Saturday Serenity - February 20, 2016

I love water..... and I don't just mean water to drink.  I am so much more serene when I can be near the water, whether it be the ocean, a lake, a river, or a creek. I NEED to be by water. A numerologist once told me, after reading my numbers, that I don't just "like" water, or "like" being near the water, but that I NEED to be living by water. I need it for my soul.

I feel so much better today because I got to visit this wonderful creation of nature last week, Lake Billy Chinook, just west of Madras.

We never know the worth of water.....

Until the well is dry.

~Thomas Fuller~

Gnomologia, 1732

The Three Sisters mountains are way off in the distance to the south.

And Willow Creek, that flows gently into Lake Simtustus, which is north of Lake Billy Chinook, added very much to  my feelings of peace and serenity.  In this very arid climate, just the sound of it soothed me.

I am so very thankful for water! I hope your Saturday is a good one.

 

The crochet train.....

I was on a roll before Christmas making large crocheted doilies/table mats for everyone.... and then I was done...Christmas was over and no one to make doilies for!............ but I was still in the mood to crochet, so I've been having some fun making mini doilies and flowers.

I really need some mini doilies for my little mini albums that I make for my Etsy shop... but I hate using tiny yarn (thread) as my fingers just won't navigate that tiny string. All I had was some 4-ply yarn which is too big for "mini" doilies and flowers! (see below)

I live 25 miles away from the closest store with yarn, and was totally out of all of my smaller ply yarns, so ran to a local discount store that sometimes has a few skeins of yarn, and found some 3 ply yarn (blue) and tried that for some tiny flowers and doilies. What do you think?

Well, I'm really not liking them. The yarn is too coarse and stiff and it just didn't work up very well.  How about stacking one on a flower made with my black alpaca yarn?

The black flower is pretty, but still too big.... and the blue on top looks OK.. but who needs a black flower? Well.... maybe if I did steampunk.  Which I do really want to play with using my pinks, some black and golds.... so maybe the black one WILL be used at some point in the future.

My faves are these little roses - love them and they are so fun and easy to make.  I found the tutorial for these on YouTube at Simply Daisy.  This sweet little rose is super easy - chain 26 and then one row which consists of double,  half double and single crochets. Then curl it up and sew it together. L.O.V.E. them and am going to attempt to  make some smaller ones - yes! smaller.... as they would look darling on cards or my mini albums.

My next favorite is this pretty tiny little doily by tootooamy on You Tube. It's very lacy and sweet and I used about a 2 play yarn but it still turned out a little too big.... but love it anyway.

Look at these paired with the rose! So pretty. Oh it takes such simple things to make me happy. The cream rose is alpaca yarn.

Oh... and that pink one underneath... that is another one I love and don't think there is a pattern for it. I must have made it up. I found one like it on one of my mini albums I made, and for the life of me, can't remember where I got the pattern from! so must have just been experimenting. I copied it and came up with a couple more.  

I like the little "spokes" and it works really nice with a pretty blingy button in the middle (below).

Now... all the blue ones are from various patterns I found on YouTube. I wrote some down and some I didn't. 

I think the smallest little tiny 6 petal flower at the bottom was by My Fair Hands. Search for her video if you're interested entitled "How to Crochet a tiny flower tutorial". It is super easy and would look great in different colors mixed together on a project.  The five petal flower above it and to your right I'm pretty sure was made by B. Hooked Crochet entitled "Easy Crochet Flower".  

For the others, I was just playing around and was trying the picot border on the biggest one. It's pretty but as I said, I did not like this yarn!  They do look kind of neat stacked up.

By the way, here's a large table mat I made for my nephew and his fiance using that picot edge. I kind of like it.... had never used that edging before and I just kind of made it up. I wanted it not quite so frilly and feminine.

OK... that's my fun for the last couple of weeks or so. I finally made it to the St. Vincent de Paul store (thrift store) 25 miles away, and picked up some smaller yarn sizes, so am going to try my hand at some even smaller flowers and doilies. I'll let you know how it works out!

I guess I'm still on the crochet train.......