FM 3/24/08

If you want to try crocheting with beads, this site has a cool beaded crochet bag.
http://promotions.drgnetwork.com/newsletters/talkingcrochet/pages/TCNL1608_patt1.html

In Chicago, the crocheters decided to do something slightly differnet than make hats and mittens - they decided to "artistically litter" the area, with, of course crochet on the trees.
http://www.neatorama.com/index.php?s=crochet+graffiti&Submit=Go

It's not too late to enter this contest. I really can't think of a heart design I haven't seen someone else do (and better, I might add) but hopefully you have more imagination than I do. Good luck!
http://www.crochettoday.com/pdfs/heartcontest.pdf

These are some Japanese crochet patterns. I don't know Japanese but my sons and my beloved know the language. But you can probably suss it out by the diagrams.
http://www.rakuten.co.jp/gosyo/437212/870755/

I have often though of running a bakery, with vintage crocheted potholders hung up as a kind of decoration. I haven't made a business plan or found a location, but I _can_ make these cool potholders.
http://tipnut.com/more-vintage-crochet-potholder-patterns-free-download/

Not free patterns, but a fashion show and some inspiration for you:
http://www.saralytle.com/

These are _book_ thongs, folks, not people thongs. Although what you do with them after you make them is entirely up to you. Check out the owl and fish _book_ thongs.
http://yarnigras.blogspot.com/2008/03/little-hoot-bookthong.html

Not a free pattern, but an interesting story of how crochet leads to higher education:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/sundaystartimes/auckland/4447039a6497.html

It's sad but true - sometimes you don't get along with your crochet hook. It might split the yarn or decide to get lost at a crucial point in crocheting. Or you might be using it for something you shouldn't have been doing (killing the squeaker box on an annoying toy - Boye steel hook #7, I'm talking about _you_)) and the tip breaks off. Here's another use for it:
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Mar212008/sesame2008032058519.asp

I love sunflowers. I was especially disappointed last year that _no_ sunflowers grew in my yard. That's unusual for me because we usually have at least 5 growing tall (and sometimes more). This lapghan has the bright colors of sunflowers:
http://debscrafts55.blogspot.com/2008/03/sunflower-lap-ghan.html

This is a filet teddy bear square. It's pretty cool looking:
http://crochetpatternsonly.blogspot.com/2005_09_05_archive.html

This is the birds and the bees of crocheting;) When a "mommy yarn" and a "daddy yarn"... no, it's really a cute pattern for crocheted birds and bees:
http://kristieskids.weebly.com/patterns2.html


There was a pattern for a shawl called "Seraphina" (I'm not quite sure where it was originally published, to be truthful). Apparently, the pattern needed to be teaked and here it is, a seraphina shawl adaptation:
http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/donisfuff/croshawl.html

Wonder about shelling out the cash for the ergonomic hooks? Here's a great review of the Provo brand of ergonomic crochet hooks:
http://crochet.craftgossip.com/hook-review-provo-ergonomic-hooks/2008/03/13/

Did I mention this Spider-Man afghan before? If I did. sorry, I just happened to remember it again. If not, well, hooray for me;)
http://www.angelfire.com/tx5/angelcrafts/patterns/spidermanroundrippleafghan.html


As usual, I receive no kickbacks from any site I have mentioned. I'd take them, but nobody's offering;)
Enjoy

FM 12/24/97

Each year I swear I won't be "this disorganized again". But the next year comes and I'm disorganized in a different way. This time, it's the baking. The chocolate cake, it looks like a mudslide. Even _with_ the icing on it, it still looks like a mudslide *sigh*. But it will get eaten, I'm sure.
On with the freebies


I didn't attempt to bake gingerbread people because they probably would have fallen apart like the cake. But I think I could manage to crochet a gingerbread person. If you got the time (or starting for next year), here's a pattern for you.
http://www.craftbits.com/viewProject.do?projectID=169#rateend

I didn't know this, but there's somebody out there that rates crafty blogs. Nope, I'm not in the ratings, but some other pretty cool blogs are - see if one of your faves made it on the list:
Shiny Media's Top 100 Fashion & Lifestyle Blogs: 51 - 100

Have you ever tried a "crochet along"? I haven't. But this particular site lists various crochet alongs for 2008. Here's a granny square one you may want to check out:
http://crochetalong.wordpress.com/2007/12/21/granny-squares/


This is just silliness, but it's funny. You can figure out "what kind of yarn are you?" with this quiz. (I am cotton dishcloth).
http://www.quizilla.com/users/bisybackson/quizzes/What%20kind%20of%20yarn%20are%20you%3F

This was interesting to me as I was complaining about this earlier this year.
http://generalmedicine.suite101.com/article.cfm/hand_pain_knit_and_crochet
This site has pointers on how to stop hand pain

Remember "Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house - not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse". On the "Knitting Daily" blog, they posted a knitters "Night Before Christmas". You can always think "crochet" where the word "knit" is printed;)
http://www.knittingdaily.com/posts/christmas_holiday/308-1.html

Another contest, this one for a skein of yarm every month for a year. Again, it says "knitters" but crocheters also have one skein projects and free yarn is free yarn.
http://www.oneskeinwonders.com/contest.php

That's it for me and I need to _go_. Tomorrow is another work day and it's also the night I get together with my siblings and their families to exchange Christmas gifts. So I will be dragging - oh, it's _today_....
I hope you have a happy Christmas and if you don't celebrate Christmas, have a nice Tuesday.

_enjoy_

7 things you don't know about me

I read the "Crochet with Dee" blog and her blog today was a sort of "tag - you're it". SHe wrote about 7 things you don't know about her, none of them crochet oriented. So since I was "tagged", here you go:

1) I hate going to the dentist. I have been very fortunate in not having dental problems or bad teeth, but I just hate it. I hate getting my teeth cleaned. I'd rather go for a gyn check-up. I know that makes me weird, but there you are. I didn't go to the dentist until I was 28 and while it wasn't a fun experience (_1_ tooth pulled - that's it for all my life), it just bugs me. I usually take 2 tylenol for the headache I cause myself by being tense while my teeth are being cleaned.

2) Hmm, this is another tooth related one, but I almost 53 & have never gotten _any_ of my wisdon teeth. They're not impacted, they are just not there. (However, my older son got extra wisdom teeth - removed.)

3) I love to bake - especially bread. I love the way the dough smells and I love the way bread dough feels. I find it especially satisfying after an ugly week to bake.
(I do most of it on the weekend.) I must have had a really bad week because I baked a total of 4 cakes (2 chocolate, 1 strawberry, 1 orange) and potato bread this past weekend.

4) Whenever I am in a hospital or a nursing home visiting somebody, people tend to think I'm a nurse. I'm not wearing a uniform or a badge and I'm not a nurse, so this is a little confusing to me . (My 3 older sibs are nurses, maybe I just adopted their demeanor or something.)

5) I love to garden but the joke is on me. My "plot of land" is clay and takes a lot of amending to make anything grow. I have had some successes - white butterfly bush, persian lilac, daffodils and hibiscus. I think the failures (or "learning experiences" as I like to call them) outnumber the successes. But I still try to whip the clay into shape.

6) I am an "endangered species" - a natural redhead. There's not too may of them in the world, I think the highest concentration is in Scotland or Ireland. Neither of my parents were, none of my sibs are and neither of my sons are natural redheads. Some of my sisters have had red hair at one time or another, however. I got teased a lot, called the "milkman's daughter", that sort of thing (we didn't even _have_ a milkman). But hair color, like eye color, is not an "either/or" type of gene. Two blue eyed people can produce a brown eyed child - your genetic material is made up of more than what your parents look like and what you and your partner look like. Really.

7) I like to sing, but I really don't have that great a voice. I like to sing along with almost anything that catches my ear, from Ethel Merman to Amy Weinhouse. And I will make up the words as I go along, to fit whatever it is I am doing at the time. For instance, I am fascinated by Amy Weinhouse's song "Rehab". It's such a basic bluesy kind of song that I feel the need to sing it. And quote from it, to the cats and my (poor) family.

now you know more about me than you ever wanted to;) and of course, you are "tagged" to post the 7 things I don't know about you....