babypoohsmom

Deb, I hold three strands and am by nature a tight crocheter, so my mats turn out very dense. i use them for fosters all of the time. I'm a little fanatic about making sure the fosters have nicely trimmed nails (because they are tiny talons if you don't) and have had no problem at all. If a cat starts to chew the strands apart, they are pulled and sent back to me for re-use, but it doesn't happen all that often. i make round beds and cat toys from yarn as well. Just have to keep an eye on how they use them.

That looks like a great travel project. Love the finished blanket.

Here is another hat and mat. I found the Bernat yarn at Goodwill. I thought it would be softer (and thicker). It was not suitable for a hat by itself so I bought some RH w/Love and held them together. (I had no plain, brown worsted - well, I couldn't find any). It was not very easy to see my stitches with this yarn even with the second strand as a guide. Not sure I could use it alone. Maybe it's easier for knitting. Anyway, it looks a bit like a bathing cap in the picture, but in person, it looks pretty normal.

It's been pretty quiet around here so I thought I would catch up on what I have done. I made this hat and cat mat a few weeks ago. The blue chunky yarn was a Goodwill find. I actually played a serious game of yarn chicken with it and ended the final sc row with about 5" of yarn. I've been pretty lucky at Goodwill lately and have found quite a few skeins of homespun. They make the mats so much softer. I'm going to get spoiled. There are about 6 different Goodwill stores in my home/work/rescue driving routes and I have found that the prices on yarn vary a lot. Are any of you thrift shoppers?

Got at cat mat and a hat done. The hat is some Bernat chunky softie. The cat mat has 3 strands, one is homespun so it's soft.

And one more...my amazing brother (the one who took me to a yarn shop in Sheboygan and the Ben Franklin in Oconomowoc while we were on our Packer vacation) recently went to Ireland. I didn't even think to ask but he brought me two lovely skeins of real wool from Ireland. He's so awesome.

So I finally got a hat done. I had a variegated yarn and a solid held together but then ran out of the solid at about where the ribbing started, so I had to use two of the variegated. I think it looks ok. Would you donate this?

So, here is what 90 skeins of the same yarn look like.... My friend was shocked. I should not be allowed to stay up late on the Internet. She lives about 90 minutes north, so now I have a reason to go visit her!! She has been resisting the temptation to break the seal without me, but I think she's going to check it out tomorrow. (She just finished a project, so why not?

Oops Darski, I just posted my thoughts on life on your project page instead of here. i just said that I have been frogging so many projects that have been sitting because I didn't like them, or I had made mistakes and they just sit there in project bags making you feel bad...so I pulled them out and made new balls of possibility! Liberation! I think I have one left to go. A hat...the pattern is missing and I can't (maybe don't want) to figure it out. Oh to something fun.

Darski, I am absolutely in love with the top with the decoration on the shoulder and the fringe! So glad that you are still here and moving at your own pace. My last 3 major projects have been frogging major projects that I hated or had made a horrible mistake that frustrated me, or you know....Realizing that I had enough not-making-me-happy projects sitting around to kill my creativity, I decided to get rid of them. Now I have some big balls of possible new projects instead of things that made me feel bad. I have one more hat that has no pattern in the bag and I can't figure it out. Maybe that one gets transformed into a new possibility tomorrow!

Thanks for the update from Avon Lady! And thanks Mona. I sometimes wonder why I can't just stare things down and scare them out of my life! I guess sometimes, through it is the only way to go!

Our box will have 90 skeins of a yarn called Yarnado in the Monsoon colorway. My friend just retired a month ago and will have plenty of time to do some cake yarn work. I see the potential for lots of 2ply C2C blankets. We joked about it and when I got her to admit to the color she would like best, I ordered it. I can't wait to see my phone blow up when the box gets to her!! Meanwhile, I have been having no fun. Between work and 'domestic issues" at home, I find myself going to bed early just to try to avoid thinking. No worries, I see all of the red flags of depression and I'm working on that. I have a hat almost done, and have decided to make that American Girl dress with a variegated yarn for the bodice and a solid for the skirt. I'm going to use that Mianstay yarn from Walmart. I try to grab a skein for my stash every time I do some shopping there, just to encourage them to keep stocking it. I have lots of fabrics set aside to make the zipper pouches. I'm excited about that project. I am not sure if I shared here that I got a new surger. The one my mom had (a Babylock/Juki from the 60's) was impossible to thread. As luck would have it, I have a friend who's 78 year old dad loves to fix discarded old machines (no computers). He then donates them to his local St Vincent de Paul store and he has a following in his community. When he donates a machine to them, it is nearly always sold the same day. My mom's machine brought in $100 and went home with an older gal who knew how to thread it with her eyes shut. It was a no brainer for me....but it was my mom's and she passed 7 years ago now, and I only kept it for sentimental reasons. So after I let it go and saw that it did good, I didn't feel bad about buying a new one. I use it a lot for making trap covers for TNR programs and for cutting down those fuzzy blankets into kennel sized blankets, and now for the zipper bags, so I splurged! With all of this splurging, I am going to be packing my lunch for a few more months!!!

Every time someone posts new blankets, I want to start a new one!! Well, I was up too late the other night...Lion Brand was selling cake yarns for $1. The catch was...you had to buy a whole case. I wonder what I can do with 90 skeins of yarn all in the same color? I guess I'll find out in 5-10 business days. I had it shipped to my friend's house up north. Surprise!! Maybe they will be awesome Christmas presents for my yarn-y friends.

Every time someone posts new blankets, I want to start a new one!!

Hey Bailey...I was at Target today and walked passed the toys. I saw their version of Americal Girl sized dolls there. Most of them were $25-$29, but I noticed that the African American and the Middle Eastern dolls were marked to $18 on clearance. Would the area you service with your doll project benefit from dolls of these ethnicities? I would gladly buy them and donate them to you. Just say the word and I will get back to Target right away.