It's Another Mosaic Monday

I've got granny squares on my mind.



1. Crochet Pillows, 2. Mamy Bag, 3. crochet scarf, 4. 14 :: 30, 5. Granny Squares - #7 & 8, 6. A Granny A Day 11, 7. babette blanket - finished!, 8. Granny Square Tote Bag, 9. Granny Square blankets 2

Yummy Leftovers

Several nights ago I made spaghetti for dinner and ate the leftovers for lunch the next two days. The sauce out-lasted the pasta.
Meanwhile, I had sauteed some sliced summer squashes (zucchini, yellow and a small speckled pale green squash) with some chopped onion (first in the pan) and chopped roma tomatoes (added at the very end to just warm them). This was all cooked in olive oil. After dinner there was still some left so I put it in a plastic container with the leftover sliced green onions from the baked potatoes.
Two days later I thought, why don't I mix that with the extra spaghetti sauce and have that for lunch. I just mixed it together in a bowl, heated it in the microwave and threw on a little grated cheese at the end.
This was so good, I may end up making it deliberately for dinner soon.

By the way, I don't really have a recipe for spaghetti sauce but this is my formula:
Heat up a large fry pan on the stove. If you are using meat (I usually use plain old ground beef, if I am) start cooking it breaking it up into small pieces as you brown it. Meanwhile, chop about half an onion and fresh mushrooms, if they are on hand. Saute with olive oil or in the fat from the meat in the same pan. Add a spoonful of garlic from that jar in the refrigerator or a clove or two of fresh garlic, chopped, just as the onions are getting translucent.
Add a can or two of diced tomatoes, some tomato sauce and/or paste. What you add here depends on what you have and how much you are making. Add some oregano and basil. A dash of red wine is nice, if you have it. We usually don't. Sometimes I add a little (1 tablespoon?) sugar. Taste it first.
Let this all simmer while the spaghetti cooks. Stir occasionally.
Nothing fancy or authentic but it is a tasty sauce that everyone likes and it can be adjusted to fit what is on hand and what your personal tastes are.

Found Dolls

It feels a little bit like Christmas to keep finding things I had put in the back of my mind as I keep unpacking and organizing things. All of these dolls were made some time ago from library books. Sorry, I don't remember which ones. I do remember I had trouble with the pattern for this one:

I am no great sewer (that looks so wrong), so it seemed like a big deal to me, but I am sure to most it would be an easy adjustment. She was made as a gift for my mom, and has since come back to me as she tries to cope with allergies and has been eliminating things that might collect or hold dust. I do not know her name.
The second two are Henry and Marie Yvette.

He is from Kansas and was a doughboy during the Great War. While in France he met Marie Yvette, who likes to be called Yvette. Even with her bobbed hair and that entirely too enticing beauty mark, he could tell she was a sweet thing and language proved to be no barrier to love. They were married in France and now live and work on his parents' farm in Kansas. They are very happy.

Two More Spirals

Here are the spiral granny squares for yesterday and today. I am not catching up but at least I am not falling farther behind.

I really like these colors, but I don't have much of the dark red so this -- the one on the right -- may be the only one with that color.

Found Crocheted Things

Where did all this stuff come from? Anyway, I am still in the unpacking/organizing stage here and I found a few things I thought I would share since I haven't made my granny square for today. It is on the list and I still have more than three hours in the day, but the sun is not shining so I won't be taking a picture of it until tomorrow even once I make it.
But I do have granny squares:

These were an experiment with two strands of baby yarn. The idea was to use one strand that stayed the same for all rounds and to change the other with each round. Together they also demonstrate that just because a yarn is labeled with a certain name (baby, sport, worsted, etc.) does not mean it is the same thickness as another yarn with that descriptor. I would still like to do something with this idea, but it would have to be something other than an afghan.
I also found some random granny square bits:

The tension on these is so much looser than the way I crochet nowadays that I will probably just use them as starting points for scrumbling.
Speaking of scrumbling:

These will definitely be used for scrumbling. They were made several years ago when I had first heard of freeform crochet. Our library used to have a wonderful book by James Walters that had wonderful information about crochet and how it works. It has been lost. Sigh. If you are interested in crochet and you ever see a book by him, do yourself a favor and get it.

Four More Today

So, now I am four closer to catching up and slowing down to "a granny square a day 'til the end of May" as the challenge says. Maybe when I get to that point I will start adding the border since I am pretty sure I will go that way. If I can decide on a color. And if I have enough in my stash since one of the reasons I am doing this is to use up yarn not have an excuse to buy more yarn. In this picture you can see the difference between the red yarn in the one square (lower left) and the deep orange in the other three.
All of the squares are sitting in a stack on the edge of my dresser with the ends hanging over the side. Their shape reminds me of a jellyfish though I don't think I have ever seen this colorful a jellyfish. Unfortunately, it is in a tight space and I couldn't get a picture of the uneven ends which really give it that jellyfish-look.

Aren't the colors pretty though? I like them. Usually I like to weave in all ends as I go, but since I'm still not completely sure about the border, I am letting myself enjoy the build up of colors as I finish each square.

Three More Yesterday

Here are three more granny spirals that I made for yesterday. Just didn't have time to get them up here then. These are also following the one color change at a time formula. The one on the right actually has a deep orange rather than red band in it. Couldn't get the color to come out right in the photo. There has been a good response to them on flickr.
I crocheted a couple more yesterday after taking this picture, so let's see if I can get them up today. It feels good to be working on a project.

A Granny Square a Day 'Til the End of May

Over at Meet Me At Mike's a challenge was issued a few weeks ago to make a Granny Square a Day 'Til the End of May. I only just found out about it yesterday, what with moving and all, but decided this was a perfect chance to use up some of my yarn which seems to have been breeding while I had it packed away in those dark, cozy boxes. Who knew?
Anyway, I had recently seen this pattern over at Crochet Me and when I saw the challenge and all that yarn I just had to join in the fun. Of course, I am playing catch-up so here are my first four:

I started with the one in the upper left and then changed just one color as a did each one after that (they go clockwise). I will see how far I can go using up bits and pieces of yarn before I have to change more than one color at a time. It isn't meant to be a hard and fast rule, just something I made up.
I left the ends long because I am not sure if I want to sew them together as is, which would require a lot of different colors of yarn, conveniently already attached, of if I want to add a neutral border and then attach them. We'll see.

Unpacking

When you unpack after a move you have to look at the things you have had around you for a while and rethink what you are going to do with them and where they will go if you do decide to keep them. Sometimes it just takes that new setting to see something that has been there for a while.
I found a little margarine tub (how long has it been since I even bought margarine in a little tub like this?) in with all my beads. This is what was inside:

I remember making them about 5 or 6 years ago. The goldish colored ones were varnished with something that gave them a bit of an yellow tone which looks lovely on those beads, but I decided not to try it on most of the colors. Here are a few of the strands of beads:

I also found these pins that I made a while ago. My mom had given me a kit for the yellow one. She had gotten it from a group she belongs to. I used leftovers from that kit and some of my own supplies to make the rest. Basically, you just keep going in and out of the holes on a four hole button, picking up various combinations of beads whenever you are on the front side. Fasten off and glue a pin back to the back.

We're Getting Settled

We moved into our house last week, because that is when escrow finally closed. We had been expecting it to close about a week and a half before that and so things were getting quite tense for a while there.
Now we are starting to get rooms into the shape and there are less and less boxes lying around the house. Ken has done so much work. He is amazing.
Yes, I should have pictures to share with you, though I am sure you do not want to see the dead mouse I found floating in the pool yesterday. No one told me that was part of owning a pool. All I know now is that we need more chlorine, no matter what the actual chemical balance of the water may suggest. We need more chlorine.
I also will not put up a picture of the lady who keeps parking in front of our driveway and saying she didn't know that someone was living here now, no matter how often we tell her. Sheesh.
So, because I don't want to go through a month without posting something and because I like posts that have pictures, let me share this with you:

This is a pin I made from a pattern in the book Doodle Stitching. I used beads instead of the french knots the pattern called for. My version is also stitched on felt so I didn't have to turn under the edges.
Doodle Stitching is also the inspiration for this pin also stitched on felt.

Hope you enjoy them.