Lots of Hats!

I enjoyed reading all of your comments about dressing vs. stuffing, LOL! I see I still can't find anyone to come to a consensus about what the difference is, if any!

It's been a depressing past week since I last posted. The three days off from work for Thanksgiving were nice, except that I won't get paid for any of them. I didn't take them off by choice - the BOE decided to close all three days, and they don't give temps holiday pay. If I had a choice between taking Wednesday and Friday off without pay, or working, I would have gone to work, because I need the money so badly.

I've been working a 9:30-5:30 schedule at the BOE since I started in September -not my choice - that was just the shift they had open. Well, the day before Thanksgiving, the supervisor in my area who's usually there until 5:30 decided she wanted to leave at 4:30, so she sent me and the one other temp who stays until 5:30, home early (without pay for the last hour, of course). At 4:00 this past Thursday, she informed us she couldn't stay until 5:30, because the BOE put a freeze on overtime. We had to leave at 4:30 again, leaving us another hour short. Friday morning, me and my coworker come in at our regular 9:30, and are informed that we would be leaving at 4:30 again. Naturally, we were upset. We're already going to be short 23 hours on our paycheck next week between Thanksgiving and the two hours we had to leave early, not to mention have to leave early on Friday.

My coworker and I asked the supervisor if we could just skip our lunch (we get an hour) but she said it would have to be approved by the head of the department, who wasn't in on Friday. After that, we decided to go to HR, and the head of HR approved us skipping lunch so we wouldn't be short an hour on Friday. He also told us that now that election season is over, everyone at the BOE would be going back to an 8:30-4:30 schedule. How nice of them to notify us at the last minute. Neither of us has a problem with coming in at 8:30; it just made us mad that they didn't give us any kind of advance notice, so that we ended up short those hours. Being short two or three hours might not seem like much to a supervisor who probably makes $50,000+ a year, but to an employee who makes a measly $10 an hour, it does matter.

I get paid next week, and I've just been feeling sick with worry over how I'm going to manage with my check being so short. I normally get about $600 after taxes (and that damn mandatory 10% Ohio Public Employees Retirement System deduction) every two weeks, but with all the hours I'm short, I'll be getting about $380 on my next check. My husband and I haven't been able to buy a single Christmas present for the kids yet. My husband also gets paid next week (our last checks before Christmas), so we were planning on going Christmas shopping next Saturday but with my check being short, by the time we pay a few bills and buy groceries, we'll be lucky if we even have $150-200 left to spend on both kids. I know that's better than nothing, but even at Walmart, that doesn't go far.

To make matters worse, it feels like everything around my house is falling apart or needs to be replaced all at once. My 6 year old washing machine is nearly completely shot. It won't spin at all (and it's beyond repairable), which means my clothes all come out sopping wet, and take multiple cycles in the dryer to dry. I put a load of jeans in the dryer today, and no, I'm not exaggerating, they're were still damp after 3 hours of drying. And then remember I mentioned that the picture tube blew on my TV back in August? When I started working for the BOE, we got a used 32 inch TV from a TV repair shop for $200. It worked fine until last week when the picture tube starting going on it, too. It shuts off and won't come back on for 10-15 minutes at a time. Even my artificial Christmas tree barely made it up this year - my husband had to tie the top together - how ironic is that?? My daughter and I are also both desperately in need of hair cuts (I got mine cut last in March, and hers in June). On top of that, I really need to get my cat to the vet, since it looks like she's developed some kind of skin infection, plus she's due for her shots. I can't even afford to take her, and I feel terrible about it.

Oh, and I almost forgot - remember last January I posted about a minor accident my husband had on the freeway coming home from work one morning (slid on some ice and hit a fence)? Well, the other day, he got a bill in the mail from ODOT (Ohio Department of Transportation), billing him $175 for the fence! How crazy is that??? First of all, he only had the accident because the roads were icy and NOT salted (he wasn't speeding or driving recklessly), and secondly, the fence was barely damaged (my husband pointed it out to me one day when we drove past)! And, they haven't even fixed the fence yet! Both of us have been paying taxes to the state of Ohio to years. Don't part of our tax dollars go towards road repair??? ODOT will just have to get in line behind all of the other places I owe money to.

My husband and I have cut back drastically on every expense we could since I lost my last job in April, and even after I started working for the BOE. Our satellite TV service is off (not a huge deal, since I wasn't a big TV watcher, but I miss watching "Medium" on Lifetime on Saturday nights). Our cell phones are off (which is a big deal, because I have no way to reach my husband at work at night, and it's extremely hard to reach me at the BOE, since although the temps have phones, we don't have direct numbers, or even extensions where we can be reached). We rarely go anywhere on weekends anymore, except for grocery shopping or the occasional relative's house. We rarely eat out anymore, and I pack lunches 99% of the time. But even so, we're just still scraping by.

I am thankful to have a job at all, but it's depressing going to work every day, and barely bringing home enough even for the essentials, let alone anything extra. I get totally depressed every winter, between the snow and cold, the early nightfall and missing my dad who died during the winter, and worrying about money on top of it just makes worse.

My Bethany went to Girl Scout camp this weekend though, so at least she had a fun weekend. Her troop went to a camp in Richfield, Ohio, a rural town about 45 minutes from Cleveland. We drove out there Friday evening to drop her off. They went camping there last winter, too, but we're not really familiar with the area, so between that, and it being dark, we totally missed the camp entrance, drove way out of our way. She had to be there at 6:45, so we left the house at 5:45, but with getting lost, we ended up not getting there until a little after 7. Luckily a few other parents were also late, and the troop leaders were still waiting for stragglers, so she didn't miss out on camping.

I was up until 2:30 in the morning on Thursday night, packing Bethany's stuff for camp (everytime I'd think I was done I realized I forgot something), cleaning up the house, taking care of paperwork for the kids for school (it seems there's always something to complete), etc, and ended up getting 4 hours of sleep before I had to get up for work on Friday. Me, my husband and Dominic all fell asleep about 8:30, after we got back from dropping off Bethany. I can't remember the last time I went to sleep that early. Bethany and Dominic usually drive me crazy on weekends with their squabbling and pestering each other, but when Bethany's at camp, the house feels lonely. I kind of missed it though when we picked her up at camp this morning, and she and Dominic started bickering in the car, LOL!

At least one good thing has happened lately. I got a call on Friday about a benefits assistant (HR) job I applied for with an iron ore mining company that has their headquarters in downtown Cleveland. I didn't get the message until I got home from work, so I'm going to call her tomorrow. Please wish me luck that a better job turns up for me soon.

Well, since I've probably bored you with all the non-crochet related stuff, I have some crochet projects to show. I've been on a hat making spree lately. I think hats are probably my favorite thing to crochet. They're quick, but have enough shaping to keep me from getting bored, and it's easy to adjust the sizing. The first two are a couple of hats I crocheted for The Ships Project - a group that sends hand knitted or crocheted hats to U.S. troops stationed overseas.
I used some Caron Simply Soft Shadows yarn from my stash for both. The pattern for the first was from Interweave Crochet. The hat was worked with front post double crochet stitches in the round. I really like the texture, but the bottom of the hat keeps curling up. I added a few rounds of single crochet at the end, but it still keeps curling. The second hat is just a basic beanie done in extended single crochet. I really love how that one came out!

Next are some chemo caps I crocheted for ladies who visit a local cancer support center here in the Cleveland area. My husband's mother died of breast cancer when he was a teenager (many years before I met him), so this was something meaningful for me. I used some Caron Simply Soft Brites from my stash, and a free pattern I found online. I've been working on these for a few months, but just now got around to taking a picture.
My youngest sister asked me to crochet her a hat to wear around her house, since she's freezing all the time, so I came up with this. It's a rolled-brim hat with a motif at the top. I used some green (her favorite color) TLC Cara Mia yarn from my stash. I love that yarn! I bought a ton of it on Ebay last year. The pattern is from a British crochet book, "Beautiful Crochet for Heads, Hands and Toes". Yes, I know the pictures are crappy, but I was trying to hurry up and take them on Thanksgiving, before I left for my brother's house, because I wanted to give the hat to my sister when I saw her there.

I usually crochet during my breaks at work, and so I've had a few coworkers offer to pay me to make them things (although only two actual orders so far). I made this hat, leg warmers, and fingerless gloves set by request from a coworker. The pattern is from the book "Easy as 1-2-3 Crochet". I used Bernat Softee Chunky (one of my favorite cheap yarns) in hot pink and white.
Are you tired of seeing hats yet? I promise I only have one more! The final hat is another one made from Caron Simply Soft Brites. It was a free pattern from the Caron website. I just made it to use up some of my stash yarn. I didn't have anyone in particular in mind for it.
For the past few months I've been thinking about opening an Etsy shop to try to make some extra money. I don't usually have much confidence in my crochet projects (I always feel like everyone else's projects look so much better than mine), so I didn't know if I could actually sell anything I make. After getting lots of compliments at work for things I've crocheted, and now starting to get requests to make people things, I've been thinking more seriously about opening the Etsy shop. I've been making a list of ideas of things to sell (I decided to save the black/bright hat for it), and looking at my stash (I don't want to spend a lot of money upfront in case I can't sell anything) to see what I can make from it. If any of my blog readers who are Etsy sellers have any tips on getting started, what sells well, etc., I'd really appreciate hearing them (I know I need a better way of displaying hats!).

My husband has been DJ'ing (don't know if that's how it's supposed to be spelled, and too tired to care!) parties for the past decade - not regularly, just here and there, but he decided he wants to start pursuing it more actively, since we really need some extra money. My plumber brother set up a website for his business through Yahoo Small Business, and their websites are free to set up, and only $8.95 a month to run, so I've been working on making one for my husband's DJ services. Even if he only did a few parties or weddings a year, that would still be a huge help to us financially.

Well, off to clean up the house and finish laundry and go to bed...

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving!

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

My husband got up early and made (from scratch!) red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (my favorite kind of cake!), and two sweet potato pies. I didn't try the pies - I'll let you in on a little secret (I don't like pie). I know, I must be the only person in the world who doesn't like pie. I love nearly any kind of chocolate dessert, but I don't even like chocolate pies (yes, I'm weird!). Here's what's left of the 32 cupcakes:
Maybe you, my blog readers, can help me with a debate my husband and I have had every Thanksgiving for years: I say that "stuffing" and "dressing" refer to the same exact food, and the two terms are just used in different cultures, that black people (my husband is black, as most of you already know) usually refer to it as dressing, but that white people refer to it as stuffing. My husband insists that's not the case, that stuffing is a dish made with white bread, and that dressing is a dish made with cornbread. I've asked numerous people their opinion, and get different answers. Any and all opinions would be appreciated (I know you'll side with me, right?!), ha, ha!

My husband and kids and I went to my oldest brother's house for dinner, and of course, I couldn't come over without bringing a crocheted gift for his daughter, my adorable 10 month old niece, Jenna. I crocheted her a pumpkin hat from Crochet Today magazine. I was looking at the pattern and realized I had all the yarn colors I needed in my stash (left over from another project). I used Vanna's Choice Baby yarn. I was afraid the hat might be too small, but it fits perfectly. Here's Jenna with her dad, my brother, Joe the Plumber, LOL! It's true! His name is Joe and he has his own plumbing business.
More pics of the hat:















I had a nice time at dinner. The men entertained themselves by passing around dirty emails on their cell phones, while the women had an intelligent conversation about socialism, the economy, and the state of health care in the U.S. Now, which gender is the smarter one?!

My kids had fun too, with their cousins. Here's my Bethany with her cousins, Rosie (with the brown hair), and Alexis (with the red).
Here's another of Bethany, with Jenna: And here's my Dominic playing with his cousin Kaitlyn:
Dominic was whiny because the older girls went in Rosie's room and closed the door, and wouldn't let him in because he's a boy. He didn't want to go play outside with his boy cousins, but he cheered up after Kaitlyn started playing with him. After we got home, he drew this picture for Kaitlyn (I scanned it and emailed it to my sister), LOL!

Well, back to work tomorrow. I had Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off this week. It was nice getting to stay home, but I won't get paid for any of the time off (temps at the BOE don't get holiday pay), so that presents a whole bunch of other problems. Sigh...

Pillows!

Remember I said I had some small crochet projects to show?

Well, here's two of them:

The first is a pillow I crocheted for my 10 year old niece Rosie (my niece Jenna's older sister) to match her bedrooms. Her bedroom is lime green (yep, it's bright!) with a lime green, hot pink, and white floral bedding set. I think this pillow matches pretty good. I used a 14" pillow form, and sewed two pieces of gingham fabric (with my crappy hand sewing skills!) over it to make a cover.

Here are the stats:

Pattern: Afghan Reincarnation - Crochet Today, December 06/January 07 issue

Yarn: Bernat Softee Chunky in Hot Pink, Hot Green, and White

Hooks: J & K

I also have a picture of Rosie with my Bethany, when they had a sleepover a few weeks ago:

Aren't the matching dresses cute?! My mom bought them for the girls last year.

The other project I have to show is a pillow I crocheted for Bethany. I saw a pattern for crocheted letters in a book, and thought of making a monogram pillow.

Here's a photo and stats:

Pattern: Letter from the book "201 Crochet Motifs, Blocks, Projects, and Ideas"

Yarn: Vanna's Choice Baby in Lamb, Aqua, & Mint

Hooks: I & K

I used a single crochet square worked in rounds with an I hook for the base. For the letter I crocheted with a double strand of yarn and a K hook to make the letter B extra-big. I think it would probably have looked better done in a chunky weight yarn, but I couldn't find an inexpensive chunky weight in the colors Bethany wanted.

I'm going to crochet a D pillow for my Dominic soon. Poor kid never gets any thing crocheted for him. It's just so difficult finding crochet patterns for boys that are beyond the baby/toddler years. Dominic is crazy about pirates, and loves dressing up as one. He had a pirate hat from his Halloween costume last year, but it's been long since lost, so he gets dressed up in the remaining pieces from his costume, and then puts a pencil case (unzipped, and turned sideways) on his head for a hat, ha, ha! It's hilarious! I'm going to have to snap a picture of him the next time he does it, so I can embarass him with it when he gets older. The other day he asked me if I can "yarn him a pirate hat". He's going to have to settle for one from the store, because even if I did have a pattern, I think that's way beyond my level of expertise.

In other news, the new job is going good. The work is pretty boring, but it's easy, and the supervisors are nice. The only thing I really dislike is the commute. The board of elections is in downtown Cleveland, but on the edge of downtown, so I have to take two busses to get there. I live barely over 10 miles from downtown, a 20 minute commute by car, but between the bus rides and all the waiting around for them (since our local transit authority recently cut a bunch of busses from the routes) I have to leave a little after 8 in the morning just to get there by 9:30, and then I get off work at 5:30, and don't get home until nearly 7.

It's hard because I only have about two hours with the kids when I get home for baths, homework, etc. At least the position is only lasting about two months. Hopefully after that I'll be able to find a permanent job where I can get home earlier in the evening.

Not Much Crocheting

I was just looking at my blog, and realized that I haven’t posted since March 26th. I’ve been meaning to post, but had been sick with a really nasty I don’t know what it was. Whatever it was, my kids caught it too, and we had fevers, chills, body aches, nausea, runny/stuffy noses, etc. etc. My kids got flu shots in the fall, but they don't protect against every strain of the flu. We stayed home from work and school on Friday and Monday. Two sick kids + one sick parent + one too tired from working nights to do much + a lack of extra money = one boring weekend. Between being sick and just generally depressed about my job situation and my daughter’s school situation, I haven’t gotten much crocheting done lately.

I took my daughter to an appointment last week with her pediatrician for an ADD evaluation. My kids normally see a different pediatrician in the same practice, Dr. S., but I decided to take her to Dr. G. instead, because she is so much more thorough than Dr. S. Dr. S. is very nice, but just not thorough. Dr. G. is the one who found my son’s problem with his testicles.

Anyway, I was very impressed with how well Dr. G. handled the assessment. She explained the process to Bethany and asked her questions, as well as questioning me and my husband, did a whole physical and family medical history, and gave me some questionnaires for me and Bethany’s teachers to complete about her behavior/school problems. She also asked me if I have considered putting Bethany in a public school, because she feels that public schools usually have more resources to deal with special needs kids than private schools do (Bethany attends a Catholic school).

I personally disagree with that. I believe that perhaps is the case with public schools in wealthier districts, but the public school district in our working-class suburb is chronically struggling financially, the schools are large and overcrowded, and all but two schools in the district (neither of which are in my neighborhood, so my daughter could not attend them) have been underperforming academically for years.

Although our suburb is overall working class, it has some middle to upper class pockets, particularly along the lakefront, where homes sell for as much as $300,000 (which here in poverty-stricken Cleveland where the cost of living is so much cheaper than many other parts of the country, easily gets you a 4 bedroom, 2,500+ square foot house). Bethany’s Catholic school is close to the lakefront, and draws a lot of kids from the wealthier families in the city, children of professionals, business owners, city politicians, etc., and so the school is doing very well financially. They do a mammoth amount of fundraising every year, and get a lot of donations. The downside is that some of the parents can be snobby, but I feel overall that the education is very good, and the school, despite being one of the larger Catholic school in our city, is small compared to the public elementary schools (it has about 420 kids from K-8th grade, compared about the same number of kids in a K-4th grade elementary school). I just can’t see Bethany doing any better academically in resource-poor public school.

In any case, Dr. G. wants to Bethany to undergo some other tests before she makes a diagnosis. She gave me a referral to a pediatric neurologist, just to rule out any other problems, and she also gave me a referral for Bethany to go to an occupational therapist to help with her handwriting and fine motor skills.

Now, this is where I’m starting to feel extremely stressed out. My husband and I are already a few thousand dollars in debt from the kids’ allergies and asthma, his diabetes, my breaking my wrist last year, my last pregnancy, miscarriage, and D&C, and his vasectomy, and this is even with having medical insurance. I’m shuddering thinking about what the total bill is going to be by the time we get our daughter’s school problems straightened out. Sometimes I think we’re probably going to be in debt with medical bills for the rest of our lives.

On top of that, as I mentioned before, I’ve been trying to find another job, but I’m going to have to take a lot of time off over the next few months for Bethany’s appointments, possibly for Dominic’s surgery (if he needs it) and all the other myriad appointments that go with Bethany’s math learning disability - I have several meetings per school year to review her progress and go over her IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Act) plans, And also having a kid who will be starting kindergarten this year complicates things - I have to take Dominic to a kindergarten screening and a few other things before school starts. Now, if I do find another job, there’s no way I’ll be able to miss work for all of that, and with my husband working nights, and having to sleep during the day, he can’t attend all these things. Sometimes I think life would be easier if I could just work part-time or not work at all, but neither of those is an option for me financially, even if my husband picked up more overtime at his job, and we cut our expenses down to the bare-bones minimum, we still just couldn’t afford it.

Speaking of work, I saw a really good documentary at work last week (there are occasional "brown bag" educational lunches that employees can attend) called Kilowatt Ours, about energy usage and enviromental damage. It was quite alarming. There was one segment where a man was standing on a hill in West Virginia, I think it was, overlooking a valley and said that just a few years ago, there were mountains there instead of a valley - the mountains had been blown up to allow mining of the coal underneath. How messed up is that? I was already alarmed, before seeing the film, when I read this article, about the p0tential siphoning of Great Lakes water by other states that are experiencing water shortages and droughts. The film really made me think though, about all the small, daily actions that have a huge impact on our environment, and made me think about changes I can make. I was dismayed though that the film left out any mention of the effects of urban sprawl and automobile dependence on the environment, but perhaps the filmmaker will address it in a future film.

Well, now that I got all the negative stuff out of the way, I do have one small crochet project to show (warning - blogger messed up my line spacing below):

It's a hat I crocheted from Red Heart Hula yarn. I had bought the yarn a few months ago to crochet the “Cupcake” sweater from The Happy Hooker, but the sweater is done in HDC, and I had a terrible time with the multicolored strand on the yarn (it’s a solid off-white strand wrapped with a thin multicolored one) snagging on the hook, and I gave up on it. One of the skeins had a pattern for a hat, so I made it. I usually have a hard time getting crocheted hats to fit my head (I guess I have a big ol’ head) and end up having to include some extra increases, but I didn’t have that problem with this pattern. I followed the pattern exactly as written, except that I added some additional rows at the end to make it a little longer, and I added a reverse single crochet edging and a flower. It only took about an hour to make. What do you think? I think it came out pretty cute, and it’s comfortable, too. Now I just have to try to keep my daughter from taking it over, LOL!

I also got a couple of crochet books recently from the library. My local library has a section of newer books and I always browse the craft books when I go there. Last time I went I found an amigurumi book called "Mr. Funky's Super Crochet Wonderful". There are some really cute patterns in there. I think I’m going to have to buy my own copy of the book.

I also recently picked up a copy of Interweave Crochet. I don’t normally buy the magazine, because for one thing, I think $6.99 for a magazine is atrocious, and secondly, most of the patterns have always seemed too difficult or too elaborate (like I would never have an occasion to wear them) for me. I went to a bookstore downtown one day at lunch last week, and was browsing through the magazines, and saw the spring Interweave Crochet issue (surprisingly, since this bookstore never used to carry crochet magazines) and was really surprised and how many patterns I liked it in it and that were actually ranked “Easy” Here are the ones that are definitely on my “make sometime” list:

In the meantime, I realized that I have way too many crochet projects started but unfinished, so I’m trying really, really hard to finish them up before I start any more new ones. I’m trying to finish up my mom’s poncho that she asked for last year, so I can give it her on Mother’s Day, and I’m trying to get my sister’s shawl done before her May 10th wedding. I thought I was going to have to buy another skein of yarn for the poncho, but then I was going through my stash, and found a spare skein I had bought a few months ago, and forgotten about. That was perfect! I put some yarn up for sale on EBay, if anyone wants to check it out.

Well, I guess that’s enough griping for now. I feel better having gotten some of this off of my chest.

Jenna with a "J" and Crochet Goodies

I don’t have any finished crochet projects to show yet. I’m still working on my sister’s wedding shawl and ring bearer pillow, and trying to get my mom’s poncho finished up before her February 27th birthday. I have one panel done so far. Like Christina and Lesa though, I do have some crochet goodies to show!

I was keeping my crochet hooks, stitch markers, yarn needles, etc., in a drugstore makeup bag, and was tired of always having to dig around it in trying to find the right size hook I needed, my scissors, etc. I couldn’t find a hook case I liked at any stores, so I ended up buying a hook roll and notions bag from a seller on Etsy, Blue Kitty Designs. How cute are these?! I love the retro pattern and colors!

My hooks and notions have now gone from this:


to this:

The hook roll isn’t big enough to hold all of my hooks, but it has room for all of the ones I use regularly.The hook roll and bag came in the mail on Friday (I ordered them on Tuesday and got them on Friday – talk about fast shipping!) along with my February/March issues of Crochet Today and Crochet Magazine, and some yarn I had ordered from Joann’s for one of my PIF gifts (I have two PIF gifts to make). That made for a very good Friday!

I just got back a little while ago today from my brother Joe and sister in law Gehan’s house. My husband and kids and I went to see my new niece, Jenna. Yes, I finally got the spelling straightened out – it’s Jenna with a “J”! It’s actually ironic that’s she’s named Jenna, because if I had a little girl this last time I was pregnant (the one I miscarried) my husband and I would have named her Genevieve. I guess great minds think alike! My husband said I did good going to see her. He meant because I still have some sadness over my miscarriage. I do still feel sad about it still, and can’t help but wonder what it would be like if I had been able to carry the baby to term.

At the same time though, after seeing Jenna go through two diaper changes (including one so bad she needed a bath to get cleaned up!) and two feedings during the couple of hours we were there, made me realize that having a baby at this point in my life (with my husband working night shift, me working full-time and being in grad school, and having one kid in school with nightly homework, etc., and one about to start school in the fall), would have been totally overwhelming. I told Joe in a few months (when Jenna is a little older) he can drop her off at my house, and I’ll babysit her so he and Gehan can have a night out and I can get my “baby fix”, LOL!

Anyway, little Jenna is just ADORABLE! I wish I had some pictures to show of her, but my digital camera batteries had run low right before I tried to take some pictures. My husband took a few pictures with his cell phone, but he has the phone with him at work, so I can’t download the pictures right now. It’s funny how chunky she looked in the pictures my brother sent, but when I saw her in person, compared to my kids, she looked so tiny! I had forgotten how little young babies actually are.

My brother is such a proud dad – he barely put that baby down for a second the whole time I was there. He has 3 boys from his first marriage (two stepsons and one biological son), but this is his first girl, so I think it’s extra special for him. His second-oldest son, who’s 15, actually went to Wal-Mart and used his own money to buy Jenna some clothes – he bought her the cutest little bodysuits and hats and booties. For a 15 year old boy, he did a really good job shopping for her! I thought that was really sweet of him.

Speaking of baby clothes, I was planning on crocheting a few clothes for Jenna – the sundress I started, a sweater and maybe another dress, but after seeing how many clothes Jenna has (a dresser and a closet stuffed full) between gifts from family and friends, now I’m reconsidering it. I don’t want to spend hours making something that she’ll probably end up only wearing once before she outgrows it. I’m thinking now about crocheting something for her bedroom – maybe an organizer to hang on the door (to hold diapers, pacifiers, etc), or maybe a rug.

Besides crocheting, I also enjoy painting and stenciling wood items, so I am also considering painting a shelf for Jenna's room. I’ve never shown any of my painted items on my blog, so here’s one I did last year – a desk for my daughter’s room (I think you can click on the pictures to see it in more detail). My husband and I bought the desk for $25 at a secondhand store. It was brown with ugly tarnished gold knobs. I sanded the desk down and sprayed it with white primer, then my husband spray painted it pink and cream and I stenciled the flowers on the side with stencil crème paint. My husband then sprayed the whole thing with a coat of clear polyurethane, and replaced the knobs. One of these days I need to buy her a pink desk chair to go along with the desk.















Back to the crocheting, another thing I was thinking about making is a nursing shawl for my sister-in-law. She’s breastfeeding Jenna, and just drapes a receiving blanket over her shoulder when she breastfeeds. I was thinking it might be nice for her to have a pretty shawl to use when she goes out with the baby. I didn’t breastfeed my kids though, so I’m not sure if it’s a good idea or not, and if I do make one, what shape it should be – rectangular or triangular? Maybe any of my blog readers who might have breastfed their kid(s) could advise me.

Baby Photos!

I forgot to mention a few other crochet things I found last week...a lady on the Yahoo Crochet Partners group mentioned a magazine called Crafts N' Things, that has a whole section of crochet patterns this month. I found the magazine at a drugstore by my job, and it had a bunch of really cute patterns, so I bought a copy. While I was looking at the magazines, I also found a knitting magazine, Knit Simple, that has an article about Vanna White and her new line of Lion Brand yarn, with cute crochet patterns for a blanket and a jacket. Yep, sometimes knitting magazines have a few crochet patterns thrown in! Definitely check out those magazines!

Right after I finished my blog post last night, my brother sent me some pictures of my new little Arabic, Italian, Irish, Slovak niece! I'm still trying to figure out the correct spelling of her name - my sister said my brother told her it's "Genna" with a G, but my brother spelled it "Jenna" with a J in his email, so I'm not sure how they're spelling it. Same name though! Here's the pictures:



Isn't she just TOO cute?! Naturally I'm probably biased because I'm the aunt, but I still think she's pretty darn cute! And so roly-poly! I can't wait to see her in person! My son was a roly-poly baby too, but now he's just a tiny little thing, really small for his age. I don't think I've ever posted any pictures of him on my blog, so here's one (an older picture, but he still looks the same, just a little older). That's my handsome little boy wearing a hat I loom-knitted for him, before I learned how to crochet. Speaking of loom knitting, I think I've probably only used my looms once since I learned how to crochet - I just find crocheting faster and easier, but after seeing these awesome (pink!) slipper socks on Isela Phelps' website, http://www.isela.typepad.com/ (couldn't get the one-word link to work right) I'm tempted to break out my looms again. We'll see!

Crochet and Vultures!

I’m not crocheting any vultures, LOL! I’m talking about the vulture lawyers and chiropractors that have been deluging mine and my husband’s mail and voice mail with phone calls and letters trying to solicit business since his (minor!) car accident! Apparently these places scour the police reports daily (because we received one letter the very next day after the accident), looking for auto accidents, so they can try to prompt the victim? accidentee? (I know that’s not a real word!) to sue someone. Here’s my favorite one: “Dear Mr. _________, We are sorry to learn from the police accident report that you were involved in a motor vehicle collision. This can be a very frightening experience…We have enclosed our Injury Video that contains information about our law firm as well as important information the insurance company would prefer you not hear…”. Or how about this one from a chiropractor: “SECRET REPORT. WARNING: THIS REPORT CONTAINS INFORMATION YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY DOES NOT WANT TO YOU KNOW!”

Apparently these places didn’t read the police report too well, because all my husband did was hit a fence, and get stuck in a snow bank. He didn’t even have to go the hospital! I just think it’s pretty funny. Anyway, my husband is OK. I appreciate the kind comments left about his accident.

My husband is getting nervous now though, because of something else that’s happening – he’s getting “fixed” tomorrow. Yep, he’s getting a vasectomy. He had been planning to get one since our son was born 5 years ago, but never got around to it. We knew during my pregnancy that we didn’t want any more kids, so I arranged to have my tubes tied after the birth, but it didn’t work out. My doctor took me to the operating room about an hour after I had my son, and after cutting me open and poking around for about an hour and a half, told me he couldn’t find my tubes. It turned out they are completely covered with scar tissue from two colon surgeries I had in 2001 and 2002. My doctor told me the only thing he could do would be to bring me back in 6 weeks for a more extensive surgery (laparoscopy), but that he was reluctant to do it (and I didn’t want any more major surgeries either). My husband said he would get a vasectomy, but never got around to it.

After my miscarriage this summer, we decided it was time to finally get it done, so my husband had a consultation with a doctor, and is having the surgery tomorrow. He’s getting nervous about it, but I told him if I could handle giving birth twice, having two major colon surgeries (and a colostomy), and having a D&C (after my miscarriage), he can handle a 15 minute, local anesthetic vasectomy, LOL!

Actually both of my brothers in law had it done, and they said it’s an easy procedure. We had a huge blackout here in Ohio (and a bunch of other states) a few summers ago, and it happened right when my second-oldest sister’s husband was having his vasectomy. The clinic was dark, and they had no backup electricity, but the doctor was able to finish the surgery with the light coming from the window! YIKES! My husband was sure glad it wasn’t him! That sister and her husband planned to stop having kids after my sister miscarried their third child, and her husband had an appointment for the vasectomy, but my sister got pregnant about a week before his surgery, so they now have three kids.

I’ll probably always have a twinge of sadness about my miscarriage, but I’m thankful for the son and daughter I do have, and realize that the miscarriage must have happened for a reason. I can’t handle possibly having another miscarriage if I were to get pregnant again and my husband and I already have our hands full with our two kids, so the vasectomy is for the best. Also I feel that my husband and I are getting too old to start over with another baby – I’m 34, and he’s 42. Now I’m just hoping my husband won’t be too terribly sore after the surgery, because he has to go pick our kids up from school and daycare tomorrow afternoon.

Anyway, I do have some crochet project pictures to show! None are completed, just work in progress. The first is a poncho I’m crocheting for my mother for her February birthday. She saw a poncho I crocheted for my daughter when I first learned how to crochet, and asked I could make her one. I finally got around to it, and am hoping to have it done for her birthday. It’s nothing fancy – it’ll just be two double-crochet rectangles seamed together, and then I’ll crochet a pretty border around the bottom. I obviously don’t have much done so far. My mom’s favorite color is blue, but she didn’t want a solid blue poncho, so I’m using Bernat Softee Chunky in “Nature’s Way”, with a K hook. Hopefully I can get it done in time for her birthday.

The second project is a crocheted cupcake pillow for my daughter Bethany’s 10th birthday on January 29th. I bought the
for the cupcake from a seller on Etsy. I added a few more increase rounds to the top and bottom though, because just following the pattern, the cupcake was coming out much smaller than I expected. I used the new Lion Brand Cupcake yarn in “Pink Lemonade” for the top. It’s a boucle yarn, and I usually stay away from boucle yarns, because I can’t see my stitches in it, but this yarn was surprisingly not too difficult to work with. The color is much paler than it looks in the picture though. I’m using Bernat Satin (one of my favorite yarns!) in “Lagoon” for the bottom. Are you seeing a trend here with the aqua blue for my projects? I love aqua blue! I guess it's because it brings back happy childhood memories of eating with my dad at a Woolworth diner (remember Woolworth's?!) - the waitresses and cashiers wore aqua blue smocks. I need to finish up the bottom of the cupcake, and buy some stuffing. I was originally thinking about sewing beads to the top of the cupcake, to look like sprinkles, but I hate sewing, so I think I might just crochet a cherry for the top of the cupcake I need to get the whole thing finished soon so I can surprise my daughter with it on her birthday.

The third project is a baby sundress for my pregnant sister in law. She’s pregnant with a girl, and is due January 17th (actually exactly a month before I was due with this last pregnancy). She's gone into labor twice already, and was admitted to the hospital, but was sent home both times because her labor wouldn’t progress, and her doctor won’t induce until she’s past her due date. I hope she has the baby soon, because she's having a really hard pregnancy, and is anxious to get it over with. It’s too bad she didn’t have the baby today, because today is my brother’s birthday, and it would have been pretty cool for his daughter to share a birthday with him. About the dress though, it’s semi my own pattern. The skirt design I got from a pattern in Crochet Today, but the top is my own design. I’m using Lion Brand Cotton-Ease in the discontinued “Sugarplum” and “Strawberry Cream” colors. I’m trying to make it about a 6-12 month size, so the baby can wear it in the summer. Hopefully it’ll fit.

The final project is a hat I crocheted for the Ships Project. The hat looks big, but it follows the group’s hat size guidelines – 22 inch circumference, and 8 inches long, and brimless. I modified a beanie pattern from the book “Crochet Kid Stuff” for the hat. The yarn is Bernat Satin in red and black (the hats have to be unisex colors). I took a picture of myself wearing the hat, because it looks so large when it’s not being worn, but is actually a good size for an average adult.

So, now you finally get to see what I look like! I really dislike getting my picture taken – I’m very self-conscious about how I look, especially about my big ol’ Italian nose, LOL! Yes, I’m a red-haired Italian woman! Well, only half Italian. My dad’s parents were born in Sicily, and immigrated to the U.S. in the 1930’s as adults. My dad was born in the U.S., and was just as Italian looking as it gets – ruddy skin, black hair, and the big Italian nose, which I inherited! My mother’s maternal side of the family though, immigrated to the U.S. from County Mayo, Ireland. Her paternal side of the family immigrated to the U.S. in the mid-1800’s from a country which was then Austria-Hungary, in Eastern Europe. My mother said her mother, my grandmother, had red hair until it turned completely gray in her early twenties. She said there were a few other redheads in the family, guess as a result of the Irish genes. Two of my nieces, my sister Desiree's daughters, ended up with red hair, even though my sister has black hair, and her husband has blonde. Strong red hair genes!

My mother had blonde hair as a kid, that turned brown, and me and all of my 4 biological brothers and sisters (my oldest sister is adopted) actually look different from each other. My oldest brother and sister (twins) have black hair and brown eyes, my second oldest brother has brown hair and brown eyes, and somehow, my youngest sister ended up with blonde hair and green eyes! Milkman’s kid, LOL! Just kidding! My dad said one of his grandfathers had light hair and blue eyes, so I guess that’s where it came from.

I actually had jet black hair when I was born, but it gradually lightened, and was auburn until I became a teenager, and then it turned brown. I never liked the brown, so I’ve been dyeing my hair for the past 18 years or so. My hair started growing in almost entirely gray (sigh…) when I was pregnant with my son, so now I color it religiously once a month to hide all the gray hairs my kids are giving me!

Now you know where the “Red Haired Lady” name came from too! Red Haired Lady is actually the name of my fictional alter-ego from stories I’ve made up for my kids. I don’t have any of the stories written down. I just make them up as I go, and my daughter and I do all the voices for the characters, including several talking animals, LOL! My kids and husband think the stories are hilarious, and my husband thinks I should write them down and look into getting them published. I know I can’t just submit them to a publisher – there’s a special process to submitting writing, query letters and whatnot. I’ve thought about doing it, as I’ve loved to write since I was a little kid, but I’m afraid of rejection.

I’ve had a few things published before though. I had several articles I wrote published in the (unfortunately out of print) Interrace Magazine in the early 90’s (my husband and I are an interracial couple – he’s black and I’m white, and our kids are biracial). One of my articles from the magazine was actually reprinted in a book, ”Just Don’t Marry One: Interracial Dating, Marriage, and Parenting”. I went to the library one day on my lunch break from work, was browsing the books on interracial relationships. I picked up “Just Don’t Marry One”, and was flipping through it, when I saw something that looked like an article I had written. I looked at it closer, and saw my name and my article (“Ten Annoyances Faced as Part of an Interracial Relationship)! The book even had a discussion question based on my article at the end of the chapter! Needless to say, I was shocked, but thrilled! I emailed the authors, and found out that they had reprinted my article with permission from the magazine. So, that was 15 minutes of fame!

I also had a freelance writing position for a year with a mom’s website, ClubMom.com. I was a “Go-To Mom” writing on Work-Life Balance and Multicultural Families. I really enjoyed the position. I had my own webpage with my articles, and I got a check every month, and ClubMom points (rewards points that you can cash in for gift cards, movie tickets, etc). Unfortunately ClubMom discontinued the Go-To Mom program at the end of 2006.

I had actually completed nearly 3 years of a journalism degree in college, but changed major to urban studies (urban planning) in my junior year, and graduated with an urban studies (urban planning) degree. I had taken a few urban studies classes to fulfill general degree requirements, and loved them so much that I changed my major. I also wasn’t too happy with the journalism program at my college at the time, although I know it’s been improved since then. I love the field of urban planning, but can’t help but wonder sometimes whether I should have pursued a writing career.

Well, I hope you liked my crochet projects, and that you aren’t laughing too much at my photos!

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!

Crochet Goodies!

I went to Wal-Mart the other day to pick up a few things, and stopped by the crafts section. I only meant to buy some ribbon and buttons, but course had to take a look at the yarn. I was very excited to see a ton of clearance yarn and crochet books! The aisle was a mess, with yarn all mixed-up, and a lot with labels pulled off, but I found 5 balls of Bernat Cool Crochet in a very pretty Neapolitan color, for $1.50 each (regularly #3.47)! I bought all 5 to make a halter top from Shannon Okey's ”Crochet Style” book.

I picked up some books on clearance, too - "I Can't Believe I'm Knitting! for $7.96, "Crochet Hip Hats" for $3.50 and "Simply Soft Accessories" for $5.00! Yippee! My daughter's school has a "Crazy Hat Day" every year, where the kids can wear hats to school (she goes to a Catholic school, so hats aren't part of the regular dress code), so I'm looking forward to crocheting her a hat from the Hip Hats book to wear that day.

I also recently subscribed to Crochet Today magazine, and got the set of hooks in the mail as a thank-you gift. I love using large crochet hooks! I'm impatient and projects with large hooks work up quickly, plus large hooks are also easier on my wrists, so that was a nice surprise. I used to buy my Crochet Today issues at Wal-Mart, but Wal-Mart only carries it sporadically, which I don't understand. Sometimes I feel like I'm living in a crochet wasteland here in Cleveland, because so few stores around here carry crochet magazines. Same thing for crochet books. The one bookstore we have in downtown Cleveland (where I work), a Borders Express, only carries knitting magazines, and has maybe one crochet book among a bunch of knitting books. Go figure!