A Note to Myself

I need to write down inspiration and details as they come to me, so I love taking notes. I make them all the time. My family knows I will stop in the middle of a shopping expedition to jot down the finer points of something I've seen (I carry a special notebook in my purse for just this purpose). When I'm working at my desk I have note cubes for that quick reminder or "to do". These usually get tossed once the note is not longer needed or transfered to a notebook for more permanent remembrance.

The kinds of things that get written down are:

• Titles of books that I'm not going to buy but I want borrow from the library
• A drawing of a garment that I'd like to "knock off" for myself
• Phone #'s and addresses
• Bridge hands so I can retell a story or work out a problem I didn't get right at the table
• Notes from an article found in a waiting room magazine
• Crochet or knitting design inspirations
• Questions I want to find the answers to, for example: Do you put periods at the end of lists items or does the list item notation function as a period?
• Anything I'm afraid I'll forget

I didn't know until yesterday that when you're buying a box of note cubes you need to pay attention to the little cutout on the box. THAT is what tells you how many pieces of paper there are in the cube -- NOT the size of the box!! The arrows on photo show the bottom of the window where the paper ends, the rest of the box is filler. Both boxes are the the same size but the one on the right held less paper than the one on the left and neither box listed how many sheets of paper it contained.

I buy note cubes mostly based on the design rather than how many sheets there are and I think that's why I'm irritated -- I liked the note paper than came from the box on the right and it ran out faster than I was expecting.

What's the point of this entry concerning crochet, knitting or crafting? Mostly, to express how important to my creative process note taking is but it is also a note to myself to check the cut out of a note cube the next time I purchase one.

Garter Stitch Hat

Hats are a great project to try a new pattern or stitch and a wonderful way to get your feet wet with your own designs. Hats are very forgiving projects to knit or crochet -- Someone somewhere will be a fit for your hat!

This year I knit two hats using a pattern I give to my elementary school knitting class. The garter stitch hat is simple and easily adapted to any yarn or head size. The simple structure of the hat makes it easy to add your own design features.

Here's the pattern:

Simple Garter Hat

Size 9 needles, cast on 72 stitches loosely (multiples of 12).

Knit every round until piece measures 6” (8” if you want a 2” cuff)

Shape top of hat as follows
Round 1: (K10, k2 tog) around.
Round 2 (and all even rounds): Knit.
Round 3: (K9, k2tog) around.
Round 5: (K8, k2tog) around.
Round 7: (K7, k2tog) around.

Now, begin working the decreases every round as follows:
Round 8: (K6, k2tog) around.
Round 9: (K5, k2tog) around.
Round 10: (K4, k2tog) around.
Round 11: (K3, k2tog) around.
Round 12: (K2, k2tog) around.
Round 13: (K1, k2tog) around.
Round 14: k2tog around.

Finish by running the yarn through the remaining stitches and pulling tightly to close the opening at the top.

Sew seam with mattress stitch.

Leave as is, or top it with a tassel, pompom or other decoration.

Green hat specs: Size 9 needles Caron Dazzleaire (a stash busting hat because Dazzleaire was discontinued in 2004) Circumference: 19" Hat height: 7¾"

Brown hat specs: Size 8 needles Lion Brand Wool-Ease Circumference: 16½" Hat height: 7¼"

Dress Bookmark - revisited

I've updated this post with a video for round 5. Thank you to my lovely daughter Laura for taking the video. -- I love my new camera!

This is a follow-up to a previous post about a very adorable crochet bookmark that sits on the corner of a page and looks like a dress. The previous blog entry and pattern link is here.

The pattern is pretty straight forward through round 4 but figuring out round 5 from the pattern can be a little difficult so I've put together a tutorial with pictures and a video to help out.

At the end of Round 4 everything should look like this:



The beginning of round 5 looks like this (I've worked round 5 in red thread to highlight the work):





Also, I don't end my rounds like this pattern has written for them to be finished. The pattern has you joining the end of one round right into the space that you'll be starting the new round from (effectively skipping a number of stitches that originally began the round)

I always join the end of one round with a slip stitch to the beginning chain of that same round, then I slip stitch into the next couple of stitches and into the space that it wants me to start working from on the new round. I have found this to be a clean/flatter finish to the round.

Continue working rounds 6 thru 10 and you'll have a very cute crochet bookmark!

Throw - Soft Boucle

This throw is sooooooooo so soft and was very easy to crochet (the only stitches are chain and double crochet.) The Bernat site categorizes it as an intermediate pattern (I'd really like to know what they think is simpler than this!) --pattern ratings are arbitrary and no one should dissuade themselves from attempting a project because of one. The hardest part about crocheting this throw was frogging. It's very difficult to take out stitches with Boucle yarn. The stitches get caught, the yarn pulls and before you know it you have more ends to work in!

I didn't quite get gauge with an L hook and my finished size was 44 x 60 (however, the throw is very stretchy and I took this measurement without a lot of stretching.)

The pattern for the throw is here. However, you may need to have a membership with Bernat to see it. My advice -- MAKE IT UP. You do not have to give real information in any way, shape or form. I have an internet persona (with matching Yahoo mail box) made up just for this purpose and I hope if mucks up the demographics of every site I use it with.

Updates: I worked this pattern a second time and made a few changes which I like even more. The blog entry for the second afghan is here. Also, you can now download this pattern directly from the Ravelry project page without having to login to the Bernat site.

Crochet at Colonial Williamsburg

There is a very strong argument that crochet did not exist before about 1800¹ so you don't see crocheted items at Colonial Williamsburg. However, at Basset Hall, which was a home for John D. Rockefeller Jr. and his wife beginning in 1936 (and is now a part of Colonial Williamsburg,) I found two crocheted pieces. One elaborate and another extremely simple.

The picture above is a crocheted bed covering decorating one of the guest bedrooms and below are close-ups of the two motifs.

If anyone knows the history of this bedspread or information about the pattern I'd love to hear about it.

Update 10/9/19

I Finally found the pattern!

The name of the pattern is Pinwheel Bedspead No. 423 and it was published in the book Bucilla Hand Crocheted Colonial Bedspreads. The book has a copyright year of 1932 which fits right in with the time that the Rockefellers moved into Basset Hall.

The last room we toured at the Basset House was the kitchen and my eye caught this as we were leaving -- a crocheted dishcloth! It looks like worsted weight cotton thread and rows of single crochet (but it looks a little different than that -- any ideas?)

¹Crochet and its Origins -- FAQ

What's in the past should stay in the past

I'm still busy going through my craft magazines and I ran across this yarn ad from the Fall-Winter 1973-74 McCall's Needlework and Crafts.

When the poncho, shawl, shrug rage of the past few years happened my children always wanted me to knit them items and never wanted anything crocheted because "it would look like we were wearing one of your afghans". I have to say I understand their point of view. This look may have worked in the 1970's (and maybe not even then!) but that's where it should remain. When it comes to garments I'm almost exclusively a knitter.

Knitting Loves Crochet - book review

I've never reviewed a book at Amazon.com before but this book compelled me to publicly warn others. Crocheting is my needle art of first choice but knitting comes in second and combining the two together hasn't been done a lot so I thought I had hit a gold mine with this book ..... unfortunately it was fools gold and the following is my posted Amazon.com review:

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Knitting Loves Crochet by Candi Jensen

In the past year there has been a lot of exciting and interesting work created that combine both knitting and crochet. With the hope of finding inspiring and innovative designs and based solely on the book's description and intriguing cover, I bought this book to fill in an Amazon order and get the free shipping.

I was extremely disappointed. There are 22 "stylish designs" in this book but only 7 patterns are garments. The other patterns are accessories or home decorating and over half of those are simply crocheted flowers slapped on a knitting project or the tired basic granny square worked into one more design.

The knit i-cord dog leash with chain 3 crochet loops around the handle for "trim" is the worst of the book but others come very close. I wish I had been able to scan through this book because it would never have passed my buy test -- are there at least three patterns that I might be interested in or that inspire me? The pattern on the cover of this book was the ONLY one.