Celebrating – Page 6

Playing with Sharp Objects

January 19, 2016April 17, 2017Celebrating, Creativity, Needle Felting, Product Reviews2 Comments

At the TNNA Winter Trade Show last week I took a couple of classes. I enjoyed them both, but the one that was most closely related to playing with fiber was the Needle Felting class I took.

Owl I made in the "Needle Felting Owl with Woolbuddy" class. — Owl I made in the “Needle Felting Owl with Woolbuddy” class.

I have played with needle felting over the years. But I hadn’t really tried to do the sculptural stuff. One reason was I was a little scared of the super sharp needles one uses to create the project. At least with 2 dimensional needle felting I was a little more certain of keeping my fingers out of the way of the needle.

But I love sculptural work and knew it was finally time to take a class on it. My hopes were that I would learn the correct way of approaching the process and possibly shed less blood that way. Mostly that was what happened. I did manage to poke myself a couple of times, but it wasn’t when I was actually felting. I learnt that one should put the needle down safely when reaching for more fiber for the project.

Initially I had not signed up for this class when I registered. I decided I would see if there were any slots available for the class on Saturday afternoon if I was still interested. The class was taught by Jackie Huang of Woolbuddy and they also had a booth on the show floor.

When I meet him and his wife at their booth and saw all the adorable and fun products I decided I had to take the class. My friend Tamara (MooglyBlog.com) signed up too. Look at the amazing full size dinosaur in their booth. Jackie said it took them 6 months to make it. You can read more about their company and even order online from them at their website: woolbuddy.com

In the 2 hour class we each made an adorable little owl starting with a handful of loose fiber. I had a great time making my owl and am looking forward to making more needle felted creations. I purchased one of their “Sea Turtle” kits the last day of the show. The kits are packaged in a sturdy little box with 2 needles, all the fiber you need and a step-by-step photo tutorial to make the character.

I haven’t tackled the kit yet. Instead, I have a bit of wool roving of various colors at home, so I have been practicing on it since my return. I made this fun little sheep that is going to become a pin. She is only about an 1 1/2 inches wide and a tiny bit taller (cause you know, Legs). I love all things sheep since they are a great symbol for me of the fiber crafts that hold a large place in my heart.

I’m hoping to teach my boys how to needle felt too. The boys need to make their own owls, since they keep attempting to “borrow” mine. It is definitely a craft that you have to pay attention to, yet you can see results fairly quickly when doing it. There might be a few injuries, but I’ll have the bandages handy if needed.

Letting go of Perfect

December 15, 2015December 15, 2015Celebrating2 Comments

Seems like the years have just been speeding up more as I accumulate a larger number of them. This coming January my oldest will be officially a teen-ager. In summer of this coming year my husband and I will have been together 20 years, 18 of them married.

And now Christmas is less than 10 days away.

Every year I think, I will be more prepared for the Holiday season. I will have my cards all ready to pop into the mail the day after Thanksgiving. Or at least by December 1st. After all this time I think I need to admit, at least to myself, that just isn’t going to happen.

Instead, I get to be human. Sometimes I pull things together rather miraculously and I’m as surprised as anyone else. Other times I’m lucky if my personal goals are even 1/3 finished by the deadlines I’m working with.

Instead of being “perfect” like part of me still wants, I’ve decided being “realistic” is a far happier goal to shoot for.

Little Christmas Wreath - M2H Designs — Little Christmas Wreath – M2H Designs

Oftentimes this means constantly re-evaluating what I can make happen and how much time I actually have to work on projects. Whether those are projects for my work as a designer/writer/teacher/artist or as a mother/wife/household manager.

In interest of that I’m taking the rest of 2015 off from the blog and will be on the rest of my social media quite a bit less. I wish all my lovely readers a very Happy Holiday Season and I’ll be back on January 1st, 2016.

Let It Snow

December 1, 2015December 9, 2015Celebrating, Crochet, Latest NewsLeave a Comment

Ah yes, winter has made itself known here on the mountain. No matter that the calendar says that it’s still Fall until December 20th.

Our Thanksgiving holiday was a very snowy one. Fortunately we hadn’t planned to go anywhere, so we enjoyed the snow with a lovely warm fire in the wood stove and lots of good food on the table.

We watched the first 3 Star Wars movies (which are called Episodes 4, 5 and 6…yes I know it’s confusing). I finished crocheting my Yoda amigurumi from the kit I showed you. That is one Christmas present done for the boys, but quite a few things remaining.

Light as Lace Snowflake - M2H Designs — Light as Lace Snowflake – M2H Designs

With less than a month to Christmas-time I started working on a new snowflake motif. Hopefully I’ll have the pattern ready to share with all of you in the next week. Though the way this year has gone by so swiftly I’m not 100 percent sure I can pull it off. Edited 12/10/2015: The pattern for this snowflake is now available for free here on the blog. Lacy Snowflake

Meanwhile if you are looking for some quick crochet projects for your holiday gift-giving you might want to take a look at some of my patterns on my Ravelry Designer Page.

Happy Thanksgiving

November 24, 2015November 24, 2015Celebrating, Latest News4 Comments

This Thursday is Thanksgiving Day here in the U.S. I’ll be having a quiet celebration at home with just my husband and our boys.

We are very likely going to watch the first 3 movies of the Star Wars series. The boys have been wanting to see them again and I can’t remember the last time I watched them. With my latest gift project being from the Star Wars Crochet book, I’m definitely in the mood for a little Han Solo.

There will also be the traditional roasted Turkey and all the fixings. Between dinner prep and feeding the family I am hoping to have some crochet time, or I might knit on the scarf I’m making for my oldest son.

2015 has been a challenging year, but I have still found much to be thankful for. Here is my list:

I’m thankful for my goofy exasperating brilliant sons and my husband whom they take after (okay they might take after me a little as well).

I’m thankful for my talented and compassionate brother Cy, who lifts my heart with simple things everyday.

I’m thankful for the renewal of my relationship with my Dad and that his health is improving.

I’m thankful for my special circle of friends who still love me warts and all, even after all these years.

I’m thankful for all my friends in the community of crochet that keep me excited about the yarn arts.

I’m thankful for all my lovely readers here on the blog.

I’m thankful for beautiful yarns that bring inspiration and aspiration to my work days.

I’m thankful for the opportunities I’ve had to teach and share crochet with others this past year.

For all my US readers I hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving day. Even if you just spend it enjoying some quiet time playing with yarn, watching goofy stuff on T.V. and contemplating the blessings in your life.

Happy Halloween!

October 30, 2015November 1, 2015Celebrating, Creativity, Kid Projects1 Comment

It’s looking to be another cold Halloween up here on the mountain. We’ve had frost and snow the last couple of mornings, but nothing too dreadful yet.

I didn’t bother with purchasing a pumpkin to carve this year as they always freeze and become a gross soggy mess on our front deck before we really get to enjoy them. I did get a photo of the big pile of pumpkins in front of our favorite grocery store though.

Thursday evening was my exciting Halloween Costume crafting evening. Seems we do this every year. There is always a last minute item needed for a costume and it’s the evening before the Halloween celebration at school.

My oldest is planning on being a Steam-Punk Tech Pirate. Fairly simple costume involving Goggles and fingerless gloves with black and white theme in the rest of his attire. The goggles we had ordered off Amazon for him, but they were a bit un-comfortable and he wanted me to add some padding to the edges.

I found myself very grateful for adhesive backed crafting foam. After a bit of experimenting I had cobbled together a pretty decent solution. He picked the white color to go along with his black and white theme in the rest of the costume.

The next project was a bit more challenging, mainly because it was time consuming. My youngest had decided to be Ironman from the Marvel comics. We had found a pretty awesome costume at Costco earlier this Fall, but it was only a bodysuit with the armor created with padding and printing on the fabric and a plastic mask.

Apparently you need “repulsor gauntlets” to be Ironman. So it was up to me to create some. I thought this was going to be an easy project to tackle. Get red stretchy gloves, create a white circle on the palm all good.

Except, I couldn’t find red stretchy gloves that fit my little guy. There were stretchy gloves in Black, Grey and Navy…but no red. I found red stretchy gloves but they were too long in the fingers and pretty baggy in the palm. They were not going to meet the requirements.

Next I tried ordering some online, they were only available as a package of 12. Feeling a bit desperate I decided to order them knowing that in my family we could put 12 pairs of gloves to good use. Unfortunately when the gloves arrived on this past Wednesday there were not any red ones in the package. Pretty much every other color, but not red. To further discourage us, the gloves were all too big.

Now we were starting to get a little worried. Fortunately being a crafty mom I knew this could be fixed. I asked my son how he would feel about me painting the gray gloves with red paint to make them look like Ironman’s gauntlets. After looking at the costume for a little while he agreed to that plan.

Which brings us to Thursday night, a handful of fabric paints and a pair of grey stretchy gloves. At about 7:15 p.m. I began painting the gloves. While I had been working on the goggles for my other son, the youngest had traced the gloves onto some light cardstock. I cut out the hand shapes and inserted them into the gloves.

The black marks you see on the gloves were to help me know where my son’s knuckles were so that I could leave some blank fabric for ease of movement. The fabric paint tends to stiffen the fabric, which would be a bit of a problem for wearing.

I was getting pretty tired, but I finally finished painting at 11 p.m. The gauntlets came out pretty good, best of all my son was very happy with them. Which made the short night’s sleep worth it.

~~I’ll add~~ Here’s a picture of the boys ~~once they are~~ all costumed up in preparation for Trick or Treating.

I hope you and your family have a fun and safe Halloween.

A new look and more

October 20, 2015October 20, 2015Celebrating, Crochet, Latest NewsLeave a Comment

I had a birthday last week, it wasn’t a surprise since it shows up like clock-work on the same day every year. Though I am of the opinion that the years have gotten significantly shorter between birthdays lately.

This past year has been marked with events that have really woken me up and made me very aware that it’s time to do the things I’ve always wanted to do. On that note I decided to do something that I have thought about for over 2 years.

The Friday before my birthday I had my hair stylist put big chunks of bright pink and purple all over the top of my head. I really love it. It’s a freedom I thought I would never allow myself. I’ve spent so much of my adult life pretending to be well-behaved and really somewhat boring. I have been chipping away at that image for the past 5 years, and those of you that are close friends know my true outrageous nature.

I am also challenging myself with learning new things in crochet. Amazingly enough in all my years crocheting I had never crocheted a corner-to-corner project, though I had seen lots of them. This past July I decided it was time to learn this technique and now I’m sharing that excitement with fellow crocheters. Tomorrow (October 21st) during the “Causal Crochet” get together at the Longmont Yarn Shoppe we are going to be starting a Crochet-Along (CAL). I’m going to be demonstrating working a Corner-To-Corner scarf.

There are lots of other big things that I am working away on the next couple of months, so keep dropping by here at the blog to learn what I’m up to.

I Love Yarn Day

October 16, 2015Celebrating, Crochet, Teaching, Videos3 Comments

Saturday October 17th is “I Love Yarn Day”. This is a day that is very aptly named for the life I lead. Of course, that is sort of my day everyday, since a love of all things yarn is what put my feet on this journey as a designer and teacher.

I was thrilled that the theme this year is “Stitch it Forward”, which is all about teaching others how to craft with yarn.

Very appropriate as I want to introduce you to my latest teaching tool. My YouTube Channel. I’ll be doing a series of videos titled “Playing and Crocheting with Andee”. The first 2 videos are now available and I plan to be adding to them frequently. I’ll be announcing here on the blog (and on my Facebook page and Twitter feed) whenever I have a new video up. Next month you will also be able to find a directory of my videos and the links to them on my “YouTube Channel” page here on the blog.

The first video is a tutorial on working the Adjustable Slip Knot.

The second video is a tutorial on making the Foundation Single Crochet.

I hope you have a wonderful “I Love Yarn Day” and hopefully an opportunity to teach someone else the love of yarn.

Spirals and Squares

October 14, 2015August 8, 2016Celebrating, Crochet, Crochet Design, How Tos, Online, Pattern, Tips and Tricks22 Comments

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October 29, 2015: Hello dear readers and new visitors just a little update to this post.

My Whirlwind Afghan Square is block #22 in the 2015 Moogly Afghan CAL.

If you hadn’t heard about the Moogly Afghan CAL it’s not too late to join the fun. You can hop on over to Mooglyblog.com to get all the details and see Tamara’s interpretation of my Whirlwind.

Thank you so much to Elke Wellens for providing a Dutch Translation of this pattern on her blog you can find her blog here.

Het Nederlandse patroon, vertaald door HET HAAKBEEST, kun je hier vinden.

Check back on the blog next Tuesday, November 3, 2015. I’ll have the link to my YouTube video that will demonstrate how to crochet the first 12 rounds of this square.

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Yesterday was my 52nd birthday and I celebrated by spending most of my day goofing off, especially in the evening with my boys. We built a fire in our outdoor fire pit and roasted hotdogs and marshmallows like we were camping out. Then I opened my cards and presents by firelight.

Today I’m continuing the celebration by sharing a new design here on the blog for all my lovely readers. This one is a little more complex than I usually share. In fact, one might call it a skill building pattern.

After all, we are celebrating my birthday so this pattern is going to be about many of the things I love in crochet. It uses a center-out construction, one of my favorite styles of design as the outside edges are all the tops of your stitches. It is also constructed round-to-square, which I find visually interesting. And of course, Spirals.

I love Spirals. You might be able to tell that just looking at my logo. I find them fun and intriguing. When I was in massage school I was very happy when I learnt that spirals are an common symbol for healing. Which is why I choose to use them in my logo.

Back in 2008, when I first became interested in free form crochet, I started exploring creating spirals in my crochet. Suddenly I was seeing spirals in so many of the crochet designs being published at that time.

Some of the instructions I found for working spirals were a bit wishy washy, which is more than fine for freeform work, but not so great for writing a pattern that others would want to replicate and get the same result. Thus my mathematical brain decided to enter the party.

Spirals are related to circles and circular geometries are always fun for me. Fortunately for those of you that might be a little math-adverse, you don’t have to understand all the numbers behind this design in order to crochet it.

One of the things I wanted to do was come up with a way to make working spirals easy for anyone to do. Especially when you are working with multi-arm spirals. For this pattern I started with a 4 armed spiral in the center this creates that round-to-square progression that I also like. I used the half-double crochet (hdc) stitch for my spirals because it takes 8 hdc to create a flat full circle which helps me take the circular spiral to a 4 cornered square.

When working spirals you need to work in continuous rounds. This is generally the method of construction used for amigurumi and hats because it allows for a seamless appearance. That does mean that it can be easy to lose track of which round you are working on and if you have reached the end of your round. The solution for this is to use stitch markers.

For the construction of the first 8 rounds of this design I used 8 stitch markers. Having the 3 colors is really helpful. I love my Clover Locking Stitch Markers, but if you don’t happen to have any like that on hand you can use paper clips or coil less safety pins. Some folks like to use a spare bit of yarn for a stitch marker, but I find those tend to get pulled out of my work too easily.

This photo shows the first 5 rounds of my square completed and the placement of the stitch markers. The large yellow marker is marking the last stitch of the full round, as well as the last stitch of that section of color and the increase point. The other orange markers are marking the last stitch of that section of color and the increase point. The green markers are marking the first increase point in the various color sections. Whatever type of stitch markers you use you need ones that allow you to distinguish between the end of round/increase (1), end of color section/increase (3) and the first increase in each color section(4).

Whirlwind Afghan Square

Skill level: Intermediate

Finished Size:

12” square

Materials:

Yarn

Worsted wt (Sample uses Lion Brand Yarns “Heartland” 100% Acrylic (5 oz/142g, 251 yd/230 m)

I picked the colors of October up here on my mountain, but you can choose any 5 colors that you like together. Alternating light and dark will make the spiral in the center stand out more.

Color A: #169 Shenandoah (sample used approximately 8 yards)

Color B: #180 Kings Canyon (sample used approximately 12 yards)

Color C: #158 Yellowstone (sample used approximately 10 yards)

Color D: #173 Everglades (sample used approximately 10 yards)

Color E: #124 Big Bend (sample used approximately 9 yards)

Hook

I / 5.5mm

Notions

Yarn/tapestry needle

8 Stitch markers in 3 colors (1 in first color, 3 in next color, 4 in last color)

Gauge

First 5 rounds of pattern = 4” in diameter

Abbreviations/Special Stitches

PM – Place stitch marker

Standing Single Crochet – make slip knot in yarn and place loop snugly on shaft of hook, insert hook into indicated st, yo, pull up a loop, yo, pull thru both loops on hook.

Standing Double Crochet – make slip knot in yarn and place loop snugly on shaft of hook, yo and insert hook into indicated st, yo, pull up a loop, (yo, pull thru 2 loops on hook) twice.

Pattern Notes:

Start square with an adjustable slip knot. Beginning tail tightens the loop on the hook. If you don’t know how to do an adjustable slip knot you can see a tutorial on my blog here, or watch this video on my YouTube channel.

First 9 rounds use 4 colors. Each color is 1/4 of the total stitches in the round, you will need to insert your hook back into the dropped loop as you come to the new color, snug that loop up to the shaft of your hook and begin working the stitches as instructed in the new color. Follow instructions for using stitch markers so you don’t lose your place.

Color 1 of stitch markers is used to mark last stitch of entire round as well as last stitch/increase point of that color section.

Color 2 of stitch markers is used to mark the other 3 last stitch/increase point of color sections.

Color 3 of stitch markers is used to mark the first increase point in each color section.

When working the first 9 rounds move stitch markers up to 2^nd stitch worked in each increase point.

When ending Round 9, the 2nd sl st is a tight one for final “step-down” of spirals, you will not be working into this stitch in Round 10.

For concentric rounds where changing colors attach yarn with a standing stitch.

If you have an easier time understanding a video then reading a pattern, visit my YouTube Channel to watch:

Whirlwind How-to Part 1 and Whirlwind How-to Part 2

Instructions

Rnd 1: Starting with color A make an adjustable slip knot, ch 2, (sc, hdc) in 2^nd ch from hook, pull up a long loop and remove hook, with color B *insert hook in center/first ch of round, pull up a loop on hook, ch 1, (sc, hdc) in same center/ch, pull up a long loop and remove hook,* ; Repeat from * to * with Color C and D. PM in each hdc w/end of color/round markers (placing single color marker in hdc of Color D), PM in each sc with first increase markers. [4 sc, 4 hdc]

Rnd 2: *2 hdc in next 2 sts, move st marker to 2^nd st worked in each st, pull up long loop and remove hook**, insert hook in next color*; Repeat from * to * 2 times; Repeat from * to ** once. [16 hdc]

Rnd 3: *(Hdc in next st, 2 hdc in marked st, move st marker to 2^nd st worked) 2 times, pull up long loop and remove hook, insert hook in next color*; Repeat from * to * 2 times; Repeat from * to ** once. [24 hdc]

Rnds 4 – 8: *(1 hdc in each unmarked st, 2 hdc in marked st, move st marker to 2^nd st worked in marked st) 2 times, pull up long loop and remove hook,** insert hook in next color*; Repeat from * to * 2 times; Repeat from * to ** once. Stitch count for end of Rnd 8 [64 hdc]

Rnd 9: *hdc in next 7 sts, 2 hdc in next marked st, move st marker to 2^nd st worked in marked st, hdc next 6 sts, sc next st, sl st next st, ** insert hook in next color*; Repeat from * to * 2 times; Repeat from * to ** once. Make 1 additional sl st in next st for each color, fasten off yarn, remove end of round markers. [8 sl st, 4 sc, 60 hdc]

Rnd 10: Attach color E with a standing sc along any side in same st as the second slip st of any color section from Rnd 9, sc next st, *Hdc next 3 sts, dc next 2 sts, 2 dc next st, (Tr, ch 1, Tr) in marked st, 2 dc next st, dc next 2 sts, hdc next 3 sts**, sc next 4 sts*; Repeat from * to * 2 times; Repeat from * to ** once, sc next 2 sts, sl st to first sc of round. Fasten off current color. Move increase st markers to ch-1 sp. [16 sc, 24 hdc, 32 dc, 8 tr, 4 ch-1 sps]

Rnd 11: Attach new color along any side in 11^th st from marked ch-1 sp in direction of work, with a standing sc, sc next 2 sts,*hdc next 3 sts, dc next 3 sts, 2 dc next st, (Tr, ch 2, Tr) in marked ch-1 sp, 2 dc next st, dc next 3 sts, hdc next 3 sts**, sc next 6 sts*; Repeat from * to * 2 times; Repeat from * to ** once, sc next 3 sts, sl st to first sc of round. Fasten off current color. Move up increase st markers to ch-2 sps at corners. [24 sc, 24 hdc, 40 dc, 8 tr, 4 ch-2 sps]

Rnd 12: Attach new color along any side in 11^th st from marked ch-2 sp in direction of work, with a standing dc, *dc in each st until reach next marked ch-2 sp, (2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc) in marked ch-2 sp*; Repeat from * to * 3 times, dc in each st until reach beginning of Round, sl st to first dc. Fasten off current color. Move increase st markers to ch-2 sps at corners. [112 dc, 4 ch-2 sps]

Rnds 13 – 16: Repeat instructions from Rnd 12. Fasten off. Stitch count at end of Rnd 16 [176 dc, 4 ch-2 sps]

Finishing

Weave in tails and block.

A big Thank You to the folks at Lion Brand Yarn for supplying the yarn for this design. I really love the colors that their Heartland yarn comes in. Hop on over to their website to check it our for yourself.

2 Heads are Better

October 6, 2015October 8, 2015Celebrating, Latest News4 Comments

Just giving you a little peek behind the scenes of a crochet designer’s life.

Today I received some new props for the photography of my designs. Now that I am doing more indie-publishing of crochet designs I want to be able to take interesting photographs. And that means having the backgrounds and props to display the items without distracting from them.

It’s great when I can manage to get a neighbor or friend to be my model, but with my crazy schedule running my boys about and everyone else’s commitments, it is often very challenging to arrange a few hours for photography. It’s ideal to have mannequins that can be a good stand-in.

Meet my new glass heads. I am really excited about using these for modeling hat designs. They will also very likely make appearances in other ways as props on my blog and in videos. Best thing about them is they are actual size. In the past I’ve purchased Styrofoam heads from craft stores, but they were all smaller than the average head size for an adult. They are fine for modeling children’s hats, but my adult size hats were way too large on them.

Update: For those of you that wanted to know how I found these heads, I followed a link from Crochet Envy. You can hop on over there and see if the offer is still available.

It’s been a very busy couple of weeks and I can hardly wait to show you the rest of what I’ve been up to. I spent the last weekend with my family driving across Colorado and Kansas to visit my Dad and brothers near Topeka. It was 2 days of driving (1 there and 1 back) and one day to celebrate my Dad’s birthday. Totally worth it, but definitely cut down on my work hours. So I am feverishly working on the finishing touches for some new projects to share with all of you.

I hope you’ll be back to visit soon as all will be revealed this month.

The Name is…

September 25, 2015September 16, 2016Celebrating, Crochet Design, Indie publication, Online, Paid Pattern Links, Pattern2 Comments

Thank you to all my readers that voted on the name for my newest Shawl. The name that got the most votes was…

Mountain Whisper Shawl

I didn’t want to make you wait to find out the name, but due to having a few unexpected complications this week with family and work schedules the pattern won’t be available on Ravelry until tomorrow at Noon (USA Mountain Time). I’ll put the link in this post once it is available.

For those of you that voted on the name, you can use your coupon code starting at Noon Saturday, September 26 to get 15% off if you purchase the pattern before 10 p.m. Sunday, October 18. That’s midnight Eastern time.

The pattern for the Mountain Whisper Shawl will be available in my Ravelry shop for $5.99. Here is the link to add it to your shopping cart on Ravelry.

This pattern includes written instructions in U.S. crochet terminology, a photo tutorial on aggressively blocking the shawl, stitch diagrams for the body of the shawl and for the lace border, and instructions on how to make the shawl larger.

Edited: September 26, 2015 – The pattern is now available on Ravelry and the link above should work. Please let me know if you run into difficulty with purchasing or with the pattern.