One man's trash is this woman's new project!

Yes the title is true.  Memorial weekend we were headed out to go camping, as we were leaving the neighborhood I spotted a wood frame chair sitting on the side of the road.  In just a glimpse I knew that if I could get my hands on it, what a project it would be!  So I called my neighbor and partner in crime.  She and her husband wrestled it into their car, and down to my house and into my garage so it wouldn't get taken by someone else, or soaked by the storms that descended upon KC before we got home from camping.  My poor DH, he's none too happy.  But I can understand why, we are trying to paint the garage and clean the house out so we can sell it and move...tee hee...

He must love me because instead of insisting that I get rid of the chair, he's letting me keep it, and refinish it!  It's pretty rough right now, and will need a lot of work before it takes it's place in our home.  But this chair has great bones, and with a little elbow grease and some TLC this is going to be an awesome addition to our living room!

I had to rip out the bottom, and take out the springs, it's pretty much wasted.  Someone must have used this chair as a trampoline.

Once that is out I need to go get some jute, or other suitable fabric to create a woven base instead of a metal and spring base.

After I finally manhandled the old spring system out I popped the few wood button covers off and put them to the side.  I have decided to simply plug the holes with a wood dowel and sand it smooth, I like that look better.  I did start sanding the arms and discovered that the bottom of one of the arms was loose, so I glued and clamped which ended my work on the chair for tonight.

Tomorrow is a new day!  I did notice that this poor chair has been used and abused, so it will take a lot of sanding and shaping to get the arms to look like new again...but it was a free chair...so I'm game!

The importance of checking gauge

Well I finally finished my first hat project...its a tad small...honestly it's child sized!  Oops.  Guess skipping the first step of checking gauge was not that smart.  I just assumed that the gauge shown on the skein was what I needed to use.

I am a tight hooker.  So in reality I will have to use a larger hook to create the hat in adult size.

I also changed up the directions from the original pattern to use a contrasting color for the finishing band, and I added a flower (pattern here) because the child recipient of this hat loves pink!

Now I know to check gauge before I start a project like this...ready for the next project!

Happy Hooking!

A hat...even though it's spring

My crochet afghan sits unfinished...but closer to done.  I have been working on joining the squares

Once the rows are all joined I can join the rows and do an edge all the way around.  

So yes it is taking me a while. Partly because I've been sitting on that bed so I don't disturb my pattern that I have laid out.  And the other part because I have C.A.D.D. (Crochet Attention Deficit Disorder) and want to start and do other projects!!!  :) especially ones that work up faster than the afghan...mercy.

So I have completed a prayer shawl for a friend.  The pattern can be found here.  It took several days, mostly crocheting while watching TV at night.  But here it is!

I can't wait to give it to her.  I'm sure she will be surprised!

I have also decided to go ahead and make a hat.  I know that it's the middle of May, but feels like July already.  But hey, I have the yarn, I have the time, and I have someone to give it to!  Bah ha! 

So here I sit, at the computer so I can see the pattern...saves trees this way.  Although it does confuse my dog a bit.

"Wha'cha doin Mom?"

I worked on the new project till about 230am, and was still not quite done,  it's going to take another few uninterrupted hours of crochet time.

Two years later...

Ah I love completing a project...of course it's better when the project is completed in a "decent" time frame. Our kitchen project from start to finish took 753 days from the start date (April 23, 2011) to the end date (May 14, 2013), end date included.  Or 2 years, 22 days...
Alternative time units

• 65,059,200 seconds

• 1,084,320 minutes

• 18,072 hours

• 107 weeks (rounded down)

 That is a long time to wait for something as spectacular as the finished kitchen.  Of course "finished" is not loaded...I still have to load the cabinets. 

The custom cabinets were created by my DH and are very NICE.  This will be a wonderful selling feature for our house. 

The rest of the kitchen remains the same.