Christmas Candy Crochet ~ Playing Catch-Up

 These are Stripes 7 to 12 for my current yarn project. 

This is my 

Christmas Candy Striped Sampler Afghan ~ Started Here

It is a monthly BOM kit and I am catching up as I had been focused on other projects. I know this month's kit is on the way, so I may or may not be ready for it when it arrives, but I am making good progress.  Crocheting is a no stress zone for me.  I find it very relaxing. 

These are Stripes 7 to 9 which I Posted Here.

Over the weekend I was able to complete Stripes 10-132.

Today is a beautiful day so I am taking my yarn bag out to enjoy the flowers blooming in the yard.

Linking Up today with

Slow Sunday Stitching @ Kathy's Quilts

and

Monday Making @ Love Laugh Quilt

May you have a happy stitching day! 

Stitch Sew & Show ~ 2022 ~ Week 22

Welcome to Stitch Sew & Show ~ 2022 ~ Week 22

This week I stitched Stripes 1-9 for my

Christmas Candy Striped Sampler Afghan ~ Started Here

This completes the first three months of this BOM which is for purchase via

Annie's Crochet Stripe Afghan Club

I am not affiliated with this business.  I am providing the link only so you may find this pattern if you are interested in making this afghan.

The monthly kits include a written pattern and yarn and there are how-to videos for both right and left handed crocheters online for club members. 

I am requested this as a gift from Mr. Scrapatches so I could revive and build my crochet skills. It has been very helpful.

I love the sampler rows stitch patterns, particularly this Mixed Checkerboard stripe.  I am not sure I would have placed the stitches correctly without the help of the video instructions.  

I am now working on the month four kit. 

I have six months of kits now and hope to catch up before the next kit arrives.

What are you working on this week?

Please Share! 

I visit every link every week.  Sometimes I have difficulty commenting.

I very much enjoy all the inspiration in the links.

Thanks to all who join in my weekly linky party! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Crocheting Again ~ Christmas Candy Afghan

 

Crocheting Again

My yarn bag keeps calling me to take it out to my yard swing and enjoy the day, 

... so here I am again as my sewing machine patiently waits. 

This is my 

Christmas Candy Striped Sampler Afghan ~ Started Here

It is a monthly BOM kit and I am a few months behind as I have been focused on finishing other projects.

This project was Last Worked On Here.

If it looks like I am stitching the same rows again, it is because I am.

If you look closely you may be able to se there was a dye lot difference in the Snow White yarn in the second month kit. The new ball is much creamier than the first.

At some point I decided that I was going to have to pull the rows in the sixth stripe out and redo them with one dye lot.

I received another skein of whit in a later kit that tuned out to be a perfect match to the first skein, so I only pulled out a few rows.

The ball of creamy white will be saved for use when needed. I think if I use it in stripe that is not too close to other whites the difference will be far less noticeable. I suppose I could request a new skein that is a better match, but it feels trivial at this point.

I shall crochet on.

I hope you are having a good day 

and that your weekend will be a happy one. 

I Like Thursday # 118 ~ I Like Thursday

 

I Like "I Like Thursday."

This is my 118th post for 

I Like Thursday @ Not Afraid of Color

I made this image soon after I started participating.

I may not have been able to post every Thursday,

 but long ago this became the focal post of the week for my blog.

I have made wonderfully supportive friends who always try to find the good things in life to share even when we our hearts are torn or heavy. 

This year I hope to be more "present" in my posts and comments

in appreciation for this community.

This week has found me playing with my yarn.

I have lots of fabric stashed but only this bag of worsted yarn and another small box of light weight yarn. 

I made a small project with these a few years ago and then started making granny squares, but as you can see, I did not get very far with this endeavor. At the time, sewing and quilting was my main daily creative endeavor. This year I picked up the crochet hooks again.

I have completed work on the 1st Month Kit of the 

I started this project on Day 1 of 365 

and hope to have my finished

 Christmas Candy Striped Sampler Afghan 

complete by the end of 2022. 

I have brought out my big bag of yarn today because I am thinking to make a second one of these in this pastel rainbow of yarns. I am finding crochet a fun and relaxing pastime this year as I process and navigate my health issues. If you have not read about this, it is in the link above of my first post of the year. 

After reading LeeAnna's Post, I am editing to add the recipe I made yesterday ...

Ham an Cheese Quiche Recipe @ Delish

It was delish! 

This used up leftover ham and cheese ...

... and an extra crust from my holiday making.

This recipe is so easy to make. 

I have made variations of this recipe using up whatever leftovers are in my fridge.

Enjoy! 

Since I am trying to post every day again this year, I hope to post every Thursday.

It is a new year and anything is possible.

I welcome the new year and all that it shall bring.

I shall look for the positive.

I am hopeful.

I am also grateful for those who share their life with me.

Thank You, Friends.

May you have a Happy Thursday! 

Stitch Sew & Show 2022 ~ Week 1 ~ Join in the Fun!

Welcome to Stitch Sew & Show 2022! 

I started Stitch Sew & Show ~ Week 1 here in 2021.

By December I was questioning whether I was going to continue in 2022.

After thinking it over and realizing that I made some very creative and kind new friends last year and that my little online sewing circle was growing and has given  me many smiles and much inspiration. 

Warm hugs to all who have participated!

The image at the top is a temporary one.

My daughter made last my button for me last year and will be updating it for me when she has time.

For this year's background I have chosen the ...

Pantone Color of the Year 2022

If I were asked what my favorite shade of purple is it would be Periwinkle Blue in its the deepest blue tones.  

I do have fabric and a project that has been in my queue for a very long time that would use this color in its palette wonderfully. 

I think I am going to have to go fabric spelunking in my big closet and dig this gem out of its fabric cave.

My sewing machine is still covered though and has been since Thanksgiving.

My sewing machine is calling my name. 

My current project is this 

Christmas Candy Crochet Striped Sampler

This is a Annie's Crochet Stripe Afghan Club monthly program. 

Kitty helper Nutmeg has been most interested in this new project. 

Most helpful.

After a day which included an hour long dentist appointment this morning and a two hour nap this afternoon, and a bit of an ice storm off and on all day, the evening of Day 5 find me still working on this very easy Stripe 3

I hope to sit and stitch after publishing this post.

Below is the link to join the party.

This is a very informal party ... no stress, no prizes, no finish needed.

This is just a place to share what you are working on with others

and enjoy their inspiration.

Think of it as sitting at home while stitching with a group of friends.

I have always enjoyed sharing with others and have received much kindness in return.

This is a way for me to say thank you and to encourage others.

This link will remain open until next Tuesday so you may join in on any day or at any time.

Please join in the fun for 2022 

and share what you are working on ...

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Crochet Sampler ~ Day 4 ~ On a Roll

 Day 4 of 2022 found me working on my 

Christmas Candy Crochet Sampler

I was on a roll ... 

 er ... maybe ... ?

With my morning coffee nearby, I thought I was ready to add the green Stripe 3.

These yarns come in one of those "easy pull" skeins.

I have never been convinced these are "easy" to "pull.

For the white skein for the first stripe I tried easy pulling for the skein.

About 3 rows in it stopped easy pulling.  

It stopped pulling completely.

After digging in and pulling out the humungous knot in the center,

spending an hour or so trying to untangle it,

I had to cut it and roll two uneven size white balls. 

Does this ever happen to you? 

 Or has someone given me the crochet evil eye and cursed me with no-pull easy pull skeins?

Living and learning again here that it is best for me to roll the skein into a ball.

All seemed to be going well. I completed the first row in the green stripe.

This pretty wooden yarn bowl arrived via Amazon to help keep my yarn ball from rolling off the table to the kitties' delight.

Yes, that is Nutmeg sitting on the table, temporarily distracted by "birdievision" out my open back door. 

The bowl has a cover but I cannot use it until I use up some of the yarn.

After completing all but the final row of the green, I took a good look at the last red row and compared it with the pattern  photos. 

Hmmm ... something did not look quite right. 

After going back and watching the instruction video all the way through, I found I had missed an important feature of the last red row.  Thinking that I knew what I was doing, I put the hook in to wrong place in the red loop and the knit look design of the red stripe was lost in the last row. 

Time to pull all the green out, fix the last red row and get it right.

Note to Self: 

Always watch all of the instruction videos to the end in the future.

Tomorrow will be another day of playing with the pretty yarn.

Not a bad thing at all ... :) 

I hope you had a happy and successful day of stitching and sewing.

Christmas Candy Crochet Sampler ~ Stripe 2 Done

 

Day 3 of 2022 found me still working on the second stripe of the

Christmas Candy Crochet Sampler

This stitch is a HDC (Half Double Crochet) variation.

After watching the same small section of the instruction video a few times and starting this row over, I almost mastered the stitch. It is a stitch that I believe I had done over 40 years ago but I can not quite recall.  After I got the stitch placement down, I found I had picked up several extra stitches in the row.

After pulling it out again and completing the rows for this narrow red stripe

I checked my gauge and it is spot on. 

One of the things I really like about crochet is that there is only one stitch on the hook at a time so if you have to take out and fix stitches, it is easy to do.  There are only 136 stitches in the rows for this project, so this is not very time consuming to pull it out and and get it right.

On to Stripe 3 in Clover green tomorrow!  

I am a contented crocheter tonight.

Do you crochet? 

The New Year Brings New Challenges

 

A new creative challenge for a new year!

The red is Stripe 2 in the 

Annie's Crochet Stripe Afghan Club

There are several pretty colorways for this club.

I chose the "Christmas Candy" colors.

This is a gift that I picked out when Mr. Scrapatch asked me what I wanted for Christmas.

I will be receiving the pattern and yarn for three rows every month. It is a bit pricey but it includes access to instruction videos which I will need to do the rows with more advanced stitches. So far I am calling this a good gift and worth the cost. There was an option to receive it every two weeks, but I have so many other  projects in the works, I chose the once every four weeks option. 

I taught myself to crochet when I was young and used to enjoy playing with the hooks and yarn before quilting became my main creative outlet. In the past 15-20 years I have only crocheted a few granny blocks and a small project or two and I have one fusion type project started that combines fabric and yarn that has been in UFO pile for a few years. 

The kitties have been very curious about this interesting new craft material.

What cat can resist a yarn ball or a loose yarn end?

Here Nutmeg is inspecting my work.

I am on Stripe 2, Row 10.

So far this is very relaxing and enjoyable 

and just the project that I need right now.

On Christmas Day I spent several hours in the Emergency Room at our local hospital during a winter ice storm that made some roads impassable.  From my small vantage point on a mobile bed, tucked up against the main desk at the ER, I can tell you that all you have read about hospitals and medical personnel being overwhelmed is true. Although the ER doctor wanted to keep me for more observation. I went home, slept comfortably in my own bed and had a wonderful day after Christmas with my family. As I promised the ER, I called my Primary Care last Monday and went in for a follow-up appointment. The nurse practitioner found what has been going on inside my chest for at least a few years that regular EKGs and doctors' examinations and all the ER tests and staff did not find.  I am now scheduled for more tests at the end of January. I am doing okay, taking it day by day and have plans to live to 150 so I can sew all my fabric. 

Looking forward to what the New Year brings ...