Tag Archives: postaweek2011

March 8, 2011 · 4:55 pm

Idea – Granny “Circle” Seat Covers

This post gave me an idea to make round seat covers in the “granny square” style.  Of course, click on the photo to see the original WP’s (WordPresser’s) post.

I’ve actually never been very fond of making granny squares – not because they are difficult though; they aren’t.  A good granny square however, calls for finishing off and changing colors on every round as seen here.  This isn’t hard either, but I really just enjoy the “mindless” portion of my projects when I can stitch and stitch and stitch each row.  It’s relaxing to me.  But with a good granny, you have to stop after each round and start again.  Anyway, that’s why I don’t do granny squares very often.

The chairs I have in mind for this project have round seats instead of square.  So I will have to do an uneven number of  clusters on the first row.  This should be a pretty quick and easy one to make up.

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March 8, 2011 · 8:02 am

The First Lacy Afghan

I finally found this picture.  I knew I had it somewhere.  This was the first time I made the “Timeless Lace” afghan mentioned in my previous Lacy Afghan post.

This is my Aunt Becky on the left at Christmas oh…what, 10 or 11 years ago I guess?  Gosh I don’t remember.  Maybe more than that.   The Timeless Lace afghan was her present that year.

This picture was taken in my Grandma and Grandpa Showers’ living room.  I can just feel the bustle of activity at the big family Christmas get-together when I look at this picture.  {Insert warm fuzzy here.}

Grandma is gone now, but see the ribbon goldfish mobile hanging in front of the window in the background?  That was hers, and Grandpa was nice enough to let me have that after she passed.  It’s hanging in front of the window in my livingroom now.  I just love it, and I think of her every time I look at it!

Anyway.  Sorry, I digress.  Back to the afghan.  I remember Aunt Becky being very excited when I gave this to her that year and I hope that she has enjoyed it!

I believe I’ve made two more of these afghans using this pattern.  If you received one of them, please send me a picture and I’ll post it!

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March 7, 2011 · 7:15 pm

Disappointing Delicious Pullover

Just to be clear to begin with, this is NOT made with the red sparkle yarn I harvested the other day.

This is a very pretty sweater for which the pattern was included in the January 2011 issue of Crochet! magazine called “Berry Delicious Pullover.”   It was made with Red Heart Sparkle, medium worsted weight yarn.  The design on the piece is made with a modified puff stitch they call the berry stitch.  The pyramids of berries on the waist and the sleeves and the inverted pyramid on the collar are really very neat.  All other stitches are single crochet with increasing and decreasing for shaping.

I must say however, that I am extremely disappointed.  It looks nice enough right? Yeah, well I had a couple different issues with this thing.

The Pattern – There were multiple errors in the sizing of this pattern.  I made the medium size and found as I worked that the optional number of stitches for the various sizing were not always correct  (Sc in each of next 4[4, 6, 6, 6, 8] sts – for XS, S, M, L, XL & 2XL, for example.)  A few rows even left out a whole section of the row that had to be worked.  Normally when I work on a project, I have to tell myself, “Just trust the pattern.  It will work out alright.” if I find myself having trouble seeing the pattern doing what I think it is supposed to do.  But I got to the point as I worked with this pattern that I could not trust that it wasn’t me doing something wrong instead of the pattern being in correct.   I don’t think that this pattern was tested in all sizes before it was published.  Very disappointing, and I’ll be hesitant to crochet something like this from Crochet! for some time.

My Gauge – Oh boy…  I made this sweater intending it for myself.  I’ve never made myself a sweater before – just others. So I wanted something pretty to wear that I had made.  Let me say this.  I DID check my gauge!  The medium size is supposed to have a 37 1/2 inch bust, which is larger than what I needed, but the next size down was too small.  When I finished it up and tried it on, it sort of fit, but not really.  I could get it on, but it was a really close, snug fit – not at all the relaxed comfortable fit displayed in the  product picture.  I won’t wear it.  It’s just too snug, probably closer to a 32 than a 37 1/2.  And I won’t go back and make another one either considering all the mistakes in the pattern.  Which again cause me to wonder if I made a mistake in my gauge, or if the pattern’s sizing was actually incorrect.  Medium actually equaled extra small I think.

I’m very bummed.  Anyway, maybe I’ll try and sell it on Etsy or something.  It is very pretty once I got past the pattern errors and got it finished.  Just not for me.  Will anyone who is on the tiny side (or with a pre-teen daughter maybe) give me $25 for it?  If you do, and you send me pictures of her modeling it I will post here!  Lots of hours went into working this up.  Ha!

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March 7, 2011 · 7:20 am

Idea – Frog Hat

I found this idea on Etsy.  Click on the picture to go to the item for sale on Etsy itself.  It’s a custom order item for $56.00.  Yeah, I’ll do it myself.

I have a Shetland Sheepdog named Fuzzy Prince. (Seriously.  That was his name when we adopted him.)   Due to his name, he of course needs to be a frog for Halloween sometime, and this is the perfect piece for me to make for him.  I could also make a little crown to add too!

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March 6, 2011 · 8:25 am

Pocketed Scarf

This, ladies and gentlemen, is my Mom!   I had made several scarves before Christmas thinking I would give them as Christmas presents.  But then I had another idea for presents.  So I “scrapped” the scarf idea and put the ones I had already made aside for the time being.

My Mom then recently mentioned that scarves were so “in” this year, and I asked her if she wanted one.  So I took the three I had made over to her and let her pick the one she wanted.

I have an MP (mass-produced) scarf that has pockets in it and I just love it.  I can put my hat and gloves in the pockets when not in use and they don’t get lost!  So I decided to make some of my own.  The pockets are very easy to do.  They’re just slip stitch joined with the right-sides facing at both ends and then turned right-side out.

I also decided to do cable stitches to make it even more interesting.  This is a very simple four-stitch cable where the cables wrap around each other in pairs.  If anyone would like the pattern let me know and I’ll be glad to post it.

Sorry for the slight blur of the detail pic.  I thought I’d gotten a clear shot.

Thanks to Mom for agreeing to appear on the site.  Hope you enjoy!

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March 5, 2011 · 1:19 pm

Idea – Spiderman Afghan

Awhile back I saw a picture of a Spiderman Afghan while I was surfing the net.  I immediately thought that I needed to make one for each of my nephews!  The site I found it on had no pattern but that wasn’t a big deal.  The ripple baby afghan that I’ve made probably a dozen times (I actually haven’t posted about that yet) would work perfectly just by modifying the colors and adding the rounds of black.

When I went searching for the picture again to include on this post I found a LOT of them.  (Go ahead.  Google images for “Spiderman Afghan” and see how many you get.) And one of them even linked to (drumroll please) a pattern!  Click on the image for the link to the website with this pattern.  After looking through the pattern I’m not actually sure if I will use it or not.  I already had some ideas for how to modify my ripple baby afghan so I might just do that.  But this gives me an option anyway.

I’m feeling Christmas presents for the nephews this year!

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March 5, 2011 · 10:27 am

Idea – Flower Cards

My next idea comes from a fellow blogger’s post on making crocheted flowers.  (Click on the photo so see the original post.)   Now I’ve seen this before, and I’ve done this before too.  But this time I was struck with the idea to make some flowers that my Sister-in-Law can use to put on the cards she makes.  You can see her Etsy store Here!

I’ve seen cards with crocheted embellishments attached and they’re really cute, but I’m not really into card making myself.  But maybe LuAnn can get some use out of them!

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March 5, 2011 · 9:37 am

Idea – Vintage Placemats

I have been having a really good time using the Word Press Tag Surfer lately.  I get to see a lot of different posts from other people with the same tags as those in my posts.  The problem is, seeing everyone’s wonderful projects gives me all sorts of really good ideas!  So today I thought I would actually start keeping track of those ideas for future projects in a new Category.  That way I don’t forget them!  Now knowing myself, I’m likely to build up lots and lots of ideas and never have time to get to them.  But at least I’ll have the option!

My first idea comes from a fellow bloggers post about a gift she received from her mother of some vintage placemats.   (Click on the photo to see her original post.)  They are just beautiful (and the lovely daffodils really piqued my yearning for spring.)

My idea is to get some vintage material from a thrift store and use it as the center of a doily/table-cloth/table runner or of course another placemat. 

I could use material from clothes or a dress, or whatever, and crochet the edging and make some really neat pieces out of them.

Don’t tell her, but I think my Mom might like a table runner like this.

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March 3, 2011 · 10:07 am

Super-Duper Yarn Ball Winder

I am so excited.  I finally broke down and bought something that I have been wanting to add to my collection of crocheting tools for quite some time.  It’s the U-nitt Professional Yarn Ball Winder.  And it really is super-duper! 

There are, as with just about anything, lots of different models of yarn winders.  And since I was going to spend the money on it, I splurged for a really GOOD one.  This baby is a JUMBO winder and can wind up to 9-10 oz skeins.  It’s also “high-speed,” which doesn’t mean that you can turn the crank really fast (you don’t need to.)  It just means that with every single turn of the handle, the yarn is wound 13 times!   Woah!

It’s a good sturdy, heavy-duty metal winder instead of cheaper plastic one too.  It has a clamp on the bottom so I can attach it to just about any table top.

So, how much did I spend for this super-duper tool?  Well, I Ebayed it and spent $35.  I thought it was a reasonable price.  And this little beauty will save me hours of winding balls by hand, not to mention tired muscles.

I was nearly bouncing when I got home from work last night and the package had arrived.  It had about a million miles of bubble wrap around it and when I finally got that removed I took it to the kitchen table and attached the yarn guide with a wrench.  Then I was off.  I was having silly fun winding yarn, and Husband was all but rolling his eyes at me.

I got so many left-over skeins of yarn wound last night it was insane!    This tool will also be incredibly useful in my recycled yarn project.

Stitched in Love,

Tatha

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February 27, 2011 · 9:31 pm

Recycled Yarn

I got the most wonderful idea today when reading over a fellow wordpresser’s blog.  In her post Unraveling, this fellow crafter talked about buying a sweater at a thrift store, unraveling the stitches, and using the yarn to make a hat.  I was completely inspired by this idea!

I love shopping at thrift stores.  I must admit when it comes to clothing I am very cheap.  I am usually very unwilling to pay $35 for a blouse, $50 for a pair of pants, or $75 for a suit or dress.  But I do like having cute clothes.  So I defer to thrift store shopping.  Most of my cutest outfits have come from thrift stores. 

You have to be patient when thrift shopping though.  There are a lot of very ugly pieces among the racks of second-hand clothes and you have to be in the mood to spend time sifting through the clutter to find anything good.  Sometimes you come away without having found anything.  Sometimes you hit the jackpot and come home with what would normally be $100 worth of clothes for $25.  Often you find things that still have the original price tag on them, having never been worn.

So I’m going to combine these two pleasures.  I’m going to the thrift store after I get off work tomorrow night, find the ugliest sweater I can, rip it out and see if I can make some great new crocheted project from it.  (This little exercise also has the potential to reduce my yarn budget too.)  I can’t wait to get started and see what happens!

Stitched in Love,

Tatha

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