Very Versatile Vertical Striped Hat

I know I haven't posted a lot lately, but that is because I have been busy crocheting and writing up a pattern. One of my friends is testing it for me. I plan to submit it to a book the Crochet Liberation Front group on Ravelry is developing. Since we retain our own copyright on our patterns, I can show you a photo of it, and not keep it in super secret. I am also super excited about the new pattern store features on Ravelry that are being tested by others. Soon I will be able to host my patterns for free or sale on Ravelry, and you will be able to access them even if you don't have a Ravelry account.

OK back to the pattern, I made this using the leftover yarn from the spiral felted bag. Hence the Chocolate Raspberry Delight.

Then I tested the pattern in toddler size and had to come up with a new name, so Very Versatile Vertical Striped Hat it is, or VVV or (Ver)^3 for short.

Tag again

So my friend Lisa at http://neuroticneedles.blogspot.com/ tagged me for 7 random things. The rules are very similar to the 8 random things I got tagged for last October. This time it is post 7 random facts about yourself and then tag 7 others. The difference is this time, I know more people who have fiber blogs. Here are the official rules:

1. link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.

2. share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

3. tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

4. let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.



Here are my 7 factoids:

1) I just watched "No Reservations" last night. A very cute movie. The main character, a chef at a fancy restaurant, had one of Alton Brown's cookbooks on her shelf.

2) I had fun spotting lots of fun crocheted and knitted hats and scarves that the characters sported in that movie. Even some cute crocheted doll clothes.

3) I'll probably get interrupted 15 times writing this post. Changing diapers, dealing with toy teasing, nappers not staying in bed during naptime, fun stuff.

4) I went to a delightful tea party on Saturday that my sister-in-law had. She made delicious scones, pumpkin bread, and hot cereal. Afterwards we went to a yarn shop and I got some fun yarn to make a bag, plus some for a top for myself.

5) The yarn I bought was all in hanks, and I needed to wind it into a ball myself, we couldn't stay and use the one at the shop. The first hank, 90 meters, took 3 h or so because I didn't put it around my knees or a chair or anything. I thought I could just be careful. It got knotted up pretty quickly.

6) Last night I did about 1500 yards in 3 hours while watching the movie. It sure does go faster when it doesn't get all tangled up.

7) I haven't been posting too much recently because I've been busy typing up and formatting some of my patterns. I'm super excited about the new pattern features coming out on Ravelry, and hope to have some of my patterns available there soon. You'll see some of my designs in an upcoming post.



The people I have tagged are: Pam, UmmeYusuf, Lana, MinglingYarn, HobbyZu

I know it's not 7 yet, but if I don't post it now, I doubt it will ever get posted. =)

New look

I was having a bit of trouble recently with my blog. Like none of the posts would show up at all. However, changing the template allowed my blog to magically reappear, so we'll see how this goes. My counter may have been lost, though. It was so close to 1000 too. Oh well.

Treasures

For Valentine's Day I thought I would share with you some recently acquired treasures which were made by my Great-Grandmothers. These items were made with love for their daughters. The first is a beautiful guest towel and washcloth that my Grandma received as a wedding gift 62 years ago. She told me she doesn't think she ever used it, but often had it out. I just think it is a clever and creative way to put the towel and washcloth together. I'm also curious about how the edging was done. Did she just force her steel hook through the bottom of the towel and cloth or did she use a needle somehow?

The second was made by my other Great-Grandma, whose crochet thread I now have, for my Great-Aunt. It's a little potholder, with the same pattern on both sides, seamed together with the white picot edging. Inside is a pad of cotton flannel. It has been used with love to serve many meals.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Circular Labyrinth

I've finally started making some progress on the circular labyrinth. I've wanted to work on it since I first did the square labyrinth last summer. I didn't see any patterns that matched what I wanted to do, and I knew it would take some time, so I set it aside until after Christmas. This is actually the second one I've started, as I didn't like how the first one was turning out. Some of the rows I have done several times because I get distracted and miss a color change, and don't notice until 2 rounds later.... I've completed about half of the circuits. The nice thing about this circular labyrinth as opposed to the square one, is that there are far fewer color changes- so the yarns don't get as tangled. A lot of my time on the square one was spent untangling the yarns so that I could continue stitching.

I think I'll make at least two more versions of this before I'm satisfied, because as I am going along, I keep coming up with ideas to make it better. Ultimately I want to convert this into a hat. It won't be hard to do, I just need to finish making it flat first.

even more hats

So I've been busy making a few more hats and even got them sent off to MN. I really like the plain simple dc beanie. It goes so fast. I also made an adult size spiral hat. I made them for my brother and sister-in-law as a thank you for letting us stay with them while we were in MN. Since they have received the hats now, I can post about them.

The blue one is for a former neighbor who is expecting a baby boy this spring.

I've also been working on a circular labyrinth. no pattern, just following a sketch of one. It is taking me awhile, and sometimes have to rip out a couple rounds when I discover an error. I'll talk more about this and show a photo in a later post.

I'd have more to show, but I've been spending too much time on Ravelry lately.

A Shrug and an Ugh!

I started this shrug for my friend Rebecca last fall. I bought the yarn at an overstock sale at a yarn store in MN (the new owners were clearing out lots of odd balls of yarn.) There was enough to make something, but what..... I found a stitch pattern in my Crochet Stitch Bible by Barnden. I used 1 ball each for the scallops, and 1 ball each for the honeycomb mesh. I was just over halfway done after about 2 weeks. I didn't bring it with me to MN, but started working on it again after returning in January. I even tried blocking it (that sort of worked). It was sort of neat to see in Lily Chin's Couture Crochet Workshop, which I received over Christmas, a dress and shawl with scallops out of a very similar peach color.

And now the Ugh!!! I started this project last summer. Ruthie Marks had a welcome mat out of twine in her Geometrics book. I bought some sisal rope from a big box home improvement store, and a giant hook (P) from my craft store. I kept the rope and project outside on our patio. I could only work about 2 rows a day because it would tear up my fingers and also hurt my forearms because it was so stiff. I finally got the mesh done, and even a few rounds of the dragon curves. Then the wildfires came, and deposited lots of ash and soot and particulates all over the patio and my rug. Yuk! Now the rain has come, and this is what it looks like now. It is sitting on top of the spool of rope so maybe I just need to cut it and try again???

My first felted bag

Well I finally finished my first felted bag. Ta da? It turned out nice, but I've learned a few things for next time.

1) My machine doesn't let me peek in at anything once it has started. For some reason I thought I had been able to in the past, but alas, I cannot. What does this mean? It felted a bit more than I wanted it to, and the opening is a bit narrower than I had hoped.

2) Crochet stitches shrink more in height than they do in width. This means that the proportions of the bag are a little off. I thought that I had read somewhere (must have been wrong) that the stitches felt more widthwise than lengthwise, so I made the bag with that in mind.

Here is the pre-felting photo.

Here is the post-felting shot.

Winter hats

I made several hats this winter. First was the "Strawberry Frozen Yogurt" hat & mittens for #2 Here is the finished set alone. Made out of alpaca from the Alpaca Yarn Co., exactly 1 skein each color. I also made "Cookies & Cream" hat & mittens for myself. I used the Fibonacci sequence for the stripes, from the center 8-5-3-2-1-1. The hat was made with alpaca and misti alpaca. I bought the yarn this summer. I started it this fall using front post double crochet stitches, which make it look nice, but eat up way too much yarn. So I had to frog it and start all over again using just plain dc after I got to MN. I then bought the yarn (Araucania Nature Wool) for the mittens when I got there. I thought that the browns matched a little better than they do, but I guess they are close enough. I just worked a few rounds at a time, and tried the mittens on. I worked from both ends of the skein so that I wouldn't forget what I did with from one mitten to the other. They worked pretty well, except when it was windy. A single crochet stitch would have probably been better.

Here's the hat/scarf I designed for my mom. I used Jo Sharp Cashmere, silk, wool blend for the light purple and Cascade 220 wool for the dark purple.

I also made the following hat for my dad out of Tivoli's Aran Luxury Tweed that my sister-in-law brought back from Ireland.

Felted Placemats

For my first attempt at felting, I thought I'd try something simple. Placemats are rectangles, and it doesn't matter how big they are exactly. Above are the prefelted shots, below are the pics post felting. They were 120 stitches wide, and done with dc Rows are made up of stripes of 3,6,3,6,4,1,4,6,3,6,3. I used the same colors, just rotated them through between the two placemats. They felted more along their height and less along their width, so that they are a little wider than normal, but still functional. The edges ruffled a bit. I suppose I could have placed something heavy on them to prevent this. But they are super soft. I used Patons Classic Wool Merino, 5 skeins.