Lots of stuff!

I've been working on a variety of projects lately.  All the ones I've previously mentioned, plus a few more.  Here's a few more baby squares, and I'm planning on making at least 2 more today.

After Christmas, Joanns had a pretty nice sale on yarn, so of course I had to buy a box full.  Even now as I check out Joann I see they have a 30% off all yarn sale.  Uh oh!

I've always loved dusty pinks and greens together, and I love this pattern so I'm really fond of these squares.  I was thinking of making cushions for the dining room chairs with these.  I haven't measured or gotten the cushions yet so I'm not sure they'll actually fit, but I'm crossing my fingers.  If not, then I'll just have to turn these into a pillow or blanket at some point.  I think they are SO pretty.

I got another granny square book from the library, and I've been trying out the patterns.  I love making squares.  None of them take very long to do, so you get the satisfaction of completing something.  Mostly I making them when I'm watching a movie or something on tv, it's very relaxing.

A lot of them have mistakes, corners done wrong.  But since these are my own personal squares, and I'm not selling them I'm not very bothered by imperfections.  Also yesterday I figured out something I had been doing wrong the entire time on my granny squares, and since then they make MUCH more sense and are coming out better.  Yay for learning!

Current projects.

Here are a few things I'm working on slowly.  I like to work on multiple things at once, because I get bored with only one at a time.

Simple Squares Baby Blanket  I really don't have a reason to make a baby blanket.  Nobody I know has or is going to have a baby.  I just know the yarn was on sale, and it's super bulky yarn so it crochets up quickly. ;)  I've only done 2/25 squares so far, and I'm changing up the colors from the original pattern.

Hooded Scarf.  Unfortunately I don't remember where I got the pattern, but I printed it out and am going off that.  The yarn feels awesome, I can't wait for it to be done!  This winter has been very cold and I have no other scarves so I'm excited to be able to wear this.

Toys!

So what do you do when you don't want to spend a lot on Christmas gifts and you have crochet bits laying around?  Make catnip toys!  The three blue pieces are some of my practice crochet scraps, from learning a basic stitch, shell stitch and from trying out my first round.  The brown is actually a knit scrap.

What I did was fold the pieces in half, then cut out two pieces slightly smaller out of quilting batting.  I sewed up the batting on three sides leaving one side open so I could stuff the 'pocket' as full as I could with catnip.  Then I closed up the last side and placed the pouch inside the folded crochet piece.  I then took some blue yarn and stitched up the three open crochet sides.  Voila, catnip toy!  I made the mistake of leaving them on the table for a few hours, and came back to find naughty kitties playing with their Christmas toys early.  They've been in a drawer ever since, with the occasional cat trying to figure out how to get the drawer open.

I'm all for presents that cost nothing to make and next to no time to complete!

Went to the library to look for crochet books and came home with this one. Granny Crochet Favorites  I've noticed that granny squares are everywhere in the crochet world, and they are supposed to be fast to make.  In other words, faster squares means more charity squares and more blankets for my own use.  Woo!  First one from the book I tried is called Wagon Wheel #1.  Having never really tried this method before, I think it turned out alright.  Since I didn't measure and make sure it was a certain size, I'll probably keep this one and start up a stash of misc squares to be made into a blanket someday.

Unfortunately this book is somewhat old, so I can't just buy it outright from amazon.  I'll have to get it from ebay or scan the few pages I really want from it.

Here is one of three 'coasters' I made a few months back as one of my first starting projects.  I used cheap Red Heart yarn and a pattern I got from a library book.  I would prefer my coasters to be round, but at the time doing rounds wasn't something I could manage.

It was getting colder outside and I have a new hardwood floor in the living room, so I wanted something to keep my feet warm while I watch tv.  I looked for a very simple slipper pattern that I couldn't mess up and I found this one.
Mary Jane Slippers

I had to do a little adjusting, and one turned out looser than the other.  But they do their job fine.  Since I used cheap yarn that's not soft at all, these slippers aren't very good for walking around in, they feel uncomfortable on the bottom of my feet.  But for lounging they work!

Right now my obsession is crochet.  My first experience with crochet was some 15-20 years ago.  My great grandma was visiting.   I remember us sitting on the couch in the living room, and her teaching me the very basics of crochet.  How to make a slip knot (though I was completely confused), foundation chain, and single crochet stitch.  We made a few rows back and forth, it was about as long as a small blanket i'd guess.  I still have it somewhere around here, and since it's one of the few things I have of hers, I will never throw it away.

I didn't touch crochet again until about 7 years ago.  My boss had told me she was making a blanket for her mother.  When I was house sitting for her I found her book on how to crochet and I went to Walmart to buy some colors I liked.  Even though I had instructions it still wasn't clicking very well for me.  But at any rate I started making an afghan.  I've picked it up a few times over the years but it's still pretty small, another to do project on my growing list of projects.

This past summer I was feeling rather sorry for myself, and looking for things to do to make me feel like a better human, like I could contribute something.  I read about people knitting and crocheting squares, mailing them off, and people turning those into blankets and giving to charity organizations.  Soldiers in the war, babies in poor countries, children with cancel, the homeless.  I thought that sounded like a pretty neat thing to do, making a few squares is far easier than making an entire blanket!  I told my husband about it and he thought that sounded good as well.  He also wanted to learn how to knit so we could both learn our crafts together.

In the past few months I've been trying to learn the basics, and make simple things.  I've made a few cute things so far, and I have plans for afghans and blankets.  I've borrowed a few books from the library, and read a million sites on how to crochet.  I'm finally able to throw together some squares!  Now I just need to find the charity websites again, read their square guidelines (I'll understand them this time!) and get crocheting.

The Beginning.

So this blog is mostly for me, at least at this point.  It's so I can have a place to show, link, remember, and reference all things crafty in my life.