Patchwork in Yarn

Ashley was sweet enough to lay out the 49 squares of mostly crocheted patchwork. I tend to over think projects like this and want to rearrange and rearrange and it would never be done so I promised myself that I would run with her arrangement and not change a thing. Soooooo much easier this way!

I am so pleased with the the colors and variety and especially using up so much yarn left over from projects over the years.

And I have the first row crocheted together with black yarn ... love it!

Along with being a superb stash buster, I think this will eventually make a nice gift. And it's a great project to work on in front of the TV. I'm on season 3 of Downton Abbey -- spoiler alert if you haven't seen it yet -- I cannot believe they killed off Sybil, the nicest person on the show!!! I may have cried.

So many projects, never enough time ...

49 Squares

I have a Yorkie sized stack of afghan squares ... count 'em, 49!

This is a stash bustin' project that will result in a patchwork afghan and several empty shelves where yarn used to hang out.

Miles cannot believe his eyes. Seriously, this pile of tiny blankets is the reason you've been unable to scratch my ears while we're watching TV?

Now comes the laying out of all the pieces -- I'm hoping to coerce the granddaughter into this portion of the project. ;-)

Then the assembly. I'm going to try crocheting them together rather than whip stitching, but we'll see how it goes. I'll let you know.

So many projects, never enough time ...

Don't Forget to Remember the Special Moments

Once upon a time, my youngest daughter and I owned a stationery store. Because we love paper and invitations and note cards and holiday cards (oh, the lovely holiday cards) and gifty items, it was a fun and wonderful business.

We worked with hundreds of brides over the years on all things wedding and it seemed that many of them were focusing so intently on producing the perfect wedding that they were missing out on the joy. I would remind them to stop at random times throughout the planning -- and especially on the big day -- to look around and remember the moment.

Take mental snapshots of where you're standing, what is happening around you, close your eyes and listen to the music, the voices, inhale the lovely fragrances wafting through the air. Feel it, memorize it, enjoy it ... and someday when you need it most, you'll be able to recall that moment and all of the sensations surrounding it.

We are in the wedding planning stages with this same youngest daughter and as we have worked our way through appointments with caterers and bakeries and dress shops, I've felt her stress bubbling up through the happiness. Unfortunately, it's human nature to want everything to be perfect. A wedding is such an unusual, relatively short moment in time in a couple's married life and who doesn't want to look back at photos and videos and see loveliness and perfection?

So I've been reminding her to stop ... and look ... and listen ... and feel ... and enjoy ... and remember. And to commemorate the thought, I made a little sign that can be downloaded as a reminder.

While this was created with brides in mind, it is also for the groom, the parents of the happy couple and other members of the wedding party. 

I find myself doing this at moments that have nothing to do with weddings. Remembering moments of joy and storing them away for later. Grinning from ear to ear at a rodeo with the love of my life, feeling the music pulse through me during a singalong at my granddaughter's 16th birthday party, hanging around the kitchen counter with the family eating Monkey Bread on Christmas morning, laughing at our Yorkies wrestling their way through the family room, standing in line at a special donut shop with my future brother-in-law and sisters who live far away, sitting here on a peaceful morning with my coffee and creme brûlée creamer writing this blog post.

Making lasting memories!

Projects & Patterns in Progress - July 2013

Have a few projects and patterns in progress. Drafting a pattern for a smock-style apron based on those worn by my great-grandmother ...

Picked up a huge crochet hook and some chunky yarn and started blasting out these lush, gorgeous, fast full circle drape or double scarves. Working on this pattern as well ...

Went digging around in my UFOs (unfinished objects) and found 7 squares I had started knitting years ago to make an afghan. I've become so enamored with crocheting lately that I decided to pick up the project again. Been using up all the leftover worsted weight acrylic yarn on my shelves. The afghan is made up of 49 squares -- only 15 to go before assembly. I'm planning to put it all together with black yarn ...

So many projects, never enough time ...

Crochet Anon

Hi, my name is Jane and I crochet. *sigh*

I have nearly depleted my stash of cotton yarn in the last two weeks, enjoying every single stitch! I've completed a dozen dish cloths, trying different things like making them round or adding a scalloped edge.

I was working a square of Soft Ecru yarn and it was so beautiful that I kept making it larger and larger until the entire skein was finished. Then I connected some Hot Orange yarn and went around and around until that skein was finished, ending up with a table topper that measures 20" diagonally ...

I was considering embroidering something pretty in the center, but I have a feeling it will usually be covered anyway so I'm still trying to decide whether it's worth the trouble.

This is a nice change since we've been using the same table topper for two years -- a Dresden plate that I'm kind of tired of looking at, even though it works wonderfully on the round table.

I may have worked through this recent obsession since I found myself picking up a knitting project this morning instead of making another dish cloth, but just in case, I'll be checking the listings to look for yarn junkie meetings.

So many projects, never enough time ...

How to Crochet a Dish Cloth

I've been crocheting with cotton balls. Oh, all right, I admit that is a little bit misleading since I am actually referring to these cotton balls ...

Balls of Lily Sugar 'n Cream 100% cotton yarn. I have a bag full of this stuff that I've collected in every color of the rainbow. In 2007, I started knitting again when I saw the TV show "Knitty Gritty" and they were making bar cloths. I immediately drove to Michael's to buy cotton yarn! My personal favorite project to make with this yarn is a dish cloth, which I usually knit, but last weekend I had the urge to pick up a crochet hook.

I decided to finish off some of the partially used skeins of yarn left over from other projects. I started by making a single crocheted center square and then changed yarn to add a border around it in a different color. The border is done by single crocheting all the way around the square, then again in double crochet or half double crochet or whatever stitch you like. I am a left-handed self-taught crocheter and I really don't know what the particular stitches are, usually just winging it until I get something I like. I tend to have the most fun when things are a little loosey goosey and, believe me, there was plenty of ripping out and redoing until I got into a comfortable rhythm.

Here is my first completed dish cloth ...

Is it just me or do you obsess by doing the same thing over and over? You know, get on a kick that just keeps repeating itself because it's enjoyable ... chicken salad sandwiches for lunch every day, reading the same author one book after another, wanting to wear the same outfit repeatedly because it's so comfortable? Well, I also do this with crafting ...

Somebody stop me ... except I'm having so much fun amassing a nice little pile of dish cloths as we watch TV during the evening. They make great gifts, are wonderful not only for dish washing but face washing too, and the cotton yarn is soft and natural so great for baby wash cloths.

This project is made with just a few inexpensive supplies and very basic stitches so it's a great way to teach yourself to crochet and make something wonderful in the process with your own two hands!

Here is my basic method for making one of these dish cloths:

Crocheted Cotton Dish Cloth

1 or 2 skeins of 100% cotton yarn (use coupons at Michael's and Jo-Ann's - around $3 for a 120 yard skein or you can buy larger cones)
Size H/8 crochet hook
Yarn needle for weaving in ends

To help you get started or if you need a refresher, great instructions for basic crochet stitches can be found at About.com: http://crochet.about.com/od/crochetstitches/tp/basic-stitches.htm

• Chain stitch 25
• Skip the first stitch and single crochet in each of the remaining 23 chain stitches
• At the end of each row, chain 2, then turn and single crochet across the row
• Single crochet in the front loop of each stitch - this keeps it light and lacy
• This will give you a width of approximately 6"
• Continue to single crochet back and forth until you've made a square

Here is where you begin with new yarn if you're changing color for the border. You will cut your first yarn, leaving a 3" tail, then pull it through the loop to fasten it off. When you start the new color in that same corner, hold both tails against the edge and enclose them with your single crochet to eliminate having to weave them in later. (This is probably my favorite trick because I hate weaving in ends!)

Or you can continue on with the same yarn and make a single color dish cloth ...

• Single crochet all the way around the 4 sides of the square but this time insert your hook under both the front and back loops together -- this makes a heavier border
• When you crochet over the beginning point where you started your chain, hold the beginning tail next to the edge and enclose it with your single crochet stitch -- this eliminates having to weave in the tail end
• When you've made it all the way around, chain 3 at the corner, then start a round of double crochet (okay, I caved and looked it up and apparently the stitch I use is double crochet), again inserting your hook under both loops

• When you reach each corner, double crochet 3 times in the same stitch/hole to help you turn the corner nicely
• When you've made it all the way around to the beginning, chain 3, then slip stitch your original corner stitch together with the last stitch to complete the round
• Cut the tail at about 3", then pull through the loop and weave it in with your yarn needle. Finished size is approximately 8" square, but you can make them any size you like. You should be able to get two dish cloths from each skein of yarn or four if you're using two skeins of yarn and changing color for the border.

Dish washing is a lot more fun with a pretty little dish cloth that you made yourself. Or it should be anyway!

So many projects, never enough time.

Sew a Coffee Cup Cuff :: Tutorial

I know there are a gazillion tutorials to make sleeves for coffee cups, both the paper kind served at coffee shops and insulated plastic to go cups. Well, now there are a gazillion and one because I've been rolling this idea around for a while and decided to try it out by making something special for my dad for Father's Day.

I purchased this 16 oz. Copco double-wall insulated plastic cup from Bed, Bath & Beyond for $5.00. It does have a textured, non-slip sleeve but adding a fabric cuff over it is so much nicer. I have a huge bag of my husband's old dress shirts that I intend to turn into a quilt someday, but I kept thinking how cool it would be to chop the cuff off of one of them to make a "masculine" coffee cup cuff.

This shirt is made of very soft, heavy 100% cotton. I used my rotary cutter to slice the cuff off about 1" above the edge of the cuff. Let me just say now that there is no fancy math or measuring in this project ... everything is simply eyeballed. Yep, this is my kind of project!

There are 2 buttons already on the cuff, which were perfect to use as is. For a loop to fasten the cuff, I used a small ponytail holder cut in half. This package is from the grocery store -- 40 for $4.00 which works out to $.10 each. Cut in half, that's a nickel for this project.

Since the shirt cuff is already 2-sided and fairly thick, I added a piece of linen for lining and a piece of flannel for padding. Again, cutting these pieces was done by eyeballing, no measuring involved. I made the lining larger than the cuff and the flannel smaller than the cuff.

Iron the cuff flat and press the long raw edge to the inside. Turn under the 4 edges of the linen lining so it fits within the edges of the shirt cuff and iron.

Fold the small piece of ponytail elastic in half and stitch to one end of the linen lining on the inside/wrong side. I just stitched back and forth over it a bunch of times with the sewing machine.

Layer the shirt cuff right side down, then the piece of flannel, and top with the linen lining right side up. Here is the one very important step to make sure this turns out correctly ... place the end of the lining with the elastic opposite the end of the shirt cuff with the buttons. 

Pin the heck out of the layers to keep everything in place while you stitch it together but remove the pins as you go along; don't sew over them. Because you cannot run the short end with the buttons through the sewing machine, just stitch down one long side, across the end with the elastic, then the other long side.

Even though I starched it, the linen was a little stretchy and I had to sew very slowly, continuously raising the presser foot and smooshing it (technical term) as I went along. Note to self: quilting cotton would probably be much easier to use as a lining.

By hand, whip stitch the lining closed on the button end.

Voilà!

Wrap around your cup and go ...

By recycling/reusing the shirt cuff with buttons, this project is fast and easy to make. Masculine gifts can be so hard to come up with, I love the idea of using a men's dress shirt to make these.

Wouldn't they be fun in a solid fabric embroidered with his name or initials? Or with a meaningful patch sewn on?

So many projects, never enough time ...