Waylon's blanket

Earlier this year, we learned that my sister-in-law Linda's daughter Brianna was expecting her first child, which was going to be Linda's very first grandchild, and our family was super excited to welcome our newest little addition. It's going to be a boy! 💙

Naturally, this news also meant that Auntie Susan needed to get busy stitching up a keepsake blanket to welcome her newest grandnephew!

Finished with 43 rows, before blocking

I searched for baby blanket ideas for a few days with nothing really jumping out and grabbing me until Red Heart Yarns shared on social media their pattern for this blanket made with Red Heart Bitty Stripes yarn. Instantly I could see in my mind's eye how amazing this design would look made in shades of blue and green, so I ordered the kit with those colors and then anxiously waited for it to arrive. 

This pattern says to use an 11.5 mm hook, even though the yarn is rated as a standard 4 weight. I did purchase the 11.5 mm hook with the Yarnspirations kit (it was less than $2, and I didn't already own a hook that size, so why not?) for the blanket project, but as I started working the foundation chain, it was just soooo loose that it really didn't look right, so I switched to using a 6.5 mm hook, and that seemed to look a lot better to me. A 7 mm hook would probably be ideal, but I don't have one that size (yet).

The free pattern wasn't yet listed in the Ravelry database when I started this project, but it could be downloaded from this page at Yarnspirations.

Measures about 36 inches wide

Since I'm using a smaller hook than the pattern suggested, I also added more chains to the foundation chain to ensure that the blanket wouldn't be too small. Thus, I started with a foundation chain of 153 instead of 113. After working several rows of blocks, the piece measured about 36 inches wide, which is a good size for the width of a baby crib blanket. This blanket is 14 squares wide. I'm aiming to have the finished blanket size be about 36 inches wide by 48 inches long. I figure I will just keep adding rows until the blanket looks more rectangular than square, so I'll let you know how many rows that ends up being after I've finished.

Work in progress...

I'm also fairly new to tunisian crochet techniques, and I wasn't understanding the written instructions for how to get started, so I looked up this Yarnspirations video tutorial (hosted by Mikey!! Yay!! He's such a great teacher) to get me through the blanket setup. Once I was able to understand how the tunisian block pattern works, it became super fun to make this pattern. It only takes about 4 or 5 minutes to complete each block (it takes about an hour (ish) to complete a whole row of blocks), and as the yarns gradually change colors, half of the fun is seeing which color will come next, so I found myself wanting to keep making "one more block" and never wanting to stop. 😊 The beautiful colors of the Bitty Stripes yarn play so well together, too. It's just a gorgeous effect when it's all put together. 

WIP at 27 rows

I'm using the Seaweed (green) colorway as Color A in the pattern and the Horizon (blue) colorway as Color B. 

The first skein of Seaweed ran out after the 15th row. The first skein of Horizon ran out in the middle of the 16th row. The blanket was basically a square at the point where these first skeins ran out, so if you wanted to use this pattern to make a roughly 36-inch square blanket, you might be able to do it with just one skein of each color (plus more yarn for a border, if you wanted to add one). 

In working out the math for the sizing of this blanket, I calculated that 48 inches is approximately 1.33 times 36 inches. And since 14 squares measures about 36 inches, I estimated that I would need to work 18-19 rows of Color A (or 14 times 1.33) to reach my target length of 48 inches long. Notice that that's only counting the Color A rows. Since the pattern is alternating rows of Color A and Color B, the total number of rows would actually be approximately double the number of rows of counting only Color A, which I'm estimating would be around 36-38 rows of squares. 

Standard hook = crowded

I went through phases of using three different 6.5 mm crochet hooks while stitching this project. I started off with my regular blue-handled Boye hook (this set is one of my overall all-time favorites to work with). Because the squares in this pattern are fairly small and only require a maximum of 7 loops to fit onto the shaft of the hook, it is possible to manage that with most standard crochet hooks, even if 7 loops gets to be a bit crowded. 

A Furls hook helps

I looked around at the options available and thought that the long shaft of the Furls style hooks might work better for this project than my Boye hook, so I ordered a pretty 6.5 mm Furls hook from Amazon. 

All the hooks I went through

When the Furls hook arrived, it was noticeably easier to fit all the loops onto its shaft. But the problem with the Furls design is that the shaft gradually tapers into the larger grip area, and that larger part of the shaft was making the loops on that end of each row bigger than the other loops. It wasn't a huge issue, so I worked quite a few rows with the Furls hook. 

A tunisian hook is ideal

But eventually I decided to finally bite the bullet and buy some type of actual tunisian hook, in the hope that it would make it easier for me to keep the loop sizes more consistent across the entire row. I settled on this double-ended tunisian hook by Red Heart. 

The only reason why it took me so long to finish this blanket was because I struggled somewhat with finding the energy to keep working in the middle of the project (health struggles, sigh), so even though I knew that I really wanted to have it ready to be a gift for Baby's first Christmas, I put it in time out for a few months to let myself rest. But as December rolled around, I found the burst of energy I needed to pick it up again. 

After finishing the 43rd row, I measured the length of the blanket and found that it was just about exactly 48 inches long and celebrated finally reaching my goal.

I had ordered a skein of baby blue Red Heart yarn that looked online like it would coordinate well with the blanket's colors and make a good solid color for the edging rounds. But it was evident as soon as I saw the yarns in person that this edging color was not going to work. Happily, I still had a lot of leftover Red Heart in the Denim colorway, which complements the blanket colors nicely in the border rounds.

For the border, I worked two rounds of SC (turning to work the second round in the opposite direction to help prevent curling) followed by one round of twsted SC, which gives a simple but lovely, texture-y, rope-like edging that I have used to finish many blanket projects. Twisted SC looks exactly like RSC, but twisted SC is a LOT easier to work, IMO. 

Floral arrangement for Rose's birthday

My grown-up bonus daughter Rose loves the colors orange and black. This year for her birthday, I decided to make her a pretty silk floral arrangement. Roses for Rose!! 🌹

The florals all came from my local Michaels store. I started with this 18-inch Orange Ranunculus Deluxe Bush by Ashland. Flower arranging is easy when you start with something like this that provides a lovely base for the bouquet, and I loved that it had lots of orange roses and greenery. Then I added five of these Black Open Rose Stem by Ashland. The stems on the black roses were longer than the stems on the orange ranunculus bush, so I used my wire-cutters to trim about 4 to 5 inches off the end of each black rose stem so the flowers had a balanced appearance.

The vase is the Beautiful Amber Glass Flower Vase for Fresh or Artificial Flowers by Drew Barrymore, which I found online at Walmart. To hide the bottoms of the stems, I filled the vase with one box of these 6mm acrylic beads from Amazon, but by themselves, they didn't fill the vase quite enough, so I mixed them with most of one tube of Clear Colorfill Diamonds by Ashland from Michaels.

The finishing touch is the adorably goth 9" Black & White Cat Skeleton Pick by Ashland from Michaels. Isn't she just the cuuuuutest?!?!? 😍

 

 

 

 

A Chicken for Suzanne

My dear friend Suzanne is a self-proclaimed "chicken gal" and suburbanite-of-necessity who longs to return to her farmgirl days living in the country with a yard full of chickens.

What better way to celebrate her upcoming birthday than sending an Emotional Support Chicken for her to hug and hold while she dreams her sweet farmgirl dreams?

The Emotional Support Chicken by Annette Corsino is just a downright fun pattern to knit, and I think it looks best when executed in tweedy-ish yarn colorways that are reminiscent of the feathers of real chickens. When I saw the lovely marled colorways of KnitPal Cotton to the Core, I just knew they would produce some lovely chickens well worth adding to any metaphorical flock. For this hen, I'm using Caramel Brown as color A and Fresh Peach as color B.

This yarn is on the lighter side for being labeled as a worsted weight - definitely much lighter than the stuff that Red Heart labels as worsted weight. In my opinion, it's closer to being DK weight. I'm still using the needle size specified in the pattern, though, so we'll see how big this hen ends up being compared to the other ones I've knitted with Red Heart. 😅 

I hope Suzanne loves her new chicken, and if she gives it a name, I will update this post to let all y'all know what it is! 💜🐔💜

I'm pretty sure that Suzanne's chicken is the first one of these that I've managed to sew together according to the way the pattern designer intended. Yay!

Memory pillow

When my father-in-law died in 2019, one of his daughters, my sister-in-law Linda, saved one of his heavy plaid flannel Wrangler shirts with the idea of making it into a memory pillow, and I was honored when Linda asked me if I would be willing to make the pillow for her.

With a quick Google search for "memory pillow" or "how to make memory pillow," you will easily find many examples and tutorials for how to make one like this.

I was fairly sure how to go about it, but I watched this video tutorial by Lesley Chandler on YouTube to have the steps clear in my mind before starting.

To make one of these, you need to know the basic skills for working with a sewing machine. You're basically cutting two squares out of the shirt and then sewing them together to make a cover that will fit a square pillow form. If you're using a button-front shirt like I did, you don't even need to leave a gap in the sewing for turning the pieces right-side out, because the shirt's button front can serve that purpose. And, in the future, you can also open the buttons to remove the pillow form any time you want to launder the pillow cover, so it's a win-win.

Begin by laying the shirt out flat, with all the buttons buttoned, on a large tabletop. Iron the shirt to help the fabric lie evenly if it has any wrinkles. I measured the distance across the front between the sleeve seams to get an idea of what the largest size pillow cover that the shirt would make. It was about 18 inches between the sleeve seams across the front. 

I had an extra 18-inch square Ikea feather pillow form on hand that I wanted to use for this project. Knowing that the finished pillow cover will be less than the full dimensions of the cut fabric (because of the amount taken up by the seam allowances), I figured that my finished pillow cover would juuuust barely be large enough to work with that pillow form. But square pillow forms come in different sizes, so you should be able to find one that will fit your particular pillow cover.

You can make the cutting easier by first cutting a piece of newspaper into the shape/dimensions to act as the pattern. Since the distance between the sleeve seams was 18 inches, I decided to cut an 18-inch square to be my pattern. 

I laid the shirt out flat on a cutting mat on my work table and positioned the pattern on top. I adjusted the position of the pattern until I had it where I wanted it, using the placement of the shirt pockets as a guide to where the pattern should be placed. When I was happy with the placement, I pinned the pattern in place and used my fabric scissors to carefully cut around the pattern. You could use a rotary cutter and ruler if you're comfortable with those. I have those tools but didn't want to risk making a bad cut on this precious shirt.

After the pieces are cut, set aside the pattern and excess fabric. Turn the pillow cover squares so the right sides are facing each other and pin them together. Then sew them together using an appropriate seam allowance, carefully easing the machine through the bulkier areas across the button placket. I used about a 1/4-inch seam allowance for this.

 

After sewing all the way around, trim the excess fabric at the corners. Then unbutton the shirt's buttons and turn the pillow cover right-side out, using a blunt tool to help poke out the corners. Rebutton the buttons and press the sewn pillow cover again to smooth the seams.

The final step is to open the buttons again and place the pillow form inside. Button the buttons, and you now have a wonderful memory pillow of your loved one's shirt that you can hug whenever you want to.

In her video tutorial, Lesley Chandler shared that there are sellers on Etsy who make custom iron-on patches with a lovely little verse that can be added to a memory pillow project. She suggested this one and placed it on a bottom-front corner of her pillow. I think the patch would also work on a bottom corner of the back side of the pillow. 

I wasn't sure if Linda would want a patch like that on her pillow, however, so I sent her a link to it so she could see what it was and read about it, and then decide if she wanted it. She could always opt to add a patch to her pillow cover later, because the only equipment needed to add it is an iron.

After completing the memory pillow, I looked at the fabric scraps left over and decided there was plenty of fabric left to make a small memento for each of my father-in-law's four children, including Linda, my husband, and their other two sisters. I figured a keychain wristlet would be lovely and useful, and I already had the clasp hardware on hand.

I like this tutorial by Devi Therkildsen on YouTube for making "seamless" fabric wristlets that work with the type of clasp hardware I have on hand. Each wristlet requires a piece of fabric that's 12 inches long by 4 inches wide, and also a piece of lightweight interfacing of the same size if your fabric is lightweight. (I didn't use interfacing on these flannel wristlets because the fabric itself was already heavy enough to be durable.) You can see the four finished wristlets next to the finished memory pillow in the lead photo of this post.

Taylor's Beanie

When Taylor Swift wore that crocheted beanie to watch her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, play football with the Kansas City Chiefs, all of the online yarnie groups went BA-NA-NAS with people wanting to know how to make the same hat. It's the Taylor Effect, y'all.

Anyway, if you love a Swiftie, like I do, then you simply MUST make them one of these beanies. It works up quickly with simple stitches, so it's an easy project that will bring a huge thrill to your Swiftie's heart, because in no time at all they will be able to rock this hat just like Taylor did.

To replicate Taylor's look, it's important to use a bright white yarn for the main color and a rich, vibrant red with blue undertones for the stripe.

You will notice that I have the jersey number "wrong" on the beanie I made. That's because my Swiftie also loves a football player, and he happens to wear jersey number 84 (whereas Travis Kelce wears number 87). 

For the fur pom, I found an affordable pack of faux-fur poms on Amazon.

Photo showing Taylor's faux fur pompom

I am working on writing this pattern, which will be available as a free download on Ravelry. I will link to the pattern page here once it's available. Ravelry pattern link: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/taylors-beanie-3

 

A tribute to my Purple Warrior, Miss Pam

I designed a gift pack of three chemo beanies in honor of my bestie and purple warrior Miss Pam, who is battling pancreatic cancer. In the photo collage above, the designs are called, from left to right, the Smooth & Simple Chemo Cap, the Sleek & Stretchy Surface Braid Chemo Cap, and the fun and funky Loopy Chemo Cap. It took a few months and a lot of work, but I finally have all the hats made (and also a Purple Power Throw blanket for some extra snuggly comfort) and ready to deliver to keep my friend warm and cozy this winter!

November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, so I'm releasing my free pattern pack on Ravelry now to give everyone an opportunity to download the patterns and get stitching on some chemo caps in time for that event.

Making and donating chemo caps to cancer patients is a charitable endeavor that is near and dear to my heart. My hope is that you will use these free patterns to donate caps to patients in need in your area as well.

In my experience, Red Heart Super Saver (and other similar acrylic yarns) can be an acceptable choice for chemo caps because even though it's stiff and scratchy when new, after running it through the washer and dryer, it comes out very soft. The machine drying step is key. (The yarn still feels stiff after coming out of the washing machine. It's only after machine drying that the yarn will soften up.) It's an individual thing whether a particular patient can tolerate the feel of the acrylic yarn. I would say for all-day wear, a natural fiber like cotton would probably feel more comfortable and breathable. 

Prototypes in my photos are displayed on a 21-inch circumference wig form.

A note about sizing: My pattern instructions are based on the type of yarn (a heavy worsted/aran) and size of hook I was using, but even if you use the exact same supplies as I did, your individual tension might produce a different size finished hat. I tend to crochet tightly; if you crochet loosely, "your mileage may vary," as they say. So if you have a specific hat/head size in mind for a specific person, it's important to know what the circumference is of their head, and it's also important for you to measure the diameter of the top of your hat when you reach the end of the increasing rounds (since these are top-down patterns) to have a better estimate of the size of the finished hat before you do all the work of the sides of the hat and then end up disappointed because it turned out either too tight or too loose for the intended wearer. (You can always do the math: diameter x 3.14 = circumference.)

In the photo below of the top of my purple prototype hat with the measuring tape, you can see that the diameter at the end of my round 7 is about 6.5 inches. If you multiply that measurement by pi (3.14), it will give you the approximate circumference of the finished hat, or about 20.5 inches, in my case. Since I wanted a hat to fit a bald head that's about 21 inches in circumference, this should be just about right.

Depending on your unique tension and the yarn you're using, you might find that you need to end up with more or fewer stitches to end up with a finished hat that's the correct size for your intended wearer. Or you might be able to achieve the correct size by changing the size of hook you're using but keeping the same number of stitches mentioned in the pattern.

The nice thing about these patterns is they are very basic and easily changed to accommodate different sizes. Just keep increasing until the top of your hat reaches the diameter you need, and then stop increasing and continue working the sides of the hat at that particular stitch count. Work the length of the sides until they are as long as you need, and then finish off. My materials list and stitch counts are only a jumping-off point for you to create a hat that works for you.

Click here to download my three-pack of quick and easy chemo caps at Ravelry, and please remember to make a few to donate to your local cancer center. Thank you so much, and happy stitching!

And just for fun, here's a photo of the Purple Power Throw blanket I also made for Miss Pam:

The throw uses the stitch pattern from the Sunny Cardi pattern, except I modified it to have the rounds begin/end in a corner by utilizing the technique for beginning/ending rounds found in the Lazy Diamond Boho Pocket Shawl. I love the way it turned out. Having the rounds begin/end in the corner looks so much neater than my original version of this blanket, my I Am the Storm Throw.

Love you so much, bestie. Keep on being strong.

A housewarming gift

I had a hank of some old, heavy worsted weight green yarn that either came from my mother's stash or else the big bag of random yarn balls that Mika gave me when she and her wife moved to Wisconsin.

Now that Mika and Emmy are buying their first house, I wanted to make them something as a housewarming gift. Since green and black are colors they are planning to utilize in their decor, the idea for this knitted pumpkin/floral display started to form in my mind.

The yarn was too heavy to run through my Sentro machine, so I tried it on the Addi instead, and, of course, the Addi was able to handle it just fine. (Addi only grumbled a tiny bit about how heavy the yarn was.)

There was enough yarn in the hank to get a tube of 114 rows, plus leaving a long tail (about 3 yards long) for finishing and sewing the pumpkin's sections.

Fold the tube inside itself in half, as for making a double-thick beanie. Cinch and secure the ends. Stuff the interior. Then using the long tail, wrap around the outside and through the center to create "sections" of the pumpkin. As you create the sections, the bottom will cinch itself closed. You can secure the bottom with a few extra stitches, if needed.

I cinched the ends while keeping a finger in the top hole so it would remain open after assembling the pumpkin. Leaving the hole slightly open this way will allow me to use the pumpkin as a "vase" for holding some silk flowers, which I think will make a lovely display. 

I also cut a stem from piece of black faux leather, making it about 6 inches long by 3/4-inch wide. I used a yarn needle to punch 2 holes near the stem ends, and used those holes to sew the yarns ends through after tying down the pumpkin's sections. Having a stem there means the pumpkin could also be displayed plain, without flowers.

The flowers I'm using are in autumn colors, but Mika and Emmy should be able to switch out the flowers throughout the years to match the changing seasons, if they wish. I cut the flower stems at about 4-5 inches long and bent them to help the flowers curve toward the pumpkin after inserting the stems into the hole at the top and working around the leather stem.