This morning I finished the Seaside and Shells belt! Since I was using remnants I knew that I would most likely not have enough to make one the correct size. I was right. It barely meets at the front, and doesn’t tie at all. But that’s alright. I can still turn it into a workable belt. All I need is some leather strips to tie at the edges long enough to tie together and dangle a bit.

Isn’t pretty? I love the color. And I like the window effect of the stitches. Here’s a close up. I don’t think I did half bad…

In other WIP news I’ve frogged the scarf that I started at the same time I began with this. I simply didn’t like the pattern and frankly I think I was using the incorrect yarn.

Speaking of yarn. I bought some this weekend. Nothing too fancy. Mostly acrylics (nothing wrong with a good acrylic) that I thought I might be able to use in a camisole pattern. After looking over the pattern though I decided that it wouldn’t work. Which is fine since I already have new plans. I am adjusting a pattern I found in The Happy Hooker and making a blanket/throw for a friend that is moving at the end of the month. It has a 50/50 chance of actually being finished by then too.

The yarn has been inspected by Henry and he seems to approve of its addition to my slowly growing stash.

There is a high possibility that I will be starting a little “stitch ‘n bitch” group with a few other hookers…I think it would be a wonderful idea to do. LadyNea called me yesterday to see if I wanted to get together and have a little session. We ended up yarn hunting (unsuccessfully) instead, but I really like the idea and am going to talk to her about it.

I am back! Two weeks seems like a lifetime. And though I have been gone I have not been idle. Progress was made on the Seadside and Shells belt. It is almost done! Pictures will be forthcoming.

My attempts to teach my niece how to crochet were thwarted. But that’s alright. She frustrates easily and I didn’t want to drive her away from something that she may enjoy later. So instead, I crocheted a scarf for her to play with. Before we returned her to her parents she took the time to model the scarf for me.

This weekend I celebrated my birthday. Matt was wonderful and threw me a surprise picnic party. He even bought me a cake! And not just any cake…a pirate cake!

It was wonderful to spend time with friends, and the booty was great too…springplum took the time to knit me a hat. A simon tam! Crafty gifts are wonderful don’t you think?

Not the greatest picture of me in the world…but it’s the hat that matters.

Progress is being made on the Seaside and Shells belt. I think I have about 1/3 of it done. Since I am using left overs from my yarn stash I am just going to continue working on it until the thread is used up. If it turns out that there isn’t enough of it to meet the actual belt length then I won’t worry about it.  The point of my trying this pattern was to teach myself how to crochet with thread yarn.

it took me two full sections to be able to keep the tension even. The later sections are considerably tighter than the first two.  I can work up 2-2.5 sections before the tips of my fingers that are hold the the thread for tension begin to hurt. Working with such a dark thread makes it hard for me to really see where the stitches are unless it’s really well lit, not to mention the small hook…and my fingers suffer for it.

The pattern is inspired by a technique called Filet Crochet. Until I started this project I had never heard of the term before. (No I didn’t realize that the earlier project with thread was considered Filet Crochet.) So of course, I start seeing mention of Filet Crochet all over the place on Ravelry. A fellow CLF’er  asked if anyone still Filet Crocheted and there was a resounding “Yes.” Another member even posted a picture of a piece hanging in her window that she done. Which is the only reason I didn’t post a question asking exactly what Filet Crochet was.

It was like a light bulb went off in my head. I had a ton of stuff sitting in my closet from my aunt that were perfect examples of Filet Crochet and I remember thinking when she gave them to me that it would be a great feat on my part to be able to make something as beautiful as those items. In truth now that I think about it, until I started making scarves (aka wearable items) I thought that all crochet was Filet Crochet while I was growing up.

I think my need to make something “frilly” or “dainty” stems from these early encounters with crochet. I am constantly looking for patterns that are like this and until now I didn’t understand why.

I was really thrilled to hear about the summer edition of Interweave-Crochet. It contains several patterns that use Filet Crochet. I don’t have a subscription to the magazine so I will have stalk the newsstands/bookstores until I can find it.

I belong to Kitty Lovin’ Hookers, a group on Ravelry. Every month they hold a contest called “Prettiest Kitty”. Members submit photos of their kittens/cats and then at a set time voting begins. It was announced yesterday that Henry was voted “Prettiest Kitty in May”.

This was the photo that I submitted for his entry into the contest;

The prize for winning the contest in May is a 10$ gift certificate to a particular Etsy store. Since I am planning on purchasing yarn I am sure Henry will take his duties seriously as Destroyer of Yarns!

In other yarn related news:

My projects are slowly coming along. None of them are finished…I was sidetracked by an insidious game known as Sims 2 this past week.

This week starts the month long process of writing and it is my hope that my evenings will be free enough and I have the will power enough to not play Sims in oder to finish at least one of the projects.

Also, my niece will be visiting for two weeks. During which time I plan on teaching her how to crochet.

Yes, that is what I am doing. Fear not my fellow pirates! I will survive. For this is simply a sea of blue yarn.

I have begun two new projects! I present to you the Seaside and Shell’s Belt-

I understand why they call the pattern seaside - they use a very soft blue. But there are absolutely no shells in this pattern. I’m using the same thread/yarn that I used to make the potpourri sash, just in a different colorway.

And here is the Fancy Scarf I started the other day as well-

Unlike the belt, this one is nothing but shells! I like the soft blue hue and am thinking I may gift this to my MIL. I’m using Caron Simply Soft in Lt. Country Blue. It’s the first time I’ve used this yarn, and for an acrylic I am rather impressed by it.

Both of these patterns come out of The Crochet Bible by Sue Whiting. And it’s opening my eyes to how different pattern writing can be from one pattern to the next. Writing a pattern so that someone other than the author can understand it is tough work and when there are different ways of notation (names and abbr. of stitches) it can get pretty sticky.  I’m learning that if I don’t understand the written instructions I rely on the graph - providing there is one. Which in the case of The Crochet Bible, there are graphs with every project. I don’t think I would understand half of what is written without them. Ah well. At least am learning how to read patterns through graphs and will be able to do so for any future projects.

Earlier this week (sorry for the delay in posting about it) I managed to deliver all of the crochet pet plunder to their intended pets. Behold Lieder enjoying his blanket-

It took some creative work on my part to finish the fishy cat toy as I really did bungle it all up. (I’ve come to the conclusion that it wasn’t the pattern it’s just me being dense.) But I did in fact make a fish. And Henry was more than happy to play with it. Batted it right out of my hands the moment I finished-honest!

As for the CAL for kitty toys I think I will try the little balls next…

I finished the puppy blanket! All the ends are all neatly tucked away and the entire thing is ready to be given to its intended user…sometime this coming week if I am lucky. Everyone has been a bit busy this weekend and there just isn’t an appropriate moment for me to hand the blanket off yet.

I am looking forward to seeing Lieder’s reaction to his new blanket. I can easily envision him running about with it.

As I mentioned in my previous post I was going to attempt the cat toy once more this weekend. Azzy was kind enough to show me a tutorial for the “magic ring” method. While I can see the appeal of this method I have found that even though I seemed to have mastered it enough it’s still not as comfortable as the traditional method of working in rounds. I have a harder time keeping track of how many stitches I have and where they are.

I think I winged most of the pattern though, I tried following it for the most part, but my stitch count was nowhere near the same. (Rows where I was supposed to have 24 I had 21…things like that.) I still managed to make something that looks like a fish though.

See? it looks like a fish! I ended up using the yarn left over from the Victorian Shawl to make the actual fish and the stuffing is the odds and ends after trimming the puppy blanket. Yes I am aware the fish has only one part of his tail fin. I had to stop. My fingers were having some issues with the second fin and I was so about to throw the fish across the room along with my hook and everything that was in front of me if I didn’t step back. I’ll be giving the fin another go today and will post the results later.

For my first amigurumi I am rather pleased with it even if it did give me fits at first.

I have just about finished the blanket for Lieder. All that is left for me to do is weave in the many ends. It’s probably my least favorite thing to do when using multiple colors. Eventually I will learn how to work those pesky ends while I am working on the piece and not wait until the very end…one of these days I will remember that it is possible to do. Really.

I like the coloring of the blanket-I believe I chose wisely in regards to color and yarn for this project. No picture just yet as I want to see if I can take a picture of the blanket with Lieder. In my mind’s eye I can just see Lieder dragging the blanket around. Considering Lieder is a Dachshund and the blanket is probably three times his current size-it rather makes me smile.

On other project fronts I have paused momentarily. I am having difficulty understanding a pattern for the shawl I want to make. I am not sure if it is the way that the designer writes her patterns or if I am just being obtuse about things. If I can’t figure it out by the end of the weekend I may frog the project and try something else.

I attempted to make some cat toys this weekend and failed horribly at making little fishes. I’m going to give it another go this weekend. I think my issue is the instructions for the adjustable ring that it starts with or simply my perception of what it should look like. I may have to wander over to NexStitch and see if there is a visual of what I need to do. If I can’t figure out what I am doing wrong I will move on to other types of kitty toys.

I will have to weather the next month or so with what is currently in my stash as for the time being (next several months actually). I came to the realization that I simply will not have the funds to increase my stash. It is a sad pirate that must admit this.

This does not mean I will hang up my hook though. It simply means that I must find appropriate projects for what I do have in my stash…I foresee a lot of practicing with the lace thread yarn. (What exactly do you call the yarn used for making those frilly table runners and such?) I am pretty sure that I can manage smaller projects with what is in my stash, but nothing of a large scale.

Baton down the hatches mates, it’s going to get a bit rough…

I had heard a while back that our fearless leader planned on producing a podcast for the CLF. A Crochet Liberation Domination Report to be precise. I somehow completely missed the first podcast going live. I’m not sure how that happened as it went live back in March.

Well, the second podcast went live a few days ago and I spent the morning catching up and listening to the CLF Reports. The amount of stuff that is covered in the second podcast is pretty amazing and proof that we are making a difference.

This past week I joined up with a group called Kitty Lovin Hookers on Ravelry. The group was suggested to me by fellow hooker, azzy, after a conversation about our cats. This group is amazing. They have a monthly Charity CAL (crochet-a-long), meaning that they crochet various items that cats would need/enjoy (beds, toys, blankets) and donate everything made to a different cat shelter each month.

Henry is, as many of you may already know, an adopted kitty. And every time we go buy food for him we stop by and visit the kitties waiting to be adopted. (Yes, we plan on adopting another kitty it’s simply a matter of money at the moment.) It’s hard to simply walk away from them. It really is. I wished there was something I could do for them. Realistically I couldn’t adopt each one and I couldn’t afford to donate a ton of money (though I donate whenever possible even if it’s just a single dollar). Now I know there is something I can do AND I can promote the hook at the same time! A bonus is that I learn how to crochet amigurumi when I start making the little toys…which will be this weekend most likely.

Have a great weekend…

Now that I have finished certain other projects (non-yarn related but just as important) I finally decided to start another yarn project. I am making a blanket for Lieder, a dachshund puppy that recently found a home with some friends of mine.

Naturally as soon as Henry realizes that I have started an actual project he must protect it all costs. It was that or he really wanted to play with the yarn that he knocked off of the couch when he sat down on the blanket.

The blanket itself is being made with Lily’s Sugar and Cream100% cotton yarn in Ecru, Sage Green, Warm Brown, and Soft Teal. The hook is an H/8 hook. I’m maybe a third of the way finished. The pattern I am using I am using is from The Cool Girl’s Guide to Crochet.

I have also been trying my hand and making something that is a little more fancy. You could even say lace-like if you want. My stash contains a lot of thread like yarn that is used for doilies. I inherited it from my mother when she gave me all of her crafting stuff. I’ve never really worked with this type of yarn, though I have plenty of items in the apt. made from it. (I have an aunt in Germany that loves to send me socks, and table runners that she has made. I have an entire set of lacy coasters…)

This was my first attempt at making something. The pattern is from The Crochet Bible by Sue Whiting, and the pattern is for a Potpourri Sachet. I only made one side of it. I used a C/2 hook. I must say I was really pleased with myself for having finished it. I must not be used to handling this thread like yarn as it kept slipping from my fingers and I had a heck of a time keeping the tension even. Over all I don’t think it’s a bad first attempt.

I also tried my hand at something a little more difficult. A square from an Heirloom Lace Blanket. I’ve only reached the fifth round on it but I think it looks really nice. At least now I know how to make the little pop-up flowers…forgive the poor quality of the picture, for some reason this yarn loves to reflect light and I this was the only picture that I could actually see the wip in and it’s fuzzier than Henry…

I am not sure that I am going to actually make the Heirloom Lace Blanket (the pattern is available in the Sue Whiting book) as I am really just testing the yarn out, but I think it may well be in my future projects. I’ll post a completed square when I have actually finished one.

I am beginning to like this yarn and can see the potential to make lots of lacy items. Now I just have to find some…