Seems like this month has slipped by before I could catch ahold of it. The heat and humidity kept most of my crocheting to a minimum, outside work to almost nil except for the obligatory mowing as I had to and trying like mad to keep the tomato plants watered enough to keep them alive. I have harvested a few tomatoes, they're starting to ripen three or four at a time which works out great for me, I have a couple and have some to share as well.

The projects I did accomplish this month were worked mostly late nights, when things cooled enough to be holding yarns. I have several photos to post so I hope you enjoy looking at them all.

Ribbon yarn shawl for toddler.


Details of edging.

Peach hat using up leftover yarn.



Child's poncho, also using up leftover yarn.

Picot Wrap I made from a pattern for a Picot Lace Shawl. I worked the pattern according to directions and apparently they were unclear as to the decreasing of each end so I ended up with a rectangle, and since I was already ten or twelve rows into it I decided to keep it rectangular and came out with this.


I also worked a couple of the Flamenco Wraps up using cotton 4 ply yarn rather than the ribbon yarn. The first one I made came out a little short because the chain five triangular section wasn't as long as it came up using ribbon yarn. So, the second one I made I switched to a chain seven triangle and it worked out wonderfully.

The pictures didn't come out as clear as I would have liked, I think because of the colorway of the yarn itself.

Here's a close up of the flower closure that is used in the pattern. It's hard to see but I really liked the way it came out. It looks a lot better in person than the pictures show.

The second Flamenco Wrap is more clear in the pictures, again I think due to the colorway. As you can see it came out considerably longer due to the increases in the chains of the triangular piece. Lovely!



A closeup of the details of the back triangle edging pieces.


I used a button by itself for the closure on this wrap. I liked the color of the button, thought it went well with the colors of the yarn.



I loved the look of Caron Feathers yarn and loved the free pattern for the shawl that was made using the yarn but didn't have enough yarn for the project. I did however, have quite a bit of Frenzy yarn and since I am trying to use up yarn (rather than purchasing more for a particular project) I substituted the Frenzy for the Feathers in this shawl. I like the way the piece came out, although as usual, I goofed something up and the shawl came out with angled ends rather than blunt, straight ends. Go figure, lol!


Here's a closeup shot so you can see both the yarn and stitch detail.

Beating the Heat

Dog Daze
With temperatures soaring into and through the 90's and humidity levels rising to make it feel more like 100+ I can say the dog days have truly come to Louisville. Air pollution index is in the hazard range for at least the next three days and probably longer. Next week the temps are expected to soar even higher.

Needless to say all this heat has been slowing down my creative juices and so I'm not producing with the frenzied enthusiasm of months prior. I have a few new projects completed to show you today, and up until the day before yesterday I was having a hard time finding anything to inspire me. I did however find some inspiration and will show you the results of that as well with this posting.

Fried Green Tomatoes
On a good note, my tomato plants are thriving despite the heat, although as of yet I've not had any tomatoes ripen. But oh boy, when they do! Have numerous tomatoes, most of them still small but there are six that are getting what I like to call "eatin' size" and if it weren't for the heat and humidity they would be in danger of becoming fried green tomatoes. LOL. Now, fried green tomatoes are traditionally a southern delicacy and something I didn't develop a taste for until I became an adult. Even now, I only eat them once a year, or once every couple years. For one thing, fried foods are not allowed on my diet and for another, it's a hot, sweaty, messy job in the dead heat of summer.

Since this heat has hit, I've been utilizing my crockpot in hopes of keeping the heat at bay, or at least to a minimum. I cooked up a mess of black beans and have been living on black bean tostadas, nachos and tacos for the last few days. I also make quite a few pasta salad type dishes because they can be prepared at night, when the temps are down, cooled in the fridge and left as long as necessary. They are also a lovely cool relief to the heat. Of course there are also the inevitable fresh salad greens (oranges, purples and reds as well) and fresh fruits that summer crops proffer but with prices soaring the way they have the last couple of years I have to be creative with my meal planning and have found I'm not eating as much of this as I would normally. But, with only one person to plan/cook for it's difficult to purchase all the fresh produce that a salad requires and then try to get it eaten before it spoils. I try, believe me, but one can only eat so many salads in a days time.

Ok, enough about food. Even though it's one of the great passions of my life (cooking it as well as eating it) I started this blog to report to you all about my crochet endeavors (well, mostly anyway) and so I'm steering back to that subject for now.

Creative Stewing
As I stated earlier, I hit a slump with my crocheting. It started after I finished my first Seraphina Shawl which I made using Bernat yarn in an Antique Rose color. I had a few problems with it, but overall it went very smoothly and turned into a beautiful piece.

Since it turned out so wonderfully I thought I'd make another one using the Cozi yarn I had made the shawl with from my earlier posting. Well, after frogging over half a dozen times I had to put the piece down for fear of ruining that lovely yarn. I was sorely disappointed because I thought that Cozi yarn would make a beautiful shawl, and that's what prompted the slump. After frogging the shawl and putting the yarn back into my stash I simply couldn't find anything that excited me enough to start another project.

I tried stimulating my mind by making a couple more Daisy Charity Squares

Next I used a bit of scrap yarns to make some scrunchies, all the while looking over patterns and trying to come up with something that would give me the surge of creative energy to begin a new larger project.


None of these endeavors were stimulating my creative juices; even flipping through patterns on the internet, pattern books and magazines didn't seem to help. I picked up some thread and made a couple bookmarks in the meantime.

Fan Bookmark Fan Bookmark
Still nothing.

FANcy Fantasies
Finally, I happened upon a link in one of my newsgroups to a new pattern to add to my HQ page and this was the inspiration I needed to start myself crocheting again. I saw this pattern and just fell in love with the piece and decided to make one in the size the pattern called for, another a bit larger and even have been given the impetus to attempt this same pattern in an adult size. How I'll accomplish that task I haven't quite figured out, but I'm going to give it a whirl. Oddly enough this project too is a fan, of sorts. It's called the Imma Fan Poncho and here's the first one I completed in R.H. worsted weight in a mint color.


I have a second in a purple color almost complete. It's the next larger size than this one. Don't have pictures for you yet as I haven't completed it. Those will have to wait for my next posting.

Raves

I have completed the rectangular shawl pattern made with Caron Cozi yarn. The pattern is here: Easy Shawl and as my pictures show, I didn't put the fringe on the ends. I simply finished the end the same way the beginning started, with dc's in each stitch and chain sp across. I tend to not like fringe on items anyway and especially with yarns like Cozi because it seems like a waste of yarn since it unravels so easily and the "fuzzy" part tends to come off the main thread without any provocation. Here are pictures:
A front view
The back
A closeup shot that gives you a good view of the colorway that runs through the yarn. This picture is a lot lighter than the yarn itself is, but it does a great job showing how the various colors are mingled throughout.

Since I always like to have small projects to occupy myself while I am working on larger projects. I usually have a scarf or square laying around. This square was completed while taking a short break from the Seraphina Shawl I'm working on at the moment. This square is a charity pattern and I asked for and received the pattern with the understanding that I would make a square and donate it to the organization that the designer had created the pattern for. Needless to say I put it off, tucking the pattern away in my archives and giving it very little thought. Even after I was "reminded" via a couple emails I just let the ball drop with it after reading the email. Shame on me!
So now, I've decided I've got this square done and while I'm working on the Seraphina Shawl project as I need to take breaks from the piece I'll start and complete this square in several colors and ship them all out to the charity organization. Sort of like paying interest on the time the pattern sat around collecting dust. I'm sure the lady who runs this charity could use all the squares she can get and so if I send in two or three or more that will more than make up for my laziness.

Now the Seraphina Shawl is my first and I am finding it fairly easy to work up. I put off working this shawl up because I had read so much about how confusing it was to work the pattern sequence so I'm pleased to find it isn't as confusing as some people make it. I did choose to make this first one with a ww acrylic yarn because if I had to frog it tends to take repeated frogging a lot better than some of the "fluffier" yarns in my stash. I thought once I had the pattern down then I'd consider what other yarns I could pull from my pile to use. I found one error in the pattern writing itself but I was able to correct that with little effort on my part. The only other problem is that because of the way the pattern is written up you don't get specific counts on the number of shell repeats per line. You end up repeating the same 4 line sequence over and over until the shawl is the size you want and so I found that I had to pay attention to my project or else I'd put a shell in where I was supposed to do a pattern increase. Just a little confusion, nothing I couldn't figure out after a round or two of ripping, lol! No pictures yet, but they will be forthcoming as I complete the project!

I do have to say, this year I was able to pick up some tomato plants from a fellow freecycler and had several survive and thrive. They're doing so well I just had to show them off. I know it's a bit of a late season for the tomatoes, and I'm getting my first fruits on the vine now and as you can imagine, driving myself insane with anticipation. Yummmyyyyy, fresh tomatoes in my salad,

BLT's, mmmmmmmm!


I'm actually quite pleased with the way these pictures turned out, they make my yard look WAYYYY prettier than it actually is! I have decided that if this effort pays off next year I may
enlarge my garden bed and plant peppers, onion and some lettuce to go along with the tomatoes. Salad fixin's for a summer treat. Of course I always get ahead of myself and start thinking of all sorts of things I can do, herbs, carrots, heck, melons, strawberries. But whoa, have to keep reminding myself I can only do a little bit of gardening, weeding, etc. because of my bad back so I have to pick and choose where things like that come into play. Tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and maybe a little onion. I will consider an herb bed but not in the middle of the garden, hmm, maybe in my front flower bed (where there aren't really many flowers anyway). It's a low light location so I'd have to do a bit of research on what I can plant there. I like the possibility of it though. Ah well, enough to do dealing with this season for now. Let next year take care of itself.

Hope you're all keeping cool in this weather. Until next post, happy crocheting people!

Details, Details

Since several people have asked me about the joining on this latest afghan I thought I would show some pictures that give a bit more detail of the stitching around my squares as well as the edging. It's quite simple really, just chains that join in the middle but it gives the afghan a beautifully lacey effect.

Here is a close up of four of the squares joined with a medallion in the center.


Two squares joined together and the edging of the entire afghan.


A close up of the edging that surrounds the entire afghan.
This was done with 5 rounds of chain three and the last round of chain 5.


Another close up of the edging that goes around the entire afghan.


A close up shot of the edging that surrounds each square.

This was a process of figuring things out as I went along. I started with the chain 5 edging around each square and just played around until I found a number that fit for the squares.
Since I was winging this I ended up not making allowances for the "center" of the chain 5 edging which left a hole in the center. I filled that hole with granny medallions that I stitched into the hole. I edged the entire afghan with chain 3's because the chain 5's I was using to do my square joining was going to create too much ruffle as the edging. I did 5 rows of the chain 3's and then went back to chain 5's for the last row of edging.

Summer Projects

A quick update to show off the completed afghan, plus a couple other projects I've finished up. I think this turned out even better than I thought it was going to. Of course this afghan was "winged"- I had some of the squares, hurried up and finished the others and then used a simple chain stitch to join them. I added some round medallions to the big holes between joinings (told you I was winging it) then did a chain trim around in the same yarn I used for the medallions.
I think I have a buyer for this afghan. She's supposed to pay me the 25th of this month and I'll be jumping for joy when I see the money. It's the first project I've ever tried to sell and the woman didn't even bat an eye at the price I quoted. Makes me think I should have quoted higher, lol! No, really if she's willing to pay what I asked for, I'm pleased as punch to sell it to her.

As you know, I was working on a freeform project with a boucle yarn. I showed a picture of the work in progress with my last post. I'm happy to say I finished that project and so here's a picture of the completed shrug I was working on in that lovely boucle yarn.


This last project is made with Cozi Sapphire yarn, using up leftover skeins I had in my stash. I think it turned out really pretty.


Currently on my hook is another Cozi yarn shawl, this one is a rectangular shape and I'm using the color Evening Jewels. It's a beautiful mix of black, dark blue, turquoise and purple. I've slowed my pace with projects a bit due to the heat of summer. I also have other projects working out in my yard that keep me from picking up the hook as much as I was. Still adding completed projects to my craft fair stash, just not at the fervent pace I was before.

A Little of This, A Little of That

Well, it seems that the hot weather has kept my crocheting to a minimum and so there aren't all that many things to show with this post. I'm working slowly on finishing up a scrap project I started over a year ago. A granny square afghan that I had been collecting squares for is finally coming together. I finished up the squares necessary, then started edging and joining and am at this point with it now:

I have seven more squares to add on and then I'm making center medallions for those holey spots you see in the picture, in pink. Will edge with the pink and then finish a trim row in the soft white. I hope it turns out to be as pretty as I think it will be.

Another scrap project I finished but am not nearly as pleased with is this purse. I'm not sure if it's because what I had envisioned for the project had to be modified due to running out of the fancy yarn I used or if it simply just isn't what I wanted at all but I consider this one of my failed projects (I'm sure there will be many of those in my future). Not sure yet what I'll do with the thing but for now it's going into my finished projects box.

On a sunnier note, here's a picture of a project I started yesterday. This is going to be a shrug once it's complete. I love the boucle yarn that is used for the project and working with it isn't all that bad, probably because I'm using such a large hook which makes it easier to get through the yarn. I really am pleased with this one so far though and hope that it turns out as nice in the finish as I think it is going to at this point.

Here is a close up of the project so you can see the yarn. Now isn't that pretty?


I hope you are all finding creative ways to beat the heat, and enjoying your summer. Till next time, happy crocheting!

Summertime has hit without regard to my crochet plans. My a/c unit is out and so I've been living with the heat which until now has been surprisingly low in humidity. Anyone who lives in this area knows that humidity is perpetually high but for some reason it's been relatively low. Until this week that is. Tomorrow temps will hit the 90's and the humidity is going up the scale and without a/c I'm sure I'll be a wet sticky mess around 6 p.m. each evening through the rest of this week. Ugh!

I've been crocheting but not producing. Working on using scraps up at this point and I've a surprise project that I can't show or speak about yet. Not until it's complete. This has been my major project for the last two weeks and when I get finished I'll post pictures. Outside of this project I've done very little other crochet. Made a cute little bookmark, freeform out of scrap yarn and have plans on using up other scraps in this same manner. Just not working on anything prolifically at this point.

A quick picture of the bookmark for you all:Now isn't that cute? I started with the white "flower" in the center, found in my box of scrap yarn, then used other scraps and even a bead making it.

I've been adding links to my HQ page and have now reached the landmark of 2nd place on the site's listings for most number of links. I have a long way to go before I hit number 1 however.