Get Crafting

Waiting room project

2012-01-23T14:57:00.001-07:00

This is the start of my next project, the Openwork Wrap from the new Lace Crochet class. Still small enough to bring along to work on while at my daughter's guitar lesson.

I'm glad this project came with both written and diagram instructions. I find the diagrams much easier to follow.

Amazing animation!

2012-01-23T12:24:00.000-07:00

This is fantastic!!

Waffling

2012-01-17T17:04:00.001-07:00

Waffle stitch square for Blankets 4 Canada.
This is an excellent, insulating stitch pattern.

Another one ready

2012-01-17T13:42:00.001-07:00

Another scarf ready for the Special Olympics.
They still need lots more scarves. Last number I heard, they only have 1500; still well short of the goal. Remember, the deadline is Feb. 1 for donations.

Textured baby blanket with hood

2012-01-16T15:13:00.001-07:00

I have finally finished this! This is the blanket pattern featured in one of my new, upcoming classes.

Due to a lack of babies handy, here it is modelled by my older daughter's 18" Josefina doll.

I chose a Loops & Threads Snuggly Wuggly yarn for this, rather than the aqua recommended. I really like how this colourway turned out. I call it my car wash blanket because the colours and texture remind me of the pastel coloured foam some automatic car washes use.

Using the recommended 6.00 mm hook, my gauge is slightly larger than in the pattern, but I decided not to adjust for it and have a slightly larger blanket, instead. The blanket, before edging, was supposed to measure 27 inches square. Mine was closer to 29 inches.

I really like this textured stitch and have been using it for other patterns, including Blankets 4 Canada squares and java jackets/cup cozies.

Next class project; the openwork lace shawl.

My daughter's blanket - finally finished!

2012-01-16T15:00:00.000-07:00

My younger daughter has finally finished the blanket she was working on, as seen in this previous post. She's been working on it off and on for over a year, though it has spent a few months tucked away, so it's hard to say how much time she actually spent working on it. Here is the finished blanket!

This is on her queen size bed. It's made of 22 balls of variegated yarn, plus one ball of solid colour yarn for the edging. Some of the balls, however, were the bulk sized type. Those were mostly Bernat Chunky, I believe, while the smaller balls where in Bernat Satin. She made it using a 4.25 mm hook. It's all done in double crochet, with the stitches worked in between.

The edging was something she just worked out on the fly. She doesn't quite remember what the yarn was - possible Red Heart Supersaver, but she's not sure.

This thing's got a lot of weight to it!

Upcoming classes

2012-01-05T22:05:00.002-07:00

For the Edmonton folk, here are the upcoming crochet classes and events I will be doing at the Clareview Michaels. All classes are 2 1/2 hours long, cost $25 plus materials, and you can register with any cashier or by phone.

update: corrections for March made

For January
Single Crochet: Jan 6 5:30-8:00 pm (canceled due to low registration)
Tall Stitches:    Jan 13    5:30-8:00 pm
Textured Stitches: Jan 20 3:00-5:30 pm
Granny Squares: Jan 27 3:00-5:30 pm

For February

Blankets 4 Canada Joining Party!
Thursday, February 2, 4-6 pm.
We have so many squares to join, and I've got the classroom for only two hours. Anyone can drop in to help join the squares into blankets for donation to local charities.

Single Crochet Feb 3 3:00-5:30 pm
NEW! Hooded, Textured Baby blanket Feb. 9 3:00-5:30 pm
NEW! Daisy Ring Rattle Feb. 9 6:00-8:30 pm
Tall Stitches Feb. 10 3:00-5:30 pm
NEW! Lace Crochet Openwork Shawl Feb. 16 3:00-5:30 pm
NEW! One Piece Granny Throw Feb. 16 6:00-8:30 pm
Textured Stitches Feb. 17 5:30-8:00 pm
NEW! Crochet Gifts - totes Feb. 23 3:00-5:30 pm
NEW! Time for Crochet - Open Class Feb. 23 6:00-8:30 pm
Granny Squares Feb. 24 5:30-8:00 pm

For March

Single Crochet    March 2 5:30-8:00 pm
NEW! Hooded, Textured Baby blanket    March 8 6:00-8:30 pm
NEW! Daisy Ring Rattle March 8 3:00-5:30 pm
Tall Stitches    March 9 5:30-8:00 pm
NEW! Lace Crochet Openwork Shawl    March 15 6:00-8:30 pm
NEW! One Piece Granny Throw    March 15 3:00-5:30 pm
Textured Stitches    March 16 3:00-5:30 pm
NEW! Crochet Gifts - totes    March 22 6:00-8:30 pm
NEW! Time for Crochet - Open Class    March 22 3:00-5:30 pm
Granny Squares    March 23 3:00-5:30 pm

Looking forward to seeing some of you there!

Wow!

2012-01-02T16:37:00.001-07:00

My younger daughter (the one peeking on the left) wishes all to know that she is the creator of this monstrosity. Her words.
She's not done yet.

Another quick one...

2011-12-31T16:22:00.001-07:00

Another quick cup cozie I just finished before heading out to see the new year festivities.

First use

2011-12-28T16:35:00.001-07:00

Using a new cup cozie for the first time.
It occurred to me recently that having extras to keep in my purse or pockets would be useful, so I made several last night. These are handy and quick little projects to experiment with. For this one, I got to play with making diamonds, as well as figuring out how to adjust for increasing the size of the cozie at the top to better fit the cup.
I think it turned out all right. :-)

Company

2011-12-27T12:49:00.001-07:00

The kitten we are trying to find a home for likes my work station!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T15:04:00.001-07:00

Wishing you all a Joyous Christmas and a Happy New Year. May this time be one of peace and happiness, and may 2012 be a year of good health and prosperity.

A little bit of insane fun...

2011-12-18T00:26:00.002-07:00

Seventeen Evergreen - Polarity Song from Lucky Number Music on Vimeo.

Get Spicy

2011-12-12T22:41:00.002-07:00

Ah, finally. Some photos of this year's Christmas decorations!

This is not the project I originally intended to do, but lack of space in the kitchen for such a project left me searching for another option. As I was going through Michaels one day, looking for inspiration, I decided to try something with these.

Papier Maché forms, pre-strung for hanging. Getting the bar code stickers off was a bit of an issue, but I hoped that would get covered over.

For the past few years, my annual decorations have leaned towards things that reflect light. Beads, mirrors, metallics, craft gems and more, with the idea of having them reflect the lights on our tree. This year I decided to go for more scent, and a more organic, natural look. I still wanted a bit of shine, though.

With that in mind...

I also picked up a cheap package of craft brushes and some enamel paint in 8 metallic colours. I used a small jar (from some Devonshire cream... yum!) to hold the spheres while they were being worked on. Not shown is some Tacky Glue that I picked up. I had a definite need for a glue that would hold weight while wet, and would dry clear.

The first step was to cover the forms with the metallic paint.

I did two spheres and two stars in the same four colours, then the remaining forms in another four colours, starting off with just 2 colours. I wanted to use the little yellow sponge on a stick that you see in the previous photo, but it didn't fit in the pots very well, so I used the black sponge, instead. I used very little water and just one corner of the tip to dab the colours on, then used the try opposite corner of the tip to feather the edges, especially where the two colours met. I tried to make the placement of colours look fairly random. I also chose to dab with the sponge, rather than spread, as I wanted that hint of texture; another reason I used very little water.

While the first 4 forms dried, I worked on the next four. The paint dries fairly quickly, though I did still need to give the first batch a few more minutes longer than it took me to finish the second batch.

Once the first pair of colours were done, I did the next two colours. With the spheres, I did need to give a couple of them time to dry on one side before I could finish the other.

Personally, I like the ones with green in them better then the ones with red. At this point, I wasn't sure how much of the paint would even be showing when they were done.

Next up, some aromatic spices. In the round little bowls are whole cloves and whole allspice on the left, and broken up cinnamon sticks on the right. In the divided dish there's fennel seeds at the top and coriander seeds at the bottom.

I did two of the decorations myself, then the girls did the remaining six. I started with a sphere, since I knew it would need drying time in between.

I used an elastic to mark off guidelines at the equator for my first one.

It didn't need to be perfectly straight; I just needed enough to make sure I didn't go all wonky while gluing.

With this one, I had to do it in quite a few stages, staring with the whole cloves and lots of glue!

This is the finished sphere with cinnamon pieces and coriander seeds with the cloves...

While on the bottom, I chose one very large piece of allspice and surrounded it with 8 of the smallest allspice I could find. As you can see, the glue still isn't completely dry in this photo, and this is after a full day and a half! With the allspice being round, rather large, and being glued to a curved surface, I figured a lot of glue wouldn't be amiss! *L*

Here are the rest of them...

I had just finished this one when I took the photo.

My younger daughter did this one. After taking the photo, I actually added more glue around the allspice pieces. Just to be safe. *L*

Another one by my younger daughter. The other side matches this one, so that when hung, there's a single allspice in the centre of each side.

One more done by my younger daughter.

One of the spheres done by my older daughter. She repainted the back so that it was all red.

Getting a good shot of this one was rather difficult. *L* Another from my older daughter, the back is actually blank. It's done to look like the one side is bursting open to reveal the inside. For this, she cut the allspice in half to have a flat surface to glue against the sphere. Once glued in place and dry enough, she used some paint on them as well.

My older daughter also did a star shape, but for some odd reason, I don't have a photo of it! I'm not sure how I missed it. I did get this shot...

Of course, there's another one in front of it. Oops. It's the middle one of the three stars. After gluing on the cinnamon sticks and coriander, she added spots of paint as well.

I did get a picture of the other four finished decorations, but it didn't turn out. I'll see if I can get more photos later.

When I first painted these, I'd left the backs of the stars unpainted. I had thought to leave them that way, but the remains of the bar code stickers wasn't very nice, so once the glue was dry, I painted the backs. For the ones with green on them, I painted the backs in the lighter gold while the ones with the red on them were painted with the darker gold. For that part, I watered down the paint more and brushed rather then dabbed for a smooth and even surface.

We're all quite happy with how these turned out. They were fun to do, easy and relatively quick. Their scent is noticeable, but not overpowering. Before Christmas, we'll pick up more forms and do others. I seem to remember they had flat circles in stock.

If you want to make your own version of these and time is a concern, do just flat pieces, as you won't have to do them in sections and wait for the glue to dry, the way we had to do with the spheres. Other then that, they are really quick to do, and it's fun to try and figure out interesting ways to arrange the spices.

Gillian's Hat

2011-12-05T00:23:00.001-07:00

Okay, it's finally done! Some time ago, I got a custom order from one of my neighbours. It took me way too long to get to it. For those interested in my process in coming up with a custom design, this post is for you.

The goal: to make a hat with scarf flaps. The hat had to have a custom fit, the scarf flaps had to have keyholes, and my neighbour had to be able to put it on herself by holding the scarf flaps and tossing it over her head. It also had to fit over either a braid or ponytail.

Normally when I make a hat, I can just try it on my own head as I go along to make sure things are shaping up the way they should. Since this was not an option for the hat I was making, I took a whole bunch of measurements. I took far more than I probably needed, but better to have more information then not enough.

The notes written in a different direction are those I took when I first started working it up.

I also did a rough sketch of a variation of my basic hat with scarf flaps located over the ears.

I started experimenting with a mock up version using two strands of Bernat Satin on a 6.00 mm hook.

I also did a couple more sketches of possible variations. As I worked the mock up to the measurements I had, the design started looking a lot more like a tam than the sort of hats I usually do, so I figured that was something I could run with.

After I worked up the first mock up, I tried to test it myself by holding my elbows close to my sides and trying to toss it over my head. The hat just flopped into itself and, no matter how I wiggled the scarf flaps, would not position properly on my head. I took it to Gillian to test it out, in case it would work better for her, but it clearly was not going to work. It was a total flop. Literally. Unfortunately, I neglected to take photos of this first mock up, but it wasn't too far from the diagrams I sketched out.

One thing became very clear when Gillian tried the hat on. It wasn't a really hat we were after, but a hood. Time to take a few new measurements and go back to the drawing board!

I already had most of my measurements to work with, but the position of the scarf flaps in relation to the hood changed things a bit, including where to put the keyholes.

I did the mock up with a 6.00 mm hook and two strands of yarn again. I needed to use a stitch that would make for a denser fabric that would hold itself up to a certain extent, yet still be flexible and comfortable to wear. I decided to work in front and back post double crochet stitches. In comparing the Bernat Satin to the Paton's Silk Bamboo the final hat would be made out of, I knew I would need to reduce the hook size, and perhaps work with 3 strands on the hook instead of 2. Here is how the mock up turned out.

I had originally intended for this to be the outside of the hat, though I figured it would also be reversible. When this side was out, however, I noticed it lay very flat, which I could see as being a potential problem when putting it on. Flipped the other way, however....

... and the post stitches helped keep the hat slightly open. I felt it looked attractive either way, so switching made little difference.

At this point, I didn't even try to put in the keyholes. I just wanted to make sure Gillian could put it on. This time, it worked. Through the size and measurements on the mock up were off, she was able to put it on.

With my new measurements verified, I fleshed out my design sketch with more detail and got started on the final version in the Patons Silk Bamboo. I knew I wanted to go down a hook size, but wasn't sure if I'd increase the number of strands on the hook, too. I ended up sticking to two strands on a 5.50 mm hook.

I started off with a foundation chain slightly shorter than the length I needed, as an edging would be added later, then worked a few increase rows to get it to the measurement I needed. After that, it was just basic front or back post double crochet stitches, starting and ending each row with a half double crochet stitch.

I worked the hood portion, then the scarf flaps (more details later), until I was almost ready to do the keyholes. At that point, I wanted to double check my measurements and see how it would fit on Gillian.

Here's the side view. The edge of the hood is rolling back on itself quite a bit, which gets fixed with the edging, and at this point, she could not put it on by herself. There just wasn't enough substance to the scarf flaps yet. I double checked the length at the back to verify how wide the scarf portion would need to be in total, which also told me how many more rows I'd need to do before working the keyholes.

Here I've verified and marked where the keyholes were going to go. The width of the scarf portion would also determine how large the keyhole openings would need to be. I just had to make sure the centres of the keyholes were at my marks.

I was slightly concerned that it would not hold itself open properly when she tried to put it on. The Silk Bamboo has a completely different drape then the Bernat Satin I used for the mock up. I did expect that, but it was also turning out much heavier than I expected. I was thinking that the hat would collapse under its own weight while being flung over and ending up bunched up behind her head instead. I started to brainstorm some way to add something to the hat later on that would force the hat to stay open, while still being flexible enough to be comfortable, and to bend when the scarf was pulled tight. I wouldn't know if that would be needed until it was done, though.

Time to finish the hat.

Here is the view from the inside, before the edging was done. When the hood portion got to the size I wanted and I started on the scarf portion, I switched from working post double stitches to half double crochet stitches. This made the scarf portion thinner and more flexible than the hood portion.

To work the scarf flaps, after finishing the last row of post stitches, I did a foundation chain of 50 stitches, then worked hdc into the foundation chain and around the bottom of the hood. For the opposite flap, I worked 50 foundation half double stitches.

Here is what it looked like on the outside, with that curling edge waiting to be finished. The first and last stitch of each post row is a half double stitch instead of a post stitch to make working the edge easier. I planned to work one edge stitch into the side of each hdc which, due to the height of the hdc stitches, I knew would cause it to cup slightly. I wanted it to be pulled in a bit to increase facial protection.

A view of the keyhole openings. These were done by working foundation half double stitches. As the scarf portion worked out to be a total of 8 rows of hdc stitches, plus the edging, I made the keyhole openings 10 stitches wide.

Time to work the edging.

Here's how the edged scarf portion fit through the keyhole. Slightly snug, with no gaps. For the edge, I worked single crochet around the edges of the scarf flaps, the base of the hood portion, and part of the hood opening.

The corners were turned with a [1sc, 1ch, 1sc].

To extend the top of the hood slightly, the front of the hood was edged with a few stitches of sc at the bottom, then a few hdc, then joined dc stitches across the top, then matching numbers of hdc and sc back to the scarf portion.

I tried to find a link to explain what a joined dc stitch would be, but can't find one, so I'll do my best to explain it here. It starts with a dc worked as normal.

Yarn over hook (yoh)
insert hook into designated stitch (in this case, around the post of an hdc stitch in the hood)
yoh and draw loop through (3 loops on hook)
yoh and draw through 2 loops (2 loops on hook)
you and draw through 2 loops (1 loop on hook)

To work joined dc

insert hook under one strand of yarn in the post of first dc stitch worked
yoh and draw loop through (2 loops on hook)
insert hook into next designated stitch (around the post of next hdc stitch in the hood)
yoh and draw loop through (3 loops on hook)
yoh and draw through 2 loops (2 loops on hook)
yoh and draw through 2 loops (1 loop on hook)

This will leave a distinctive horizontal bar joining the two stitches. To work the next joined dc, insert hook under this horizontal bar.
yoh and draw loop through (2 loops on hook)
insert hook into next designated stitch
yoh and draw loop through (3 loops on hook)
yoh and draw through 2 loops (2 loops on hook)
yoh and draw through 2 loops (1 loop on hook)

In essence, what is being worked here is a really, really short Tunisian simple stitch, if that helps make any more sense.

After finishing the hat, I tested it out again on myself. Remember my concern about the hat not staying open while being tossed into position? How I was concerned that, between the weight and the drape of the yarn, it would just collapse on itself?

The exact opposite is what happened! When I tossed it up, the hood portion just opened right up and it landed perfectly in place! I did it again, several times, just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, and it was perfect every time!

Time for Gillian to try it out!

Check it out! It worked perfectly for her as well! She had her hair in a ponytail that day, and it fit easily over it. The denser post stitches help hold the shape while the softer hdc stitches in the scarf portion make for more flexibility at base of her head and neck.

She was also able to put the scarf end through the keyhole and pull it tight without any problems. A keyhole in each flap makes it reversible for her, too. The edging tucks in around her face for extra protection against the wind, just as I hoped it would. I am so tickled with how well it worked out! Her choice of yarn was perfect for this. Though the Bernat Satin I used for the mock up would also have worked, it would not have worked as well as the Silk Bamboo did.

Most importantly, Gillian is happy with her new hat, too. :-D

Quick and Easy Garland

2011-11-24T18:40:00.001-07:00

Here's a garland I made up using the new Martha Stewart yarn, Glitter Eyelash.

When I first saw the new line of Martha Stewart yarns, I have to admit I had low expectations for the eyelash yarn. That's because I have low expectation for eyelash yarn in general. I find them a major pain to work with, and heaven help you if you make a mistake and need to undo it!

I was impressed with this yarn, however. First off, there's a nice range of colours with marvelous sparkle to them. Then I actually picked up a ball. I had expected it to be scratchy from the glitter strands, but it was surprisingly soft. I was impressed.

So when I decided to make a last minute decoration for the staff decorated tree at the Michaels I teach at, I picked up a couple of balls in Blue Topaz. I decided to make a garland similar to one I have made before, using glow in the dark yarn.

Once actually working with the yarn, I was again impressed. It was smooth to work with and there was no tangling of any kind. Very nice.

For the garland pictured below, I used a 5.00mm hook and some white yarn I had on hand (Loops and Threads Impeccable) along with the Glitter Eyelash.

To start, make a chain to the desired length. I never measured the final length for this, but I'm guessing it was about 13-15 feet long.

To make a gentle spiral, two stitches are worked into each chain in the foundation.

Start by making a loop by working a sc into the 6th chain from the hook, or whatever number of chains for the size of loop you want. Work 1 hdc in the next ch.

Place a stitch marker at the opposite end of the foundation chain, 7 ch from the end or the number of ch in your loop plus 2.

Work 2 dc into each ch to the marker. Work 1 hdc into the ch the marker is in. Create a loop by working a sc into the next ch and the last chain together.

Fasten off yarn.

Join with Glitter Eyelash into the hdc stitch at either end of the garland. Work 1 sc into each stitch to the hdc at the opposite end.

Fasten off yarn.

When I first started this, I had intended to make a denser glitter row by working 1 ch in between each sc. It was looking great, but used far more yarn than I had. Unfortunately, I had already worked about 1 3/4 balls of Glitter Eyelash before I realized there was no way I had enough to finish the entire garland. I would have needed almost 4 balls to finish it that way (which, by the way, I recommend as a variation. Just make sure you have lots of Glitter Eyelash).

I had to do the one thing I dreaded most with an eyelash yarn. I would need to undo nearly two balls worth.

Much to my surprise, it came undone as smoothly as any basic yarn! There were no tangles at all, no catches, no twisting. It was beautiful!

To store the garland, wrap it around a core of some kind. I used the thick cardboard tube from a package of extra wide aluminum foil. There's a couple of spots of sticky glue where the foil was attached to the tube, which I covered with tape. Just hook the loop around one end of the tube, then wind the garland around it. To fit this garland onto the tube, I had to jam it together pretty tightly. The tube also makes it easier to place the garland on your tree. Just hook a loop onto your tree, then unwind it as you go.

This garland took me about 3 hours to do, including the time it took to rip all the eyelash yarn and work it back up again. This can easily be worked up in a single evening.

As for the Glitter Eyelash yarn from Martha Stewart, I definitely recommend it! It's got great colours, lovely sparkle, a soft texture, is lovely to work with, and is even a delight to undo if you make a mistake. Fantastic stuff!

At the RAM

2011-11-20T13:36:00.001-07:00

Been doing a lot of dashing around in between projects, which has left me wth lots to post about, but little time to actually do the the posting. So I am taking a moment to write this from the Royal Alberta museum, while we pause at the Museum Cafe before heading out.

One of my favourite sections of the museum is in the First Nations area. Specifically, the area showcasing exquisite bead, quill and embroidry work. It's the silk embroidery that really blows me away. The stitchery alone is amazing, with the incredibly perfect technique, design balance and use of colour. That such fine, miniscule stitchery also happens to be stitched directly on thick leather or suede makes me appreciate the skills of the unknown artists even more. It never ceases to blow me away when I look at them!

If you ever find yourself in Edmonton, I highly recommend checking out the RAM and seeing this display. I look forward to seeing how the rework this section when they're new building is built, hopefully to open in 2015.

Happy crafting!

Am I in your way?

2011-11-16T15:46:00.001-07:00

This month has been particularly hectic for me. Aside from trying to get various craft projects finished, taking on NaNoWriMo and the usual errands, I've found myself running around and aweful lot these days and falling behind.

Oh, and then there's this.

I was working on a custom hat when the kitten we've taken in decided I didn't really need to use my arm after all.

More adoreable kitten pictures here.

Special Olympics Canada scarf and pattern

2011-11-06T21:40:00.000-07:00

Special Olympics Canada,Vertical Stripe Scarf

This is an easy scarf design worked in Special OlympicsCanada colours. Donated scarves aregiven to all the athletes, their families, coaches and volunteers. Extra scarves are donated to those in need. This scarf is done in just single and doublecrochet stitches and can be worked up quickly. Make a few and donate them to worthy cause!

Yarn: Medium (4) weight acrylic yarn in any blue similar tothe Special Olympics Canada logo, white and maple leaf red.

Hook: 5.00mm

Foundation chain in blue: work a chain about 6 feet in length (about 250 stitches;I worked mine in 270 stitches for a longer scarf) + 2 for turning chain.

Turning chains are not counted as a stitches in thispattern.

Row 1: Work dc in third chain from the hook. Continue working Dc to end of foundationchain. Ch 1. Turn.

Row 2: Sc in each Dc to end. Ch 2 loosely. Turn.

Row 3: Dc in each Sc to end changing colour to white at laststitch. Ch 1. Turn.

Row 4: In white, Sc in each Dc to end. Ch 2 loosely. Turn

Row 5: Dc in each Sc to end, changing colour to red at thelast stitch. Ch 1. Turn.

Row 6: In Red, Sc in each Dc to end, changing to white atthe last stitch. Ch 2 loosely. Turn.

Row 7: In white, Dc in each Sc to end. Ch 1. Turn.

Row 8: In white, Sc in each Dc to end, changing to blue inlast stitch. Ch 2 loosely. Turn.

Row 9: In blue, Dc in each Sc to end. Ch 1. Turn.

Row 10: Sc in each Dc to end. Ch 2 loosely. Turn.

Row 11: Dc in each Sc to end. Finish off and weave in end.

Join white into a right hand corner of either narrow end, inbetween the last two Dc on the long side. Sc into same spot as join. Ch 2to turn corner. Work 2 Sc around Dc poston the short edge. Continue workingevenly along edge with 1 Sc into an Sc row and 2 Sc around Dc posts (includingany turning chains) to next corner. There will be 2 Sc worked around the last Dc post. Ch 2 to turn corner and work 1 more Sc in thespace between the last Dc post worked around and the next Dc stitch on the longside. There should be 17 Sc between theCh 2 spaces, plus one Sc worked on the long side of each corner.

Work Sc in between the Dc stitches to the end of thescarf. At the end, Ch 2 to turncorner. Work 17 Sc across the end in thesame manner as at the beginning. Ch 2 toturn corner and work Sc into the space between the last Dc post worked aroundand the next Dc. Continue working Sc inbetween the Dc stitches to the end, slip stitching into the beginning Sc.

Finish off yarn and weave in ends.

Special Olympics Canada - Tunisian scarf

2011-11-06T20:45:00.000-07:00

It took me a while, but I finally finished the scarf I was making for Special Olympics Canada Winter Games, and here it is!

I was able to use my Denise Interchangable Crochet Hooks for the first time for this project. It's the first time I've ever seen an 8mm hook, so that's the size I chose to make this. I worked it using a Tunisian double crochet, however I worked the hook as with the Tunisian Stockinette stitch, in between the vertical bars from front to back instead of the front only. Between the size of the hook and the stitch, it made for a very open fabric.

Tunisian stitch naturally tends to go on the diagonal, which can be blocked straight. I used that tendancy as part of the design, instead.

I'm really happy with how it turns out, but would never do a scarf like this again! With all the colour changes, there were so many ends to work in; two for every band of colour for a scarf that ended up being more than 6 feet long! Not an easy thing to hide and anchor all those ends in such an open design.

I'm happy with how it turned out, though, and I hope whoever recieves it enjoys it. :-)

I was able to finish a second scarf before I finished stitching this one. I will be writing that one up as a free pattern in another post.

Michaels and Blankets for Canada

2011-11-06T20:27:00.001-07:00

What a terrific afternoon we had today!

I was able to set up a display at a table near the door, happy to use the embroidered and crocheted cloth I inherited as part of the display. I picked up some variegated yarn to work with and set out 4 of the 5 panels I've done so far, with extra hooks and yarn at the ready. I was joined by three lovely ladies and would have loved to go longer than the time I was allotted. We got so busy crocheting and chatting, I completely forgot to try and get the group photo I had planned on!

Remember, 8"x8" panels for Blankets for Canada can be dropped off at any Michaels. I will be organizing a joining party for the end of Jan/start of Feb at the Clareview branch to help piece the donated squares together into blankets.

Have fun stitching!

Blankets for Canada

2011-11-05T20:21:00.001-06:00

Just a quick reminder that Michaels, Discover Knit and Crochet and Blankets for Canada have their event this Sunday, from 1-3pm. Stop by the Edmonton, Clareview location and join me, making panels for Blankets for Canada. We'll be using medium (4) weight yarn and 5.00 mm hooks and needles. I hope to see you there!

Temari - finishing the 16 point star

2011-11-02T17:53:00.000-06:00

Now that the initial 8 pointed star is worked, it's time to start the overlapping star, then add more colours.

For the overlapping star, I chose to use white and a pale beige. The needle is brought up next to one of the pins in the inner ring, to the left of the guideline, then brought down to the next guideline's pin in the outer ring.

Continue working around the mari, removing the pins as you go.

After working 1 round, finish off the thread. Repeat on the other side of the mari.

Go back to the first, elongated star and add a round in the next colour; in this case a darker blue. After one round, finish off the thread and repeat on the other side.

Work a second round of colour in the shorter overlapping star.

Continue working the pattern by adding another round of floss in the light blue to the elongated star, then another round in white in the overlapping star. Complete these rounds on both hemispheres.

Switch to the metallic thread (3 strands on the needle) and work around all 16 points in both hemispheres to finish the temari.

Here's a look at the point overlapping at the equator.

Another view of the finished temari.

This one got a hanger as well. I chose to braid lengths of the dark blue, white and cold threads to make a cord to tie into a loop.

The loop got sewn in place at the equator, between a pair of points.

With the knotted end trimmed and fringed.

The two finished temari.

The interesting thing about temari is that it doesn't take much to get completely different looks. These two patterns are basically the same thing; a pair of overlapping stars. Changes in colour and the location of the inner and outer points can change the finished result dramatically, even though they are essentially worked the same way.

I hope these photos will be useful for you to make your own temari. Later on, I will be doing versions with more centres.

Temari - starting the 16 point star

2011-11-02T17:28:00.003-06:00

So our first temari, with 8 divisions and two centres, is now done. Time to move on to the 16 division mari.

For this one, I decided to change up the two overlapping stars so that, instead of one 16 point star, there are two distinct 8 point stars. I also decided to extend the points beyond the equator on one of them, which means there will be no obi. I chose two colours per star, plus the metallic thread outline.

The first step was to mark out one of the 8 point stars.

Here you can see me marking the pins for the South hemisphere, having already done the North. I marked my strip of paper at 1 1/2 inches and 2 1/4 inches. The distances are marked on alternating lines, as indicated by the arrows. This pins are placed in the OPPOSITE positions from the North side. The guidelines where you see the green outer pins in the photo had inner pins on the North side, while the yellow inner pins in the photo above are on lines with outer pins on the North side. This is important, since the points of one star on the North side will extend into the South side of the equator and vice versa.

Here's what the fully pinned hedgehog looks like from the North pin.

For the first 8 point star, I chose two blues. The stitching is started the same as usual, bringing the needle up as close to the North pin as possible, and to the left of a guideline. Make sure that the needle is brought up on a guideline that has an outer ring of pins alongside it.

From there I worked the point below the pin marking the next guideline at the equator, working the needle from right to left as usual, in the South side of the equator. Note the pin marking the outer ring in the South hemisphere is a short distance away.

Here's what the first couple of points looks like. The equator pins can be removed once the points are stitched.

Continue working the points around the mari.

After one round, finish off the thread by burying it in the padding.

Repeat on the South side of the mari.

When done, you will have your two elongated stars with their points slightly overlapping the equator's guideline position.

In the next post, we'll work the overlapping star in contrasting colours.

Temari - making a twisted cord hanger

2011-11-01T22:48:00.001-06:00

To add a hanger to my first temari, I decided to go with a simple twisted cord.

Twisted cords start off needing strands a lot longer than the final length will be. I used some of the dark green and silver metallic thread used in the temari. To make the short cord I needed for the hanger, I cut roughly 5 feet of floss (I losely measured by taking the strands and stretching my arms out as wide as I can reach). Fold the strands in half and tie a knot at the ends.

Holding the knot in one hand, loop the folded end over a finger and start twisting while keeping the strands taut. Keep twisting until, when slightly releasing the tension, the strands start to twist around themselves. The more you twist, the tighter the finished cord will be.

When twisted tightly enough, carefully fold the cord in half, maintaining tension until the ends are together, then allowing the cord to twist around itself. This might require some manipulation to get it even. Tie the ends together to prevent untwisting.

To make the loop, fold the cord in half again. Determine how large you want the loop and tie another knot.

Attach the loop at the spot in the obi where all the strands start and end. Use matching floss to sew the centre of the loop to the temari.

Trim the cord a short distance from the knot and fringe the ends.

This temari is now ready to hang on a tree!

The next temari posts will show you how to work a 16 point polystar pattern.

Temari - making the obi

2011-11-01T22:27:00.002-06:00

Preparing the core
Measuring for guidelines
Placing the guidelines
Starting and 8 point star (kiku)
Finishing the 8 point star (kiku)

Now that we are done working two kiku at the poles of your temari, it's time to turn our attention to the equator. This is where the obi - named for the wide sash worn with kimonos - will be worked.

For this, I chose to start with the pale green instead of the yellow, as I had with the kiku. As previously, I worked with all 6 strands of floss. To start, I anchored the floss without tying a knot, first by drawing the end into the padding (you can just barely see the pale green showing through the sewing thread under the needle), then making a small back stitch into the end so that there would be no chance of it pulling through by accident. I also worked close to the metallic guideline, so that it will be hidden by the strands.

Draw your needle up on the left and close to any longitudinal guideline, above the equator guideline.

Wrap the strand to the right, closely following alongside the metallic guideline.

Maintaining the tension with your thumb, slip the strand of floss on the right of the guideline and bring it up again below the equator guideline, to the left of the longitudinal guideline. Draw the thread through and pull it snug.

Wrap the strand around the equator again, closely aligned under the metallic strand. Again maintaining tension, finish the strand by splitting the floss to the right of the longitudinal guideline. Draw your needle out some distance away to bury the end in the padding. Trim the excess thread closely.

Repeat with the remaining colours, starting all the colours in the same location (which you can see on the left of the above photo) and working your way outwards.

The obi now needs to be anchored.

Switching to the metallic thread with three strands on the needle, this time tie a knot to anchor your thread. Insert the needle some distance from your star, slightly under the previous strands so that it will be hidden after the knot is trimmed. As with the embroidery floss, bring your needle up to the left of the longitudinal guideline, above the obi.

Rotating the temari slightly clockwise, work a stitch from right to left around the next longitudinal guideline, below the obi.

Continue rotating clockwise, alternating stitches at the guidelines above and below the obi.

On reaching the beginning, insert the needle to the right of the beginning guideline, working under the strands, exiting below the obi and to the left of the guideline.

Continue working stitches around the guidelines to form a crossed pattern (note that I've trimmed the knot away by this point). After working completely around the equator, pass the needle through the padding to anchor the end. Trim excess thread.

Here is the finished obi.

At this point, the temari is finished!

These temari, however, were being made to hang on a Christmas tree, so there's still one more step. Making and attaching a hanger, coming up next!

Temari - finishing the 8 point star

2011-11-01T21:16:00.002-06:00

Preparing the core
Measuring for guidelines
Placing the guidelines
Starting and 8 point star (kiku)

Alrighty. then! At this point, we've got the first colour in the 8 pointed kiku laid down. Time to add the next colour. I chose to use 3 colours of embroidery floss for this, but feel free to change it up.

Thread your second colour, tie a knot at the end, and pass it through the padding a couple of times to anchor it. Not that I've done this in areas that will be covered by stitching, so that any stray threads peaking through the sewing thread is covered.

Remember that to make an 8 point star, you have actually stitched 2 overlapping 4 point stars. When bringing up the new colour, you can start at any inner point that is part of the first, or underlying, 4 point star. If you look closely at the photo, you can see that the yellow strands at the point I'm bringing the needle up at run under the last round of threads.

Bring the needle with the new colour up just below the last round of stitches. The strands are fairly close together, which makes it a bit challenging to bring it up without catching it on other strands. This is where you might find yourself being downright brutal with pushing strands out of the way.

Oh, and remember that thimble recommendation? It's not necessarily, but it's a really good idea. Having the back and of a needle pushed into your finger is not very fun. It bleeds like the dickens, and getting blood out of the strands of floss is not easy.

I'm just saying.

*ahem*

Continue stitching in the same pattern as before, bringing the thread down and rotating slightly clockwise to the next point, placing your stitch slightly below the previous strands, then back up again to the next point near the North pin. Though it seems like you will quickly run out of space in the centre, each layer of strands pulls the previous strands in slightly, making more space.

Continue working around the overlapping stars for two rounds, in the same manner the yellow was worked. Finish your thread by passing it through the padding a couple of times, snipping away the knot and excess thread when done. Repeat on the South hemisphere.

Join with your third colour, again taking care to start at an inner point of the underlying 4 point star.

Continue working around the points as with the other colours.

When done, repeat the process on the South hemisphere.

For the next round, take up your contrasting metallic thread. As with the guidelines, I worked in silver with 3 strands on the needle.

Start the metallic thread in the same manner as the embroidery floss, starting from an inner point of an underlying 4 point star.

Work around the points as with the embroidery floss.

Working with metallic thread is very different than with the cotton floss. The strands don't always pull through as evenly, and you might find yourself dealing with what you see here fairly frequently. To fix it, you'll need to gently pull the loose strands through one at a time until they are all equally snug, then run your fingers down the strands to even them out for the entire length. Also, adjust your needle position on the strands frequently to prevent breakage at the eye.

Oh, and... cat.

I think she was cold, since she kept insisting on placing herself directly under my lamp while I worked.

Do one round of metallic thread around all 8 points of the kiku.

Repeat the process on the other side to finish.

At this point I realize I somehow managed to miss processing photos for the next step. This will be working the obi, which wraps around the equator of the temari. Off to do that, then I'll do another post.

Temari - starting an 8 point star pattern

2011-10-30T18:01:00.003-06:00

Hey, I'll bet you thought we were all done with measuring and pins, right?

Not quite.

To recap: we've wrapped a core, measured and pinned it, then placed the guide lines.

In this next series of photos, we will start working on an 8 point star (kiku) pattern from two centres - the North and South poles. For this you'll need to choose at least 2 colours (I'm using three) of thread, plus a contrasting metallic thread.

For the coloured thread, cotton perle is recommended, but you can also use ordinary embroidery floss. For the metallic thread, I chose to stick with the same colour as the guide lines, but it can be any other colour you choose.

You will also need your sharp, large eyed needle, more pins, and I'd recommend keeping those pliers and thimble handy, too.

Oh, and another strip of paper to measure with. Snip a bit at one end so that you can slip it onto the North pin, as you did to the strip for measuring out the guide line pins earlier. For the pattern I'm doing hear, pencil in a mark 1 3/4 inches from the pin.

Place a guide pin at the mark at each guide line. After you've marked the Northern hemisphere, move the paper to the South pin and repeat the process.

When you're done, you're going to have this hedgehog looking thing. There will be a North pin, a ring of 8 pins 1 3/4 inches from there, 8 pins marking the equator, another ring of 8 pins 1 3/4 inches from the South pin, and finally the South pin itself.

Now, finally, you can start stitching!

If you're not much of an embroiderer, no worries. Stitching the design involves tacking the design around a guide line, catching a few strands of sewing thread in the process. This is why wrapping that sewing thread randomly was so important. If the threads run in the same direction, your stitches would just slide out of place.

To begin!

For this part, I used the full 6 strands on the floss, so there was no need to split it like we did for the guide lines. Cut a length you're comfortable working with, thread your needle and tie a knot at one end.

To make an 8 point star, you will actually be stitching two overlapping 4 point stars.

Insert your needle near one of the guide lines, so that the ends will be hidden after the knot is cut away, and bring it up on the left of a guide line as close to the North pin as you can get it. I have that point marked A in the diagram above. As with the guide lines, you may need to give it a few tries before you get it where it needs to be. Thumb digging may be required. Pliers may also be needed to pull the needle through.

Rotating the ball slightly clockwise, bring your needle down to the guide pin on the first guide line on the right, which I have marked as B. Insert the needle on the right of the guide line, just below the pin, and exit on the left, catching a few strands of the sewing thread in the process. Pull the thread through and rotate slightly clockwise again.

Bring your needle back up to the North pin, now working around the next guide line to the right, which I've marked C. Again working as close to the North pin as possible, make a stitch from right to left around the guide line.

Continue around the ball in this manner until you've made 4 points on your star, with the last point at the pin labeled H.

From point H, bring your needle back to point A. Insert the needle to the right of the guide line at point A, then exit to the left of the guide line at point I. Note that point I is on the same guide line as point H.

You are now beginning your second 4 point star.

From point I, rotate slightly clockwise and make a stitch at point J. Note that J is on the same guide line as point A.

Bring the strand up and to the right, working the next stitch at the North pin at point K. In this photo, you can see where I cut the beginning knot away. The bit of thread still visible will be hidden by the strands of thread.

Continue working around in this pattern to form another 4 points.

When you reach the end, insert the needle to the right of the guide line at point I. If you look closely at the photo (you can click on the image to go to my flickr page, where you'll have access to a slightly larger version), you can see I've exited the needle at point G, to the left of the guide line and slightly below the previous stitch. This is another time when manhandling things with your thumb helps to get the needle out in the correct location.

At this stage, you can remove the guide pins at the points.

Bring the strand down to the next point on the right, making your stitch slightly below the previous stitch.

I like to refer to the first stitch in every round at point A. Since we have shifted over by one strand in the second round, what was point G before is now point A. After making your stitch at point B, bring your needle back up to the pin, labelled point C. Always working your needle from right to left, notice that the needle now runs under both strands of the previous stitch, as well as under the guide line.

Continue working around for both overlapping stars. Finish off the thread by running it back and forth into the padding a time or two to anchor it.

Repeat all these steps around the South pin.

After this, it's time to switch colours. It's also time to let my husband have a turn at the computer, so it will wait until later!

Temari - placing the guide lines

2011-10-30T16:42:00.000-06:00

All right now! We've prepared our core. We've measured out and placed pins for our guidelines. Now it's time to place the guide lines.

For this part you will need a contrasting thread and your sharp, large eyed needle. For the thread, I usually use a metallic thread, which is available in a really nice variety of colours. I chose gold for my black mari, silver for the red.

Also handy; a pair of needle nose pliers (I was able to use the handles of one of my embroidery scissors instead, but pliers are really, really handy to have). Oh, and you might want a thimble, too. You can do without it, but I'd recommend using one.

The length you'll need depends on how many divisions you have. For this mari, with 16 divisions, I will need it long enough to wrap around the circumference 8 times, plus once more to mark the obi at the equator, plus a bit extra for room to maneuver. Metallic strands tends to break and twist very easily, though, so you may want to use shorter lengths and restart a new length several times. Personally, I find fighting with the strands less annoying that restarting new lengths, so I went with one long piece. If you're not already used to working with metallic thread, go with several shorter lengths.

In this photo, I've wrapped the thread around 9 times, plus a few inches extra. It ended up being long enough to mark the longitudinal guidelines, but not the obi at the equator, which meant restarting a new length to do the obi.

Like regular cotton embroidery floss, the metallic floss comes in 6 strands twisted together to make the thread. This is too bulky for the purpose. Instead, I worked with 3 strands on the needle, carefully separating the length I measured in half. Take your time doing this, as the strands can get easily tangled and knotted. The easiest method is to grab one strand and slowly pull it out, then repeating until all the strands are separated. You can then group as many strands together as you want to work with.

After threading 3 strands onto the needle, tie a knot at one end.

Starting at the North pin, insert your needle some distance away from the pin, through the padding of the mari, and bring the point up at the North pin. This will probably take several attempts to get it to emerge in the right place. I find digging my thumb down into the padding near the pin helps.

Yes, you'll be doing that a lot. For all their delicate appearance, you'll likely be rough handling your mari quite a bit! It's okay. They can take it.

Once you've got the needle exiting where you want it, pull the thread all the way through until the knot is flush with the surface. Go ahead and use your pliers to pull the needle through. Don't yank it tight, at this point, though. You'll be doing that later, when you trim the knot away.

At this point, you're going to ignore your needle for a while. Wrap your thread around the ball, placing it snug against an equator pin, the South pin, and the opposite equator pin as to go around. Keep the thread nice and snug against the surface.

When you reach the North pin again, rotate slightly clockwise and wrap again, this time running against the next equator pins.

Continue wrapping in this manner, with one guideline for each pin on the equator.

This next part is a big awkward. While maintaining tension to keep the guide lines snug against the surface, take your needle up again and insert it at the North pin, as close to the pin as you can get, making sure that your strand goes over the guide lines to lock them in place. Draw the needle through a short distance from the pin and pull it tight.

To anchor the end, draw the needle back through the padding again, inserting the needle in the same spot you exited from so that there is no visible stitch. I exited under one of the guide lines so that any bit that's still showing after the end is trimmed will be hidden by stitching later on. This method of working the tail end back and forth through the padding to anchor it is how all the ends get finished.

To work the guild line for the equator, thread another strand. Choose any equator pin for your starting point and insert the needle a short distance away, bring it up at your chosen pin. Note that the needle emerges on one side of the guide line. Pull through until the ends of the strands are close (using your pliers to get the needle through, if necessary). Trim away excess so that the end is completely hidden in the padding of the mari.

Wrap the thread around the equator of the mari in the opposite direction your needle came out from, so that there's less chance of accidentally yanking the whole thing out. I like to weave back and forth around the pins so that there's no chance of the equator strand slipping out of place as I work. Keeping the tension snug against the surface while you work, finish the thread by inserting the needle at the starting pin, this time on the opposite side of the guide line, working into the beginning of your strand, and reversing the direction of your thread. Bring the needle up a short distance away and close to the strand and trim away excess thread. Trim away your starting knot as well.

Here are the South pins of the prepared mari in 8 and 16 divisions.

Time to work on the designs!

Temari - measuring for guide pins

2011-10-30T02:24:00.001-06:00

One of the things about temari is that, even though you might start with the same size foam core ball, by the time it's all wrapped, no two will be exactly the same size. The other thing about temari is that the patterns require rather precise measurements.

So how do we manage this?

With a simple strip of paper and coloured pins.

For this part of making temari, you will need a narrow strip of paper long enough to go around your mari, plus about an inch. You will also need pins in several colours. While it doesn't matter as much with a 3 inch core, I recommend getting the shorter pins. When I first made these using 2 inch cores, I only had the longer pins. When pushing them into the core, they actually started to hit each other and cause problems!

The main points on your mari will be the north and south poles, and the equator.

Note that for these temari, I am making a polystar pattern from two centres. One will be an 8 pointed star and the other will be a 16 pointed star.

Take a pin and your strip of paper and place them anywhere on your mari. This will be your North pole.

Gently and smoothly wrap the strip of paper around the ball until you're back at the North pole. Carefully fold back the end of the paper so that the fold is snug against the North pin. From the pin to the fold is the circumference of your mari.

Carefully fold the paper strip back on itself, so that the folded edge meets the pin again. Find and crease the strip at the centre. This will be used to mark the South pole of your mari. Snip a small V off at the fold, so that the point of the V is in the middle of the fold.

Gently open the strip and wrap it around the ball again, so that the folded end is again touching the North pin. Place another pin in the notch you cut out to mark the South pole.

Rotate the strip of paper around the North pin several times to measure out the South pole. You will likely have to adjust the location of the South pin a few times before you'll be able to match the pin with the V notch from any direction you take the strip from the North pin.

Once the South pin is in place, carefully fold the strip back on itself at the notch, so that the fold at the end is again at the North pin. Carefully fold the strip in half again, so that the centre with its V notch is also snug against the North pin. Crease the new fold. This crease marks the centre point between your North and South pins, and will be used to mark the equator of your mari.

For an 8 pointed star, fold the strip one more time, which will look like this.

For a 16 pointed star, add one more fold.

Gently undo the folds and remove the strip of paper from the North pin by cutting the paper so it can be slid off without removing the pin.

Carefully re-crease the folds to make them sharper, cutting out V notches at each fold. The point of the notches should be at the centre of your strip of paper (or as close as you can get it). To help me keep track of things, I cut the notches for the equator fold on the same side of the strip as the South fold, while the other folds were notched on the other side.

Replace the strip of paper at the North pin and gently wrap the strip around to the South pin so that the paper is smooth against the ball. Place a pin in the notch in between the two to mark the equator.

Carefully rotate the paper around the North pin, placing more pins around the equator. For this mari, I placed 16 pins, while for the red mari I placed 8 pins. At this point, don't worry too much about how evenly spaced they are.

For this part, I like to use different colours in sequence to help keep track of my guidelines later. For this mari with 16 divisions, I used 4 different colours, while the one with 8 divisions only needed 2 different colours.

Now it's time to adjust the equator pins to make them evenly spaced.

Remove the strip from the North pin and attach it to any pin in the equator. Slowly wrap the strip around the equator, adjusting pins so that they are in the notches as you go along.

After the equator pins have been adjusted, return the strip to the North pole and check each pin again, adjusting as necessary to ensure they are still the right distance from the North pin.

Feel free to check and recheck the pins, adjusting as necessary, as many times as you need to. The equator pins should line up the same, whether you measure from the North or South pins, and you should be able to place the strip on any pin in the equator and wrap it around with all the pins lining up with the notches. Take the extra time to line them up to prevent problems later.

After everything is measure off, this is how your mari (with 16 divisions) should look.

Cat is optional.

After this, the guidelines will be added.

Temari - preparing the core

2011-10-30T01:22:00.001-06:00

Hello, all!

Finally, I've got some photos processed for a temari step-by-step. I still have a batch of photos to finish up, but I can at least get you started. :-)

First, a bit of background.

Temari is the name for Japanese embroidered thread balls (not to be mistaken with tamari, which you eat). The word literally means hand (te) ball (mari), and have been made and given as gifts for a thousand years!

Needless to say, the materials used to make modern temari have changed a bit, though they certainly can still be made in the traditional manner.

I am by no means an expert in making temari, but you don't have to be. Even a simple temari is a thing of beauty.

The temari I am making in these photos are meant to be hung on a Christmas tree, so there will be the extra step of adding hangers onto them at the end.

So let's get started!

The first step is preparing the core. Here's what you'll need.

Foam ball: recommended size, 3 inches. You can go with smaller (my first ones were only 2 inches), but this size is a lot easier to hang on to and work with.

Quilt batting: This can be optional, but it does add padding, which makes stitching easier, and makes them easier to wrap. Making them easier to wrap is a good thing. You won't need much. For a 3 inch ball, a piece about 6 x 9 inches should be enough.

Yarn and sewing thread in matching colours: again, the yarn can be optional. The first temari I made did not have any. It does make covering the core faster and adds padding that makes stitching easier. You won't need a lot of yarn - 1 skein will be enough to cover several balls - but you will need a lot of sewing thread. Recommend three spools of sewing thread. For the yarn, choose something that is fairly soft and pliable, but not too bulky. I'm using Bernat Satin for this one. I used a Red Heart Super Saver for another, which I found left things a bit bumpy after being wrapped in sewing thread.

Also needed; a blunt, large eyed needle, a sharp, large eyed needle and scissors.

Begin by wrapping the foam core ball with the quilt batting. First wrap around and trim off any excess length. Trim off any excess from the ends, snipping out little V's in the process, so that the ends can be covered without excess bulk or lumps and bumps.

Begin covering the batting covered core with the yarn. It's important to wrap as randomly as possible. Avoid having strands close together that are running in the same direction. Wrap the yarn quite snug, but not tightly. That will come later. Keep wrapping until the core is completely covered. You should have a good, thick layer of yarn at this point. Snip the yarn with about a foot or two for a tail.

Thread the end onto a blunt needle. Finish the end by catching the tail end around a few strands of yarn in random directions. Use this as an opportunity to anchor any strands that look like they might slight out of place. When near the end of the tail, draw your needle deeper into the layers of yarn and batting to anchor it and bury the end inside. Snip off any tail remaining.

Begin covering the yarn with sewing thread. If you've bought your thread in a large cone, you'll be working with just one strand, but if you picked up a bunch of spools, start by working with 3 strands together. It'll cover quite a bit faster this way.

Just to let you know, this is the part that seems to always take me the longest. The ball also has a tendancy to slip out of the hands and go bouncing and rolling across the room. Very frustrating! *L*

To make it easier to wrap the ball with sewing thread, I set this up so that the three spools could unwind smoothly. I've got them threaded onto an afghan hook, which I hung from my odds and ends basket. It didn't quite reach my work surface below, so it did swing a bit while I was wrapping, but this worked MUCH better than having them bouncing around on the desk.

Again, wrap snugly, but you don't have to go very tight yet.

Once the yarn is completely covered with thread, cut two of the threads and continue wrapping with just a single thread. Again, it's very important to wrap as randomly as you can. With the single thread, start wrapping tightly. Just watch not to wrap so tight the thread breaks. That's a pain in the butt. Just keep on wrapping until you can no longer see the three threads together, and the entire ball is smoothly covered.

When covered, cut your thread with a 1-2 foot tail.

This time, thread your sharp needle onto your thread, then sew the tail through a few strands at a time, back and forth all over the ball, so tack down any strands that might slip around while working, and to anchor the tail of your thread. Once again, finish by burying the end inside the padded layer of the ball.

There you go! You now have the core of your temari ready for the next step.

Class news

2011-10-28T17:58:00.000-06:00

First up, for the local folks interested in learning crochet, here is my current schedule of classes for November, at the Clareview Michaels. These dates are all on Fridays.

November 5     Discover Single Crochet     5:30-8pm
     This class is perfect for beginners who have never picked up a hook before, or who haven't crocheted in a long time and would like to start over.

November 11     Discover Tall Stitches     5:30-8pm
     Another beginner class, this is good for people who already have some knowledge of the basics and want to add some height to their stitch repertoire.

November 18     Discover Textured Stitches     3-5:30pm
     A more intermediate class, if you've already got the basics down and want to start adding interest to your projects, this is the class for you.

November 25     Discover Granny Squares     3-5:30pm
     The eternal granny square! Good for beginners who know how to do the basic stitches.

Demo Event: Warm Up America & Blankets for Canada
     I still need to confirm this date and time with the Michaels I work at, but this is an event that takes place at ALL Michaels locations.

November 6     1-3pm
     Join me for a couple of hours working up simple swatches in knit or crochet that will later be joined to make blankets and donated to charity. Donation bins will also be set up for people to drop of finished squares as they are able. More details will be added as I learn them.

I also have the classes listed above booked through February. Here is the December schedule, also all on Fridays.

December 2     Discover Single Crochet     3-5:30pm
December 9     Discover Tall Stitches         3-5:30pm
December 16   Discover Textured Stitches 5:30-8pm
December 23   Discover Granny Squares   5:30-8pm

NEW!

I just found out about these today, but there are 4 new classes available! I still need to talk to my manager about arranging these, but these are what they will be.

Discover Baby
     Techniques to make two new projects, a Hooded Textured Baby Blanket and Daisy Ring Rattle Toy, will be covered in this class.

Discover Wraps and Throws
     The techniques here will give you the skills needed to make the patterns, Discover Lace Crochet Openwork Wrap and the One Piece Granny Throw.

Discover Gifts
     The project for this class is a handy tote bag.

Discover Time for Crochet
     This is an open ended class! Anyone who is having troubles with techniques from previous classes or wants any sort of assistance, this is the class for you.

I can't wait to get together with my manager and start up these classes!

Have crafts, will chat (updated)

2011-10-17T20:00:00.000-06:00

Yesterday evening a bunch of us got together for a Craft n Cat at my place. Sorta. We live in a co-op, which gives me access to a multi-purpose room I can book at any time. Lots of space, tables, chairs and even a fridge, microwave and kitchen sink. Very handy.

The only down side? Horrible lighting for pictures.

While there I worked on my first temari Christmas decoration. I'm not at all happy with the photos, so I'll try again when I ready a new base for stitching.

I was able to salvage some other photos, though. We took part in a coaster swap that I wrote about earlier. Of course we all brought projects along to work on while we had our tea and munchies. :-D

Here's one project in process. The pattern is from Baby Styles by Beehive (Book No. 117) from late 1970s or early 1980s. It's going to make a wonderful gift!

The last time I saw this cowl, it was just a narrow band of stitching! It's made with a mohair blend sock yarn, if I remember correctly. Long enough to wrap twice around the neck, light and warm!

update from the lovely maker of this cowl: "I just kind of improv'd. Cast on 300 sts, beaded the first two purled rows at every 5 sts (i think), and I did a second beaded, purled row on one edge beading every 5...carried on and on every 14th row slipped a bead on every 16th st. Finished with purled edge, beading every 5 sts. That's about it."

This set of coasters for the swap were made from a pattern found online somewhere, using Handicrafter Cotton.

These were my gift! Aren't they awesome? Instead of coasters, she made cabled cup warmers. Love the knitted cables.

update: "I got the mug cozies from a pattern on Ravelry.com, fell in love with the cabling."

This fascinating quilted coaster was finished during the Craft n Chat. I love the origami look.

I just had to get a shot of these socks in progress. Each sock has 440 beads that need to be strung before the sock is started. The maker of these is a knitting goddess who makes the most amazing socks and miniature clothing.

The spiral piece you see under the socks became this after being sewn into shape. Then, because we had a sink handy, it became ...

... this. This is after being felted by hand in the sink. I believe more felting is planned for it.

From the talented lady who made these:

"I found the idea for the quilted origami in a book titled, Fantastic Fabric Folding by Rebecca Wat (I hope that link works). Now that I've got the hang of it, I think I'll make a pillow or wall hanging. The felted knitted coaster is from a pattern I found on Ravelry: Felted Coaster."

Felting. That's something I still need to try. Both this kind and needle felting.

Add that to the list! :-D

A great afternoon

2011-10-16T11:05:00.000-06:00

Yesterday's drop-in demo was a lot of fun! It sure was a busy day, too. Not just with customers, but with other staff doing crafts. It was great!

My younger daughter accompanied me this time, and she chose to bring along the blanket she has been working on sporadically. It's one of those projects that gets set aside for in between smaller, faster projects. She's already finished a blanket done in the same manner - just double crochet worked in the round to make a rectangular shape. This one, however...

Well, check it out for yourself.

She picked up pretty much ever colourway of variegated yarn on the shelf. Some of it is Bernat Satin, some of it is chunky yarn. She's using a 4.25mm hook. In this picture, she was near the end of what she figured out to be her 20th ball of yarn (she got two balls of each colourway in the Bernat Satin, while the chunky yarns tended to be single, but much larger, balls of yarn). She started her 21st ball while we were here. It's getting pretty darn heavy! She's got a few balls of yarn left. By the time it's done, it'll be easily big enough to cover a king sized bed.

As you can imagine, she got quite a bit of attention! The response was overwhelmingly positive, which was funny considering her goal had been to make the ugliest blanket ever. *L* She also got a lot of comments about how FAST she works!

Beside us we had people working on everything from aisle-end displays to feather earrings to painted and glass etched Christmas ornaments. The staff will all be making at least one ornament for a tree that will be on display, and the decorations will eventually be sold.

No, I won't be doing a crochet ornament. Instead I'll be doing temari. It's been ages since I've made temari, and I've been wanting to get back to it again. I'll see about doing step-by-step photographs of the process this time, too.

Class update

2011-10-14T20:29:00.000-06:00

I have fallen woefully behind in my blog updates of late. It never fails that when I have something to write about, I am no where near the computer. Then when I`m at the computer, I can`t remember what I was going to write about! Thanks to some educational funding we have access to, I have been able to get a tablet. Nothing particularly high end, but it will work for a variety of things I found myself needing to do, and being able to use it for this is just bonus.

Meanwhile, I have been teaching crochet classes on Fridays. Though I have taught before, last week was my first official class with multiple students. It`s been so much fun! I have been really enjoying teaching, and it seems like my students are having fun, too. I have evaluation forms for them to fill out that will be going to my course instructor and the Craft Yarn Council, and I am humbled by how high they have rated me as an instructor.

Tomorrow I am back to do my monthly demo. It will be different, in that I was able to make it a drop in. I will be available to help out anyone who swings by with something they need help with, whether it is a stitch, a technique, help reading a pattern or whatever. If you are in Edmonton and need help with a crochet project, bring it along with you to the Clareview Michaels between 1:30 and 3:30 in the afternoon and I will be more than happy to help you figure it out.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Testing

2011-10-13T18:25:00.001-06:00

Trying out my new tablet.

On display

2011-10-06T13:13:00.000-06:00

What is that saying about best laid plans? *L*

So the still life display that I was working on was originally going to be in a frame. First, I discovered I messed up on the sizing. Yes, the two parts of the display would fit into the frame, but not both at the same time. That was a bit of a "duh" moment for me. Which is fine. The flowers in a half-vase demonstrated stitches taught in the classes, so that was going to be used. Then the frame itself got kiboshed.

The display is up now, though, and I think it turned out rather well!

Individual classes are advertised underneath, while the vase and flowers are at eye level. They have been THOROUGHLY sewn to the backing, so the parts and pieces won't go travelling, but people will still be able to touch it and examine it closely. A great job was done in putting this together within the space and display restrictions. Thanks, Ladies!!

Coasters

2011-10-06T09:00:00.000-06:00

The local crafter's group I'm part of is doing a swap, and the item this time around is a pair of coasters. We're all partnered up and can made coasters in whatever style we want, then get together to swap them out at a later date.

At first I was thinking of making coasters out of painted tile or little tile mosaics. I still like the idea, but in the end I decided to make them using my double ended hook and a front post Tunisian stitch I came up with. I've looked at different Tunisian and double ended hook stitches out there, but have not found anything quite like it. It makes me wonder if I've come up with something new.

I started off by making 4 inch squares in red and white.

At this point, there's no front or back except for the colour difference.

The pattern is similar to Tunisian Simple Stitch, except that it's worked around both vertical bars, front to back.

Working the next colour's front post Tunisian pushes the previous row to the back, making for a deep ridge and making the colours more one-sided. The result is a very thick, dense fabric. I've made a few simple squares in this stitch and have found they make great coasters and hot pads. I've entertained the thought of making a bunch of squares and sewing them together to make a small floor mat or stadium seat cushion. Because of how dense the fabric is, it becomes more difficult to work the larger it gets, so small squares are perfect.

This stitch has a lot of stretch on the bias and vertically, but has almost no stretch horizontally.

There's plenty of loops on the edges to work into for finishing. In working the edging, I did single crochet worked into the middle loops of sides.

I worked two rounds of single crochet for the edging, which also created a front and back on the coasters. This made for a fairly solid coloured block on the front, so I slip stitched around in contrasting colours to break it up a bit.

Then I slip stitched another round, working farther outside the edging than the first slip stitched round on the front, in matching colours. I felt this made the back look less obviously "the back," and makes them more reversible.

Even with the edging, there's still a lot of stretch on the bias. There's still vertical stretch, too, but the edging cuts that down a fair bit.

This gives a better view in between the raised edges, showing there the stitches were wrapped around the posts to create this effect.

I'm going to look around some more to see if this stitch is out there somewhere. If not, I'll see about posting a tutorial on how to do it. I really like this stitch and have a number of squares and rectangles done in it hanging about the house. I've got one right next to me that I use as a coaster, and it works out so well, I figured it would be great for the swap. They can take a lot of rough handling, too. The cotton can handle a lot of heat, and they're easy care, too - just toss them in the regular wash. They take a bit longer to dry, though.

I hope my swap partner likes them.

See? I fit!

2011-10-05T12:47:00.002-06:00

While doing a bit of work this morning, my younger daughter's cat decided to pay me a visit. She then decided that squeezing under the shelf would be a good thing to do.

Then she went for a nap. Well. When she wasn't batting at me every time I reached for a tool.

She's so vicious, yet so adorable while she's trying to draw blood.

Learning a new stitch

2011-10-05T09:00:00.000-06:00

Going through the second part of my crochet instructors course, I came upon a stitch I've never heard of before. The knurl stitch.

Unfortunately, the instructions were less than informative. Based on the diagrams, I figured out that a foundation row of sc needed to be done first.

I'm not sure I did it right. Here's what I've worked so far.

Here's the front.

The knurl stitch is a two row pattern, with both rows working into the same base row without turning. The first row is worked in reverse into the front loops, then the second row is worked in the usual direction in the back loops.

After going over the written instructions and the diagram, I eventually figured out that the reverse row is similar to a reverse single crochet worked into the front loops. The second row is just regular single crochet in the back loops.

Here's a loop at just how deep the ridges are, giving you a look at both sides of the ridges.

Here's what the top looks like after having worked the reverse stitch in the front loops. Here's my problem. While the diagram and instructions make it clear how to work into the front loop for the first half of the stitch, it isn't at all clear as to who the second half of the stitch is worked. If I were doing a real reverse single crochet, this would look very different. I went online and found a video demonstrating the stitch, but there are significant differences from the instructions I have.

Will have to figure this out later.

Meanwhile, here's a look at the back.

I really like how it looks on this side, actually.

Here's a closer look at the working edge. You can see the line of back loops that the next row will be worked into.

Here, I've got a couple of sc worked into the back loops.

And here's what the edge looks like after both rows in the pattern are done.

Looking at the diagram in the background, you can see that front row of reverse stitch looks rather different, but the written instructions seem to be describing what I've done here, instead. I suspect I'm doing this wrong.

If I am, however, I still like the stitch. It looks really neat and makes a very dense fabric. It seems that this is actually a stitched worked as a stand alone row, rather than an all-over pattern, but I like it this way.

Now, off to peruse some video to see what it's supposed to look like instead.

Crochet Trinket box

2011-10-04T09:00:00.000-06:00

I recently decided I needed a small box to hold odds and ends in my new work space.

So I made one. 'cause I'm like that.

I used some Bernat Handicrafter Cotton and a 5.00mm hook to make this. I didn't take photos of each step, but there's some details of the finished box.

First, the base. I started by making a sc square 20 stitches wide and 20 rows high. I worked the first row into the back bar of the foundation chain. When done, I worked one round of single crochet around all sides, working 3 sc together to turn the corners.

After the round of sc was done, I worked a round of slip stitch around the sc posts. If you click on the photo to see the larger size, you can make out the back loops of this round.

Each side panel was worked attached to the base, with the first row of sc worked into the slip stitched round. Each side is 9 rows of 20 sc. This left a single slip stitch unworked in each corner. After all four side panels were worked, I joined the sides.

The contrasting colour was attached in the unworked slip stitch. The panels were joined by inserting the hook through the edge stitch on the right hand panel, front to back. Yarn over then pull the yarn through (two loops on the hook), then inserting the hook front to back through the matching edge stitch on the left hand panel. Yarn over, pull the yarn through (three loops on the hook), then one last yarn over in between the panels, pulling the yarn through all three loops on the hook. This join was repeated up the side, then the yarn was finished off, leaving the tail loose. After all 4 corners were done, I worked the edge in sc, making sure to catch the all the tail ends from the panels as well as the contrasting yarn.

The remaining tail ends in each corner where I joined the contrasting yarn were then sewn in, and that's it. Done.

I like the technique of working the sides of something into a round of slip stitch in the base. It makes for a nice, clean edge, and I prefer it to sewing or joining finished pieces together. Working into the slip stitch is a pain, but worth it.

Serendipity

2011-09-28T21:50:00.000-06:00

This was one of those evenings where everything just seemed to fall into place.

A little while ago I found myself perusing the Meetup site, just checking out what was in the Edmonton area. There I found a knit and crochet group called the Wandering Woolies and thought, what the heck. They sound interesting. So I joined.

They meet on Wednesdays in different places around the city. Tonight it was at a location not far from where we live, and a place I had to have driven past many times, but never saw. The down side of being the driver rather than a passenger! *L* It turned out to be a fascinating place called The Carrot, and I'm definitely going back there again with the girls.

While there, I met the creator of the Wandering Woolies group, Barb, and it ended up being just the two of us. I'm good with that! As we were chatting and getting to know each other, she mentioned that someone had approached the group recently, talking about the upcoming Special Olympics, which will be held in nearby St. Albert in 2012. I thought it was a great idea and planned on getting the word out about it when I got home, since it's open to anyone who wants to make scarves and send them in.

Well, who should show up but Karen Manchak, Director of Events and Hospitality, and the person who had approached Barb about the project. She was just a great, bubbling effervescence of excitement! It was great to meet and chat with her, and find out more about the project. Barb also had 4 finished scarves for her to take as well, and I must say, they looked fabulous!

Karen was able to leave me with this poster (click on the image to see a larger, readable, size). The goal is to collect 2500 hand made scarves. From the poster:

To begin
1. Pick up your yarn in wool, wool- or acrylic- blands at a local retailer or online store.
2. Knit or crochet one or more scarves in white and a shade of blue as in our logo to a size of 7 inches wide and 6 feet long. Consider accenting with a splash of "maple leaf" red!
3. Mail or deliver with your name and address before February 1, 2012 to:
2012 Special Olympics Canada Winter Games
25 Sir Winston Churchill Avenue
St. Albera, AB T5K 2S7
And feel free to attach a note of encouragement to athletes.

Karen has been getting a lot of positive responses to this! For those who live in Edmonton, both locations of River City Yarns are willing to be depots to accept scarf donations.

It was fantastic chatting with Barb and Karen, and so funny to find out the serendipitous series of events and connections that seemed to bring all three of us together tonight. It was awesome!

Anyone interested in making a scarf or two is welcome; there are no geographical limits. If they exceed their goal of 2500 scarves, the extras will be donated to local charities in need. A worthwhile project!

Have fun!

Waiting room project

2011-09-26T15:19:00.001-06:00

So, all you crafers out there, do you have projects you bring along to work on while waiting for various things? That's one of the things I like about crochet. It's so portable!

This is my current waiting room project. A basic triangle shawl in crocodile stitch. It's taking a fairly long time since I have only been working on it while my daughter is having her guitar lesson. I am pretty happy with it so far, though have found myself cursing my choice of yarn while undoing it to correct an error. Fuzzy yarn and frogging are not a good combination.

Well, back to work. My daughter's lesson is only half an hour long.

For display - part three

2011-09-23T13:00:00.000-06:00

Part One
Part Two

For the next section of my display, I wanted to have a tree branch with leaves hanging down from one corner.

I started off with a simple sketch to decide where and when to place side branches and twigs. The thicker branch portions would be shaped in with the foundation chain, represented by the line in the middle of the branch, then the twigs would be added while working the width of the branches.

Which turned out like this. The foundation is done by working a chain, then working the back of it in single crochet. The first section of chain (follow along the top of the branch, starting from the hook) was worked the length of the main part of the branch, plus the length of the first side branch. I then worked down the other side of the first side branch in single crochet for the length I wanted, then continued working a chain for then next length of the main branch, plus the second side branch. Single crochet was then worked down the other side of the second side branch for the length I wanted. To do the tip of the branch I continued chaining to the length I wanted, then turned to work the other side in single crochet. (In the photo, the tip of the branch is curled on top of the tape measure.) I continued working single crochet into the back of the chain, past the second side branch, until I reached where I wanted to add the one last side branch. For that, I made a chain for the length I wanted, then worked single crochet along the back, then continued on with single crochet to the end.

The whole thing was a twisted, confused mass by then. I straighting it out as much as I could for the photo. Having that sketch to help me keep track of what I was doing really helped. It was very easy to get lost on where I was.

For the branch width, I worked another round of single crochet into the branch, adding twigs by making a few chains, then single crocheting down the backs to rejoin the branches. At the tips of each main branch, I did [1 slip stitch, 1 single crochet with picot, 1 slip stitch] to keep the tips pointed. When reaching the area where the inside of a side branch joined the main branch, I worked a decrease to ensure the side branches pointed towards the end of the main branch. The branch is now complete.

Time for leaves!

I decided to make leaves using the two greens I'd bought. I had considered using the yellow and orange to make fall colours, but decided they would look too much like the flowers in the vase.

Each leaf is made by working on both sides of a foundation chain, changing the heights of the stitches to create the shapes, starting with a chain the length I wanted for a leaf, plus stem. The first few stitches in single crochet make the stem, triple crochet was used for the widest part of the leaves (to reach the height of the first triple crochet, I changed up between doing a hdc first in some leaves, chaining 3 in others), then doing double, half-double and single crochet to taper to a point. The tips of the leaves, which are worked into the first stitch of the foundation chain, are [1 slip stitch, 1 sc with picot, 1 slip stitch]. The stitches on the other side mirrored the first.

For the smallest leaves, the foundation chain wasn't long enough to do only one stitch on each side per chain stitch. Instead, I did several stitches in one chain, changing up the stitches to get the shape I wanted, though I did the tips the same as for the larger leaves.

At first I had thought to sew the leaves onto the branch, but decided against it. The various parts and pieces will be pinned to a backing, and by leaving them lose, they can be adjusted and arranged to whatever is most aesthetically pleasing.

I've dropped off all the parts with my manger at the store I'm teaching at, along with some fibre fill for the vase, and showing her more or less how it was all supposed to go together. She and another co-worker were to put it all into the frame that evening, so it should be up on display already. I'll be bringing my camera when I come in for a class to get a photo of the finished result.

For display - part two

2011-09-23T01:08:00.002-06:00

Okay, here is my second attempt to finish this post. I started this a few days ago but, after technical difficulties with blogger, I lost almost the whole thing and haven't been able to get back to it since!

After finishing the vase for my display, it was time to make some flowers to fill it.

First up were the leaves. I wanted a long tapered shape, and these are about as simple as it gets. I used the Impeccable yarn with a 5.00mm hook.

These are started with chains of varying lengths for the foundation, worked on both sides. The start of the foundation chain is in the tips of each leaf. To get the tapered shape I started with double crochet stitches, then half-double, then single. In the final stitch (the first chain of the foundation) I did [1 slip stitch, 1 single crochet with a picot, 1 slip stitch]. The stitches on the other side of the leaf mirrored the first side.

Next up, the stems. These were a bit of a pain!

These were done in the round to make long tubes, but they're only 5 stitches around. I started them by working 2 single crochet, then working 5 single crochet into the second stitch from the hook. From there, I worked in a spiral in the front loops only. The first couple of rounds are rather awkward to do, but once past that first bit, the rest went rather smoothly.

Next up, the centres.

Here you can see the two stages of the centres. I started with a ring of 5 ch and worked 10 double crochet around it, making sure to catch the tail end in the stitches. After slip stitching the round of dc closed, I pulled on the beginning tail to close up the ring. I sewed in the end of the yarn, but left the beginning tail in case I needed it for later.

To make the two rounds of foundation loops for the petals, rejoin the yarn around the post of one of the dc stitches, from the back, then a sc around the same post (back post single crochet - bpsc). Chain 3 for the loop, skip the next dc, then work a bpsc around the second dc from the start. I kept working that pattern to make five 3 chain loops, finishing by slip stitching into the first bpsc. Chain 1, then bpsc around the first skipped dc. Chain 4 for the loop, then bpsc into the next skipped dc. Continue around, finishing with five 4 chain loops, slip stitching into the first bpsc. After cutting the yarn, I secured the ends but left them long for later sewing.

I wasn't able to get photos of the in between stages of working the petals. I had originally intended to make the petals the same was as in the thread crochet flowers I'd made for a friend. I changed my mind because those used a technique not covered in the classes. Instead, I made shells for each petal.

As you can see in the photo, I also added a third later of petals in the back.

To start, the new colour was joined around a chain 3 loop. Each petal in the front layer is made up of [1sc, 1hdc, 1dc, 1 hdc, 1sc] around each 3 chain loop, finishing with a slip stitch into the first sc. Two chains were made to reach the next layer of loops. Those were made with [1 sc, 1 hdc, 3 dc, 1 hdc, 1 sc] around each 4 chain loop, finishing with a slip stitch into the first sc.

The next step was to make a new round of foundation loops for the third later of petals. After chaining 2 to reach, a bpsc was worked around the same dc post as the first layer of foundation loops. Ch 5 for the loop, then bpsc around the next dc that was worked in the first round. This pattern was continued until 5 loops were made, then finished with a slip stitch into the first bpsc, making sure the chain 2 was tucked under to hide it.

You can see where the stitches were worked somewhat better from behind.

For the petals, each loop had [1 sc, 1 hdc, 2 dc, 2 tdc, 2 dc, 1 hdc, 1 sc] worked around the 5 chain loop, slip stitching to finish, then the yarn ends were sewn in to finish. Adding this third layer of petals made the flower size much more proportionate to the stems.

Using the tail ends from the flower centres, the stems were sewn into place. I made sure to sew into loops on the underside of the stems, so that the stitches would be hidden. The yarn ends were then finished by sewing them into the flower centres.

Next step, adding some leaves.

Using the yarn ends from the stems, I sewed a leaf to each stem, catching loops on the underside of the stem to hide the stitches. I only attached the leaves for 2-3 inches, allowing most of the leaves to hang free. In this photo you can see the front, side and back views of the stitched areas.

The finished flowers!

Here, I'm just checking out how they fit in the vase, along with the remaining leaves. Fibre fill will be stuffed into the vase to help it hold its shape, as well as keeping the flowers and leaf ends in place.

Next section: a branch with leaves.

For display - part one

2011-09-18T17:08:00.002-06:00

One of the staff at the Clareview Michaels had the idea of getting all the class instructors to make a display to promote our classes. They will be framed and put up in the appropriate sections of the store. The space we'll have to fill is 11x14, minus a 4 inch square which she will use to put in text about the classes.

My first thought had been to do a flat display featuring the stitches taught in the classes. It occurred to me, however, that while these will be framed, they aren't going to have any glass. Which meant I could go with something three dimensional.

I decided to go with a "still life" idea, using stitches and techniques that students will learn if they've taken all four classes.

I started off with a general idea of colours and textures, then spent some time in the yarn section. This is what I came home with.

The skeins on the bottom are all Loops & Threads, Impeccable, Worsted. For the Bernat Handicrafter Cotton, I ended up going with just two colours, but I will be using all of the Impeccable colours.

Next, it was time to do some sketching.

The pencil is a little hard to see here. The big X was to find the centre, while the box just above the centre is where the information would be. I figured a vase done in the Handicrafter Cotton would be good to show off how structural crochet can be, as well as show off some of the textured stitches covered in one of the classes. From the vase would be some flowers and long leaves, using the light green for the leaves and stems, burnt orange for the flower centres and pale yellow for the petals. On the other side, hanging down, will be a branch in brown with leaves in the darker green, though I am considering using the yellow and burnt orange as well to make fall foliage.

Next, I wanted to work out more details for the vase and flowers. I changed the flower petal shapes from what's in my sketch, as that would have used techniques not covered in the classes. Since all of this is going to be pinned onto a backing, I wanted to have the vase flat on one side, which meant I would actually be making half a vase, vertically.

I started with the vase base by making a semi-circle in single crochet, then finishing the flat side with single crochet to tidy it up. The "right side" of the semi-circle would be facing down, where it will be visible. The rest of the vase is worked from the "wrong side" of this piece.

To keep a sharp turn between the vase and the sides, I made a foundation of slip stitches on the wrong side of the semi-circle, worked under the single crochet loops. This photo is of the right side of the base, and you can see where the yarn is wrapped around each single crochet. For some reason, I never got a photo fo the wrong side, showing the slip stitches. Oops.

The first round of the vase's sides was worked through the loops of the slip stitches, leaving a crisp edge of single crochet loops facing out from the base.

Here's the inside view of that first round.

As I built up the sides in single crochet, I worked increases on the curved side, spacing them in different places in each round so that I would not have increases worked one above the other. I still kept the increases closer to the flat back, where possible, so that they would be less visible. I changed colours after about 2 inches, dropping the first colour without finishing off the yarn. I did not do any increases in the new colour.

After the 1 round of single crochet in the new colour, I worked a round doing double crochet in the back, then popcorn stitches separated by two double crochet around the front. I did one more round of single crochet before changing back to the first colour, again just dropping the second colour without finishing it.

I hadn't made much effort to count stitches when I was doing the increases, so it wasn't until I switched back to the first colour and did a single round of single crochet that I stopped to count. I found I had 32 stitches, which is perfect for this shell pattern using 5 double crochet shells separated by a single crochet. I did two rounds of shell stitch, then another round of single crochet, then changed colours again.

Then it was another group of 1 round in single crochet, 1 round with popcorn stitch and 1 last round of single crochet. This time, when I changed colours, I did finish off the yarn in the second colour and hid the yarn end under the next round in the first colour.

Here's an inside view before continuing on. None of this will be visible in the display. The rest of the vase was done in single crochet only.

Using the first colour, the next few rounds had evenly spaced decreases added to the curved front of the vase to close it up until it was about the same size as the base. One round was done without any increases or decreases, then I started adding increases again to create the flare. Finally, one last round was done in the second colour.

The shape is a bit wonky from handling, but it seems to have worked out rather well! When it comes time to mount the vase, the flowers stems and leaves will be filling it, along with enough fibre fill to maintain its shape. The smaller hook size (I used a 3.75mm hook) makes for a stronger structure, but it'll still need a bit of help to keep it from getting squished.

Next up, the flowers.

Space

2011-09-14T23:02:00.004-06:00

Well, I finally had to break down and do it. I had to do some furniture rearranging and partial dismantling and set myself up a work space for my crochet. Upstairs. Due to permanent damage to my knees and feet, I tend to avoid the stairs as much as possible, but I really needed to get a dedicated space set up. There's just too much noise and traffic downstairs.

This meant clearing out the old computer desk, including what used to be the girls' computer. There had been some problems with it that we've never got around to trying to figure out how to fix. I don't think anyone has touched it in at least 6 months. After all that time sitting and collecting dust, I finally moved it out. There's a space at the end of our hallway between the wall to one bedroom and a support pillar. The desk was always too wide to fit into that space, since it had a small shelf on one side to hold a tower. With no computer to put there, I simply took the shelf off, and now it fits perfectly. There was a bunch of other stuff to move as well, and a while bunch of dusting.

There's still a bit of work to do in the area, but I took the time to set up and work on a project to make sure the space was suitable. I think it'll work out fine. I will be able to bring up more of my supplies later, it's a good height to work at, I have good light to work under, and I have some space I can take photos in, too. Lighting for photography isn't very good, but I can work that out in time. The chair isn't the most comfortable, but it'll do for now.

The most important thing is that I now have a space I can keep my course and various projects on the go and not have to tuck things aside or worry about them getting knocked about. Unless the cats jump unto the desk, of course. They both seem to like the new space, too. While setting it up, I kept having to move the younger one out of way, and she kept climbing into the lower shelves. When I was working, I found both cats hanging around, keeping me company. They like being nearby while I work.

I'll be having more photos to post soon. I'm working on a display that will be used to promote my classes, and I'll be doing a step-by-step of the process.

So far, I'm liking how it's working out.

Wee One

2011-09-14T12:57:00.000-06:00

My younger daughter loves to crochet cute things, so it was no surprise to see her pick up a copy of Super-super Cute Crochet, by Brigitte Read. I have been visiting the author's blog for a while now, and enjoyed her work.

My older daughter loves cute crochet things, but not actually doing crochet. Not her thing. Instead, she gets her sister to make things for her. Watching the two of them going squee after the designs in this book is hilarious.

The design they settled on was the Owls pattern. Of course, being their mother's daughters, no pattern goes without modification! The pattern recommended using DK/light worsted yarn and a 3.5mm hook. Well, the hook stayed the same, but after going through a stash of novelty yarn, they settled on rainbow coloured fun fur type yarn. No labels in sight (it may have come from the ReUse Centre, for all I can remember), so I can't say exactly what it is.

This is the result.

While being worked, the long strands tended to remain on the wrong side of the stitches, so when it was ready for stuffing, my daughter flipped it inside out for finishing. Her sister added brads for the eyes (we need to get a supply of safety eyes!). That beak? That's actually a clump of the fun fur that got caught up while the opening was sewn shut. Fortuitous.

The guardian of wee little owls approves of this.

An awesome afternoon!

2011-09-10T17:24:00.002-06:00

It was a fun afternoon at the Micheals today! I got to meet and chat with all sorts of great people. I managed to get a co-worker to grab this shot before I finished setting up my display. Having that take a long time because people were stopping to ask questions and sign up for classes is a good problem to have!

As I write this, the stores are still open, so there's still time to register for any of the available classes at half price.

I got a lot of questions from people wondering which class to take, so here's a few thoughts.

Of the four crochet classes offered, you can take as many or as few as you want. There is no required order to take them, however if you are new to crochet or haven't picked up a hook in a long time, I would recommend taking the Discover Single Crochet class first. In this class, we'll cover the basics. Get what's covered in this class down, and you've got a good foundation for any of the other classes. Meanwhile, single crochet alone is a great stitch for a wide variety of projects. Just in my photo here, there are several projects done using the basics covered in the Discover Single Crochet class.

If you've had a chance to take the Discover Single Crochet class, or already have some familiarity with crochet, you can go on to any of the other three classes. There's always a brief review of stitches at the start to get you going. Discover the Tall Stitches would be a good first choice if you're still kind of new and want to keep things basic. Discover Textured Stitches and Discover Granny Squares are good if you're more confident in your skills and have worked with some of the taller stitches before.

Each class offers two projects to choose from to work on and get some practise in. They also make great gift ideas! Once you've learned the stitches and techniques offered in these for courses, you'll be able to do a remarkable range of projects, or even come up with your own patterns.

Whichever class you decide is right for you, I'm sure you'll enjoy picking up on the skills and using them for the amazing variety of things that can be done with crochet!

Meet the instructor

2011-09-10T13:16:00.001-06:00

Setting up my display at the Clareview Michaels for meet the instructor day. Already signing students up for November! Remember, sign up for a class today for half the registration cost.

Upcoming events and class schedule

2011-09-09T20:34:00.003-06:00

First, a couple of upcoming events to tell you about.

Saturday, Sept. 10: Michaels' Open House event.
     Meet the instructors for all Michaels available classes from 1-3pm
     Register for any class throughout the day for 50% off the regular registration cost of (crochet classes are regularly priced at $25).

If you are in the Edmonton, AB area, I will be doing a demo and answering questions at the Clareview Michaels. Come on over and say hello!

Sunday, Nov. 6: Warm Up America Demo Event
     From 1-3pm, Discover Knit and Crochet instructors will be doing swatches for Warm Up America. More details nearer the date.

Also, my class schedule is now extended through to the end of December. You can see September and October classes here.

November, all on Fridays

4th - Discover Single Crochet - 5:30pm - 8:00pm
11th - Discover Tall Stitches - 5:30pm - 8:00pm
18th - Discover Textured Stitches - 3:00pm - 5:30pm
25th - Discover Granny Squares - 3:00pm - 5:30pm

December, all on Fridays

2nd - Discover Single Crochet - 3:00pm - 5:30pm
9th - Discover Tall Stitches - 3:00pm - 5:30pm
16th - Discover Textured Stitches - 5:30pm - 8:00pm
23rd - Discover Granny Squares - 5:30pm - 8:00pm

Remember - sign up for any of these classes on September 10 and get 50% off the registration price!

See you there!

Little pieces of history, part eight

2011-09-08T08:00:00.000-06:00

This is the last piece in my series of fancywork that I inherited.

This piece is actually from Poland, and I have no idea as to its original source. My mother explained to me that these were traditionally made to hang on walls. You can see that this one spent some time on a wall somewhere, long enough to develop dots of rust from whatever was used to tack it up.

The central design is free style cross stitch with a bit of stem stitch for the arms and legs, and stem stitch and straight stitch for the facial details. Including the border, it measures about 29" x 21 3/4"

The border is a long strip of bobbin lace that has been back stitched to the hem. You can see how it was folded to turn the corners in the above photo. In one corner, there is a bit of repair to the back stitch - in a brown thread!

Aside from the dots of rust and a bit of wear, the embroidered cloth is in pretty good shape. The lace, unfortunately, has quite a lot of damage.

Personally, I find the design rather unattractive, and the skill it was worked in isn't very good. The cross stitches are quite uneven, with some looking more like V's and Y's than X's. At the back, you can see knots were tied at the start of the threads, while a lot of the ends don't seem to have been anchored at all. I'm rather surprised they haven't come lose at the front, but I guess being a decorative wall hanging rather than something that saw use, like a table cloth, has saved it.

Though I don't particularly like it, I find it an interesting piece and imagine that whoever stitched it must still have been pretty proud to have it decorating their wall.

Little pieces of history, part seven

2011-09-07T08:00:00.000-06:00

Just a couple of pieces left in the series of fancywork I've inherited. Here, I have another thread crochet piece from my late great-aunt.

I actually hadn't noticed that it was made with two different blues until I'd uploaded the photos! It's a lot less obvious in person.

This is a small table cloth made out of square motifs joined together with a chain mesh. It's 6 squares by 7 squares, with a narrow border, and measures about 42" x 36".

I love how the square motifs together create a secondary diamond pattern.

Here's a closer look at one of the corner squares. The squares are basically filet crochet worked in the round.

Like the filet crochet runner I wrote about last time, this piece is in fantastic condition. There is no damage of any kind that I can find. There are a few loose threads visible on the back, where the sewn in tail ends have worked themselves loose. It's remarkably soft and has an amazing drape to it. I actually had a hard time using the piano bench to take the photos, as it kept slithering off the edge. *L*

This is another of my favorite pieces.

Little pieces of history, part six

2011-09-06T17:27:00.000-06:00

Here we have another fantastic piece from my prolific and highly skilled great aunt.

This filet crochet runner is about 2 feet 10 inches long and about 15 inches wide. The rose motif you see here is mirrored in the other half.

The simple edging matches the filet mesh very well.

I've looked over this piece thoroughly and there isn't a bit of damage of any kind on it. It's in superb condition! I know the piece must be quite old, but with the excellent condition and unfaded colour, it looks like it could have been finished last week! I might want to give it a gentle cleaning and re-block it, just to straighten out the edges, but that's about it.

Little pieces of history, part five

2011-09-05T00:36:00.001-06:00

I've got just a few pieces of fancywork to feature in this series. This time, a ruffle edged doily.

This is another piece of thread crochet from my great aunt. It had been starched and the ruffled edges are still quite stiffened. It seems to have been packed away rather poorly over the years. While the centre motif is in very good condition, with only a few stray wisps of thread coming loose where it appears a new thread had been started and the ends sewn in, the edging has quite a bit of damage. Especially the white portion. I would love to give this a thorough cleaning and get the starch out, but I don't know what would have been used. Who knows how long ago it was starched in the first place? About the only thing I can say for sure is that it was NOT stiffened with sugar.

Whatever it was, it gives the white threads an almost translucent quality. I'm afraid that cleaning it might actually damage it even more. There's no chance of repairing it, if it can be repaired at all, until the starch is removed.

I wonder if I should contact our local museum and see if there's someone there who can advise me. They don't have a lot of stuff like this (their displays are mostly bead and leatherwork), but it wouldn't hurt to ask. Or perhaps the Crochet Guild of America could give me some pointers.

Hmmm...

My husband is awesome.

2011-09-03T16:51:00.000-06:00

I am just a lucky woman! I have such a sweetheart for a husband.

In working with the new rosewood needles he bought for himself, he discovered that... well, his hands sweat. When they start sweating, that affects the wood. So he decided to get himself a second set of needles so that he could switch between them, letting one pair dry while working with the second pair.

So off we went today to River City Yarns to see what they had. At first he didn't see the rosewood needles and he was going to get a birch pair, but when he found the size he was after in rosewood, he got those instead. They're quite a bit longer than his first pair, but that's okay. As long as they're the same size (he's using 5.50mm). I think the birch would have been lovely, too. He did 10 inches of scarf yesterday and is now at 20 inches. He's really loving the wooden needles. Much nicer to work with than the plastic and metal ones we already had. (Earlier today we were sitting in a coffee shop, him with his needles, me with my hook. Some guy ended up sitting with us as we chatted about sharing knowledge of crafts and skills. It was great!)

While at River City Yarns, we looked at quite a few other things. Including yarn that my younger daughter described as feeling like kittens. Soooo soft!!

Looking through the tools, I was thrilled when I asked about hairpin lace tools and they actually had some!

I am now the proud owner of a Prim Universal Netting Fork. The woman at the shop told me that hairpin lace tools are very hard to come by, so when she finds them, she takes what she can!

The packaging opens up and gives some pretty decent instructions. This is the only tool I was missing for my course, so I'm pretty happy. If that was all I got today, I would have been quite pleased.

Then after paying, my darling husband shooed me and our daughter away so he could buy what he was hiding behind his back.

Uh oh... ;-D

While waiting in the hall, I was actually able to guess what he bought. You see, in the process of helping someone else, one of the staff opened up a kit that really caught my attention. I told my husband that this was what I wanted for Christmas. I could have happily waited that long, but he's a generous sort, and this is what he bought me.

This is a set of Denise Interchangeable Crochet Hooks. It's got 12 heads, 7 cords, 2 extenders and 4 end buttons.

First awesome thing about this kit. The hooks can fit on either end of the cords. There are no duplicate hook sizes, but spares can be purchases separately. This gives me the option for a flexible double ended hook, which is something I was wanting. Also...

See this? See the openings at the ends?

Yup. I can thread cord through those and turn them into knooks!! Though I think I could actually just use the cords in the kit, and not add an end button.

Which means that, in one kit, I now have not only several tools I was wanting - flexible Tunisian hook, flexible double ended hook and a knook - but I have them in a selection of 12 sizes.

I am so thrilled!!!! I can't wait to get started with them. I must resist, though. After I'm finished my course, then I can start playing!

Though I will be able to use some of these for my course later one. :-D

Did I mention I have an awesome husband? Let me say it again.

My husband is awesome.
:-D

Oh, and...

Cat.

Just because.

For his birthday.

2011-09-02T18:55:00.000-06:00

One of our birthday traditions is that the birthday person gets to choose any restaurant they'd like to go to for their birthday dinner. Today is my husband's birthday, and he chose to go to The Keg. We haven't been there in ages. Which might be why we forgot that the place doesn't open until 4 pm.

Wanting to miss the supper crowd, we took my husband there straight from work, finding ourselves with more than an hour before the doors opened. No problem. There's a Michaels nearby!

What does my husband get himself for his birthday? A gorgeous pair of 5.50mm rosewood knitting needles, and two skeins of Bernat Mosaic in Calypso. It's been a while since he's knitted, and he wanted to pick it up again. I had been to the Michaels I teach at earlier, picking up a couple more balls of yarn that were still in the van. They were out of stock for the hook side I wanted to buy a spare of. We found one at this location. Sweetheart that he is, he bought me a Soft Touch crochet hook.

We still had lots of time before the restaurant opened. So what did we do?

Start knitting and crocheting in the van, of course.

Our daughter was kind enough to take a cell phone picture of us.

Are we addicted, or what? LOL

Almost there.

2011-09-02T16:22:00.001-06:00

I have officially completed all the swatches and samples for the first level of my Crochet Instructors course. I just need to finish the written portion, then I can send it out for evaluation.

Little pieces of history, part four

2011-08-25T15:10:00.004-06:00

I've fallen behind on blogging about the wonderful pieces of fancywork I inherited.

I think this next piece is my favourite of them all. A gorgeous round tablecloth, just over 2 feet across, not counting the crocheted edging.

This is another piece from my great aunt. The fabric is thick and densely wove, and looks to be cotton. I got a little surprise when I examined it more closely for this post. A distictive numerical stamp on the back. I do believe this used to be some sort of sack! A flour or sugar sack, perhaps.

Here's a detail of the repeated floral motive. It is done in embroidery floss using satin stitch, stem stitch and French knots. The black marks that you see on the bottom are from what looks to be other numbers on the back, written in marker, that extend beyound the hem. The fabric was definitely repurprosed.

I just love this thread crochet border! There is some minor damage to a couple of lengths of chain that I have found, and a couple of dots of what looks to be rust, but aside from that, this piece is in suprisingly good condition. Very sturdy. I'm pretty sure I can fix the damage to the crochet myself, too, in such a way that it would not be noticable anymore. I just have to make sure I can match the thread, first.

The hem is something I find really remarkable about this piece. As you can see from the photo above, it has two rounds of machine stitch. Hemming something round is always a challange, so I'm impressed with how neat it is right from the start.

It's the back of the hem that has me fascinated! Looking at it, there's a bit more concern about the condition of the piece, and it will need gentle care.

The crochet edging was actually worked directly onto the fabric. It looks like a circle of single crochet was worked around the edge of the circle first, encasing about a quarter inch of fabric, but worked so that the top of the stitches faced *into* the work, instead of out. At least one more round of single crochet was worked after that, then there's a ring of double crochet worked around the edge, serving as the foundation for the rest of the edging, which is worked in rows.

The foundation portion of the edging is fastened down with basting stitches, the edge is folded under for the hem, then machine sewn, creating the hem and turning the crochet foundation to the outside of the piece at the same time. The very first round of single crochet is completely hidden in the back. This is the part that is showing some wear. You can see the loose ends of the weave through the crochet thread, and in a couple of places they've worked themselves out of the loops around them, leaving empty crochet stitches hanging around. Of the two rounds of machine stitch, the inside one used to just catch the edge of the hem, but as the ends worked themselves loose, very little of it is still attached. It's the outer ring of machine stitching that is holding the hem in place.

I can't tell if the edging was completed before or after the hem was turned and sewn. I would guess after, or the pulling on the fabric would have yanked the crochet foundation right out of the weave. Unless the fabric was cut *after* the crochet was worked. That's certainly possible. I would love to have seen it being worked.

It's a remarkable piece, and I just love it!

Lion Brand looking for quest bloggers

2011-08-25T15:08:00.001-06:00

Do you have a yarn craft related blog? You might want to check out Lion Brand's Invitation to Guest Bloggers. :-)

What I've been doing

2011-08-22T14:28:00.004-06:00

It's been a while since I've posted here, so I thought I'd do an update on what I've been doing.

Swatches.

Lots and lots of swatches.

These are for the crochet instructor's course I'm working on. There are several parts that I have to work with. A Teacher's Handbook (not pictured), the course binder and the lessons, which you can just see under the yellow and pink swatches on the left. I've been trying to stick to the same type of yarn and range of colours, unless something is specified, to keep it cohesive looking. That's just my own thing. Plus, since I'm doing this as a Michael's instructor, I am sticking to yarns I get from Michaels.

Throughout the course book, there are a number for Teacher Samples to make up. Those are the ones you see on the right. Following the patterns and instructions in the book, a lot of them are quite small; about 4 inches square, maybe.

Then I have to do the same stitches for my lessons. These require re-calculating the gauge to make 5 inch swatches (though with some diamond shapes, the 5 inches refers to the widest row). With 5 inch swatches, I am them supposed to give the gauge for 1 inch, in stitches and rows. I've been able to switch up hook sizes for most of them to get a nice round number in that 1 inch, but for some patterns, it's just not possible. That shell stitch, for example, starts with a chain in multiples of 6 + 1. Counting the turning chain, the pattern always works up to an odd number of stitches in each row. I can figure out how to make it a 5 inch swatch easily enough, the total number of stitches in each row will never work out to be divisible by 5. That means the gauge works out to include fractions of stitches, no matter what. :-P If I were writing a pattern and needed to give the gauge, I would never break it down to 1", but use whatever number of stitches works out into a round number. If I were to look at a pattern for something I wanted to make and saw a gauge of "3.6 dc = 1 inch" I wouldn't buy the thing.

This is just partway into lesson three for the first level. After taking this shot, however, I discovered a mistake I made with the shell stitch swatch you can see in pink. I'd accidentally read the wrong line and used worsted weight instead of sport weight. I caught it when working on the next sample, which was the one that is supposed to be done in worsted weight. I've reworked it since.

I don't really like doing swatches. They are very important for gauge if you're doing something fitted. They are great for practising stitch patterns. They are not a step to skip. I still don't like doing them. My problem with them has more to do with my frugality. *L* They seem like so much wasted yarn! When doing swatches for a project, I'll make up the swatch, without cutting and finishing off the yarn. Then I'll figure out any adjustments I may need to do to get the right gauge, then undo the swatch and use the yarn in my project. I look at my pile of watches and, while I'm quite pleased with how they look, I can't help but wince. I tell myself that they will remain useful as references later, so it's not really wasted yarn. Especially the teaching aids.

Eventually, I'll believe myself. ;-)

Thread crochet flowers

2011-08-15T16:57:00.004-06:00

Well, it's official. I am obessed with crochet. I am now doing it in my sleep! *L*

The day before I was to visit a friend in the hospital, I was thinking about how I wanted to bring her something to cheer her up. Brightly coloured flowers came to mind - flowers that would never wilt!

The next morning, I woke and found I'd worked out a completely different way to do flowers than I usually do! LOL I ended up visiting her a lot earlier than originally planned, so I ended up finishing these two off while I was there.

I started off with a centre much like I usually do. A bunch of hdc were worked around a chain ring. In these, the ring was 6 ch with 12 hdc. Then I made the loops to work the petals into by doing a front post sc around an hdc, 3 ch, skip 1 hdc. The next round was exactly the same, but worked into the skipped hdc.

The petals were what I changed completely. Usually I work shell stitches into the loops. This time, each petal is worked by doing several foundation dc, 3 dc at the top, then dc into the bases of the foundation dc. Each petal is anchored by slip stitching into the sc in between each loop.

The leaves were also done in the same way as the petals, controlling the width of the leaves by changing the height of the stitches, and throwing a picot in to make a more defined tip. I'll have to write up detailed instructions later on, but I'm still tweaking.

After securing the ends and sewing the leaves onto the backs of the flowers, I left the long ends so that my friend could use them to fasten them to something, if she chooses.

I tweaked the design a bit more to make this flower.

This Black Eyed Susan was done with dc instead of hdc in the centre, and I worked the petals more like the leaves in the earlier flowers, changing up the front and back petal lengths and widths, as well as adding picots to the tips for definition. That cat hair is just an extra bonus. :-/ LOL I'm really happy with these, and plan to make many more. I don't expect to tweak things much beyond this particular flower.

The red, white and yellow threads used for these are from the stash I inherited from my great-aunt, while the hook I used is from a set given to me by the friend I was visiting in the hospital.

It's little details like this that make hand crafted projects so special! Even the smallest of things can have big stories behind them.

Learning Crocodile Stitch

2011-08-15T16:31:00.003-06:00

Not too long ago, I saw some new items on Ravelry that featured crocodile stitch. They looked awesome, and I really wanted to figure out how to do it. Every time I sat down to learn it, though, something would come up and interrupt. Isn't that always the way? *L*

Well today, I was finally able to do it! I got a chance to sit down with hook and yarn and watch this video.

Here is what I made while watching this.

A front view of the 7 rows I've worked so far.

And here's the view I kept wanting to see every time I saw something done in this stitch - the back! It finally makes complete sense to me.

If you look at the top row in my photos, you can see an alternating pattern of 1 dc, then 2 dc in the same space. These are each seperated by 1 ch (in the foundation row, there are 2 ch in between). The scales are worked around each pair of dc. 5 dc are worked around the post of the first one, then back up the post of the second one. The scale is then anchored by doing a slip stitch around the post of the lone dc. In the next row, the lone dc is worked into the space of the scale, while the pair of dc's are worked into the top of the lone dc that had been slip stitched around. Every even numbered row, which makes the scales, is worked on top of every odd numbered row. It makes for a very interesting effect! Once I've got a bit more practise, I plan to work something up using a much finer yarn. I'm already thinking of ways to modify it, too!

I think I'm going to really enjoy this stitch!

Experimenting with a new yarn.

2011-08-15T15:33:00.003-06:00

Michaels has brought in a whole bunch new yarns that have caught my attention. This in particular.

This is Red Heart Boutique Doodle yarn. It's a 100% polyester yarn that's listed as 6/Super Bulky, with a recommended hook size of Q/16mm or needle size of 50US/25mm. It's the thickest, squishiest yarn I've ever seen! Very soft feel to it, too.

The sample at the display, however, was very disappointing. It's just a length of the yarn, braided. So I went looking at the free patterns available at Red Heart for this yarn.

More disappoint. I can't believe the folks at Red Heart couldn't come up with something more creative. I kept going back to the display, wondering what I would make with such a soft, squishy and bulky yarn.

Perhaps I'm showing my age, but the idea that kept popping into my mind was a butt pillow. *L* There have been a few times recently where I really would have liked having some sort of cushion I could use to sit on, such as during Taste of Edmonton, when what few seats were available were quite wet from the rain.

So I finally forked over the cash and got the two hanks pictured above.

After some thought, I decided to do the equivalent of double ended crochet. I dug up a piece of dowling to serve as a double ended hook. Here is my first attempt.

I started off by hand chaining 7 stitches. I picked up the loops through the back bars of the chains, placing them on the dowling. The dowling serves only to hold the loops and nothing else. Tension was all maintained by hand.

After turning the work and pushing the loops to the other end, the new colour was pulled through the loops...

Then the new loops were drawn up the same way as Tunisian Simple Stitch.

The whole thing was turned and the loops pushed to the opposite end of the dowling to pick up the first colour again.

Here the first colour has been drawn through the loops.

Then the new loops were picked up again.

Working with the dowling was all right except that it wasn't as smooth as it should have been, making sliding the loops from one end to the other less than idea. Here is how it looked at the end.

Here's one side, before I wove the loose ends in.

I had more of the lighter coloured yarn left, so I hand chained it to make a carrying loop before tucking the end in.

Here's how the other side looked.

I was no happy with this. As the work progressed and I got more used to handling the yarn and loops, my tension changed a fair bit. The last rows were quite a bit tighter and denser, and I found I preferred it. I also didn't like the dimensions very much. So I undid it and started over.

Here's the finished result.

For this, I worked with 10 stitches, but made everything a lot tighter, making the resulting butt cushion smaller than thicker. I ended up with two fairly long ends, so I hand chained them and tied them together to make a handle.

That's when I discovered a problem with the yarn. The yarn is made up of short lengths of fibres caught in a twisted core. Some of them came loose as I was tying the ends of the two colours together. The next thing I knew, tufts of colour was bursting loose in my hand. I ended up taking the small lengths of yarn that had tied the hanks together to tie around the ends to stop it, but those started coming apart, too. It seems stable now, but I'm now afraid the knot will simply disintergrate at any moment!

Aside from this, however, I consider the project a success. I still ended up with the last rows looking narrower than the first rows, but I don't think much can be done about that.

It is also a very comfortable butt pillow! *L*

Demo and class schedule

2011-08-10T20:36:00.003-06:00

For those in Edmonton, here's my demo and class schedule at the Clareview Michaels for the next while.

For August, 2011
Friday the 12th: demo, 1:30-3_30pm
Wednesday the 17th: Discover Textured Stitches, 6:00 - 8:30pm
Thursday the 25th: Discover Granny Squares, 4:00-6:30pm

For September, 2011
Friday the 9th: Discover Single Crochet, 1:30-4:00pm
Saturday the 10th: Meet the Instructor, 1:00-3:00pm (meet all the Clareview Michaels instructors)
Friday the 16th: Discover the Tall Stitches, 1:30-4:00pm
Friday the 23rd: Discover Textured Stitches, 4:00-6:30pm
Friday the 30th: Discover Granny Squares, 4:00-6:30pm

For October, 2011
Friday the 7th: Discover Single Crochet, 4:00-6:30pm
Friday the 14th: Discover Tall Stitches, 4:00-6:30pm
Friday the 21st: Discover Textured Stitches, 1:30-4:00pm
Friday the 28th: Discover Granny Squares, 1:30-4:00pm
demo not yet scheduled

I hope to see some of you there! :-)

Little pieces of history, part three

2011-07-25T00:34:00.002-06:00

Here's another piece of fancywork that was passed on to me. Unfortunately, I don't know a lot about the background of this piece.

(click on the images to be taken to my flickr page for larger images)

This tiny hankerchief has seen better days, I'm afraid. It's got a fair amount of damage and is quite fragile.

I added my gauge ruler so you can get an idea of how small it is. The border appears to be done in bobbin lace. The corners are worked into the lace pattern, not folded and turned, with a seam at one corner. Even with the damage, it's pretty remarkable work.

The embroidery is drawn thread work, with woven wheels done at the junctions.

With the fabric as thin and flimsy as it is, coupled with the damage, I have no way of judging how well done the original embroidery was.

I'm not sure how to handle this piece. I don't want it to get any more damaged. It might be worth searching out some specialists and find out.

In progress.

2011-07-17T10:29:00.000-06:00

At the Whyte Ave. Art Walk. Artists are required to be working on something while at their booths. This is a new piece my daughter is working on.

Little pieces of history, part two

2011-07-12T17:38:00.005-06:00

Here's another post featuring various items that my mother passed on to me during a recent trip out.

This next piece is a large, rectangular tablecloth. I don't know the exact dimensions, but it would easily cover a table large enough to seat six.

This piece was actually stitched by my cousin and godmother; the woman who inspired me to become a crafter with her gorgeous embroidered gifts I still treasure.

The piece is done with cotton embroidery floss on cotton or cotton blend cloth. The scalloped edge intrigues me. Usually, I see edges like this done in buttonhole stitch, with the design stitched inside the outer edge of the fabric, then the excess cut away, in the same matter as cutwork embroidery. The edging is not buttonhole stitch, however. It's looks like satin stitch worked around the edge. I can't see and won't be moving the threads around to look, but the outer curve of the scallops feel like they have been padded. That would certainly keep the edge stronger. What I can't tell is if the embroidered edge was stitched before or after the scalloped edge was cut. I will have to ask my cousin about it.

The middle of the cloth is framed with this stitched rectangle. The straight lines are done in a small, dense chain stitch. The two vertically placed motifs of this photo are at the centre of the rectangle's sides.

Unfortunately, from the flattened look of the embroidery, I think this has been ironed from the front instead of pressed from the back. Will have to fix that when I clean it.

Here's a detail of the motif. The stems are done in stem stitch with straight stitch leaves. For the flowers, the stamens are done in back stitch and French knots, with the petals and middles done in satin stitch.

I really love this piece! It's now the largest of my embroidered tablecloths, and I look forward to using it. :-)

Little pieces of history, part one

2011-07-11T12:16:00.003-06:00

I have long had a passion for hand made items. Particularly items that are meant to be used. Aside from appreciating the time and skill required to make these items, I like how they can also connect us to the past. Even if I have no idea who made something or why, a piece of that person's hard work lives on.

While out in Manitoba a little while ago, my mother passed on a whole pile of items. Many of them belonged to her late aunt. Others had belonged to my mother's sister. When my aunt had to leave the farm and the property was sold, these items passed through several hands before making it to me, more than a year later! *L*

Over the next while, I'll be posting photos I took of the hand made pieces and telling a little about them. Most of them have seen a lot of years of use and some, sadly, have a fair amount of damage.

At this point, I have not done anything to them. They've been sitting in bags or boxes for a long time, and I've made no attempt yet to clean or press any of them. They are just as I've received them.

Here's the first. (If you want to see larger photos, just click on the image to be taken to my flickr page)

This small piece is worked on linen, which has such a lovely drape and softness. It measures about 16 inches square, including the border.

The embroidery appears to be done in cotton embroidery floss. The flower petals and leaves are done in Laisy Daisy stitch, with a bit of stem stitch among the leaves and satin stitch for the middles of the flowers. The black border is also done in stem stitch.

The crochet border is worked into an edge of single crochet. The edge of the linen has been folded over, and the fold is completely encased in the single crochet edge at the back. The border is a filet crochet finished with loops and picots.

This piece, according to my mother, was worked up by her late aunt, who was prolific and highly skilled. My mother had given me some small boxes of embroidery flosses, perle cotton, needles and tatting shuttles many years ago. Along with the finished pieces I brought back this trip, my mother also passed on a whole lot of crochet thread, some incredibly fine for use with a .75mm hook.

The last time I saw my great aunt, I was very young and barely remember her. I do, however, feel honored to have these items of hers. She was a remarkable woman.

Rainbow Infinity

2011-07-08T15:34:00.003-06:00

Well, I'm back in the province and pretty much caught up again. I can now post about another gift I made before we headed out, this one for my mother-in-law who, unlike my own mother, is computer savvy. I didn't want to spoil the surprise by posting photos before we left. ;-)

The yarn I used was one I picked up a while ago. I started to use it for another project, but things just were not working out. For starters, I found a total of FIVE knots and breaks in the yarn. I've never found so many before or since. That meant a lot of yarn was wasted trying to match the colour sequences properly. :-( Also, the yarn has an inconsistent thickness. At some points, it got so thin, it ended up breaking on me when I had to undo some stitches.

Despite that, the more I worked with the yarn, the more I loved it. I loved the colours and how they blended from one to another. Even with the cost and the fuss, I would enjoy using it again.

The pattern is a modification of Lily Chin's Molly Ringwald Stole, in her book Couture Crochet Workshop. The original was worked back and forth from the middle of the stole, and it took very little to modify it into a moebius.

The finished garment can be worn several ways. Here it is on the shoulders, as a stole, front view.

Just a light covering. Here's the back view...

Of course, it can also be worn as a wide scarf.

Or doubled up as a neck warmer.

And finally, it can also be worn as a cowl over the head.

My MIL was quite pleased when she received it. :-)

Not quite the same with my own mother when I gave her the Ruffled Reading Jacket. I had been concerned about the fit, but my mother is very uncomfortable accepting gifts and didn't want to try it on. I let it be so she could try it in private. Later on, she told me it was too small, but I saw she wasn't sure how to put it on. I think it really did fit, but she wouldn't let me help her put it on all the way. It's not really the sort of thing she likes to wear, I guess. When she started talking about undoing it to use the yarn for "something useful," I just took it back and suggested I give it to my MIL.

Which I did, and she loved it. So now my MIL has two reading jackets (that reminds me - I still need to get a picture of the first one I gave her! *L*), including one wide enough to cover her back completely.

It all worked out in the end. :-)

During this trip, my mother passed on to me some wonderful items that belonged to her aunt. I will be getting photos of some of them to share here. What a treasure! I wish I'd known her better. She was a remarkable crafter!

Testing

2011-06-24T21:23:00.001-06:00

Just a test post to see if i can blog from my phone.

Ruffled Reading Jacket

2011-06-19T22:40:00.004-06:00

There's going to be a brief hiatus in posts soon, as I will be doing some travelling.

During my travels, I will be giving the reading jacket shown below as a gift to my mother. I do hope it fits her well. She likes the 3/4 sleeves, but the cuffs might be snug for her liking. I'll find out in about a week!

This is a variation of my Simplicity Itself Reading Jacket. The main body is made the same way. The entire work, except for the ruffled edge, is worked in the back loops.

First, the yarn.

The owner of one of our local yarn shops was retiring and selling off her stock some months ago. Sad to see her go, but it did allow me to buy 10 balls of this yarn, which would ordinarily have been completely out of my budget. I had no plans for it at all; just couldn't pass up the deal! It's a hand-wash only blend of two wools. I used all 10 balls to make the jacket, using a 9.00mm hook. Cuffs were done in sc, cuff to elbow in hdc and the rest in dc.

After working up the main body of the jacket, I sewed the cuffs and sleeves to about the elbow.

This shows the seaming on the arm, were you can also see part of the turning seam as I build up the body. After the sleeves were sewn closed, I joined the yarn again near a seam and started working around the edge, making sure to start the first round from the inside, so that the peaks and valleys of working in the back loop continued uninterrupted. In the first round only, I did 2 dc together at the sleeve seams to avoid a gap.

Here's a more detailed view of the rounds at the sleeve seem, and showing the ruffle.

The rounds were done in dc except for the last round before the ruffle, which was done in hdc. The ruffle was done by doing [1 dc, 1ch, 1dc] into each hdc stitch.

Here's a front view of the jacket, as worn by my younger daughter.

Because of how it was made, there is no right side up or upside down to this jacket.

From the back, it's hard to see where the rounds done to build up the body start. If you look closely at the bottom, you can see the round where it was worked into the foundation chain.

Here's hoping it fits my mom okay! :-)

Capelet

2011-06-09T22:37:00.033-06:00

Recently, my younger daughter picked a few balls of Patons Lace, and is really loving it. She got a ball in Midas to make something for her sister. After going through a bunch of books we had on hand, she chose a pattern from Doris Chan's Amazing Crochet Lace.

The pattern is called Plum Blossum Capelet, which actually calls for a much heavier weight yarn. To do it using the Paton's Lace, my daughter ended up using a 7.00 mm hook to get the guage right. She also skipped the last round of the body, which was supposed to include beads. Her sister wanted to add beads herself later on.

Here is a front view of how it turned out. (click on the image to go to my flickr page for larger views)

It is SO light! My girls are both really happy with how it looks.

The design elements aren't as defined as in the pattern photo with the heavier yarn, but they're quite happy with that. Here's a closer view...

... and a bead detail.

With such a light yarn, the beads are really necessary to add a bit of weight.

My older daughter thinks it's just awesome!

Now my daughter is working on a hat for herself, using some Patons Lace in Bonfire.

Offering crochet classes

2011-06-02T00:40:00.001-06:00

Hello again! It's been a while since I've posted. I've got a couple of projects in the works that I'm photographing for future posts. Those should be ready for me to write up about by early next week, if all goes well.

Meanwhile, I am now available to teach crochet classes through Michaels in Edmonton, currently at the Clareview location. Michaels is going through a whole bunch of changes right now, and that includes offering classes in knit, crochet, beading and scrapbooking as well as the Wilton classes they already have.

My certification will be through the Craft Yarn Council, and I will be teaching their Discover Knit and Crochet classes. There are four classes available, including Discover Single Crochet (a perfect start for someone who's an absolute beginner, or hasn't touched a hook in years), Discover the Tall Stitches, Discover Textured Stitches and Discover Granny Squares. Each class will be 2 1/2 hours and will include a tour of the yarn department. They cost $30 a class, and a supplies list will be provided. Registration is through Michaels.

I will be at the Clareview location doing a demo from 9 - 11am on Thursday, June 2. I hope to see some of you there!

The cuteness!

2011-05-19T11:31:00.000-06:00

My younger daughter bought herself a book of crochet patterns recently. This morning, she sat to work on a hat when her cat, Harley, decided to come over and cuddle.

She's a big bundle of squishy adorableness.

The book she got, btw, is Crochet So Fine by Kristin Omdahl and the pattern is Chains Bucket Hat. She's working it in Patons Lace.

Tunisian bag - work in progress

2011-05-10T11:08:00.002-06:00

So I decided I wanted to make a new bag. I finished one not to long ago, but haven't got around to taking photos of it. I keep forgetting. My daughter has been using it, which makes me happy. :-)

For this bag, I had a few things I wanted out of it. I wanted the body of the bag to be very sturdy and dense, with some stretch to it, but which wouldn't stretch out of shape, wear out quickly, or need a lining to prevent things from poking through.

To meet the sturdy requirement, I decided to make the bag in Tunisian in the round, with a stockinette stitch. This would require my double ended hook (a 6.00mm) and two yarns.

Yarn was the next concern. I wanted something smooth and durable. I considered using paracord, which comes in quite the variety of colours now, but decided it would be a bit much for this project. Before going shopping, I went digging through my stash.

I didn't have to go shopping.

The first potential yarn I found was a Super Value Skeins yarn in a pale lilac, that I got from a friend. Not the Bernat Super Value, but something made in Turkey. I can't find anything online about it, and the label doesn't have much on it. It's a 60% acrylic 40% cotton, machine washable and dryable.

The other thing I found was this.

This photo was taken after the body of the bag was finished (yes, that's it in the background) so it's a fair bit smaller than when I started. We found it at the Reuse Centre, so I have no idea what it actually is. I think it might be macrame cord. Whatever it is, it fit the bill!

For the foundation chain length, I thought about how I wanted to use the bag and settled on an chain of 80. I wasn't sure yet if I would just close up one end, envelope style, or give the bottom some width, but figured this would still give me the width I wanted.

I at first experimented with using the lilac for the foundation or the blue cord, as well as with Tunisian Simple Stitch (TSS). I settled on making the blue the predominant colour and started with it, bringing the lilac in with the other end of the hook. Using Tunisian Simple Stitch, the second colour would have been a lot more visible, and I decided I liked the second colour as something that was hinted at, rather than really obvious. TSS also was a bit more floppy than I wanted. The stockinette solved both issues.

It had been my intention to take photos at the very start of the project, but that didn't happen. One of the fun things about working with Tunisian is the curl. It seems to curl a lot tighter when working in the round, too. Instead, here is a photo after the body portion of the bag was completed.

The depth was something I eye-balled, keeping in mind that I still wasn't sure how I would finish the tops and bottoms. At this point, whatever I wanted to do, that curl was going to be a pain! *L*

This is a detail of what the foundation chain looked like at the bottom.

And this is what the top looked like after unrolling.

With the lilac naturally sitting sort of on top of the work, I decided to work around it. Carefully dropping the lilac off the hook and onto a stitch marker, I worked a round of sc in the blue. I put the hook through the vertical loops as if I were doing the stockinette stitch, then finished as a sc instead, which encased the lilac in the stitch. This left a fairly open space under each stitch. Before completely the round in blue, I switched my hook from the blue to the lilac. I just needed to do a few stitched in the lilac to get it past the start of the blue so I could finish the blue round. I slip stitched the lilac around the vertical posts the sc were worked through, closing up the gaps and giving the edge more structure, which helped get rid of the curl.

After doing the round of sc, however, I didn't stop there. After joining the round, I did 1 ch and, without turning, did a round of ss into the round of sc, under the top loops. See below.

The finished top edge, showing the start/finish stitches. At the very top edge, you can see the front loop of the sc stitches, which have been pushed back slightly by the round of blue ss. This gave the edge more width and stability. The slip stitches in both the blue and lilac were finished by pulling up the last loop, one space back from the first loop, and cutting the yarn with a several inch tail on the inside. After threading a yarn needle to the tail and removing the hook, the tail of the yarn was brought to the front though the next space, though the loop, pulling the loop closed slightly to match the size of the ss loops already down, then the tail was worked around the very first ss, back through the loop of the last ss, and through to the back of the of piece like an embroidered chain stitch. The ends were then woven into the back to finish off.

Here is a view from the inside, at the join.

By this point, I had settled on making an envelope style back. When flattening the tube, I made sure the join was at one side, where it would be least visible.

Now to the bottom.

Once again, I combined sc and ss. Here is the first row of sc that closed up the bottom. I positioned the stitches so that there was one stitch on each edge. With an 80 stitch foundation, this meant 1 stitch at the start, where I joined the blue cord, 38 stitches across the bottom, carefully lining up the front and back (which got progressively easier as the curl was straightened out), then finishing with a single sc at the end. I then did 1 ch and turned the whole thing...

... and worked slip stitches under the top loops of the sc all the way across. At the last stitch, the yarn was cut and pulled through the loop. Before taking the tail to the inside to finish off, I made sure to tack it down thoroughly with a couple of stitches on the outside, then flipped it inside out to finish off.

This is what the bottom seam looks like on the inside. It just disappears into the Tunisian work.

Only now do I realize I didn't take a photo of the entire bag after the top and bottoms were finished. Excuse me while I go take care of that!

Done.

Here is the completed body of the bag, waiting for the straps. I've decided to make a pair of straps that will be long enough to wear across the chest. I haven't quite decided how I'm going to attach them to the front and back of the bag; I might use some of the decorative buttons we have, or a funky knot.

I'm also still debating whether or not I want to add embellishments to the bottom of the bag. I'd been thinking perhaps some beads, a fringe, decorative loops... I don't know yet. The more I look at the bag, however, the more I'm thinking to leave well enough alone. I'll know better once I've got the straps done and attached.

My thoughts so far:

I'm really happy with how this is turning out. The blue cord is much more durable than the yarn, which makes it ideal as the primary colour. The contrasting colour is just hinted at, and flashes a bit more when something moves the fabric. Though not as visible, it adds a lot to the physical structure of the bag. I had considered using the lilac for a more decorative contrasting edge at the top, but more and more, this is a piece that says "keep it simple" to me.

About the only thing that has me thinking more about the body is practicality. In thinking of how the bag would be used, I'm seeing the need for pockets on the inside. Or something to help keeps things a bit more organized. Not sure how I would go about doing that, if at all.

Meanwhile, I'm working out the first strap, but will see if I'm happy with it before I write more.

Experiment - startfish hat

2011-05-06T00:57:00.000-06:00

Here is the last of the hat experiments I worked on a little while ago.

This one is a variation of the nudibranch hat. Digging through my stash, I found two balls of a yarn in neutral colours and variable thickness. Unfortunately, that labels have been thrown out, and I can't remember the brand or type.

Like the nudibranch hat, I started off by making a flat disc, starting with a ring of 10 dc stitches and increasing evenly until it reached 60 stitches around. Using the variable thickness yarn and a 7.00mm hook, this made it somewhat larger than the nudibranch version, even though that was 70 stitches around.

The first major change was with the points. Here, I started them with a base 10 dc stitches wide to get 6 larger points instead of 10 smaller points, as in the nudibranch version. Also, I did the decreases at the start of each row, rather than in the middle.

Because the points started from an even number of stitches at the base, slip stitching down one side to start the next point required turning the piece after finishing a point, which wasn't necessary to do when starting with an odd number of stitches.

After the crown was finished, the body and brim were done using the same method as the nudibranch hat, starting with a foundation chain of 60 stitches. For the brim, I switched to a 6.50mm hook to make it a bit more snug fitting. After doing several rounds of front and back post dc stitches, I did a single round of sc, then switched back to the 7.00mm hook to build up the body in dc stitches. After several rounds to build up the sides, the points were done the same as for the crown. It was finished by doing a single round of front and back post sc around the brim at the foundation chain to tidy up the edge.

The other change made was the method of joining the crown and body. Rather than stitching them together from the outside, which gave me a base to make a ruffle, this hat was slip stitched wrong sides together, then flipped right side out. There was no natural twist to the points, as there was with the nudibranch hat, and after flipping the points right side out, they retained a slightly rounded shape. I found myself extremely tempted to stuff them. *L* The base 10 points and larger hook size made them a lot floppier, too. With the texture of the yarn, it really makes me think of starfish.

Unlike the previous experiments, I made this hat to be actually wearable, and I'm happy with how it turned out. My husband even wore it to work once, before our weather finally turned and became warm enough to go hatless. I wonder what his co-workers must think of him, with some of the strange headgear he's worn! *L*

I really like the textured yarn, neutral colours and organic look of this hat. I've got requests to make more, and I think I'd like to do that with different yarns. If there's anything I would change about this version, I might decide against joining the crown and body portions from the inside, but that would depend entirely on the yarn. Joining from the inside worked out well for this hat, but I don't think it would have worked as well if I'd made it with the same time of yarn I'd used for the nudibranch version. I do prefer having fewer, larger points, though again, that might change with a different type of yarn.

Making a centre pull yarn ball - crochet hook method

2011-04-29T16:18:00.000-06:00

Using a crochet hook as a nostepinne is very similar to using the pencils. Start with the largest crochet hook you've got available.

For me, that's a 9.00mm hook. Larger would be better.

First, make a slip knot at the hook, as if you were about to do some crochet. Snug the slip knot tight at the throat of the hook, so it won't slide up as you work.

Pull the yarn up to the other end and start wrapping back towards the middle, just as was done for the pencil method.

The ball of yarn I'm using here is a fair bit bigger, so I made the core a bit longer than for the previous balls. Again, wrap back and forth for a few layers, then continue the same as with the pencils.

As I wrapped, I made the height of the ball greater than the core by changing the angle of my wrap, allowing the yarn to go over the top and bottom every now and then. In this photo, only about half of the ball has been wrapped. Then I gave it to my younger daughter to finish so I could upload the photos and start these posts.

She loves making these!

There you have it. Three methods of making a centre pull ball of yarn.

Have fun!

Making a centre pull yarn ball - Two Pencils method

2011-04-29T16:03:00.000-06:00

For this next method of making a centre pull yarn ball, a pair of pencils are used as a nostepinne.

Start with two pencils of equal length. Preferably new and unchewed.

Yes, my dearest daughter, I'm looking at you. Glaringly.

Snark.

Anchor the yarn with a figure 8 around and between both pencils, near one end.

Pull the pencils snug together as you bring the yarn up towards the opposite ends, then start wrapping the yarn back towards the middle. At this point, place the wraps close together.

After a couple of inches, wrap the yarn back up again. Keep wrapping back and forth until it's about 3-4 layers thick, or more if you're using a thin yarn. With each layer, the wraps will be fewer and farther apart.

Once I'm happy with the thickness, I like to do a few wraps from top to bottom. This prevents the loops of yarn from coming loose and tangling later.

After that, just keep on wrapping!

When you get to the end, lock the yarn in place the same was as described previously. Unwind the figure 8 you made at the start, if necessary, then remove the pencils one at a time (if you yank on both at once, you might inadvertently pull out the first wraps you made and create your very own yarn barf!).

Here's a comparison of the two methods. With the fingers and figure 8 method, the centre is completely filled, which is why it's so important for the yarn to be in a figure 8 and straight. If you just wrap the start around your fingers, without the figure 8, the loops catch on each other when the end is pulled and you can get a yarn barf. Using the pencils (and it's the same for the next method I will show), the open space in the centre prevents any of that.

Two down, one more to go. ;-)

Making a centre pull yarn ball - Fingers and figure 8's

2011-04-29T15:44:00.000-06:00

For the first method of making a centre pull yarn ball I'll show you, you don't need anything but the yarn and your own fingers. This makes it the most convenient of methods. Here's how you start.

First, wind the yarn around several fingers, with the end at the bottom (in this image, you can see the end just under my pinkie). You can do this method either around your first two fingers or around thumb and first finger, whichever you prefer.

Next, start wrapping the yarn around two fingers (or finger and thumb) in a figure 8 pattern.

Keep winding in a figure 8 pattern until you get it good and wide. If you're using a thinner yarn, shoot for 20 or more wraps.

The next part is a bit tricky. Carefully remove the loops from your fingers, wrapping the yarn around the middle a few times in the middle to anchor the loops.

Keep wrapping around the core back and forth until it's fairly well covered. You want to keep those loops from tangling around each other.

Once the core is well covered, keep on going. I like to wrap all in one direction, but as long as the tail end is free, you can change directions and make a round ball, if you like.

As the ball gets bigger, you can change the angle of the wraps slightly as needed so they don't slip out of position and come undone while you work.

When you get near the end of your yarn, do a few last wraps around the middle to hold it all in place.

Then lock the end by tucking the it under in a loop.

That's it!

Making a centre pull yarn ball: why do it?

2011-04-29T15:23:00.000-06:00

I've taken a series of step-by-step photos to demonstrate how to make a centre pull yarn ball. The first thing to answer, though, is why one would want to do it in the first place?

If you're using a twisted hank of yarn, the answer is pretty obvious. When buying a typical skein of yarn, though, they can be centre pull, too. Like this.

Isn't that pretty? I took out this ball, and there was the end, just waiting to be grabbed. This is what we're supposed to get.

Unfortunately, this is what we usually get.

Meet the yarn barf.

This is actually a very small one and easy to untangle. I've had some that just refused to give up the end of the yarn, and instead gave up almost their entire innards. That's not too bad if you've got a nice smooth, bulky yarn like this. With a finer weight or a textured yarn, it can be ridiculously difficult to untangle the mess.

A well made centre pull ball of yarn not only keeps things neat, but allows for smooth flow while you work. Much more pleasant!

If you have one, you can use a nostepinne to wind your yarn. You can also buy a winder.

If you have neither I will show three different ways to make a centre pull yarn ball. The difference is in how the core is started. After that, they're pretty much all the same.

First up, the finger winding method. No tools needed at all!

Our assembled Easter basket

2011-04-23T15:51:00.000-06:00

We made a few changes in this year's basket. It's a lot heavier than usual this year, too! *L* Fitting it all in is always a challenge.

In our basket, we have:

Bread (recipe here) - "symbolic of Jesus, the Bread of Life."
eggs; kraszanki (onion skin dyed eggs) and peeled eggs (first soft boiled, their shells cracked, then boiled in a tea and chai spice mix for about an hour or more) - "indicate new life and Christ's Resurrection from the Tomb."
butter (mixed with garlic, parsley and paprika) - "reminding us of the goodness of Christ that we should have toward all things."
salt - "So necessary an element in our physical life, that Jesus used its symbolism: "You are the salt of the earth." "
chrzan; grated dried horseradish root (I've also used prepared horseradish paste or a chunk of fresh root) - "Symbolic of the Passion of Christ..."
sausage (garlic) - "indicative of God's favour and generosity."
ham (a Polish ham we found at the Italian Centre grocery store) - "Symbolic of great joy and abundance."
cheese (we chose friulano, this year) - "symbol of the moderation Christians should have."
prosciutto rosettes (new this year, in place of the more traditional bacon, which we've never included before ourselves) - "A symbol of the over abundance of God's mercy and generosity."
olives (garlic stuff and almond stuffed - new this year) and
olive oil (new this year) - The olive tree symbolises wisdom, peace, hope, light, fertility, health, wealth and balance.
candy coated chocolate eggs - my one concession commercialism. ;-)

This will be part of our brunch tomorrow, and some of the ingredients will be used to marinade the lamb I'll be doing this year for dinner.

Our Easter preparations

2011-04-22T18:37:00.000-06:00

Today we're getting stuff ready for our traditional Easter basket.

Half of the eggs we'll be doing this year were cooked with onion skins. This evening, we'll be doing tea dyed eggs that will be shelled for the basket.

The bread is always the centerpiece of our basket.

Here is our basic bread recipe, with the variations I did below.

For 2 loaves.

1-2 Tbsp yeast (preferably the old style active dry yeast, not the quick rise stuff)
1-4 Tbsp sweetener
1/4 cup butter or oil (optional)
2 1/4 - 2 3/4 cups warm liquid
2 tsp salt
6-8 cups (whole wheat or blend)

Dissolve yeast in warm liquid (water, milk, broth, potato water, or the liquid from making yogurt cheese) with 1 tsp sweetener (honey, sugar or molasses)
After 5-10 minutes, add remaining sweetener, salt, butter and 3 cups flour.
Beat at medium speed with mixer for 2 minutes, or 200 strokes with a wooden spoon
Add 1 more cup flour and beat briefly.
Add remaining flour until a soft dough results.
Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead until elastic and smooth.
Please dough in oiled bowl. Turn to oil all sides, cover lightly and place in a warm spot to rise until doubled.
Punch down dough and knead briefly. Shape into loaves and place into oiled loaf pans. Cover lightly and allow to rise until the dough reached the top of the loaf pans.
Back in oven preheated to 350F (325F if using glass pans), in centre rack, for about 35 minutes.
Cool on racks.

Our variation:

For sweetener, we used plain granulated sugar. For the liquid, we used 1 cup warm water to proof the yeast in the bowl of our mixer (I have a KitchenAide with a dough hook). In a tiny bowl, I used 1 Tbsp of warm water to soak the saffron threads. While those were doing their thing, I scalded 1 cup of milk and melted 1/4 cup butter into it. Two eggs were also added (the equivalent of about 1/2 cup liquid).

For more photos of our Easter preparations, check out my flickr account.

Easter craft, 2011 - crochet eggs

2011-04-22T12:03:00.000-06:00

My original thought for an Easter craft was the paint wooden eggs. When I couldn't find a local source for any, I turned back to my hooks.

I ended up doing a variation of the Lion Brand egg cozie pattern (available for free, sign in required). They have a number of variations that all use the same body shape. In my variation, instead of stopping at round 15, I stuffed the egg at that point, then worked a couple more decrease rounds before using the finished end of the yarn to close up the opening. Here's how they turned out.

I started off with the two pastel eggs at the top - one in pink and green, the other blue and white. These were done using a 3.75mm hook and the same variegated handicrafters cotton. The two on the bottom in the same yarn were done using a 4.25mm hook, with spiked sc thrown in for texture.

The read and purple ones were both done in tapestry crochet. The purple is Paton's Brilliant and the red is Bernat Shimmer, and I used a 3.75mm hook. The pink egg with teal stripes was also done using a 3.75mm hook. The teal yarn is actually a very fuzzy yarn with textured bits in other colours, but all the fuzz and texture ended up on the inside.

The large one in the middle is also done in a 4.25mm hook, using a textured yarn we found in a bin at the Reuse Centre, so I have no idea what it is. This egg was actually flipped inside out before stuffing, and the final reducing rounds were worked from the inside. The front of the stitches were almost completely smooth. I could have brushed it to get the fuzziness, but the colourful textured bits would still have been stuck on the other side. The back looked a lot more interesting than the front.

These work up very quickly. A plain egg with no colour changes or textured stitches, can be done in about half an hour. I've got an unfinished one with cables waiting to be stuffed right now, and will probably do a couple more tonight, before I stop making them. That will be it for any crafting I do for the next few days, I think.

Meanwhile, we've got bread dough rising and will be colouring eggs for our Easter basket today. I'll also prep the little containers of butter and salt, and anything else that can be done ahead of time. Preparing our Easter basket is our girls' favourite tradition - and mine, as well! :-)

Experiment - nudibranch hat

2011-04-20T13:33:00.000-06:00

Many years ago, while living in another province, my husband and I came upon some selling brightly coloured hat somewhat like the jester hat. They had 6 points on them, with bells on the ends. My husband loved his, but it didn't survive our kids. ;-)

I was thinking about that hat and how I might do a crochet version. Once I turned various techniques around in my head, I dug through my stash for a yarn I could experiment with. I discovered an untouched ball of the same yarn I used for the pixie hat. Dang it. If I'd remembered the second ball, I wouldn't have mixed yarns and colours with my pixie experiment. Ah, well. That's the fun of experimenting. :-D

I also found a light weight yarn that had some fuzz to it. The colours didn't match at all, but being an experiment to figure out construction, I decided to use it as well as some sort of contrasting texture.

What I came up with was a hat made in two parts. The top began as a flat disc until I reached the width where I would normally stop increasing at and start building up the sides. Then, instead of making straight sides for the body of the hat, I made points. The second part was the brim and body of the hat worked bottom up, then I made matching points. The two were then stitched together with sc, and finally I used the light weight yarn to do a contrasting edge. The ruffled texture reminded me of some types of nudibranch. I didn't have enough of the light weight yarn to finish what I had started, but it did give me ideas for any future versions I will be making.

Here is the end result. First, from the back with a view of the top section.

The variegated yarn is a worsted weight, and I used a 6.50mm hook. I started with a magic ring of 7 dc, then increased evenly until I got it to 70 dc.

There are 10 points on this version. After the final round of 70 dc, I made a turning chain, then did 7 dc (I did not count the turning chains as stitches). I turned again and did 6 dc in the next row, working the decrease in the middle. I continued that pattern, decreasing by 1 stitch every row, until I was down to 1 dc plus the turning chain. Then I slip stitched down the side to the top of the first 7 dc row. At that point, I worked another 7 dc into the next 7 stitches of the crown of the hat and worked the next point. This was continued until I finished all 10 points.

With an odd number of stitches, it worked out that the slip stitch down the side always put me on the correct side to do the next point. When I did my next version of this, I made points that were 10 dc wide at the base, and for that I had to turn the piece before slip stitching down the side. I will have a separate post for that version.

Once the crown was done, it was time to do the body. I started from the brim, with a 70 ch foundation ring, then alternating front and back post stitches to make the ribbed brim. After 3 rows with front and back post dc stitches, I switched to just dc and worked the rounds until it was the depth I wanted. I then added point to the body using the same method as for the crown. After the points were done, I went back to finish the edge of the brim by adding a single round of alternating front and back post sc stitches. That tidied up the edge quite nicely.

Then it was time to put the two together. After lining up the point, I joined them using sc, which you can sort of see on one of the points in the above picture.

In joining the two pieces, something interesting happened. Because the side of the points with the slip stitch ends up slightly tighter than the other side, and the way the top and bottom points lined up, the points developed a natural twist to them. I found this effect rather nice!

I could have stopped at that point, but wasn't happy with how the edges looked. Especially on the underside (I worked the sc from the top). That's where the light weight yarn came in.

Switching to a much smaller hook (a 3.25mm, I think) I worked the contrasting yarn in two rounds. From the top, I worked two sc stitches of the contrasting yarn into the front loop only of the joining sc stitches. Then I turned it and worked two sc stitches into the remaining back loop (which was now the front loop, since I turned it and was working in the other direction) of the joining sc stitches.

Then came the nudibranch ruffle. Working from the underside of the hat, I alternated between doing 3 dc and 2 dc into each sc in the underside round, except when it came to the space in between the point. There I reduced the number of stitches per sc and also brought it down to hdc and sc. At the very center of the join between two points, I did 2 sctogether. Then, working back up the side of the next point I worked up to hdc back to dc stitches and continued the ruffle. I found no need to change the ruffle pattern at the tips of the points.

Returning to the back view of the hat, you can see the inside round of sc stitches in the contrasting yarn. It had been my intention to do a second round of ruffled stitches into that round as well, but I didn't have enough yarn. That will have to wait for a future version.

Some final thoughts. From a construction point of view, I'm very happy with how the concept turn out. There are a few things that I decided needed to change (aside from the colours. *L*). I had worked the decreases in the points in the middle of each row, rather than the start or the end, because I thought it would make a difference in attaching the two pieces together. I didn't like how it ended up looking, though, so for my next one, I did the decrease as the start of each row. More on that when I post about that version.

With the contrasting edge, I definitely want to do another version with ruffles, but I'm not sure I'd go with two rounds of it, as I'd planned to here. I think it would depend on what contrasting yarn I ended up going with. I definitely want to go with the nudibranch look, though, and am thinking of ways to make the hat look even more like a nudibranch!

As with the previous hats, this was an experiment that was never really meant to be worn. The family was very enthusiastic about the results, though, and have already asked for other versions. My kids have even worn this in public! *L* It's quite comfortable to wear.

Customer order with a difference

2011-04-14T21:34:00.000-06:00

One of my neighbours has asked me to do a custom order hat with scarf flaps for her. Because of her rather unique needs, I've asked her permission to blog about it, which she has graciously granted. I will be blogging the process in a series of posts as I try to figure out a design that will work for her.

There are a couple of ways I've made hats with scarf flaps; vertically in rows, with the scarf portion worked up at the same time as the body, or horizontally in rounds with the scarf portion added either horizontally or vertically. Working the scarf portion vertically allows me to easily add keyhole slits to close up the scarf without having to tie it.

My neighbour (I'll call her G) wants a keyhole scarf. Here are a few of the things I need to work around.

First off, she has an unusually shaped head. Or, as she puts it, a big head. *L* So the circumference will need to be somewhat larger. However, having spent the first 6 months of her life lying on her back, the back of her head it also flat. Her proportions are quite different, and her neck is mostly hidden. I had some concerns about her oxygen tubes, but it doesn't look like they will be an issue at all.

G's other challenge is that she cannot reach up to put a hat on her head. With the scarf she uses now, she has to hold the ends and sort of toss the loop over the head. This is the same motion she'll have to use to put on the hat she's asked me to make. This means the hat has to have at least some stiffness to it to stay open and not flop closed while she tried to toss it onto the top of her head, then use the scarf flaps to put it into position. She then wants to be able to close up the scarf with the keyhole and tuck the ends into her jacket. With her arm mobility, the keyhole can only be on one side.

Today I was finally able to head over and get some measurements to work with. I've got the circumference of her head, the distance from her temple to the top of her head, her temple to where the top of the keyhole will need to be, from temple to temple across her forehead, the distance from the nape of her neck to her eyebrows, and finally I figured out the maximum width the scarf flaps can be, and the minimum length for her to be able to tuck it into her jacket.

The yarn for her hat will be a double thickness of Paton's Silk Bamboo in Sea, a colour that matches her winter coats quite well. I think, however, I will use some Bernat Satin to work up swatches and test out different ideas. I had been thinking of working the hat vertically, but now that I've got her measurements and taken a good look at the shape of her head, I don't think that will work as well. Ooh... unless... I could work it vertically without short rows for shaping and leave the top with a drawstring closure. This way, she can put her ponytail through the opening, if she wants. Hmmm... there's a thought. Oops, never mind. She wouldn't be able to put her pony tail through herself, and the whole point is for her to have a hat that she doesn't need to have someone else put on for her.

The closure for the scarf portion is another issue. The scarf G showed me is a knit scarf that has a narrow, ribbed, portion near the ends, then it widens again before coming to an attractive, leaf-like point. At the narrow, ribbed portion on one side, there's a second layer that's open, so she can tuck the other end through, and the two narrow portions overlap. This lies somewhat flatter than a keyhole slit, but I think a keyhole might actually be easier for her to thread the scarf end though.

Whether I decide to work the hat vertically or horizontally, I will need to figure out stitch patterns that will combine stretch and flexibility to conform to her head shape, but will also have enough stiffness, at least along the edge, to stay open when she tosses the hat onto her head while holding the scarf flaps. It also has to be somewhat dense to cut the wind and actually keep her warm. The double thickness and silk blend will help with the warmth, but cutting the wind is always a challenge. A surface braid has the flexibility and stretch, but it doesn't cut the wind as much as I'd like. Hook size and yarn thickness can help with that, though.

So, lots to think about and figure out.

Time to break out my hooks!

Experimenting - peaked hat with novelty yarn embellishments.

2011-04-14T17:43:00.000-06:00

After working up the pixie hat, there were a few things I wanted to try out. Digging around my stash, I found a large skein of worsted weight yarn that would be more than enough for another hat.

This time, I went with a 5.50mm hook and worked in a spiral. I still worked with a base 6, doing 2 sc, 2 hdc and 2 dc into the magic ring. After that, I worked in dc stitches until near the end.

Like the pixie hat, I added 3 stitches to each increase round, but kept 2 rounds without any increases in between each increase round. Using a stitch marker to keep track of the rounds was a necessity. I also staggered where the increases were worked in the rounds. The result was a very even, cone shaped peak.

In this back view, you can see where some of the increase rounds were done, as there is a bit of a "step" visible.

The downside of working in only one stitch is that it gets very boring. So when I got it to head width and started working only rows without increases, I started throwing in some cables by doing front post triple crochet for three rounds.

The next part is completely covered by the novelty yarn. I wanted to make a different sort of brim. After doing a round in just dc after the cables, I worked an increase round in sc, then a couple more rounds of sc without any increases. For the last round, I flipped this "brim" up and worked the sc into the body of near the cable stitches. This gave it a sort of roll for a brim.

I had intended to stop there, but it looked really unfinished. I dug around my stash and found a novelty yarn with blues in it and decided to figure something out. It's a very thin yarn, so I used a much smaller hook (a 3.50mm, I think) and did several rounds of sc around the posts of the stitches on the outside of the rolled brim until it was completely covered. The "pom pom" at the tip is actually a bunch of chain loops in alternating sizes.

When my daughter first tried it on and did this...

... I had sudden images of the same hat made with bright red yarn for the body and white fun fur or eyelash yarn for the embellishment for a crocheted Santa hat! A good thing to try with felting yarn, perhaps.

I think the colours on this one definitely challenged the pixie hat for the fugliest hat I've ever made. LOL

As I was working the cone shaped peak, it occurred to me that, with some minor adjustments, it would make a great Thanksgiving cornucopia. In basket weave stitch, of course.

After this hat, I got really silly. More on that in my next post!

Experimenting - a pixie hat, first attempt

2011-04-13T23:17:00.000-06:00

For the girls and I, one of our favorite routines is our trips to the library. We try to go at least once a week, though we've been known to go considerably more often some weeks, not at all on others. It's an enjoyable walk of a few blocks to the main branch. Part of our routine includes seeing what's new in the small art gallery with its rotating display from local artists and craft guilds. We usually finish up by visiting the Second Cup, just off the gallery.

This place is filled with some of the most interesting people, including the employees. I often bring my project bag and do a bit of crochet while the girls and I have our drinks and chat. I've even left the odd cup cozie behind for the staff. One of our favorite staff members has a unique style all her own, with awesome dreadlocks and funky clothes. I discovered she was interesting in learning how to crochet flowers, like what I made here. So when I had the chance, I caught her before her shift and chatted with her about what she was looking to learn. I couldn't help but notice the fascinating crocheted peak hat with floppy brim she was wearing at the time.

The hats I usually make are a basic form with variations. Whether I work top-down or bottom-up, crown is usually flat or nearly flat, the sides are straight, and I would add either some sort of ribbing or a brim around the forehead. Any manner of stitch variations can be used on the basic form to make it unique an interesting, but every now and then, I want to experiment with different shapes.

I wasn't quite going to try and recreate the peaked hat I was inspired by, but it did get me to thinking about the shape. In visiting Ravelry and seeing some of the patterns there, I've recently seen quite a few new hats showing up, and that they were called pixie hats.

How appropriate. It turns out the lovely young lady who's hat inspired me is named Pixie!

So here is my first experiment in a pixie hat. While having a Star Trek marathon with my younger daughter, I dug out an incomplete skein of worsted weight yarn I had no plans for. I knew there wasn't enough yarn to finish what I had in mind, so I dug out a couple of small balls in pink and purple I had left over from who knows where. This being a total experiment, with rather garish colours, I had no real thought of it actually being worn by anyone. I finished this hat in a single evening - it took about 3 1/2 episodes of Star Trek.

My daughter insisted I get a shot with the tail sticking up!

I worked the hat in rounds - the seam is just to the left of centre in this photo - and using a larger hook to start with. A 6.50mm hook, if I remember correctly. I started with a magic circle of 6 dc. (All but the very last round are done in dc.) I increased the next round by 3 stitches, then, then did 2 rounds without any increases. I repeated that pattern of working one increase round (increasing by 3 stitches to the round) followed by two rounds without any increases for a while, then started doing the increases every second round until I got it to a length where I wanted to make the head portion. There I evenly worked in more increases in each round until I eventually got it to 70 stitches. As the variegated yarn was running low, I started adding in rounds in pink, then eventually added in rounds in purple as I worked the 70 stitch rounds for the head portion.

When I got the head portion deep enough, I switched to a smaller hook (a 5.00mm, if I believe - as you can tell, I wasn't too interested in recreating this exactly) for the brim portion. I added enough increases evenly around the hat to create a bit of a ruffle and kept that up for a few more rounds. The very last round was done in sc with no increases at all.

Personally, I think it's the ugliest hat I've ever made! LOL My daughter, however, loves it. Yes, she wears this in public! LOL The next day, she wore it when we took her guitar in to get the neck adjusted. The guy who worked on it complimented her on the hat. When she mentioned I'd made it while we watched a Star Trek marathon, he ended up telling us about the Toy and Comic Show that was happening the next day. We even ended up exchanging names so we could add each other to our facebook friends lists, but it turns out we both have our security settings too high - he couldn't find me when he tried to look me up on their computer in the store, and I couldn't find him when I got home and looked him up. Ah, well! I'll just have to meet up with him again at the store.

After getting her guitar fixed, my daughter and I went for lunch in the mall this store was at. Walking back through the mall later on, she heard someone going by in the other direction call out "stupid hat!"

She just laughed at him and proudly kept wearing it!

Y'know, when I was her age, I wouldn't have had the guts to wear this (and I did wear some pretty unusual things back then - usually involving chains). If I did manage to wear something this outlandish and someone said something like that, I would have been humiliated. My daughter is a lot stronger and more self-assured than I was at her age!

So this is my first experiment with a pixie hat. I think it looks a lot like a trumpet shaped flower - like a Morning Glory - turned upside down.

After finishing it, I could think of a few things I'd change about it (I mean, besides the colours... LOL). I'd worked in rounds, which left a seam, and I figured working in a spiral would be better. I thought about different ways to change the shape as well.

My kids are saying I should make another one like this, except with a much longer "tail." They even want me to use garish, variegated colours again, too!

Well, I didn't make another one quite like this, but I did play around with the idea some more, which I will write about in my next post.

Work in progress - embroidery for framing

2011-04-12T14:48:00.000-06:00

First a quick update. I haven't been posting much there, but I have been working on various projects. I'm finally catching up with taking photos and should be able add posts about them frequently over the next few days.

One of those projects is a work in progress. I picked up a table top embroidery frame ages ago but haven't used it yet. Now, I finally am! What I'll be doing is slowly posting about this project to show the process I've been going through.

Aside from wanting to use the table top frame, I've had these sitting around.

This is one of those Goodwill treasures. Two bags full of embroidery wool. There are several brands, all 100% wool. Between the two bags, I paid about $5-$6. About 6 or 8 of them show signs of any use. The rest are in store-bought condition. I still don't know what I'll be doing with them, but I was thinking of using them with tambour work.

But what?

With wanting to use my table frame, the wool and tambour embroidery all tumbling about in the back of my head, I decided I wanted to try making something I could frame. I do very little that's purely decorative like that. With embroidery, I'm more likely to work on an item of clothing, napkins or table cloths - items that are meant to be used, not just looked at.

When visiting a local Michaels a while back, I found myself looking at self-adhesive mounting boards (similar to this). I ended up buying a package of two 5x7 inch mounting boards and some 18 count Aida cloth.

At this point, I am now thinking of doing some sort of, possibly floral, design in wool using tambour hook embroidery (using a crochet hook, though, because I don't have a proper latched tambour hook) as a matched pair for framing.

Here is my set up. Because of the size of the frame, I could fit both at once in portrait orientation. The pencilled lines are the 5x7 inches I need to work inside.

Once I got the fabric mounted, I experimented with a small crochet hook. The first problem was discovering 18 count Aida cloth was a bit too fine for any of the hooks that I had. The hooks were distorting the warp and weft too much for my taste. So I found myself a 1mm hook and tried again. This time, I could get the hook through better, but because of the lack of a latch, I was having difficulty getting the yarn back up to the surface. It wasn't pulling the loop through the fabric that was the problem. It was pulling the new loop through the old loop to make the chain stitch. The yarn kept catching and snagging.

I also felt that the thickness of the yarn was a bit much for this cloth. I think a 14 count would have been better for this thickness of wool.

The wool was set aside for another time.

I then experimented with other yarns and threads. In the end, I decided that tambour embroidery was not going to work out the way I liked on this.

The hooks were also set aside.

So, at this point, I'm down to some sort of embroidery for framing, but nothing at all like I originally thought of.

I still don't know, but I did design on a "frame" for whatever design I do decide on. Here's what I have so far.

First, note that this is currently being worked on upside down.

At the top of this photo (bottom of the project) you can see a few stitches I'd done using the wool in tambour stitch. I did a few other stitches in tent stitch to see if maybe I could just freestyle it with a needle instead of a hook, but I still felt the wool was too thick. If this were not meant to be framed, I probably would have been okay with it, but it just seemed... disproportionate.

I then spent the next while going through my various embroidery books for inspiration. Quite a few designs appealed to me, but not as something I would want to frame and hang on a wall.

I found my inspiration elsewhere. Tucked away in a bookshelf, I have a copy of The Arabian Nights: Tales of Wonder and Magnificence. It's one of the earlier translations, with my copy being a 5th edition (1930) of the 1923 copyright. The book is filled with fantastic images. Some of the plates are images identified as "A Persian lady's mirror" or "from a Chinese bronze."

I wasn't going to try and copy any of these intricate designs, but I liked the feel of them. I still didn't know what image I want as the focal point, but I decided to frame both pieces in such a way that, even if I decided on two wildly different focal designs, they would still work well together as a pair.

I started off by doing an outline of backstitch just inside the 5x7 marked in pencil. Another outline was worked with the peak at the top and the "legs" at the bottom. I used a black and silver metallic crochet thread for the outline.

When it came time to fill the top, I flipped the frame up so I could reach the stitching area better. For this first one, I am filling the area with metallic silver crochet thread. I'm using tent stitch with the rows in alternating directions for maximum reflection. The other piece will be done the same, except I'll be using a gold instead of silver. The curved space inside the "legs" will also be filled.

This is as far as I've gone so far. It's been a lot slower than I expected it to be, but then nothing about this project has been turning out the way I expected!

I'm looking forward to finding out what it's going to be in the end. *L*

Valentine's Day Yarn Bomb by day

2011-02-14T19:05:00.000-07:00

We went back in the late morning to get some better photos. Check out my flickr page for more.