June 29-30, 2013 Weekend, Meeting a Blogging Friend, John and His Shed, Finished my Grannies Meet Stripes Afghan, Sunday Breakfast with Mom, a Crocheted Bracelet, and the Start of a Crocheted Collar

I had a wonderful weekend filled with friends and family. First of all I have to tell you all a little story about how I met my new friend Katherine from “Pillows-A-La-Mode”. Isn’t she adorable all in turquoise? (as some of you probably know, one of my favorite colors) It just so happens that both of us follow Jill’s blog, “Nice Piece of Work” and when Jill mentioned on her blog post here about how this lady reminds her of a certain someone from Wichita, Katherine asked Jill if she meant Wichita, Kansas and Jill replied back to her to tell her yes; and the rest is history.

We planned a meeting at Panera on the east side of town. I arrived early since I didn’t know exactly how long it would take me to get there. It was ok, because then I had time to read the newest Simply Crochet magazine Issue #6 that my local yarn shop “Twist” just got in on Friday. As I waited I watched the door. Since I had no idea what Katherine looked like, all I knew was that she would be looking around to try and find me. Sure enough she was the only one that started looking around the restaurant and right away she knew who I was (from my photo on my blog). We shared with each other a little bit about ourselves, ie, family, where we grew up and so on and so on. I always find it fascinating that most of the people I have met are similar in the way we were raised.

Of course I was excited to find out all about what she likes to create. When she told me that she loves to sew, (just like my sister) and she was taught by her Grandmother and she started off with embroidery just like we did, I knew that Katherine and I would hit it off. You will all have to go check her blog out and make sure you click on the menu button labeled, “What Can You Make With….?” You can tell Katherine loves what she does and she was so sweet to give me a gift that she had made; a cute little bag filled with embroidered felt coasters and a little lemon notepad. ADORABLE!

I gave Katherine her choice of a washcloth (Mandala) and this is the one she chose. I am so excited that I finally got to meet a fellow blogger face to face from a blog that I follow. I know it won’t be our last meeting either and to think that we met because of a South African blogger named Jill talking about a lady in South Africa with purple hair just like someone she knows in Wichita is very exciting indeed. Thanks Jill, I love you and wish I could meet you too!

John continued to work on his shed and had help again from our nephew Michael and our friend Korey came over too. (I just didn’t get any photos of him as I was taking a nap, believe it or not) 🙂 Both John and I appreciate Korey so much he’s a God send to us and to all the people he helps. He reminds me of my Dad in that he is always willing to help someone else over his own needs. Thanks Susie for allowing us to borrow your husband.  🙂 We love you both!

On Sunday I finished my Grannies Meet Stripes afghan and couldn’t help but think about what my thoughts were when I first started out making this afghan. I thought I could make just the stripey part for the low cost of $12 when I purchased the Debbie Stoller yarn on clearance at Joann’s. Well, as usual my creative mind wanted to add the dahlia squares to the outside edge. Not knowing that I would soon run out of yarn I ended up purchasing more yarn online from Joann’s having to purchase other yarn in order to get the postage free with an over $40 purchase. Then once I started running out of the gray and purple yarn that I was edging the squares with and since the yarn was now discontinued I was lucky enough to find some on Ebay. Probably paying $20 or more for it; I’m not for sure. Then my dear friend Valerie brought me 2 skeins of the yarn from her stash.

All in all after almost a year, 22 skeins of yarn, countless hours of crochet, and around $80 I have completed my $12 afghan. I’m not so happy with how the edging came out kind of ruffley, but maybe after I block it I will be more pleased with it?

I was really sweating bullets on that last round of cream color; this is all the yarn I had left when I finished up the last round. Whew!!!!

Sunday breakfast with Mom is always fun. I get to catch up on what has been happening with her throughout the week. She told us about her trees suffering damage from last weeks wind storm that came through Wichita. One of them fell onto an electrical wire that runs from her house to the pole, right across her driveway. She was lucky that she was only without power for one night and was relieved to find that Westar Energy had came and removed the tree on Saturday in the middle of the night while she slept.

I just had to share this photo with all of you; it would have been, I think the best picture ever of Mom and me but John had his hand over the flash or the strap was hanging over the lens, I’m not sure? Oh well there’s always next week; we’ll just have to try this shot again next Sunday.  🙂

When we got back home I finished up a crochet bracelet that I made from some of the mercerized cotton that I received from Woolhogs. Oh how I love crocheting with this lovely mercerized cotton.

Then I decided to use the rest of the yarn to make this cute collar that I found in the first issue of Simply Crochet. As I have said before I truly feel blessed to be able to spend time with old and new friends and family. Love you all and would love to hear how you spent your weekend.