Experimenting: Not Just For Crochet :)

My husband's birthday present. And yes, that's a Knifty Knitter. I'm learning how to knit for real, but it's slow going.

A Gift of Yarn. :D

My friend eurynome1967 over at LiveJournal said she had a bunch of leftover yarn and offered to send it to me, and since I never turn down free yarn, I sent her my address. What I got is pictured below, and...

Dude. I knew she was sending me some old yarn she wasn't using, but the absolute treasure trove that was sent...WOW.

I'm looking forward to using it all, but I hardly knew where to start! (That was solved rather quickly, and you'll see the result the day after tomorrow. ^_^)

And here come the close-ups:

This bunch makes me wish I had the patience for tiny crochet needles, tiny yarns, and intricate patterns.

These two are my favorites. XD

Mohair yarn. Really! I've rolled it into neat balls since then, and put it in a plastic bag before I added it to the other yarn. All the yarn with wool in it is in plastic bags too, because I don't want to set off anyone's allergies. (This reminds me, I should do a post about my workspace. I hope you won't think too badly of my cluttered "workroom.")

*squees some more about lots of free yarn, nearly all of it in quantities to make full projects!*

And bulky yarn! Something you can never have too much of. :D

Mommy Blanket Update

It's getting bigger! Now that I've got the hang of it, it's really quick and easy, and the yarn is very soft and easy to work with. It was kind of pricey, though, but (a) this is for my mommy, for whom no yarn is too good, and (b) I asked her what material she wanted and she said cotton, and cotton yarn is mad expensive these days.


Close-up...with strings in the way. Nice photography, self. :P

My balls. I mean, what's left of the first skeins of yarn for making my mommy's blanket. Must wait until payday to get more...or sell a scrapbook journal or some hairties over at Etsy. (That was meant as a minor plug, not hawking.)

I was into scrapbook journaling before I got back into crochet, and I've been using binder clips to keep projects I'm in the middle of--or in this case, colors I'm not working at the moment--from unraveling. I like it better than a stitch-counter type thing because it's not going to loosen because the closest bit of yarn that you'd be working on next is held fast by the clip. :)

Fuzzy Scrunchies! :)

These are so quick and fun to make!

Project: Fuzzy Scrunchie

Materials Used: Vanna's Choice Baby Yarn and Lion Brand Fun Fur Eyelash Yarn.

How to make: single crochet both yarns together all around a rubber band. (I used ouchless Goody ones.) Then chain three (or four, or five for) double, triple, or double triple (or more if you want, but double triple should do) two or three times in each stitch.

 

Tetris Blanket: Finished! :D

I spent a couple of Very Long Days And Nights redoing the long connecting lines, and I double-crocheted around the edges as a border, and ta-daaa!

Um...yeah. It doesn't quite lay flat. Kinda ruffly. But Fizzy liked it, and that's what matters. Besides, she knew one of the main reasons I was making this for her was to practice a granny square blanket. Well, it certainly was good practice!

Another close-up, this one with better lighting. :)

Yeah...it was so big I could only lay it out completely in the basement. (Though having a basement is pretty cool. The Husband and I are both from Florida, where you can't have a basement because it's at seas level. We're moving in a few months and I'm still not over the novelty of having a basement. ^_^)

Small Blankie Layout

Project: Red-white-and-blue blankie

Yarns used: Red, white, and blue strands of Red Heart Super Saver Yarn, and one strand of some really soft fuzzy white yarn that's been discontinued

This is actually the third incarnation of this yarn. The original plan was to make it into a comforter, and after awhile I realized that I'd made it waaaaay to long even for the long side! So I unraveled the whole thing (it took a couple of hours just to do the unraveling!) and started over. I'd also done uneven rows the first time so it was probably for the best.

After awhile I got tired of doing that, and it was at the time that I'd just learned how to do the basic granny squares like on the Tetris Blanket, and squares are a lot easier and less cumbersome to make, so I unraveled the blanket again and made squares. I wound up having enough material for twenty-one squares. I couldn't well make three nine-square blankets with just 21 squares (I wanted to get more of the fuzzy white yarn but I couldn't find them anywhere in Fairbanks. The husband and I are moving to New York later in the year--we're an army family--so maybe I can find some there and use it for something else),...so I used the yarn from those to put the two blankets I could make together. Pictures of those once I find them.

Meet Fatso the blankie model! Actually, this is Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat. He's a gift from Fizzy, my besty-best friend who lives in Australia. She sent me Fatso while my husband was deployed so I'd have something to cuddle while I was all alone in Alaska. (Husband got back last September, and snuggly as he is, I still sleep with Fatso when our sleep schedules don't overlap.)

Fatso again. He's so adorable, isn't he? :)

Tetris Blanket: Ten By Ten

THE STACK. ^_^

Blankiezilla: the square stage! I think it needs to be turned 90° counterclockwise to be viewed correctly. The whole same number of sides on all four sides got me a bit scatterbrained. Or did being a natural blonde get me scatter brained? Oy, this is why my dad calls it "artificial intelligence" every time I color my hair red. ;P

Close-ups! :)

Have a great day, everyone. :)

Tetris Blanket Doubles in Size

These pictures were taken with my phone's camera. Apologies for the not-the-best photo quality.

Close-ups. Ya know, now that I keep looking, the camera-phone pictures have kind of a vintage feel to them.

Also, you can see that the long-ways lines don't quite add up (I'm single-crocheting the squares together), but they'll be pulled out and those lines done over once everything's pieced together.

Obligatory angle shot. I are totes srs photographer. ;P

Folded up. This thing is getting really heavy...oops.

Tetris Blanket: First Three Rows

Looking more like randomly sewn-together squares rather than a Tetris pattern so far, here are the first three rows:

Close-up:

Fun with angles. This whole blanket was fun! I think I'll make another granny square blanket with that yarn--Lion Brand's Hometown USA, which I hope they never discontinue--but if there's a game design it'll probably be a simpler (and smaller!) checker- or chessboard.

Folded up:

Close up folded up. I like taking pictures but I don't know if I've really got any talent. I'll have to keep practicing and get by on skill, I suppose. :)

Tetris Blanket Squares

I felt a ridiculous amount of pride to see my squares stack up as I finished them! But a friend who's been crocheting since before I was born (or something like that ;) recommended I start piecing the squares together into strips as soon as I could, or else I'd be overwhelmed with 150 squares and making this face: o.O

Project: Tetris Blanket

This blanket turned out pretty well, but I made a huge mistake by using such bulky yarn. It was just so soft, and easy to work with--because big yarns and big hooks are so much better for my patience--I was...well, hooked. I offered to make Fizzy a smaller blanket with a less bulky yarn, but she said she hearts her Blankiezilla. :)


This is ten squares in a row. It was the point at which I realized Just How Big This Thing Was Gonna Be. And that was the short side! SO not a "blankie," more like a queen or king comforter. D:


The ten pieces again, from a lower angle.

Hiya!

I'm Heather Mac. :)

I love to crochet and do other crafts, and I feel like a perpetual amateur despite having a shop (at Etsy) that people occasionally buy from. And that's a good thing! It means I'm always learning, and always experimenting (hence the blog's title). For example, this morning I mastered the traditional granny square pattern and am making a blanket for my mom--my first commission! :D :D

I'll be posting pics of thins I've made before over the next few days and weeks, but for now I'll leave you with the Mommy Blanket, which will end up being a queen size comforter:



And this is the kind of yarn I'm using:



This is the only on that's not going into the spiral (I just learned the three-spiral never-ending granny blanket here), and I had bought four colors, so I'll be using that off-white to make a border around the finished blanket.