crochet in rainbow

Is anybody else in 'clean it out' mode? Maybe it's spring cleaning, I don't know, what I do know is that I just want to clear everything out and feel like I have space to breathe. That includes my old projects that I have been avoiding/ignoring for varying amounts of time. This finish is one from that list. I got the yarn and started strong back in September, making a 'yarn blanket' for the big girl bed at the request of said big girl. I was doing well in the beginning, but it kind of fell by the wayside with moving and holidays and everything. It has been in a box under my sewing table taunting me for months. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and got down to business.

I used a tutorial from the pearl bee, but I used larger yarn and hook to make larger blocks. I made 42 9.5" blocks in 9 colors to do a 6x7 layout. The yarn is brava from knitpicks.com and it is a nice soft acrylic. Once I got going it went pretty quickly. The key for me was to do all the center parts of a color and then do those borders and somehow that motivated me to get it done. I even stitched it together in record time and weaved those nasty ends in and now it happily resides on her bed. I am pretty much in love with it and owe tons to my sweet husband for helping me land on the perfect layout. More details on my ravelry page.

Basically it looks awesome and I am so happy to have it done and have that box out of my way. Now I am on a mission to get my hexie pillow done asap which is the other big longstanding project that I have been ignoring. Then I have a handwork break until my parents get me my birthday yarn so I can knit up a special something for me. Oh, and I may have ordered some awesome yarn to make myself a sweater at some point. I have big goals people, big goals! Also, I have been back at the pony club so I'll have some more blocks for that soon.

well it's something....

Alright, I know blogs are all buttercups and rainbows and all that, but guys, things are sucking right now. In the grand scheme of things, it really is a small suckage, but still. At the moment, we are all a little sick, the babe has stopped sleeping in a big way, and our beloved cat is probably not going to make it to his 6th birthday later this month. The little guy has been a part of our family for 5.5 years and a couple weeks ago he just stopped eating. There is nothing obvious wrong and without doing expensive testing there is nothing we can do.  So it sucks. He was our first baby!

As a result of the babe deciding that sleep is for...everyone but her, we are tired and I no longer have any sort of naptime to craft in. It's not helping my sanity. So mostly what I have been doing is crocheting since I can sneak it in and also snuggle with the cat while I do it.

I had this grand plan back in the late summer/early fall (you know, after I had a baby and we were moving across town a few weeks later) to make a "yarn blanket" for the big girl bed. It was requested and I'm a sucker for a little girl who appreciates handmade. Side note: my 3-year-old thought that everyone made all their gifts for her and kept asking if people made things she got...she didn't really understand when I told her that no, in fact most people buy their gifts haha! Anyway, after going through my options, I decided to crochet one since it's quite a bit faster then knitting one. I am using a tutorial from the purl bee but instead of making a gazillion small squares, I picked some worsted weight yarn and a size K hook which ended up making blocks roughly 9.5". I am making 42 of them and let me tell you, they are fun and pretty quick, but I would never manage to make 108 of them for the original blanket. Just wow.

I am using 9 different colors of knit picks brava yarn that the little one helped pick out. When it comes to a small child, I admit that cheap and washable are big deciding factors and I must say this yarn is both of those things, plus super soft. I am done 6 of the colors and have just started on the next one, and I am hoping to finish these squares up in the next couple of weeks. I am mostly motiviated by the idea of getting the big box of yarn out from under my sewing table, so hopefully that will help me finish up quickly. I have ended up doing all the center squares of one color and then putting the borders on and it makes it feel pretty quick. I finished 8 squares in the past week that way, and I think I have 15 to go. Of course then I have to put them together and I'm not quite sure yet how I am going to do that, but one thing at a time. So there you go, public declaration, it will be done!

Hopefully I will be back with some sewing things soon. I have been planning out a little girls summer wardrobe which I will hopefully start soon and I am still working occasionally on my DWR arcs. Once we get this sleep thing under control, I hope to be back to business. Man I hope we get this sleep thing under control....

A little crocheted blanket

Something about the weather cooling down just puts me in the mood to play with yarn :) Generally I love to knit, but since I learned to crochet last spring, I had wanted to make a little blanket for my baby girl. I think it is safe to say she is old enough to have a blanket in her crib at this point, especially a small crocheted one. The first blanket I crocheted was supposed to before that, but it ended up small...and kinda ugly....so I wanted to make another one.

Remember how I am a tiny bit obsessed with pinterest? (my huge collection of pins may give away the fact that it is more than a tiny bit...). Well one day I stumbled upon this picture.

 via Pinterest

And I fell in love. And I had to make one like it. But I {wisely} thought that a big lap afghan would be a bit much and probably never get finished so it seemed like the perfect thing for a crib blanket!

Now, what I liked most was the use of the variegated yarn as kind of a background, so that was what I set out to recreate, but as it turned out, the only yarn I could find that had the multi-colored yarn and the coordinating solids must be what is used in the picture! Which is fine with me because I love those colors, they feel so calm and snuggly!

 As you may have realized, this is only the second thing I have ever crocheted. So it is far from perfect. And instead of an actual pattern, I just used a stitch pattern from the Lion Brand stitchfinder and made it up as I went along.  I had to learn how to single crochet (easy peasy) and figure out the increases/decreases, but it really wasn't bad, probably thanks to years of knitting so I knew roughly what I was looking at. I don't even know how many stitches across it is since I put on a bunch, like 150 maybe, but I had some extra chains left over as I figured out what I was doing. So despite the fact that it is kind of hourglass shaped, I love this thing. I think it is so pretty and will be a perfect little crib blanket for fall. Of course I have my doubts as to whether a blanket will actually get used in said crib, but that's okay.

Stats:
Finished size - about 27" x 40"
Yarn used - Loops & Threads Impeccable in tradewind ombre, grass, aqua, white, and soft taupe
Hook size - H
Pattern - Lion Brand rainbow chevron

I am also adding this to the celebrate color linky over at Stitched in Color.

one big granny square

Things have been quite busy around here. I have actually been pretty productive, and got a lot of smaller things done. My amazing hubby gave me some extra crafting time for mothers day (although really he would have given it to me anyway, because he is just that great) and I was even able to make some good progress on some quilts. We are heading to see my sister graduate this weekend so when we get back I have a quilt deadline to meet. More on that later.

One of the things I finally managed to finish, is what I consider my first crochet project. The headband really doesn't count as far as I am concerned since it was just a chain anyway. What initially got me started on the whole learning to crochet thing was that I wanted a small blanket for the little one. Somehow a crochet one seemed like it would be better than a knit one, what with being full of holes and all...better for breathing or something like that. At any rate, that is where the idea started.

So one day at work the other girl I was working with taught me how to crochet. The pattern is just a large granny square. I got some Bernat soft boucle yarn which is a bit harder to work with but hides mistakes just wonderfully. Really it was just one of the few yarns that was machine washable and dryable which seemed important for something I was planning to put in a crib. The yarn is brown with pink flecks.

I got a good amount done that first day, but then I had less time and the rounds were getting so much bigger that it was taking more time to do a round (and I'm a finish a round or don't bother starting it kinda gal) so I stopped for a while. I also didn't love it. The yarn is okay, but it is just so lightweight it didn't seem like it would be a great blanket. And then the skein ended. And I had to decide whether to get more of the yarn to make it a reasonable size, or stop and forget it. I chose option c, using yarn from my stash that is the same weight and doesn't really match to make a fairly ugly blanket just kinda ridiculous. I used some Lion brand Jiffy yarn in whatever colors I had on hand, until I ran out of said colors....and actually I think it is still under 30" square which was the finished size I was kinda aiming for.




Oh well. The picture makes the colors actually look worse than they are in person. For example the border color is actually purple but in the picture I think it looks blue and the pink/brown center just looks way worse when photographed. Oh well, it's done and one of these days once I finish up some other things, it will be on to a bigger and better crochet project, I already have some ideas. For now, crocheting anything else is on hold since I have so many other things to do. And I promise that my other things coming up are much prettier. It just only seems fair to put up the ugly things too. Who knows if this blanket will even get used or for what. Maybe the cat just got a new blanket to lay on :)

a new skill

I am so close to done work I can taste it. One more full day of work and then 3 days of wrap up stuff and I am free! Let me tell you, I just can't wait. The house is sadly neglected and the list of things I want to do/make is just sky high, so I can't wait to get going on that. Soon, very soon.

Anyhoo, I did learn a new skill during this work season. I can crochet!! Well kinda, anyway. I have a somewhat larger crochet project in the works, but I don't exactly know when that will be done. I did, however, find something super cute that I wanted to make while perusing pinterest one day (seriously, obsessed). It is a knotted headband and really, it is a crocheted chain. 2 technically. I am pretty sure my mom taught me how to make a chain ages ago, but my new crochet lessons refreshed it. My biggest roadblock in making this was that, believe it or not, I didn't own a hot glue gun haha. Luckily, my office happens to be 2 doors down from an A.C. Moore so that was easily remedied :) And of course once I got one done, I just had to make a second one for a friend (she loves hers too in case you were wondering). Mine came out a bit thinner than the pattern since I used what I already had. And since I was using a different size hook and weight yarn, I just read through the pattern and eyeballed the length I needed. It didn't matter if it was too long since it got cut down anyway. I like the thinner look though and I used some of my cotlin yarn scraps, and I just love that yarn.






It was super quick, simple project and I just love it. I want to wear it all the time. It is not perfect, I had some trouble perfecting the hot gluing of the ends, but it works.

And now to go enjoy my day off...even though I still have to run to the office. 4 more days!