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Wow Brenda- that must have sounded great with all of your group playing! What a super experience. And your dulcimer is beautiful.

I guess the first time you try a pattern, adjustments are needed. I did the right amount of rows for the flat part of the shirt, but it’s clearly too short. I had to compensate with extra rows of the ruffle. I used Just Yarn from the dollar tree but it was too soft and the shirt is just too flimsy. But I tried something new.

If you do make this, check out the yarn companies online like Yarnspirations and Lion King Yarn. They have many afghan/blanket/throw patterns that can be adjusted for size to your liking.

He likes doing woodwork and designed the coolest little tractor. I have seen a violin and guitar that he has made. I think he has made 8 dulcimers now. He is an interesting guy. At one point he lived in AZ and prospected for gold. His wife said he had a shop in a garage and that we would not believe the big names that brought instruments to him to work on. Its sort of hard getting stories out of him. He said he has outlived all his family and has been married to this lady for 12 years. He tells us he cant play but I have heard that before covid he played regularly here with a couple other people. We have gotten him to join us a few times with a dulcimer, fiddle, guitar, mandolin. I have heard he has a hurdy gurdy. I would love to see that.

Someone stopped me at lunch today to tell me how much he enjoyed listening to our group Sun. He has already contacted the resident that has been making dulcimers, purchased one and should be joining us soon.

What a great group--sounds like so much fun! And amazing that the 95 year old is still making instruments.

Billie has been busy. Luv the blankets she's shown. If you'd like to make squares: (check out this videos More section on utube) #boggycamp2024 blanket squares: 6" squares for: Christmas, Halloween, St. Patrick's Day

Sometimes there are just basic practical ideas to consider beyond the money. I know just cleaning the afghans I've made or been gifted over the years and the largest barely touches the edges of our Queen bed can be challenging, like finding a place to dry it in the winter. I've always used acrylic because it washes but it is also heavy. DH likes his when he's ill because it is like having a warm weighted blanket but honestly I can't imagine upsizing it to a full sized Queen let alone a King. It would be horribly heavy to move around and cleaning it would be a pain.

My Life Sailor Dress

My Life Sailor Dress

They look great. I'm not sure how high you went for high waisted but my experience is you have to at least hit the waist line or the pants don't stay up so I think you are fine. My favorite shoe designer brought back her sailor pattern on Etsy and I decided to complete the sailor dress for the donation this year to celebrate. My Life Sailor Dress

It sounds like an amazing group. What a wonderful journey that both of you enjoy.

Wish I could send some rain or at least hold some back for late summer. Its been an amazing journey. It started with 3 taking beginner class at the monthly club after they performed here for Christmas. They wanted to practice together between the monthly classes so Jim signed up for a space. They started in Jan and I didnt decide to really try until June. Not that I was that good but by beginning of next year Jim and I were teaching a very basic beginner class at the monthly club. Like I tell them. You didnt get the best player you just got the one that didnt say no when asked. Its just I knew why I gave up or at least didnt get serious about it thru the years. Our group here added a friend of mine in Sept. We more than doubled by April the next year. We have had a few people drop. We have 3 that play hammer dulcimer. One of those has played with a recorder group. She brought it and played it with us on a couple of songs and it sounded really cool especially on Yankee Doodle. The thing that really blows me away is that so many are willing to play when we get a request. At first I thought we were going to be lucky if 6 agreed to play at these things. There are places here where there is not room for all of us to set up and play. We were going to start declining if there was not room for all of us but someone volunteered to be small group coordinator. We will see how that goes. We will have to be careful because with 21 neighborhood groups, assisted living, the care center, and other groups performing groups get overwhelmed and burned out. We are lucky to have a 95 year old resident that was a luthier and he has been making dulcimers. 5 of us have one he built. He has made 8 and each one is different. Mine was the second one he made and I really like it. He was there Sun so we gave him a shout out to honor him.

Wow that sounds great Brenda. Hey, how about sending the rain down here. We have maybe rain in the forcast. Still waiting. Your group is really coming along.

Its been raining every day and last night there were a lot of storms with wind and tornadoes. Our dulcimer group played here Sun afternoon. Someone said we had 50 in the audience which is really good for something like that. Next week we play for a neighborhood dinner and we are already booked for one in Dec. Its been amazing. Last year at this time there were just 6 of us and just the original 4 would play in public. There were 12 of us playing this year and four that couldnt make it.

Good Morning. I am waiting for the garage door people to get me a new replacement. Thank you all for the thoughts, good vibes. Keep them coming for him. As soon as the garage is done, I will be out of here. Well, in hockey news. Guess the Fl. Panthers are not so cocky now. They lost 5-1 last night and most of the Panther players said Boston will be easy to beat. Yeah, Right!!! Dallas plays Colorado tonight and the second Ranger/ Hurricane game. Have a fun day.

Good Morning everyone, Sunny warm day here for a couple days, then the rains start for the next couple weeks. I am ok with that, forest fire season is starting and we don't want a repeat of last year. Working out in the gardens again today, so much work getting them up and running. Love every minute of it. Mary Jo, that is good news that John is improving, sad he has to be in so much pain. Lea, hope you and Chris are ok. Stay safe everyone in the path of tornadoes, scary storms you are having in your states.

I sat down about 7:30 with a cup of tea to relax, then I was going to write the e-mail to the family and let them know what is going on. It is now 12:30 and I am sitting here wide awake with cold tea at my elbow. All is going well, they are working John hard, but with the end game of him coming home. He was able to push himself up off the chair. So progress. It is hard and he is wroking so hard. We have no idea when he will be coming home, but he is getting closer to that goal. Well, off to tell the family. Hope all you all are doing good. It sure is weird cooking for only one. Have a great day and a fun day. Love you all and thank you for thinking of us. Lea, hope Chris is getting better. Hugs to both of you.

Well, I finally made something new. A pair of pants. They are made with dc so they look a bit “loose”. Maybe I will try hdc next time. They are very high waisted, but with fewer starting rows, they seemed to pull too much. Do you think these look ok for donation? I am working on a ruffle tank top to match it, but it’s bedtime!

Good point. Plus, it would likely not be economical. Just looking at Walmart's first page of king blanket offerings, they range between $16 and $50 with a couple of exceptions. I doubt if $50 would come close cover the cost of YARN to make a king size blanket. Example, honestly just grabbing the first afghan pattern I found on the Lionbrand site. https://www.lionbrand.com/products/ripple-throw-crochet , I did NOT look for the most expensive yarn I could find . ON SALE, the yarn is $45.45 for the amount to make this pattern (regular price would have been $64.95). This appears to be a baby blanket as it is only 30 x 34 inches. You would have to line up nine of these blankets to have a blanket approximately a King size, if you lined them up in a configuration like this: XXX XXX XXX Each X is a baby blanket (of course there wouldn't be huge gaps between the rows, only so much you can illustrate by typing, and I don't know how or if I can change the line spacing in a post) So, you would need to spend 9 X $45.95 = $413.55 on just the yarn for a king size blanket from this yarn. ON SALE. Not to mention your labor. I don't want to discourage people from crocheting, and $45.95 isn't an awful price for a baby blanket, and I'm sure there are plenty of 'deluxe' King size blankets for sale for $400+ while I was using a more downscale Walmart product for comparison, but...I'm just providing a sanity check.

Mary Jo how is Tampa guy doing? When will he be able to come home soon or when stronger? lea how is Chris doing? sending prayers and hugs to you all.

Its going to take a lot of yarn and is going to be very heavy. You may have issues with it stretching out of shape because of the weight--just things to think about

Probably your best bet would be a 'motif' blanket (like granny squares or maybe a ripple or mile-a-minute style, because these patterns would be easier to tweak for the size you want, and would be easy to incorporate the 4 colors you are looking for. A king blanket is 108 x 100 inches, so nearly 4 times the size of the average 'couch afghan' which is typically on the order of 48x60", so you'd need 4 times the yarn. Make sure you had enough yarn on hand with matching dye lots before starting it. Here is a ripple pattern that goes up to King Size https://simplycollectiblecrochet.com/2016/06/chevron-flare-blanket-crochet-pattern-baby-to-king-size/ A not-free stripe King size pattern in 4 colors https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/farmhouse-king-size-blanket A not-free mile a minute King size https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mile-a-minute-king-blanket