The "frankenstorm"

Cynthia and I are both without power in New Jersey.  I feel lucky compared to some parts of this state.  Our shore line took extensive damage.  This storm affected some communities horribly and others it barely touched.  My daughter Jocelyn is in New York City without power on the eleventh floor.  My daughter Emily is in Boston and her apartment roof began leaking tremendously coming in through their lights. I thought she would suffer the least!

 Trees and power lines are down all over.  I am operating from my husband's wireless until my computer battery dies. 

I hope all of you affected by hurricane Sandy are fairing well and getting through the clean up.  My prayers go out for healing of community and lives post Sandy. 

Be well.

Peace,
Carol

Finish it Friday!!!

Hello.  My name is mitten.  I am lovely and gray and I was made for a beautiful young lady named Eva.  But I have not been able to warm Eva's graceful hands because somebody lost me and never sewed my loose ends in. 

Hi.  My name is blanket.  I have many lovely colors and have had my picture taken for this blog many times.  I am a gift intended for a delightful young man named Daniel.  Sadly, I still need a few more rows before my maker is finished with me.  And I need all those ends sewn in.  I hope to keep my young man warm someday soon.

Hey there!  I am a blanket, purples and greens.  In a cold dark basement waiting for the other half of me to be finished for that new living room sofa, that is no longer a new sofa, for when Jocelyn and Emily watch TV and need extra warmth.  Oh why have I been forgotten?

Goo Goo Gaa Gaa.  I am a baby dress.  I can't adorn that sweet baby girl Olivia until someone adds my sleeves!

Well, hello!  I bet I am close to being done.  I am an exciting multicolored pillow.  I am ready to go to college with Olivia!  Finish me!  Finish me!!

Look at me!  Look at me!  I am a sweater for Emily.  I was finished.  And then determined to be too big so I need some of me to be pulled out and re-fitted.  I am in a dark box with my pattern waiting for discovery and those diet taking steps that will make Emily chic.

Move over all you crocheted projects.  I am a painting.  The one that started this whole creativity blog thing and I am not done either!  Look back to the first beginning posts and you will find me.  Unfinished.  Seems it is what we all have in common.  We shouldn't knock these two ladies too much.  They have finished many projects as well.  But come on now, 

                                    FINISH ME TOO!!!


With love from,
      All of your U.F.O.s

Baby items are so much fun to make!

I have finished two of the gifts I need to make. I third is in progress (I will photograph later).
The first is the sweater I made for one-year-old David.

The second is a shower gift for a friend having a baby girl.  This is the first baby dress I have ever made.  I am so happy with the result!

 Makes a full circle!

So two gifts down, four to go.  Then I must start thinking about Christmas gifts!!!

Peace,
Carol

One more thing...

I am loving all the inspiring baby items people are posting on our "baby love" link party!

Addiction

I am learning just how addictive Pinterest is and I am hooked!  I sit down to see what has found it's way from and to me and hours later I am still marveling at the crochet talent out there.  It all started when Cynthia and I were wondering if anybody ever looked at this blog (or rather retired TwoLuLa with the broken friends gadget) and she noticed that googling us, a photo of my crayon blanket had been "pinned" on Pinterest.  What?  What is this Pinterest? Where did that photo go?  Then Cynthia said she became a member on Pinterest and I was more intrigued.  So last week, I logged into Pinterest. Now I find that people around the globe are following me.  How awesome is that?  Now if they would visit TwoLuLa2.blogspot.com I think Cynthia and I would be on cloud nine.

Peace,
Carol

PS.  Cynthia, on your last post about unfinished projects, I did not mean to make you feel bad and for that I am sorry (unless it urges you to finish Daniel's blanket).  I know how easy it is to drop something and start something new then forget about the dropped something.  I have an afghan for myself half finished in my basement and more that I have long since forgotten about.  The one thing I adore about you is your excitement to try new crochet projects.  As long as something gets finished along the way - and you have done this in with a tea cosy, mug cosy, wool-eater table topper, several baby blankets, and more - so forgive my careless comment that made you feel bad.  Just enjoy the power of the hook and create.  After all, this is why we started this blog - to encourage our creativity!

Will I Ever Finish it? Friday

Will I Ever Finish it? Friday

Carol made a comment to me the other day about not finishing my crochet  projects.  Could this be true? Well, there's the blanket I have been making for Daniel, striped and colorful with an assortment of different stitches, the ziggy pillow I am making for Olivia's dorm room, a tea cup cosy I am making just for fun which still needs its ends sewn it, squares for a charity blanket at church which need to be sewn together and edged, and….

Hmmm, maybe she has a point.  So I decided to start a Will I Ever Finish It? Friday post. Maybe having to dig these unfinished projects up, visit with them for a while as I photograph them and write about them, will get me moving on actually finishing them!

Am I alone in this?  Please tell me about your unfinished work so I can feel I bit encouraged and better.


Here's my first Will I Ever Finish it? Friday post:

Carol came over for a visit the other day.  As seems to be an emerging pattern, our time to sit, visit, drink tea, talk over life  and be creative was cut short. This time a massive traffic jam caused by an accident (very sadly fatal for the truck driver involved) delayed Carol in her trip to my house.  Then I needed to make an emergency art supplies delivery to my daughter at college, and another trip to pick my son up from cross country practice.  But we did manage to squeeze in a very quick cup of tea and a lovely lunch with dear friend Liz and her daughter Anna.

During our short visit we talked about possible baby gifts we could make for some soon-to-be-here babies.  We ventured down into my basement and I  pulled out two baby blankets I have never finished.  One is a pieced log cabin quilt (I'll post a photo of it later).  All the blocks have been made, more or less, but it needs to be assembled, a border added and quilted.  Enough time to finish it before the first baby arrives?  Not sure, not sure.

This is the second blanket:

I started it quite some time ago.  Quite, quite some time ago.  It is from a pattern in an old Leisure Arts leaflet, "Make One For Baby".  I loved the colors and the texture!  Wonderful!

It uses a combination of half double crochet, long double crochet and front post stitches.

 So why, with so much love going on for this blanket, did I stop working on it?  Well, as the blanket grew, row by row, the entire thing started to go askew.  It was very quickly losing its rectangular shape.   If I laid it out on the table with the bottom and one side lined up with the table edges, the opposite side was going off at an unpleasant angle!  My photos don't show this, but thats the beauty of cropping.

I remember, at the time, asking Carol, my crochet expert, to help me figure out what was happening.  She was baffled.  We asked Carol's crochet expert, her mom Muriel, and even Muriel was at a loss to figure out what I was doing wrong.

So, with much frustration and discouragement, the unfinished blanket was assigned to a basket somewhere down in the basement. And there it has lived for the last few years.

Carol and I studied it anew this week.  I had hoped that with a few more years of crochet experience we would have diagnosed its ailment.  No such luck.

So the question now is, do I pick it up again, finish it and hope that the powers of blocking will make it at least presentable?  I assume the baby will not have a ruler handy to assess the squareness of my blanket.

Or do I rip, rip, rip and start it again in hopes of a different result?

Or, as Carol suggested, do I take what I have and make it into something else, like a pillow?

Either way, on this Friday, I have to ask, Will I Ever Finish It?

 While you're here please visit out Baby Love Link Party and add a link to a baby item you have finished or are working on.

Happy Creating!
Cynthia

Baby Love Link Party

Carol and I seem to be surrounded by a bit of a baby boom! To date, Carol and I each have two gifts to make for soon-to-be-here babies.  Carol also is going to make a gift for a sweet 3 month old girl.   She  just completed an adorable crocheted sweater for a one-year old boy  (and I hope she took lots of photos to share with us!).

So, as we are awash in baby love, we thought it would be fun to invite all of you to share the baby gifts you have made, or are in the process of making.   We invite you to add your work to the collection, share your creativity with all of us and get inspired yourself by visiting other contributor's posts!

Basket Weave Baby Blankets

     I have been  thinking about possible gifts  I can crochet  for two soon-to-be-here babies.  This has caused me to try and remember what baby items I have already made and gifted.  The very first blanket I ever crocheted (and finished) was a pink, blue and white zig-zag baby blanket.  I remember I bought it as a kit and  diligently followed the instructions.  What a feeling of accomplishment when I finished!  Sadly, it being before the time of digital cameras, I don't think I ever took a photo of it. I can't even remember who I gave it to.  Oh well!  I hope it was used well and often!

Before my first child was born I started knitting a very basic baby sweater for her. I completed the front and probably about 3 rows of the back.  No sleeves. Three children later and it still sits unfinished in one of my yarn boxes.  Perhaps one day, far, far away, I will get it finished for a future grandchild.  Or maybe I should use it as a dishrag now!

When I was pregnant with my last child, my son, I decided that I wanted to crochet his Baptismal gown.  I found a pattern for a beautiful gown, bought the white cotton thread (yes, thread) and began.  The pattern started with the edging around the bottom of the skirt and worked its way up from there. Well, need I say that his gown never got any farther than that edging? What was I thinking to take on such a monumental project while pregnant with two little ones already at home? Something else for the grandchildren?

I actually did complete, and photograph, these two baby blankets.  Both are done in a basket weave pattern which I love.

I am feeling like I want to crochet another baby blanket, in a different pattern, and with a much brighter color scheme.  Time to do some thinking and get inspired.

Can you help get my creative juices going?  Carol and I have started our first link party  and its all about Baby projects.  It's called Baby Love Link Party.   We invite you to add your work to the collection, share your creativity with all of us and get inspired yourself by visiting other contributor's posts!  Please help us spread the invitation by grabbing the Baby Love button in the sidebar and adding it to your post!

Happy creating!

Peace,

Cynthia