Patrick and his Snail

Here is a picture of my grand nephew, Patrick, and the blanket and snail I made for him. My sister says my niece loves the blanket, and Patrick loves the snail! I'm glad to have given him one of his first 'lovies.'

Home!

We got home last night after 12 hours of driving. We made it over the bridges in record time, unlike my poor sister who came to Long Island for a wedding a few weeks ago and was stuck for over 2 hours! (In good traffic, you should be over both the George Washington and whatever the other bridge is in about a half hour.) Driving-wise it was uneventful, thank goodness!

Oh, except for Columbus itself, which had a bunch of detours due to either roadwork or the State Fair.

Okay, I had a nice time at the reunion. It was amazing to see cousins I haven't seen in probably 30 years. It was better, though, seeing my siblings. We have not been together as a family since before my brother Patrick died, which was back in 2000. I'll post a picture soon.

Meantime, speaking of Patricks, here is the blanket and toy (finally finished!) I made little Patrick Warren! Everyone went wild over it. My sister (Patrick's Grandma) and my mother (Great-grandma) will bring it to the baby when they visit this week. They live in Pennsylvania.

I'm not kidding when I say I literally finished it on Friday. It took some finagling to make the applique but I think it looks cute. Mike did the safety eyes for me, as I was not strong enough to force them together. So Great Uncle had a hand in the gift, too!

PS--to give you some perspective, the snail is about 4 inches across the shell, give or take.

As I said before, the blanket is my own design, including the snail, but it was inspired by the snail amigurumi (sp?) designed by Shena Lee Hicks. Here is the link to the blog where you will find the snail pattern, plus the most adorable amigurumi ever!

http://amigurumibyknotty.blogspot.com/

I am so glad to be home. Life seems easier outside of Long Island, but this is still my home and ya know there's no place like it.

Editing to link to "Spotlight Yourself" over at "It's So Very Cheri":

http://itssoverycheri.com/2010/07/27/spotlight-yourself-14/

Baby Afghan

Here is the afghan I made for my new grand nephew, Patrick. (See previous post.) It's about 95% finished. I just have to tuck in the loose ends, then finish and attach the snail applique. I'm also making a snail amigurumi toy to go with it.

The afghan is my own design, as is the applique. The amigurumi comes from here:

amigurumibyknotty.blogspot.com

There are some really adorable things on this site, so check it out soon!

I'm waiting for some safety eyes, on the way from an Etsy seller. I'll try to post a photo of both the finished snail and the blanket when it's done. I'm heading off to Ohio next week but plan to bring my laptop with me.

I'm glad to be finishing up this project. It's always nice to check something off your list. Then I can start something else, LOL!

I'm linking over to "Strut Your Stuff Thursday" at Somewhat Simple. Check out all the cute links over there!

http://www.somewhatsimple.com/2010/07/strut-your-stuff-thursday-with.html

Sew Crafty Friday

I miss "Sew Crafty Friday." Shereen's blog hadn't been updated for months last I saw. I hope she comes back again, but she is probably busy with her family. Meantime, I need something like this to push myself to get my crafting done. Here is my donation for the week: a baby blanket.

It isn't for any particular baby, but my nieces and nephews and my daughter's friends will surely be having them soon!

This is my own design--at least, the combination is! I don't think anyone really designs original 'stitches,' LOL! It is a simple shell stitch. I don't like working with baby yarn, so this is done on an "I" needle. I think the yarn is sport weight? Just standard, but soft and pretty.

One of the things I bought with the $50 gift card Mike gave me is a book called "100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet." I will make several flowers from the book and scatter them over the blanket.

I like that the shells make a nice, tight pattern. We want to keep baby cozy, LOL! As you might be able to see, I'm grading the size of each stripe. The first ones are about 11 rows, then I have 7 rows and if I feel I need to add length, the final group will be about 3 or 4 rows.

If you've got something going this week, please let me know and I'll come over and visit you!

Doll Dress

Here is Molly (with a bad haircut) in a crocheted dress I made for her. It just needs one more button on the back. The t-shirt is a blue knit with daisy print on it.
Molly is only borrowing the outfit. It is a gift for Angelina's doll, Amanda. Amanda is also getting a crocheted blanket and pillow (lavender) and possibly a nightgown and jacket. I'm not sure I'll have time to finish the latter two, but I'll try.
Last night, I picked up a dowel at Michael's. I'll have Mike drill a hole in it, and cut it shorter, then I'll put some yarn or rat-tail in it, tie on a magnet, and it will become a fishing pole for the little fishing set I made for my nephew. The fish are done. I'll post a picture of the finished gift soon!

The best part of these? Most of my materials were things I already had on hand!

Sew Crafty Friday

I haven't been much in the mood for crafting this week. I had a wisdom tooth pulled on Wednesday (it was a production, but not as bad as I thought it would be) and I've had a headache off and on since Tuesday night. I'm taking sudafed and Tylenol (or the generic equivalent), plus I'm already on antibiotics from the tooth. I bought myself some saline solution, too. Hopefully, that will do the trick. Or else I'll talk to the doctor I work for and see if she has any other ideas.

Anyway, on to the fun stuff. This afghan is a 'work in progress.' I actually photographed it upside down...I'm currently crocheting the rust colored stripe. The multi-color is "El Paso" by Jiffy. I'm just picking out other solid Jiffy yarns for the alternating stripes that I think match. This is for my oldest son, Michael, for when he gets his new home. He and his dad have been working on that. Michael will live in the house, which will be a small cottage, for two or three years until Mike and I are ready to retire, then we'll move in and he'll get another home. His 'rent' will be the monthly bills. So this will be my housewarming gift, LOL!

It's a very easy pattern. The rows are based on an even number of stitches, and alternate like this: one row is a single crochet, two chain repeat. The other row is double crochets in all the two chain repeats of the previous row. It's going together surprisingly fast!

Please check my links list and visit Shereen at Sew Crafty Friday!