Posts Tagged ‘Crochet-A-Long’

NatCroMo 2010

March 2nd, 2010 mio

Happy National Crochet Month!

I have no idea where it comes from, but this is at least the third year it has been celebrated.

The Crochet Guild of America is doing a Crochet-along. Ravelry is having a party. Craftster is getting in on the fun, too! And you can follow the excitement on Twitter by searching for #natcromo.

As for me, I’m going to try and crochet even more than usual this month (though, I’m not sure how I’m going to do that yet…)

This morning on my commute to work I started making another Diet Coke Bottle Cozy, mostly just to see what the pattern would look like with striped yarn. I finished it at lunch, and here it is!
DSC03837

In other news, I finished the Ladybug blanket!
DSC03754

A close up of the face:
DSC03757

I ended up crocheting a separate black wedge and sewing it on for the face, as the colour changes on the big circle really weren’t working for me. Sewing the spots on was quite annoying as well… I’m going to have to find a better way to do that. Not that I plan on making this blanket again, but I’m sure this sort of technique will come up in something else.

So, back to NatCroMo: Learn to crochet! Crochet something new! Learn a new crochet technique! Crochet in public! Talk about crochet! Sing about crochet! But above all… CROCHET! ^_^

Posted in Afghans, Experimenting Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments »

Two, Two, Two Motifs In One!

January 6th, 2010 mio

I’ve been working on a crocheted top recently, using a “graduated stitch” method. It’s pretty neat, and I hope the top turns out to be wearable (I don’t exactly have a history of making wearables the right size…). I’ll post more information about it once I finish the first side (soon, I hope!)

In the meantime, here is yesterday’s motif:
2010-01-05-BTS036
(That’s Beyond The Square motif #36)

And today’s:
2010-01-06-BTS040
(Also BTS, motif #40)

Of the two, I think I like the second one better. ^_^

More to come! (Possibly even from a different source!)

Posted in Motifs Tags: , , , 1 Comment »

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.

Posted in Afghans, Geeky, charity, swap, yarn Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , No Comments »

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…)

Posted in Afghans, swap Tags: , , , , , , No Comments »

With an hour to spare

March 31st, 2009 mio

I finished my April square!
April square

*passes out*

Posted in Uncategorized Tags: , , No Comments »

Fruit flies like a banana

March 6th, 2009 mio

Apparently it’s March now. (I know, “nothing gets by you, does it?”) I realized tonight that I’ve forgotten to do the first of the month updates, so here it is, just a wee bit late.

First, the 12″ squares CAL:
March 12
I still need to do a border around the edge. I stopped short of the 12″ to accommodate a solid dc border in the green I used for the flower. I’m sure I’ll get around to that sometime before the April square is revealed (note to self: start badgering craftADDchick soon)

The other monthly check-up is the charity crafting. I fell five points short of my goal for February, but with tonight’s effort I’ve caught up! I’m making March’s goal 20 points. We’ll see what happens.

Here is the Lollipop blanket:
Lollipop blanket
Now with border!

You’re just going to have to imagine what the purple shell blanket looks like finished. The sun was long gone by the time I finished it and the indoor picture of it looks really really bad. Mom and Dad will be dropping by tomorrow and I’ll be sending them home with them. I’ll try to remember to take a picture before we say goodbye!

In other news, I have an update on the “make your own centre-pull ball” technique. Here is a picture of the ball from yesterday after making the border on Lollipop:
yarn
Not too shabby!

Posted in Afghans, charity, yarn Tags: , , , , , , , , No Comments »

Time to spin the Wheel of Fun!

February 23rd, 2009 mio

Or participate in a poll. One or the other.

I’ve made a bunch of swirly hexagons up and, after consuming copious amounts of caffeine to counter the hypnotic effects, I posed them in a couple of ways for your consideration.

Which do you prefer?

Option 1 (aka Klingon Layout)
blanket layout option 1

Option 2 (aka Opposite Layout)
blanket layout option 2

Vote in the comments! Or via e-mail if you’d prefer: fantastic dot mio at gmail dot com

In the meantime, I’ve joined a swap on Craftster! Specifically, the Amazing Crochet Motif Swap. It’s being run by my favourite crochet pusher on Craftster, craftADDchick (some of you may remember her from the 12″ square crochet-a-long). It should be fun!

In completely unrelated news, I’ve bought a new book! You see, Charles wanted to get out of the house this weekend, and really wanted to get some new reading material so we headed off to Chapters at Runnymede. He took lots of pictures, and I bought a book:
Crochet Motifs book

I’ve barely had a chance to look at it, really. What post-it notes? Oh, and just ignore Charles if he suggests that I’ve been keeping the book next to the bed so that it’s handy just before I go to sleep. (My most creative time is between 11pm and 1am. It’s a curse.)

And he didn’t even buy anything. *sigh*

Anyhow, more pictures from my trip to Alberta under the cut!
(more…)

Posted in Afghans Tags: , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments »

The Evil Daystar strikes again!

February 16th, 2009 mio

I found a patch of sun today, so I took some pictures. Clearly I still need some photography practice!

First, the old:

“Toothpaste”
baby blanket

“Grape”
baby blanket

The new:

“Jellyfish“. I’m convinced that no lighting attempt will show off the truly jarring colours in this one. I recommend you take a trip out to Michaels and look for this yarn. Look for “Candy Stripes” in the Bernat Baby Co-ordinates area.
baby blanket

I’m making progress on the hex blanket:
baby blanket

And since I’ve got so many annoying craft pictures in this post, there’s only one from the Alberta trip:
(more…)

Posted in Afghans, charity Tags: , , , , , 2 Comments »

Baby Blanket Bonanza!

February 15th, 2009 mio

I’m on a baby blanket making kick!

Here is the finished purple blanket:
purple blanket

Every crochet endeavor creates scraps, so the scrap baby blanket has begun, using the pattern from this crochet-a-long:
hexagon baby blanket

And finally, yesterday I was weak and bought more baby yarn. It was on sale, what can I say? The pattern is in this thread.

(pictures out in the sun that show the truly jarring pink/purple colouring of this blanket to come tomorrow… I hope!)

And that’s what I’ve been up to!

…

What green and yellow striped baby blanket?

More from the Alberta trip:
(more…)

Posted in Afghans, charity Tags: , , , , , No Comments »

February’s square

February 1st, 2009 mio

It’s the first of the month, and that means it’s time for a new crochet-a-long square!

February 12

I’m not sure what I think of this pattern. I had to fudge it in a few places, and I found a couple of spots unclear (those two problems may be related, come to think of it).

It’s pretty, though, and I think it will make a great addition to the blanket!

Posted in Afghans Tags: , , , 1 Comment »
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