While You Recover afghan

This pattern is from the book
Vanna's Favorite Gift Afghans


Adjustments:
1) Instead of working 2 strands of worsted weight yarn together I worked one strand of Lion Brand Homespun (barrington) with one strand of TLC Amore (plum) -- Very soft.
2) I filled in the chain 1 spaces around the bobbles with a dc.

I like the afghan. It was quick to make and it's snuggly soft, but I had a lot of problems remembering to work a sc in the turning chain at the end of my rows. I did a lot of frogging on what is a very simple pattern. I'm pretty sure it was because of Homespun's texture and I was just not seeing it clearly enough --I have a love/hate relationship with Homespun that has yet to be resolved.

Homespun Love:
1) I love the texture and softness of the yarn.
2) Love the colors to choose from.

Homespun Hate:
1) The difficulty of working with the yarn. It's very hard to work the foundation chain of anything crocheted and when knitting the yarn grabs and pulls making it sometimes impossible to get off a clean stitch.
2) The quality control from the company. For a long time they had a problem with the glue from their wrappers ruining the last 5-15 yards of a skein. Now I've been encountering large sections of fuzzy unspun yarn. The company was good about replacing yarn when it had the glue problem but I don't really need more skeins of the color Baroque and this time I don't feel like bothering.

Beaded Foot Sandal

Ahhh, it's almost summer. It's time to go get a pedicure (Mother's Day gift from a daughter) and start showing off the feet (these feet however, are my daughter's, not mine!) I love sandals and barefeet and this little project caught my eye right away as the best of both.

The pattern came from Beadwrangler and the only adjustments I made were: 1) I used the cheaper jewelry elastic from A.C. Moore instead of the Rainbow Elastic (I was able to make over 12 of these sandals from one cone) and 2) I used sc's down the front rather than the V formation of stitches used in the pattern. --That's just me and my taste though. I'm a straight line kinda gal.

Using black and white beads I also made a "Checkered Flag" one for my sister (Nascar Nut Fan) -- Love ya Sis ;)

Little Granny Square Heart

I LOVE hearts motifs, especially crocheted ones. Many crocheted hearts are a variation of the same stitch theme but this one was a little different.

The original pattern is here: Little Granny Square Heart.

I did rework the shape heart portion of the pattern, because I couldn't figure out how the stitches were being counted, but it wasn't a difficult adjustment.

My heart measures 2 3/4 x 2 1/4 in size 10 cotton thread with a 7 hook.

Now I need to figure out what project to use them in!

Update: I found a wonderful use for this in a friendship quilt.

Finger Puppet

This little cutie is known as a Poppit Petpet and is from the online game Neopets. I designed her for a contest at the site (she took a third!)

She sits beside me at my desk and I love to pick her up and play. I may just have to make a few more!

Finger Puppet pattern

Make Your Own Rug yarn

Found this little tidbit in some saved notes --

Materials:
1 skein acrylic worsted weight yarn
G crochet hook

Chain stitch the entire skein.

Diagonal Garter Afghan

 Ravelry Project Page - Homespun Diagonal Square Blanket

What happens if you take 4 skeins of Homespun yarn, size 13 circular needles, and you start knitting the Diagonal Garter-Stitch Square?

Not a bad blanket!! The end result was a blanket that is stretchy but light approximately 45" square.

It's nothing new or unique but here's what I did:

Supplies:
4 skeins Lion Brand Homespun
Size 13 circular needles.

Cast on 4 stitchs.

Row 1: Knit
Increase Row: Knit 2, yarn over, knit remaining stitches.

Repeat increase row until you have used 2 skeins of the Homespun (I left a little just to make sure I had enough.

Decrease Row: Knit 1, knit 2 together, yarn over, knit 2 together, knit remaining stitches.

Repeat decrease row until you have 5 stitches left on needle then, knit 2, knit 2 together, knit 1.

Bind off.

This pattern produces a knit 2 lace border. On my next blanket I'm going to adjust the pattern for at least a knit 3 boarder (maybe knit 4) I think I'll like a bigger border. I'll let you know.

Valentine Heart Pin

This Pin is a project from the crochet class I took in July 2004 at the CGOA chain link conference in Manchester NH. The class was teaching how to crochet with beads with flat work (rather than in the usual round). The ruffle around the heart and the charms are my tweeking of the design.

Finished just in time for Valentines 2005!

Posted in time for Valentine 2006!!