Heather's Valentine's Gift

For the past few Months, Elvira, Heather's little arachnid friend, hasn't eaten or done much but switch sides of her cage from time to time. The 12th or 13th, Elvira flipped onto her back and stayed there. On Valentines Day, we had noticed that she finally molted her skin, and so Dad took it upon himself to take the skin out of the cage. He brought it upstairs and put it in Mom's cookie box she got from school.

As much as I dislike spiders, ok, lets face it, they're the Devil, I've become slightly fascinated with Elvira and her habits. From the first time I saw her eat a half a dozen crickets at one time, to seeing on Youtube how a tarantula molts, its actually interesting in a creepy kind of way.

I didn't know that they molt their fangs, and can't eat until their exoskeleton hardens after molting. They push themselves out of the old skeleton through their butt, and it can take 4hrs to molt. I heard at one time that Mom wanted to keep the skeleton in the school for the kids to see, but I really don't know for sure what the real plan is. Sadly enough, I've been entertaining the idea of having one of my own, but seriously don't think I'd be that brave yet.

New Hobby

As you all know, I'm learning to crochet on my own. Over the past few years, I've made blankets, scarves, dishcloths and even tried my hand at a doggie coat that turned out relatively fine except the dog it is for is allergic to the yarn. This year, my goal is to try some thing new to crochet each month. One night as we were walking through Wal Mart with Marsh and Emily, I ran across this yarn that Emily liked for Josie, and decided to make her a hat with it. The original plan was to use my Knifty Knitter to make the hat but saw this adorable pattern on the paper wrapped around the skeen.

To my delight, the pattern was easy and after I got it down, the hat took about a week to finish. It was a little bigger than expected for Josie, but works and Marsh and Emily absolutely LOVE it on Josie. Among the many dishcloths I've got scheduled to make, I'm planning on filling 2 orders I already have for Hats and Scarves and then will make more of these hats and sell them. Before too long, I want to make a price list for the things I can make, and take orders for whatever people want. I'm finding that crocheting is good therapy for me, and am glad that Rachel took the time and had the patience to teach me the basics..