Category: Crochet

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Soap Chip Sack

Yeah…say that 3 times fast. Heh, heh.

Remember a few months back, when I shared the pattern for a sweet little soap sack–you know, to keep the soap from sitting in water and getting all…ummm…disgusting?

Since then, this little do-dad has really been earning it’s keep and is, as we speak, hanging out in the shower window keeping a very lovely hand made bar of spice soap safe from all known evils.

Well, I’d like to introduce you to Soap Bag’s baby brother…Chip.

 You know all those soap ends that are too small to do anything but be aggravating and yet, for some goofy reason still feel wrong and wasteful to throw out?

Well, here’s the answer! Just pile all those little pieces into this new bag–with a tighter mesh, and smaller holes, cinch the top and TA-DA…

you have a whole new soft, scrubbie with never ending suds! Ok, well, maybe not the never ending part, but you get what I’m saying. It’s like having a whole new bar of soap come from out of nowhere. And how green is that?

I’ll be putting a ton of these in my Gracious Rain Shop in the next few days, but if you’d rather make a couple yourself–I’d be happy to post the pattern.

Let me know. I’m glad to oblige–especially for such a noble cause. Because you know~being resourceful feels soooo good.

:}

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The Ripple Finally, Finally

At last, the ripple blanket for our new little soul is finally finished. And none too soon too, because he’s a great, grown fellow of one week now.

I asked for April’s help in choosing just the right colors for this sweet project and as you may remember, I was taken back by her choices…and yet…

as I worked on it night after night letting the soft, smooth Caron yarn slide through my fingers with each stitch…

it came to grow on me–until, I could hardly wait to check my stripe pattern to see what piece of loveliness  was coming up next. After a while, I found it hard to stop so, baby blanket or not, I kept going, and going and going.

Thanks to Lucy, for her incredible tutorial on perfect ripple stitching over at Attic 24. Her instructions were simply brilliant and made me brave enough to carry on from start to finish. And with all the project bags around here–that’s saying something. Now to find someone warm and snugly to wrap in it.

When he wakes up, I know just the fellow.

:}

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Bags …and Bags… and Bags

In my world, there are just plain a ton of tote bags. I buy them nearly every time I conscientiously do my grocery shopping. I could store some of them out in the garage, but alas–it’s too late. Instead of taking them back to the store to help bag up my next purchase…

I accidentally, without meaning to, store my valuables in them–you know, in case I need to make a break for it sometime. I’m pretty much packed up and ready to go.

This bundle is for the next gorgeous Granny Square that I’m working on–and that I’ll show you very soon. :}

These springy colors–vanilla, pistachio and strawberry are for a new afghan that I’ll be starting very soon…for the next one of my children who decides to run off and get married. Ha! I’m totally prepared.

This bag holds the lovely colors that are going into a quilting project that I’ll share as soon as it is finished percolating in my head.

The idea with all these bags is that I can easily grab one and sling it over my arm and then I have a constructive pastime no matter where I end up. It almost doesn’t matter which one I choose because they all have the hooks, the yarn, the scissors and the pattern to allow my fingers to flit away at a moment’s notice.

And believe me, they do.

What about you? Do you have a favorite take-along project?

****

Be sure to enter the amazing cookbook giveaway. Hurry though, it ends Sunday at midnight.

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True Comfort

After working for the past couple of weeks on the Moda Contest projects every spare moment and at last–at last, having it all behind me (phew!), I set out today to just kinda…you know…loaf around a bit. It felt lovely to not actually have anything in my hands that needed to be worked on or finished.

Then I had the overwhelming urge to make something but wasn’t quite sure what. I puttered out to the garage and ground up some wheat flour in case the craving went that direction. How about cookies? I thought.

But then I realized that Jillian had that area covered with a batch of Oatmeal Farm Cookies. So again, I wandered around waiting for the food inspiration fairies to come at me.

Before I knew what was happening, there were whole wheat pancakes on the stove just waiting to be my comfort food of choice.

Ummmmm….Applesauce, and whipped cream besides. Apparently, I need a ton of comfort today.

You know, it’s quite likely that I would be as thin as a rail if I just didn’t like food so much. HA!

Then without even realizing what I was doing, the baby’s ripple was on my lap and I’d fallen right back into the warm, soothing, rhythmic, handiwork of this lovely thing. I’d thought that perhaps I wouldn’t be able to pick up a hook at all for a while, but that just never seems to be the case around here.

In fact, for me there’s more gentle comfort in sitting back with a hook and ball of yarn and just letting my fingers do what they mindlessly do–for the heck of it–than in nibbling on a whole, entire plate of pancakes. How lucky is it that I was able to do…

both?

Heh, heh.

Isn’t life good?

:}

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Crocheted Fabric Caddies

There’s a perfectly good reason why I was A.W.O.L. yesterday–and I’ll show it to you.

Ta-DA! I trust me when I say that these little cuties kept me quite busy–all the live-long day.

It was all for a noble cause too. You see, April and I decided a few weeks ago to enter the Moda Bake Shop Sliced Contest.

I think they might have had some sort of quilting project in mind, but you know me. If I can find a way to crochet something, I’ve just got to do it. Then, suddenly there were all these strips of fabric in front of me…

and one great, big blue hook with absolutely, positively nothing to do.

Now, there’s a chance that the judges will look at my sweet little caddies and say, “What the heck–this chick crocheted our fabric! What was she thinking?”

Well, I’ll tell you what I was thinking. I was thinking that there were already a ton of people sewing with their fabric, but no one else in the contest, as far as I could tell, was goofy enough to try this approach.

Oh, I do hope that’s a good thing. In fact, I hope that they love these sweeties so much that they say, “These are exactly what we are looking for! Come and let us give you 10 million dollars, and a trip to Paris!!”

Yeah…that would be nice.

Ummm…perhaps I have this contest mixed up with something else.