Out-Of-My-Skull Sweater/Jacket

I've been working on this for a few months now and finally got out to take pictures. My son took the shots and I modeled this time.....BLAH! (I had to because I made it in my size and it didn't fit right on my skinny, son! LOL!!)

So, here we go.....






Here's the back. I used a FABULOUS skull graph from this site....

domiknitrix.com

I see she is offering her graph right now for a limited time so, if you are into skulls, grab this graph before it's taken down!!!

The front (with my head skillfully cropped off.) (See the "Why You Shouldn't Post Your Picture..." link on this site). LOL!

I added toggles as buttons to close it, (but I found it's easier to just slip it on over your head to put on.) I wanted it to have a "biker-jacket" look.

I wanted the sleeves to look like a skeleton's arms. Did you get that impression? I hope so. I wanted it to look like a skeleton wearing a black sleeveless vest.

I did a double crochet completely around for the whole sleeves. Then, I surface-crocheted a second layer of double crochet so the sleeves would be nice, thick, and as warm as the jacket.

The black part of the jacket doesn't show the basketweave stitch very well. The sun would not come out fully and my flash on the camera doesn't work. But, anyway, after I made the skull graph design; I did the basketweave stitch for the sides and front in black. It's sooooooooo thick, heavy and warm. You really could use this as a biker jacket.

Now go get the graph pattern!!!! (And thank you very much to Jen who made the graph and offeres it for free!)

Flag Bags

Well this all started because I had so much red, white, and blue yarn left over from my last project. What to do with it,.....hmmmmmm......I had some flag graphs and I thought the Canadian one was small and would be easy to do.

I got it at http://www.planetshoup.com/easy/holiday/canchrt1.shtml

So I set to work and made a Canadian flag, (or at least what I hoped would pass for one. Graphs aren't exactly proportionate. At least mine never are.) Well, once it was done I thought, now what do I make with this? What else? Another bag. All I need is to make another one and sew them together.

So that's what I did.






This is the front. (I added a Canada keychain that a friend had sent me. (Thanks again Leah!)






The back. The same but without the keychain.






Here's a shot where I tried to show the crocheted chain ties I made to close it.

Next I thought I could tackle the U.S. flag. I wanted to make sure and do all the stripes. I know with some projects it just isn't possible to make the whole thing exactly as it is. But I wanted to try. I had to make my own graph on graphpaper for this one. It was hard and, again, not perfect.






I knew I would never be able to make the stars so the upper left is simply all blue sewn with these absolutely adorable white plastic beads I got at Hobby Lobby. (48 to a pack. Aaaaaaaarrrrrgggg! I had to buy three bags instead of only two. LOL!!!!)






Front and back are exactly the same.






Also has the crocheted ties for closure.

Onto the Union Jack. I really thought I could handle this. I thought I knew how this flag was supposed to go. Well, I was wrong.....

First off I'd like to apologize to all you U.K.ers out there. I realize, (now), that your upper right red diagonal stripe should be moved over about one-two stitches to the left, (as well as the lower left red diagonal stripe moved to the right 2 stitches.) (I think that's right). I sincerely apologize. I have since changed the graph I originally made to reflect this.

However, there's no way I'm going to redo this bag. It was soooooooooooooooooo hard to make. (Well, ok, not that hard). LOL! But still.

Also, I made it more into a square shape, so it was never going to be exact. But I hope you all forgive me. I still love the bag!

Again the back, same as the front. This had to be a lot bigger and it will be a fabulous yarn tote for my projects.






I tried to take group shots so you could see the size differences.






Oh, yes! I also made my 911 into a bag as well. What good is something if no one gets to see it, right?

Since I already had the one side, I only needed to make another. But I wanted it to be different.






So I made up a U.S. Betsy Ross flag using the leftover stars from the third pkg. I had to buy. You only need 13 stars in a circle. (It represents the original 13 colonies).






Here's the front all done with the strap attached and all.











Here I just stacked them all smallest to largest. I know the right side of the circle is a bit off but at least I'm consistant in my inconsistancies!!!!!!

Hope you like the bags. I still have some red white and blue left, hmmmm, let's see. There's the new Russian flag,..... France,.....the Netherlands,......