Mellow yellow

My goal yesterday was to finish knitting the yellow section of the Mandala yarn I'm using before moving on to something else. While I don't really consider these shades of yellow to be mellow, the song by "Mellow Yellow" by Donovan kept going through my head as I was knitting. There was more yellow on the ball than I thought, so I didn't finish the yellow portion until this morning. The scarf pattern is "Wortham" from Sequence Knitting by Cecelia Campochiaro.

A few days ago, my lovely new Valentine shuttles arrived from Rita Richmond of Shuttle by Design. Rita has announced that she is no longer taking custom orders. However, she will still be listing shuttles in her shop as she makes them. After seeing all the beautiful guild shuttles Rita has created in the past year, I can understand why she needs to take a break from custom orders. I imagine it's great fun designing new shuttles, but a little tiresome to be making multiples of the same design.

I'm still busy making Mardi Gras Ice Drops for Mom.

I plan on mailing them off to her on Monday. I hope I have time to tat some more by then!

Binging on crochet

This weekend Dave has been busy working on our bathroom, a project he started about a year ago. I'm his errand girl, and I figured it would be easier to work on a crochet project than a tatting project. I was right!

This is Virus Meets Granny Shawl from Fiber Spider on YouTube. I really like the way this video tutorial is presented. It's divided into three parts. The first part walks you through the virus pattern. The second part shows you how to transition into the granny portion. The third portion shows how to transition back into the virus pattern. I used one ball of Lion Brand Yarn Mandala in the Gnome colorway. Denise told me that some of the colors are on clearance at our Walmart for $3 a ball... such a deal!

I finally finished the last of the three pink Ice Drops I worked on while subbing Friday. I was so determined to finish the shawl this weekend, I didn't tat at all yesterday. That doesn't happen very often.

More than ten years ago, I stumbled upon a clearance sale of Lion Brand Wool-Ease. I love Wool-Ease! My plan was to crochet afghans for family members. It never happened. Today I decided it was time to start on my afghan project. I need to either use my yarn stash or give it up. It does me no good sitting in bins.

This is my all-time-favorite afghan pattern, Park Avenue. I'll crochet six panels in this color, Wood. I'll then add borders in another color and join the panels.

I purchased this book when it came out in 1996. There is a child's sweater in the book that I made years ago. Otherwise, the only pattern I've ever used is Park Avenue. Maybe I should give some of the others a try!

Crochet Sunday

It looked like I was pretty close to the end of my ball of Mandala yarn, so I decided to concentrate on finishing my Middle of the Road Scarf. Mine isn't quite like Susan Pinner's. The yarn she used changes color more frequently and has little flecks of white in it. I may break down and try to get some of that yarn (James C Brett, Northern Lights), but since I have to send to England for it, I was happy to use what was readily available.

I cut off the crocheted button that was at the tip of the triangle. Mine wasn't very clean looking, and because the colors of the Mandala yarn are not flecked like the yarn used in the original pattern, it didn't have the same interest. I will practice making those crocheted buttons, because I think they look really cool.

It's been a while since I've crocheted with yarn, and I wasn't happy with the way my edges looked. So, I single crocheted around the scarf and then finished off with slip stitching through the back loop. I'm not sure that blocking will do much good since this is an acrylic yarn, but I may give it a try anyway.

Of course, I had to tat an Ice Drop today! This one is in size 20 Lizbeth Orange Crush, #183. I love my new Russian doll shuttle!

Shopping spree!

Although my friend Denise and I live only about three miles from each other, we really don't get together very often. Denise is busy with multiple volunteer activities, and I stay pretty busy subbing. However, we both had today free, so we went shopping!

First, we went to lunch at a little diner that Denise had not been to before. She had blue gill bites and I had a BLT wrap... yum! Next, we dropped off one of my sewing machines for cleaning. We then headed to JoAnn Fabrics... a very dangerous place! Fat quarters were on sale for 99 cents, so I loaded up with pieces for my sewing students. I also found some cute sewing themed fabric that I plan to use for dust covers for the machines I have sitting out. Yes, I said machines!

When we finished up at JoAnn's, we headed to Walmart. Denise told me about Mandala yarn a few weeks ago, and I started a shawl.

I haven't worked on it in over a week, but I was inspired by all the pretty colors I saw at Walmart. There was a bonus... the yarn was on sale for less than $4 per ball!

After I dropped Denise off, I headed to the grocery store for some much needed basics. It was very strange that I was driving through a heavy snow squall. Now we have some snow on the ground, but it will all melt tomorrow.

Despite the busy-ness of the day, I did manage to tat an Ice Drop. Yes, it has lots of frills, just as daughter Joanne likes!