Three Sachets

Three Sachets

I belong to the neatest group of knitters. It's called Yarn for Breakfast or YfB. They are listed on the Meetup.com site. I think I have belonged a few months shy of a year. The wonderful thing about the group is they have meet ups all over the Hampton Roads area. We all belong to the group but some of us will never meet. Each of us elects which group email meet up places we wish to be notified about. I only belong to two groups. There is the YfB group that meets one Saturday a month in Portsmouth and there is another group under that same umbrella called Yarn for Supper. Those groups meet in the evenings some place. I belong to a group that meets at a Panera one Tuesday a month. I get to see some of the same people at each group every month and then there are members who float in and out according to their husband's ship schedule, having babies, work, vacations, and just life in general. If you have a chance to join a group like this you will meet so many different knitters and crocheters! Now they are trying to do spinning group once a month. Maybe once my job is done I can go to a meeting or two.

Once in a while the group will either spend money or get donations to give to the group. When cash is short donations work perfectly. My friend Ro and I decided that we could donate something for the group. I was lucky that I was befriended by a lovely lady at a lavender farm in NC. One year at a local festival, the woman gave me a huge box of scrap lavender. I have saved it for at least two years now I finally have a use for it. We decided to make sachets to give to the members of our YfB. So we bought some lavender (some very purplely) yarns and have been knitting them in our spare time.

The sachets come from the Vogue Knitting Quick Gifts that I got the horse pattern from. I bought the one for one pattern and one only then found the sachets and decided that the money I spent on the book paid off more than once. Good investment in quickie gifts!

Here are the three sachets. I sewed up some tulle that I found in the bargain bin at Hancocks and cut it to size. I hand sewed them because it would have taken longer to drag out the machine and set up and then have to put it away. Besides no one will see how crappy I sew because the bags are sown up too. I got two sets of sachets out of each half skein. Ro has the other skeins and is making sets of her own. There is only one last thing that we need to do; get a ribbon to tie the sachets in a stack together. Then it 's off to YfBf for nifty gifties at our next meeting.

This bag's stitch is called Andalusian stitch. Everyone of the stitches is extremely easy. This is a great project for a beginner. The nice thing is you can even make an afghan out of each of these three blocks. Great gift idea!
This one is the Seed Stitch or Moss stitch. Way easy and very quick. If you hate purling, this wouldn't be one you would want to do any larger than this.
...and the last one is the Basketweave Stitch. It's easy but it's also easy to forget how many rows you have done. I got carried away on some rows, but they all are done and that's that. Here's the whole gang!

The End

Tag You're It...Again
I was sitting here minding my own early morning business having my tea and wham I got hit with a meme. I don't usually join in them but this one was short and sweet. So, since Sharon tagged me guess I had better do this!

(This portion that explains the Meme is directly cut and pasted from Sharon's blog)
I am supposed to list six unimportant things that make me happy and then tag six other people. They must mean little, not unimportant things. If they make me happy, then they're important - well, to me they are.

These will prove how boring I truly am. Okay here goes...
1. I enjoy going into our backyard in my pjs with a piping hot cup of tea in the early morning hours to check out our fledgling garden. We are strictly beginners and we really love eating what few things we actually get from it. It would be way cheaper to drive 1/2 mile to the grocery store and buy what we need. but there is something very basic about having a garden. It's as close to farming as we are going to ever get.

2. There is a stretch of trees that I drive by in the fall just so I can see them turn yellow . I stop driving that way when they finally drop their leaves. I am a fall fickle friend.

3. WARNING!!!! People who don't like pets or their kisses need to skip this one. Getting kisses on the face from our newest dog, Lucy. She is a neat kisser and loves it when you squeeze her face to kiss her back.

4. I get this really strange satisfaction when I hang up the last item from the dryer every single week when I do the laundry. It's done! I get the same satisfaction when I fill up my mini van with gas once a week.

5. This one will seem strange in this economy. I got such a happy feeling when I dropped my 5 week notice at work. It was such a load lifted off me. Like I had my ankle chains cut loose. I can garden more, read a book, and go for walks when everyone else is at work and breathe again.

6. I get such happiness when I spend time with my friend Romelda. We have reconnected after a long period of not being together. We meet every Friday and we knit together for three hours and I always laugh. I feel so good when I leave. When we don't meet I feel lost and I didn't get my belly laugh for the week.

I have no idea who to tag for this, but here are a few...

1. Tina at A Blip on the Radar
2. Luni at 3 Sleeves to the Wind
3. Romelda at Pell-Melling
4. Cheryl at Dreaming of Germany
5. Shannon at The Wiltin Rose
6. Amanda at Mistress Stash Enhancer

The Road Less Traveled
A Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

It's been eons since I have crocheted anything. The only reason I have done these is because one of my young co-workers is getting married next month. I volunteered to make her two garters for her wedding; one to keep and one to shoot to a crowd of young men. I found the pattern on Ravelry and it was pretty easy. I didn't count like the maker did and I managed to make it work for me.

I made two different garters and took them to work for her approval. She chose this one and I have since made two of then. I asked her to choose her own ribbon that will be in each garter. I have never sew anything like these before so we shall see how they turn out.

4/21/09-I have pretty much finished the base the both the garters and the co-worker has chosen her ribbon. Here are the finished products.

Here is a close-up of the garter with the ribbon that matches the wedding colors. Since green is my favorite color, I was thrilled how it looks and that there is a note able contrast with the white.

Here is a less larger view of the garter. After threading the ribbon through it I decided that I need to cover up where the ribbon and the elastic will come together, so I crocheted these. These were also found via Ravelry...

I love how these turned out. They are so cute and such a quick crochet. I did start one and rip it out because I realized when I was about 3/4 finished, that I didn't follow the directions and the flower was not going to lay down properly yet have dimension at the same time. So I scraped the first one and ended up with these two. Each one will cover up the ending point for the ribbon and elastic.

...and here are the finished products...




Here's to Kelly and Andy on their very happy day. I hope that you have years and years of a very happy marriage. Happy Wedding Day, Saturday, May 16th.

Giddy-Up

I haven't been slacking, I swear! I have been working on a Christmas present that has taken me outside of my comfort zone. I don't have small children anymore. When I did, I crocheted afghans and a scarf or two. I never got into the stuffed animal thing but bless her heart, my MIL did and both
my sons got the cutest dragons when they were toddlers. It's been years and years since there have been any little kids in our family so when my brother had a son, I thought I would use my knitting skills to make sweaters and little kids gifts.

I was sitting across the table from a fellow knitter and noticed her book one Saturday at a Yarn for Breakfast Meet Up. I asked if I could thumb through it and fell in love with one/two of the patterns in the book. I nearly broke my neck trying to find the book. I went to two shops and no they did not have the book. So I got on the internet and found the book. I found it here. I was really happy to have found the book. It came very quickly and then I beat feet over to Knit Wits to purchase my yarns to make the two projects. Some of the yarn from one project could be used for the second one. So the cost was not horrible. The results were just too cute.


Does this give you any idea what it is? Maybe you need another angle...

Getting warmer?

Yeehaw! I could not resist making my nephew Zachary this Pillow Pal Horse. He will be getting this along with the Zebra Pillow Pal for Christmas this year. I thought since he is three and loves the wooden horsey that his great-grandfather made, he would love the horse and zebra pillows.

I have one more knitted gift that I will be making for him but that will be later and when I get into it I will blog about it. I thought I should knit these fun things for him while he is small and thinks they are cute. I had a good time making the horse and learned that I am not that great at finishing seams. So while Zachary does not care, I did learn two different ways to close a seam. One is much nicer than the other. What I mostly learned is that I need to take more time when finishing and that practice makes perfect.

The Zebra is made the same way as the horse. I have the yarn already so I should be able to start on it here shortly while I am still enthusiastic about it. Such a cute idea that is super easy to make!