Posted by ann

two installments for the pork report – I forgot yesterday, what with the glories of tilling the earth ;)

Today’s excitement is D#1 returns home from her big trip. I will be picking her up at JFK this afternoon. We heard from her a few times while she has been traveling and she has had a wonderful time. She went to Greece and Bulgaria with the chamber choir from her school and they gave concerts and participated in workshops. They also managed to pack in a ton of sightseeing.

I thought you might enjoy a few pics of Mr. Boar putting together the new grill. Please notice the canine helpers.

~I had some more pics of him being swarmed by pugs but uploading has become problematic.

Happy Memorial Day!

Posted by ann

Poe says the pool is open, c’mon over!

Today I need to haul my arse to a nursery and get some plants for my pots. I am way, way behind on this task – I am usually a risk taker and have this done before Mother’s Day! It seems with every year household things that I used to enjoy are becoming more and more chores – I am ready for assisted living! I think I will plant some of these pots with hardy perennials in order to cut down on the sheer numbers involved in this yearly endeavor.

Yesterday I got back to work on the Hex Coat. After the color and splash of Larger than Life Bag, all that moss stitch seems okay. Peggy helped decide on a good length and I am ready to tackle the two front pieces again. I had become paralyzed over length decisions and when I got to that point on the first front piece, I put it on hold and moved on to the second front piece. Then when I got to the same place again, I put that one on hold and started a sleeve! The time was right for making a move otherwise I would have ended up with half a sweater.

I hope you have a wonderful, long weekend – with lots of sunny skies!

Holy Hannah – I almost forgot again! ~oink~

what to do when Granny’s side panel won’t fit ….

Posted by ann

some tips for making and seaming in the side/bottom band …….. this was a bit difficult for me since I had trouble ‘reading’ my crocheting. The pattern says to repeat three rows 43 times for a total of 137 rows. I think I got pretty close to the mark, but wasn’t sure. Once you are done with the band, you are instructed to single crochet along both edges. This will give them a neater edge which is what you want since those edges will show on the right side of the finished bag.

Here’s what I did:

Work the band until you’ve got it as close as you think you’ll need. Remember, this band needs to go down both short sides and along the bottom edge of the side panels. like this
When you work the side edges of the band, work them in the direction of the crochet – start where you started the band and end where you ended.
Only work one side to begin with.
Now go about attaching this side to the first granny square side panel. Remember to begin seaming it at the beginning edge of the panel …. this way when you get to the end, if you have too much, you can easily rip, and likewise if you have too little you can add more.
Then proceed to do the single crochet edge for the other side (this has a wrong side/right side which you will be able to tell by the raised ridge where it joins).
Now seam the other side to the second of the granny square side panels.

now comes the part where I need to break out the sewing machine and work a lining. I have a stash of fabric from some time spent flirting with quilting and home decorating – I will have to go through it and see if there is anything I can use. I also read the directions a bit last night and it turns out they call for a zipper too. Gah!! Zippers are my sewing Mt. Everest. stay tuned for further gnashing of the teeth.

on to the pig of the day

Posted by ann

Thank you to Flair for taking over blogging duties for a day. She is right when she says that posting a chore list was scraping the bottom of the barrel! You will be happy to hear I did manage to make it through most of that list, except for the car washing. I replaced that with a pool vaccuuming and drove the car to a car wash yesterday. Little Onslow was absolutely filthy and it was bringing me down just to be in the car. Yes, I am a head case – if things are in too much disarray or filth, I get emotionally unhinged.

Here’s a look at both sides of my Larger than Life Bag. I copied Vicki and decided to do a border around all of the individual squares in addition to the outer border that the pattern calls for. I am now working on the panel that goes between the two sides. It is a pattern repeat of a row of single crochet, then a row of double crochet and then another single crochet. Since I am new to crochet, it is very challenging for me to ‘read’ the fabric — if I put it down, it takes awhile to figure out which row I have just completed and what needs to come next. I am enjoying it though – hope I can say the same once it’s time to sew the lining!

pig of the day
pug of the day