Jewel tones

I like all colors, I really don't think there are any that I don't care for. Among my favorites are the warm tones of fall. The reds, golds, and yellows that are starting to show up here in Alaska. I also love the cool blues and greens of our oceans, lakes, rivers, and seas. The bright pinks and purples of little girl clothes make me smile. But my all time favorites have got to be jewel tones. 

I've been making things for other people for so long that I decided I wanted to make a new throw for me based off the larksfoot stitch. It's working up so fast and I'm loving the way the colors are coming together. I've received a lot of compliments and even have a potential order to make an afghan for someone else.

On a side note, I had another order for little girl maryjane slippers which have been finished and delivered. I love that she keeps ordering more, but the color combinations she chooses really hurt my eyes!

Trying new things

Over the past month I've finished a few projects that I haven't posted because they're gifts that I don't want the recipients to see until they've received them.

That isn't to say that I haven't been busy doing other things. I found this super cute patter for baby sandals on  Ravelry and just had to give them a try. They turned out so cute and they were relatively easy to make. They were made to go with the matching hats and diaper cover.

A few days ago I was at the library and picked up the book "100 Crochet Projects" by Jean Leinhauser & Rita Weiss. There's a pattern for an entrelac skull cap which I decided to try. I've never attempted to do entrelac before and I think it would have been easier had I tried it with a flat piece. As you can see from the following pic, it didn't turn out as a skull cap - more of a slouch hat.

I also finally finished the slippers for one of my daughters that she's been waiting for since I made the first set a few months ago. So I haven't had idle hands, just busy getting kids ready for school and not much time for posting.

Hot Hooks and Sore Hands!

Over the past couple of weeks I've been crocheting away and it seems like my hooks got hot and my hands definitely got sore! I finished up some 'time waster' projects, worked on some baby items for a couple of cousins who are pregnant, and decided to try again at Tunisian crochet.

The time wasters really weren't wastes of time. I picked up a ravelry pattern for the Hyperbolic Pseudosphere Scrubbie that I ended up making several of after my oldest daughter took the first one and couldn't put it down. Not only that, they were just fun to make!

I have more of these, just didn't photo them. I generally stopped on round 4 with most of them, but the rainbow one here on the bottom has 9 rounds as the red and orange I did two rounds each because they're the shortest.

For obvious reasons ( I don't want them to see ) I'm not posting the baby stuff yet. That will come later after they've been received.

Now. Tunisian crochet. I tried it once years ago and really had trouble with my tension and working the return rows. So the other day I was looking for something and found my tunisian hook. I decided I'd give it another try and I swear I didn't put that long hook down for almost three days! I found a short row dishcloth pattern on ravelry (yes, I love that site!) that I really liked, but it was in tunisian so what better way to try again, right? I ended up whipping out five of these dishcloths and learning a few other tunisian stitches that I really like. Sometimes I just amaze myself with the things I can learn if I just take the time to try!

Slippers

A few weeks back I made myself and one of my daughters some slippers found at Crochet Spot (click the link for the pattern). I did make some adjustments to the pattern to make them fit us each well as well as making a gusset in the back for the heel as I didn't like the way the heel stitched up with the original directions. Anyway, someone else saw them and asked if I'd make her 3 pair and a pair for her daughter. She picked the color combinations and gave me measurements, she also asked for contrasting edging and flowers so here's what I came up with. 

By the time I was done with these I was sick of working with black yarn...ugh. For the contrasting edging I added a round of sc and then a round of picots to make them a bit more 'girly'. The flower pattern was originally for a flower garland with the pattern found at Sarahndipities. 

I found a recipe for homemade puffy glue that I'll be using to draw some flowers or such on the soles to make them non-skid. She'll be back on Saturday, I hope she likes them!

Finally!!

So the shrug I made for my friend's daughter needs a slight alteration and I brought it home. I figured while I had it here I'd have my daughter model it so I could show the back! I need to close up the arms a little bit more so it doesn't slip off her shoulders but I'm so happy with how it turned out. I'll have to write up the pattern and then I'll post it for anyone who'd like to test it for me.

The shrug isn't blocked, but it still looks good. I really like this stitch pattern, I think I'll try to figure out how to work it to a point and make a summery shawl. Oh the possibilities are endless!

Finally a pic!

So I posted a while back that I had finished the shrug, but I didn't have any pics to post. I finally got a picture of the shrug on the little girl I made it for. I wish I had a back pic, but she's cute so a front will do :)

It was so cute, when she saw it she said "oooo, it's sooo beautiful"! I guess we have a winner here. One day I might finish typing up the pattern and put it up to be tested.

Busy Hands

I've had busy hands for the past few days. My friend said I should build up an inventory of ami to sell at our local Saturday markets so I've been working on that. So far, these are what I've come up with:

 I also finished the shrug I posted about before. I'll post a pic of it being modeled by the little girl I made it for when I give it to her since it doesn't look as good when it's not being worn.

I have a hard time listening when my hands are idle, so yesterday at church I started crocheting. I didn't decide what it was going to be until about the 10th round. I had seen some really cute pin cushions online which gave me the idea for what I came up with. I wish I could find the pattern again to give reference. Having said that, I did NOT follow a pattern but I DID get the idea from someone else and as soon as I find the page, I'll link to it. Anyway, here's what I came up with:

Feeling a little froggy.

After seeing the octopus I had been making, a friend of mine asked if I could make him a frog. Although I vigorously waved my magic wand and said the magic words..nothing happened. So off I went in search of a good (free and easy) pattern!

The first one I found was Amigaerumi by Erika Hughes. Fast and fairly easy to make all the parts I was really liking this one until it came time for assembly. I usually avoid patterns that require sewing, but I really wanted to make this frog. Anyway, here's what I came up with.

Not too bad, but I'm not especially happy with how the arms turned out and I think adding pipe cleaners inside the legs would have been a good idea so they'd be more pose able.

The next one I tried was Frog in "Paris" which is a DROPS design. He's a cute little thing, but once again I had some trouble with placement when adding the limbs.

After trying both designs I kind of mixed them up a bit and tried a little harder in getting the placement right and came up with this little guy.

He's a little cockeyed and has the "gangsta lean" going on, but I'm pretty happy with him. My friend liked all three and decided to buy them all! Not bad for a few days worth of crocheting here and there!

Yarn Addictions

I don't understand how people who crochet and knit can limit the amount of yarn they have on hand. I try, I really do try really hard not to make extra yarn purchases. In light of that statement I have a confession to make. I'm a yarnoholic. <<-- is that even a word?

Last week a friend of mine asked if I'd make a shrug for her daughter. Seeing as how she's my friend and I love her daughter to bits I enthusiastically said yes. She said she'd like it to be in a shade of brown. I know I had recently purchased some beautiful chocolate colored yarn a couple months ago so decided to dig it out for this project. After going through the house and pulling out a tote and a few bags full of yarn, I didn't find the brown (I think it's hidden in my room somewhere.) but I did find all of this:

The way I had it all laid out I wasn't able to get it all in the picture. The box in the background has been in the closet for years and I found a bag of yarn in the bottom of it that was given to me by my ex-husband's late aunt which included the bag in the foreground which was full of plastic canvas and yarn specifically for that. The sad part is I didn't find the brown and this isn't all of the stash. There's another 20gal tote full of it out in the storage shed that I found the other day and I keep running across small bags of yarn here and there.

Balls

Ok, I think I've finally got the basic concept of crocheting balls down. Start with magic ring, increase a few rounds, sc a few rounds, and decrease the opposite of your increases. Easy peasy!

Now that I've figured this out I think I'll be making a bunch of hackey sacks for the group of kids in our local behavior treatment center. In the past 9 months of spending time there I've noticed a lot of the kids don't get regular visits from family if they get them at all. I usually have a small project there with me and they all get excited to see what I'm making. Today I had these two balls with me ( I whipped up the yellow one while sitting at the laudromat) and several got excited and asked if they were hackey sacks. They aren't, just stuffed with normal poly fill and the smaller one has a few bells in it. Anyway, it got me to thinking. At any given time there are 60 kids living in this building. I can whip these up pretty fast so I think I'll make a bunch and drop them off.

I also figure that just knowing the basic design for a sphere is a good jumping off point for learning to design my own amigurumi. We'll have to see what I can come up with.

Snuggly (Ugly) Bunny

I used the Snuggly Bunny pattern over at StormyzCrochet but mine just doesn't look like hers. I like how fast it worked up and thanks to tutorials over at PlanetJune's amigurumi help I think I did pretty a pretty good job attaching the pieces. The problem I had was with placement. I wish there had been more pics showing the placement of the different parts. As you can see, mine came out a bit crooked.

I'll chalk this one up as a learning experience and do some more reading of tutorials and practicing.

Finished Sweater

I finished the sweater and cap! Can't believe I finished it this fast, but I actually got a couple of hours of almost uninterrupted crocheting in today! I haven't tried it on the baby yet as I didn't want to wake her, but when I do, I'll make sure to take a pic and post it for all to see how it ended up fitting.
Now I just need to find a good (read easy) pattern for booties that is similar or figure out how to make them myself.

Making progress

I'm finally making progress on Allie's sweater and I think she'll actually be able to wear it for a month or so before she gets too big for it. I finished the first sleeve (finally) and got about halfway through the other before I had to stop and get the kids ready for bed tonite. Hopefully I'll get it finished tomorrow. Just need to finish the last 2 inches of the second sleeve, edge the body, and get some cute buttons for it. Of course there's still the little cap that goes with it, but I should be able to finish that in one or two evenings depending on how needy the little ones are.

Sweater in progress

I'm finally finding some time to crochet again. I'm attempting to make a sweater for the baby. I've never made a sweater before. The closest I've come to making wearables are scarves, hats, and ponchos. Nothing that difficult. This poor sweater on the other hand. I've frogged the sleeve several times because I keep forgetting to turn at the end of each row rather than working in the round. I'll post another pic when it's actually finished.

I also have a queen size afghan that I'm working on, but there are no photos of it yet.

Finished projects

I actually did some crocheting while I was pregnant. Not a lot, but a few items. Just thought I'd share them here.







This is a poncho I made for Amber after someone stole her other one.



This is Allie's very first baby blanket.








This is Amber's afghan done in the colors of her choice. There's a photo of Alicia's somewhere back in this blog. Now I just need to make one to fit JW's new bed.





This is a rug I whipped up right before Allie was born to put next to my bed. I hate getting up in the middle of the night and putting my bare feet on a cold floor so this was my solution. It looks better now that the ends have been woven in and it's been washed and blocked.

Pineapple doily

Well I finally finished it (a couple of weeks ago!) This is the doily I did for my swap partner in Luxury. This is the first doily I've done with anything smaller than size 3 thread in over a year since the accident. I think it turned out quite nice.

I've got a baby blanket and an afghan on my hooks at the moment and just finished some squares for a 12" square exchange. Maybe now I'll find more time to post. We'll see.

Finished

Well I finally finished Alicia's afghan. It took longer than expected, but life has a tendency to interfere with crafts and hobbies. I still have to start Amber's, but I've been more focused on looking for work and daycare.

DH got a nice shiney, new truck for Christmas and although we could afford it on one income if we cut out some of the extras.... I Don't Want To! LOL, I LIKE having extras. Extras make life easier and sometimes even more enjoyable!!

So anyway, I had to take the computer in and have both drives reformatted recently. What a pain. I lost so much, but on the other hand we were able to save a lot as well AND it runs so much faster now. I got the tech to only charge me a flat fee of $40 to back up several files and 27g of music files! LOL, their normal fee is $20 per gig. DH asked how I managed to do that and I simply told him I played the 'dumb gurl' card!! lol

Mom's Gift

Now that Christmas is over I can finally post a pic of the shawl I made for mom. I did the Serafina Shawl pattern using a rich chocolate brown chenille and it turned out just scrumptuous! I really wish this picture did the shawl justice, but I guess it will have to do.

Now that Christmas if over I'm working on afghans for the kids and a baby blanket for a friend of mine. It looks like I might be rejoining the workforce in the near future so my fingers need to fly if I want to finish these projects anytime soon. Only problem is I've also found a new hobby that cuts into my crochet time. I recently started playing with PSP and can literally spend hours doing it!! Oh, btw, for those of you who don't know what PSP is (it's not a drug!!) it's PaintShop Pro!

Busy Hooker

Wow, hard to believe it's been over a week since I last posted. I've been busy crocheting, trying to get things done for Christmas. I finished another afghan, this one for my other sister. It really didn't take long, but I procrastinated about sewing all the pieces together. It's done holding 2 strands together throughout and it turned out very soft and cushy. I really hope she likes it.

I also finished a hook case and started an afghan for one of my daughters and a baby blanket for a good friend of mine. Now if I could just keep my son from stealing my hooks out of my projects I'd probably be working on the baby blanket rather than sitting here. I can't work on the afghan for my daughter because they're home from school now. I figure I can work on it while they're at school and in bed, hopefully I can get hers done and do one for her sister before they get out for Christmas break. That means I have until 12:30pm on the 19th as they have early release from school that day. Wish me lots of luck and flying fingers as I'm going to have to work hard to get them finished in time!

This is the most recent square I've done for my AIAY group. This particular square will be going to Mimi. I'm excited, next month is my month so I'll be receiving 10 squares from the other members in the group! Hopefully I won't take forever in putting them all together! lol


12" square for Mimi