Crochet Master Class book

I was reading Margaret Hubert's blog and she mentioned Jean Leinhauser and Rita Weiss' upcoming release Crochet Master Class: Lessons and Projects from Today's Top Crocheters. I checked it out at Amazon and the description lists what is inside this book.

Techniques include:
Filet Crochet • Hairpin Lace • Tapestry Crochet • Aran Crochet • Entrelac Crochet • Fashion Crochet • Tunisian Crochet • Woven Crochet • Double-Ended Crochet • Tassels • Bullion Stitch • Overlay Crochet • Bead Crochet • Bruges Crochet • Painted Crochet • Free-Form Crochet • Irish Crochet • Wire Crochet 

I am familiar with most of these techniques though I'd not heard of Bruges Crochet or Painted Crochet. I saw a few bits online that mentioned Bruges in connection with tatting. Teresa over at The Art of Crochet has a YouTube video featuring Bruges. I imagine painted crochet would be about using color in a particular way when making projects. That's just a guess based though. I'll have to wait until the book is published to find out for sure.

I think this will be quite a find for someone who would like to go further with their basic crochet skills and embark on an amazing adventure. The book is available for preorder and comes out in early December. As far as I'm aware it has nothing to do with the crochet master course offered by CGOA.

While I was at Teresa's YouTube channel, I happened across a video showing how to make a homemade yarn bobbin. So simple. I had a duh moment since a few months ago when I was working on the police box, I used bobbins, which I purchased. How simple it would have been to just grab a cardboard box and cut a few. Very nice video and great suggestion.

That is all for now. Hope you all are enjoying your weekend. It's raining off and on here and is hot as can be.

Happy crocheting!

hat / scarf set and more teddy bear squares

Here's the first item off my hooks made with the yarn I received from Sandy at The Bridge and Beyond. It's a scarf and hat set using 8 ounces of Red Heart Tweed worsted weight yarn in Irish Coffee. (corrected yarn amt. It is 4 ounce skeins, but took 2 skeins for the set.) This is a very nice yarn, easy to work with and gave a really good looking set. I enjoyed working with it.

I wish I were better at judging how much yarn needed for a project. I'd have made the scarf slightly shorter and the hat larger. I used every bit of the yarn. But it is what it is. The hat should fit a man though might not cover the ears entirely, as you can see on Logan. The scarf is about 6 1/2" x 65".

Logan is also hogging the remotes! I had to take the photo so I could put him back in his place and watch TV.  :-)

Next up I am working on more teddy bear squares for a friend's upcoming new arrival. Since I don't know the sex of the baby, I will be making white squares now and when the baby is born, the squares will be bordered in either pink or blue and joined.

I've changed the pattern a bit as I wanted a solid look around the teddy. For these squares I've chained 45 then worked a solid filet block at the beginning and end of each row. Other than that change and the dc row top and bottom, I followed Judith's pattern.

I used an H hook and worsted yarn (pounder). The finished size of this square is 11 1/2" x 10 1/2". It is wider than it is long, but that doesn't matter since I'm using all the squares in one ghan.

Happy crocheting!

correction

Way back on May 12 I was talking about Judith Prindle's teddy bear square. I do mine just slightly different, beginning and ending with a row of dc. I also use a ch-3 for tch instead of a ch-4.

Because I start with a dc row, the first couple rows are different. Sometimes when I work a pattern I will make myself a quick reference. In my post of the 12th I made an error. For the second row I noted "dc in 5th". If you do NOT start with a dc row, you would make your starting chain and work your first dc in the 5th ch from hook because you need a "hole" there. But since I am not doing that, I go into the 4th chain from hook. The quick reference would be:

With H hook, ch 41
R1: dc in 4th chain from hk and each ch across. (39 dc)

R2: skip stitch right under your tch, skip next st, dc in next st ,* ch 1, sk 1, dc rep from *across (19 holes) Don't forget to put your last dc in the beg ch from R1

R3: ch 3, 4 holes, 7 dc, 5 holes, 7 dc, 4 holes

I continued following Judith's pattern. Then after I've made one, I use that for reference rather than following the written pattern.

I end up with 21 rows with my last one a dc row.


Judith uses ch 4 as her turning chain. I use ch 3 because my dcs are generally short. This does include my dc, ch 1.

It would have been perfectly fine to work it exactly as Judith did, with the filet row being the first one. I just chose to do it this way. Personal preference. Nothing wrong with either way.

After I made the squares, I border each one in the same color yarn just as Judith does, then I worked a border with a contrasting yarn before joining with that color. I did not use the "bow" for the teddies as she did.

There are a number of posts relating to the teddy squares and afghans in May 2010.

You can see photos here in the blog or at the Crochet Cabana web site. The pink one is here and the green/yellow one here.

Happy crocheting!

prize rec'd

A couple of weeks ago, Sandy over at the Bridge and Beyond announced the winner of her contest. That happy winner was me! Here is a photo of my winnings.

Sandy mentioned several things she has personally done with similar yarn in today's post and I look forward to trying out those things and others as I work my way through this wonderful collection of different yarns.

First up is the tweed. It cried out for a scarf!

Thanks, Sandy! What a wonderful prize!

This was not the only prize I rec'd. Kaye sent me a gift card to Walmart as my prize for winning the red, white, and blue contest over at Bev's. This was also a fantastic prize. I shop at Walmart quite often and will be able to make good use of this card. Thanks, Kaye!

To win two contests in such a short time was amazing and much fun. Thanks to those who hold these contests, especially when it helps to further a good cause.

Happy crocheting!

scarves going out

I did decide to frog the border of the strips I started with the Red Heart soft yarn. Lovely yarn, but I didn't have enough of it. I went with a pounder off white to redo it.

Last night, I pulled out some yarn to work with while watching Season 3 Big Bang Theory dvds. I couldn't decide what I wanted to do, however. I'd start one thing, get a few rows or rounds done and then frog it.

I finally settled on another scarf using the Knit Your Bit pattern, but just continuing the faux cable section again as I did with the cream colored one. Well, that is the current plan, but I well could decide to do the seaman's ribbing too.

I'll be headed to the post office later today to mail out five packages with scarves to various places.

Happy crocheting!