About The Country Wife Blog

Wednesday, September 9, 2026

A Nice Impulse...Hopefully!

 Sometimes a nice impulse comes into my mind.  Two weeks ago I was having an echocardiogram.  I was knitting in the waiting room when the tech came out to get me and usher me into her office.  She spoke with me about knitting and said that she wanted me to be thinking about knitting and crocheting while she was working and then tell me at the end my impression of both of these crafts.  I thought that was a nice way to take my mind off the procedure (which by the way was not at all difficult for the most part).

When she was finished we chatted. It turns out that she had had a goal to learn to crochet in 2026 but had not yet started.  I told her there was still time and that she could go to Hooked by Robin on YouTube for some wonderful instruction.  I really like Hooked by Robin.

So as I was walking across the parking lot to go home I thought:  You could make her a project bag.  So I did.


You can see the floral project bag in the background.  It has a nice zipper top, a strap, a zipper pull made easy, and a little Handmade With Love tag.  

If a project bag as a good idea, then a little zippered fully-lined tool bag must be better so I made the gold-y yellow bag.

You can never give a person a purse without putting in a coin, so I put in one of my little hinged metal pencil boxes which is the perfect size for crochet hooks. I put in my favorite Susan Bates ergonomically helpful 5 mm crochet hook and one smaller one.

In the meantime I had gone to my bookshelf and was going to include the Crocheting For Dummies book but hen felt the title would be off-putting so I looked on Thriftbooks and found Crochet for the Absolute Beginner.  It came the day before I needed it!  It is really an excellent book.  I may purchase another one to have here at the house.

Finally... how can you give a yarn project bag without yarn so I chose two balls of Hobby Lobby yarn that I liked and hoped she would. I crocheted a granny square with the variegated yarn: one square with the 5 mm hook and one with the smaller one.  I am pretty sure the smaller one was 3 mm but might have been 2.75 or 3.25,  (Writing after the fact can be an issue!)

Anyway, as I am writing I am just about to hand over the bag since the same tech is supposed to do a carotid ultrasound today.  We will see if it was a good impulse or not...!

Update on the echocardiogram: since I am not a trained medical person I don't really know what the echo said but there was nothing so glaringly wrong that they called me back in.  What I read said the the left ventricle was not perfect and other spots were not wonderfully visible...probably because of "the extra flesh"... so I really am not so much better off having read the report.  If anyone knows how to read the reports I could share it...though I expect to see my doctor soon who will give me the word.

Wednesday, September 2, 2026

Trying Again To Take Back This Blog With Granny Square Chickens!

 Early this year you may remember me saying that something was wrong with my blog.  I was able to write blog posts but I could not share them on Facebook.  So...I spent most of my "online presence" energy with my YouTube channel (The Country Wife From Vermont).  That channel has been rather enjoyable but many friends told me they liked my blog posts, so I will try again.

Today I am in chicken mode.  Most recently I have been working on crocheted chickens.  You might wonder why I would do that. Well, it is possible that some children will come to our house to learn to crochet. I wanted them to see something they could pretty easily make.  I have had a ton of fun, and learned a lot, as I have been making chickens.

Number One Thing I Have Learned--absolutely you need to make the granny squares with a much smaller crochet hook than the ball band calls for! This gives a much denser fabric and I imagine will make the eye placement more successful.

Here are the fanciest chickens I have made so far:


The upper left chicken is from Sweet Softies her pattern for the Spring Court Chicken.  I love it. I will make more of them.  The pink chicken is a regular granny square chicken.  Soon I may make a post on how to do it and what I learned NOT to do!

You can see the few notes I made on this Ravelry page.  

Now for the fun stuff...let me see if I can actually post this page!  

Best wishes to all.

And Vermont Friends:  I am coming to Vermont!  I will be there from 29 September through 4 October which will include the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival.  If anyone wants to get together, please let me know and we can make it work.  I am so very much looking forward to this visit to see family and friends.