Another pair of crocheted slippers

I finished these a few weeks ago. The pattern is in the Leisure Arts booklet Cozy Slippers and Throws. They are for my daughter for Christmas. They look like they may be a tad small in which case I'm enclosing an I.O.U. for a larger size if they don't fit. I used Red Heart Soft yarn for these, also. This Teal color seems to be a little firmer although still soft...than the Seafoam Green that I used for the Granny Square slippers. The pattern is rated for a beginner and was reasonably easy. I was very careful/diligent about placing markers to keep my place for the increases and decreases in each round. That helped a lot. I chose to use flowers for trim rather than pompoms. The flowers were made with my Boye Bloom Loom. I'm in the process of crocheting a bag to go with them.

Granny Square Slippers

Here is a photo of the 1st pair of slippers I've ever crocheted. They are made with 6 granny squares for each slipper. I didn't want too many ends to weave in, so I used only 2 colors.

They are from a pattern in the Leisure Arts booklet Cozy Crocheted Slippers. I liked the project because it gave me experience joining granny squares without commiting to a large project.

I used Red Heart Soft yarn which was nice to work with.

Bernat Easy Poncho finally finished.

Finally finished this project a week ago this past Thursday night and sewed it together on Friday and Saturday.

Now, I've moved on to the Strawberry Fields matching sweater and skirt set for GD and an 18 inch doll for Christmas. It's so wonderful to be working with normal yarn again. Have just knitted the front or back up to the armhole shaping and will be working on the other front or back up to the same armhole shaping. Remember I'm knitting both sides on two sets of needles...the way I should have done with the poncho in the first place.

Also, am refreshing my memory with crocheted doilies. Actually, I don't remember having made doilies before. I've started with a few coaster size doilies. I'm also learning to do filet crochet...think I'm getting hooked after having completed a sample with the letter A.

I haven't forgotten my other WIPs - the tube socks and the crocheted tie front vest. It's still a little too warm to resume the vest project.

Granddaughter visited today and received her poncho.

WIP Progress

I'm still working on the poncho. It feels as though I'm chained to this project...don't dare start any other large project until it is completed because the knitting goes so slowly with the boucle yarn. Progress should go a little more quickly now since I'm decreasing from 65 stitches to 35 stitches. Then I get to face the challenge of sewing the two halves together.

I've completed another bride's dress for Barbie except for sewing on snaps and weaving in loose threads. Also, need to make some undergarments before posting photos of the finished dresses on Barbie.

We were surprised by this bat clinging to the screen on our bathroom window this morning. Don't know if the bat will decide to make this his permanent home or if it has a mate.

Why I hate boucle

Guess I can't say it enough - I HATE BOUCLE!
Boucle has little nubs of yarn that give it a nubby texture. These nubs tend to split...the strands of the splits tend to get caught where you don't want them to on the left needle.

Also, the texture of this type of yarn makes it very difficult to see the stitches in order to achieve a correct stitch gauge or to locate errors that are causing holes.

Also, it is frequently necessary to insert the right needle into the front and back of the stitch on the left needle to loosen it in order to procede with the next stitch. This makes me feel as though I'm knitting four ponchos although I'm only knitting one.

Also, the tension of each stitch does not adjust automaticly the way it does with normal yarn. The nubs get hung up when pulling the stitch through with the right hand needle.

Also, It is nearly impossible to frog or unravel this yarn if one should wish to simply start the entire project over again.

Needless to say I have no intention of ever knitting a large item with boucle again when this poncho is finally completed.

Crocheted Kerchief

Also, in recent months I crocheted this kerchief for my granddaughter. The pattern was a freebie from www.crochetpatterncentral.com.

Finished Item - Angel Baby Dress

My most recently finished knitted project was this Angel Baby Dress from the Knitting in the Round book. It was the first thing I had ever made that was knitted in the round. The Dreambaby Kokonut yarn recommended in the pattern was unavailable so I settled for Lion Brand's Baby Soft yarn which was a similar weight and fiber blend. I used Bernat's BabyLash for the trim since I wanted it to be machine washable, also. The project was started around the end of March and was completed in early June...not too bad considering the interruption of a drive to Florida in April in addition to the usual tasks of cooking, cleaning, doctor appointments, laundry, shopping, etc.
I made the headband also using the Babylash yarn.

Granddaughter called it a top which is a more accurate description. Even the photo in the book couldn't actually be called a dress.

New addition to the family - a PomChi

Just last week we adopted a new dog from a shelter. He is a 2 1/2 year old chihuahua/pomeranian mix. He's supposed to have one bad flaw...he snarls and snaps when someone tries to move him - or looks at him if he is settled comfortably where he wants to be. In fact one of the reasons he was given up to the shelter was that he bit someone for just looking in the direction he was settled in. We seem to be making progress in ridding him of this habit. Mostly, we simply say, "Dusty, NO!" firmly and say, " Bad dog!" to which he usually stops the snarling. A couple of times we have used a spray bottle of water which Dusty definitely doesn't like. He stops the offending behavior and slinks away from the spot he was just defending. The snarling episodes are getting to be less frequent. He really is a soft fluff ball who loves to be held and babied. He loves nothing better than to be held all day.

Easy Poncho progress

As I've said before, I hate knitting with boucle yarn. If I hadn't shown the half I had completed earlier to my granddaughter or if she didn't seem to love the yarn color and softness, I probably would have scrapped this project.

In any case, when I checked to confirm that both halves measured the same at my current point of completion I discovered that one half was shorter, but had fewer stitches than the other half. Apparently, I had decreased more stitches on it than I should have on it. I was not about to rip back to discover where the errors were so decided to simply increase the number of stitches carefully and evenly for the next eight rows. There were five stitches to be made up. It seems to be working out.

Although the weather hasn't been hot enough to turn the air conditioning on, it has been too hot for working on the poncho this last week. So I've been working on the EZ tube socks instead. I think I am near the mid-way point on the poncho and hope to return to it as soon as the weather cools a little.

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.

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.

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