Croc Stitch - Exp. 3 Yellow Drawstring Purse

 Yeah I like the croc stitch in baby weight yarn. I know the lighting sucks on my pics I'll have to make more of an effort then taking shots right in front of the PC from now on. This turned into a really cute project. Shame I have no little girls to give stuff like this too. The yarn is an old skein of Jamie baby yarn in pastel yellow. It was used and I still have a bit left so I'd say 3/4 of the 1.75 oz skein for the body of the project.
I started with a ch of 80 and joined in row 2 into a circle.

 There are 4 rows of petals (scales). 3 rows of dc. 2 rows of open patterns(dc, skip, 2 dc, skip, repeat)
The first row of the open pattern at 4 equal distant stitches I used 2 dc of the row before to make a petal stitch. It's tighter and more pulled in on itself then the others but it looks nice. I may use sewing thread to put one stitch in the lower end between 5th dc and first dc of next side. But I like the look of a more immature petal on the top

 There is a slight ruffle along the top edge. Simple ch 3 st repeat around. The pull string is a long chain. I was thinking of something else but wanted something to have in there for the pictures so I took apart a small granny square I had of the same yarn and chained the whole length so I wouldn't have to cut it. But ya know I really like the long chain in there. I may add something petals, leaves to the end of the chains and just have a sliding slip knot in it.

The bottom is done in a worsted weight wool yarn. Dec dc around till the hole is about one inch in diameter and then dec sc until your down to a few stitches then sewn closed with a yarn needle. I'll place something round and stiff in the base because the bottom is a different color yellow then the rest I don't want it to sag down with the weight of anything in side and be seen

Infinity Scarf

Wow. This is turning out really nice. I hope I have enough yarn to make the project a decent length. I plan to join the ends but I'd like it to be able to lay across the shoulders to look a bit like a wrap as an option. Christmas gift for my aunt. Hope she likes it
Promo Fil yarn in brown. Same stitch as purple infinity scarf but with 10 repeats of x stitch across. I hook. Still a wip

Granny Slipper

 Well It's definitely granny squarish. The pattern is available at Bernat's free pattern page, search Granny Slippers.
I used a size larger hook and to start my ring was 3 ch. 5 left a large hole. With a re enforced or even better those rubber soles you can buy for crochet slippers in the craft stores, these would be something you could putter around in with socks on. Not quite as warm as I'd like and floppy.

Narrow Infinity Scarf - Cowl

 The purple dollar yarn from walmart, Promo Fil, made this. The stitch is 2 tr and a dc made around them in sort of an x pattern. This scarf is 4 repeats wide with a tr on each end. This is a neat clean stitch. Very defined edge. Un bound the piece was 4 ft long. I joined the ends with a whip stitch to create a circle. My grandmother can use this as a scarf or wrap it around her neck twice  as a cowl.  I like it. Hope the yarn holds up.

Croc Stitch - Exp. 2 brown purse

I was at Walmart the other day and while exploring clearance end caps while waiting for my son's prescription I found a bit of yarn for $1 a skein there were 5 in brown and a couple blue and one in light purple. My grandmother likes purple so I picked that up and grabbed the brown because hey it was a dollar. The yarn is Promo Fil and although its extremely soft (dk weight) I don't think I would have bought it if it wasn't on clearance. Below the tiny print that says hand wash only it also says, "Do not mix colors in same knit." Huh.
The skein is  2.47 oz or 197 yards the above swatch is nearly an entire skein. Its not quite what I wanted. This croc stitch consumes massive amounts of yarn. I have a feeling this will get absorbed into another project. I prefer the more delicate look that lighter weight yarn gives the stitch this would make a hefty scarf although I'd go for a much more narrow look perhaps only 3 or 4 scales wide even.

Croc Stitch - Exp. 1 Pink Purse

 This started life as a test swatch for the croc stitch. I was following a tutorial by Teresa (link is a video). My starting ch was 40. I used some scraps of yarn so the most I can tell you is the actual "scales" were made of a baby weight yarn with a slow variegation. It just so happened to be the dk pink came out in the middle there. Totally unplanned but looked so nice I thought I'd make something of it. The back is a panel of dc along with handles made with red heart worsted weight in pink.

The purse ideal actually came from someone else who used the same video tutorial for a babe hat. While looking through her blog I found a tutorial for a Bag handle the front of which was a croc stitch panel. My handle is a bit thicker but you get the general ideal from the video. I would have made both sides the croc stitch if I'd had more of the yarn. The silver there is an old fabric I had that will someday be a lining for the purse. perhaps a zipper as well if I'm feeling adventurous.

I've seen other ways of doing this stitch and I have to say Teresa's version is so far the best, for me. Maybe it's easier for some to make a whole line of V stitch and skip every other one but with all the yarn you use, and this stitch uses alot of yarn, why waste any when one dc will do. I suppose there may be confusion over the ending as well but all I can say is practice. Use old yarn and work it out over a few rows. You'll find what works best for you and you'll see the pattern at the end of rows.

Easy Slippers

These were definitely easy. Basically a rectangle folded in half with one end cinched together. I found the pattern at Bev's Country Cottage . My version uses an I hook. My starting chain was 36. I increased to get a larger size but with the bigger hook I should have stayed with 32 or 34 as the slipper is slightly large for my ladies size 10 foot. I used 2 strands of worsted weight yarn for rows 1-5 and 11-15 and added a third strand for rows 6-10(which ends up the bottom of your slipper). Cinch the end and turn inside out. A single row of sc around opening with my off color. I considered the cuff and though perhaps to add a ribbed larger cuff, which I was going to do after seeing how it fit. But I decided I like it as is. With the extra yarn they are quite warm. I'm not sure how bl only stitches would be warmer , wouldn't that pull the stitches further apart then both loops? I don't like the ridged look it would have created hence mine are worked in both loops throughout. They work up extremely fast. I can see how these would be a good project for donation.

Finished second pop heart

Nice tight stitches...

Pop Heart

Why am I crocheting hearts in Nov? I thought my Mom would love this. I had some bright green yarn, mom's fave color, and this sure looked like a stocking stuffer.

The bear from last post is holding the pop heart. The pattern is currently free at Diana Buss's blog site. It's copywrited, which is too bad these would have been really cute for my Son's school craft fund raiser(Jan-Feb). I made a second for a friend but I think I'm going to leave it unstuffed with a tail. She likes to do things with scents, oils, potpourri, ect. I'm sure she will find a way to incorporate that into the stuffing.

There are some things I'd like to note to help you along. The pattern is simple and straight forward. I almost wish american patterns were written this way. But incase you need the extra words m2 = 2 sc in same stitch. LOL I printed my copy out and added stitch counts for each row. It helped a little. Unless your capable of keeping perfect count of stitches I firmly recommend you use something to mark your rounds. I found if you leave long enough tails you can use the center string for each cup and then after you join use the tail from joining the 7 stitches. All I do is pull the yarn a bit through the first stitch or each round. Normally I would use a bit of yarn of some contrasting color making it easy to see. All those pins and clips just get in the way. You dont have to use something fancy to just mark a stitch. At the bottom of the post I'll leave a list of end counts for the rows. Even with the counts and marking my stitches I still messed up both hearts somewhere between rows 15 and 20. The first time I kept unraveling the work. I think I was just tired. cause I never figured out what I did wrong. The second heart I was like pfft. When I came up with 1 extra st I worked in and extra dec. no biggie the heart still looks great. I originally counted the stitches because I couldnt find my error and wanted to make sure the counts were right. Make sure your making the stitches relatively tight. The dec and the stitch after tend to have a longer loop and any loose stitches will show the stuffing thru.

The last pic is up to the 25th round. I'll stuff and shape the cups and finish it to 28. Then I'll weave the ends to make it more of a drawstring closure. That way my friend can add whatever they like and or change it.

BTW the double ring at the beginning made a nice job of closing up the ring, I'll definitly be using that elsewhere.

Round / ending stitch count

cup A

1/6

2/12

3/18

4/24

5/30

6/33

7/36

8/36

9/39

10-11/39

cup B

1/6

2/12

3/18

4/24

5/30

6/36

7/39

8/42

9/45

10/45

11-13/48

14/73

15/69

16/65

17/60

18/55

19/49

20/42

21/36

22/30

23/24

24/18

25/18

26/12

27/12

28/6

29/5

Pink Bear

I've had the pieces of this bear in a bag for awhile. (+6 months) Everything was finished except for assembly. Which wasnt hard. I didn't even have the original instructions. It was a no brainer. So why did it sit in a bag? Who knows. It wasn't "for" anyone. I believe I had a skein of pink yarn I was probly never going to use and was looking for something to crochet with it. So yesterday I found it and ta-da. It's done. I really have no clue at the moment where the original pattern came from. The purple bow wasn't part of the pattern.  It was just too much pink for me. He will go back in a bag now and to the emergency gift section of my storage. XD

Project Update: Bag of many colors

 

I decided from looking at my pictures that the sewn over line was NOT substantial enough. So I went back and slip stitched black over the lines, which worked perfectly! One of my main concerns had been keeping those lines straight so the pattern would look good across the stitches. This did just the trick and I'm glad it worked out this way. It looks much better. I "outlined" the diamond patterns on the sides of the bag as well and they cleaned up nicely. I still havent lined the bag as I'm trying to decide if I should insert something to help it keep it's shape and what that something should be. I had considered foam board but one bend or crack and any shaping would be lost. So this is still a work in progress.

Cowls...

I was looking for something to make for my grandmother for christmas. She is Always cold. My mother mentioned something about her wanting high neck tops and I thought something like a crochet fake turtle neck would work great. She could switch them out with outfits and keep the draft off her neck. I particularly liked the mobius cowls but they arn't quite what I'm looking for here. I really want something that starts below the shirt, is snug but not too tight and maybe even taper up towards the chin. As of yet I haven't found just what I'm looking for. There are many amazing patterns out there and this seems like an ideal gift this year for anyone looking for last minute ideals. Something that isn't a huge time sapper, is in fashion, and extremely useful. The two cowls I made were done in one evening of experimenting. I so far prefer the bulkier yarns. The white was done in the baby clouds yarn and the other was a red heart I had left over from the scarf. (which I honestly thought of dismembering in favor of making a few of the cowls)

I'm still searching for the ideal pattern. I hope I find it before xmas.