Because my cat really needed another blanket

She did, though. I left my granny square afghan on the floor in a moment of laziness, and Juniper claimed it and proceeded to spend most of her time lying on it or under it. While I continue to be flattered that she likes my crocheting so much, I didn't really want my blanket to stay permanently on the floor, so I made her a floor-blanket of her own.

Trying out her new blanket immediately after I finished it

I was in the mood to get rid of some stash, so I triple-stranded some Knit Picks Brava in black and white and that purple acrylic that continues to haunt me. The blanket is just rows of double crochet, alternating the colors until I was nearly out of yarn, then I did two rows of double crochet around the border. To give the blanket a rolled edge, I then did a thing that came to me out of the blue and is very hard to explain, but basically, I folded and "seamed" the edge to itself by slip-stitching it through the base of the first row of double crochet.

The blanket is nice and thick, as Juniper likes it. It makes a good place to sleep in front of the radiator, although her preferred use is to burrow under it. In fact, if she's in the right mood, I can stick her under the blanket and she'll just stay there for hours. Seeing her snuggle on or under her blanket is as much of a "thank you" I'll ever get from a cat, but it's enough.

Because why not

Mmm, I made sushi!

Wait what

It's a fish!!

This is the Fish to Sushi crochet pattern by Irene Kiss, with a few modifications by me. Mainly I altered the construction of the fins so that I could crochet them directly onto the body, rather than making them in separate pieces and sewing them on. If you're interested in the details, they're on my Ravelry project page.

Crochet stash-busting

Recently I've been in that mood where I dump out my stash boxes and touch all the skeins and stare and plot and then tuck everything away and worry about having too much yarn. When I'm in that mood, crochet is wonderfully soothing and satisfying, because it eats up so much yarn and goes so quickly.

I can't get enough of that super-cute T-rex pattern that I posted about earlier, so when my grandmother requested a new critter (I've showered her with amigurumi in the past), she got a dino, of course. It was a good opportunity to pull something interesting out of my acrylic stash, and I am very pleased to report that one of my Red Heart skeins from my early crocheting days is now 100% used up.

I actually ran a little short on yarn, so I modified the dino pattern slightly by skipping several rounds at the bottom of its body that were not used to increase or decrease stitches. Its tummy is a little less rotund, but it's still nice and chubby. Although this yarn was a bit brutal on my fingers, I do really like the colors, and I'm glad its final incarnation was this cute little dino. (It also became a dragon and a little crab and a little fish.)

Earlier this year I bought a skein of Michaels' house brand yarn, Loops & Threads, in a leaf-green color, because it seemed like a good idea at the time. This is actually a very decent acrylic, but I had no idea what I could do with it, especially since I probably have more worsted acrylic in green than any other color. So then I decided to make something for my cat. Of course.

Yes, I underestimated my yarn usage again. But I'm learning to embrace asymmetry sometimes.

I had an idea to crochet a popcorn-stitch rug to put under Juniper's litter box, to help collect the litter that she tracks around. Tamara Kelly's Blackberry Salad Striped Baby Blanket is a free pattern, and while I felt a little weird modifying a baby blanket pattern to make a bathroom accessory, it worked really well. I burned through the entire ball of Loops & Threads, plus a few other odds and ends that looked nice together. And the rug serves its purpose (when Juniper decides to exit her litter box from the front, which she does not always do, because she is a cat). I guess it's strange to get excited by the sight of lots of cat litter trapped in something I crocheted, but hey, it's doing its job.

Cutest dinos EVER

I think that this may be the cutest amigurumi pattern I've crocheted, in almost seven years of crocheting amigurumi. At the very least, it's the cutest crocheted dinosaur ever.

This pattern is Timothy the T-Rex by Bluephone Studios. She also makes and sells her own dinos, and I'm very grateful that she made the pattern available for purchase because I had so much fun making these guys. The construction tips are especially great - a lot of amigurumi patterns just say "and then sew on the arms," but this one gives tips on using straight pins for placement and specifies where exactly to put all the bits.

These two dinos are presents for two toddlers I know who turned two and three this month. I wanted to make the dinos nice and big, so I used Berroco Vintage (a worsted weight yarn) held double, which made them about ten inches tall. They are so squishy and huggable that I was a little sad to box them up and send them to their recipients, but I hope they will be well loved. And in the meantime, I'll make another dino for me to keep.

And yes, they passed Cat Inspection.

Tiny sheep

There are many reasons I'm fortunate to work at my local yarn shop, not least of which is the awesome people I get to work with. And I feel especially lucky that as a retail employee, I can say "Why yes, I have a wonderful manager!" (My previous experience has led me to believe that this is pretty rare.)

As a little way to thank her for all the work she does, and all the tasty snacks she brings in, I made my manager a tiny sheep. The shop hosted a yarn tasting of Mountain Meadow yarn a few weeks ago, so I used some of my samples from that to make the sheep's body. I alternated using Laramie for the plain rows and Aladdin for the bobble rows, and some of my leftover Cascade 220 to make the sheep's head, feet, and tail. I had to make the body a little smaller than the pattern called for so that I wouldn't run out of yarn, but I think he turned out pretty cute.

The pattern is Katie Christy's Little Sheepy Who, which I've used once before - I made a sheepy traveling companion for a coworker who was moving away, back in January 2012. The designer has lots of other cute patterns that I want to try, including this little crabby and this baby chameleon.

Blue friend for my friend

A friend of mine recently came to stay with us for the weekend, and I was so happy to see her again after more than a year that I had to make her a little guy to commemorate her visit. So, I crocheted up another amigurumi from Karissa Cole's free Skittles pattern that I enjoy so much. Earlier this year, I made myself a yellow friend and a red friend. Blue friend hung out briefly with his cousins before going off to his new home in DC.

<3

More cat toys

To really enjoy knitting or crocheting, it helps to have the attitude of "Why would I buy x, when I can make it myself?" I'm sure this is often perplexing to non-crafters, and depending on what x is, it may appear to border on insanity.

For example, it's probably a little crazy to make cat toys. Really, it's also a little crazy to buy cat toys, since most cats I've known have been delighted by a crumple of paper, a bug, a reflection on the wall, or an imaginary (or maybe just invisible) beastie on the ceiling. This doesn't stop me, of course, from buying or making toys for the cats in my life.

My boyfriend's sister and her husband recently adopted a kitten, so to welcome the new cat-niece to the family, I sent them a few crocheted toys: two of the balls that Juniper loves, and a little fishy. And of course, to be fair, I had to make the same things for Juniper. Given how frequently her toys disappear under the couch, it doesn't hurt to have a large supply of them.

The balls are made with the same Ideal Crochet Sphere pattern that I used before, and the fish are Ana Rosa's Little Fish pattern. The yarn is random acrylic from my stash, and a few of the toys are stuffed with catnip tied inside a piece of muslin. They've been well received by both kitties, from what I hear!

Elephant blankies

It's been quiet on my blog again, partly because in May, most of my projects were presents (and partly because I'm lazy). But now that all the presents have been given away, I have quite a few posts to catch up on.

Two of my friends from grad school had babies within a few weeks of each other this spring, and I thought it would be nice to make them matching presents. Since I'm not that confident with baby sizing, I wanted to avoid sweaters, and I get the impression that most booties don't stay on that well. I was searching for something cute and cuddly, that the babies wouldn't instantly grow out of - and look what I found!

The pattern is Grace - Elephant Comfort Blanket by Dedri Uys and is available for free on Ravelry. I would happily have paid for it, though, because it's detailed and well written. The construction of the head and ears is slightly complicated, but every stitch is explained, and the result is super cute! The only change I made was to crochet a few more decreasing rounds at the back of the elephant heads before sewing them on to the blankets, to help keep the stuffing secure inside. I also sewed on black pieces of felt for the eyes rather than using safety eyes. I think opinion is mixed on whether safety eyes are really baby-safe, but I didn't want to take any chances.

I used Berroco Comfort DK in alternating colors, and each blankie took about one and a half skeins, which makes this a very affordable project!

Both babies have received their elephants now and I've enjoyed seeing the pictures of them with their new buddies. I hope they can enjoy them for several years.

Yellow friend

It's been a long time since I've crocheted any amigurumi, and even longer since I made one for myself. I've been stuck in this limbo where I want to make my own designs, but that's still a bit intimidating, and I've also mostly filled up my designated "amigurumi shelf." In other words, I've still been queueing and saving patterns but I haven't felt that enthusiastic about starting any of them.

Until now!

This is my little yellow friend. He is crocheted using Karissa Cole's free Skittles pattern, in some Caron Simply Soft. He's only two inches tall - so adorable and tiny! I like this pattern because it uses a couple of unusual techniques to get that cute effect. The arms and antennae are just strands of yarn with strategic knots, and the body is not stuffed with stuffing, just yarn ends from his appendages. This keeps the body from being too roly-poly and allows the little guy to sit nicely.

I liked my yellow friend so much that I immediately had to make another. From start to finish, my red friend took only an hour or less, during knitting night at my LYS (sadly, that's not my stash in the picture). It's a great quick and portable project, because it's so small and doesn't use much stuffing.

Expect to see more little friends soon in all the colors of yarn that I have!

FO Flashback: other crochet and knitting

Here's part two of my March FO Flashback. Today I'm revisiting the non-amigurumi things I finished in March of previous years. First up are my crocheted fingerless gloves from 2010.

These are from Ria Saakshi's Firecracker Gloves pattern, crocheted in The Fibre Company Canopy Fingering. This yarn was my very first purchase from a local yarn store! Up until then I had been crocheting with yarn from craft stores, but I decided to make a trip to fibre space in Alexandria. I remember feeling very awkward, because I was "only" a crocheter and didn't understand all the different names for yarn weights and didn't know what yarn would be the best choice for this project. I know now that the people who work at fibre space would have been happy to help me, but at the time I was too shy. I also didn't know about winding skeins, so that made for fun times.

I wasn't very happy with these gloves when I finished them, but I like them well enough now. I don't wear them often, but that's because I just don't wear these type of gloves very much.


Last March, I finished both my Manhattan cowl and my Diamond Ridges hat (I blogged about the cowl here and the hat here). At the time, I wasn't sure whether I would get much use out of either of these accessories, because they weren't the type of things I had made before or tended to wear often - and I finished them at the end of winter, so it seemed likely that I would have lost interest in them by the time it was cold enough to wear them again. But, I've been wearing and loving both of them! The cowl gets less use, but I took it to Japan with me in November and wore it on the long plane trips, when it was so nice to have something cozy to wrap up in. I've been wearing the hat all winter, and I love it. Before I made it, I didn't wear hats much, and I thought that I just didn't like hats. Turns out, I like to wear hats when I have hats that I like!

I should also note that I finished my rag rug experiment in March of 2011. Let's not talk about that too much. I think I gave it to my mom to use/donate to a cat shelter/dispose of - in any case, I don't have it any more!

Finished blanket

My latest stash-busting blanket is all done. I thought a border would tidy things up a bit, so I just did a single row of double crochet in red around the edges, and I do think it looks nice and clean now. I'm happy with this blanket - it makes you warm just to look at it! (I'm not really happy with calling it my "blinding blanket," but the name kind of stuck. Any better ideas? Blazing blanket maybe?)

WIP Wednesday: Blinding blanket

Sometimes, stash-busting produces something surprisingly pretty, like my granny square afghan from last year. And sometimes, it produces this:

This is the majority of my surviving Caron Simply Soft collection, being turned into a lap blanket, because who doesn't need a crazy-loud lap blanket? I wasn't planning to use all of these colors in the same project, but I was reorganizing my stash box and they fell in a pile together. And I thought, "Why not?"

I'm using Mam'zelle Flo's instructions to make this, but it's just diagonal box stitch, which I used once before to make a (much more tasteful) scarf. I'll probably have enough red left over to make a border around the whole thing, which might make it look a little less crazy?

You know, I kind of like it. Yes, I'm trying to use up these skeins because they're not colors I really want to work with these days, and yes, I semi-intentionally chose the busiest possible pattern to put them in. But like my Garnet shawl, it's fun to use colors I don't usually work with, even when this is the result.

Check out more work-in-progress posts at Tami's Amis!

Ravelry saved searches

It's almost a cliche for knitters and crocheters to rave about all the wonderful ways Ravelry has improved their lives, isn't it? And yet I can't help myself. Here's another thing about Ravelry that I love: saved searches.

I think Ravelry's "advanced search" feature is awe-inspiring. There are over 300,000 knitting and crochet patterns on there, but with the advanced search filters, you can find exactly what you're looking for. The only problem is that it can be hard to replicate a search later, if you used several different filters and can't remember which combinations produced the results you wanted. Fortunately, you can save your searches, which preserves all the parameters you chose. I like using this feature for my ongoing stash-busting quest.

Ravelry's advanced search page

For example, this is my saved search for that purple worsted acrylic that I bought way too many skeins of. I've still got one skein left and I'd like to use it up! So first of all, I selected "worsted" from the Weight filter. I'd rather not spend more money on a stash-busting project, so I picked "free" from the Availability filter. And, it's hard to get inspired by a pattern with no photo, so I selected "yes" from the Has photo filter.

Excluding colorwork from my search results

Another thing I don't want to deal with when I'm trying to use up a skein is colorwork. Besides the fact that I haven't done any colorwork and am scared of it, I don't want to go buy new yarn just to use up old yarn (and I don't think I have any colors in my stash that would work with this particular one). So, I went to the Attributes filter, opened up the Colorwork sub-filter, and selected every type of colorwork listed there. Then I told the filter to exclude all of these, so (ideally) patterns with colorwork won't show up in my results.

Yardage filter

Finally, I want to find patterns that will use up as much of my skein as possible, without calling for more yarn than I have. Since I went on my project-weighing spree, I know that I have about 273 yards left of this purple yarn. You can see that the Yardage filter has quite a few options, but a project that uses "0-150 yards" will leave me with leftovers, and "150-300 yards" could run over my maximum yardage.

Entering a custom range in the Yardage filter

Solution: I can enter my own range! I put in 250 to 270 yards, to be on the safe side. Now I don't have to pick through my results looking for patterns with an ideal yardage.

Saving my search

The last step is to save my search, since right now I'm just dreaming about future projects and not ready to commit. I like to come back to my saved searches every so often and check out which patterns are new or popular (which you can do by selecting different sort options from the drop-down menu by the search bar). I just give my search a name that I'll remember, and as Ravelry helpfully points out, that search is then available for me to look at again by clicking on the magnifying glass tab at the top of the page.

By the way, Ravelry has lots of help pages and guided tips, which are posted on the right side of the main Ravelry page. That's definitely where to go if you want to know more about searching, or any of the other life-changing conveniences that Ravelry offers.

FO Flashback: previously-seen projects

This is my third and last FO Flashback post for February. In this one I'm looking back at the projects I made during the time that I've been writing this blog, and giving a little update on how they're being used (or not) these days.

First, I want to mention that February is my knitting anniversary month! It was in February of 2011, after years of believing that I was going to be a crochet-only person for life, that I got myself some needles and learned to knit and purl. My early efforts are immortalized in this post.

In February of 2012, my only knitted FO was my cozy for my iPod, which I blogged about here. At the time, my iPod was living in my work bag, and it wore its little sweater every day for months. The cozy did a good job of keeping my iPod cushioned and scratch-free, although it was a little annoying to have to scrunch it down whenever I wanted to see the screen or use the volume control. Now my iPod lives in my desk drawer, and hangs out in there naked, because of the aforementioned annoyance. If I take it outside with me, though, I still put its cozy back on. That picture was just taken today, so as you can see, it's held up pretty well.

I finished my granny afghan on the same day as the iPod cozy. I love this blanket so much more than I thought I would, when I first started it just to use up a bunch of stashed acrylic! It's been living on the couch permanently since the weather got cold, and the best part about it is how much my cat loves it. We didn't even have a cat when I made it, so that's a nice surprise! The only problem is that it has some little threads pulled up from her getting her claws caught in it, but since it was just a quick and simple stash-buster, I'm not (too) upset.

And finally, the Phannie hat. My sister requested this... and then moved to Texas a few months later. So, I don't think it's gotten a whole lot of use. She is wearing it in one of her profile pictures, though, so at least I get to see it when I chat with her. I did like making it, and it gave me the confidence to make a couple more hats last year.

FO Flashback: awesome dragon!

This guy is so exciting that I had to give him his own post. I love this dragon, and out of everything I've crocheted from a pattern, he is definitely my masterpiece.



The pattern is Christina Powers's Asian Dragon. If you look at her pictures, you will immediately notice that my dragon doesn't look a whole lot like hers. If you look at the 90+ other projects made with this pattern, you will notice that almost none of them look like hers, and a lot of comments saying "I don't know how to get my dragon into the same shape as the one from the pattern pictures." I still don't know, and I have kind of mixed feelings about this pattern. On the plus side, the finished product is intricate and beautiful, and the pattern is well-written, very long and detailed and includes a tutorial for the weird backward crocheting. On the other hand... that weird backward crocheting. If I recall correctly, that's what's supposed to give the dragon's body its bendy-twisty shape, but I just couldn't get that to happen. Maybe I and almost all of the people who have made this misunderstood the instructions, but... I kind of doubt that. It's a little disappointing, because I think there are easier ways to shape crochet that would result in the dragon body that nearly everyone seems to get from this pattern anyway.

But! That is not to say that I regret using this pattern or that I'm not happy with this dragon, because I love him! He lives on my amigurumi shelf, a little away from the others because he is, frankly, more awesome.



I finished him during the week I was off work for Snowmaggedon in 2010, which gave me a great opportunity to photograph him in the snow. These pictures still make me happy.

FO Flashback: amigurumi

I love listening to the Commuter Knitter podcast because Jen is full of great ideas. Not only did she inspire me to start watching The Big Bang Theory and to weigh my FOs and stash, she also thought of a new segment for her podcast where she revisits her older FOs and reports on how they're doing. I love the idea, and I want to do something similar here, since I've been crocheting for several years longer than I've been blogging. So, I plan to spend a few days each month showing you the crocheted and knitted objects I finished during that month in previous years. If I already blogged about it, I'll just post a quick update, but if it's a project from before 2011, then I'll also do a little review of the pattern and the process of making it, like I usually do with my project posts.

In 2008 and 2009, I was still almost exclusively an amigurumi-maker, so from those years I have a bunch of little critters to show you:

The baby dragon was a birthday present for my sister in 2008. I don't remember whether he lives with her now or if he stayed home with our parents, but the last time I saw him he was in the company of some other crocheted buddies I made, so I imagine he's doing well. I loved making that pattern (Baby Snow Dragon by Marjorie Jones), and in fact I made three other dragons with it. For a new crocheter, it was great, because it was pretty simple to figure out but felt excitingly complex with all those little pieces and that cute shaped face.

The elephant (2008) and fox (2009) were little gifts for friends that I haven't been in touch with, so I don't know how they're doing! The fox is another great amigurumi pattern (Fox Amigurumi by Nimoe), again pretty simple but with nice results. The little elephant (Pocket Elephant by Brigitte Read) was more challenging to figure out, especially when I was still a beginner. There are other lil' elephant patterns that I would probably suggest over that one. And the heart (2009) is not really a critter, although I did consider giving it eyes. It sits on my shelf of amigurumi, kind of tucked behind everyone else because I don't really know what to do with it! If I were making the pattern again today, I would probably go ahead and give it a face, and/or stuff it with catnip for my kitty. The pattern (Corazoncitos by Mia Zamora Johnson) has instructions for three different sizes, so there's a lot of possibilities there (maybe a mobile, or Valentine's Day decorations?).

Speaking of Valentine's Day, my one crocheted FO from 2011 was my card that I made for my boyfriend:

This pattern is by June Gilbank and it's another heart pattern that includes three sizes. I made all three, then used invisible (clear plastic) sewing thread to stitch them onto a piece of gray cardstock, which I then attached to a white card I had made. My boyfriend still has this card stashed somewhere.

Since this post is already a little long, I'll save a couple things for later: one of my absolute favorite projects I've ever done, plus checking back on the things I already blogged about.

Organizing!: Ravelry stash

I adore Ravelry for many reasons, not least of which is the insane levels of organization it encourages. Quite a while ago, I photographed and cataloged my entire yarn stash, and I've done a pretty good job of keeping it updated. If you link to yarn that's in your stash when you create a project, then Ravelry will keep track of how much of that yarn you have left based on your project's yardage (if you enter it), and link to any projects that used that yarn on the yarn's page. I love looking at the page for one of my skeins and seeing all the projects I've made with it, especially my lovely acrylic that I used for multiple amigurumi (and still haven't used up, ugh).

One thing that bothered me, though, is that I didn't have an accurate way of measuring how much yarn I had used in my projects, and how much yarn I had left in my stash. So my stash page on Ravelry was good for keeping track of the yarn I own, but it wasn't actually a good representation of how much I really had.

Then, I got a kitchen scale for Christmas!

Jen of the Commuter Knitter podcast mentioned recently that she has been weighing her projects and using that to keep her Ravelry stash up-to-date, so I was inspired to spend my Saturday afternoon doing the same thing. I tracked down all of my projects that I haven't given away, starting way back with a crocheted bag from 2008, and weighed them. Then, based on Ravelry's data about how many grams are in a skein of the yarn I had used, I calculated how many skeins my project had taken. Now, many of my project pages have accurate yardage on them! Yayyy! And, I know almost exactly how much yarn I have left over from those projects in my stash! Yayyy!

Many of my acrylic skeins unfortunately can't benefit from the same automagic updating, because I used them for multiple amigurumi. I can't weigh those, because they have been given away, they use yarn from multiple skeins, and/or they're stuffed so I can't weigh the yarn alone. So, I just weighed the remnants that are left in my stash, and calculated how much of a skein I have of those. I put that amount into Ravelry as my "amount stashed," which isn't exactly how it's supposed to work - ideally, you start with the number of whole skeins you originally had, keep track of how much you use in your projects, and Ravelry calculates your current amount stashed from there. The way I'm doing it for my acrylic partial skeins, I'll have to manually update it if I use some of that yarn. Not a big deal, though.

Now that I have a pretty exact idea of how many yards I have of all my yarn, I can do some advanced searches on Ravelry for projects that will use up x amount of y weight yarn! Even though working from my stash doesn't inspire near as much excitement as buying new yarn, I had so much fun last night looking for patterns I can use. I'm linking to possibilities in the notes section of each yarn's page, so I'll remember them when I decide it's time to use some stash. I love Ravelry.

Star blanket

My apologies for another long and inexplicable silence! I thought I would at least get another post up in January, but somehow we're already several days into February.

I haven't posted yet about the projects I worked on over the week and a half that we spent traveling for the holidays, so I'll start with this:

Crocheted star blankets pop up pretty regularly on Ravelry and on crochet sites, and they have always intrigued me, but I didn't know or have any small children of my own and I wasn't sure a bright, star-shaped little blanket was really something I needed for myself. Now I have a cat, though, and she loves blankets, especially ones I've crocheted. (My granny square afghan lives on the couch these days, and Juniper will always and only lie on it, even if it means squeezing on to the tiny corner of it that's not being used by someone else.) I wanted to make her a blanket of her own, so a star afghan, using some bright pink and purple acrylic that I bought on a whim, seemed perfect.

I think she agrees.

The particular pattern I chose is the Chromium Star Blanket by Laura Lynn Hanks. I picked this one for Juniper because it modifies the traditional ripple pattern to make a solid piece, rather than having the usual small holes at the peaks and valleys. I thought a solid blanket would work better for a cat - fewer places for tiny toes and claws to get caught.

Don't tell Juniper, but I did misread the pattern, and the blanket is a tiny bit awkward as a result. Every three or four rows, you're supposed to make fewer dcs in the points, which keeps the rows from expanding too quickly and getting rumpled. I anticipated this problem, but due to reading the pattern on a teeny, tiny smartphone screen, I didn't notice the fix for this that the designer cleverly put in the pattern. It would be nice if it was highlighted or something, because the written pattern is very repetitive, but I can't blame the formatting. When I finally noticed what I was doing wrong, I was on the verge of ripping out almost the whole thing, until I remembered that this was for a cat. I don't think she noticed the rumples.