649

Things are just now starting to get back to normal. Almost two months ago I had knee surgery to reconstruct a torn ACL. During in initial recovery period, I was able to send out a few things to ARC. Here they are. There will be another shipment soon. Right now, I prefer to send Jee Jee a few things in a smaller box more often over sending a lot of items in a large box a few times a year. And the next box is almost full.

Items:
-1 pair of mittens
-1 dog sweater
-1 scrap yarn scarf
-5 knitted (yes, knitted) hats

In addition to sending these items to Jee Jee, I also crocheted a mammoth and a plesiosaur for the silent auction at this year's SVP meeting in Dallas. Hopefully, they'll bring in a lot of money for SVP's educational fund. *fingers crossed*

641

 I'm finally getting around to writing this up, now that I injured my knee and can really only sit and hobble-walk.

This is actually a post for the second shipment of yarn items to ARC for the year. I missed the post for the first one (took the total to 630) so I'm just going to combine the two into this post.

Items:
-16 hats
-1 earwarmer
-3 pairs of mittens
-5 scarves/cowls
-2 knitted hats

Fun fact: The number of child/teen/adult hats and the number of scarves/cowls I've crocheted and donated now equal each other at 142 each.

Cheers!

614

I'm going to keep this brief because it is getting late on a Sunday and I still have a lot of things I need to do before work tomorrow.

Here are the latest items I've donated. My total is now to 614 items since 2009.

-9 pairs of mittens
-2 pairs of slippers
-1 pair of booties
-1 bookmark

-1 earwarmer
-6 cowls
-13 crocheted hats
-1 knitted hat (the orange one at the top left)
-4 scarves (including a braided one)
-1 knitted cowl

....for a total of 39 items donated in December 2014.

Cheers!

So now that I have some free time....

....I thought I would write up a post about the crocheted pieces I entered in the Howard County and Maryland State Fairs in August. Here they are with links to the patterns if I can remember them:

Kiwi - 2nd at HoCo Fair, no placing at State

Red Hat - 1st at HoCo Fair, Honorable Mention at State

Scarf - 1st at HoCo Fair, 3rd at State

Purple Hat (my own design; one of these days I'll write up the pattern. I know I have a similar looking pattern already on this blog but it is not the same. This one is double-layered around the brim.) - 3rd at HoCo Fair in Original Design category; I did not enter this at State.

I entered this as a child's pullover. I followed this pattern from Lion Brand. I made the "small" size. However, when I sewed all of the squares together, I did it so tightly that an adult can't wear it. Anyway, it got 1st at HoCo Fair and 2nd at State.

For the shawl, I did what I like to do when I use Purl Essence Rainbow Boucle yarn: crochet two  skeins together. It makes a thicker fabric and gives an interesting striping effect.

Shawl - 1st at HoCo Fair, no placing at State. 

Frog backpack for a child: 1st at HoCo Fair, 1st at State.

This was the first time that I sewed a zipper into anything. I think it turned out alright. I'm still not sure what to do with it. That being said, I have a few friends who just had kids and we are all paleontologists so they might be interested in it.

Cheers!

560 and I'm graduating in May (hopefully)

 And thus we start what will hopefully be my last semester at UT. I'll likely post again about finishing my master's here, but it is after midnight on the night before school starts for the semester and I want to go to bed after I post this, so this is going to be short. And that was a run-on sentence. Yes, I am in graduate school. :P

Anyway, I'm now at 560 items donated since 2009. Here are the items from the latest shipment to ARC:

-1 cardigan for a ~2-year-old
-9 hats
-6 earwarmers
-3 pairs of mittens
-1 pair of slippers
-27 scarves and cowls

513

I'm going to keep this brief because it's that time of year when everything is due in every grad class and my advisor is clambering for data from me. These were donated earlier in November with the penguin from the previous post, bringing my total to 513.

Items donated:

-1 hat
-3 earwarmers
-8 pairs of mittens
-5 pairs of slippers
-2 stuffed animals
-3 scarves

-3 cowls

488 Items Donated!!

So it's Labor Day weekend and I'm preparing for the Auburn vs Washington game tonight (note: I am not an Auburn fan. Go Terps! But a fellow grad student is having a cook-out at his house. He is an Auburn alum). I just sent home the rest of the stuff that will be donated to ARC when it all arrives in Maryland. Combine the items in this post (minus the penguin because I couldn't fit it in the box. He'll be donated later) with those in the last post for one shipment of 41 items to Jee Jee at ARC.

Items in the second part of the shipment are:
-2 pairs of socks/slippers
-4 scarves
-6 pairs of mittens


Cheers!