Tag: Crochet

Machine sewn quilts; Needle and thread Thursday

Aynaria 15 Comments

I’m thrilled to say that I’ve completed my crocheted Amineko, and I’ll be entering her in Finished Objects Friday…

Today I discovered a new blog hop titled, Needle and Thread Thursday, perfect since I also sew…

Quilts Global Missions Sunday 6

I’ve been actively sewing since I was about seven years old, I started making my own clothing/designs in elementary school, and had my designs featured in local fashion shows in my twenties…

For my first Needle and Thread post I thought I’d put the spotlight (again) on the wonderful ministry at our local church; The quilters group… These were some of the quilts at our Lutheran Church’s Global Mission Sunday, 136 quilts were dedicated to the Lutheran World Relief.

My Church’s quilting group makes each quilt

We all have a part in making each quilt. I mainly do the sewing, I’m fast, sew straight seams, so the quilts fly off the machine. Most of the other ladies take care of the piecing, I assist with that if there are no more quilts to sew. All the women are much older than me, but they made me feel welcome from the day I walked into the quilting group. They are part of my crafting family.

Quilts Global Missions Sunday 1

These days my sewing, that’s not volunteer based, mainly revolves around my lovely daughter. I enjoy making things for her!

Sharing with others…

One of the ways I celebrate life, is sharing my talents with others…not everyone is as fortunate and so I volunteer when I’m able. I had good role models, both of my parents were always willing to assist those in need. Which was hard at times, since they didn’t have too much when my brother and I were young…

Helping make quilts, crocheting bears for the Mother Bear Project, creating cards for Operation Write Home,and assisting my churches ministries; local homeless shelter and our church’s food pantry, are a few ways I can show strangers that someone does care about them.

What I’m reading…

Hello My Name is Amineko

This morning, I completed my first Amineko, my eight-year old daughter has already requested another one, so I’ll most likely start on it within a few weeks. I used a pattern to crochet Aminko, the pattern is located in the 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.

 

Work in Progress Wednesday: Crochet; Amineko

Aynaria 6 Comments

I’m a bit late with my Work in Progress entry…

Amineko, the cute amigurumi cat,  that I featured in last weeks Work in Progress Wednesday, didn’t get finished before my daughter returned to school from spring break.

Crochet Amineko 1 04 11 12

My daughter was greeted with WIP Amineko, when she arrived home from school. She’s loving the progress, and has called her, Marigold. Appropriate name, don’t you think?

Today, I added the mouth, eyes, eyebrows. The only thing needed is to make one more leg, a tail, and of course add the mouth and nose, and then I’ll be done. If you look in the far right corner, you’ll see some material… that’s leftover material from an outfit I’d made for my daughter when she was a newborn baby. I’ve decided to sew a cute little dress for Marigold.

Looking at the above picture, it’s obvious that Marigold isn’t too pleased. Just look at her? Her arms are crossed! I’ve been told (by my daughter) that I need to add a face, because she believes she looks like a bear. She’s also wondering when she’ll be completed?

Well, she should be completed by tomorrow, which means, I’ll have an additional item to share for Finished object Friday!

Although I still feel new to crochet, creating amineko wasn’t too difficult. You will need to know how to crochet a magic ring, single crochet, and how to decrease crochet stitches.

Work in Progress Wednesday Linkage

  1. Tami Amis WIP
  2. Yarn Along
  3. Frontier Dreams

 

Crochet: How to make a magic circle

Aynaria 6 Comments

It didn’t take me long to learn how crocheters make a magic circle….

Thanks to technology, it only required me searching Youtube for magic circle, and numerous videos were available for viewing. Isn’t technology amazing?

Based on the crochet patterns I’ve seen, many of the amigurumi aka crocheted toys, start with a magic circle.

Crochet: How to make a magic circle?

The above video shows you how crocheters create a magic circle. I hope this video is as helpful to you as it was for me. I used the techniques learned in this video, when I was crocheting my first amineko, for my daughter.

In other news…

Over the past few months, a few Celebrate Life readers have emailed me about incorporating my own crochet and cooking videos here. It’s something I’ve already thought about doing here. I just need to put those ideas into action.

Finished object Friday: Crochet; Sophie poses with guinea pig

Aynaria 21 Comments

Liv Girl Guinea pig Sophie 3

“Mommy, will you make Sophie an outfit? She’s naked!” That’s one of the questions my daughter asked me last evening…

Let’s ignore that the only reason she’s naked is because my daughter stripped her of all her clothes. My daughter gave me her best,  how can you resist this face look. And it worked… this time. Once the crocheted items were complete we set up a photo shoot, starring Sophie, and Angel, my daughters guinea pig. I’m happy to say Ms. Angel is doing well, even though she recently lost her guinea pig sister, Daizy.

Liv Girl Guinea pig Sophie 2

Sophie is a Liv Doll; I purchased this doll for my eight-year old daughter early last year. My daughter loves the doll, because like the Monster High dolls, these dolls have moveable joints; Sophie has 14 moveable joints. Perfect for my daughter, since she uses her jointed dolls as mannequins. She designs clothing for them, and It’s the only time she plays with dolls.

Back to Sophie’s crocheted outfit…

I used a size D crochet hook, so the stitches are small. I’m not sure of the brand/exact color name of the pink crochet thread I used. It was given to me by someone who no longer crochets or knits.

I didn’t use a pattern, just played around with different stitches. I started this crochet project (skirt, tube top, and a hat) last evening, and finished it this morning. In total, it took about two hours. Stitches used; Single, double, and triple crochet, and I added a crocheted scalloped edging. I’m not sure what the stitch is called.

Liv Girl Guinea pig Sophie 1

My daughter is thrilled with the ensemble, and now Sophie isn’t prancing around naked. Sophie and Angel made a dynamite modeling team, perhaps there will be more photo opportunities in their future?

Finished object Friday blog hop

  1. Tami’s Ami’s Finished object Fridays
  2. Fibers on Friday
  3. Natural Suburbia
  4. Wisdom Begins in Wonder

Work in Progress Wednesday; Slippers and cats

Aynaria 26 Comments

Crocheted Slippers 04 04 12

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.

Amineko yellow 1

Another Work in Progress is my Amigurumi Aminkeo project. The pattern can be found in the book Hello my name is Amineko: The Story of a Crafty Crochet Cat. My first dozen crocheted eggs were completed, and a crocheted bag I made for one of my daughter’s Monster High dolls; Clawdeen Wolf.

Work in Progress Wednesday Linkage

  1. Tami Amis WIP
  2. Ambassador Crochet
  3. Yarn Along
  4. Frontier Dreams

 

What’s on my hook this weekend; crocheted Easter eggs…

Aynaria 3 Comments

Snoopy Easter Eggs

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.

 

Crochet video tutorial; Three hour crochet slippers

Aynaria 5 Comments

“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!

Don’t know how to crochet? No worries, check out the post the features how to crochet video tutorials.

Prepping for Christmas…

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.