And now, the famous shrug....

Crocheting is very conducive to thought. It's nice to crochet a while, put down the hook, paint for a while, take up the hook again then watch the Housewives shows, then work on THE SHRUG. This has been my life for a while now.
The pic that hooked me in to wanting this shrug

I got the free pattern and bought the stuff to make it

What the heck is this? It doesn't look like the pictures.......

I didn't know what was happening so just kept on hooking and this appeared

I made the next piece, still not sure if i was making it right

Then it said sew the two pieces together

Now.....where does my head go? Do i make another one for the front, or back and where are the sleeves?

My piece doesn't look anything like this diagram. Did i make it wrong? The construction notes says

1. The shrug is made in 2 pieces, an upper half and lower half. Each half consists of  half of each sleeve and a center section.

1. Center section of upper half forms the shoulders and collar. The center section of the lower half forms back and sides.

3. The upper and lower halves are seamed along long straight edges.  OK; i get this step but it still doesn't look right to me. Next it says

Side and sleeve are seamed and then cuffs are worked. Where are the side seams? I sort of get where the cuffs will be but how or where are the sleeves; how and where do i seam the side and sleeves and still be able to put it on?

4. The shorter straight edges of the upper and lower halves form the front opening.

Huh? My brain is hurting trying to get a grip on this. I need help, please!

Crocheting

To knit with a crochet needle or hook; as in, to crochet baby clothes or a shrug. Yes, i've been busy hooking.....i'm going to be a great-grandma!

In case it's a boy

In case it's a girl

A closeup

and a big bootie that will hold a container of flowers just in case there's a baby shower

Willy strikes and brings back memories

The $20. i'm tracking has arrived in Banff, Alberta from it's last known stop in Ontario without being seen in the last 4 months. I'm hoping it'll make it to B.C. again but one just never can know which way money will go.
The map of it's 6 hits shows me in the number 2 position so maybe it's on it's way west....wouldn't it be a hoot if it came into my hands again.

See how far and how fast it's been travelling here:
http://www.whereswilly.com/report.php?key=ee9faadd624e5ef3001d432286bde7538c18b44294e76b1

Banff, what a beautiful place. When my grandkids were young i took some of them on a road trip; destination the Royal Tyrell Dinosaur Museum in Drumheller, Alberta. Banff wasn't on the itinerary but once the oldest grandkid saw signs for it on the way he begged and pleaded to turn at the junction. It seemed a real biggie to him so i detoured a few hundred miles and went for it even though it was high tourist season and we didn't have hotel reservations there. We saw Mt. Rundle over Banff

I just put this pic because it's so pretty; our trip was actually in July

and we lucked out as we entered town and i noticed a hotel with the no vacancy sign suddenly change to vacancy....we were safe so moved in then set out to find whatever it was that was so important to him. Me; i wanted to show them the elk that walk about in the town but alas we found out they've been kicked out of town and now wander around the golf course so off to the golf course we went and saw several there. Meanwhile the 14 yr old was itching to go shopping and as i'm always up for shopping back to town we went. We shopped the entire town and he finally found what he was after. It turned out to be a blast from the past revived again....a ballpoint pen with pic of a clothed woman on it that when turned over became nude....kids, lol! Would i have gone that way had i known i don't know but i'm glad we took an extra day and visited because on the way we saw Lake Louise

Two Jack Lake

Moraine Lake

Eventually made our way through the badlands of Alberta where dinosaurs once roamed 65 million yrs. ago and strange hoodoos and fossils abound

and the temperature inside the car became 45 degrees Celcius (111 Fahrenheit) while we enjoyed the view. Then i read the sign about rattlesnakes and scorpions and we high tailed it outta there real fast.

Drumheller with it's 86 ft. high, 151 ft. long, 145,000 lb. T. Rex

Looking out from inside its mouth

and finally into the Royal Tyrell Museum

Fun old memories, all because my $20 bucks had another hit.

Life