Friday, January 25, 2008

I "Slept" in.


Now, I am one of those people who because of the jobs I did, I had to be up early most every day. Plus, I had 3 kids to "manage" so to speak. And now, because "our little princess" Munch, who used to get me up every day at 4, I just get up around 4ish every day. Today tho, I made it all the way to 4:45 am. Oh my goodness, that sure feels nice. LOL
Now, I just don't swill coffee and wonder about how I am going to get thru the day. I get my coffee, feed the 2 fur kids, go check e-mails, then choose ether to go and crochet on things I have been wanting to try. Or, I go and play World of Warcraft. You got to figure that I can't really start anything with banging and the like, Hubby is still sleeping. Most days I go and curl up on the couch, pick up my hook and yarn and off I go. It's quiet. I know the phone isn't going to ring or anyone is going to come to the door. So for a couple of hours I crochet away in bliss.

It's raining here today. The grapevine is shut down due to snow and icy roads up that pass. Freeways are a mess. Sure glad I don't have to go out in it. LOL this storm is cold tho. Hey, when we are in the 50's for a high, that's cold for us. And we have wind also.

So, I have been finishing up these few things so I can "move on" to more I want to do. Of course classes begin for me on Monday evening. I start with Cartooning Mon and Wed evenings. I love that class. Only a pencil and whatever paper you can find is all that is required.
Wednesday morning and afternoon I will be in a Photoshop CS3 class. that one goes from 10 am to 5 pm. That should be fun and I get to learn the new CS4 too.
Hubby will be doing a photography class. I figure that will be the best way for him to learn what he needs to learn about using a camera.

I also crochet using fabric strips. Here is an easter basket I did. I got into the fabric crochet with all those colorful sheets my kids had. Just couldn't see tossing them. Thru the years I have added gingham fabric to the sheet fabric. Did you know you can find king size sheets at the thrift stores for practically nothing. I'll did up a few photos of the area rugs I have crocheted with fabric. My size "Q" hook that you see is the most difficult to find. I got mine 20 plus years ago from Annie's attic. Annie's doesn't carry them anymore. :(

Well, got to run, Today is sheets day. Tomorrow I do the regular laundry. LOL Plus, hubby will begin his "clean out" starting on Sunday. He is going for another colonosphy on Tues morning. Large polyp to check. So he has to do 2 days of clean out. Then on Tuesday, they are going to put him a bit deeper under anesthesia to check that large polyp. Now you know why I have been up early and crocheting like a fiend-LOL

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Different yarns, same hook . . .4:00 am ramblings

Being up early has a few benefits. After turning on the coffees. (Hubby likes his coffee a bit stronger than I do). Opening the door to let the 2 fur kids out, I was surprised by some of our night critters. Right there on the patio was a mama raccoon, and off under one of the bushes was a juvenile. We do pick up the daytime outside food when it gets dark. But they come around anyway. No big thing for me to have critters. I just get my squirt bottle and chase them off to the wood pile so they can go over the wall. When we lived up in Washington state, in the dead of winter, I used to put out a bowl of cat chow for the raccoons. My vet said that was the best for them. Besides, raccoons will also eat snails, slugs, mice when they catch them. So, I figure they help out in their own way. Even down here in So. Calif.


Well, after the little skirmish, the cats got fed, and I got my coffee. Off I went to the crochet piece I was working on. Right now, I am doing a couple of pigs from Elizabeth Doherty's book, Amigurumi.
Last week I had stopped and gotten one of the 1 pound skeins of yarn from Caron so to test out a piece for size.

I was using a size "D" 3.0mm Clover soft touch crochet hook. I can tell you the gauge of the yellow pig was huge with the Caron yarn. Plus this Caron yarn is reasonably "stiff". So, being a bit curious, I went ahead and did another pig body with Nature's Spun worsted weight wool yarn in #N87 Victorian pink. What a difference. Of course now I have a "piglet" LOL.
A lot of time I will test out a pattern and find out the yarn goes great, but the size isn't what I wanted. Going ahead and testing out another type of yarn, I see if it is becoming the the size I want. In this case, this will be great as I have a "momma and baby". I have to do the legs, tail and ears for both yet. Plus a touch of embroidery for their mouths.
Just so I don't get bored with doing the same pattern twice or more, I try to keep a side project going for upcoming holidays. These are larger eggs than called for and acrylic yarn is used. I just found over at the Assistance League of Newport Mesa, a package of small plastic eggs. Cost me a whole dime. LOL I use the plastic easter eggs instead of the foam ones. They are still lightweight, and feel more like handling an egg that was blown out. Of course since there is a plastic hollow core, I wouldn't recommend giving these to kids. For kids, use the foam forms.

I see that is is after 8:00 am so I have to get on my day's chores. I will deep water today. Even tho it has been chilly, even for us, it's also very dry. So, I stick to my once a week deep watering.
Going to put in a roast for supper. Have some yarn work to get ready for spring. My old gazing ball got broken, hopefully Big Lots will have some in. I also have a $20 gift certificate to Roger's garden's. http://www.rogersgardens.com/ Now that place is a gardener's heaven. Can't afford to much over there, but WOW the ideas that can be done at home with just things that have been hanging around. As of right now I have lilies and violets blooming. Plus that entire squadron of hummingbirds. We have close to 2 dozen of the little characters. I think we must be ether in or close to a flyway. Tho I know that a couple of the species have just stayed.

So, everyone have a good day, and I'll check in a bit later . . .