Let's Try Something New

Inspiration! This guy Bob, nicknamed KnottyMale, makes some knockout stuff. Click the link and go see his work. I've admired his artistry for some time, and decided to try making a bag. A simple bag - how hard could it be?

Ok, it's not a flat surface like a blanket or a rug, but I bet I can figure it out. No, once again no patterns were made. I just made an excel file for the swirly design, and off I went. It was well under way, and got ripped out again and again to correct small issues. Then I decided that if it was worth doing at all, it was worth doing well. There does not seem to be such a thing as a practice piece when it comes to crochet. With all the time I was putting in to figuring this out, I wanted to have something nice at the end of it. So it all got ripped out again, down to the first row. Part of the issue was the inside of the bag. Why not get it to look nice? See the pretty row of purple stitches up the inside? They line up just so now. They don't show on the outside.

The handle was fun. Remember, I had never done this before. I have no idea how other people put on their handles, but mine is a continuous sort of thing. The handle or strap makes a half twist from one side of the bag to the other. That way, I could make the purple line that runs through the handle. Make sure it twists at the other end where it attaches again. Then you just follow it around the rim, over the handle, around the other rim, over the handle again, etc. until it looks like it is done.

Most of my work is crocheted back loop only. In this piece, the purple, ONLY the purple of the design is worked in both loops. This was an attempt to do away with the line that appears across work done back loop only. But I failed to take into account that that dreaded line shows up better the lighter the color of yarn. So although there is no 'line' in the purple design, you don't notice it. Maybe next time the body of the piece will be darker and the design in a lighter hue.

This is Caron One Pound Acrylic Worsted Weight, done with an I hook. It is tapestry crochet throughout, to make the fabric denser and sturdier. It covers the carried yarn quite well, I think. The spiral design is from Celtic Charted Designs by Co Spinhoven.

Black and White Celtic border

The pattern for this hat and scarf set is from a wonderful book: Celtic Charted Designs by Co Spinhoven. I love this book and turn to it often for inspiration and ideas.

The yarn is Sirdar Snowflake, polyester. The yarn took some getting used to, since it is very thin with tufts. I spent a lot of time looking for the stitch on the previous row to crochet into. Has anyone ever gone blind doing crochet work with teensy fluffy yarn?

Red and Yellow Stripes

Stripes! Sort of a Cat in the Hat sort of thing, eh? The colors were determined by the yarn on hand. Someone on Freecycle gave me several trash bags full of all kinds of yarn. Such luck! The hat is Tapestry Crochet, which makes it not as stretchy. The scarf is done in alternating rings of color. Next time I'll try doing the hat that way.

Wavy Experiment

Now that I have a knack for making hats, experimentation is the thing. Remember the yarn I received as a door prize at the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival? It is in various shades of blue, so another try with wave action seemed to be in order. This time, the waves are more random, which made the hat more of a challenge. But the hat fits, and is warmer than I would have thought. With the scarf, you'll be toasty until the temp gets down into the thirties or so.

Here you can see the waves a little better.

Lucky You!

In March I posted the following on my Facebook page:
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Lucky You!

I don't know where this started but, it came to me from a person I admire and I love the idea!- The first four people to respond to this note will get something made by me. My choice. For you. Conditions: - What I create will be just for you, and I'll definitely put a lot of love in it. - I make no guarantees that you will like what I make! I promise to try. - You will have no clue what the item is going to be. It could be a story or a CD. It could be a piece of handmade jewelry or potholder. I may draw, paint, collage or crochet something. I might bake you something and mail it to you. I may grow you a plant. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure! - I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. The catch? The catch is that in order to receive a gift, you have to re-post this and make and send out four surprises of your own, so if you aren't gonna follow through and make something for four others, you get nothing from me. Come on people, who doesn't like getting mail? If I did not tag you it is still Ok to Post. I did put a bit of thought into those I tagged. In your responses put your address (unless you're certain I already have it) and your favorite color.

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I got one, count them, ONE reply. So I decided to send ALL of my somethings made by me to her. I know that she has a husband and three kids, so instead of four things, I bent the rule and made five. I hope they enjoy.

A Scarf Done in Shades of the Sea

This is a skein of yarn I found at the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival. An idea for a scarf had been burbling about in my head for a while, and I'd been looking for just the right colors to make it. The texture comes out looking like waves, or at least is intended to look that way. So the colors needed to be in sea shades. This one worked quite nicely.


Since I don't know about yards or gauge or that sort of thing, working this in a round worked out very nicely. When the yarn ran out, the scarf was done! Now for some cold weather so I can wear it.

Washcloths Revisited

The Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival gave some lovely door prizes, and did I ever score! There's this bundle of mercerized Egyptian Cotton from Classic Elite Yarns in swirls of blue that I have not yet begun to play with.

Please click on any photo for a close-up. Use the back button on your browser to return to the blog.

Then there's this jumble of hand dyed colors in mercerized cotton, CRAYONS LITE from Rainbow Mills. Each skein contains approximately 962 yards, which meant nothing to me. I'd never worked with cotton before making those green washcloths, and I'd certainly never worked with yarn this fine before. I'd been a worsted weight gal with the blankets. The festival was back in February, and it took me until the last day of April and the first day of May to get over the intimidation and work with it.

First attempt was the washcloth pattern I have used before. It makes a pocket for left over slivers of soap that then can be tucked inside. The heavier cotton ones in green were a bit heavier than were handy to use, so this thinner yarn looked like just the thing. And since I had no idea of gauge or yards, I just dug in. What came out was a washcloth that was about two thirds finished when I ran out of yarn. This led to some stitch counting, re figuring, and pulling it all out to start over. Next attempt led to this.

Here is the second skein from the bag of that same color. When the cloth was finished, there were about two feet of yarn left over. The recalculations worked!

Then I decided to try just a flat cloth. I stole the idea from the scarf I made recently, which was to work it in the round, and when you run out of yarn, you're done. The first one was made the same way I would make the top of a swirly flat top hat. When I got to what looked like halfway through the yarn, I stopped.

The next one I *thought* was going to be the same pattern as the first, but it turned into a pinwheel pattern with the stitches. I want to figure out how I did that, so I can do it again.







And voila! They turned out, while not the same pattern, to be exactly the same size. Those two cloths are made from one skein. Another skein is shown for comparison.