Valentines Day Pattern Drafting!

Hey Everybody!
well, in all the hub bub and such and so getting ready for Christmas and that great big cross-country move I just made, I plum forgot about this simply gorgeous pattern for a valentine's day gift I'd wanted to make for my boyfriend. I saw this pattern on Coco Knits for free by linking it through my ravelry account, and absolutely fell in love with it!


Tragically, not only did I not have a set of DPNs in the correct size, but I had let time grow short! I decided - what's easier than buying a new set of needles and following directions? why, creating a crochet version of the same pattern, of course! little did I know the antics that would ensue!

However, here, after days of ripping out and figuring out a good stretchy cast on (wound up using a foundation single crochet tutorial from here)...



... is the pattern!

Smitten Heart - Crochet

Cuffs - make two. (tip! if you divide the yarn and work up two at once, you can try them on and see how large you would like to make the 'heart' portion of your smitten)

fsc: foundation single crochet
fpdc: front post double crochet
bpdc: back post double crochet
sc: single crochet
sl: slip stitch
sc2tog: single crochet 2 together (an invisible decrease)

fsc 15, join. ch2
1fpdc around next post, 1bpdc around next post. continue around to end, join with sl, chain 2. continue this round till 3 inches, or desired length (for me, 3 rounds is enough.

1sc in first stitch, 2sc in the next stitch (not the space)around till last stitch, 2sc in last stitch, join with sl, chain one.

1sc in each stitch. join with sl, chain one. repeat this round until the round top portion of the heart is as long as you like. 3 rounds of all 1sc in each stitch were what I used for the smitten in the example.

once you have worked up both cuffs as long as you would like them, cut off the yarn for one, leaving a 4 inch tail. next you'll be joining the two together.

joining

lay one cuff on top of the other, insert hook into the chain attached to yarn first - then into the chain stitch attached to the four inch tail. work one single crochet through both chains. single crochet the two cuffs together for 7 stitches. (tip! if you crochet over the tail, it will prevent having to go in and weave in the ends later)

sc in every stitch around the outside of the cuffs, NOT THE JOINING ROW.

2sctog, sc around till 2 before joining chain on opposite side, 2sctog, sc, 2sctog, sc around till 2 before chain stitch, 2sctog, join sl, ch 1.

sc around, ch1.

sc around, sc2tog in center of join once on each side. the rest of the piece is worked in a spiral.

sc2tog every 8th and 9th stitch. when the heart begins to taper to your desired length, switch to sc2tog every 5th and 6th stitch, then every 3rd and 4th stitch, until only 6 stitches remain. then sc2tog each stitch. when there are too few to work, hook them together, tie off and weave in the ends. you're all done!

this is the first pattern i've posted here, so let me know if you'd like any corections/additions!












My Current Project: Smitten Adaptation!

Test Post

Testing out the new sharing links!

Stashbusting for a Youngster! SBfaY #1:The Saga Begins...

Yarncrafting can be one of the most fun and creative activities - especially when one is snowed in, sick, injured or, if you are particularly lucky, all three at once!

Right now I am slowly working through a cache of baby yarn. how did I get all this baby yarn? Let me digress....

About 2 months ago my boyfriend's niece turned 1. Sadly, I was out of town, but offered to knit something and send it to her. "Great!" he said. Or maybe "Really? That would be great!" Or, more probably, "Great! That's really sweet, but don't put yourself out." At any rate, I had the go-ahead, but none of the size information. but hey! I could wing it, right?


Well, then I started shopping for yarn at the East Bay Depot for Creative Re-Use. If you live in the Bay Area and you haven't been there, you should definitely check it out. They take donations and sell at very reasonable rates - $2 for a complete skein and $1 for an 'incomplete' one.

I immediately grabbed some cute baby yarn, but hadn't decided what to make, and shortly called him again and asked questions like "What are her parents' favorite colors?" and "do they do the whole pink thing?" and "Do you have a measurement of her head?"

...Really? 'Do you have a measurement of her head?!' What was I saying! But alas, caught up in the whirl of new crafting challenge and a wealth of cheap quality yarn, I had become delirious.

That's why Ive decided to include the projects I've done in a SBfaY series (hehe, sounds like 'spiff-ay'). Each post gets a SBfaY tag, and will show the project, the pattern link and any alterations I made or the pattern itself (if it's one of my original designs).

Looking forward to the challenge, and prepare for the child-crafting frenzy to begin!

A New Year and its Resolutions

So, a new year is upon us once more, and a new year brings new resolutions. This is also the first year of a new decade, and that makes it the perfect opportunity to turn over a new leaf in a couple of major ways!

For starters, here are a few of my resolutions:
Update the blog at least once a week, and improve the networking systems
Draft new yarncraft patterns and publish them here and on Ravelry
Find new and exciting ways to organize and stash bust in efficient, cost effective and fun ways
Make new resources to make crafting fun and exciting for you, the reader!

What do you think? got any new resolutions for you and/or your crafting? comment and let me know about your ideas, and what you'd like to see on the blog this year!

Here are a few of my favorite resources so far:

Lion Brand Yarn's Blog Post "Resolutions for a New Year"

Psych Central's "10 Sure Ways to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions"

Associated Content's "New Year's Resolutions for Crafters"

Why Craft? or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Ignore the Nay Sayers

On-Going Project Today: Crocheted Candy Apple Shrug, Lion Brand Yarn

Project Inspiration: Crocheted flower amalgam peices

Soundtrack: Remember My Name, Fame (soundtrack)

 

“So, you’re going to teach young women to knit, and make them little domestics?”

…This, sadly, was an actual question put to me in college while I was planning my first yarncraft workshop. The workshop itself was a huge success, but his lingering comment from a colleague still bothers me. Hosting my first workshop was a big deal – I felt it was my graduation from novice to beginner… if that makes the amount of sense to you that it does to me. My yarncrafting had been extremely rewarding for me, and for some bozo that had never picked up a skein to claim I had set up a factory for Stepford Stitchers?! Outrageous!!!

Thankfully, this moment was one of those fantastic fusions of the “I know exactly what to say!” moment, and the “My reflex reaction is SO much better than pulling the punch!” moment.

“You never make someone less of an independent by giving them a new skill!” Perfect closing, complete with elevator doors closing on said bozo’s face. My workshop was a huge success – a large, mixed crowd interested in learning the craft that had begun sweeping campus arrived, learned from me and from one another, and I picked up a couple cool tricks too (including the super-handy cast on method I call the Gun-Slinger Cast On, detailed HERE).

The take away message? Craft non-believers are out there. But the more we do, the more we create and the more we enjoy ourselves, the more 2 things happen:

1)    They get less and less evidence they have that crafting is for shut ins and campers,

2)    The less their opinions matter! If you’re having fun doing something you love [without putting anyone at risk, a disclaimer should read], what does it matter? 

Life: the ULTIMATE CRAFT!

After creating my plastic yarn, trying to melt plastic bottles into usable material and recycling the pages to my eco-friendly page a day calendar, i decided to get a breath of fresh air and brew up some mint iced tea. My little mint plant has been doing well since I moved her outside! in the tiny pot in the kitchen window, things weren't so good. But out in the brilliant august sun the little bugger has been thriving and sprouted up about 3 inches in the past week and a half!

...So, when are we getting to the crafting part?!?!

I have decided to follow Dr. Frankenstein's lead and see if i can create life myself - only without the galvanism or the penchant for Lamarkian science. There are a lot of great artciles out there, and I'll link you to the ones I looked at first!

The trick here is doing what gardeners call "cuttings." When cutting a plant, you take a small portion of a healthy plant (roughly 4 inches, for typical garden herbs) and slice the end off in a diagonal cut. 

Have a glass container of water at the ready! Getting that cutting into water before the plant starts to heal is important! if the plant has time to heal, it will essentially "scab over" and refuse to sprout roots. Some experts even say to make the cut underwater - but lacking the finesse for that I simply sterilized my scissors, snipped and dunked.

As an experiment, I added sugar to one of my two water jars. some think that by adding table sugar to the cutting, the plant will grow quicker and hardier.

So, to do this at home, here are the steps!

1) Have a healthy plant, sterilized blade/scissor, small glass container of water, sunny safe place for the plant to grow, and possibly sugar and a calendar to monitor your progress.

2) Take a section of the plant, cutting about half an inch lower from where you would like the final cut to be.

Optional) Add sugar to the water you intend to put the cutting in.

3) assure that all your materials are ready to go, as the next step is a quick one.

Optional) carry out the cut itself underwater - it's totally up to you!

4) Snip the stem at LEAST a quarter inch below the lowest place where leaves sprout from the stem. IMMEDIATELY plunge the snipped end into the water.

5) Secure your cutting in the glass in it's resting place, ideally near a sunny window. Check on it every day.

Pictures to follow!

No Reason a Cubicle Can't Have Its Own Crafts!

If you're interested on doing some up-cycling, check out this great article from Geek/Eco Sugar!

My favorites? Gotta be the cord corraller (you could use a tube sock as suggested - or maybe a tee shirt sleeve or mitten) and the desk toy organizer. These really are great first-steps into the world of crafting for a cause, and can be modified (or 'modded' if you prefer the current crafter jargon)

The white paper CD holder seems a little wasteful - until you consider using paper with old printing on it, or magazine pages!

I'm crafty, you're crafty, check out "She's Crafty"!