Making simple hotpads...

Just a short post with pictures of hotpads I finished earlier in the year for my adult kids as part of their Christmas.

These were simply squares of fabric sewn together with Insul-Bright batting as the middle layer, and then quilted on the sewing machine.  For the last pair pictured I made the binding with a contrasting cotton fabric for my first attempt at mitered corners using the technique shown in the short below (though I joined my ends differently):

The other hotpads were bound with store-bought seam binding.  It was a bit of a time savings to use the store-bought seam binding, but I do wonder how well they will hold up. The seam binding fabric seemed thinner than  regular fabric.  I'll have to follow-up with my kids after they've had time to use and hopefully abuse these.

Posting this makes me realize I keep backburnering fabric-piecing and making some simple quilt projects, but I don't know why. Small projects like this are pretty satisfying to make.

~~~~~~

Minimalism Challenge 2024 - Craft Edition, Day 2 ...

I'm already breaking my rules.  It turns out I had way too much to do over the weekend (until now) to do much sorting through craft stuff and getting rid of things.  But I did come across something with a bit of a story and I decided it's worthy of a post.  

For Day 2, I got rid of these two very sorry looking potholders:

And here is the story (in a roundabout sort of way):

On Sunday, we celebrated our firstborn's 35th birthday (as well as my 65th, and Greg's 70th - we have three April birthdays in the family). Me thinking of my oldest being 35, it just now occurs to me how old these tattered potholders are. They are made from tracings of our now 35 year-old son's 20 month-old hands.  I think that makes these vintage!

Way back in 1992 it must have been, I had the great idea to make some Christmas gifts using our first-born's handprints.  The grandmothers got sweatshirts with his handprints on them, and some cute saying - at least I thought it cute at the time - though I can't remember what the saying was.  And all the adults in the family got potholders that looked something like the above.

That's not quite true.  Actually, they looked like the potholder below:

The above pristine potholder (with a photo button of 20 month-old eldest son) was found amongst my mother-in-law's things when we were cleaning out her house after her passing in 2020.

While it strikes me kind of funny now that I thought everyone would want a potholder with our son's handprints on it back then, it was very sweet to come upon the above potholder and realize that my mother-in-law never used hers.  It was tucked away with the photo pin attached to it.  

And, with this brand-new-looking potholder in my possession now since 2020, what do you think I have done with it for the past 3 3/4 years?  I've tucked it away.   I'm not sure what I'm saving it for, but I'm not about to use it.  I think I will put it in oldest son's memorabilia box where he'll see it one day and probably at least "awww" over it before wondering what he should do with it.

So what does this have to do with the whittling down of my craft supplies?  

It's like this... 

I am going through every single box/container/bag/what-have-you, that is in the room where most of my craft stuff is stored.  It's the best way to take an informal inventory, and the best way to find things I no longer want and can rehome.

In this going through every container, I came across a box that holds crocheted potholders that I started crocheting for posterity some years back.  Don't ask why I am (or was) crocheting potholders for posterity.  It sounded fun at the time.  Truth be told, "for the fun of it" is the only reason I crochet anything.

Anyway...  I decided to take two of these cute chicken potholders out the potholders for posterity box that was in the closet of the room where most of my craft stuff is stored.

... and replace the tattered handprint potholders that have been in my kitchen for the past nearly 33 years.  

Two things came out of the room where my my craft stuff is stored, but perhaps more importantly, two very old potholders are leaving the premises.  

I still have one mildly tattered 33 year-old handprint potholder in the kitchen, but I will deal with that another day.  Or not.  It still has some use left in it, so maybe it will be found among the kitchen things when I'm gone...  

Minimalism Challenge 2024 - Craft Edition 

Tally:   3 things gone.

I am such a square...

Two years ago I joined the 2017 BAMCAL group on Ravelry.  For the uninitiated, BAMCAL stands for Block-A-Month Crochet-A-Long.  The idea is you  make two blocks each month and by year's end you'll have enough for a blanket.  

Theoretically.

That first year, I was excited and early on I made a number of blocks - mostly playing with colors, but I eventually made four blocks that helped me settle on my colors and were acceptable for putting toward a blanket I hoped to finish that year.

Here they are (again), for the record:

Then, in 2018, with the renewed enthusiasm that a new year brings, I joined the 2018 BAMCAL group and declared my intentions of making more blocks and hopefully finishing a BAMCAL blanket by year's end.

I made a total of zero squares in 2018.

So this year, I again jumped into the 2019 BAMCAL group, with lots of enthusiasm, but having a more realistic view of my likely progress, I hereby make no more declarations of when this project will finish. 

Finding myself in a bit of a lull between larger projects, this past week I decided to make a couple of new squares.  This was, in fact, the only crocheting I managed to get in finally - when things slowed down late in the week.

The first square I crocheted was Eye of the Beholder:

This was a fun square to see made by different people - That's always true, of course, but this square changed dramatically with different color placements.  If you don't believe me, you can scroll through the Ravelry thread here.

Then, rather than do the second square (which was too open of a pattern for what I want in this blanket), I searched the archives and found Hope Still:

This square was a bear, to be honest, but the finished effect was worth all the effort.  My advice if you chose to make this square...  Don't work it when you're tired, breathe deep, take it slowly, and take breaks.  And most importantly... trust the instructions.    'Nuff said.  

With two squares successfully made in January of 2019 I'm in love with the idea of a BAMCAL blanket again, and my colors.  All is well.

Regardless of how many squares I make this year, this is one of those projects that will eventually get finished.  Oops... there I go making declarations again.  Let's just say that's my plan, anyway.  If I live long enough.  

~~~~~

I mentioned earlier in the month that I would be working on whittling down my kitchen cotton stash this year by always having a dishcloth or washcloth on the needles or hook.  Well, I forgot to mention hotpads.  I still have something of a fascination with hotpads.  😊

Seeing someone else's Pinwheel Hotpad recently, I was inspired to try my hand at making one:

Here's the thing, though...  Since I referred to two patterns and two videos to complete this pinwheel shaped hotpad, I really don't have a pattern to recommend.  If you want to make one, search for pinwheel hotpad.  It was fun, and not even difficult, but without a single pattern to refer to, I'm honestly not likely to make any more.  That said, I'm happy I made it as I've been curious about how these are made for some time.  My curiosity is now satisfied.  😉 

And the following pretties will be added to my dish/washcloth box for using or giving away at some point:

Patterns (or stitch patterns) used in the above cloths:

Simple garter stitch 
Simple stockinette stitch (with garter stitch borders)
Boxes Dishcloth - remains my personal favorite
My Heart Dishcloth  - this would make a sweet child's washcloth 

~~~~~

To see what other YOPers are up to, 

visit our group on Ravelry!

2019 Yarn Stash-Down progress:  12/100 skeins

Just small things...

Mid-late this week, I remembered I was signed up to host another weekly CAL on Our Happy CAL Place this upcoming week. Fortunately, about that same time I started feeling better from being knocked low earlier in the week.  So I got busy and was able to crochet two of these cute potholders:

The pattern leaves me a bit confused where it transitions to the ridged part, but once I figured out how to do it (by fudging), these were super easy to make.   I did have to fudge a bit in a couple of other areas, too (namely, I did away with the chain spaces in the white part of the flower square, and the edging required me to hdctog (make some half double crochet stitches together) occasionally in order to not have a ripply edge.  And I did have to steam and stretch it a bit to get the whole thing perfectly square, but once I did all that I thought the finished project was kinda cute.

Sounds like a lot of bother, huh?   It kinda was.  But they're kinda worth it.  Simply because it's an interesting design.  

Since I don't know how these will behave once washed, they are going straight into my potholder drawer and I'll enjoy using them this summer.  If they wash up nicely, I think these would make a fun gift.  Well, not these.  But I might like them enough to make up some gifts from the pattern.   We'll see...

That's truly all I managed to crochet since last weekend.  My mandala didn't get any love, so maybe next week...  

And I don't recall when I finished the Boxes Dishcloths pictured below, but I may have just forgotten about them last week as I know I haven't knitted since last weekend.   Once I started making them, it seems I couldn't stop until I'd made no fewer than four!

The first time I made these I found them challenging, but I really liked the texture and how they look.  This time when I made them I fell in love with the simplicity of the pattern.  I can't believe how when I made the first couple of these last year I had to refer back to the pattern for every single row and keep close track of which row I had just knit (or make note of where I had left off).  This time around, I quickly figured out how to read my knitting and I knew exactly the stitch pattern that each new row needed to be and I could lay it down mid-row and go back to it, even a day later, without any trouble.  Yay!  Progress!

To see what other YOPpers are up to, visit our group on Ravelry.

2018 Yarn Stash-Down:  21.29/100 Skeins

The Yop year is fast winding down.   Our new YOP year begins on July 1st and in that post we share our goals, lists, or whatever it is we use for planning our next Year's worth of Projects.  As for me, I'm a great list maker, but when it comes right down to it, for me hobbies and lists don't coexist well.  So my list is always very open-ended.  It's not a project list so much as it is an idea list.  And I'm thinking of how I might simplify it even more.  Make it even less of a list.  Hmmm... I wonder if I can YOP without a list?  I might have to try and see if I get kicked out.   That's the great thing about this YOP project, each participant can make it fit their personality and style.

If you have a blog and would like to participate, please do!  All of us are crocheters and/or knitters, but the projects we share go beyond those crafts.   It's very fun to see what other YOPpers are working on  - whether it's knitting, crocheting, sewing, quilting, cross stitching, painting, gardening...  It's all creative and inspiring.  You just need to be a member of Ravelry, join our group, and then join the fun!

Lookin' like a hat factory here...

For a change of pace from making hats, I crocheted a pretty sunflower "doily" yesterday:

Made with Peaches & Cream worsted-weight cotton in the colors brown and gold, I made mine a few rows larger than the designer's and it measures about 9.5 inches across.

If you're interested in making your own, here is the video tutorial I used:

~~~~~~

Otherwise, it's still looking a bit like a hat factory around here!

These...

are gathering and awaiting their final trimming in order to be added to these:

I think I'll make just a few more hats this week and then I'll wrap up this endeavor.  At the moment, I have 13 hats crocheted and while it's tempting to set a specific goal, I think I'll just be done when I'm done.  And I think I'll be done next Sunday.  ;^)

To see what other Yoppers are up to, visit our group on Ravelry.

This and that...

This post may look like I've been really busy crocheting this week, but really what's pictured are items mostly crocheted over the last few weeks, and only needed a little work to finish.   

First, I finished a couple of Scalloped Potholders:

This is a very well-written pattern that I recommend.  These potholders are two-layered and pretty thick made with Lily's Sugar 'n Cream.  Made with a thinner cotton yarn, one layer might make a nice washcloth, though.

But I like these as potholders.  I'm thinking I might make a couple more to go with a new flowery tablecloth I recently found on clearance (at Meijer), but these two are going into my Potholders For Posterity collection.  :)

~~~~~

Moving onto other things...  I'm happy to say I finally had success at making a couple of child-sized hats.

First, to go with this simple linen stitch scarf:

I finished this child-sized Divine Hat: 

And then, this weekend, I made a Stepping Texture Hat:

I found the chunky yarn too thick for making a slip-stitch ribbing that the pattern gave instructions for, so I made a ribbing using single crochets in place of slip stitches into the back loops of the row below.  Making my ribbing different from the pattern meant I also needed to adapt the beginning of the body of the hat.  It wasn't difficult, but I crocheted a row of sc's, sometimes adding sctog's until I had a total of 40 stitches I could work Rnd 1 into.  The instructions are clear and I finished this hat in just a few hours.  The stitch pattern becomes intuitive after a few rounds, and again... it's a well-written pattern that I highly recommend.

To see what other Yoppers are up to, visit our group on Ravelry.

Small Things...

It's been a crochet-lite week.

First saw these two 12 Point Round Dishcloths whipped up:

An easy pattern for a fun-shaped dishcloth.

Then I tried my hand at an Entrelac crochet pattern called Around the World Throw.   I had such good intentions of doing this CAL, but after spending nearly 2 hours crocheting to only come up with this:

Ugh.   I decided I no longer cared to make a whole blanket using this stitch.   My tension is all wrong - totally inconsistent -  and the stitch pattern is way too tedious for my tastes, so out that blanket is going to go and I'll use the above yarns for something I'll (hopefully) enjoy crocheting much more. As much as I wanted to give this pattern a go, I'm trying to see it as a positive that I decided relatively quickly to throw in the towel on it.

Having said that, though...  To get over having quit a project so readily and, I'll admit -  feeling a bit like a failure,  I whipped up this Log Cabin Granny Square Potholder yesterday:

I shamelessly (almost completely) copied Casey at knits and what-not, as I made this.  Casey was my original inspiration for my Potholders for Posterity collection, so I figure it's fitting I copy at least one of her creations.  :)

And, well...  except for noodling around a bit on my Moroccan Tile Afghan, that's it on the crochet front this week.

To see what other Yoppers are up to, visit our group on Ravelry.

Henny Penny & Cocky Locky?

Last week when I posted the picture of the crocheted chicken potholder I couldn't help but think it looked more like a proud rooster than a clucky hen.  The pattern (link found here) said it was a hen, so I tried to think of it as a hen.  But deep inside I couldn't help but think of it as a rooster.

Then I got to wondering...  could I maybe make this just a tad smaller - maybe with a smaller comb and wattle and round the bottom, and maybe it would look more like a hen?  Referring to some pictures I found online I refitted the pattern slightly and made me a demure hen to go with my cocky rooster.  What do you think?

I don't know if these two felt any attraction for one another, but for me it was love at first sight.

So then I had to make another pair:

Oooh...  Kind of vintage-y looking.

And then...  before I knew it, I was making another pair:

I think I'm getting the vintage-y look down...

And then finally...  before I got all chickened out, I made this cute little pair:

These might just be my favorites!

Am I nuts or what?  It seems I couldn't stop until I had nearly a whole flock!  But they were such fun to make.  In fact, truth be told, something inside me wants to make another pair.  For what purpose, I haven't a clue, but there is something a little addictive about making these.

I wish I could say I was original in my color selections, but only with the first pair was I remotely so - and only because I think that amber color on the back wings is obsolete.  I don't know that the girls look all that different from their fellas but it's nice having these as pairs - whether I'm using them myself or wanting to gift them to someone.

So...  One pair goes into my "Potholders for Posterity" collection, one pair will be used by me, and another pair is going to a friend as a gift.  I sort of love them all and can't decide at the moment which pair goes where.

Dare I ask...  do you have a favorite?

To see what other Yoppers are up to, visit our thread this week on Ravelry.

Simple pleasures...

While you wouldn't know it from any pictures I've taken, or crochet talk I've been talkin', I am working on my 2nd Spice of Life blanket.  I could probably finish the body in a quick session, but then it would need blocking before I add the border.  Sounds easy enough.  The problem is I've still got enough of a remnant of vertigo in my head that a simple thing like bending over and looking straight down (like I would need to do to pin something to block) is still making me woozy.  Since I'm under no pressure to finish the blanket, I've decided to just take my sweet time finishing crocheting those last fews rows, trusting that one of these day I'll feel totally normal again and I'll get that baby blocked and bordered.

Until then I'm making things that don't require blocking.  :)  Simple things.

Like knitted dishcloths:

Three new cloths in the colors of autumn.  Bring on that autumn weather!

And this Chicken Hotpad:

Is it wrong to be smitten with something that comes off one's own hook?  I may be a little too excited about this cute little hen, but I'm thinking I see more of these in my crochet future.  I've made notes on my project page, so replicating this, or making a whole flock of new and varied ones should be a piece of cake.  I don't know if this will be a gift for someone, or if I'll add it to my potholder collection, but I'm totally lovin' this little chicken.  :)

To see what other Yoppers are up to, visit this week's thread on Ravelry.

Gotta Love Sunflowers...

For some reason I started off this week kind of 'meh' about doing anything with yarn.  Until Saturday, all I had managed to make were a couple of dishcloths (later in this post), but yesterday, a rainy Saturday, I was on you tube - not sure now what I was looking for, but I stumbled across a video tutorial for a Sunflower Hotpad.  I immediately thought it would be a great addition to my new potholder/hotpad collection.   So I went through my stash of yarn and found some workable cotton.  A couple of hours later this is what I had come up with:

I love it!   If I find some orange-y yellow cotton, I may just have to get it and make another one, but for now, this one makes me happy.  I added an extra row of yellow, and because of that it took most of a skein, but the brown and green were just scraps.  And the pattern is so easy.  Looking at the finished pictures in the tutorial I would never have guessed how easy it is.  There is no written pattern, or link searchable on Ravelry, but here is my project page - on the chance that anyone would benefit from the details I've put there.

~~~~~~

Back to the dishcloth knitting, though...   Somewhere around Tuesday I started noodling around with the knitting needles again and in a couple of days I had finished another simple dishcloth.

I feel like this is my best knitting so far.   Of course, all those speckles help hide some unevenness, but I'll take it.  The progress I feel I've gained, that is   :)

And when that one was done I started another Seeded Stripe dishcloth:

Now, my looser stitches don't show so much on this cloth (because there's so much going on), but this cloth gave me a great opportunity to really see how my stitches went from mostly nice and even (the garter stitch stripes) to all loosey goosey (the seed stitch stripes).  You can't see the loosey goosey stitches in the picture (and even in person it doesn't look bad finished), but I knew I was having some problems.   And somehow, even though I could see my stitches loosening up as I was knitting, I had no idea why it was happening.  Googling what causes uneven tension led me to some helpful sites (the most helpful being aknitka.com) that explained to me that my tension problem is probably due to purling looser than I knit.  I practiced some more and sure enough - that was my problem.  The seed stitch rows gave plenty of opportunity to pay attention to tension while switching back and forth between knitting and purling.   I haven't yet achieved correct tension while purling, but knowing what the problem is is a huge help.  Assuming I can conquer this, I feel like this knowledge will move me much further along in my knitting ability and what I may even want to try to make.

I hope it doesn't sound lame, though, to be fairly content just knitting dishcloths for the time being.  I see beautiful shawls, socks and hats and think I should be wanting to make those things, but I'm not overly drawn to try to knit them.  Knitting a dishcloth is about as relaxing and "instant gratification" as it can get for me while still working on basic stuff like tension, and eventually new stitches. And I love using my new knitted dishcloths.  I have some crocheted cloths that I like, but I'm pretty picky about my dishcloths.  They can't be too holey and they can't be too stiff or thick. Finding that perfect combination in a crocheted cloth is tricky.  But a knitted cloth, I'm thinking, pretty much always fits both of those criteria.  So for now I'm just a happy dishcloth knitter.  :^)

~~~~~

To see what other Yoppers are up to, visit our thread this week on Ravelry.

Revelling in my Ravellenics' Accomplishments...

Along with the ending of the Olympic games tonight in Rio, the Ravellenics will also come to an end.  Rather anti-climactic-ly, it feels at this point (evidently, Bobicus Maximus has been chasing his tail for two weeks and the "medal machine" has had glitches so most of us are still waiting to be called to our respective "podiums" to receive our electronic awards), but still...   though I'm ready to wrap it all up, I'm excited at what I accomplished.  And happy to show my latest makes.  

First is a Linen Stitch Scarf I made with Red Heart Unforgettable in the new colorway Tealberry (my prize yarn received from Red Heart last month).

Normally, I make these with two different colorways, but this yarn had enough different colors in one skein I thought it was unnecessary to use a second colorway.  Yay! I thought - over having fewer ends to weave in.  Well...  Of course, self-striping yarns don't always work out the way you hope.   Where particular colors lie, how long the color runs are, how large (or small) the piece is that one is making -- all conspire together to either make a beautifully striped, or oddly color-pooled finished object.  As I was making this scarf I concluded that I didn't want more than two rows of the same color laying side by side together.  And I couldn't have one color dominating one end of the scarf while another color dominated the other end.  Which, of course, kept wanting to happen.  Sigh.

So there I was...  with my self-striping yarn (that I thought would be a piece of cake to make one of these scarves with) clipping and re-rolling the yarn to get to just the right color in the skein (over and over again - many times needing to do this in the middle of the row) to keep any one color from dominating any one part of the scarf.  And of course, all those starts and stops meant ends to weave in.  I'm pretty sure, by the time I was finished, I had woven in far more ends than if I had simply started each new row afresh - alternating colors from different skeins, as I normally do when making one of these from two different colorways of yarn.

But I'm glad to say... for my tenacity and hard work, I will receive a gold medal (someday) for successfully completing the Scarf Hockey event.  Yay me!

~~~~

Next I finished a Coozie Disc for a medal in the Toy Toss event, and laurels in Colorwork and Stash busting:  

I see more of these in my crocheting future (like this upcoming week, I think).  They make great flyers and every one is unique.  Great gift ideas for kids and adults alike!

 ~~~~~

Then, late in the games I was inspired by a post Casey wrote a few weeks ago titled "My Yarn Story".  In that post is a composite picture of a bunch of Casey's beautiful crocheted potholders and I decided I needed to start a cute collection.  So this week I did.  Here's my first potholder (for a medal in the Household Heptathalon event and laurels in stash busting):

~~~~~

And then on Saturday, I decided to concentrate on finishing a doily I began last April.  It's called April Showers: 

Can you see the little umbrellas ringing the center?

I know April showers are long behind us, but last week it rained nearly every day, so it was a fitting project to work on.  This was my first attempt at making a doily, or crocheting with a tiny steel hook and a single strand of size 10 thread for that matter.  It's hard, let me tell you - especially if you've got middle aged eyes and fingers.  But once I got back to it, I actually found I enjoyed it  - in between sessions of rubbing the back of my neck as it got achy from holding this thing close and bending over it.    While it was challenging (for me) and tedious, it was also very interesting to watch the pattern emerge.  I think I'll be wanting to make some more.  Or, at least, another one.  Someday...

And that wraps up another YOP week and Ravelery's Ravellenics for me.   It was fun while it lasted, but I imagine next week to not be nearly so prolific.  To see what other Yoppers are up to visit our thread this week on Ravelry.