this week’s awesome finds

Yup, I’m still here. I don’t think I’ve ever let so many days go by between posts before. But then I don’t think I’ve ever been so busy in my life with school work… It should qui­et down a lit­tle clos­er to the hol­i­days, and I will be able to final­ly fin­ish and show you a project that I’ve been work­ing on since the sum­mer. But in the mean­while, awe­some finds! :D

Aren’t these so cute? From Kid­dley.

 

I love acorns. Love­ly acorn neck­lace tuto­r­i­al by Eri­ca from Caught on a Whim.

 

Bril­liant idea for win­ter-themed cen­tre­pieces! Ice pots from Fam­i­ly Chic.

 

Beau­ti­ful sheath dress, tuto­r­i­al by Cot­ton & Curls.

 

I’m going to make this as soon as the last paper is done! I pic­ture it with a spark­ly yarn… or maybe a grey­ish teal. Lace tunic from Lion Brand Yarn.

 

This made me so hap­py today, I can’t wait for the pat­tern to come out. A mush­room pen cozy! I will need it for the win­ter semes­ter. From Twinkie Chan.

 

I hope to be back in a week or so with a cro­chet project to show. Until then, have a won­der­ful Sun­day and an awe­some week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

autumn scarf

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Final­ly made it! Amy’s B(ias)³ scarf! :D 

I did­n’t make it as long as the pat­tern instruct­ed because I only had 2/3 skein of the yarn that I want­ed to use (it was a sock weight yarn by Mary Max­im, which I think has been dis­con­tin­ued :S), so it’s more like a scarflette, but I’m still real­ly hap­py how it turned out :D

You can get the pat­tern for free at Amy’s Rav­el­ry store :D

Here’s a clos­er look of it…

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 Have a great week­end, everyone! 

 

blues

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Pat­tern for a sweater that I talked about a while ago. Have been work­ing on it slow­ly since the end of sum­mer. And of course I have to cel­e­brate its com­ple­tion with a lev­i­tat­ing pho­to :D It fea­tures an uneven hem­line, with the back piece is longer than the front piece. It’s more like a tunic, so it can be worn over leggings.

Yarn weight: light worsted
(I used this acrylic yarn that I have a huge pile of in my stash, I like that it does­n’t stretch out of shape eas­i­ly, espe­cial­ly when it’s cro­cheted with a large hook)

Yardage: aprox. 1400 yards for main colour, 150 yards for con­trast­ing stripes 

Hooks: 9mm and 6.5mm

Mea­sures:
Length from shoul­der to bot­tom edge of back piece — 27“
Bust — 34″
(Though the sweater is quite stretchy, and pat­tern is eas­i­ly adjustable by adding or sub­tract­ing foun­da­tion stitch­es. One may need more yarn if mak­ing a larg­er sweater.)
Sleeve cir­cum­fer­ence at shoul­der — 14″

Stitch­es used:
Sin­gle cro­chet — sc
Dou­ble cro­chet — dc
Dou­ble cro­chet togeth­er — dctog
Sin­gle cro­chet togeth­er — sctog
Slip stitch — sl

Note:
1. Through­out the pat­tern, the turn­ing ch 3 in dc rows counts as a dc, but the turn­ing ch 1 in sc rows (stripes) do not count as an sc.
2. The main colour is car­ried up (not fas­ten off) when mak­ing the stripe rows, but the stripe colour yarn is fas­ten off at the end of each stripe sec­tion and not car­ried up over main colour sections.

PATTERN

Back:

With main colour and larg­er hook, ch 43.

Row 1: dc in 3rd ch from hook, dc in each ch across, turn. 

Row 2: ch 3, skip first dc, dc in each dc across, turn.

Row 3: repeat row 2, at the end of the row attach stripe colour, switch to stripe colour while car­ry­ing the main colour up.

Row 4: with stripe colour, ch 1, sc in first dc, sc in each dc across (includ­ing top of turn­ing ch‑3 of pre­vi­ous row), turn.

Row 5: ch 1, sc in first sc, sc in each sc across (but not in the turn­ing ch‑1 of pre­vi­ous row), switch to main colour, fas­ten off stripe colour, turn.

Row 6: ch 3, dc in first sc, dc in each sc across, turn.

Rows 7–9: repeat row 2.

Repeat rows 4 to 9 six times.

Next rows: repeat rows 4–7 once.

Neck shap­ing (right, fac­ing you):

Row 1: ch 3, skip first dc, dc in next 9 dc, 2 dctog over next 2 dc, turn.

Row 2: ch 3, skip first dc, 2 dctog over next 2 dc, dc in each dc across, turn.

Row 3: ch 3, skip first dc, dc in each dc across, fas­ten off.

Neck shap­ing (left, fac­ing you):

Row 1: count 29 dc from the right edge, attach yarn to next dc. ch 3, skip first dc, 2 dctog over next 2 dc, dc in each dc across, turn.

Row 2: ch 3, skip first dc, dc in each dc until last 2 dc, 2 dctog over next 2 dc, turn.

Row 3, ch 3, skip first dc, dc in each dc across, fas­ten off.

Front:

Cro­chet exact­ly the same way as Back, except repeat rows 4–9 five times instead of six times.

Cro­chet neck shap­ing the same way as Back. 

Sleeves:

With main colour, ch 29.

Rows 1–6: same as Back rows 1–6.

Row 7 (increase row): ch 3, skip first dc, 2 dc in next dc, dc in each dc until last 2 dc, 2 dc in next dc, dc in top of turn­ing ch, turn.

Rows 8–9: ch 3, skip first dc, dc in each dc across, turn.

Rows 10–12: same as Back rows 4–6.

Repeat rows 7–12 twice more.

Next 3 rows: ch 3, skip first dc, dc in each dc across, turn.

Next 6 rows: repeat Back rows 4–9. Fas­ten off.

The sleeve should be 33 stitch­es wide at the top edge. Repeat for the oth­er sleeve.

Assem­bly:

Cro­chet shoul­ders togeth­er using slip stitch.

Mark the 17th dc at the top edge of the sleeve. With right sides fac­ing, match the 17th dc at the top edge of the sleeve to the shoul­der seam and pin it down. Pin down the rest of the top edge of the sleeve to the front and back of sweater. Cro­chet sleeve to body of sweater. It might need a slight bit of stretch to make sure that the sleeve is 14″ wide when unfold­ed. Repeat for the oth­er sleeve.

Low­er edge:

With small­er hook, main colour and right side fac­ing, attach yarn to cen­tre back of hem, sc in each st until the edge.

You are now work­ing along the side of the rows in the longer back piece. ch 2, sl st in the top of first row from the bot­tom edge, ch 2, sl st in top of sec­ond row, ch 2, sl st at the point where the back piece meet the front piece.

sc in each st along the front hem, sc in the point where the front piece meets the back piece.

Now work along the side of the rows in the longer back piece. ch 2, sl st in base of sec­ond row from the bot­tom edge, ch 2, sl st in the base of first row, ch 2, sl st in the bot­tom corner.

sc in each of the remain­ing st in the back hem. Fas­ten off. 

Neck edge:

With small­er hook, main colour and right side fac­ing, attach yarn to cen­tre back of neck. sc even­ly around neck. Gen­er­al­ly, I worked 1 sc in each st, and 2 sc in each row when I’m work­ing on its side, and 3 sctog when there is a steep curve (in the first 2 neck shap­ing rows). I hope this makes sense. Ulti­mate­ly it’s about cro­chet­ing around the neck in a way that pulls it togeth­er a little.

Weave in all ends.

And that’s it! Let me know if you spot any mis­take or have any question!

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Hap­py fall! :D

 

glowing

Photo 11-3-2013, 3 15 11 PM - Copy

It’s been grey and rainy for the past few days, but the sun is final­ly out today. The fall trees looked like they were glow­ing in the sun­shine. The bright­ness makes for sharp lev­i­tat­ing pho­tos too :D

Hope you have a great start to the week!