I've been swallowed up by Ravelry

What is Ravelry you ask? It's yarn smack! I happily click, click through projects and forums and people. The more I do it the more I want to do. The simple answer Ravelry is an online community where you can organize your yarn stash, finished projects, works in progress and queue up projects you want to do someday. And more, much much more.

Right now you have to get on a waiting list to get it in. It's worth the wait, I'm just sayin.' Come on check it out you know you want to. Ravelry is here

In other news I've got some work done on my Susanne sweater I am working on from Cool Crochet. I'm at a loss with the Autumn Romance Pullover from the Fall 2007 Interweave crochet. I'm either very confused or the pattern is just wrong.

We splurged on costumes for the kids so I don't have anything to sew or make. Jade will be a Witch and Corbin will be a Cowboy, very traditional this year:)

I'm not sure what I will be but I will be wearing my Hallowi, a free patten on Knitty.


I think this looks better on my son.


Remeber that freeform doll blanket that I have been working on since forever? It's done!


I'm really pleased with how it turned out.


I'm on day 10 without coffee and doing well. The first day I had a headache but was totally able to get through it with some painkiller. The next day I had a light headache and took a little for that. I'm sleeping better at night. I don't miss the coffee in the morning per say but occasionally I'm hit with a craving for a cuppa. I think that's what I miss the most, the taste.

That's all for now. Thanks for coming by.

Late Breaking News!

I've been published!

I submitted one of my freeform designs for a freeform knit and crochet calendar. You can see the calendar here. They published my freeform tea cozy. Just look on April and you will find my cozy with a few other way cool designs.

It's for a good cause too, Global Fund for Women. So get your copy now! You know you want one.

Freeform Purse - NaBloPoMo#10

Whenever I get the chance I make something freeform. During the summer secret pal swap my partner said she wouldn't mind a freeform purse or tote.

Her favorite colors were pinks and blues. I hope I didn't take the color scheme too far as it came out quite bold. She did say thank you but you never know.

Almost done just need to sew it together, weave in those pesky ends and make a strap, and sew in a lining. (Doing my best to look at the work that was ahead of me with glass half full kind of attitude.)

I enjoy the freeform process except for weaving in the end. That's the biggest trouble with freeform so many yarn changes so many ends to weave in, so much sewing to put the scrumbles together. Since, I love the process so much and the end result most of the time I keep at it.

The back (left) and the front of the purse(right)

Before I sent it off to her I steam blocked the shoulder strap with an iron. I used a pink lining with fabric I had on hand that I dyed myself. Dang it! I didn't get a post of the lining.

The front flap open

Tea Time Freeform Style

Tea Time Freeform Style

I made this Tea Cozy as for a swap on Crochetville this month. I asked my partner if she would like a freeform cozy and she did. I love getting a chance to make something doing freeform crochet.

So off I went and bought some spiral instructions I have wanted to purchase for a while now. I was a bit disappointed in the the quality of the instructions but they did help me figure out how to do bobble spirals and other spiral techniques. In the end I think they were worth it because my partner likes her cozy - phew!





A few more pictures you can check out, they are clickable.

It's all about the process - rip it! rip it!

I decided to frog the spiral blanket back to the beginning so it wouldn't be so wavy. I had to go back a looooong way. Then I started making it again. I laid it flat on a table every round to make sure it would lay flat. It's about 10inches wide now and I plan in making it bigger.





I got it to this size and started adding on again.



Here's the second go around adding things to the outside. I just gets too wavy. So I frogged it back AGAIN to the spiral picture above. I started making small scrumbles rather than trying to crochet it continuously.

Here are some scrumbles that will be added to the blanket.



A blanket overview


I want about 1/3 more scrumbles before I think I'm done.

Freeformin' it

I've been itching to complete a freefrom project so I started this project yesterday and decided to make a hat because I was kind of cold.

I really like how the colors came together but I'm not sure I like the "bumpyness" (like my technical term :) After taking the pictures is does seem that the hat is loosening up a bit and seems to look a little smoother. I used left-over ww Plymouth Encore yarn from my Bohemian Jacket and some Moda Dea Dream(fuzzy purple) and some other Bernat fancy yarns. I started the project using a fairly large hook like a J but them moved down to a H.

Here are a few pictures that give some views of the top of the hat and the sides and back:







I want to make another one soon when I can build up a good stash. A friend of mine is going to give me some yarn she doesn't want anymore which will be perfect for some freeform work. I mostly played with varying stitch height with this hat in my next project I want to get even more creative with the stitches

I also been messing around with some skinny scarf ideas becasue I 'm participating in the summer scarf swap on crochetville

I free formed this swatch to see how thread might hook up. I used a size 4 steel crochet hook and cotton thread # 10.



Here's a close up of the sample:


It's big enough to fit around my neck as a choker. I can't decide if I really like it or not.

Free Form Spiral Doll Blanket

I enjoyed working on this last night. It worked up fairly quickly to. I'm using Red Heart yarn and an H hook. When I make another one I will likely try a larger hook to see if the blanket will have more drape that way.



I'm making this for my dd as a doll blanket. I'm having fun exploring the possibilities of free form crochet. In the future I want to make some baby blankets for real babies. I like the idea of making something on the funky fun side in bold and bright colors. I even like the pastels my daughter picked out for this one. (I'm not a a pastel colors person. I love bold colors even on babies)






Overall I'm liking the look. Especially how things are adding on to the outside but if you look at the last photo the project really doesn't lay flat and it's bugging me.



You can see that I added too many increases. I may frog back to the beginning and do less increases unless I get some suggestions on how I can salvage it.