Hallo and Welcome to this "Grow your Blog" Party

Welcome and please come in. First I would like to say a big Thanks to Vicki at 2 Bags Full for hosting this wonderful Blog Party for us little Crafters who are still in need of growing our blogs. It's very much appreciated.

My name is Erika and I for the moment live in rural northern Arkansas. I am single (divorced) and in my mid-fifties.I share my house with four lovely critters, two doggies, a Yorkie named Gidget and a Shit-Zhu named Seffi, and two cats, one boy named Picaso and one female named Sissi (my little grumpy cat).

                                                          

                      

My adventures into crafting started when I was a wee little bit, around 5 or 6. I was very lucky to have had a loving and very patient Granny to take the time to teach me things from sewing to crocheting and knitting. They have become a live long love for me. Originally I come from Germany, but I have enjoyed live in the USA for over 35 years now

For a living I work as a Caregiver for Alzheimer, Cancer and Heart Patients. For that reason I work a lot of odd hours and also can't blog as much as I once did. But I love what I do and so that is ok.

I started blogging to keep a record of some of the things I was making and doing in my life. I also just loved to browse through all the other lovely blogs out there with their wonderful colorful crafts. They inspire me and encourage me to do better. My first love is crochet, but I also knit, sew, loom and yes even a little painting.

One of the things I collect is Coca-Cola and for that reason you will see many crafts on my blog made around the colors of red, white and black. My living room is arranged around this collection, which is steadily growing. I just love it!

So now how about it little give-away for all the lovely people joining this blog party? You want to know what it is? Well I think I will keep that a secret for a little while longer, but I promise it will be something everyone will enjoy. Hint: it will be something I have sewn or crocheted. Everybody is welcome to participate.

The Catch: Please leave a comment at the end of this blog post by February 14, 2014 and hopefully I will pull your name out of the hat that day.

Now I will grab a good cup of Java and go browsing around all your lovely blogs. Hope you stay a while on mine and look around. I hope you see something you like and it makes you come back for another look.

Wishing you all a wonderful day! Until we see each other again..........

Knifty Knitting

Over the last few days I decided to try something new and different for me. A couple of weeks ago, I bought myself the Knifty Knitter Round Loom Series while on a trip to Hobby Lobby to get some more luscious Yarn. I started simple with a child's hat. It is worked on the red loom, with two strands of yarn held together. It's not that it is hard to do or even very complicated, but to me it seems to be easier just to knit regularly. I think I am also faster knitting on a round knitting needle or two regular needles. The other thing I noticed is that my hands seemed to hurt faster holding on to the loom. Now that might just be me, maybe because it was more awkward to me. Well Uncle Arthur is letting me know that I might not want to do that again anytime soon. But here is the finished product. What do you all think? Did it at least come out ok? I call it Mr. Halloween (haha so original).

It got a little to stretched on the stayre-head, but I didn't have a child's size. I also think now that I should have made the bottom border wider. Oh well, it was my first try after all.

My second project for the weekend was another scarf. Once again knitted with Deborah Norville Everyday soft worsted, color "Moss". It took two skeins.

The pictures were taken outdoors in front of my employers house. Don't you just love the deer? Well it made a good model for the scarf and the hat. Even Deer need to stay warm, right?

I also did a little browsing through this book: 400 Knitting stitches. There are some very beautiful stitches in this book, but to me some look very complicated. I plan on trying out a few of them in the near future. Wish me luck. I might improve my knitting skills yet.

Well for today I bit you all Farewell. See you next time!

Scarf Frenzy

Yep, I am still here. Been working hard on finishing a bunch of projects (and I mean a Bunch of Projects). Not only did I have quite a few orders that needed finishing, but I also managed to sit down and sew in the ends of many  items that have been put on the back-burner. I don't know about the rest of you, but sewing in strings is still and most likely always be, my least favorite thing to do. I can knit or crochet for hours, but sew in a string.....I make a big circle around it and avoid it like the pest. But as we all know, that if we want to ever show it off or maybe give it as a gift, we have to finish it. And this time I was determined and did it. Felt much better afterwards too. I had that feeling of satisfaction. You know that feeling don't you? 


Seems I am still on a scarf kick. I think it has something to do with it getting cooler around here and more Fall-like. Got to be ready for the cold to come, as much as we might not like it to. Have a few more I need to finish. Maybe than I will move on to some shawls.....haha, what you think?


Here now what I have finished:

For now have a wonderful day and we will see each other again soon or so I hope!

Just another Scarf

Good Morning my lovely Ladies! How are you all doing today?


Personally am doing well. Just love the current temperatures around here and am hoping they stick around for a while. It is so nice to just be able to open the windows and let the air blow through the house. It's so refreshing.


As I said yesterday, after looking at Pinterest and Craftsy I wanted to start a whole bunch of new stuff, but I've been good, so good and held back on my first instincts. So last night I went back to working on my Giant Granny Square. Right now I am on round 60 and I tell you, it is starting to go a lot slower. Just one round seems to take forever. But I promised myself I will do at least 90 rounds and therefor I will just be patient (not an easy thing for me) and continue trucking on. I WILL FINISH IT.......(speaking loud encouragement to myself).


Here now is the scarf I just finished, which was a special order. And with that the person who ordered it, got to model it for this post herself. How fun is that? 


Ok, now on to doing a few more rounds today. Have a good one!

A little Something

Over the last couple of nights I got to work on this little scarf, nothing fancy mind you, just a plain knitted one. But I did love the yarn I worked with. It's Plymouth Encore Colors, colorspun #7. It's a self striping yarn and I do love the way the colors came out on this one. I know I will use this yarn again in the future. I noticed, I seem to like the yarns that come from Turkey, as they always seem very soft, cuddly and easy to work with. Think I need a direct line to where they make these yarns, lol.

Thought I also show of my two little critters. The Yorkie is Gidget and the Shit-Zhu is Seffi. They really are good company.

Now you all have a good day.....Until next time.

Humpday and a little something.....

Howdy.......Once again it is Wednesday and with that, what we call "Hump day" here in the US. Most people look happy upon this day as it signifies moving toward the end of the week and the weekend. Oh Joy!  Now we have something to look forward to. 2 more days till Friday! Just think....YOU can do it, it's almost here.

Some of you knew yesterday was my Birthday and send me Greetings. For those of you who did a "Big Thank You". It made my day.

Yesterday evening Mausi had a wonderful surprise for me. I went to walk the dogs, as I do every evening and when I came back and walked into my room, there was a big surprise on my desk. She had made me all these lovely things on her looms. Included where 1 hat, a long bag which is used for plastic bag storage, 2 potholders, 1 square scrubby and 1 round one and last but not least, a soap safer. Next to it was this very lovely Birthday Card. To top it all of, it was all made in my favorite color Red with white stripes. I must say she got quite good at it and just LOVE how everything turned out. For sure everything will be used in my kitchen in the future. Thank you once again Mausi....it was an absolute wonderful surprise and one I will not forget.. Here now I will share some pictures of those lovely things with you all.

Well off I go now.....will do some chores and hopefully do a little bit more crafting on my own stuff today. See you all soon again!

Give-Away

"Happy Monday Morning"

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are now ready to start the new week. Make yours a good one!


If you have read my old blog, you most likely have seen that I have a give-away. Have you send in your entry yet? NO.....well there is still time to do so. So what are you waiting for? You can send me your entry until Dec. 31, 2009. Waiting to hear from all of you!


I thought you might like to see what you can do with the yarn I am giving away, so I decided to just make a quick scarf. It is nothing fancy, but I hope you can see the way it looks. The yarn is nice to work with. It is soft to the touch and a little thicker, so it works up fast. Here is a look for you all:

Now this is my favorite model. Isn't he cute. And he wears that scarf so proudly. He rewarded me with a smile. What more could a girl ask for?


Well that's it for me for today, but please come back tomorrow when I will start something new on my blog, plus I will show you some more of my WIP's and also reveal something I made on sunday. Hope to hear from you. Please leave me a comment. Thanks!

Erika