back to the yarn: Easter eggs

March 26, 2013 by 15 Comments

I tried the pattern for the Easter eggs in this book:

easterknitsbookAnd I’ve got a lot to share about it!  Firstly, I made 2 of them with more leftover Stylecraft Special DK and some 6in. 3.25mm DPNs that I had lying around (they’re not KnitPicks, but they were OK).  So I wanted to start out with an egg that consists of only 2 colors, not being too confident in my abilities.  Here’s the picture in the book of it:

heneggIt’s got hens going around it!  How cute!  Not being too comfortable with DPNs, I was nervous with this ungainly looking beginning:

henegg1Even at this point, I was thinking the whole thing might just be a recipe for disaster:

henegg2It started to look pretty good, though, and even the back looked pretty decent:

henegg3And here’s the finished egg:

henegg5I think it turned out great!  A little bigger than I expected, but super-cute.  I had a problem, though, with the increases at the beginning.  Here’s how the book says to do increases:

easterincreasesHave you ever seen that before?  It turned out to be really difficult for me, and very frustrating, so I started using a crochet hook to get into that stitch and pull a loop through.  For my second egg, therefore, I decided to use M1L and M1R increases instead, and it looked almost exactly the same.  Here’s the book’s example of the second egg I made:

fabergeeggAnd here’s how that one went:

fabergeegg2I like it a lot, although perhaps I should have picked more contrasting colors than the pink and blue/green.  Here are the two eggs together:

eggsThe second one is a little smaller, and I’m not sure if it’s because I’m getting tighter with my DPN skills or if I pulled the yarns too tight when changing colors.  In any case, I love both of them!

I also apologize for the darker pictures — I took the pictures of the eggs at 3AM, right when I finished them, so it was very dark in the house.

That’s all for today, except I want to say thanks to everyone who responded to my last post about rape culture.  It sparked some conversations on and off the Internet, and that’s really what I wanted, so thanks!  And thanks for stopping by again — I’ll be posting again soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Easter and gifts

March 21, 2013 by 11 Comments

My dad just got back from a trip to England and Scotland, and he brought me back a couple of things I want to share with you.  First, this t-shirt:

elephanthouseThat’s the logo on the front for a cafe in Edinburgh called The Elephant House.  The back says “The Elephant House: Birthplace of Harry Potter.”  JKR started writing the first books in that cafe.  I ate there last time I was in Edinburgh (and it was delicious) but neglected to purchase a souvenir t-shirt, so my dad got me one.  I love it!  He also got me a knitting book:

easterknitsbookI’ve never been one for Easter decorations but I couldn’t help loving these patterns.  They could actually be considered decorations for any season, depending on the colors used.  I just love all the pretty balls and eggs:

easterknitseggtreeSuper cute!  Here’s a closeup of the tulip egg:

easterknitseggI want to make one so badly, but I’m afraid my knitting skills might not be quite up to it yet — tiny double point needles and changing colors combined sounds like a recipe for disaster.  I thought about adapting the charts to make some crochet eggs instead, but if you’ve ever tried crochet intarsia (changing the colors to make a pattern or picture) in the round you’ll know that everything slants a bit to the right.  A crocheted egg made to look like the tulip one above would just look like wind was bowling the tulips over.  Looks like I’ll have to beast out some knitting and at least try it.  I just need some tiny needles and yarn…  KnitPicks, here I come!

Wasn’t that sweet of my dad though, to think of me on his trip?  And he’s not the only one who’s been sweet.  I never mentioned a certain gift I received for Christmas from my friend Lauren.  She and her husband actually got me quite a few really awesome things, but I wanted to share this bowl with you:

laurensbowlLauren made it herself!  She’s been doing pottery for a few months now, I believe, and this handmade bowl she gave me is perfect for holding my crochet/knitting notions!  It’s nice because I don’t have to rummage through my pencil case looking for the needles at the bottom anymore (I wasn’t comfortable with leaving them out on the table or sofa arm, because my dog ate a sewing needle a couple of years ago and getting it out of her tummy was a horrendous and expensive experience).  The bowl is gorgeous and I’m really happy.

Big thank yous to Lauren and my Dad!  And thank YOU for stopping by my blog today!

[EDIT]: If you’re not enraged about the Steubenville rape, sentence, and media coverage, or if you haven’t heard about it at all, read this and this, please.  If these words, pictures, and videos upset you, please speak out in some way.

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crocheting from leftovers

March 15, 2013 by 13 Comments

I love using leftovers because it makes me feel like I’m being economical.  The past 3 days I’ve been making this baby blanket out of leftover Stylecraft DK:

babygrannyI used the join-as-you-go method for the squares, since I hate sewing/crocheting them together at the end (although it does look neater).

babygrannycloseHere’s pictures of the border and corner:

babygrannyedge

babygrannycornerAnd no, these were not taken at my house.  My internship has better light and I only saw 1 person today so I had plenty of time.

And guess what?  The cluster stitch, which I recently made a tutorial on, made an appearance (although I clustered 2 instead of 3 stitches together):

babygrannyjoinMuch the best way of joining granny squares at their corners — keeps the border from becoming ruffle-y.

It felt good to be crocheting something again afters such a long break.  I am sorry it’s been so long since I’ve shown you a crocheted item.  Very shameful for a blog called “not your average crochet.”

The baby blanket is kind of small, though… It’ll have to be for a newborn or something.  I just ran out of yarn for some of my colors and I couldn’t put the blanket’s colors into imbalance by continuing further.  I dunno.  Maybe I could use it for something else?  I mean it’s not like I know any babies, or any friends who are about to have babies.  I don’t know what else I’d use it for, though.  My dog does not get such nice things because she unwittingly tears up yarny things with her claws.  *sigh*  The blanket might just stay stowed away until someone I know has a baby.  I could donate it, I suppose.  We’ll have to see.

Well, that’s all for now, thanks for stopping by!

[Edit]:  Btw, did you know that Deramores isn’t stocking the Lucy Pack?  I looked to get another one and it’s gone.  I’ve emailed them to see if they might be getting it back.  I don’t know where else to get one. 😦

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2 more stitch tutorials up, plus other stuff

March 12, 2013 by 15 Comments

I’m pleased to introduce two more stitch tutorials!  Please welcome the cluster stitch and the pineapple stitch to the crochet tutorial family!

cluster stitch

cluster stitch

pineapple stitch

pineapple stitch

I hope you like them!  If you have any questions feel free to ask!  Now on to the other stuff…

I took a trip to my local yarn shop today, seeing as how it’s been a really long time since I’ve been and I always love buying yarn (who doesn’t?).  After perusing their usual wares for some time, I realized that I was finding all of their usual prices to be really high.  I suppose it’s because my most recent yarn purchases have been such good online deals that I’m finding the store’s prices so exorbitant.  I’ve always preferred buying from the LYS because I want to support the local business and I really like feeling the yarn before I buy it, and the only reason I started buying online is because the LYS has a rather limited and unchanging selection.  So now I’m thinking that I’m probably going to take most of my business to the Internet because there’s more yarny variety and it’s so much cheaper, but I can’t help feeling a twinge of guilt, abandoning the LYS like that.

What do you prefer?  Do you have a nice yarn store near you that you prefer, or do you purchase your necessities online?  Perhaps a combination of both?  I’m interested to see how many people in the current day and age buy online versus in-store.

Thanks for stopping by!

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3 new textured stitch tutorials up!

March 8, 2013 by 12 Comments

I asked, you told me, I listened!  Here are new tutorials for the bobble stitch, the popcorn stitch, and the puff stitch!

bobble stitch

bobble stitch

popcorn stitch

popcorn stitch

puff stitch

puff stitch

I’ve got two more textured stitches that I am going to make tutorials for, as well: the bullion stitch and the cluster stitch.  Hopefully I’ll get those photographed and written out soon, but I must say it might be a few days.  I’ve got a really long take-home test to do, some studying for a national counselor certification exam, and I’m hanging with my mom tomorrow and having a dim sum day on Sunday.  Of course, it may be tomorrow, or even later tonight — you know how I love to procrastinate and do yarny things instead!  After the next two textured stitches, I do have more stitch ideas to add, as well.

I also realized that some of my knitting tutorials had somehow gotten their pictures all mixed/messed up (probably when I merged my knitting blog with this one), and I’ve fixed those.  I apologize if you’ve looked and been confused — they should make much more sense now!

Thank you for letting me know what you wanted to see!  I enjoy making these tutorials.  Also, thanks for stopping by, and let me know if you have any questions or things I need to fix!

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