Wool Eater and Rednesday

Here is my progress from the Wool Eater CAL.  This started last Wednesday.  The schedule was to crochet 6 rounds (12 actual rounds, as it takes two rounds to complete one color).  It took me Wed, Thur, and Friday to complete the rounds.  Then I worked on my other WIP's. 

Here are my pictures of the first 6 rounds.  The colors look very bright, I took the pictures around sunset outside on my ivy.  Top picture is the front and the second picture is the back.

Here it is Wednesday again I haven't checked the schedule for how many rounds for this week, but I started crocheting on it today during my crochet break.  I spent about 3 hours on it so far.  See in this picture it doesn't look as bright, this picture was taken inside after dark.  You can't tell as much differences in the orange and coral in this picture, I think it shows up better in the first week pictures.  Today I added shades of red (Happy Rednesday) I completed the maroon round, only about half way around the first round of red.  I think I am adding greens next.

I have already made several mistakes on this blanket (have you heard of making a mistake somewhere on a project so it is not "perfect"?  Well I already have two that are still in there and one that I had to FROG in the maroon after I had already started the next red.  Sadly two of the mistakes were made today (I don't know where my brain was) One mistake was made during the first week.  That mistake was I only had 11 stitches instead of 12 in one corner.  I worked that out by just going around one of the posts twice so it was okay from that point on!!  Now I'll tell you the third mistake next I accidentally crocheted 8 stitches in one of the corners instead of 12.  I'm so happy to say it was the last corner before joining rounds, so I didn't have to take out the red that I had already started on except where the mistake was.  Luckily I had a long enough tail so I didn't have to reattach more yarn to complete that round.

Here's a picture of my second mistake.  As you can see in my first two pictures I was very good and put under all my ends.  Well I was having a problem crocheting in between the stitches when I got to where I tied off my ends.  Of course at the time I didn't realize what the problem was.  Plus I didn't see what happened as a result of it until I was looking over it and wondering why this one section was sticking up funny.  Further investigation showed what happened and why it was hard to crochet in this one section.  When tying in my ends I had pulled the stitches together.  So you can see where on the one it looks like I have a row of blue and then the red, I ended up going under the area where I had sewn my ends under leaving that extra blue row and leaving it sticking out in a funny way.  Lesson learned, I will not sew in my ends from the last round completed until the next round is added.  Now for my final slight frustration in the following picture...

See two hooks??  The wonderful clover one that allows me to crochet for long periods without the arthritis in my hand to act up.  Well the whole first week I used that hook and struggled thru the part where you have to have so many loops on your hook at one time.  Okay I made it, after struggling with the first round today, and realizing the more I get into this the more struggling I will be doing.  I got out my next favorite hook which is a susan bates, however soon after I start crocheting I have to stop and take breaks, frequent breaks.  But that is okay, I love this blanket pattern and being part of this CAL.  And I look forward to the second part of the color round when I can put down the susan bates hook and use my clover hook.  So at least I get a break in between rounds.

To see more red go to It's a Very Cherry World
Hugs to all
Rene'

Crochet Contest

I participated in a crochet contest at Elisabeth Andree's About Crochet Blog.  I chose to make a pillow cover, mine came out about 13"x20".  I used two of the variations of the ch.sc stitch, mostly the first variation and added in the second variation here and there.  I used Bernat Softee Chunky in three different colors:  Light Taupe, Grape and Too Purple (although in my pictures I believe the colors look like blues instead of purples.  The recommended hook size for this yarn was U.S J/10 or 6mm, I used U.S I/9 or 5.5mm, I wanted my stitches closer together with not too much gap since it was a pillow cover.  I ended up using the stitch back and forth in rows, then also added it as a border, which was a bit of a challenge as I needed more rows on the sides than the top and bottom on one side and on the other side I needed more rows at the top and bottom and only one row on the sides, I'm happy to say what I pictured for the border did work out nicely after a few trial and errors.  One side of my pillow the stripes are horizontal and the other side are vertical and I purposely tried to be random with different lengths and widths of stripes.  I sewed the two long sides together and I sewed 3 buttons on each side of the short sides.  I used the chain one space as a button loop, worked out great.  I hope it is okay that I posted it on Sunday, instead of Saturday, somehow I had the deadline in my head as the 15th.

Thanks for introducing me to a new stitch, I'm already thinking of more ways to use it.  I think it would make a great baby blanket, and my mom wants me to try to make a hat pattern from this stitch.  It was lots of fun.
René

Continuing with my Pansies from Rednesday, I want to share some pink pansies and another pink flower still blooming this winter.

Here are pink pansies that my grandma bought this year.  She bought them from a school fundraiser, and she liked their pansies so much she said that is where she wants to buy them from now on, if they do it again next year.  They had such different pansies than we had ever seen before.



And then here is one picture of an impatient that was still blooming towards the end of December.

Happy Pink Saturday to everybody, and to see more Pinks visit Beverly's Pink Saturday

René

WIP's Crochet and Knit

First let me say look past any yarn that you see hanging on, out of my wip's (works in progress) of which I have way to many, that is why I am listing them out, so I have a visual to see, and so I can make a plan on working on these wip's to get them to the complete F.O. (Finished Object)  I have a very bad habit of leaving weaving of my ends till I finish a project.  Which can be very overwhelming when you are complete only to look at all the ends to be put under.



Okay here I go, above is a granny rectangle that I started, after I came across a pattern.

Granny squares, two color, joined in white, I think it was going to be either a cushion cover or my footstool cover.  I still need both!!!

 Again more granny squares, probably after I had found instructions about how to put a border on joined granny squares that stayed flat instead of rippling.  This could be cushion cover or even a small blanket.

This would have to be for a cushion cover, as I don't have much more of that varigated purple, and purple is my favorite color.

This is a chair cover for my kitchen chair.  It is plastic and it makes me sweat and in the winter it is cold.  Still using a beach towel to sit on, and when my husband sits in my chair I have to pick up said towel from the floor and put it back on my chair.

I had an idea that I would like an afghan of this type square done all in white, as you see I have two done so far, this was started in the beginning of 2011.

Here is a shawl I am making for my mom.  I was going to use a flower hexagon, but somehow decided on this star instead.

Here is a round ripple that I started I don't remember when.  I did complete one as a baby blanket.

Here is a more recent wip, just started Wednesday for the Wool Eater CAL by Sarah London.  It took me Wed, Thur, Fri to complete the 6 round for the CAL for this week.  Above is the front (right side), and below is the back (wrong side).  I've already had some people think the back is the front.

Below is a granny ripple, that I added one triangle to, I'll take that out, want to put a row of granny squares there instead.

Below my attempt at the Japanese Flower Blog Explosion, due to seeing Lucy (Attic 24) Shawl , then from Suz's Place came the idea to fill in the gaps.  I hope I can remember what I did because it fit in there so nicely.

This was laziness, I was bagging up all my wip's and I bagged this one up and forgot to take a picture first, and I still had more pictures to take, and had already taken quite a few at that point.  I folded it in half and in half again for it to fit in the bag.  The date on the bag is just the date I attempted organization of wip's.

Don't remember what I was making out of this, but here are some lovely hexagons.

This is going to be an owl pillow cover, my mom likes owls, and this is the crochet version, there is also a knit version.

Below is a panel for a on the go afghan, after complete it rolls up and has handles for carrying it.  Stopped working on it when I ran out of one color, will have to find another yarn that works with it, or redo in a color that I have enough of to make the afghan. 

This is a scarf that started because I had this yarn in my room and I wanted to see how it was to knit with.  So I cast on stitches and just started knitting, also just grabbed some handy knitting needles.

Below is my first attempt at Lucy's Granny Stripe.



Here is another very current WIP, this is a belated Christmas gift for a male family friend.  I believe he will appreciate this.

I still have more works in progress to add, have to get some more pictures uploaded...I'll try to post part two on Monday.

Hugs, and a Happy Weekend to All!!!

René

Here is my blue monday offerings for this week.  This is a thank you card given for Christmas gifts received.  I used some wallpaper samples and some scrapbooking paper.  Also used aluminum foil and needle and thread.  Got the idea for the card from pinterest.  My favorite parts were wrapping the thread around the spool, attaching the needle and wrapping more thread around that, and sewing the words Thanks Sew Much.
Hope everybody is having a great Blue Monday : )
For more Blue Monday visit Smiling Sally here
Hugs,
René

Rednesday 2012



These pictures were taken on December 22, 2011.  Pansies a usual winter flower, however quite unusual were the last few roses still blooming, the above picture was of the last bud.  We only had one minor frost before these pictures were taken.  Last night we had our first big frost for this winter, oh and we had snowflurries, the kind if you didn't happen to see the faint flurries for the very brief time they were falling, you wouldn't even know there had been any at all.

See lots more red over at It's a Very Cherry World

Hugs,

René