Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Many thanks for all of my friends, relatives, and customers for being there this year.  I am truly grateful for you and I wish you well throughout the coming year!

It came!

The chicken coop came!  The big house arrived yesterday afternoon and we were able to get it ready for the girls just before the snow storm started.  It arrived one day early and that was a blessing.  I now have a fence repair to do, to allow for the chicken coop in the back yard, but I think it will be worth it.  Son #2 says that he is going to go out and watch the big screen TV with the girls.  He said this because he thought the chicken coop was so large and fancy.LOL  I am very pleased with it.  There are a couple of tiny things that I wish for, in the construction.  1.  On the second row of nest boxes, they put wire bottoms instead of plywood.  That works OK if you use straw, but not pine shavings.  2.  You can not walk all the way around in the screened area without stepping down in the center area.  It would be so much more convenient the other way when it comes to catching a chicken or taking in food and water.  I have 4 hens in the coop now.  I have 5 more in the dining room.  They are about 5 weeks old and not quite ready to go out to the big house yet.  Just after we got the coop and we were prepping it, I stepped out of the screened area and into a hole in the ground.  Ouch!

What do you think?  I hope the girls produce lots of eggs!

Thank you for sharing my excitement!  Blessings to you and yours!  Dawnie

A Chicken In Every Pot

Have you heard of a chicken in every pot?  I decided to photograph one of our chicks in a pot.  She is growing leaps and bounds.  Now, our chickens are egg producers first and pets second.  They kids are great chicken wranglers.   I do remember grandma wringing the necks of chickens and chopping the heads off and letting them go afterward.  At an early age, I understood the term "running around like a chicken with its head cut off."   I am sure that I could not kill one of our chickens.  My cook books just happened to be behind the pot.  LOL

You said a chicken in every pot?

What was that again?

Did I hear you right?  You said a chicken in every pot???

Oh.   I see.

Now, how do I get out of here?

During the presidential campaign of 1928, a circular published by the Republican Party claimed that if Herbert Hoover won there would be “a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.”

Read more: Promising a Chicken in Every Pot — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/promising-chicken-every-pot.html#ixzz2FYnw966R

I have been making more pot holders.  I used the same basic pattern as the last one I posted, but I made an edging around using a single crochet 4, chain 3 all of the way around as the last row.  I also added velvet ribbon in one of them.  The ribbon looks like it does not match, but it really does.

I hope you and yours are doing well.   I wish you abundant blessings!  Dawnie

Saturday and Sunday?

I have three kids in my household and all of them have special needs.  One is my son and two others are living with us.  It is a long story as to why we have two more in our household.  I usually refer to the other two in our household as my kids and they call me mom.  Anyway my son told the other boy, (or son #2), that we were going to church Saturday and Sunday since we missed church last week.  Son #2 called me a few minutes ago to confirm this.  He is 21 years old and he called me to check to see why we were going both days.  LOL  I get a kick out of kids and how gullible they are, unfortunately it reminds me of when I was younger.

Wow! Look at the size of these girls!

Wow!  Look at the size of these girls.  Get your head out of the gutter, I am talking about my chicks.  They are eating so much.  They are still skittish with me, but all of the kids are chicken wranglers and they let them pick them up.  I think they are chicken whisperers.......

Crochet thread or is it yarn?

I ordered a free sample of #3 cotton thread from Handy Hands in Paxton, Illinois.  The #3 thread is a trademark of Lizbeth, 100% Egyptian Cotton, and comes in 80 colors which includes solids add multi's.  The sample came in less than a week.  The size 3 is about as small as I want to crochet with.  The colors are bright and the samples came on a cardboard spool.  When I felt the thread for the first time, it felt like there may be a tiny wax coating to keep it stiff enough to work with.  This is unconfirmed and just my opinion.   The stitch definition is very good and the thread is easy to work with.  All of the different colors make it nice to match with.  Handy Hands can be reached at http://www.hhtatting.com or by phone at 217-379-3802.  I will be ordering some of the thread very soon.  

When does thread become yarn?  When I am spinning on my spinning wheel in public, I hear, "Look honey, she is making thread."  I've always heard it called yarn, but the cotton grandma crocheted doilies with was called crochet thread.  What do you think?

Thank you for viewing!  I hope you and yours are well and prosperous during the holiday season and in the year to come.  Happy Holidays!  Dawnie

Little Flower Cotton Pot Holders

Inspiration Front

Inspiration Back

My Versions

My Favorite, but I ran out of yarn and the yarn store was out.  They no longer make the yarn.   I found a place on line and ordered it, but it will not make it under a Christmas tree this year.  LOL

I have been crocheting pot holders with an old design, but with a little larger yarn (most is dk size).  The yarn is mostly 100% cotton and even organic cotton.  I purchased an inspiration vintage pot holder and I found 2 blogs with photos and instructions.  The blogs are: http://theflowerbed-shr.blogspot.com/1212/11/flower-potholder.html and http://breienenhaken.blogspot.nl/2011/01/traditional-crochet-potholder-tutorial.html.  I changed the pattern a little and tried a few different variations.  The original directions instruct you to crochet between the petal-like designs and then back up.  I crocheted between the petals on one all of the way to the middle of the potholder.  I found that if I just crochet down to the second row, it works best.  I also found it had a little petal slant if I crocheted back on the crocheted row going down instead of next to the row going down, when I crocheted back up the petal.   The pot holders take more yarn than you originally think, but they are large and thick.  I am sure that I would not make a profit selling them.  I doubt I could sell them for as much as I spent on the cotton yarn, let alone the amount of labor used in making them.  If I was frugal and used acrylic yarn, or scraps of yarn, I could make them for less money.   I am making them as gifts, so I was not so concerned with the price of the yarn.

They are fun to make, so you may want to give it a try.  Thanks for reading my blog.  Blessings to you and yours!  Dawnie 

Today is 12/12/12!

All About Her Women's Show, The Victrola, An Organic Cotton Hat, A New Pink Tulip Crochet Hook, and Chicks

I was a vendor at the All About Show here in downtown Wichita.  I made some sales, but it was a little slow.  Toward the end of the show, we started trading merchandise among the other vendors.  This is so much fun!  We were able to have a variety of gifts this way.  LOL  I wanted to show you how I decorated my booth.  Most of the people had no idea what the large item in the front is, but some of you Chicken keepers will know.   I also put cedar shavings in the nesting boxes along with a few colored feathers.  (Note: Cedar is a good moth repellent and I sell many wool items.  I do not use Cedar with my chickens.)  I have also found a need to surround myself with egg baskets.  I like the old and the new.  I plan to line some of them with pretty fabric and use them in my studio and/or in the home.  They tend to give me a nostalgic feeling and fond memories of both grandmothers raising chickens.  I don't know if I will use the large nesting box in this way again, but it was a fun element to the booth.  My helpers are in one of the pictures.  

It seems like a long time since I have blogged.  The week before the women's fair, we went to visit my mom.  She purchased an old Victrola at an auction.  Look at the width of the records.  What a find!  One of the songs was Way Out West in Kansas.  We had to listen to the song since we are from Kansas and mom lives much further West than I do.

In Salina, I purchased more of the Kertzer Down to Earth Organic Cotton yarn I love.  Apparently they do not make this yarn any longer.  It is a soft cotton yarn that is colored by the spray method.  The paint is not totally saturated in all of the fibers.  It has a wonderful soft texture.  Not all cotton has such of a soft feel.  I made a few wash cloths this summer in the peach color to go with my peach soap.  I picked up some green, black, and the last blue colored skein this time.  I thought the blue looked so much like denim jeans.  I want to show you what I did to give a little cotton hat some life.  Yes, I up-cycled a piece of blue jeans and wove it through the stitches.

Not long ago, I talked about crochet hooks and which ones I think are the best.  I now have a new favorite or close to favorite.  It is made by Tulip and it is not available here in the USA.   It comes in other colors and is in a limited addition in pinks at this time.  I did not want to order a high priced set if I would not like the way the crochet hook felt.  It is wonderful!  I still like the blue cushion sleeves to put over a Boye hook, but in this case, no work is needed and it is my favorite color; however, the cost is about double the amount for a similar hook when you include the shipping.  In the picture, I show the new hook next to a hook from Clover.  It is also in pink, but it does not have the comfortable grip.

To find a set, use the following location:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/360509896954?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

The bottom one is Tulip.

The top one is Tulip.

The chick is next to 2 tangerines.

See how big the baby chick is getting.  This chick is about 2 weeks old.  Also the 3 new pullets we have are so different than the older pullet. (Note:  A pullet is a young hen and usually less than a year old.)  Ruby, the older pullet, has been laying eggs for us about 2 months.  She gives us about 5 large brown eggs a week.  The new pullets just started laying eggs.  We have received 4 this week and I don't know which of the pullets are laying.  The eggs look alike in size and color, but the pullets are all different breeds of chicken, so they shouldn't lay eggs that look so much alike.  I am so thrilled to listen to chicken cackles and have fresh eggs daily.  Today, I made apple pancakes and peanut butter chocolate chip cookies with fresh eggs!

I hope you are having a good December.  I wish you and yours many blessings!  Dawnie

A New Hat and Other News

I completed a new crocheted hat using hand-spun yarn.  The top and the very bottom edge are make with three ply yarn.  One ply is a raspberry pink mohair, one ply is a light pink Merino and silk, and the third ply is a beige Merino with a little bling and misc. colors added randomly.  The bottom of the hat scallops are made with more raspberry mohair.  In the center of the hat is a lovely raspberry pink velvet bow and more of the velvet woven through the stitches.  The wool is brushed to loosen some of the fiber fluff making it a little more fluffy.  It is amazing how you can put 3 totally different plies of wool together and they fit.  Also you can make a garment with more than one type of yarn. I hope you like this look as much as I do.

I painted the hen house sign and put up the painted horse shoe for Ruby.  It is so true that it is a hen house since there is only one hen.  I ordered more, so I will have company for her soon.  

I used my pink and floral tools to put on the new chicken coop bling!