Tunisian Stitch

Yesterday I had many many errands to do. My baby went off to my parents house for the night so all the menfolk could work on painting our diningroom that has been in a general state of madness for about 6 weeks. Not for us not trying I assure you. I personally work full time 2nd shift and my husband works about 30 hours a week 1st shift. So were either working or taking care of our fan-freaking-tastic 7 month old. That pretty much eats our whole day, everyday.

So last night we intended on grilling food for the guys in trade for painting :-)

Before all that I had to run errands with my daughter. So we did. One errand took me to walmart. That place will be the death of my wallet. I had been looking online at Tunisian Stitch work. I'm not a huge fan of the finished stitch, as crochets backside looks far nicer than the back of the Tunisian stitch to me. But from what I had seen, it seemed like the tunisian stitch works pieces up a little quicker than traditional crochet. And some days I want max speed.

Walmart did not have the afghan needles/hooks but they had yard. God they had yarn. 5 skeins of yarn there. Then went to Joann fabrics. More yarn. This time dark sugar n creme for a purse a friend of mine wants made up. No hooks there. So I went to hobby lobby. FINALLY! They only had 3 sizes. 5, 5.5, and 6mm. So i bought a 5, and a 6. The cotton yarn says to use a 5, but after working on a dishcloth last night, it was pretty snug, so I switched to a 6. Much easier for me to work with that way.

The best way to describe what a afghan hook is, is if a crochet hook and a set of knitting needles had a booze filled friday night, and woke up in bed together saturday and said "I'll call you a cab, lets never speak of this again." and a few months later, afghan needles were born. The ones I purchased are about 12 inches long with a metal stopper on the back like knitting needles have.

The video I used to walk me through the basic stitch, was this one here---

Youtube User: naztazia 

And the video I used to show me how to do the equivalent of a double crochet in tunisian stitch is here:

Youtube User:Bethintx1

Between the two of these excellent videos, I have figured out how to make a basic swatch/square. I used my dc34 idea with the afghan hook and it seemed like a long base. So i cut it down to 21. Which looked long enough until i started working into it, then it got really short. So I think the good middle ground is 30. 

Hopefully I can have a piece finished tonight to get some photos up. I really do slack on the pictures some days. Sorry!

Dishcloth Pattern!

I'm sure this may very well be in existence already... but without checking into it, I made washcloths today using the following pattern... which i suppose as of right now, is mine... Mainly cause I'm too lazy to see if there is one just like it out there.

I call it the DC34 washcloth.

Using Peaches and Creme 100% cotton yarn.
Size h/8- 5.00mm hook

Chain 34
DC in 2nd chain from hook.
DC all the way across (should have 32 stitches)
*note, when you get to the ends, and there are those spaces from the chain/turn, I put the 32nd DC in that space. and skip that very first stitch after the chain 2 of the new row... if that makes sense.)
 Chain 2 and Turn.
DC all the way across (just make sure there are 32 stitches!)

I made 19 rows in mine and it looked like a good size. 20 would probably look about the same. But I like odd numbers i suppose.

The finished dishcloth was about a hour or so to make.

I like the way these turned out. I do not like chaining 3 and turning, the finished product doesn't look as finished to me as this way does.

The Frankenstein Baby Blanket.

I came up with the idea of saving my daughters boxes upon boxes of baby clothes instead of selling them to somebody (which there will be PLENTY left over to do so.) and turning the pieces into a rag blanket.

I began my journey by digging into the depths of my closet. Diaper box after diaper box. I dug out about 10 onesies from newborn to 3 months. All of which my daughter wore for mere days before she was quickly moving into 6 month at 3 months old, and now 12 month clothes and shes 7 months!

I saw a bunch of articles on rag rugs. Using the same basic method, I took each onesie with my fabric shears and cut the hems off and the collars and sleeves. I then when and cut what is best described as a very very long and meandering spiral with about 1/2 inch of fabric to make one long piece of fabric. I then tied what would be the disassembled front side to the disassembled back side with a tight knot.

Disclaimer: I am still in process of making this and have no idea how this is going to hold up in the washing machine. The fabric is a very small ribbed type and I am not sure if it is going to fray. I need to find out and update when I know.

So i take all these bits and made a chain until i was happy with the width of the blanket. I then did 1 sc in the 2nd ch from my hook. And single crocheted all the way across, chain 1, turn, repeat.

The time consuming part is taking apart all these bits of clothes. So far, I have 3 onesies into the blanket and each onesie is yielding about one row for me, give or take a few stitches. I intend on using some of her 6 month clothes that are a bit thicker, like pants and making strips for fringe.

Will update when I have photos and bit more finished of it. I will be pretty upset if this does not stay together.

The next experiment will probably involve ruining a few burp cloths. You would get MUCH more length of fabric using a full sized receiving blanket or burp cloth.

Tote/Bag project

I got tired of using my peaches & creme yarn cone for washcloths. So i decided to look up what else would make a good project with 100% cotton yarn. The Sugar & Creme website had patterns... and you will need a login to check it out... but the website is great. Lots of good patterns. You can sort by crochet or knit, and level of difficulty. If you see a couple projects you like, you can basically bookmark them in the website. I like it.

So if you are signed up for their website, you can find the pattern via this link:
Market Tote Bag

I am working on finishing the piece up and am about 3/4 through the main piece. I still need to finish that and make the handles. Not sure if I want to turn it into a diaper bag and stitch in some pockets for bottles or not... we will see how much yarn I have left over.

Tomorrow is Payday. And payday means one thing... fighting with  myself all day to NOT buy more yarn. But i really like the cotton cones. Its a lot of yarn. If i can find the cones in solids that would suit diaper bags, I may alter the pattern a little bit to make it boxier.

All in all, productive day.

Update---

Here is a photo of the finished project. I reinforced the handles and beefed them up in general... as that is generally a point of failure on every purse/tote I have ever had. Was a good project. Not too long, and not too complicated. Will be making again... as I went to walmart again today and got 2 more Peaches & Creme cones. Oops.

Quickly made easy baby blanket

This is taking the basic granny square pattern found here:

http://www.crochetcabana.com/tutorials/granny_square.htm

and continuing the pattern until you get your desired size. This example is about 30x30. I just used 2 strands of sports weight yarn. One was baby blue and one was white. I used a large needle to make it a little more flexible and softer for the baby hands. I used a size M/9mm needle.

This is the finished product:

This worked up in about 5 hours or so for me. Not terribly long. I would have kept going but I ran out of my white yarn and still had a bunch of blue. I need to get better at making my yarn last longer.

Its a very easy pattern that you can either make your squares ahead of time at the size you prefer then work up a blanket when you have enough squares, or make it continuous like this one for a quick baby blanket. Really good for last minute baby showers. :-)

My first custom order!

Shell Stitch Baby Blanket Pattern via knittingdragonflies

I finally have my first custom order. The joys of free ad placements on Craigslist. I really need to work on 2 more things. That being---

1) getting a etsy store going
2) getting a paypal account set up.

I'm leery to use PayPal. I have heard SO MANY horror stories of their customer service. And I am partial to Regretsy and none of them are too fond of their work. I may try a wepay account... however not as many people use that as use PayPal. 

But tomorrow I will head out to hobby lobby or joanns and pick up the colors she wants her 2 blankets to be.

I am so excited to be making something that potentially will be two  little boys favorite blankets. I always hope that some baby item I make becomes the wubby blanket, binkie, or what have you. My daughter has a handmade blanket by me and I had a blanket my mom crocheted for me that fell apart before i was 3 because I drug that thing around like Linus does.


As of right now I am suffering from a severe debilitating disorder I call Crochet ADD. I have probably 20 balls of yarn in my duffel bag. (Who buys craft totes for 100$ or more when a duffel on casters from walmart is 25$?!) and I currently have 3 ongoing projects. A baby blue and white shell pattern blanket that will go into my store, another slouchy beanie, and some washcloths. I am just not able to zone out on something for too long... and I hate thinking of making up a project that is like 3 weeks of work. The longest I will spend on a project is maybe 30 hours. And that was my daughters shell blanket.

For now, I guess I will go focus on getting at least one of these projects finished!

Granny Square Dishcloth... Winner!

I have no idea why, but some of the patterns I come across that are really easy and very straight forward and basically just making a very small very simple blanket that you just happen to wash your face and butt with, give me complexes. I do not like how the ends turn out and i dont like to have camouflage border to cover it up. But things that seem to look far more complex I seem to breeze through. Maybe I am over analyzing patterns or something.

I have unraveled about 4 washcloths so far, just making me madder and madder.

Then I looked at the pattern on the back of my peaches n cream label. "Granny Square Dishcloth." I probably should have just looked at that from the beginning. Not to mention mere minutes before looking at said pattern I made a generic granny square that you would use for a blanket.... and it turned out nice. Cant say it would do much for washing anything... but I was happy I made something that absorbed water and/or soap.

This is basically the same pattern as a traditional granny square with more DC stitches and less gaps. Huzzah for more surface area. I will be churning these out for the next craft show I can get into. Here is the pattern ... that is totally property of www.peachesandcreme.com But I could not find it on their website so I will just redo it!


Measurement: Approx 10 ins [25.5 cm] square.

Materials: Peaches & Creme
(400g/14oz): 1 ball or 100m/110 yds

Size 5mm (U.S. H or 8) crochet hook or size needed to obtain gauge.

Gauge: 13 dc and 6.5 rows= 4ins [10cm]

Instructions: Ch 5. Join with sl st to form a ring.

1st Round: Ch 3 (counts as dc). [3dc. (Ch2. 4dc)] 3 times in a ring. Ch 3. Join with sl st to top of ch 3.

2nd Round: Ch 3 (counts as dc). 1 dc in each of next 3 dc. (2 dc. Ch 2. 2dc) in next ch-2 sp. *1 dc in each of next 4 dc (2dc. ch 2. 2 dc) in next ch-2 sp. Rep from* twice more. Join with sl st to top of ch 3.

3rd to 8th Round: Ch 3 (counts as dc). *1 dc in each dc to next ch-2 sp. (2 dc. ch 2. 2 dc) in next ch-2 sp. Rep from * 3 times more. 1 dc in each dc to end of round. Join with sl st to top of chain 3.

9th Round: Ch 1. 1 sc in each dc around, having 3 sc in corner of ch-2 sps. Join with sl st to first sc. Fasten off.

***This is not mine nor do I claim it as my own***

Hopefully will be posting pictures of my finished product within the next few hours... days... something. Either way, it works up very quickly and is very easy once you get the pattern down. 


I might also do away with the 9th round, making 2, and putting together, then SC all the way around to make a pot holder. How exciting!

Damn you Peaches N' Creme cone!

I went into my local wally world today to pick up some yarn for starting up some dishcloths. I did not realize how far one single cone of this stuff will go. The yarn feels very sturdy and surprisingly, pretty soft... then again I have been dealing with a lot of redheart acrylics... Rough stuff.

I found a pattern for a washcloth for beginners. I didn't like the "skip every other stitch" idea. So I thought I would just basically make a single crochet washcloth. I'm 3 hours into it... and about 2/3 of the way done with it. That will not do. But i learned my lesson. So I suppose I will try it with double crochets, as they take up more length, quicker.

I had a crappy off the top of my head pattern here. It didn't work very well for me, so i did away with it. The post after this has a excellent pattern for a washcloth.

The latest project 4/10/2012

The following link is for a pattern to a slouchy beanie hat I found via my handy dandy google search. It was a bit difficult to figure out at first, since this was my first time decreasing a double crochet.

You can follow it the way it is stated, or do as I did, and alter the pattern simply by changing hook sizes. I used a large M sized hook for the entirety of double crochets. Also added 3 rows in the middle of the hat between the increasing and decreasing. Then at the end to make what I would call the headband of the piece, I used a J hook for the 4 final rows of single crochet.

http://mssunflwr.blogspot.com/2009/05/level-beginner-materials-one-skein-red.html

Check it out and give it a try. There are many MANY great crochet blogs out there.

This isn't exactly the best for a noob of crochet, but if you can master crocheting rounds and crowns, this shouldn't be a problem. And once you perfect that, hats are very easy to churn out.

This is the bigger baggier beanie with the bigger hook

And here is the original step by step beanie with the hook called for in the pattern

My very first post!

So I kinda decided I need an online filing cabinet of projects I find to crochet and see how my projects match up to the original pattern. I just began learning crochet about 2 months ago. I started on a knitting loom and it drove me insane at how slow that process is. So me and youtube has many intimate nights where I just watched many many hours of crochet projects.

At that time I was terrified of reading patterns so I would watch videos instead. I slowly evolved into accepting patterns into my life on the condition that I would not take on any project that needed stitch markers or dropping off one spot and picking up at another. Who knows, Ive taught myself this far, I may evolve again into allowing both of those things into my crochet work.

Right now I work on beanies, wash cloths, can cozys, and other pretty simplistic things but am always looking for good tutorials and good easy to read and understand patterns. Because I know I am not the last person to start crocheting. There will always be new people to the craft. So they can come hang out with me and be less confused and overwhelmed.

I suppose thats it for this post until I figure out what I can start putting up of use to people!!!!