FINALLY! The latest sculpture is finished.

I am quite pleased with this. It's my most ambitious sculpture to date. I wish I could list all the yarns that went into it, but I'm honestly not sure what everything is.

The hair (which was worked as part of the head, sort of intarsia) is a mohair yarn I bought years ago; I think it's something from Paton's, but don't quote me on it. The curls were fairly simple corkscrews (done by working multiple DCs into each chain); the difficult thing there was that I used an E hook to keep it from getting too big. (The main part of the head was done with a 4mm hook.) The body is my beloved Caron's Simply Soft, as is the yarn I used to embroider the face (which I am also quite proud of).

The arms & legs were both made with bends in them. The legs were the most difficult because of crocheted-in bends at both knee & heel. I used a technique described in the book Simple Crochet for Cherished Babies; it's how the author makes the heels on the baby slippers in the book. Well, an adaptation thereof.

The shoes are "leaves" crocheted out of a nice tangerine colored TLC Cotton Plus yarn. I used I think a J hook. That same yarn appears in the shawl, along with some scrap Simply Soft (you may remember it from the girls' Easter skirts, LOL). I just held the two together and used, if memory serves, a 9mm hook.

The skirt is some ribbon yarn I bought at the same time I bought the yarn I used for the hair. I haven't been able to successfully use it for anything else. It was kind of expensive, but better it should be used for this than continue to sit in the closet unused!

This is the flower. One of the rare times I've used Fun Fur. The stem is a pipe cleaner wrapped with sport weight yarn from my stash, attached using a bead, then doubled and wrapped again. I was originally going to do a whole armful of flowers, but I've decided it looks better with just one.

I'm going to throw this up on eBay, with a modest reserve, & see what happens, if anything. I'll make sure there's a link here once I'm done listing it.

Here are a few more photos, and a link to a large collage of the sculpture as a work in progress:

Note, if you can see them, the individual fingers & thumb on the hand. They were made as I closed the hand, by slip stitching through two of the previous round's stitches, chaining a little, and then single crocheting down the chains. I thought I'd taken pictures of the arm itself before I attached it to the main body of the sculpture, but I can't find them if I did.

This is the leg. You can see the two bends in this picture pretty well. It was a bit of a challenge getting it to line up properly.

Here's another view of the completed project. I have no further plans to use fringe on any garments, even a shawl. These photos, by the way, were taken outside in the back yard. Yes, we need to take the Weed Eater to it, but it makes for a better picture a little unmanicured.

Work in Progess Ladder. This is just too big to put here. If you follow the progress, you can see that it was kinda frog-like for a while there. I sewed the ankles and then the hands together to get the appropriate posture, another first for me.

And now, the experiment. I have the sculpture listed on eBay. Will it sell? I have truly no idea. I have a fairly high starting bid, and I do have a reserve because I don't want to wind up with it selling for five bucks. I don't really have expectations at this point in time, but it's worth the shot.

Quick & Easy

Got a new copy of Quick and Easy Crochet in the mail the other day & whipped up this little outfit for Ro in a couple of days (but only a few hours' cumulative effort):

Cute, eh? It will serve her well this winter once we're home in Texas. It's Bernat yarn, but I'm not sure exactly what kind. It came in a kit for making a baby blanket (which I never made because the yarn was too much of a pain to work with, and no it wasn't much easier this time around, with greater experience), & the individual skeins are only labeled as Bernat. It's some sort of boucle yarn, though.

The byline for this pattern was D's Zigns. I have no idea who or what that is; if anyone knows please drop me a line. I'd love to contact the designer directly & tell him/her how much I enjoyed this pattern. Many if not most of the patterns in the magazine had the same byline. I did a Google search but wasn't able to find an exact match, and all the D Zigns, D'Zigns & other such variations seem to take me to a variety of web design studios, which somehow I doubt have anything to do with crochet.

I like this issue as much as I did the previous one, by the way, though the dreaded Fun Fur seems to have made an incursion & there's one very strange, ugly poncho too. Overall, though, it's nice, though I question the need for two or three different swimsuit coverups. There's a very neat skirt pattern that I hope to make, some time in the distant future when I'm able to procure sport weight yarn in adult colors.

I had this all typed out yesterday.

I had this all typed out yesterday. I had my finger hovering over the button to select a picture to upload to Blogger...And the browser crashed. Just...closed. I have Firefox, so this doesn't happen very often to begin with, but this was like it just closed on its own. No error message, nothin'.

Of course, I haven't crocheted my browser window. So I need to get to the fiber-y goodness! First off, I have to give another shout out to Lady Linoleum over at Monster Crochet. I had to call my husband over and show him her Bacon Wrap. Sheer genius! Of course, she is probably themost talented crocheter I can think of offhand. I love her stuff. If you had told me it was possible to faithfully create a rasher of bacon in intarsia crochet...Well, I would have believed you, but I'd have wondered why you wanted to do it, and I'd have expected it to be, you know, life sized. There is something so truly bizarre and wonderful about a giant piece of bacon. Wool bacon. A pork product made out of a sheep product!

Moving along...

After that goodness, I am almost embarassed to show off my most recent completed project. I'm still stumbling along with my sculpture. It was more difficult than I thought to crochet a leaf that looks like a leaf and has the right dimensions without curling up upon itself. I wound up having to use a much bigger hook than I'd used for the rest of the project. I'd been using 3.75mm and 3.5mm hooks for most of it. Now that I think of it, though, I think I just used like a 7mm hook for another part. I am sadly prone to forgetting such things if I don't write them down. But it was necessary, because I was using ribbon yarn. I am pleased to report that I've finally successfully crocheted something using ribbon yarn! Strange little things make me happy.

Anyhoo...This is the latest completed project, made for Linda, my middle daughter (she's 2):
It's a simple little outfit for one of Linda's Cabbage Patch Kids. I have the pattern in rough form, I just need to remember where I put it, and then I'll post it on Crochetville. There seems to be an odd shortage of free CPK patterns out there, judging by the requests I keep seeing on the 'Ville.

I'm also thinking about adapting the dress part of the pattern into a shirt for Esther.

This outfit was a little lesson in learning to listen to the yarn. I know that sounds funky. I guess I should say, in letting your subconscious take control. I spent way longer than I should have trying to fancy up the dress. I was going to do a full shell-stitch skirt, but I couldn't get it to come out right, and then I was going to do crossed DCs, and then bobbles and then...Finally I had to go cook dinner. Yarn is fun, but it doesn't feed the children. Sadly, though, if I wasn't breastfeeding I'd probably hole myself up in my room in a yarn-induced stupor and let everyone else fend for themselves. See, breastfeeding really is good for you! LOL

Anyway, the next day I picked it up again, because I'd promised Linda a new outfit for her baby, and if you knew Linda you'd know she can't be deterred. Then again, what 2-year-old can? I finally thought, Oh, heck, I'll just make it plain. Plain DCs. See, I'd planned from the start to put the pattern up on the Ville, and I try to make my patterns simple enough for beginners when I do that. I think a lot of crochet patterns are written just to be confusing, though that is improving somewhat. So I just quit thinking and started working and before too long conceived of the idea to do some BLDCs (actually, since I am left-handed & so tend to work inside out, for me they were FLDCs) so I'd have something on which to anchor a double tier off ruffles.
Of course, that's not the only place I put ruffles. I don't actually care for butt-ruffles on real baby clothes (though we do have one pair of pink ruffle-butt pants that both Linda and Esther have worn), because they seem as if they would be uncomfortable. But I couldn't resist the urge to put ruffles on the undershorts here, though I did manfully (womanfully?) resist the urge to put ruffles around the legholes.

You can see from this picture, too, that I did tie closures. That was for simplicity. Linda has actually managed to yank the clothes off without undoing the ties, and to put the clothes on other dolls (and even, once or twice, back on this one) as well. So the ties aren't an issue. By the way, they're not my usual drawstrings, but extentions of the trim at neckline & waistband. I'm interested to see if this can be successfully adapted for use in actual clothes, say in my daughters' skirts. I'm afraid I will run into the old problem of the weight of the yarn making it too saggy, though.
These are the booties. The photo didn't come out so well on account of the flash, but that's OK. You get the general idea. These were significantly easier than real booties. Real booties require shaping; these are pretty much just tubes. They do have drawstrings; I needed some way to keep them on, however briefly.

The ruffles on these were much easier too, as they were crocheted in the normal part of the stitch, rather than in free loops.

The whole thing was done with a J (6mm) hook and, of course, Caron's Simply Soft. I love that yarn.

And now for this week's Gratuitous Esther Photo. (It was supposed to also be my contribution to Saturday Sky, but that got seriously sidetracked.)

I know, it's not too clear. But I like it that way.

A few things.

This is a really neat effect.

It's called couching. Link to where I StumbledUpon it. (Link to StumbleUpon for Firefox, and if you don't have Firefox yet, why the heck not?)

It's an embroidery technique, a very interesting one wherein you sew over a fiber with thread to attach it to your base fabric in whatever shape pleases you. (There are many more pictures on the STITCH website, I just grabbed my favorite.) Fascinating, no?

Here's a quote on couching:

The main couching stitch uses two threads and two needles. A thicker thread is positioned or 'laid' on top of the fabric and the thinner thread is stitched over it to hold it in place.

I can see this having a deal of use in crocheting as an embellishment, though of course you'd have to be picky with both the couching material and the thread used to hold it down, given of course crochet's innate stretchiness.

I'm envisioning an Afghan-crochet stole with couching decoration on the ends. I really want to make it, but it's obviously a very long-term project, because I've got so much other stuff in the works!

Another shot of my WIP

I know, I know. I'm still being mysterious. I so seldom get a chance to be secretive about anything. I'm truly horrible at it in person. Heck, I have never once, in three kids, been able to spring my pregnancy on my husband as a surprise. (In fact, two out of three times, he was the one to tell me I was pregnant!)

I am actually a bit farther along than is apparent in this photo. I am almost done with the main part of the sculpture itself, in fact. One might say, 3/5ths of the way done. I didn't work on it much at all yesterday. I started to, but was having too much trouble with it, so I put it down and started on yet another project. Heh. I really need to finish some of the ones I'm already working on!

A la Drew

I don't usually jump on the blogging bandwagon, but this one I can't resist. Saturday Sky. See Drew's blog for more info and a link to the originator of the idea (I'm too lazy to do it myself). See my sky:
This is my backyard, which I put first because it's actually viewable from my desk. Well, were it not for the blinds covering the sliding door, or the canopy (whose edge you see in the photo) otherwise blocking my view.

Here's the view from the front lanai:
You can see somewhat the glory that is post WWII military housing.

Once upon a time, there was a discussion on MomsWhoThink about a member's upcoming trip to O'ahu. "Be sure you go see Pearl Harbor!" was the comment.

I almost hurt myself laughing. It's a common misconception, but I'm really not sure what people expect. (I actually liken the belief that you can go see "Pearl Harbor" to the one that afflicts my hometown that the Alamo is some massive compound out in the countryside.) Let me set y'all straight. There is such a thing as Pearl Harbor. It is very important to the Navy even now. It is not something that you tour. It's a shipyard and a Navy base. They don't allow on any civilians who don't work there. And even if they did, and you went on the base, it would bore you senseless unless you're really into steam pipes and large pieces of ordnance used as lawn ornaments. (Which I am. But that's another topic for another blog.)

Still, this is my sky. Purty, ain't it? It's Hawaii, the sky is always blue. Except for those 43 days earlier this year. And the day of the craft fair. But hey, we haven't dumped raw sewage into the ocean for months now! Come see!

Saving the best for last

This week's Gratuitous Esther Photo:
Isn't she cute? That's Linda's Halloween cat ears I crocheted, put on her just so I'd have an excuse to put another photo of her in a crochet blog. As you can see, she loves having her picture taken, just like the other two do. (This photo reminds me of another long-term project: a cover for that hideous Boppy in the background.)

WIP Wednesday

I am almost done with this particular sculpture. I want to show it for my Work-in-Progress Wednesday post, but I don't want to reveal it ahead of time. So you get an odd-angle shot.

I can't say a whole lot about it without giving it away, but I will tell you this is the top. The pinkish-red part is yarn I bought so long ago I don't remember what it is (no clue what happened to the label), but I do believe it involves mohair somehow. I think this because it's scratchy on my stomach, but fine enough a form of wool that it's not scratchy on my fingers. I used an E hook to make these spirals, and it was painful & slow-going. But necessary for the overall project.

I'm still working on Smoochie's sweater, too, but I put it aside for this project. I just haven't made any sculpture crochet in such a long time. I felt the need to get back to it. The sweater will wait; whether I'm done with it by the time we get back to Texas or not, it won't be needed til October or November at the earliest.

Ooh, sparkly.

For the record, no, I didn't intend to make another post today. But I made up this bracelet on a whim & so have to show it off:
Isn't it purty? I know, I know, the picture's not too good. But when the only problem I have with a project is the way the photograph of it turned out, I know I'm doin' alright. (Dig my engagement ring too; nothing so boring as a diamond for this girl's best friend!)

The really cool thing about this? OK, there are two cool things. First is that I did the whole thing, from idea to completion, in less than 2 hours, while watching Monster Garage (though not paying much attention) and with about a 30 minute break to nurse Esther.

Second cool thing? The approximate material cost for this little bracelet is less than a dollar. Yep, you read that right. One buck. It's only an estimate, unfortunately. I actually had all the stuff on hand; have since before Esther was born. But the price on the bead package was 59 cents, and the floss typically can be had for under 30¢ (I bought it as part of a larger package of floss, and I don't recall either the actual price or the number of skeins in the package, so I'm just going off my memory of the price of stuff at Wal-Mart.)

Technicals~ I used: D hook, DMC craft floss (unlike embroidery floss, craft floss doesn't split), & faceted 6mm beads in a translucent turquoise. Here's a scan of the bracelet, which will give you slightly better detail (though of course it's a bit pushed out of shape since it's been flattened):
I had to mess around with the color balance on this scan to get the beads to be easily visible. In reality, the beads & floss are much closer together in color. In fact, I switched from my original idea of using blue floss to green floss because the beads are more green than blue.

Now, how did I make it? Fairly simple, actually. That's only 3 rounds of work there. First round was 50 chainless single crochets. Second round, where the beads are, was beadedDC, ch-1 skip 1 sc, then another beadedDC around. Third round was SCs all around again.

It's a bit looser than I really wanted it to be, but not so much that it will fall off. It's easy to put on, though.

Very pretty for such little cost & effort!

Pants.

Finished these today. It's a fairly straightforward project. Bluejeans embellished with little flower motifs. More stuff for when we get back home to Texas, once winter comes along anyway. I still need to embroider the M on the other back pocket (it's for our last name) & go back and see how much I can touch up the E, but they're essentially done.

Sized 12 months, so they're Esther's. They were actually Linda's originally, but Linda is in 3T stuff right now, and Esther will be in 12 months stuff by the time it's cool enough to wear these. And I've been wanting to do a couple of embellishment projects.

I adapted a pattern out of the book So Simple Crochet, one of the motif patterns in there. Used DMC embroidery & craft floss I had on hand, and a 2mm hook, to make the motifs. Much smaller scale than I usually work in, but for a good cause.

And now for a gratuitous Esther photo. Here she is modelling the shorts from my Beginner Baby Set:
This will probably be the last time she wears these shorts. They're supposed to fit up to three months, & she's seven months, so I'm already getting more use out of them than I figured I would, but there's no need for the drawstring in them anymore.

It wasn't that long ago that she was swimming in them. Sniff, sniff.

Quick WIP for Wednesday

This will one day be a sweater for my eldest daughter.

I just wanted to prove that I haven't lost the ability to crochet!

The stitch pattern is an adaptation of one in Candy Tots by Candi Jensen. The hook is an H. The yarn is, of course, Caron Simply Soft.

We will be going back to Texas this summer/fall for good (YAY!), and so will be somewhere it actually gets cold. So I'm working on sweaters for the girls to wear this coming winter. 'Scuse me while I twitch at the thought of again living where it dips below the high sixties...

The starving supermodels ate their brains!

I suspect it was her:
She looks like the type, doesn't she? (To be fair, I'd be homicidal if I had to dressin that "outfit" as well.)

I am speaking, of course, of the July issue of Crochet! magazine. Y'know 'em, they're the ones "defining crochet." I've made fun of their new starving supermodel motif in this space before, but it is unusually apparent in this issue. Enough so that I actually wrote a letter-to-the editor.

You see, it all started out so hopefully. Today is payday, and there's a book out with novellas from Kelley Armstrong & Kim Harrison, two of my favorite authors (and I highly recommend them to anyone who used to be an Anita Blake fan but ran screaming from Ms Hamilton's novels when they turned into poorly-written soft porn). So after leaving Wal-Mart--where, by the way, I scored some great new baby yarn--we went to Borders so I could look for Dates from Hell and, of course, dig for new crochet magazines.

This was the only one. And I was so very excited when I saw it. Because this dress was on the cover:
Isn't it gorgeous? Très mod, no? It's got an übercool '70s vibe to it. I so wanted to make it. I mean, I was gonna come home and hop on the internet and find the yarns to make it. I've got a strapless bra, I'm fearless. I'd wear it to church, even (we've got a very laid-back church here).

And then...

And then, I got to the pattern. And to this little tidbit:

FINISHED SIZES

Instructions given fit 28-30 inch bust (x-small); for 32-34 inch bust (small) and 36 - 38 inch bust (medium), change hook size.

Um, OK. Extra small, small, and medium. Most American women are a size 14 or above. In other words, not extra small, small, or medium. WTF? Seriously, have these women looked at actual crocheters lately? Come on, this thing is published in Texas! TEXAS! I'm from there, I know what we look like. And we do not look like "extra small." Not by any stretch of the imagination.

There are several really cute things in there I'd love to make...Oddly, though, all the ones I truly want to make stop short at size medium.

I'm not a size medium. I don't want to be a size medium. I weigh 185 and I wear a size 18. Back in high school when I was eating like one meal a day and walking probably five or six miles a day, I was a size 14. Send me off to Bergen-Belsen for a few months and I might come back a medium, but don't bet on it.

I'm used to this silly attitude towards plus size women from the fashion world in general. We're supposed to wear sackcloth and ashes while we nosh on our celery sticks in a concerted effort to become the new ideal of a size 4. (Once upon a time, the ideal was a size 8. Size 8 is the size off which all other sizes are based, in theory. But now a size 8 would be considered too big.) Certainly, we're not supposed to want to dress attractively.

Know what, though? We do. Oh, not everyone. But take a look in a Lane Bryant or a Torrid or an Ashley Stewart the next time you're in a mall. Even those of us whose sizes are firmly in the double digits like to wear attractive things.

It's OK, though. It's not all lost! These two tops actually do have directions for my size:



Those first two are the same top, by the way. A front view, and then a back view.

Cute, aren't they?

Not any more firmly rooted in reality, though. I don't know any women, no matter their bust measurement, who are willing to go out in public bra-less. And you really can't wear a brasseire with either of those tops. (They weren't the only offenders in this area, by the way, just the most obvious.)

That first one, the one with the tie back, goes up to a 46-inch bust. I assume this to be an over-the-bust measurement. OK, boys and girls, this is me. I could wear that top if I made it in the largest size. Click that link, look at my photo, and then ask yourself if you really want that to happen. (Not that I think I am ugly, but me without a bra is only a good idea for the nurslings.)

Again, both of those are beautiful pieces, but horrendously impractical & unrealistic for most crocheters.

But again, all is not lost! If I want to use that magazine to crochet a top that is a) in my size and b) can be worn with a bra, I still get to make this:
That sound you hear is me whimpering in pain and submission.

Holy Moses!

So, back in January one of those college students selling magazines came around to our door & I got sucked in to subscribing to a crochet magazine. Quick and Easy Crochet, which I'd never heard of before, nor seen. Yeah, I know, pretty dumb.

Well, I was starting to think I was going to have to track these people down, 'cause it's been four months. But I got my first issue of the magazine in the mail Monday. It's great! I mean, it's not perfect, but it's a lot more my style than anything else I've come across.

The most amazing thing of all?

NOT ONE SCRAP OF FUN FUR ANYWHERE IN THE MAGAZINE!!!

Dude, is that even legal?

With the total dearth of eyelash yarn, I'll even forgive this being on the cover:
Poor child, doesn't she (he?) look just...dumbfounded? Like Mommy, why are you doing this to me?

I'm telling you, if I put Esther in a get-up like that, she'd gum my jugular out.

Actually, I think the sweater might be doable, just not in that yarn. Hmm, Red Heart Hunny bulky weight yarn. Can't say I've ever heard of that before.

The hat, though...That's just wrong.

When I checked the mail, the magazine was buried under a bunch of junk mail, & originally I took it to be another Mary Maxim catalogue. This was my first glimpse of it:
Well, not that exactly. Because, like I said, it was under a bunch of other stuff. I saw it and thought immediately how cute it was, and then saw that it came with directions.

Now, blessed as I am in the milk-making department, there's no way I could actually wear that top, which not only is strapless but leaves much of the back bare. And I hate shrugs. But the skirt appealed to me, so my immediate thought was "Wow, I bet I can figure out how to make that from the picture." Then I saw the notation that directions begin on page 27. So I was all happy thinking I had a catalogue with a couple of patterns included. I was ecstatic when I realized it was a magazine.

And I'm only getting happier about it, 'cause like I said I actually like nearly everything in there--even the stuff I won't make, I can appreciate--and I have a subscription. Doing my happy dance.

This outfit, by the way, uses Paton's Grace yarn & an I hook. Nice yarn, though not cheap. At least it's not an F hook like so many are.

Here's another one:
Cute, no? I don't see myself making it, because it's a thread project and those just take too long for me (especially with a D hook!). It's very pretty, though, and would be a lot more appropriate for this area than many of the coverups I see people wandering around Ala Moana Shopping Center in.

There are twenty-five patterns in total (counting the seperate pieces of the outfits as their own pattern). Twelve of them are for clothing (discounting accessories like belts and hats, but counting shawls & the lone shrug). There is the requisite doily, of course, and a "Christmas Year Round" lapghan. There is also a fashion doll "butterfly" outfit, with wings, which is appropriate with the current Fairytopia Barbie craze. (It's not made with thin thread either, but Aunt Lydia's Quick Crochet worsted weight thread & the same brand's microfiber sportweight.) Very cute. The whole thing takes up one entire page, no more. Très cool, and something I might actually make for my girls once I'm done with my current project. (My knit theory died a swift death; it just takes too long!)

I'm not sure how long I am subscribed for, though...There seem to be only five issues in a year...Wait, I finally found a website for the magazine! It's bimonthly. I have the May/June issue. So I should get one in, what, July? Too cool. I can even buy cat jewelry from the website, should I so desire!

Eggs!

This is one of the best amateur patterns ever: Egg Babies.

This was my first attempt:
Not too good. I did not have any felt for the faces at the time, so I crocheted a circle out of some yarn I did have. I did a crappy job of embroidering the face too.

About the only useful thing about my first attempt--other than verifying that the pattern does indeed produce an egg-sized and -shaped baby--is that I came up with the idea of swaddling it in a little granny-square blanket.

Back to the drawing board.

The next day, I bought felt. Got lucky, & scored some "light peach" felt at the craft store for nine cents a sheet. Armed with a pen, a nickel, the felt, and all my previous equipment, I came up with this:
Much nicer, and much closer to the look of the original pattern, but still some problems. Poor placement of the face. Since I couldn't figure how to place my stitches on the opposite side of where I'd traced the nickel, I had to embroider it on the same side, & didn't do a great job of cutting it out, so you can see (barely) the ink I used to trace it with. And the face is kinda iffy still.

Hmm. How to address the issues?

First off, get rid of the nickel. Too small. What else did I have laying around the house that was small--but not as small--and round and rigid? A quarter! Yes, I know a quarter isn't that much larger than a nickel, but that little bit made all the difference. I didn't get perfect circles, because my determination to avoid the trace lines (coupled with my lack of money for a disappearing-ink pen) meant I had to hold the quarter tight against the felt & cut around. But it actually turned out well.

I also decided not to embroider any more noses. It's much cuter without. And I placed the face--and tacked it down--before reducing from 15sts to 12sts, instead of before reducing from 18sts to 15sts. Small changes, huge difference:

They're still not perfect--I suck at spacing my embroidery stitches evenly--but they're pretty good. Good enough to make me happy.

Good enough to make the girls happy, though actually they all were. There are now stuffed eggs scattered about the house. Much better than real eggs scattered about, I suppose, and nowhere near as stinky, at least.

Even Esther loves them.

The yarn, by the way is Red Heart Super Saver. It was also on sale. Off-white, if memory serves. The blankets are made out of Baby Econo, which I think is also Red Heart. It's lovely yarn, but I wouldn't use it for a real baby. Too scratchy.

I may be the only person ever

to return from a craft fair with more merchandise (my own) than I went with.

Yes indeed, I sold nothing. Not one flipping one dollar scrunchie.

No one bought this:
As bad as I may feel for selling nothing, the fact that this dress, which is even prettier in person, did not sell makes it obvious it wasn't totally my incompetence stopping sales.

Actually, I don't think it was my incompetence at all. I thought to begin with I was going to be up against one civilian craft fair. I was wrong. We were up against three civilian craft fairs.

The Hickam craft fair was the 31st annual, and according to a conversation I overheard, they always have it the first weekend in May, which isn't the case with the other fairs.

Even so, once they figured it out they should have moved it. So they could at least give the impression they cared about their vendors, which they don't.

A couple of days before the fair, I was watching the news and saw that the forecast called for thunderstorms. So Robert called to find out what their plans were in case we got rained out. Their response? "It won't rain. Your fee is nonrefundable." That's it.

It did not, thankfully, storm. I was indeed able to get set up and put out my wares. I just wasn't able to sell anything. The people to our left, who obviously did this sort of thing much more often, said that it was an unusually dismal turnout. While it did not storm, it did indeed rain on and off much of the day, which led to an interesting conversation with one of the event's organizers. The head honchette, in fact; I recognized her name on her tag. After half an hour of no new people coming from the parking lot (which I was set up facing, by the way, a position I had reckoned as ideal), I broke down. This was at 2:30; we weren't supposed to do anything until three.

Head Honchette came around to scold me and the people to my right who were also packing up. She told us we weren't going to be able to rent booths from them for any future craft shows, and was utterly shocked when I told her that was fine by me, since they stood no hope in you-know-where of ever getting my money again. She made the mistake of asking why, so I got the pleasure of telling her. It was my one happy moment of the day. I brought up the lack of plans in case of rain, which if nothing else would prevent me from being so much as a customer at any of their fairs again (even the upcoming craft fair/car show, which would provide me the opportunity to combine two of my great loves--crocheting and muscle cars). Her response was one for the ages.

"It didn't rain!"

Um, yeah. What was it, then, a flock of incontinent pigeons flying overhead? (For once, I actually said this instead of only thinking later on that it'd have been the perfect comeback.) It wasn't that much, she said. It was enough, though. Enough to negatively affect turnout. Enough to dampen my merchandise, even with the rented canopy. I realize fully that with outdoor fairs you're risking rain. But I don't think that obviates the need to have a plan in case the rain is too heavy to even set up (earlier this year, we had 42 straight days of rain, mainly heavy showers and t-storms; this should function as a clue). And the fact that she looked straight at me and spoke such an obvious lie...! I don't let my four-year-old get away with that behavior! I expect much better from a woman old enough to be my mama. Of course, since she was old enough to be my mama, there really wasn't anything useful to say to such a stupid statement, so I just ignored her after that.

Oy.

There was one other woman there selling crocheted things. And, as expected, her items were a lot cheaper than mine. (I had the dress above priced at $20, she was selling baby dresses for $15.) Of course, the biggest difference was that I designed my merchandise all by myself. Her items were obviously from patterns. So, apparently, in order to sell I'd have needed to underprice my work and violate multiple copyrights. (The whole 'personal use only, don't sell these items' thing.) Not that she did much better, from the looks of it. I know she sold one thing, because I saw someone buying it from her, but unless she had a huge amount of stock behind her tables and was reloading quickly, that was about all she sold, because I didn't see any holes. It just sucked all around, apparently. The woman to my right--one of two in my immediate vicinity who broke down early--had some pretty cool merchandise. I was really hoping I'd sell something so i could buy one of her kitty cat tissue box covers. She sold thing. The people behind me, who left even before I did, had probably the neatest thing there--Hawaii license plates shaped into various things, like purses. I'm not sure, but I got the distinct impression they didn't sell anything either. They apparently have a store on the North Shore, though, and I'm going to hunt them down before we leave the island. I need a license plate purse. I just do.

Lessons learned:
1) More newborn stuff.
2) Be certain to have gender-neutral items.
3) More toddler stuff.
4) When a potential customer asks if a poncho is a shawl, say that it is. I really thought I was going to sell that poncho. But she wanted it to be a shawl. I should have let it be a shawl.
5) A camouflage blanket is not a sure sell at an Air Force Base. Being that plenty in the Air Force wear BDUs, I'd figued it'd be a slam-dunk. I'm still proud of that blanket.

The question that thus far remains unanswered:
How do I draw in the people pushing around strollers? If hanging my prettiest pieces up out by the street (and they were visible for more than a block away) doesn't work, and having toys out front doesn't work, what will? I had plenty of childless folks come in and pick over my stuff, but very few with actual babies. And I spent most of the day unsuccessfully trying to figure out how to change that.

To add injury to insult (yes, I put it that way on purpose) the van decided to die a long, slow death. Thankfully, the engine did not cut off until we were literally pulling into the driveway. Good news on that is that it's most likely nothing more than a bad thermostat. Bad news on that is that, well, it's a Dodge Ram Van, with about a yard-long nose, and what that translates out to is the alternator has to be taken out to get to the thermostat. So it's not something we can do on our own.

With all this, I am taking a brief break from crocheting. I'll be gone maybe a week, no more. (And I have enough other projects to show off you can count on at least one more entry from me in that timeframe.) I dusted off my knitting needles that I've never really put to use, and I am currently working on a version of this shawl. It is simple enough for an utter beginner like myself, but nice enough to suit my craft snob self. I simply cannot have my second knit project be a scarf. (My first, some eightteen months ago, was a buttoned, shaped cell phone case; ironic as I didn't own a cell phone at the time!) I'm using up some scrap yarn, so it's going to be interesting. But the pattern is so blessedly simple that I've already gotten it down; it only necessitates doing math every other row. (My sole criterion for picking a pattern, by the way, was that I could knit it on the size 10 straight needles which were the only ones I could find.)

There's nothing cuter...

Than something for a baby made out of granny squares:
Not that that's the greatest picture in the world, but there's the dress I just finished. The bodice is six one-color granny squares, and even that was almost enough ends-needing-weaving for me to go insane. The skirt is granny stitch. Overall, a very easy piece, simple construction.

The particulars: Size H hook for the bodice, size J hook for the skirt, except the ruffle which again used an H, and the trim at the top used a 4.5mm.

OK, that photo is driving me nuts, so here's a close-up of the bodice (have I mentioned how much I love my digital camera & the card reader built in to my computer?):
There, much better. You can actually see the granny squares now.

I used, as usual, Caron's Simply Soft worsted weight yarn. All told, this is about a size 6 months, being that it fits Esther.

It's not actually for Esther, though. I'm going to be at a craft fair on Hickam AFB this Saturday, and this is one of the things I'm taking as merchandise. Hopefully I'll be able to make back the $65 cost of the table. Er, well, not the table. The table's not included. The $65 for the strip of grass, I suppose would be more accurate. I suppose they had to ship the lawn in from the Mainland, or something. As the locals say, auwē! My husband signed me up for it yesterday, so I guess the cost doesn't seem too much to him. I about died when he told me, though.

Oh well, off to crochet scrunchies...

A Quick FO.

I realized yesterday I hadn't completed anything for nearly two weeks now. The dress reconstruction I was working on is giving me fits, so it's joined the UFO pile for now. I was feeling the need to accomplish something, though, so I started digging through my pattern stash in search of something I could make in a day or less. And this is what I came up with:
Nice, huh? It is a dress from this pattern: Baby Girl Sleeper Set. It's very popular at the 'Ville, but I've been burned so many times by online patterns that are supposed to be for babies but might fit a doll, in reality. Being that the pattern contains neither gauge info nor finished measurements, I was leery, to say the least.

Of course, my trepidation was met with utter disbelief by my fellow villagers. That I could possibly want to know something would fit before I put in the effort to make it! Or, perhaps, it was my belief that something on the internet wouldn't be perfect. Now, mind you, I do not doubt that Ms Goss's dress, made with sport weight yarn and an I hook, fit whatever baby she tried it on. However, I know myself. I tend to have a pretty tight tension. I generally have to bump myself up a hook size with whatever published pattern I am following, in order to get the gauge right. But without a gauge, I'd have simply no way of knowing whether what I made would fit. And to be honest, just looking at it makes me doubt it would really fit a 3-month-old.

Anyway, I am not making this for a three-month-old, but for a baby girl who will be six months old this Sunday (Goodness, has it really been that long!?). So I knew already that I'd need to make some changes. So here are the ones that I made (mind you, this is fairly obviously only the "dress" part of the set to begin with, and I do not intend to make anything else): I used worsted weight yarn (Simply Soft, of course) and a J hook. I was very careful to keep my tension loose (Lily Chen is right that you crochet faster this way). I increased in my second round of off-white shells, because I wanted a fullness to the skirt. And I used a single button as a closure instead of crocheting two sets of ties.

My gauge for this project, by the way: 6 rows of shells = 4 inches, and 3 shells from end-to-end = 4 inches. It will easily fit Esther now, and *might* generously be called 6 - 9 months size. Get back to me in three months & I'll tell you if it still fits her, LOL.

Off topic comment: I weighed Esther today and she weighs 19 pounds. Considering that one criterion for turning around her carseat is that she weigh 20 pounds, that's a good size. (Yes, I know the other criterion is "AND one year of age," and no, I won't turn her around early. Don't worry.)

Easter Outifts all Done

Here are the girls in their Easter outfits:
Aren't they just adorable? The tie-dye is a bit hit-or-miss, but they like it, and that's what's important. The shirts are just toddler camisoles I bought at Wal-Mart, where I also got the tie-dye kit. There are two more for me to embellish in a different way.

You can see, too, how much nicer Cathie's skirt looks on her than it did in the flat picture of it. I think I said, but I'm not sure: the pattern is called "soft fans".

Now, here's the photo of the dresses they actually wore Easter Sunday:
Janett (which is pronounced like Jeanette, not like Janet), Rob's mom, made them. The box with the dresses arrived on Good Friday, so I wound up slacking off instead of making the shirts, so the tie-dye was just finished up today.

I'm working on another crochet project, but this one may wind up taking a while, as it involves my primary nemeses: thread and small hooks. I am a sucker for punishment indeed.

Finished Smoochie's Skirt

Much to my surprise, the multiples for the skirts worked out much the same. Cathie wound up needing 60 sts to start with, and 18 rounds of length before the start of the lace rounds, just the same as did Linda's skirt.

One of these days I will remember that, even though they are two years apart, they wear the same size! I suppose this is why folks always think they are twins. Of course, I look at Cathie, who is a head taller and much skinnier than her sister (not to mention obviously more advanced!), and wonder how people can make that mistake.

Anyway, I wanted to give this skirt a different look in spite of the necessary similarities. So instead of increasing from 60 to 90 in one jot, I increased to 90, then 80, then 90. So this skirt has a much more gradual increase, almost an A-line silhouette.

I know the bottom of it looks goofy in the photo, but I assure you it's much nicer in real life. The lacework isn't really smaller than the skirt body. This pattern is "soft fans", taken from Donna Kooler's Encyclopedia of Crochet, though it is also in the 300 Crochet Stitches book.

As you can see, Cathie changed her mind at the last minute in regard to the color of yarn she wanted. This is most assuredly not the rose colorway she'd originally picked! It's nice, though. It goes better with her sister's bright skirt than I think the other color would have, which is one reason I encouraged her to change her mind.

Thursday being payday (it is technically Friday, but 12 minight on the East Coast is 6pm here in Hawaii, so we get paid early), we went to Wal-Mart and bought a package of toddler camisoles and a tie dye kit, plan being to tie dye them shirts to go with their skirts.

Unbeknownst to me, my darling mother-in-law (who has been mentioned here before as the woman who is not only a skilled crocheter and talented painter but also a master seamstress) was also hard at work on Easter dresses. And I mean Easter Dresses. As in, cannot possibly worn for any other occasion. As in, featuring 3-D bunnies, button-on "basket" pouches (bedecked, of course, with 3-D flowers), and Easter bunnies around the hems. And she so dearly wants my kids to wear these that she spent $22 overnighting the package containing them to us.

Oy.

I really wish she had asked beforehand, so I could have let her know I was making something. Or maybe she told Rob & not me and he thought it would be a great idea for me to be surprised. The girls love their dresses, though, even if they kind of scare me. And, well, they can wear the outfits I made them whenever. So Grandma's stuff it will most likely be, although I will allow them to choose between the two. I have no illusions as to the allure of my little crocheted skirts as opposed to Gramma Jan's bunny dresses...

I think I'm finished.

With Linda Margaret's Easter skirt, that is. I put four rounds of the lace ruffle on the bottom, but I need to try it on her to be 100% sure it's long enough. I am proud of the way it turned out, though. Not bad for three days' work:
Cute, huh? So simple, too. The waistband is chainless single crochet (which I have also seen called "double chain"), then it is simple double crochet down to where the lace starts. I did put in an increase round, as you can tell, and then the first lace round is also an increase.

I think the pattern for the lace is called "flying shells." It's from the 300 Crochet Stitches book.

Bobbie's will be much the same, but tailored to her. She is taller than her sister, and thinner, but I will use the same construction techniques. I will, however, use a different lace pattern at the bottom. I don't want them to be matching.

Vintage-y goodness.

Now that I have a scanner, I can actually put it to use and show you some of the cool things I've scored at the thrift store. Up now: The Complete Book of Crochet, from 1973. Which means that it is older than I am, and coincidentally my husband's age.

Some things in crochet are refreshingly constant. Like hideous projects. Dig this groovy lampshade:
I always thought the seventies must have been much better the first time around, when drugs were readily available so that you wouldn't have to actually see what was around you. After all, what else could explain that hair? (Realize, please, that a) I am kidding and b) I am referring to the men's hair.)

I am guessing, from looking at this, that it stretches over a clear form of some sort. I could see making several of these and hanging them about an Italian restaurant, perhaps. Wouldn't they really spruce up Buca di Beppo? (Speaking of that restaurant, if you want to have their tiramisu for dessert, be sure to designate a driver first; it's even more alcoholic than tiramisu tends to be.)

Other than the lampshade, I actually do like most of the patterns in the book. I don't see myself making most, if any, of them, simply because it is 99% thread work, and I haven't the patience for that. (I have the deepest respect for those folks who do have the patience, though.)

Here's a lovely skirt, even if it does look as if you could use the same pattern for a bedspread:
The lady looks as if she is just recovering from seeing that lampshade for the first time.

This is actually made in DK (double knitting) weight yarn, which is close to sport weight (I debate that they're the same). I love the stripes. You do, however, use an incredibly small hook for the yarn given--3.5mm. Which I think is like an E hook.

The book calls this a "Long Evening Skirt", by the way. I can so totally see this being worn out to the symphony, but maybe I'm just odd that way.

I could also, as I hinted earlier, see this as a baby blanket. But I am odd that way.


Next, something I think I might actually make for myself:
It's a snood. I'm not 100% sure what snoods are, mind you, other than apparently something lacy to hold your hair up and away from your face. This one appears to be done in a Solomon's Knot (also called a love knot), which is actually explained in detail in the beginning of the book.

It is, of course, thread crochet.

I love things like this. So elegant. I know that at the time it wasn't kosher for Catholic women to go to Mass without a headcovering of some sort. Plenty don't these days, of course.

Being Protestant, that's never applied to me or mine, of course. But wouldn't it be a lovely thing to start up again? A snood at church? Something to put you in the correct frame of mind...

Last one:
This is called a "Baby Shawl" in the book, not a baby blanket. I cannot figure out what kind of yarn it uses, since it just says "3 ply". I'm guessing sport weight, as it also calls for a 3.5mm hook. The motifs seem to be relatively simple cluster-stitch squares. There is a certain elegant simplicity to it I appreciate greatly.

As a sidenote, I actually have a pram similar to that one. I bought it for my first child but I've never actually used it. It's currently in storage on the Mainland.

Skirts

I let the girls pick out the yarn for their Easter skirts yesterday. I've decided it will be much more doable to just make skirts than to try & whip up two dresses inside of a week (Esther actually has an Easter dress I purchased a couple of months ago, before I decided to make the girls outfits, but I'll be crocheting her a cap). I am about 3/4 of the way through with Linda's, which means I should have no trouble at all completing Bobbie Catharine's as well. I'm doing Linda's in WW yarn, in the hot pink CSS Brites she picked out, solid DCs until about three or so inches above her knees, then I'll segue into a lacy ruffle to get to her knees. Bobbie's will be done in the same manner, in the Victorian Rose CSS she picked out (I showed them both about six colors to choose from). If I finish the skirts in time, I'll go back and make hats for them to wear too.

Shrug

Not common for me, but I'm putting the photos first tonight:



I know, I know, she's cute. The shrug doesn't exactly go with her dress, but I wasn't staging the photos, just trying to get them taken before putting her to sleep, that's why she's already in bed. She's also wondering why I'm taking photos instead of nursing her, LOL. You can tell it especially in that last photo; it looks like she's about to take a flying leap at me to try to latch on.

The technicals:
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft (what a surprise, eh?)
Hook: I
Technique: I measured from wrist-to-wrist and then crocheted a rectangle a little longer than necessary. The stitch is a modified V-stitch, 2 HDCs in the space between the 2HDC groups in the previous row. Then I made ruffled cuffs by simply putting 2DCs in each stitch, and then doing ch-2, slst in the back loops of the DCs, then just sewed it up partially to have sleeves.

This is the first shrug I have ever made and is likely to be the only one, unless I make them for the elder girls as well. Not sure yet if I will or not. It worked up pretty fast, or would have if I hadn't kept putting it aside to make stuff to sell. I'm trying to reach some sort of balance between merchandise & personal projects. I doubt I'll have anything else for sale before May, just because I want to concentrate right now on making the girls things for Easter. I'm contemplating amigurumi bunnies.