A few more owl hats

Good Morning,

Today is my very last day of summer break. Where did the time go? This past week I tried to do as little work as possible but there are always some things that just need to be done. Overall I was able to relax and have a week of leisure.

I was able to make a couple more crochet owl hats...

This completes the collection for my college friend Jessica. She ordered two for her daughter and one little pink owl for her new niece who was born just last week. I would not have been inclined to make the dark gray owl and purple but Jessica suggested the colors after seeing a similar one and I must say, I really did love the color combo. The dark charcoal gray with the deep and bright purple really popped.

The pink owl looks extra bright in the photos but it is really a soft light pink color using Bernat's Super Soft Baby yarn. We don't want the new born to have rough yarn next to her skin. 

I am not sure what the day holds for us. The sky looks cloudy already, which means we may be in for more rain than the usually quick shower and sunny day. Maybe the pool, or some tennis, or both!

Have a great Sunday,

xoxo Susan

Hungry Caterpillar Crochet Baby Hat

Hello Friends,

I hope your week was great and you are ready to enjoy the lovely weekend ahead. Here in Florida we've been having some rain showers but mostly sunshine and warmth. Well HOT weather but it feels good on the bones and body.
One of my friends from college contacted me about making a hat for her daughter to wear for her 1 year old birthday. She found a hat resembling the Hungry Caterpillar from the children's book and wanted to have one made. The theme for her first birthday is the Hungry Caterpillar so naturally a hat would look great! I was very flattered she asked me to make the hat, especially because she could have just ordered the one she saw on Etsy.

I got right to work and was pretty happy with the final result:

The hat she found on Etsy did not include earflaps. She wanted to have earflaps added because she thought they really made the hat look extra cute! I was a little worried about getting each antenna right as I have not made anything quite like them before, but I was able to make it work!

 Because I am not the best at following patterns without a diagram, I have made all of my hats so far from my own pattern. Each yarn has slightly different thickness, even the same brand but different colors have different thickness so sometimes there is adjusting throughout the making of each hat.

I also made some more pink ones. Those closed eye owls still look so cute to me!

 I am a little torn on which type of owl "ears" I like better. The streamer ones which are much easier to make and put on the hat or the triangle like ones here. I guess it depends on the person buying the hat or wearing the hat.

My summer projects are mostly smaller items because it is too hot to have blankets to be draped on my while I hook away. As soon as things cool down I will get back to work on my granny stripe. Once the school year starts back up I am not sure how much time I will have to make hats that people order so I am trying to make them now so I have stock of them. Once the snow starts falling up north, people will be wanting more hats.

Today I purchased a new sewing machine, it should arrive sometime early next week. Please keep your fingers crossed that I have much better luck with this one. I will be sure to share it with you once it arrives. I also purchased a new crochet book, so some new flowers will be popping up very soon.

Enjoy the wonderful weekend.
xoxo Susan

Japanese Flower Scarf

Hello Friends,

The sun is shining, the birds are chirping and the Japanese scarf for my mom is done! Although posting the photos now will ruin her surprise when she receives the package, I know she will enjoy just as much. Thanks to all of you who commented to tell me that the scarf is wide enough with just one row. I connect my Japanese flowers as I go and had already connected two flowers to the second row. Removing them was not a lot of work, and it was definitely too thick for a scarf with two rows. Good thing I posted a progress photo a couple weeks back so I didn't waste a lot of time making two rows!


11 Japanese Flowers

  When I first thought I was done, I put the scarf on and realized the dark rose colored flowers on both ends were even with each other. I should have planned better to eliminate this from happening. I decided to add one more flower to off-set the colors.

Looked like it needed one more flower

12 Japanese Flowers

 I added a flower with light pink petals to make the scarf 12 flowers long.

The finished scarf for my mom

I am a little worried about the connection between each flower. When wearing the scarf it appears as if there is a lot of pulling happening at the petal connection. I guess I will see how it behaves when winter comes and my mom wears it. The flowers look quite big. For those of you who are interested here are the stats on the scarf:

• 12 flowers long
• 7 different colors
• Lion Brand Vanna's choice yarn
• I used a G hook, 5.00MM
• Length 75.5inches/191cm
• Connect-as-you-go petals

I promised my mom two scarves so I will be making her another one. I think I am going to use hexagons for the next one, but I have been eyeing some smaller flowers that may be perfect for it!
Have a fabulous day,
xoxo Susan

Sewing Machine Disaster

Hello Friends,

Before I share the story about my sewing machine, I wanted to share a July photo collage like many of you do at the end of each month. I had a slower month of postings, but did have some goodies to share. I am  not sure what program others use to make their collages but I use Photoscape for my photoediting needs. Photoscape of a program you can download for free and has many neat features.

I was hoping to have some great sewing projects to share with you by now, but unfortunately my luck was not so good. I ordered my very first sewing machine last week and waited eagerly for it to arrive. Actually, it was a birthday gift from J,  but of course I did some research and picked out the one I wanted. The last time I used a sewing machine was in middle school (7th and 8th grade) home economics class. We made little duffel bags, mine was purple, a pillow (cushion) was a pre-made sewing kit - mine was a basketball, and a pair of shorts - I picked a tropical fabric. I wish I had photo of those to share with you but I think they are all long gone by now. I do remember my dad used to use my purple little duffel bag when he would go on short trips and I was horrified when I saw him using it because I was very concerned that it would fall apart at any minute.

Well, back to my story of my sewing machine disaster. With my sewing experience limited to making my green vest for girl scouts in 4th grade and my middle school home ec stint, I wanted a basic sewing machine good for a beginner. I was hoping to start out by making some adjustments to my current clothes and doing some basic crafty things that I read about on all of your blogs. I researched and researched reading reviews, machine specs, and other useful resources. Similar to most products, there are always some people who have a bad experience, maybe a bad machine or product, a defect.

I am sure you can see where this is going. I got the machine out of the box, set it up on our dining room table. I read the manual from cover to cover - I really did. I confessed to J that I really did not know how to operate a sewing machine. He said he figured as much and knew I would figure it out. Treading the needle was easy, I started to sew experimenting with the different stitches on a old shirt I was planning to get rid of. In less than 3 minutes, the machine stopped. Needle down. No movement. Read the manual a few more times, nothing was stuck, no thread, and it was past 4:00pm which meant the singer call center was not open. I was so mad! I wanted to sew! After speaking with the call center the wheel arm dis-engaged and I would need to take it to a certified technician which was 2 hours away. I decided to return the machine. If it broke in less than 3 minutes, I don't want to have it fixed. Any suggestions for a beginner sewing machine?

I wish you a fabulous week ahead,
xoxo Susan

A Day at the Beach

Hello Friends,

Are you enjoying the summer goodness? Most of the U.S. is experiencing very warm or hot temperatures recently. Although the heat can be too much at times just remember how cold you were all winter long and the spring you never had. Go outside and let the warmth sooth your muscles - it does the body good. Drink a lot of water too!

We've been getting some heavy rains late afternoon which is slowly filling up our ponds. A few more good downpours and the pond should be filled back up. J and I were able to take some time to go to one of the beaches nearby. We went to Sanibel Island one of the areas best beach locations and enjoyed the sand and sun. J is the master of finding good treasures in the water and he found a star fish.

We have never found these before while at the beach in Florida. J has found some 5 "leg" star fish in the back waters (mixed salt water and fresh water) but this was a new find! We brought it out of the water to take some photos.

The star fish was still alive and was starting to try to move back to the water...

I took one last photo and we set it free into the water. Sanibel Island is located on the west coast of Florida so this was found on the gulf side of the state. Does anyone know if these have a special name? It looks like it would be called a star fish or sea star as some people call them. We thought it was really neat!

Have a Fabulous Friday!
xoxo Susan

Thunder and Lightning

Hello Friends,

Welcome to all of my new followers! And thank you for all of my followers who have been following for a while :) I have been working on finishing up my granny garden blanket but every time I want to take some photos to share, it starts to get like this...

A summer storm coming on.
You can see the rain falling from the clouds on the left side

I enjoy the rain here in Florida because it is a nice break from the constant sunny days we have here. The sound of the rain is nice and it makes me feel like I must curl up and read a book, or crochet the day away. When the sun is out I usually feel like I should be out and about doing things.

So, since I wasn't able to get some natural light, I had to settling on the lights inside of the house and the camera flash because I really wanted to share my additional rows on the granny garden. Although the blanket is now eight squares by ten squares and sufficient to be a throw blanket, I want to make it ten by ten so it is a little bit bigger. I do look forward to finish this so I can check one more project off my list.


Right now with 8 by 10 circles

I am almost done with the last two rows of circles, then I will just have to doing the outer edge with a connect as you go. One of my friends saw some of my baby hats and sent me an email to see if I could make a custom hat for her daughter's first birthday! I am working on it right now and will share pictures once it is complete. I hope your week is starting off well.
xoxo Susan

Granny Gardening...

Hello Everyone,

Although this is my first week of summer vacation, I have been busy working on research proposals for an upcoming conference this coming academic year. I have been getting some crochet in though, I just haven't been updating you accordingly. Do you remember my granny garden blanket? Well I am expanding the lapghan to a larger blanket. I loved all of the color granny circles turned square when I first started reading blogs back in January. As a born again crocheter I wanted to make all of the great projects everyone had been working on for the last few years so I made several lap afghans to satisfy my desire to try so any of the great patterns all of you out there have been using!

Granny Garden

I also got to the point where I just needed a break from weaving in all those ends and making all of those little circles. This past week I have been making some more circles to add a few more rows to the blanket. I also used the connect-as-you-go technique.

We've also had some excitement in our backyard the last few days. Do you know what this is?

I bet you have an idea now!

 A small alligator has made its way to the backyard pond. This is very common in Florida, but we have not had one lurking around our pond in a few years. With several small children around our street, all of the neighbors were concerned. Fish and Wildlife officers will remove alligators from community or public areas if the alligator is over 4 ft long or if it is at least 18 inches and considered is a danger/nuisance.


Small Alligator in our Backyard

 We did not see the alligator today, so we are not sure if s/he decided to move to another pond or if Fish and Wildlife came and removed it. So that was our backyard excitement this week!

I hope your week has been moving along nicely. As I said, I have been busy crocheting so stop back tomorrow for another project and another post!

Have a fabulous Friday,

xoxo Susan