The Hook and I

Mother's Love completed and helmet liner update

2007-04-27T08:41:00.000-05:00

Here's the Mother's Love baby afghan. I was really happy with it. This, along with the caps and the yellow spider web and the fleece blankets, was donated last week to charity.

I hear from Jason that the helmet liners are a big hit with his guys. He hopes to sent a photo of them all wearing them! I'd really like that.

I've been slacking off lately; busy with other things, I guess. I am working a sportweight white baby 'ghan with a neat stitch. It's a shell row (1 sc, 2 dc in stitch below, skip next 2) and a dc row alternating (dc in back loop of 2 dc below and regular dc in the sc) But I ran into a wad of tangle in my skein and I've been too lazy to deal with it. I think I'm going to pitch the tangle and grab a new skein. Wasteful!

I still need to complete the edging of the Granny's Heart. I hate having UFOs around!

Hearts and Bobbles and Thinking Ahead....

2007-04-05T12:16:00.000-05:00

Upon finishing the 13th helmet liner, my hands fell off. j/k! But I was really, really glad to be done with those for now. At some point I need to make one more (or maybe two; I have yarn enough). Peter wants one for his hunting season. With enough of a break I won't mind. They actually go together pretty quickly.

So, I was very excited to pick up the Granny's Heart kit that I ordered a few weeks ago. It's a granny-square style baby afghan worked in the shape of a heart with a deep frilly ruffle. The body of the afghan worked up quickly but I think there's a mistake in the pattern and I ended up with one of the heart "humps" one row shorter than the other. Time for the frog stitch and I corrected it. I'm on about the fifth row of the 11-row ruffle. Why does edging always take so long? I set this project aside for now to pick up a stash-buster.

I'm working the "Mother's Hug" baby afghan from LA's Contest Favorite Baby Afghans. It's a sort of filet style of chains and DC with a bobble stitch. It works up to look like a series of boxes with a bobble in the center. I'm about 3/4 done. It has an unusual loop stitch fringe edge; I did some initial practicing of the stitch and it's not working so well for me. I might have to modify! Anyway, I plan to donate this (among other items) to a charity baby shower at church next week.

Thinking ahead to what to do next. I could work on stash busting for quite awhile but my thoughts have been leaning toward a thread table cloth. I need to find just the right pattern though. I really don't want a motif since I hate sewing them all together. But it's hard to find a filet crochet tablecloth worked in one piece. And chances are I'd have to adjust size anyway. So what to do? But I've got a few possibilities in mind. I'd also like to work up the filet Lord's Prayer that I picked up on ebay awhile ago. I love the planning process of crochet; the new project selection. It might even be more fun than finishing a project!

Stash buster baby 'ghan and helmet liner update

2007-02-04T16:42:00.000-06:00

This sweet little spider web design worked up quickly and quite prettily, I think. I didn't have quite enough yarn left to complete the edging per the pattern but I think it's okay. It used something like 13 oz of sport weight yarn.

And just about half way done with the helmet liners. I might just make it. Pictured are the 6 completed ones; a seventh is on the hook and something like 80% done. I hope to have 13 done for Jason's unit by the end of March. And Peter wants one for hunting. Honestly, I'll be glad to move on to another project!

Show 'n Tell Time

2007-01-17T12:06:00.000-06:00

Thought I'd wander around the house and find undocumented crochet projects.
Here's Charlie's Lion Suede striped throw. Worked per the Lion pattern including the color choices. I was very pleased with this and it suits the room perfectly!

And here's Josie's little throw. Worked up in Lion Homespun in Cotton Candy (I think that's the color name) with a design of my own "invention". lol. 1 sc, 1 ch all the way!

Several attempts to use up scraps. American Girl sweaters, preemie, newborn and baby hats. I'm especially fond of the preemie hats. So tiny and cute; I used two strands of baby fingering weight yarn for a soft, heathered effect; yellow/peach for one and blue/green. And a couple cotton dishcloths.

A couple of oldies but goodies. I made several of these heart filet baby 'ghans in my IF days for expectant (and lucky!) friends. Here are the last two I made for my own miracle babies. And now they're not really used anymore. Bittersweet...

The (in)famous fleece blankets with a simple edge. The white one was my first and I laboriously blanket stitching the edge by hand. The polka dot one was done by pre-punching holes and then SC into the hole. Much more betterer!

And my current project. My first of many (I hope) woolen helmet liners for Jason's unit in Iraq. My goal is to have 12-13 of them done for shipping with the Girl Scout cookies. We'll see if I can pull it off. I'm about 1/3 done with the second one; worked in a dark olive. I also have dark grey and black wool.

A Photo Finish and Stash Busting

2007-01-04T13:15:00.000-06:00

I, historically, have been very bad about taking photos of my work. I keep very few of the things I make, so once they are gone, they are gone. Now that I have this forum for all things crochet-ish, I can try to make a better attempt to keep photo archives.

Here is the baby block 'ghan I made for darling Willow. I loved the colors and the variable pattern kept things interesting as I worked. But the finishing work (sewing the strips together and adding the white trim was tedious. It also turned out enormous; way bigger than you'd think a baby 'ghan should need to be.

Here are the bright tropical placemats I made for Heather. Her little daughter found a new use for 3 of them (the fourth one, the blue one is not shown here.)

A week or so of concerted effort towards stash-busting and I made good progress. I had just enough yellow baby sport to make a spider-web baby blanket. It's working up really fast and is nearly done. I plan to make some preemie and newborn caps, too. All this stuff will be going in the donate box for the boutique sale at church. And then I went shopping yesterday! Ended up spending part of my Christmas Joann's GC on yarn. So, back into the stash. But, but but! they had Fun Fur for $1 and Baby Homespun for $2!

I had such amazing luck at Dollar Tree a few weeks ago, I thought I'd try again. Unfortunately, they had no yarn, but they had Christmas/wintery fleece baby blankets with a blanket-stitch edge already to go! Woo! I bought six. And two of the colors exactly match some of my stash yarn, so it's still a sort of stash help! LOL

Project updates

2006-12-09T07:48:00.000-06:00

The placemats turned out okay. Since I generally crochet to gauge, I never worry about gauge and sure enough these turned out the size the pattern said they would. Unfortunately, I still think they are a wee bit on the small side. The simple single crochet edge did help keep them flat and they washed up nicely.

I also made Heather a long skinny scarf of my own (very simple) design. I used Fun Fur and Boucle together at both ends and Boucle for the remaining middle section. It's cute.

Made another sweater for the AG doll; nice way to use up scraps. This one was mainly Jiffy green with a couple white and blue strips. (Note to self: figure out how to post photos)

The baby block afghan was completed and delivered to my SIL on Thanksgiving. She did not say much about it but my brother seemed to like it. I know she got a ton of blankies at her shower. Oh well.

Update on the EdergyDoo or whatever the heck it's called. Disappointing. It was way too much money for what I got. I like the template; it's nice quality. But I'm expected to make my own punching pad. No thanks. So I used the template to mark off (with a regular thin tip marker) the dots. Then I sat down with the awl and a small crochet hook. I would punch about 5-10 holes at a time and then SC into them. It turned out cute. I like using the bobbly yarns for this; hides a lot of sins.

Currently working on a simple scarf for the children's teacher. Using Twister which is an eyelash/chenille yarn twisted together. It's working up nice; it's fun. I'm working the scarf in SC the long way. I may add a fringe of chain loops.

Christmas projects

2006-11-24T05:36:00.000-06:00

So many! I have made one tiny sweater for Josie's American Girl doll and want to make more. I have patterns for dresses, coats, hats, etc.

I have two of the four placemats for Heather done. I'm a little unsure about them. I worry that they are too small and that the edges curl. I'll have to block them for sure; I wonder what will happen after they are washed though. I'm thinking about edging them, too, instead of using the fringe. Not such a fan of fringe and the edging might help keep them flat.

Waiting on my EdgeryDoo thing to punch holes in fleece for crocheting an edging. I made one baby blanket by doing blanket stitch around the edge and then crocheting into the blanket stitch but I wasn't entirely happy with the results. My hand stitching is less than perfect to say the least and the stitches were a variety of widths and depths. Still, it did turn out really cute. So I went on to a full size blanket. I thought I should use a deeper stitch because of the larger scale of the blanket but that was a mistake. The edges of the fleece curl under in parts; the stitch is too big to hold the fleece down. So I cut off all the edges and will retry with my EdgeryDoo. Can't wait to get it!

Also started a little Lion Boucle/Fun Fur poncho for Josie. It should be very quick!

And I've been reading a lot about crochet. I'm very interested in new uses for this edging idea. I'm thinking about cotton thread crochet for towels and table cloths. Maybe even curtains.

Let's see how much I can actually accomplish in the next few weeks!

Specialized Knots

2006-10-18T08:50:00.000-05:00

This week's Cub Scout meeting was hobby night for families, so I brought my crochet. I pointed out the connection between knots (boy scouts!) and crochet. It was fun to see other people's hobbies and how people really shine when they talk about something they are passionate about.

I talked about the various tools and terms. I brought samples of yarn as well as finished works. I showed pattern books with written instructions vs. graphs. I demo'd some stitches. People were very polite and interested. People had good questions and we talked about tension and why you would use different sized hooks and what kind of yarn goes with which hook, etc.

I am setting aside my dishcloths and my quick scarves in the hopes of finishing the baby block afghan for my new niece (due in December). I'd like to have it ready for gift giving at the shower.

One down. How many to go?

2006-09-27T07:02:00.000-05:00

I finished up the Lion Suede afghan for Charlie's room. I'm very pleased with the general results, though a little chagrined at the poor results of weaving in the loose ends. I used my standard technique and the ends just keep popping out. This yarn is so sticky I never would have expected that.

I have a lot of leftovers, so I'm thinking scarves. Perhaps for shower favors/prizes. Perhaps for the church boutique sale but I've been a little hesitant to share with them since one of the organizers disclosed to me that they throw out the stuff that doesn't sell. I don't know if I could stand that. She says she wouldn't throw out my stuff, but how could I trust her? LOL

I have a bunch more cotton yarn for dishcloths but I want to finish the baby block afghan for the new baby. Also, I found on eBay patterns for crocheting American Girl-sized sweaters, dresses, coats and hats. I'd like to make a stash of them for Josie for Christmas. I have that strange Bernat fur yarn I got as a free sample; it should make a nice "mink" coat for a doll!

A New Obsession

2006-09-22T08:24:00.000-05:00

Well, obsession is a bit strong. But I'm having fun with the dishcloths. I know from reading around the 'net that people tend to have a real devotion to dishcloths. I guess I'm "hooked" now, too!

I think it's the quick turnaround. I've enjoyed the five-textured dishcloth patterns I found at crochetpatterncentral.com. It's enough variety to keep me entertained but mindless enough that I can work them while watching TV or a movie. And I love the cotton yarn; there's something so enjoyable about it. I love the feel.

So, thinking of all kinds of excuses to make all kinds of cloths. Some for shower favors, some for my internet pals, some for Christmas gifts, some for the craft boutique at church.

Abandoned projects

2006-09-12T14:50:00.000-05:00

So, I gave up on Angela's afghan. I didn't have a prayer of finishing it for her wedding. Plus it was kind of boring me. I will always tend to prefer simple shapes and simple stitches with a beautiful yarn. That piece was a (fairly) complicated stitch with boring white yarn.

Should be able to wrap up Charlie's Lion Suede throw soon. Then I'll whip up some quick dish cloths for Melissa's baby shower (for favors) I'm thinking about keeping a pink theme, so I think I'll make pink dishcloths. :giggle:

Remembrance of crochet things past....

2006-08-30T19:06:00.000-05:00

I think I started crocheting in junior high; I was probably 14 or so, so we are talking a good many years of crocheting. (We'll leave it at that....) Can I recall former projects? I remember a very, very early project; it might have been one of my only attempts at knitting and it was certainly a Home Ec project but it was a hideous purple and yellow (Viking colors!) scarf in cheap yarn. Yuck! Wonder what happened to that.

I remember an accidental forray into soft toys. I was trying to work a bear or something like that and realized it looked more like an ice cream cone. I made a whole series of those for the children I baby-sat. The scoops were edged with a shell stitch; so cute. I should try to recreate those.

Then there was the very elaborate graphic-style afghan stitch blanket I made Joe in expensive grey, red and white wool. That was a variation of a Family Circle or Woman's Day contest runner up pattern. I know he still uses it. It's very warm.

I abandoned crochet for many years; not sure why. And not sure why I picked it up again. I know I had a drive to make things for all my friends who were expecting babies while I was still waiting for mine. It was something to fill the time; something to create, I guess.

Four WIPs

2006-08-29T20:02:00.000-05:00

Four Works-in-Progress and more in my dreams. I'm not at all sure I'll finish the afghan in time for Angela's wedding (a week from Friday). It's working up very nice; I had a hard time settling on a pattern. I didn't want anything too old-ladyish for her. I'm working it in a nice soft white yarn; it's simply a repeating pattern of puff stitch with V-stitch. Uses a lot of yarn though!

I'd set aside the Lion Suede striped afghan for Charlie's room while I finished up Angela's. I love working with Lion Suede; the frog stitch is hard to do though with that yarn, though! lol

I also made the first tentative steps to a thread crochet lace curtain. :thud: Oh my, that will take me forever! It's a size 20 thread. It's a bit daunting to say the least.

And I have a baby afghan in progress for no particular reason other than I liked the pattern. Alternating blocks of six rows of pink, peach, yellow, blue, green, lilac. Worked in strips and will be sewn together with white edging.