Relay for Life

It's almost Relay time again. Here is a couple pictures from last years Relay.

Finished Ribbons Afghan

Pati at her last Relay for Life event

I never did get around to posting my finished afghan so here it is. The pattern is shown in a previous post on this blog. After finishing the afghan my daughter, who lost her fight against brain cancer in September 2006, informed me I had not put a ribbon for colon cancer, which I am a survivor of.

It's been a long time

WOW, it has been a long time since I posted. A lot has happened in the past few months. In May Pati was diagnosed with liver cancer. It was too far advanced by the time she started having symptoms and on September 21, 2006 she was gone. Too fast, too soon.

Shortly after Pati's diagnosis my other daughter and her husband found out they would be moving back to Michigan. Fortunately they sold their home quickly and they moved home and having been living with us. In July they added a little girl to their family, a new grandaughter and I get to see her every day!!! Them living here has worked out very well. I can not imagine going through everything this last month without them here.

New bag/purse

What started out as a give away ended up being a fantastic trade. I received some wool yarn and made this bag. My daughter has claimed it as her own. I couldn't believe how well it felted. I'm pretty sure I have enough yarn to make me one too.

Felted Purse

I've made my first felted purse. I really like it. I cannot wait to make another.
Before:







After:

FISH & CHIPS

Our family has been going to a Fish & Chips restaurant in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada since I was probally about 8 yrs old, almost 40 years!!!! This is what theirs looks like. When my daughter comes home from Pennsylvannia we MUST go there for dinner. This is a picture of one order of 'chips' and 5 pieces of fish. We took this picture to send to my friends sister in California. This place also has the most awesome chocolate shakes.

Grandmothers Flower Garden

I've been working on a Grandmothers flower garden afghan. This is being made with scraps and odd skeins. Much of the yarn I inherited from my mother.

I have added an additional row around each hexagon to make them a bit larger. I'm not sure what color I will put around each flower. I'll decide that once I have all the flower petals and centers completed.

First Day of Summer

Well this is the first day of summer. Now the days will get shorter. I've finally started to ride my bike again. It really feels good. I really need it both physically and mentally :) Pati has been riding the stationary bike for quite a few months and logging her miles she has made it almost 1/2 way across the state.

WOOOOO HOOOOO grandson Mark started crawling yesterday. What a wonderful Father's day for my son-in-law. I can't wait to see him. Hmmmmmmmm, how long do I have to wait? I hope not for too long. I'd love to fly down there one weekend, gotta keep checking for a low fare.

Going to go check fare from PA to MI right now. There is a week I could possibly fly them here!!

Having a great time!!!

Monday Doug went to pick up T, daughter in PA, and grandson. They were home when we got back from chemo, but we had to wait a bit for T and Mark to get back from the other grandma's. It is sooooooooooooo nice to have them here. Doug says it looks like a tornado went through the house. Just not enough room for all the things necessary for a baby.

Saturday is our local Relay for Life. P is really excited. However, the chemo she is taking does nasty things to your feet & hands. Her feet are really sore so she will only be able to walk the survivors lap. If it wasn't for those darn feet she would be all over that place. But we are so thankful that she does not have more side effects. She handles the chemo really well, never been sick from it, just tired. It's funny they give her Decadron, steroid, prior to administering the chemo. The decadron keeps her wide awake even though she is tired. :(

Two Days and counting

Grandson will be here soon, oh yea so will daughter. :) In just about 36 hours they will be here for a week then they will go to the in-laws for a few more days. We are excited. We have a busy week ahead with the ACS Relay for Life this coming weekend. It will be exhausting but fun!!! Our team has raised well over our $2,500 goal as set by Pati, our captain.

Mark in his froggy outfit. This is one of the most recent pictures. I loved this outfit so much that I had bought two of them in two sizes. I really thought Traci could return the size she didn't think he could wear this year. Perhaps she kept both!!! I would not blame her.  

Grandma & Mark, who's enjoying this more?  

This is the baby afghan I made for Drew's mommy. Drew was born on April 27, 2005. 

This is the round ripple afghan, pattern available free on line. It was so easy. Now I just need to find a baby to give this to. :) 

Just a couple of the poncho's I have made from Chelle's pattern. These are so easy and just soooooooo cute!!! 

Here are a couple of purses I made while on vacation. I ended up making three of them, each with a different size crochet hook, Until I got it the size Traci wanted. I had made myself one and could not remember what size hook I used, and she wanted hers the same size as mine.  

Joe, T and Mark. They are soooooooo wonderful about getting lots of pictures to us. Can't wait for them to get home, lets see....... 10 days and counting!! 

Rose asked me to make an "I Love You" book mark. This is what I came up with, haven't taken a picture with the 'bookmark' part on it yet. Plus I still need to write the pattern down so I can make more for her. I better get with it she will be here is a couple weeks. 

Grandpa Doug and Mark when we visited PA 

How cute is he!!  

Catching up....MRI results

It has been a while since I posted to my blog. Not something I check on too much. I'm gonna have to do better. We again received WONDERFUL news regarding P. Her MRI from the end of April showed no change. WOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO. This is just wonderful and I thank God for this wonderful news. She is having a few other issues though, unrelated to the cancer. But she is a toughie!!! She amazes me!!

I must get a new picture of Mark, grandson who is now 7 months old. My other daughter T and Mark will be here in 11 days. We cannot wait.

I have not yet finished the snowflake afghan. I had it all sewn together and decided it needed one more row, so I just have to sew the last row of snowflakes on and then do the trim around.

I have 3 squares/rectangles to do on the Ribbon afghan. I had a heck of a time finding the colors I wanted, without buying a full skein for just a small amount. Fortunately I only had to buy on skein for the yellow ribbon. The relay is in two weeks so I better get going on that.

I just find too many things to do. The villagers at Crochetville just show me soooooo much that I want to print the patterns and get right to those. The heck with the things that need to be completed.

Enough for now, I'm gonna try to post pictures now. That will take a while. I'm gonna have to start doing it more often so I can get the hang of it.

this is a wristlet I made. I took a pattern for a tote and changed the handles a bit. 

VERY good day

Today was a VERY good day. We went to Pati's nureo-oncologist to get the results of her MRI. We were very pleased and excited when he told us that the MRI showed no real change. There is one spot they are watching that has not changed. YEA!!!! There is also another small area that they are keeping an eye on that has gotten smaller. WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO!!! Doctor says they'll keep doing what they are doing and for us to keep doing whatever we are doing. So what are we doing???? PRAYING!!! So many people have been praying for Pati in this last year and a half. Many we do not even know. With this good news we look forward to going on a vacation to visit my youngest daughter and meeting the many people who have been praying for Pati since her last brain surgery in August.

MRI Time

Today was MRI time, again. Rather than wait 8 weeks the doctors wanted P to have a follow up MRI in 4 weeks. So this morning we went to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and she had her MRI. Fortunately it was a nice day, we rarely have run into bad weather while driving back & forth to Detroit. We go to her Neuro-Oncologist on Wednesday afternoon to find out the results of the MRI.

Here is my wonderful family. My husband, our two daughers, our grandson and son-in-law. Grandson was only one month old when this was taken, before they moved out of state. :(

Mark III

This is a current picture of our grandson at 4 months. We will be visiting him in three weeks. WOOOOO HOOOOOO

Crocheted Tote - Love It !!!!

This is a tote that I made from a free online pattern. It was VERY easy and worked up quickly. Now I want to make a smaller version.

Cancer Ribbon Afghan

This in another work in progress. I am making this afghan to help raise money for the American Cancer Society. We hope to have a 'drawing' for it at our local Relay for Life in May. I could not find a pattern for the ribbon so I created it myself, with Pati as my critic until it looked good. We plan to have 24 different colored ribbons with each square trimmed in lavender/purple, the color for all cancers.

I now have the pattern written if anyone would like it. It is shown below:

CANCER RIBBON AFGHAN

Crochet hook: Size K (or size to make rectangle the size you want:
Worsted Weight yarn
White: ( I have not finished my afghan so I do not know how much is needed. So far I have made 13 white rectangles using 8 ounces)
Lavender: (used around each rectangle)
Ribbons: small amount of each color for multi colored ribbons

Rectangles measure: 9” x 15”

RIBBON RECTANGLE:
Using white
Chain 25
Row 1: dc in 3rd ch from hook, dc to end (23 dc including beginning ch 2), ch 2 turn
Row 2: dc in 2nd ch from hook, dc across, ch 2 turn
Row 3 – 21: dc in 2nd ch from hook and in each stitch across following graph connecting ribbon color
Row 22; dc across, ch 2 turn
Row 23: dc across.

SOLID RECTANGLE:
Using white
Chain 25
Row 1: dc in 3rd ch from hook, dc to end (23 dc including beginning ch 2)
Row 2 – 22: dc in 2nd ch from hook, dc across, ch 2 turn
Row 23: dc across.

EDGE AROUND RECTANGLES:
Connect with sl st to bottom right corner, ch 2, 2dc, ch 1, 2 dc in corner * ch 1, 1 dc in end of row * Repeat from * to * to top right corner, ch 1, 3 dc, ch 1, 3 dc in corner. Ch 1, going in between stitches, * skip 2 stitches, 1 dc * repeat from * to * skip 1 stitch, 3 dc ch 1, 3 dc in top left corner. * ch 1, dc in end of row * Repeat from * to * to bottom ch 1, 3 dc, ch 1, 3 dc in corner. Ch 1, going in between stitches, * skip 2 stitches, 1 dc * Repeat from * to * skip 1 stitch, sl st to top of ch 2 at beginning.

Sew rectangles together.

NOTE: When connecting colors I pull the new color through the last 2 loops of the previous stitch. I use two small balls of the color, carrying the white in the back/front whichever the case may be.

GRAPH FOR MAKING RIBBON RECTANGLE:

23 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
22 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
21 OOOOOOOOXXXXXXXOOOOOOOO
20 OOOOOOXXXXXXXXXXXOOOOOO
19 OOOOOXXXXXOOOXXXXXOOOOO
18 OOOOOXXXXOOOOOXXXXOOOOO
17 OOOOOXXXXOOOOOXXXXOOOOO
16 OOOOOXXXXXOOOXXXXXOOOOO
15 OOOOOOXXXXXOXXXXXOOOOOO
14 OOOOOOOXXXXXXXXXOOOOOOO
13 OOOOOOOOXXXXXXXOOOOOOOO
12 OOOOOOOOOXXXXXOOOOOOOOO
11 OOOOOOOOXXXXXXXOOOOOOOO
10 OOOOOOOXXXXXXXXXOOOOOOO
09 OOOOOOXXXXXOXXXXXOOOOOO
08 OOOOOXXXXXOOOXXXXXOOOOO
07 OOOOXXXXXOOOOOXXXXXOOOO
06 OOOXXXXXOOOOOOOXXXXXOOO
05 OOXXXXXOOOOOOOOOXXXXXOO
04 OOOXXXOOOOOOOOOOOXXXOOO
03 OOOOXOOOOOOOOOOOOOXOOOO
02 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
01 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Snowflake Afghan

Snowflake afghan 1/3 complete. Hope to have finish project within the next week. Well I still am not done yet. I have about 3 of 9 strips left to connect. The folks at Crochetville have led me to soooooooo many patterns that I have been jumping from project to project and have not made it back to this one yet.

Pati's Hats

These are small portion of the hats my daughter, Pati, crocheted in the last year