Famous friend

My friend April's photo was featured by Moogly in her blog post about the many different ways crocheters hold their yarn and hook! So April is now officially famous in my book. 🙂😍 April's photo is included in the second group demonstrating the knife grip. Woo-hoo!

Kittehz commission prototype

Finished my prototype scarf (red one) based on the photo of the gray one on the right. Turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. 🙂

Auspicious beginning

This is the beginning of the Eva Hat knitting pattern by Yelena Chen.

This is going to be a chemo cap for my mother-in-law, who is battling cancer. The ribbing portion is shaped like the symbolic ribbons used to draw attention to various causes, and the teal color represents her particular cancer.

If you're knitting one of these for a cancer patient who is near and dear to your heart, you can use yarn in whichever color best symbolizes their particular cancer. The symbolism is subtle, and the hat can work for males or females.

Chocolate Syrup Poncho

I liked the way Rose's Slytherin-By-the-Sea poncho turned out, so I decided to make another one for myself. I know the yarn says it's named "Coffee," but the dark brown color reminds me more of Hershey's Chocolate Syrup.

Here I used an i-cord tab cast on of 4 rows, then picked up 3 stitches in the center for a total of 9 stitches on the needle. Worked following the Sheep Wagon Shawl pattern instructions on the 3 center stitches with the addition of the 3 i-cord stitches on each side. (I-cord: Knit 3 at beginning of row; sl3wyif at the end of each row.)

Joined to work in the round after row 57. Yes, this pattern requires a lot of purling while working flat (have to purl every return row), but that's the price you pay for wanting a design in classic, classy stockinette. Once you join to work in the round, however, you're on all-knitting easy street.

Update 5/14/15: I started out knitting this poncho with size 9 needles (5.5 mm), but the fabric was just turning out to be way too dense. So somewhere around row 70, I ripped the whole thing back and started over with size 10 needles. Painful to lose that much work, but I'm much happier with the fabric the second time around.

The Stegatortoise

This fun crochet project idea was shared by my friend Joann. The "Stegatortoise" is well protected against potential predators! 😂