Girl on the Rocks

Christmas Craft Marathon December 23, 2009

Just like last year I am planning to fill my Christmas break with wall to wall craft time. Last year was a huge success that culminated in the addition of the owl embroidery floss organizer to my product line. I have several projects up my sleeve and was hoping that you would help me prioritize them.

Projects I am considering:

• Latch Hook rug Vintage. New in Package. And I already have the tool!
  
• Punch Needle embroidery: I purchased PlanetJune’s punch needle embroidery e-book and Moon pattern ages ago. I finally found a punch needle, so I’d like to give it a try.
• Crochet blanket I want to add a least a few hexagons to this languishing crochet project.
• Spinning My apartment is full of fiber. I would like to convert some of it into yarn.
  
• Wee knitting
  • Boot toppers
  • Acorns and tinier acorns
  • Hedgehogs: This one is the cutest but I already have the pattern for this one
• Needlework pattern Just like last year I still have some vintage crewel patterns that I would like to stitch up. Now I also have an Amy Sedaris cross stitch pattern (from Lauren at Sweet-meats) and a few recently procured Japanese cross stitch patterns to try out.
• Marshmallows I like to make homemade marshmallows. Last year I experimented with some homemade marshmallows with bourbon in them, and I would like to perfect the recipe this year.

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Something creepy for every day this month… October 2, 2008

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, hands down. With the arrival of October, I can’t stop looking forward the last day of the month. I have hopes to finish up a long-standing and halloween-appropriate Secret Project but I can’t make any promises. In the mean time, I can remind you that almost everyone you know is in need of a Monster Finger Chapstick cozy.

I am pretty sure that Moon’s Creations is a big fan of Halloween, too. Just like last year, each day in October will mark the debut of a one-of-a-kind halooween-themed amigurumi bunny.



Freddy Kreuger MoonBun Photo from flickr user Moons_creations

And the best part… they are available for purchase from her Etsy shop. I am the proud owner of the Bride of Frankenstein from last year’s series, and I have my eye out for a friend for her this year.

Plan B August 26, 2008

I have been unhappy with my ripple afghan for a while now.

I haven’t ripped it out since I didn’t know quite what I would do instead.

Now I have an idea… Inspired by the multitudes of fantastic hexagon blankets on Ravelry () and in the Hexagon love flickr pool, I want to make one too.

I’ve got the book, so I gave it a try…

I think I am going to rip out the ripples and proceed with the hexagons. I am not going to aim as high as a queen sized blanket – more of a throw. And if I change my mind, I can easily add more hexes to the end and/or sides.

But, what do you think?

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Earth Day Urchin scrubbie April 22, 2008

Last year on Earth Day I turned an old pinback button into a crocheted daisy. It seems like a recycling craft is a good Earth Day tradition, so here is this year’s trash-into-craft project. I have been accumulating a lot of plastic mesh bags.

You know the kind that contain onions, potatoes, or California Cutie tangerines. I found that some are just the right size and elasticity to hold a yarn cake, but most couldn’t fill that job.

Probably because of my recent fascination with tawashi (crochet and knit dish scrubbers) I thought of how much the mesh reminded me of nylon mesh pot scrubbers. So I decided to incorporate the plastic into knit and crochet scrubbers to increase their scrubbiness!

In order to knit or crochet with the mesh, I first cut it into a long, continuous, 1 inch wide strip by spiraling down the bags.

Since the mesh strips were pretty snaggy, I loosely wound them into balls.

I decided to adapt two free patterns for my use, but you could use this technique with any washcloth pattern. The patterns I chose are a knit (pdf download) and crochet version of a spiral scrubbie. The general idea is that you make a rhombohedron by increasing at one side and decreasing at the other side of your work (both increases and decreases are done on every row).

Then you sew together the cast on and bind off edges to make a short tube. Then you cinch the openings closed and it buckles down into a circular spiral.

Doesn’t it look like a little urchin?!

Details for my Sea Urchin scrubbie
Yarn: Peaches and Cream solid or other worsted weight 100% cotton yarn; Mesh strips.
Needles: US#11 or US#12 or even larger if you knit tightly.

I held the yarn doubled along with the mesh strip.

Using yarn only cast on 10 sts.
Row 1: Sl 1, knit front and back, knit 5, k2tog, k1
Row 2: Sl 1, k2tog, knit 5, knit front and back, k1

Repeat rows 1-2 16 times (8 garter ridges). Cast off using yarn only. Using yarn only sew together cast on and bind off edges to make a tube with diagonal garter ribs. Cinch the top and bottom of the tube closed, and hide yarn and mesh ends inside the scrubbie.

Crochet scrubbie

For this one, I pretty much stuck to the pattern, using only a single strand of yarn held with the mesh. I used only the yarn to cast on 10 stitches and used a size J crochet hook.

Tips for working with plastic mesh

• The smaller the mesh size (smaller spaces in the mesh) the easier it is to work with
• Cast on and bind off with yarn only – leave the mesh out of that messy business
• Stretch the mesh a bit as you work, but try to leave some flexibility in it to make working the next row easy
• Keep your work loose!
• Mesh strips can be joined with a knot as you work. Don’t worry if the knot sticks out – it is just extra scrubbiness.

If you end up adding plastic mesh to your knit or crocheted cloths I would love to see how they turn out!

Tawashi Town March 31, 2008

Won’t you take me to…. Tawashi Town!!

i just discovered what a tawashi is… It is a japanese knit or crochetes scrubber. Powered by a book from kinokuniya called “Magic Scrubbers Part 8″, I whipped up a number of little crocheted scrubbies and dusters.

A baby seal. Believe it or not the pattern gives him x’s for eyes – that wasn’t my idea

For dusting off my TV screen

For dusting off my keyboard

After I started, I discovered the Ravelry group Tawashi Town, and through it that many japanese tawashi are made with an antibacterial acrylic yarn. I snapped some up on etsy and tried it out:

This little fella lives by my sink and does a great job helping me wash dishes!

If you want to give it a try I’ve found are few freely available charted Japanese tawashi patterns:

- Flying Carp
- Ohina Doll

And if you are looking for something in english, try:
- Spiral Scrubbie

and a knitted version at this direct PDF download, or here.

Luck o the irish March 17, 2008

Happy St. Patrick’s day!

last week I was goofing off with my crochet hook and thinking about St. patty’s day. i thought I might make a four-leaf clover… I found a few shamrock patterns, but none of them had 4 leaves! After a few failed attempts, here is my version.

This pattern is probably intermediate in difficulty: it requires that you are able to cast on in a magic ring, double crochet (dc) and treble crochet (tr). it can be done in any yarn as long as you use an appropriately sized crochet hook. The larger one I made used caron simply soft worsted weight yarn and a size F hook.

- [sc in ring, ch 1] 4 times end sc 1.
- sc 2 so you begin work in the space created by the ch1 of the first row.
Work each leaf in the space created by the ch1 of the first row.
- ch1, tr1, dc1, tr1, ch2. slip stitch into sc from first row to end the leaf. sl into space created by ch1 from first row to start the next leaf.

Repeat the leaf pattern 4 times (3 times more) and you should be almost all of the way around.

Make stem:

- ch 5
- sc 4 starting in second ch from hook. (you are working your way back up the stem toward the leaves.
- sl st. break yarn, pull through and weave in the end.

Let me know if you have any problems with the pattern! See if you can trade them for some free beers tonight!

I don’t speak or read Japanese. Is that a problem? March 10, 2008

Pretty much without even a second thought, I recently bought a few Japanese craft books in Japantown. These are my first, and while I don’t speak or read Japanese, everyone always says the diagrams are so good that you can figure everything out from the pictures.

Well, they are mostly right. So far my experience is just with crochet which hasn’t been too bad. Instead of having row by row directions, all of the patterns are represented in charts. In each book there is a section where they define what the symbols mean, and have some of the best instructional diagrams I have ever seen. I dare say the ambitious could teach themselves to crochet from these diagrams.

I made it through my first pattern by flipping back and forth between the chart and the instructions with almost no problem. Now I am not sure that I even want to ever read a non-charted crochet pattern again!

Every once in a while I do wonder things like “What is the title of this book?” and “That little arrow is labelling something that is clearly important. I wish I could read what it says…” I am trying to compile a list of helpful online sources for translation, but many are for knitting… i’m working on it…. in the mean time, if you have a japanese pattern that you are trying to read, I have found some friendly, helpful Ravelers in the Japanese knitting and Crochet group and Tawashi Town.

If you don’t know what a Tawashi is (I didn’t until last week), stay tuned because they are cute cute cute!

Your days are numbered, ripple afghan March 9, 2008

Lately, I have had visions of ripping this out.

It is sized to become a queens sized afghan, so it is several feet wide. There is a lot of crochet going on there. I an unhappy with how strictly I striped the colors. Each color row is actually two rows and I feel like I have to keep doing that over and over. Oh, and I hate the pattern. Working one direction is fun, but working back the other direction is boring (sc) and doesn’t make much progress. Oh, and I kinda think I am doing it wrong.

I originally chose this particular ripple pattern (from 200 Ripple Stitch Patterns[Ravlink]) because i liked the rounded ripples, and i had this crazy idea that afghans HAD to have little holes in them. So you could stick your fingers through them, or peek out when you are all wrapped up in it. Then I realized this is not a lap afghan, it s a bedspread. And I realize that crocheting something the size of my bed is crazy (jobs like that are for sewing) and maybe I should downsize to a practical sized afghan.

Since I have tons of the yarn (Cascade 220 superwash wool from webs) I think I am going to start a simultaneous afghan in a pattern akin to the ever-popular soft waves ripple pattern [Ravlink], it will be still for my bed, but I might decide to downsize it so that it may someday be complete.

The original rippled afghan will survive another day.

I am old on the inside March 6, 2008

I can’t wait to get old and retire. Well, I guess I can wait, but I already have plans. I will get an old lady helmet hair perm, and enjoy my weekly gossip filled salon visits. i will yank my pants up too high (I’m guessing they will be corduroy) and act like I don’t see anyone else as i bump my cart into everyone when I am shopping at the grocery store. I will barely be able to peer over my steering wheel and if I bother to parallel park (as I will actively seek pull-through parking lot spaces* whenever possible) I will bump off of both surrounding cars every time. I will go directly to the window at the post office despite the giant line because hey – I’m old. i don’t have time to wait and no one will get mad at me because I am old. And even though I could take a minute to figure out what is going on, I will just act confused and get my problem solved right away (at least that is what I guess they are thinking when that happens EVERY time I am at the post office). I will probably die surrounded by weird collections of something that I couldn’t bear to throw out – like yogurt containers or wine corks (I have a dangerously sizeable collection of these already). I will be surrounded by a million cats. I don’t have a cat, but I love them. I am saving it up for future crazy-cat-ladyhood.

In the mean time i figure it is that crazy little old lady inside me that thinks things like these are the most wonderful things ever.

More pics.

They are crocheted Chair cushions!! Aren’t they fantastic? I am guessing from the questionable “uh-huh” response all my friends give me when I ask them that question that it might be my inner granny that is irrationally captivated by these things. They are pretty much the entire reason I bought a whole Japanese Craft book. did you notice that the first one is ALL little poofy flowers?! I already have a recipient for one of these fantastic cushions:

My desk chair. It will look great with a square cushion, don’t you think?

* In my family these parking spaces are called “Aunt Carmella Parking spaces.” my great Aunt Carmella was the designated transporter of all of my great aunts and she would only park in parking spaces that she could pull through. The only thing she ever backed out of was her driveway.

Another superbowl… February 7, 2008

Another beer cozy.

I didn’t bring any knitting needles with me so i crocheted this cozy during the superbowl. I added the ruffley edge so the boys would quit eyeing it. They kept looking so i added a flower. I still didn’t leave it unattended.

[Ravelry project page]

On an unrealted note, i was tagged by Hannah (ages ago) to show everyone my computer desktop. I took the capture and put it in my flickr, but never mentioned it here.

The background is a photo of Arizona where I was collecting rock samples a while ago. Click through to flickr to see the notes.

Want to share yours? Consider yourself tagged!