Summer Has Arrived

I got a new camera a few weeks ago! My old one was just getting old and starting to not work right. I'm still learning how to use this one, but it's been fun so far.

My hydrangea has started to bloom. This plant is from a cutting my grandma took from one of the plants we used to decorate at our wedding. Love that.

I made chocolate-cherry ice cream (I have a photo of the actual ice cream, but I think it's still on the camera.) Cherries are so pretty; these were cooked into a candied cherry syrup. I haven't made ice cream since last summer, I think. Working on remedying that.

I also made a sweater/jacket for a friend's new baby girl (who made her entrance to the world yesterday!) 100% cotton, pattern from Little Crochet by Linda Permann. I've made two patterns from this book so far and both were very cute. I need to work on choosing a yarn weight that fits the project ahead of time, though, I've had to make alterations for sizing both times because I chose heavier yarn than what was called for.

And the thing taking up most of my sewing time right now is curtains for our living room. We have woven wood blinds/shades right now, which I really like the look of, but they don't totally block the light. I also just wanted drapes - something to add some color or pattern or something. I'm making lined pinch-pleated draperies out of a small scale black and white gingham I bought from Fabric.com. It's coming along fine so far, but they're much more time-consuming than I anticipated. Working with these big pieces of fabric take a lot of space (and pins!)

So that's part of my summer so far. An update on the Palette Challenge will be posted soon!

Pretty Cowl

Love this yarn - it's some sort of hand-painted bulky wool that I bought up in Tahoe last year. I made up a simple cowl with a simple pattern of increasing-height rows - starting with a single crochet row, then double, etc. up to a double-treble and then back down. It's pretty wide, so I folded it in half (which adds some warmth since double-treble stitches are pretty open), sewed a button onto one end, and voila: a pretty splash of color.

A Sweater in Pink - Celebrate Color

Here is my first item for Celebrate Color! I crocheted this pink sweater for a friend who's due with her first baby next month. I try not to always do "pink for girls" but I loved the color of this yarn. It's a very soft pink, a little muted rather than bright. I added a brown button, and I think the colors are perfect for fall. It has a little more subtlety than a lot of pink yarns, and somehow that's what I lean towards for this season. Subtle but deep - even though the trees put on bright colors, they have that gradient effect to them that adds something the bright green of spring doesn't have; the light changes in autumn, too, making these colors just "fit" better.

Back to the sweater - it's the Bombay Love pattern; my Ravelry project page for it is here if you want to see that; the actual pattern is at the Yarny Days blog.

I don't know what size this would be, since I don't have a baby to test anything on. I love this yarn though; it's an organic cotton by Lion, and it came out so soft and squishy in this simple double-crochet stitch. The original pattern called for a contrasting edging, but I didn't have anything that really worked with this and I like it without the contrast. In fact, I liked making it so much that I started another one with no recipient in mind.

This one is striped, but I'm stuck at this point because I ran out of yarn. Now I have to figure out where I bought it and if I can get more of it.

This sweater also feels very autumnal - something about these stripes makes me think of old-timey football games and wearing your team's colors. There's an Anne of Green Gables memory floating somewhere in my mind tied to this, but it's soft and fuzzy so I'm not sure if it's actually relevant or not.

And finally - I have these small dishes (as seen above) that I bought in Mexico years ago that I use for loose ends and such while I'm sewing, but I recently discovered they're great for holding a ball of yarn. It's rather annoying when the ball of yarn is rolling around or falling on the floor or getting stuck under a blanket, etc etc; with this little dish it stays contained and rolls nicely on the smooth surface. Anyone else do something similar?

Who's Ready for a Vacation?

January 13:
***Um, so apparently I never posted this! Better late than never, I guess? At least it makes what I was going to post about how vacation went make more sense***

January 5:
I am! And coincidentally (or not so much), I'm leaving for one tomorrow - woo hoo! The husband and I are going up to Lake Tahoe with my family for 6 days. I don't know whether or not I'll have any sort of Internet connection, so I may pop up on Twitter or something but I'll be taking a blog break.

Before I go, here's a super quick little how-to add-on to the crocheted Christmas trees I posted a while back: I totally forgot to mention the little dots on the garland chain! If you know how to crochet, even just a tiny bit, this is an easy way to make a simple yarn garland. I simply chained for a while (it's really your preference, it's just spacing and will change depending on your yarn and hook) then made a little circle by doing one round. For the Christmas garland, I attached the trees in between dots, but you could also just leave off the trees and have a simpler finished product.

You create the dot by chaining, then going back to the 3rd or 4th chain from the hook, slip stitching into it to make a tiny little ring, and then doing double crochets into that space in the middle of the ring - do a small ch-2 as the first "double-crochet" stitch to bring your yarn up to the right height. I think I used 9 DC's for kind of cupped discs, but using 8 will flatten them out if you want. This is a pretty good tutorial (pictures and all!) if you haven't done this before. When you get enough of them to make a good circle, slip stitch into the first stitch (whether that's the first "real" DC or the turning chain doesn't make a huge difference here) and start chaining again. Keep doing this as many times as you want to get the length of garland you need.

I also found these instructions a while back and thought it was really interesting. I didn't know how to create anything in the round without following a pattern, because I didn't know the pattern for the increases. But, it's pretty simple and opens up all sorts of ideas for me.

I want to use this garland technique to make some big, long garlands. Just one of many things I want to do... Planning on using some vacation time for crocheting along with finishing the binding for the baby quilt. Soooo looking forward to just chilling for a few days. Will share finished projects when I get back!

Crochet Christmas Trees

I was at Joann Fabrics one day, and while browsing through the store (as I always do when I'm in there, I can't help it), I saw a fun sock yarn that was red, green, blue, and white. Loved it immediately. I have a lot of blues, greens, and red in my main living spaces, and that's what I was leaning towards for Christmas. This yarn needed to be made into something for Christmas.

Patons Kroy sock yarn in Summer Moss

I decided to make a garland with it. I have some up on Etsy, but I made myself one, too, because I love it. I crocheted several small Christmas trees and attached them to a long chain made from the same yarn. This is the first year I really get to decorate for Christmas and I'm so excited!

Handmade garland on the handmade bookcase

I can't really share a pattern for the trees because I don't have one. I liked them all to be a little different, so I didn't try to make a pattern. Then I made a wonderfully perfect tree the other day - but couldn't figure out what I did and thus, still no pattern. I tried them several different ways. Here's what I do:

* I found that starting at the top and working my way down was much easier than starting at the bottom.
* I begin with a chain 3, make a loop, and work 3 double crochets into the loop, then increase for about 3 rows, decrease quite a bit, then increase for about 3 rows... etc. Until it looks right. Technical, right?
* Sometimes I pull it out and redo a row. Just eyeball it. How's that for technical.
* Sometimes I mix up single and double crochet.
* It helps to do a treble crochet on the ends (or just something longer than what you're using) to keep it straight and not rounded up, if you know what I mean. Otherwise it can start looking like... this:

I did actually spend (too much) time on this terrible graphic

I have another crocheted garland to share soon. I promise to be more helpful with that one! Haha. :)

Black Friday at Home

Well, this is what my black Friday is looking like so far:

Making things for the shop, watching Grey's Anatomy and Robin Hood, coffee, snacks... I had pumpkin pie for breakfast, shhh. It's grey and chilly outside, so I've got a cozy blanket and my slippers. My husband is busy working in the craziness that is a mall on Black Friday. The dog is snoring on his pillow. No way I'm going out shopping; I don't want to deal with the crowds today!

Speaking of Black Friday, I have a special going on at Etsy, now through Monday (Black Friday, Cyber Monday... don't you love all those titles? or not) - all items are marked down already, but if you enter the code BLACKFRIDAY2010 for my store at checkout, you'll get a grand total of 25% off all items and free shipping. Quite a few sellers are having sales; I love that you can buy handcrafted goodies without leaving the house. I'll be adding more items to my shop through the weekend. Which means I need to get back to making them!

This is a garland in the making, by the way. I have plans to make some of my own decorations, today, too - like a tree skirt. Let's see how much I can actually get done!