Boring !

I have always had a short attention span -- my whole life.  In my craft world this will manifest itself in getting bored with repetition - doing the same stitch over and over again.  This is the reason that I avoid a crocheted or knitted project that has motifs.  Making the same square again and again puts me to sleep quickly.  That being said, I have made a few things with motifs, and in the middle of each one I make a promise to myself: Never again!  Until the next time, that is :)

I'm currently in the middle of two projects.  One is a crocheted version of a Double Wedding Ring quilt.  Teal, light purple and white, cotton-blend sport weight yarn. Interlocking circles, and connecting inserts....again and again.

The other is a crochet tablecloth, off-white crochet cotton.
Rounds and rounds of increasing lengths, repeating two different 8 or 9 rows of patten.

Well, actually, they are sitting on the shelf right now...my sister has a birthday in a few weeks and I wanted to finish a gift for her.  I made a shawl for her using an eyelash weight yarn I've had for years.  I tried a few different techniques using this yarn and nothing worked.  The method that finally worked for me was hairpin lace.

 I had never made anything using hairpin lace, but it was simple and worked up quickly.  I don't like the finished result. Hahaha.  It just didn't have anything special about it, just a rectangle. In the middle of working on it, I emailed a photo to the sister.  She said she liked it, so I finished it.  When she gets it, I hope she likes, 'cause I sure don't!


PS.  Yes, the hairpin lace loom is homemade from a pair of yellow flip flops and knitting needles.  The second flip flop was used to make a Kumihimo loom (one round, one square).  That is my next area to explore -  braiding, weaving, and finger-loops, and in there somewhere jewelry making is breaking in, too. 

Until the next post.....

Ecru Tablecloth

This is a tablecloth that I made for my sister, the one that likes antiques.  I usually work in white or off-white, but I found a great deal on-line (on sale, plus President's Day discount, free shipping, they took PAYPAL!!) but the online store only had two off-whites left), so I bought a few ecru, thinking I could swap 'em for white somewhere, somehow.  So, used up the white on various projects and decided I wanted to crochet a tablecloth.  I had never made a large crochet cotton project, but I was up for the challenge.  An issue I had was I hate making motifs....I get so bored, and was afraid I would abandon the project in the middle (my knitted Falling Leaves afghan motifs are still in a plastic bag, waiting to be dyed).   During a 'net surf session I came across this pattern, Norway Spruce in Magic Crochet, and thought that an insert tablecloth would be a good first foray into a project this size.   Plus, NO MOTIFS!! I found a great deal on a huge tablecloth at a thrift store, and the color match was great.

First problem I had was 'What size should it be?' My sister lives 1700 miles away and I didn't want to call her and ruin the surprise...  "So....how big is your dining room table, anyway?".  So, I text'd her teenage son and hoped he would get the right dimensions and/or respond.  The kid came through like the champ he is, but the dimensions seemed so little.  In my mind the table was bigger. Oh well, full speed ahead, if it was too small, so be it, I would call it a large runner.

Problem two: finishing the edges of the cut material. An overcast seam would be great, but I don't have a surger, and a rolled hem felt like it would be too bulky.  I finally came up with making a faux overcast edge.  I did a really tight zigzag stitch and cut the material after zigzag'ing.  That worked great.

Now just a matter of doing, and that went surprisingly quicky and easily - the pattern was mostly single crochets, double crochets and chains. Now just a matter of waiting for the family reunion this summer.

My sister loved it, it was the right size for the table, and works great with her decor.

Details: pattern name is Norway Spruce.  I think its in an old issue of Crochet Magic but don't know which one.  The finished tablecloth is 4' x 5'.  I used Lydia's crochet cotton, size 10 with a size 7 hook.

Sister's table runner

I made this runner for my sister last spring and was able to give it to her early this

summer.  I don't get to see her very frequently.  She lives in Florida and I live in Las Vegas.  I did this slightly sneaky thing to insure that the size was correct. I sent a "survey" to all my sisters to mask what I really wanted to know.  In addition to type and size of dining tables, I asked favorite colors, and other things to create confusion.  The pattern is an Ondori  (sorry, but dont know pattern name or what book it came out of) that I adjusted the length to make it appropriate for her dining table.  I used Aunt Lydia's crochet cotten, size 10 crochet hook.

Current Situation

Well, it has been a long time since I've posted. During the winter I made several large pieces (doilies, all Ondori pieces). If you like making doilies, I highly recommend these designs. I even got over my fear of blocking - it's actually easier than I thought it would be. Unfortunatley I dont have photos to post. i gifted a few of the pieces, and I emailed the recipients to see if they will send me a pic of the piece "in use." My living situation changed this spring, and unfortunately it's not conducive to me being creative. I am SLOWLY working on a crocheted tablecloth, but have only worked on it intermediatly over the past few months. I really want to start work on Tumbling Dice blanket, but I'll need to buy a larger circular needle before I can start working on it. I can't make any promises about when I'll post again, but I will try to make it shorter than the time between my last post and this one.

Update of my summer

Well, I've not been too creative over the summer.   I have made several doilies, but have not blocked them.  I frogged the Patricia Kristofferson pieces I did.  I decided that I don't like her work.  To me, and this is my opinion, she creates these convoluted patterns for convulation's sake.   I'm sticking to mostly pineapple doilies and found a few Japanese pieces on-line that are great.  Also, I found some knitted doilies that I'd like to work up.  They uses 00 and 000 needles, and you need both dp and circular, so I have to stock-up.

I am just about to wrap-up a knitted motif afghan, called FALLING LEAVES. The pattern has popped up for several years and I decided its the appropriate design for some Peaches n' Creme cotton yarn that I purchased years ago on clearance at Michael's.  It hit me that the solids and variegated are all fall colors, 'cept the natural color skeins.  I'm dyeing the natural color into golds, browns and scarlets.  Now its just a matter of joining the over 300 motifs together in a random, yet pleasing-to-my-eyes, pattern.  Look for a photo here when its finished.  ( Another pledge that I won't make another motif piece, but of course I will)

I'm waiting for the Las Vegas weather to stop being in the 100 degree bracket to work on my denim quilt.  And of course, I've got a few patterns in my head that I'm gonna crochet or knit.  

Is it Spring Fever ?

Well, the past few weeks have been a period of no productivity - craft-wise -for me.  I finished a few doilies a few weeks ago, and finally got around to buying some rust-proof pins to block them, but haven't felt like working on getting them blocked.  So, they are sitting on a pile of aghans waiting for me.  I found a few great sites for some vintage thread patterns, and some really inspired me ... to save them.  I even found some great deals on-line for crochet cotton that accept PayPal (this way I don't have to spend any money, just use the money I've made from Ebay auctions).   So, everyday, I look on-line at patterns and forums, or through my library of saved patterns, but nothing is compelling me to pick up a hook and get to work.  We'll see how long this attitude continues. When I do get around to creating something, of course I'll post it here. 

  I've been spending some time indexing (data entry'ing) for a few genealogy sites (another of my hobbies is researching my family tree). Census records, birth records, Parish record, tax records.  I really like doing this. 
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Doily Doily Doily

I've been on a doily kick for the past few weeks.  I've made a few Patricia Kristofferson and a few others.  I've not blocked them yet, because I don't have any rustproof pins, and not a chance to head to Joann's.  As soon as I get them blocked, I'll post a few pix.