More than just Cross Stitchin': Crochet Night at Anita's

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Crochet Night at Anita's

At our October cross-stitch meeting, Anita gave us all a beautiful tin pumpkin stuffed with goodies: tucked amongst the treats was a gorgeous crocheted dish cloth. She's always making us dishcloths, but this one was different. When Anita found out how excited we were about this new pattern and yarn, she thought it would be fun to have a crochet night the next time she hosted.

Of course we (and when I say we, I mean I...) decided to start on a more challenging pattern as our learning tool. Rather than learn how to chain, the difference between and single crochet and a double (besides 2,,,), or even HOW to read a pattern -- we just jumped right in with both feet. (or should I say 8 hands).

Knit one, pearl one. Oops wait a sec, wrong saying...

*Chain 3. Eat 3. Rep from * to end of dish.

Starting out... a flood of memories came back to me (and when I say back I mean 'haunt') of the days that my mother attempted to teach me how to knit and crochet. My difficulty was with the tension, I was either too loose or too tight, and I couldn't hold the tools just right. "Practice", she said. "Just watch my hands". Watching my mothers hands reminded me of watching Speedy Gonzales - which then made me think I'd rather watch cartoons. No A.D.D. here!

So, back to Anita Gonzales: Anita very patiently sat with me to help me learn and self-taught Tracey helped Jody along. Both Jody and I have had a stressful week and every time I would bitch & grumble about the tension of my yarn, or Jody would curse "shit, bugger damn"someone would say "It's a dishcloth - it doesn't matter - keep going" After a few hours of learning and tearing out the sentence got shortened to "It's a dishcloth!:"

It's a dishcloth!

"It's a dishcloth" really puts things into perspective doesn't it?
Along with a slew of sayings:
"How important is it?"
"In the grand scheme of things..."
"At the end of the day..."
"Five years from now... will it really matter?"

This is a excellent example of why we love to get together: Live, Laugh, Love and remind each other that we are there to support one another. To lift the ones who are down and turn the frowns upside down.

After we finished crocheting, Anita brings out 3 large bags and surprised us with an early Christmas gift. She had crocheted an afghan for each one of us!!! Thank you so much Anita, we appreciate the time and effort that went into these treasured keepsakes.

Seriously - I'm snuggled in my afghan right now as I create this page.
Bonnie

Jody's (left) - Tracey's (middle) - Bonnie's (right)

2 comments:

Chantelle said...: Hehe, this made me laugh...I can relate to the cursing while crafting! "It's a dishcloth" is a great motto, lol :)
Hearing about the silliness and fun of you four getting together reminds me of my weekly meetings with my burlesque ladies...there are four of us as well, and there sure are lots of laughs and that awesome kind of support that is so unique to friendships with other women.

And wow, those afghans are so lovely! And I have so say that Mom's is my fave :); November 11, 2010 at 10:17 PM
staci said...: I think you all ought to be arrested for having too much fun, lol ;)

Those afghans are awesome! Enjoy your snuggling :); November 12, 2010 at 2:36 PM

Charlie Brown

Growing up, I had a pet monkey named Charlie Brown. Actually, he belonged to my sister and he came to live with us in 1966. You were actually allowed to have monkeys as pets then and if you can beleive it, he was ordered from an ad in the back of a magazine. Charlie Brown was a squirrel monkey (just like the ones in the Telus commericials).

Everyone in school loved when it was my turn for 'show and tell'. You will see in some of the photos (if the slide show downloads for me...) that he used to wear diapers. Eventually, he learned how to take them off. We had a rope strung across the kitchen from end to the other. We kept a piece of papertowel on the floor at the end of one rope and that's where he did his business. His rope provided many hours of entertainment. At bedtime, if mom and dad were not home when it was bedtime, he would sit on his roap and cry out until they returned.

If I was crying, Dad would put him up to my face to lick away my tears. He would dangle from my hair and lick from one eye to the next. It alwyays made me stop crying. He would play outside and every once in awhile he would swing from tree to tree and end up down the street at the neighbours.

Often you would find the monkey lying in the cast iron pan on the stove. The pilot light from the gas stove provided him a warm and comfy spot. He would also sit on top of the lamp shade for warmth, and if you ever heard a 'pop' - you knew he peed on the lightbulb. It happens...

Charlie Brown used to sit on the wall phone.... until it rang. That was always funny. He brought many years of amusement to us all and I miss him and his antics.

Bonnie

Warm hearts ... and warm toes!

Well since we are talking winter, let's talk about warm hearts ... and warm toes.

A few years ago at Christmas we had a gift exchange. Ironically, both Anita and myself had the exact same idea for a present. We always open our gift bags at the same time, and it was really hard for me to keep a straight face when I saw that Anita had had the same gift idea as me and while she explained that she thought slippers would be a good idea, that way we could carry them in our bag with us at all times. Anita had knit slipppers for everyone and made a little draw-string pouch, with our names embroidered on it, to keep the socks in.

Then they all opened my gift bag and we burst out laughing. I knew how much everyone loved snowmen, so I had stitched faces on white slippers and added a carrot button for the nose. Well we weren't finished with the laughter because I thought we should get a picture with our slippers on. So then we were all sitting on the floor trying to get different positions in order to get everyone in the picture at the same time. We tried sitting up against the wall and taking the picture of our toes all pointing up to the ceiling and then I said, nooooo - that will show the snowman's face upside down. Someone said... (and I won't say who...) "Good point, let's think of something else. What if we lay on our back with our feet in the air - you know... like if our feet were ON the ceiling"

Well then the faces would still be upside down wouldn't they. Spontanious Laughter.

We had to think of something else. It was decided that we would just stand toe to toe in a huddle and we would take the picture from above in order to get everyone in the picture. Sounded like a good plan right?

Well... not if you have a protruding belly and/or big boobs. After the inital light-headedness subsided from sucking in our bellies, we had to deal with the shadow from the boobs.

So we stood in our huddle, adjusting, wiggling and laughing with our arms around each other while we tried not to tip over. It was about that moment when Anita's daughter walked in on us, which of course added to the laughter when we saw the look on her face.

Finally the photo was taken and our toes are doubly warm.

Bonnie

It all started with a tea towel...

Quite some time ago when I was perusing the Dollarama, I came across the cutest autumn tea towel with a teddy bear dressed up like a scarecrow. It immediately reminded me of Jody and I thought 'I'm going to get that for her', and then I thought... why not get one for everybody? And so I did and it was a hit.

From that point on, it's no surprise to any of us if there just happens to be an occasional 'mini gift' exchange on Cross Stitch night. Once when Jody hosted in February, she gave us all a tiny picture frame with a 1" x 1" opening. I had no idea what to do with mine, but Tracey knew immediately. Because it was Valentines day, Tracey stitched a heart.

Mine sat for a good number of months before I could figure out what I could stitch in such a tiny area and not copy Tracey's idea. And then one day it hit me; Jody loves snowmen. I would do a snowman in the frame that Jody gave me. But.... do they make snowman patterns for less than 1" x 1"? I couldn't be bothered looking, so I winged it. And voila! A happy smiley snowman face. I think it took longer to write this posting than it did to stitch that happy face.

We'll have to get a picture of Tracey's heart posted after her renovations are complete as I expect it's packed away for now.

p.s. I wasn't allowed to Blog today unless I cleaned my house. It's half cleaned; consider this half a blog.
Bonnie

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Crochet Night at Anita's

2 comments:

Christmas 2016