Scrappy Goodness

I just love my basket full of left over yarn from other projects! It's amazing what can come out of those scraps. I knit up this scarf using leftovers. Cast on 200 stitches so it would be nice and long and knit in strips of color, each separated by a row of white, by k2 tog, wrap yarn around the needle (I am much better at actually knitting these stitches than typing them out!) The white row creates a criss-cross pattern.


I am making hot pads or you could call them pot holders for the girls at work. These are so much fun to work on...I get addicted to them. Of course, I am using up scrap yarn, so they are very bright! I can see these squares put together for an afghan...it would look awesome!!! I crochet eleven rounds to create the square, then fold in each corner and seam them together. You can actually see one completed in the picture below. I know the girls are going to love these!





I have accomplished so much this weekend. Just about finished up my Christmas shopping! And gave the house a good cleaning, I mean I even took down the window scarves and washed them, took down the pictures and cleaned them...and steam cleaned the carpet! Needless to say, my lower back is feeling the aftermath, but it is so nice to get up on Monday morning for work and have the house clean and in order!!!

It is going to be a busy week, and I am sure it will fly by!

Some Crochet Inspiration

Just a small posting showing some crochet inspiration from my flickr friends. I have found an astonishing amount of talent there, and am inspired by it all!

Christmas Time

Here's a little portion of my tree. It's a little table top tree with all of my handmade ornaments. I especially love my little cross stitched Santas!

I have been reminiscing alot about how excited we would get at Christmas time. There are five kids in my family, so you can imagine the excitement! How much fun that was...it was magical! I still love this time of year, but miss that "childlike" excitement it used to have.

Funky Cold Medina Scarf!

I made this scarf for one of my buddies at work. She went nuts over my potato chip scarf...so I thought this would be perfect for her for Christmas! Well, this thing grew as I was knitting it! I kept running out of yarn...so it is full of different yarns. It's very funky and fuzzy, and long!!!!


Personally, I would wear it!!! I think it would look great with a classic black turtle neck sweater and a pair of jeans, and boots! I can see her in it now!



I don't know if you can tell, but there is a lot of blue/purple in the scarf, and the edges are red/orange. I used some recycled sari yarn (and run out) some funky eyelash yarn (which I ran out of) and trimmed it off with a really thin yarn that was fuzzy.



It's truly funky!!! I would love feed back from everyone reading this on your opinion!! In the meantime, I need to start on another scarf for another coworker. This girl loves the color pink, so I am thinking pinks with an accent of black. Not sure if I will crochet or knit it...I am leaning for just a simple garter knit scarf where I change the colors through out.

Finished! My Super Knitting Tote!

I get so excited when I finish a project. This is truly an original! Once I finish up one of my bags I always find things I would do differently, for instance, if I were to do this again, I would make the strap a little shorter. But I love the color and shape and the traditional black bordered granny square design. It reminds me of a carpet bag you would carry on a train to travel across the old west.


Can you tell how big it is??! I cannot believe how much I can pack into this baby! Notice the flat bottom...and it stays that way. I sandwiched three sheets of plastic canvas and sealed them in a crocheted envelope...so this is strong and can hold some weight. I also fully lined the bag with a crocheted liner. It gives the bag a great shape.


You can see how I cinched the sides with a chain stitch cord which I laced through the top portion of the bag. I like the effect this gives and I can always loosen it if I need more room!


You can see a skein of yarn lurking doen in the bottom of the bag. I could probably put about 9 skeins of yarn in this bag comfortably!!

Now that I have this done, I am free to work on a few Christmas goodies. I think once Christmas has passed I will drag out my Babette blanket and get it finished up. It always feels so good to finish up a project! :-D

Busy Little Christmas Hands!

Okay, I know I do not have time to make a scarf for everyone on my list, but I am giving it my best try! :-D I do have a select few that I would like to make a scarf for...so here are my efforts so far. I crocheted this green scarf up in two evenings, and I love it. It is so soft! I had been saving that nubby variegated yarn for some time now. I used an oversized hook so this is a really soft and squishy scarf. (I have more of this yarn in blues...and am jonesing to use it!)





This is a simple garter stitch scarf. I love making these, using about four different yarns and watching a color pattern come to life. And of course, I had to add the nubby crocheted fringies...it's a must!



This is called "I love this scarf" that I made a while back. It has been so hard to get a good picture of this to reflect the true color of the yarn. This one is not bad...The yarn is from Hobby Lobby by Yarn Bee...it escapes me at the moment what it's called. I experimented with the fringe on this one and created this bullion fringe and like how it turned out, and was pretty impressed at how easy it was to do!



Update!!! Last night I finished my granny square knitting tote! I am hoping for some sunshine in the next day or two to get some good pictures to post! With that done, now I can focus on some more little Christmas projects...you know, there are only 24 days left!

Crocheted Ornaments

I don't quite know what to call these little ornaments. They aren't really snowflakes...kinda a cross between a snowflake and a granny square! Aren't they fun. I came up with these this past weekend. I had other things I could have worked on, but I was bored, and the idea for these ornaments has been lurking in my head for a little while now. I used embroidery floss and a small crochet hook for these. They look great on a Christmas tree. I like them in Christmas colors but would also like to try them in some jewel tone colors and maybe add some beads.


These are actually double sided, meaning the ornament is actually two grannies crocheted together, so it has a neat weight to it. I especially like the octagon-shaped ornament.




With Christmas coming soon I can't seem to focus, I have so many projects I want to get done in time for Christmas! Scarves to make, ornaments, and a couple other little goodies. Let's hope the long Thanksgiving weekend will give some time to do some of these things!