Crochet Mania and Potholder Swap!

on March 16, 2009

If you follow me on Flickr, you know that I’ve been having a bit of a crochet attack. This time, I’m all about the hot pads and potholders, with a small side of ripple blanket.

The Swap:

It turns out the crochet attack is going around, and some of us got talking about starting up a swap for these hot pads and potholders, so that’s just what Maritza and I are doing. The goal is for each participant to crochet 5 beautiful potholders or hot pads and send them in. In return, you get 5 glorious potholders back. We’re aiming for something a little above and beyond the norm, here. We want potholders that are super kitschy and fun, or extra beautiful (handspun?!), functioning as useful objects as well as art.

We’d love to have you join our swap. To participate, please email us at potholderswap2009@gmail.com. Deadline to enter the swap is 3/21/09. Please join us at the swap blog, as well!

Now for the rules. They’re pretty basic, so here goes….

RULES FOR THE SWAP:

– hot pads/ pot holders must be crocheted
– each member will crochet 5 hot pads/ pot holders in the same pattern. Different colors are okay. (You can choose whatever pattern you want to work with and vary the colors between them, as long as you crochet 5 hot pads/ pot holders in that same pattern.)
– each pad/holder must be tagged with maker, fiber content, and care instructions
– wool or cotton yarns only please
– if you have a wool allergy please let us know so you will receive cotton hot pads only
– each pad/holder must be between 6 – 12 inches in diameter
– US swappers., you must include a USPS Priority stamp for return postage with your potholders. Non-US residents are welcome, we’ll just need to work out how you pay for return postage with you.
– have fun with this!

We’re thinking that 2 months should be enough time for everyone to finish their hot pads/ pot holders, but we’ll post an official deadline and details as to where to mail them shortly, once we have all our swappers.

For now, there are a few wonderful resources for pot holder patterns, such as Crochet Pattern Central and the Crochet & Crafts Link Index, as well as an inspiration group we started on Flickr.

Take a button! (Save it to your own server, please.)

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More Wee Knitting

on February 9, 2009

Babies need bonnets, too, so I knit one to go with the BSJ from the last post.

Pattern: Top Down Bonnet With Anime Character minus the character (rav link)
Yarn: Hello Yarn Fat Sock in Olive and Navy, 1.2 oz. total, or about 120 yards
Needle: size 3 Addi Turbo for magic loop
Gauge: 6 sts. per inch
Size: baby

I hadn’t knit one of these in ages, and found some language that could be cleared up in the pattern. I’ll get right on that.

Translation News:
The Top Down Bonnet pattern is now available in Finnish, thanks to the lovely Minna Neuvonen. Get the PDF here.

Babies also need rattles, so I got knitting.

Pattern: Toadstool Baby Rattle (rav link)
Yarn: Hello Yarn Sock in Hot Peppers, Kale, and Pickle
Needle: size 0 Addi Turbo for magic loop
Gauge: 8 sts. per inch
Size: one size

This was totally fun to knit and it’s an adorable rattle. Knitting with the rattly bit inside, already, was super annoying, but I’d do it again. It’s so cute! I’d also like a couple with weights in the bottom, just for decorations.

Can you tell I’ve been raiding my bag of dud skeins and leftovers of hand-dyed yarns? Free yarn, free patterns, just what a person renovating a house needs!

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Garter Madness

on February 6, 2009

I’ve been in serious garter stitch baby-knitting mode around here. There’s been another rash of pregnancies, which I’ve managed to elude (whew), and these babies need sweaters!

 

Blue and Green Sweater:
Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket from The Opinionated Knitter by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Yarn: Hello Yarn Fat Sock in colors Olive and Navy, a little under 300 yards total
Gauge: 5.25 sts. per inch
Size: 17″ around, 16.5″ cuff to cuff. This is little guy size- 3-6 mo.
Needles: size 5 Addi Turbo
Buttons: shell

Sorry, nothing found.

Purple and Green Sweater:
Pattern: DROPS Jacket in Alpaca (free pattern)
Yarn: Hello Yarn Sock in colors Pickle (green) and Kale (purple), around 1.5 oz. of the Pickle and 3.5 oz. of the Kale
Gauge: 24 sts. per 4″
Size: 21″ around under arms, probably 12 mo.+ size
Needles: size 2mm Addi Turbo
Buttons: shell

I’d been meaning to make this DROPS pattern for ages, and now that I have, I think it’s like a feminine, or maybe just sophisticated, BSJ. I can see myself making many more, and with 2 more friends pregnant, I’ll probably be doing it soon!

The pattern is a fun knit. The short rows are dead simple to memorize and even the measurements are, as well. The front is the same width as the sleeve and the back is twice as wide, and so on.

I had major trouble getting gauge. The pattern calls for sport weight and while I’d have loved to use Fat Sock, I ended up using the regular Sock and still didn’t get get gauge. I ended up with 26 sts. per 4″ instead of 24 and the sweater is very big- probably fitting a 12 month old+. This leads me to believe the pattern is a little on the big side, even without a gauge problem.

It certainly is a squishy lovely thing, and well-suited to a solid (or semi-solid, as in mine) and hand-painted yarn combo.

Fiber Club:
Ack! There has been some confusion and/or excitment about the fiber club that just shipped. That was January’s fiber and new members to the fiber club are members for February-April. February’s fiber will ship later this month. I’m sorry some people were stalking their mail carriers and not getting satisfaction from it.

Favorite Things:

* superbomba in Flickr
* candied orange peel
* my Shinzi Katoh bottle
* HEL LOOKS
* Gretchen Kramp tiles
* peeking under the awful vinyl bathroom floor and seeing gorgeous yellow pine
* Pippa sleeping through the night like a big girl

PS: Does anyone use NextGEN Gallery and know why my slideshows don’t have that nice NEXT button in the upper right corner? I can’t find that setting for the life of me, but then it took me a week to figure out how to get Thunderbird to open links in Firefox after the most recent upgrade. :P

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