gilda_elise | Entries tagged with crafts

I really do love crocheting, but I seem to only love it in spurts. I’ll make three or four items, and the go into a dry spell. This seems to be one of those times.

A bit ago I responded to a post by

helenraven, praising the lovely sweater that she knitted. I told her that while I was sort of stuck as far as my crocheting, I wasn’t having any trouble at all buying yarn. She then said that she’d like to see the yarn. So here goes.

It was totally against what I had been trying to accomplish. I had several skeins of yarn that I had wanted to use up, so over the previous year I crocheted a few afghans. I felt that I was making progress. I thought, “soon, I won’t have any yarn left.” Then, the pandemic hit.

I didn’t think that would get in the way of lowering my cache of yarn. But then I started getting emails. For Michael’s, from JoAnn’s, and from Yarnspiration. They were sending me links to patterns. Such lovely patterns! And for yarn. Really inexpensive yarn! OMG, cheap yarn! So, wouldn’t you know it, ( yarn started to pile up. )

But even given that, how in the world did I end up with this?!

Hooked on Yarn

Not the most original name, but it came the closest to what I was looking for.

I decided on different colors, since I wanted a more warm look. I chose carrot, soft white, cafe latte, and pale yellow.

For some reason, it took me forever to complete this afghan. Starting with carrot, I crocheted 63 starter squares, but this was back in October.

1. Pile of carrots

In succession, I added soft white, cafe latte, and pale yellow.

2. Soft white

Finally, and not until the beginning of April, I completed the crocheting of the different colors on the 63 squares.

5. Completed Squares

I laid out the pattern for two rows to be sewn together. Slowly, the afghan took shape, until by the end of the month I had all 63 squares sewn together, and all the loose yard ends tucked in.

6. Two rows

All that was left was for me to add the edging. Finally, it was in its home on the guest room bed.

8. Completed project

With being asked to strongly consider, or order, depending on where you live, I decided to start making masks for my family. I was able to find a fairly easy pattern online.

Luckily, I had a bunch of fat quarters to work with. First on order, wash and iron them.

1. Wash

I picked out several different material patterns since I planned on making two each for eight people. I first cut one 8”x14” and two 1.75”x6” pieces. I sewed the 8”x14” pieces along the 8 inch side, right side in, then turned them right side out.

3. Right side out

With the seam edge on the bottom, I marked a line 1.5 inches from the bottom edge, and a second mark another inch above that. I folded the seam edge up and made a crease. Then I pulled up the crease to the second line and pinned in place. This makes a pleat half an inch deep.

Now I marked the lines for the second pleat. The first, half an inch from the first pleat’s crease, the second one inch above that. Pin in place. Repeat the step for a third pleat.

4. Pleated and Pinned

Using a 1/8” seam allowance, baste stitch the raw edges. Remove pins.

Pin one 6.5” elastic piece (or larger if making for a bigger man,) to the raw edges at both ends. I cut 6.5” pieces for women, 7” for men, and 8” for larger men.

Fold each 1.53”x6” strip of fabric lengthwise in half. Press. Place the strip along each end of the main body of the mask on top of the elastic, raw edge facing outward. It will be longer than the pleated piece. Tuck about 1/2” around the pleated piece at both ends, cutting the strip as needed. Pin all layers in place.

5. Elastic added

Using a 1/4” seam allowance, stitch the length of both edges, making sure to back stitch at the beginning and end.

Flip the strips over, so that they’re laying against the outside of the mask. Pin in place. Stitch the accent down to the main body of the mask, sewing along the edge.

6. Sides pinned down

Though not necessary, stitch down the edge of the mask close to the elastic side. It will give it a nice finished look.

7. Finished product

If you’d like to make your own, the entire pattern can be found at Button Counter.

November 3rd

With many a false starts, I finally figured out how to start this blankety-blank throw. I almost gave up. But I finally persevered, and once I did the rest was really easy. I suppose if I were so inclined, I probably could have finished it in a weekend. But I wasn’t, so I didn’t. What I did do was get the three colors I’d chosen started.

Photo Nov 04, 3 55 54 PM

After that, things really did start to take off. The throw just grew…

Photo Nov 05, 8 20 33 AM

(Nov 5) And grew….

Photo Nov 06, 4 25 49 PM

(Nov 9) And grew!

Photo Nov 09, 6 32 05 PM

But not enough. With only the edging to do, I didn’t feel that the throw was quite bit enough, so I kept going, adding another round set (one row of the last color, then two of a color, three of the next color, then two of the last color, then one row of each color.)

Then there’s just adding the edging.

Photo Nov 13, 9 46 35 AM

(Nov 12) It is done!

Photo Nov 13, 9 45 58 AM

After the last two crochet projects, I wanted something simple. I finally decided on this pattern, though I used slightly different colors. Instead of Teal, I used a dark blue, instead of sea foam I used a soft white, but I did use a light gray for the third color.

I made 50 blue squares Photo Aug 21, 8 46 01 PM

27 Soft white octagons and 22 grey octagons

Photo Aug 21, 8 28 21 PM

I used a stitch I learned to connect the pieces as I went along. So, on September 3rd, there were three rows, six on September 19, and, finally, all nine rows on October 2nd.

Photo Sep 03, 10 51 38 AM

With a simple edging, it all ready for its place in the living room.

Photo Oct 04, 10 10 39 PM

My niece posted a link to this pattern on Etsy. I knew right away that I wanted to crochet it, though I wasn't prepared for how many different stitches I would learn, like "sl st2tog (slip switch 2 stitches together,) dc2tog (double crochet 2 stitches together,) or FPdc (Front Post double crochet. And not to forget BPdc (Back Post double crochet.)

The first panel was pretty straight forward, and I finished it in hardly anytime at all. It was crocheting the hearts for the alternate panel that turned out to take quite some time. And I knew that switching back and forth on the panels, that I'd forget how to do the hearts, because I had to crochet one:

Photo Feb 23, 1 27 32 PM

And then crochet and link the next hearts. So I decided to do them all at once.

Photo Feb 23, 1 53 24 PM

Finally, I had seven rows of nineteen hearts, and was ready to start on the second panel.

Photo Feb 28, 1 58 25 PM

After stitching around the hearts, I joined it to the first panel with a "join-as-you-go" technique (another something new learned!) I did this with each panel until I had eight gray and seven heart panels joined together.

Photo Apr 29, 6 19 12 PM

Finally, I added the border, which is where a couple of those weird stitches were used. But I like how it looks, and plan on using it on other projects.

Photo May 02, 4 10 00 PM

And, so, the finished project!

Of course, they hadn’t always been lemons. More than fifteen years or so ago, my living room set was beautiful, and it fit right in with the decor I had in my house in Phoenix. And since we had two fairly large and hairy dogs, they weren’t allowed on the furniture. Unfortunately, I don’t seem to have a picture of the couches when they were new. I suppose that’s not something people do, take pictures of their furniture for no reason.

Anyway, the years went by, and we had two new dogs. Puppies. And, well, how can you keep puppies off of the furniture? *g*

Over time, the cushions became worn, and I had to put covers on the couches.

There was no way I was going to buy new furniture, not with two dogs who loved being up on those couches. The covers were okay, but since they didn’t cover the cushions I decided I better do something about it.

I’m not the most expert seamstress, but I found a good pattern online, and, after spending several hours at the nearby fabric store, I decided on these two designs.

Photo Aug 19, 3 18 53 PM

I cut out the material for nine cushions, and sewed together the side where the invisible zipper would go. Then I ironed out the seam.

Photo Feb 06, 4 25 57 PM

After I ironed it down, I pinned and then sewed the zippers into place.

Photo Dec 19, 6 00 35 PM

Then it was just a matter of undoing the seam, opening the zipper, and sewing closed the other three sides. And voilà, a new look.

Photo Feb 10, 10 15 56 AM

As much as that’s possible, anyway. :-)

The memory is of a certain school, that I, and my older brother and sister attended. Here we are, each of us on our graduation night, posing with our best friends (oddly enough, we’re the ones on the left in each picture.)

Most people probably consider their high school or college years the happiest of their time in school. Mine was the four years (5th through 8th grade,) I attended Edison Elementary. So much so that, when they were tearing it down in 1980, I jumped the temporary chain link fence and collected three bricks. One for me, and one each for my older brother and sister. Which brings me to the idea of bringing old memories to life.

I started collecting Village pieces a long time ago, and for most of that time I had a small school house that pretty much did the job. But after a bought a library for the village, the school was too small, so I went looking for another.

When I saw this, I had to have it.

Photo Apr 07, 12 38 35 PM

I imagine a lot of schools built during the turn of the 20th century looked pretty much the same. Two stories, with a large front entrance. Sometimes wings added to the side. So finding a school house created for a turn of the century village that looked a lot like my grammar school was probably bound to happen.

When the ceramic school house arrived, I had my work cut out for me. For some reason, the previous owner had applied what was supposed to be more snow, because, yeah, snow tends to stick to the sides of a building (!)

P1010029 (1) copy

I managed to finally get it all off, and then started on repainting it. Because I still have the brick, I knew the color the school had been.

Brick

The rest was pretty much from memory because, no matter how much I tried, I was never able to find another picture of the school. I even emailed the Phoenix Elementary District #1 office. No dice. The only picture I would ever have would be the blue (mimeographed) photo from the front of my graduation pamphlet.

I asked family members, and the consensus was that the roof was a slate shingle. The windows were white. The front entrance was gray.

Now, every Christmas, I have my school back. In miniature, but still there. And kids are playing in its yard, though there was never snow around the original. But that’s okay. It’s enough.

Complete

I figured it was time to branch out a bit, especially with many of my flist taking off to parts unknown (well, known, but you get my drift.) This could very well be too little too late, but I’m going to give it a try.

I was a little girl when my mom first tried to teach me to crochet. But since she’s right handed and I’m left handed, things didn’t go very well. I ended up crocheting a line of single crochets a yard long. Then I came up.

Fast forward several years. This time I decided to teach myself. I got a book and figured out the stitches just by reading. This time it worked, and I became an official crocheter. :-)

Dusky Snowflake Throw

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After so many years, I guess you could call me a pretty experienced at crocheting, but I always seemed to pick patterns that required a simple to moderate expertise. Not this time. But I figured, how much more difficult could it be? Well, I found out. *g* With many stops and starts, it took me about two years to complete.

Dusky Snowflake large motif

It starts with having to crochet 42 of this pattern. The first motif wasn’t a problem. But, as you crochet the last round on each proceeding motifs, you’re supposed to join it to the one before. Seven motifs would have 3 joins, the beginning motif of the next five rows would have seven joins. The remaining motifs would have nine joins. Except I couldn’t figure out how to join them. I tried at least a half dozen times, but it didn’t make any sense. I don’t know if it was me, or if the pattern left something out. Anyway, I finally thought, the hell with it, and crocheted all 42 like the first one and then sewed them together by hand. I think if I ever do this pattern again, I’ll be able to do it the way it’s supposed to be done.

Anyway, I had an easier time crocheting the thirty filler motifs. I even managed to figure out how to connect them to the larger motifs with the last round after only a few tries.

Dusky Snowflake small motif