This is a project that I finished back in July, in time for my littlest cousin's 2nd birthday at the beginning of August. And I have to thank her mom, for taking the beautiful photos.
So here she is, Penelope, at 2 years of age, in her Shianne Hoodie.
The hoodie, which was designed by April Garwood, can be found in Crochet! Magazine, Autumn 2015. And comes in size 2, 4, 6 and 8. Now As this was a gift for Penelope's 2nd birthday, I went with the size 2. But I had some gauge issues, since I was using a different yarn than suggested.
The pattern calls for Berroco Maya, a Worsted/10ply yarn. But I picked up Diamon Luxuary 100% Merino, also a worsted/10ply yarn. However, as we yarnies all know, no two worsted weight yarns are created the same, and based on the yards/grams on the ball band, my yarn was a bit bulkier than called for. So I dropped a hook size, did some crocheting, some measurements and then some ripping out, and crocheting again.
You can watch my struggles in this video here.
But it was all worth it, because the finished sweater was super cute.
And Penelope likes it very much.
This sweater came with some new techniques for me.
Firstly, actually taking the time to pin my sleeves in place before joining them.
And second, sewing in a zipper to a knitted or crocheted garment. I watched a couple of youtube videos on the topic, and then kind of just went with it. but I Think it turned out fine. The key for me was in pinning it in place, zipped, trying it on a model, which in this case was a teddy bear (I had no toddlers handy) and then making sure everything looked lined up fine. Leaving the pins in and sewing it into place with some grey yarn and a very sharp needle.
Over all, I think this was a great pattern, not too difficult, just be sure to check your gauge. A couple times preferably!
Here's a little project I'd been meaning to share for a while.
First, the backstory. You see my boyfriend Kevin graduated from Medical School this past June, as a member of the Class of 2015, or the Cows. You see the University of Calgary has a long tradition of giving their Med School classes animal names, and for the past three years, he and his peers cheerfully Moo'd their way through school.
So for graduation, I thought I'd give him a hand made cow.
So I searched the Ravelry pattern database using the following criteria: crochet, free, has photo, all toys and hobbies, keyword:cow; and a total of 30 patterns came up.
And he turned out great! He only took two evenings to make, and I was able to use all stash yarn, Red Heart Super Saver for the white and brown, and Red Heart Soft Touch for the rest.
I threw on some buttons for eyes, and added a stethoscope to make him into a 'Dr. Cow'.
I loved the way the pattern turned out, with the great big nose, and floppy limbs (which are incorporated into the body as you go along) this plus toy has a great feel. Plus the double thickness ears stand up tall and hold their character.
I threw a UCalgary brand on him as an added touch.
Oh, and if you are curious, I made the pillow in the background as well. You can watch the youtube tutorial here.
I've always wanted a cute little pair of crocheted shorts, so in the made rush of crocheting I did before my trip to Hawaii, I whipped up a pair. (Literally, I worked on these like a mad woman and finished them in 3 days, including an extra trip to walmart when I ran out of yarn).
I worked these shorts up in Red Heart Luster Sheen, a fine weight acrylic yarn made to feel like cotton, in the violet colourway. I worked with my F crochet hook and used about one an a half skeins of yarn.
To make these shorts you crochet a series of circle motifs and connect them to form the waist, then crochet the pineapple motifs downwards, and shape the legs of the shorts. I think I deviated a tiny bit from the pattern here, omitting one or two rows at the end. The great thing about crochet is you can try your garment on as you're working on it and make adjustments on the fly. Once the bottoms are done, you add some extra circle motifs in the back to make sure you're assets are going to be fully covered. Finally, add a waistband and draw string and you're ready to rock a super cute pair of beach shorts.
(Well at least until Wanderlust Whistler this summer).
Okay, by this point you all know I attended Wanderlust in O'ahu at the end of February. While I was there I camped on the beach, and decorated my site with some crochet. I've already shared the Half Lotus Bunting in the foreground, and the maple leafs in the midground. So now I'll take a minute to show off the Doily Bunting in the back ground.
The pattern is the Crocheted Doily Bunting by A la Sascha (ravelry link) and is available for free on her blog "Let's Yarnify". In her version (shown above) she does a short garland in blue, white, yellow and grey, but I knew I wanted mine to be long enough to string around my entire camp site.
Since of course this project would be going outside, I grabbed some colours in acrylic Bernat Satin, a 5mm hook, and got too it. I made most of the pennants on a quick trip to Thunderbay in January, small crochet pieces like these are great for working on airplanes. And the pattern is straight forward enough that once you've made one or two you can work it from memory.
When I got back to Calgary, I spent an afternoon tucking in ends and crocheted the whole thing together on a chain. I got three flags from each skein of yarn, and worked them in 6 different colours.
They looked great hung around my campsite, and held up despite all the wind and rain we had that week.
Now they run the full length of my apartment above my book shelves, and I can't wait to take them camping again this summer!
Just thought I'd take a moment to share a pair of projects from February. I worked up this pair for Kevin as his Valentines Day gift. They are baby Groot and Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy.
Don't they make a perfectly adorable pair? And FYI, I took these photos outside in February... yep that's how mild and dry our winter has been
The Baby Groot Pattern is by the always fantastic Twinkie Chan. He worked up really quickly with some brown acrylic I've had in my stash for years. He's got a pipe cleaner skeleton and is potted with some brown pom poms. Because he was for Valentines Day, I put a cute little heart in his hand (branch?).
The pattern is free, and simple to follow. If you're confused at all, there's also a YouTube video you can follow along on.
Unfortunately, I didn't hide Groot well enough, so Kevin spotted him a few nights before Valentine's day, and loved him right away. However, I still wanted to surprise him with something, so I thought why not his pal Rocket, the angry and awesome racoon?
I bought this pattern on Ravelry from Kristel Koevenig and really I wish I hadn't paid for it. At first the pattern was going great as I worked my way up the legs, but when I got to the strips on his body, something funky was going on with the way it was written, so I improvised from the waist up on his body.
Then I ran into the same trouble with his head. Maybe it was because I wasn't reading carefully enough, but at $5.40 for a small toy pattern, I guess I just expect it to work up with clear directions that give you the anticipated result. However, I am happy with the over all result, and love the details on his face and with his little backpack.
Just continuing on in sharing the garland projects I crocheted up for my camp site at Wanderlust O'ahu. If you'd like to see the other projects they are the:
Again, this project was a great stash buster for me, all the yarn used was acrylic that I already had. The pattern is the Maple Leaf Banner designed by Susan Badgley for Red Heart. Rather than make only 7 leafs all in red, I tried to capture the fall colours of my childhood in Northern Ontario and did 5 red, 4 orange, 3 yellow, 2 dark red and 1 green, and hung them all in random order.
I loved the look of this finished garland, and can't wait to whip of some more of these leaves (I have a great idea for them), however I struggled super hard with the pattern at first. Completely my own fault (tuns out its important to read the pattern notes before jumping right in to row one). Thankfully there is a YouTube tutorial for the pattern.
I swear you can teach yourself just about anything on YouTube.
I recently attended the Wanderlust Yoga Festival in O'ahu, Hawaii. And while I was there I camped in a tent on the beach (a beautiful experience you can read about in full here). What does this have to do with yarn? Well, Wanderlust invited us to decorate our campsites with prayer flags, and while I do have a beautiful strand of traditional Tibetan flags, I opted to leave them at home and make some of my own.
So in this first Wanderlust Projects Post, I'll be sharing with you my Half Lotus Bunting, designed by Annie Soutter, and available as a free Ravelry download.
This project practically called out to me, considering the place the lotus takes in the world of yoga, and overall, the shape of this pattern really does call to mind Hindu motifs.
So I grabbed some gold yarn from my stash (bunting projects are great for de-stashing by the way) and started hooking.
Within a few minutes I knew something was going drastically wrong. Unfortunately I just didn't seem to be up to the task of following the pattern correctly. Which was likely due to the fact that I was crocheting at the myograph in the lab, while running an experiment. Any ways, I ripped it out and referred to Ravelry for help.
And this is the great, amazing thing about Ravelry... chances are someone else has run into the same problem as you, and because this community is just so amazing, chances are someone has found a solution to said problem and shared it.
Which lead me to AcorntoOak and her blog and thank goodness, a chart! I won't share the chart here, because you should definitely check out her blog and get it direct from the source. But I will share the results of it, a half lotus she made from crochet thread, which looks tiny and perfect, and I might have to make one of my own ASAP (is it just me or does it call to mind a book mark?).
Any ways, thank you so very much AcorntoOak for providing the chart (in beautiful technicolor too!) because I don't know if I would have been able to make my lotuses without you!
As much as possible, I prefer to give hand crafted gifts to purchased ones. However, that can be difficult when you have a half dozen or so Christmas Gift Swaps and White Elephants.
Much like Micheal from the office with his iPod, this is how you win a Yankee Swap.
With a crocheted Minion from Despicable Me. I followed the pattern by Nicole's Nerdy Knots (available as a free ravelry download). With some free style modifications to the gloves and the face to save time and effort. I worked in in Red Heart Soft Touch, and apart from buying the blue and yellow, the rest came out of my stash.
He worked up quick (I made him the day before, about 4 hours while watching Netflix). And he was stolen many times during the swap. I've got enough of the yellow and blue yarn to make a couple more, and might have to do it (especially if they make a Despicable Me 3, which they probably will).
You can probably guess that this blanket is headed for my niece Penelope, I love the owl, and apart from the blue (I went with more of a teal) and whit, the rest of the yarn will be stash busting for me.
The first rounds worked up fast, but now things are beginning to take a lot more time.
I'll keep you posted on the progress, hopefully I'll have it completed before I see her next in March.
