aran afghan

I want my dream living room to look like this (minus the washer & dryer, of course.) 

I  l.o.v.e. the color of the walls soooooooo much & when I was at the fabric store recently --- with nary a thought of purchasing any yarn --- I stopped dead in my tracks when I spotted this yarn  --> Soft Baby Steps in aqua. 

Why, it is the perfect color of my dream living room!!.... 

So I snatched up enough to do this aran isle throw to match my new dream living room.

I love the texture in these stitches. 

Bobbles, front and back double crochet, skipping stitches and wrapping stitches to enclose stitches = tons of texture.

It's the perfect color & afghan design for when I have my feet up & I'm watching the rest of the family scrape off all of the old paint & rolling on that new aqua paint color in my newly decorated living room....

Now.  Who do you think will be finished first?

Kids + husband painting?

or

Me crocheting this afghan?

...and then there were 2

Two socks. 

Can you believe it?

Neither can I.

clover

A tatted clover....

...tatted many times over into intricate, lacey medallions ~

~ can become a beautiful piece of threadwork.

The pattern is Clover Mat  by Jon of Tat-a-Renda.

I have only begun this but love knowing that I can stop at just a small doily or maybe a table runner -- or good golly! a bedspread. 

Okay.  Maybe not that huge.

Because with tatting --- it is add-as-you-go, so the project can remain small, or it can be built upon to become a gorgeously, huge piece of work just by how many pieces are tatted to the previous piece.

Love that.

And it is really such a darn shame that no one in this house has any crochet patterns for say...an iPod cosy or something.

Because I spot this when my son walks past me....

Yes.  That is Scotch tape. 

And yes, he has it taped to his shirt.

Like I said --- it's just too bad he doesn't know of anyone that has scads of crochet (or maybe even a few knit) patterns for stuff like this.

henrietta

There is certain vibrant charge to the air when spring seems to be nearing.  

A newness.  A deep, strengthening sigh.  A feeling of ahhhhhh....

I love that feeling.  And walking through the house with the sun's warmth through the windows, I start to visualize all that spring entails.

For starters, what's certainly needed are spring-like potholders. 

More specifically -- ones that will help usher in spring with their cuteness & quaintness.

From here:

(this book can be purchased as a download here.)

....the perfect spring-like potholder.

This is Henrietta.

She was sooooooo easy & quick to crochet & I used my g hook & Lily Sugar 'n Cream yarn.

Now.

Hopefully spring does indeed arrive soon (and that nasty weatherman has got it all wrong with his forecast of 8 in. of snow by Wednesday morning.....)

a treasure in tatting

This pillowcase is a treasure that I recently found at the thrift store.  Minus the edging.

(btw--when I see items like this with $.25 price tag attached it is such a bittersweet feeling --- sweet because it is now in my possession, but bitter because the time & love that must have gone into embroidering this pillowcase...well, it is a shame that it ended up tossed in a bargain bin at the local thrift store.)

And since I have been practicing with this tatted 'swatch' of edging

that I found in this book from Annie's Attic:

I knew this edging would look so splendid on the pillowcase. 

In pink!

So I tatted & tatted & tatted inches and inches of pink edging for this pillow; attached it by hand-sewing it with needle & thread right to the very edge of the pillowcase.

Such a lovely treasure.

for a friend

For a friend.

Believing the impossible.

And pushing me in a good sense.

The pattern is one of the those single sheets that grace the aisles at the yarn store -- and for

the life of me,

I can not find it to give appropriate credit to the designer....

~
I used my g hook 

this yarn 

& the flower comes from this book.

And lastly, hand sewed fabric for the lining.

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."

- Anais Nin

a change of heart

Wanting to immerse myself in pinks, reds & whites I tried thinking of simple but pretty things to make for  Valentine's Day.

Initially, I found a beautiful heart in this book:

Motif # 124 --- a gorgeous heart, but a bit too big for this project.  It just seemed to overpower the felt instead of enhancing the look I was going for.

So, back to my stack of books and I found exactly what I was looking for in here:

The perfect heart --- and it truly is my most favorite pattern for a crocheted heart that I have stitched.

Here is how it all went together:

1)Using 2 pieces of 4 x 4 inch felt                                                               2)marking tiny dots with a pencil

3)stitched a simple buttonhole stitch w/ embroidery floss                              4)and before closing, stuffed it with polyfill

5)single crochet the first row                                           6)and chain 3 -- skipping a single crochet for row 2 to create a simple edging

7) and lastly -- adhering the heart in the center

...a perfect change of heart.