My Santas

I have to crochet one more Pincushion - pattern click (here) - to take home for Christmas.  

Then I will have enough for all the gals in my family.

I'm enjoying crocheting the Santa Badges - pattern click (here).  

I have five made so far.   

I even went back to the first one and added another row of white fringe to Santa's beard.

  

Today I'll start packing clothes for our trip to Ohio for Christmas.   

Get my hair done.   

Decorating is finished...well as much as I want to do. 

Yesterday we booked another tour across the pond with our college friends.  

This one is for northern Italy 2014.  

We loved our tour to England/Wales/Scotland this year and are thrilled to be going to Italy next spring.

Happy Wednesday!

Pin Cushion Amoré

Want a great way to use up all those small lengths of yarn in your stash?

Try this fun and easy pin cushion pattern (here). 

I have pin cushion AMORE!

I'm crocheting tons of them to give away as gifts for family and friends.  I'm on my seventh one.  I think about twenty-ish will give me the quantity I need for  Christmas gifts for the Bunco gals plus my sister-in-laws and nieces.  

I've used two ways to wrap the yarn around the corners.  

The first way is on the outside which creates a lovely flower as shown below.  

The second way is to insert the needle inside the the single crochet enclosure which creates a more round pin cushion (see photo below).  

I like both ways but maybe now I'm favoring the flower method more.  

I finally finished the laundry from our U.K. Trip and now we're packing our "Little Guy" - that's our name for our tiny travel van - for our road trip this week. 

We had to re-winterize after our Florida trip this past Jan-Feb and remove all liquids.

It takes more time to set up our first trip after winter. 

Hubby de-winterized and filled the water tank.

We re-stocked the van with fresh bedding, clothes and supplies.

We re-organized a few cabinets too. 

On the trip agenda are two RV Rallies, a visit to the head waters of the Mississippi and maybe one or two visits to Class B RV Manufacturers in the mid-west.  

Hubby is planning our route so if we decide to go home at any time we can within a day or two. 

We aren't summer campers...we prefer spring and fall seasons for two reasons - we don't like hot weather or busy campgrounds in the summertime.

It's been a strange day...dark and overcast at times and then the sun comes out.

Just weird and on the cool side too.

We're packing warm weather clothing because it's still on the cold side in upper Michigan where our first Class B RV Rally takes place.  They had snow yesterday!

There's just over 30 vans and about 60 plus people signed up.

Our outdoor activities are in a large tent since the campground doesn't have a meeting room. 

I better get busy.    

Have a lovely day!

Crocheted Pin Cushion

I love this free and EASY pattern (translated into English) I found to crochet a pin cushion.

And, of course, in my beloved RED, white and blue colors.

It's my Patriotic Pin Cushion. 

My first one I crocheted with an H hook and ten single crochets between the two single crochet was way too big. 

It was a pin cushion for a giant.

So I reduced my hook size to a F hook and reduced the rounds to seven between the two single crochet.  

I used left over Sugar n'Cream cotton yarn from my stash.  

Two hexagons done.

See the size difference using an H hook versus the smaller F hook and the same yarn?

A smaller hook is a tighter weave thus less likely to show the batting too.

I'll use the large hexagons as dishcloths in the kitchen.

I single crocheted the two sides together leaving a small opening for the batting and then continued crocheting the edges together.

Then I use a large embroidery needle to thread the red yarn around the corners and through the middle to anchor and pull the cushion together tightly.

This is the back side - here I just tied the yarn together.

I left a long piece of yarn to sew the blue button on the top.

All done!

This is so cute and will make nice gifts.

If I start now I can make them as Christmas gifts for the BUNCO gals.

This is the bottom of the pin cushion with a button just positioned there.  

I may try using pins to hold the button in place rather than sewing it on.

Hop over to my Ravelry project page for additional details.

If you try these let me know.

I would love to see your work.

So long!