tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-299380572011-10-13T21:06:11.438-05:00This is a journal of my adventures with knitting, crocheting, needlework and fibers. It may also record bits of information about other aspects of my life.Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comBlogger281100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1162933973404808702006-11-07T15:06:00.000-06:002006-11-07T15:14:02.540-06:00

After a quite a bit of thought I have moved the contents of this blog to a new home: Normas Needlework Adventures at Wordpress. This was a good place to start, but recently there have been technical issues with which I lack the time to deal. Links on the new site will be updated to include all of those here within the next couple of weeks. This site will remain in place at least for the

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1161404295506730262006-10-20T23:11:00.000-05:002006-10-20T23:37:43.553-05:00

Someone on an email list to which I belong asked for links to apron patterns. Her preference was for them to be crocheted. I decided to do what I thought would be a quick search for them on Google. My quick search ended up taking more than an hour to complete. This was because I kept finding interesting sites that might have what I was looking for. What fun!!! :) I limited myself to sites with

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1161227819740089422006-10-18T21:36:00.000-05:002006-10-18T22:17:00.093-05:00

There are times when life doesn't go the way we hope it will. This is one of those times for me. About six weeks ago my nursing license was re-instated. I let it lapse several years ago when I quit working to become a Stay at Home Mom who homeschools. Shortly after it arrived in the mail, my glasses got broken. This is a big issue because it means that driving is very difficult to say the least.

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1161016084382636112006-10-16T10:48:00.000-05:002006-10-16T12:01:17.030-05:00

I found an interesting Blog while working online a few days ago. It is called Bittersweet. Take a look at some of the patterns on the Free Patterns page for some real treats. Even my husband enjoyed this. As usual I have been busy adding patterns to Dish and Wash Cloth Mania. It has grown so much and so fast that I am amazed. There is always something new to add. There has even been time to

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1160064877520218252006-10-05T11:04:00.000-05:002006-10-05T11:14:37.583-05:00

My goals for posting here have certainly not been met. I have been spending so much time adding links to Dish and Wash Cloth Mania that even knitting and crocheting have fallen by the way side. That blog has grown more than I thought it would. I even managed to give it a custom header. Doing that made for some interesting learning. I will try to get back to working on some charity projects later

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1159193271902230412006-09-25T08:34:00.000-05:002006-09-25T09:07:52.000-05:00

I realized a few minutes ago that I have not been writing about knitting or crocheting here in the past several weeks. There are a few reasons for this which all come down to life getting in the way. The hard drive on the computer quit working the Friday of Labor Day weekend. My plans were to gets a lot of things done on the computer that weekend. We have a 'new to us' computer purchased from

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1158798904416325532006-09-20T17:37:00.000-05:002006-09-20T19:35:04.623-05:00

Wow!!! The past few weeks have been so very busy. It's hard to believe that it has been so long since Ihave written anything here. The main reason for this is that my old hard drive quit working on the Friday of Labor Day weekend. That was a real bummer because my oroginal plan to to spend lots of time on my blogs over that weekend. Oh well....Life happens like that sometimes. Instead of lots

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1156640645969294022006-08-26T19:35:00.000-05:002006-08-26T20:04:05.993-05:00

It feels like it has been forever since I have written anything here. Life has just been busy. We have geared up academics now that the end of August has arrived. This means me concentrating on being organized and preparing lesson ideas a few days in advance. Even if they are not written down, they are in my head.....What a scarey place to be. LOL! For the past few weeks my only knitting or

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1155239671878742222006-08-10T14:35:00.000-05:002006-08-10T15:19:56.083-05:00

It feels a bit selfish and extremely egocentric to write about myself, but it seems apporpriate to do so in order that you know where I am coming from when I write about fiber related subjects. First, you must know about my mother. I grew up as the oldest child of working class parents in a major metropolitan area of the Midwest. From what I understand, my mother worked from the time she was

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1155071819868409172006-08-08T16:07:00.000-05:002006-08-08T16:16:59.886-05:00

I haven't been knitting or crocheting much at all in the past few days. There a some squares with loose ends waiting to be woven in. The stack needs to be finished tommorrow so it can be mailed ASAP....Hopefully my family will be open to the idea of Family Reading time this evening. If they are, then I will weave in the loose ends during this time. We have plenty of books in our 'To be read' pile

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1154976256895142142006-08-07T13:29:00.000-05:002006-08-07T13:44:16.903-05:00

New Site I decided to move my new site Dish and Wash Cloth Mania to a new home because of the difficulty finding a template that fits my goals for it. You may find it here : Dish and Wash Cloth Mania. This is still my main site for fiber arts. and other topics. I haven'tdone much knitting or crocheting done in the past few days. I spent a bit of time on Saturday evening weaving in loose ends

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1154913518810525012006-08-06T20:01:00.000-05:002006-08-06T20:18:38.816-05:00

Busy Day It's been a busy day in terms of Blog activity. There have been a few changes made on the side bar of this blog. I changed the order of the links around to suit my sense of organization. I also added some links, such as Star Gazer's. I also created a new blog devoted strictly to dish and wash cloths. It will eventually be placed on the side bar. For right now you can find it at Cloth

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1154864326960133962006-08-06T06:28:00.000-05:002006-08-06T07:15:20.013-05:00

Time Flies I can't believe it has been so long since I have posted here! The weeks have flown by in a blur of activity. There have been several times when I have wanted to sit down an write, but have not been able to do so for a number of reasons. My hooks and needles have been very busy. I made a bunch of crocheted 8 inch squares for a project I was involved in on Bev's Charity Challenge.

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1152760099597344042006-07-12T21:44:00.000-05:002006-07-12T22:16:26.826-05:00

Pet Peeve I have recently discovered a pet peeve. It is tightly wound balls of yarn. Now mind you, I like the yarn....It's the tightly wound part that is unpleasant, to say the least. In the past week I have discovered numerous of these yarn balls in my stash. True enough, they should have been dealt with before, but alas!!!...They got lost in the shuffle. The poor yarn in some cases has been

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1152560072324390822006-07-10T14:23:00.000-05:002006-07-10T14:45:37.553-05:00

PicturesHere are the pictures I promised. The squares don't look as unique as I was hoping. Loose ends reamin to be woven in as you can tell. They will wait for another day.This one is done in scraps of blues and white. My son says it looks like a target.This one is done in Red Heart Hot Pink andSunshine Print. The scanned picture does not do it justice. This one is supposed to be Pink, Green

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1152330924628764682006-07-07T22:42:00.000-05:002006-07-07T23:19:00.386-05:00

Hooks vs. Needles or Needles vs. Hooks I have had to make some dificult choices in the past two days....What gets my attention: My needles or my hooks. The answer was...Drumroll..............Hooks. Alas, my most recent Mason Dixon Big Dotty dishcloth is abandoned in its place in the kitchen. It has been banned from its place on the table. In its place is a huge plastic type bowl full of odd

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1152163731498685172006-07-06T00:21:00.000-05:002006-07-06T00:28:51.506-05:00

Oops!! I forgot to say a few things about the pattern I posted yesterday. You can change the way it looks by making the corners : (2 DC, ch 1, 2 DC ) instead of (2 DC, c2, 2 DC ). It also works well as a one color square. Another option is to make a round or two using a variegated or ombre yarn. Another idea is to make a round of SCs with your choice of corners. ( see #1 above. )

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1152135903558286552006-07-05T16:41:00.000-05:002006-07-05T21:02:05.763-05:00

Crocheted Square Here is a crocheted square I designed a while back. I am showing it and the pattern as an 8 inch square, but it can be made smaller or larger by the additon or subtraction of rows; by changing hook size and by changing yarn weight or type.Fascination Materials: Small amounts of 2 colors of yarn Size I hook Size: Approx. 8 inches With Color A, form a loop around fingers to

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1152024912623370732006-07-04T09:50:00.000-05:002006-07-04T10:22:54.486-05:00

Dish & Wash Cloths Lately I have been on a dish and wash cloth make craze. At first I blamed it ( tongue in cheek ) on the Mason Dixon Knitting book. I have come to realize that there is more to it than that. There are lots more reasons than that ranging from them being a quick portable project to the simple fact that I enjoy making them. They can be knitted, crochete or cro-hooked....It just

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1151844891342566522006-07-02T07:16:00.000-05:002006-07-02T09:25:40.163-05:00

Yesterday Yesterday was fun. I wanted to write about it last evening was just too tired. Once a month our library has a Stitch n Chat in the afternoon, led by one of the library staff. It is a very informal time for people who do any kind of stitching to get together and just stitch and chat. It has been months since I have gone because life just got in the way. I went yesterday despite

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1151716453366316372006-06-30T19:12:00.000-05:002006-06-30T20:14:13.380-05:00

Another Big Dotty and Some BallBand Cloths Never has one book of patterns captured my imagination as much as the Mason Dixon Knitting book. Yarn and thread have fascinated me since I was 6 or 7 years old. I learned to knit before I was 10 years old and learned to crochet as a young teenager. My collection of fiber related books is adequate, but not small. My collection of patterns obtained from

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1151710589702689802006-06-30T18:23:00.001-05:002006-06-30T18:53:07.750-05:00

Finally!!I finally got loose ends woven in on some dish and wash cloths today. It feels like a major accomplishment to have done this. It is one of my least favorite tasks to do in the entire world.These first pictures are done using the Big Dotty pattern from the Mason Dixon Knitting book. I used # 10 1/2 needles for rows 1, 2, 9, and 10. The remaining rows are made on size # 8 needles. This

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1151597916078402522006-06-29T10:27:00.000-05:002006-06-29T11:22:23.696-05:00

Yarn, Links and Dishcloths The past couple of days have been very interesting. I have been in dish and wash cloth making mode for the past few weeks. This week has been no different. I am in the process of making a Big Dotty cloth using Sugar n Cream Gumdrop and Hot Orange. There will eventually be an inverse set. This first one has Gumdrop as the front color and Hot Orange as the back

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1151463349140221292006-06-27T21:30:00.000-05:002006-06-27T22:25:01.536-05:00

Busy Day Wow!! This has been a super busy day. The first part of the morning was spent learning to re-size and crop photographs. It was fun to play around doing this. I have spent a lot of time today reformatting this blog and have finally chosen to stay with this template after some experimentation. It is working out quite well. More links need to be added, but that might have to wait for

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1151213690270390372006-06-25T00:24:00.000-05:002006-06-25T00:43:03.923-05:00

One of my favorite places to visit is the Mason Dixon KAL site. I always seem to get new ideas when visiting there. This is great because I have lots of cotton worsted wt. yarn to use and am not the most creative person when it comes to choosing color combinations. I appreciate seeing what others do.

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1150913419989184442006-06-21T13:05:00.000-05:002006-06-21T13:23:57.880-05:00

On The Road Again Finally......I am on the road again!!! My van is repaired and home once again. It's strange how something so commonplace as a minivan can make such a differnece in one's life. Mine is nothing special in the scope of life, except that it is mine, well, really ours. But the point is it is wheels I can drive. YES!!!! I wonder just how much knitting or crocheting will be done now

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1150838110820538652006-06-20T16:03:00.000-05:002006-06-20T16:52:00.123-05:00

Big Dotty # 2 Ok, so I don't have all the fine points of this Blogging stuff down yet. I am working real hard on it. Somehow I wound up with two identical pictures and can't figure out how to get rid of one of them. At least I am able to use the scanner to post pictures of my work. Yeah!!!!! That's progress. This is Big Dotty #2 using pattern from the Mason-Dixon Knitting Book. This time I

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29938057.post-1150832129616030702006-06-20T14:18:00.000-05:002006-07-02T07:16:18.866-05:00

June 20, 2006 My First Experience With A Blog This is exciting!!! I have been thinking about doing this for a long time. The impetus for doing this is all of the knitting and crocheting I have been doing. At the first of the year, I promised DH and DS I would not buy any more yarn this year until I had used up the equivalent of one 16 gallon tote of yarn.....I blew that one a long time

Normahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03253097852510170645noreply@blogger.com