New Yarn!

I just finished up another great Woolfest in Wamego Kansas last Saturday! I have also just opened up a new Etsy shop and placed my first eight skeins in. More yarn and antler buttons are coming this weekend. Some more exciting news is that I plan on starting a crochet/knit podcast that will be posted on the blog within the next few weeks. It will be audio and I am really looking forward to this! I plan to discuss patterns, yarn, review books and magazines and of course some fun crochet and/or knit alongs with prizes. How about a yarn picture for this one?

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 ;)