Happy Boxing Day......

Okay, I missed a _lot_ of holidays - Christmas, Kwaanza, Hannukah, Winter Solstice and probably a lot more out there I don't know about. Whatever you choose to celebrate, I hope it was good for you. And if you don't choose to celebrate any holidays, well, I still hope it was good for you. As John Lennon said "Whatever gets you thru the night is all right".

I haven't been here lately as I trashed my wrist, a not uncommon occurence for me. I don't think it's carpal tunnel, I think it's arthritis. (Yes, I _do_ wear a brace.) It hurts from the tips of my fingers to my shoulder. This is a direct result of my job, which is typing, typing, typing medical records. The department has been halved, but the work hasn't been halved. It causes a lot of stress to get the work done in time, but we are _supposed_ to have help for next month, so the right wrist shouldn't be trashed.

The Harry Potterish scarf went over well. My sister Bee immediately recognized it as the school colors, which was good. The hat and scarf I made for my sister Dawn also went over well. I had intended to make her leg warmers, but the wrist decided it wasn't happy. So I didn't do that. I put two hats together for my greatnephew and he liked them - my neice kept saying "He won't wear a hat" (he's 18 months old) but I put it on him and he wouldn't take them off, except to swap hats.

As for Mattie's scarf, I don't know if she liked it or not. We do Christmas Eve at my brother's house and it's a mob scene, so sometimes you don't even know if the person _got_ the present. I gave my younger neice and my sister-in-law the Vogue book "Crochet Basics" - I thought they would like that. the stockings I made for my sons' friend Paul was a hit, too, so sound like I did okay for myself.

I got two new (to me) crochet books, "Simply Crochet" and "Answers to Crochet Questions". I think they will be pretty neat. And I also got one of the famed "Knifty Knitter" that's all the talk on Crochet Partners. I am intrigued by it, but haven't started anything on it yet. I need to finish a few things that I didn't make for Christmas. After that, it will be time for a new project.

The most amazing thing happened today - well, amazing for me. I visited both Michael's and A.C. Moore to pick up a magazine and left without buying_anything_. Not that they didn't have stuff I wanted, they did, but I just wanted to get the magazine. I have more than enough stash to work with for quite a few months (okay, a few _years_) ;) so I just didn't want to add to the stash at that point. I'll probably feel differently in a week or two.

If I don't get back here before New Years, I wish you peace and love for the upcoming year. And
more crocheting and less ripping out your projects.

ta ta for now

Christmas decorating idea;)

Click here: A darned cute Christmas thing... (sockbug.blog-city.com)

No, I didn't steal it from Martha Stewart and I didn't come up with the idea originally, but it's pretty darn cool.

For me, I'd need a bigger tree. and with 4 cats in the house, they'd think the tree was a giant plaything (oh, wait, they think that _now_).

_enjoy_

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down to the wire

Well, I have finished _most_ of the items I intend to give as gifts. The "Harry Potter" type scarf didn't turn out as well as I expected. I tried using an afghan hook but my stitches were too loose. I was much too impatient to try a smaller hook. That's not the reason, however, I'm not thrilled with the scarf. I think I needed to study the photo a bit more or have a better photo to analyze. I believe the gold stripes are a bit too wide. No matter, I will give it to my older sister anyway. It's still soft and warm, so it will work.
I had crocheted a simple scarf for my older son. I thought that was fine, just plain black Red Heart yarn. However, he told my youngest sister he preferred a longer scarf. So I defringed it and make it about 2 feet longer. I think it's longer than he is tall, and he's 6'2". I prefer long scarves myself, but since I'm only 5'6", it's difficult to judge how long something is on someone much taller.

I haven't really had much time to think about crochet. I ususally crochet in the car on the way to work, but it's been so cold in the mornings. And of course, it's so dark at night, how can you see to crochet? Plus work has been a pain in the butt, so even when I get home, I don't fell like trying anythinig new crochet wise. Hopefully after the holidays, things will ease up and I'll be able to think of something besides what a pain in the butt work is;)

I'm debating whether to crochet another stocking for my younger son's friend. I didn't realize he would be spending Christmas Day with us and his stocking is small compared to my two sons' stockings. Maybe I'll just crochet a bag or something, I don't know. I don't feel "with it" enough to crochet another stocking, tho I'm sure I could whip thru it. Of course I still have to do things like bake, gather stuff to put _in_ the stocking, wrap presents, send cards - all the millions of things everybody else has to do. It will work out, it always does. Just sometimes I doubt it will.

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yarnneko

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a new (to me) stitch

I have often tried to create the "basketwave" stitch - you know, the one where you go in the front posts of some stitches and back posts of other stitches, creating a raised stitch effect. For some reason, I have not been able to "get" this stitch.

Until this past Monday - on the way to work, with my younger son driving, I pulled out a hook and a skein of Lion Brand "Jiffy" in an off white color and calculated the stitches. I proceeded to crochet and *ah hah* the stitch made sense to me and it worked up wonderfully. I have finished about half of a scarf in that particular stitch (it's for my oldest sister) and I am quite pleased. I would have done one thing differently, though. I would had approxianately 4 rows of plain double crochet at the beginning (I didn't leave any) and 4 plain double crochets on the sides. I think it would have been neater. But I didn't feel strongly enough about it to rip it all out. I'll just put more of an edging on it than I normally would.

I received my order from Lion Brand's online shop yesterday. I had order the colors to make a Harry Potter school scarf and they look great. I'm going to make up a pattern for the "new" scarf, from the current movie. It should be relatively easy to do. It doesn't appear as if any special stitches are used. Yup, I know the original one was knit, but it should be relatively easy to convert to crochet. Maybe I'll feel ambitious and try the afghan / Tunisian stitch on it.

At any rate, that's where the crocheting stands now. I have finished a pair of the stocking earrings and promptly misplaced them during the preparations for Thanksgiving dinner. I will have to do that again. Of course, I didn't write it down - that would make it _too_ easy;)


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