Baby Afghan and the starting square

When I first started going to our little church, I was a young woman, not quite 29 years old. A few years later I volunteered with the children's ministry, which met on Wednesday. As it would happen, I was the leader of a group of 4th grade girls. Three of the girls went to our church with their parents and a couple of other ones went to school with them.

These girls grew up as I was having babies. There were two ladies at church who did all the afghans for the new babies. I always loved them and admired their work. They seemed too beautiful to use other than special occasions.

Those ladies are gone now. One of them is in her 90s and goes to another church. The other is in heaven. No one crochets anymore. Not really true anymore. I decided that I wanted to be that church lady who crochets blankets. I could have done this a long time ago, I guess, but I was not confident enough until now.

One of those little fourth grade girls grew up, got married and had a little baby. I've had three. Baby blankets that are used all the time need to be tough and able to hide the stains. Baby stains and baby food and juice stains.

I asked mom what color she would like and she requested a pink color. The color has pink in it but is more of a camoflage. I was worried about how it would turn out but now that it's done I love it.

The blanket is substantial. Good thing because it gets really chilly here in the Chicagoland area. The stitch was easy to learn and it went quickly--when I worked on it, at least. It was finished right after she was born. In July. That's ok, though. It will be used soon enough.

I used:

2 large skeins of Bernat Blanket yarn in Plum Chutney. 

• Economical big ball size

• Content: 100% polyester

• Ball Size: 300g / 10.5 oz, 201 meters / 220 yards

• Care: Machine wash and dry

• Gauge: 6 - Super Bulky

I bought it at Michaels with a coupon.

I used an "N" - 15 Metric 10 size 9mm UK/ Canadian Size 0

and a little yarn needle to weave in the ends. Please check the hook size in your area as the sizing gets a little fuzzy.

 

Here is the link to the video and pattern: http://thecrochetcrowd.com/crochet-puffy-baby-blanket/

If you would like a copy of the original, free pattern, you can find that here.

Now then, here is the start of my first ever afghan. I chose to do Crochet Crowd's 2014 Stitch-cation because I knew that I could complete it. Eventually. I started at the beginning of the year. Lost interest. Worked on the baby blanket above. Frogged the whole thing. Started again and ripped it after 4 rows. And gave in.

I watched the video. 

Good thing too. I was doing it wrong or at least not as instructed. Initially I was making Forever 21 crochet pattern. That was incorrect. 

The correct pattern for this project is found here at Red Heart.com. The video tutorial, which helped me once again, can be found here. It is called a Cross Stitched square and it turned out just beautifully. 

For this project I am using Caron Simply Soft Yarn in Sunshine. I will make another contrasting square in Purple. I am also using a size H/8 5.00mm UK size 6 hook. 

Granny Square Bottom Bag

I still struggle with reading patterns so youtube.com has been such a blessing for the visual learner such as myself. I belong to a Google Plus group called Crochet Along on Google+ and each month they have a new project. I was thrilled that this particular project had both written and video instructions.

My girlfriend told me that I am incredible cheapskate, when I told her that I bought the black fleck yarn in a clearance bin for $1/skein. I'm glad I bought it because I've used it for experiments like this. I made my bag extra deep. I also had leftover rainbow colored Mexicana yarn and added a couple of stripes.

The original pattern calls for a single crochet handle. I did a single crochet row of black, 2 double crochet rows of Mexicana/rainbow and finished with a single crochet row.

The Solid Granny Square Bottom Bag Tutorial can be found on Ravelry.

For my project I used Red Heart Saver Yarn.

• Black Fleck - 5 oz. / 146 g  Medium worsted weight 260 yards / 238 m

• Mexicana -  5 oz

• Size I / 9 UK 5 5.5mm hook

Overall the pattern was straight forward. The granny square bottom was tricky to me personally. The instructions say to slip stitch to the opening at the end of the row. I was very glad to watch this rather than read it because I would have been lost otherwise.

The links to the video instructions are:

The granny square bottom bag - https://youtu.be/20rR_DKk0FM

The semi solid square (the bottom portion of the bag) - https://youtu.be/2L-AM5e3Ip4
*Make sure you watch this carefully

Enjoy! If you make this too, post a link in the comments section and I will be sure to visit!

The Crochet "& Other Causes" Awareness Ribbon Scarf

I have trouble reading patterns so I have used Youtube a lot. Someone posted a link to crochet a pink ribbon scarf or shawl for Breast Cancer support. Not only did it have a pattern but it had well made video that explained how to do it. I suggested it to one of my crochet groups and they did it as their monthly project. Back in November. And I did not do it in November because I'm like that.

Lots and lots of yarn to weave in.

I live in Chicago and the open work of the original scarf would be impractical for at least 5 months out of the year. I rebelled and made a solid body for the scarf. The ends were still ribbons not for cancer but for autism.

I was not sure if this would work. The autism ribbons are usually primary colors and this yarn is definitely rainbow colored. I asked my autism parents friends and they all said it would work. It is much prettier crocheted than in the package, in my opinion. The Red Heart Super Saver Yarn is in "Mexicana." I apologize for the blurry picture.

I bought this at Michaels in January 2015.
Again, sorry about the blurry picture.

I decided that I wanted to make a little bit of a pattern in the body of the scarf so I did four rows of double crochet and two rows of single.  I felt like it had a little more interest.

Because of the nature of the scarf, there were two halves that had to be sewn together in the middle. At the end of the first half, I did my final four rows of double crochet and then did one row of single crochet. I did the same thing on the other half and joined the two single rows together with the intention of it looking seamless.

4 rows of double crochet, then two rows of single. At the end,
4 rows of double and one row of single. Join halves at the
single rows.

The ribbons at the end, with the yarn ends
woven in. It is not blocked yet.

I chose to have an extra row of the variegated yarn at the top. I chose the color black not as a commentary on grief or sorrow but because it's neutral and it makes those lush rainbow colors pop.

I have to wash it. I'll block the ends with a heavy book and hopefully it will straighten out a little bit. My girlfriend said it's almost impossible to block acrylic yarn but I'm going to give it a shot.

If you are interested in crocheting this yourself, it is pretty easy for even a beginner. Here are the links.

The Crochet Awareness Scarf or Shawl on Ravelry found here.

The Instructions for the scarf found here.

Finally, the easy to follow youtube video can be found here.

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I used Red Heart Super Saver Yarn in Black and Mexicana; these are worsted weight yarns. I used a size I / 9 5.5mm UK / Canada size 5 hook.

Pretty Flubs

I wanted to make myself some fingerless gloves. My friend purchased them from Kohl's but I thought  I should go ahead and try and make them myself. I found a very easy pattern on youtube and gave it a go. 

I personally have always had a problem with decreasing rows. No idea why but there it is. The first glove I made was on the left and it took me forever because I was always double checking my rows. I figured out what I was doing. I was not crocheting the last stitch into the end. That's how it was for me and that solved the problem. 

The easy pattern from Yarn Obsession can be found at this link.

I was not pleased with the thumb hole instructions. The original pattern said to take new yarn and start from there. I decided to go around the hole, almost like you would a hat. Now, on the left side I did two rows and later decided to do a row of black yarn to finish it off as I did the top. 

Slacker Crocheter decided or rather ignored this fact and crochet more rows on the thumb for a total of five rows on the thumb. You can see the difference on the right side. Normal people would fix it. I won't. These are for me so I don't care. Also I seem to have some tendonitis pain in my left thumb area so I will use the longer one for the left side. It's still cute enough to wear out. Very pleased with the results.

I used Caron Simply Soft yarn worsted weight and a size I/ UK 5/ Metric 5.5 hook.

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You can find the pattern at this link. It is Lion
Brand Yarn Pattern # 80934AD

Years ago when I was first beginning to crochet, I decided to make a sweater for my dog. We live in Chicago and it's cold for everyone, right? So I got this ugly yarn and tried the pattern. I had a hard time with this pattern because I have trouble reading them, especially when I was just starting out. I put it away because I could not figure out how to do the bottom part. My brain was not seeing it and I could find no videos to help me.

In January I decided to take a look at it again and laughed at younger me. It calls for chunky yarn and I used a worsted weight. And I didn't measure very well. I now knew enough about patterns to finish the bottom and piece it together.

So the bottom was not as tricky as I thought.

The one good thing that I did early on was to make a little hole for the leash. We walk our dog with a harness and I wanted a little space in the body of the sweater so it would not bunch up. It is between the two hearts which you cannot see unless the sweater is on my white dog.

I used a Red Heart Saver Yarn worsted weight and used a size I/ UK 5/ Metric 5.5 hook. This is the wrong type of yarn.

You can find the original heart pattern
and easy instructions here.

The Slacker Crocheter doesn't like what everyone else does. I didn't care for the flowers so I decided to do hearts instead. They are flat and if Precious Pup decides to lay down, I wanted her to be comfortable and not spoiled at all.

The problem for me was that I wanted something a little bigger so I put another row of yellow around the pink heart. But then the bottom wasn't pointy enough. I started the third row of purple and thought I would try to make it pointier myself. I got to the bottom and added a double crochet. Then a triple. Then a quadruple and then I had a problem. So I just chained ten and attached it. It turned out pretty good except that it looks like eggs to me. Oh well. The Slacker Crocheter is leaving it now.

I disturbed her from her beauty sleep
to take this picture. Sorry, Kiwi.
She's a Jack Russell/Rat Terrier mix or
so we were told. She's a lot of dog.

And here is what it looks like on my dog. You will note that the sweater is actually too big. Don't care. She's going to wear it and she's gonna like it.

Note the little hole for the leash.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below with your email.

ps Jimmy likes Elaine.