To everyone who volunteered, I really appreciate the response! I've chosen 3 testers, it seems like a good sample and I'm hoping all is well with the blanket. I'm hoping it'll be available for purchase on August 5th, and I'll definitely let you know when it's up in my etsy & Ravelry shops!
Thanks again!
Okay, so I'm not listing the flower pattern for sale just yet.
Here's the deal- I'm really comfortable with the instructions for crocheting each petal, and the center. What I'm not so comfortable with is the joining instructions.
I've written them out over an over again trying to make it easier to understand and I'm just not sure how many people will understand me. I think the 2 testers that I use who live here near me and know me in real life know me a little too well. I think they know what I mean even if I don't quite say it right, and I need some fresh eyes.
So what I'm looking for is this-
I'll be accepting volunteer tester submissions in the comments for this post until tomorrow (7/22) morning 9 am Pacific Standard Time.
I don't know how many I'll accept, and I'll be weeding through them, not just choosing the first commenters (hopefully you can do this, and I'll get some volunteers). If you have any questions, leave them in the comments too and I'll answer them there so that everyone can read them. Also, if I can think of anything else that I need to add to my requirements, I'll be back for updates. :)
Really, thank you to anyone who can help me out with this, I really appreciate it!
::Edited to add::
The yarn called for in the pattern is worsted weight, the specific yarn that I used for this project is naturally caron Spa in rose bisque and green sheen.
I used an H/5.0 mm hook, specifically Clover Soft Touch.
I am going to extend the deadline that it needs to be done by slightly, I've changed it until August 2, 2008 which is in 12 days, instead of by the 28th of this month.
Any other questions?
Well, now all I need to do is type up the pattern :)
My daughter decided that she can't live without it, so it's her's. It's good timing too since it'll be commemorating her weaning. The above picture is to show scale, it ended up being around 45 inches across, and I used around 3 1/2 skeins of the pink yarn and 1/2 a skein of the green.
Here's hoping that the pattern is done by tonight, I have some running around to do today and the above little girl somehow woke up with a cold this morning so it's going to be a long day.
Almost everything in this post, save the flower blanket :)
I ordered some new steel hooks, I'm hoping this will be the impetus needed to get started on some doily things for my mom's Christmas gift.
Then the lovely Sublime Stitching Sexy Librarians embroidery pattern, oh, and secretaries, I keep forgetting the part about the secretaries...
Then the organic veggie tote from Ravelry that I've been coveting, and was so lucky that I checked on Sunday when it was in stock and that I had the paypal funds to swoop it up!
Finally, here's more progress on the flower blanket, I'm planning on the pattern being done by the end of the week. Not like I have that many days until it's over ;) but really, if I can get off the computer and get to it, it may be finished up tonight since now I only have 1 petal to connect & then a quick go-round the border and voila! it'll be done!
I try really hard to begin something prepared, but sometimes it just happens. I change my mind.
That's what happened with the flower baby blanket that I'm making again to write the pattern out. I started with the darker red color, and while it's a lovely color and I tend to gravitate towards reds (very much like Flor), I didn't like how it was turning out for the blanket pattern photographs. Nor for the intended recipient.
So 6 petals into it, I stumbled upon this lovely color. Actually, I was at Joann's looking for tan size 3 crochet thread, and this was on an end cap beckoning me. Seriously, I saw it and thought what a great color it'd be for the blanket, but I was already committed to the red. I walked around to look for other things, but kept coming back to it. So, there's my willpower for you. I bought 6 skeins. Sigh. I even called after we'd gone to my parent's for dinner and asked them to see if there was any more in that dye lot.
I'm 6 petals in again, I'm confident that this IS going to be the color and there are NOT going to be any additional color waffling. I AM going to finish the blanket in this yarn so that I can finally make the blanket pattern available. I am liking the way it's turning out by the way, I think the way I've written it will make it very easy to decrease to make a teeny tiny baby blanket, or to increase to make a humongous adult size blanket- just depends on how much time you want to spend making it!
How pretty are these? I'd bought this book because I couldn't stand how beautiful all the patterns are, but it's one of those things where these type of patterns just don't fit into my lifestyle right now. I wouldn't want my little ones getting a hold of these if I did actually make anything from this book. Nor would I have anything to wear these too since most days are jeans/khakis and t-shirts :)
This book includes knit & crochet patterns
This first pattern shown is a knitting pattern.
All the yarn used in these projects seems so light and airy, they drape so beautifully.
I wish I had occasion to make and wear some of the things in this book.
I always think that I have so much more time to make things like this than I actually do. I suppose that when my little ones get older I can get around to spending time making beautiful things regularly, but for now I guess it's all going to have to be eye candy for me.
This is one that I bought to make the pretty coat on the front cover, but then ended up never getting to it in time. Now my little girl is too big, and the only thing I ever sort of made was the little capelet for my niece, and then ended up majorly modifying the pattern to only include the lacy part of the pattern.
Front cover
contents
even more contents
bonnet & booties
Don't you love the aesthetic of these books, they're all so pretty. The patterns are for boys and girls, and seem like they'd be fairly quick to make. I think the charts help out so much with all of these books, they make the patterns so simple to understand.
This is a purse I made yesterday morning for my little girl, one ball of the Creme de la Creme worsted weight yarn in Bowl of Cherries was perfect. I used the Sidesaddle Shell Stitch (page 156) from the Harmony Guide: Basic Crochet Stitches: 250 Stitches to Crochet book. I love that book! Just the aesthetic of it is fantastic, and I was hoping they'd update the Harmony Guides for crochet when I'd seen the knitting ones a while back. I think you all know how much I like stitch diagrams, they just make the written instructions so much easier to understand for me, and these are definitely a plus. You know, sort of going off on a tangent (my modus operandi I think) I wish there was software for macs to create stitch diagrams- I think pattern writing would be a lot easier for me if I had something like that!
Anyway, back to the purse, it seriously didn't take very long at all. I used a 5.0 mm (H) size hook, stitched up a long rectangle, folded it in half then single crocheted down one side to connect the edges, then back up and chained 30 across to make the strap, connected it to the other side and single crocheted down and up again, and finished it up by single crocheting 2 more rows across the strap. Easy peasy! I was planning on making a lining out of some muslin I have laying around, but La* is super content with it the way it is. In fact she was hovering most of the time I was working on it wanting to use it, and she got pretty annoyed at me when I made her hold it as a shoulder bag to measure the length of the chain/strap for her body. She mainly uses it for duplos & little people anyway, so no biggie on the lining.
Moving right along...I didn't like the edge of the petals from my original design for the flower blanket, so I'm back at it and I've been working on getting them to lay flat without any manipulation. I think I've finally had enough time away from it, and while I wanted to use a salmon-y type of color for the petals I wasn't able to get the amount that I needed, so obviously the color's a tad different :) In fact it's kinda hard to get the actual color of it, since in the course of 2 minutes and a variety of photographs in the same spot/lighting, it was a completely different color in each image.
I love the yarn by the way. It's Cascade Sierra, I don't remember what color exactly, I'd written it down in fact (I think 58) but I'll have to check and report back to be sure. It's worsted weight again, this time I've modified the petals to not be *so* rounded, I wasn't pleased with it last time, but I was so sick of working on it I didn't want to frog it and mess around with petal design. So my two favorites to work with are wool and cotton and that's exactly what this is! An excellent blend that should be soft enough and warm enough for a baby/child, or whoever ends up with this blanket. What I am liking about this blanket pattern, is that it's going to be easy to modify, so you could make a tiny one, or you could make a super duper big one once you get the increase/decrease ratio going.
Who knows when it'll get finished though. I wish I was better at saying I'm going to get something done, and then actually getting it done by the time I plan on it being done. Right now I have 3 different doll patterns that are wips and then a commissioned doll, maybe dolls for my parent's anniversary in 2 weeks and this.
I'm really good at having too much on my plate.
*Since obviously I don't really separate my crafting from my family, and writing out little girl/little boy/husband is pretty time consuming I've at least come to the conclusion that I needed shorter name/designations for these people! In our family of four I'm the only one whose name doesn't begin with the letter S. I always thought that was pretty cheesy when families would name their kids names that all began with the same letter, but dang it! it ended up that way in my family. So since the only letters in my little ones names that are different are a "la" and a "t" there's the designation for them that I've come up with. :) My little girl is La and my little boy is T. Now hopefully I can remember that that's what I did!
So I've finished my shamrock boy, I'm still adding the images to the pattern, but since it's ridiculously late I'll be going to bed before adding it to etsy ('specially since I'm misspelling everything).
I just wanted to share and ask your opinion-
Which do you prefer? With hair & freckles, or without? He looks a bit like a Tarleton twin to me with the hair, I don't know if it's too much.
or
He looks sweet to me without the hair, and very naughty with it. And I don't feel like I was able to represent an accurate hairline either. What do you think?
I just wanted to let you all know- my patterns are almost all for sale over at Ravelry, if you go to my Pattern Store you should be able to purchase directly from there. If you a member then the pattern will go to your pattern library, and you'll get a downloadable link that lasts for 30 mintues, or if you're not a member, you should still be able to buy patterns from there and get the downloadable links sent to you via email. I'm not sure if you can go to my pattern store if you're not a member yet, I may need to create a separate page here on my blog to have the direct buy link by an image of each pattern. Let me know if you can! The pattern stores are still in beta, but I'm a tester for it thanks to Casey! So if you're all about instant gratification, definitely thank him!
