Kitty's Favorite Place

When it comes to the kitties, I can almost guarantee I will find them in one specific place, my bed.

Willow is always at the head by the pillow, but Rosco does move around.  Sometimes at the head, sometimes at the foot, wherever is comfortable.  And he stretches out, and Willow curls up in a ball

So very true!

My Crafting History

Crafting is something that I have always done, but I tend to go more in bursts and spurts with it. I learnt how to do needlepoint when I was young from my grandpa, I did china painting with my grandma, and mom taught me how to crochet. As I got older, I did not work on the crafts my grandparents taught me, but would occasionally pick up some crocheting to work on, but never tended to complete anything.

Back in 2000, I learnt how to scrapbook. I went gungho with that for a few years, but then ran out of pictures and did not really have much to work on. The group that I would scrapbook with also did not meet as much due to various family commitments, and my scrapbooking fell to the side.

Knitting is something I always wanted to learn. My mom tried to teach me once, but because it was not a craft that she favoured, she really was not able to, and I forgot about. I heard about a craft group through a co-worker and decided this would be a great idea to join and learn how to knit. I actually did figure out the knit stitch in advance, but did learn from the group how to purl, and due to the group I spent some time every week working on a knit project.

Stemming from this, I decided to get back into crochet, which I much prefer for a variety of reasons, but mainly because it goes quicker than knitting does, at least for me. I likely will try some other crafts as well, as there are some I still want to try out, but first I need to find some more time in the day!

Matching Hat

I made a hat to match the blanket, but due to some pattern changes, it ended up being too large. But, that said, it should fit him when winter arrives, which should be great!  :)

Crocheting a Blanket

Before finding out my girl friend was pregnant, I had decided to start knitting a baby blanket, knowing it would take me a while to finish it, and this way I knew I would have it done before baby arrived. Unfortunately, this first blanket did not turn out in a way that made me happy, but it only took me three months to do it.

I embarked on a second quest to create a different pattern, but it was taking me way too long to do it. I had already been working on it a month and had only completed about 4 inches. Time was ticking away, so I needed to find something else.


In searching Ravelry, I found this great blanket that was a single crochet, but with a larger needle. With a modification of using a smaller needle, I made this blanket over the course of a week. It ended up heavier than I would have liked, so I ended up making a fourth blanket, and gave my friend both once her baby was born. This fourth blanket turned out perfectly, as it was lighter due to only using 3 strands instead of 2, and because I used a larger needle than the other. My friend assured me she would use both, and she was thrilled with the gift.

Winding Yarn

Lately I have gone on a bit of a yarn buying spree through Ebay.  All this yarn has come in lovely hanks or in the round, which is not very conducive to knitting or crocheting with.  So I have endeavored to turn these into balls which can be worked with more easily.

The first hank, well, I didn’t pre-think how to do it, I just dove in.  That is a huge mess which I may just end up tossing.  Thankfully I didn’t spend a lot of money on it, but I still hate the thought of tossing something out.

After the first failed experiment, I decided to do a little bit of reading to find a better way to accomplish this task.  Here is how I started it out, as the suggestion was to put it around a chair or something else, but my chairs were not wide enough.

Once I got down to about ¼ left, it kept falling off and I missed catching it the one time and it completely tangled.  It took me 3 hours to sort that tangle out.  :(  I still need to improve my methods, but at least I got it wound.

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Crochet Projects that are Interesting

Some very interesting crochet designs here.

http://www.foundshit.com/tag/crochet/