Catsnyarn

I have moved my blog to blogspot now. My new blog is

Cats 'n Hooks

I like blogspot a lot better than blog so I moved!!

Ok! So today has been a VERY productive day. I got ready this morning quickly and was able to finish up my first strip in the purple and white striped baby blanket! I am having all sorts of thoughts for the border! I will have to see what will work though since it already has a set number of stitches.  I was also able to weave in the ends of what I have worked on for my latest pet blanket snuggle. There were a lot and I think I have a few more to go, but I had to stop cause we were at work at that point.  I just realized I havent posted a picture of it yet! Well here ya go:



I bought a whole lot of yarn on ebay and it wasnt quite what i thought it was going to be. It's not very soft, but I think its perfect for a pet blanket, so I will just use up all that yarn for the puppies and kittys :) Its the least I can do.

Speaking of kittys, last night I heard all this commotion in the laundry room, so I opened up the door (it was cracked) and well....

 

someone was having fun playing in the hamper!!! hahahahaha... they sure are amusing!

Ah, ravelry... they must enjoy this torture they are putting me through! I have kept a list of where I am in line. On the 4th I was 3,635 and it went down pretty quickly, so much that by yesterday I was at 645. So I thought for sure I would be getting it yesterday or today. No. They have put in 15 names today! 15!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! *grin* So now there are 630 people in front of me. Its kinda funny. I will check it and it shows how many people are behind me too and that number just keeps growing!! Its crazy! Those poor girls who are putting everyone in are working so hard, I know. But its really hard to not be impatient! C'est la vie!

Sometimes things just have to change. You can just feel it, and right now I can feel it. I want to move so badly. I am so tired of carpool (so tired of Woodbridge ), even though its saving my car. I would love to live closer to DC.

 

I HATE being dependant on others. Today for example, I didn’t bring lunch because there wasn’t anything at home to really bring and since its not my day to drive, I am basically screwed - at least for a cheap lunch (of course I could order out, but I dont want to spend lots of money for lunch) I’ll make it through, that’s not a problem and I have some stuff to snack on, but that’s not the point. I just need a change. I think that if we moved to Arlington/Alexandria, I would get the change that I want so badly.

 

If we could move and be close to a metro, I could metro in and meet up with Ken after work and actually be able to go to happy hours. I could meet Kashia and Erik, have dinner, have drinks. I’m sure I would meet more people and be happier overall. Plus Megha lives in Arlington – I could hang out with her – shes so awesome!!! I could have a life!!!

 

I know I am a homebody, but I do get tired of it too. But if I want to hang out after work, I have to ride with carpool all the way back to Woodbridge , and then drive allll the way back to DC. Then I cant really drink and enjoy myself cause I am worrying about being ok to drive and trying to watch what I am drinking. To make things better, when I have only one drink, it just makes me sleepy… alcohol is a depressant after all J. Then I get cranky and sleepy and that’s just not fun!

 

Hopefully Ken wont be too opposed to it. I know he likes Woodbridge cause its sort of out of the way, but that’s my whole problem with it!!

 

On a side note, I have my window open and its absolutely beautiful outside!!! Too bad it wont last for much longer... it is January.

 

Now to the important stuff! Crochet! I’m number 645 now on ravelry… maybe tomorrow?? But I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for today!!

 

So I frogged once again last night. I am giving up on the blanket from the book I bought. It uses a cluster stitch, but then the row above it skips over it with a ch and then it seemed kinda hole-y and the clusters stuck out. I just didn’t like it at all. So after looking at the rest of the patterns, they all seem kinda hole-y. I would think that a little baby’s fingers and toes would get stuck in it!! So… I took an idea from a pattern in there, but just using hdc. I am going to make a couple of strips in purple – 10 hdc across – and then put a white border on there and stitch them all together. And probably a border around that.

 

I found out pregnant friend 1 (pf1) is due in the beginning of May, so I have some time! I think that the ABC blanket I was making for pf2 is going to pf1 and I will remake it with a better yarn for pf2. The yarn I got is acrylic – but it is for a baby (so dont yell at me too much - I am trying to get away from acrylic - next non-baby project, I promise!)  And its not GOOD acrylic, so I think I will get some better yarn for pf2. Nothing to really post a picture of yet. Maybe after tonight. I did almost finish up the first blocks of letters on the ABC blanket last night. Its neat to see it coming along!!

Still number 645 - D'oh!

This morning has drastically improved over the last hour or so. Woke up this morning and realized I slept all night with my contacts in and I had a huge headache (not sure if they are related or not). Took some tylenol... no help. Got to work and ate some oatmeal and took an excedrin migraine. So glad I brought some of that to work!!! Plus the excedrin migraine has caffeine in it so that helps me get motivated to actually work!

Anywho.... this baby blanket is one of my favorite pieces I have made so far! I think its going to turn out pretty awesome! Its going to be 5 blocks across and 6 down with a letter of the alphabet in each block (except for the corners) and each letter and the borders are done with a puff stitch, the rest is all sc. It has really been a lot of fun to work on! A lot more than I expected, especially since I had such a tough time with the puff stitch when I tried to do it with the avatar afghan.



The picture is a little on the dark side, but you can see the puffs much better in the darker picture than the one with the flash. I've got half of the X Y Z done so far. But my friend isnt due until the end of July and my other friend is due sometime around March or April (I think - gotta find out for sure!!) And that leads me to the other blanket I am making for my other pregnant friend!



I actually bought a pattern book - Blankets and Booties and this pattern is from there. The directions said to ch 178 for the starting chain, so I did and worked probably 10 rows and then really looked at it. It was long enough to be a regular sized afghan!! A baby would be swimming in a blanket that big!! So I frogged all my work and started over from the beginning. But now that its about half the size of what it was, its working up A LOT faster!! I cant wait to work on the booties!! They are so cute!!

Ravelry waitlist update: I am number 1,969 now!!! They have added 2,759 people since Thursday, so I'm thinking I should be getting my invite some time this week!!! I gotta get my pictures ready! Stash pics, project pics... I dont even know what else! I cant wait!!!

Whew, I am so happy its Friday! The holidays are offically over! Now everything should be back to normal!

I have made some progress on the ABC Baby Blanket. I think I am on row 15 now. Plus last night I started the new baby blanket for my other friend who is pregnant. Its lavendar and white striped with little lavendar booties! Too cute - I cant wait! I also got some pink and purple striped yarn that I think I want to make a little baby hat and maybe sweater... or mittens or something for the baby next winter. And of course last night while crocheting, I came up with even more ideas! I am going to make an afghan for both of my grandmothers. Now, these may end up being Christmas gifts for NEXT year, but I at least have the thought going early! I am going to take one of the baby blanket from my book and make it bigger! There are 70 squares to make and put together, so hopefully it will be big enough as is! So I guess since Michael's is still having their 30% off sale on yarn and yarn accessories, I will just HAVE to stop and buy more yarn today... plus it is payday

I also made progress on my latest pet blanket. Its not one of the prettier or interesting things I am working on - just rows of dc, but its for a very good cause so I make sure that is the one I bring to work with me every day to crochet in carpool and during lunch. Just so it gets done! I think once I get 5 done, I'll go ahead and send them to an animal shelter... along with all the canned cat food I have that my cats wont eat (they dont like beef for some reason).

This weekend should be a good one. Not much to do out of the ordinary. May have some company tonight or I may be crocheting all night long... or both! Either way, sounds fun to me! Give me my hook and some yarn and I am a happy camper!

And finally, I have signed up to get an invitation to Ravelry!!!! I am SO EXCITED about it! I cant wait. So I am starting a countdown.... I meant to yesterday, but didnt... as of yesterday, there were 4,728 people ahead of me waiting to get an invitation. As of this mornign, there were 3,635 ahead of me. So it is going down... I'm just so excited about it!!! I want it now!

Ok, ok... I finally hooked up my new digital camera. It seems like all the photos are just a little blurry. I'm not sure if its going to be as good of a camera as I hoped. There are so many out there, its hard to know if you are picking the right one! Anywho...

Here is the finished avatar afghan!!!!



And here is a close up of the border



I am very happy with the way it turned out! I put it in the washer and dryer and it seemed to set it better. Plus it made it super soft and fuzzy! I was thinking about giving it to my grandmother, but I like it too much! Maybe I'll make her one!

I found out a good friend of ours is pregnant! So Michael's craft store had 30% off yarn and yarn accessories so I bought 9 skeins of yarn, a new set of hooks (pretty shiny colors!), and a Blankets and Booties pattern book. I am making an ABC blanket. I think its going to take me a good amount of time though. Well... I started it yesterday, and its 139 stitches across and 167 rows. For the most part its sc, but there are quite a few puffy stitches. So I guess we'll see.

Well its almost 11 pm! Thats no good - way past my bedtime! Night!

Mondays. Bleh - but its ok this time since it is New Years Eve... which actually may make it worse. K is at home asleep still, but at least I have some pretty strong coffee!!

Christmas was good. Its good to see my parents, sister, BIL and my 2 crazy nephews! Geez! How do little people have so much energy??? I have no idea! It was also sooo good to see my friends from high school. Its amazing to see how much people have changed in 7 years... and then some of them are just the same. All in all, not a bad 4 days. I sure was glad to get back home though! I missed my K's! (Ken and kitties!).

On the crochet front - I made a HUGE acomplishment! I FINISHED my afghan! WHOO-HOO!!! I was so happy about that. It's not the size I was really aiming for (I made the starting chain to short - which I realized after I had already used a whole skein of yarn and debated for a couple of days on whether to toad it all or not) but I love it!!! I wasnt sure on the border - I made a lot of my own changes to it - and then the spacing and so I had to make some decreases along the way, but after I threw it in the washer and dryer, it came out so beautiful and soft! I will try to post pictures later. I got a new camera but I dont have the cord with me.

Also with the crochet, I have started making pet blankets to donate to animal shelters. There is a charity behind this all - The Snuggles Project, a special project for Hugs for Homeless Animals. www.snugglesproject.org. If you have some extra yarn you dont know what to do with, make a small animal blanket and donate it! It doesnt have to match, it doesnt have to be anything super special, animals wont know the difference and I am sure they will appreciate it so much as they wont be lying on cold concrete floors.

The last thing I have done is I made myself a new scarf just to match my new cashmere sweater (on sale, 50% off!!!). Its a very simple design and I finished it in just a couple of hours. ch 140, row 1: hdc all the way, row 2: ch 2 (turning chain), hdc in next 2 st, then ch 1, hdc the rest of the way until the last 3 stitches are left and hdc in those last three. row 3:repeat row 2 again. row 4: repeat row 1. Very simple once I figured out the best way to do it! I wanted just a thin scarf I can keep around my neck all night long to celebrate the ending of 07 and the beginning of 08!

Happy New Years!!! I hope 2007 was good to everyone and that 2008 will be even better!

Monday, Monday... that day's here again. At least the Redskins won last night! 22-10!

I got a lot of crocheting done this weekend. Mostly good... Santa is not turning out like I had hoped. The crocheting of him was the easy part... stuffing and assembling, not so much. But all in all, I think its going to work out ok. I have to redo his eyes -he looks like an evil Santa right now!
 Plus he needs a beard... but I dont think he's going to make it as a Christmas present. I'll just use this as a learning experience.. Maybe I can fix him up this week. I think his body needs to be redone too - it looked a lot taller in the pattern.

But I also worked on the Avatar Afghan from http://safetybootsandcrochet.wordpress.com Its coming along quite nicely!
 It will have a nice little border and some fringe when all is said and done.

The weekend wasnt too eventful. We ate a lot! K and I made cookies and chocolate covered pretzels. Lots of crocheting and lots of football watching! That's what makes for a great weekend!

Next weekend I will be off to visit family and friends. I am starting to look forward to it. It just sucks to be away from K and the kitties for 4 whole days. Each year I say he has to come with me next year. This is the 4th Christmas now and well, he's still not coming. Not that I blame him, but it would be nice to have him with me. Next year he really wont have a choice!!!

And I am still exhausted! But I'll manage, its Friday after all. I forgot my 7 layer dip for the potluck lunch today. There was no time to turn around and get it either. I'm really annoyed by it because after getting 3 1/2-4 hours of sleep the night before, working all day, finishing up all my Christmas shopping (except for picking up one last thing thats already paid for), going to the grocery store and apparently wasting $18... and THEN spending the next 30 mins or so fixing it - it was all for nothing! Now I have to go spend more money and pick up something from the grocery store that wont be nearly as good! And the k's and e's have a lot of dip to eat this weekend, but I dont think we will have a problem with that.

K's holiday party was good. I like his co-workers a lot. They are such partiers that its just exhausting though. They dont have to drive freaking 45 minutes home and then get up at 6 am the next morning.

Hopefully just one more year here. Or maybe 2. Maybe a house? Maybe... its a lot to think about.

Something fun!   http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=243_1184948040