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.

Dinner plans changed - Raspberry goodies

Cassie and I had our eye appointments this morning, and we followed them up with a grocery shopping spree;  we were turning into Old Mother Hubbard around here :\

And then the 2nd day of the raspberry jelly process began.  The whole family picked two 5-quart pails full yesterday afternoon from the bushes.  Rather than smashing them and straining them through cheesecloth this time, I pulled out our foodmill/sauce-maker that we use to make our tomato juices every year.  The standard strainer allowed a few seeds to pass through, but when I measured out my 4-cups worth for each batch, I simply had the juice strain through another mesh sieve we have in the cupboard.  

In the end, I made three batches today;  each resulting in 7 half-pints of raspberry jelly.  And I STILL had juice left over for one more batch!

Me:  Um. Hun?  Do we really want...need... this much jelly?  Should I really make up another batch?  I have enough juice, but don't really want to use up any more half-pint jars.

Paul: 21 half-pints, huh?  Plus the 7 from the batch the other day?  I think that's enough, don't you?

Me: Yes dear.  But what else can we use the juice in?  Maybe I could look up a raspberry sherbet recipe since I have the ice cream maker in the freezer. ?

Paul:  Or how about syrup?

Me: OMGoodness! Yes!  I LOVE the berry syrups at Perkins!  

So, I put Cassie on the task of finding a recipe online for a syrup.  And in the end, I found out (with a little bit of math conversion)... If I boil my 4 cups of juice and then add 5 1/2 cups of sugar, bring to boil again and boil for a minute.  That's it!  EASY PEASY!    I then hot-water bathed it for 10 minutes in pint jars. EASY PEASY RASPBERRY SYRUP DELICIOUSNESS!

All the while, a chocolate cake was getting mixed and baking in the oven for Paul's 42nd birthday! :)

Sadly, he needs to work tonight.

Then, around 4:00, dinner plans were altered after today's syrup making.....

...and we had some Brupper (breakfast/supper).

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMO! Delicious!  Those eggrolls will simply wait until tomorrow night.

And, of COURSE, after dropping a few bills at the grocery store this morning, you'd think we'd be stocked full of everything, right?  LOL.  

NO pancake mix.  

However, bless the Internet.  We will probably never have commercial pancake mix in the house again after finding and making this recipe (Basic Pancake recipe)

Alright, I'll give you THREE guesses as to what Candace has balled up here in her hand.  

One hint:  It IS part of a dessert. (This is from the other night, though.  I had forgotten about this picture)

Speaking of dessert... that Chocolate cake is calling my name.

Happy Monday!

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.

Aran afghan throw - complete

The Aran afghan throw taught me a few things.

1 - How to read a pattern (Aran afghan throw - Free pattern from JoAnns)

2 - Bobble stitch

3 - Front and back post double crochet (not a big fan yet)

4 - Creator's control of design alteration :D

I used Red Heart super saver yarns:  

3.5 skeins of Cafe Latte, 

3.5 skeins of Coffee Cafe,

3 skeins of Real Teal.  

Each skein = 7oz/198g ; 364 yards.  TOTAL yardage:  ~ 3640 yards.  WOW!  I think that's a lot, right??  (And that DOES include the fringe).

Hook size J/10 - 6mm

Non-blocked finished size:  45" x 64" (not including the fringe).

I didn't follow the pattern completely.  I started altering after the first two stripes (on left).  For the next two stripe sections, I replaced the bobbles with treble-crochet (or is it triple-crochet?) stitches.  Oh yeah...another thing I learned is that there is a different between US pattern lingo and most other places.  

I brought the bobbles back in in the middle section, but I spaced them out every 3 single crochets, and built them up more (5 yarn-overs vs 3).    And then reflective-symmetry took me back to the other side.

As a last-minute idea, I added some fringe to this afghan.  And WOWZERS....did it make a difference! 

 I was running low on the teal, so I cut the yarn and organized it into equal-sized piles.  I had enough to do one fringe with each blue strip.....

:\

Eh.....

Wasn't liking it.  NOR was I interested in going out to purchase another skein of the yarn.

So, with a little bit more of design leisure, I mixed in some coffee and tan, thinned out the teal into two sections each, and v'iola.  I much more appealing fringe outline.

SO

Yes, I already have the next project lined up :D

He wants jelly

The raspberries were ready for their first harvest today!

Thankfully the weather was SUPER cooperative!  Overcast for most of the morning and coooooool! :) Low 60s.  I wore a long-sleeve shirt even.  And thank goodness for that!  Being the first picking, I moved branches in every direction and pulled an enormous amount of weeds.  My shirt helped protect my arms against all the scratchies.

Some of the bushes are producing amazing raspberries this year :)  YES!

Pay no attention to that bowl of candy! :D

3 hours later, 5 quarts have been picked.  And there are still BUKU BUKU TONS out on the bushes yet!!!!  I think our patch has outgrown our family.  LOL.

The other day when we were nibbling some of the ripe berries off the bushes, I commented about needing to pick up some more pectin for jam.  

And Paul says..."Let's do jelly this year.  There are always so many seeds in the raspberry jam."

So, I'm giving it a try!

I have never done a cooked recipe before.  

I have never used cheesecloth before.  

I have never "juiced" berries before.

LOL

I crushed them.  I wrapped them in cheesecloth.  I squeezed and twisted it.

And now, I have it resting over a bowl to drip, drip, drip any additional juice that wants to become part of our jelly.  I'll work on the jelly a bit later.  But for now, I want to simply put my feet up for a bit.

And then I remembered about the Shutterfly address that was given to us parents to keep tabs on the girls at STEPs camp this week...  By the looks of the pics, she's having fun.  I had no doubts.

Cassie's "Red" team;  she's the tall one in the middle.  No surprise there :)

And the silly shot

The entire STEPs group this week;  Cassie is the 5th red from the left in the back

And we didn't realize one of her classmates was signed up for this week too!  Carley.  Yay :)

Cassie on left and Carly on right;  eyeing up the Ropes Course 

Cassie and her roommate, Molly, and one of the counselors holding a safety rope.

TOTALLY looks like she is having a blast!

Breaking with a Granny Square

Over at Slugs on the Refrigerator (what a funny name, right??), a Crochet Camp is being hosted.  I didn't care to spend my time with the first project last week; it wasn't to my liking.  Plus, I also knew the basics of single crochet and all that jazz.

But week 2; we are asked to make a Granny Square.  This seems to be one of those patterns in crochet as the 4-patch is in quilting;  everyone makes at least one, and oodles more :)   

I grabbed some yarn that Cailtyn had leftover from her summer school crochet class, and had a go at the pattern.  I had been watching many youtube videos on this too, so I already had a good idea of how to work the pattern.  Her pattern had a few different steps than some I've watched, but I followed it anyway to the letter.  Cute lil' guy.

When I wasn't looking, Candace tried out the partial new afghan.  Making good headway; I'd love to be able to finish this baby up today, but that would be a VERY lofty goal.

There was a cuddle bug moment last night on the couch while watching the Avengers after an evening swim at Caitlyn's softball end-of-season party.  July 23 today.  This SERIOUSLY is the fastest summer I've ever lived through.  I think it has much todo with the fact that everything outside is "behind" in harvesting.  At this time last year, I was neck deep in beans and done with the raspberries.  Now, the beans don't even have blossoms yet, and the raspberries are reaching their first picking stage.  June was also PACKED with softball every night, making the days and weeks zoom by trying to fit everything in.

There is still lots of summer left, and once summer school is over this week, I am hoping things slow down a bit for the month of August before school starts up again.  I mean...come on!  I just found crochet and have so many patterns flying around in my head.  There will never be enough time in this life to do all of the projects I want to do.  That goes for ALL things, not just crochet!

One day at a time, I suppose.  And today....  a little pea picking; some raspberries, and ... crochet.

Happy Tuesday

"So where does this rank on your obsession scale?"

asks Paul, as I lazily crocheted away on Candace's Aron throw last night...

LOL!    DUH!

Candace's Aran throw is now half finished;  3 days in.  I've worked through 1092 yards already, using Red Heart Super Saver yarns.  I simply need to say....I don't know if I'll use this yarn again for such a big project.  It's coarse to work with.  :{  It's scratchy, and just ..... hurts....after hours on end of continue crochet.  But I still am holding faith that it'll soften after it gets washed.  Does yarn have a 'sizing' agent added to it, similar to fabric, to keep it stiffer while working with it???  

We shipped Cassie off, safe and sound.  She is SUPER DUPER DUPER excited about the week!!!!!!! I met her roommate briefly before shipping back out for the two-hour drive home.  She seems like the sweetest lil' thing!  AND, I'm patting myself on the back!  I held off the tears!!! LOL.  I felt them coming on;  NO CLUE why!  Stupid hormones we mothers need to deal with.

Alrighty.  Candace and Cailtlyn have been dropped off at summer school. Paul is off to work.   Laundry is underway.  Dishes are done.  Animals are catered to.  Garden given a walk-through.  So, I plan to sit with some more crochet for a few hours, keeping up with laundry at the same time.  Later on after summer school, the girls and I plan to pick our first batch of raspberries and make some jam, all before heading out for Caitlyn's softball end-of-season party at 6:00 tonight.

Happy Monday!

Aran throw progress and Cassie off to camp

It's a Slow Stitch Sunday over at Kathy's blog, and I'm getting some time in to the Aran throw before the day has to completely get started. 

As promised, I stopped crocheting the bobbles after the first two colors, and replaced those with triple-crochet stitches.  It makes the color bands a bit larger; growing the afghan a bit quicker, and much less frustrating.  The bobbles certainly ARE adorable, and they will return on the 'other side' as I near the finish line to keep some symmetry.  

And ohh......that Judy L!  She's been posting about yarn lately.  Being such a newbie to yarn, and already feeling the difference between the Caron Simply Soft I used in Slanted Shells and the Red Heart Super Saver yarns I'm using now, I started doing some self-educating on yarn weights and such...

At least now I know what WPI stands for!  But what still gets me..... BOTH the Simply Soft and the Super Saver yarns are "4/Medium", but they feel so different.  The Red Heart Super Saver clearly says "worsted" on the label;  the Simply Soft doesn't.  Does that mean it's a different type of 4/Medium yarn ???  The feel between the two is SO DIFFERENT.  The Super Saver feels so coarse as compared to Simply Soft.  Hm.  Am I missing something else?  Judy D (in WA) gave me some reassurance that the Red Heart will soften after I wash it.  Maybe 4/Medium yarns differ brand-to-brand just like 100% cotton differs.  You quilters know what I mean!  There are some cottons that feel soooooo lovely, and others that feel nearly like sand paper!

Anyway..... my yarn education (and Judy L) lead me to Ravelry.com.

Oh!

Dear!!!

People talk about Pinterest.  Psht!!!!!  For a newbie to yarn/crochet projects.......Oh Lordy!  Ravelry takes addictions to a whole new level!  LOL

And now that Caitlyn has had her time with the Slanted Shells, a new project is in the early stages for her.  I'm not sure if you can follow the link unless you are a Ravelry member, but here's a potential project for her:  Super Fast and Easy throw.  Gotta love that name, right??  LOL

I have another hour and half before I really have to get the day moving.  Cassie is scheduled for a week long Science and Technology camp for girls entering 7th grade.  The camp is two hours away, so we'll need to leave by 11:00 to get her to registration by 1-2PM.  She's excited!  This will be her first extended length camp away from home.

I'm hoping your Sunday is enjoyable and relaxing!