I have had to put a halt to sewing all things sale-able to make way for the seemingly endless list of gifts to make before Christmas Not that I haven't given myself PLENTY of time to do all the crafts up, however I forgot that my family will be celebrating Christmas in Ohio with my in-laws for thanksgiving instead.
I made my mother in law a very soft cranberry shawl. Shes a avid church goer and could use something nice for the chilly Sunday mornings. The yarn was a bit more than I prefer to spend on crochet stuffs. 12.99 a skein and I used 2.
For my step mom, I got Bernat soft boucle' and made her a large soft scarf with fringe on the ends. I just did double crochets and started with a chain of 27, then started DCs with the 3rd chain from the hook. It turned out very well. Took me a combined time of about 8 or 9 hours for the scarf and another hour to painstakingly attach the fringe. I am making my sister a scarf of the same nature, just a different color of Boucle'. I really like the "teal twist" color. I love heather grey and the shade of blue is perfect.
For my new sister in law, brother in law and their soon to be born son, hats. Because I have no ability to buy things for people, and handmade is the way to go. I have yet to start on them but his will be a simple beanie, as will the hat for the bebe, and hers will be more of a slouchy beanie/beret.
For my dad and brother I am making large pillows. Dads of course, the colors of U of M, and my 26 year old brother? Pfft, Spongebob! I have already made a pillow for my nephew from camouflage that is actually made up of ton of dinosaurs. I need to get some good coupons because I am going to need about 10 pounds or so of good polyfil.
My husband I will actually purchase a gift for because I just need to not make EVERYTHING. And for my lovely 14 month old baby girl, Im debating. I do not have the time for a quilt. So I thought a granny square blanket out of the softest crochet-able yarn I can find. I say "crochet-able" because some of the yarns I am working with on these scarfs are so poofy that I have a hard time finding my spots to make my stitches.
Aside from all that, I'm excited for this holiday to be over so life can resume and I can go back to trying to get my small hobby/business off the ground. I would love to be able to supplement my income.
Here is a easy pattern for quick christmas gifts: (from college craft)
http://collegecraft.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/simple-scarf-with-fringe/
This is basically what I did above. However, I used double crochet, and made it a bit wider. Her fringe tutorial is great as well.
Thanks for stopping by to check up on me, and rolling me on to my side. 'Preciate it.
Friday, November 9, 2012
Friday, November 2, 2012
What.... I don't even...
I keep falling off the blogosphere and reappearing when I have time. That is a precious commodity of which I do not get to enjoy nearly enough.
I have taken up sewing. I still continue to crochet at work, since I am not going to be toting the sewing machine to work any time soon to kill time between unloading trucks.
I have opened a Etsy store finally with some of my projects. I have found time to make things after putting my daughter to bed on the weekends. I can usually churn out a couple items every night if I stick to burp cloths and bibs. However I also have been making large over-sized floor pillows with zippers.
I enjoy using the zipper closure more than just stitching it up after stuffing it. Because my daughter has already beaten the crap out of her pillow and it is already in need of more polyfil.
Oh, not to mention I found a great way to kill a ton of yarn. You know, the yarn you say you won't add to until you use what you already have? I wasted about 10 skeins of yarn with a very large hook making my daughter a floor pillow. It is not pretty by any means because halfway through I ran out of complimenting colors and just used whatever I had in my crochet bag. I ran 4 strands of worsted weight yarn at the same time and a larger hook.
Basically just made a slouchy beanie, increased until it looked round enough for me, then stabilized the rows for about 8 inches or so, then started decreasing until I had a tiny hole left, packed it with fiberfil and kind of just stitched the small hole shut and knotted it, leaving a tassel on the end. I think its pretty hideous. My daughter loves it as a bumper when shes running full tilt at her large cloth pillow and bounces off on to the crochet pillow.
I have taken up sewing. I still continue to crochet at work, since I am not going to be toting the sewing machine to work any time soon to kill time between unloading trucks.
I have opened a Etsy store finally with some of my projects. I have found time to make things after putting my daughter to bed on the weekends. I can usually churn out a couple items every night if I stick to burp cloths and bibs. However I also have been making large over-sized floor pillows with zippers.
I enjoy using the zipper closure more than just stitching it up after stuffing it. Because my daughter has already beaten the crap out of her pillow and it is already in need of more polyfil.
Oh, not to mention I found a great way to kill a ton of yarn. You know, the yarn you say you won't add to until you use what you already have? I wasted about 10 skeins of yarn with a very large hook making my daughter a floor pillow. It is not pretty by any means because halfway through I ran out of complimenting colors and just used whatever I had in my crochet bag. I ran 4 strands of worsted weight yarn at the same time and a larger hook.
Basically just made a slouchy beanie, increased until it looked round enough for me, then stabilized the rows for about 8 inches or so, then started decreasing until I had a tiny hole left, packed it with fiberfil and kind of just stitched the small hole shut and knotted it, leaving a tassel on the end. I think its pretty hideous. My daughter loves it as a bumper when shes running full tilt at her large cloth pillow and bounces off on to the crochet pillow.
This is the large cloth pillow I made with the zipper closure. Its about 38x38. Massive.
This is the crochet floor pouf I cranked out in about 4 hours. It works up super fast and is effective. It would also look good if you, unlike me, got nice matching yarns to use.
Now if you will excuse me I have to go wrangle my animals away from my child. Every time she has a snack, apparently its their snack time too. Go figure.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Super Slouchy Rasta Style Beanie
I started to piece this together at work one night. Im sure there is probably already a pattern fairly similar floating around, but I found a great deal at an estate sale. A elderly woman with a crochet addiction passed and left behind a time capsule of yarn. There were so many bright yarns. Ended up with a garbage bag full. Oops. It happens.
This should fit a adult with a 22'' head or I have added another note (Will be noted with ****) for it to fit smaller heads of teens/young adults.
Worsted Weight Yarn
Sizes 9mm and 6mm hooks (****5.5mm for youth.)
Stitch Marker (or safety pin, paperclip, piece of scrap yarn.)
Parts marked with * on each side* indicate to repeat the steps.
Start with size 9mm hook
Chain 5
Join with Sl st
Chain 2
Round 1: DC 10 times in the center of the ring
Round 2: DC 2 times in every stitch around, Making sure to mark your first DC
Round 3: *DC 1 in first stitch, 2 DC in next stitch*
Round 4: *DC 1 in first 2 stitches, 2 DC in next stitch*
Round 5: *DC 1 in first 3 stitches, 2 DC in next stitch*
Round 6: *DC 1 in first 4 stitches, 2 DC in next stitch*
Round 7: *DC 1 in first 5 stitches, 2 DC in next stitch*
A good indication that you are doing it right, is the last stitch before your marker should always have a increase. If it doesn't go back and make sure you didn't add another single double crochet to your work.
Round 8,9,10: DC in each stitch around
Now you will begin your decreases.
Round 11: *DC 1 in first 5 stitches, DC2TOG in next stitch*
Round 12: *DC 1 in first 4 stitches, DC2TOG in next stitch*
Round 13: *DC 1 in first 3 stitches, DC2TOG in next stitch*
At this point you will switch to your size 6mm hook, Or you could go a little bit bigger for a larger head, say a 6.5mm hook.
****Use 5.50mm hook for a smaller opening for youth.***
Round 14: *SC all the way around*
Continue as many rounds until you form a headband as thick as you would like. I generally do 4 rounds of single crochet. Bind off, weave in ends.
Its a very relaxed hat and with about 2 hours, pretty easy to churn out. You can also switch colors at your stitch marker.
I hope this is pretty easy for you. It is a very baggy hat and looks great. I usually stick to solid colors and they are usually ridiculously bright. :-)
Feel free to use it for whatever you may like. Sell the hats, donate the hats, but if you share the pattern, please credit back to my blog.
Thanks!
This should fit a adult with a 22'' head or I have added another note (Will be noted with ****) for it to fit smaller heads of teens/young adults.
Worsted Weight Yarn
Sizes 9mm and 6mm hooks (****5.5mm for youth.)
Stitch Marker (or safety pin, paperclip, piece of scrap yarn.)
Parts marked with * on each side* indicate to repeat the steps.
Start with size 9mm hook
Chain 5
Join with Sl st
Chain 2
Round 1: DC 10 times in the center of the ring
Round 2: DC 2 times in every stitch around, Making sure to mark your first DC
Round 3: *DC 1 in first stitch, 2 DC in next stitch*
Round 4: *DC 1 in first 2 stitches, 2 DC in next stitch*
Round 5: *DC 1 in first 3 stitches, 2 DC in next stitch*
Round 6: *DC 1 in first 4 stitches, 2 DC in next stitch*
Round 7: *DC 1 in first 5 stitches, 2 DC in next stitch*
A good indication that you are doing it right, is the last stitch before your marker should always have a increase. If it doesn't go back and make sure you didn't add another single double crochet to your work.
Round 8,9,10: DC in each stitch around
Now you will begin your decreases.
Round 11: *DC 1 in first 5 stitches, DC2TOG in next stitch*
Round 12: *DC 1 in first 4 stitches, DC2TOG in next stitch*
Round 13: *DC 1 in first 3 stitches, DC2TOG in next stitch*
At this point you will switch to your size 6mm hook, Or you could go a little bit bigger for a larger head, say a 6.5mm hook.
****Use 5.50mm hook for a smaller opening for youth.***
Round 14: *SC all the way around*
Continue as many rounds until you form a headband as thick as you would like. I generally do 4 rounds of single crochet. Bind off, weave in ends.
Its a very relaxed hat and with about 2 hours, pretty easy to churn out. You can also switch colors at your stitch marker.
I hope this is pretty easy for you. It is a very baggy hat and looks great. I usually stick to solid colors and they are usually ridiculously bright. :-)
Feel free to use it for whatever you may like. Sell the hats, donate the hats, but if you share the pattern, please credit back to my blog.
Thanks!
Sunday, April 29, 2012
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---
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!
Friday, April 27, 2012
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.
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.
Monday, April 23, 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
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.
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.
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