another ABC afghan

While waiting to be able to order the rest of the yarn for the temperature afghan, I decided to make another alphabet afghan. This one will be red, blue, yellow, green and orange. At least that's the plan. I was thinking primary and secondary colors.

The orange I have is pumpkin. I had in mind more of an orange, but I'll see how it looks next to the others. Why is it we never have what we need no matter how large a stash exists? LOL Anyway, three colors down, two to go.

I'm using Red Heart Super Saver only because I happened to have the red, yellow and pumpkin on hand. After working with softer yarns, it sure feels rough. I know it will soften after I wash it though.

I plan to edge each square in buff or some other neutral color.

I'm just thinking that I might have a purple in my stash. Hmmm If the orange doesn't work, perhaps a switch in thought if there is enough of the purple. It would still be a secondary color. :-) I chose to use only five colors as I wanted the afghan to be 5 x 6 rectangles and the color scheme worked out well with five.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

20 years commemorative hook

In October of this year Crochet Cabana will have been on the Internet for 20 years. Wow. Seems like yesterday that I started this journey.

For the 10 year anniversary I commissioned special wooden crochet hooks to be made. I was considering doing this again for the 20th if enough folks are interested and it can be arranged with the same wonderful company I worked with before - Craft Designs For You. I have contacted CD4Y to find out if they still do custom hooks, if there is a minimum order, and what the price would be for such hooks.

If you are interested in having a 20 year hook (1997-2017) holler out and let me know. You can message me on Facebook, comment on the Facebook page, comment here on the blog, send a message from the blog, or email me privately at crochetcabana@gmail.com. You don't have to make a firm commitment at this time as I don't know prices and other information. I just want to know if there is any interest at all.

Here is what the hooks looked like then. I cannot remember for sure how much the hooks cost, but will update this post when I hear back from Cherie.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

spiral cloche hat

Someone posted a picture of some cute little girl hats and it sent me searching for the pattern so I could try it. There are numerous patterns out there for spiral hats like the one I was interested in, but I found this video which was quite nice and thought I'd share it (and the resulting hat) in case others are interested. She has a print pattern as well.

Here is the print pattern.  

The video can be found at YouTube here. There are three parts. Two by Louise at Red Haired Amazona (I love her accent) and one by Off the Hook for the brim. There's a bit of background noise in the first two but I did not find it too distracting. Her instructions were clear and I just paused the video to catch up if I needed to.

She does note that she originally saw the pattern on a Russian site. I don't speak Russian. However she does have a lot of pictures. 

I grabbed one of the extra skeins of Knit Picks Brava Sport arylic in solstice heather that I had on hand to try this out. I used a G hook for my sample. It came out pretty large and I didn't do as many rounds as she did. Maybe it's meant not to be too tight since it has the brim? If I made another I would use fingering yarn and a smaller hook.

The video shows a cotton 8 ply. She suggests a 2.5mm hook.

If you can make a front post dc, this won't be too difficult. Just follow along and pay attention to what you're doing, particularly the location of the ch-1s.

I decided I didn't want a wide brim because the hat was large and I wanted to make it small enough to fit my head by reducing the stitches. So I have a flat brim. Here is the result.

The Solstice Heather is too dark to show you the stitch definition. With a lighter yarn you'd be able to see the spirals better. It's a pretty nice hat and was not difficult to make following her video.

My female mannequin has some stickiness on it which I've been unable to remove fully. Still working on that. Then she will become my go-to model again. :-)

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

2016 tempghan through May

Here is the 2016 temperature afghan through May. This is the last month I can complete until Knit Picks restocks the paprika. Hopefully they won't push the date back any further than April 4. Besides the paprika I wanted eggplant for the one row in the 30s.

You can see there are now quite a few rows of yellow and orange. The next few months will get into more orange and paprika with some red.

Just as a reminder, here are the temperature and color guidelines.

30s eggplant (1)
40s mulberry (1)
50s freesia (25)
60s cornflower (35)
70s marina (40)
75-79 tranquil (51)
80-84 Grass (52),
85-89 canary (42)
90-91s orange (50)
93-95 paprika (46)
96-99 red (23)
100 caution (1)

It will be about six weeks or so before I can work on this again. Hopefully I won't lose momentum when the yarn comes round.

In the meantime, I have a few things I'm looking at. One is a hat that is about half done. I also have a lapghan I started some time ago that I can pull out. A few things came up this week that I am thinking on as well. We'll see which way the wind blows tomorrow. :-)

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

2016 temperature afghan through April

The 2016 temperature afghan is going very well. I will have to put it aside when I get to the month that uses paprika since I have none and Knit Picks doesn't have any either. It used to say they'd have some March 15 but now it says April 4. I'm sure I'll be at that point way before that date. I'm thinking of using a different color.

I thought of an additional tip that you might use, especially if you're a beginner at crocheting, to see that very first single crochet of the row. If you put a stitch marker in that stitch it will be very easy to see. Just move the marker up as you go to each row. You will need one at both ends of the row if you choose to do this.

And here is my progress ...

Happy crocheting!
Sandie