hooks and yarn and hooks and yarn

What a nice day I had. First off, hubby gave the a-ok for me to order more of the delightful egg hooks from Jimbo (for Christmas). I know it's only May but you get where I'm going with this, eh? ;-) I love these hooks. The one I have (an *I*) fits right in my hand and is so smooth. I used it for my last video.

Speaking of video, I have not given up on recording video. I just haven't had a chance to do any lately. I have several topics I want to cover and hope to get to those soon.

Oh and did you know Jimbo made one of the biggest hooks ever? Have a look-see here. That is one big hook. 25# I think was said? Too heavy for me to hold and actually use, but how neat!

Dee over at Crochet with Dee has a few links to other big/long/thick hooks. You can find it on this page, down at the bottom.

Later, I went out to get the mail and what should I find but three skeins of pink Red Heart Soft yarn. Remember I told you about the green in my pink and I was through with Red Heart? I didn't ask for yarn when I wrote to let them know about this problem. In fact, I specifically said not to worry about sending me any and didn't leave my address. But those folks at Red Heart - well, you can't complain about their customer service! They found me somehow, possibly from the previous times, and sent me yarn. What can I say? I can't refuse yarn. I'll make more squares. *grin* I have to say it IS soft and the pink is delightful. It's also a different dye lot. Shall I forgive and forget? Thank you to Mr. Karwowski for the yarn.

Going back to video, I am learning to crochet left handed. Originally this was so I could teach some folks who want to learn to crochet and happen to be left handed. As I was struggling with the process, I remembered somewhere in the back of my  mind a blog post that mentioned working one row right to left and the next row left to right with the opposite hand. I thought, wouldn't that be great? I could teach both right and left handed. I can't remember where that post was. I think it might be on Pinterest. If I find it, I'll come back and add the link. At the time, I didn't take time to read through it to the point of understanding. [update: here is the link http://www.freshstitches.com/crochet-rows-backwards-left-handed-right-side/ ]

I like this idea because I was worried that learning left handed would mess me up on my right handed crochet. If I'm doing every other row in each method, however, that shouldn't be a problem.

The more I do it, the better I seem to be getting at it. Whether I am doing it CORRECTLY I am not 100% sure. LOL I know Teresa Richardson has videos of both right and left hand so I might have a look at those. I also have a leaflet that teaches left and right hand.

That's all for now.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

Pink 12 square ribbonghan

Another cancer ribbon pink afghan but this one is a little different.

This one is all ribbons and includes 12 squares.

Finished size is about 42" x 55" after washing.

I am really getting to like this Caron Natura yarn. :-) I haven't had any problems with it at all.

I used 12 skeins, one skein for each square.  I left a really long tail (about 3x the width of the square) which I used to assembled each square. That still left a good bit of the tail. I did NOT cut that. After I finished assembling the squares into a column, I used one of the leftover balls to work a sc edging around the column. One leftover ball for each column. Then I used what remained of the tails to assemble the strips together after bringing them to the proper point.

For the edging around the entire afghan, I pulled out a bit of Vanna's Choice white and worked a sc, ch 2, sk 2 pattern around. Then I picked up a leftover pink ball and worked (2 dc around each ch-2 loop, ch 1, sk 1 sc). In corners I worked 3 dc with a ch-1 on either side. You might need more stitches in the corner, depending on your tension. I was wishing I'd put 4 actually.

I wouldn't hesitate to buy this yarn again. I was pleased with the way the all ribbon afghan turned out. It doesn't make a large difference in how much yarn you need though the filet ribbon squares use a little less than the solid ones.

I used a J hook for the foundation chain, an I hook for the squares, and for the side edging on each square I used an H hook. For the final edging I used an H hook also.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

'nother ribbonghan

I finished the second cancer ribbon afghan. The Caron Natura pink worsted weight yarn washed up beautifully. Very soft. Finished size was I think 41" or 42". I didn't write it down and it's winging its way through the postal system.

With an I hook, I used one 3 oz skein for each square and had a small ball leftover. There are 9 squares as you can see. Each square has a sc edging as in the pattern available at Crochet Cabana. I left a tail 3x the width of the square and used that to assemble squares to one another with a good bit of it left. Then I used the skein leftovers to do an edging around each column. I was able to use what remained of the long tails to assemble the columns, then used more of the skein leftovers to add an edging around the entire afghan. With the leftover balls I was able to make an additional square for another afghan (it took 3 or 4 of the balls - I wasn't paying attention) and still have a few smaller balls left for saltines and such. With that in mind, I'm going to say I could have probably got by with 24 ozs. but there would have been a good bit of tying in new yarn. I am happy with how it turned out doing it this way.

If you wanted to make an afghan with more squares, you could figure it by buying the number of skeins equal to the number of squares.The leftover from each skein would be enough I think for the edging, even of a larger afghan. Of course, paranoid me would buy an extra skein anyway. heh

I can recommend this Caron Natura pink. It is a little stiff to work with though not as stiff as Red Heart in my opinion, but washes up very soft. That said, the Red Heart Soft was soft to work with and washed up well too, but I had to the problem of the little bits of green in my pink so, to me, not worth the chance you'll be wasting money on yarn that can't be used. The RHS also is slightly thinner and works up a little smaller. 


Here are some photos.

 

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

cancer ribbon ghans and bad yarn

My hooks have been busy. I've been working on cancer ribbon ghans. I had not made any of these in a while because Mary Maxim discontinued the yarn I was using. When I was asked to make one recently though, I decided to try and find a good substitute.

I had a tiny bit of the old yarn in my stash so I was able to compare it to various pink skeins. The absolute closest match was Red Heart Soft pink. Bernat Satin flamingo was close but a little bit darker and more red to it. Caron Natura pink was lighter but still pretty close.  Bernat Giggles was also lighter and more of a peach to it I think. I think Simply Soft has a pink that would work, but it's not my yarn of choice, too slippery. Depending on what you like any of the pinks would do. It's really your choice.

I decided to start with the Red Heart Soft because it was the best match and also is very soft. It's a little thinner than the other Red Heart yarns.

Things started off well and then ... what's that? A bit of dark green in my pink. Remember, I've had this problem with Red Heart before. Remember the orange in my navy blue while making the Special Olympic scarves?

This green was just a tiny bit, maybe a quarter inch at the spot, but noticeable in the much lighter yarn. I was able to pick it out and move on. Then there was another and another that I had to cut out. So I stopped using that skein and moved on to another one. I was worried because it is all the same dye lot but sometimes you get the first skein made after another color or the last skein perhaps. It happens and they've always replaced it.

I was able to do many squares before I got another skein with the same problem. I put that one aside and was almost finished the ghan when I got yet another. I bought 12 5oz. skeins of this yarn and at least 3 had the problem. I think I used 4 or 5 for the ghan.

My fear was that I would miss one and keep crocheting. I checked over the ghan very carefully and thankfully did not find any missed spots.

I wrote to Red Heart but told them I didn't want any replacement yarn. I'm done with Red Heart. Shoot me if I buy any more. You have to be able to trust your yarn, especially if you're working on a deadline with no time to order more yarn. If you crochet quickly, and you're doing something else like watching television, you could easily skip over a tiny spot like this and see it when you look down a few rows later. (Yep, that happened!)

In any case I was able to finish a very nice lapghan 38" square with a faux picot edging. It's very soft and the color is beautiful.

I took a picture of it lying on my filet TARDIS so the ribbons would show up. These ribbon squares, by the way, are filet crocheted. The pattern includes a chart and can be found in the charity patterns section of Crochet Cabana.

I was asked to make two ghans, so I used Caron Natura pink for the second one. This yarn is not quite as soft, but it's still a very nice yarn and I haven't had a single problem with it. It's a little bit thicker than the RHS so the squares are coming out a little larger, which is fine. Can a ghan be too big? I think not.

I'll post photos of it when it's done.

The Caron comes in 3oz skeins and it takes almost one skein for each square, making it pretty easy to figure yarn amounts. You do have to account for edging the strips, assembly, and a final edging of the whole ghan. I was able to use leftover from a ribbon square for edging a strip and might even have enough of those for the final edging. We'll see.



Happy crocheting!
Sandie

TARDIS Police Box

It's done! I have finished the filet TARDIS. It was worked in a 3 dc mesh with 3 skeins (21 ozs.) Red Heart Super Saver yarn in Royal Blue using probably a couple ounces of Soft Navy for the edging. I used an I hook.

Finished size is 31" x 49".

Here is what I did. I created a 3 page graph using Microsoft Word tables. I also made 1 page graphs without the words which created the picture with the mesh and with the solids. I have been wanting one with the words and now that I'm into filet, I thought this was the perfect time to do that.

I referenced several pictures and afghans others had made to get a general idea of what I wanted to do. Of course, I've already made a TARDIS so I had a good idea before I started. I just didn't want the change of colors I did in the other one.

 

I got another idea while working on this one and that is to do it all in plain single crochet and then surface stitch the details on top. What do you think?

I think I am TARDIS obsessed! LOL

Happy crocheting!
Sandie