a RAOK kinda

I say kinda b/c I asked Amy to hook me up. she made my banner and said she could do wonders with buttons so finally I want a button and I asked it's awesome don't you think? take it please! don't forget to stop by her blog and say what an awesome job she did! i'm so appreciative!!

simple FO's

So I finally finished something. look it's a 7 in granny square. I found the center, a medallion, in a book and added the rest to make a square, it's blocking now. (as if I needed to say that with the pins sticking out)

the second square is called a pinwheel star.. It can be found here

I didn't change the colors like it said b/c I didn't want to.. And on that site up there it has pix on how to fold it to make it a pinwheel it was confusing at first but turns our great! these 2 squares are form my JIC for the crochet square exchange I joined about a week ago. so if you're looking for some g-squares and their patterns, here's a lady who's making a ton! then she's showing you them with reviews and linking you to the links if possible.. enjoy that site! I know I do! also the good old crochet pattern central has tons and tons of pattern links from all over the web!
I'm sure there are more but it's late and I'm too lazy to find more.. sorry. word to the wise be careful if you type granny square pattern into yahoo though, some weird things come up! trust me.
anyways it was sunny out today and I didn't get around to cleaning my sheep. but I did take some pix of my bag I've named it Shunky. I'm planning on selling the pattern for it, I'm having a few people test it first and then it will be available. also the bags I've made here's one.

that's pretty close to the colors. Lilac, dark green and blue. here's the dimensions:
Across bottom 8 ½ inches
All the way around the middle 28 ½ inches
From top to bottom 9 ½ inches
Across top opening 4 ½ inches
LMK if you're interested superstarknitter at gmail dot com
anyways that's all for now folks!

Secret Sis Saturday

i had lunch at church today. it was a special one for the ladies that participated in our Secret Sister program. (nothing to do with SP5) we revealed who we had today it was so much fun and we wrote funny rhyming hints about our Sister and then read them to guess whom had whom. it was soo much fun and my SS was Pam.. (i kinda knew). i loved having the encouragement and prayers and the small gifts. You were the best SS!!! oh did i say small LOOK at what she gave me. i feel so unworthy...

so i will walk you thru how much she gave me.. first the books......
i am dying here they're awesome! i was wanting the S&B book. i acutally bought it for my SS, kristy, who i'm teaching to knit.. then came this. coffee, mug, plate, gumi bears, hair clips.

and last but not least look what she made me.. she crochet'd this last night till 2 am! you go woman!

Look at all the yarn! YUMMY! i love it all! and don't forget the americana towels and the wonderful basket it all came in! wonderful!

thank you sooo much... i love it all!


HEY sock pall over here! look i'm almost done! only about 4 inches or so to go... what do you think?

i should be done in a few days and then i'll be sending it off to ya!
well i'm making this short today it's time for bed...

To the best people in the world,

THANK YOU!!!You all are wonderful!
look what I got in the mail I forgot to tell you yesterday since I was wallowing in self pity. I've pulled outta that now.. I didn't stay long I mean how could I have you seen the wonderful comments everyone left? Ok on to my goodies...

it's some tye dyed roving.. just a smidge of it. I met Deb on crochetville and she was saying she got some real virgin wool right off the sheep from her neighbor and she'd be willing to send some if interested. boy I sure was! so I pay pal'd her the postage and this is what I got.

now that is wool! LOL it's not washed so it smells just like a sheep. my cat's been trying to eat it, I've yet to wash it b/c Deb advised me to wash it outside and it's been raining the past day and a half! anyways it's so neat I plan on dying it and then maybe trying to spin it with a drop spindle.. of course i'll have to get it ready I've been looking on line for that... Though Debby says she's crochet'd it with out it being spun. here's a link to how. there's also a link to her tye dye'd roving that she's selling on ebay if you're interested.
anyways I also wanted to say Alyx you're the winner with a runner up of Divaknitting I'll be sending ya'll something in the near future!
did I mention THANK YOU to all of you wonderful people you totally cheered me up! you're the best!
oh and those of you sitting on the edge of your seat wondering about the horrid dishwasher... well it's acting better I think that my stern talking too helped some...LOL but we'll see.

I'm deflectin' your rejectin'

look i finished another bag...

and i wrote the pattern and everything. i submitted it to crochetme, but they didn't want it.
now i've had some hard things happen to me but man i'm so sad that they didn't want my pattern. maybe it's b/c i got the reply so quickly, i'm not sure.. bummer

so i'm a bit sad. leave me a nice comment if you like my bag. and if you don't have anything nice to say please don't say anything!

ATTN RAOKers if you can tell me what tv series the title is from LMK in the comments and i'll send you a little something something...i'm thinking some yarn.. but maybe some chocolate...or stitch markers i've made.. LMK when you comment!

Dear dishwasher

I HATE YOU! i'm so sick of feeding you special salt and liquid stuff to make my dishes sparkle. i buy the best dishwasher soap for you and still my dishes come out dirty. i hate having to rewash the dishes. this is ridiculous i shouldn't have to wash the dishes before i put them in you. i'm so sick of you not holding up to your end of the bargain. i'm counting down the days to when we move and we will get a better dishwasher. maybe it will do what it's supposed to!
did i mention that i'm mad at you?
allena

spoils of shopping

wonderful cotton yarn isn't it beautiful? I went shopping yesterday with my friend Pam and my whole point of going was to get cotton yarn for my dish cloth swap at crochetville. so here's a pix of it all. I love it! (sorry it's a little dark)

I started making a dish cloth as you can see on top it's lana grossa 100% cotton. the cotton yarn here is a little different than what you would buy in the states. I got a deal on the skeins as the store I went to has "their own" line of different yarns for purchase. it's kinda like you see the $$ kind and then they have theirs for like 1-3 euro cheaper. I don't know if it's the store's brand but it's way cheaper. I got some fluffy kind... it's all I know what to call it. see the pix?

anyways she wants a feather boa...so I thought this would make a great fun play one! plus the price was great! anyways that
I started a wash cloths last night it's looking good

I know I need to get on the sock for my sock pal but look here's some progress

so I am working on everything!
I also picked up some dresses for the bub. she loves to wear dresses so I found some great deals at a store called C&A. they are kinda like a big department store here pretty nice.. kinda like a JC penny's with different clothes though. Obviously! LOL anyway sorry I'm boring you I'll stop that now!

Sunflower

Sorry I totally forgot to update ya'll with my sunflower bread I made the other day.
the ladies at my bible study just loved it! ready here we go...

2 Tbls active dry yeast
1Tbls sugar
2 c water (110 degree's F)
1 c milk
2 Tbls butter softened
4 c white flour (bread flour if you have it if not it's ok don't worry)
2 c wheat flour
1 Tbls salt
2 cup sunflower seed kernels (the inside part)

Now remember we're making bread and from scratch so it will take some time!
In a small bowl dissolve the sugar and yeast in the water and let proof. . (until its all bubbly and foamy) in your mixing bowl (I use my kitchen aid mixer and the handy dough hook) combine the yeast water along with the milk butter and flour and the salt (I added the wheat flour first and then 2 c of the white flour and then 1 cup until it was all mixed together) let your mixing hook do the work and the dough should start forming. now add most of your sunflower seeds except a handfuls save them for later! Let the dough pull together all the way and dump it out on to a well floured surface ( I just use my counter top that is dry and clean but covered with flour) now knead the dough (take off those rings!) and get dirty! Keep kneading until the dough is as soft as a baby's bottom. Oil a large bowl and as you place your dough in the bowl turn it to coat (or if you're like me just spray it all then put it in the oiled bowl) cover it with a damp cloth and let rise until double (1 hour) This is a good time to get out your knitting or crochet and go to town... when your dough is doubled punch down (grab it outta the bowl) place on a floured surface and knead for like 2 min. now it's up to you I braided mine but you can put it in a loaf pan if you wish. it will make 2 loaves so divide it in half. and cover again and let double (yes again) this time 30-40 min or so. preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and then brush the top of the dough with egg white and sprinkle that handful of sunflower seeds on top and bake for 30-40 min or until it make a nice hollow thump when thumped and it's a toasty golden brown. and enjoy! YUM

like I said before YUM! it's super good! LMK if you liked this recipe!
I also joined this swap over at crochetville today I'm totally pumped b/c I was just telling myself that I needed to get rid of all my washcloths and get home made ones! I have my SP to thank for this new addiction b/c she sent me one and now I'm totally hooked! no pun intended. LOL

not too much today

so I took a test see below.. I went and saw the new movie but I thought the 1st one was better I love that movie.. The book is great too! Much more in depth! Anyways look and see what I got! Take it yourself if you dare!

Willy Wonka Congratulations! You scored 194!

You are a true fan, or maybe you were forced to watch the movie over and over again as a child. Who knows. Whatever the case, you should be proud that you ranked so high on my charts.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 82% on Golden Tickets

Link: The True Willy Wonka Test written by pumpkinfish23 on Ok Cupid

I've been working on knitting and crochet things like crazy but not much to show it! like my sock pal socks I'm on the toe and I've gotta concentrate on that so I can get it done.. 2nd's sock syndrome? maybe we'll see... LOL
my friend sent me this pix from a few months ago it's the booty and her friend bubbah you can visit him at his mommy's blog here

we miss them terribly! That pix was taken like 2-3 days before they moved so you can see why they are so serious! LOL
here's some pix from swimming about a month ago.. Just wanted to share. I think they are soo cute! I have to thank EM for taking and sending me these pix.

see the bub is still learning to swim so she gets to wear muscles!
you know me I love pix and sharing them..

at the pool is a great kiddy pool here's a pix of the booty playing in the pool... fun! we like to swim!

sorry

i had to change to only blogspot users to comment b/c i kept getting a ton of spam and it's disturbing! sorry again to my friends who can't comment now. i hate having to do this but spam stinks!

patar unga squwag

LOOK what I got in the mail!!! It's a RAOK Crane! It's awesome isn't it?
I love origami! I wish I knew how to do it! this one came from Julie. it's awesome THANK YOU! I love it! or rather Allena Unga crane! we're watching Spongebob BC (before comedy!) LOL

they other day the bub had a friend over to play.. lets take a look at what they were doing... they were letting the booty play with them which was very kind! here's a pix of them in their super secret place listening to music...

no I didn't have them in a cage. LOL they're under the table... and shall we get a closer look?
they are having sooo much fun!

wednesday I have a hankering to bake so I decided to make some bread... Thurs I too the bread to bible study and the ladies just loved it! so I thought I would share the recipes with you. I know this isn't a recipe blog but I do like to bake and cook and share recipes. bear with me or skip over it. It's up to you!
but note if you skip over it you 'll miss out on very yummy bread!
Bread is very simple but it does take some time since it's yeast and such so be patient! I don't use a bread machine b/c that's boring... and I like to get my hands dirty!

Garlic herb bread
1 c water
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 Tbsp olive oil
4 cloves of garlic pressed or minced
1/2 c evaporated milk
1 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp italian seasoning
1/2 tsp rosemary
3 c bread flour

dissolve the sugar and yeast in water and let proof ( get all foamy)
mix olive oil, evo milk, salt and seasonings together add the yeast mixture. stir in the flour.
the mixture will be a little sticky don't add more than 1/2 cup more of flour if you need to... if you have a kitchen aid mixer like I do let the bread hook do the kneading for a bit..turn the dough out on to a floured surface and knead for a bit. till smooth like a baby's skin. oil a bowl and put the dough in there turning to coat. cover with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled (1 hour or so) take dough out of oiled bowl and punch down and knead a few times then put into a 9 x13 inch loaf pan cover and let rise until it's just at the top of the pan (about 35-40 min) preheat oven to 350 degrees F. bake 45 min or until golden brown and makes a hollow thump when thumped.

so if you liked that recipe i'll share my sunflower seed bread with you tomorrow... that is if you're interested.
anyways I've gotta go get dinner!
have a wonderful day!

Finished one now on to the other

ATTN sock pal take a look here's one sock for you finished! Yeah happy dance!

and here's the other side of the sock just so you can start planning on what to wear it with!

Now I've started the toe of the next sock and I should be done before the deadline! (sept 15th)
so I finished that bag I've talked about! And it's drying now.. I'm almost able to use it! So exciting!
so here's a pix of the bag pre felting

stupid me didn't take measurements... ARUGH! duh next time though! Do you know how many times I ran it thru the wash? 5 times and then I put it in the dryer... Finally it was done! I used noro kureyon color 70 for this bag...

and a pix of it felted and drying don't mind the coupons I'm organizing for my church in the background. (you see we can use grocery coupons upto 6 months after they expire here at the commissary so we have tons and no one was organizing them and I volunteered to do it.. Boy that was dumb it's taking forever! But at least I get all the coupons I need!)
back to the bag the finished size is 7 1/2 inches across the bottom 10 inches high and 4 inches across the top... So remember I was hoping the twisted stitch would show up? Here's a pix of it before

and after it turned out totally different than I expected but I love it.. It's totally cool looking!

so I'm part of a funky crochet yahoo group and I had someone looking for crochet felted bag patterns and really how to felt. So I went looking for some on line.. I learned all my felting from knitting sources like knitty or books. It's all pretty much the same. So I was over at www.crochetme.com and looking for some there and I got the brainstorm idea to submit this bag to them.. So I emailed them asking it they would be interested... I've gotta write up the pattern now and of course as I'm writing it I'll be making another bag.. I think I'll use some yarn I got from elann a while ago for it though.. So it may turn out differently.
so I'll go and I'm hoping crochet me likes it... What do you think?

short and sweet

so I promised to show pix of the knitting needles I made those are 1 pair of size 8 and 2 pair including the pair without ends are size 10.5. I've already given away a pair of 8 to a friend I'm teaching to knit. The end beads aren't that great but I'm just starting so LMK what you think! they're about 11.75 inches long. I had other pix but I cleaned out my pix folder and deleted bunches of pix that I thought I was done with. thought being the operative word there. LOL oh well.
anyways Ms garnet the book is by erika knight. it's mainly patterns using different things like twine or raffia.. Etc. Pretty neat stuff in there! Hope you can find it!
ok well that's it for today just stopping by to stop the boredom!

more projects?

yes i know that is what you're thinking.. but i promise i'm not starting anything else unless i finish some of the stuff i've already started on first.. so now on to my post.....
wednesday the kiddos and i went to the library and look at what i checked out! (i'm thinking of adding the purple crochet one to my wish list it's super fab.. along with the vogue knitting one...)

they actually had some newer books usually they're like from 1960's or something... not that they're bad but some of the stuff is like er uh... no thank you... LOL. on thursday i went to weiden and bought some more yarn. and found some hemp/twine there also and that prompted me to start this project..

Crochet me has a great jute basket on their new edition...check them out! so while i was looking thru the books i've been pondering making a little felted bag for myself.. so i finally started...

see i'm using a stitch that kinda twists. i'm using some noro yarn from a RAOK way back in Feb! here's the post check it out... and a big thanks again to Alyx she RAOKs! i mean ROCKS LOL (see i'm finallymaking something for myself and using the yarn!)

i'm hoping when i felt it the twists show up! here's a close up... i've still got a ways to go but feast your eyes on the wonderful colors.

i'm crocheting it btw...it's super fun to do it b/c the colors are so pretty!
anyways that i swear is the last project i start until i finish some more on my side bar... i promise...
on to other things
the booty has been standing up more and more on her own.. i even took a pix yesterday!

we also went to grafenwhoer to a volkzfest (spelling??) and the bub enjoyed riding the rides. it was supposed to be 1/2 priced but i don't think anything was.. ARUGH! but we had fun anyways!

yummy things there.. it was almost like a state fair.. but with out all the crafty goodies there.. bummer that would've been awesome!
so with that i'll leave you...

Witness the transformation!

this post has lots and lots of pix. that's what i get for not updating my blog every couple of days and waiting a week...

anyways on friday i went with Pam and the kiddos to Amberg shopping and swimming... and at one store i picked up this

you see just a normal pencil case...


but i had an idea to do this with it...
it now holds all my crochet hooks and necessities and some of my DPN's
it had this cool pen with it with tons of refills in it so i kept that..
on sat we went to Playmobil land. in front of the castle was some stocks for pix... so here's one of my DH and the kiddos...

there were tons of play things that you can buy in small sizes like pirate ships, a gold mine, a farm, castles, tepees and a tree house and more and more. it was very fun! (besides the rain that is...)

the girls took a ride on one of the cows....it didn't really go anywhere but they enjoyed sitting on it..lol

the bub and her daddy took a ride on a raft. you can see the pirate ship in the background.

ok anyways ATTN Sock pal LOOK at my progress... the toe looks huge but remember I've not blocked the sock yet.

I've decided to knit all my socks using the short row toe and heel.
it goes so much faster and produces a much more rounded toe (and heel) and i don't have to sew up any toes which is an added plus!

and here's a close up of the heel.

I'm loving this heel so much I'm tempted to frog back my husband's socks to do this heel. i haven't decided either way on that one yet though... LOL I've got concentrate on finishing these socks first... Ah ha ha who am i kidding I've gotta finish the first sock and then work on the 2nd sock...eek.. must get cracking only a month and a half left.

i wanted to share a pix of the front of the sock so you could see how the colors are pooling i like it so pretty!
i told my DH i was going to write nasty things about him here b/c he never checks me out and he'd never know... but i don't think i'm going to. it just sucks that he doesn't take a min to check out my thoughts...i don't know why..i guess i've created such a "life" here so to speak and it seems that he's never really noticed. maybe after i said something he'll come check me out. if he does he better leave a comment...LOL
(man i'm so demanding huh?) LOL
i've become totally obbsessed with amigurumi lately check out the link! i'd really love to get a book like celeste did over at the amigurumi along i'm part of.. scroll down just a bit.. while you're there check out the wonderful creations we've made so far! i've been trying to finish up some other projects before i start on another amigurumi...LOL such self control it takes!i'm just babbeling here sorry.

so i've been pondering selling some of the things i can crochet or knit also maybe some hand dyed sock yarn and i've tried my hand at some straight needles (I'll share pix another post since hello's being a booger right now) and my friend kelly suggested some of the candles i make and maybe some cards and such... so i guess i'm bringing it up here what do you think? i guess i'm not so sure what there's a market for etc.. leave me a comment LMK what you think.