Current Crochet Projects

So in the background this past week I’ve been hard at work on three crochet projects: take 2 on the crochet handbag I tried at the end of August, a hat for Somer for her birthday coming up in November, and a small crochet pumpkin.

The second try on the crochet handbag is going… ok.  If you remember, I had followed a great pattern for the first take but the finished result seemed to be a bit too wide and not quite tall enough for my purse needs.  I decided I’d make a second handbag, adjusting a few lines of the pattern to make the overall bag not as wide and a bit taller.  I am not sure now that the purse will be big enough just in general now that it’s not as wide.  But I didn’t like the awkward space in the corners of the bag when I made it as wide as the pattern called for; at least for my personal preference.  Maybe if I had just changed the height to be taller, the width would’ve balanced itself out?  I am not quite finished with take 2, but it already sounds like attempt 3 is taking shape.  We’ll see how it turns out after I add a closure, line it, and add the handles.

The beanie is something I’m pretty excited about.  I hope Somer doesn’t read my blog before her birthday next month, but I just can’t not post about it.  It’s a frog hat, and I’m nearly finished with it; it’s from a pattern here by Crochetroo, and is so darn cute! :) It’s basically a double crochet beanie hat done in green (I chose Vanna’s Choice in Kelly Green, my first time using Vanna’s Choice. I really like working with it and will be using it again on other projects that call for a simple worsted weight yarn.) and then there are two double crochet eye “bulbs” that you attach on top.  The pattern calls for googly-eyes (which in general I despise) but I think they’re a perfect fit for this project and will give it just the right finishing touch when I hot glue them to the center of each eye bulb.  I just have to go out and purchase some googly-eyes!  It’s a quick crochet and I started it Tuesday evening before House came on and then finished up the beanie portion last night in no time. Today I plan to do the band and then work on the eyes. Even though it’s spanning over 3 days, the amount of time I spent each day was very small and this could easily be done in one evening I think.  It gives me ideas for making a teddy bear beanie, using the same pattern just in brown and not adding googly-eyes at the end (so the eye bulbs of the frog would be teddy bear ears.)  Not that I have time to add more things to my queue for Christmas projects, but oh well.  Love the pattern!

And the small crochet pumpkin is one of my favourite finished objects right now.  It turned out so cute! :) I followed the YouTube tutorial by Teresa, who is tjw1963 on Ravelry, and she is the founder of the Video Crochet group there which has been immensely helpful in my learn-to-crochet endeavour.  She has some amazing videos on YouTube for all kinds of projects and demonstrating a huge variety of crochet stitches.  Her blog accompanies her video tutorials in case you want written instructions for each pattern to follow along with, too.  As most of you know, this past week was Canadian Thanksgiving, and my husband and I were invited to my friend Michelle’s mom’s house for dinner.  It meant a lot to us, because Michelle’s mom and grandma treated us like family, and we really felt special being invited to their family Thanksgiving dinner.  I made this little crochet pumpkin and attached a thank you tag to it and mailed it off today to thank Michelle’s mom for including us.  We plan to return the favour and have their family over for American Thanksgiving next month :) Michelle is such a good friend; how nice it was to feel like family, too.

So that’s what I’ve been up to in the fibrearts world!  Once I finish Somer’s froggie beanie I plan to get started right away on matching doggie sweaters for Oliver and Winston.  I can’t wait!  They’ll be done in Bears colours, of course: a beautiful navy blue and pumpkin orange. :love: Little Winston goes for his neutering appointment tomorrow morning first thing, so keep him in your thoughts!  It sounds like he’ll have to wear a cone for a bit until the incision heals, which will make for some admittingly hilarious photos. Am I evil for thinking that? lol :lol:

See you tomorrow for Freebie Friday!

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