A gift that keeps giving.....

Do you remember when my Grandmother passed away and I said that I was given her needles and needle holder by my Grandfather? Well, I have finally had a chance to use her needles and this was the first thing off of them.....

The details......

Pattern: The Be My Dishcloth by Kristen Patay from Kris Knits

Yarn: 1 skein of Coats Lyric 8/8

Needles: Grandma's Susan Bates Size 3

Time: Several days on and off

Final Opinion: I really like both the pattern and the final result!

Getting crafty in the evening hours...

Last night I sat down and decided that enough was enough and that I was going to finish up some outstanding WIPs and make some progress on others.
Well, here are the results......

First up is the snowman I've been making for my nephew. The pattern comes from Jean Greenhowe's Christmas Special booklet and was made using acrylic and 3.0 mm needles.

Next up is two more fan bookmarks - the third one is almost completed. I've gotten the pattern down now so they fly off the hook it seems like!

The next two projects I finished over the past week or so, but here they are....first is all of my snowflakes all blocked and dried....

Then, the last finished project to show off is my little German crocheted bag - I love how it turned out with the Anchor magicline yarn - such great fun with the self striping yarn......
I made progress on the Grannies Blanket from the Spring edition of Crochet Today! as well as a dishcloth and a Log cabin Baby blanket.

I've decided on the round ripple afghan to frog it back to the green and do the last rounds with green instead of pink to make it more boyish looking for my friend Laura's little boy. I ran into her husband this weekend and mentioned that the blanket was too girly and he said to bring it anyway, but I really want to make it more boy orientated.

I think that is about it for today! Enjoy the rest of the week!

Not a double X but.....

I was double tagged!

Both Candy and Amanda tagged me.......so here goes......

Here are the rules:

1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So, here ya go!

Seven random and / or wierd things about me:

1. I ate a Taco Salad for breakfast and Pancakes sound good for dinner tonight
2. I love to read a good romance novel
3. I fear that I am forgetting how to speak proper english after 5 years in a non-native english speaking country
4. I knit continental style
5. I'm a restless sleeper and constantly toss, turn, talk, mumble (or so I've been told)
6. I live next to a church yet I've never gone there for Mass in the 5 years I've been here
7. I am currently planning two trips - one to Egypt and one to Argentina

Next victims errr taggees....

I'm going to be nice and not assign this one to anyone....if you've not played recently or have never played, consider yourself tagged!

Where are all the X's??

Double X chromosomes that is!

For some odd reason after a year of ALL of my friends having girls, the trend has changed and so far 3 boys have been born with 3 more on the way!

And in the meantime, I have this gorgeous blanket sitting here almost done but for the last round as I see no point in finishing a girly blanket when everyone is having boys!



*sigh*

My 4 day weekend is half over, and so far its been filled with TONS of sunshine and 75° weather.....abosolutely GORGEOUS for Belgium, especially at this time of the year...lets hope it continues another 3 months like this!

Was sitting on a park bench in the sun with the boyfriend working on a fan bookmark and the older lady next to me kept staring at me. Meti saw her looking and made a comment to the effect that one does not see much crocheting / knitting being done there days and we had a little conversation in French which ended with Meti telling her that perhaps we would see her again someday and I would have a finished bookmark to give her....I'm glad that he is proud of my "work" as her calls it, but there is no need to start giving it away! *grin¨*

My Haekelbeutel bag is all sewed up and I am working on the handles....or at least I will be by the time someone reads this post since that is what I am going to do as soon as I finish this post.

I started a dishcloth and a knit baby blanket (in boy colors I must say) and should hopefully have some pictures soon.

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Cheerio!!!

What do you do while on a plane ? I often read or crochet or watch the movies. This morning on my way to the UK I spent time looking out the window. We flew up and over the North Sea, so I saw the coast, and then tons of barges and cargo vessels from way up in the air. After touring the freighter port in Hamburg last week I know how big those cargo vessels are, so to see them looking like little matchbox cars was kinda cool. I also got to see a field of windmills in the water – very cool from up above to see them all standing there in the rows (I wish I had had a camera to take pictures of them!).

Even though I lived in Ireland and dealt with the driving on the other side of the car, it always takes me a little bit to get used to the feeling when I visit of sitting on the left side and not having a steering wheel / brake peddles in front of me…..my foot makes that slamming gesture several times the first few minutes.

Interesting in that today my driver believes that he should be a Formula One / Nascar driver. He was whipping in and out of traffic, speeding up to block others trying to pass (even though we were already going about 85 mph). Even still it's a nice change to be driven around…..I have time to look out the windows and enjoy the scenery, horses, fields, waterways and even the cars and trucks that we whizzed by. The office is located about 1.5 hours outside of London…. near Newbury straight out the M4 from Heathrow around junction 13 or so.

Luckily I am only here for the day in the UK as next week I am 3 days in Zurich. But in between is a nice 4-day weekend! I am taking Friday off as a make-up day for having to work the public holiday on May 1st and then on Monday is another public holiday so it will be a nice relaxing weekend for me.

I do believe that is all for now. I am still working on the Anchor Magicline bag, and I am also working on a few other small projects. Perhaps on my 4 day weekend I will find some time to finish some more projects!

Ta-ta cheerio!!

The end of another weekend.....

and lets just start off by saying that it was GORGEOUS weather here in Belgium for a change - yippee!! It was in the mid 60's to low 70's, with TONS of sunshine. We went for walks both days which was really nice as I was not having to huddle up next to Meti for warmth every time we stopped at a red lighted cross walk.

I know I have a lot of yarn floating around the house so I decided to do some organizing of my tubs with hopes of getting everything lying around the house into one of the tubs. I decided once again to sort it by fiber type as I believe that will make it easier to find.

It is almost finished now with some last little bits of re-arranging to do along with determining what exactly to do with all of the hooks, needles, accessories and other miscellaneous crafting goodness floating around the house.

I was talking to my mother while working on the last of shoving errr gently placing yarn into the last of the tubs. I explained what I was doing and then gave examples...

"So I have one large wool tub and one small wool tub, two tubs of small size ten thread, and one of size 5 thread. One large tub of kitchen and miscellaneous cotton, two small tubs of acrylic baby yarn, two large tubs of acrylic worsted weight, one tub of miscellaneous acrylic boucles and mixes, one tubs of fun fur and other novelty yarns and one tub of miscellaneous yarn......then I have a few containers of needles and hooks and...."

"Wait a minute......you have 14 tubs of yarn in your living room????"

"Errr....is it really 14?"

"Yes, I was counting."

"Crap"

When in the world will I find time to use all of this yarn??? I really need to start de-stashing, but how can I give any of it away? It is all so precious to me and I am sure that THE perfect project is just around the corner for it.

Finished projects are coming though, have no fears. I'm going to London on Tuesday for a meeting, so hopefully something will be done by Wednesday!

Stay tuned!!!

Fried eggs, fried eggs....

I was feeling hungry this morning so I decided to whip up a egg....

A quick and easy pattern written in Japanese with symbol charts, so it required reading the chart which I rarely like to do.

Pattern found here: Sunny side up tawashi Pattern can be found by clicking on the Japanese Characters directly under the picture: 目玉焼きタワシ

Was made with Red Heart Super Saver & an E hook

Back from the home of the Hamburger

No, I'm not talking about McDondals or BK. I spent the past 3 days at a meeting in Hamburg Germany. Lots of talking, lots of food, lots of fun. A good time all around aside from the icky hotel bed which several liked and some hated - not a spring bed but a dense foam which was eeww ick for me.....both days I was waiting for the alarm to go off each morning which is TOTALLY not like me at all.

Of course to go with the hamburger I figured I would need some French Fries....


And lets not forget tea.....


I have been working on a doily, only to find out that I had miscounted at the beginning and had to frog the thing back to the 2nd round.....here was the process I had made at the point I had to frog:

A wee little hat.....

It really did turn out cute in the end and nor did it take that long in total. I will have to make some more as it seems a lot of people that i know are falling pregnant these days!

I've been trying to work on finishing up Mister Frosty but i keep messing up on the little parts and putting it aside.

Spring cleaning is in full force in my household still. I am now totally overhauling my craft area and trying to find some organization for my yarns, hooks, needles and miscellaneous accessories that I have laying about everywhere!

Taking a good look at my yarn stash I realize that I really MUST stop buying new yarn and start using up some of what I have.

The amount of thread alone that I have is amazing (to me at least) and cotton yarn seems to be everywhere. I once made a comment that I did not have much wool, and yet I find myself filling a full large crate with the stuff.

Okay, off to work I go - happy Wednesday everyone!

French Music is not that bad

I have not spent much time listening to the french radio over here. Recently though I started listening more and have even went out and *gasp* bought a C.D. (only after trying to buy it on I-Tunes and not being able to since its in the French/Belgian version and not the US version).

I found an artist I really like, Sheryfa Luna. She won a show in France called Popstars in 2007 - rather like American Idol I believe.

I am going to try to share a video of one of her songs - it has a movie type intro but bear with it and the music will start....the words go along fairly well with the video so you know kinda what she is singing about.

The song is called "Il avait les mots" or in English "He had the words"



Will be waiting to hear your opinion on my favorite french song! Hope that everyone is having a great weekend.

Knit one, crochet many

Finally, some pictures of what I have been doing recently. This is not all, but it gives you a starting look at what is going to be finished in the upcoming days / weeks / months =)

First up is not a project but new yarn.....I bought 2 yummy skeins of Malbrigo from a wonderful on-line store in the Netherlands. The first is more purply than what is shown.

Next up is a Baby Grannies blanket I am working on. I decided to do all the middles before moving on to the next color:
A baby's hat for a co-worker's little boy:
And last but not least, I have started on 2008 Snowflakes....hoepfully I can keep the momentum up on these. I would really like to finish at least 50 ah heck, 52 this year......lets wait and see though what I can actually do!
More projects and more pictures will be coming soon! I have a bunch of things started over here that I need to finish up soon.

Have a Happy Friday and a wonderful weekend!

Fun in the sun on an Island!

I spent the long weekend in Greece in Athens and on the island of Mykonos! It was great fun, lots of sun and LOTS of good food......although if I see another Greek Salad in the next few weeks I just might scream! I've never ate so much salad and Feta in a short period of time.

First up some pictures of Athens - both of the Acropolis - one from the streets of Plaka and the other from the hotel pool area where we stayed the night......

Next a view of Mykonos .....

From the left - 2 random French girls we met then its Te-Keisha (the birthday girl), Melissa and then Me......
The whole group of us that went - from the left - Te-Keisha, Melissa, Tomekah, Me and Matt....
I have been starting a ton of new projects the past week, but of course nothing is finished (typical me) I'll try to post some pictures soon though - need to find the time - they are up on Ravelry for the most part in my WIPs.

Talk to you all soon!

Hello again. Its been a busy week finishing our financial forecast at work (telling everyone how much sales etc we are going to have for the rest of the year) so I've been a bit out of touch. I am getting back into the groove of things though and hopefully will be caught up sometime before 2009!

Crafting has been going on in the house (amazing, I know!) First up is a bag I am making with some Anchor Magicline that I had in my stash:



Next after that is the Snowman I've been working on.....he is at least stuffed now =)

Then the lantern potholder....have the middles done (some are hiding in this picture) and I am working on the white rounds.......
And some more yarn play food for my niece Megan.....
I am taking a slight vacation for an extended 4 day weekend......will be back with plenty of pictures to show! I am going with some friends to celebrate my friend Te-Keisha's birthday - fun times ahead.....hopefully with some sunshine!!!!!

Talk to you soon!

How goes your week?

Hi everyone,

How is YOUR week going? Good I hope!

I really do not like Spring. Its great in the fact
that it means winter is over and hopefully no more
snow. But honestly, with spring comes allergy season.
Scratchy eyes, coughing, sneezing....not a whole lot
of fun I tell you! Its already hitting here in
Belgium - I woke up the other day after having my
windows open to air the apartment out and my eyes were
swollen shut and gunked over - ugh!

So now starts the frantic spring cleaning. trying to
vacuum up all of the pollen and dust that enters the
apartment. Also being done is the traditional
cleaning of the cupboards and closets. I have already
thrown out 4 large garbage bags of junk and I have
only gone through 3 of the rooms and still have the
dining room area and living room / craft section to do
- eek!!!

The boyfriend says that I need to get rid of some of
my shoes that I am not wearing...my response to that
one was a huge NO! I just might buy an outfit at some
point in the future where I will need those shoes. I
can not just throw them out! I think that the BF has
about 5 pairs to my 50 pairs (not including my US
based shoe collection which he does not know about
ssshhhh!).

I am working on a new crochet pattern - this bag:
http://www.stricksucht.de/anleitungen/crochetedbag.pdf

I am making it using Anchor Magicline as called for in
a Pink-Red-Purple color way. I've finished 6 of the
16 squares so far....going slow as I only work on this
during slow times while not at home - waiting in
lines, on the tram / bus etc. It fits nicely in the
purse as I only need to bring one skein and hook and
just work on one square at a time.

Okay, that is about it for now. I must get back to
work as lunch time is over!

Happy Wednesday!

Hellllloooooooo! =)

I'm back. I think.

That cold kicked my butt - almost a full month sick, 2 weeks super bad, 1 week where everyone told me I should go back home and one week still coughing a little bit and sinuses still draining a little bit. What a nasty bug this one was!

I've not touched my hooks and needles since being back at all really. Not sure why, just no ambition to do so. A little bit depressed and sad and of course the normal over-worked and underpaid at the job.

I have had some pattern acquisitions thanks to a co-worker who brought me back some wonderful pattern books from a fair she went to in Paris. There is on Amigurumi book....in Japanese and one Dou-Dous book which is French for children's toys and of course that on is in French! What great fun I'll have!

Here are some pics:






Cute no?

I promise to get myself back to my normal crafting self some time soon.......thanks for bearing with me! I do have a bunch of projects in various stages and some just waiting to be sewn up, so perhaps I'll have some finished items and pattern reviews coming soon......and of course there will be the fun of my learning to do Japanese patterns!

Ah crud!

Ah crud...literally. I got that crappy icky nasty cold / virus that is going around and I've been laid up in bed pretty much all week, working from home via my laptop whenever I could find the energy.

I am starting to get better, just in time for the weekend and for my friend Zori to come visit - yay!

A few things for show and tell today.

First up, my new Knitting Needle holder, which is probably older than me! This lovely holder came to me from my Grandma. She had given me her yarn stash about a year ago, but had held on to her needles. My Grandfather gave me the holder and her needles after the funeral. Now, every time I go to get a new needle, I will think of Grandma.



Next up is the hat I made for Meti while back in the US. This hat provided some well needed laughter and relief at times when I would pull it out and stick it on my Dad's head for sizing....we laughed because the hole in the top of the hat where the needles were would showcase ever so wonderfully that little patch of "clear hair" that my Dad has on the top of his head!



And last up today is a wonderful surprise that was waiting for me here in Belgium when I arrived back. It was hand delivered while I was in the US by my friend Zori, all the way from Argentina. Thank you Vik! It was so bright and cheery - I smiled when I opened it up!



I am off to eat some more Chicken Noodle soup! Have a great day everyone!

Thank yous

I just wanted to send out large THANK YOUs to all of you who have left comments, kept me and my family in your thoughts and prayers, sent e-mails etc the past 2 weeks.

It has meant a lot to me and has kept me going to knows that I have such wonderful on-line friends.

I am back in Belgium now and I promise that some regular knitting and crocheting news is on its way!

Stay tuned!

Farewell Grandmere

My wonderful and beautiful Grandmother passed on yesterday, February 21st during the wee hours of the morning. I spent her last day next to her bed holding her hand and telling her how much I loved her after I flew in late on Tuesday. I am so glad that I was able to fly over and be here with my family as being in Belgium would have torn me in two.

She fought long and hard her whole life, even up to the end she fought hard to stay and amazed Doctors by lasting 2 days more than they thought she could.

We have tons of good memories left of Grandma which will help us in the days, weeks, moths and years to come. I like to think that my Crafting abilities came from Grandma as she was always knitting or making things out of beads.

God Bless to Grandma, we love you!

Grandma.....

Hi

Its been a rough past few days for me so I've not been doing much.

My Grandmother has been in and out of the nursing home into the hospital. They sent her from the hospital back to the nursing home on Friday night for the last time as there is nothing else that they can do for her as her internal organs are all shutting down and they give her only a few more days. It is the hardest thing to be so far from home and being able to be with my Mom and Grandfather. They are both hanging in there though and spending as much time as possible at the home with my Grandma.

I called earlier and was able to kinda talk to her since she is drifting in and out of consciousness. I sent her my love and my Mom says that she was trying to talk and working her throat but was not able to vocalize, but she understood that it was me and nodded when my Mom asked her if she wanted to tell me "hello and I love you"

Please send some thoughts and prayers her way as she faces these last days.

Cookies......

Yum!! =) More playfood has been created....along with some real food this time!