Nice to Be Appreciated

This past week we had our annual staff appreciation supper at a local fish eatery (ya know your fish is fresh when the harbour is a stone's throw-away).  And each staff member received a single rose (among other perks).

It's nice to be appreciated.  And it got me to thinking about all that I appreciate in blogger-land and the internets.  Thanks for visiting and reading my sometimes long rambles about my crafts and garden.  And I especially love the comments.  I truly do appreciate it all.  It's nice knowing I'm not a lone voice in the wilderness of the web.

Have a great week!  :)

Yahoo!

Towels with Buttons

I'm finished!  All of it is done: the knitting, the crocheting and all the finishing!

Kitchen Towels

Just lovin' the pretty kitchen towels with their buttons sewn on (I gotta make some for my own kitchen once I figure out which colours I'd like to use).  In my quest for free patterns, I did find a few others that I printed off, but never used.  More items to add to my Ravelry queue.

The place mats turned out lovely too (if I do say so--heck, I'm allowed to brag a little).  I really like the border.  And I'm glad I changed the striping.  This pattern was very easy to modify to one's own taste: add or remove stripes and colours to your own taste.

Four Finished Place Mats

And of course, I added a few extra dishcloths--very simple, easy pattern.  Again, this would be easy enough to modify too.

Dishcloths

I've got three dishcloths in total, plus the coordinating dish soap apron.  And dear hubby picked up a cute basket too.

Items in Gift Basket

Funny story: dear hubby explained to gift store owner about needing a basket to hold place mats I had made.  Store owner wondered if I'd be interested in making some place mats for him to sell in the store.  Very flattering, but I think not--at least not right now.  With pending toy requests from the boys and Bernat blog projects on the go, there's a lot on my plate.  Besides, crafting is for fun and I'm not sure if I'd enjoy it as much if it was work.  Something to consider for the future perhaps.

Have a great weekend :D

Not Quite Done

Yarny Bits

But almost there.  I'm working on it whilst surrounded by yarny bits from woven-in ends.  More yarny bits next to the scissors and threaded through my favorite blunt metal needle.  My diskman plays the tunes to keep my energy high and my attention focused.  Almost there.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel (and my heavens, it's been a long tunnel!).

Even found some matching buttons for the kitchen towels.  They match exactly, even if slightly darker.  Not easy to find the exact same shade and I wasn't too keen on making my own button covers (too much work).  I think it'll be a good match.  What do you think?  

Matching Buttons?

So close to finishing, and what do I do?  I cast on a few last minute items-ha!  Procrastinator or perfectionist?  Hmmmm, tough call.  Actually I'm only working on a couple of dishcloths ('cuz one wasn't enough).  Super quick and no stripes (so less ends to work).

Hoping to hit the local farmer's market on Saturday to find something unique to add to the gift basket (oh yeah, need to get a basket too).

Catch ya later  ;)

Inspiration

Sometimes you meet a person who inspires you, whether its to do more, to try harder, or just to be a better you.  I think dear hubby is my inspiration.

First-Time Daddy

Halloween Fun

Thanks for letting me be "me" and for sharing all the wonderful parts of you. And thank you for being a thoughtful, loving father to our children.

Sharing Music with the Boys

Happy Father's Day sweetie.

Finally

There are three!  The last kitchen towel is complete.  Isn't it lovely?

Third Kitchen Towel

Three Towels

Sorry to toot my own horn, but I think the three towels look awesome together.  I'm very pleased with myself.

My next big task: weaving in all those pesky ends . . . ugh, the part I hate most!  How do you motivate yourself to get through the tedious finishing?  :O

I think I need a glass of wine--or two--and some killer tunes (hmmm, think I'll get my greedy little hands on Them Crooked Vultures).  Sadly I am technologically behind the times: no ipod, just an ordinary diskman.

Have a great weekend  :)

Toy Plans

Okay you yarnies out there who shudder at the thought of acrylic: take a deep breath and brace yourself (or maybe just shield your eyes).  Behold acrylic colours of bold:

Big Balls of Acrylic

Couldn't resist buying up the yarn I need for my next project: good ol' stand-by Red Heart SuperSaver and Bernat Supervalu (at a little over $3 a ball, it's hard to pass up for toy-making).

What will I make?  Take a gander at these stills and then take a guess.

SuperMario Games Galore

Yeah, we own all those games, accumulated over the course of the past few years.  I've got big-time SuperMario fans at my house.  So during my searches on Ravelry, I came across some Mario patterns--free patterns all available from Linda Potts at Wolfdreamer's blog .

Toad and Toadette pattern

WolfDreamer has loads of SuperMario and Pokeman patterns for free, as well as many patterns for purchase.  I cannot imagine all the work that went into the creation of such lovely plushies.

These patterns, my dear readers, are the real reason I started crocheting again.  My boys wanted the Mario & friends plushies.  How could I say no?  Besides, the characters are just so darn cute. 

Mario and Friends

Happy crafting!

And Then There Were . . .

Two!  Finished the second towel and started a third one in yellow.  I'm changing how I work the bottom striping section just to add variety to the set.  The blue towel's reverse stockinette doesn't look bad now that it's finished.  I'm sure with the right button, it'll look even better.

Second Kitchen Towel

Dare I say that it looks handsome?  It'll definitely match nicely in MIL's kitchen.   (I'm soooo making a set for myself, in both everyday colours and in Christmas colours too!).  The two towels look quite lovely together, side by side.

Two Towels

And, I also finished the last place mat.  It just needs a border. 

Now if I could get 'round to working in all the loose ends, I'll be well on my way to finishing MIL's birthday present.

Happy crafting! :)

So . . .

Second Towel

I started a second towel in blue.  I added contrast striping along the bottom.  Not too sure if I like it yet (maybe I'll skip the reverse stockinette section and just use plain stockinette or garter).

Detail of Striping

My third towel is gonna be yellow (with blue and white striping).  When the kitchen towels are done, I must make more dishcloths.  Only have one made thus far (how slack is that?).  I'll just switch out the colours. 

After I finish the gift set, I'm hoping to embark on another crochet adventure: toy construction.  I've already shared the tale of the teddy bears, but I never showed you the toys I made for Bernat in December.  Check out these two cute fellas:

Meet Monster and Eggy

You can read the details about my Bernat toy adventure at the Bernat Blog post on yarnie pals.  These second set of toys were more fun to make (maybe I'm just becoming a better knitter?).  It helped that the instructions were less fiddly (is that even a word?).

So now my boys want more toys--crocheted toys (I gotta stop searching Ravelry with the boys watching, but there are soooo many cute things!).  Up until recently my crochet skills have been rusty, but with a few projects under my belt I feel more comfortable tackling more challenging items.  

Alas, those are plans for July.   For now,  my kitchen items occupy my time (along with my current Bernat project which looks super cool, but is hard on the hands).

Happy crafting :)

My Quandry: Towel or Placemat?

Almost an FO

Yeah, that kitchen towel proved to be a quick knit.  All done except for the weaving in of ends and finding a button (Aren't I good at hiding the ends?  And I apologize for the quality of my photos, but its been raining for three days . . . )

Another View of Kitchen Towel

While many other knitters have made these towels, I was particularly inspired by Crafterella's  version: check out her towels in bright blue, red and white. And I so love the matching buttons too!

(used with permission from Crafterella)

Aren't they just lovely!  Seeing her towels made me think that perhaps I should make more than just one towel (maybe three?).  Wonder if I'd have enough yarn to make another towel, perhaps with more striping? There should be enough yarn as I'm already on my fourth placemat. 

So here's my quandry: more towels or more placemats?  Initially I thought to make only four placemats, but wouldn't six be better than four?  Now you might be thinking to yourself: make it all.  Well, I'd love to, except that there's limited yarn.  Except for the white, I can't find the same colours locally so I have to use what I've got.

Decisions, decisions . . . :S