Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Hooking on Hump Day’ Category

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here to tell you about the second half of my Jimmy Beans Wool Craftvent Calendar advent calendar creations. Let’s see what was in the rest of the boxes.

Striped Scarf
Madelinetosh Impression Yarn
Colors: Colors: Antler (white) & Malmo (dark green)

I would have to say that working with the Impression yarn wasn’t my favorite, especially with the darker colors. The pattern didn’t call for the border of dark yarn on the sides of the scarf but since the yarn was carried up the side, I didn’t like the look, so I covered it up with a single crochet around the entire scarf. It was finished off with fringe of alternating both colors of yarn.

Star Hat
Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light Yarn
Colors: Carousel Horse (pink multi) & Tart (red)

The written pattern for the star hat called for another star applique like the ones for the sweater and mittens I posted about previously. I wasn’t happy with how those looked so I used the chart for the knitted pattern and did my hat in the waistcoat stitch to mimic a knitted stitch. I also used a ribbed brim instead of what the pattern called for. In other words, I winged it!

Striped Socks
Madelinetosh Twist Light Yarn
Colors: Malmo (dark green) & Sorry, Not Sorry (light green)

These socks were crocheted the same as the previous ones except you changed color every two rows. They were very easy to make.

Day sixteen contained 100% Aromatic Red Cedar that is harvested from renewable forests. It grows quickly and is a reliable and sustainable resource. I will be storing my Craftvent creations with these to deter moths and other pests.

Colorblock Raglan Sweater
Madelinetosh Impression Yarn
Colors: Colors: Carousel Horse (pink multi) & Patriarch (bright red)

The design of this sweater was fairly simple to make except that it was done with my least favorite yarn in the box.

Colorblock Hat
Madelinetosh Twist Light Yarn
Colors: Tern (dark grey) & Tart (red)

This was the simplest hat to make. I switched to the ribbed brim I did on the previous hats and added one of the pom poms that came in the day four box.

Day nineteen contained this cute tape measure. The gnomes are featured on the front of the box too.

Yoke Sweater
Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light (TML) + Tweed Yarn
Colors: Malmo (dark green) & Antler (white)

This was another color work sweater. It was easy to follow the chart and I love the look of the yoke.

Striped Hat
Madelinetosh Twist Light Yarn
Colors: Tern (dark grey) & Tart (red)

Another easy hat to make. I switched to the ribbed brim I did on the previous hats and added one of the pom poms that came in the day four box.

The day twenty-two box was another break from crocheting with some accessories to help hang all the creations up and light them up.

Santa Hat
Madelinetosh Impression Yarn
Colors: Colors: Carousel Horse (pink multi) & Tart (red)

This was the final project of the box and was a bit of a challenge to start. The pattern started at the smallest part and with the fuzzy lace weight yarn it was difficult to see to start. I had to restart because I was having a difficult time seeing the stitches. Since that yarn is so fuzzy you can’t rip it back like most normal yarns, I scrapped it and was able to make it work. I added a self-made pom pom with the pink yarn.

The final box contained a sample of Eucalan Lanolin Enriched Laundry Concentrate and a tapestry needle.

Mini Millie and Walter had some fun trying on a few of the creations.

Here is a look at them all hung up on the twine with the fairy lights. I’m not sure how I will display them for next Christmas. They are a bit too big to fit on my tree but there might be another crocheted creation or some other sort of crafty creation to display them.

2079 - Craftvent box - Tiny Trimmings on String with Lights - lr

Jimmy Beans Craftvent 2022

I know that this has been a long post so thank you if you made it this far. It’s been fun working on all these little projects and I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing them.

I’m joining the The Loop Scoop Yarny Link Party (formerly known as Hookin’ on Hump Day). You should stop by to see some of the other projects people have posted.

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here to tell you about the first few days of my Craftvent advent calendar. As I showed you in my previous post the first box contained the tools needed to complete the projects. Let’s see what was in some of the next boxes.

Stranded Hat
Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light (TML) + Tweed Yarn
Colors: Tart (red) & Tern (grey)

The projects started off with one of the more challenging patterns, a colorwork hat. Since I had done colorwork on some previous projects I wasn’t too intimidated by this one. It was worked from the top down and the pattern suggested using the waistcoat stitch that simulates a knit look. I changed the brim of the hat to a ribbed one instead of what the pattern called for.

Color Block Mittens
Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light Yarn
Colors: Tart (red) & Antler (white)

The next pattern was a simple pair of mittens. I had never made mittens and didn’t know how the thumb was formed, but it was easy to understand the instructions.

The day four box contained a couple of cute pom poms and some tiny gold buttons. The instructions in the box said that there are four hat patterns in this box so we get to decide which ones we might want to put the pom poms on. The buttons are supposed to be a decoration for an upcoming sweater.

Color Block Scarf
Madelinetosh Impression Yarn
Colors: Tart (red) & Carousel Horse (pink multi)

The yarn for day five is a lace-weight yarn that is 70% mohair and 30% silk. It was a bit difficult to work with, but the pattern was a simple scarf and worked up quickly.

Day six contained a set of stitch markers with leather adornments. I like having ones that have right side (RS) and wrong side (WS) designations. They will come in handy.

Color Block Socks
Madelinetosh Twist Light Yarn
Colors: Malmo (dark green) & Sorry, Not Sorry (light green)

The day seven socks were easy to make and worked up quickly.

Striped Raglan Sweater
Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light Yarn
Colors: Malmo (dark green) & Antler (white)

The striped raglan sweater was very easy to make. I’m glad I made some raglan style sweaters for myself in the past couple of years.

Craftvent box - Day 9 - Candy

Birnn Chocolates of Vermont

Day nine was a nice break from hooking with a little chocolate break from Birnn Chocolates of Vermont.

Star Sweater
Madelinetosh Twist Light Yarn
Colors: Carousel Horse (pink multi) & Patriarch (bright red)

There were some missing parts to the instructions for this sweater but after referring to the knit version of the pattern I was able to figure out how to complete it. The star on the front is an applique. I’m just a bit disappointed that the star wasn’t crocheted in like it is in the knit version.

Star Mittens
Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light (TML) + Tweed Yarn
Colors: Antler (white) & Tart (red)

These mittens were similar to the previous mittens with the added star applique. I also wish this pattern was for the star to be crocheted in and not as an applique. 

della Q Accessories – Scissor Pocket w/ scissors

The day twelve box was another break from crocheting with the della Q Scissor Pocket and a pair of scissors.

Mini Millie and Walter had some fun trying on a few of the creations.

I know that this has been a long post so thank you if you made it this far. It’s been fun working on all these little projects and I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing them.

I’m joining the The Loop Scoop Yarny Link Party (formerly known as Hookin’ on Hump Day). You should stop by to see some of the other projects people have posted.

Read Full Post »

The Christmas Gingerbread Train!

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here to tell you about the adorable, crocheted gingerbread train I created to add to our holiday decorations. 

1612 - Christmas Gingerbread Train on Tracks - lr

Christmas Gingerbread Train

The pattern for this detailed amigurumi was created by the designer from Toyfox Store on Etsy. The fifty-eight-page pattern is incredibly detailed with many pictures and even includes a few links to videos you can watch to help you complete this project. The yarn used is Scheepjes Catona (50g) which is great for this type of work. I used two skeins each of Snow White (106) and Caramel (506) and less than a skein each of Scarlet (192), Kiwi (205), and Chocolate (507). Since you can’t tell by the picture how big the train is I will give you some dimensions as we look at each piece. All coupled together the train is about 14 ½ inches (37 cm) long.

1599 - Christmas Gingerbread Train - Lead Car with Candy - lr

Lead Car with Christmas Sweets

I’ve had this project on my hook for almost 9 months with a few breaks for other projects in between. I started with what I determined would be the simplest part, the Lead Car and the Christmas Sweets. This car measures 3 ¾ inches (9.5 cm) long by 2 ¾ inches (7 cm) high by 2 ½ inches (6.4 cm) inches wide. Each of the candies required a slightly different technique for the colorwork. Charlie did his usual handyman job of supplying me with the sticks for the lollipops. The trick to getting those lollipops to stand up in the car is a small piece of florist foam in the bottom of the car.

1602 - Christmas Gingerbread Train - Cupcake Caboose - lr

Cupcake Caboose

The Cupcake Caboose used some more new techniques and stitches to me such as the “split single crochet” (also known as the waistcoat stitch) that was used on the striped lower part of the cupcake. A crocheter can see that this stitch gives you the look of knitting. The spirals of frosting were done by working a single crochet in the front loops of the previous round and then working another single crochet into the back loops of the same base stitches. The first time I made the top of the cupcake I did it wrong and when I realized my mistake, I ripped it out and redid the frosting. This car is 3 ¾ inches (9.5 cm) long by 5 inches (12.7 cm) high (to the top of the cherry) by 2 ½ inches (6.4 cm) inches wide. I just love all the minute details that went into this car.

1594 - Christmas Gingerbread Train - Engine - side view - lr

Gingerbread Train Engine

The pattern is written with each step for each car separately, but I did some of the parts in an assembly line fashion. For instance, all the wheels are identical so instead of doing the first four and then finishing one car I did all of them together, so I didn’t have to remember how to make them each time.

1598 - Christmas Gingerbread Train - Engine - front view - lr

Front view of Engine

To create the various shapes and make them rigid, cardboard was used either in a sandwich of crocheted pieces (the wheels) or in the case of the engine the cardboard is glued to the inside of the walls and roof before it is sewn closed. Other parts of the train were stuffed with polyfil and with the lead car and the cow catcher on the front of the engine, I used stiffener to make them rigid.

1650 - Christmas Gingerbread Train - back door - lr

Back of the Engine

There are a lot of little parts that went into making the engine, so I left that car for the end. I just love all the little details of the snow-covered roof with icicles hanging off, the candy decorations and the way the stitching makes it look like frosting on the roof, and the cute little door and windows on the sides and back. Not to mention the boiler and all its adornments on the front.

Christmas-Gingerbread-Train---Spinning

A 360 view of the Engine

This engine is 5 ½ inches (14 cm) long by 5 inches (12.7 cm) high by 2 ½ inches (6.4 cm) inches wide. Overall, I’m very happy with how this train turned out. For displaying it I created a machine embroidered set of train tracks on white polka dot fabric so it looks like it’s flying through the snow.

1612 - Christmas Gingerbread Train on Tracks - lr

Christmas Gingerbread Train

If you are a medium to experienced crocheter I would recommend this pattern. The instructions are very detailed with lots of pictures to help you and is extremely easy to follow.

I’m joining the The Loop Scoop Yarny Link Party (formerly known as Hookin’ on Hump Day). You should stop by to see some of the other projects people have posted.

Read Full Post »

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here to tell you about the crocheted sweater I recently finished. 

Cindy with sweater 2-19-22-1 - lr

High Wire Sweater

The High Wire sweater is a pattern from the inaugural issue of Moorit Magazine which is “…an indie craft magazine that puts crochet front and center.” This pattern was designed by Stephanie Erin and is a classic circular yoke sweater that is worked from the top down.

The pattern sample was worked in the same yarn I chose for the main color, Neighborhood Fiber Co. Studio Sock in color “Remington” but I chose a different color from the sample for the color work and went with “Swoon”.

8040 - High Wire Sweater - completed yoke - lr

Completed Yoke

I love how the turquoise color makes the yoke look like you are wearing a necklace.

The pattern is worked from the top down so the sweater can be tried on as you go to make sure the fit is good. It has shaping for the bust, waist, and hips and fits me perfectly in the size I chose. 

This sweater took me about two months to complete. I thought the pattern was written well and easy to follow. The print version of the magazine is no longer available, but you can still get a digital version.

I’m very happy with how the sweater turned out and would recommend this pattern to anyone. In the future I might make a short sleeve version in a summer weight yarn. The pattern is only available by purchasing the digital version of Moorit magazine.

I’m joining the The Loop Scoop Yarny Link Party (formerly known as Hookin’ on Hump Day). You should stop by to see some of the other projects people have posted.

Read Full Post »

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here to tell you about the crocheted jacket I recently finished. This is the second garment I’ve made from designer Tatsiana Kupryianchyk of LillaBjörn’s Crochet World and is called the Mont Blanc Jacket. Tatsiana creates well written patterns and has many videos to help you along the way.

8029 - Mont Blanc Jacket - front - lr

Mont Blank Jacket

For my jacket I chose Scheepjes Stone Washed XL in Deep Amethyst for the body and Scheepjes Furry Tales in Aladdin for the cuffs and collar. It might seem intimidating to work with fuzzy yarn, but Tatsiana produced a method that makes it much easier than you would think. (I won’t give away the secret here but just want you to know it was very easy to do)

This jacket has many design features I like such as pockets in the front and a pleat in the back.

Here is a closer look at the pleat that also was easy to do.

One thing I did differently from the suggestion in the pattern was I didn’t make the furry cuffs as long as the pattern says to. I think the proportions are better for me this way.

8037 - Mont Blanc Jacket - sleeve cuff detail - lr

My cuffs are about 5 inches long.

This pattern is worked from the top down, so you can try it on as you crochet. I also made the pockets longer than the pattern suggested and worked the jacket length to where I thought it looked the best. The final addition to the jacket were the buttons that Charlie custom made for me.

8031 - Mont Blanc Jacket - button detail - lr

Stained wooden buttons made from a dowel

Using a 1 1/4-inch maple dowel, Charlie first drilled the holes then cut slices of about and 1/8 inch thick. He happened to have some purple stain that was a perfect match for the yarn. I love the way the buttons work with the jacket.

When the jacket was completed, I still had quite a bit of yarn of both types left over so I decided to make a matching hat.

For the hat I started at the top and worked in rounds. For the first two rounds I just did single crochet and then, starting on the third round, I worked the same stitch pattern that is used for the jacket. It was easy to keep trying it on as I went for a perfect fit. When I was happy with the length of the main yarn, I used a slightly modified technique to attach the furry yarn as the jacket pattern and kept working until I had the size I wanted. I’m happy with how both the jacket and the hat turned out and love the way they look on me.

Overall, I’m happy with how the jacket and hat turned out and would recommend this pattern to anyone. You can find the pattern from LillaBjörn Crochet on Ravelry or Etsy.

I’m joining the The Loop Scoop Yarny Link Party (formerly known as Hookin’ on Hump Day). You should stop by to see some of the other projects people have posted.

Read Full Post »

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here to tell you about the Christmas stockings I made. Last year I finished a small quilt that we hung on our fireplace. It’s a bit small for the space so this year I searched online for a Christmas stocking pattern to crochet so we could add them to our display.

7971 - Christmas Stockings and Quilt - lr

The stockings were hung from the quilt with care…

First a little word about how I hung them. Since the stone on the fireplace is so irregular, we couldn’t attach anything to the stone to hang the stockings from. Charlie found a 1/4″ dowl that was already stained and would work perfectly for that spot. To attach it to the quilt I used a matching brown thread and sewed three loops that hang down from the quilt. The dowl slips through the loops and even close up it’s difficult to see.

Now let’s get to the stockings. 

8000 - Charlies Christmas Stocking - lr

Charlie’s stocking
(Blue yarn is Red Heart Giant in Dark Country Blue – possibly discontinued)

I found the Country Cottage Stocking crochet pattern for free on the Who’s Homemade website. On the pattern page there are also links to paid patterns on Etsy and Ravelry and a video to show you the entire process.

8001 - Millies Christmas Stocking - lr

Millie’s stocking
(Red is Caron One Pound in Claret)

The pattern instructions are well written and with the video there is no way to go wrong. I went “shopping” for the yarn from my stash and was happy to find colors that coordinated well with the quilt.

8002 - Walters Christmas Stocking - lr

Walter’s stocking
(Green is Caron One Pound in Grass Green)

The only thing I did differently from the pattern was I added four rounds to the main stocking before adding the cuff to make them a bit longer.

8007 - Cindys Christmas Stocking - lr

Cindy’s stocking
(Purple is Red Heart With Love in Aubergine)

I like how the use of post stitches gives you a more closed fabric for the main body of the stocking. The toe was easy to work and with the help of the video the heal and cuff were no problem either. The white yarn is also Caron One Pound. It’s always nice to be able to work from your stash and create something new that will be a part of our holiday decorations for years to come.

I’m joining the The Loop Scoop Yarny Link Party (formerly known as Hookin’ on Hump Day). You should stop by to see some of the other projects people have posted.

Read Full Post »

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here to let you see my most recent crochet completion. After the previous two complicated afghans I wanted to work on something easy. Over a year ago I purchased a kit for the Attic 24 Moorland Stripe Blanket and I knew that would be the perfect project for my next afghan.

7553 - Moorland Blanket - ed - lr

The Moorland Blanket was a Crochet-A-Long (CAL) that ran starting in January of 2017. I’ve followed the Attic 24 blog for quite a few years and love the striped blankets she produces for her CALs. Each one is inspired from nature and things she finds around her living in England. The Moorland blanket…

…is made using fifteen shades of yarn, the colours are inspired by the Yorkshire moorland in late summer when the hills are covered in vibrant swathes of purple heather.

I love how as you progress making this blanket from the bottom to the top you can just see the beautiful landscape.

7556 - Moorland Blanket - Beginning colors - lr

The beginning colors of green, brown and just a hint of purple.

7555 - Moorland Blanket - Middle colors - lr

The middle colors show more shades of purple with the greens and browns fading out.

7557 - Moorland Blanket - Ending colors - lr

The last section reaches the sky with lots of blues and a hint of purple and green.

I enjoyed working the 115 stripes of the Neat Wave pattern. Each stripe is two rows so there were a lot of ends to weave in, which I did about every dozen stripes along the way. As with all her projects Lucy chose the 15 colors from the Stylecraft Special DK line. I really enjoy working with this yarn and wish it was more readily available in this country. 

7558 - Moorland Blanket - Border detail - lr

The simple border worked in four of the colors.

The blanket was finished off with just four stripes of color. It’s difficult to see the green part of the border since the burgundy color was worked on top of it. This blanket will be wonderful to use to keep warm while watching TV or taking a nap.

I’m joining the The Loop Scoop Yarny Link Party (formerly know as Hookin on Hump Day). You should stop by to see some of the other projects people have posted.

Read Full Post »

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here. Since I last posted about my crochet work I had been working on another afghan which was the Scheepjes CAL 2020: d’Histoire Naturelle by Christina Hadderingh from the blog A Spoonful of Yarn. When this CAL was run (starting September 2020) I was working on another project so I didn’t participate while it was running but I kept up with what was happening by following the OFFICIAL Scheepjes – International Group on Facebook. Christina was inspired to create this afghan after reading the book All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr which I listened to the audio book version of a few years ago when it first came out.

All The Light We Cannot See

Christina explains how the book was her inspiration:

“In the story we follow Marie-Laure and her father who is a locksmith at the National Natural History Museum at Paris. Anthony Doerr paints such a vivid picture of the Museum and its contents that I had to design a blanket around it. As you crochet the blanket, Scheepjes and I will take you through all the main Museum gardens and galleries: the Jardin des Plantes, the Galerie d’Entomologie, the Galerie de Botanique, the Galerie de Minéralogie, the Grande Galerie de l’evolution and the Galerie de Paleontologie.”

There were four colorways created for this CAL and two different yarn types to choose from making a total of 8 kits you could choose from if you wanted to use the colors Christina picked out. I chose the Entomology colorway in Scheepjes Stone Washed/River Washed yarn. In addition to running the CAL Christina also had a read along portion. She also recorded an interview with the author to discuss the sections of the book the group was reading. You can see all the interviews on the Scheepjes YouTube page.

Now I would like to take you through the CAL showing you how the 6 parts came together. I will mostly let Christina’s words explain the work and encourage you to click on the links to each “chapter”, as she calls them, to see some pictures of the actual museum and its collections.

Chapter1: Jardin des Plantes

We begin our journey outside, in the Jardin des Plantes, which is the museum botanical garden…Can you envision the grand hedges that cast their shadow upon the botanical gardens with more than 10,000 named plant species?

In this part you will find floral stitch patterns, inspired by botany, as well as round hedges in the corners, inspired by the grand hedges of the garden.

814 - d'Histoire Naturelle CAL - Entomology - Part 1 - lr

Chapter 1: Jardin des Plantes

Chapter 2: Galerie d’Entomologie

In real life, the Galerie d’ Entomologie is sadly no longer open for public. It closed for renovation in 1996, but due to lack of funding it remained closed ever since. However, from 1960 to 1996 it housed more than half of the worlds total biodiversity regarding insects, such as beetles, butterflies and bees. Envision cabinet after cabinet full of drawers with insects from all over the world, their iridescent wings and mind blowing colors

The square of the blanket will be turned into an octagonal shape, using four precious bees. After that the shape will be expanded, using eight gorgeous butterflies, encased in a flower with eight petals, which is created by using front post stitches.

(You can click on the images to see larger views of them)

Chapter 3: Galerie de Botanique

The Galerie de Botanique is situated in the Jardin des Plantes and contains the largest and oldest Herbarium in the world, with eight milion specimens. Envision beautiful scientific drawings of flowers and herbs, humid greenhouses full of exotic plants, of which Marie-Laure thought it smells like humus, wet newspaper and lobelia and rows and rows of cabinets full of ancient seed and plant specimens.

After the big octagonal shape, we will gradually turn it into a circle, which ends in a big border full of gorgeous leaves. The stitches are inspired by orchids and leaves shown on herbarium sheets or scientific drawings of flowers and plants.

(You can click on the images to see larger views of them)

Chapter 4: Galerie de Minéralogie et Géologie

Minerals play a big part in the story of All the Light We Cannot See, as we read about the curse of the infamous Sea of Flames, the gorgeous descriptions of the Galerie and as we follow major Von Rumpel on his hunt for precious gemstones and crystals. The galerie is situated in the Jardin des Plantes and contains a dazzling 770 thousand specimens. Try to keep your eyes from wandering

In part 4 we will start to turn the big circle into a square shape, using four corner shapes. The corner shapes are made with separate motifs, inspired by geodes, agate and quartz, encased in lace. After the corner shapes are attached to the blanket, Sea of Flames diamonds are made in between the corner shapes to finish the part.

(You can click on the images to see larger views of them)

Chapter 5: Grande Galerie l’Evolution

The Grande Galerie is very impressive to wander around in with more than 7000 lifelike species. Although it is only mentioned once in the book, All The Light We Cannot See, I thought it very inspirational and I wanted it to be a part of the blanket. The crochet stitches are inspired by the procession of giant mammals in the main hall, such as elephants, giraffes and rhinos and also inspired by the open space staircases and walkways along the walls of the Galerie.

In part 5 the square shape is finalized by working two elephants on each side of the blanket in between the corner shapes, which are inspired by the great procession displayed at the Galerie. After that a big border is made, inspired by the architecture and balustrades along the Galerie walls.

(You can click on the images to see larger views of them)

One thing I want to note is that in the original pattern it does not include ears on the elephants. This is one thing I picked up from following the Facebook group and decided to add them to my afghan. I also want to note that the designer was happy to have this added to her pattern.

Chapter 6: Galerie de Paleontologie

We will end our journey in the Galerie de Paleontologie. It contains an impressive collection of fossil vertebrates like dinosaurs and other extinct animals, but also invertebrates like shellfish. Shells play quite a big part in Marie-Laure’s story as she loves to touch and collect them.

Part 6, the final part, is made using two borders. One is inspired by the shells Marie-Laure collects and the role the ocean plays in the story. The shells are made using front post stitches and are made in front of the rest of the crochet work. The second and final border is inspired by bones of animal skeletons.

(You can click on the images to see larger views of them)

I really enjoyed working on this blanket and thank Christina and Scheepjes for hosting the CAL. The afghan now resides in our living room next to the Fruit Garden afghan. 

(You can click on the images to see larger views of them)

I’m joining the The Loop Scoop Yarny Link Party (formerly know as Hookin on Hump Day). You should stop by to see some of the other projects people have posted.

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »