baby blankets..

Among doing many other things, both my daughter and I have been working on our baby blankets. I think she is ahead of me at this point and I think her crocheted ripple blanket is coming out way nicer than my baby block blanket. I'm not liking how this yarn is knitting up in this pattern. It's a soy blend and kind of slippery. I have also been knitting tighter then I usually do to try to keep the stitches more even looking.. I don't think I'm winning the battle. I had her look at it because I was not pleased with the outcome so far .. but she wants it because its very soft and silky and she likes the colors .. so on I knit not liking each and every row.

Little Black Shrug has arrived!!

The Little Black Shrug pattern is finally finished and now added to my etsy shop. I have already worn this little shrug a few times an just love it. What more could you ask for, an economical perfect little cover up for evenings out or to throw over a tank top in summer. The shrug body is crochet and the edgings are knit in a little simple cable twist rib which adds a very finished look to it. So both a knowledge of knit and crochet are needed to make this simple shrug. Don't stop at just black make one in every color!!

You can find the Little Black Shrug here. Thanks for looking and enjoy. (^_^)

Getting Started with Entrelac, from Knitting Daily TV Episode 503 - Knitting Daily

Just wanted to share this.

testing!!

I will be testing the pattern for The Little Black Shrug for about a week depending on how tired I am after and before work plus trying to work a little on the entrelac baby blanket and spin some yarn.. so much to do!!

My Little Black Shrug

When searching through patterns and you can't find exactly what you want.. I say make your own. I was looking for a shrug as simple as the One Skein wonder from Stefanie Japel, but I didn't want a solid knit fabric because I live in Florida and it can be really hot. Since I have crocheted a few items with cotton thread recently using an open mesh type stitch I wanted to make a shrug with that stitch. So.. I started the body as an upside down raglan in the mesh stitch. When it the armholes fit comfy I started the sleeves. Once the body and sleeves were finished it needed an edging. I tried a few crochet edgings but I didn't like how it looked so I took them out and decided on a knitted edging. It worked out perfectly. Once finished, as perfect as it was to what I had wanted, it was a little plain. I thought it needed a little embellishment so looking at different crochet flowers I settled on the bullion stitch flower. Never having made one of these was most of the fun. I love the stitch and I think it is my favorite flower to crochet now. I plan on posting the pattern for The Little Black Shrug in the next few days as a Pdf file. I love knit and crochet together.. yes they can be friends.. (^_^)

Progress of the week..

Well I finally decided on an edging to finish the sleeve and around the entire shrug. I went with knitting verses crochet and I'm really pleased with it. I'm one row away from finishing the other sleeve and then it's on to the body of the shrug. Lately I've been cleaning out closets and reorganizing little by little. The other day I started with the kids old school papers.. I can't believe I saved all their art work and report cards. All was put in a box for them to decide what they want to keep. I'm going to get some binders and page protectors to put the memorable stuff in for each child. Cleaning out closets is exhausting haha. I have a little clean up left for today and then it's on to finish this shrug and watch some nice movies. I think I will watch the Joneses and maybe Karate Kid..





My daughter has been working on her baby blanket. I think it looks great and of course I'm so bias. (^_^)

a distraction..!!

Ok... I was happily working on the entrelac baby blanket and decided I needed a little black shrug to wear over some pretty tank tops. This could only take a day or 2 to crochet. It's so little. So I bought some of what is becoming my favorite thread to crochet with , this time in black. The body of the shrug worked up really fast just as I thought it would. I use the One skein wonder formula from Stefanie Japels' one skein wonder shrug, except I'm crocheting instead of knitting. Basically it's an upside down raglan in crochet. Now all I have to do is decide on an edging to work around all the edges to finish it off... how long could that take.. well I am now 5 days into this shrug and still trying to decide what stitch should I use to finish it off.. I tried a double crochet and didn't like that or the single crochet. Now I'm checking out some knitted rib stitches and think I might like to use knitting to finish it off. Hopefully some time today I will make up my mind. To crochet the body of the shrug I used a size G hook so I'm thinking about a size 4 knitting needle for the edging. For this I will have to make a little swatch to make sure the cotton thread doesn't look to loose. Well here I go.. (^_^)