Vstrecha-blog

WIP: Crochet Club 2011 February patterns!

Whew! I’ve got a ton of ends to weave in, and some pieces to join together, but the crochet work for February is d-o-n-e DONE. …Only 2 and a half months behind. 

I don’t know about the rest of y’all, but I LOVED this month. I’m halfway tempted to put beads on everything I crochet now. Bewtiful :)

And of course, it wouldn’t be one of my projects if there weren’t at least a couple mistakes (that are hopefully only glaring to me). You don’t notice in the waves pieces that I did a row of brown instead of a row of yellow, right?? Because I could SWEAR that Umber is a brown color! Ha. I can also see what everyone was saying on the message boards about the bobbles being not quite in the center of the beaded diamonds. Meh. Thank goodness i’m not that much of a perfectionist, I guess! I’ll definitely know it’s mine :)

This month did burn me out on this project a bit, though. I think i’m gonna take a break and go back to my Pay It Forward projects (that i’ve been neglecting) for a bit before I jump back in to April’s patterns.

ETA: I also just realized that the blue bobbles on the beaded diamond piece are supposed to be Nightshade, not the other linen yarn color. Le sigh.

FO: Yoda amigurumi

I completely acknowledge that it’s rather embarrassing that the last 2 posts on my blog have been automated summaries of my music listening habits of the past week. Which means it’s been over 2 weeks since I really posted anything. 

Suffice it to say that I just had the worst week at work ever. In the end, things got done that needed to get done. Not all the things, but the most important ones. This week should continue to be busy, but hopefully not nearly as stressful.

In what little spare time I’ve had, i’ve been crocheting (of course!) to wind down. This little guy I actually did about a month ago as a present for a friend’s birthday. It was my first foray into amigurumi, and I love how he turned out! I was astonished at how quick he worked up.

The picture on the right was actually taken by my friend; I’ve just studiously appropriated it into my personal collection, because I love that Yoda is just chillin with his BFFs Rod Brind’Amour, Jussi Jokinen & Cam Ward.

(OH, bee-tee-dubs, I’m a big Carolina Hurricanes fan :)

Details:
Pattern - Yoda Star Wars Mini Amigurumi by Lucy Ravenscar
Yarn - Knit Picks Wool of the Andes (Jalapeno, Almond, small amounts of Fedora & Coal)

There’s a whole set of Star Wars ami that are equally as adorable; since I bought the patterns, she’s added Boba Fett, Obi Wan & a new version of Yoda with a little robe!

I think I’m just going to have to make him again! :)

FO: Akudo neckwarmer

So glad I can finally blog about this FO — I finished it ages ago! I made it as a birthday present for my bff though, and now that we’ve moved to different cities, we don’t get to see each other as often as we’d like. So when she was able to visit me last month, we exchanged Christmas & her birthday present (it was in Feb).

I fell in LOVE with this when I was making it (Jess should probably feel lucky that it made it into her hands!) I just might make myself one with the same kind of tweedy yarn. And this time I’ll get the appropriate amount the first time, and not run into the same problem I did with this one, which was inadvertently getting 2 different dye lots! Other than that, I am super happy with how it turned out, and hopefully Jess is too!

Pattern: Akudo neckwarmer | Yarn used: Paton’s Shetland Chunky Tweeds in Medium Blue

WIP: Crochet Club 2011 January patterns finally finished!!

About a week ago (I suppose, it takes me awhile to get the pictures off my camera & then upload them) I finally finished the January patterns for my Crochet Club creation. Hooray! Of course, since it’s my least favorite thing to do EVER, I left weaving in the ends until last. Just that alone took me a week. Such a tedious task. I’ve decided to leave off blocking anything until it’s time to start sewing motifs together, so I think that buys me another month.

One last look at all of the pretties together:

I’ve since started on the patterns for February (beading! so excited!) — at first it was tedious, counting out the beads & threading them on. But now that i’m actually crocheting them in, i’m in love. The effect is fantastic.

As always, still plugging away…

Pay It Forward 2011

Towards the beginning of January, a Clemson friend of mine issued this invitation on Facebook:

I am Paying it forward in 2011: I promise to send something handmade to the first 5 people who leave a comment here. They in turn must post this and send something they make to the first 5 people who comment on their status. The rules are that it must be handmade by you and it must be sent to your 5 people sometime in 2011.

I decided to take her up on the offer! So at some point this year, I’ll be getting something handmade from her. But more importantly, 3 people accepted *my* invitation to Pay It Forward, and this is what i’m working on for them.

1. My first project is for a high school friend of mine, who has since gotten married & just had her first child. She also blogs — about being a new mommy, recipes & books — over at The View from Here.
   
   I decided to make her this Wisteria Shawl. Since one of her favorite colors is purple, i’m using this lovely purple & green wool/silk yarn that i’ve had sitting around in my stash for FOREVS from Lorna’s Laces (below, left). The pattern is from Interweave Crochet, Spring 2010.
    
   I’ve started a bit (above, right), and it’s an interesting pattern. The motifs join together as you go, and i’m having to rely heavily on the stitch drawings, which i’ve never had to do before. I think it’ll be a fun challenge! 
2. My second project is for a grad student friend of mine from Virginia Tech. I struggled a bit picking out his item, because I’ve always had a bit of difficulty picking out man-crochet projects. But I settled on these Hiking socks. I’m using Heart & Sole in Toasted Almond (below, left). The pattern is from Crochet Today! Jan/Feb 10.
    
   It’s going pretty smoothly so far, albeit slowly (above, right). This is the first time i’ve done socks, so I suppose that’s to be expected!
3. My third friend requested a pair of mittens (more man-crochet, sigh). I confess i’m having a difficult time finding mittens that don’t look too girly. My first option is these Thrummed mittens, from Interweave Crochet, Winter 2008. They can be done in any color scheme, so I figure they’re pretty guy-friendly. My only issue here is I’m having *great difficulty* finding roving for the thrummed part. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to look?
   
   
   My other idea were these fingerless mitts: One for all family of mitts, from Interweave Crochet, Accessories 2010. Double bonus: I know they are guy-friendly because look! men are modeling them!
    

Anyone have any other ideas or suggestions for man-mittens?

Usability tweaks; Small plug for Ravelry

I’ve added a little tweak to improve the reada-usability of the crochet posts on the blog. 

I use a website called Ravelry to keep track of all my projects. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a free site with required registration that’s geared towards crocheters and knitters. If you are a yarny-crafter, this site is really the best. It makes it easy to share projects with others: not only what you’re working on, but what yarn you’re using, what needles/hooks, where you may have run into problems, etc. It has the best database of patterns for both knitting and crochet. It’s basically an all-around amazing tool.

But I also know that there are those of you out there who are just here to see the pretty pictures & just aren’t interested in signing up for another website that you’ll never use. So previously, i’ve tried to warn you of Ravelry links via (text in parens), but i’ve tweaked the css to automatically include a bitty Ravelry icon after the links, like so: Ravelry link, that way I can’t forget!

Crochet Club progress!

I made a good bit of progress this weekend on my Crochet Club pieces. I’m still behind, but not nearly as much as before! I finished up one of the Long Wave Stitch pieces (which might be my favorite so far), and then finished 3 out of the 4 Corner pieces, and started on the 4th. Those work up really quickly!

I’m still sort of concerned about tension; The Long Wave piece is definitely small, but at least everything so far has been consistently small.

Random aside: I love taking my crochet projects out & working on them In Public. I get into such interesting conversations & meet some nice people that way!

Tumblr CAL WIP: Springish Crocus Scarf

I finally got started on my scarf for Tumblr CAL (see tumblrcrochetalong) last night. I’m using Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sport in Garden Daze (the LE color from March ‘09, so it’s no longer available), which comes in skeins, so step 1 was winding it into a ball (which I *hate* doing. Must Buy Yarn Swift!)

I’m doing the Crocus Scarf (avail online free at Crochet Me!), and all i’ve got done so far is the foundation chain. Those stitch markers really save me, otherwise I would never be able to keep track of 315 ch!

As if I hadn’t already started enough projects…

I had this idea to make my own Valentine’s Day cards.

There were just too many cute V-Day themed crochet mini-projects floating around in blog-land (as you can see above, pictures click through to the patterns). So I made a few, pulled out my white tablecloth & had a photo shoot!

I completely forgot to take pictures of the finished product, but here’s a few of the pictures I used: