Sew I See!

As mentioned in the last entry, the fourth UFO project of the year is underway.   I have no idea how long this one has been stashed away, but I'm sure it's been several years.   This project started with a layer cake Mom gave me.  The colors and prints are in the "shabby chic" style, I guess you could say.  Pinks, aqua, sea green, grey, baby blue, and white, with a couple of rose florals and other sweet, feminine prints.   ...I just spent a couple of minutes searching and found it:  Connecting Threads "Cottage Chic" from 2015.   I think I searched for patterns using layer cakes and found one on Jen Eskridge's old blog.  I'd link to it now, but though I can find photos doing a photo search, the page they link to is no longer available.  Essentially, it's an "exploded" (oversized, enlarged) disappearing four-patch.  Each disappearing 4-patch uses four 10-inch x 10-inch squares.  (In my case, I used two pieces from ...

I've finished two more blocks for the spring-themed sampler afghan.  That brings the total of finished blocks to twenty, which was my goal-- but now that I've laid them all out together, I've decided to make four more, for a 4 x 6 layout instead of the 4 x 5 I was originally planning.  So I need to make four more blocks, on the double! I've started the first of the Final Four, and I've also begun considering the joining and border. Since each block has its own border, I'll probably use a simple slip-stitch join.  As for the whole-blanket border, I've marked several possible options in Edie Eckman's Around the Corner Crochet Borders .  (These are affiliate links, by the way, as are the clickable book-cover photos.) Side-ramble:  I love that book, by the way, and highly recommend it to anyone who crochets many afghans-- and you can use the patterns for edging any project, of course, not just blankets. While looking up that link, I just saw that Edie...

The doily has been done for several days, but remains unblocked.  I think it may need a bigger surface than the foam insulation board I normally use for blocking.  (Another largish doily has also been hanging around the house for over two years , waiting.)  There's a new system I want to try for blocking larger items, but since it's new, there's a tendency to stall... Maybe sometime this week... - - - - - - - After finishing the doily, I picked up the Catherine Wheel scarf again.  It was slow going at first.  That yarn (Premier Serenity Sock Weight) can be splitty.  It's giving me less trouble now, but I'm not sure whether that first bit was different from the rest or I've just gotten better at dealing with it. I had to refamiliarize myself with the pattern.  I skipped right to the chart, missing some notes jotted on an earlier page of the print-out-- notes in which I described some slight alterations to the pattern.  The changes were impor...

The Granny Square Book: Timeless Techniques and Fresh Ideas for Crocheting Square by Square by Margaret Hubert Many of the things I most appreciated in Edie Eckman's Beyond the Square and Around the Corner Crocheted Borders books are also present in this sturdy volume by Margaret Hubert.  If you, like me, love books of crochet motifs (squares only, in this instance), where the emphasis is decidedly on those motifs, as opposed to patterns for garments, etc.-- this is most definitely worth investigation. Construction: The book is a 176-page, hardcover, spiral-bound book.  The pages have that satiny finish that is usual for this sort of craft book, and they are of reasonable thickness.  It feels like a book that will stand up to years of use.  Contents: Introduction-- The first 26 pages include a page of acknowledgements, a table of contents, an introduction, and a fairly comprehensive section on crochet basics.  Step-by-step photos accompany ...

50 Fabulous Crochet Squares (Leisure Arts #4420) by Jean Leinhauser and Rita Weiss This is a book of... 50 crochet squares!  (Who'da thunk it, right?) It's a 72-page paperback, "staple-bound", "booklet-style book" from Leisure Arts, and the fifty crochet square patterns are the work of four designers-- Jean Leinhauser, Rita Weiss, Janie Herrin, and James G. Davis. Each square is presented with a large, full-color photo alongside the written pattern.  (There are no charts, unfortunately.) The patterns range from the classic granny square to more advanced patterns with highly textured stitches or floral overlays. The authors assume that you know how to crochet (or are learning from another source).  There's a brief (one-page) introduction on the subject of how the size of your finished square will be affected by the thickness of the yarn you use.  The book ends with a couple of pages of "general directions"-- abbreviations, symbo...

No photos today.  Maybe tomorrow.  :o) I'm still working on the Gypsying afghan.  You may have noticed that it's taking a while.  (g)  It's still a joyful project, though, so let it take as long as it will! - - - - - - - Over the weekend, I put in some knitting time on that Thick & Quick Ribbed Cowl that I cast-on for on New Year's Day.  When I got to the point that the pattern tells you to bind off, I still had about 30 grams of yarn left, out of a 100 gram skein.  (This was partly because I used smaller needles and partly because I worked only five-- rather than six-- rounds for each of the knit-only sections.  Maybe I'm a tight knitter, too; I'm really not sure...)  I hated to have that much yarn left over (with no plan in mind for its future use)-- and I thought the cowl could do with some extra height-- so I'm knitting another 5 rounds knit-only and 5 rounds ribbing before binding off.  I hope I'll have enough.  It'l...

Here's the second of the crochet book reviews I wrote but never published.  It wasn't finished, so I've completed it, now.  (In other words, the opinions expressed are quite up to date. (g)) - - - - - - - Last time I wrote a review, it was for Edie Eckman's (first) book of crochet motifs ( Beyond the Square ).  Today, I'm here to write a little about her book of crochet edgings-- Around the Corner Crochet Borders. It's very similar in format to the motif book.  Each border (numbered, not named) has a "symbol crochet" chart to go along with the written instructions.  This is great for everyone-- people who like written patterns, people who like diagram patterns, and people who are familiar with one type of presentation but want to learn the other.  The charts make most of this book accessible to any crocheter.  Whether you use US or UK crochet terminology, the symbols are the same.  Even if someone can't read English at all, s/he could st...

Aha! I found the book reviews I wrote for this blog-- only apparently I never hit the "Publish" button, so they've just been sitting in limbo all this time.  ("Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: 'It might have been!'"... (g)) I'll go ahead and post them, now, just so they won't have been written "for naught". ;o) - - - - - - - One of my Christmas gifts (back in 2010, I guess?!) was Edie Eckman's Beyond the Square Crochet Motifs .  I've really enjoyed reading and flipping my way through my copy.  Since it's not exactly a new title (published in 2008, I think), you may already know all about it.  If not, you'll find many reviews on Amazon (etc.).  However, I can't resist making my own little commentary, even if I am late to the party.  ;o) Things I like: Lots of motifs 144, according to the cover More than just squares Circles, hexagons, triangles, and "unexpected...

The Swedish word for "pattern" is "m ö nster", which for some reason I have a very hard time remembering.  So whenever I happen across a Swedish craft blog with the word "m ö nster" in the title (or elsewhere), it always makes me do a double-take.  And then I laugh a little to myself... and think about a bilingual someone having a particularly difficult time with a Swedish crochet (virkning/virk) pattern and saying to herself, "That virkm önster is a real monster !"  (Only... I've never actually called a difficult pattern a "monster", myself, so why should anyone else?)  I think that the first thing that comes to mind when I see "virkm önster " is either a crocheted monster-shaped amigurumi or a person who is obsessed with crochet and hoards patterns, hooks, and yarn.  ("My bookshelves are overflowing with crochet pattern books and there's so much yarn stashed in my closet that I can't close the door!  I'...

As I've done all through this photo challenge, I'm focusing on yarn crafts, so I left out any books about other crafts. These are (most of) my crochet and knitting books and booklets.  I've left out one book by accident and a few vintage pamphlets/magazines by design (didn't want to dig them out), but this is the bulk of them. (This doesn't include my notebooks full of print-outs of free patterns.) I find I'm much more drawn to collections of motifs and stitches, when I'm looking for a crochet book to buy.  Rarely do I want to purchase a book of "just" patterns-- because I usually don't feel that I like enough of the patterns to justify buying the whole book.  If I find something cheap enough (library book sales and the like), that's different, of course.  Also, doilies are a little different; for those, I will buy a whole book/pamphlet of patterns.

Fifty cents doesn't buy much these days.  (That sounds like the intro for a sales pitch of some kind, but no fear, I'm not trying to sell you Liberty Mutual life insurance or guilt you into a donation with photos of sad-eyed puppies.) Ahem.  As I was saying, you can't get much with fifty cents, unless you're at a yard sale-- and sometimes not even then.  But last Saturday, I lucked out at a library book sale and got a hefty treasury of knitting patterns for just half a dollar. A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns , by Barbara G. Walker.  Isn't it a beauty?  ;o) But seriously, there are a lot of patterns in there.  It's 398 pages long (including the index), and though I can't find a stated number of patterns included, there must be hundreds of them (since there are often two patterns per page).   ETA:  Ok, I see it on the back of the book, now.  There are "700 pattern stitches, both traditional and original". This book has so man...

Don't you hate it when you drop a crochet hook into the crevice between two seat cushions on your couch, hear a ringing, metallic *ding*, go get a flashlight, pop up the seat's footrest, and lie on the floor to look under the couch, only to discover (after repeated searches) that the crochet hook is not there and has evidently fallen through a portal to another dimension? Don't you just hate that?  Especially when you're right in the middle of a project and don't have another hook in the same size?  It's a total downer. The next day, Donald and I had to roll the couch upside down to find the hook, but find it we did.  Somehow, it had managed to fall so that it lodged in there somewhere, and it was impossible to see it without turning the couch almost upside down.  I've dropped hooks into that couch before.  Usually they fall straight through to the floor; this one got creative. Now, you may think that turning a couch upside down was a lot of trouble t...

My first attempt at a doily was one of Trish Kristoffersen's "99 Little Doilies" (which, as you may know, contains written directions-only patterns).  I chose it because I thought it looked simple-- no fancy stitches involved.  And it probably was simple.  However, I had two things working against me (in addition to the fact that it was my first experience crocheting with thread).  First:  I was using variegated thread.  While it's beautiful in a ball (and can be stunning in the right project), variegated thread usually seems to act like camouflage on fancy stitchwork, in my limited experience.  It's not the best for a beginner trying to reassure herself that she's "doing it right". Second:  I turned my work after every round, even though the pattern never said anything about turning.  (Forgive me.  I was a newbie.  I didn't know any better.)  The results, as you might expect, were less than stellar.  Still, I per...

Woo, fell of the face of the Earth for a while there, but I think I'm back, now. ;o) So, maybe you received some cash over the holidays and you're looking for a way to spend it. No? Sorry 'bout that. . . Anyway, I've still found a few fun books while wandering around Amazon, and I thought I'd share. Button It Up , by Susan Beal This one won't be released until March, but that's not so far off. As you may have guessed by the title, it's about buttons. (I'm sort of obsessed with buttons-- have been ever since I started making them out of polymer clay-- and even before that I was semi-smitten with them.) The blurb says this book "details 80 fashionable projects including bold and beautiful pendants, rings, bracelets, necklaces, brooches, earrings, and more. Also included are instructions for an eye-catching assortment of accessories and housewares, from bookmarks and keychains to purses, market totes, and embellished curtains. Readers will fi...