Let's Go Swimming!

My vintaged V-Stitch crocheted afghan, "White Caps" is finished!

Shall we go swimming!

The waves are crashing in...

White capped and beautiful...

In glorious shades of blue and green...

Ah...the ocean!

Edged down the two sides with Dark Country Blue.

Fourteen five-yarn color bands separated by the white yarn.

There she blows!

My "White Caps"!

Additional information provided on Ravelry (here).  

Victorian Baby Jacket in PINK!

Our niece is expecting her second child this July.

I had already decided to give her the two baby blankies (here) and (here) I crocheted previously.

We were anxiously awaiting to hear if they were having a boy or another girl.   

While we were at Walt Disney World our niece texted us...

Another little princess for them!   

We were so pleased.

And then...

I saw this adorable little pink and white Victorian BABY Jacket on Pinterest. 

I fell in LOVE with this FREE pattern (download available here).

It's perfect for a PRINCESS!

Could I crochet this?

I have to try it.

I'm GOING for it. 

Now mind you I have only ever crocheted one baby dress (for their first baby girl, Hailey) so this is a new challenge for me. 

Luckily I have a skein of Caron Simply Soft yarn in Soft Pink in my stash.

I love it in PINK!

My first try of the foundation chain and first two rows was off...my BAD...I didn't read the pattern correctly. 

 So I drew a rough diagram to help me out. 

 My second try was better. 

 I'm a visual person and I like diagrams along with the written instructions.

I just wish more designers would include them.

Wish me luck with this one!

More information on this project available on Ravelry (here).  

Taking It Easy...

We find, particularly at our age, it is easier to alternate days visiting the Disney parks with "taking it easy" days back at the Ft. Wilderness campground. So yesterday we visited the Magic Kingdom and today we are staying at the campground.

It's a perfect opportunity to take out my crochet and do a little "hooking" on my vintage crochet Blanklet, "White Caps". I love the pattern the V-Stitches make - it really does have a vintaged look to it. There's so many possibilities here...think how lovely a ten color one would look like. I'm changing colors every row but one could vary the height of a row color for a completely different look.

I have some reading materials too. I don't know if any of you caught the miniseries "The Pillars of the Earth" on cable TV lately but I enjoyed it so much I bought the book it was based upon by Ken Follett. It's an historical epic tale set in the 12th Century England about the building of a Gothic cathedral.

What a fun, relaxing day..."hooking" and reading. And I bet we take a few drives around the camp loops in our golf cart before the day ends.

On The Road Again

We left Wytheville VA this morning with snow and very cold temperatures...13 degrees! It took awhile to warm up our van. Right now we are in NC and it has warmed up to 28 degrees.

I love blogging with my iPhone as we travel down the road. There are so many apps for these smart phones that are fun and easy to use. I use a Blogger app to do my postings. We have weather apps, exit travel apps, campground apps, and even an app, Wooly, to download photos etc. onto Ravelry. It's easy to follow Facebook and Pinterest with my iPhone too. I love all these gadgets.

My latest free app, Reminder Free, is an event countdown app so I can see at a glance time remaining for upcoming trips, major events and holidays.

I managed to do a little crocheting on my V-Stitch blanket. It's about half done not counting the border. I'm pleased with it so far...it's a lovely pattern.

That's all today! Thanks for visiting.

PS - I won't be able "to pretty up" this post. So all the photos will be at the end.

Packing The Van & We're Off

Hubby went up to storage Tuesday and brought our travel van back to the house to pack for our trip to Florida.

Usually we have the van at the house for several days before a trip so we can take our time and  pack a little bit each day.  But with Hubby sick this week we weren't able to do that.  We decided to delay our our departure to give him another day to rest up for the long drive and give us time to pack.

The van is winterized (all tanks drained) and we won't be de-winterizing it until we reach Florida.  So we will be staying at motels on the way south.  

We like to use these zippered cloth sacks for our clothing.  This top cabinet goes way back along the side of the van and holds several of these sacks in different sizes.  This is my cabinet.  Hubby has his own identical cabinet and clothing sacks on the opposite side.  

We like to use these fabric bins we found at Target for storage of miscellaneous items we use frequently.  They are light weight (and fold up when empty) so they don't add much weight to our vehicle.  This year I replaced a few tan bins that were showing their age with colorful green and blues ones.   They slide under the sofa overhang out of our way and are easy to pull out when needed.   

 The one by our chairs holds tissue and a small waste paper basket (also a fabric basket).

My crochet bag is packed.   I'm taking the V-Stitch ripple I'm working on.  

Today we gathered up a selection of books, magazines and DVDs.   Hubby will collect all the electronical things like laptops, cords and accessories tonight.

It's been so cold here but I was pleasantly surprised by the warmer temperatures yesterday and today.  I was dreading packing in the cold.  So glad I didn't have to.

Have you guessed where we are headed?

Hurray...we off to WDW!!!!

Lazy Saturday

I don't feel like cleaning today. 

 I did manage to put the wash on. 

 And fixed a hot oatmeal breakfast for my sick Hubby. 

 I'm still using my vintage pyrex oops it's a Corning Ware teapot to boil the water. 

 I guess it's considered vintage if it's from the 70s.

I have HGTV on with a nice cup of hot tea to slip and I'm going to sit here and rest until lunch. 

 Maybe I'll pick up my White Caps throw and work a few more rows.

After seeing these red and white potholders on Pinterest I want to make some sooooo badly.

Unfortunately, there weren't any patterns with the photo. 

Maybe I can fudge some look alikes?

Whatcha doin' today?

Are you being lazy like me?

This is how I feel today.

Valentine's Hearts Tray

I ran out this morning to stock up on a few groceries before the forecasted snow arrives this afternoon.

While at Safeway I saw this cute Valentine's Hearts Tray for less than $5 and of course I immediately put it in my cart. 

Isn't it cute?

My Vintage Crocheted Blanket  

{{{White Caps}}}

is coming along. 

I have two color sections finished. 

I plan to take this project with me to Walt Disney World.

My poor Hubby is sick with a nasty head cold. 

He's taking it easy just resting. 

He doesn't get sick very often. 

I got him some Nightquil to help him sleep tonight.

It's sooooo cold here too.

Brrrrrrrr....   

White Caps

I wanted to get through the dreaded foundation row on my next

  Vintage Crocheted Blanket. 

 Is there anything worst than counting hundreds of chain stitches {{{{correctly}}}} ?

Yeah, sewing in the ends comes in pretty high in that dreaded category too.  

 I wanted a lap size throw so I did a foundation row of 220 chains plus 3. 

 I ended up with 14 mountains/valleys and it measures 37 inches across without a border.

I'm using five shades of blue acrylic yarn (Simply Soft Solids) with a white yarn row between the blues. 

 I upped the size of the hook to "H" too.

These colors remind me of "snotty seas"...that's what boaters call the seas when the waves are rough.

I'm thinking of naming this throw "White Caps".  

I love the look of this pattern, and if you asked - yes - I'm doing the stitches correctly this time!

Have you ever used a lighted hook? 

 I bought two of them awhile back, put them in my case and never used them. 

 Last night I pulled one out to try it. 

 It was perfect time and situation. 

 Dark yarn and crocheting at night in low light.

A combination that isn't easy on the old eyes. 

 But this lighted hook really helped. 

 And it was a smooth hook which also helped to reduce splitting the yarn. 

 If you are interested, I bought these at Michaels.

Hubby feels like he is coming down with something so we had soup for supper tonight.

It tasted good particularly with this extreme cold...brrrrrr....we are having here in SE PA.  

Later tonight I'm having a cup of hot tea with creamer and honey.

You would think I was the one not feeling well.

Here's hoping you are feeling well and having a good night!  

Let Me Tell You The Story...

Oh, yes...the story of the Vintage Crocheted Blanket. 

 I was so proud of myself figuring out this ripple pattern. 

 Patience less me taking the time to draw a diagram and practice test after test repeat until I was satisfied I had "it right".

Although... as I worked it up... the thought crossed my mind my pattern didn't look exactly like the pattern in the photos. 

My "valleys" were identical but my "mountains" seemed a little off.

 I told myself it must be the light or the angle of the photo.

Then I started to play around with the new crochet diagram software (Crochet Charts - StitchWare.com) I purchased.  

As I was trying to construct the diagram for this ripple I realized I didn't crochet my double V-Stitches correctly. 

Duh...this isn't a hard stitch to do. 

And because of that I didn't place the hook in the right spaces around those stitches.

So my "mountains" weren't quite as steep as shown in the photos.

After realizing this I practiced a few rows on my test piece and finally managed to get it done correctly so it looked like the photos.  

However, I decided not to frog my blankie.  

It looks nice as is so I will continue with my erroneous pattern version.

That's all for now on this blankie.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Remember my black and white motif?

You know the cute, little granny square I was playing around with in black and white yarns? 

Here's my rough first diagram of it. 

Still have to work on it a little bit. 

Move the symbols closer together....

What do you think? 

 Have you tried making your own diagrams?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My funny for the day:

(Source:  Pinterest)

Vintage V-Stitch Crocheted Blanklet

Remember this Black and White beauty from Pinterest?

Source:  Pinterest

I ordered this downloadable $5 pattern from ChurchMouse Yarns & Teas (located in the state of Washington).

 It's a ripple pattern using V-Stitchs and Double Vs. 

 I know from experience that I have to read any ripple pattern over and over again and I have also found that drawing a stitch diagram of the repeat (pattern didn't come with one) helps me tremendously. 

 I'm a visual person. 

 I'm not a crochet designer and hand drawing a crochet pattern diagram isn't easy for me.

I would love to have a computer software program I could use to do diagrams. 

 Years ago I did some internet research to see if there was any software program out there dedicated specifically to making crochet diagrams that was easy to use and not expensive.  

I didn't find anything then.

But I googled again today and was surprised because I found something interesting called StitchWork Software (see video below) that I will have to check it out in more detail later (i.e., cost and if it works on a MAC).

Anyways I drew up scribbled a hand drawn diagram to follow.  

And believe me it's easier to read that those scribbles then to try to read the typed pattern.

Because I always lose my place when reading them.   

   

I won't go into how many foundation chains and first row trys I had to do.  

It was MANY!

You have to get that first row right because everything depends on it being correct.

So I practiced and practiced.

Went to bed dreaming having nightmares about this crochet pattern.  

Oh, I even googled "vintage V-Stitch afghans" and found a similar free pattern (here) based upon the V-Stitch and Shell combination - and it was pretty.   But the mountains and valleys were steeper than I wanted.  I played around with this pattern, trying it out and decided it wasn't the same as the one I ordered.

I also found a similar ripple diagram for reference (here).

The point is... don't forget to check out the internet - there is a wealth of information out there to help us crocheters out.

If you don't know how to do a V-Stitch there are videos on YouTube to watch.

Once I figured out the repeat pattern and how I wanted to start and end the row - as a straight edge - it went pretty smoothly.  

I used a foundation chain of 160 as suggested.   That sounds like a large afghan but it's a ripple and comes out smaller then a straight across afghan would for that many chains. 

So this is baby size blankie.

The second row is a little tricky but I finally determined stared at the photo over and over until the light bulb clicked where to put the hook in what spaces.

Now I can say it's an easy repeat in many ways, easy on my hands to crochet, easy to follow, easy to see if you make a mistake.  Yes, I admit every once in a while I'll miss making a V-Stitch and do a double crochet in error.   Now I've learned to look back at my repeats before I leave that row. 

Because you "turn" at every row the pattern is the same look on either side.  

And just with the practice sessions and a few rows done I have the repeat memorized.

The pattern gives instructions to make as a 2-color, 5-color and a 10-color version.

I know I will have to do a full blown color version!   

So what do you think of this ripple pattern?  

Do you love it or not?