Swirling Leaves Wristlet

The stashdown continues!  The pattern for this Swirling Leaves Wristlet can be found HERE. Learning lots of new stitches from these patterns!  The only change I made to this pattern was to thicken the drawstring by slip stitching over my chain.  It did make it shorter, but still an appropriate length for small to average hands. I used a G hook for this lighter weight yarn.

Stashdown Cowls

Here are a few more Stashdown projects.  I made the Ice Blues Cowl first.  The original design, found HERE, called for 30 squares (in three rows), and I had 16 made before I decided to just stick with these 12 for a less bulky cowl that just fits over my head and scrunches around my neck - or could cover my nose, too!  So what to do with the four more squares?  Make the Midnight Lilac Cowl! 

I was running low on my navy skein when edging Ice Blues (I joined the squares with single crochet), so only did one row of double crochet on the edges.
 
Someone else in the Stashdown group mentioned edging the individual squares before joining.  I thought that was a good idea, so slip-stitched around each one on Midnight Lilac before whip stitching them together.  Finished the edge with two rows of single crochet.

Finishing the skein

 

And when you have just a little yarn left...

Another item in the crochet-a-long I joined was the "Almost a Slouchy Hat" found HERE.  I used the toddler size pattern, but changed the band to decrease faster to a smaller circumference (14") to make something like a beret for an infant.

This was the only appropriately sized model I could find on short notice.  Speaking of short... his toes won't even get cold!

In case you missed the earlier post with my Bubblegum Baby Jacket, the pattern is found HERE.

Bubblegum Baby Jacket

My latest Stashdown Crochet-a-long project is from the pattern of the Neapolitan Rainbow Jacket found HERE.  It uses an interesting, if a bit tedious, split half double crochet stitch.  Quite happy I was able to discover these matching yarns from my stash!  I just might have to make a matching hat now!

What? 27 entries?

Um, yeah.  I went a little crazy there.  But I've been crocheting for a year, so I already had zoodles of projects.  (Zoodles?) And they weren't all crocheted.  My compost (see... I think it was my very first blog entry here?) has been winning awards for a few years - now I find that a pretty easy category.  Baking muffins, not too hard.  I do enjoy making flower arrangements, and hey, last year my fairy garden took first place!  Wow, a big prize for 1st place pineapple upside cake - I've made that before... a while ago...  I am determined to make a grandma's apron - big prize on first place there, too, and I NEED a new apron.  I bought the fabric a year ago.  Oh, I can whip up a few more crochet projects - two more weeks!  And recycled denim?  How fun!  Did I tell you the last time I actually sewed anything? And I have a few unusual veggies - if there aren't too many entries I might win something. I was in some kind of manic state when I filled in the entry form.

So, yeah, I went a little overboard.  Everything took a little longer than anticipated.  But we have a small fair, so chances of winning are not too slim.  Last year I entered 8 items and each one won a ribbon!  This year?  27 entries (I signed up for 28, but didn't get one finished), 22 ribbons!  $82 dollars! (minus the $30 in entry fees, but that also got me free admission).  Not too bad if I do say so myself.  But I should point out that only 9 of those wins were actually ahead of other entries.  There were a lot of 1 out of 1, or 3 out of 3 entries!  In fact, my cake took 3rd place, and there were only two entries!  (The top stuck to the pan a bit - might have had something to do with it.)

But I had fun with most of my projects, even if there was a bit of hair pulling and a sore neck from sewing!

More pictures to come.  I hope I inspire some of you, the way that I was inspired looking at the fair entries in past years!

Crochet-A-Llong

So, as if entering 27 things in our fair was not enough, I did the foolish thing of joining an online "crochet-a-long" where each week a new pattern is posted, and en masse, we crazy crocheters hook up new items.  It's fun to see the variety of items which develop from each pattern.  As this is working up to Christmas and may include gifts, I may not be posting everything I do... oh, and I don't think I'll really do EVERY pattern, either!  But here is this week's project, along with the hat I entered in the fair.

The idea of this crochet-a-long is to use yarn already in our stashes, so to have enough of this soft alpaca blend yarn to make a neck-warmer to match the hat was pretty cool.  The pattern was actually for a scarf, but variations are allowed!  We enter pictures of our work, and at the end, they randomly choose projects to win prizes provided by the sponsors.  The hat took third place in our fair ... of the three crocheted hats entered! :-)

Video of the week: Pablo Casals playing for peace.

Students: What year was it, and how old was Pablo Casals on the recorded introduction of this?


And if you have time for the actual recording of the UN performance!... Do you hear a difference? (Besides that they do not cut the ending...) We can all hope to still be playing at that age, even if not in public!