Plans deterred to finish off a WIP

Directly after posting this morning, I made up some Brunch, sent Cassie outside to take care of the animals, and then headed outside to just "look around."

Which then lead to picking cucumbers and tomatoes.  

All I can say is "ugh!"

NOT because of the harvest.  No, no no.......

Merely due to my allergies!  I DREAD heading outside where there is LITERALLY rag-weed in every square foot of our yard, and has sprouted up in various spots in the garden.  That weed makes my  life MISERABLE at this time of the year! :\  

I would have LOVED to have spent oodles of time outside today harvesting;  it was a LOVELY overcast cool upper 70s day with LOW LOW dew-points; therefore TOLERABLE humidity levels.

**sigh**

Oh well.  I kept the harvest to just cuks and tomatoes, and was back inside within 20 minutes, sniffling, sneezing, and itchy eyes.  

After a quick shower, I sat in order to allow my allergies to calm down.  I wasn't in the mood anymore to head downstairs to work on lining the newly finished crochet purse.

However, I tidied and organized my yarn area that is on the main level, next to my glider.  And I set one simple, determined goal:  Finish Caitlyn RWB afghan!

I just finished the last stitch moments ago, and was able to snap a picture before she went off running with it.  She's SUPER excited to finally have me finish it JUST in time for bed!

So now, I'll continue relaxing with some background television, and start making up some more scarves.  

OH, and BTW.... my allergies calmed down nicely :)

Another finish - Market Bag [Crochet]

I needed a break from Caitlyn's RWB afghan yesterday, so... after "wasting" some more time on Ravelry (ooooh, that place!!!!!), I was drawn to this adorable bag.  I had a couple skeins of Simply Soft (in bone) left over from the Slanted Shells, so I gave it a shot.

Pattern: Market bag {Ravelry Link | Lion Brand free pattern link}

Yarn:  Caron Simply Soft.  1.5 skeins (~ 475 yards)

 

The Simply Soft gave the bag a fair amount of stretch.  I can definitely foresee making another one;  maybe using Red Heart Supersaver;  that yarn, afterall, is much stiffer than the Simply Soft :)

My plans for this bag will be to simply carry around the materials for my current crochet project.

Speaking of which... 

Caitlyn's RWB afghan grew another 18 rows (one more full set of RWB).  And yeah... that first section has gotta go!  I'll take care of that later on though...

On a different note, Big Mamma has been sitting on eggs for the past few weeks.  I expect her to hatch anyday now, so I went to just peek under her.

That goof!!!!  I haven't peeked under her in the past two weeks;  she had built up her egg nest to 8 at that time.  Now.........TWO!!!!!!  Two!  Where'd they go?!?!!?!?!  **sigh**

Oh well, we'll see what happens here.  

New Start & Finish - Fingerless gloves

"Rabbit" fingerless gloves (my ravelry link)

'Wasting some time' this morning on Ravelry before needing to head out to the dentist appointments.... I was actually on the search for some easy sock patterns;  ya know... to try something new.

And I came across these cute simply fingerless gloves.

After spending HOURS at the dentist (9:30AM - 12:30PM) and some lunch at the local Family Restaurant, I came home, sat... and gave the pattern a try.

Three hours (?) give or take.... and they turned out so cah-uuute!

Cassie modeled them for me;  I sized the pattern down both on chain stitches (I did 24) and in the length of the palm and arms.  

I had just enough yarn in this little dollar-bin find!   50 grams / 71 yards.  And a WHOPPER of a price!  

Cassie has been showing a bit of interest in crochet too...

and we BOTH were in heaven when we found this jackpot at the local library last night! :)

Oh

My

Goodness.

STITCH HEAVEN

#42 caught my eye;  maybe it's a sign seeing that Paul turned 42 yesterday.  Maybe my next-next project will be an afghan for him.   My next project will be one for Cassie.

And my current project progress....

As you can see, I "fixed" the stitch count and am growing correctly now.  So....what to do with those first 19 rows (the red/white/blue slants)......???

I suppose I REALLY should try to undo them...somehow.  But I won't make that decision until later on, after it's grown a bit more.

I've been (sorta) off-grid

We've been all over the state the past few days!

Thursday morning, our day started with a 2-hour trip to a friend's car dealership to pick out our new vehicle.

I had taken my new project along with me using some Lion Brand homespun yarn.  I had the whole skein to go and I thought it would have plenty of yarn without running out for the trip.  Ummm....... I guess I misjudged how much I could use up in that time.  So, I was given permission from Candace to work on her scarf.  It's a good thing the kids were prepared to help out dear ol' Mom :)

And, after a 3-hour chitchat with our buddy Shannon (yes, a boy)......It's official.  I am now a minivan driving Mamma!  Oh boy.  

I'm not super materialistic by any means!  I carry a little card-wallet as my purse and not an extravagant handbag.   I dress very simply;  no extravagant outfits.   I will admit though.... the black leather interior of the van looks pretty extravagant :) !  

And after about 30 minutes of driving it, I figured out the radio system (pretty much).  LOL.  Seriously!  There was more than one time during the informational show-n-tell by Shannon when I thought that this thing is a very expensive computer!  LOL.    And I am realllly liking all the options I have at my fingertips on the steering wheel!  

The most memorable moment when learning about all the gadgets and what-not from Shannon.....

Me:  Shannon, ummm....where is the odometer?

Shannon:  Amy, you see that two-one-emmm-i showing there on screen?  That's the odometer.

Me:  Wow!  21 miles!  I don't think I've even test driven a vehicle with so few miles!  Ever!

So, it now has over 400 miles on it with all the other running we've done since then!

First, it was off to pick up Cassie from her week at the University of Wisconsin - STOUT for her Science-Technology-Engineering camp.  We enjoyed an hour long graduation ceremony and chatted a bit with some of the other parents before heading out again.

We had total intentions of stopping at home only briefly to pack up clothes for the weekend and to feed the animals.  It was about 8:00 when we rolled in home, but both Paul and I were a bit groggy and under the weather, so we postponed our departure until Friday morning.

And then.........total relaxation up at the Farm!  And no surprise here.... I crocheted.

On Saturday, I put the last stitch into the simple V-stitch afghan using the Lion Brand homespun:  Painted Desert colorway.  It is sooooooooooooooo soft!  Holy moly!  

Originally, I planned to do a different pattern.  But.  One thing about this yarn.... it's not the easiest to use when it comes to being able to find your stitches.  So, the V-stitch pattern was found and used;  it only requires you to crochet into spaces and not stitches.  Perfect.

AND!  The "Super Fast and Easy Throw" pattern was teasing on my brain the entire time I was working on the V-stitch homespun afghan.  SO, Caitlyn and I went shopping for colors for her.  The red, white and blue is what she chose.   The first few rows of the pattern were slow-going, and I ended up altering it just a bit on the single-crochet rows;  I'm sc into the ch1 spaces instead of into the stitches.  I like how it enhances the gaps more, plus... it's a bit easier :)

And darn!  I just took a closer look at the pictures shown in the pattern;  now I understand the comments from some of the other ladies who said it appears that their project was two stitches off on row 3 because their rows weren't lining up correctly.  My 5-clusters aren't lining up as shown in the pictures, but I followed the pattern.  I guess I'm agreeing with all the other commenters who suggested that an error was apparent in the pattern.  Gah.  Wish I would have looked sooner.  BUT, I was, afterall, off-grid for the past few days;  I only had the pattern in my hand that I had printed off before leaving.

Oh well....know what??? Caitlyn will still like it!  And now.... it kinda looks like a wavy flag!  Cool design change, right??!?! :D

Alright!  Ummm.....

Man!  AUGUST this week already!!!!! Eye and Dentist appts the next two days;  gardening ... crocheting... yup.  More of the same I think once Wednesday hits.  Then again, maybe a road trip or two will need to be planned to break in the van a bit more :)

Happy Sunday everyone.