meo my crochet

Sunday, 12 April 2015

Cleaning for Company

Yesterday we celebrated our April family birthdays with dinner and cake. As I wrote last year, this is one of our favourite ways to commemorate birthdays. In case you missed it, you can read about last year's birthday party here.

To make dinner parties special, I like to spend extra time cleaning the house. It's not about 'showing off' how clean our house can be, it's about making the house feel more welcoming for the party.

I personally love a clean house, but can go ages without cleaning when busy with crochet projects. Since there are just so many hours in a day, I have to prioritize. I figure, it's more efficient to clean before company so it's nice for the evening plus feels great all week.

With this in mind, I started right after my morning coffee and crochet session yesterday. I made a shopping list for my husband to get him out of the way and got busy shaking mats, vacuuming, dusting and mopping.

I realized early on that my initial plan to clean, walk the dog, bike and complete food prep was going to have to be scaled back if I wanted to be ready for the party on time. My husband wanted to try out his new cross bike, so I suggested he ride while I carried on cleaning. Having him out of the house makes cleaning easier plus I figured it would help tire him out so I could keep up the next day when I knew I could fit in a ride.

In case you're wondering how my husband got off so easy, let me tell you, he didn't. He did all the shopping, prepped the winter wheels from the Santa Fe for storage, cleaned the garage floor, got his Z4 out of storage and cleaned the TT. Actually, I suggested he wash the TT, partly because it needed cleaning and partly because I wanted to keep him out of the house until I finished getting ready for the party.

So you see, he was busy too. For dinner, he managed the barbecue and did a great job keeping drinks topped up.

As always, our family birthday dinner was tons of fun. The menu included chicken drumsticks cooked on the barbecue, small roasted potatoes (boiled then finished with butter in foil also on the barbecue), baby bok choy sauteed with onions and roasted broccoli with garlic, olive oil and Parmesan cheese. Everybody said it was delicious.

For dessert, we had a yummy "Gourmet" Banana Cake from Metro in Byron.

My Mum-In-Law (April 8th) and Dad (April 10th) shared blowing-out-the-candles duties on their cake. We all sang Happy Birthday.

Blue candles were out in one go. I think our poodle interfered with the red ones.

We all laughed as the candles stayed lit after at least two attempts.

Three tries and still one candle burned brightly ... too funny. One more try did the trick.

My husband's cousin Graham and his wife Erika joined us for dessert. It was so good to see them and catch up.

We have been lazy about inviting people over and socializing for the last few years. I think we need to change that. We have such a good time when we get together and share food, drinks and laughs with our family and friends. Besides, I seem to need a good reason to clean more often.

Cleaning for Company is the best reason to clean as far as I'm concerned. What do you think? Do you enjoy cleaning just because or do you need a good reason too?

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Sunday, 5 April 2015

Easter and Crochet Space

I thought it might be nice to share a peek into my current crochet creation space along with some photos of my Easter decor. My parents hosted Easter dinner yesterday, so my decorating has been last minute and minimal.

I put away our Christmas wreath and white crochet pumpkins yesterday. Yes, I know it's late. All this snow and cold weather has not inspired spring decorating. Nevertheless, I finally got around to it. I think it's simple, sweet and season appropriate.

Our spray-painted white pine cone wreath is still covered in colourful crochet stars, but I replaced the snowman, Christmas bauble and skates with a pink fluffy bunny and blue egg.

Our dining table centrepiece still has pine cones and walnuts, but the white pumpkins have been switched out for colourful eggs.

Our little hall table is topped with crochet chicks in egg cups surrounding a painted clay bunny our daughter made in high school. I love this Alice in Wonderland bunny she made for us.

I also filled a bowl with Cadbury's Mini Eggs (no photo) to add a bit of colour to our mantle. That's it for Easter decorating at our house. Like I said, it's simple and sweet.

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Would you like to see where I spend a good chunk of time these days? Our living room has become my favourite crochet creation space over the winter. The lighting is good, seating is comfy and I can leave out my stuff without disrupting our 'living' space.

I'm not sure how most houses operate, but our living room was totally underutilized. I could have called it our "cat, dog and clothes drying rack" room before I took it over for crochet.

This weekend I rearranged the furniture so it's even more suited to my needs. I switched the love seat and piano which works perfectly. I have coffee and crochet to my right, laptop in front and Sadie to my left.

My crochet supplies are stored throughout the house, but I like to keep my current project supplies and tools readily available by my side.

I like the piano on this wall. We can see it from the hallway and there is more room to walk past because it does not stick out as far as the love seat. The crochet cover on the bench was made for my husband's sub-woofer but found a new home when he complained.

I sit across from the sofa and closer to the coffee table which is nice.

That striped cushion is strategically placed on the sofa for our cat. She loves to curl up on it. I vacuumed the cushion yesterday, but as you can see, it's completely covered in fur again. I may have to buy new cushions for outside this year.

Our clothes drying rack works well in front of our window above the furnace vent. I use it all the time. I think everybody should have a clothes drying rack in their living room. Don't you?

I also like sitting across from this little table with a collection of old family photos; my grandparents' wedding photo, my husband's grandmother and my husband as a wee child. The children dressed as angels are just a card I liked, no relation.

When I pan out, you can see a basket of dog toys . I like to keep them in the basket; our poodle likes to take them out.

I have plans to remove the heavy drapes and change the yellow walls to something more neutral, but that can wait. For now, this room is comfy and cozy and out of the way which is perfect for me and my crochet.

I don't think it's absolutely necessary to designate a space for creativity, but it sure is nice and I feel lucky to have it. What do you think? Do you have a special craft or creativity room? Does it help boost your creativity?

I do hope you enjoyed reading about my Easter and Crochet Space and that you have a Happy, Fun-Filled Easter.

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Saturday, 4 April 2015

Freddy Frog

This time I decided to use up a partial ball of Bernat Satin 100% acrylic worsted weight yarn in Fern to make a frog. I followed my Pink Piglet pattern hoping I would have enough yarn to finish.

Since I was making a frog, I did not need ears or a tail, just two little googly frog eyes, so I was able to finish with slightly more yarn to spare than last time and much less worry as a result.

What do you think of little Freddy Frog? Isn't he cute with his googly eyes? I looked up images of frogs so I could make his eyes more 'frog like'.

My son thinks he looks silly with four eyes but, as I explained, he's not a 'real' frog. Freddy is a little boy wearing a frog costume. Don't all children like to dress up and pretend to be something else? That's my theme with my latest crochet critter patterns. I'm making little children dressed up as bunnies, bears, piglets and frogs. The options are almost endless.

Freddy Frog and Pink Piglet are perfect together. They like each other's costume and can't wait to play when they are done posing for photos.

Our poodle watches all the posing with interest but really wants photos to end so she can get out for a walk and enjoy this beautiful sunshiny day.

I've included the Pink Piglet pattern alterations below in case you might like to make a Freddy Frog too.

FREDDY FROG PATTERN

PDF Version

Materials used:

partial ball (4.2 oz) of Bernat Satin Fern (100% acrylic worsted weight yarn in green)

partial ball of 100% acrylic worsted weight yarn in white

Hook size = 3.5 mm

yarn needles to join pieces

Polyester Fiberfill for stuffing

Small amount of black yarn (for eyes)

Small amount of light pink yarn (for mouth)

Stitches used:

ch - chain stitch

ss - slip stitch

sc - single crochet
inc - sc increase (2 sc in same stitch)

sc2tog - single crochet 2 together aka dec - sc decrease

Magic Circle - see how here (start each piece with magic circle)

Time to Complete - 10 hours (approximately)
Finished size - 11 inches tall

Follow pattern for Pink Piglet found here with following alterations:

Arms (x2)

Added 3 rows for a total of 30 rows

Googly Eyes (x2)

With white (make a small round ball)
R1 - 6 sc in Magic Circle (6)
R2 - inc x6 (12)
R3-4 - sc around (12)
R5 - dec x 6 (6)
Stuff lightly and ss to close opening and finish off

With green (make hoods for eyes)
R1 - 6 sc (6)
R2 - inc x 6 (12)
R3-5 - sc around (12)
Finish off and cut yarn leaving enough to join

Insert small white ball in little green hoods to make 'hooded' eyes. Attach eyes to head as shown in photo above. Embroider pupil using black yarn as shown in photos above.

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Monday, 30 March 2015

Pink Piglet

I decided to use a partial ball of Bernat Satin worsted weight yarn in maitai (bright pink) to crochet another critter. I thought I might make another bear, but then decided pink was more appropriate for pigs.

Since I was making a pig, I made shorter legs then, as I started working on the body, realized there might not be enough yarn. I decided to alter my pattern to make a little Pink Piglet. Even with my alterations, I was worried the yarn would run out.

I finished the body then made the head using light pink yarn from my stash. Next I made the hood, curly tail and two pig ears. By this time, I was running very low on bright pink yarn and wondering how I might be able to "fake it" to finish the arms.

I really did not want to buy more yarn to finish this project, so I crossed my fingers and carried on. Luckily shorter piglets require shorter arms. I finished one arm, then started the other; still not sure it would work out.

Phew, I did it. Check out the teeny, tiny amount of leftover yarn. Little successes like this make me really quite happy. I would say it was a lucky day for meo my crochet.

Plus, the best part of all, I love the look of this little Pink Piglet. What do you think? Isn't he cute with his big smile and curly pig tail?

Pink Piglet was happy to meet shy Boo Bear. Despite their differences, I think they will make great friends.

The free pattern for Pink Piglet is provided below in case you would like to make one too and the pattern for Boo Bear can be found on my Free Crochet Patterns page here. These crochet critters are fun to make.