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.

What have I gotten myself into?

As far as first projects go, this one seems never-ending!  Not that I'm complaining per-say.  I finally got a chain laid out so I can see how wide this afghan will be using a row of 10.  It's just wide enough for one person...and I then realized that using 10 across and the 9 high I was originally planning would not be big enough for me.  So after doing some measuring I decided to go 10 wide and 13 high.

I will need 130 squares...

Only 92 more squares to go... It seems like a lot, but it will be worth it in the end when I can have something so colorful and fun that I made!  It's so much fun choosing the color combinations.  I have several multi-colored yarns to choose from, and the traditional plain yarns.  There is one skein of yarn that I will be using on a different project later down the road, but I couldn't help but put some of that beautiful blue into this afghan.


My rat terrier Storm is usually the one that can be found under a blanket with me, my mutt Fergus usually just lays on top.

This afghan is proving to be no different. He is already all over it!  And you can also find him snuggled up right next to me while I crochet up some squares. Which is what I'm going to go back to working on!

Still crocheting along!

I finally had the chance to go to my neighbor's house and see the "room we don't speak of" and get more yarn. Oh goodness!  That is a LOT of yarn!!!!  I'm so jealous of her fabulous selection!  So I brought home several partial skeins and a few full skeins of patterned yarns, or super colorful yarns.  I think I may be set on yarns, at least for a little while!

Today we went to Cabela's, there is an upcoming camping trip, and we need supplies.  So I took the basket of completed squares with me so I could start the binding process I decided to use.  The original pattern calls for whip-stitching the squares together to form a row.  The using the main color do a row of half double crochets between each row with a final border of half double crochets around the entire perimeter.  I however have mastered the double crochet, so that's what I am using.

After doing over 20 squares I decided to change the pattern just a bit, it's all part of making this my own afghan.  Instead of doing a chain 4 and create a circle and DC into the center I found a video on how to make a magic circle.  So now my stitches are even, equal, and you can't really see the opening in the center.  As I am still new to crochet, trying to describe the creation of the magic circle I'm going to post the video, she uses a single crochet but it works to do the chain 3 and 16 2dc for the granny squares.

I am going to attempt to show and explain the one sided border that I am using to attach the squares together.

First, grab a completed square, and tuck the ends of the yarn in weaving it among the completed stitches and snip so the square is "pretty"

Then, in the ch2 space slip the crochet hook in, and grab a loop of the main color.

Bring it through and ch3 to start the border.

Dc12 (includes the ch3) to the end of the square.  Make sure you leave a tail long enough to whip stitch it to the next square.

Below is a chain of squares I started on earlier today.

Have fun creating!

A new type of design

Road trip!  Two whole days in the car, what to do?  I decided to finally learn how to crochet.  My super awesome neighbor came down on Thursday before my DH and I left and I picked out a pattern that can be found here or just click on the picture!

Now this is not my afghan, I'm still working on mine.  But as a beginning projects go it's a "fast" one.  Each square is completed on it's own so there is a sense of completion, and it's so fun trying new patterns using color within each square.

Above is a picture of some of the squares I have completed in the last few days, I already have a yen to get more yarn, so I will be raiding my neighbors house tomorrow in search of "weird" and different colors!

More to come, so check back soon to see the progress!