Friday Funday!

Hello Friends,

This week has been super duper busy. I was planning to post early in the week and time just slipped away far too fast. First, I need to remind you about my giveaway. To enter the giveaway just post on a comment on my last post (here). I had to travel to Orlando, FL (yes, home to Disney World) for a conference and we had an surprise guest speaker, the Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden and his wife Dr. Jill Biden.

I am here with three of my colleagues who have been a real treat both in travel and attending the conference together. Great food and great laughs over the last two days. We head back to Fort Myers tomorrow and hope to miss any rain from the tropical storm (if we are still calling it a storm).

Since I never showed you my final photos of the latest baby blanket, here they are:

I love this blanket and still love the pattern too. My mom wants a large one with all of the yarn colors so I have more of these in my future. I was much more careful about my zip zag connecting, so it is not uneven in places like my last one. I need to thank Angie again at Le Monde de Sucrette for this pattern and connecting method. This looks so great when it is complete, I just can't get enough (obviously!).
Hope you had a fabulous Friday,
xoxo Susan

100 Followers!!!! and Baby Boy Dreams Blanket Complete

Good Morning Lovelies,

I sitting in my lanai enjoying the fresh scent in the air, the cool breeze, and beautiful weather. Chili is simmering in my crock pot this morning, tomorrow is our 3rd wedding anniversary, AND..... this morning when I logged in, I have 102 followers this morning!!!

Thank you all for "following" and stopping by to see what I do. Blogging has been such a great experience so far and I am so glad crochet and blogging are now a part of my life. As promised it is time for my to do my very first give-away.
I will give away a set of note cards, mini note cards, and a notebook/journal to three lucky winners. These are perfect for keep track of crochet projects so when you pick back up a WIP you are not let wondering about the hook size you used or the yarn colors.

The note cards are also perfect for writing a little note to the person who is receiving your crochet goody. The little note cards I like to use for the baby hats.

Close up of one set

How do you enter? Leave a comment on this blog entry between today and Friday, October 28th and on Saturday morning I will randomly select three winners. In addition, be sure to "follow" if you are not already a follower.

Three sets of a journal, note cards, and mini note cards

Here is a sneak peak of the completed Baby Boy Dreams Blanket. More photos to come tomorrow.

I hope you this lovely Sunday as much as I plan to, and have a great start to your week.
Happy Hooking :)
xoxo Susan

Only one follower away!!!!! AND another scarf

Hello Friends,

Just one follower away from 100!!! I am so very excited. I will post my give away items tomorrow as well as directions to entering the give away. Today felt like a Friday all day long, luckily tomorrow really is Friday. The autumn weather is truly here in Florida. When I got home from work today, I opened our sliding glass windows and let the fresh air inside. I just had to close the sliding glass doors because I was getting too cold.

Another Never-ending Scarf in Lion Brand Amazing yarn - color: Strawberry Fields. I used exactly two skeins of yarn and for some reason this one is shorter in length than the other two Amazing yarn scarves. The length was still long enough for a never-ending scarf (infinity).

I also want to share with you some lovely crochet projects completed by some of my co-workers. It fills me with happiness to see the ladies at work hooking away. Who knew we had so many crocheters all in the same office (well College in our case).
This first one is Bridget's afghan, really great textures!

This is Jackie's Never-ending scarf in neutral colors.

Jackie wanted to make scarves for her granddaughters for a weekend at Disney world (not that it will be cold but because everyone loves an infinity scarf!). She decreased the pattern by 10 chains at the beginning making these 3 clusters wide (instead of 5) and short in length to accommodate her 8 year old granddaughters.

I hope your week is coming to a nice end and you are ready to kick back and enjoy the weekend.
Have a fabulous Friday,
xoxo Susan

Another you know what..... Never-ending SCARF!

Hello Friends,

Thanks for stopping by. I cannot believe I have not posted since Friday. I have been crocheting, but have not had those extra minutes to download the photos, and then upload the photos and post. So, finally I am here and ready to go. I have been working on writing down what I am doing so I can have patterns of my work. There is nothing worse than wanting to make another piece and not remember what I did. Hopefully this weekend I can finish some patterns.

I have continued the scarf factory here and made another one with the Stitch Nation Alpaca Love. The pattern is now on Ravelry.com if you are making one and use ravelry make sure you link to it here! So far there are five people who are working on the project!! This made my very excited since it is my first pattern posted on there.

The color for this yarn is called Pebblestone. I think it is a nice shade of gray. Each time I set out to make another Never-ending scarf, I think about using a different pattern but this one is fast and looks great, so I am continuously drawn to it again.

I am 6 followers away from 100 and once I get to 100 I am going to do my very first give-away!!!!! I started blogging less than a year ago and have been waiting to the right time to do a give-away. Well friends, the time has almost come. So if you are a reader but not a follower yet, consider "following" so I can get to 100! Over the summer I was hoping to reach 50 followers by the end of the year and while I was not looking, I went over 50. Reading and visiting blogs has become a great hobby of mine, I love learning about the things you do and about the differences and similarities in our language, lives, and culture. So neat!

Only two days till Friday. Have a fabulous Thursday,
xoxo Susan

Baby Boy Dreams Blanket Progress - Almost Done!

Happy Friday!

This is the middle of the semester for us at our university so we stress levels are high for both students and faculty. Usually once we get to this point, the rest of the semester flies by. I have been busy preparing research presentations for a conference I have coming up which always seems to come up just a little bit too soon.

Similarly, the holidays and babies are the way do not wait for when we are ready either so I have been trying to not get behind. I thought I had enough squares but the 10 by 8 just wasn't looking right, so I added another row so the blanket is 10 by 9.

The colors look better in person since some of the blues look like they are almost the same color in the photo and many of the green look blah in the photo. I am going to make a blue owl hat to go along with this baby blanket. This blanket is for a baby boy who is not due until February, but I have a friend who is ready to go any day now who did not find out the sex of the baby. So if she has a boy, this one can be sent over to her and I can make another one for the February baby.

J has been catching some nice fish in our backyard pond. This is a large Tilapia he caught the other day. Tilapia are difficult to catch with a pole because they typically eat vegetation at the bottom of the pond. Lately the tilapia have been popping up to eat some of the catfish food we feed to the catfish in the pond, so they have been eating a high protein diet.
 

Today at work in honor of one of our faculty members who just had surgery for breast cancer we had a wear pink day. I thought my new pink scarf would be a great addition to my pink shirt so I wore it proudly. And guess what? I have two people who want to order a handmade scarf just like my pink never-ending scar (infinity) for trips to colder climates (remember I am located in sunny southwest Florida)!
Well, I am off to start my weekend crocheting. How many scarves can I finish this weekend?
xoxo Susan

Pink Never-ending Scarf (Infinity Scarf)

Hello!

I hope you had a nice weekend. We had a rainy day over the weekend and I loved every minute of it. The rainy day was perfect for crocheting and making progress on handmade Christmas presents.
I finished the Mesa colored one which you saw in my last post (on the right in the photo) and also made one in pink. I love pink things, but it just happens to be October and Breast Cancer awareness month, so I thought this pink scarf is the perfect thing to highlight this month.

 The pink yarn is Alpaca Love by Stitch Nation. I was able to get each skein for $3 on clearance at A.C. Moore. I used a little over 2 skeins, hopefully I can get two more skeins to make a second one in the same color. The yarn is 80% Wool and 20% Alpaca. The yarn feels nice and will be very warm to winter weather (of course not where I live in FL, but this will be perfect for up north).
Here it is worn 5 different ways:

I also want to show you the connect-as-you-go finishing method to making the scarf a continuous circle.

I started off a little "off" which is that extra little flab on the right side

You can see where the "slip stitch" occurred to connect the two

I tried to pull the two apart and take a photo at the same time so you could see the connections a little bit better but apparently my hand shakes too much and all the photos were blurry. So this is the best I could do after many attempts.

I think I finally have a good grasp on connecting the ends using a connect-as-you-go method. I am working on another one right now and will try to get some better photos. Maybe J will be able to help me get some good shots :)

Have a great start to your week and if you are in Canada -- Happy Thanksgiving!
xoxo Susan

More Scarves in the Making

Hello Friends,
Thanks for stopping by. I am still having difficulty posting comments to blogs -- has anyone found a solution to this yet? I have been keeping up with all of your fun projects and happenings, I am just not able to tell you I am reading in your comment section. Hopefully this issue is resolved soon.

Well, the lovely ladies I work with were eager to try my Never-ending Scarf pattern and got to work right away. They are fast hookers too, one made this much progress just during her lunch break:

You may notice the width is a little bit slimmer. She reduced the chain by 5 and is making 4 "clusters" across instead of 5 because she is making this scarf for her 8 year old granddaughter. The yarn is super soft, it is Bernat Bamboo (85% Viscose, 12% Acrylic, 2% Polyester).

 Another lovely lady I work loved the pattern so much she went out to Joann's on her lunch break to stock up on yarn to make several of them! (I know, I work with such a great group of crafters)

Here is her Never-ending scarf with only 3 "clusters" across - she is making it smaller in width for a child too. This pattern can be increase or decreased by adding or reducing the chain in quantities of 5.

Now, I need to show you how I connected the ends of the Never-ending scarf together. To do this, you are going to bring the two ends together and start to work the pattern for the last row by chaining two and slip stitching to the other end of the scarf (to make the sides of both ends connect).

Then make your 3dcs into the chain space like you normally would. Chain 1 and instead of making the second chain, do a slip stitch with the other end of the scarf (your second connection). This is similar to the connect-as-you-go method for granny squares.

I made a pink scarf and hope to be able to show the connect-as-you-go for the last row more clear in those photos. Check back tomorrow for the photo tutorial.

Tomorrow is Columbus Day here in the USA, my university does not celebrate it has Columbus Day, we actually have Fall break tomorrow and Tuesday. So I am very much looking forward to having tomorrow off, but Tuesday I have several meetings so I will not be able to take the 2 day Fall Break. I am not complaining, I will take the 1 day graciously. Hopefully I can making another scarf or two!

xoxo Susan

Never-ending Scarf Pattern and Tutorial (Infinity Scarf)

Hello Friends,

Thanks for popping in today to see my second infinity scarf in the making. As promised, I finished the pattern and tutorial for the scarf! Thank you to everyone for your lovely comments on the scarf. This is the first tutorial and pattern I have made so bear with me.
I was going to make a tutorial with just a swatch of yarn but decided I might as well make the next full scarf. I also re-named the infinity scarf to the Never-ending Scarf to give it a little different twist.

So here is the pattern and tutorial:

Note: all stitches are in USA terms.
If you are used to UK terms then double crochet (dc)= treble crochet (tr)

Materials:

• 2 Skeins of Lion Brand Amazing Yarn. You will need one more skein if you want a longer length/circumference. Each skein is 147 yd/135m long so adjust accordingly if you use a different type of yarn.
• Hook: Size J/5.50MM

Start: Chain 29

Row 1: In the sixth chain from the hook do 3double crochet, chain 2, 1 double crochet (3dc, ch2, 1dc) in the same chain

*Skip 4 chain spaces and then do another (3dc, ch2, 1dc). Repeat from * until you have 5 "clusters" of (3dc, ch2, 1dc) leaving 3 chains at the end.

Ending row 1: when you have 3 chains left, do 1 dc in the last chain

Chain 3 and turn over and start the second row, (3dc, ch2, 1dc) in each chain 2 space ending with 1 dc in the turning chain at the end.

Repeat row 2 until you reach 56inches in length (142cm). If you want a longer length make more mores (maybe 64 inches/ 162cm). Using the Lion Brand Amazing Yarn, exactly 2 skeins were used to reach the length of approximately 56 inches.

This is one in progress. (No flash) 

This color is Mesa

 The photo below is one skein of the yarn (color - Mesa).

I have not yet perfected connecting the two ends together to make the continuous scarf. Tomorrow I hope to post a nice method for doing this. For my first scarf, I connected the ends by trying to continue the pattern but had some difficulty making this happen. You can use a slip stitch to connect the ends with a seam, but I am not sure if this is the best method. Check back tomorrow for a better connection (hopefully!). Here is a little collage of the first one (color Arcadia).

Have a fabulous start to your weekend tomorrow,
xoxo Susan