Cream and sugar

Mellissa of The Adventures of Wondermommy asked me to test her new Ice Cream Cone pattern about a month ago.  Since I didn’t have a photo to work from, I was surprised to find that the cone is shaped like a waffle cone! 

The overall pattern is really simple to piece together and you only need to know how to increase in the round and crochet shells.  Both the cone and the ice cream start with the smallest number of single crochet stitches and increase to their widest part.  Then the pieces are sewn together and the shell border is added.  The whole thing works up relatively fast, especially since you can hide the ends with the stuffing! 

My Ice Cream Cone measures 3.5″ x 7″.  I used some stash worsted weight wool that was a bit thinner than Red Heart Super Saver and a size E crochet hook.  I’d like to try this pattern again in a lighter weight yarn.  Also, I’m interested to see what the cone would look like with the wrong side showing. 

Visit the pattern page to see Mellissa’s sherbert version, which is so cute!

Thank you for asking me to test the pattern, Mellissa!  (And thanks for the pattern books and crochet hook!)

Read Full Post »

Celestine

I finally finished the Celestine Crochet (a knit version is also available).  The pattern was a bit interesting to follow.  Each point is made from the bottom up.  With the first cone made, the second base is made by chaining a portion and then slip stitiching the rest on the adjacent points.  After the first few points, the general idea is easy to pick up. 

The yarn is a beautiful mixture of a brilliant blue and golden browns, hand dyed by Kayla of The Yarn Bearer.  The 100% wool content and fingering weight made it difficult for me to keep yarn tight.  The fibers felt more ‘sticky’ to me and even with a size C hook, I have little holes where the stuffing shows through. 

The hardest part of the Crochet Celestine was the stuffing.  This was my first project with stuffing since I was a kid.  I found out very quickly that just taking big clumps of polyfil and shoving them in the points made a really bumpy texture. 

The second time around I fluffed the stuffing by pulling and stretching it.  Much better!  Also, I found that the whole shape looked more symmetrical when the center part was stuffed well.  If I ever make this pattern again I would stuff it with a wiffle ball in the center to save on stuffing and make the whole thing lighter.  

Question is, what do I do with it?

Read Full Post »

Bird in flight

The Lacey the not so Lacey Headband turned out to be a much wider headband than I thought.  I used Red Heart in Ranch Red and a size H hook and my headband measures about 4″ wide.  

I’ve been hiking around Moran State Park a lot lately and this headband with a low ponytail is perfect.  I like having my hair out of my face when I’m on a long walk.  I haven’t taken my camera with me on the trails yet, but I really need to.  Late spring and early summer is so beautiful in the park!

Apart from a hiking headband, the reason I wanted to make the Lacey Headband was to sample the bruges lace technique.  From what I understand, you crochet a long strip with chain loops hanging off the side.  When you make the second strip the parallel chain loops are slip stitched together.  This makes an interlocking, lacy fabric.  The center strip looks like the X-stitch to me. 

 

The pattern is a really nice introduction to bruges lace. The written directions are very clear and there’s a chart included.  I’m not a full fledged chart reader, but if you’re a visual person, it can really make the process clearer. 

I’ll leave you with an evening photograph.  The hummingbirds around the house stop by the feeders all day, but at sunset they come out in swarms!

You can see a slide show of the other hummingbird pictures I took on Slide.com. 

*That’s cool* a random fact

Hummingbirds have the fastest wing beats and the largest brains proportionate to body weight, of any other bird.

Read Full Post »