Bavarian Crochet

The wonderful bookmobile brought me a book called Learn to Do Bavarian Crochet.

Here is my first square using this technique. It's about 7 1/2" square. The technique itself is not very difficult once you get the hang of it. I am not sure if I am making my stitches in the correct place, but the square looks okay for a first effort, I think. The instructions note that the first chain after the back post trebles or clusters is the locking stitch and that is where you work into on the next row.

The technique uses several special stitches and you may have to refer to those while getting familiar with it, but if you can make a treble and are familiar with back post stitches, you should do fine.

There is a baby blanket and a scarf I'd like to have a go at. I may try the scarf first to see if I like it enough to attempt the baby blanket since I only have the book for another week. If I enjoy it, I'll just purchase the book for myself.

I'm going to add that to the new things I learned this year. :-)

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

25 things ... links to scarf patterns

I like to visit crochet web sites, especially of those folks who leave comments here on the blog. I happened to visit Crochet Blogger. One of the posts was a list of 25 crochet-related things. Each thing is to be done 25 times. I am not explaining that very well. For example, item 1 is 25 crochet books to read. #2 is 25 different ways to buy yarn, and so forth until you get to #25 which is 25 interviews of people who crochet. So you see 25 of 25. Your list might be different, but it's a good starting point.

I love lists. I guess it is because crossing off things I've done makes me feel like I've accomplished something. Admittedly, it will take a while to accomplish 25 of some of these, but if 25 makes you cringe, make your list 10 or 12 or whatever number you want. Or just do as many of each thing as you can. Whatever you do is something you might not have done otherwise, so it's all good.

Thanks to Crochet Blogger for the idea.

To start off I went through my pictures to see the different types of items I have crocheted in the past. Here is my list (more than 25 I was happy to note):

scarf, afghan, lapghan, baby sweater, doily, square, yo-yo, hat, shawl, butterfly, bib, burp pad, toilet paper roll holder, toilet paper roll cover, lobster fridgie, hooded scarf (scood), cocoon, diaper shirt, nest, doggie sweater, prayer cloth, pet snuggle, burial pocket, crayon holder, Christmas tree wall hanging, pumpkin pin, poncho, lighthouse filet bookmarker, cowl

Then I hit on 25 different ways to crochet the same item. Here's a list of some of the patterns I've used to make scarves. Some are my own patterns, most are free, at least one is a purchased pattern. You can see photos of the scarves I've personally made on the Crochet Cabana scarf pages.

1) hooded scarf - http://andrayascrochet.blogspot.com/2009/06/seamless-hooded-scarf-pattern.html

2) Mile-a-minute Afghans (Leisure Arts and Oxmoor House c1996) Pattern is Restful Rainbow. I made two stripes of the afghan using a smaller number of rows (75)

3) Fibonacci number scarf

4) Knit Your Bit scarves - Cabled Seaman's Scarf
5) Knit Your Bit scarves - Chevron Scarf
6) Knit Your Bit scarves - Lengthwise Striped Scarf
7) Knit Your Bit scarves - V for Victory Scarf
8) Knit Your Bit scarves - Year 1, vertical stripes scarf

9) Boucan scarf (reference Teresa's video)
10) Wordless scarf
11) Wavy Edged Scarf
12) Kate's V Stitch Scarf
13) Cross Stitch Scarf
14) scarf made with Refreshing Throw square
15) Ocean Tide Scarf
16) Shell Scarf
17) FPDC Scarf
18) Bergamot Ripple at Lion Brand
19) Colorwaves Reversible Scarf
20) Jacob's Ladder Scarf (based on Beth Ham's printed instructions. I also have a video demo of how to do this at YouTube.)
21) Window Pane Scarf link in my blog post
22) Heart Scarf using Kim Guzman's heart pattern
23) Pergola (purchased pattern) See my blog post.
24) Simple DC Scarf, Simple SC Scarf
25) Miranda Scarf

Here's another one with the brief instructions, just because it was in there and I wanted to include it. :-)

Skippa Scarf
Very briefly, pattern is
ch 20 (or any even number)
R1: sc across
R2: (sc, ch 1, sk 1) across
R3: ch 2, (dc, ch 1, sk 1) in ch-1 sp across
R4: ch 3, (dc, ch 1, sk 1) in ch-1 sp across
repeat, end on sc across
Edging: 1 round sc, 1 round dc, ch 1, sk 1

That's enough for today I think. :-)

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

repaired ripple

Just a quick stop in to say that I DID repair that round ripple afghan with the big hole. I was not entirely pleased with the outcome, but there was no hole so the child was pleased with the repair. I would not, in good conscience, be able to point to it and say "look what I did". I would rather say, it could be better, but it won't rip back any further. I think I did learn some things while working on the repair so perhaps all was not lost. :-)

I did not think to take a photo of it before delivering it to its happy recipient. Maybe that was a Freudian slip of memory? :-) Not willing to put that one out there for viewing perhaps? heh

In any case, as noted, the youngster was pleased and that is all that matters.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

another lapghan

38" lapghan made with 7-round granny squares

The captioning pretty much says it all about this afghan. This one, and the one yesterday, are both about 38" wide and long. Yesterday's was 9 squares, worked to 10 rounds with an H hook. This one is 16 squares, worked to 7 rounds. All granny squares. Both assembled with the continuous join.

The yarns used are Red Heart Super Saver and I Love This Yarn with the one bright orange being the Caron One Pound Orange. It's worsted weight, but is still a heavier yarn than the others. If I'd been thinking I would not have used it in this afghan as it doesn't "feel" the same as the others. I didn't realize it until I had it all assembled.

I used the red for the assembly simply put because I was tired of black and white and thought the red would go well with the grey. What do you think? It's different than my usual look. Also, I thought the brighter color would be enjoyed by seniors. I've been told that generally speaking they like bright colors because the eyesight is not as sharp and they can be seen and enjoyed more easily. Anyway, we all know that color choices are personal so someone will enjoy it, I'm sure.

I have some of each size square leftover and will continue to make them until I can put together two more. :-)

Update on my mom: The doctor she saw yesterday said everything looks good, but it will be at least 4 months before she can put weight on her leg.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

lapghan

Nine 10-round squares make a lapghan

Sorry for the long delay in posting. I've been really busy the past days. One of the things I've been doing is making squares and I've finally finished putting one lapghan together. These will be going to the skilled nursing facility where my mother is residing presently while she recuperates from her broken leg.

The second one is assembled but tails not tucked in yet. I hope to finish that this evening.

Another thing I've been doing is working on scanning photos to be put on disks so if/when we next have to evacuate I will have my photos in a format I can easily grab and take with me. Unfortunately, we discovered after I scanned thousands of photos that the machine has put a line in a lot of them, from the first album scanned. Not all but many of them. Since I checked them in preview mode I didn't see the line until I went to identify each one. *sigh*

That was discouraging. While I did that, I didn't do much crocheting as that took days.

I also had lunch with some former high school classmates. Great time!

I'll have more crocheting for you soon.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie