Share a Square #16

Here is the final pattern for the Share a Square. This was Evelyn's choice - it's called the Farmington Square. I've had a lot of fun doing these squares!

Now for the exciting part. I'm the one who's putting this whole afghan together!! So far, I've got Brandy's, Theresa's, Julie's, some left over squares from a past C'Ville auction, plus my own, and I'm still expecting more squares in the mail from the rest of the girls that participated in this.

I've got 25 squares joined so far -- I was going to wait till they all got here to start on it, but after getting packages in the mail and seeing all the pretty squares, I just couldn't help myself! I started in on it last night and it's going pretty well. I think I'll take a few days off now until I receive more squares. :)

Share a Square #14 & #15

This is the Granny's Daughter Nine Patch Square. I had a good time with this one, but I changed a little bit of it. *sheepish blush*

Let me start off by saying I HATE whipstitching and will avoid it at ALL COSTS. So when I saw the pattern for this square, I loved it, but I hated the whipstitching assembly. So I decided to do the Flat Braid Join, which is my favorite way for joining motifs. Then on the last two rnds of the square, I did the seed stitch instead of sc in each st around. I like the way it complemented the join method.













And this beauty is the Friendship Ring Square. I just love it! But boy it was difficult getting those rings to join and lay right. I'd seen this pattern before and always wanted to try it, but I didn't have the nerve. Thanks for picking this one Theresa!

My husband's 15 year class reunion is this weekend, so we'll be out of town from tonight till Sunday evening sometime. We had such a good time at the last one - I'm hoping we'll have just as much fun this weekend, too.

Have a great weekend!!

Share a Square #13

Today's square is the Puff Flower. It's almost strange to see an all white square after doing so many with a blue and white combo. But it's certainly easier when it comes to weaving in the ends. ;)

This was the first time I've ever done the Puff Stitch. A bit ... interesting... to get used to, but a pretty stitch, and very soft.

Tiny Bear!

Meet Opal! I just finished her today. She's the "older sister" of the bear (still in progress) that I mentioned in *this post*. I will finish the thread bear, but I was kind of disappointed that the thread is just so... stiff. I don't mind working with it or the tiny hooks, that's not a problem. I just don't care for how hard the thread is and how ... un-soft the bear is turning out. So I wanted to do one that was fuzzy.













So the other day I bought some Bernat Baby Fingering weight yarn in Antique White and used some Bernat Softee Baby in Pink that I had and started on her. I used a size 1 steel hook. So believe me, working with the sport weight yarn was a little tricky with that small a hook, but I managed. (The reason for the two different weight yarns is that the pattern calls for a thicker yarn or thread to be used for the colored pads of the feet.)

The delicate fingering weight yarn is so soft, but also, you can brush it to make the fuzz come out. (See photo below) On the right is a foot before it's been brushed, and on the left is the other foot after it had been brushed. I just used a small barrel round brush with stiff plastic bristles (the same thing I use for blow drying my hair every day) and brushed with and against the "grain" of the stitches until I had it fuzzy enough for my liking.













I LOVE how she turned out! And she's just tremendously soft.

Here's another view: you can see she's just 4 inches tall and will fit in the palm of your hand.


She's lovingly stuffed with polyfil, I hand embroidered her nose and "mouth", and sewed her eyes on. (I wish I could have gotten smaller eyes - this was as small as they had them at the Ben Franklin here.)

She's five-way jointed, so she's completely poseable! So cool! And she'll stand on her own.














I did alter one part of the pattern. The ears. The way the pattern had you make them, it seemed like they'd be little circles. It wasn't clear on how to join these tiny circles to make them look like semi-circle ears, so I just designed new ears. They turned out great and I think if I make another one of these, I'll definitely do "my" ears instead of the pattern ears.













I'm SO pleased with how my first teeny tiny bear came out!

Share a Square #12

Today was my turn to pick the square! I chose the Vintage Lace Square. I think it's so pretty. It was my 2nd choice for today, but I decided to keep the other one for the next time I pick - which is the last time for all the square picks. :) I'm the closer! woohoo, me!

Anyway, size issues again, so I did a rnd of V-stitches, then a final rnd of crossed dc. I like the texture the last rnd gave. The cross dc is turning into one of my favorite stitches.

Penny For Your Thoughts

Julie came up with a great idea to earn money for our little forum we call home - CAL Pals. She offered up the idea that we each make a crochet container of some sort and whenever we have spare pennies, put them in there. Twice a year, we'll take them to the bank and cash them in to help pay for the costs to keep our board running.

I think it's a great idea and an easy way to help donate funds without breaking the bank.

The pattern I used for my container is here: It's called *Trinket*. Well, I started with the pattern, but I made a few changes to the container and quite a few to the lid. I can never seem to do a pattern without making some sort of changes to it to add my own little touch.

Anyway, the container itself is almost just like the pattern, except I added another rnd of hdc at the top so there'd be more for the lid to sit on and not cover the beautiful texture of the sides.

Here's a close up shot:













The lid, well, I pretty much totally redid that. The original lid is supposed to sit just inside the container. I didn't like that idea, as things stretch and eventually it would just be falling in. I started off with the first 5 rnds of the container bottom, joined with a ss, then did the cross dc stitch, ch 1, cross dc stitch, ch 1, repeat around. I joined with a ss, then working in the back loop, i did a dc in the dc of the cross stitches, skipped the ch 1 sp, dc in the next 2 dc. Join with a ss then a rnd of sc.

I skipped the tassel for the lid and instead made a little ball to go on top. (This is my 7 and a half year old's favorite part of it.) ;)

Here's a look with the lid on:













I used two strands of yarn held together: Red Heart Super Saver in Frosty Green to be the stiffener to keep shape, and Caron Simply Soft in Lt Country Blue to add a little splash of blue and a bit of a satiny sheen. (Gotta love that Simply Soft shine.) I used an N hook. I started with a K, but when doing the bottom of the container rnds it started to buckle. Switching to the larger hook kept it flat.

Oh, and there are 39 pennies in my container ;)

Oh! If you're looking for an adorable little penny pot, have a look over at *Sue's Blog*! She's made the most *beautiful little pot* - I love her colors!

Share a Square #11

Today's square is called the Shades Square. It was a nice and easy pattern to do - great pic, Diane!

My square turned out a bit small (again - I see a pattern here.) I think there's two reasons to this: I'm using Caron Simply Soft for mine, and I think most of these were designed by people who worked them up using Red Heart Super Saver. Though they're both "worsted weight" there is a thickness difference. I used the called for I hook, but mine still was small. Which leads me to reason two: I think I have a smaller gauge. Not that I crochet tightly - I don't think so at all. My stitches aren't tightly bound together and I've never had to fight them to get the hook into the next stitch. I just think my gauge runs a bit small. Oh well.

To remedy this, I scrapped the last round of the square, and did instead a rnd of sc in white, a rnd of hdc in lt country blue, and the final rnd of sc in country blue. I like the little "frame" it gave to the circle.

Monday is my turn to pick the pattern. I've got one picked and already made up, but I'm not sure if I'll use that one or not. I'll look around some more and see what I come up with.

And here's my list of crochet things to do this weekend:

1. Work on the thread teddy bear.

2. Sew some stars on my flag. (Uggh, I still haven't touched that thing.)

3. Work on my nephew's Triceratops. I've got the body and the tail done.

4. Start on this Turtle for my 7 and a half year old, who requested it this morning.

5. Make my decision about my Share a Square pick.

6. If I get time, work on the Tumbling Blocks afghan.

And I know we'll be going for at least one bike ride this weekend, if not two. If it's nice enough, we'll probably ride both Saturday and Sunday. I just love being out on my bike.

10 Things I've Learned About Thread

I'm working on a thread teddy bear. The pattern was a gift from Diane from the CAL Pals forum, who was kind enough to grant my wish. The bear I'm making is called Berty and he's down at the bottom of this page. The designer is Edith Molina - she's so talented! There are so many adorable little bears on her site.

I finally went out yesterday and bought the thread and hooks to start on it. The pattern calls for size #30 thread, but after one look at the thread, and another look at the size 11 hook, I said "NO." lol I'm brave but not that brave. That hook is TINY. If I'd had previous thread experience, I would have gone for it, but since this is my first, I thought I'd go with a tidge bigger thread and hook combo. Plus, my gauge is small enough where my bear might still come out the right size. :oÞ

Anyway, I went with DMC Cebelia #10 thread and a size 8 Boye steel hook. I bought a set of 6 Boye hooks, sizes 0, 1, 7, 8, 9, and 10. I also bought sizes 9 and 10 in the Bates steel hooks -- did you know that Bates steel hooks run quite a bit smaller than the Boyes for the same number? For instance, the Boye 10 hook is 1.30mm. The Bates 10 hook is 1.15mm. There's a noticeable difference in comparing the two. I was going to return the two Bates hooks after buying the set from Boye (my preferred brand), but after seeing they're not duplicate sizes, I decided to keep them.

Anyway, as you can see in the picture, everything is teeeeeeeny tiny. Top left hand corner is the body of the bear and it's head, respectively. I think he's going to be so cute when he's done!!

So I started on him yesterday, and right away I noticed several "new" things about crocheting with thread:

1. Damn those hooks are tiny.

2. Thread is called thread for a reason. It's basically no thicker than about 3 or 4 thick human hairs wound together.

3. Wearing a band-aid on the tip of my middle finger on my left hand is a GOOOOOOD idea. That hook HURTS when it pokes you going through the stitches.

4. I need a smaller safety pin. I use that to mark the 1st stitch in the rnd and the one I'm using is tiny, but not small enough and it's getting in the way.

5. I've used words while working on this that I never thought I'd use while crocheting.

6. DAMN those hooks are tiny.

7. Stuffing is MUCH harder with something this small. When I did the head, I stuffed after the last rnd (which was a rnd of 6 dec's). It left an opening so tiny I had to use the blunt end of a D hook to shove the polyfil in.

8. It's probably not a good idea to work on this project while simultaneously trying to do another animal that uses a J hook. I feel clumsy switching back and forth between the two.

9. There are no soft threads. :( At least not that I could find.

10. DAMN those hooks are TINY!!!!

On the bright side, it does get easier as it goes along. The first few rnds always go slow simply because you've got nothing to hang on to, but after that, it gets pretty fast. And since the stitches are easy to see, you can always back track if you lose count.

I can't wait till he's done - I think he'll be SO adorable. :)

Share a Square #10

I liked this one! It's the Kaleidoscope Square. Very easy pattern and it worked up quickly, too.

I used Bernat Softee Baby in Her Jeans Ombre and Softee in White. Both I doubled up with Bernat Baby Fingering weight yarn in White (to make it more the weight of worsted.)

Mine came out a bit small, so I added a rnd of sc in white, then the variegated. I like how it turned out.

I'm off to the store today to get supplies for my Thread Bear (oooooh I can't WAIT!) and also some gray yarn to make this Triceratops for my nephew. My neice had surgery Monday and I made her something (Little Something #2 in the teaser pics - I'll be able to show it soon) and my 4 year old nephew wanted to know if I had made something for him. I told him not yet, but I had something picked out and it was *perfect* for him. He LOVES dinosaurs and can tell you the names (and characteristics) of ALL of them. I think he'll be pleased ;)

Share a Square #9

This is the Irish Ivy Rose. First time I've ever done the Bullion stitch. It was a little tricky at first, but if you just take your time, it's not that bad. Oh, and picking the loops off the hook one by one is DEFINITELY a lot easier than trying to wiggle and wedge the hook through them.

It wasn't until I had it all done and the ends woven in that I realized my ivy leafs aren't quite right. The clusters of dc and trc are supposed to be three st clustered together, not two. LOL Guess that'll teach me NOT to do these things at 10:30 at night while my eyes are drooping. ;)

Oh well, It still looks pretty and I'm not about to take it all apart to do those over. :oÞž

Mine, of course, came out a little small, so I added a rnd of hdc between the last two rnds. Oh, and did anyone else's bullion flower come out... poofy? Mine is VERY raised from the "surface" of the square. This happend in doing the 2dc clusters around it in Rnd 3. Maybe I did my bullions a little TOO loose where they didn't match my gauge for the regular stitches. Something to think about for next time... Use a smaller hook for the buillions and switch to the called-for hook for the rest.

On another note, I put a wish on the Wish Upon a Star forum on CAL Pals and Diane granted it! What a sweetheart! So now I have a pattern for a thread teddy bear named Berty. I can't wait to get started on him. He'll be so TINY! Finished size is 2 and 3/8 inches tall -- small enough to fit in your hand! I've been wanting to do one of these for a while! This will be my first real foray into thread crochet. I've done a little bit of crocheting with DMC embroidery floss and a B hook, which I liked, but I think this will be a little different. I'm going to go out today and get the supplies I need for my bear - if the weather doesn't get too bad.

Anyone have any ideas on some good soft thread to get, size #30? I'd like to make him soft or even a bit fuzzy and since I've no idea about brands and types of thread, I'd greatly welcome any suggestions or tips.

Thanks in advance! Oh, and watch back for progress! Also, I have pictures of three little somethings I'm just *itching* to show, but I still have to wait. So keep checking back for those, too!

I will show a couple of teaser pics, though:

Little thing #1 with Lion Brand VelvetSpun (I loved working with this)

















And little thing #2 with Bernat Softee Baby












And little thing #3 I can't show yet. Soon, though!!

Share a Square #8

The Pinwheel Star square. Easily my favorite of all the 6" square patterns I've looked at. This one was Brandy's choice, but it was also the same one I was going to pick for when it was my turn! lol Great minds think alike, eh, Brandy?

This was pretty easy to do once you get the feel for it. I really love how it turned out. The pinwheel is really self-forming. The secret to this square is that it's really a LOT easier than it looks. The most time consuming thing on it was working in the back ridges of the stitch around the star, but that's about it.

Now I'll have to choose another for when it's my turn ;)

Share a Square #7

This is the Gothic Square Pattern. It was Wednesday's square but I didn't have a chance to work on it till today.

I liked this one a lot! Oh, and Julie, if you're reading this, I used that red H hook you sent me!! Thank you again for that!!

Survivor Game

Here's a button for our team, ladies!

Share a Square #6

This is the Antique Pearls Square. So so pretty!

It's got GREAT texture and worked up pretty quickly and easily. Mine came out a little small so I had to add an extra rnd of sc around it.

I LOVE doing these squares!

It's Memorial Day today. Take a moment to remember...

Share a Square #5

The Daisy Square. This one was so fast!

I wasn't sure if I was going to get to do this one. We've had a busy weekend so far and I've been working on my part of the CAL Pals Survivor Game. But I had some time last night and thought I'd give it a try.

I'm pleased with how it came out! I used Bernat Softee Baby in Pink, Mint Green, and White, and Red Heart Soft Baby in Yellow. All of these I used doubled up with Bernat Baby Fingering weight yarn in White (to make it close to worsted weight.) It still came out a bit small, so I did another row of grannys around, then a pink border of hdc and then the green sc around the edge. With the colors being doubled up with white, it not only made it thicker, it also paled the colors down a little bit, which I think is quite pretty.

And now for a little teaser: I also finished something else just this morning, but I have to wait to display that. But I WILL tell you that it's adorable! Check back soon!

The Storm

We had quite a thunderstorm here tonight. It started while the sun was still up to give us a strange yellow-green sky. Then out popped a rainbow! Albeit a very faint rainbow, but a rainbow nonetheless! My sons were SO excited.













I love fisheye lenses!! Mine made it possible to get the whole rainbow (except the part hiding behind my neighbor's garage) :oP

And here's a shot of the rainbow behind my 7 year old's pot of pansies:













And of course, the "money shot." The lightning we were having was just a TRIP! It would just come out like spider webs and travel all across the sky. It was NUTS! I tried to get some pics of it, but being that it was still twilight out, the lightning doesn't show up as well as I'd like it to. But you can see some of it :) (if you click the pic, it's bigger with more detail.)

Share a Square #4

Square #4 is the "Carousel Square". It's so cute! Mine came out a little big, so I had to leave rounds 9 and 10 off. The reason why it came out big was because I used sport weight yarn in purple doubled with fingering weight yarn in white and that's about the same thickness as Red Heart worsted weight (which is much thicker than Caron Simply Soft worsted weight.)

Anyway, since my gauge seems to be a bit small on all of these square patterns so far, I used an H hook. LOL Well for the first time, I came out a tad big!

Oh well, it looks pretty.

I'm going to do another one in blue and white with Caron SS. I so want to try the multi colored look with this square. Before I started this one, I saw the note that said color changes were a bit tricky with this square, so I thought I'd try it in a solid color first. I think I get how to do it, so I'm off to do that now.

I'll update this post later with a pic if I get it done ;) Wish me luck!

I'm back! ;)

It wasn't as hard as I thought it might be. This time I used Caron Simply Soft in Lt Country Blue and White. The front:













And here it is from the back (I hope this one's useful)













All together this is a really neat square! I like both versions and they both show off the pattern in different ways. That to me makes this one a definite winner. Nice pick, Linda!

Share a Square #2 & #3

This one is the "Tropical Spring" square for the Share-A-Square thread on CAL Pals. Such a pretty pattern, although I did have to add a round of sc because mine came out a little small. *blush*

I really like these! They don't take long at all and talk about your instant gratification fix! :)

And I finally got a use for this obnoxious conch shell my husband and I bought on our honeymoon in Jamaica -- not because we wanted to buy it, but because the guy wouldn't let us GO until we did. Geez, those people down there are intense! But that's a story for another time ;)













And this is square #3. It's called "Tic Tac Toe".
A neat square to do and it worked up quickly.

These are fun little projects and I'm really enjoying them!

Share a Square #1

Julie started a thread with a great idea on CAL Pals - everyone does the same patterns (voluntarily of course) for 6" squares and on a certain date we mail them to her with tags on them labeling our name. They will later be assembled into an afghan. After that she'll draw from a hat one of the tags that came off one of the squares and that person will be lucky enough to receive the completed afghan!

The first square pattern is called the "Fisherman's Ring." At first I had a bit of trouble: it doesn't tell you on that first sc after the first cable is made to sc BEHIND the cable. I did my first two in front, saw it looked COMPLETELY wrong, and saw further in the instructions to sc behind the cable. Why didn't they put that first? LOL Frog frog frog and start again with the first cable. This time it's coming out right!

After that it was smooth sailing.... until.... I noticed that I was running low on yarn. I thought I had enough on the end of the skein to do the square, but nope, I was going to be short by about half the square. So I decided to try something different. Instead of tying a knot to join the two skeins, or dropping one and picking up the other (which I just don't trust - who says it won't pull loose???) I thought I'd try out the "Russian Join Method." It made the yarn just a tad more bulky than it normally is, but nothing too bad. I don't think it's noticeable on the finished product unless you're looking for it.

For the picture, I was going to just photograph the square, but then I thought I'd bring a little color splash in to really pop the blue. :)

Can't wait for the next square pattern!

Tumbling Blocks

Boy what a trip! This is going to be for my 7 year old son, Tyler. He needs a more "grown up" afghan now that he's getting to be quite a little young man. After I'd done the Prairie Star for my niece, and also the Tumbling Block quare for the Comfort Squares, I thought I'd try to do a full afghan. Since this could be achieved by using the same diamond pattern from the Prairie Star, I thought it would be pretty easy to just wing it with the pattern on this one.

So far, everything's going really well. It's pretty quick work and I LOVE the colors I picked out for him. I'm using Caron Simply Soft in White, Lt Country Blue, and Country Blue.

I think maybe three more blocks wide on the bottom row and that should be good for width. I'm not sure exactly how many high yet.

As for the edging, I've got something totally different from anything I've ever done before. I taught myself the reverse single crochet the other day and I'm SO excited. I was really hesitant about that stitch because I'd heard so many people complain how they hated it. I thought for sure it MUST be difficult. BUT - it's amazing the things you'll try out of sheer boredom. LOL The other night I picked up a scrap piece of yarn about 3 yards long, chained 10, did a row of sc, then did the reverse sc. I LOVE the look and I think it will be a nice accent border for this afghan. I don't want anything fancy since I don't want to take the focus away from those blocks (although it's hard to think of ANYthing that could take your eyes off of those -- they're demanding!) and the reverse sc is a nice little accent with enough simplicity to work.

I'm not sure when I'll give this to him - his birthday's not until November. I don't think I'll be able to hold out that long! ;)

Here's a close up of the blocks: Oh by the way, please excuse the end tails curled on the diamonds.... I haven't woven them in yet *sheepish blush*