Friday, April 8, 2016

Meet the Authors and How to Join Colors in Crochet

Hello!  At our Portland Women's Forum meeting yesterday we had our "Meet the Author's" day.  It was a very inspiring program. Ellie Alexander told us of her parents bakery and how her mom got early onset Alzheimers and her loss and how it inspired her to write.  She writes mysteries - I bought two of her books and will likely buy her whole series on my iPad.  Each title is a pun and they are fun to hear.  "Meet Your Baker", "On Thin Icing", "A Batter of Life and Death".  She wrote another whole series and traveled all over Oregon to research for her books.  "Scene of the Climb", "Slayed on the Slopes", etc.  For her website - click HERE.


Ellie is a great speaker and I just know her books are going to be great.


This is Peg Willis who wrote "Building the Columbia River Highway - They Say it Couldn't Be Done".  She told of how she thoroughly researched the book and I look forward to learning much more about my beloved roadway in her book.  Click the link above to find the book on Amazon.


Author Michelle Abramson wrote two children's book from her real life experiences living in Alaska.  I bought them both to share with my grandsons.  One is about an abandoned baby seal they saved and raised and the other is about living in a fish camp and the critter living under their house.  :-)  "Baby" is on Amazon.. click HERE.


I can't wait to delve into all my new books!  We have some cute little flowers coming up in the farm yard -- I think these are called "Grass Widows".  I think I'll cut a bouquet of Lilacs today and the Lily-of-the-Valley is ready to bloom!


I've been using a really good method for joining a new color in your crochet.. I am sure I didn't invent it, but if I did.. yay me!  LOL!  But first I want to show you a method I've been using to make sure I mix up my colors in my Flowers in the Snow blanket thoroughly.  I have the skeins in a basket and I use each color to make a center and then place them on top of the skein to mark it as used.  Then I do the same thing when I add the second and then third colors.  This is working really well to spread my colors evenly.


Now to add a new color.. make a loop like you're going to start a chain.. 


Stick your crochet hook through any part of the previous work and pull the loop through from back to front.


See?


Then chain three for your first double crochet, then continue your next double crochets over the end.  When you're done with the 3 colored circles, use a yarn needle and thoroughly weave in your ends to secure them.  Always weave in your ends before you go to far and keep it up, the worst thing is to wait until the end when you have 8 thousand ends to weave in, and the best part is your blanket looks pretty while you're building it.  


I am really enjoying this blanket making.


It's such a neat challenge to try to make each "flower" with colors that look beautiful together.  


Here is the blanket so far.  I have lots of new flowers to add soon.  I have the blanket as is on the back of the leather chair in our family room so I get to enjoy it between sessions of adding flowers to it.  :-)


We celebrated Hayden's birthday on Sunday.  We met Kristi's sister and brother-in-law for dinner at Red Lobster and they showed up with a life-size blow up Storm Trooper!!  LOL!


The family having a fun dinner.. being watched over by a Storm Trooper.  :-)


Hayden is now 8 years old!  


Dayle took the boys fishing today and Kristi went along to help.  Me.. I'm kind of burned out after a busy week and decided to stay home and enjoy the house to myself.  No swimming today.  It's already almost 80 degrees and gorgeous outside.  I think I might go out and walk about the garden and pick a big bouquet of lilacs!  What are you up to today?  ((hugs)), Teresa :-) 

12 comments:

  1. Meeting the authors sounds like a brilliant event, and most inspirational. I hope you had a nice wander in the garden. And I trust Hayden had a good birthday. Wishing you all a lovely weekend. CJ xx

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  2. How fun to meet all of those authors. I laughed out loud at this some of those titles. Your blanket is looking gorgeous Teresa. And a basket full of flowers to add to it? It'll be done in no time.

    Happy birthday to Hayden! I bet you got some strange looks at Red Lobster with that storm trooper!
    Blessings always, Betsy

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  3. Thanks for all the book suggestions! I love to see your new blanket taking shape, and thanks for the tip about how you join colors. I hope the family fishing day is a success, and that you enjoy your lilacs! Now, I really am off to work on paperwork...really.... xx

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  4. I need to go pick my lilacs tomorrow too. With this early heat wave, they will go fast. I always enjoy reading the the other comments on your posts.

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  5. Happy birthday Hayden ☺ Oh yeah got to love millions of ends to sew in....learnt that one early on lol beautiful blanket and you and your family look like you have the best times together.....cool finally here and did a belated post today xo

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  6. What a fun meeting and you chose some lovely books. Happy birthday to Haydon. .how quickly they grow. Enjoy your weekend. .wow its hot over at yours!! X

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  7. Meet the Authors sounds like a very informative and fun meeting. Your blanket is gorgeous!

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  8. What a delight to be able to meet the authors. It was wonderful to see the family together to celebrate Haydon's birthday, belated birthday wishes.

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  9. I've been in Sydney for a couple of days and actually thought I'd left a comment via my iPad or iPhone (can't remember which) .. anyway, I'm back home on my computer and just wanted to say how lovely your blanket is looking. Also a very happy birthday to Hayden. xox Hope next week is a good one.

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  10. Happy Birthday to Hayden! Wow 8 already! So glad you had such inspiring writers attend your meeting, the books look excellent and I can't wait to her what yo think about them. And to top it off with a few hours just to yourself, that is fantastic, hope you enjoyed yourself.
    Meredith

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  11. Your blanket is amazing!!! Teresa you are so smart to weave in those ends as you go! Hayden looks happy. Surrounded by family is the best place to be.
    I cannot believe your Spring is so warm. Is it always this way? WOW.

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  12. Hi Teresa, your blanket is looking really good. Thank you for sharing your color-change method, that's very interesting. Happy birthday to Hayden, it sounds like he had a very fun day. I love Red Lobster. I haven't been in a few years (my husband doesn't like it and won't go with me anymore, lol), but I make the cheese-garlic biscuits at home with Bisquick sometimes. In fact, I'm thinking of making them tomorrow when I make cream of mushroom soup from scratch for our dinner. I hope you enjoyed your calm, quiet time at home. :)

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