Illinois Crafter

Next month is my baby's birthday. Can't believe he will be turning 1 in a matter of weeks! I never had a party when my oldest turned 1 and I wish that I had so I am making up for it now. So I am going all out! The theme is Mickey Mouse. Instead of having a traditional "Happy Birthday" banner I am going to make one using the following charts.   I however don't care for the gap between the black and red, so I will be filling in the blank row with another red. You can find many more Mickey inspired letters at this link  "Mickey Letters"   I will be posting more photos of the big party as I complete them. Until Next Time!

So I finally finished the Hiaku Shawl! I think that it is so cute, I am having a very hard time packaging it up to send it to California. It was a very simple 3 row repeat. So pretty! It's a little late for her birthday but, I hope Mandy likes it! I know I do. Again to get this pattern -  haiku-crochet-shawl  also check out -  Rebecca Velasquez's  other patterns on Ravelry! Love that site.  Ravelry Until Next Time!

Wow, 2 months between posts, really failing here. The summer has just got the best of my time. Anyway back to talking about this pompom maker. I have always disliked wraping yarn around my fingers to make pompom they always come out so uneven. I finally broken down, went and bought myself a pompom maker. I am very pleased with myself!! It is worth every penny. Will post photos on how to use it tomorrow, Until Next Time

So a friend of mine moved from the Northwestern part of Iowa to Southern California a few years ago. I am making this shawl for her to show her that I still think of her and hope that she will remember this ole Corn State when ever she sees this item... I am using Heartland by Lion Brand in the color Grand Canyon, hopefully this color will be able to go with almost any outfit she wears. It has a lovely mix of beige and copper tones. I am using a patternt called Haiku Crochet Shawl By Rebecca Velasquez you can buy her lovely pattern at raverly ravelry/haiku-crochet-shawl  or right from the company she designed it for called quince and co  quinceandco.com/haiku  I have had so much fun making this for her. Hope she likes it! Until Next Time!

I was looking at some old photos and found a shot of the first afghan that I had ever completed. I originally made this as a wedding gift. I forgot that I had ever did this pattern: As a wedding gift I went with their fall themed colors and threw in something white something blue as well. I was a little sad to give this away being my first afghan but I am glad I decided to show off the love I have for my old aged hobby!  I found the idea for this pattern from a challenge from The Crochet Crowd. Mikey has some of the best ideas: Crochet Crowd Challenge  If I am looking for a ideas but not sure what hook up next I scan this page for hints.  Pattern for this awesome  Red Heart Afghan click here Ocean Waves I think that I just might have to make another one but this time I will keep this one! If I do I will keep you posted with updates! Until next time

In my last post I was torn between a couple of different shades of blue, green and yellow. I really wasn't sure what I wanted to use or what to make but here is what I decided to do: In several magazine over the last few months a have seen a couple projects using the "Spike Stitch"every pattern was a done a little differently from the next so I pulled my favorite parts from each and come up with this! Hope you like it, Until next time!

Have so many projects to get started on for this summer, between all the babies due and couples saying their "I Do's" I have plenty to do. There are tons of ideas rolling in my head right now, time to get started. These are the colors I have chosen for a blanket that I hope to keep you updated on. Notice a theme? Yellow to Blue to Green darker to light? I hope you do because that what I going for. I just cant decide if I should put white in with it or a black or brown? I love and have so much fun picking out the colors but I always have so many problems trying to figure out what order to put them in. Once I like how I have put them I seem to change again. Oh, the problems of creativity! Feel like I might do an extended double crochet pattern with these colors! Stay tuned for up dates.... Until next time!

Its been a while since I have made a blog entry! Was beginning to think this was another project that I started and never finished, but I am determined to keep this going. Over the past couple of months I just never had the time to post anything. The reason being is that I work at UPS as a package handler and during Thanksgiving to New Years Eve we have our Peakseason which is hell for us. It is just unreal on how busy we are. Between starting at 1:00 and going until 9:30 so we can load the trucks up for the drivers then meeting up with the drivers later in the day to help deliver packages just tires a person out and leave no time for family life. Maybe next year I shouldn't start something right before my busiest time of the year, haha! Just taking a little snooze while waiting for more packages to arrive, 2:00 AM was just to early for my friend here. My trailer only 1.5 hours into my day, only 6 hours left to go. Had to load over 1000+ packages into this sucker that m