Market Day!

Today is Wednesday, and more importantly for me, it's Farmers' Market Day in Momence.  I really do like having somewhere to go every week during the summer that I can look forward to.  I get to visit with folks who are other vendors and folks who are customers.  I get a lot of nice compliments on my work, and, most importantly, I can sell my stuff to help supplement my income.  I will sometimes have a big day and sell a lot, but most weeks it's just one or two items.  I'm happy as long as I can sell enough to cover my gas to and from Momence.  The market is set up in the police department parking lot, right next to the Kankakee River, so we always get a nice breeze going through.  The weather today is supposed to be beautiful again (we had a storm front move through last night and the temps are back down into the 70s), and I am looking forward to seeing everyone there.  Market runs from 3:30 to 6:30 ever Wednesday.  If you're ever in the Momence, Illinois area on a Wednesday afternoon, stop by and say hello.

New Internet Connection

I have finally been able to get rid of Internet Explorer and get Google Chrome downloaded.   It took many tries, but I finally got it done on Tuesday.  The IE browser that I had on my system was old and because I have Windows XP Media Center, I couldn't update it without getting a whole new computer.   Now, I don't have to worry about that for a few more months.

I am amazed at how much faster my PC is currently running using the Google Chrome.   I get to read entire entries on Facebook without having to wait for the browser to reset itself a dozen times.   I don't have enough money right now to purchase a new computer, so I am very happy that I will be able to continue using this one for a little while yet.   I would like to buy a new one by the end of the year, but I also need to get a new car and a new TV, too.   Going to keep my fingers crossed that this fix works for a long while.

2013 - continued

Once I returned from the COF retreat at the end of June, I had to deal with a bad left brake, which went out just after I crossed into Ohio on my way home. Took the car into my brother. He had to replace the brake pad and caliper and it cost me $400. He also asked me if I realized that there was a loud hum and I said yes, but that I thought it was because of the bad brake. He said no, it was a part in my transmission electronics that was going bad. I asked if the part could be replaced and the answer was not good. Mike told me that he could order the part and replace it for me but since my car was 14 years old, it wasn't very cost affective. You see, the part on its own costs more than my entire old car is worth - $1200. Add a couple of hundred for the labor and I would be putting out $400 or $500 more than my car was worth. I asked him what we should do. He said that I should drive it until it died. That was last July and it's still running, but I do not know for how much longer. In the meantime, I just keep driving along, being careful not to push it too hard. Once it dies for real, I'm going to have to come up with the money to buy a decent used car. I've already been doing research on possible cars and have decided that, due to the degenerating arthritis in my spine, I want to get a vehicle that has a higher seat. Getting into the car isn't so bad (I can just plop down if I need to), but getting out is getting harder and harder. Anyway, once I got back into the swing of things, I was doing the Momence Farmers' market every week and I adopted a new "business" name. I am now known as "The Crochet Lady", and I have the coolest business cards from VistaPrint that feature a crochet hook and a ball of yarn! I also managed to find a few more craft shows to do. Primarily, folks find my booth at a show and then take one of my cards and I get an e-mail a couple of days later inviting me to do their show. Or they just walk up and say that they love my work and hand me a flyer. Last year, I managed to add five new craft shows to my list. And this year, 2014, I have already done 3 new shows with another coming up next week and 4 more new shows for the fall, so I'll be busy, busy, busy. And I will be starting the Farmers' Market on July 16. I have been expanding my line of crochet items. I'm getting pretty good with doilies (even finished a large pineapply one) and I've been doing sweaters and bags and all kinds of other goodies. I just hope that I can sell a lot of my stuff this year, 'cause I need the money for that new car. I also need a new TV and a new computer. It's going to be an expensive year! More later. (Note: it has only been a few days since my last entry and I'm going to try to be more conscientious about keeping this blog up-to-date).

Long Time, No Post

I have been having problems with my computer lately and have just started rebuilding my favorites file. I realized that I not only had I lost a lot of patterns and pictures, but I also lost my entire list of Blogs, including my own. After an unsuccessful search, I remembered that I had a link to it through my signature block on the HGTV Quilting Board, so I went there and clicked on the link. And, voila, here I am! OMG, I cannot believe that I haven't posted anything since last March 2013. I guess I've been really busy. Let's see. Well, in June of 2013 I got to do to my first COF retreat. It was held in Harrisburg, PA, right in the middle of Amish country. I decided to drive out there. I have always taken road trips by myself and didn't think that this one would be any different. I failed to take into consideration that it had been almost 20 years since I took my last solo road trip, and that I was now over 65 years in age. Suffice it to say that I decided that I would never take a driving trip by myself again. It is just too hard on my old body. I left at 2am on a Thursday morning with the expectations that I would be arriving at the hotel in Harrisburg around 4:30pm EST. WRONG! The first eight hours weren't too bad. I managed to get from Illinois almost all the way across Indiana in that time when I stopped for breakfast. I had made a couple of pit stops for gas and potty breaks, and just to stretch my body. And then I got to Ohio, where the tollway was under construction intermittently across the entire state. I called the hotel to leave a message for the retreat hostesses that I would be in later than I thought and to just bring my sandwich back from the dinner. If I thought, Ohio was bad, it was nothing compared to the 186 miles that I had to travel on the Pennsylvania Turnpike from Ohio to Harrisburg. It was up and down through mountain tunnels with 18 wheelers and only two lanes of the four open. Oh, what fun to head into a tunnel that dropped seven miles over the span of one mile with a semi to my right and one behind me. It only took about 8 minutes, but I was shaking by the time I got through it. And instead of being able to cover the 186 miles in about three hours, it took closer to five due to the construction. I finally got to the hotel around 8:15. I had been on the road for over 19 hours (for a trip that according to MapQuest should have only taken 14). I got checked into my room and went to the COF gathering place. When I walked in, they were playing "Fat Quarter Bingo". I introduced myself to a couple of people and found Lori, the Hostess for the event. She gave me my retreat bag filled with goodies and helped me find my roommate for the weekend, Kelley, who had taken a 3-day bus trip from Oregon. As bad as my trip had been, Kelley's was worse. When she had changed buses in Philadelphia, they lost her luggage. She had a change of underwear in her travel tote just in case, but nothing else. I loaned her the little house dress that I had brought (hadn't even worn it yet) to use as a nightie. While she was much taller than me, the size 2X dress fit her. It was just really, really short, but at least she had something she could wear. She also had her retreat t-shirt that she could alternate with her other top (the one that she was wearing). So she could wash out one set of undies and a top to have clean the next day, but she only had one pair of pants to wear for the entire weekend. Anyway, we put all of our problems behind us and started our classes on Friday with a bright, shiny attitude. The next three days flew by. We had classes all day Friday (one morning and one afternoon sessions). When we weren't in class, we were in the gathering room, working on projects, finding out about the other retreaters, and just visiting. On Saturday, we did a scavenger hunt through Amish country, visiting four or five different fabric stores along the way and ended up at a huge Amish buffet restaurant for dinner. Dessert was back in the gathering room, where we enjoyed games of FQ bingo and a speaker from the local quilting historical group who had brought almost 75 German and Amish quilts for us to oooh and aaah over. The retreat ended at noon on Sunday, but I had decided to stay over until Monday morning. Kelley had to get back to the bus station on Sunday evening in order to start the 3-day trip back to Oregon. She posted when she finally got home that when she stopped in Philly to change buses, she looked in at Lost and Found, and lo and behold, there was her bag, so she got to take it back with her. Things were looking up! I enjoyed a very nice dinner in the hotel restaurant, took myself back to my room, had a shower and finished up my packing. I watched television until about 11 and then lights out 'cause I had an early morning. Got up at around 6:30, got dressed and got ready to leave. I decided that I would pack my car first, then sit down to one last meal at the hotel (they had a wonderful breakfast buffet). At 7:30, I stopped at the front desk to turn in my key (bill was taken care of on Saturday evening) and headed to my car. I had gone to the Travel Center in the Hotel on Sunday afternoon to check on alternate routes so that I did not have to take that awful turnpike again. I found that if I head north on PA 322, I could connect with I-80 and then head west from there. And that's what I did. I stopped one last time in Harrisburg to fill up and then I headed north. It was around 8:15am. I have to say that the drive on PA 322 was actually fairly pleasant. There were only a couple of spots in the 95 mile trip that were under construction and the traffic wasn't too bad. I reached I-80 by 10:45 and headed west. When I got to Ohio, I-80 merged with the Ohio Tollway and I was back on familiar ground. Familiar, but slow ground. It took nearly seven hours, with breaks, to cross Ohio with all of the construction areas. I had planned on being home by 9pm, but I knew that wasn't going to happen when it started to rain. It rained for the last 80 miles in Ohio and into Indiana. Then it started to really storm. The rain was being blown sideways and there was lightning. I pulled off at the next rest area to wait out the worst of it. The only problem was that the storm was heading the same way that I was. I finally got back on the road and past South Bend. I still had about two hours left in Indiana before I finally got to Illinois and it was already after 9pm. I called my niece (who was my contact person while I was travelling) and told her that I would probably not be in much before 1am. My eyes were burning so much and I was so tired of fighting the rain and the construction that I planned on taking a little nap. And that's what I did. I was parked in front of a McDonalds at the rest stop and lowered my seat and went to sleep - for 2 hours. When I woke up, it was nearly midnight. I went into the McDonalds and got a cup of coffee with lots of sugar and headed home. The drive was easy and unexpected the rest of the way and I got home at just before 2am. I left everything in the car, except my medications, and went into my apartment, climbed into bed and went to sleep. At 8am, I got up and called my niece at work to let her know that I had gotten home alive and everything was okay. She said that she knew 'cause she checked my parking space on her way to work and my car was there. Smart girl! Anyway, I spent that Tuesday unpacking my car and putting things away. There were a couple of aftermath things that I had to deal with, though. Going up and down all of those mountain roadways killed one of my brake lines. I had to also have the brake caliper and drum replaced. It cost me $400. Added to that, my brother (who is my mechanic) told me that there is a piece in my transmission computer that is going out. Unfortunately, the piece itself would cost $1200, plus the labor to put it in. Since my car at that time was 14 years old, he didn't suggest I do that as it would cost almost double of what the car is worth to fix it. Needlesstosay, we did not fix that part. The good news is that I am still driving it a year later and while it sounds really loud inside the car, so far the car is still running. I am, however, starting to put aside my pennies for a new/used car. So there. I've caught up for the month of June 2013 and I think that's enough for now. I PROMISE myself that I will try to do a much better job of keeping this blog up-to-date. There are a lot of things I need to post about 2013 and several more about this year of 2014. I will get caught up soon.

Moving Right Along

Well, since the last time I posted, I have not only finished my sweater and the baby christening set, I have also started a second little white blanket and I've made several new bracelets.  Pics of those will follow later.  I haven't posted in a while 'cause I was having a problem uploading pics from my camera.  Turns out it needed to be erased and plugged into the charger for a much needed recharge.  Today I was actually able to take the pictures that I wanted and I'm going to post them now.

Let's start with my sweater.  If you remember, I made the sweater using some of the yarn that I got from my niece and her family for Christmas.  I called it Somerset, after the multi-color thread of that name.  It was crocheted in one piece from the neck down and the sleeves were crocheted directly onto the sweater body.  First, a photo of the whole sweater:

As you can see, this is a loose jacket type of sweater.  The lapel border acts as a floppy collar around the neck and the sleeves are nice and roomy.

Here's a close-up of the Somerset yarn.  It has all of the colors in it, which is why I was drawn to using it.

This photo actually shows the true colors of the sweater.  The others are a little washed out (my camera is nice, but not the greatest).  Anyway, the sweater is done and I have worn it several times already.  It's nice to have something to pop on when it's a little too chilly in the house so that I don't have to up the thermostat.

I also finished the baby christening set by adding a little hat.  It now has a blanket, sweater and hat.  I'm still looking for a bootie pattern that I like.  Once I add the booties, it will be complete.  First pic is of the sweater and hat.

And, a close-up of the blanket.  It's done with a V-stitch pattern.

All of the pieces are trimmed with a picot edge.  I'll add the same edging to the booties once I make them, too.

The last thing that I finished up were my biscornu pincushions.  Last time I posted, I had them all sewn together and they were stuffed.  Since then, I have added embellishments to the nine that I'm mailing out this week for the pincushion swap.  Here's a pic of the whole group.

And a close-up of a couple of them; one has a fish button on top (with air bubbles) and the other is trimmed with little dice on the corners.  (Sorry about the focus, or lack thereof, but when I go in close to shoot, it's the best I can get.)

The others have beads and trims around the seams, with some having buttons in the middle and others not.  All of these will be mailed off to my friend Lindsay in Missouri this week and in a few weeks, I'll get back a box with nine pincushions made by other cyber-friends.  Can't wait to see what I get.  I promise that I'll post pics once they get here.  For now, I've started making some new jewelry and I'll put together a new post in a few weeks.  Have a Happy St. Patrick's Day, all!

Biscornu - Double Corners

In keeping with my resolve to post more often and to show some of my work, today I am going to show you the pincushion that I am making for the HGTV Pincushion Swap being hosted by Lindsay (SavedSinnr).  Actually, I'm making 10 of these for the swap, but since I'm using up one of my charm packs, I will actually be making 22 of these cute little pincushions.  I had been searching for an idea for a couple of weeks when I got the latest issue of the Keepsake Needlework catalog.  As I was browsing through it, I saw a book about these little pincushions called "biscornus".  While I was interested in them, I didn't really want to spend $14.95 for a book I might not need.  Instead, I looked closely at the photo, then I Googled biscornu and found other examples.

This little pattern was originally created to be used with small pieces of needlework, and most that were shown were about 1" to 2" squares.  But I wanted something bigger, so I went through my stash and found a charm pack of batiks.  Aha!  Perfect!  There were 44 5-inch charms in all the colors of the rainbow, so I went to work matching up pairs.

When I had finished, I had 22 pairs of fabrics.  I matched them corner to corner, which gives me 4 corners.

But these are called "biscornu", from the French meaning "double corners".  So, we need to make 8 corners instead of 4.  Hmmm, how to do that.  I know!  If we start the end of the top fabric at the middle of the other, we will end up with 8 sides, instead of 4 - I hope.

So that's what I did.  I sewed the first half of fabric 1 to the second half of fabric 2, then turned the corner, pulling fabric 1 around to meet the first half of the next side of fabric 2.  (It is very important that you remember the 1/4" seam allowance in order to keep all of your seams equal.)  I kept going around the bottom square and pulling the top fabric around the corners as needed, until I had sewn 7 sections together.  Heres what it looked like.

Then I turned it right sides out and stuffed it pretty firmly, being sure to fill all of the corners.

When I finished, I had a little 8-sided pillow with one short seam still to be stitched close.

Right now, I am working on getting all 22 stitched together and stuffed.  Next will come the embellishments, and do these ever call for those.  I'll be adding little tassels, a center button, some beads, etc.  I'll post about these again when they are closer to being fnished.  So, I am keeping my resolution to post more often and to show my work.  I am still working on my sweater, by the way, and should have it finished soon.  I post a picture of it once I'm done.  In the meantime, I hope you all have a great week, and keep warm!

Another New Year

Wow, we're already through the first month of 2013!  And I haven't posted anything in a while.  I'm going to try to be more diligent in posting more often.  I may take a lesson from Future Girl's blog and start posting my crochet projects as I'm making them.  I'm currently working on a sweater for myself.  I'm using the yarn that I got from my niece and her family for Christmas.  She's done this for the past couple of years and I love it.  I made a brown/cream sweater for myself from last year's yarn (wore it on a couple of really cold days and it's great!), so I chose a couple of the colors (actually 3) from this year's box and went looking for a pattern.

Of course, I went to my old standby, Lion Brand, and searched their free patterns section.  Since I did a pullover last year, I wanted to do a cardigan this year.  I found one that I liked and started crocheting, using the instructions for size 1X, the size I normally wear.  I was 90% done, when I realized that it was way too big.  It looked more like a large 2X or small 3X, so, after agonizing about it for a week, I finally decided to FROG it and start over.  For those of you who don't know what Frogging is, it's simple - rip it, rip it, rip it.  I ended up with a couple of balls of each yarn.  And then I started over, using the instructions for the Large instead.

I love this color combination.  It's rust, sage green and a multi called Somerset, which is why I'm calling this sweater "Somerset".  The pattern is worked in one piece from the neckline down with the sleeves crocheted directly onto the stitches left open for them.  It has a 13 row lower band and a 13 row lapel band that I'm working in the Somerset, with a section of the sage, banded by the Somerset, set between blocks of the rust color.  It looks really cool and I can't wait to get it finished.  I'm about to start the rows below the sleeve holes, so it's moving pretty quickly (since I've already done this pattern once, I know what's supposed to happen).  I promise to post a couple of pics once it's done.

In the meantime, I got invited to a craft show in April and I signed up.  Haven't done many spring shows before, so we'll see how this one goes.  I will also be working on stock for the Fairy Fest, which I'm assuming will be the first weekend in May, as usual.  I sold out all of my Fairy Bling last year, so I have to get busy and make some more.  I still have a bunch of wands.  Of course, I will have to replace the purple ones (they always sell out!) and add a few more pink ones, and I need to make some more of the headbands, too.  Luckily, I was able to get a lot of the ribbon that I use on sale last fall, so at least I won't have to be buying any more of that this year.

So, now 2013 is started.  And I promise to be a better blogger and to post a lot more often.  Maybe I'll just schedule myself an appointment to update my blog every couple of weeks.  Hopefully, that will get me here more often.  Have a great day!