Happy Easter

We had a nice weekend!  I hope you all did, too.

I am crocheting my way on the LB top.  I think I have about 9 or 10 more rows on the skirt part of the top.  Though I am not counting, I know where I am at (I know that doesn’t make sense, but it does to me and I guess that is all that matters when you are crocheting…)  Round and round I go…sure seems like it is taking forever.

I want to finish this by Friday, so I am trying to work on this as fast as I can.   Maybe I will take a progress pic tomorrow so I don’t completely bore you.

I did knit a little bit on my sock and it is almost to the toe.  Again, I will take a picture tomorrow.  I have been lazy about that.

Light N Lively Tank…

I started the Light N Lively Tank. I have come across a bit of a problem….

On the bodice, I finish row 6 and I have 30 shells. I am working the smallest size.

On row 7 it says

“inc 6 shells by working a shell in 6 sps between shells”

I interpreted this as increasing in every 6th space.  Well..the math would show that I would only end up with 35 shells…which apparently I had to get to the 10th row to see that I was really, really off.

Okay, I wasn’t paying attention, I was watching tv with Tony trying to forget about negative raises and other ridiculously painful things…

I emailed them and let them know there was a problem and they sent me an email back, see below:Edited to ADD:

Apparently I cannot read. I was reading the pattern as increase in the 6th space. Apparently this is what it is saying:

“The pattern doesn’t say to increase every 6th space but rather to inc 6 shells by working a shell in 6 sps between shells. So it’s a total of 6 increases, not every 6th space.”

Read the pattern…

So…it is basically the type of pattern where you do the math at the end…honestly…

Edited to Add…one more time:

I will clarify the Row 7 for those as dense as I am that need things a bit more spelled out for them.

Each increase Row will be a total of 6 increases spaced evenly:

Row 7, increase in every 5th space

Row 10, increase every 6th.

Row 13, increase every 7th.

Row 16, increase every 8th…etc in this manner.  The rows in between the increase rows work even…until you get the correct number of shells in the 25th row.

Anything you can do…

I can do better…  ***

On the left is the knitted Ball Band Dishcloth that is featured in the Mason Dixon Knitting book. On the right is my crocheted version.

Today we went to the park for my nephew’s first birthday. Here are the girls…

***ps…I am not saying crochet is better than knitting or knitting better than crocheting or that I am better than anyone…I just had that song in my head after seeing the woman dance around some dude and then rip his pants off and put them on herself….pretty funny…and there is my disclaimer for this post.

Baby It’s Cold Outside

I crocheted this months ago, thinking it would make a nice baby gift for my friend.  However, when I finished it, I realized the homespun was too thick for this California weather.  It almost seemed carpet like.  So, I left it on the shelf without trim.

My work has been giving me a bad time about not having cute things to attract people to my classes.  I think they were suggesting baby items.  So I trimmed the baby sweater with some pink homespun someone gave me and added some buttons (from Walmart.)  After I put it all together, I realized that I seemed it inside out and the long part of the front should have been on the other side.  Oh well, I decided it didn’t matter (especially since no one will ever wear it) and it still looks cute.

I didn’t straighten the buttons before I took the picture.

Pattern: Baby It’s Cold Outside

I am behind in knitting up a project for a book submission.  The deadline for that is the 23rd and I am not close to being done knitting it.  Being sick last week just did not help me.

Crocheted Cable Hat Pattern

My friend Deneen keeps coming up with new hat patterns. It encouraged me to try my hand at a hat pattern. I did this from the eyebrows up, ha ha. instead of working from the crown down. This was inspired by the Brea Bag using the Dcfp stitch. When it came time to do the decreasing, I sort of made it up and winged it as uniformly as I could.

That hat fits me perfect.

However, the hat looks pretty good on both of my kids, too. It is more of a roll brimmed type hat on them.

Pattern: Crocheted Cable Hat Pattern

Hook: J

Yarn: Cascade 220

Should have done this in 2006

Seriously…

First, I received two really nice fiber related presents for Christmas that I never posted about.

Deneen sent me some gorgeous batts of roving. Two were natural and two were in this colorway.

Bron sent me some yummy munchies. I was such a glutton and I ate most all of it, though Tony and I did split the last piece of fudge. She also sent me 6 skeins of my most favorite yarn, the beloved, NEW Cotton-ease. I absolutely love this color. It is a mix between blue and purple.

Finally, I finished Baroque from the Happy Hooker. I should have finished it in 2006, but it got sort of hectic around the holidays and so I put it down. What was going to be a Christmas present, will more than likely be my mother’s birthday present. I will post a picture of her wearing it when I give it to her in a month or so.

I blocked it, and there were some sections that were really off kilter. The yarn I used is Noro Lily. It is a soft and yet springy yarn. Against Deneen’s advice, I hit it with the iron as I needed steam to shrink up some areas that were a bit stretched. Well…one small section got a bit too much and I burned the silk.

Tony and I looked at it and it really looks just a little “dirty” in a small section on the outer edge and isn’t noticeable unless you really look at it, though it is “rougher” in that area. I decided if it bugs my mom I will pull out the trim and redo that part.

Okay…and what really belongs in 2007? How about a sock…

I started this garter ribbed sock. This is the Socks that Rocks (remember the one that had all of those knots?) I love this colorway. It was one of the last colorways that they had last year at Stitches West. I think it is gorgeous and really does suit me well. These socks are for me.

Creole

I finished Creole this weekend. Most of it I did on Friday and today. Although I was able to work on it a little bit on Saturday night.

Pattern: Creole from Berrocco There were some pattern errors (“what from Berrocco??? How could that be?” said in my most sarcastic tone “Why their patterns never have errors…hardy har har…”)

Seriously, what is up with their patterns? This one was obviously a knit translation into crochet as there was a part that says, “Thread end into tapestry needle and draw through all sts on needle” and well when you are hooking you only have one stitch on the hook, so that didn’t make sense. What I did though was sewed through the last stitches in the last row and then cinched them.

Pattern Correction:

Front and Back:

Row 12: wherever it says fpdc it should say bpdc

Row 15: add a fpdc before the last dc so you have 11 stitches….this is my preference to make the thing symetrical on each side.

Gussett:

Option A: If you want your gusset to be all one pattern (the “striped” pattern) then you need to add a row in between Row 11 & 12. I will name it row 11 1/2.

Row 11 1/2: work the pattern as it says in Row 12, but do bpdc instead of fpdc. Then work Row 12 as in the pattern.

Option B: If you want the part where the handle attaches onto the bag to be different than the underside of the bag, do as follows: Work pattern until you are done with Row 14. Add Row 15 as follws:

Row 15: Ch. 1, *bpdc,dc in next st, rep from * 5 times more, bpdc.

This will flip the pattern so the “striped look goes to the opposite side. Then, continue with the pattern and at the very end of the gusset

I added 2 more rows of the pattern so that it was the same length as the other side.

I did Option B on accident and in a way it was nice for two reason.

1. Is that it makes a natural curl so the end wants to curl over the D ring and back onto itself.

2. Is that you won’t need any place markers as you know exactly where the end of the bag is and where the strap part is for your strap.

Hook: Size G

Yarn: Patons Shetland Chunky Tweed – colorway Earthy Brown

**about the yarn…I LOVE it! I love this color. The brown is such a delicious chocolate brown and it has specks of “fall” in it. I wish I had a sweater in it, but chunky yarn on chunky gal…just doesn’t mix.

The strap is a cheap belt I bought at Walmart and cut. Oh…and the bag is rigged right now as I didn’t have D rings, so I used large safety pins and slip stitched it all together for pictures. I am very happy with it. Even though the pattern had some errors it is a nice pattern and I enjoyed it.

Here is a picture of the row counter that Kayt made for me. She used malachite. It is absolutely gorgeous. She has an Etsy store. Thanks Kayt! It is gorgeous!

***All pictures are clickable…

One skein scarf

(picture is clickable)

Crocheted One Skein Scarf

Pattern: Happy Hooker or free Patons pattern
Hook: Size K

Yarn: Hand dyed wool with Kool-Aid and Food coloring.

I made the clusters at the ends 7dc clusters, instead of 5. I also fudged a bit on the corners as for some reason my numbers weren’t lining up, but only I know that. ha ha…

This scarf worked up pretty fast, one night. I didn’t like counting over 200, but I survived it. This was done for a CAL at Fiber Freaks. So while my September challenge I am not suppose to start any new projects, the CAL and KAL are my exceptions…oh and anything I have to create for my new job (which I haven’t done much planning for…) They only gave me a week to plan…I will get it figured out.

If I haven’t answered emails or comments, I apologize. I am running on fumes and hopefully will get to emails and comments by the weekend and more than likely sooner.

Crocheted Hat

Here is a hat I wanted to work up as part of a beginning crochet class. They are going to hire me, pending a background check. I should be starting in October, however I need to get some project ideas put together by this Friday.

They want things that people can make in 1 two hour beginner class.

I was kind of thinking a hat would be fun, worked flat and cinched up at the top. Well, I worked one up and it took me a bit longer than two hours. I then added stuff to it, so I really think it is not a good contender for this class. It is cute though.

Sorry for the bad lighting on the second one.  It is midnight in my downstairs bathroom.  The pictures are clickable. 

It was nice having a 3 day weekend and having Tony home. We didn’t go anywhere, just stayed home and did a lot of sleeping.

I got sick on Friday night and that made me sleep a lot on Saturday. It was really odd, it was the worst stomach ache I had ever had and then the bad stuff that goes with that. I swear there were times I thought I had blacked out it hurt so bad, honestly it was all a bit of a blur. I had to breathe through the pain like labor. Luckily with the help of Tony running to the drugstore at 5am I was able to go to sleep and I am much better. I was the only one in the family afflicted by it, quite odd.

Last week I did talk to the teacher and principal and honestly it was pretty darn uncomfortable. I had hoped the principal would be a mediator, but instead he was accusing me of letting Sierra get her way and other parenting faux pas. The good news is she didn’t cry on Thursday or Friday, so maybe it did help. I am not sure how much I want to write about it on my blog, so I will just leave it at that for now.

Mary Janes

This is my husband’s new hobby. And you thought dpn’s were scary….He is still learning, so please don’t critique his method. For some reason I had to laugh at what he was doing and figured it would make for interesting blog content.

I finished some Mary Jane booties.

Pattern: is by Jessica at http://www.jcrochet.com/
Hook: Size B

Yarn: Size 3 Crochet Thread (can’t remember name/brand)

I decided on doing the picot trim. I don’t think I will put flowers on them, just leave them simple. I might make some matching hats. This pattern is super easy and works up really fast!