My sister, Cheryl, asked if I would make a shawl for her. She wanted pure wool, Canadian sourced, so she ordered DK wool (Emerald, #s-13) online from Grand River Yarns. The downside of this order was that she was not given a shipping choice — the order was expedited, arriving just a couple days after ordering it. Cheryl would have been happy to wait a little longer to spend less on shipping.
I didn’t follow a pattern, I just started crocheting with a 4.5mm hook. The downside to this is that I finished the yarn with a shawl that was not long enough to wrap around my little sister. 
*sigh* I pulled it all out and am starting over. This time I am making it a bit more narrow and am using a 7mm hook so the shawl will be less dense and the yarn will go a bit farther.
Recipes Collected
Another project that I’ve wanted to take on for a long time, and have just begun is taking my favourite recipes and putting them together in one place. At the moment they are often on various scraps of paper in a folder, or in certain cookbooks. But I usually have to sort through the whole folder or take a couple of my cookbooks to the couch, because I don’t know exactly which one it is in.
About a year ago Apple came out with a program called iBook Author – to help make it easy for people to write their own books. And so I have started my recipe collection. But it isn’t fast! I have three recipes written out so far. I have a long way to go.
Here is a sample page:
The Troll
Mina and I have been having a lot of fun with the story of the Three Billie Goats Gruff. I found a picture book at Barnes & Nobles. We like to act the story. We can use My Little Ponies or other toy animals for the goats. But I wanted a better troll — so I crocheted one:
“Who’s that tramping on MY bridge?”
Lalaloopsie
Mina loves Lalaloopsie dolls. She already has two “little sisters” and will be getting another “big sister” and a “big brother” for her birthday on Saturday.
On a trip to Daison I picked up some crochet thread and cotton. I made a dress for each of Mina’s “buddies”:
Trina is making her new dolls clothes – much more sophisticated that what I would make. Mina tried so hard to make the new pajamas fit on her buddy. I finally helped by putting some tiny hair elastics on her arms and legs so they would stay on. Mina particularly like the “party dress.” I think the fact that it is a long dress is what made it a party dress. When the new clothes disappeared overnight the poor girl was heartbroken. So I decided to make her ‘little sisters’ new party dresses. I used scraps from Trina’s makings to hand sew the first one. I decided that, for me, crocheting was much easier.
I hope Mina has as much fun playing as I had making!
The bag lady
It started with a walk on the beach with my husband in 1985. A very sparkly stone caught my eye. I picked it up.
Less than a year later Volker was dead. I kept the stone close, a reminder of happier times. At some point in time, I don’t remember which summer, but I’m certain it was at Miller Lake, I decided to crochet a little bag for the stone so that I could wear as a pendant.
But that wasn’t the only cool stone I had. So I keep on crocheting little bags. I gave many of them away.
Then I got my first iPod. I love listening to audiobooks, but not all my clothes have convenient pockets. So I decided to crochet a little bag for my iPod nano, that, as it is so light, I could wear it around my neck. Of course, one colour would never do. I have many. 🙂
And that isn’t the only thing I might want to put into a pocket. What do you do when you walk the dog and want to take your cell phone, but don’t want to carry a bag? I, of course, crochet another bag. The wonder of it is that it is custom sized. When I get a new phone, I make new bag; the old one is bound to come in handy sometime. Some I make with a long strap to wear over a shoulder and some without the strap, just to protect it in my purse.
And speaking of walking the dog, I found those hard plastic poop-bag holder very annoying and rather heavy when clipped to the leash. A little crocheted bag — I like to use elasticized yarn — is so much better! It even hooks nicely onto a cellphone bag.
Ah, but the bags keep getting bigger. Can you have too many bags?
- Crocheted bag using the tapestry technique
- Crocheted backpack
Really, there is a crocheted bag for every purpose!