Finished the beret.

This isn't supposed to be Linda's hat, but she started trying to put her head into it while I was still crocheting it, so I went ahead & let her act as model.

This is the Wed, 5 Apr 06 pattern, Beret, designed by Dorothy Matthews. I want to be very, very clear on whose design it is. It's a very cute hat, & I only made a couple of changes on the fly--I never do the join with a slipstitch thing, since I find it leaves holes, & so I didn't do the ch-3 at the beginning (odd that she doesn't consider it the first stitch, like 99% of other patterns do). The directions for the C-Bobbles also didn't make much sense to me, so I muddled through them on my own & probably wound up doing something else altogether. Still, any pattern I make fewer than five changes to is wonderful in my book, LOL.

I will take pity on anyone else who wants to make this & give a gauge, since the pattern lacks one. I used the K hook the pattern called for & worsted weight yarn (plain ol' Read Heart) & got a gauge of 6 rows and 11 DC all equalling 4 inches. Though it's on my daughter in the photo, it's stretchy enough that it fits me as well, & I've got a 24" head.

Christmas gifts.

The purses were ridiculously easy. Well, as easy as working with that yarn could possibly be. It's good at snagging while you work. I did one of these in HDC and one in DC. They're pretty small, but as they're being given to toddlers that hardly matters. They're already trying to steal them; I need to hide 'em until I can wrap them.

And I still have plenty of the yarn left! I'd like to make Barbie a fur coat, but I'm not willing to work in that small a scale with this yarn, LOL.

Right now I'm working on a beret from the pattern calendar. It's about to make me scream. There's a yarn listed on the pattern, but it's wool and I don't use wool. I'm highly allergic; even the expensive stuff like cashmere makes me itch like crazy. So I needed to substitute it. No weight listed on the pattern. No problem, I'll look it up online and find out the weight. Well, apparently even the people who make the blasted stuff (it's Emanuella by Goddess yarns, btw) don't know the weight! And, there's no gauge listed on the blasted pattern, so I've pretty much been reduced to making it with the hook called for and the yarn I happen to have and hoping it fits. I'm gonna be so pissed if I have to frog it once it's done! I was flipping through the patterns again last night, & a lot of them are missing the gauge. I hate that. I try to always have a gauge on my patterns that are for wearable items. It doesn't really take a whole lot of effort to stop while you're crocheting whatever and measure/count to get a gauge, if you're allergic to gauge swatches.
This is a bug I made for Esther. It should be a caterpillar, but I didn't put legs on it because I'm a bit paranoid about her eventually being able to tear them off.

The popular thing these days is to make baby toys in red, white, and black--commercial stuff, that is. Newborns can see contrasts best. But babies like bright colors, and Esther's already getting obviously better at focussing. This is made with Red Heart Simply Soft Brights. And bright it is. The orange is definitely something I wouldn't tend to buy just for its own sake, but it's for a baby toy, and so...

I'm also planning on making her a little star grab toy. Esther seems to mean star, as best I can tell. So I think stars are going to be her thing, like butterflies are Linda's and kitties are Bobbie's. I'll have lots and lots of leftover yarn after I make that, of course. Not too sure what to make with the rest of it. I'll wait for inspiration to strike, I guess. Well, I am also going to make her just a soft ball, but I don't know about the coloring for that yet.

Linda's Poncho

It's actually much cuter in person. I swear. I made it with a bigger hook this time, & of course Linda is smaller, thus it only needs two rounds.

The color in this yarn--beach--is much more subtle in its changes. I actually like it a lot more than the other colorway. But Bobbie Catharine picked out her own yarn...

I bought enough yarn according to the pattern directions, but didn't use nearly as much. I only used one skein (slightly less, actually) of beach and one and a half of bikini. So I've got two beach and one bikini completely untouched. I think they'll be getting coordinating purses to go with their ponchos. Bobbie loves purses & of course Linda has to have everything Bobbie has...

But right now I'm going to move on to making Esther a caterpillar out of some Simply Soft Brights yarn I bought at the same time. There's also a pattern for that in the magazine, but I cannot pretend I need to look at a pattern to make something that's essentially a succession of balls crocheted together!

Finished Smoochie's poncho.

I'm sure this is gonna look strange, since I'm using hubby's computer right now & his color is messed up to my eyes. I adjusted the photo on this comp too, so I'm sure it'll look off when I check it on my own tomorrow. Ah well. I just finished Bobbie's poncho & wanted to post a photo before I head off to bed.
Please pardon my model; Annabel has had a hard life & is 40 years or so old. That, and one daughter or the other decided to color on her a little while ago, & I haven't had the opportunity to clean her up yet.

I love the colors on this yarn; the photo really doesn't do it justice. The red-looking yarn is actually mainly pink. Like my previous post said, it's Red Heart Bright & Lofty. The specific colors are bikini (the pink) & beach (the blue). Bikini has threads of blue, orange, tan, yellow, etc woven through it. I'm not sure what all, to be honest. Beach is much calmer; thus far it seems to be only blues and greens. I still have the ends to deal with; I'm just not in the mood to do it tonight.

Linda's poncho will be done in a reverse color scheme; with the pink as the flowers' centers & the blue for the petals. I'm also going to do the shaping in a different way (as is typical for me, I abandoned the pattern fairly early on).

I'm convinced this will look better on the child for whom it is intended. But of course even with a 3.5 year old you can't have her modeling her own Christmas present. I did fit it on her a couple of times, but it's disappearing before she realizes it's complete & demands it now.

Twenty-two

That's how many scarf patterns I counted in the 2006 Crochet Pattern a Day calendar. I didn't count anything else, but it's obvious even without doing so that scarves are the most common pattern. (Dude, I almost typed "scarfs." My brains leak out into my breastmilk, apparently.)

I'm making the girls Daisy Chain Ponchos from the BHG crochet magazine, for Christmas. I chose it because I knew they'd like it & it didn't look too hot. Of course it doesn't actually get cold in Honolulu, but sometimes we go in places where the a/c is up so high it gets pretty chilly. So I was thinking a nice openwork poncho would be handy.

Of course I couldn't find the Lion Brand Jiffy yarn the pattern called for. The yarn selection is very thin around here. So I've substituted Red Heart Bright & Lofty. And these are going to be a lot warmer than I'd anticipated. Oh well. The girls will like them.

I'm still hoping to finish the afghan for Cathie, but I don't think it's realistically going to happen. So I'm concentrating right now on stuff I can finish. I'm making most of their gifts this year. Just the way the bank account crumbles. They're still young enough to not care, thank God.

Finally got my calendar.

We were at Sam's today and I saw the 2006 Crochet Pattern a Day calendar for less than $9, so I grabbed it. Oddly, we wound up not getting what we actually went there for...But at least that was because they didn't have it.

And the first thing I have to say is, "Dudes, you owe me some patterns!" Silly me for taking it at face value. Ah well.

Second thing, "Geez, aren't there enough scarf patterns in this world already?" Seriously. I think there's one doily, and a good 15 or 20 scarf patterns. Not that I'm a huge doily fan, but geez. And that's to say nothing of the ponchos which are so last year.

I'm not using it as a calendar. I hope I'm not the only one. I'm going through it right now sorting out the patterns I actually might want to do from the ones that just aren't going to happen. I'm glad for the gloves pattern. Too bad I never had it when I lived somewhere I actually needed gloves. I have always been horrible at keeping up with gloves.

If I've got time, a few of them will wind up as Christmas gifts. I'm torn between making the Mobius shawl/scarf or the Monk's Hood for my best friend. Depends on if he's still cross-dressing these days, I guess. It's hard to keep up with the latest oddities when you're a couple thousand miles away. (How far is it from Hawaii to Texas, anyway?) I'd make something cute for my one remaining female friend, but how do you top naming your daughter after her?

OK, I'm in obvious need of sleep. That last sentence was actually funny to me...

One more thing...

Take a look at LadyLinoleum's take on the "granmother's crochet" nonsense:

Not Your Grandmother's Crochet...

I swear, I was not intentionally ripping her off in Wednesday's blog.

So Rob finished his first project the other day...

It's far from perfect, of course--whose first project isn't?--but I'm ridiculously proud of the fact that his first project was one he designed himself. And hey, at least it isn't a scarf!

There ought to be a law...

The phrase "This ain't your grandmother's crochet!" should nevermore be allowed to be used in regards to modern patterns. (Just bought the 2005 issue of BHGH Simply Creative Crochet.)

First of all, I don't see anything wrong with my grandmother's crochet. Well, not my grandmother's, per se, as I don't think either actually crocheted (which begs the question of where my mother got it from). But old crochet. I know that phrase means "break free of doilies!" And I'm certainly no fan of doilies. But I'm starting to agree with Annie Modesitt's editorial in the crochet mag from Interweave Knits that grandma's crochet is in many ways preferable to the stuff we have now.

Really, no one needs another doily. But dear God, does anyone really need another blasted scarf made with "novelty yarn" either?

I think that anyone who decries "grandmother's crochet" obviously hasn't taken a look at any vintage patterns. Celt's Vintage Crochet is my most easily accessible source...The Crocheted Blouse from 1942 should be enough to give anyone an appreciation for Grandma's crochet. Or, for those of us like myself who adore making baby stuff, how about the Baby Rompers from 1952? That last is definitely the match and then some of the "Snuggle-Up Hoodie":
Really, does the world need this? I somehow think not. And it's hardly the worst thing in the magazine. The inexplicable shell-and-cardigan set is much worse. I wish I could get a decent picture of it. The shell by itself isn't too bad, but whoever decided to include the clownish ruffles on the cuffs of the cardigan deserves to be slapped. Oh how I wish I could get a decent picture of it...

And, of course, there is the incredible irony in the "In the Groove" section of the magazine, considering the expressed disdain for vintage crochet. Not that vintage deserved the treatment they gave it...

Luckily, there's still hope. My trip to the bookstore last night also netted the following:
So Simple Crochet. The poncho patterns are refreshingly few (though I don't understand the "chenille cowl", nor do I particularly want to), as are the gigantic-yarn patterns. There's a shrug pattern that's an actual shrug (most these days are bolero jackets, & there's a huge difference), a long cardigan that makes great use of doilies (OK, motifs, but you look at them & they look like doilies), and an absolutely gorgeous "ruffled mohair wrap" that is so much more than the mere scarf it appears (this is what's on the cover). I'm not positive it's truly as simple as it claims, but it sure is purty.

Baby shirt

Esther is my new favorite model:
That's a baby shirt I made for her before she was born. The body of it is wonderfully stretchy, but the bottom isn't, which is going to seriously shorten its lifespan. I'm working on another version of the shirt using the no-chain half double crochet technique, and that I'm also writing a pattern for & will post it on Crochetville. I think it'll go well as part of the beginner baby set I've already posted over there; I intend to dress her in the shorts (at least) from that set for the picture once I'm done with the shirt.

I'm vaguely planning to finish up a bunch of my other baby stuff so I can take pictures of her in it all. I'm just that odd.

WIP-sampler afghan

I've decided to give the finished project to my oldest for Christmas. Which, of course, means I need to actually finish it by Christmas. Thus far, I have 12 squares finished.

Of course, they're actually more rectangular than square.

And I've deviated repeatedly from the sampler squares in the 63 Easy-to-Crochet Stitches or whatever the heck the book is called...I don't want any holey squares, and that cancels out a lot of them. No biggie; I've a ton of stitch books I can cull appropriate patterns from.

I'll hate life when it comes time to join them together, but I've already decided I'm going to crochet them together instead of sewing them. Goes a lot quicker that way, I've found.

Nothing else exciting going on. I'm not getting a whole heck of a lot of time to crochet, because Esther has to nurse just about every waking minute, it seems. But I want to crochet a lot of the Christmas gifts this year...

A few finished objects...

I found myself with some extra time on my hands the past couple of days:
The model for these hats is daughter number three, Esther Rosemary Joy, who decided to make her much-belated (11 days overdue) entry into the world Sunday night.

I actually got some crocheting done in the hospital this time! I took some last time, but never had an opportunity to get to it. This time, I made two hats. Someone donates crocheted caps to the hospital, but they were too big for my baby girl (13.5" head) and the one they gave her kept falling off. So I made the green one, and while it pretty much fit circumference-wise, I accidentally made it too short, so it kept falling off too.

Then I made the bonnet. It is yet smaller around (crocheting of course has some built-in stretchiness), and longer, and fits well. Still falls off sometimes, but not nearly as much. I don't think there's a fall-off-proof baby hat in existence, frankly.

The technique for it was a bit complicated. The rows that comprise the petals, I had to go around three times each. First time, create ch-4 spaces in the front loops of the previous round's HDCs. Second time, crochet (1sc, 1hdc, 1dc, 2tr, 1dc, 1 hdc, 1sc) petals in those chain spaces. Third time, HDC in the back loops of the previous round's stitches. It actually went pretty fast, though, even with an F hook and sport weight yarn.

The nurses and the nurses' aides were tickled by my work, though all but one called it knitting. Crocheting is just as popular in Hawaii as I thought it to be; two or three said they'd tried or were trying to learn, and I think one said she could. It seems to be unusual to make anything for your child these days, though.

I need to see about writing up a pattern for that second bonnet. I've seen ones similar to it in books, but I don't know the technique they used. If my technique is simpler, which I'm far from sure of, it might be good to get the pattern into circulation.