OUR BABY IS HERE !

This is our new puppy Jessie. We picked her up early this morning. She was born on February 17 and weighed 8 ounces. Now she is 7 weeks old and weighs 6 pounds and 8 ounces. Jessie is going to be a therapy dog. I've already got her official patches to go on the vest I'm making for her. She is going to grow so much in the next few months that I will continue to make her vests until she is full grown and then she'll get her "professional" vest along with her certification. She has really done well today with adjusting to life without her 10 siblings. Now she only has 3 kitties to play with. Teddy thinks she's pretty nifty but Sunny and Daisy aren't very impressed. She is just the cutest, sweetest, cuddliest, ball of fur. We love her to pieces.

1 down ..... 203 to go!

Seriously, 203!!! I have done the math and my tablecloth will take 204 of the crocheted squares. I have also done the calendar and figured that if I crochet one square a day, every day, I will have my tablecloth done by October 17. Yes ... 2008. This really seems doable. And if I only do one a day, I won't have my fingers cramping up with holding the fine crochet thread. My sweet FC has made me a duplicate of the thread holder that I saw in a magazine. He's pretty talented that way. It's working out really nicely.

So the UFO I'm working on at the same time will be the camo socks that I'm making for my FC. I actually started them a loooooog time ago with the EZ percentages pattern. Well, I found out rather quickly, in fact it was when I got the heel flap done, right where I stopped, that I can't do percentages. I had it explained to me several times and I'm not going to ask again. My knitter friends think I'm a little ..... s-l-o-w on the uptake. So I looked until I found a pattern in my Charlene Schurch book that started with the same number of stitches and I will just "ease on over" to her pattern that spells it out for me. Now I hope to get these socks done over the summer along with a couple of other UFOs that I will be working on at the same time. Since we are putting away wool socks for the summer now, I will be happy just to have these done by September. They are the camo color from Lorna's Laces sock yarn. Really pretty but going slowly on size 0 needles.

Both of these projects will be easy to carry along with me to whip out a few stitches if I have a moment.

Oh.... so nice!

A few years ago, I picked up some very nice homemade soap while I was doing the NH Wool Arts Tour. Since then I have twice ordered more soap. I just absolutely love this stuff. There are several varieties available but the one that is perfect for me is the Sweet Orange and Chamomile Flowers bar. I use this at the sink and in the shower. Such a nice clean fragrance and the suds are wonderful. No allergic reactions here. They use all natural ingredients. So if you are looking for some really special soap for yourself or for a gift, stop by the tent at the Fiber Studio in Henniker during the NH Wool Arts Tour this fall. If you just can't wait or can't make it to NH this fall, just give the Kiley's an e-mail at www.grayfoxfarm@mcttelecom.com They really know how to make terrific soap.

Happy Birthday Rowen

I just got my granddaughter's finger puppets done and I will be putting them into the mail tomorrow. I've made a "mini" felted purse with fun fur around the top for her to keep them in. The purse is just her size. These puppets were easy, fun and fast to make. The pattern can be found at Knitty.

This could take a while.

I mentioned earlier this month that since it was "Crochet Month" that I would be finishing up the afghan and starting a new crochet project. Well ...... I ordered my thread (19 balls of it), have the pattern, and have tried two prototypes to see what size hook I should use. The first one with the Bates hook in size 7 was 1/2 inch too big. The second one with the Boye hook size 6 was about the same size. My sister made me realize that I was going the wrong directions for hook size so she lent me her size 8 and 9 hooks to see if I can get a 4 inch square. I'm going to give it a try today. But isn't it interesting that different manufactured hooks give different sizes. I didn't even finish the second prototype because I could tell it was the same size as the first. Isn't the tablecloth pretty? I haven't done the math yet to find out how many of those 4 inch squares I will need. I don't want to know until I've got the first row of squares done. I hate to make any predictions but I really do hope to have this tablecloth done for Thanksgiving or if not, then Christmas. Okay. So here is the big question. Do you think I'm totally nuts to want to get such a big project done this year? Go ahead. Hit me with your best comment.

All is said and done!

The "I do's have been said and now I have a new brother-in-law. The afghan was our gift to the happy couple and I finished it on Thursday a day and a half ahead of schedule. This is how it looks with the added border. I like the way it turned out. Congratulations Debbie and Glenn. Now our traveling is done for a little while and I hope to make great progress on my UFO's starting tomorrow.

It's in the mail.

I finished my grandson's robe. He picked a "Snoopy" fleece print. It really turned out cute. Since my grandkids are home schooled, they have "Friday in PJ's" for school. All the boys like to wear their robes. Now Quinn will have his new robe for next Friday. It is amazing how fun it is to sew with fleece. I have found that Hancock fabrics has the biggest and best selection of fleece and it seems they are always running some type of sale on it. Next year, all grandkids will have fleece jammies. For the boys, I'll just have to make the bottoms. They like to wear T-shirts with jammie bottoms. For sweet Rowen, she will have top and bottom and maybe even a sleepshirt. OOOOh. That sounds nice. Maybe I'll make myself one also.