Tag Archives: variegated yarn

July 8, 2014 · 5:39 pm

Cotton Rounds

Cotton Rounds 2It’s not very often that I make something for myself.  But I took a break over the last couple of days and did just that.  I saw a pin on Pinterest for a pattern in a UK crochet magazine that was an idea I could really use. cotton roundsI like to use cotton rounds to clean my face with astringent.

Even at 35 (Oops. There it is.)  it’s still the only way I feel like I’ve gotten the dirt and oil off my skin.  I fell in love with cotton rounds instead of cotton balls when I found them.  But I’m constantly buying new and throwing them away.  These rounds are also made of cotton, but are reusable.  I tried them out already and they work great.  The pin I saw on these looked like it was just one round but that seemed too small to me, so I did a second round of single crochet.  But after using them I think the single round (I did treble crochets) would work fine.

Finished Size:

1.5 – 2 inches wide

Required materials:
  • Cotton yarn
  • Size F Crochet Hook

Cotton Round:

Round 1: In a magic ring, ch 3, treble crochet 19, join with sl st in beg ch 3. Tighten the magic ring until the center hole is about the size of a pencil.

Optional Round 2: Ch 1, 2 sc in same st and in each around, join with sl st in first sc. Finish off.

Rope

Chain 35, sl st in 5th ch from hook and in each across to beg chain, 9 sc in beg ch. Finish off.

Weave all yarn ends.  Wash prior to use according to yarn label.  Thread the rounds onto the rope and hang near your bathroom sink.

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July 7, 2014 · 11:05 am

A Gift For Me

Pot holdersIt’s not often that I get a crocheted gift from someone else.  But my friend Kay from church brought me these two lovely pot holders yesterday.  This is absolutely perfect because I had just been thinking I needed to make myself a pot holder to keep at work for when I microwave my lunch and carry it back to my desk (which is more often than not.)  So now I don’t have to, and I’ll think of her every time I warm up a lunch at work.  Plus, I have two so if one gets soiled I can take it home to wash and still have another to use.  And have I ever mentioned how much I love variegated yarn?  Finally, it doesn’t hurt that all colors bluish-green (teal, turquoise etc) are my favorite!

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June 22, 2014 · 9:52 pm

May – Square Nine

May – Square Nine

If you haven’t noticed, I have been using yarn from my stash to make each of my squares and not buying any new.  As a result, I’ve been using different yarn types together where I normally never would.  The most common example of this has been using worsted weight Red Heart yarn with the lighter Caron Simply Soft.  But this is more of a sampler piece, so that rule is temporarily suspended.  Because the weights and textures are different, I often have to change the size of the crochet hook I’m using in order to maintain the same gauge after changing yarns.

May’s first square is another extremely simple Granny, however I found a lovely variegated cotton yarn in my stash that I used to make my family dish cloths for Christmas a few years back.  The color just said “May” to me and the cotton texture will definitely stand out in the finished afghan.

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June 18, 2014 · 10:41 pm

April – Square Seven

April – Square Seven

April’s first square is a daffodil.  To give credit, I got the pattern here on Craftsy, for $3.99 but the pattern actually irritated me quite a bit.

It was very poorly written.  Many of the instructions were incomplete and unprofessional.  For example, when changing colors the instructions failed to indicate to finish off.  This even included the end of the pattern.  This may seem obvious, but most crochet instructions indicate that you should not finish off unless instructed to do so.

Some of the spacing  in attaching the daffodil petals to the green were just wrong in my opinion.  Also, the language used for many crochet instructions was not what is normally used in pattern instructions.  “Sc into ring” is used instead of “sc in ring.”  Into is just not necessary.  “Arches” is used instead of ch-2 space.

I did not like how the block went from circle to square by working 3 dcs in between stitches instead of having made a ch 1 space in the previous row for that purpose as is usual with granny squares.

captured_by_snapseed_28_1The pattern is marked as easy but I strongly disagree with that.  I was able to figure it out and get it to work, however I don’t think that a beginner would have been able to pick it up and get a good result without help.  For example, a picot stitch is used for the tip of the flower petals, however the pattern does not give specific stitch instructions for a picot.  There are two issues with this.  One: A picot is not a beginner stitch, it is a more advanced stitch.  Two:  There can be different ways of doing a picot so stitches like this should never be assumed.  Additionally, 3-d work and shaping are generally not considered beginner level.  I would really consider this more intermediate to advanced.

Finally, the thing that irritated me the most is the trumpet of the daffodil.  The instructions say to work a round of single crochet in the front loop only of round 1.  This would be great except that round 2 was NOT worked only in the back loop of round 1 so it was extremely difficult to work into the front loop of round 1.

All that being said, the square turned out very charming with another 3-d aspect.  But I think I’ll take time tomorrow to rewrite the pattern and make these corrections mentioned and see if it turns out any better.

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June 17, 2014 · 3:33 pm

March – Square Six

March – Square Six

March – Square Six

I’m finally back on the Granny Squares.  This shamrock square turned out really cute.  It’s hard to see in this picture, however the square is crocheted behind the shamrock giving it a 3D quality.

The shamrock is worked first and I used the same shamrock as my St. Patrick’s Day Garland. The rest is worked the same as  January’s Square One again, starting with round 2 joined to the back of the shamrock.  It is really easier than it might seem.

This square, as with all of them really, will look much better after I get it blocked.

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March 2, 2014 · 3:59 pm

St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock Garland

St. Patrick's Day Shamrock Garland

St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock Garland

$7 on Etsy! Decorate your front door, kid’s bedroom, or even your cubicle at work for St. Patrick’s Day with this delightful strand of festive shamrock garland. Seven lucky shamrock’s adorn this 48″ hand crocheted strand of garland. Click on the picture to purchase on Etsy!

Shamrock

This garland is made with variegated yarn therefore each strand will be completely unique.

Price INCLUDES first class shipping via USPS to the United States.

Need something longer with more shamrocks? Contact me and we can talk!

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July 30, 2011 · 10:49 am

Hooded Baby Blanket

So I made this afghan a few weeks ago.  I had been holding off on crocheting anything for the baby for a couple different reasons.  First, I felt so crappy during my first trimester that I didn’t even feel like crocheting anything for two full months after I found out I was pregnant.  And second, I wanted to wait until we found out if we were having a boy or a girl so that I could crochet in appropriate colors.  But fortunately I started feeling better at just under 3 months, and at about a week before my sonogram at 19 weeks I couldn’t stand it anymore and had to crochet something.

A fellow blogger had posted this baby blanket (pictured at right) she had designed on The Blue Brick and a few of us who commented on the post were able to convince her to write out the pattern.  She did so, and graciously shared the pattern!  Click on the picture with the yellow hood to see the pattern.

Since we didn’t yet know the sex of the baby I didn’t want to crochet my traditional Ripple Baby Afghan yet.  So I opted for this great little piece in neutral colors.  It’s very simply done in rounds of double crochets with shell increases at the corners of each round, and was very enjoyable to work on on my bus ride into work a few days that week.  Once I got up to the last round and the hood I decided put the piece down for a few days until after the sonogram and then do it in either peach or blue.  As you can see I did peach.  Yes, we are having a little girl!  I did struggle with the pattern on the hood a little bit and I could not get it to come out quite like the original picture, but it’s a really cute piece and lovely for the first afghan that I have crocheted for my daughter!

This did get me thinking though.  I’ll still do my traditional  Ripple Baby Afghan, but I should probably also design my own baby afghan in honor of my baby girl.  I think I’ll do something in white that we can use for her Baby Blessing – perhaps with some pink ribbon embellishments.  But I can’t decide if I want to do something square or another version of a ripple afghan.  We’ll have to see about that.

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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 21, 2011 · 3:49 pm

Fisherman’s Crochet Pullover

I made this sweater for my Husband’s birthday this month.  It turned out great!   The pattern comes from the Craft Yarn Council’s website here.    Instead of white yarn, I used Fishermen’s Wool from Lion Brand in “Oak Tweed.”

I’ve made this sweater three times now and it is still the most difficult pattern I have ever used.  The cable stitches in the Celtic Knot are challenging themselves and are created by using front-post double crochets, skipping stitches and working in front of or behind previous stitches to pick up the skipped stitch.  But it is difficult to follow the pattern itself as well as some of the raglan shaping is not very clear.  I need to just rewrite this pattern for myself. 

In addition, the pattern for the Celtic Knot itself is actually not accurate.  The knot is supposed to weave “over-under-over” or “under-over-under” for each cable.  However the given pattern does not do this.  Some of them go “over-over-under” and vice-versa, and even “over-over-over.”  They have actually updated this pattern since the first time I found it on the site and it now includes a diagram of  how the cables are woven for the knot.  It appears, according to this diagram, that the given pattern is intentional – not a mistake.  Fortunately, I have another pattern book with cable patterns which includes this same Celtic Knot – woven correctly.  So I worked from both patterns as I made this sweater.  I actually did not even realize that the pattern for the knot was incorrect until this time around.  I must have made the previous two “incorrectly.”

But regardless, my Husband has a new sweater – challenging or not.  And I have to say that it looks great on him!  Happy Birthday Baby!

(Most Definitely) Stitched in Love,

Tatha

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December 28, 2010 · 8:33 am

Bubble Gum Hat & Scarf

This is my Niece, Kaeli, and the first of the Christmas presents that I will post for this year.  I had this yarn that I had started a knitting project with but never finished.  I had wanted to learn how to knit and picked up a book and taught myself the basics.  But I just don’t enjoy it as much as crocheting so I’ve all but given it up. 

So instead I decided to use the rest of the yarn for this set.  The yarn is bulky and fun.  The colors make me think of bubble gum and just seemed perfect for a little girl.  It is hard to work with though as you can’t really see your own stitches in the last row or round, and I had to crochet it mostly by feel of where the loops were.  The Scarf was a little easier than the hat as I just used a single crochet and chain one stitch.  That way I could single crochet each row in the spaces from the previous row, making it much easier to feel where to insert the hook. 

I had to modify the pattern for the hat slightly so it wouldn’t be too big for a little girl’s head, and I was so worried that it wouldn’t fit.  But it seemed to work nicely. 

Stitched in Love,

Tatha

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