Crochet By Day...Knitter By Night

I hope to share my crochet and knitting projects along with any other crafts I may pursue. Mostly I knit and crochet for my six year old granddaughter and my dogs plus incidental houselold items. Occasionally I do Cross Stitch and Plastic Canvas work.

Name:
Location: Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, United States

I'm married. I'm the mother of a son and a daughter who are now grown. I have one granddaughter. We share our home with three dogs and a black capped conure.

Monday, July 24, 2006

Maggie gets the sweater


Maggie actually looked better in this sweater and she kept checking on the yarn as it was being knitted soooo SHE got this one.

Sunday, July 23, 2006

First Dog Sweater Project


Here are Maggie our pomeranian and Pepper our yorkshire terrier. Pepper is wearing the sweater that I knitted for him last winter. It was my 1st project after putting down my needles for nearly 3 years. Maggie was jealous of Pepper's new sweater.

Current works in progress

  • Easy Poncho by Bernat using Bernat Baby Boucle yarn
  • Strawberry Fields Sweater set for Daughter and Doll in the May, 2006 issue of Creative Knitting
  • Tie Front Vest in the Lily Sugar 'n Cream Girl Talk crochet booklet
  • crocheted bride's dress in the August, 1976 McCall's Doll Fashion booklet
  • EZ tube socks using free pattern from www.frugalhaus.com

This is my 2nd attempt with the Easy Poncho. When I completed the 2nd half I discovered that it was much shorter than the 1st half. So this time around, I'm knitting both halves at the same time...using 2 sets of needles, I work a section on one half then work the same section on the other half. I really hate working with boucle yarn and probably would have scrapped the entire project if I hadn't shown the finished first half to my granddaughter. She loved the color and softness of the yarn.

The Tie Front Vest is on the back burner for a while because it covers my lap. Since we try to use our air conditioners as little as possible, it's simply too hot to work on a project that large.

I've recently completed the Bride'sMaid dress and hat from the McCall's Doll Fashion booklet except for applying a couple of snaps and weaving in a couple of loose ends. I'm now working on the Bride's dress using metallic thread. I had been looking all over my house in various stacks of craft books, etc. without any success in locating this booklet even though I was sure I had seen it somewhere in recent years. Fortunately, I was able to purchase a copy on Ebay. Within a week my husband found my original copy. Turned out it was still among some books and craft supplies that hadn't been unpacked since we moved here 10 years ago. I was fond of this booklet because I had used it to crochet Barbie doll dresses for my daughter and knew they would fit.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Always A Beginner

I've been thinking of creating a blog, but couldn't decide on a title until today while working on a Barbie dress for my granddaughter. Lately I've been crocheting during the day and knitting at night.

I've been knitting and crocheting off and on since my two children were small in the '60s. Actually, I learned to knit in junior high school, but didn't really get into it until I became a mother. My mother crocheted doilies using crochet thread and a steel hook, but I couldn't seem to learn from her. She crocheted too fast for me to see exactly how the stitches were made once she created the foundation chain. Years later, I finally taught myself from a booklet.

After nearly three years of doing no needlework at all, I began again last fall with sweater projects for my two dogs - a yorkie and a pomeranian.

The dog sweater pattern called for using circular needles. This was my first experience knitting with them and now wish I had tried them years ago. I probably wouldn't have such large time gaps between knitting projects. I've hardly put down my needles since using circulars. I hope to post photos of the items I've made since last fall as soon as I figure out how to do so. Until then these finished items can be view at my blog at