Still Here! and my End of the Year Holiday Sale is Coming up!
Sorry for the inactivity this year. I had a lot going on with dealing with my health issues, home, kids, finishing the slipper socks for my sister in-law, and a huge project for my Uncle (which I will be making a separate post about at a later date. With pictures!).
While working on the project for my Uncle, I had an idea for a bag that I have been working on on and off for awhile when I needed a break. I haven’t decided yet if I am going to write a pattern for it yet though. I’m still working on figuring out how I want the bag to be. I made 2 already, but there are elements to it that I want to change and have 3 different colors already started. 1 is a solid color in Lime Aide (nice bright springy green), the 2nd is a 2 color in black and dark grey heather, and the 3rd is a 2 color in brown and sky blue. The ones that I already finished, a 3 color cross-body shoulder bag, and then a 2 color backpack that I’m sending to my mom. I’ve been using the 3 color one and it’s helped me see what I would like to change in the construction of some parts of it.
The Knee-High Slipper Socks I made for my sister in-law I did write a pattern for that was was thinking about selling, but I don’t have any good photos for it. I really should get it tested some more, but I haven’t had any luck with reliable testers (except for 1 friend of mine, who was great). The slipper socks are knitted in worsted weight yarn and was made to fit up to a 20 inch calf, a wider foot width, and the foot length is customizable.
My End of the Year Holiday Sale is coming up very, very soon! It will be starting on the 1st of November, 12am EST, this year! Ending on December 31, 11:59pm EST! 2 months long! 25% off of All Patterns! The sale includes everything in my Patterns for Purchase page.
I hope everyone had a good 2017 and a very Happy Holiday Season coming up! Keep an eye out for my upcoming blog post on the huge project that I have been working on this year!
A Quick Update and an “It’s 2017!” Sale
I know I haven’t been active for pretty much almost the entire year. I really didn’t do very much crocheting at all, the projects I had started in 2015 I wasn’t very happy with any longer and the one special order I had was a bit discouraging for me, plus my health had been on a major roller-coaster also. Both physically and mentally. At that point, just looking at yarn caused me stress, so I just really needed a break. Badly.
Well, my break is over. It started when a friend “hired” me to crochet a gift for his fiance and even paid me upfront for it, then my mother asked for something knitted for my Sister In-law, which is something I am now working on since I finished and delivered my friends gift. Thanks to my friend and my mother, I am out of my “yarnie slump” and back into the “fiber groove”. I think I really needed someone to give me a nudge to get back motivated. It was also helpful that the requested projects were/are very simple ones. I do have to admit that my love for playing Skyrim and The Elder Scrolls Online really didn’t help to get me back playing with yarn for a little while either. LOL
I do not know when I will be producing new patterns again yet. I think I need to go back through all of my UFO’s, re-evaluate them and decide which I will finish and which I will frog. I also really need to go back though my yarn stash and reorganize it.
About that sale. I realized that I missed my annual Holiday Sale, so I decided to have a New Year Sale. Starting on January 3, 2017 at 12am EST all of my Crochet Patterns for Purchase will all be 25% off until January 31, 2017, 11:59pm EST. This sale will be valid only through my Ravelry Store. Purchase can be made through the Patterns for Purchase Tab on my WordPress site also, since the”Buy Now” buttons will take you to the Ravelry Shopping Cart.
Checking In
Yes, I’m still around. I apologize that I have been so silent lately, so much has been going on with life in general and I’m not one to blog about my personal life very much, unless crochet is involved somehow, anyway. I know I have talked about a new hat pattern in my previous posts, and I do plan on getting that up for sale, as soon as I am able to get decent photos of the finished hats. I finally got a mannequin head for hat photos, so hopefully soon.
I did have a bit of a creative dry spell after the hats were finished, but my creative muse has recently come back with an idea for a pattern eBook. It will be patterns for shawls, wraps, and possibly a capelet or 2.
(I do have bit of a personal update under the “read more” at the bottom of this post.)
This will most likely be the only time you will see me write so much about any of my personal life. I will most likely stick to my crochet talk and new upcoming patterns in future posts. I am very excited about the eBook project. I already have a wrap, 2 different triangle shawls, and a hooded capelet, all waiting to be written up. The hat pattern is already written, just waiting for photos and some minor editing done.
Learning Something New, Knooking!
I’m taking a short break on the Winter into Summer Hat pattern/project right now because my husband got me a new “toy”, The Knook basic beginners kit by Leisure Arts. For only $7? Why not! Knooking is basically knitting with a modified crochet hook and I remember seeing this kit a year or so ago and being fascinated by the idea. I can knit and feel I am fairly accomplished in my knitting, I’m definitely way beyond the basics, I just crochet more than I knit. I’ve also been crocheting many more years longer than I’ve been knitting, so knitting with a crochet hook? Yes, please! I’ve been playing around with it since last night after getting comfortable with holding the “knook” (knitting hook) and making the knit and purl stitches. I found that I have to hold this particular hook more like holding a knitting needle than how I hold a crochet hook to be comfortable. Once I got the basics down, I decided to jump right into making a cable. Last night, I got the hang of making a front cable (holding the stitches to the front), and today I’m trying the back cable (holding the stitches to the back). Next I want to try lacework, with the yarn overs and knitting/purling 2 together stuff. It seems you can do anything that can be done on the needles on the knook and with having a cord hold the unworked stitches as you work, there is no accidentally dropping a stitch, and I found frogging back to fix a mistake is much easier. The only down side I’ve found is that the knooks are more difficult to find and it looks like, in my limited research, there aren’t as many hook sizes and it seems the smallest size is 4.00mm. So, it seems the downside of knooking is the limited hook size choices. I have seen around the web that some people have made their own knooks from regular crochet hooks made from plastic or bamboo, of even from Tunisian (afghan), or double-ended, hooks. What makes the knook different from a crochet hook is a cord attached to the bottom of the hook, whether through a hole or some other method. THIS is one persons way of making a Knook.
What I thought would be fun is a project combining crochet a knitting without having to change from a hook to needles or vice versa. I thought it would be worth the try, anyway.
Winter into Summer Hat?
I’m starting to get excited about this hat pattern I’m working on. I’ve been trying 4 different weights of yarn, 3 in cotton, 1 acrylic, for this hat that would be good for Spring, Summer, and Fall, then I thought why not try a wool blend for Winter? I think I might even have a skein of Lion Brand Wool Ease in worsted to use. One basic pattern, 4-5 different weight hats. With custom sizing, it could be for child through adult. Even though I think it would be a fairly simple pattern, there will be needed the basic knowledge of how to increase evenly working in the round for a flat circle, because even though I will have the first few rounds written out with where to place the increases, it will be up to the crocheter to continue the increases until the desired measurement is reached. There will be math involved also. I will have the equation where the crocheter will insert the desired head circumference to get the diameter needed before the decrease round is made, along with an example of how I got it for my small head. This will be a very slouchy hat, so it may seem huge at first, but it should turn out to be the correct size in the end.
The idea that is the Winter one will, of course, be heavier and warmer with the wool blend. Then the Summer one would be kind of lacy mesh-like, and a little bit snood-like, in a size 5 thread like Bernat Handicrafter Crochet Thread, weight category 0 lace acrylic thread, or any size 5 cotton thread, but it seems there is a lack of size 5 cotton crochet thread on the internet. I have a ball of Aunt Lydia’s Fast Five cotton crochet thread in my stash, but it seems to have been discontinued. I think size 10 cotton thread would be too fine of a thread for this project. The Bernat Handicrafter size 5 thread surprised me that it is an acrylic thread, because it has the look and feel of mercerized cotton, in my opinion. The nice thing is that it’s fully machine washable and dryable, unlike cotton thread. The lacy mesh-like-ness of the Summer hat would be nice, light, and breezy, and you could tuck long hair up into it like you would with a snood. Then there would be for Spring and Fall, maybe 2 different ones, like one for early-mid Spring/mid-late Fall when the weather is still on the cool side, but not as cold anymore/starting to get cooler/colder, but still on the, using a cotton, like Patons Grace which is a weight category 3 light cotton yarn, to mid-late Spring/early-mid Fall when it’s warming up/cooling down but still kinda on the warmish side, using a cotton, like Aunt Lydia’s Baker’s Cotton or Aunt Lydia’s Fashion 3, which are both a weight category 1 super fine cotton thread, in which the stitches would be slightly mesh-like due to using a hook that is about 5 or 6x’s larger than the recommended hook on the label, but still heavier than the Summer version. The Baker’s Cotton does seem to be just slightly heavier than the Fashion 3 though, but once I have hats made from both, I’ll be able to assess that better. I also think the neat part of this hat idea, no matter what season, not just Summer, is that it would be a good “bad hair day” hat. With the slouchiness of the main body and the fit of the band, you can tuck long hair inside of hat, just like you would do with a snood. My original hat that I made about 8 years ago, when I had very long hair, using the now discontinued yarn, Bernat Cool Crochet, I would tuck my hair up into it often. So, yeah, I’ve put a lot of though into the making of this hat.
Even though I will be writing the pattern with the ch3 at the beginning of each round to act as the first dc of each round, I highly recommend trying out the Chainless Starting Double Crochet to replace the ch3. Moogly has a great tutorial for this stitch that includes both video and pictures along with the written instructions. It took me some practice to master this stitch, but it is so worth it! It has changed my crochet life! The beautiful thing about this stitch when working double crochet in the round is that it makes the “seam”, where you start/end the rounds, practically invisible. I highly recommend this stitch for any project made using double crochet! Working flat? No more holes at the beginning of a double crochet row that you would normally get with beginning the row with a ch3. It is totally worth learning!
No photos until I get them all finished though 😀
Spring is Here!
It’s the 2nd day of May and the weather is finally warming up to spring temperatures! It will be nice to be able to go out in the sunshine and crochet again, but that will have to be after the spring cleanup after the mess winter left in our yard. My favorite, in both spring and summer, is going to the lake at my in-laws house and sitting outside on a sunny day, with a bottle of iced tea, my iPod, and my crochet project, under the trees looking over the lake.
(Photo taken June 14, 2014)
Right now, I am in design mode again. A (hopefully) summery slouchy cotton hat. It’s actually based on a hat that I made (no pattern) about 7 or 8 years ago. I know I wrote it down, but I can’t find my notebook that I wrote it in, so I’ve been trying to recreate it from memory. I’m also trying different yarn/thread ideas for it for the look I want, because the yarn that I originally used, Bernat Cool Crochet, has been long discontinued. I think this might be kind of more of a “recipe” type pattern, because there will be some math going on in it for the crocheter to do to be sure of a good custom fit. I will have the start and the first few rounds written out, so then it will be up to the crocheter to be able to determine how many increase rounds total, by the diameter measurement that needs to be figured out at the start of the pattern, will be needed before the decrease to reach the needed size of the finished hat, then I will have how to decrease and the band/brim and finishing all written down. I would have all of the instructions on how to figure out the needed diameter and finished size. I’m also debating if it’s going to be a paid pattern or not. I hope to be getting many photos of all of the samples in the different yarn/thread ideas. I also told my husband that I need a “head” to be able to do that. I had found a Styrofoam “head” at Meijer, in their craft section, that I can pin cloth onto it I want.
I am also excited to say that my husband (ChaosRaven Cards) and I (by Midknight Designs) now have a showcase at Taylor Town Trade Center on Ecorse Rd in Taylor, Michigan! It’s not much at the moment, but right now I have a few crocheted items and he has a lot of Magic The Gathering cards set up for sale right now. I will be also putting in the case a few of my son’s crocheted roses, plus more of a selection of my crochet than what I have right now in the near future.
Busy Weekend!
First of all, New Theme! I updated my WP look. I liked my old theme a lot, but I’ve had it for quite awhile now and I really needed a fresh new look. I really like the look of this theme, a lot. One day I may change the background image if I find something else I like, but for now, there is just something I like with the default background that came with this theme.
Second, Tutorials! I have 4 tutorials up that I did this weekend, all having to do with the Crocodile Stitch, all in one place! You’ll find the Basic Stitch, Making Increases to make that “triangle” shawl-look or a head kerchief, “In the Round”, and with a Solid Foundation. All with lots of photos. They all can be found on my new Tutorial page! Next I will be making “pattern specific” tutorials, mainly for my Amigurumi Adipose. Over the years, there have been many, many questions about the hands and feet, and even though I have rewritten and updated the pattern recently, I think a couple of photo tutorials might help also. I am also asking if there is anything anyone would like to see me make a tutorial for. If there is anything, comment or email me and I’ll see if it’s something I’m able to do. One thing I cannot do is make video tutorials. I do not have the set up, equipment, nor the video editing programs, to make them. Also, if there are any good tutorials elsewhere that I can link to on my Tutorial page, leave me a link in the comments here, or on the page, and I’ll add it to the list.
I have written the pattern for my husbands Dragon Skin Pouch, but it still needs photos taken. I still need to get him over to JoAnns to pick out fabric for the lining and a button he likes, too. Once that it done, the pattern will be posted for purchase. I did start making another pouch for myself in Lion Brand’s Vanna’s Glamour Sapphire. It’s my new “purse project” for when I’m on the go and have those unexpected wait times.
In middle of all of this, I am working on my Grandmother’s shrug, working with my testers to get the Dragon Scale Shrug up for purchase, and looking for new testers for my Daughter of Dragons Shrug. Right now, I have some of the info in THIS POST, but I plan on making a new post specifically with all of the info needed very soon, if not right after I finish writing this post. So keep a look out for that if you are interest, or you could message me on Facebook, or email me with any questions about the testing.
So, I’ve been thinking…
I was thinking about working on a few tutorials on some crochet stitches, mainly starting with the Crocodile Stitch, which I prefer to call Dragon Scale, I like that name better.
I had found there are a couple of variations on that particular stitch and it seems that each of the many tutorials I’ve come across, everyone has a different “way” to do it, has their own interpretation of it, so I thought I’d throw my version in since I have quite a few patterns at the moment using that stitch.
It seems that some people work without “turning” the work and the double crochet stitches for the scales are worked “right side up”, and a couple of others, including myself, “turn the work”, “fold” it, and work the double crochet stitches for the scale “wrong side up”. And then, I have found that there are at least 2 different “common” flat versions, and I did a different variation of it for my Pouch, but in the round. I also couldn’t find anything about doing Crocodile stitch in the round, except for a video tutorial meant for a backpack, which I didn’t watch, so I just “made it up” as I went along, and it seems to work.
With the tutorials, I want to try to take as many photos of the steps that I can. It will be interesting to see if I can do this, because I won’t have any help, so it will be just me with my iPod Touch camera, a bit of yarn, and a hook.
Finishing and Beginning
I have finished the dice bag order for my friend. The original order was for 2 small bags and 2 large, but he added on for another large,and will be picking them up on Saturday. I sent him this photo and he seems happy with them.
I also squeezed in an additional project, I made a necklace for my best childhood friends upcoming 45th birthday. It’s made from my Isabeau pattern. I hope she likes it 🙂
I’ve also been working on Keely’s Daughter of Dragons Shrug. I’m about halfway done with the second sleeve, then comes the seaming, the neckline, and the wrist-lace to match the 1st sleeve. The lace that will be on Keely’s will not be in the pattern for the shrug, she chose it from a pattern online that she liked. The lace I will be including in the pattern will be a simple honeycomb openwork design that I thought worked well with the scales of the shrug. (info for testing this pattern in THIS POST)
Keely’s chosen wrist-lace
~*~
Wrist-lace for the written pattern
I am still working on my grandmothers shrug too, but I haven’t any photos of that yet. Her’s will be a modified version of my original Dragon’s Scale Shrug. She wears a 16″ back, but wants looser “large” sleeves that are 3/4 length, in tan size 10 thread.
I also have a barrette order to make yet. Another friend of mine ordered it as a Yule gift for another friend of hers. I pre-purchased a wide black barrette for which I will be crocheting small thread snowflakes and gluing them to the barrette.
Still working on Raven’s Dragon (Scale) Skin Dice bag. It’s my “Purse Project”, I keep a wrist pouch with the project in it in the backpack style bag that I use as a purse that I take everywhere with me. I’m making it in Lion Brand’s Vanna’s Glamour in the Lapis (dark greenish teal with sapphire blue metallic) colorway. It’s very sparkly and shiny, so it doesn’t photograph well. I’m thinking about writing this pattern too when it’s finished. This one is going to be rather large, I’m almost done with 1 ball (202yds) of the yarn and I just bought a second to be able to finish it. I think he might want to be able to fit a deck box (Magic: The Gathering) in it along with his dice.
Yesterday, I was able to spend some of my yarn allowance and got 5 balls of Patons Lace Sequins in the Smoky Quartz colorway.
I want to make a shrug out of that for myself. I did up one pattern round in the Dragon Scale and, because of the sequins, I used the recommended hook size on the label and adjusted the stitch count for a size larger hook. The shrug is written for a size 3.25 hook for gauge, and the recommended hook is a 3.50, so it was easy to figure out. I think it’s going to be a cross between my original shrug and Keely’s shrug in design. I guess I’ll figure that out when I get to it. Now to put this aside for later when I have Keely’s shrug done and more on my grandmothers shrug done. I have a bad habit of needing a minimum of 2 project going at the same time.
Now on to a night of Crochet and MacGyver on Netflix 🙂
I don’t have to worry about all of that now
I’m finished (as far as I know) with all of the pattern updates, so now I can maybe crochet without that hanging over me and bothering me. Every one of my available patterns have been cleaned up and are ready for download, I even “cleaned” up some of the photos on Photoshop, so hopefully they look a bit more appealing than they used to. Unfortunately, I no longer have a lot of the items to take new photos of because they ended up being gifts for other people and I never made another.
Now I just need to finish getting over these ickies and get my energy and motivation back so I can get my projects finished.
Don’t forget, I’m looking for people interested in testing my Daughter of Dragons Shrug. There are more details about that in THIS POST. I can get the 1st half of the pattern out to begin testing right now.
Well, I went ahead and did it anyway…
I updated all but 4 out of 17 available patterns so far. It really wasn’t too difficult, just a lot of copy and paste, then fixing the format, added “pretties” like page borders and some color, and fixed anything else weird that I might have noticed, like spelling and such. The patterns themselves are not changed (except the Adipose which I updated last month already), since over the last 6 or so years I haven’t been contacted about any errors (except the Adipose). Looking back at my old patterns, the way they were formatted originally was odd, so I’m glad I updated them. I did finally update the photo for the Snowflake Earrings though. I was finally able to get a much better photo of them than what I previously had. If you click on the photo, it will take you to a new tab with an enlarged photo and you can see the touch of color from the pearl metallic thread I used 🙂
I also updated the pattern link pages for the free crochet, knit and the for purchase pattern pages. I alphabetized all of the pattern links, and I also added thumbnails of all of the patterns below the corresponding links. I actually have 16 out of the 17 patterns that I have available currently on Ravelry posted here. I have 14 free crochet, 1 free knit, and 1 crochet for purchase here on WordPress. I should probable make a page for the Tunisian Mini Decorative Pillow here too… hmmmm
I am so hoping soon I’ll be able to release the Dragon Scale Shrug! I’ve started the pages for it in preparation.
I am still feeling a bit under the weather, but better than yesterday, so that’s something 🙂
I must be Crazy…
So, for the last few days I’ve been suffering though a nasty head cold. Put that on top of having Fibromyagia, I haven’t had the energy to do much of anything, although Monday and Tuesday I did do some editing on the 3 versions of my dragon shrug patterns. Today though, my motivation to do much of anything has practically been close to nil, other than going through my blogs and favorite sites and updating here and there, and of course a lot of reblogging on Tumblr. Pretty mindless stuff, really. Then I got an email with a question about my Adipose, I get a lot of those. Anyway, instead of opening the pattern on my laptop in Adobe Reader, I go to my deviantART gallery, where I also have the pattern posted, but the nice thing is the way dA displays PDFs, I could search though the pattern without opening it up. After I answered the email, I realized that maybe I should submit a few more patterns to my dA’s crochet pattern gallery since I only had 3 patterns in it at the time. I submit an older pattern, and as I was looking at it, it got me thinking that I really should go through all of my old free patterns an update them, clean them up a little bit.
Well, I say I’m crazy, because I really should be crocheting and working on the orders I have, instead of updating 5+ year old patterns. So guess what is going on the “To Do” list. Maybe I can do one pattern update at a time after each project finished. It’s not like I have tons of things to do already.
So, yeah…
Crazy
Checking In
I know it’s been a couple of weeks since I posted, but I really haven’t done very much crochet-wise. With my health, then one of our cats got sick, I was a bit distracted. Unfortunately, although we believed that our cat, Oreo, was improving, we lost him suddenly on Monday of this week. He was only 5-1/2yrs old. He was born in this house also. We also didn’t have internet for about 4 days during all of this.
I’m to be getting “back to work” now though. I have a couple orders to fill, not jewelry yet though although I’m still hoping to sell some. I have 3 dice bags for a custom order, 2 small and 1 large, and my step-grandmother ordered a dragon scale shrug that I need to get started on. I still need to buy the thread for it though. I’ve also talked to my husband about opening an Etsy store, I’m not sure when that will happen yet though.
I recently made myself a Pinterest acct. For the longest time I told myself that I didn’t want, or even need, a Pinterest, but I blame my WordPress blog stats for this. I was checking my stats when I noticed that under “referrers” was a link to Pinterest, so I followed it and saw a couple of my things had been pinned, so I got curious and wanted to so a search, but needed an acct to do so, and well, there I am. Also, because of this, I am getting the urge to knit again, but before I pick up a new knit project, I still have a skirt, shrug, and a sock to finish.
Speaking of WIPs, I still need to finish Keely’s Dragon Shrug and a summer top I started.
January 19, 2009 – August 18, 2014
Photo taken on August 14, 2014
“Insert Witty Title Here”
The hubby took me shopping today at JoAnns! I got 5 more balls of crochet cotton, 4 of which are new colors, well, colors that I didn’t have in my stash yet anyway, and 2 necklace stands so I can take better photos of my necklaces. One is black velvet and the other is an off-white weave. I’m hoping to increase my crochet cotton color selection gradually over the next couple of months too. That means I need to make color swatches for the new colors and take better photos for the Shops available thread colors page.
Some friends of mine suggested that I should try my hand at some Steampunkish style necklaces after I did the one with the circle and flower motif a couple of weeks ago. So I think I’m going to look into getting some accessories, like gears/cogs type things and maybe glass pearl beads, to embellish the motifs with. I know a lot of people who are really into Steampunk, so I’m hoping I do this right! I’m not “into” Steampunk myself, but it interests me the more I learn about it, almost to the point that if I had the money, I could probably really get into it. I’ve always been a “Ren Faire” person, especially after working at The Michigan Renaissance Festival in Holly, MI for over 10yrs with a few different Artisans, so Steampunk wouldn’t be too far off for me LOL
I was also thinking about making pins for removable embellishments for certain necklaces, like my new Lattice & Lace necklace. Ever since I started my Shop, I just keep getting new ideas in my head that need to come out and I really hope people like them.
While I’ve been working on these necklace projects, coming up with new ideas, and getting ready for a (hopefully) big sale on my Facebook Page, I’ve noticed that I’m a bit OCD with numbers. It’s weird. If I’m working on something that has some kind of pattern in it, it has to have odd numbers, especially something to do with 3, 5, or 7, or a multiple of one of those numbers, or the piece doesn’t look right to me. If I’m working in the round, I have to start with either 5 or 7 stitches. When I was making the 2-round Irish Rose for a necklace, the original pattern called for 6 petals, but I had to make 7, because any other way seemed wrong to me. I guess I’m just weird that way.
Anyway, I think I need to get off here and get back to cleaning out the area for my expanding crochet cotton stash 🙂
What is Happening??? Mystery Solved!
I had forgotten that I gave my approval back in January for my pattern to be used in a CAL this month LOL
If anyone is interested, the CAL is at Moogly and was posted earlier today.
So, I was checking in on my Ravelry store. Every so often I like to check on the activity of my free downloads, and today was an even bigger surprise than the response to my Dragon Scale Shrug! My Op-Art Afghan Square seems to have exploded in favorites, queues, and especially downloads!
It’s always been a steady download for me, at least 1 or 2 downloads a day, maybe up to 10 or 12 at most in general. I think the most in one day over the past year was 27 back in May 2013. I have had this pattern up for about 6 years now and I remember in the first year having busy download days, but they never broke 100 that I can remember, maybe in the 50’s or 60’s. I’ve even had people message me asking if they can put the link and the photo on their page for a CAL or something over the years, and I would give my permission. Even with that kind of “advertisement”, I have never had so many downloads for this particular pattern like I’ve had so far today.
It is, right now, 5:36pm on May 1st and it is currently at 365 downloads as I type this! I kinda wish I knew what is going on, if there is some kind of mega CAL going on or something? It’s kinda driving me a little nuts not knowing.
Keely’s Dragon Shrug Update
I redid the lace yesterday with the pattern my daughter found and I only had to give it a couple of minor modifications. I didn’t like the hdc puff stitches it called for, so I made dc clusters instead and liked the look much better, plus I had to add chain stitches. I had actually made it fully once, saw my mistakes and the things I felt needed to be different so it wasn’t tight on the hand. I took photos to send to my daughter for her input, then I frogged it down to the first round and started over. When I finished it the second time, I took photos again to send her and the response I got this morning was “looks awesome!”, so I think it’s a keeper. I’m still up in the air if I’m going to add it to the pattern though, I might do a poll on it. If I do, it would be a link to the chart with my notes on how the joining/sc round on the inside of the cuff was done before starting the pattern and where I added the chain stitches. I think I’ll keep the honeycomb mesh lace pattern as a definite though. The wrist lace will be on as ‘optional’ since it’s added after the sleeve is completed. It’ll also have the option of being done in crochet cotton or the same yarn as the rest of the project.
(I should’ve used the flash in the 2nd set of photos. The lace is supposed to be white.)
After I took the 2nd set of photos, I noticed that I had a mistake about 5 rounds down on the bottom of the top “eye”. I was missing 2 double crochet stitches! Luckily, the 2 stitches aren’t really integral to the stitch count, it’s more of a visual for the “picture” it made in the pattern. It makes the “eye” look a bit off to me with the 2 stitches missing, not balanced. I was so tired of frogging last night though that I left it for today to deal with. Some of my friends said to just leave it, that it’s not a big deal, adds “character”, but it’s bothering me too much so I’m going to fix it.
Keely’s Dragon Shrug Progress
I would say that I’m about a third of the way through this project and I’ve been writing the pattern down as I go.
I am unsure about the wrist lace though and I have been conferring with my daughter if I should do something different, less open. I’m also not sure about the color too, that I should use a different part of the ball, like go a bit higher up to get the the greens when is next in the colorway.
As I was writing the above, my daughter found a lace stitch pattern that I’m going to try to modify for the wrist lace and it will be done in white thread. I think I am still going to include this version of the lace that I have pictured in the pattern though. The pattern she chose is a pretty involved chart, so I’m not sure if it will be part of the pattern, but I might include a link to the chart if anyone wants to give it a go. I guess we’ll see once I start working on it.
I do like her idea of working the wrist lace in crochet cotton thread instead of the same yarn that makes up the rest of the shrug though.
I am almost in a mind to call this project “Daenyrs”, but not completely certain of it right now.
Such an Overwhelming Day!
I am so overwhelmed by the response I’ve gotten for the special on my shrug pattern! I’ve never been in the “front page” of the Pattern section on Ravelry, let alone in the “top 5 hot” patterns!
I still need to get this pattern tested so I can offer it in multiple sizes and someone on Ravelry suggested a few groups where I might find testers, but I found the groups very overwhelming and confusing. I understand the need for rules and regulations, I’m all for it, but there are quite a lot of them and so many of them confuse me, that I get nervous that I might inadvertently break one or many due to my confusion or misunderstanding. Some have required questions that I have no way of answering. For one, I haven’t any idea the approximation of the hours the project could take, I could give days, or even weeks, but not hours.
I also understand that I can’t really offer much for the testing time, just the completely sale-ready pattern, so I pretty much need volunteers for this.
I’m soon going to have a 2nd pattern to be ready for testing also. I’ve caught back up, and then some, after having to frog a bunch of it.
For info about testing the Dragon Scale Shrug, please visit THIS POST
Redo’s and Edits
I now have the thread version of the shrug is finished. I guess you can call that one the “prototype”. I can see things that I wanna do differently now that it’s together. One thing I know from experience is that I suck at seaming and I not happy with the way the seams turned out.
Another thing I thought of is to add the top ruffle after the sleeves are sewn on to the back to carry the ruffle over the sleeve caps. I think I wanna make the ruffle optional too. I have a feeling I’m gonna do another thread version and that one is going to have to me a small this time lol
(Edit to add photos)
On Naming my Shrug Pattern and Other Things
So, that dragon scale shrug crochet pattern I’ve been working on, I’ve been thinking that I want a different name for it and I was thinking maybe I could call it “Daenerys”. I’m not sure yet, I’ll wait until it’s completely finished and assembled before I actually decide, I think.
I have 102/112 rounds on the sleeve now done, then 17 rows for the shoulder cap, and the the second sleeve for the shrug is finished. Assembly after that, then writing out the pattern from the notes I took and calculating for the other sizes. This one is a medium.
Once I have all of that done, I will be putting out a call for pattern testers. I already have one volunteer for testing so far. I’ll have a size range of small to 1X, at least, and I’m going to need at least one tester per size, preferably two testers per size, and I already have one for the 1X, so far.
I’ll have more details about testing after I have the pattern completely written.
I am kind of nervous too, because this is my very first design in apparel with multiple sizes that’s not a pair of hand-knitted socks.
Oh! I have a Facebook page too:
Back to Designing Again
I’ve been inspired to design again. I haven’t picked up a hook in well over a year, but ideas recently started flooding my brain.
A week ago, I crocheted my first Fascinator, a cute tiny little top hat with a ruffled brim, that I still need to sew in clips and embellish. I made it without a pattern and I’m thinking about writing it down and posting it as a free download. It’s a very simple project and the crocheting of it only takes a couple of hours to finish. I also have an idea for a pointy witches style fascinator also.
Last night I finally taught myself the Crocodile Stitch (aka Dragon Scale) that has been so popular for the past year. While working on the practice swatch, I got an idea for a Dragon Scale Shrug. If my idea works out, I will most likely put out a call for testers, because I hope it would be a pattern I could actually sell.
I do still have a knit sock pattern that I started to design a few years ago that I hope to finish and post too, but I’m not sure when though.
(The photo of the crocodile stitch is my practice swatch, I’m using a different yarn for the shrug)
New Year brings Changes
I know that I haven’t been keeping up here the way that I probably should be and I’m going to try to be better about it this year.
I decided to start off with a new theme and background made by myself and I changed my sites tagline to a quote by the actress, Amanda Tapping;
“Live peace – Speak kindness – Dwell in possibility. “
I think she said so much with so few words.
Very inspirational words to live by, I think.
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The beginning of last year was a very difficult year for me, it was very difficult for me to get back into knitting and crocheting after my grandmother passed away in the fall of 2011. The very last thing that I designed and crocheted was her burial shawl. She had Alzheimer’s and was very ill and was in hospice, so we knew it would be soon, so I worked on the shawl up until the last moment before her funeral. It wasn’t a long shawl, more of a short scarf-like triangle shawl, in white cotton thread. She would have loved it.
I know that she wouldn’t have wanted me to stop crocheting for anything, but it was just too emotionally draining for me for the 1st half of last year. I did pick up the needles and started working on some knit projects that I had started on last summer and even started to design a pair of socks… which I have one sock finished and the notes for the pattern and a rough chart graphed out for the lace pattern. I really should get that 2nd sock finished and write out that pattern lol It seemed that when I felt like things were settling down, things would muck right back up again *sigh*
Here it is almost the end of January of 2013 and I still don’t know what really happened to 2012! It went by way too fast and too much like a roller coaster.
This year I am really going to try to get more patterns written and posted.
Wish me luck! 🙂
by Midknight Designs 