Crochet – Watch Me Go!

verabear Crochet 6 Comments

We’re only on the third month of the year and already I’ve got 4 completed crochet projects under my belt. Wowza! Watch me go!

I made two baby blankets. A blue, green, and gray chevron made with Dapper Dreamer Stardust. It was the first time I used that yarn and I loved how soft it was. I can imagine how it will keep Baby Ricky cool and comfy in our tropical weather. My second blanket is the one pictured above – pink, purple, and white for Baby Bianca. I made it using Ganstilyo Guru Milk Cotton Medium, another first time for me. This yarn was chunkier but I can imagine how soft it would feel around the baby.

It surprised me how quickly I finished those blankets. Both are gifts and I’m  just happy I finished the first one before the baby came out, and the second one within two weeks of starting it. I’d have finished sooner if I didn’t run out of yarn. More expert crocheters would probably finish the project in three or four days, but compared to my first three afghan projects, two weeks is super record time for me. I can foresee a few more baby blankets in the making this year.

While waiting on my yarn restock I started a slouchy beanie as requested by my husband. It was the first time that he had asked me to make anything for him so I quickly went to it.

It’s custom sized for him, but I followed this tutorial from YouTube. I love how there are so many free patterns and even video tutorials available online! Here’s a photo of the husband proudly wearing my creation:

Today I also finished my very first scarf! I started working on it while at a Management kick-off about three weeks ago to keep myself from nodding off while listening to presentations. I made good progress but frogged it a day later because it just didn’t feel right. I adapted this pattern but made my own additions, including the arch and picot edging which I had just learned to do for this project. This will be a gift for the boss’ wife. I hope she likes it.

I love this hobby! Off to get started on my next project 🙂

Mine! – My Sugar Free Yarn Experience

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Since my first big project (the ripple blanket), I’ve been buying my yarn online. First, from Trey the Gantsilyo Guru, and more recently, on Facebook from Sugar Free Yarn.

I first heard of Sugar Free Yarn and their Yarn sales from the FB group Crochet Addict Philippines. I had to add Sheila, the Yarn Lord, before I got an exclusive invite to the Facebook group. They now have their own website, so you can check them out at Yarns by Sugar Free.

They usually announce their bi-weekly sessions and yarn addicts like me would have to be ready to reserve the items which are all on limited amounts. How do we do that? First to comment “Mine” on the photo would be first on queue, and so on. A reliable internet connection is definitely important here. Hehe.

We were out having dinner when the first session I joined started. I asked the husband not to be in too much of a hurry to pay and leave so I won’t miss anything. The first item went slow so I thought, “the was easy.” Apparently, everyone else was just logging on and warming up. The next few cakes I liked went fast!

While walking up to the parking lot, I had one arm wrapped around the husband, but my eyes and one hand was glued to my phone. I had to be quick! When we got to the car, I had to endorse the phone to the husband with very detailed instructions of what he had to do to watch out for the next lot. It was so funny! We kept shouting Mine even though there was no new post, it became a reminder to refresh the page and check again.

He was so into it, commenting Mine even before showing me a photo of what we were buying, hahaha. It was so much fun. I was glad to share the experience with him. Lol.

I had to wait awhile before receiving my orders, but it was because I couldn’t pay right away. I think it took me a week and a half before we had time to go to a BPI to deposit payment, but they sent my my yarn just a day or two after confirming my payment.

Here’s my stash from that very first session:

Vera’s Sugar Free Yarn Stash

I joined one more session since. I told myself I would just be a spectator but I couldn’t help it. It was like my fingers had a life of its own typing Mine for every gorgeous mix I saw. Hehe.

Mystery CAL Afghan 2015

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A CAL is a crochet-a-long challenge, where anyone who signs up works on the same project at pretty much the same time.

mystery CAL afghan 2015 1

I learned of Yarnspirations & The Crochet Crowd’s CAL about a week or two after it started – many months ago!  No big deal though, because anyone can jump in, anytime. It’s also a mystery cal which meant participants didn’t know what the end would look like. It was meant to run 10 weeks, but all in all it took me maybe double that time.
I would crochet or knit all day everyday if I could – I’d do it for a living! But I have a full time job, other hobbies, and I need my time to just loaf around too, hehe. But working on this project has been really good for me. It’s a way to de-stress, and also a way to learn new stuff in crocheting.

Mystery CAL Afghan 2015 3

My crochet bag didn’t make it to work this time around, but I did bring it with me on a few errands. Mostly though, I crocheted in the car while the Husband went grocery shopping. Yep – I drive the Hubby to the grocery & back. We list together the items we need, but it’s him who does the leg work 🙂

So back to the project. I love the softness of the yarn! I prefer the feel of Caron Simply Soft over Red Heart Super Saver. I chose the jewel tones on the suggested color motif and it turned out bright and bold.

My favorite part of the project was the edging, I’d never done any work like that before and I liked the variety of stitches I got to use. I love how it turned out!

If I were to change anything though, I would have made more squares. I ended up with a baby blanket instead of an afghan, it’s just too small. I am considering making another one like it, but of a different palette.

For now, I sent it off to Amir. I’ll leave it up to him if he wants to have it for himself. When I was starting to make it he did ask to be made one, so I’ll let him have it if he wants. I think though that he might ask for a different one with reds and blues instead. 🙂

Project: Ripple Pattern Blanket

verabear Crochet 32 Comments

This is what’s keeping me busy outside of work:

 

Well, okay. It’s not exactly that, but that photo links to the pattern I am following for a blanket I’m working on. My colors are not nearly as bright as what the original pattern maker used.

I fell in love with the ripple pattern when I first saw this image on Pinterest (follow my boards @verabear!), so much that I completely forgot about the original pattern I intended to work on.

This is the first time I’m attempting a blanket. Or maybe I should call it a throw or afghan or something? It’s just going to be big enough to throw over the love seat, our living room couch that has been doubling as my bed too. Hehe. My previous crochet projects (from years and years ago) were nowhere near this big. I’m excited!

I got my set of crochet hooks about two weeks ago and I knew I really wanted to work on something. In time, I found the perfect ripple pattern. And then last week, we went yarn shopping!

Alfred helped me pick out the colors. Initially I wanted a summer theme – so I had in mind a very light and sunny palette. But the colors available weren’t so bright and sunny. Also, the boyfriend gravitated towards the colors he knew I loved – purples and pinks.

I would love to someday use cotton yarns and specialty yarns, but for now, I settled with the readily available Cannon mercerized cotton brand.

Before I actually started on the blanky, I stitched a sample patch so I can get used to the pattern. It was fairly easy to get used to. After the second row I already stopped reading the pattern. The patch allowed me to also visualize what the final product will look like, and also to measure how many chains I will need.

I used a 3.0 mm hook for the trial patch, but decided to use the smaller hook for the actual project. The main project will be 10 times the width of this one, still don’t know much taller or how many rows it’ll take. So far I’ve done 6.5 rows on my blanky and I’ve had to unravel my stitches twice. First one was on the first row (I had excess chains!) and the last one was for the 7th row – I missed two stitches early in the row and I was at the end of that row before I realized it. Confusing? Never mind, it’s not important.

While I was going through fabulous crochet works on Pinterest, I couldn’t help but think about my grandmother who taught me this craft. I miss her. I bet she could show me how to work any complicated pattern out there.

Anything I crochet, will always be done in her memory.

Hay. Moving on…

Apart from crocheting, I also sneak in some reading. I am currently going through book 2 of the Millenium Trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire.

So the short story is that, this is why I haven’t written a review of Oz, The Great and Powerful. Also the reason why I haven’t mentioned anything about meeting up with friends for dinner on Sunday night. That same dinner where my friend commented about the streets being relatively safer thanks to BPOs working round the clock giving commuters in general a lesser need to log on to safetygirl.com for pepper spray or mace purchases.