Zinnias, Yarn, and a Kitty

Zinnia from the garden.

Remember the squares from this post that I was struggling with?  I didn't know how to make them look like what I had drawn or how to make them into squares from circles, but I did eventually figure out the big pink one.  Say hello to the Zinnia Square!

Zinnia Square by Jillian Bankert/OnePinkHippo

Yarn: For the white square I used Red Heart Super Saver in Soft Yellow, an unknown worsted weight in turquoise, Red Heart Soft in a dark pink color (excuse my camera), and Caron Simply Soft in White.  For the green square I used Murphy's Mark Wintuk in pink, Red Heart Super Saver in dark blue, and an unknown worsted weight in green.

Hook: I - 9 (5.5 mm)

I wrote everything down so expect a pattern in the next few days!  I'm currently working on bringing them over to this blog, so hopefully by this weekend I should have all three patterns up and ready for making soon.

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Last week I dyed some white wool with Kool-Aid!

Yet unnamed colorway using Kool-Aid in Grape, Mandarina-Tangerine, and Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade, the latter of which barely comes through.  The grape is really powerful, when it was wet I thought it was going to turn out black. (!)

Method: maiyamayhem's Popsicle Kool-Aid dyeing tutorial

Bare: Paton's Classic Wool in White

Weight: worsted (10 ply)

Amount: 100 grams/210 yards

I did another skein too but that one is destined for a Christmas present and won't be shown for another few months.

Does anyone have any tips on making easy-to-dye hanks?  I unraveled the skein into one big loop, then tied it at intervals but it still got tangled, and now instead of a nice solid cake I have 5 baby cakes per colorway.  (Special shoutout to my mom for untangling the mess I made.  Thanks mom!)  I'd love to be able to dye more skeins but don't want to have to waste almost 3 days untangling.  Any help or ideas would be much appreciated.

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Bonus kitty shots, here is Pip:

Finished!

Sand Stitch Washcloth 

Sand Stitch Tutorial And Afghan Square by The Stitchin’ Mommy

Yarn: Lily Sugar and Cream in Soft Purple and Painted Desert

Hook: H-8 (5.00 mm)

Started and finished: July 7

Made for: This is a “practicing the stitch” cloth. I have an idea in my head for an iPad case and this is the perfect stitch.

Ravelry | Tumblr

Therapy Crochet

Therapy crochet afghan's squares are almost finished!

I have 18 more to make, in pink and a soft yellow (to brighten things up a bit) before weaving in the ends, which I'm dreading, and then I can join in beautiful teal!

Granny Squares

Recently I've been lacking inspiration, especially in crafting.  I don't know what project to start.  I have WIPs but none of them are calling me to work on them.  They're too small and fiddly, or I started it such a long time ago and my skills have progressed much further than that and it looks sloppy.

So I decided to just make granny squares.  Doing the 3 dc clusters around and around just calms me down.  Mindless crochet.  I started using the leftover worsted weight acrylic scraps from the blanket my mom is working on until I had about 10 squares.  Then I ran out of small balls and only had those large skeins that Red Heart Super Saver and Caron Simply Soft come in, and I didn't want to make a blanket that's overwhelming yellow with bits of color thrown in.  But Saturday morning I decided to do a bit of cleaning and came across this:

A ¼ of the way finished afghan and it had scrap balls of acrylic in it.

Crafting with Prudence

I decided to hibernate the hexagon afghan (previously known as the amoeblanket) and start working with that worsted to make more squares.

Now I have a collection of solid squares in different colors and little scrap balls that will be perfect for granny daughters.  I'm also incorporating solid grannies from the long dead Lake George blanket, so now I'll have more colors and it will have a nice random and kaleidoscope effect.

Nordic Shawl: Beginnings

After waiting, getting rid of bags of yarn, buying new yarn, and waiting for that to arrive, I've finally been able to start my Nordic Shawl!

Here are the first few rounds.  I'm using yarn that's a bit thinner than what she used, so it's coming out smaller.  It really bothered me at first, but I'll either have a scarf, or just have to add extra rounds.  I've read on Ravelry others who have added rounds, and it seems to work okay in the pattern, no complicated math involved.

And here are my colors.  I'm using Knit Picks Palette in Silver for the main body, the Blossom Heather, Tumeric, Cream, Edamame, Ash, and Pool for the color part.  

My Rose Valley just made some Nordic style wrist warmers, so I think I'll make a matching pair. 

I'm excited to see how this comes out! 

Happy crafting! 

Lake George

I've decided the nature themed afghan is going to be one that represents Lake George.

Lake George is beautiful, my favorite place in the world, in upstate New York, the Adirondack Mountains.  My grandparents had a house on the lake, but we've unfortunately had to sell it.  

So these grannies will remind me of the lake, the mountains, and being out in pure nature.

Here's a stack of 33 grannies I've done so far.

The plan is to do 99, 11 of each color, to make a 10x9 blanket.  

I've got my eye on some green for joining and the border; maybe I can make a ripply one with some of the blues.

I'm really excited about this! 

Some crochet things

Seems like I have a bit of projects going on at the moment, all of them no where near being finished, but does that stop me from making some scrap grannies today?  Nope.  

Granny Iris, regular granny, Granny Iris again, Granny Edna, Granny Florence, and another Edna

Not sure if I mentioned before, the Simply Crochet Granny Square-a-Week app squares I was doing.  I had an afghan in mind, but seeing my mom make granny squares for her own blanket inspired me to do 9 grannies and make a pillow.

For the back it's going to be one big granny square.  I should be finished it, but I'm using Red Heart Super Saver and it's really rough and is taking me forever.  The scrap grannies I made today were made using Lion Brand Wool-Ease and I made 6 with no problem.  My leftover RHSS might be heading to the thrift store.  Acrylic yarn doesn't have to feel like it's made of wound up plastic bags!

My mom made her first granny square!   She's been making a lot more,

and I believe it has turned from a pastel shaded lapghan to a kaleidoscope blanket.  It's coming along really nicely.

The first few rounds and colours I'm using to make Winkie's Beach Bag.  She had a crochet-a-long going on with it, check it out HERE.

A Blythe sweater, (my first intarsia !!!), with the unfinished flag of Brazil for the World Cup.  I wish I had finished this earlier, but I believe when I was finishing this up Brazil was being slammed by Germany in the semis.  Now I need to hurry up and make some Liverpool ones before August 16 when their season starts!

My current line up of my granny daughter blanket.  I bought two Pound of Loves in black so the joining will all be the same color, and am doing a pattern of variegated, solid, variegated.  Here is what I had already completely, but there's two different blacks and it really started to bother me:

And when I was looking for that I found my blanket made out of hexagons!  

Crosses fingers some of these will be FOs this year!

Blythe Hats on Etsy!

Today I added four of my Little Ears hats to Sarah and I's joint Etsy shop. From top left, clockwise: Cold October Nights Little Ears, Happy Trails Little Ears, BOO! Little Ears, and Crayons Little Ears. I hope people are interested! I think they're really cute and I enjoy making them. Unfortunately no one bought the shawls and the listing expired, but there were faults with the photographs as well. In these I focused on what I was selling, the hats, rather than taking photographically nice pictures. In the top right one of Amie, the hat is in focus while she isn't. Normally I'd toss it, but I need to focus on the hat. And that reminds me, I need to introduce everyone - I'm up to 10 girls now!

I also made us a Twitter, so if you want Blythe updates, do follow: https://twitter.com/EssHippo

Donuts!

My mom was sewing a little bag to keep our Scrabble pieces in, but she had all her pins in the little plastic bag it came in on her nightstand. That's not too cool, especially since I have nosy cats who like to steal sharp objects. So I made her a donut:

A donut with sprinkles, that is!

Donut Pincushion by Nevadamama

  

Yarn: Caron Perfect Match in Brown; Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Natural Heather

Hook: US 3 (3.5 mm)

Somehow I didn't follow the directions exactly, and instead of crocheting it circularly, I ended up having to join it. I did the frosting correctly. 

It crocheted up quite quickly, only a few hours. 

I think I'll be making another for my aunt who sews!

Friday Night.

I decided to watch Whip It (2009) with Ellen Page and Drew Barrymore.

And do what I do best. Crochet, of course.

I found a doily in the box with the Christmas decorations and said to myself "I can do that." So I tried.

And it was really tiny and fiddly at the beginning, but soon I got the hang of it.

I'm writing down the pattern as I do. It's really not that hard. The hardest thing is probably getting used to the small needle and crochet thread. It's a big jump from the bulky that I had been using previously.