Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Around the House




I love stuffed animals, especially mice and sheep. I have loved mice since I was a little girl. I even had pet mice in high school. I convinced my parents to buy me a mouse at a pet store. I would pick it up, let it run in my hand and on my arm. The most fun was while the mouse was in the palm of my hand I would flip my hand over and it would cling there, it's little tail going around in circles. In a couple of weeks my mouse seemed to be gaining weight. It was soon obvious by the lumps that she was expecting. This really bummed out my brother. He had gotten a gerbil the same day I got a mouse. Well, we put a barrel in the cage, and started putting toilet paper tubes and cotten in there so she could make her nest. She had that barrel stuffed full. One evening, after watching her expectantly for a couple weeks, I saw her running around her cage and she was skinny! I started pulling the cotton out of the barrel to get a look at them, and then I had a lucid moment -- hey, mothers are protective! So I got a little stick and starting pulling the cotton out with that, and sure enough, she attacked the stick. But I did get a glance at the tiny little pink things wiggling around. When the babies came out, they were adorable! Tiny little mice. I do have to say that about two weeks later, early one morning, my Mom discovered little pink things in my brother's gerbil cage, and that was one morning she had no trouble getting him out of bed. Anyway, I digress....
So, I have this little mouse, and hubby uses him to harrass me while I'm crocheting. The mouse is always wanting whatever it is I am making. So I found a little jacket and hat patterns and made my mouse an outfit (see above)
This morning hubby was turning the compost pile and unearthed a lizard's nest. Unfortunately he killed the female. So we have taken the eggs and put them in compost in a container and are trying to incubate them. We are hoping they will hatch, but since we have no idea what we are doing I'm not holding my breath. We are at least trying, though. We weren't sure if the male would care for them or not. Both the male and female were in the next, but the male scampered away. I am hoping we can get them to hatch, it would be a great experience for our son.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Scrap-a-nator Completed!




I'm done. I had put it aside twice to work on other projects with deadlines. I used a hook that was larger than called for, so the stitches are more pronounced. I will try it again with the right sized hook, because hubby finally made it for me. My son said he liked it, but wanted one in blue, so I'll have to work on that :)

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Custom Made Afghan Hooks




My hubby works with wood, and when I couldn't find an afghan hook locally, he made me one. He is in the process of making me a hook in every size. He would be happy to make anyone a hook, to custom specifications. If you need a hook a certain length, he can do it. Just email me for details. His prices are very reasonable.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Tunisian Double Crochet stitch

I'm posting this for my crochet students who missed last workshop! Hope this helps.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Scrap-A-nator TCAL

In the Tunisian Crochet yahoogroup I belong to we are doing a quick Tunisian Crochet A Long (TCAL) and our moderator is calling the pattern a Scrap-A-nator -- this is to use up your stash of leftover yarn from other projects. Well, since I'm just starting I don't have scraps so I bought some skeins just for the project. I didn't get to start on it until Saturday, because I was working on a shawl for a graduation gift. I frogged it and started over probably five times until I got the right amount of chain stitches to make the first second row come out right. So this is my start on the project. I've only been able to work on it a short time. We were busy most of the day Saturday, didn't get home until 10:30pm, then had church Sunday and a fellowship at a friend's house Sunday evening, and we didn't get home until after 10pm. Today I've been doing dishes and laundry all morning. I have two commitee meetings this evening. Maybe tomorrow I'll get to work on it in earnest!