pattern links Archives - Page 2 of 19

Adding to the mystery

We’ve reached the next installment of the mystery afghan series. After the joining was done I checked the size. Big enough for our queen size bed? The answer was almost but not quite, and I had the solution on deck: a Greek Key patterned throw from Red Heart. I originally thought I’d do this in black and dark purple, but realized that would detract from the stained glass effect of the black joins. Since I had the most dark purple and dark gray leftover (albeit not quite enough gray, as it turned out), I did it in those colors and joined it with black.

Instead of a long foundation chain followed by a row of single crochet, I made 213 foundation single crochets to start. Otherwise I followed the pattern, save fixing one typo: In row 9, just before “repeat from * across” it says to dc 3 rows down and skip the next sc. In between those two instructions it should have you chain 2 (in place of the sc you’re skipping).

The pattern calls for you to chain 2 whenever you’re skipping 1 stitch. If I were starting over I would only chain 1. It’s likely the designer’s chains are tighter than mine and a single one puckered unattractively, but in my tension the two chains spread and make the key pattern serif instead of sans-serif, so to speak.

I made the second panel twice. The first time I joined all my leftover gray and still ran out with one long row left. Instead of continuing from that point with new gray yarn and a dozen tails to deal with, I decided to pull it out, and when I got back to the beginning purple I realized I’d joined that in the second row as well! Must have cut out a knot or frayed area. Anyway at that point it seemed worthwhile to start completely over. Once I got the new skein of gray I realized why I’d run out: it wasn’t enough for the panel! Barely – I ran out with maybe 10 stitches left – but man, that’s a yarn eater. I pulled back to the start of the row so the tails would be at the edge and used some of the previous leftovers to finish. Unfortunately the new skein was a vastly different dyelot than the previous, but in the not terribly bright light of the bedroom, hanging off the edge of the bed, it should be fine.

Since I’m down to just the border, here’s my leftover non-black yarn (plus all the ball bands, minus one small ball of light gray which hid in the bag). This is the remainder from 5 dark gray (Red Heart Classic Nickel), 3 light gray (RHC Silver), 5 light purple (RH With Love Lilac, double-sized skeins), and 4 dark purple (RHWL Violet, ditto). The pattern called for 3, 2, 9, and 7 single-size skeins of each color, respectively, so I used less than one additional skein of each color (not counting the extra gray for the extra panels).

In fact, if I’d omitted the extra panels and done the joins and border in two different colors, I believe I could have squeezed them out of the remaining yarn as well. That’s rather amazing because my afghan came out a third again the size predicted – the squares that said they would be 9″ came out 12″ – and I did not buy a third again the called-for yarn. My work must have much more extra air space than extra yarn.

I’ve begun the border but it is slow. I’ve now been working on this afghan fairly steadily for nearly seven months, though, so what’s another one or two?

Other People’s Patterns

My Christmas sewing this year was almost entirely from existing free patterns. I can recommend them, and have a few notes to share.

I made two pencil bags using a tutorial from craftlog.org, with some changes: I was using zippers with decorative tape, so I wanted them entirely on the outside, and I was limited to 7″ instead of 9″ length. I cut the fabrics (and lightweight interfacing because they were quilting cottons) 9″ by 11″ instead of 10″x12″ and sewed them down the 9″ sides, right sides together with interfacing on the wrong side of one, and with a half inch seam allowance. After pressing, I turned it right side out and pressed flat, with the lining fabric peeking just a tiny bit to the outside at each seam. The zipper took up the length of the seam – make sure you space the teeth a bit away from the fabric – and I ran two lines of topstitching down each tape. The second side is awkward, of course. From then on it’s just as in the original tutorial (well, without needing to trim the zipper tape), though you have to pin the open ends of the zipper tape close to each other on the backside of the pouch, and I attached my binding differently from hers. That’s a matter of taste and familiarity. I like to unfold the tape and line the smaller side up with the edge of the fabric, then stitch in the fold, and after wrapping the tape over the edge with the ends inside appropriately, stitch in the ditch on the front to secure the back of the binding.

The other item up there is a “spa scrubbie” from Flamingo Toes. I didn’t change the pattern at all, but doing the final topstitching I wish I would have hand-basted the turning opening closed first. I worried that pins would be bent in the sewing of it, but I wasn’t able to keep the edges lined up by hand and so had to go back and hand-sew afterward anyway. The terrycloth was a washcloth, which was just right size-wise (wide enough to gather up, long enough to trim off the smooth “stripes” parallel to one edge, but almost no other extra), and the other fabric was from a thermal shirt I couldn’t resist at the thrift store, but which turned out to be too small even to be a layering piece. Glad to put some of its cute owls to use.

The Christmas sewing not from a pattern amounted to two other things. First, cat toys: pillows with strips of fabric and lots of fresh catnip from the bulk spice aisle of the local co-op, with the ends closed at 90 degrees to each other, so to speak. One end has the side seam in a crease, and the other has the side seam halfway between creases. I’m told they’re quite popular and the first one was soaking wet a few hours after the kitties were given it.

Finally, with no photo because it’s not mine to share, a friend asked me to make texting gloves for another friend. He had wonderful lined leather gloves and conductive thread from Chica and Jo, and asked me to stitch the Triforce on the index fingers and thumbs. Turns out the Triforce is a terrific motif because it splits out into three regions that are relatively small, which gives you accuracy plus different spots to use for tapping versus pinching. I didn’t worry about making the interior of the stitching “messy” (as you’ll see in various tutorials) – when outlining the large triangle I stitched all the way across on the inside, but due to the fuzzy lining it wasn’t terribly noticeable. When we tested, though, that was ample contact to trigger the screen. Two tools were indispensable for the process: a large marker to act as a “darning egg,” keeping me from sewing through the lining of the opposite side of the finger, and a needle puller (small flower-shaped piece of rubber, like a jar opener), which I used to protect my finger when pushing and to grab the needle for pulling. Nice leather is both tough and grabby.

When next we meet it will be 2015! Enjoy your New Year’s Eve!

Shining (ribbon) stars

Our Christmas tree has no topper. We’d love to get a high-end crystal star for it, but that’s yet in the future. Meanwhile I’ve been improvising – one year we had wide ribbon tied in bows, one year I made an origami star out of construction paper (because it was the only appropriately-colored paper I had that was large enough). This year I decided to crochet a star out of ribbon, and got the chance to this weekend. The result is shown below, blurrily, on the tree, after my loving husband arranged the lights behind it for best effect.

I thought at first that I would chain stitch ribbon around wire, bend it into shape, and connect the ends; nesting two or three of different sizes would fill out the star. That might have worked if my wire had been a bit heavier, but as it was it was too flimsy, and it was also difficult to smooth and flatten the wire without crimping and creasing the ribbon.

Then I went looking for patterns and found one by Kimura Kraft that I liked the look of. Unfortunately it didn’t work in ribbon; the inner part was somehow too large for the outside.

Fortunately I had purchased three “kegs” of ribbon, so after two strikes I could still try for a hit, modifying that pattern. For the star shown I used a J hook (6mm), a 40ft roll of 3/16 inch wide ribbon (12.2m|~5mm), and a generous 2ft (60cm) of 28-gauge jewelry wire. I had a decent bit of ribbon left, but only about half the difference to the next available size down, 32ft (9.75m).

Here are my changes to Markus’s pattern. Unfamiliar abbreviations below (and the rest of them too) are explained on the Crochet Reference page.
Round 1: Replace the starting ring and chains with “ch-4, work into ch next to sl kn.” Make sure to put your sl kn onto the hk loosely – ribbon is inelastic.
Round 2: Ch 3 to start instead of 2; work only 1 dc where it says to work 2 (so don’t make that first dc, in particular).
Round 3: This one’s different enough that it’s simpler to give the instructions in full. Note that “in picot” means to treat the “sl st in 3rd ch from hk” parts of rnd 2 as chain rings, working into the center:
No ch this rnd. Work the following stitches around the wire as well as the rnd-2 sts, leaving a wire tail of several inches: *sc 2 around next ch-2; [sc 2, ch 1, dc, ch 1, sc 2] in picot; sc 2 around next ch-2; sk dc* around. Sl st into 1st sc of rnd to join (40 sc, 10 ch, 5 dc). FO ribbon.
Twist ends of wire together and use to attach star to tree or other hanging/display place. Shape by hand.