Collecting Crochet Hooks? Huh?

You may say that collecting crochet hooks seems like an odd thing to do, and I will say that you are right BUT...

I crochet practically everywhere I go--traveling, meetings, home, watching TV, visiting with friends--pretty much any time I have a few minutes and I want to be productive. Since I crochet so much, People are always starting conversations about crocheting. some of the most popular comments are:

"I wish I could knit like that."
I reply, "I have tried knitting and I didn't like it. This is crocheting."

"I've never seen anyone use such large hooks before."
I reply, "I use large hooks for bulkier yarns. Sometimes I like to crochet with
two or more threads and a larger hook manages it better. Sometimes the yarn
I select is not as soft as I would like for it to be. If I use a larger hook
the finished product is looser and softer. Sometimes I just want to get finished
with a project quickly, and a larger hook covers a lot more territory quickly."

"That's nice, but I don't like blankets with all those holes. I like something solid
and warm"
"I know what you mean, but with crochet, if you make it solid, it ends up being
so heavy that you can hardly lift it."

"Do you ever sell what you make?"
"I am happy to sell what I make when I find a buyer. Most people are not
interested in paying for the cost of the materials invested in a project
when they can go to WalMart and buy a blanket, throw or scarf for a fraction of
the price."

Israel

"Can you teach me to do that"
"Yes, I have taught a number of people to crochet, but it is like anything
else, you have to practice to get good at it. Most people make the mistake
of starting a project that is too big and they never get it finished."

Taiwan

If I have the time, while I am sitting with people, I will teach them to crochet. I can't tell you how many crochet hooks and little balls of yarn I have given away. I keep all my crochet hooks in a little pencil bag. I bought this one in Israel.

My friend, Freddie, bought this one for me in Taiwan. She went to Taiwan to help our Associate Pastor's family when they went to pick up their adopted son.

This is the contents of my bags--metal and plastic hooks, scissors and a tape measure.

And now to the subject of this blog.

I taught a crochet class at my church. I asked several of my stitching friends to come and be in class tutors. I wanted every student to have an instructor that could help them quickly. I knew I could not be everywhere at once, and I did not want the students to get frustrated. As I was giving the history of crochet, I mentioned that I had never seen any antique crochet hooks, but it might be a fun thing to look for. Wouldn't it be interesting to find one made out of bone or ivory? Although, I have seen some beautiful new handmade hooks.

My friend, Virginia, found an antique wooden hook--over a hundred years old. She also found a handmade one--made out of honey locust wood. She gave them to me for Christmas. I was so surprised and delighted. It was a very thoughtful gift. I am sure it is the beginning of a treasure hunt. Park Ranger will be so excited when I want to stop at every antique store in Texas looking for crochet hooks. Oh well, he'll get over it. At least they don't take up much room in the car or in the house.

Until we meet again.

KayKay

Hats, Hats, and More Hats

When I found out my daughter was going to have a baby girl in November, my crocheting imagination went wild. I started crocheting all kinds and colors of afghans, and then I started making hats. I made pom pom hats, fun fur hats, every kind I could think of in every color I could think of. A girl needs choices. Right?

Cookie Favors for Katie's Baby Shower

I made these cookies for my daughter's baby shower. I used my standard cookie and frosting recipe. I used a onesie cookie cutter. When it came to putting the detail on the cookies, I just could not get the detail that I wanted by using frosting. I had bought some markers that had edible ink, so I decided to see if I could draw on the detail. I let the icing dry overnight to make sure it was a nice hard surface on which to draw. I am pretty stiff when it comes to drawing, so I started off by making the neckline, the center line and then the leg holes. I made dots for buttons and then all of a sudden, my creative juices came alive. I started decorating them with lace and bows and ruffles and collars and epaulettes and cuffs. It was a blast and definitely a technique that I plan on experimenting with much more.

Papaw's Shirt Pillow

My daughter, Katie, and her husband, Tim, asked me to make a pillow for Tim's grandmother. Tim's grandfather passed away this past year, and they wanted to give his grandmother something special. They decided to have a pillow made out of his grandfather's favorite shirt.

I cut the shirt on the sides and bottom and then sewed it into a square. I used an 18" pillow form and just unsnapped the front as the way to put the pillow form inside the shirt. I sewed part of the shirttail to the collar to make a flap to cover the pillow at the neck hole. I think it turned out nice. Tim and Katie were happy, and that's what counts. I'm anxious to hear what Mamaw says.

Hill Country Lights

We visited Park Ranger's parents in Fredericksburg on Christmas Day, and one of our activities was to see the Christmas lights in Johnson City. Johnson City was not known for it's lights when I lived there, but it is known for that now and deservedly so. We saw the Blanco County Courthouse. It was completely draped in white lights. They had horse drawn carriages giving people tours of the displays.

After the Courthouse, we went to see Dexter Haynes' display north of town. I'll have to admit that Dexter's display was quite impressive also.

And then to top off the evening, we saw the trees at the Pedernales Electric Cooperative. Every trunk of the old live oak trees were completely wrapped in white lights as well as lights in the leaves of the trees. It was quite a winter wonderland and something one should see if in the area during the holidays.

She's Baaack!!!!

Hello readers. I'm back! My family and friends have a been after me to blog again, so here I am. Life distracted me for a while, but the gift of an iPad from my family has motivated me to get back to writing. We'll start things out light and easy this morning with a little craft blog.

Last year, after Christmas, my daughter Amy and I started couple of projects for the next Christmas. These little Santa ornaments were my project. I gave them away as favors to all the friends and family that visited during the holidays this year. They are made with chili peppers that I bought by the bag at the grocery store. I used craft paint to paint the faces and beard and glued a pom-pom on the end of the stem for the hat. All of the chilies have a natural curved stem that gives an adorable, unique look to each Santa. The stem is also used for the hanger. Cute, huh?

My next craft is a crocheted project. They are scrubbies crocheted with nylon net. they are a little labor intensive but worth it. You buy the net by the yard and have to cut it into 2 inch strips, then you have to tie the strips together. This is a vital step, because the tied ends provide the stuffing for the scrubbie. You crochet two discs and then slip stitch them together. The stiff, rough net makes great dish scrubbers. The softer net makes a great bath loofah.

Stay tuned for more projects.

Celebration

The fourth of July has always been a holiday for fun times with the family.  This year, Park Ranger and I ended up not having any plans for the holiday.  Katie and Tim went to Arkansas.  Amy was floating on the river with Andrea and Nate.  We didn't have a thing planned.

Amy's roommate, Lindsay, and her boyfriend, Mike, decided to make a trip to the DFW area to see the sights.  They asked if they could stay at our house.  Of course, we told them we would be delighted for them to stay with us.  They ended up not getting to the house until after 10 on Saturday night.  Sunday, we went to church, and then went to have hamburgers at Chaps for lunch.  On the way home, we decided to stop at the Ballpark and see if we could get tickets for the Rangers vs. White Sox game.  We were able to get tickets--yay!

At lunch, we were throwing around some ideas for the rest of the day.  Someone brought up the idea of making cookies. I am always game for someone to help me make cookies.  So I enlisted Lindsay and Mike, and we made cutout sugar cookies of flags and fireworks.

The  Ballpark is a fabulous place to spend the 4th.  They had about 150 young men and women take their oath to be inducted into the Air Force.They had an F-16 flyover, which is guaranteed to get me fired up.  They had a huge flag in the outfield and some great singers singing the National Anthem.

The game was a stinky game.  The Rangers lost the game.  They didn't get beat, they lost it.  After the game, they always have a fireworks display.  It is always fabulous--hearing the patriotic music on the big speakers and seeing the fireworks up close and personal.  Lindsay and Mike enjoyed themselves, and we enjoyed being with them.  They spent another night and left on Monday morning.

We got up early on Monday morning and got the lawn mowed and weedeated for the festivities later on that afternoon. 

On the way to the Ballpark, I heard from my brother, Terry.  He was on his way through Arlington and wanted to stop by.  I told him that we weren't at home and what did he have planned for the next day?  They didn't have anything planned, so they came over in the afternoon for hotdogs and homemade ice cream.  Terry's comment to me was, "What kind of homemade banana ice cream are we going to have?"  Needless to say, I made banana ice cream.  It was some of the best I have ever made.  It got rave reviews.  I don't think my family could remember my homemade ice cream, it had been so long since I had made it.  Katie, Tim and TJ got home from Arkansas at about 5:00, so they came over also. 

Even though we didn't have much planned, we ended up having a full weekend and thoroughly enjoyed and celebrated this Independence Day.

My Adventure

Park Ranger took me on an adventure today.  He took me to the Grand Canyon.  We visited the Grand Canyon about 23 years ago; although, things were a lot different then.

Twenty three years ago we visited the Grand Canyon on the way to California.  Park Ranger was working on his doctorate at Fuller Theological Seminary, and he decided to take the whole family for one of his sessions.  The whole family consisted of Park Ranger, myself, Josh (age 5) and Katie (age 2). 

We bought a used pop up camper, hooked it up to our full sized van and took off.  Of course, Park Ranger had parks for us to stop at all along the way.  It was April, and April in Texas is pretty warm.  April in Northern Arizona, Utah, and Nevada are not so warm, so right off the bat, I packed the wrong kind of clothes. We ended up buying a round of sweatshirts for the entire family at several of the parks so that we would have enough clean clothes to keep everybody warm.

Visiting the National Parks in April is completely different than visiting in the summer.  In April, the parks are filled with retired people, couples, as well as families with small children.  On this particular trip, it seemed like we were the only people traveling in the parks with small children.  We had a blast every place we went.  The kids were great.  We tried to visit parks in the morning, then we would have lunch, load up and get on the road just in time for the kids to go down for naps.  We would get to the next park, set up the camper, check things out, have supper, play, go to bed.  That was the routine all the way to California.  That trip is a warm memory in my mind.

This trip, we were watching the families with small children and WE were the "old" people.  I kept remembering Josh running around and talking nonstop in that high little voice that he used to have and Katie just toddling around.  In fact, Katie was about the same age that TJ is now. 

We have always wanted to spend time in the parks and see some of the sights without the time, physical and age restrictions that we have had in the past. 

Several years ago, when I was going through the process of being approved for bariatric surgery, one of the things I was asked was, "What do you see yourself doing when you are 100 pounds lighter that you can't do now?"  I answered, "hiking with my husband in the parks."  That became a reality this trip. 

On the way to the canyon, I looked over the different trails, what we would see, how difficult they were and how long was the hike.  I selected one and told Tom of my selection--he agreed with my selection.  We took the shuttle to the trailhead and began our descent.  The descent was exhilarating.  It felt so good to be able to move down that trail.  We got to the overlook in 30 minutes. 

The overlook was breathtaking.  We sat on the rocks and enjoyed the view and had a snack of dried apples, peanuts and G2 Gatorade.  The ascent was totally different. We would climb until we were both so out of breath that we couldn't go any further, then we would rest for a couple of minutes.  We did that over and over again until we finally made it to the top, an hour and a half later.

You will never know the feeling of triumph that I felt completing that hike. I told Park Ranger that this was our maiden voyage, and it was successful.  It was so successful that were even able to walk to the restaurant for our dinner that was down the street from our hotel.  It may not sound like a big deal, but if you have been in my shoes, then you will know how excited we were.  SCORE!!!

Pink Peony

I watch the Martha Stewart Show practically every day.  By the way, I hate her politics, but I love her style.  I'm interested in a lot of the things she is interested in.  Every spring, she starts talking about her peony garden.  It is huge with maybe a couple of hundred peony plants. 

Peonies, like lilacs, are a mystery to me, because we don't have them this far south.  I loved the lilacs when I lived in Iowa and Colorado.  They were magnificent.  There were big, tall, long hedges of lilacs--absolutely beautiful.  The smell was almost overwhelming.

Peonies have huge flowers and many of them are pink.  I decided to start naming my crochet projects.  So instead of calling this afghan a pink and green afghan, I am now calling it my peony baby pink afghan.

Silly huh?  Maybe.  But I am practicing my word pictures.  Some of you that know about peonies, got a picture in your mind didn't you?

My Love Affair

Quilts have been a comfort to me since I was a small child.  My mother always had quilts on our beds.  I love the feel of a quilt and I love the smell of those old quilts.  There is no sleep like the sleep you get on a cold winter night with a couple of quilts on your bed.

When I was about eight years old, my grandmother gave me a quilt that had the all the state flowers on it.  My mother embroider painted all the blocks, and my grandmother and great aunt pieced it together and quilted it. (Side note--It only has 48 blocks because Alaska and Hawaii were not states when my mother made the blocks.) I used it as a bedspread until I left home, and then I used it on my beds after I got married.  I took it to every cold football game and every drill team bus trip and every basketball trip.  It was a part of the fabric of my childhood.  It even went with me to the hospital when I got my tonsils removed and at the births of my children.  It became so worn that I retired it, and it now has a place on a quilt rack in my hallway. 

When I got married, my grandmother and aunt made me another quilt that was on our bed for many years, especially the cold years in Iowa, Wyoming and Colorado.  That quilt has been retired also.  It is still in good shape, but I do not want it to get as worn as the first one.

During the cold years in Iowa, we spent a lot of time with Park Ranger's aunt and uncle, Lorin and Phyllis, on the family farm.  Phyllis had a profound influence on me as a young homemaker.  Phyllis is a homemaker unlike any I have every seen.  She is pretty much excellent at everything she does--cooking, sewing, crafts, Sunday School & VBS teacher, gardener, canner--you name it, she does it well.  Phyllis was always making quilts.  Not necessarily the pretty hand pieced, hand quilted kind, but the functional, durable, beautiful in their own way kind.  Phyllis has made denim quilts for her kids and grandkids out of old jeans--pockets included.  Along with her mother-in-law, she made quilts of old suits.  This was hard for me to understand being from Texas, but they even made quilts out of wool pieces.  Talk about warm!!!  Most of her quilts were hand tied instead of hand quilted, but no less beautiful.

My mother-in-law, Helen, has made a number of quilts as well.  Hers are the classic hand stitched kind, and they are incredibly beautiful.  She spent many years quilting with the quilting group at Holy Ghost Lutheran Church in Fredericksburg, TX.  People make tops and then pay this group to quilt them. They quilt several every week.  They also make quilts out of scraps for Lutheran World Relief.  Quilts that are sent to developing countries or places that have gone through a disaster of any kind.

When Helen was about 16 years old, she had an appendectomy and ended up getting pneumonia from the ether that was used as anesthesia.  It took her the whole summer to recuperate.  Her mother wisely, set her up on a quilt under a tree in the yard.  She set her to work cutting out small postage stamp size pieces of fabric and sewing them together into a quilt.  This quilt is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. The pieced design has a border of gold and purple--very unusual colors, but absolutely incredible.  I told Helen several years ago that to avoid any disagreements over her estate, she should go ahead and put it in her will that Kay would get the quilt.  She avoided any disagreements and gave me the quilt right away.  It also has a place of honor on my quilt rack.

My brother, Terry, mentioned to me for several years, that he wanted to make quilts for his children.  We finally got it together and made them a couple of years ago. He has become my partner in crime.  When I get to the point when I need to put the layers of the quilt together and tie them, Terry is my partner.  We sit for hours putting it together while listening to old country music and drinking coffee.  When I got in a bind and was running out of time.  Terry even took a quilt to his fire station (he is a fireman), and tied it there--IN FRONT OF ALL HIS FIREMAN FRIENDS. Now that takes courage!!  It has become a great way for us to stay caught up with each other. 

My daughter, Amy, nagged me for years about making a quilt out of her old t-shirts.  She faithfully SAVED THEM ALL, of course.  I finally relented, not for noble reasons, but because I wanted to get rid of those bags of t-shirts in the garage and her closet.  That was the beginning of a whole new vein of creativity on my part, which I will talk about more in following posts. 

My quilts are all machine sewed and hand tied. They are pretty quick to put together, if you call 40-80 hours quick. I have made one for Amy and one for my son Josh. Amy's theme was her childhood through high school graduation.  Josh's theme was his college and corp career at Texas A&M University.  I have been commissioned to make several others.

I have had a love affair with quilts my whole life.  I will continue sharing my quilt stories with you in the future. 

                                 My confession--the affair continues...

Too Girly For a Boy and Too Boyish For a Girl

This is my newest finished project.  This is a large baby blanket made from Caron Simply Soft yarn.  I made it from some yarn that I had left over from another project.  I am crazy about the combination of colors (blue, green and purple).  I am afraid that it will probably stay with me rather than me giving it to someone.  The colors are a little too girly for a boy and a little boyish for a girl.  Oh well, a Nana blanket.

Gonzales?

Gonzales?  Gonzales, who?  Not Gonzales who--Gonzales what.  Gonzales, Texas--the city.  Gonzales, TX--why?  I visited Gonzales, TX.  The park ranger I live with insisted that we visit Gonzales on our way to a ministry engagement in Victoria, TX.  Anyone that knows Park Ranger knows that if there is anything historic, scenic, notorious or just plain interesting on the way, Park Ranger will make a point of seeing it.  Gonzales was such a place.  Most of the places that Park Ranger selects to see are pretty interesting.  Gonzales was no exception.

Gonzales was actually the place where the Texas revolution started.  It is known as the Lexington of Texas.  (Lexington is known as the place where the 'shot was heard around the world'--the first shot of the US revolution.)  Shots were exchanged in a skirmish over a small cannon that the Texas settlers had been given from the Mexican government.  They were given the cannon to protect themselves from Indian raids, but when Santa Anna came into power, he decided that the Texans didn't have any business having a cannon.  He decided to take it back.  The women were commissioned to make a flag for the Texans.  They chose to make the flag out of their wedding dresses and embroidered and painted the image of the cannon with the words "Come and get it".  Sam Houston actually put out the call to join the Texas militia from the shade of this huge live oak tree.

Gonzales had a beautiful courthouse and downtown area. Beside the courthouse is the jail, which is also the town's visitor's center.  One can get all kinds of information about the town at the visitor's center including the historic places to see as well as a directory of bed and breakfast establishments.  After getting all the information one would want, visitors can take a tour of the jail.  What a creepy surprise.  The jail was complete with gallows and noose.  My daughter decided to check out the noose, and when she did, all my mother's caution went haywire.  I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

Courthouse

     

CreepinessPark Ranger

Well, so much for the historical part of the visit, but for me the most memorable part of the trip was seeing all of the old homes in the town.  Many of them are private homes, but some are bed and breakfasts.  Hope you enjoy them as much as I did.  Pictured at the end is an old Mobil gas station that looks exactly like the ones that used to be.  Also is the stage stop and the cannon are pictured,.

Park Ranger came through again.  Gonzales is a great place to visit.  Small Town, TX, USA

Wildflowers

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity of visiting the Lady Bird Johnson Wilflower Center in Austin, Texas.  The center was founded to research different species of wildflowers and the propagation of them.  I have heard about the center for years but have never had the opportunity to visit. Since I was there for an event in the Wildflower Center Auditorium, free admission was given to all the participants.  Yay me.  I immediately started going through the garden and taking pictures as fast as I could.

It was a damp day after a rain storm, which is one of my favorite times to walk in a garden.  Just seeing the flowers alone  would be beautiful enough, but the garden is full of interesting sculptures as well.

We had lunch in the cafe.  I had the veggie wrap and hibiscus tea.  I also spent quite a bit of time in the gift shop.  It had everything from t-shirts to books to kitchen stuff.  Everything about wildflowers or with wildflowers painted on every object imagineable.  They had quite an extensive gardening book selection.  It is definitely a place that garden lovers should see at least once, especially in the spring during wildflower season. 

The first thing you see when you enter the garden is a cistern that collects rainwater with a huge dragonfly on it.

As you walk down the arched sidewalk, you see a couple of huge ants with heads the size of barrells..

Pictured are some of the beautiful flowers and some of my favorite sculptures. I took all the photos with my iphone.  I don't know what kind of photos I would have gotten if I had taken them with my other camera and had been able to compose the photos a little better.  It was an amazing place and a place that I want to visit again.