Valentine Scrubbie & Tutorial

Here is a quick project. It measures about 5 x 4 inches.

I used an "H" hook here.

Make about 20 chains. This will be the width of your scrubbie from corner to corner, so make it as big as you like. You can do single crochets if you want, but HDCs are faster.(BTW, there's a name for this type of crochet, but I'm darned if I know what to call it.)

Half Double Crochet (HDC) in the 3rd chain from the hook, then all the way to the end.

Now, instead of going back in the other direction, continue around the back of the chain.

Keep going around and around like this. As you work, you will see little triangular 'pockets' forming at each end.

Once the 'pockets' meet each other, fasten off the yarn, leaving a long tail.

I save mesh bags from produce, and cut lengths of this for the heart. I actually sewed the pad shut before doing the heart, but I'd recommend doing it first because then you won't have a weird-looking back.

The cool thing is that you have diagonal rows that you can use as a guide for sewing the heart. You can use either a hook to pull the netting through, or one of those plastic needles with a gigunza eye.

After you embroider the heart (remember, it's a scrubbie, not haute couture. Nobody says you have to be a talented needleworker!), sew the pad shut with that long tail.

Now you have a little Valentine Scrubbie!

Live & Learn

Here is a picture of the baby jacket in progress. When I had finished up one sleeve, I realized that I had crocheted too many rows on the jacket bodice. This is why the neckline didn't look right. I must have repeated the last step. It was easy enough to tear out.

What wasn't easy was tearing out the row on the blanket that I messed up. It is a pink row like the one on the jacket. The repeat is this: single, four chains, puff stitch. Well, I got so caught up in making sure I counted right for the puff stitch that I missed counting the four chains in numerous places.

So I decided to unravel all the pink. I just couldn't get it to work, and it's usually very easy to pull out crochet stitches.

Then I realized I was pulling it out from the wrong direction.

Backwards.

Yeah, after I used scissors to cut apart the 'stuck' stitches, I decided to work from the other end and pulled it out with no trouble at all. Now I have a bunch of fuzz to cleanup. Glad I have a Kone vacuum, LOL!

This time, I stopped every few repeats to be sure nothing was 'lost.' It probably isn't a good idea to watch shows like Animal Precinct while doing work you should concentrate on. Yelling at jerks with emaciated pit bulls messes up my concentration.

Tiny Potholder & Tutorial

Here is a little potholder I made last night. It took me about a half hour. As you can see, it is only about 4 inches square! It will be part of a set I'm designing for a child's gift. (Today I'm going to try an oven mitt.)

Here is the basic pattern, but please don't hold me to the numbers. Just wing it if you want to make it--I wing things all the time, LOL!

I chained about 15 stitches using cotton yarn (Sugar N Cream, for example) and a size G hook.

Then I did a half-double crochet (HDC from here on) in the second chain from the hook.

Then I skipped a stitch and did a single crochet (SC) and a HDC together in the next stitch.

Keep going across like that: skip a stitch, then SC and HDC in the next. You might have to do a single crochet in the end to even it out depending on how many chains you started with.

On the next row (row 2), you will start with a chain 2, then you'll do an SC and HDC in all the single crochets across. Frankly, I just looked for the biggest gap and used that. You won't be skipping any stitches now, btw.

Keep on repeating row 2 until you get a square, then fasten it off.

Now take a coordinating color and do a single crochet all around the square. Make 2 SCs at each corner to make it 'bend' easier.

You make the ruffle like this: slip stitch in one SC then do 3 double crochets in the next stitch. Keep alternating like this until you are done.

I think if I had started the ruffle at a corner, then ended there, my loop would have worked out better. As it happened, I had to make it separate.

I will post more 'tiny kitchen' projects as I make them! Meantime, of course I'm still working on all my other projects! Not much else to do with all that snow outside. If I don't have to go out (and I don't) I'm not going to!

ABC of me

I guess it counts as being creative to come up with answers to these. I don't know where this originated exactly.

A - Age: I'll be 55 on January 25th

B - Bed Size: California King--which is narrower but longer than a regular king. And a pain to find sheets for.

C - Chore you hate: housework in general so I do a little here and there and it manages to get done

D - Dog's Name: Shadow Dante

E - Essential Start of the Day item: Coffee with flavored cream such as French Vanilla. Give me all your caffeine and no one gets hurt.

F - Favorite Color: Red

G - Gold or Silver: Silver

H - Height: 5 foot 2

I - Instruments you play: I still play piano but I'm not that good at it

J - Job: Secretary, File Clerk, Receptionist and chief-cook-and-bottle washer to a wonderful pediatrician. (Okay, I don't cook or wash bottles.) BTW, I used to be a writer and hope to someday finish the mystery novel I've been working on forever.

K - Kids: My sons are 20, 24 and 28. My daughter is 26.

L - Living Arrangements: We own a house which is a high ranch.

M - Music You Love: A lot of old things, like Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald, show tunes and anything else that sounds good to me. I really don't like country, though.

N - Nicknames: None, thank heavens.

O - Overnight Hospital Stay: For myself, when I had 4 babies. Not all at once, as you see from "K." Also slept overnight for most of 42 days when the 24-year-old (then 7) had been hit by a car.

P - Pet Peeve: People who don't signal, or signal as they are making the turn. Hey, doofus--it's supposed to be an alert for the people behind you!

Q - Quote from a Movie: "I'm older and I have more insurance." From Fried Green Tomatoes, right?

R - Right handed or Left: Right handed

S - Siblings: 2 sisters and one brother living, 2 brothers who passed away.

T - Time you wake up: whenever I feel like it unless I have to get up for work, then by 8 at the latest.

U - Underwear: nothing terribly exciting.

V - Vegetables you dislike: Asparagus makes me gag. Beets and lima beans are yukky. I recently tried turnips for the first time and they aren't bad. It is faster to list what I like: salad stuff, broccoli, cauliflower, corn and mushrooms.

W - Workout Style: My Wii fit rocks!

X - X-Rays You've had: wrist, neck, teeth, back. Nothing exciting. MRIs are cooler.

Y - Yummy Food you make: Mac & Cheese, Vegetable Soup, and something called "Western Hospitality casserole" which takes 4 hours from start to finish but is soooo worth it. Oh, and corn bread!

Z - The best place to Visit -I don't travel much except to visit my mom in Ohio. I loved London and Paris but that is in the past and will probably never go again.

All in all, I'm not very exciting...but I'm nice, LOL!

I hope some of you will copy and paste this then change for your own answers! Nosy minds want to know about you!

Here is a baby hat I am almost finished with--just have to weave in some ends. It is part of a set featured in the August 2008 of "Crochet World."

I'm making the whole set. I have 2 rows done on the afghan, and most of the jacket done. There will also be booties for it.

I have to say that I find following directions for jackets difficult. The neckline of the one I made looks nothing like the picture. I hope that it will turn out 'wearable.'

Not that there are any babies due soon! But you know I like having some things 'ready to go.' This will fit a 3-6 month old. It is only taking 2 balls of yarn, which is nice!

The little hat is a quick project that could easily be finished in a sitting or two if you are ambitious.

Hexagonal Potholder

I've been trying to make one small thing a day and this hexagonal potholder fits the bill. Projects you can finish quickly are very satisfying.

The orange and white parts are cotton yarn, but the purple center is from some leftover regular (worsted weight, I guess) yarn I had from other projects. You know you always end up with that little bit that you really can't do much with? This is a good way to use some of it. It's just a decorative touch because the real absorbency is in the cotton part.

Here's the link if you'd like to make this. I did it up in less than an hour, which is pretty good for me:

http://meetmeatmikes.blogspot.com/2010/11/hello-hexagon-how-to-crochet-hexagon.html

It's good to be back...

...to projects that have nothing to do with holidays, that is. Here's a little hat I just made. It's supposed to have a stiffer brim but I like it like this. It was also supposed to be adult sized. I really do need to figure out that whole 'gauge' thing. But it will be cute for a little kid. It's basically just a beret with a bill on it. If it make it again, though, I'm going to add a second string of yarn when I make the bill so it is twice as thick and therefore stands better.

Yesterday I used some of the Barnes & Noble gift card Mike gave me for Christmas and got myself two new magazines--one crochet and one knit. Most of the knit stuff is way beyond me, but there are techniques in it that I'm practicing. I see lots of stuff in the crochet magazine I want to make.

I'm hoping to actually crochet and finish some kind of structured garment, probably a sweater, for myself this year. I've tried this before and failed, but I think I know what I did wrong. We'll see how that goes.