Go, Granny, Go

Remember waaaay back when I fell in love with a granny square afghan? I attempted to find some decent, I mean dead simple, instructions on the internet. And they had to be dead simple since I was, and still am, a complete crochet novice. Luckily, Posie came to my rescue and wrote a simple pattern for me. Except it wasn’t quite easy enough for someone who had never read a crochet pattern before. I’d only made it up as I went along before.

That’s what yarn shops are for though. They happily take a rather small bit of money and help you through your pattern reading troubles. After my first “class” with a group of terribly fun, and funny, ladies I was well on my way to creating my very own granny square afghan. (It also greatly helped when the instructor pointed out my crochet hook was crap and with the simple spending of $4 I was crocheting like I knew what I was doing.)

Posie’s pattern is baby sized so I’m upsizing it for an adult, something I can hide underneath while sprawled out on the couch for some movie watching. When I did some math to figure out how many squares that would be I started hyperventilating. It’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 – 200 squares. With one here and one there though I already find myself with 96 centers done. I’m saving up all the gray borders for when I need a project while travelling. Taking one ball of yarn is so much easier than 9 balls!

The Handmade

1. Make a stack of fabric napkins (fabric options scoped!)
2. Make an apron....for myself!
3. Finish the Sophia bag (done!)
4. Make a half square triangle quilt for Little Miss Lou (done!)
5. Make a pinwheel quilt for Little Miss Bee (in progress!)
6 . Crochet enough sunshine squares for an adult sized afghan (96 + counting!)
7. Embroider a wall hanging
8. Make one or two playsuits for Little Miss Bee (done!)
9. Make a birthday party dress for Little Miss Bee
10. Make lazy days skirts for Little Miss Bee (done!)
11. Make an apron for Little Miss Bee (done!)
12. Make a super-cape for Little Miss Bee (done!)
13. Make a long-sleeve jumprope dress for Little Miss Lou (done!)
14. Make a tooth fairy pillow for Little Miss Lou (done!)
15. Make lazy days skirts for Little Miss Lou (done!)
16. Make a school photo dress for Little Miss Lou
17. Make an ice cream blouse for Little Miss Lou (done!)
18. Make flannel pjs for both Little Misses
19. Make a fabric pennant garland (made a mini!)
20. Make fabric cards
21. Make an ice cream dress with solids for Little Misses Lou and Bee (done!)
22. Make the doll carrier from Little Things to Sew for Little Miss Bee (done!)

Part of the 2011 in Lists Projects

What I Did on Summer Vacation

-tried a new to us restaurant
-grilled some great food
-read five magazines, cover to cover
-built some great (well-contained) camp fires
-ate a lot of s’mores
-hiked
-beat the dudely in 9 out of 12 Yahtzee games
-read two and a half novels
-started a crochet project
-finished a quilting project
-listened to seven episodes of This American Life
-spent a rainy afternoon with hot chocolate and a movie

And now it's Monday and it all seems so long ago already.

Swoon!

A few weeks ago I was introduced to Sandra Juto’s amazing crochet work by sfgirlbybay. The moment I saw this afghan my heart swelled and I knew I was in love. I keep staring at it, studying it, and coveting it. I have to make one.

I’ve been harboring the desire to pick up crochet seriously for some time now, even putting it on my list of things to accomplish this year. At first I thought this was way out of my league but as I’ve studied Sandra’s blog and flickr stream I’ve realized it’s made out of granny squares. Each granny square is a fun little project of its own, making the whole afghan doable for a complete novice like myself.

Sandra’s afghan uses a pattern she created herself. After a few googling sessions though I believe it’s based on a sunburst granny square. Lots of tutorials exist online so I hope I can figure it out. Now I need yarn and lots of it. Typically granny squares use up all your scraps of yarn from other projects but I’m starting with nothing. No yarn and no yarn buying experience. What I do have though is a gift certificate to a yarn shop the dudely gave me a Christmas or two or three ago.

Before I dive right in, any crocheters out there? What advice can you share with me? I need every piece you can throw my way!

Photos by Sandra Juto, smosch.com

She made me do it

Ever since that Ubercrafty Virginia posted about her new addiction to Amigurumi, I have been thinking that maybe I should take up hooking as well. Tory started recently and look what she has already made. Then I came across this book while browsing for sticker-making supplies in Paper Source last night and I knew it was time to get on the crochet bandwagon.

Just look at these lions with their yarn manes. So adorable.

And frogs on vacation - fun.

Tiny fuzzy sheep with little fuzzy tails - irresistable.

I'm sure I'll pick up this crochet thing in no time, right? Because if I don't I'm heading straight to Montreal for personalized Amigurumi lessons (and maybe some wine, apparently it helps).

Don't forget to get in on Tory's 100th post give-away by leaving a comment on her post.

Look Mom....A Scarf?

To say spring has been highly variable would be an understatement. One day it might reach 50, if you hope hard enough. The next day may be nearly 80 and you’re convinced all cold is far, far behind you. Luckily, I’ve made two scarves to cover whatever Mother Nature may throw at us.

This first to be completed is a nice, thick crocheted beauty in green. Over the course of several nights I sat with crochet hook, yarn, and books in lap re-teaching myself the single crochet stitch my mom had taught me over a year ago. I just kept going back and forth perfecting my technique and finding a rhythm that gave me consistent stitches and even edges. Before I knew it I had gone through an entire skein of yarn and had what looked like a scarf. I’d like to add some pom-poms to dress it up but I think I’ll set that part aside until fall. I’m really hoping I don’t need to don this scarf until much, much later this year.

My second scarf is the perfect spring scarf. It features a patchwork strip of Joel Dewberry fabrics in pinks and acid greens with a backing of linen. A flirty little ruffle hangs from the ends, perhaps mirroring the flirting spring is doing with us. The scarf is just the right weight to keep an early morning chill off the neck. Now if only I could find the perfect spring coat to match my lovely scarf. That is one bit of shopping I’d happily set aside with the assurance that my early morning commutes could be done layer-free. Is that too much to hope?