crochet « The C Side

Wednesday’s WIP: Return of the crafter with ADD

That would make a really lame movie title. Do you remember when the little voices told me to go buy yarn? No? You’re not really concentrating then are you? Well you can go take a peak.

To be honest, I am done with it. It is a dress. A striped dress. The recipient can’t wait to wear it so I don’t have an action shot yet. It is always a happy moment when the 4 year old (almost 5 now) is happy with an item.

And then the naughty voices made me buy 5 of this

and three of this

and these

It also turns out that I can also blame them for buying stitch marker supplies

which turned out into these:

I loved making them. It was slightly harder than I thought. Or my hands are just more used to handling yarn than dealing with pliers and wire and things that need a lot of oomph.

My actual WIPs for this week are these gloves

and a crochet shawl/scarf I am not sure yet.

What are you all upto?

The podcasts I listen to

I love love listening to podcasts while I craft or drive. It is like my own on-demand knit night whenever I want. These are the podcasts I listen to regularly and each one has something different to offer. They are listed below in alphabetical order

2KnitLitChicks: Mother (Barb) and daughter (Tracie) team who talk about knitting and books. Their book reviews are just as interesting as their knitting.

Brass needles: hosted by Miss Kalendar who also reviews Sci-Fi. It is sometimes like knitting from outerspace.

Electric Sheep: The knitter behind it is Hoxton Handmade and she is a hilarious, british and has a thing for beards

Knit Knit Cafe: Mother (Abby) and son (Ben) team, yes her son. It is almost like joining them in their living room while they knit and talk about it. It is a lot of fun.

Knitmoregirl Mother (Gigi) and daughter (Jasmine) are another hilarious duo. I almost want them to adopt me. Sewing and spinning are also on their agenda so it is a lot of fun.

The Savvy Girls Sisters (Melanie and Deborah) are very savvy. Melanie hates knitting but loves gerbils so we forgive her and Deborah loves knitting and forced Melanie to podcast with her. Originally from Canada but they usually blog from around the world.

SubwayKnits: Maria is the voice behind SubwayKnits. She is a teacher from New York and her podcast is another wonderful one to listen to.

These aren’t all the podcasts I listen to, just the top ones. Just go to iTunes and search for the topics you like in the podcasts you will not be disapointed. All of these podcasts aslo have awesome ravelry groups so be sure to check them out too.

Rainbow Drops {Free Pattern}

I had this idea. I have a lot of those. Ideas I mean. They just pop into my head at the most inconvenient times ever. This particular idea materialized while I was knitting the Tella Sundress, which was not a good time for ideas to come up. This idea had to do with white yarn and rainbow yarn. Oh, and bobbles.

But I am a good girl (or I like to pretend I am) and dutifully finished the dress and took out my yarn and looked it. Bobbles, rainbow yarn and a white canvas. What would you do?

I made a little clutch.

I am in love with it. Not the actual thing and not crocheting it. I just love the texture and the little bursts of color changing all the time. I lined it and added a zipper but I don’t really want to use it. I don’t think I even want it. I just wanted to see those rainbow bobbles. I wanted to watch them form.

Do you want to make one?
You really should.
I mean every crocheter should do this at least once in a lifetime.
Yeah you know you want to, so here is how.

Materials

2 balls of sport weight yarn one in a solid color and one in a varriegated color (rainbows on white are awesome as you can see)

3mm hook

tapestry needle

scissors

zipper and fabric for lining (optional)

Glossary

SC Single Crochet

HDC Half Double Crochet

SCINC 2 Single crochet stitches in same stitch

RB Rainbow Bobble *yarn over, insert your hook in the stitch, yarn over and draw up a loop, yarn over once more and draw it through the first 2 loops on your hook* repeat 4 times

* .. * Stitches between asterisks should be repeated

[ ... ] number between square brackets indicates number of stitches

The Base

The base is a basic oval done in single crochet while turning after every round.

Start with the solid color and chain 31.

Round 1 : Turn the chain and work 30 SC in the back ridge of the chains. Slip stitch into first chain to
form the first round [60 stitches]
Round 2: SC in the next 30 stitches. 3 SC in turning chain. SC in the next 30 stitches. 3 SC in Slip
stitch. Slip stitch into first SC, turn and chain 1 [66sc]
Round 3: SCINC in next 3 stitches . SC in the next 30 stitches. SCINC in next three stitches. SC in the
next 30 stitches. Slip stitch into first SC, turn and chain 1 [72sc]
Round 4: SC in the next 30 stitches. *SCINC, SC* (3 times) in the next 6 stitches. SC in the next 30
stitches. *SCINC, SC* (3 times) in the next 6 stitches. Slip stitch into first SC, turn and chain 1 [78sc]
Round 5: *SCINC, 2 SC* (3 times) in next 9 stitches . SC in the next 30 stitches. *SCINC, 2 SC* (3
times) in next 9 stitches. SC in the next 30 stitches. Slip stitch into first SC, turn and chain 1 [84sc]
Round 6: SC in the next 30 stitches. *SCINC, 3 SC* (3 times) in the next 12 stitches. SC in the next 30
stitches. *SCINC, 3 SC* (3 times) in the next 12 stitches. Slip stitch into first SC, turn and chain 1
[90sc]

Sides

The first and third rounds are worked with the right side facing, while the bobble rounds are worked with the wrong side facing. The yarn is carried from one bobble to the next. All HDC stitches are made using the first color and only the bobbles are made with the second color.

Round 1: HDC in each stitch all around, slip stitch into first HDC to join the round, turn.

Round 2: CH 1, *HDC in the next 5 stitches, RB in next stitch using second color*, slip stitch into first HDC to join the round, turn.

Round 3: HDC in each stitch all around, slip stitch into first HDC to join the round, turn.

Round 4: CH 1, HDC in the next 2 stitches, *RB in next stitch using second color, HDC in next 5 stitches * , RB in next stitch using second color, HDC in next 3 stitches, slip stitch into first HDC to join the round, turn.

Keep the second color in the front and the first color in the back when working on the bobbles.

Don’t worry about the loop from the main yarn becoming loose you will tighten it later.

Once you are done with the bobble, push the yarn back to the front, and take the main color from underneath it.

Tug the main yarn slightly to tighten the loop.

See how simple it is?

That is it.

Keep the yarn tension even so the fabric doesn’t pucker.

Don’t those floats look cute too.

Repeat rounds 1 – 4 until the case is the desired height. Work round 1 one more time. You may use the second color and work one more round of SC for a border. Finish off.

Finishing

Weave in ends and make a zippered lining or just add a zipper the quick and dirty way.

Trying to get back on …

… is usually the hardest thing. After the 3rd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog week and managing to blog 7 days in a row, I felt totally all blogged out. Then I caught a cold. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been idle. I crocheted a bag.

It had been a while since I crocheted anything and it was a lot of fun. I remember when I first started playing with yarn. The finger yarns and smaller hooks scared me. I was slow and not very consistent in my stitching. It felt satisfying making the a medium sized bag with sport weight yarn and a 3mm hook.

And feeling quite inspired, I picked up the leftover yarn from the princess peplums cardi, the bag and the Oatmeal Kina and just made a hat.

It is called the Hexacket Hat. It is a bucket hat with a hexagon

I am writing up the pattern for the hat at the moment. It is taking longer than it should because I am writing it up for any gauge, any yarn, any hook size so you can just pick up what you have and work with it and make it for any size head. Isn’t that cool? Yes of course it is cool for the person doing the crocheting not the person doing the writing and trying to make it easy to decipher.

Oh well.

And then because I am so sick and haven’t been moving so much I started knitting something else.

It has grown considerably. But it is not done yet. Fingering weight yarn, size 3 US needles. Slow and stockinette. Just what I needed. Have you ever noticed how sock yarn/fingering weight yarn is so amazing for children’s clothing? It is light and colorful and a single skein or two max make an awesome piece.

Come back again soon and check it out.

The Knitter or Crocheters Calendar for 2012

If you follow me on pinterest you might have noticed that I was shopping for the 2012 calendar. I found a couple I like that you can print at home which is cool. But I thought maybe I needed a calendar that had a yarn theme.

So I proudly present the 2012 yarn artist’s calendar.

Download the PDF file here.

The file includes both the crochet and knitting calendars, just print the page with the calendar you want

Crochet Cuties: Monkey Business

I have a little knitting helper, he is called Mr Monkey (click the links if you want to see how bad my photography used to be). Mr Monkey is going to be 2 next February. He likes to help my knit and he also gets dragged around by little Miss Monkey around the house too. You can make your own using this pattern.

Or maybe you want to make a different kind of monkey.

1. Monkey Hat

2. Amigurumi Monkey with a Banana

3. Sock Monkey Cup Cozy

4. Ami Monkey

5. Monkey Monkey Monkey Bib

6. Sock Monkey Hat

Crochet Cuties: Coat Hangers

Coat hangers can be cute?

Yes yes yes they can be very cute.

So cute in fact that I want to make some.

I can across there cheerful ones from Petite Fee.

My grandmother had these, I am not sure if she made them or someone made them for her (she’s an amazing seamstress, knitter, crocheter, cook, grandmother and an amazing woman all around).

I a free pattern by Spud & Chloe for them if you want to make your own.

Wednesday’s WIP: Return of the crafter with ADD

The podcasts I listen to