Regency Pillow

This pillow was crocheted as a gift for my sister. She wanted one to go in her sage, cream and blue bedroom. This was surprisingly fun to make and the half-double crochet went very quickly. For such a nubbly yarn, it was easy to work with once I got past the first row. I made a very large rectangle and simply single crocheted the edges when it was large enough to reach all the way around the pillow. I started this yesterday and frogged it about five times before I the dimensions worked the way I wanted. Crocheting a tube did not work. I also didn't like the way the striping ran when I crocheted with the short edge of the pillow. This is one of Lion Brand's "Painterly" colors and it has subtle self-striping. There are sections of purple, teal blue and cream worked throughout the yarn.

One point to note - this acrylic yarn frays like the dickens when cut. I made some tight knots and wove in longer than usual edges. It might make fun tassels because it's so silky soft when it unravels, but that would be very much not good in the middle of a pillow.

Details:
Yarn: Lion Brand Homespun "Regency" (slightly more than two skeins) - one skein made 13x22inches.
Hook: 6mm J10
Stitch: Half-double crochet throughout, single crochet seams. Stitches run with the long dimension of the pillow except for two rows of hdc on each short end as a finish.
Pillow: Joann Fabrics "Soft n Crafty" 14x28in

Bohemian Scarf

I love this scarf! It's six feet long and three inches wide. I made it with Patons Bohemian "Copper Chaos" on a 6mm J10 hook. It's done entirely in double crochet - chain 7 and keep going until long enough. I made it long enough to double over and loop through itself and it lays flat without rolling. It also feels like I have kittens snuggling my neck.

It's machine washable (delicate) and dryable because the chenille yarn is a polyester/acrylic blend. I'm working on a matching hat, but it's a work in progress. The scarf was frogged multiple times as I worked out how wide I wanted it and which stitch worked best. This is a very dense fabric and any wider would have been difficult to shape around my neck.







I'm toying with the idea of knitting a pillow out of this yarn but I'm afraid I'd never get out of my chair. It's too cuddly to use indiscriminately.

Yellow Serpentine Pendants

I made two pendants as commissioned for Christmas gifts. I was given the large Yellow Serpentine cabochons to work with and added the other beads as I saw fit. These are for a mother and daughter, so one pendant is larger than the other.



Mother's Pendant:
* Yellow Serpentine
* Amber
* Peridot
* Swarovski Crystals
* Sterling Silver wire and beads







Daughter's Pendant:
* Yellow Serpentine
* Amber
* Pearls
* Swarovski Crystals
* Sterling Silver wire and beads

Felted Dark Earth Kitty Pi

The Dark Earth Kitty Pi is done!

Finished dimensions: 16 inches diameter and 5 inches high.




Close-up of inside:




Close-up of the Patons SWS after it felted. The colors are much subtler than the original photos showed.

Argh!

I am in love with Patons SWS, but I think I need to frog this scarf I'm working on and try something different. The chevron pattern is gorgeous, but it makes a very heavy fabric. It's beautiful and totally impractical. I had to chain on multiples of 17 stitches, so two multiples is giving me a scarf that is 8 inches wide and only 18 inches long after a skein and a half of yarn. I can't decide if I want to make it wider and crochet a pillow or go narrower and modify the pattern to give me a better scarf. The chevron doesn't show very well with only one repeat. I can't really go to a smaller hook because the yarn is fairly bulky and I'm already undersized. The striping is perfect at the current width which is part of why I wish I didn't have to mess with it.

I'm going to set it aside and let it percolate until I have some inspiration about what to do with it. I may also scowl at it periodically in hopes that it shapes up.

Full view:




Front of pattern showing raised ridges:




Back of pattern showing the chevron on the "smooth" side:

Dark Earth Kitty Pi

I've finished crocheting the Dark Earth Kitty Pi. The Patons SWS was an absolute dream to work with. It's glossy and smooth and my hook just flew through it. The striping is more gradual than I expected and I like how it turned out. The base and sides remind me of the colors in a big chocolate chip cookie.

The finished pi has a base of 17", sides are 6", plus another 1 3/4" of striped trim. It took a full skein of SWS to make less than two inches of trim because of the diameter of the pi.









Now to felt and block!

Two pi's and a mystery

I've been jonesing for yarn lately, so here's a rundown of my up and coming projects:




Kitty Pi #2 - Dark Earth
Base - Patons Classic Wool "Deep Olive"
Sides - Patons Classic Wool "Natural Mix"
Trim - Patons SWS (Soy Wool Stripes) "Natural Earth"

The SWS is a gorgeous mix of 70% wool and 30% soy. It should felt along with the rest of the cup so I'll get a different effect than I did with the boucle. It's a medium weight yarn without all the bulk so it will behave differently anyway.




Kitty Pi #3 - Blue Neutrals
Base - Patons Classic Wool "Natural Mix"
Sides - Patons Classic Wool "Aran"
Trim - Patons SWS "Natural Blue"

Again, this should be similar to Pi #2 but in much softer colors. The photo doesn't show it, but the SWS has a lot of sky blue mixed into it.



Mystery Project
Patons SWS "Natural Crimson"

I went back and forth on this yarn. I love the colors so much I can hardly stand it, but I couldn't think of what to do with it. It's self-striping, but I don't like harsh stripes. I came across this lovely stitch in Donna Kooler's Encyclopedia of Crochet called "Wavy Chevron". It's a nice curvy pattern and might take some of the bite out of the striping so it looks more organic. I may make a scarf since the yarn is soft and warm.

So I have this big pile of yummy yarn and no time to crochet. I also have knitting needles, but I really like the density I got on my first kitty pi. Crochet seems to be a good technique for what I want to do. I crocheted last night to relax before I went to sleep and it really helped, so I may be using it as my "sleeping pill" for the rest of the semester.

Pi in need of filling

Looking at my new pi makes me want to go adopt a kitty so badly it hurts, but I'll have to be patient. I couldn't capture the effect very well in photos, but the boucle rim drapes over the edges like a pie crust. I think this could be washed and blocked once more to get a better shape. It widens because I blocked it over a round laundry basket that narrows at the base. The boucle didn't felt very much, so it gives a really nice effect next to the dense cup.

My first blocking

I am blocking my kitty pi on the underside of a laundry basket and it is mushed down with a bungee cord. After three hot-cold washes and spin cycles with two pairs of old jeans, it is fuzzy and dense and lovely. I manhandled it back into a bed shape and made sure the blue circle was mostly even on the bottom. It's drying slowly, but it looks like it worked just fine!



The colors really match the stripes in my sofa pillows and the flowers in my placemats. That was a happy accident since I can never remember the colors of the stripes. The couch itself is poppy red so the purple bed is a nice color accent.



I'm also pleased with how the color border worked out. As the wool tightened and felted, it pulled the stitches together so the boucle is more of a slight ruffle. Before felting, the boucle was actually cinching in the sides and closing the opening of the bed a little. I am so glad I didn't try to crochet into every stitch when I started with the boucle. The ruffle would have been out of control!

Mmmm.. popsicle

My first ever felting project was a crocheted cell phone cover made from two colors of Patons Classic Wool.

Before felting, I measured it to see what my starting point looked like.



After felting, I could see it had shrunk and my inexperienced stitches were nicely fuzzed into obscurity. It took three washes with a warm/cold cycle to get to this point.



Now my kitty pi is crocheted. The original design calls for knitting, but I am not ready to mess with circular and double-pointed needles. My little cell phone test project was a small scale trial before I wasted a ton of wool on a kitty pi.







This was made with one skein of Patons Classic Wool (100% Merino) in "New Denim" on a size H (5mm) hook. I crocheted in the round until I was increasing once every 30 stitches and it was about 19 or 20 inches in diameter. Then I used 1 1/2 skeins of Patons Classic Wool in "Royal Purple" to make the sides without any increases. Once the sides were about 6" high, I used a skein of Lion Boucle in "Popsicle" to make the trim. I was not overly fond of eyelash yarn as a trim, so I played with the recipe. I loved the delicious colors and couldn't resist. Seriously, look at it. I may get more to make a pillow or something because I have those colors in my living room furniture and it's so luscious I want to cuddle it.

However, once I started working with the Boucle, I cussed a little bit. I tried single stitches and it was so tight I could hardly move the hook. I tried double crochet and it was still bad. Then I tried double crochet in every other stitch on the row below and didn't like the gaps. I eventually did four rows of single crochet, starting in every other stitch for the first row. This yarn was so thick and loopy that nothing else seemed to work. I also had to move up to a size J (6mm) hook to deal with it. There are some gaps between the stitches, but I figure the boucle is 79% acrylic, 20% mohair and 1% nylon, so it won't shrink like the wool will. When the rest of the bed felts, it should pull those stitch foundations closer together.

Right now it's big enough for ME to hide in and totally floppy. I can't wait to felt it tomorrow and see what happens!

Overwhelming urge to create.. something

I'm going through a crazy artsy phase right now. I'm not sure why I don't get the urge when I have the time, but I now find myself wanting to make one of everything instead of working or studying. I'm in the midst of crocheting my first kitty pi. It's a total experiment since the recipe calls for knitting and chunky yarn.

I'm also working on a couple beading projects and I really want to learn how to knit again. I knew the basics of knit and purl once upon a time. I've had to declare all craft stores off limits because I find myself wanting to buy yarn I love in the hopes that someday I'll think of something sensible to knit out of it. Patons Divine feels like kittens. I love to touch alpaca yarn, possibly because I have a special place in my heart for alpacas in general. The mothers and babies hum to each other. They're all "mmm!" "MMMMM!" It's hard not to love an animal that hums.



I'm not sure yet what I'll make when the kitty pi is finished. I'll be taking photos soon. I am really keeping my fingers crossed that it felts into something more substantial than it appears. Right now it's the consistency of a trivet and I can't imagine a cat doing anything more than flopping on it.