Crochet Means Love To Me

I was 7 years old when my Granny taught me how to crochet.  It was a green and gold rippled blanket.  Yes, it was the late 60’s and those were the colors that everyone loved.  I remember working on it and taking it to my aunt and uncles house at Christmas and my other grandmother (Grandma) showing my some mistakes I had made and helping me fix them.  At the time I did not know that it was called Frogging, because you have to “rip it, rip it”.  Lol. They both showed me the stitches and I later learned there names are chain, single crochet and double crochet.  

Neither of them showed me how to read a pattern and I am not sure that either of them knew how to read one.  Grandma would show me Afghans that she made that her sister showed her the new stitches. That is how she learned a new stitch.  It was old school YouTube. Lol

After the green and gold afghan, I made a larger one with more colors. My mom still has it.  The green and gold one she gave to Granny to use when she went into the nursing home to keep warm.  This is the second afgan I made.

I have since learned to read a pattern, but I still love single and double crochet. Grandma loved doing double crochet and when I went and visited my Granny we talked about what I was crocheting and she told me that the double crochet was the prettiest stitch.  That may be why I have always loved double crocheting.

Well, about 6 years ago, my cousin Andrea was going to have a baby and she mentioned that she loved baby cocoons. So, I went to Pinterest and looked up crocheted baby cocoons and made her one and that got me wanting to crochet again.

Crocheting is now more that just afghans.  It seems to be the hot new trend.  Samantha and I were at Joann's getting yarn and the cashier said that they are now selling more yarn than fabric!  It also seems like the yarn company's are upping their game with all of the yarn that they are offering, and Pinterest is making it easy to get patterns.  Facebook has a lot of pages you can join that will get you inspired also.  I make this for my niece's 7th birthday.

I stopped crocheting for a very long time and made some baby blankets when I was pregnant with Jonathan to sell.  Now I have opened an Esty store to sell what I am crocheting.  I have posted some of the items that I have crocheted recently on my etsy store:

theplaidpicklestudio.etsy.com.

Every time I crochet, I think of both of my Grandmothers taking their time to show me how to crochet and being so patient with a 7 year old girl that had a hard time holding the yarn and hook and making anything happen. I hope to show my 8 year old niece and some friends how to crochet this summer. That to me is love.

Love-Craft-Pickles
La Donna

One of My Hobbies

Hello All,

One of my favorite hobbies is reading.  I have always loved to read.  The problem is trying to find the time to do it.  I have some time on the bus, but on a week day at home is kind of hard.  I just finished a great book, The Woman In The Window.  This one I was able to read some at home.  It's about a woman that has agoraphobia and takes pills and drinks.  Not a good combination in life, but it made for a great read.  She sees something happen in a neighbors house, or did she?  I love mystery's and can usually figure it out before the end, but this one had a few twists that I did not see coming.  I had to close my mouth a couple times because my jaw dropped.  It really is a great read.

Another one of my hobbies it seems is ordering things from the internet.  Sometimes they are a hit, and sometimes they are a miss.  Well, Samantha found a hit.  It is called a Book Beau.  I always seem to have a book in my purse and sometimes they get messed up or my bookmark comes out and I spend my time trying to figure out where I was rather than being able to read.  When time is short this can be frustrating.  I have put my books in Ziploc bags, but the bookmark still would fall out.  Well Samantha, who is an avid reader also, found Book Beau on the internet and we ordered 3.  I love them.  I don't lose my place anymore, which gives me more time to read.

It was started by a woman named Benita Botello who had an autographed copy of a book get damaged and Book Beau was born.  They come in 3 sizes right now, but she is coming out with a lager size, which I can  not wait for!  Her patterns are very fun, which makes me happy to see it in my purse.  I also like that she is a small business owner and that we are helping her. Check out her website  https://bookbeau.com/collections/available-products?page=2. I hope you find something that you love there.

These are the Book Beau's that we have and this is what the cover of the book looks like.




Love-Craft-Pickles

La Donna

Hello all,

Of course I could not start a blog named The Plaid Pickle and not give out the pickle recipe that I am currently addicted to. My mom got the recipe from her uncle after a trip to Oklahoma. These pickles hit on all the things I love in a pickle. They are dill, garlicy, spicy, and sweet. I have these for breakfast every morning and throughout the day. When I don’t have then, I seem to have leg and foot cramps. The recipe is at the end of this post.

Theses pickles are made with Vlasic Kosher Dill Whole Pickles that are drained, cut into chunks and then you put them in a jar and add sugar, garlic, peppers.  Scrumptious.

This is what the pickles look like before you make them.  The recipe is for a large batch, but you can cut it in half, but I don't know why anyone would!

These are the peppers.  I find these in the baking isle by the Mexican spices.

SPICY/SWEET GARLIC DILL PICKLES

1  80oz Vlasic Kosher Dill whole pickles (I have used others and they are just as good)
3  Cups sugar
6  whole cloves garlic
1/2 pkg chile Pequin Peppers 1/4 oz     (I have put more in and I have put less in.  I would start my 1st batch with a few to see how hot you want them.


Remove pickles from jar, pour off the juice.  I sometimes save the juice for my husband to drink because he gets really bad leg cramps.  Cut pickles into 3 or 4 chunks per pickle. Be sure to cut both ends off of pickles.  Using the same jar, put 1/3 pickles, 1 cup of sugar, 2 cloves of garlic, and some peppers, repeat the process 2 more times.  Put in the refrigerator.  Turn the jar upside down after the 1st day.  On the 3rd day shake really good to dissolve all the sugar. On the 4th day you can eat them (sometimes I don't wait for 4 days!)

Suggestions: When you turn them upside down, it helps to but them in a bowl incase they leak.  You can reuse the juice for 1 to 2 more times. Enjoy!

PICKLE RATING:  

As Always,

Love-Craft-Pickles

La Donna