Hopping forward with a Ragdoll Bunny

I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted.

The short and skinny of my last year…my mom passed away Feb 28 2016,  and I cut my achilles tendon the same day, surgery Feb 29, yup it was a leap year, packed up my moms house. OK, my sister did 95% of it -  I was on crutches and drugged up.

We helped my stepdad move out of the condo at the end of March and then I packed up my house and moved in to my mom/stepdads old condo in May. He didn't want to live there anymore and it was too big for him.

We found him a 1 bedroom condo in the same building - right across the hall from me. It was perfect for him! He got the lease for June 15th. He ended up going in to the hospital for tests and was there for 2 weeks - diagnosed with terminal cancer. Very sad news, but he was happy to come home to his new place. He unpacked some of his stuff and then was back in the hospital at the beginning of July. He passed away July 9th.

I spent 24/7 in the hospital with him. I am grateful that I got to spend that time with him. He couldn't talk for most of it and was heavily drugged for pain, but he knew I was there.

I spent the rest of July getting his affairs in order and packing up his place.

I spend a month in Toronto for work and then continued with the busyness until vacation time in December. Phew!

It has been a LONG year!

If you made it this far in to the post, well, I have got back in to crocheting some more and trying to catch up on projects from the last year.  My goal is to get those done! And of course, new ones :)

I saw this cute pattern on Ravelry for a Bunny Ragdoll and I had to try it.  I didn't have the yarn size recommended, so just used some Bernat worsted and a 3.75 mm hook. She turned out so much cuter than I expected!

I always see these cute patterns and all the great ways that people make it their own and always feel like the stuff I make doesn't measure up, well, this time around I'm pretty impressed with my practice doll. If I do say so myself.

She was pretty easy to make and a great way to see if I want to do amigurumi. I really enjoyed making her but I'm not sure I want to get in to things with too many details, but I think a group of rabbits is in order, as well as maybe a cat, kangaroo, dog, and sheep :)

March - Log Cabin Comfort Throw Update

February left like a lion and is still roaring.

My goal of getting this afghan done for March is not going to happen. I'm about 35% done and it's April now.

March has been a long hard month. My mom passed away on Feb 28th and I cut my achilles tendon the same afternoon. I spent the rest of the day in the local hospital and the entire next day in another hospital waiting and then having surgery.

There hasn't been any time for anything. My sister has had to do everything from cleaning my mom's place to packing and moving all the heavier things.  I could sit and put things that I could reach into boxes, but I was hopped up on pain meds and nodding off all the time! Being in a cast and on crutches and having to keep my foot up really didn't give me much of a chance to help out.

Thankfully I am more mobile now and can hobble about without the crutches, but I can't go far, and I can't drive. Maybe car companies should make commercials about the benefits of driving an automatic - just in case you hurt your left foot and can't drive a standard anymore :)

Needless to say, I haven't been crocheting. There is still so much to do and until a few days ago, it would take me 3 times as long to do anything.

Maybe next month I'll get a chance to just sit down and breathe, take it all in, and figure out what I feel or think.

February - VW Daisy Afghan

February

I had completed the afghan in February, using the pattern for the Daisy Charity square.  There are so many beautiful colour variations and square placements that you can make this afghan your own. 

Daisy Afghan being blocked

A few people had made their afghans with the diagonal rows of colour with the black outline and I really liked how the colour popped out, so I went with that. 

I didn't get a chance to take any other finished pictures before giving the afghan away to a wonderful lady, Gwen. She was one of my mom's homecare aids. 

The afghan using 5 X 7 blocks would be ideal for a single bed. It almost covers the top of a queen bed. Using Red Heart With Love yarn the afghan is nice and warm and fairly heavy, perfect for snuggling up in!

At some point I had written down all the information regarding the afghan like weight / how many skiens / time, but I'll have to track that down. Things are still a bit hectic around here.

How very refreshing

I finished the Refreshing throw this weekend!

Yay! My January Afghan is done!

Tied in the last ends of the border on Sunday night and then spent the rest of the evening relaxing. It was odd having a few hours in the evening without a crochet hook in my hand.

The afghan is so soft and snuggly feeling and it feels heavy. It seems likes it's heavier than what the un-crocheted skeins would weigh. It can't technically, but it does feel like that. I think it's as large as I would want to go using Simply Soft.

The finished size is 49" X 55". Not quite the size of a bed, but plenty big enough for curling up on a sofa.

I made the afghan 6 squares by 7, so 42 squares total.  Each 6 ounce skien makes 8 squares, so I made  2 extra of the off-white and used the extra on the skien for going around each square in a single crochet border, that way when I joined them together with the off white it would not show through between the different colours.

After joining, I did a row of off-white single crochet around, 3 rows of hdc, 1 row sc off-white, then off-white - Rnd 2 of border as written in RH pattern.

I'm quite happy and proud of it. Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but for now I'm happy enough knowing it's complete.

About this Afghan

• 24.5 hrs to complete squares
• 10 hours to join / border

----------------------------------

• 35 hrs total

Caron Simply Soft Yarn

• 2 sage
• 1 orchid
• 1 Plum Wine
• 1 Robin's Egg
• 2 Off-White

Approximately 6.5 skeins to complete.
Approximately 38 oz

An Afghan A Month

An afghan a month!

Ok, I might be a bit crazy, but I think this will work and is completely doable. I hope, although I had a moment of sheer panic that I was taking on more than I could handle...then realized I hadn't actually posted anything and made it all official like...but guess what I'm doing now...ACK!

My goal is to finish one afghan a month. That's all. No limit that it has to be started and finished in the same month. Some afghans are quick and easy and some might take a few months to finish.

The reason I think it will work for me, is because I can work on a few different ones at the same time.

I lean toward afghans that are piece projects and not one huge affair, so it's easier to set a goal to finish a square or two here and there and it keeps me from getting bored with the same old thing.

Currently I have four afghan projects on the go and few more lined up that I'm itching to start!

• Refreshing Throw (98% complete - just need to finish the border)
• Daisy Afghan (90% complete - just need to join/border)
• Log Cabin Throw (5%)
• Moogly Cal (1 square in!)
• Aran Nosegay Afghan (have yarn)
• Stained Glass Window Afghan (Simply Amazing!)
• Spanish Tiles (have to see if I can find this pattern)
• Sunflower Afghan

That's almost a year of afghans already! So totally doable. I have a few more afghans in mind, but haven't settled on the patterns yet. I know I want to do a skull afghan. I purchased the pattern already because I have someone in mind that I wanted to make it for. I just haven't gotten around to starting it yet.

Also, I wanted to do the Color Revolution (10% complete), using the same squares as the Refreshing Throw. I'm just not sure about it now. It may be too big and heavy for Caron Simply Soft yarn. We'll see, it might end up being another Refreshing Throw or a baby size / car blanket.

I really like the colors of the Country Fresh Blanket and I go back and forth on wanting to do it. I do want to try a sampler type of blanket, but the blanket itself isn't really my style. Too country... I'll keep it in the running. If I don't find something else I'd rather do, I'll let it back in.

Ok, I need to go crochet, because that is a LOT of work ahead of me and there are other projects I want to do besides afghans!

TTYL!

Windowpane scarf in Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable Dragonfly

This was the last of my Christmas crochet blitz.

My sister loves the colour of Dragonfly, and since we are having a 'you get what I make' gift exchange, I think this is perfect. She wears hats and scarves, so it's win win. Yay!

I wasn't 100% sure about doing the Windowpane pattern. Not that I didn't like it, but I wanted something my sister knew I put some time in to. Although the pattern is simple, it comes out beautiful with the Unforgettable colourway. It really works on this scarf. It's not too short or too long.  So in this case. I think it's ok that it's easy, because it looks elegant in its simplicity.

I used just over 2 skeins for the hat and scarf together. I could of used 2 exactly, but I wanted the scarf a bit longer.  With 1-1/2 skeins it came out (the hat is about 1/2 a skein) to about 54" so I used another skein to kick it up to 60" long. 

After wet blocking, it came out to 7" wide and 68", not too shabby. The recommendation is to kill it for blocking, but dang, that's scary. If I had more time to remake the scarf if needed, I would give it a shot, but alas, I didn't want to risk it.  I did however tell my sister how to do it if she wanted to :) 

Wrapping things up for Christmas

I wanted simple wrapping for the hat and scarf sets I made for my mom's nurses. I also wanted them 'open' so that they could choose which color they wanted. 

I was shopping the other day and came across Hefty EZ Ovenware that has the plastic open lids and cardboard type bottom that was also big enough to hold the hat and scarf. Perfect! Even better they were inexpensive!

I printed out simple round 2.5" labels (Avery 22808) and stuck them on the center of the lid and used some shiny Christmas ribbon...is that stuff called ribbon? Hrmmm, it's not fabric, but plastic like. Oh well, moving on.

I named each scarf set after the Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable Color that it was made from.  I also gave a simple desciption, since each set has a different scarf.

Tidal Waves: Hat and Scarf set

Echo Mist: Hat and Fringed Scarf Set

Cranberry Fields: Hat and Cowl Set

It might seem odd, but I like the look, a lot actually. It's clean and simple..and best of all they can use the wrapping afterwords! How splendid is that??

Divine Hats are simply divine!

Love this pattern. This is my new go-to hat pattern. It's called the Divine Hat by Sarah Arnold - you can find the free pattern on Ravelry! Don't you just love free that is so full of AWESOMENESS!

The hat works up quickly and works well as a solid, mix, or variegated yarn combination.

I'm not nuts...the hats are for my mom's nurses for Christmas!

I started out by testing the pattern with inexpensive RH Comfort yarn. I tested the pattern, color combinations, and sizing using it first before switching over to the more expensive Red Heart Unforgettable.

I tried different combinations and like the look of the last dc and bpdc being a different colour. Especially like how the cherrycola colour worked out. (hard to see in the picture, but middle row of hats above).

I modified last few rows of pattern as per another poster on Ravelry
row: hdc, row:Bpsc, row:dc, row: bpsc, row:dc, row: fpdc, bpdc, row: hdc

Red Heart Comfort sizing:
Large: 5.5 mm hook (up to and including row 15) + border
 22” circumference / 9.5” length

Small to Medium: 5.0 mm hook X up to and including row 13) + border rows
 20” circumference / 8” length

Red Heart Unforgettable sizing:

Dragonfly:
Small to Medium: 6.0 mm hook X up to and including row 15) + border rows
19” circumference / 8” length

This fits ok on my 22" noggin since it has a LOT of stretch, but fits better on my sisters 21" head.

Tidal:
Medium: 6.5 mm hook X up to and including row 15) + border rows
 21” circumference / 8” length

Echo:
Medium: 6.5 mm hook X up to and including row 15) + border rows
21” circumference / 8” length

Winery:
Medium: 6.5 mm hook X up to and including row 15) + border rows
 21” circumference / 8” length

Cappuccino:
Medium: 6.5 mm hook X up to and including row 15) + border rows
 21” circumference / 8” length

Medium: 6.0 mm hook X up to and including row 15) + border rows
 20” circumference / 8” length

Autumn Flowers Motif

I saw an amazing scarf that I am IN LOVE WITH on Pinterest (which linked to Ravelry). As most of you know, you don't always know what's free on Pinterest until you get to Ravelry or wherever you are pointed to...well, wait for it!  Nitala nicely posted her pattern as well as the pictures of her scarf!   The colours she uses are beautiful *sigh* I haven't seen Scheepjes Invicta Colour yarn before so I'll give the scarf a shot with RH Unforgettable in POLO, which has orange, greens, and burgundy's.

So, as soon as I saw she had a pattern for the motif, I had to test it out. I used a bit of leftover RH Unforgettable in Echo for that. I think it's very pretty also, but there isn't as much colour change as there is in Polo.

I simply cannot wait to make myself a scarf with this pattern - but I have to get through the Christmas presents first! hahah.

My picture doesn't look like much with a single motif, but if the whole scarf turns out half as nice as Nitalas' I'll be very well pleased.

Might I add, if you are not on Pinterest or Ravelry, you should be! So addicting and inspirational!

Isar Scarf in Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable

I love the colour changes in Echo. It's funny though, when you look at the skein, it doesn't seem to have a lot of range. Scarves work really well with this color.  I want to keep it and hug it and wrap it around my neck...but alas, no, it's a gift...but I can and will make myself one too!

The pattern I used is the Isar Scarf by Julia Vaconsin which is a FREE download on Ravelry. Yay!

The pattern works up quickly and after you get past the first row, it's really easy to crochet along while watching Netflix. I checked the stitches during the gaggy bits of Hannibal (the series). Love the show, but some bits make me cringe a bit!

You can tell from the next two pictures that there is a difference in color. I've found in the last 2 projects I've done, one in Tidal and this one in Echo, that the skeins don't match - even though they are the same dye lot.



Thankfully when wearing it, it does not look all funky and bargain bin. it looks like it slowly goes from light to dark. yah..I made it like that...hahaha!



The scarf worked out to be 6oz, and 8" X 60" (with Fringe)

Bricks & Lattice Scarf

I wanted to make something for my mom's nurses for Christmas, so I decided on hat and scarf sets.

  

I love the colours of Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable yarn, so each set is done is a different colour. For this set, I chose Tidal.  The hat and scarf together used up 2 skeins of yarn. I didn't notice until after I finished that although the skeins were the same dye lot, they were still a tiny bit different. The one skein had no pink in it, so there is just a tiny strip of pink colour on one end of the scarf. It's ok, and it doesn't look 'off' since the rest of the colours are pretty much the same.  The picture below really makes it look different, but it really isn't!

The hats are all the same pattern, but each of the scarves are different.  This scarf is the Bricks & Lattice pattern by Elizabeth Ham. 

The pattern is an easy repeat but it took longer to work up than I thought it would, longer than the other scarves, that's for sure. I think the slowness was because of the end/beginning of the rows. 

Colour gradients. I love the look of the colours and blue actually suits me as a colour to wear, but sadly, blue is my least favourite colour.  Even with the greens, gold, and purples, the blue is the most dominant colour.

Stitch pattern before wet blocking.



This image is a lot darker, it's just to show the stitch pattern while it was being blocked. The other images are a lot closer to true.



Yarn: Cost

Skein: 3.5 oz / $7.00 (approx) X 2 skiens = 7 oz / $14.00 = $2.00 an ounce
Scarf =  4.4 oz X $2.00 = $8.80 + tax, so...lets say $10.00 in materials for the scarf.

Size:
8" X 46" before blocking
9" X 58" after blocking

That's not to shabby.

Now that's just nuts!

Seriously, this is the cutest thing I have ever crocheted, and the quickest.  The pattern is from Lakeview Cottage Kids and free!

Making one wasn't good enough, so I had to make 6.  It's a good thing I know a lot people with babies (Insert sarcastic sounds here *snort* Hmmmph*) I'm the one that is nuts! That's for sure. I almost feel and sound like a crochet hoarder of sorts, hahah. but all is not lost. A friend of mine is having a craft sale, so I will give her the hats to sell.

 

I detoured from the original pattern a wee bit for the bottom half of the hat and went from single crochet to half doubles.  Less rows to do and a bit more stretch to the bottom of the beanie. Aesthetically they both look just as cute.

I'm not sure on the sizing, I think mine are a bit small, so premie and newborn sizes.

These were made with Red Heart With Love yarn in Tan and Aran, the leaves were done in Lettuce. The yarn is perfect for babies and not scratchy at all.  I think I used a 5.0 mm hook, but I can't entirely remember.

This is definitely in the keeper pile for patterns.

Artfully Simple Infinity Scarf

This was my first project using Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable yarn and I fell in love with all of the colors. 

I chose to do the Artfully Simple Infinity scarf in the Winery Color. 

This is the first scarf I've ever made and I really love it with the Unforgettable yarn. 

I love this pattern too. My gauge is a bit off or the original picture just makes it look a bit thicker and longer than what I made. I'll try it again and make it longer, because well...I want one for myself!

I used the same yarn to make the divine hat. It makes a lovely set which I gifted to one of my moms Health care aides for Christmas. I hope she likes it :)

Refreshing Throw

I've been working on the Refreshing Throw afghan for a while now.  Not steadily that's for sure. It comes and goes, but overall it went fast when I did work on it. I've finally got to the point of joining all the squares! SO...figured I'd post the progress so far.

I have to admit, this is my favorite square so far. I thought I would get bored of making them, but not yet, and I have plans to use the pattern in another afghan too. Must be love!

I wanted to use the colors that Red Heart shows for the throw, but like yarn companies always do, they've discontinued making the yarn they recommend... how sad. I decided to go with Caron Simply Soft since the colors seem similar and I had them on hand. I just hope it's sturdy enough for the size of the afghan when put together.  It is nice to work with  - except the off white...it's very splitty.

 

I finished the initial squares and then, because I didn't want my joining yarn color to show through to the front, I decided to sc around each square. That way the joining yarn would match and be invisible against all the squares. I had 1 skein left and wasn't sure I would make it around all the squares, but I did with a tiny bit left!

At first I wasn't sure I liked the sc border around the squares, because I really do like the look of the original throw from Red Heart, but the more I see it the more it grows on me. I think I will love it when it all comes together with an outside border.  :) I can't wait until my yarn order gets here from Herrschners so I can finish this.
 

It looks more difficult than it is, and yes, round 3 and round 5 each had a moment of WTF when I read the instructions.

I'm not 100% sure I did round 3 correctly for the very first dc, but I can't see anything wrong when I look at the finished squares...which is good because it's a bit late in the game for ripping anything out. It's as good as it's going to get :)

Pompom Beanie

A friend gave me a pattern for a junior crocheted hat from Lion Brand. She wanted to see how our crochet styles matched up and if she should make something like it for her market booth. 

 

The pattern is very easy because you crochet a rectangle and then sew it together to make the hat shape. I really didn't like it.  I followed the pattern how it was written, but it was odd that they had you gather the top end up before sewing up the body. This made it all scrunchy to work with and harder to line up the stripes. I knew this before actually doing it, but I followed the instructions as given.

I didn't take a picture of that hat because I didn't like the finished product. It was ok, but the pattern just annoyed me, I guess because I hate having to check how many stitches I have...since I tend to gain or lose stitches on rectangle things. I like to really have mindless crochet be mindless :)

So I remade the hat differently.... OK to be fair it's no longer the same pattern or even close!  hahaha. The only thing the same is the amount of stitches in the starting chain and the hook size.

Row 1: I chained 56 with the aran fleck from Red Heart.
Row 2: Did an hdc in the 3rd chain from the hook. Did my 54 hdc's across, and then did a sl st join to the top of the first hdc of row 2. (my chain 2 which counts as my first hdc)
Round Rows: I just continued crocheting in the round. I went around and around and around until I had a length of hat I wanted. Beautiful, no brainer, no counting, no slip stitches...just watching myself a movie and crocheting myself a beanie :)
Color Change: I decided to change the color up to Vanna's Choice 'Rust' color. I did this in line with where I joined the original chain together in Row 2. So I considered this the back of my hat.

For the color change: I did the first part of the hdc stitch in aran fleck -- yarn over, insert into stitch, yarn over and pull through (3 loops on hook), then did a yarn over with new color and pulled through.

Round Rows: crocheted and watched a bit more movie

2 Decrease Rounds: In line with the first join and the color change below, I did an hdc decrease (hdc2tog), 4 hdc's, then another hdc2tog, another 4 hdc's etc going all the way around until I met up with my first hdc2tog.

My count didn't work, there wasn't exactly 4 stitches when I got to the decrease, but a spacing of 3 between my last one and the one from the previous row was fine enough. Otherwise I would of skipped ahead or moved my last hdc2tog back a stitch or 2. Anyways, I did an hdc2tog using the stitches on either side of the previous rows hdc2tog so they stacked above each other. Did 3 hdc's, then hdc2tog, 3 hdc's, hdc2tog...continued on until I got back to the start and then fastened off leaving a bit of a tail

I wove the tail in and out between the hdc stitches of the last row and then pulled tight to scrunch up and close off the end of the hat.

Using the same Rust color, I did a band of hdc's around the opening of the hat starting again at the 'back' inline with all my other changes. This time I didn't do it in the round, but did the sl stitch, chain 2 up to the next row method.

Tossed on a flower with a button and made a pompom then went to bed :)