Shamrock Knits

Crocheting for Babies

Despite the lack of posting, I have been knitting/crocheting. I'm not as speedy as Robin or Kathy, but I do get something done occasionally. The first is a crochet log cabin that I finished in June. This is for a former coworker who had the baby at the beginning of July. Now I just need to get together with her.:)

 

This is a simple half double crochet throughout. I had wanted to do a couple more rounds of trim, but I ran out of yarn. GASP! This never happens to me as I have a tendency to overbuy. As in, "I don't know what I'll do with the yarn, so I'll buy 2 bags in case I make a cable sweater or something." So, I overbuy on the "good stuff" and only get 1 skein of each color for the acrylic baby blanket. Don't try to understand the logic here.

The next baby blanket is for a cousin. He just had a baby girl, but since he lives in San Diego area, I don't think they'll be needing it right away. My sister and I just went there in July and are thinking about taking a few days again before the end of the year if we can work it out with my miles.

 

It's a simple repeating fan that I found in a stitch library. It originally called for three colors, but I already had these four from a previous purchase (was going to be a knit log cabin). Using odd number of colors is the ideal thing to do so that when you're changing colors, the appropriate yarn will be there to pick up. I decided to do two rows of the muted pink in the first repeat and then it's skipped in the second repeat. I cast on too many stitches so this orientation will be reversed. In a baby blanket, I don't think it really matters which is the long or short end.

Goals? Check!

I'm checking off my personal and work goals. I'll start with the non-fun work goals.

1) Found out in December that I'll be losing my job at the end of May. - Check

2) Update resume. - (Have semi-decent draft done) Check

3) Posted resume and/or sent out - Nope - I've been procrastinating on this since December. I was in denial before since I've been with the company for 20 years. Now I think it's just fear of my self worth and trying to find a new job "out there".

Now on to the funner personal goals.

1) Lose 2 dress sizes - Check! It's taken a year with personal training, but finally there! I was at a size 16 pants and now in between a 12 and a 10. YAHOO!

2) Start running - Check About 2 months ago, I started running for 30 second intervals with walking in between. I added 30 seconds of running each week for awhile and then started adding 1 minute. I just surpassed my first goal of running 10 minutes straight (I did 12 min yesterday).

3) Finish Ravelympics project - Pretty much Check - I just have to do the seaming and weaving in ends. I haven't had much knitting mojo and have only been knitting during my Thursday night group.

4) File taxes - Check (after tonight) - I started last night and will have it finished tonight. For some reason, this year and last year I waited until April. I usually have this done at the end of Feb or beginning of March.

Future goals:

1) GET RESUME OUT AND LOOK FOR A JOB! - I've only got a month and a half of work. I'm getting some severence, but I don't want to count on that and unemployment. I'm afraid it may take a year to find a job. God, please prove me wrong.

2) Run 20 minutes straight. Then 30 minutes. Then try a 5K run. We'll see if I can stick with running and accomplish this by the end of summer. If not, I'd like running/walking to be part of my workout routine. Now that I'm done with personal training (last session was tonight), I need to try to keep up with it on my own. I don't want to be a 16 again. My whole life has been yo-yoing up to 16, then back down to 14 (if lucky a 12).

3) Declutter the entire house. I soooo need to get rid of stuff. I have too much clutter. I feel paralyzed in my house surrounded by everything. This will be on my unemployment "to do" list.

4) Break out of self esteem issues. I have negative self esteem. This is not going to help my find a job or a man for that matter. One of the things I gave up for lent was negative self talk. I need to keep that up and move on with my life. This and the exercise thing are my mid-life crisis issues. At least I'm finally working on them!

5) Start secret crochet project and get back to the trim on my never-ending shawl (started in July).

6) Finish log cabin quilt (sewing) and, in general, get back to sewing. I have plenty of fabric (big surprise). I just need to get at it. This will be an unemployment "to do" list too.

7) Keep in touch with friends and get in touch with ones I haven't talked to in so long. I'm absolutely terrible with calling people. This is not a good thing. I feel like I'm letting friendships slide. I should move this up to number one because it could help with all the others!

Catchin' Up

Wow it's been a long time since I've posted. I feel like my life has been a bad country western song. Work has been hectic, I had to put both my cats down (within a week and a half of each other), and have had news of a few friends and family members that have cancer. I'm going to try to be positive, so one to better things.

I went on a short trip to Savannah with my mom. That was pretty relaxing. The city has so many squares and they're all beautiful. Basically, the squares are little parks every few blocks or so. Some are simple, with just landscaping and benches. Some are more elaborate, with statues or fountains. I left my camera in a public restroom and thought I lost it. I went back about 20 minutes later, and some kind women brought it to a check-in area. I couldn't believe it. I thought my camera was a goner for sure. I'll definitely pay that kindness forward when the opportunity arises.

I finally finished the crochet bag I was working on during the Vegas trip and completed the Adult Surprise Jacket. The only thing left for the ASJ is a bath and to sew on the clasps I bought. I went to a knitting retreat that was fun. I started my first lace shawl (first lace project). It's going pretty well. I make sure to count the stitches after the yarn over rows. I've messed up several times, but I catch the problems right away. I'll post more and add my pics shortly. I have to get the pics off the camera - that I still have. LOL

Mom's Tribute Blanket

I finished my mom's tribute Colon Cancer blanket. It feels like it took forever because of the charts. The colon cancer ribbon is a ribbon, star, person. It's called the Blue Star. I'll be writing up the pattern and creating a tribute page in my mom's honor to raise funds for awareness. My mom loves the blanket, so that's what really matters.

This is a picture taken while she's getting a chemotherapy treatment. It's cold in the office and there are blankets everywhere, because the patients get really cold during their treatments. This was her 11th out of 12 treatments. We're pretty excited that there's only one left! The extreme cold this week has been rough on her side effects. I hope the cold doesn't last too long for her sake.

Merry Christmas!

It doesn't feel like it's Christmas already! Last year, I didn't put up any decorations. This year, I bought a smaller tree that's prelit and got at least that up. I've been doing some crochet. When my mom started her chemo treatments, I decided I was going to design a blanket for her. Colon cancer has a ribbon/star, so that's what I'm using. There will be one smaller star in each of the four corners. One bigger star in the middle. Then I'm going to have "Colon Cancer Survivor" and the date of her surgury at the top, and her name at the bottom. This is what I have so far.

Special Olympic Scarves

At one of my Thursday nights with my knitting group, we came across a request for scarves for the Special Olympics. Our group decided to knit or crochet some and we'll send off in one package. Betty has knit 2 scarves already. She's such a fast knitter.

These are my contributions. One is a crochet wave ripple and the other is my cable knit pattern. I did this pattern for a gift last year or the year before. I'll probably buy 1 more skein in each color and make a couple more. There's also a Ravelry group for the scarves.

Cheers!

Happy St Patty's everyone!

I've been working on a few different projects over the last couple of weeks. One of them is not the cable socks. Some people have second sock syndrome. I have turning the heel syndrome. I'm doing them both at the same time on one circular needle. I don't know what my hang up is, but I just didn't feel like doing the short rows for awhile. They're in my bag in case I ever get the urge.

A friend at work's been trying to adopt for almost a year now. A couple of weeks ago, she got the word that she'll be adopting a baby boy. I'm so happy for her. We had a shower for her at work last Thursday. I made her a knit hat in a simple 2 by 2 rib. Betty from my knit group made the pom pom for it. She's the best at those.

I also made this blanket. It's machine knit with rows of single crochet trim. I used Red Heart Sport that I had in stash. Gotta love that. This was the blanket that I was going to make my nephew when he was born, but I had issues with row counting and seaming. I think this one looks much better now. It's made on my mid-gauge LK 150 machine. The strips are made separately and seamed as the next strip is knitted.

Here's the progress on my vest. I'm finishing the second front and then have the back to do. We'll see how it turns out. I really like the colors though.

Which came first?

In my case, it's the egg. Last year, I crocheted eggs for my niece's and nephew's easter baskets. This year, they're getting these adorable chicks. I used Red Heart and Cotton Fleece. The pattern uses felt beaks, but I didn't want to do that because my niece is about 14 months old. The beak on the pink one is a little distorted, but at least it's safer. I love how these came out. They're really adorable. On Ravelry, someone also crocheted feet as well.

Happy Dance!

Woo hoo! I'm so excited. I finished my Cozy V Pullover and it actually fits! Of course, I don't like the picture, but I love the sweater. Voila!

I'm also wearing my invisible braces in the picture. I've had them for about a week now. They're not too bad. In a few weeks, I'm supposed to have "buttons" put on some of my teeth. I'm guess this helps with moving the teeth better and is probably going to be a little painful at first. The initial projection is to have them for 6-7 months. Both my dentist and I thought it would be longer, so we'll have to see how it goes.

When I was in Minnesota last week, I worked on a present for my "old" boss. These crochet cupcakes came out pretty cute. I think it was the beads that did it. I found the pattern here. She has some really cute patterns.

My life

Robin tagged me in a recent meme last Saturday. It's taken me this long to think of something. This is 10 things I've done that others may have not. I was trying to think of things in terms of that "mass amounts of people might not have done". LOL

Here goes:

1) I'm a CPA and MBA. I feel like I've been a perpetual student sometimes. I'm always taking classes to learn new knitting techniques. Maybe that's why I've felt in the past that I haven't made many FO's.

2) I've worked at the same company for 18 years. I started as a part-time teller for a bank, when I was in college. I then moved on to Assistant Manager, Trainer/Internal Auditor, Staff Accountant, Branch Operations Manager, back to Accounting for Instore branches, then Consumer Lending Functional, and now I'm back to Retail Reporting. I can't remember when I became a Vice President, but I know it was by 30.

3) I'm a collector. Over the years, I've collected shot glasses, glass paperweights, nutcrackers, tea pots, and first edition, signed hardcover fiction. Some collections are now gone or dwindled. I only continuing on the signed hardcovers now. Since I've been knitting, you could say that I'm collecting yarn and knitting books as well, because my stash seems to be ever growing. :)

4) I a machine knit, hand knit, crochet, and sometimes bead. I haven't done as much machine knitting lately, so I need to try to do more of that. I also want to try some chain metal bracelets. I bought a book at Michael's recently and there's a bead store in Lisle that has some gorgeous metal jewelry. They have classes there, so I'll probably sign up for one soon. (see, perpetual student)

5) I have a tattoo. One of my sisters gave us a family cruise right after her divorce was final. She got her belly button pierced and I got my tattoo. I'd been thinking about one since I was in college, but the opportunity never presented itself. I have a small shamrock, of course, that cannot be seen even if I have a bathing suit on.

6) I'm a clutz and bruise easily. Not a good combination. When I was little, the doctors used to question my mom about every bruise. I've vowed to have a party the day I don't have a bruise somewhere on my body. It hasn't happened yet.

7) I've had lasik surgery. Without my contacts, I was blind. Now I can see the clock in the morning, go snorkeling or swimming without worrying, etc. It's great. The surgery was a little freaky, but I'm so glad I did it.

8) I'm getting invisible braces. I just had the molds done and now waiting to get the braces made. Even though I'm 38, I want to get them for myself. Hopefully, they'll help with my TMJ a little.

9) I have a 300-disc DVD player. My original intention was to put all of my DVDs and all my CDs in there. When I put my DVDs in there, there were 100 (including the extra DVDs that come with some movies). I decided I'd see if I can fill it up entirely with DVDs. There are about 250. I don't buy as many as I used to, but I'm going to take the supplemental discs out of there and see how many are just movies. I guess you can say I collect movies as well!

10) I send care packages to deployed soldiers. I've been doing this through Books for Soldiers for about 3 years now. During the holidays, I try to send more care packages and hold drives at work. I try to send a couple care packages a month.