Blanket by Bev Ireland

My original intentions when I saw this pattern were to make it for a friend who is due in March. My plans soon changed when I started having so much trouble with it and also ran into some 'issues' that required I do some unravelling as well as having problems with the edging. I think in an earlier post I explained how I originally decided the pattern was incorrect and that 23.5" was not wide enough, so I decided to make it wider, then half way through decided it was too wide on top of the fact that I started with the incorrect colour, as well as it curling downwards at the bottom bc I did not make my chain row loose enough.

So I unravelled it all and started over again. My second attempt faired much better, but when it came to doing the edging, I had a few issues, and then when it was time for the braiding, I got one braid done, ran out of the "wood" colour and could not justify spending another $6 for 3 strands of Yarn so it only has the braid on the bottom. After all that, of what I would call a rather simple pattern, I decided to keep it for myself. You can see in the photos that the edging is 'curling'. My husband does not think it's a huge deal but it annoys me. It matches well with my stroller which was not my intent when I picked out the yarn, I just really liked the red and brown together.

Project Name: Seija Set by Bev Ireland (I did not do the matching hat)
Pattern: Found in Stitch N' Bitch - The Happy Hooker
Yarns: Lion Brand Wool-ease Wood/Cranberry and Fisherman
Number of Skiens: 2 Skiens of Wood and Fisherman, about half of a 3rd Skien of the Cranberry due to the border.
Started & Finished: I can't remember, I think between all the unravelling I spent about 2 week-ish working on it?
Level of Difficulty: Easy. The entire blanket is all DC and changing yarn is super easy. The only thing that I found hard was doing the edge down the sides, since there are no perfect "Vs" to slip your hook into, you have to sort of guess and space them evenly, which as you can see I was not able to.

I had "planned" to work on a cross stitch block next, but I got invited to a baby shower for Feb. 10th so I started a hooded baby blanket from a book I have "Learn to Crochet". I'm about half done and have no idea if I'll complete it before Sunday.

Lana the Lamb

Lana the Lamb
Originally uploaded by carleycat11

I think I'm addicted to making these cute little Crochet toys by Owlishly. Lana is my favourite so far, as well as my daughter's. I will admit there was a lot less unraveling on Lana then Luke and I was able to stitch her up in about 5hrs total. I highly recommend that if you like to crochet, you head over and visit Owlishly's blog or stop by her Esty store to check out her Crochet Toys.

She's suppose to have hair, but I tried to use my c/s floss to make some and I just could not get it to turn out right. :0( I also picked up some of the safety eyes today at PM Hobby so I no longer have to sew on glass beads.

Pattern: Lana the Lamb
Designer: Owlishly
Yarn: TLC White, Black, Tan
Started: Last night
Finished: Today
Difficulty Rating: Beginner

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I also completed the baby blanket I was working on by Bev Ireland. I have to say that while it was a rather simple pattern to follow and complete, I doubt I'll do it again. Let's just say that edging is not my forte and I need some serious work in that department. I'll take some photos tomorrow when I have more light and share them.

Unravelling...

A little over a week ago, after finishing Luke in a Dinosaur Suit, I was feeling rather confident and decided to try a baby blanket from my Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet - The Happy Hooker book. I went to Michaels and after debating over yarn colours for what my husband felt was an eternity, I chose Wood, Cranberry and Fisherman. I happily started my project, was half way done (24 rows) before I sat down and unraveled each and every row.

The first thing I found that was wrong with it, I sort of was like "Meh whatever, it's for me, I can live with that, but then I saw another and then a final 3rd one encouraged me that I should just start all over again because the perfectionist part of me was going to see every single one of these errors and it was going to drive me looney.

First mistake - I decided that the pattern width was not wide enough. They always seem to make receiving blankets and other items too small, so I decided I'm add an additional 3" to the width. It was not until row 24 (why oh why did it take me that long to really notice?) that I decided it was definitely too wide. That coupled with the fact that when I asked my dear Husband "Honey you do not think this is to wide do you?" and he answered "No not at all, how many more rows are you adding to the width?". Ummm no the width is this way, not vertical. oiy

My next mistake was tension. I chained on 90ish chains and made them a bit too tight. When I then added on each additional row, the bottom part of the blanket started to arch downward and would not lay flat. Slightly frustrating. I pulled to try and straighten it out, to no avail. This is the mistake I felt I would just live with since hey, it's for me after all right?

My final mistake was that I started my first row with Cranberry, when it would have been Wood. I wanted to do the border in Cranberry, so by starting with cranberry, that meant I could not do it that way, or I'd have 2 double rows of red together and it'd just look funny. My excuse not to unravel when I realized this was "Oh I'll just do the border in Wood instead, even though I really wanted it in Red.

So I've re-started the blanket, this time only chaining 76 st like the pattern says, I started with Wood instead of Cranberry and I made nice loose chains so that my blanket is not arching downward. So far, so good. I'm however, only on row two, so there is still lots of time to flub it up again. :p

He has a Face!

Luke in a Dino Suit
Originally uploaded by carleycat1

I was a bit bothered that my cute little dino was faceless, so today after Salsa Tots I stopped at Michaels in search of some eyes. They did not have any of the ones that Owlishly uses, but I found some glass beads that worked perfectly! I think I put them a bit too close together, but the overall result I think is good.

Natasha has already kid tested it by pulling and yanking and chewing (with my supervision) and the eyes are not budging. :0)

And then there were ten...

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been working on this one cross stitch project for years. It was suppose to be for Tash, but I did not quite get it finished, and now, in the last few months I've picked up my needle again and started to work away at it. I've finished three, and am now working on the 11th one. I've decided that there is no way I'm going to do 2 of these quilts, so once I have 16 of these critters completed, that will be it. Hopefully I can finish it before I get pregnant with #2 kidlet and give birth to him/her. ;0)



Designer: Ellen Mauer-Stroh
Available at: Patterns Online
Fabric: 25ct Antique White Lugana
Threads: DMC Floss

Luke in a Dinosaur Costume

Luke in a Dinosaur Costume
Originally uploaded by carleycat1

First I want to say that when I started this toy, I thought I had mastered most of the stitches for crocheting and felt I would be able to zip right through this little guy. Total time to finish him? Six days. Yes, six days of working on him between my daughter's naps, when she went to bed and whenever I could grab a free moment.

I was pretty excited to stitch him, but then as I started to stitch him up, I realized I had "mis-interpreted" a few of the directions in my crochet book on stitches. That will teach me to only skim and miss out on important instructions! How did I know I had mis-read them you might ask? Well, because I was using Owlishly's photos as guidelines and my crochet pieces looked nothing like hers.

So, after I unraveled each arm and leg 2xs, re-did his head, and unraveled the body once, I figured it all out. He's still not perfect, the hood on his head is not quite like it should be, he seems a bit deformed to me (hence why I'm sharing a side profile), and he's faceless! Her directions called for plastic eyes (if your child is over 3) so I did not add them, but had planned to stitch on some eyes and a mouth with cross stitch thread. Well...I got so excited when I got the head done, I stuffed it and sewed it shut, then put the hood over it without even thinking I should stitch his face first. Maybe fabric Paint would work? :0)

Started: Six Days ago :p
Yarn: Bernat - Celery
Hook: G/4mm
Made for: My daughter
Pattern: Owlishly Designs

Bad blogger!

Yikes I had every intention of keeping this up to date, but since starting this blog I've finished 2 small cross stitch designs and added crochet to my repertoire of craftiness! I'll try and take some pics of the cross stitch projects, but for now, here's a radish I crochet'd yesterday while laid up in bed;



I'm hoping to make 2 more radish and continue on with some carrots, grapes, a hot dog and other veggies and fruits for Tasha's future play kitchen. :-)