August Smalls ~ A Mystery Solved

Howdy to you all~ I'm a little late this post due to me not paying attention this week whatsoever!  The weather was all weird and threw me off my regularly scheduled life.  Looking forward to this nice, long weekend though.  I've not done much actual stitching lately but it's times for the Smalls SAL update where a mystery(?) has been solved!

click for info!

I had a number of amusing guesses as to what the mysterious little brown things were. Everything from finger/toe warmers to kitten mittens (kitten mittens were tried by my husband ahaha). Only one person guessed correctly -- chair boots! The reason why the opening is so small is because I crocheted over elastic.

suddenly the correct amount

I can never get the little felt sticky things to actually stick to our dining room chairs as they come down at a strange angle and aren't flat on the bottom.  After going through my collection of older craft magazines, this pattern looked easy and functional!  And they certainly are easy; each one takes around 20-30 minutes to hook up, including making the elastic loop.

weird legs

Unfortunately, they wound up being a tad too small for the chairs (you'd think I'd test this after making one)!  But, we have wood floors everywhere in our house and ample other things to put them on.  Plus, they were hugely attractive to a certain small-item-stealing kitty so it's safe knowing that even if they fail as chair boots, they make a fantastic cat toy.

Technical Details

• "Chair Boots" pattern Crochet World Omnibook, Fall 1981
• Hook: 5.5mm
• Yarn: Peaches & Creme Solids; Colorway: dark taupe.
• My ravelry project page here.
• Unknown start/end as I didn't make a note in my crafty calendar!

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unknown variety -- 'peace' or 'garden party' maybe?

I've been working on this rose bush a bit more this year.  I gave it a very drastic haircut in February and have been giving it some fish fertilizer once a month.  Basically just trying to love on it after its obvious neglect.  I think it appreciates the attention because it rewarded me with a few more very stellar blooms this year.  It's like it was glowing!  I hope that next year I can achieve even more from it. It's planted in a spot that receives wonderful morning sun but after about 10-11am it's shaded for the rest of the day. I'm thinking of trying to get a cutting started so I can move it to somewhere with a lot more sunshine.

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Lastly, I have a poll for you all regarding your preference for leaving comments on blogs.  I am not asking what setting you use on your own blog!  Just wondering which you like best when you visit another blog.

Which comment setting do you prefer to use when visiting another blog?

Embedded (appears at the bottom of the post)

Popup Window (the small box opens)

Full Page (a new page opens)

No Preference

 

pollcode.com free polls

Thanks for taking the time to answer! There's no real point other than curiosity on my part. You can ramble about your choice in the comment section if you want to expound or possibly rant. :D

Happy September!  Let the Autumn festivities begin~

July GG ~ I Have No Idea What I'm Doing

Actually, I live my whole life not knowing what I'm doing. \:D/

click for more info

Hi, folks! It's summer time in full swing (since May...) and here's a little not-so-secret secret: I HATE SUMMER. I absolutely despise being hot. That feeling when you walk outdoors and your breath is burned away and you can swim through the air? No, thank you. I'll grudgingly accept it because it means my tomatoes and peppers are thriving.  I have to water everything every morning (some items get more in the evening too) or they burn to a crisp.  At least I have some pretty blooms...

hibiscus #3

My GG post is late this time, mostly because I kind of feel like I've sort of hit a stitchy block but the overall crafting bug is still there.  I have a little thing I've been working on but it really deserves its own post and subsequent exclamation marks.  Can you possibly guess what it will be?  :)))

In actual, honest-to-goodness GG stitching, I have the next (and last!) side of the Husband Cube charted and floss tossed, but I got wind of the fact that DMC's latest colors can be bought individually at Hobby Lobby.  I want to check out those grays before I commit to the ones currently kitted.

I did make this hat on a whim.  I can shoehorn this in for GG as the white and dark blue yarns were originally bought for the Little Cowboy Afghan that I gifted last year.  So this was a bonus stash busting; I have only about a yard of white left and even less of the aqua!  It is also kind of a prototype as I wanted to see how it looked worked up.  I think I know someone who will really like this in a different colorway.

a little feminine cloche

Technical Details

• "Ridge Hat with Brim" freebie pattern by Kool Stitch on ravelry.
• Hook: G (4.00mm).
• Yarn: Caron Simply Soft; Colorway: white, aqua, and dark country blue
• My ravelry project page here.
• Started: July 3, 2018, Finished July 5, 2018, unknown hours.

I loved making this!  It's a very simple and quick pattern with cute results.  Even though I went up to a 4.00mm hook, I think a 4.25mm (which I do not have; this is an odd size to find in the US) would’ve been perfect for me as it's just a little snug.  It won't be blowing away!  The little flower is currently held on by a safety pin.  I thought this would allow me to make different flowers or even just remove it for a different feel.  I did a crab stitched edge in the aqua for a little extra splash of color. It's a good thing I've been on such a stash busting kick lately because...

thrifting is life

This little pile was "gifted" to the local thrift store and of course I couldn't pass it by.  There are four skeins of Malabrigo yarn (the purples and blues - 100% merino wool), two skeins of Knit Picks Palatte (red - 100% wool), two skeins of Louet (grey, 100% merino wool), and one skein of Noro (multi-blue/grey - 50% wool, 25% angora, 25% nylon).  These are all really pricey yarns around here!  The Noro alone would've cost $23 before tax and I got all the yarn for $14.  The Spring Blossom casserole dishes were an added bonus, though I goofed when I bought the green one -- I already have that size!  My little spreadsheet was not updated with this information.  I fixed that immediately and took this dish back.  Another little set within a set completed!

now let's all move into child's pose

Peanut gifts his adorableness to you all. ;)  He decided that I worked out enough and needed to move on to other things, like filling my phone up with more cat pictures.

That's all from me; a bit meager, I know.  Too much tenuous shoehorning going on here!  I hope next month will be better~

Flowers and Afghans, Oh My

Hello again! Poking my head back into the blogging world for a quick(?) ramble.

We are mostly settled in our new place.  There was a terrible lot of rain over a few days and while the basement didn't flood, it certainly oozed.  Last weekend my husband and I ripped out the drywall in one room to see just what the extent of damage was -- luckily, not too bad!  And we got the pleasant surprise that the wiring down there is actually grounded, but the outlets had not been updated.  That is an easy fix; I am comfortable swapping outlets and it means less than half the house will need updated.  We will tear out one more wall, and probably a closet, to see if there are any more suspicious spots and to remove moldy drywall.  Renovations are kind of fun but I am so tired of being surrounded by boxes that had to be hastily moved and spread out to dry.

I have no vegetable garden this year, and the flowers already planted have been mostly disappointing.  I was hopeful the iris blossoms would be lovely... they were black.  A washed-out deep purple black.  Yuck.  They will be finding new homes with people who can appreciate them.  The daylilies turned out to be yellow and sort of scraggly due to lack of light.  No daffodils. This will be remedied next year.  I cannot live in a world without daffodils.  There are also clumps of what I suspect are going to be "naked ladies" (surprise lilies, or whatever you know those goofy things as).  The leaves have died back and I expect the flowers to pop out of the ground overnight within the next month or so.

almost worth it

 
We also have a small "water feature" that has some beautiful water lily blossoms.  I really love the flowers but I do not want to take care of a water garden, nor invite mosquitoes to take care of it for me! It is also in pretty rough shape; the liner is torn in places so it's not as full of water as it should be and there are weeds everywhere around it.

pink "evening" primroses

These guys are taking over the backyard.  I rather like them but they can be very voracious spreaders. They are native wildflowers here and I am contemplating getting them started in the ditch in front of the house. There they can spread to their little blossomy heart's content and I won't have to mow that (very difficult) area.

Then the lone rose bush bloomed.  It was in sad shape when we moved in.  I gave it some fertilizer and a haircut and it had a few blooms.  At first I thought it was going to be yellow, which was okay with me.  Then they blushed!  I think these are actually Peace roses (or possibly Garden Party) and I am gonna try my hardest to spread them all over the flower gardens as they are truly beautiful (even after a rough life) and have a wonderful aroma.

Corelle salt shaker vase

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Well, enough about my gardening woes.  I have been a bit slow on the crafting front.  I have an item on the knitting needles, but no picture of it, and it's, like, way over there, far too far for me to move and snap one.  Instead, here is a crocheted small baby afghan for a family member who is expecting their first.  The father is a Dallas Cowboy's fan so this was a fairly easy choice to make.  The star afghan is quite popular on ravelry and I scoured the projects page(s) for notes and ideas for color placement.

little cowboy afghan

  Technical Details

• "Little Cowboy Afghan" pattern by Beth Parsons, found here on ravelry (free).
• G hook
• Yarn: Caron Simply Soft, dark country blue, grey heather, and white.
• Started March 17, 2017; finished June 14, 2017; unknown hours.

I have no idea how big or small a baby blanket should be!  A friend suggested I wrap up my largest cat and then make it a bit bigger, so that is what I did, to much amusement of my husband and much confusion of my cat.  It wound up being 39" from point to point, unblocked.  I suppose this is a little small.  Babies are a little small too, right?

a very confused purrito

It's done in (US) double crochet with a crab stitched edge for a bit extra strength.  I would love to make another one of these in rainbow colors, or all blues, or a Mario Star, just for us.  I was happy to make this one as a gift, but the colors are very drab for me to work on for long stretches of time.  It's not entirely mindless because it required counting or the points would spiral.

The yarn itself was nice to work with too, so very soft, until the second skein of blue.  What a yarn barf mess that was!  I don't mind untangling yarn but that was the closest I've ever come to snipping off the offensive part.  Yeesh.

Still no cross-stitch, though while I was crocheting the blanket, I was sitting next to the bag containing my few WIPs.  It was whispering to me.  :)  When projects start talking to you, that's a good sign, right?