Dishcloths and Cat Toys

Over the last 2 months I have slowly knit these 3 dishcloths.  I've worked on them during movie nights, because I can knit these simple dishcloths with my eyes closed.

We love going to Hershey Park every Summer, so I couldn't wait to make this Hershey Kiss dishcloth in memory of all of the fun that we have had there (including when I was a kid myself).  Here is the free pattern.

I made 2 cat toys that can hang from a door knob.  Inside of the ball part is a plastic jingle ball cat toy.  We just got 2 new kittens this month, and they have had fun playing with their new toy.  Here is the free pattern.  I just added 10 more chain stitches to the blue area to make one of them longer.

Diamond Overlay Dishcloth

I finished crocheting this dishcloth the other day.  Making the diamonds was a new technique for me.  Its always good to learn new techniques.  This pattern came from one of those thin booklets, "Contest Favorites Dishcloths: 17 Best Designs from the Crochet With Heart Dishcloth Contest."  I got it for Christmas from my parents.  I'm currently crocheting a 2nd dishcloth from the book.  Right now I'm concentrating on the single color dishcloths from the book.

Halloween Kitchen Items

I finished crocheting this Halloween hot pad set this week for myself.  I was inspired by the colors of candy corn.

Here is the pattern for these hot pads.

Here is the pattern for these hot pads.

These Halloween coasters were easy to make, and took only 1 day to crochet.

Yesterday I knitted this candy corn dishcloth.  Here is the pattern for it.

Crayon Swap Package & Other Items

Before the Summer I lead a swap called the Crayon Swap.  We each picked a color that we wanted someone to make things for us in, and then we each made items in that color for the other person.  Recently I found out that one person's partner never followed through with the swap; so, I made her a bunch of things with her color in mind (turquoise) as an angel gift.  An angel gift is when someone sends something to another person without wanting anything more than a thank you in return.  The diamond patterned item is a notebook made from a juice pouch cardboard box.  There is a crochet soda tab flower pin, a plastic bottle cap pincushion that looks like a flower, a juice pouch notebook, a juice pouch coin purse, a small drawstring bag made from a t-shirt sleeve, 5 paper bead stitch markers, an artist trading card (my drawing), a crochet cotton scrubby, a crochet cotton dishcloth, and a crochet cotton floral hot pad.  She received everything last week and loved them all.  I'm so happy that she liked everything and that she got something from this swap.

Here is a close up of the hot pad.

Here is a close up of the scrubby.  Normally I knit scrubbies, but I found a crochet pattern for them.  It works the same way as the knit one: increase on one side and decrease on the other side, then do a running stitch on the sides to make the top and bottom like a circle / spiral.  Very easy.

The top stitch markers are the blue paper beads ones that I made for her.  I'm new at making stitch markers, so they aren't perfect. I found some cool skull beads at the craft store, and made some fun Halloween stitch markers for myself.

Here is the front of a card that I drew and mailed to a friend recently.

I then took an out of date calendar and made an envelope out of the October page.

Here is one of the Summer months calendar page turned into an envelope.

Here is a recent artist trading card (ATC) that I made using watercolor paints and a black pen.  An ATC is 3.5" x 2.5" - the same size as a baseball trading card.

ETA: Here are more photos of the swap package.

Vacation Crafting

We just got back from vacation last week.  I only turned on my computer once during the trip, and that was to make more room on my camera.  I'm going to be making two blog posts, and both will be kind of long so that I can show you everything.  This one will be all crafty goodness, and the other one will be photos from my trip.  I am loving my photos these days, and it feels good that my dad the photographer thinks that they are great.  Now on with the crafty goodness.

I finally finished this Buddha 2 weeks ago before we left on your trip.  He is 15 inches tall sitting and 24 inches tall standing.  He took me a few weeks to make, because I had a lot going at the time.  You can find the pattern here: http://craftingenue.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/littleuns-lotus-buddha.pdf

He's a birthday present for a friend of ours (my husband and myself).  Our friend loved him.  He said that Buddha is in full lotus on his shelf.

I also finished crocheting 3 more Ocean Grove washcloths 2 weeks ago.

I made my 4 year old son this rainbow bunny in time for him to sleep with him on our first night away from home.  He had also brought the other two bunnies that I made him to sleep with.  He picked out the yarn and said that he wanted a rainbow bunny.  The eyes are made from eco-fi felt.  I left off the mouth because no one thought that he needed one.

Here are all 3 of his bunnies in the bed that he slept in at his grandparents' house.  He picked out the colors for all 3 of them.  Blue bunny, Rainbow bunny, and Cookie.  

I started crocheting the orange amigurumi monster from Lily's Sugar'n Cream's Bright Ideas book last Friday.  It was hard to work on it during our trip, because I had to keep count of the rows.  Thats hard to do when people are talking to you, lol.  Its going to be a Christmas present for my 4 year old.  I want to make him all four monsters from the book.  It is one of those mini paper back books that you see next to the yarn.

While at my mom's house I saw this really cool looking scrubby in her sink that looked like brain coral.  She just made up the pattern.  Mine is tighter than hers, but then she didn't really give me much in the way of a pattern.  She just said to double every stitch.  Her center was much more open than mine.  I used the sparkly red Christmas cotton yarn and an I hook.  I single crochet 8 times into the center loop, then I doubled every stitch until I achieved the size that I wanted.  This could be used in the kitchen or in the shower.  I finished crocheting it yesterday as we were driving through New York.  I want to make another one using the white Christmas cotton yarn, but using either a hdc or dc instead of sc.

With the left over rainbow bunny yarn, I started making a large granny square blanket for my 4 year old. He fell in love with the one that I made for my mother-in-law 10 years ago.  He asked for a rainbow one.  Right now everything has to be either rainbow or blue with him, so I'm going to use both of those in this blanket.  This is how far I got last Sunday before I ran out of yarn.  I bought more yarn today, and have started using aqua yarn.

I'm starting to feel the Christmas crafting bug coming on.

Ocean Grove Round Washcloth

I started crocheting this washcloth Sunday night while having a special dinner at my yoga teacher's house.  I finished it yesterday.  I'm thinking about giving it to my yoga teacher as a thank you for hosting the dinner party (it was part of a weight loss & yoga combo class that I've been taking for a few weeks).  The washcloth was very easy to make, and it would be very easy to make it larger.  The pattern was free on Lion Brand's website: Ocean Grove Round Washcloth.

More Blossom Hot Pads

I've been slowly working on this blossom hot pad for Easter.  To me Easter colors are purple and yellow.   Yes pastels and white are totally Easter colors, but purple and yellow really say Easter to me.  What's funny is that they are pretty much the colors shown on the pattern's picture, except my purple is much deeper.  Last night I had to frog an entire round, because I crochet into the front stitches instead of the back ones.  I only have 2 more rounds to go before I'm done.

I finished this one last week.  I reversed the red and orchid / dark pink colors that I had used when making the 2nd blossom hot pad.  The darker color (red in this case) looks better in the back.  I used up all of the red and dark pink skeins of cotton making the two red ones.  The center yarn is the same as the other red one.  Its a self striping yarn, so thats why it looks different.  I still have a good bit of it left over even though it was small to begin with.  

Here is my current crafting bag.  Its packed with a variety of cotton yarn, the blossom dishcloth pattern, scissors, a crochet hook, needles (in an Altoid container), my kindle, a notebook, a jelly jar (it contains threaded needles (this needs to be removed from my bag), some soda tab bracelets (those also need to be removed), and a Leapster 2 handheld system for my youngest son (he needs something to do while out and about as well).  The bag itself is a reusable shopping bag.  Normally I use something more fun, but this bag was around when I needed one.  

After I finish this blossom hot pad, I want to experiment with crocheting soda tabs some more.  I want to figure out how to crochet a soda tab bag.  I know that there are patterns out there for it, but they cost money.  I can buy one, but I would rather figure it out myself.  Thats part of the fun.

Blossom Dishcloth & Soda Tab Bracelet

True to my word, I made another blossom dishcloth (hot pad to me).  This one is for the crayon swap that I am in.  I am making my partner lots of red things.  I started another one for her yesterday, but I reversed the two solid colors.

I actually found the pattern for this on ravelry so that I can share it with all of you.  The original pattern was from one of those freebie patterns in front of the Lily's Sugar'n Cream yarn at Michaels.  This is a good stash-busting project.  The center doesn't use much yarn.  It looks like you can make 2 to 3 of these using the same 3 skeins of yarn.  

I made another crochet soda tab bracelet for the swap as well.  I used a thinner cotton yarn than I did with the blossom dishcloth.  This yarn I actually got from someone in a swap last year.  I used an F hook and 12 soda tabs (vs the 14 in the pattern).  My swap partner's wrist is the same measurement as mine, so I know that it will fit her.  Plus she has daughters, so she can give the bracelets to them if she doesn't want them.  I gave the green one that I had made to my 3 year old for St. Patrick's Day.  He loves wearing it.

Blossom Dishcloth

The other day I needed to pick up some supplies for my class from Michaels.  On an end cap was my favorite yarn, Lily's Sugar'n Cream.  It might seem strange that that is my favorite yarn, but I really love cotton yarn.  Anyway, hanging up in front of the yarn was one of those free patterns.  I knew that this was one pattern that would be made/used within a week.  So last night I went through my Lily's Sugar'n Cream stash and followed the free pattern.  I finished it today.  I love it.  It doesn't look like a dishcloth to me, and I don't plan on using it as one.  I'm thinking hot pad.  I plan on making a few more starting tonight.

When I showed my husband the finished product he said, "Wow!  It doesn't look like a wreck anymore."  He saw the beginning stages of this project and it did look like a weird mess.  I can't wait to make more.

Bottle Cap Pumpkin & Zero Waste

I having been saving my plastic bottle caps for at least a year now in the hopes of making some cool projects with them. I have done a few things with them so far. See last year's plastic bag wreath and this year's Halloween wreath. I wanted to see if my small hole punch would work on the bottle caps. It did! Oh the possibilities! I punched 4 holes in all of my small orange bottle caps last night. Then using all purpose thread and a tapestry needle, I strung them together to form a circle. I then punched a few holes in 3 green (Sprite) bottle caps for the stem of the bottle cap pumpkin. Now what to do with it? Do I glue it to felt and make a trivet? Do I glue it to something else and make a wall hanging? I'm not sure. However the hole punch opens up a whole world of ideas for ornaments for Christmas this year.

In 7 days I have made 7 knitted items using 4 whole skeins of yarn and a third of 2 other skeins of yarn. Six dishcloths and 1 hot pad. Not bad for single skein September. Also not bad for making gifts for Christmas. There are also 4 birthdays coming up that I need to make and / or buy for.

I started participating in zero waste week last Wednesday. I follow Julia on Easy Eco To Go. She has completed 3 weeks without filling up a whole trash bag! You can follow here journey called Bash The Trash on her blog. One of my biggest obstacles is my family. Why do I keep finding banana peels in the trash can? Zero waste does not mean that you don't throw anything in the trash. It means throwing as little away as possible. Can you recycle the item via your town, a store (like recycling ink cartridges or cell phones), or in your own home by crafting with it? Can it be composted? When shopping, think about the packaging of what you are buying. How much of the packaging can be recycled? How much of it will go in the trash? Also think about buying reusable items vs disposable. Handkerchiefs vs tissues, cloth napkins vs paper napkins, dishcloths and dish towels vs paper towels and sponges, items like the Diva Cup vs tampons, etc. So far so good. Today is day 7 and I don't have any trash to throw out tomorrow (trash day). I made a few flannel hankies just in time for a cold to hit my house. My husband said he wasn't going to use them until he found out that they get softer after every wash.