Tag Archives: Crochet

Sunseeker Pullover

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Back in the spring I saw this Sunseeker Pullover by Sara Dudek on WeCrochet. For the yarn, I used my Manos Del Uruguay Fino, that I’ve had in my stash for years. I worked on this sweater most of the spring and into the summer. I finished it during this years Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival. I love this pattern. It was so easy. I love the sleeves and I added my own little flair to them. (Ignore the fact that I’ve gained weight.) I don’t really have anything else to say about this sweater. Just love it, and I’m wearing it right now!

Summertime Tee

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After spending about a year on the Linen and Lace Tunic, I wanted something quick and easy to make.  I found the Summertime Tee by Toni Lipsey on Ravelry; I purchased it there.  It’s also available for free on her blog TL Yarn Crafts.  I was able to complete this project in two weeks!  It was that quick and easy.  And I’m slow, so others could probably make it much faster.

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Filet Squares Baby Blanket Pattern

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I wanted to design and make my own baby blanket, but I’m still pretty new to designing my own patterns.  I searched through my “The Crochet Stitch Bible” and looked for a stitch to make the base of my blanket.  I ended up selecting the filet squares stitch.  I like the simple look of the stitch and there is not a lot of lace for tiny fingers and toes to get struck in, but enough small holes to add some venting for a summer blanket.  If you pick up The Crochet Stitch Bible it includes the charts as well as the written pattern for the filet squares stitch.

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Baby Washcloths

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I decided to add a few baby washcloths to my baby gift basket.  I bought some cotton yarn (20 Skein La Mia Mini Cottony 100% Turkish Cotton Baby Yarn) for the Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival to use in classes. It gave me a variety of similar yarn in different colors to work with. The yarn itself is nice, but not the easiest to work with. It splits and isn’t twisted tight, so there are some limitations on the stitches you can do with it since it snags easily on the crochet hooks.

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Ripple Stitch, Leaf Stitch, Half Double Crochet, Tunisian Simple Stitch, and Spiral

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Happy Birthday, Mom!

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It’s mom’s birthday and we are spending it at the Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival. Her birthday present this year, from me, was three classes!

This morning, or afternoon really, was the Next Steps in Tunisian Crochet class by Robyn Chachula. This is the class I was cramming for, trying to learn Tunisian Crochet. The class was jammed packed with new stuff. Perhaps I would have picked it up faster if I had actually spent more time getting familiar with Tunisian crochet. But we learned the knit stitch, pearl stitch, a slip stitch foundation row, twisted stitch, reverse stitch, and spike stitch. my swatch looks like a hot mess.

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Looks like a hot mess

Starting to change colors, but still looks messy.

I like the spike stitches.

Then we learned how to do increases and decreases with a chevron pattern. She also had multiple ways to do increases and decreases in her write up, but I just stuck with the basics. I feel like I completely got my money’s worth here and I’d better spend more time with Tunisian so I can remember everything I learned.

Many mistakes, but the chevron isn’t so bad.

We spent maybe an hour on the floor, then we went to our Hairpin Lace class with Laura Regan. Mom and I were ready for our second class of the day! About 5 mins into the class my husband texted me that he couldn’t find his car keys. Oopies! I grabbed his keys this morning when I left the house. I had to leave the class and go run and meet him at his appointment, that he had to Uber to, and drive him home afterwards. Ugh. I missed the class and some good quality time with mom because I was absent minded this morning.

Mom and me, ready for class

Ready to learn hairpin lace, shame I had to leave.

I hope I’ll be back tonight in plenty of time for the block party. And mom needs to teach me hairpin lace now. (Do you ever just want to bonk yourself on your head? Yeah, me too.). Looking forward to the rest of the weekend.

Tunisian Crochet

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So I finally learned how to Tunisian crochet.  Well at least the simple stitch.  I wanted to take the beginner class at last year’s Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival, but the class sold out before I could register.  This year they are not offering a beginner class.  The class is Next Steps in Tunisian Crochet with my favorite instructor, Robyn Chachula.  I have to take this class!

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Well, the festival this year is also the same weekend as my mom’s birthday and she wanted to join me this year.  For her birthday present I registered us for three classes.  I convinced her that we should take this class and that we could learn the basics on our own.  lol  The class instructions say that students should know how to chain, single crochet and Tunisian simple stitch.  Well we already know how to chain and single crochet, so how hard can it be to learn simple stitch?  Not so hard actually.

For my birthday my mom bought me this awesome Tunisian crochet hook set.  I already had some basic metal ones, but I like short hooks, so I thought the ones with cords would be better for me.  She also bought me a book that I put on my wish list, Tunisian Crochet from Absolute Beginner to Advanced.  Well, the book started out ok for the foundation row forward pass and return pass, but when it got to the simple stitch instructions there wasn’t enough detail for me to figure out what to do.  There was one picture and I couldn’t figure out where to put the hook?

Well I searched for Tunisian crochet how-tos  online and found a great blog post from Jo-Creates, and hey, I follow her blog too so that worked out well!  I spent one afternoon following her instructions and I was able to make this little swatch.  Not too bad for a quick cram session.  I missed a stitch on one row and realized at one point that my stitch count went down.  I did not go back and fix it; I still need to figure out how to fix mistakes.  So, my class is next Friday and maybe I’ll practice one more time before the class.  Maybe I’ll make a washcloth or something simple.

Anyway, the moral of the story is, Tunisian Crochet is not that hard.  Don’t be intimidated by it.  And if you want to learn, check out Jo-Creates tutorial, Ever Fancied Learning Tunisian Crochet.  The tutorial had the right amount of detail and step my step pictures, which is perfect for me.  Try it!

Call the Midwife Blanket and Piotr the Polar Bear

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Spring is coming and with spring, more babies.  Two of my coworker’s wives are having babies, so it’s time to make more baby items. Call the Midwife Blanket and Piotr the Polar Bear.

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This time I decided to try the “Call the Midwife” blanket.  I’ve seen this one posted on my crochet groups and I always thought it was cute.  I never knew where the name came from.  The linked blog post to Little Monkey’s Crochet tells the story of the blanket and how she recreated the pattern from images on a TV show.  Cool story.  I love when people can reproduce something from what they see.

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This pattern is easy and well written.  I was able too finish it pretty quickly.  I found this cute multicolored yarn at Michael’s called Kai in Bubbles colorway.  It’s pretty, but acrylic.  It was a bit rougher than I prefer to use on a baby blanket.  To soften it up, I used some Cupcake yarn from my stash on the border.  I did the border with just a few rows of sc all the way around.

Call the Midwife Blanket

To go with the baby blanket, I made Piotr the Polar Bear from Edward’s Menagerie.  I also used the Cupcake yarn on Piotr.  I used it on the blanket border, so it would match with Piotr.  He’s the fourth stuffed animal I have made from this book.  I’ve also made Emma the Bunny Alexandre the Russian Blue Cat, and Bridget the Elephant.

Piotr the Polar Bear

I modified his eyes and nose a little, to look more polar beary using some discount black chenille yarn I had in my stash.

Call the Midwife Blanket and Piotr the Polar Bear 2

Doily Patches

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When I was out in New Mexico for vacation I was in a little boutique.  They had these cute clothes with patches, lace, and doilies and I thought to myself, “I can make something like that.”  Then a month or so ago, a lady in one of my crochet groups on Facebook posted pictures of her granddaughter’s jeans that she patched with doilies.  I’ve been wanting to buy a pair of torn jeans ever since, because I wanted to make something like that as well.

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