It's Christmas!

The loveliest time of the year. And it isn’t just because of the decorations and presents. It is because of the Savior’s birth. The gift God gave which started the Shepherd's and Wise men's gifts. Which is why we give presents at this time. It is nice to remember the reason why we give gifts. When up in heaven we all, we will still be giving gifts. But I wonder what kind. Worship? That is a gift we can and will be giving; it is the one that the Bible speaks of. Our crowns; the Bible say we will lay our crowns at HIs feet. I am so sure of that…I can’t imagine that God could give a gift of any crowns to me. I have not done anything deserving of any crown, so I will gladly lay mine at His feet. And I will tell Him that the only gift I need and am the most grateful for is the one of salvation.

A Snowy Winter Day...

Well it is getting very close…just 2 days away from Christmas eve and I am making fudge and finished these slippers. I just love the colors in the Fun Fur (Lion Brand Yarns) and know that Ali will also. The pattern will be available pretty soon but you can add an edging of the fur yarn by making a (sc, ch 6) twice in each stitch around the edge of your crocheted slipper. The slippers were done single strand of knitting worsted and a size ‘G’ aluminum hook.

We have 6 inches of snow and it is snowing now as i am writing this. It always looks so pretty with everything covered in snow. And I am listening to the radio station; they are playing Christmas music and that just adds to the atmosphere. After making the fudge i placed it out in the snow to cool. Now I have to go bring it in and package some up for the neighbor across the highway.

More on the 'Boa'

Well, folks, this is to be Ali's Christmas gift and asking her to do the posing would give it away, right? So I had to go in search of another Model.The one at hand also volunteered! Voila! He love to ham things up and does an excellent copy of "Jack Sparrow" (complete with costume he and His Mother and Sister put together for him). He even has earned a little money for his act. And since I could not choose which photo to put up, grandma decided to put them all up. So here they go…

The weather has been in the single digits around here with snow so the scenery is just perfect. Behind Jeremy are our Juniper trees, which are prevalent in this area, and since Pepper had to go outside for his business, we took pepper with us and that is the leash Jeremy is holding onto.

The pattern for this is really quite simple; making a couple of chain loops per row of one sing e crochet stitch is all it is. The yarn does the rest.

BOA

• Size 'K' aluminum hook
• 2 skeins of Fun Fur or Cha Cha

ch 2, and sc in 2nd ch from hk, (ch 14, sl st in 14th ch from hk) twice, turn.

Repeat this row for the length you want. I did not use but about 1 7/8 skeins for the length.

You may have to dig in the yarn for the single crochet but it is there. And actually turning just after you finish the single crochet stitch makes it easier to find it when you are ready for it.

Out Shopping

My daughter was having fun! She brought home a couple of bags of the furry yarn in different colors from the Dollar tree. Along with that was the silent request “Mom, make me something.” She says (out loud) ,“bought you something”. And I said silently, “Oh, goody!” while out loud I said, "For Me????", as if i didn’t know.

Then I had to go do some shopping of my own. On the internet to see what ideas i could find that would use this kind of yarn. I already know what i want but would rather have some input from somewhere else and so I went to Coats and Clarks’ web site to look for patterns and found a bunch. But there is one that I thought would work just fine and i didn’t have t work up a pattern after all.

My boa – picture will be posted later

New Irish Edging Pattern...

Have put up some new stuff on the crochet pages of my regular site: http://justanothercrochetsite.net/irish_edgings.html

These are from a vintage booklet and are quite pretty edgings. I also want to point out that these are not "true" Irish crochet but utilize elements of done in the traditional crochet method. The are easier or more familiar to us. Most of my Irish crochet is what I call American-Irish, which is an adaptation of the real Irish method of making lace (taking elements and crocheting them together). However i cannot be for real sure that the Irish did not do this style as I do not have the proof either way.

Working on

I've been working on some fun stuff; Ornament covers! These will be Christmas gifts. I needed something fun to do. And as i was working on the covers, I was doing one pattern with the shaped shell that I don't remember anyone having put up on their site and it is a rather neat little shell for decorative touches. I snapped a pic and put it up on page 2 of the basic stitches reference pages. While doing this I tried out a new little trick that the publishers of CoffeeCup had put into their html program; they make a little thumbnail and add in a link to the larger image right on the page. They don't know how badly I needed that nice little trick. I need to make the thumbnail larger than it is but I left it there on the page and you can click on the thumbnail to see the large image. Next time i will make it larger. Will post the finished ornament pictures for you to see. I am working from 2 booklets from Annie's Attic: 'Thread Ornament Toppers' and 'Satin Ball Splendor'. I did notice that the booklets have the right size of thread and hook but wrong for the size ball specified. I believe if you use size 20 thread with a 38 hook it will work out okay for the 3 inch balls. Since it seems to be next to impossible to find the satin balls ( i got mine off eBay) for any reasonable price (Wal-mart is not carrying them, neither is Bi-mart) I could only get the small ones to work on. This means I don't have a way to check it out right now. I didn't feel i could afford the $20-23.00 per 12 3-inch balls.

That's all for now. Will post photos of the ornaments later; i am waiting for the sequin pins to come in the mail.

Update

My daughter had her angioplastia and the doctor found no blockage. This is good but he does not know what is causing the problem and is think a fibrillator may be what she needs. Anyway more tests will be made.