~ Lovely goodies and an award ~

Hello all, how are you doing? I hope you all had a great weekend and your new week ahead will be a beautiful one!

It's been over a week since my last post, sorry for the silence, work has been quite busy lately! Thank you so much for all your kind comments, your messages, your words of encouragement really made my day!

Well, not much for today post, I just would want to share with you some lovely goodies I bought from a lovely lady on Ravelry last week. She has some beautiful yarn for sale there, I checked out her stash and picked these beauties out:

Two balls of Vanna's Choice Baby, Aqua, one is wound into smaller balls.

Caron Simply Soft in Country dark blue. I see some bloggy friends using this type of yarn very often for their projects and I would want to try also, but it's not available at my local craft store here, so I took all three balls and love it!!

Caron Simply Soft Paints, also very soft and has a lovely variegated colors - Oceana.

Naturally Caron Country, in my favorite color... Soon I will find something beautiful to make with this lovely yarn!

And these Paton's Brilliant in lilac are just so soft and beautiful. This type of yarn has been discontinued, there were only 6 balls left in her stash so I took all. I've been thinking of knitting a top with these, and I'm still looking for a pattern to try!

I've never used any kind of glitter yarn so far, but it looks just cute so I took 2 balls, this can be something fun for my baby projects... ;)

The package arrived quite fast and here is all the yarns I have bought from her:

Look at the picture below, except a set of DPNs size 3 I also bought in the same order, all the rest are included in my package for free! Knitting needles - used and new, 11 pairs in total and a pair of Takumi circular needles together with some stitch holders - she offered them all for free as I was buying her yarns!

Other than that, below is some lovely stuff she included, a small ball of Simply Soft paints in rose garden and some bows, flowers,.. she made for embellishment and gifted to me as well. How nice!

But the best part is this pair of barefoot sandals - also a gift from her! I'm going to have a vacation and these will be something very cute with me on the beach, and very sexy, too! Thank you Denise, for such cute stuff on our first deal! I love them all!

And, one more thing to share is, I have received this "Liebster Award" from Miss Beena Stephy over at Beena's Creations. Thank you very much, my friend, for thinking of me and has passed this award on to me, I'm so honored!

I just googled the word "Liebster" and so fun to know it's German and means "Dearest", or "Beloved"! Go check out Beena's "Dearest" blog, her embroidery is amazing!!!

Thank you everyone for stopping by, wishing your days are all gorgeous!

Take care and best wishes ~

BIG Project Started!

It's a granny square blanket. My first REALLY BIG project.

I have dreamed of a granny square blanket for a couple of years. I tried some granny square patterns before but not for blanket. It's so BIG and may take me years to finish... But I'm terribly inspired by so many talented ladies making their blankets, from ripples, squares, to hexagons, flowers,..., they are all adorable! So, took a deep breath (just as I was so excited! :)), I was headed to the craft store over the weekend and took home some more lovely yarns:

I decided to use the granny square pattern from Lucy at Attic24. It's so beautiful and caught my heart right  the first time I saw it. But it's most wonderful when I'm making it myself! Oh my Gosh, if only I know how amazing to make these sooner!

How cute to start from these lovely circles:

to bigger ones...

... turn them to these squares...

...from bigger and hot one...

and cooler one...

...to these!!! Here is how my blanket looks when it's finished! I've not yet counted how many squares for my blanket in total, it must be a lot!!! Well, still have a lot of work ahead, but attractive work, don't you think so?! :)

The more making these granny squares, the more I get addicted! I just love to take this basket when I get home from work every day! Happiness comes from just such little things!!!

Thank you all my bloggy friends for your time and words of encouragement always, you know how much it means to me!! ♥

I hope you are enjoying the beautiful rest of the week!

~ Much love, LS ~

P.S: I just realized I did post a drafted post (I fell asleep in front of my computer last night, urrrgh...) but you are so kind to leave such sweet comments. I just completed this and am so sorry for the silly confusion!

Sunshine award and sunshiny crafting day!

Lovely Jee Q at Learning to write and Rob at Men Crochet have passed this Sunshine Award on to me earlier this week. I'm so happy and feel warm in my heart for the thoughtfulness from our bloggy friends. Thank you both, it's so nice of you to think of me and send some sunshine to my days! I'm very hornored!

It's my turn to answer 10 questions: 

1. Favorite Animal: Dogs
2. Favorite Number: I have no idea :)
3. Favorite Non-Alcoholic Drink: Coffee
4. Facebook or Twitter? None
5. My Passion: Crafting
6. Getting or Giving: Both
7. Favorite Pattern: So many
8. Favorite Day of the Week: Saturday and Sunday (I love weekend!) 
9. Favorite Flower: As long as it's flower.
10. Favorite Country: So many

This time, allow me to skip the part of nominating this award to 10 blogs as I did previously with other awards. To be honest, there are so many beautiful blogs and all of them deserve the award so I think 10 is not enough. I would want to pass this award to all my bloggy friends and my followers who have been encouraging me so much with my crafting so far. Once again, thank you!

Well, back to my crafting topic (as usual :)), I have bought these balls of crochet thread, they will be used for my next project, a top pattern in my crochet book. I love this variegate color so much! Sweetie chose it for me knowing it's my favorite! I will try it soon!

I think these balls of thread is perfect for something lacy, they are just so sweet!

And these balls of cotton thread I don't know what to make with, just love the colors!

Here are 2 balls of yarn I will knit a sweater for my sweetie. When I first saw the pattern on my knitting book, I know I will make it for him! Oh I just wish I will retire right tomorrow (not 25 years later), so I can have full time for my crafting and do whatever I'd like to! :)

I love bamboo knitting needles pretty much, but the store I often visit doesn't have this kind. Last week I stopped by a small craft shop and found them there! Exactly what I was looking for! I took a set of 9 pairs, from 3.0 mm till 10.0mm.  

I just love, love, love it! Even though I have still not yet experienced bamboo knitting needles before, they are just too lovely! People say that if we use them a lot we may find they will benefit from a light sanding every now and then to keep them nice and smooth and to keep the tips from breaking our yarn. Sounds great!

My knitting needles case is now filled with these! But it's OK, I will sew a new one, as the fact is, sooner or later, I will take home more! :)

I also took this one from the mini craft store. A ball winder. I have some big balls of yarn and this is a good idea to wind them into many smaller ones to easily go with my purse - crochet on the way!

Some balls I have winded... Anything related to yarn is all so fun!!! :)

One more thing I would want to share with you, Hannah at Not Your Average Crochet is hosting a very beautiful Giveaway, just click on the photo below to check out and enter. Good luck! :)

Thank you so much for your time with my ramblings today...

Take care and hope everyone have awonderful weekend ahead! ♥
~ Best wishes, LS ~

Yarny Gift

Hello everyone!

Sorry I have been away from blogland for a while, almost three weeks and I must admit I miss blogging so! Life is so busy, isn't it? Hope everyone are doing so well and have been enjoying your crafting creations!

A friend of mine just got back from her trip to Switzerland and surprised me with a lovely gift! It was all about yarn!!! A ball of bamboo yarn from Lana Grossa, I love the color she chose so much!

And a skein of mohair yarn, it's truly gorgeous, and the color is much more beautiful in reality than in the photo...

I've still not yet decided what project I should make with these yarns, I just love, love it and enjoyed it so, so, so much! Thank you very much my friend for such a wonderful gift! What a cute surprise!

Well, that's all for today's post... Thank you for stopping by, and thank you for all the kind words on my blog so far, I do appreciate!

Best wishes to you always!

With love, LS

Ruffle Scarf for the New Year!

I made several scarfs before, in both crochet and knitting, but until the weather has changed recently, when it's getting cold here I just realized I don't have any scarf for myself! I really wanted to have one. I found this pattern when surfing for a scarf and it was always in my mind until I could start it!

This scarf was made with 2 skeins of Lion Suede, the yarn my dear friend Donna (visit her at her wonderful blog here) sent to me in our last "Dove".  I actually thought about making something with this yarn all the time so I was very happy with this project! The pattern calls for 3 skeins so I had to adjust a bit in the last row, worked only 1 dc in each stitch along and finally it was also sufficient, till the last scrap! Thank you so much, my friend for sending me such beautiful yarn! You know how much warm I feel! It's great on me and I just love it!

I'm also making on another project with another yarn she sent me, and must say I'm really excited with it, but I will reveal it once I'm done!! :)

Thank you for stopping by, hope everyone had wonderful Holidays and wishing all the best for your New Year!!!

♥ See you all,

Crochet yarn and thread

Which do you prefer, yarn or thread?
Crochet is quite popular in my country. You will easily find your yarn or thread, but the variation of them, however, is not much. Vietnam has a tropical monsoon climate, so we usually do not use the thick and fuzzy yarn for crocheting as temperate zone. Especially in Ho Chi Minh city, where I am living, the hot climate is mainly, so thread is preferred. I really love many different kinds of yarn and thread in the other countries showed on internet, but it's so hard to find in Vietnam.

My cotton thread collection:

And the tough thread usually used for making bags:

I also use some kinds of cotton yarn for sweaters, scarfs and hats...