Lazy...

I've had a couple of crochet projects to show for about two weeks now, but have just been lazy about updating my blog. I’ve just been feeling so drained the past few weeks. My husband’s working nights is really getting to me.

On top of that, I’m dealing with a bunch of issues with my daughter. I had a meeting about two weeks ago with her teachers (regular teacher, the other 4th grade teacher, who teaches science to her class, gym teacher, and her special education teachers for her math and handwriting difficulties). Her 4th grade teachers raved about how incredibly bright she is, and that she has above-average verbal skills and vocabulary and is very creative and imaginative, and a good writer, but she is still failing math, her handwriting is nearly illegible, and she can’t stay focused on tasks for more than a few minutes at a time. I’ve noticed the same thing with her at home, with her lack of attention – she’ll go from one thing to another to another – she’ll play on the computer for a couple of minutes, then watch TV, then play with toys, and go back and forth to various things. Homework takes forever because she’ll stare off into space, or start fidgeting with things on her desk, or just generally not pay attention. Apparently it’s the same thing at school.

Bethany’s gym teacher says she appears to have problems with fine motor skills, because of her difficulties in mastering things like dribbling a basketball, etc. Now, I am concerned about her handwriting difficulties, but, and other parents would probably disagree with me, I don’t think a lack of athletic skills or abilities is the end of the world. My daughter isn’t lazy by any means – she loves to be active, she loves swimming, and she enjoys her weekly gymnastics classes at the Y, even though she isn’t great at them. As long as she is being active, then I don’t see why it matters whether she’s actually skilled at any sports. The 4th grade has been practicing bowling in the gym, and the gym teacher mentioned how Bethany can’t throw the ball straight down the “lane”. And? I told the gym teacher that I’m 34 years old, and get gutter balls every time I go bowling. Does she really expect a 10 year old, with a minimum of bowling experience not to get gutter balls?

Anyway, I’ve been feeling for sometime that my daughter may have ADD, which is causing her lack of focus in school, and I asked her teachers if they think she may have ADD. Her special ed math teacher said she can’t legally diagnose Bethany with ADD, but that in her opinion, and compared to other kids she’s seen with it, she believes that Bethany does have ADD. She suggested taking Bethany to her pediatrician for an evaluation, so we have an appointment on April 1st (appropriate, huh?) for the evaluation. She also suggested trying to get Bethany occupational therapy for her handwriting problems. Her printing is nearly illegible, and she is having great difficulty with cursive. I need to check into whether my medical insurance will cover occupational therapy, and then I’m going to ask her pediatrician for a referral to a therapist. Both of my kids already have asthma and allergies (my daughter also has eczema), so I’m already dealing with a lot of medical bills and medication expenses related to those, and now with my daughter’s school problems, it seems like it's just getting worse.

Well, on to happier things…

I hope everyone had a good Easter. I had Friday through Monday off from work. I took my kids to my mom’s house last Saturday to dye eggs with their cousins. They had a lot of fun. We went back over there on Sunday for Easter dinner with my brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, and in-laws. My niece Rosie (my oldest brother Joe’s stepdaughter) ended up spending Sunday night at my house, after Bethany nagged me about it. Rosie is such a sweet kid, and very well behaved, so I didn’t mind having her over. My Dominic just loves her. He loves playing with his older girl cousins for some reason. I crocheted some headbands for Bethany (left) and Rosie (right), although you can’t see the headbands that great in this picture.
I also got to see my new baby niece (Rosie’s little sister), Jenna, a couple of times. Now, I know I’m naturally biased since I’m her aunt, but I still think she’s just adorable! That’s her below, on Easter, with her dad. Joe somehow got the tall, skinny gene in the family (it just skipped right over me, LOL).Joe’s oldest son, Anthony (from his first marriage) is in the photo on the wall behind Joe – Anthony is in the Air Force. He’s stationed in a tiny little town in Idaho. He says there’s not much to do there, but at least he has a girlfriend there – he’s dating a Filipino girl who’s also in the Air Force. When I hold Jenna, I can’t help but think about what my baby (if I hadn’t miscarried this last pregnancy) would look like now, and if I would have had a boy or a girl, and I feel a little twinge of sadness inside. Still, it’s nice to have another baby in the family, since my other nieces and nephews are getting older.

My husband and I took Rosie home on Monday evening, and only planned to drop her off and go, since my husband had to work Monday night, and we needed to go grocery shopping, but my sister-in-law, Gehan, talked us into staying, and with Jenna there, how could I resist? Did I mention what a cute baby she is? Dominic loves seeing Uncle Joe, because Joe is a fantastic artist (as was my dad, and as is Joe’s twin sister, Desiree), and draws Dominic pictures of his favorite Veggie Tales to color. Gehan's birthday was on Easter, but I didn't even realize it was her birthday, so I didn't even have a card for her. I feel so bad, because she's such a great person, and she's been so sweet to me and my husband and kids. I'll have to crochet up something for her.

After we finally left, we stopped at this new Wal-Mart Supercenter that just opened last year, in the nearby Steelyard Commons (built of the site of an abandoned LTV Steel plant). It’s the first Wal-Mart to be built within the city of Cleveland (not within the suburbs), and only shopping center of its size within the city. I was really impressed. I wish we had one closer to my house, on the east side (my brother lives on the west side) - everything in Cleveland is either “east side” or “west side” – east side is east of the Cuyahoga River, which runs through the outskirts of downtown, and west side is west of the river. Most people grow up on one side or the other, and rarely venture over to the other side. I’ve lived in the Cleveland area my entire life, and still only have a vague idea where things are on the west side. I was pleased to see that the new Wal-Mart has yarn, but unfortunately I didn’t have time to stop and look at it.

I did manage to get a couple of crochet projects down over the past few weeks. I finally finished up a granny rectangle blanket I was making for Bethany.

I started it early last fall, and got bored with it when I was about 75% done. It sat untouched for a few months until I finally pulled it out and finished it up (OK, I still need to weave in the dozens of ends, which I dread, and have been totally putting off). I planned to make it to fit Bethany’s full-size bed, but it's still large enough to cover her comfortably. I used Bernat Camouflage in “Go Girl Camo” and Bernat Super Value in “Pale Damson”. I really don’t like the colors. I’m not much of a purple person (although I do love pale lavender shades) I had ordered both yarns online, and the Camo looked a much more pink in the photo, and the Super Value looked much lighter. I didn’t feel like returning the yarn, and had spent too much money to go out and buy different colors. Bethany likes the blanket though.

I used the leftover Camo and Super Value, plus some leftover Bernat Satin and Caron Simply Soft to crochet a matching bolster pillow. I got the pattern for the blanket from the Super Value label, but the pillow was my own design. I bought the pillow form directly from the manufacturer, Airtex. I was going to order one from Joann’s, but they wanted $9.99 plus $15 shipping ($5.99 + an oversized item fee), compared to $6.99 + $5.99 shipping from the manufacturer. My Dominic saw the pillow, and wants one now too, but crocheting a cover for a round pillow was a lot more work than I anticipated, so I told him I’ll crochet him a square pillow. Poor Dominic has been neglected on the crochet front. It’s not that I don’t want to crochet anything for him, it’s just that there’s so few crochet patterns and ideas for boys. He did ask for a “pink, black, and white kitty”, so I got all the materials to make one, and need to get started on that, and I need to finish up the ripple blankie I started for him last year.

I got some crochet books over the past few weeks too!The first one, “200 Crochet Tips, Techniques & Trade Secrets”, I ordered from Amazon, when my other brother Brian cashed in some coins at one of those grocery store Coinstar machines, got an Amazon gift certificate from the machine and gave it to me. This is a fantastic book – well worth the price. It has tips on solving just about any kind of crochet problem imaginable. I know I’m going to get a lot of use out of it. The second book, “Crochet Stitch Bible”, I bought at a Borders store downtown with a 20% off coupon. I’ve been wanting a stitch guide for awhile, and when I got the coupon, I figured I should just go ahead and buy one. Of course, as luck would have it, the day after I bought it, I got a 30% off coupon in my email. Grrrr! The last book, “100 Crochet Projects”, is one that my mom got when she signed up for a book club, and gave to me. It has a couple of cute projects, unfortunately, most of the projects in the book are either too advanced for me, or are just things I wouldn’t want to make.

Well, if you’ve stuck with me this long, thank you! I’ve got to clean up the house and get to bed soon. I had considered taking this week off from work to stay home with Bethany on her Easter vacation, but didn’t, and instead enrolled her in a spring break camp at the Great Lakes Science Center downtown from Tuesday-Friday of this week. I had originally planned to just take her there and back on the bus with me, but my husband offered to drop us off and pick up every day. I’m glad he did, because I realized that the Science Center is a much farther walk from the bus stop than I initially thought. Bethany is enjoying the camp so far – she’s loved science since she was a toddler. There’s a different theme every day – yesterday was "LEGO Robotics", today was "Make Your Own Art Supplies", tomorrow is "Get Fishy" (they get to dissect a real Lake Erie fish – eewww!), and Friday is "Cricket Creatures".

We have to pick Bethany up by 5:30 every evening and today Rodney came to pick me up, and got downtown at 5PM and got stuck in traffic for nearly 40 minutes trying to get to my job. Downtown has been terribly congested between this Euclid Corridor Project (a complete waste of money if you ask me, but don’t get me started, or you’ll never hear the end of it), the water main break of a couple of weeks ago, which is still being repaired, and a Cavs (basketball) game tonight. I have zero interest in sports (unless ice skating and bowling count), so I had no idea there was a game tonight. Had I known, I would have asked Rodney to pick Bethany up first, before coming to get me. As it was, we ended up not getting to the Science Center until 5:50, and Bethany was bawling when I got there – she gets so worried if my husband and I are late picking her up from things. She thought something had happened to us. The employee who was with her was really good with Bethany though, and fortunately didn’t charge us for being late.

I was just going to finish up this blog post, when I remembered one more thing – I got a very exciting piece of mail today! A jury duty summons! I know, I know, I’m probably the only person in the country who gets pumped up about jury duty, LOL!

But hey, here’s how I look at jury duty: I have to go downtown every day for work anyway, so it’s no big deal to go downtown for jury duty. I get an hour to an hour and a half for lunch every day when I’m on jury duty, and get to eat in the delicious (seriously, it’s really good food!) Justice Center cafeteria. I’ll have a lot of breaks during which I can crochet (there’s a lot of sitting around with jury duty, even when you serve on a trial), although I probably won’t be able to bring my metal hooks with me, because they would set off the metal detectors. I have a full set of Lion Brand plastic hooks though, so that’s not a problem. I’ll be done by 4-4:30 every day (I don’t get off work until 5:30-ish everyday). I love true crime stories and hearing about forensic evidence, so I don’t mind criminal trials. I’ll get paid for the time I’ll miss from work. And, best of all, I won’t have to see my boss for a whole week (possibly longer), LOL!

This will be my third time doing jury duty in the past 6 years. I served on an aggravated robbery/aggravated murder trial in 2002, a robbery/kidnapping trial in 2006. and now have to report again in April. It’s funny though how I’ve been called 3 times in 6 years, when I’ve met people in their 50’s and 60’s who have never been called, even though they’ve been registered to vote since they were 18.

Well, whew! I think I covered everything I wanted to say. Thanks for bearing with me through this long post!

Wedding Gifts

Well, I ended up dropping that human resources grad school class, and am taking a capital budgeting class this semester instead. The capital budgeting is still challenging, but not nearly as bad as the HR class would have been. I had started taking the capital budgeting class in the spring of ’07, but ended up dropping it when I broke my wrist. Having to wear a cast, and then a brace, I was reduced to typing one-handed, pecking at the keys, and there was no way I could have taken any tests or typed up papers like that. Anyway, I’m hoping nothing will go wrong this time, and I’ll be able to complete the class and pass it.

I also started working on some wedding gifts for my younger sister Shauna this past week. Her wedding colors are ivory, lavender and periwinkle. The first is a ring bearer pillow (my son is going to be the ring bearer!). I searched online for patterns for crocheted ring bearer pillows, but couldn’t find any, so I just made my own design. I’m crocheting the cover in a v-stitch pattern, using Bernat Satin in Silk and Star Dust.

I got my husband to take me to Joann Fabrics so I could buy some lavender fabric to make the pillow part. It’s no fun shopping with a man at a craft store! I need to learn how to drive so I can go by myself. My husband looked positively miserable! I would say he looked like I would if I had to go to Home Depot with him, but actually I don’t mind Home Depot, because they sell plants and home décor items. It’s more like how I’d look if he dragged me to a musical instruments store like Sam Ash. My husband loves music, and plays a few instruments, so when we went to Sam Ash a few months ago to buy our daughter a flute for the school band, he kept stopping to look at everything, and ask the salesmen questions. I was so ready to leave! The only good thing was I found a cute pink cell phone case there to match my pink cell phone!

Anyway, I found this lavender fabric at Joann’s with the fabric remnants for sale, for only $1.49. I got the ribbon and pearls at Joann’s too. I bought the rosettes from a lady on EBay. I glued the ribbons and roses on with fabric glue, and had such a hard time trying to get them into a nice heart shape. I keep looking at it thinking the heart looks a bit “off” on one side. I realize the fabric, ribbon and yarn aren’t identical lavender shades, but they look close enough, I think. I guess I shouldn’t beat myself up about it, because my sister isn’t a picky or critical person. I’m sure she’ll be happy with the pillow as it is. I’m going to sew a pillow from the fabric, stuff it, and then put it in between the two crocheted pieces (I still need to make the back), single crochet them together with the ivory yarn, and then crochet a ruffle edging with the lavender yarn. The ribbon is to hold the rings. I need to figure out how to use the zoon feature on my camera, so I can get more detailed photos, because it's hard to see the heart in the picture.

The other gift I’m working on for Shauna is a wedding shawl. She’s getting married in May in an outdoor wedding, and May weather here in the Cleveland area can be unpredictable, so I thought it would be nice for her to have a shawl to cover up with in case the day is a little chilly. I got the pattern for the shawl from the book Cozy Crochet. The pattern was actually for a head kerchief, but I’m just adding more rows to enlarge it. It’s supposed to be a granny square type design, but it’s difficult to tell from my picture. I’m using discontinued Patons’ Katrina yarn in a blue Dawn color, to match the blue trim on Shauna's wedding dress. The yarn is super stretchy - it almost feels like crocheting with elastic - so I think that’s distorting the design a bit too. The yarn is really pretty – very soft and sparkly, but the stretchiness is making it difficult to work with. I have 5 skeins of the yarn, and I’m hoping that will be enough. I bought the yarn from a Canadian seller on EBay – the only place I could find it in the color I wanted - and it took two weeks for it to come, since it had to go through customs, so hopefully I won’t end up running out of yarn and needing to order more. After I finish the body of the shawl, I’m going to crochet a pretty scalloped border around it, and weave ivory satin ribbon through the scallops. I’m hoping I can get the shawl done in time to give it to her at her bridal shower in March.

The last project I have to show is some dishcloths I also crocheted for Shauna. These aren’t a wedding gift – just something to cheer her up because she’s been going through a tough time with some things in her life right now. She and her fiancée came over my house yesterday for a little birthday party for my kids, and Shauna saw my granny square dishcloths hanging up in the kitchen, and really liked them, so I though I’d make her some. I crocheted them with Lily Sugar N’ Cream in Soft Violet and Summer Twists. The first one is a granny square with a picot border, the second is a griddle stitch design with a scalloped border, and the last one is just rows of single, half-double and double crochets, with a ruffle border. I’m going to drop them in the mail to her tomorrow along with a nice card.

I figure her fiancee probably won't like the girly designs and colors, but she puts up with his collection of horror movie character figurines, so he can deal with some ruffles and lavender, LOL!

Thank you everyone for all the nice comments on baby Genna! She was able to come home from the hospital last week. My brother says she's doing better, but is colicky. I had two extremely colicky kids (both were lactose intolerant as babies), and it's definitely no fun, so I'm hoping Genna isn't actually colicky. Her mom is breastfeeding her, so it could just be that she seems colicky to my brother because it's been 13 years since he had to deal with a baby (his youngest son is 13). Thank you too for the nice comments on my son's birthday! My daughter's birthday is this Tuesday, so I'll have to post some pictures of her then.

Happy New Year!

I just wanted to say Happy New Year, and thank you to everyone who's read my blog and/or posted comments since I started it! I appreciate everyone's comments, and look forward to reading them. I am continually amazed by the beautiful crochet work of so many of my fellow bloggers, like Lesa of Lesalicious Style & Life, and Christina of Crafty Christina, and so many others. I hope to be as good as all of you someday.

I was hoping to get a lot of crocheting done during my time off from work, but unfortunately things didn't work out that way. My daughter has had a cold for the past week, and I caught it from her, and felt terrible for the past two days. I've also been feeling kind of down in the dumps lately, and so haven't felt like doing much of anything. I tend to get sad around Christmas and New Years'. It's a combination of things. I hate winter, and the short freezing days, snow, and early nightfall makes me feel gloomy. My dad passed away a few years ago in the winter (his funeral actually fell on my daughter's 7th birthday), and I miss him a lot around Christmas. I also find this time of year financially stressful with Christmas presents, and my kids' birthdays looming in January.

I've also been feeling lonely lately because my husband was put on night shift at his job recently, and so it seems like we hardly see each other anymore. He leaves for work around the time I'm putting the kids to bed, then when he gets home, it's time for me to go to work, and he's sleeping during the day while the kids are at school/daycare, so I can't talk to him during the day. He's still getting used to working night shift, and the schedule has him all out of whack physically, so when I get home from work, he's still tired, and is usually lying down, so between that and my evenings being so busy with taking care of the kids, homework, baths, bedtimes, etc., it seems like we barely even have time to talk. I've also been feeling lonely, because my youngest sister, who I've always been very close to, and who's always been a favorite aunt of my kids, moved across town when she and her fiancée got engaged, and so between her living so far away, and being busy with her fiancée, I don't hear from her very often any more.

Overall, I didn't have a particularly spectacular New Year. The whole year has just been tough for me and my husband, and so I can't help but worry about what the next year will hold. My husband was laid off from his job last September, when his company downsized, and gave him and his coworkers a measly week's notice. He ended up being out of work for 7 months, despite going on so many interviews I lost count. After hiring a reference checking service, we found out that a supervisor he disliked, from a job he held a few years ago (not the job he was laid off from), was giving out unfounded negative references about him. We talked to a lawyer, who thought we had cause for a possible defamation lawsuit, but with my husband being unemployed, we couldn't afford to pursue it. My husband found out later on that this supervisor had done the same thing to other employees. It makes me so angry for the grief this man caused for me and my husband, but I figure what goes around comes around. A person can't go through life treating people badly without it catching up to them eventually.

My husband finally got a job through a temp agency, but at a much lower rate of pay than what he was making. The company where he was assigned hired him permanently after a few months, and it's a great company to work for, but he's still not making as much money as he was at his last job. I'm thankful that he has a job now, but between the pay cut, and being put on night shift, things have been very stressful for us.

To make matters worse, this past February, I broke my right wrist when I fell on a patch of ice in downtown Cleveland after work. I ended up spending 3 weeks out of work, at only partial pay, while my husband was also out of work and only getting unemployment pay. Then in May I got pregnant unexpectedly, but miscarried the baby at the end of August. I had been bleeding off and on (more on than off) throughout the pregnancy, and, despite two ultrasounds that showed the baby developing normally, I found out when I was 16 weeks along that the baby had died at 13 weeks. I had a D&C a week later because my body wouldn't miscarry normally. My husband and I weren't planning on having any more kids, but it was a very hard thing to deal with nevertheless.

My husband and I have been renting for far longer than we ever planned, and while we love the house that we're renting, and have a wonderful landlord, we want so badly to buy a house of our own, but every time it seems like we'll be able to start paying down our bills so we can buy a house, something happens to throw us off track, like all the medical bills that keep rolling in from my accident and the miscarriage.

About two weeks after we found out the baby had died, my husband's 23 year old niece was killed in a car accident. The accident happened right around the corner from her house, while she was driving home from work one evening. She left behind a husband and two little boys. Her older son was the same age as my son (4) and her youngest was 6 months old. My husband took it really hard, because he also lost one of his brothers at nearly the same age - his youngest brother was murdered when he was 24 - he was a year older than me. We had just seen his niece a week before she died, and I never would have imagined then that she would dead a week later.

Needless to say, 2007 was not a good year for us. I'm praying that 2008 goes better. I have to go back to work tomorrow, and am not looking forward to it. January through about March or April is an extremely busy, stressful time at my job, due to a major project that's in full swing at the time every year, and I have a mountain of work waiting for me when I get back. I'm also currently enrolled in a grad school program - I'm working on my MPA (Master of Public Administration) through an online program with the University of Texas at Arlington (the state university system in Texas), and my spring semester classes are going to be starting up in a few weeks, so I'm going to be swamped with that too.

I was on a hiatus from classes, between my broken wrist and the miscarriage, and I enjoyed the break, but I need to get going with my classes again. Barring anything else going wrong, I may be done with the program by this coming fall, or next spring (2009). It just seems like every time I get going with the classes, something happens to throw me off course. I have mixed feelings about graduating though. It will be a big accomplishment for me, as I dropped out of high school in the 11th grade (I got my GED), and at one point in my life earning a college degree seemed like an impossible dream. I am also only the second person in my family to graduate from college (an older sister was the first), but at the same time, I feel discouraged that I'm not doing better in my life for all the education I have, and for how old I am (34).

I work as a research assistant for the national offices of a church. On paper, my position required a degree, but in reality I don't do much that actually requires a degree. Since I work for a nonprofit organization, the pay is terrible (although the benefits are excellent), but I feel stuck staying there because this is the first job I've had where I actually have flexibility as a working mom. I have a lot of paid time off - a lot of vacation time, sick time, personal days, and holidays, not to mention the week off at Christmas time. My boss, despite not having any kids, is very understanding when I need to take time off from work when my kids are sick or I have to attend school events, meetings, etc. It's definitely a relief to not to have to worry about being fired if I call off when one of my kids get sick, and with both of them having asthma and numerous allergies, it seems like they get sick a lot. At the same time though, I feel so frustrated about not having a real career, and not making enough money to not to have to worry about bills all the time. I don't know, maybe 2008 will bring me a real career with flexibility and good pay. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

I did manage to get one small crochet project done over the weekend though. I had a bunch of Lily Sugar N' Cream and Lion Cotton left over from various projects, that I wanted to use up, so I crocheted these dishcloths. I really like how the granny square with each round in a different color came out, but it was tedious weaving in all those ends.

Well, happy (belated!) New Year everyone, and thanks for reading my blog!

P.S. A huge thank you to "My Best Friend Calls Me Martha" for the vest pattern for my son - it's exactly what I was looking for!

Stash Basket, a Hamster, a Ripple "Blankie", and a Band Concert!

I have a few more crochet projects to show. The first is a basket I crocheted for my daughter’s room. I saw some of these on Ravelry, and loved them, so I had to make one myself. I got the pattern for free on Ravelry as a PDF file, but couldn’t find it elsewhere online. If anyone wants the pattern, I can email you the PDF file. For the basket, I used two skeins of Sugar N’ Cream Twists in the “Summer Twists” color, that I got for $1.37 each at a local craft store, Pat Catan's. Sure beats the $1.99 Joann’s charges it for it online.

I used an F hook instead of the recommended E, because I crochet tightly, but after assembling the basket, I realized I should have used the E, to make the basket stiffer. I sprayed the basket with several coats of a fabric stiffening spray, and that helped, but it’s still not as stiff as I would like. I added a shell stitch trim to make the basket more interesting. It was an easy pattern, but all the rows of single crochet with a small hook made it really tedious, not to mention making my right wrist and hand sore. The third photo is of my daughter’s hamster, Chester, who she put in the basket. Needless to say, he wasn’t too happy, LOL!

My son saw the basket, asked if I crocheted it, then picked it up, and said it will be perfect for carrying his cars (he has a ton of little Hotwheels cars, and cars from the Disney Cars movie). When I told him the basket was for Sissy (my daughter – he’s called her Sissy ever since he learned how to talk), he got upset. I told him I’ll make him one too, in “boy colors”. I feel bad that I don’t crochet as many things as I do for my daughter, but there’s so few crochet patterns for boys his age (he’s almost 5). I did start working on a “blankie” for him a while ago though.

When I first learned how to crochet, I made him a small blanket out of Lion Brand Jiffy yarn, and he takes it to daycare with him for nap time, but the blanket has gotten so fuzzy and worn looking (the yarn didn’t hold up well), and after he saw a granny square blanket I started for my daughter, he wanted me to make him a second blanket. I had tried to crochet a ripple blanket awhile ago, but the pattern called for skipping spaces, and for some reason I couldn’t get the holes in each row created by the skipped spaces to line up, so I gave up on ripples. I was really disappointed until I found this super-easy ripple baby blanket pattern in Crochet Today magazine. The “valleys” in the ripples are created by decreases, rather than skipping stitches, which for some reason, I just find easier. I started my son’s blanket about a month or two ago, and I’m pretty happy with how it’s turning out.

I’m using TLC Essentials in Barn Red, Light Celery, Country Blue, and Linen. I kind of wish now that I had used a yellow color instead of the tan, because I think the tan looks rather dull. I don’t feel like redoing the blanket now though since I’ve gotten so much done. The TLC Essentials is cheap, and has a lot of yardage, but I’m disappointed about how rough it feels to me. I ordered it from Joann.com, and all the reviews raved about it, and said it’s a soft yarn, so I assumed it would be soft, but it’s not. I’m hoping it will soften up once I wash and dry it with fabric softener.

I haven’t been working on the blanket a whole lot lately though, because I get most of my crocheting done on the bus to and from work, and the blanket is getting too large to work on comfortably on the bus. The local bus system here in the Cleveland area just cut out a bunch of busses from the routes I regularly ride, and now the busses are so crowded that a lot of times I can’t crochet (don’t want to bump anyone with my elbows!) or can only work on something small. Every time my son sees the blanket, he asks me if it’s done, and gets upset when I tell him not yet, so I need to get started on it again.

The one thing I would love to crochet for my son, but can’t find a pattern I like anywhere, is a vest. I just want a pattern for a simple, crocheted, v-neck boy’s size 4 or 5 vest, with no buttons, or zippers, or elaborate stitches. Sounds simple enough, but I can’t find one anywhere. I’ve tried Googling, asking on Ravelry, on Crochet Partners, on Crochetville, looking at patterns on yarn company websites, looking in my collection of crochet books, everywhere I could think of with no luck. I’d even be happy with a girl’s vest pattern (because I could change the color), but no luck for that either. I wish I had more crocheting experience so I could just design my own.

Well, my last thing to show is a picture of my daughter’s Christmas band concert last Wednesday evening at her school. She plays flute in the beginning band, which are mostly 4th graders with a handful of 5th graders. The band must be pretty popular, because my daughter said all of the kids in her 4th grade class are in the band except for about two. She’s the one in the middle with the big puffy ponytail, and the burgundy top and skirt. My husband comes from a very musical family – all his brothers play instruments, and my husband was in several marching bands through junior high and high school. He can read music, and also play by ear, and can play the piano, trumpet, and drums. I’m trying to convince him to buy a trumpet so he can play along with our daughter, LOL! He was happy then when my daughter announced that she wanted to join the school band, and luckily he helps her practice, because I can’t read music.

My daughter did well in the concert. I’m proud of her for going right up there on the stage and playing even though she was nervous. The concert was very nice. A few kids in the advanced band (grades 5 through 8) did solos, and they were all really good. I told my daughter if she sticks with the flute, I’ll buy her a pink flute case (she just has a black one now). I’ve actually seen pink flutes, but at $300+, forget it! Her used flute alone cost $140 with the flute, case, cleaning kit, etc. Between that and the $600 a year the band program costs, I’m going to make sure she sticks it out!

Grannies!

I got the January/February issue of Crochet Today magazine in the mail yesterday (you can see how I’ve gotten it worn out already!), and I’m so excited, because it has a whole section on one of my favorite crochet things – granny squares! There’s a lot of cute granny square projects, and information on crocheting grannies in other shapes besides squares. I tried it out and made a (slightly lopsided) granny triangle!

My youngest sister is getting married next May (I’m going to be the maid of honor, my daughter is going to be a junior bridesmaid, and my son is going to be the ring bearer). I want to crochet her a wedding shawl (as May weather is so variable here in Cleveland), for a bridal shower gift, but was having trouble finding a fancy, but easy pattern. My problem was solved when I read in the article that a triangular granny could be worked until it reaches shawl size! I’m thinking now that I’ll make my sister a triangular granny shawl with a lacy border. Her wedding dress is ivory with periwinkle accents, and her wedding flowers are going to be periwinkle and lavender hydrangeas. Knit Picks has a sport-weight cotton blend yarn (Shine Sport), in what looks like the same shade of blue on her dress, that’s very appropriately named “Hydrangea”. I think I’m going to use that for the shawl. Here are some pictures of the dress (click on the Knit Picks link to see the yarn) – I think the colors are pretty close.

Another thing I really liked from the magazine was some cute crochet hearts (go to www.crochettoday.com and click on the “Free Projects” link). I think a bunch of them in varying shades of pink and red joined together in a long strip would make a great scarf. I have so many ideas for crochet projects floating around in my head that I think I’m never going to get around to making them all!

Little Crocheted Things

Well, I finally got the USB cable for my camera back, after I also couldn’t find the camera! Fortunately my husband found both for me. Sometimes I think he must be part bloodhound, because he’s so good at finding things, LOL!

Anyway, here are two little crocheted things I made last week. The first is a granny square purse I made for my 9 year old niece, who had a sleepover with my daughter last week.
I used some leftover Lion Cotton and Lily Sugar N’ Cream. The pattern is from Better Homes and Gardens 1-2-3 Crochet. The pattern called for a G hook, but I used an H, because I crochet really tightly. I realized after making the purse though that I should have gone ahead and used the G, so the purse would hold its shape better. My niece was really happy with the purse anyway though.

The second is a scrunchie I made for my daughter. It’s just rows of double crochet worked into a ruffle around a ponytail holder. The pattern from was a kids’ crochet book, but I can’t think of the title off hand. I used Bernat Camouflage yarn in the Go Girl color, with some Bernat Super Saver for the trim. My daughter loved the scrunchie, and wants me to make her more in other colors. I figure it’s a good way to use up leftover yarn too.

Baby Gifts

Finally I have a completed crochet project to show!

This is a baby bathrobe I crocheted for my pregnant sister-in-law, Gehan who is having a girl in January. The pattern is from the February/March '07 issue of Crochet Today magazine (I love that magazine!). The pattern called for Red Heart Cupid yarn, but I didn't have any (and don't think I could have used it anyway, because I can't crochet with very textured yarns – I can't see the stitches). I ended up using some Lion Brand Cotton-Ease in the discontinued ”Strawberry Cream” color. I had bought seven skeins of it from a lady on the Yahoo Cotton-Ease group, and was saving it to make a summer top or sweater for myself, but the pink color just screamed "baby gift"! The pattern also called for Red Heart Baby Clouds for the trim, but I hate that yarn (gets fuzzy too quickly), so I used Bernat Baby Lash in “Wee White”. I had some difficulty seeing my stitches in it, but managed to work with it anyway. The Cotton-Ease was very nice to work with. I'm really disappointed though that Lion Brand discontinued the old Cotton-Ease colors. I think they're so much prettier than the new colors, and the old stuff feels softer to me too. In any case, the pattern was pretty easy to follow, and I finished the bathrobe in about 4 days, using a little over two skeins of the Cotton-Ease, and a small amount of the Baby Lash.

Gehan's baby shower was today, so I put the bathrobe, a granny square blanket I crocheted and a gift pack of baby bath supplies in a lined wicker basket, and that was her gift. Here's the blanket:
I used Bernat Satin in the “Bahamas” and “Spring” colors for the blanket. I realize it's not the best picture. I have a new camera, and am still trying to figure out how to use it well. Gehan really liked the gifts and everyone at the shower raved about the bathrobe. I had a pretty good time as well. Gehan is Muslim, and some of her female relatives wear the hijab, and cannot take it off around men except for their spouses, and they wanted to get comfortable, so the men (my husband, brother, Joe, and nephews) were all kicked out of the house, LOL! My son, being only four, was allowed to stay though, and had fun playing with his girl cousins.

This baby will make kid number 6 for Gehan and Joe. Joe has three sons from his first marriage and Gehan has a son and a daughter from her first marriage. Gehan's daughter is the same age as my daughter - they're both 9, and they get along really well, so that's a big plus. Gehan is a great lady, and I'm happy for her and Joe that they are expecting, and that she's part of my family but I can't help but feel a twinge of sadness, as I was also pregnant recently, but suffered a miscarriage.

I got pregnant in May with my third child, and was due exactly a month after Gehan - she is due January 17th, and I was due February 17th. My husband and I weren't planning on having any more kids, and I had tried to have my tubes tied after my son was born, but I had two surgeries on my colon in the past, and have so much internal scar tissue in my abdominal area, that my doctor couldn't even find my tubes when he cut me open to tie them. During my pregnancy with my son, I bled off and on through the pregnancy, quite heavily during the first few months, but he was still a healthy, full-term baby.

This time I started bleeding about a month into the pregnancy, and had two ultrasounds to try to determine the cause, but everything looked fine. At the second ultrasound at about 11 weeks, I was able to see the baby moving, and its heart beating, and got some ultrasound pictures to take home. I continued to bleed however, and although I'm not normally a very intuitive person, I just kept having a constant nagging feeling that something was wrong with the baby. Every time I would think about buying baby things, or crocheting something for the baby, something would tell me not to, in case something went wrong with the baby. My youngest sister however is very intuitive, has had dreams in the past about things that have come true, including my getting pregnant with a third child. She even accurately predicted the sex of all of my nieces and nephews. While I was pregnant this time, she said she kept forgetting I was pregnant, and kept having a feeling of emptiness, of nothingness about the baby.

At 13 weeks, I went to the doctor for a prenatal visit, and he tried to listen to the baby's heartbeat, but couldn't find it. He said that sometimes the heartbeat can't be heard outside of an ultrasound that early in the pregnancy, and that it was nothing to worry about. Three weeks later, at the end of August, I went in for another prenatal visit, and when the doctor still couldn't find a heartbeat, he sent me for an ultrasound that same day. I went to the ultrasound, and knew something was wrong when I saw my baby on the screen perfectly still, and the line for a heartbeat was flat. Still hoping everything would be OK, I asked the technician if she saw a heartbeat, and she just said she couldn't tell me, and asked when I was supposed to talk to my doctor. I told her I didn't know, that he just said he would call me when he got the ultrasound results, and that I couldn't stand going all weekend (this was a Friday evening) without not knowing if my baby was alive. When she saw me on the verge of tears, she told me the baby was gone, that it appeared the baby had died about 3 weeks earlier.

Needless to say, I was heartbroken, and I had a very long and depressing Labor Day weekend. After several more doctor visits, and an agonizing second ultrasound (because the technician's supervisor had mistakenly wrote that the baby was alive on the report from the first ultrasound), I had a D&C a week later.

My daughter took the news about the baby well, but my son was devastated. He was so looking forward to being a big brother. He hates being the littlest in the family, and bawled when I told him the baby had died. I'm thankful though that I had a lot of support from my husband and family, friends, and from a few kind women at my job that had also gone through miscarriages. The logical part of me knows that it's probably for the best that I lost the baby, because I was feeling overwhelmed by the idea of starting over with a baby, with diapers, and bottles, and sleepless nights, and I worried about the financial aspects of it, but the emotional side of me can't help but feel a bit sad when I see my sister-in-law pregnant, and see other women with babies.

I find crocheting therapeutic though, even when it's making baby stuff. I have a few more baby items I plan to crochet for Gehan if I have the time. Gehan's favorite colors are green and blue, so I bought some Red Heart Baby Teri yarn in a discontinued Lime color, from a seller on EBay, and am going to use it to crochet a baby bunting, hat, and booties for Gehan. I'm going to start on it after I finish up some Christmas presents I'm working on.