after wearing it a couple of times, I'm leaning towards "not". Nothing says I can't add it later if I want, right?

 
(please don't call the crochet police on me!)

More??

Holy h*ll, more potholders?

  

I may need an intervention soon.

  

But I keep thinking up new color combos,

 
and wanting to experiment with different weights of yarn
 
and vary the number of petals,
  
then maybe see what a different outline color looks like . . .

Can you say addicted?
 
Don't remember the last time I made this many of the same(ish) thing.
 

But it's fun, and it keeps me off the streets.

 
And maybe, just maybe, one of these will be for me.

Not A Block

When is a block not a square? 
 

When it's a potholder!

 

Started this in kitchen cotton for a square trivet, but looked at it when I was halfway done and thought it would be cute as a round potholdery, trivet-thingee.

  

May try a different joining technique next time; not thrilled with how whipstitching pushed the center edge out. but single crochet and slip stitch were worse.

 
And you noticed the "next time"? Yeah, definitely going to make this again. So cute, fun and easy!

Windowpane Scarf

I've made this pattern before - both as a scarf and as a block - but wanted to try it in thinner yarn for my upcoming class.
  
Love, love, love how it turned out.
  
The interlocking stitch, using two skeins of yarn at a time, takes a little practice, but the resulting fabric is worth it. It's solid, pretty - and very unusual.

 
I want to say the color change was a design decision,
  
but in truth, I had only half a skein of the red when I started.
  
When I reached the end, I thought about fastening off and calling it a "sample",
  
but I was enjoying this so much,
  
I bought a complimentary colorway
 
and kept going.
 
Best decision I've made in a while.

  

I may gift this to someone eventually,

 
but for now, this is mine, mine, mine.

Snail Mail

A week or so ago, Addy sent Leia a snail-mail letter. It's part of Addy's summer "I remember what I learned in school" activities.
 
Addy will be starting first grade in the fall, so she's a year ahead of Leia school-wise, but I thought it would be fun for Leia to try writing her back.
 
And since Leia's favorite activity is playing school, she was definitely up for the challenge.

  

Leia told me what she wanted to write, then I spelled it out for her, letter by letter, as she wrote it down.

 

Pretty darn good, especially for pre-K! Leia knew how to write all but one letter; she still struggles a bit with using and recognizing the lower-case alphabet, but we're working on that.

  

Then it was off to the corner mailbox with PopPop.

 

This was Leia's first time using snail-mail, so we wanted her to have the full experience.

  
Bon voyage, letter! Hope we get an answer from Addy soon!

 

P.S. Don't the girls look cute in their helmets? Want to guess how mad Leanne got when she discovered she wasn't going riding to the mailbox with Leia?  Oh, my.