More Scarves.....

I figured since it's getting cold out and I usually make blankets why not make other things that I can either potentially use or add to my Etsy shop so I decided why not make some scarves, cowls, and infinity scarves.

Red Hounds-tooth by ELK Studio

Black Hounds-tooth by ELK Studio

Triple Purple Triangle Cowl by  Sara Dudek

All three were fun and quick to make. For the most part I followed the pattern directions except on the Hounds-tooth I chained 22 for the black & white one and 20 for the red & aran one. More info on the yarn and hook size I used can be found here and here.                                                                      

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY......HAVE A BLESSED DAY!

Chevron Infinity Scarf

Although I love making blankets....and don't plan on stopping, I figured I needed to make some items that are quick and fashionable to add to my Etsy shop. Everyone like a nice scarf and winter is just around the corner so I figured that scarves, gloves, and hats would be a perfect addition. I know that there are tons out there but you never know when yours might be the one someone is looking for.

I had this Caron Simply Soft that I planned on doing a sweater but I haven't found the right pattern yet, so I saw the Rolling in the Deep scarf  and knew that it was perfect for this scarf. I like the way it turned out, The pattern was easy and worked up quickly.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Colorful Tiramisu Baby Blanket...

Lately I've been working on a new project the Tiramisu baby blanket that I saw while scouring the internet a while ago. I attempted this blanket once with a natural color Pound of Love by Lion Brand that I had in my stash. I didn't like the way it was coming about so I frogged it. I saw a version of this blanket (if I find the link I will update) and love what she had done with incorporating the stripes in the pattern. So I found some colors that my little one picked out for his blanket (I since changed my mind for the blanket I wanted to do for him) and I started the Tiramisu striped blanket.

The pattern worked up fairly quickly. More details on what I did can be found on my Ravelry page here. The yarn used was Loops and Threads Impeccable from Michael's. I added one of my labels I made and printed through Spoonflower. Now its ready to be given to the recipients of their second child, a baby boy. This family is the same one that got the Crochet Quilt blogged about in this post.

Thanks for stopping by....

T. Mitchell

Lollo the African Flower bear...

My Afican Flower Bear is done. She has been done for a while now and I realized I didn't post any finshed pictures. I enjoyed working this up and I think it came out great. More details on her as well as the yarn and colors used can be found on my Ravelry page and original post . And you can have one like her or to your liking through my Etsy shop.

She sits 23in tall and is 31in standing. I originally made her to sit on my desk until I realized she was waaay too big for that so now I think I will put her away and enter her into the Washington Parish Free Fair this year.

Thanks for stopping by,

    Have a great day,

T. Mitchell

More African Flowers....

Can't get enough of those African Flowers. I'm still working on the African Flower blanket and plan to be finished by next months end. I purchased the pattern for Lollo the african flower bear by Heidi Bears, It's been sitting in my Ravelry library for months now. I was waiting to order the right type of yarn but then I thought why not use what I already have and see how this comes out before ordering more yarn. I had tons of Caron Simply Soft in solids and brites, which I was going to use for a sweater, but why not use for this bear. I chose gray for the base color and a rainbow of colors for the flowers. I got the idea from granpen's lollo African flower bear done in a rainbow of colors.

I was looking forward to finishing this but now the hook needed to complete the last hexagon for the body as well as the entire head is now missing. And of course I have tons of hooks but only one in that size. I'll probably find it once I go buy another. Now I have time to find eyes and buttons for the joints. Thanks for stopping by.....

T. Mitchell

Cold Weather = Harlequin Hoodie

I have seen the pattern for the Harlequin Hoodie many times as well as on Ravelry. After looking at it I decided to make this. I figured it would be perfect for the upcoming cold weather over the Thanksgiving week. All the yarn used was from my stash probably all Red Heart which worked out really well because I didn't have to spend any money. Of course I didn't have it finished by then but it's complete now just in time for the next snap of cold weather.

                                  
I am happy with the way it turned out. I did add ch stitches to the hood as well as the cowl and added a few more rows to the hood so that it would be more oversized vs close fitting. I also tappered it off in the back with decrease rows so it would be sort of rounded instead of square. If I make another one I will follow the pattern exactly and make in a solid color except for the edging rows. And use a differnt type of yarn. Looking foward to wearing it soon.

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY.....HAVE A GOOD DAY!!!

Nacho Baby's Typical Blanket

I had an interesting request for a custom order baby blanket. A nacho chip including the cheese and a jalapeño. All I knew is that the chip needed to be a triangle shape and a slight idea of how to do the rest. I could not find any patterns anywhere for a jalapeño slice so I had to figure it out and go from pictures. In two weeks time this is what I came up with. 

 

Thanks for looking......T. Mitchell 

Crochet Quilt Finished

I finally finished the crochet quilt and it is off to it's new owners. I hope they like it. 

I think it came out pretty good and I want to make myself one; with different colors. I don't know how long it took to hand stitch the binding to the blanket because I was watching tv and stopping. I like not being able to see the stitching. I can say stitching to the crochet side was a bit tricky because you had to make sure you were catching the thread onto something to hold. 

Updates...Sunburst Grannies & Crochet/Fabric Blanket

Update 10/7: The sunburst granny blanket is complete. 

I chose not to block it because I liked the way it looked in its natural finished shape.  I did a few rows of hdc around the edges and finished with a picot edge. It's now for sale in my etsy shop. 

Thanks for stopping by.... T Mitchell

Update 9/23: All the Sunburst granny's are done. I laid them out today to see how I wanted to piece them together. Some of the toes came out different as some of the squares got mixed up. So far the rows have been joined horizontally with a slip stitch and now working on joining the other way.

Progress has been made on both the Sunburst Granny Squares and the crochet blanket with fabric on the back. I debated whether to complete the fourth round on the granny squares separately or join as I go. I decide to do them separately using white yarn for the fourth round.

I used the tutorial from Nittybits blog- as mentioned in the original post about this topic. Additionally I added a fifth round of single crochet in each stitch across with three sc in the corners. I have four more squares to go- 42 total them I can begin to join them. I plan to do six rows of seven and I think I will use the flat single crochet method to join and see how it looks. If I don't like it I will use the slip stitch method. Still debating what type of border I will go with. 

I have made my binding for the crochet and fabric blanket. Since I wanted a wider binding I cut more strips to make a continuos strip and zig zig stitched them together with the sewing machine. I pinned it to the crochet quilt and proceeded to sew it with my sewing machine. 

After sewing for a few. I liked the way the fabric side looked but not the back side since I tried to do both sides at once. So after a few attempts I ripped out the seams and began to hand stitch the binding instead. 

Hand sewn quilt binding

If I would have done this in the beginning I think I would have been done but I thought it was going to be much harder than it really is. I watched multiple YouTube videos and read many tutorials to see how to do this. I found the instructions at the blog Stitched-together on how to hand see a quilt binding very very helpful. I still have the back side to go. So far it seems to be going ok. Me being my worst critic there are some spots that I want to go back and redo.

Again, thanks for stopping by........ T. Mitchell

Crochet and Fabric Baby Blanket

So I made progress with attaching the fabric to the crochet blanket. 

I think it came out very nice and I really like my fabric choice. I first did a 1/4 inch seam around the fabric and then attached it with the sewing machine. I did not make the fabric too tight so if the crochet side is stretched then it would have some give. I attempted to attach a binding using the circle fabric- mentioned and pictured in previous post. I cut a 2 1/2 inch strip and preceded to attach it but for me it looks way too small especially on the crochet side. So I painstakingly removed what I had already sewed and cut more strips. I plan to attached the two sets of strips that I've cut to make one wide piece of binding then attempt to attach it to the blanket again. Hopefully this time I'll have better results.....

Thanks for stopping by!

Tunisian Crochet Started...

After indecisively trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my newly purchased Tunisian crochet needles I finally decided on something. I had seen a lot of mentions that it is a good stitch to use for charts so why make a plain boring afghan when I can find a cool chart to Tunisian crochet. I used YouTube to learn how to work a graph using this method. I first started with a circle chart with circles of different sizes and colors but after about 25 rows I was not pleased wit how this was going so I did one thing I don't like to do....pulled it apart. I continued my search and wanted a whimsical heart that could be done in any color but still be for a baby girl. This is the pattern I chose from Passion Creative Blog after looking at many images on Goggle. There are a lot of cross stich patterns on this blog.

The blog/website is in French which is where the translate tool comes in handy. Although I did not need any directions because fro cross stitching as a young child I remembered how to read a chart. The thing I like about doing this in the Tunisian crochet method is that I only have to read the chart one way. I wanted this to be a nice size blanket that could be used in the crib, in the car seat, or whatever so after finding the middle mark in the chart I added stiches to both sides as well as below and above the charted area to add size to the blanket. I printed two copy's and put one in a sheet protector an used one to mark off as I go as well as any notes about stiches and color (as seen in the first picture). I chose a tan color for the heart that was in my stash and I found a pound of caron in an off white in my stash also which I'm using as the background. I did use the bobbin method in the form of bobbins and mini yarn balls as far as the different sections so I wouldn't have to carry yarn except in some spots. It's fairly easy and only gets difficult when my three year old tries to take off with my balls of yarn as I am crocheting. When I run out of a color in a particular section I use the magic knot method to attach more yarn. I have made more progress since I took this picture-15 more rows completed so only about 76 more to go.... My goal if to do at least 10-15 rows a day!

Another Project at the Same Time- Sunburst Granny

In addition to my Tunisian crochet heart blanket I have grown to like the Sunburst Granny Squares. I found a great tutorial over at Nittybits BlogSpot. Jenny does a great job with this tutorial. Again with yarn from my stash I just chose three colors and this is what I came up with. I now have about 34 sunburst and I still want to make some with a purple center so maybe I'll do about 42 total or more depending on how I feel.

As you can see I still need to add the 5th row to make it a square but I'm debating whether to do each or join as I go. Row five will be white.

Now I'm back to crocheting...

Thanks for stopping by,

T. Mitchell

My Package Arrived....

I recently purchased Unexpected Afghans by Robyn Chachula and saw a nice blanket done in Tusinian crochet. I've never done this before but I like a challenge. Of course I didn't have the right hook to start the project....and when I see something that catches my eye I like to start right away. So I started my search and ended at Get Knitted where I found KnitPro Symfonie Wood Interchangeable Tunisian Crochet Hooks. The price even including shipping was reasonable I thought compared to other brands and sites that I looked at. After six days of wondering how long it would take a package to arrive from the UK I went to the mail box and there they were- my hooks had arrived. I ordered two crochet hooks sizes J/10/6.00mm and a k/101/2/6.50mm as well as two cables in approx. 31in and 47in.

KnitPro Interchangable Tunisian Crochet Hooks

Finished Chevron Baby/Toddler Blanket 

The blanket in the background of the above picture is one of the ones that I recently finished in a chevron pattern using RedHeart yarn in honeydew, delft blue, and aran. This workerd up pretty quickly using a knit chevron stich in a random pattern that included the basic k, k2tog, ssk and kfb stitches. The second picture is post blocking which helped to define the pattern more. I originally knitted this for my sister-in-law for her addition to the family. Very pleased with how this came out I am torn with whether to give or sale this one. Being that it is still warm outside and a knit blanket is not needed at the time I decided to place it for sale in my Etsy shop for know. Who knows what might happen...


Chevron in Progress

Finished Chevron Baby Blanket

 

Thanks for stopping by,

          Terra     

It's been awhile!

It's been awhile since I've posted. But I'm back with a few projects that I've been working on the past few months. I have stashes upon stashes of yarn that I've collected over the years and now I have a little spare time, as much as you can get with an active three year old running around, to knit and crochet some things. I've been able to complete 2 blankets and one that I'm adding the last row of border to.

Scouring the web and many crochet and knitting sites and blogs as well as Pinterest my creative juices have started to flow again and I have many ideas..... that seem brilliant that I want to see come to light.

Pictures to come.