Puzzle Piece Scarf

I made a puzzle piece scarf using the same graph pattern I posted here about a month ago for the poncho. (Click on the photos to enlarge them).





Here's my son wearing it. It's made with all cotton sugar n cream yarn so it's very very thick. Especially since it's folded over from side to side so the ugly back is hidden inside the scarf and you don't have to look at it. So it's super-toasty-warm.





Here's a front shot and a back shot. I think my camera's flash actually went off, (outside in the full sun!), so the second shot is very hard to see. Naturally it's the one I wanted you to see most because there is the seam running up the back where I joined the sides together.

Use the same graph crocheting tunisian style with a size J cabled hook just as before only instead of five puzzle pieces across, you make only four. This way when you join the seams in back, the puzzle pieces will "match up". You also have to pay attention to your colors so that they will co-incide with each other at the joining seam. My scarf is 16 puzzle pieces long but you can make it as long as you want.

This may be a bit easier to do instead of the poncho for people who are just starting out learning tunisian crochet.
I think people will definately spot you in a crowd for sure! LOL!

Tapestry Crochet Totes

The blazing heat of summer is upon us.
What better time to work on smaller projects?
Ones that won't smother you while you are still creating them? LOL!

Many of you are familiar with Carol Ventura's fabulous technique of tapestry crocheting.

If not, when you have lots of time, slip on over to her site where she has wonderful tutorials and free patterns to get you going on this super-fun and addicting type of stitch.

Tapestry Crochet

Over there you will find the free pattern for the first of my totes. The Kitty Bag pattern. (please click on the photo to enlarge them).






I'm calling mine Cat's Halloween because I used Halloween colors.It's on the left in this picture.
I used Omega brand Sinfonia yarn/thread. (I'm not sure if it's a "yarn" yet it's thicker than thread).
I'm a big fan of Sinfonia. I love it!!
I used a size F hook.

I made up a drawstring closure instread of her wrist strap.
One color pulls to one side, the other color pulls the other side closing it in the middle.

After I made the cat bag, I made up another pattern using a honeycomb peyote bead pattern from here. Aunt Molly's Bead Patterns It's the pink and black pattern sort of in the middle of the page. (As I was working on the cat bag I realized you could use any peyote bead pattern just by turning it on it's side.)
The top part of the back is simply alternately switching black with whatever color I was using in that row.
It's a really pretty effect. I really like this bag.






Then I took a peyote bead alphabet and came up with this Love One Another tote.
This time I used DMC's Senso thread (size 3), in a sort odf neon green and a "rainbow" beige. It doesn't show up so well in the full sunlight. It's much easier to see indoors.
The middle part was just me goofing around with the technique. The bottom part is from an old celtic design and boy was this hard! I began at the bottom so I did this pattern first and there was no way I was going to repeat it through to the top. Aaaaa!!!! LOL!!!






I decided I like the Sinfonia yarn better so I went back to using it on this next bag I'm calling Hare's Nightmare.






Hare's Nightmare is from two different patterns.
First I found a turtle pattern from About.com
Turtle Safety Pin pattern
It's a pattern to make a pin from safety pins and beads. I left off the tail because it looked funny when crocheting it.

The wonderful rabbit pattern I found in someone's blog who got it from Wiseneedle knit pattern site.
I'm posting the pattern here. It has an explaination of the origins of the rabbit and also some rules about using the pattern.
So please read it carefully!






Anyway, it was such an awesome graph and it really inspired me. I need to make the drawstrings for this bag. So, at least you can see what it looks like before I do that.

Finally, if you're not bored to tears yet, I have the last tote. It's a wrap-around design beginning on one side and ending on the other.





I'm calling mine Fishbone. But it's from a pattern called Jollyfish, (get it? instead of jolly roger?), from a site called knittingjuju. Someone named Julie designed it.

It's also at Craftzine too. Here's their link...Jollyfish What a great-looking graph!!!! I couldn't wait to get started!!!!

The anchors are a pattern I found at CrochetMe. It was for a hot water bottle cover.
Hot Water Bottle by Chloe Nightingale
I used a green Sinfonia and a Aunt Lydia's white cotton thread. The closure at the top is some rope, I thought it would give the purse a nice nautical touch. I used the peyote bead alphabet to spell out AHOY. (It was going to be Yo Ho Ho but I thought that might be misinterpreted. LOL!

So, now I'm totally hooked on this tapestry crochet thing. What am I going to do with all these bags?? My kids think I'm nuts.
Ah well. Enjoy your summer!

50th Anniversary Afghan

Next month my family will all converge at my folk's house to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
(It's actually officially in January of next year but we realized that no one would be able to get together then right after the holidays and the bad weather as well).

So, August it is!

In honor of their anniversary, I decided to make a sort of "banner-looking" afghan that maybe they could hang up for the day or whatever.






Here it is in all it's wildness. (Click on the photos for enlargement please).

It's done using TLC Wiggles yarn so all those "flecks" you see that look like confetti are "wiggles" that bump out and really add texture to the afghan. I used a size J cabled afghan hook.

I did something I've never done before. I got their latest photo, (the one in the middle), and a wedding photo from the attic.

I took the pictures of the photos with my digital camera. Then uploaded them to my computer.






Then I got some special craft iron-on sheets in which you feed into your printer and print your own image on the iron-on fabric. Then you just iron it on to whatever you want.

So, I'm a little ahead of myself here because first thing I had to do was, of course, crochet the afghan.

I found something I thought would work great here...

Heart and Roses by Marsha Itro.
The graph link doesn't work so I had to do it by "row count" which was ok except I had to add in my own 50 in the center of the heart and it would have been so much more convenient to have had it in a graph form. I had tried to write to her in e-mail and asked for the graph, (which you can clearly see in that tiny thumbnail), but I got no response.

Anyway, I also had to find or create their names and the word anniversary too.

I used the Celtic cross stitch graph generator for their last name and also anniversary. For some reason the lower case r is capitalized like R so I just went ahead and followed the graphs. It makes it more interesting anyway.

I found a cross stitch site for their names, (only it was a foreign site and they spelled them differently so I wound up having to copy several graphed names and piece them together to spell out my names correctly. (Right now you are all thinking/wondering just what kind of a crazed, obssessive madwoman I really am). LOL!!!





Once again here's the front and then the back. For the back I used a super soft felt-like material that actually has raised "bumps" on it.






Here it is close up. I use a hand held leather hole punch and two different sized crochet hooks. A tiny hook to insert into the hole punch to grab the yarn through, and a size J hook to make the actual crochet single stitch which is the border. Once I had the whole backing attached, I did one more row of the basketweave stitch completely around it.

So, anyway, I hope they like it. I can't wait to see everyone. I hope the weather is good.
Not many people now-a-days make it to 50 years. They deserve a great party!!!!