Sometimes it pays to complain...

I left some feedback on WalMart's website the other night about the plaid fabric that I'd bought that had been cut badly...

Surprised the hell out of me when the department manager for the Fabric dept at WalMart called me this morning (at the buttcrack of dawn! 7:45am!!!) Talked to her for a few minutes and explained what happened, she apologized and told me I'd have a giftcard waiting for me at the Customer Service desk... Went up there this afternoon and they gave me a $25 gift card!!! (whoohoo!!!) I think the fabric that I had was probably $2 worth... (several 1/4yd pieces)

Not a bad deal...especially since she told me on the phone that it was going to be a $20 giftcard...I kept my mouth shut when the lady from the Cash Office told the Customer Service casher how much to give me... (inside I was doing a happy dance)

So, after much consulting with my dad...I gave him the $25 giftcard, and then we took the Star Wars Trilogy dvd set back for the cash, and we went and got a 1gb SD memory card for my new PDA... Now I have a halfway decent mp3 player.

My dad used the WalMart giftcard this afternoon and bought himself a couple more of the shirts that we'd bought him for Christmas.

I thought that was pretty cool. Worked for WalMart for a bit, and never really cared much for their business practices...but at least they tried to do something to make up for the problems I had...I never thought they'd give me a $25 gift card tho..

A few Christmas pictures

Here's a few pictures of my tree...

And here's my mom...holding my dad's stocking (both my mom and I have fairly empty stockings...dad's not real good at buying stocking stuffers)

Mmmm! dinner was yummy!

Just got done with the pork ribs...they were tasty! The jalapeno cornbread was even tastier...the chili is going to be dinner for tomorrow...along with leftover ribs.

just opened up the present that my friend Don sent me...it was the almost perfect gift (no, not a Hobby Lobby gift card, but exactly just what else what I wanted) The first season of The Magnificent Seven tv show on DVD. I'm going to be camped out in front of my tv for the rest of the night now. :)

time to finish wrapping (bagging) up the presents. Then I can sit, watch Mag7 and crochet. Perfect.

Is dinner ready yet?

I'm still starving to death, and now my aunt Sid has put the idea of cornbread into my head. I have jalapeno cornbread mix in the pantry...and garlic butter in the fridgerator...and and and....I'm STARVING!!!!

*checking directions on cornbread mix*

I think I'll wait till after I pick up my parents from church and see if Dad wants to make the cornbread, I dont think I'll have to twist his arm too much. All he's had to do to cook today was put the chili into the crockpot and put the ribs into the barbeque crockpot thingie with some sauce and Liquid Hickory Smoke... We're doing simple stuff this year...altho I might put a baked potato in the oven later (to put chili on top of)

too bad I didnt think of anything for dessert other than some cookies...I wonder if Hostess Ho Ho's would count as a dessert food...maybe if I put a ice cream christmas tree next to it and top it off with whipped cream? (thank goodness we remembered the whipped cream)

I have to go stare intently at the crockpots and hope that dinner comes soon...and wrap a couple of presents...errr...uhh...put the presents into the nice fabric bags that I've been sewing for the past several years. I've got a nice collection of them now, and my dad likes them because it's saved him a bunch by not buying wrapping paper and he doesnt have to struggle with the tape and ribbons.

I'm starving!!!!!

My dad is making chili and some ribs for Christmas...my mom and I had asked him to make chili and french fries to eat today and tomorrow. My dad has been dreaming about making ribs for quite awhile apparently. A couple of days ago he started talking about wanting this crockpot style barbeque pit thingie. So, last night when he took us down to Target to do some grocery shopping and get a few more presents for him, he wandered off and bought himself his rib cooker he's been wanting. Told my mom that she bought it for him for Christmas. :)

So he's upstairs, basting ribs and stirring chili...I'm sitting down here, dying of hunger because the chili is starting to smell good. (I didnt eat breakfast)

I'm hoping that Santa brought me a Hobby Lobby gift card full of money so that I can go yarn shopping monday. I cant decide on anything new to crochet, so I think I need to go yarn shopping and buy a ton of that and get some new patterns. I doubt that Santa will bring me a Hobby Lobby card...at least not one with a zillion dollars on it so I can clean out the yarn department all at once.

I forgot to get stocking stuffers, so while my parents are at church, I'm heading over to WalMart to see what's left after the last minute shoppers raided the place today.

Ranting about WalMart's craft department

I'm making fabric gift bags to put Christmas presents in. I bought some really pretty plaid fabric the other day at WalMart. Pulled out the fabric today and was getting ready to pin it to sew it into bags when I realized that the moron fabric cutters at WM cut it so crooked that if I try to sew it the lines in the plaid are going to be all wonky.

I used to cut fabric for Hobby Lobby and (ironically) Walmart. It was at WalMart where I learned that if you cut fabric with lines in it (like plaids, or quilt panels) that you have to cut one side of the fabric at a time.

I understand that it's really freaking time consuming to cut it on the line like that, (used to hate the quilters who'd come in 5 minutes before I was supposed to go to lunch, pull down 30 bolts of plaid and ask for forty-five 1/4yd pieces) But it really needs to be done this way.

I know some people reading this are going to think I'm an anal retentive bitch, but if you've ever worked with plaid fabric you'll understand.

Now I have to go up to WalMart, bitch to the manager, and see if they'll re-cut it (and hope that they still have the same fabric in stock).

What did I do?

this has nothing to do with crochet... I'm sitting here, scratching myself to death.

I have food allergies...no idea exactly what food I'm allergic to (other than seafood) and what I ate today seemed at the time to not be anything bad. All I've had today is some leftover pizza from the Old Chicago restaurant (wasnt very good, so I didnt eat it all) and some Campbell's chicken noodle soup with an entire can of creamed corn dumped into it instead of water (that's the way my dad made the soup for me when I was little..it's a comfort food now) and some mandarin oranges.

I guess I'm just whining, because scratching the hives off my body is so annoying (and time consuming, and not to mention it could get messy) One of these days I'll find an allergist and find out what it is that's causing this.

On a crochet note, I cant decide what to make next...everything I've started in the past week or two has ended up frogged.

Resized some pictures

I went thru most of my blog and resized a lot of the pictures...decided to make it easier for people on dial-up to be able to see the pictures. It was easier than I thought was going to be...Photobucket, where I store my pictures, has a resizing tool...so I just went thru all the pictures that I have linked to here and dropped them down 50%...

Showing off again Part II

Did another pineapple shawl. This one was done with Red Heart SS Light Fucshia with a "K" hook. It's a bit bigger than the pink one I did. (pink one was made with an "I" hook and RH Giant worsted weight yarn...yarn was a bit thinner than the Super Saver yarn)

The fucshia shawl took me about 7 hours to complete, and it's my favorite (until I can get my hands on some purple yarn...WalMart was out of the color I wanted the other day)

The fucshia one drapes a lot better than the first one and feels a lot warmer.

This is definately one of my most favorite things that I've made so far. I've always wanted to make something with pineapples in the design...ever since I was a little girl and saw the crocheted thread pineapple pincushion that my grandmother used to have hanging on the wall in her kitchen. (I have THAT pattern too)


Here's a close up of the fucshia one

A side-by-side comparison of both shawls

and another close up of the fucshia

Just showing off again.... :)

I got a little bit obsessed with a pattern this week. It took me about 5 attempts, but I finally got it figured out (except for the edging, which I decided not to do) The pattern originally is from a doily pattern for a chair back doily. I used an "I" hook and worsted weight yarn (Red Heart...think the color is Baby Pink) The first few attempts took me a couple of days... I had originally attempted it in blue, but ended up not having enough and I had frogged that yarn so much that it was not in very good shape, so I started over with another yarn...frogged that one a few times and got nearly finished when I ran out of yarn...since that was a discontinued color, I had to start over again... By this time I pretty much had the pattern figured out, so it was easy to do...took me about 5 or 6 hours to do this one. Another hour to weave in tails and to attempt the edging (left the edging off)

It's actually a warm shawl...I didnt think it would be till I put it on and stepped out onto our enclosed deck to fiddle with the Xmas tree. Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. Might end up keeping it.

This is what my obsession got me.

Beating my head against a wall....owwww!

This is basically a review of a pattern I've found on the internet.

I'm trying to make the Seraphina shawl. ( Click Here ) and I have to say this is the worst written pattern I've come across in a long time. The designer has errors all thru the pattern... I've attempted this thing several times in the last year and STILL cannot get past the first 3 or 4 rows. Sure, the shawl looks great in other people's pictures...not exactly sure what they did to get the pattern to work for them, I just cannot get past all the mistakes in this pattern.

Sure, she has lots of nice pictures, but the pictures do not always correspond with the text of the pattern. Plus, she changes the direction of the pictures so many times that it's very hard to follow what she's doing. It would be so much easier to do if she'd have the pictures all showing the shawl going in the same direction (example...have the point of the shawl facing down, consistently thru all the pictures, so you can follow the flow of the pattern)

I'd love to be able to make this stupid thing, but it's so confusingly written that I just cannot follow it. I think my only hope will be if Dot Matthews ends up designing her own version of the shawl. I NEVER have problems with Dot's patterns. (ok, so I've been spoiled)

I guess I could sit all day tomorrow and try to figure this shawl out...they're forcasting a "little" blizzard for tomorrow... Lots of nasty ice rain will be coating the roads and sidewalks before the snow, so I'm planning on not going outside if I can help it. I'll have to if the dog has to go potty, but other than that, I'm staying in and hibernating.

I guess I'll go toss out the skein of yarn that I ruined trying to figure out the Seraphina shawl. What a waste.

Finished!!!! How's it look?

I finished the sweater. Here is a picture of my mother, modeling the sweater for me.

And a close up of the finished sleeve

looking more like a sweater now

Here's the sweater with about half a sleeve worked onto it. If my hand doesnt explode from overwork, I should have this finished by this weekend. Here's the pictures

More sweater pictures

Taking a break from the marathon crocheting of this sweater... (darn carpel tunnel syndrome!) I took a couple of new pictures. Did a measurement of the length of the sweater too. From the back of the neck, to the bottom of the sweater, it's now 27 inches. I may yet add another inch or two, but right now have to hold off because I have to make a yarn run to WalMart later for some more blue so that I can do the sleeves.

Here are the pictures

From the front

From the back

I cant wait to finish this, not that I'm not having fun crocheting it, but I'm excited to see what it's going to look like once it's all done.

Sweater in-progress pictures

Here are some pictures of the adult cardigan sweater I'm working on. Got the pattern from Dot's website http://patbythehook.blogdrive.com/ (probably the best crochet pattern writer on the internet)

I diverged from her pattern a little (a lot) I did the yoke exactly as the pattern said, but then I had a problem getting one of the stitches for the body of the sweater to work right for me. (I was dizzy from an ear infection...all drugged up on Dramamine, not much was making sense) So, I decided to do a fan stitch instead. I figured if it didnt work, I could frog it back down to the end of the yoke and start over. Surprised the heck out of me that my fan stitch is working...glad about that....I really didnt want to frog it and start over.

Here's the first picture from the front

From the back

And a close up of the fan stitches

I'm excited about this sweater. I've always wanted to be able to crochet a cardigan sweater, and now it seems I can. I already know it's not going to fit me, but maybe it will make a good Christmas present for someone. I just hope I dont have any problems with the sleeves. (that's my big worry now)

I got a couple of 40% off coupons for Michael's Crafts on sunday... Decided to go and wander thru their dwindling yarn aisle... (seems to get smaller and smaller everytime I go there) After much feeling and fondling of the yarn, I decided to see what the LionBrand VelvetSpun yarn is like. It's a really really really soft chenille yarn. The cool thing is that it's machine washable. So I decided to make this scarf

I used a "P" crochet hook, and crocheted the length of the scarf (end to end, instead of the side by side scarves I usually make) The stitch is just a basic single crochet. I figured that since chenille is kind of a furry yarn, that any fancy stitches I might have wanted to try would get "lost" in the furryness. It took me about an hour and two skeins of yarn (all I could afford...even at 40% off!) I think it turned out pretty nice.

*sniffle* I think my flu shot worked a little too well...

I've been sneezing and sniffling for two days now. Got a flu shot over the weekend...It's probably just allergies (my neighborhood is still under construction...lots of dust from the construction), but dang if I dont feel like I've got a cold or something.

I started a new afghan last night...it's my first attempt at a round ripple, just not the pattern that I wanted to try. This one is a 5-pointed star. I'm using this pattern http://www.angelfire.com/va3/heartfeltangels/littlestarafghan.html

It's basically practice for the other round ripples that I've found...this one seems to be the easiest, so I'm doing this one till I get more comfortable doing a round ripple. Then I'll try the other ones. For this one, I'm using Red Heart Super Saver yarn...So far the colors in it are Lavender and White...I've got some Starbrights laying around that I might use (variegaited multicolored yarn...kind of like a rainbow color) and I might throw in some Amythyst also...I'm pretty much using what I have laying around in my scrapboxes.

So far it seems to be going pretty well...looks like it curls up a bit in a few spots, but when I lay it flat it seems to straighten itself out. It's actually not a bad pattern...little difficult figuring out exactly what the increases are since the pattern only gives you enough to get you to Round 9...after that you're on your own. But so far I think I've got it. It's actually not too much different than making a giant granny square.

Not sure who I'll give the afghan to once I'm finished. Maybe I'll keep this one?

this is what I was looking for...

This is a picture of the afghan pattern I'm looking for. I saw the picture on the Bellaonline crochet forum...someone else there is looking for it too, altho, I think she might have found it...

Now what do I do?

I just finished a purple and white poncho (pictures will be posted later this weekend probably)

Now I need to find something else to make.

Saw a picture of a 6 pointed star ripple afghan the other day (a star ripple is kind of like a giant granny square, except it's in a star shape...think I've seen them with anywhere from 5 to 8 points on them)

I have a pattern for something like it, but I dont care much for the pattern that I have... I wish I could find something like the picture I saw the other day. Oh well...gives me something to look for when I'm at the library.

I have a ton of scrap yarn left from the last few projects I've done...I think it's time to start another scrap afghan...I just need a really cool pattern

Oh look! A crochet pattern!

This is a crochet pattern that was taught to me by my grandmother. I never had a written out copy of the pattern since I had it memorized. To the best of my knowledge, it's something she came up with on her own, and since the words in the pattern are mine, this pattern is copyrighted to me. Please do not sell the pattern. Some pattern designers dont want you to sell any item you might have made with their patterns. I'm not one of those... If you think you can get some money for a finished afghan you might make with this pattern, go right ahead, who am I to stop you...just dont sell my pattern to anyone.

Thanks to the people who helped me write it out and tested it for clarity for me.

I am planning on putting some pictures of an in-progress rectangle granny, since I know some crocheters do better if they have a picture for comparison... I'll try to get that done in the next few days. Until then, try your best with just the text of the pattern.

And, if any thing in the pattern needs to be clarified, please tell me and I'll see if I can figure it out. Just remember, this was my first ever attempt at writing out a pattern.

********************

Rectangular Granny Afghan

Special stitches: (corner shells are 3 dc, ch-1, 3 dc)

Hint: when fastening off leave a long tail to be worked in later so the stitches won’t come apart.

Round 1:
ch 48

Dc in 4th ch from hook and next 2 chs, ch1 *sk 1 ch, dc in next 3chs, ch 1* repeat from * to * across (9 more times) ending with 1 dc in last ch. fasten off leaving a long tail to weave in


Round 2:
Attach new yarn in last ch-1 sp before the last dc. Ch 3, 2 dc, ch-1 in same sp, 3 dc, ch-1, 3 dc, ch-1 inside dc loop, working on other side of starting ch (3 dc, ch-1 in each sp across) until ch 4 loop (3dc, ch-1, 4 times in loop), (3dc, ch-1 in each sp across) joining with sl st in first dc.

Round 3: Attach red in first ch-1 sp of row 2 (ch 3, 2 dc, ch-1, 3dc ch-1 in same sp for corner, 3 dc, ch-1 in next sp, (3 dc, ch-1, 3 dc, ch-1 in next sp for corner) 3 dc, ch-1 in each sp across joining in ch 3.

Round 4: continue in pattern until size desired.

For more than one row of same color after joining sl st to the first ch sp and work in pattern.


********************