Two Monkeys Down

I've completed two monkeys for my blanket-in-progress. So cute, right?!

Monkeys Needed

I've finished all the granny squares for the sock monkey blanket I'm crocheting. Now it's time to make some monkeys! That's the part I'm looking forward to. I'm not so keen on crocheting all the granny squares together, but I'll plow ahead because I can see the light at the end of the (carpal) tunnel and I think this blanket will look darn cute when it's done.

Another Crocheted Tote

I finished another crocheted tote recently. I've been meaning to post a photo of it for a week or two, but just got around to taking it. I'm not sure who this will be gifted to but it'll be a great catch-all/grocery tote for someone, not unlike the crocheted cotton totes I made a while back.

Monkey Blanket Update

As I posted before, I've been working on a really cute crocheted blanket featuring sock monkeys. I searched many local yarn suppliers for the right yarn for the monkeys themselves. Alas, I learned that none of them were carrying Bernat Denim-Style yarn in Rodeo Tan any longer. What to do? It just wouldn't be right if these monkeys were the wrong color, and I'm way too impatient to wait for an eBay order to arrive. After several agonizing trips to various stores, I finally found a replacement- Bernat Softee Chunky Twists yarn in Taupe. Yippee! Let the sock monkey crocheting commence.

Crafty Donna and Crafty Di

I spent parts of this weekend learning and teaching various crafts. On Friday, crafty Rochesterian (is that right?) Donna taught me and my sister Sarah how to needle felt. I wish I'd had my camera with me, because Donna's needle felted creatures are really something to behold! I made a cute chick that sort of looked like a Peep but it was destroyed by Mochi, who was overcome with joy when she got her paws on that wool. John came in to my office and said, "I'm afraid I found a crafting casualty." He was carrying the poor chick's shredded body in one hand and wings in another. I also helped Donna learn how to knit on Friday, but she's a natural, so I really can't take any credit.

Then on Sunday, Diane and I spent a couple of hours working on various projects, including a lovely hat that Di knitted for a friend in Germany. I also taught her how to crochet a granny square. I look forward to see her first granny square blanket sometime soon!

Too Busy Crocheting To Post

The past few days I've been crocheting and knitting like crazy. I made a bag (future birthday present for someone, to be featured at a later date), started a baby sweater and bought supplies for an awesome monkey blanket (pattern via Happy Hooker). Here's hoping it will look as good as the one above, made by Big Girl Feet.

Felting a Bag: Steps Two and Three

I've finished steps two and three of my felted bag. After washing and drying this bag five times, I finally achieved a felted look! I also achieved complete domination over our laundry pile. After some thorough cat inspection (FYI: Mochi approves), I sewed the handle into a tube and wove it through the holes in the top of the bag. Now I've got to figure out if I want to add to this bag by needle felting a design or not. I'm going to sit with the un-needle felted bag for a while and see if the crafty spirits move me in that direction.

Felting a Bag: Step One

I've finally finished crocheting a huge bag. It's in the process of being felted right now, so the only photo I've got is of step one, which is the pre-felting stage. I'm felting the bag and the handle separately and will sew the whole thing together after I finish making several trips down to the washing machine to shrink this puppy as much as possible. You can't really tell from the photo, but I've crocheted holes near the top perimeter of the bag so that I can weave the handle around after the felting's done. Okay, back to the basement for felting #4. One good aspect of this project is that I'm getting a lot of laundry done.

Pet Peeve: Lost Crochet Hook

One of my pet peeves is when I lose a hook or needles from an in-process crocheting or knitting project. I am in the middle of making a big crocheted bag, which I plan to felt eventually. I got about halfway done with this project and ran out of yarn. It took me a couple of days to get to the store to buy more yarn, and in the meantime our cat Mochi decided that the halfway-done bag made a great toy. Somehow she managed to lose the hook. I know I can just go to my stash of hooks and needles to replace it, but it's driving me crazy that I can't find it. Fortunately my hooks are just the plain ol' metal kind, not like these fancy ones from Grafton Fibers.

Welcoming the New Rees Baby

My wonderful friends Liz and Matt and their cute little son Nathan will welcome a second child into their family at the end of May. I used 5 skeins of Lion Suede yarn to crochet this blanket; three were the color "Moonshadow" and two were "Taupe". I got all five skeins of yarn from my mom for Christmas. I hope it keeps Baby Rees nice and warm.

Diane's Christmas Hat

My friend Diane and I often craft together. It helps that we live within a mile of each other in the 14213 (gotta show some neighborhood pride)... Today was a terribly snowy day and Di was brave enough to venture out of her house and over to mine for some impromptu holiday-present knitting. Her 4 wheel drive vehicle helped in that endeavor. Anyway, I'm featuring a hat that Di crocheted for her mom for Christmas. She's afraid that it looks more like a crown than a hat, but I think it's cute and I'm sure her mom will love it.


Also, see below for a little make-up bag I whipped up today as a holiday gift. Again, I can't say more without ruining the surprise... but I hope the intended recipient likes it.

Holiday Pet Bed, Completed

This weekend I finished crocheting the holiday pet bed I'm donating to the SPCA. If my own cats' reaction is any indication, some little pup or kitten will really like it. Mochi and Meowzle have been sleeping on it all day.

Scoring at the Salvation Army

The other day I went to the Salvation Army with my sister. Since she recently purchased a home, Sarah is on the lookout for furniture treasures. Although we didn't find any gems of the furniture variety, I did find 4 really cool Christmas items. My favorite is the crocheted granny square Christmas stocking pictured above. This is a really simple project if you know how to make granny squares- it's just 16 granny squares sewn together. I actually found a tutorial for this online and am including it at the bottom of this post. Someone's hard work cost me a measly 49 cents.



I also found this flat Santa door decoration for a whopping 99 cents. I think this is probably from the 1960s- can anyone out there date it?



Yippee! I'm so excited- a Makit and Bakit ornament kit! This was originally $1.29 (the price tag is still visible) but I bought it for 49 cents. According to the package, this item was produced in 1978, which is approximately the last time I made a Makit and Bakit kit.



My new Santa holiday mail bag was also 49 cents. He seems to be from the same era as the Santa door decoration, and was made in Japan. He already has some holiday mail in his belly.

*****
Tutorial:

Granny Square Christmas Stocking

By Pat Smith ©2000

Materials:

4 oz. each color red, white and green. (Will make several)

Crochet hook Size G

Yarn needle

Make 16 red, white and green granny squares.

Rnd 1) Starting with white ch 4 join with slip stitch to form ring. Ch 3, 2 dc in ring. *Ch3, 3 dc in ring.*

Repeat from *to* twice. Ch 3 and join with a slip stitch to beginning ch 3. Fasten off.

Rnd 2) Attach red in any corner ch 3 space. Ch 3, 2 dc in space, ch 3, 3 dc in space. Ch 1. *3 dc, ch 3,

3dc in next space, ch1.* Repeat from *to* twice. Slip stitch to beginning ch 3 and fasten off.

Rnd 3) Attach green in any corner ch 3 space. Ch 3, 2 dc in space, ch 3, 3 dc in space. Ch 1. *3 dc in next

ch 1 space, ch 1, 3 dc in next corner space, ch 3, 3 dc in same corner, ch 1.* Repeat from *to* twice. Slip

stitch in beginning ch 3 space and fasten off.

Rnd 4) Attach white in any corner ch 3 space. Ch 3, 2 dc in space, ch 3, 3 dc in space. Ch 1. *3 dc in next

ch 1 space, ch 1, 3 dc in next ch1 space, ch 1, (3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc) in next corner space.* Repeat

from *to* twice. Attach with a slip stitch to beginning ch 3 and fasten off.

After you have all 16 squares made, you sew them together with white yarn. See diagram.

Travel Scarf

Yesterday I posted about some crafts I made while traveling in Mongolia. As promised, here is a shot of the scarf I made for my friend Urna.

I crocheted this using Lily Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn. I made 14 flowers following a modified granny square pattern and then linked them together. (For free crochet flower patterns, check here.) I made it on the plane ride from Beijing to NY and one of the flight attendants kept stopping to check my progress- I was tempted to give it to her but I really wanted to make something for Urna. I hope she likes it!

Travel Crafts

I crocheted two small bags and a scarf out of the one (huge) ball of yarn I brought with me to Mongolia. I gave one of these bags to Odna, my friend Urna's aunt (Odna and Urna are pictured below in a restaurant in Sainshand, Mongolia). The other one I gave to Urna's awesome grandma. Odna intends to use hers as a makeup case and I think it's the perfect size for that.

The scarf, which I will feature tomorrow, is for Urna. I finished it on the plane ride from Beijing to JFK and have to send it to her soon. I hope she likes it!

This yarn is the same kind I used to make my grocery totes a while back.

Gooseflesh is Cool

I'm in love with all the projects on the Gooseflesh blog, but the ones above and below are particularly lovely. There's also a really, really cool crocheted/felted coral garden on the site.

A Crafter's Dilemma

As I mentioned a few days ago, we're soon traveling to Mongolia (where my husband and I initially met as Peace Corps Volunteers) so that I can do my PhD field work. I have a crafting dilemma, and any advice would be appreciated! I plan to take knitting needles and crochet hooks with me, but I'm planning on traveling light and would like to only take a couple of sizes of each. I can get yarn there (camel wool, which is super exciting!) so I'm not worried about that, but if you were me, what size needles/hooks would you take? I guess this is why people invest in Denise needles, eh?

On a related note, this blog may morph from a craft blog into a Mongolian travel adventure blog from the end of September through part of November. I will probably not be quite as regular about posting because I will have to head to an internet cafe in Ulaanbaatar to do so. But I'll do my best to showcase cool Mongolian crafts, so stay tuned...

Another Baby Hat

I made this little cotton baby hat for my friend John's impending arrival in Manila. I made it from cotton because frankly, being from Buffalo, I know little about head covering practices for tropical babies! Does anyone out there know what kinds of hats (if any) babies wear in tropical weather? Up here in the cold climes, we definitely are a hat-donning culture. But what about the Philippines?

The Grocery Tote Crafting Saga Comes to an End

I am pleased to report that I've finished my third grocery tote, bringing the saga of the crocheted grocery tote to a close. The nice thing about having 3 of these is that I don't need to supplement with plastic. I found that when I took two of them to the store with me, I sometimes needed one more bag, and I had to use at least one plastic bag. This is especially true if you're buying a lot of fresh produce, and you don't want it to get all banged up and smashed. But now that shouldn't be a problem.

I'm getting pretty good at remembering to bring them into the grocery store/to the farmer's market with me. Now I just need to remember them when I'm running a random errand at a non-food store (like the pet store for cat food). I'm thinking about keeping a plastic bag knotted up in my purse at all times for just such a forgetful moment. (The busier I get, the more frequently I experience such moments, I'm afraid.)

Grocery Tote #3 (halfway there, with kitty guard)

So my never-ending ball of yarn has finally ended. I thought I'd be able to get 3 grocery bags out of it, but I wound up with only 2 1/2. Not a problem, really, since I bought 2 of these monster skeins at the same time, so I should be able to make 5 totes total. I continue to LOVE them at the grocery store-- I can fit the same amount of groceries in one crocheted tote that would normally fill 3-4 plastic bags.

My guard kitty Mochi makes an appearance in this photo-- she loves all things fiber, and is constantly carrying balls of yarn around to form "webs" in our house. She will basically unwind an entire ball of yarn around the legs of tables, into hallways, under beds, etc. until she's created a huge lair. She also has pica, and her non-nutritive substances of choice are wool and cashmere. I found this out the hard way-- I have two cashmere sweaters with "extra" seams in them now, in addition to scores of wool sweaters and socks that she's eaten. Anyway, the point is that Mochi has an inordinate fondness for the fiber arts, and she is quite enamored with these new grocery totes. Fortunately they're made from cotton yarn, so I don't have to worry about her munching on them.