February Things

Hello!!  I hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day.  I am so grateful to every one of you who visit me here in my little space and say the loveliest things:  I wish you could have a Valentine card every day of the year!
I had hoped to be here yesterday to show some makes, but it is a long weekend here for us so we have been quite lazy and I am at least a day behind!
I am happy to say I have my first big finish of the year:  my Hudson's Bay Blanket is officially finished!

This was an absolute pleasure to work on from day one.  I used a linen stitch, so it is quite dense but it was very quick.  It is the perfect blankety weight:  not too heavy, but feels nice and comforting.  I finished it just in time for the cold snap we had last week and it has been in almost constant use!

I used a Red Heart yarn for the the cream bits; the colours are mostly Vanna's Choice and one ball of Herrshnerr's eight ounce yarn.  I have enough left for some Canadiana inspired pillows too I think.

Libby gave it her seal of approval as well.  #naughtydog

I recently acquired a bag of ribbon yarn from the thrift store I volunteer at.  I never knew what to do with this stuff because I never had enough of any one kind to make a garment.  A string bag is pretty obvious, but I think this ribbon yarn is a bit too posh for that.  I found a pattern on Ravelry called the Easiest Crochet Shawl Recipe by Raising Godzillas and it is perfect for it.  It goes very quickly:  I think it takes me two to three evenings to crochet one of these.

There was no label on the yarn so I have no idea where it's from or how much was on the roll.  When I finished I had just a few meters left, so I'm not quite sure how much I used.  The ribbon is a black chiffon type with a gold thread in it.  You can wear this as a shawl or wrap it around as a summer scarf.

The reason I started working on it right away is because I came home with something else that day from the thrift store:

Black is normally not my thing, but these two go perfectly together.  I almost can't wait for summer!

Now, back to the time at hand:  I did a little festive crochet for my kitchen in the form of new scrubbers:

This is the 'Scrubbie Dots' pattern by Doni Speigle.  I used some cotton scrubbie yarn from my stash.

Valentine's stitching for the year:

Each pattern was found via Pinterest. You can get the patterns HERE (XO); HERE (tic tac toe); and HERE (kittens). 

It seemed to be a Pinterest inspired celebration with treats:

 ...and more crochet, this time for a good friend with a Valentine's birthday.

Heart pattern can be found HERE.

Whew!  Finally caught up!

So now we are in the season of Lent, and as a family we typically give up the things that distract us the most during this time.  If you have younger children you no doubt know that computers and video games are the biggest culprits. It's amazing the changes that happen around here during these six weeks by severely limiting screen time.  Many books are read:  many beautiful drawings and Lego creations are completed.  Jigsaw puzzles are worked on together;  the few movies that are allowed are watched together as a family.  There are fewer squabbles and really it is just more peaceful around here.  It's amazing to see what is accomplished  when we use the gifts we were born with and not distracted by technology or comparing ourselves to stuff we see on it.

I use this time to work on, and hopefully finish, those projects that have been languishing in my craft cupboard.  I am easily distracted by new projects and often start new ones in a burst of excitement before finishing what I am working on.  I try to exercise some discipline in using what I have on hand as well, as opposed to going out and buying new materials for new projects.  I don't have too much of a problem with mindless TV watching, but things like Pinterest can really waste my time so I try to avoid that as well.  I get much more accomplished during this time, and it is actually a time of year I look forward to!  The kids - not so much...but it's only six weeks, and sometimes you need to give up a few things you think you can't live without to appreciate what you have.

OK, after that I am all finished.  Thank you so much for visiting and your sweet words.  I am only "allowed" a small bit of time on the internet so it will take me a bit longer to catch up on what you're doing.  I will be visiting you though!  Have a wonderful week my lovely friends:)

Happy Days!
Jenn

Thrift Store Crochet

Design from Bent Creek

Happy Groundhog Day!  Our Wiarton Willy predicted another six weeks of winter, but as we really haven't had much of winter weather to start with I think we are all OK with that.  My latest crochet project will come in handy just in case though...

You all know I love a good thrift store visit, and if I find yarn there then all the better.  A few weeks ago I found a bag of burgundy tweed Sirdar yarn:  six skeins; made in England, 100% wool, for five dollars.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but I knew it had to come home with me.  I mean five dollars?!  I would have been crazy not to!

I figured I would use it for some of the charity crochet I do around Christmas time, but then it turned out it had all the same colours as Mr. Crafty World's winter jacket.  Mr Crafty World is also in need of a new hat, so  this is how I spent my weekend:

I used two skeins for the hat: a simple beanie hat made long enough to turn up in double crochet.

With the leftovers I made the scarf, again in double crochet.  I knew I would not have enough of the tweed to make a long enough scarf, so I used a grey wool from Iceland I had previously found in the clearance bin of my local yarn shop for two dollars.

 Mr. Crafty World loves it:  he has been wearing the hat everyday. I loved hooking away the weekend and using up yarn from the stash.  We both love that the entire project cost seven dollars.  It was a win, win project: the best kind!


Thanks for visiting, and
Happy Days!
Jenn