not your average crochet

slowly but surely

January 24, 2012 by HannahOwens 2 Comments

My flower sunburst granny square afghan is coming along very slowly, less because of my lack of time to crochet and more because of my lack of yarn funds. I swear I will never use Berroco Vintage Chunky for a blanket again! It’s my favorite chunky yarn, and I love everything about it except the price! It’s $8.50 a hank at the local yarn store, hence the need to pause before restocking. My previous wavy afghan was made with the it but used a lot less (due both to the pattern and size). My current afghan should amply cover a double bed, but even so, I feel the desperate need for a cheaper yet similarly soft and washable yarn! Dear reader, please suggest brands to me!

Here are some [slightly blurry] pics of my progress (thanks, point-and-click camera). This first pic is of one of my yarn storage bins containing 60 squares and the favored Brittany J hook. So far I’ve finished 76 out of 120 squares; 120 squares will make a 10 square by 12 square afghan and I plan to add some edging rounds as well.

So that is my progress, what do you think? Hopefully I will be finishing the squares soon and can lay them all out to piece them together. I plan on just slip stitching them all together — it seems easier, faster, and almost neater than sewing them. I will share my progress with you again as soon as it has reached this desired point. Hopefully you won’t be sick of reading about this afghan by then!

Filed Under: crochet Tagged With: afghan, blanket, crafts, crochet, granny square, throw

hooks and homework

January 15, 2012 by HannahOwens 3 Comments

So I’ve started my spring semester of grad school, and boy howdy is it going to be tough. I’m taking 12 hours, which does not include the time spent that we’re required to meet with our practicum teacher for 2 hours every other week, and the practicum itself, which will take up about 10 hours a week for me. I’m also working this semester –I’m already so stressed out! Oh and I also have to present a poster in February at a state counseling conference, and I don’t know where to start on it.

Needless to say I haven’t crocheted a whole lot this past week, but I did get my sharp crochet hook in the mail from www.sharpcrochethook.com, and I tested it on an old pillowcase, since putting edgings on pillowcases is what I would like to ideally use this hook for. I don’t know what to think, honestly. The hook is very sharp, so that’s no lie.

However, I’m struggling getting the hook through the fabric. I don’t know if it’s because I’m pushing the hook through 2 layers of fabric (this pillowcase has a huge hem — you can’t even see it in these pictures because it’s so far down), or if it’s because the pillowcase’s thread count is too high to be a good testing subject. The hook is just not gliding through the fabric like it does in the promo video on the website. It feels like the hook is breaking threads in the pillowcase every time I push it through, which is not what the hook is supposed to do — that’s bad for your fabric because over time it will fray around the puncture holes and end up looking bad. Look, you can see where the threads already look messed up where I’ve pushed the hook through:

So I am unsure about this hook. I feel like the idea is really great, but for some reason the product is just not cutting it. I’ll keep trying though, and I’ll try to use it on different fabrics to see if maybe it’s just this pillowcase making things so difficult instead of the hook. Who knows, it may be my fault! It took me a while just to make these 10 single crochet stitches, so hopefully it’ll be easier on whatever I try next. I’ll let you know soon how it goes.

Filed Under: crochet Tagged With: crafts, crochet, edging, pillowcase, sharp crochet hook

sharp crochet hook?!

January 6, 2012 by HannahOwens 1 Comment

I’ve always wanted to add lacy crocheted edgings to my linens, blankets, etc., but I have never done it before because it seems like such an arduous process. Well, I just bought a sharp crochet hook from www.sharpcrochethook.com, and I can’t wait to get it and start using it! It’s literally a crochet hook with a sharp point that will, according to the advertisement, glide straight through fabric so that I can simply make a round of sc right into it. I really hope it works. Here’s the video ad so you can see:

I’ll let you know how it works as soon as I try it! I’m so excited about it!

Filed Under: crochet Tagged With: crafts, crochet, edging, hook, sharp

random stripes

January 4, 2012 by HannahOwens 4 Comments

Sometimes I way over-think my patterns in striped objects, such as blankets. I think “are they random enough, does it look naturally done?” Well, it’s not a new thing but I’d still like to introduce everybody to the Random Stripe Generator, a script by Biscuits and Jam, that generates your stripey patterns for you. You just type in your yarn colors, the thickness of your stripes, and how many rows you want your project to be, and voila, you have a stripey pattern! A bonus is that if you don’t like it, you can just hit a button and it makes another one for you. The biggest bonus? It’s FREE. Here’s an example:

It also gives you a written pattern, so you don’t just have the picture to go by. I hope it’s useful for you!

Filed Under: crochet, knitting Tagged With: crafts, crochet, generator, stripe