Altered Cardigan

For a long time now I've been thinking about making a cardigan with crocheted button bands out of one (or more) of my long sleeved t-shirts that are a bit too tight (ehem). On the August long weekend I came across the stash of no-longer-optimal-fit t-shirts and decided to give it a try.



I used a v-neck shirt with 3/4 length sleeves that I really liked but was a bit too small (don't have ANY idea how that happened)(ehem). I measured and drew a line down the center of the shirt and cut. Then I folded over about 1/4 inch and stitched a line of straight stitches to tack the facing down. I stitched a line of blanket stitch down each edge to give me a foundation for the crochet bands. I used some crochet cotton I had (I lost the label) in a color that in some lights is an exact match for the shirt.



I worked 6 rows of single crochet and then a scalloped edge. The crochet curled on the corners so I did a line of single crochet across the tops & bottoms to help tame it a bit. I added a button (from the stash I found in my Mom's knitting bag) which fits perfectly in the space in the scallop edge.



I'm really happy with how it turned out. I have plans to do another one or two. I love that I am able to extend my wearable wardrobe by reusing items I thought were no longer wearable.



Predictably the day after I completed this cardigan, I saw a similar project on one of the craft blogs! Does that happen to other people or just me? I find it really interesting that so many people can come up with the same basic idea (or variations on the same idea) independent of each other.

Mom's Knitting Bag

This past weekend I needed to find something in my closet where I keep mostly craft stuff (aka "The Closet of Doom" or "Don't open that door!"). I ended up hauling everything out because I couldn't find what I was looking for. This led to me finding stuff I had forgotten about which led to ... let's just say it's like when you click on a link that takes you to another link and that takes you to another link and 4 hours later you can't figure out what you've been doing or how you got there.

Anyway, this impromptu cleaning out session unearthed a pile of t-shirts that were not good enough to give to Salvation Army but not icky enough to throw away (who am I kidding? "throw away?" nothing gets thrown away. Hence the Closet of Doom). I sorted through them pulling out shirts for a blanket project I had started (more on this soon, it's almost done) and set aside a couple to try making cardigans, which is something I've always had in my head to try. (more on this one soon too. Forgot to take pictures).

Anyway (i do this alot. sidetrack myself and then need to bring myself back around)... After all that, I needed a tiny crochet hook for the cardigan making. I knew there had been a set of teeny tiny steel hooks in my Mom's knitting bag so I had to go off on another search through the closet, the bag was in there but it hadn't turned up on the first go around. I eventually found the bag and the second I opened it... I burst into tears.

These are the knitting needles and crochet hooks I learned on. It was like a Mom museum exhibit, complete with the last thing she was knitting before she started deteriorating. I had myself a good cry and decided to document the contents. I want to try to find the pattern she was using for the baby sweater. I'm not sure if I have the yarn she was using (it's probably in the closet of doom) but I'll give it a shot.



Most of the knitting needles are in the old Canadian sizing (British? My stitch dictionary lists the sizes as "Canadian" meh, who knows). The huge needle at the top was for "Condo Knitting" which was apparently the rage at some point in time. (too lazy to google at the moment)



I learned to crochet with the colorful plastic hooks. The tiny ones were my Granny's I think. The wooden crochet hook was made by my Mom's Dad.







I'm pretty sure this teeny tiny hook would pierce skin. I kind of think I know that from experience...



8 red buttons, only 2 of which match. I think the pink buttons were intended for the project she was knitting. I have no explanation for the bag of eyes. I think she was making crocheted "worm" bookmarks or something. Maybe that's it.



Baby sweater WIP. I think this was probably intended for one of my 3 year old nieces when they were babies. It made Mom really sad and frustrated when she couldn't concentrate on knitting or crochet anymore. I would really like to finish this sweater for her if I can find the pattern & yarn.

Breathing a little easier...

Thanks for all the encouragement! I was really glad that I had the forethought to wash the blankets beforehand. I would have been even more upset if this had happened after they had gotten home!



I'm done repairing the squares with pink centers and the rest of the squares seem secure, but I'm a little hesitant about them. I'll send a repair kit with leftovers of the yarn and a needle with my sister in law, just in case.

I have a few other gifts to make but I won't see those friends until after Christmas, so I'm breathing a little easier right now. I plan to work on projects for me this next week. That's my Christmas gift to me. Knitting time.

The sound of one heart breaking...

I finished the third afghan last night. This evening I threw all three in the wash to soften them up a bit. When I pulled them out of the dryer I was happy with how soft and cozy they are.

And then I saw this:


and my heart nearly stopped.

I used the "magic circle" method of starting each square. It held really well for all of the squares except the ones that were started with the pink yarn. It's shiny and slippery and ... all 40 squares that were started with this yarn have come apart at the center. I have started repairing them by running a piece of yarn through with a blunt needle and knotting it really tightly but it's taking a long time. I have repaired 8 or 9 of them in the last hour...

I see my niece and nephews tomorrow.

I might not see them again before Christmas.

This is the only present I have for my niece.

I have to be at work tomorrow.

I want to cry a little.. :(

I'm exhausted and going to bed now and will just have to find the time to fix it and get it to her before they leave the city on Sunday.

Oh! Hi There!

So... how are you?



We had a blizzard this past Friday. A real, honest to goodness, blustery blowing wind blizzard. It was awesome. And a bit scary. There are meter deep banks on streets all over the place. Some of the communities on the edge of the city have so much hard packed snow on the street that buses are snowed in and can't move. Following the blizzard our temperatures dropped so now it's wool season. Whee!

I've been working on afghans for my nephews & niece in Houston. I made afghans for the other nieces & nephews for Christmas 5 years ago so I figured the newer ones needed afghans too. I don't often crochet but I've been on a crochet kick the past few weeks while working on these blankets.

First up: If you knew my nephew Nicholas, you would not be surprised by my choice here.



If you ever want to hear a really in depth analysis of Spiderman, taking into account aspects of Black Spiderman (Venom?) and all the ramifications of the changes in Spiderman, good vs. evil, ask my 4 year old nephew about Spiderman. Or just wait 5 minutes and something that is happening around him will bring Spiderman to his mind and he'll talk about it. We were joking that he can bring any topic back to Spiderman. I said that when he's defending his Doctoral dissertation he'll end up working Spiderman in there somehow.

(and if you think i used the word "Spiderman" too many times just now, that's a small small example of what it's like to talk to Nicholas)

Pattern: Superhero Dreamcatcher Afghan by AngelCrafts. Nice, simple pattern that works into a really interesting afghan.
Yarn: Loops & Threads Impeccable from Michaels (a nice, fairly inexpensive acrylic)
Mods: I left off the last band of blue as it was already 5' in diameter. And I wanted to die. I think I figured that I had over 600 stitches per round at the point where I stopped.

For my niece, Kaylee, I'm working on a granny square afghan in what I hope are sufficiently girly colors. She's a bit of a princess... haha



Pattern for the square: Summer Garden Granny Square from Attic24
Yarns: Purple: Bernat Berella "4"; Pink: Red Heart Soft Touch; Green & White are both Loops & Threads Impeccable.

My plan is for 121 squares to be laid out in an "Around the World" type pattern. I'm about 2/3 done. Woo.

I need to get working on an afghan for my other nephew (the boys are twins), Logan who is a BIG fan of Disney's Cars... I see charted picture crochet in my future and I'm a little scared of it.

I got a bit sidetracked by these on the weekend while it was snowing for real:



I've since made 6 more and hung them by threads in the hallway window in my office at work. (what's that you say? Did you just cough-speak "dork" at me? really? hmm).

Pattern: White Hooky Snowflakes also from Attic24.
Yarn: um... some acrylic I found lying around here.
I stretched them slightly and pinned them, then sprayed with spray starch. I then removed the pins and covered them with a cloth before pressing with a warm (not hot) iron to give them some shape and make them a bit stiff. It worked really well.

I need to get back to Kaylee's afghan. Surprisingly it's not crocheting itself!

I just flu in and boy are my arms... I can't even finish that

I'm on day 3 home from work with the flu. Not the dreaded potential pandemic flu, just a regular flu. Except now I think it's turning into a sinus infection. Or ear infection. Or maybe my head is currently upside down in a bucket of water and I am not fully aware of that fact.

Either way, I feel lousy. I'm dizzy, my head is stuffed up and feels like it will explode soon and my ears feel like they are full of water. I'm a joy to be around currently.

I started making these little hexagons last Saturday after I cleaned up my living room and came across a stash of acrylic yarn scraps that I had been hoping would assemble themselves into an afghan. Time and pressure of the weight of the mountain of crap in my living room didn't seem to be doing anything to produce said afghan so I put the bag aside thinking I would hide it somewhere else. As I moved it I started imagining a 2 color "granny"-esque crocheted hexagon. I tried it out and liked it.

Now I can't stop.



I have about 55 completed hexagons and a pile of centers waiting to go. I've been really hung up with my knitting projects and can't seem to finish anything, so these are a very satisfying diversion. I can finish one in about 5 minutes so it feels like I'm accomplishing something. And I can put them down whenever I need to sleep.

So for today, I'm holed up in bed with my laptop and my crochet, trying to convince myself to go to the walk-in clinic and wait for 3 hours to see a doctor who will probably tell me that it's nothing and to get some rest. That should be fun.

weather or not

What is the deal? that's all i can ask. yesterday we had snow. i meant to take a picture of it. may 10, snowing, -1 Celsius at NOON!!! Today, it's sunny and 4 Celsius, tomorrow it is supposed to rain and be 20 Celsius! Stupid weather.

I blame all those Calgarians who gloated about the 20 Celsius weather we had in January/February. It's their fault.

Anyway, enough of that. Honestly, if talking about the weather is a sign of a boring conversation, what does that say about a weather discussion in my blog... no, don't tell me.

Past-project time. Today's topic: Crocheted afghans.

(yes, i crochet TOO)(not often)(mostly afghans)(i'm not a big fan of crocheted clothing)(no offense intended if you are a big fan of crocheted clothing)(it's just a personal choice)

This past fall I wasn't working. So I had lots of time on my hands and not so much money cluttering up my bank account. I decided to start thinking about Christmas presents EARLY for once, and decided to crochet an afghan for my nephew. I had made one for my Dad a few years ago and my nephew loved it. Then, I got the BRILLIANT idea to crochet an afghan for each of the nephews and nieces.

That's 5 kids for those of you keeping count at home.

It was October, so I had plenty of time. I started one afghan, then started another, then another. Then I started a knitting project (a gift for my friend -- tell you about it later) then I started a sewing project (a bag for my sister-in-law)... and so on.

Soon it was November.

I had several partial afghans, but no complete afghans. I had part of 2 completed knitted gifts for friends and the cut out pieces of the bag for my sister-in-law.

Then I found work. As much as i loved trying to find places to cram all the buckets of money they paid me (did i mention sarcasm in my initial post?) it was SERIOUSLY cutting into my crafting time.

Somehow I managed to get all of the afghans (it turned out to be 4, plus 1 fleece blanket for youngest nephew), all but 1 of the knitted gifts, and the sewn bag completed BEFORE Christmas! I'm amazing. And humble.

So, for your viewing pleasure, I present:
The Awesome Array of Afghans (sorry)
#1 - oldest nephew, Tyler

The colors/pattern are almost identical to the one I made for my dad. Tyler was very close with my dad, who passed away in 2003. (i will write more about my dad at a later time. I'm at work and while sobbing while typing on my work computer may be cool, it's just not appropriate)

#2 - oldest niece, Nichelle (random Lori's Family Trivia: Nichelle is named after an actress from the original Star Trek)

I originally started out making the stripes horizontal. I realized after a while that it was going to be huge. I was running out of time. What to do? So, I made the stripes vertical, and added a border on the top and bottom.

#3 - 2nd oldest nephew, Jesse

I crocheted large granny squares in shades that corresponded to the shades in the Bernat Camoflage yarn. Jesse is a "boy"... into sports, dirt, being tough. An afghan has to look tough.

#4 - youngest niece, Jordyn

I started by crocheting the green background. I found the flower pattern on the Bernat website (can't find the link at the moment). After the background was done, I started doing the border and did rows and rounds until it was big enough. Did i mention how completely girl-y Jordyn is? Her comment when she opened the gift was "MOMMY! It's a blanket and it's PURPLE!" She vaulted over the carnage (gift wrap and boxes) and hugged me. "Did you KNOW I like purple?" How could I not?

The final nephew, Talon, received a fleece panel that I made into a blanket. It was printed with a farm scene with a barn and a tractor. My brother is farming on our family farm and Talon, 3, is completely, unequivocally, a farm kid. For weeks now he has been talking about nothing but going seeding with his dad. He loved it.

If you have been keeping track, 4 crocheted afghans amounts to... Who am I kidding I have no idea how many stitches it was. SO SO SO many.

This concludes todays "Past-Project Post". Join us next time when we discuss little kids sweaters and how just because it's a little sweater doesn't mean it's a quick knit.