FM 10/26/09

I haven't done too much crocheting this week. It's crunch time at work and that usually means my right hand is aching by the end of the week. But I did manage to get in 6 rounds of the "Oopsie Daisy" circular baby afghan from this book:






It's going much faster than I expected and is much easier, too. I am making it out of the white Simply Soft Caron yarn. I will put this up for my older niece until the time comes for her to have it. I don't know when that will be, but I'm hoping soon.

This week in freebies:

I thought this was funny. I don't know if kids could wear it to school because it's sort of a toy, but it's cute. I present a hand puppet scarf
http://www.favecrafts.com/Crochet-for-Kids/Puppet-Scarf-Crochet-Pattern-from-Red-Heart#

I thought this was really neat, but I have a soft spot for bunnies - a pink rabbit monster ami
http://kandjdolls.blogspot.com/2009/09/free-pattern-pink-rabbit-monster.html


Crochet Cabana has some lovely charity patterns. To check them out, look at this link: http://www.crochetcabana.com/charity/charity-patterns.htm

If you have a lizard lover in your family, he or she may like a gecko bookmark
http://suzies-yarnie-stuff.blogspot.com/2009/10/suzies-gecko-bookmark-toy.html


My younger son explained to me this is "steampunk" but it looks like crocheted cog / gears. Still impressive, could be cool of a t-shirt:
http://vintagestitchorama.blogspot.com/2008/09/crocheted-cogs.html

Caron has a link for a beautiful scarf

http://www.naturallycaron.com/projects/green_valley/green_valley_1.html




That's it for today. My darling hubby is battling some weird cold (flu?) for over a week now and I got some sort of salivary gland infection going on now. So I'm sorry for the brief post.

As usual, I receive no money / gratuities from these folks. I'd take them (especially in Caron yarn) but it's not happening.

_enjoy_

FM 10/19/09

This is the fish for Aidain. I basically followed the motif pattern, using 2 strands of worsted weight yarn instead of one and putting one extra row of single crochet between the each of the original patterns. Obviously, it made it much bigger. I used one skein of the Caron Simply Bright and the other skein was the Red Heart Banana berry. I crocheted the eyes and sewed them to the fish. I wasn't too thrilled with the eyes, but I didn't want to use felt or buttons/eyes simply because Aidain is only about 6 weeks old. But I still liked it.
I have another project lined up to do, but I want to make myself do a few little applique things prior to beginning the next crochet project. I wear a navy blur lab jacket for work and it's boring. So I bought a few from Ebay (I didn't want to do anything to the company supplied jacket) and decided to "pimp" the pockets. One lab jacket has pink ribbon appliques on it. I plan to iron on a pink rhinestone ribbon on the same pocket. The other plans are sunflower appliques and butterfly appliques. It occurred to me that I could crochet the items after I already purchased the appliques. I'm thinking I may get a few more and make a snowman applique to put on the pockets. But that's for later.

Now it's time for some free patterns:
A beautiful pattern from Noreen Crone-Findlay - a crochet wire bracelet
http://www.blisstree.com/hankeringforyarn/crocheted-wire-bracelet-with-vintage-button/


I may have posted this before - or maybe I didn't. But I liked it so here it is, a
flower blanket from Caron's website:
http://www.caron.com/projects/op/op_flower_throw.html

The Crochet Dude has a pink ribbin purse on his site - it's cute, check it out
http://blog.thecrochetdude.com/2009/10/02/free-purse-pattern-pink-ribbin.aspx


As always, if you have cats, you must have cat toys. Yeah, I know everything is a toy for cats, but this is really a crochet cat toy
http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/09/just_a_few_yards_using_up_yarn_scraps.html?CMP=OTC-5JF307375954


It might be time for all of us who associate pine cones with winter holidays to start on this project from Planet M - crocheted pine cones
http://planetmfiles.com/2008/12/18/free-crochet-pine-cone-pattern/


Again, I'm not sure if I posted this or not, but I think it's fascinating. I'm trying to think in what lifetime I'd do all those little motifs but you never know -
crochet flower afghan from Berroco.
http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/cyanne/cyanne.html


It's close to Halloween, bow about some ami bats
http://fuzzyfeetworks.blogspot.com/2009/10/free-amigurumi-bats-pattern.html

A few more projects from the Caron site:
a vest
http://www.naturallycaron.com/projects/aurora/aurora_1.html

and a sweater
http://www.naturallycaron.com/projects/cushman/cushman_1.html


Here's another bat pattern for you:
bat pattern
http://shala-beads.livejournal.com/202913.html
And here's a blog that does Sunday freebies you might want to check out. It's Itsybitsyspider Crochet, it has a lot of good information on this blog:
http://itsybitsyspidercrochet.blogspot.com/search/label/Free%20Patterns


The usual disclaimer applies - I receive no special consideration or renumration for posting these sites. I keep saying I'm not proud, I would accept it but I guess no one wants to insult my integrity;)

_enjoy_

FM 10/5/09

Greetings, everyone. I finally finished Aidain's afghan, still got to make a toy fish to go with it, but that shouldn't be so difficult. I would do a few things differently the next time around. One thing I would have made as many rows of fish as it took to make the size I wanted. I had a devil of a time trying to edge the fish side part of the afghan. I tried to single crochet it, trying to make everything the same height. I made half fish, which did not work as well as I had planned. I made difficult colored whole fish and couldn't get it to work the way I want. As you can see, I went back to the single crochet edging. I would have sewn the fish with a little more ease in the seam. Or maybe I would have crocheted them together. I plan to play with the pattern at a later date to see what I could have done differently. Maybe make some really big fish by increasing the stitches in the motif. (This is Braveheart testing the afghan for softness.) I made it with an H hook, using Caron's Simply Brights for the fish motifs and the trim is in Red Heart Banana Berry. I might post some more pictures later on in the week.

Anyway, here's what I got this week:


For the Canadians who will be celebrating Thanksgiving next week,
here's a turkey pattern form Planet M
http://planetmfiles.com/2008/11/11/free-crochet-turkey-pattern/

I thought these were lovely, especially the shade of the mitts.
Suzie's butterfly mitts
http://suzies-yarnie-stuff.blogspot.com/2009/09/suzies-butterfly-mitts-c.html

and Here's the hat to go with it
http://suzies-yarnie-stuff.blogspot.com/2009/07/suzies-butterfly-garden-cap-c.htm


I'm thinking of a fish to match the afghan, I might use this pattern but make it in the various colors of the afghan instead of just gold colored. here it is - a
goldfish amigurumi
http://www.favecrafts.com/Crochet-Amigurumi/Goldfish-Friends-Amigurumi#


And as you know, I love bunnies. I love making toys, so this is a natural fit for me - a bunny amigurumi
http://www.favecrafts.com/Crochet-Amigurumi/Love-Bunnies-Crochet-Amigurumi


Donate a scarf, get 20% off at Lion Brand. Too bad this is for the New
York store only.
http://www.lionbrandyarnstudio.com/lionStudioBlog/?p=1977

cool spider coasters
http://www.coatsandclark.com/Crafts/Crochet/Projects/Seasonal/WC1939+Spiderweb+Coasters+and+Halloween+Table+Center.htm


maybe your dog has a Halloween party coming up, you may want to check this out:
http://www.caron.com/projects/op/op_hotdog_coat.html

That's it. As usual, nobody exchanged money or goods for being mentioned here. They know I'll list it anyway, so what's the use of bribing me. Although I really could go for a turkey sandwich...