A note or three about substituting yarns in patterns…

So I was on Ravelry.com the other day, yeah I know how unusual right? Don’t I live there? Anywho….

I was on Ravelry.com looking through my projects, and saw that my Looks Knit Great Fit pattern had two other projects besides mine up, and photos, and that they were frogged…I thought hmmmm…why frogged?

So I looked at the yarn content the folks chose. Ah, not washable wool…cotton? Silk? Tofu? hmmmm…well that just won’t work for that pattern.

In future I am half tempted to list what you should and shouldn’t substitute for my patterns. It’s not really the crafters fault, since that knowledge seems to be arcane at best…and yes, yes, yes I am still working on the book, I have photos and some charts to finish, and I will get it done…

I’ve gathered a few more ideas in the past few months that need to be put onto paper…and I think it will be a humdinger of a resource that will end up saving people time, money, and trouble in the long run.

Folks, the only thing I would substitute for washable wool is a nice springy baby yarn for sock yarn. Cotton and other plant fibers just don’t behave right…I would use completely different stitch patterns and construction using those fibers in a sock or other garment.

Remember, understanding what fibers do can make or break a project…A reminder that I do have a handy dandy guide for download over at Lulu.com and it’s got the basics covered, and frankly makes a great addition to any project notebook!

When it snows? Crochet!

yousif

Originally uploaded by CMHS yarn & designs (laurie wheeler).

Well, the snow has made it imperative that I crochet, it started with hooking to make sure son had something warm on his hands, then it ended up being the solution to prevent me going balmy. If all goes well though, I get out of the house on Tues to go shopping with my friend…THANK YOU BEC!

This picture was taken a week ago, we have significantly more snow than what is in the photo, in fact the bushes behind my son in this pic, are now completely under a mound of snow!

Angle Pocket Purse

HomerMonkey 007

Originally uploaded by CMHS yarn & designs (laurie wheeler).

Read the post below!

Snow, Christmas Presents, and am I done yet?

I have been working like a mad woman getting things crocheted, but then we had snow, and my sons gloves were not really warm, they were water proof, but not warm…and so I had this white woolen yarn, that a friend had sent me from NY last spring, and I had been saving it for something, but no real ideas…so there I sat at 5 am as the snow was coming down, making my little kitten (he hates that, cause he’s 12 and WAY too mature to be called my little kitten, but you know I’m a mom and it’s my job to mortify him) mittens.

I don’t make him as many things as my daughter, cause well, it’s more fun to make frills and feathers and fun things for her, but I got such a deep satisfaction out of his mittens, and so did he…”Mom! I LOVE THEM! These are for ME???” and they’ve kept his little fingers warm…

Now up above you’ll see not the mittens but photos of the little angle purse I made my neice Lydia for Christmas. I used a sandwhich bag for the window and poked holes in it to crochet through, you have to be really careful not to rip the plastic, the window is a pocket for a little angel doll, and the purse looks like a peppermit!

Behold the Christmas Monkey

HomerMonkey 001

Originally uploaded by CMHS yarn & designs (laurie wheeler).

Ok…I do not like making dolls, but this one was a labor of quirky love for my little Bro (well he’s 36 but he’s still my little bro)….He wanted a Christmas Monkey so he gets a Christmas monkey.

I didn’t felt it down as much as I’d have wanted but I was pressed for time and needed to get it done in time for the holidays and ship it off…

Oddly it bears a striking resemblence to Homer ….but I don’t the bro will mind

Christmas, Oh Christmas…

Ok, like you I had this GRAND PLAN of making my Christmas/Holiday Gifts this year again. Hmmmm…why did I not do it last year, OH YEAH!!! I remember now!

So, I’ve made a dolly purse, a Christmas Monkey that bears a striking resemblence (unintended) to Homer Simpson, wash cloths, and cotton soap bags, and a teddy bear harness, and I still have more to go…

I’m still working on a pillow I will felt, don’t know who it’s for now, but I’m sure by the time I’m done with it I’ll remember…and yeah, I still have to finish buying presents for the kids…Husband’s mostly done…best friend and cousin are done…most of the kids are done…and ack the holidays…I’m not frenetic though, just wondering why I chose to do this, when I’m wrapping up the fixes for the LAST review of the CLF First Ever Book, and getting ready for the submissions to start rolling in come January for the next book…

What was I thinking? Well, that I have super powers, that’s what…we’ll see if I’m right.

Alternative yarn….

So, here I’m going through what my friend and I lovingly called the “Feed Store” which is actually called the “Country Store” (of Skagit Valley Farmers Supply Coop)….cause they always have cool gifts and interesting items for the hard to buy for…and what do I spy….The BIGGEST, BADDEST spool of binding twine I have ever spied in my life….and I think to myself, “Self that is some kind of bag waiting to be made…self that is an awe inspiring amount of twine…self you know you must have that twine…”

So, I buy the biggest, baddest spool of twine in the world, a lovely hairy twisted jute affair, with designs on making a shopping bag out of it…and well, after soaking said twine a bit at a time as I worked with it (cause it’s easier to worth with that way)  I decide that maybe a WHOLE bag out of this is a bit much, but the base of a bag would be cool…now remember this is also a bulky twine, so I’m using a H hook (mostly because it’s so bulky that a hook to it’s girth would produce too large a stitch), and I made a 20 inch rounded base…It’s cool…but now that I’m working up the sides with acrylic and have already spent up one skein of 200 yds, I’m asking myself, “Mom, are we there yet?”….I should be done by the end of the week, after that I think I’ll make a few “smaller versions of the bag cause this one is um….well… just a bit more than I feel like working on with the holidays so very close….I hope I have a camera before the hols to photograph this though, because Bemoth Bag is coolness….just laborious (and I’m doing it in open work!)

Yeah, somedays I just wonder at myself….

Wow, I can just write for me here….

You know I’m really glad I have this place to blog, I haven’t done it in so long what with the CLF eating my life in a very good way, and the book that took over my living room LOL….but I’m like you a crocheter and I sit here with X-mas looming over me, grabbing my ass every time I stop looking over my shoulder…and there are too many projects to do and not enough time!

I also need a new camera…long story…don’t know where it is…and well here I have all these cool things I’m making and I can’t take pics of them….SIGH….next week I’ll pick up a new one, cause well X-mas is coming and I need pics of the kids and EEEEK….

Feeling zen here….not.

I think I also need to kick my helpless self because I’ve overcommitted again…I have joined the Friends of the Library group on Camano Island so we can retain what is now a mere pilot project…and we need that library! I NEED that library it’s where I get my work done dang it!

And in Stanwood they just opened a new youth center and I offered to teach crochet…egads…but how could i pass up such a lovely way to get more minions for the clf I shall entice them with funky doodle hats and scarves, and then ah yes, hook them with Amigurumi

Think good thoughts and if you’ve seen my camera tell it get it’s butt back home