October 2006 Archives

Of course I don't need any of these...especially considering the amount of crochet and quilting books I already have... But, these are on my "want" list:

• 63 Cable Stitches to Crochet
• 101 Ripple Stitches
• 200 Ripple Stitch Patterns
• Tunisian Baby Afghans
• 24 Lovable Animal Quilt Blocks
• Quilt A Colorful Christmas

All available at Annie's Attic; some on sale now; total is $53.92 + $9.00 shipping. I'm gonna think about it more.

[12:45pm November 11, 2006] Oh! I just discovered another "want"! 280 Crochet Shell Patterns which is available at Leisure Arts for $24.95 (I will wait until it is on sale).

Size: 41 inches x 57 inches
Colors: Black, Scraps (Red Heart Classic)
Pattern: Beach Balls
Book: Scrap Yarn Afghans - Leaflet 101131 - Designs by Sharon Volkman - Copyright 1999 - House of White Birches
Hook: H
Date: start October 17; finish October 27

Thinking that this is probably one of the last nice weather weekends before it gets cold (well, as cold as it gets here in California), I did a lot of trimming and cleaned up dead leaves and dying plants yesterday.

This morning, I was torn between watching the NASCAR Cup race or heeding the urge to buy red cylamens (on sale at Orchard Supply Hardware). Getting outside in the beautiful weather won! Of course, I bought more plants than just the cylamen!

Planting is done now - probably until spring...

2 blankets using the same color scheme.
Size: 37 inches x 48 inches
Colors: Black, Scraps in 12 colors (Red Heart Classic)
Pattern: Basic Granny Square with variety of color changes
Hook: H
Date: start October 10; finish blanket #1 October 15; finish blanket #2 October 17, 2006 (that's Jasmine in the second photo!).

I decided to make 2 12-square lap blankets instead of a larger 24-square blanket. The black border around each square really makes the colors stand out!

Granny squares for the first blanket were joined from the front using "sc, ch 1, skip 1 st/sp on one side then again on the other side". Details: hold 2 squares wrong sides facing, sc in corner ch sp of front square, ch 1, sc in corner ch sp of back square, ch 1, sc in center dc of 3-dc group of front square, ch 1, sc in center dc of 3-dc group of back square, ch 1, sc in ch sp of front square, ch 1, sc in ch sp of back square, repeat around.

Granny squares for the second blanket were joined from the back using "sc, ch 1 in every other st/sp on both squares". Details: hold 2 squares right sides facing, sc through corner ch sp on both squares, ch 1, sc in center dc of 3-dc group on both squares, ch 1, sc in ch sp of both square, ch 1, repeat around.

Crazy Aunt Purl has tagged all her readers, so here goes...

Four jobs I’ve had:

* File Clerk at insurance office
* Legal Secretary
* Network Systems Administrator/Programmer
* Systems Engineer

Currently happily employed as a Web Designer.

Four movies I can watch over and over:

* Dirty Dancing
* Shrek
* The Last Samurai
* Son-In-Law (yes, with Paulie Shore)

Four places I have lived:

My father was in the Navy so we moved around a bit until my parents divorced when I was 10.

* East coast: New Jersey (was born there), Virginia (brother was born there), Hartford, Connecticut
* Guam
* Alameda, California
* East Bay Area city where I've lived since age 10, California

Four television shows I love to watch:

* Lost
* Prison Break
* The Closer
* CSI

And many more.

Four places I have been on vacation:

* Kauai, Hawaii
* Big Island, Hawaii
* Seattle, Washington (with Greg when he was looking at colleges in Washington)
* Tijuana, Mexico (with Greg when he was looking at UC San Diego)

Four of my favorite dishes:

* Ben and Jerry's ice cream (I suppose that isn't really a "dish" - unless one eats it for dinner!)
* Pot roast (stringy meat - yum!)
* Cheeseburger, bacon is optional, mustard and pickles required
* Fresh green beans (again, not a "dish", but it could be!)

Four websites I visit daily [or nearly so]:

* Crazy Aunt Purl
* TV Squad
* whip up
* Yarn-A-Go-Go

Four places I would rather be right now:

Hmmm, other than at home which is where I am...

* Living in/near Kona on the Big Island with Bill
* Visiting my son in Portland
* Vacationing with Bill at the ocean-side condo in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island
* Jet skiing (especially if I were as spry as I used to be!)

Four bloggers I am tagging:

Any and all of the very few readers of this blog!

Thanks for the very cute stuffed turtles, Mary!

Mary recently left the college where I work and moved with her retired husband to a Northern California city near the Oregon border. Before she moved, she gave me a large bag full of miscellaneous yarn types and colors. I put the bag in the craft room so I could delve into it later. Well, later turned into a while. While Mom (a knitter so she's also crazy about yarn) was visiting me on Saturday, we dumped the bag to see what all was there - and I found 2 of the cutest stuffed turtles (one with lots of purple!)! We also found lots of different types of yarn!

I feel bad that I didn't go through the bag earlier! Mary probably wondered why I didn't acknowledge the turtles. I emailed her earlier today explaining the delay and thanking her.

Hmm...can anyone tell me what a "Weaving Puff" is used for? There is no information at all via a Google search. The bag of yarn included three 1-yard-long packages of acrylic fiber labeled "Weaving Puff" with a brand name of Earthee.

The bag of yarn included a needlepoint/crewel kit with a bamboo/asian design. Since Mom does needlepoint and crewel, she took that home.

My latest crochet blanket project uses the basic granny square pattern and 12 different colors to make 24 different squares. A color is used only once per square and for the same row on only 2 squares. For instance, light blue is used only once in a square, and light blue is used for row 1 for only 2 squares and used for row 2 for only 2 different squares, etc. It's been fun playing with 12 different colors!

I now have 24 uniquely-colored squares of 7 rows each. I plan to add 2 rows of black to each square, join them, and add a border. Before joining, I will decide whether to make 2 lap blankets with 12 squares each or one large blanket with 24 squares. The decision is based on what I would plan to do with the 24-square blanket.

Size: 36 inches x 47 inches
Colors: Blue Jewel, Mist Green, Light Periwinkle, Medium Navy (Red Heart Classic)
Pattern: Basic Granny Square with variety of color changes
Hook: H
Date: start October 2; finish October 8, 2006

Here's the second of 2 basic granny square lap blankets recently completed. Each of the 12 squares have different color change patterns of the light blue and mint green colors.

Size: 35 inches x 46 inches
Colors: Cameo Rose, Off White, Medium Avocado, Dark Avocado, Coffee (Red Heart Classic)
Pattern: Basic Granny Square
Hook: H
Date: start September 24; finish September 30, 2006

I haven't felt much like following a written pattern (desiring mindless crocheting instead), so basic granny squares are the perfect mindless crochet project! This is the first of 2 basic granny square lap blankets recently completed.

Math for Craft Design has excellent information about designing with Fibonacci and Lucas numbers, which results in eye-pleasing stripes.

Fibonacci numbers:
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233...

Lucas numbers:
2, 1, 3, 4, 7, 11, 18, 29, 47, 76, 123, 199...

[Update October 12, 2007 - Bank of America has NASCAR RacePointsSM Platinum Plus Visa credit cards for lots of NASCAR drivers through the MyExpression Banking! Including Tony Stewart!]

How cool is this!!!! Tony Stewart-themed checkbook cover, checks, and VISA credit card!

If I wasn't using Bank of America for online bill pay and automatic deposits and we didn't have nearly all our accounts at BofA (my checking account, my small emergency savings account, our Joint checking account, our Joint savings account, and Bill's checking account), I would definitely be interested in opening a Tony Stewart-themed SunTrust NASCAR Checking account. However, it is not available in California!!! "SunTrust NASCAR Checking is available to residents in the following states: AL, AR, DC, FL, GA, MD, MS, TN, VA, W.VA, NC, and SC".

Oh, my! I love it! The Purple Store is "for people who love purple and those who shop for them."

Gotta have it! A purple turtle!

[via PrincessTrish]

It must be the slight nip in the air from the fall weather... I've finished 2 crocheted granny square lap blankets in the past 3 weeks. Photos to come! I haven't felt much like following a written pattern (desiring mindless crocheting instead), so basic granny squares are the perfect mindless crochet project!

Size: XL
Colors: Purple (Microspun)
Pattern: Cream Cotton Shrug - Design by Diane Langan
Hook: K
Date: start August 26; finish September 19, 2006

I made this cardigan larger than the pattern instructions, with shorter sleeves, and with Microspun instead of Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn. I've worn it a couple of times now and have received compliments each time.

Da-da-done! We worked on the closet floor a little after work one day early last week, and Bill finished the moulding today. The floor is lovely and we're very happy with it!

[6:00pm Monday, October 9, 2006] Added photos and below commentary.

The first 3 photos are of the crawlspace door in the floor of the closet. I called Pergo to get a recommendation regarding how to handle flooring over the door and was told to install the flooring around the door not on top of it. Well, that would look terrible so we decided to install a removable section of flooring over the door. Since there isn't much room around the edges of the door, we decided to make the door and the area around it removable. The quarter round moulding lays again the wall and is not nailed in.

The last 2 photos are of the post situated around the middle of the closet. This post helps to hold up the bars on which clothes are hung. It is screwed into the plywood floor. The Pergo floor is a "floating" floor so we cannot screw anything into it, so there was no other option other than to install flooring around the post and then add moulding. It involved lots of measuring, but by then Bill had gotten good at that!

Ah, yes, another weekend working on the flooring project! Yesterday, Bill removed the carpet, padding, and carpet tack strips from the floor inside the 14-foot closet in our bedroom, while I removed staples and more staples from the plywood floor.

After we saw that there wasn't enough space around the crawlspace door to properly install flooring, we decided to divide the closet floor into two separate areas (we called them "rooms") and use T moulding between the floors of the two "rooms". The flooring in the small area above the crawlspace door will be removable so we can get into the crawlspace if ever needed (without pulling up all of the flooring in the closet). The remaining, larger area of the closet floor will be installed like the main floor - i.e., not removable.

By yesterday afternoon, we had most of the large area covered with flooring. Today, in spite of watching bits and pieces of the NASCAR Nextel Cup race, we completed the flooring installation in both areas, but didn't have enough T moulding or quarter-round moulding to finish. So, we took a break, stopped at Starbucks for hot coffees, and headed to Lowe's to return 1 box of flooring and buy more moulding.

On the way home, we calculated that we've spent approximately $1,650.00 on materials for this project (23 boxes of flooring, 6 packages of T moulding, and 12? strips of quarter round moulding) - not counting the 2 saws Bill added to his toy tool collection to help trim planks and moulding! That is higher than I had originally estimated ($1,200.00) but the flooring we chose includes the backing that we would have paid for separately with other flooring types so it probably comes out somewhat even. And, we love the color and pattern we choose!

When we got home from Lowe's, we watched the last few laps of the Cup race - and my Tony Stewart won! Of course, we then decided to continue with the moulding installation later - as in not today. Maybe one night this week (I hold the flashlight so Bill can see!) or next weekend!