News of the Day April 27, 2010

Much has been happening since I last made an entry here, sorry for my absence. I have a list a mile long of things to do, but felt a need to sit and write a few thought, some happy and some sad.

The happy first and the reason for my mile long list. My daughter, Erika is getting married in July. She is my only child and is a true blessing to me. So… I am going a little crazy with all the details. :-)   First off, she is living in Florida with her fiancé and the wedding will be here in Austin. We have family coming from Vermont, Vancouver, and Minnesota. Yes to Texas in July!!! The first problem of where to have the service and reception have been solved (all indoors with a/c).

The next on the list was of course the dress. Erika is notoriously picky about her clothes. When she was younger, and even up to a few years ago, I could pick things she would love, but I lost my touch. Believe it or not we found the dress in 1 day, 3rd shop. We had just had a horrible time at the 2nd place and were a little disappointed with the hunt. When we got to the 3rd shop we only had a ½ hour until closing. With a quick scan of the dresses, I grabbed 2 while Erika picked out 3 or 4 more. She tried on one of her choices first, nope, not the one, then she put on the one I chose (I thought she would love it). She came out with he shoulders up to her ears and a grin from ear to ear, saying “Mommy! I love it!!” As you can see in the picture I couldn’t get her to stop smiling.

Now onto the rest of the list: Invitations found (at Michael’s), addresses compiled, Invitations printed, stuffed & bows tied.

Mailing was a bit of a surprise because the box said they would need to be hand canceled but not that they would be more than a regular stamp!

Now onto the real challenge, Shoes! Erika has one foot smaller than the other. Most of us do, but her left foot is a size 5 and her right is a size 4. Yes 4!! She usually buys her shoes in the kids section but you can’t get wedding shoes there! :-(   We looked all over but most stores do not carry sizes smaller than 6 in fancy dress shoes. After much hunting we found some beautiful shoes that only need 3 layers of padding on the right to make it fit!!

 Okay, now that we have the shoes I can alter the dress. You may not have noticed in the shot of the dress, Erika is only 4’ 11” tall. Even with the shoes I will be shortening the dress by 6”, all 4 layers of it! Oh, Ben her fiancé is 6’4” …. ROFL

When Erika came back to look for the shoes we also got the cake and flowers arranged. That would seem to be most of it but noooooo the list seems to go on and on. I get one thing checked off and Erika adds 2 more on. :-)   More on the wedding plans later.


The sad news yesterday was that my best friend’s mother had a stroke and died. Lyn is like a sister to me, we are both transplanted Yankees here in Texas. Erika and Lyn’s 2 kids are like brother and sister. You should see the looks she gets when she introduces Andy as her brother. This is going to be doubly hard on Lyn and her husband, Roger, because they are also in the process of moving Roger’s mother into an assisted living home. I have found myself at a loss of words right now. This seems very short after all my rambling on about the wedding, but for every step forward our lives take us, every new chapter added, we loose some of our roots and seem set adrift. Until we remember that the person we have lost has given us their wisdom over the years and that wisdom will be our anchor. Lyn’s Mom was a super neat woman and will be missed greatly.

"V" Stitch Border

This is a border I created to finish off a CAL I was doing last year.  The Designer, April Moreland, designed a different square pattern for each month of the year.  She called it a Calendar-ghan, the patterns can be found on her blog, The Left Side of Crochet.  It was great fun to follow her instructions each month.  Oh, did I say that this was a mystery CAL.  :-)  April would put out the instructions a little at a time, then about mid month she would add a picture.  I had found this CAL before I had any yarn in mind, so the first few squares I did have pictures, but the instructions were well written and easy to follow (with or without the pictures).  When I found this yarn in the Craft Group's stash I was in heaven and thought of this CAL right away, and there was enough of the yarn to do the whole thing! 

After completing December's square, I turned my mind to assembling it.  I personally love the Flat Braid Method by Priscilla Hewitt, for joining squares.  Her basic instructions for this method can be found on her web site, under Afghan Edgings & Joinings.  Since I was using a DK weight yarn, I wanted to make this afghan a little bigger, so I altered the basic instructions from a ch 3 to a ch 5.  The border pattern should work with the basic instructions too.  The ch 5 base just gives the afghan a lacier look.


Stitch Definitions:

•  V Stitch: (dc 1, ch 1, dc 1) in same stitch.
•  Ch 3 Picot: ch 3, sl st in back 2 loops of the 3rd chain from hook.

Row 1: Join with sc in the chain space to the right of a corner (left of corner if left handed), sc in same space, [ch 4, 2 sc in next chain space]; repeat [ ] to side corner chains, Side Corner Join: ch 4, sc through both side corner chains, sc in 2nd side corner chain only; *repeat [ ] to next side corner chains, make Side Corner Join as above*, repeat * to * across side ending with [ ]; Corner: ch 4, (sc, ch 1, sc) in corner space; repeat from * to Corner 3 more times, ch 4, sl st to beg sc.

Row 2: Sl st in next sc, ch 4 (makes 1st dc and ch 1 sp), dc in same st, [sc in next chain space, sk 1, V stitch in next sc]; repeat [ ] to side corner join, Side Shell: sc in chain space, sk 1, 5 dc in next sc; *repeat [ ] to next side corner join, make Side Shell as above*, repeat * to * across side ending with [ ]; Corner: sc in next chain space, sk 1 (4 tr, ch 2 4 tr) in next ch-1 space; repeat from * to Corner 3 more times, sc in next chain space, sl st to 3rd beg ch.

Row 3: Sl st in next ch-1 sp, ch 4 (makes 1st dc and ch 1 sp), dc in same sp, [V stitch in next V stitch]; repeat [ ] to side shell, Side Point: sk 2, tr 1, (2 tr, ch 3 picot, 2 tr) in next st, tr 1; *repeat [ ] to next side shell, make Side Point as above*, repeat * to * across side ending with [ ]; Corner: sk 2, V stitch, sk 1, dc 1, (3 tr, ch 3 picot, 3 tr) in ch-2 sp, dc 1, sk 1, V stitch; repeat from * to Corner 3 more times, sl st to 3rd beg ch.

Designed and written by Carrie Au
Copyright 2010



Here is a picture of the completed Calendar-ghan too.

I took this picture without the flash to show off the textures that were worked into the designs.  April did an awesome job!

Here are a few things that I have done or finished up this spring.

This is a Lap throw, using the Short Row Tunisian technique.  Of course being in Austin I had to use UT colors.  I needed a third color so I chose brown for Mac Brown  :-)  The pattern design is by Kim Guzman in the October issue of Crochet World magazine

Tammy Hildebrand designed this wonderful Snowflakes Throw.  The tech editors did not do a very good job on her instructions so there are a few errors.  But after rewriting them correctly it was a breeze to complete.  I even got my sister to start one!  This is a free pattern at Red Heart.com or a tear sheet at Hobby Lobby.  The Hobby Lobby sheet does not have the border row instructions, and the web site still have some errors.  This is a shame because the pattern is quite simple and well done.  The end product brought a lot of ooohs and aaahs at the Craft Group.  It may become the silent auction or raffle item in this years craft fair.

Here is a link to my notes on joining the motifs together.

Sorry for the same chair in the photos, (you may see that a lot)  it presents the afghans nicely, and is where most of them are made.  lol

In the begining....

Well this is a new foray for me.  Just getting started with a thought... we will see were the tread leads us.  Joys to share, creations to show, and futures to dream.