Yarn Purge

Yesterday I organized my yarn stash and started working on getting my craft room organized. Oh there is just soooo much stuff in mu I’ve finished another of my 12 of 2012 projects.

Here is what is supposed to be my March finish… I’ve been in a morn yarn than fabric mood and I figured that keeping myself busy doing something was better than doing nothing.

and then on top of that. I have been working on one of my 101 in 1001 goals of getting yarn used up and another goal of making over 30 blankets… this is from Jennifer of Sewhooked.com‘s
Oh Wavy Baby Pattern

Bubble Dishcloth

And now I join the world of pattern writing. Here is my first attempt.

Bubble Dishcloth

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bubble-dishcloth

Stitches Used

Chain

Single crochet

Triple crochet

Materials

Less than 1 skein Lily Sugar ‘n Cream (Pink Camouflage used in sample)

Size G Crochet Hook

Tapestry Needle for weaving in ends

Pattern

Chain 30

Row 1: Insert hook into second ch from hook and sc across row. (29 sts). Turn.

Row 2: Chain 1. Sc *tr, sc* repeat from * to end of row. Turn.

Row 3: Ch1. Sc to end of row. Turn.

Repeat rows 2 and 3 until cloth is square. End on a repeat of row 3.

Finishing: Sc around edges, for corners sc, ch1, sc.

This pattern works up nice and quick and creates a very textured dishcloth.

O.W.L. Proposal for HPKCHC

Here is what I am up to, on top of many other crochet projects for the HPKCHC I am going to be attempting to earn an OWL. Here is my proposal for my Care of Magical Creatures OWL, Option 2: Hatch an Egg. Identify your egg (dragon, phoenix, etc.) and knit or crochet an object inspired by your creature. If you make a physical creature it must be a minimum of 12inches in at least one dimension.

So here it is…

After a trip down Knockturn Alley (I shop proudly there) and a conversation with a few shady witches and wizards I came into the possession of an egg that I suspect to be that of a Common Welsh Green.

Pattern and Yarns

I would like to hatch this egg by using the JJ the Fire Dragon pattern http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/jj-the-fire-dragon—amigurumi-pattern I’ve never made an amigurumi this big before and the biggest challenge of this project for me is going to be sticking with the project, I tend to set down larger projects and start smaller “instant gratification” type projects, and then pick up the big projects months and months later. Plus this has way more “bits” to attach than I have ever worked with before, on other amigurumi projects I have worked on it has just been color changes, and increases and decreases. The other major part of this project that seems to be difficult is that most rows are not identical and it will require a lot of paying attention to (as opposed to sitting in front of the TV and mindlessly crocheting), the pattern is 19 or so pages long.

Scary pattern…

I’m planning to start with the wings and legs (instant gratification), and then move on to the body (where I plan to add a few lines of a different shade of green to give it a more “realistic” dragon belly look) and end with the scales and the face.

I will be using Caron simply soft which should turn out just the right size dragon. About 6.7” high, and 22” long. I will be using a 3.5mm steel hook. Swatching was important for this project (even though gauge is not) because the pattern calls for a 2.5mm hook and I needed to make sure that the stitches would be tight enough with the larger hook so that the stuffing would peak through the parts that are to be stuffed. I will be using fiber fill to stuff this guy, and have both plastic and steel tapestry needles availble (sometimes I prefer one type over the other, and never know until I get stitching). I have also included some stitch markers in my photo because there are times when I use them even when not called for.

Hook, needles, stitchmarkers and my swatch!

From the Harry Potter Lexicon:
Common Welsh Green 

native to: Wales 

habitat: nests in higher mountains 

appearance: green 

flame: narrow jets

food: sheep 

eggs: earthy brown speckled with green
Thank you for you consideration!

*Update: Project has been approved, and as of the time of this post I have one wing completed.

I wanted to share

the fact that I am participating in the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup, and have been sorted into Slytherin house. This is a very motivating project for me, its forcing me to get things done… things for myself and things for others… I want to share my most recent entry in the dungeons for the HPKCHC, because there are pictures of pretty FOs!

Update on my assignments…
-HoM – Completed and turned in Basilisk Skin Beanie http://www.ravelry.com/projects/MKissa/diamond-ridges

-Herbology – Completed and turned in Herbology Hot Pads http://www.ravelry.com/projects/MKissa/crochet-flower-hot-pad

-Charms – Still contemplating pattern
-Ancient Runes – To be completed this week
-DADA – Not sure yet
-Potions – Frogged once… will attempt again this week
-Headmistress Challenge – One bookmark done, 3 to go
-OWL Proposal – Swatch and Proposal to be turned in tonight for JJ the Fire Dragon http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/jj-the-fire-dragon—amigurumi-pattern

CAL Progress

I am participating in a Crochet A Long at http://community.livejournal.com/starknuts/ and I am finally catching up. I was planning on doing all Slytherin blocks, but as I have been on a D/Hr kick lately I have started thinking about making a set of the blocks for each Slytherin and Gryffindor and putting them together in one larger afghan… still unsure of what I am going to do and how big of an afghan I want… we shall see.

Here is my progress so far:

July

August

September

October

November

December

Wow. I cannot believe how productive of a month I am having. I mean, I really set out to have one, but I am actually doing it, lists are getting crossed off, projects are being completed, rooms are being cleaned, and life is improving.

On Satruday I went to a birthday party for my friend Jenny’s daughter’s 3rd birthday. What a trip that my friend has a 3-year-old, but, of course I did not plan ahead of time and had no gift as of Friday night at 5. Sooo… I got my shift covered at the pizza place and headed to Joann’s. Oh my gosh, it has been almost 3 whole months since I purchased any fabric. It was hard to go in there and get back out only buying what I needed… oh the pretties…

Six and a half hours later I came out of my sewing room with these two items. The dress is a McCalls pattern. I made it in a size 5 because Miss Mackenzie is tall and is already wearing a 4T. The purse is just a freehand project, both the princess fabric and the purple lining are sparkley.

Little girls love things to put their things in…

Theeeeeen… I finished the MAN’s LA Kings scarf… BEFORE HOCKEY PLAYOFFS… WOOT!!!

As always… you can click the phots to see them larger.

Linus Connection

A wonderful crafty lady that I know, Jennifer of http://blog.sewhooked.org/ does a lot of work for the Linus Connection. Linus Connection is a charity in central Texas that provides blankets for children (infants to teens) in need. They may be homeless or in foster care, or even in the hospital.

Last month when her group had their monthly meeting they discovered they were 200 blankets short of those that were requested of them. Jen put a call out to her crafty friends, to send her orphan blocks (yarn or fabric). I am always working on a crochet blanket in front of the tv, so I had one nice and ready to send along to her. So instead of just sending blocks I was able to send her a whole crocheted baby blanket.

Here is a picture of that, and it is even from a pattern that Jennifer wrote called, “Oh Wavy Baby” http://blog.sewhooked.org/2009/02/07/crochet-oh-wavy-baby/

Then… I glanced at my stash of fabric and knowing that it had been just a little too long since I had finished a quilt top, I pulled out the Spiderman fabric I got on super sale, dug through my stash for some coordinating colors, found the perfect pattern, and got cutting. A day and half later I had this…

More information on the Linus Connection can be found here: http://www.linusconnection.org/

Candy Corn!

Hooray for Halloween. So far I have made 6 of these little guys (and gifted 4 of them). They are about 3 and a half inches tall each. The pattern for them can be found at http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/amigurumi-candy-corn

The ones that I have created can stand up on their own. The way that I did that was by changing the last row of stitches to skip one st, 1 sc in next 4 st and then skip again, sc in next 4 st… continue until you get to the stitch marker. Then when sewing the bottom together I sewed the outside on each stitch together. I LOVE how they turned out!

Oh… also if you need some stitch markers for a project like these you can view a tutorial to make your own at http://wilcoxwizardwears.blogspot.com/2009/10/stitch-marker-tute.html I happen to be the lucky owner of those HP stitch markers. 🙂

V-Log

Okay, so for awhile I have been participating in Talk to Me Tuesday. It is an awesome way for a bunch of awesome crafty ladies to share what we have been doing online, and it was started by Jennifer Ofenstein of http://www.sewhooked.org. You can read more about it here: http://blog.sewhooked.org/2009/04/29/talk_to_me_tuesday/

Aaaanyways, I have been somewhat reluctant to share my videos on this blog because it is so public. At this point though, what the hell. Most people know how nutty and nerdy I am. Perhaps what you might not know is how many times I can say “Um” in 8 minutes. Being in front of the camera makes me nervous… what can I say?

Okay, so you want to know I have online crafty friends, why can’t I make crafty friends near my home? Weeeell… it seems that the average age of crafty/quilty/crocheting women is about 52. While I can get along with 52 year old women fairly well, it is nice to be involved with a crafty group that I have a bit more in common with.

This video is a response to Jennifer’s weekly video, which you can get to by going to the youtube page and clicking on the link right under my video, which reads: This is a response to: Talk To Me Tuesday – Pigtails!

So… I hope you enjoy my nerdiness!!

Granny Rectangle #2

I started this blanket while finishing the last baby quilt that I made. It seemed like our friends and family members kept announcing pregnancies and I was unsure how many would continue to roll in. So this is the boy baby blanket that I made just in case. I used the same pattern as the blanket in the entry below.

It turned out a bit larger than the typical crochet baby blanket, but I am sure it will make a great baby/toddler blanket. Something that the child can snuggle with until they are 4 or 5…

This blanket and it’s pattern can be viewed on my Ravelry. Username: MKissa