Crochet – Page 35 – Mamas2Hands

Yum Jelly!

July 22, 2011August 27, 2016Crochet, Crochet Design, Pattern, Yarn11 Comments

As is known by many of my stitchy friends and my dear readers of the blog, I have a slight addiction to novelty yarns and crocheting with unusual materials (spaghetti anyone?). So the first time I heard of Jelly Yarn I had to investigate.

The talented Vashti Braha had mentioned it one evening on the Getting Loopy podcast chat room. I was immediately intrigued and decided I must find some of it to play with. Fortunately not too long after that I was at the Buffalo Knit and Crochet Show (August 2009) and Jelly Yarns had a booth.

Yarn-Purchase-082009 — My Jelly Yarn Purchase

Jelly Yarns is owned by Kathleen and Nick Greco, super nice people and lots of fun. Their booth was a bright fun corner of the market floor. I was especially excited to find Glow-In-The-Dark and glittery Metallic (sparkles!) Jelly Yarn. I purchased a couple balls of the metallic and one of their “Glow in the Dark” colors.

If you can’t find Jelly Yarn in your area check out their website at JellyYarns.com (it’s also a great place to explore tips about using Jelly Yarn and to see the latest fun stuff they have planned).

The yarn is available in 3 different weights and 14 colors. Kathleen works with their manufacturer in Pennsylvania (another thing to love, this yarn is made in the USA) planning and developing new colors. She also creates wild wonderful knit and crocheted art pieces and patterns from Jelly Yarn.

It is a bit strange to crochet with at first. The yarn is 100% Vinyl, reminding me a bit of the lanyard lacing type stuff used to make woven key chain fobs in summer camp (way back when). This isn’t “yarn” in the fibery sense, but it is very flexible and I love the sculptural quality of it. It is fantastic for beaded crochet with big hole style beads.

Kathleen recommends using a hand lotion or hand salve on your hook to improve the “glide” of the yarn over the hook and thru stitches. Her favorite salve to use is Burt’s Bee Hand Salve. She also recommends the use of a metal hook like the Susan Bates Silvalume. I found I didn’t need the lotion or salve when using my Clover Soft Touch hooks especially as I wanted a loose stitch structure. I do like the salve for tighter projects though. The finished fabric is very elastic with a structured quality and a slight grippy feel to it.

When I returned home from the Buffalo show I made some single crochet bracelet “worms” for my boys from the Glow-In-the-Dark yarn. I also strung a bunch of blue toned beads on the Silver Icing sparkly yarn with the intention of making some fun jewelry items. Unfortunately life got busy like it does and I tucked it away to work on later. This past Monday I was having a clear out of my working space and re-discovered the ball of yarn and decided it was time to play with it again.

So here is the fun and slightly funky bracelet pattern I came up with. Enjoy!

Glittery Beaded Cuff

Materials:

Jelly Yarn (100% Vinyl) in Silver Icing color. Fine weight

Size J (6 mm) hook (I used my Clover Soft Touch – the matte finish of the metal seems to help)

79 – Size E beads (I used Blueberry Pie Mix [color 01] from Twisted Sistah Beads)

Large yarn needle for weaving ends

Gauge: 6 sc and 7 rows = 2 inches

Special Stitches

Beaded Single Crochet (bsc): Bring bead up close to work, insert hook in st, keeping bead to back of work yo and pull up a loop, yo and pull thru both loops on hook.

Double Beaded Single Crochet (dbsc): bring bead up close to work, insert hook in st, keeping bead to back of work yo and pull up a loop, bring second bead up close to work, keeping bead to back of work yo and pull thru both loops on hook.

Pattern Notes

My cuff is 2″ wide (5.1 cm) and 7 3/4″ around (19.7 cm). If you want yours longer for a larger wrist just add un-beaded rows at the end and beginning. If you want more beaded rows add 5 beads for each additional bsc row and 12 beads for each additional dbsc row. Remember you will need an odd number of rows in the end to make the finishing seam work correctly.

Jelly Yarn isn’t a fiber yarn so taking care of the ends is a bit different. Vinyl will stretch thinner and then relax back into its original size, so knots tied tightly in this yarn tend to stay put. Read the details in the finishing closely to keep your bracelet from coming undone.

Instructions

First string all the beads on your yarn. This is easy to do because the yarn is stiff enough to act as your needle. If you have extra beads you might want to add a few just to be sure you’ll have enough for this project.

Foundation: Chain 7, turn.

Row 1: Sc in back bump of 2nd ch from hook, sc in back bump of each ch to beginning of ch. [6 sc]

Row 2: Ch 1, turn, sc in each st to end of row. [6 sc]

Row 3: Ch 1, turn, sc in first st, bsc in each st to end of row. [1 sc, 5 bsc]

Row 4 – 12: Alternate repeating Row 2 and Row 3, ending with a Row 2.

Row 13: Ch 1, turn, dbsc in each st to end of row. [6 dbsc]

Row 14: Repeat Row 2. [6 sc]

Row 15: Repeat Row 3. [1 sc, 5 bsc]

Row 16: Repeat Row 2. [6 sc]

Row 18 17: Repeat Row 13. [6 dbsc] Aug 27, 2016: Thanks to June T. for pointing out that Row 17 was missing. I had mis-numbered the rows. Eep! It’s been on here wrong for nearly 5 years!

Rows 18 – 27: Alternate repeating Row 2 and Row 3.

Rows 28: Repeat Row 2, fasten off.

Finishing: Pull beginning and ending tails to tighten slip knot and ending knot. Using tails sew top of Row 28 to bottom of Row 1, sew half way for each tail so they meet in the middle of seam. Tie a square knot with the 2 tails. Weave the loose ends of the tails back toward the sides of bracelet and cut off so ends don’t show.

I am offering this pattern for free so the only tech-editor for this pattern is me. Please let me know if you run into a snag with the pattern.

Almost Forgotten

July 20, 2011Celebrating, Crochet, Crochet Design1 Comment

I’ve been such a busy little designer the past few months that I almost forgot I had 2 new designs coming out in the Autumn Issue of Crochet! Magazine.

Back in 2009, when I sold my first couple of designs, I would call one of my established designer friends all excited with each one. She celebrated with me, but told me that one day I would be so busy with design work that I would forget that I had designs coming out in a publication. Funny to realize her prediction has come true only a little over 2 years later.

This shrug was inspired by a Free-Form garment I made for the Fashion Show at Chain Link 2009. I hadn’t created a pattern for it at the time but the lovely Carol Alexander finally persuaded me to create something for Crochet! based on it. I had used yarns that were discontinued for the original, so she and I had a fun time finding yarns that would work. Once Carol and I had the yarns picked though it came together beautifully, and I wrote my first sized pattern.

CrystalEyelet Table Runner — Crystal Eyelet Table Runner - DRG Publishing

My house is quite small, and my two little boys tend to dominate it, so there isn’t much use for decorative touches on the table. This is my first ever attempt at a table runner. I’m looking forward to using it on our table at the holidays, the one time a year that I can justify “dressing-up” my table.

The Autumn 2011 issue of Crochet! Magazine should be available on newsstands and in subscriber’s mailboxes soon. Meanwhile you can see a preview of the magazine at the Crochet! website. I hope you enjoy making these designs as much as I did creating them.

If You can See It

July 13, 2011Art Projects, Creativity, Crochet7 Comments

One of my creative passions is sculpture. I love to make 3 dimensional shapes. Doesn’t matter if it is yarn, clay, wood, wire, paper mache’, polymer clay, or some random combination of all/some of those. Visual inspiration for my sculptures can come from anywhere.

Like this lovely little blue glass bird that I inherited from my maternal grandmother’s estate. I had always adored it as a little girl.

My grandmother was a formidable woman, tiny, but intense. She owned an antique shop that was housed in 3 buildings on her farm. The buildings were large and primarily filled with furniture.

Staying at her house was always interesting. The interior of her house was filled with lovely glass, crystal, artwork and antique furniture. It was a bit like being in a museum. A museum where you are not allowed to touch anything.

But for some reason I was allowed to carry this little bird around. There was something about the weight and fit of it in my hand that gave me, and still gives me great happiness.

For my recent bird house art project I decided I would use it as inspiration for a bird to live in my bird house. I didn’t have a pattern for making the bird and knew I needed to work quickly because the deadline for the bird house to be delivered was coming up quickly.

It was time to brush up on my sculpting skills. Back in my first highschool ceramic sculpture class my teacher said, “If you can see the object you want to sculpt, you can sculpt it.” At the time I thought she was a bit nuts, but I soon understood what she meant.

You have to see the shapes that make up the overall shape of the object you want to replicate.

For this bird the overall shape is that of a sphere with a smaller half sphere on top and a flattened cone for the tail, there are also small bumps on either side of the bird that hint at wings.

Circles, balls and tubes are some of my favorite shapes to play with in crochet. Crochet also lends itself to modifications on the fly, so I could change shapes easily as needed.

I knew that making my little bird would start with a simple circle using increases and decreases to create the main body and head. I also knew I would be embroidering eyes and beak as separate elements and crocheting the wings to be sewn on after the body was finished.

I crocheted my bird from fingering weight wool yarn to keep him small and have more shaping options. I started at the top of his head. After I had worked a few rounds to shape the head, I embroidered the eyes and beak. The beak was a combination of crochet and embroidery using #3 crochet thread. Once the details for the face were embroidered I continued with the body of the bird.

I stuffed the bird as I worked to check the shaping, and would pull out enough stuffing to continue working. After completing the last round for the body I closed the seam on the bottom with a whipstitch.

I decided to create the tail shaping by crocheting into the finished body using a couple of cluster stitches.

The finished bird is quite a bit different from my original inspiration, but the feel and shaping is close enough that I was quite happy.

So your turn dear readers, find something in your environs to inspire you and create. Remember, if you can see it….

Such a Pretty Hook

July 4, 2011July 4, 2011Celebrating, Crochet, Wood Crafting1 Comment

Here in the US, today is a national celebratory holiday: The 4th of July. So I thought I would have my own small celebration with some fun pictures to show off my finished hook.

I started this hook at the CLF Crochet at Cama Retreat (October, 2010) in Jimbo Price’s “Hook Whittling” class. But it wasn’t completely finished at the end of my class or my trip to Washington. I finally finished carving and sanding about it a month later, since then it has been waiting for the finishing oil.

There is something so soothing and peaceful to me about shaping wood. I love the silky feel of the surface of the wood as I sand away all the bumps and rough bits.

Since I have a habit of sticking my hooks in my mouth when I am crocheting I wanted to use a finishing product that wasn’t toxic. I was very pleased when I found this Howard Butcher Block Conditioner that is food grade mineral oil and natural waxes.

I warmed the oil a little by placing it in a container of hot water. Then rubbed it into the wood with the white cloth (just a rough cotton cloth sold in the painting department of my local DIY store) followed by polishing it with the yellow microfiber cloth.

I’m really happy with how the oil brought up the grain of the cherry wood. It is also a good finish because I can re-apply the oil as needed to keep the hook looking like new.

It fits my grip perfectly and is a size L (8mm) hook, which is my favorite size for working with slightly bulky yarns like Dazzleaire from Caron.

And for those of you that want to see some fireworks today, this is a picture I took at the Rockies Game Friday night. With the fire ban in effect for our county we enjoyed our fireworks a bit early down in Denver.

A Journey of a Thousand Miles

June 29, 2011June 29, 2011Celebrating, Creativity, Crochet1 Comment

There is an old proverb I’ve been thinking about lately – “A Journey of a Thousand Miles begins with One Step.” I’m probably mis-quoting it, but that is how I remember it at the moment.

I’ve been organizing old photos recently and just amazed at the distance I have traveled in my life the past 25 years.

I’ve been to the UK and France, something I had dreamed of since I was a little girl in Kansas.

I’m married to my very dearest friend and, even after being together for nearly 15 years, he still manages to surprise me and make me laugh at life.

I am mother to 2 beautiful little boys, though I do question my sanity at times about entering the parenting adventure a bit late in the game.

I live in the mountains in a simple and comfortable home, surrounded by pine trees and wildlife.

I’ve said good-bye to friends that have left this lifetime and said hello to the arrival of infants to other friends.

I’ve watched some of those children grow up and even graduate from high school and college.

I’ve worked in numerous careers and am now making a living thru work that draws from that lifetime of diversity.

Best of all, I’ve come to a place in my life where I appreciate the joys and grieve the sorrows when necessary. I know that this journey is not over and life will continue to unfold in ways that I have yet to imagine.

Maybe this calm moment is the product of being tired from working many hours, both as a mother and designer. Maybe it is my habit of overlaying the rhythm of my crocheting over my daily life. Either way, my hope is for all of you to have a similar moment.

Taking Flight

June 24, 2011Art Projects, Creativity, Crochet2 Comments

My bird house art project is finished. I worked this piece as a dimensional collage using scrap paper, colored tissue paper, acrylic paint, crocheted elements and wrapped wire sculptural pieces.

First I created pattern pieces from thin notepaper to use for cutting out the fitted pieces of scrap booking paper that would be the base for the collage on the front, back and sides of the birdhouse.

After lightly sanding the birdhouse I painted all the surfaces with gesso to provide for better adhesion of the other elements.

Then I used decoupage gel medium to collage the roof of the birdhouse with various colors of tissue paper.

In the meantime I also crocheted the embellishments that I would be using in the last stage of the collage.

Next was the painting of the details on the roof line and front of the birdhouse also sponging paint on the roof to tone down the colors of the tissue collage.

Then I adhered the pieces of scrap paper I had cut out earlier with decoupage gel medium and painted more details.

Next I used hot-glue to adhere the crochet elements and wrapped wire branches to the house.

I liked the look of the branches so much I decided to make more. Was a late night finishing it up, but it is now waiting with the other birdhouses for the auction tonight.

A Legend Lives On

June 17, 2011June 17, 2011Crochet, In MemoryLeave a Comment

Though Jean Leinhauser passed away this week, I feel like she is still here.

Her name is one many of us that love crocheting and knitting know well. She and Rita Weiss have been a true force in the publishing of crochet books and patterns. I can’t really recall the first time I saw Jean’s name, it’s been a constant since I started reading crochet publications. Her work and name are everywhere you look.

These books from my library are the two I have been reading as I remember Jean this week. One of my favorites “Crochet Embellishments” and the most recent one I purchased “Crochet Master Class”.

There are many stories, from designers that have been in the business far longer than I, about Jean’s encouragement and her dedication to precise work. The foundation of excellence and encouragement that she and her partner Rita Weiss have laid over the years will continue to grow and prosper in ways that they may have never foreseen or imagined. I think that is one of the very best memorials to honor Jean.

I was never fortunate enough to spend much time with Jean, but my brief meetings with her made me smile. Last July after the CGOA dinner and fashion show she scolded me for not entering my Ocean Waves Ruana in the Design Contest. I promised her I would do better in 2011. The conversation continued on a lighter note and we shared a good laugh about my gray hair.

I’m a bit sad that she won’t be there in person to see what I’ve come up with for the design contest this year, but I know her legacy will be with all of us.

Gathering my Wits

June 13, 2011Art Projects, Creativity, CrochetLeave a Comment

Poor little bird house has been patiently waiting on the shelf in my studio for some attention. So today I gathered up supplies to begin this project. Acrylic paints, various scrapbook and tissue papers, and some crochet thread.

I’m starting to feel very excited about the potential for this art project. I am also thinking there will be some wire work and beads incorporated into it. Still trying to decide if I should keep it simple enough that it could be used to house birds, or if I should go completely wild and artsy.

As most of you that know me are likely guessing….I’m leaning toward wild and artsy.

Summer Arrives

June 9, 2011June 9, 2011Creativity, Crochet, Crochet Design, Pattern1 Comment

I am doing the “Snoopy Happy Dance” because it finally feels like summer up here on the mountain. I’ve had all the windows in the house open to encourage a lovely breeze and the thermometer may have actually registered over 85F a few times.

With all this warm weather I’ve decided to do loads of house and yard tasks and a good scrubbing in the shower was a neccesity after all that sweating. While showering I was thinking about my on-going search for the ideal exfoliating bath scrubbie.

I used to purchase a product call the “Buff Puff” at the local drugstore. It was gentle enough for my sometimes fragile skin and yet effective at helping remove the layers of “ick” that accumulate far too quickly. Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to find them anymore.

I have played on and off with crocheting my own scrubbies, but haven’t been all that happy with the results. Generally, the best have involved cutting up strips of Tulle type fabric to crochet with. After my shower the other day though…inspiration struck.

I taught crochet to my youngest son’s pre-school class this spring and had taken some colorful balls of Lion Brand’s Thick and Quick Chunky yarn for them to use.

This is a very fun 100% acrylic yarn that has some “tooth” to it, yet is quite thick and I theorized that it would be absorbent to lather up nicely without holding onto the moisture so long to become a mold farm. The yarn is also very washable and can go thru the laundry.

It was time for an experiment. I used a simple hyperbolic formula to stitch up a mid-sized scrubbie. My quick little pattern is below. Stitch up a few for yourself or as gifts for friends. If you want them bigger, just add rounds until you like the finished size, though remember with more rounds you get more ruffles.

Summer Shower Scrubbie – by Andee Graves

Materials:

Lion Brand Thick and Quick Chunky – Green Mountain (approximately 14 yards)

Susan Bates P/11.5mm hook

1 Large locking stitch marker

Pattern note: All rounds are worked spirally. Use a stitch marker to mark the last st of each round, moving up as each round is completed.

Instructions:

Round 1: Starting with an adjustable slip knot, chain 2, 6 sc in second chain from hook. Place stitch marker in 6th sc.

Round 2: 2 sc in each st of round 1. [12 sc]

Round 3: 2 sc in each st of round 2. [24 sc]

Round 4: 2 sc in next 23 sts, sc in next st, sl st in next st, ch 6, sl st in next st and fasten off. [47 sc, 6 chs]

Finish by weaving in the beginning and ending tails, and it’s bath time.

Right-Angle Wrap

May 10, 2011May 22, 2011Celebrating, Crochet, Crochet Design10 Comments

Hurray! My latest published design is available on newsstands soon. You can find the pattern for the “Right-Angle Wrap” in the July 2011 Issue of Crochet! Magazine.

I love how this design came out. It is made in a silky Bamboo blend sock yarn – Panda Silk from Crystal Palace Yarns. So it provides a touch of warmth when you are dealing with air-conditioning everywhere, yet it is lightweight enough to fit in a pocket when you are back outside in the heat of summer.

It was super quick to stitch up with a larger than usual hook for the yarn weight and a simple 2 row lace repeat. It could be a great gift project, prayer shawl or special treat for yourself.