National Crochet Month Post #5: Soap Savers

I learned how to make soap savers last summer.  I must made 30 different ones while watching "McLeod's Daughters" and at the same time, learning some nifty Australian slang.  I wrote a post about these several months ago.

A soap saver helps lengthen the life of your soap because you can slip several slivers of soap into the saver and still be able to use the soap.  The saver helps lather up your soap and gets you squeaky clean.  It is made of 100% cotton yarn and it is soft and colorful.  Find a link to that post here.

These are all made with Lily Sugar'n Cream yarn.  And now for some pictures:

Happy showering!

And tomorrow is Friday!

Back to School, End of Summer...

All good things must come to an end, as they say, and summer vacation is no exception (although this would not have been the case had I won the lottery this past weekend!).

I have already spent two days in pre-service training at school and I spent 4 1/2 hours yesterday (Saturday) at school trying to get my room in working order.  I switched rooms this year so I am starting from scratch again.  And I have my work cut out for me:

But I had this to help me out:

So now comes the hard part--putting in the time to make lesson plans and grade papers, getting up before sunrise and working for more than 9 hours per day.  And of course, another hard but rewarding part--meeting and building a rapport with over 100 students every day.  I have that many students in my classes, plus I encounter hundreds more when I do lunch duty.  Teaching is exhilarating and exhausting and that's why I took the whole summer off--off. (Think ludicrous Cadillac ad.)  I had to recuperate from last year's wearying pace, but now it's almost show time again.


So you'll see fewer of these:

And I'll see less of this: 

But that's OK because I need to teach and my students need to learn!  Bring it on!

And on the weekends, I will be adhering to this:

(from U Create)

Have a wonderful school year and enjoy the last precious moments of summer!  

J

My little amigurumi kitten named Limey

More crochet fun today!

I have completed my first amigurumi animal in quite some time.  If you are unfamiliar with amigurumi, it is a Japanese word loosely translated as crocheted or knitted stuffed toy.  In years past, I have made three octopuses (or octopi, if you prefer) for my husband, a little lion cub for my son, and a colorful unicorn for my daughter.

I have several amigurumi books by Ana Paula Rimoli, such as Amigurumi Toy Box and Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet.   I have downloaded several patterns from different Etsy shops such as Lilleliis and Luvly Gurumi.  I have also enrolled in a Craftsy class where I can learn to design my own amigurmi monster by Stacey Trock. 

But just because I have these books and patterns and classes doesn't mean I actually accomplish the making of these adorable stuffed toys.  There is a lot of concentration and counting involved, something that is somewhat hard to do while watching McLeod's Daughters!  [I just finished season 3 and I am so sad because a couple of characters have left the show!]

Yet, here is my latest amigurumi project, a little kitten whom I like to call Limey.  I call her that not because she is lacking Vitamin C, but because I happened to be taking pictures of my Lime Handmade Soap when I had her outside taking photos of her too.  This is from a pattern by Lilleliis.  Here is a link to her shop where you could buy it.

I used Vanna's Choice yarn from Lion Brand.  The colors are eggplant, white, and fern.

Let me know what you think of her.

Crocheted kitchen rug is done, thanks to McLeod's Daughters

Yes, it's true.  I actually finished a crochet project!  My kitchen rug has been placed in front of the kitchen sink and now I can finally do the dishes and cook!  Just kidding.  Now I will have an absorbent cotton handmade rug to soak up all the stray drops of water that may find their way to the floor.

I used Sugar'n Cream cotton yarn made by Lily.  I originally used the stash I had but I did have to go pick up a couple more balls at Michael's.  I love bright colors and I am happy with the way the rug turned out.  I will need some non-slip backing for the rug before I will feel confident that it won't move around on us, but I have worked long and hard on this rug and I wanted to get it down as quickly as I could.  The colors are hot blue, hot green, yellow, hot purple, hot orange, and hot pink.

I started out by crocheting five rows of each of the colors but decided I wanted it just a little wonkier and not so rigid.  I just decided to crochet one color until I felt like adding another one.   I think the rug looks pretty nice and the colors make me smile.

So what enabled me to crochet so quickly when I normally take many weeks to do a project of similar scope?  Well, McLeod's Daughters of course.  "What is that?" you ask.  It is an Australian television show that aired from 2001-2009.  I was looking for a show to watch while I crocheted and this one fit the bill.  It is the story of Claire and Tess McLeod who are reunited after their father dies and run the family ranch, Drovers Run, in South Australia.  Being a prospective farm owner myself (some day I would like to be a lavender farmer), I was interested in the premise of this story.  You get to see sheep being sheared, bulls courting cows, a foal being born, and much more!

The cast is rounded out by characters who help keep up the place,  mostly female.  It is pretty cool to see a farm run by women.  Of course, there are the gorgeous hunky neighbors, Nick and Alex Ryan.  They make the show much nicer to watch as well.  I am currently in season 3.  If you're interested in watching it, check it out on Netflix.

One word of warning, if you watch multiple episodes of this show, you may start singing the theme song out of the blue.  You may need to watch McLeod's Daughters with closed captioning on and with an Australian slang dictionary at the ready.  And lastly, you may also randomly start speaking with an Aussie accent.

Well, I reckon I'd better go fix the fence on the chook paddock, mate.  G'day!