Baby blankets

 These two baby blankets were made for my friend Heide. Both of her sons and their wives are having babies this month. One boy and one girl.  These blankets are made with Bernat Baby Sport. It's a lighter yarn than I usually use, but it makes a really nice blanket. I also gave them each a fleece lovey that I edged in crochet, but I didn't get a picture of that.

• This Blanket and lovey are made for a teacher (Robyn D) at my sons school. It's her first baby and it's a girl. The blanket is made with Bernat Baby Sport. The polka dot is the fleece blanket edged in crochet.

Baby blankets.

 

These are three blankets that I made this winter/spring. I've given them all away to people now.

They are made with Lion Brand Homespun yarn and are all baby sized afghans.

The color is really off on this picture, but that is a pink one on top, a blue blanket and another pink on

the bottom.

The day after Thanksgiving.

I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving.  We just had a small group this year, my husband smoked the turkey, and the whole meal was delicious.

Today, for the first time ever, I went shopping at odarkthirty to buy fleece and yarn at Jo-Ann's.  I have never ever gone out on black Friday before, but there was such a great deal on fleece and yarn, that I talked my husband into getting up at 5 am and heading out to the stores. We went to a smaller town to shop, so it was actually not that busy.  He dropped me off at the door at about 5:56 am and the doors opened at 6 am. I choose my fleece, had it cut, looked at yarn, paid and was done by 6:27 am. I had to wait for my husband and son to pick me up. They did so at 7:05 am.

I just love the fleece I chose this year, some are the same as last year. I also purchased two yards of each color, except the hot pink on the bottom, that is three and a half yards because I got a deal on the end of the bolt.  This fleece should last a while. The fleece I bought last year was only one yard of each color, and this year I bought even more colors!!  It will take me a while to use all this fleece.

I make varying sizes of blankets for babies, mostly smaller ones for the NICU babies, but I have found that the small blankets also make very nice lovies for big babies too!!

I'll post pictures of the fleece progress!

Crocheting

The top is a baby blanket I made for a woman having a baby girl. It is made with Homespun Tulip and the three washcloths on top are 100% cotton.                     

The bottom two are covers I made for my mom for her antique couch. The bottom lighter one is made with Homespun Parfait and the top one is Mixed Berries. I made them both and she chose the lighter one and it's almost a perfect match! The other one I gave to my daughter.

Blankets.....

These are two baby sized blankets I made recently for a raffle for Battens disease. Look it up.

They are made with Red Heart yarn. One variegated and one solid color.

I also have made two other baby blankets and about 20 tiny preemie blankets. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of those, but I might be able to get one from the person I sent them too. If I get a picture of them, I will post it.  They are my annual contribution to the NICU babies.

I finished a shawl that I started some time ago. I'll post that later.

There hasn't been much time to crochet, but in the last four months I managed to make the preemie blankets.  And I made some cotton 4x4 squares for the troops. A local church had this project and I contributed to that. This summer I will continue with more preemie blankets and I am making a shawl for my mom.  She is having hip replacement surgery at the end of the month. I may need to fore go my trip to Maryland this year.

Yarn!!

I posted HERE about the yarn factory closing.

I felt I needed to order some soft cottony yarn from them before the move.

Got the order today!!!! This picture is what 76 skeins of cotton yarn look like!! I got some pretty colors I have never seen before.

After receiving this order, I actually want to order more yarn!! But I don't think I will be ordering more.

Yarn factory selling to Canada

This is the article about the Yarn factory.

This story makes me so sad on many levels.

First, people are losing their jobs.

It's a family run business.

It's leaving the USA.

It's being sold to a Canadian company, which is really ok. But the Canadian company already makes a cotton yarn, and I dare say it is not as soft as the Pisgah Yarn & Dyeing company makes. I have some of the Canadian made cotton yarn too, because I buy by color and not necessarily country of origin.

Most of the yarn I buy is made here in the USA or Canada.

It just makes me sad that this company is packing up and moving out of the USA.

Yarn!!!

Yarn. Isn't it pretty??

These are the colors I chose yesterday. There was a HUGE sale.

I had to buy yarn.

Isn't the lemonade one just yummy??

The weird thing about all these colors is, I could make a blanket with yarn from each color and it would be beautiful.

I didn't crochet for nine weeks and it was driving me crazy to not crochet.

Now I have several blankets and a bunch of prayer shawls to make. Plus anything else I come across for charity. I might make scarves again this year but I need to get going on them if I want to send them in time.

So, yeah, more yarn for my collection. But as my husband says, I use it!!

Shopping.............

I am not a huge shopper, I never have been. There are few things I actually enjoy shopping for.

Today we finished fall/winter shopping for the little guy.

I found winter boots for him and a few long sleeved shirts to balance out his wardrobe.

This year he wears uniforms to school and we found those a few weeks ago!!

Then I had to order just three uniform shirts and I ordered his winter jacket at the same time.

He is well stocked up on jammies, socks and underwear.

The only thing I can think of is maybe some mittens. He has everything else.

And I may have bought some yarn today!! LOL

We also went to a new used clothing etc store and bought about 12 books for 14 dollars. Buy four and get one free too!! Great deal on books, I think that will be a new shopping place for books!!

It's out of control...

I can't help it.

I bought more yarn. It was on sale for a good price. I don't need more yarn. I was finally getting my stock worked down a bit.

But lately I haven't been crocheting as much. I've been needle pointing and doing small crochet projects for charity.

The yarn pile has taken over the extra room now. There's yarn piled everywhere with a narrow path between colors. It's bordering on obnoxious. My husband was looking for some headphones and thought maybe they were buried up there somewhere. If it gets any worse, I could be trapped when the yarn pile collapses and the fire department will be digging me out.

It will all be used, no doubt about that. Eventually.

In a recent conversation with the hubby, I told him I didn't need to buy any more yarn for a while.

I even admitted I had a LOT of yarn....

Yarn

I bought yarn yesterday!

I got some Christmas money and my hubby and I got grandma to come over and watch the little guy and we went shopping and out for dinner.

The colors I bought are new colors. I have never seen them before. And, I bought too much!! But it was a good sale!!!

From the top left the colors are:
Earth
Deco
Saffron
Top right:
Meadow
Hepplewhite
Plum
And the one on top of them all is Candy Apple.

I bought six skeins of each color.

I can't wait to make some of the yarn in to afghans and shawls!!

Yarn......

I bought more yarn this morning.

I only meant to look for a skein of yellow since I seemed to have misplaced the other yellow skein I bought. Frustrating.

So while I was there they had this yarn on sale so I picked it up.

I will be using it for baby hats!

It's all baby yarn by Red Heart and Bernat. The two skeins in the back are bigger than the front two skeins.

It will make some nice hats.

Yarn......

I haven't bought yarn in a few months. But I bought some today.

What I needed was baby yarn to make the baby hats with. The yarn I was using was worsted weight and it's sort of too thick. It still works for the hats but I wanted to use actual baby yarn for them.

The little guy was with me and he helped me pick out the yarn!!

I think together we did a pretty good job. Blue for boys, pink for girls and some neutral colors. The color next to the green skein is actually white with multi colors in it. A neutral color.

Christmas in July......

Not really.

But we recently had a dollar tree open in my town. A dollar for a skein of cotton yarn is great!

I love dollar stores. It's great for getting cards, tissue paper, gift bags etc.

And YARN!!!!!

I got these three skeins of cotton yarn there too.

It's Christmas colors and I will probably make dish cloths for gifts.

Yarn...

Again with the yarn!! I had an unexpected morning to myself. My Mother in Law came to watch my son and I did a little shopping. I didn't just go shopping for yarn but the yarn store was right there and this particular yarn was on sale!! It's Bernat Cotton tots yarn. I bought enough for two baby blankets, there's 8 skeins in each pile. This cotton yarn is so soft and easy to work with that I couldn't pass on the sale.

I think I have a problem

I wasn't going to buy any new yarn this year at all and here I find myself with a bunch of it to put away. I told my husband yet again that I am NOT going to buy anymore yarn. He laughed.
I have enough to last a good long time, yet I keep buying more. In my defense, I can make about 5 or 6 blankets a month. So, since I have all this yarn I am going to try not to buy anymore. Like my husband said, "you don't have a yarn problem, you have a yarn storage problem!!!!!

E Bay Blankets part 2

My daughter was visiting today and she fixed this picture for me. I laughed because we were out while she was here and she called me to ask me what I wanted on this blanket.
So when I got home she showed me. This blanket is actually one of my favorites. I love red and just really enjoyed working on it. I believe I gave it to a grandma of someone I know.
I forgot to mention it but while my husband and I were out this afternoon I bought MORE yarn!! I wasn't going to buy yarn at all this year and I bought a LOT of yarn today. And it was fun. LOL

Did someone mention Yarn again??

I guess it was me. I made an order of cotton yarn and I received it yesterday. It is beautiful and it was on a great sale. I couldn't resist. I really enjoy working with cotton yarn but it is hard on my hands.
It's called Buttercream. It is a variegated yellow. From pale yellow to a rich golden yellow. It is beautiful. It also has white in it and I bought white cotton yarn to make the second strand for the blanket.
I purchased enough to make at least two baby blankets. Maybe a third smaller one.
Don't know when I will get to them but I will make a post when I complete a blanket.

It's got to stop

Or does it??
My husband came home relatively early from work today which is a treat.
We went shopping. Guess what I bought?? YARN!! Again. It was on sale and there were two colors I have never seen before. I bought 36 skeins this time. That's enough for SIX blankets.
I don't buy a lot of clothes, I don't wear much jewelry, other than my wedding/engagement ring, my anniversary ring and my necklace. I don't spend a lot of money on much of anything really. My vice these days is yarn. If there is a good sale, how can I pass it up? It gets used too. And it's a good hobby to have.
Now all I need is a yarn room in my house.

Yarn............

Yeah, yeah, I know.
About 6 years or so ago, I received some lime green cotton yarn from the local coordinators of Project Linus. It was LIME green yarn. It was atrocious. But who am I to turn down free yarn?? I made many many blankets with this yarn. MANY blankets. I used white with it and made all lime green blankets. I got very tired of this yarn.
So, I gave a lot of it to my best friend and crochet buddy Kim. Kim has made many many blankets with this yarn.
I asked her recently if she had any left and lo and behold she did!!!
So I asked her for enough to make a blanket and she actually had enough and then some.
I can't even tell you how many skeins of this yarn I gave to her, but it was a lot of yarn.
I had to order the accompanying yarn I want to use with it so it will be a few weeks before I am able to work on it but I am excited to make this blanket!! Can you believe that?
Oh, it is one of Kim's favorite colors and she made a beautiful blanket with it. I am using the same second colors that she used so it should be a pretty blanket. I hope.
I will post a picture of it when it is done.  This link has the completed blanket
http://pj-countryroads.blogspot.com/2008/02/lemony-lime-blanket.html