Spring Is Coming Soon...

... I promise. I write this as I'm looking out my window at an inch of snow on the ground. Last week we had 60 degree weather. I know it's coming and I already have my real flower, veggie and herb seeds in the dirt in a seed starter greenhouse. But I don't have to wait for beautiful flowers. Just look at what I found! It's a book about crocheted flowers. It is called Crochet Collage Garden by Chris Norrington and it just came out a few days ago.

While you're waiting on your book to arrive you can get some free patterns from the book by signing up to Bookmarked Hub .com and it's free to sign up. That should hold you for a while. That's what I did. It only takes a short amount of time to make several of these. They go really quick.

It is written for UK crochet instructions. You have to translate it to American terms outside of the UK. A treble crochet is a double crochet in USA terminology.  So we use the equivalent of DK yarn over here where DK yarn is not easy to find locally. In America it's a weight #3 yarn we call light worsted yarn. My ferns and flowers are made with a #2 equivalent weight yarn. I usually split my #4 worsted into 2 ply because I can and it keeps me from having a thousand different weights of yarn skeins in every color of the rainbow. You should use what you have. You could have a bouquet in no time at all. 

What I really like about the patterns is that they are quick to work up. If you've ever worked on a large project you know it helps to break up the monotony with quick projects here and there. I fell in love with the fern pattern. Once I caught on, it flew quick and like most of the patterns, you don't need to refer back to them once you have one under your belt. And there are diagrams for all the patterns plus written instructions so you should be able to figure it out. 

You will want to block your work especially on the ferns. You can also use a spray fixative or stiffener if you want. If you are going to display them out in the open like in a picture where you can't wash them by hand when they get dirty or dusty you might want to do that to help dustproof them.

You are going to love this book. I've been struggling with a creative block since the first of the year. I just didn't want to make anything and that is so unlike me. My creative block is over and I have my cro-jo back! I think I will be busy this spring. Gardening, planting, painting, cleaning and making these flowers. Happy crocheting!

Chicken Fever!

Uh oh... I heard about some chicks at TSC a few days ago and now I want some. The only thing holding me back is that I don't have a place to brood them and keep them safe from other animals until they are big enough to go out in a coop. But I want some chickens... and my own eggs if I can afford the start up costs.

It's much cheaper to just buy them at the store even at these prices but it's not about egg prices. It's about food supply and self sufficiency. It's about control. And stupid news articles telling everyone how bad it is to raise your own chickens and eggs. It's unhealthy... really? Why would anyone want to eat lesser quality food than what they could grow for themselves??? Really? Do my brains look scrambled?

Do you really believe that home grown eggs are causing people to have foot long blood clots? It's not the eggs and we know what causes that. Every fiber of my being tells me that is a lie. Go do research on the health benefits of raising your own food compared to mass production of chicken meat and egg producing factories and you tell me what is better for you to consume. Have you seen how these birds live crammed on top of each other in cages and how they are treated? It's inhumane really.

And in the past few years the mass destruction of millions, yes millions of chickens on a global scale. And not in a humane way in some instances. Go look up the 2022 Iowa 5.3 million chickens destroyed  where they literally cooked them alive because one bird tested positive for bird flu. It doesn't take a genius to conclude that something is going on here. And now I've read that the govt wants us to register our gardens too... but why? No thanks.  But back to my chickens... 

I've got chicken fever. And I'm not the only one. There is a growing trend of people who are buying chicks up as soon as they hit the farm supply stores. Mail order chicks are backordered until May and June. People are catching on to what is going on and I'm not a conspiracy theorist but if you are wise you can see the hen scratch on the wall. 

In the meantime I guess I'll just have to make my own chickens. You can't eat these but they sure are cute! 

Now I've got to go plan my real life coop so I can have me some real life chickens and some real home grown eggs too. If I build it... they will come.

BOCK!!  BOCK!!