Sprung!

Pretty!

To give my hands and arms a rest from the massive amounts of knitting I’ve been doing lately, I decided a little crochet was in order. Something quick and easy and fun and Spring-y was just what I needed. When I came across Veronica O’Neil’s Bird of Prey I knew I’d found my project.

Obviously for Spring I didn’t want to do it in plain black (though I am definitely going to in the future — I could use a plain black shawl and this one is so easy!) and I happened to have some Hometown USA in Dallas Grey handy. I really didn’t want just plain grey, though, so I thought I’d add some colorful fringe. One ball of Monterey Lime later, there were some pretty green accents around my shawl, and it was starting to feel downright vernal. It still wasn’t quite enough, though…those long green fringes seemed to evoke stems, so I hunted up an easy flower pattern and grabbed some random bright bits and bobs and set to.

I ended up alternating green and grey fringe — all green was just way too much — and the flowers are 8 different colors. I had originally thought to put some flowers in the middle of the shawl as well, but decided I was done making flowers like it just fine like this. A couple of notes on the flowers: I found it much easier to end up in the right spot if I joined the petal color somewhere other than the beginning/end of the flower center, and I only did a single petal on each flower rather than the double given in the pattern (I just didn’t do the second repeat).

If this doesn’t say Spring, I don’t know what does.

The flowers actually took two or three times longer than the shawl, which only took me about 3 hours. 3. Hours. I know, right?!?! Because I am super slow and this was superfast. Now you see why I’m going to make one in black, too. Heck, I might make one in every single color of Hometown USA.

I apologize for the low quality phone pics…I forgot to grab my camera and I’m trying to be really good abotu not letting lack of awesome photos keep me from posting. Because that way lies Procrastination with a capital “P”. Hopefully someday there will be both regular posting AND awesome photos.

Going Backwards

No, wait, that’s not what I meant. So back in the day (and even now lots of times) cardigan patterns are written such that you only have instructions for one front and are told to make the second one the same way, just reversing the shaping. But what the hell does that mean? I explain it all over on the Lion Brand blog.

I was making a what now?

I’m usually pretty good at learning from past mistakes. One of the few that I just seem doomed to repeat is putting a project aside “just for a bit — certainly not long enough to forget where I am” and picking it up 3 months years later only to discover that I have no freaking clue what is going on with the pattern. If I even still have the pattern. If you’re like me (please tell me I’m not the only one who does this), you might find these nifty tips I wrote about for the Lion Brand Notebook helpful.

Found It on the Internet Friday #8

I’ve had this done since Tuesday and almost forgot to post it! How cute is this adorable crocheted ring? This was my very first one, and it only took me about 30 minutes. I used your basic DMC embroidery floss and a size 3 steel hook, which seemed to be about right.

I need one to go with every outfit!

The instructions for this ring and two others are available on AllFreeCrochet.com — these are so pretty and easy I can definitely see myself making more! This is ring #1 in the instructions, BTW. The only “issue” is that you haev to remember to take them off when you wash your hands or they get all damp and squishy and feel yucky (once they dry they’re right as rain, so not a big deal if you forget!).

A note on choosing hook size…my very scientific method for this if I don’t have any idea what I’m going for is to — careful, technical term coming up here — guess. You can usually tell as soon as you start chaining if you need to go smaller or larger. Don’t be afraid to play around and switch it up until you find a good match for your yarn, especially on a project like this, where gauge is definitely  not of the essence.

Oops, I did it again!

Remember how I ran out of yarn for the Nurgake and had to use a second yarn to finish it off? Yeah, well, I did it again accidentally-on-purpose so I could blog about it for Lion Brand. And got a really cute little jacket out of it, too!

The cheesecake shot I decided not to use on the work blog.

This is Not a Clever Title

I’m already starting to run out of clever titles for these. More blogging over on the Lion Brand Site, this time about how to increase in pattern and keep it lookin’ purty.

More Pattern Reading Tips From Yours Truly

If you get confused by stitch groupings and repeats, today’s post over on the Lion Brand Blog is just for you. Don’t say I never gave you anything. Or if you do say it, feel a little twinge of guilt for the filthy lie you just told.

Enjoy Last Week’s Chart-onay?

Here, have another glass! Over at the Lion Brand blog again, some tips and tricks for working with charts (since I know you’ve spent the last week learning to read them).

Crisp, Refreshing Chart-onay

When I first started working cables and lace, I hated charts. Hated ‘em. Then I learned how to read them, and discovered that they made everything so much easier, for several reasons. And the truth is, it wasn’t that hard to learn, either. I wrote all about why and how you should learn, too, over at the Lion Brand blog.

Found It on the Internet Friday #3

This one’s for the kids!

Flutterbys!

This past week was our company picnic, which is awesomely fun but unfortunately due my current (lack of)mobility issues I knew I wouldn’t get to participate in a lot of the activities. Since I still wanted to be there to hang out with folks and see all the people from the other office and so on, I decided to grab a project small enough to work on in the +90° temps. I’ve been wanting to make a bunch of these for the kids to play with for awhile now, so I sat down and crocheted away. I did try to figure out a good way to set it up so I wouldn’t have to make two pieces and join them, but the ones made separately really did come out better. I actually made a total of 6 (there was a moment of panic when it looked like I’d only made five and the children would have to — gasp! –  share, but I found the McGoohan [big nerd points if you get that one] and all was well), but one of the children grabbed hers and ran off cackling gleefully before I had a chance to get a picture of them all together.

Yarn is LB Lion Wool Prints in Autumn Sunset

ETA link to the pattern (oops!): Found it on CrochetSpot