Tag Archive | crochet

Back-to-School Knitting

The kids started school today, one in high school and one in middle school. I cannot believe they’re that old, or that I’m old enough to have kids that old. We had an early start to the day to get them on the bus, and now I am relishing the quiet. I still have a bouncy puppy who wants to play, but otherwise the house is empty. There’s no one else here that I have to worry about, or take care of, or anticipate the needs of. It is bliss. It’s a feeling that I haven’t felt for a long time, and I’ve needed it. I like being their mom, I like helping them and the rest of my family, but I need this time to myself too. What’s the saying? “In the event of an emergency, apply the oxygen mask to yourself before helping others.” I’ve been trying to remind myself of that lately, that I need to take care of myself so that I’m healthy enough to help others. But it’s hard. You all know it’s hard.

Anyway, so today. Quiet, empty house. I finished another Christmas present last night so as a reward I’m casting on a treat for myself. When I went to that store-closing sale a few months back, I bought a bunch of yarn, but I also bought an awesome book by Rowan called Winter Warmers. It’s full of patterns for their Lima (worsted) and Alpaca Chunky yarns, which are the weights I use most. They’re all these gorgeous muted tones of gray and blue and lilac and caramel and I want to make everything in there. I don’t have any Rowan chunky, but I do have several skeins of Cascade Baby Alpaca Chunky, which is probably my favorite yarn ever.I have three skeins of this red, and they’ve been earmarked for this pattern since I looked through the book. Can’t wait! I’m off to cast on now!

Knit along if you know what Happiness is to you

Aug9

Whew. After a few really crazy weeks, I finally have time to catch my breath and post a few pictures of my latest projects. With a lot of kid activities and back-to-school stuff happening right now, my yarn is all that’s keeping me sane! So this is a photo-heavy post–I need a lot of help to stay sane right now. I had another request for girl/doll hats, but this time in blue. After that, I had another set to make, but it was a little trickier. She wanted the cowboy style (only more like a fedora) but she wanted it for a girl and doll, and before I’d only made that style in the doll size. I searched for a good pattern, and went through three of them and wasn’t happy with any of them. I even bought a pattern! But they were all wrong in some way. Either they were too small or the wrong shape or they were too floppy.

Finally, I went back to the original hat pattern and modified it to fit a child. (*fingers crossed* She hasn’t received the hats yet.) I doubled the yarn, went up two hook sizes, and kept increasing by about 20 stitches. I do like how it came out; it’s soft but still holds a shape somewhat. I just hope I made it deep enough for her head. If not, I’ll be making another attempt!

We celebrated my niece’s birthday this weekend, and I got to make her a couple of things too. She loves stuffed animals, so I crocheted a little cardigan for her Hello Kitty doll to wear. It went so fast, and it’s super cute.

I also made her a hat of her own. She’d seen me making the purple one, and kept telling me how much she liked it, so I worked up a blue version for her. I used a single strand of a bulky yarn, with some wool instead of all acrylic, and I wasn’t happy with the end result. It came out floppier than I wanted, and today I discovered that it’s too small for her. (*insert sad face here*) However, it looks adorable on my nephew, so I might just make another, bigger one for her.

Finally, I was done with all those hats! With no pressing yarny needs and a sore wrist from crocheting, it was time for fat yarn and knitting needles. I picked up my indigo Cascade Magnum and my size 19 needles and made a Marian twisted cowl.

I think that’s all. Ok, not really, I also made an adorable Christmas present but can’t show it off yet. Darn it. I do love it, too. And now I think I will be working on some more Christmas presents because I ordered a bunch of stuff in the Knitpicks summer sale and I have this fun box of yarn to play with now!

Yarn for the Nerd in all of us

Aug3

Have you heard of Make magazine? Or maybe the Maker Faire? They’re parts of a larger Maker movement that encourages people to…well, to make stuff. They want people to interact with their environment, to open their minds enough to think about how to do something differently, or to create something fun and interesting and helpful. The magazine has all kinds of project ideas, and my husband has been reading it for ages. He loves to find fun things to do with the kids. I’m awfully glad he does too, because it led to a new yarn source for me.

So, the Maker Faire. It’s “the Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth—a family-friendly festival of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement.” Sounds cool, doesn’t it? Kansas City hosted a Maker Faire last month, but unfortunately it fell on a weekend when we simply did not have time to go. But shortly after, the Make blog featured one of the KC vendors, Nerd Girl Yarns, and since Alex reads the blog, is a nerd, and has a wife who loves yarn, he watched the interview. (Watch her interviews here) And then he shared it with me, and I got all excited because guess what? NGY is in Odessa, Missouri which is only about 30 minutes from me!

I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard of them before, but as I poked through the website I realized that it was because she focuses on the dyeing, and selling custom orders. She does have a small retail space, but it seems to be more of a sideline. And I’m okay with that, because the yarns she creates are awesome. Yesterday I got out to the studio for the first time to see some of the yarn in person. The retail section is small, with just one little bit of wall devoted to yarn. The other side has the hand-dyed clothing, and there were a couple of chairs for those inclined to stay and be crafty. I wasn’t there for that. I was there for the yarn.

A lot of the colors are inspired by Doctor Who, like a blue and brown named Tenth Doctor. There was a red named I Am the Cyber King, and a Gallifrey with oranges and reds. There was a TARDIS blue, of course, and a yellow/orange with a touch of blue Sunflower. I was really hoping for the Blue Box Exploding, which is mostly blue with some yellow/orange too. She has Don’t Blink, Doctor Donna, Fantastic, Raggedy Man, Regenerate, and Time Machine. Both my kids (and the husband) are Whovians so I’d love to get some of each to make them lots of Whovian presents. I can’t do it all at once, though. I know. Patience, grasshopper.

They’re not all Doctor Who, of course. There’s Windu, Nevermore, Resurrection Stone, Serenity Firefly Class, Forbidden Forest, Walking Dead, Girl on Fire and so much more. So many references that I don’t even get! I can’t list them all, so you really should check out her stuff yourself. Go to her website here.

The really cool thing is that you can order the colorway on any base you like. So if you adore fingering weight, you can get that. If you love bulky yarn, like me, you can get that. You can get exactly the yarn you want!

“What did you get??” I can hear you asking. My eye went first to a gorgeous purple sparkly yarn named Secretly Spiders. The site says it’s inspired by Night Vale, and sadly I have no idea what that means. All I know is that I love it. It’s on Smashing, which is a DK of 70% merino and 20% silk with 5% silver-toned stellina to make it shine.I kept picking skeins up and putting them back. I really needed to restrain myself to 2 or 3 skeins, but it was hard. I struggled with choosing based on the Whovian names or the colors. I ended up going for the colors this time. So my second skein was a beautiful blue-green blend named #nofilter. The colors were more vivid on the fingering weights, but I knew I’d enjoy a heaver weight more, so I went with Foxy. Foxy is a DK weight too, but it’s 85% Polwarth Wool and 15% silk.Once I got through the initial getting-to-know-you phase, I was able to look beyond the wall o’ yarn, and that’s when I saw the sale section. It wasn’t big, and there were only two bowls of yarn, but any sale yarn is good yarn in my book. My third selection came from that.This is called Shtako. No idea what that means. Feel free to enlighten me. But the purple caught my eye, and as soon as I touched it, it was mine. It’s on the Luscious yarn, and it really is luscious. It’s Heavy Worsted, 60% superfine merino and 40% silk. It’s heavenly. It’s only 100 yards so it will have to be a small project; I’m thinking some fingerless gloves.

I also got a medium project bag with the logo, like you see in that first picture. You can never have enough project bags, and at $12 it was the perfect price. She didn’t have any Blue Box Exploding, so I’ll probably be ordering some in the near future. And we got to talk to Christa, the owner, for a little while, and she mentioned the possibility of doing quarterly events where they dye larger quantities of some of the popular colorways. I’m really hoping that happens, because I’d be there in a heartbeat! If you’d like to find out when that happens, follow her blog here. Maybe I’ll see you there!

Loving my new co-worker

Jul27

I have a partner in my yarn adventures now. Her name is Georgia, and she’s going to help me sell my knitted and crocheted items. I’m quite pleased with her work so far, and the best thing is that she’s very cheap labor!

Crochet Hats for American Girl Dolls & Their Girls

Jul25

The hats have arrived so I can finally share some photos with you! I made three sets of hats for a girl and her doll, and two sets of cowboy hats and boots for the dolls. I started with the doll hats while I waited for measurements. I found a great pattern by Carol Ballard on Ravelry here and she’s also got a blog called Cobbler’s Cabin. The first hat went quickly. It was awfully cute, even though the family thought it looked more like a fedora than a cowboy hat. With some shaping and tacking, I got it to look pretty close to a cowboy hat, I think.

The boots were tricky. I used a Lion Brand pattern for baby cowboy booties, thinking that surely it wouldn’t be too hard to modify for a doll size. Ha! I crocheted and frogged the first boot at least three times while I figured out the right stitch counts. I finally got a good pattern and after that, the boots flew off the hook…until I got to the brown and tan pair. Brown was the requested color, but I used more on the hat than I expected, so I had just a tiny ball left for the boots. I tried to crochet as fast as possible, but it didn’t work, and I still ran out of yarn too quickly. The second boot didn’t match the first, and I am just OCD enough that it bothered me a lot. First boot was frogged and redone, and I finished the second with brown yarn to spare.

Owl hats were next. I found this great pattern by Kathy Russell for the doll size, and I had a blast making up the little eyes and beak and the little tufty ears. Plus I love buttons, so getting to add button eyes was a treat. The girl size was done using an awesome pattern by Sarah at the Repeat Crafter Me blog. She does some super cute stuff, and this hat is so cool. So easy to modify for size or design, you can make any kind of hat you want!

I used the same patterns for the Minnie Mouse hats, adding round ears and a flower instead of a face.

Almost done! The last request was for a set of newsboy caps in blue-green. I found some great yarn at Michaels and a couple of great patterns to go with it. The doll pattern came from Posh Patterns, and you can find plenty more of her patterns on her Etsy site. The last hat ended up being my very favorite. The yarn worked perfectly with the pattern, and the sizing was great, and it’s just as cute as can be. The pattern is called Newsie by Heidi Yates, and she includes a handy size chart in the pattern so you can easily modify the pattern for sizes from newborn to adult. It’s the same pattern I used for my Tart Newsboy.

All the hats fit their girls well and were a huge hit. She’s already asked for two more sets, so I’ll have more to show soon. I hope I’ve inspired you to start hooking your own wee hats, but if you’d rather, I’d love to do it for you! Visit me on Facebook and send me a message.

A Crochet Newsboy Cap, just because

Jul23

I sent off that box of girl and doll hats yesterday. It had three sets of matching hats for a girl and her doll, and two sets of cowboy hats and boots for a doll. I had so much fun getting back into crochet to make those, and I didn’t want to stop. The last few months I’ve been so absorbed by knitting that I’d forgotten how much I love the rhythm and speed of crochet. The last hat I made for my friend was my favorite; I fell in love with the pattern and needed to make another one. I was at loose ends last night, with nothing that *needed* to be worked on, but I still wanted to play with yarn. I grabbed a single skein of bulky Premier Yarns Serenity Chunky yarn and got busy while I watched America’s Got Talent. Since I can’t show you the gifted one yet, I’ll show you that one.

I do love bulky yarn, and this is a lovely soft one. The random stripes of blue and brown were kind of strange, and not my favorite, but at least it went back to the pink quickly. I ran out of yarn halfway through the last row, which was the finishing edge, so I just pulled back and edged the brim. This was a perfect one-skein, one-evening project. If you’re interested, here’s the pattern. It’s easily modified for any size from newborn to adult.

Weekend Project: Crochet Accessories for 18″ Doll

Jul21

I got to do something new the last several days: make crochet doll hats and boots! A friend of mine has two beautiful little girls, and those girls wanted some hats for their American Girl dolls. Since my daughter is too old for dolls (and never played with them anyway) and my nieces aren’t doll fans either, this was a challenge for me. I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy it, since I knew there’d be some fussy work with the little details and sewing things on and such. To my surprise, though, I really did like making them. Mostly because they went so fast, but also partly because they’re so cute when they’re done!

I can’t show them all, because I want my friend to see them first, but she’s seen these pieces so I’ll post them. She asked for a cowboy hat and boots for the dolls. The hat was pretty simple; there’s a good pattern on Ravelry for it here. The boots were trickier though, because I took a Lion Brand baby bootie pattern and modified it. I’m pleased with how they came out.

Sew Satisfying: Hot Pink Crochet Purse with zebra lining

Jul19

When I was younger, maybe 11 or so, my mom tried to teach me how to sew. We picked out a pattern for some shorts, bought fabric together, and she led me through every step of making those shorts. And I did it; the shorts came out fine and they fit. They were white, and I think I wore them once. And I never sewed anything else with a machine ever again.

Until yesterday.

If you’ve been following along with me, you know that I’ve been making some cute little crochet purses lately. And purses made from yarn tend to stretch out unless you reinforce them with a fabric lining. And that fabric tends to fray along the edge unless you hem the edges. And it’s much faster to hem those edges with a sewing machine than by hand.

With my last two bags, I waited until I could get my SIL (who’s talented at so many different crafts) to “help” me hem the linings. Truth be told, I did have a sewing machine in my house. My daughter has one, given to her when she had a brief romance with sewing. But she’d forgotten how to use it, so I couldn’t get her to help me. And come on, isn’t it always easier to have someone else do the chore you don’t like?

Sure, it is, until you don’t want to have to work on their schedule. After I finished my purple crochet bag, I was desperate to finish the hot pink one. I’d found some amazing zebra fabric and black handles, and I wanted that bag done TODAY. So, fine! I would do it myself! I am nothing if not stubborn, and I refused to believe that I *couldn’t* do it. I might not like it, but I could do it.

I got out the machine, set up the spool of thread, threaded it, and then remembered the bobbin. Where was it? This machine is different than my SIL’s, and the bobbin was hiding. My daughter was sleeping and I had no idea where the manual was, so I turned to my best friend: Google. Sure enough, the manual was available online. I found the bobbin, re-threaded the spool of thread (correctly this time), and prepared to sew for the first time. Yes, I used a spare bit of fabric to test. I pressed the pedal and Whee! Off it went! Unfortunately, it looked awful and the thread was doing weird things and I had no idea what I was doing wrong.

In a weak moment, I texted SIL, hoping she’d come rescue me. When no response came, I took a deep breath and started over from the beginning. This time I realized that the little metal foot by the needle needs to come down when you’re ready to sew. Oops. That made all the difference. I practiced several times and then I was ready for the real thing!

Darn it all, I *did* actually enjoy it. Maybe it was just the thrill of overcoming my resistance, of gaining a skill I thought I didn’t want or need. Either way, when I was done with this, I really wished I had something else to sew. My corners aren’t mitered, and my edges aren’t perfectly straight, but the stitching is straight and even. Most importantly, it will work just fine for a purse lining. Like this:

I love this little bag. And it is little. It’s made with just one skein of Cascade Yarns Ultra Pima cotton, which is a DK weight. I didn’t have enough to double the strands, so the purse measures a delicate 9″ by 6″, which is still big enough to hold the essentials. The black bamboo handles and zebra lining came from Joann. Although I’m tempted to keep this one for myself, I currently have it listed for sale on my Facebook site, and you can check it out here.

Finished Project: Purple Crochet Purse

Jul18

Hey! Hey! Guess what?? I finished my purple purse last night!! And I’m sooo very happy with it. The girl had piano lesson yesterday (her teacher is my BIL) so my SIL helped me hem the purple cotton for the lining (okay, okay, she hemmed it. I watched.) and as soon as I got home I started stitching it into the bag.

It went quickly and after dinner I was ready to finish crocheting the rest of the bag. I did have a brief moment of panic after I tied off the last row: I got out the handles and held them up to the bag, and they were just a little bit wider than I anticipated. But I just spaced out the crocheted tabs to compensate, and it actually worked out really well. The final step was to sew in a little snap.

Then it was done! Really and truly done! I hung it on my chair and admired my new purse.

All right, it was done, but it needed *something* to jazz it up a bit. So I added my purple Junie Balloonie flower. (Have you ever checked out her website? Lovely flowers in all sizes, handmade, custom-made. Great to put on purses, in your hair, as a brooch, even on your pets! Take a peek here. I love them!).

The bag was done with one skein of Lion Brand Cotton-Ease in Sugar Plum, and used all but maybe one yard. The lining was a fabric remnant, and the snap and handles I found at Joann. I’m so glad this project didn’t linger on like my last fat-bottom bag. I’m delighted with the results and can’t wait to finish my pink bag now!

Knitting is for old ladies

Jul8

Why does knitting get more ridicule and derision than other crafts? It’s an art form that requires creativity, dexterity, an eye for color, patience, and serious math skills. It’s been embraced by men and woman alike, by traditional artists as well as those who like to take tradition and turn it on its ear. It’s a skill used by people of all ages, including children as young as 5. Historically, it’s a skill that was taught to most young kids. It’s a craft that has followers of all ages, races and genders. We have grandmas and teenagers. We have soccer moms and hipsters. We have all kinds of guys who have discovered the joy of yarn crafting.

So why does the notion of “knitting is for old ladies” persist? We don’t tell young men to stop building furniture, that woodworking is for old men. We don’t tell teenagers that painting is only for adults. We don’t tell girls that photography is only for boys. We don’t stifle the creative urges for any other art form (that I can think of or have experienced).

I finished a new book last night, “On The Rocks” by Erin Duffy. It was a fun read about a thirtyish woman who had gotten dumped and was trying to find her way back to the dating world. She had a guy friend “helping” her, and when she mentioned she had a weekly group, she was embarrassed to admit that it was a knitting group. Of course he immediately told her she had to stop knitting if she hoped to get a man. She liked knitting. Why in the world would she want a guy so narrow-minded as to reject her for a hobby she enjoyed?

Maybe you think I’m being too sensitive, too picky. That doesn’t really happen…right? My daughter learned to crochet shortly after I did. She found that she enjoyed taking a project on the school bus with her. The kids asked questions, some of them stupid (“What are you knitting?” Her: “I’m not knitting, I’m crocheting”) but mostly it was no big deal. The only one who made fun of her was one of her best friends. She consistently razzed Katie about bringing yarn to school. She actually told Katie that she would never get a boyfriend if kept doing that.

When I started to crochet, most of my friends and family were supportive. A few joked about my new housewife tendencies, since I had recently started cooking too. But I also had the one friend who ribbed me about being old, who told me to “put away [my] knitting, Grandma”.

(Now that I’m writing this, I’m realizing that maybe my daughter and I are not focusing on the right friends!)

There’s also the idea that yarn crafts are a mindless hobby, something that people just pick up and do without any thought or skill. The author Jane Green, whose books I typically enjoy, wrote a Facebook post about how she was insulted when people asked if she was still writing. Here’s an excerpt:

“Have to agree with Ms Steele: it is bizarrely patronizing to be asked, ‘are you still writing?’, as if it is, indeed, a hobby that you pick up and put down, like knitting. Never mind the fact that yes, I am still writing because a) it is my job, b) I love what I do, and c) someone has to pay for four children to go through college..”

I understand her basic point. Yes, it’s an insulting question. But she just did the same thing to knitters (and crocheters). I have found so many yarn crafters who are making a living from their ‘hobby’. There’s Marly Bird and Vickie Howell and Drew Emborsky and Gregory Patrick and Moogly and so many more. And what about Stephanie Pearl-McPhee and Clara Parkes and others who make a living from knitting AND writing about it??

Of course there are many, many others who do support knitting as a hobby, something to supplement the joy in their daily life. Knitting is profoundly relaxing and has actually been suggested as one small part of a treatment plan for depression. Creating something yourself, with just a bit of string and a stick or two, is so rewarding. There’s a lot more math in knitting than I realized at first, and working through the number problems of altering a pattern has forced me to use parts of my brain I haven’t used in quite a while. It’s hard sometimes, but man, does it feel good when I do it!

We have come a long way. Yarn crafts are hugely popular and the art of knitting and crochet is growing in unexpected, joyful ways as a result of all the wonderful, different people who have come to embrace it. There is yarnbombing now. There are calls to Knit in Public (which I do proudly without needing a nudge). There are books with new and unusual slants to reflect the changing styles of knitting, books like Goth Knits, Bags that Rock, Vampire Knits and Charmed Knits.

But still. There are those sad, unenlightened people who are afraid to open their minds. Those people who still look at someone knitting and think (or say), “Why are you doing THAT? Only old ladies do that!”

What’s the best answer for that question? How do you respond to someone belittling your craft?