yoyo hex pattern

The afghan in the above photo was made by florines13 on flickr. I asked permission before posting; I think she did a wonderful job on this.

This is now available in PDF form download straight to your computer .  Soon to be available in book form

More Dress Progress

I am making a size four dress; the slip that you see is for a size four child. So this way you can see how much more I have to do to get to modern standards of dress length. When I get to where the original pattern asked the crocheter to stop, I will post a photo. There will probably still be about 7 to 10 inches of slip showing. Dresses had been worn much shorter in the 1940's. It was considered cute to see a little girl's bloomers. The way people wear clothes on children these days, it would be considered a long shirt that you wear with leggings. Fun how time changes some things. Click on photo if you want a bigger image.

3 down out of 208 opps 212

Remember those doilies I found at the thrift Well, I found 4 more of the same pattern; must have missed them last time. Plus, I bought a 50 cent ball of thread that had another doily in a different pattern half done inside of it. So I started to take the half done doily apart because I didn't like the way the person had done it. But I like the center part, so I stopped and thought what could I do to save the middle part and make it useful to me and my family. So I came up with this idea; I am sure others have thought of it before because it is so simple. Take doily and make a hair bun cover or a snood. I took photos while I was making the second one so I will post a tutorial later in the next 2 to 4 days. I used up 3 of those 208 doilies which are now 212 doilies.

1st one from the doily found in the 50 cent ball of thread:

2nd and 3rd ones:

4th one:

All four together with three silly girls! Because I was making these out of already-made doilies, they are the color of the original doily, but they would be cute in real bright colors to match spring and summer outfits or holiday themes.

Update tutorial is now posted

blogged tutorial
http://sunshinescreations.vintagethreads.com/2009/07/tutorial-on-doily-bun-cover-or-easy.html

11 year olds progress on her afghan

She hasn't given up on her thread project, yet; just put it on hold till this yoyo afghan project is done. She is doing fairly well; she has started making a ton of centers so then she can just build on them. Her plan is a 9 by 12 block lay-out for her bed, so she needs 108 blocks, total. She hasn't decided yet, but she may make two of these afghans because she has a set of bunks in her room. All the little squares you see in the photo are centers for other blocks; she just wanted to see how much total area she has covered so far.

My 9 year olds progress on afghan

My middle daughter decided that thread was too slow and wanted to work with yarn. Shown above is her thread work with white edging to make it into a doily.

So, just as with the older sister, I told her to go get stuff from the acrylic yarn box that I don't use any more. She continued with the granny square theme, but with a rainbow of colors, and it went much faster for her. She wants to make it big enough to fit her twin-size bed. She is doing pretty good; it covers all of her except her head at the moment, so she is about half-way there.

Here is a photo of the two in comparison. Sorry (blurry photo), it is a rainy day here today; not great lighting. The hand in the last two photos is that of my 7-year old to give you an idea of how big this is.

This is her first big project other than Russian needle punch. I think she is having fun with it. She and her sister are having a contest of who can get done with their acrylic afghans first. The winner gets a fabric latch hook kit I bought at a thrift store for $0.75. Hey, maybe they will get them done before summer ends and they have to go back to school! Never thought something I bought for 75 cents could be such an incentive.

This last photo is of the daughter who is making this afghan.

Dress progress

So this is how far I have gotten on the dress; the bodice is done and sewn together at the shoulders. The edging for the neck is in place, and the buttons have been sewn on, as well. I have begun to work on the skirt portion of the dress, also. I still have two sleeves to make, then the dress is done. This is a vintage size 4; the reason I say that is because modern clothes have different sizing than vintage. When done, there will be a ribbon that runs through the neck beading and around the waist at the waist beading.

This is a detail of where the skirt starts.

This part of the dress is the back portion with 5 reclaimed antique mother of pearl buttons. The thread being used is also a discontinued thread, so once I use my stash of it I cannot replace it.

Oh yeah I finished the scarf

I forgot to show all of you the scarf it is done and here are the pictures of that. It is all washed and clean in these photos actually still a tiny bit damp too.

And as a neck scarf.

Start of a dress

Decided I would start to make the dress I posted the other day so people could see it during construction.

Enjoy the video

I like the images in this video. Some of my favorite movies are Edward Scissorhands, Corpsbride, Nightmare Before Christmas, and things of this sort. So, this fits in well with that type.

Another one

My oldest daughter decided she wanted to make the yoyo afghan, too, but she wanted to make it in acrylic because I have a ton of it I never use any more. Since it will be a child's blanket, acrylic is probably best as well because it will get a lot of use and need to be washed often. I didn't show her the tutorial; I just explained the stitch count and she watched me when I was making some and snuk off on her own to figure it out. When she came back with one round completed, I handed her another ball and said, "Can you figure out the second round on your own?" and she did, So then I let her get yarn out of the stash; too bad the stash was already boxed and taped closed so I had to go and find it.

Lace Triangle Scarf Progress

I am almost finished crocheting this scarf, I just need to finish the ties, then wash and dry. I had a lot of fun figuring out the layout of the lace edging, especially since I just sort of made it as I went along. No pattern was used for this scarf; it was just out of my head including, the edging. My husband was saying it would even make a nice neck scarf (collar); you know, I think he is correct.

Pdf now available on ravelry

Size 2 and 4
Size 10 thread or knit-cro sheen
Size 7 hook
Available on Ravelry for $10.00

or purchase now below

Lace revisiting triangle scarf

A long time back I posted a tutorial on a triangle scarf using sugar and cream yarn. I decided I wanted to revise a triangle hair scarf, but this time I wanted something a little lacier to make so I changed the stitch pattern a little and made shells instead of just dcs and ch.

I am using vintage thread (probably antique due to the label that was on the ball) in a size 10 thread. Because of the age of the thread, it has a patina which, when crocheted, makes it look variegated. Some people probably would have tossed out the ball because most it looked damaged, but I have worked with this type of thing before and it is always fun to see how the patinas will work up. In this case, I think it's lovely; just the right amount of aging all the way through the ball. I will probably put this up for sale when it is done. I think it would make a lovely light summer head scarf and still be very feminine.

I was playing with the scarf edging on the morning commute to take my husband to work. He drives there then I drive back home, just so everyone knows I was not crocheting and driving at the same time.

So, out of curiosity, what do you the readers of this blog think about the patina on old threads? I love the fact that even though the project is made brand new with old store stock, it looks like it has been around for years and handed down from one generation to the next. Do you love it or hate it, and why?

Variations on many themes

As most of you know, I like English paper piecing and I like making fabric yoyo's and crocheting. So, in the process of making the yoyo afghan, I thought about all of those things and came up with a variation of all of them together. This is just my first mock up. It does have a different stitch count than the yoyo afghan tutorial to achieve the hexogonal shape.

UPDATE:
I am already getting requests (on flickr) for a tutorial for this version; if you are interested in that, let me know by leaving a comment in this post.

Second update:
There is now a pattern posted for this.

working on a few projects

Ok, most of my studio stuff is boxed up so I can only work on a few projects, so these are what I have been working on as of late.
Found my old hex project while boxing stuff up, so since I am working in size 10 thread and this is made from scraps, I left it out to use up little scraps from the yoyo afghan.

Speaking of the yoyo afghan in thread, I am working on two more blocks for it, one green and one pink.

Since we are on the subject of yoyos, here is the cotton yarn patriotic yoyo afghan. Hopefully I will have it done by the 4th since I missed flag day.

I have about three more size 10 thread afghans I am working on as well, at this point in time. Figured since I was not packing up the colored size 10 I might as well work on all of those projects. Everything else is going into moving pods at the moment, and I may not see it for a while. The next one is a simple granny square out of scraps.

I also have two others that have two different types of irish rose using up scraps as well that I am working on, but I didn't take photos of them.

What to do with 208 little doilies

Figured everyone might be tired of yoyo's, so here is another project I have going at the moment.

OK! So like most crafters I like to junk (thrift shop). A while back I came upon 208 little doilies, some white, some ecru. Upon first glance they looked like little hexagons. Obviously I only paid attention to the center rounds of the doilies because the center is six sided, but the outside has 7 sides. Now for all you math people out there who know that seven sided shapes, when attached together, do not fit as nice as hexs: yes, they make a spherical-like shape, not a flat surface.

Original plan tossed aside, I thought I could make another hex skirt with a different patterned hex; no such luck. So now, what to do with all of these. I played with the layout for a bit and came up with the configuration in the photos, haven't decided yet if it is a collar for a little girl's summer nightgown or for a Sunday dress. So OK, 16 down once this is done; only 192 more to figure out.

My heart skipped a beat

Sarah London tried my yoyo tutorial and posted it on her blog. I love her color choices and her style. I am in love with her afghans and she has a few afghans I want to make, like her wool eater and her hawaiian flowers and joining them. I got so excited when I saw this I had to call my husband over to the computer to show him.

yarn vs thread in yoyo afghan

I have been asked if this can be done in yarn, as opposed to thread. The answer is yes; here is an example I made to answer this question. The little two-round yoyo is the same yoyo square from the tutorial. The red white and blue square is sugar and cream cotton yarn that I used an H hook with. Why this color choice? It is left over from last 4th of July and some triangle hair scarfs I made for a swap. Figured it was a good way to use up the yarn and still have something I could use, even if it is only at patriotic holidays.

In the first photo I have them side by side; in the second photo I have the thread square sitting on top of the yarn square. As you can see, two rounds of thread equaled one round of yarn. So this tells you that using this yarn will work up four times faster. The same number of rows that I used for my square would be a nice size for a infant newborn car seat, maybe a few rows would need to be added but not many using sugar and cream yarn. Other yarns might need a few more rounds than that.

Got Featured a Few Times

My tutorial seems to be well received; it has been featured a few times already. Some of these aren't even in English -- how cool is that! Other places linked, too, but I couldn't figure out how to find them (people told me they linked, but I couldn't find it or I would have linked back today to them).

whipup.net

wists.com

annekaz.com

craft

On Ravelry it has been hearted (favorites) 82 times in pattern form and 7 times just as a project.

Flickr response is positive as well: 225 views, 18 favorites, and over 11 comments and the yoyo afghan group on flickr has 151 members and one person has even posted a picture of a project already started that she wants done by the beginning of next week to give as a baby blanket. How cool is that? Not to be weird or anything, but I figured after being a florist for so long people just lost interest in what I could do, and this makes me feel a lot better about being back to a full-time mom and crafter.

regator

external brain

According to craftster, my afghan is one of the hot new projects.

Update, June 10th:

Cut out and keep