Shopaholic's Shopper finished

Well I finished the Shopaholic shopper bag.

original pattern called for WW yarn and an H hook.

So I used Red Heart WW yarn and an H hook and started crocheting.

The sides you work each by itself. following the instructions they seemed quite long, so I stopped before I got to the required number of rows.

I finished off all the pieces shorter than they were supposed to be in the pattern.

I started to put it together and oh no it is HUGE!! almost twice the size of the original pattern dimensions.

I was talking to a friend about it, and telling her it was big enough around after i put all the sides together to be a shirt.

I was so upset, almost in tears. I really wanted this one to be perfect and it flopped badly. But I finished it.

I Improvised handles for it, not using what the patten called for.

Here is the finished item, filled with 12, yes 12 giant rolls of paper towels!

This is hubby's hand holding one of the big rolls of towels we put in the bag.

Yes April, it will carry Toilet paper quite nicely (or laundry).

I hope you enjoy the bag.

Anniversary Fun.....NOT!!

After a beautiful lunch on the riverboat for our Anniversary last year, we decided to take the Horse drawn carriage ride downtown ...with not so good results. Part way through the ride something on the carriage breaks, and we are stuck. 2 miles away from the truck, 96 degrees outside. I am already feelign ill from the heat. Driver calls a Taxi which never showed up. Thankfully a nice couple that lived where we broke down offerd to take us back to the truck. We got our money back, and told them we would try again some other time..

well this year we decided to try it again.
Nothing could go wrong the 2nd time around could it?
Yep it sure could, and did...
Here we go...Round 2!

We left home yesterday afternoon with the intent of taking the carriage ride, something I have wanted to do since the first time I saw it.
Park at the visitor center.
Steve goes to buy the tickets for the 3:30 ride. (last ride of the day)
We walk across to the Fudge Factory for an ice cream.
the lady talked us into a sample of fudge..oh my that stuff was good!! had to buy some.
we sat on a bench outside the Visitor center eating ice cream and waiting for the ride to start.
The gentleman giving the rides told us to go ahead and board which we did.
it was a 4 seat carriage 2 persons per seat.we chose the 2nd from the back seat and wait.
While waiting we chatted with the driver about last year.
He went inside for a moment to let them know we were ready to go.
Up comes a young woman, maybe early to mid 20's asking if me they could have a ride too. I told her she had to ask inside.
She asked if we minded that they join us, her and her friends. Well of course not it was not our place to say yes or no.
there were 6 of them. the guys went inside and then came out and said that inside told them they had to make reservations.
so the driver went in to find out what was going on and told them to go ahead and buy their tickets. (What no one knew at the time was the ladies inside knew they were drunk and were trying to stop them from riding.)

Once they came out and got on the carriage you could tell they were drunk...you could smell it ..the longer the ride went the worse it got. it was nauseating.
they talked constantly, bad language and all, not shutting up. the 2 that sat behind us passed out! yep passed out cold.
the one gal kept waving and hollering at the people walking on the street. and the entire time the poor driver is trying to talk over them, trying to get them to be quiet, telling them that we really wanted to hear the history etc and it did no good. we had to hear all about shoes they bought, their version of the history of George Washington and all sorts of other, riddled with foul language the entire way.

over half way through the trip, we passed a Wine bar...the 4 still awake asked the driver to let them off. he asked about their 2 friends and was told to let them stay there.
so on we went, minus 4 of the drunks and 2 in the back still passed out.
A little farther on down the road the guy in the back wakes up, jumps off the cart and heads to a portapotty on the side of the road...
driver keeps on going.
we finish the trip, pull back up to the visitor center. one still passed out in the back. Driver helped us down and asked us to wait while he called his boss. he was quite upset about the events of the trip.
I tap the girl in the back on the hand, told her her friends all bailed out on her...she wakes long enough to get off the cart, go to a bench and pass back out.
We went into the visitors center. they were very apologetic about everything too.
They called the police on the passed out girl.
The driver came back in, gave us our money back and invited us back ..says 3rd time has to be a charm right?
He said that is not how that carriage operates and he wished he would have realized just how drunk they were or he would never have taken them.

All I wanted was a nice Carriage ride to listen to the history of the town, take a few pictures and spend a nice afternoon with hubby.
It is not what we got.
Again.......

Shopaholic's Shopper

I started this Shopaholic's shopper bag this afternoon.
http://crochetkitten.com/files/Shopaholic_s_Shopper.pdf
it is so easy to do! if you havent tried it, you should.
I think the pattern would make a good afghan too

My Yardsale deal of the day!

Today hubby and I went to yardsales for the first time in a long time.
I really don't need anything but it is fun to go look.
and look we did.....
and found too...
at one of the sales we went to the lady had binders put out on a table, and they were full of crochet patterns. Fibre Craft, Annies Attic, and others.
All for crochet Dolls.
over 140 patterns in 3 binders.
and one large box of sets of doll heads and hands, full body craft dolls and much more.
And I bought the entire thing for $10, patterns and the box.
I think I got a great deal!
in going through them, some are duplicated, and some I already had, so I will probably do some trading or maybe sell the ones I do not need.
I do not have a photo yet, will try to take one tomorrow.

Newest bag from recycled yarn

This is the newest bag made from the red, white and blue recycled yarn. It looks lots bigger than the last one but infact is pretty close to the same size.

Stitch used in main bag is Triangle stitch from the perpetual calendar 365 Crochet Stitches a Year.

it is an easy stitch to make. below is closer up detail of the stitches.

Rain, Work, and Wonder

Haven't been doing much lately. So tired of the rain, seems like it has rained for weeks. raining yet again today making it a damp and dreary day.
I've been working on a new market bag, using the red, white and blue recycled yarn again and a stitch called a Triangle Stitch. it is working out well, although ended up being larger than i planned on it being. Just have the carry handles to finish then will photograph it and post the pictures.

It amazes me how much yarn i have accumulated over the 6 years hubby and I have been in this house. boxes, bins, totes and bags full.
I have even considered sorting out a bunch and freecycle it, as i feel I have too much around.
I have been sorting things in my kitchen, clearing out and downsizing, freecycle what I no longer want. Feels good to be able to actually see the counter tops now. The kids keep asking my get rid of this or that since it is used. Well it is used maybe once a month, why keep something around that is not used often enough to make it a useful to have item.
silly to me.

What I did with:

Here is what I ended up with using the red, white and blue recycled yarn.

not the prettiest bag, but it is useable. holds quite a bit.

As you can tell I just used the yarn as it came, not worrying about where it started and ended.

I have enough of this yarn for 2 or 3 more of these bags too I think.