Catching my breath,....starting up again

Well, it's been very busy for the past week or so. I finally have a few minutes to catch my breath, and catch up on blog entries.
Friday I drove to Gratz to drop my entries at the County Fair. Well, actually Hubby drove while I stitched some seeds on to a watermelon hot pad. On the way back from the fair I decided to start one of the little fruit baby hats. I had red, green and black yarn in my bag, so I decided to try the pattern for the pumpkin hat, and make it into an apple. The directions had me peeved for a little while, she gave conflicting instructions which were mathematically impossible. She says to work every third row in the back loop only, so that they all show on the same side. Well, if you work every third row in blo, the even multiples of 3 will be on 1 side, the odd multiples of 3 will all be on the other side. So I went with the spirit of the instructions rather than the words of the instructions, and worked every 4th row in back loop only. For the pumpkin, you change from orange to brown at the top of the pumpkin, and make the top & the stem brown. For the apple, I worked the red further up & completed the top, then changed to green for the stem only. I also modified the leaves to make small, smooth leaves. The hat is really cute, it's been riding around in my car since Friday. Need to get a picture.

From the fairgrounds we drove to North Carolina to visit with family, arriving at my oldest brother's home about midnight. Sat, went to #2 brother's house, where parents joined us. My great-niece, who is 7, brought 2 wooden crochet hooks to show me. They're learning to crochet in school. I don't think she knew about my obsession. Anyway, I went to the car and got the 2 hooks that I made at the CGOA convention, and showed them to her. I also brought out the red and green yarn. I made a slip stitch and put it on her hook and showed her how to make a chain. She had a hard time because she pulled so hard trying to get the hook through that the chain tightened up and she couldn't get it back through. She figured out that if she did her yarn over, then with 2 loops on the hook she could use her right hand to pick up the first loop, bring it over the second and off the hook, creating a chain. She was so excited, and she made a long chain which she decided was a headband for her baby brother. She then made a long red chain and it was a bracelet for her grandmother. I left the ball of green yarn for her to practice with.

We drove home on Monday, arriving about 1 am! I had to be up at 6:30 am and teach for the day. I worked at the dance studio Wed evening & tutored on Thurs., in between I completed the contract project I had due. Friday I got the item shipped out, and mailed my CGOA application - updating from Associate Professional to Professional! Then I gave myself a treat and went to the fair to look at the crocheting. That'll be tomorrow's entry.