works in progress

At the moment I'm crocheting a little ripple baby blanket. I severely underestimated the amount of this chunky yarn I would need and have to get more before adding many more rows.

I'm also experimenting with bottle caps and embroidery floss. This will be a trivet soon.  I have about 20 more to cover before I have enough for the hexagon shape I'm aiming for.

three potholders

For a couple of years in a row I have watched this potholder swap from afar, but this year I found out about it in time!  I've wanted to make more items out of crochet thread, and this was the perfect opportunity.  

The inner circle of the lacy tops is from the "vintage kitchen trivets" pattern by Diane Gilleland in Crochet Adorned by Linda Permann. It is meant to be worked in worsted weight yarn, so the pattern ends at about the second round of solid stitches after the clusters. I'm super proud of myself for figuring out how to do the two open rows on the outer part of the circle without ending up with a wavy mess!

 

I got the idea to make the backs out of worsted weight cotton yarn from chalklegs (the same awesome person who alerted me that the swap is in progress). It saved a million years from the time it would have taken to make a back out of thread!!  I even started one back in thread, but I unraveled it the second I saw her potholders. 

    

I started out by making each side the same size, then I clamped them together at four or five points using binder clips.  I experimented with a few different ways to crochet them together, and ultimately I worked one stitch into each stitch of the top, going through one back loop of the larger gauge back piece for every one to two stitches on the top.  Then I added another round of evenly spaced chains (and a loop hanger!) to use as a base for the improvised scalloped border. 

   

I'll be back with the last two potholders soon!  I've already made the tops, but I'm trying to pick the perfect colors for the backs.  Why is that always the hardest part?

   

crochet capelet

I finished this capelet last night, and I think I've gotten over some of the doubt I expressed about it the other day.  It looks pretty cool!  I'll probably even wear it from time to time.  The free pattern from Lion Brand was super easy to follow, but next time I would go down a pattern size.  I had already reduced my hook size after making the initial guage swatch from J to H; that could have been necessary because I substituted Loops & Threads Impeccable for the Vanna's Choice the pattern suggests.  I went back to J to finish it off by adding a row of single crochet around all sides except for the bottom.  The edges don't quite reach my elbows, which is exactly what I was going for with the length.

I mostly crocheted this capelet just to have an excuse to use this awesome rhinestone pin that my mom gave me.  It must be meant for shawls and the like because it has two prongs that you lift up to catch the layers and then press back down. 

I hope you had a great Valentine's Day!  Ours was low key, spent at our favorite Mexican place, Birrieria Diaz.

 

what i've been working on lately

crochet capelet from this pattern

I feel kind of bad about my lack of blogging of substance lately, so I thought I'd do a bit of an update about what sort of crafty things I've been doing.  Most of it involves crochet.  I figured I'd be a little burnt out on it after making 365 granny squares.  Apparently not!

The capelet above looks so great in the pattern, but I have to wonder if I'll ever wear it.  The pattern calls for a J (6mm) hook, but my gauge swatch made it clear that I needed to scale it back to an H (5mm) hook.  Even then it is coming out a little bigger than I would like.  Someone commented to me that it looks super complex, but really it isn't at all.  If you can get past the yoke part that involves a billion single crochet stitches, it goes pretty quickly with some chain stitches and clusters.  I'm over halfway done after a couple of days of stitching, but I ran out of yarn.  I should be back in business by tomorrow. 

blocking lacy stuff is totally necessary

A work friend gave me a big bag of yarn that her aunt who knitted left behind.  Who doesn't love free yarn?  All of it is sport weight or thinner.  The first thing I thought to try to crochet with it were collars.  This green one is the first I made, and in my usual fashion, I decided to make up my own pattern.  Why do I do that?  It would be so much easier to follow some tried and true instructions, but since I couldn't find a pattern I liked, I did this instead.  Having said that, I really love the way it turned out.

collar with a vintage button

After that I did find a super cute pattern that I used to crochet the yellow collar in the picture below.  I'm thinking of making another with a button closure instead of the ties.  Buttons make everything better.  Check out the link to see an adorable version with a scalloped edge!

"georgette" collar from this pattern

I'm on the lookout for more things to make from all of this thin yarn!

why can't the ends sew themselves in?

I had been putting off sewing in the ends of several of my granny square afghans because when I finished putting them together, it was summer, and the last thing I wanted to do was to bury myself under hot blankets for hours.  Now that it is freezing outside and in, it is the only thing I want to do.  Oddly enough, I still don't really want to spend time sewing in a hundred million scraps of yarn.  Since no one wants an afghan that would fall apart in the wash, it is kind of necessary though.  The afghan above is about halfway done, and the one below (the super gigantic Square A Day In May blanket) is totally complete.  My mom has discovered my blog and has picked out an afghan that she really wants.  Because for some reason the words we use for colors just don't synch up, I'm not 100% sure if she means the one above or the one below.  All I know for sure is that I'm never parting with the huge one!  I hope she wants the first one!

at least I finished the giant afghan!

I made the top for this quilt way more than a year ago, so when someone gifted me a big roll of quilt batting, finishing this project was the first thing that came to mind.  I'm starting to think that this particular batting wasn't meant for machine quilting because my sewing machine hates it.  Either that or I'm just not a natural born quilter or maybe I'm just impatient and need more practice.  I decided to hand tie it instead (just like the last and only other quilt I have made).  I'm finishing it using a self-binding method that I've seen in a few places around the internet (Carina explains it wonderfully here).  I'm almost done, but leaning over it to sew the edges up was killing my back so I've put it on the back burner yet again.  For a little while this time.

finally finishing this quilt...maybe!

So that's what I've been doing for the past couple of weeks. What are you working on?

working on a new blanket

I'm still alive! I took a little blog vacation after posting my last granny-a-day square. I haven't stopped crocheting, but now I'm concentrating on crocheting this mountain of squares together. This particular project is a smallish baby blanket made up of striped and circles-in squares. I'm using an H hook and the method for joining squares of different sizes I showed you here. I hope to have it finished by next week!

365::365 the last one!

Pattern: "Harvest" from Go Crochet! Afghan Design Workbook by Ellen Gormley.

This is one of the hexagonal motifs from Go Crochet. Using trial and error I turned it into a 4-sided block. The trick is to visualize the corners the way you want them to be and make ascending and descending stitches to fill in the gaps. Working into the back loops only like I did here makes the process more forgiving.

I can hardly believe it. This is the last one! It will definitely not be my last granny square ever, but this is it for my granny-a-day project. I have totally enjoyed the experience of crocheting all year! It feels like I haven't had time for almost anything else, but I did manage to crochet tons of these squares into 4 afghans, a rug, and a cover for my Kindle Fire and post several tutorials and a couple of granny square patterns while grannying up a storm. Here is a little visual roundup of all of that stuff!

afghan #1


afghan #2


afghan #3


afghan #4


felted rug


kindle cover


tutorial: basic granny square


tutorial: adjusting size


tutorial: blocking


tutorial: joining squares of the same size


tutorial: joining squares of different sizes


pattern: chrysanthemum square


pattern: granny flower

interviewed in issue 5 of craftsanity

participated in a square a day in may

Here are all 365 blocks! It is kind of a huge image, so I hope it doesn't break your computer! :) Now that this project is over, I am looking forward to actually having time to crochet the rest of them together into something useful. I've got a couple of afghans pretty much planned out at this point. Expect to see progress on that soon!

357-364::365 orange & blue squares

Patterns (clockwise from top left): "South Beach," "Cherry Cordial," "Star Power," "Pick a Posie," "Neapolitan," "Team Captain," "Stain Berry," & "Chair Back" from Go Crochet! Afghan Design Workbook by Ellen Gormley.

I really love the motifs in this book! I have officially made all of the four sided patterns. The only real error I think I have found is in Neapolitan. The first round in the photo looks like it is made up of single crochet stitches, but both the chart and the written instructions say to use double crochet. I think it would be flatter with the smaller stitches. Instead of using these Go Crochet squares as filler for a sampler afghan, I may make a cover for my ottoman.

349-356::365 little rectangles

Patterns (clockwise from top left): "Polka Dot," "Thumbprint," "Oval in a Rectangle," "Vintage," Cameo," "Last Blueberry," Scary Fun," & "Gift Package" from Go Crochet! Afghan Design Workbook by Ellen Gormley.

Aren't these rectangle blocks super cute? They'll be perfect for filling in gaps in a sampler afghan. I had to turn my brain off of autopilot a few times because I found myself trying to make each side the same when the short sides of some of these could be quite different from the long ones (Cameo and Gift Package in particular). I'm still using my favorite size h hook instead of the larger recommended k size. Maybe that's why they are coming out lots of different sizes.

Here are the latest 25! Almost done!

344-348::365 go crochet squares

Patterns (left to right): "Puddles Gather Rain", "Eyelets", "Oscar Square", & "Flower Patch" from Go Crochet! Afghan Design Workbook by Ellen Gormley.

I needed some smaller squares to round out my project and fill in some gaps in a sampler afghan, so I bought a second crochet book for my Kindle. Go Crochet! features 50 different motifs (each with charted and written pattern). In addition to square patterns, it has rectangles, triangles, hexagons, and octagons to choose from. The last part of the book shows a few afghans made up of different motifs and gives directions and tips for how to put them together. I've only skimmed that part, but I already know I have to make "All Call", an afghan made up of at least one of every motif in the book! Anyway, as for these squares, each measured about 4", and I didn't have to make any changes to the simple patterns and relied almost exclusively on the charts. As always I used magic rings for the center instead of the suggested chain rings.