Crochet Me Crazy

HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone!! May the new year be full of happiness and health!

I only added one more row to the wool eater pattern I had started. Here's what I ended up with. I'm about to go back to this and turn it into a pot holder.



I wanted to use up some yarn scrap balls so I started another one. I made two of them and crocheted them together and made this potholder.

Here's the front:



Here's the back:

Two more rows and I'll have a potholder!


Probably not a blanket yet. It's such a pretty pattern and I'm just playing around with it using some yarn scraps. I've tried this before and gave up. I don't know what I was doing wrong last time because I haven't had any trouble with it this time. Maybe I was tired or the UK terminology screwed me up.

This patterns can be found here: Wool Eater Instructions � If you need help, she does a wonderful job of illustrating.

I'm jotting down my own notes for this pattern in US terms without the pictures for myself so I don't have to keep turning the pages and reminding myself that its written in UK terms. Maybe this will be useful to someone else.


Wool Eater US Terms Notes:

Ch 6, join with a slip stitch to form a ring.

Round 1:

* ch 5, work 4 Tr cluster into the ring (leave the last remaining loop of each stitch on the hook, yarn over and pull the yarn through all 5 loops on the hook)
{1 Tr Clusters made}
Ch 5, slip stitch into the ring.
Rep from * 3 more times.
{4 Tr Clusters made}.

Round 2:

* ch 2, work 12 tr into the top of first Tr cluster of last round, ch 2, slip stitch into the slip stitch of the previous round.
Rep from * 3 times.
Fasten off.
{4 Tr Clusters made}

Round 3:

Join new colour in between any 4th and 5th Tr of the previous round.
* Ch 5, work back post Tr crochet cluster around the next 4 tr crochet of previous round (leave last loop of each tr crochet on hook and pull through all 5 loops on hook), ch 5, slip stitch in between the 8th and 9th dtr of the previous round, ch 5, work a tr crochet cluster over the next 8 dtr of the previous round (leave last loop of each tr crochet on hook and pull through all 9 loops on hook), ch 5, slip stitch between the 4th and 5th Tr of the next 12 Tr corner group. Repear from * 3 more times, finishing with a slip stitch into where the contrast yarn was joined at the beginning of the round.


Round 4:
* Ch 2, 12 Tr into the top of the 4 tr cluster, ch 2, slip stitch into slip stitch of the previous round, ch 2, 8 Tr into the top of the 8 Tr Cluster, ch 2, slip stitch into slip stitch of the previous round.
Repear from * 3 more times, finishing with a slip stitch
Fasten off.

Here's a picture of a last minute ornament I made on Christmas Eve. He was fun and quick to make!



Christmas is over and I'm still full! We had a fun day. We got up and had our Christmas with the kids. The kid's had a nice Christmas despite it all thanks for generous friends. I wasn't supposed to get any presents but Jeff got me a egg slicer because mine broke while I was cooking Christmas dinner. I got a new toothbrush head which I've been putting off buying and he bought me some "I Love This Yarn" yarn! After that, my oldest sister and her kids came over for Christmas day. We ate and ate, opened presents and played Catch Phrase. Aunt Ro and Angelo gave Alison the game Apples To Apples and we all played that for a while. It's always lots of fun when they visit.

Last night we went to the movies to see Sherlock Holmes.

I'm exhausted today and was going to try to take a nap this afternoon after everyone left. As soon as I layed down, my neighbor dropped by with her two kids and stayed for several hours. We fed them some left-overs and she took a plate home for her husband. Finally, making a dent in all this food! LOL ... Now, I'm about to go to bed early tonight and get a good night's rest so I can rest up to get the house and yard cleaned back up.

My short-lived job watching my nephew is over. She can't afford to pay anyone to watch him so he's going to go to his Dad's house while she's at work. Gonna miss the little squirt!

Hope everyone had a great day celebrating with friends and family today. We had a fun, food-filled day playing games and having a great time.

Here'a something I found for that I might work up to see what it looks like. Maybe save this for next year!

Free Chocolate Bar Stocking Crochet Pattern

There's no picture to go along with this but this might make a quick, cute gift idea!

Preparations for tomorrow's big Christmas dinner are complete! Yay! I'm tired and been in the kitchen since 8 this morning!

Tomorrow's Menu:

Turkey
Dressing
Cranberry Sauce
Potatoes O'Brien
Asparagus Casserole
Brocolli Casserole
Pasta Salad
Deviled Eggs
Touch Down Taco Dip
Hot Artichoke Dip
Shrimp Dip
Mini Sausages in Sauce
Vegetable Tray
Snowball Cookies
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Apple Pie
Lemon Cake
Home Baked Rolls

We shouldn't have any problems having food to eat this week!

Yup, we caved in and charged the kids some Christmas gifts on some great deals on Black Friday. It's just too depressing not to watch your kids open their presents on Christmas day!

In other news, Jeff all of the sudden has 4 or 5 new good job leads! Surely, at least one of those will come through for us! Other good news is that we possibly may have an interested buyer in our house. Maybe we'll be getting a contract on the house after Christmas!

I'll be in the kitchen cooking all day today so we can relax tomorrow and have yummy food to eat all day long!




I used a free online pattern to make this stocking which you can find here:Crochet Holly Stocking

In celebration of the holidays, I added the Christmas greeting to my blog. Hope everyone has a safe and Merry Christmas!

I just found a new yarn I love last night! I've been using Caron Simply Soft as a standard for years but the price has gone up considerably and I knew I was going to have to find another yarn to use. I ran to Hobby Lobby the other night with my 40% off coupon in hand to buy a skein of red for a Christmas project with the intent to buy Red Heart cheap-o, scratchy stuff. I decided to buy Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn instead and I'm soooo glad I did! I sat down to use it and I literally said "I Love this yarn!!" It's soft and smooth to work with and it doesn't split like Simply Soft does. The finished product is even softer than Simply Soft. I believe I've found my economical replacement.

Made these two weeks ago but never got the pictures taken until now...

A friend asked me to make a black hat for her and her daughter. These first two hats were made using a pattern called Lacy Shells Hat and Scarf. It was a free pattern I printed out a long time ago and have used many times. I intended to post a link for the free pattern, however, upon searching for it, it appears to no longer be available! Thus, the importance of not just saving links for patterns, but printing them out because there's no guarantee the links will remain active!

Here's Alison modeling the bigger hat in the picture above.

These last two I made up myself

We had a great time at Alison's birthday party last night. Alison's friends brought her some very thoughtful gifts that she really loved.

I thought it was so sweet that Michael used his Wal-Mart gift cards he still had left over from last year's Christmas to buy Alison a sweater. Alison really loved it and I got these sweet pictures of her running to hug him...



Neighbor's dropped by to wish her a happy birthday and bring her treats.




Cake...



Pinata Time...




And the funny part...we had Michael wear this shirt covered with candy and they had to catch him to grab the candy off of it. It was a little tiring but at least they burned some of that cake energy off!



To finish the night off, fun was had by all on the Christmas light ride! Everyone snuggled up in their blankets, sand Christmas Carols and chowed down on pink heart-shaped rice crispy treats, Ms. Joy's cookies, and hot chocolate. Alison and Michael are wearing their Santa hats that I made for them.




Now, I'm off to cut my husband's hair to get him looking "spiffy" for his job interview this week!

The things I go through to save a buck....









Making the Butterflies





This pinata cost me $1 to make (the cost of the streamers) which was the only thing I didn't have on hand. If I hadn't already gotten rid of everything I own practically because I thought I was moving, I wouldn't have had to buy those either.

Tomorrow, its make the cake in my neighbor's heart shaped cake pans and make the pink rice crispy treats. Saturday, we'll decorate the house and put lights on the trailer for the hay ride and the party's on Saturday night!

Old Recipe Books

Found this link while looking for some recipes. I like this site because it has old recipes which tend to be simple and use few ingredients. I'm saving it because I am planning on trying to make and store my own biscuit mix. It can be used to make alot of other recipes besides bisquits and I'm always looking for quick and cheap meals. They have recipes from a 1933 Bisquick cookbook on here!

We saw a Christmas hat in the store similar to this with the real long tail. Alison liked it so I made her this one.




Alison has been busy working on making her pinata for her party!



Michael made homemade pizza dough and this pizza today. Looks yummy!

Our homeschooling group had their Christmas party at the park yesterday. As you can see, Santa was there. They decorated cupcakes, had T-Shirty tye dying, ornaments making, and other activities. Alison's just always happy for any occassion to see her friends!

Last night, I sat down with Michael and Alison and helped them crochet these trees. Mine is the red one. Alison made the green one. Michael made the turquoise blue one. There was a little frustration for Alison but both of them did a great job!

These trees are a cute little quick project. She also has tutorials for a granny star and a heart that are both real cute...
The Royal Sisters: Grandma Tree Tutorial

Yay! I'm ready to move onto other crochet projects. In the meantime, we need to get started making the pinata for Alison's party though. Nothing fancy this year. Last year, I made a heart shaped pinata. This year, we're just going to paper mache over a balloon and Alison can pick some cute things to print out and glue onto it for decoration.

Two more bags for the party finished! Six down...two more to go!

Had a great time at the 'tween meeting today! Alison got to decorate her gingerbread house and eat pizza with her friends.



Look at all those gingerbread houses! So cute!



Alison's is the second one from the left.

Another crazy stunt I pulled today! Alison has a homeschool 'tween meeting tomorrow where they are supposed to bring a pre-assembled gingerbread house to decorate. This is what my poor child will be bringing! LOL...just kidding. We don't have the money to spend buying one so we made our first attempt on a gingerbread house today. I think it will be just fine once it has all the goodies and candies glued on! I can't say that I would consider this fun to do! I'd rather do gingerbread men cookies.