Aloysius the Owlet (or maybe the penguin...)

Hi there!

Back again. I know feast or famine, right? Two posts in one day. If you didn't see my other one about the crochet-a-long I'm trying you can check it out here. This one is about a crochet project as well. Sorry, no cards...yet.

Back when I found the Happypotomus pattern from HeidiBears, I also saw a pattern for Aloysius. He is an owlet. A pretty dang cute owlet. I tried reallllllly hard to resist buying the pattern. But(hangs head)...I caved. Every time I thought about it, I'd hear it calling to me...you know you want to download me and make me. Not in a creepy way, mind you. Okay. What really struck me was the wings on the doll. I thought they were so neat looking. So, anyway, I had a certain someone who came to my mind when I looked at the pattern, too. I've crocheted it, boxed it up and sent him to his new home, where I'm sure he is going to be very happy.

I've developed a pretty neat friendship with a gal named Kay over the past couple of years. I've talked about her before on this blog. If you haven't been to her blog, My Joyful Moments, you should seriously take a peek. Oh and plan to stay a bit as you meander around and take in all the eye candy. This gal has got some serious card making talent. She is also a fabulous polymer clay designer as well. She has an Etsy shop where she sells the clay ornaments that she makes. But you know what? They sell out in minutes. That's how fantastic her ornaments are. I mean, I don't even get to see them posted, they are gone before I can get to the shop. As I said, we've developed a pretty special (to me) friendship and she is the one who immediately came to mind when I saw Aloysius. I'm not sure why, as I have other friends who like owls too, but I felt a strong urge to create him for her and so I did. He's in his new home now and so I felt like I could share.

The penguin part comes in because he sort of also looks like a penguin. It could be because I didn't stuff him all that well. Oh well. Owlet, penguin, I think he's cute either way. :)

Enough talk....here he is!

I really liked the look of the wings as a solid color, but what really drew me in was the scallop on the wings. Gah! So darn sweet!

Now I ask you, could you have resisted this face?

So, now you see I've been a little busy creating. But I couldn't really share until it was all done. 

Thanks ever so much for stopping by.

Hope you have a great week!

Hugs,

Jeanne

PS Kay, I hope I didn't embarrass you. I'm just get so happy when I see what you create and I want to share it with others. 

I'm Trying Something New to Me...

Hi friends,

I hope you are doing well. It's Girl Scout cookie selling season and the girls and I have manned (or should I say womanned?) a couple of booth sales this weekend. Wasn't sure if they would work out given the dire predictions for massive amounts of snow forecast that never materialized in our neck of the woods. It snowed and is pretty dang cold, but not near as bad as was forecast. Well, except maybe the cold part. It's about 12 degrees outside right now. Brrrr. But you didn't stop by to hear me talk about the weather. 

I've started a type of project I've never done before. It's called a crochet-a-long and my friend, Erin, told me about it. She is doing it and encouraged me to try. Basically a gal is releasing a crochet pattern for a 12 inch sized block twice a month for the year. At the end of the year you would have enough blocks to join together to make an afghan. Here's the link to her blog, Moogly You can also go to her blog and copy the pattern and if you are a member of a website called Ravelry (it's free to join this site) you can join the group and get tips on the techniques and share what you are creating. You can also get answers to any questions. I honestly wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it and in fact the 4th block pattern has already been released and I just finished block 1. But, who cares really, right? I liked the look of the project so I thought I'd give it a go. So that is my trying something new to me. 

I was having a very difficult time coming up with a color combination I liked. I had some yarn and I bought some skeins of colors I liked and thought would look good together. I tried coming up with my own color combination and started and tore out my work about 4 times and just about gave up the whole project in frustration. I don't know why I have such a horrible block about figuring something like this out, but I do. So, I decided to follow the order of colors that the gal who is releasing the patterns is using. I'm not using the same yarn, but her order of colors is pleasing to my eye. My order was looking like yuck and even my girls concurred that my selections didn't look that great. 

I'm using Red Heart Super Saver yarn. Mainly because I like that there is no dye lot number. What that means is when I run out of yarn, I can get another skein and know that the colors will look the same. This way I don't have to have a ton of yarn sitting around should I not finish the project or whatever. I can run out and buy it as needed. My colors are from the center out: Perfect Pink, Lemon, Spring Green, Turqua, Medium Purple, Soft White. I've read that some people don't really like Super Saver because they think it doesn't wear well over time. I have two afghans my mom made for Steve and I over 20 years ago and they are in great shape. My experience with this yarn is always positive. 

Okay, enough gibber jabber. Here's Block #1

 I learned a couple of new stitches with this pattern, which is always fun. The braided look is called Jacob's Ladder. To make the stitch used to create Jacob's Ladder, I learned to do a quad treble crochet. Basically this creates a long enough stitch/loop to make that braided look.  Which sounds a lot harder than it is to create. I really like the texture this adds to the block.

Back: Erin, Jeanne

Front: Jessica, Amy

Here we are at Erin's. We drove down to her house for a visit the Friday before Valentine's Day. Thanks for sending me this picture, E!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I know my posting is pretty sporadic these days. It's not for lack of desire, believe me. I do appreciate that you keep checking in. 

Have a great day! :)