December 2013

 Here we are at the end of 2013. Hard to believe. At the beginning of the year I had thought that I wouldn't be very busy, I don't know why I thought that. Now that Autumn is a big second grader, it seems like we are always on the go doing something. Lots of fun though.
 I have made a few things in the last month and a half since I posted. Most of it was Christmas presents. Some of it I forgot to take photos of. Oh well. I started out making Autumn and our next door neighbor, another second grader, matching jester hats.

Autumn wanted bells on hers. I improvised this pattern from a photo I saw. They are both a little bit different. I had to measure as I went and Kirsten is a tiny little thing. I thought they turned out cute. I think they are afraid to wear them to school, they don't want to be made fun of. They wear them everywhere else though.
 I also finished a couple of blankets for my little friends that I work with. The first one is a Lucy Ripple. The little one I made it for has red hair and wears a lot of grey, she is an adorable child and a I wanted to make her something special.

I love Lucy's ripple pattern. It always comes out looking really nice. The next blanket is for another little girl that I love. For her I used the granny rectangle pattern that I created last year for another one of my kiddos.

For this one I tried to use all the colorful yarns I have. This one was fun to make too. I also made a lot of cowls, hats and slippers for co-workers. Of course, I forgot to take photos.
 This hat was made for a CAL in our Ravelry group, Everything Zen. It worked up in a  couple of hours. I used Stylecraft dk in claret that my friend Tracy sent me. I love that yarn. I wish we could buy it over here. I know you can get it online, but I always wait until I have a huge order so I can get free shipping. Otherwise, it costs a lot to ship just a few skeins of yarn.

This pattern is called Fallen Leaves. It is a nice, easily adjustable pattern for a slouch hat.

 Yesterday I started making some little squares. I am thinking I will make a bag with these. They are only about an inch and a half wide. I am using Sinfonia dk cotton. I like that it is a little shiny and I like the colors.

We are expecting a huge snow storm this afternoon and I can't go play out in the snow right now. I have a cast on my foot until January 9 when I will have surgery to fix it. I have a week off for Christmas and then most of January off to recover. I plan on making something for myself with some (more) yarn that my sweet friend, Tracy, sent me. More Stylecraft to add to my collection. I will talk to everyone soon. Have a great weekend. :)

October's Projects

Hello everyone,
 Here we are in November already. I love fall. I love the way everything looks and how the holidays are just around the corner. I can't believe we are coming up to the end of 2013 soon. I have been busy this year. I feel like we spend our afternoons running around trying to keep up with everything. Autumn is in swimming lessons on Mondays and Wednesdays. She also joined Brownies this year and I am helping with the troop. I enjoy it though. Autumn is growing up fast and I don't want to miss a minute of it. With everything going on, I haven't felt like I have gotten much crafting done, then I looked back on the month and realized that I had actually made a few things.
 The first was a pot holder. More of a trivet really, you would burn yourself if you picked up a hot pot.

I made this for the Everything Zen group that I am a part of on Ravelry. It is from this pattern.
I also made some Elf Slippers. I didn't like this pattern at all. It was part of our Elf Slipper CAL.

I have two little girls in the nursery at work that both turned one. I made each of them hats.

If anyone is interested, let me know and I will write up the patterns.
I made a cowl from this pattern

I also made a hooded cowl for a Christmas present. I really like this pattern

Last, but not least, I knitted a scarf. I am really proud of this one. I don't like how knit things roll up when you make a project with the stockinette stitch, so one Sunday I sat and browsed through Ravelry and tried several stitch patterns before coming up with this. I cast on 33. Then I k1, p1 across, ending with k1.  On the other side I did the opposite. p1, k1 across.. I love how it turned out. I gave it to Autumn. We showed to my boss/friend Heather and she loved it. How sweet is my daughter? She gave it to her.

It is ribbed, but doesn't really look ribbed until you pull it apart. I think I need to make a hat to match and work on my knitting skills. I am loving knitting. Switching to the Continental method made all difference for me. I really want to make something other than a scarf and a hat may be the ticket.
 I hope you are all enjoying the weekend. I will talk to everyone soon. :)

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What I Have Been Up To

 The months seem to get busier and busier. I am not going to give up my blog, I love it. I just don't seem to have time to be a frequent poster. My daughter is in second grade now and involved in all kinds of fun things. She just started Brownies on Saturday. Next week she is going to be participating in a dance camp and then they will perform at half-time at the JV football game. Sounds like fun to me. I may be clumsy now, but I was a cheerleader back in the day and I loved it. I hope she has fun.
 I usually make blankets for the babies I take care of for Christmas or their birthdays. In Iowa they can't have blankets, or anything with them in their cribs until they are one. Last year I made all four of my kids blankets. I have started on them already for this Christmas.

This one is finished. Just a simple granny stripe. It was fun to make.

I am loving this one. It is from this pattern. I am going to try to make it into a rectangle though. If I am successful I will share how. I have a few more to make, but I haven't started on them yet.
 I finished this scarf last week. We did it in our group, Everything Zen, on Ravelry.

We also just started a new CAL in our group, making slippers. I haven't started stitching yet. Come join us, it will be fun. :)

A New Afghan

 About three weeks ago I decided to make an afghan for my co-worker in the nursery. She takes care of the new born babies and I take care of the the toddlers. We share a room that is divided by a half wall with a bar type shelf that runs through the middle of the room. I also worked with Judy at the nursing home a few years ago. She is a really cool lady and I wanted to make something for her. She moved twice this summer and so this is a kind of house warming present.
 I love patterns by Alice Best and chose to make a blanket with grandala squares.

There are 168 squares and I think it took longer to sew in the ends than to crochet the blanket. I will give it to Judy tomorrow, I hope she likes it.
  I have already started on a new blanket that I have been thinking about for a few weeks. I have several babies to make blankets for and I already have one of the patterns and yarn selected. The first one is going to be a granny stripe in greens and creams. The light is gone now but I will take some photos of it this weekend. Happy stitching everyone. :)

Lorelei Ta Da!!!

Here we are at the end of July. It has been a hot summer and the last three days have been in the low 60's. It feels like fall is starting and we really have another month of heat coming our way. The weather has been really odd this year. Anyway, I finally finished this shawl. It took me forever for a relatively small project. I started it on May 10th. Here it is.

I waited for the sun to come out for better light, but it never came out.

There are 36 large flowers, 22 small flowers and 26 half flowers around the edges. It really was a quick project, once I picked it up and really worked on it. I made most of it this past week. We did this as a CAL in our group on Ravelry, Everything Zen. I used Lion Brand Yarn Amazing in Mauna Loa. I will probably wear it as a scarf this winter.
 I also, finally, reached 100 followers this month. Some people start blogs and hit 100 right off the bat. It took me almost two years. To be fair, I haven't posted much this year and you don't gain readers that way. I am very grateful to all of my followers. Thank you for reading my posts. My two year blogging anniversary is at the end of August also. I will try to think of something special for a giveaway. I will talk to everyone soon.

Phone Cozy

Hello,
 This morning I decided to make a phone cozy. I don't like putting my phone in my bag unprotected. It has a scratch resistant screen, but I still feel like something is going to happen to it. I made a very simple little striped cozy for it. I used dk cotton and an E hook.

It was very easy to make. I started by chaining the width of the phone. For this phone it was 12 chains, plus one for the first stitch. Then sc in the second chain from the hook and sc across. Slip stitch to close the row.

Then you chain one and start to sc around. There are 12 sc's, you will sc 12 times on each side of the foundation row. Don't add any increases. The foundation row will be the bottom of the little bag and the 24 sc's will be the sides.

 All you have to do now is add rows of 24 sc's until the bag is long enough to hold your phone. I changed colors on every row.

When your phone cozy is long enough to hold your phone, just slip stitch around the top. I added a button to the front of mine, so half way through I stopped slip stitching and chained 14. Then went back to where I left off and slip stitched to the end. That will make the closure for the button. Then attach a button and there you have it.

If you want to make the little polka dot row, it is simple. With the main color, sc around. Change color and on this round *sc, ch1, sk 1 stitch* around. Fasten off at the end of the row. On the next row, sc on top of an sc for the next stitch you will sc in th skipped stitch on the row below. Continue around and fasten off. It will look like the green dots in the row of purple stitches.
 I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I am going to read some more of Winter of the World, if you like historical fiction, I highly recommend it. It is the second book in Ken Follet's trilogy. Talk to everyone soon. :)

Adia's Blanket

Last Christmas I made blankets for my four little friends that I was taking care of in the nursery at work. At the time I was alone with my four kiddos and I grew very attached to all of them. All four of them have moved up to the two year old room. I love my new babies, but no one will ever replace my 'fab four'. I miss them.
 I made Adia a blanket that was very colorful and it was the first blanket that I used my granny rectangle pattern on. Here it is.

Sadly, this blanket was damaged in the wash. Adia's mommy is the director where I work and she brought it in and asked if I could fix it. I said yes, knowing that I couldn't. Instead I decided it was the perfect time to make another blanket for Adia.

Hard to see, but it is three shades of purple, two shades of aqua and a grey. This was another scrap buster. I used up some more of the leftover yarn I have. I have done really well this year. I have only bought yarn twice for myself. I have been concentrating on using all the yarn that I just had to buy.

I think it turned out pretty well. I took these photos before work this morning. Still dark in my living room. I couldn't wait until the light was better. I wanted to give it to Adia today.

I hope she likes it. Now I am going to make a blanket for my co-worker, Judy. She saw it and thought I had made it for her. She just moved into a new place. I love any reason to make a blanket so she will be in luck. I sat at my daughter's swimming lessons tonight drawing up a design for Judy. Stay tuned. Talk to everyone soon. :)

Flat Oval Basket Liner Pattern

Hello,
 I have not been around for the last month. First I went on vacation, then I had a bout with tendonitis that made it impossible to crochet. Or do much of anything, even brushing my teeth was difficult.
 I promised to write this pattern for an oval basket liner. I have finally gotten it down on paper and all of the photos uploaded. It took forever. Over an hour to get them from the camera to the computer. I don't know why it is so slow. Does anyone else think Picasa is slow, or is it just me?

Here is the basket all lined and ready for yarn. My daughter is going to get this one for all of her needlepoint stuff.
It is really simple to make and you can adjust it to any size of basket, you will just keep increasing until the bottom is the right size. The same for the sides.
 Here goes. Step 1:
 Measure how wide the bottom of the basket is. Measure the length. Subtract the width from the length and you will make a chain that long.

For this basket I chained 13 stitches. Then dc in the fourth chain from the hook. 5 dc in the last chain. This is the cluster that makes the oval. Dc in next 9 stitches and then 3 dc in the last chain, there are already two dc in that stitch. That will complete the first row, join with a slip stitch and fasten off.

Row 2: Change colors here if you want to. Join on one of the sides and dc until you get to the first dc in the 5 dc cluster. 3 dc in that first dc. Then 1 dc, 3 dc, 1 dc, 3 dc. Dc in each stitch until you get to the other 5 dc cluster. 3 dc in first dc, 1 dc, 3 dc, 1 dc, 3 dc. Then dc until you meet the first stitch. Join and fasten off.

Row 3: The first three rows will have the same number of dc's on the sides. For this basket that is 9 dc on the sides before the increases start. Attach new color and dc until the first dc in the 3 dc cluster. Then* 2 dc in first stitch, 1 dc, 2dc, 1 dc, 2 dc, 1 dc, 2dc, 1 dc, 2 dc, 1dc, 2 dc*. Then dc in each stitch until next increase starts. Then repeat **. Dc till first dc and then join and fasten off.

Row 4: Attach new color and dc to first increase. Here the stitch pattern is *2 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 2 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 2 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 2 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 2 dc, 1 dc, 1dc, 2 dc*. Dc until next increase and repeat **. Then dc to first stitch and join and fasten off.
Row 5: Attach new color. Dc to first increase. By now you should see a pattern. * 2dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 2 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 1dc, 2 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 2 dc, 1 dc, 1dc, 1 dc, 2 dc, 1 dc, 1dc, 1 dc, 2 dc*. Then dc to next increase and repeat **. Dc to first stitch and join and fasten off. There are 6 increases on each end of the oval. If you need to make the base larger, just keep going in this manner. This was big enough for mine.

Now for the sides. For the next two rows I didn't increase at all. I have made a couple of these liners and it seems that you will need to add increase rows on every third row. Just keep putting it in the basket to check. When you need to add an increase row, you carry on in the same way that you made the bottom. With this basket I left off with 6 increases on each end with 3 dc's between each increase. So for mine the next row would be *2dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 2 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 2 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 2 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 2 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 2 dc*. Dc on sides until you reach next increase. Always start increases on first increase stitch of the cluster and you will have a basket liner that turns out oval.

I made ten rows for the sides. Two rows with now increases to start from the base and then an increase round every third row. Mine fit perfectly. To attach it to the basket I sewed the yarn through the top of the stitches and the openings of the basket.

I made some really bad drawings of a chart, I don't know how to make charts on the computer. Here it is if it helps at all.

Pretty pathetic, but if it helps someone then that is great. Here is the basket with the scraps left over from this project. I am going to keep using this yarn until it is gone. I have made several blankets with it and it is discontinued. I can't throw it away. It is Bamboo Ewe and I love it.

If anyone has any questions, please let me know. I am not a great pattern writer. I hope to get better by writing more of them. :)