Tag Archives: Crochet

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.

Call the Midwife Blanket 2

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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Crochet Socks

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I decided to try my hand at crochet socks.  I bought this gorgeous sock yarn at Sewickly Yarns during Yarnapolooza this year.  The yarn is from Apple Tree Knits in a colorway called Jersey Shore Gradient.

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Spiral Scrubby Washcloth Pattern

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Yesterday I posted some washcloths I recently made, including one that I “designed” myself.  I put designed in quotes, because it’s just a spiral.  But, if you don’t know how to do a spiral, here’s a pattern for you!

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Washcloths

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Aren’t my article titles so clever?  I like to be to the point.  This post is about washcloths.  I’ve never made a washcloth before in my life.  I know that crochet washcloths are popular and quick.  In fact I had an old coworker who used to say she would only use crochet washcloths.  I just never found the thought of making them very exciting.  Then I started to see all this scrubby yarn all around and I wanted to make a scrubby washcloth.  I also found some patterns of cute washcloths on Pinterest, so I thought, “What the hell?  I can make some as gifts!”

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Dancing Daisy Crochet-A-Long

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I joined my first Crochet-A-Long (CAL).  Back in April.  This is probably why I never never joined a CAL before.  I was always afraid I couldn’t keep up.  Over three months later and I finally finished!

One of the crochet Facebook groups I follow is called Lifelong Crochet.  I like this group.  They are positive, drama-free, and quirky.  Right up my alley.  They held this CAL starting at the end of April and I’ve just been behind from the beginning.

We worked on a pattern called Dancing Daisy.  It’s a top or swimsuit cover, whatever you prefer, I guess.  I’ll likely use it as both.  Nurturing Fibres and the designer Brenda Gobler gave permission to Lifelong Crochet to use the pattern for their CAL.  It looks like the pattern for the Dancing Daisy cover up is available for free from Nurturing Fibers.  Note:  this is a British pattern.

So I started the pattern at the end of April and just finished it last night.  The pattern was not difficult, I just didn’t have a lot of dedicated time to spend on it.  I did like the fact that this pattern taught me to work with motifs, which is my first time working with and joining motifs.  This was also my first article of clothing I have ever finished (other than ponchos).  I feel like I’ve upped my game another notch on this project.

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Blocking the motifs on a blocking mat.

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Finished product including my label.

Dancing Daisy Crochet-A-Long 2

Here you can see the motifs on the bottom of the top and the cat paw at the top of the top.

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Modelling my new top. I’m going to wear it to the pool today.

Risqué Crochet

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Boy, it has been a while since I have written anything.  What am I doing?  I’m working on a CAL that I started in April and I’m still working on.  It’s a summer cover-up, so I’m really hoping to finish it by the end of summer.  I’m also still working on my personal project, but it’s big and heavy and warm, so I’m taking the summer off from working on it.

Risqué Crochet

I’ve been trying to come up with topics to write about, and a little while ago I saw a vagina tea cozy posted to one of my Facebook crochet groups that I follow.  It was, um, interesting.  I thought it was creative, but some were offended.  It made me think about offensive things that people can crochet and so I searched around and created a new Pinterest Board for Risqué Crochet.  If it is likely to offend, it is in this board.  So if you are easily offended, stop here.

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Designer Crochet

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I’ve been noticing lately that a lot of people have been posting pictures of their own re-imagining of designer clothes.  So I wondered how much crochet is out there right now in the designer world.  I don’t follow fashion myself and I don’t buy designer clothes, but I did find some interesting designer crochet out there.  I found a site called farfetch.com, they have all kinds of stuff from various designers.  I just did a search for crochet and there were 244 results.  Crochet is hot!

Designer Clothes

There’s the Round Neck Crochet Jumper by Chloé.  This top goes for $950.  It’s 14% wool and 86% cotton.  It’s pretty and elegant.  From a distance it doesn’t look like crochet, but when you zoom in on the stitches, it does.

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Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival – Day 3

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Today was the last day of the festival.  I have to say I really enjoyed it.  This weekend was a lot of fun and I learned some fun things and some important things.  Next year I will need to take more classes.  I was afraid of overdoing it this year, but next year I really want to load up on the classes and learn as much as I can learn.

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I strolled along the one wall where some quilts were displayed.  I’ve thought about doing quilting in the past, but I think I’ll stick with my crochet.  There were some beautiful quilts on display though.

I strolled around the marketplace one last time and picked up a couple more things.  Ugh, I just love to shop for craft supplies.  I was trying to stay on a budget this weekend, but I splurged a little.  I also went back to the art exhibit.  Some of the pieces

Fishing Tales of Elliott Fisherman by Katrina Shorter-Harrison won for use of unique material
Whirlpools and Waves by Raesus Cannon won for wearable art
Facehugger by Katie Freeman won for Three Dimensional
Beginnings by Stacy Hortner won for two dimensional
And That Was Called Love by Abby Rammelkamp won for craftmanship

I went to my second class, Into to Freeform with Susan Swarthout.  We learned the bullion stitch and spirals so we could make scrumbles.  Then we pieced our scrumbles together.  The next picture is an example of Freeform crochet, a really gorgeous panel.  The next picture after that is my first attempt at Freeform.  I enjoyed this class, and the freedom of Freeform.  I can really see myself getting into this.  So much fun and creativity.  Love it!

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Awesome Freeform display

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My first Freeform

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My fabric shredding from yesterday.