Who dishcloths

I had to come back and show off the Who dishcloths made by daughter. Yes, they are knitted but they are COOL!

She also made me a birthday cake and my all time favorite Hershey fudge which is very difficult to make. What a gal! Thank you, daughter!


Happy crocheting!
Sandie

owl cushion review

I'm still working on dishcloths, but took some time out to work on an owl pattern I purchased on Etsy. Owls are really popular now as you probably already know and this was a beautiful pattern.

The pattern I'm working is a gorgeous owl cushion (pillow). Though I think it is well worth the just over $5 (U.S.) purchase price, it is written differently than I am used to and it has taken daughter and I some collaboration to translate it into a form that is easier on my brain.

I have been in contact with the designer and will be sending her my interpretation. I've gotten most of it down now though I can't absolutely guarantee my translation is what she meant. It did seem to work well and looks like the picture on the listing. (The interpretation is just for my own personal use, though the designer can use it however she wishes.)

Let me give a small example of what I mean from the pattern.

Pattern says:
attach a new color between two sc last row, 1sc in the same space (1ch - 2sc) 15 rtimes, (total 16) 1ch, join round with slst fasten off

My interpretation:

attach new color in any ch-1 space of last round with a single crochet, sc in same space, (ch 1, 2 sc) in each ch-1 space around, ch 1, join with a sl st to beg sc (32 sc) fasten off

You can see that all the instructions are there in both cases. The wording is just unusual to me. The designer is from the Netherlands and she says it has a Dutch touch to it. She did a great job in the development of the pattern. It really is gorgeous and looks like an owl when complete.

The pattern itself is not difficult. The body is worked in rounds (not rows as labeled). The side bits and head portion are worked in rows. My numbers didn't come out exactly as hers on one row (I got 37 and she had 38 - could be my error), but otherwise it worked fine. There ARE a lot of tails to sew in if you leave them til last as almost every row is worked in a new color. I suggest sewing over those you can as you go along. On my second one, I wove the strand through the back loop of the next stitches and then crocheted over it. (Yes, I am paranoid and cotton is particularly bad for poking out.)

Here is a picture of what I've done on the first side (tails not sewn in). I used worsted cotton rather than double strand sport so my finished product is larger (15" across the widest part of the round body). I haven't done the surface stitching. It buckles slightly but won't do that once it's in pillow form.

After I finished that one, and wrote up my interpretation, I made a second one and tweaked my written pattern a bit. I will be froggin' the edging and the last couple rows of the first one to match the other one. :-(  I also still need to do the surface stitching. Then they can be joined together into a pillow. The second side does not use the same color combinations. Here is a picture of the second owl (tails not sewn in yet).

I really like the pattern (as evidenced by all the time I spent on making and interpreting it) and think this would be a neat gift to someone who enjoys owls. The pattern is in pdf format and was delivered very quickly even given the time difference. There is also a second option for a medium size owl using the same eyes and beak.

Small side note. Today is my 60th birthday and I thought I'd share the Smartglo hooks I received as part of my gift.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

dishcloths

I'm still working on dishcloths.

As you can see, they are a variety of sizes and patterns.

The green is #7 from 200 Crochet Blocks by Jan Eaton. I shortened the square.

The orange is my daughter's cross-stitch square which is part of a 5 square pattern set available at Ravelry or Etsy shops. I worked only the cross-stitch part of the square. This pattern set has additional information besides the actual patterns. A good value I think.

The pink is my bobble scarf pattern made into a square. 

The yellow and white is a combination of front post and back posts which makes it reversible. I put a row of double crochet between the post rows. Each post row has a pattern of bpdc, fpdc.

The green is the smallest at 6 1/2" and the yellow is the largest at 9 1/2".

These were all made with cotton yarn donated by Beth Willenborg.


Happy crocheting!
Sandie

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