Crochet Forever!

I enjoy crocheting. Maybe I should write more, but I mostly find myself with a hook in my hand when I have spare time.

I mostly crochet lap robes and prayer shawls for hospice. I also crochet little gifts for family and friends. This year I made a little Amish puzzle ball for my great-niece.

I'm including photos of some of my recent work (which I have been lax about posting here). I make at least 2 prayer shawls every month and often more than that. I know hospice sends out at least 30 of them a month and I try to make sure I'm doing my share.

Parting Gift

One of our summer interns at the library is leaving us on Monday to return to college. He's worked for us in Information Services for two summers now and I hate the day he leaves. I honestly don't know how we get along without him the rest of the year.

Anyway, we were trying to think of something we could give him for a parting gift to show our appreciation.

If you know me at all, you know that I suggested that I crochet an afghan. I honestly didn't know if I could turn out a whole afghan in three days since my arm works pretty well now, but I haven't pushed it that hard and that repetitively since March.

I had yesterday off. I took some ibuprofen and picked up the crochet hook. The long and the short of it is that I crocheted for 12 hours yesterday (with a few breaks for eating and walking the dogs). The blanket was finished except for a couple of rows to finish either end by 11 pm.

And here it is. Ready to be gifted.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

Recent Projects

 

All given away.

 

The hats went to my coworker who shaved her head for St. Baldrick's Children's Hospital.

 

I'm on my last crochet project before I hang up my hooks for a while. Now that I have the capacity and ability to upload my books to Kindle Digital Publishing, I'm trying to spend more time on my writings. I've written (or nearly finished) many manuscripts that ache to be put out in public. I finished and published two last week while I was on vacation. I would have finished more except the local hideous cold that's going around laid me out for most of the week. It's a wonder I got anything done.

 

Anyway, I'm back on the trail - a pun tied to my most recent effort - "When I Was Your Age...": How Things Change - hoping to finish at least one more this weekend.

 

 

Here's the link to my Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/author/kathilinz

 

Thanks for visiting with me,

 

Kathi

 

Been Busy

I apologize for staying away so long. Here's my news.

I've put up enough pickles for the next year or so. I made several prayer shawls for people who were at death's door or going into surgery. I also crocheted a big blanket for a wedding that's coming up.  In between those, I started an etsy.com shop. http://www.etsy.com/shop/AvidYarnArtist?ref=shop_sugg Virtually everything in the shop was made or written up in the last month and a half.



This pattern is time consuming and a true stash buster. The wedding afghan looks like this except the edges are light green.

I finished writing and posted the Kindle edition of the Homemade Dog Food book:
http://www.amazon.com/Homemade-Dog-Food-Variations-ebook/dp/B00EJSOAHS/ref=sr_1_10?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1376582807&sr=1-10&keywords=homemade+dog+foodonce

I have also studied and started again on a vintage craft that we used to do back in the '70's. There is virtually nothing about this craft - no instructions, no patterns, no photos of this anywhere on the web. I've found out that the companies that used to sell kits of this craft have destroyed their files. Only the die-hard sixty-something crafters even remember this type of yarn art.

My plan is to blog, write ebooks, and post video instructions. I have the blog set up so far. http://meshweaver7.blogspot.com/

More to come, but please be understanding if my personal page isn't the thing I spend the most time writing.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

 

Green Triangle Shawl

I'm trying to keep track of the numbers and patterns of the prayer shawls I make this year.  Since I make a few and turn them in, this is my record of items.  This green triangle is number 14 for hospice and number 18 total this season.



Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

Two more prayer shawls

Blue woven prayer shawl

I've made lots of granny squares.  I believe this is the first one edged in orange.  Also this is the first one that I used a join-as-you-go method.  It certainly shortened the finishing time.

More to come.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

Scrappy Stripe Lapghan

Here's what my work table looks like on a typical day.  There are three projects going here all at once.

Here's one of those projects completed.

This is called the scrappy stripe pattern.  I made it as a lapghan hopefully for some gentleman in hospice care.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

Blue Shell Shawl

I made this one fairly quickly for a lady who is seeing her mother soon.  Her mother is the one in need of a prayer shawl.  God bless them both.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

Purple Shawl

In making prayer shawls and lap robes for hospice, I'm trying not to make any two the same.  This is number 10 and, so far, I've had fun trying out different patterns.  However, if I make very many more before Valentine's Day, I may have to count color changes as part of "no two the same".  There are certain patterns that I enjoy or that work up quickly.

I'm going to give my hand a few days off from crocheting.  I don't want to do damage like I did last year.  At some point it might decide not to heal up like it did last time - and even that took several months.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

Lap Robe

I've crocheted three shawls for hospice.  I'm sure there are men in their care, too.  So I'm trying to make something the guys will appreciate. 

There's the first one for this season:

I used two strands of yarn together.  This is a thick, warm lap robe. 

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

Pink Shawl

As promised, here is the next prayer shawl.  Sometimes I run across both a pattern and set of colors that I particularly love.  I'm occasionally sorry that I don't really need another afghan.  This shawl falls under that category.

I hope it comforts someone special.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

Shawls for Hospice 2012 - Part 1

Every year when the gardening season slows down, I pick up my crochet hook and start on prayer shawls and some men's lap robes for hospice.  I figure if I do one a week, I can do about 29 this year before Valentine's Day.  Don't know if I can keep up that pace, but I'm about to try.  Here are the first two of this year's batch:

I'll post more pictures as I finish them.  I'm almost done with a really pretty pink and white one now.  I should be posting those pictures later today or tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi



Finished Afghan

This afghan nears 7 feet across.  Here it is across a double bed.

Phew!  I'm glad it's finished!  The last couple of rounds were each about 21 feet of double crochet.  I'll be glad of it this winter.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

Work in Progress

Here's the afghan I'm working on at the moment.  It's a round afghan with only 12 increases per round.  You have no idea how fast that adds up!  A five-band color is 48 stitches bigger on the fifth round than it was on the first one. That doesn't seem like a lot in the beginning, but I'm up to about 16 feet per round at the outer edge and still growing.

I want to add about 12 more rounds bringing the diameter to 6 feet and the circumference to about 19 feet of crocheting.

I'm finishing it with increasingly darker blues to make a sunburst design.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

Going for Ten

These shawls are numbers five and six.  I have two more finished, one in the works, and one undecided as to pattern.  Maybe the last one will be a laprobe or something more masculine again.  And maybe it won't be the last one either. lol

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

Waffle Scarf

Vacation Day 3

Yesterday I bought a little extra yarn and finished this waffle stitch scarf.  I do not yet know it's final destination.  I just wanted to try out this stitch.  I suppose that I could do a lot of different patterns as small blocks and then sew them together as a sampler afghan.  But I think if I make them all into something useful like this scarf, possibly someone somewhere will benefit.

Waffle stitch was fun and easy.  I have a few more patterns I'd like to try. 

The end of my online class is in sight.  Another month, I think.  My major projects are finished and I only have to keep up with week-to-week assignments.  Then we shall see what crochet I can do.  I also plan to do some more writing of children's books.  Do you think I can get at least one more published?

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

Starting on the shawls

I'm starting on some shawls, possibly for hospice.  There were doubters on facebook - among my own family no less - who thought it took me a long time to do the step lapghan listed in the previous post.  I started this 20"x66" crocheted and woven shawl on Friday at 7pm.  I finished it on Saturday at 10pm.  In between, I also slept and worked an 8 hour shift.

The nickname "Speed-of-light Eickstadt" had nothing to do with being fleet of foot.  It had to do with my crochet hook.  lol

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

A Couple of Crochet Projects

Here are two of my current works in progress.  The step lapghan only needs a border and then it will go to a wounded veteran through Soldiers Angels. http://soldiersangels.org/blankets-of-gratitude.html

I appreciate our troops and this is the very least I can do for them.  I always try to get three lapghans in the mail during the fall.  As soon as the garden goes down, I pick up the crochet hook.

The flower one, assuming I get enough of it finished, is planned to become a prayer shawl for hospice.

We'll see what I finish along with the class I'm taking.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

Cell Phone Pictures

As promised, here are a couple of pictures of the two cell phones I crocheted this afternoon.  One of them, in fact, is in the mail to its intended recipient.

The hardest part of the process was to make legible numbers with permanent marker on felt. lol

Kathi

Baby Cell Phone

Today I plan to crochet a couple of cell phones.  No, you don't have to adjust either one of your eyes.  I'm making a couple of toy cell phones for two toddlers that I know.

Here's the link for the pattern: http://www.instructables.com/id/Crochet-an-Amigurumi-Cell-Phone-Buddy/

I would put a picture of it, but so far, the picture belongs to someone else.  I'll take my own photos when I finish.

I've tried amigurumi before.  I've made a wolf, a couple of dogs, fish, a hedgehog, and a few other things.  It's basically crocheting in the round. Every stitch must be counted, and it's done in a spiral, so you don't have an end point in each row.  I can do it, but it isn't my favorite.  Also, I'm not fond of sewing the arms and legs and tails and ears and noses to the body.  It's hard to make it all come out exactly even.

Well, I've come across another style.  This one is done in knit.  Go to Google Images and put "mochimochi" in the search bar. You can knit ANYTHING!  There are knitted couches, skyscrapers, gnomes, bathtubs with each separate soap bubble, and a vacuum cleaner.  The little animals are really cute.  As I am not much of a knitter, I can't tell you all the tricks to this craft, but I have observed a couple of consistancies that seem to apply to all mochimochi.  Each finished piece is very tiny.  Many mochimochis are shown next to a penny or quarter.  The other consistancy is that every piece has two black dots for eyes.  Even the bathtub and each soap bubble have two little black dots for eyes. 

Well, I'm on to my crocheted cell phones.  I'll leave the mochimochi to better knitters than I am.  But they are fun to look at.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi