Yarnjeannie's Crochet Cache

It's finished! I had such a good day and was able to get so much work done on the afghan. I think I am quite happy with it, and the only other change that I might consider making to it would be to add a couple more leaves to the tree on the side with the large giraffe. I bought the pattern here . I fashioned the clouds without a pattern, working them from the top down instead of from the bottom up as the pattern called for. I also worked the larger cloud with a larger hook. The original pattern called for 2 clouds of the same size. I added one more character to the mix as well. I hope you can tell what it is (clue - it's not the beagle!). Worked without a pattern as well. I hope it doesn't spoil the look of the afghan. I can't believe it's finally finished. I know that I will enter it in the Grange fair, but to be honest, it won't matter to me if it doesn't win a prize. Do you know what will mean the most to me? I will give this afghan to my grands...

I had plans to have the giraffe-ghan finished this weekend. It didn't happen. I did finish the two giraffes and sewed their spots on. All that was left was to sew them to the blanket and crochet two clouds to be sewn on as well. But it was a busy weekend, nonetheless. On Saturday, I met a couple of my sisters at my Dad's house and we did some more clearing out. I was late arriving, and my sisters had made a lot of headway before I got there. My job was shredding. My dad kept every document he ever received, I think. We found papers dating back 45 years. I even found papers older than that - "cheat sheets" from the US Army for their soldiers with various phrases in English and their Japanese translations. Those I kept. But I resolved to turn over a new leaf and not let my paperwork pile up for my kids to shred one day, and the first thing I did when I got home was to go through my junk mail and shred it! Sunday - again, I didn't pick up the afghan unti...

On June 25, 2009, two celebrities passed away – Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. Ms. Fawcett’s death was not a surprise, as she suffered for 3 years from anal cancer. Mr. Jackson’s passing at the age of 50 was a shock to all. After viewing the special aired in May detailing her fight against cancer, I admired Farrah Fawcett’s bravery and hoped that she would beat her illness, but it wasn’t to be. I am glad that she was surrounded at the end by those she loved. I can’t think of any better way to go than in the loving arms of family and friends. What can I say about Michael Jackson? He was an immensely talented person – I still stop whatever I’m doing to watch his Thriller video. His achievements in music and dance have inspired so many people. There is no one today that I can think of with the talents he possessed. I must admit, though, that I have not been a fan of his for a while. His obsession with plastic surgery and his downward spiral in the last 10 years saddened me g...

At work, I fill in for the receptionist when she goes to lunch. I went downstairs on Tuesday to man the phones and looked out the floor-to-ceiling picture windows to admire the view, which wasn’t gray and overcast for a change. There were huge white billowy clouds and patches of bright color showing through. One of these patches of blue was football shaped and directly in the center of it was a perfectly round white cloud! It looked like an eye in the sky! All I had was my cell phone and would never have been able to capture a clear photo of it. I wish I had – it was a sight to see. It was only there a matter of a minute or two before the wind blew the clouds on their way. Made me think back to another occasion when a camera would have come in handy. I was a kid, living out in the “sticks”, when I noticed the skies had turned an odd color. We were in for bad weather, and everything outside had assumed a green tint. It seemed that even the very air around me was green. I loo...

At least, I think that’s what the big yellow circle in the sky was yesterday morning! It’s been so long since I saw it! On the drive to work, I saw dark threatening rain clouds ahead of me, and there was bright warm sunshine behind me. Oh, how I wished I was driving in the opposite direction! I do love a rainy day, but so many of them in a row? At this point, I have been keeping an eye out for animals lining up two by two! The weekend seemed to fly by, even though I wasn’t busy at all. I must confess that I was glued to the computer this weekend. I was a bad girl and didn’t work on my afghan as I had planned to do. I did a few things resembling chores, but that was it. I made a huge mistake and downloaded Chuzzle onto my computer. That game is addicting, like popping bubble wrap! I got to see little Justin over the weekend. He is five months old now and he “talks’ a blue streak! The coos and gurgles are just so sweet! DS Dan stopped in on Saturday with him, and then the ...

I have been blessed by two of my readers with awards! My first awards! If I weren't so old and chunky, I'd be doing cartwheels! LOL! ;-) Beansieleigh bestowed a Super Comments Award upon me. I will pass this on to 5 posters who leave comments for me. I truly appreciate it when folks take the time to post a comment. During difficult times, you lend support. When things are good, you share my joy. Thank you, all! I highly recommend you check out the blogs listed below! I pass this award to: Stephanie J at http://bikebookandbread.blogspot.com/ Debbi-a1 at http://debbia1.blogspot.com/ Sweet Mama Jones at http://sweetmamajones.blogspot.com/ Mrs. D at http://mrsdcrochetsetc.blogspot.com/ and I must pass this same award back to Beansieleigh at http://beansiebabbles.blogspot.com/ Thank you all for your continuing support. Sweet Mama Jones has also passed on an award to me - thank you, Sweet Mama! The rules accompanying this award ask that you link back to the person who gav...

We have a tree! The last couple of days, on my lunch break at work, I’ve been sewing the tree to the giraffe-ghan! Today at lunch, I crocheted some of the leaves for the tree. I hope I didn’t mess it up with the limb and branch placement. I adjusted them to my liking as I sewed, and then referred back to the photo. The photo shows the branches closer together and more upright. The branches, as I arranged them, are more spread out. I guess I can always make adjustments to the placement of the animals and clouds, and add more leaves if necessary. The back of the afghan: The front of the afghan – the tree before leaves: The front of the afghan with a few leaves added: I still have to finish a border around the green portion of the body of the afghan, and attach fringe. I’ll fringe when everything else is finished. So far I’m happy with how it’s turning out. I tried to be as careful as possible not to sew completely through the afghan so that it wouldn’t make an outline on t...

I love to crochet, but I’ve always avoided granny square afghans like the plague. When my niece was born I made an afghan that was a combination of small granny squares (saltines, I guess you’d call them) and ripple crochet. I remember weaving in all those little ends, but for the most part you connected squares as you went along. I also completed a lovely floral granny square afghan – again, join as you go. Your conventional granny square afghan, however, usually starts out with the directions “Make 96”, or 782, or a million. There is nothing I dislike more than crocheting all those squares, and ending up with a big pile of squares! I want an afghan! My sewing skills leave a lot to be desired, too. A whipstitch is the best I can manage. So what do I pick for my grange fair entry but an afghan where all parts are crocheted separately and then have to be sewn to the body of the afghan, like appliqués! What was I thinking? I know what I was thinking – “It has giraffes on it – I...

It started off this morning when our beagle drank my coffee. He loves coffee, especially iced coffee. I guess I shouldn't have set it on the floor next to the chair as I worked on my blanket, but next thing I knew he had nosed the cup over on its side and he was happily lapping up my latte! He's got a thing for money too. More than once I've traipsed to the bank with chewed up currency to swap for nice crisp bills. Goofy dog! The Scamp, my min pin, scooted out the door on me this afternoon. Normally, he makes his escape out the back door which isn't so much of a problem. There is a large open field behind us. He might make his way into a neighbor's back yard where he chases the birdies from the feeder. But it's not usually a problem to round him up. However, this afternoon he slipped out the side door and raced across our front lawn. He slowed down enough to allow me to get within 5 feet of him and then he hauled hiney into the next yard...and the nex...

I was able to deliver the finished dishcloths, coasters, pincushions and scubbies to my sister yesterday. I hope that they help to make money for the church. We had another estate sale yesterday at my dad's house. It is hard to watch people walk away with pieces of your parents' life. I think this was difficult for all of us, but at least we were together. And we were all together, even those of us who are still physically far away. My mind drifted off several times back to when we were kids. I will be happy when this is all finished, though. My thanks to my brothers and sisters who worked so hard to prepare for the sale! I did get to see my little grandson yesterday! Dan and Nicole stopped by the sale with the baby and he was a big hit with all of his great-aunts and great-uncles! What a pleasant baby he is! He goes to everyone with a big smile. And he's getting so big! I've been checking in with the eagle cam recently. Those eaglets are getting big too! ...

I stopped on the way to work this morning, and bought an iced coffee at Dunkin Donuts. The clerk asked me if there was anything else I wanted. Something possessed me at that point and I heard myself blurt out “A dozen donuts!” Yikes! I took the dozen donuts to work with me and put them out for my office companions to help themselves. I called it a Friday celebration. This inspired me to make a trip at lunch time to AC Moore, where I went shopping for donut ingredients. Actually, yarns the color of donuts…I can make some pumpkin donuts with cream cheese frosting. I bought a print yarn and tried to make a blueberry donut. It didn't turn out quite the way I pictured. There was a great nutmeg color yarn at the store that I will pick up next time I have a coupon with me. I’m addicted to donuts – thankfully, they are the fiber arts kind and not the eating kind! Also in the photo is a chocolate donut with chocolate icing. I also acquired another pattern magazine. Just what I ...

Just a few fun questions: 1. Why do they say one eats like a bird? Only if you eat an amount equal to one-half your body weight every day… 2. Why do we park on driveways and drive on parkways? 3. Why do drive-up ATMs have Braille keys? Seems like if a driver needs Braille keys, they shouldn't be driving. (This one I actually do know the answer to…) 4. Why are some hot dogs sold in packs of 10, when hot dog buns come in packs of 8 or 12? 5. Why is it called "sleeping like a baby" when a baby wakes up every two hours? 6. Why do dogs like to stick their heads out the window when you're driving, but they don't like it if you blow in their faces? 7. What happened to the B batteries? Why go from A to C? 8. Why do they sterilize the prisoner's arm for a lethal injection? 9. Who was the first person to decide that it might be good to eat the thing that just came out of that chicken's butt? 10. Who decides that dog food has a new...

  As promised, these are the little items I worked on today. I'll send my sister a sample and see if she'd be interested in some for the church bazaar. I used the pattern found here They were easy to make, and don't use much yarn at all, so they'd be great little projects for scraps of yarn.

What a beautiful day it is! In a discussion with another of my sisters recently, she told me that within the next two years she may be making a big change in her life. She said that the thought of making such a change was scary. My advice to my sister was to not let her fears hold her back. In my opinion, the planned change would be a great decision on her part and would make her happy. When all is said and done and our time is at an end, our biggest regrets are not the things we did, but the things we didn’t do. I've always felt that my life has been a series of missed opportunities. Even something so simple as attending a wedding and wanting to join the fun on the dance floor but being too shy to do so – I sat back and watched everyone else have fun. When I graduated from high school, I wanted to go to college. Didn’t do it. I wanted to join the Air Force. Again, I didn’t do it. I settled for mediocre jobs instead of choosing a career that I could be happy with. It...

My former boss is currently residing in the Montgomery County Prison. I don’t think of myself as a mean vindictive person, wishing another ill will. But I do have to admit I was happy to hear the above-mentioned news. The man has got to pay for his transgressions, and when I heard that he had skipped bail, I thought that would be the last we'd hear of him. In a previous post, Just Desserts , I detailed my miserable employment situation. I’m still trying to recover from the blows that snake delivered to my self-esteem. Self-confidence has never been a strong point for me. In fact, one of my sisters told me recently that it bothers her when I put myself down all the time. I developed that little trait many years ago as a self-defense mechanism. If someone made fun of me, it hurt. But if I beat them to the punch and made fun of myself before they did, they would laugh and I would feel like they were laughing with me, not at me. Growing up in that situation made me super-con...

We had to evacuate the building at work for a short time today. Someone smelled gas, and they called the gas company to come check it out. We were outside about 45 minutes or so. Everything was okay and they let us come back in. It just seemed to make a long day even longer. It’s funny – I would have thought the unexpected break would have the opposite effect. Today’s pattern in the 2009 Crochet Pattern A Day calendar is extremely cute! It’s called Doughnut Shop and the pattern was submitted courtesy of Pretty Posies. There is a large ring donut, a smaller donut, a half-donut (cute) and a donut hole, all with icing. These would be really nice pincushions. Crochetville also has a great donut pattern . I have lots of brown yarn on hand (cotton) and I want to make a couple of these and see if my sister can use them for her church fundraiser. Yikes! Another WIM to add to the list… This afternoon we had a vet visit for the young min pin. He's a bit under the weather. I...