May 18-19, 2013 Weekend, May Crochet 101 Second Session, Preparing for Our Trip, a Spring Storm, and a Crocheted Baby Blanket

First of all thank you so much for all your get well wishes and prayers for my speedy recovery from my illness. I’m happy to report that after sleeping, resting, taking cold medicine, all your prayers, AND not crocheting for one whole day I woke up Saturday with no symptoms of having any type of sore throat or cold. All I can say is; it was like a miracle! I needed a miracle in order to get through the weekend and to prepare for our trip to New York. I was so happy to see all of my May Crochet 101 students and I have to say; I think I’ve hooked four more. 😉  John and I ended the day with dinner and an evening of watching TV.

Sunday started off with breakfast with two of my favorite ladies and John.

Then John and I were off to pick up some travel size items for our trip. It’s too bad that I can’t shrink down my crocheted items and then just add water and make them full size. My sister and John are worried that I will be taking way too much with me (like yarn and projects). I have assured both of them that I won’t. I’m sure I’m not the only one out there that always wants to have enough to do while they are gone on a trip. I just need to face up to the fact that after walking around the streets of New York all day, every day I probably won’t even have the strength to pick up a crochet hook let alone make something. So with that said I plan on taking one small project. Like I told my sister on Sunday I can make it, take it out and start over and over if I feel the need to have something to do with my hands.  🙂

Just as we arrived home from our shopping excursion a spring storm was headed in our direction. The tornado sirens went off and the local news said that people in the area of the airport and north and east of the airport were to take cover immediately. That meant that the tornado was heading directly towards our house. You would think after all the years that I have lived in Wichita I would be more used to tornadoes. But I’m not and I panic. John almost has to slap me in order to get me to calm down. The items that I always grab to take to the basement are: my crochet bag (that has all of my crochet hooks in it), a few skeins of yarn, my laptop computer, my storage drive (where all of my photos are stored), my camera, purse, and cell phone. All the essentials that I might need while in the basement. Of course I never think to grab a flashlight in case the electricity goes off. I don’t know why I have to have a crochet project anyway, because I can’t calm down enough to even concentrate on anything but the weather. Thank God John always remembers the flashlights and stays as calm as can be.

These are a few photos of our street after the storm came through. We were very lucky and the tornado and storm veered to the east of us. I know the east and south sides of town didn’t fare as well as us and I feel so bad for them.

Now on to the crochet front; I started this baby blanket the Saturday before last. I kept seeing this pale yellow Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino yarn on the sale rack at Twist and finally decided to purchase the whole lot, plus the last 2 skeins of green. I wasn’t for sure what pattern to use and didn’t want to make a complicated stitch so I just used the stitch pattern that I made the Dish Scrubbers from. I made it the width that I wanted and used double strands of the yarn and added rows until I had it long enough to be a square.

Then I added shell stitches all around and alternated the yellow and green. I love how it turned out. Well, my loving friends near and far I am officially on vacation now and will be gone from here for over a week. I know I will have lots of photos and things to talk about when I return. So please take care and know that I love you all!