More Crochet Love

I've been on a crochet kick lately. A crazy, abstract crochet kick with spirals. I have no idea of what these pieces will turn into but it is a great way to use up the little bits and pieces of leftover yarn from other projects.

  

The piece above is crocheted with leftover sock yarn. I just make random spirals, stitch them together and occasionally add lines of single crochet around them. I think this might look great attached to a felted bag or even glued to a canvas and hung up on my blank walls.

This second piece is made out of Berroco Comfort leftovers from a baby blanket I made a few months ago. Well, let's just say this piece started off with leftovers but I have since purchased other colors to add in. I hope I continue to be in the mood to work on this so it gets big enough to be a huge, swirly blanket on my couch.

My on and off again love affair with Crochet

My grandmother taught me how to crochet when I was about 6 years old. She had me do yards and yards of crochet chains and when my stitches were even enough I learned how to take that stitch and connect it to others to make shapes.

Over the years I learned more and more crochet techniques from Grandma. I would ask her what the stitches were called and she always told me that she made it up. For awhile I thought my grandma invented crochet.

Crochet has always been one of those things that I would do on occasion. I would buy enough yarn for what I intended to make and if I ran out I just added other colors or headed back to the store. I never read patterns or calculated my gauge.

Now, I am at a point where I want to be able to follow patterns so I am slowly teaching myself what different crochet stitches are and how to read a pattern.

My first attempt is this blanket.

 

This is the Sunny Spread pattern and I love it!!!  You make these squares and then just sew them together. So far my plan is to make a 7x10 lap-sized blanket. 33 squares down, 36 to go.

Crafty, Crafty, Crafty

I've been super busy but also super crafty lately.

I've decided to add more bright colors to my home. A few weeks ago I looked around and noticed that everything seemed very brown and earthy with big chunks of red thrown in. To add some color I made new throw pillows for the couch.

I scored some pre-cut, discounted fabric at IKEA and went a little crazy. Both flower print pillows are simple envelope-style pillow cases. Just easy, straight seams. I made the pillow inserts from an old sheet that Lola (pictured above) tore up and a giant bag of cotton stuffing that a friend gave me.

The other two pillows were made from t-shirts that I never wore. My closet is full of t-shirts that either 1) Don't fit, 2) Fit weird, 3) or just end up at the back of the armoire and never get used.

The t-shirt pillows are the same envelope style as the flower pillows. I didn't even bother to hem the edges in the back. I figured they would end up covered in dog hair and in the washing machine every week.

As you can see, pillow covers made out of t-shirts come in handy when one's dogs tend to cuddle up with them.

Lola loves the pillows.

Where have I been?

I know, I know...I've been rather quiet lately. The truth is, I've been rather busy.  Teaching, doing contract work, teaching, social events, teaching... oh, did I mention that I've been teaching?

The closing of Sew Crafty Houston has been a sad experience for me but also a chance for change. I still want to teach knitting classes but I do want a teensy little break. The last couple of months I have been running at breakneck speed.  Today was actually the first day in a long time that I did not have to be somewhere. How did I spend it? Take a look:

That's right. I spent the day on the couch with some sock yarn, some knitting needles and a box of tissues. The first day in what seemed like months that I didn't have to meet someone, go into an office, teach someone or run some sort of errand and I was SICK! At least I got some knitting done and caught up on the current season of Big Love.

I feel bad for my dogs. The weather was beautiful today and perfect for a nice long walk but they spent the entire day sleeping on the couch next to me.

Winter Knitting

Lola loves hand knitted stuff

 People have lost their minds here in Houston over the weather.  There was all this talk about "Snowpocalyspe!!!!" but all that really appeared this morning was a layer of thin ice over everything.

The city is covered in freeways so it was best for everyone to stay at home today and avoid the icy roads. On a side note one can't really get anywhere in Houston without having to use a freeway and some sort of bridge.

Anyway, this cold weather has given me a chance to use the items I've knitted up recently. The striped hand warmers came in handy yesterday while walking the dogs. Well, not so much the walking part but the part where I had to place a baggie over my hand and pick up after the doggies.

The two neckerchiefs, or as I like to call them, "Bandito Bandanas", are perfect to tie around my neck and ears to keep the wind off me. Of course, I make socks all of the time and actually wear them so having a new pair is really nothing new for me.

My favorite things I've knitted recently are the woolly mittens. I know folks who live in cooler climates are probably laughing their butts off right now about someone in Houston being excited over mittens. Hey, just wait until your part of the world experiences a "heat wave" with 80ºF temperatures.  I spend months in 95ºF + weather accompanied by 95% + humidity and actually spend some of that time outside with two hairy dogs. Anything below 75ºF for me is considered cool weather.

For all you knitters and crocheters out there, details on the projects are on the Rav.

Awesome Workshop with Jenine Bressner

I was so fortunate to attend a Ruffled Accessories workshop last weekend with the artist, Jenine Bressner. Jenine is a fantastic glass, fiber and all other kinds of media artist. She's also a really cool, crafty chick. If you are in the Houston area, check out her exhibit at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. It is gorgeous!

The workshop was great! We learned how to make all these different forms with this cool, stretchy mesh fabric that I am currently on the hunt for.  

The pink and orange "poof" above is destined to become a hair accessory for me. I think we all need a little "poof" in our lives. The blue and green poof is looking like it needs to be attached to a hair elastic. I made another large poof with different shades of green that seems like it might work better as some sort of brooch or necklace adornment.

One of the other forms I made was turned into a hair poof that ended up on a hat/wig that I knitted for a neighbor.

Only Mickey, my fabulous neighbor, could rock this hat like a rockstar!

Kustom Koozies

The Beer Koozie serving its purpose

A dear friend celebrated his 70th birthday last month.

And, yes, I have friends of all ages.

My friend's family wanted to do something fun, crazy and different and decided to have a Pedal Party. Since the family was footing the bill for the Pedal Party I wanted to contribute some kind of party favor. I decided to have custom beer can koozies printed up.

Well, I did some research and found several companies that would print up koozies for varying fees. I only wanted 16-20 so that narrowed down the selection of places that would accommodate small orders. I found a company that had decent prices and a design wizard on their site with a selection of clip art. Not terribly great but at least I could have whatever text I wanted.

Well, I waited just a tad too long to place the order and found out that a rush job with rush shipping (3 weeks is considered "rush") was going to cost me $75 for 16 koozies. Um.....no!

I looked online and found that one can order blank koozies. I'm crafty, right? I can make my own darned koozies and they will be fabulous!

The koozie pictured above is what I came up with. The blanks were way cheaper than the printed versions and I was able to order a pack of 20 that were pre-sewn. Looking back I wish I would have ordered the unsewn version. They were cheaper plus I could have used my sewing machine to attach all of the patches and then sew up the sides.

Anywhoo.... I created a custom image using Photoshop. If you try this at home make sure you measure your koozie and plan out how large you want the patch to be. I was able to fit 9 of the images on a 8.5" x 11" piece of paper. I printed out the design on t-shirt transfer paper which you can pick up at your local craft store or office supply store.

The images were cut out and ironed onto patches made from an old flat sheet that my dog, Lola, decided to didn't need to be in one piece anymore.

I then hand stitched each patch onto a koozie using a thick needle and embroidery floss. The first 5 koozies weren't so bad but pushing and pulling a needle through that thick koozie material took a toll on my fingers.  This was the point where I realized the unsewn koozies would have been the better choice. I ended up using a pair of pliers to finish the hand sewing.

Some of the iron-ons had a few tears where the transfer wasn't heated up enough to be separated from the backing paper. To hide those flaws and add some bling I used my Hot-fix tool and applied some crystals. One of Mo's craft rules - Sparkles make it better.

The Beavis enjoying his koozie

The koozies were a hit and turned out to be pretty tough. The Beavis accidentally dropped his koozie on the street while the Pedal Party was in transit. He was able to recover and use it even after it was run over by several cars.

Oh, and if you are wondering, "...what the heck is a Pedal Party"? It is this awesome mobile bar that you pedal down the street like a bike. The "bike" can hold 16 people plus the driver and is pedaled by 10 people. Check out the link above.

That's me on the back bench. The minimum height for those that pedal this contraption is 5'4". I was no where near able to reach the pedals so I got to hang out on the back bench and enjoy the ride and my beer.