I hate Granny Squares!!!

I really don't hate granny squares. If I did, there would pretty much be no reason to continue crocheting. I had taken on the most ambitious project of making my friend a baby shower gift for her upcoming new arrival. Up until this brilliant idea, I had only made hats. So I learned how to make the granny square and made one and then proceeded to make 15 more. I wasn't really thrilled about granny squares after I was finished. I guess I should be glad it was only a baby blanket and not a full on afghan. I will definitely not be making another blanket for a while. I have more hats to make for now. It is getting chilly.


Thanks to The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoler for her listing of patterns..

Humiliated Dog

My sister has this great little dog Emmett, who I think is a great dog. I am sure he doesn't think of me as anything since he really doesnt like people that much. But since I think he is great, I decided to make him a sweater for when it is cool in the mountains of NC. I found pattern in Crochet Today. I got it all done just in time for her visit. One look on her face - I knew this was not going to fit. My assumption was proved correct when I saw the picture. It looks more like a some sort of PBS super hero outfit - turtleneck cape.


It fits a bit better on her cat. So what did I learn from this? Next time I make a sweater for Emmett, I will do it while I am visiting him, so I can chase him around to measure if what I am doing will actually give him a sweater, instead of a silly photo op.

Tip of the Week

Perhaps actually doing a project!

-L

Yarn Bunnies

I have too much yarn. I don't know how this happened. I just learned how to crochet in June. Some how, in 5 months, I have more yarn than I know what to do with. I have 8 skeins that are not even used and I have no projects that I am even remotely planning to use the yarn for. My yarn drawer is in my husband's nightstand. He has never used the bottom drawer in our 8 years of living in the house, so I started putting yarn in it. Suddenly it multiplied like rabbits. The absolutely sad thing is, I found this great website Mary Maxim's that has awesome 1$ yarn sales. So what do I do? I buy more yarn that is pretty and shove it in the drawer. I guess I had better find some projects......

Owl, Part 2

Here are our official sc2toggers (myself not included). Annika provided entertainment - "Kitty Wants to Be a Rock Star" should be coming to a venue near you anytime now.

Annika offered to demonstrate my projects this evening, starting with a lovely yoga bag in shape of a flower. (Note: Yoga bags do not look like flowers)

And here is our magical owl with no wings! Except that he finally has wings and an attached head. He does have some difficulty remaining upright, but that is part of his plus-size charm. Special thanks to Annika for providing a fun photo shoot.

Hat Crazy

I do not learn things from books. I never have been able to pick up a book of technical or non-technical instructions and learn a skill (for the most part). My theory on this was confirmed when I purchased Debbie Stoller's "Stitch and Bitch". (The names of her books are awesome!) I wanted to learn to knit and I hear great things about the book. I pick up the book, my knitting needles and get started. The blank look appears on my face. Why would I waste my money like this? I had also purchased her crochet book, "The Happy Hooker", so I am really questioning what I was thinking. I was about to see if I still had my receipts, when I decided to give this one a shot. How is this possible? I am learning to do something from a book? Am I sure that it isn't just osmosis from sleeping near it? My math teacher always told us that wouldn't work. So after easily making my way through all of the stitch examples, I was crocheting!! From a book no less. My first project was a hat. I posted my son in the hat on the family blog and had a lot of people ask for hats. So I went a little overboard with the hats. I made 7 hats in 3 months (as well as coordinating scarves). You may not think this is all that odd, but I live in Phoenix. During the time of my hat insanity, the temperatures were over 100 degrees outside. Perhaps it was my way of tricking my brain into thinking it was cool out. I am pretty sure that I just really liked making the hats...

La Lechusa Loca

Cindy bought a cute magazine called Crochet Today with an adorable owl pattern tucked inside. I decided, following my attempt at a yoga bag (that's for another post, friends) to try this owl. He consisted of several single crochets (sc or sk-uh) with a few sc2togs.

One important rule that I continue to read and blatantly disregard is measuring gauge. Always measure the gauge. Okay. I didn't learn that from the yoga bag. And I did NOT learn it here with the owl.

Ian insisted on helping stuff the owl, so on Sunday afternoon, I rushed to finish the body of the owl, as my son can be very focused on projects. Here he is, adding the fiberfill and showing off what appears to be a very large and decidedly un-adorable owl. Granted the poor thing is missing a beak and wings. But still. You can look and compare. I think you'll see what I mean.

http://www.crochettoday.com/articlepage.aspx?articleid=174

Sc2tog! Mercifully, it doesn't really matter what size the owl turns out to be. I do happen to have enough yarn to continue and try to make the owl the right sc2togging size.

And a thanks to my sc2togger blogger and friend in crochet mishaps for giving us a place to showcase them.

What is this called?

So all of us are fairly new to crochetting. We use the book to to refer what the heck all of the codes mean. So we have our first crochet group. Carolyn and I are working on a blanket and Linda is working on a stuffed owl. We are chatting away about whatever we are trying to do without having to rip it apart again when we hear "What is this skitog" Bad language? A new type of outdoor recreation? No, this would be the Sc2tog stich, defined as: 'sc2tog' means to use single crochet to join two stitches together. It is a way to decrease (make the item smaller.) Not sure if you actually are supposed to pronounce the code in any special way, so Linda took it upon herself to pronoune "skitog". Sc2tog is a great word. It does come in handy instead of swearing. I used it at work the other day - "What the sc2tog are you doing!" or "How the sc2tog are you?". I suspect to see it in Webster's any day.

Coming Soon

We are a group of beginning crochet peeps. We dont sell patterns, we just have fun in our endeavors and decided to start sharing. Feel the love.