Christmas and latest projects

Happy New Year! I hope the year brings you much joy, peace, and success!

I was very excited to open my first Christmas gift which was a handmade purse and an Adipose made by my sweet daughter!

This purse is already filled with ... yarn!

 Here's a closeup of the Adipose and a nearby TARDIS.

Adipose sitting on shelf

Another project I've been working on is a pikachu pillow, commissioned as a gift for a special gal. I made the pieces (except for the nose) and daughter put it all together and added the mouth. It's a 14" pillow.

Let me quickly go over what I did for the face.  I chained 46 with an I hook, and worked 54 single crochet rows. I probably could have gone to 50 chains. It's rather hard to figure out the number of chains because the chain is not the same length as the finished piece comes out. Yarn used was Red Heart Super Saver bright yellow.

For the eyes I used Red Heart Super Saver black. I worked one round of 16 dc and then one round of 32 hdc. The white is a thinner yarn, Baby Bee (category #3 yarn) which I got at Hobby Lobby. I think I did one round of 12 dc. For the red cheeks, I used scrap yarn in a bright red, two rounds of hdc because the yarn was thicker, though worsted weight.

I'm also working on dishcloths for the Bridge Project with donated yarn. These are always needed. The two solid yellows are straight single crochet. The green and yellow is my spiked dishcloth.

The small solid blue is Mielke's Double Thick Diagonal potholder. (These can be made larger of course.) The peach and blue is from Leisure Art's Big Book of Dishcloths #67. It also appears in Leisure Art leaflet #2666. The round one is #53 in the same book. I did to round 6. This book is also available as a downloaded e-book.

I also wanted to mention a book I happened to pick up at the library. It is Crochet 101 by Deborah Burger. It is a hardcover, spiral bound book so it lies flat. There are a lot of good tips in this book as well as patterns to practice what you've learned. Symbol crochet is taught and used throughout. One of the things shown which I don't recall seeing in another book is how to use a double crochet as the first stitch of your row. In other words, how to start a double crochet row without chaining up. I think this book would be a nice one to have in a crochet collection.

I think that's it for now. Have a good crocheting day!

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

Pillows

Some time ago I found a neat little pattern by Sarah London for a skull and crossbones (Australian terms). The moment I saw it I thought of my son. Don't ask me why. LOL I set about crocheting it in white cotton, deciding to make it into a pillow.

I bought a 14" pillow form at Hobby Lobby. Then I worked in the round - I think it might be the never ending afghan pattern but I really just started crocheting, not following a pattern.

I crocheted a back and front in black and of course the skull and crossbones, then handed it over to daughter, who put it all together for me, using that pretty white edging at the join. Son was very pleased with his pillow as this was a surprise, not something on his list or that he'd ever mentioned.

Here is a picture of the finished product.

I was also very pleased with the resulting pillow, but if I had it to do again I'd use a more closed in pattern with no holes. At the time I didn't worry about that because I knew the pillow form had a cotton fabric around the stuffing so holes wouldn't be a problem. But it does detract from the white of the skull and crossbones. Just as in the past, I learn something from each piece I crochet.

I am presently making another pillow and this time I am using single crochet, worked in rows. The reason I didn't do that in the first place was because I didn't know how many stitches across would work. Fingers crossed that what I'm doing will work. I chained 40 on this one. Number of rows to be determined probably today.

One note about the Sarah London pattern. She uses Australian terminology and the files are pdfs so you can't just find and replace the terms in that form. If you are American, you can retype it or remember in your mind the change in terms.  I WAS able to convert the file to text. Since you keep the original file, you have the photos for reference anyway. There is an Adobe conversion to Word available but for a fee. There may be free ones out there that I don't know about.

If you have a person in your house who would enjoy this, I think it is fairly simple to make as long as you pay attention to what you're doing.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie