The Shtick I Do

Okay, I keep saying I'm going to make a doll for my niece. I've started it, I have all the material needed, I have the pattern printed out . . . so what's the big deal? Why can't I get it done? For one thing, I need eyes. No, not for myself - for the doll. They are not hard to get so I can't blame it on that. Maybe it's because I'd like to do something special for her. She has grandparents that are are absolutely enamored by her. So "toys" aren't something she has a shortage of by any means. I know when mine were that age toys were coming out my ears! So I worked on a purse. My mother has said that baby Gemma loves to carry things around. Well alrighty then! I got a couple skeins of yarn and started working on a pattern I found at Lion Brand Yarn . I hated it. I'm sure it was me or my yarn choice but I hated it. So I looked around for another (and bought some more yarn). I found one , read the comments and came up with my own take o...

Oh  my goodness! I missed posting yesterday! I wish I had a good excuse but I don't . . . unless you count worry. My husband and two sons are away at a music festival in Kentucky (yes, they have them in other places, not just Woodstock). My youngest didn't want to go, she's more into " glamping " than camping. I think I could get into glamping . . . if I could afford something like that. Anyway . . . .  I made some more bracelets. With Pringles lids! A few weeks back I posted this project, a bracelet using up-cycled elements. This time it's basically the same thing with a twist! Can you believe this is made from the lid to a PRINGLES  can?!?!?!?!?!? Well it's actually two  lid rims. And buttons . . . of course. The buttons are just stitched on for decoration, they aren't holding anything together. The wide strips of yellow are doing that. I made this in less than 3 hours. Most of that time was deciding on yarn colors. I picked a dark blue ...

I like reading all sorts of things about crochet. Everything from Stitch 'n Bitch books to the history of. There are several nice groups on Facebook that concern crochet and as I was reading through some posts I came across some beautiful bracelets, made from up-cycled T-shirts. Very pretty, and I'm all about saving money so if I can crochet something and it not cost me anything for the materials all the better! But I wanted something more than a bracelet, I mean I make bracelets all the time. Not only from crochet but also ones from beading and braiding. So I got out some old shirts, cut them up with my scissors and thought about it (didn't take long either).  I cut the strips in a couple of different sizes, 1/2" to 1" wide. I thought that would give me a bit of variety in the piece as it was worked. This is actually a shirt my daughter had outgrown and it's made of cotton. I cut along one side seam and tied the strips together to make a skein...

Several weeks ago I started making a rabbit, I wanted to make something for Easter and thought a cute little white bunny would be the most adorable thing ever. So I got out the hook and yarn and started on the head. Half-way through I asked my youngest daughter, "How does this look?" And she replies, "That looks just like a marshmallow!" Thus the S'more project was born. It didn't take long to make the marshmallow, the graham cracker and the chocolate posed the problem for me. I knew I couldn't make chocolate squares so I did a single crochet "swatch" in brown for the chocolate. It's going to be covered with the graham cracker anyway so the appearance of chocolate is really all I needed. Now the graham cracker I struggled with for a few weeks. I tried double crochet, I tried single crochet. I tried single crochet on top of double crochet. Nothing seemed to look right. Then I saw something on front-post and back-post double crochet. Wa...

Hookers? Well that's a term . . . umm . . . let me quote an expert here: " . . . the first printed crochet pattern appeared in a Dutch magazine early in the nineteenth century . . . As the appalling conditions of lace makers became known to the American women, they started to get interested in creating the work themselves rather than supporting the abusive practices of the lace making industry. In a book published at the time, a lace manufacturer admitted that he expected his workers to turn a few tricks on the side to make up for his not paying them a living wage. As Donna Kooler suggests in The Encyclopedia of Crochet , this may even explain how the word "hooker" came to have such wayward connotations. " ~ Debbie Stoller   Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker Now since crochet has only been around for a little over 200 years ( * ) and no one really knows where it started we can pretty much only rely on what's been written. Knitting has bee...

This past weekend, my husband and I ventured across the Ohio River and went north-ish into Columbus. We'd been there before a couple years ago on a semi-second honeymoon. But that was only for a weekend as well. Nevertheless we had a blast both last time and this time. Have you ever been to the North Market ? I highly recommend you go. Go now. If now isn't good for you make it ASAP. The place is wonderful. But only if you're nerdy like we are. I love North Market! Food and fresh produce and salsas and sauces and ice cream ( omgwtfbbq ice cream ) and fresh meats and fish and baked goods and . . . oh my. I'm sorry I had to stop. I was getting all worked up. Another place we visited was the Book Loft . Let me tell you, if you've ever dreamed of going to an endless library of books this is the place. 32 rooms? It's ridiculous! And wonderful! It's wonderfully ridiculous! The picture on their main page is very misleading. Who'd think you could get 32 room...

I know, who in their right mind crochets a blanket in the summer? I have a confession to make: I have never claimed to be "right minded". There, now that that is out of the way, here is a pic of the blanket I finished a few days ago. (*gasp* it's not a dish cloth!) This is the one that I was working on with that HUGE crochet hook. I can't give you a size because it isn't stamped anywhere on the thing. But it's big. I used two strands of a worsted weight 4-ply yarn. One color that is carried throughout the piece is black, then the other colors alternate: green, purple, maroon. (I know it looks like it's red in the pic but I promise it's maroon) And the stripes are two different sizes, one is 5 rows wide (that's the slim row) and the other is 11 rows wide (that's the thick row). Pattern? Well I didn't follow a pattern and I'm not sure I can tell you one because of not knowing the hook size but I can tell you what I did and the s...