Thursday, August 4, 2011

potholders and scarf

Here are some potholders made with the new Harrisville loops. This evening my daughter made the one in the upper right and I made the blue one. The other two were made previously.

The small one in the lower left was made using every other peg and is not as stiff, but also probably not as good a potholder. Might make a nice scrubber we were thinking.

Besides the potholders, I finished up another scarf for the Bridge Project. I'm trying to use the Wool Ease I purchased to work on the Knit Your Bit scarves, hence the different color schemes. I think this one came out alright. I had only small balls of some colors so quite a lot of tails. The cream is not a good color for homeless by itself but I think it will do okay mixed with these other colors. It was also the one I had the most of.

Finished size is 6" x 65 1/2" made with an H hook.

I will soon receive the yarn to make more Special Olympic scarves and I also want to get started on some squares for Share a Square. Always something to do, eh?

I was looking for scarf patterns and found that Margaret Hubert has a book of scarves Hooked Scarves: 20 Easy Crochet Projects. I haven't seen it except on the 'net but will have to look at this one. Of course just about any pattern can be worked into a scarf with a bit of imagination and trial and error. That's the fun of it. Figuring out a different pattern for each scarf.

That's all for now.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

purple scarf

Found two skeins of I Love This Yarn - and I really do love this yarn. I had absolutely no trouble with it. Crocheted straight through. The only tails I had to sew in were where I joined the two skeins and my begin/end tails. Yay! Such a nice change.

I used both skeins and made a really long scarf - at least longer than the ones I've been making lately. Finished size is 6 3/4" x 70". Should be long enough to wrap around twice if one has the need to. And look - my camera even caught the purple color!

Good crocheting day!

Besides finishing the above scarf, my new Harrisville loom and loops came in. What a difference good loops make! 

It came with three bags of loops and I had purchased an additional bag. There was also the long hooked tool and a crochet hook. The crochet hook is plastic but that is really best as the pegs scratch a steel hook.

The instruction sheet is much much better than the other loom.

This green loom is very similar to the red one I got previously so the looms themselves work pretty much the same. Both are steel. Both have the same number of pegs. Both have just a slight turning at the end of each peg. Very small difference in design, and of course color. I think the corners on one are a little more rounded, but that is not even used to make the potholders.

I made one the regular way and one using every other peg. I did not have a single loop that I couldn't use, unlike the bag of loops I got at Hobby Lobby where about half of them did not work on the loom. Much more pleasant experience.

If you're going to get a loom, or if you already have a loom and need more loops, I highly recommend the Harrisville loops. When I need more, that's what I will be getting. Amazon was pretty quick in getting them to me as well so no complaints there.

Back to my crochet hook now. Hope you're enjoying your day. It's not even raining here today unlike every other day.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

Monday, August 1, 2011

bad yarn and a new scarf

Remember the Red Heart Soft navy yarn that had the orange in it? I wrote Red Heart and rec'd a reply by snail mail today. They asked that I send them (using the prepaid envelope included) a sample of the defective yarn along with the band from the skein. I have that fixed up and will send out tomorrow.

They also are sending a replacement for the bad skein. Delivery expected to take 3-4 weeks, which is fine. I have ordered more yarn myself since I promised more scarves to the Special Olympics and that is the yarn to be used. Hopefully I won't have any problems with those skeins. This one skein is the only one I had problems with of the previously ordered skeins. The ones I purchased before came from two different places as well.

While waiting to resolve the Navy yarn issue, I worked on a scarf in leftover Wool Ease yarn. The pattern is ... well, there's no pattern. Just straight dc in the colors that I had. Here is the result. I think it turned out okay. This is going to the Bridge project. Finished size is 7 1/2 x 60.


That's about it for now.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie