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  • 1 1/3 skeins Herrschners Baby Yarn solids; light yellow

  • 1 skein Herrschners Baby Yarn solids; white

  • 2/3 skein Herrschners Baby Yarn solids; dark yellow

  • size J hook

...my math worked!!! Or, at least, it didn't leave me with 7/8ths of an afghan... I made a slight miscalculation with the foundation chain that left me four stitches shorter than my estimate, which in turn made it not as wide as I'd intended, which I fixed by adding a dark yellow border (since I had plenty of that color left over from the first afghan).

There's not much difference between the two, really...

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  • 6 skeins Herrschners Teddy Bear Brights

  • size H hook

It's a simple ripple pattern. It worked up in about two weeks. It's nice and soft!
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  • 1 2/3 skeins Herrschners Baby Yarn solids; light yellow

  • 1 skein Herrschners Baby Yarn solids; white

  • 1 skein Herrschners Baby Yarn solids; dark yellow

  • size H hook

I like the pattern in this one. It's very simple since it's worked up in double crochet, but you get the nice variety with the alternating color blocks. I got the yarn as a kit and since I worked to a larger gauge than suggested I have slightly less than half the yarn I started with...which means if I work the dark arts of arithmancy and use a bigger hook I ought to get a second afghan with the remainder.

But 2/3 is just enough more than 1/2 to make me very nervous. 
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Smaug

01-14 smaug mitts

amount: 1.6 oz. worsted weight x 2
hook size: H

pros: warm, suitably impressive, what-you-call-something that has no right or left
cons: a chink in the under-armor just waiting to be pierced by a well aimed arrow...
further cons: bulky and I'd think the scales might get in the way of doing things, though it's not quite as bad once you've worn it for awhile

Kazul

01-14 kazul mitts

amount: 1.2 oz. baby weight x 2
hook size: E
stitches used: chain, slip stitch, single crochet (in back loop only), double crochet
fancy names for stitches: crocodile stitch, granny stitch, picot

Notes: first row four scales second row three scales, extra half row of sc on the inner wrist to decrease

Buttons

Aug. 20th, 2013 02:35 pm
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08-13 buttons

Because I wanted to enter my sweater in the county fair I sat down and finished it. (Safety pins are a perfectly acceptable button substitute if you're just so happy you're actually done knitting you want to wear it and not fuss with fiddly bits! :p ) Coordinating buttons proved to be hard to find, so I made some from leftover yarn using the magic loop to start this

http://mrsmicawber.blogspot.com/2011/08/simple-crochet-button.html

I'm stingy and used only a 2" to 3" tail; also the center is 9 single crochet. Makes a smaller button, you see.

I put grosgrain ribbon on the button band. It's turquoise because I couldn't find copper and didn't want to go chasing all over the cities looking for something that might not exist.

08-13 wrightribbons

My sweater and my French braid fingerless gloves ended up entered in two county fairs. The results are... interesting. The gloves got a red both times, which is actually better than I expected because they're a little meh-looking and the yarn has pulled out of shape in a few places. But the sweater got a white at the first fair, which is also better than I expected because of all the flaws I know are in the sweater. And the second time it got a blue because it looks great and the fit is lovely and with the addition of the ribbon on the button band it hangs fabulously in front. So! Sweater judging seems much more subjective than accessory judging.

08-13 mcleodribbons
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02-13 baby blue mitts

  • Crochet 1-2-3 Issue #3; project eight

  • 1 ounce Patrons Katrina "Dawn" yarn

  • size J hook

I used a sort of novelty yarn that stretches a lot, so maybe that accounts for the overall success of whatever I did here... when I was done, and exclaiming over the fact that I'd used maybe a quarter of the estimated amount of yarn needed for the pattern, my mom was like, "But the pattern calls for worsted weight yarn." I have sisterly approval of the finished look, though, so it's all good.

The finished handwarmers are snug fitting, which I think/hope makes them warmer than my other pair which is very loose in comparison.

This pattern has a few bits where it mimics the look of knitting. I originally thought that it would be great to be able to do that because crochet is easier than knitting. (Now I think knitting might just take longer to learn.) In practice, however, I'm not totally sold on the idea.  and it is very important to count your stitches every row! The decorative pattern tended to hide a stitch. I think between all the times I ripped stuff out or started over because I'd picked up the wrong hook I managed to make the pair at least twice. 
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12-12 crocheted hotpads

This is what you get when you raid the scrap yarn basket and don't find the yarn you were looking for until after you're finished with your project...

The variegated is super intense. I went through several different pattern attempts before I settled on this design as not being insanely hard on the eyes.  

Pattern notes: chain 25 +2, three rows of sc or dc, sc variegated with fp triple or quadriple crochet to make design, repeat until symmetrical, sc around edges with variegated
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Do you know what I am thinking about now? You have three guesses, and I bet all of them will be right.

I am sad I didn't get right on creating a set of hobbits for Hobbit day because it just so happened that I actually went to part of an actual event.

Also, a Hobbit limerick for your amusement and someday I will end up caving to Tumblr...
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I'm so proud of my pun. I kept wondering what to name the post, and all I could think of was There's an Owl in the Shower! But why would you put your hotpad in the shower? It would be the most confusing photo shoot ever. Putting your owl in the fridge or oven sounds cruel, not funny. 

I had grand plans to make a little family of owls, but as usual reality intervened. I'd seen a crocheted owl bib and thought it cute enough to put in my sketchbook (but was certain I didn't know anyone who'd put something like that on their baby). But a hotpad on the same design was much more likely to actually be used. I pulled out the scrap yarn and thought, "Oh! I could make a realistic looking owl! That would be less likely to end up kitschy..." and then spent a couple of hours perfecting my reversible technique. Should I attempt something like this again, I will probably chart it and make the eyes part of the design instead of sewing them on afterwards. 

Anyway, he looks nothing like the bib. 

There was just enough white yarn left to decorate the pot hat, which is decidedly useful for gripping hot lids. And maybe it matches the reverse of the owl. But... I made another white hotpad.  
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This one was also made using a kit from Herrschners.com. Like the other one, the gauge is off, but I compensated for it this time. So now I have some leftover yarn from the kit; possibly enough for a matching sweater.

Since I wasn't crocheting like a madwoman, it felt like it took longer to complete this one. I started at the beginning of February, and here we are at the end of the month. Something like 20 minutes a stripe of colour? So... 31 stripes, plus another forty minutes on the border... 11 hours? It feels like more, so I'd take the estimate with a handful of salt. I'm probably forgetting something.
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Using a kit from Herrschners.com I tested out the name of the pattern.

It took me about an hour per ounce for the main body of the blanket, and six three ounce skeins went into the pattern. That took a week. Then I spent another week doing the popcorn border instead of a fringe because fringe is bad for babies? There was a rumour to that effect somewhere... That was another three ounces of yarn, but more like six or seven hours of work.

The other thing is that the gauge on this pattern seems to be wrong.
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I need to get this firmly ingrained in my brain before I make a truly awful mistake... If there's a difference in feel depending on how I rub the fabric, there WILL be a difference in fabric color if the pieces don't all go the same way!

I'm not sure how many times I've done this... laid out a pattern neatly on the fabric with as little wastage as possible, cut out the pieces, started sewing, and then laid the project out on the floor for some reason. Only then do I discover that there is a noticeable difference in how the light hits the fabric! Oops!

More mistakes... )
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It was a wonderful idea--use scrap yarn of the same weight to create something more sophisticated than a potholder or wildly colorful scarf. A dip in a black dye bath would then render everything equal and I would have a black blazer.

Today, I weighed the crocheted pieces (front/back and two sleeves) and found they totaled 17.4 ounces dry. The directions on the bottle of Rit dye said to use 3 gallons of water for every pound of fabric. Well, only about two and half gallons of water fit in the pot if one left headroom for the project. But--close enough. The pieces went in and were immediately a lovely black color except for one pink/white ombre in which the pink turned a pretty purple. Ooooh, ah. However, in our experiments with using beet juice as a colorant, it had also dyed a lovely color that promptly washed out. Half an hour of standing over the hot stove later, my sister and I took the pot out to rise the blazer pieces. All the dye ran off the first piece, and we discovered I had forgotten to add salt.

A cup of salt and another half hour later, it still didn't keep the lovely black color. The dye did stain my hands when I wrung the sleeve to get excess water out--and left finger shaped marks that would probably disappear when the rest of the dye went in cold water.

Well, Rit did warn us. "Not recommended to dye acrylics." Of course, when one has inherited several stashes of yarn, what else would one expect the scraps to be? And all the 'nice' colors have been used in other scrap projects. *grumble*

I've left it in the pot--perhaps, if it soaks overnight...

But I'll be thinking of other options to make the blazer look better. Just in case the pessimist is right and it doesn't help.

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