The Owl Who Showed Up

This is Bree's new creation. I don't know where she came up with it. I don't think she had a pattern. So here goes. She crocheted sc the length and width she wanted so when she folded it in half it was the perfect size for her purse. Then she made a big white circle, a smaller blue circle, and a smaller black circle. Attached them one on top of the next until she attached them to the purse to form eyes. She crocheted the orange nose to the shape she wanted, made a few layers of fringe, and crocheted a handle. Voila (or as I saw someone type on FB once, "wah la".) Her crochet owl. She has made several since. She uses size 5 yarn, so thank goodness for 50% off coupons at JoAnn's. :-)

arm warmers

I have put my hand mitts aside for a while and replaced them with my new knitting fancy: arm warmers. this was my first set. the yarn is from a series of Lion brand yarn at, of all places, Walmart. I have since made more arm warmers in black, in a slightly different pattern. These Lion brand ones are ribbed all the way through, tapering slightly as they go up my arm. My black ones were ribbed in both cuffs for 2-3 inches, and just knit in the round for middle section. It wasn't tapered at all so it looks a little more baggy. I like them both equally. In fact I love them! They are better than my hand mitts, because they keep my hand warm AND my arm too. I am not usually a sweater person, but I am always cold. The black yarn was worsted weight. I think the Lions brand was too, but it might have been size 3. Definitely not finger weight. And what size were the needles? I donno. I think they were my blue ones. lol. When I make my own things from the pattern inside my own head, there is no rhyme or reason. I work with what I have and make everything fit. That is probably why I don't attempt to make patterns.

Callie is three

Boy this makes me feel old. Callie Mae is three today! This photo is of when she came back home from the hospital. They traveled from Virginia to southern Ohio with that little newborn 5lb baby. And here is what I saw when they arrived!

Why am I posting this in my yarn blog? Because this blanket she is sleeping under... that's right, it was crocheted by her dad. And I am a proud grandma. All my kids, boys or girls learned to crochet or knit or both. Why? So they could make a blanket for their new baby of course.

My husband has crocheted blankets for each one of our little girls (13, 12, and 7 now). Josh (now 22) used to get grouchy at his dad because the man would crochet his baby blankets at the hockey rink while Josh's hockey team practiced. Not very manly? I don't know. Considering that Josh sat around crocheting blankets for HIS newborn. I say it is a well planned craft to know. A man that can crochet a baby blanket for his newborn is a man indeed. All my girls have fond memories of the blankets my husband crocheted for them.

Not really a very feminine husband. But the man knows his yarn.

As for Callie Mae...

She is three years old today. And not a bit full of herself in her old age. (Marley 7 is here with her. And Bunny, which my husband bought her before she came home from the long hospital stay about 3 years ago.)

Bree's designs

Jade, our bull dog, shivers in the cold. Bree decided she needed a sweater. So she made one... no pattern, just measured the yarn around the dog and started to crochet.

 

All was good until Jade decided enough was enough. She scratched her back under every chair and bench she could trying to get this sweater off her. Too bad, it really was a good sweater for Bree's first try on this big lug of a dog.

American Girl Doll Knits

So this was our fifth year in a row taking a girls week trip to Kalahari in Sandusky OH for the UWG (Unschoolers Waterpark Gathering.) Marley was excited to see her friends again for an American Girl Doll gathering. Both Tess and Julie came sporting their new stylish winter attire. Pattern found here: http://www.abc-knitting-patterns.com/1143.html. The pattern is for the red riding hood cape shown on Tess. I tweeked the pattern for the cape/hat set on Julie. Marley wanted a cape to match, but I knew I couldn't get it done in time. Maybe next year...

My Little Pony Series

My friend who asked for the beard hats, she had first asked me for a Twilight Sparkle hat for one of her girls. I decided to maker her a pinkie pie hat too for her other daughter. Now this is my second set of My Little Pony hats that I have made. It is for friends at my husband's work.

 

Pinkie Pie Pony

Twilight Sparkle

 With matching Fingerless Mitts

Two for two

I made two of these for a friend. She was going to give one to her son and one to a friend for her son. And they would match.

Poor M having to be the girl model of boy beard hats. I was also asked to make an adult one for her husband. It was the same in green.

Reindeer Hat

This hat was knitted, not crochet. I made it for a little 10mo old boy whose parents saw a crappy looking (IMO) reindeer hat at a store and wanted it. But it was way more than they wanted to spend. I said I could make a much better deer hat than that (store bought knitted hats have nothing on the real homemade thing. And so I did. This one was a lot of fun to hand over.

Birthday Presents

This month, we are in high demand suddenly, making hats for friends, then their friends, then their friends' friends. I finished this for a birthday present for a friend of my girls. It is a panda vampire. This panda hat which actually was my first crochet hat... http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3740199261849278041#editor/target=post;postID=624197365407989225 this is where I first posted the story of how my daughter accidentally purchased a panda hat... PATTERN which I was nice enough to turn into a hat for her.

Anyway this panda hat was my first crochet pattern. I have since seen many different and many similar online. It was an earflap hat with braids hanging down, intially. So it is modified for the purpose of this more modern present with mitt pockets for extra warmth and of course that is all the rage right now. And the fangs with blood.

All my hats have the same basic pattern, then I embellish. It ended up being a worthy investment, $7.00 for this hat pattern so I could tweek it to my purposes. I am always one to find something I like and make it mine.

Here is the basic hat pattern, which I use for a lot of my crochet hats. Then I add whatever I want to it, ears, eyes, hair, fangs, flaps, mitts, limited only to your imagination, and yahoo photos helps when creativity loses out...
I use an F hook. Use what you need to make the right size. Checking my Panda Vampire hat, I am at 2-3/4" diam. after round 3 for gauge.  My girls like their hats woven tight so you cannot see holes. And I am not a tight crocheter or knitter. Finished circumf. 20-22", 22-24". Yarn worsted weight.

Make a ML;

Rnd 1: ch2, 12hdc into ring (12)

PM in first hdc to mark beginning of round and replace marker at each round beginning when you move up.

Round 2: 2hdc in each hdc (24)

Round 3: *2hdc in first hdc, 1hdc; rep from * around (36)

Round 4 and all even rounds: 1hdc in each hdc around

Round 5: *2hdc in first hdc, 2hdc; rep from * around (48)

Round 6: as rnd 4

Round 7: *2hdc in first hdc, 3hdc; rep from * around (60)

Round 8: as rnd 4

Round 9: *2hdc in first hdc, 4hdc; rep from * around (72)

Kids under 6 or 7, I stop here and work 11 or 12 rounds even. Then I FO making it look uniform and neat in the back.

 

For everyone else,

 

Round 11: *2hdc in next hdc, 11hdc*; rep around.

from * around (78)

Work 13 rounds even, FO in back making everything look uniform and clean.

I don't have a size for babies but you can follow the same pattern idea to make it smaller for a smaller sized head, of course.

And, as with all patterns, if it is too big? Make it smaller. If it is too smaller, make it bigger. Wider, shorter, whatever. I call it the learning curve. Many projects big and small must be done, undone, and done again. Sometimes more than once, to get the desired project completion.

 

Elf Hat

Totally made the coolest hat the other day. I fashioned it off of a hat I found on Yahoo photos...

I don't know who made this doll hat. Originally I was going to make matching hats for M and her new American Girl Doll (which she is so sure Santa will bring for her.)

Crochet Elf Hat

Here she is now, sporting the hat I designed. Unfortunately for M, her 11 yo sister took it and made it hers. Now I have to come up with a new idea for M and her doll.... Santa better deliver this year! (:-)

Gir (pronounced GRRRRRRR)

 

Our Hat craze started here. Well not at this 4th of July Festival, but with the hat Bree Rex is wearing. Her Panda hat. This is actually where my crocheting WITH a pattern begins too. You see I have been crocheting since I was a little girl, but i didn't understand how to read a pattern. I just knew how to do what i knew how to do. Then about 7 years ago my mom taught me how to knit without a pattern too. One day I saw a friend knitting socks at a soccer practice for our girls. I told her what I hear people say all the time... "I can knit scarves but that is about all. I cannot read a pattern." And she graciously set me up to read patterns and MAKE MY FIRST socks!!!! What an autumn that was. But I digress. Bree Rex found Etsy one day. And she was captivated by this website. All the cool things people were making!! Then she came to me, "Mom I found the hat I want and it is only $7.00 on etsy. It is a panda hat and I HAVE $7.00. So being the busy mom I am, I told her ok, showed her how to make a transaction, collected her money and was on my way. Well a couple weeks later, and still no hat, I looked up to see what was going on... she had not purchased a hat, but rather a pattern to crochet a hat. Sigh. The tears that flowed!!! SO I know crocheting, how hard can a pattern be. After all I know how to read a knitting pattern. AND I know where to go to look for a better understanding of anything I don't know... YOUTUBE. SO I learned and crocheted her this panda hat she thought she couldn't live without.

 

 



Invader Zim Gir Hats

 

 Then one day the girls saw a Gir hat. Do you know who Gir is? Gir is the dog on this show called Invader Zim. And Gir's fav food is waffels and tacos. Apparently it was all the rage. And I had a special place in my heart for Invader Zim. This Zim is actually an alien trying to act like a human on Earth. So he does all these things that are rediculous and then he stands up and looks around and says, "I am normal." I find this the funniest thing. Because I think we all feel like people are spying the alien in us sometimes. And we want to be normal. So I made 4 Gir hats, two for my girls and two for their friends.

And so started our obsession with hats...

That, and I undreaded my dreadlings of 5 years...


and can again wear normal sized hats...



Yay for the hats, sad for the dreads gone.

 

Fish and things

Way back when , Bree Rex convinced me to purchase this book at Half Price Books called KnitWit. She adored this squid and it was a must have. Now Bree's knitting skills are good, but she complains on how long knitting takes. She is young and not quiet at the knitting-is-a-relaxing-thing-I-do-when-I-Am-Avoiding-What-I-Should-Be-Doing stage like me yet. She wants immediate gratification.

Anywho she worked on it, put it away for a few months, came back to it, put it away.

I had told her that once she finishes the squid I will crochet a coral reef bed for the little guy.

And then I knitted him a friend...

 

The coral bed actually taught me to make the curls that I taught Bret to make for her Pinkie Pie Hat. So yay for experimenting.

Gone so long

Boy it has been forever. Not because I don't love to blog, but because so much else has taken over my life. Here are a few things my girls have been up to lately...

This is Bret with her Pinkie Pie (My Little Pony) hat that she made this last week. If I get time I will post the basics for the hat pattern that we use. Same pattern, many uses.

 

This is Bree Rex. She is sporting her first hat. When I finally gave up trying to explain to Bret above about why her skills weren't hat worthy and showed her what to do (obviously determination is bigger than skill) Bree soon demanded to learn too.

 

 

Now although Bret just wanted a Pinkie Pie hat, Bree has bigger ideas. This was her second. She gave it to me because she thought it looked good on me. I am wearing it even as I type. :-) Her third is a Micky Mouse hat she is currently working on. She is thinking Etsy or our unschooling Kalahari gathering kids market where kids can sell their wares.

 

My kids are amazing. They amaze me daily!!

New socks

So my girls don't like my socks because they only like the ones that come to your ankle. I thought I would try my hand at that once. I love it!! They are fun and comfortable. Practically weekend socks since I cut the size in half only doing the bottom half. I plan to make a belt and beaded choker necklace to match.

Sox... my favorite!!

These are my first sox from the pattern I borrowed from Vikki. Turns out that the exact same sock pattern was on the sock yarn when I purchased it. This was magic stripes from lions yarn. They no longer sell it, but if you have self striping sock yarn, most any socks can be made from the same pattern. It is a simple first sock pattern. Find it here.

http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/kmstripe-socks.html

They only show the pattern for a size large now for some reason. Reduce the stitches by 4 for med and another 4 for small. Then knit to the size of the foot. That is what I do. I actually increased the stitches to 60 to make a bigger sock because I didn't think it was wide enough for my big feet.

And here are the open finger hand mitts that I made to match. This is an adjusted pattern of the sock turned into mitts. I like the open fingers because it allows me use of my hands all day while still covering my arms and keeping them warm. In this old 100 year old house, I freeze all winter. No one else seems to... but I do.

Cowl Fun

I have made several cowls this year. This one was a fun one, made from yarn I picked up at the knitting circle from my church. I don't know what brand or where it came from but ithe yarn was so full of energy that I had to do something exciting with it. Cowl and pom poms. No pattern. I just cast on a good amount of stitches on large knitting needles. I did not knit this in the round. I did a plain knit stitch back and forth and connected the cowl at the end. There is the essence of my favorite knitting. No pattern. Just knit until it becomes what I want it to. This doesn't always work as planned, but this time it did.

This cowl was made from a pattern I found in a knitting magazine at the library. I never cease to be amazed by the populated collection of books and magazines stored at the consortium of libraries in my area for yarn arts. Probably my favorite of the cowls I have made. Thanks to Brenda's steady hand for making a picture available for me. I am always the picture taker, seldom the picture takee (or whatever is the right way to say that. lol.)

Aunt Kate

Ok so I was extremely late sending out my sister's Christmas present. Not because I was working hard and didn't complete it all on time, but just because it all sat on my shelf undelivered for a month. Today, with school out for the day (pending snow storm on the way) I headed to the post office to send that stuff out to her. Way to drop the ball on Christmas, Melodie. 

So these socks came from yarn that does this weird thing... it isn't really self striping, but it "looks" like self striping in a spiral. I don't know what it is called. The yarn is worsted weight and it came from an online sock pattern found here...
http://www.canadianliving.com/crafts/knitting/knitting_pattern_weekend_socks.php

I found it a couple months ago when I was looking for heavier socks. I do love the pattern and they are what they claim to be WEEKEND SOCKS. I plan to make many more like this for my cold winter feet!

Aunt Kate's feet are a size 6-1/2 or 7. Me and my girls all display big feet. Mine being a size nine, and my eleven year old daughter already a size 8. I had to use little Bret, who is only nine years old as my muse to fit the socks to a smaller foot. Hopefully they will fit Aunt Kate when her package arrives.

The slouch beanie came from a pattern that Brenda and I found a while back, as we looked for a pattern she could use for knitting a hat for a friend. I haven't been able to find the pattern again since, but when I want to make another one I count stitches on the hat we already have as a measurement.

The matching scarf is just a k5p5 pattern that inverts every 10 rows until it is complete. We finished it off with pom pom edges.

Finally, but not pictured here, we took a friendship rock (in Girl Scouts if you find a rock with a hole all the way through it, we call it a friendship rock) that we found on the Lake Michigan beach visiting Aunt Kate this summer. We strung it through some ribbon, added cool beads to it and made it into a necklace for her.

Happy January, Aunt Kate.

Why are we here...

My homeschool blog is leaving me feeling incomplete. Homeschooling these days pretty much handles itself. My girls are wonderful. They are blossoming like sweet petunias... or they might be more like the muddy spring afternoon after a good solid rain. That picture is just as lovely to me, probably more so than my flowers. 

But what I really love, what I spend much of my time on, what I cannot seem to get enough of these days is yarn. Socks and scarves, sweaters and hats, cowls, mitts, books, hooks, needles, scissors. So I wanted to dedicate my time to where my free time is going.

When I was young, maybe 8 or 9, my mom taught me the basic crochet stitch. So I knew how to go back and forth with my yarn and crochet needle, with what I suppose it the basic single crochet stitch?? **This surprises me, because both of my older girls rejected my teachings of crochet, but they took to knitting real quickly.** I made my first crocheted zig zag blanket at 19 years old when my first son was born. It fits a full sized bed and we still use it. In my 20's I moved in with my sister for a small stint. She taught me the double crochet stitch and I made my second blanket. My husband and I curl up with that thing at night still. It is his favorite.  in my 20's, I packed up my crochet needle and took out my sewing machine, where I, with little teaching, began sewing quilts, baby clothes, curtains, napkins, table runners, aprons, anything else I could get my hands to figure out with minimal pattern knowledge I had.

Turning 30, my mom had occasion to teach me the basics of knitting. Again I could go back and forth with the basic knit. She taught me to decrease and increase and that expanded my knowledge from scarves to wash cloths and dish towels. One day, sitting at my daughter's soccer practice I met Vikki. And Vikki was knitting a sock. She coppied her pattern for me, showed me how to read it, and introduced me to the amazing world of self-striping sock yarn. I revised that sock pattern to be useful in making hand mitts to match my cool socks, which my daughters all stole from me. That is how I came to read and understand those crazy patterns that previously looked strikingly similar to foreign writing.

Then one day, my oldest daughter's Girl Scout troop was collecting books as a service project and we ended up with an entire book dedicated to granny squares. Granny square hats, sweaters, shawls, afghans, wall hangings... Now I have had a soft spot for granny squares for years. They remind me of these crocheted pillows that my Granma by Ollie used to have on her couch. So that got me back to crocheting again. And here I am now. Not an expert knitter, or crocheter, or quilter, or any of those fab things I love to do. I just love to create and so I do when I have time. I haven't done anything really with this blog yet. And maybe I won't except keep my fun records. We will have to wait and see. :)