April 2016 – The Crochet Architect

April 18, 2016April 18, 2016

Crocheting for My Grandchild!

As you can tell from the title of this blog post, I’m going to be a grandma! Yahoo!!! My husband and I are expecting our first grandchild, who is supposed to be a girl, at the beginning of June, which is quickly approaching! We are thrilled that we’re going to be grandparents! So in preparation for my first grandchild (granddaughter), I’ve been crocheting and knitting lots of things for her (that’s why I’ve taken some time away from designing lately)! Here are some of the things I’ve made:

I really enjoy crocheting baby booties and thread baby booties always look so adorable to me! So for the past few weeks, I’ve made these 4 pairs of baby booties and sandals. The patterns are all from a Leisure Arts book called “Booties by the Dozen”, by Kay Meadors. Here’s a photo of the front of that book:

Last year, after finding out that we’re going to be grandparents, I made a few other pairs of baby booties with yarn. Here’s a photo of those booties:

As you can tell, we didn’t know if it was going to be a boy or a girl at that time! According to the latest ultrasound from a few weeks ago, there is a 90-95% chance that it’s a girl!!! Since my only daughter is in heaven and I have 3 grown sons, a granddaughter is exactly what I was hoping to get (of course, it’s my son and daughter-in-law’s baby, but I’ll be one of her 2 grandmothers)!

Here are 2 baby blankets that I’ve crocheted for her, too:

The top blanket in pastels is the one that I finished for my mom after she passed away in February. It was a “labor of love” to finish it for her. You can read all about this blanket in my previous blog post here.

The bottom blanket is the turquoise blanket that I designed last year before I knew if it was going to be a boy or a girl. I think turquoise can be used for either one and it’s one of my daughter-in-law’s favorite colors! I used almost a full skein of Lion Brand Pound of Love yarn, which has 1,020 yards in it! The contrasting white sections in the edging didn’t take much yarn, though.

Here are a few sweaters that I’ve knit for the baby, too:

Baby's First Sweater — Baby’s First Sweater

The top sweater is knit with half of a skein of Lion Brand Ice Cream in color #206 Tutti Frutti. I really enjoyed knitting this sweater because of the colors of the yarn! And I have enough yarn left over for another sweater or possibly matching booties!

The bottom sweater is knit with half of a skein of Moda Dea Tweedle Dee that I had leftover from years ago (I don’t think this yarn is made any more, though). It’s a bulky yarn and this sweater knits up in just 2-3 hours (from the top down)! It’s a really quick project and I like the final sweater. My youngest son went to China in February and took this sweater, along with a couple of other baby items that I made, to my middle son and daughter-in-law for me. My daughter-in-law said that this sweater reminds her of ewoks from Star Wars! It doesn’t look like what the ewoks wore in the movie, but the colors do kind of look like ewok colors. If you’re a knitter and you’d like to knit one of these quick baby sweaters, you can find the free pattern on Ravelry here. It’s called “Wee Speedy”.

And here’s a bib that I crocheted for her from a pattern than I designed years ago:

This is a Tunisian baby bib. If you’ve never tried Tunisian crochet before, you should check it out! It’s a lot of fun! I find it rhythmic to do and the resulting texture lends itself very well to cross stitching on top of it!

And last, but not least, here is a diaper cover and coordinating hat that I crocheted last year for her:

This diaper cover and baby hat were from the book, “Baby Brights” by Kathleen McCafferty. You can see that book on Amazon here. I have no idea how well this diaper cover will work, but my son and daughter-in-law are planning to use cloth diapers, so I may be making more of these, if they work out well for them.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at the things I’ve made (so far) for my granddaughter. Of course, I’ll share photos of her after she arrives (which will be in China because my son and daughter-in-law are living there and attending a Chinese university to learn Chinese/Mandarin). I’m planning to fly over there for the birth of my first grandchild, God willing! So until then, you’ll probably find me knitting and/or crocheting more things for our little “bundle of joy”!!! Yippee!!!!!

Happy crocheting,

Susan

April 11, 2016

More Skinny Scarves!

Since my last blog post, I’ve used up 2 more single skeins of yarn by designing 2 more “Skinny Scarves”! These are really fun to design and crochet! And they take almost no time at all!

I thought you might like to see my 2 newest skinny scarves, so here they are:

You’ll probably recognize the yarn that I used in the Windows Skinny Scarf. It’s the yarn that I showed you in my last blog post: Plymouth Yarn Stained Glazz. It’s a worsted weight yarn made of 51% wool and 49% acrylic fibers with only 99 yards in this skein, so I had to be careful what stitch pattern I used to make it long enough. This stitch pattern worked perfectly! I really like the colors in this yarn. I think it will coordinate with lots of outfits in my wardrobe.

The yarn that I used in the Bruges Lace Skinny Scarf is Berroco Cirrus. It’s 42% superkid mohair, 40% nylon and 18% merino wool extrafine. There are 114 yards in this skein of yarn. I really enjoyed working with this yarn (I like mohair yarn, but I realize that not everyone does)! It’s very soft!

These skinny scarves are lots of fun to make and I’m going to enjoy wearing them! They’re both about 4″ wide, so they’re the perfect width to wear as more of an accent than a functional scarf to keep you warm! But that was my intention for them: looks over function!

I’ll be shifting my focus for a little while away from designing. I’ll tell you why in my next blog post (in about a week).

Happy crocheting,

Susan

April 1, 2016

Stash Busting – A Little at a Time

Do you ever get in a “stash busting” mood? I’m in one currently and I think it’s great to get into this mood every now and then (otherwise my stash would be uncontrollable, which some might say it already is!). I’m also in a “quick to make” project mode, especially after working on some blankets/afghans for several months! I have many single skeins of yarn in my stash with 100-150 yards in each skein. That’s not enough for a sweater or shawl, so I thought I’d design some skinny scarves with them. I’ve been wanting to have some skinny scarves that are more decorative than functional (they won’t keep me warm, but they’ll jazz up my outfits a little!). Here’s the first skinny scarf that I designed earlier this week:

First Skinny Scarf with FibraNatura Cobblestone yarn

It’s made with 1 skein of FibraNatura Cobblestone yarn in a pretty multi-color that will coordinate with many things in my wardrobe! I think this yarn is discontinued, but that’s okay with me. I still like the colors in it and I love how the colors change within one of the 2 plies. The other ply stays the same color (in this case it’s pink, which I love!), which tones down the color changing ply so it’s not too “in your face”! This yarn is 100% superwash merino wool and has 153 yards in the 50 gram skein. It’s a sport weight yarn, which is about the weight I wanted to use for this skinny scarf. I stumbled upon this skein of yarn at one of my local thrift stores last year for 99 cents! That’s a great price for a skinny scarf (or any scarf/project), as far as I’m concerned! Because there’s so much going on with the color changes in this yarn, I chose to use a simple stitch pattern to show off the colors of the yarn better. This scarf turned out exactly how I had imagined it and I think it’ll work out great in my wardrobe!

The 2nd skinny scarf that I started is going to be made with Plymouth Yarn Stained Glazz. I started this scarf last night, but when I looked at it this morning, I changed my mind to make it differently, so I frogged what I had started. According to our digital kitchen scale and a ruler, it was going to be about 27″ long, which isn’t anywhere near as long as I want it. So it’s back to the drawing board for this skinny scarf! This is a worsted/aran weight yarn with only 99 yards in the 50 gram skein. The yarn is a little heavy for a skinny scarf, so I have to be careful what stitches I use with it. I think it’ll make a pretty skinny scarf, too. It looks to be a one-ply, roving type of yarn, with solid black throughout and the rest of the ply changing colors with muted shades of red, orange, yellow, green and blue in it. It’s made with 51% wool and 49% acrylic fibers. I won this skein of yarn at the Halloween Party at the Annie’s Craft Festival last year (that was a ton of fun!). If you’d like to read about my adventures there, check out this blog post. Here’s what the Plymouth yarn looks like before this skinny scarf is made:

Plymouth Stained Glazz yarn for 2nd Skinny Scarf

What about you? What do you like to make with one skein of yarn? Do you like to make hats, scarves or something else? I’m not much of a hat person because of my curly hair. If I put a hat on, I’d better leave it on for the rest of the day, or else hide my flattened out “hat hair” at home (it’s really bad)!

I hope you’re enjoying the spring (or fall, if you live “down under”) and are taking time to enjoy the relaxing, creative benefits of crochet!

Happy crocheting,

Susan