Two nights ago I came to a stand still on the crochet project that I am working on because I need to get more yarn. I began looking for something small I could make in the meantime. I came across this pattern for a chicken pot holder and decided to give it a try.
It worked up really quick and I think it turned out really cute. I’m sure I will be making more.
If you know me, or have been following my blog for very long, then you probably know that much of the month of December I spent making Christmas gifts.
In early December, with a plan in mind, I ventured to Joann Fabrics to get the supplies that I would need. It was a fun outing because I met my youngest daughter there. She wanted to pick out some fabric for a project that I am now making for her. She also helped me select fabric for the gifts I would make for Jackson and Addy.
For Jackson and Addy I decided to make fleece bathrobes.
I also made them each a pair of flannel pajama pants and a stuffed puppy to match.
I was quite pleased with the way everything turned out.
The puppies were a little more challenging that I expected.
For my daughters, who are all dog lovers and puppy parents, I decided to make paw print scarves. I also crocheted them each a pair of slippers since it had been several years since I had made them any.
Somehow I neglected to take a picture of the four scarves all of which were the same pattern as the one above but in different colors. At least when I realized this I still had one scarf and pair of slippers that had not been delivered yet.
It wasn’t until I saw Addy putting on the slippers that I made for her mother that I realized that I wasn’t quite finished with the outfits I made for the grandkids. Can you guess what I’m crocheting now?😉
I was working on this post in early March but, for reasons that likely need no explanation, I got distracted and never finished it. Summer was busy and I didn’t do any crocheting but now that it gets dark early again I find myself picking up the crochet hook and yarn each evening. Since the projects that I am working on will be Christmas gifts I won’t be posting pictures until after Christmas so for now you can take a look at the projects that I completed in February.
Something fun for my Valentine.
My husband asked me to make him some mittens because we have a hard time finding gloves that really keep our fingers warm. He said the mittens were better than gloves.
The problem with wearing mittens is that it is difficult to do any thing with your fingers, so I though I would try making some mittens that the top would flip back. I worked off of the same pattern that I used to make my husband’s mittens. I began by making the lower half of the mitten. Then I finished that part off and attached the yarn a few rows down on the back of the mitten and crocheted across the back then made a chain/foundation stitch across the front adding a few extra stitches so it would slip over the lower part.
The one on the right was the first one I made and I discovered that I did not attach it low enough so it created a gap in the mitten. On the second one I attached the yarn lower on the back of the mitten so the top overlapped the lower part and it came out just as I had hoped. Thankfully these were just prototypes because when I had them finished I realized that I had two right-hand mittens. Oops!
I made a 5 of these hot pads using three balls of crochet cotton. I gave two of them to my neighbor who was thrilled to have them.
My sister sent me a pattern for Yip Yips. I actually had no idea what Yip Yips were. Thank goodness for internet search engines. I learned that Yip Yips are alien-like Sesame Street characters. (did you know that?)
I made two Yip yip’s and thought I would put some chocolate bunnies in them and give them to Jackson and Addy for Easter.
Well it was a nice thought. Lockdowns happened and family gatherings for Easter did not. The best I could do was send the Yip Yip’s home for Jackson and Addy with their dad when he came out to the farm to hive the package of bees he purchased this spring. Hopefully I will be able to give Christmas gifts in person this year.
As January comes to a close I decided to write a post about my crafting projects for the month. I picked the title then when I began reviewing the projects I realized that the title, That’s A Wrap, actually seemed to be a theme for this month.
You might remember that in the beginning of the month I wrote about the first hairpin lace project I made.
This hairpin lace scarf. That’s a wrap.
I then decided to do a second hairpin lace scarf with a different type of yarn. I didn’t make it an infinity scarf this time and I had enough yarn leftover to make a matching ear warmer.
Hairpin lace scarf and ear warmer. That’s a wrap.
Next I decided to make a scarf using the broomstick lace method that I have done in the past. I thought it might be interesting to compare the two to find out if I preferred one method over the other or if I preferred the results of one over the other. I can honestly say I don’t have a preference. (Do you?)
I plan on finishing up this scarf later today but might make a matching ear warmer.
Broomstick lace scarf. That’s a wrap.
The other big project that I completed this month was making my bath robe. I think it was back in November when I wrote about my plans to make this. I had purchased the fabric and thought I would get started soon. Before got I started on the bath robe reality struck and I switched my attentions to making Christmas gifts instead.
Fortunately I waited, because making the bath robe was not as easy as I expected it to be. I am not going to go into detail about all of the mistakes that I made, but I do want to share some thoughts about the fabric that I used.
My choice of fabric for this project was Luxe fleece and to be fair to the pattern designer it was this choice that lead to a lot of the difficulties I had with making the robe. What I do love about the fabric is that it is super soft and warm and even though I usually don’t wear purple I do love the color and how it looks with the contrasting trim. I did, however, find it difficult to work with this fabric while making such a large garment. There was a lot of bulk in the way while trying to sew. The fabric is not one that can be ironed. so pressing seams in place was not an option and the fabric did tend to slip so many pins were required to hold things together until the sewing was complete. The other thing I will mention is that my small straight pins tended to get lost in the fabric so I had to do several checks to make sure I removed them all. (OUCH!) The last issue that I (we) had with the fabric is that the fabric sheds when it is cut and continues to shed until it is sewn together. Each time I worked on this project I made a big mess. Fluffy stuff everywhere! My husband actually offered to bring in the snow shovel for cleaning it up, (LOL!) but the vacuum worked just fine.
My wrap around bath robe. That’s a wrap.
Incidentally Ranger got in on the action as well. One day last week he seemed to be getting bored while waiting for his afternoon walk. I cooked up two beef bones (one for Ranger and one for Trooper) thinking that chewing on a bone would keep him busy while he waited. We have an old table cloth that we put on the floor when we give them bones so they don’t mess up the carpet. I placed the two bones on the table cloth and invited the boys to enjoy their treat. Trooper sniffed his but walked away apparently uninterested. Ranger was niffing the bones as I returned to the kitchen to continue what I was doing. A few minutes later I walked through the living room and noticed that one of the bones was covered with a corner of the table cloth. Ranger was sniffing the other bone. A short while after that I discovered that both bones were buried in the table cloth. Apparently Ranger was planning to save them for later. LOL!
Bones buried in the table cloth. That’s a wrap. (I wonder if he could learn to fold clothes. LOL)
As for January 2020 – That’s a wrap. 🙂
Thanks for reading and please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.
It seems so long ago that I wrote about buying a loom to make hairpin lace. It was certainly before all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season and it wasn’t until after Christmas that I figured out how to use the loom.
For my first project I chose this infinity scarf. The link to the pattern has a detailed video which includes both making the hairpin lace and constructing the scarf. I used a different type of yarn so my results are different from the one created in the video. I took a few photos during the process to give you an idea of how this works.
To create hairpin lace the yarn is looped around the pegs of the loom and each loop is secured in place by a crochet stitch. On this loom both the top and bottom cross bars are removable and there are holes at various distances so the hairpin lace can be made different widths.
At first I found it quite awkward using both the loom and the crochet hook but after a while I was able to get into a rhythm and it went quite quickly from there.
To remove the lace from the loom I only had to remove the bottom cross bar then slide the lace off of the pegs. While this piece has about 30 loops on each side, the scarf I made had four strips like this each with 240 loops on each side.
After I had all four strips made, I joined them together by slipping five loops of one strip though five loops of a second strip then slipping the next five loops of the first strip though those five loops. This process was repeated though the entire length of the strips and created the braided or rope-like appearance. I didn’t get any photos of that process but it can be viewed in the above video. The edges were finished by slipping five loops of the strip over the next five loops of the same strip and repeating the process along the entire edge.
This is the finished scarf. I like the braided effect and can see this process being used to make an afghan, poncho or ear warmer. In fact I have decided to make an ear warmer using this design.
This design is one of many ways that hairpin lace can be used, and from the beautiful, intricate items I am seeing made with it, I would guess this is probably one the easier method of using it.
Now for a couple of bonus photos.
My sister KC, the one that has been teaching me how to sew, made me this really cute hat for my birthday.
She also made matching bandanas for the dogs. LOL. Her fabric choices were perfect.
If you look closely you can see the white fabric has red barns, windmills, chickens and sunflowers – it’s like this fabric was made for me. The yellow print is filled with honey bees. She knows me well!
What do you think of pets dressed to match their people?
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