Sew I See!

I'm still not quite caught up on this one-a-day crochet flower project.  I think I'm only four days behind, so it's possible to catch up in the next day or two. I have so many flowers to show that I separated them into two groups. First group: Second group: Stack of all the flowers so far: And all of them spread out: I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with them... The thought of joining them in a blanket is intimidating-- and exhausting-- but that's what I'm leaning towards, at the moment.  Nothing else I can think of seems quite as appealing or useful, given the material (acrylic yarn), gauge/scale (worsted/aran weight), and color combinations.  I'm afraid my enthusiasm is already wearing thin.  It's not because making the flowers is dull--  I'm enjoying that part-- but rather because they're piling up so quickly, and I just can't feel confident in my ability to turn them a...

Still in the process of catching up on the 365 Flowers project! (Yes, I still need to work on The Mittens.  I finished the thumbs and weaved in all the ends.  Next is swatching the furry yarn.  There's also a doily that is just barely started.  At the moment, all I can think about, in terms of yarn/thread, is catching up on this flower project.  A moment of crochet flower madness is good for the soul.) Here are the next five flowers: And here are all of the first ten together.  (Not quite half-way caught up...) There are already three more that are crocheted (with loose ends still waving free), so the next batch should be ready very soon. Yeah, they're fun to make.  Highly recommended, if you're a fan of flowers and crochet.  ;o)

I happened to see a year-long project on Ravelry, and it looked like so much fun I decided to join in! Emily at The Loopy Stitch has challenged herself to crochet a different flower for every day of 2018 .  She's not sure yet what she'll be doing with them all; for now, she's just designing and crocheting them-- and sharing the written patterns and photos with anyone interested in playing along.  (The first two days use the same pattern, because she hadn't yet decided to make every flower different.) I considered making mine from remnants of size 10 thread, because I can easily envision projects that would use a variety of differently shaped and sized thread-weight flowers.  (Garlands, wreaths, framed wall art, lampshade applique or trim, table runners, etc.) However, that would essentially mean starting a (tiny) doily for every day of the year, and the first few rounds of a doily are usually my least favorite part.  (There's hardly anything to hold on to whil...

We've been having a cold winter, by our standards-- and it's still only January, so who knows what the next month or two might bring?!  Perfect weather for indoor crafting! (...Though I actually do  really need to get outside and work in the garden before spring sneaks up on us again...  Never mind.  Back to thoughts of cozy craft-time...) I have  been working on the Mittens of Doom, a.k.a. the hedgehog mittens I started making for my youngest sister over a year ago and still haven't finished.  I'm on the first thumb, after which all I have to do is embroider the faces and make and attach the fuzzy Fun Fur-style "spines".  (Have I mentioned that I loathe embroidering faces and swore off Fun Fur years ago?)  So, while there's still plenty to do on that project, I've been allowing myself to work on a couple of other crafty projects.  ...Mainly because my hands hate knitting that acrylic yarn and I just needed a break from them.  The ...

There was a remnant of Alize Miss Batik left over from "Etienne" , so I decided to make a tiny doily from it.  There were still  leftovers, so I crocheted the tiny doily pattern again.  (One can never have enough tiny doilies, I guess.  They also make fun things to put in with gifts.  Even if someone isn't necessarily a "doily person", they might still find a use for one of this size.  They are cute in a frame or used as a coaster, for instance.) So, these first photos are actually of the second Miss Batik "Mathilde" .  (I can tell because I finally ran out and had to use a solid-colored thread for the last round.) "Mathilde" is a fun little pattern designed by Grace Fearon.  It's one of her free patterns.  These are my second and third times crocheting it.  The first was in Cébélia. And here's the other "Mathilde" .  Considering that they're worked in the exact same thread, it's interesting...

It's been what feels like forever since I knit these hats , but it was really just a little over a year ago.  Though they were both knitted in under a month, I never weaved in the ends and so never took any photos.  Since I wanted to give them for Christmas, I was finally motivated to get it done!  The pattern, from what I can recall, was a lot of fun to knit.  It's one of those patterns that looks more complicated than it really is.  Pattern: Heart Vines Hat , by Sara Kay Hartmann I made two of them because the first one turned out smaller than I'd expected.  It then occurred to me to give the small hat to my young niece-- and to make a second matching hat (in a larger size) for my sister (the niece's mother).  (The second one did turn out a little larger, but neither are huge hats, by my estimation.) Here are the two hats, the smaller one stacked on top of the larger one: And again, side by side: The yarn (Lion Bran...