Wednesday, April 6, 2022

Accessories for Miss Pam's funeral

This post is incredibly difficult for me to write.

My dear, dear friend of nearly 30 years has left this world.

Miss Pam's family asked everyone attending her funeral to wear something purple, because purple is the color of the pancreatic cancer awareness ribbon.


Crocheting the scarf and scrunchie using Red Heart Sassy Lace yarn is very fast and easy. I crocheted the double-wrap infinity scarf in about an hour, and the scrunchie was even faster. I was able to make both items from just one skein of the Sassy lace yarn.


Mikey Sellick of The Crochet Crowd has a video tutorial for how to crochet the Sassy lace scarf. (He also has a knit version for those who prefer to knit it.)


Kinga Erdem of My Hobby Is Crochet has a video tutorial for how to crochet the Sassy lace scruchie. Kinga suggests using about 2.5 meters of the lace for each scrunchie, so I cut off about 10 feet and set that aside for the scrunchie before using the rest of the skein to crochet the scarf.

Miss Pam's family chose a purple butterfly as the symbol to represent Miss Pam's journey. I have another dear friend who is an artist, Artified by Rae, and I commissioned her to create this butterfly for Pam's daughters. If you look closely at the butterfly's wings, you will see Pam's name inscribed there.


Another one of Pam's friends read this about the purple butterfly at her funeral service: "The purple butterfly is a symbol for Pancreatic Cancer. A purple butterfly is one of the rarest of all butterflies to see out in its natural habitat. It is a reminder for you to stay patient and faithful. It urges you to trust in yourself and have courage. Mrs. Pam, you are now and forever our purple butterfly!"

💜💜💜


Monday, March 28, 2022

Cozy candles

I used SlipStitchery's Halloween Witch Jar Covers pattern as initial inspiration for these quick and easy flameless (battery operated) candle cozies. I worked each cozy in a different stitch and different colorway for some variety in them as a grouping.


I still intend to make some of the actual Halloween Witch Jar Covers sometime, too! 😊




Thursday, January 27, 2022

Luna Triangle Cowl

I really like pullover triangle cowls. They look amazing, they are so easy to wear, and they keep your neck, shoulders, and chest nice and cozy. So when I saw the super cute Luna Triangle Cowl paid pattern by Deni Sharpe, I knew I wanted to make one for myself.

I deviated from the pattern in a few ways. First, the pattern is written for bulky (size 5) yarn using an 8mm hook, but I made mine in aran weight (since that's what I had in my stash) with a 6.5mm hook. I also opted to hand knit the ribbed top of the cowl instead of working it in crochet.


The knitted part I did in a lofty and reversible fisherman's rib worked in the round over 80 stitches. I followed the tutorial for this technique at this link. Then I picked up the stitches for the first row of crochet to begin the triangle portion of the cowl. Since I was starting with a different number of stitches for the bottom part of the cowl than was listed in the pattern, I had to adjust the stitch counts for the triangle part of the work.




Sunday, January 16, 2022

Light, wide infinity scarf

Another quick and easy machine-knit infinity scarf. Cast on with waste yarn, then switch to project yarn and knit through the entire skein, leaving about a 60-inch tail for grafting the ends together.


I wanted this scarf to be as wide as possible, so I used the Sentro 48 to knit it. I got 252 rows from one full skein of the Lion Brand Mandala Ombre in the Chi colorway. Finished scarf is about 54 inches long.


Although Lion Brand calls this a size 4 yarn on the label, it feels more like a DK (3) weight, and this weight works into a lovely tubular scarf that will keep the wearer plenty cozy and warm despite the fiber's light weight.


You can see how to seamlessly graft the ends of the tube together by watching a tutorial video like this one, although there are many tutorials available for this technique online.

I gifted this scarf to my daughter, LadyU! 

And I made another one for Rose, whose favorite color is orange. It can be difficult to find pretty yarns that include the color orange, so this Lion Brand Mandala Ombre in the Serenity colorway jumped out at me as being a great choice. I hope she likes it!


I also knitted this one on the Sentro 48 and got 267 rows from the skein (not sure why there's such a difference in the number of rows between the different colorways). Finished scarf is also about 54 inches long.



Friday, January 7, 2022

Oh the weather outside is frightful

One of my friends sent this to me. Said when she saw it, it immediately reminded her of me. I can't imagine WHY. 😉