Christmas Hats for Cousins!

So I had a little bit of yarn leftover from my Christmas slippers, but not enough to make anything substantial, so I was thinking I'd make a couple baby hats for my cousin Carey's new twins.  Since I was already sending two Mickey Mouse hats to Carey's sister for her boys, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to whip up these and send them along too.

I used this pattern for the hats.  I had a little trouble with the size initially.  If you read my Mickey Mouse hat post, you'll notice I get very frustrated that I can't make the kiddies try these on while I'm working on them.  So I worked the pattern exactly as posted, but I only did 5 increase rows, which is between the newborn pattern and the 9-12 month size.  The twins will be almost 3 months old by Christmas.

However, I decided this produced a hat that was too big.  These are twins, after all, so they're pretty small.  I tore the hat out and made the newborn size with a hook one size bigger than suggested (I used a K, they suggested a J).  I think they still turned out a little big, but better too big than too small!

These hats were PERFECT for using up the yarn.  I had just enough.  I made a basic bow for Maddie's hat by making a rectangle of sc, then wrapping yarn around the middle of it.  The pom pom for Max's hat was supposed to be green, but I didn't have quite enough, so I made it red and green.  I also separated the bulky yarn into its individual strands so the pom pom was puffier.

I loved the way these turned out.  So cute, and so easy.  As with the Mickey Mouse hats, I have no idea whether these fit the twins.  I hope I get pictures soon.

Mickey Hats for Cousins!

So my cousin, Kelly, contacted me asking if I would make a few Mickey Mouse hats for her boys.  She's surprising them with Disney World later this December.  I said, sure!  So I bought this pattern and got to work.  Both hats were done after two days.

I had all the yarn I needed, which was an awesome surprise.  I didn't have to buy a thing!  I made the size 6-12 years for Kelly's 6-year-old, Dylan, and the size 1-3 years for her 10-month-old, Tyson.  Kelly requested the bigger size for Tyson because his head is almost as big as Dylan's!

I had a few problems with this hat.  First of all, the 1-3 and the 6-12 year patterns ended up being almost exactly the same size.  I was also confused sometimes because when the pattern said to skip certain rows for certain sizes, it was unclear whether I should end up with the same number of rows as the other sizes.  For instance, it would say Row 14-15, but since I already skipped some rows earlier, I wouldn't be on Row 14 yet.  I wasn't sure how many rows I needed to have.  I'm probably just stupid and no one else had this problem.

These size problems made me paranoid throughout the process, especially since I didn't have the kids here to see if they'd fit.  I kept expressing to my cousin how big the baby's hat was, and she kept insisting Tyson's head was huge.  I kind of figured, screw it, it'll be cute if it's floppy.  Better too big than too small, right?  I still don't know if the hats fit because the boys still don't know about the trip.

The other problem I had with the hats was assembling them.  This problem was just due to my perfectionism.  I attached and detached and reattached each piece at least three times.  It was ridiculous.  I also experimented with bigger ears, but they wouldn't stay up.  I don't know how the adult hat would look with those tiny ears.  But on kids, I think they'd look okay.

The hats look super cute, though.  Kelly was so excited to receive them!  I can't wait to get pics of the boys in them.

Christmas Slippers

So, at the beginning of 2013, I bought two skeins of green yarn and two skeins of red yarn for a dollar apiece.  It was a post-Christmas sale.  Thing is, this yarn was bulky, which severely limited what I could use it for.  It's been sitting in my stash most of the year.  Now Christmas is rolling around again, so I pulled it out, found this pattern, and made these slippers.

If you clicked on that pattern, you will discover that hers are far cuter than mine.  Whatever, I was trying to use up the stupid yarn, okay? I didn’t have enough yarn to do two slippers the same color, so I inverted them. These things are kind of ugly, I think, like wearing potato sacks on your feet. But they’re ugly in the way sweat pants are ugly. You wear them around your house because they’re hella comfortable. The ribbing on the inside of these slippers provides a massage with each step!

My sister says they're potato-tomatoes.  Shaped like a potato, one colored like a tomato.

I made these in the least-wide size to fit my giant feet, size eleven.  I wish I had done one or two more rounds before making the part that wraps around your heel.  The ankle holes ended up being a little too big.  I fixed it by putting less stitches around the cuff, so it all worked out, but that's just a note for next time.  Also, I wish this pattern had been written so the seam was on the bottom of the slipper.  I may try to fix that next time.

Also, somehow the red slipper ended up being one less stitch around.  I obviously wasn't paying close enough attention, but I think it looks fine.  Actually, if I ever make these again, I'd cut a few stitches out anyway.  These are supposed to be chunky, but I think they're a little too much so.

Yarn Baller: Best Purchase Ever

Guys, like my new toy?  I'll tell you, the most amusing part of it is having my roommate's guy friends try to guess what it is.

This is the Stanwood Needlecraft Large Metal Ball Winder (hmm, that's a much less funny name than 'yarn baller'). It has easily been the best crocheting purchase I've made.

Gone are the days of balling by hand for hours!  Gone are the days of tangled yarn!  Gone is the mess of yarn in my closet!

This baby balls up my yarn in two minutes or less.  TWO MINUTES OR LESS.  Guys... it's magic.

Let's talk a little bit about why I chose this yarn baller over all the others.  The answer is simple.  All the other winders could handle 4 oz of yarn and this one can handle 10 oz.  Half of the skeins I buy come with 7 oz.  I wanted something that wouldn't make me break my yarn.  What's the point of consolidating yarn if you end up with two balls at the end of it?

While bargain shopping around the internet, I found this gadget could be from $60-$100, depending on where you buy it.  However, buy it from the original seller on Etsy, and it's $39.99.  That's more like it.  With shipping, it's almost comparable with Amazon's $59.71, since Amazon doesn't charge shipping for this item.  Still, ordering from Etsy was about $7 cheaper.

On to my opinion.  Well, I love this thing.  Just look what it does to these three partially used (okay, barely used.  I invent opportunities to use this winder, I admit) skeins of yarn.

MAGIC.

You may notice the paper in the middle of the balls on the last picture there.  They are the labels for the yarn.  I don't want to forget what brand and colorway the yarn is, so I've invented a way to keep it all together.  Well, I'm actually very sure other people use this method too, but I discovered it myself without any help from the interwebs, so it's almost like I invented it.  :P   I just roll up the label and place it on the top of the winder, like so:

And slide the ball from the winder onto the label.  Now, I will have to take the label out to use the yarn, since these are center-pull balls, but it's very handy for storage purposes.  As I learned with my Earth Square, you should always keep the yarn's label.

Now, let's talk about the end result:  The balls.  These things are flat on the bottom, so they won't roll away.  They can also be a little loose and will lose their flat shape if, say, they are constantly being squished and poked and prodded by a certain little sister.  See below:

Still, the yarn won't tangle, so that's good.  The winder did come with instructions on how to wind the yarn tighter, but I leave it loose so as not to stretch out the yarn and make it less fluffy.  At the end of the day, a misformed ball of yarn is just another excuse to use the winder again!  :D

Store bought skeins tend to get tangly towards the end, but I haven't had that problem with these balls so far.

I've used this winder with all kinds of yarn, and it doesn't even break a sweat.  As you can see below, it works on bulky and fingering yarn alike:

The winder makes a little bit of noise, but not too much.  Overall, I give this product two "no longer weary from winding balls by hand" thumbs up!

Earth Square

Well, this has been a long time coming, hasn't it?  I keep picking up projects between my squares, so this blanket is taking much longer than it should.

Anyway, the earth square didn't take quite as long as the other squares.  It was partially because I've been getting really fast with this type of crochet and partially because this pattern was the most simple of all the squares.  It was pretty basic and mostly went off without a hitch, but I do have a few notes for it.

Firstly, I got this new book, Crochet Master Class, which I absolutely love and would recommend to anyone who wants to learn more about different styles of crochet.  It has a section on tapestry crochet, which is the style used to make these squares.  I thought I had mastered tapestry crochet by now, but this book gave me a valuable tip.  When changing colors, keep the twist of the yarns close to the stitch and crochet around it, which keeps the two yarns from tangling.  At first I was afraid this would affect the look of the changing colors, but it doesn't.  It really helped me, not having to stop every few minutes to untwist the yarn.

The middle of the square, as with the fire square, is more tight than the top and bottom.  Just like the fire square, I expect this problem to go away once the squares are connected and the stitches are pulled a little tighter over time.

I had a lot of trouble with the brown yarn I used.  I had it in my stash already, but it didn't have a label.  I was pretty sure it was Red Heart Soft, but I wasn't completely sure.  I took it to Michael's to try and match the color, but they didn't have any brown Red Heart Soft yarn.  I ordered some of the color Chocolate.  It arrived in this '80's-looking packaging and looked extremely close to the same shade I'd been crocheting with.  I'm still not entirely convinced it's the same yarn, but it looks fine, for now.  I just hope one day I don't wash it and the change in the two yarns becomes apparent.

Moral of the story, always save the label.

That's about all I got for this one.  Only one square left!  I'm over the hump!

White Pullover

So, I was between squares on my Avatar blanket when I decided I just wanted to do something quick, easy, and for myself.  I don't usually make things for myself these days.  So I looked through my Queue on Ravelry and found this pattern.

The pattern itself was easy enough.  I tried it on about a zillion times to make sure it was fitting the way I wanted it too.  I made minor adjustments to it, such as chaining less around my torso and more around my boobs.  It's very snug, but I wanted it that way.  I also made the sleeves 3/4 length instead of full.

I'm not entirely happy with this project.  For one, the yarn I used, Red Heart Super Saver, is itchy.  Big surprise there, right?  It's known for being a value, not being soft.  But I was trying to use up some yarn in my collection, which didn't even happen because I had to buy more midway through.

But the biggest problem I had was the left sleeve cuff turned out bigger than the right.  I knew of this problem while I was working on it, but I couldn't figure out what I did wrong.  Both cuffs have the same number of rows.  I was afraid of taking away rows on the left cuff because I thought it would mess up the number of 'holes' in the sleeve, so I just left it and hoped it would work out in the end.  Now, I wish I had improvised a little, because the cuff is much looser than the other one and it bugs the crap out of me.  Perfectionist problems.

My favorite part of this pullover is the flower, which I derived from this pattern.  I wasn't going to put it on even though the pattern had lots of flowers attached, but I'm so glad I did.  I think it really adds style to the piece.

I used Red Heart Super Saver for this piece, color Soft White.  I think I used an H hook, but there was so much adjusting going on with the pattern that I don't think it matters much.

Oh!  I almost forgot!  It was another first for me: my first piece of clothing (other than gloves or hats).  It turned out... okay.  I'm not thrilled, but I don't hate it.

Twins' Swaddle Me Blankies

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, my cousin Carey is having twins!  Actually, she's at the hospital right now on bed rest.  They're monitoring her day by day to decide when to deliver little Max and Maddie.  I'm thrilled for her.

About a month or two ago was her baby shower.  I wanted to make something for my new cousins-once-removed, so I found this pattern for a swaddling blanket.  It even came with an adorable instruction tab that made the blanket look so... gift-y.  Perfect for a baby shower!  I got to work right away.

This project was the first time I've ever worked corner to corner on something, and I actually found it quite enjoyable.  Without a foundation chain to tighten up the first row, there was no curling of the corners to worry about.  Motivation-wise, it's a perfect way to work a pattern.  At the beginning, you're so happy to be starting something new, and the rows go quickly so you see a lot of progress, which just adds to your enthusiasm.  That energy carries you through to the long rows and gets you up to the top of the metaphorical hill.  And just as you're reaching the point where you hate crocheting and you hate the world and you just want to quit, the rows start getting shorter.  And your enthusiasm comes back.  Corner to corner is the best.

Since I was making two blankets, I worked on them at the same time.  One day blue, one day pink.  I think it would have been too depressing to finish one completely and knowing in the back of my head that I hadn't even started on the second.  I would have been discouraged and not as motivated to work on the second one.

The pattern was easy overall.  I took some advice of some other Ravelers (friend me, btw) and didn't break yarn when I started on the hood, instead working it all in one piece before whipstitching them together.

The only thing I don’t like about this pattern is the border. If I were going to do this pattern again, I’d do a different border. It’s just not dramatic enough for my taste, even after I used 3 dc in each ch 3 space instead of 2. I also sc instead of sl st in the dc. I still wasn’t completely happy with that, but they looked fine.

One of the biggest struggles I had while making this blanket was deciding how big to make it.  The pattern comes in two sizes, premie and baby.  On the one hand, I wanted the blankets big enough so the children could be able to use them for a long time.  On the other, these are twins, and would most likely be premature and tiny.  After doing a little internet research, most moms said swaddling blankets should ideally be at least 40" square.  42" to 47" is even better.  Otherwise, the baby would just kick free.  I believe mine turned out 40" square, which I think is a nice compromise.

Final step was washing them, of course, since these blankets are for infants and I worked on them at work on the plane.  They were probably covered in all kinds of nastiness.  Bleh.  The yarn didn't seem to shrink or lose its texture in the wash, so I expect the blankies to last for years to come.

Carey was so excited to see the blankets.  They were supposed to be a complete surprise, but I think since I gave her sister a baby blanket a few days before, she suspected they were coming.  They turned out adorable, though.

The yarn I used was Bernat Baby Coordinates, colors Soft Blue, Baby Pink, and White.  This yarn has a little texture to it and a strand of white running through it, so it kind of sparkles without compromising softness.  I loved it and it was easy to work with.  I used an H size hook.  These two blankets took me two and a half weeks.

UPDATE:  Now that the twins have arrived, I wanted to share a picture of them enjoying their blankies.  I'm told they were used in the hospital and all the nurses loved them!  I was also told that the twins used them on their way home from the hospital.  Hearing these things means the world to me.  To think, something I made kept these gorgeous babies warm during their first days on earth, on their first trip home!  I feel so honored to have contributed to their early lives, even though I live 2,000 miles away.  <3

Baby Tyson's Basket Weave Blanket

So, this was a long running project that got picked up and put back down several times.

With all the posting I had been doing about my crocheted work, it was only natural that my cousin Kelly asked me to crochet her something for her unborn baby.  I was more than happy to oblige... at first.

Sadly, the first roadblock I encountered was Baby Tyson's blanket took a backseat while I worked on all my Christmas presents.  Then, after picking it up again and working on it for a week straight, I realized I was using the wrong hook size and the blanket's edges were uneven.  I frogged all that work because I'm a perfectionist, and by then I was too discouraged to continue.

Fast forward six months, and my other cousin, Carey, invited me to her baby shower.  She was having twins!  I found a pattern I loved and started working away at two swaddle blankets for her babies.  But I felt incredibly guilty.  Kelly's son, Tyson was already almost 7 months old!  How was she going to feel when I gave her sister two blankets when I couldn't even manage her one?  So I picked up the basket weave blanket again and began work.  I'm happy to report I FINALLY finished and the Herr family was thrilled to receive it.

I originally wanted to do this basket weave pattern because it looked so darn cool.  It was very simple to do, and I didn't have a bit of trouble with it.  Other than the whole 'wrong hook' thing.  I learned a valuable lesson that day, to say the least.

I decided to add a few stars from my Starry Sky Blanket to the corner.  I think the yellow complements the blue very nicely.

I used a size G crochet hook (you hear that, past me?  SIZE G!).  The yarn was Snuggly Wuggly, color Cobalt.  I loved that color.

Since the blanket is no longer in my possession, I don't have the measurements.  But it was certainly big enough for Tyson's five-year-old brother, Dylan, to use as well.  Are my cousin's children not the cutest?

Dr. Who Laptop Case

I find that my crochet projects are getting nerdier and nerdier... and I'm okay with that.

So, I found this pattern here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cell-phone-cozy-eleven

It's for a cell phone case based on the outfit of the Eleventh Doctor, who (see what I did there?) let's just face it, is freakin' awesome.  My darling little sister saw this case and immediately wanted it, but for her laptop instead.  So I went about altering the pattern into my first ever semi-original design.

Here's a picture of the cell phone case:

Okay, so color differences.  We used brown instead of dark grey for the pants because... that was an honest mistake.  We just assumed his pants were brown.  But it looked okay anyway.  We also didn't do beige in the back to mimic his jacket.  That was Becki's decision.  Of course, she didn't decide this until I was halfway through the pants, when I'd already started to run the yarn through the sc in anticipation of switching colors.  To keep the thickness of the fabric consistent, I continued running the yarn through, even though I didn't need to anymore.  This actually made the fabric sturdier and thicker, so it all worked out in the end.

The other major difference was the suspenders.  In the original pattern, you just embroidered them on.  Obviously, that wasn't going to cut it with the bigger pattern, so I had to make them separately and then attach them.  We talked originally about attaching them only to the back and letting the front of them hang loose.  We would have attached buttons to the front that would button them down.  This would let the suspenders come up and over the laptop to hold it in place.  However, once I actually made the suspenders, the stitches were stretchy enough that they could be slid over even if I sewed them securely on both sides, so that's what I did.  It's kind of hard to explain, so see the pictures below.  It actually worked out far better than the button idea.

Since I didn't need to embroider anything, I worked this pattern as a spiral, instead of finishing off each round.  This let me avoid a seam.  If I had made the jacket, that would never work because the stitches wouldn't have been straight.  The laptop case was about 87 stitches around, though this would differ from laptop to laptop.  The suspenders were 80 rows of three sc.  I think I just doubled the bowtie in size.  I finished the top of the case with reverse sc, to make it a little thicker so it wouldn't catch on anything sticking out of the laptop.  I love reverse sc.  It finishes things off so nicely.

Becki loves this thing.  She uses it constantly.  I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  Visit ralvelry for specifics on my color choices!

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/cpaigef/cell-phone-cozy-eleven

Air Square and a Bonus Banana

It's done!  Finally!

Turned out quite nice, don't you think?  I started the Air square around the beginning of May and finished it in the middle of June.  I'm getting reeeeallly tired of single crochet.

I think I'm going to do the Earth square next.  It seems like the most boring pattern due to its being mostly symmetrical.  If I save it for last, I'm going to get bored of the project and procrastinate.  I should start it while I'm on a roll!

The yarn I used for the Air square was Red Heart Super Saver color: Soft White and Vanna's Choice color: Gray Blue.

Luckily it turned out almost the exact same size as the Fire square!

Lookin' awesome!

Since I don't have too much to say about the Air square, I'll put up some pictures of a banana I made.  :)

The (New) Fire Square

Well, if you happened to catch my last blog post, you know I am a creepy woman-child who spends hours creating artistic masterpieces about age-inappropriate cartoons.  Such as Avatar: The Last Airbender.

My last attempt at the fire square was less than successful.  My previous post details the problems I had, but to sum up, basically the width of the square was not consistent and the cluster stitch the pattern calls for was too big for the single crochet in the background color, causing wrinkles.  But I learned from my mistakes!
Instead of the cluster stitch, I first tried doing the whole pattern in single crochet.  After a few rows, I wasn't happy with the way it looked.  I wanted my lines to look sharper, so I pulled it out and tried again.  I used hdc this time, but only for the edges of the lines.  I still used sc for the inside of the lines.  It was a little tedious to figure out which stitch to use, but in the end, it gave me defined lines that were wrinkle free!

Another tactic I used to sharpen my lines was pulling the last stitch of the each color very tight.  That way, it was more likely to be covered by the stitch above it, and wouldn't stand out as much.  It's hard to explain, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

This stitch, I accidentally didn't pull tight.  Notice how big it is in comparison to those before it.

As a result, part of the red stitch shows through when I add my next row.

I ripped it all out and made that stitch smaller...

...making the red stitch far less visible!

As for my width problems, I just made more of an effort to keep the tension consistent, especially when I pulled the black yarn taut at the beginning and end of each row.  The middle of the square is still thinner than the top and bottom, but I'm sure when I connect all four squares together, it will pull the stitches tighter over time and won't be noticeable.

The other main thing I changed with this square was the hook size.  I used an I instead of a K, as the pattern calls for.  Most people who finished this blanket on Ravelry reported it was big enough for a double bed.  That's huge.  I don't want mine quite that big, and I also wanted to save a bit on yarn.  My finished square was 28" x 27", not exactly a complete square.  You can see it below with the beginning of the air square (also to be restarted), which I started a long time ago with the required size hook.

Since all of my squares will be 27" tall, that would make the blanket 4 1/2 feet tall without the connecting rows or the border.  I think the blanket will be plenty big with the I hook, without being HUGE like it would have been with the K.

Anyway, doesn't it look cool?  I think it looks cool.  I didn't keep track of how many hours it took me, but I finished it in about two weeks.  The red yarn was Red Heart Soft, color Wine, and the black... well I bought it too long ago to remember.  Sorry.  

It was a good project to ease myself back into crocheting after being burnt out from all those Christmas afghans.  Easy, but still interesting.  Speaking of Christmas afghans, I promise, I'll post my family's reactions to getting them soon.  Unfortunately, the awesome pictures are all on my sister's computer in high resolution, so we haven't emailed or put them on a CD or anything.  I steal them soon and post, I promise!

Friend me on Ravelry:  http://www.ravelry.com/people/cpaigef

This project on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/cpaigef/avatar-the-four-elements

Link to this pattern: http://kimby77.wordpress.com/2008/01/15/avatar-the-four-elements/

Bye, Fire Square... Adventures in Frogging

The project you are about to see doesn't exist anymore.  Around a year ago, I decided to make an Avatar: The Last Airbender blanket because the show's cool, the blanket was cool, and what good is knowing how to crochet if you just make doilies all the time?  I finished one square out of the four required, the fire nation square, which incidentally, was probably the hardest one to start with.  It turned out looking like this:

Yes, it looks pretty awesome at first glance.  But I was not happy with it.  Not at all.  Firstly, the pattern suggests you pull the black yarn, which is inside every red stitch, taught as you work, so it doesn't peek out in the red sections as much.  Well, I wasn't as dutiful at the bottom of the square, where I began, as I was at the top.  So the bottom is much wider than the top, where I was pulling the stitches far tighter.

Secondly, the stitch the pattern told me to use for the black, the cluster stitch, was FAR too big for the single crochet I was using with the red, a problem only made worse by the fact the black yarn is fluffier than the red.  The result is the wrinkly-ness you see in the swirls.  Take a closer look.

Sloppy.  This thing clearly had to go.

So I decided to frog it.  Frogging is a knitting and crocheting term used when you unravel a piece in order to keep the perfectly good yarn.  I've heard it gets it's name because 'rip it' sounds like 'ribbit.'  Whether that's true, it's a painful process for any yarn-worker because you're ruining hours of work.

I'd been thinking about frogging this for months, so it wasn't too bad for me.  I'd come to terms with the fact that the only way I'd be happy with my fire square was to crochet it again.  So I got to work.

I wrapped the unraveled yarn around a chair to keep it from tangling.  I wouldn't suggest wrapping it as tightly as I did because it stretches your yarn out.  Whoops.

My roommate's cat was extremely interested in what I was doing.

You end up with lovely yarn-Ramen at the end.  I tied my first ball around the center, as in the top picture, but then realized it was better to tie both ends of the circle, so that's what I did for the others.  To get rid of the spaghetti-ness, I steamed the yarn with my steamer.

And that was that!  Now I'm ready to remake the fire square all over again.