Monday, December 29, 2014

Christmas Crochet

I know I said I would post more often, but the holidays just seem to fly by and there is always something that needs to be done.  My hands haven't been idle though.  I have been knitting scarves that I'll show you in my next post.

I did find some time to decorate the house during the holidays, and a lot of my decorations are things that either I've made or a relative or friend has made for me.  

Here is a small Hexagon Christmas Tree Skirt that I made.



You can see the size of the tree skirt better in this next photo.



Here is the link for the tutorial for my Hexagon Christmas Tree Skirt.   This is the big one under our family Christmas tree.  


Here is one of my white hexagon tree skirts.  It looks a lot smaller in this photo, but it is almost as big as the one above.  


This is a ripple afghan crocheted in Christmas sparkle yarn.  



I'll have to look for my pattern for this one and post it.  




This is a shell afghan that I made.  I've just alternated the colors red, green, white.  My tutorial for my Crocheted Shell Afghan is here.







The afghan on the chair is just one big granny square that my Mom made years ago.





The yarn is a Christmas variegated with a solid red, green and white double crocheted border.  My granny square afghan tutorial is here.  



The links to my tutorials are also listed on my side bar.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

I hope your holidays are happy ones and that you are finding some time to stitch!!!!!

Monday, November 17, 2014

Crocheted Hexagon Christmas Tree Skirt Tutorial

This is the hexagon Christmas tree skirt that goes underneath our family room tree every year.  My pattern is on my blog here.   I also cut and pasted it to the bottom of this post.

 The tree skirt in the photo below is made with a red, green, white variegated yarn that is usually available in the craft stores around the Christmas season.



I've had a few questions about the pattern, so here is a small tutorial.    Chain 27.  Turn.  Double crochet in the 4th chain from hook.





Your work should look like this after you have done the double crochet. 



In next chain do double crochet - chain 1 - double crochet.  The black arrow shows the stitches from your turning.  The green arrow is your first double crochet.  The blue arrow is the double crochet - chain 1 - double crochet.



You continue the pattern until it is the size desired for your tree.  On each round you do your double crochet - chain 1 - double crochet in the "hole" from the row below.



If the ends of your rows don't look straight, count the number of stitches you've done in the beginning and end wedge.   Your first row should have 3 DCs in the first and last partial wedge.  The second row should have 4 DCs in the first and last partial wedge.  In each row be sure to start your first double crochet where I have the first black arrow marked number 1.



You should have 6 "holes" in your tree skirt.  This forms the hexagon.  At the bottom of the photo you will see that you have two partial wedges.  These go toward the back of the tree.  You can crochet a long chain to tie the tree skirt at the back of the tree, but I usually just lay it around the base of the tree and then overlap it without tying.  There is less crawling around on the floor that way.


Here is one that I made in all white Christmas yarn.  It doesn't really show in the photo, but there is a glittery silver thread in this yarn.


Here is a miniature tree skirt made from this pattern using Christmas variegated yarn.  Then I did 3 rounds of solid double crochets using plain red, white and green yarn.  


Crocheted Hexagon Christmas Tree Skirt

About 15 ounces worsted weight yarn.  
Size I crochet hook  (I usually just use whatever the skein of yarn calls for)

Round 1:
Chain 27  Turn.
Double crochet in the 4th chain from the hook;  *in next chain work (DC, chain 1, DC) (for the corners); double crochet in each of the next 3 chains; repeat from * four times; then work (DC, chain 1, DC) in next chain, double crochet in each of the last 2 chains, chain 3 turn.  Now that is the hard part..... (I tried to count the chains

Rounds 2-???
Skip 1st double crochet, double crochet in each double crochet around, working (DC, chain 1, DC) in each chain 1 space from the previous row.  Chain 3 and turn at the end.

Keep going until the skirt is the size you want.  For my big tree I did 46 rounds.  For smaller trees I did 30 rounds. 

I hope the tutorial helps answer some questions.  If not, email me at lakrug@comcast.net and leave an email address where I can write you.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Granny Stripe and Granny Square Afghans

My crocheted Granny Stripe and crocheted Granny Square afghans are probably two of the largest that I've finished.  The two of them together just fit into one moving box.  

This is the Granny Stripe afghan folded in half at the end of our king sized bed.  You can find my tutorial for my Granny Stripe Afghan  here.    You can find the chart for the Granny Stripe Afghan here.  Ayaka from Crochet and Me blog sent it to me to share with my readers.  You can follow the link to see her pretty afghan.  



This is how it looks when it's unfolded.  It is really more wide than it is long.  I think the next one I make will be more narrow.  Yes, I do have plans for another Granny Stripe.  I love this pattern.  


My Granny Square afghan is huge and really heavy.  You can find the tutorial for my Granny Square Afghan here.  And, I have plans to make another one of these, too.  These are two of my favorite crochet patterns.  


I'm working on a couple of quilting projects so I am making myself wait to unpack most of my yarn because I know there are things still packed away that I want to work on.  Soon.......

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Hope you are finding time to take a few stitches today.  

Sunday, August 3, 2014

I'm Back, and I've Moved

Hello Everyone   Welcome to my new followers, subscribers, and those of you who have just dropped in for a visit.  I can hardly believe that the ground is covered with snow in my last post.  We've moved, and I am beginning the unpacking.  We were in our other home for 25 years, so I haven't done this in quite awhile.  It is a slow process.  I'm also a quilter, and you can see what else I'm unpacking at my other blog, Loose Threads.  

I packed my yarn neatly into a few boxes, and put them into our storage unit.  Someone thought that they had found the perfect place for these boxes in between some bigger pieces of furniture.  And, that was ok with me because I thought there would be a walkway...kind of an aisle....through the middle of this 10' X 20' storage unit.  But, as time went on, the empty space began to fill up, and my yarn was in the back.  I had a couple more containers that I'd kept at home, but they soon went to storage and ended up out of reach.  So I have not crocheted or knit in quite awhile.  I'm kind of anxious to get back to it!  

I thought you would like to see what I'm unpacking.  I just found these two afghans.  This one is a ripple afghan.  Right now, I don't know where the pattern is, but it is just a simple ripple.  When I find the pattern, I will post it here.  


This is a Navajo afghan that I made years ago.  I swore I would never make this pattern again after I made the first one in earth tones.  I believe my son has that one.  So I was kind of surprised to find this one.  I should not have used the variegated yarn because it kind of covers up the design.  It is made one row at a time with most of the stitches being single crochet with a double crochet done in the row (or maybe 2 rows below the row you are working on).   At the end of the row, the yarn is cut and you go back to the right side and begin the next row.  I'll look for that pattern and post it, too.


Here is a close up photo.  I think this photo is actually upside down.  


I'll post more as I open boxes and find afghans and my UFOs.  I won't stay away so long next time!  

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!  

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Never Ending Granny Square Afghan

I  just finished the Never Ending Granny Square Afghan that I started several months ago.  


You can see that the center starts with green and then sort of spirals.


I wasn't quite sure how to end the afghan.  I looked at different sites on line and finally decided to do mine like this.  Here is a photo, but I didn't want to end with white.  


I had enough black yarn to go one more round, and this is how I ended.  The first ending row has 3 double crochets (green) in the "hole" from the row below.  The next row (white row) has one double crochet  The end row (black) has 3 double crochets.  

You can read more about this afghan in my post here.  

 I did this afghan as a Crochet Along with Cyn from Cyns Quilted Travels blog and Pat from Pat's Patter.  You can click either link and see their afghans in progress.  You will also see that all of their skeins are attached to the afghan at once.  I used Cyn's method for making the afghan with no tangles, but I still spent a fair amount of time untangling my yarn.  So now that this is finished, I'll probably stick to afghans using one skein at a time, but I'm glad to have quilted along with friends on this one.



I hope you are finding some time to stitch today. 

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!  

Monday, January 6, 2014

Braided Infinity Scarf

This Braided Infinity Scarf is really quick and easy to make.  I saw this scarf on Pinterest, and the link back was to bloglovin.com so I don't know where it originated.  The directions that were typed below the photo didn't work out, so I made up my own.  The photo I saw used 3 strips of the same color yarn, but I thought it would look neat to try one strip of a contrasting color.





Here are the directions for one strip:

I used worsted weight yarn and a size I crochet hook.  (Use whatever hook works with the yarn you are using).
1 skein off white yarn
1 skein blue yarn
(I used Heartland by Lion Brand yarn)

Chain 162.  HDC in the 3rd chain from hook and in each chain across.  Chain 2, turn.  HDC for 5 more rows.  (6 rows total)  One strip completed.  Make a total of 3 strips.

Now comes the tricky part.  The strips are braided.   How tight or how loosely you braid depends on what you want the finished scarf to look like.  I pinned the three strips to my design board.



 I made several attempts at the braiding until I was satisfied with how the scarf looked.  



The one below is pretty tight.  




And this one is a bit too tight I think.  The curve at the bottom of the scarf looks more like a knot!



After working with the scarf, I clipped the ends together (or you could use safety pins) until they were sewn.  You can see that this next version is a lot looser.  The one below isn't the final product, but I think I almost like it better.  



  This is a fun and easy scarf to make that looks much more complicated than it really is.




 Next time I want to try one in three colors.  I think that using either all one color or 3 different colors would work better.

This is a photo of my back yard taken through the kitchen window.  We are under a travel ban due to a big snowfall and wind chills that are around -45F degrees.  It is good weather to stay inside and crochet or knit.





Thanks for stopping by!

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today! 

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Granny Stripe Afghan Chart


Do you remember my Granny Stripe Afghan that I finished about a year ago?  Here are some photos.  I received an email last week from a crocheter in Japan who has made up a chart for this afghan and has started her own version.  I know a lot of people can crochet much easier by using a chart.

Thank you Ayaka for making the chart!  Visit her blog Crochet and Me here to see her wonderful crochet and the chart she created.

Here is the link to my Granny Stripe Afghan rewrite pattern.







 


Here is a photo of the chart that Ayaka created.  Be sure to visit her blog to see her gorgeous crochet projects.
  


I hope you are finding some time to crochet or knit today!

Thanks for visiting!

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