Yeah, my crocheted slipper project is almost complete, a few more tweaks and these will be given to my father.
These slippers were created from leftover yarn. I’m thinking about adding some ‘manly tassels’ to the slippers, before I give them to my father.
The crocheted slippers are easy enough for a beginner to make, and took about two hours to complete. Adding the tassels will only take a few moments.
I originally made a pair of crocheted slippers for my mother. My dad saw them, and requested a pair for himself. That was about a week ago. The result, they will now have matching crocheted slippers. Since her crocheted slippers were made with the same yarn… I’m not too fond of the color scheme (I was getting rid of leftover yarn, remember) my mom loves them. By the way, my mother wears hers daily.
Edited to add: I used a size P crochet hook, so that helped speed up the slipper creation. I used a size N hook, to create my mothers slippers; hers took about three hours. The crochet hooks I use are made by Boye.
I’m still working on my crocheted Yo-Yo afghan, the Yo-Yo’s are piling up at an alarming rate. I do believe I’ll take a picture of them soon.
Spring break starts on Monday, and so today was my daughters last day of school for a week. Their teacher had a mini-Easter egg hunt for their third grade class. How nice was that? The children were limited the amount of eggs they were allowed to gather, thereby insuring the everyone received something.
Crocheted Easter Eggs
Earlier today I found this crocheted Easter egg pattern, at the time, I had no idea that the teacher was having an Easter Egg hunt for the kids at school. As far as my daughter was concerned, it was an added bonus… she collects the plastic Easter eggs. When she saw the pattern, she became excited, since she thinks they easily trump the plastic version.
While we watch Milo and Otis, this evening (for the 60 billionth time) I’ll be whipping (or should I write — hooking) up a few of the crocheted Easter eggs for herself, and a few of her friends.
I’m curious if we’ll even watch that movie today? There’s a ‘R.L. Stine hour’ which starts at 7:00. My daughter has read most R.L. Stine’s books, so for her it’s a treat that the books come to life on TV. I find them fascinating too, and so while crocheting this evening, I’ll have one eye on the television and the other on my crochet project.
“Do you have any footies that I can use?” Is the question my mother asked, when she called me yesterday.
Today, she’s going to visit my brother and sister-in-law in Texas, and she doesn’t feel like walking around with nothing on her feet. She’s so unlike me! I’m the barefoot queen. You wouldn’t be able to tell it by checking out my feet, I’m also the diva when it comes to keeping my feet looking appealing. I do my own pedicures.
Anyway, when she asked that question, I interpreted it as, “Opal, will you make me some crochet slippers?” ” I know you can make them since I’ve seen at least two pairs that you’ve made for my grandaughter.” Get this, my mom knows how to crochet, she’s miles ahead of me. However, she mainly makes afghans; not the granny squares or Yo-Yo crochet afghans, but everything else. Her work is exquisite!
Since I knew what she was really asking me, I said, “How about I just crochet you some slippers?” Her reply, “Sure, if you want to…” Abut three hours later, I had crocheted her slippers. It wouldn’t have taken that long, but I took breaks to help my daughter with some projects, and make her snacks. I forgot to take pictures once I complete the slippers, but since my daughter and I will be dropping her off at the airport today, I’ll be sure to take a few photos.
My father saw my mom’s slippers and said, “Ok, now you have to make me a pair!” It’s my dads way of saying that he likes them. Yeah… that was real subtle dad! <smirks> My family is something else… we’ll go out of our way to help others, but when it comes to asking for things for ourselves… it’s like pulling teeth. Yep, I’m the same way. For some reason it feels ‘wrong’ to ask for something…
For those interested in how to make the crochet slippers, check out Hectanooga’s Youtube video… My crochet slippers are slightly different, but this is a great crochet slipper tutorial for those new to crocheting slippers. It’s so simple that even a person that’s new to crochet can complete them, although it might take a bit longer.
Kudos to Hectanooga for responding to Youtube users that might have questions. When I was making a chunky crochet hat for my nephew she answered my questions quickly, which tells you she’s paying attention to her readers. Thanks so much Hecternooga!
Although Christmas is far away, I’m already working on items for this upcoming year, and this year I’ll be including a few of my gaming buddies. Soon I’ll be emailing a few of my gaming buddies like Kaozz,Anexxia, and Lightshadow (affectionately known as ‘Malk’), in hopes they’ll send me their addresses. Malk’s my loveable retired naval Alliance guild leader.
For those familiar with WoW, I met him while questing in StrangleThorn Vale on my newly made Alliance druid. I mainly play Horde. I stayed with the faction, because of the amazing folk I met there (always willing to help out — just like myself!) — still miss Horde though. I’m an officer in his guild, not on too much to game, but always willing to do run throughs or craft something for a guildmate since my toons have all the professions maxed out.
I met them all through the game World of Warcraft, although I don’t game too much, so busy yah know! I always check out Kaozz and Anexia’s blog Malk doesn’t have a blog, but we communicate via Skype and email.
Although I learned how to crochet when I was eight-years old, it’s something I didn’t actively do until at the end of last year. One of the ladies, from my quilting group, showed me several stitches, but she went so fast…. it didn’t stick.
Upon arriving home I logged onto YouTube and discovered YouTube user Geek Crochet, she also uses the name Crochet. What’s great about her videos is part of them are done in slow motion, which is perfect for those who might need to see the stitch done at a slower place.
I’ve included the videos in comments now and again, but I’ve decided to dedicate an entire post to her videos. Check out and enjoy!
Video Tutorial: How to make the crochet chain
Video Tutorial: How to make the single crochet
For those who want to learn more, check out more of YouTube user, Crochet’s, beginning crochet videos.
Initially, I started making small crocheted rounds, to serve as facial scrubs. Although I don’t use them on my face — I just use a washcloth. I know a few people who do purchase those tiny discs to cleanse their face.
Which got me thinking… Wouldn’t it be great if I made them some reusable discs? It’d be environmentally friendly, and save them some money too, since they’d just have to toss the crocheted discs into the laundry. Of course someone that of this too. They’re called ‘crochet scrubbies’ .
While making my ‘scrubbies’ I thought how neat it would make an afghan out of all those tiny circles. A few days ago, I discovered what I was calling ‘crochet rounds’ were also known as ‘Crocheted Yo-Yo’s’. I discovered this term, when I was searching for ‘circle afghans’. I didn’t find too much on that, but after some digging via the Google search engine I stumbled upon, ‘Crochet Yo-Yo’s’.
Tomorrow, I have a few items to share for Work in Progress Wednesday; One is my first big crochet project that I’m slowly creating… So what’s the project? It’s a Yo-Yo afghan! Tomorrow, I’ll post pictures of my work in progress, along with tutorials I stumbled upon yesterday.
The other work in progress item is actually finished, now. I modified my daughters Monster High backpack. My daughter loves the Monster High dolls. Shocking, since she really hasn’t paid too much attention too dolls until last spring. I purchased the Monster High backpack before the school year started. I won’t be purchasing anything like that again.
This backpack would be fine for kids having a sleepover, carrying extra items, but it’s not ideal for a kid who has a lot of books/homework. My daughter is in third grade, and the students carry several books home daily. Because of the amount of books she was carrying, the stress from having those books crammed into her backpack broke the cheaply made zipper. I remember when zippers teeth were made out of metal. Grrr…
Part of the backpack transformation involved, removing the old zipper with my seam ripper. The old zipper was upgraded to a heavy duty metal zipper that I ripped out of and old computer bag that was given to me but I never used. My Macbook Pro is 17″, that computer bag only fits computers up to 15″.
I keep my MackBook Pro in the Brenthaven 17-Inch ProLite III shoulder case. Even though I didn’t need it, I held onto the smaller computer bag, ‘just in case’ and this time, being a packrat paid off, since I was able to utilize the old zipper in my daughters backpack.
After machine sewing the zipper to my daughters backpack. I added one embellishment. I made a crochet yo-yo, and attached it to her backpack. She loves her ‘new’ backpack
In other news…
Because of the amount of time and detail it’ll take to make the numerous crocheted Yo-Yo’s, I most likely will be holding off, making a quilt, until my Yo-Yo afghan is complete.
I’m hoping I can start working on a simple hand-sewn quilt by July. I had every intention to start working on a hand-sewn quilt sometime this month. I’ll have to put that on hold until July before I start. With my local quilting group, we have two quilters who hand sew their quilts. They’ve brought in some of them, and they’re absolutely breathtaking. Knowing that I have some experts right at my fingertips will come in handy if I run into any problems.
Cats, cats, everywhere…. if my daughter had her way she’d have our house filled with felines.
My daughter absolutely adores cats. She’s been begging me for the longest to get a real cat, but thus far mommy isn’t budging! We have a few pets already; Shih Tzu, two guinea pigs, and one goldfish. So no… I not opening our home to any more animals.
Before the guinea pigs we had four ferrets, that we’d gotten from a local ferret rescue shelter. I absolutely adored them, but I have to admit that once they passed on — I wanted pets that didn’t do too much. Guinea pigs fit the bill nicely.
Since my daughter knows I’m not budging on a live cat… she’s settled for the stuffed cat toys — for now! I can live with that. High on her priority list are the incredibly cute crocheted cats. Above you can see the amigurumi cat, that I’m crocheting. The majority of it is finished, but I still need to complete a leg, tail, ears, stitch on the eyes, nose, and mouth.
A few weeks ago, I picked up the crochet book, Hello my name is Aminkeo: The Story of a Crafty Crochet Cat. This book differs from many crochet books I have, in that it tells a story (through pictures of crocheted kitties) about a crocheted cat named, Amineko and his friends, and their escapades.
Here’s what’s said about the author…
Born in Tokyo 1967, Nekoyama has been a life-long lover of cats. Cats and their endearing mischief have never failed to cheer her up. She created her first Amineko by accident and has never looked back. Today, she and her husband are the proud parents of many Aminekos. Nekoyama’s first book, A Day In the Life of Amineko, was published in Japan in 2005.
If you own a cat, I’m sure many of you will get a kick out of some of the cat like issues these crocheted cats encounter. I was impressed at how well the author did in mimicking a live cat behavior. I’ve had several cats throughout my life. My daughter loves this book, and has even taken it to her Lutheran school. I imagine to show it off to her classmates.
The direction on how to make these adorable kitties are included near the back of the book. It also has instructions for making additional accessories; fish, squid, and I think a sleep sack. Although I’m still new to crochet, I found the directions quite easy to follow.
Daughter: “Mommy, can you please make me cats in light grey, black, brown, white, red, and green?”
Me: (Mock horror) “All of those! Are you planning on becoming a cat herder?”
Daughter: (big grin) Yep!
Me: (fake grumbling) I’ll be busy for a while! We’ll see…
Daughter: Yeah!
From Wiki…
Herding cats may refer to:
An idiomatic saying that refers to an attempt to control or organize a class of entities which are uncontrollable or chaotic. Implies a task that is extremely difficult or impossible to do, primarily due to chaotic factors.
I’ll definitely post pictures once I finish my first crocheted amineko. Eventually I’ll get around to making her some additional amigurumi kitties. As mentioned in my housecleaning post, I picked up the audiobook 11/22/63: A Novel by Stephen King. It came in handy, while I was reorganizing my bedroom. I’m halfway through it now. I’m loving the story, reminds me of Kings earlier work. ll be listening to that, while crocheting the adorable cats.
Edited to add:
Work in Progress Wednesday
I completely forgot it was Work in Progress Wednesday, I’m linking to the following works in progress…
