Happy Hooking

~ a blog about crocheting and so on.

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I've been busy with my other blogs, ravelry and facebook and realized today that I haven't posted on my crochet blog in months....all Summer actually, but that is typical of me and crocheting anyhow. Not that I didn't work on anything, I did. I made a nice cotton throw rug for the Aliner, some little creature habitats for our hairless rat and my nieces little hamster. Some scarfs and other small random projects too. I picked up some awesome Mini-mochi yarn in NY and made this lovely scarf for myself. I have another skein and plan on making the matching hat. I used the same pattern to make a green scarf for Carol. I love this pattern.....let me go check the name of it on Rav.....It is called Ziggy Lace Scarf. It works up nice and easy. I have not updated all my Summer projects even to Ravelry. Sometimes I just can't find the time. The Internet is a huge time suck and it seems like it takes me further away from my crocheting and ironically away from whatever it was I came online to look up in the first place. I can't totally condemn it because of the endless supply of crafty inspiration, craft and yarn coupons and awesome patterns I would never find in my local store or library. I am more motivated this time of the year to pick up my unfinished projects. One big monkey on my back right now is the Cathedral Rose afghan that I started last year to benefit a trip for Taylor with People to People. But the economy sucks and us just like most of middle America we are freaking broke and there are no extras like this, even with auctioning off an awesome project. I've been working off of my stash more and take the time to dig through it when I am thinking up new projects. Here is a site though that I can always find current AC Moore and Michaels coupons. After working with the mini-mochi splurge I bought in NY I really wish I had more free cash for my hobby, but I'm more lucky than a lot. I also look at my stash and think about all the cash spent on yarn I'm not even using. If only I could take that value and buy quality and not quantity. But when I buy yarn I feel "guilty" and don't always remember sometimes it really is just better buying less, but better.
Either way, like I said my crochet skills are back in season, so I intend to keep up on this blog a bit more diligently. Can't work on the Aliner too much over the Winter, although I do have some work to finish up sewing the curtains. That has been a fun but demanding project in itself. I am really looking forward to finishing that and using it next year. I can almost see myself sitting in it on some camping trip in the pouring rain crocheting a scrap afghan that will find it's home in the cozy camper.
Only other crochet thing on my mind at the moment is about the recent conversation going on in the Ravelry forums about yarn bowls. I would love one of these! But $$$! that I do not have for something like this...even if times were good, idk....kinda pricey. But it makes me think about other bowls and how they are used. Like rice bowls, or those soup bowls with lids that have an open slot or hole for the ladle to stick out. Or even just some random pottery bowl that has been dumped off at the Goodwill. So I am going to keep my eye out for something cool like that. It would definitely help keep the yarn off the floor and pet hair while I am working on a project at home. Plus it will look pretty on the table. We'll see what I can find out there, treasures everywhere if you look hard enough.
A few updated pics on the Cathedral Rose Window Afghan.


My current desktop wallpaper, tweet, tweet.
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I haven't posted much here lately, but I have posted here. Please check it out if you haven't yet. I am currently working on the Cathedral Rose Window Afghan. Pictured here is our color plan. This afghan will be auctioned off to help fund Taylor's trip with People to People, which you can read more about on my other blog....dedicated to the topic itself.

If you are on Ravelry you can keep up with it here. So far I am loving the pattern!
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Christmas was nice. No running around this year, nice and quite. Money was tight, but not so horrible that the kids didn't have a nice Christmas. In fact I think they really enjoyed the day. I got an awesome coffee maker. I didn't even know I needed a new one until I started using the new one. I had a Krups that I bought off of eBay at least 4 years ago now. It was the carafe type. I hate burnt coffee. My MIL broke it last year while she was staying with us, but I found a new one at the Outlets on clearance for $10. She didn't like my coffee maker. I think she broke the original carafe on purpose....but then again she thinks I broke her coffee maker on purpose too. Oh well. Anyway, the new one is a Cusineart. It has the bur grinder built right in. All have to do is put the water in. I can smell the coffee grinding while I am downstairs in bed before the water even starts to cycle through. Mike is so good at knowing what I want, even when I don't! He got a car (truck) starter, and even though this present was really only there because of his brother it was nice to see him have something to open too.

New Years has come and gone too. My two resolutions are to a) be motivated, more motivated than I have been. b) get into some kind of exercise routine. Even if it is just walking. I've gained weight since I quit smoking last March. No regrets, but I do need to start doing someing about it. Plus it's just time to, 36 and all. Not that 36 is old at all, just time to make sure my ass doesn't spread into some kind of uncontrolable wad of goo. And I do not want to sport "mom-butt" in any form what so ever. I'm still a camel toe kinda gal and want to stay that way as long as I can help it. I think I should also be more systematic about the household finances, it wouldn't hurt.

Next week is suppose to be record cold. Again, this is New England and that's what happens. Jan. is always super cold. But it's also already almost half over! Feb. is short, and my anniversary. March is long, long and cold. I hate March, except it's Mike's birthday and this year I will be celebrating my first year smoke free. Yay me! Nothing can top that one actually. Then it'll be April and Spring will be here once again.

My company is being bought out by Dow. I'm still not sure if this is a good thing or not. But it should be complete by today, if not next week. Not that there will be any immediate changes I guess. I just hope there are no lay offs. Times are so hard everywhere. We had our group meeting this morning and it seems like I am involved in a lot of projects, helping out. Being a tech is a good thing, diverse and all. Hopefully that'll count when they are lining up the ax.

Crochet wise I am dababling in a few projects at once, as usual. I am working on an afghan for Taylor. Not the orginal plan, but orginal colors. She'll be happy with whatever I make her anyway. I am also working on a small brown wool rug for in front of the hearth. The one I have there now kinda got beat on over the power outage days. I also have made one mitten with the same wool. Now I have to make another. Thank God I actually followed the pattern for a change. When my BIL (lol, Brother-In-Law = BIL, his name is Bill) goes back to SC this Spring I am going to partally use the back room as a craft room. I want to organize my yarn, take pics for my notebook stash on Ravelry and display it in a way that looks nice and shows off the yarn before it's worked up into its final form. Yarn is an art in itself. Maybe someday I will have enough money to buy snob yarn. In the meantime I am really liking the Vanna's Choice colors. I should go crochet after I am done here as a matter of fact. I finished my ripple pictured above somtime around the holiday. I love the colors, done in Vanna's Choice too.

I am very sad about the trees Worcester is loosing to the ALBs (asian longhorned beetles). Utterly amazing watching the landscape change by the second. So sad. Wish I could do more to stop it. Wish I had known it was going on when there was still a way to slow it down. And I hope so much that my 4 maples in the back will make it. So far they are okayed by the feds, so far.

I've joined twitter, as happyhooking. Kinda cool to have updates on what people are up to. I mostly joined in case Ravelry is down, just so I know why, lol.

That's about it. Not to exciting, not that it's a bad thing!