Things Are Looking Bright!

I have something awesome that I want everybody to see....

Ta-DA!

Don't you just love it?  (Can you tell that I do?)  It's like a bag of Skittles popped open...and somehow serendipitously arranged themselves into orderly rows of colour.

This is a simple granny stripe.  If you want to know more about what's involved with the pattern, you should check out Attic 24, my go-to web space for all things granny.

It takes 15 minutes to make a stripe.  Multiply that times 27 rows and you've got 405 minutes.  Divide that by 60 and you'll know that I've sunk 6.75 hours into this blanket already.   Oh, and I started it yesterday.  (I should mention that I learned I could watch full episodes from HGTV online yesterday, too. That may have had something to do with it.)

It's not quite finished yet.  There's the whole deal of working in ends.  (The yucky part.)  And I'm going to put a border on it.  I still have lots of the berry colour left, so the border will be mostly in that shade.

It just feels so good.  It's crocheted in mercerized cotton so it has a nice weight to it and it's cool and silky to the touch.

Some baby girl needs this blanket.  And it's going to be for sale.  Stay tuned.

A New Blanket...For Sale!

This week, I'll be working at "editing" my yarn stash.  It's gotten much too out of hand and it's taking up way too much room in our teeny storage area.  Of course, I've been putting off getting started, because having to choose which yarn to part with is like having to choose which friends must leave the lifeboat.

Knowing that I won't be able to keep it all, I've decided only to keep the yarn that I have specific plans for.  My first attempt at editing ended up lasting only a few minutes.  I came across two bags of red and white Babycakes and I decided to get to crocheting so that I didn't have to give that yarn up.

Let me just give you an idea of how awesome this particular yarn is.  It's a 50/50 blend of cotton and acrylic which means:
1.  It's durable and functional (machine washable and dryer safe--that's the acrylic bit).
2.  It feels awesome (simultaneously crisp and soft...and breathable--that's the cotton bit).

I purchased this yarn with the intention of making a baby blanket, so that's exactly what I did.  I kept it simple, basing it off the instructions for the Granny Stripe pattern from attic 24.  It turned out even better than I was hoping for!

The border is subtly textured with back-loop single crochet and a final round of red yarn just to finish it off.

I'm so pleased with how it turned out.  The stitches are well-defined and uniform and the yarn gave just enough structure so that the corners are squared off and the edges are crisp.  No lumps or bumps on this one.

Paired with a sock monkey, this would be great inspiration for funky nursery decor or amazing newborn photo props.

Paired with a handsome reindeer sweater or a Santa suit, it would be a great accessory for a little one's Christmas photo shoot.

Tossed over a chair, it could be a great addition to all kinds of nautical- or Americana-themed living rooms, bedrooms, cottages, etc.

And it's for sale!  I've added it to my etsy shop.  Hopefully a few more items will join it later this week.

Sweet Little Dress

Hello, blogland!  I have made it through yet another round of report cards and I'm still smiling.  Of course, I'm completely exhausted and most of tonight's after-school activities have involved sitting on the couch and tinkering around on my laptop.  I've been pinning up a storm over on Pinterest, and while most of my pins revolve around Classroom Management and Organization ideas for next year, I've also found a lot of fun crafty ideas, including some goodies for my DIY Jewelry and For The Home boards. 

I've got a few crafts ready to blog, but I had finished photos of this one, so here it is!  My niece's first birthday was this weekend.  Here's part of her gift: a pink pinafore, crocheted in Bernat's Cottontots.  The pattern is called "Sunshine Baby Dress," from crochet genius Linda Permann and it's from the May-June 2010 issue of Crochet Today.  Since the pattern was written for a different kind of yarn, I swapped the recommended J hook for an H hook to make the pattern work.

I had a little fun playing around with Keynote and creating some funky photo displays (so simple).  Unfortunately, I took the photos on a very cloudy Saturday morning, so there's a few different shades of pink on display.

I like the lacy elements along the neckline...and also that this dress is worked in one continuous piece from the top down.  I'm also hoping that this can be a piece of clothing that goes from being a dress to a hippie top.  (The armholes are nice and big.)  I also think this thing feels super-comfy: it's 100% cotton and seamless!

Here's hoping it fits the birthday girl. ;)

I'm sharing this post on: Craft-o-maniac, 

Pinned It, Made It: Ruffly Flower

Since I'm home with time to blog every day this week, I was looking for a quick and easy project to finish in a day.  Inspired by my recent jewelry acquisitions, I decided to try this flower from sew ritzy-titzy.  (Follow that link for a great tutorial with photos at every step.)

Red, ruffly and waiting to be pinned on. :)

I made this flower using just shy of one 50g ball of crochet cotton and an H hook from my collection that's a little on the small side.  (I started to fret as I neared the end of the ball of yarn, but there was just enough to make this a one-skein project!)  This made a flower that's about 15-20 cm in diameter (BIG and floufy).

There was enough scrap left over to make four of these teeny tiny flowers using my favourite pattern from Lucy @ Attic 24.  I keep making these little flowers from scraps and then leaving them...well, I'm not sure where I'm leaving them.  In the bottoms of project bags, perhaps?  Yesterday I got smart and started collecting them in this vintage canning jar.  Hopefully I'll find the others before I forget about the jar!  The ultimate goal is to string them together as a garland.

Contained beauty.

Make: A New Summer Beanie

Using a very popular pattern on ravelry written by Betsy Thompson at The Dainty Daisy, I whipped up this lacey beanie using crochet cotton.  The simple flower, also made from cotton yarn, is from The Pumpkin Patch.

I made the 6 month size, but I think it's going to fit a 1-2 year old, based on the way it fits on my trusty (if a little bit creepy) styrofoam ball. :)

Here's the beautiful part: this hat uses less than one ball of worsted weight crochet cotton.

Currently, the flower is safety-pinned on, but I'm going to try some experiments with stitching on a piece of felt and a backing pin to see if I can make something a bit more stable.

I love the colours.  They look great with my blog colour scheme.  I'm a little curious about what this will look like with hair underneath it:  weird or cute?

Make: Tea Towel Holders

We're trying out something new in our kitchen this week: crochet tea towel holders that aren't actually attached to the tea towel!  I found this idea over at Simply Crochet and it seemed like a great one because:

1. This doesn't involve crocheting a topper for every single tea towel in my collection.
2. Any old tea towel will work--not just those with "crochetable" tops. (How do you like my new word, there?)
3. These take a very small amount of yarn and time to create.  (Who doesn't like a quick project?)

The brilliant part of this simple pattern: it uses a ponytail holder to make a stretchy ring.  I added a round of sc to clean up the edges, but it turns out that the pattern's creator was feeling the same vibe on the same day, because she added this update to her tutorial this weekend.  The full tutorial is available at Simply Crochet.  Do check it out.

Yarn: Lily Sugar 'n Cream Worsted Weight Cotton

Cost of this project:

-approx. 50 cents worth of yarn

-2 cents for an "ouchless" ponytail holder

-50 cents for a button.

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$1.02.  Nice!

Shared on Craft-o-Maniac and The Crochet Way.