Prayer shawls

I have been very busy making prayer shawls. This one is for a relative of a friend at church. The recipient's husband recently died. It is a wonderful butterscotch yellow done in Homespun

yarn using the basic v-stitch pattern.

The second shawl was made by a member of our prayer shawl ministry at church, but it turned out to be too narrow. I added the border and it now works much better. I gave the shawl to Donna yesterday and she was speechless. She recently had emergency back surgery and is "flat" for 6 - 8 weeks. This should help her recovery. This shawl was done in Red Heart Soft yarn and truly is very soft.

The third shawl is the one I struggled with the most. It was given to a VERY close friend whose husband is in stge 4 of stomach cancer. He just finished radiation therapy and is now undergoing chemo therapy. He has to be fed with a feeding tube. The hopes of the doctors (and us) is to shrink the tumor (at the end of the esophagus where it enters the stomach) so he can eat on his own. Please pray for Steve and Jan and their beautiful family. Jan's favorite color is green, so I chose that for the shawl. It is knitted in the basketweave pattern. I used Vanna's new yarn and it is very soft. Jan loves her shawl.

Happy birthday!

There are 2 birthdays in our family today. Our wonderful daughter-in-law is having a birthday. She is a saint to live with our son (we love both of them dearly). Happy birthday Jenny.

Our grandaughter Elise turns 6 today. She is the princess in her family--she has 3 brothers; one older and 2 younger. Happy birthday Princess!

I made her this quilt that she can use on her bed or on the floor. My picture is not in focus, but I can't re-take it because the quilt was sent to Idaho!!

I also made a pillowcase (again, out of focus--I really need to slow down when I take pictures) for her.

I found this plate the day before I mailed the package, so that got included (with a monkey one and 2 frog ones for the boys). There were some other things in her birthday package (pjs and a book). She should enjoy them. Her party is on Sat.

Valentine candy bags

I made these 2 bags for our DGDs for Valentine's Day. They are just the right size to hold a box of conversation hearts. The girls love them (they hold "Little People" among other things). I made one earlier to hold a box of crayons for Elise.

I got this pattern here

vhttp://suzies-yarnie-stuff.blogspot.com/2006/07/crayon-purse-pattern.html and made the strap shorter. I used cotton ww yarn.

She has great patterns.

Baby items for Lil' Troopers

I am part of a Yahoo group that sends baby items to military hospitals for the newborn babies. In Feb. there was a contest. This is what I managed to make and send (had higher hopes, but it didn't work out). I sent these 17 hats

and this poncho set.

I purchased a rotary cutter type blade called a skip stitch (used in my rotary cutter holder) and made holes with it all along a piece of fleece cut to baby blanket size. Then i crocheted a border all around the blanket. I used DK weight yarn. I love doing this and it is easy. I found patterns on the internet by Googling "crochet baby blanket borders" or something similiar. There are lots to choose from. You can get the blade by contacting Joyce Middlebrooks at skipstitch@gmail.com . Her husband makes them and she answers her email promptly. Then I found a burp cloth I bought from hemstitcher.com many years ago. The holes were pre-punched, so I just added the border.

I then had a baby shower to attend, so I made another blanket, but used a different border. I plan to make many more of these. They are fun, easy and FAST!!

Dishcloths

2008 did not get off to a very good start for us. There were 3 funerals, and cancer diganosis (friend's husband) that sapped a lot of my energy. So I have been doing lots of small projects that I can finish quickly. It has been very satisfying, plus it has done wonders for my stash depletion!! I made these dishcloths as part of the Monthly Dishcloth KAL challenge. I already posted my first Jan. one (football). There are 2 each month. This is the second one for Jan.

These are for Feb. The blue and cream one was fun, easy and fast--my kind of project.

The valentine cloth is a box of candy with a bow on it. It took me awhile to "see" it!!

I also made some cloths for exchanges. These 2 were sent to Marilyn.

Marilyn sent me this great cloth.

Jean sent me these two clots in January. It is great to get puffies like these in the mail.