Last evening, I was finally able to squeeze in some crochet time. But it wasn’t long, perhaps twenty minutes?
Unfortunately, I have no pictures to share… since I frogged (ripped out) the stitches. In hindsight, I should have taken a photo anyway. It’s a new stitch I’m working on, and since my first crochet attempts weren’t satisfactory (at least for me) I frogged it. But you know what? It’s nice to keep record of the incorrect way to do something, since later you can see how much you’ve advanced. And if you share those mistakes, perhaps it can be an encouragement to others learning too. Since they realize that others, experienced the same obstacles, and were able to move past them?
I must say, I don’t have any remorse about doing that. Perhaps I’m conditioned to this process, since I’d do that with sewing via a seam ripper, and with knitting too. With knitting, it’s much more painful to rip those stitches than crochet, that’s for sure. But with those crafts, I’ve gotten to a point where it’s rare that I have to rip out anything. And the same holds true with the basic crochet stitches. I rarely mess up, but with new crochet stitches… I might. Especially, if the directions aren’t explained well. Which is what happened last evening, if I have time I’ll log onto check out a crochet video tutorial on YouTube.
Today’s going to be busy, and I’m unsure if I’ll have a chance to crochet that much. In less than two hours, we’ll be heading to the 9:00 service at our Lutheran church. Afterwards we’ll come home and hang outside. It’s such a beautiful day.
Who knows, I might have a chance to sneak in a few crochet rows at that time. But I’m not counting on it. However, If I do get the chance… I’ll be sure to post pictures of some of my attempts with the new crochet stitch.
Coraline wasn’t completed yesterday, as I’d hoped, since we spent most of our time outside. However, the crocheted Coraline, will be finished in time for my daughter’s birthday. We’re holding my daughter’s birthday celebration after she returns home from school tomorrow.
This time it’s an adorable crocheted ladybug hat. It’s a small crochet project…
Knowing how much my daughter adores ladybugs, as do I, and seeing a generous project deadline. I jumped at the chance to be a pattern tester.
The crochet designer had a nice range of crochet hat patterns to choose from; infants to adults. I chose the preteen-teen hat.
While it’s true that my eight-year old daughter does have a child sized head, she also has a lot of hair. It’s halfway down her back, and it’s also very curly and thick. I often keep her hair braided, or styled in two stranded twists. Which explains why I offered to crochet the pre-teen/adult size hat, right? All that hair won’t fit in a child sized hat.
This won’t be my first time crocheting hats. I’ve made several already, but I didn’t follow a pattern. I just played with a variety of crochet stitches. And after practicing with my crocheted stitches, my crochet skills improved, and I was able to make my first crocheted hat for a person. I’d made several for my daughter’s Monster High dolls.
I still have that first human hat I’ve made. Occasionally I’ll look at the hat and marvel at how much my crochet has improved in a few short months. I’ve come a long way. So much so that I’ve gifted a few recipients with them; father, daughter, and, nephew. Oh, I even was able to crochet a dreadlock wrap for my locks too.
Tomorrow, after dropping my daughter off at school, I’ll stop by the local yarn store and pick up yarn in a dusty rose; works perfectly with her complexion. That will be the color of the ladybugs body. The dots will be a dark chocolate brown. I think it will look lovely.
I’m at the point where I can read the patterns without to much of an issue. The few times, I’ve run into issues, with published patterns, a simple online search cleared up the questions I had. So I figure I can do the same here, if I should run into issues.
I’ve already printed it out the crochet ladybug hat pattern, and I must say I’m impressed with how thorough this crochet designer is with explaining her pattern. I’m looking forward to crocheting this hat. It shouldn’t take too long, perhaps three hours?
I’ll be starting on it this weekend. I’ll most likely crochet this ladybug hat, while my daughter, and I are watching a movie.
Where has the time gone? At times, it seems as though I had just brought her home from the birthing center where she was delivered by my favorite midwife. That night, at home, I remember staying most of that night just watching her sleep.
For the most part, I’m keeping her birthday simple. She wants me to design brand-new outfits for her Monster High dolls. While she’s been sketching the designs, I’ve “pretended” only to be half interested. But I’m paying attention. She started sewing when she was six. She’s done an amazing job with the outfits she’s made, but at times she want’s a “professional sewer”, as she calls it. Sure, I can help out. I’ve designed clothing.
She’s also requested a few crocheted sleeping bags for her dolls. I guess I can do that too.
Of course I’m tricking her too…
I’m pretending not to work on her crocheted Coraline, to keep her in the dark… I want her to think Coraline will be unfinished for a long time. As fast as I crochet, I’m sure she knows something is wrong with that statement. But then, I’ve thrown her off with the numerous projects I’m crocheting. I’m such a bad mommy, eh? 😉 In reality I’ve been working on Coraline while she’s been away at school. At the latest Coraline should be complete by Saturday.
The ultimate gift for her
But, I do believe the best gift will be the Canon Elura 100 MiniDV Camcorder. It used to be mine, but it’s something I haven’t used in about three years. It still looks like new. I take good care of my items. Whatever interests my daughter, I encourage. Besides drawing, sewing, and reading, another of her activities is stop motion animation.
For the past year, she’s been recording her stop motion animation on her Nintendo DSi. Sewing, acting out stories she’s created, and stop motion animation are the only reason my daughter plays with her dolls. I enjoy watching her creativity, and encourage her to do more.
More importantly, I know she’s at the age where she won’t damage this gift.
Crocheted beanie hat for Monster High Doll; Frankie Stein
What is Stop motion animation?
Stop motion animation brings still objects to life by physically animating them. The main source of the stop motion animation is her Monster High dolls.
By the way that crocheted beanie hat was one of the first items I crocheted, no pattern, just playing around with crochet stitches.
I think it’s time to give her a upgrade to a real video camera. This is a great camera, it’s something I spent my time researching before I settled upon it in 2006, and it will work perfectly for her all her video needs for quite some time.
Video Editing
I guess this means that my daughter will be using my video editing software; Final Cut Pro X. She’s looked over my shoulder numerous times, while I’ve done video editing, so she already gets it; but I know I’ll still have to walk her through some of the video edition process. I must say; I’m looking forward to whatever she comes up with.
Her own domain
I’m also thinking about giving her an url when she’s out of school.
I’ll host it under my personal hosting service. She had a blog when she was six years old. Not too many people knew about it outside of family, and a few friends. But at her new site, she’ll be able to post her videos, observations, and perhaps share some of her stories too? I still have her old site content saved, so most likely I’ll just move that information to the new site.
Giving thanks
I usually don’t spend too much on gifts. It’s something I learned from my parents, and it’s a habit I practice to this day. As I’ve told her, just be thankful that someone has thought enough of you to give you something.
In reality, this birthday her “gifts” won’t cost that much… I already had a like new video camera. Also, I have plenty of yarn and fabric. The main thing required is time. Hmm… that can be challenging. Time is precious, and it can be difficult making time to do various things.
But I determined, before she was born, that the expression my mother would say about some people…
“Long on promises, short on time,”…
Wouldn’t apply to my daughter. I’ll make the time; she’s worth it!
The reason to get moving with grannies has everything to do with the wonderful Pammy at Scotty’s Place.
She posted a picture of a gorgeous floral afghan. And I wanted to learn how to make those squares. What I didn’t know was I’d have so much fun making them.
With a printed tutorial in hand, I didn’t find it hard to make crocheted granny squares. The green and brown were my test squares…
I decided I wanted to try citrus colors and chose the lavender, and lime green. I thought the colors would work well together.
Once I completed the lime, I loved how the colors looked great; but I thought something was missing? And so I added another row with the mustard yarn. I love the look; it’s so bright and cheerful, that I most likely will turn this into a project.
Eventually I’ll be making a floral granny square afghan, but will be deviating from this floral granny afghan square a lot. I already sketched out the afghan that I’ll be creating.
I’m still working on my daughter’s amigurumi Coraline. The poor girl still needs a haircut!
I had to put this project on hold while I worked on some last minute Mother’s Day gifts. I should be finished my crocheted Coraline by the end of this week.
What am I reading?
Well, I’ve been reading a lot of granny square tutorials. Who knew there were so many ways to make them? 😉
I’ve been working on a Yo-yo flower afghan for the past few months, but I’ve avoided crocheting granny square afghans…
Most of the ones I’ve seen, have looked nice but I wasn’t interested in making those. I wanted an afghan with lots of flowers, and the look I wanted… well, I wasn’t seeing.
I eventually knew I’d see a granny square afghan pattern that would be saying, “Come on Opal, crochet me!”
Well that’s happened…
A few days ago, Pammy posted this crocheted floral afghan on her site Scotty’s Place. I think it’s gorgeous. Look at all those flowers! We have a large and small flower gardens scattered around our property. So yes… it’s safe to say that I adore flowers.
I believe this week, I’ll learn how to make granny squares. Pammy was kind enough to send me a video tutorial of the joining method, and there’s always YouTube if I run into any issues. And… my mom is the queen of afghan making. So I should be set, right?
This week I’ll start on a small granny square project. Perhaps a granny square pillow?
Next, I’ll have to decide on the color scheme for this afghan. My colors will differ from the ones pictured in this photo. After that’s sorted, I’ll head to my local yarn store and purchase the required yarn for the afghan. I’m actually excited about this crochet project. It should keep me occupied for a while.
Initially, I was trying to decide who should I give the completed floral afghan too? But, the more I think about it… I believe I’ll keep the first one. It most likely will grace my daughter’s bed. She loves bright colors as much as myself, so there’ll be plenty of those colors on display with the first afghan.
The second one I crochet will be gifted to someone special. I just don’t know who will be the lucky recipient…
It seems she’s created a play, and has given me (and her grandparents) tickets to the upcoming attraction. Which will be held this Saturday. My daughter has quite the imagination, and it’s something I’ve encouraged her to develop at a young age.
At the age of four, I’d regularly alternate between reading stories with her, and having something I called “creative story telling.” During creative story telling, the story teller was given two topics, and we’d have to create a story from that. The topics could be about anything. My daughter generally gives me generic or obscure topics (one time she asked me to write a story about banana and pink) and expected me to start creating a story as soon as she revealed them.
My stories are usually dark…
Edgar Allen Poe and Stephen King both were big influences on me as a child. Partly because I was drawn to sinister tales, and I do enjoy their writing style. By the time I was nine, I’d read all of Poe’s writings. I can still think of how my mother would tried to suppress my desire for these books, by monitoring what I got from the library. That didn’t work too well. My father had the complete collection of Edgar Allen Poe, and he wouldn’t take those away from me.
Initially, in our storytelling, I changed my stories, they weren’t as grim, although elements of my style could be found within the story if you paid attention, but I modified them a lot/ Because I knew they’d be too scary for her. Trust me, I know, I told her one after she’d begged and although she liked it, it scared her a bit.
initially I was the main one weaving stories from the two topics. However, in those early days, I’d draw my daughter into the story, by asking her opinion on what should happen, and eventually asking her to continue. When she’d stumble, I’d offer suggestions familiar to her, and sit back and listen as she’d take off; occasionally I’d give her helpful suggestions, and I always praised her efforts. As her confidence grew, she no longer needed me to assist. She would make up a story as soon as she knew the topics.
I must say it’s nice to see my daughters writing get to the point where she’s actually writing plays. It’s not the first one I’ve had the honor of attending either, and hopefully it won’t be the last. Although I wasn’t expecting this additional mother day gift, I must say I’m thrilled. It’s so nice to see her take advantage of her God given talents
These days my daughter likes my darker tales, and begs me to tell them. Currently I’m working on a series with her, and writing down what I’ve told her immediately after she falls asleep. My daughter becomes animated while writing her stories, as she told me, “It’s as if I’m actually living it, mommy.” I know what she means; I feel the same way when I’m creating stories.
But back to Mother’s day…
Giving gifts from my stash of crocheted items
You know… I almost forgot one mother, and that was my daughter’s piano teacher. Whoops!
Fortunately, I have crocheted several items over the past month or so, and a few items I’d made with her in mind. These items; kindle covers, phone cases, facial scrubbies, and additional bookmarks. Were made without patterns. Well, I take that back, these patterns came from my head. In fact, with a few I’d drawn out sketches, and just followed those to make my “pattern”. I didn’t frog (rip out) these crocheted items, since by the time I made these items, I wasn’t making mistakes with my finished crocheted projects. I’m very critical of myself. Much harder on myself than others are if I’m to be honest, so I knew I wouldn’t be ashamed to give my crocheted items to others.
I made another mothers day present for my mother…
This afternoon, when my daughter, and I returned inside from being outdoors. I thought of an additional present I could give my mother, and so I took out one of my crochet hooks, and made her a phone cover for her android phone. She recently got a smart phone, and hasn’t purchased a phone cover for it; now she doesn’t have too. I used the star stitch. I’m a fast crocheter, and before long I had completed the crocheted phone cover. I didn’t take a picture before I gave it to her, but I’ll be making more in this way, since it turned out so nicely.
You know what I’ve been thinking about? Knitting, mainly so I can make the teeny tiny sweater from Coraline the movie. But, I’m still having a lot of fun with crochet, and my knitting needles are set to the side collecting dust.
Why should I knit? I know how to do it, and do it well. Crochet is the new craft, so I’m devoting my free time and energy to that. There will be plenty of time to pick up my knitting needles again. Which will most likely happen when autumn is on the horizon, after all I still have a gorgeous cardigan that I want to knit, and few knitted socks that I want to make for myself and others….
It’s a little after 9:00 am, but I’ve still accomplished a lot around the house. All the inside work has been completed, and now my daughter and I are moving outside to complete a few projects.
Naturally, my daughter is looking forward to this, since it means more outdoor playtime for her. I’m looking forward to getting my hands dirty in our garden, and walking around barefoot. Something I typically do when it’s nice outside.
Last evening, we watched the movie; Coraline again, and one day soon, I’m hoping I get a chance to write my thoughts about the movie. In some ways it was similar to the book Coraline by Neil Gamon, but a lot had been changed. Regardless, I still liked the movie, and will be purchasing it for our collection.
This evening, I’ll be putting aside my crocheted Coraline, while I work on last minute items for Mother’s Day. My daughter’s children’s choir will be singing in the Contemporary church service, at our Lutheran church, and I’ve decided to make another crocheted necklace. And I think I’ll make a few more hand-made Mother’s Day cards.
If I have time, perhaps I’ll make something for myself too.
Question: Are you doing something special for Mother’s Day?
