I wore my hat today.
About a month ago, I decided to overcome my not-being-able-to-learn-from-books issue and just crochet 'by ear', just do whatever I felt, and see what happened. And a hat was made. I got to the 'I think I'm finished' place a few days ago. So much that I started a Dishcloth-AKA-Practicing A Square because I didn't have anything more to do on the hat except 'finish' it. And I didn't know how I was going to stop the crocheting, or weave in the ends, so it sat for a couple days.
But it's a spring hat, and this morning, I did not have to scrape any windows, or start the car 5 minutes early to defrost and warm up. To me, after this winter, that was close e-frickin-nuff to spring for me! I quickly did a couple stitches to end the crocheting, and wove that end a little bit, just enough so I didn't have a Minney Purl string hanging off the back of my hat, and the other ends that need to be woven are inside where they don't show, so I threw it on, and went on my day.
I almost couldn't take it off when I got to work, I was so proud of what I had done. And tomorrow, being 'casual Friday', and me being known for sometimes wearing hats on cF, I may just wear it all day tomorrow.
And I know that I don't know what I'm doing, I looked at the crochet mag I bought today only to be confuzzled by the words, but the pictures are making more sense. And my dishcloth doesn't look too bad, and it's almost done, too.
And last night, hooking away watching tv, I hit crochet nirvana. After a long day of being the mother of two teenage sons, I found relaxation in my crocheting.
And I almost cried.
2/28/08
Swirl Hat in Progress
Last Monday, at the Laundromat, I got to the point on the hat that I had to switch yarns. Even as green as I am, I could tell I wasn't going to have enough swirl to finish the whole hat how I saw it in my head. But I had some similar feel, similar weight, close-but-not-exactly-the-same-color purple yarn, so I had been planning the switch.
Here's what I had done so far: the very top of the hat is just a circular stitch, just increasing naturally as I went along, a natural spiral, that curved slightly. I tried it on, and frogged parts of it a couple times, until I had a kind of yamake in the right size. Then I switched to a different stitch that made a straight tube. This second stitch I really liked, someone mentioned on a group or comment that it looked like a single crochet stitch, but I did a single chain in between each one, so I don't think it was exactly a single crochet. (I'm going to try to draw what I did, if only for my own reference)
When I was getting to the end of the variegated yarn, and I could tell that I would be switching yarns right about where the brim was going to start, I decided to increase the last row. It ended up being two rows, but it was ok. So instead of skipping a stitch (on the previous row) when I did my chain in between stitches every time as I had before, I did the skip three times in a row, then didn't skip once, then skipped three, then didn't skip once.
That's where I was at the point of this photo. I don't think you can really even see that the last couple rows are increased slightly, but after the brim is on, you can a little more. But before I started the plain purple, I wanted to capture an in-progress shot. Which just happened to happen right while we were doing laundry at the laundromat (we had dryer issues at home). So not only was I crocheting in public, I was taking photos of my silly head in a half finished hat in public. I got some strange looks that day!
Here's what I had done so far: the very top of the hat is just a circular stitch, just increasing naturally as I went along, a natural spiral, that curved slightly. I tried it on, and frogged parts of it a couple times, until I had a kind of yamake in the right size. Then I switched to a different stitch that made a straight tube. This second stitch I really liked, someone mentioned on a group or comment that it looked like a single crochet stitch, but I did a single chain in between each one, so I don't think it was exactly a single crochet. (I'm going to try to draw what I did, if only for my own reference)
When I was getting to the end of the variegated yarn, and I could tell that I would be switching yarns right about where the brim was going to start, I decided to increase the last row. It ended up being two rows, but it was ok. So instead of skipping a stitch (on the previous row) when I did my chain in between stitches every time as I had before, I did the skip three times in a row, then didn't skip once, then skipped three, then didn't skip once.
That's where I was at the point of this photo. I don't think you can really even see that the last couple rows are increased slightly, but after the brim is on, you can a little more. But before I started the plain purple, I wanted to capture an in-progress shot. Which just happened to happen right while we were doing laundry at the laundromat (we had dryer issues at home). So not only was I crocheting in public, I was taking photos of my silly head in a half finished hat in public. I got some strange looks that day!
2/26/08
Creative Hands
I thrifted this book Friday evening, when Artist Extreeme (sometimes also known as The One Who Can Not Make A Decision) and I went on a multi-stop adventure.
I didn't realize until I got home and really got to looking at it that it is Volume 1. It gives a little taste of a lot of hand work, so it seems that it could be complete with those little bits. But I guess it's a 22 volume set. I hadn't decided if I might take it apart, for collaging or whatever, but if it's a set, maybe I'll keep watch for the rest of the set instead of ripping this one up. We'll see.
Flipping through it while AE was looking through the clothes, I found some cool things, and a couple parts that kinda offended me, in that this-ain't-the-stone-age kind of pro-chick kind of way. But it was originally published in 1966, so we'll forgive the stupid parts, and relish in the nostalgia. One page had photos of a few of the contributors. Funny, they all had the same haircut my mom had in the 70's, but I guess all brunette mom-ish crafty women had the same haircut in the 70's.
I scanned a few choice pages (hopefully without stepping on any copywritten toes), click on the pix to jump to my flickr to see the other scans.
One of my favorite pages is below. It's showing an example of how to find a group of colors to use together. The smaller photos are of a harbor, and the large photo shows the afghan that was inspired by the colors of that harbor. Cool idea!
I didn't realize until I got home and really got to looking at it that it is Volume 1. It gives a little taste of a lot of hand work, so it seems that it could be complete with those little bits. But I guess it's a 22 volume set. I hadn't decided if I might take it apart, for collaging or whatever, but if it's a set, maybe I'll keep watch for the rest of the set instead of ripping this one up. We'll see.
Flipping through it while AE was looking through the clothes, I found some cool things, and a couple parts that kinda offended me, in that this-ain't-the-stone-age kind of pro-chick kind of way. But it was originally published in 1966, so we'll forgive the stupid parts, and relish in the nostalgia. One page had photos of a few of the contributors. Funny, they all had the same haircut my mom had in the 70's, but I guess all brunette mom-ish crafty women had the same haircut in the 70's.
I scanned a few choice pages (hopefully without stepping on any copywritten toes), click on the pix to jump to my flickr to see the other scans.
One of my favorite pages is below. It's showing an example of how to find a group of colors to use together. The smaller photos are of a harbor, and the large photo shows the afghan that was inspired by the colors of that harbor. Cool idea!
2/21/08
Felt Fortune Cookie
Yes, I am doing more than only crocheting. I do tend to get obsessed when I'm starting something new...
On my breaks at work, I'm still mostly working with felt. Pin production has slowed, as I am experimenting with a whole 'painting' that will end up being mixed media I think, but is starting off with a felt background.
And when Craft Sanity had an interview about a month ago with Hilary Seabolt, who makes the cutest felt food, she was kind enough to give us a free pattern for this little cutie. I stitched it by hand, and almost put beads all around it, too. Next time I think I will.
On my breaks at work, I'm still mostly working with felt. Pin production has slowed, as I am experimenting with a whole 'painting' that will end up being mixed media I think, but is starting off with a felt background.
And when Craft Sanity had an interview about a month ago with Hilary Seabolt, who makes the cutest felt food, she was kind enough to give us a free pattern for this little cutie. I stitched it by hand, and almost put beads all around it, too. Next time I think I will.
2/16/08
Swirly Start
And here is the beginning of my current practice project. Working with the verigated yarn makes it fun to see where the swirlies will go. I am still just playing it by ear, and did have to frog back to about here when I started doing the hackey sack thing again, only much larger. I've worked on it some since this picture, and it still has the possibility of being a hat! I keep trying it on every round or so, to make sure it's still coming close to what I am wanting.
The binder clip is to remind me where I started the new stitch. I guess that would be a place for a 'stitch marker' which I've heard of, but I have no idea how to use. ;p
And a couple more Hooker Links:
Crochet Pattern Central
Crochetville A forum I joined
Crochet Partners Yahoo! group that I'm pending in...
If you have any more cool crochet links, let me know! TIA!!
The binder clip is to remind me where I started the new stitch. I guess that would be a place for a 'stitch marker' which I've heard of, but I have no idea how to use. ;p
And a couple more Hooker Links:
Crochet Pattern Central
Crochetville A forum I joined
Crochet Partners Yahoo! group that I'm pending in...
If you have any more cool crochet links, let me know! TIA!!
Hat or Hackey-Sack?
My plan to teach myself to crochet by ear started officially with this blob. My mom brings home leftover craft supplies sometimes from their volunteer work, and there was almost a full skein of nice practice purple. How my plan was going to work, was that I was going to just crochet along, and end up with a cute hat. Stop laughing at me! ;p
The purple blob did start out ok, the kids teased me that I was making a coaster. But it was round and getting bigger...and then I 'discovered' a new stitch, which pulled my little coaster thingy into almost a hackey sack. Which, if I could figure out how to close it off, would have been ok, it's just practice after all.
I started over with some verigated yarn, and frogged this little mess.
The purple blob did start out ok, the kids teased me that I was making a coaster. But it was round and getting bigger...and then I 'discovered' a new stitch, which pulled my little coaster thingy into almost a hackey sack. Which, if I could figure out how to close it off, would have been ok, it's just practice after all.
I started over with some verigated yarn, and frogged this little mess.
2/15/08
My Crochet Eureka
This is the result of my little Eureka! moment I had a few weeks ago about crocheting. When I was sitting at work, thinking about how I'd really love to learn to knit or crochet, and I was thinking that I knew what crochet was supposed to look like, the basic steps, had a 'I taught myself' kit, and I could find plenty of help online. So why didn't I just teach myself, like do what I want to do instead of trying to learn from a book, like my son taught himself the guitar, I wanted to teach myself to crochet by ear...or rather by eye. So I grabbed a ribbon and a hook (that I just happened to have at work), and started playing.
Not much yet, but it definitely make me think I could figure it out.
Not much yet, but it definitely make me think I could figure it out.
2/13/08
Finally Feeling Better
I was pretty much out of commission the last few days. The last time I felt well enough to practice my crocheting was last Thursday afternoon, with a sick kid using me as a pillow. Hmm, maybe being a pillow for a sick kid was part of my down fall into getting sick myself. Oh, well. They get nothing but older, and soon won't need even a mama pillow when they're sick, so I won't complain. (At least not now that I'm better.)
Whoo. That nasty bug sure knocks you on your butt! We all took turns having it here at our house, and almost 1/2 of the crafty blogs I read all have had it at their houses, too. You can't catch it through the blogosphere, right?
Anyway, a wasted weekend, two sick days off work, and I'm back to 70%, although not enough voice to sing. I was so glad to be feeling a little better last night, I think I crocheted myself some carpel tunnel. So tonight, I'll just play some Sims Castaway while watching BB9 and Project Runway. What? Sims Castaway is creative! All my little Simmys have to sew their own clothes out of banana leaves! ;p
Whoo. That nasty bug sure knocks you on your butt! We all took turns having it here at our house, and almost 1/2 of the crafty blogs I read all have had it at their houses, too. You can't catch it through the blogosphere, right?
Anyway, a wasted weekend, two sick days off work, and I'm back to 70%, although not enough voice to sing. I was so glad to be feeling a little better last night, I think I crocheted myself some carpel tunnel. So tonight, I'll just play some Sims Castaway while watching BB9 and Project Runway. What? Sims Castaway is creative! All my little Simmys have to sew their own clothes out of banana leaves! ;p
2/9/08
LOST Art
Even if you know nothing about LOST the television show (where have you been hiding?) here's enough info for you to grock the point of this post:
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LOST is a huge mystery. A mystery within a mystery. And everything and anything can be a clue, anything on the show itself, or on the mini-games and clips on the web. The interest in this show (IMHO) is trying to piece together clues, and come up with theories on what is actually going on. Maybe like a giant interactive game of Clue, or one of those murder mystery parties.
Not too long ago, one character was doing some watercolor painting. I always love to notice when television or movie characters do arts and crafts, it doesn't seem to happen that often. And unfortunately, a lot of the times I've seen characters doing arts and crafts the character was where this one was: a mental hospital. (So does television tell us only mental patients do arts and crafts? I don't think so, I just think television doesn't want to remind us too often about the creative things we could be doing while or instead of watching-it doesn't want the competition. ;p That's my crackpot theory, and I'm sticking to it.)
So this character was painting with watercolors, and I, like every other LOST watcher I presume, started thinking about the clue that was in the painting. Does it mean he was abducted by Penny's people that are stationed in the Arctic? Does it mean the LOST writers are going with the super crackpot (again, IMHO) theory of the hollow Earth, and that the island they are on is directly tunneled to the North Pole? Does it represent that character himself, and that he was at some point in the cold weather?
Sorry, I probably lost a few non-LOST-ers there. Suffice it to say that there was much speculation over the painting.
Anyway, I heard an interview with this actor, and when questioned about the painting, he admitted that the producer just told him to paint, not what to paint. So whereas the actor thought about what his character might paint, the producer and writers did NOT have a specific clue in mind.
Sometimes a cigar is really just a cigar. But why he's eating the Cheetos is still a controversial question. ;p
There's lots of places out there on the net with screen grabs, I got this one from one of my favs: Lost Easter Eggs. Thanks.
.jpg)
LOST is a huge mystery. A mystery within a mystery. And everything and anything can be a clue, anything on the show itself, or on the mini-games and clips on the web. The interest in this show (IMHO) is trying to piece together clues, and come up with theories on what is actually going on. Maybe like a giant interactive game of Clue, or one of those murder mystery parties.Not too long ago, one character was doing some watercolor painting. I always love to notice when television or movie characters do arts and crafts, it doesn't seem to happen that often. And unfortunately, a lot of the times I've seen characters doing arts and crafts the character was where this one was: a mental hospital. (So does television tell us only mental patients do arts and crafts? I don't think so, I just think television doesn't want to remind us too often about the creative things we could be doing while or instead of watching-it doesn't want the competition. ;p That's my crackpot theory, and I'm sticking to it.)
So this character was painting with watercolors, and I, like every other LOST watcher I presume, started thinking about the clue that was in the painting. Does it mean he was abducted by Penny's people that are stationed in the Arctic? Does it mean the LOST writers are going with the super crackpot (again, IMHO) theory of the hollow Earth, and that the island they are on is directly tunneled to the North Pole? Does it represent that character himself, and that he was at some point in the cold weather?
Sorry, I probably lost a few non-LOST-ers there. Suffice it to say that there was much speculation over the painting.
Anyway, I heard an interview with this actor, and when questioned about the painting, he admitted that the producer just told him to paint, not what to paint. So whereas the actor thought about what his character might paint, the producer and writers did NOT have a specific clue in mind.
Sometimes a cigar is really just a cigar. But why he's eating the Cheetos is still a controversial question. ;p
There's lots of places out there on the net with screen grabs, I got this one from one of my favs: Lost Easter Eggs. Thanks.
2/7/08
More On Sadie
Don'cha love it when your different projects or interests blend together almost as if they were meant to work that way, without you really even doing anything? I do.
I was working on the second project in the Felt Underground kit, a monster pencil case, and I was going to use my own colors for this one, but I wasn't inspired to make it a monster, and wasn't sure about their directions. They started you off with two big rectangles, and one small one for the bottom (they had it standing up). They didn't have a ton of step-by-step photos, and I wasn't sure how they planned to make the one smaller rectangle work as the bottom, but I liked the zipper in the center, so I got started.
Somewhere in the not understanding their instructions, and wondering what I would use this for, it being rather thin, it hit me to put a thin strip all the way 'round, to make it an actual 3D rectangle with the zipper turning into the most beautiful monster mouth as soon as I turned it sideways. ;p
Where she's from, the moles and facial hair are signs of true beauty. And her name just popped into my head as I was sewing her eyelashes on, it's a derivative of the song Sadie, Sadie, Married Lady from the movie Funny Girl.
The most perfect part about how she morphed, is that she is now the perfect place for my Art Journaller supplies, and that's another step closer to my Art Scout button!
I was working on the second project in the Felt Underground kit, a monster pencil case, and I was going to use my own colors for this one, but I wasn't inspired to make it a monster, and wasn't sure about their directions. They started you off with two big rectangles, and one small one for the bottom (they had it standing up). They didn't have a ton of step-by-step photos, and I wasn't sure how they planned to make the one smaller rectangle work as the bottom, but I liked the zipper in the center, so I got started.
Somewhere in the not understanding their instructions, and wondering what I would use this for, it being rather thin, it hit me to put a thin strip all the way 'round, to make it an actual 3D rectangle with the zipper turning into the most beautiful monster mouth as soon as I turned it sideways. ;p
Where she's from, the moles and facial hair are signs of true beauty. And her name just popped into my head as I was sewing her eyelashes on, it's a derivative of the song Sadie, Sadie, Married Lady from the movie Funny Girl.
The most perfect part about how she morphed, is that she is now the perfect place for my Art Journaller supplies, and that's another step closer to my Art Scout button!
2/6/08
Knit Wars
Since I've been practicing my crochet, I decided to finally go ahead and sign up for Knit Wars, the Lime & Violet knitting progress adventure. Since I'm just playing around practicing, I almost could take points for 'learning something new' every day. But I'll put that off until I'm learning something that is actually useful. Like the names for the stitches I'm discovering.
I'm sure I'll never get too far with the points, but it's fun. And I can at least keep track of my progress myself this way.
The invite link is on this L&V page, go sign up if you're so inclined. And don't worry, they have many beautiful avatar pictures to choose from, I just love Zombies!!!
I'm sure I'll never get too far with the points, but it's fun. And I can at least keep track of my progress myself this way.
The invite link is on this L&V page, go sign up if you're so inclined. And don't worry, they have many beautiful avatar pictures to choose from, I just love Zombies!!!
2/2/08
2/1/08
And Some Hooker Links
Probably mostly for my own reference, to clear out some of the dozen tabs I have open right now, but maybe they'll be helpful to others. and feel free to point me to any that I missed!
Get a Grip! How to Hold a Crochet Hook and Yarn the site I found when I was trying to remember exactly how to wrap the yarn around your fingers, I know it's up to each individual, but I wanted to see some recommendations
Learn to Crochet a GeoCities page full of lists of links, I haven't checked it out much yet.
Learn to Crochet Lion Brand site, has a few patters also
Basic Crochet Instructions from the Learn to Knit and Crochet website
Thread Heads Quickie-How to Crochet a You Tube video that I will watch as soon as I finish this post
Purl Bee Crochet Basics Awesome photos of the exact close ups I need
Get a Grip! How to Hold a Crochet Hook and Yarn the site I found when I was trying to remember exactly how to wrap the yarn around your fingers, I know it's up to each individual, but I wanted to see some recommendations
Learn to Crochet a GeoCities page full of lists of links, I haven't checked it out much yet.
Learn to Crochet Lion Brand site, has a few patters also
Basic Crochet Instructions from the Learn to Knit and Crochet website
Thread Heads Quickie-How to Crochet a You Tube video that I will watch as soon as I finish this post
Purl Bee Crochet Basics Awesome photos of the exact close ups I need
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