Year of the Pig

My favorite Year of the Pig photo, from the Seoul Times.

Happy New Year!

Swatching Pole

One of the advantages of living in an older building is it's unique features. I love my very high ceilings, curved living room windows and odd shaped rooms, but what about the rather ugly water pipe in the kitchen? Why, start decorating it with crochet motifs and swatches. I've been crocheting some stitch pattern swatches and motifs. Here's the first of several adorning the kitchen water pipe. The motif: Pineapple S-737, found through Crochet Pattern Central
Size 10 JP Coats crochet thread, bridal blue
Size 6 hook
Approx 3 in. square

Toiling doilies

I never imagined I'd be crocheting doilies one day, but that's what I've been up to and finding it intriguing and fun. This is another pineapple motif doily for my mom. Same crochet thread and hook as the last. It measures 15 inches across. One more to go of the same for her. What could be next?

Happy Birthday, Sis!

Starting the New Year off with FOs

On New Year's Eve I finished sewing up and blocking a couple lingering crochet projects. First up, my first crochet garment - a granite vest. Not a fancy design but I learned a bit about fit, putting a piece of clothing together and the reverse crochet stitch. I picked the pattern up from a Patons booklet at Joann Fabrics. I used KnitPicks Andrean Treasure in granite. The only change I made was adding another round of single crochet around the neckband to decrease the depth of the V. If I made it again I'd make the shoulder straps shorter to fit me better. I'll probably frog this at some point-but that's okay as I learned alot from the process.

I finished this poncho awhile ago except for blocking it. When I saw my sister's gray poncho that she knitted, I wanted something similar! I used a pattern from the Garnsstudio website for a girl's poncho and figured if I used bulky yarn and a bigger hook it would turn out okay. It's 3 skeins of Sierra in mist. I may add a flower at the V-maybe one that can be removed at will.

Now to finish up my punchneedle and rug hooking projects. In the meantime, here's what I'm thinking about next for crochet, from Interweave Crochet Fall '06.

Petite Pineapples

I just finished blocking this doily and will send it off to my mom in the morning. She asked me to make her a set of blue doilies for the end tables in her living room. This was a fun and thankfully, easy pattern to do for my first thread crochet work.

The details: Petite Pineapple Doily

Thread: J&P Coats Royale size 10 crochet thread

Color: Bridal blue

Hook: size 6

Size after blocking: 9.5 inches

Peace on Earth

and joy to you

Nixed the Corkscrews

I tried a bunch of corkscrew combinations for the trim of the crocheted tassel bag- big ones, small ones, mixed colors, one color and I just couldn't come up with a combination I liked. So, I made a completely different trim that I instantly liked. I'm thinking this trim enlarged would make a nice scarf also. I ultimately decided to go with the crocheted straps instead of leather straps.
One of the reasons I liked this bag design was the clever use of 1/4 inch dowels in the top edge, making for a nice stiff opening. But once I tried it out, this is what happened! I decided that would drive me crazy. My solution was to sew the dowels inside the lining. No more poking dowels and I'm happy to use the bag.

Construction of a Bag Part Two

Here's the final putting together of the hooked handbag. Bear with me on the photos-they were taken at night with flash while I was working on the bag. First the lining was sewn in. The lining is about an inch larger than the width and and a little more than an inch longer than the length of the bag. I added a magnetic snap closure and an inside pocket.
To attach the handles I used handle straps and tabs from Tall Poppy, large rapid rivets from Tandy, along with a rivet setter. A hammer, tapestry needle, and small scissors were also used.
I prepped a hole for the rivet post with the tapestry needle. I also made a tiny snip in the lining to poke the post rivet through.
The post then was easily pushed through the back to the outside of the bag.
The handle strap ring was joined with the tab and the rivet cap was placed on top of the post.
The last step was placing the rivet setter on top of the cap and tapping it with the hammer to fasten the rivet. This is done on a hard, flat surface. The setter is rounded on one end so the dome of the cap doesn't get smashed.
The rest of the rivets were attached to the straps and bag. Easy!
And lastly, a shot of the finished bag at night. My camera hasn't been working so a proper photo in natural lighting will have to wait until I can borrow a camera. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. It took me awhile to find handles the length and style I wanted. I'm glad I waited until I found what I wanted.

Post Holiday Cooking

I figured before I give the stove a proper cleaning I'd do a little dying. After pre-soaking the wool in synthrapol, I dumped a variety of blue-greens, camels, and dark greens into the pot with laundry detergent. I let these cook to allow the colors to run onto each other and mute.
Here's the results. I'm thinking of using these for the background of a hooked rug stool.










While the wools were stewing I crocheted a swatch of the triple curve stitch used in a mobius pattern in the new Amazing Crochet Lace book by Doris Chan. I really like the stitch and the book is fantastic.

Construction of a Bag Part One

I found some (really bad) photos of the circles hooked bag I had taken while I was sewing it together. With this bag I decided to sew it the way kilim or mafrash bags are sewn - on the outside/wrong sides together. First I used a single strand of overdyed yarn and whipped the top edges of the bag.
I also whipped the top seam edges open to provide a bit more room when using the bag.
To sew up the side seams I first used a ladder stitch with a single strand of yarn. I covered this construction stitch up with a whip stitch using 2 yarn strands.
While I was sewing it up, I thought of another way to sew a hooked bag together. I'll have to try it on the next bag I make. Stay tuned for Part 2, putting in the lining and adding the handles.

Mulled Wine

It's a rainy, slow paced Sunday - the perfect kind of day to have some wine and cheese, watch a movie, and catch up on projects and blogging.

The yarn: Knitpicks Panache (cashmere, silk, alpaca, merino) oh so silky, smooth and soft, about 1.75 skeins
The color: mulled wine
The hook: size k
The pattern: Get the Skinny Scarves, from Interweave webcrochet

It's about 3 inches wide and 46 inches long. I wish I'd made it a little longer. Still, I'm pleased with it. I haven't blocked it yet. I'm not sure it necessarily needs it.

You gotta love Target

I was so happy to find that my local Target stocks Interweave Crochet. It also had Interweave's Holiday Gifts which has some nice things in it, but only 1 crochet piece. Target also had some cool, argyle over the knee socks - I'm wearing them in the photo.
The FO in the photo: a drawstring bag. I used the bikini bag pattern in "The Happy Hooker" book but changed the strap and added balls to the drawstrings. The yarn is Louet Avalan, linen and wool. Oh, and I'm wearing a crochet bracelet with little corkscrews. It also works as a necklace. I used pearl cotton I had in my embroidery tin.

More than a month later...

and November brings with it a new hard drive, some FO's, some WIP's, some discards, and some photos to recapture. Life has been a bit busy, while I also had a need to slow down. I'll try to catch up and post a few things I've been doing. I'll be enjoying this bobble hat. The pattern is from fable handmade goods. Jen has some lovely designs. The yarn I used was Plymouth Encore. Not a fancy yarn but I liked the color.
And I had enough yarn left to crochet this neckwarmer! It's not a pattern - just alternated single and double crochet stitches.

Voting Day

Yeah, it's been a couple weeks since I posted. No excuse really, although my camera seemed to have gotten the flu and refused to take any decent pictures. It did cooperate today. I made this bag from Interweave Crochet Spring '06. But I'm not a big tassle fan so I'm going to do some other sort of embellishment. Here's where you can vote again today (or for the first time if you didn't have primaries today). Please give me your opinions and suggestions!
Here's my changes: I used KnitPicks Sierra yarn. Instead of the crocheted handles I'm going with leather straps. The fabric is for the lining. The embellishment options: a line of little corkscrews or varying leaves and flowers. I'm also thinking maybe some sort of trim edging like an elaborate picot trim. The colors of the flower, etc are just a sample. So what do you think?

Other updates: my hooked bag is waiting for its handles to arrive in the mail and the spokes stool is about halfway done but looking different from my original vision. More photos soon if my camera decides it wants to be helpful.

Flowers and Vines Pouch

I finally got around to sewing up the flowers and vines pn embroidery. Now instead of using a plastic bag I have a pouch for carrying around current crochet projects.

And yesterday Ganesh Chaturthi began. Wouldn't it be great to go to India for the festival.

This, that, and the other thing

August has been full of a variety of small projects. Here's a sampling of some of them. "Zinni" is my first attempt at crocheting a Amigurumi toy. She was alot of fun to crochet, but less fun to sew together.

I crocheted a little (about 3x4) jewelry pouch for my mom to give her a yarn sample for some doilies she wants me to make for her. The very nice yarn is Jaeger Aqua, a mercerized cotton, and the color is water.
A long time ago I had gotten some Manos del Uruguay yarn for a rug hooking project. I decided to crochet a ruffle scarf with it. I think it'll make a festive scarf for the holidays.

And I started an easy, casual shawl. I'm really liking the pattern and the color of the wool, a soft Berroco Ultra Alpaca. The fabric in the background is going to be the lining for the hooked circle handbag. Have a nice weekend - hard to believe August is almost gone!

In the bag

The evenings and early mornings have been cool enough to hook and get the circles handbag done. It still needs to be steamed, and then sewn together and a lining put in. I haven't decided on a lining fabric yet or the type of handles or strap I want to use. I've been browsing online at M-J Trim, UMX, Tandy, Joann's, etc. Here's a picture of how it'll look when it's put together. It'll be about 11.5x7.5 inches, with a 2 in bottom.

And here's a close up!
Now I'm off to play tennis. It's a beautiful day!

Think Pink

There's something soothing and cozy about pale pink and that's why I used a light shade of pink for a couple scarves for The Think Pink Challenge (supports breast cancer awareness). I used the crochet cravat pattern from the One Skein book. I couldn't find an affordable bulky pale pink yarn at my local LYS's, so I used worsted weight Ultra Alpaca. I made the first scarf using one strand and K size hook. It's a fun, easy pattern and super quick and pleasant using a bamboo hook. The pic below shows me wearing both scarves. I hooked a second one (2nd pic) using a double strand and the K hook as I don't have a P size hook as recommended. The bulky yarn really does make the scarf. I'll definitely be making more!

Blocking the Bamboo Scarf

A quick picture while I'm pinning down the bamboo scarf. Woolcott Yarns in Cambridge is having a sale tomorrow so I'm browsing my potential patterns in preparation. More tomorrow!