Huge thanks to Mitzi for breathing new life into the Crochetville Pillowghan CAL! She has taken over hosting it and has set up a list of members and gallery. This was the very first Crochetville crochet-along and Mitzi is giving it the love it needs! Read about it here.

Mitzi’s enthusiasm inspired me to make a button for it. :-)

“Why a pineapple?” you might ask. Because quite a few of the crochet-alongers are making pineapple pillowghans like the one pictured here. And the pineapple was just too darn cute. Of course, if you join the CAL, you can make any kind of pillowghan you want.

In other CAL news, I have joined the Stocking Together, hosted by Rebecca.

I was sucked into this one *wink* by a new free pattern leaflet I picked up at Walmart. It was a Lion Brand Fun Fur Christmas stocking and just too cute to resist. I started last night. So far it’s easy and has gone quickly even though I’ve never used Fun Fur before. I’ll post photos tomorrow because my husband borrowed my digital camera today.

It was a beautiful weekend at the beach. The weather was gorgeous. The temps were cool. The sun was shining.

I absolutely love the beach off-season. There are few things I hate more than lying around in the sand, slathered in oil, baking in the sun, surrounded by lots of other people doing the same thing. Consequently, summer at the beach holds little appeal for me. So, what is there to do at the beach in autumn? Walk (sweat-free, I might add). Nap. Eat good food. Relax. Enjoy the serenity. And…

Hang out with your husband while he goes surf fishing.

Hang out with your dog (who actually wouldn’t mind if the temp was even 10 degrees cooler). And who also likes at least two beach walks a day. ;-)

Crochet. You didn’t think I could leave that out, did you? ;-)

In these photos I’m working on my bag for the Bag Along. As you may be able to see if you click for the larger versions of the photos, my bag is looking very exciting right now! A flat rectangle! But soon, soon it will be an enormous tote bag. Soon.

Cooler weather is here and I’m having wonderful thoughts of warm, cozy things. Felting (I know, I know, it’s properly called fulling, but felting sounds so much nicer) has been on my mind, so I dug up this cryptic felted crochet button I made a few months ago. Feel free to steal it!

Speaking of felting, last week I was very happy to receive a wonderful surprise package from Lynette and Monica. What sweeties they are! I truly appreciate both of these lovely gifts.

Bracelet by Lynette and bag by Monica:

Two more views of the bag (and, if you look closely, the bracelet, too!). I adore the button closure!

Thank you very much, Lynette and Monica, for such fabulous gifts!

My husband, Golden Retriever, and I are headed out for an off-season (that’s when we like it best) weekend at the beach, so if you contact me and don’t hear back until Monday or so, that’s why. ;-)

I have known about this for a long time. I shouldn’t let it get to me, but it does. Many of you are probably already aware of this, but for those who aren’t, you should know that some unethical eBay sellers are violating copyright by taking free crochet patterns from the web and selling them.

I’ve seen patterns for sale on eBay from FreePatterns.com, Crochet me, Groovy Crochet, The Smart Yarns, and Coats and Clark. That’s quite a lot and I’m not even much of an eBay surfer. One of the wonderful folks from Crochetville brought to my attention the pattern from Crochet me for sale on eBay, and I appreciate that greatly. I contacted Kim as well as the pattern designer and hopefully eBay will do something about it.

In May of this year, I reported an eBay seller who was selling tons of patterns from FreePatterns.com. Clearly eBay didn’t care because the seller is still at it. If it were CDs or DVDs, I bet they would have been right on it, but I guess crochet patterns aren’t important. *sigh* I even reported the problem to FreePatterns.com by filling out their contact form, but it doesn’t seem they did anything about it either.

If you see an eBay listing that violates copyright, you can report it. Maybe if more of us do so, they will take it seriously. Forget that. Apparently eBay is not responsible for copyright violations and will remove an auction only if the legal copyright owner makes a claim. (Many thanks to Cheryl who did the research to dig up that info!) If you are the copyright holder, you should report it through eBay’s VeRO (Verified Rights Owner) Program.

If you want to protect yourself from buying free patterns, the best thing I can recommend is to familiarize yourself with the patterns that are available on the web. Crochet Pattern Central is a great place to start doing that. It is a wonderful resource with links to thousands of free crochet patterns!

Tired of surfing the Crochet Blogs ring just to see if any new sites have been added? Well now you can simply read the Crochet Blogs blog instead. Yay! Check it out.

More about my Adagio Teas experiences…

Bonus! The other day I showed you my simpliciTEA pot, which I absolutely love. Well, now I’ve discovered something even more fantastic about it. The infuser basket and teapot lid fit perfectly on a standard coffee mug. Whether this is by design or coincidence, I don’t know, but either way I am in heaven.

(Psst… I picked up the cute little tea organizer basket at Walmart for just $2.88.)

Even though the teapot is small enough for one person, sometimes I really do want only one cup. Making one cup in a coffee mug allows the tea leaves to swirl around in the full capacity of the infuser basket. If you tried to make a single cup in the teapot, the water level would not come up high enough in the infuser basket and the tea leaves wouldn’t have enough room to steep.

So far I’ve had Ceylon Waltz, Pumpkin Spice, Earl Grey, Golden Needle, and Darjeeling Rhapsody 22. All that’s left to try is Mambo. Earl Grey is my favorite, as it has always been, and I was pleasantly surprised with the Pumpkin Spice. It came as a free sample with my order and I wasn’t sure I’d like it. But the taste is wonderful and much more mild than what you’d think when you open the tin and smell it.

By the way, if anybody wants a $5 gift certificate to Adagio Teas, just let me know (e-mail: donna at yarntomato.com) and I’ll e-mail you one. (Don’t worry, there is no cost to me.)