Posts Tagged ‘baby’

Thanks, BOB!

November 6th, 2009 mio

Thanks to the washout that was Big On Bloor 2009, I’ve had a head start on Christmas crafting!

Remember this?
yellow rainbow round ripple baby blanket

It’s bigger now:
bigger yellow rainbow round ripple baby blanket
(Colours are a lot closer to real life in the first picture.)

And it is officially the First Finished Christmas Gift of the Year. Let’s have a round of applause!

I also made this, which the always lovely Roopurt is modeling for us:
pink/purple/peach spiral skinny scarf

Here is a close up:
close-up of the skinny scarf

I used a single ball of yarn I found in my stash that was unlabeled. I’m pretty sure it’s Astra but they don’t seem to have this colour anymore (even though it looks like this colour is the featured picture… weird).

To make this kind of scarf, you make a base chain approximately as long as you want the scarf to be, then do 2dc in each chain on the first row, and 1dc in each dc for the following rows.

I wanted to see if the “no base chain” foundation row method would work for this… and it did! It’s a bit complicated to write out, so I’ll save a tutorial on this for another post. If you simply can’t wait for that, do a search for it on Youtube. It’s pretty neat!

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Plan B

June 26th, 2009 mio

BOB didn’t go well (stupid rain) but that’s ok, because I had a backup plan!

These blankets are going to charity:
pink stripes Striking round ripple Peach Rainbow Round Ripple purple Fibonacci blanket (in progress)
(I should get a better picture of that purple one made at the show before I send it off…)

I’m going to make these three bigger and give them as Christmas gifts:
Pink Rainbow Round Ripple Yellow Rainbow Round Ripple 3way Tunisian

These are Christmas presents, and I’m keeping them as is:
Tetris pillows

And this one is MINE:
Settlers of Catan blanket

My current main project is a gift for someone who reads this blog, and I really don’t want to give the surprise away if I can help it, so pictures and updates will be made on Ravelry (where you need an account to see it). Don’t worry, once the Big Day has come and gone, I’ll post all of the gory details. ^_^

Now that BOB is over, I find myself with my own crafting time again, so I’m waffling around trying to decide what to do. I’ve joined a couple of swaps, I still need to make the June square in the CAL, and I’ve been itching to just make my way through my growing collection of motif books and make at least one of everything.

Of course, there’s still Christmas coming, and various birthdays left to think about. I’ve been hoping that Bernat Satin would go on sale for the last several months, but I haven’t seen it. If you do, could you please let me know? I’m planning on buying a LOT of it, not only because I’ll need it for some gifts, but also because it’s my go-to yarn for worsted weight acrylic and I’m starting to run low. It’s soft, works up well, and the colours are pretty nice.

Anticipated projects: at least one more Snowflake afghan, maybe the Hawaiian Flower afghan, more 3-way Tunisian, lots of hats and scarves, some geeky afghans, and of course, Dad’s Christmas present.

My work situation has changed and I suddenly find myself with a good chunk of crochet time. That time can only be spent working on a pattern I know really well, and that doesn’t have any tricky colour changes. The project I’ve been working on lately has recently become too large to do while I do my job, so I need a replacement project. For now, I’m prepping some scarves (doing the base chain and first row at home on several), and I’m thinking of doing some granny squares. Any thoughts on what else might work? Basically, anything I don’t have to look at too much, that can easily be done a couple of stitches at a time.

Finally, check out this Spiral Granny Square I made: click here.

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Celebrating BOB Eve

June 19th, 2009 mio

Well, it’s been a long haul, but we’re almost there!

I finished the 3-way Tunisian blanket:
3 strand Tunisian crochet blanket
For a better idea of the colour:
close up of back close up of front

There’s been a lot of fighting over this one here in Fantastic Land, so I expect this one will go fast. If it doesn’t, there’s a line of people who want it. ^_-

I also *finally* finished the Tetris block pillows!
Tetris block pillows, crochet

Raise your hand if you didn’t think we’d see this day! (Don’t be afraid, my hand is up too!)

If you’ve ever wanted to see what a partially finished Tetris block looks like, here you go:
Tetris block in progress

It takes your breath away, doesn’t it?

Ok, back to work with me. I’m only a few rows away from finishing the last baby blanket, and I have important tags to attach and vital worrying to do.

While we wait for the BIG event to start, please join me in a heartfelt rendition of this traditional song:

Oh the weather outside is pretty
And I’m singing you this ditty,
So if you don’t want to feel pain,
Stop the rain, stop the rain, stop the rain!

Fingers crossed, people!

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Tying up loose ends

June 13th, 2009 mio

Literally! All I’ve had to do on this latest baby blanket for the last week or so is to weave in a couple of ends. I finally did so today, and voila!

blue and yellow baby blanket

This was made using my standard round ripple pattern, though I didn’t have enough of either colour left to make the backwards-sc edging, so I did some slip stitches around instead. I just don’t like leaving those chains bare on the points!

I also finally got around to finishing the Settlers of Catan blanket:
Settlers of Catan blanket

I feel I must apologize for the indoor picture, but there just wasn’t any way to properly display this outside (which should make showing it at BOB interesting!)

At this point in the “prepping for BOB” game, I’m just finishing off projects I’ve started already, and not starting anything new. That means that we can expect to see one more baby blanket, a handful of pin cushions, and a couple more Tetris pieces. Depending on when I finish all of that, I *might* start another baby blanket; after all, I’m going to need SOMEthing to do while manning the table, right?

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Another keeper!

June 11th, 2009 mio

It occurs to me that I haven’t posted that 3-way Tunisian blanket in a while. It has grown quite a bit:

3 strand tunisian crochet baby blanket

It’s hard to measure because it’s so stretchy, but it’s approximately 28 inches square now. (I know, it doesn’t look very square in that picture. I was surprised too, when I folded it into a triangle and there was almost no overlap)

Here is a better picture of the stitches and colour:
3 strand tunisian crochet

It’s still not an accurate picture of the colour, though. It’s quite beautiful with its earthy tones. I guess it’s another “come see it in person… then buy it!” blanket. ^_-

Here’s a picture of the three balls of yarn I’ve been using for this:
three balls of yarn

My thought process on the colour choice went something like, “I need something to do on break at work! I need something for work! Ack! Quickly! Quickly!! Hey, here’s some yarn… but does it go together? Well, green and brown are nice together, and blue and green are pretty good… I’ll make a swatch on the subway!”

When I got on the subway I proceeded to “cast on” 76 stitches. That’s one heck of a swatch!

I’m going to have a hard time parting with this one, and I’ve already had two requests for a bigger version. I’m going to have to spend some time scouring the stores for more of this yarn… I have a sneaking suspicion they’re not making it anymore. That would be sad!

In other news, I went to Lettuce Knit for the first time yesterday (I figured it was about time, having lived in Toronto for 2.5 years now…). The store was smaller than I thought it would be (not a bad thing), it was farther away from Spadina than I imagined it would be (not bad, just surprising), and it was less expensive than I feared it would be (hooray!!).

Keep in mind that you’re reading the blog of a die-hard acrylic crocheter: I want to knit some natural fiber socks now.

Please don’t tell my hooks!

I blame the Yarn Harlot for all of this.

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Is that a knitting needle in your pocket?

May 21st, 2009 mio

Look what I got done while at the laundromat this evening:

broomstick lace stroller blanket
(It’s worth looking at the big version of this picture, so I made it clickable. When you get there, click on “all sizes” above the pic for a bigger view.)

I was just about to keep working on this when I realized that I really should be working on a rainbow blanket at home since carrying two skeins of each colour around with me just isn’t practical… no matter how ridiculous I look while making broomstick lace. For those not familiar with the technique, basically you lift loops onto a fat knitting needle (in this case, I’m using a 50mm needle) so that they’re all the same size. Well, the best way I’ve found for doing that part of the job is to rest the butt of the needle on the seat of the chair I’m sitting on.

It makes for a nice mental picture, doesn’t it? For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about: well, congratulations on always getting such a high score on those silly “purity” tests that you find all over the internet. ^_-

Anyhow, let’s see how much of that rainbow round ripple I get done tonight, shall we?

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Now available in yellow!

May 20th, 2009 mio

rainbow round ripple baby blanket

I know what you’re thinking: reruns already? No, I’m not repeating myself, I’m just rhyming a little.

Some thumbnails in case you don’t feel like clicking here to see the original post:
rainbow round ripple baby blanket rainbow round ripple baby blanket

The first one started with pink and went on to purple and through the rainbow back to pink again. The second one started with peach, went on to pink, and through the rainbow back to peach again. The new one starts with yellow, then on to green and through the rainbow back to yellow. So, as you can see, they’re clearly all very different.

This is what I have left after making that last one:
yarn

I *think* I have enough left to make another blanket just like the yellow one if I go through the colours in the opposite order.

So, lucky you! You get to look forward to another post just like this one!

You’re welcome. ^_^

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BOB looks pretty in pink

May 8th, 2009 mio

Now presenting further progress on the inventory for Big On Bloor:

pink striped crocheted baby blanket

I took about a dozen pictures of this and not a single one caught the beautiful colours of this blanket. I suppose you’re all just going to have to come visit me at the show (and then buy this).

This blanket is also an excellent example of how wonderful that “no turning chain dc” technique is. Here is a close-up of the edge:

example of the no-turning-chain technique

Isn’t that amazing? If I look really, really closely, I still have a hard time telling which stitches are real double crochets, and which are the no-turning-chain stitches.

I’ve found it to make working in the round a bit easier, too. In the past, I had always had problems figuring out which chain in the beginning chain was the one I needed to make a join in. Using this no-turning-chain method, it’s pretty obvious where the join goes.

If you haven’t tried out this technique already, I urge you to do it. You won’t regret it!

I just realized the other day that I never posted pictures of the motifs I received from craftADDchick here on the blog. I’ve put them under the cut (Dad, if you’re reading this, don’t read any further on this post, please!)

(more…)

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Rainbows for BOB

April 5th, 2009 mio

Today I have two very different blankets to show you. The first is the one I promised you in the last post. It turns out that rainy days aren’t good for picture taking, so I took the picture today instead (and if you’re in Toronto right now, why are you inside? It’s an amazing day out there today!)
Rainbow baby blanket

On the other hand, it turns out that rainy days are perfect for crocheting, so here is one I made yesterday while watching TV with Charles:
Rainbow baby blanket

The difference between the two is amazing, isn’t it? One starts with pink as the middle colour, and the other starts with *peach*.

Anyhow, I’m hoping to sell these at the Big On Bloor festival in June. That’s assuming my neighbours don’t try to buy up all of my stock as I try to take pictures of it for the blog. ^_-

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It’s on BACKwards!

April 2nd, 2009 mio

I made a baby blanket, which I’ll show you tomorrow when I can get a picture of the whole thing that doesn’t make it look like plastic (true, it’s acrylic yarn, which is basically spun plastic, but it really doesn’t look like that in person. The problem is a shiny thread that runs through it. Let’s see what the sun contributes to a fantastic picture of it, shall we? There’s little sun to be had at 10:13 pm this far south at this time of year, though.)

In the mean time, check out this border I put on it:
crab stitch border
(I feel the need to point out that the yarn in this picture is actually pink.)

This border was done in “crab stitch”, also known as “backwards sc”. For those of you who know how to do a regular sc, basically you do exactly that, but work in the opposite direction from what you usually do. For right-handers, this means that you insert the hook into the stitch to the *right* of the one you’re on. Otherwise the motions are the same. One day I’ll post a picture of this stitch using a yarn suitable for showing exactly what it looks like, instead of this wavy baby yarn that hides all sorts of things.

For those of you who don’t know how to do a regular sc, er… sorry about that. I had hoped to have posted the tutorial for it sooner, but you know what life is like! As a preview: the missing instruction is “insert hook”. I’m guessing that if you thought about it long enough you could probably figure out what that one is all about. The tutorial will be mostly about *where* you should be inserting that hook. (Hint: it doesn’t involve anyone else, no matter how irritating they are ^_-)

(Bonus points if you can name the movie from which the title of this post was inspired)

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