repair work

Some time ago, I discovered my grand (great?) niece (the daughter of my niece) had put a hole in her Spideyghan. It was put aside until such time as we could get together so I could see if I could repair the hole. At the time I was thinking, you know, a little hole.

This week I was able to get the ghan and it is a larger hole than I was picturing. I have never repaired anything of this scope before so I'm not sure if I will be successful, but I will give it the old college try.

First to do is get some matching yarn. I looked back in my Crafty Corral posts and it is Red Heart yarn. Got to love those blog posts. I didn't specify color in the post, but I am sure I can match the shade knowing the manufacturer. It's the darker red, not the bright one, probably cherry red. At least it is not at a color change. :-)

Once I get the yarn, I'll sit down and ponder. There will be at least three rows affected. Remember there is the black line as well and all the tails have been sewn in. Should be an interesting experience.

While waiting to do that, I am still making 8" granny squares. Here are a few more completed. They are mindless and with everything else going on, it is simple to do. I did manage to lose my H Inox hook again and am working with a Boye hook, which is okay, but not my Inox. :-(

I'm thinking of using these squares to make some ghans for the facility where my mom will be staying for the next few weeks. I'll have to see how it goes and, of course, find out if they accept donations.

I've got about 15 8" made. With one more, using the continuous join which adds a round to each, one more square might be enough if the colors meld. I'll have to think on that. But I would want to make more than one. Just thinking out loud here, folks. :-) You never know where that trail will lead. LOL

If you want to see the original post about the Spideyghan, you can find it here.

Here are a few links for you to enjoy. I happened across this tutorial on how to put a lining in a granny square bag. Some time ago, I designed a granny square bag (really just two grannies put together) for a class I was teaching two young girls. But I didn't put a liner and it really would need one. So have a look at this one at Royal Sisters.

Here's a book you might be interested in looking at. It is old, but free, over at Gutenberg's. Beeton's Book of Needlework.

Here is a scarf I've made a number of times. It's a great pattern so I'm sharing it again. My April Scarf by Suzie.

Here is a neat filet square by Sandi Marshall, formerly of about.com. You can place the squares lots of different ways for a different look in each ghan. Not for areas where you are wanting something really warm as it's an openworked piece.

That's it for today.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

mountains of squares and a sweater

Since last post, I've been kept pretty busy.

My mom had a bad fall and broke her leg, had surgery, and is now recuperating in hospital. We think she will be discharged within the next few days. The hospital where she is now is a bit over an hour from me.

Today, I've been catching up on laundry, e-mail and such. I've also taken a few pics of what I've been working on. The stuff is not too exciting but here it is nonetheless.

First up is a WIP - the hexagon baby sweater at Bev's Country Cottage. I've done the two hexagons and put them together, but need to do the rest of it. This is a problem I have, starting something and not finishing up the "hard" part. :-) Remember those mittens I made but never finished the thumb? heh I am bad. It does look like a sweater though, doesn't it? I did it in one color rather than the two color as at Bev's - again, lazy.

Then I've been making squares, both 12" and 8". I went with 8" as after using a skein to make 12" I kept going and ended up with 8" in most cases. Some I could go about half another round which is, of course, no use. LOL

As you can see ends are still dangling.


The above squares were begun with particular recipients in mind who are in need.

These two were sent out for the CL CAT for Heartmade Blessings. The pink is the traditional granny square as the ones above. The orange is Susan Smith's Filet Granny Square.

I made most of these in the granny square because I intended to assemble them myself with the continuous join method. It is easiest if all the squares are the same pattern with the number of rounds. Yes, lazy me.

That's all for now. Still much to do, but I wanted to share what I've been working on the past week.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

National Crochet Month

I just realized this is National Crochet Month. You can read a bit about it at Crochet Today. Since I'm always crocheting, I'm not doing much different this month than I usually do.

It feels strange to be talking about normal things when so many are suffering in Japan. Please keep those folks who went through a terrible earthquake and tsunami and will be feeling those effects for a long time to come as they rebuild. We in Louisiana know all too well what that feels like.

I can't help but be excited, however, that my yarn has ALREADY come in from Knitting Warehouse. I love how quick they are with the orders. I ordered this Monday and here it is already! Fabulous service.

Here you can see Jack investigating. He gave his approval to the pretty colors.

I am pleased with the yarn and I think these colors (Vanna's Choice scarlet and pink) will work well. Hopefully I ordered enough of it.

Now I can start the Reversible Sweetheart Ripple.  This is for the CAL by Kim Guzman. Yay! I am going to make a smaller afghan. According to Kim, you can increase or decrease in multiples of 13. She suggested a starting chain of 155 for a baby afghan. That would also be a good lapghan size I'm thinking, so I will do that. Fingers crossed that I can do it!


Next week I hope to do another video so stay tuned! My husband has removed most of his stuff (from the paint job) from my "studio" so I should be able to get in there and work. His office looks great with the new colors. I plan to do the craft room soon too, but I'm not going to actually DO it. I think I'll hire it out. I am thinking sage greens. Nothing in concrete yet. Of course I will have to remove all MY stuff when that time comes, which will not be fun.

That's all for today.


Happy crocheting!

Share a Square...

My hubby has been doing some painting in his office so all of his office things are in my craft room. That has limited what I have been able to do the past few days crafting-wise, so I've been working on taxes instead. Not NEARLY as much fun.

Took a break for that to make a few more squares for Share a Square. Shelly Tucker, the coordinator, would like each afghan to have only one square from each volunteer so she is in need of a few more square to fill up the last afghans. I promised to send 10 more and I'm well on the way to that so here are a few pics of what I have so far. I chose to use orange for most since these are going to children with cancer and you know that particular color doesn't show up very well, so sorry in advance.

The first square is my blueberries pattern. I did a video demonstrating how to do that one. You can find it at the YouTube channel.

The middle ones are mostly Susan Smith's Filet Granny Square which comes perfectly for me using this Caron One Pound orange yarn and an H hook.

The next is my very favorite square pattern - my daughter Kate's X stitch square. You might remember her V Stitch scarf I posted a month or so ago. These two patterns (and more as time allows me to get them up there) will be available at Crochet Cabana on the Other Designers pattern page.

Lastly, is a V stitch square, also my daughter's pattern.

I'll be making one more orange square and then these will be winging their way to Share a Square.

Another item I wanted to mention is Reversible Ripple Afghans.
Kim Guzman will be doing a CAL (crochet-along) using a pattern from this book called Sweetheart Ripple Afghan. The pattern is reversible (as the book notes) with hearts on one side and a straight ripple on the other. The Sweetheart Ripple appeared in Crochet World February 2009 if you happen to have that issue or subscribe to the digital issues where you have access to the archives. I actually forgot I have this pattern and ordered the book and yarn. I went with Vanna's Choice yarn because I am not a big fan of Simply Soft, which is the yarn specified in the pattern.

I know the book is available at Amazon (per link above) and also Knitting Warehouse and Annie's Attic that I've found. I'm sure it is other places as well.

I don't think I've ever done a CAL with anyone else so I'm rather interested in seeing how it goes. I've already joined the Yahoo group. I'm thinking to make a lapghan rather than a full size afghan, but I'll determine whether that's an option after I look at the pattern more closely.

In the Crochet Spot newsletter they featured a nice edging I thought you might like to try. You can see it at http://www.crochetspot.com/how-to-crochet-block-edging/ . I thought it was a nice way to make a block at a time and add an interesting bit to your edging. 

That's all for now.

Happy crocheting!

Special Olympics and Making Videos

I am busy uploading new videos, but while I wait I thought I'd talk about other things.

Firstly, the Louisiana Special Olympics office has been flooded with wonderful scarves. The goal is 1400.  922 received is the last count I saw. I'm sure they will have more when they open those boxes. You can see a photo on their Facebook page.

They received scarves from over 135 cities in 37 states and some from Canada as well. Friday was the last official mailing day for that office, and on Monday  they received 53 packages containing 237 scarves. Go, crocheters! Everyone must have waited to send their scarves at the last minute. Some of these may also have been passed on from other SO offices who received more than needed.

I don't know about other offices, but when I've contacted the Louisiana office, I've received a very prompt reply with the information I asked for. I hope they meet their goal and are able to post photos of the sweet smiling faces wearing the scarves. I'm sure there are privacy issues so not sure if that is allowed.

How about a quick glimpse into the world of making videos at the Petits.

First I have to decide on a topic, the yarn, the hook and anything else I need. Everything has to be compact because my space is limited to the length of my arm. LOL

I sit in the black chair with the video camera right in front of me. My arm has to go between the video camera and the "green screen" which is a cloth that came with the program I'm using.

When you hear a clicking sound in the video that is because my hook hit the camera. heh

I am thinking of getting a table tripod at some point, but not really sure if that will help or not really.

In any case, I record, view, back up, re-record and so on, until I've accomplished more or less what I set out to do.

Then I bring the whole setup into the living room and start Pinnacle Studio 12, which is the program I use to edit the video. Great program. I upload the video to my computer using the "capture" function. You know - give it a name, create a working project file etc. The video plays as it is being captured, so a 40 minute video would take approximately 40 minutes to upload.


When the upload is complete, I then start editing it. That take hours and hours because I am still learning. :-) I put the little opening and closing sequence and add the titles before each section if needed, any fade ins and outs necessary. That's all really just personal preference and not actually NEEDED. Sometimes there is a small flub. Like I call a single crochet a chain. I can't change that so I either have to live with it or do it over. In some cases the offending piece can be deleted or silenced, depending on how much leeway I have. I try to leave a bit of "blank space" between sections so I can have that leeway, but if I'm talking and mess up, well, that's me. LOL

I have found I really enjoy teaching by video. I'd love to have a real "studio" where I could put the camera behind me focused on my work and a monitor in front so I could see what you see. Sometimes I get involved in the process of crocheting the piece and forget to stay in frame. I'm getting better at it though. :-)

After the project is edited, then I have to "make the movie". This puts it into mp4 format so I can upload it to YouTube. Making the movie takes a good while.

Once that is done, I have to upload it to YouTube. This takes I guess about an hour for the videos I've done so far because I now do it in high def. I think they put a little HD by the ones that are in HD. I think the quality is much better on those so I'm willing to take the extra time with them. After uploading, YouTube processes them, which takes another half hour or so.

You think I'm done now, don't you? Well, almost. If there is a small flub that requires additional explanation, I can add a note using the YouTube tools. I've only done that a couple times, but I do need to go through the last videos and see if there is anything that needs fixin'. If YOU find something I miss, please do let me know so I can fix it asap if it's possible to fix.

Part 1 of the upcoming 4 part series of videos will include More Crochet Basics. You will see things like changing color, reverse single crochet, post stitches, extended double crochet, extended triple crochet and the X stitch on this part.



Part 2 will have filet crochet, how to work in a space, how to work between stitches, front loop and back loop of stitches, and front and back of work.

Part 3 will show height of different stitches and teach the extended stitches.

Part 4 will have increase and decrease stitches and more.

That's all for now.


Happy crocheting!