Last project of 2008!

Wow, it's almost Christmas, huzzah!  

Here's a look at the finished blanket for my co-worker:

Here's a closer detail of the of the corner of the blanket so you can see the border:

I managed to get it completed Thursday night (due to some work drama that had me wanting to get it finished in time to give to my coworker).  

She loved the blanket!  I had to guess on the colors to use, because it would have been really obvious if I had started asking her about what colors she likes--but it turns out I chose well.  Turquoise is her favorite color, so yay me!  Also, we just got a lovely cold front in last night so she was really looking forward to curling up with it today.  

I am really happy with how this blanket turned out and I think that I am going to make this pattern/style my default blanket unless there is a specific pattern I want to try out.  With the endless variations of colors available this could give me lots of blanket-making possibilities.

Anyhoo, I am officially taking the rest of the year off for any projects.  I have the rest of that baby yarn I want to wind up into balls (then I will use the leftovers for another baby blanket in January), but other than that I am just going to chill, methinks. 

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Enjoy!  

C

On to the next one.

Yay!  I've finished with the baby blankets and moved on to my next project.  This one is a Christmas present for my co-worker.  

This is a pretty easy project, and I am really pleased with how it's working up so far.  I hope to get it done by next weekend, Monday night at the latest.  

The blanket is just one big granny square.  But the twist is that I am using two strands of yarn at once.  I am making it in black and turquoise, using a size K hook.

It is turning out as a nice solid thick blanket, which is exactly what I hoped for.  And the double strand effect looks really spiffy.  

Here are a few shots so you can see:

Also, since my co-worker has a cat, Wally has taken it upon himself to test-drive the blanket for Skittles.  I think he approves:

And yes, rest assured, I will be washing this before it goes to its new owner.  

Anyhoo, hope all is well with you guys.  Have a great week!

C

Done!

Yay!  I have finished the baby blankets!  

Here's what the yellow one looks like:

Here is what the "nametags" ended up looking like (forgive the horrid lighting in this photo):

And then here's a nametag attached to the blanket itself:

So, hoorah!  Tomorrow night I'll wash and wrap them and then Tuesday they'll head off to their new homes.  

So glad to have that behind me.  

Now I can get started on the Christmas present blanket...sigh, a crocheter's work is never done.  

(And don't you know I kind of love it that way?)

Well, until next time, toodles,

C

Quickly becoming an exercise in frustration...

I am posting today because I am hoping to get up tomorrow and, after a quick round of Christmas shopping (online of course--I am not entirely sure how I existed before I discovered the internet) with my hubby, dive right into finishing up this baby blanket project.  Crochet all day!  (With some laundry and meals thrown in.)

Here's a status report.  

Right now I have the two green blankets completely done except for the baby "name tags."  You can see them below:

I would like to note that right now they are just folded up (rather clumsily) awaiting finishing and washing.  They will be presented in a much more pretty fashion when they are given to the recipient.  

As of last night I have all of the squares for the third blanket completed, as well:

They just need to be assembled and bordered.  

Then I can do the "name tags" I mentioned earlier.  I think I am going to make small blue rectangles in single crochet and embroider the names on each, then sew the "tags" to the center of the solid square in the bottom right corner of each blanket.  I think it will look alright, but we shall have to see, won't we?

As you might have guessed from the title of my post, this project has started to become something of a chore.  While I am more than happy to be making these for my friend, I think three is just too many to do at one time for someone.  So, lesson learned for me, I guess.  She's already "planning" the next round of blankets she wants me to do for her, as well as some purses, but I may just have to say no on those, at least for a while.  I have too many other projects of my own I would really like to work on, and as I crochet for enjoyment and relaxation, I am not looking forward to doing anything else on commission for a bit.  

Sadly, I think it if had stopped at one blanket, or even two, it would be a different story.  Sigh. 

Anyhoo, that's not really the most frustrating thing about this project.  That would be the yarn.  I have been using Red Heart Soft Baby Steps.  While I like the yarn itself, I am not going to recommend it.  Unless you are the kind of person who unwinds every skein before you start a project, in which case, you probably won't have any issues.  

I would say literally 2/3 of the skeins I have used have resulted in some huge tangle halfway through a square that has bogged me down and ticked me off to no end.  I gave my poor cat a heart attack last night when I screamed in frustration at the latest snag.   And you would think I would have learned to just unwind each skein before I start using it, right?  That would be a negative.  I have a stubborn streak a mile wide, and a sense of impatience led on by the time crunch of three blankets on a deadline, that apparenlty won't let me do something so sensible (and probably time-saving in the end).  So yeah.  This yarn is driving me batty.  On the plus side, pretty much almost done with it.  So, yay.  

I think part of it is that I very rarely have these issues with Red Heart, and so I keep thinking, oh it's just this skein.  But no, it's really not.  Though my adopted sis and fellow crocheter, K, pointed out she had a similar problem with Red Heart Soft in the past.  So it could just be this particular brand of yarn I guess.

Also, this is making me very much look forward to the ball winder I have been promised for Christmas.  Can't wait.

But I am determined to get these blankets finished up by Monday evening so they can be delivered on Tuesday and then I can start on my next project, the blanket I am making as a Christmas present.  It is going to basically be just a big granny square, so I am hopeful that it should be quick and easy and the opposite of frustrating. 

Then at the start of the year I am actually going to get started on those sweaters, I swear. 

Well, until next time, I wish you all well!

Peace, 

C

Off the road and back at home.

Man, I had a fantastic Thanksgiving vacation, I hope you all had the same.

I didn't get nearly as much crochet done as I had hoped though.  All of that socializing and not being a hermit and those two fifteen hour drives kind of distracted me....

I made good time getting home today though so I was able to get the second blanket finished tonight.  

I'll dive into blanket number three tomorrow.

Hope you all have a wonderful week...I am headed for bed because I am one pooped craftster.

TTFN,

C

Happy Holiday thoughts.

Huzzah!  I have one blanket completely done, and I am halfway done with the squares for the second.  

I may or may not push through and try to complete all of the squares today, we shall see.  I definitely think I can get the blanket finished by the end of this week, and hopefully get started on the third.

Here are some photos for you.

This is a detail of the corner and border:

And this is the whole blanket.

I am pretty happy with how it came out.  Hopefully its intended owner will enjoy it as well!

Well, I wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving week and holiday!  I'll be heading out on Tuesday to Tennessee to visit my dad and sis and step-sis.  Should be a good time, as long as I can get through the fourteen hour drive to get there!

Anyhoo, take care y'all!

I just might pull this off.

I have all of the squares for the first baby blanket done, huzzah!  Now I just need to put them together and then do the border.  

Then I only have to make two more blankets.  Of course I also need to figure out how to get the babies' names put on the blankets.  I have an idea on that but I am going to wait until I have all three blankets proper completed.  

Anyhoo, I am off to go start assembling.  I hope you all have a wonderful week!

C

Babies Galore!

Okay, so you may remember me mentioning a while back that a friend at work asked me to make a baby blanket for her pending niece/nephew.  Well, this has somehow morphed into three baby blankets for children of her various siblings.  But hey, I like a challenge, so I was game.  

Well, I now finally have (almost) all of the supplies assembled, and enough to actually begin the blankets.  I am making two variations on the Triangles afghan pattern.  I have dropped a row from the original pattern and changed up its color scheme, but otherwise I will actually be following the pattern.  I am kind of excited about that, actually, because while I've adapted the squares this pattern calls for quite often, I've yet to actually make a blanket using the pattern itself.  

So I am all set this afternoon to get started, huzzah!

To give you an idea of what my alterations to the pattern will look like, here are the "maps" I've drawn up for myself.  

This is for the pattern using yellow as the primary color.  I will be making one in this color scheme.

Here are the colors for that scheme.  Well, almost, I realized after I had already uploaded the pictures that this one has green in it instead of blue, but imagine that the green skein is the blue seen further down and you'll have the idea.

Here's the map for the blanket that will be primarily green.  I am making two of these.

Here are the colors for this scheme (and hey, they're all correct in this photo, yay).

I think this is going to come out really well.  I will keep you updated as it progresses.  

I hope all is well in your world!

Until next time, 

C

Ooh, a project!

So, you may have noticed I did not post last week.  (hides head in shame)  Hmm, well, that might have just been because I didn't actually crochet anything that week.  Ergh.  See, I have four blankets I want to make for Christmas, and I have ordered the yarn for three of them (baby blankets), but I am waiting for the yarn to get here.  I really don't want to get started on anything that's going to suck me in until I have those finished, since they are for other people.  So, I have been reluctant to pick up any new projects lately.  Sigh.  I am one of those people who can really only do one project at once, unfortunately.  Also, I am dawdling on my sweater swatch because I really want it to come out right, but I do not have a whole lot of confidence in my sweater-making ability.  So...I've been dragging my feet.

This past week was a little better though.  I had been trying to figure out how I was going to carry my essentials (you know, ID, phone, chapstick, camera, etc.) to the bar for my husband's Halloween show.  My costume didn't have any pockets.  I was wearing kind of a medieval peasant dress with this awesome red cape, and it dawned on me, hey, I could carry a basket and be Red Riding Hood!  So I was rolling with that for a bit but then I realized I really didn't want to carry a basket around a bar all night (also, even though I don't drink, odds were I would drop it because I am a klutz...and that would just be bad, my iPhone would no likey).  

That's when I came up with the solution of crocheting up a little drawstring bag that I could tie around my wrist and forget about until I needed it.  

I grabbed some brown scrap felt I had (leftover from a long ago project that involved making stuffed trees, maybe one day I'll tell y'all that story) and sewed up a little cup shaped liner.  Then I took some brown yarn and some red yarn and crocheted up a little bag to go around the liner.  I did the yarn as double strand and I think it came out pretty cool looking.  But don't take my word for it, judge for yourseves:

I was really happy with how it came out.  Plus, it worked very well.  This may end up just being my show bag, seriously.  

This was my first try with doing double-strand crochet and I really liked that.  I think I may utilize that for the fourth Christmas blanket I want to make.  Now I just need to settle on the colors for that.  

I should see the first package of my yarn for the baby blankets come in the mail this week, so next week I'll probably show you the plan for those.  Hopefully all of the yarn will arrive soon.  I ended up having to order from two different stores because JoAnn's didn't have enough of the yarn I planned to use for the border, so I ordered that yarn from another site.  So that's two packages...then I see where JoAnn has charged me for my order from them, but it is not the full price of the order.  This leads me to believe that some of my yarn was on backorder (groan) and will be shipping separately, but I haven't gotten my shipping email notice yet, so I don't know for sure.  This may be the death knell for me ordering yarn online from JoAnn's or from the other site.  We'll have to see.  

Well, that's all I've got for you this week.  I hope all is well and that your projects are coming along nicely with no snags.  Take care!

Oh, and in case you're wondering, here I am in my costume from Friday, though sans cape:

Later y'all,

C

Action!

Well, I didn't do much crocheting this week, but I thought I would give you some shots of all of my wedding shawls in action.  

Here I am (on the right) with the other two bridesmaids in all of our shawled glory.

The weather turned out to actually be pretty gorgeous but we still went ahead and wore the shawls.  There were some last minute zipper malfunctions with my dress and one of the other bridesmaid's dress as well, so we decided the shawls would be best to hide the weirdness.  Stupid zippers.  

The bride even decided to wear her shawl as well.  Here's a shot of the happy couple.

It was a beautiful cermony and a really fun party afterwards.  I am kind of beat though, so today is a nice take it easy day.

My goal for this week is to get the gauge figured out for my upcoming sweater and maybe get started on that.  I did get one swatch done last week while it was the right height, the width was not quite where it needed to be, so I need to play around a bit.  More on that as it develops, I'm sure.

I wish everyone a great week!

C

One to go...

Alrighty, well, I have managed to get two of my three bridesmaid shawls completed this week.  I am really really digging this pattern, which is Easy Triangle Shawl over at Lion Brand's website.  They really were not kidding about the easy part.  This thing works up like a dream.  It's basically all half-double crochet.  

I did make one change to the pattern and did a crocheted border instead of fringe. I can’t stand fringe.

I worked the shawl until I had 101 half-double crochets in the middle of the pattern (doesn’t count the chain three, 2 hdc in one space at the start of the row or the 2 hdc in once space, chain one, hdc at the end of the row).

Then I did 106 sc across the top of the shawl and continued around doing once sc in each row, three in the “point” (the original circle made at the start of the shawl), and one sc in each row going up, joining with the first sc.

I finished off by doing *2 dc in one space, ch 4, slip stitch into first ch, 2 dc in same space, skip 2 spaces* and repeated from * to * all the way around.

If that sounds familiar, it’s the same border from the Lion Brand CAL Sampler Afghan. That is so my new favorite border, and it looks really nice on these shawls, gives them a bit of a leafy feel, which goes well with the floral print dresses we are wearing.  If I think about it, I will get a photo of me in my bridesmaid dress with the shawl so you can see.  

Here's a few glimpses at the finished product:

Here's a closer shot too so you can see the detail of the pattern and the border:

So now I just have one more shawl to make (mine), and I should get that done by tomorrow night.  

I've got the pattern for the baby blankets I am making for my colleague all figured out and approved, so now I just need to order the yarn for those.  

My yarn came on Friday for my first sweater attempt as well.  I am super excited about that.  After I finish my shawl, I think I will start working on my gague swatch to make sure I can do this.  I am determined though.  

I hope all is well with everyone.  Have a great week!

C

Oh!  Hey, anyone out there on Ravelry, do you know of any active crochet square swap groups?  I joined a group this week that seemed like it would be great for me, but I seemed to have joined right after they all went inactive or something, and I really would like to try doing a regular square swap.  Any recommendations are much appreciated!

TTFN

Secret projects revealed...

So, for anyone who has actually been wondering what those "secret" projects of mine have been, here's a glimpse at the primary one:

One of my best firends is getting married later this month, and it's a Hawaiian themed wedding.  So it's outdoors and her dress is a halter-top.  I thought she might like something to keep warm during the reception and all, so I made her a shawl.  

Here's a closer view of the pattern:

I used the Half-Moon Shawl pattern from Lion Brand Yarn.  I am really happy with how the shawl turned out, but in all honesty, I don't think I will be using this pattern again.  IMO it really wasn't very clearly written and it was more frustrating to follow than most of the patterns I use.  

Next up I will be making shawls for myself and the other bridesmaids in the ceremony.  I am going to give the Easy Triangle Shawl a pattern for these.  I'll be using Vanna's Choice in Seaspray for our shawls.  JoAnn's was having a sale on Vanna's Choice 2 for $5, so I ordered enough for the shawls and it should be arriving tomorrow.  I can't wait to get started on these.  

Other than that, there's not much going on.  I am just waiting for some other yarn I ordered for my first attempt at a sweater.  

I hope you're all having a great week.  Happy crocheting.

C

Two down, like a bazillion up...

Yay, I finished my CAL blanket on my trip!  I am really pleased with how it came out.  It is making a wonderful blanket to curl up with on the couch and watch my DVR stockpile as I try to get over the cold I picked up on my trip.  

I think my very favorite part of the blanket may actually be the border though.  I definitely have a new favorite border.  Here's a glimpse of my practice swatch (looks a bit like a tiara to me, or as my husband pointed out, Lady Liberty's headpiece).

And here you can see it on the actual blanket.  

I really do like this blanket pattern, though I do think the next time I make it I will use a smaller hook.  

I also finished up my secret project on the trip.  I will post pictures and write more on that once I've given it to the intended recipient.

I can post some fun pics of me working on it though.  Here I am at the ballgame with my project.  Mom's right next to me working on her own knitting project.

I also found an excellent way to keep my ball of yarn from rolling onto the ground at the stadium!  Huzzah for seat back cupholders--I wish we had those at the Ballpark in Arlington.  Of course, I always get bleacher seats for home games, so maybe it's just my frugality keeping me from the cupholders...

  

While this trip was great for finishing projects, it was also great for adding to the upcoming pile immensely.  First off, I went with my mom to a really cool yarn store in San Francisco called Art Fibers.  It's a pretty spiffy place.  They have sample yarn that you can play with, and you can keep any swatches you make, free of charge.  I also bought a few "taste samplers,"  snippets of yarn you can take home and try out to see if you want to buy more.  My mom also got me a cone/skein of this really awesome (and ridiculously expensive) yarn called Tasmania, in a very beautiful grean/brown color scheme (color 11).  Thanks Mom!  I've been trying to figure out what to do with my new fancy yarn, and I think what I may do is search for a pattern for a stuffed dragon to crochet.  It's a good color scheme for it.  

I had toyed with the idea of maybe trying to make a sweater out of the new yarn but I don't quite have enough.  I did find a few sweater patterns I want to give a try though, so wish me luck on those.  I also found a really cool baby blanket pattern that will be perfect for my co-worker if she picks more than one color.  

Then I was talking to my mom and sis about the awesomeness that is Ravelry and they were discussing the swaps that they are involved in.  I was thinking it might be fun to get involved in a blanket square swap group, so stay tuned on that front...

Plus there's still my Accepted's blanket and there was a sale on Vanna's Choice at JoAnn's that has fueled the additional projects I feared my secret project might lead to...so it looks like I am going to be busy on the crochet front for a bit.  And you know what, not complaining one bit.  

So yeah...there you go.  Hope all is well with everyone.  

Have an awesome week!

C

The gears are turning...

So, I was visiting one of my company's other locations on Thursday and some of my co-workers noticed my faux vintage purse.  When they commented on it I mentioned that I had made it and they were duly impressed.  In the ensuing discussion I mentioned that I mostly make blankets and one of them asked what I would charge to make a baby blanket because it turns out her sister is expecting.  

Now I seriously do not crochet for any other reason than because I enjoy doing it and because it is something to do with myself while I watch those zillion hours of television a week.  Also, this is one of the few people I work with that I genuinely like, so I of course told her that I would love to make a baby blanket for her pending niece or nephew, and she would just need to pay for or supply the yarn.  

I spent most of the drive back to my office pondering baby blankets.  I think that, depending on what color(s) yarn end up getting chosen, I will either use the pattern I did for my friend's parents or I will use the triangles pattern.  I am very excited about this.  It will probably be a bit before I get started on it because my co-worker is waiting to find out if it is a boy or a girl before she picks out the yarn.  

Whee!  I love happy projects like this.

The Accepted's Blanket is definitely a go in the near future as well.  I think I am going to make it completely round, so I am looking forward to playing with stitches a little to see what will lay flat the best.  

I just finished the last row of my CAL blanket tonight.  The blocks are also all assembled, so I will be spending my non-driving road-trip time tomorrow working on the border.  It's only two rows so that should be finished up hopefully by the time we hit St. Louis.  Then I will be all set to start on my super secret portable project.  The yarn came on Wednesday and I had a hard time not just starting it then.  Ooh, I am excited.  

Isn't it pretty?

I may even throw my Doctor Who Scarves into the bag to work on during the drive home next Sunday, in case projects one and two wrap up as quickly as it seems they might.  Man, I am kind of excited for all of the crocheting I am gonna get done on this vacation.  

Well, until next time, I wish you all well.  

Have a safe and fantastic week!

C

Ooh, planning vacation projects...

So, as of this coming Friday, I am on vacation!  I am heading out to California to visit my little sister.  My mom is going to be there for a few days as well, so I am really looking forward to the trip.  Of course, part of planning a trip is planning the project(s) I will take with me.  Ooh, fun.

I have completed four of six rows on my CAL blanket.  I am fairly confident I can finish this blanket by the end of my vacation.  I will be taking it along to work on in the car for the road trip to St. Louis and back (we're driving up to StL then flying to California and back to StL because my high school reunion is on the 27th, and it was the most feasible way to fit that in along with the visit to my sister, since I am going to visit for her birthday, which is on the 26th).  

But blankets are big and not terribly portable, at least not by current airline standards, so I have also been trying to figure out a good small project to start.  I have come up with a solution and ordered the yarn (which will hopefully get here by Friday).  I don't want to say too much until it's finished because it is a gift for a friend, but I am kind of excited about it.  It also may lead to more projects if it comes out well.  Ahh...dominoes.

I also have been kicking around the idea of making an "Accepted's" blanket.  This would be my homage to the late great Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time Series.  The Accepted are Aes Sedai (Jordan's equivalent of witches/sorceresses) in training, and their status is denoted by white gowns with a trim along the hem that is a band of color for each of the seven Ajahs (factions) of the sisterhood.  Okay, so, what does that all mean, crochet-wise?  Well, what I want to make is a blanket with a white center and then the seven bands of color (the colors are red, green, brown, blue, grey, yellow, and white--I need to do some hunting to find the proper order they'll go in).    I think this could be a kind of spiffy (and also rather nerdy, but fun) project to do.  I am still debating whether to make it completely round or to do it with a round center and square it off, or do it as a big ol' granny square...so many choices.  I also think I am going to make myself finish my Doctor Who Scarves before I can start this one.

Anyhoo, so that's where I'm at the in the crochet world.

I hope you all are doing well, have a good one.

C

Keepin' on...

Nothing terribly exciting going on this week.  I am just working on my CAL blanket.  I think it's going pretty well.  I've got two of six rows done at this point.  I should definitely get another row, maybe row and a half, completed by this time next week.  I am starting to fall into a rhythm with the squares now, so they are coming a little more quickly.  

I have to say, until I finished the second row strip and attached it to the first one, I still wasn't too sure about how this was going to turn out.  After seeing the completed two rows, however, I am much more confident that I will be proud of the finished result.  Part of me does wish that I had gone with a smaller hook in order to have a tighter weave, because I think that would look awesome.  On the other hand, the fabric that the size P hook is working up is really light and fluffy and airy, and I do find that I am enjoying the feel of it very much.  

In other news, Mr. Picasso Pants' brother came yesterday!  Huzzah!  Meet The Dread Pirate Snugbug!

Also, he loves his vest.  Hopefully he'll love his new home just as much!

Y'all have a great week!

Until next time,

C

Ooh, crochet along!

Hello there folks! I hope you have all been having a glorious holiday weekend. I have certainly been making the most of my extra time off. And even though not all of it has been spent crocheting, I still feel like I've made some decent progress this week.

First things first, I finished the vest I wanted to make for my new pirate jinxlet that is on his way. Mr. Picasso Pants was kind enough to model the finished project for us:



It is a little bit bigger than I had planned on it being, but I kind of think it works. I used the pattern for the vest from the Leisure Arts Sock Monkey booklet (thanks to my little sis for sending me that book!) and I used my Alpaca Boucle yarn to make it. It's a pretty happy little outfit, just waiting for the right space faring alien to come along and don it.

After making that I was kind of at a loss for my next project. I have two more in my queue, not counting the Doctor Who project, but I haven't gotten a chance to take the patron of the commissioned blanket yarn shopping yet and the cape is going to be a pretty darn involved project, so I'm not quite ready for that one yet.

Then I got my newsletter from Lion Brand yarn and found out that they are having a crochet along! How fortuitous. The pattern is the Crochet Sampler Afghan, which is one I had been thinking about giving a go.

I went out Wednesday and bought my yarn--I've decided to go with Lion Brand's Pound of Love (in turquoise) rather than the Fisherman's Wool called for. Cori doesn't play well with yarn that isn't machine washable. It also calls for a size P hook, so I had to get one of those. It is making for a pretty large, loose weave. I am pretty happy with it, because it's super nice and soft and I think it will be a great cuddle up blanket. I do think sometime down the road though I'd like to give it a try with a smaller hook (I know several of the participants of the CAL are doing just that), because it seems this pattern is meant to be made with a tighter weave and I bet it would look pretty nifty that way as well.

The pattern itself is pretty simple. There are three different squares, and it calls for ten of each. Here's a glimpse at each square.

Square one: This is just a straight forward single crochet the whole way through square. It gets a little added texture since the pattern calls for you to SC in the back loop only of each row, which gives it those fun ridges.


Square two: Another pretty simple one, this square just alternates single crochet and double crochet rows. If you remember, that's what I used for my friend's birthday blanket back in April/May. I love how that particular pattern looks, especially with a big hook, and it is such a simple one to do as well.

Square three: This one is a little more complicated, at least for me. Though once I got the hang of the stitch, it seemed to work up much more quickly. This one alternates single crochet rows with rows of the cluster stitch (with three double crochets to a cluster). It looks really super spiffy. I may incorporate this stitch into another blanket down the road.

So those are the three squares. They are assembled in a basic 3, 2, 1 repeating order, with five squares to a row and six rows. I've got four squares completed and hope to get another two done today and another two done tomorrow. I did have to make one change to square one though. The pattern calls for that to be 33 rows long, but squares two and three are each only 18 rows, which at 10 rows of SC and 9 rows of DC each, works out to about 28 rows of SC. So I am making my square one only 28 rows. We'll see how it looks as the blanket progresses, though I think for me that may be the way to go. You know me, I can never just stick with a pattern.

If you're interested in the crochet along, it doesn't seem to have any time restrictions, and it just started this week, so feel free to jump right in! You can learn more at Lion Brand's Blog for the project. They also have a group up in Ravelry.

So until next time, happy crocheting!

Have a great week,
C

Hey, look who's back!

Sigh, I have been neglecting this one, sorry about that. In all fairness, I was on the road last Sunday and that is why there was no post, but also for some reason I was in a crochet funk the last little while and just really didn't have anything new to report.

While I have made some progress on my Doctor Who scarves, I have also realized that this project is going to take me a while to complete, because it's not one that I am compelled to get done on any sort of schedule. I am therefore declaring this my "in between projects" project and putting it on hiatus for the moment. Here's how far I have gotten so far though:


And on the miniature:


Despite my lack of scarf-related motivation, however, I did manage to get one of my long-time pending projects done this weekend.

Behold, the faux vintage purse!


I am pretty happy with how this came out, though I am still debating on whether or not to keep it for myself or gift it upon someone. I really like how the Noro Silk Garden yarn came out on this. I think this was the perfect project for my special yarn. I didn't have quite enough for the whole thing, so I ended up using this cool pale green that my mom sent me last year for my birthday (thanks, Mom!) on the side panels for a nifty contrast, see...


I really love how the contract yarn worked up, I can't wait to figure out the right project for the rest of the skein.

Here's a glimpse at the purse in its various stages:

(Here's the lining with handles.)

(Here's the body of the purse.)

Here is the patten for anyone interested.

Materials: 2 Skeins Noro Silk Garden Yarn, 1 Skein Brooks Farm Wool Yarn, Size F Crochet Hook, Pair of 8.5"x5.5" Oval Bamboo Purse Handles, Liner Fabric, Needle, Thread

Liner:
Cut one piece of fabric 24" long and 10" wide (body)
Cut two pieces of fabric 9" long and 3" wide (side panels)
Starting 1.5" from top of main body piece, sew one of the smaller panels on each side (.25" from edge)
Fold main body piece so that ends are even, sew other sides of panels
Sew bottom of side panels to bottom of main body panel
Fold remaining top portion of body over a handle and sew in handle (do for each side).
Turn right side out.

(I hope those make sense, I don't work with many sewing patterns, and I kind of just made this one on the fly.)

Purse:
With main color, chain 40.
Row 1: Single crochet (SC) in second chain from hook, SC across (39 SC).
Rows 2-5: Chain 1, turn, SC across (39 SC).
Rows 6-20: Chain 3, turn, double crochet (DC) in second stitch from hook, DC in each stitch across (39 DC including chain 3).
Rows 21-30: Chain 1, turn, SC across (39 SC).
Rows 31-45: Chain 3, turn, DC in second stitch from hook, DC in each stitch across (39 DC including chain 3).
Rows 46-50: Chain 1, turn, SC across (39 SC).
Finish off.
*Side panel Row 1: With contrast color, join on edge of row 21 (first SC in center of body), chain 3, DC in each of next 9 rows (10 DC including chain 3).
Rows 2-15: Chain 3, turn, DC across (10 DC including chain 3).
Rows 16-20: Chain 1, turn, SC across (10 SC).
Finish off.**
Repeat from * to ** on other side for second panel.
Join sides of side panels to rest of body with slip stitch (two in each DC stitch, one in each SC).
Turn right side out.
Slip liner into purse.
At right corner of front of purse, join with main color, chain 1.
SC around top edge, join with slip stitch (98 SC).
4 slip stitch around handle to attach to purse.
39 SC.
4 slip stitch around next handle spot.
10 SC.
4 slip stitch around next handle spot.
39 SC.
4 slip stitch around next handle spot.
10 SC, join with slip stitch to first SC, finish off.

Okay, there you have it.

I have a few new potential projects floating around in my head, so hopefully I'll have more details on those soon.

I hope all is well wherever you are.

Toodles,
C