UFO Day was on July 2nd, so I drew this in celebration of it. The alien in the center is from the PIXAR short called Lifted.
For a May bead challenge I made this simple crochet beaded necklace. It is just a chain stitch with some beads added every few stitches.
I made another fair isle heart Christmas ornament. I made my fist one back in December or January. The stuffing is a little lumpy in it. Here is the
free chart for it.
Then I made an ivy leaf fair isle ornament next. Here is the
free chart for it. I used Cascade Cherub DK yarn and size 2 dons to make both ornaments.
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This seems to be the year of the afghan for me. I keep starting, and sometimes finishing, afghans this year.
A friend made a granny square just like this one, and I just had to try to make one myself. I figured out the pattern on my own, but apparently there is a pattern for it somewhere out there.
This fat afghan only took me 11 days to make. I used size 35 knitting needles, and I held 4 strands of yarn together while making it (1 chunky, 2 worsted, and 1 dk). If you count all 4 strands as 1, then it took about 800 yards to make. Everyone in my house loves snuggling under it, which is why it is staying in the living room. I need to make each of my kids one that they can keep in their room.
Last night I finished this mosaic afghan. I used 13.6 skeins of Bernat Mosaic yarn in the Mineral color way. It took me 3 months to make, and it is the 2nd time that I have made one of these afghans. You'll probably see a 3rd one from me at some point, because I just bought 10 skeins of one color and 4 skeins of another color of this yarn that was on clearance today. Here is the
free pattern for it.
I've also made more granny squares (more than what is shown) for this Cascade Pinwheel join-as-you-go afghan. I am alternating between color #4 and color #15 for the rounds. I might even throw some color #5 into the mix since it is very similar to color #4. The join-as-you-go black border is Cascade Pacific yarn. You might start to notice from this blog post that I use a lot of Cascade yarn for my projects. It is currently my favorite brand of yarn.
Here is the pattern that I'm using for the squares, and
here are directions for the join-as-you-go method.
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You can just call me the bag lady with all of the bags that I make. I love this bag, because it shows off the color changes in the Cascade Pinwheel yarn and it makes an awesome market bag. I've been using it a lot when grocery shopping. It is definitely a conversation starter at checkout.
Here is the free pattern for it.
I finally got around to making another
Mermaid's Tears purse. This one is for display at my job (at a LYS). I used 3 skeins of Plymouth Yarn's Encore, one in each color, to make it. The trick is to use the top border color in the back of the crocodile stitches, that way you don't need to buy 4 skeins of yarn. I plan on teaching how to make it in the Fall.
Using
this afghan pattern, I made this great project bag. I made 2 squares and a long rectangle using James C. Brett Marble Chunky yarn and a size J hook, then I joined them together, crochet around the whole top, and added the handle. It was very easy to make. I used about 1.5 skeins of the yarn to make it, however one of my students made a smaller version using only 1 skein of the same yarn.
Last week I also made a simple liner for the bag using leftover fabric from the first quilt that I had ever made.
This is the 6th bag that I've made using one of
my published patterns. Its a little smaller than the others that I have made, but I really like. I love the color, and I was able to use up some of my cotton stash in the process.
You can't be a bag lady without having something to collect bags in, so I made this 3 eyes clutter eating monster. Here is the
free pattern for it.
I had so much fun making the clutter eating monster that I made another one that looks like Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc.
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Here are some more charity hats that I have made for
Click for Babies /
A Child's Light. I like to use Cascade Yarns to make them with.
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I have been making a lot of dishcloths lately, because I'm trying to use up my cotton stash.
crochet basket weave
For my birthday I got 2 books on Bavarian crochet, so I made this hot pad using one of the patterns.
I just made up this Mike Wazowski dishcloth.
You can really tell that I was using up leftover skeins of yarn to make 2 of these dishcloths.
I finished another Tunisian crochet strawberry fields cloth last month. I used Cascade Avalon yarn this time around. It is a very durable cotton yarn that is still nice to the touch. Here are my notes on how to make it:
The math is multiples of 8 plus 3, so I chained 35 sts for mine (8 x 4 = 32 + 3 = 35). I did 2 complete rows of single stitch in red (that means picking up stitches in one direction and passing back through them in the other direction twice). Red: single st in the next 3 bars, double st in the next bar 5 times, repeat to the end making sure that the last 3 stitches are single stitches. Red: Pass back through all of the stitches Green: single stitch through the next 3 bars, in the cluster single stitch through each of the 5 cluster stitches then yarn over and pull through all 5 stitches, yarn over and pull through that last stitch one more time. Repeat making sure that the last 3 bars are single stitched through. Green: Pass back through all of the stitches You can push the bobbles through to the front with your finger. Now repeat 2 - 6 but this time start by single stitching into the first 5 stitches (instead of the first 3) so that you off set the bobbles / strawberries. Repeat 2 - 7 until you have the height that you want. Repeat row 1
