When Crocheting Attacks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you are a listener of the Knitmore Girls podcast, you know that they have a segment called "When Knitting Attacks". That is the inspiration for the title of today's post. I was crocheting Allison a little summer dress designed by one of my favorites, Holland Designs. It is a wonderful pattern but the day I went to buy yarn for this (a couple of months ago) something just went wrong. I completely miscalculated. Completely, not even just a little bit. Not just one skein. It was more like half of the dress. Don't ask, I don't know. She used sport weight but doesn't give the yardage. She usually does though. I changed the weight of yarn to worsted and something went awry from there. I have never blundered this big before. I need one of those handy cards that lets you know common amounts of yarn needed for crochet projects. Last week, oblivious to my lack of yarn, I was happily crocheting along for this dress, and thought I was coming to the end. It was one long piece that was to be pleated. I thought the construction was a little odd with the one seam, but I assumed it just went down the back. Then I looked at the pleating instructions. You did pleats the entire way across the fabric. I think the last time that I apparently looked at the pattern was back when I went yarn shopping. (Hmmm, discovering why this went so wrong as I write.) Well, if I did that, this was not going to wrap around her. I then took a good look at the directions. This was the FRONT! Ugh. I was supposed to have made two. That made more sense. I could have set the project down until I got more yarn but I got this yarn from a shop that was 1 and 1/2 hours away. I am also far out in the country so my closest yarn shop is about 40 min. away. I took a look at what I had and if I only did a few pleats in the center of the fabric, it would still wrap around her nicely. So, I carried on making adjustments and put the seam down the back. She loves it and I felt like it was a pretty good save. But, from now on I am triple checking yarn amounts and reading through the pattern sections before I begin! And, maybe another moral to this could be to buy lots and lots of yarn, you know, to be safe! Ah well, here she is wearing it, after a long day out mind you,

Houndstooth Handbag

This past weekend I made this Houndstooth Handbag. It is a great pattern using Lilly's Sugar and Cream. This yarn is excellent for this purse pattern because it is so durable.  And with no stretch to the cotton, along with the dense fabric of the hounds tooth design, you don't need a liner! It is a well written pattern. I love her designs. She has a great deal under the sale section of her shop. You can get three patterns for $9.99. I took advantage of this and purchased a boy's vest pattern and a Christmas stocking pattern with my purse!  So here is the purse one day.........

 And here it is the next! (Please excuse the purple/blue line. I only have my phone camera right now, the kids messed with the settings and I can't get that line off!)

My Crochet Doll Review

Today I want to share with you the doll I made for my daughter from My Crochet Doll by Isabelle Kessedjian.

She is an adorable doll and at 13" the perfect size for a little girl to play with. You can leave them like a rag doll or put wiring inside for posing. My daughter wanted her's soft the whole way through so, ours is without wires.

The book is full of adorable pictures. The author came up with so many cute themes for the doll. She can be Little Red Riding, a super hero, country bumpkin, go for a swim, the list goes on and on. It isn't just outfits but accessories as well,over 50 of them!

It is written in European crochet terms. The hook sizes are a little different than ones that Americans commonly have although they are available. I used a 3.25 mm hook for the doll instead of 3 mm like the book called for and I used a 2.75 mm for the clothes instead of a 2.5 mm. I used worsted weight yarn for both.

My only issue with the book is that the directions are not the clearest. This will take crochet experience and previous doll making experience is helpful but not necessary. There are just some areas you have to figure out a little bit. The doll making experience is helpful for areas such as the hair. The directions for this were minimal. I have made a number of dolls over the years and I knew what she was talking about, but if it was my first time, I may have been lost with the limited instructions. You could easily figure out your own thing and I am sure a quick google search would help you out plenty. I am not saying this part of the review to discourage you from getting the book and making your own doll. It is so cute and tasteful it is absolutely worth it. This is just to prepare you. All in all this is simply adorable and worth a little extra effort.

Goat Kids!

This spring brought goat kids to our farm! We have two girls and one boy. The father is Moe so we fittingly named his son Curly. The girls are Tellulah and Poppy. We actually adopted and bottle fed Tellulah. All of the kids are playful and sweet. And, this fall we will have wonderful kid mohair!

                                         This is Tellulah and Poppy hanging out with Poppy's mom.

  Here is Curly curled up with his mom.

Golding is Getting Published!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just found out that my Golding the Bouncy Fish pattern is going to be published in Crochet One Skein Wonders for Babies! This is my first time having something published! This is so exciting and an honor. I will post when the book will be released once I find out in July.

Modern Baby Crochet

 I just bought the book Modern Baby Crochet by Stacey Trock. Stacey Trock is one of my favorite crochet designers. I love this book! I love it when crochet is presented in a classy way. I feel like Stacey is good at doing that. The book itself is beautiful. The pictures of the crocheted items are wonderful and I love it that the book is separated into sections based on color. There are bolds, pastels and neutrals. If you have chosen a color theme for your nursery, you can go straight to your color section. Of course you can mix any pattern and color up, your the artist! But Stacey did a great job of fitting designs with colors. 

 This book doesn't have to be just for a nursery. I am making the Pouf for our living room. I have wanted to make this ever since I saw the picture of it. The design is reminiscent of a sea urchin. It is going to make a great ottoman. I kept my color neutral but I went with a dark charcoal from Mary Maxim that is a wool/acrylic blend. It will take a beating and not show dirt the way the cream one in the book would. Her directions are very straight forward and clear. She has a section to explain all of the stitches used in the book so, if you are unfamiliar with the bobble that you see used in the Pouf, it is explained in the front. 

 I highly recommend this book. I loved it so much that I started two projects at once! The Pouf works up quick on an N hook and chunky yarn. So, I started another one that will take a bit longer. It is an argyle blanket that I will blog about later ;)  

Stash Pics!

My knitting/crochet group is doing this on facebook so I thought I would do it here too! Let's post pics of our stash! Leave a comment if you post a pic to your blog. I'll come visit! I do close those doors but I am being open with you! Oh yeah, you are looking at a jumble of yarn, fiber, tools and dyes!

Lavender to the Rescue!

I have decided to become a distributor for Young Living. These oils are helping my family in big and little ways. Today one of my little ones made the toilet overflow. So, needless to say, I did a lot of cleaning. Part of that cleaning was done with bleach. A little while after I was done, two of my fingers began to hurt. I realized that I had a small chemical burn. I put lavender on it and it was better immediately. Lavender came to the rescue for us the other day as well. The toy box lid slammed down on my two year olds finger so hard, that it cut it. I put lavender on and it never bruised. Also, the cut healed quickly with no problems. I love this stuff!

Knitcrate!

  I should have been blogging about this. I will start out with, if you have the money, do it. If you haven't heard of it, it is called Knitcrate. Some wonderful people put together a wonderful package of knitting or crocheting goodness and you receive it once a month or bi monthly. They have lots of different packages to choose from. You can even order it just once to see if you like it. I ordered the three month deal with Christmas money. A tradition I just started and that I intend to keep.   Now for my February Knitcrate! First the yarn!!!!!!!!!!! It is 600 yes, 600 yds of 100% alpaca! The yarn is by Kate Wright Designs. Each yarn I have received is so luxurious and generous, not skimpy. Oh, and the yarn is usually worth more than you pay for the whole package. And, as if that wasn't fun enough, you get a free pattern, coupons for other patterns and from the people who provided goodies for your package. Yes, that is right goodies. I also received a french curve closure for my knit wear by Jul Designs. It is beautiful and fashionable. It's modern. I also received a tin of Bag Balm hand cream. I have received teas and chocolate before too. It is always a fun surprise!

Testing the Kiwi 2

This week I rented an Ashford Kiwi 2 from my friend Nikol who runs the Harveyville Yarn School. I love this wheel and it is the first double treadle that I have worked with. It's a very nice wheel and it is very relaxing spinning my batts on it. I have never used a spring/sliding (I forgot the technical name) flyer before. In case you get this wheel, squeeze the spring and it will move smoothly along the arms of the flyer. Don't do like I did and have a, this is a terrible design, why doesn't this move, I will never by this wheel, not too smart moment. My son walked over in the middle of my frustration squeezed the spring and moved it along the flyer with ease for me. At least I learned that this wheel did function properly and it is now lovely to spin on.

Something I appreciate about Nikol is that I can test things out before buying. I highly recommend testing first if it is at all possible. Wheels are a personal preference. Every wheel will suit each person differently. I am thinking of giving the Louet S 17 a spin too. But, I have to say that I am loving the double treadle on the Kiwi. It is a very smooth wheel.

My Oils!

So, I have been interested in essential oils for a long time. I have used them a bit in the past. I actually use lavender when I wash fleece to kill bacteria or other ickies. We have also used it when we milk. We put it on our goats udders after milking so no bacteria gets in. But, I wanted to use them on us!

 I began hearing good things about them from some old friends of ours. They were using Young Living. Then some of our new friends were talking about them. I have been treating our family with herbs for 15 years. People assumed I knew a lot about essential oils and began asking questions. I didn't know much but at this point I wanted to.

 The next thing I knew, a good family friend posted about her new oil kit on facebook. So, I sent her a message and she put me in contact with her daughter-in-law, who was a distributor. I purchased a kit and that is one of the best things I have ever done. I am going to paste a facebook message I recently wrote below.

BEST STUFF EVER!!!!! I had a small spot of poison ivy on my arm. I put one drop of peppermint and one drop of frankincense on the area before bed and it is gone this morning. And then my personal big test came this morning. Sometimes I get debilitating headaches that run through my sinus area. I know the cause and I have been using herbal treatments since Dec. Now, I only get two a month. But when they happen, that is it for the day. Nothing helps. Well, today I woke up with one setting in. I read that a drop of peppermint in a glass of water is a good start to your day so I did that and to my surprise it cut the pain in half almost instantly. So, I ran to my computer and looked up how to use it for headaches. I rubbed it around my sinus area with my fingers and the pain is gone! That has NEVER happened before and I have been dealing with these for seven years now. Also, the lavender I posted about yesterday has cleaned up Allison's diaper rash!!!!!!!!!!

I use a lot of natural things in our care but these are really amazing. They are pure and not synthetic and they contain no fillers. It is just a high concentration of all of the good stuff from plants (layman's terms). They work quicker than anything else I have ever seen. My little kiddos were getting over a cold but had a lingering cough. I rubbed Thieves with a little coconut oil on the bottoms of their feet and it is completely gone! Now I get what the big deal is ;)

Revamping!

I know it has been a while. Going to pick this back up and post about my fibery stuff along with other things going on. I think I will spend tonight thinking of ways to revamp the blog. Let's see what I come up with ;)