I am so excited to show this to you all! My new pattern, Nuverandi will be released THIS Friday by Expression Fiber Arts! It will be FREE for a limited time. Check back in Friday for more pictures and the link to the pattern. Or, you can sign up for the EFA newsletter to get the email when the pattern goes live Friday morning!
We’ll have to wait a few more days. In the meantime, you can get a quick, closer sneak peek on Chandi’s Facebook Live from Expression Fiber Arts today!
I have spent very little time on the blog over the past few years. I’ve been lazy and posting more on my Facebook page than actually creating posts here. I’m going to try to catch up. I’ll post some items I’ve shared over there during the last few years, and I’ll try to keep current here.
Visions of Holly – Fingering Weight
My last post about my D.C. Yarn actually resulted in a couple different patterns! The arcade stitch is a beautiful, open stitch. However, it’s not very warm. So I designed a 3-in-one cowl. It includes a turtleneck section that is folded inside the arcade stitch section to keep the neck warm. You can also make the arcade section extra long and use it as a hood!
I then went even further and made two versions of this pattern. The first I did with the amazing Pearlescent Fingering Yarn by Expression Fiber Arts. The Visions of Holly Cowl and Hood – Fingering Weight requires anywhere from 550 to 1,100 yards of fingering weight yarn.
But Chandi at Expression Fiber Arts also has an incredible Buttery Bulky weight yarn that is even more vibrant in this colorway, and I had to make this pattern in that base as well. The stitch count needed to be adjusted for the added bulk, so I also released the Visions of Holly Cowl and Hood – Bulky Weight This requires at least 480 to 590 of bulky yarn, though you may want to get even more if you want a really full hood.
The great news is that it really IS Christmas in July, because Chandi has her Holly and Ivy colorway in the Pearlescent Fingering base on sale right now if you want to start getting your Christmas gifts ready! Pick up the pattern from my Ravely shop, and then head over to Expression Fiber Arts for the yarn! I really recommend going with two skeins to make the full length cowl. You won’t regret it!
I spent a week in D.C. for work a few weeks ago. I made sure to find a local yarn shop to visit one evening, which resulted in this WIP (more on this later).
The LYS I chose to visit was a cozy little loft located North of Dupot Circle, called Looped Yarn Works. If it was located back home in Kansas City, I’d love to take my crocheting and some coffee, and hang out on their couch stitching on a quiet afternoon.
I picked up this cute little lapel pin… 
…and this AMAZING yarn! It is a Heavy Fingering Weight yarn called, get this, Melted Suri. It is 65% Baby Suri Alpaca, 25% SW Merino, and 10% Silk. It is absolutely heavenly. You just want to snuggle it right up to your cheek. The hand-painted colorway is called Beach Shells.
So back to my WIP… I decide on a cowl for this super soft yarn, and went with the Arcade Stitch. I worked it up in the round, which went very well with this yarn – you cannot tell where the joins are at all with its web-like texture. I will finish it up and get a pattern ready for testing!
I’ll leave you today with this fun crocheting picture, which is in the stairwell on the way up to Looped Yarn Works’s shop. Have a great week!
I got the surface crocheting and the shoulder straps removed from the neckline night. I’ve got some notes started on the rework, but the real documentation for the rework pattern starts next!
Prep work and planning always take longer than you want it to. I want to get in there and start crocheting!
Filed under 30 Days of Blog - 2017
LAST June, I was working on Christmas stockings for my family during 30 Days of Blog. I just finished the last one the other day!
Yesterday I finished the body of a Baby afghan that will be donated to Project Linus because they are in desperate need of blankets for hospitals right now. Over the next few days I will be putting an edging on it.
Once this afghan is done, I have an order for a newborn mermaid tail cocoon to complete.
Then I will be starting work on a Christmas tree skirt to go with my family’s stockings. Here’s hoping that I can get all of that done this month!
Filed under 30 Days of Blog - 2016
I’m finally getting back to being able to crochet a little bit after #3 was born. I’ve got several things to post, including the afghan I designed for him.
Right now I’m working on some end-of-the-school-year teacher’s gifts for my daughter’s preschool teacher. I had a kit from Annie’s Attic for this felted bag and thought I would use it for one of the gifts. I’ve never done any felting before, aside from making my wool dryer balls.
Unfortunately, when I got this felted, I fell in love with it and I don’t think I can give it away. I think I’ll be using it as a bag to carry small crochet projects in. It’s not often that fail in giving away something I have crocheted.
Filed under Gifts
I got nowhere near to what I wanted to accomplish this year with my crocheting. My work came to an abrupt halt in June when I got sick because I became pregnant with our third child. Three months later I was finally feeling a little better, but by then we were really trying to get our new house renovated and moved in. We are moved in now, though not even close to being unpacked and settled. And of course, now we are preparing for the holidays and the arrival of little #3.
Obviously with a third on the way, living in a house that still needs a lot of work, and trying to get our old house ready to rent out, there is probably not going to be a lot of time to crochet in 2016 either. BUT I will be pumping 2-3 times a day again after returning to work, which is when I was able to get a lot of of crocheting done last year and early this year. So I do still have some things planned.
Here is a rundown of things I am working on immediately, and where I ended up with the goals I had for 2015. I’ll post again later with what I want to accomplish for 2016. I did get a few custom orders completed through my Etsy shop along the way but not a whole lot else.
So there we are. Here’s hoping that 2016 will leave me feeling more accomplished with the projects I want to do!
Filed under Misc.
I am really getting off track with the Christmas stockings this week. We stopped by the thrift store and I picked up this pretty top. But I didn’t get it to wear. I got it for the satin ribbon yarn. It’s very pretty, heavy, and has great drape.
I spent just an hour unraveling it and winding it into four hanks for a total of 322 yards of nice ribbon yarn.
I washed it and it relaxed very nicely without having to weight it at all, and now it is hanging to dry. I will post these for sale on Etsy once the hanks are dry.
Filed under 30 Days of Blog - 2015, Pre-Loved Yarn
I have a twist to The Granny Square Project! During the past year as I’ve been making the two squares for each month, I’ve actually been making four squares – two of each.
My initial plan was to make two separate afghans to give to two different people. But as I worked on it over the year I realized that I wanted to keep the second one for myself as a keepsake because I had made it during my son’s first year.
So now I am blocking the squares for the second afghan. As soon as I’ve got them all joined and edged I’ll get a picture of them together and finish this project up!
Most of the squares were exact duplicates. However, I made alternate squares for some of them by switching up colors or just the order that I used them in. I love the differences-some of them very subtle, others quite bold!
July – Square Thirteen
July – Square Fourteen
August – Square Sixteen
October – Square Twenty
November – Square Twenty-one
November – Square Twenty-two
Filed under The Granny Square Project
I got a lot done on the assembly for The Granny Square Project last night.
Placement
First I laid all my squares out on the table in the planned 4×6 order and started swapping them around to determine placement. I didn’t want similar colors or squares with the same yarn too close to each other. I stood there moving squares for about 45 minutes and then asked my husband to come take a look and we made a few more adjustments.
Joining
Then I started joining. I used the slip stitch method of joining on the wrong side in the two outside loops of the last round of the square. There is a good tutorial here for this and I really like how it looks on the front side. I’ll get a close-up of that tonight.
Vertical Edges Joined
I finished joining all of the vertical sides and tonight I’ll go back and do the horizontal edges. Then I’ll do a few rounds of single crochet edging to finish it out. I really do like the continuity the grey yarn has brought to the squares.
Filed under The Granny Square Project
Stitched In Love Crocheting 