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!)

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Abominable snowman

These Abominable Baby Slippers are for my cousin Lindsay’s little boy who just turned one year old.  I went ahead and made the 18-24 month size so he’ll hopefully get some use out of them. 

I’m pretty sure that the loops stitches are too long.  The slippers look sort of mop-like.  The first time I made the body of the slipper the loops were way too short.  I guess I got a little overzealous the second time around.  I think the loops will shorten slightly with wear, though.  The crochet loop stitch does not secure the actual loops very well. 

The inside of the slipper is reinforced with another matching layer of crochet to prevent the loops from shortening.  Although this made the actual crocheting and assembly more time consuming, I really like how shoe-like the slippers feel.  If I had enough gray, I would probably have made a double-crocheted sole too. 

This pattern was so well thought out.  The claws, pattern stitch, crochet reinforcements and a BLO folded cuff all come together easily, making a structually sound little slipper. 

I would make these again in another color scheme like Andreacrochets.  You can see her blue and orange ‘monster’ version on Flickr.   

*That’s cool* a random fact

 Quatchi, a young Sasquatch, is one of the three official Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic mascots. 

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March of the penguin

Zarah sent me some beautiful crochet gifts for my ‘All About Hearts’ themed Swap Swap Gals package.  This cute little penguin has got a lot of character to him.  Must be the eyes. 

From foot to hat he stands about ten inches tall.   I like his heart-shaped tummy; that is so creative!  Plus, the scarf he’s wearing is really pretty.  Anyone know what yarn it is?   

These heart coasters are really pretty.  They are serving as a center piece on the table right now.

On top of all the crochet goodies, I got a bunch of gummies.  Yum.

Thanks, Zarah, for the fantastic Swap Swap Gals package!

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You make my day

          

         

         

Angela, Ashley, Cami, Christina and Lesa were kind enough to give me the ‘you make my day’ award.  Thank you for the award and to all my readers everywhere!  I’m just excited that a few people find my craft world interesting enough to follow.  

The rules of the award read: “Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times.” 

I’m passing this award on to the following ten blogs:

Melissa on A Mess Put Together Nicely 

Umme on ummeYusuf

Angela on My Tangled Threads 

Ashley on Crafty Ashley

Andrea on Knits and Knots

Christina on Crafty Christina

Paula on Hookandyarn

Niki on Knockout Niki Crochets.

Cami on Crochet Cami

Lesa on Lesalicious Style and Life

 

While we’re on the topic of blog fun, I saw this on Mary’s Little Craft Corner:

Anyone seen the BAND MEME going around? Basically, you go to three sites to randomly select your band name, album title, and cover art.

1. Go here for the band name: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
No matter what the title of the article is, that’s the name of your band.

2. Go here for the album title: http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words from the very last quote on the page makes up the title of your band’s album.

3. Go here for the cover art: http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
Whatever the third picture is, that’s the cover to your band’s album.

~here’s my results~

Name of my Band:
ITM2C

Title of my first Album:
“To Be a Hundred”

Cover Art:

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On a roll

Since I’ve only been working on my boucle knit scarf, and any updates on that would bore you to tears, I thought I’d show you my Baby Hat on a Roll.  You can read the original post about it on Crochetville. 

I didn’t really bother with the gauge and it turned out too small for a my cousin’s baby so now it’s sitting on my FO pile nearly a year later.  I’m not too sad about that, since I got to rephotograph it.  Plus it’s one more project I can put in my Ravelry notebook (but who’s counting?) 

The hat has the roll or bullion stitch for the border.  This stitch is tricky and I was using a Boyle.  In hind sight a Bates hook probably would have been a better option.     

 

In other news, I’ve just disovered RSS feeds.  I had some trouble in the beginning because the automatic setting scans for updates every 24 hours but, once I located the options menu, everything fell into place.  Now I have a pleasantly tidy list that bolds any blog listing with an update in the past thirty minutes.  I have even added more blogs to my mental ‘read every post’ list since I’m flooded with a few more blog minutes everyday.

Speaking of blogs, I did a sweep of all the blogs on my blogroll today.  Some blogs that have not been updated in a long while were deleted.  It’s not a matter of like or dislike, so please don’t be upset if your blog suddenly disapeared; I just want to keep the blogroll solely for regularly updated craft reads. 

I’m aiming to add some new blogs for the newly pruned list soon.  I’d love it if you readers would comment with your own craft/crochet blog or one that you like to read if it’s not listed already.  I’m always on the prowl for new and interesting craft reads. 

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Crafts ‘n things

There’s a magazine out there called Crafts ‘n Things. Could you believe that they’ve got a collection of crochet patterns tucked between craft sections? This mosaic is just a sampling of the crochet projects included in the February 2008 issue.

The amigurumi doll is titled “Princess Peony”.  What a cute name for a doll!  As far as I’ve read the arms don’t have wires so they’re probably not poseable as the picture suggests.  Even without poseable arms she’s a promising project and comes out at 16″, which is a sizable little crochet creation.

The baby blanket with the delicate shell border would look nice all in one color.  The two tone is pretty too, though.  As for the quilt, the pattern calls for a vintage doily for each square.  I like the idea, but I don’t know if I would tack handmade doilies to a quilt.

The applique bird has nothing to do with crochet, but I liked project with the rick-a-rack edging.  Looks like a fairly simple way to spruce up the kitchen towels. 

There are tons of projects crammed into the Crafts ‘n Things magazine.  Along with eleven crochet patterns and one knitting pattern, (can you believe those odds?) there is a mish mash of Martha Stewart-ish crafts.  The sections read like this: heartfelt gifts, hooked on crochet, the jewelry box, crafting green, cards*stamps*style, simply quilts, product showcase. 

You get cross stitch, wall hangings, photo album bindings, gift basket ideas and much, much more so, even if you aren’t a rubber stamp person, there are plenty of other crafts covered.  It was actually nice to see a selection of popular crafts all in one magazine.  One downfall of the magazine is there are so many different craft projects there aren’t many articles focused on technique.  However, if you’re looking to expand your crafty mind and score a few crochet patterns in the process it’s worth the $5.99 U.S./ $6.99 CAN INT’L, or at least a proper skim in line at the grocery store. 

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The last two

I’m doing a little blog housekeeping with my FOs from 2007.  These are my two last Soley Granny Square Hats of the half dozen I crocheted.  More of the same, I know, but I never did get tired of making them.  In case you didn’t read my earlier posts on the subject, I made these with scraps as part of a stash-busting goal.

   

 

I like that the granny hats look like they are levitating in the photos.  There’s a yarn ball under them for shape but it didn’t really show up in the picture. 

This green hat was made with RHSS in mint, white and orchid.  It was the very last hat I made and I got lazy with changing colors.  Weaving in the ends from the circle center was my least favorite part because it was easy to distort the spokes.  For that reason I used purple for the first two rows.  Compared to the other two hats I made with the circular start I think it would have looked better if I put a separate color for the first round.  It will have to do though, because I am not going back to fix it!

*That’s cool* a random fact

The Purple Earth Theory suggests that ancient microbes used retinal instead of chlorophyll on early Earth, making organisms appear purple instead of green.

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Some seed beads

  

I made these sequin ornaments as a teenager one Christmas eve.  They’re not hanging on the tree because I never quite figured out how to attach a ribbon or metal hook to hang, so they’ve been sequestered to the big purple candle. 

My problem here and now is the foam.  It doesn’t really hold the pins very well.  See the missing pin on the bottom of the bell above?  Also there’s a whole sequin missing from the green and red egg behind it.  Maybe in the last couple of years they’ve come up with a more dense foam.  Not sure.   

On the plus side these ornaments are so easy to make and kid friendly.  You get those white or green colored foam shapes.  Then you pick out sequins, pins and maybe some seed beads or ribbon.  In a half hour you have a cute little be-sequined foam shape. 

This project reminds me of another Christmas craft project: pushing cloves into oranges.  Orange and clove pomanders smell so delicious.

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