Musings...

I was going trough my notebook this morning and a loose page fell out with some random motivational musings:

I am a writer.
I love being a writer.
Being a writer means that I see the world differently, from the outside looking in, looking out.
It's a free pass to being quirky.
A writer that doesn't write though just for the sake of writing is sad...
I want to go back to writing.
To write, I must read.
Books are the yarn of writing.

Parts of (the) writing (process):
-reading
-thinking (it looks like doing nothing...)
-doodling
-throw in some writing here and there
-procrastinate, obviously
-listening to music while day dreaming. Sometimes dance to it.

Hot/Cold Microwavable bag

         
This hot/cold bag is really easy to make. It needs to be microwavable so use cotton only. I don’t know if any other fiber works but I know this one does for sure.

With a G hook, chain 40.

          Join to first chain to form a ring. Careful not to twist.

Crochet in the round and single crochet until the tube is long enough to wrap around your neck and shoulders. Flatten tube and slip stitch to close one end of the tube. Cast off and weave end. Fill the tube one third of the way with long rice (not the instantaneous variety). Slip stitch to close the other end of the tube and weave in loose strands.

To use, either put it in the freezer for a couple of hours for cold. To heat, microwave at 30 seconds interval until you’ve reached the desired temperature. Avoid direct exposure to skin if too hot as it will burn you.

You know you're a crochet addict when...

This made me laugh! You can follow the rest of the discussion here.

Cute crochet octopus.

I don't remember what I was doing or looking for at the time but I stumbled upon this pattern one day and that was pretty much when I decided it was time for me to learn how to crochet (I'd been meaning to for years but thought it looked too complicated and intimidating). I mean, how cool is this little octopus? How can you possibly resist this eight-legged charmer!?

I bought the pattern to make this little fellow on Etsy from Leah Coccari-Swift's shop Ruby Submarine.Currently listed at $6.20 USD. It's a beautiful pattern with lots of pictures. Very easy to follow.

The pattern calls for chunky yarn but with my little green octopus I used worsted cotton, 3 and 5 mm crochet hooks. I filled the head with long rice (not instantaneous). The idea was to make a magic bag/stress ball. It's kind of too small to be a magic bag but it works as a stress ball though. I'm exploring squishier, more stress busting options for the next one I'll make.

 

Here (bellow in red) I have an octopus ready to assemble, made with chunky Bernat Roving ™ yarn. The hooks used were G/4mm and J/6mm.

Click here to visit Ruby Submarine.

Octopus finger puppet.

I absolutely love this tiny finger puppet octopus from Jenn's Worth a Knit. I've been thinking of getting into charity crochet and causes that I have to heart are children in hospitals and premature babies (my nephew was an extreme premature). When I was younger I spent some time in the IWK Grace children hospital in Halifax and once or twice everyday I would get a new finger puppet each time nurses took blood samples. When I came back home I had a huge stash of them. For the most part, they were knit. But a quick Google search will reveal that they can also be crocheted and that there are many cute, fun patterns to be found.

I made this little 2" tall octopus using worsted acrylic yarn (Bernat SuperValue ™, color peacock) and a F/3.75mm hook.

I haven't made the eyes yet because I haven't decided if I'll go with plastic ones or cotton thread.

Angry bird is angry.

I made this Angry Bird ™ hat following Crochet Geek's free pattern.

It was an easy pattern to follow and a fun hat to make. This pattern makes an adult size hat. The things I did wrong though was to sew the face a bit low and the beak kind of droops uncomfortably over your forehead as a result. Also, my Angry Bird ™ "consultant" tells me that the beak might be a bit large. But that's just how he would prefer it. I'll be making him another one with a shorter beak and also try my hand at making a child size hat soon.

This hat is perfect for a beginner and uses very basic stitches. Also it requires worsted 4 ply yarn and a H/5mm hook.

A beginner's mistake - The accidental slouch hat.

I didn't meant for it to happen. I'd learned how to crochet 42 hours prior to trying to make the hat pattern from the above YouTube video (credit for this video and original hat pattern goes to drkaiser1963). The only crochet hook I owned at the time was a H/5mm hook and the pattern called for a G/4mm hook. So by the time I was done, to my disappointment, the hat didn't exactly look like the one showed in the video. But I thought about it. And instead of buying the proper size hook and starting over again, I took 4 mm knitting needles that I had kicking around and knitted a rim instead. And that's how I made my first slouch hat. It was a happy accident!

For this first hat I used cream colored worsted Peruvian wool. It's very simple but I love the texture of the double stitch. I know, it's a very basic stitch. But the pattern's simplicity really works with the beautiful natural fiber.

This was my first crochet project (not sure that the granny square I made while learning the basics count as a project) and it was far from perfect. Besides the fact that I used the wrong hook size, I didn't know how to work the first stitch of every row. Fortunately, I got better with that.

It's a pretty sweet hat! A slouch hat with no pretension. I've made a few since making my first one.

For the purple slouch hat I used 4ply worsted acrylic yarn (Bernat SuperValue ™, color Damson). I don't knit the border anymore. I use a 4 mm crochet hook instead to make the brim.

The pattern bellow is pretty much the same hat pattern from the video, but with a larger size hook and a brim.

So here it goes, my accidental slouch hat:

With a H/5mm hook ch 6, or make magic ring.
row 1: ch 1, crochet 10 sc in ring. Sl st to first st of row.(10st)
row 2: ch 1, 2sc in each st. Sl st to first st of row.(20st)
row 3: ch 1, 2sc in each st. Sl st to first st of row.(40st)
row 4: ch 1, 2sc in each st. Sl st to first st of row.(80st)
row 5 to row 19: ch 2, dc in each st.  Sl st to first st of row. (80st)
row 20 to row 23: with G/4mm hook, ch 1 and sc in each st. Sl st to first st of row. (80sts)